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Hi, Here's my 1/48 Bf 109G-10 that I just finished. In all my years of modeling, this is actually the first one I've ever built. I can seen why people like to build these now, so much variation. It's the Hasegawa kit, with Exito decals, Eduard stencils and masks. It's painted with mostly MRP and some Mr. Color. The antenna wire was done with EZ-line. This 109 was flown to Ainring in southern Germany at the end of the war, to be surrendererd to the Americans. It was photographed without landing gear covers attached, so as per instructions I left those off. It also shows a little urinating figure under the canopy on photographs, but it's not sure when this was added, so I left this off, as it looks a bit silly anyway. Thanks for looking, Pete

Here is my attempt at the Hasegawa 1:16 figures from the 1997 Batman & Robin movie... I went of piste on the colours of the figures as they really are a bit bland from the movie, so I leant into more of a comic book/60's feel, going with purple and yellow for batgirl, very dark green and red for Robin (nightwing) with a tamiya pearl over the suit and lightning the blue tone of Batman... Mr Freeze is as he appears in the film. I'm very happy with these and they look colorful in the cabinet. Cheers, Andy.

My first finished kit in the new year is Hasegawa’s 1/48 A-7D Corsair II. Seeing some great builds of the Corsair II on this forum finally inspired me to do my own take on this kit, and I went for one of the not-so-often seen late grey schemes. I want to point out that the surface detail on this 30+ year old kit is superb, as is the fit for the most part. The wing part needs some work blending it to the fuselage, and the intake duct is a humbling challenge of putty & sanding cycles. But all the access panels and landing gear doors fit seamlessly. The kit comes with a nice pilot, which got a new head from a Tamiya figure to bring the helmet up to date. I added some details to the ejection seat, bombs are leftovers from a Trumpeter Intruder (which were a nightmare to align on the Hase MERs without matching guidance pins), and the ECM pod and the modern missiles were sourced from a Tamiya F-16. Decals are straight from the Hase kit, so they’re not strictly accurate for this scheme. I took extra care to blend in the gun housing. The original kit part sticks out like a wart (which can in part be tactfully hidden behind the boarding ladder if you build a plane on the ground). I removed about 1.5 mm at the base before glueing it to the hull, then used putty for a seamless transition like on the real thing. IMO this is a significant upgrade in appearance. Painted with the usual custom mixed Tamiya acrylics in a spotty panel-by-panel fashion over a base of Dark Sea Grey, blu-tac worms for the camo demarcation, watered-down black gouache for the panel lines. Thank you for watching & the inspiration!

Hello all, I hope you're doing well! It's been slow going on the modelling front recently, not exactly lost my mojo, but real life has been getting in the way and I've not been finding the time to make much progress. Still, I've been checking in on BM and seeing lots of great builds coming together and decided it was time to get a WIP underway, even if it'll be a slow burn! Enough waffle, what have I been up to? Well, I've got this kit on the bench: The Osprey has had its issues over the years but its still such a cool machine and I've been looking forward to working on something modern after finishing a couple of ww2 fighters earlier in the year. The cockpit and pilots are pretty much there: I added texture to the back wall with some plasticard, otherwise it's ootb except for the displays which have clear plastic with blue and green LEDs behind - more on this later!

Hi! Here is my 1:72 McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle, 84-0027, 493 Fighter Squadron USAF, RAF Lakenheath, 2016. Hasegawa kit (F-15J converted to F-15C MSIP II), Eduard PE set for cockpit and Caracal Models decals. Missiles and launchers from spares. Painted with MRP paints and Alclad metallics. Thanks for watching!

