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rav

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Everything posted by rav

  1. PS888 - the aircraft who had flown the last operational of a RAF Spitfire on April 1, 1954. 81 Sqn, RAF Seletar, Singapore. Pilot: S/Ldr W. P. Swaby. After the last flight the aircraft was decorated with famous "The Last!". Later on the PS888 was transfered to Royal Thai Air Force. Nowadays PS915 can be seen flying with camouflage and markings (except for serial number) of "The Last!". Kit: Airfix (1/72). Exhaust tubes and upper roundels from Spitfire F.22 (Airfix). The model is made by my 8-years old son Gustaw with my little assistance.
  2. Good luck with your NMF Spitfire, but this one was in High Speed Silver. The model is painted with Gunze C8 Silver and a mix of satin and flat varnish.
  3. Supermarine Spitfire F.22 PK550 RAV-M, 615 Sqn RAuxAF (Royal Auxiliary Air Force), Biggin Hill, 1949. Pilot: S/Ldr. Ronald Gustave Kellett (5 victories) - the leader of 615 Sqn i and former first leader of the Polish 303 Sqn. The kit: Airfix (1/72). Exhaust tubes: Quickboost. Decals and wheels: Freightdog Models.
  4. Kubuś (Polish for "Little Jacob") was a Polish armoured car made by the Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising (August 1 - October 2, 1944). A single copy was built on the chassis of a Chevrolet 155 truck and took part in the fights for Warsaw University on August 23 and September 2, 1944. Damaged and surrounded by Germans the car had to be abandoned in a workshop. It was discovered in the ruins after the war. Currently the "original" Kubuś is restored after the war and held in the Polish Army Museum. There is also a full-scale replica built for the Warsaw Uprising Museum. The kit: Mirage (1/72). The interior, some welding lines, width indicators and machine gun's legs were scratchbuilt. The model was finished today - on the 71st anniversary of Warsaw Uprising. On the first attack Kubus was armed with Russian Diegtyarov DP machine gun. Later on it could also be armed with PIAT anti-tank weapon. Kubuś originally was a nom de guerre of fallen wife of the vehicle's main constructor. The interior of the model was scratchbuilt. Kubuś with both weapon options. More information about Kubuś: Polish Armor 1939 – Improvised Armored Car Kubus Wikipedia: Kubuś Warsaw Uprising: Kubus
  5. Here are my photos of the only preserved PZL P.11c. Its engine still works and I suppose you can find some photos of it running, so the color of the ring can be close to wartime one. 2007: 2011: 2014: And the color my son has achieved on his model, using Pactra Polish Khaki camouflage color as a base and Tamiya Weathering Master D Set for discoloration:
  6. The kit is simple as many HobbyBoss kits, but in some details it is too simplified in my opinion. It also has some errors in design: The most visible error is too long fin base. It needs to be shortened in front, reshaped and the whole fin should be repositioned. The changes are done in our model. The nose looks too fat. We did not correct this. The model stands on our display next to Revell F-16B and resembles a pelican. Pitot probe on the nose is too short, and the probe on the starboard side of the nose is missing. "Beer cans" are missing too. Corrected. The canopy frame between two cockpits is not scribed. It would be easier to scribe it if the canopy was not too short... We had lots of problems with Thunderbirds decals. The nose decals had to be cut to smaller parts and placed separately. Later I masked the nose along the decals and resprayed it. The lower fuselage decal is originally one big part from intake to rear fuselage and I cut it too. Under the decal we had the arrester hook and some other things that decals will never set to. I cut the decals there (decal solvents work really good) and painted the cracks dark blue.
  7. F-16D Block 32 86-0041 flying in USAF Thunderbirds in 1992-2008. Pilot: Capt. Matt "Byrdman" Byrd. Technicians: TSgt Mike King and SrA. Rodney "Frenchy" LeBlanc. Kit: HobbyBoss 1/72. Pilots from Revell F-16. Model build by my son Gustaw and me.
