Brad

Could be 74/02, but it could also be that the 76 has gone shitty after 70 odd years or it could have been badly mixed etc etc. I long ago gave up trying to pin down specific colours for aircraft, especially late war Luftwaffe stuff. It seems only those with a vested interest in selling books keep coming up with different interpretations of colourschemes. I'd also keep in mind, this is only one aircraft.

If you want to build 130379, the captured Russian machine, the red star decals look far too perfect. As with a lot of captured equipment (by the Russians), the markings were applied rather sloppily and are in most cases,were not perfect 5 point stars. Yes I know a minor nit pick....

I wanted to get a few more done, but I've run out of time! Trumpeter 1/48 Wellington Tamiya 1/48 Jeep Tristar 1/35 Flak Panzer 1a Tamiya 1/48 Swordfish Pro Modeller 1/48 Messerschmitt Bf 110G-4 Hasegawa 1/72 Focke Wulf 190A-8 Hasegawa 1/32 Ki-44 Tojo Dragon 1/350 Benson Class Destroyer Revell 1/350 U boat Type VII Hasegawa 1/48 CF-104 Starfighter

Very nice, two minor points though. The windows on the bridge, when in the fully up position, should angle out slightly and the hull on the Schnellboot was wooden, so it wouldn't have rust (except for the torpedo tube and the plate behind the door).

Gold jewellery is hand made too mate. lol

Here is something on the 115. However, given Special Hobby's other realeases I've bought, I'll be waiting for a review of this one. http://www.zinnfigur.com/product_info.php?&products_id=10196131&osCsid=n197vq23p0g6r8jrteqsq6nqq6&sort=1d&ID=2188

wow goldmine, thanks Peter!!!

Yeh I've had a look at that profile and concluded that it is slightly incorrect; it lacks the fuselage waist gun positions fitted to P-2's. I've also got a nice picture of '703 which shows the waist guns and that the upper gun was enclosed, although this may have been a one off field modification to the ealier type. After looking at this picture tonight with my Hungarian Eagles and Squadrons Hungarian Air Force books open, I think this picture was taken sometime between mid 1940 when 701 and 702 were delivered and the end of 1941. Note to the left hand side of the fuselage window (devoid of a MG 15 indicating this is a P-1), there is dark/light/dark section. This has to be the Hungarian Triangular national insigia used early on in the war, it can't be anything else. It also carries the black outlined yellow band close to the wing trailing edge and has no national marking on the fuselage, indicating the picture was taken before 1942. If you look closely (and which I only noticed when I tipped my laptop screen forward), there are 3 distinct colours much like the green/brown/light grey Junkers 86's that the Heinkels were intended to replace. Who said this picture wasn't useful....oh wait nevermind lol. Unknowns are; did this aircraft have the whole tail painted yellow like other aircraft that participated in the Balkans Campaign and what the hell is the rest of the camo pattern. I might just have to use an educated guess on that.

Who cares where it's gone, lets just hope it isn't coming back.

I managed to dig up a single picture of the first two P's delivered to the Hungarian Airforce, however as you can see it's not really that useful. Anymore pics would be appreciated.

I'm aware the main difference was the Jumo 211 engine in the H airframe, but I can't seem to dig up enough information to tell me if there were any differences in the cowlings. TIA.

I can give you some tips; * Don't spend much time detail painting the interior. Once you close it up, you won't see anything. I painted mine red dope then picked out the frame and you can't see anything. Same with the cockpit. Paint it all black and be done with it. Also leave out anything which is in the rear fuselage, like the dustbin turret as you can't see them anyway. * Do make sure the interior fits properly, especially from the bomb bay forward. You may need to sand down the mating surfaces of the interior otherwise you won't be able to close up the forward fuselage properly. * The closed single piece bomb bay doors don't fit well, mostly due to trumpeter hitting the mating surfaces with large injector pin marks. Nothing much can be done about it unless you use the open doors, just have to fill, sand and rescribe. * Taking your time with the construction of the wing will lead to a near faultless fit to the fuselage. * Flaps don't fit perfectly, they seem a bit small if you want to glue them in the closed position. Here's mine;

This is the Hasegawa 1/48 kit, straight out of the box. I wouldn't call it one of their best as it fought all the way. Frustratingly, some parts are oversized and don't fit where they are intended to; dash, instrument panel, burner can, ejector seat and rear canopy are all oversized and need either some drastic sanding or surgury to fit. The rudder and wing leading edges are undersized (rudder particularly). After kinda overcoming these issues, I layed on the decals only to find the white is transparent.....damn it! Unlike the Revell kit, which has a similar scheme in it, you don't get any decals for the black. I painted the aircraft overall white then yellow, 3 coats of yellow!. I then masked up all the tiger stipes with sasuages of blu tack and a sheeeet load masking tape and put the black on. Unlike most of my other models I didn't do much weathering as this aircraft was pretty much spotless and pretty shiney, so I put on a thin coat of future, did a little weathering in the undercarriage bay and called it done. I resisted the urge to simply put this down as I'm having a bit of a Tiger Meet build off with a friend for Eagles Day (on October 14th) and I've always wanted to build this aircraft as it looks cool. I've since bought several other Tiger Meet decals and books.