Hi, for extending my space collection I wanted to try something different and went with this little kit. I got the Eduard PE set, mostly for the two booms, which are solid plastic in the Hasegawa kit. The model went together without any real problem. The only thing was that practically any hole in the plastic was a weeny bit too small. After realizing this (AFTER on piece broke) and extending the holes before the glueing, all was well. The painting instructions are a bit off in my opinion. Most parts are supposed to be painted in black - which is the color of the thermal blankets that covered most instruments. The shapes of the palstic parts however are closer to the "bare" instruments. Which had other colors. I stuck with the black, because it is closest to the actual look of the probe in space (not that anyone can still see it). I did not replicate the thin white seams that the blankets have. The PE set compliments the kit nicely. I think it is a must to repelicate the two booms. Again, no real problems - bit I still managed to screw it up a bit. The magnetometer boom (the long one) is twisted about 120° along its longitudinal axis - I think is the right way to describe it. After having read a build report that mentioned it being hard to give the boom it's twist after the two parts have been glued together, I decided to try to bend the two pieces before glueing them together. Well, the construction does what it is supposed to do in the original thing: it gives a very good rigid stability. So the bending didn't go so well, as some of the smaller trusses bend the wrong way(s). I bend them back as much as possible without doing more damage, but it still shows. I think if I could do a do over, I would rather forgoe the original look and not bend the thing at all .... The kit comes with a globe as a base. I first just wanted to hang it into the showcase, but then wasn't sure if I could display it the way I wanted or wether the construction was stable enough. So I did use the stand. The globe has earth's continents engraved on the inside (it's made of clear blue plastic), but I decided that to be to boring and maybe, only maybe, beyond my painting skills. What you see in the pictures is my rendition of Neptune (probably a bit overboard with the clouds) to commemorate the fly by of this planet. That actually makes the probe to be Voyager II, as no. I never flew by Neptune. (I also believe that the instrumentation of the two probes was not 100% identical, but my sources where not good enough to tell me which of the instruments in the kit were really mounted on Voyager II, so everything went on). With a figure for size comparism and the alien the kit came with (I know it's hand has only four digits, but it still looks to me like the alien is giving me the finger 🖕). ... and together with the other 1/48 scale exhibits Explorer I and Apollo LM/CM/SM in the showcase (that boom takes a lot of space!). As always, thanks for looking and any comments welcome. Cheers Here are my othe space related builds: https://photos.app.goo.gl/DLrnifbiBdBnwxfF7

P-51D-10 Mustang Assigned to Col. E Heller 486th FS, 352nd FG Winter 1944/45 This is an original issue Hasegawa 1:48 Mustang that I bought way back in 1991. I started it just two-and-a-half weeks ago as a side-build to my Tamiya 1:48 F-14. Also served as a test-bed for new (to me) metallic finishes as you can no longer buy my preferred AK Xtreme Metals here in NZ. Haven't tried too hard, didn't even add any weathering other than the exhaust & cordite stains, this is never going anywhere near a competition table, but just enough so that it doesn't look out of place in the cabinet with my other WWII Allied builds. The blue is yet another Mk.1 eyeball acrylic mix, yellows are Humbrol & Tamiya enamels. Metals are SMS, Tamiya & Mr Color lacquers - I especially recommend Tamiya's LP70 Gloss Aluminium for the painted main wing surfaces as (IMHO) it gives just the right metal grey (not NMF) tone. Also worth noting is Aeromasters' 30+ year old decal sheet IP 48-09, wonderful quality control back then, they behaved like they'd been printed yesterday !. As ever all comments, questions and criticism welcomed. Cheers Ian.

A modelling pal originally suggested I look on-line for a cheaper alternative when I said I was thinking of getting the rather expensive Tamiya ¼8 F-4B kit. I bought what I thought was a bargain second hand Hasegawa ¼8 F-4J Phantom II off ebay with the intention of building the kit in it’s featured “Showtime 100” Vietnam War era US Navy markings. I was disappointed to find that the Hasegawa decal sheet had yellowed massively with age, but the seller had also included what looked like a more recent CAM Decal sheet for two US Marine Corps aircraft in US Bicentennial markings. US Navy/Marine Corp aircraft markings in the 1970s were really in your face and the more I looked at the colourful VMFA-451 aircraft scheme, the more I liked it. No toned down modern grey stealthy look to these birds. They really strut their stuff and the US Bicentennial celebrations in 1976 gave them an excuse to get even more colourful and make a true “Art of War” statement. The Hasegawa kit is a nicely moulded kit, but it shows it’s age in several respects. Raised panel lines on the stores pylons being one of them. So having picked up a slightly suspect cut price bargain, I then proceeded to spend a fortune on aftermarket goodies to pimp it up a bit and I ended up spending way more than I would have if I’d just gone out and bought Tamiya! Anyway, may I present AA-206, BuNo 155521 of VMFA-451 as she very nearly looked in 1976. I say very nearly, because it was only well into the build when I had painted on the blue nose plus ventral tank arrowhead markings and started to apply the decals that I realised Camdecal had made some serious scaling errors on some of the key decals and I couldn’t accurately match the appearance of AA-206 in the single photo I was able to find on-line using these. Camdecal also got the BuNo completely wrong for their featured aircraft, which meant I spent a lot of time cobbling together the correct numbers for the back end. If you want to read the full tale as it unfolded, take a look at my prior Work in Progress thread here. I’ll always know she’s not a 100% accurate, but I like her anyway. One of the best overall quality of finish I’ve achieved thus far (if you ignore the dusty look in these pics) and therefore both an example of Kai Zen and another lesson in Wabi Sabi. Additional after market items used were: Eduard #FE319+49319 F-4J Colour PE Cockpit set for F-4J/S KA #MA48051 3-D Printed Resin Exhaust Nozzles Alley Cat #48030C full length resin intakes for Hasegawa F-4J Reskit #RS48-0447 3-D resin printed Navy Inboard F-4J Pylons Reskit #RS48-392 3-D resin printed Navy Outboard Pylons Reskit #RS48-0320 AIM-7E Sparrow III missiles Eduard/Brassin #648303 AIM-9G/H Sidewinder missiles Armory resin weight on wheels Key paints used were: Vallejo Model Air 71.277 Dark Gull Gray Vallejo Model Air 71.121 Light Gull Gray Vallejo Model Air71.279 Insignia White Mr Color Insignia White lacquer Mr Color Light Gull Gray Aqueous Mr Color Supermetallic 2 Super Titanium 2 Alclad 2 Duraluminum

