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Showing results for tags 'F-toys'.
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Hello everyone! Here is my latest kit. It's F-toys' 1:144 Douglas B-26C Invader modified to represent 7102, of Esquadra 93, Força Aérea Portuguesa, based at BA9 Luanda, Angola, in 1973. Portugal was in dire need for a proper COIN aircraft during the "Guerra do Ultramar" (Overseas War) in its colonies in Africa. Although a NATO member, it could receive material for its use in the Alliance but, due to a UN arms embargo, not for its conflicts abroad. Several different aircraft types were obtained through various means, mostly from France and Germany but also through the civilian market (Harvards). An official request for 20+ Invaders direct from the US was denied. France offered its survivors from the Algerian conflict but they were turned down due to their poor conditions. Eventually, the spares would be taken though. Portugal then resorted to obtain the Invaders through more shady means. With the mediation of a Swiss arms dealer, 20 Invaders were arranged from a US company. These were ferried one by one to Portugal in 1965 under the guise of being destined for the French civilian market. US authorities caught on to the scheme when the eighth machine was being prepared for the flight together with a C-46 loaded with spares. The machines were put into service one at a time but use was limited. Thanks to the spares from France, the seven machines were finally fully overhauled, with the wing spars renewed as had been done to the B-26Ks. One of them was found to have severe corrosion and was cast aside. Its remains are currently in the hands of the Museu do Ar. After several tests and bouts of indecision, the six were finally sent to Luanda, Angola, in December 1971 replacing the F-84s of Esquadra 93. They flew armed reconnaissance and interdiction missions and were well-liked by their crews. With the introduction of the SA-7 Strela missile by the guerillas, the aircraft were repainted in an overall anti-radiation green in 1973. Following the revolution in Portugal in 1974, the war was ended and independence granted to the colonies. The Invaders were left behind but apparently one was taken by the Cubans and is on display at Havana in Cuban markings. Of the six, only one machine was a glass-nosed B-26C, the remainder being gunship B-26Bs. This was a pre-painted, partially decalled and partially assembled snap-fit Gashapon kit. I took apart the assembled sections and bathed the parts in ethanol which helped to easily remove most of the paint using cotton buds. I then treated it as a new kit which I built mostly OOB. I made a rear cockpit wall, added a steering wheel and reshaped the alignment pin in the nose cockpit to disguise it. I covered the top turret holes and scratchbuilt the underwing pylons and the various aerials and blisters along the spine using the limited photos as a guide. The wire was made from stretched sprue. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. I used Hataka's A016 Dark Green as the main colour. The insignia came from Mark I Decals Portuguese Insignia sheets. I painted the numbers on clear decal sheet (I managed to get the numbers printed to size on paper and use them as a guide and template - I couldn't print them on the sheet). I decided to represent the plane as recently painted in green and kept weathering to a minimum. This green deteriorated quickly but without references, I had no target guide. The finish should be more matt but after some trouble, I decided to live with the satin finish. Although I packed it with weight, it wasn't enough to sit on its nose so I made a simple base with thick card, and a tarmac image printed on adhesive paper, and glued the kit to it. I'm really glad I decided to do this project and carry it through making a fine addition to a sub-collection of mine dedicated to aircraft used by my country. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome. Miguel
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Hello everyone! Here is my latest kit finished this past weekend. It's Mitsubishi Ki-46-III "Dinah" white 37 of the 16th Dokuritsu Hikotai (16th Independent Wing), IJAAF, found by US soldiers at Chofu, outside Tokyo, following Japan's surrender in 1945. This was an F-toys prepainted Gashapon kit. I wanted to squeeze a quick build for the "Twin-engine" GB at the KG144 forum and this fit the bill. After removing the paint, I assembled it mostly OOB, just modifying the stick for a proper yoke (scratchbuilt), sanding away the exaggerated ribbing from the flaps and rudder and removing the awful tabs of the canopy parts (intended for snap-fit purposes). I also added the radio wire from stretched sprue. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. I used Vallejo IJA Khaki Brown for the upper surfaces and IJA Grey Green for the undersurfaces with White Ensign Models Red Brown Primer for the propellers. Strangely, the scheme came out with quite a green hue on the photos I took of the kit with the camera (similar thing happened with my smartphone). I have managed to do some colour correction with GIMP but it still lacks some "brown-ness". The decals came from an MYK Design decal sheet. I'm very glad I decided to make it and am very pleased with the result. Now I must get my other projects back on track... Thanks for looking. Miguel
