TimW

There's a lot of good "survey" level history about WWI out there if you are interested. Will fill in the gaps about who did what and when. Can be useful as context for whatever building project you are doing. The war started ostensibly as a conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, but Germany, Russia and France were all involved very quickly thanks to treaties and alliances--the UK too. Russia did not leave the war until October 1917--the US declared war in April 1917, but didn't get substantial numbers of troops in the field until late 1918. This makes the US Air Service interesting

Hey, thanks! That is some great info I did not have. I do plan to treat the decal sheet, or at least do a test with one of the ones I don't plan to use. I have not cut the wings yet--but was going to do the extension removal per some Cutting Edge (I think) instructions I have. When I get back to this, I'll definitely be talking to you--I would like to get this one right! Cheers, Tim W.

Right now, I plan on using the SAAF decals that came with the Hasegawa kit originally. One of the No. 2 Squadron aircraft, with "She" written on the nose. Despite the age of the kit, the decals are in very nice shape. I may steal the yellow ID band decals from the Kinetic kit (I have that also). We'll see how it goes. Tackling the engine right now--I don't plan on having the aircraft "opened up," so not too worried about the details on that. Cheers, Tim W

Some shots. And back story. I first got this kit when I was in Junior High school--an expensive proposition back then. And of course I gooned it up--got some glue on the canopy (that required special skill!). So now, some 40+ years later this is sort of an atonement build? Anyway. It's interesting how at the time this was considered to be the ultimate kit--but I'm finding the fit to be a bit suboptimal and it's requiring some work. Stole a piece from the Kinetic kit to help kludge together a decent gunsight set up. Instruments are AIrScale, on the Avionix instrument panel.

Glad to see you back! And building one of my favorite WWI aircraft! Looking great! I have the Copper State Nieu-17 Early and the Imperial Russian one. Great stuff! Tim W.

Interesting--so those are obviously post Korea, but that's just more options for the future (I also have a Mirage IIICZ in the stash and got some nice decals from SA that have better color than the Italieri kit ones. Cheers, Tim W.

I see there's another build thread on this kit. I'm doing it more OOB, apart from using the Avionix cockpit and some Eduard PE I got at some point. I wonder if somebody does additional markings for this squadron? Anyway. Pictures coming shortly. Still mostly working on the forward end, including the cockpit, which I almost mistakenly painted grey until I did a bit of research and saw the other thread here! Cheers, Tim W.

Oh, this is cool. I recently dug my Hasegawa F-86 out of the stash...and plan to do a SAAF as well! Will follow this with interest! Tim W.

Yes, good observation--I wanted to try my hand at pastel staining...I like how it came out. I can always wipe some of it off later. Definitely will do some comparative pics at some point! Cheers, Tim W.

Never say never! I had some major periods of despondency, especially during wing and engine nacelle assembly. Stalled for several months as a result. But I got there! If I can do it, anybody can...

Next to my 1/32 B-17G!

At least one rattle can of black...a jar of Valleo black...and two more og dark earth and green. I actually brush painted the upper surfaces. I got lazy!

A few more. Planned to do more detailing of the turrets, but ultimately I just wanted to finish this thing--did use some metal gun barrels, however.

This took a little over a year...but I finally beat it into submission. Added some Eduard PE (much of it not visible now, but whatever...kit has some fit issues, especially with the nacelles and some of the transparent parts...but I got there!