modeller www.militaryillustratedmodeller.com
BAT OUT OF HELL!
Aircraft edition
Zoukei-Mura’s 1:32 Horten Ho 229
£6.50 - Jan’16 (issue 057)
RS Model 1:48 Fokker D.XXIII • Roden 1:48 T-28C Trojan • Airfix 1:72 Beaufighter TF.X • Beaufighter Reference • and more…
military illustrated
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Contents
modeller military illustrated
ISSUE No.057 January 2016
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NEWS
6
RAAF BEAUFIGHTER REFERENCE
What’s happening in modelling and aviation
Wartime photos and a museum walk around.
14 PREVIEW
Meng Model 1:72 F-106 Delta Dart Test Shots
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16 COASTAL STRIKER
Airfix 1:72 Beaufighter TF.X by Brett Green
26 PREVIEW
Kinetic 1:48 Sea Harrier FRS.1
27 PREVIEW
Skunkmodels Workshop 1:48 Royal Navy Deck Tractors
28 BAT OUT OF HELL
Zoukei-Mura 1:32 Ho 229 by James Hatch
40 PREVIEW
Bronco 1:35 Horsa Glider
42 RARE SWEDE
Pilot Replicas 1:48 scale SAAB J21 A-3 by Kamil Feliks Sztarbala
54 CHARLIE TROJAN Monogram 1:48 T-28C Trojan by David W. Aungst
65 NEXT ISSUES
What’s coming up in the next issues of Military Illustrated Modeller
66 TAILPIECE
Squadron EagleQuest 2015
42
54 Aircraft Edition
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News
KINETIC 1:48 SU-33 AND SUPER ETENDARD Kinetic Model has announced the release of a 1:48 scale Su-33 Naval Flanker in December. This tooling represents the next step forward for Kinetic, featuring improved surface detailing, as well as highly detailed cockpit, landing gear bays, exhausts, wing fold and armament. Details include: • Super detailed cockpit • Super detailed engine nozzle • Folded wings option • One-piece slide moulding missiles: R-73, R-27E, R-27EM • Photo Etched parts are included • Markings: 279th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Russian Naval Aviation, on board Admiral Kuznetsov Kinetic has also announced a forthcoming 1:48 scale Super Etendard. Both kits should be available by the time this magazine is in your hands. Kinetic kits are available online from Lucky Model www.luckymodel.com
BOLTON IPMS SCALE MODEL SHOW 2016
NEW RELEASES FROM REVELL
Dieter Wiegmann has sent photos of his latest builds. These are two forthcoming releases from Revell – their 1:48 scale Beech C-45F (a re-boxing of the excellent ICM kit), and an all-new 1:72 scale Red Arrows Hawk. We’ll have more information about these very interesting releases in a future issue. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For details visit www.revell.de/en, @RevellGermany or facebook.com/Revell
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Bolton IPMS Scale Model Show 2016 will be taking place on Sunday 17 January, 2016. The theme for the 2016 show is 'Not Quite Right'! The show will be held at: St Joseph's RC High School, Chorley New Road, Horwich, Nr. Bolton BL6 6HW (Just off Junction 6 of the M61). The show runs from 10:00 - 16:00. As usual, there will be a good mix of Traders, Club and SIG displays. Prices for the show are as follows: Adults £4, OAP £3, Children (Under 16) £2, Families (2 adults and 2 children) £10. There is free parking at the venue and hot and cold refreshments will be available to purchase on the day. More details are available on the IPMS Bolton website: www.ipmsbolton.co.uk
SPITFIRE PHOTO CREDIT
In MIM Issue 53, I neglected to credit James Levingston for his wonderful in-flight and open cowling photos of Temora Aviation Museum’s Spitfire Mk.VIII. I do apologise for this omission.
Military Illustrated Modeller - January 2016
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REFERENCE: RAAF Beaufighter Mk.21
RAAF DAP Beaufighter Mk.21, A8-1, the first Mk.21, at Laverton Aerodrome in 1944.
RAAF BEAUFIGHTER MK.21 We examine the production and operation of Australia’s locally manufactured Beaufighter variant, the Mk.21, and take a close look at a restored example.
A
lthough the number A7 was allocated through 1926–46 and the Beaufort became A9 in 1941, the prefix A8 was not used until 1944 when the Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) Beaufighter Mk 21 joined the RAAF. This anomaly came about when the numbers A8 to A12 were reserved in the late 1930s, because aircraft such as the Series 1 A11 Southampton and A12 Bulldog were still in service. In 1942, British-built Beaufighter began operating with the RAAF under the designation A19. These aircraft proved to be extremely effective in operations, and DAP planned to produce an Australian version when the Beaufort contracts were completed. As a precaution against the unavailability of Hercules engines, a Fairey-built Beaufighter IC, A19-2, was fitted with Wright Double Cyclone engines. Subsequent trials proved quite successful, but the supply of Hercules never failed, and A19-2 remained a one-off experiment for the Australian Beaufighter. Following the decision in January 1943 to commence Beaufighter production, the Bristol Company dispatched the drawings by Airgraph and some 55,000 miniature negatives were sent to DAP. Originally, it was planned to produce an Australian equivalent of the British Beaufighter Mk VII, but throughout 1943 innovations such as dive-brakes and rocket projectiles began to be introduced. Mks VIII and IX were similarly superseded and finally a version basically similar to the British Beaufighter TF Mk X was produced and designated DAP Bristol Beaufighter Mk 21. Unlike the British version, the ASV radar and dorsal fin were never applied to the DAP model. However,
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like the Mk Xs used by the RAAF in Europe, all the Hercules XVIIs had their two-speed blowers made fully operational, thus becoming Hercules XVIIIs. The first DAP Beaufighter was flown on 26 May 1944 and, five days later, the aircraft was taken over by the RAAF. As production mounted in the Fishermens Bend and Mascot factories, the Australian A8 Beaufighter began to replace the British A19 Beaufighter. The smooth-running sleeve-valve engine and the devastating fire-power of cannon rockets and machine-guns had already earned the Beaufighter the nickname "Whispering Death" and the Australian version continued to wreak great havoc throughout New Guinea, the
Celebes and the Philippines. The aircraft served with Nos 22, 30, 31, 92 and 93 Squadrons, and when production ceased at the end of 1945, a total of 364 DAP Beaufighters had been built. In the post-war years, Beaufighters continued to operate with No 30 Squadron, where they were gradually reduced to a target-towing role. Although most of the aircraft were withdrawn from service in 1955–56, two Beaufighters, A8-357 and 363, continued to be used at Woomera for missile aerial recovery duties, and these aircraft operated with kangaroo roundels. The last aircraft, A8-357, was flown to Edinburgh for disposal by Wing Commander Williamson on 9 December 1957.*
Beaufighter assembly line at Fishermens bend, Victoria.
* Historical text Copyright © 2009 RAAF Museum https://www.airforce.gov.au/raafmuseum/research/aircraft/series2/A8.htm
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Working on Hercules engines at Fishermens Bend.
Beaufighter Mk.21 of 5 OTU, A8-95 Mk21, over the Melbourne War Memorial in 1944.
Beaufighter Mk.21 of 5 OTU, A8-301, fitted with rocket projectiles at Williamtown NSW in 1944.
Beaufighter Mk.21, A8-42, attached to 22Sqn, with temporary codes DU-D on Morotai Island.
Over the water near Morotai Island in 1945.
DU-K, A8-55, crashed on take off at Sanga Sanga in 1945. Aircraft Edition
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REFERENCE: RAAF Beaufighter Mk.21
EH-A, A8-89, crash landing near Tarakan Borneo in 1945.
A 93 Sqn Beaufighter, SK-T A8-124, crash landed on Borneo in 1945.
The smooth-running sleeve-valve engine and the devastating fire-power of cannon rockets and machine-guns had already earned the Beaufighter the nickname "Whispering Death"...
RAAF DAP Beaufighter A8-99 Mk21 over Melbourne.
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Another view of the same crash-landed Beaufighter Mk.21.
Post-war photo of a 30 Sqn TT Beaufighter Mk.21, A8-265, with its distinctive black and yellow stripes in 1946.
Silver-finished RAAF DAP Beaufighter Mk.21 A8-328 MK21 and crew in 1952.
Aircraft Edition
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REFERENCE: RAAF Beaufighter Mk.21
BEAUFIGHTERS IN AUSTRALIA TODAY
Australia is fortunate to have at least two restored Beaufighters. One resides at the Moorabbin Air Museum in Melbourne, Victoria and another at Camden Museum of Aviation located near Narellan on the south-western outskirts of Sydney, New South Wales. Camden also holds a Beaufighter nose section that was never attached to a complete aircraft. All of these items are quite complete and in good condition, although the engines on the Camden machine are not original Beaufighter powerplants. I am particularly grateful to the staff of Moorabbin Air Museum for their assistance and comprehensive access to their beautifully restored Beaufighter in 1999. The collection at Moorabbin includes a wide range of rare and interesting aircraft and is well worth a detour if you are visiting Melbourne. The Museum is located at the corner of First Street and Second Avenue, Moorabbin Airport, Mentone, and is open seven days a week. More information may be obtained from their website at http://www.aarg.com.au The collection at Camden is also packed full of treasures. A large shed houses a Vultee Vengeance, a Meteor F.8, Avro Anson, Firefly, Gannet, Tiger Moth and many other aircraft and artifacts in various states of repair. Sadly, this collection is not currently open to the public. •
Port sidewall view.
Front-on view of the Beaufighter Mk.21 instrument panel and control column.
Pilot’s quadrants. Note the bright green and red handles.
Detail view of the starboard lower pilot’s sidewall.
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A view of the cockpit from above the lower fuselage entry hatch.
The mid-fuselage ceiling directly above the entry hatch. Note the vibrant apple green typical of Australian manufactured Beaufighters and other types.
Copper piping and fire extinguisher on the mid port side fuselage.
Ammunition feed box located in the mid-fuselage.
Mid-fuselage starboard sidewall detail including the main fusebox.
Radio equipment located aft of the observer in the rear fuselage.
Aircraft Edition
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REFERENCE: RAAF Beaufighter Mk.21
Detail view of the engine. Please note that this is not the original engine. It was originally fitted to a Bristol Freighter.
Starboard side “hedgehog” exhaust. Note that the end is capped off.
Exhaust intakes.
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The port side exhaust has two openings in the end cap.
Not a great photo, but a rare view of the workings inside the open cowl flaps.
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The wing leading edge landing lights.
Four pairs of rocket stubs and the two starboard side machine gun ports.
Detail at the back of one of the rear rocket stubs.
A jumble of detail inside the main wheel well.
Landing gear leg.
The rear fuselage tie-down point, tied down! Note that the lower horizontal stabiliser fairing is not fitted here.
Elevator trim actuator.
Aircraft Edition
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MENG 1:72 F-106 TEST SHOT – FIRST LOOK
TEST SHOT PREVIEW: Meng Model 1:72 Convair F-106 Delta Dart • Kit No. DS-006
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Lovely detail in the avionics bays.
Meng Model has sent us an early test shot of the sprues from their forthcoming 1:72 scale F-106 Delta Dart.
M
eng Model has sent an early set of test shot sprues from their forthcoming 1:72 scale Convair F-106 Delta Dart. Please note that these are early test shot sprues and that the final version may differ in detail or content. Having said that, my initial impression is that this is one of the nicest 1:72 scale kits that I have ever seen in terms of surface textures, detail and moulding quality. The panel lines are exquisitely fine, as are the very subtle rows of rivets. Features include a choice of two ejection seats, optional instrument panels,
Nice cockpit detail.
Thanks to Meng Model for the test shot sprues www.meng-model.com
Military Illustrated Modeller - January 2016
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detailed fuselage avionics bays with separate hatches, radar in the nose, poseable weapons bay doors - open or closed, weapons trays with missiles, a separate bomb trolley, optional supersonic drop tanks, poseable speed brakes, separate control surfaces, optional intake FOD covers, a photoetched boarding ladder and more. The cockpit and weapons bay are just gorgeous. At this stage I do not have clear parts or decals, but I will post photos of these when they are available. I'll also provide more details as they come to hand. •
Surface detail is remarkably fine.
Optional FOD covers are included.
Two styles of seat are supplied.
The weapons bay will look great when finished.
A trolley is also included.
The kit photo-etched fret includes a boarding ladder.
Rockets and supersonic tanks.
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FEATURE ARTICLE: Airfix 1:72 Bristol Beaufighter TF.X • Kit No. A04019
COASTAL STRIK 16
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Surface detail is crisp and recessed.
Two styles of horizontal stabilisers are included.
Retracted and deployed tail wheels are offered as separate parts.
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The Editor adds a stack of after market parts to the new Airfix 1:72 scale Bristol Beaufighter TF.X.
A centreline torpedo is provided as an ordnance option.
Aircraft Edition
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FEATURE ARTICLE: Airfix 1:72 Bristol Beaufighter TF.X • Kit No. A04019
T
he Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter was a British multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort bomber. The Beaufighter was a versatile aircraft employed initially as a night fighter, and later mainly in the maritime strike and ground attack roles. It also replaced the earlier Beaufort as a torpedo bomber. Variants were also built in Australia by the Department of Aircraft Production.
Some of the raised cockpit detail was carved off to make way for Eduard’s self-adhesive colour photo-etched parts.
Raised detail was also selectively cut from the side consoles.
