ANovaScotian

Superb work tbell, VERY impressive! When I get asked about weathering, I always tell people "Used, not abused." You've hit the nail on the head with this build. I have plans to do an all yellow RCAF example. Hope mine comes out as well as yours. Keep it up! ANS

The only law I've encountered pertaining to military aircraft markings I came across in the instructions for the Belcher Bits RCAF Voodoo decal sheet: "Apparently the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) stated that is was not legal to have different markings on two sides of an aircraft..." The RCAF after Unification into the Canadian Armed Forces had, in big red letters "Canadian Armed Forces" on one side of the fuselage and "Forces Armees Canadiennes" on the other side. This apparently violated the above mentioned ruling, and so had to be removed and replaced with what became known as the "Symmetrical Scheme" which had "Armed Forces" and "Forces Armees" in smaller letters on either side of the fuselage roundel. This continued until the FIP (Federal Identity Program) Scheme was introduced. Thanks to T7 Models for the shout-out on the CF-18 False Canopies!

Definitely would have been different, that's for sure.

Hey All Today I present Academy's 1/72 F-14A Tomcat finished as a what-if CF-14 of the Canadian Armed Forces. In the late 1970s the Department of Defence was looking for a replacement for the CF-101 Voodoos and CF-104 Starfighters that were starting to show their age. The aircraft that made the short list were the Panavia Tornado, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-15 Eagle, Mirage 2000, F/A-18 Hornet, and F-14 Tomcat. The list was eventually whittled down and the F/A-18 Hornet was chosen as the winner of the New Fighter Aircraft competition. Over 30 years later the Hornets are still going strong, but like the Voodoos before them, they too are soon do for replacement (a highly controversial and much debated topic). The F-14 was struck from the list as it was deemed too expensive in the numbers required; a conclusion the US Navy had already come to. According to some internet sources, Canada had offered to purchase the Iranian Air Force's fleet of F-14As for a bargain-basement price after the post-revolution US arms embargo had left them grounded. Due to political reasons the offer was declined. Whether this is true or simply hearsay, I don't know, but what I do know is that it makes for good modelling inspiration. I give you Tomcat "123" of 441 Squadron, Canadian Forces Air Command (Didn't have enough zeroes to do "100" ) The Academy F-14 is a pretty nice kit. The build is relatively straight-forward with the only problems being at the nose to rear fuselage join. Panel lines are sharp and deep enough to hold a wash well, except around the nose where they are a little soft. The cockpit is not the most detailed but with the addition of some True Details seats looks presentable under the canopy. With careful gluing the wings are still functional after assembly, but will scrape the paint off the wing surfaces, so are best glued in your favourite position. The AIM-54s are from the kit, with the Sparrows and Sidewinders coming from a Hasegawa weapons set. If I were to do this again, I would probably replace the forward AIM-54s with Sparrows so as not to hide the False Canopy. The model was painted with Model Master Light Ghost Grey and Medium Grey, these being the closest matches to the colours used in the CF-18's camouflage, with Gunship Grey used for the "False Canopy". Exhausts were done in Humbrol Metalcote Gunmetal, with a gentle spray of MM Jet Exhaust on the inside. Decals were from the excellent Canuck Model Products sheet "CF-18 Hornet - Symmetrical Scheme" to depict the aircraft as it would (may) have appeared in the early 1980s. Seriously, these are hands down the BEST decals I have ever used. Thanks for looking and keep on whiffing! Regards, ANS

The Typhoon looks damn nice in the desert paint scheme! Too bad they never sent them to the Far East... Nice to see a RCAF Typhoon that's not "Punisher" That particular kite seems to be the most famous one. Good work all 'round. Paint looks pretty good for being done with a brush.

The only civilian aerobatic team ever formed in Canada. Nice work! I'd like to do this one in 1/48 some day.

