Michael louey

Hi Vlad, I've been using Testors FS36081 Euro Grey for RLM74 following a comment from Jerry Crandall that this was a good match for this colour. I matched it against my various colour chips and it really does compare very well. It has a slight green tinge but nothing over powering. I know you said you don't use enamels but hopefully one of the acrylic ranges you like might have an equivalent. I have a bit of trouble with RLM75 - I have a stack of old Humbrol authentics of this colour and while they appear to match the colour chips reasonably well the contrast when matched with Euro Grey is too low so try to lighten it with white but this is hit and miss for each new tinlet. This isn't much use though for anyone since this paint range has long gone. Best Wishes Michael

A recent build by my son Nathan. The Northrop YF-23 has always been a fascinating aircraft looking more like a Science Fiction object than a modern fighter. The Italeri kit is the better rendition in 1/72, the only other kit available being the Dragon one. To me the YF-23 has always been a better aircraft than the YF-22 that won the ATF contest. It's stealthier, better super cruise and certainly a much nicer looking design. The YF-22 was more agile. The official line regarding selection is that the selection panel "had more confidence in Lockheed in their production capability". An evolved YF-23 would have even been neater looking as conjectured in "The Warzone" https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/24911/this-is-what-a-northrop-f-23a-wouldve-looked-like-if-lockheed-lost-the-atf-competition I still think an evolved F23 would fly rings around the Su 57 or Chengdu J20. This model represents PAV-1 which was finished in a dark grey and had a "Black Widow" motif under the fuselage. The Italeri kit was pretty good except for some sinkage in the flaps which needed filling. The decals were replaced by a more accurate "Caracal" sheet. Nathan fitted a bunch of F15 etch to the cockpit which confused me until I read the reference which discussed how such parts were used to speed up the prototype. I have the Testors boxing of this kit (and the left over Caracal decals) to model PAV-2 (though the kit actually represents PAV-1). Cheers Michael

Morning Graham, I'm sure this is the official guidance on the naming however I recall when first announced there was a bit of uproar in the press about it - e.g. this article from BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/163092.stm Of course the Germans did have a Typhoon but the Me 108 hardly seems an obvious candidate to name a strike fighter after. Cheers Michael

So early this year I decided to start on the Zvezda Fw 190A4, the main reason being that being such a simple kit it would keep my frustration levels down while building a parallel "short run" Brengun Typhoon in parallel (I had started an RS Airacobra but thought better of doing 2 tedious short run kits together). The subject aircraft I was planning was that of Siegfried Schnell, a quite photographed airframe. It's on the cover of Jagdwaffe Vol 4 Section 1. The spanner in the works once I started was realising that Zvezda had modelled a late model A4 with cooling slats and solid wheels. The second issue could be managed as I had a set of perforated Barracuda wheels and wheel cover but the slats were an insurmountable issue. As I had already started on the project, I had a look through the decal bank and there were no other appealing subjects so I ordered the new "Exito" sheet on 190's which contained an interesting airframe from 1/SG101. The Zvezda kit is quite nice in most ways but does have a few issues. First is the spinner - it's too long. The prop is also a bit thick. I replaced them with a set of Barracuda items I had handy. The canopy might have been ok but I've read it's made of some non standard clear material and was moulded in one piece. I used a spare Hasegawa windscreen and a Falcon canopy to open up the canopy. There were a few sinkage marks in the kit, the most obvious being in the underside of the wing fairings. I missed some near the wing tips as they weren't so obvious until the kit was completed. Once I finished the Zvezda kit, I really did want to model Schnell's aircraft since I had all the reference and decals lying around so it was back to using the old Tamiya A3. I splashed out and got the Quickboost conversion though I think you could just scratch up the new fin/antenna setup. The Tamiya kit fell together as Tamiya kits do. Here's some pictures of both together. The Zvezda kit is a "snaptite" but is actually quite well detailed. I removed some of the snap tite plugs to get tighter joins. In addition the updates already listed, I had to remove the underwing outer cannon bulges and guns as this airframe had outer guns deleted. A shame as reports say the bulges are more accurate in shape than the Tamiya kit. The inner cannon were replaced with Master set as an experiment after I knocked off the plastic ones. A bit of work getting them aligned. The pitot was replaced with the Master item as well. The head armour and support are also off the Hasegawa kit as the original has no support and less detail. Exito have really gone to extra lengths with their material. The instructions are basically A4 art profiles on one side with detail placements on the other. Decal quality is good and the subject matter is a bit different to the normal run of the mill. The Tamiya kit is probably well know to most Luftwaffe modellers. I've built it once before as an A2 which externally looks identical. I still have yet to build an actual A3 but I've backfilled this kit to do that in the future. The only changes to the kit were the quickboost fin tip to represent the A4 aerial arrangement, a Quickboost pitot tube and the outer MG's which were leftovers of the Master set used on the Zvezda kit. Schnell's machine is interesting as it has asymmetrical Eagle patterns on each side of the exhausts. The decals are from Aeromaster who must have only had photos of one side as they only supplied the simplified pattern of the starboard side. Fortunately the Tamiya kit has an option with the full Eagles head though the whites in it, as is common to Japanese manufacturers, is more cream than pure white like the Aeromaster sheet. Cheers Michael

