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Next build is this Hasegawa A6M5 Type 52 Zero Night Fighter (Kit no 08252). This kit will be built mostly OOB, with a few AM enhancements, and I will be using the kit decals to cut masks from for painting. (Scheme as per the box art) The aircraft will be built with a closed canopy - to show off the 20mm cannon that was installed in the rear part of the cockpit fuselage decking. Having an open canopy would hide the defining part of this aircraft - so I will not be going to town on the cockpit - it will be built OOB with nothing extra than some HGW belts. I have a HGW rivet set to throw at it, as well as Master brass barrels and Eduard wheels and CMK Bay doors. I also have an Eduard exterior detail that I bought for my Tamiya Zero (built) but never used it. Thought I might use it on this kit, but some measuring, looking at fit, etc later. I've decided against it as the design of this Tamiya-specific AM wouldn't work well. So the wheels wells remain as they are, and the flaps will remain up! The gear wells will do, perhaps a line or two will be added. So far I've snipped the major parts off the sprues, and completed the assembly work on some sub-assemblies. Most of it is only dry fitted at the moment, but parts like the cockpit assemblies are ready for paint Fuselage halves are only dry-fitted together, as well as the engine. It seems to go together pretty well!! I've drilled out the holes in the cylinders for the ignition wires, etc I made rivets on the rear cockpit decking, this was missing on the kit, but quite prominent on the real a/c. Will have to redo some of them methinks once I glue it all together The kit gear legs with the Eduard wheels and CMK doors. CMK only provides two support struts between the doors and the legs, should be three, so I'll have to SB another one, but that shouldn't take too long at all!

This is the 1/32nd Fly Hawker Hurricane Mk2C in the markings of "FM-E", of Flight Commander Gerald Stapmea Stapleton, DFC & Bar 257 (Burma) Sqn, RAF Honiley, March, 1942. The build thread can be found here. I've always loved the look of the cannon-equipped Hurricanes, very glad to have one in the collection at last. Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions and made comments during the build, much appreciated! Thanks for looking Iain

Greetings Here's the next one on the table - the 1/32nd Fly Hurricane Mk IIC. My first British LSP build.... This is a build where the last thing I bought was the actual kit...all the AM was bought quite some time ago I couldn't get hold of the standard 2C kit (the one with the NF markings), so I was forced to pick up the Sea Hurricane version.... Luckily, it's basically the same kit, but with a resin insert for the lower fuselage and hook, so I won't have to do any cutting and modifying there, but..... being the Sea version, it doesn't come with the Night Fighter decals or the exhaust shields that are included in the standard kit. The glare shields are easy enough to SB from brass sheet stock, and as for the decals/markings, I've seen a sheet for FM-E Flight Commander Gerald Stapmea Stapleton, DFC & Bar 257 (Burma) Sqn, RAF Honiley, March, 1942. The serial number of the aircraft is unknown. So that'll be pretty easy to design and sort out the markings on my Silhouette machine. A/c finished in "Night" and has standard sized insignia. Got a couple of extras to throw at it.... I'll probably end up using the resin barrels from Fly, the Master ones I bought a looooong time ago has the flat recoil springs, not 100% sure they're correct. Now I don't have ANY reference material for Hurricanes, so what info I get is going to be scoured from the net. And not having that reference is perhaps a good thing....I hopefully won't find any super-detailing/correcting rabbit-holes to fall down into So hopefully a pretty much OOB build this time. (that being said, having seen other builds of this kit, I know there might be a few fights with the kit) Here we go!

Finally, here's my Dragon 1/32 Bf110C-3 Night Fighter (modified from the C-7 kit). Build represents a/c 235-5, 235° Squadriglia, 60° Gruppo, 41° Stormo Intercettori at Lonate Pozzolo airbase, Spring 1943 Build thread can be found here Many thanks to all who helped along the way, but especially to John Vasco himself who guided me along the precarious tightrope regarding the subtleties in the variant differences of the Bf110. Quite a bit I would have been very unaware of and wouldn't have modded without his help. The C-3 is a very interesting beast to say the least. Thanks for looking...on to the next one! Iain

