Jay Gee

Fantastic job Dunny, especially on the internals and you have photos to prove it!

Excellent work Russ. I have a 1/72 scale planned and am wondering what paints you used?

Lovely work Ray and a great collection too.

I think the main issue is never buy a battlefield helicopter that is made from composites. I've heard of some instances where a chopper lands out bush and a tree stump/rock/fence picket punches up through the floor. Easy(ish) fix with an aluminium airframe, but a lengthy process with composites. Plus the issues with the mounting of machine guns doesn't help it's role as an Army chopper either, apparently the side doors couldn't open if the guns were out.

Build more models and post more photos! Excellent work on all of them, well done.

Thanks Bertie, I've had the Humbrols for years and the only paints I can get a hold of without ordering online are Humbrols from the aviation museum up in Darwin. Slowly moving to SMS paints as I need new paint. Thanks Pinback. I have read that book along with a few others by Michael, all very good reads. And I barrack for Carlton. It's a shame that the 75 Sqn emblem is a Magpie, it's the only Magpie that I'd let into my house! Thanks Steve, I've been watching your fantastic build and am in awe of the work you've put in. It'll look great once it's all done!

G'day everyone, Here is my latest completion from about a week ago (hence the dust) a ModelSvit Mirage IIIO in 1/72 scale. It is painted using Humbrol enamels with a Vallejo panel wash in the colours of A3-81 while with 75SQN RAAF (now RMAF) Base Butterworth in Malaysia. The instructions called for yellow triangles on the upper wing surfaces, but I decided to go without them as I think it looks better. This took me a few months to finish as I moved house during the build and I had to go away for work, but other than that the kit went together very well. The biggest issue was working with photo etch in 1/72 scale, sloppy hand skills on my part and mainly that it is a jet. For some reason I found it hard to find the mojo to get into it, maybe because life got in the way during the build. Thanks for looking. JG. The canopy started to fall down as I took this front on picture. I'm slowly building a collection to go with my 75 Squadron bar mat all in 1/72 scale. The Vampire is a Special Hobby Mk 9 in the markings of 78 Wing when 75 & 76 SQNs were based in Malta in the early 1950s. Only thing to say about that is it needed LOTS of nose weight... and Nose Wheel Well weight..... and cockpit weight to prevent it being a tail sitter. That's why there's no close up of that one. I'm working on a P-51 at the moment with a Meteor and 2 Hornets (A & B models) in the stash. Just have to find a CAC Sabre conversion and an F-35A. Not a very good photo as this is currently in my poorly lit and very dusty shed, but I have a new shed with man cave planned.

After finding myself in stage 6, I finally decided to succumb to my kids (10 yr old girl and 7 yr old boy) nagging and let them build 2 of the new Airfix Spitfire MkV kits I had on the stash waiting for the right set of decals to appear. I showed them the instructions, let them cut the parts off (I trimmed with the knife), let them glue it together with their finger prints left on the plastic and we were onto the next step before the glue had dried. After about 2 hours they had their own Spitfire. Next day they brush painted using Humbrol enamel tins "this smells like the back room dad!" No care for colours or camo pattern, my son wanted black undersides and red upper wings. Just build for the joy of it and I think I had more fun than they did. Sometimes it's good to just build like a kid now and then.

I think the Italeri kit has the short sponsons you're after. I haven't seen any of the Zvezda Herc kits, so not sure what they offer.

Beautiful work. I've built a few of these Eduard 1/72 kits and I'm very jealous of the detail you managed to squeeze in there.

Cookie, Wow! That's all. JG

Hi Gary, Depending on what C-130 model you're doing, the area in front of the MLG wheel sponson will have either a Gas Turbine Compressor or an Auxiliary Power Unit. I think up to the early H models (such as RNZAF) the C-130s were fitted with a GTC with a short sponson, while from mid range H models onwards (not sure exactly when) the APU was fitted with longer sponsons. I never worked on E models with a GTC but I heard the main differences were: No AC Generator fitted to them. It was up in the arm pit area below the LH wing and needed bleed air to operate. The APU had the generator fitted. The APU has the rectangular door that opens out to 35deg about head height. GTC has clamshell doors just in front of wheel well around belly height. The first 2 links below show the APU, the last link shows a different arrangement for a GTC I think? (unsure, I never seen one in the wild). I believe that the A models had a hinged door that had to be manually secured after GTC shutdown be ground crew/loadmaster. On the RH side this area had the cargo compartment air-condition pack As for colours when I worked on them many years ago, H models were painted silver in the wheel wells while J models are painted white. All landing gear was white. Above the wheel well area in the armpit these were left painted in a green primer. As Saberjet said, there's not much up there apart from the tracks for the landing gear to travel up on, the screw jacks that wind the gear up, fire bottles on LH side and the hydraulic motors at the top of the screw jacks. Also dirt, plenty of dirt and gravel. https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/aero/documents/sustainment/csc/service-news/sn-mag-v1-v10/V3N4.pdf https://boxartden.com/reference/gallery/index.php/Historical-Library/Lockheed/Lockheed-C-130-Hercules/Lockheed_C-130_08-960 https://www.cascadeaerospace.com/services/military/echo/ Hope this helps, JG.

