JasonC

Two nice builds, well displayed. Nice work! J.

Amazing build, right down to the aircraft. She's a real beauty. J.

Lovely build. I agree that a good sea base really adds to a build like this. Nice one. J.

Looks amazing, love the weathering. One of my all time favourite Star Wars vehicles.

Great build of a really interesting subject. That interior is remarkable! J.

Lovely build and weathering. Were those ERA blocks individual? Must have taken an age to assemble! J.

An impressive array! The contrast paints are useful for getting a large number of figures done in less time. J.

Thanks. Getting stuck in with the cockpit and engine. Nothing added to the kit parts except a cushion out of epoxy putty and masking tape lap belts. Even those are unlikely to be seen through the small cockpit opening. IJA interiors at this time were apparently a dark blue grey (Hairanshoku) . The colour I've used is perhaps a little light, but it will surely get darker in the absence of any illumination in there. The engine was sprayed with black primer, then Tamiya TS-30 Silver Leaf. Then a wash of thinned Citadel Black Templar. The crankcase cover was painted light grey.

By all accounts a tricky kit, and your comments seem to back this up! Nice work. J.

Great build Mark. I like the weathering, especially how you've done the leading edges. J.

Enamel over a rattle can primer would be fine. The spray can will likely be an acrylic lacquer of some sort, and once cured the enamel won't affect it at all. J.

A dozen Japanese Ki 36 bombers of the 45th Sentai escorted by nine Ki 27 fighters of the 10th Independent Chutai, operating from Guang Zhou, approach Kai Tak from the west in a V formation. They machine gun and dive-bomb the barrack blocks and the RAF's three dispersed Vickers Vildebeeste torpedo bombers. They then attack the two surviving Supermarine Walrus amphibians and sink them both. - Not the Slightest Chance - The Defence of Hong Kong, Tony Banham, 2003 Linked images with permission of Nick Millman Over the past few years I’ve been slowly collecting kits themed around fighter aircraft with a Hong Kong connection. There’s clearly a lot of RAF representation there, but there’s also the Japanese aircraft that were based there during the war. Starting more or less chronologically from 1941 (no 1/48 Vildebeest available yet!) we come to the Ki-27. After the Mosquito I wanted to build something quick and relatively simple, and the Ki-27 fit the bill perfectly – small, fixed undercarriage, and one colour all over. Main references for this build will be Nick Millman’s excellent Aircraft of the Aces book (#103) and blog posts on the topic. There’s a post covering the attack on Hong Kong; material that didn’t make it into the book. Within this is a photo of a Ki-27 of the 10th Independent Chutai (10th Dokuritsu Hiko Chutai, 10 DHC) on the ground at Kai Tak - the image at the top of the page. Ronnie Olsthoorn (the artist for the book’s profiles) has produced an additional profile of this machine (linked with permission). The 1/48 Hasegawa (ex-Mania) kit is an oldie but a goodie. In fact, for a kit that dates way back to 1977 it’s nigh on astonishing. Surface detail is fine and overall the fit seems like it will be good. Had it arrived in an Eduard box with this year’s date you might hardly bat an eyelid.

Great job Stuart. It looks the business in flight, and your details add a lot to the model. J.

Lovely looking Spitfire Jurek. The riveting adds a lot to the overall effect. J.

This figure was completed alongside my 1/48 Mosquito build. It’s a figure from Barracuda Studios depicting an RAF pilot (or navigator!) in late-war garb. Casting detail is nice, although there was noticeable mold slip on the legs which was tricky to clean up due to the folds in the cloth. Paints are acrylic, mostly an assortment of Vallejo and GW. Comments and critique welcome.

It's done! RFI over here.

