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  1. A colleague who runs our local post office has asked me to build a 1/48 Meteor for him. A commission build at last! Problem is, he has the Airfix 1/48 kit (a gift from a relative) and he want's it made as an 85 Squadron Airframe. He has an Uncle who served in that unit, working with Meteors. No problem so far ............ except he just dropped the bombshell and mentioned the night fighter version! I need to get more details from him, in the meantime, any suggestions of the best way to achieve that from the Airfix kit if it is indeed the Night Fighter version he wants....................? Terry
  2. Hello Phantom Phans. This WIP is for the forthcoming Brigade Models conversion set for Academys F-4B into the prototype F4H-1. I have obtained from Kevin a pre production test shot of the mouldings as seen at SMW this year. This does not include canopies or decals as they are not ready yet. Availability of the set should be March next year. Kevin has agreed to add a second seat so later small radome aircraft can be built. Any changes for this will be up to the modeller, as the main purpose here is for a first flight aircraft. Also, there are no instructions (I suspect I may be writing them now). Onto what you will get. This first picture shows what you get. This first pic shows the parts, except for canopy, decals, and the pitot probe, which I do have. This pic shows where to cut on the wings (for the perforated airbrakes) and the fuselage. Close up of the wing where the airbrake goes. Note that either the wing can be cut, or alternatively, the resin part could be used as a master to drill your own holes in the wing. Here is a close up of the fuselage cut point. And the cut made. Another part that needs cutting is the forward under fuselage (part F40) The resin intakes and the kit trunking is being joined. Some fettling may be required for a perfect fit. Airbrakes being sorted. Airbrakes fitted. Note that the gap is my fault, not the kits (my cutting skills still need work). First look at the front fuselage. The black parts are kit parts. They mate to the resin perfectly. That is all for this introductory part. Ted
  3. Well, as promised over in the W.I.P. group thread :BUILD THREAD Here are the finished pictures of my 1/72 scale Muroc Models F-8C conversion of the Academy F-8E kit, with raised wing and dropped flaps and slats: Had a few little glitches here and there, but I'm glad to have it in the collection! Thanks for looking in... Ed
  4. A second conversion of this old kit, into an elegant civil flying school machine. The step-by-step construction post is here: A commissioned Arctic Decals set was used, as well as part of an extensive photo-etched set by Flightpath. The first conversion can be visited here: Not an easy transformation, a bit of a challenge as described in the building post, but the results are pleasant.
  5. I like this old kit. I'll try to explain why. The "Nippon" (Japan) was one in a series of conversions for civil use stemming from the Mitsubishi G3M line. Several planes, not always identical, were converted or modified for a number of civil duties: passenger and cargo flying and "good will", record, or propaganda flights. The details are complex and extensive, so we'll untangle them later on. Here is a list, taken from the Golden Years registers, of all the Mitsubishi transports I could find there: J-BAAS Mitsubishi L3Y1 Asahi Shimbun J-BACI Mitsubishi G3M2 Osaka Mainichi Shimbun and Tokyo Nichinichi 00.08.39 J-BADY Mitsubishi L3Y2 J-BEOA Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Soyokaze' J-BEOC Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) Dai Nihon KKK 'Yamato' (Conversion of 96/G3M2) J-BEOD Mitsubishi twin engined transport DNKKK 00.10.39 (Conversion of 96/G3M1) J-BEOE Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) Dai Nihon KKK 'Tatsukaze' (Conversion of 96/G3M2) J-BEOF Mitsubishi twin engined transport DNKKK 00.04.40 (Conversion of 96/G3M1) J-BEOG Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) Dai Nihon KKK 'Matukaze' (Conversion of 96/G3M2) J-BFOE Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Amatsukaze' 00.03.40 J-BFOF Mitsubishi twin engined transport DNKKK 00.03.40 Forcelanded in sea and sunk off Haneda J-BJOD Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Isokaze' 00.01.41 J-BJOE Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Hamakaze' 00.11.40 J-BJOF Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Okikaze' 00.01.41 J-BJOG Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Namikaze' 00.01.41 J-BJOH Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Hokaze' 00.01.41 J-BJOI Mitsubishi G3M2 (Navy type 96) DNKKK 'Yakaze' 00.02.41 (DNKKK: Dai Nippon Kōkū Kabushiki Kaisha, Imperial Japanese Airways 大日本航空株式会社) J-BACI, one of the two subjects that can be modeled with this kit, made an around-the-world flight, http://airhistory-nippon.la.coocan.jp/nipponflight.html visiting many countries and attracting a great deal of attention (no doubt the goal of such endeavor). Among those countries was Argentina, with the plane landing in Buenos Aires. Many of the flights performed by the civil variants of the plane where as said in the category of "good will" flights. However, considering the events immediately after (like Pearl Harbor), one perhaps should be a tad skeptical assessing the real nature of them. Regarding the different registrations/machines, it's not just a matter of slapping them on, since there were many differences among machines, some quite evident. As always, base your model and detail on photographic evidence, and pay little heed to captions and written descriptions, many