Nic C.D.

I just got the okay to announce the two other new books that we are going to release in February, next to the Spitfire Mk.IX & Mk.XVI already mentioned. In the current series, the new title is a 140 page book on the Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter. It is in line with our other books, but I'm particularly proud of the extensive maintenance chapter; we had the possibility to visit the maintenance hangar at Swidwin Air Base in Poland several times! The other novelty is the second book in the Classics Series (the first one being the Spitfire) and this is a 116 page book on the T-6 Harvard / Texan. What a great looking machine! I've been looking for another T-6 in 1/32, so that I can build it in maintenance with all the side fuselage panels removed. I'd love to build that. This is what the cover looks like: Filled with details, action photography and information that I hope is interesting. I hope you think these are interesting and remember: you read it first on LSP !! Nic

Early February 2022, we will launch the new Duke Hawkins Classic Series, focussing on Classic aircraft and warbirds, by introducing 2 books. The first of the series is the result of 2 years work and will be a 116 page book on the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX and XVI. Every detail of the aircraft will be show - there are nearly 300 photos - from fuselage, cockpit, wings, landing gear and of course an extensive chapter on the maintenance of the aircraft, including the engine. All the photos were made of airworthy aircraft, focussing on the aircraft that are in original state. Of the 39 airworthy Mk. IX and Mk.XVI Spitfires in the world, over 30 are included in this book. This is the cover: together with the Spitfire, a second book in this new series will be released as well as at least one other book in the current series. More on those later. For those interested, 2022 will see the release of at least 10 new books. I hope you'll like the result, we sure have had a lot of fun making it. Nic

Didn't have a lot of time for modelling in 2021, but I did make a little progress on this long ongoing project. Over the last few days, I built the deployed in-flight refuelling probe of the Harrier II. I had it measured out as good as I could, going over the plans and started scratching. On my third go, it felt right. The parts aren't glued in place yet, but I wanted to show where I'm at: This photo shows how wide the probe actually moves outwards, just far enough for the pilot to see it. The wings and top fuselage aren't glued yet. The mechanism is built up out of about 10 very thin parts of plasticard and it took some time to get everything lined-up correctly. I have to fill up the gaps between the probe's base and the fuselage, but after that, I can move on to the next part. Painting isn't that far away, now. I hope that the next post won't take as long! Nic

I 'd like to offer a copy of one of the HMH Publications books for the raffle. The winner can chose one of the current 23 titles that are available. Nic

Thank you for the remarks and the review! Today, we received the two newest in the series from the printers: DH-021 is a 140 page book on the EA-6B Prowler (I’m very proud of that one) and DH-022 is a 116 page on the C-160 Transall. The latter might be a bit of an odd choice, but it flew its last mission in Germany this year, after a 54 year long career. There are a couple of very nice models of it in 1/72 from Revell and Heller. The books will be shipped to the resellers next week. We’re working on a couple more for November. and we’ve got many more planned for 2022, including a few unusual ones. Sometimes, things turn out quite difficult though... Like with a big cat from Grumman; can’t seem to get any good cockpit shots of it. Again, thanks for the review, John! Nic

And now available! Just got delivered this morning !

Thanks for the link Dave! And for the info Thierry! I might get that set, it looks impressive. I'm thinking of getting some parts of Res Kit for the kit too, those look really impressive. The kit itself is pretty impressive, it's going to be a long build though... I might do a book on it before building the kit! Nic

I'm probably late to this, but when I picked up a Kitty Hawk SH-60F Ocean Hawk, I noticed that the first page of the instructions was... well, missing. I thing the files were incomplete when they were printed. Does anyone know if there is a complete set of instructions out there for this kit? The kit itself is absolutely great, so it motivates me to get started on it, but that's a bit hard without the instructions. Thanks in advance ! Nic

Chris is right, there was one page in the A400M book that risked getting detached and after a talk with the printers, we decided to do a full reprint. And that is when we were faced with an unexpected effect of the Covid-19 crisis: very long delays on printing paper. It can take 6 to 8 weeks to get the paper for printing. So we had wait for the paper to arrive, but now we're printing 4 books at the same time: the two new ones on the Prowler and Transall, the A400M and a reprint of the F-16, because we were out of stock. To answer you question, Michael; it will be available by the end of the month! In November, we'll be releasing 2 more books that we're working on right now! Nic

