BiggTim

Time does have a tendency to run away from us. I'd like to wrap up a George I'm working on, by mid (to late July, at the absolute latest), so that I can then also finish up my Romulan Warbird before the show here in September.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHARRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!   One month to go, and I really need to step it up to get my 2nd entry done.

I few more vendors have signed up!
 
Mike

Bruce, you get the award for the most prolific builder on the forum, my friend!
 
I bet the Russians had dirty dreams about this plane....

Hi Guys,
 
Another model from last year's Focke Factory.  This time it's a captured D9, partially rebuild by the Russians and repainted with Soviet stars.  The original German markings were obliterated with possibly grey paint, you can never tell with old stuff like this.  My prime reference was Captured Butcher Birds and the decals are from Eagle Cals.  Interior is painted with various Gunze, Tamiya and Vallejo paints, the exterior is all MMP.
 
Detail changes include: QuickBoost  guns, exhausts and control column, E-Z Line for the aerial, home made pitot tube from brass tubing, Yahu IP, thinned down seat, HGW seatbelts, brake lines from plastic rod and lead wire, Henri Daehne prop, added cooling flap actuator rods.  Probably a few more things but can't remember!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Well, I guess I have it made-I can get the Iwata HP-CS from our local Hobby Lobby at 40% off.

You might want to consult the P51SIG site:  http://p51sig.com/index.php

Hi Patric,
 
Having just made Trumpeter's P-51B (actually as a C, same thing but Dallas, Texas built, not California) and looked all over for decent drawing, I think your luck is out. Most of them are guesses at best. I've got the Top Drawings set and they leave a lot to be answered. They don't show the aerials correctly, a mix between early and late types, the wings show every single rivet whereas they were filled and smoothed to maintain the eff3ctive laminar flow characteristics. And that's a factory finish, is they all have it.
 
But they are the only game in town. So I'd say gut the Top Drawings booklet and be prepared to look at lots of photos to decide what's right and what isn't.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Can anyone recommend a accurate set of blueprints/drawings of the p-51B or a book or magazine that has such within? Not looking for anything too elaborate or expensive, just accurate drawings, port, starboard, top and bottom, mostly for the overall shapes and panel lines. If they were already in 1/32nd scale that would be a bonus....

Once again, depending on where you live, our Hobby Lobby stores have Iwata's, Paasche's and Badgers, all in various single/double open/enclosed action types.
 
And of course for the finer lines you seek the smaller needle size, but those also can be got as AM items from the major manufacturers.

Hobby Lobby is an excellent source of Iwata's stuff.
 
I got their nice trigger model with a 40% off coupon as well.

I'm really amazed that I made it through that whole thing without caving and buying something!

I'll have no problem skipping the B-17, way too much for me, and too big. The B-25 has been a struggle though, that one John was selling would be mine if I wasn't saving for Phoenix. the only thing that saved me on the Dragon kits was the fact that I don't really want a 110 that bad....but good deal is good deal!

Howdy folks,
 
I've just published the latest What's New update.
 
Enjoy!
 
Kev

I bought one and the discount was a pleasure. But I know what you mean. I have resisted many a sale event and kits. I avoided the B-17G the first time around. The second release of the kit will be really hard to avoid. I do need some more Tamiya Corsairs so maybe that will help me skip the B-17 kit again... Just a thought
 
Rick

Dang, Bruce, I really like that!! Sure looks the part to me, despite it's flaws. You did a great job whipping that thing into shape!

Hi Guys,
 
Here's one I finished a while ago but haven't had a chance to do photos.
 
As usual. it's the Revell Me 262 two seater night fighter built almost completely from the box, except I added seat belts from Fine Molds, E-Z line aerial lead, Pitot tube from Albion Alloy's super Micro Tube and a mix of smaller decals from the kit with my own larger markings drawn in AutoCAD and made on the Silhouette cutter. All paints on this model were by Mission Models, definitely worth a try, now my Go-To paints.
 
It's a kit I really liked, excellent fit of parts, clever engineering, superb decal sheet.  I've got most of the standard reference work on the 262 and Revell really did their homework.  I've already got another one which I intend to do the full works on, Eduard cockpit, HGW belts, brass radar antennae, Barracuda wheels, Yahu IP.  But it will be the same airframe, 305, this time a few days after the original model was captured, in British markings.
 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Hope you like it.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby
 
 
 

Hi Guys.
 
This was my frst Mustang kit completed, the Trumpeter C posted here was actually completed two months later. But what a difference! The Revell kit is like their new 262 night fighter, well designed, perfect fit, excellent decal sheet and you can really go to town with add ons if you feel like it.
 
Hardly any filler used, a few smears of Mr Surfacer and actually not much of that. I used minimal after market, Fine Molds seat belts and E-Z Line for the aerial. Paint used was my favourite, Mission Models, my first try with their new metallic range and definitely worth the money.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Hope you like it!
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Not sure on here or somewhere else but someone offered me some leftover Tamiya Mosquito parts but for the life of me l do not know who!
 