The yoke was cut from the control column too.
THE BEAUFIGHTER IN COASTAL COMMAND
1941 saw the development of the Beaufighter Mk.IC long-range heavy fighter. This new variant entered service in May 1941 with a detachment from No. 252 Squadron operating from Malta. The aircraft proved so effective in the Mediterranean against shipping, aircraft and ground targets that Coastal Command became the major user of the Beaufighter, replacing the now obsolete Beaufort and Blenheim. Coastal Command began to take delivery of the up-rated Mk.VIC in mid-1942. By the end of 1942, Mk VICs were being equipped with torpedo-carrying gear, enabling them to carry the British 18 in or the US 22.5 in torpedo externally. The first successful torpedo attacks by Beaufighters were made in April 1943, with No. 254 Squadron sinking two merchant ships off Norway. The Hercules Mk XVII, developing 1,735 hp at 500 ft was installed in the Mk VIC airframe to produce the TF Mk.X (torpedo fighter), somwtimes referred to as the "Torbeau". The Mk X became the main production mark of the Beaufighter. The strike variant of the Torbeau was designated the Mk.XIC. Beaufighter TF.Xs would make precision attacks on shipping at wave-top height with torpedoes or 60lb RP-3 rockets. Early models of the Mk Xs carried centimetric-wavelength ASV (air-to-surface vessel) radar with herringbone antennae carried on the nose and outer wings, but this was replaced in late 1943 by the centimetric AI Mark VIII radar housed in a thimble-nose radome, enabling all-weather and night attacks. The North Coates Strike Wing of Coastal Command, based at RAF North Coates on the Lincolnshire coast, developed tactics that ammassed large formations of Beaufighters using cannons and rockets to suppress flak while the Torbeaus attacked at low level with torpedoes. These tactics were put into practice in mid-1943, and in a 10 month period, 29,762 tons of shipping were sunk. Tactics were further adapted when shipping was moved from port during the night. North Coates Strike Wing operated as the largest antishipping force of the Second World War, and accounted for over 150,000 tons of shipping and 117 vessels for a loss of 120 Beaufighters and 241 aircrew killed or missing. This was half the total tonnage sunk by all strike wings between 1942 and 1945.*
Interior parts ready for detailing and painting.
Sub-assemblies and detail parts were sprayed Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit Green (IJN), lightened slightly.
The stout wing spars are attached to the fuselage floor.
The Interior Green base colour was washed with a mix of Future floor polish, water, and a few spots of Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black and XF-64.
Eduard’s self-adhesive colour photo-etched fret adds plenty of fine detail.
Eduard parts added to the seats, consoles, instrument panel and control column.
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The side consoles were glued to the fuselage sidewalls even before the fuselage parts were cut from the sprues.
The port side console in place and fitted with Eduard photo-etched details.
Departing from the instructions, the three sides of the engine cowlings were assembled before fitting the engine.
The pilot’s seat is mounted on four pegs that are attached to the forward wing spar.
The engines are simple but adequate.
The “down” position tail wheel.
BEAUFIGHTER IN 1:72 SCALE
This is not the first time that we have seen a Beaufighter kit offered in 1:72 scale. In fact, it is not even the first time that we have seen a Beaufighter kit offered by Airfix in 1:72 scale! The Beaufighter was a popular subject in the 1960s and 1970s, with 1:72 scale kits released by Frog, Airfix and Matchbox. More recently, Revell also re-boxed the Matchbox kit. These are relics of their time, with no cockpit detail to speak of, open wheel wells and sparse raised surface textures. Today, their value is solely nostalgic. In 1998, Hasegawa changed the game with their newly tooled Beaufighter Mk.VI followed by an Australian DAP Beaufighter Mk.21 and then a TF. Mk.X. Typical of Hasegawa kits, their Beaufighter featured a number of inserts to permit the largest number of variants from a single set of moulds. The kits each comprise over 120 parts in grey styrene and eleven parts in clear. Cockpit detail was very sparse though, comprising only a seat and a blank instrument panel with a softly printed decal for dials. The only other disappointing aspect of the kits is the severely understated "hedgehog" exhausts. Apart from these issues, Hasegawa’s 1:72 scale Beaufighters were very good kits. However, the Hasegawa kits were quite expensive and are very hard to find these days too.
The interior was trapped between the fuselage halves and the joins brushed with Tamiya Extra Thin Liquid Cement.
The fuselage floor / wing spar assembly was fitted into the opening at the bottom of the fuselage.
Plenty of the cockpit detail will be visible through the canopy.
Fit of the fuselage was close to perfect, although Tamiya tape was needed to keep the gaps closed as the cement set.
Awaiting the lower fuselage panel.
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FEATURE ARTICLE: Airfix 1:72 Bristol Beaufighter TF.X • Kit No. A04019
Wings clamped and taped.
The holes for the rocket base plate were drilled out from the insides of the lower wing halves.
The horizontal stabilisers feature inserts on the lower surface.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
This all-new Airfix 1:72 Bristol Beaufighter Mk.I comprises 118 parts in light bluish-grey plastic and 12 parts in clear. The model is packed in a cardboard box with a separate lid – a small detail perhaps but certainly preferable to end-opening. The plastic is smooth and a little softer than the material used by Japanese manufacturers. This makes the plastic easy to clean up, but you also need to be careful not to take chunks out of the pieces when removing them from the sprues. Surface details are crisp and fine – consistent with their most recent 1:72 scale releases. Various raised bumps and lumps are present too. The cockpit looks a bit soft and basic on the sprues, but most of the main features are present and it actually looks quite convincing once it is painted up. The most obvious omission is the prominent heater tube that should run from the pilot’s starboard side console to the rear fuselage. Raised structural detail is moulded to the inside of the fuselage. Kit engineering is sensible. The wings are broken down into port and starboard, each with upper and lower halves. These are slipped onto two stout wing spars for a positive fit. The ailerons and rudders are supplied as separate parts, while the flaps are closed and two styles of horizontal stabilisers are included – one with a clean elevator hinge line and one kinked. I wasn’t aware of this distinction before. The engines are simple in terms of part numbers – only two per side – but they are located deep inside the five-part nacelles so you won’t see much of them. The distinctive hedgehog exhausts are much better than Hasegawa’s but they are still a little understated in my opinion. The engine cowling is moulded with the cowl flaps in the open position. A centreline torpedo and eight rockets are
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offered as ordnance options. The undercarriage duplicates the structure of the real thing with separate upper and lower leg sections plus retraction struts. Similar to some other recent Airfix releases though, there is no really positive alignment aid when gluing the upper and lower leg sections together, so care will be required here. The main canopy is supplied as one clear part (i.e. the top escape hatch is moulded shut), while two styles of navigator’s blisters are offered – framed and unframed. Two styles of leading edge landing lights are also on the sprues, but remember that this light was often faired over when rockets were fitted. Nicely detailed pilot and navigator figures are also included. Markings are provided for two aircraft: • PL-J, Serial NE829, No.144 Squadron RAF, Banff, October 1944. This aircraft is finished in Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces, with Sky below and invasion stripes on the fuselage. • H, Serial RO367, SEAC Burma, June to August 1944. Finished in Dark Earth and Dark Green over Medium Sea Grey lower surfaces. The decals are flat in finish, with good colour saturation and registration.
Even with the cowling covers pre-assembled, the fit of the engines was very tight. The engines was trimmed and sanded around the ring and the top of the cylinders to assist fit.
Ailerons are separate parts.
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Eduard has been quick off the mark with a set of 1:72 scale BRASSIN resin hedgehog exhausts.
Eduard’s resin exhausts are better defined and detailed than the kit parts. The short intakes suffer from short moulding on one side.
SIDE-BY-SIDE
It is interesting to compare the Hasegawa and Airfix kits. Hasegawa’s recessed surface detail is finer than Airfix, but interior detail is an easy win to Airfix. Also, Airfix’s parts breakdown is more modeller-friendly, with no inserts and a nice strong wing spar. With its alternative tail surfaces, plus rockets and a centreline torpedo, Airfix offers more options than Hasegawa too. Airfix also triumphs in the price and availability departments.
CONSTRUCTION
Construction was generally very straightforward, even taking the aftermarket additions into consideration. In general, I will let the photos and captions tell the story of construction and painting, but I will point out a few areas that need special attention. Firstly, Airfix does not supply the prominent heater tube from the pilot’s starboard side console to the rear fuselage. I decided not to worry about
this as I thought very little would be visible through the closed canopy in this small scale. I was wrong! You can see pretty much every tiny cockpit detail through the big canopy, and the heater tube, with its pale-coloured wrapping, is a very obvious omission. Do as I say, not as I did – make yourself a heater tube from soft wire or plastic rod. It won’t be a difficult job and it will add a lot to the front office.
SUGGESTED ENGINE ASSEMBLY SEQUENCE
Next, the engine is a very tight fit inside the cowls. The instructions would have you assemble the engine and then build the cowling around it. This is a recipe for gaps and lots of filling. Instead, I recommend that you assemble the three engine cowling panels first and set them aside to dry thoroughly. This should result in a perfect, gap-free fit. Once the cowlings have completely set, try fitting the engine into the cowlings from the rear. If the fit is too tight, you can trim and/or sand down the mounting ring and the tops of the cylinder heads. I needed to do two rounds of sanding before my engines would fit comfortably.
The front of the short intakes were cut off and replaced with the forward section of the long intakes. Not perfect, but it will do!
GENERAL NOTES
Fit was generally excellent throughout, but some taping and clamping was needed here and there – especially for the lower fuselage panel – to hold parts in place as the glue set. This particular aircraft had a few attributes that required minor modification to the basic kit, but nothing complicated. I fitted the leading edge landing light but filled and sanded it as it was faired over on this aircraft. Similarly, I glued the rear wing tip navigation lights in place, filling and sanding these before painting. Very little filler was needed – just a swipe of Mr Surfacer 1000 on a few of the joins before paint was applied.
PAINTING AND WEATHERING
I have wanted to build one of these Canadian Beaufighter TF.Xs for a long time now. I love the combination of the big red and yellow codes, the stark invasion stripes and the heavy weathering from the brutal North Sea conditions, giving the impression of two-toned camouflage in places. I have Aviaeology’s 1:48 scale decal sheet
Airfix’s new 1:72 scale Beaufighter TF.X is a classy kit at a budget price...
Aircraft Edition
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FEATURE ARTICLE: Airfix 1:72 Bristol Beaufighter TF.X • Kit No. A04019
The canopy and rear blister were masked with Tamiya tape.
Canopy frames were painted with Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit Green.
The navigator’s position was masked with a rolled-up Post-It Note, stuffed with a wad of tissue paper.
A coat of Tamiya White primer straight from the spray can was followed by masking the wing and fuselage invasion stripes.
The “closed” undercarriage doors were attached to the open bay using Blu-Tack.
Rolled Post-It Notes were also used to mask off the open engine cowling.
The cowl ring and exhausts were painted scale black – a 50/50 mix of Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black and XF-64 Red Brown – then masked with Tamiya tape.
I forgot to mask off the black sections of the invasion stripes on the bottom of the wings, so I had to repaint these after the coat of Sky.
The black sections of the invasion stripes were painted with the same scale black mix.
That’s more like it! Horizontal stabilisers and fuselage have been masked off in preparation for the upper surface grey coat.
The base coat was a mix of Mr Colour lacquer Ocean Grey and Medium Sea Grey to suggest a very faded version of Extra Dark Sea Grey. A few different mixes of Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey and XF-63 German Grey were sprayed very thinly in streaks and patches to match the weathering patterns seen in wartime photos.
Hard-edged masks were applied to areas that had been recently resprayed with fresh Extra Dark Sea Grey.
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The invasion stripes add real character to the otherwise bland grey scheme.
Panel line highlights and additional weathering was sprayed using low pressure in my Iwata HP-C Plus airbrush.
Red primer was applied with a fine brush along the wing roots, wing panel and the lower gun ports. Vallejo Panzer Aces 301 Light Rust was used for this job.
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(worth the price for the reference photos and notes alone), but when Xtradecal’s 1:72 scale Beaufighter decal set arrived around the same time as the Airfix kit, I knew that the stars had finally aligned. After masking the canopy and blocking the rear fuselage opening and the wheel wells, the canopy frames were sprayed Cockpit Green and painting of the invasion stripes got underway. The base colour was Tamiya’s Fine White Primer straight from the can, followed by masking and the black sections sprayed with my Iwata HP-C Plus airbrush. The completed stripes were now masked and the lower surfaces painted with Mr Hobby’s Sky lacquer. The base coat for the upper surface was a 50/50 mix of Mr Hobby Ocean Grey and Medium Sea Grey. This was meant to represent a heavily faded version of Extra Dark Sea Grey. I was pretty happy with this. Next I mixed a dark grey shade, being a blend of Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey and XF-63 German Grey. This was thinned heavily with isopropylene alcohol and sprayed in streaks and patches according to a few reference photos of similar Canadian Coastal Command Beaufighters. The pattern appears to be quite similar, with large patches of darker grey behind the canopy and on the mid-fuselage. I actually made a second, slightly heavier pass with this dark grey weathering (or it may have been patches of fresh paint), then masked some of the panels on the nose to represent a new coat of Extra Dark Sea Grey. Although the weathering may look a bit extreme, reference photos show that this level of fading, grime and repainting was common amongst these Strike Wing Beaus. Photos also show a dark sealant applied roughly to panel lines and in patches. I used Vallejo Model Color “Light Rust” applied by brush to the wing roots, a panel on the upper port wing, a patch on the bottom of the rudder and the lower gun troughs. The model now received three coats of Future floor polish and the decal were applied. Prior to the top coat, panel lines were highlighted slightly with a mix of Future floor polish, water, and a few drops of “scale black”. This highlighting was applied over the top of the decals. The weathering was sealed with two coats of Alclad Klear Kote Flat.
