PaulR

Very smart! Which tamiya paints did you use? Paul

Lovely looking kit. Out of curiousity (and being very interested in the Battle of Britain ) were there any fabric winged hurricanes left in action by then, and if so any particular serial numbers or squadrons? Paul

Name your price!

Mumbles, Now you've done it. Had no idea about the ventura sheet, but can now consider an ex RAN A-4G/TA-4G in blue grey wraparound and SEA tanks, using the larger kiwi roundels... or even a European 1 kahu. Have already spent 12 quid on not very satisfactory decals... can i justify another £8 just to get exactly what I want...? Cue the sound of my wallet creaking open...

Just a couple would be just dandy! And at the risk of pushing my luck, you don't happen to have any aggressor decals from the agressor boxing?) Let me know your 'required remuneration' via PM, and if you are looking for anything yourself. With regard to the superscale decals, mine seem to be ok; i've seen them with no legs or beak, but mine have them, albeit in a very 'scale' appearance! certainly useable, in any case. Best regards, Paul

Hallo there, Having recently built the 1/72 Revell Typhoon in Austrian markings, I might be able to guide you in the right direction vis a vis the colours for an Austrian airframe. As per Bobski's post, the radome etc are RAF Barley grey, a.k.a. Camo grey. Tamiya XF-19 is a very good scale match for this. As regards the main grey colour, I used Xtracrylix FS36270. Austrian typhoons are not, despite Revell's instructions, the same colour as Luftwaffe typhoons (FS35237, a rather bluer grey). I also think that Spanish typhoons are FS36231, as they seem to be exactly the same shade as their harriers. Spanish typhoons are certainly the darkest grey of all the current users. Check this pic in this link. In any instance, the 36270 and the Barley grey seemed to give the contrast and tone evident from pictures. See the Typhoon thread pinned at the Modern Aircraft discussion forum on this site, and this link to my build, if that's of any interest. Look forward to seeing this in 1/48th! Like your idea of sanding the back of the grilles - might have to try that with my 1 sqn T3 project! Best regards, Paul

Been a bit slack with this group build, so here are the obligatory sprue shots. I have decided to do the TA-4K, as this boxing doesn't have the avionics hump that I thought it had! No problem - each was good. I have also managed to get a set of superscale decals for a SEA Kiwi A-4, so it will be done as a 75 sqn TA-4K around 1984, with the black radome. Still on the look out for Zuni rocket pods, which I understand were a standard load-out - anyone know of a source? More later!

Yup, got a 1/48 hasegawa F-86F-40 with Vingtor RNoAF decals that's been waiting ages to join my Norwegian AF collection... count me in!

Cheers for the kind comments, chaps!

Evening all, To mark Battle of Britain Day, I thought I'd post my most recent model. Build thread is here.

With a few hours to spare! To mark Battle of Britain Day, one ME109 finished and up on its stand! And as it was wheels up, I was obviously forced to take it for a fly around the room . . . now onto the Heinkel!

Progress . . . as the deadline approaches to tie this in with Battle of Britain day tomorrow, I've now got all the paint on, plus gloss coat and oil wash. I know some people don't like the panel lines on these Airfix kits, but they do take a wash extremely well. Am pleased with how this is turning out, and am looking forward to getting the decals on, which I think is the point is where the kit really starts coming together. The plan is to have the decals on tonight, and then do the final varnish tomorrow morning. My only concern is the canopy masking; I think that I've been a little over generous with the paint, and I might have to chisel them off! Paints are Xtracrylix RLM02, 71, and Tamiya for the blue (XF23) and yellow. Anyway, a couple of pics, posed on the Airfix stand it will be sitting on in my rather overcrowded cabinet. I think I'll have an Airfix Spitfire behind it, in Eric Lock's markings. . .but that will be several kits away!

Looks swell! Will hopefully be joining you with my own A-4 tonight; I have been faffing around with other things. By the by, how did you get the red outline on the gear doors so sharp?

Well, the original plan to have this ready for the 8th September (the day Gunther Bode got shot down) has itself been shot down by work commitments. I find that increasingly work seriously gets in the way the more important things in life. Still, need to keep the modelling tokens coming in . . . the aim is now for the 15th September (BoB day) for the '109; I think the Heinkel might be a little later! Anyway, the '109 now has the splinter camouflage on, and the rudder and prop squared away. Next; some extensive masking and the blue next. The fit of the canopy was a little iffy on the port side, but I think this was me not taking enough time, Anyway, a little sanding has broadly sorted that out. The Heinkel has proved to be rather fun. Props all done, and I've added miliput pads to the seat for the cushions. All the windows are in, and I have just got to add the guns before I join the fuselage. I have to say the fit of parts is really good, and I am thoroughly enjoying building an airplane I haven't tried before. Anyway, will aim to get a shift on for Sunday!

