jenshb

Got to love museums run by enthusiasts rather than "jobsworths"...

Just curious; how much too thin is the Trumpeter wing? Can it be corrected by adding a bit of plastic around quarter to half-chord to give a fuller upper and lower surface curvature?

Planning to join with a Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16BM in 332 Sqn markings. 332 Sqn was the OCU for the type, so would have a training role in addition to their active air defence role for the south-east of Norway when they were still based at Rygge, south of Oslo.

I don't think the Matchbox designers could believe their kit would ever look this good. Jens

Having the same idea to make an F-15A, I still think the Tamiya kit will be the best base to work from. KA Models make beautiful featherless exhaust nozzles and afterburners (expensive, but beautiful), and Res-Kit will be making A/B style wheels. Although they are designed to fit the Revell kit, I am sure they can somehow be adapted to fit the Tamiya kit. In addition to modify fuselage panels from E to C, you will also need to modify the fairing aft of the airbrake to an A. The C fairing looked like a Y, the A fairing looks more like a wide, rectangular U. The Daco book on the F-15A/B should show what I mean. Jens

Thanks for that Jari. They were flight manuals and had nothing on the structural diagrams unfortunately. Jens

F-5E intakes are available from Phase Hangar Resin. https://phasehangarresin.com/collections/32001-1-32/products/32007-f-5-tiger-ii-full-depth-intake-kittyhawk The absence of a resin cockpit that would correct the too shallow floor as well as add detail is strange. I would have thought Aires for example would be all over it as they do an F-5E cockpit and wheel wells in 1:48. As South Korea also used the F-5E/F, I would see Wolfpack Design as a possible candidate for a cockpit...

Thanks rafju, but there were no Dassault Falcon 20 drawings there. Strange...they have prototypes and experimentals, but not a drawing of one of their best selling corporate jets... It's almost like they don't want to know. Downloaded the Rafale C drawing, and that was basic to say the least. The reason for wanting structural diagrams is that they have actual dimensions on them so you can get a basis for accurate drawings.

That would be great Jennings. Thanks a lot.

Thank you SB20 - hope you can come up with something. As long as there are airframes around, there should be maintenance manuals too.

Thinking there might be some corporate jet pilots here as well as French, I am hoping that someone has access to a Dassault Falcon 20 strucural repair manual. I am looking for structural diagrams with station numbers, buttock lines and water lines with dimensions for the fuselage, wings and nacelles. The intention is to use the dimensions to fill in gaps to ensure a model is correct in size and proportions. If anyone can help with scans, that would be most appreciated. Jens

On a scale from 1-10, how fed up were you making bombs after that?:) Excellent weathering on those models - used, but still maintained.

I use them for mixing small quantities of 5-minute epoxy as well as handheld masks and palettes for oil paints.

I could be happy with a DH Hornet or Sea Hornet...:)

Heat stretching Evergreen works well, but for a pitot tube, you're better off using fine brass tube as recommended by the posts above.

I'm a master of joining a GB and starting, but so far I have yet to actually complete any GB entries. Still enjoy the idea of joining in to model a subject to a common theme and have a reasonable realistic deadline to actually finish the model provided I can focus. As it so often happens, the focus changes and it gets put on the side. Still have plans to join the Trainers GB though, and hopefully that entrant will be less taxing to build. As for the low participation in the BoB GB, I think it has something to do with the lack of really great kits of both the Spitfire and Hurricane if German aircraft don't take your fancy. The new tool Revell Spitfire is not unbuildable, but it does have some noticeable issues that takes a bit of work to correct. The Fly Hurricane takes a little fettling to get a satisfactory result. I think it would have been more popular had there been a Tamiya Spitfire Mk. I or Hurricane for example. A BoB GB on other forums that don't confine themselves to large scales will probably be more successful due to the larger availability of new and better kits. Jens

Thank you guys. Having recharged the batteries, here are some more, taken with a darker background this time.

Thought I'd join the Tamiya Kitty-Klub on LSP with the latest finish, and Tamiya Tomcat number 2. Used the Quickboost seven-hole mid-breech panel that just required a little fettling to fit, but nothing serious provided you go carefully on the cuts. The temperature probe on the port side in front of the windscreen is from the kit as it is on the doubled up sprue. Decals are from Furball and were a little disappointing. First of all, the shade of blue is wrong - it is far too dark, and it should be more like True Blue, and the stripes on top of the tailfins is about 1 mm too short to cover the chord. Sadly, the VF-32 tail markings are also 1 mm too short in chord, and that will be a greater challenge to solve. My Silhouette Portait cutter made short work of cutting masks for the forward fuselage stripes as well as cutting the thin strips for the tailfins to a consistent width. The base decoration is a section of Coastal Kits sea blur base. And then my camera ran out of juice... Tomcat number 3 in progress:) Jens

Me like! Heck of a masking job on the chequers, but you pulled it off. Jens

Interesting that they are also doing F-5A/B wheels in 1:32 when there are no 1:32 F-5A/B kits available...apart from the Belcher Bits conversion.

Wouldn't she have a glass of wine in her hand to welcome the pilot? The figures are eerily realistic - terriffic job.

I should have a couple of Paveways from the Hasegawa F-16 kit. PM me your address, and I'll get them in the post for you. Jens

Looks promising. Just beware leaving Tamiya masking tape on the Extreme Metal for too long. Somehow it reacts with the adhesive of the tape and leaves adhesive on the surface that is hard to remove. A coat of waterbased clear will protect it. Found out the hard way and trashed a Tamiya Spitfire MkI that way... Jens

I know the FAA use the birdcage Corsairs, but I don't like the look of the birdcage Corsair - I prefer the later raised canopy.

I am looking to use some store credit, and only the Birdcage Corsair is available. Is it possible to order sprues to make that kit into a non-Birdcage Fleet Air Arm Corsair? If so, which sprues would I need? Jens