Modelraynz

Ahh perfect! ill go with a light blue code and white serial no. So confusing eh! As i understand; black serial and fuselage band are indicative of green/grey camo(Which fujimi portray in their "red lion" boxing) For the Saigon spitfires above they seem to show evidence of being repainted - some more tidely than others! Which i take to mean were probably in grey/green scheme changed to SEAC (Haven't heard of repaints the other way!) Then again Xtradecal show NH927 in green/grey (which looks very attractive in modified SEAC roundels!) And white serials in india...so who knows!!

Cheers for the info! to my eye they look repainted to the SEAC scheme (as much as id prefer the day fighter scheme!)) Im wondering if the squadron codes would be a light blue or sky... certainly darker than the fresh serial number on some machines! Great photo canberra_kid! That scheme is one of my favorites! Nice on a low back too!

Appologies in ressurecting, but ive been struggling with this question lately for an entry into the vietnam gb...i do, however, come with pics!! Do these provide any more insight? share image online

Weathering looks great!! Some of those french hellcats really got punished through wear and the tropical climate!!

sorry to hear that! ( been there many a time myself!) the kit was recently reissued by Heller - the new decals may be more usable?

Thanks for the encouragement guys! so....slight change of plans! - i was having a go at modifying the cowl to a Ki-43-iii ( on an OOOLLLLLD aoshima kit) and wasn't happy with the results! So bit the bullet and ordered a special hobby Ki-43-III!! I'll amend the title when it arrives from Australia, but in the meantime - a really nice pic from a Facebook user: As for the work i've done on the Haseagawa kit.........Indonesia just happened to use some Ki-43-ii's....

Hey guys! Thanks for the kind words of encouragement! Is really interesting peroid, enjoying reading about surrenced japanese forces and their role in the emerging cold war...for example: "A soviet advisor to the viet minh was captured by japanese soldiers, working for the british, to help the french in reclaiming vietnam from an interim viet minh government, which itself was also assisted by japanese forces, withwhom the viet minh had previously been in conflict, with intel provided by the OSS, who later as the CIA, used some japanese personal as assets against the soviets, while arming the french"....argh, my brain!

Hey Folks! This GB came around at just the right time! been fascinated with captured equipment and the immediate aftermath of WW2: I just had to enter a Ki-43 pressed back into service by the french in Indochina I will use a Hasegawa Ki-43 as my starting point, with printscale decals: I think i will go for a Bare metal example - probably 'A' behind the aircraft pictured above - The french received a mix of Ki-43-II and Ki-43-III: i have yet to decide if I will convert the hasegawa kit! first up, separating the canopy - fist time using the Tamiya PE saws, and so far im really impressed! minimal sanding was required to even out the windscreen, and it was bagged up for later. The oscar has a tiny cockpit, but i decided to busy it up with some spare bits in pieces - the ribbing is WAY over scale, and simplified, but looks better than smooth walls - the instrument panel was converted from a spitfire! The Nakajima Sakae in the kit is fairly basic, so i flipped the kit part around to form the rear firewall, and sanded down an leftover airfix example, which i think looks much better! Well thats all for day 1 so far - really want to finish something this year!

A lot of the 72nd combo kits have nasty decals! Aussie Spit viii springe to mind - the decal colors wern't solid but shaded/halfprint like you see in a newspaper!!

Pot noodles... sounds like a california thing..

Hiya The initial release q-5c had you attach the fuel tanks to a forward-mounted weapons pylon (b8,9) this pylon is never used for fuel tanks and seldom used in general - no idea why they did this shortcut then corrected in later releases! The q-5 has under wing fuel tank mounts a la mig-19 The new parts are on the b sprue (b11,12,13,14) My box has copyright of 2018, so that might be an indicator - i havent found any other indicators!

Good/bad news for fantan fans! It appears trumpeter have quietly updated their q-5c kit with the correct wing tank mounts from their other fantan kits! :D the tanks themselves are still a suspect, but you dont have to make your own wing mounts anymore!! of course if your like me amd bought a whole lot of the early releases.....bugger!

hey mate! any recommendations on where to source arma kits down this way?

Not to mention the trailing (l)edge

There's always dragons wing

so now ive got the cockpit pretty much done! Using Tamiya rubber black as a base coat, i dry-brushed Humbrol Matt 32... allowed to cure for a few days, then used XF-19 for the controls, and artists acrylic red - for tiny things such as buttons I cant speak highly enough for artists paint, its thicker so u can 'dot' on with a tooth pic without it running out of control! I then did a wash with thinned Tamiya smoke - a tip for retarding drying time is to spray the surface with isopropyl alcohol ( i use an old lens cleaner bottle) before putting the wash down. Then just some decals to round it off. blacks a real pain to photograph , but you get the general idea from the pics

looks fantastic! - (and im usually all about esoteric air forces!), but the grey and USAF markings just really suits this AC!

welcome news gents for those waiting for their kits to arrive! any rumors on the next boxing of this kit? given it has the WP and Egyptian rocket pylons?

how wierd!?! an uneducated guesstimate- while pumping them out; mold dossn't cool enough between cycles, C7 gets stuck in mold somewhere along the line, and subsequent injections miss that part as there's nothing to inject into maybe?

Eek that's odd!! would be interesting to know what happened there: have the parts been removed post injectiob, or was not formed on the sprue to begin with? Ive had a couple of new airfix kits with errors (me-262 with tip of tail missing) and was hoping was just a quality control anomoly, but if they're missing parts....jeez.... (Having ordered an embarrassing amount of these kits and the thought of replacing exhaust faces!!)

Been loving following this build! Hope to do a cavalier one day! there a bit too bulbous- but maybe revell 1/72 p-47 tanks could be sanded to shape?

Got the seat ready to be added at a later date... didn't have any appropriate harness so used one from spares.... also Started with the cockpit colour and dry brushing.

I've found the Airfix very nice...though one of them i have the fuselage is quite warped and needing clamping?!? Done!... it might become build no.2

Cheers guys! from digging through pics, i decided to modify the kit more inline as a post-war mustang - so put the work so far on the Airfix kit away, and got out a Tamiya kit to modify to post 1950 standard first up - the instrument panel issnt the best fit, so need some careful filing to fit the instrument panel combing: annoyingly there's a ejector mark just before the radiator that needs filling and sanding: Created some Seat belts from thin foil:

Hi Folks, after a 'bleh' year for building - i thought id try and end the year with a Costa Rican F-51D - these were ex Texas ANG aircraft shipped at haste to costa rica) for the interesting backstory and a ton of LIFE photos I recommend the following link: https://jetpilotoverseas.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/ex-texas-ang-f-51-mustangs-sent-to-costa-rican-civil-war-19th-january-1955/ Im using the Airfix kit and Blue Rider decals. so far ive go the basics of the cockpit base color down (a dark green) dry brushed with Testors interior green ( the colors dont show up well on my cell cam) : from the photos i was unsure if the ANG planes should of have all black cockpit, or the interior green - I went with interior green just for a bit more visual variety