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Found 12 results

  1. Hello All, so this is my first WIP post as a relative newcomer to the Forums. While I currently have a few different models on the go (I assume I'm not alone in biting off more than I can comfortably chew), I felt that this subject has minimal coverage on here (and anywhere else on the 'net for that matter) and would be more interesting than another Lightning or TSR-2 (although I do have an SR.177 and SR.53 in the early stages too, so might post them). So I bought the resin Fantastic Plastic (Anigrand) Vickers 559 since I love a "might have been", and decided to go down the route of FAW.2 spec, with it being introduced to service (I'm not going to make up some story about the rest of the F.155T competitors) and then the first round of upgrades and revisions being hastily introduced (par for the course with 50's British jets it seems). I have actually already made a reasonable amount of progress on it before I felt it might be nice to share the pain journey with others. First impressions when I unboxed it were that the quality of casting was really very good. Tolerances seem decent, and dry fitting wings, for instance, shows I can comfortably paint various parts separately and then assemble with no filler needed (mostly). However, some areas need attention to deliver realism: - Jet pipes show the turbine face just inside the pipe, really this needs to be about 40-50mm deep - Intake ended in a flat face just inside the shock cone ( too late for a photo of this) - Shock cone lower lip is not accurate to design (already tweaked) - nose gear bay was very basic, too wide, and gave a nose down stance (again, already remedied) - while the kit fit lines are good, the wings were a little slack in their locating tabs (fixed) - cockpit details non-existent really, simply a pair of 1/100? scale seats, control stick and that's it - canopy is one piece, and very thickly cast - a single pair of Red Hebes as weaponry - main gear bays are basic and lacking any convincing detail - main gear itself may or may not be sturdy enough, it seems to flex easily, so we'll see. - Main gear doors are obviously quite thick being resin, but also I'm not sure they'd have ended up one-piece So, to remedy the above, I plan/have started/done the following: - Eduard F-4J resin tailpipes (on order). The speys are ~90% the size of the Gyron, the tailpipe looks broadly similar, and the depth is also roughly correct. Certainly, its close enough for me. - I've already cut up the front of the model's innards and scratch-built some inlet ducting that is in keeping with the minimal diagrams available online and in "Cold War Interceptor". Note cockpit bulkhead too. - I've trimmed the lower lip to match the drawings (edges need sharpening still) - I cut out the front gear bay and have used a TSR-2 front wheel-well, cut down for a single wheel, and blended into the inlet described above (the front bluff face aligns with the shock cone, and isn't crooked like it looks in the pics... honest) - Added some 0.3mm shims to the wing tabs; wing alignment to fuselage using the Mk.1 eyeball now looks bang on, so no jig required. - I've got a pair of resin MB4 seats (assuming similar in-service dates to Lightning and Mirage etc). Also, on the basis that side-by-side seating is less common, certainly in British jets of this era, I'm going to have to use an Eduard etch set for a Sea Venom FAW.21. I've got some Eduard B-2 Spirit undercarriage etch to liven up the main wheel bays, and finally a Jaguar pitot since the kit doesn't have one at all. - Currently, I've managed to split the canopy so I can display it open, but I intend to make my own vacform to get the right thickness - After a discussion with some more knowledgeable gentlemen than I about missile placement and the effects on aero and such, I'm going to assume that Red Hebe still came to nothing and that Red Top was utilised but in a similar location to the Lightning (launch safety - think D-21 etc, maintenance ease). I'll add a second pair under the wings (since the 559 would have replaced the Javelin which had 4 missiles), and finally a single Aden mounted in the front of the ventral tank (since a few warning shots are sometimes desirable) for which I've used one of the upper nose gun recesses from an Airfix Lightning F6 kit. The compound curvature matches perfectly. - Main gear doors I think to split into upper and lower, like a TSR-2. Maybe with lower closed after gear is down. In terms of colours, I think to go with 56 Squadron, since I like that scheme and think it will look good. More the F.1A scheme than the F.3, but without the red wing leading edges. Also, for interest, here she is compared for size against a TSR-2 and Lightning T4...
  2. Another model of mine built from scratch some time ago. Let me know to stop when you feel spammed πŸ˜‰ This time it's a "what if" project. 1:35 German WWII walker tank (fully built from scratch. Ok... almost. Few parts were from kits) The idea was to combine a German-style WWII tank and spider legs. Those of you who dealt with the German armoured vehicles will probably notice the Tiger inspiration. There are three legs because I hate to do repetitive elements so I made the minimum necessary to ensure stability. Initially it was supposed to be an Allied vehicle, which is why among the WIP photos there is one with a different turret. But I didn't like it so I built another turret. Enjoy W.