G'day All, The latest off the bench. Hasegawa 1/48 SAAB Draken. Mostly OOB except for metal probes, extra external tanks & pylons and the Sidewinders. Cheers, Motty.

I’ve been a plastic modeller on and off for more than 50 years, but believe it or not this is the first Hasegawa kit I’ve ever made. I wanted to have a go at another iconic jet from my childhood and bought the “Showtime 500” version of the 1980s tooled ¼8 Hasegawa F-4J off ebay earlier this year. I had intended building it as Showtime 500, but when it arrived I was somewhat disappointed that some of the kit decals had been used and the remaining decals had very yellow carrier film. Especially disappointed as the kit had been described as new in the Ebay listing. I think it had also been in a chain smoker’s stash for some time because it also smelt like it had been in the smokehouse. I aired it a bit to get rid of the VOCs. However, the seller had included bagged-up, good quality and complete decal sheets for two USMC aircraft in 1976 Bi-Centennial US Independence markings and I did get a fairly good price. I decided there were probably too many Showtime 500 models out there anyway and did like the more colourful Bi-Centennial markings. It’s an old kit and I believe the first Hasegawa ¼8 Phantom to be tooled using engraved panel lining, which is very subtle. However, although the main aircraft parts have engraved detail, the drop tanks and pylons retain the raised detail of previous kits. I wanted to make this my main winter project and so ordered up some aftermarket additions to improve on the details missing in the kit. As I lack the patience and dexterity to paint realistic instrument panels I bought the Eduard colour PE set for the front and rear cockpits. Having decided that I would crew the jet I thought that Hasegawa’s aircrew figures looked OK and that the kit ejection seats would also be OK with a little bit of additional work to the tops of the seats. I also bought a set of weight on resin wheels and better detailed engine exhaust nozzles, some Reskit resin AIM 7Es and some Eduard Brassin resin AIM-9Js I agonised a bit over the kit’s lack of full length intake ducts and hunted the interweb for a suitable set of full length ducts. I eventually ordered a set of Alley Cat 1/48 full length resin intakes for the Hasegawa kit after first mistakenly buying a set of 1/72 3-D printed intakes from Reskit. The latter are very nice by the way if anyone would like a set. It then struck me that I had already spent more than I would have done if I’d bought the Tamiya F-4B kit, but who wants to do a shake and bake when you can do a classic cobble it all together from all directions type build?😁 For some random reason I started with the engine burner cans. The kit parts are smooth bore and somewhat lacking in detail, plus the burner rings aren’t that accurately depicted based on images seen on line of the real thing. So I tried to add a bit more interest, if not strictly accurate detail, by adding some internal fluting to the can liners and attempting to vary the colour of their interior and the burner rings to approximate those seen in the photos. I couldn’t replicate the many holes in the greenish can liners, but I figure once the nozzles are on you won’t see much of this anyway. This photo look awful by the way. I swear they look better by eye.😉 Then on to the cockpit tub. The Eduard Colour PE set looks OK, but you lose the 3D nature of the dials and switches. For the 1st time I used Ammo's aqueous acrylic Ultra Glue to attach the PE parts. It gives you much more time than CA glue does to adjust the positioning. I should probably have looked to see if Quinta do a 3D decal set for the F-4J, but I’ll definitely try 3-D decals in a future build of something. Most work on my part in both offices involved detailing the seat head box areas by adding the various straps missing from the kit parts. I used a mix of thin paper and masking tape strips to replicate these. The kit aircrew figures lean too far forward in the seats for my liking so I had to pare away plastic from their backs and also bend their legs a bit to get a more upright fit and make sure they didn’t foul the control panels. The seat harness attachments to the figures I created aren’t 100% accurate, but I managed to fudge approximations out of pre painted masking tape strips and I was quite pleased with the end result. They do at least look as if they are strapped into their seats. I also used 3 shades of green on the figures flight suits and this created some shading effects that added a bit more realism. There’s a far more detailed set of Phantom pilots in seats available from Aerobonus but I felt I’d already spent enough on this build. I was especially pleased to be able to get the pilot's hand holding the stick. It's the little things in life that satisfy me.🤣I know a modern outfit would include green tactical gloves, but I went for cloth white flying gloves to have a bit more colour variation. Not sure what they would have worn back in the mid 1970s? Moving on to painting the intake interiors and closing up the fuselage next.