The 2nd kit isn't actually mine. Its built by my son who favours modern topics whereas I'm mainly trapped in WW2. Obviously the Eurofighter Typhoon was named after the Hawker fighter though whether the Luftwaffe likes reminding of this for their mounts would be interesting. The kit is the Hasegawa one and I have no idea what unit it belongs to. The instructions are stored away but I'm sure members here will know in a moment. As far as I know the kit is straight out of the box.

Well for my quarterly (or so) photo session I pulled out a bunch of completed kits finished this year. I've just posted a couple of them on another forum and was working out the ones appropriate for Britmodeller when in a case of Serendipity I realised the title for he FW190's in the other post applied just as equally to 2 of the subjects with a British theme. The 1st is a RAAF tropical trials Typhoon. It is a Brengun kit and represents 1 of 3 aircraft sent to the Middle East to test out a Tropical filter. They were operated by 451 Squadron RAAF and the kit has been modified by a conversion set made by Red Roo. This consists of a tropical filter in resin and decals for all 3 Tropical airframes. The main issue with the kit is a number of panel lines having mould damage which need rescribing. I also had trouble with the wing to fuselage fit and the canopy. The latter has been replaced by a Falcon vacform. The fishplates on the fuselage come from a Brengun etch set.

Hi Bejay Gee, this is an old article. I finished the build a couple of years ago but as far as I can recall, the decals in my kit were pretty standard. I did have to use some decal softener (in my case Daco) and had to be careful in getting the large decals in place. I might have damaged a couple which needed fixing and I wrecked one that goes on top of one of the dorsal vents. I believe there have been a couple of issues of this kit so not sure if the decals varied between them. Hope you can finish of your kit ok. Regards Michael

Hi Adam I finished mine about a month ago and was going to post it on the board but haven't had time to take the photos and upload them yet. Some notes about the kit - In general it's a nicely detailed kit and the cockpit detail is adequate for my tastes. A note on the version - This is a late A-4 with solid wheels and exhaust louvres rather than slots which will limit the subjects you can model. If you're just doing OOB it should be ok assuming Zvezda did their research correctly. I had to replace my wheels with some resin ones to get the early style "A3" wheels. The spinner is too long - the props might be a bit thick too - I replaced mine with Barracuda resin items. There were some sink marks in the wing roots (bottom) and wing tips. I fixed the first but didn't notice the 2nd until final painting and left it (It's not that obvious) The canopy isn't standard clear plastic material - I didn't use mine replacing it with a spare Hasegawa canopy. I did the same with the pilot head armour. I also replaced the pitot and cannons but this isn't really necessary for a standard build. PS - I also got rid of some of the "snap fit tabs" a I thought they might foul precise fits when gluing. Hope this helps Michael

Hi Brian, I had to research a similar crashed 109 a while ago. You might like to read some of the research collected via the following links - Photos of the actual aircraft are here: http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/gallery/Messerschmitt-Bf-109E-3-0750 And my interpretation of the plane is here - Good luck with your investigations however I doubt we'll ever know what really was done during that period. Regards Michael

Hi Denford, Unfortunately, the currently advertised Beaufort won't have much appeal to Australian modellers. Our DAP Beauforts had more differences to the Taurus engined ones than there are differences between a Mk I and Mk V Spitfire. Regards Michael

For a freely available resource - ADF Serials had an article on the evolution of the RAAF "Kangaroo roundel" in one of its newsletters - http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/newsletter/ADF Telegraph 2016 Spring.pdf The article does touch on the WW2 version. Other editions may have more. Cheers MIchael

Beautiful build as usual Libor. As like you, I seldom build Japanese subjects however I've always planned to build the Ki 51 since the RAAF operated one as a hack.and I've got a Hasegawa (Mania) kit reserved however I'll be keen to try a Clear Prop kit so this will be a good opportunity. Cheers Michael

Hi John, Good to see you making progress on the Hare. Remember from my build to paint the tail boom stripes - The decals won't fit. Regards Michael

Welcome back Milos. I remember you from some of the forums you mentioned and I once bought a resin FW190 conversion from you. Hope to hear some interesting news about 190's. I'm building a Zvezda 190A-4 using Exito decals currently. Cheers Michael

There's a useful reference on Fw 190 Landing gear at Hyperscale in 2 parts - http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/fw190landinggear_1.htm http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/fw190landinggear_2.htm I refer to this when adjusting my models. Regards Michael

Hi, I built this a while ago but didn't create a build thread. I did however, post the completed model along with a link to hints on building it on the 72nd scale forum (which Armoured Sprue is a member of too). Hope the linked tips help. Cheers Michael

Very nice Greg. I'm doing this very same airframe in 1/72nd right now using a Brengun kit. Hope it comes out as well as yours.

