Pete63

A nice start, Kyrre..! Any progress..? I've taken up modelling again too - and indeed a Ju88 / 1:32 scale... A great aircraft..! It's the research that consumes most of the time nowadays..! Happy modeling..! Piet Bouma The Netherlands

Another super build, Chris! Keep up the good work..! Pete63

Dear Guttorm, Thank you very much for all your efforts of providing us with this extensive in-depth information. Great photography and thanks for all the time you took in explaining things to us about the Ju 88A-1..! Very much appreciated..! Many happy Ju88 works! Pete63 The Netherlands

Hi there! Sa is't al folle better, Jelle! ("This is much better, Jelle!" - in Frisian language...) You're getting the right touch there! This will come out as a fantastic Dora! Many happy landings! Pete63 The Netherlands (it Fean)

Klaus, Thanks again for sharing - I downloaded your pics immediately - because this He162 builds is really one of the most interesting builds on the entire internet..! I followed your progress and will repeat what I have said before - the remaining He162 aircraft in musea do not meet the high standards of your 1:32 scale model..! If the 1:1 scale examples would only have half that quality... Well, thanks for sharing your techniques and good luck on your next build, whatever that may be - we'll be looking forward to that..! Many happy landings! Piet (Pete63)

Jelle, By airbrushing over the vertical tail again with the light grey colour (RLM 76), you will be able to rescue this part of the aircraft again - it might even produce some different shades of this RLM 76, because some parts were already covered by the green colour... I think this will be a nice base colour onto which you can spray your new spots of green then. Try and airbrush these spots a bit bigger and when they are too big, simply re-correct them by spraying some light grey around and between these spots... You'll get a nice and soft effect - in some passes you'll have a nice mottling effect... The wings and fuselage seem quite okay - no major corrections needed there... The bubbles, are they blotches of salt covering silver paint - for simulating weathering effects of bare metal after sanding these bubbles away? Or were they not intended to be there? If the last thing is the case, then there's a simple way of correcting this - simply sand these parts of the fuselage flat and apply some new paint in these areas... This too will result in nice weathering effects... When you airbrush the exhaust stains, the very clean appearance of the light grey on the fuselage will also disappear... After experimenting with different shades of this light grey - spraying over the existing light grey camo, you'll obtain some more nice effects. (lighter grey over the panels themselves - darker grey over the panel lines). This is a sort of post-shading technique that can be used to correct lots of (unintended) mishaps that have occurred during airbrushing... (When you study the pictures of the aircraft you're modelling - you'll see where you can apply this technique...) I don't know if it helps, but I've had worse painting mishaps of which I have thought at first that these could not be corrected in a million years... After thinking of throwing away my entire model, I decided to put it aside for a while and try again later... In most cases I was airbrushing again one or two days later... After that you'll have a laugh about the things you worried about in the first case... In any case - you have come up with a great Fw 190 this far and you'll be able to show it to us in a day or so - and then it's probably looking better than any of my models..! So don't give up and show us your updated version! Many happy airbrushing! Piet Bouma The Netherlands

Radu, This Aradu, erm Arado... is really amazing! I think it's extremely good what you're producing here! The amount of details you are able to put into this model is fantastic! Keep up the great work! Piet Bouma The Netherlands

Lancman, This mosquito is quite amazing! Man, what a result! Keep up the great work - it's threads like these that make this site one of the best! Very informative! Have you thought of changing your name to "Mosquitoman", yet..? Many happy landings! Piet Bouma The Netherlands

Chris, Why don't you airbrush these roundels..? It is possible with some patience... (http://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/WW2/PietBouma/He162A-2/He162.html - see part 4 "airbrushing") This was my very first attempt at airbrushing these roundels, so I do think it's possible... If you use the right tools, you'll surely love the result - it's nicer than using decals, I think... You don't have to worry about 'silvering of the decals' (you'll get other worries...)... Many happy landings! Piet Bouma The Netherlands

Derek, You can have my pics too... Just let me know (via PM)... Many happy (moonlight) landings! Piet Bouma The Netherlands

