Garry c

Watch out for Snoopy, he may need a replacement! Awesome job. Garry c

I have noticed a lot of the exhaust staining is asymmetric due to the airflow from the propeller, but I never expected to see the staining only under the right wing. amazing, Garry c

I did the Hasegawa version a few months ago,and I have to say the colours on your model look perfect. What paint did you use? Green with envy (with green envy?) Garry c

Thanks Nick. I try to reproduce what I see as it helps me understand what's going on in the picture. It helps me understand and appreciate the designers an the choices they made and what the flyers had to work with. There is one thing I have not seen in any pictures of the Kamikaze... drum roll please...Parachutes!! Garry c

A little progress this week: First painted cockpit with Vallejo 924 Field Blue The colour looks very different than the colour chips on the monitor, thanks for all your research,Nick. On the web ,there is a picture of the second cockpit looking forward, You can see that the radio sits forward of the rear two windows in the fuselage,my radio covered one third of the windows. If the radio is moved forward, the shelf above disappears. It appears that the opening for the second cockpit is too far back,it should come up to the frame located between the front and rear cockpit windows. About this much. Radio shelf mounted,the brace was shortened to bring the meter closer to the opening The radio in the drawing from Flight magazine looks taller than it is wide,the one in the picture is the opposite. I was not happy with the one I made , so I filliped it over, turned it sideways and made a new face. I think this one does not block the windows. But, it is still a little wide. That is as far as I got. Outta town next couple of weekends so I probably will not get much done. Thanks for looking, Garry c

Thanks for the interest and kind comments. Nick, you have not come late, for me this is early. I have purchased Valleo field blue but these pictures are from Sunday,the next post will be field blue. Next is the radio, four layers of 0.40 in(1.1 mm) styrene 5.0 mm by 4.5mm with strips and rounds to be made into knobs The bracket for the radio,the "ears" look like vibration mounts. Test fit Photo of navigator's cockpit looking foward Looking at pictures of Japanese aircraft radios on the web, this seems to be the Transmitter, The Receiver is to the rear. Transmitter trimmed and painted A little rough but I can barely see what I am doing! Compared to the drawings, the shelf is too low and the Transmitter is slightly over-scale but you get the idea. Starting to get a little crowded in there. I am very carefully building the interior for the Kamikaze which is almost certainly wrong for the Army version. Good Times. More later, Garry c

Thanks for the reply, I started this kit a few weeks ago so these next posts did not happen overnight. Next was the observers instrument panel on the left side The fuel tanks were made of 4 pieces of 1.0mm thick sheet styrene glued together an shaped with files and sanding sticks . They looked to narrow so they were split in the middle and two 1.0 mm. spacers were added Two strips were added to the pilots' floor to mount the tanks test fit On the right side, the shelf above the radio was added, a short piece of 1.1mm.rod was glued into hole drilled in the side to make the meter. Test fit with tanks Thanks for looking. Garry c

My first work in progress so you can see why I hardly ever finish a model. The model is the Mitsubishi Ki-15-1 army recon plane from 1937. The model 1 has a 9 cylinder engine with ring type engine cowling and no cowl flaps. It is an old kit but the detail is very nice . The interior is bare so I decided to add some detail: Framing is first Nick Millman's blog tells us that the army's Mitsubishi Ki-21 Sally bomber had a blue interior. The Mitsubishi navy planes used green but I figured that the Army would insist on their own colour. The floors were next The doubled frame lines up with the main wing spar. The observer's floor with compass and the fuel tanks between the pilot and observer. The blue is Valleo 70.925 intense blue. I have only found three interior pics and the drawings from the Flight magazine. These are all from the record breaking flight of the Kamikaze in 1937. The army aircraft probably did not have the fuel tanks in the center as there is very little space for extra radios, RDF equipment, cameras and the like. Observers floor with compass, seat not finished Fuel tanks rear all for now. Garry c

Amazing work, and the aluminum seat, Genius !! learning lots, Garry c

Just speculation; Assuming that the Extra Dark Sea Grey is very weathered,faded,chalked- the floats are darker because the are usually down and not in direct sun light. The three dark patches may be a repaint of bare metal areas,important on a sea plane. The four inspection covers? Repaint when off the plane? Anyway, that is my take. Garry c

