Luka

Lovely little build! Still got one in the stash, so bookmarked for inspiration. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for your reactions! 🙏 I always thought the early single seat version was a design which had to mature to the later version with the defensive gunner position, until I learned that the initial design actually had that gunner position already installed..

Hello Britmodellers, Although Academy's IL-2 decal sheet provides a myriad of nice options, I just had to choose something different. The inspiration for this version came from Massimo Tessitori's excellent site on Soviet warplanes. A new spinner came from the spares box, and the gun barrels were replaced with lengths of brass tube. New exhausts are from Quickboost. Thanks for watching! Luka

Vacforming over a positive/male mould is actually easy to do at home with simple basic tools, but it requires several tries to get it right. I have a yt vid on that if you're interested. Also, i if you can make the canopy master plug by 3d printing it (do take the thickness of the plastic into account though), you're basically halfway there. This process will yield a thin and very clear canopy (like a blisterpack), albeit with somewhat soft and basic detail. Bubble canopies come out ok, heavily framed ones (like the Stuka or Zero) less so. Vacforming into a negative/female mould seems trickier (I have never done this type). For example, the aftermarket canopies from Rob Taurus (CZ) are made this way and they have good detail too; noticably sharper than the first method. The nice part here is that a female mould can nowadays be 3d printed quite easily (as opposed to having to create a female mould from a male mould first when using 'old school' technology). As for polishing, I have never needed to polish vac canopies (they come out quite clear) but for normal styrene or the odd resin transparency I first use a fine nail polishing stick, and then add a layer of gloss acrylic floor wax (Future, Parket Plus, HG product 51, etc.). HTH, Luka

That is one fine looking build! Like the Ching Kuo, the Tejas is one of those planes that you don't see often as a 72 kit, which is a bit of a shame. Hope to see more of those!

Great looking Veltro! I have the same kit lined up for a similar treatment (REAF plane). Your build inspires me to get it just a little faster onto the bench!

That's a sharp looking build as usual! Italeri's big gliders were always unique kits and pretty good too, especially for their time. Nice one! 👍

Thank you! Before the airworthy Fokker D.XXI rebuild from Hoogeveen (2022, NL) was completed we had to make do with T-6 'stand-ins'. Still, those planes were very impressive to teenage me. Thanks! Some of those were indeed seen in that movie during the tank ambush on the narrow road in the South of North Brabant. In fact, they wore some other coats as well; in Soldaat van Oranje (Soldier of Orange) they posed as a US P-47 and also as 'generic' German fighter planes (even though the T-6 doesn't look anything like a Bf109E).

Thank you!🙏

Thanks for your compliments! The exhaust though is hidden under the fuselage in these pics; it has a configuration similar to the Yak 15.

Yes, and also YTers like Ed Nash plus a podcast with Rex's Hangar and Lazerpig among others. And I got the first Dilbert comic book too somewhere.

Hello Britmodellers, The Bf109TL1 was a design for a jet propelled Bf109 with a configuration reminiscent of the Yak 15. After the Second World War many German aircraft stockpiles were seized by the Allied forces, but some were overlooked or forgotten. It was from these stockpiles that new planes were quietly being assembled for the fledging Elbonian Air Force. Thirteen airframes were built and supplied to the 1st Flying Fighter Squadron in early 1946. Due to its typical side profile view it was dubbed the "Tadpole" by its pilots. Thanks for watching, and happy April 1st! 😉

The Revell kit is already a little gem, but this build looks absolutely top tier! Those sharp close-up shots really give it the impression of it being a larger scale model. Great looking Jug!

Cool! I've got the same kit plus a sacrificial F-16 for the landing gear and gun port, so thanks for that belly shot; nice reference! Love the camo scheme too, it looks so much much better than the kit colours. Good work!

Hello Britmodellers, The Harvard/Texan has often been used to simulate other aircraft in the movies, so here's my rendition of a "Fokker D.XXI" as portrayed in the 1977 Dutch war movie "Soldaat van Oranje". Note the size difference between the converted HobbyBoss T-6G and a PM D.XXI. Thanks for watching! Luka