I finished this kit a few days ago. It was a fairly quick and easy build. I added a Wolfpack resin cockpit, Quickboost resin exhaust & gun barrels, and Brengun resin wheels. The VMFN-513 markings are a mix of custom paint masks and Victory Productions decals. I love that black & red night fighter color scheme! I notched-out the wingtips to receive navigation light covers made from bits of clear sprue that I sanded to shape and polished smooth. The back of each cover is drilled out and filled with a tiny bit of clear red/green paint to simulate the colored light bulb. I also notched-out areas in the leading edges of each wing so I could add a gun camera and landing light. These are covered with tiny bits of clear tape to simulate the clear covers. The wire antenna is EZ-Line, and the T-shaped radar altimeter antennas on the belly are made from bits of stretched sprue. I added a full ignition harness to the R-2800, but it's hardly visible once buried inside the cowling. I used a variety of black-ish paints from MRP, Tamiya, and Vallejo to simulate the worn night-fighter camo. The color variations are more evident in person than in these photos. Weathering was done with hairspray chipping, artists oils, acrylic inks, and colored pencils. It looks good sitting next to its squadron mate the F3D Skynight.

Apologies for the typo on the subject title, I missed the Y on the end and can't find a way to delete the post or redo the title... Sweet! Just found out by doing an edit I can redo the typo-ed title! Life is good! Built this kit when I was 9 almost 10 back in 1973. My uncle came up from Houston on business and visited my dad and I in Dallas. He brought me this wonderful kit while he was up there. Way ahead of its time the Hasegawa kit featured real rubber tires, rubber hoses and a metal part for the cockpit canopy as well as very excellent fit, very little flash and lots of decent detailing. Extraordinary for time period. The kit featured a decently detailed cockpit, even better detailed General Electric J47-GE-7 with rubber hoses that can be taken in and out of the model (made it tail heavy), moderately decent gun bays with removable panels and leading edge slats that could be slid opened and closed. And if you did them right you could make the horizontal stabilizers movable, Bonus! Wheels could turn I think, I'll find out, and a sliding canopy that opened and closed. Yet another great kit for kids to actually play with. Novel idea eh? Yeah, I guess ya'll are right, I am trying to relive my childhood. At least parts of it. Now I get to try some new painting techniques with Alclad II metal paints https://alclad2.com/ the paint is made to airbrush only, lots to learn on this one to be certain. I am learning a lot from folks here and am looking forward to any hints and tips you guys have on painting realistic bare metal aircraft. I confess I miss my Testors Metal Masters they were fantastic and buff-able metallic paints. Too bad they got bought out then discontinued.

Hello Gents, Here's my ninth and last completion of 2024, Hasegawa's Bell P-400 Airacobra in the markings of the 67th Fighter Squadron based at Henderson Field (and later at its satellite field known as the "Cow pasture" on Guadalcanal in 1942: The kit was fairly straightforward in the Hasegawa manner, I did't much like the representation of the wing and cowl guns - the former seemed too big and the latter too small, also the spinner gun looks more like a scaled-up .50cal than a 20mm Hispano; the 'car-doors' fit okay but kept popping ajar, resulting in some unlovely glue marks and the transfers - god, don't get me started on the transfers - didn't like hot water (broke up) didn't like cold water (broke up) and weren't all that keen on warm water (broke up). I spent ages mixing an off-white for the wingtips and spinner to match the white of the transfers on the sheet only to find the white was vaguely translucent and became darker and greyer when applied to the kit. However apart from that I enjoyed it, it was a nice relatively hassle-free build and it cost me a smidge over £20 delivered from Models for Sale. It may have been an original release and perhaps the age of the decals gives a bit of excuse for their poor performance, I used the Eduard mask set and Quickboost resin exhausts, apart from that it was OOB. I used Colourcoats US Equivalent colours for the outside - Du Pont Dark Green, Dark Earth and Sky which are distinctly different to the MAP colours but only if you put them next to each other. In fairness to Du Pont they made a better colour match of the RAF colours than some model paint companies I did the interior in Bronze Green and was going to use the same for the landing gear but after seeing some contemporary colour photos on the Asisbiz site I used Olive Drab for the landing gear. I finished with AK Ultra Matte varnish as a shiny plane on Guadalcanal felt like it might be wrong somehow. Thanks for your attention, Cheers, Stew

