Alain Gadbois

Definitely good thing to let it rest a bit, and eventually come back if needed. Alain

Bonjour! The mottling you have achieved is very convincing, comparing with the photo of the original aircraft. During the Battle of Britain, Bf109 E aircraft if JG2 had their RLM65 sides mottled with dark green with a sponge and displayed a surface finish very similar to your aircraft. Perhaps a light application of paint imitating that effect would improve even more your model. Alain

Excellent work my friend! All the extensive preparation work is really paying off with in the paint finish! Looking forward to the topside colors! Alain

Astounding patience to get all those rivets in place and very precisely too. I am in awe! Alain

Great what-if! Like others have said, looks totally believable. And what a name!!! Alain

Fantastic masks (great job Max!) and application! Brilliant result! Alain

Excellent results on the wing to fuselage joints! That you forgot the slots in the wings for the racks was a blessing in disguise. In my build,opening the slots and getting the racks to fit right took much more time than what I expected. Alain

The paint finish on the exhaust pipe is totally convincing! Alain

The Cuban MiGs look quite striking! Excellent paint job! Alain

I’ve seen one built and it actually looked quite nice! Nice out of the box project! Alain

Wonderful Max! What a beauty you have there! You are correct about the gorgeous aircraft of the thirties (although some were hideous, French and English!). It would be fantastic if Airfix would release a 1/24 Hawker Fury! Alain

Yes, please move it over! Thanks! Alain

The crazy thing I don’t know how this happened, as I used a tiny drop on the tip on a blade to touch up lifted areas of the foil, then 10 times more, somehow, unnoticed, flew out of the tube and unto the fuselage! I was trying to do 2 things at the same time, that’s the real mistake here! Should have put the fuselage away when taking out the CA glue! Luckily it was still softish after a couple minutes so I could scrape and sand rescribe quite easily. Alain

Excellent results with the hairspray. Never thought of spraying it with an airbrush! Definitely will remember this for future projects! Alain

Hi all, Working to finish the rivets on the right fuselage halve, and getting the cockpit ready for painting. To replicate the worn metal on the cockpit floor, I tried using bare metal foil, to be revealed by scratching the paint in appropriate areas. In other places, worn surfaces will be done with paint. The adhesion wan’t to great so I touched up some corners of the Bare Metal foil with tiny bits of CA glue. All was well until I noticed that somehow CA got on the fuselage side being riveted! 7 or 8 drops, some managing to get on rivets or panel lines… Quick work with X-acto and sanding seems to have saved the day! Thanks for watching! Alain

Yes, this film shows a lot of interesting details that can be incorporated to add realism to a model or diorama. Alain

Interesting color film dated 1952-1953. Loading bombs, guns, testing at a range and more. Good impression of the atmosphere at that base, various activities and installations there. I wonder what the C-46 was doing at the end, seemingly spraying something over the airfield?

The photo on page 4, shows well the 5 triangles on top. It’s a bit too blurry to discern the exact position of the markings, but more photos may exist and help, plus that thread also. After fixing the markings on the fuselage sides and the top wing with brio, I don’t doubt a second that Max can fix this! Better to know now than when the wing is glued in place! Max, making mistakes is just human, but fixing them as well as you do, ,when it could discourage many, is the truly admirable part! Alain

Monogram had some 1/32 tanks in the past… Maybe manufacturers could average the scales to 1/33.5 so everyone will be happy!? Alain

Rivets…………! A good photo provided the info needed to rivet the fuselage sides. I made a template to add the curved rivet line marked with a pencil line. The finished left wing shows the much better effect with the rivets. Bye for now, Alain

I was just writing about that Gauntlet!

The Finns have a huge and varied collection of aircraft, from every major participant in the European war (maybe not Italy!). They even have a Gloster Gauntlet… So it would be difficult to find out what Airfix was interested in. Alain

Of course, but I guess they put in a limited time for research and then production with whatever they got. Alain

Mentioned before but good possibilities: Me 262 Me 110 Corsair Fw 190D P-40 Not probable but would be cool: Tiger Moth Ki-61 Macchi MC 200 (or 202) Beaufighter

That kit would be extremely difficult to pass by unoticed from the wife, sadly! Alain