Michael louey

Hi Dave, Good choice of subjects. I was in Canberra for work last week and had a chance for a lightning visit to the Australian War Memorial. Resident there is one of your subject aircraft - the Spitfire II of Bluey Truscott. It was repainted during the war for use in one of the training units but it's still in original WW2 RAF colours. Here's a few shots - probably not much use for your build due to the repaint, but interesting none the less. The display made it a bit hard to get good pictures of the whole plane. I've got a number of other detail shots but I might put those into a seperate walkaround post. Best Wishes for the builds Michael

Nicely done Ed, Hope to see it on the weekend. By the way, a quick google search shows this picture of a gun pack https://warbirdtails.net/2014/12/20/the-blenheims-back/ looks a little more complicated than any of the kit ones...

Another beautiful artwork. I expect you are happy with the Fluro Orange? Any comments on applying it?

Another wonderful model Libor. I've always liked the D520. It was one of my first 2 models - I wanted a 109 and Spitfire as all young boys do but the local newsagent didn't have any so I thought the closest dogfight double was a Frog Macchi C 202 and Dewoitine 520

The Dolphin's a beautiful aircraft!

That's one of the best ship builds I've ever seen! Looks like you've miniaturized the real deal. Michael

Sorry - duplicate post.

Glad everyone liked the Spitfire. It was a fun build! I'd already finished another build of this kit (which was the 2nd one for me) for the club display in Barclay Scheme so I'd learnt all the tricks with this kit. This was inspired by Mike's (Strangeways) build in one of the Airfix Build and Convert series. (Thanks Mike ) Steve, You're right, there's no way of making a "perfect" Tintin spitfire. The illustration does seem to show twin radiators under the wing however the props appear to be 3 bladers and all the later Spitfires with twin radiators had cannon armament. One option would be that this is a PR version but it really doesn't look like a Mk X or XI. In any case I "had" to use the Mk I kit and the flat (though framed) canopy and lack of cannon made the Mk I a reasonable approximation. Cheers Michael

Thanks for the link! The French sites have some great articles on Tintin which isn't suprising since he's originally a Belgium native. I've recently being look at the Modelstories site which also has some nice articles on Tintin and Aviation as well as other mechanics (such as tanks and submarines)

Great collection Antony. All those Mirages has nearly tempted me to pick up the High Planes twin pack I saw at the local hobby shop but I think the stash is too big right now

Thanks for the comments guys! Yes I've got the guide which is also produced by Blue Rider. At the time I bought the decal sheets from Blue Rider on ebay I didn't realise he had a package deal with the book and I'd already bought the book separately on Book Depository. There are a lot of nice schemes to do and I still plan to do a few more. Regarding the kit, the whole front fuselage with all the windows are moulded as clear parts. This means very neat window framing but the fit of the front cockpit to the rear fuselage is a bit wide and needed blending in. This is where the Amodel kit might be better. The other thing to note is that painting the rear bands is much more satisfactory solution than the decals. The sheet includes 2 bands but they'll never conform to the boom as they are straight not curved as well as being a bit short. Regards Michael

In the post on Mike's Khemadi Mosquito, I posted a picture of my Khemadi Spitfire. Rather than distract from Mike's topic, I've started this one to post some clearer pictures (The other was just a candid shot at our club display). This Spitfire was one of a group made from the Airfix Mk I kit for our IPMS display at the Australian Model Expo. It's been modified with 6 stack exhausts from the Eduard kit and the flat early Spitfire canopy from the Airfix Mk I/II boxing. The decals are from Blue Rider which are well printed but a bit thick. Cheers Michael

In the discussion on Mike's Khemadi Mosquito build, I mentioned a Mil Mi 1 Hare I built for a club display. It's from Tintin and the Picaros, the last completed Tintin story. It belongs to the San Theodoran government which is searching for Tintin and his friends. It's kit by Gran which I think is Ukrainian. I picked it up as it was cheap and available quickly. Looking at other built models, the Amodel kit might be a better choice. The only real mods I made was to replace the undercarriage legs with brass. The decals are from Blue Rider. Cheers Michael

Though I wasn't planning to add the updated photos of the 190 discussed with Joachim, I had to setup the camera gear again for some Tintin subjects (see other topics) so I decided to shoot the 190 with decals redone to show the difference. As I said earlier, nowhere near perfect but hopefully an improvement. Cheers Michael