Hello there!! May I play too? ... I'll be joining in with the well known hasegawa kit in aggressor paint scheme from the JASDF, you can see a picture HERE 20240725_170035 by Andrés Alvarado, en Flickr 20240725_170106 by Andrés Alvarado, en Flickr Still in its's sealed bag 20240725_170222 by Andrés Alvarado, en Flickr Decals are from another Hasegawa kit that is somewhere in the stash I've ordered a couple of 3d printed AAM-3s from Paveway models, awesome stuff BTW!!! Cheers!!! Andrés

Hello Presenting you my Hasegawa F-15DJ in JASDF Aggressor Clothing. Though a bit old now at over 35 years, the Hasegawa model still holds strong. That is a model I have built 3 or 4 times before and I think I now know quite well. After two standard Ghost grey camos, one overall gunship grey livery I meant to build something different this time and I elected to build a JASDF Aggressor aircraft. Books and decals now are available and they are in good quality. I chose to build 52-8088. * Decals are DXM decals * Cockpit was improved keeping the Hasegawa kit cockpit as a basis. All in all it is one of the best Hasegawa efforts at a 1/72nd scale cockpit. It was improved with Photoetched dashboards and HUD, resin seats and detailed instrument coaming using plastic card. * Air Intakes were completed and boxed using plastic card bits * Les ailerons were cut and dropped as they normally are on parked F-15s. * Hasegawa Engine exhausts are replaced with Aires resin parts. I also used some Reskit resin wheels I had in my stocks. My F-15 being a recent JASDF Eagle I had to scatch the nose cone strips using stretched sprue. Painting started with a full standard camouplage paint job (FS36375 and FS36320 - H308 and H307 in the Gunze paint range). This was followed by a use masking job. The blue camo was airbrushed using mixes of blues and greys as I dis not seem to find the shades of colours from the paint ranges I use. Decalling is a huge part of the project... maybe the biggest in my modelling "carrer". I was quietly and patiently organized in a full week frame. Regards Eric B.

Hot off the bench is my Hawker Hurricane MkIID. This kit started out as a MkIV kit that I wanted to put rockets on. It wasn't to be after some trial and tribulations. I have to thank @Troy Smith and the rest of the gang here for fielding my ignorant Hurricane questions and putting me on a viable path to build this kit. Also I want to thank @gingerbob for swapping radiators with me so I could make this a IID. That out of the way, on to the build. Normally I'm a fan of Hasegawa kits. This one, not so much. The fit of the trop intake was poor and needed some tricky filling and scribing. The kit's upper wing hatches aren't correct for a MkIV or MkIID. With help from Troy, I wing dinged some more appropriate looking hatches. The kit cannon molds weren't aligned well making them offset. Trying to eliminate the seams on the cannon barrels only made them noticeably elliptical. Since I'm not a fan of resin barrels and there's no aftermarket metal ones, I built my own cannon barrels out of brass tube. The rest of the kit is completely OOB and done to my normal simplistic taste. I mixed my own pale blue for the insignias and painted all the markings except the serials. I also mixed my own Dark Earth. The rest of the colors were Mr.Color straight from the bottle. I'm very happy with the colors. Weathering was done with a mix of methods. The chipping was sponge applied testors silver enamel over a gloss coat. I sealed that with another gloss coat and then used oil and enamel washes. I sealed that with a flat coat to give some tooth for the following pastels. After the pastels it got a final flat coat. I used Gunze GX100 and GX114 for lacquer gloss and flat coats respectively. Great stuff when very heavily thinned with Mr.Color Leveling thinner and sprayed at low pressure. I'm very particular about my smooth finishes and I can't recommend the stuff highly enough. For some reasons the photos don't really pick up the weathering well. The plane looks a lot more used in person. Since I build for my viewing pleasure, I won't over do the weathering to look better on the net. Well here it is and I hope you like it. Thanks again to all the people here that helped me with this build. Be well Ron

