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61 AUGUST/SEPT 2015 • £6.50 UK $15.99
MENG AIR MODELLER
AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2015
www.mengafvmodeller.com
FRESH Focke Wulf
F-8 WE BUILD REVELL’S NEW 190
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AIR 61 Aug- Sept 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/07/2015 16:34 Page 1
CONTENTS 2
Lancaster Revell’s 1:72 Lancaster modelled by Grega Krizman.
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IRIAF Mig-29 Periklis Salessiotis builds the 1:48 Eduard kit in Iranian markings.
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“Fresh Werke” Focke Wulf The Editor builds the new Revell 1:32 Fw-190 F-8.
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Fouga Magister CM. 170 R The Wingman Super-kit modelled by Olivier Soulleys.
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Unluckey Thirteen Luc Janssen crash lands Eduard’s 1:32 Bf 109 E-7.
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Air Born New releases.
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Super Scooter Daniel Zamarbide describes how he built the veteran 1:32 Hasegawa Skyhawk
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Lancaster Grega Krizman builds the 1:72 Revell kit
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T
he Avro Lancaster is definitely the most famous RAF heavy bomber of World War Two. Born out of the failed
Manchester design, it became the most successful night bomber of WW2. A total of 7.377 Lancaster were built, sadly, almost half of them were lost in combat, but we all know the history of this great plane, so let’s move on. I’m not the only modeller who has a problem with lack of display storage for my built kits, so quarter scale Lancaster was out of the question. Then I found the 1:72 scale Revell kit at a local show for a great price, and I couldn’t resist the urge to build Lancaster anymore. The kit itself is really nice, but as with any other kits on the market, it has its flaws. The most prominent is the lack of wing dihedral and the really strange-looking radiator intakes. Other than that, the kit looked promising. A lot of aftermarket goodies are normally used for my projects, but this time I decided to use as little as possible. Quickboost browning barrels and air intakes and Brassin wheels were thrown in the box, but do yourself a favour and get some Eduard masks as well!
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Interior The interior looks really nice and pretty well detailed already, but some lead wiring and styrene was added to make it look busier. I didn’t bother too much with detailing as not much is visible once the fuselage is glued together. The cockpit was sprayed with Gunze Tire Black and WEM RAF Interior Light Green; dry brushed and weathered using raw umber oil wash and pastels. To complete it some knobs and switches were picked out with Vallejo colours and seatbelts made from masking tape were added. With the interior completed, the fuselage halves were glued together. Seams were filled with mix of superglue and baking powder and sanded smooth. Superglue sets hard and doesn’t shrink, and the added baking powder makes sanding easier so that you will never see that fuselage seam again.
Operation wings As mentioned already, one of the biggest flaws of this kit is nonexistent wing dihedral. Fortunately this can be corrected easily. All You need is a saw, some 0.5 mm styrene sheet, 4
filler and of course, a good set of plans. After some careful
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cutting and sanding, the task was completed. Encouraged with the success of that fix, I decided to make flaps as well from thin 0.2mm styrene sheet and 0.8mm rod. It took me a couple of evenings to complete them, but they look better than PE parts to me and they add some interesting detail to the completed model. Wheel bays also received some detailing, Oil tanks, wiring and some hydraulic lines were scratch built. The other problem that has to be fixed is really odd looking engine radiator intakes. They are much too square-shaped, and since there is no aftermarket available to fix this, the only way was to make a master and cast them in resin. A piece of fine mesh from Aber was also added to the grilles to make them more realistic. Some panel lines on the wings, which were incorrect, were filled with Mr. Surfacer 500 and sanded smooth.
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Turrets and transparencies Kit clear parts are really nice and transparent, but they were dipped in Future anyway and left to dry overnight. Masking with Eduard masks was piece of cake, and I can’t really think about the pain it would cause me if I had to do this the old fashioned way. When test fitting turret assemblies I was disappointed with lack of detail, as the turrets are made out of 2 parts only. I’ve tried to replicate some internal details with styrene and lead wires to make them look busier. Quickboost barrels were painted black, weathered with MIG metallic pigment and left to be attached at the end of the build.
Engraving and riveting Don’t really know what got into me, but before mating the wings to the fuselage, the decision had been made to rivet and rescribe this beast. Before riveting, I always apply a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000 over the plastic. It makes riveting somehow easier, because the plastic is a bit softer and it is much easier to see the rivet lines (and mistakes as well). With trusty RB Riveter, roll of 3M vinyl masking tape and plenty of patience, a good week later, the rivets were done. Engraving was done with a CMK saw. The surface was then worked over with micromesh polishing cloths in order to reduce the ridges of the rivets before another coat of surfacer was sprayed.
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Painting With all the major components corrected and primed, it was time for my favourite part of model making. Gunze paints were used thoroughly, thinned with Mr. Color Levelling thinner. For the upper surfaces, H73 Dark Green and H72 Dark earth were used. First, I airbrushed each one straight from the jar, but the second stage was mixing really diluted base colours with a light shade of grey and airbrushed through 0.15 mm nozzle really lightly over each center of the rivet lines to create faded effect (and I hoped some illusion of stressed metal as well). As for the lower camouflage, night black was suggested, but I opted for Gunze H66 Tire black as a base colour. This time two lighter shades were mixed (use light grey, not white) used again in the same manner as on the upper camouflage.
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Decals and markings Gunze paints dry with a really nice satin finish so there is no need to
conformed to the surface with a little help of Microset without any
gloss coat a model prior to decaling. Having a really soft spot for
problems. Unfortunately Kits World decals don’t come with roundels
ladies on the planes, the choice of markings was really difficult, as
or stencils, so I used some from a Techmod set, and I had to paint
many Lancaster bombers were decorated with some beautiful nose
the upper wing roundels (I guessed the correct paint tone mixtures).
art. In the end, I decided to dress up my Lanc with great looking 424
Decaling done, the model received a couple of thin coats of Mr.
(Tiger) Squadron 'Victorious Virgin' markings, printed by Kits World
Color 181 semi gloss clear coat. And finally, wings were glued to the
decals. Decals are super thin, perfectly printed and they
fuselage.
Weathering Weathering began with filters. Filters break the uniformity of paint, add depth and soften the transition between camouflage colours. I mixed my own filters (dark green and brown) using enamel paint and thinner (1:10 ratio – anything more and you will end up with wash). After the filters were dry, Washes followed. I tried AMMO weathering set (7416) for the first time, and I was blown away with how easy and effective those washes are. Especially stone grey wash for black did a great job on the black undersurfaces. The key to successful effect is to dampen the area with turpentine (mild one) before applying the wash and then about 10 minutes later, remove the excess with soft brush moistened with clean turpentine. Exhaust streaks were done using really thinned black brown, buff and light grey. Finally walkways were stained with black grey oil paints applied with scuffed sponge. Then everything was sealed with a coat of Mr. Color Semi gloss clear coat. 8
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Final assembly and base All that was left to do was the assembly of the small parts; gear legs, gear bay covers, propellers, antennas and turrets, which were all painted separately. At the last moment I decided to load the bomb bay, and that’s where Airfix Bomber Resupply Set came in handy. SBC containers and MC Bombs were painted, weathered and placed into the bomb bay. Cookie bomb and trolley was also built to be placed on the base, which was a straightforward job, a piece of MDF board painted black, on top of which the superbly printed airfield base from NOY miniatures was glued on.
Honestly, I thought that this would be an easy build, and as many times before, I was wrong. But I enjoyed every moment building this iconic plane. It builds great out of the box, but if you decide to go that extra mile, it will build into a gem.
