Brad

I can add a few more; Me 262 qualifies for design flaws, in not using high temperature resistant alloys in their engines, resulting in very short engine life and high engine failure rates. Arado 234 - same as above. Eric Brown detailed the extreme risk of flying captured aircraft back to England after the war as the Germans destroyed all the engine logs. Heinkel 162 - qualifies for design flaws due to the nasty tendency for the glue to fail at high speeds on the control surfaces and wings. One British test pilot killed when he failed to heed Brown's warnings. Project 658 Hotel I Class soviet Nuclear submarines - plagued with initial production problems including poor workmanship and uninstalled back up features, said to be unseaworthy by senior Russian commanders due to being rushed into service. K-19 being the most infamous incident involving the Hotel Class. Biber midget submarine - poor quality constructions and complete death traps. Killed more crews in accidents than in combat. Indian Air Force Mig 21s - nick named the 'flying coffin', killing 170 Indian pilots and 40 civilians since 1970. Poor maintenance and quality of locally manufactured replacement parts being the main culprit. Between 1966 and 1980, over half of the 840 aircraft built crashed. Australian Navy Seasprite Helicopter - failed program due to cost over runs and multiple deficiencies in the aircraft, resulting in a failure to get any airworthy despite spending 1.2 billion tax payer dollars. Australian Army MRH 90 Helicopters - engine failures, and spare parts supply among numerous other problems resulting in a failure of the aircraft to obtain it's FOC until 11 years after it entered service. It will now be replaced by the helicopter it was bought to replace; the Blackhawk. Australian Army Eurocopter Tiger ARH - initially dangerous due to fumes in the cockpit, software problems and poor build quality causing aircrew to refuse to fly the Tiger until issues were addressed. These issues meant that FOC was delayed far past it's due date and despite a 2 billion dollar investment, they were never deployed to support our soldiers where other armies Tigers were. They will be replaced prematurely with the AH 64E.

Hi mate, it needs some kind of animal art or animal based colour scheme(tiger stripes, leopard spots etc) to qualify. Just a standard camouflaged panther tank doesn't qualify. Sorry.

I'll give this one more shot at getting up. The idea here is building an aircraft/tank/car that has an significant piece of artwork involving an animal. Lot's of potential here, from airliners (QANTAS with their big roo tails), shark mouthed aircraft, Tiger meet, etc. A couple of examples below of what you could do. (I just bought the swordfish mig myself).

That's possible, had not thought of it!

This is the older Revell kit, the PAH.2, which came out in the very early 90's, not to be confused with the new mold Revell kit, which has very nice Tiger Meet decals in it and has a lot more surface and cockpit detail. However I decided as I got this for free, I might as well build it for what it is. Fit is generally pretty good, as mentioned detail is lacking somewhat, you do get decals for the instrument panel and seat belts but the decals in my kit were wrecked. Thus I sourced some from another helo kit so they are not 100% accurate. It makes into a decent shelf sitter, although I'll probably take it to a model show or two as a table filler. If you do want to build a very early Tiger then this is your kit. It's not a bad model, just basic. Thanks for looking.

Yeh it's an alright place.

If you do OOL, the front engine cooling fan is yellow. Not sure if the instructions mention that.

I do have a big stash, perhaps I will make 2023 the year to build kits I've had for more than a decade!

I went a little nuts at a couple of swap and sells.

Not a bad modelling year considering the turmoil of it. Considering I ended up purchasing 50+ models this year alone, I plan to do a lot more building next year! Dragon 1/35 gen 2 German Infantryman. Meng 1/48 PLAAF P-51K Mustang Dragon 1/35 88mm Flak 37. Hobbycraft 1/48 Vampire 1/48 Academy Mk 14 Spitfire (What If Cuban colour scheme) Eduard 1/72 Messerschmitt Bf 110E Airfix 1/72 A-4Q Skyhawk AFV Club 1/350 IJN Submarine I 19 Hasegawa 1/72 SAAB Draken.

