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Hello everyone,I am a new member from Belgium and English is not my first language, sorry if I make some mistake. My question for Spitfire specialist is, what do you fell about the short spinner of the futur Spit Mk Vc in 1/72 from Airfix. For myself, I fell the spinner to round. Best regard Macalain

I'm finishing an Airfix Wellington Mk.1 and I'm at the point of fitting the bomb load. I've saved and watched the video of servicing a Wellington bomber and very interesting and informative it was too. Back along, I remember our learned members posting diagrams of various loading options on Wellingtons and information on the colour stripes on the bombs themselves. I've tried the search on this site using various descriptions and combinations. Either I get '0 results found' or pages and pages going way back into the space-time-continuum that use one of the search words or combinations thereof. Could one of you kind souls repost what I'm looking for or give me the 'key' words to use in search. Thanks in advance for saving me hours of modelling time, Mike W.

This is my first finished model of the year, ready for inspection! I look forward to comments, suggestions and advice! It marks something of a milestone, the first I’ve started completed since returning to modelling after a 45 year pause….and the first where other than for the very small bits, no brush was used! I primed with a Humbrol primer can, sprayed the colours using my new airbrush, then sprayed with Tamiya gloss, applied transfers, a second gloss coat and then a flat coat. To seat the transfers, I used Micro Set and Micro Sol and finally fixed the canopy using Micro Clear. I’d had the Revell Horton Ho IX kit since it appeared, but it had been parked in the back of the stash as it doesn’t fit my RAF 1915 to 1995 mission. But after reading “Wings on my Sleeve” by Eric Brown I had an idea… So, here it is. The model represents the V3 prototype, it was discovered in Germany in 1945. You can see it now, fully restored, in the US NASM's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center next to Washington DC Dulles Airport. But why in RAF Markings? Well, according to Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown the aircraft spent time at RAE Farnborough where an attempt was made to fit the Metropolitan Vickers F2/3 axial flow jet, but although close in size to the Jumo 004 the effort was unsuccessful as the F2/3 couldn’t be made to fit into the Horton’s engine mounts. The F2/3 was 88cm in diameter and 4m long, the 004 was 81cm diameter and 3.9m long. My “What If” assumes this project was successful and the aircraft had been flown with the F2/3 engine, or the later “Beryl” development, by Brown at Farnborough during late 45 or early 46. The F2/3 produced about 2,700 lbs thrust, compared with the 1,900 lbs of the Jumo 004, so it would have been quite spritely. As mentioned, the kit is the Revell one, in 1/72 and whilst the basic build was simple but very fiddly, with many VERY small parts. The U/C is both complex and assembly is not exactly intuitive. I gave up building 1/72 scale some years ago and this build convinced me not to return to the scale, the bits are just too small. I finished the aircraft in the late war standard of RLM 83 Dunkelgrün and RLM 81 Braunviolett (Brown-Violet) on the upper surfaces with RLM 76 Lichtblau on the underside, all paints were Humbrol enamels. Where the German Crosses would have been I painted over with Dark Green on the upper surface and Medium Sea Grey underneath. The RAF late war markings were applied over these bands: there probably should be an “AirMin” aircraft number, these were usually applied to captured German aircraft flown in the UK. Most of the stencilling provided with the Revell kit I used. If this project has been completed and the aircraft flown in the UK then it probably wouldn’t exist today as elsewhere Brown writes that based on the problems at trans-sonic speeds experienced with the broadly similar wing form of the DH 108 Swallow, it would probably have crashed! I photographed my “RAF Ho IX” with a Spitfire XII in the same scale: the Ho IX is significantly bigger. It also shows the amazing development that occurred during the early 1940s given that only 7 years separates them, the Spitfire first flew in 1938 and the Horton in 1945.

I'm trying to work out what were the visible external differences between a late mark 1F and an early Mark VIF. It seems that he Dihedral tail was introduced after the VIF, but many aircraft, including 1Fs in service, were retro fitted. So this is not a clear indicator. Again, from some photos in the Warpaint book it seems that some early VIFs may not have had the centimetric AI Mk VIII radar with the nose scanner. So, other than from the serial number, is there any certain way to know if the nightfighter is a Mk1F or a Mk VIIF? Any advice or suggestions most welcome!

Hi Years ago the Revell CR 42 was the only one on the market. I made it for the first time about 40 years ago, and some 20 years ago I was not able to accept any longer it bad look. I removed old paint and tried to reshape as much as possible. I made wider rear part of fuselage by about 1.5 mm but still it remains too round, I am affraid. I reshaped the cowling and the undercarridge as weel as added some inlets and outlets of air. At present much better kits are available (Pavla - second hand and Italeri) so perhaps one day I will try again to model this very nice Fiat last biplane. Markings are from 162 Sq., 161 Gruppo, Scarpanto (Aegan Sea area), IV-V 1941 so from the war against Grecce. Decals by Esci (also about 40 yrs old now, rather tick...) Please have a look - comments welcome Regrads Jerzy-Wojtek

Hi, Second Italian bird from archive shelf for today - Breda Ba 65. Wiki tells about her things like that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_Ba.65 This is vacu kit by Rareplane, I made it about 20 years ago. The airplane was a ground attack machine, which was rather succesfull - 218 build (for pre-war time it was not few) and exported to some countries. Here markings are from 101 Sq, 5 Stormo, Regia Aeronautica from Autumn 1939 - spring 1940 period. Decals from drawer. Now there is a kit available (or not?) by Azur. Regards and comments welcome Jerzy-Wojtek

Kawasaki Ki-61 Type I-TEI, #5262, Chofu, April 1945, Pilot: 244th Senai commander Capt. Teruhiko Kobayashi (reserve a/c) Kit: Hasegawa (in the meantime clearly superseded by Fine Molds and RS Models) Photo-etched parts: Eduard Wheels with rubber tires: Equipage Decals: Life Like Decals “244th Sentai Pt.2” Built in 1997 and finished initially as that dubious "Shamrock Tony" much discussed around 2000. Partially repainted and completely re-decalled in 2004. Although the level of painting and weathering leaves something to be desired being obviously below that of my more recent models presented here and the exact colours might remain somewhat controversial, lot of corrections and extra detail (wheel wells,ventral radiator, drop tanks - just to mention a few...) were done and so I dare to present it to your attention...

Hello I'm after color correspondencies for acrylics especially from ModelMaster and Lifecolor range. So please tell me Your opinions for the "correct" colors,I'm bad at mixing and frankly,I hate it. I know that most of them,if not all,are well covered in XtraCrylix range. Apologies if this has been asked before but I couldn't find what I was after in the search function. TIA Teemu H