Isar 30/07

Rising Decal made a sheet "Unsual Emils Pt II", #RD32005, covering this bird among some Swiss Bf 109 E´s. Instructions are not helpful on the reason for the starboard wing painting or replacement. Luftwaffe Colours Vol 4 Section 2 "The Mediterranean 1942-1943" have some more photos of S9+DR (and other Emils of III/ZG 1). According to this the photo is dated from late 1942. As III/ZG 1 was hastily sent from the Russian front to the Mediterranean the schwarzen Männer (mechanics) overpainted the "European" camo using RLM 78/79. The authors are guessing the starboard wing was (obviously) a replacement from an a/c in the original camo and there was no time to repaint it. HTH, Reimund

After 1 1/2 years of non modelling I "restarted" this year with 3 FW 190´s that rested for several years in the SOD to see If I can already modelling. Beside an F-8 and an A-7 (converted from an A-8) there is also an D-11 (conversion on D-9) on my bench - all kits are the "late" Hasegawa ones (just like you have the ST 19). To get more informations on the D-11, I bought this year the 2 Eagle Editions books (Jerry Crandall) on the FW 190 D´s. Unfortunately long OOP these books are hard to find but worth every penny and full (!!!) of informations on the FW 190D´s. Beside them I have 2 books from JaPo on the Fw 190 D, also containing a lot of useful informations, photos, drawings and profiles. Those books I highly recommend! If you can grab them - do it. Maybe you find this link useful on late war RLM 76: Late-War RLM 76 by Michael Ullman (clubhyper.com) Michael Ullmann did a lot of research on RLM colours over many years and even worked with Jerry Crandall on the mentioned Eagle Editions books. I agree that late war RLM 76 may look like British Sky type "S", but there are several late war RLM 76 shades. Looking at the profile and explanations on "Black 4" of JG 301 from Jerry Crandall, the late war RLM 76 looks like it has a very light brown (creamy) hue than a green hue. As I´m using colours from Gunze and Xtracolor, I mix colour variations myself. So, I don´t go very much into already mixed colours from several brands, but that´s my personal preference. Just a last tip: Hasegawa 1/32 Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9 Tweak List | Large Scale Planes Very useful Cheers, Reimund

Fantastic work, Denis! Just one thing I noticed looking at the last photos: Did you realised that the decal 'Höhenruder beim Schieben....' is mirrored? Didn't saw this decal placed earlier in your WIP so you maybe you are able to fix it. Cheers, Reimund

Did I wrote Nick? I´m sorry Damian....

Hi Nick, fantastic news - count me in for 3 sets. Cheers, Reimund

The then Swiss Test pilot on Swiss Mirages, Arthur Moll, described the cockpit color as 'swedish light green' without specifying, i. e. FS number. (taken from the mentioned book) Reimund

Eli, the ultimate reference book on Swiss Mirages is 'Mirage - das fliegende Dreieck' (Mirage - the flying triangle'), written by Olivier Borgeaud and Peter Gunti, ISBN 978-3-85545-157-9. More than 400 pages, full of beautiful color pics of every inch of the early and late Mirages as well as drawings. Whatever question you might have - here's the answer. I have a copy which is written in german - don't know if this book is available in english. Highly recommended. If you're not willing to find one (I bought it in Switzerland a few years ago), then let me know how I can help. Reimund

This looks amazing as your JA-37 in the BIG scale! Like the the pilot´s posing a lot! Once Jet Passion has released their AJ-37 we can expect another Viggen done by you? Hope so! Cheers Reimund

Gents, following this discussion with interest and a thought is growing: As I have the A-1E along with RF-8A and the F-8C in stash waiting to be started, I'm sure other modelers have complete kits or conversion sets from Paul Fisher as well sharing the same fate - would Paul use i. e. a conversion set to do masters and could so be back in business? I have no idea, if Paul would like to be back in business (haven't contacted him yet) but if this would be a restart then I'm sure there are a lot of modelers that provide their kits/conversion sets. Any thoughts? Reimund

Hi Oliver, my thoughts on your questions: 1) Have a look here: When you scroll down you find tips from @Rick K which worked perfectly. 2) Anti-static strip? If you´re talking about the orange "frame" around the center panel in windshield, I´d do this using a yellow/orange masking tape, i.e. from Tamiya. I once bought a tape, used mainly by car paint shops, which hasn´t the "thickness" of the the Tamiya tape. This works for me since years and I wouldn´t use any other. But Tamiya tape should work as well here. Cutting thin strips and this should represent both - colour and thickness. 3) Dot pattern. I´d give it a try using some (silver) rivets offered by HGW i.e. Preparing the canopy using Future first. Cutting rivet strips in the desired length using a new scalpell to remove as much of the clear film as possible. Place them onto the inside of the canopy. When dried, then do another coat of Future. I´d see how or if it works using a spare canopy/clear part first. Fantastic work so far! Curious how you do these challenges... Cheers Reimund

Hi Tim, I bought a set of ECM pods for updating the Trumpeter EA-18G Growler from Harold a few years ago. As these pods would look great on an EA-6A, maybe you would consider of offering these pods again. All the best for your journey! Reimund

Thanks iaf-man, Thanks Derek! What happened to this build? Well, sometimes you don't have any influence in things to come in life. First, my mother died in early 2019 after three months in a hospital. At the end of 2019, my own health was bad for the following two years and there wasn't nearly any modelling at that time. When health became better and I felt my mojo returning, some projects had to be done/completed for a model magazine. This mixed with building a new house and the removal this year prevented any progress on my Gina - as on several other kits resting on my workbench... But, I see some light at the end of the tunnel in the next months. Can't tell when I'm into the Gina again (there is still a Tornado F.3 conversion on the bench that wants to be restarted as well) but I will post any progress. If you can grab a copy of this kit, don't hesitate. It's a nice little kit that can be built out of the box. If you spend some extra hours you get a real Italian cutie! Cheers Reimund

Interesting question. Reg. the "butcher", this is obvious to me as the F- versions were "Schlachtflugzeuge" which is translated butcher birds. In German "Schlachtflugzeug" stands for a ground attack aircraft which translated correctly might be "battle bird". "Schlacht" has 2 meanings in German: "butcher" and "battle". So, the "butcher bird" might be a not correct translation of "Schlachtflugzeug" even if it might suggest that an attack of an FW 190 F-xxx is a very bloody thing. When reading German books on Luftwaffe written in the 60´s (i. e. "Angriffshöhe 4000"), I´ve never read anything of "butcher bird" or "Würger". So I guess it´s something the/some pilots then might use as a nickname. I recall a talk to a former German fighter pilot (on Bf. 109´s) who told me, that they often did not use the official designation of a Bf 109 but called them "Spezial" or i. e. "Kanonenboot" - the R6 mounting the 20mm cannons beneath the wings. So, my conclusion: "Butcher Bird" is a not correct translation of "Schlachtflugzeug", "Würger" is maybe a nickname (not an official name) or it´s just something a kit producer came up to make his kit look more interesting. Reimund

Hi Rich, hoping you're ok, but let me ask you if there are any updates? I'm sure, I'm not the only one waiting desperately for any news. Keep finger crossed! Cheers Reimund

Thanks a lot, Norbert. I'll wait and place an order when they will be available! Reimund