Thunda

Lovely work. Ive got one Im going to start soon- would you say the Barracuda nose correction is worth having/needed?

Wow- fascinating video and an excellent pilot. Really interesting to see his decision making process, which turned out to be 99% right (apart from dropping the U/C, but then he still probably would have tried for the field with his remaining airspeed had he not done that, and might have had a much worse crash). Thanks for sharing this.

Sending PO- Sprue Brother still manage to ship to UK at a half decent price. Think its called "Economy International Air Mail" or some such.

Wow- would love one of those, but the shipping/customs rule it out. Such BS!

Lovely work- got the hots for one of these now!

Excellent- bravo!

Looks great- dont know what you think youve done 'wrong' but it looks pretty impressive to me! One of my favourite WWI planes too...

Ive used the Vallejo primer (grey & black) and they were fine, but have been using 'Ultimate' black primer, which I think is the same as Badger Stynylrez with different branding. Not much to choose between them tbh.

Agree with whats been said- I spray Vallejo AirColor straight from the bottle, or occasionally use a bit of their flow improver, but never thin it. Nice finish and easy to work with, but do tend to be a little dark, particularly with RLM colours. I cant see past Mr Paint these days- Ive got lots of Vallejo, Gunze, Xtracrylic, Humbrol & Tamiya, but once I tried Mr Paint I use that when I can.

Some great photos there- that second one, the pilot must have been cursing the photographer, either using a flash or powerful spotlight, right into his face just before he takes off on a night mission! So much for night vision? As a Brit, I have to say, the shape of the 111 always makes me think of the Blitz- very evocative, and 1940/41 they had the night-time skies over the UK pretty much to themselves save for a few Defiants and some hardy day fighter types- wasnt until the end of '41 the Beaufighter started making an impact by hacking them down in droves. Looking forward to seeing this build and will be following closely. As an aside- my Father was a schoolboy in County Durham during the war, and told me about a time a 111 came down after it got lost on a Glasgow raid. He and his friends cycled up to the wreckage after school which was being guarded by a local policeman. After a while the cop left and they snuck in, and my Dad came away with a big chunk of the perspex from the nose. He took it home, put a poker in the fire (his Mum was out) and pushed a hole through it. He then proceeded to put his finger in the hole, which contracted, trapping his finger. He then had to wait for his mother to come home and help him round to the fire station where, after much joking, they eventually cut it off!

I have enough problems trying to find space for my 1/32 aircraft! 1/18th is totally out of the question....

Nice one, Kevin.

Wow- absolutely gorgeous. An aircraft Ive always liked the look of, and carried out beautifully- Bravo!

Have always really liked that clover leaf livery on the Ki61. Wish someone did a 1/32 sheet of that aircraft. Fantastic video- thanks for sharing. I think there are hardly any 'survivor' Ki61's, so great to see it in this in decent quality video. Shame they couldnt have finished that restoration off- many missing rivets- maybe its a work in progress?

Gorgeous. Any shots with the whole aircraft in?

Beautifully done. Ive got this EagleCals set and will one day do this a/c. Interesting pilot history too. Off topic, but I built the 346th/350th P47 Buzzin Cuzzin last year using the Kits World decal set, and that a/c and pilot had a facscinating story too. Seems the pilot got the nickname after cutting a major army telephone line stretched across a river when doing some ultra low level flying. Anyway- Bravo- great build.

Nice- what are you using to weather it? What type of paint did you use for the camo?

Oh yeah! Love it! Same as the others I love the XIV- looks like a total beast while still looking graceful. You still see these kits on fleabay quite regularly but they aint that cheap and mainly in the US. Same as you, I wish Id snapped one or two up when they were available for reasonable money.

Double wow! Any pics?

Wow! Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

Wow! Spot on- Bravo!

Really nice. Very unusual looking aircraft which Ive read had some strange characteristics. Despite it being underpowered and under armed, it was said to be highly manouverable and structurally sturdy, although it lacked any armour or self sealing fuel tanks. Going up against a swarm of hungry 109's in one of these must have taken much courage...

Hasegawa all the way for me- apart from the corrections mentioned (dropping engine 2mm/sink marks in the wings) its pretty faultless- great fit and looks like a P47. Havent built the bubble top Trumpeter, but have read some negative stuff about it- rivets being one, but also engine mounting is said to be fiddly and theres all sorts of internal construction that will never be seen once the fuselage is done up. Have to say though, I am a bit of a Hasegawa fanatic so maybe Im bias....

Did a fair bit of research into this bird last year. To my knowledge: 1) Malcolm hoods were very rare- Ive got a list somewhere of which a/c used them, but they were in very short supply and fitted at squadron level. Not sure what you mean by 'fighter'- the majority of MkI's were tactical recon/ground attack aircraft due to their performance curve (poor at altitude, great at low level)- dont think any were pure interceptor/air superiority aircraft- Think fighter bomber rather than pure fighter. Majority of malcolm hood a/c were, from memory, 168 & 268sqn who were tasked with low level recon, ground attack and army co-operation. One mission I am aware of that used a Malcolm hooded a/c was spotting for the naval guns on D Day by 268 sqn. Watching for the fall of shot, flying through the arc of fire has to be one of the most dangerous missions Ive ever heard of, and one of the squadrons aircraft disappeared and FTR- unknown what happened, but may well have been hit by a naval shell.... 2) To my knowledge, none of the RAF MkI's were fitted with drop tanks- dont think they had the plumbing in the wings. USAAF a/c did though. 3) Not aware of any RAF MkI's carrying bombs or rockets- dont think they had the hard points. Type of missions Ive read about involved low/med level photo recon followed by strafing any vehicle convoys/troops/trains that were unfortunate enough to be spotted. Very dangerous missions and attrition was high- think it was felt the 4 X .5 mgs & 4 X 303's in the Mk I, or the 4 X 20mm in the MkIa were enough for this job, as speed and manouverability were the key aspects of this type of mission. There was only ever 1 A36 Apache brought to the UK for tests at Boscombe Down- that obviously had weapon hard points in the wings but this type wasnt taken up by the RAF. A few were 'borrowed' in Italy from USAAF in 1944, but these were Apaches, not Mustangs.

Veeeery nice. Really unusual subject- wasnt aware of the IAR version. Engine and cockpit look great.