MikeC

This will be my first WIP.  It's the superb Tamiya kit, that we all know about.  My neighbour is big Corsair fan (he's an RC plane guy), so I'm building him a Boyington markings version (as close I can make it).
 
I'll be using the following AM. 
 
Barracuda - Cockpit Stencils
Yahu - Instrument Panel
Barracuda - Plain tread wheels
EagleCals - EC 161 - F4U-1 Corsairs
RB - seatbelts
Maketar masks - for the primary insignia (maybe)
Ultracast - Boyington pilot figure
 
I'll be using AK Real Colours for main exterior and interior colours.  Tamiya for everything else.  AK, MIG and oils for the weathering items.
 
Here's the progress so far.

 
 
Yahu IPs are awesome!

 

 
 
Stencils on.  They are very very small.

 
Not a huge fan of the RB belts.  They're very stiff.
 

 
Pappy waiting for some more paint
 

 
Got my head but lost my arm.

 
Cockpit complete.
 

 

 
 
 
I've been following the paint instruction in the kit, so that's why the head rest is black and the oxygen bottle is silver.     I'll be buttoning up the fuselage next and then onto the engine.
 
All the pics are from my Iphone 8 and are hosted with the high quality option (not the original size) on Google Photos.
 
Thanks for looking!
 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rv-petrel-battle-midway-kaga-wreck-aircraft-carrier-ww2-paul-allen-a9161481.html

Hi - it was a gamble - I used the SBS engine/cowl for my 1/48 model and I loved it and asked them to upscale the parts for me. I am sure the kit will be good enough - we will see. As for decals - again I designed all of the SBS decals for them and asked if I could upscale some of them and so I have a multi-national sheet but Want to see what type national insignia come sin the kits as I could then squeeze in another option perhaps if insignia not needed. I love this aeroplane that is all and as I have done the decals and bracign wires in other scales and friends have done the engine it seems sensible to get geared up
 

It's entirely appropriate given the altitudes at which this plane was operated.  By the time you've reached 15,000ft, you can expect to be feeling the effects of hypoxia, and these planes flew higher.  After all, the Gladiator was operational at a time when the RAF was practising for war against the Luftwaffe, so given that the operating height of the potential enemy was known, they had to fly at oxygen thin altitiudes.
 
 
If you fly high in the desert, it gets cold.  Interesting anecdote which proves that it's cold at 25,000 feet and higher wherever you are in the world:  When Spitfires were sent to Australia for the defense of Darwin in 1943, some bright spark in Whitehall thought "oh it's hot out there" so he decided that he'd help the Aussies by sending lightened Spitfires.  So they were sent out without gun heating equipment.  The RAAF had no end of problems with frozen guns (among other gun problems too) as they always climbed to 30,000 to 36,000ft before intercepting.  So fur jackets will have been worn on some occasions in the desert as some operations, particularly recconnaisance ops, will have taken place at higher than usual altitudes.
 
BTW, I'm one looking forward to the release of the Gladiator too.  It's one I've wanted in large scale for decades.  I'd also like a decent Macchi 202/205 too (hint, hint...)
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

Gladiator is getting closer 
 
British Pilots (1939-1945) listed as kits in process
http://www.icm.com.ua/news/

 
and another version of I-16 - type 17 with skis

 
jan

I lived on Portland for 30 years (for the "foreigners" not in the know, Portland is famed for its stone used for hundreds of years for building many places of repute, St Paul's Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament being two-such).  The quarrying industry still continues on the island (Portland isn't actually an island since it's joined to mainland England by the Chesil Bank (lots of pebbles of varying sizes!)), but in the late 1990s quarrymen unearthed a German WW2 bomb.....Portland Harbour housed the Home Fleet which was extensively bombed in the early years of the war, notably by Herman Goering's son who I understand was shot down (Bf110?) and killed, (the local RAF fighter base was Warmwell.)  Anyway, when the bomb was discovered we, and many other families, were evacuated for the weekend whilst the Bomb Disposal crowd successfully blew up the (500kg?) bomb.  Made a big hole even bigger.  Just one example of a bomb going astray and causing some angst 50 years later! 

As long as I havnt already built an example of that airframe (IE the only reason I don't currently own a 1/32nd Tamiya Spit, the only 32nd Tamiya LSP I dont have) Ill be buying whatever they roll out as a new never before released kit in 1/32nd. 
 
But yes, as rumor milling goes, Im hoping for a razorback too..........but would buy and build a Tamiya 32nd bubble top in a heart beat. I would think a Tamiya typical way to release a never released prior airframe, would be to release the supposedly lesser known/liked version(s) before releasing the more well known/liked ones. I'm not sure this has been the case with every single release, but the Tamiya 1/32nd Corsair comes to mind. 
 
 

Someone else has circulated this rumor to my recollection.  It certainly would not surprise me if Tamiya dropped this at some point.  I would probably buy either a razor back or bubble top if Tamiya releases it.  I think the Trumpeter kit is good and have nothing against it.  But a Tamiya kit sounds exciting.  Maybe next year who knows.
 

IF Tamiya are in fact working on a P-47, please pray it to be a razorback for starters.  I’ll believe it when I see it announced by Tamiya, and not a nanosecond sooner though.

+1 here - also Firefox on W10.  Same result with MS Edge.
 

