72modeler

Rusty, You might try contacting the Vought Heritage site at the web address posted below to see if they can assist you with drawings of those two types; the site also has excellent text and photos of all Vought aircraft, and is a wonderful source for modelers. IIRC, Esoteric might have done 1/72 vacuform kits of both of those types, and the instructions usually had 1/72 scale 3-view drawings. Perhaps one of our resident vacuform modelers might have either or both kits and could assist you with a copy of the drawings. best I can do- sorry! (Looking forward to seeing both of those projects as RFI at some point!) https://www.vought.org/

Tbolt is correct, @dov Not having a laminar flow wing like the Mustang, which had the forward 2/3 of its wing puttied,, filled with surfacer, sanded, and then painted to preserve the smoothness of the surface, the P-47 did not need any surface treatment of its wings, camouflaged or bare metal. It already had a very efficient airfoil, IIRC, and the brute power of the P&W R-2800 and paddle blade prop did the rest! Mike

MPM also did a BF-109T-1, T-2 that had the arrestior hook and catapault spools, but being one of their earlier releases, is a little on the soft side, where panel lines and detail parts are concerned, but it does have a a fret of etched parts. Airkit did a Bf-109T-1 resin conversion set a long time ago, which I have, and it comes with extended wings and all the bits for either a T1 or T2 version. The panel lines are very soft and wide, much like a Matchbox kit. Hasegawa also did a limited release Bf-109T-2, which I also have, that came with extended wingtips and decals, but only for the ones that were denavalized and flown out of Norway, IIRC. The Hasegawa kit did not account for the longer slats on the extended wing parts- the instructions showed where to cut the wingtips off of the Bf-109E kit and attach the resin extensions. Unless you want to wait for Special Hobby to get around to doing a proper one, which I hope they will do, but have serious doubts, it's pretty easy to convert any of the very good Bf-109E kits and use the wingtips from another donor kit to do the extended wings, remembering to rescribe the slats, ailerons, and if you are doing the navalized version, the spoilers on the upper wings. Mike

I have numerous color photos of Greek Rhinos in this same scheme, and you have managed to duplicate them perfectly- not an easy task, even in 1/48 scale. Well done! Museum quality in every respect. Mike

Late to the party- as usual! Dennis- try these two sheets: Colorado 72.52 Normandie-Niemen Yak-3's has some o the black outlined stars on it Techmod 72102 has six styles of stars, in different sizes, including black outlined Mike

Until one of our resident experts logs on, see if this excellent article by Jeff Groves heps. From his Inch High Guy website, which is a great resource for modelers. IPMS Stickholm also has a two-part referecne article on WW2 USAAF/USN aircraft interior colors that is very well researched. Hope this helps! Mikei https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2019/09/11/b-17-flying-fortress-interior-colors-part-i/

I agree with @RidgeRunner A handsome airplane, and since I never got the excellent Broplan vacform when it was available, I will definitely be looking to get this one! Mike

Guessing this is the Staggerwing you are asking about? http://www.roden.eu/HTML/448.html I have been unable to find photos or documentation on this SD17S anywhere, other than color profiles contained in the Sword and Roden 1/72 kits. It might be worth a try to contact either of the kit makers and inquire what sources they used to document the colors/markings on the kit decal sheets. Sorry- my Staggerwing references are pretty thin! Mike