times inaccurate. For the moment, and regarding the kit, it must be said that this tool -with modifications and additions- was released a large number of times covering a variety of subject through many years. This last incarnation in civil guise by Arii, is still, in spite of of its vintage, a nice package at a very convenient price. So what do we get? We get a bag where everything but the instructions is packed: transparencies, decals, sprues. Not the best packaging, as we know. But there is a piece of rigid cardboard to support the load. The transparencies contain many parts not to be used, as they belong to the bang-boing-paf versions, for which I care much less than little. The decals cover two civil versions, J-BACI and J-BEOC. The parts are modified to cover this civil versions, but still some things will need to be added. The surface is interesting, consisting -again, old mold- of myriads of engraved rivets and panel lines. Of course a bit exaggerated. Nothing that an invigorating exercising sanding session -or many- won't take care of. A blast from the past: the place for the hinomarus is also engraved on the wings -now that is vintage for you-. The interior detail I strongly suspect belongs more to the other versions than to the civil ones . No cabin detail whatsoever, but some cockpit detail. The landing gear legs can rotate upwards!! -this always reminds me of the 60's and the Beatles:-) The rest has a rational break-down and again interesting surfaces and detail, we will see this as we advance on the build. I think this old kit in its new guise can be turned into a decent model -and you can see many good ones on the Net, some exceptionally built. Let's see what we got: Out of the cellophane bag: The transparencies are not bad at all: Although the surface is slightly pebbled and looks faintly milky. Future bath in its future, no doubt: The hinomaru placement mark (I know...), the hail dimples or golf ball rivets, but quite restrained panel lines. My idea is to sand the surfaces quite a bit to reduce those golf ball dimples to their minimum expressions, and refresh the panel lines if needed: A view of the second sprue: The engines are molded integrally with the cowl. If not awfully wrong or offending, I nevertheless just ordered after-market ones and will remove them, which also facilitates painting -however, the cowl was black on the original plane, so you may get away painting everything black and picking the engine up with a dry-brush of silver-: The main sprue. The Japanese figures look a bit circumspect or pensive: Some of the parts, a bit of flash, some ejector pin marks, the usual: Instrument panel, not bad if you want just a quick build: The props, not really accurate but passable, again, if you just want a quick build:
  6. So what can you do with some Drawings I wonder. I met Andy (General Melchett) a while back and he showed me some excellent Drawings he had for A Vulcan B1 in 1/144th scale. He kindly sent them to me as a scan but unable to print them off they where a curiosity I had studied and still do for ages at a time. Then a few weeks later I found a copy of the drawings in print form to scale. I come from a long line of engineers but have no clue about how its done and always wondered how I anyone sets about converting 2D drawings into 3D objects. After many cups of Coffee and a week at home skint I had not much to do and thought I would have ago at trying to figure it out. I thought, Tracing paper !.. So I got some Tracing paper and plasticard and decided to do this : I thought I would have ago at making just the tail cone for A Vulcan B1 or Early B2 i used some 3m spray glue to affix the tracing paper for the bulkhead plan and side views of the cone. And then I cut them out. and glued them together. I am not a scratch builder I have dabbled and my first read go was the Intakes for the Frog Vulcan I am working on so I am seeing what I can do with this now. So to anyone interested grab a coffee or tea, Perhaps a brandy and lets see what happens with this. It could be a long build... Cheers Rob
  7. Hello mountain top masters and conversion guru's! I have a unique and likely simple problem. Last year I bought a very aged F-15A from Manila, Ph. I live in Cebu, Philippines. Anyway, when I opened the kit, all was there and seemingly on perfect order, save for one thing, the decals are the color of some smokers teeth, a very nasty yellow! Anyway, I tried the "leave it in the window, sun bleeching" technique. To my surprise, this actually worked pretty good, but fell short of where it needs to be, and still are unsuited for use with the kit. Next, I contacted the seller, who told me to contact Tamiya about the problem. For the longest time, I was unable to find a distributor to help me with the problem, but recently I finally found the right people to help out. So here is where we are at. Apparently the kit is no longer in production, and I realized that the C is a more interesting kit for me anyway. So, is a conversion possible, or should I just look for aftermarket A decals, and save me the trouble? On a side note, I also have the F-15E demonstrator, that is really a D aircraft dressed up as an E. This was not known to me when I bought that kit from the same store. Anyway, I would prefer to make a proper D out of that kit, anyone know what needs to be done to accomplish this conversion? I would prefer to buy a new E kit that is accurate, than make the demonstrator version. Thanks in advance, Anthony Convert to C or buy A decals? Here is the Hasegawa fake F-15E demonstrator. Can it be built as is, as a D, or do I have to change part to convert it properly, besides the decals?
