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Fensman

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Everything posted by Fensman

  1. I agree given the Sea fury even got kills on Mig15s in Korea putting the MB 5 into production is not a crazy idea. One thing I notice building the kit is the wing cross section is very deep. Having just built a brace of P-51s i think the wing cross section would have been a disadvantage. The mustangs performance a combination of a great engine ( the MB5 is in the same league here) and its wing. The laminar flow wing gave the mustang great speed but by having very little drag also great range. I doubt the MB5 with its thick wings would be comparable In fact sticking with thick cross section wings impeded the performance of many of the first generation and second generation jets. The Javelin and Scimitar had plenty of power but due to thick cross section wings were at best transonic when the F100 was fully supersonic. Only with the Lightning did we get power mated to a thin wing and subsequent mach 2 performance. I did some research on air to ground weapons on the MB5 its very broad undercarriage left little outboard room for under wing armament. I considered mounting six 60lb rockets 3 under each wing or a tempest style drop tank all of which looked plausible. The only picture I could find was a technical drawing which indicated a bomb being mounted centrally in front of the ventral radiator. I am not sure how that would have effected the radiators performance. Here the deep wing would have provided great strength and lifting power in design that was designed for easy maintenance and repair all good attributes for ground attack role
  2. Here are my pictures of my recently completed Martin Baker MB5 completed in the colours of Squadron Leader JB Prendergast of 414 Squadron Royal Canadian air force Germany May 1945. I've always loved the Martin Baker MB 5 and bluntly the advent of jet aircraft at the end of World War II prevented going into service I always wondered what it would look like in Squadron colours and in Osprey aircraft of the aces number 81 Griffon Spitfire Aces there is a colour drawing number 26 on which I based the model. 414 Squadron had been assigned to the second tactical air force to perform armed reconnaissance and the red nose I thought looked really good with contra rotating propellers. I've used xtradecal roundels & ccodes. I also did a live pin wash and used clear satin varnish varnish for the first time which looked really good at this scale. Apologies for the rudimentary stand, I prefer aircraft with the undercarriage up and the somewhat rushed photographs. This was the new AZ model MB5 went together well with the exception of the canopy which was badly fitting and the propeller blades which needed considerably cleaning up at their bases. I hope you enjoy
  3. Hi It looked a little odd to me too. It looks overscale in the Gladiator but I put one a Mki Hurricane and it looked fine so it just looks out of place as we are not used to seeing biplanes with reflector gunsights.. Most online images of Gladiators had simple ring and bead sight or other types of reflector gunsight it. In this picture you can just make out the gunsight and compared to the pilot its not a small device This drawing from http://www.maquetland.com/article-phototheque/7895-gloster-gladiator-i shows the cokpits of the Mki & MK2 Gladiator
  4. Thanks for the kind comments. For the last year I've been building aircraft of the great aces like Bud Anderson, Chuck Yeager, Jonny Johnson in classic Mustangs, & MkIX Spitfire. Then started thinking about the highest scoring pilots in specific aircraft type like Hans Dortenmann top Scoring FW190D pilot. This lead to building Eric Locks Spitfire 1a (had the highest kill rate of any RAF pilot at the time of his death in 1941 and his markings were on the Battle Britains Flight Spitfire 1 two years ago. Looking for the highest scoring Hurricane Pilot lead to me Pat Pattle and my surprise at his history in Greece, Cyprus and North Africa as the top scoring Gladiator pilot. Many of these campaigns came after the Battle Britain and were often hard fought retreats and losses and so may be overlooked by many. As someone said you fight wars with weapons you have not the with the ones you would like. Really great pilots through skill, courage and leadership achieve results in aircraft that were obsolete but were all they had. So for me Pat Pattle deserves his corner on my model shelf because although he did not stem the tide of battle he had an impact in the battles he fought out of all proportion to what would be expected from a pilot of a Gladiator at that time giving me a new respect for the man and his machine.