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IRIAF Mig-29 Periklis Salessiotis The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) came into existence in the early 1980’s when the previous Imperial Iranian Air Force was renamed. The Mig-29 or Fulcrum as it is called in the West entered service with the Iranian air force in the late 80s after the end of the Iran–Iraq War in an attempt to partially rebuild the IRIAF through limited purchases of ex-Soviet Union aircraft. These aircrafts flew alongside American F-4s and F-14s as it was not the intension to replace them during the rebuild. The MiG-29 developed during the 1970s by the Mikoyan design bureau is a fourth-generation jet fighter aircraft designed to counter new American fighters such as the F-15s and F-16s. It entered service with the Soviet Air Force in 1983-84. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact nations, many MiG-29s became the frontline fighter of the new Russian States.
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builds the 1:48 Eduard kit
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Original thoughts The plan was to do a straight out of the
plus a single tree of clear parts for the
box built focusing more on the external
canopy and windscreen. Detailing is finely
appearance of the plane rather than
scribed and there is no sign of flash or
adding much detail. The Mig-29 has been
other molding problems in this release.
released a number of times by Academy
The kit comes with a number of resin parts
and up until the introduction of the new
for the cockpit and seat and two frets of
Great Wall Hobby MiG-29 it was the best
photoetch with one coloured for the
kit in 1:48 scale. Saying that, the kit has a
cockpit details and one for external and
number of issues that many hard core
canopy details.
Mig-29 lovers can point out but the only
Having seen a number of builds on the
alternative was Monogram's 1:48 MiG-29
internet I was aware of all the problems
which had even more issues!
with the (ex-Academy) kit comes with and
Now Eduard have come along and taken
decided to deviate from the instructions
the Academy MiG-29A and added their
sequence. One extra item I added was the
unique twist providing a more interesting
superb Quick Boost replacement nose,
new option. The kit is moulded in light grey styrene and presented on six parts trees
and its on with the build.
Office
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Landing Gear & intake
As always construction began with the
used which after the usual washes and
There was no major reconstruction for the
cockpit area and Eduard have provided a
light dry brushing was close enough to the
landing gear and the wheels. The kit allows
replacement cockpit tub in resin with PE
colours of the pre-painted photoetch.
the modeller to add as much detail as
detail parts. Amazingly the resin parts are
All cockpit area parts were painted and
wanted but as this was intended to be as
a straight drop in fit and they do not
weathered separately and glued together
supplied, no further detail was added to
require any sanding at all. A new set of
afterwards as it makes the painting
them. All parts were cleared of seem lines
rudder pedals is built up from resin and
session easier.
with the use of the knife by scraping them
PE, and a replacement instrument panel
The ejection seat comes in resin with
out and mounted on a piece of wood ready
laminated from the pre-painted PE parts is
coloured photoetch belts. It was painted
to be painted. All the gear parts received
provided. Using a pair of tweezers the
black and received a wash of light grey oil
two coats of Gunze H308 followed by two
numerous folds of the instrument panel
in order to enhance all the detail. Once
layers of varnish and after drying were
and radar cover were achieved. White glue
again white glue was used to glue all the
washed with thinned Black and Brown oil
was used for all the PE parts as it allows
belts, which receive a wash of black and
paint. The tyres were painted Tamiya NATO
you more time to adjust and move around
brown oil in order to tone done the bright
Black followed by light dry brush using light
the pieces. The electronics turtle deck
colours.
grey and the hubs Green.
comes in resin and replaces the kit part
A final coat of matt varnish was applied on
The intakes were glued in place with only
that lacks detail. Using a small modelling
all cockpit pieces. The cockpit tub was
minimum requirement for filler at the aft
saw the kit part was removed and plastic
secured in the fuselage with the use of
end of the intakes. In order to minimise the
card was glued to cover the whole and to
super glue and pieces of square plastic
gap between the intakes and the fuselage
provide extra gluing surface. Not being
sections for extra support and the ejection
thin spacer strips of plastic were glued
familiar with Russian fighter cockpit colours
seat was installed in the later stages of the
along the top of the intakes.
the paint codes provided by Eduard were
build.
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Fuselage
Wing loads
This is the part where I deviated from the
The plane was loaded with all the air-to-air
instructions. Instead of following the
missiles and fuel tank that come with the
instructions and gluing the top and bottom
kit. The fuel tank was detailed with the
half of the forward fuselage together and
addition of the APU at the bottom made
then with the aft half, the two top fuselage
out of thin metal sheet and a couple of
parts were glued together first. This way a
wires that run along it. Some missing
perfect fit was achieved on the top which
access panels were also scribed the same
is the first area anyone will see. The key for
time. All the missiles were painted white
a successful joint is to dry fit as many
and received a couple of coats of gloss
times as possible. Additionally any gaps
coat in preparation for the stencil decals.
(which were minor) were restricted to the
Eduard’s decals and stencils are superb
underside areas and easily covered with
and the minimum amount of decal fluids
plastic strips and super glue. All lost detail
was used to make them conform to the
was re-scribed using Tamiya scribers and
surfaces.
templates. At the same time a number of soft panel lines were enhanced with the scriber. To correct the kit nose the excellent Quick Boost replacement was used. It only required a minimum amount of sanding to align with the kit fuselage.
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Exhausts The plan was to present heavily worn and
was applied in light coats. The masking
used exhausts. Before painting began
was then reversed and the remaining
small amount detail was added on the
petals were dusted with light coats of clear
outer sides of the exhaust petals in the
yellow. Excessive chipping with Mithril
form of thin plastic strips. The first painting
Silver from the Games Workshop range
step was to apply a coat of gloss black on
was applied with a fine brush. Finally after
both exhausts followed by a coat of steel
a couple of days the exhaust received an
from the Gunze Mr Metal Color range for
oil paint wash of brown and black to tone
the petals and aluminium for the forward
down the chipping effect and bring all the
rings. After the exhausts were dry half of
colours together.
the petals were masked and clear blue
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Painting the Iranian camouflage! After all the major assemblies are glued
used:
together the aircraft was ready for painting,
H-53 Blue Grey
but not before a dash of filler and a light
H-27 Tan
sanding. The model received two light
The first colour to be applied was the Blue
coats of Tamiya XF-19 and any mistakes
Grey which was applied in two thin coats
were corrected at this stage.
(70-30 thinners-paint ratio) so as not to
The motto is: “The more dry fit at the early
lose the pre-shading effect. After the paint
stages the less filler and sanding at the
was dry white was added into the base
end”.
colours and a 90-10 (thinners-paint) ratio
The plane was pre-shaded with Tamiya
mixture was applied focusing in the centre
black in order to give a bit of depth to the
of the panels.
panel lines. For the Iranian camouflage,
Finally the Tan was applied the same way
which is a simple blue-grey and tan colour
as the grey, free hand and followed by post
scheme the following Gunze colors were
shading with a lighter tone again.
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IRIAF Mig-29 16
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The following day two coats of Johnson’s Klear were airbrushed over the model in preparation for decals and weathering. The IRIAF markings come with the Eduard kit and with decaling complete another coat of Klear was applied to protect the existing surface from the impending washes. The model received a thinned wash of Black and Brown oil mixed together, and finally, two coats of Satin varnish.
A highly recommended kit which with the addition of a correct nose and a bit of TLC can become a jewel in everybody’s cabinet.
