Andrea Ferrari

Thanks! But yet again, that is a manufacturer's interpretation...what I'm wondering about is, are there any official Sukhoi templates for camouflage? We have them for Luftwaffe planes from WWII, there must be an official Soviet document on the application of camouflage somewhere...

Sorry, my fault - a typo, yes, Su-25

Is there a reliable Soviet camouflage pattern for the Su-25 Frogfoot A available somewhere? I'm building "red 10", a plane from the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and I've been looking on the Internet but found only endless variations, and I do not trust as usual the color guide of Trumpeter's 1/32 kit. All the planes I've seen seem to sport different schemes, all obviously from the factory and using the same colors. I have the right colors - I'm just unsure about the pattern!

Keep in mind that if you fit all the parts provided for the Airfix 1/24 Fw190 engine you'll end up with the propeller, spinner and engine fan protruding about 5mm from the cowling, which is visibly incorrect. If you want it to look right you'll have to file/sand away the equivalent from some of the mating surfaces of the engine parts or just throw away one of them since none of that will be visible with a closed cowling.

Would absolutely love to see these produced for the HobbyBoss 1/18 Fw190s and their upcoming Me262!

Great news

Exactly . But since there's very little or no aftermarket decals for 1/24 Luftwaffe subjects being offered currently, one has to do with a little ingenuity - I usually end up with a mix of kit decals (or parts of them!), old spares from Eagle Strike sets (beautiful!), masking and even some delicate hand painting occasionally...

Have always been able to save the day doing what you say, but somehow the trick doesn't seem to work with Trumpeter decals! I don't think I'm alone in this as I've been hearing the same from quite a few people - once Trumpeter decals have folded, it's game over. Maybe their adhesive is too strong, or the decals too thin, or a combination of both? I have tried everything from toothpicks to scalpel blades tips - not to mention fine-point brushes, obviously - but it seems impossible to rectify the decal corner once it's folded. However, adding a clear coat on top of the decal sheet before committing seems to have solved that, as I said.

If I may chime in, I always get the jitters when I have to apply decals done by Trumpeter, especially in 1/24. Not only their research is rather atrocious (WWII Luftwaffe are usually wrong - wrong sizes, wrong proportions, wrong colors, stencils wrong spelling etc), but very often their large scale decals disintegrate in a myriad of splinters when being soaked or fold upon themselves when being applied. This has happened to me on a number of occasions with brand new kits, and it can really spoil a nicely built and painted model. I saw no difference when using warm water as suggested by several modelers, but found the perfect solution by airbrushing a thin coat of water-based acrylic transparent gloss coat on the decal sheet and letting it dry for a day before using it. After this process one has to cut very close to the decal itself using a sharp scalpel before soaking, but I have had no more problems ever applying my decals after this treatment, and decals are still extremely responsive to setting solutions.

Kudos to the Trumpeter & HobbyBoss spare parts service team - I just received the spare 1/18 Fw190 cockpit canopy I requested in less than two weeks and at no cost except shipping. Wonderful!

Yes, the B has all the good and bad points of the 1/32 kit. Remember Trumpeter basically pantographs their kits from 1/32 to 1/24 without changing anything, so whatever good or bad is in their 1/32 kits will be present in their 1/24 ones too. They screwed the rear fuselage of the D-5 and G-2 versions up when they added an extra section for the EZ6 direction-finding unit dorsal antenna just like that, without worrying about lengthening the fuselage - I believe the same mistake is present in the 1/32 kit too, but of course it's less noticeable there.

I have compared images of the Trumpeter and Airfix 1/24 Ju87 Bs and both fuselages appear to be of the same length (ie the Trumpeter B does not seem to suffer from the 3cm stretching of the rear fuselage shown by their D).

Thank you for the link! I was already familiar with those photos, it looks like they really are the only ones available of WkNr 494193. And none of them clearly depicts the undersides of the wings, sadly...I imagine some educated guesswork is needed here

Has anybody ever seen a clear photo of the underwing Balkenkreuzen worn by Rudel's Ju87 G-2 Kanonenboot, WkNr 494193, possibly his most famous mount? I am asking because I have noticed that most if not all late-war G-2 Kanonenbooten wear oversized underwing crosses spanning the full wing chord and without the usual black outer trim (see Rudel's last mount, Ju87 G-2 WkNr 494110 - the oversized cross without black borders is very noticeable in photographs of the wrecked plane). So - does anybody know if WkNr 494193 wore the regular version of the cross or the oversized one without the black border? And since we are at it - does anybody know if Rudel's last mount, WkNr 494110, the one he surrendered in, wore yellow lower wing tips besides the wing yellow "V"? (WkNr 494193 did - those, and a yellow rear fuselage band, which WkNr 494110 instead did not have). Currently working on Trumpeter's 1/24 Ju87 G-2.

SM79 in 1:32? YES please!