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Hello everyone! Here is one of my two latest kits, finished in time for the "1942" Group Build in the Kampfgruppe144 forum (and the year's end). It's F-toys' 1:144 Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-4. It represents "White 8", flown by Leutnant Walter Nowotny, Staffelkapitän, 1./JG54, Luftwaffe, Krasnogvardeisk, USSR, December 1942. This was a pre-painted semi-assembled gashapon kit. I took apart the assembled fuselage, removed all the paint and built it OOB only adding the radio wire from stretched sprue. In my haste, I forgot to sand down the exaggerated rib detail of the tailplanes and the rudder and missed that the main wheel hubs should be black not RLM66. It was fully painted and varnished with brush. Decals came mostly from an MYK Design decal sheet with the wing insignia coming from the kit's decals and the spares box. Weathering was minimal as the machine was quite new at that date. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome. Miguel
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Hello everyone! Here is the other of my two latest kits, finished in time for the "1942" Group Build in the Kampfgruppe144 forum (and the year's end). It's F-toys' 1:144 Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-4 converted to an A-3. It represents "Black 13", W/Nr. 2181, of 8./JG2, Luftwaffe, France, 1942. This was a pre-painted semi-assembled Gashapon kit. I took apart the assembled fuselage, removed all the paint and built it OOB only adding the radio wire from stretched sprue and modifying the tail to make the characteristic forward tip blister for the radio wire of the early Fw 190s. In my haste, I forgot to sand down the exaggerated rib detail of the tailplanes and the rudder and missed that the main wheel hubs should be black not RLM66. It was fully painted and varnished with brush. Decals came mostly from the kit with the upper wing crosses and stencils coming from an MYK Design decal sheet and the swastika from the spares box. Weathering was light as these machines were well kept and quite clean in this period, other than the stains from the engine. Despite the things I missed, I am especially pleased with this one. Thanks for looking and a Happy New Year to everyone. Miguel
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Here is the other of my first kits of the year, finished during this week simultaneously with the Airfix Buffalo. I had hoped to finish both before year's end but I didn't make it. It's F-toys 1:144 Brewster B-339C Buffalo finished as B-3110 flown by Kapt van Helsdingen of 2 Vliegtuig Groep V, Netherlands East Indies Army Air Corps (ML-KNIL), Singapore, in January 1942. It is basically a repaint and rebuild of a pre-painted Gashapon snap-fit kit with a few improvements. The partially-assembled parts were taken apart and all of the main parts were left in alcohol for a while after which removing the paint was quite easy. I made some modifications in the cockpit. Dutch B-339s didn't have a headrest so I cut it off. There was a gap between the seat and the rear cockpit decking (for the canopy tabs). I filled the space with scrap resin leaving space for the canopy tabs on the sides. I scratchbuilt a roll bar from stretched sprue. The propeller was completely replaced from spare parts from Mark I Models kits and is a great improvement over the F-toys part which has seriously undersized blades. Another missing detail I added was the small mast on the tail fin. The Dutch aircraft had a different radio wire arrangement with the middle wire in front of the cockpit rather than behind. The colours of the F-toys kit were awful and way off. From various sources, it seems these machines were painted with US colours so I painted the kit with US Medium Green 42 and US Olive Drab 41 (Aircraft Colors range). I really like this scheme! The kit was fully brush painted and varnished. I'll be repeating this scheme on a captured IJAAF B-339D from one of the Mark I Models boxing I'll be starting this weekend. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome. Miguel
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Here is my third "what-if" fun build with an Fw 190D kit, in this case an F-toys 1:144 kit, back in 2013. It represents a hypothetical Fw 190D-9/R11 nightfighter Red 3 of NJG11, Luftwaffe, in Germany, late 1945, where a pod with a more modern dish array radar was added to one wing similar to those carried by Hellcats and Corsairs. Since the previous radar-equipped Fw 190 had the R11 Rüstsatz, I named it thus. I later found that there was an R11 all-weather modification for the Fw 190D-9 but not like this! This was a pre-painted, semi-assembled kit so I removed the paint and made some small improvements, like widening the supercharger intake hole. The conversion modifications were basically adding the radar pod to the port wing and engine and gun anti-dazzle shields on the fuselage sides forward of the cockpit. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Thank you for looking and all comments are welcome as always Miguel
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This is the F-8E Crusader from the F-Toys US Navy Collection Volume 2. These are pre-painted Gashopon trading kits from Japan - apparently you can buy these in vending machines. Oh how I long to live in a country where I could pick up a kit in a vending machine! I stripped and repainted it completely. Well worth picking up if you want a few evenings worth of fun. More familiar in this scale is the Platz F-8, though that is an earlier mark. For a gashopon, this is among the nicest I have built in terms of fit and details. I'd quite forgotten how good it is. I think the only Gashopon kit that rivals it is the F-Toys Curtiss Helldiver. Truly must have been a labour of love for the creators - the attention to detail is brilliant for this scale (and a kit that sells for less than £6 over there) - even the interior of the engine burner can is nicely moulded. Yes the panel lines are heavier than the Platz kit but they are very modest indeed compared to many other styrene or resin kits being