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maltadefender

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Everything posted by maltadefender

  1. Thanks chaps. And it's great to have some instructions to work to, Beard. Especially as you seem to have to build this one back-to-front! We might well be testing the 'you can't have too many P-40s' concept to breaking point but let's see, shall we?!
  2. Thanks, Tony. Xtracolor still drying underneath but I'm looking forward to finishing her off, too!
  3. Hi again, While awaiting the finishing touches for the Maltese Mosquito, and before attempting another bigger build, I thought I'd take the opportunity to bash out my Airfix P-40B that was originally intended for the Starter Kit GB. Unfortunately, in the course of the GB, it became clear that the paints provided by Airfix were so completely wrong it was practically a 'what if' build. We were only allowed to use what came in the box so the Tommy went back into storage. Now here it is, living to fight another day! The kit is completely bog standard from the Alamein Dogfight Double set, which looks rather like this: As you can see, the markings given for the P-40B are AN218 nickname 'Menace' which was on the strength of 112 Sqn at Sidi Hanish in the summer of 1941. However, at the time of the markings provided, 112 Sqn was operating its aircraft in the approved colour scheme: Temperate Land (Dark Earth/Dark Green/Sky). The squadron was lobbying hard for a more effective desert camouflage to be approved, because Sky was no good from below and dark green was hopeless from above - but change was slow to come. Photographs of 112 Sqn up the blue in 1941 show an evolution from Temperate Land Scheme towards the definitive Desert Scheme. When supplies of Mid-Stone were finally allocated, there were some aircraft with the Dark Green areas overpainted (to make Desert Scheme), others with the Dark Earth overpainted (making Tropical Land Scheme). This seems to have happened when 112 Sqn applied its recognition letters of GA as well as the individual aircraft letters, and anecdotal evidence from squadron members states that this took place in November 1941. The best picture I've seen of AN218 has her still in Temperate Land Scheme of Dark Earth/Dark Green over Sky. The spinner should have been Sky but appears darker, assumed red, and she has a shark's mouth painted on. Neither the red spinner or the shark's mouth were officially approved at the time, but were almost universally adopted by 112 Sqn aircraft. Quite how these colourful additions supported the squadron's demands for better camouflage is not made clear! Anyway, that's my plan and while I've got the complete kit and decals I appear to have lost the instructions somewhere! Hopefully they will turn up. Meanwhile I got started by painting the interior green - I took a dollop of Tamiya 'Cockpit Green" and mixed it with Flat Yellow in an empty cupcake box until it was the sort of shade that I wanted: So far so good. If anyone has the instructions and is able to scan them I'd be grateful to see them please, although the fundamental build looks fairly straightforward!
  4. Make sure you overspray the grey a little bit onto the underside. If you look at the 1:1 aeroplane it was repainted in a hurry and the line between the camo and the underside is a little wobbly. But a lovely job.
  5. Thanks, Tomoshenko! Here's the state of play until I get the canopy masks. It does look a bit lumpy with the hairy stick but I find that with a layer of Klear before declaring, a coat of matt/semi-matt afterwards and a bit of weathering it all settles down in the end. She looks a bit rough and ready still and won't get close to Tony O'T's brushwork but will improve from here and looks ice in the cabinet already while awaiting her canopy. See you on the other side of canopy masking with this one. Meanwhile I'll sort out build number 2.
  6. Paint is drying but tacky to the touch. Doesn't look too bad - a few little patches to touch in. I'm going to get the top surfaces of the stabilisers painted in camo and fit them, then finish and fit the props and the nose section, then she'll have to go on hold for a few days. I've decided that my masking skills aren't quite up to the job of the canopy, so I've ordered an Eduard mask. I'll have the rest of this one done and ready to receive the canopy and then it should be a hop and a skip to the finish. I've got a few ideas for the second MTO build but all are limited by a paint shortage. Hopefully I can stock up before Wednesday and then get cracking. I'll post a couple more pics of the Mossie tonight before she goes on hold awaiting the canopy.
