cairnsy

I'm Assuming HK will follow a similar release sequence to the 1-32 B-25 kits with the practice of being able to sub in and out some of the smaller sprues resulting in different variants/configurations what do we think we will see on the Boston/Havoc front? Looking at the break down of the sprues I'm assuming the gun nose won't be included in this J/K boxing but it will have the cowls with tear drop exhaust blisters so I guess from a marketing angle it leaves the door wide open to include a gun nose G model kit with the later cowls, throw in some of the more colourful decals and make a "Pacific Theatre" boxing? Would love to see an early B/C Boston as the RAAF are my main focus but that seems like it would require a fair bit more work on HK's behalf so what other boxings are Likely? Soviet? I know it's speculative but keen to see what may be on the horizon based on peoples best informed guesses. Cheers Cairnsy

G'Day All, Is anybody aware of plans for any of the aftermarket providers out there to produce the alternate version engine cowls with the small B-25 like exhaust blisters? The 1 grainy B&W reference photo I can find of the specific RAAF aircraft (A28-60 aka 321545) I plan to build appears to have this exhaust/cowl arrangement and imagine there will be plenty of other eligible aircraft as the decal providers get on board with the HK kit hitting the streets now . Cheers Cairnsy

G’Day John, Trumpeter Super/Growler kits really aren’t horrible but there seems to be some little tricks along the way as far as sequencing of assembly and which bits to glue to what first to get alignment to behave but that seems to be covered in this forum fairly well. The Kit Shadowhawk decals look reasonable and as far as I know are the only grey scheme (non black CAG jet) decals available for the -141 in this scale but I have not used them so can’t speak to how user friendly they are. For adding the G model “bits” I have not seen the Steel beach set anywhere for quite some time but there is a 3D print set available from MPV lumps n bumps based out of Australia. I have a few sets of his seamless intakes for this kit and the printing and fit is amazing and he recently started printing a set which contains the 5 main external antennae which Trumpy forgot to add as well as the inboard leading edge flaps with the extra fillet included. He also does a set of ALQ-99 pods both high and low bands if you are interested. He doesn’t have a website that I am aware of but has a presence on both Facebook and Instagram under MPV.LumpsnBumps As far as other aftermarket goes I have used the Legends prod seats on my builds as a lot of the others are a fraction to wide to fit in the tub. The Quinta cockpit set looks awesome but am yet to use it in anger but I have used the 1-48 set which looks amazing so I expect nothing less in the larger scale. I also have the red Fox and Eduard coloured PE set in my stash, red Fox looks good but has no sidewalls which are totally absent in the kit too and the Eduard set whilst it has some sidewall detail is a bit dated with the advent of the 3D panels. Quickboost does a set of the ECS exhausts for between the fins also which are a bit sharper than the kit version and also a replacement stick as the kit version is comically large. I’ll let other people provide clarity on which wheels and exhausts are the preferred option as I am yet to make it that far with my builds. I look forward to seeing your build once it’s under way, unfortunately we still don’t see a lot of Super/Growler builds in this scale. cheers Cairnsy

G’Day all, I have a few ideas that I thought I might Table, “Nose Jobs” any aircraft with nose art this gives you scope from WW1 right through to aircraft deployed on current ops and everything in between. “A dash of colour” any aircraft outside their usual basic/tactical/camo schemes so this could cover anything from WW1 in the dazzle and stripe schemes, through WW2 with some of the colourful fighters or even formation birds through to modern CAG birds and commemorative or show/display aircraft. “On the scoreboard” any combat aircraft with a tally painted on it, be it mission markings, bomb tally , aerial victory markings (inc Mig Killers from Korea/Vietnam/GW1 or even the Super Hornet in Syria) this will give you scope for a range of fighters and bombers particularly from WW2 up to current scheme. ”Jaws” anything sharkmouth…. Enough said I do also like the “Eye in the sky” suggestion made earlier to encompass any recce/photo recon or observation platform Just a few thoughts looking forward to hopefully taking part in my first LSP GB this time around cheers Cairnsy