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“f r e s h w e r k e”
Focke Wulf 1:32 Revell’s new Fw190 F-8 modelled by David Parker
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am by nature not a very adventurous
performed, making for something of a
of HGW’s excellent seat belts and a set of
modeller and I prefer to stick with my
‘fresh’ approach or ‘fresh werke’ if you will!
their revolutionary Wet Transfer generic Fw 190 markings which dispense with any
favourite tried and tested materials
rather than experimenting with new
I had for a long time wanted to try the
products. The release of Revell’s brand
HGW Wet Transfer rivet system and the
decal film.
new Fw190 however seemed like the
smooth Revell Focke looked like a good
Having picked an unusual bare metal
perfect opportunity for me not only to test
candidate. I selected the HGW set 321017
scheme I decided to use the new AK
drive the kit but also to add some new
which is designed for the Hasegawa
Interactive Xtreme Metal Aluminium paint
products into the project to see how they
Fw 190A/F-8 and which comes with a set
and teamed this with Mr. Paint acrylic
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Luftwaffe colours. These are another
very favourable with its excellent
new paint brand from Slovakia that I
surface detail, well detailed cockpit
was keen to try. I was a little
and optional canopies and underwing
apprehensive at trying out so many
stores. All the control surfaces are
fresh products ‘publicly’ but this only
separate but they have pegs that lock
served to add some excitement to a
into place so some adjustment or
fairly straight forward build.
bending of the pegs will be needed to get any movement in them. The
Revell’s F-8
exception is the flaps which have a
This is a completely new tooling
choice of raised or lowered versions.
release and my in the box review was
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Kicking off with the cockpit Construction begins with the cockpit which really is very good and although I could have reworked the moulded on throttle lever and thinned down the lip of the bucket seat in the end I just went with what was provided. I replaced the kit instrument dial decals with some more detailed MDC versions but with the instrument panel tucked so far back in the coving the detail is hardly visible. I assembled the HGW seat belts which are pre-coloured and laser cut fabric straps with photoetched buckles. They look great as they come but I dulled the rather reflective photoetched parts with Mr Metalcolor Chrome Silver and applied some oil paint washes to the fabric straps to give a more worn appearance. I had to check my references to see exactly where the belt straps were tethered and they were glued in place. Time to install the cockpit and I hit a few problems here. The kit instructions have
the cockpit coving glued into place and the cockpit tub is then to be fitted up from below into the assembled fuselage. Before doing this I test fitted the parts and found that I had a substantial gap between the coving and the fuselage. I could not determine what was causing the problem but by opening out the coving as much as I could and gluing the fuselage and cockpit working from the tail towards the nose I was able to get a reasonable if not perfect fit.
The well detailed wheel bays fit snugly and the complete lower wing is easily installed. The kit has been designed to allow the engine to be exposed but my intention was to have all the cowlings closed. The engine mount and nose MG mounts still have to be installed even if everything is closed up.
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The BMW radial engine is extremely well detailed just from the box and unless you plan to open the cowlings it demands nothing more. The exhaust pipes are also well designed with recessed outlets and I found them pleasingly easy to install and align. Given that the propeller fan blades hide most of the engine I simply gave it an overall coat of Alclad Semi Matt Aluminium. Later it was given a dark oil wash to pick out the details.
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2
3
Cowling construction
glue the engine on its mounts and fit the upper cowling, checking
There are 9 pieces that make up the cowlings and getting them to
that the exhausts are aligned with their outlets and that the upper
align correctly does as I feared take some effort. My attempt to do
cowlings blend with the rest of the fuselage. Some play in the
so following the kits assembly sequences were unsuccessful so
location of the engine is helpful in this. 3 Glue together the two
here is the approach that I used. 1 glue the pair of bulged side
lower cowlings and check them against the cowling ring. Now fit
sections to the fuselage, checking the width of the open ends by
the cowling ring. 4 Test fit the lower cowlings, some very slight
offering up the cowling ring to them. These parts have only a
trimming / clean up of the rear edges was needed to get a good
small contact area with the rest of the fuselage so careful
push fit which was then sealed with Mr Cement S. 5 Test fit the
alignment is critical. 2 Assemble the three upper cowling pieces
upper gun cover. I found that I needed to add a plastic brace
(parts 40, 42 & 43) using the cowling ring again to check that the
across the fuselage to spread the side walls for a better alignment
radius of them matches that of the cowling ring. When dry loosely
with the cover
4
5
The twin MG 131 barrels need some cleaning up and the muzzles were drilled out before they were installed. I had considered some aftermarket replacements but with just their tips showing the kit parts were more than adequate. The gun cover was then glued in place, followed by the windscreen to complete the main construction stage. On now to applying the HGW rivets.
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In preparation for the HGW rivets the model was primed with an
The HGW rivet system divides the rivets into manageable panels
airbrushed coat of Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500. This was then
which are treated like a conventional decal but with a clear cover
polished with sanding sponges and a soft cloth to have a smooth
film. The film is used to position the rivets and I applied so Mr Mark
surface for the natural metal finish.
softer to help them adhere.
I used a cotton bud as a squeegee to push any liquid out from
After two hours the clear film is peeled away leaving the tiny silver
under the clear film and the area was then left for two hours to dry.
rivets in place on the wing. Any glue mark residue can be cleaned
The Clear film adheres to the model like a decal when dry
away with water leaving a perfect finish.
Considering that the HGW set was not designed for the Revell kit everything fitted remarkably well. There were some small overlaps, the worst being around the underwing access panels above. I used a scalpel to carefully remove any stray rivets. The HGW set helpfully supplies plenty of spare lines of rivets and duplicates for the rivets for the circumference of the small oval inspection covers for example, making it easy to repair any mistakes. HGW provide a guide diagram showing the location of all the numbered decal segments. This is such a fantastic system - easy to use and gives without doubt the best scale rivet 22
appearance.
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Above A sponge was used to get an random application of paint on top of the aluminium to start to dull down the finish.
Getting Shiny I used the AK Interactive Xtreme Metal Aluminium straight from the bottle having first given it a good shake. It sprayed easily and covered very well. It behaved like a denser Alclad and dried quickly like Alclad too but gave me much better coverage. As you can see the finish is certainly very shiny! I wanted a more worn oxidised finish so I began applying a series of pale grey acrylic and oil paint washes over the exposed bare metal areas. Masking fluid was applied to the wing roots using a sponge.
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Mr. Paint Camouflage Mr. Paint says that it designed to airbrush and it does just what it says on the bottle! What a delight this paint was to work with. It sprayed perfectly with no blockages or spattering and it allowed me to freehand spray the wavy demarcation along the leading edge of the wing. I deliberately allowed some thinner areas where the underlying aluminium partly showed through around the wing roots for example. The paint has quite a strong cellulose content judging by the smell so I think a good primer is recommended. It dries quickly with a fantastic satin sheen that suited the subject perfectly. As well as the RLM 74/75 camouflage I painted the flaps, ailerons and centreline bomb rack in RLM 65 Hellblau, indicative of pre-painted parts from different manufacturers.
Removing the masking fluid from the wing roots gives a very harsh contrast that will need more work. I used fine Micromesh cloth to rub down the surrounding paint and give a more blended appearance. The cloth was also used to wipe the tops of the rivets to expose them.
Further small scratches and scuffs were added with a sharpened cocktail stick concentrating on areas of high maintenance like the cowlings and gun covers. I especially like the way the rivets are showing through the paint and its an effect that is
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entirely controllable.
