tropical thistle

Thanks for the welcome! I did not get much time to build because of my traveling schedule. I did not feel brave enough to tackle the wings slats and flaps, so this was what I managed in the last two night. A close look of the nose undercarriage gear bay with additional bits to improve the looks of what Italeri was trying to do. A closeup of my interpretation of the main undercarriage gear bay. I tried to simulate the curved sides (but I guess it was not too successful).

I recently spent a week in München... what if... A belated resurrection... I just need to retrieve the parts from the various places (and fabricate new ones should I have misplaced anything) You can find the linkie below: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234928259-top-secret-luftwaffe-46-project/

Hi there, I missed the start of this GB. May I join the party? I bought a pre-owned 1/72 Italeri EF-111A from my LHS some time ago. It seemed the only game in town as the Hasegawa F-111s were rather difficult to find locally. I only found out after I got home that the previous owner had painted some of the parts for the cockpit. And, has done a pretty decent job at that. The rest of the kit is untouched, so I guess it meets the 25% started requirement for this GB. This was how the kit's original wings looked like on Sunday. I didn't like it all that much, so I did this last night... Now that I have cut the wings, I will have to figure out how to represent the slats and flaps. Fear not, I have a 1/48 HobbyBoss F-111 somewhere.

Might backdate a Revell F-14 to VF-1's virgin combat cruise.

I bought an Italeri 1/72 EF-111 from the clearance pile at my LHS over the weekend. It ain't Hasegawa, it looked fairly decent. I discovered the cockpit has already been assembled and painted (very well I might add) By the previous owner. This should be well below the 25% built limit though I plan to do up one of the first F-111s deployed to Vietnam.

Lovely bird, and tasty spread of AM goodies. I shall watch your build closely.

Herr Oberst, you can mist certainly count me in! (salutes and clicks heels)

Congratulations to the winners, all who finished and all who will finish (eventually). I enjoyed myself tremendously in the GB (especially with that unintended entry - I have never built a Luftwaffen subject before this...so it was very much an evolving WIP right from the start). Rest assured it will not be my last Luftwaffe '46 what-if . Herr Oberst, der Nachtschwalbe vill be completed. I am planning to do more digging in der desert. Tomorrow, I vill go to Giza....

Now that I had gone down the slippery slope... I just might be tempted to try to build a Bf 110G4 Nachtjäger.

I would have thought it was at least the early 80's. I thought it was a sound kit (except for the cockpit) and certainly a bargain compared to the Hasegawa. Of course, even the Hasegawa Phantom may be obsolete with the new kid on the block from Korea.

I doubt I wcould/could complete one in the time frame, but I had too much fun in the recently ended What-if GB. I will sign up. Build subject TBA

Would an original ESCI 1/48 Phantom qualify? If so, I would like to give that a shot.

Herr Oberst and fellow Herr Doktors (and plastik surgeons), a Happy Neue Year to all! Rest assured zis secret projekt vill continue. Ve have been verboten by RLM from conducting unauthorised testflug until 28th February. Ve will nevertheless refine the design to further improve our Nachtschwalbe so that Herr Doktor Ernst could vipe willy Willy's ... in the competitive fly off. ZZ and TT were relieved to receive this respite, the extra time vill allow them to refine the fire kontrol system. In paticular, the A-10 pilot station and the F-16 weapons kontrol system station have seemingly vanished without leaving a trace. The Gestapo interrogated the prime suspect, the Carpet Monster, but is satisfied the Teppich Monster is indeed innocent (there was no evidence of carpet in the kitchen area that ZZ and TT worked!) Ve hope to conduct a taxi and runway test of zee aircraft in a week or two.

Honourable Colonel-San (snaps a smart salue).I am Corporal Autumn Moon.I regret to inform you that Tropical-san is no longer with us. the honourable senior engineer did not trun up for work this morning, We have just received the sad news from his wife that Tropical-san worked late into the night and apparently committed seppuku in the early hours this morning. It appears that the decals printed by the esteemed Hasegawa-san may have played a contributing factor in the late honourable senior engineer's demise. Try as he might have every trick in the books, Tropical-san could not get the decals to yield. In desperation, he tried a variation of the highly dangerous hot steam iron manoeuvre. Using the steam from a hot cuppa tea, he managed to beat the inflexible decals into submission. Thus emboldened, Tropical-san tried an even more extreme manoeuvre. He directed the path of the steam from an electric kettle directly to the decals! He was able to get even better results...So, Tropical-san, a humble but dedicated "salaryman" honoured with such an important task, pushed the limit further and further… until this! Tropical-san could not live with the shame of letting his superior, you Colonel-san, and the entire JASDF down. So in the end, like any good old fashioned samurai, Tropical-san could only follow the bushido honor code.Corporal Autumn Moon bows deeply and departs.I shall leave you to mourn the demise of the Hokkaido Harrier (what a feisty little bird! - she fought me at every unexpected corner and all the way to the end). I had to admit defeat.This was what Tropical-san intended... 303th TFS “The Kamikaze Woodpecker” in the CAS camou scheme flying kamikaze bomb truck mission. 301th TFS The Big-mouthed Fish Eating Frog” in the maritime strike camou scheme flying anti-landing craft mission. Perhaps we may yet see another JASDF special commemorative scheme attempted in due course in What-if III!

Colonel-San, we are working ourselves to the ground (we are Japanese, Hai?!) The decals printed by our esteemed Hasegawa is sticking to its principle. Quality strong, the print is excellent but the whole thing is unweilding and non-conforming. In other words, it just like a good old samurai, a royal pain in the butt. We request permission to allow them to break in and conform to the airframe. So, the handover will likely be postponed to 31st December.