Giorgio N

MN Modelar in the Czech Republic is currently selling the D5 night attack box for €10, IMHO a great price for such a package. Don't know if they would post to Canada though and even if they did it would probably be expensive

The history of US paint standards is always something to keep in mind when dealing with '50s aircraft. In theory colours were passed from one standard to the other however some were not and there were cases where one colour was not the same in every standard even if it was supposed to be so. It should also be kept in mind that colours from older standards remained in use for years after the introduction of newer ones. ANA colours for example were used in official documents into the early '70s even if the standard had in theory been superceded by others many years before.

Clearly your employer knows that the automotive paint they use is suitable for the job, something that I bet they tested at some point considering that everything that goes onto flying machines is tested aplenty before being used. At least this is what I found when many years ago I had to deal with a certain company that at the time owned a certain UK manufacturer and I later found again when dealing with a couple of air forces. Even if the paint is tested, air forces always chose aircraft very close to a scheduled repaint to apply commemorative schemes so that whatever fancy scheme is removed as soon as possible. Regarding car paints, many are not that different from aircraft paint, at least in the basic chemical and protection properties (of course things like IR reflectivity are not). Still even so there are instances of problems on cars with aluminum body panels where unsuitable paints have caused corrosion.

Hi Ron, apologies for my late reply ! Thanks for the information, I will look out for the rocket mount brackets. Last weeks there was a Hasegawa box of the early Vista configuration on Ebay and I was tempted toput a bid in but then the price went a bit too high for my taste. I share your interest in the XLs, here after trying to correct the Monogram kit (that should be better described as scratchbuilding an XL using parts from the Monogram kit...) I ended up buying the 1/48 Skunk Works kit, much nicer and more accurate. Then a couple months ago I managed to buy another Monogram XL for very little (around a tenner since came with no box), I may build a 1/72 two.seater at some point. Today Monogram XLs sell for pretty high figures if complete but really as it is it's too inaccurate for my taste. However I doubt there will ever be any other injected plastic kit of this variant in 1/72 so it's either correct the Monogram kit by scratchbuilding or mixing with other F-16 kits or it's moving to 1/48 scale

Phil, I received the decals 2 days ago and I am a bit disappointed... some parts are nice and well printed, others are not so nice... the yellow lines for example look like they may not be in perfect register. Some titles that should be in red look to be in some sort of orange and I'm concerned that the X-62 inscription on the tail may let the underlying blue paint bleed. The US national markings are not great, with the blue being too light and the red bar badly printed. Now fortunately most of the problems are in things that can be easily replaced, like the yellow lines and the insignia, however from modern aftermarket decals I'd have expected better. I know that there is another option and that is the Procal set. This includes not only the decals but also the spine and other parts in resin, may be the better option for those who don't have a suitable kit already. It is also more expensive, going for over €30 in my part of the world. These seem to be much better printed, at least judging from pictures I've seen online.

I'm pretty sure that the Pima Museum aircraft shown above is not the actual one used in the movie. In any case the colour scheme applied was not the original one, it was applied after this T-33 was acquired by the museum

Paints for temporary camouflage were made through WW2 and beyond based on AAF specifications, so it is possible that these were still available by the time of the filming. Bulletin 48 included a light blue (27) however paint mixes were not only allowed but in some cases required by the specifications.. Of course 15 years later nobody would have bothered to achieve a specific shade of light blue for a movie. General comment: whatever paint was used, I wouldn't search in the FS.595 as this had just been introduced at that time. Any stock would have been of paints made before this standard. True that most older colours would have then been incorporated in the new standard, but not all did

If this was an operational USAF aircraft, the USAF would have never allowed some generic paint to be spraied on by the movie crew. It would have had to be a job made by the USAF using paint allowed for use on an aircraft

Hmmm... I recently moved to a new laptop and looks like some things don't work the same... now sorted! Thanks, I may order a few books from them

Grazie Giampiero, that picture is also on asisbiz, together with a few others That book looks interesting ! Do you know if it includes notes for the modellers ? Or is it only focused on the historical side ? In any case the price is very affordable, I may decide to buy it Thanks! Your model features a very interesting scheme, with the clean wings and RLM 80 only on the fuselage. I wouldn't mind a desert scheme like that.