  8. Thank you Mike. I learned about it some time after I finished the model. But I have the Tamiya kit too and I will remember to do it right.
  9. If there are white stars with red dot and blue background on the cowling and gear doors, then it should be blue scheme, but with red interplane struts.
  10. Thanks guys for your friendly comments. Now about your questions: I tried to get similar result as shown in P.24 books from Kagero. I decided to use Gunze paints: C17 - RLM 71 Dungelgruen modified to be less olive; C38 - Dark Yellow / Sandy Yellow; C74 - Air Superiority Blue. To get a little faded effect, I covered the camouflage with a mist of: C119 - RLM 79 Sand Yellow on sand areas; C128 - Gray Green on green and light blue areas. Panel lines and some "dirty" areas got C101 Smoke Gray and then a thin black wash. I use stretched black sprue. This model has the most challenging antenna system of all my models. It was difficult to glue thin lines together and keep the antennas symmetric and taut. Moreover, I had an accident during the first photo session yesterday - the background matte fell over the model and broke its landing gear. Antenna wires miraculously survived, but I damaged them at the gear repair and had to make them anew. Well, the kit is quite good, but also has some problems. You need to file wings to get rid of raised ribs on upper surfaces. This is fast and easy, but you should be careful not to damage the skin corrugation. Wing-to-fuselage joint need patience and care. I filed the front part mating surfaces to set leading edge a bit lower. Some putty is needed to achieve good shape of front part of the joint. Side windows should be removed. Fit of engine and exhaust tubes to fuselage is tricky. You have to take care of geometry. Exhausts have long tubes to each cylinder, but I had to cut them all to make it fit. They are not visible anyway. Don't believe painting instructions fully. Camouflage pattern of D102 (I didn't check the others) are incorrect in tail area and on the starboard side. Wings camouflage is not perfectly visible on photos, but I think there are no dark splotches in places of upper roundels - apparently the D102 had no upper roundels after the camouflage was painted. Yes, big markings were user in early period of service. Late photos show small insignia on undersurfaces and no insignia at all (sometimes even no traces of overpainting) on upper surfaces.
  11. PZL P.24G D102, 23. Mira (squadron) of Elleniki Vassiliki Aeroporia, abandoned in Argos airbase (Peloponez, Greece), late April 1941. Pilot: Hiposminagos (Lieutenant) G. Laskaris (2 air vicories). Kit: Azur 1/72.
  12. There is room in the sprues for longer fuselage. Any rumours about ATR 72?
  13. Maybe you could ask her to do so. If she won't change her mind, I can help - I could buy the kit for you and resend it to Italy. PM me if interested.
  14. That's correct. Ruch also produced first PZL P.11c kit. Made by little skilled modeller and painted with some stuff available in Poland 30 years ago it could look like this: Some years later an improved version of the above kit was issued by PZW and is still offered by MisterCraft: MisterCraft: Heller: I was wrong about the Airfix. Mistercraft seems to be copy of Fujimi with different parts layout (and I doubt if they kept the quality of original parts). MisterCraft (ZTS Plastyk): Fujimi: Airfix:
  15. MisterCraft (previously known as MasterCraft) is a Polish company who offers reboxed kits from various manufacturers. They just add their own decals, instructions and box. The instructions sometimes do not match plastic details (e.g. "Polish F-16C" kit does not contain elements for Polish F-16C Block 52+, but just generic F-16A/C). The decals sometimes do not cover all markings shown in instructions. The same box issued in different timeframes may contain different items inside. You have been warned. Surprises should be expected after opening the box. A short list of original manufacturers of some Ma/isterCraft kits: PZL P.11c = PZW (Polish kit produced from late 1980s, not Heller), gallery here PZL P.7a, RWD-8 = PZW PZL-37 Los, RWD-5, Il-2, Yak-1, RWD-14 Czapla = ZTS Plastyk, RWD-5 (with much rework) here PZL-23 Karas = a very ugly Polish kit of 1970s or even older, not