  3. Here is the second kit of my Twin Spitfire project which has kept me busy these past two months and my personal favourite: Supermarine Twin Spitfire PR.II "T" of RAF No 541 Sqn based in the UK during summer 1945. The first prototypes of the Twin Spitfire didn't take long to show the potential of the design and requests were immediately made for a photo-recce variant but with some changes with respect to the planned initial fighter configuration. The most notable was the cockpit on the starboard side mainly for navigation although both crew members would end up being pilots, and the outer tailplanes which improved flight at high altitude. Due to the high degree of communality with the standard Spitfire F.XIVe, the changes were easy to make. The loss of extra fuel tanks in the starboard fuselage was compensated by extra tanks in the weapons section of the central main wing since the variant was unarmed. Various external tanks were tested and the type could actually carry up to three but a fortuitous event when one Twin Spitfire was fitted with a P-47's belly tank revealed this to offer the best performance and so this became the usual fit. The PR.II actually entered service before the F.I when three machines joined 541 Sqn in April 1945. The type's exceptional performance combined with its array of 6 cameras (4 vertical and two sideways (on opposite sides)) made it a formidable photo-recce asset, eluding the Luftwaffe with complete impunity until early 1946. For more general information of this project please see the first post (if you haven't already): It's a conversion using two Mark I Models 1:144 Spitfire XIV/XVIIIs and adding the central main and tail wings. Otherwise the build was mostly OOB. I opened up the camera ports and glazed them with Kristal Klear. I made the whip antenna and underwing pitot from stretched sprue. I scratchbuilt a pylon and used a drop tank from a Platz P-47 kit as it was the only one I had available that looked right. The decals came from various sources and the kit was fully painted and varnished by brush. Personally, I think this one looks fantastic and it came out much better than I imagined. Many thanks for looking and all comments a welcome Miguel
  4. Here is my latest kit, the first of a project I have been working on for over 2 months. Supermarine Twin Spitfire F.I The original concept in service with No 11 Sqn, based in the UK in summer 1945, using the type as a "high-speed" interceptor and long-range escort, especially for the Mosquito which was starting to become vulnerable to new Luftwaffe types. Operational use quickly revealed the limitations of the one-cockpit concept and its poor visibility on the starboard side leading to the two-cockpit layout being definite in the next variants. Production of the F.I variant was short due to this. Earlier this year, I found the picture below in Pinterest which led to the "what-if" article in Hushkit.net (https://hushkit.net/2012/06/29/the-ultimate-what-if-siamese-supermarine-the-twin-spitfire/). I found the concept interesting and the idea of making one in kit form went on growing until I finally decided to get on with it. The problem is I found more ideas on the concept, mainly at https://www.strijdbewijs.nl/birds/spitfire/secret/spitproject.htm. As a result, this project expanded from making one kit to three with different configurations. This project was definitely going to be in 1:144 and, although there are no Spitfire F.21s in this scale, I decided to use Mark I Models' Spitfire XIV/XVIII kits rather than Eduard's Spitfire IX kits or F-toys' Griffon Spitfires as they were more readily available to buy and I think the bubbletop Griffon-engined Spitfire looks best for this project. I built the basic kits more-or-less from the box, cutting off opposite main wings and covering the cockpit on the starboard fuselage. The outer tailplanes were omitted and the holes covered. I used the smaller of the two types of rudder available in the kits. A central wing section and tailplane were made from pieces in my spares box. The central gun barrels came from other wings and from a rod in the spares box. The Mark I kit has some fit issues and the worst that didn't quite come out right was the propeller. Getting everything true was tricky and I wasn't 100% successful but it looks the part. The spine whip antenna and the underwing pitot were made from stretched sprue. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. I used the decals from the Mark I kits. The Sky letters and bands were too green and vivid so I had to overpaint them. Despite some problems and the tricky build, this project was fun and the end result was worth it. I think it looks fantastic though the second one looks better. I'll be posting the others as soon as I have the photos ready and time to post them. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome, as usual. Miguel