With my F6F5-N build on hold, I'm starting on the next one, which is the Dragon Bf110C-7 backdated to a C-3 variant, flown as a night fighter by the Italians. I can only guess that the Luftwaffe wouldn't have given them new machines.... My main source of reference is the fantastic book about the Bf110 by John Vasco and Fernando Estanislau. If you're building the 110 C, D or E, this is a must-have. Mg17 barrels will be replaced by brass ones from Master, and the colour scheme is from a set of decals I have from Owl. I'll make my own masks though on my Silhouette, using the decals as reference. I had a choice of schemes/decals to choose from, but the oddity of the scheme won me over.... For the cockpit I have the choice of Yahu panels, Eduard Panels or the kit panels. I will most likely end up going with the kit interior....the first two, although they're OK, just don't offer that 3D look of the plastic parts. I'll put some Airscale decals and placards on it, and it should look the part. That being said, I might use the Eduard throttle quadrant box details on top of that to spice up that portion. The Dragon Bf110 kit is getting harder and harder to find, which is a real pity, as they are a real gem of a kit. I have 6 of them already, as I plan to do a night fighter version of all the main variants - C (in progress), a D (built), E, F, G2 and G4. The detail on the kits is excellent - crisp moulding, awesome texture and the plastic is lovely to work with. The instructions themselves are dodgy at the best of times, but once you've figured them out, and in most cases deviated from them, it's plain sailing! To make the most of the tooling and moulds, I think Dragon based almost everything on the D/E variant, and then tooled details that would make building the C's possible. To convert this kit to a C, all I had to do was fill the cockpit fresh air vent just aft starboard (from E variant onwards) and fill the port aerial connection point on the fuselage (only C-2 and earlier had the twin aerials) According to my reference book, the changes between a C-7 variant as in the kit and the C3/4 were miniscule. Deleting the central bomb rack basically mods the C-7 to a C-4, and then between the C2, 3 and 4 there were differences in the radios, belly radio mast and whether or not it carried improved MG-FF/M cannons. But as some frames were retrofitted with different modifications, the sources state that it is almost impossible to externally tell the difference between a C3 and C4....makes life easier for this conversion though! So I have started with assembling some of the major components - some for test fitting, some for details - like the engines - (which will be concealed beneath cowlings) to the firewalls and gear bays. That gap forward of the horizontal stabilizer is meant to be there....the angle of the stab was adjustable. Test fit only to the fuselage, that's not glued either. The kit has had its Mg17's removed, but I managed to keep all the retention clasps for the guns as per the kit - so the Master barrels are a slide-fit into the nose. So no pointy bits to break off whilst handling the model, and they can be burnished towards the end of the build and inserted into the nose cap. So that's it for now! Hope you enjoy the process with me! Iain

Hello again Some more images taken, this time it's a FW190A-6/R11 of 6./NJG300. Hasegawa Fw190A-6 kit Eagleparts cockpit, spinner and prop, outboard cannon wing fairings, tail wheel set, main wheel/tyres EagleCals Fw190's JG300 Part 2 (used as reference for the major markings to cut masks, some decals used) Master Barrels and pitot set HGW seatbelts Quickboost Revi C/12D gunsights Owl Fug 217 antenna plus SB items AIMS Fw190 Oleo markings MDC Drop tank Landing light in the left wing leading edge SB. Now.....when I was building this kit, my references plus the riveting plans I was using showed the cannon fairings/bulges on top of the wings. I was told just after I laid the paint scheme down that the A-6 didn't have them. So disclaimer - I've probably messed up . I wasn't going to destroy everything to take them off. It is what it is. Paint is Gunze Laquers - RLM74/75/76 scheme, with the 74/75 misted over with 76 to reduce contrast. Thanks for looking Iain

Revells new night Schwalbe. Unfortunately it is not a "shake and bake" kit. Panels near the radiooperator seat requires work to fit into cockpit sides. All plastic parts needs a little bit of cleaning before gluing, not everything fits nice. Instrument panel should be lower to not interfere with front part of canopy. Clear parts must be polished because of nasty bubbles on the surface. Fortunately kit is a very nice (some say best) representation of Me-262. Additions: - Eduard interior and seatbelts. Mask for canopy. - Master FuG 218 Radar - Montex masks for Trumpeter kit (i don't recommend, size of numbers is wrong) I added some cables here and there and riveted surface. Pitot tube is made form syringe needles. I used Tamiya paints, Gunze Gun Chrome and C08 Silver, Alclad on droptanks, MIG rigging for antenna wire, oil paints and Tamiya weathering master set.