Heller F-16 = Hobbycraft (also known as Intech or Smer), poor copy of Italeri with wings moved forward to "fix" Italeri error with misplaced tailplanes, gallery here Bf 109, Fw 190, P-51B/C = a poor copy of old Hasegawa (?), galleries: Bf 109 F, Bf 109 G-6, Bf 109 G-12 MiG-15, Su-7, Su-25, Spitfire Mk.VIII/IX = KP, galleries: Lim-2, Su-25K MiG-17PF, MiG-19S, MiG-21 = ZTS Plastyk's copy of KP with rescribed lines, all details very ugly, better get original KP with raised lines Hurricane, Breguet Br.693 = Heller Caudron CR.714 = a Polish copy of Heller (i don't remember the Polish company name) Mi-2 = Intech P-40E/K = Kovozavody Semily, later Smer (note: no tail for P-40E in the kit!), gallery here Su-20, Su-22 = Pantera Caravelle (1/144), Sikorsky S-55 = poor copies of Airfix, produced in Poland in 1970s D3A Val = ZTS Plastyk, copy of Airfix In the early years of Mastercraft (late 1990s, I think) they offered KP Avia S-199 as Bf 109 F/G. I also heard of a kit (F-84 maybe?) with canopy taken from something totally different. Buy them at your own risk. Or better don't buy them.
  16. This is the first model built by my 7,5 years old son Gustaw without my "manual assistance". I was only an advisor and photographer here. The PZL P.11c is a symbol of Polish aviation fighting against Germans in September 1939. The number 5 from 111 Eskadra Mysliwska (Fighter Squadron) was probably flown by the squadron's commander, cpt. Gustaw Sidorowicz (my son's namesake, therefore preferred in markings selection). The plane was shot down on the first day of war and Sidorowicz was wounded. After his recovery he escaped from a hospital already being occupied by Germans and continued fighting with Polish resistance forces. The kit is old but simple MasterCraft. Pilot from Airfix Hurricane. Decals - Techmod.
  17. If we had a set of photos taken with three filters (e.g. Red, Green, Blue) we could guess the real colours. I don't know if we were that lucky in case of any WW2 subject, but I have seen some aircraft photographed with two different filters (or film types, which makes no difference IMO). You cannot 100% surely guess the real colours out of two pictures, but that's better than one, isn't it? Every colour picture is composed of such three filtered BW images: You can observe "French roundels", white sky and darkened yellow when using blue filter. With red filter the sky is dark and Dull Red is light. Keeping such observations in mind and matching them to a photo (or a set of photos) you are analyzing, you can guess the filter used to take the picture and assign to some of the grey tones probable real colours.
  18. On this sunny Saturday I was able do take some outdoor pictures:
  19. On this sunny Saturday I was able do take some outdoor pictures:
  20. Just a part of it is true. The aircraft were in RAF colours and markings, and under British command, but Polish squadrons in Great Britain were part of Polish Air Force (PAF), not RAF. The aircraft and other equipment were leased by Great Britain to the Polish government. Poland has paid over 68 million pounds sterling of Polish gold reserves deposited in Canada for the service. More about it here and in this book. I believe now you can see. The 68 million pounds paid by Poland is not "thing of little significance", is it? Polish Air Force was the second biggest operator of Spitfires (after RAF of course).
  21. You must be kidding. What is copy of what (if anything)? RWD-5 - two-seater, first flown in 1931, fixed wings Leopard Moth - three-seater, first flown in 1933, folded wings.
  22. You may also find decals for variants different than shown in the instructions. Or even if the variants are OK, the decals may be incomplete. Plastic parts, especially transparent ones, are usually of bad quality. The solution is simple: avoid MasterCrap/MisterCrap kits.
  23. Is there a chance for decals for this Chipmunk? It is WD322 still flying in Poland.
  24. I made these AZmodel Spitfires a few months ago: The first one has racks from CMR Spitfire Mk.IXc. The other one has scratchbuilt racks (I used CMR racks as a template) and CMR barrels. All braces on the wing racks are scratchbuilt from stretched sprue and are not very successful.
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