The Mosquito B.IX is finally done. The kit is Tamiya's ubiquitous B.IV in 1/48, converted to a B.IX using my nacelles and some other small changes, namely: filled camera windows on the bomb doors and rear fuselage. re-positioned the downward identification lights scratchbuilt Gee boxes in the cockpit the TI's and Oboe antenna were both designed in TinkerCAD and printed at Shapeways. painted over the nose transparencies - a common feature of Oboe aircraft Camouflage colours were Mr. Color lacquers, and the national markings and codes were masked and painted. Serials were from an Aviaeology sheet, and the stencils were HGW 'wet transfers'. WIP here. This build was originally inspired by coming into possession of the log book of my grandfather's cousin, who served in the RCAF as a navigator with 109 Squadron as part of the Pathfinder Force (PFF). He flew 84 operations in total (including nine on Halifaxes and one in Wellingtons) between 1942 and 1944. I've posted some more details about his wartime career in the build thread here. The aircraft that Flt. Lt. Simpson and his pilot flew most often was Mosquito B.IX serial LR511, hence the subject for the build. The desire to build this particular aircraft was the reason I created my own two-stage nacelles, (and eventually had them cast up in some quantity!). The aircraft is depicted sometime between April and August 1944, during which time she carried the individual aircraft letter 'N'. During this period, according to Simpson’s log book, the squadron flew many operations over northern France in preparation for, and in support of, the Normandy landings. Targets appear to have included gun batteries, rail targets, and ports. It's fairly well known that the Mosquito Pathfinder squadrons made great use of the Oboe navigation system to mark targets for the main force of Bomber Command, (and to bomb point targets directly). What was much harder to pin down was what the external Oboe installation on a B.IX actually looked like. The lack of photographic references is perhaps not so surprising given the secret nature of the system. After a couple of trips to the National Archives at Kew and finding a single grainy image online, I had enough to model the antenna for the Mark II Oboe that the B.IX likely carried. In brief, Oboe Mark I operated on a 1.5m wavelength and the antenna was entirely within the rear fuselage of the Mosquito. The Mark II system operated on a 10cm wavelength, and the antenna was housed under the fuselage in an aerodynamic fairing. When the build was quite far progressed, I found a selection of additional Oboe photos in 'Mosquito Thunder', a history of 105 Squadron. Beyond that, I've also depicted LR511 carrying two 250lb target indicator (TI) bombs. These contained a number of pyrotechnic candles which burnt for several minutes upon hitting the ground. Although long range tanks seem to feature more often on Pathfinder Mosquitos, my (unsupported!) supposition is that TI's may have been carried on the wing stations for shorter range missions, as indeed LR511 was flying in mid-1944. The camouflage is somewhat speculative as I know of no existing photos showing LR511 during her time with the squadron. The upper colours of Dark Green and Ocean Grey are straightforward, but at some point 109 Squadron Mosquitos transitioned from having mainly Night undersurfaces to Medium Sea Grey. Most images of B.IV's show the earlier scheme, and those of B.XVI's the latter. With the B.IX sitting in between I opted for that late scheme, for no other reason than I prefer it. Similarly there is evidence for both narrow and paddle bladed props on B.IX's. Again with the preference. There are eleven mission markings on the nose to represent the number of operations that Simpson flew in this aircraft, although no doubt it flew many more. Any comments very welcome, and if someone comes up with a photo of LR511 - I will hunt you down. 😁 cheers, Jason

Nice progress. I agree with keeping things closed up to focus on the shape of the plane. Is this one of Hasegawa's more recent offerings? J.

Thanks James. I'd recommend 'Mosquito Thunder', since it has pretty much the only images I've found showing the external Oboe antenna (on B.XVI's as it happens). It's fairly cheap on Amazon. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mosquito-Thunder-No-105-Squadron-1942-45/dp/0750918004/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=mosquito+thunder&qid=1583675733&sr=8-1 Also see this document. There is an image on p.22 showing the antenna, unfortunately not from the best angle. http://www.rquirk.com/cdnradar/cor/chapter13.pdf

Super, thanks. Shouldn't be too hard to add the coloured band.

Thanks Troy. It was surprisingly difficult to find any illustrations of the actual physical installation of the Oboe system. The best photos I've found (and they're not great) are in 'Mosquito Thunder' by Stuart R Scott, which show the fairings on the B.XVI. I made two trips to Kew digging through various Mosquito files with limited success - lots of correspondence and interesting technical detail, not so much to show how it actually looked. I did however manage to find a reference to the length of the antenna, so I'm fairly confident on the depth of the fairing.

Thanks Phil! One of the final details, the Oboe antenna to be mounted under the fuselage just aft of the bomb bay. This is the antenna for the later 10cm wavelength Mk.II Oboe system (the earlier Mk.I Oboe system operated at 1.5m wavelength and the antenna was entirely inside the rear fuselage). The antenna itself was a slotted waveguide (basically a hollow square tube) covered by a clear(ish) fairing. This one was designed in a simple 3D programme (as with the TI's) and printed by Shapeways.

The old Aeromaster paint range used to claim that they had lightened colours for scale effect. Additionally, they suggested further adjustments to what came in the bottle to account for various scales. https://www.luftwaffesig.uk/blog/march-09th-2018#

Drift sights were used to estimate the sideways ‘drift’ over the ground caused by crosswind (akin to leeway in nautical terms). This would be important for both high level bombing and long distance navigation. In the case of the FB.VI I would suspect the latter, for obvious reasons. It would have been particularly relevant for over water navigation due to the absence of ground references to obtain fixes. Perhaps someone else can say for sure, but for that reason I’d lean towards leaving it in.

Nice work Bill.