  8. Well, back again for another round! As stated at the end of my last build, I decided to dig out a decades old Shelf Queen. This was started with the old Paragon? 1/72 resin XB-40 conversion set and the old Hasegawa B-17F kit for "Hell's Angels": I had started this kit years ago, and had gotten this far: As you can see in the photo, there were a few problems with this kit. First off, it had the wrong windows set-up in the nose compared to the XB-40, which was based on a very early B-17F-1-BO. Also, the windows didn't fit very well, and while I had been able in years before this to glue in clear windows with CA and then sand and then polish them, it didn't work out very well this time around, particularly where the gun holes were already in the clear parts; they also turned out pretty hazy, rather than clear. The next photo shows the nose gun conversion, which later became standard on the B-17G: In the picture above, right, I even re-located the waist gun on that side forward, as the few pictures around at that time indicated. The waist gun windows were masked over from the inside using Scotch tape, which I figured could be fished out after painting -- a good idea at the time, not as good after the tape sat for more than 20 years! At this point, I become frustrated with the windows problem, and she became an official Shelf Queen, but I looked at her every few years, but didn't come up with a solution. Fast forward to this week, and seeking a project that for once had no natural metal, I decided to drag the old girl out for yet another look, having gleaned a few more photos on-line over the passing years. And that's when I realized.....I'd screwed up, as the following picture shows: The waist gun on the right side of the first XB-40, 41-24341, had NOT been moved forward! All my work moving it was a wasted effort. To be sure the gun position HAD been moved forward on the "Y"B-40, but not on the "X"! After pondering whether I could cut open the fuse and redo the waist gun, I decided to take a look the the Academy B-17E kit I had in the stash, awaiting birth as a Midway B-17; since the B-17E and B-17F are said to mostly be the same externally, except for the nose glazing, it seemed worth a shot: The very first thing I checked was the fit of the clear windows -- how much filling would be required. The two small ones I took off the trees and fit to the model fit perfectly. Also, they were almost entirely correct for the XB-40! So far, so good. Next, I noticed that the Academy B-17E kit had provisions for you to cut out the right side waist gun position that you preferred: So, I cut out the rear-most or non-staggered position. Again, so far, so good. Next thing was to make the cutouts for the rear top turret part of the conversion: The conversion part turned out to be 38 or 39mm in length after I used debonder to remove the part from the Hasegawa kit. It turned out to be 20-21 mm in width, which fortuitously happened to correspond to existing kit lines of the Academy B-17E kit. So, as is my custom these days, I used Dymo tape and a scriber to scribe very fine, precise lines to guide a very fine-bladed razor saw for the cut-ous: This method provides a very precise cut-out, as can be seen below: At this point, there was a very slight difference in height between the Academy kit and the resin part: This is taken care of by two strips of 40 thou card glued from the inside with liquid glue, and aligned carefully with the outside of the fuse, to reduce later sanding and filling: Above right, the bomb bay door were glued in place. Since this was a bomber escort, it's carrying capacity was for ammo, not bombs, so there wouldn't be much to see if the bay was left open. Contrary to remarks of another builder on-line, I found the doors to fit very well. I re-enforced them with small strips of card on the inside of the ends, and set the whole shebang aside to dry. Well, looks like I'm off to a good start -- praying for smooth sailing... See you soon, Ed
  9. Hi All, Here's my latest build for your viewing pleasure. This is a conversion for the Great Wall T33 kit into the RT-33 reconnaissance version. Changes were made to the nose using Milliput and plastic card. Camera windows were cut out and covered by clear plastic. The rear cockpit was also replacedwith an additional fuel tank and some 'electronic communications' gear. Markings are a mix of commercial and home made with stencils from the kit. Scheme is from the Thai Air force muesum. Overall it's a good and well detailed kit. A bit fiddly around the airbrake and flaps construction and a very good cockpit. An enjoyable Build for the base kit and an easy conversion to the lesser known Mark. Colin
  10. Continuing my series of ASW helicopters here is my Sikorsky MH-60R Strikehawk built with the Olimp conversion using the Hobby Boss SH-60B kit as the donor. I also used the Eduard SH-60B interior, which you can't really see much of. The Olimp parts are well cast resin that fit well, but they are not the smoothest of casting and can use some polishing. Here is the kit with all the conversion parts on. The conversion kit also came with decals. These were fairly complete complete, but the film was yellowed and sticking them on a sun facing window only partially cleared them up. I emailed Olimp asking about getting another set, but was totally ignored. I had a set of Hobby Boss decals for an HH-60 and ended using those for all the generic marking and only used the Olimp ones for the aircraft specific ones. So here it is Next up is the Fujimi SH-2F Seasprite. Enjoy
  11. Colin W

    RTAF RT-33

    Hi Chaps There are quite a few T33s planned in this GB already but I'm joining in with a minor conversion of this into an RT-33 Reconnaissance version. This was a single seat version of the T33. The main change will be the nose at the front and sides where the cameras were fitted. Only 85 were built and fortunately 2 are in the RTAF museum. GWH have moulded the nose on a separate sprue so I wonder if they might plan to release this version in the future. Still it looks like an easy job so I'll give it a go. I'll be using pictures of the museum examples as a guide. I've wanted to do this for a while but I could never face the Academy kit. This seems to be a really good kit so let's see how it goes together. Colin
  12. You may all know what a Zen koan is: a seemingly irresolvable, seemingly illogical proposition. One of the most known is "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Well, my dear friend and modeling arch-enemy Sönke Schulz from Volkania, has regaled me in the past many times with such propositions, but in modeling form, in the guise of semi-built, chopped up, miscellaneous remains of kits (BOXES of them, actually). Many of these modeling koans have been, as you know, solved (that is: built), the last one being a kit he sent of the RWD-8 that I just posted. The koan that occupies us (or at least me) today is Airfix's Avro Anson, which Sönke kindly half-built already, leaving to me tasks such as inserting a part of the landing gear after the wing halves have been firmly glued together, and not, as the plan wisely advises since it is the only way to do it, before. But yet again, I have solved more arcane modelling riddles in the past. Sönke again very kindly started a merciless chopping of the roof, since my cuppa -and his'- are peaceful, lovely, charming, uplifting, colorful civil machines, and the aft position has to be deleted. He also chopped the area immediately in front of the windshield, since his intentions apparently were to depict the slightly different windshield arrangement that the civil, passenger carrying, Avro 652 had (two prototypical machines: Avalon and Avatar). But hear hear, that involves quite a number of changes, while just modeling an after the war civil conversion is -in a few cases- a very straightforward matter of just adding civil regs, slight changes on the nacelles, and of course the already mentioned deletion of the aft position. Hum...what to do, what to do.... I know, I am not particularly fond of adopting "rescued mistreated models with behavioral issues", but this poor kit had such a hard start of life in Volkania...I mean, it breaks your heart. I have gathered quite a number of images of candidates, again, pretty straightforward, even the same clunky landing gear and window arrangement, and in a couple cases no need to touch the nacelles. I'll see where the vapors of modeling liquid cement take me to.... Here are the images of what I got already done in the package, praise Styrene, muse of the scratchbuilders: To be continued?....
