Aircraft Content

This DC 6B was on Krakow Balice airport since Friday and today she took off flying back home. The pilot made round and low pass on airfield, so I had doubled opportunity to do photos from mine balcony this time. After low pass. The sun was near sunset,,,Machine was heading right toward light Regards J-W

The very early F-110s were loaner F-4Bs from the Navy; the finalized F-110 (F-4C) started to incorporate developments like the curved leading edge inboard pylons.

New jet pipe, hopefully this one is correct for a block 30. Still needs more painting and weathering yet. Darker grey areas masked and sprayed. Most photos show the demarcation lines as slightly wavy, so I’ve gone for that rather than perfectly straight. It looks untidy but that’s how it seemed to look in real life.

I have only built the one Arma kit which was your last one pictured, the Royal Navy one which was a gorgeous kit and I did the box art scheme with the replacement DE/DG cowling. The remaining Hurricanes I have are all the Airfix kits, their 48th scale kits are absolutely fantastic. Chris

Good spot RE the radiator, that's an easy re-colour and will be the same on all Night and White schemes. I agree about the roundel and will play around with the letters too. Most of the work has gone into making a nice B scheme template that I can use for other profiles as well as this one. I very much doubt that I'll get to a solution that everyone sees as entirely correct, there's so much guesswork and interpretation here - but if I can nudge it as close as I can then I will. But ultimately, we have 30 schemes to do so there will have to be a point where it's "good enough" and send it to print without spending too much time noodling. Also the W's all look different in those Duxford photos haha! The slightest variation in the masking seems to change the finished shape, but again I'll try to move it around until it looks right. I didn't use a font, they're vectored from scratch as there is no correct font. It probably looks completely different on the port side, but unfortunately the only port side photo of this aircraft has the hatch down obscuring the W. As long as there are no major errors due to research laziness, I hope they'll be treated fairly favourably .

I have been saving my pennies and thought I would make the giant leap for mankind...... but maybe for a modeller that's want to get better. I know practice makes perfect that why I found a harrier jet model in the loft from many years ago before I will try and airbrush the P-51 D. Watch this space!!!

Your interior is really beautifully done. At the end of 2020 I built a Vincent, bodged from an Azur Vildebeest kit, and since I didn't do a great job or get the right camo paints I looked again and found the same Azur kit you have. I'll get to it later, possibly in the New Year, but I will be coming back to see how you are getting on. I have an interest because it's one of the aircraft my dad got to fly in (as a passenger) when he was stationed in Sudan from 1938-40 (ish). He was an Intelligence Officer with 47 Squadron, based in Khartoum, and later at one of the airfields nearer the coast. There are a couple of his shots in my Flickr set (click below) but there's one detail I only realised quite recently - a sort of an 'Oh yeah' moment. It appears to my eye that the edging on the windshield is chrome. I'd automatically have assumed a painted surface, but it seems not. e004 by Sandeha Lynch, on Flickr He generally left few notes with his negatives, but this particular photo was taken on a flight to Cairo on 8th May, 1939, piloted by New Zealander Sqn Ldr Dudley Marsack RAF.

Really beautiful work

Perfect work. Really good work from old kit. This shows that with skills can be achieve a lot.

Yes. I don't know how much black Republic added as the EMI only states to add "tinting enamel - black" but doesn't give a quantity.

Hello guys, unfortunately I can't help with the kit. Here you can find a very nice collection of Pe-2 and Pe-3 photos in Finnish service: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wLj4cyzNZagIqlZ8CNBEcNu23-dl7_NN It is the Air Force Museum's digital archive. Plenty of photos of other airplane types as well and also scans of aircraft manuals (like Ju-88 and Brewster Buffalo). Cheers, Antti

Nice to see something not so typical. And also good background story. I have weak point for these polish light planes. Need to look what local hobby shop can offer next week.

For me it would be the fine molds F-14A and D. Superb detail and fit. But they are not budget (unless you got to buy them in Japan).

Yes I am aware of the problems with the canopy and engine nozzles but hope to remedy that with some after market replacements. I did get a couple OzMods/Scaledown afterburner kits. Still have to use the tail feathers with these. I was hoping that G-Factor would reproduce their afterburner set but as of this writing have not. So in the near future I'm inclined to purchase a few F-111A-E and F afterburner kits from Reskit. I do have 2 sets of F engine afterburner castings from Xtra Parts a very long time ago. Now as for the canopy and the front of the cockpit. I'm again inclined to fill, sand and shape to get the angle near correct. I have a True Details or Squadron product F-111 vaccuform canopy. Still in the bag and untouched. Some 20 or more years ago I bought up a great number of canopies and wheel sets from those 2 companies. Also may have 6 or more F-111F update sets from Verlinden. All these were on sale so I bought them. Below is the nose and main wheel well set from OzMods/Scaledown. I may use them in a FB-111A build. They're some great detail to work with and the opening for the original built in boarding ladder is there. Only once did I see one boarding ladder extend in flight and quite often we had the peg extend during flight. The peg fit the slot of the ground boarding ladder. Which brings up a ladder kit from FlightPath. I also have a number of (Hoping to reissue the Italeri Ground Crew Set) boarding ladders made up and ready. I have been over the years making stuff for a couple of aircraft I started when the Academy company issued there first F-111. These below are forward equipment bay panels I made some 30 or more tears ago. They are made from thin brass and lined with sheet plastic. I am a aardvark nerd and very proud of it. Not and expert by any means but try to put as much detail as possible into every build. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker

Really nice work. And perfect paint job and excellent cockpit.

And some class Ian Kennedy covers there which I always go for! Mike

Assuming Crosley's memory is not confused, "Fleet Air Arm aircraft 1939-1945" records two Brewster B-339Bs with 804 Sqn from November 1941, serials AS423 and BB450. The squadron was a rather composite unit, parenting flights with Fulmars and Sea Hurricanes on RN Fighter Catapult Ships, as well as 804A Flight with 5 Sea Hurricanes in Gibraltar. 813F, the Eagle Fighter Flight, was reformed seemingly as an offspring of 804 Sqn. As the FAA had very few Sea Hurricanes in that period (and Far East Buffalos were still an untried asset - just for a few more weeks), trialling the use of B-339Bs aboard Eagle does not seem an exceedingly odd idea. Assuming a two-aircraft fighter flight would have to deal mainly with enemy reconnaissance or bomber aircraft, the B-339B was still acceptably fast, manoeuvrable and with reasonable firepower for this purpose. In December 1941 the fighter squadron aboard USS Lexington (VF-2) was equipped with 18 F2A-3. The ex-Belgian B-339Bs, being derived from the F2A-2, would probably be better performers. Maybe initially there was an intention to test AS423 and BB450 as shipboard fighters, possibly the scheme lapsing with the sinking of Ark Royal and the unexpected need to station Eagle with Force H. Interestingly, Crosley expressly mentions arrester hooks, and any detail about the installation (that is, if it existed) would be extremely interesting, given that the Brewsters were de-navalised.

IMO Bondo is a good substitute for the Squadron green, and easy to come by (at least, here in the US).

Wow!

Thank you very much! Cheers Einar

Thank you for sharing your excellent looking model.

I believe speed was of the utmost importance for the bomber/recce variants, hence the V-shaped windscreen was kept. This apparently had a higher priority than absolutely standardizing all aircraft to a single windscreen type (i.e. two types in production is not that inefficient).

I love that shot of your work area - very 50's-esque

Work has begun! Can anyone tell me what colour the inside of the intakes are?

I was not only pleased but completely surprised by the ICM sheet arriving. That's what I call customer service above and beyond. Cheers, Alistair