Ok, what new book is he selling? I have to say I'm rather skeptical about 'NEW' information, as all I really see is alot conjecture and maybes in that piece. Have I mentioned I found new information on a Nakajima built Zero that is longer than a Mitsubishi one?

These Revell u boats have really nice detail and are pretty easy to put together. I'm sure you could go nuts with photoetch, but this is straight out of the box. My only complaint is there is no swastika on the flag (as usual), but I'm sure replacements can be found. I was just too lazy to go looking. I used White Ensign Models Kreigsmarine pants, which are fantastic. U-81 had a reasonably long and successful career in WW2, going on 17 patrols and sinking 24 ships including HMS Ark Royal while deployed in the Meditarranean. No U boat would survive the war in that theatre and U-81 met her fate on January 9th 1944, when a US bombing raid on Pola sank her, killing two crew members. U-81 was raised and broken up several months later.

Cool, I like this.

USS Laffey was laid down in Janurary 1941 and launched in October that same year. She would see significant action around Guadalcanal in 1942 and ultimately, did not survive the year. On the night of November 12/13 1942, Laffey was part of Rear Admiral Callagnhan's Destoryer and Cruiser group which was ordered to intecept Admiral Abe's Battleship and Cruiser force which was pushing through 'the slot' in an attempt to knock out Henderson Field so the way for Japanese transport ships would be cleared. What followed, would be one of the most ferocious close quarter night naval engagements of WW2. Both forces sighted each other at about the same time at a distance of 3000 yards, however the inexperienced Callaghan hesitated in ordering his ships into action and Abe, whos guns were loaded with fragmentation rounds also hesitated. Distance between the groups closed to point blank range before several ships on both sides opened fire without orders. The engagement would be described as "a bar room brawl with the lights shot out". Within minutes, Rear Admiral Callaghan and Scott had been killed and when Laffy passed with 20ft of the Battleship Hiei, she severarly wounded Admrial Abe and killed his Cheif of Staff. Laffey was bracketed by gunfire from several ships, taking at least 1 torpedo hit and several 14 inch rounds. Fires eventually reached her main magazine and she exploded. This is one the newer smart kits from Dragon. It looks nice in the box, but it proves a tricky kit to put together. TEST FIT EVERYTHING, is something I learned building this model. Some parts simply don't fit where they are meant to but it is eaisly fixed with some sandpaper and files in construction, but not so much when everything is painted! Also, the fit of the main superstructure parts is not that good and some detail was lost in fixing up these. Detail is fantastic and believe it or not, there are over 400 pieces in this kit!. However they do things which I feel are unnecessary, such as having all the hatches separate so you can pose them open. You then get a set of hatches in photoetch and plastic I would have prefered photoetch railings instead of the hatches. I went for some White Engsin Models ultra fine photoetch railings which are really, really nice. As it was my first 1/350 ship, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

They all look the same these days, so chances are if you like one you will like most, if you hate one you'll hate most.

Tamiya can issue their special Airshow Dogfight double; Skyraider vs Mustang. Tamiya - F84 vs Mig 15 Trumpeter could do MIG 15 vs Sea Fury Hobby Boss - MIG 17 vs F-105 or Mirage III vs Mig 17

Very nice 10 gun terror!

Yes I was in shock when I picked up this book as an impulse purchase and saw these pictures. I hadn't really believed they were marked in this way as the only other pictures I'd seen were of White 24, which carries standard Luftwaffe markings. The link below seems to give the aircraft which the ROA had. Now, weather they actually did is another story and we might never know unless pictures turn up which is always a possiblitiy. http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=85264

That's a really nice job mate. I built one of these couple of years ago and thought it was the biggest piece of poo-poo I'd ever had the misfortune of buying at retail price! Was a shame as I'd been hanging out for a 1/48 replacement to the SMER kit for years.

Really nice!

Nice one, thanks guys.

I've seen a few profiles of this aircraft, but is it real or bullshit? I've googled and looked through everything I have, but I've never turned up a pic and I assume there must be something out there to produce the profile.