Hi gingerbob, Thanks for the comments. The cannon fairing colour is based on a photo in the Aussie 8 book which is included in the Eduard boxing. It also has a colour profile based on Peter Malone's (author) opinion. Cheers Michael

Thanks Toryu. I'm well aware the lighting setup isn't ideal. I'm basically jerry rigging some reading lights around my workbench. Maybe one day I'll look into proper lighting and a photo booth. Cheers Michael

Hi, My 3rd Eduard Spitfire VIII, this time basically a "Aussie VIII" version. This includes the resin wheels that come with this boxing as well as the normal etch/masks. In addition I've added the Eduard exhausts that came with a Czech boxing of the Mk IX. The canopy is a Falcon Vacform. The colours of this aircraft have been up for debate since the 60's. The only constants are the white tail/wing leading edge, Medium Sea Grey undersides and Dark Green upper component. The alternative to what is seen here are 1. A green spinner 2. A pink Elephant 3. A secondary upper colour of light (interior?) green instead of Ocean Grey. I've had discussions with one of our senior club members and he recalled a discussion with the pilot Norm Smithells (Turnbull) who in later life agreed with points 2 and 3. In any case I've followed the Eduard guide which was done with the help of Peter Malone who knew Norm and discussed this subject with him a number of times over the years. The only main variance from my other Mk VIII's is the underwing bomb racks and the Eduard resin exhausts and wheels. The Eduard wheels fit better than the Barracuda ones but that could just be me being a bit more experienced with the build.

Hi, This model is a combination of 3 different kits - a kind of Frankenstein. The main parts are the CMR wings and the AZ fuselage. Additional parts from an Eduard kit are - Spinner/Propellor, 2nd set of cannons, etch aerial, tailwheel, main undercarriage covers and rear view mirror. A quickboost aerial mast has also been added. Originally the model was meant to be a CMR kit however I had a warp in the tail which broke during attempts to rectify it so the parts have been parked for a possible future project. The Eduard spinner was used to ensure the black spinner cheatlines fitted correctly as they were designed for the Eduard kit from the "Aussie 8" boxing. This model represents a short lived experiment by Clive Caldwell to see how effective the Spitfire VIII would be for ground attack if fitted with 4 cannons. The Mk VIII was designed to enable quick fitment of this configuration in the field so some spare cannons were added (you can see they are still in a type of primer in the model). Caldwell found the handling deteriorated badly with the extra weight in the wings and wouldn't be suitable for novices so reverted the plane back to its normal configuration soon after. The main driver to use the CMR kit is that it has optional parts for the wide cannon bulges required for a 4 cannon spitfire as well as having the correct ejection ports underwing. The Eduard kit would have required quite a bit of surgery to get the same result.

Hi, This model represents the only Hawker Hurricane directly on RAAF charge - V7476. It was supplied as a gift to the Australian government for evaluation purposes. It spent the war mainly based around Melbourne for familiarisation purposes as well as at one stage being used to test an anti g suit. Arma have released a boxing for this aircraft in its 2 later schemes however this mode was built from the standard Expert set kit using Aussie Decals for the serial and kit decals for the remainder of the standard "B" scheme this plane was delivered in. Overall the kit is nicer than all the other kits on the market with especially good fabric detail representation. The only issues I had with the kit was some sinkage in various parts - instrument panel, radiator faces, undercarriage wheel covers and the rear tailplanes. The 1st two were easily hidden with the optional etch pieces in the "Expert" kit, the 3rd was fixed without too much issue but the last was a bit tricky due to the fabric effect in the tailplanes which you would want to retain after filling.

Nicely built and photographed Finn! As you can tell by my avatar, I quite like the CA-15. I've built the CMR kit and can say from experience, it's a bit of work as you've described. For completeness, there have been a few other ca-15 kits in 1/72 - Eagles Talon vacform mentioned above. I've heard the wings are fine but the fuselage might be a bit short/small. One of our club members is planning to graft the Eagle Talons wings to the CMR fuselage so he can properly detail out the undercarriage bays. NKR - I've got one of these and it looks remarkably similar to the CMR kit though the small pieces are in a wafer and the resin is green, not cream like CMR. Since NKR mastered and produced their kits in the Czech republic, this is not likely to be a co incidence. NKR did however also issue some variations of the CA-15 such as the original radial engined concept and a racer version . Finally there is a Kora kit which based on photos of its breakdown is different from the CMR kit. The only examples I've seen on the net would cost a lot to get to Australia. Cheers Michael

Great looking Macchi! I got to sit in one of these at East Sale in the 80's

Great model Angel. Anyone who can do a good job on the German night fighter camouflage has my admiration. Cheers Michael