  13. I was going to strip this RCAF Sabre 5 and redo it as a Sabre 5 Golden Hawks. I just finished a Golden Hawks so I am going to use this as an F-86F during the Korean War. The kit came with decals for Major James Jabara's plane 52-4513 so that's what it will be. I have it stripped to the basic fuselage, wings, stabilizers and drop tanks. All the small bits and clear parts are off and saved. I removed and repainted the seat black and the gear on the rear deck was also repainted black. I removed the sugar scoops and started sanding some of the offending glue spots from removing said parts.---John
  14. A350-1000 Virgin Atlantic G-VLUX Scale: 1/144 Model: Revell A350-900 Decals: 26decals and authentic airliners This is my attempt at converting revells a359 kit to a a35K stretch. Fuselage extensions were made with plastic piping inserted throughout the whole fuselage. The gaps were then a build up of scratch plastic and milliput then sanded to the same proportions as the rest of the common fuselage. The wings were extended from leading edge to trailing edge by overlapping the top section of the wing against the bottom section of the wing and filling the gaps to regain the original wing edge profile but with an overall 0.4mm extension. The sharklets were built entirely from scrap plastic which were shaped to meet the new larger wing edge. The satcom antenna was basically a lump of milliput and one engine exhaust was also a scratch build after losing the original. together with Zvezda's dreamliner comparison with another conversion project, braz a340-600 The a350-1000 almost dwarfs the smaller a359. This photo also shows a good comparison of the 1000's 'chunkier' sharklet This project a whole myriad of obstacles based on very limited information (the wing extension mainly) but once I knew what i was doing this became a very enjoyable and I am pleased with the result considering its just butchered parts of fuselage and wings. With zvezda's pending release of the a350-1000 kit and I'm really looking forward to someone taking that on. This is the work in progress thread Thanks for looking! Phil
  15. Hi all, I'd like to built a Willys CJ-2A during the 1948 Independence war using the excellent 1/35 Tamiya MB Willys. It is an hard work as the dimensions are very small and the reference pictures give a little help. Besides I had to stay away from IDF Willys pictures in Latrun Museum as it a non accurate reconstruction (I.e machinegun support, seats and rear stowage box). In effect my rear box is wrong! Here some pics. All the best Ciao Filippo
  16. And when I thought I had posted most of the models I deeemed would be useful here, I realized I left this one out. So here it is, a build from 7 years ago, with its original text. What does one do when in England? yes, one buys an old Airfix kit. How old? look at the photos, 1957 vintage! a mold 62 years old to this date. Airfix -and successive re-incarnations- squeezed the twopence out of that mold! What I want to do with it? Convert it to a civil machine, of course! likely some variation of the Bristol Tourer/Coupe. History: At some point after the war it was realized that transporting people was much, much nicer than bombing then. This very painfully-obtained knowledge was not, however, kept in mind for a long time. The Bristol Tourer/Coupe was a direct derivative of the Bristol F2B. In that regard, many countries, like Japan, France and Germany were doing the same: hastily converting war leftovers for the incipient civil market, many times with the procedure of producing a “hunch” to protect the weary passengers against the elements. I may refer you to two of my models: -Hawa F.3: -Hansa Brandenburg W.29 J-BCAL: You could model a civil machine without modifying a single part of the Bristol Airfix kit, though. There were a couple of Canadian machines (G-CYBC / DP and at least one Spanish that flew the plane as it is represented in the kit (minus armament, of course). Beware, since some of the other civil versions had different engines, cowls, radiators, rudder, passengers’ compartment covers, supplementary fuel tanks on the top wing, and minor details. Look at your photos, not at drawings: photos. I did some preliminary chopping, cleaning, filing, filling and sanding as per images. All the stitching was eliminated at this point, later to be replaced by other devices. You can see in the building photos that some areas have been removed and the section corresponding to the passenger cabin altered to represent the increase in fuselage width that was incorporated in the real plane in order to accommodate the side-by-side seating arrangement. Not all Coupes/Tourers had this increase in width; again, check your photos. Some formers were cut, and the usual interior paraphernalia prepared for the cockpit and passenger cabin. Some external elements (augment rudder, different nose, hunch, top wing tanks, etc.) had to be scratched too. As you can see in the images the major work was concentrated in two areas: the passenger cabin elements and the nose. The former is a complex area that need careful observation of the photos and accurate execution. Of special note is the transition from the former back of the pilot (which has a sort or triangular shape at the top) to the first passenger cabin former, which is quadrangular with round corners at the top, and leans forward. The second area of effort as said was the nose. A wood master was prepared in order to vacuform the cowling. Engine, radiator and ancillary parts (like the oil tank) were scratched. The engine alone insumed about fifty individual parts. Again, attention needs to be paid to the sections’ transition, from firewall to radiator. At the firewall the top is rounded and the bottom straight, and that reverses at the radiator’s cross section. Home-made decals were prepared: a bundle of “stitches’ strips” and black regs on white decal paper stock. More details related to the upper wing, control surfaces, ancillary parts, etc. were made; paint ensued with a home-made custom color of all sub-assemblies. A bit of work, complicated by the difficulty in handling the model for the final steps with all those wires and external details. The woman in the photos is my friend Soenke's sekretarien. He sent her from Germany, previously shrinking her with one of his multiple evil rays. Her name is Fraulein Preiser. She is nice, but constantly complains about having to wear the same dress over and over again.
