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Hi, I would like to present late variant of Breguet XIX - build in Kingdom of Yugoslavia by Kraljevo model 19.8 equipped with Wright Cyclone engine and used mainly as recce and light bomber plane. Some 50 of them were build and few survived April War in 1941 and later were used by Croatia. Bregeut XIX was constructed in 1922 - this 19.8 in 1936. The power of engine rised from some 340 HP to almost 800 HP. This variant had also taller fin, rounded wingtips, reinforcement of upper wing-fuselage join (4 small struts and appropriate riging). This is a scratch conversion from 1/72 Hit-kit kit ( ). Actually I had the single kit of Breguet XIX and made some resin copies of u/c, tail, fuselage, wheels what together with completly scratch work on wings for 19.8 enabled me to to this models and version CASA Breguet XIX A2 in Spanish nationalist colours. The WIP, not very detailed is here: But this the result: And a set of my RYAF army machines from April War with Germany in 1941: Breguet is made just now, Blenheim (Frog) more than 40 years ago (refreshed two years ago) IK-2 is 100% scratch work from about 1980 and IK-3 is vacu Formaplane, also from deep past (some 1977) One more of this set (sorry for my enthusiasm): Here a bigger set with two seaplanes (Dornier Wal converted from Huma kit and Gypsy Moth converted from A-model - bofere float version was issued...) And finally family photo of Kraljevo Breguet 19.8 with CASA Bregeuet A-2 On last photo wings of 19.8 looks shorter but this is only effect of short focus distance here. If anybody wat to see more photos of Spanish one the CASA Breg A-2 RFI is here (also converted from ... bucket to Flickr already) Comment welcome Regards Jerzy-Wojtek

Hi Looking around in net for photos of Dornier Do 22 I've met something surprising to me. The escaped to Egipt after fall of Yugoslavia Dorniers were used in RAF structures but they were having very unusual national insignia. Look at this photo: The roundel below wings is not an English neither Yugoslavian one. If you compare to fin flash, which is suppoused to be Yugoslavian Blue/White/Red flag it looks like narrow red, then narrow white and huge blue circle inside. However, the Serbian company Lift Here reproduced decals as just outside red, inside blue (without white between): http://lifthereserbia.50webs.com/744-LH.htm This is second surprise (first was unusual insignie themselvs) - the Serbian company should be well informed on this topic, as I suppouse. Maybe better than Czech CMK specialists, who made typical British roundels B http://www.cmkkits.com/res/data/022/002286.jpg?seek=2 Next is painting scheme. On this photo The pattern is mach more "patchy" (and perhaps three colours) then on other photos (below), where it is definitly two-tone scheme, with large regular spots: I hope that among this forum some "RYAF in exile" experts appears - please clarify the details of paintings schemes (applied colours - was is Dark Slate Gray over original RYAF light gray?) and reveal some details about national insignia changes/mutations. I am considering build of Xotic Do -22 in this unusual pattern... Best regards Jerzy-Wojtek

Hi A small break in review of my archive shelves. Today I would like to present my recent work - I've just finished her. This is De Havilland DH 60 G Gipsy Moth, s/n 1189, "Sarajevo" of Royal Yugoslavian Air Forces, 25th Hidroescadrila, based in Kotor Bay in 1941. She was delivered to RYAF in 1929 and as far as I found info - lost in campaign of May 1941. The model was made from A-Model kit of DH 60 G. Added Short floats are scratch build. The exhaust pipe is reshaped (it went deeper toward bottom on side of fuselage), I added rigings (thin styrene sprues), control cables and fuel pipe. I made my own windscreens - I was not able to use properly those provided by producer - they came too slopy. Serbian company Lift-here was producing decals in 1/72 for this machine in the past, but nowadays I was not able to buy it, they were sold out as I was informed by producent. So national markings are by Lift-here from my drawer, the DH Moth emblem below engine are hand painting, the escadrila emblem are sets of 6 pieces of decals each side, the inscription "Sarajevo" and in South Slavish version of Cyrilic - "Capajebo" and hand writing on decal. Those who like to do models in 1/48 may find interesting, that (I think Serbian) company Aeropoxy is producing Short floats and decals for this exactly mashine as conversion set for A-Model 1/48 DH 60 G. One more comment - my "bandwidth" in Photobucket is now 76% of month limit, reset time is 15th Feb., so please if my photos will dissapear they will be back after 15th. I am sorry for this incovenience... Since I want to shere ASAP I was not waiting for nice sunny weather and I did two photos with flesh and the rest is using 1 kW halogen lamp. The background of photos are views from Kotor Bay. I hope you like it. Best regards and comments welcome Jerzy-Wojtek P.S. and two from construction which I found now (July 2017) in my comp...

