Whirly

I would like to thank all the posters for the excellent infos provided. I didn't expect so much interest in this subject given the few references previously available. Will do surely: I plan to enter it in the "Go large or go home" GB which started a couple of weeks ago: being a strictly 1/72 modeller I need a special occasion to build something so out of my comfort zone. Cheers Fabio

This is the scheme I would like to do, but the Montex masks I have are for a different airframe, so I should go for it 🙂 https://www.super-hobby.it/products/Lysander-III-Revell-2650682.html#gallery_start

Hello Carl, thank you for this generous offer, I sent you via PM my email details.

Hello, I'm thinking about building the old Matchbox 1/32 Lizzie in the black and yellow overall livery for target tugs, I have also the excellent Montex masks for roundels and serials, but I wonder which changes I should do to the airframe. For example, I can't see any external windmill like Defiants or similar: did it have any internal device? Thanks for your inputs!

Sure you are right! https://www.facebook.com/100059604559743/posts/the-new-italeri-172-scale-is-due-for-release-in-june-and-the-test-shots-look-ver/739043348092477/

Count me in John please, I have a few prototypes in the stash. Fabio

Hello, I'm searching for references on this Piper Dakota which was for a while attached to the Chilean AF aerobatic teams "Halcones" during the eighties. At the time, the team was mounted on Pitts S2As which were overall dark blue with red fin and white trim. I found only this series of historic images where the Piper is also dark blue with white trim though the fin is an orangeish shade of red. Maybe this is due to the film, unfortunately no comparison is possible with the Pitts which are flying inverted and their fins are in shadow. n Most important is that the Piper has a motif on the wing underside in white and red! Then I found a couple of images of this restored airframe which is clearly orange, not red, and shows a motif also on the underside of the tailplane. Anyone has ever seen the underside of the original aircraft and can help me to know how it was painted? The red shade maybe a personal opinion, but it clearly wasn't overall blue like the Pitts! Thank you Fabio

Thank you @exdraken! In the meantime I masked the black areas to paint the wheelwells aluminium and on removing the masks I found a very annoying side effect where I had applied Mr Masking Sol Neo: for some reason the black paint (Tamiya acrylic) got dull and some chips were removed. Never experienced this, do you know the reason? More time spent for a touch-up... Finally decalling could start. I usually enjoy a lot this stage but this time more surprises were waiting for me. I know that Modeldecal sheets can be a bit tricky with some white residue being left in the water during application, but this time it was a real flood: The worst part is that decals are very brittle and resistant to setting liquids, maybe they are becoming too old. It's a pity because I have many sheets including still unique subjects! This is the result after a lot of work, you can't see all the minor defects I need to correct in some way. Thanks for looking!

@Toryu @Grandboof Thank you for the positive comments, I agree: Suez markings are great and I'm trying to build a personal collection of the aircraft involved.

Time for an update, sorry for the lack of activity but my plans got a bit disrupted 😬 In the last few days I started working on the intakes to close the open view inside: I also wanted to improve the general look lowering the elevons as they always are when the aircraft is parked, so some difficult cuts were needed. Some work is in order to restore the broken corners! Then I found out that for an Austrian Drakens in late service, I need to update the defence fit which was taken from the surplus Danish aircraft. Nothing really terrible, but I need to shape some parts and this will take more time. Thanks for looking!

Thank you for the encouragement Patrice, my skill at painting figures is non-existent 😆, better try to enhance the cockpit! This is a great build Andre, I like a lot when you try to make good use of spare parts with older kits 😉 I finally got to the paint stage and the model now gained a solid black coat. Very good at hiding all the sins!

@Chewbacca you don't have to thank me but Thommy Thomason for all the precious infos posted in his blog! Now completed and posted in the gallery, even keeping the original due date which is a record for me. Thank you all for the positive comments and for keeping high my motivation.

My only entry for this GB, the quite recent Skyraider AEW from the Sword 1/72 kit. Straight out of the box and finished as WT959 participating in 'Operation Musketeer', the 1956 Suez Campaign. Build thread is here , a big thank you to the organizers and all those who commented keeping high my motivation! 🙂

I bought a couple of them around 2018 when they were offered as "B-grade" products at a reduced price, because of issues with the fuselage moulds. Since the defects were described as "short shots in the nose area" (which were there) and I purchased also a regular conversion for the Aermacchi MB339CD I think my samples are representative of the general quality of the product. What can I say? My feeling is that they came out of the same moulding machine used previously by Ventura Models for their Spitfires, but with much worse results. I remember having tried to discern some shapes in the white lumps of plastic and then elected to use just the engine bay as a conversion part for the Academy A-37 kit. That was the plan, but I didn't put in practice yet. Just my 0.02p worth

Thank you @Col.for your kind words. Unfortunately alternative decals are limited: I have Model Art sheet 72-019 (1995 vintage!) which I initially intended to use just to make a different airframe from the box choice. I later decided differently because 1) the white in the old decals is quite creamy and I didn't fancy a mix with the bright white of the stencils from the kit sheet 2) I was not able to find a single image of WT984/414 for reference. In hindsight, I should have followed my original plan: now I'm considering a partial repaint after sourcing the correct light blue roundels. Anyway, it is now nearly completed in its current status, just need adding the prop and arresting hook after paint has dried: Thanks for looking!