  5. What to build is the eternal dilema and the over thinking that results from stress can carry over into over thinking what to build next. A good satisfying build is great way to counter stress by giving you control and satisfaction of the build outside of external stresses. Your choice is interesting for a minimalist build I would of have gone for a monoplane fighter by going for a Gauntlet and the complexity of a biplane build and possibly rigging as well ( a two bay biplane to boot) I think you are more resilient than you think. Best of luck with the build ( I like the Gauntlet kit must get one myself)
  6. Squadron Leader Marmaduke Thomas St John Pattle DFC*, usually known as Pat Pattle, was a South African-born Second World War fighter pilot and flying ace of the Royal Air Force. Wikipedia His score could be as high as 51. A total of 26 of Pattle's victims were Italian; 15 were downed with Gloster Gladiators, the rest with Hawker Hurricanes.[He is considered to be the highest-scoring ace on both Gladiator and Hurricane (35 victories) I have chosen to model his Gloster Galdaitaor using the current Airfix 1/72 Gloster Gladiator MkI when he was based in North Africa. The kit its self has had great reviews and is typical of the current high standard that Airfix are delivering. There are however a few areas in the kit presents omissions and challenges to the modeller The biggest omission is the lack of a gunsight in the cockpit. Pictures of the actual aircraft show a a simple frame above the instrument panel on which the gunsight was mounted. I built the frame from bent wire and stretched sprue, the gunsight is from Quickboost and is a GM2 which was the standard RAF Gunsight on Spitfire & Hurricane I and I have seen images of this sight in place on Gladiators used in N African, Greek and Cypriot campaigns. I like to include pilot figures and the Gladiator has the newest incarnation of Airfix WW2 Pilot. You can pick out the may west, goggles, and harness with buckle. Whereas earlier pilots were wearing flying jackets this one appears to be wearing the standard RAF uniform often worn in warm weather conditions. The moment you add the pilot you can basically forget about seeing most of the cockpit detail and in the case of the Airfix that detail is very good with accurate decals of the instruments and detailed control column, compass binnacle and trim wheel. Oh beware adding the pilot in my kit meant the his legs stopped the upper decking fitting properly, which meant trimming the forward cockpit bulkhead to fit. Any way hera are some pictures of the Pilot and Gunsight in situ the Gunsight frame may be a bit heavy but I am really happy with it ( oh the pilot and cockpit area is bit shiny so next step is some matt varnish). Thanks
  7. Here is my finished build of Chuck Yeager's,, Bud Anderson and John Landers P-51D Mustangs I used Airfix P-51D, F51D and Tamiya's P-51D. This was my first attempt at a pin wash using a mixture of Windsor and Newton Burnt Umber and black oil paint heavily diluted with artists white spirit. I was very pleased with the result. The silver paint was tamiya titanium sprayed on top of humbrol primer. Sealed with a couple of coats of future. The combines effect of the silver and pinwash worked well giving a lived in metal effect with a realistic patina. I deliberately wanted this effect as photos of Yeager's P 51 show it snow covered out in the open with very visible panel lines on the fuselage sides. Much has been written about Mustang wings and their preparation with fillers and polish to maximise their laminar flow properties. From the available images my conclusion is that panel lines are visible but not dramatic and I hope I have captured that look here. There is also much discussion about the true colours of Olive drab and neutral grey. For Olive drab I used Tamiya Olive Drab which seemed a good approximation to war time colour photos and its use on modern warbirds,Tamiya neutral grey seemed a bit dark and modern warbirds seemed too light so I compromised and chose Humbrol 145 as it had the right blue tint and in terms of lightness was between the tamiya colour and that of the modern warbirds, I think this worked well. Both Silver mustangs I left with a gloss finish but for OLd crow I really over did the matt varnish using too much of Humbrol Clear Matt Varnish. The result is I had to rub back the surface varnish using cotton wool buds and eventually lense cleaning tissue to get the right matt effect.. Undercarriage I usually build my models wheels up and use stands to display them in flight. Big Beautiful Doll and Glamorous Glennis are undercarriage up and I modified them to take the old fashioned airfix stands which worked well on both the tamiya and airfix kits. I chose one of the airfix kits to model with gear down as Bud Anderson famously had white wall tyres on his Mustang main and tail wheels.and the airfix kit also comes with the option of lowed flaps. Its my inexperience with modelling undercarriages but I hated both painting the white walls ( it looks awful) and