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Aesthete

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  1. Aesthete
    Your feedback is really appreciated! Here are some in-progress shots showing the main areas of corrections:
  2. Aesthete
    Thanks so much to everyone! More airborne shots to follow soon...
  3. Aesthete
    Dewoitine D.520C1 n° 277, GC III/6 5ème escadrille l'armée de l'Air, Rayack (Syria), June 1941, flown by Sous-lieutenant Pierre Le Gloan Kit: 1/72 Hasegawa Dewoitine D.520 "French Air Force" Afermarket parts : Eduard #72-254 photo-etched detail set (selected parts only) Falcon vac formed canopy (from the set #26 “France WWII”) Corrections & additions made on the kit: The nose air intakes were originally the wrong shape being too narrow at their forward end. This was corrected with plastic inserts and re-shaping. The louvers were added to the intakes as it can be seen on the photos. The under-belly cooler was too narrow and also not curved enough in outline. It was re-shaped by making two cuts in its rear part, repositioning the rear ends of the cooler sides outward and filling the gaps with Mr.Surfacer. The cooler interior (area covered by the cooler) was completely re-worked by cutting out the flat plastic fragment of the lower wing part and making an appropriate niche instead, as it was on the real thing. Therefore, the etched cooler grills by Eduard (designed to fit the kit parts) became just useless and the replacement parts were finally scratch built. The wing area where the cooler is attached was also modified according to the reference photos. The main wheel wells (too shallow and represented totally wrong on the kit) were completely re-worked, in particular, the niches for the landing gear legs. For the wheel well “ceilings” the Eduard parts were used, with some additions though. The kit parts for the landing gear covers were thinned down and modified for correct appearance. This way they still look much better than the flat etched pieces. The incorrect curved representation of the area under the rear view windows behind the cockpit (à la P-40) was removed and replaced by the flat panels at it was the case with the real thing. Some panel lines were added and some were corrected according to the reference photos. The rear view windows (unfortunately, not present with the Falcon set and too thick as kit parts) were therma-formed using the kit-parts as templates. The main wheels were flattened using the surface of the electric cooker. The etched parts for the gun sight were still too big and this one was eventually scratch built as well. I decided to add the ring gun sight as well, since it can be clearly seen on one of the photos showing this a/c. The kit decals were modified according to the reference photos.
  4. Aesthete
    I really hope, that they don't hesistate to do 1/72 Halifax (preferably and also most likely, Mk. III) and also B-17 (preferably G) despite (or maybe just because of?) the less than perfect Revell releases... An early P-38/F-4/F-5 Lightning would also be not a bad idea.
  5. Aesthete
    The insignia on port and starboard wings, top and bottom, was the standard placement between January 1942 and February 1943. Port top and starboard bottom is correct for his F4F-3 as depicted in early 1942. Some builds of the Thatch's Midway plane represent it heavily weathered, however, because of its really short service life, it didn't actually have an opportunity to achieve a condition for looking this way...
  6. Aesthete
    ... even more while airbrushing... Thanks again!
  7. Aesthete
    Many thanks to everyone for feedback!