Markings were sourced from Xtradecal Item No. X72227 – Bristol Beaufighter Mk.X, TF.Mk.X, Mk.21 & TT.Mk.21. These were applied over several glossy coats of Future floor polish.
Lower surface weathering.
Tamiya Weathering Master Weathering Pastels Parts A were used for weathering the exhausts.
Airfix’s undercarriage was replaced with BarracudaCast’s resin BarracudaCast’s wheels are more accurate and wheels and Scale Aircraft Conversions’ white metal landing gear. better detailed than the kit parts, while the level of adjustment offered by SAC’s white metal landing gear legs is very welcome.
The engine cowlings were painted and weathered before they were fitted to the airframe.
Detail parts separated into different colours for painting.
The rockets were decorated with brush-painted rings and spots.
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FEATURE ARTICLE: Airfix 1:72 Bristol Beaufighter TF.X • Kit No. A04019
The whip aerial and the short diagonal whisker antennae on the nose were cut from stretched sprue.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Apart from the after market update parts, I only scratch built a couple of finishing touches. These were the curved whip antenna on the spine and the two short diagonal “whisker” antennae on the sides of the nose. These were all cut from stretched sprue. This must be one of the oldest scratchbuilding techniques known to modellers, but it still comes in handy! A spot of Tamiya X-23 Clear Blue paint was applied to the lens of the strike camera in the nose, and light grey spots were painted around the back rim of the nose cap to represent exposed fasteners.
CONCLUSION
Airfix has delivered another sweet little kit with their 1:72 scale Beaufighter TF.X. Detail is good, surface textures are restrained and crisp, options are useful and parts breakdown is modeller-friendly. Although the kit would look good straight from the box, I was really pleased with the value added by all the accessories that I used too. The cockpit detail from Eduard’s colour photoetched update is clearly visible through the canopy, the BarracudaCast wheels are much nicer than the kit parts while the SAC landing gear looks good and made last-minute adjustments very easy. The Xtradecal markings were a pleasure to use too. •
Rockets, rails and detail parts fitted. Airfix’s new 1:72 scale Beaufighter TF.X is a classy kit at a budget price.
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MODELSPEC Airfix 1:72 Bristol Beaufighter TF.X
The top coat is Alclad Klear Kote Flat.
Kit No. A04019
Accessories Used: • Eduard Item No. SS526 – Self-Adhesive Beaufighter Mk.X photoetched detail set • Eduard BRASSIN Item No. 672076 – Beaufighter Mk.X Exhausts • BarracudaCast Item No. BR72247 – Beaufighter Late Wheels - No Tread • Scale Aircraft Conversions Item No. 72114 – Beaufighter Mk.X Undercarriage (white metal) • Xtradecal Item No. X72227 – Bristol Beaufighter Mk.X, TF.Mk.X, Mk.21 & TT.Mk.21 Tools and Modelling Products Used: • Tamiya Extra Thin Cement • Revell Contacta Cement • Selley’s Super Glue • Zip Kicker (super glue accelerator) • Tamiya Masking Tape Paints and Finishing Products Used:
Do as I say, not as I did – make yourself a heater tube from soft wire or plastic rod. It won’t be a difficult job and it will add a lot to the front office...
• Tamiya (acrylic): X-23 Clear Blue; XF-1 Flat Black; XF-2 Flat White; XF-24 Dark Grey; XF-63 German Grey; XF-64 Red Brown; XF-71 Cockpit Green. • Tamiya Spray Cans – White Primer; Grey Primer; TS-34 Camel Yellow; AS-12 Bare Metal Silver • Tamiya Weathering Master - Weathering Pastels Parts A. • Mr Color lacquer paints: H362 Ocean Grey; H363 Medium Sea Grey; H368 Sky • Mr Hobby Mr Color Leveling Thinner 400. • Vallejo Model Color (acrylic): 847 Dark Sand; 919 Foundation White; 70953 Flat Yellow; 70957 Flat Red • Vallejo Panzer Aces (acrylic): 301 Light Rust; 337 Highlight Ger. (Black) • Alclad Klear Kote Flat • Solvaset decal setting solution • Future Floor Polish Crisp and fine surface features; nice level of detail; good quality moulding; generally very good fit. Missing heating tube; understated hedgehog exhausts; shortshot short carb intakes. Rating: 9 out of 10
* Historical summary courtesy of Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Beaufighter Airfix kits are available online and from hobby shops worldwide. I bought mine from Hannants www.hannants.co.uk
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KIT PREVIEW: KINETIC MODEL KITS 1:48 SEA HARRIER FRS.1. • Kit No. K48035
SHAR ORIGINS
Brett Green examines Kinetic’s new 1:48 scale Sea Harrier FRS.1.
The wing includes an extra vortex generator – correct for this variant. The all-new fuselage.
Clear parts.
T
he British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval short take-off and vertical-landing/vertical takeoff and landing jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft, a development of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier. It first entered service with the Royal Navy in April 1980 as the Sea Harrier FRS.1 and became informally known as the “Shar”. The Sea Harrier served in the Falklands War, both of the Gulf Wars, and the Balkans conflicts; on all occasions it mainly operated from aircraft carriers positioned within the conflict zone. It was the only fixed-wing fighter available to protect the British Task Force during the Falklands War, where thwy shot down 20 enemy aircraft during the conflict with just one lost to enemy ground fire. They were also used to launch ground attacks in the same manner as the Harriers operated by the Royal Air Force.*
IN THE BOX
Kinetic released their excellent 1:48 scale Sea Harrier FA2 in September 2014. They have now followed up with its immediate predecessor, the Sea Harrier FRS.1 Both Tamiya and Airfix have offered Sea Harrier FRS.1 kits in the past, but the Tamiya is an old moulding that suffers from a number of serious accuracy problems and the Airfix kit, while dimensionally accurate, is a very basic kit with raised panel lines and some detail errors. This new kit from Kinetic comprises 284 parts in light grey plastic, 16 parts in clear and a small photo-etched fret. Markings for all Royal Navy and Indian Navy Sea Harrier FRS.1s are are included. Compared to the FA2, this kit features brand new fuselage, wing and weapons sprues. A number of the generic sprues are shared with the earlier release. The fuselage is presented as two main halves plus a separate nose cone.
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The old wing is included too, so make sure you use the right one! The new wing has an additional vortex generator on the upper surface. In common with the Sea Harrier FA2, surface detail looks very nice, with recessed panel lines, vents and rivets over the airframe. Moulding quality is high, with minimal ejector pin circles, seam lines or sink marks. There is only a little fine flash to clean up here and there. Some of the moulding is really clever too, notably the one-piece nozzles. All four nozzles are connected by a rotating mechanism. Cockpit detail is nice straight from the box, with raised detail on the side consoles and instrument panels; and excellent moulding on the sides of the ejector seat. You’ll need to BYO harness straps though. The canopy is split into windscreen and opening section. The latter features the prominent detonation chords moulded into the top. The stressed metal effect on the nozzle blast shields looks great. Optional parts are provided for open or closed auxiliary blow in doors; open or closed air brakes; and the control surfaces and flaps are all offered as separate parts, allowing them to be posed to taste. Landing gear doors may be fixed open or closed too. The modest photo-etched fret provides additional detail parts including scale thickness wing fences. Of the 284 grey plastic parts, 140 are dedicated to ordnance. There appear to be bombs and rocket pods that might relate to a possible RAF Harrier release in the future. Relevant ordnance for the FRS.1 include AIM120 AMRAAM, AIM-9L Sidewinder and Sea Eagle missiles plus pylons and tanks of various sizes. Decals are designed by Crossdelta and luxuriously printed by Cartograf. The model may be finished in any of the
The modest photo-etched fret.
operational schemes - Extra Dark Sea Grey and White, overall Extra Dark Sea Grey, overall Dark Sea Grey and overall Medium Sea Grey. Thanks to the inclusion of a number jungle in various colours and sizes plus individual serial numbers, markings for all 57 Royal Navy aircraft plus 32 from the Indian NAS are provided on the decal sheet. This is a very nice follow up to last year’s Sea Harrier FA2 from Kinetic. It is now easily the best 1:48 scale Sea Harrier FRS.1 on the market today. Kinetic’s new 1:48 scale SHAR is well detailed, offers many useful options and alternative position parts, and provides a wealth of ordnance. Engineering is similar to the FA2, and I found that to be a straightforward and enorable build. This should offer a similar experience.
* Historical information adapted from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ British_Aerospace_Sea_Harrier Thanks to Lucky Model for the sample www.luckymodel.com •
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KIT PREVIEW: SKUNKMODELS WORKSHOP 1:48 ROYAL NAVY TOW TRACTORS WITH CREWS. • Kit No. K48035
SEA HARRIER WRANGLERS Skunkmodels Workshop has released a versatile set of 1:48 scale vehicles and figures to accompany Kinetic’s Sea Harrier kits.
Detail and sculpting are quite nicely done.
The main body parts for one of the tractors. Two full tractor kits are included.
A
n Aircraft Handler is a member of the Aircraft Handling branch in the Royal Navy of the UK Armed Forces. Aircraft Handlers are responsible for the safe movement, launching (taking off) and recovering (landing) of all aircraft on board ships in the Royal Navy and some of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. They are also responsible for aircraft crash rescue fire fighting duties on board Royal Navy ships and at Royal Naval Air Stations. The Aircraft Handling branch of the Fleet Air Arm in the Royal Navy was formed in 1945. Beforehand, the duties of Aircraft Handlers were performed by members of other branches of the Royal Navy, many of whom transferred to the new branch upon its formation. Aircraft Handlers use specific equipment when they are based on board ships, such as All Wheel Drive tractors and EN Mechanical Handlers to move aircraft. To carry out their fire fighting role they use fixed fire hoses from the ships system and other fire fighting equipment like 10 kg CO2 extinguishers and SF 90 foam extinguishers.
The Aircraft Handler figures include drivers for the tractors.
Skunkmodels Workshop’s latest release is a 1:48 scale Royal Navy Tow Tractors set with nine deck crew figures. The set comprises 151 parts in light grey plastic, a small decal sheet and a Royal Navy carrier deck section printed onto the back of the box. Two full tractors are supplied on two identical grey sprues. Each tractor is made up from 54 plastic parts. Detail and textures, including tread plate, look good. The wheels are broken down into hubs and separate tyre halves. Two tow bars are supplied too. Also included on the sprues, although not mentioned in the instructions, are two Sea Harrier boarding ladders (Parts A62, A26 nd A29). These should be appropriate for either the FRS.1 or FA.2 versions. The tractor colours are called out as Golden Yellow up until the mid 1980s, or Olive Drab from the mid-1980s onward. Generic markings are provided on the small decal sheet. The third sprue contains nine Aircraft Handler figures.
Wheels include two-part plastic tyres.
These all have separate heads and arms, plus one set of wheel chocks. Moulding and sculpting looks good. The printed deck is a nice idea too. This is printed onto the glossy cardboard box so you’ll want to cut it out and hit it with a coat of Flat Clear.
CONCLUSION
Skunkmodels’ 1:48 scale Royal Navy Tow Tractors With Crews is a versatile set that will either compliment your Sea Harrier model kit or be an effectve standalone display. It is great to see some modern Royal Navy deck vehicles and Airtcraft Handler figures. I’ll look forward to seeing what Skunkmodels comes up with next. Thanks to Lucky Model for the sample www.luckymodel.com •
* Aircraft Handlers description courtesy of Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Aircraft_Handler
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FEATURE ARTICLE: ZOUKEI-MURA 1:32 HORTEN HO 229. • Kit No. SWS #8
BAT OUT OF HELL! James Hatch builds the 1:32 Horten Ho 229 from Zoukei-Mura
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T
he very seed of the Horten Ho 229 project, was sown by the harsh restrictions that were forced upon Germany when she signed the Armistice at the end of The Great War. Whilst many civilians were facing untold hardship and starvation in the closing stages of the conflict, and her armies were on retreat, they still had reasonable strength that, had things been different, could have turned the tide of the war in Germany’s favour. As a result, many within Germany saw the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, as being the equivalence of military castration. Those restrictions did lack something though, and those were certain technologies that were seen to be non-militaristic, and even folly. These were the development and pursuance of activities such as gliding, and jet and rocket propulsion. As gliding
become popular in 1920s Germany, leading proponents of future technologies began to appear.
THE MONSTER IS LOOSE
Enter Reimar and Walter Horten. Their work on flying wing designs began to be noticed in the 1930’s, and their activities were of particular interest to the Nazi party, and at the outbreak of war, despite both serving in the Luftwaffe, their expertise was called upon by aero engineers. When Goering issued a requirement for a new high speed bomber in 1943, the Horten brothers submitted a flying wing design, which without a traditional fuselage and tail, could reduce overall drag and result in a much sleeker, lightweight aircraft, capable of carrying the 1000kg bomb load which was stipulated in the RLM requirements.
