Oliver

1/72 Academy B-17E with early remote ball turret in Hawaiian air depot camouflage

Hi all, Haven’t posted here in a while, but nothing like a B-17 group build to stop the lurking! Literally just started the Wolfpack/Academy B-17C 3 days ago and then saw this today. Anyway hopefully these help get people in the groove: 1/72 Academy/Italeri B-17B/C 1/72 Revell B-17F Shamrock Special 1/72 Revell B-17G A Bit O Lace

Whilst not 100% sure generally the 1953 version with the tapered landing deck markings would be in Flight deck blue 20B as would the 1956 version. The Box art version would be more akin to a very faded 20B/grey with the angled landing area freshly repainted in an anthracite grey type colour. The chocolatey brown colour would be from wear and tear on the deck. Later in 1957 Antietam appears to have yet another flight deck repaint, this time to have the angled landing area markings match more closely to what we have today but on on the angled landing area, the front portion of the deck remains either a very faded 20B or a light grey, haze grey like the hull might be my guess.

Having checked references I don’t think it is and the panel’s and lifeboats are nice and crisp

So, whilst browsing for 1/1000 scale aztec decals on etsy for an Excelsior refit and Oberth class I happened across a seller that did 3d printed star trek ships in 1/1400 and smaller, including an Akira class. Now the Akira class is my holy grail of wants in 1/1000 but I'll be damned if I am going to pay £300 to 400 for the Starcrafts one and then ship it from the US. So chancing my luck asked the seller if they could scale their 1400 kit up and how much would it damage my bank balance. Lo and behold they could and for the princely sum of £52 delivered!!!! So roughly a fortnight later i come home to a rather large box and in it sits a lovely 1/1000 Akira class! Now the kit is printed in two parts but is delivered to you fully assembled and is printed in white nylon. The layers are really really tight and so only some minimal clean up will be required before I butcher it with my painting skills. For the price I can't recommend this kit enough. So here are the pictures prior to clean up: I have no affiliation with the seller, just wanted to share something that it is hard to get in 1/1000 without paying a shed load. Seller is CookieMonsterModels on etsy and they will do other ships as well. Most likely going to go back to them for a 1/1000 Enterprise C

This guy on Etsy does some nice decals, I recently used a set on my Enterprise B and will going back for some of my other kits: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SupernovaDigitalC?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=971717323 I found that they lay down far better than the polar lights ones

Thanks for the kind comments, I do like the 17 a lot, if I have time I think I will try to do a B-17D in the same scheme. To answer some questions, yup thats the Academy B-17E in 1/72. The Kora conversion kit is okay, but quite pricey for what it is given that you actually need more decal than they give you there is actually very little in terms of the conversion parts themselves (turret, turret insert, section for the observer dome and the sight) and looking at it the observers bubble is a rather large oval shape when in actuality I think is should be a smaller round clear bit. Also no guns are included at all. All the barrels I used are some amazing two piece brass pieces that have the inner gun barrels and the outer cooling jackect, those I will definitely use again for all projects involving crew served 50's. The colour scheme Kora gives you, whilst generally right in the pattern in wrong in the second green colour. They would have you do it in a bright olive green, when everything I have read and seen in the pictures show that this should be interior green and also ignore the Neutral Grey on the upper surfaces completely. All the weathering was done with MiG oils and their weathering pencils. The actual painting was a combination of sprays and hand painting.

Hi all, Here is my completed 1/700 L'Arsenal HMS Collossus circa 1945 with Corsairs from the kit and Barracuda's from Shapeways. Really enjoyed this kit and highly reccomend it. It also seems dust gets everywhere even inside a sealed display case!

Hi All, Here are my two work in progress 1/700 wip kits. The first is the MT Miniatures USS Intrepid kit, done as she was during her cruise during the Vietnam war. Island is the Model Monkey USS Intrepid 3D printed Island which is stunning. Lots of scratch building with this kit and lots of correcting (still not even close to perfect, but its the only game in town). Decals are the rare Starfighter decals post war essex class carriers, wish this was still in production! Its just awaiting the airwing which is about 70% done. Second is the Imperial Hobby HMS Malta kit, with a load of extras from shapeways. She still needs a lot of work doing as can be seen, but I've lost my mojo for this one for a bit.

... and not just hoard unbuilt kits, here are a couple of aircraft that I've completed recently. The TSR.2 Eagle was completed a couple of months back and is the Airfix kit with a load of resin bits and bobs and Model Alliance decals. This was the first time i used Hataka paints, and I have to be honest is saying that I'm not entirely happy with them and don't really give a smooth finish, but that could just be me. The B-17E is on the Hawaiian Air Deport scheme that was used shortly after Pearl Harbor for a a period on a select few aircraft and was completed last Sunday. Decals are a mix of Kora and Printscale. The Sperry remote turret conversion is from Kora, the engines and cowlings are by Quickboost. Masking the glazed nose was a right pain and one wonders why no one does a mask that includes the E nose!

Thanks Zac, a very interesting discussion. As i've said I'm going to try and do a modernised TSR using the canopy from the trainer design as a basis to kind of be like a tornado would be in Telic, but a TSR. I'm going to do it rear hinged on mine, new radome etc. Just got to decalling my TSR.2 GR1B, modern one is next, and then i might do a development batch one with the camo over white.

Hi Chris, I would love to do this, unfortuntely the MS canopy is white plastic not clear! Thanks for the interesting info Zac, didn't know that, if you have any links to this builds I would love to see some please to help with inspiration? Des, that's most kind of you, PM inbound.

I was wondering if someone might be able to help me with what might seem a strange TSR.2 related request. Basically I was wondering if anyone knew someone who did custom vacuform canopies? Yes I am aware that CMK and Pavla both do vac canopies, but here is where it maybe gets a little strange. The canopy i would like molded for my TSR.2 in clear vac is the one from the TSR.2MS kit, the anime kit one. Why you may ask, well the single piece canopy seems like it would make for a good what if project for a modernised TSR.2, if it was completely clear that is. So can anyone help or know anyone that can help? I can happily provide the part and pay?

The Queen Elizabeth 1/700 set look stunning, any idea when it will be out? Also I highly reccomend the Orange Hobby Midway, it's incredible, only got it recently and wow. Now if only it was a Vietnam War era version...

Oh how I wish I had read this thread before forking out for both the IVD and the new STuG! So disappointed, almost binned them both. The drop in quality from Dragon in 1/72 is astounding and looks and feels like a money saving exercise rather than trying to entice new modellers. Gone is the good quality box, for a more squishy revell-like box. Gone are the high quality colour instructions, replaced by two tone instructions on distinctly cheaper paper. Gone are the multiple decal options with only two available now. The gun barrel on the STuG doesn't even have the muzzle break drilled out! These new integral road wheels and tracks are nothing like the real thing and lack any detail on the insides of the tracks! Even the plastic itself is glossier and more brittle and feels like the kind you would get from a really old kit by Ace. How is any of that going to draw in new modellers when for half the price in you could get a better beginner kit that is better quality and has more options like Ace's current Centurions, Heller's Sherman, Attack's early panzers etc! Dragon, for me, was the gold standard for 1/72 armour, but given this (if it continues) they'll be living on reputation alone and that won't last long at all. Sorry had to rant, just so annoyed at how bad these two kits are and yet are marketed and cost exactly like the quality kits they used to produce!