Fantastic result! I wish I had picked one of these up when they were released . . . am keeping an eye on Ebay!

Afternoon, Thought I'd better get going with this! I have had the Blue Angels boxing of this kit for what, 13 years plus. Got it for £1.99 in a Modelzone sale in Brighton! Anyway, it has all the parts for either a single or twin seater. Given that I am building a 1/48th Hasegawa A-4K Kahu in European One, and that I have not been able to lay my hands on a single 1/72 set of US Navy aggressor decals (my initial choice) I thought I'd complement it with its 1/72 sibling in SEA camo, Not a camo scheme I have done before, so am looking forward to doing something different, and finding out what interesting weapon loads they would have carried late 70s/early 80s. I have also sent away for a set of Oldmodels decals from NZ for the markings. Apparently these are Inkjet decals, which I haven't used before; apparently they have very sharp reproduction of details, but need to be coated before you dip them in water. .Anyone got any advice on this front? Anyway, am not near my stash at the moment (in theory, I should be working . . . ) so can't do box shot etc but in the meantime here is a picture link to the scheme I am planning. The only thing is to decide whether to go for the single seater or twin? TA-4K A-4K

A quick update! Managed to retrieve my paints from my father, and have sprayed the internals, wheel wells etc with the obligatory RLM02. An oil wash tomorrow and then button it all up! However, while I was at my parents, and viewing my shamefully extensive stash that I have secreted in my old toy loft, I spied what must be a 30 year old issue of Italeri's He111. Given the theme of the build, and the fact I also have decals for a 9/KG53 H2 variant on the same Xtradecal sheet, I thought I'd add it to this build thread! The kit is surprisingly good considering its age; the crew figures supplied are some of the best I have seen. While the panel lines are raised, they are very fine indeed, and the rivet detail is equally good and 'in scale'. I also like its relative simplicity, while still giving a busy and detaiied 'feel'. It seems to me that many kits recently seem to go overboard on fantastic internal details which inevitably increases the complexity and build time; sometimes it just fun to have something straight forward to do! The only thing the kit is missing is the shrouded exhausts characteristic of BoB He111s; looking at pictures however, I think some circular plastic rod bent in hot water and then drilled out ought to pass muster! Anyway, pics of the ME109, and Heinkel box art and work so far . . .

how many possible participants is that? I think this could be a really good gb - anyone else up for it?

I was just wondering if the breakdown of parts of Revell's new JU88 will allow them to release a Battle of Britain A1 in due course? Cheers for any thoughts! Paul

Small update tonight. I am still held up by not having my paints, but intend to get these from my dad on Saturday so that I can get the internals painted. After that, I think it will come together pretty quickly. In the meantime, I have contented myself with masking the canopy, and painting Gunther the pilot, as this will be an inflight model. I have since found out that Bode did survive his crash landing, and thus became a POW; I haven't yet found out anything else, aside from the fact that this particular airframe didn't have the pilot armour - one less part to paint! I based the painting of the pilot around pics in my Dennis Knight book, and a picture of Adolf Galland's black leather flying jacket with fleece collar - this seems to be what the figure is wearing. Am pretty pleased with it; it should look the part when he fully installed. Am thoroughly enjoying this project; Airfix seem to be aborbing an ever greater proportion of my regrettably limited disposable income - can't wait for the early Hurricane . . . and hopefully a late BoB boxing to follow!

Yes it does. You might also want to consider a Fairy Hobby replacement canopy set as the UB kit canopy isn't accurate. They are a chinesde company, but they sell on ebay. Got mine without a hitch! Hope this helps!

Evening all, This is really a question for the mods who run this rather spiffing site - is it possible to archive the group builds on here for future reference? I say this because I was looking back at some older group builds, often with really interesting themes, and many photos are missing, presumably deleted from contributor's photobucket accounts etc. That's a shame in itself, but then it struck me that gb's in particular are concentrsted little goldmines of information about certain time periods, markings, events etc and are therefore valuable in their own right. Is there any way of preserving them complete with pics, or is that just not technically possible? i'd be really interested to know. Paul

Yes- I remember that diorama, and others all tbe way back to the early seventies, where I just assumed they had taken photos of the real thing and passed it off as a model... I am sure I found a website that pdfs of their catalogues all the way back - i'll see if I can find it!

I have exactly the same kit in the stash, and hadn't realised 74 sqn flew T5s - I have only seen t4s until I googled xs416! Out of curiousity do you have links to pics of her with the black spine and fin? Also, was xs416 based out in singapore when in these marks? cheers for any info, and cracking model by the way - the join between kit and conversion is invisible, something I am trying to copy!

Am liking this! Something of a rare aircraft! Hopefully, will be following you in a second project for this GB!