Hey all Carrying on the theme of my last post, I present another 1/48 Tamiya Mustang. This time, a P-51D from 402 "City of Winnipeg" Squadron. Like my Mk.III Mustang, this one was completed out of box with only the addition of Hussar wheels and an Ultracast seat. I cannot recommend Ultracast products enough, well cast, well detailed, well priced. and made in Canada. She was painted with Tamiya Titanium Silver as I find this a good representation of the Aluminium Lacquer finish RCAF Mustangs wore later in their service life. Decals came from Leading Edge Models' "RCAF P-51D Part 2: Eastern & MB" decal sheet, this includes enough markings and stencils for FOUR complete airframes! If you have plans to make an RCAF Mustang, Leading Edge is as far as I know, the only game in town. These aircraft were well maintained, so I restricted weathering to a simple panel wash with MIG Neutral Wash. This is a nice medium grey-ish colour which works well on very light and relatively dark colours. Enjoy... In the immediate post-war period the RCAF acquired 100 P-51Ds from American stocks to equip two regular and ten auxiliary squadrons. The Mustangs in regular squadron service were replaced by Vampires and Sabres in 1949-50, but the auxiliary squadrons soldiered on until 1956 when they too were replaced. Most of the airframes were sold on the civilian market, which means that your favourite air show war bird might very well be an ex-RCAF aircraft. The RCAF Mustangs were virtually identical to the rest of the herd. The only noticeable difference besides the direction finder transponder (the black thing on the rear fuselage), was in the cockpit. Canadian Mustangs were modified with a gun selector switch which allowed the selection of either two, four or six guns for firing. This was, I believe, mostly for ammunition conservation when conducting gunnery training. They could also be fitted with bomb racks on the wing hardpoints which could carry six or eight concrete practice bombs. For the history of this particular aircraft, I'll paraphrase the decal instructions: "9258" P-51D-30-NA USAF 44-74865 Feb.1951 received at RCAF Station Uplands from Texas Engineering Co. Dec.1951-Nov.1952 posted to Training Command at RCAF Trenton Nov. 1952 Sent to MacDonald Bros. for modification and overhaul Served in 402 City of Winnipeg Sqn. from Nov. 1953 until Sept. 1956 when placed in storage. Sold at auction in May 1959 This particular aircraft now flies with the civilian registration N8677E as "Sweet Mary Lou" of the 357th FG Thanks for looking and for the feedback on my previous build. Regards ANS

That PDF would have been helpful about two weeks ago, thanks Steve. No, I did not use IPMS decals. Roundels came from the kit sheet and some Xtradecal sheets I had, serials came from some old no-name sheet, stencils from the kit, and squadron codes were printed myself.

Hey All Today I give you Tamiya's 1/48 Mustang Mk III finished in the markings of 441 "Silver Fox" Squadron, RCAF. The inspiration for this build came after I found what I believe is the only picture of this particular aircraft. Most wartime Mustangs in British and Commonwealth service wore standard RAF Day Fighter Scheme, and as you can just make out in the background, so does at least one other plane in the squadron. This one, HB876, for whatever reason, does not have a speck of paint on the airframe aside from codes and roundels. It does not even sport the usual anti-glare panel present on most bare-metal aircraft. Whatever the reason, it makes for good modelling. The model was completed box stock, with only the addition of an Ultracast resin seat and Hussar resin wheels. She was painted with Vallejo Model Air Aluminium, with Tamiya Titanium Silver for the (steel?) panels around the exhaust. Decals came from a variety of sources with the squadron codes printed by yours truly. The eagle eyed (or even the mole-eyed) among you will notice that the real aircraft has a dorsal fillet, whereas my model does not. For whatever reason, this did not come to my attention until the painting was completed. Consider this an homage as opposed to an honest representation. Anyway, enjoy... Firstly the real HB876 Feedback welcome as always. Regards ANS

Amazing job! Do you have any work in progress photos? I would love to shamelessly replicate your work