G’Day all, I have 3 ideas that I thought I might Table, “Nose Jobs” any aircraft with nose art this gives you scope from WW1 right through to aircraft deployed on current ops and everything in between. “A dash of colour” any aircraft outside their usual bland tactical/camo schemes so this could cover anything from WW1 in the dazzle and stripe schemes, through WW2 with some of the colourful fighters or even formation birds through to modern CAG birds and commemorative or show/display aircraft. “On the scoreboard” any combat aircraft with a tally painted on it, be it mission markings, bomb tally , aerial victory markings (inc Mig Killers from Korea/Vietnam/GW1 or even the Super Hornet in Syria) this will give you scope for a range of fighters and bombers particularly from WW2 up to current schemes. Just a few thoughts looking forward to hopefully taking part in my first LSP GB this time around. cheers Cairnsy

G’Day all, Chipping away at the HKM B-25J kit and have hit the point where I can’t avoid the engines anymore. I am usually a jet builder and haven’t built anything with a radial engine in decades so am well out of my comfort zone. so my question is what is the best method to use for painting radial engines particularly those in the B-25. When I was a kid it consisted of painting the 1-72 gun metal and that was it. I am keen to go for a realistic look so what colours and techniques are people using I don’t even really know what shade to use as the overall base colour of the engine itself (steel, silver, gunmetal??) thanks a bunch for any help cheers Cairnsy

G’Day all, Just curious if there is any news on the amended release schedule of the Revell Dual seater Super Hornet? Additionally out of curiosity has anybody heard any talk of when the Growler may follow noting the pre E model release sprue shots contained all the G parts. I saw on Hannants in the future release section there are now images of the built kit, so hopefully that is a positive sign. As a side I also noticed in the images of the test build that it has a stick in the aft cockpit, so hopefully it contains the WSO hand controllers for the Strike aircraft too and they haven’t used a trainer configured jet as a reference. I’ve heard the criticism of the E model and I have a bunch of Trumpy kits to get through anyway but I am still keen to get my hands on at least one of these, you can never have too many Supers! cheers Cairnsy

G’Day Ade, I am currently 25% through 2 seperate Trumpeter F model builds as RAAF aircraft and am using the Growler kit for both, Everything you need for a later F is included. The F model boxing (which I also have) only has the rear cockpit of the earlier Lot aircraft. I believe some of the earlier fleet squadrons used these jets but all the operational F models now have the ACS panels (which the G kit contains 2 of) so like you said check your references to match the time and Squadron you are building to see which panel to use. Some of the older style F models are still floating around the training squadrons Like VFA-122 and VFA-106 and I believe the two seater used to film Tom cruise in flight for Top Gun2 and also the Blue Angels F they just took delivery of is the older style panel. The G boxing is however missing most of the actual Growler specific antennae inslcluding the Saddle on top, the tear drop shaped blisters under the tail and the bread slice looking items between the wing trailing edge and the horizontal stabs. Pretty much the only useful growler parts are the cannon blanking piece and the wingtip pods which I believe are still not a great shape, the ALQ-99 pods also look pretty funky shape wise. the G kit still includes the wingtip missile launchers, all the same under wing pylons and the ATFLIR (also 2 of these in the G box) Targeting pod but the mount for it needs some serious reshaping. I used the Eduard colour PE on my current 2 but I am counting on Quinta or Red Fox doing some 3D cockpits for future builds. Red Fox have indicated theirs shouldn’t be far away for the Trumpy E,F and G boxing, Their panels for the Revell E are pretty impressive and are now available with panels powered up and displays on or switched off and blank. In short if you plan to use aftermarket weapons (the weapons included in The F kit suck anyway, easily the worst -9X I have ever seen) and aftermarket decals the G is a better option and allows you to build early or late F models out of the box. I can’t comment on how the kit decals behave but they look fairly nice on the sheet but there are plenty of aftermarket options. good luck with your build I always enjoy seeing a 1-32 Super come together so make sure to post up pics as you go. cheers Cairnsy