Yeh there's a picture from the front which clearly shows that upper panel missing. The kit comes with kill markings for both sides, that's the decal that shattered on me. The markings aren't bad, they come in that colour, I didn't paint over them. Close enough though.

I was working off pictures of the real thing. Even though they are colour, that anti glare question I pondered over right till the end of the build, but I just couldn't make out a flat black anti glare on the colour pictures.

A quickie build for the long weekend. It's the Italeri kit which is surprisingly good, I picked it up second hand for a couple of bucks without knowing much about it. About the worst I can say is the canopy is a bit thick and required some thinning on the inside to fit and it would probably require a vac replacement to pose open. Other than that this is a decent kit. Decals were reasonably good, I did have one shatter but that might have been because of age. I did make a couple of errors, but for a quick build I'm not too bothered. Note also I only roughly painted over the spinner and white cap to the radome, they appear to have been roughly painted over in reality to dull them down, unlike the markings which were very nicely toned down. The model represents the aircraft flown by Guy Bordelon. Bordelon earned his wings in 1943 but did not see combat in WW2, posted state side as an instructor. Having various positions post war, he ended up taking charge of a detachment of all weather interceptor F4Us in 1952. He flew 41 low level interdiction missions against communist supply lines earning 3 Air Medals. In the summer of 1953, Fifth Air Force required help in dealing with North Korean night time nuisance raids, as several jet fighters had been lost trying to intercept Bed Check Charlies. VC3 post 3 aircraft to Pyongtaek on June 28th. They were immediately in action with Bordelon inception and shooting down two La 11s and two Yak 18s over the following 2 nights. On the 17th July he shot down another La 11, making him the only piston engine and only night fighter ace of the Korean War. He is also the last man to become an ace in a piston engine fighter. Post war he stayed in the Navy, being a part of, among other things, the recovery of Apollo astronauts. As for Annie-Mo, the Corsair in which he claimed his 5 kills, she was less lucky, being written off a week after the final victory by another pilot.

SAAB J35 Draken, 2 Squadron, Wing 10 retirement scheme. Hasegawa 1/72

Well I had today free due to cricket being washed out for 3 rounds in a row, thus I decided to finish this off. I did have a little issue with the main decal, it tore slightly so I patched it with a spare bit of white. Other than that, I just glossed with future floor polish both under and over the decals and left things as is. No weathering as the aircraft looked very clean. Thanks for following along.

Painting continues. I put the grey on and then masked up for the natural metal. Humbrol 27002 polished aluminium is my go to NMF. It's almost bullet proof and looks good. Pretty much all the parts on apart from the top antenna. I've put a light gloss coat on ready for some decals but I will keep her nice and gloss as it looked pretty clean in real life.

Nah I usually do that so I can sit it up and paint the under surface. I can then go back and brush paint the legs if I have to.

Alright, some paint. Gunze H15 blue. ...aaaand some masking for the grey undersurface of the wings. After this the undersurface of the fuselage will be masked and painted natural metal.

On it's gear, canopy on and almost ready to paint.

I think I need to get myself this kit too. Nice work mate.

Went on a bit of a building spree this morning. The intakes and the aft end were indeed poorer fits than usual, I took to sanding away at the mating surfaces until they looked better. This is probably the worst joint, but sanding away the attachment ring and then using a large flat file to work the mating surfaces really improves things. It was much worse before that.

Still plugging away, although I was a bit crook lately and cricket season as started so things slowed a little. Although we are into round 3 and haven't played a game yet due to rain. Anyways, the two halves are together, fit is okish, it will need some work around the front fuselage to make it all nice.

I don't think the Glen's folded, unlike the Siren in the I 400 boats, you had to take the wings, tail and floats off to get the aircraft in the water tight hangar.

I've read several variations on colours. Light grey before the war seems to be a consensus, although reference varies between dark grey for mid war or black. I decided to go with dark grey and wood deck, just because I liked how it looked. I may well have been black, but it's hard to tell from pics.

Thanks Jeff. I would assume they were lowered, but I don't know for sure.