Tim R-T-C

I splashed a little metallic on with a stippling brush and coated in varnish during the week, then today brushed with washable white paint. To make the crosses, I had some RLM70 decal strips for canopy work, which functioned very well for this purpose. Just need a slight touchup at the edges where they were not cut completely straight.

I believe the reports from the US state that they intentionally crashed the drone into the sea because of the damage affecting control. Presumably it would be very hard to land and they didn't want the risk of it crashing over populated areas. Amazing to see that Russian pilots still practice Taran techniques even today!

Tamiya do a set for 1/35 that should work for 1/32 I'd guess https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/12625insignia_decal/index.htm

Lovely work so far. Look forward to seeing more.

Hello friends, While working on my GB project, a B5N1 in 1938 scheme, I used painting instructions from the Airfix kit via Scalemates (as the China war example was unsurprisingly not included in this kit aimed at the Japanese domestic market). I noticed the Airfix club boxing of their 72nd scale kit had surrender markings and found a photo online to back this up. I thought this would make a very good use of the pre-painted model F-Toys as it would provide an authentially green base for the roughly applied white paint. Although this photo has limited detail, first hand account of these aircraft describe hastily applied white paint with the original markings often quite visible underneath. Interestingly the Airfix Kate has partially scratched out Hinomaru which are definitely not visible on this photo and I have seen it represented elsewhere in model form as a bare metal bird. I'm going to stick with the white and base it on the photograph. For more details on the origin of the kit and some lovely interior detailling, see my other post: On this model I skipped most of the interior detail - very little is visible and I don't plan to try and open up the canopy either on this one. I did paint the cockpit seats and sides in appropriate green, then sealed it up with Tamiya ET. Some filler was applied and I overpainted this with green from the AK 3G set - not a perfect match for the F-toys greens, but sufficient for this project. Next up, the decals. In a way these were the motivating factor to get this build moving along so quickly. The F-Toys decals are notoriously thick - making them easy to handle but they don't like panel lines or curved surfaces and on my last build - a P-40N - I had to peel them off and start again. Therefore before risking my carefully painted B5N1, I applied these decals to the N2 and fortunately they generally behaved with some panel line conformity and those on the fuselage sides remained in place too. For the scheme, I don't have a reference for the underlying scheme or even the unit to which the white Kate belongs. The kit I chose had markings for the 931st Naval Air Unit which, accord to limited info I found online, operated from 1944 until the war's end from Kushira Air Base in southern Japan and appears to have operated from several islands including Saipan - so it is not unreasonable that one of their Kates might have been used after the surrender to convey a dignitary or just for a US pilot's joyride perhaps? Next job, a little paint chipping to reflect a late war-worn model and varnish before starting with the white.

I did research this issue for a recent build of a 2TAF Spitfire XIV in Belgium and after scouring every photo I could find of the period I didn't see a single carrier sadly. The Soviets also used them as did the French in postwar Indochine, but again no photos I have yet found of them as airfield service vehicles sadly. Following with interest if any do emerge as I have a couple of lovely 3d printed carriers that would look great on an airfield!

Very nicely done and a plausible back story. I love all the paint details.

The Spitfire is on a temporary hold because I need to order some different decals for the letter codes. I had a shot at paint on the Emil and discovered that the Ak 3rd gen RLM79 (1941) is very very yellow! Really not sure if this is going to need a complete repaint

Pottering along with this one. The underside was delightfully easy to paint, just a dry brush of metallics over the grey paint and it came up a treat. The upper was more work, copying the camouflaged pattern.

Lovely work. My favourite period to see modelled, particularly the 3rd rail units. Very effective weathering.

Lovely work on the model and an eye catching display.

I brush the AK 3Gs and tap water works fine, these are my favourite paints for brushing. (however their colour choices can be suspect, the RAF Greens and Greys are definitely a little off)

Always fun to see some 144th builds underway. Of the Zvezda kits, I think the Hs126 and I-16 have the best reputation - but certainly wouldn't help to balance out the weight of the Tomcat. The Eduard né Platz P-47D will definitely be the best build in your ministash, lovely kit but do be aware the decals are of the new Eduard sort, so ultra thin and delicate.

Early 1945, a Spitfire XIV of the RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force is refuelled at a recaptured airfield near Eindhoven. This build was part of my 12 Builds of Christmas project - this started as a desire to take a break from a number of very complicated builds that were clogging up my bench and sapping the mojo, instead to focus on 12 straight forward builds on straight forward vignette bases - using a production line technique for efficiency. I started on the 12th December with the original plan to complete all the builds by the 22nd January IPMS Bolton show. As it was, the project took a lot longer, as one might expect. Instead I ended up splitting the project in half and completing the first six during February of which this was one. The kit is by Mark 1 Models, I have built one up before, as a Belgian postwar example, so was already aware of the challenges - it is a typical short run production with some ambivalently fitting parts and plenty of filler needed. There is an impressive build in the AK Interactive 144th propellor plane book which blends parts of this kit with the much finer Eduard IX, but I couldn't bring myself to sacrifice one of those now rare Eduard mouldings and the XIV for me at least passes the 'duck' check (looks like, sounds like)! I had originally planned to make up one of the XVIII Spitfire models (the same sprue, but different decals) however the uncertainty of the scheme colours (Mark 1 make good decals but often seem to reference dated information for their colour profiles) led me to change to this 2TAF example which is well photographed and regularly modelled. The cockpit interior is standard for the scale, I just added belts but no extra detail as it will be a closed cockpit. When built up, the model was left with some rather noticeable seam lines along the fuselage and a very big gap at the wing root which didn't seem to want to fit at all with the fuselage parts. The butt joined tailplanes and rudder have to be left carefully supported for 24 hours to get a firm bond. The prop was certainly well attached to the sprue! After a nice dose of putty and fitting the rather awkward landing gear, construction was complete and it joined the rest of the extended family. I painted up with the new AK 3rd Gen paints. These brush beautifully but the colour choices are very suspect. I'm definitely no colour chip connoisseur, but even to my eyes the green was just wrong - it completely lacked the olive tone of the RAF Dark Green. Fortunately I hadn't started decals, so I repainted the green with Revell Aqua 68 with far better results to my eyes. Decals were painless, then brushed on some Citadel Matt Varnish. All twelve of the aircraft are to be based on my new standard base type - 10x10cm canvas boards with masked edges to provide a white border. All of my models are intended to be shown on model show displays, so having a distinctive base makes for a nice consistency and good visibility, it also makes them much more convenient for transporting. The most iconic pictures of the 2TAF Spitfires in the Netherlands show them in very wet muddy conditions, so I made the base suitably grubby. I planned throughout the build to add a lot of detail to the scene with figures and vehicles. I used the excellent Ray Rimes 144th 3d printed vehicles - the Bedford QLD and a start cart too. Quality is more than sufficient for display use and the solid windows I picked out in metallics. I added decals to the tanker using spare decals from the Beacon Models Spitfires and some muddy weathering. The figures are from Arrowhead Minatures whitemetals range, good detail but come on small standing bases that have to be cut away very carefully. One of them is holding a hose nozzle so I had the idea to make him rolling out the hose, which was formed from some folded Tamiya tape. So this wrapped up this build which is definitely my favourite so far. Thanks for reading and enjoy the photos. And lo the last of the first half of the twelve builds of Christmas came to a close. The remaining six will hopefully return to the bench in April for decals and vignettes - keep any eye on my Instagram for more.

I love these old kits and seeing them modernised. Look forward to seeing more.