Stew Dapple

This is my latest completion, the Trumpeter MiG-17F in 1/32 scale. The model represents an Egyptian Air Force aircraft No.2115 from the October War/Yom Kippur War in 1973: I did build the kit OOB as far as possible, but the bomb-racks really did need to be added and one damn thing led to another and in the end I probably spent triple the cost of the kit - which, in fairness, I got delivered for a shade over £20 - but i regret nothing Changes or additions I made: Replaced the kit's pilot figure with a PJ Productions NATO pilot 1960's Light on intake splitter filled and painted over, landing light relocated to lower port wing Nose-mounted pitot, ventral fin and tailfin flare dispenser from ProModeller set Afterburner nozzle from Eduard set (not sure it should poke out that much, but it didn't want to go any further and as I'd spent a fairly traumatic half-hour trying to bend it into shape did not push the point, for fear of it collapsing on itself) Wheels from the Armory set Gun barrels and pitot tubes from the Master set Bombs from Trumpeter Russian weapons set, bomb racks made from laminated and shaped plastic card, sway braces from spares box Drop tanks moved inboard (a considerable amount) There may have been more, it's just a hazy memory now... The model is wearing (an approximation of) the Nile Valley camouflage scheme – I say an approximation as the colour bands on the original uppersurface generally seem to sweep more smoothly than mine which meander a little too much but I'm still happy with how it turned out. The colours used were Colourcoats ACRA01 - Giallo Mimetico 1, an unlabelled grey-green similar to RAF Interior Grey-green, ACRA09 - Verde Oliva Scuro 2 and an unlabelled tin of pale blue grey for the undersides. Were these the correct colours to use? Almost certainly not The pattern was painted freehand with my Badger Renegade. The Egyptian Airforce roundels and fin-stripes as well as the Arabic numbers on the nose were painted with masks done on a Silhouette Cutter by @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies with the 'Saladin Eagles' on the tail marking provided as a decal – both worked much better than I had dared hope... thanks very much for doing that for me mate Ed Okun's build from 2014 provided a lot of useful pictures and information including a photo of 2115 which appears not to be carrying the outboard racks for the Sakr air-to-ground rockets and thereby gave me the excuse not to have to try making and fitting them which would have probably been enough to put me off completely Cheers, Stew

Nice job Mike, looks like that would be a fiendishly difficult paintjob but you pulled it off Cheers, Stew

Congratulations to you and Mrs P on Madeleine's arrival Edward, very happy for all of you Cheers, Stew

Ooh, is it the YB-49 Flying Wing? Cheers, Stew

Aw that's a shame Pat, I'd have liked to seen one of these built. I know storage would have been a bit of a problem, but you could always have hired a mooring berth at Oban harbour Something as big? Got me there... the Italeri Gigant? Cheers, Stew

I tried to resist, but it was really just a matter of time From BlackMike Models: Cheers, Stew

Hello mate, There were several different schemes available so it's hard to say with any certainty which may have been applied to the aircraft in question - certainly you can find photo's of CR.42s flying in a formation with at least two different types in the same group, so it's possible that not all the 352 sq. G.50's carried the same scheme. These links might be useful to you, the first shows the colours and prescribed patterns (but you have to scroll down a fair way) - bear in mind they are guides and given the nature of mottle-painting they would not be identical on two given aircraft. The second is a colour guide, which I think is an updated version of the first guide; I'm not sure how current the information is in either article, but if lacking a more authorative alternative it may be a help to you: https://www.stormomagazine.com/RegiaAeronauticaColorsinWWII_3a.htm https://www.stormomagazine.com/RegiaAeronauticaColorsinWWII_VitoCharts.htm Cheers, Stew

If only I'd thought of tha... hey, wait a minute!

