Pappy

G'day and thanks, That is one of the great bits of this hobby, you get to learn stuff as well. The real story is pretty interesting reading, especially so since a great many errors were committed by the allies. All three subs were detected entering by the harbour's magnetic loop system and the dock light were not turned off until several hours into the raid. The truth is always stranger than fiction, cheers, Pappy

G'day Mish, Thanks very much for that. I like to keep doing different stuff. Pappy

G'day Daniel, This is my second sub kit, the first was the 1/35 Italeri Maiale which is in the maratime folder somewhere. the finished item is about 25cm or a bout a foot in the old money. I am happy with the result. I have a couple more subs I want to do but I wouldn't say it was a favourite genre, more like an interesting diversion from jets! G'day Mike, thanks for the kind words. I just picked up the package today, thanks very much for that! These things actually had scuttling charges. Thecrew of the first submarine in the attack (I-14 ) actually blew up their sub (and themselves) when faced with capture.

G'day Bex! She's looking a wee ripper! Good to see that you avoided the old Italeri reversed tail rotor trap. One other pitfall to be wary of (I can't tell from the pics) is that the destructions would have you place the cockpit access steps beside their fuselage recesses. The external steps need to be placed over the recesses, cheers, Pappy

Ahoy shipmates!, Here are a few pics of my just finished IJN Midget sub. Three of these craft (I-14, No. 21 and Midget A) were launched from their mother submarines during a raid into Sydney Harbour on the 31st May, 1942. The primary objective was the USS Chicago, and although one of the submarines fired its two torpedo's (one of the torpedoes failed to explode) the raid was ultimately unsuccessful, culminating in the sinking of the "Kuttabul" a Sydney Harbour ferry converted to an accommodation ship with the loss of 21 lives, and all three midget submarines did not return to their mother ships. Two of the submarines (I-14 and No.21) were recovered from the harbour immediately following the raid. In both cases the two man crews had committed suicide instead of facing capture. The fate of the third submarine (Midget A) had remained a mystery for 64 years until a group of scuba divers chanced upon the resting place in 2006. The site is now a protected war grave and is undergoing a conservation programme. The Finemolds kit is a ripper and the kit flew together over a weekend. The instructions consist of clear exploded assembly diagrams and Japanese text, no English translation being provided. This is a shame as the instructions include what appear to be a description of the raid as well as technical details. It would have been interesting to read these, esepcially as these are from the perspective of the 'other' side. cheers, Pappy

G'day Ray! I don't post on the drn site much these days, too much bother with re-sizing etc. I also don't have the time. I'm doing my best but I keep getting sent away. Hopefully things will settle down after after November, cheers, Pappy

G'day Fellas, The project has paused but I am feeling like re-starting it again soon. I want to finish of some other stuff first. Thanks for asking though, cheers, Pappy

G'day, That is just amazing. I was not expecting to find interior pics at all, many thanks, Pappy

Yes please! Pappy

G'day Glenn, Absolutely first rate! A fantastic result, even more so considering the thing is built from scratch. Would it be possible to get a few more pictures of the underside, especially the bomb racks? cheers, Pappy

G'day chaps and chappettes, Revell has re-released this old Matchbox chestnut so I am trying to find some quality drawings, especially interior detail stuff. I havew plenty of external pictures, but there seems to be little if any info about on the internals, cheers, Pappy

See, I wasn't making it up!! cheers, Pappy

G'day Merv, I realise that this is fairly and squarely in the realm of 'what if' but surely some AGM-88's would be better suited ? The RAAF actually trialled AGM-88's at one stage. A8-132 was the testbed aircraft when it was on strength with ARDU (Australian Research and Development Unit) so it is slightly less a 'what if' and more of a 'what nearly was' cheers, Pappy

G'day Jen, Have you had a look here http://s205409446.onlinehome.us/walk-jet.htm There is plenty of good refeence material available.Scroll down to find a plethora of Hornet piccies, cheers, Pappy

G'day Graham, I don't suppose you could post some pics of the detail parts, perhaps next to the plastic parts they replace. It would be nice if all product reviews did this so that the modeller could decide if the added/improved detail actually justified the cost of purchase, cheers, Pappy

G'day Liam, Wouldn't be a red baron themed jet by any chance, something along a Jasta 52 theme? cheers, Pappy

