Paul J

As above. But maybe you could arrange the posting so it doesn't take up space and avoidiing scrolliing the screen from side to side. It might take some practice if you have not done this before. Just a constructive comment.

A couple of views of a recent GB finisher. Perhaps this photo should have been in the gallery? More of this in the USAAF 1942-1945 GB. Sorry about crappy photos.

P-47D Thunderbolt (WW) 42-76165, 84th FS, 78thFG, Duxford, 1944. Used by the group as a communications 'hack'. Hasegawa kit, Life Like decals. The only extras added were the straps for the seat and the hand hold bar to the main canopy. An attempt was made to reflect the worn finish of a well used but still airworthy aircraft. I went along with the idea that the outboard pairs of guns were removed with only the inboard ones remaining. Perhaps for gunnery practice proficiency training maybe(?). This is a representative view of the only image I could find of the actual aircraft. I enjoyed building the model as it was a very easy kit to put together for such a nice quality. The only issues I had was with the Life Like decals. Application problems I had are covered in the build thread but I don't think they are very accurate. The pale 'blue' of the WW and 27 part of the serial is correct for the starboard side but on the port I would have thought these digits would remain black except maybe the last two or three digits that extend onto the rudder which may have been the 'blue'! Also, the arrangement of the prefix part of the serial would not go aft of the main body of it as the decal set proposes though no port side view or text says so. Lack of any photos of this side doesn't help. The colouring of the star and bars is unusual but my thought on this is they are faded but the decals provide the udnder wing one as faded too which I don't think would be the case. At least not that faded! The rear view miror on the windscreen I painted red as a personal touch. I can't really make out on the image of the original whether it was or not. Anyway enjoy!

Its done! One or two pictures here and the rest in the gallery and an odd one or two in RFI.

They're lovely James. Right up my street. And perfect use of those excellent leading edge decals!!

I've had a look through my stash list and have a few to choose from such as the Airfix Model T Ford in a poly bag or the very first Airfix Concorde. I've got two. One everso complete and one was obtained with a minimum of painting and lack of decals so isn't really worthy of keeping it as a 'valuable' kit because of its incompleteness. So this could be a strong contender fro my entry. Luckily I still have an original decal for it in BOAC colours!!

Am interested in the Seafire 46 set Colin. Speak to you at next meet.

The early Harvard 1 with the curved rear canopy and early rudder, and a decent Harvard II with the same canopy and decent cockpit, I'll also go along with a nice new tool Wildcat and Defiant but the Tiger Moth is waaaaayyyyy over due!!!!!

Talking of Ansons, has anyone spotted this:.... http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/SH72254

I went to Crete last year. Enjoyed the place, the people and the weather. Mind I enjoyed even more, the daily over flights of Mirage 2000, F-16s and the odd J-stars, E-3, C-2 as well while they were being busy over Libya! Being as we flew in to Souda Bay/Chania and the palce being more military I didn't risk taking photos there while waiting our flight home. So... how did you get away with taking photos at Heraklion...or need I ask?

Excellent. If I hadn't read your text, I wouldn't have thought the rocket launcher tubes were a decal. Nice work and very amusing. And the tiny little details like the transposed markings as in the film!

Just had another look. I can just make out what looks like a Tesco shopping trolley behind the rock! And over to the far left just out of shot almost a tail of what apppears to be a P-40....

Gorgeous work carried out on the old girl and lots of deatil work to the interior. Superb. But has anyone else noticed the early raked windscreen glazing and that the wings outboard of the engines are of the later tapered ones as on mark XIXs and on? An expertly done 1:1 scale conversion!

It will be! Don't be put off.

Those items highlighted in red seem to be A; the venetian blind vents as appeared on the F-5E Tiger! and B: the chaff dispenser as fitted to Dutch NF-5As and sold on to Greece in whose markings these are by the look of it.

Nice. I can just make out a familiar name, painted on the crew door, known in the modelling circle.

I've yet to get one build it. But as for tghe comptition, I don't like the Hasegawa one because the wheel bay is inaccurate and too shallow( their older tool was better in this area), the cranked leading edge root is too much, can't really place it but doesn't look right and copied on to their B model which is completely wrong for that one. The prop blades a bit skinny in chord, the rudder surface detail ..hmmm, and price. The Tamiya one is great but is pipped by the Airfix one as it has the dropped flaps which is a well known feature on the 1:1 scale P-51. I can live with the few shortcomings described in posts above and having seen the test shots a while ago and the pics here it will be the number one P-51 in 1/72nd for me. AND, as its been said before in this thread, you get Tamiya quality and then some, at a very affordable price!!! Airfix can do no wrong in producing the P-51B/MkII versions. And I sincerely hope they do follow up in issuing this version. It should be a lot better than their first one from the 80's

Not much done to it last night. Just painting the canopy frames and adding the propeller makers decals. And, trying to get the other already applied decals to play ball!!

Nice to see some different pics of some of the other items instead of all the usual ones. Don't mind more Black Eagles though. Whats all that stuff on the last two photos across the image? It looks like debris being blown up by a Harrier! Is it some muck on your lens?

I can see why you like it. Thas a very stunning model. Bardzo Dobra!

DC-3, DC-4, New tool Avengers, F4U-4 and 5 Corsairs but late ones for Korean War or French ( I know not quite WW2 but..much needed) And much of what has been listed above.

I have a plan for an interesting propliner! But going to check to see if this clashes with any other GB I succumbed to in joining

Cheers Peter. Hopefully tonight should see the end of the decalling. There lots of stencilling on the sheet but will only use a few more obvious ones. I aim to achieve a fairly well used, worn look to it as befits the war weary WW fin ident and faded look to the star and bars. I don't think this one was used post VE day for training pilots back onto P-47s for service in the far east as the 78th weren't earmarked to go there as far as I can make out on reading a brief history of the group in Roger Freemans 'The Mighty Eighth'. It may have been kept clean but certainly I don't think it would be 'shiny' metal. The model is already taking on a scruffy appearance from all the handling! Anyway we'll see how this project turns out by the end of the week.

Also the separate bulged cowl panels have a square lug at the forward ends. These need to be rounded off if you are not going the after market route. I can echo what others say here though .. A grand kit!! You may find fitting the u/c legs after joining the wing halves a bit tricky!! I found out the hard way when I built my first on in '96 when the kit came out!

A bit more progress with the decalling. This is becoming a bit of a saga. These decals have given me a bit of concern during their use and I'm not likely to use Liife Like decals again. The final serial location. It may well not be right but thats where they are staying now. A general view. The non aligning third section of the checks. In fact the last row overlapped the other section and made the black squares twice the size!. Again as said before, the decals were designed for the Tamiya kit.(makes me wonder which has the more accurately shaped cowling) I had to whip them off and cut of the last squares into individual ones and re apply them as you see here. Note, I started to repaint the white over the black to sort of even them up. Here, all repainted whites . Not 100% but will have to do. Also it looks a lot neater to the mark one eyeball/naked eye than magnified digital photos! Right hand side showing the red trim applied. Despite coating the decals with Micro Liquid decal to improve application, the edges of the design still lifted...but the carrier film didn't! Because of the problems I'm having with the decals curling around the edges of each item, I've resorted to paint the wing tips red(hence the white base coat) and not use the decals supplied for the tips. These last three views just give views of the final stages approaching. The anti dazzle panel, according to the instructions , was a purple colour. I mixed red and blue Airfix acrylics (as supplied in the gift sets) and a touch of black to get the colour. I believe that it may have been black and faded to this shade.