  7. Well, the Night is on now - all except the empennage. Looking closely at the original aircraft, the Night undersides were done fairly crudely and look a bit messy. Doing a nice, tidy job with masking it off and getting a nice, even finish would be wrong, so I set the masking tape about 1mm above where I wanted to put the paint and tried a bit of 'vignetting'. I followed the line of the tape as closely as I could without going all the way up to it, using a small brush and semi-dry brushed a thin line of Night. Then I repeated this line, overlapping slightly, to get a slightly fuller colour beneath. Finally I filled in below these lines for a full Night underside. It's sort of gradually denser and as close as I could get to looking like it was hurriedly airbrushed while using a hairy stick. It does run the risk of looking like I've done a poor job of masking my model but hopefully it will pay off and look like it's intentional - and look closer to the original than it would if I'd just masked it and painted a solid line. I shall leave this paint dry - and it will have to take however long it takes!
  8. Today's been a good day so far. The wings went on at breakfast time. I've done a little bit every two or three hours and here's where we are. The plan is now to touch up any patches in the camo and then tidy up the interior. I'll mask and paint the first coat of Night underneath before bed, then pop her in the airing cupboard overnight. The only glaring mistake so far I think is that the mudguards on the undercarriage are a bit too snug on the wheels. Love, love, love this kit. I've got the 1/48 in my stash... very tempting to whip it out when this one's done. But I've got another idea for my second MTO build. Concentrate... concentrate... as Murray Walker used to say, there's many a slip twixt cup and lip!
  9. I'm almost at a loss for words to describe the pleasures of the Tamiya Mossie. It's such a relief to put some time doing something that is so well-designed, so clever and so clearly intended to give even a duffer like me a fighting chance of a decent result. Certainly, it is a massive relief after the last few wrestling matches that I've subjected myself to! In fact, the pleasures of this kit even compensate for my ridiculous choice of paint for the underside. And it's already starting to look rather like a Mossie: I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. I feel some camo coming on...
  10. Does anyone else remember Points of View? That strange BBC programme where people could write in and complain about things in the days before the Daily Mail got a website with a comments section? You could always tell who was really irate because their letters started 'Why oh why...' So in the spirit of Points of View, therefore, 'why oh why' do I keep putting my faith in Xtracolor enamels? Why? Yet again I fell prey to the pot of 'RAF Night' in my paint box. It's just bad quality gloss black. It looks no different to black. It is black. I know that the undersides of RAF aeroplanes were in fact a very, very dark blue and yada-yada-yada but this paint? It's just black that requires three coats to cover the plastic, which shows up every brush stroke and which takes about a week to dry. I know it will (probably) look OK when it's lacquered, weathered and all the rest. But for now it's in the airing cupboard being very, very annoying. Grrrr... rant over.
  11. Lovely job being done here. I'm slightly nervous about doing mine because of the amount of cockpit masking but you've show that it will be worth the gritted teeth and swearing!
  12. I read the instructions twice and threw a bit of paint at the Mossie last night. Just the main interior colours. These could be famous last words but, having nearly completed W4050, it strikes me that there isn't so much to do on the interior. Very little of the cockpit can be seen from the outside, so buying aftermarket goodies would appear to be gilding the lily. I'll do a bit of detailing and get it built as soon as poss. I sat up in bed reading what there is about 23 Squadron in Malta - which is actually not much. Compared to the heroics of the Island's defence, there is not much prose to be wrung out of a bunch of young hooligans cheerfully blasting away at airfields, aircraft, trains and the occasional ship until there wasn't anything left to shoot at. A shortened version of their story reads as follows: In late December 1942, under the leadership of Keith Park, the bedraggled and bombed-out RAF in Malta had been brought back into full order. Hardly a single complete building stood on any of its airfields, but the day-to-day management was as slick as it needed to be. The 23 Squadron crews had heard all about the relentless bombing and strafing to which the Spitfires had been subjected when they arrived, so they pulled off the runway fast. A rather breathless Wykeham-Barnes asked if they should hurry out to the dispersals in case of attack, to which a rather laid-back duty officer said they would worry about that sort of thing in the morning. After meeting with the Senior Air Staff Officer and Park himself, the general brief was made clear. Beaufort torpedo bombers were the most numerous aircraft in action and the Mosquitos were intended to provide active support by destroying anything that flew over Sicily without roundels on it, whether it be in the air or on the ground. Before these operations could get underway, however, came word of the breakthrough at