released in 144 these days. The only bits I added were to tart up the cockpit a bit with some seatbelts and a few details on the ejector seat like the yellow/black pull cord. I also stole some Zuni rockets and pylons from the Platz kit (incredibly fiddly to assemble I found) as the photos I could find of a VF-13 Crusader showed it with Zunis mounted. Paint was Hataka. I probably weathered it way too much for a mediterranean cruise but you do see photos of these quite dirty and I was having fun and trying some new techniques. I'm really quite pleased with the results, I have to say. My one regret is the oil panel wash on the white belly particularly is too harsh, but I don't really want to mess with it any more. Knowing when to stop is good - ask me how I know... The decals area also from the kit - though I stole the insignia from the Platz kit as well as a few spare stencils from the old Microscale sheet. The F-Toys decals worked remarkably well - they are often very hit and miss. Though on the thick side they settled into the surface detail very well with some setting solution and they are very well printed (none of the graininess of some F-Toys decals). The one thing I notice now is missing is the number 1 on the flaps/ailerons. I'll have to add that now - I always notice something when writing these things! The scheme I went for is for an aircraft from VF-13 Nightcappers which flew the F-8E from 1964-1966 on several cruises in the Mediterranean aboard USS Shangri-La. The paint scheme changed in 1966, so this dates this particular aircraft to mid-1965. I wanted a change from photographing things on aircraft carriers so this particular F-8 has put down on land. Probably never happened but indulge me. Heroes Models figures and cart, Brengun MD3. A lovely kit - looking forward to the new F-Toys Crusader release in November (which my conscience is now cleared to buy having finished all my previous release boxes!). Finally - with some of the other USN aircraft I've finished the past couple of months. There's a bigger brute in the works next... Thanks very much for looking, as always, if you made it this far. Angus
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Here my entry for this weekends Blitzbuild, no complicated camouflage scheme or Bi-Plane rigging, just a simple two colour build with a single aftermarket item. Oh! and definitely no silly challenges from the wings like 'Why not build both' I'm looking at you @Enzo Matrix and @Hockeyboy76, that way I hope to finally finish something for a Blitzbuild. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr
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Here is another F-Toys 1:144 Bristol Beaufighter I built in 2016. It is Beaufighter Mk.VI "308" of Escuadrón de Caza-Bombardeo, Cuerpo de Aviación Militar Dominicana, Dominican Republic, in 1948. The Dominican Beaufighters were really re-engined late-Mk.Xs with the torpedo gear removed. By changing the engines to Hercules VIs, these aircraft became technically classified as Mk.VIs. I had to carry out a series of conversions/upgrades: adding the strike camera, making longer carburettor intakes, making spinners, oval landing light, late-type rear wingtip lights and aerials above the fin extension, as well as missing underside aerials and underwing pitot The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. The markings came from Petersplanes decals. Thanks for looking Miguel
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Hello! This is another of a series of five Beaufighters in 1:144 which I built back in 2016. In this case, it's KW147 of 415th Night Fighter Squadron, 12th Air Force, USAAF, at La Vailon, France in September 1944, one of several British nightfighters transferred to US units while they waited for their P-61s. This is the F-Toys pre-painted semi-assembled kit which I disassembled, had the paint removed and built it almost OOB just adding underside aerials, the underwing pitot and radio wire, filling in the holes for the torpedo and rockets (which the kit would have you add despite being a nightfighter!) and removing an incorrect frame of the rear canopy. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush and decals came from the kit itself. Thank you for looking and all comments are welcome Miguel
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Here is one of my F-toys Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 repaints. It's Bf 109G-6/R6 Trop "Red 13", flown by Feldwebel Heinrich Bartels, of 11./JG27, Luftwaffe, at Kalamaki airfield, Greece, in November 1943. F-toys kits come partially-assembled and pre-painted. I removed the paint and separated any assembled parts to paint them anew. I added the underwing cannon left over from a Mark I Models kit, replacing the barrels with metal rod. I also added the loop antenna on the fuselage spine. The kit was completely painted and varnished by brush. Decals came from one of the options of the Mark I Models kit plus the spares box. Thank you for looking and all comments are welcome Miguel
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Here is another of my F-Toys Beaufighters in 1:144. It's Bristol Beaufighter Mk.10 RD776/OB-B of No. 45 Sqn RAF at Negumbo, Ceylon, in February 1947. I finished this one in 2016. F-Toys planes are pre-painted partially assembled snap-fit kits. I removed the paint and separated the parts and converted the kit to a late Mk.X. I added the wing leading edge light, the strike camera behind the cockpit, made longer carburettor intakes, added all the aerials, the underwing pylon stubs and the propeller spinners, which came from the spares box and I had to shape accordingly. The kit was completely painted with brush. The scheme's main markings came from an MYK Design sheet and the insignia were sourced from a Mark I sheet. The MYK sheet had some flaws, the main one being the incomplete underwing serials. Since they go underneath I decided to live with it! Thanks for looking and al comments are welcome Miguel