The result was a beautiful and quite imposing batwing style machine that was constructed from a tubular metal central section, timber and carbon composite spars, and sheathed in plywood. It was also powered by two turbojet engines, housed either side of the pilot. Several prototypes were built, and flew, with varying success, and by the end of the war, only one complete machine remained, awaiting final assembly (V3), and several were in various stages of completion. The V3 is now housed at the NASM, awaiting restoration. The Ho 229 was also known as the Go 229, after the factory at which it was built (Gothaer Waggonfabrik). Like several late war German designs, had the war not ended in 1945, production of the Ho 229 could indeed have had an effect on Allied bombing of Germany, and also
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FEATURE ARTICLE: ZOUKEI-MURA 1:32 HORTEN HO 229. • Kit No. SWS #8
Zoukei-Mura’s instruction manual captures that ‘secret project’ authenticity of the period with a thick, high quality publication. All constructional sequences are shown in beautiful detail, with kit design notes and information about the real aircraft.
Two whole sprues are taken up with the engines alone; one per engine. Superbly detailed, but not including the combustion chambers. That is a separate purchase. The rear engine components are no less impressive, and again, you will hardly see anything when complete.
As you can see, the fit is like a glove. Very impressive engineering and moulding. Just make sure you put the fan faces the correct way around.
You really never will see this detail! The forward compressor chamber contains all the stator vanes and fan parts, and yes, the fans will spin in between the stators. Hidden around the engine sprue itself are various components for building an engine cradle. A very nice touch, should you wish to pose an engine separately.
The interior of the compressor chamber was airbrushed with Mr Metal Chrome silver.
very possibly have delivered its own payload of bombs to neighbouring countries. This last 12 months, for me at least, seems to have been a whirlwind of building more late-war Luftwaffe stuff than is perhaps healthy. All this since I decided to build more WW1 aircraft too. It’s a hard life. When this new kit dropped on the doormat for review recently, I knew it wasn’t going to be long before I tucked into it and experienced what looks like the most complicated engineering I’ve yet seen on a kit. That’s no detriment to the amazing job ZM have done here. That’s simply the nature of the beast. The box is open, and the monster is now well and truly loose.
THE KIT
Zoukei-Mura’s new Ho 229 comes in a rather large box which interior compartments, and a top opening flap lid. Some very cool artwork is supplied on the lid that sits over the inner box. For only a wing, there are a LOT of sprues in here. At nineteen in total, that is more than many kits of normal configuration aircraft, let
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alone one without a regular fuselage or tail. Parts are moulded in either clear, light grey or frosted plastic, with the main exterior panels being moulded from the frosted type. Two highly detailed Jumo engines are included, as are many of the internal structures. Without a doubt, this looks quite daunting to start with, and the one thing that is recommended by the manufacturer is to read the instructions. I really can’t emphasize that any more clearly. Now it’s time to open all those individual plastic bags and tuck into this feast of plastic. Anyone for a wing?
ALL REVVED UP WITH NO PLACE TO GO
I don’t build jets very often, so I couldn’t resist that intro! Two entire sprues are dedicated to the Ho 229’s Jumo 004 engines, with a few small parts also spilling onto another sprue. There’s no doubt that ZM’s attention to detail here is astounding, with the very best recreation of this legendary engine, in any injection plastic kit. What makes it so special? Well, the stator fans and compressor blades are included in the construction, despite you not
actually being able to see them when assembled. This is a little like adding the pistons and conrods into a radial or inline engine, then closing it up. That’s something else that ZM has done with previous releases. For the Jumo, however, it makes an interesting proposition if you want to display an engine next to the model, with the cover off. That is certainly possible now that a stand is included on each sprue, for mounting the engines adjacent to the model. The kit, oddly enough, doesn’t contain the combustion chambers, but ZM has just released this as a separate set. For me, this should have been included at the outset, and not something you need to pay extra for. Construction starts with sliding the compressor fans onto the central drive shaft. It’s vital this follows the instructions, as the sections in between the fans must align so that they naturally curve. The fans sit between the static stator blades that now have to fit into the forward compressor chamber walls. These are a little fiddly and time consuming, especially when you consider that you won’t see them in my
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Dark Iron was airbrushed around the interior of the engines, and then burnished with a cotton bud.
Both engines are now complete except for the external piping and plumbing. That will be added after initial painting.
Base painting the Jumo 004 creates quite a multi-coloured affair. Another base onto which weathering will be applied.
Gunze soot is applied to the rearmost area of the tail pipe, streaking it randomly forwards to create a heated effect.
Minor details were painted with Vallejo, and AK Dark Brown wash was used to pick out detail. Some decals from a CMK DB601 engine set were applied to create a little uniqueness. Also great for ID’ing the engines when installing in the airframe.
If you wanted to display an engine next to the model, the engine cradles supplied in this kit, are absolutely perfect, and a great little touch. far left: I only like clear plastic for canopies, but this kit has it in bundles. The Jumo heat shields are moulded as clear parts for some reason. These will need to be airbrushed in black and weathered.
Left: You can see how fragile the fuselage frames are on the sprue. When assembled though, they create a rigid cage structure. Just be careful in handling them.
finished model. I call it ‘taking one for the team’. When complete, I gave them a blast with Gunze Silver Chrome, essentially just so you can see how fine these parts, and those fan blades are. It was a little worrying removing then from the sprues, and it takes a little care, so as not to bend or break the parts. Luckily, my care paid off. Assembling the various sections, such as the intake, turbine nozzle, and combustion chamber body, was simple, with very little parts clean up required. Any seams were removed with a few strokes of a sanding stick. It’s such a shame that the nature of the narrow intake and exhaust mean that you can see little inside of the orifices. Nevertheless, the detail is there if you look hard enough. For painting the inside of the intake and the cone that covers the starter-motor, I used Gunze Silver Chrome. One paint that I adore is Gunze Dark Iron. This was airbrushed around the turbine nozzle, rotor and interior of the external shell. Once dry, it was polished to a metallic sheen using a cotton bud. Assembly was straightforward, as was with the
compressor housing and the incumbent fan and shaft assembly. Before too long, the main engine itself was complete.
IN COATS OF MANY COLOURS
The Jumo 004 can be seen in many finishes, on those surviving examples in museums. We need to remember that the majority of these have been restored. As the various sections of the jet engine were perhaps finished slightly differently, I wasn’t going to beat myself up over the chosen colours, but nonetheless went with something that had a common vein to it, looking at various photos. I used FX-55 Deck Tan for the exterior of the rear turbine, and reduced its vibrancy with Tamiya Flat White, heavily diluted. Gunze RLM02 was airbrushed over the compressor housing, and with this and the rear turbine masked, Tamiya Flat Black was sprayed over the exterior of the combustion chamber section. One paint that has recently hit my radar are the metallics from AK-Interactive. I used Aluminium and Dark Aluminium for the intake housing, to give some variation.
Before hitting the obligatory coat of Klear to seal things, I airbrushed more AK-Interactive Aluminium around the tailpipe section of the rear exhaust housing, and followed this with some seriously dilute Tamiya Red-Brown around the weld seams. This was followed by an application of thin Gunze Soot, around the rearmost exhaust area, and streaking backwards in a random fashion, to simulate the effect of heat on this area. Another superb product is Uschi can der Rosten’s metal pigments. I used Iron here, applied with a cotton bud over the flat black compressor housing. When buffed to a sheen, the effect was a little too pronounced, and was toned down with a thin coat of Tamiya Flat Black. Once the Klear coat was dry, I used AK-Interactive’s Dark Brown wash on the detail areas and then let these aside to cure. At the same time, the various sections of pipework and other small details were treated in the same way. After excess wash had been removed with a cotton bud, the various pipes and other small details were added to the jet engine, and final details painted with Vallejo paints. I did consider adding a little thin lead wire to
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FEATURE ARTICLE: ZOUKEI-MURA 1:32 HORTEN HO 229. • Kit No. SWS #8
To eliminate any ejector pin marks on the fragile frame parts, ZM have added small external tags to their parts. These simply need snipping and cleaning. My Xuron sprue cutters get as close to the part as possible, with minimum clean up.
The fuselage is constructed over this lower framework. Test fitting other subsequent frame parts is always a good idea with this model, perhaps more so than normal.
A quick test fit of the lower fuselage panel to the lower frame. The fit is absolute, with no play whatsoever. Very impressive.
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The three-piece wing roots fit together with no ambiguity, and slots to the lower frame, beautifully. This is a trend seen throughout the whole model.
This complicated structure contains only around a dozen parts. Test fitting other frame parts means…….
…..that test fitting the upper frame will present no hidden surprises and problems.
RLM02 was used to base coat the frames, as per the real aircraft. Highlights and lowlights were then added by lightening and darkening the base coat.
Detail painting was done with using Vallejo and Mr Metal Color paints.
plumb a few areas that I felt needed a little extra, but these areas would be totally hidden once built, as would most of the other airframe detail that ZM has included.. This was finished with yellow Vallejo paint. In all fairness, ZM have done an amazing job with their representation, and my extra was simply to put the cherry on the cake. As well as adding some numerical decals to the exterior of the rear exhaust housing, using a sheet from a CMK DB601 engine, I also scrawled some numbers to the side of the compressor housing, using a fine paintbrush and Vallejo paint. This is something I have seen on this area in some photos, and they add a welcome bit of personal detail to the appearance. I assume the scrawled numbers are added to this section as it was frequently stripped down to replace the compressor fan blades. Perhaps the number signified something to do with the replacement? Who knows? All I know is that it’s a nice detail to add. AK-Interactive’s Engine Oil wash was used to add some lubricant to various pipes and connectors.. To finish the engines, I cut a little Gunze Gloss varnish with H20 flat varnish, and
thinned with Mr Levelling Thinner. This essentially gives a finish that isn’t quite flat, and imparts a subtle sheen. I can only assume that ZM moulded the heat shield parts in clear plastic, in case someone wanted a throwback to the Monogram Phantom Mustang kit of the 1960s! Clear plastic is more brittle, less flexible, and doesn’t glue as well as the grey styrene, and this is no exception. I airbrushed each of the parts, four in total, in Tamiya Flat Black, and then gave them a couple of light coats of Klear. AK-Interactive’s white Paneliner was then applied to detail, and the excess removed when dry. The heat shield parts are handed, meaning that there is a left and right hand side set. These were identified with the decal numbers I added to the engines. The twopart heat shields were attached to the engines, and the resulting seam ignored as it wouldn’t be seen directly underneath each engine.
sequence. More often than not, we start with the cockpit, but not here. For the Ho 229, the cockpit would have been a cold, noisy place that almost looked like an afterthought, wedged in between the Jumo engines. To begin to build this aircraft, we need to start with the fuselage. Now, when I say fuselage, what I actually mean are the numerous lengths of angled, steel tubes that made up the wing centre section. Now, switch your brain to engineer mode, and study every drawing, piece of text and advice that follows in the booklet. Now really isn’t the time to think you can build this by intuition, as many of us do, to a point. Thankfully, many parts of that frame are actually quite different to each other, so this allows me to remove a good number of them from the sprues, cleaning and actually gluing the occasional one as I go. My weapon of choice, as always, is Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. Seam lines on these parts are thankfully minimal, but I certainly don’t shy away from using my Flex-i-file where I deem it necessary to do so. Most impressive is the lower, belly frame. This extends full width and length, and is also moulded with a curious
FUSELAGE? WHAT FUSELAGE?
This model is certainly unconventional. The structure of it is unconventional, as is the immediate assembly
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Linkages were airbrushed in chrome, and a wash added to the detail areas, as with the airframe itself.
Weapons are now installed and framework. Ammunition carriers will be fitted after the engines are installed. The box seen at the rear of this frame is the landing parachute stowage area.
You need to be careful in installing the engines. They need to be angled and rotated so that the ancillary equipment doesn’t snag on the airframe.
Two instrument panels are included. I opted for the grey one with moulded instruments on the rear face. These needed to be drilled to accept lead wire.
Tamiya FX-1 Flat Black is airbrushed over the ammunition containers, before being dry brushed in Vallejo Sky Grey and chips added with Prismacolor pencil.
Engines installed: Check. Ammunition containers installed: Check. Upper frame locked securely in place: Check. The Ho 229 starts to take shape.
The lead wire was loomed and clipped with small lengths of masking tape. The wire would be cut to length after test fitting.
Two seat options are included with both belts and without. All interior parts get a base coat of RLM66 Grey.
