Stefan Buysse

Hi, Thanks for the suggestion, but I would always have wanted a "late" and an "early" F6F-5 anyway. I think the clear part could easily become detached and fall into the fuselage again. It was very difficult getting it out the first time. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, This one is not going to become "Minsi III". One bit of trouble lead to another: apparantly I hadn't attached the cockpit correctly, that caused a problem when I closed the fuselage halves, when I finally got them closed up the rear window on the starboard side got knocked loose and fell into the fuselage. These windows are meant to be installed before one closes the fuselage. After I had somehow shaked it out the fuselage, I found it nearly impossible to attach it from the outside. In the end, I got it pretty much in place but there is a glue stain on it now. It doesn't look that bad in the photograph, but I'd like to have a good "Minsi III" and if I built it like this it would bother me forever. My solution will be to paint over these windows and build this one as a "late F6F-5". Cheers, Stefan.

Looks very nice. I did not realise that the Armée de l'Air used Hellcats and Bearcats. I had seen pictures of them, but until now it just didn't register with me that these were Armée de l'Air and not Marine Nationale. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Homebee. I have their AH-1G and I like it. I've been working on it...time-off for Fairford but nowhere to go. I keep thinking "we need a Loach to go with this", but I'll take a Huey as well. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Yes, I have that D&S book. I know he said that about the rockets, but I'm keen to build Minsi III with just the droptank. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Thanks, I see now. I had a look at Eduard's site and I don't think their efforts to replenish the stock after the fire have reached the F6F yet. Some day, we'll now if the new ones still have two colours. My Hellcat for this GB ran into some competition for my attention yesterday...my first Tamiya F-4B arrived. Don't worry, I'm not giving up on the Hellcat. One of the things that I like about Minsi III is the "CAG" marking and my first F-4B is going to be a CAG-bird. So, they'll look pretty cool together. Cheers, Stefan.

Thanks for looking, guys. I also found the different colour sprues surprising, not Eduard's usual practice. I'm not aware of the developmant history of this kit...maybe there was an earlier version and an improved sprue was made in a different colour. I wonder if, after the fire in Eduard's warehouse and the stock of sprues having been renewed, an F6F bought now would still have the different colour sprues. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, This is my Eduard F6F (early). I'll build it as David Mc Campbell's "Minsi III". Cheers, Stefan.

Thanks, Col. I'll build it as David Mc Campbell's "Minsi III". Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, A couple of years ago, I started this Eduard 1/48 F6F. Is it eligible to take part in this GB, or is it too far along? Cheers, Stefan.

Thanks, Craig. I'll definitely continue with the A-4E and A-4F. Apart from the broken nose gear on the A-4F, both the E and the F also suffered from a bit of paint leaking through the masking when I painted the coroguard. I brush-painted a correction, but the paint dried up to a different colour than when it was airbrushed. I'm aware that that is not unrealistic because Navy aircraft get paint touch-ups all the time while at sea, but I know these touh-ups are going to annoy me whenever I'm going to look at the model. So, I'm going to re-mask and airbrush a correction. On the A-4E, it would have been right between those cool tartan decals. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Here's my Hasegawa 1/48 A-4C of VA-66. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Thanks for running this one, Craig. I saw that you were off to bed before this one was posted to the gallery. I'm sure you can use a well-earned good night's sleep after running a GB. The A-4C is the only one of my entries that makes it to the gallery. I enjoyed building them all and I plan to finish the others in the next couple of weeks. Here's the A-4C. Some things went very satisfactorly, like the decal for the tailhook settled down really well and I succeeded in colouring that black area on the nose quite well. Others were not that good, the clear parts didn't go that well. I hope to build many more Hasegawa Skyhawks. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, Still a bit of work to do, but definitely feasible before sunday night. The wheels and slats have been painted. This one will not have any ordnance. I'm pretty sure that the decals portray her at the end of the cruise...the blue name plates with a bomb above them include a final mission tally for two pilots. Lt Dan Lewis is on the port side with 92 missions and Lt jg Rick Miller is on the starboard side with 82 missions. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi, This one from VA-155 won't go flying for a while... I'm pretty sure that I can repair this, but definitely not before the end of the GB. Cheers, Stefan.