  17. For some reason I forgot to upload this one, built about 2 years ago. It is related (a post war cabin modification of an existing type) to my current build of the LVG C.VI in passenger carrying guise too, posted as a WiP here at BM. In this small way, I would like to honor Edmund Rumpler, the creator of the plane. His contributions to aviation were vast and significant, and he also created a car that is a delight to contemplate, the Rumpler tropfenwagen. Because Rumpler was Jewish, he was later imprisoned by the despicable and moronic nazis, who destroyed his life and tried to ruin his legacy. This little and attractive bird was the cause of an enormous (and unexpected) amount of research. I am deeply thankful for the help received from Mr. Günter Frost and colleagues at the ADL site (Association of German Aviation History): http://www.adl-luftfahrthistorik.de/deutsch/adl_start.htm Their input was invaluable. Needless to say, any rights are theirs, and if any wrong was included, it's only mine. Their site has a plethora of interesting articles on Golden Era civil planes, mixed up with other subjects. My gratitude also goes to Sönke Schulz and Alain Bourret, indefatigable Ornithopters. Needless to say without the wonderful set from Mika Jernfors of Artic Decals there would have been no model. The Rumpler C.I (or 5A2) was converted to a limousine by the simple procedure of adding a cabin where the second position was, like putting a hat on, if you will. It was used by a short-lived German passenger airline know as Rumpler-Luftverkehr, or "that airline" for us not ready to venture into German pronunciation. My above-mentioned dear friend from Marzipanland, a province of Volkania, Sönke Schulz, and your humble have been interested in this machine for some time. Beware that at some point in the 30s a spurious hybrid (also named D290) was concocted for Lufthansa propaganda purposes and exhibited at a German museum, easy to tell apart from the original for many details, the most obvious perhaps a strange vertical stabilizer that has nothing to do with the Rumpler C.I, and wings that belonged to a C.IV. Painful and slow research provided now with data enough to build a model of the original. Many of you know my love for vacuum-formed kits. I got a quite nice Joystick Models (England) Rumpler C.I The kit is interesting, and as vacs go quite good. There are a couple things, though: the plan included in the instructions doesn't match the kit parts (or vice-versa), sometimes for more than a 1/4 inch. Those instructions do not have an exploded view or any indication as to where things go, but it's easy enough to guess. How the aileron works, different from the usual horn and cable or linkage: I carved a real laminated wood prop, only to realize that no photos showed a laminated prop (the laminations were not visible and the color was uniform): The decal sheet from Arctic Decals (I commissioned two subjects):
  18. Well, as promised over on the YRF-84F Build Thread here are the finished pics: Again, thanks to fellow modeler Bill Dye, who inspired this build. As usual, it's not perfect, but it's better than the one I had before... Ed
  19. Hi everyone, my name's James and I'm relatively new to model making but I've learned so much from this forum that I wanted to give something back to the community. I made this conversion chart out of frustration at trying to convert a paint colour only to find that either an equivalent paint wasn't listed - or that my local model shop was out of stock. www.modelshade.com will fall back to using the CIE94 colour matching algorithm and show you a bunch of other possible matches, based on swatches I scraped from manufacturers websites. Each match is rated out of five stars, matches that are on an actual conversion chart will be first - try it out and let me know your feedback It works on mobile too and if you select "add to homescreen" you'll be able to use it offline just like any other app. Email feedback/criticism to the address I set up just for this [email protected] or message me on BritModeller (it's also worth pointing out I don't plan to make any money from this so be kind) www.modelshade.com Also for you Brit Modellers I added a language switcher in the top left to spell "colour" correctly. That took me hours to code so I hope you appreciate it
  20. Hi folks, Not one to rest on past laurels -- or pratfalls -- as I was nearing the end of my 1/72 Hasegawa F-110A Spectre model just finished, and, as is my custom, when nearing then end of such builds, I immediately began work on another model, a 1/72 Revell F-101B, to add to my collection of U.S. "Voodoo" named aircraft. But, after some major painting, and while removing the masks, I found a major problem! I had been having problems with an airbrush, and having shot Alclad II grey primer all over, I discovered that I had not gotten the primer over all areas of the model. The primer and model's plastic are nearly the same color, and my aging eyes failed to detect the missing spots. Then of course, I sprayed the model overall grey, masked it, then began painting the bare metal rear end parts and the darker areas on the nose. Anyway, the paint started lifting here and there with removal of the masks and, long story short -- I decided to strip all the paint from the whole model and start over. For what it's worth, Testor's ELO stripper ALSO removes Perfect Plastic Putty!! Anyway, that project has been moved to the back shelf for now. Maybe one day, I'll mention it again. So, that left me with a conundrum on what to do next. I've had several ideas in mind, but with troubles on my last two modeling attempts -- both of which were more or less OOB. I decided to fight back! If I was going to have major aggravation with more or less easy builds, this time, I decided to do a real barn burner, and REALLY challenge the modeling gods by building a YF-105A prototype, from before the time when the F-105 became "wasp-waisted"... Now many of us builders of U.S. aircraft, or builders of prototypes have long wanted a model to play with. No such luck. Even our friends at Anigrand or the many great vacuform makers of yesteryear ever saw fit to grace us with this beauty -- or at least none of which I'M aware! As with my P2V-3 Neptune of a couple of years ago, I waited and waited, and then finally had to do it myself.; In