After a coat of Klear, instrument and placard decals are applied. These are mostly from the Airscale range, and they always look great in situ.
box towards the tail. This was used for stowing the parachute that would deploy upon landing. Another first for aviation. Construction of the fuselage is actually fairly straightforward, despite its complicated appearance. Just stick to the script and everything will be just fine. It’s vital that you test fit constantly, and use some forward thinking. You will find that it isn’t necessary to assemble small airframe parts and then install to the main frame. There are many parts of the tubular structure that can be fitted at this stage. I think ZM outlines the assembly like this, for ease of painting smaller parts and details. For me, I built the entire lower frame, minus a couple of parts that needed putting into place when the upper framework was attached. This was then all airbrushed in RLM02, and despite the complexity of the framework, covered very quickly. I took the liberty of cleaning up and airbrushing the upper framework at this point. It seemed pointless to replicate this process later. RLM02 can look quite monotone, even on a framework like this, so I mixed the base colour with both black and white, and added highlights and
shade to the various nooks and crannies. Using a very diluted base coat, I then airbrushed over the various tones, and blended them whilst still allowing enough contrast to remain. Other details, such as bolt heads and piston rams and collars, were handpainted with Mr Metal Colour Brass and Chrome Silver. These, once thoroughly mixed, paint superbly with a small brush. You just need to clean it regularly so that any coagulate can be removed. A number of internal linkages also needed paint before them could be fitted. For these, I used AK-Interactive’s Aluminium. I’m rapidly becoming a fan of these paints, as they are far easier to apply than Alclad, and they look every bit as good, if not better. Once a coat of sealing Klear was applied and left to cure, I used Dark Brown wash to pick out the numerous details on the very detailed frame parts. Excess was removed with a cotton bud, and then frames then finished with a very light coat of Gunze Flat Clear H20, allowing a very subtle sheen to be imparted. The last thing I needed to do at this stage was to fit the engines and add the upper frame. Various small areas of paint were scraped away,
ready for glue, and the engines were slid forward into the frame. The best way to do this is to twist the engine so that the upper pipework is facing inward, so as not to snag it. Once pushed forward, the engines could be rotated into their final position, and secured with a small amount of Tamiya cement, run around the main mounting point. There really is no point in trying to add the top frame, and THEN the engines, as I’ve seen some online try to do. Why struggle?
COCKPIT
To say that the Ho 229 cockpit is basic is an understatement. If this thing had ever entered service, it would have been an uncomfortable aircraft to fly. Not only is the cockpit open to the elements from the wheel well, which must’ve meant that it was cold, but you were also sat directly in between two ferociously noisy jet engines….and I mean directly! You could literally touch the sides of the intake housings, and see the gearboxes from the cockpit. As with the fuselage construction, the cockpit was built from tubular sections too, and the side instruments were strapped
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A drop of Micro Crystal Clear into each instrument helps to simulate the glass effect. Just use it sparingly so that all instruments set perfectly clear.
Whilst the cockpit might be a simple affair, with careful painting and decaling, it can look every bit as good as one from a more fully featured aircraft.
I was particularly impressed with the instrument panel in this kit. You can see just how ‘busy’ the whole model looks at this stage. So much detail. All forward undercarriage parts are assembled and ready for paint.
I didn’t feel the need to add any aftermarket seat belts in this build. ZM made a great job of the moulded detail, and I really couldn’t not use it!
The compact design of the Ho 229 is evident here. That large main gear has to retract into the small recess behind the pilot.
After painting the wheel in Tire Black, I splayed open the forward gear fork using Xuron fine pliers, and slid the wheel into place.
Using the same technique as painting the internal frame, the forward nose gear and lower fuselage internal colours were added.
I opted to use a little aluminium foil for the compression strut. A little tricky, but quite a nice effect. This was glued with Micro Crystal Clear.
to these. Instruments were rudimentary, but the main instrument panel was fully featured. The kit represents the side ‘walls’ as separate parts, with throttle and other minor parts added as individual items. ZM provides TWO instrument panel options, but unfortunately, not the option I would normally have wanted to use. A grey plastic part is included, that is moulded with excellent rear instrument detail, but the front instrument faces have moulded dial detail that is average. A clear part is included, but this is average. It has blank instrument faces, but not recessed (!?), and there are no moulded instruments to the rear, as it’s designed to facilitate a decal being fitted from the rear. I decided to use the grey part. Using a micro-drill bit, a hole was made in the rear of each instrument, into which I added a small length of lead wire. The wire was loomed and clips made from narrow strips of masking tape. The instrument panel wasn’t the only cockpit part that came with options. Two pilot seats were also included. One of these was moulded with seatbelts, and the other allows you to add your own. Normally I’d go for adding my own, but I have to concede that ZM’s moulded belts are excellent, so I decided to roll with it.
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All interior parts were airbrushed in RLM66, and details painted with Vallejo acrylics. These were then given a sealing coat of Klear, and numerous decals attached. RP Toolz’s superb Punch & Die sets were used to punch out some decals from Airscale instrument sets, and these were added to the instrument panel with a little setting solution. Even over the moulded detail, this worked perfectly. A number of Airscale placard decals were also added, but not too many. ZM do actually provide individual instrument decals, but they are terrible. Despite ZM’s 5 years in the business, they haven’t got their decals right. The instruments are so poorly defined that they are almost just black. On the other hand, companies like HK Models have learned quickly and ditched their proprietary decal manufacturer for Cartograf. Another sealing coat was then added to the cockpit parts, and AK-Interactive Dark brown wash applied. After excess removal, Gunze Flat Clear was used over these parts, and Micro Crystal Clear used on instrument faces. I was very pleased with how this finally came out. Vallejo Sky Grey was dry-brushed over the cockpit parts, and some Tamiya Weathering pastel applied with a soft brush. Finally, the cockpit was assembled onto
the fuselage airframe, and the last control linkages added. The loose ends of the wiring looms were conveniently hidden away underneath the cockpit consoles. I was pretty happy with the result.
WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD
This is truly bizarre in the stance and appearance of the aircraft on the ground. The large front wheel was thought to be a main wheel from a Do 335, but the scrawnier main gear of the Ho 229 was much smaller, and akin to that of the Bf 109 (previous prototypes did use an actual Bf 109 undercarriage). Those main struts are moulded as single pieces, onto which you add the scissor to the oleo, and other detail such as brake lines, torque links etc. The sheer size of the forward strut means that it is moulded as halves, and that seam needs to be removed. It also needs to be painted, so how is this achieved, whilst it needs to accept that large wheel too. I took a chance. The strut was assembled and seams removed, and like the rest of the gear parts, it was painted in RLM02, followed by the same shade/highlight technique that I used on the fuselage interior. Wheels were now painted in Gunze Tire Black, and the hubs in Tamiya SemiGloss Black. Kit decals were fitted to the hubs too,
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This is the first nose-wheel model that I can assure you will never be a tail sitter! No nose weight required.
All external panels are moulded in the dreaded clear plastic that is harder and more brittle than the regular grey styrene. All fuselage panels needed painting internally with RLM02. The upper, rear panel also needed the heat channel adding and this was also treated with Alclad Hotmetal tones.
Panel test fit was perfect. I’m astounded by the engineering on this complicated model. It is flawless. The rear view is impressive, and shows off the complexity of the kit. Here you can also see the battery fitted into its mount. This is painted in RLM23 red.
and then sealed before the assemblies were toned down with Flat Clear H20. To fit the main wheel, I first shortened the locating pins on the forward wheel strut, and then used a pair of fine Xuron pliers, inserted between the fork openings, and carefully prised the assembly apart. The wheel was then gently inserted into the fork, and click…..it fitted.
EXTERNAL FUSELAGE SKINS
If you don’t like clear plastic, then this isn’t for you. All external panels are moulded in the stuff. As you will actually see the interior of the fuselage in some areas, it was important that they be painted in RLM02. This includes the airbrakes, which are also bizarrely moulded in clear styrene. After temporarily fitting the outside panels, I determined the areas that would be seen from the wheel wells and rear canopy area. These were shaded and highlighted as required, and the underside of the jet heat panels were airbrushed in AK-Interactive’s Dark Aluminium, from their Xtreme Metal range. Using some Alclad Hot Metal colours, and a subtle finishing with Gunze Soot, a subtle completed the job. Fitting the panels was so simple, and you can’t
help but achieve a precision fit. First up was the central lower panel, and this aligns with attachment points on the framework. The rear lower panel attaches at the parachute box point. After fitting the airbrakes, the main upper panel was finally lowered into place. ZM would have you fit the nose section first, but this part has a little more ambiguity than the other parts. Once the remainder of the shell is fitted, the nose then can be precisely pushed into place and secured with Tamiya Thin cement. Now we really do have what looks like a Ho 229, at last.
RAZOR’S EDGE
ZM’s philosophy of creating interior stuff continues with the wings. For me, this didn’t work well on the previous releases, as that detail was simplified beyond recognition, but for the Ho 229 with its wooden wings, they really have nailed it. Each wing frame is moulded as a single part, except for the root rib with its slide moulding to accommodate the wing attachment points. Cleaning up the main wing parts is a little precarious when you consider the number of fragile ribs at the leading edge. Note the rib connection points for the fuel tanks too. Inside those wings will fit a series of four fuel tanks. Each of these is moulded with integral plumbing,
As with many parts in this kit, the airbrakes are moulded in clear plastic. These were painted with RLM02, but later changed to be the same colour as the undersides.
and all you need to complete each of the four tanks per wing, is to pop the bottom panel into them. As well as the internal wing tanks, the mechanism is included for the rudder drag brakes (comically referred to in the manual as ‘drug brakes’!). Whilst my rationale for painting the interior of the fuselage is that you can see it through various openings, that doesn’t extend to the wings, as these would be totally painted. I’m not a fan of the clear plastic, and didn’t want to show any of the internal structures here, no matter how good they really are. However, I would paint the internal area around where the drag brakes would fit, as it was apparent you could see into there. Wing assembly was very straightforward, with the tanks fitting beautifully into the framework. If I was to open up the wing and display this (maybe next time), it would look spectacular. A fair bit of clean-up was required on the main wing, removing the numerous small tags that ZM use for their ejection pin points. This is solution is far better than having pin marks on the kit. This same solution is employed throughout this kit. I wish more companies would use it. Drag brake linkages were airbrushed with AK-Interactive’s Xtreme Metal Aluminium, and
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The finesse of the wing mouldings is evident here. There are only two parts in this photo; the main wing and the end rib.
All wing components are laid out here, including the linkage for the win g tip rudder brakes. There are four fuel tanks within each wing, complete with integral pipework that locks into the surrounding tanks.
The wings of the Ho 229 were locked into place with four bolts each. The same applies to the model. Here you can see the kit with the wings in dry-fit mode. Wing panels were fitted with a mix of Tamiya Extra Thin cement, and Revell Contacta, so help soften the leading edges so that the seams were easy to remove.
Rught: In this photo, you can see the wing fixing bolts, moulded in clear plastic.
a dark brown wash applied to detail. Interior wing areas at that point were treated to a coat of RLM02, and then the linkages installed. Unusually, ZM states that you need to fit the wing frames to the sheathed fuselage, and then add the outer wing panels. This sounded awkward with regards to removing seams safely, and clamping the panels and frames, but I can see their raison d’être for this. By fitting the wing frames to the fuselage, and then securing them with the four pins per wing (as per the real aircraft), then any ambiguity that there is with the fitting of the outer panels, can be used in your favour to ensure that they fit properly against the fuselage skin. Fitting those wing frames was textbook, and the pins secured through the wing points and into the fuselage, locking everything together with precision. The lower wing panels were now fitted, with the main and rear spar providing the locating points, and proving alignment up to the fuselage, and along the leading edge. I left these parts to fully cure before attaching the upper panels. To fasten these parts, I used Tamiya Thin cement, but also applied an initial run of Revell Contacta along the leading edge, allowing a little softening of the clear plastic first. When the Tamiya cement was then applied, it helped me to create a minor seam of squeezed plastic that I could sand back when set.
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THOSE LAST IMPORTANT DETAILS
The majority of these last parts are moulded in clear plastic, such as the undercarriage doors, pitot (!), and of course the canopy. With the latter, there are two options. You can simply use the single-piece main hood, or one that has an internal frame and two external clear parts. This was to be my option. All internal areas were sprayed in RLM66, then the external glazing attached. I took the opportunity to mask this and the strange-looking forward windshield, using the green vinyl masks supplied in the kit. Using Micro Crystal Clear, the hood was temporarily tacked into place until after the painting was complete. I really couldn’t use the kit pitot. It’s probably the only bad part of the kit. To replace this, I use a couple of brass slide tubes from Albion Alloys. Undercarriage door interiors were painted and shaded with RLM02 tones, and a wash applied. Externally, the underside colour was applied to match the colour that we would use in the main scheme. These would be fitted after the main scheme was applied. Control surfaces aren’t what you would normally expect with a model. They are moulded as single-part items, again in clear plastic. All that was needed was for them to be fitted to the main airframe. Again, the engineering of this kit meant that this was simplicity itself.
It seems a shame to finally hide those engines with the rear covers, so I decided I wouldn’t. After airbrushing the internals in Dark Aluminium, they were temporarily fastened to the model using Micro Crystal Clear. Now I could mask the various openings and/or stuff them with soft grey foam prior to adding some paint.
PAINT SCHEME – AMNESTY IS GRANTED.
Germany, in 1947, was in a terrible state. The war that had seemed close to ending in early 1945, was still raging in angry, violent pockets across both Eastern and Western fronts. Due to Albert Speer’s total control over all war production, more or less every member of Germany’s populace, was now involved in the war effort. For the 18th month in a row, output was up across aircraft production, tank production, and all munitions manufacture. Re-conquered territories in the East were helping the German dinner table, at the expense of brutal use of slave labour, and so starvation had been staved off in the Reich. Speer’s organisational skills were in no doubt, and in late 1945, he made the decision to end the Reich’s bloated technological programme, and reign in the vast numbers of aircraft projects and current in-service designs. Germany’s three main aircraft types were now the Arado Ar 234, Messerschmitt Me 262, and the
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Wing panels were fitted with a mix of Tamiya Extra Thin cement, and Revell Contacta, so help soften the leading edges so that the seams were easy to remove.
