Antti_K

Very nice Blue Thunder indeed! I saw the movie as a kid and was of course thrilled. This actually looks like a Gazelle helicopter with new cockpit glazing and some extra stuff (can you say that a Minigun is "Extra Stuff" ) Best Regards, Antti

Thank You Mark4700 BR, Antti

Hello At Sea! Can't wait to see this finished; looking good so far! Beautiful work with the seats. It also seems that I might want to build another one... BR, Antti

Thank You Fritag And it has been also Great Fun so far! BR, Antti

Thank You Richard and Blogs On Let's hope that things will run smoothly with air brushing. At least the first experiences were positive and I'm eager to continue. I must confess that I already painted the Wing tanks and 60 Squadron stripes with a brush BR, Antti

Thank You Chris Feel free to use the information and pictures when building Your Javelin. Hunter then. It's not my build I'm afraid. I recently added my very first model on this site (Royal Navy Phantom XT861; see ready for inspection). BR, Antti

Hello All Into to the Paint Shop! At last. Let's start with some photos. At first we take a look at FAW.9 XH725 "P" of 60 Squadron. I took a photo from Michael Napier's book's jacket. XH725 served with 60 Squadron as "P" between June 1965 and May 1968. Some notes about "Papa": - Large wing roundels (Use kit roundels here) - Soft colour demarcation lines - Dark Green radome - Yellow "Walkway" markings and stencils Airfix provides decals for FAW.9R XH893 "V" of 64 Squadron. Here is "Victor" seen over Singapore on 13 April 1967. XH893 served with No. 60 Squadron between June 1967 and May 1968 as "V". Later it was donated to Singaporean Armed Forces and it became an instructional airframe. Pay special attention to "Victor's" under wing serial; it's font is "round". Finally let's have a look at the kit's decals Some notes about the decals: - Only black walkway markings and stencils are provided - "Bosom Tank" trestle and sling bands are tan with red lettering - XH893 serial is of "square" type This means that if you want to model a "late" Javelin (60 or 64 Squadron) you have to find out which aircraft had yellow and which had black stencils. There are no yellow stencils and Walkway lines available. If you are interested I can make a list of 60 Squadron Javelins and their markings. If modelling XH893 in 60 Squadron markings (or late 64 Squadron) you need "round" serials and yellow stencils. A bad choice I would say. There are some more notes about the decals but I will discuss them later. Here are some of the photos I used for this build. I bought a couple of photos, found a couple in the Internet and an old volume of "Scale Models" magazine also came to rescue. I rather pay for extra photos or books than resin bits... Using mainly this photo I drew the camouflage patterns to the right size. I want my model to be as accurate as possible. Here are the masks. This will be my very first paint job with an air brush! I'm going to use Humbrol enamels. I will start by painting white discs for the roundels and an area for the fin flash to make sure that I have bright colours when I attach the decals. Maybe I exaggerated with masking but here we are: In fact I found it hard to paint white on a light grey plastic with an air brush. It wasn't so easy to see when the layer was just as it should. On the lighter side I'm not shaking any longer Javelins were painted with Dark Green, Dark Sea Grey and High Speed Silver. The basic camouflage pattern remained the same all of it's service career. The aircraft left factory in high gloss scheme but faded to a completely matt finish with time. In Singapore this seemed to take roughly a year. I was thinking whether "RAF Dark Green" or "NATO Dark Green" was used. Only mentions I could find simply stated "Dark Green / Dark Sea Grey". I decided to proceed with "RAF Colours". I have old tins of Xtracolor DG and DSG. As the paint is more than 20 years old I decided not to use them. But I made colour chips to find out where I was standing. I compared the Dark Green with my colour chart and it was a perfect match. Xtracolor's Dark Sea Grey was darker than the sample in the colour chart. I found out that Humbrol 163 (Dark Green) is actually RFC Green; very close to the discontinued Humbrol 108. It was easy to match Humbrol 27 with Xtracolor sample by adding few drops of red and white to Hu 27. I was also pleased when I noted that Hu 75 needed only couple of drops of Hu 104 (Royal Blue) to be exact match with colour chart and Xtracolor sample. Many photos of 60 Squadron Javelins makes one think that the DSG areas had faded to a very light blue grey (Medium Sea Grey). Actually DSG didn't fade that much. In very strong light conditions film captures blues and blue greys in much lighter tone than they are in reality. Check as many photos as possible to see also pictures taken in cloudy conditions. Straight from the paint shop the tail plane looks like this. My painting masks along with Blu Tack "worms" worked just fine. Happy, happy, happy, happy ... More painting stories or coming soon. See You all again soon BR, Antti

