Michael louey

Final British themed post for the time being - While all the reference material on Spitfire VIII's was handy after building A58-606 I decided to tackle A58-526. I've always found the nose art for this aircraft with its irreverent humor to be quite appealing. This is one of Eduard's profipacks but the decals are from the Aussie 8 boxing and I've added the block tread Eduard wheels as used on RAAF Spitfires. Not a lot to say about the build as after 4 previous attempts, there wasn't much in terms of learning experience. The only new part I used on this was the smaller slipper tank as that is what appears to be attached in one of the photos of the plane available.

No worries, probably a combination of my lighting for photography/white balance or some issues with screen settings. The paints were Model Master for 02, WEM for RLM71 and RLM65. They seem to match my various RLM colour charts pretty closely. Good luck with your build. Regards Michael

This is another of the Eduard Spitfires from the Aussie 8 boxing. I'm working my way through the different RAAF units so the next one off the rank was 457 Squadron. This is the aircraft of the c/o who pulled rank and after taking his pick of 3 aircraft (he tested them and chose the best) designated the plane as "W" as befits his name. A58-606 was probably the 1st aircraft to have the now famous sharkmouths on 457 Squadron Spitfires. The background is that Bruce Watson didn't like the Brown's Cows mixture of nose art on squadron aircraft and asked his squadron to come up with a nice standardised design. Ted Sly who had been in the Desert and had seen 112 Squadrons Kittyhawks suggested the shark mouth and it was agreed upon. A58-606 started with a small sharkmouth and later graduated to the larger sharkmouth (both versions are available on the Aussie 8 sheet). The plane as depicted has been through a few more painting updates - The plane was flown to the Phillipines for testing against captured Japanese aircraft and had the sharkmouth, ace of spades wing marking, grey nurse and white leading edges all painted out. A sky blue band was also added at the same time. This sounds like it was to avoid antagonising higher brass during the testing. Following the return to Labuan the sharkmouth was reinstated but none of the other markings. Of note is that the serial on the starboard side has been repainted in black wheras the port side has the original medium sea grey serial partly over painted by the sky blue band. All in all a plane with quite a history.

Hi Jean, The colours are meant to be 02/71/65 - hope they don't look like 74/75/76 on the photos!

Zvezda Me 109F-1 - Werner Molders Wk Nbr 5628 This is Zvezda's F-2 backdated to an F-1. The build is based on information on a thread here by JackG I've made some the changes as per the original build by Jack (wing strengtheners, removal of tail stiffeners). The Zvezda kit is reputed to be the most accurate shapewise of all the current F's on the market however I found the engineering to be a bit frustrating. The upper/lower wing joins don't match existing control surface lines and getting a smooth clean join is time consuming. In addition, the air intakes requires drilling out, the mass balances need to be added and the pitot really needs replacing. Finally the canopy is made of some odd material that doesn't polish well (it's a bit like vacform clear plastic) and I ended up having to future it which is something I tend to avoid. The general markings are from various sources though the Stkz and rudder markings are from Printscale. This aircraft is quite interesting as it is the 1st F-1 and was issued to Molders who operated it during the latter stages of the Battle of Britain. Any RAF pilot seeing it would have been a bit surprised as it would differ a bit from the E's operating at the time (i.e. rounder wing tips).

Lovely build Fred - It's good to know that the Project X kits can turn out well. I have a P1081 from them to build as a "proposed" RAAF fighter. Cheers Michael

Hi Colin, I've experimented a bit with trying to get a good combination of colours for Desert Scheme. Putting aside the issue of export colours from the US, I've found the Sovereign Colourcoats set for them to match the RAF Museum colour chips pretty closely. Previously, I found the Model Master paints (which are now no longer available in Australia) were the next best matching paints. I've found Dark Earth from a number of companies including Humbrol to be close to the mark and I've used the Testors Dark Earth for Export schemes in the past. The paints I've found that haven't been a good match for Mid Stone are the old Gunze colour and the original HB12 Mid Stone (too dark and not yellow enough) though the latter is pretty theoretical as it hasn't been available for decades - I just happened to have an old can lying around. Cheers Michael

Nice build Steve - did it need much nose weight? I can see the cargo inside - was this just for effect or a way of covering the weight? Regards Michael