I have a copy of FW-200 Kondor, The Airliner That Went to War, by Juan-Carlos Salgado, published by Clsssic Publications. On page 39, there are two photos, not very sharp, of F8-HH being loaded and other of it after a crash landing, as well as a caption for the two photos that I have attached below. In the one photo, taken from the LH side, it appears that the H closest to the fuselage cross is in white, as the letter matches the white outline of the cross. You can also see the badge of KG40 under the cockpit. On the other photo, taken from the front on the RH side after a belly landing, you can see the badge of KG40, as well as a white D immediately in front of the fuselage cross, in a photo taken in 1941. I wish I had the means to post photos, but maybe this information will be useful or maybe somebody who has the same reference can post them. Best I can do- sorry! Mike From the book: 'Formerly carrying the registration of D-AHMC, and name 'Nordmark' Fw-200A O/S-3, werk nummer 2895, seen serving in the troop transport role for soldiers of Infanterie Regiment 324 at Oslo-Fornebu, Norway on April 9, 1940. Although serving with the 4/KGzbV 107, the aircraft retains its 1/KG40 codes of F8+HH, and the well-known KG40 encircled globe emblem. Although damaged in a wheels-up landing at Farmbach on July 29, 1941 while serving as F8+DU with the 10 (Erg.St.) KG40, ( as seen in the second photo), it was repaired ad continued in service until 1943.'

I discovered this very interesting footage a little while ago- I hope it is new to many of you. Note that the Invaders are a mixture of glass-nosed B-26C's and B-26B;'s with the early six gun nose and the late bulged canopy, as well as the six wing mounted .50 cal guns. I am thinking that maybe the early gun nosed Invaders might have originally had the glass nose, but since the noses on the airplane were interchangeable, there were early gun noses available for installation. (I am no A-26 authority, so maybe one of or BM'ers can comment?) Note the napalm being mixed in 55-gallon drums and being loaded into 75 gallon fuel tanks by means of a crude gravity fueling rig! IIRC, napalm is a mixture of gasoline and polystyrene, which is most likely the solid pellets being put into the drums. Video via You Tube. Mike

The best F-86K I have seen so far! Very nice and realistic bare metal finish as well as the stenciling and the deployed slats. My only real gripe is that this one's not sitting in my display case! Mike

Very nice Tornado! Loved the work on the cockpit, and the underside- very realistic and subtle weathering very appropriate for the type. Mike

Alex, That is by far the best He-70 model I have seen! Beautiful paintwork, and I bet it was a real challenge masking the sunburst on the wings, but you have done it perfectly. I have the ICM kit, as well as the old Matchbox kit, and it looks lie the ICM kit is a very good one; Were there any big problems during the build to watch out for? You should be proud of your work! Mike

It's been a while since we've seen a 1/72 Hasegawa Rhino around here, and this one was worth the wait! Very nice camouflage and very realistic color demarcation as well as the metal tones on the keel and stabilizers!Well done! Mike

Way to go, CC! They are a beautiful pair of Hurri's; hard to choose between the two, but I am crazy about any airplane in TSS, so my heart goes out to the Sea Hurricane! I bet ToT really loves the silver doped one, though! (It's amazing what can be done in or out of the Naughty Corner, my friend) Mike

Yowzah! My favorite bare metal P-47D razorback! Museum quality in all respects. You did an excellent job duplicating the removed invasion stripes on the upper surfaces. One of the best builds of the excellent Tamiya kit I have seen in a while, too. You should be proud of this model. The pilot of Kansas Tornado, Howard Curran, also flew an F-80C in the Korean war with the same nickname. I am bettingt @Tbolt will like this one, too! Mike Here's a photo of Curran's other Kansas Tornado: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaoWtH9W8AAK9GE?format=jpg&name=large Here is an illustration of his F-80C, for which there are 1/72 and 1/48 decals:. Photo via Aero Works.

The Heller kit has held up well. Very striking in the overall red. IIRC, there is a 1:1 replica that is airworthy, but is an unpowered glider, and has to be towed aloft. Nice model! Mike

Dave, They are both very nice builds of the most elegant flying boat ever built. Hard to choose between the two- the Pan Am Clipper with the international orange panels or Clipper Berwick in the BOAC camouflage and markings. If ever there was an airplane that needs to be done in 1/72 scale, this is the one! Well done! Mike

I recall seeing photos of brand-new B-17G's lined up on the Boeing ramp, and all of the turret guns were fitted and the barrels were wrapped with what looked like butcher paper of some sort. Guessing they were part of what was called GFE? (Government furnished equipment?) Mike