Hi gents, I've just finished this - the Airfix rag-wing Hurricane in the markings of one of the aircraft licence-built by ZMAJ in Yugoslavia, April 1941: This is my fourth attempt at the new-ish Airfix Hurricane, it's a lovely kit and I could still happily build more of them (and I most probably will). It's more or less OOB except for the aerial wire; I did scrape flat the ribbed panel behind the gun access covers as this was apparently metal not fabric-covered - it makes sense when you think about it and it only took a couple of minutes per wing to scrape the ribs off and scribe a new panel line in. I used the ejector-type exhausts although I did read somewhere that all the Zmaj Hurricanes had the kidney-type exhausts, I have seen photos of no.2337 where the exhaust is distinguishable they are clearly the later type. For the camouflage I used the painting guide provided by Lift Here! Decals which recommended for Humbrol 84 Ochre, 98 Chocolate Brown and 116 Dark Green for the upper surfaces, and I used Precision Paints RLM65 for the undersurfaces as Lift Here! recommended Humbrol 65 for this, but I didn't have any of this among my paints and they are supposed to represent the same colour - I think the PP version is less bright and slightly greyer but I like the way it looks anyway. As noted above the decals were from Lift Here! of Serbia and were excellent, a pleasure to use but sadly this set is quite difficult to get hold of now, I hope at some point they will re-release those items from their range which are currently out of stock as there are some interesting markings there and I know me, Mitch K and Sleeper Service on this forum at least would buy some of them! One possible point of controversy with the decals is that the upperwing Kosovo Cross is shown on the left wing in the instructions but it was possibly on the right wing - I have not been able to find a picture of 2347 which shows the upper wings so I went with the instructions. I also applied the gun-cover patches - I have seen models of Zmaj Hurricanes built without these, but have seen a photo of 2337 which appears to show some sort of patches over the gun-ports. The Hurricanes no. 2347 and 2348 were the last Hurricanes produced by Zmaj and were delivered on 11th April 1941 (when Yugoslavia was already under attack by Germany) and were to be flown from Zemun to Veliki Radinci but were caught on the ground and strafed by Bf109s - 2347 was so severely damaged that it was abandoned. I found this out of course after I had finished my model, so my (rather overdone anyway) staining from the shell-ejector chutes is not at all appropriate, but such is life As a footnote, this kit was built for a variety of coincidental reasons; Vanya66 and Mitch K have both recently produced excellent RYAF/VVKJ aircraft which inspired me to hunt down some decals to make a Zmaj-built Hurricane; I am moving up to Scotland at the weekend so the majority of my stash is packed and an Airfix Hurricane was at the top plus of a convenient size to build quickly and not have to re-pack half-finished and the decals arrived in time to complete it. I also wanted to try out the new Eduard micro-fabric seat harness set, which was quite easy to use (although it has a tendency to stick to itself if you are not careful) and looks quite effective once installed - see below: I don't know what the micro-fabric is but it reminded me of that Teflon tape you use to make compressor connections airtight (or radiator connections watertight perhaps). They are quite expensive for what they are - about half the price of the Hurricane kit for two sets of harness. Anyway apologies for the surfeit of verbiage and thanks for your attention Cheers, Stew

I've just finished this; the Azur Ikarus IK-2 "VVKJ": I enjoyed building this, it is quite a simple kit, not that many parts, a bit of photo-etch but no resin parts. It went together very well and I built it more-or-less OOB though I did replace the tail struts and one of the undercarriage support struts which were provided as etched metal with micro-strip, I just thought the plastic would be easier to work with. I did my first go at rigging seeing as there was not much required, the tailplane bracing wires on the topside and the 'x'-shaped bracing wires on the main undercarriage - these were done with lycra knitting-in thread and I consider it a success. Incidentally although that undercarriage may look hideously complex it was remarkably easy to put together and quite strong once it was assembled. I used the Humbrol colours recommended by 'Lift Here!' decals which were 65 for the underside and 84/98/116 for the three-colour topside camouflage. Either I was lucky, or Humbrol enamels are getting better, I hope it was the latter. I used a couple of coats of Klear to give a glossy-ish finish as the instructions and other sources advise that the finish on the IK-2 and IK-3 camouflage was glossy. I can't say for certain that this is correct, from the limited number of pictures I have seen I am not really qualified to judge so I went along with it. The kit provides decals for most of the (I believe) 12 IK-2's produced by Ikarus, 5 in pre-war Aluminium dope and 5 in camouflage, of these camouflaged aircraft one wears the earlier national markings and the remainder the smaller wartime markings. I chose V.E.Br.2112 by the simple expedient of ruining the tiny rudder number decals for 2105, 2109 & 2110 with my big stupid fingers. No.2112 was one of the aircraft that helped resist the German invasion in April 1941 and which, along with the surviving IK-2s, IK-3s and the remaining VVKJ Bf109s, were eventually destroyed by their crews at Veliki Radici aerodrome on 12 April 1941 to prevent them falling into the hands of the Germans. The decals are by Aviprint in the Czech Republic and applied beautifully and really deserved a more skilful application than I was able to offer, but they all went on beautifully. Cheers, Stew