The last picture brings back painful memories to my shins and elbows!

Ahhh seen. Pictures weren't opening on the phone I was using.

From memory there are Water Lines, Butt Lines, Fuselage Stations and Load Sation which is what you'll see in the cargo compartment. The centre of the fuselage is at WL200. With the wings they are separated into Center Wing Station (CWS) and Outer Wing Station (OWS), the Outer Wing attaching to the Centre Wing at the rainbow fitting just outboard of the inboard engines. The CWS of these rainbow fittings (the ends of the center wing) is CWS220 so the whole span of the center wing is 440 inches. I think, it's been a while.

Great photos! They have done a great job and I must check it out the next time I'm down that way. Since living up here in the NT with the old B-24 airstrips all over the place I've taken a bit more of an interest in them. About 25 years ago after one of the many trips to the RAAF museum at Point Cook back to Geelong, my dad decided to take a bit of a scenic detour when I spotted a small brown sign that simply said 'B-24 Liberator'. We quickly pulled in and had a guided tour with one of the team members around the B-24. There wasn't much to see as at that stage it was just the fuselage with plenty of re-skinning to do, maybe an engine or two, a landing gear strut with various tools and other bits laying around the hangar. It was great afternoon.

Brilliant work!

Hello everyone, Here is my latest finish from a while ago (but only just took some pictures), of an Eduard Hellcat Mk II in the colours of 1844 Sqn FAA on HMS Indomitable. I got a Silhouette stencil cutter for Christmas so I couldn't resist and used it to mark out and paint all the markings on it. Although the 4" 'Royal Navy' and serial numbers were too small for the machine so I used the decal resulting in a bit of silvering. Other than that, it went great. Painted with Humbrol enamels. Weathered with Tamiya weathering kit, silver pencil, Vallejo pigments and panel wash. Average photos taken with my phone. Thanks for looking.

Great work Russ, it looks fantastic! I believe the P-40s were delivered to the RAAF with USAAF roundels painted on them. These were then over painted with RAAF Foliage Green before heading to the units.

Wow, that is brilliant! I spent a few years working on Hercs and after looking at your model, all the sounds and smells are coming back.

Great work on the Phantom (and on the Bucc & Lightning). I know what you mean with the decals, they are character building but it's worth it in the end.

I did look on Scalemates, but I was hoping they had somehow missed a conversion set. I've also searched many builds but haven't come across one with the forward fuselage radar either.

G'day team, I've recently managed to pick up two 1/72 Hasegawa B-24 kits for a decent price (well more decent than they usually are) to go along with some decals I've had for a while. One of the schemes that I have my eye on is a B-24L with the light weight 'stinger' tail turret as seen here https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C22605 While another scheme that I fancy has an SCR-717 radar in the forward right hand lower fuselage as seen here in photos 1, 2 & 18 https://www.b24australia.org.au/b-24-liberator/images/in-service-photos So does anyone know if there is any aftermarket for the radar and tail turret in 1/72? Or if failing that, does anyone know the size of the SCR-717 radome and cut-out? Thanks in advance.

Lovely job there Chris, the NMF looks great. What shade of blue did you use on the rudder?

Great work Heather, I've got one of these on my to do list (when Airfix release a MK VIII 🤞). Just have a few questions about your Silhouette cutter as I got one for Christmas and realised the endless colour schemes that await. I'm guessing Beaforts had serial numbers that were 8" in height? What sort of masking did you use? How does the glue of the masking go with the paint job? I have cut some stencils for a BPF Hellcat on an A4 sheet of Tamiya tape, but the 8" serial numbers were too small for the machine/masking tape combo and just ended up in a mess of ripped up tape.