We've been busy this summer continuing our book series. In a couple of weeks, two new books will be available. And although we're just two people and only started the series only 4 years ago, with these two we're already at 22 books! DH-021 is a 140 page book on the EA-6B Prowler. Filled with loads of details and action. We've included also some very interesting details of aircraft carrier deck material which might inspire modellers building dioramas. DH-022 is a 116 page book on the C-160 Transall, a two-engined transport aircraft used in France, Germany, Turkey and South Africa. This years marks the end of the service life of the aircraft within the Luftwaffe after 54 years. It is being replaced by the Airbus A400M Atlas. Not many books have been made on this aircraft and that's a shame, because it is a really impressive one. Here are the covers: It was a lot of fun making these books, hopefully they can interest some of you. Nic

Hi Mike, I understand your point, but working with photos as a reference, sometimes you have to weather the aircraft heavily. I received a photo of a Belgian Spitfire Mk.XVI from 1947 and the aircraft was really dirty in the picture, so I did the profile as close to that as I could: There was so much dirt from the exhaust and mud that the marking were partly obscured. I agree that it shouldn't be about the person doing the profile, but trying to be as accurate as possible. Of course, some modern aircraft are often much less weathered. Nic

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! It's the first time I do this but it is actually a lot of fun and much like modelling. It's no secret Jaro, this is how I work: First, I make the line drawing of the aircraft or helicopter. Because the BAF wants to use them on different designs and sizes later on, I make them in a vector file. I check the line drawings with the many photos I took of the real aircraft and correct or add detail where necessary. On some aircraft, you can hardly see some of these details such as rivets or armoured plates, but they are there. With the lines done, the colouring starts and this is done in Photoshop. Usually, a profile takes about 30 to 50 layers, most of them transparent, except for the base colours and markings. It really is a lot like painting a model: base colour, panelling, adding shades and light, chipping, ... When that is done, it's time for the "decals" - the markings and stencils are drawn in the same way as the baseline drawings (in the right colours) and then copied in the Photoshop file. There, you can adjust shape and size to match the reference photos. Like with modelling, it takes a lot of time to get it acceptable; it usually takes me 4 to 5 hours to colour a profile. The colour profiles are done in a rather large resolution and in a size of +/- 70 cm. Some are a real pain to do such as this one of an Alouette II helicopter: This one took me about 15 hours to do. Because you see every detail of the framing and engine, I needed over 50 layers. Some are way easier, but you have to make sure the details of the first drawing is correct. That takes a lot of checking and time. With that done, it gets easier. Here's a famous Belgian Starfighter: I tried to develop a style for the profiles; some people like them clean, some want to see these profiles very weathered or almost photo-like. I'm technically not good enough for the latter. But then I also have to consider that I have to do 130 of them in just 8 weeks. Jack, you're right, the Mirage was based at Bierset in the 1980s. Here's the profile of another Mirage, which has been restored and is maintained privately in Belgium: The book has to be ready by the end of September and it should be available from the Belgian Air Force or a limited number of shops, yes. It will be a hardcover book of nearly 300 pages. When it is done (and if I didn't go crazy) I'd like to try some other profiles, like Fw-190 D9 or K4 or maybe a couple of F-15s, I'm not sure yet. Then again, I'd like to build a model too, it has been way too long since I was able to finish one. Thanks again everyone! Nic

Since I hardly get around to building models, I thought I'd show what I'm currently working on: making profiles. This is for a book that is commissioned by the Belgian Air Force on all the aircraft that have been active in it since 1946. There are over 60 different aircraft and helicopters - profiles have to be made of all of them, sometimes 2 or 3, totalling +/-130 in all. First time I do this, but it's fun. Here are a few of them: This a Dassault Mirage 5 BA as it was flown by the the Crown Prince of Belgium (now King) Philippe I. A few years later, the aircraft crashed when a turbine blade broke off and got ingested into the engine. The pilot, flying at just 500 feet, was able to eject to safety though. Here's an F-84F in a rather colourful livery. The jet was flown like this at airshows in the 1950s. Just one more: After a humanitarian mission to Africa, this C-130H returned with a huge nose-art depicting zebras running in front of Mount Kilimanjaro. The nose-art was removed the day the aircraft returned to its home base in Belgium... so just for one day, the C-130 was named "Nairobi Belle". I hope you like these profiles, there are loads more! Nic

For those interested, the books of Duke Hawkins series by HMH Publications will be presented in the USA for the first time at the show. Casemate Publishing, who distributes the books in Northern America, will take copies of each of the current 20 books to the show. They also have samples of the two new books on the Su-35 Flanker E and A400M Atlas with them. If you attend the show and come across the books, any feedback is always welcome! Nic

On Friday, we received the copies of our two new books from the printers; DH-019 on the A400M and DH-020 on the Su-35S Flanker E. The Flanker E book is being shipped to all our resellers right now, but unfortunately, we noticed that the A400M book had a problem. Due to a technical problem in finishing the book, one page wasn't glued to the back the way it should, risking it to detach completely. Because we want everyone to be 100% happy with our books and in consultation with the printers, we decided that we are going to reprint the book. This isn't an easy decision, but we want only the best quality for our readers. So, the book on the A400M will be reprinted and distributed early September, when our next two books will be released. But, as I said, our book on the Flanker E is now available! And we're very proud of it, I don't think many people have been so close to this modern Russian jet! For those who were waiting on the A400M book, our apologies for the longer wait. We think it is worth it, the book is packed with great photos and loads of details! Nic

Nice suggestions Tom! Here's a photo we made not too long ago; if you look closely, you might be able to see what it is ...

