Antti_K

Hello Rob, my late grandfather had one such book. It was a part of three volume series that had light grey covers, nearly brown pages and a very complicated name printed on the cover in silver colour. But there was plenty of information about ground servicing equipment. Unfortunately I don't know what happened with these books. These books were published in 1938 or 1939. Does this sound familiar to you? Cheers, Antti

Two well known photos, but never seen them in high quality. Thank you for sharing them These photos reveal also a problem with the SH kit: the wing upper side is far too thin (or flat) and therefore the thickest point of the wing is located far too rear. Also the fillet is missing. I've already started remedial work with plastic strips and Milliput. I think they should have done a better work. Cheers, Antti

Hello Anthony, I'm glad you liked my cockpit pictures. It was actuaIly the nicest area of the build. I can't get my eyes off those compressor parts. They are really nice. Same goes for the vari ramps. Cheers, Antti

Excellent info Tony G, so thank you for the comments I haven't noticed that white part on the hook lever. It's now very clear. Something to do on my next (hopefully HK Models' 1/32 scale FG.1) Phantom. I got the colours for the canopy release levers from old USN close-up photos. So another detail to note on my next British Phantom. The dark red primer was visible probably on the FGR.2 at Duxford. It was indeed the floor board, not the cockpit floor. Cheers, Antti

Hello Anthony, you are doing a very nice progress there! Don't worry about the cockpits, as you can create very convincing "offices" out of the kit parts, with some scratch building and with careful painting. The Tamiya parts have some problems with the measurements. For example the pilot's IP is too narrow (I had to use 1/48 scale instrument decals from Airscale to make them fit). Replace the bang seats with resin ones as the kit parts are far too simplified. Here's my cockpit with some scratch building, new instrument decals and resin seats. The seats were modified to navy versions (this is an F-4J); note the bright green lanyards (or pull-rings) for emergency oxygen and the drab coloured PECs just left of the seat pans. The pilot's cockpit looks like this with aftermarket instrument decals and some scratch building (like the landing gear and hook levers). You can also see the ZCY primer on the floor. Yellow is right for the pilot's cockpit but I've seen photos showing dark red primer for the nav's cockpit floor. Hopefully someone can give more information about that. The side panels aren't a good match with any version. They are closest to those of an F-4C. It's great that you got new canopies for your Phantom! They will spare a lot of time for you. Be careful not to "over-tint" the wind shield. They never were "bright green" but colourless. As the wind shield is made of laminated glass (some 50+ millimeters thick) it looks blueish at certain angles. I used a small droplet of Humbrol 15 mixed with a fair amount of clear lacquer. Those compressor blades look fantastic... I think Kerry should receive knighthood for the parts he has created. Keep up the good work! Cheers, Antti

Lovely work! And I'm always delighted to see something different. Can you tell us a little bit about this Red Lightning please? Why was it painted like a racer? Cheers, Antti

Oh, fantastic! I guess this will be the first model of that little jet I'll ever see. Wasn't Kurt Tank the chief designer? Hopefully you will do a WIP Cheers, Antti

Now that you mentioned it Mike... I have a couple of tins of Humbrol Radome Tan (148?). I will paint some chips and compare them against the three Fouga Magisters we have here. Let's see how close we get. Cheers, Antti

Mike, that's the proper way in military aviation: check and then check again To my eye the Dynavector 1/48 scale kit has too "box-like" fuselage. It just misses the beautiful curves. Cheers, Antti

Hello Mike, I think that the most accurate Javelin drawings are provided by Airfix in the form of a stencil placement guide in their 1/48 scale kit. Unfortunately it doesn't give neither fuselage nor wing cross sections. I have the Maintenance Training Manual but it doesn't have the cross sections; only "skeleton views" like Richard Frank's book. Hopefully John (Canberrakid) and his Fabulous Library of Various Air Publications come to rescue. A couple of years ago there was guy here on BM who was a member of a team restoring a Javelin. He had lots of interesting stuff about the Flat Iron. If I can find his email, I will PM it to you. I have already built three 60 Squadron Javelins. Should I participate in the GP and build the fourth one... Cheers, Antti

Great project Tony and beautiful work with the details! Are we having a "RAF in Singapore -theme" Very tempting... Cheers, Antti

Oh, I forgot to mention, that only the small darker sample is original paint. That large and lighter one is a page from a RAL K5 colour chart showing the closest equivalent. Cheers, Antti