Wing panels were fitted with a mix of Tamiya Extra Thin cement, and Revell Contacta, so help soften the leading edges so that the seams were easy to remove.
After a coat of Tamiya Fine Surface Primer, I airbrushed Tamiya XF-2 Flat White into the areas where I wanted to add the Bavarian markings. This was then masked off with 1cm squares.
Love it or hate it, but for me, preshade works. Tamiya XF-2 Flat Black was used to apply this.
Gunze Sky Blue is a perfect match for Royal Bavarian blue, and this was airbrushed over the tail and forward intake areas.
bizarre Horten Ho 229 flying wing. The latter had entered service in mid-1946, and had seen combat on both fronts. Piston-engine aircraft were now relegated to transport and training, with fighting aircraft now being exclusively jet powered. The dynamics of Germany were, however, changing. Whilst the Nazi’s were still busy waging their ideological war in the East, and re-conquering territory, the stomach for Nazism was waning in the Western states, and a number of these were now fighting with the Allied forces. Bavaria was one such State. The limited quantities of Chromium needed for jet engine compressor fan blades, was now flowing freely, due to the Allies, meaning that the Luftwaffe aircraft flying with the Allies, now had a distinct advantage over those still under Nazi order. This meant that the continual service of Jumo 004 engines was now at an end, giving the engines a longer service life. Overall control of the Luftwaffe in the Alliedfriendly German States came under Allied overall command, under Eisenhower. As both these and the Nazis were operating the same machines, Allied Luftwaffe units began to use the old Imperial marking standards seen in The Great War. More strikingly perhaps, colours of the State were applied as a chequerboard pattern to fuselages. For the Bavarian aircraft, this was again
RLM65 was airbrushed over the lower surfaces so that the pre-shade was only just discernible and not in an even manner.
reminiscent of the Bavarian Jasta ‘b’ units of the previous conflagration. Of course, no Hakenkreuz (swastika) was applied to these aircraft. One fighter unit that operated from around Munich in the summer of 1947, was JG.1/B, with the ‘B’ denoting it as Bavarian, as it did with the fighter squadrons in the 1914-18 war. This unit’s thirtytwo Ho 229 aircraft, had the chequer format extending from the rear fantail area of the Horten machine, right up to the jet engine area, plus the same pattern on the area adjacent to the jet intakes. Two-tone green splinter camouflage was abandoned on fighter aircraft, in favour of RLM75 and RLM83 soft edged colours. Undersides were now standardised with RLM65
RECREATING THE MYTH
I don’t usually prime models, but this model really needed it. Painting the interior of the fuselage shells in RLM02 of course gave the exterior a strange green appearance, and this didn’t extend to the wings where I had left them in clear plastic. After bunging up numerous orifices with grey foam, masking protruding features, and temporarily attaching the engine covers with Micro Crystal Clear, the model was sprayed with a Tamiya primer rattle can (remember to airbrush RLM66 over the forward canopy frame!). A couple of
small seam defects along the wing trailing edge were now filled with a little CA, and then sanded back. Work proper started with airbrushing Tamiya XF-2 Flat White over the areas to receive the Bavarian chequer-boards. After sealing with Klear, small 1cm² masks, carefully cut from Tesa tape, were applied, with some care being needed around the intake areas. Gunze Sky Blue H25 was now misted over these areas until the colour was solid. Masking was now removed, and the pattern revealed. A few small touch-ups would later be applied where the edges weren’t sharp. I let this paint cure for 24hrs before masking it off with some tape that had the tack reduced. A pre-shade of Tamiya Flat Black was now applied, thinned 70% with Mr Levelling Thinner. Painting itself begins with applying RLM65 to the undersides, being careful to blend the pre-shade in so that its existence isn’t generally noticeable. Why not RLM76 though? Simple. The next weathering process would lighten it and give it a lighter hue, generally. I extended this colour just over the top of the wing leading edge too, as I wanted a wavy demarcation line here. Once cured, Tamiya XF-2 Flat White was airbrushed over the underside colour, in a sense squiggle pattern. To do this, the airbrush crown cap is removed, so the lines are finer. This creates a mottled effect that has a naturally
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To add some visual interest, I airbrushed some heavily diluted XF-1 in a fine, tight, squiggly pattern. This created a mottled appearance.
Thin Blue-Tak worms were added to the leading edge, in a wavy shape that lay along the upper face of the leading edge.
More Blue-Tak worms were now used to mark the edges of the camouflage pattern. Tape was added to the previously painted grey areas.
For this model, I used the ZM stencils and cowl numbers, but when it came to the national markings, it was Wingnut Wings that came to the rescue!
Vallejo RLM02 equivalent was used to touch up a few areas such as the fuselage ledges, underneath the engine cowls.
Et Voila! Just a few touch-ups were required where paint had bled.
The completed model.
weathered look. Masking the model to spray the upper surfaces, is incredibly easy when dealing with a flying wing, and the job was complete in minutes. Very thin worms of Blu-Tack were added along the leading edge, in a roughly even and wavy manner. With this in place, RLM75 Grey was applied. Being of mostly wooden construction, the surface detail is a little sparse, with just panel lines and ports, and no rivets. This would shortly be given some more visual interest. Blu-Tack was again used to add fairly fine worms to the camouflage edges, and I infilled the newly painted regions with Tesa tape. The next colour to be applied was RLM83 Green, and again this and the previous RLM75 Grey were ‘mottled’ in the same manner as the undersides. Mr Metal Colour was then airbrushed over the metal panels to the rear of the exhaust, after masking the external areas.
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WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET
As this model is essentially just a wing with no tail and fuselage, the painting seems to be over very quickly, despite the previous Bavarian colour application. The next step was to airbrush Klear over the model, at a low pressure. Some people struggle to spray this neat. I suggest just backing off your needle a little, so allow easier flow. Keep the airbrush moving, wetting the surface as you go, and never initiate any trigger whilst the airbrush is midmodel, to avoid any welling, spitting or spluttering. Before any decals are applied, I like to leave the Klear coat 24hrs, as I seem to have better success with my decal solutions not causing any fogging of the paintwork. For decals, I used a small number of both Eduard and Wingnut Wings markings, coupled with those on the kit’s own sheet, such as stencils etc. I don’t like ZM decals. I find them a little too ill defined and thick, so I was glad to use the Cartograf-produced markings from my Wingnut
Wings decal stash. Mr Mark Setter was used to apply these, and later that day, I sealed them behind more Klear. Another 24hours later, I used AK Dark Brown wash to highlight the panel lines, using a very fine brush. The decals had bedded down beautifully into the surrounding paintwork, which made pin wash for the panel lines quite easy. For the metallic areas, I used a wash of also used the same wash, around those weld seams, but flooded this with white spirit, and buffed with a cotton bud.
THE PROMISED LAND?
A small number of external parts now needed to be painted. The most obvious were the undercarriage doors, again moulded in clear plastic. These weren’t primed, but instead painted RLM02 internally, and RLM76 externally, before being slightly mottled to suit the exterior appearance, and then a wash applied.
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MODELSPEC Zoukei-Mura 1:32 Horten Ho 229. Kit No. SWS #8 Accessories Used: Absolutely none! This was straight from the box (out of box delight!) Tools and Modelling Products Used:
Gunze Soot was used to airbrush the exhaust detritus. As no reference of this exists, I went with what I thought to be acceptable.
Much of the interior detail may be appreciated even after the kit is finished.
The size of that nose wheel is very impressive!
Tamiya Extra Thin Cement Revell Contacta cement Micro Crystal Clear Plusmodel Lead Wire Iwata HP-CH airbrush Xuron sprue cutters MDC Sanding Sponges Albion Alloys Sanding Sticks Micro Mesh Tesa masking tape RB Productions Razor Saw Accurate 6 inch steel rule for mask cutting Uschi van der Rosten Wheels & Discs masks Paints and Finishing Products Used: Mr Levelling Thinner Tamiya Fine Surface Gray Primer Tamiya Weathering Pastels Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black, XF-2 Flat White, Smoke, Deck Tan Gunze RLM75, RLM85, RLM 78, RLM66, Soot, Tire Black, Sky Blue, H20 Flat Clear, GX100 Super Clear Alclad Hotmetal Sepia, Hotmetal Red, Hotmetal Blue, Hotmetal Purple Mr Metal Colour Aluminium AK-Interactive Aluminium Vallejo Black, White, Red, Yellow, Buff, Olive Green Johnson’s Klear Mr Mark Setter Premi-Air Liquid Reamer airbrush cleaner Beautifully precise mouldings, amazing detail, unique subject matter, a seriously fun build
Two canopy hoods are included in this kit. The first is a single piece item, without any framing, and the other is a much more detailed option. As I was using the latter, the simple option had been used to temporarily mask off the cockpit during painting. ZM’s kit includes vinyl masks, and these were applied to the forward hood portion, before the rear section and internal framework were painted in RLM66. Externally, this was now painted with RLM83, to match the camouflage area on the aircraft. This part would be sat, unglued on the model, as it can be added in both open and closed positions. Before this though, the whole model and extra components, were airbrushed in a mixture of 20% H20 Flat Clear, 20% Super Clear GX100, and 60% Mr Levelling Thinner. This imparts a subtle sheen, and removed the glossiness of the Klear coat. Undercarriage doors, radio loop, parachute and chute doors are now applied, as are wingtip lights. A few metal
chips were applied to the small number of metal components on the airframe, but the rest of the paint was left untouched, except for the subtle mottle fading and small degree of removed wash that was drawn across the various surfaces. For me, the late war jet and rocket aircraft have an aura to them that ZM have perfectly captured here, with the Ho 229 release. Up until this release, large-scale builders haven’t had the luxury of a regular, injection moulded kit, with the closest option being the 1:48 releases from Dragon. Those aren’t too easy to come by these days either. This kit has everything; presence, detail, massive visual interest, and of course another gap that can now be filled for late-war Luftwaffe fans. Such a great kit, and it was a pleasure to build and create this article. The question remains though; is this kit enough to satisfy the Ho 229 fan? The answer is yes, it is enough. •
Poor decals, clear plastic external main parts. RATING: 9.5 out of 10 Reference: Horten Ho 229 ‘Spirit of Thuringia’, by Classic Publications Horten 229 ‘Monogram Close-Up 12’ by David Mhyra Deutsche Nürflugel bis 1945 – ‘Die Motor-und Turbinenfluzeuge der Gebrüder Horten’, by Podzun Pallas Thanks to Rick Kranias for answering my questions about this airframe and inspiring me to build the Ho 229. This model kit is available in the UK from RB Productions www.radubstore.com
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KIT PREVIEW: BRONCO MODELS 1:35 AIRSPEED A.S.51 HORSA GLIDER. • Kit No. CB-35195
AIRBORNE DELIVERY The Editor takes a close look at Bronco’s big, new and ambitious 1:35 scale Horsa Glider.
T
he Airspeed AS.51 Horsa was a British World War II troop-carrying glider built by Airspeed Limited and subcontractors and used for air assault by British and Allied armed forces. It was named after Horsa, the legendary 5th-century conqueror of southern Britain. Production of the Horsa commenced in early 1942, and by May some 2,345 had been ordered by the Army for use in future airborne operations. The glider was designed from the outset to be built in components with a series of 30 sub-assemblies required to complete the manufacturing process. Manufacturing was intended primarily to use woodcrafting facilities not needed for more urgent aviation production, and as a result production was spread across separate factories, which consequently limited the likely loss in case of German attack. The designer A. H. Tiltman said that the Horsa “went from the drawing board to the air in ten months, which was not too bad considering the drawings had to be made suitable for the furniture trade who were responsible for all production.” The Horsa Mk.I had a wingspan of 88 feet (27 m) and a length of 67 feet (20 m), and when fully loaded weighed 15,250 pounds (6,920 kg).[17] The Horsa was considered sturdy and very manoeuvrable for a glider. Its design was based on a high-wing cantilever monoplane with wooden wings and a wooden semi-monocoque fuselage. The fuselage was built in three sections bolted together, the front section held the pilot’s compartment and main freight loading door, the middle section was accommodation for troops or freight, the rear section supported the tail unit.
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The fuselage is made up from a number of panels.
It had a fixed tricycle landing gear and it was one of the first gliders equipped with a tricycle undercarriage for take off. On operational flights the main gear could be jettisoned and landing was then made on the castoring nose wheel and a sprung skid under the fuselage With up to 30 troop seats, the Horsa was much bigger than the 13-troop American Waco CG-4A (known as the Hadrian by the British), and the 8-troop General Aircraft Hotspur glider which was
intended for training duties only. Instead of troops, the AS 51 could carry a jeep or a 6 pounder anti tank gun. On operations, the Horsa was towed by various aircraft: four engined heavy bombers displaced from operational service such as the Short Stirling and Handley Page Halifax, the Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley twin engined bombers, as well as the US Douglas C-47 Skytrain/Dakota (not as often due
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The clear parts are impressively thin and free from distortion.
The fuselage interior also has structural detail moulded in place.
The two nose halves.
The big upper wing central saddle.
Quality of moulding is very high.
The decal sheet offers three D-Day marking options.
Masks are provided for the inside and outside of the clear nose.
