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Japanese M3 Stuart with Crew (35454) 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd The M3 Stuart was designed before the US went to war, based upon the experiences of the British, which led to the US top brass deciding that their M2 light tank was obsolete. While the radial engine M3 was an improvement over the M2, it suffered from an underpowered M6 main gun at only 37mm, which although it was improved later in the war, the crews had to suffer with it for some considerable time. The British troops in Africa used it first against the superior tanks of the Afrika Korps, but fared badly in combat, suffering from the lack of range of the Stuart in the wide-open spaces of the African desert. It was fast and manoeuvrable however, and a British driver’s comment that she was a "honey" to drive led to one of its nicknames during the war. The M3A1 was an improved version that deleted the sponson mounted machine guns of the initial production, and some of these used more conventional diesel engines instead of the bulky radials, which gave the crew more room for other equipment. It also had a new turret with a basket for the turret crew to stand in, and no cupola for the commander that gave the tank a lower profile, and added a gun stabilisation system that helped with vertical alignment of targets while the tank was on the move, ironing out the bumps for the gunners. In British service it was known as the Stuart III and with the diesel engine version was designated the IV. It was hopelessly outclassed by Axis armour in Europe for tank-on-tank engagements, and was soon relegated to infantry support and recce roles, where it performed well. It was more successful in the Pacific theatre against the lightly armoured Japanese tanks in the jungle, where medium and heavy tanks could soon flounder in the mud and jungles. It continued to be used to the end of the war by the Allies in the Pacific area, although Russia, another user of the Stuart disliked it intensely and refused to take the upgraded M5 design that followed the M3A3. Variants were used well into the 60s, and Brazil even built their own version with redesigned upper hull and carrying a 90mm gun. Paraguay still had a few of its ancient original stock of 12 beyond the turn of the millennium, which is astonishing, considering the age of the machine. The Kit This is a new boxing of a brand-new tooling from our friends at MiniArt, and arrives in a top-opening box with a painting of a captured early production Stuart on the front, clearly illustrating the prominent machine guns on the sponsons, and that the crew are Japanese Army. Inside the box are fourteen sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass in a card envelope, a decal sheet, and the instruction booklet, which is printed in colour on glossy paper, with profiles of the decal options and the figures on the rearmost pages. Detail is excellent as we’ve come to expect from MiniArt, and as this is an exterior kit, the interior isn’t provided, but the exterior and running gear are well-defined, and the tracks are supplied as link-and-length, taking the benefits of individual links and making the job a lot less labour intensive without much loss of detail. The absence of the interior will be blocked by the inclusion of the figures, who can be posed stood in hatches around the vehicle. Construction begins with the vehicle’s floor with a choice of two styles of floor hatch, then making curved transmission armour at the front of the tank, which is detailed with various towing eyes, additional bolt heads that are cut from the sprue runner, and a central frame that can be folded from PE or replaced by a single styrene part. Now the hull sides can be fitted, but not before they are detailed with various external parts, adding final drive housings to the front ends, using the bogie axle ends to locate the parts on the sides of the floor. The aft bulkhead is built from two parts with a hatch space in the upper half, gluing it to the rear of the vehicle. The rear hatch is in two sections, one of which has a PE clapping plate, both having handles, posing them closed to hide the lack of engine. Above the hatch is an overhang with a PE mesh floor insert and styrene rear, with a couple of towing eyes and shackles mounted on the lower edge of the bulkhead. The next assembly is a machine gun, which has a vertical magazine moulded into the breech, finished with a circular mount that is slotted through the glacis plate from the inside, plus a strengthening strap under the driver’s hatch. It is glued into position on the front of the tank, fitting the transmission inspection hatch with handle to the centre, and adding a pair of towing shackles to the front. The driver’s hatch is in two parts, and can be posed closed for battle, or with both parts folded open to allow the driver to see the full vista, which would of course expose the lack of interior. A two-layer T-shaped cross-member is located over the upper glacis, adding a bracket that supports the headlamp, and a pair of bearing spacers to the final drive housings. As already mentioned, the earliest Stuarts had sponson-mounted machine guns, which extend from the main hull out over the tracks, roughly along the middle third of the vehicle’s length. The two sponson floors are glued into position, and two .30cal machine guns are trapped between two-part mounts, one fitted to each sponson, sliding through the front armour. The sides of the sponsons can then be built around the guns, with a short wall to the rear, a long panel along the side. Two hatches are fixed to the front of the upper hull after adding an extra layer behind, a clear vision port, and openers to the sides. If you intend to pose the hatches up, you have the option of leaving the inclement weather inner hatches in position, which have large panes of glass and windscreen wipers to save filling the tank with precipitation. The open outer hatches are propped up with a pair of short stays from their top hinges, but the caveat about the lack of interior still applies. The hull roof is next, starting with the panel that has the turret ring moulded-in, adding additional nuts on the top ring from the sprue runners, and a pair of filler caps on the deck behind it, shaving away clasp details around them. The completed part is lowered into place on the hull, turning to the engine deck next, placing the panel after fitting handles, gluing it in position and fitting a pair of rear lights on brackets to the sides, adding a little connecting wire if you wish. The main deck panel has a PE shroud to the forward edge to deflect incoming rounds or debris, plus another PE bracket for one of the aerials is attached to the right, with another L-bracket mounted on the side wall slightly lower and further to the side than the other. The aerial bases are each made from two parts for one decal option, left in place despite the lack of aerials that were likely incompatible with Japanese radio equipment. A pair of dome-topped cylindrical air-boxes are built from four parts each and are attached to the rear of the sponson on brackets on both sides. We