Thank You Phil BR, Antti

And again I learned something new. Thank You Jessica BR, Antti

...Lift off any time you like mate... BR, Antti

Thank You James I'm not familiar with Boeings. Do you mean all Boeings or some specific types? BR, Antti

I bought the Trumpeter "tanker" version as it was available (it is very easy to convert to standard IL-76) The decals are quite good but the cheat line blue is far too dark. Unfortunately also in some aftermarket decals I purchased. The kit's engines are pretty basic and require some detailing. Have you guys (Jessica included ) read Matt Potter's book "Outlaws inc. Flying with the World's Most Dangerous Smugglers" (Published in 2011)? Potter accompanied an IL-76 crew and tells their story. It will make your hair raise... An other memory came to my mind. Volga Dnepr Airlines was tasked to carry a power plant turbine shaft from Turku, Finland to Indonesia. Some 14 hours again. This time the plane was loaded to it's limits. Turku has 2600 meters of runway available; the minimum in IL-76's Air Crew Manual is 3000 meters for all "normal" operations (they don't use things like V1 and V2). A beautiful summer evening turned into night and the crew just sat and wait. Twice an hour the Flight Navigator asked me for the temperature and humidity. He then concentrated on his abacus(!) and the rest of the crew (some 10 men) stood quietly. After a while the Navigator shook his head: "Njet". The captain was walking back and forth with his hands behind his back. No-one dared to say a word. It was something like four o'clock in the morning when temperature and humidity were checked again. This time the navigator smiled: "We go". Less than 15 minutes later the big Ilyushin lined up runway 08 and began it's take off roll. My colleague climbed with a camera to the approach light mast at the 26 line. He got great photos with his telephoto lens but he seemed smashed for a week or so... I was watching the take-off from the tower. The plane had 340 meters of runway left and it's nose wheel still firmly on the ground! Listen to that Australian controller BR, Antti

Thank You At Sea and Val I'm very glad that you both like my Phantom. BR, Antti

Hello Martin, In most heavy, multi-engine aircraft flaps are always set to Take-Off position before departure. Slats has to be opened separately (they have their own separate lever) but they will always be opened for take-off as well. Take-Off position for flaps increases wing camber and therefore lift. Naturally this will also increase drag. The point is not to use the so called "Drag Flap" (landing position). During Climb Out you will reach an air speed called VPCLEAN. It is the Indicated Air Speed that is safe for flap and slat retraction (the aircraft won't sink). So if you are building an IL-76 just about starting it's take-off roll, open both slats and flaps. You can find some good footage on Youtube to see the correct angles. I remember one (actually some) incident with IL-76. It was a cold winter day (close to -30 Centigrades) and an Ilyushin was preparing for take-off. Somehow the pilot miscalculated his taxiing track and the starboard wing tip hit the cargo terminal wall. The crew didn't note this but continued their turn. The wing ripped open some 20 meters of the hangar wall before they stopped. The Flight Engineer then climbed on the wing and started to bang the slat rail with a sledge hammer. He was hanging on a slippery wing without any safety gear. Some four or five meters above apron level. After some banging his happy: "Harashoo". Without further checks they then simply lined up and took off. For a 14 hour flight to Indonesia. BR, Antti