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Here is one of my F-Toys Beaufighters in 1:144. It's Bristol Beaufighter Mk.10 RD857/OB-R of No. 45 Sqn RAF at Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, 1949, during Operation "Firedog". I finished this one in 2016. F-Toys planes are pre-painted partially assembled snap-fit kits. I removed the paint and separated the parts and converted the kit to a late Mk.X. I added the wing leading edge light, the strike camera behind the cockpit, made longer carburettor intakes and scratchbuilt the late-type rocket pylons. The kit's rockets were modified to make the later type with larger warheads. I also added all the aerials. The kit was completely painted with brush. The scheme's main markings came from an MYK Design sheet and the insignia were sourced from a Mark I sheet. The MYK sheet had some flaws, the main one being the incomplete underwing serials. Since they go underneath I decided to live with it! Thanks for looking and al comments are welcome Miguel
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Hello, Here is F-toys P-38 rebuilt and repainted as an Alaskan P-38G. Quick build, easy kit, highly recommended. Paints are Testors enamels with pastels for weathering. The background is the Mojave Desert. Thanks, David Muroc Models
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A P-38F I finished this afternoon. This is a Gashapon Japanese pre-painted kit which I stripped down, rebuilt and repainted. Very satisfying and the level of surface detail is fantastic - a beautifully-designed mould that captures the original aircraft's lines very well in my view, certainly much better than anything else in this scale. The aircraft is Capt. Jack Ilfrey's P-38F Texas Terror/The Mad Dash. I used the Kitsworld decals not the F-Toys decals which provide for the same aircraft (on a sidenote - Kitsworld decals are just beautiful to use). Ilfrey was the first P-38 ace in WW2 and he flew this aircraft in North Africa in late-1942. He had quite an adventurous time getting to North Africa, being forced to land in Portugal after engine troubles, but managed to escape internment when demonstrating to his gun-toting Portuguese guards how to start the Lightning's engines! I had to do a bit of filling and sanding of some of the joints between the nacelles and the wing, as well as some on the aircraft's nose, but nothing onerous. The aircraft tail-sits despite the small piece of metal that goes in the cockpit nacelle. I scratch built the mass balances on the tail, as well as the aerial under the nose and added a pitot which seems to have pinged off sometime while I was photographing it. I used pastels and prismacolour pencils to weather it. And with a teeny-tiny Stout Skycar II I finished this week as well…! Thanks, as ever, for looking!
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Build 5 I love 1/144, but it's sometimes hard to find unusual subjects in this scale without resorting to expensive resin or poor quality short run injection kits. So occasionally (when I find a bargain) I pick up the odd F-Toys, J-Wings or Cafereo models. These models come ready painted and usually have some of the marking already applied. Luckily this one has a full decal sheet and no markings, which saves me having to scavenge through the spares box. It's going to get a full paint strip, clean up of parts, rebuild and spray job. So with the exception of stripping it, it just like building a normal kit. Price: 99p from eBay.
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Bought this cheap on eBay and was surprised how small it was compared to other aircraft I have in this scale. After disassembly, I stripped the paint and once it was back to plastic started the build. Painting the cockpit was quick and easy and having finished that I started assembly. No real problems apart from a small step front & rear engine nacelle/wing join, a little plastic card sorted that out. Had to remove the two lugs from inside the canopy so a fair bit of polishing went on to bring it back to clear, not that you can see much inside on this scale. Brush painted with Revell acrylics, weathered with oils and given a top coat of Tamiya satin varnish. The Hinomaru decals from Mark 1 are fantastic, other decals are from the scrap box. A fun little two day project and a nice addition to my 1/144 collection. This is what is started out like. This is how it's ended up.
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Whilst building an Otaki F-100D (awful kit, but I'm getting there) I bought a pre-painted 1:144 F-100D made by a company called F-Toys for the drop tanks, refuelling probe and pitot tube. I was looking at it one day and thought that it was too much of a waste to bin it and that I'd put it to some use, so I decided to convert it to the early production F-100A with the short tail. I had to trim the wing to remove the flaps and scribe the panel lines in that area, I also separated and opened up the canopy and detailed the cockpit. The tail was cut down and reprofiled, the intake was opened up and a new pitot made. After I sprayed the primer, I painted random panels in various colours. The slightly changed the tone of the silver, easy to see in daylight but the camera didn't pick it up until I used the flash. Once I had stripped the paint off it was easy to disassemble as it's basically a snap fit model. I had fun making this one and can't wait until I finish the 100D (in RDAF markings) to display them side by side.
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