Starfighter

Many thanks, Jamie, you've been most helpful. I'm reading " The Death Of The Scharnhorst " by John Winton at the moment, and that inspired me to get the Tamiya model, plus the fact that my Father served in HMS Belfast, although that was during the Korean War. 🙂

Hi Guys, I have the Tamiya 1/700 Scharnhorst kit to build, and I'm after some info on camouflage / colour schemes for the kit. The model has an enclosed bridge, which I understand was fitted after the channel dash, and I've seen photos of her with dark superstructure and hull, but with light bow and stern. I've also seen pictures of a rather elaborate camouflage pattern, so my question is what would be correct for this model ? I do have the Snyder and Short Kriegsmarine colour chips, so I would be able to refer to them if needs be.

Superbly done, Calum, and I like the nicely restrained weathering.

Cheers, Antti, I was thinking of the Corogard as applied to KC 135's at that time ( A dull silver shade ) As I said before I do remember the leading edges of intakes being a different surface finish, although still camouflage colour, so maybe that was it. Mind you, it WAS a long time ago and the old memory cells are not what they were, so you're probably right.

I wholeheartedly agree, hence my avatar. Ever since I saw a line up of German F-104G's on my first detachment to Sardinia I've been hooked ! My other " Obsessions " would be the F-100 Super Sabre, and Hawker Hurricane.

Wow, thar's just excellent ! I've always preferred the Razorback version, and the weathering is really superb as well . thanks for sharing.

nNot a 109, but i did have at one time the glass fitting for the starboard wing trailing edge light from one of our Phantom FGR 2's, and that had blue glass in it, but when illuminated it did look green. HTH.

This picture was taken at Wethersfield 's Open Day on 17th. June, 1961

Many thanks for the info, GRM , that's something I didn't Know. Just as well I haven't drilled the holes out for the fairings yet ! Once again, many thanks.

Hi guys, I have a questyon for all you FW190 experts . . . just received my Eaglecals decal set ( EC 76 ) and according to their info the a/c I wish to depict ( "Red 11 " from IV/JG54. )did not have the upper wing cannon fairings fitted ? I do have the Valiant Wings Airframe & miniature No. 7, which details every variant of the FW190A - 8, and nowhere does it show the upper wings without these fairings, so which one is likely to be right ? I'm inclined to go with the book, as it's very comprehensive, but if anyone has any info on this I'd bee most grateful.

I think you're right, Georgio . . . It certainly wasn't 34079 " forest Green "

Regarding the gun pod colour, as I remember them during my time as an armourer on 17 Squadron they were painted olive drab, and not dark green. The article states that they could have possibly been FS34079, but if you look at page 85 of that book there's a superb underside shot of a 6 Squadron FGR 2 with gun pod, and it clearly looks like olive drab, or something very similar, HTH. PS : Someone will come along with a pic of a pod painted dark green, you wait and see ! 😁

As I remember during my time at Bruggen ( 1971 - 74 ) our gun pods painted a brown shade of olive drab and not dark green. I have a photo which shows the markings and colouring, so if you PM me I'll email it back to you. My email : [email protected]

As I remember our FGR 2's on 17 Sqdn. did not have coroguard wing and intake leading edges, The camouflage on the upper wings continued around and under the wing leading edge by about 4 - 5 ". the intake edges were dark grey, almost the same as the camo, but a more matt finish. Also, a lot of the Sargent Fletcher wing tanks had their noses painted in a similar grey. HTH.

As an extra bit of info the early dk. green / dk. grey FGR 2's inner wing pylons were white with aluminium / silver painted leading edges, and not grey, as some sources say. HTH

Just a quick heads up regarding the engine deck grills : if you do decide to get some make sure they are for a Panther A or D, as the Panther G grills were narrower and slightly different shape. HTH.

That first photo of XT901 is interesting, as it later became part of my old squadron ( 17 ) based at Bruggen, and as far as I remember during my time there ( Dec. 1971 - June 1974 ) I don't recall any reinforcing plates being fitted, especially the under fuselage one. HTH.

I used the plastic track pins, and they worked perfectly. Have fun fitting the guide horns to the links ! 😁

Looking at the scale drawings in the Daco book " Uncovering The T/F-104G Starfighter " the single seater has a removable centreline panel to enable fitting of the pylon, but the TF - 104G has a different panel layout, so I would think that they are different. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me will be along to add more information. HTH .

I went with the late shells as they were easier to paint ! 😁

Thanks for the kind words, Houston. There is another post on the forum with more photos , which I posted after I worked out how to load them.

Regarding the " L " shape markings on the forward AIM7 E fins British Phantoms DID have those markings, as I well remember fitting them as a Phantom armourer during my days in RAF Germany. I also checked in Patrick martin's excellent book on British Phantoms, and there are quite a few photos showing these markings as fitted to our FGR 2's and FG1's . HTH .

Here is my Panther G model, which has taken me about 9 months to complete, which was fun ( Especially the seperate guide horns on the track links ! ) All comments ( Good or bad ) welcome.

Hope this is OK . . . Just joined hobbyphotohost.com, and am trying out my image posting. Just finished this beast, so if it's OK I'll post some more pics tomorrow. Moderators feel free to delete if not OK.