Ah, the Lizzie... I specially visited Old Warden (Shuttleworth Collection) to have a closer look at the Lysander and take some detailed pictures of the aircraft there. They painted it all black to depict "MA-B" the Lysander Peter Vaughan-Fowler flew many nocturnal missions in during moon-lit periods that lasted for around two weeks (starting from one week before full moon to one week after...)... (It unfortunately lacks the extra oil tank fiited on top of the fuel tank behind the pilot - which is typical for SD-versions...) If I may recommend a very intriguing book about these Special Duties missions: "They landed by Moonlight", written by the late Hugh Verity who was Squadron Commander of 161 Sqn (RAF Tempsford) during a considerable period of the war. In his book he used material that had been secret / classified during some 50 years after the war... This greatly adds to his own memories and transforms the book into a valuable time documant that gives a rare insight into these SD operations... In his book it turns out that some very important French passengers are on the list of passengers that were taken to England for their special training after which they were dropped off in France again... Francois Mitterand was one of them and so was Jean Moulin, probably the best known hero of the French Resistance... The barn to which they took their secret passengers is still there at RAF Tempsford - a fitting memorial to all involved..! I for sure will build a Lysander in 1:32 scale..! Why? Read the book and you'll know why... I'll be following this build with great interest! So, if you need any pics / info, let me know. I'm glad to help you out... Many happy landings! (The Lysander guys only had three torches available during landing; torches lit on the ground in an inverted L-shaped pattern - in occupied countries, that is...) Piet Bouma The Netherlands

Hi Jack! Fijn dat je weer..., erm oops! I'll start again; Glad to see you're back in business..! The Kingfisher is a very attractive aircraft - I'll look forward to more in progress pics! Are you contemplating a water diorama..? Vallejo has some nice "still water", which can be poured straight from the bottle onto your diorama base..! (Vallejo 26230 - aquas tranquilas/still water - they even sell it in Leeuwarden, by the way...) Many happy (water?) landings! Piet Bouma The Netherlands (P.S. I'm doing lots of 1:1 scale modelling at the moment - building a new extension to our house...)

Hi Chris! Please ignore? Please ignore? I tried, but I can't... I simply like one-oh-nines and I like the way you're working on this bird too! Great job, mate! Many happy landings! Piet Bouma The Netherlands

Hi Dave, This is going to be an awesome D-11 ! Steve's conversion set is very good too..! I'll be watching this build with great interest! Keep up the good work and good luck during the airbrush stage! Many happy landings! Piet Bouma The Netherlands

Hi, Hacker! Good luck on your Ta 152 project..! Glad to see someone's going to build one of these beauties again! Lots of difficulties to be overcome, but it sure is great fun..! I have attempted to make one in 2004 and I have never been satisfied with the way the nose turned out... There are a lot of pictures / photographs to be found on the internet, but when it comes to the exact shape of the nose... My 152 nose came out too round near the canopy - I have corrected the part some time ago; now it looks (a bit) better, that is much flatter on top, so a pilot's view wouldn't be obstructed by the bulge (which is in alot of drawings, but is wrong)... This is what my Ta 152H-0 looks like now: I had to redo the paint job around the nose, which I will have to redo some time later - it's a bit too smokey, if you see what I mean... The wheels of the landing gear should also have the larger format (watch out!), that is larger than those of a Fw 190-D, that is. This was necessary in order to be able to carry the larger weight of the Ta 152H... Mine could also do with new props (shape is close, but not correct), but I think I'll eagerly wait for an injection model in 1:32, if that ever comes... Anyway, I have lots of info on the Ta, including Dietmar Hermann's excellent book - which is a must for every Ta 152 fan... Let me know if you're looking for a specific item or photograph... Good luck on your project, which is massive - I can assure you! If you take a look at my article here on LSP (someone mentioned the URL earlier somewhere in this thread), you might find out lot's of do's and probably even more don'ts... I wouldn't go for the ribs in the wings again, but would probably do something with longer beams running from one end of the wing to the other, in order to come up with the right shape... That's probably an easier way of constructing the wing... Mind you, the frontal view of the wing should run in a straight line from root to tip. Not like any of the 1:48 models around... The wing seen from the rear shows a straight line from the root to a point of the wing just after the massive flap. From that point on it runs straight to the tip again. If you draw a straight line from tip to root, you will find that the (sort of 'mid-point') point near the flap is just a bit above this drawn line... I missed out on this one in my model, but at that moment I didn't have enough info yet, I guess... Best of luck and by the way, which Ta are you going to build? A Ta 152H-0 or a Ta 152H-1..? I'll be watching this with great interest and hope you'll build a better Ta than I did! Many Happy Landings! Piet Bouma The Netherlands