elger

Small update. I added part of the Aires sidewall to the fuselage. The clearest sign that 'old' Airfix copied the Tamiya interior is the square housing in the front of the nose for the bomb sight. Airfix does not supply a bomb sight, and the ones supplied by Tamiya as well as Revell are course setting bomb sights which were only fitted to early aircraft. The B.IV will be built as a pathfider of 627 squadron, and I wanted to add a mk XVI bomb sight. This is one of my first 'serious' scratchbuilding attempts (inspired by Mark's Catalina build); I built the sighting head and the computer out of Evergreen styrene, parts from the spares box, stretched sprue and copper wire. Thanks for looking!

And another thing that's potentially worth keeping in mind is that the first Dutch Do-24Ks had 3 identical turrets - they were all the kind that's featured only as the front one by the Italeri kit. Later ones (at least from X-24 onward) still had identical front and rear turrets, but the middle one was much larger and fitted with a cannon, as featured on the kit. Although the front turret has the right shape, it should be lowered a bit. In other words, the front turret supplied in the kit is the type that should also be fitted to the rear (as well as the middle one for the early examples). The trouble is that (apart from not supplying two front turrets) the tail actually isn't wide enough. This could be fixed quite easily by adding some styrene as a spacer. You also might want to look at the differences between the type and position of the landing lights in the T and K variant.

It should be pointed out that this Dornier in the NMM is actually a Do-24 T (with BMW engines) and not a Do-24 K (with Wright Cyclones) as used by the Dutch and later the Australians. I believe the Do-24 in the museum is actually a restored composite of 2 airframes operated by German forces during ww2 and is on loan from the IWM.

You can find at least one Dutch Do-24 scheme on the recently released DK decal sheet (see preview here https://www.scalemates.com/kits/352893-dk-decals-72005-do-24-catalina)in addition to some Australian ones. You could also try getting sheet FD-72-023 "Royal Netherlands Navy Over The Dutch East Indies 1939-1942" here http://www.flevodecals.net/winkel.php?catid=5. The DK decal sheet provides a late option; the Flevo decal sheet is of earlier aircraft, featuring the orange triangle as the national insignia.

Very basics: common for cockpits is RLM66 (even for most early subjects like 109Es, JU88A-1s etc - but check photos as much as possible especially for these early types). All other interior parts (e.g. wheel wells) are RLM02. Looking forward to replies with exceptions to the rule!

Abomination is a bit of a strong word for the Revell kit, I admit. In addition to the things mentioned one really odd thing I noticed is the asymmetrical navigator side windows on the nose. Another thing that's a bit strange (but easily fixable) is the much blunter leading edge of the tail fin (both Airfix and Tamiya are much sharper). Thanks for all the interest; I've been working on the cockpit interior and I will post some photos in a couple of weeks I expect. Work is always busy and can only properly work on models on the weekends.

