Tiger331

Several of us (members of a SIG dedicated to another of Sir Sydney Camm's classic designs) have been speculating over the colours applied to a particular Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIc in a well known photo showing five aircraft in formation. The aircraft in question is BP389/GO.G and it is sporting the Middle Eastern/Mediterranean colour scheme but the issue that is giving us problems is the large stylised streak down the side of the aircraft. At first I thought it may have been an attempt by ground crew to clean the typical exhaust staining found on Hurricanes with paraffin or petrol but the 'stain' runs under the fuselage code so it appears more likely that it was painted on. If so, what was the purpose (to counter the staining with some heat resistant paint, perhaps ?) and, more importantly, what colour was this streak ?. One of our members is contemplating a build of this particular aircraft. Apologies if this question has been asked before ! Hoping Troy or someone else can solve this conundrum for us, Many Thanks

My choice would be an Airfix Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8 or Blackburn Buccaneer (both new moulds). You need to take care with Tamiya 1:72 scale kits since many of them are actually re-boxed Italeri kits, most of which do not enjoy the same level of detail or fit as the afoermentioned F-4D Skyray or the ME Bf-109G-6 that you have already built, which are original Tamiya moulds.

Hi Folks, I have a bit of a dilemma with decal markings for USAFE F-15E Strike Eagles employed on recent operations. Both Caracal and Two Bobs Decals have released decal sheets covering those aircraft that sported nose art (CD48-149 and TBD48-265 respectively). One could be forgiven for thinking that two US-based decal manufacturers would produce decals that were quite similar but this does not seem to be the case. As the two attached photographs illustrate, the designs are quite different, in both size and colouration. The colours for 'Bullseye' (AF00-3004)(that features Woody from Toy Story) and 'Ravage' (AF91-1326) are quite different and some of the sizing is off as well.....The red 'Gears of War' (AF00-3003) nose art is markedly different. So, the question is, which is the more accurate ?. I'm not aware of either company having a reputation for inaccurate decals, which makes it even more of a challenge for me.

Armycast decals from Czechia are due to release a new sheet on the A-4/TA-4 Skyhawk very shortly, which includes markings for a RMAF example.

Managed to do a little more work on this project over the weekend. I have not got the mainplane together and suspect the detail in the wheel well will 'pop' with a little bit of a wash. I also took the time to do some dry fitting of the fuselage......just look at that gap between the fuselage and wing..............there is NO Gap !.........absolutely nothing. No filler needed here. I have never seen anything like it before, especially on an often tricky WWII-era fighter aircraft, which regularly present issues with the wing root to fuselage join.

Hi Folks, My order from arrived earlier this week but I have only just managed to open it up.............. Given my nomadic lifestyle, I have been doing Mail Order for almost 50 years now and I can safely say that I have never received a package such as this one. The inner packing is absolutely superb and has guaranteed that each and every one of these fragile parts arrives in 100% tip top condition. It must have taken you almost as long to pack the parts as to manufacture them !. I am sure the parts will match the packing in their quality but I just wanted to share this in order to let everyone know that they can order from you in total confidence. Thanks very much Alan, Mark

Here are the photos of the outer surfaces of the wings, which I promised. I have now completed all of the sanding and they fit like a dream. Time to make a start on the wheel wells. The rivets look far more pronounced than they actually are on the surfaces of these parts. They are, in my mind, absolutely spot on for a Hurricane in this scale although others may disagree.

Like several of you on BM, I have more than one of these lovely kits in the stash although in my 'defence', at least one of these kits will be donated elsewhere !. I am in the middle of planning and preparing a small display for the Lithuanian Air Force museum to celebrate the one Lithuanian pilot that flew with the RAF during WWII. Flt Lt Romuldas Marinkus was a night fighter specialist on No.1(F) Squadron but his time with the Squadron was short-lived when he was shot down in Hurricane IIc BD949/JX-J in February 1942 during the 'Channel Dash' by two Scharnhorst-class battleships. Romunas was made a POW and ended up in Stalag Luft III but became a key member of the committee set up to oversee the Great Escape. Sadly he was one of the 50 aircrew that were executed after their recapture. I have agreed to reproduce his Hurricane Mk.IIc as part of the display, which will also include one of my old uniforms suitable adjusted to represent a wartime No.1 fighter pilots attire, and the Arma kit is the obvious choice for this small project. My good friend (and fellow BM'er) Stephen has very kindly assisted me already, in sourcing and donating some missing code letters that I will need for the model. For once, it is my intention to build this one out of the box without recourse to any aftermarket (save the codes I have already mentioned and Dull Red Letters/Numbers from an Aviaeology sheet). My reasoning for this is to save some time and the kit does not really need much - it is superb in its own right. The model will be finished in this scheme with the obvious difference being the codes/serial numbers I've made a very modest start on the wings, which are absolutely superb. I'm showing the inner surfaces here, with the rather peculiar pins, presumably associated with Arma's injection moulding process. Do not be put off by these since they do not interfere with anything. The other reason I'm highlighting these parts is that the sprue attachment points encroach onto the inner (mating) surfaces of both the upper and lower wing sections. The plastic is actually quite hard so some effort is required to sand these down to an acceptable level for a snug wing fit. Most of the stubs have been sanded away in the photo, bar one on the wingtip (lower left of photo) which I have left for reference. I will post of photo of the out surfaces shortly since the detail is a work of art and superb example of the progress with modern technology.

