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It would also be nice to know what Series of Macchi they plan on providing? Or, optional parts for different versions? Mark Proulx

Day 1: MH-60G Pilots being assembled.

I am really hoping that the decals are very thick. Sand down the RAM panels, add thick decals and voila… the first kit to feature scale appropriate RAM.

Thoughts… I agree Michael. If they don’t I’ll use Hasegawa’s offering of the P-40E for Neville Duke’s aircraft which, despite the challenge the tail represents, Brian (Out2gtcha) has shown can be turned into an astonishing model. So I agree with Pete in RI. As for a simple to build but accurate Butcher Bird; Is the still-available Hasegawa offering not tempting enough? For me a Mk1 ragwing Hurricane would be the perfect bookend to the Spitfire if early WWII is Kotare’s chosen space for now. I cannot say anyone has really done the definitive kit of this version. The Messerschmitt Bf109 E3 is a crowded market to break into but there may be room for one more? On reflection, outside of anything with a black cross on it the P-51B/C might be a good gap to fill in the pantheon of single engined fighters. Cheers Paul

Howdy folks, Kevin Williams takes a look at Pacific Profiles: Volume Eight, from Avonmore Books: Avonmore Books Pacific Profiles: Volume Eight Thanks, Kevin! And thanks also to Casemate Publishers for the review copy. Kev

Then you’d mostly need a 1/35 Hawk to begin with.

Here are a couple more screen caps showing some slightly different colours: Jari

Agreed, I haven't checked my kit yet . TBH I'm not going to sweat it , just fix it . I appreciate both Radu's AND Vincent's take on the 109s , Do they have one of these things in their back yard or something? Lucky , lucky guys! I'm learning a lot from them and others on here too

Ah yes, good points, but the P40 series is not just a Kiwi intetest. It has U S. , Australian, South African, and RAF connections too. So I would agree with DPGSbody on that one. Regards Pete in RI.

I don't think it means anything, its just that all the big 1/32 news is already out for the year.

How did you upload the photos? It does not allow me, it says I must insert image from URL?

Well, that's disconcerting and disappointing. just can't get all giddy over the F35 no matter what scale but that's me. Better luck next year

Today, Saturday, October 1st, 2022; I have finally started to build my MH-60G Pave Hawk II. The Kit is by Kitty Hawk and has been collecting dust in my basement until I could first build a dedicated studio and receive all the resin accessories i.e. figures, transmission, tail rotor assembly, mini-guns, .50 cal, and much more... Zorro

I know you are putting this end of the airplane to bed for a while, but there are a couple of things to consider in your off hours: Tires - if the airplane you are modeling operated off a dirt or coral strip, then the rolling surfaces would be a lighter color than the rest of the tire, maybe by quite a bit. The side of the wheel adjacent to the brakes will show a lot of brake dust staining. Tank filler - any fuel spilled over at the tank filler will run down the fuselage sides and will clean off some of the exhaust and oil stains wherever it goes. It will also bleach out the paint a bit as well. Fuel spills are additive, so there will be several layers of it. Because avgas is as liquid as water, the leading edge of the spill will be pretty sharp and straight, and will leave the most significant mark. The spill will fade to the rear because the gas wicks away as it runs down hill and toward the rear of the airplane. Because a gas evaporates quickly, it doesn’t smear like oil or exhaust residue. POL stains - there is a lot of high speed air pushing oil and other viscous goo aft in the slip stream. These too are additive in that they happen every time the airplane is flown and tend to run much farther aft than you would expect. When my last Cessna 182 sprung a tiny leak, the oil covered the belly from the firewall to the rudder but there was no noticeable loss on the dipstick, the point being it doesn’t take much to make an ugly mess when the goo is accelerated to 300 mph in the slipstream. Not all grunge is hydraulic. People leave foot and handprints all over the place so places that are handled a lot will show dirt. Surfaces where guys had to walk to load ammo, work on stuff or whatever will show the color of the local dirt from their shoes ground into the paint. Otherwise, you’ve nailed it.

Thank you sir.

I recall that despite being thought extinct, once one was caught, some Japanese millionaire sought to catch more so he could eat them (for longer life)! Probably the only reason it's not extinct, is that humans didn't know it was there to begin with. How sad.