finally get some wheels for the tank, starting with the two-part drive sprockets and a pair of over-size idler wheels, which are trapped between two halves of their swing-arms, adding a PE rim to both sides. The road wheels are mounted in two-wheel bogies, each one made from ten parts, building four in total, handed for each side. The road wheels flex-fit into position between the arms of the bogies, so that they can be mounted on the sides of the vehicle in shallow recesses along with the idlers and drive sprockets, with three return rollers on short axles above the main run. As discussed earlier, the tracks are link-and-length, using long single-part lengths under the wheels, individual links around sharp curves, and short diagonal lengths where the tracks are relatively straight. The various sections are attached to the sprues at the edges, and each short portion has a unique tab and slot format to ensure that parts can only be put together in the correct manner. There are a few ejector-pin marks on the inside of the longer track link sections, but these are raised and on flat surfaces, so shouldn’t be difficult to remove with a sanding stick or sharp blade, and won’t slow you don’t too much. When the track runs are suitably cured, fenders are added over the open areas, the rear straight sections fitted with a curved end to deflect kicked up mud, while the front section have triangular inner side skirts to prevent mud ingress, which is improved further by gluing a PE web between it and the leading edge of the glacis plate, along with a PE stiffening strap further back. Before we start festooning the vehicle with pioneer tools, a pair of headlamps with clear lenses are placed, one on each fender protected by a PE cage, and both with a short length of wire leading back to hole in the glacis plate. The pioneer tools are full styrene tools that have their clasps moulded-in, and are dotted all over the horizontal surfaces of the vehicle, including an axe, pickaxe shaft and head, and a shovel. More tools are located on the forward sponsons, adding PE tie-downs around the deck for securing stowage or camouflage. The single towing rope requires the modeller to provide either a 157mm length of braided wire or thread, fitting a pair of styrene eyes to the ends, and clamping it in place with PE brackets along the left sponson and fender. Now for the turret, starting with the main 37 mm M6 gun, the gun tube formed by a single part with hollow muzzle that is surrounded by a two-part frame, and has the halves of the breech closed around the rear, adding extra detail on the right, and a breech protector to the left side, followed by a four-part pivot that are fixed around the gun without glue, then the coaxial machine gun is attached to the right side of the breech, and its ammo box is located on the left side, fed by a ‘bridge’ of link over the main gun in a guide to the breech of the smaller gun, dumping spent rounds in a box-like bag underneath. The barrel is pushed through the mantlet and inserted into the front of the turret, which has been made from a well-detailed ring, with the faceted turret sides arranged around it after being detailed with vision blocks themselves. The roof has a yoke inserted on its underside in stowed or combat positions, and is glued in place, sliding the mantlet armour over the main and coax guns from in front. The commander’s cupola is similarly faceted, and each side is prepared by fitting a vision block in the slot, creating an asymmetrical hexagonal shape, and deciding whether to pose the turret crew’s vision ports open or closed. The commander's hatch is a choice of two styles of flat panel with a lock on the upper edge, and hinges on the lower, which can be fitted open or closed, with more vision ports on the turret sides posed open or closed around the rest of the perimeter. An empty .30cal machine gun mount with adjuster handle is fixed to a short column that is secured to the rear left side of the turret on curved brackets moulded into the surface. With that, the turret can be dropped into position after installing a few small linkages to the underside of the ring. To complete the model, a three-part rack is made up and attached to the rear of the tank for three decal options. Figures Japanese tankers tended to either dress like their army colleagues, or wore an overall with fabric-wrapped puttees over their boots, the officers wearing knee-high leather boots and carrying a Samurai sword, although how they managed to get that inside in a hurry is debatable. They wore close-fitting helmets with chin-straps and googles when inside the tank, their usual peaked caps with neck covering at the rear were more comfortable under the hot sun. This set was originally tooled in 2012, and includes five figures on a single linked sprue. The parts for each figure are found in separate areas of the sprue for ease of identification, and parts breakdown is sensibly placed along clothing seams or natural breaks to minimise clean-up of the figures once they are built up. The sculpting is typically excellent for the time, as we’ve come to expect from MiniArt’s artists and tool-makers, with natural poses, drape of clothing and textures appropriate to the parts of the model. Accessories include a sword, goggles, pouches, holsters and bayonets to personalise the figures, and flat-tops to the heads to accommodate the headwear. Four of the crew are standing, two with their arms raised as if resting on the lip of their hatches, one standing staring wistfully into the distance with one leg raised, while the officer stands pointing into the distance, probably directing the attention of Mr Wistful, his free hand resting on the scabbard of his sword. The final crewman is sitting cross-legged in shirt-sleeves with a cap protecting his neck from the sun while he examines or sharpens his bayonet. Their wrapped puttees are well-detailed, although the cross-banding visible on the drawings isn’t present on the figures, but other details such as the flag wrapped around the torso of one crewman is present, as is the detail of the officer’s sword, with a tassel on the grip, which is wrapped in the typical diamond pattern. Markings There are four decal options included on the small sheet, and you’d be right to guess that they have all been repainted by their new owners in a variety of schemes that have a green base. From the box you can build one of the following: 3rd Company, 7th Tank Regiment, Manila, Philippines, May 1942 3rd Company, 7th Tank Regiment, Manila, Philippines, May 1942 7th Tank Regiment, Manila, Philippines, January 1945 Unidentified Unit, Philippines, Tuguegarao, Luzon, 1945 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion It’s great to have this much detail present in a newly tooled kit of the diminutive Stuart, or Honey as the Brits called it, and it deserves to become the de facto standard for the scale. This captured variant will confuse a few viewers, but should start a few conversations about Beutepanzers and their origin in WWI, or the hardships endured by the Allied soldiers and locals in the Philippines during WWII. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