  8. Aesthete
    Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat BuNo 5093, Lt. Cdr. John S. Thatch, Officer Commanding VF-3, USS Yorktown, Midway, 1942-06-04 Kit: 1/72 Hasegawa F4F-4 Wildcat Afermarket parts: True Details #72455 resin cockpit and wheel well detail set Squadron #9105 vacu canopy Decals: Aeromaster #72-093C F4F-4 Wildcat Aces Pt.1 The following improvements made to this kit were: Inner surfaces of wing halves and rear fuselage halves (rudder) were thinned down to obtain sharp trailing edges. Some panel lines were filled and some added according to reference photos. In addition, the overlapping panels (for example, on the rudder) were represented using thin metal foil. The cockpit was replaced by the True Details resin parts. The canopy was replaced by the Squadron vacu formed item. Since the Squadron canopy is designed to fit the Academy kit, some adjustment work was required for mounting it on the model. The canopy replacement forced widening the fairing above the control panel in the cockpit, which have originally had rather wide margins for placing the thicker kit canopy. This fairing was also thinned down for correct scale representation. The most serious flaw with this kit is just an empty space where the landing gear bay should be. This problem is partially solved by inserting the True Details tub, however some extra work was still required. For instance, the recesses to accommodate the main wheel are just repeated in full size on the resin tub and, since it is designed to fit the kit fuselage having rather thick plastic, these recesses turned out to be much deeper than they should be. Some filling and re-scribing was required to fix this problem. Some additional detail was also added to the rear bulkhead and to the engine compartment interior partially visible in front of the wheel bay. In addition, the fuselage walls around the front of the wheel bay were partially thinned down for the correct skin representation. The air intakes in the forward engine cowling ring were deepened and thinned down to scale. Some detail was added to the rather basic kit parts for the reasonable representation of the Wildcat’s complicated landing gear. The aileron, elevator and rudder hinges molded as solid pieces were improved by cutting out their inner areas. The missing central elements were also added to the fairings covering the hinges of the landing flaps. Too shallow kit exhaust stacks were replaced by scratch built parts and the fuselage panel around them was also somewhat refined by making extra steps, holes etc. A new rounded propeller hub and the visible part of the arrester hook were made from scratch. A larger pneumatic tail wheel provided with the kit was replaced by the solid smaller one which is correct for this particular a/c. The replacement wheel was the part left unused after building the F2A-2 kit as a Dutch Brewster Model 339C. Some further minor improvements made on the model can clearly be seen on the photos.
  9. Aesthete
    Stay tuned...
  10. Aesthete
    +1. It is always a pleasure to see a model of a Lightning, especially a "Twin Dragon" - my favourite marking option too. Really well done big brother of my little dragon. Love these bazooka rocket launchers - wanted to install them on mine too, but finally decided in favour of more streamlined look; in addition, the reference photo of the "Haleakala" shows it after removing them... BTW, Aeromaster provided decals with that small dragons for the main wheel hubs, however, it is unfortunately not correct for the "Haleakala" (while confirmed on the one represented by your model).
  11. Aesthete
    You are welcome, that would be an honour for me!
  12. Aesthete
    Well it is not that easy... Actually, the build was started as just DML kit, which looked, as usually, great in the box, being, however, far from perfect in terms of fit. Now it is hard to say, whether it was my fault (I think so) or really a serious flaw with the kit, but for some reason I ended up with an asymmetrical fuselage and all attemts to correct this failed miserably... ;-) In addition, I believe, the DML canopy and fuselage might also be a bit too narrow. After this disaster I just bought the Hasegawa kit, which is certainly a better (and was probably the best before Academy became available) starting point. However, as the DML boom sub-assemblies with corrected (reshaped) radiator scoops and complete wheel wells (!) had already been done by that time, I had to graft them onto the Hasegawa fuselage/wing sub-assembly. The tail section is again from Hasegawa. Everything went OK with only some minor adjustment required. The fuselage and nose section of the Hasegawa kit looked slightly wrong to me, so they were undertaken some moderate reshaping as well. The fuselage-to-wing joint around the canopy needed some improvement too. However, I am not sure if it would be neccessary (or worth it) with the Academy kit (assuming it is identical to Hasegawa shape-wise). What would really be worth taken from the DML kit (probably even in case of building the Academy, at least if one is already in possession of Dragon kit) are superchargers (with surrounding panels - I just cut off a rectangle), wing fuel tank intake covers, engine cooler intakes, landing gear parts, propellers and some more minor detail, which I can't remember exactly. I also used wheel wells from DML, which, however, still had to be extensively modified, especially the main ones being just too narrow and therefore of limited use... Can't comment on the CMK set, but it may be a better choice nowadays. The wheels as DML kit parts were also the best I could find at that time, as both True Details and Hi Tech had some dimensional problems. Again, currently there may be some better options (e.g. Aires). Since the "Haleakala" had covered wheel hubs, the covers as discs made of thin metal foil were added. Another modification required for this particular aircraft was the early style curved windscreen from the Squadron set, which had to be sanded (because of wrong, non-parallel framing) and then polished - went surprisingly OK even with the vacu part. The upper canopy part and the rear view mirror fairing were thermaformed using modified kit pieces as templates. As already mentioned, the drop tanks of both kits (and it seems also to be the case with Academy) are not accurately shaped and I used the Novo kit as a donor. The dragons were airbrushed using decals as templates and the individual markings were corrected according to the photo.
