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Afternoon from a sunny New Zealand A rather well known Spitfire Mk.Ia of Alan Deere called Kiwi II. Possibly the most famous NZ fighter pilot of WWII. He was with 54 Sqn at Hornchurch, July 1940 when flying this particular aircraft. I want to build Colin Greys Mk.Ia KL-T in future too as the two inseparable while at 54 Sqn. Markings come from DK Decals 1/72 Spitfire Mk.I/II Aces and were flawless in colour, density & adherence. Paints used were Mr Color lacquers. Very pleased with the overall result and weathering. Even after having to strip it back to bare plastic after a primer coat that failed to adhere. Overall a solid kit with loads of potential for weathering, this being my 7th build of this kit. There will be more as there are still 25 odd to choose from still on the DK sheet.

Flying Kiwis over the Pacific 1:72 Rising Decals The contribution of some commonwealth countries to the overall Effort in WWII can often be over looked, as was generally the British effort in the Pacific. The contribution in modelling circles has also been somewhat lacking. This new sheet from Rising Decals brings us decals for 7 different aircraft used by the Royal New Zealand forces. These are split between 2 Corsairs, 2 P-40s and 3 Dauntless. The printing looks great everything is in register, there is virtually no carrier film and the white looks dense enough that there should be no colour bleed through. The kill markings and nose art have the decals split between white backings and the markings to obtain the best results. The white stripes on the P-40s will need to be painted, or the modeller can use their own white decal strips. Aircraft provided on the sheet are; SBD-4 Dauntless, NZ5034, No.25 Sqn, Palikulo Bay, Espiritu Santo Island, March 1944 SBD-5 Dauntless, NZ5058, No.25 Sqn, Solomon Islands, March 1944 SBD-5 Dauntless, NZ5064, No.25 Sqn, Solomon Islands, March 1944 Curtiss P-40M, NZ3072, No.14 Sqn, Kukum Field, Guadalcanal, July 1943, F/O Geoff Fisken Curtiss P-40N, NZ3220, No.4 Servicing Unit, No.18 Sqn, Torokina, Bougainville, June 1944 F4U-1D Corsair, NZ5416, No.3 Servicing Unit, Jacquinot Bay, New Britain, May 1945 F4U-1D Corsair, NZ5424, No.3 Servicing Unit, Jacquinot Bay, New Britain, May 1945 Conclusion This is a great sheet for New Zealand aircraft operated in the Pacific. Highly Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Kiwi Resin is to release soon a 1/48th MD Helicopters MD.520N NOTAR resin conversion set Source: http://www.kiwiresin.com/#!product/prd1/3881135941/1-48-md520n-notar-conversion-coming-soon V.P.

Kiwi Resin has just released a 1/48th Ryan AQM-34 Firebee drone resin kit Source: http://www.kiwiresin.com/#!product/prd1/4522279221/1-48-ryan-aqm-34-firebee-combat-drone V.P.

Along with the A-4M posted last night I have also finished this Kiwi A-4K Skyhawk. It's the Hasegawa 1/48 A-4E/F converted to an A-4K. The changes are all minor, and they are well described on the Gekko Graphics decal instructions. I used Xtracolor enamels for the SEA scheme and Gekko decals to finish it off. I armed it according to the Gekko instructions using a couple of LAU-10 fra the Hasegawa weapons set. Jens

Kiwi Resin (http://skygodnz.wix.com/kiwiresin) is to release a 1/48th North American F-86A Sabre resin conversion set - ref.? Source: http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/message/1404446093/Kiwi+Resin+1-48+F-86A+Sabre+conversion+master+shots V.P.

Source: http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/message/1392540769/1-48+Mew+Gulls+by+KiwiResin KiwiResin (http://skygodnz.wix.com/kiwiresin) has just released a 1/48th Percival Mew Gull resin kit. V.P.