With the Chaffee just about done, time for the second project of the year. Something a bit different, although keeping with a theme of light tanks, I am sipping my toe in to German armour for the first time. Inspired by @Milan Mynar‘s build of the Academy Panzer II Ausf F “North Africa, a little while ago: I’m going to have a go at building the same one as captured by US troops in North Africa 1943. This was meant to be my Christmas holiday project, but it got sidetracked by the Ferret. From the look of the plastic in the box (see Milan’s build for sprue shots), it will be a fun build. If anyone knows of issues I need to look out for, let me know!

I've been wanting to build this model for around 20 years, but I was never good enough with painting natural metal to attempt it. However skills improve and new products hit the market. I recently picked up some SMS Super Silver and wanted to give it a try. The kit itself from Tamiya is very nice, but it does lack a little detail and I had a small etch set to improve on the cockpit, undercarriage doors and other small items. SMS Jet Black was used as a base for the Super Silver and I'm pretty impressed with it's look and durability. I've handled this a fair bit and it has not caused any damage to the surface. The tail decals, excluding the fin flash which was masked and painted, came from Dying Sun II decals from Rising Decals, the US insignia was from the spares box. This particular aircraft was captured at Clark Field in the Philippines. Repaired to airworthy, she suffered a landing gear collapse and was grounded, with the intent to take her back to the US shelved, it's probable that 'S9' was scrapped onsite sometime after the end of the war.

Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 orginally 9./JG 53, after capture used by No. 1 Squadron SAAF, Lybia 1942. Model painted with MR hobby, wash AK interactive and Vallejo.

So I've finally decided to bite the bullet and post a WIP here. I've challenged a friend's son to a model build (we have a month), and I've decided to incorporate this aeroplane into my ongoing (so far not published) build. A while back (OK, a few years ago), I read a book by Hans-Werner Lerche (1914-1994). He was a Luftwaffe Test Pilot during WW2, and flew over 125 different aircraft types, including evaluation flights of many allied aircraft, most of them after only visual examinations of the aeroplane (so no training or handbooks!). He was the principal pilot of the Luftwaffe test site at Mecklenburg Rechlin 1945. In his book he describes his career, and lists the aircraft he flew, quite a few with enough detail to be able to depict a reasonable model. I have spent the last few years putting together as much detail as I can, and purchasing as many of the aircraft as I can in 1/48th scale. I plan to use this thread to document the builds. Rivet-counters- please close this thread now, as I don't plan to do perfect- near enough is good enough for me, especially after having had a minor stroke 9 years ago, three shoulder surgeries in the last two years, and an ulnar nerve surgery last year. My eye-hand co-ordination is not close too what it should be, but I'm doing this as therapy. I should also add that I'm old-school- brush only. So, to kick this off, here is the start of my 1st documented build in this long-term project- a 1/48th Henschel Hs 123 A-1. Unfortunately there is not much beyond the fact that he flew the Hs 123 in the book, and I have not been able to firmly identify a colour scheme, so I will be going with a generic 70/71/65 machine as per the instructions. The box cover for the 1/48th Henschel Hs-123 A-1- I picked it up at a reasonable price not long ago. The sprues of the 1/48th Henschel Hs-123 A-1.

I picked up the Revell 1/72 V-2 rocket yesterday on impulse, as I already have the (Tamiy 1/48th) V-1 to go with it. Of the 4 schemes in the box, I'm most likely to do it in the black/white prototype scheme, but I wondered f anyone knew of any decals or paint schemes for a V-2 captured by the British, just to add another bout of deciding on colour schemes? I've done a Hannants and a google search but come up with nothing.

1/35 mr craft with a lived in look.

So I hear you say, zut alors, quell idiot ( pardon my French) how can a German plane designed by a Dutchman even qualify for this GB, well it can if it’s been captured and repainted. Now I said I wouldn’t start any new projects until I had a few less 109s on the bench, but I received the kit the other day from a fellow modeller who has sadly had to give up the hobby owing to declining eyesight. So I thought I’d start it and that to do justice to the build I would also try to ‘superdetail’ the engine and interior. With this as my guide.. I also have a Dragon 1/48 kit started so I may progress this as no copy the detail. So next step is to (possibly) fabricate an interior frame from .5 mm brass…

Over the last couple of years I have been modelling various vehicles that were used by the British 11th Armoured Division on their journey from Normandy to Lubeck. Somewhere down the line I was googling & stumbled across this picture... later I found the official description of the picture... The men doing the painting are... Men of 23rd Hussars 11th Armoured Division painting divisional and arm of service markings on a German Schwimmwagen captured from 12th SS Panzer Division (HitlerJugend) 6 July 1944 So we have a suitable back story that ticks all my boxes for a new build. At present I'm waiting for some varnish to dry on my Kubelwagen... So I thought I'd set up my next project now & I hope some of you might tag along to keep me on track. "in the box" shots coming up - Steve