I am almost 100% certain he would have known Romuldas. Romuldas possessed a number of additional skills, since he spoke fluent Russian and German as well as his native tongue and, of course English. He also had a photographic memory and one of his contributions to the escape committee was to memorise the various German train timetables and schedules since travel by this means would form a major part of the escape plan for most of those that got out of the tunnel. I suspect this is where Barry and Romuldas would have worked together. As I understand it, Romuldas was actually caught on a train (IIRC in Poland) with three travelling companions. They were posing as four Lithuanians returning home on leave from their work in the construction industry in Germany but of course Romuldas was the only one who could speak Lithuanian. Following capture they did not have to wait long for news that Hitler had ordered their execution.

Like several of you on this thread, I have more than one of these lovely kits in the stash and I'm looking forward to adding a Sea Hurricane to the pile in due course !. In mitigation, at least one of these kits will be donated elsewhere !. I am in the middle of planning and preparing a small display for the Lithuanian Air Force museum to celebrate the one Lithuanian pilot that flew with the RAF during WWII. Flt Lt Romuldas Marinkus was a night fighter specialist on No.1(F) Squadron but his time with the Squadron was short-lived when he was shot down in Hurricane IIc BD949 in February 1942 during the 'Channel Dash' by two Scharnhorst-class battleships. Romunas was made a POW and ended up in Stalag Luft III but became a key member of the committee set up to oversee the Great Escape. Sadly he was one of the 50 aircrew that were executed after their recapture. I have agreed to reproduce his Hurricane Mk.IIc as part of the display, which will also include one of my old uniforms suitable adjusted to represent a wartime No.1 fighter pilots attire, and the Arma kit is the obvious choice for this small project. Stephen (above) has very kindly assisted me already, in sourcing and donating some missing code letters that I will need for the model.

1/48 Bristol Belvedere or Westland Wessex

This is great reference for fitting a scratchbuilt rotor brake to my current project while looking forward to using your parts in my next few builds !

Looking forward to receiving these in due course. I am currently wrestling with the overhead panel on another Wessex project and can vouch for the amount of fettling that I have had to do to make it semi-fit.

Steve, Short answer is 'Yes'. See the notes on the first page of this thread and contact Hendie direct with a PM. I have been in communication with him for a couple of weeks now as we put together a suitable package for my own Wessex projects.

While it would not be top of my "they should do this" list, it is long overdue a new mould kit since the Hasegawa version is now showing its age despite H2K's best efforts to revive it. I just hope ICM focus on the production versions that actually saw combat since there are a host of interesting schemes out there for the Hs-129. I am confident ICM will do a good job since their kits continue to improve with each iteration, which is mighty impressive given the current situation in their country of origin (S U).

Nice Foxbat !.......It is a beast too...........There is one in my local museum and I always wonder at its size when I visit. Well Done, Sir !

Hi Folks, I've got several of the Eduard 'aftermarket' decal sheets (i.e. not from a kit) and having heard all of the 'challenges' associated with the decals they have included in their more recent kits, wondered if the former are similar to these or are of the more 'traditional' variety (i.e. do NOT require one to remove an outer layer of carrier film AFTER application ?). I have heard/seen mixed reviews about the more recent Eduard kit decals and would welcome hearing about any experiences (positive or negative) with their aftermarket decals. Many Thanks Mark

Just checked my -30E and the windscreen is flawless but I'm not so sure about the canopy. They seem to have struggled with the complex curves and it looks like there are some flaws. Ali at Aerocraft Models may come to the rescue if there is sufficient demand, I would suggest !

Yes, I have all of this since I have been researching Marcinkus for some time. I was, therefore, quite comfortable with understanding the hybrid markings applied to BD949 and just wanted to understand how I went about finding suitable Dull Red lettering/numbering in 1:48 scale. That said, the information on the lack of anti glare panels was useful as were the links to the Aviaelogy decal sheets. Thanks very much

Unfortunately I do not have the time to scroll through 95 pages so please forgive me if the answer to my questions lies elsewhere in this thread !. I am planning to do a Hurricane Mk.IIC in the No 1 Sqn overall night scheme circa 1942 but NOT Kuttlewascher's JX-E. My plan is to do JX-J, which was flown by the only known Lithuanian Fighter pilot to serve in the RAF during WWII. I would like to know where I can obtain the Dark red Codes and serial numbers that would be needed to complete a model in 1:48 scale. The obvious way would be to buy two sheets covering decals for JX-E but this only addresses the large fuselage codes and not the serial numbers. Does any decal manufacturer produce suitable Red Codes/Serial Numbers in 1:48 scale ?. Thanks in anticipation

Just wondered.....it had to be one of the two.....interestingly one of Desmond Norman's sons was in my Year at Bembridge School.

Calling all Focke-Wulf Fw-190 experts. I'm looking to a future building project which involves a requirement for a Eduard 1:48 scale Focke-Wulf Fw-190F-8. I thought it would be relatively easy to find this kit but it isn't. Plenty of A model variants available with some at good prices but question is, can I produce the F-8 variant from one of these kits (A-4/5/7/8 etc ?), understanding that I will probably need some aftermarket items *bomb racks etc) ?

School or the Aerodrome, Mark ?.

Welcome aboard from a fellow former-Islander (now exiled in NE Europe). My late father was born in Cowes and I spent much of my childhood in Whitwell and Ventnor. I spent my last two years at school in Bembridge but my parents eventually sold up on the island in the early 1990s and moved to the mainland. Had some great times over there and regularly frequented the model shops in Ventnor, Shanklin and Ryde through the 70-90s.

Agreed