  5. Here is the third kit of my Twin Spitfire 3-kit project: Supermarine Twin Spitfire FB.III "M" of RAF No 135 Sqn based in India in November 1945. Once the Twin Spitfire had entered service in the fighter and reconnaissance roles, its use for attack was tested and the results were promising. With the need to replace the P-47s in SEAC with something with more speed and punch, the FB.III was quickly developed. Since the emphasis was in low-level performance, the wings were clipped and the central tailplane replaced by standard Spitfire tailplanes on the inside. By now the twin cockpit layout had become definite. Most of the sub-type's production was sent to India and they started entering service in early October 1945. Even with a full load of two drop tanks and four bombs, the FB.III was much faster and more agile than the P-47 it replaced and delivered a considerable punch in fast attack missions, acquitting itself quite well against the latest Japanese fighters in the theatre. In fact, the impact of the type was such that the Japanese sent some of their very latest fighter designs to the theatre and although a couple were indeed superior, there were too few of them and losses inflicted on the Twin Spitfire were fortunately much less than they could have been. For more general information of this project please see the first post (if you haven't already): It's a conversion using two Mark I Models 1:144 Spitfire XIV/XVIIIs and adding the central main wing only in this case and, unlike the other two, leaving the standard tailplanes. Otherwise the build was mostly OOB. This time I also decided to make it with clipped wings. The only Allied WW2 bombs I had available in this scale were in Platz P-47 kits so I pinched them from there as well as the outer pylons. The other pylons were scratchbuilt. I made the torpedo-type drop tanks similar to those actually use by Spitfires from the kits' sprues. As with the other two, the whip antennae and the underwing pitot were added from stretched sprue. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. I used the decals from the Mark I kits. Thanks for looking and, as usual, all comments are welcome Miguel
  6. So my previous project finished and some weather that is just screaming "STAY INSIDE!!!" coming up, it is time to start something new. Rummaging through the stash to find something to build is fun, and I felt I needed something different from my WWI Roland Walfisch build. Something without rigging. Something without struts. Something with only one set of wings, if even that. The XF5U1 is certainly one of the weirdest planes ever built, and based on its incredible estimated performance figures I am sad that it never came closer to flight than ground taxying, due to problems with vibration caused by the complex arrangement of two radial engines, gearboxes, clutches and overly long propeller shafts. Any engine could drive any propeller, so both propellers would turn even if one of the two P&W R2000 radials buried in the wing stopped. Pretty cool stuff! And the Kitty Hawk kit looks nice too, all injection molded with good surface detail and adequately busy cockpit. Open engine bays, but for some reason there is no detail there... I feel that the model would gain from having one of the engine bays open to make it more visually interesting (and not just visually baffling), so I will make an attempt at scratch building the Pratt & Whitney R2000 engine installation.
  7. Sharotank Soviet Ball Tank MiniArt 1:35 This is MiniArt's recently released Sharotank, part of their new What If...? series. Despite the somewhat far-fetched look of the subject, there were some experiments will ball tanks by the Germans and, possibly, by the Russians too. The design of MiniArt's kit seems to be based on some artwork that can be found floating around online. The kit itself is very nice, with the one exception being the grossly under-scale interior. There's seating for a five man crew, but the seats are closer to 1/48 rather than 1/35. That doesn't really detract from the model though, as you can't discernibly judge the scale of the interior through the open hatch. The figure comes from one of MiniArt's Russian tank crew sets. I added a lighting kit, designed by @Madmonk, to illuminate the interior and headlight, with the battery and switch being concealed under the base. Thanks for looking Andy
  8. Not posted for a while due to family issues which are in other threads. This model is on I finished early this year and is one of the 'might have beens' of British military aviation in the late 50's. The P.177 was developed in response to a desire to have a fast climbing fighter that was capable of intercepting transonic Soviet bombers then thought to be under development. It was thought that as bombers flew faster and higher a conventional jet fighter lacked the climb performance to intercept a nuclear armed bomber before it released its weapons and so an aircraft that had to have a climb rate well in excess of any jet. Post war, a lot of studies had been carried out on rocket propelled fighter, probably influenced by the Me163, a number of which had been studied in the UK along with their engines. The problem with pure rocket fighters was although they had rapid climb and high top speeds, they lacked endurance. Saunders Roe carried out studies into these aircraft (perhaps as work dried up when it was realised the Princess flying boat was a dead end) and came up with the idea of using a rocket motor as the means to achieve high speed and climb rates and use a jet as a means of extending range and facilitating a safe return to base as in the SR53. In the P177 , this idea was taken further by the use of a powerful jet engine to sustain performance and allow a carriage of more weapons, radar and fuel. In 1955 prototypes and preproduction aircraft were ordered for the RAF and Royal Navy and interest was shown abroad, particularly from West Germany. Metal was cut and production was underway when Duncan Sandys unleashed his 1957 Defence White Paper that scrapped most manned combat aircraft in favour of guided missiles. The P177 lingered for a while as a purely Naval project and the hope that the Germans might buy it, but was cancelled in early 1958 and the prototypes scrapped. The Germans bought the F104 Starfighter instead. The kit is the original issue from