This is the older but still pretty good Hasegawa Ki 43. The wing to fuselage joint is about the only real issue with the kid that requires some attention, also it seems pretty difficult to have the flaps in the retracted position. Decals come from Dying Sun III sheet which are very nice to use. This aircraft was one of several discovered in the Hollandia area that hosted several airfields. Between May and November 1944 the 5th Air Force, 317th Troop Carrier Group, 41st Troop Carrier Squadron recovered and restored this machine to airworthy status. When the 41st moved on, the aircraft was left. Sometime after it suffered a landing accident and was towed out to the dump where it was probably buried or burned at wars end. This was also my first crack at Alcald. I used airframe aluminium over a Revell gloss black. Pretty good stuff, although I would give more attention to surface and undercoat preparation next time. I was also not expecting the amount needed, this using 3/4 of a small bottle. At 10 bucks per bottle it's rather expensive, but the finish is really nice. Thanks for looking.

Hi mates, lets now facing part two of my "Meatball Series" Today you will get an captured B-339D, ex Netherland Airforce. This plane was tested by the japanese in 1942 at Java. The Kit is Hasegawa, the new sternpart and tailwheel is quickboost, Decals are "Flying Papa". Hope you like it.

This is the Hasegawa A6M5 1/48 kit with some Eduard etch seat belts with the decals from Rising Decals Dying Sun sets. The kit itself was rescued from the shelf of doom, I can't remember why it was put there as the model itself isn't bad. The decals are also top notch. ATAIU-SEA stands for Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit -South East Asia and a number of Japanese aircraft wore these markings post war while being the subject of evaluation by the RAF. I believe that the centre section of this aircraft is now in the Imperial War Museum and the only section of the ATAIU's aircraft to survive.

Immediately after the end of hostilities in Europe, the allied powers scoured Germany for the remnants of their advanced technology. The American's set up 'Project LUSTY, which stood for LUftwaffe Secert TechnologY. Col Harold E Watson, a qualified test pilot was selected to head the mission. He picked a number of pilots, all combat veteran's and all Thunderbolt pilots, experienced ground crew, both American and German along with several experienced German pilots. He also carried a signed pass by Dwight D Eisenhower, stating that no senior officer or military police could impede him in his work. Two teams formed, one went after the piston engine aircraft, the other, jets. It was the jet pilots who were named the 'Watson's Wizzers' and adopted the squadron embalm of Donald Duck flying around the Earth on a Juno 004 engine. Me 262A-1a/U3 'White 30' was captured at Lechfeld. It was named Marge by the 54th ADS, and then Lady Jess IV while with the Wizzers with the aircraft being the mount of Captain Kenneth Dahlstrom. Declared surplus, it was transferred to the US Navy and designated 121443. State side, the aircraft was turned over to the Tactical Test Division at NAS Patuxent River where she was made airworthy and attempted to be flown on November 7th 1945. Failing to become airborne, it crashed into trees at the end of the runway and was subsequently written off. Because of this accident, no further attempts to fly Me 262's was made by the TTD. This is the 1/48 Dragon kit, which is the reboxing of the 1990's Trimaster kit, but this did not include any photo etch parts. The molds are still holding up well although there was some cleaning up of the lower wing required. These kits are well detailed but do require some work with the engine nacelles being a well known tricky part of this model. Test fit everything before committing glue and you shouldn't have too many problems. Decals come from Cutting Edge's Crossdressing Stormbirds and the seatbelts from Lions Roar.

I'll go with something a little different this build. The kit will be the very nice Tamiya 1/35 offering. I'm going the superhero option on boxing day. Lots of cricket watching, BBQ eating and alcohol drinking will be happening as well.

