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So this will be my contribution to the Training Day theme. It will be a while before I have substantial work to show, as I need to finish my Zero first, AND I have an airliner kit that I may build in parallel. But I can definitely get it done before the end of February... It's not a complex kit in terms of the plastic, but there's the joy of biplane rigging to consider, as well as the opportunity to detail the engine... And then that color scheme. The kit provides several suggested monotone schemes, but who could resist that two-tone green camo OVER trainer orange? "Eye catching" to say the least. That will be an adventure in masking.

G'day everyone, @mozart asked if I'd post some pics of this build, so here are the pics I have! I'm on a bit of a trainer kick at the moment so when I saw this for a good price on internet auction site, I decided to add it to the collection. Typical short run kit, plastic is very carvable, with fine recessed panel detail oh, a small sheet of photo etched, injection molded clear canopies with pre-cut masks and a nice selection of paint schemes. The kit makes you work with lots of carving and cleaning up of parts, gaps to fill and lots of interesting fit issues to solve but overall a nice model of a rarely kitted aircraft. I'm not entirely sure how either plastic instrument panel, or the photo etched instrument panel are supposed to fit to the instrument panel coaming. I ended up chopping up the photo etched panel and modifying the plastic panel to suit the coaming. Denzil

Coming sometime in the future to a magazine (hence only one photo - sorry, no more or I'll be in trouble with the Editor), here's my rendition of the Italeri two-seat Starfighter. The subject was an aircraft of 31 (Tiger) Sqn, Belgian AF, 1983. The tip tanks were used for the 1983 NATO Tiger meet, just before Belgium finally retired the F-104. Decals by DACO, intake covers & chocks by Video Aviation, pitot by Master, and RBF tags by HGW. Thanks for looking.

Hello ! At the moment i try to finish the most old builds possible. This one has not been started a very longtime ago (last spring), but now it's done, too. It the nice Revell G-6 kit, with the Alleycat resin G-12 conversion, the G-6 correcting and detailing set (with propeller, exhausts, ailerons...) and a G-4 set (to get the G-4 engine cowling and early wheels). In fact i dont really know if the aircraft i'm depicting was really based on a G-4, but too bad. Anyway, there is only one picture available as far as know. The build was very fun and without any major difficulties. Fitting the canopies was not very easy, but doable. The fuselage conversion needed a few adjustments but with some patience and some putty, it worked like a charm. The front cockpit is OOB and the rear one is what is inside the Alleycat conversion without any major modification, as it seemed acurate to me (at least with the very few pictures available). The only modification i did were the rear front office (i reshaped the upper instrument box) and the rear bulkhead as this part was not acurate in my opinion, though. Otherwise, i just added two RB seat belts sets, and an Aires gunsight. For the canopies i added some brass sheet rectangle to make the hinges and scratch built the small rods. Regarding the paintjob, the RLM76 was painted with AK paint. It was the first time i used them, and i was a bit surprised, and not really happy with it. I was absolutely unable to spray small details (for the motling) as i can do without any problem with the gunze paints i'm used to. I must be me as many of LSP members here use the AK paint and are very happy with it. For the RLM74 and 75, i used my usual Gunze paints, as the colors seemed better to me, and at least i could control the spray. Every marking were painted with custom masks. The markings for this specific aircraft were included in the Alleycat set, but the 512 was supplied in yellow and black or white and red. The final process was the weathering. I used various AK and Mig washes and filters, and added some black pigments around the exhaust staining and some dust on the belly and wheels. I know my choice for the red lower engine cowling may be a bit surprising and appear weird as it's very unusual in the Luftwaffe schemes. But this profile doesn't seem so incoherent when one changes it in B&W and compares it with the period picture. It may be fictionnal, it may be not. Nobody knows. And it was a training unit, so everything is possible. Anyway, i think these colors are a nice change in the usual LW schemes. To sum up, it was a funny build, sometimes a bit longer (longer than a usual Bf109 build), but very interesting. I really love the look of the 109 with that long greenhouse lookalike canopy. A very nice addition in a Bf109 collection. Here is the link to the WIP thread : http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=61745 Hope you like it ! The final process was the weathering. I used various AK and Mig washes and filters, and added some black pigments around the exhaust staining and some dust on the belly and wheels.