whiskey

Hell that's better than I do right now. Congratulations to him on a great looking kit!

What a beauty. Fantastic job and great tidbit about the differences in the headlights.

I remember that kit. I had one when I was kid, grade 2 or 3. My dad and I built it and the Monogram F-18 one night for a school project I was doing. The next day I did my best impression of trying to teach my class about dogfighting 😂😂😂

I am not sure I follow. My comment was in direct response to Mike's regarding concepts in various stages of construction during the time that the factories were captured by the Allies.

According to that video that was linked earlier the Focke Wulf factory was captured by the British in April of 1945 and the Ta-183 prototype was set for it's maiden flight the following month in May. So I would suppose there was something at some level of construction when the Brits got there.

That is excellent! I've thought about picking up one or two of these Testors kits over the last several weeks as I've seen them pop up on eBay at very cheap prices. This has only made the temptation even stronger now that I've actually seen one built and a description! Thank you.

What does hybrid imply?

I've always liked the Ta-183 design. It's much appealing to me versus the MiG-15. Has sort of the "snub-nosed fighter" look to it that's I've always found interesting. I haven't a kit in my stash but ever since AMTech originally produced theirs I've always wanted a couple. Painting it in overall black would look very menacing I believe. If you really wanted to do something cool then just paint it up in one of the Luftwaffe's night fighter schemes. Adding the swastikas to it is entirely up to you. I don't think it will really add anything to the model nor do I think it will take away either. Most people will look at it and just think, "meh", next please. I watched the video regarding Kurt Tank and what I found very intriguing is the continued trouble they had with all the design corrections. The MiG-15 was subsequently based off of this aircraft and they managed to get it into combat with large numbers being produced in less time that it took for Tank's team to get the fourth prototype flying. What did the Soviets do right versus the Argentinians whilst working with the same base design?

Apparently the "H" is a limited edition white boxing. New parts specific to P38H variant: Larger supercharger intakes, rear canopy without reinforcing frames, instrumentation, nose landing gear strut and bay covers, main landing gear reinforcements, upgraded 20mm cannon and 12.7mm machine guns that were often modified on the ground, plus turbocharger coolant pipe. · Choose whether to attach optional main landing gear air duct. · Weights are included in the kit to ensure correct balance of the model when displayed. · A detailed cockpit features the wheel-type controls, radio, throttle box and more. · 1 marking option is included, depicting an aircraft with lively nose art and belonging to the 432nd Fighter Squadron, part of the 475th Fighter Group that was devastatingly effective from 1943-44 over the Pacific. · Plain white box with a color label on the lid. One Shot Production Run! · Comes with canopy masking stickers and a full-color painting guide. I'm going to go ahead and make the assumption that if Tamiya is *not* releasing this as a mass production kit, then we probably won't see a J or an L.

Awww no fair! That's the P-38 I have planned to build and you've done a magnificent job! Way to go Bill!

This is cool. I can't remember but we're the MPC kits actually 1/48 or were they off a bit?

Time to dump my Testors kit.....

Not sure if it's just me but I can't see any pictures ☹️

I've started to grow an affinity for RAF Sabres and this hasn't helped any! Great job.

@Patton610 (hey I'm a Patton!🙃) I'd say go with your gut on what looks best judging off of known photographs and what other modelers have done with their kits. Here's an example: https://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal6/5401-5500/gal5499-Mustang-Garcia/00.shtm

Yes! I love seeing these and have always wanted to put together something in 1/48 for them. I think I've had that Caracal sheet since it first came out. Great photos Sven, especially the little details. I don't think I've ever come across specifics of those airframes like that before.

Not a fan of anything Luftwaffe but I do like that green camo scheme. Well built sir.

I'm almost 100% sure HaHen made one in 1/48.

Excellent idea about doing a mock up Pete. That's great advice. Carl I knew about Model Collect as I've been an aircraft need patiently waiting to see how their A-12 model turns out. What I didn't know however was the rest of their Fist of War stuff. Appreciate it. I had an night of a few too many pints last night and ended up buying some figures off of evilbay. They're coming from China and I probably have a high chance of never seeing them and going through the process of getting my money back but only for a few bucks it may be worth to wait and see. Here's some examples of what I'll be trying to use in this setting. To make this even more epic on the opposite side of said diorama I will try and create an APC that arrived on scene to either evac the squad engaged with the Walker or to render fire support. Not sure of that either but I've got a long way to go.

Wow thanks Pete. The build showing how you built the legs is especially interesting. I've seen the Maschinen Krueger stuff before and don't really feel it's my cup of tea or so to speak. Too steampunk in my opinion and not really the more contemporary style I am going for. I've got plenty of ideas I'm just not sure which direction I should go in. 2 or 4 legs. It'll be man-made so I want to steer clear of anything that looks to have had extraterrestrial influence. Just off of a few hours of brainstorming I came up with a setting in and around the year 2048, a certain prolific Asian nation has made massive leaps and bounds in military technology. They set out what they've been touting to do after decades of touting global expansion, specifically within the Pacific region. There has been several years of peer level warfare however towards the date I'm going for they introduced (insert combat walker tank looking thing) for more urban and jungle type environment's and Allied forces fighting against the aggressor are still having a difficult time trying to find better ways of combating them. Anyhoo that's the what I've got on paper. I don't want it to look sleek like something outta of a movie (RoboCop ED-209) and I don't want it to look like some garage door was slapped together with sprockets (steampunk). I've come across many amazing concept renderings from artists all over the interwebs and there are quite a few that fancy my eyes. Not really sure if I can or should post some here to get a better understanding of the look I'm going for. Again though I can't seem to settle on the number of legs. Hope this gives a better picture of the madness in my head.

So for some unknown reason I have had a bug that bit me in regards to sci fi tank walker mech thingies. I guess that would be a simple way of describing it. Anyhow I'm really thinking about scratch building a "walker" and I'm at a bit of a impass on whether it should have 4 legs or 2. Mind you I have zero skills when it comes to making anything out of nothing. With 2 legs I'm probably going to use Bandai's 1/48 AT-ST as a base with the legs and changing some stuff up here and there. It won't be manned so I won't bother with the crew compartment and will have to come up with something else. If I go with 4 legs I am looking to use pieces of machinery sourced from WH40k kits. Again it still wouldn't be manned. Whatever option I end up using my ultimate goal is to utilize it in a diorama. Think 'Transformers 3' but not with Transformers. 1/35 scale military figurines engaged with a foreign robot/mech/drone type of design in a urban setting. Trying to shoot for the machine being roughly 30-40 feet tall scale wise versus the figures. I made a sketch earlier today but I dunno if I should post it as it probably looks like something a 3rd grader made. Thought I'd throw this up here and see if I can get any help brain storming this out.

Great looking Thud. Love it.

I don't believe that statement is entirely accurate. A good read to elaborate more of what else you discussed is here: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/25890/origins-of-stealth-black-hawks-date-back-over-33-years-before-the-bin-laden-raid

I don't know if it's one of the Mi-8s pictured but I seem to recall that the very first air assets that became available in Afghanistan was a Hip utilized by the CIA when we first put boots on the ground. This was before the Green Beret ODA teams were inserted to help the Northern Alliance.

Wow that GT looks good in purple!