Hey All Today I present my rendition of the 1/48 Dragon He 162 Mistel. To the best of my knowledge, this never saw the prototype stage let alone active service. However, I do believe that there were conceptual drawings made of this combination as well as the Me262/ Me262 version (which I also have in the stash). Next year (2016) I plan to get busy with more of my Luft' 46 kits as it will be the 70th Anniversary of 1946 Fare be warned ye who have this kit or parts of it. Be prepared to test fit most of the major assemblies numerous times before committing to glue. The Me 262 goes without saying, as numerous reviews and guides have been written about this kit. Even though the fuselage is new(ish) to this kit from Dragon, the rest is still the old Trimaster parts with the inherent fit problems. The He 162 looked promising, however that hope was rather quickly dashed upon commencement of construction. The fuselage fits well, but the wings aren't positive, and require careful alignment as do the tail surfaces. Engine cowling is not perfect, but seeing as how it is meant to be posed opened, I can understand. Painting on the other hand, went without a hitch. (Just noticed the outer port strut on the trolley is broken... ooops) Thanks for looking, feedback is always welcome. Regards ANS

Looking good! Have your eyes uncrossed yet?

Nice build Ian! I think you may be confused about the display team however. There was a RCAF display team called the "Sky Lancers", however, they looked like this... What you have depicted is an aircraft from the infamous "Fireballs" The Fireballs first flew in 1954, however, their interesting paint scheme did not last long as they were told from higher up the command chain that they looked too "communist" and were ordered to repaint their aircraft. Regardless, I think you've got the red pretty spot on. Keep it up! Regards, ANS

Very Nice. I don't much care for Phantoms, but I do like that camouflage!

Hey All This will be the last armour build for a little while. I just needed to recharge the batteries and get the modelling mojo back, which, primarily being an aircraft guy, I find armour perfect for. The list of firsts on this build include: First Half Track First time using the "Hairspray Technique" First Figures First time I didn't Future the clear parts With that, I present to you my "Skid-Fritz" 7 with 20mm Flakvierling The Skid-Fritz was primed with Vallejo Panzer Grey Primer then given a generous coat of my girlfriend's hairspray. When dry this was then covered with Model Master Dunkelgelb. Soak the area to be chipped with a generous amount of water then go to town on it with a stiff brush, and there you go... chips! Now where's the fish? The Flakvierling underwent the same process, however a VERY good modeller friend and president of my local IPMS club once told me that when doing mounted guns, its not a bad idea to paint the gun and the vehicle different colours. That being said, the gun mount was painted Polly Scale Depot Buff. I find this to be a good colour for either really fresh Dunkelgelb or some sort of North Africa-esque camouflage color. The windshield (windscreen) was done by lightly misting Tamiya Flat Earth and then sweeping a stiff brush, damp with X20A, along the area of the wipers' coverage. Figures came from the Tamiya Mobelwagen kit and were painted with Vallejo acrylics. The whole thing is out of box with exception being the gun barrels, these came from Lion-Marc, and the gun sight which is Brengun. The usual feedback it, as usual, always welcome. Regards, ANS

Not quite, but I am planning to do the Panzer IV(J?) from the final battle.

Hey All! So guess who has a new camera and finally has a finished model to try it out on? That's right, not you! I present Tamiya's 1/35 Panzer IV D. The copyright may say 1972, but this is still a very nice kit. Maybe not as much detail as a Dragon example, but when you can build a whole panzer division of Tamiyas for the price of one Dragon, why the heck not? This build was inspired from the Japanese Anime, "Girls und Panzer." For those of you who have seen it, good on you. For those who haven't, strongly suggest you do. Now, I'm not the first to admit that I'm a fan of anime, for the most part, I'm not; this one however, struck the right chord with me. The storyline/back story is a little hard to follow, but the tanks are nicely rendered and the battle sequences are quite intense. Without further ado, lets get on to what we're all here to see... PANZER VOR!! Thanks for looking. The usual questions and comments, good, bad or indifferent are, of course, always welcome Regards, ANS