Hiya Folks, Well the part built models have had the dust blown off them and they are now coming across the finishing line, next up is this Sword 1/72nd scale Spitfire Mk.Vc wearing 615 Sqn markings which was flown by Kiwi Flying Officer Lawrence Weggery over India and Burma; [/url] This really is a nice kit to build and at last we have a decent Spitfire Mk.Vc,....I`ll be building many more of these, Hope you like it, Tony O

I got a bagged Frogspawn Lynx minus instructions and decals a few weeks back and I had no intention of building it OOB, so with the help of numerous builds here and photos online I decided to fudge a hypothetical Army version. Here's the backstory: Westland Lynx AH.3 - Export version designed for the Royal New Zealand Air Force with 835 kW (1,120 shp) Gem 41-1 engines and uprated gearbox. 12 produced and delivered 1986-87. Later upgraded with BERP blades. Now replaced with AH.9. As 1985 began the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) issued a requirement for a light battlefield helicopter to replace its Bell Sioux, which had entered service some 20 years previously. Six manufacturers tendered their options: the Aerospatiale AS.250 Squirrel, Agusta A.109, Bell with their 406CS Combat Scout, Bolkow’s B.105, the McDonnell Douglas Defender, and the Westland Lynx. The entries from Bell, MDD and Westland emerged as front-runners on paper. A landing accident in August meant MDD’s MD530MG prototype would be unable to make the competition, so a civilian MD530F was hastily converted to roughly –MG specs and shipped to New Zealand. Some quarters saw the Defender as the best option as there was considerable mechanical expertise in the country from 10+ years civil use of the aircraft, it was highly manoeuvrable and difficult to spot. Similarly the Westland Lynx AH.1 had been proved by several years of service with the British Army Air Corps and Westland had refined the aircraft into the AH.5 variant which was being trialled by the AAC. Another variant, the AH.3, was suggested by Westland as a cheaper alternative to the costly AH.5 and proposed AH.7 for the RNZAF. Bell showed their commitment to the tender by shipping their Combat Scout demonstrator to New Zealand and flew a demonstration tour of RNZAF/NZ army bases throughout March 1986. Unlike the other two front-runners though the 406CS had neither service nor civilian record to its name, but the similar Kiowa Warrior was in service with the US Army. At the end of November 1986 the RNZAF formally announced the results of the competition, with the Westland Lynx AH.3 winning the contract. An order for 14 aircraft (12 operational plus two attrition/spares airframes) was placed in December, with deliveries to start in mid-1987 and be completed by 1989. The aircraft would be used by the new 9 Squadron, generated at RNZAF Woodbourne specifically for battlefield support. The aircraft would be nominally based there but it was intended pairs would make “combat detachments” for exercises around the country, so they would rarely all be at “home” at any given time. In 1993 the aircraft were upgraded with British Experimental Rotor Programme blades for improved performance after concerns were expressed with full loads. The aircraft were upgraded by Safe Air to AH.11 standard – an RNZAF version of the British Army AH.9 but with skid landing gear – with LHTECH CT800-4N engines and a stronger gearbox to allow higher take-off weights, starting in May 2007. Rather than have the entire fleet grounded to allow the upgrades to take place the combat detachment pairs were instead rotated to Safe for the process. The upgrades were completed in November 2008. First step was to find a replacement for the moulded-shut doors with the prototypical three windows. Inbetween cutting out the doors I hack up the Italeri 1/72 Bell 412 doors: As anyone who knows the kit is aware, the interior is two seats, an (open?!) instrument panel and and a floor for the cockpit. So I improved on it a bit: Cabin seats donated by the Airfix Lynk Mk.8 - more on that later - as well as spares box controls, scratched armour plate and Airwaves PE for the panel. You may be able to see the gun mount (already attached) and GPMG/M60 I've scratched, a rescue winch and the two new doors. Also the Navy Lynx interior, but ignore that if you'd be so kind. I'm having fun with all the scratchbuilding, detailing etc and seeing as how several BMer builds have been inspiration/reference I thought it only fair to share my progress thus far.