Hi gents Here's my latest completion, the Trumpeter MiG-15bis in 1/32 - my birthday present from my Dad: Thanks Dad, if you manage to work the link when I send it to you It's not accurately painted for reasons I'll try to explain after the pictures: The kit itself has some innaccuracies, I read that they existed but did not seek any further information about what they are beyond that the cockpit canopy is not right (the reviewer mentioned this as being amongst or in addition to seven other faults with the kit so I couldn't help but see that one) but if you want a 1/32 MiG-15 bis you aren't exactly spoiled for choice anyway and if you are comparatively ignorant of the finer points of the design, as I am, it will be more than adequate for your needs. It did require a fair bit of filling and sanding - even then the seam of the fuselage join came back to haunt me when I could have sworn I obliterated it. That said it was a fun build, and took me about a month doing at most a couple of hours work most days. I built pretty much OOB but I did drill out the cannon barrels and the muzzle brake for the big gun, added a disc of Aluminium tape for the nose-mounted landling light (on the intake splitter, you can't see it and the landing light may have been moved to under the right wing by this time) and I used the Eduard mask set on the transparencies. The paint scheme is innaccurate - I can state that with certainty, as from what little research I did it seems that standard colours were not used on the Russian MiGs that flew with the North Korean forces, they were sent basic colours like black, white, red, yellow, blue and grey and advised to mix colours that suited the local terrain. I did not do this I used Colourcoats paints, an unlabelled tin of pale blue grey for the undersides (similar to RLM76 but a little darker and slightly less blue) AR101 Israeli Sand Grey, ARUS10 VVS Earth Red and ACF01 French Vert for the top surfaces. Given that a healthy human eye can allegedly distinguish one million different colours the chances I picked the right one for any of mine are literally one million to one, and for all four colours to be correct I think the odds should be about sixteen million to one (I'm not great at maths,it must be said). So with odds like that it's probably more likely that I would win the Lottery and in view of that I really hope I did not waste my luck on getting a camouflage scheme - that no-one else can verify - correct. The IFF and RT aerials were painted a light blue, and the Radio Altimeters under the wings a darker blue, I have seen these on preserved aircraft and I have no idea if they are appropriate for the aircraft I was representing but at that point... well you know, what the heck. I rubbed the paintwork down with 6000-grit Micromesh to give a worn, slightly patchy look, like a poor, frozen, bored ground crewman had been told to get the whole squadron painted by morning. The markings came from the HAD Models set 32064 and I used the markings for '263' apparently flown by Capt. N M Zameskin of the 878 IAP based at Tatung-Kao in February 1953. The aircraft carries five victory stars just aft of the cockpit on the left-hand side - I have to say that the HAD transfers were superb, really lovely to use and very thin, but I did crumple the victory stars when applying them so one of them is a bit wonky - don't judge I left the upperwing stars off as I read that the Russian aircraft, in line with Soviet camouflage doctrine of the time, did not carry them. HAD also provides star/roundel national markings without the white background, I used the ones with the white just because I liked the look of them better. I used some Citadel spray varnish and it worked well. I may be the only person still reading at this point, but if not, apologies for the rambling and thanks for your patient attention Cheers, Stew

As I have an (almost) embarrassingly large amount of 1/32 aircraft in the stash it would be churlish not to join in Count me in Rich. Cheers, Stew

Yes, it was good fun, thanks everyone Cheers, Stew

She turned out a real beauty Roger, good work Cheers, Stew

I've put my laundry out Duncan, that ought to do it Cheers, Stew

That's good progress mate, she's looking good Cheers, Stew

Agreed, some lovely drilling on the exhaust outlets too, I wouldn't have had the confidence to do that I think Cheers, Stew

Looking very nice there Pat Cheers, Stew

I painted the anti-glare panel in the forward cockpit, installed the gunsight and got the tailplanes attached: Then I attached the canopies: I didn't intend to fit the nose cannon at this stage, but a test-fit showed the nose-cap that the barrels fit into was a very poor fit indeed, and it required a fair bit of sanding and filling to get the desired result - I didn't want the filler to block the holes for the cannon so I added them now. I haven't heard any mention of the nose parts being a bad fit, so it could be that I am the variable in this particular equation, or it could be that the parts don't actually fit very well - it's something to watch out for if you do build one of these, anyway Cheers, Stew