Hello Slater! It was indeed designed as a pure fighter like so many jets on those days. The biggest fear was high flying Russian bombers. Demand for the day was great Rate of Climb and speed to reach your target quickly. Later came the J35E tactical reconnaissance variant. Of course you could engage the adversary in dog fight as far as you kept certain restrictions in mind. For example flying at 10.000 meters you could pull 1,8 Gs before the buffeting started. At this point your AoA (Angle of Attack) was around 15 units and Mi (indicated Mach number) between 0,7 and 0,9. You could then tighten the turn and increase G load but that had to be done gently. If done properly there was no negative effect on maneuvering. Any pull that took your AoA to 18-20 unit area was a one way ticket to the trouble (the aircraft's slide slip increased and the aircraft tended to rise it's nose quickly; result: super stall). Draken was also a true aircraft for QRA duty. In many cases while the pilot was strapping in and running through his pre-flight checks the armourer loaded the 30 mm gun. You could then taxi 80 km/h on snow covered taxiways without a problem. You were airborne in minutes. When the Hornets arrived their pilots were still running their pre-flight checks when Draken landed back to base. Draken was also easy to operate from high way strips. Because the air intakes were high it wasn,t prone to FOD and it was easy to steer because on the ground a steering wheel was used instead of rudder pedals. BR, Antti

Hello All! I have the wings ready. They needed more work than the rest of the kit. Let's start with the leading edges by having a look at some photos. Three interesting details to start with. Note that inboard gun has been removed and a red "shuttle" inserted to the flame tube (the actual gun muzzle protrudes from the leading edge only by some millimeters). It was a complicated task for Gloster Aircraft to find a correct length for the guns. Too short barrel was prone to the effects of compression causing the barrels and ammunition boxes to heat up ( up to more than 100 degrees Celsius). Too long barrel and the problem was there again. Some grenades even exploded in the wing of XH759 over Borneo. Was it because of the heat I don't know. Don't be confused as some books state that the outboard guns were removed whenever missiles were carried. According to photographs (and Javelin Pilot's Notes) it was inboard guns that were removed. Check your references for your chosen aircraft. I have two Javelins: XH961 "H" and XH766 "E". They both carried normally one or two missiles and two tanks. "Hotel" had these shuttles and "Echo" didn't. Here is a caption showing the shuttles more clearly. Note also the tank pylon details. You can find this photo (full size) in the "Walk around" section. All I have to do is to widen the Flame Tube openings and "sharpen" that drooped part of the leading edge as it is too rounded. In reality the air brakes weren't very flush with the wing surface. I got better looking result by using the "open" air brake parts although some extra work was needed. The air brakes were hydraulically operated and normally closed before engine shut down. There are of course some exceptions to this rule so you can build your model with either open or closed air brakes and no one can say that your model is wrong. How clever is that The flaps were also hydraulically operated and they started to open when engines were shut down (the hydraulic pressure was lost). However the air brakes remained closed. A point to remember during final construction. The kit's Stall Warning Vanes are pretty crude and better looking ones are easy to build. I removed the original vanes and checked their position once again. Everything looked just perfect so I made a slot with 0,3 mm drill bit for the new vane and holes for the guard rails. Compare to other aircraft; they normally carry these vanes at the leading edge or in the nose (AoA vanes). This tells you how critical Javelin was for the Angle of Attack; the warning had to be given at very early stages to prevent stall. An "interesting" feature of the Javelin was that She refused to spin when undercarriage was down. However you couldn't recover from a stall without spinning. So gear up, enter the spin and start spin recovery procedures! The only way out... The wing under surfaces took me to unknown territory. The panel lines didn't match with close up photos of a FAW.8 or FAW.9R. The details in the photos were identical but they didn't were the details I was looking on the plastic. Luckily it required only a little filling, sanding and re-scribing. Basic stuff. I decided to open the gun bay scavenge tubes with a Pin Wise. This didn't work as the result looked just like two holes on a styrene sheet. I made some hollow tubes from surplus rockets and then opened the holes on the wing further to slid the new tubes in place. Much more better result. At this point I also filled the ground connection socket from the starboard wing (a D -shaped panel just behind undercarriage bay) as it was located on the port wing. The same story goes for the port wing. Panels didn't match with photos. I have seen sooo many rubbish "3- view" drawings that I don't usually even think about them nowadays. The Internet provides excellent close up photos on almost every subject imaginable. Sad thing is that these bad drawings are used also by kit manufacturers (take a look at the fin tip of an Airfix Valiant for example). I also made the missing handles to the refueling receptacles. On the lighter side the upper wing details match beautifully with photographs. I found only one panel missing from the kit. There should be a square hatch on the starboard wing tip just behind the ILS antenna. I was thinking that I would replace the vortex generators with PE parts (Alley Cat). After staring at those tiny pieces for a while (it seemed that there were about a million of them) I was more than happy with the kit's crude vortex generators. The "Carpet Monster" is already fat enough ! OK, at least something has to be done. The first row should be lower than the further two behind it. So I sanded them down a little. Now I have all the main "sub assemblies" ready. A dry run showed that the wings won't line up properly with the fuselage and a lot of filling and sanding is required. To prevent this I checked the areas with alignment problems and glued plasticard pieces (1 mm thick) in the appropriate places in the wing (you can see the white strips in the photograph). A new dry run and it was obvious that only some sanding is needed. I also started to paint; Humbrol matt black enamel was brushed to the fin for the 60 Squadron stripes. Keep on modelling and see You again soon BR, Antti