Sorry to rain on the parade but the show releases are out and there is no Tamiya 1/32. In fact the only plane release is the F-35 in 1/48. That was the only all new kit I have seen from Tamiya at the show. I have reviewed several videos in japanese from the show to see the show booths and that looks like all there is. I don't see any 1/32 kit announcement from any manufacturer at the show from what i can tell.

Ah, but which Judy? The one with the radial engine or the one with the inline engine? The dive-bomber or the night fighter? Perhaps the single-seat kamikaze bomber?

Which is totally different than what the Monogram kit provides.

Roger that on the -8P, I built the Kitty hawk one , and though it was a bit of a tussle, it came out fine . I still want one in 1/32 how some ever. I also went to battel with the F-M F-11f and won that war!

Ha! just noticed the AC Delco oil filter...man, the attention to detail is crazy!

very nicely done!

I've finished another project that I'd been working on a for a few weeks. This time it's Hasegawa's 1/48 Typhoon Ib with the Teardrop Canopy. There's no 1/32 injected kit of this version of the Typhoon so I had to scale down. Since I've always wanted to do the "Sharky" aircraft, I needed to get some aftermarket items to enable me to do it accurately. I purchased (but only used parts of it) the Barracudacast Typhoon cockpit set for the bubble canopy, the Barracudacast radiator intakes and exhausts (I used the "cuckoo door" version), Barracudacast resin main and anti-shimmy tailwheel (the kit does not come with the anti-shimmy tailwheel so prevalent on later Typhoons), Ultracast 4-blade prop, Ultracast tail wheel well, and lastly, the Ultracast Tempest tailplanes. With these in hand, I set out to find the decals for "Sharky". I found none at anything but highwayman prices. I discovered that Montex makes a maxi-mask set for this aircraft so I ordered and used it. This was my first attempt at masking markings; I don't think I did too bad but it was a learning experience. I have a Silouette Cameo 4 and ended up making new roundel masks since I buggered up the Montex ones. I used the Barracudacast seat, some of the black boxes, the gunsight, and the rudder pedals from the cockpit set. I could not, for the life of me, get the entire cockpit to fit in any kind of decent manner so I created a Hasegawa-Barracudacast hybrid. I think it came out ok for what you can see of it. The Ultracast Tempest tailplanes are "slip over" parts meaning they slip over the plastic tailplane roots. There was some deformity on the separate elevators but I fixed that with some sheet styrene and CA glue. As for modifications to the basic kit, I did the following: Thinned the back edges of the radiator housing/fuselage as well as the flapper edges. I drilled a hole in the intake trunking and ran a 0.020-inch styrene rod from there to a chunk of half-round styrene rod I glued to the inside of the door. I drilled out the navigation light lenses (boy that was a task-and-a-half) to better represent what these lights actually look like. I drilled a hole for the obligatory whip antenna on the upper fuselage, behind the canopy Rescribed all lost detail (including the oversized removable panel fasteners. Eliminated both wing leading edge landing lights. I read that rocket firing Typhoons usually had this done to them so the rocket exhaust jet wouldn't break the perspex and create a big issue. Drilled out the teeney-weeney 20mm cannon muzzles. Removed the clumsy canopy rail that Hasegawa provides and replaced it with a strip of styrene Redesigned the clear light behind the pilot's armor plated headrest to better resemble the actual item. (I then proceeded to launch the Hasegawa clear bulb part into oblivion when holding it for installation with a pair of tweezers...I made a replacement but it's not as good.) Drilled out two light fixtures just forward of the inboard landing gear doors. I've read that later Typhoons had lights here (red-left, green-right) so I created them with Molotow chrome, Gunze Sanyo aqueous clear green and clear red with 5-minute epoxy lens. I painted the kit using old Floquil enamel paints for the Medium Sea Grey, Ocean Grey, and Dark Green. I scanned the instructions, resized them and cut out paper masks for the camouflage pattern. The roundels are a mix of MRP, Xtra enamel blue and Tamiya White (as are the shark teeth). The mask for the black edging around the mouth did not do well so I ended up painting it by hand. The prop is Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 black. It needed no further paint to make it look the part. The squadron codes are again Floquil enamel RAF Sky but the serial number decal was too small to paint (at least for me) so I created a decal for the serial numbers. It looks good and the font is correct I believe. That about sums it up... Now on to the photographs. It's not a perfect build but I'm happy with it even though the pictures seem to always locate the minutest of errors and blow them up so they are unmissable...Oh well, I'm glad the contest judges don't have this ability.

Placard next to it says 1/32