Troy Smith

I do like the gun layer, great pose ! .... ah, the 'holding the sten magazine' arm... I did a load of these in my youth, me and a friend did military for a while, I had the allies, he did axis.... and there really was not a much allied, especially British. 'back then' A set of 8th Army figures crossed with the Infantry set would be good for an "in action" crew as they have shirt sleeves. One oddity about the British Infantry set was they are late war in uniform and equipment, but the battledress is the 1937 pattern with pocket pleats and concealed buttons, as opposed to the 1940 economy pattern, no pleats and exposed buttons. I used to have a great Marine battledress jacket when I was ta school, but a 'a friend' borrowed it for a while and knackered a bit. I do still have the cloth badges somewhere though. I digress, very neat bit of figure painting as well cheers T PS from the thread on the new Tamiya Archer kit http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235024947-archer/&do=findComment&comment=2789346 PPS here's a 'more than you ever suspected' on an aspect of webbing http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/equipment-field-gear/brace-yourselves-comparison-pattern-1937-webbing-braces-across-empire-603321/

Hi Adrian AFAIK, the belt clip and uniform studs were brass. this looks to be natural colour webbing, but it was often green tinted with (green) blanco my quick google is turning up this! http://www.antheads.co.uk/catguide/webbing which has answered some questions I'd not even known to ask, like different blancos... HTH T

Hi Mike see http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235008098-dealing-with-thick-decals-ie-tamiya/ Not tried it, but have posted the info before and it has been a positive response. I suspect a lot can be done with very hot water alone. HTH T

neat work Adrian I was curious about the Brit Infantry as gun crew, I found this (posed?) image as my idea of a gun crew is more this Turns out Bronco do a gun crew set So perhaps the gunners would unclip the ammo pouches? more searching, 17-pounder gun, three loaders standing by with AP ammunition during Operation Epsom, 27 June 1944. I was image searching as I was curious myself (I never got the 17pdr kit 'back then' ) I don't know what the current plastic is like, when these were first available in the late 70's, they were made of this lovely white plastic, which was both crisp but soft and carved/cut really well, so along with the mutipose format it was a very flexible for figure modelling. One final point, the 1/32 Airfix toy soldier range used to be in polythene, but is now in some kind of slightly flexible styrene, so you can mix and match these with multipose, as well as clean them up and paint them easily. HTH Cheers T

scans of above book are here http://www.boxartden.com/gallery/index.php/Profiles/Detail-Scale/26-Grumman-F6F along with the rest of the series, and a load more as well. Very handy resource. HTH

Special Hobby did two boxings this, now OOP http://www.hyperscale.com/2008/reviews/kits/sh48079reviewbg_1.htm and the red racer scheme https://modelingmadness.com/review/civil/previews/48049.htm same kit in 72nd http://www.internetmodeler.com/2004/april/first-looks/SH_F2G.php I think they do a racer boxing in 72nd too. there is also this, the SH kit with different markings see http://www.hyperscale.com/2008/reviews/kits/am0409reviewbg_1.htm AFAIK all the 1/48th kits are the same base kit parts, just different schemes. The above "Some surgery required for racer version" HTH T

Hi Craig maybe you missed this down the linked page Given the length of service, I bet there is more... putting "41-24560 'Little Audrey'" into first, there is this http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/468 with more pics, and (same pic above) http://www.384thbombgroup.com/piwigo_384th_gallery/picture.php?/20714/category/F41-24560 Bound to be more, may even have been done as a decal already For this kind of of information, I'd try Hyperscale Plane Talking, they have a larger US membership. HTH T

Tom's beat me to it, but noted that the fabric covered control surfaces faded. I've seen bigger image, note the ailerons, and the Medium Green blotching While searcing for the above image,found this, evidently from some color film from this there should be some info in this about this http://www.boxartden.com/gallery/index.php/Profiles/Camoflage-Markings/13-Boeing-B-17 HTH T

darn, and they are supposed to be at Eastboune this weekend! Does sound weird, not like the Merlin is new technology, so wonder what the problem is?

Hi Mike Given I've never seen anyone say anything bad about the Tamiya kit, I'd go Tamiya. As Dennis notes, it's also cheaper in the USA than the HB . (UK too as plenty available second hand) The Otaki/Arri is very good for it's era, but it's not birdcage, and unless you get one super cheap, adding new bit makes it not a particularly economic proposition.IIRC someone like War Eagle did a birdcage conversion for the Otaki kit. if you don't have them, @Dana Bell recent Corsair books are really worth getting, only the -1 so far... http://www.hyperscale.com/2014/reviews/books/f4u1vol1bellbookreviewse_1.htm http://www.hyperscale.com/2015/reviews/books/f4u1vol2bellbookreviewse_1.htm As an aside, the only version Hobby Boss do that is of use from what I can see IS the F4U-4. their later versions, the -5,AU-1 and -7 all still have the fabric wing parts, which should be metal, but the HB -4 matches the Tamiya -1 very well in main shapes. It has some glitches, bu far less than the 'chi-com' naysayers would have you believe. Everyone damns the Academy -4, as it got a too wide spine,but then goes the Hase (Ex Mania tool) scrubs up well, but spine apart, the Academy is basically cloned off the old Hase/Mania kit, and the fuselage (assuming Tamiya is right) has more issues than usually reported,deeper, so wing lower, and kinda "square", while the Corsair is 'egg shaped' HTH T