It is honestly my aim to get rid of AMS. I really want to just build a kit and be happy with it. Compromise is good. I know that adding resin and PE does not necessarily improve a model and can, in fact, make it worse. The more you add the more mistakes you'll make (I certainly do). There is no such thing as a perfect kit; all kits have their flaws and only true masters can really effectively kit bash. I truly aim to build a kit as OOB as possible some day this year. Today however, is not that day. I have been obsessed with the idea of creating the 'ultimate' De Havilland Mosquito in 1/48th scale. It literally keeps me up at night sometimes. One build that inspires me (and fuels the obsession) is Yoyuso's build of a PR.XVI: http://www.geocities.jp/yoyuso/mosquito/mosquitoe-1.html. I believe this is one of the best Mosquito models out there. I do wonder if he got the length correct of the 2-stage Merlins however. Apart from that, this is about as good as it gets. I am not nearly as good as Yoyuso. When you buy the 1/48 Airfix mk XVI, you get two fuselages; you can build a mk XVI, but the box also contains all the necessary parts to build the classic FB.VI, on which the kit mk XVI kit is based on. There is a review of it on Britmodeller here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234969271-de-havilland-mosquito-prxvi-148/. Don't let the pictures fool you: the exhausts of the kit are not hollow :-). The rest gives a very good indication of what's in the box. Somebody once described the Airfix mk XVI fuselage as "a bad copy of the Tamiya kit". This is not entirely true; I do believe the interior details are a (poor) copy of the Tamiya kit, but the overall shape of the fuselage is different in certain ways. Not only the shape of the tail (which Tamiya gets wrong) but the cross section is slightly different too. Anyway, the main thing is that there are two sets of fuselages in that box which made me think of the possibility of building two aircraft: a B.IV (using the bomber fuselage) and an FB.VI (using the fighter fuselage). I've become more interested in the shape of a model - not so much as some, but still. For example, when I see a 48th scale model of a P-51D and I particularly like it, it usually turns out to be the Hasegawa kit. The same with Mosquitos: when I do an image search and click on a thumb nail, the ones that look best to me turn out to be Airfix Mosquitos. This is the main reason I'm choosing the Airfix kit as a base for the two aircraft I'm building. However, although the Airfix mk XVI kit contains parts to build either a bomber or a fighter, you can't build both. In addition, the details of the Airfix kit are quite poor and somewhat limited. For instance, the wheelbays are devoid of detail, and it only comes with the wide, paddle blade propellers. This is why I decided to improve the Airfix kits with certain parts of the Tamiya kits. Yoyuso uses the Tamiya fuselage which he heavily modifies. A difference he points out in his article is that the fuselages have a different shape. I'm posting a screenshot of the article here to save his bandwidth. I am very much aware that looking at photos taken with different kinds of lenses with different focal points and different angles etc create distortion so it's all a bit relative, however, I believe that based on the photo below, the Airfix fuselage gives a better impression. The Tamiya nose looks too flat to me. One reason why he uses the Tamiya fuselage rather than Airfix is that the Airfix canopy has a mistake. In his article, Yoyuso points out that the "A-pillar" of the Airfix canopy is curved, whereas it should be straight. This is indeed an issue. About two and a half years ago, I bought the 1/48 Revell Mosquito. The Revell Mosquito is an abomination; I do not understand why Brett Green calls it "the best detailed Mosquito in any scale" (http://www.hyperscale.com/2009/reviews/kits/revell04555reviewbg_1.htm) - even in terms of detail, the Tamiya kit is vastly superior, let alone all the well-documented shape issues. Anyway, I bought it mainly for the decals and to cannibalize any parts that could be of use. There are very few of those because it is truly terrible. The thing is, I love the Revell canopy, and it largely solves the A-pillar problem of Airfix identified by Yoyuso. I took the Airfix fuselage, and reshaped the canopy section so that I could fit the Revell clear parts. Another thing that I'll be doing with the B.IV is that I'll be using the Airfix upper wing and the Tamiya lower wing and engine nacelles. The reason for using the Airfix upper wing is that a) they were in the kit box and b.) they fit easily into the fuselage slot making assembly much easier. I am using the original fighter wings, not the newer bomber wings with the heavy trenches. Neither set of wings (fighter or bomber) fits particularly well onto the bomber fuselage by the way; there is a gap near the front that is unavoidable. The reason for using the Tamiya lower wings is that the nacelles are much more detailed (shape and landing gear bays). Also the underwing radiators are much better with the Tamiya kit. And as a bonus, the Airfix upper and Tamiya lower wing halves are almost a perfect match and fit each other with only a small amount of modification needed (it would seem at this point). The shape of the fuselage is also the main consideration for using the Airfix fuselage rather than Tamiya for building the FB.VI. The tail rudder height is a well-documented issue of the Tamiya kit, but as with the bomber version, the canopy has a slightly different shape, and in my opinion, Airfix captures the look better. Left Airfix, right Tamiya. The Airfix canopy is deeper, Tamiya more flat. Because I will be using the Airfix upper wings from the mk XVI kit for the bomber, I will need to use all the wing parts of a Tamiya kit for the fighter. This also meant that I had to modify the shape of the wing slots of the fighter kit to emulate the Tamiya kit. I cut out the slots from the fuselage and glued the back plates back into the hole, as flush as possible with the rest of the fuselage. Next, I carefully measured the Tamiya kit and cut the slots for the Tamiya wing spar part into the fuselage. With a little bit of strip styrene and some filler putty when I actually assemble the thing, this will work! Summarizing, here's what I've got: an Airfix mk XVI kit; a Tamiya B.IV and a Tamiya NF.XIII kit, a Revell B.IV kit, and an old Airfix FB VI that I'm also cannibalizing for parts (because I need to get ailerons and some cockpit parts from somewhere). Basics: 2 models out of 4 boxes and 1 old assembled kit. B.IV Airfix XVI fuselage Airfix FB.VI (from XVI box) upper wings Tamiya IV lower wings, nacelles and propellers Airfix [old cannibalized FB.VI) ailerons. Revell canopy Airfix XVI front cockpit floor + Airfix [old cannibalized FB.VI) cockpit walls + mid and rear deck FB.VI Airfix FB.VI (from XVI box) fuselage Tamiya upper and lower wings, nacelles and propellers Airfix XVI ailerons Airfix FB.VI (from XVI box) cockpit parts. I also have a lot of aftermarket parts for 1/48 Mosquitos that I've accumulated over the last couple of years which I will also be using. So, am I wasting a lot of beautiful kits for this little project? Absolutely. But I'm having the best time Phew! Maybe I can sleep tonight, having written this down. Updates will be slow but I do hope these two planes will be built over the next couple of months.

All very interesting and familiar sounding good luck with your research and build! Perhaps because essentially, a mk V was a mk II with the Dowty undercarriage?

also some helpful discussion here http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=46638

It's almost ready for paint. I used some of the parts of the Alley Cat update set: the control surfaces, the bulges and the air intakes on the nose. I'm particularly happy with how the gunsight turned out. It's from the CMK set. Thanks for looking!