Thanks guys! I can tell you that next to the A-400M and Su-35S, we have 7 more books coming this year. I guess not too much time left to build anything this year, but I still hope to finish my Matador though! Thierry, I just tried to send you a message, but I got the indication that you can't get any messages. I don't know what I did wrong. Could you give it another go? Maru, our website is www.hmh-publications.com and you can send an e-mail for any order or pre-order. In North America the easiest way to order them is through Casemate Publishing, who is our distributor for the continent. They get the new books about 4 weeks after the release - that's the time to get them over. Any suggestion for books is always welcome ! Nic

I really can't believe that what started as an accidental project to do just one book, is already at its 20th publication in just under 4 years! And for this one, we were really lucky! More out of a "Let's see if we can pull this off", we requested to make photos of one of the most modern fighter jets around: the Sukhoi Su-35S Flanker E or Super Flanker. I am happy to say that it got done and what an adventure it was! So, from early July 2021, our 20th book will be available: in 116 pages, almost 300 photos of the Flanker E are assembled. A complete walk-around, every detail included - we could crawl under and over the jet - a lot of action and most impressively: 8 pages of cockpit! Here's the cover of the book, but if some are interested, I can always post some of the internal pages too. Thanks to those of you who bought some of our books, this enabled us to continue and do this one! Nic

Great looking Cougar, Quang! The story about the unbuildable Cougar made me laugh when I read it. I built the two-seat Cougar in a week and won a model competition with it. The best reviews are those of modellers that actually build the model. I saw you didn't finish the P-39? Can I? It's the only KH 1/32 kit I didn't build. I like the finish of your kit, what colour did you use for the wash? Is it white or light grey? Looks good! Nic

I've built nearly all the 1/32 kits Kitty Hawk released. Still have the Mirage 2000 to do, but these kits always were impressive when finished. Bronco, T-6, Sabre Dog, Kingfisher, Trojan, Mirage 2000 - good luck hoping another brand will release kits of these in 1/32. For me, a true loss. I enjoyed their F-5 immensely and still have a two-seater to do. A really pity.

We're actually working on quite a few new books for this year. One of them, that I hope to release the second half of 2021, I still can't believe we got access to. We asked if we could photograph it, more out of a "you never know" and we got green light to make a ton of photos. We were really surprised about that. I'm working on it now, still need to do some research though. To everyone who bought a copy of one of our books: many thanks! It is because of you that we can continue to make books and every now and then even support restoration projects of real aircraft, like a Mirage 5 two-seat project in Belgium (Team BD09) and a Starfighter Project in The Netherlands. Nic

Recently, we released two more books, this time on the Su-25 Frogfoot and the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet and for July, we have two more coming. The first one isn't for LSP builds, I'm afraid: way too big. This is on the A-400M. The other one does have an couple of LSP's available, but I'll start an additional topic on it when it's almost available. Here's one of the A-400Ms in flight: This book will include photos of aircraft of all the Air Forces operating it. Nic

Hi Chris, You are right about all of those aircraft, they should have a good book about them! The hardest part for some of those is now travelling; during the pandemic it is either unwise or impossible to travel to bases or museums to make good photos. The A-10 has been one of my favorite jets and having done the Su-25, it simply has to be in the series too. The Bronco could be an interesting one that we haven't got on our list at the moment. I guess for the D-model, we'd have to get to the US too... Thanks for the info on the Duxford Blackbird, that won't do. We've got some good museums on our radar though! The way I see it, we will release 8 new books this year in this series (Su-25 and Alpha Jet included) and with some luck two in a new series. Some of your suggestions might just be in those! Nic

These new books will be available in Europe on March 31. For the USA, it will take about 3 weeks to get the books over. The books are shipped from the UK, but due to the new rules since Brexit, these is a lot more paperwork and checks at the border, so it takes a little time, unfortunately. The good news is that the books on the Mirage 2000 and Harrier II will be available again, they are being reprinted too! The next two new books will be June 2021!

Your Harrier looks really good! I really like the paint job, the metal finish on the engine nozzles and I have to say that the photos are pretty good too! Congratulations! Nic