Tripoli, which meant all aircraft had to make this their priority. The Mosquitos attacked at night, getting to within a mile of their intended target and then firing a short burst. This would cause the anti-aircraft batteries to open up and reveal their positions, giving the Mosquito crews an opportunity to plan how to best avoid them before attacking the columns of fleeing Axis troops and materiel. All aircraft suffered significant damage from anti-aircraft and small arms fire. The Mosquitos were patched up using wood from cigar boxes, old bomb bay doors and tea chests – with the local coffin maker’s skills finding an outlet in repairing shot-up Mossies that was greatly appreciated by all. After the rout of Tripoli came the intended work of intruding over Sicily. The Mosquitos were now well used to the job and would simply lurk near enough to the airfields to force any inbound aircraft to hold off until they were so short of fuel that they had no option but to land. Once the target was on finals, with no reserves to escape, the Mosquitos would sweep in and destroy them. As if this sort of predation wasn’t depressing enough for the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica there was one pilot, 'Wal' Williams, who liked to wait until his victims were actually on the runway before hitting them - although this tended to draw furious anti-aircraft fire in return. In his phlegmatic way, Wykeham-Barnes described the squadron’s casualties as ‘not light’. In total 39 men of 23 Squadron would be killed during the campaign: 18 crews and three ground staff, with several more crews being taken POW or being wounded. Nevertheless, their time on the Island wrought havoc with Axis air operations and bit major chunks out of the rail network on Sicily and mainland Italy. After the invasion of Sicily the Mosquito NF.IIs were replaced by FB.VIs. After the invasion of Italy a number of forward operational bases were used by the squadron from which it was able to roam over virtually all of Italy but its admin and official base throughout its time in the Med was to remain at Luqa. And with that, I'll get back to a bit of cockpit detailing...
  13. Aha! By George I've got it... The decision to go with the Mossie was taken as I nearly finish my (rather rough!) resin-assisted W4050 conversion of the bomber kit. It's only taken three years! Now that I've mastered this picture business, I'll start poring over the instructions! Thanks for sticking with me...
  14. Glad you like the idea, chaps - thank you! I've taken pictures but this is the first time I've tried posting them on the new-look forum. Any tips? Photo bucket is throwing a wobbly!
  15. Proof-reading is almost done and one or two stray pictures being chased. It's been a wonderful experience, not least because the S.E.5 population has increased by two since I started it: the return to the skies of Eberhart SE-5E G-BLXT in the care of Richard Grace and the restoration of an original airframe - E5668 - to static condition by The Vintage Aviator Ltd. Thanks to all who've followed and to AndrewE for the use of his WNW model and photography skills!
  16. Hello everyone, apologies for my delayed start on this GB. SO much loveliness being built! Between now and Christmas there's a couple of builds I'd like to do but I'm going to start with something of a later vintage than I'm accustomed to: a 23 Squadron Mosquito NF.II based on Malta in 1942-43. The squadron had been flying intruder missions over France before it was withdrawn at short notice, re-equipped and flew to from the UK to Luqa, with a five-day stop in Gibraltar, in December 1942. It was equipped with Mosquito NF.IIs and stayed on the Island until October 1943. The decal sheet has markings for DZ230/YP-A, which was flown by the C.O., Wg Cdr Peter Wykeham-Barnes. He was credited with downing two Ju88s in this aeroplane and it was written off in a landing accident in mid-1943. The squadron's primary roles were intruding over Sicily and mainland Italy, shooting down a Junkers Ju52/3 over Castel Vetrano for its first Maltese 'kill' (Wykeham-Barnes recording that it 'took evasive action by blowing up into a thousand pieces'). As well as air-to-air intruding over Italy, the squadron was also tasked with ground attack operations over North Africa, many of which involved harassing axis troop movements around Tripoli. During the German evacuation, the squadron's Mosquitos were able to block the road over a length of about 15 miles, and subsequently flew up and down the jam strafing targets revealed by burning transports. Attrition was quite high and the squadron faced many logistical issues, not the least of which being a complete absence of replacement Merlin XXI engines. A lot of cannibalism took place among the wrecks that littered the Island, with replacement Merlins being pulled out of Hurricanes and Wellingtons that had no further need of them. In 1943 a review of the squadron's situation stated that the primary concerns in descending order were replacement airframes, replacement spares, replacement crews and overheating. The kit will be the Tamiya 1/72 NF.II / FB.VI and the decals will be from the Xtradecal set X72091 23 Squadron RAF 1940-1990. I'd originally intended to build this in the 2013 Mossie GB but my first (Airfix) NF.II went horribly wrong and I started a new job. Having now finally got off the pot and made my decision to have another stab at it in this GB, I'll post pictures of the kit and decals tomorrow.
