IanW

Lovely work!

Well, I finished the Gladiator a few weeks back, so here's some pics. I scratched the pilot's access door and used elastic thread to rig - easy enough to do but a bit over-scale i think... oh well... Looks like the starbd RF aerial could do with tightening - managed to melt through (the aerials are in sprue) twice when taughtening the first 2 sets so a bit reluctant to try a third time! My idea behind the build(s) and the In Progress work is here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234971883-scale-models-battle-of-britain-special-gladiator-ii-172/ Not sure what's next - maybe the DO-17! Cheers for now, Ian

Awesome - love the display! Great work esp. for 1/72!

That is really looking brilliant! Great work on the figures!

Thanks for all the responses guys - I think I'll go with 70/71 with densely mottled 76 stripes on top and black undersides. Cheers, Ian

Great thanks! I guess with 70/71 on top, the underside would origianlly have been 65? Cheers, Ian

And is it just the photos, or do the undersides seem black rather than RLM65? The area beneath the cockpit of the machine in British markings seems very dark especially. Cheers, Ian

Awesome, thanks for that everyone!

Hi all, I'm very keen to (one day) complete a model of the JU188 in the scheme which the Matchbox kit originally came in during my formative years! But I've bought the Hasegawa kit rather than struggle with Matchbox's old offering, as awesome as it looked back in the day! It's 8H+OH, a JU188 D-1 from GR.33 St. Martin, France in 1944 and has wide stripes of RLM76 applied over 70/71/65, I believe. I've been scouring the internet and I cannot find a single photo of this aircraft - I assume they must exist, as the scheme is relatively popular... can anyone please assist and point me towards (or post) a piccie of this machine? Thanks very much, Ian

Very, very nice conversion!

Just to add to everyone else - lovely work! I have a very soft spot for 489 Sqn aircraft and you've done a great job! (Here's mine in 1/48th... http://www.network54.com/Forum/47751/thread/1326234901/Bristol+Beaufighter,+489+Squadron,+1945 ) I've just had a quick look through the ORBs and D1 did fly with torpedo on many missions in early 1945, although FWIW 'D1' is recorded as RD395, 'D' (a non-thimble-nosed machine I think), is NV175. And 489 flew mainly torpedo (and a few suppression operations) until the end of the war, there is no mention in the ORB of them ever using rockets. Cheers, Ian

Nice work on the Viggen, lovely looking plane, very Thunderbirds! Look fwd to seeing you finish one in splinter camo!

Great finish, especially on the camo!

Awesome work! Great looking beast!

Wow, great detailing! I've never heard of those 'sticky pens' before -lookslike I'll have to try and find one over here in NZ! Cheers, Ian

Looking good!

Looking good - love the camo scheme. That's a difficult build and you're making a great job of it!

A bit of progress... Have detailed the cockpit. Pleased with the way the instrument panel turned out, although it sorely tested my eyes! I can see some areas for touch-up though - taking close-up photos is always brutally honest I guess, whether it's model planes or oneself! Time to close up the fuselage halves! Hey, since a few of you guys have the same publication, why not join in?!?! Cheers, Ian

Treveor, I have no idea on the accuracy of this publication, I haven't really checked but maybe issues will come to light as I go through each build? One thing that I did notice was that the BoB 'officially' goes from July 10 to October 31, 1940 and some of the aircraft profiles, etc are from later in 1940 eg. I don't believe night fighters were being finished in overall black before Nov 1940, yet the Beau is in black? Then again, i guess the black scheme would have been 'trialled' prior to being officially instigated? I have also cross-checked a couple of Bf109 profiles against other sources now online and they seem pretty good. But like I say, I aim for this to be more a 'fun' set of builds than anything else. And we are spoilt these days by the wealth of data available instantly online, eh?! When I look at the black and white 'reference' photos for the Gladiator inside and compare them with what I downloaded... !! And Procopius, that's a bargain! I saw the magazine for sale for $US48! In fact, your price compares well with the RRP of 1.75 on the cover! Cheers, Ian

Hi all, The 12 planes covered in the magazine are: Defenders: Gladiator II, Spitfire I, Hurricane I (come on Airfix and release a metal-wing version!), Beaufighter I, Blenheim IV, Defiant I Attackers: Bf 109 E4, Bf110 C4, He 111 P6, Do17Z, Ju88 A-1 (hmmm, Zvezda conversion of A-5/17?), Ju87 B-1 So for the defenders, I really need the metal wing Hurri and a new Beaufighter from Airfix, the rest are either released or coming as new tools. For the attackers, I think it's just the Ju88 and Ju87 which aren't eirther released or planned as new tool releases? When I look at what basic kits Ray Rimmel had to use back in the late-70s compared to what is available today, it is astonishing! We sure are going through a modelling renaissance - and the average standard of work seems also extremely high compared to back then! Cheers, Ian

OMG, what a build - I had the kit once, but chickened out and sold it!! Great work!

From a quick bit of reading online, it seems the Roborough strip was too short for Spits and Hurris, so it seems likely that 247 Sqn would have used the 2-blade props (which gave quicker acceleration) on a short strip, so 2 blades it is. Some progress over last couple of days - the kit's cockpit has a fair bit of detail for 1/72 but I thought I'd add a bit more... I don't usually model in the 'smaller' scales, but thought I'd try using my punch set to recreate the instrument panels. I taped the Airfix panel decals to some plastic card and then punched out, using my 1mm punch. Once I've painted and dry-brushed, I'll add the punched-out decals to the holes and add a drop of gloss varnish to the faces - I remember reading first about this technique in an issue of SMI back in the day! (Excuse the photos please, I need to have a better play with my camera and see what sort of close-ups I can achieve with it!) Added a cushion to the seat after thinning down the sides and reshaping the back hole shape. Just working on a throttle quadrant now and toying with the idea of cutting out both doors instead of just one. Cheers for now, Ian

I would just echo everyone else's comments - masterful, Davide! I have just re-read the whole post so far, to learn from your techniques. Cheers, Ian

That's some "real" modelling you're doing there - awesome work and I'm learning from your techniques! Cheers, Ian

Oooh, that's interesting Siver Fox - where did you read that, please? I'll try and dig it up.