this case however, the driving force was a great Japanese modeler over on a site called "X-Plane Model Museum" out of Japan, I found where a Japanese modeler had done a YF-105A, in 1/48" scale -- which of course is an abomination to all that's Holy and Right.... Anyway, for those interested, here's a picture of his final result (grabbed from the website): and here's a link to his building thread, which of course is all in Japanese: Corrected 1/48 YF-105A Link Now if you go there, you will find that the build consists of 29 articles, each with 4 - 12 pictures, and each with it's own Japanese language commentary. Over 100 pictures in all, and most are very informative. I used Google Translate to translate each one of those articles to English, which as is prone to happen, was in some cases, not very meaningful. Sometimes, things really are lost in the translation! One of those thing that I could never figure out was the modeler's name. I think he just used a 'nym of just letters and numbers. I tried to contact him to say great job, but I found out you had to join the blog to get even close to a member's list or e-mail, and I did not relish the idea of translating everything I might encounter there. Anyway for the purposes of my build, I shall refer to the original modeler as TGO (the Great One) from now on. If anyone reading this knows him (or her) please pass along my appreciation for his efforts. After poring over what I found in his build thread, I began to examine ways that I could repeat his success, albeit with perhaps just a hair less work -- as I am actually quite lazy. He did a lot of stuff that I won't do, such as dropping the flaps and the slats. Since many 'Thud drivers state that they never left the flaps and slats open on the ground, and this will not be a "maintenance scene" type build, I won't be going there. Feel free to look and see how TGO did it, however. For my efforts, I'll use the old standard Revell F-105D, as well as the nose from a Hasegawa F-105B, taken from a Thunderbirds set I bought decades ago: It was a bagged kit, so no box art there... Having failed to find any usable 3-views, I will use TGO's pictures and a side view from the book "Famous Aircraft of the World #4": This is as close to a flat view as I could get. Please note the 3 inch and 10 centimeter markings atop the page. If you copy this photo and size it where either of those lines are exactly as stated, you'll have a 1/72 scale side view without having to spend a fortune, as there is really nothing much else in the book that is helpful to this effort. Having armed myself with this wealth of material, I'll now press forward. While TGO started off with the fuselage, I will not. I will start instead, by answering a question that comes up on-line from time to time: Will the Hasegawa F-105B nose fit on the Revell - Monogram F-105D? Please understand we are not talking about the really ancient old "box scale" Monogram B model, but the newer, I guess 80's version. I began by taping the Hasegawa "B" fuselage halves together, and laying a strip of tape around the nose just behind the kit's front gear well edge: After making certain the tape was straight all around the curve of the nose, I used the X-Acto knife to scribe a line alongside the front edge of the tape. I then used that line to guide a Trumpeter panel line scriber for around three passes, to define a clear line for the razor saw to follow. Below, you'll see one side cut and one side left to do: Above right, you'll see the same procedure done to the Revell F-105D. The tape has been pushed back a little on the right side to indicate the three verticle vents, the rearward side of which I used to help line up the tape vertically for the marking, scribing and sawing procedure. I also fudges this cut a little in front of the landing gear well, to have some sanding room, if needed, As you can see below, after a little sanding the fit was pretty good: This procedure was so precise, I probably could have cut both noses exactly on the front end of the gear well and saved some sanding. This however calls attention to the fact that if I had cut the B nose further back, the fit would have been about perfect. However, previous measurement had shown that then the nose would have been too long to be as accurate, because the difference between the B and D models' length was about the same as the different nose lengths, plus removing the overly-long part of the Hasegawa front gear bay. For what it's worth, both the Hasegawa and the Revell kit were dead on for the correct lengths for their particular versions. Well, at least it's a start. Hang around if you dare for some old-school, kit-bashing conversion action... Ed
  21. I continue to find models to post from a seemingly inexhaustible modeling well. This is from six years ago and was done more or less at the same time that the 230, posted here at BM: Yet another Morane Saulnier plane used by Michel Detroyat, this time the M.S.225, modified for its use as a racer and aerobatic machine. It was painted in an attractive red/black/silver scheme, and demonstrated its capabilities –and of course those of its pilot- to a great extent. Again an old good Heller kit provides the canvas for this project, the parts being a tad chunkier than the M.S.230 just finished. Some accurizing is needed too but the basics are there. My sample was provided by the ever-smiling, spanakopita-rider, Mr Psarras of Floridian. Thanks again! As you can see in the photos, a new cowl was made, the ribbing and rivets were toned-down, the cockpit was refined and some internal structure added. The engine will need an oil radiator and a new prop, the armament needs deletion, the ailerons need to be completed –as with Heller’s M.S.230 the intrados of the wing has no aileron separation lines- and other details will have to be taken care of. As I always say: look at your reference photos. Heller kits of course are not perfect. But they do have a very logical and practical part breakdown. If you considered when were they designed -during the kit-making stone age-, your admiration may increase even more. The outer upper wing panels follow a real separation on the plane, but you will have to engrave that separation on the intrados yourself. The stabs were dynamically balanced in the original plane, the kit has them wrong, correct as per photo here.