Ran across this very interesting color film of B-17G's being assembled. Very interesting to see how complete some of the subassemblies were, before being attached, as well as some having markings already applied. You can see instances of untinted and tinted zinc chromate primer. Almost looked like an HK B-17G kit being assembled! I hope this one is new to most of you. Video via You Tube. Mike

Graham and @Work In Progress, I was incorrect in my original post; the Fw-200A and Fw-200c kits I was describing were both Revell of Germany kits and not Italeri, as I stated. I have amended my original post to correct my statements. Thanks for catching my mistake, and I apologize for the misinformation- these old Mk 1a memory banks aren't what they used to be, I fear! Mike

Looks sort of like the stencil gaps have been filled in- especially on the 'WW' tailcode, but IIRC, the USAF Amarillo font characters are not rounded, but are angular. Could there be a similar font used for USAF vehicles, APU';s, etc. and tat is what was used on the F-105 fin in question? Me, I'm still trying to figure out the intricacies of RAF roundel types! Mike

I found a discussion on the DH Hornet engine cowling length that was posted by John Adams, founder of Aeroclub and a regular contributor; he confirms the reason for the extra length of the RH engine cowling as well as its exact dimension! I wish I could find my annotated photo of this, but IIRC, it might be in the David Collins Hornet book, which sadly, I do not have! Mike From John Aero: The wonder of the internet. As far as I'm aware the fact of the longer starboard cowl was virtually unknown until I put it on the internet or either in a letter to a magazine I can't remember which. I came by the details by accident. Some years ago I was speaking with a member of the Rolls Royce Heritage Group at Hucknall about the overall dimensions of the Merlin 130 and 131 engines when I was researching the erroneous overall lengths of the DH Hornet. My contact was quoting some dimensions from the engine AP's and as we closed the conversation and as I was just about to put the phone down he suddenly said "you do know that the 131 was longer than the 130 by .759 inches". Now, I can't find my notes at present so the final figure may not be a '9' but it was a three figure dimension he quoted and this was not a DH figure but a Rolls Royce engine dimension! This was because an idler gear was fitted in the redesigned gear box to counter rotate the propeller on the Merlin 131. I discussed this information initially with Dave Askett in Canada (who had raised the original overall length query with me) and at some point with David Collins. I then looked closely at photographs and on certain ones you can see the extended cowl with a panel line present. the best being the colour photo of the Silver Hornet flying over the Needles in Aeroplane Monthly and PX351 on the rear of Dave Collins excellent book. @david collins Can you repost your photo showing the spacer in the RH Hornet engine cowling or the modeler who made the original post as well as the rest of us?

Roy, I think the case chutes were open, as IIRC, they were directly below the ejection port for each of the 20mm cannons. I don't think the chutes had spring loaded covers, as I doubt the weight of the spent cases was sufficient to push a spring loaded door open, and would be prone to jamming. Maybe @Selwyn or @dogsbody might know the answer. In the photos I saw, it looks like the chutes are open. Mike This link doesn't answer your question, but it does have some very interesting detail photos that might be useful in your modeling project. Such a beautiful airplane,m and like its American cousin, the F7F Tigercat, shares the distinction of being among the fastest twin piston powered fighter of WW2. https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/de-havilland-dh103-hornet.51915/ Not sure if your kit has this correct or not, but the RH engine cowling was almost an inch longer than the LH cowling, due to the extra gearing needed to reverse the prop rotation compared to the LH engine. This can be accomplished by putting a scale three inch spacer behind the spinner backplate. on the RH engine cowling. It's a small thing to be sure, but I do recall seeing a photo of the RH cowling of a Sea Hornet posted here on BM a while back, and it clearly showed the spacer. Just wanted to make you aware of this detail.

Without a doubt, this is the best build of the Hasegawa kit that I have seen; the metal finish is outstanding and very realistic, and and all the subtle detail improvements you have made really make this old kit look like a new-tool! What a labor of love! I can only imagine how long it took to fill and sand this old puppy to get the result we see in your photos. Well done! Mike