The metal nose weight.
to the weight of the glider, however in Operation Market Garden, a total of 1,336 C-47s along with 340 Stirlings were employed to tow 1,205 gliders) and Curtiss C-46 Commando. They were towed with a harness that attached to points on both wings, and also carried an intercom between tug and glider. The glider pilots were usually from the Glider Pilot Regiment, part of the Army Air Corps, although Royal Air Force pilots were used on occasion. The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) acquired approximately 400 Horsas in a form of “reverse” Lend-Lease.*
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
Bronco has finally released their much anticipated 1:35 scale Airspeed Horsa Mk.I. This is a big model in a big box. When completed, the wing span will be nearly 30”, and the fuselage length of around 23”. The model comprises 289 parts in light grey plastic, 16 parts in clear, eleven parts on a single photo-etched fret, self-adhesive canopy masks, a metal nose weight and markings for three aircraft. When exploring the contents of the box, it feels like there are more than 289 plastic parts. I think this is because many of these parts are quite large. The fuselage is broken down into nose, forward fuselage and rear fuselage sub-assemblies; while the wings are made up from a stout centre upper saddle and upper and lower halves for each wing. All control surfaces are separate.
The kit-supplied photo-etched fret.
The cockpit reflects the simple layout of the real aircraft, and harness straps are supplied on the kit’s photo-etched fret. Decals are supplied for dials and placards on the small instrument panel. The large windscreen is thin and crystal clear. Self-adhesive masks are provided for both the inside and outside of the windscreen. The main fuselage sub-assemblies are built up in layers from the inside out. Bulkheads are attached to the ribbed floors, followed by stringers at the top of the bulkheads and other details including troop benches and their mounts. The benches have harness straps moulded in place. Please note that if you plan to load a jeep into the fuselage, you should omit the benches. The loading ramp may be posed open and closed, with a few additional options for the open ramp including photo-etched channels for your 1:35 scale jeep. Legs or a wedge are provided for the open ramp too. If the ramp is closed, you still have the option to pose the smaller entry hatch open. A ladder is supplied for this configuration. The fuselage exterior is applied in panels as a skin around the structural frame. The fuselage and wing surfaces are correctly featureless, reflecting the plywood construction of the airframe. Elevators and rudders are moveable, while flaps and ailerons are fixed. The flaps may be posed open (dropped) or closed. Decals are supplied for two RAF aircraft
and one USAAF. All three are relevant to the Normandy campaign on 6 June 1944. The decals are well printed but the red and yellow are definitely too bright, and the proportions of the fuselage C type roundels look odd to me. Full colour four-view diagrams are included for all three subjects, including helpful notes on the width of the invasion stripes in 1:35 scale (they’re 113mm wide each if you’re curious). Strangely, the upper surface colours are called out as Dark Green and Dark Yellow. It should be Dark Green and Dark Earth.
CONCLUSION
Bronco’s 1:35 scale Horsa is a large and ambitious kit that will appeal to both aircraft and armour modellers. Considering Bronco’s obsession with all things Airborne lately – jeeps, bikes, artillery, figures, accessories – there is certainly no shortage of diorama potential. The parts count is actually pretty modest considering the size and completeness of this model, and it should be suitable for anyone with moderate modelling experience. Highly recommended and a big “wow” factor!
• Historical summary culled from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Horsa Thanks to Bronco for the sample www.cn-bronco.com •
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KIT PREVIEW: Pilot Replicas 1:48 scale SAAB J21 A-3 • Kit No. 48-A-001
RARE SWEDE Kamil Feliks Sztarbala builds a rare Swedish fighter from a new Swedish model company.
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ilot Replicas is quite a new player on the modelling market. As their name suggests, the company was founded as a manufacturer of resin figures in most popular aircraft kit scales, though recently they’ve added other resin accessories, and even 1:48 scale vehicles to their range. With the release of the 1:48 SAAB J21 A-3 model kit, Pilot Replicas also entered the injectionmoulded kit market. Some may find this subject choice a bit risky, or even odd, considering that this unorthodox fighter aircraft saw service only with the Swedish Air Force, and is familiar only to die-hard fans of aviation. However, I was recently invited to perform a painting demonstration at one of the major Swedish modelling shows, the C4 Open in Malmö, and assuming that what I saw on the contest tables is representative for the habits of the modellers in this country, I think that sales in their domestic market may be enough for Pilot Replicas to at least return the costs of developing this kit.
IN THE BOX
The model itself makes a nice first impression. The solid box is made of glossy cardboard and features an attractive artwork. Once you open it and browse the contents, you still feel that in accordance with the caption on the box cover, that you’ve obtained a premium class kit. Each of the five sprues (four in grey and one in clear plastic) is packed in a separate cellophane sleeve, as are the decal and photo-etched sheets. This is complemented by two sheets of coated paper which feature the painting guide, and of course, the assembly manual. The latter is nicely laid out and easily understandable. Worth noting are the comments included within the pages, as they indicate that the instructions (and the kit itself) were designed by experienced modellers. The same applies to the painting guide. Together with the aircraft profiles, we are provided with colour reference for the Humbrol, Tamiya and RAL ranges, but it is emphasized that this is nothing more than just a recommendation. Stencil placement is wisely presented on black and white drawings, which makes things far more clear. The decals contain a set of national insignia and stencils for one airframe, plus the individual markings for three aircraft wearing the same green/gray camouflage scheme. The sheet is flawlessly printed and even the smallest stencils may be read easily. At least by the Swedes. The colourful markings are also well-reproduced. The only glitch is the lack of representation for the instrument panel, considering that this isn’t included on the photo-etched sheet.
A. Getting back to the plastic, the four grey sprues look really good. B. Flash and other annoying moulding flaws are almost nonexistent. C. The clear sprue isn’t bad either, although it’s not extra thin, and some strange surface irregularities may be noticed on a few parts. D. The photo-etched sheet represents a triumph of form over substance. One-fifth of it is occupied by the manufacturer’s logo. Next, we find the canopy frames, which may be usable only if we’re going to mount the sliding portion of the canopy in the open position. There are also the landing gear oleo strut scissors, which in my opinion are too flat in appearance for use on a 1:48 scale model. In the end, the seat belts seem to be the only welcome element of this sheet. E. If you’re still not convinced that the photo-etched scissors wouldn’t be an improvement, just have a look at their nicely moulded plastic counterparts. F. In general, the kit’s details are sharp and distinct, as may be seen on the wheels, for example. The tread may look a little rough, but in fact it does resemble the distinctive tractor-like pattern seen on the original tires. G. Although the panel line edges are not sharp enough in some areas, they look way better than those featured on the new Airfix kits. The rivet detail is crisp and refined. H. The instrument panel would be just perfect if it was supplemented with a suitable decal. The absence of the latter lowers the rating somewhat. I. An unwelcome twist happened at the end of my sprue inspection. The real SAAB has fabric-covered control surfaces. The kit designer obviously wanted to replicate the fabric sag effect in these areas, but apparently a mistake was made during the CNC processing, resulting in reproducing the sag as raised detail! This error is, however, easier to fix than overdone recessed fabric texture would have been.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
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KIT PREVIEW: Pilot Replicas 1:48 scale SAAB J21 A-3 • Kit No. 48-A-001
ASSEMBLY
My first step was to correct the appearance of the control surfaces. I started by removing the raised texture with a scalpel.
Next, I marked the ribs with thin strips of masking tape, and scribed the recesses between them, using a small, curved scalpel blade.
The rudders underwent a similar technique, but in this case, I also had to delete the redundant trim tab on one of them…
…and scribe a new one onto the second rudder. For this purpose, I used RB Productions’ Scribe-R tool.
The small, curved blade was also useful for removing the raised ejector pin marks.
Afterwards, I turned my attention to the cockpit. In accordance with a number of reference photos, I detailed the seat. The result would be barely visible in the finished model, but this way, I made it easier for mounting the seat belts.
The sidewalls also required some revision. In the case of the portside wall, I had to deepen the holes within the representation of a metal cover…
More effort was necessary to adjust the appearance of the starboard sidewall in such way that it would match the reference photos. …and add some missing details using scrap plastic and lead wire.
Despite the fact that this would be unnoticeable in the finished kit, I modified the rudder pedals, which were moulded together with the roof of the nose wheel bay.
…whilst various styrene bits and lengths of tin wire were used to detail the floor and rear wall of the cockpit. A corrugated hose was replicated with a length of guitar string.
The pedals straps were made from pieces of brass sheet…
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This poor representation of the real thing had to be cut off. This was followed by drilling a narrow mounting hole intended for attaching a replacement piece of clear acetate sheet, and adding a few further details.
I also had to improve the gunsight, as its glass part was moulded as a solid gray plastic piece.
Before I could close the fuselage, I had to prepare the exhausts. Firstly, I removed some excess plastic to emphasize the separate exhaust pipes. Next, I hollowed out the pipes.
Once I’d mounted the exhausts into the fuselage halves, small gaps emerged.
To make them invisible, I glued two pieces of 0.25mm styrene sheet into the inner sides of the forward fuselage.
I then proceeded with building up the interior, focusing on the main landing gear bays, located in the wing nacelles. Here I had to deal with a number of quite pronounced ejector pin marks.
At this stage, I also enhanced the panel lines on the fuselage halves.
The easiest solution was to cover the wall with properly shaped pieces of 0.25mm styrene sheet. Next, I created the ribbing using lengths of 0.25x0.25mm styrene strip.
The landing gear was subsequently detailed with lengths of various styrene strip and lead wire, as well as pieces of the photo-etched landing gear oleo strut scissors supplied with the kit.
The missing parts of the retraction mechanisms had to be scratchbuilt from scrap plastic. To determine their correct size, I had to temporarily join the halves of the nacelle/tail boom units together.
Upon close comparison with reference photos, the kit landing gear turned out to be very simplified. Firstly, I built up its sub-assemblies in accordance with the manual, and reinforced them with some styrene strip. Afterwards, I cut out the redundant parts.
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KIT PREVIEW: Pilot Replicas 1:48 scale SAAB J21 A-3 • Kit No. 48-A-001
Now I had to assemble the wing, which consisted of a large upper section with fully moulded leading edges, plus two lower halves that had to be inserted into the latter. The gaps running along the joints were filled with cyano…
…and smoothed with sandpaper.
In accordance with reference photos, I glued thin strips of 0.25mm styrene sheet within the air intakes.
The sides were painted with Tamiya XF-1 ‘Flat Black’ and AK-Interactive AK480 ‘Dark Aluminium’.
I then restored the damaged panel lines with Trumpeter’s scribing tool…
…and emphasized the demarcation of the movable control surface areas of the wing, using an Olfa scriber that carves wider lines.
To continue the construction, I had to paint the landing gear bays. Firstly, I primed them with Mr.Color C8 ‘Silver’.
I also emphasized the ribs with a little Mr.Color C8 ‘Silver’, using the drybrush technique.
To bring out the details, I applied Ammo MIG-1617 ‘PLW Blue Black’ enamel.
The nacelle/tail boom unit halves went together easily. I only had to restore the damaged rivet detail, using a suitable tool from RB Productions.
The landing gear legs were airbrushed with an even layer of Mr.Color C337 ‘Grayish Blue’, and highlighted with a misted application of heavily diluted Mr.Color C315 ‘FS16440 Gray’.
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Their details were accentuated with AK-Interactive AK2029 ‘Landing Gear Wash’.
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As the kit part division differed from the arrangement of panels on the real aircraft, mating the nacelle/tail boom units with the wing required careful attention.
Once I’d filled and carefully sanded the joints, I had to scribe the missing By ‘painting’ the newly created panel lines with Tamiya Extra Thin panel lines, using a special engraver, and Trumpeter’s scribing tool. Cement, I quickly leveled their edges and dissolved any plastic dust that remained inside them after the sanding process.
With the horizontal tail attached, I could get back to the fuselage assembly.
The latter was test-fitted to the wing, in order to estimate the weight of ‘ballast’ that would have to be placed inside, in order to avoid tail-sitting.
Now I had to paint the cockpit. Again, I started by spraying a priming coat of Mr.Color C8 ‘Silver’ over all sub-assemblies.
To weigh down the front section, I used Uschi van der Rosten’s ‘Three Green Flexible Nose Weight Putty’. This product looks like plasticine mixed with lead powder. It’s quite heavy and very pliable, so it’s easy to squeeze into even the smallest nooks and crannies.
The details were brush painted with waterbased acrylics from AK-Interactive and Ammo.
Mr.Color C12 ‘Olive Drab’ was used as the interior base colour.
I then applied AK-Interactive AK045 ‘Dark Brown Wash’ over all surfaces, and subsequently removed the excess with a cotton bud.
Using a blunt scalpel blade, I added some damage to the paint layer, revealing the silver undercoat.
Next, I airbrushed a mist of heavily diluted Mr.Color C307 ‘FS36320 Gray’ in order to create the highlights.
The dirt on the floor was created with Tamiya Weathering Stick ‘Light Earth’, applied with an old paint brush.
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KIT PREVIEW: Pilot Replicas 1:48 scale SAAB J21 A-3 • Kit No. 48-A-001
Finally, I replicated the glass instrument lenses with a few tiny drops of Ammo MIG-094 ‘Crystal Glass’.
As the manufacturer didn’t supply the kit with an instrument panel decal, it had to be hand-painted. I applied an even layer of Tamiya XF-1 ‘Flat Black’ over the whole instrument panel, and highlighted the raised details with Vallejo 70951 ‘White’, using the drybrushing technique. The instrument faces were reproduced by carefully scratching the surface with a thin sewing needle.
