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vppelt68

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Posts posted by vppelt68

    🇧🇪 🇩🇰 🇮🇹 🇳🇱 🇳🇴 🇵🇹 Check Your Six Revisited

    in NATO 75th Anniversary GB

    Posted

    Thanks for the pic link! I had indeed wondered if I should try to verify the intake bird slicers in the B model too, and you helped me a lot. I think the Italeri decals just have the proportions wrong. The green center is too big, thus the white middle ring looks too narrow to my eyes but I will live with that and use them anyway :coolio:. I had already learned about the fin being "unbulged" at F-16.net - a great source of reference!

     

    As much as I love our F/A-18 Hornets, I still think it would've been better if our Ilmavoimat had chosen the F-16C back then 30+ years ago. Such a pretty airplane it is! V-P

    Airfix 1/72 P-51D Mustang simplified starter kit - due Spring 2024

    in The Rumourmonger

    Posted

    It's silly to complain about the simplicity of these starter level kits. 45+ years ago when I started building kits, the favorite P-51D was the Matchbox kit (the Revell equivalent from those days is btw still available - horrible!). This fresh new Airfix kit  is lightyears more advanced as a plastic product, more detailed, more accurate and has the essentials required to make it look very much like a P-51D. And, the child/adult who picks it up and buys it to build it doesn't need to guess which of the supplied teardrop canopies is correct for the specific airframe at a specific time. It can just be painted and built.

    V-P

    • Like 10

    1/48 H.P. Hampden by ICM, in 2025

    in The Rumourmonger

    Posted

    2 hours ago, VMA131Marine said:

    Given ICMs past history of doing subjects in multiple scales, a 1/72nd scale version is almost sure to follow unless Airfix gets one out first.

    If only they'd provide us all the Jumo-engined Ju 88 variants in proper scale too!

    • Like 1

    D-day Dodgers

    in Group Build Chat

    Posted

    On 08/04/2024 at 21:09, modelling minion said:

    By the looks of things you already have 6 names including your own, thats not a bad start. You can add me to the list too and I', sure that @vppelt68 has one or two Italian based aircraft that he needs to build.

    Sure. There were 15th AF bombers - from the same 97th BG - that carried the birth dates of me and my wife as their serial numbers! I've been itching to build them both one day. V-P

    • Like 3

    NATO 75 Years GB Chat

    in NATO 75th Anniversary GB

    Posted

    2 hours ago, buckleymodels said:

    Hey folks.

     

    First GB I've taken part in so a bit nervous naturally but I'm gonna give it a go and show both the journey and the result of it. 

     

    Does it have to be an aircraft *in service* during their admission to NATO or is it post joining aircraft only? For example, is a MiG-21 allowed for some eastern countries? I couldn't work it out from the text at the beginning. 

     

    Daft question I think but I thought I'd ask 😛

     

    -ash

    Welcome to the Group Builds! Does this quote from the Rules answer your question?

     

    "Anything military from any NATO member country since the year that specific nation joined the Alliance is an eligible subject."

     

    Yes, it can be in service by the time the country joins the Alliance.

    V-P

    • Thanks 1

    🇧🇪 🇩🇰 🇮🇹 🇳🇱 🇳🇴 🇵🇹 Check Your Six Revisited

    in NATO 75th Anniversary GB

    Posted

    I decided that if I wish to finish some of the Six, I should do that one by one, not all six side by side anymore. So, all I had to do was to pick one, just one. Easy. I have only one two-seater.

     

    PEACE CAESAR 

    Between 2002 and 2004 a total of 30 General Dynamics F-16A and 4 F-16B aircraft were re-generated from AMARC as part of a lease agreement with Italy. Given the name 'Peace Caesar', the agreement called for the lease of 34 operational aircraft for a period of five years. The reason for aquiring the F-16s was the significant delays being experienced with the development of the Eurofighter Typhoon to fulfill the Italian air defence role after the retirement of their Lockheed F-104 Starfighters. The F-16s were to be used as a stop-gap measure until the Typhoon could be delivered and brought up to combat readiness. After total refurbishment at Hill Air Force Base, UT., which entailed the strengthening of the airframe and the testing, repair and upgrade of the avionic computers and equipment, the aircraft were delivered to the Italian Air Force. The three squadrons to receive the F-16s were 23° Gruppo of the 5 Stormo based at Cervia Air Base, and the 10° Gruppo and 18° Gruppo of the 37 Stormo based at Trapani-Birgi Air Base. On June 28th, 2003 the first three refurbished aircraft (F-16B MM7266, MM7268, MM7269) arrived in Italy (for the 18° Trapani-Birgi Air Base).  The protracted delays to Typhoon development and production resulted in the lease agreement being extended for a further 5 years. The Peace Caeser would carry on in the Air Defence role as the Typhoon fleet was introduced and brought up to operational strength. On April 16th, 2010 23° Gruppo was disbanded, their F-16s were taken by the two remaining squadrons. In July 2012 10° Gruppo transitioned to the EF2000 Typhoon and moved to their new base at Gioia del Colle Air Base. On May 23rd, 2012 Gruppo 18°, the last remaining F-16 squadron of the Italian Air Force officially transitioned over to the EF2000. This event signified the retirement of the F-16 from the Italian Air Force after 8 years of service. During this time 5 were lost to accidents, although these incidents did not suffer any loss of life. (Source: AMARC Experience- website)

     

    20240408_085222

    As can clearly be seen, my scratch built ADF-variant IFF bird slicer had lost one fin during the years in storage. I cut a new one and cemented it in place. It's a (re-)start! I will build the F-16B ADF MM7268 using the Italeri decals I got from Steve years ago. Thanks once again! I found this article in The Aviationist, priceless! The F-16.net is a source of information these just can't be built without.

     

    But what did Italeri decal designers think when they drew those roundels? The next, long lunch break and a big glass of Ripasso, maybe - or maybe they had just come back from one :giggle:. V-P

    • Like 8
    • Haha 1

    Airfix Ju88A

    in Aircraft WWII

    Posted

    3 hours ago, PatG said:

    Just to add that the Squadron/Signal book on the Ju88 (part 1, number 85) gives some great information on the canopy and armament variations of the early and mid-production A variants.

     

    Pat.

    My source too :winkgrin: V-P

    WW2 Twins GB Chat

    in World War 2 Twins Mega GB

    Posted

    Dear modelling friends - remaining and ex :whistle:

     

    I begin by an apology, a very humble one. I apologise everyone involved with this massive group build, but especially James @81-er for leaving him alone to run all this while I, eh, just vanished. Sorry, James, I'm really sorry and feel bad!

     

    I suffered a pretty complete modelling and forum burnout that took me away for nearly a month. No models, no forum... just a thick pile of books to read! All I could do first, to get back here, were the necessary tasks I had to do when Enzo opened the NATO GB, and then I could creep back towards being a modeller, a Britmodeller and a group build host again ... but there was quite a high hurdle of shame to climb before I could even begin writing this apology.

     

    No small part of the burnout was the number of recently started projects that I ran into trouble with - I even managed to do something stupid with the Airfix Me 410:s :headbang: but I think I can live with it/fix it whatever... And the re-painting of the once finished B-25C didn't seem that wise decision anymore, when the wings were OD and the fuselage Sand... and the brush painted invasion stripes on the P-51D didn't look as good as I had expected... and so on.

     

    But I'm glad to be back, if it's OK with you :wink:. V-P

    • Like 6
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