GernotH

Very impressive amount of work---I can believe it took 8 years, the starting point is quite a dismal affair as we are all well too aware of! Very good to see a Brtiish WW2 carrier in mid-war configuration like this, brilliant to see how you've updated the aircraft complement as well. A salute!

I had quite an enjoyable time searching online and reading some articles about Free French pilots. "A pretty hard time was had by all" seems a fair summary for these unfortunate but undaunted fellows. Very nice to see that their names are honoured in France in various public places. William Labussiere met Pierre Boulle (Bridge on the River Kwai, etc.) while in prison in French Indo-China. http://www.livresdeguerre.net/forum/contribution.php?index=19974 http://aerostories.free.fr/events/langson/ http://www.france-libre.net/repression-resistance-indochine/ http://japanforum.nbr.org/scripts/wa.exe?A3=ind1506&L=LIST&E=quoted-printable&P=329913&B=------=_Part_5107522_2050401718.1433340989279&T=text/plain;%20charset=UTF-8&header=1

D**n, speak of the devil! Nice work on this blast from the past once again. I think we should get a room :D

Ah, the memories!! I loved this kit, and the boxart (as well as the boxart on the B-25H/J). Remember having much trouble with a sticky non-drying (for days) grey on the undersides....good to see the kit still looks good even in this day and age, well done!

That looks very nice indeed, I was fooled that it was 1/48 initially. Excellent job!

A great interview, with a mentally strong and astute gentleman.

Oh wow, that is a great-looking model, lovely to see the machine guns and canopy work so exquisitely done, very attention-drawing. Nice photos of the real thing too.

Trying to make a positive contribution to this thread (no dog in this fight, but my own rueful memories aplenty): The larger the gaps between one's expectations, one's abilities/skillsets & (time and other) resources available to one, and the quality of the manufactured kit is, the worse the kit seems. Not to mention one's knowledge of the subject (more often than not this issue only comes to the fore once the model is seen by others, hehe). Luckily, humans' ability to adapt and change is quite extraordinary, and apart from the quality of the manufactured kit, the other 3 variables are entirely open to change. Thus the oft-voiced advice to leave a kit and move on to something else more appropriate to one's current circumstances.... that is what the Shelf of Doom is there for.

I've seen this in Hamamatsu at the museum, and did not realize it was the only one the JASDF ever had, thanks for that titbit!

Awesome model, very impressive detail and suitably menacing appearance all round. The extra Army model 37mm guns are also great to see (I forget, but I think there is some discussion about where on the aft superstructure they were placed). Regarding Swastikas, I was beaten up at a German boarding school in Cape Town, South Africa by German youths who objected (or at least that was their excuse, being bullies anything might have done) to my decoration of my room wall with boxart from 1:600 Airfix kits, including the side-art featuring the Kriegsmarine flag, with swastika. Ironically, I used to have to defend myself previously at an English-speaking private school against English South African ruffians who insisted on called me and other German-related pupils Nazis (and the Jewish and non-white pupils had as cr*p a time for equivalent reasons). So it goes!

Yeah! Nicely finished, definitely like the addition of long-range fuel tank.

Oh nice!! I haven't seen the old Airfix kit done up to look this brilliant ever. My hat's off to you sir, my hair's thinning just looking at the work in that. Having built the old Airfix kit more than 25 years ago now, and having the l'Arsenal one in my "stash", I can say this does the old girl full justice.

Hello Graham, I took some time in the last couple of days to check out some information online about these Hurricanes in Calcutta, searching for F/S A.M.O. Pring brought up plenty of good information. It seems the night fighter gear was removed from the Hurricanes before their final battle on 5th December 1943 over Calcutta. Sad story that.

Hello Brad, I'm from South Africa but living in Japan, and I saw your message back in March, leading to me look out for this twin kit packaging on the shelves. I managed to find one yesterday, and bought it, along with 3 1/48 Italeri "Sea Hurricane" kits, ahem. You know how it goes! Well, the Hasegawa kits are nice, and they come with inserts for the arrestor hooks, as you say, and also resin parts for the catapult spools---which it appears the Italeri 1/48 kit is missing, lord knows why, my web-based research tells me the Sea Hurricanes Mk. IB and IC both had them, while the Mk.IIC did not have them (no intention of use from CAM ships). Furthermore, there are alternative exhausts, and I have no idea from looking at photos which type was fitted to which individual airplanes. Now I am also in a quandary, adjacent to yours. We should maybe try some primitive knock code through the cell walls, eh? I'd be most happy to learn more about the Mk.IB and Mk.IC breakdown as it relates to Operation Pedestal, at the least, since that operation is featured prominently in the Italeri decals, and also is the Mk.IB option in the Hasegawa kit. One could put the Mk.IIC wings on the Mk.I fuselage and thereby get a Mk.IC, apparently, and I've located at least one marking online (R.J. "Dickie" Cork's "7*L" (unconfirmed) from 880 Sqd. on H.M.S. Indomitable, apparently the only IC in the entire operation).