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Wet Transfer Markings The HGW set comes with their unique Wet Transfer markings, providing all the generic national markings and assorted stencilling, walkways and the like. It did not provide the late pattern Balenkreuz for under the wings so I used the Revell decal for this. Like the rivets these are soaked in water to release the clear carrier film which is then applied to the model and handled in the same way as the rivets were. After two hours drying the film is peeled away leaving the markings which are free of any carrier film or problems with silvering. I did not varnish or prepare the surface before applying them. You can just make out the adhesive residue in the second picture but again wiping it over with a wet brush will clean this away. Its a stunningly simple and effective system. I had to make my own numbers for the fuselage by cutting masks with the rather ragged ‘3’ touched in with a brush.
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Somewhere along the way I managed to snap off the antenna post on top of the tail so I had to fashion a new one from plastic card.
With all the markings in position I was able to move on with weathering the airframe. The panel lines were pin washed in dark grey brown colours and on the camouflaged areas the panel lines were oversprayed with very diluted black to provide some subtle shading. Oil washes were applied to the upper wings and I added some muddy tones to the wing root area.
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The undercarriage was assembled from the box but I could not let myself off by ignoring the brake lines that run down the front edge of the undercarriage doors. I used 0.4mm lead wire for the thicker top and bottom sections with connectors made from sections of Albion Alloys aluminium tube. Copper wire was used to make the thinner connecting section. The placards on the undercarriage legs are generic dry rub placards from the Archer Fine Transfers range and would have been so much easier to apply if I had not already fitted the door covers to the legs! Exhaust stains were tackled next and I applied these using Com Art acrylic colours which can be reworked once applied. I studied the staining on the real aircraft which appeared to be quite restrained so I did the same. I worked over these areas to add some scuffs and clean areas on inspection covers, using a cocktail stick to remove the paint. The weapons were painted with Gunze Mr Metal color Dark Iron and I brush painted the red locking lines on the cowling clasps.
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Revell www.revell.de/en HGW Rivet and Wet Transfer Sets http://hgwmodels.cz AK Interactive Xtreme Metal paint www.ak-interactive.com Mr. Paint www.mrpaint.sk
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Revell obviously have plans for further Fw 190 releases judging by the way the kit has been designed and aside from some frustrations in assembling the cowlings the kit has an awful lot going for it, not least its great price. For me the HGW rivets really brought the model to life and I really hope HGW will expand their range of these sets. The new paints that I used performed brilliantly and I fully intend to use both on future projects.
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Fouga
Magister Olivier Soulleys describes his build of the Wingman Super-Kit
In the Wingman box we find the entire Kinetic kit (two full kits are included) and the following ingredients: - A set of about twenty resin parts including a complete cockpit, a set of wheels with weighted tires, air intakes and wing tips for the deletion of tip tanks. - A photoetched fret adding to the original elements, including instruments panel for both sides of the front and rear cockpit. (Note that the resin parts and photoetched supplement detail only one model, the other can be built as the standard Kinetic kit). - A beautiful mask set for the canopy and painting sheme template for the revised decals. The "Kabuki" paper is good, both the sharpness of the cut and the adhesive power. Wingman impressed me with a set of decals from Cartograf, beautifully printed, giving you a choice of twenty attractive schemes of which there are fifteen German aircraft, natural metal finish or camouflage and five other Irish options. A complete stencil sheet confirms some serious research work done by the staff of Wingman. The Wingman instruction sheet is provided for the additional parts and is actually cleaner and more accurate than the Kinetic one, including the proper positioning of small parts like the air scoop on the fuselage and the angle of landing gear doors. Finally, Wingman offer a small detail ‘photo file’ of real aircraft over four colour A4 sheets. This model from the "Superkit Series" is a limited edition of 500 kits.
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Busy cockpit
Overview of almost all the elements of the cockpit after painting. The basic colour is a matt black lightened with brown, the sharp edges of instrument panels were rubbed with SNJ aluminum powder.
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Work inside the cockpit starts by detailing
realistic. The radio block and its support
with the supplied decals. I dropped a small
the front and back instruments on the left
are made with a combination of resin parts
bead of white PVA glue on each of them to
side. Along with the photoetched parts, I
and photoetch from the kit on which I
suggest the glass. The connections from
added some small details with Evergreen
added electrical connections.
the rear instrument board are glued from
(rods and strips) and 0.23mm wire, I
The seats are a very basic shape, their
the back. These wires are fixed with
copied these from the photo leaflet
padded backrest was painted dark brown
cyanoacrylate in a fine drilled hole then
included in the kit. The throttles were also
and harness in medium blue. Both oxygen
painted grey with small touches of colour,
redone working from the photos. The main
hose are painted light green and washed
they add an incredible amount of realism
instrument panels received photoetched
with black to enhance the detail. The two
and interest to the cockpit.
features by copying the layout on the resin
oxygen bottles are detailed with wire,
With the rear instrument panel in place,
part which I decided not to use in favour of
photoetched taps and other small details
you must bend the cables down, they pass
my own scratchbuilt facias.
accented with bright colours. Not much
over the oxygen regulator and disappear
Both oxygen hoses were made with a
unfortunately remains visible once installed
behind the front seat.
section of guitar string, not easy to bend,
under the rear dashboard however!
but the appearance is very fine and
The two dashboards have simulated dials
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Slender airframe
After the usual dry-testing the fuselage
The right angle of the"V" tail is obtained by
The radio is installed inside the rear glass,
halves were assembled with extra thin
an insert in the rear of the fuselage. A
beware glue stains... The exemplary clarity
cement gradually starting from the top of
small quantity of glue on top between the
of the transparent parts allows the viewer
the fuselage to the rear end then up below
inserts set everything in an accurate
to appreciate the details inside but can
the nose. The remaining free space
position.
easily be spoilt with visible adhesive.
with small weights attached with white glue
It’s nice to have separated rudders in 1/48,
The canopies were fixed with xtra thin
to avoid a "tail sitter".
first, it allows a realistic stance with thinner
cement which can be used sparingly
You can have legitimate worries about the
trailing edges because the part is moulded
preventing any accidents. I found that
double curve joint between the wing and
in one piece, and on the other hand, it
there is an important filling job on the nose
the fuselage, but in fact it's accuraate, a
assists the different painting steps
and the junction of the air inlet to the
simple streak of extra thin cement along
especially in this case.
engine and fuselage. For that, I used the
between the floor and the fuselage is filled
the length with some tight pressure gives a
De LUXE brand Perfect Plastic Putty. This
perfect result without a gap to fill.
product is ideal for fine finishing work.
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Bare (metal) essentials
"Kabuki" tape masks are surgically precise and identical to the kit parts. Their arrangement on the sheet is a good example of logic, no chance of using the wrong piece. I systematically painted the canopy frames applying the interior colour from the outside and a subsequent layer of matt black prevents light from showing through.
More masking in preparation for the day-glo orange. A solid coat of flat white was applied as a base coat.
I applied a random mottling on the areas most exposed to daylight with an airbrush. The day- glo red is Prince August AIR 83 thinned in order to manage the right density of the colour and applying fine transparent coats.
With the day-glo masked it's time to apply a first coat of Tamiya TS30 from the spray can. Let the can stand in a bowl of hot water for several minutes, this helps the flow of the paint resulting in a smoother finish. This shade is applied in several thin layers. After a few retouched areas there were still visible some sanding marks, and total of three attempts were made before getting a near perfect surface.
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The base of faded day-glo is made with white mixed with light sand and progressively tinted with orange. This produces a perfect faded base effect as seen in the reference photos.
