Giorgio N

Just to add my 2 cents, I've used GW skull white with my airbrush (a badger 200) plenty of times with good results, although my favourite white still remains tamiya's acrylic. To thin it I use tap water and a drop or two of retarder, as I do with all my GW/vallejo/lifecolor/xtracrylics. It covers well but not as well as tamiya paint, so you might need a number of coats. As it dries very quickly, it's not a problem.

Depends on what Spitfire mark you're interested in ! Battle of Britain Mk.I ? Then it's probably tamiya. Mk.V? Tamiya again or hasegawa, or airfix if you don't mind an older tool with raised panel lines (still the most accurate though) Mk.IX/VIII ? The hasegawa is not the most accurate but is a good build OOB and was reboxed by revell. The ICM kit is more accurate but a more difficult build Griffon spits ? The brand new airfix XII is the best around at the moment and sells for a very good price too. The academy XIV has shape issues but these might not bother you, and is again a very good kit Late spits ? If you can find an airfix 22/24 this will not disappoint.

My build for this GB will be the lovely Hobbyboss kit of the Mig-15 UTI in the old Albanian People's Army Air Force. Decals will come from the Blue Rider sheet. These planes were used for many years in Albania, being delivered in 1955 and with some of them being retired in 2002 ! Albania was part of the eastern bloc at the end of WW2 and the MiGs were received from the Soviet Union. In the mid '50s however Enver Hoxha, leader of the country, lost his admiration for the USSR and looked toward China, that in his opinion was building a purer form of communism. When a Soviet bakced plot to ovethrow him was discovered in 1961, he broke any relation with the USSR. From that day on, the Air Force received chinese copies of soviet planes. In 1978 he denounced Maoism as well and broke relations with China. The Air Force kept going using the same old planes and when the communist regime in Albania fell in 1992, the first european visitors found air bases there were true aviation museums ! The MiG-15 UTi used in Albania came from 3 sources: soviet built examples, czech built CS.102 copies, and chinese provided FT.2. "My" MiG is coded 246, and is one of the original soviet built planes delivered in 1955. Unfortunately this means I might have to modify the airbrakes, as the HB kit has the shape normally associated with the MiG-15 bis. However I've seen pictures of albanian UTIs with this style of airbrakes... I might find a way to avoid the modification. Pictures will follow soon... as soon as I get the battery of my camera back to life !

Watching an Amodel kit being built is always interesting, a kit of such a subject is even better !

This is a very interesting subject ! The yak-23 itself is not very well known and built models are a rare sight. A yak-23 in Yugoslav markings will be even more unique !

IMHO £40 for a 1/72 Valiant is a reasonable price. It is a big enough plane after all, and there should be quite a few parts. I'm glad to see that a camouflaged plane will be included, even if the valiant wore camo for very little, I think it looks good in it ! I' have maybe preferred to have a Suez plane in silver and some more colourful marking for the white birds, however I'm happy with the options proposed. Decal sheets will follow aplenty anyway !

Pavla has a resin set, intended for the airfix IX, that among the other parts includes radiators, 4-spoke wheels and fishtail exhausts. Quickboost also has resin exhausts and 4-spoke wheels.

I hope so, with the AV-8B still going strong it would be foolish not to propose this version. A B+ would be even nicer !

I believe it's just another case of "mine is longer than yours" attitude, that unfortunately pollutes even the most respected fora. Too many people turn the pride for the achievements of their country into the paranoid view that nobody else is good at doing anything. Guess a lot of these people don't have anything they achieved personally to be proud of and look for some satisfaction behaving like children on the web...

There is something similar: there used to be a tape to make corrections on typewriters. This is pretty much a kind of tippex laid on a tape in dry form. Whenever a correction needed to be made, the operator had to put this over the wrong letter, type again the same letter and the pressure from the typewriter head left a white mark on the paper. I've seen an article in a modelling magazine years ago on how to make graffiti on bombs using this product: laying the tape on the part, it was possible to press on the tape with a pen and the drawing remained on the part. The same technique can be used to make white markings of different type.