Thank You Martin And there is more to come... BR, Antti

Thank You Gentlemen I'm getting the impression that a "Cab" is better than a "Kite" To be honest this scheme looks great to my eyes also. BR, Antti

That's nice to hear perdu Indeed, people seem to love Her... and that of course makes me happy! BR, Antti

Hello Slater, Draken was an "Energy Game" fighter. This means that you couldn't allow the air speed to drop (it was a super stall aircraft). In practice this meant that all maneuvering had to be vertical. Air-to-air combat in level flight had to be planned carefully and turning radius could have been hundreds of kilometers depending on the air speed and altitude. We have photos of SR-71 here in Finland that were taken by the QRA Draken (or "Rysky" as it was affectionately known) pilot. Best Regards, Antti

Thank You F-32 Most kind of You. BR, Antti

Thank You David Oh yes! I have watched "Mission 66" at least a milli many times For sure you won't win awards with that acting. Another film called "Borneo Escort" (Hellohellohello) gives also some 60 Squadron Javelin footage and is far less cheesy. I must check Barracuda Models forum; it's totally new for me. BR, Antti

Hello Levin, I use BR very often; it means "Best Regards". I don't know if it is correct as English isn't my first language either. BR Antti

Good Evening Levin, Very interesting subject and a good start. I will be following this with great interest. Have you seen this?: https://namu.wiki/w/B-17 You have to scroll down the page but there is a very good photo of the Bombardier's position. To my eye it looks like the "stool" is the bomb sight mount. BR, Antti

Some more work has now been done so it's time for an update. The fuselage is now complete. I build the tail ready although I won't attach it just yet. It will be easier to mask and paint the 60 Squadron "Tiger Stripes" when you need to handle only the fin. The surface detailing on the fin is spot on for Mk. 9. If you want to build an earlier mark (say FAW.4) you have to prepare yourself to make alterations as the service hatches are in different places and also different in shape. Airfix meant the rudder to be movable (who remembers those kits from the 70s with moving control surfaces). The tail plane can be built movable with very little effort but still the elevators won't follow. I decided to go with fixed control surfaces. It was a little tricky in both Javelin kits to get the rudder align properly. Here is "Echo" photographed on 13 April 1967 above Singapore. Note the small re-painted area at the fin root. Similar paint work is visible also on some other 60 and 64 Squadron Javelins. I guess this is because the fin attachment points were modified after XH747 broke midair on 10 February 1964. Before I start work with the wings I will finish the ailerons. They are very thick when the halves are glued together. Don't panic! Everything is just fine. Have a look at these photos: Three points of interest: - The aileron trailing edge is thick - There are "faceted surfaces" at the aileron tip - Visible rivet lines on the aileron Thick aileron trailing edges are actually a common feature on many Cold War era jet fighters. They were used to increase Roll-Rate. Using the latter photo you can also easily verify that Airfix got the wing upper surface and Vortex generators just as they should be. Good job Airfix! Note also small details at the flap's edge. This is how it looks on plastic after some cutting and sanding: If you are building a parked Javelin then both ailerons should point up! Actually they are above wing trailing edge level also in flight but not so much. The pilot applies a Control Lock before shutting down the engines. This turns the ailerons up. Have a look at this photo: BR, Antti