I'm considering building a model of the Bf.109G-2 piloted by Werner Schroer of JG.27 while based on Rhodes in 1943, an aircraft that is quite unusual because of its red rudder... or at least it may be unusual because of this. Markings would come from Aeromaster sheet 72-074C, that has this aircraft on the cover: Mediterranean Bf 109s of JG 27, AeroMaster 72-074C (1995) Now I know about the reputation Aeromaster had for inaccuracies so before even starting to look at the kits I browsed the web for information... and here I found conflicting views over the camouflage scheme, reason why I'm asking for help from those who know Luftwaffe stuff more than I do. The Aeromaster sheet suggests a standard 74/75/76 scheme. All good for a G2 in 1943, but this was a G2 Trop, so maybe it was painted in 79/80/78? That is what many others seem to think ! Starting with the Jagdwaffe series that features a profile in these colours. A beautiful model of this aircraft was also shown here by @Zigomar in tropical colours Werner Schröer Bf 109 G2 Trop - Ready for Inspection - Aircraft - Britmodeller.com Fortunately there are pictures of this aircraft so at least other details can be checked... here are a couple of side views: https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Bf-109G/JG27-MTO/pages/Messerschmitt-Bf-109G2Trop-8.JG27-Red-1-Werner-Schroer-Maritsa-AF-Rhodes-Greece-Feb-1943-01.html https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Bf-109G/JG27-MTO/pages/Messerschmitt-Bf-109G2Trop-8.JG27-Red-1-Werner-Schroer-Maritsa-AF-Rhodes-Greece-Feb-1943-02.html Now what do you think ? The colour separation on the fuselage seems to be low as used in the tropical scheme but at the same time I've been aircraft in the grey scheme with the upper surfaces brought further down the fuselage. There are on Asisbiz other pictures, of which this is one I find particularly interesting: https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Bf-109G/JG27-MTO/pages/Messerschmitt-Bf-109G2Trop-8.JG27-Red-1-Werner-Schroer-Maritsa-AF-Rhodes-Greece-Feb-1943-03.html#google_vignette Here the upper surfaces of the wings seem to have darker areas that are not really consistent with the standard grey schemes I know of, pointing me maybe toward 79/80 uppers. At the same time the cross is in white outline only and I wonder, wasn't the cross in black and white on tropical scheme aircraft ? So what do the experten think ? Is there any clear information on the scheme carried by this aircraft? Or should I just take a guess ?

I see little difference between scratchbuilding and designing and printing a model: both are activities that require research, a certain set of skills, certain tools and good planning in order to obtain a number of parts that once put together will become a model of something. Making a certain shape by bending and gluing plasticard sections or making it on a screen through a computer and a software may require different skills but both are IMHO pretty good displays of ability by the hobbist. It will then up to each one to decide which of the two they are more comfortable with, depending on their skills and will to learn new ones. If I had both skills and had to choose, today I'd probably go for 3D printing as the possibilities this opens are much more powerful. Mind, I'm an aircraft modeller and this has an impact on my choice: aircrafts feature a lot of shapes that are easier to reproduce with 3D printing. 3D printing also allows to introduce panel lines directly in the parts without the need to scribe these on the plastic or whatever materials are used. Not to mention the possibility of reproducing details that are pretty hard to scratchbuild for a modeller with my limited skills... one thing is to scratchbuild a wheel, another is to scratchbuild a 1/72 wheel with spokes, bolts and other details, the kind of thing that old articles suggested to rob from other kits or buy from companies like Aeroclub. Now 3D printing allows the modeller to make these too

That show made it to Italy and I remember watching a few episodes. I was young and excited about aircraft so I tried to watch it every week, something that caused some resentment from dad who openly said it was c... Looking back he was not wrong... Can't remember the F-16 but I still have a couple of tapes with a few episodes on, recorded from the TV. Wonder if they are still useable....

I sure agree that Waters has been constantly whining about his own stuff for decades, complaining about "all the bad people" outside of himself (and IIRC others in the band said the same about him as early as the late '70s) but what did Pink Floyd really achieve after his departure ? IMHO some decent but not really memorable stuff. To me it seems that with Waters gone a good part of the inspiration behind their music was lost while at the same time Waters solo material showed how he may have had ideas but was probably the less musically talented of the band... together they had everything, after the split we ended with a talented trio without too much soul and a man with ideas but not enough talent to make something good of them, Back on topic, I has somewhere in my mind that Mr. Mister only had one hit with Broken wings, but a check on the web showed they also had Kyrie in the charts so I'll have to look for something else... they just came to my mind because I saw Mastelotto playing with Tony Levin's Stick Men a few weeks ago.... and that's quite a change from Broken Wings to playing with King Crimson and Stick Men....

Another couple of fake migs: a Ouragan and a Super Mystere wore Red stars for the spy movie Enigma. For the same movie a Caravelle was painted in Aeroflot markings. The Amodel 1/144 kit features these markings on the cover. Speaking of airliners, a Tu-104 was painted in Alitalia markings for a Soviet comedy on life in a circus