Humbrol 141 represented grey FS 36307, that was used on a number of lesser known US navy schemes. As an alternative, you can use a paint meant to represent WW2 Italian Grigio Azzurro Chiaro Nr.1 (Light Blue Grey 1), that is close to FS 36307. If you're happy with acrylics, Lifecolor has this as UA113.

Last I checked the two kits costed pretty much the same: around a tenner for the airfix, up to £11 for the italeri where it's most expensive... the difference needed for a way better kit in this case will hardly break the bank. It's a different sory when it comes to availability: the italeri kit is getting harder to find.

Thanks a lot Jim ! The info about the raft inflating is very interesting, I wonder what cold go through the pilots mind when this happened....

Yep, two Sargent Fletcher pods. However there's also a central point with a Flight Refuelling HDU. Have to say I've never seen this used.

While I mentioned that HiPlanes has a dagger in short run form, they are also working on a new less short-run Mirage. PJ will distribute them in Europe: http://www.pjproduction.net/product/mirage...eces-en-resine/ Not cheap, but the quality should be very high

Hope I'm wrong, but the old frog mould is the main suspect here.

Thanks a lot for the info ! Would the raft container be aluminium lacquer too ? I see that this is often portraied as black. The hasegawa instructions don't help at all, as they mention interior green for everything...

I have a 1/72 hasegawa F2A-2 I'm planning to build OOB between a couple of other projects, and I'm looking for informatin about the interior colours. Now to the best of my knowledge these planes had aluminium painted cockpits with black instrument panels. Is there any other area of the cockpit with any different colour ? Ands what colour should I use for the decking behinf the cockpit ? Is this aluminium too ? And what about the landing gear wells ? Guess aluminium as well ? Thanks in advance !

Considering that the Frog kit is not great itself, this says a lot about how bad the PM offering is ! Hi Planes is working on a standard injection moulded 1/72 Mirage III-E, hope this comes out nice and becomes easily available.

A small note about the Italian 707 T/T: these have nothing really to do with Boeing, apart from being based on a Boeing 707 airframe. The planes were former TAP B-707 converted in Italy.

The KC-767s are already in service but both the Italian and Japanese versions were plagued with technical troubles and delays. The Italian air force even had to lower certain specifications when it became clear that the plane could not meet them. So yes, they are both in service, but the KC-767 has hardly been a well managed program. BTW, the first italian KC-767 was accepted last January, some 5 years after the predicted delivery date. The japanese planes did better, being delivered only 2 years beyoind schedule. Now I'm sure the USAF will be able to leverage the solution of any potential problem better than what italians and japanese could do, however if the recent KC-767 experience is any indication of what could happen, it will be very surprised if the first proper operational KC-46 will enter service in 2013.

Top surfaces are for sure in dark green and medium sea grey. The lower surfaces though look white in the pictures more than light aircraft grey. The issue was discussed before on this same forum: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/lofiver...php/t38627.html And from here dark green /medium sea grey / white seems to be the correct choice of colours

Never heard of this either ! I'll have a look at some references, but I'm 99.99% sure that no italian Sabre ever used an MB seat

In theory you could use the Mk.ix canopy, although you need to add some plastic under the rear fixed part, as the transparent is deeper on the XIX than on the IX. Easy fix ! However I seem to remember that the canopy area on the XIX kit is shorter than the equivalent on the IX, will have to check this. Mind, I mean the ara on the airfix kit, on the real spitfires they are the same length. Alternatively you can use the canopy from the italeri V or IX, but remember to choose the internal armoured windscreen ! The italeri kits have both, so if you built the V with the earlier external armoured one you have all the parts for the later version. The revell V is not good, as it only includes the external armoured one. You're correct about the radiatiors: use the XIX ones. These are not great and can be replaced or modified if accuracy is your thing.

Eagle Design is probabl the one you're thinking of http://www.eagledesigns.50megs.com/ High Planes in Australia has a 1/72 range of Mirage III including the dagger. These are short run kits, not the easiest to build but offer very good details, with resin parts, PE antennas and other bits and very fine panel lines. Unfortunately the delivery costs make them less attractive in Europe than they are down under.