Cheetah11

Hi Alain wow another magnificent build. Well done Cheers Nick

Hi Denis That should work perfectly. Sometimes the best solution is a combination of mask and decal. Cheers Nick

Hi Denis To get the mask and decal concentric you need to duplicate the image for the mask. Then increase the line width in red for a decal on the duplicate. Paint with the mask and print a decal in red with the thicker line. Cheers Nick

Hi Max Thanks for the reply. The pieces between the engine and Eberspacher tubes are the ones puzzling me as the two types on the two photos appear different. There are very few pictures and drawings showing it clearly. BTW the photos I found cleared up a lot of questions on Jabs's aircraft but also created some new questions. Cheers Nick

Trying to finalize my Me 110 G-4 I recently came upon this photo of the well known G9+AA. The puzzling thing on the photo is the Eberspacher flame damper which does not appear to be the same as ones fitted later. The exhaust manifolds in the photo appear to be straight and angled at roughly 45 deg. The tubes themselves are also proud of the engine nacelle by about the diameter of the tube. Was this an interim design or were more than one design fielded. I would appreciate any info, dimensions or drawings. Plan B is to go with as much as I can see on the photo and print ones from that. The later ones (presumably factory fitted ) slope forward and have more curved exhaust manifolds. Eduard went with these on their 1/48 kit. Cheers Nick

Never mind a new kit as welcome as it would be. I would be happy if they just scaled these up to 1/32. (And correctly size them for the Tamiya kit) Nick

Lovely diorama Gary. Well done. I hope the repairs are not too serious. To my old eyes the photos look just fine. Cheers Nick

Wow Sean, this is turning out to be a super build. You must have been a hydraulic engineer in your previous life. Cheers Nick

Thanks Alain as you know these kits are the proverbial " shake and bake " kits. Easy and no problems. Cheers Nick

Fantastic build Marcel. The weathering really looks good. I just have a small point. I am not sure a bomb and AIM-9 could be carried on the same side until the extension for the LAU-7 was introduced. The photos I have seen of the earlier F-4B's shows one AIM-9 end two bombs on each TER. I might be mistaken but just check it. Cheers Nick

Hi Max, thanks for the compliment. I actually wanted to do one more, a Hasegawa 1/32 Me 109. But my two sons had other plans. Both decided to move house in January and since I am retired I was tasked to help with the moves and to fix all things that needed attention. As you most likely know the Millennials can't do DIY. I was promised some stuff from the local hobby shop but I think their memory is as poor as their DIY skills. Hi Alain It turned out ok. The time pressure was a small problem but the group build time cut off is a two edged sword. On the one side one cannot spend the time you feel you need to spend. On the other side the model does get finished and not end up as a shelf queen. The model itself is a bit difficult. Some features streets ahead of the old Hasegawa kit and others a pain, such as the windscreen being too narrow. The Murphy also played his part and lots of little things had to be fixed or redone. I also had a bit of trouble with the paint as I mentioned but in the end it is finished. Cheers Nick

Finished, and just in time!!!! One of the most frustrating builds in a long time. Cheers Nick

This one is done as well. Cheers Nick

I am calling this one done. A few quick photos with the iPhone. I will post RFI in a few weeks time as I have a two year old shadowing me all over, especially in my modelling room. Cheers Nick

Thanks Max and Alain All the painting done. Now only for decals. The Silhouette worked great for the markings and surprisingly well for the dashed lines on the wings. Cheers Nick

Eventually got some paint onto this one. Maybe I can still make the deadline. Cheers Nick

This one is RL Cheers Nick

Thanks for all the advice. The thing that worries me is the surface of the kit was not smooth but with very small pebbles, so these were sanded smooth with micro mesh. This should at lest have removed the mould release agents. Some more trouble in paradise. The A-4H only had an angle of attack vane on the port side but Trumpeter has put one on the starboard side as well. My fault for not spotting this mistake earlier. Now it needs removal and touching ip. So Trumpeter has dropped the ball again just short of the try line. Here Tamiya (in Green) shows how not to drop the ball short of the try line. Cheers Nick

Hi John Thanks for posting. It is incredible how computers and flight sims have evolved. Back in the day I remember flying a combat sim which fitted on a 3 1/2 inch floppy drive and a computer with 640K memory, no hard drive and thinking its great fun. I wonder how many members still remember the Sinclair Spectrum and Commodore 64 computers. BTW if you want to visit a great scenic airport in the sim (or in person ) here is one. Cheers Nick

Ready to close the fuselage after painting the cockpit. I looked at the etched seat belts from the local hobby store but in 1/32 I find lead or foil belts are a bit more 3D. So etched buckles and foil and tape belts. Cheers Nick

After a lot of swearing due to frustration with the plastic of the kit I have done most of the painting of the main parts. The plastic seems to react with almost all solvents I tried to airbrush with. This is the same effect I had with the KH Mirage 2000. The Tamiya and Hasegawa kits took the same thinners and plastic combination without a problem. In the end I used Xtracolor and Tamiya enamel thinners but this seems to darken the colours somewhat. Any way it is done. Cheers Nick

I started to put paint on the A-4H. The roundels on the bottom wing worked OK. Not perfect but I will leave it like that. On the wing top surface I had to do reverse masking since the vortex generators are too close to the roundel. I will see how it ends up after I remove the mask when the main colours are on. Cheers Nick

Thanks for the info Mike. The thing that confused me was the reference to the shorter and longer fairing behind the ETC501 rack. Most profiles and drawings are not all that clear. The boxing of the A-5 I am using does have the ETC rack in but not the fairing. I robbed that from the A-5 Special Edition boxing where it is not required. The fact that the rack was moved forward on the A-8 is common knowledge but the different fairing lengths is not. The Hasegawa instructions are not clear at all. In the end the answer was staring me in the face. ( like most problems )I looked at the F-8 model of a few years back and Hasegawa got it right. Different fairings between the A-8/F-8 and the A-5/A-6. If only their instructions were clearer. I eventually figured the correct placement out and moved the rack 6.4 mm back from the F-8 position. Cheers Nick

Just a bit of background to choosing the subject. It is not often that a ground attack pilot scores an air to air kill, but during the last phases of the German withdrawal from the Crimea in the summer of 1943 Focke-Wulf 190 aircraft of II./SG 2 accounted for almost half of the 604 Soviet aircraft downed. Leutnant August Lambert claimed 90 of these kills. The profile of his aircraft. The only unknown in the build so far is the bomb rack and fairing. I liberated one from a A-8 kit as this boxing does not have the required sprue. The only reference I could readily find is that an the FW 190 A-8 and that was moved forward 200 mm. I suspect the fairing from the A-8 needs to be shortened on the A-5. Any input or drawings will be appreciated. Cheers Nick

Thanks for the interest gents. Small progress report. I am also doing the last of the F-14 bits and have started painting the Skyhawk. After an afternoon and evening all the large parts are off the sprues and cleaned up. You have to love these kits. They build as quick as a 1/48 kit but in 1/32. Cheers Nick