  17. Evening all, Does anyone have a clear idea of what the paint scheme would have been on Upholder in her pomp please? I've seen/heard that green over green is possible, also blue over red or all over one shade of blue-grey. I would very much like to pop my little U-class in for the current Mediterranean GB but have never reached a conclusive answer on her appearance. Many thanks in advance for any thoughts!
  18. Apologies for the lack of updates but the summer got rather busy with my day job and then from the end of August to now it's been flat out getting the book where it needs to be. There was an additional week's delay because there is now another S.E.5 in the air - or to be exact an Eberhart SE-5E. This is the former Patrick Lindsay-owned machine that was operated by Mark Hanna for a while in the early Nineties. It's now back in Britain and had its maiden flight after restoration last Friday, ready for a busy 2017 airshow season. Ultimately I'm delighted. There should be plenty of new and period photos not seen before, plenty of 'then and now' with airfields and factories etc. plus some fun stuff in the interviews and (I hope!) sufficient focus on the joys of modelling. Heck, there's even a cake recipe in there! I think I might make a model now myself to celebrate!
  19. I've just got the one... an S.E.5a Hisso. It keeps looking at me going 'go on, I dare you!' I'm still working up to it.
  20. Progress report: I've now visited five of the factories that built the S.E.5 - Vickers Weybridge, Vickers Crayford, Martinsyde Woking, Bleriot Addlestone and R.A.F. at Farnborough. Taken some 'now' pics to put with aerial photos of the factories in their heyday. Next trip will be to the Midlands to capture the Austin and Wolseley sites. So far only Crayford offered up anything resembling a WW1-period aircraft factory. It's now a retail park but behind the modern buildings it's a nice old grubby industrial area and one building was clearly of the right period and had the 'sawtooth' roof that so many aircraft factories had. The rest are mainly glass and steel office blocks or out-of-town retail parks. Looking at Longbridge it seems that all the aircraft factory buildings have been pulled down for redevelopment but I have high hopes for Wolseley in Adderley Park. I've also taken photos of key locations in London (Hotel Cecil - home of the Air Board - the War Office, the Home Defence offices at the Admiralty, the RFC Club and the RFC/RAF Memorial). And finally I've photographed key British airfields in the S.E.5 story as they are today: Farnborough, Joyce Green, London Colney, Bekesbourne, Gosport and Stow Maries. The two events I've been two so far haven't really worked. The pre-dawn photoshoot at Shuttleworth was a bit ho-hum. I've taken better pictures of F-904 on a public day. The re-eneactors that were laid on were somewhat less than convincing, and the smoke machine employed to create early morning mist was a bit farcical. Stow Maries was a real eye-opener in terms of what's there, how well restored the active buildings are and how much more there is to come. The re-enactors were much better. I'm still not convinced about re-enactors generally but it was a lovely evening event with plenty of flying - but the advertised S.E.5a replica was a no-show! I got some cracking photos of the B.E.2 and Sopwith Snipe but doubt that either will feature in the book. Of course all of this will only take up a fraction of the book as background. I'm hoping to do the factories as a complete section but the airfields will probably just go into the appendices. Of rather more importance to the content is what's going on with the Gosport heritage group, who are helping with the pilot training section, the RAE who have got Folland's notebooks and drawings, Shuttleworth and TVAL with the actual maintenance, restoration and flying sections and the surviving airframes in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and so on. The interview with Derek Robinson about how he came to write Goshawk Squadron is done. I've got several artists ready to talk about depicting the aircraft and Wingnut Wings are primed and ready to talk about modelling the Hisso. There are probably a few things that I've missed out from what's going on towards the book as it's quite hard to keep track of. In general it's all going pretty well - and the note on scale plans is duly filed. I will see what we can do on that front and hopefully there will be enough in the finished product that hasn't already been covered in previous S.E.5 books to make it worthwhile. Meanwhile, here's a pic of the Snipe firing up at Stow Maries because it's such a lovely thing.
  21. I've got a 1/72 Spitfire Mk.Vc, a Wildcat with folding wings, a US carrier deck and some figures. Should just about squeeze them onto 6 inches square - it was tight on the Wasp. The Verlinden US carrier deck is rather larger than 6 inches square: So I reckon trimming it to keep some of the more interesting details of the lift and the divide to the 'parked' Wildcat would end up something like this: With the Wildcat parked right on the top edge and the Spit at an angle on the lift section it might just work - with a fair amount of wing hanging over the edge. Worth a try, anyway!
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