Antti_K

Wow! You have done a superb job, especially with the painting. I like this a lot. Cheers, Antti

Most impressive work with your Phantom Sir! I'm aiready waiting for more And then I must get at least one of these. Cheers, Antti

What a lovely Learjet! I like this a lot. The colours look very good. There was quite a debate among "high echelons" at the Air Force HQ here in Finland back in 1980 when the paint scheme was approved. Original drawing had wavy colour demarcation line between the upper and lower sides (similar than seen in Finnish Hawks). At that time the chief test pilot Lt Col Jyrki Laukkanen who resisted the idea, was at the factory in the USA. When the factory representative asked what they should do with the paint scheme, Laukkanen said that the colour demarcation line should be straight. So they were painted like that. Years later the wavy line came into life when Learjets received new paint. Finally our three Learjets were painted with overall dark grey; as Lt Col Laukkanen had originally suggested! Cheers, Antti

Lovely work Harry! Both Commanders look superb, but for a reason or another I like the "Turbo Commander" more. Are you going to show us more GA types Cheers, Antti

Excellent pictures Jun! I guess they will answer all Neil's questions. Thank you for sharing. Cheers, Antti

Neil, I might have a photo taken from the rear seat looking forward. The plane was Svensk Flygtjänst's T.7 converted for the target towing role. If you are interested PM me. Cheers, Antti

stevehnz, Now that you mentioned it, I think it was Pierre Clostermann who told about this in his book. It was his first flight in a Typhoon. I remember trying that myself on my very first flight in a Piper Arrow (after reading the book) and it was shaking rather alarmingly. Brake first then choose the gear up has been my SOP ever since. Cheers, Antti

Hmmm, I would first apply the toe brakes to make the wheels stop and then move the lever into "Up" position. Actually I do that every time (of course I'm not flying a P-51) I'm not an engineer either but everybody knows what happens if you are trying to turn a spinning wheel by 90 degrees (as Bertie PSmith says). Cheers, Antti

Hello guys, unfortunately I can't help with the kit. Here you can find a very nice collection of Pe-2 and Pe-3 photos in Finnish service: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wLj4cyzNZagIqlZ8CNBEcNu23-dl7_NN It is the Air Force Museum's digital archive. Plenty of photos of other airplane types as well and also scans of aircraft manuals (like Ju-88 and Brewster Buffalo). Cheers, Antti

What a beautiful "Karamelli" Einar! This is the best example I've ever seen. Very well done. Do you know who was the captain on that Helsinki - Madrid flight? Cheers, Antti

On the head of the nail! Our students seem to have a competition, who "survives" the longest time without washing their flying suits. A couple of times one of us instructors has aborted the mission before engine start up because of the smell... Cheers, Antti

Very nice work Harry! This really comes to life with some paint on. Cheers, Antti

Excellent photo, thank you for sharing it Mike! I think that the guy on the left is wearing overalls that has been exposed to the Sun's UV rays. Flying suits are (and were) made out of NOMEX, which is a cotton fabric treated with fire retardant chemicals (causing the colour turning into mustard brown). Then the fabric is dyed with "olive green". The chemicals used are very sensitive to UV -light and certain parts of washing powder. When your green flying suit is turning into "drab" or "brownish" in colour, it is time to replace them. The fire protection isn't working properly any longer. Be careful with that, if you wish to purchase surplus flying suits to be used in real aviation. Cheers, Antti

This is brilliant! Very nice work with the conversion. I'm looking forward to see more. "Turbo Commander" was my first HPA (High Performance Aircraft) type back in the 90s. She was fast (cruising some 320 kt.) and could fly well above Flight Level 300. The fuel system was a nightmare as was the crew oxygen system. Also the engines required extra care from the air crew as they had to be manually cooled after shut down (Garret turbo-prop differs from Pratt&Whitney engines by having a long engine shaft running all the way from propeller to the turbine). Disregard the cooling by turning the engine by hand and you'll ruin the engine. Cheers, Antti

Hello Raphael, the plane in the photo is based on the bomber version, so it is not an Il-28R. The main landing gear bay doors are too short for the "recce" version. Also the engine gondola in front of MLG bay is too rounded. Il-28R has roughly equal length of wing tip tank visible in front of the wing leading edge and behind the trailing edge. I would build the kit without other modifications but those needed for the tip tanks. You can find more detailed information about the modifications required for Il-28R in my (still to be completed) WIP in here: Cheers, Antti

Hello guys, I studied an Airacobra in its original paint here in Finland. The observed grey paint is actually blue-grey. I can't tell whether it is Neutral Grey or Sea Grey. A mix of Humbrol 27 and 34 gave an exact match for the Observed Colour. And it is quite dark. Cheers, Antti

Hello CJP, what a lovely "Victor" Nice work with all the small details and paintwork. Those little extras (battery cart and wheel chocks) make it look special. I'm glad you decided to leave out that horrible re-fueling probe. This is a true "Borneo Escort", as 64 Squadron FAW.9Rs were normally based at Kuching or Labuan because of their greater range. Well done! Cheers, Antti

Hello Michael, Airfix kit gives you the best Javelin. If you can find an old Heller T.3 that would be probably the most accurate Javelin in this scale. There is one big flaw with the Airfix FAW.9; the rear fuselage. It is far too narrow in plan view and therefore also the re-heaters are too small in diameter. Joining the the tail of the old Frog Javelin into the rest of the Airfix kit gives you the best FAW.9 (or some other version if you so choose). Cheers, Antti