G’Day All, I recently picked up the HK B-25J Glass nose with the intent of building a RAAF B-25J during the Pacific campaign I have my eye on A47-29 with the shark mouth on an OD over Neutral grey scheme. I am very excited to make a start on it but deciphering reference is proving a little difficult. I am curious about the interior colours of these aircraft noting that I believe the J models we had were attrition replacements for our D models and therefore US hand me downs so I assume the colouring would be as seen on US examples. I am chasing the appropriate colours for the interior in particular the interior green for the cockpit and aft fuselage. There are always so many options with regard to “interior green” and it seems to depend on manufacturer and country of origin so keen to hear from anybody in the know about North American’s green of choice. I am also interested in the bomb bay colour I have seen various greens including the chromate looking green, a much darker green and silver. And finally I believe the nose compartment for the Bombardier was a darker green than the rest of the interior (but maybe the same darker green as the bomb bay?) I have had a good perusal of google but I note that many of the photos I see are restored and warbird aircraft so sometimes they are not necessarily the best reference with regard to colouring and schemes so if anybody knows the wartime colours I would love to hear from you. I will likely be trying to use the new range of SMS lacquer paints or possibly old faithful Gunze/Tamiya acrylics. thanks very much in advance cheers Cairnsy

With the impending release of the twin seater scheduled for October has anybody seen any recent info on this kit? -Any improvement of the offending E model tooling on common parts? -Decal options? I’m just curious to see what we have to look forward to. cheers Cairnsy

I'm currently wrestling with the Trump F as an RAAF aircraft and whilst it has it's weaknesses it's generally not a bad kit and serves as a good starting point to detail and make into a good looking kit. I have the Eduard interior and exterior sets, Aires Seats and Exhausts and Weapons sourced from Resin or alternative kits and with that it is looking like it will be a fairly impressive and good looking build as long as I don't manage to muck it up too badly. With that said for the $200 +/- the Trumpeter kit costs it should probably be better detailedOOB and not quite so reliant on Eduard to save it, fortunately it looks like Revell have attempted to do more of this fine detail with their Super and made a mess of some of the bigger aspects like the overall shape if the test shot has not been updated . I have gone a bit Super Hornet crazy lately and have plans for quite a few so I was really looking forward to this release and hoping Revell would be amazing and much cheaper and I am not 100% convinced but there are nice looking elements. The ATFLIR and pylon looks 100000% better than Trumpeter's effort even if one half of the pod is moulded on the pylon which is odd. and the kit stores look much better also (the Trumpeter AIM-9X are the worst looking kit missiles I have ever seen and the rest of the weapons are fairly basic) but selfishly I would like to see 3x tanks in the Revell kit as it looks like there are only 2 in there. The intakes look like strange engineering too and to me look like they will be pretty hard to remove the seams and paint but I could be well off base? If nothing else it spurs on the Aftermarket crowd to get behind it and churn out some good 1-32 E/F/G stuff which I don't think happened for the Trumpeter kits . I would love to see some undercarriage, resin cockpits, seats and general upgrades that could be adapted for Revell or Trump kits as well as some more decal options as surprisingly there still isn't much out there in 1-32 for E, F or G models in this scale considering some of the colourful jets that have flown with the US Navy and the RAAF since it's delivery. And finally I desperately want this to be the catalyst for somebody to build awesome up to date US Navy Pilots and WSO's in the current CMU-36 vests and wearing JHMCS and 23/P mask they are well over due please, please, please! I am still looking forward to seeing this kit in the flesh though and even more so the F and G models. In the mean time I should probably get my finger out and finish the Super's I already have! Cheers Cairnsy