Hi Johnson, I'm well experienced with "Black 6" having built it twice, both times using the Fine Molds kit. Of the current alternatives, the others would be the AZ kit which others have mentioned has nose shape issues and in some cases fit problems. The other kit mentioned, the Zvezda F2 is a kit I'm currently building. Shape wise the Zvezda kit is meant to be even more accurate than the Fine Molds but some of the engineering issues I've encountered with it have made it a more difficult build than the Fine Molds. By the way, depending on how accurate you want to be, there is a bit of work converting a "F" to a "G-2". Among them are the extra inlets for the engine, possible prop size differences (unless you have a kit of an F4Z) and perhaps wheel well shapes (some F's have round wheel wells though the Fine Molds wing allows you (and requires you to for a G-2) change them to squared off wells). Another item is the Canopy - F's have a windscreen with an additional clear panel on the port side (whereas G's had a solid panel with an air vent) and the canopy has heavier framing - though "Black 6" as it was operated in the Desert had a "F" canopy as the original "G" canopy was damaged/lost. Also, whichever kit you choose, it will make life a lot easier to get a version with a "tropical filter" - I don't think the Zvezda kit has one (It also has a solid air intake). Here's my build of the G-2 and a comparison with an F-4 - you should be able to spot the differences. 109F-4 The only real issue you'll encounter is sourcing a Fine Molds kit. I've got most of mine from Japan - hopefully England has more choices than Australia. Cheers Michael

Hi, Not exactly Temperate Scheme though very similar - The early locally made Mosquitos for the RAAF were painted in Foliage Green, Earth Brown and Sky Blue scheme - http://grubbyfingersshop.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_49&products_id=277 I don't think this scheme was used operationally though - most were in all Silver or the later Grey/Green scheme. Cheers Michael

Hi Julien This was an interesting article about the background of Haze paint I read ages ago: http://34th.photorecon.org/html/aircraft/haze.html Probably not much help for modelling but gives an interesting guide on how it evolved. Looks like once again this was sourced from Dana Bell. Cheers Michael

Hi Ray, Nice to see you've got the Barracuda on the shelf at last. For all it's foibles, it is an interesting looking plane - I have the MPM kit and a newer Special Hobby kit. I expect the Special Hobby one to be much nicer. The quote you gave was one that sticks to memory - the other was the view of observers that when folded up, it looked like it had been involved in a nasty accident. Cheers Michael

Hi John, Of course you're right - As soon as you mentioned it, the memory of the 535 returned (I think it's a Swift predecessor/prototype). I must have got the false memory from the era of the movie and perhaps the mention of the DH108 early in the movie - I'll get around to rewatch it to remind me of the story line. Cheers Michael

Hi John, Thanks for putting this kit together to let us see how the DH108 looks. The plane is the central subject of the film "The sound barrier" where you get an idea of how dangerous this research was. Regards Michael

Hi Michael, I'm in Melbourne too and I think I've seen the KP Spitfire Vb around - https://www.scalemates.com/kits/kp-kovozavody-prost-jov-kpm0074-spitfire-mkvb--1020635 It's had reasonable reviews but haven't got one myself. I think I might have seen it at Gundam Plus and/or Metro Hobbies. There is a seller with some on ebay currently - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-72-WW2-Fighter-Supermarine-Spitfire-Mk-Vb-Early-aces-RAF-KP/263766758688 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-72-WW2-Fighter-Supermarine-Spitfire-Mk-Vb-Early-RAF-KP/263878065744?hash=item3d705bbe50:g:VAkAAOSwdm1bKLuR&frcectupt=true Cheers Michael

Hi Sapperastro, The only 2 stores I recall in Melbourne that had xtracolour were Snowy Mountain Models and Showcase models, both sadly closed now. I've heard there was an outer suburbs place that had some old stock but can't recall its name. Cheers Michael

Thanks for all the comments. Dave, The decals are mainly Modeldecal, a range long out of print. The Xtradecal range has similar generic codes and roundels but I found they seemed "thicker" and less willing to conform to panel lines. I damaged a set of their roundels trying to get them to settle down. I think the serials might be Techmod but don't hold me to that. It should be noted the aircraft letter "A" appears in the photo to be smaller than the "A" of the squadron code. I used 2 different size codes from the Modeldecal sheet to approximate that. Cheers Michael

Hi, I was quite happy when I heard Airfix was bringing out a new 1/72 Defiant as the MPM kit while better than the old Airfix kit never looked quite right to me. Airfix appears to have done a nice job with the new tool Defiant, the only real boo boo being the wheels which I heard were lidar'd correctly from the museum but at a time when the correct wheels had been replaced by those from a Morris Minor. When I received Alec Brew's latest book on the Defiant, it gave the impetus to build this kit as there is an image of a RAAF Defiant from 456 Squadron (the only previous photo was from Alec's earlier book "Turret Fighters which I used as reference for my earlier MPM model which is on this forum as well). As well as replacing the wheels with a set from Barracuda, I also ordered the replacement guns and aerial/pitot from Hannants. The latter aren't really necessary however in this case I needed a few extra items to reach Hannants minimum order limit. The aircraft has been finished in Gunze "cowl colour", an IJN colour which is a dark ultramarine much as RAF Night is. This is also the first time I've used Gunze's GX Flat as a dull coat. It was suggested by one of our club members. I'm always a bit wary of any of the really flat coats as they tend to give a chalky finish however in this case this was precisely the type of tatty finish I wanted for a night fighter finished in "Night". I still had to buff out the finish a bit and if I used it on another type of colour scheme I think I'll thin it out with some Mr Colour Levelling thinner. Other than the Barracuda parts mentioned, the only changes to the kit was the replacement of the wing tip lights with clear sprue, a Yahu instrument panel and some round disks to represent the landing lights. One item to note is that I only realised that the rear retracting antenna under the fuselage is actually offset to port when I was looking at some plans when working out undercarriage rake. This required some last minute updates as Airfix have put the location hole dead centre. Cheers Michael