Thanks mate In fairness the transfers shown date from nearly 2 decades apart, the older yellowish ones are copyrighted 2000 and the newer white ones are 2019 - the new ones actually look pretty good, they're thin and glossy so hopefully the days of poor decals in Hasegawa kits has passed Cheers, Stew

I got the interior detail painting done (such as it was, there isn't a great deal of detail in there) and the cockpit area installed: I gussied them up a bit with some Eduard etched seatbelts (these are actually IJN seatbelts rather than IJA but I trust you not to tell on me ) ... and used the kit's transfers for the instrument panels: Incidentally have a look at the differences in colours between the older Hasegawa transfers and the more recent ones: It looks a bit worse than that in real life, shocking, isn't it? Luckily I can use the newer tail markings choices on both models, and will paint the yellow ID markings, the Hinomaru and the 'bandages' myself so won't need the transfers for most of it. Finally I assembled the wings - I opened the holes for the Ta Dan bomb-racks for one model (the one without the 37mm gun, to compensate ) and masked the ventral window - I'm not sure these wouldn't have been plated, or at least painted, over on the interceptor version but Hasegawa says they should be there and I don't know enough to argue : Next I'll be joining the fuselage halves and attaching them to the wings Cheers, Stew

Agreed, smooth with a capital "Smoooo" Cheers, Stew

Thanks gents @trickyrich it did occur to me to try to get a Tamiya 1/48 Ki-46 to go with the Ki-45 but the Tamiya kit is rather hard to come by here and tends to be a bit spendy if you want one badly enough... which I couldn't really justify with the 72nd scale ones in the stash I got the interiors assembled, one with the massive breech of the 37mm gun that pokes out through the roof in a sort of 'Schräge Musik; installation: I added the nose-pieces to the fuselage halves rather than attaching the completed nose to the joined halves of the fuselage as per the instructions, I did this on my last Ki-46 build and got away with it, you only need to deal with the vertical seam if you are careful at this point: Then I added the engine and landing gear bulges to the upper and lower wings - the kit uses the same wing for the -II and -III versions but provides different bulges according to the boxed variant, as the -III had a bigger engine than the -II and subsequently bigger fairings on the wings: Incidentally if you are building this kit, beware that the instructions do not tell you to open the boxy structure for the port wing light when assembling the wings, they simply show you fitting the light in the next stage of assembly, which is a bit late if you haven't already opened up the slot for it. Anyway once that was done the interior parts were pretty much ready for painting; re-reading my old thread provided me with the interior colour I had used on the -III before, a 50/50 mix of Colourcoats ACJ04 - IJN Interior Buff Green and Colourcoats ACJ18 - IJN Interior Olive Green: Mmm... bilious That's where I'm up to, hopefully can get the interior detail painting done and the fuselage halves joined in the next couple of days Cheers, Stetw

She's looking good mate, nice work Hmm a nursery rhyme eh? I'm plumping for a Jack, or a Jill... but if it's another floatplane then I'm at a loss, long time since I heard any nursery rhymes Cheers, Stew

I'm familiar with the feeling It turned out very nicely though, good work Cheers, Stew

Well since there's still a while to go in this Group Build I thought I'd try to thin the stash a little further with a couple of Hasegawa's 'Dinah' Interceptors I built a couple of the reconnaissance version of this kit in 2016 (where did the time go?) here: I've had the interceptor versions in the stash almost as long Anyway here we go: Here's the box contents, it's the same for both of them, apart from the transfers: I did invest in one item of aftermarket: A huge thank-you to Previous Me for that, as there's a lot of glazing to deal with. I started with that, as it's always good to get it out of the way: Hopefully I can make some progress today Cheers, Stew

.... and I'm definitely done now More pics in the Gallery here. I like the way you're thinking Cheers, Stew