The underside of the aircraft was not as exposed to light, the reference photos showing a much stronger day-glo colour replicated by a heavier coverage of the red.
Several thin coats of Alclad Polished Aluminium were sprayed next and polished to a high gloss.
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My choice of decals came from a Max Decals sheet, this is a Finnish aircraft coded "FM-77". Aircraft assigned in this unit stationed in Kauhava (mid ‘60s) had the distinctive blue and white roundels without black border. FM-77 later received a badge on top of the front nose cover showing three silhouettes of birds on a blue background.
Some wear to the red paint at the mouth of the air intake was achieved by a ‘dabbing’ action with a small piece of packing foam and aluminium paint. This gives a random chipped and flaking effect.
When it comes to building an aircraft with
shines more it shows blemishes. Inevitably
those layers have dried, a uniform polishing
a natural metal finish we step into a
a multitude of polishing sessions and touch
with a soft cloth (such as spectacle
particular area of modelling... All our
ups are needed to obtain the required
cleaning cloth) provides a beautiful shine.
knowledge accumulated since starting the
result.
Subtle aluminium framework effects are
hobby comes into play. These finishes will
For the polishing of surfaces, there is a
obtained by rubbing the head of a cotton
show any tiny flaws in your preparation.
whole arsenal of very fine flexible files
swab on some panels of the fuselage and
Not being a fan of the glossy black under
similar to ‘Micro Mesh’ cloth that achieve a
the flow of air on the wing.
coat I like to work directly on a polished
smooth and shiny before painting.
The surfaces are then protected by a thin
plastic. This requires a particular and
This is when the surfaces received a basic
spayed coat of pure "Future" from Johnson.
careful sanding and polishing routine,
Tamiya TS30 coat, which, once polished,
This productis perfect to preserve Alclad
which can reveal defects once the
reveals the areas to be retouched. This
paints and moreover, this lacquered and
aluminum paint is applied. This same
method of successive retouching is used
smooth finish is perfect for decal
defects would be invisible under ‘military
until the surfaces reveal no defects. At that
application where we want the decal
matt’ colours but is amplified by the
time the kit receives several layers of
carrier film to disappear.
brilliance of your aluminum, the more it
Polished Aluminium from Alclad II. Once
Here the result after glossing by spraying unthinned Johnson Future
Everything can then be handled with no fear of fingerprints or damage to the delicate finish of the Alclad.
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This view shows how low this aircraft really sits. Note the natural appearance of the turning front wheel.
The yellow and black FOD are typical of the Finnish Air Force in the 1960s and 70s. Note the rocket pods.
The wide angle of the open canopies allows a good view of the cockpit details. The speed brakes are displayed in an open / testing position. The stencil decals provided are very comprehensive and detailed.
These Wingman ‘Super Kits’ make for a very enjoyable project. With all of the resin, photoetch and reference provided they are a true out-ofthe-box project for the serious modeller.
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Magister
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Eduard’s Bf 109E-7 takes a dive in the desert
Modelled and described by Luc Janssen figures by François Laloux After buying this magnificent kit from Eduard, I checked my books, magazines and the internet to look for ideas on how to display the model. On the internet site “Falcon's Messerschmitt Bf 109 Hanger” I found some interesting pictures of crashed Bf-109's and the decision to build a belly-landed Bf-109 E7 was quickly made! The idea was to represent the fighter crashed in the desert after being hit in the port radiator by ground fire. Two aircraft mechanics are preparing the recovery of the ‘109. 38
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Weekend 109
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The Bf 109E-7 Weekend Edition from
difficult (I completely forgot to take
landing, was simulated on the leading
Eduard is a superb kit with fine riveting and
photos!). I started by cutting a square of 2
edges of the wings. I heated these parts
detailed parts which assembled with
by 2 cm out of the port wing just above the
of the wings with a hair dryer and pushed
almost no filler. I started with the cockpit,
cooling radiator. Then I inserted a piece of
some dents in the heated plastic with a
although I had the intention to install an
aluminium (gently bent following the wing
screwdriver.
aftermarket set from Aires, I only kept their
profile) in this opening and reinforced the
The portal crane was made from sprue. I
instrument panel. To complete the cockpit,
edges with strips of plastic card firmly
added the small ground plates to the 3
I used the excellent parts of the kit, adding
glued in place on the inside and the
legs and on one leg I added the necessary
the necessary switches, handles and
outside with cyanoacrylate glue. Once the
steps. The pulleys and the upper part were
wiring.
glue was thoroughly hardened, I sanded
made from scratch and the chains came
the upper surface of the wing and the
from my spares box.
The engine was detailed as well. I
aluminium panel to obtain a seamless wing
reworked the supports for the engine,
finish. Hereafter the panel lines and riveting
For the figures I used the “Africa Korps”
added some piping, wiring, hoisting points
were restored, not touching the aluminium
German Tank Crew from MiniArt. I
and changed the existing ignition cables
because no details would be visible after
changed the postures and the heads were
for finer details. Simulating the battle
the damage would be created!
replaced by heads of a German DAK
damage from ground fire was a little
Some damage resulting from the belly
Panzer Crew Set from Alpine Miniatures.
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Paint and Markings Painting the BF-109 E7 in German
The final coat, after the decals had
Desert camouflage is rather easy. I
been applied and the whole model
started by spraying all the under
was thoroughly cleaned with
sides with RLM 78 HELLBLAU and
lukewarm water with a drop of dish
the upper sides with RLM 79
detergent, was applied with a
SANDGELB following the many
mixture of varnish (5 parts matt +
pictures and profiles in books and
1.5 parts gloss). All paints came
magazines. For the SANDGELB no
from Model Master.
tone work was applied as the effect would be neutralised by the
In a magazine I found a profile of a
mottling. The mottled RLM 80
Bf-109 E7 in desert colours
OLIVGRUN was a bit more difficult
bearing the number 13. I used
to accomplish, I sprayed these
mostly decals from the box
little dots of paint carefully and with
supplemented by decals of my
very limited air pressure.
spares box and applied them with
The painted model was covered
the proven MicroSol & MicroSet
with a coat of gloss varnish. I know
system. When correctly and
that a lot of modellers use ‘Future’
patiently applied, the result is
to prepare the surfaces for the
extremely convincing!
decals, but I still prefer varnish.
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Desert Dust and Damage
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As always, my weathering was done with
brush and the surplus of pastel powder
leading edges of the wings, the propeller
pastels and colour pencils. First I went over
simply wiped away.
blades and the propeller hub were treated
the panel lines with a very sharp colour
With this step finished, I applied small oil
with a small sponge and aluminium paint.
pencil, grey for the HELLBLAU under sides,
and dirt patches on the wings and the
Small corrections and adjustments were
brown for the upper sides and Light Green
engine where the aircraft is usually
made with a fine brush and the same
for the mottled OLIVGRUN.
serviced. This was done with a small brush
paint.
Then, with a No1 brush, I accentuated the
and a sponge using diluted paint in
From the underside (I did not install the
panel lines with pastel powder in the same
different colours.
port radiator) I punctured the aluminium
colours as the pencils for the different
Now airflow streaks were simulated, again
plate in the wing, creating the battle
surfaces. Sometimes this operation had to
with a small brush and pastel powders.
damage from ground fire. As the edges
be repeated to obtain the desired effect
light brown, burnt umber, grey and black
bent upwards, the aluminium becomes
which always has to be subtle. The panel
were used.
visible and some paint chipping is
lines were then brushed with a broader
The last step was the paint chipping. The
automatically created!
