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hi all, having seen new Furie's discussion with his YAK-9, I can't help but open this discussion! in fact, having stopped since this summer, I wanted a relatively simple kit to get back to grips with, and I was thinking of starting the Special Hobby YAK-3 with the colors of the Normndie Niemen group, except that this started a spiral of meaningless complications: I didn't find the version with the French decals, nor the decals alone, so I started working on a customized decal sheet to remedy this, but I wasn't satisfied. then I started to study the possibility of getting a cutting plotter, which I finally did, it arrived a couple of days ago. but now I have to learn to use it.. and now the styrene is moving further and further away! so, I decided to make this kit as Soviet using the box's decal, wich are cartograf, by the way, and peace. obviously having had it for a while I saved up a bit of aftermarket: and some documentation, of course. searching on the books and the web, i found that the kit has some bugs and shortcut, so I took into account a series of modifications to make: obviously opening the seat of the flaps, having the Eduard ones to install. then open the coolant radiator flap, and perhaps also the two oil radiators. modify the wing root vents, completely wrong in the kit. and then the canonical ones: improving the Cockpit, the undercarriage compartments, the muzzles of the weapons, etc. and thank goodness it was supposed to be a simple kit to get back to grips with and get back into the mood... I started with the front air intakes, the most unpleasant problem, it seems to me. looking at the photos and then the drawings it is clear that these are not angled, almost parallel to the contiguous part of the wing leading edge, but almost orthogonal with the fuselage. here perhaps you can understand better, having only cut the upper part. essentially it involves bringing the mouths of the air intakes to an angle of around 15° and so far we are. now it's a matter of thinning the edges in the thickness of the material, and reconstructing at least the initial part of the internal ducts. since I was a low butcher I immediately opened the radiator flap. as you can see, the kit includes significant thicknesses of the material. here I started to thin the left wall (at the top of the photo) so that I could then reinstall the flap in a believable way. and here is also the seat of the flaps open and ready to welcome the PE. I have to decide whether to open the two little oil radiator flaps, which are rather inconvenient, and the ailerons, I would save it if I could. and that's enough for today, in the next few I think I'll work on the landing gear wells so I can glue the two valves of the wing. cheers, Paolo

Ok, even though I have several Works in Progress I will be starting another. 1:32 F-103. In the last couple of weeks I have been exchanging emails with Chad Summers. We share an affliction/passion for 3d printed aircraft. While sharing emails Chad showed me some of his work on the F-103. He has graciously shared his files and I have begun printing out parts. This is a work in progress as Chad continues to add details and more parts to the design. I will send Chad any comments of possible improvements to his design. Chad is a gifted and passionate designer, I don't expect to really add anything of consequence to the project. Chad has his own facebook page "Flying S Models" Here is Chad"s overall design. So I have begun printing and gluing. Tons o fun. Nose cone. Cockpit section with forward missile bay. 3rd fuselage section. Cockpit and 3rd section glued and clamped. Quite a start to a unique and enormous model. Stay tuned. Dan

Here we go again. I will try to enhance this kit with the Aires detail set that would be perfect, if only it fit properly! I want to build A-4E Bu151059 on its later time. Based on what I have found about it, the plane was repainted, from its first Adversary camo, between 1989-1990, in which the Sand FS 33531 and Brown FS 30219 were inverted. I have no clue why. The fuselage and wings stars, went from grey to brown on the inside part. Photographs suggest that, at least initially, the Adversary red star on the vertical plane, changed to a North Korea star representation, while the left side kept the red star. By late 1991, both sides had the N. Korea star. If anyone knows something about Red 32, please let me know. This is how it looked in May of 1989. Note the camo pattern, not hollow grey stars and the vertical plane adversary red star. Freshly repainted between 1989-1990 with inverted camo pattern, hollow grey stars and N Korea marking on the right vertical. This picture from June 1991, indicates weather wear and a replacement LH wing slat. Note that it still have the Adversary red star on the left vertical. This December of 1991 picture shows the N Korean star representation on the left vertical. This picture of December 1992 shows what it appears to be the beginning of the sad ending for A-4E Bu 151059, my favorite looking Scooter. So far this is what I have done: I read a review about the terrible fitting of the Aires resin wheel wells, I’ll let you know tomorrow. Now, the wings have the “step” that the 1/48 Hasegawa A-4 have at the wing slat area, I fixed by cutting it and with patched it with plastic strips. I’ll finish them tonight. so far so good.

Ok I couldn't resist any longer..Im in! Ive wanted to build this kit for a while and there are a bunch of great markings so this group build is the perfect excuse. First impressions are its no Tamiya Mosquito, but then again it is 1/3 the price. You do get lots for your money, the cockpit is lovely and i think it will build up into a very impressive model. i have made a start and built the cockpit which is now ready for paint. i have also decided to modify the kit a little, the kit has no engines but i have decided to graft a resin one onto one wing. its not exactly the right engine but looks sufficiently like a jumo 211 to be good enough when I've finished...I hope! Cheers Matt