  13. Aesthete
    Thanks everyone for your comments! Having RS Models F-5A in the stash, I still believe, I wouldn't hold it against Airfix, if they decide to release a new tool early Lightning (of course, 1/72!) in foreseeable future...
  14. Aesthete
    Lockheed P-38J-5-LO, 42-67291, “Haleakala”, 459th FS, 80th FG, USAAF, Chittagong, India, 1944 Pilot: Lt. H.H. Sealy 1/72 model built using parts of Hasegawa and Dragon kits (done before the Academy kit became available) with some scratch building/reshaping. The only correctly shaped drop tanks I could find were borrowed from the Frog/Novo kit. Detail sets ( used completely or partially): Aires P-38J/L cockpit set, Eduard P-38J/L detail set, Squadron P-38 F(due to the early style windscreen on J-5) vacu canopy Decals: Aeromaster (all individual a/c markings were inaccurate and had to be corrected or replaced) Dragon/Italeri kit decals, Travers, Revell (P-51B) - for technical markings
  15. Aesthete
    Thanks a lot to everyone for positive feedback. I was desperately trying to create a table with thumbnails, however, for some reason the standard BBCode tags for table weren't working correctly. If someone could help with correct code accepted by this forum, TIA for a PM and I'll try it in my next post. Testors Model Master enamels 2112 for Verde Oliva Scuro 2 and 2113 for Grigio Azzurro Chiaro 1. The final clear coat was done with Future+Tamiya Flat Base (with some variations in proportion for slightly uneven effect) and the weathering with the wet pastel technique. Some inaccurate kit decals were replaced by markings from the Sky Models sheet 72-008 "Caccia Reggiane".
  16. Aesthete
    My gesture of self-sacrifice for the modelling community - finished just in time Sword and then RS Models released their state-of-the-art Sagittario kits. Well, at least I wasn't then spoilt for choice and yes, I still managed to use a few Pavla parts (however, modified)... Some in-progress pictures:
  17. Aesthete
    Unfortunately, the wing tips of this one appear to be standard... See also here: http://spitfireforums.com/index.php?topic=330.0
  18. Aesthete
    I believe, it would be easier to convert the HQT Mk. IXc to Mk.VIII. At least, I am planning to do it this way, unless Tamiya or Eduard release a "perfect" Mk. VIII by that time...
  19. Aesthete
    +1 for Allison-engined Mustangs and PR Hurricanes. I would strongly encourage AZ Models to do at least a state-of-the-art A-36 or P-51A, however the complete line in HQT would also be most welcomed! BTW, the same applies to the P-39/P-400 announced 2 years ago...
  20. Aesthete
    Regarding Airfix Hawk-81/P-40B props: could it be confirmed, that the Quickboost prop is superior to the Airfix kit part? Since it is unfortunately not always the case with Quickboost: has someone been able to compare them? TIA.
  21. Aesthete
    Thanks again. I believe, that "olive drab" would be OK for this particular 53rd Sentai Toryu, at least under the closed canopy...
  22. Aesthete
    Do I understand it correctly that the interior colour was (at least according to the specification) already olive drab by this time regardless of the exterior painting or there could still have been some correlation (mottled-> khaki-green, olive brown-> olive drab)?
  23. Aesthete
    Thank you so much Nick! Since the use of the olive drab was mandated in 1943, it would probably still be the best guess for the interior of 53rd Sentai #40...
  24. Aesthete
    Great info, thanks a lot! Back to the interior colour: would these 53rd Sentai Ki-45 #40 and #98 be most likely mid-production (due to the mottled camouflage) or rather late production a/c (due to individual exhaust stacks)?
  25. Aesthete
    Thank you. Yes, I mean the air-to-air ramming aircraft with the faired over rear gun positions. On the photos, for example, in FAOW #21, it looks indeed like these 53rd Sentai aircraft have no gunsight, although it can't be 100% determined. Makes sense, if the cannon was removed... However, the picture on p.49 in FAOW shows a similar Toryu with clearly visible gunsight. Any Idea? Are any relevant Japanese wartime specifications known?
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