Sure @Col., they seem really very good but once you compare them to the real subject, not only the small ones, you'll notice all the issues! The terms 'excellent decals' and 'oversized' in the same sentence should have ringed a bell in my brain, but finally I got it: the Sword sheet is a straight copy of every single mistake in the decals supplied with the Italeri 1/48 Skyraider! Italeri is renowned for re-releasing old dogs with apparently fantastic decals, but even those are not that good once applied on the model because they are often too big, especially the stencils. On top of this there is the matter of the roundels' blue, which should be much lighter than usual to stand on the Glossy Sea Blue paint. I tried to find replacements in my decal bank but I have nothing suitable in multiples of the same size. Well, you may have guessed I'm a bit disappointed by the sloppy research behind this kit colour scheme and I think I've wasted way too much time trying to make it an accurate reproduction as best as I can. Speaking of that, I had not installed the kit supplied windows for the radar operator because they are flat, a feature valid only for the very early deliveries, which WT959 is not. so I crash moulded new windows: Hope to finish this one soon!

Hi Andre, thank you for taking the time to check on your model. Actually, I compared the Revell and Heller canopies finding a big difference: REVELL HELLER I may have worsened things glueing the windscreen a bit too forward where I could have put a plasticard spacer, but the rear slant of my canopy is also off and does not match the spine. Better desist and set it open: I have prepared a resin MB Mk4 which I hope will distract from the emptyness of the cockpit 😉

It is an excellent work deserving a thorough read to take your decision. If you care about such things, one more factor to count is that the Fly kit supplies the longer -40 and -50 fuselages in some of its variations, but the wing-body fairing is unchanged, while it should have a deeper shape developed for the -33 and -34 marks.

False start on decaling: I forgot the small serials needed a blue background, so I quickly masked and painted the offending area. I'm glad to report that the decals supplied are of exceptional quality, they adapt very well without silvering, even if there are some areas where the blue got a distinctive orange peel. The white covers also very well and there is no transparent effect. The real disappointent came from the design of the decals because many subjects are oversized, see for example the propeller manufacturer badges but also more examples I will cover later...

Thank you all for the useful advices! I already glued the windscreen and will try to adapt the canopy. First I have to do a comparison with the same Heller piece to understand where is the problem.

Thank you @Hewy and sorry for the lack of updates. Other commitments got in the middle and I'm getting quite annoyed by this "simple" kit: I got to the point of adding the canopy and found out a handful of issues... I managed to fit the windscreen after a robust reduction of the instrument coaming, but the main canopy is a full mm. short to make contact with it. I'm now considering leaving the canopy open, despite the lack of cockpit detail. Need some time to mull it over. Thanks for looking!

And now some real progress on the build! The final step before painting was adding the canopy and this really let me down: fit is quite good, but the sliding part is way too thick and obscures every detail in the cockpit with optic distorsions. A real pity, since you can't pose it open too, due to the internal thickness. Anyway, after masking I sprayed the frames with flat black and then gave a few coats of trainer yellow to the needed areas. Masking the stripes was more complex than I expected, especially for the fuselage. A close study of the few images available shows the precise application of the stripes and the lack of black elements, at least this is what my eyes tell me. See here to make your choice. This was followed by a couple of coats of Glossy Sea Blue. I used a carefully hoarded bottle of Testors Modelmaster paint for that and strangely it took a lot of days to fully cure, something like Xtracolor 🙄 Finally I removed the masking on the stripes and found quite a number of areas where the blue bled under the tape... touch-ups needed! And here it is, in all its glory! Hope to start decalling soon, then final assembly can start. Thanks for looking!

Again a long pause, but now I need to hurry up if I want to finish behind the deadline! The missing images from my previous post are some notes I took on the instructions which I think could be useful for future builders. Pay attention to the side windows (CP3) which are supplied only as flat glass: this is correct for the early airframes buth they should be convex in most cases. I will crash mold replacements with acetate, maybe parts from previous builds can be adapted. The dorsal bulge (69) needs a bit of filing to make better contact with the spine, most important is the correct position related to the Suez stripes. If you are doing the normal livery in overall blue, obviously this is not so critical. The cooling gills (41/70) shouldn't be added before having painted the exhaust area, otherwise you'll have a tricky job to do. Part 73 is a retaining ring for the propeller, but it seems out of place, so I omitted it. The instructions suggest to scratchbuild the small wing fences installed at the wing fold, but without giving any measurement: I copied them from an Hasegawa kit using 0,35mm plasticard. Wing lights are depicted in the instructions, but they don't exist in the plastic: you have to fabricate them with heat-stretched sprue or whatever fits your tastes. The pitot is shown on the wrong side: there is the correct indentation on the STARBOARD wing. More instructions oddities: you are shown a dent in the spine which has no correspondence with reality. Finally, you are invited to provide yourself the stabilizing braces for the underwing pilons. This is quite annoying and took a lot of time to render properly: I used some brass strips left from a photoetching set, shaping them patiently with a file. In the end I think it was overkill and the same result can be achieved with plasticard, provided you'll add them at the very end of the build. Thanks for looking!

Hello, sorry for the lack of updates: life got in the middle and I'm currently short of modelling motivation 🙄 I slowly got to the point of completing the airframe with all the details to be painted Glossy Sea Blue, you can see I added the stall strip on the right wing leading edge and the small wing fences (?) at the wing folds. More to follow, for some reasons I found only this image uploaded in Flickr. Thanks for looking!

Thank you Hook! All the joints are now ok, though I realized the kit rendtion at the base of the fin is not correct for a Belgian machine, not that it is really that good for any run of the mill Mirage 5 (or IIIE)... See this preserved example for comparison. I removed the whole area and built up the rough shape with plasticard, will refine with Mr.Surfacer 500 and the ECM (?) cone will be added after painting. Thanks for looking!