atvd1020

How are the 40mm cannon? The Mk.IV and Mk.V boxings had the sprue attachment points extending quite a bit into the cannon barrels.

Thanks for pointing this out! Based on the contrast of other b&w photos of the time it could have also been a chocolatey brown (see https://old.hermannkeist.ch/propeller-f-m/hanriot-hd-1.html for example) but I think I prefer the green.

Could anyone help me with the civil livery of the Kondor E.IIIa in Switzerland? The aircraft was in service of Comte Mittelholzer & Co., later Ad Astra from 1919. I have a kit of this aircraft by Choroszy Modelbud whose painting instructions say the plane's fuselage was red overall. However photographs I've found on Swiss websites suggest otherwise: http://www.e-pics.ethz.ch/index/ethbib.bildarchiv/ETHBIB.Bildarchiv_LBS_SR02-10104_461877.html http://www.swissair00.ch/kondor-e.iiia.html From the topside of the wing and the rudder it's clear that the rest of the aircraft was some other colour. Any information on the livery would be much appreciated!

On a tangent, it looks like the 1/144 Polikarpov I-16 from Zvezda is a Type 10, based on the sprue pics from this German review: http://www.kitreviewsonline.de/polikarpov-i-16-von-zvezda-im-massstab-1144/

Thanks for this piece of information! The I-16 I wanted to build was one involved in combat with Zeroes on the 13th of September 1940 over Chungking, so that would rule out the Type 18. Cheung mentions the 24/IV had received some Type 17s by the spring of 1940, but simply says I-16s were involved in combat on 13/9, not specifying the type. Would it be safe to assume that those were Type 10s since there simply were fewer Type 17s? I'm also guessing the latter were used mainly as bomber interceptors.

The Osprey book on Aces of the RoCAF mentions that the IVth Tatui received some Type 17s. Would these have been misidentified Type 18s? On the same topic, there are some 'Type 10' decal options for the I-16 in the Begemot Decals sheet, for aircraft of the 24th Chungtui/IVth Tatui. Would these be Type 18s or Type 5/6s?

PR-modified Hurricane I V7107, 69 Squadron, as flown by Flight Lieutenant George Bruges from Luqa, Malta during May to June 1941. The kit is the 1/144 Sweet Hurricane 'Aces' boxing which provides the metal wing. The kit was painted 'blue' using a mixture of Humbrol and Revell acrylics and weathered using Citadel acrylics and thinned Humbrol acrylics. The decals are a mixture of the kit's top roundels and 1/144 roundels, fin flashes and serials from Mark I. Started last Saturday and finished yesterday night.

And it's done! After dinging and dirtying the model I coated it with Vallejo matt varnish, which worked for once: I was lucky to get some good natural lighting while taking these photos, as today was quite cloudy. The exhaust stains came out weird, looking more like mud than exhaust. The landing lights' tolerances were tighter than I remembered, and I had to trim off a bit of each clear part's edge to fit in the wing after paint and glue was added. One of the undercarriage broke off when I dropped it and it was still a bit wobbly when the photos above were taken. More pictures in the gallery and just for fun, here's a shot of all the Sweet Hurricanes I have:

And so, this is what the blue looked like under natural light (gloss reflection notwithstanding): It got cloudy quite fast this afternoon, so the next pictures are with the lighting settings tweaked. I used the Sweet roundels for the topside since their blue was less dark than the Mark I roundels, suggesting fading on exposure to the sun. Unfortunately they moved a bit when I added the fixing solution: And then on went the prop, undercarriage... and serials: This should be done by tomorrow.

And now we're in the home stretch. The decals are on and two coats of Xtracrylix flat varnish: The decals were a bit fragile but went on well. I had to retouch one of the serials due to it being damaged while positioning it (with a toothpick, so it was my fault in a way). The fuselage band is oversize, this is because I was a bit nervous going back and forth with masking for Sky or the camouflage colours to get the right size, partly because I didn't know how the Extra Dark Sea Grey (Xtracrylix) would stand up to masking. I broke the canopy on Friday and will use a Falcon vacform canopy instead. That too should go on tomorrow after the paint has dried. Besides the canopy I need to glue on the broken aerial bit and add some exhaust stains, hopefully all that should be done by Thursday. Apart from that I think (too late now!) that the yellow ID bands are of different sizes on each wing. Oh well.

Since Saturday the kit has progressed from this: to this: I did the wheel wells in interior green more for contrast than anything. I apologize for the picture quality but these were the best that showed off the shade of blue I used for the Hurricane; I will take better photos of the plane (with decals on!) tomorrow under natural light. The blue in question is approximately two parts each of Humbrol 104 and 25 and one part of Revell 50. The last is a bright blue which was needed both for scale effect and to brighten up the mixture of the other two blues. Humbrol 25 is quite 'purple' and this shows up sharply with my camera when taking pictures under incandescent light.

Thanks for the kind words I would draw the line at 1/144 WW2 fighters myself and I stand equally in awe of 1/144 biplane builders.

This is my first completed build of the year, KP's 1/72 Letov S-20L done in the markings of aircraft #55 of the 4th Eskadrile of the Lithuanian Air Force, as it was in 1928. The Lithuanian Air Force bought 10 S-20Ls from Czechoslovakia. Apparently they weren't popular, and four were lost in crashes. They nonetheless remained in service until 1935. This aircraft was originally painted in a Sand/Dark Green/Black Green scheme, but later repainted in just Dark and Black Green. I used Humbrol 30 and 241 for these, and the latter was as bad as reported in these forums. It took me three to four coats of unthinned paint to get decent coverage. The KP instructions recommended Humbrol 30 and 120, but I went for the Dark Green/Black Green scheme instead, based on the Blue Rider monograph on Baltic air forces. The kit was a straightforward build, the tricky parts were fitting in the cockpit and the exhausts. The latter required a backing strip of styrene to stay in place. Even then they're not quite the same length. Some of the strut placing instructions were vague, and the locating holes for the struts on the top wing were not in line. I ended up drilling new ones. Apart from the Lithuanian tricolor fuselage band, all the decals went on without a problem with warm water. The stencils were tiny and I lost about half of them. Anyway they can't be seen well with the green camouflage. This is the second biplane I built, chosen because the wings weren't staggered and the rigging (when I get to it) is simple. Nonetheless I broke the starboard struts and had to remake them. In the process the top wing is a bit skewed and I will live with that. I will update this post once I rig the biplane. Besides the cool markings, this build was meant to be a 'warm-up' for some more biplanes I have in the stash. Finally, all the wood paints were done with Vallejo browns and wood colours, and with Vallejo wood grain applied over it. Thanks for looking, and comments are welcome.

As a final entry I plan to build the 1/144 Sweet Hurricane Is from the 'aces' boxing: (better picture of the sprues below) However I got these 1/144 marking decals from Mark I and plan to build both in 'alternate' markings: The 8" serials aren't strictly accurate, being post-war, but they were the only ones available at Hannants. The first kit will be built as the Malta Hurricane I V7101 fro 69 Squadron, and I'm still not sure what the next one will be.

Great! Now I can put those Ethiopian decals from Blue Rider I bought on impulse to use.