Hi, This is a model I built a few years back but was never completely happy with. The main reason was the Humbrol colours of mid stone and dark earth were so similar in tonal value they blended together as a muddy overall brown coverage. After one of the members of another forum I'm a member of drastically redid a Martlet he'd mis interpreted the instructions for, I was encouraged to do the same to this 109. I'd picked up a set of Sovereign Colourcoats for RAF Desert Scheme at Model Expo a year or so back and decided to try them out on the 109. I was very pleased with the results, matching the colour chips in the RAF museum book and the contrast seen in photos. This 109 is less famous than "Black 6" which was restored to flying a while back however it was another airframe captured by 3 Squadron RAAF and brought back to operational condition. There is a photo over at ADF serials showing Bobby Gibbes seated in this aircraft. The kit is the Fine Molds kit and I made a few fixes during the refurbishment. I replaced the pitot with a Fine Molds metal one, added an armoured windscreen from the Tamiya 109E kit and had to replace the antenna which broke during refurbishment. A group photo with "Black 6". 3 Squadron operated both together for a while until "Black 6" was confiscated by the RAF. Cheers Michael

Hi, Following a successful refurbishment of a RAAF Me 109F in Desert Scheme (I'll post this later), I decided to continue using the Sovereign Colourcoats paints I had out to finish a RAAF Spitfire VIII. The mid stone from Sovereign is the best match I've found for the colour chip in the RAF museum book. Previously I've used Humbrol, Gunze and Testors and none were fully satisfactory though I found the Testors one the previous best. Most (if not all) the original Mk VIII's delivered to the RAAF were originally finished in Desert Scheme but most were repainted to replace the mid stone with Foliage Green prior to operations with the allocated unit. The few aircraft I've seen which retained Desert Scheme were used by non operational units, mainly OTU's. The only identified aircraft which operated in a front line unit is covered in the Aussie 8 decal sheet however this is from 54 Sqdn RAF which I'll likely do later (A58-466 ZP H, Dick Due's aircraft has been documented a number of times as being in Desert Scheme, but this is most unlikely based on the dark colour band going through the cockpit). Most of the aircraft in the back room units were in generic schemes except for A58-464 from 8OTU based at Parkes NSW. This aircraft had the white tail and leading edges specified by RAAF marking instructions at the time for IFF though it wasn't really necessary for this airframe. There is a top view photo of this aircraft in the Eduard book which shows extensive overpaints to cover the RAF roundels and serial. I've been kindly sent a couple of additional photos of this aircraft by @Magpie22. Peter Malone theorizes the overpaints were Light Earth replacing the mid stone and RAAF Dark Earth (which is a very similar colour to RAF Dark Earth). Member @Ed Russell thought the mid stone overpaint would have been a Mid Stone paint match using available paints. I've decided to go down the Light Earth path - You pays your money and you take your chances. The model is pretty much out of box from the Aussie 8 boxing which contains resin block pattern wheels and an extensive etch set. The only addition is the Falcon vac canopy to allow the canopy to be slid back. The decals are a mixture of DK, Red Roo and Eduard stencils. Cheers Michael

Apologies - wrong forum - Moderators please delete.

Atmospheric vignette of the Golden Age of Flying Boats. Beautiful! Cheers

Here's a video of the last time a Beaufighter would have run its engine - As per the title, it's the one at Moorabbin and I'm pretty sure I was one of the people in the crowd. Note in some of the later frames, there is also a "Kittystang" (i.e. a Kittyhawk with Mustang wings" in the background which also had an engine run during the day. Cheers Michael

Looks pretty good for such an old kit. Very interesting looking plane the Stilleto. Cheers

Hi, Nathan mentioned there is the Hobby Boss kit though perhaps you already know about it when you refer to a "good" 1/48 kit. The reviews here on Britmodeller were a bit scathing from some. Sounds like no improvement from the Italeri kit even though they had decades more time for research.