Hello Dean700, I built one and finally it ended in the bin. Here are my findings (those I can still remember): - the front fuselage is out of shape; it should curve smoothly all the way from the visor to a point above the front door. If you sand it down, you will go through plastic. I attached pieces of Plasticard some Milliput and started again - the nose is poor and requires a lot of work to look good - cockpit windows aren't very accurate in shape - cabin windows are bad. I filled them and then painted the windows (huge job) - engine gondolas are too small (you will notice it at once) - fin is out of shape (this is the easiest fix) - landing gear is for the prototype (sits nose high) And there might have been other issues as well. If you want a nice model of Concorde, then go for the Heller 1/125 scale kit. It is still probably the best one. Cheers, Antti

Hello Massimo, I have the original Russian drawing from the weapons manual already scaled down. Next I need to scale up my shelf... The Trumpeter kit is the bomber version (released also by Italeri with Finnish decals). To my eye it looks like the parts are the same. The major problem is the wing; it is twice as thick as it should be and it also shows an inverted gull-wing effect. The wing should be straight with zero dihedral. Also the landing gear is too tall. Cheers, Antti

You are welcome Massimo, funny isn't it? this airplane (registration NH-4) is a reconnaissance version having also an extra camera bay built in the rear fuselage. There are doors in that compartment for one vertical and one oblique camera pointing out to Port side. Note that both yellow and orange paint again are visible. Larger "AFA" -cameras could be carried in the bomb bay for survey work (Il-28Rs weren't originally equipped for carrying bombs). There were large plates that were to be installed below and around the camera thus reducing drag when the bomb bay doors were opened. Rather cumbersome I would say. Another example, NH-1, was a bomber version and it was used exclusively for aerial survey work and it had modified bomb bay doors. An opening was cut in the middle of the doors and rails attached on both sides of the opening for a sliding door. A flat window was installed and that was protected by the sliding door which was opened just before a photo run. Much more simpler and less drag. This was a conversion designed and constructed here in Finland. The original Russian way was to fly with the bomb bay doors opened. The winch is for target towing. NH-4 carried a newer and better winch, as it was more powerful and you could reel the wire back in after the shooting. NH-1 was the only example equipped with the original winch that was pretty bad. And you couldn't reel the wire back in; it had to be jettisoned with the target still attached. A soft target wouldn't have been a problem but those hard "kite" targets must have been interesting to work with. The Russians provided us even with the huge (roughly the size of a Mirage III) wooden "darts". Here is another Il-28R (NH-3) taking off with the "dart". The wire run from the winch along a guide tube and into a special "tow tail". Here's a scratch built example in my 1/48 scale Il-28R. Cheers, Antti

Hello Massimo & Co., here is a photo of the Il-28R's bomb bay. Airplane nose points to the left. Note the following details: - "dirty" or "brownish" orange colour - original golden yellow visible on undersides of the equipment shelves and on door operating mechanism - dark olive green brackets for the cameras and the winch (only a camera or winch was carried at any one time) - the area behind the rear camera where orange paint has chipped away Cheers, Antti

Hello Daniele & Co., you are absolutely right; This Airacobra was put together using fuselage and wings of two different airplanes that landed on the Finnish side on 17.6.1944. Fin and rudder were purchased from Norway in the 80s, as Air Force Depot had put aside a fin and a rudder of a Yak-7! Original Airacobra tail section parts were scrapped. The Airacobra is still in its original paint (90+ % of the airplane). The inner leading edge of the Starboard wing, fin and rudder and fuselage underside below the cockpit were built out of scratch and were painted with modern aircraft paints. Some parts of the internal structure (inspection hatches inside the engine bay) were also replaced with new parts. The instrument panel is a replica as the original was used during the war. As I explained in my earlier post, the national insignia received some touch up during the restoration. All the surfaces were vacuumed, washed with water and cleaned during the restoration. The idea was to "freeze" the airplane's ageing; not to create a modern interpretation of an old Airacobra. Cheers, Antti

Hello Massimo, originally the bomb bay was painted with yellow (still visible on the walls and the roof). Orange colour was applied during the last factory overhaul at USSR. It seems like they wanted to mark all those parts and components with orange, they had re-placed or overhauled. Cheers, Antti

Thank you Massimo and Jason, Is Soviet Green something like Humbrol sells with the name Russian Green (number 114 IIRC)? I have a NCS colour value for the bright olive green used on MiG-3s. I think we were discussing about it earlier and it was probably Massimo who "labelled" my sample as AMT-4. Does A-24m look similar? I'm still wondering, why this rather large area was painted over. Originally there was a standard blue-white "Stars and Bars". It was then neatly masked with tape and the "Bars" were over sprayed with Olive Drab. The circle was painted with white and the original US star was re-painted with red using a plywood mask(?). At some point the Soviets added the white frame around the star and a thin red line surrounding it. Then they clearly painted the remainder of the white circle with green colour. War time photos show a very neat and tidy paint job. Judging from photos, that green colour chipped away and in the 60s the white circle was very much visible. The Russian white paint stands out as it was (and is) more like cream or light tan coloured. Same goes for the Russian red. Both Russian paints are porous and they look thick but translucent. During the restoration museum staff applied olive green artist's oil paint by brush to hide the white circle. Probably they were mimicking the harsh paint work found on wing under surfaces which are in original condition showing an olive green paint to hide those white circles. About the Il-28: Different components are completely painted with different yellows. For example in the cockpits a "golden yellow" has been used but inside engine gondolas a duller shade (different paint?) is used. There are no visible re-touches made with a different shade of yellow. The bomb bay doors are neatly painted with slightly brownish orange. No masking has been used as there are orange spray marks elsewhere in the bomb bay. Cheers, Antti