Yes, I know the video, it has been used for decades as a "weapon" by the people fixated on the idea that movable things should move only one way, whatever way makes them look "smart". That is a well-known training video issued by the Luftwaffe. In that film the mechanic checks the free movement (which is actully more "buttery" than "free"), it sticks a bit, then takes a pliers and straightens something at the corner of the slat to make sure that it does not get "stuck". Of course it is of outmost importance that the slat moves freely - that is the very point of it. But that is no evidence of anything. My point still stands: if you push the slat back, it stays back. It will slide open when the engine starts anyway, so it makes no difference. 
It also does so on the Bf 109. There are a multitude of photos in print and on the internet that substantiate that, but they are conveniently ignored by those who only seek open slats. 
Radu 

Well, as Ray pointed out, the "well" had to be created to accommodate the flaps on retracted position. If I were to have a choice, I would have left the slats retracted. I have seen five different 262s when this was designed. On all five, if the slats were pushed back, they stayed back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know, gravity+airflow controlled slats and all that, but fact remains that on an aircraft resting on the ground, slats stayed however they were pushed. If pushed back, they stayed back. When the engine started, vibrations would "disturb" that "resting position" and they would deploy anyway. They are movable. For years I have seen people tearing into each other over this kind of stuff, yet all they did was argue over what they read on the internet, basically fighting over Google results. I had the opportunity to touch these machines and I am telling you what I saw, not some third-hand copy-pasted stuff. 
Radu

Not working for me either but I don't think people realis how much of the country was bombed.
My daughter's primary school (ages 5-7 for those outside of the UK) is in a village about 2 miles west of the Greater London boundary.
The school has the "Old School Bell" on display in the reception.
This was all that was salvaged after the school was bombed during the war and was then later re-built.
Apparently it was on a Sunday so luckily no casualties but I always wondered why.
Then I realised it is 2 miles away from the former RAF Uxbridge where the 11 Group control bunker (used in the film Battle of Britain) is.
So on an East/West track any late release would have hit the village and the school.
RAF Uxbridge has now gone but the bunker is still preserved and worth a visit if down this way.
http://battleofbritainbunker.co.uk/

Nope, I can’t see it either. I don’t quite see the point of building a website but then “protecting” it so that the majority of people appear not to be able to access it! Damned if I can be bothered to try either I’m afraid. 

Hello,
 
this is my last model, an F-4J(UK) Phantom (E / ZE353) with the 74 (F)Squadron, also known as "Tiger Squadron", based at RAF Wattisham in the late 80s.
 
The model is based on the Tamiya kit with the addition of the Black Box resin cockpit, GMT resin J-79 exhausts and engine auxiliary air intake, resin wheels and a resin SUU-23A gun pod.
I made the reinforcement strip running under the fuselage along the wing using plasitcard.
Other minor details come from the Eduard PE sheet.
I've also added some hydraulic hoses and plates to the undercarriage wheel bays.
The pitot and AOA tubes are made of metal by Master.
A couple of red coloured resin FOD were added to the main jet intakes.
The unique camouflage is done using Tamiya and Gunze colors: for the greenish bluish gray I made my own mixture.
Decals are from Yellowhammer, but I've used small roundels from a Xtradecals sheet... the Yellowhammer's are too big.
 
CIAO!
Piero
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi guys.
Here is a little Spitfire I built for a boy's birthday. Having been given this and his not knowing what to do with it, I offered to build it for him. 
 
Due to a lack of time I didn't mask it gor hard edged camouflage. He won't care.
 

 

 

Apparently there were a whole batch of Buccaneers like this.  Sadly, I never managed to find one.

I've been doing some bits and bobs, like the undercarriage, wheels and the fairings.  I must admit the incredibly simplistic and ambiguous instructions had me pondering for quite some time about what was required for the main u/c leg fairing but hopefully I'm on track now.
 

 
I've done a lot of pondering!  I also pondered about the firebird stencil, which I think may now be usable.  On my 1/48th Hurricane mule I've sprayed the basic yellow background and, whilst I think the rest of the masks may be too fiddly to use, I reckon I can freehand the flames and eye detail.  Time for trials later. 
 

 
I've also pondered about my Fw44 Stieglitz and reached a decision about the way ahead with the rigging for it, but that's a different thread!

Stormer,
Thanks for getting back to me, I do appreciate it.
I do take time to measure out proportions when I pose the mannequins prior to sculpting. I also usually use 360 degree photos of me in the pose too. Perhaps I have a big head in proportion to the rest of me  
I will continue to keep checking proportions when sculpting and look out for the observations you have made. I recently released the 100th Elan13 Miniatures figure hopefully more are right than not.

That describes people my friend, Leonardo da Vinci's "perfect Vitruvian man" is rarely achieved!

An interesting observation from Stormer Robert. I’d also like to see why he thinks your figures are not in proportion. I’ve had issues with some of the Z-M offerings but yours have never given me cause to raise an eyebrow, especially that delightful WW1 mechanic! 

Stormer, thank you for the feedback, I would be interested for you to elaborate more on the "off Proportion" of our figures. Anything that helps make the sculpting better is a good thing.

Apparently there were a whole batch of Buccaneers like this.  Sadly, I never managed to find one.

Me either. Though I did have a fuselage half so warped it lived up to its Banana Bomber Moniker.