Freightdog with castings by Anigrand. It was reissued last year with new masters and looks a lot cleaner. The kit is all in resin apart from in my issue a vacformed canopy (some kits have resin canopies). A decal sheet with some nice 'what if' schemes are provided. As can be seen below, the resin is tan, cleanly moulded and has a few air bubbles. My main references were 'Project Cancelled' and 'British Experimental Jet Aircraft' The latter has 1/72nd plans that I am pretty sure were used to design the kit Building the model produced a few issues. The interior was pretty much devoid of detail, apart from an ejector seat and stick. Some consoles were on the fuselage sides, but it was left to the modeller to work out where stuff went. Fortunately the canopy is heavily framed so not that much is visible. the fuselage halves were a little bowed, but clamping and two part epoxy resin cured this and the clean up was fairly straightforward. Incidentally, the exterior detail was quite well done with recessed panel lines and intakes. The faring for the rocket motor was a separate piece and required faring in. Both the movable intake (modelled here in ground position) and the jet exhaust needed some work to get them to fit properly. The diameter of the hole in the fuselage for the exhaust was too small and the intake needed cutting back to match the drawings. The wings and fin had locations pins in resin that were replaced by brass rod and horizontal tail slotted on to the fin with little trouble. The canopy more or less fitted after some careful trimming, but bizarrely the frame lines were moulded inside the canopy, which made painting fun (not) . The undercarriage was in the same resin as everything else and so was drilled through and brass rod added as I do not trust ordinary resin to take the weight. The Red Top missiles were replaced by aftermarket Freightdog ones as the originals had some serious airholes that made them well nigh impossible to clean up. After clean up and priming Xtracyrlix Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey were applied to the upper surfaces and Vallejo white Aluminium was applied to the undersurfaces. Kit decals were applied with no problems before a coat of semigloss Vallejo clear varnish was applied. The markings are of 56 Squadron and various probes and aerials were added from plastic strip and thin brass rod . Hope you like
  9. (just information for all fans of unusual projects...& Soviet aircraft πŸ˜‰πŸ˜Ž ) Hydroplane MiG-17....now you see all! 😎😁 No, it's not a combat plane, only testbed for hydroski projected big naval supersonic Soviet "America-bomber". It didn’t get to the real plane, so you see only the model photo ... but this model is scary beautiful! 😲 I do not know, what is more in it - terrible or beautiful! 😁😁 Therefore, someone must make a good, accurate, high-quality MiG-17 in 72nd scale😭 ....so that someone would make such a this conversion detail set to him!πŸ˜‰πŸ˜ Resource photos: https://afirsov.livejournal.com/402533.html#comments B.R. Serge
  10. When the Do335 prototype first flew in October 1943, it was clear that a potentially outstanding long-range fighter was in the offing. The question for the RLM was how to best employ it, as the war situation at that time had made the concept of a long range fighter-bomber somewhat superfluous. In a rare outbreak of pragmatism, it was decided to concentrate on development of the '335 as a bomber destroyer. The Luftwaffe's single engined fighters were having difficulty in carrying sufficient heavy weaponry to counter the 8th Air Force bomber fleets that were inflicting increasingly serious damage on Reich industry; performance of these heavily armed Pulk zerstorers rendering them vulnerable to the US long-range escort fighters appearing on the scene. Conversions of existing twin-engine fighter-bombers such as the Me410 were even worse. The Do335, fitted with heavy armament, having a reasonable endurance, and with high performance from it's efficient twin-engine configurations suggested a solution. 10. and 11. Staffel of IV(Sturm) Gruppe, JG3 began exchanging their FW190A-8/R2s for the B variant of the '335 in March 1944 and quickly worked up to operational status, perfecting their repeated dive and zoom slashing attacks to break up the bomber stream while remaining fast enough to cause a serious problem for the escorting fighters to intercept. The '335 may have been fast and heavily armed, but it would be at a serious disadvantage in traditional fighter versus fighter combat manoeuvring. It was shaping up to be a torrid Summer for the 8th Air Force . . . regards, Martin
  11. Chaps and chapesses, I have recently bought a Hobby Boss Easy build Corsair F4U-4 and I had the idea of completing it as a late WWII FAA machine. If I wanted to be very subtle, I could build it in GSB as a BPF machine, but I quite fancied something in the ETO - perhaps as used in the invasion of Norway in late 1945. So, TSS would be a good guess, I'd have thought. However, when did the EDSG / Sky scheme come in for FAA machines? Was this something that could have happened when the war was on*, or was it a reaction to peacetime? If the former, it might look a bit different on a Corsair! Any thoughts? regards, Martin * Yep, I know: my what-if, my rules, but I'd like to make it not too "unbelievable", if you get my drift.
  12. An all resin kit and a wonderful gift, however, I need more info. Did this aircraft exist on the drawing board only? Anyone else have this kit started and completed? Would appreciate any info. Many thanks
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