Hello Pat & Co., It seems that during the Winter War (1939 - 1940) pilots were wearing a variety of flying suits. Regular officers and NCOs wore dark grey, fur lined (and really thick) flying overalls. They looked roughly the same as those used by the German Air Force during WWI. Reservists wore winter uniforms (or flying overalls if they were available), which looked like the m/36 "summer" uniform, but were made of thick wool. More material was purchased and in early 1940 even British Irvin sheep skin flying jackets were seen. My grandfather had one; he flew Hurricanes and MS 406s in 1940. As vppelt68 explained the m/36 uniform had a medium grey jacket and dark grey trousers. Regular officers wore black trousers. All regulars (officers and NCOs) could also purchase a very dark blue tunic and trousers and a beak cap, but these were worn on official occasions (inspections, parades and so on) only. A couple of photos showing the m/36 uniform: An airman is wearing the "summer" uniform M/36 consisting a medium grey jacket, dark grey trousers and a dark blue cap. The winged propeller insignia on shoulders (made of brass) is the general air force insignia. Note also the black leather boots. Fur lined flying overalls that were worn by a fighter pilot during the Winter War. The photo on the left shows another type of flying suit. Note the the large, dark collars. The two pilots on left are wearing a very dark blue leather flying jackets. An officer navigator "manning" the Blenheim's starboard side seat at the Air Force Museum. Note the summer jacket and dark blue trousers. As there is only the winged propeller insignia on his shoulder, he is a reservist and his rank (vänrikki) equals that of a Pilot Officer. Here is a link to the Virtual Air Force Museum, where you can see the Blenheim and more interesting stuff. Take a journey! https://ilmavoimamuseo.fi/virtualmuseum/ As can be seen, the uniforms were pretty standard already in early 1940. Flying gear on the other hand was anything but. Hope this helps. Cheers, Antti

I wish my friend, I wish. I have had a chance to sit in a Phantom on two different occasions (both were USAF F-4Es). Some 30 years later I am still very impressed. EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) decided to completely re-write the theoretical knowledge instruction syllabus for General Navigation. The new syllabus is filled with Mental DR techniques best suited for jet fighters (TAS 480 kt. at 500 ft) and various rules of thumb. I then suggested to my boss (as leading air navigation instructor and CTKI) that we should sell all of our Diamond DA-42s and Embraer Phenoms and fill the apron with F-4 Phantoms. As non-air crew he didn't get my point and looked like a fish on dry ground! A Phantom in Finnish paint scheme... Now why didn't I think that myself Cheers, Antti

Hello Nigel & Co., The width of the intake in a 1/72 scale Spey Phantom should be 6,18 mm (measured between the intake lip and the surface of the "Vari-ramp" and perpendicular to the aircraft center line). Your measurement sounds good. The intakes were slightly wider in British Phantoms but the "real magic" was inside the intake duct. If a jet engine requires say 20% more air, then by increasing the area of the intake by 20% should compensate for that. But. This rule only applies to subsonic aircraft. The intake duct internal contours should do the job, if the calculations are made for supersonic speeds. In British Phantoms the intake duct is wider and slightly higher further back than in F-4Js. Cheers, Antti

Sorry to hear about your accident with the glue. It has happened to me as well; usually it occurs when you try to be extra careful. I wouldn't try and polish the clear part, as usually the glue affects right through the part. In my kit all the red caution markings were without a white backing, so the dark green shows right through. It is a good idea to paint those markings. Is your Shinden standing on all three wheels? I mean you mentioned there is no ballast in the nose... Cheers, Antti

What a lovely collection Tony! They look really great. My former boss started his "operational" career at Tengah with 45 Squadron flying Beaufighters. Ron would have loved these models. Sadly he passed away back in 2007... Cheers, Antti

Always delighted to see a Finnish subject here on BM. Especially a modern one. You have done a very nice job Many Moons ago my colleague was Midnight Hawk One. Back then they were flying the jet in a three tone camouflage. Here's a very nice video: Cheers, Antti

I would also love a good kit of PR.7. And hopefully with correctly shaped "Goldfish Bowl" and tail this time. Cheers, Antti

More beautiful work Einar! The smooth aluminium painted surface really caught my eye. Well done! Cheers, Antti

I like this! Beautiful work with the painting. Somehow I have a soft spot for Supermarine jets (and for the late Spitfires of course). Cheers, Antti

Zero is a perfect pair for a Shinden. In a Japanese TV interview Mr Tsuruno was explaining the Shinden's advantages over a Zero. One of his points was that a Zero has an empty rear fuselage requiring valuable materials and labour force to build it. In a Shinden all interior space is filled with something important. Especially the planned four 30 mm guns in the nose. And yet Shinden had slightly smaller fuselage. Cheers, Antti

You are welcome Einar MD-82s were called Peräpuikko (but let's not translate that due to lack of space) Cheers, Antti

This is really nice, well done! I like it a lot It is nice to see a completely different (civilian) paint scheme. Cheers, Antti

Looks lovely. Did you paint the Hinomarus? And be careful with that undercarriage; its very, very fragile. I've been planning a conversion using the Hasegawa kit to build a Yokosuka MXY-6 (The Shinden Proof of Concept aircraft). It was of same shape and size, but made of wood and painted with orange-yellow. It would look great side by side with a Shinden. I guess you guys have seen this: The pilot with a white scarf at 1:02 is the designer, Masaoki Tsuruno, who made the first, unsuccessful flight attempt (when the propeller hit the ground and take-off was aborted). Cheers, Antti