G'day Antoine It is always good to see 'Humphrey' getting the attention he deserves. In addition to what the others have said, I think that Airwaves make a PE set. It is not comprehensive, but does include PE for the cockpit panel, belts and a few other details. There is an Australian company called 'Ron's Resins' that make a resin part to better represent the underside details. I bought mine from Snowy Mountains Models, (Google is your friend|!), it was an improvemnt over th kit parts. In addition, Cobra Co make a resin cockpit interior and a cabin interior. I wish I had known about their cabin set as I didn't have any reference pics for the HAS.3 when I started so I didn't add any detail here, which I regret. The Italeri kit is a good base from which to start, but it does have some inherent errors. The 4+ is the best reference book that you can get, the line drawings and photo's were a great help, especially for the weapons. The drawings are 1/72 as well. The Italeri tail rotor is incorrect as they are moulded as rotating in the wrong direction. The fix is simple though, simply cut off the rotor blades and re-attach them so that they face the opposite direction. There are lots of small errors as well, eg the cockpit access steps should be glued over the recesses on the fuselage. The kit instructions would have you attach these slightly aft. The 4+ book will reveal a host of smaller details that you may or may not wish to add. One thing that I stuffed up on my build is that when the weapons pylons and GPMG (gun) were fitted, the cabin access door was modified. The main access door has a section (the portion with the window in it) that is removed so that the door can slide back without fouling on the pylon. Humphrey was also fitted out with the hovering inflight fuel system. This required a lump of resin to be added just forward of the cabin door as well as a vertical fairing down to the underside. I ended up making my own weapons (depth charges) but I used the 1/72 Aeroclub GPMG which was okay, though it needs a shell bag. On the decal front, the good news is that on operations, Humphrey was very toned down. The kit decals are fine, and in fact I actually only used a few of them. The roundels and the Royal Navy codes were overpainted so that the white areas were painted out in the fuselage colour. I don't think that the 'mouse' character was present during ops. The 'scoreboard' tally on the cabin entry door was added during the cruise home, after 'Humphrey' had sustained some battle damage when HMSAntrim was attacked. The bullet/shrapnel holes were marked with red circles and these are still present on the airframe today. I was able to get to Yeovilton this week to have a look at 'Humphrey' in the flesh so to speak thanks to Desmo Jen, but unfortunately, 'Humphrey' was not on display, drats!! cheers, Pappy

G'day B, Sorry I don't have the kits that you mention. The FM kits are scaled at 1/72. I don't know what the other kits are scaled to, but I guess a good guage would be the size of the pilot figure. I would guess that the AMT/Ertl kits are closer to 1/48, so that would would make them about 150% perhaps? Someone that actually has these kits should provide a better answer, cheers, Pappy

G'day people, A small update today. The last of the two engine nacelle panels have been attached. The forward section is only temporarily attached for these pictures. The only areas that I have used filler on so far have been the underside of the forward section and the seams for the fuselage side panel inserts. These were quite tricky and I used some Mr Surfacer 500 and light sanding. All that remains now are the four horizontal struts for each nacelle that connect the deflector units to each nacelle in addition to all the exterior plumbing. I have decided on "Gold 2" which was distinctive in that the plumbing was a rusty brown colour. I am not 100% certain that the R2 droid supplied is correct as I think Gold 2 was fitted with an R5 droid at the battle of Yaven. The R5 droid has a different head, being more cylindrical with a taller, flatter top rather than the dome shaped R2 unit. I will use the R2 unit as supplied however. cheers, Pappy

G'day people, This is the progress that I have made on FM's 1/72 Y-wing over the past few hours. The fuselage went together with a minimum of fuss. There are a couple of spots that will need filler though. Due the complex moulding, the side panels are added as inserts. The resulting seams are pretty well hidden unless you know where to look, but it still irked me so it was time to break out the filler. I next turned my attention to the forward fuselage assembly. The tub mounts onto the lower half, then the upper half traps the cockpit tub in place. The mouled on detail is very well detailed and benefits from a nice wash and dry-brush. The sidewalls look a little too short and was worried that gaps would be visible so I extended them forward using plastic card. I needn't have worried, but I felt better! I am not trying to make a replica of the studio model (a model of a model), but rather my interperetation of one. I found a couple of still shots on the web, and the dominant feature seem to be a mass of coiled cables on the rear deck area. I decided to cut up a guitar string and bent these to suit. This busied up the area nicely The final element is the pilot. The little guy was cleaned up and brush painted before being istalled into the cockpit. cheers, Pappy

G'day everyone, Thanks for all the kind words. I have a soft spot for F-111's cheers, Pappy

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I have been tinkering away with another FineMoulds kit, the "Y-Wing" These FM kits are addictive! cheers, Pappy

Like this one perhaps?, Hasegawa 1/72 F-111C cheers, Pappy

Cheers mate. If you ever do another pig (and I hope that you do) give me a shout if you have any questions. There is also an excellent site for all things F-111, www.f-111.net There is some excellent material on here as well as the Aussie modeller site www.aussiemodeller.com cheers, Pappy

'Ow do Bex!, It really is 1/72, honest injun! These are pics from my 1/48 Academy F-111 build. I will have to get back to it someday... cheers, Pappy