This started as a MkIV with Rockets but my spares box wouldn't allow it. This is the Hasegawa MkIV kit. Thanks to the fine folks here and especially Troy Smith for their patience and kindness. I know its not easy to weather my indecisive picky ways. Thanks for providing me the information I needed to find a subject I wanted to build. I settled on this MKIID. Hopefully Arma Hobby has a sense of humor with copyrights. Believe me if they made this plane in 48th I'd be building it. Unfortunately I'm stuck wrestling this almost 30 year old Hasegawa kit. I built this one back in 2015. I don't remember it being as fidly as the one I'm working on. In fact, I remember liking the kit. Either my skills have rusted or my standards have been raised. I did a basic cockpit because you can see in the picture above how much is visible when done. The fuselage quarters were kind of fussy to get a good fit. I didn't think I'd be able to get the cockpit in if I glued the front and rears together first. I placed the cockpit in loose and glued the top of the rear halves together. Then wrestled trying to add the front sections. I wound up removing the cockpit and then adding the front halves. This allowed me to glue the pieces together from behind with thin CA. I stretched the fuselage halves open and then dropped in the cockpit. If I were ever dumb enough to build another one, I'd follow my normal inclination to glue the front and rears together and then assemble in conventional fashion. The wings were actually started first. I filled in the IIC upper wing access panels and added the IID access panel. There's plugs for the IIC and IID guns. I used one of each to get the best fit. I just cut off the IIC wing cannons. The plugs fit ok but I made the mistake of gluing them in with liquid cement and now I have to scribe a panel line at a compromised join line. I messed up scribing these twice already. I took a break from that and moved to the fuselage. Test fitting the wing showed some fit issues that required shimming the upper wing curve at the wheel wells to meet the fuselage filet. After that things fit well on the topside. I wish I could say the same for the uderside. Why Oh why Hasegawa did you put a joint through a ribbed fabric area? They could have just as easily moved it a quarter inch forward to the fabrics natural termination point. Ooy! Luckily there's a lot of plastic on the lower wing and its sits high. At least this gives me the material to resculpt the area. This isn't gonna be fun, wish me luck. With all the sculpting and panel rescribing left to do, I'm not ordering paints for this thing yet. I give it a 40% chance of completion. Stay tuned. Ps; if you know what color the wheel wells are on this bird, I'd appreciate that. Silver? Medium Sea Grey? Bye for now Ron

Hello everyone, I don't often get around to sharing my models but I felt this one deserved it because of the story. I have a great interest in 30 Squadron as a relative served in the Squadron in the twenties and thirties. I'm slowly working my way through the Squadron's many aircraft; this one stood out. The history Born in Vancouver, British Columbia in April 1920, James H. ‘Jimmy’ Whalen took interest in aviation as a boy and graduated from secondary school in June 1938. He quickly joined the Commonwealth Air Training Programme, learning to fly in Ottawa, Ontario, receiving his wings in January 1941. In 1941 Jimmy flew Spitfires over England with 129 Squadron, taking aprt in fighter sweeps and downing 3 Bf-109s. Meanwhile, 30 Squadron suffered heavy blows in combat over Crete and were subsequently posted to Alexandria, Egypt on night defence duties. With the Japanese entering the war in December 1941, making huge and rapid strides against British Empire territories in southeast Asia, there was a sudden need for fighter strength to defend the eastern empire. Jimmy volunteered for a posting, and three weeks later (January 3rd, 1942), he was flying across Africa co-piloting a DC-3. In February he arrived with 30 Squadron at Port Sudan. At this stage, the Squadron was preparing to move to Asia to tackle the Japanese threat and was familiarising with new aircraft. Here he met another volunteer pilot from North America - Don Geffene - who flew had joined the RAF before the US entered the war, fighting with 71 Squadron (one of the "Eagle Squadrons"). On 27th February, 30 Squadron and a complement of new Hurricane Mk IIs (mostly IIBs, but also some IICs) were loaded aboard HMS Indomitable. None of the pilots had ever taken off from an aircraft carrier before! The Squadron disembarked on March 6th at Colombo, the Ceylonese capital - which they were stationed to defend. Ceylon was a crucial node in the Indian Ocean sea lanes and its protection was vital to Allied shipping. Less than a month later, a Japanese carrier strike force was bearing down on Ceylon. On 5th April 1942, 120 Japanese aircraft attacked the island - outnumbering and outclassing the defenders with their "Zero" fighters. 30 Squadron engaged in a desperate defence and this is where Whalen found fame. From a patrol above Colombo, Jimmy dived into a formation of Type 99 "Val" bombers, claiming two - before swiftly claieming a third in another dive attack. A frantic air fight was whirling above Colombo, in which 17 RAF airmen were killed and 11 injured. Tragically, Jimmy's friend Don Geffene was amongst those killed. With six kills to his name, Jimmy now qualified as an Ace. This was a much-needed good news story at a difficult time in the war, and an RCAF photographer and reported were dispatched. A comic strip was published (see the link below), and several press shots were taken - one of which is attached to this listing and shows Whalen posing in front of his Hurricane IIB. Whalen's war continued for a further two years. He spent time fighting in India and Burma in 17 Squadron and later 32 Squadron, where he partook in fighter-bomber missions. Sadly Jimmy died in April 1944, hit by ground fire flying a 34 Sqn. Hurricane Mk. IIC defending Kohima, Assam. Jimmy was awarded the DFC and is buried at Kohima Commonwealth Military Cemetery. Jimmy's story is documented in full on the Whalen family website, where I found most of the information and you can see the comic strip - click here. Information about 30 Squadron is from John E. Hamlin's "Flat Out - The Story of 30 Squadron Royal Air Force". The model This is the Hasegawa kit - a lovely build. I have used an Eduard PE harness, detailed the cockpit with wiring, added Eduard resin wheels and a few other additions too. Paint finish is airbrushed Xtracrylix, followed by Mig Oilbrushers and washes, then some chipping fluid, then a light mist coat of acrylic, and some chipping. I decided on a 'sky blue' underside following much debate with myself and staring at photos.