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Figures The figures were skilfully painted by François Laloux and he took colour pictures of a German Africa fighter crew as reference. He checked the figures and, with some putty, he improved their finish. The base coat is from a spray can from Citadel. For the skin he used the set ‘Flesh’ from Lifecolor. He likes to work with Lifecolor paints as they dry super matt and remain workable to blend the different nuances in the paint. The rest of the figures were painted with Vallejo paints. He used these paints for the base colours, the highlighting and the shadows.
On rocky ground The terrain was made with all-purpose filler used to fill small gaps and openings in masonry, wood, plaster, etc. On a glass plate I fixed a cardboard frame of approx 3 mm thickness creating an edge. Then I poured the water-thinned all-purpose filler on the glass plate and spread out the liquid filler to obtain a more or less flat surface. On top of the wet surface I scattered very fine yellow coloured sand and some cat litter, crushed into smaller pieces. As the all-purpose filler hardened, the sand and the cat litter became glued to the surface. Before entirely dry, I created the grooves and marks caused by the ‘109 during its belly landing. The ground work needed very little paintwork as the basic colours are very realistic. The grooves and scars were painted in a slightly darker brown to accentuate them. finially I dry brushed the whole base high lighting the edges of the grooves and scars and the stones spread over the dessert sand. The last step was finishing the details (the canopy, the broken antenna, the forgotten leather flying helmet, the balance of the ailerons, the pitot tube, etc) and bringing everything together on the base. The portal crane was put on together with some cases and jerry cans. The two superbly painted figures were positioned next to the engine, et voilà, the job was done!
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new releases
Wingman 1:48 IAI Nesher, Dagger and Finger
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There's certainly something exciting about unboxing these Wingman 'Superkits', we have of course looked at some previous releases but to re-cap, the format is as follows: Kinetic kits (some releases contain two full kits, this only one) are boxed with a range of resin and photoetch upgrade parts, Cartograf provide a huge selection of markings, Master provide turned metal parts, Kabuki supply the pre-cut masks and some very clear, detailed and comprehensive instructions and reference are thrown in for good measure, what's not to like? The original Kinetic kit is very nice showing some nice surface detail, in reality much of the kit is superseded by the superb resin parts which includes a full cockpit, exhaust, fuel tanks, landing gear, missiles and optional noses depending on the version you're building with some very indepth research which appears as call-outs throughout the
instructions showing very particular features for specific aircraft including the 'Mara' upgraded ex-Peruvian aircraft. Wingman really do your homework for you allowing even a novice of the subject the parts and information to build a very accurate replica. With seven Israeli options and fourteen Argentinian one of the hardest processes of the project will be picking which one to model! The Cartograf decals are stunning, as you'd expect, and the colour profiles very detailed. We're big fans of the 'Superkit' concept, aimed directly at the serious hobbyist Wingman know what you want and talk your language leaving nothing to chance. A highly recommended range of kits for the connoisseur, check out www.wingmanmodels.com or order at www.shopofphantoms.com (available also in the UK from Hannants)
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HK Models 1:32 De Havilland Mosquito B Mk.IV Series II Here is a welcome arrival and a reminder of my boyhood building Revell’s large scale Mosquito. Well HK Models have brought all the latest moulding technology to bear on this kit, a fact that is immediately apparent when you open the box and see the massive single piece wing and tubular fuselage parts. The wing is a staggering part with the traditional upper and lower half approach replaced with this incredible ‘folded’ piece of plastic. The trailing edge is open to allow the flight controls to be fitted and cut out sections for the nacelles and fuselage. The two piece fuselage has been designed so that the assembled cockpit can be loaded in from the back and with the rear section attached to locate over the wing just like the real aircraft. The cockpit is well handled with some convincing looking textured seat padding, photoetched seatbelts, and even the circular reinforcing points on the cockpit sidewalls are replicated. It is a little strange to have a solid fuselage after a lifetime of kits that are split down the centreline but the way the cockpit has been designed is undeniably clever and effective and the lack of joint seams down the smooth fuselage can only be welcomed. The canopy parts are
also cleverly handled with an internal glazing framework onto which the multiple clear parts sit. The clear parts themselves look to be of an exceptionally high quality. The tailwheel comes with all the internal mechanism and the main undercarriage is similarly well detailed. The wighted tires don’t appear to suffer from the tread fade that HK’s B-17 suffered from. A pair of detailed Merlin engines are supplied with separate cowlings should you want to have them exposed. The oil cooler intakes are beautiful hollow mouldings with photoetched mesh grilles and as you might expect the bomb bay is also fully detailed and is provided with a choice of bomb loads. The kit also provides the choice of the bulged bomb bay doors. Another pleasing feature of the kit is the provision of a choice of three paint schemes on the superb Cartograf decal sheet. Without doubt this is an impressive kit with some of the most ultra-crisp mouldings to be found on any kit and the differentiation between the wooden and metal elements like the inspection covers has been beautifully handled. Its another HK stunner and a great addition the HK Models range. www.hk-models.com
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Italeri 1:32 Sopwith Camel Another re-box from Italeri of the Academy 'Camel. This kit appears unchanged and it's never had the best reputation with some basic detail in places and very pronounced wing ribs with a scattering of ejector pin marks to fill, overall the kit struggles to capture the delicate nature of these early flying machines. Like the N.17, this could be treated as a laid-back quick build to practice some new paint techniques, to bring the levels of detail and accuracy up to
Peregrine Publications Photo CDs We've received a selection from a range of reference CDs aimed at modellers by the author and photographer of the discs, Steve Muth. Presented in 'Word' and JPEG format the contents are easily accessible if somewhat very plain in appearance. Each aircraft has historical text, markings and paintwork detail explanations and a set of captions referring to the images. Image quality is good generally and of high resolution to allow zooming in on particular details. The majority of shots are of museum examples with a 'walk-around' style approach focussing on all of the areas modellers look to improve upon namely wheel wells, landing gear, cockpits etc. The author has had the cooperation of the exhibit staff where necessary to gain access to get some good close-up detail. Unfortunately Peregrine don't have a web page (a Facebook page would be a good idea) to see the full range but can be contacted direct by email:
[email protected] with orders taken by bank card, Pay Pal or U.S. bank with a very reasonable price. 48
what we're accustomed to these days would take a lot of work. The decal sheet offers two R.N.A.S. markings, one Italian and one captured German version. The sheet is sharply printed but I do feel some of the text lacks a hand-rendered appearance of the period. As with the Nieport, another budget buy if you can't wait for the future release from Wingnuts.
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Heinkel He 219 Uhu Vol.1 Marek J. Murawski, Marek Ry Published by Kagero Softback format, 96 pages ISBN 9788 362878 413 www.casematepublishing.co.uk Number 49 in the Monographs series is a new revised and updated study of the sleek He 219. As the Editor has built both the Revell and Zoukei Mura kits in 1:32 we can vouch for the fact that these aircraft make beautiful display pieces and have some interesting features for Luftwaffe fans with their unique ejector seats and tricycle landing gear. Being one of their '3D' editions over twenty pages are dedicated to photo-realistic digital renderings providing superb reference of areas which would be difficult to study in period photographs. Some excellent factory
shots are also included in the Design and Development section along with period images of test (and crashed!) Uhus. More for the modeller is a full section of walk-around images of the preserved (albeit wingless) museum example in the U.S.A. and some lovely colour profiles backed up with some very detailed scale drawings in 1:72 and 1:48, some of which are on a pull-out A2 sized print. Another excellent quality one-stop reference for modellers and very reasonably priced, great value even if you have the original release.