Doh! Not only did I get the Album wrong, I also mislead everyone on the Helicopter! Yes, it's a Mi -1 Hare, not an Mi - 2 Hoplite. My kit is a 1/72 Gran kit as it was reasonably cheap and available. I think Special Hobby also made one but I needed one quickly for our club build. I had a look and Special Hobby also did an Mi 1 in 1/48th but not sure about it's availability. Cheers Michael

Of course you're right Meatbox! I blame old age When I get a picture of the Mi 2 I'll start a new thread and leave this one to Mike who owns it. Cheers Michael

Hi Mike, Thanks for the compliment. Our club bought/received a whole bunch of Airfix Club Spitfire Mk I's (latest issue). These are basic kits with only 1 version. The Spitfire in "Land of Black Gold" is a bit of a composite beast. It has features of a Mk 1 and later marks. I used a spare set of Eduard 6 stack exhausts and the "flat" early canopy I had leftover from building the Mk I/IIa kit. The Blue Rider decals are very well printed but are a bit thick and I had trouble getting them to conform to the panel lines. I also built a "Calculus Affair" Mil Mi 2 but I don't think I've got any photos of it handy. One of our club members George Oh has also built this Tintin Mosquito last year as well as the Arado 196 from "The Shooting Start". I think he sometimes has them on "Modelling Madness". It really is a great Mosquito. They're will be a lot of Tintin fans who would love to get there hands on it. Cheers Michael

Hi Mike, My sons and I love Tintin and part of the charm is all the interesting aircraft in the series. The Mosquito is lovely including the 'Whirlwind' style nose guns. I had to do a speed build last year for our club display and I'm sure you'll recognise the subject.

Hi Ratch, You mean like these using Tamiya's dark green/black green You're right - I got the Hikoki book when it first came out and they sent me the supplement. All the other reliable references show a similar low contrast scheme for 70/71 (i.e. Monogram, Merrick, Eagle Editions). I remember the Airfix catalogues showing built up Luftwaffe aircraft in their own Airfix high contrast paints and thought the Humbrol colours were wrong.... Cheers Michael

Thanks for the observation Joachim! When you're looking at a model for ages, some things just don't register anymore. When others have a look, especially in high detail, they spot issues like this. Part of the problem is my solution to the RLM 74 centres to the fuselage Balkenkreuz. I sprayed a 2nd decal with grey and put the white Balkenkreuz over it. This extra thickness makes it harder to conform to panel lines. I spent some time this evening after work applying more of my strongest decal softener and reapplying the wash. Looks better but far from perfect! Don't think I'll worry about updating the pictures. Cheers Michael

Another of my recent builds I finally uploaded to my new hosting account - Eduard's Fw 190A-5. This is the Weekender edition and is the aircraft of Oblt Rolf Strohal of Stab/JG1 The members at 72nd Scale Aircraft have compiled a nice set of build notes for the Eduard kits and you really need to have a look to avoid nasty surprises late in your build. (See link here: http://s15.zetaboards.com/72nd_Aircraft/topic/812177/1/#new). It's nowhere near as easy a build as the Hasegawa kit but is much more detailed (and much more accurate for the A-5). Libor's build was useful to work out how the inner gear covers fitted. Once you look at it, it makes sense as the covers include a cutout for the shell ejection chutes. Hopefully Neil (Falkeins) is online soon as he is very interested in JG1 machines.

Great build as usual Libor! The kit looks good. Definitely better than the Academy and I expect fixes the wing incidence issue of the Hasegawa? Cheers Michael

Hi Ignacio The Spitfire is 1/72. I really only model in this scale so I sometimes forget to mention it. Saying that, I'm currently working on a 1/144 airliner! Hi Cybershed I grabbed one of my references by philedition. It says top speed is 454mph at 26,000 feet for the mark. Fight's On While looking at the Philedition book I found this quote "B&W bands. They were introduced after the Korean War had begun in case 80 squadron had to be sent at short notice under the UN banner, but this never happened " Regards Michael

Thanks for the comments guys! "Fights On", you're theory about the black/white stripes sounds very reasonable. I hadn't really given a thought to the timing as the reason they were added to a post war Spitfire. Regards Michael

Nice Avon Sabre. Haven't seen these markings before. Cheers Michael