the airfix kit undercarriage legs are too thin and bend too easily. I think I should have used the tamiya undercarriage parts. Painting the wheel wells was another source of confusion, with debate about where zinc chromate yellow, interior green and silver was painted. As its agreed that no mustang kit accurately portrays the wheel wells and main spar I decided to paint the rear spar zinc chromate and the rest silver. the cockpit was interior green and I chose to put pilots in so you really cannot see nay thing else inside. General Build Comments Both the Tamiya and airfix kits are very similar in construction and build. I like the airfix kit because of the choice of flaps and I like the Tamiya because the canopy is a much better fit. They both offer a choice of dallas or conventional canopy but the front canopy component is just too thick to seat properly with out being thined down and polished to fit fit properly. Both kits have the canopy separate from the sliding framing for the rear canopy part. I think this is mistake and would prefer both the framing and canopy to be one transparent piece where the framing can just be painted. The current set up makes it hard to eliminate the a silvered join between the canopy and the frame. The canopy and how the they are painted is a key element in capturing the look of a mustang. they should be close fitting and painted carefully to pick out the natural metal framing near the olive drab anti glare panels. Overall the tamiya builds more easily and the surface finish is just that bit more detailed with beautifully refined rivet detail ( i don't count rivets) on the flaps ( visible in modern warbird Mustangs Decals I mainly used the tamiya decals which had the markings for all three aircraft leaving me to source a few extra stars and bars and to paint the red fuel filler caps. The invasion stripes and the chequed nose of Big beautiful doll are all decals. They needed copious amounts of microsol but softened well moulding to the complex shapes around the ventral radiation housing and the nose of big beautiful doll. The white lettering on Old crow was really nice appearing solid and painted on, very impressive stuff. Drop tanks The smaller drop tanks in the airfix kits are unuseable as they do not have the prominent seam that runs around the join of the tanks two halves so I used the tamiya ones which look the part. Yeager and Anderson's aircraft are both shown with 103 gallon paper drop tanks. I sourced these from an old revel P51B and academy p-47D ( which look too big in my opinion) I took the decision to paint both silver as this was the colour of the dope used in the final layers in their construction in real life.. I love mustangs and I am pleased generally with the look of them but feel I let my self down with the canopies ( aftermarket probably better) and the wheels ( never going to do wheels down if I can help it, ( yes should have masked them off better) I hope you like them. Pictures The view from above From the side Big Beautiful Doll Glamorous Glennis Old Crow Thank You
  8. So far on the builds I have these observations Both Tamiya and airfix kits are very very similar however the canopy on the airfix kits are a little too thick which makes the fit of the forward windscreen difficult ( i had to fill around the bottom the front windscreen) The Tamiya kits canopy was a faultless fit. The dihedral on the Tamiya was again faultless, Its been said before it just fell together. The fuselage wing join on the airfix kit was so tight that the there was no dihedral at all making the mustang just look wrong. This was fixed with careful sanding of the wing roots and fuselage sides to allow the wings to join the fuselage with the correct dihedral. Using maskol on the canopies next up a coat of primer then on to painting proper
  9. HI For a while I had the Tamiya 1/72 P-51D in my stash. It comes with markings for aircraft flown by Chuck Yeager (Glamorous Glennis III),Clarence Andersons (Old Crow which had white wall tyres) and John landers (Big Beautiful Doll). I bought two Airfix 1/72 P-51Ds and will use the three kits so I can build the aircraft of these famous aces. Yeagers & Landers aircraft will be built undercarriage up ( which I generally do) and Old Crow with gear down to show of those white wall tyres. As the airfix kits come with a flaps down and with tyres showing the effect of weight on them this has meant using the Airfix Kit for Old Crow and the tamiya for Big Beautiful Doll ( the Tamiya kit does not allow a wheels up option out of the box) . The kits are being built out of the box with no after market add ons and with canopy closed but with fully painted pilots from the two airfix kits and an old airfix WW2 pilot I had to hand. I will put pictures up soon as I have finished the build but want to show progress of the painting, I have also some comments on the comparrisosn of these two kits which are very similar in layout but with subtle and significant difference when it comes to building them
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