Plenty of RLM 02 model paints are grey-green, but the colour is more of an amber grey, there have been thread on this before note this from Nick Millman here's a chip note Revell 45 light olive is matched to RAL 7003 Moosgrau (Moss Grey) which is closest to 5 out of 6 samples of RLM 02 measured. RLM 66 officially "Schawarz Grau" or black grey, it's a very dark grey, I read somewhere there were 11 formulation changes, there is some useful info here http://hogges-modellbygge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/eagle-editon-rlm-chips-comparison.html "These pictures are taken in daylight and in raw format. Remember that it is useless to judge a color if your monitor is not calibrated correctly. I use a Spyder 3 Express to calibrate my monitor." HTH

And these days of social media, they can be left irresponsibly, easily, with no comeback. If people have half a brain, they will look at all the comments, I do read the negative feedback on places like Amazon and ebay, and the reasons given vary from from deeply sad misunderstanding to malicious and stupid. A little personal comment, I work in a pub, usually quiet evenings, on my own and in charge. When I clear up, which takes about an hour, I'm very easy going, I basically clean up around people until about 11.30, and only then do I ask people to drink up but give them plenty of time, saying ideally I'd them to go in 10 mins. I had a couple of young women in,they played pool until 11.45, and then asked for another drink, I said no, I finish at midnight(ish) they pestered, I said NO, I finish in 15 mins, thank you, good night. Next day the boss asked about a negative comment left on the pub facebook page, saying they had never had such rude service, barman evidently didn't want to be there and would not be coming back. (I'd love if they did, I could guarantee they would encounter proper rude service this time) Ironically, as I was cleaning up after they left one of the dipsticks had left her phone behind, in a case, with driving licence and debit card in the case! A couple of minutes later the pub phone goes, one of them asking if I had found phone etc. I said yes, found it, it's safe, behind bar, I probably said if you are still in the area come and pick it up now. The negative comments were either left just before that call, or just after. So, they didn't even have the courtesy to change their comments. The phone was picked up safely as well. And as far as Mr T7 shop, perhaps the Hurricane wimp will have been impressed at the knowledge of the proprietor and comeback to learn more...

they look darn good Sean. Nitpicks, The Sea Hurricane roundels, too far out on the upper wing (wrong on the Italeri instructions though) but far too inboard on the underside... again, I assume from the 'helpful' instructions Here's LK-? as well I should have posted these up in then WIP thread where they'd have been more use Good job on the Italeri nose and replacement prop and wheel tweak, removes some of the points that jar me in the kit. But overall, cheers T

I'd have been curious as to why he had this idea? Did you ask? Possibly some playground flashback by uninformed children which had stuck, given the mythological status of the Spitfire.... I'll admit my initial interest in the Hurricane was started by the stock standard response of "Spitfire" among other children as their "favourite" so to be different I went "Hurricane" as I was dimly aware of the less glamours 'other' plane ..... age about 6... A chance acquisition of a the 1962 edition of The Hawker Hurricane by Francis K Mason at 8 meant I was aware of Hurricane variants from then on, and it's been a pet subject of mine since, not that anyone here would have ever guessed that PS if he ever comes back, tell him about CAM Ship Hurricanes.... and ask if that's a wimps plane..

I know I used chipping later in the post, but I did note that it was mostly paint flaking off, and as Graham notes, seems to be confined to the first Gloster built batch. It's good point WIP, but I was commenting on notable examples of paint flaking off seeming to be seen in a particular production batch. "chipping" is the wrong term and I shall edit my post accordingly. maybe worth noting here, a famous pic of Gleed's LK-A, but look at the wing roundel of the camera plane, and compared the LK-A, also maybe showing the oft mentioned use of brighter colours by Gloster. As Gleed's plane is P2798 it's also a Gloster first batch, have the upperwing roundels been repainted? Or has the camera plane just got very weathered roundels? The bright pre-was Gloster story gets trotted out a lot but I've never seen much evidence. One thing others may want too look out for would be variance between the newly applied fin flash (may 1940) with factory applied roundels. a couple more shots of LK-A, the tonal difference between the tail, fuselage age and wing markings is of interest just visible here are underwing roundels in no standard positions, so I presume post August reintroduction of underwing roundels. Also clearly shows the red nose flash. fresh tail flash on a Gloster first batch factory fresh Hawker built.