Hacker.....having a senior's moment

This would be ideal for mask, I thought someone made some but maybe that was for different scale?
 
I know FCM included mask in their 1/32 decal set though:
 

Hi Guys,
 
You may have followed this one in WIP and seen the struggle it was to build the model.  Poor research by Trumpeter and as a kit nothing made much sense.
 
First off, the real Laminar Flow wings are puttied and smoothed in the factory and Trumpeter just put every single rivet on the wings they could find.  What's more, they are deep and wide!  A whole weekend of filling and sanding, hour after hour to  cure that problem.  The interior is at best, a guess. I swapped out the seat for a Tamiya one and added HGW seatbelts and added the A frame behind the seat.  The engine wasn't much to write home about so I junked it and ended up building a prop mount from hacked up thick plasticard and brass rod.  Barracuda for the wheels, always exquisitely mastered and moulded, QuickBoost exhaust stacks, E-Z line for the Aerial, Aires for the wheel wells and undercarriage doors. I intended to build the kit out of the box but it was not to be, it was just awful.
 
But let me point out, the parts actually fit together well, hardly any filler at all.  They are just wrong.  I even sanded down the whole fuselage to try to reduce the depth and width of rivet holes and panel lines.  Because they are so prominent, (and this is a new aircraft on a factory test flight, you can see it in the Squadron booklet), I decided to not use panel line washes on most of the airframe and rely on lighting to show the lines and rivets.
 
Paint throughout was Mission Models, with their Polyurethane additive and thinners.  I messed about with their metallic colours, mixing types, adding other colours to vary the shades, mainly adding drops of the Chrome, which is just great and I had a lot of fun playing with it.
 
Markings were a mixture of my own masks for the big stuff and items from the Revell P-51D decal sheet which is simply awesome.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 
 
Some of the metal shades aren't obviously different to adjacent ones in the photos, much better in the light.
 
Hope you like it.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

This aircraft is built for the 1/32 Eduard kit straight out of the box, only personal addition is the map in the cockpit and a set of Air Masters canons.
 
The Messerschmitt Bf 109E fighter of Franz von Werra, shot down over England, where he was taken prisoner in January 1941. Von Werra was sent with other German prisoners to Canada, where possibly he became the only German airman to make his escape from there, returning to Germany via the still neutral U.S.A.
Von Werra was also a skilled fighter pilot, although his results weren't anywhere near those of the Luftwaffe's top guns. He most frequently flew as a wingman of Hauptmann Erich von Selle, the commanding officer of his unit. In this role, he scored four victories during the Battle of France – a Hurrricane, two Breguet 693s and a Morane MS.406.
Despite this initial success, von Werra's tally did not advance any further during June, July and larger part of August, despite the fact that operations against the RAF were being flown almost daily.
Then suddenly, on 28 August, von Werra returned from a mission claiming 9 aircraft destroyed. According to his report, he first shot down a Spitfire during a general melée, then became detached from his unit, spotted three Hurricanes on a landing circuit and destroyed them one after another. Lastly, he zoomed low over the airfield, setting additional five Hurricanes on fire.
Then came the day of 5 September, when von Werra was shot down. On that occasion, II./JG 3 was flying as an escort to a bombing raid on Croydon. On the return leg of the raid the bombers were attacked by a swarm of RAF fighters. Hauptmann Von Selle, leading the thirty escorting Messerschmitts, gave the order to attack. At the exact moment when Selle rolled his aircraft to starboard to initiate a dive, another gaggle of Spitfires jumped them from behind, their guns blazing. Von Selle's aircraft avoided the bullets. His wingman, Franz von Werra, did not have such luck; a well-placed burst damaged the engine of his Bf 109 and knocked off his radio.
Without engine power, the German pilot was unable to shake off the attacker, which followed him in a dive, squirting the Messerschmitt with a series of short bursts. Ultimately, von Werra had no choice but to make a crash-landing. This he did, putting down his aircraft wheels-up but otherwise intact on a field at Loves Farm, Marden, Kent.
The identity of the victorious British pilot remains the subject of debate until this day. Some researchers claim that the pilot who was responsible for the shooting was F/Lt John Terence Webster of No. 31 Squadron. Others believe it to be a shared victory by P/O George Bennions of No. 41 Squadron and P/O Basil Gerald Stapleton of No. 603 Squadron. Yet others have attributed the same achievement to F/Lt Paterson Clarence Hughes, an ace of No. 234 Squadron with a victory tally of 14. Officially, the credit originally went to ‘Stapme' Stapleton, but Hughes final DFC citation in the London Gazette of 22 October 1940 awarded him a half credit for the same (The spitfire site n.d.)

I was part of a unit in Baghdad and in the compound we were all in had one of these things on the fence line. They used to fire out going shells to the firing point that was triangulated by radar to the incoming mortars. They made one hell of a racket and you got no real warning.
 
Steve.

Daily entrance fee is $10.00 or $25.00 for a multiday pass (duration of convention).

It used to be but I have no clue if that has changed. Best send a query to know for sure.