I was interested when the aggressor paint scheme was revealed in real life, and when Hasegawa announced a special edition I ordered it directly from Japan. Until I got the kit I had not realised how big the F-35 is, very similar length, width, wing area and fuselage bulk to a rhino, as second photo shows, much bigger than a Viper. So that along with the gray and stealth markings will discourage a large collection. The Hasegawa kit has a fairly detailed inlet structure so as the aggressor's seem unarmed there's some interest there. No AM available as far as I am aware, so apart from the inlet the interest will be the paint (and the large decals). Asia GB starts next week so I am unsure when I will start this. Chris

Hi, Here's my rendition of Hasegawa's F4U-7 in Suez markings. WIP is found here: Kit: Hasegawa 09077 (JT77) - F4U-7 Corsair French Navy, 2003 Paints: Alclad - ALC 117 Dull Aluminum, ALC 121 Burnt Iron Gunze - H93 Clear Blue, H329 Blue Angels Yellow Model Master - 4742 Insignia Blue, 4749 Engine Gray, 4757 Aircraft Interior Black, 4851 Yellow Zinc Chromate, 17178 Chrome Silver Mr Color - 365 Gloss Sea Blue FS151042 Polly Scale - 414113 Reefer White, 505096 US Interior Green A/N611, 505252 British Dark Earth, 505260 British Middlestone, 505268 British P.R.U. Blue Tamiya - LP-2 White, LP-3 Flat Black, LP-7 Pure Red, LP-8 Pure Yellow, X-19 Smoke, X-22 Clear, X-35 Semi-gloss Clear, XF-1 Flat Black, XF-2 Flat White, XF-7 Flat Red, XF-16 Flat Aluminum, XF-26 Deep Green, XF-69 NATO Black, XF-85 Rubber Black, Fine Grey Primer (spray can) Vallejo - 71.062 Aluminium, 71.065 Steel Johnson’s Future Aftermarket: Ultracast 48192 - F4U Corsair / F6F Hellcat Wheels Radial Tread (32” x 8” late style wheels) Scratch built: Seat armrests, reflector gunsight, instrument panel “eyebrow” switches and wiring bundles, drop tank vent and feed hose, tail gear holdback ring, propeller governor, distributor and magneto covers, radio altimeter antenna, aerial wire antenna, UHF antenna, wingtip navigation lights, main gear brake lines. The F4U-7 was ordered by the French. It was essentially an AU-1 with an engine optimized for higher altitude work, so it had a chin air intake added for the extra supercharger. It retained the cheeks of the AU-1. Despite similarities, this was not a rehashed F4U-4. IMG_4561 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4562 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4563 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4565 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4566 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4567 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4568 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4570 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4572 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4573 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4574 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr And the cheeky trio: IMG_4575 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr Thanks for looking. Wlad

Here's another blast from my past. Yup another OOB Hasegawa 109. In case you were wondering where my short tailed G10 got it's tail from. Here it is. It was a short tailed G-6(or 14?) kit. I grafted the taller tail on it to make this G-14. I find it easier to make the cut between the stations and smooth everything later. I don't know why people prefer glue joints to fall on natural panel lines. I find it a bear to get a nice clean panel on a glue joint. That's just me. This plane appealed to me for the same reasons as the other 109 I just posted. Painted over markings, late war hodge podge colors, Luftflotte 4 yellow ends. The cool Croatian markings sealed the deal for me. Like the other 109 this plane was finished with a mix of Aeromaster, Floquil and Modelmaster enamels and weathered with pastels. That's it. Gotta go eat breakfast. Be well Ron