  22. For a bit of light relief I thought I'd have a go at the 1/12 Airfix A35 Van from the Wallace & Gromit animation series. The base is the Anti-Pesto Van but it will be converted to an expedition vehicle for Wallace & Gromit to compete in the Camembert Trophy from Wensleydale to The Sahara the source of Camel's milk from which Camelbert cheese is made. The basis for the theme a LR Disco suitably equipped. The Austin A35 van will feature similar accoutrements but given the W&G treatment. A start has been made on the rear suspension to add granny's bedspring coil-over shocks made by SPANX to 'control the wobble'. The body shell has been lightly rubbed down ready for a primer coat, and the three characters in the kit have been partly assembled with joints filled as required. The prone figure is the Crash Test Bunny, used in the R&D test phase of building various contraptions.
  23. Another "cabin" conversion of a WWI plane, from 2011, 8 years ago. You may have seen before articles I posted depicting conversions that were made after 1918 to civil use of pre-existing models. It is nice to be able to have civil options for kits that are around and mostly easy to get. Dropping passengers instead of bombs fortunately became the thing to do for a number of planes that became the precursors of the airlines and airliners. The first ones were –as it is the case here- direct adaptations of pre-existing material to which a registration and -if you were lucky- an enclosed cabin were quickly slapped on. If you are interested in the prolific and romantic period known as the Golden Age of Aviation... I suggest you go the library. The venerable 1/72 Airfix Hannover CL.III kit was used as a base for the conversion. I left the kit in a drawer for some time and...there! when I opened it again the model was ready. This proves that the best way of building models is to let them build themselves. I was told about this method (unmodeling) by Christos Psarras from Florida, so all credit goes to him. If in spite of my selfless advise you still need to build the kit yourself, then you may start by toning down the ribbing mainly in the wings, and also a bit on the biplane stabs. Since you are at it, you may like to eliminate ribbing altogether in the center section of the upper wing, since it was plywood-covered, and on the fixed part of the lower stab. Both wings have ejector pin marks that you may like to fill and sand. The outer struts are joined by a “bridge” that has a carved counterpart on the underside of the upper wing. That is supposed to help with alignment, but I filled it in, since it detracts from the aspect of the finished surface and in my case only helped to annoy me anyway. Other parts like the landing gear legs were refined a tad, since they sport that kinda clunky look of the kits of another time. I cut out a section on the fuselage where the passenger cabin was supposed to be and carved a plug from basswood upon which the Psychedelic Mattelation process was bestowed. Playing music from the sixties will help giving the Mattel vacuforming psychedelic machine operation some appropriate context. The vacuformed part was made of clear plastic; the windows were masked later on before painting. The very Spartan kit interior (flat slab seat and Airfix mummies) was replaced with adequate bits: a Victrola, bar, cigar lounge, chaise longue, draperies, decorated vases, post-classical statues, Wedgwood ware, the works (not really). The HaWa F.3 had room for two passengers, seating facing each other in true early aviation limo style (that is, imitating a coach) so they could discuss Kant and Schopenhauer comfortably. The Hannover CL.III used an Opel Argus of 180hp, but the conversion HaWa F.3 used a Mercedes D.III of 160 hp. The Airfix kit comes of course with an Argus (or some of it, anyway) but fortunately I had a full Mercedes in the spares’ bin. A suitable exhaust was scratched for it. The stabs (upper and lower) are not connected in the HaWa F.3 by the bars that come with kit, so those were omitted. The kit, on the other hand, does not have the struts that connect the upper wing with the landing gear foremost strut. As modelers know, to determine the exact colors of these machines is a challenging enterprise, so informed/educated guesses have some times to be made. So far I saw images of two machines, one with the number 81 on it and one with only the manufacturer’s designation on the fuselage side. I went for the latter which also had a two-tone passengers’ cabin door. In the original some areas of the wings and tail were plywood-covered, and the lozenge was painted on instead of the pre-printed fabric used for the rest. Accordingly, those areas were painted wood color too and later lozenge decals were applied on, showing the effect of the darker areas visible in the original. There are number of converted limousines of this type that can be modeled using existing kits with little modifications. I hope this article inspires you to attempt this line of research and building. I would like to thank Soenke S., master of the Evil Galactic Empire. From his secret volcano lair he sent useful suggestions and data that were instrumental in the making of the model. Same thanks also go to Tracy Hancock. If you are a learned WWI lozenge expert, prone to lengthy discussions and much pondering about the hues and shapes an number of lozenges, as we endlessly see in the pertinent forums and websites, I invite you to remain silent, which is always healthy (especially for me in this case). Without much further ado, here is the cabined HaWa:
  24. A build from 2010, nine years ago. It is fortunate be able to find a good livery for a plane that you like but don’t want to model as it is conventionally represented. The Cant Z.501 is one of such planes, in the form of the record-braking prototype, I-AGIL. Cant stands fro Cantieri Rinuiti dell’ Adriatico, Z stands for Zappata, its designer, “500 series” because it was a seaplane, opposite to the “1000 series” which were land planes. With help from Fabrizio D’Isanto (a very knowledgeable fellow enthusiast) I was able to round-up some missing data and could proceed with the project.. Paolo Miana, the aviation writer that published a book on the Savoia S.64 also helped. To get the Italeri Cant Z.501 old kit wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be; the few I found were running for pretty stiff prices. Finally fellow modeler Christos Psarras from Florida helped me to get a kit at a fair price. My thanks go to all these friends. I-AGIL was powered by an Isotta Fraschini ASSO 750 with an almost circular radiator front. It established two straight distance non-stop records, once flying from Monfalcone to Massawa and later from Monfalcone to Berbera. Some differences in appearance can be spotted along its life in the available photos. The Italeri kit would need some adaptations; the most conspicuous differences being the canopy and front engine areas. The fore and aft openings on the hull and engine gondola were apparently faired over for the first record flight but the aft fuselage position can be seen open and with a windscreen for the second flight. Italeri’s model has fine raised panel lines, few of them because the plane was made of wood. They were sanded and replaced by engraved lines. The “fabric” detail in the control surfaces definitely needs to be toned down. The general feeling, being this a very old mold, is on the slightly chunky side, but is a nice base upon which the modeler can exercise some...well....modeling. Some struts were supplemented or replaced by Contrail and Strutz streamlined stock. The front of the engine gondola was replaced by scratched parts. The record version had a different instrument panel and control wheel arrangement which I made and substituted for the kit parts. Regarding the canopy, Italeri offers a transparency that bridges a large gap of the fuselage and gives support to some of the wing struts. I-AGIL had two side-by-side independent canopies. That area therefore was re-constructed with styrene sheet and a master was created to vacuform the separate canopies. The interior was kept simple since almost nothing can be seen –as it is often the case- through the exiguous canopy openings. Parts 50/51 are depicted in the instructions without a pair of knobs that are supposedly used to hold parts 52/53. The latter will only mess the assembly, since they are bigger than they should and will open the struts’ angle too much, preventing them to rest in their marked position on the fuselage. Radio masts should go, not needed for I-AGIL. The hatches are not a good fit, so be warned. Struts 38 and 39 need their “handles” removed, but there was a probe on the original on the left side strut (as the pilot seats). There was a navigation light at the tip of the fin. The ailerons in the kit have a line that divides them in two surfaces. Those dividing lines were filled and control horns were glued there and to the rudder. A wind-driven generator was fashioned and glued to the fuselage spine. Painting ensued and the sub-assemblies were kept separate to facilitate this stage and later decaling. Once the main components were ready the wing struts were glued to the fuselage. Beware that those struts are sided, and that there is one (slightly shorter) that goes forward. Floats were then added to provide rigidity and the right geometry. After decaling the vertical stabilizer the horizontal stabilizer halves were glued, and then their supports. I opted to glue real short tubes to the upper exhaust rows and to drill the ones one the sides of the engine gondola. Parts (2) 32 are diagonal strut cross members -kind of hidden in the instructions- and they are absent in most of the models I have seen. The wing was then glued to the fuselage and struts, and I have to say that it was a good fit. Minor details, about thirty lengths of rigging wire and decals were added and the record-braking plane was ready to cruise on the skies. With a little work you can convert your “all-look-the-same-to-me” model into something different and more stimulating meaning-wise. Give it a try.
  25. Well, found more old parerga and paralipomena, a few builds of "normal kits", no frills: Will try to post some today. Here is this Nieuport 28 from two years ago, a simple exercise in not worrying at all between other major projects. The kit was gifted by Sönke Schulz of Marzipanland, and the decals were commissioned from Mika Jernfors at Arctic Decals. This is a simple, straightforward, fun conversion of an inexpensive kit that renders a cute and different model, if with the limitations of the original kit. Another colorful civil addition to the Heavens. Note: just a few photos of the original plane exist, mainly in the Flikr photostream of the SDASM. The cowl has the wrong shape, needs to be rounded: Cut outs are done in the proper places: This area needs removal as marked (it's already removed in the image): Filling the struts "bridge" receptacles: New aftermarket seat: Some other P.E. details: Metal horns for the control surfaces: Hand carved real wood prop: Modified landing gear: The decals as commissioned:
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