So I had an Airfix Supermarine Spitfire MkIXc lying around that I picked up in May at the Hinckley model show, a 10 minute walk from home. If you know anything about this kit, it's from the early days of new Airfix, so the detail is somewhat lacking. The cockpit is better than their Bf109G6 as it at least has a floor, basic seat, back wall and instrument panel. There's even a gun sight included. However, all these 'details' are vague and inaccurate, there's not even an instrument decal included and the kit is missing a control stick entirely. Must say, the box art is the best part of the kit. The schemes the kit comes with include one in desert camouflage and one in D Day invasion stripes. These are two schemes missing from my spitfire collection at present. I was considering the D Day one, but decided to do something different with the kit.... Anyways, on with the build! Construction started with....... Ok well maybe I got a bit carried away and forgot to take many photos... The cockpit and very basic interior was given a coat of Vallejo interior green over a black primer. Then the wings and fuselage were assembled, fit isn't perfect but it's acceptable for certain. Filler and sanding followed. A few places needed repairing due to the thick sprue gates on the parts. The model was given a two colour coat of primer, black on the upper surfaces and white on the underside and nose. Then I got carried away again.... I love building spitfires, even though I prefer other subjects as the finished model, the Spitfire is hard to beat in pure enjoyment when building. This is a semi historical build, so it's an almost 'what-if'. I'm not modelling a specific aircraft, just a reasonable interpretation of what a newly captured MkIXc would look like. RLM 04 was applied first, and masked off.... With yellow tape.... Yeah, bad idea. RLM 70 was then applied over the remaining surfaces. All Vallejo paints. My preshade also failed, so I did something different, I mixed. RLM 70 with white to replicate the effect and painted it over the pure 70. I then added the rest of the tailplane that I had left off to simplify the masking process. The RLM 04 sections were unmasked and the prop painted in RLM 70 with the hairy stick. Vallejo's RLM 70 Model Air paint applies beautifully with a brush. So far the masking appears to have worked.... Seems to have worked under here.... I love the colour of RLM 04 Oh I left some tape on.... (Yeah these pictures aren't in the right order) It's not tape..... I knew masking yellow with yellow tape was a bad idea........... Arrrggghh!!!!!!!

Hi all and here's my latest finish, Revell's ex-Frog Ar-234 B-2 built for a 'Captured' GB on the IPMS Ireland forum. You can read the build thread here but in short: Extras: Small panel line rescribe, Cockpit details added, u/c doors replaced with plastic card; extra links on main gear; drogue chute line; new struts for RATO bottles. Paints: Revell Acrylics by brush, Klear, Flory Models Wash. Decals; From kit. Not my finest but had good fun and I think it scrubs up well for an old kit. Thanks for looking! Cheers, Dermot Revell_1_72_Ar-234_Done (11)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_1_72_Ar-234_Done (2)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_1_72_Ar-234_Done (3)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_1_72_Ar-234_Done (7)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_1_72_Ar-234_Done (10)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_1_72_Ar-234_Done (9)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_1_72_Ar-234_Done (8)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but there's still plenty of time. I'll do one of the captured P-51D's the Luftwaffe got their hands on. Pictures of them are rare, but I will do this one, in what is probably dark green over yellow with oversized markings.

This is my entry in the Airfix P-51D special group build. It's a pretty good kit straight from the box, the only addition were decals from the spares box. The Germans got their hands on at least 2 airworthy D models, later in the war they were over painted with a dark colour, I am assuming RLM 71. Both were found belly landed at wars end by allied soldiers.

Formerly on 1/JG 7, yellow 17 was captured by 616 Squadron at Fassberg at wars end. It was ferried to the UK where it was designated Air Min 52 and brefily evaluated until being sold off to Canada. It was scrapped with 300 odd other surplus aircraft in Canada in 1947. The kit is the very nice Tamiya 1/48 offering with Cutting Edge decals.

Hi, I want to build my ancient 1/28 scale Revell Fokker DVII in RFC markings. The only photo reference I've found is in this web article: http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/394/WTF.aspx This is the aircraft: Can anyone help with any additional information on this aircraft, which squadron was using it? It is an Albatross built machine, I think the lozenge fabric is 5 colour, but it is difficult to be sure. Cheers, Peter

This is the very nice Tamiya kit used along side the Cutting Edge Crossdressing Stormbirds decal sheet. Yellow 17 was flown by Lt Hans Dorn of 1/JG7 and was captured at Fassberg by No 616 Squadron RAF in May 1945. I could find very little information on Dorn, I suspect he was a replacement pilot and fairly new to JG 7, seeing little or no action in his time there. As for yellow 17, she was designated AM-52 and ferried back to England for evaluation before being declared surplus and shipped off to Canada. From there, she was sold along with 300 other surplus aircraft and scrapped. As I said the Tamiya kit is a real pleasure to build. Painted with Gunze RLM 82/83/76 with weathering kept pretty light as this machine looked almost brand new when captured, in all likelihood it was.