Italeri 1:48 Fw 190 A-8 No points for guessing this is another re-box from Italeri, originally a kit from Trimaster which was then produced and marketed by Dragon in the early 1990s I'd imagine this is difficult to find now. The tooling is looking a little tired in places with some tidying required but no big deal, the kit is renowned as building well but some old-school filling and sanding is required. The surface detail across the airframe looks a little crude in places and yet delicate with some nice finesse in others. Italeri have included the couple of small photo etched frets which mainly concentrate on the
cockpit, from the Dragon edition. Even if you have the original boxing of this kit the decals may be looking worse for ware, this release is worth picking up as there's a full set of six marking options on offer from the Cartograf produced sheet which is of the highest quality. Competition is fierce for the 190 in 1:48 with both Eduard and Tamiya having their own kits on the market, pay your money and take your choice as they say. I'd expect this release to be the more budget-minded choice, decent kit but the tooling is showing it's age.
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Revell 1:48 Mil Mi-24D 'Hind-D' Another release of the venerable Revell Hind-D, dating back to the mid 1980s originally don't expect to be staggered by the detail and moulding finesse. This is and older tooling so raised panel lines and 'one piece' cockpits are the order of the day for these basic kits, it makes me feel old to think this kit was released almost thirty years ago! Although some soft detail is on show, the moulding is pretty clean but be prepared for some hours at the
workbench if you want to bring the standards up to date with sanding, re-scibing and riveting not to mention the cockpit, interior and rotor head requiring some upgrading. As this kit has been around for sometime now thankfully there's aftermarket parts out there and to my knowledge it's still the only offering in 1:48. Markings offered are Polish and two German (no Russian markings surprisingly) and the decal quality is excellent.
Supermarine Spitfire Mk VI to IX and Mk XVI, Vol.2 Phil Listemann, Bill Dady Published by Histoire and Collections Softback format, 97 pages ISBN 9782 35250 www.casematepublishing.co.uk
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The ever popular Spitfire returns in volume two of the H&C 'Planes and Pilots' series which are essentially collections of colour profiles with detailed captions of which there are literally dozens upon dozens to whet the appetite for that next project. Along with the collection of profiles there is some historical text and handy unit reference for each marque of aircraft and their service Worldwide with some great looking schemes on offer should you fancy
something a little out of the ordinary such as Dutch, Irish, Egyptian or Israeli markings to name a few. The profile illustrations are of high quality but only a side profile is shown of each except in the section on generic RAF markings. Some nice period images have also been collated including some original colour photographs. A nicely presented book which should please Spitfire fans, especially those keen on the later versions.
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Italeri 1:32 Nieuport 17 Contain your excitement if you're a Great War modeller, this is a new release from Italeri but unfortunately the tooling is from Academy and over a decade old. The N.17 is a handsome aircraft and if you must have one in 1:32 the kit provides a basis for detailing, it's basic at best but what detail there is is still cleanly moulded and this would make a nice weekend build out of the box. Star of the show is without doubt the decal sheets, no less than five aircraft options with Russian, French, R.F.C., Italian and
even a captured German marked trainer. The Cartograf printed sheets are beautifully presented and when you consider the purchase price of the kit make it excellent value. It's unfair to draw comparisons with Wingnut Wings kits which are the undeniable benchmark for WWI large scale modellers, this kit comes nowhere close, but if you're on a budget around a quarter of the cost and this aircraft isn't part of the Wingnut Wings range.
D-704
48285
48286
Uschi Van Der Rosten Cockpit Woodgrain & Leather decals Scale Aircraft Conversions A big chunk of resin here to fuel your large scale Navy aircraft with a 1:32 ‘Buddy Pod’ refueling tank from SAC in resin with a white metal prop (presumably so it can be polished to the desired finish?) and a set of detailed decals. The resin is cleanly cast with minimal clean-up where the mould is joined, the weight for such a large solid piece is surprisingly light. Two more sets of upgraded landing gear to add to the massive catalogue, both in 1:48. 48285 is for the Tamiya F4F Wildcat and 48286 designed for Trumpeter’s Su-9 ‘Fishpot’. The place to check the full range is www.scaleaircraftconversions.com where you can also find stockists in your part of the World.
Producers of some very innovative and high quality products, Uschi van der Rosten, have a couple of new additions to their catalogue of specialist decals. 1021 is a set of two sheets of leather colours and textures giving twelve to choose from. The very detailed prints would be very difficult indeed to replicate in paint and will come in very useful to modellers of vintage aircraft for cockpit seating and accessories. Still with WWII and earlier subjects, 1022 is a selection of four wood grains to suit larger scales measuring 100x60mm you'd have sufficient to clad a 1:32 WWI cockpit for example. www.uschivdr.com has more details and some fantastic examples of their products in action, available in the UK from Albion Hobbies www.albionhobbies.com
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AIR 61 Aug- Sept 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/07/2015 12:33 Page 56
DANIEL ZAMARBIDE GUIDES US THROUGH HIS B U I L D O F T H E H A S E G AWA 1 : 3 2 A 4 E S K Y H AW K
The Douglas A- 4 Skyhawk is one of those classics of aviation
My starting point was years ago, I got hold of an A - 4E / F from
which is still in service in countries like Argentina, Brazil and New
Hasegawa in 1:32, this tooling was over thirty years old with
Zealand. Created in the 1950s for the United States Navy, the
raised panel lines and generally quite poor details such as the
request for a small attack fighter for operation on aircraft carriers
cockpit and wheel wells. I decided to begin with the most
had its baptism of fire during the Vietnam War where they
difficult task I’d set myself, to re-scribe all of the panel lines and
participated in combat with both the U.S. Navy and the Marines .
rivet the entire airframe. I armed myself with as much reference
During the fighting the A-4 even took aerial victories against
as I could find to ensure an accurate rendition of the fine surface
North Vietnamese MiGs. Later Skyhawks saw action with
detail. For this task I recommend patience and not to work more
intervention in Arab - Israeli wars and the Falklands conflict with
than one hour at a time on this particular task. The plastic is very
Argentina against the British Navy and its Sea Harriers.
hard and you’ll end up hurting your fingers plus your
To document the history of the development of the ‘Scooter’
concentration decreases as time passes leading to mistakes.
would take up far more space than I have here, so lets concentrate on the large scale modelling project.
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Construction With the breaks taken from scribing and
of the doors matched the fuselage.
riveting I was able to advance other parts
detail. I often let myself go in this type of space filled with a thousand and one
of the aircraft, such as the cockpit.
I always try to switch between different
plumbing and wiring lines, some that don’t
Fortunately the U.S. manufacturer ‘Avionix’
tasks on a model with the construction and
really exist! Again, as always, good
has a wonderful resin cockpit specifically
paint, so now I started painting the cockpit
reference is the key to accuracy. Having
for this model. The fit of the parts is very
as this will need to be closed inside the
completed the wheel wells it was time to
good and it just needs the usual type of
fuselage. The cockpit is quite compact, so
look at the external fittings.
surgery for resin cockpit parts to fit snuggly
after initial airbrushed base colours there
inside the plastic fuselage. Again I returned
was the detail painting by brush with lots of
All these parts are what ultimately give life
to the riveting which slowly but surely was
colour reference to hand on the
to the model, sometimes we are guilty of
adding such finesse to this old kit. The kits
workbench. A few days of painting the
not spending the time on fittings that can
original raised rivets, even when sanded
cockpit and it was back to the building
ultimately become the focus for anyone
away, left enough of an impression to act
again, this time to scratch build the wheel
viewing the finished piece. I decided from
as a guide to follow. To add some more
wells and detail the landing gear. Again, a
the start that I would treat each sub-
detail and interest I decided to open some
good selection of reference is key,
assembly as a ‘model’ in itself, giving each
acess panels. The engine starter turbine
preferably a fully working aircraft to ensure
my full attention, then ultimately bring all of
was constructed with several pieces of
we catch every detail. The difficulty is that
the models together to form the finished
Evergreen plastic, metal and copper wire.
wells have to be symmetrical (or as best
display.