Minor update. I assembled the fuselage and started on the wings. Following Lyn Ritger's comments on Hyperscale (http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/message/1417605590/Oh+my+gawd+Darren%2C+you+don%27t+even+know+how+hard+we+facepalmed...) I deviated from the instructions and attached the lower wing halves first. In theory this should improve the fit, and it did at least on the left wing. The right wing will still need some filler. In addition, I was able to install parts 26 (left) and 84 (right) which are labeled 'not for use' in the instructions' (http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=46590).

I was thinking again the other day about cross kitting the old Matchbox kit and Revell kit mainly to solve the horrible engine nacelle issue - does anyone have an idea if would be possible to use the Revell upper wing and Matchbox lower wing and nacelles or is that not worth the effort?

Possibly the best 262 model I've ever seen!

yes - adjusting the length is possible; I was just clumsy by not measuring the required length properly :-)

just finished the cockpit used HGW seatbelts for the first time; the shoulder straps turned out a bit too long but over all I'm really happy with how they look. I used the kit decals on the instruments panel (cutting them out individually and then placing them in their respective places). Finally, I had a lot of fun making the diorama base. It still needs some toucing up, but over all it looks quite good I think. Thanks for looking!

There's a profile of James Rankin's Spitfire on the Victory Productions Aces of the Empire decal sheet (#19) http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Rev1/201-300/Rev289-VPD48006-Victory-Models/00.shtm

Working on the cockpit. I had bought the Aires cockpit, but it has some fit issues: the sidewalls don't fit the floor parts. Another issue is that the Revell floor actually serves to support the wing spar, so I prefer to use that part. My original idea was to use the Revell floor and Aires sidewalls but that wouldn't work because the Aires sidewalls are too small to replace the Revell parts. Instead, I sanded off the surface detail of the Revell parts and sanded the rear of the Aires parts so they became wafer thin. I simply glued the Aires sidewalls onto the Revell parts, and made a space where the instruments panel will fit. I then installed some of the Aires PE parts, and made an oxygen hose out of copper wire. I also used the seat bucket part from the Alley Cat correction set. The cannon breech is from the Aires set, so are the stick and gun sight. I used the kit rudder pedals because they will hardly be visible once the model is finished. Thanks for looking and as always, comments and feedback is appreciated!

a little intermezzo of building the truck. The Italeri kit is not very good. The detail is rather crude which makes the whole thing look somewhat toy-like. What's worse is that I couldn't get the cabin parts to fit properly. It could be because I have little experience with vehicles, but I just couldn't figure out how the parts were supposed to go together. At least it looks like a truck? Painted interior And the end result; I painted the whole thing black first, and then used the hairbrush technique to make the paint chip effect. I used Vallejo pigments for the mud and rust effects, and a filter of misted paint for the dust effect. thanks for looking!

1/32 scale is a challenging scale for me and I'm a little apprehensive to start the project, but then again, what's life without a challenge? The main reason I'm apprehensive about 1/32 scale is because of this project of last year. Although even when I look at this photo now the finished model looks quite good, I was rather unhappy with how this project ended up at the time. There are some specific reasons why this project was somewhat unsatisfying which are not necessarily connected directly to the size, 1/32 scale. First of all, I used a hideously expensive conversion set in order to convert the model from C/D/E specification to a G. The conversion set was of very poor quality so it felt like a waste of money and it was very difficult to work with. Secondly, the other aftermarket stuff I acquired for the model wasn't actually intended for this kit, which added an additional dimension of difficulty. The last major problem was that I additionally tried to work with Vallejo Air which I just couldn't get to work, and although going back to Tamiya paints did help, the end result wasn't great. With this project, I don't have to convert the basic model to a different type, and all the aftermarket I've bought for it is intended for the Revell kit. The 109 is also significantly smaller than the 110, so in theory it should also be easier to handle. In any case, I do hope that I can build a model in 1/32 scale and be happy with the result. Back in 1997 I bought this copy of Fine Scale Modeler magazine and this article was (in terms of scale modeling) the coolest thing I had ever seen. It was a diorama featuring a Messerschmitt 109, a fuel truck and several figures. I've been wanting to build something similar ever since; this is my inspiration I will be building this aircraft: The Revell kit is great value for money: shapewise I think it's the most accurate of the 3 kits of the 109G currently on the market, and it also has a decent amount of interior compared to the competition. One of the things that can be improved upon however is the shape of the propeller blades. On the left the kit propeller, on the right replacement parts from Alley Cat. Propeller painted and weathered Landing gear painted and weathered (wheels from Barracuda) So far, so good... Feedback & comments are welcome of course!

just discovered this thread; fantastic work!

Dutch Decal also produces 1/48 sheets for 320 Squadron B-25s, including a J version. http://www.dutchdecal.nl/menu("Dutchies in the RAF" includes decals for NO-Z).

here are the sprue shots on LSM that show the 1-part nose and tail section http://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/3096-132-mosquito-bomber-sprue-shots/

I think that you could make a late (paddle blade prop) b.iv out of the 1/48 Airfix b.xvi boxing if you use the single stage Merlins and original wings.

That's very nice.

I could be wrong, but I think that the squarish instruments panel attached on the left hand side of the cockpit actually replaced the instruments panel that is attached to the upper canopy on later HE-111 models. I don't think they had both at the same time.