Link to a set of pictures taken at Wright field in 1945. They show two Me262's which were evaluated by the USAF. Lots of detail down to the airframe structure. http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/message/1511394394/Captured+Me+262+A-1a+Schwalbe+%40+Wright+Field+July+1945+... I found the link on hyperscale.com. Hopefully no one there will mind me doing this here.

New tool Airfix 1/48 Stuka B-1 finished as an Italian R-2 captured/stolen by the RAF in 1941. The B-2/R-2 propellor, exhausts, and bomb rack are all in the B-1 box. The B-2 engine cowls though are not, which is why they aren't on the model The guns were removed from the captured aircraft, so the wing gun fairings were drilled out to remove the barrels, and the mount and ammunition cans left out of the rear cockpit. Decals by LF Models (which turned out to be a little too thin, I'd probably paint the white cross on the tail if I did this again), and some of the more prominent piping added to the engine with solder. The kit is mostly brilliantly engineered (there are poorly placed sprue gates and ejector pin marks in a couple of places, and a few sink marks) and is one of the best fitting kits I've ever built. There are a couple of missing instructions though. There is no instruction to add the rear gunners back support strap despite it being included as a part and shown fitted, and there is no guidance at all on fitting the bomb cradle with the cowls off. Aside from those minor criticisms it was a really enjoyable build.

Something a little different from me - I'm doing a pair of Thunderbolt models of the same a/c, one in USAAF colours, the other German, as shown on the sheet below. I've had this particular sheet from Cutting Edge since my UK visit in 2007 (!!), and haven't managed to do anything with it - this GB is a good place to start, I think. To that end, I have 3 Academy P-47D kits, 2 of which will be used for this GB as a joint build - appropriate, seeing as they will be representing the aircraft named 'Beetle', as flown (and lost) by 2nd Lt William Roach, 358th FS, 355th FG, 8th AF both while it was in his charge and then as it was operated by the Germans, in the guise of 2./VVB OKL (aka Wanderzirkus Rosarius) at Wunstorf, July '44. The 3rd P-47 will at some point in the future fill the role of the other captured a/c on this sheet. Also on the sheet are a Mosquito and a couple of P-51s, which may be my entries in the upcoming STGBs for those types - we'll see. Obligatory box/sprue shots to start Those of you with a keen eye may notice the missing bits - bombs, drop tanks, and one of the props. They were cut out and dispatched to a fellow BMer at some point last year when he put out a call for P-47 things. I knew I wouldn't need them for these builds, so off they went. I hope they were useful. The kits are apparently not perfect, but they look like P-47s, which is close enough for me. A major attraction is that they're pretty simple kits, which should allow me to get them done in the allotted time span - like many of us, I find that I have signed up for rather too many GBs this year (it was a vintage crop, so whaddaryagunnado?) Before I start these, I plan to finish my Gnat for the Made in GB GB, then I'll be right into these. For thems as might be interested, Lt. Roach was on only his 3rd mission when it all went pear-shaped. On November 7, 1943, escorting B-17's of the 8th Air Force's 1st and 3rd Air Divisions, he became disoriented in poor weather, and with his fuel running low (and after watching the squadron leader crash land), he began looking for an airfield for an emergency landing. Lt. Roach spotted a runway and landed, then followed a vehicle to a parking place and shut down. He then realised that the people surrounding the plane were Germans - must have been a little bit sad-making for the poor chap. Lt. Roach had inadvertently provided the Luftwaffe with its first intact P-47D-2-RA, and spent the remainder of the war at Stalag Luft I. He survived the war, rejoined the USAF and died in 2010 at the age of 88. So although it's a bit of a sad story, it's a funny and sort of good one too. (Thanks to Warbirds Resource Group for the potted history.)

All the information I have is it was found at Salzburg Austria. This info accompanies another picture in Vol 2 of Wings of the Black Cross.