nicholas mayhew

Bit late, but if you airbrush, try MRP. lacquer, ready to spray (no thinning), touch dry in seconds, dry really hard; wide colour range, inc British colours. There are one or two colours from Tamiya in their lacquer range that are their equal, but as a range MRP are simply best paints to spray.

Check out the Fundekals website - one of their sets has some very clear close ups you will also find clear diagrams in Dana Bell’s books on the Corsair (can’t recall if it’s vol 1 or 2, sorry).

I imagine this is new information for most modellers...so may I ask what, apart from MG-FFs, actually makes an E-3 and E-3? And as to the rounded vs square canopies, why is this not considered an indicator? (i guess the answer to this question lies in the answer to my first one) Have we been misidentifying 109s all these years in instances where we can't see the WNr or we can but haven't cross-checked it with factory production records? Every day is a school day as they say

Even if it is from a movie etc it’s still fascinating to watch. Thank you for posting.

MRP paints spray wonderfully well and have colours for RAF roundels

then in my head I owe you an apology @Bozothenutter - a play on words fine, but a Latin one!? I feel educated as well as amused!! happy new year to you

the OP said he is interested in accuracy, and specifically interested in the A-8 variant D Bellis on the LSP thread posted comparison photos and text of Revell and Hasegawa A-8s which I would have thought would be very useful? Or perhaps I am missing something?

Just giving this another bump as Zotz have (re-?)released some XIV decals in 1/32 which i think has been prompted by Laminar Flow Design's excellent 3DP conversion for the Tamiya VIII or IX... unfortunately Zotz still seem to be propagating the Brunhilde as RB188 without any (new) pictures to back it up - it sells decal sheets i guess

Hi Jack, thanks for coming back on this, and I do hope you finish your build one day soon! very interesting re the roundels - and I get what you say about the whole point being to get rid of any red / avoid confusion with Hinomaru etc such a shame there are no colour shots of any of these Corsairs, but the more I think about it, the more I’m with you on the ‘no red’ (even if I think it looks smarter with red lol) thanks again, you and others here on BM have helped with research for potential future project(s) a great deal Happy modelling Nick

@JackG hi, just wondering if this ever got finished / whether you will be resurrecting it? also, re-the colours of the roundels you posted in this image (below)... what is your take on the underwing roundel of '6S'? the Fundekals website / research seems to show white then red then blue - which is what i had always thought, but wondering if i am missing something obvious? and has the outer portion of '6C's fuselage roundel been painted with one of the TSS scheme colours? Cheers Nick

what a fascinating thread and thanks to all that have contributed my 'contribution' is just a question I'm afraid...can someone show with pictures or diagrams what the changes to the lights looked like that are mentioned on FAA Corsairs ie approach light added, landing lights removed etc? Kind regards, Nick

Lovely overall finish i like the wheels and also the weathering on engine deck and other bits in the close up shots not a huge fan of the turret top dust effects - looks way to white / bright Caribbean beach sand to my eyes i love the weathering / damaged paint / re-paint areas on the side many thanks for sharing Nick

Great build - looks very convincing Nenad is there a WIP thread? Or can you summarise the changes you made to make this an accurate F2? many thanks Nick

lots of cool pictures, but i wouldn't trust much of their labelling - you will need to verify that yourself if accuracy is the focus

i would not generally go off a kit's painting guide for marking schemes as there are often inaccuracies; I would be very wary of Trumpeter in this case. The Dora is pretty well documented, so have a look round and pick something you like maybe? Given the lack of nose art and victory markings etc, you should be ok to scale up pretty much anything you see in either 1/48 or 1/32 via paint masks - for something this size i would not use decals For stencils, have a look at OneManArmy - they may do a set in 1/24? Best of luck with the project Nick

Can someone post the image that’s being discussed?

A great selection of pics, thank you for posting what piqued my interest - and apologies for going *very* off topic was that in the first VZ- aircraft, it’s a pretty decent close-up and the paint demarcation looks to be a genuine hard edge to me ie one which could not be achieved free hand with an airbrush (unless of course the RAF was handing out 0.2mm needle airbrushes lol). now this is not a grail moment for all those saying masking matts were used (I have not seen any photographic or documentary proof, but it may be out there who knows?), but it does to me look like if they weren’t used that this particular Spit was brush painted? What do we think? PS the second VZ-B *could* be the same airframe, but it is definitely *not* the same paint job - the demarcation / locations of letters relative to camo lines and roundel are different. thanks again Nick

Carefully compare anything produced by most decal manufacturers against photos of the actual airframe if you care about accuracy. Xtradecal are slipshod at best; the attitude of the designer is in no way surprising but both him and Big H will only alter their ways if sales of their poorly researched sheets are near zero. Experience tells us that most people either don’t care, or just take it as a given that what they are buying is accurate.

I believe the chief designer had serious health problems/ may have passed away; at least Revell are back with more single engined 1/32, but the poor old Do17 seems destined for smaller scale only - very sad btw all those 88s and 111s which you couldn’t give away back when this thread started now go for big bucks

lovely looking Spit! what is your reference / source for those underside colours by factory? not disputing / disagreeing, just interested! Nick

@Retired Bob hi Rob, may I ask what scheme you are planning? I am looking for KG55 logos for a 1/32 Bf109 G (yes you read that correctly btw) He111 emblems are way too big but am thinking the 1/48 may be suitable (even though I would have to touch up the shield background colour to look vaguely yellow). Even if the KG55 machine is what you were planning, I wonder would you mind telling me the height and width at widest part of the decals in your kit? At least then I will know if I am on the right track. Cheers Nick

ha ha no, i actually donated them; one went to a local kid who makes models, and the others were given to Models For Heroes - a charity which helps veterans here in the UK; I donated about one third of my stash to them. i am currently building a Tamiya P-51 and it has been a revelation; there's a lot to it, but everything just 'works'; I decided in the Summer that life is just too short to build kits which are a PITA, but of course others may choose a different path Happy modelling! Nick

I would wait for the Kotare kit. I junked all my Revell Spits as soon as I heard about the new company.

hi Lee, Would you be able to share this info if you have a spreadsheet or something?

it’s a shame their quality control wasn’t on top of their game too 😐 as to sales, it appears to be doing very well here in UK - which I reckon will account for the vast majority of sales; this is just my own guesstimate, not based on any hard data - but I do know that Mike Jolly / MJR Models and Hobbies (who have a massive Facebook group) have already sold over a 150 if that means anything?