Some recent builds

[atvd1020]

Hello all,

Here are some recent builds of mine in 1/72 and 1/144 (mostly the latter). The first is a Swiss Airforce Bf-109E J-366 from Fliegerkompanie 8, stationed at Avenches airfield in the summer of 1940. The aircraft was eventually lost in an accident on the 10th August 1942.

The kit is the recent Airfix one boxed as a Starter Set, and had problems with the dihedral and an oversize instrument panel decal as happened to some other kits. The latter was not a problem as I had to re-colour the panel's components to match a Swiss one. The smaller pieces are connected to the sprues by annoyingly large gates, and given that the plastic is quite soft, this led to me damaging some of them..Apart from that, the kit was a pleasure to build.

The model was painted RLM 70 over 65 (Humbrol 91 over 65). I used one of Kora Models' 1/72 six (or seven?) decal sets for Swiss Bf 109s. They were not great, as they tore easily and the white was quite transparent. As they were ALPS-printed decals, I ended up cutting a fair amount of backing film when talking the crosses off, which made it impossible to mask around the crosses and paint them over. In the end, I used crosses and serial numbers from a second option over the first set to make them look opaque enough.

The decal instructions, however, helpfully include what modifications are necessary to make it a Swiss Bf-109E and also include some resin parts for this purpose. I had replaced the engine cannon breech bulges with provided ones and the control column with a spade-grip type. The wing cannon barrels were to be reshaped but this didn't work out as well...The gunsight needed to be changed as well but I just used the one provided with the kit. Some of the sliver chipping on the wings is unintentional- it's a result of the hard Swiss water I used to thin the varnish with.

Next is a 1/144 Nakajima Ki-27 from FE Resin. The kit is well-detailed for its scale though one wing is narrower than the other (unfortunately I caught this rather late in the the build).

The model built represents the mount of Lieutentant Hyoe Yonaga of the 24th Sentai, 2nd Chutai, in the Philippines in 1941. This was one of two marking options provided in the kit, the other being a (relatively) boring overall IJAAF grey-green (sic). I mixed the colours from Humbrol and WEM enamels based on information from Nick Millman's blog. The aotake for the cowling interior was from Tamiya acrylics over silver.

Next is a 1/144 Fairy Kikaku Curtiss-Wright CW-21B of the KNIL, shown here as a 'not-quite-what-if' double with the Ki-27:

This was a much cruder kit than the FE Resin one, with the small bits (the fuselage, wings and empennage being cast as a solid piece) requiring a lot of clean-up. The camouflage is Olive Drab and Medium Green over aluminium. The model (and the others) look less shiny in real life than they do in these photos- I used the flash on them in my flat to blot out the effects of the 'warm' (i.e. yellow) lighting I use.

Finally, here is a 'what-if' of the Bristol Type 148, a competitor to the Westland Lysander. I built it as a COIN aircraft along the line of T-6s or T-28s used in colonial wars, in the service of the Zairean Air Force following the Congo Crisis. The rockets are from a Valom Bristol Buckingham, the prop and spinner from an AZ Spitfire kit and the cannon from an AZ/Legato Hurricane kit. I posted some more images of the same craft in the What-If forum as well.

Thanks for looking! Comments are welcome.

Edited December 1, 2012 by atvd1020

[Mike DeTorrice]

These are excellent craft and they are presented here wonderfully ! This is really intriguing subject matter and I love your ideas and what-if builds.

MIke

[colin]

Nice builds of unusual aircraft

[bunnylurve]

Well done and thanks for posting.

[jimbuna]

They look great.

[HOUSTON]

STUNNNing builds..

They look and are AWESOME...

[mackem01]

Those 144th builds are lovely, my eyes wouldn't be upto it though! Bet you have very few storage problems.

[atvd1020]

Thanks for your kind comments guys

@mackem01:

You're right about less storage space for 1/144 models, but it does mean that searching for lost parts becomes harder too