BINGO! http://www.cbc.ca/player/Embedded-Only/News/Local+News/Edmonton/ID/2433018332/

That London Gazette article is about the only other direct reference I could find as well. This keeps getting stranger the more you look into it. Technically the F-84F was the Thunderstreak not the Thunderjet, so I don't know what's going on there. The Thunderstreaks in USAF service were removed from active service in 1964. US Air National Guard used F-84s and RF-84 Thunderflash into the early 1970s. I'd like to dismiss this as a typo (I've had to correct the RCAF on the amount of guns on a P-40) as it seems pretty easy to type F-84 instead of F-86 (the Sabre, which you all know we did use), however, if it was that simple it would probably read "F-84 Sabre." Seeing as how they outright say Thunderjet it must be true. Foresterab has confirmed that there were indeed F-84s present in Edmonton around the right time. Now all we need is a list with serial numbers, or a picture of one of the planes in question... Are anyone else's modelling juices flowing? ANS

So this was posted to the RCAF Facebook page today: "Today in aviation history March 3, 1965 – RCAF Flight Lieutenant Kenneth Abraham Harvey, while flying an F-84F Thunderjet to Edmonton, Alberta, finds his engine vibrating. At length the engine fails. Rather than bail out and leave the aircraft to crash in a populated area, he carries out a safe landing. For this action he is awarded the Air Force Cross." Assuming this is true, has anyone heard about this before? If so, please share any additional information and/or pictures. Regards, ANS

That's some good Voodoo. You've made two good decisions with this build: 1.) Dropped flaps... trust me they're a pain in the butt to pose retracted 2.) Exhausts... just the right color. I've seen too many models with the exhausts way too dark. Gonna have to have a crack at this scheme myself someday Keep it up Canuck! ANS

This is my second build of 2015. Two models in two months... man, I'm getting slow in my old age. I remember when I could build twenty in one year! This is the 1/48 Eduard Bf 109E-3 Weekend Edition that I received as a Christmas Present. Being a freebie, I decided to add a little aftermarket to this one, which consisted of a resin seat by Ultracast, metal barrels by Master and decals by Hussar. Wanting to do something different, I decided on a not-often-modelled Royal Romanian Air Force example. The model was painted with Lifecolor RLM 65, Tamiya Dark Green and Vallejo Deep Yellow. As is usually the case, I couldn't quite match the yellow on the decals, which are a bit brighter than the yellow I used (hindsight's a b***h ain't it?). Fortunately you can't really tell in the pictures. The rudder stripes were masked and painted instead of using the supplied decal. The Eduard 109 is a fantastic little kit, however, my only complaint is that the landing gear legs seem a little too long, giving the aircraft too much of a nose high stance. For those of you wondering, yes, that is Donald Duck on the rear fuselage Comments, good and bad, are always welcome. Regards, ANS

Looks good. One thing to keep in mind though, the Panzer IV had rubber rimmed road wheels so they shouldn't be showing a metallic shine. Everything else is spot on, keep it up!

The interior is a little spartan. I only added seat belts and some spare gauges for the instrument panel, but it could definitely benefit from a resin or p/e set. Then again, you don't get to see a lot at this scale and with the heavy canopy framing.

Evening Everyone, Here's my Junkers Ju 88A-17 from III./KG 26 based in Norway. This was done with the surprisingly nice Zvezda kit. The only gripes I have with the kit are the separate outer wing sections, the nacelle to wing fit and and the canopy. Of course with the canopy, I would be referring to the need to have to mask all those little windows. Allow me to apologize in advance for the poor picture quality. I keep telling myself I'm gonna get a new camera... just like I'm gonna finish those kits I started two years ago... Anyways, enjoy the pics of what I consider one of the better looking Ju 88 variants. Regards ANS