Fantastic job! Someday I hope to reach your level. However Having just built a Fw190 (crude in comparison)and obsessing over the details. I am afraid I noticed that the spent cartridge chutes in the wheel well are missing.(no, 8) Petty of me I suppose. In awe of your work, Garry c

A mud masterpiece Awesome Garry c

Finished two planes in one year! How does he do it? Airfix Fw190 A-8 1/72 Eduard Superfabric seatbelt Mr.Color paints,mostly Pay per view Fun Build Garry c

That cammo is fantastic! Well done Garry c

Go to the Eduard website store and type 72177 in the top search box. it will take you to the product page where you can download the instructions as a .pdf file. Garry c

For Fathers day. My grandfather was a pilot in the Peruvian military. He was in the United States for training when my father was born.Officers were permitted to bring their wife's and so my father was born in New York. Years later,Peru bought Caproni Ca.310 bombers from Italy in 1938. My grandfather was flying the last one from Italy to Peru when engine trouble forced him down in the desert and he was killed . When my father graduated high school, he was up for a scholarship for military sons.The choice was between him and the son of a general, when the general pointed out that my father had dual citizenship. This is how my father discovered that he was an American citizen.Unable to afford college he decided to go to the U.S. where the only job he could get was selling ice cream on the beach. So he joined the Army as an aircraft mechanic and was sent to Germany just after the war. He told me this story about when he came back: "I was driving thru Texas when a Sheriff pulled me over for speeding." "Let me see your license boy." I handed him my German drivers license. "Where are you from?" he demanded. "Peru" "No ,where were born boy? Where were you born??" "New York" He handed me back my license and said; "Get the hell out of my county." Garry c

Well done! a model to be proud of. Nice Garry c

Good looking Avia, the finish is very clean and dust free. Your minnows are very disiplined to keep formation so well! 'There really is nothing a German Officer cannot do.' prost! Garry c

glatisant; The plastic is soft but brittle,I do not an ICM kit to compare it to. The kit is a double box with the I-16 and I-153, the I-16 plastic is much harder. Thanks to everyone for the kind comments My thinking was that this plane was originally green and the black was added in the field. In the two pictures, the black seems to be very thin in places and I tried to replicate this. The shiny spot under the left upper wing follows the panel lines, an unpainted replacement part perhaps? A fun build. Garry c

Stew, I am pretty sure it is the ICM kit. The detail and the fit is excellent but the smaller pieces are very brittle. Before i was done, I broke the cockpit framing, one landing gear brace, the left spar,both tail braces, and every rocket rail. Good Times Garry c

From the web site http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/i15/i-153/tapani/71iap-kbf/71iap-kbf.htm Plane n.102 was flown by Major P.I. Biskup. This is what I see. There's a Charley on your six! Quickboost exhaust, Eduard superfabric seatbelt, a few scratch built details, and a guest appearance by Charlie, our rescue cat. Garry c ,

The vector engine has the wrong rear case,it is too short. The correct one is the Aires R.1830 (late). Air comes in from the top of the cowling to the inlet on the center of the rear case. It then goes through rear impeller and out both sides at the rear. The compressed air goes through the intercoolers continuing below to the inlet of the updraft carburetor. http://yolo.net/~jeaton/swannys/1830side.jpg This is the dummy pipe. http://brittsbytes.com/wildcat/wildcat155.jpg These pics are from a amazing build here: http://www.swannysmodels.com/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1236023422/all As you can see,he has the wrong engine so the intercooler pipes have no where to come from.. I get so side-tracked in research that I rarely finish a model. Garry c

A very nice picture of a father and son. Beautiful work. Garry c

The fuel tank is located there . It fills the space from the wheel well bulkhead to the bulkhead behind the pilots seat. The tank has cutouts for the windows below the pilot. There are very nice pics of a restoration here http://beech18specialists.com/F4F-3_Grumman_Wildcat_Restoration.html I have not been able to find any good pic of the intercooler plumbing. The models that I have seen, have the the intercooler pipes in a ring shape . This seems to have been copied from a restored warbird with dummy piping. While the Pratt & Whitney R-1830R is available, the version with the two stage supercharger is not. Enjoy Garry c

To much glue on the upper cowling and the weathering is over done. Garry c