I spent some time ensuring the curvature
we can) and also will have a consistency in
The finished ‘dry-fit’ assembly as a final check before painting begins. Note the re-worked air intakes.
The scratchbuilt ammunition loading bay and cover.
The converted figure adds a sense of scale to the finished display.
The resin cockpit from Avionix required little more than carefull painting.
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Wiring and plumbing was added to the nose wheel-well and landing gear according to my references.
All the detail work in the main wheel-wells had, of course, had to be built twice! A lot of work, but I feel it was worth it for the final effect.
Painting and markings
My first colour to apply is always the lightest, in this case Tamiya XF-2 white to the undersides and the upper edges which will either remain white or be over-painted in red or yellow, With these white areas
masked I laid on a base grey of XF-19 mixed with 50% white XF-2. Over this I applied shading and highlighting working around the various panels and shapes.
The model starts to take on a more dimensional effect with more realism than an evenly applied solid grey.
The white base coat allows the yellow and red of the tail flash to remain vibrant, a nice touch against the dull grey of the airframe.
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Given that this aircraft did not operate from
surfaces and for the upper an HB. Then a
enhance details and add to the used look
aircraft carriers but from land bases, the
layer of gloss varnish is applied to serve as
of th A-4. At this point it’s time to tweak
effects of dirt have to be considered and
a basis to place the decals. The decals
minor flaws or deficiencies that may have
various subtle tones were airbrushed
used are from CAM decals, although they
occurred up to this point in ready for a
shading around panel lines and in the
are for a model ‘M’, most are safe to use
sealing coat of matt varnish. This duller
direction of airflow, especially across the
my model ‘E’. Once all the decals are
finish enhances the look of many flying
wings.
applied and set everything was sealed with
hours and provides a uniform and realistic
Once all of the paintwork was completely
another coat of gloss varnish. Then once
finish across the paintwork and decals.
dry I began to mark the panel lines, I
dry, some MiG Productions "Dark Wash"
recommend using a 2H pencil on the lower
was sparingly applied in certain areas to
Weathering and definition of the panels is easily seen against the matt white so the effects were applied very gradually.
One element not available on the decal sheet for my actual subject Skyhawk are the ‘WL’ tail markings. The straight lines mean a mask is easy to create.
A coat of gloss gives a good seal to the paintwork and prepares the surface for decals. Decals are best applied to gloss finishes to avoid the ‘silvering’ effect of the carrier film.
The clear masking film needs to be carefully burnished around the edges to avoid any ‘creep’ by the black.
The many available readyto-use washes available are best applied on a gloss surface to improve their flow. It also allows any excess to be removed without staining the paintwork.
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A pleasing finish with that ‘painted-on’ appearance, because, well, it’s painted on!
Tamiya X-19 has a translucent finish ideal for adding subtle shading with the airbrush over any colour.
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With the decals sealed I could safely mask the walkways on the wings. An initial coat of straight black was further lightened by a pale blue and then white suggesting fading and weathering. The final step was to carefully apply tiny scuffs and scratches with a fine brush and the base grey colour.
The final part to paint which is integral to the airframe is the exhaust. Following my reference shots, an aluminium base coat was applied and when dry, two fine lines were masked with Tamiya tape. Tamiya X-19 was used again to apply subtle discolouration and finally a black/brown mix was airbrushed to suggest heavier staining.
After a full polishing job the canopy received some internal detail with lead wire and styrene before being masked in and out and airbrushed with matt black. The external frame was given the same base grey as the airframe with some tiny fastener detail marked on with a sharp pencil. With the canopy displayed open the detail painting inside is as important as the cockpit. 61
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Heavy Load A-4s carried up to ten bombs with a
or paper towel and apply with a random
The fuel tank is heavily scuffed and
mixture long and short fuses. Each bomb
manner. A finishing touch of some dusty
discoloured along the length of its centre.
has wiring and it’s specific paint finishes.
earth (typical of Vietnam) was applied with
Some coloured wiring and fittings were
The painting of the bombs is quite creative
some pigment powder and some random
picked out in acrylics and all help with the
with some photographs showing a
scratches and damage by pencil.
busy and detailed appearance of the wheel
tremendous amount of wear in the combat
Then I moved onto the pylons, in this case
wells. Extra details were added to the
environment. The ordnance for my A-4
the SRM were improved with Evergreen as
arrestor hook before being airbrushed in
were stored on land bases and the
well as the wiring of each bomb to the. All
it’s black and white bands with weathering
cumulative outdoor weathering and
pieces were airbrushed white then details
and washes applied as per the other
inclement Vietnam weather from sun, wind
picked out with HB pencil and an overall
components.
and rain are typical and should be taken
coat of gloss varnish. ‘Dark Wash’ from
into account. The painting is relatively
MiG Productions was used to enhance fine
When in place, the bomb load becomes an
simple, starting with an olive base colour I
details and add a weathered look to not
interesting focus of the finished model with
used a piece of sponge to speckle different
only the pylons but all the landing gear and
the strong colours contrasting against the
colours including earth tones. This
wheel well detail. Washes also improved
white and grey of the airframe adding to
technique works like the dry brush
the look of the fuel tank. Note how the fuel
the purposeful combat-ready look.
technique, dip the sponge in the paint just
tank has it’s tail removed, done to avoid
a little and remove the excess with a cloth
any contact with the ground on take off.
Working from my reference images the heavily weathered finish of the bombs was replicated with some simple techniques.
You do wonder how the Skyhawk could take off with such a heavy payload under each wing!
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The tiny ‘Sylvester’ cartoon on the pilot’s helmet was a challenge!
An initial coat of matt black was masked with some Tamiya tape and a subtle overspray of dark grey applied to replicate the tyre pattern. Dark washes again pick out the detail of the wheel hubs.
All ready for the final assembly. I kept to my original plan of treating the different elements as separate models in their own right ensuring the same degree of finish throughout.
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Great care is needed during the final assembly, with such a lot of painted parts to add there was a lot of handling of the model so I tended to leave the more fragile pieces until last. The stance of a ‘Scooter’ is critical to the final appearance so the landing gear was set at the correct angles and the joints allowed to completely harden before setting the model on it’s wheels.
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With the canopy in place a few last details were added to the frame and hinge and the pilot’s helmet which adds an interesting touch. My good friend Joaquin G. Gazquez painted the converted gunsmith figure which helps add that human touch and the Vietnam theme.
The Douglas A- 4 Skyhawk is a beautiful aircraft with infinite possibilities for modellers with the amount of camouflage schemes on offer. Shortly after starting this project, Trumpeter announced the release of a newly tooled kit of the A-4, infinitely superior to the old Hasegawa kit as we’d expect from tooling over thirty years old!
These smaller aircraft in 1:32 sit well in any collection or display and the larger scale offers the modeller so much more scope for detailing. Although there’s now a superior kit on the market, the old Hasegawa Skyhawk still makes an enjoyable project where you can add your own unique personal touches.
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