Hello Next one from my shelf of doom with this 1/72 Hasegawa General Dynamics F-16B in service within the Venezuelan Air Force. I did not join the South America GB because it was more than 25% completed. As for the previous F-16N this kit is not well detailed but easy to assemble. The decals came from an Aztec sheet and the colours from the Xtracolor range. (X102/X110/X37/X140) I did not have in hand the AA Python IV missiles. Patrick

Hello This year I am finishing some kits started some years ago and which were waiting in my own shelf of doom. First here is this 1/72 Hasegawa General Dynamics F-16N in the colours of the Navy Fighter Weapons School around 1990. Actually the F-16N was a modified F-16C Block 30 with a reinforced wing, no cannon, a F110-GE-100 engine and an APG-66 radar. Due to airframe fatigue the F-16N were retired in 1994. Sadly in the box the ACMI pod was missing as Hasegawa did not catch the opportunity to have an operational Top Gun Viper. On the other hand this kit was cheap and we can find some on the second-hand market. The paint came from Gunze aqueous range and according to the pictures found on the Internet. Patrick

One of the 3 Covid builds I have on the go is a 1/48 (Hasegawa) JU-87R-2 Stuka - yes, the famous (or infamous) Desert Snake flown by Hubert Poltz. Being a Hasegawa kit, just a little dressing up of the cockpit was needed. A little scratchbuilding, and a pair of Ultracast seats, and exhaust stacks. I also had to make out of scrap brass the 2 small armor plates for the rear gunner canopy ... The build continued using the spare long range tanks included in the Airfix JU-87B-1 (not used on the B-1) The fit was exceptional - as is usually the case with Hasegawa - note almost NO FILLER! Now the painting begins! I have to start with a full standard scheme, before adding the soft edged 'Desert yellow' (Please note the stippled spinner) I forgot to mention replacing the simplified hinge wedges with brass wire ... Now I'm waiting for the paint to harden before I start the 'Desert yellow' Hope you like so far, Colin

Hello I wish to present my 1/72nd scale Mitsubishi F-2A Hasegawa to you. I started this model from a box bought a while ago. It was a F-2 prototype boxing, hence the white plastic. That said, the parts provided by Hasegawa are the same for all their 1/72nd scale Mitsubishi F-2s be it prototype or operational versions. * The decals are from a (excellent) DXM decal sheet. * The engine nozzle is a Reskit nozzle which has the advantage of being more detailed and offering an open nozzle, which is often the case with parked F-2As. * The wheels are also from Reskit. Note that the ones in the kit are actually quite good. * The ejection seat is a Wolpack Design in resin that advantageously replaces the part supplied with the kit * Some of the cockpit detailing elements are photoetched and come from an Eduard PE sheet. The model is a very good Hasegawa, sharp and quite complete, quite close in its design to the F-16 kits of the brand. However, no part of the F-2 is common to those of the F-16 and it is easy to see that this model is much more recent in design than the F-16s. As usual with Hasegawa, the cockpit is simplified and will have to be detailed (photo-etched + resin seat), as well as the gear wells (scratch). All the F-2 boxes at the 1/72nd Hasegawa that I know of allow you to build either a single-seat F-2A or a two-seat F-2B. This means that it is necessary to join the front (specific A or and the rear (common part) of the upper part of the fuselage. Nothing complicated, a very small amount of dry fitting is recommended to perfect the adjustment. Even if this model is very good we can't deny the plus and advantages brought by the newer Fine Milds F-2s. The assembly is very traditional and starts with the cockpit and the construction of certain details that will quickly find their place when the fuselage is closed. In this respect, the integration of the Reskit nozzle requires preparatory work that it is better to prepare. Not liking this white plastic, I quickly applied a layer of gray paint as a primer... Before continuing with a general paint in the lightest blue of the camouflage obtained by mixing (Gunze 50% H56 + 50% H25 about - I deliberately modulate to have variations in shade) After several freehand attempts, I decided to use cardboard masks for the application of the darkest blue (Tamiya 3/4 XF17 +1/4 XF8 approximately) The radome and antennas are much clearer than the recommended H317 (Dark gull gray). I went for an H325 (Light gull gray) slightly lightened. The rest of the assembly is quite traditional and consists of setting up and painting the different details and antennas, detailing the landing gear and pipes in flexible metal wire then gluing, careful installation of the decals and simple weathering avoiding excesses. Best to you all Eric B.