This allowed me to mount the cockpit sub-assemblies within the fuselage. I also placed the previously estimated quantity of ‘Three Green Flexible Nose Weight’ in the front section.
Once I’d glued the fuselage halves together, I immediatelly ensured that the ‘ballast’ was sufficient to weigh down the nose.
“Since I was not going to replicate a wrecked airframe, I had to be moderate during weathering...”
Although the fit of fuselage halves was quite good, I still had to restore some damaged rivet detail along the joints.
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Pushing the rivet tool into the surface caused some plastic around each rivet to appear raised. This had to be removed with a piece of very fine sandpaper, leaving the surface smooth.
Now it was time to add the clear parts. Firstly, I fixed a piece of clear acetate sheet to the gun sight. This was followed by attaching the canopy, which required some sanding, as it was designed to be installed in an open position.
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As was the case with the main landing gear, the front one also lacked quite significant details. Again, I began by assembling the kit parts and gluing them into the wheel bay.
The missing details were scratch built from a few styrene sheet pieces, and lengths of lead wire.
Next, I mated the fuselage to the wing. It was necessary to fill the rear joint areas with some cyano…
…and polish them with a flat metal file.
The airframe was complete.
The last detail to mount was the ladder. Bearing in mind that to install it in a closed position, I would need to do some serious modifications, I decided to glue it in accordance with the instructions. The only addition was a missing latch, made from scrap plastic.
Before I could move onto the painting, I had to mask off various areas. The canopy was covered with Tamiya masking tape.
I also placed a few pieces of sponge inside the main landing gear bays, whilst the legs were wrapped with pieces of masking tape.
A few sub-assemblies that were to be painted separately, are now temporarily fixed to Tamiya clamps or hypodermic needles.
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KIT PREVIEW: Pilot Replicas 1:48 scale SAAB J21 A-3 • Kit No. 48-A-001
PAINTWORK I began the painting stage by airbrushing the interior colour, Mr.Color C12 ‘Olive Drab’, to the outside of the canopy. This colour would be seen on the canopy framing, from within the cockpit. As usual, I primed the entire kit with Mr.Color C8 ‘Silver’. The undersides were pre-shaded with Mr.Color C333 ‘Extra Dark Seagray’. During this process, I darkened the panel lines and sprayed some subtle streaks along the wings. Next, I applied a transparent layer of Mr.Color C307 ‘FS36320 Gray’ over all lower surfaces.
Heavily diluted Mr.Color 72 ‘Intermediate Blue’ was used to accentuate the chosen rivet and panel lines and add numerous fine streaks.
Afterwards, I masked the camouflage demarcation and started building up the green base colour of the upper surfaces. For this purpose, I progressively airbrushed meandering lines and streaks, using two olive drab tones from Mr.Color range, ie. C12 and C304. Some chosen details and edges of the panels were highlighted with Mr.Color C337 ‘Greyish Blue’.
This was followed by a filter of heavily diluted Mr.Hobby H80 ‘Khaki Green’.
Mr.Color C311 ‘FS36622 Gray’ was applied in a similar manner, although in this case I also airbrushed some extremely thin meandering lines over the surface. To tone down the effect achieved thus far, I sprayed a filter of heavily diluted base colour.
To bring more variety to the surface colour, I emphasized the shading and added more streaks to the wings with a very dark Tamiya XF-62 ‘Olive Drab’ paint.
The effect achieved thus far was sealed with a layer of Mr.Color C46 ‘Gloss Clear’.
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If you need to apply basic colours like blue, red, and especially yellow, it is useful to apply them over a white undercoat. Otherwise, you will need to apply a thick layer of paint to achieve the full effect of the colour’s vividness.
Next, I masked the adjacent areas with Tamiya tape, and airbrushed the nose landing gear bay with AK479 ‘Aluminium’, from AK-Interactive’s ‘Xtreme Metal’ range.
As the nose tip and spinner were to be painted blue, I had to use some masking tape yet again.
The colour of the nose and spinner should match the blue of the national insignia. Purely by chance, a mixture I had created some time ago for painting models of aircraft from the Japanese ‘Blue Impulse’ aerobatic team, was perfectly suitable. The decaling stage was rather time-consuming, but didn’t highlight any issues, thanks to the excellent quality of decals, manufactured by probably the best printing company around the world; Cartograf of Italy.
I sealed them with a layer of satin varnish, allowing for an application of wash. For the blue-grey undersides, I used Ammo MIG-1602 ‘PLW Deep Grey’ enamel.
The product was applied into the panel lines and around protruding details using a brush. Before it had fully dried, I removed the excess with a paper towel.
The upper surface details were brought out with AK-Interactive AK045 ‘Dark Brown Wash’.
…and finish the propeller. I also brush painted other details, such as gun barrels, exhausts and wheels. The latter were initially given a layer of matte black, and subsequently treated with heavily diluted Vallejo 70939 Smoke, in order to resemble the distinctive colour of rubber used during, and shortly after the WW2 era.
At this stage, I could attach the landing gear covers, which had been painted separately… Once I’d attached the wheels, I sprayed a layer of matte varnish over the whole kit, preparing it for the weathering process.
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KIT PREVIEW: Pilot Replicas 1:48 scale SAAB J21 A-3 • Kit No. 48-A-001
WEATHERING Since I was not going to replicate a wrecked airframe, I had to be moderate during weathering. My first step was to replicate the damage to the paint layer. Using a fine brush, I painted some small chips and scratches with heavily diluted Vallejo 70922 ‘US Uniform Green’. To create some light abrasion on the propeller blades, I went for Vallejo 70992 ‘Neutral Gray’ paint, applied using a piece of sponge, and a brush with very fine, long bristles. The most intense damage was added by patting the surface with a steel wire brush. This resulted in revealing the silver undercoat. The airframe surfaces were scratched with a more subtle tool, namely a large sewing needle. Afterwards, I poured some AK-Interactive AK082 ‘Engine Grime’ into my airbrush cup, and used this to additionally accentuate the panel demarcation, and add some fine streaks to the undersides. Small amounts of MIG Productions P220 ‘Dark Wash’ were airbrushed around chosen panel lines. Some finer leaks and stains were brush painted with AK-Interactive’s AK083 ‘Track Wash’ and AK2019 ‘Engine Aircraft Oil’ enamels, applied over the lower areas that had been previously dampened with white spirit. The upper surfaces were given similar treatment, although in this case, I used MIG Productions P220 ‘Dark Wash’ instead of AK083 ‘Track Wash’. The dirt and dust on the wings was recreated with a slightly diluted AK-Interactive AK4062 ‘Light Dust Deposit’. Firstly, I airbrushed a little enamel over those areas that would be frequently walked on by the pilot and ground crew. Next, using a cotton bud that had been slightly dampened with white spirit, I spread the product over the surface, and removed any excess. AK4062 ‘Light Dust Deposit’ was also used for dirtying the wheels, but this time I distributed it with a wet brush. Once the enamel had fully dried, a realistic representation of the remnants of dried mud and dust could be seen. A similar effect was added to the ladder by applying a little Tamiya Weathering Stick ‘Light Earth’ compound, using an old brush. Finally, I reproduced the exhaust stains, which was achieved in two steps. The shape of the stains was traced by airbrushing heavily diluted AK-Interactive AK083 ‘Track Wash’ enamel. I then painted the ‘soot’ with Tamiya XF-1 ‘Flat Black’. The paint was diluted with isopropyl alcohol, allowing for a deep matte finish. Now I only had to attach the propeller and ladder. •
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“The model itself makes a nice first impression.”
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Although it is an unusual subject, the model is quite intriguing and forms the basis for an interesting project.
MODELSPEC Pilot Replicas 1:48 scale SAAB J21 A-3
Kit No. 48-A-001
Tools and Modelling Products Used: • Tamiya Extra Thin Cement • C.A. glue • Plastruct styrene strip and sheets • Lead and tin wire • Guitar string • Clear acetate sheet • RB Productions, Trumpeter and Olfa scribers • RB Productions Rivet-R • Uschi van der Rosten Three Green Flexible Nose Weight • 3M tape • Tamiya masking tape Paints and Finishing Products Used:
I only applied moderate weathering to the model.
Paints: • Mr.Color and Hobby Color series from Mr.Hobby • Tamiya acrylics • AK-Interactive, Ammo MIG & Vallejo waterbased acrylics • AK-Interactive Xtreme Metal metalizers Mr. Hobby clear varnishes Microscale decal solutions Talens White Spirit Tamiya 87087 Weathering Stick Light Earth MIG Productions P220 Dark Wash AK-Interactive weathering products: • AK045 Dark Brown Wash • AK082 Engine Grime • AK083 Track Wash • AK2019 Aircraft Engine Oil • AK2029 Landing Gear Wash • AK4062 Light Dust Deposit Ammo MIG weathering products: • A.MIG-1602 PLW Deep Grey • A.MIG-1617 PLW Blue Black
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FEATURE ARTICLE: MONOGRAM 1:48 T-28C TROJAN. • Kit No. 0121
CHARLIE
TROJAN
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David W. Aungst brings the old Monogram 1:48 scale T-28C Trojan up to date with scratch built and after market upgrades.
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I
have had this Monogram kit in my stash for a very long time. I have always wanted to build a couple T-28s at some point, with one of them being a US Navy T-28C trainer. When I recently started on the Roden T-28D kit, I decided to compare the two kits and build this Monogram kit at the same time. All the reviews of the Monogram kit mention its shortcomings. This is to be expected on a kit where the moulds were cut sometime close to 1960. Back then, models were more “toys” than “replicas” and came with operating features. But, with some resin updates and some scratchbuilding, these deficiencies could be overcome and a nice model could be built (so the reviews that I read told me). Indeed, I found several nicely built Monogram T-28 models on the Internet using various after-market sets to fill in the deficiencies of the kit.
THE KIT
The original Monogram kit was for an Air Force T-28A trainer. The moulds were updated later to be a Naval T-28B trainer and still later to be an Air Force T-28D light strike fighter. It was the T-28D boxing that I had in my stash. The copyright on the instruction sheet in my kit was 1965. The kit is a starting point for a nice model, but it has many flaws compared to current model kits
being released today. And, it will require significant work to make a good “replica” model rather than the “toy” it was originally kitted to be. Still, for 50 year old moulds, it could be a lot worse. The T-28D kit is moulded in light grey plastic. However, the parts picture above shows a lot of silver plastic from a T-28A kit. I had already started the T-28D kit when I wanted to take that “parts” picture, so I swapped in the equivalent pieces from the T-28A kit. The grey pieces are the difference between the T-28A and T-28D kits. The kit has mostly recessed panel lines (what few lines are present) and is covered in raised rivets. Just accepting the kits missing details, the only thing to really point out is it is not really 1/48th scale. The length and width scale out to more like 1/51st scale.
CONSTRUCTION BEGINS
THE UPDATE SETS
I decided the best place to start this kit was with the main wheel well. Getting that mounted properly would provide some strength to the overall kit. I removed the pins used in the kit to allow the landing gear to operate and smoothed out the area. A couple of the pins help locate the wheel well, so I left those. I had already used the belt sander to remove almost all the resin over top of the wheel well (I actually broke through at one small place). A little filing improved the seating of the wheel well on the wing. I added some styrene blocks to further define the wheel well position. When I felt I had it where I wanted it, I added super glue. I used some spring loaded clothes pins to hold things together while the
In addition to a good bit of scratch-building, I used a number of update sets from various after-market companies to bring this kit up to more modern modelling standards. • Black Box T-28C Resin Cockpit • Lone Star T-28 Resin Wheel Wells • Quick Boost T-28 Engine and Cowling • Quick Boost T-28 Engine Cooling Gills • Quick Boost T-28 Air Brake • Scale Aircraft Conversions T-28 Metal Landing Gear (Roden Edition) • AiRes T-28 Resin Wheels • Squadron T-28 Vacuum-Formed Canopy
I tossed the kit instruction sheet in a drawer. The 1965 printed instructions were a simple exploded view of the kit followed by step-by-step instructions that would be meaningless to me since I had replaced most of the kit parts with after-market items. The few pieces of the actual kit that I was still going to use were not going to be hard to figure out. The challenge on this project was getting all the after-market update pieces to integrate into the kit and “play nice” with each other. The next few sections discuss specific areas of the kit. In reality, all these topics were being worked on at the same time, not one at a time as the text here seems to flow.
THE WHEEL WELLS
THE KIT
Box art and the sprue layout of Monogram’s venerable 1:48 scale T-28D.
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FEATURE ARTICLE: MONOGRAM 1:48 T-28C TROJAN. • Kit No. 0121
glue set up. With the main wheel well fixed in place on the lower wing, I turned to the wing tops. I needed to do a little thinning with my Dremel. I removed about half the thickness of the plastic of the upper wings where they sat on the wheel well. That let the wing tops settle into place. I also adjusted the inner structure of the fuselage to fit over the wheel well. I had to tinker a bit and add a shim to get nose wheel well to fit square. In hindsight, the right answer would have been to remove a little resin from the opposing corner, but I would not know that until I was trying to fit the fuselage and wings together later in the project. Dry fitting and measuring showed the nose wheel well was too long. To have it fit inside the attachment point of the cowl, I had to shortening the forward portion by about 1/8th of an inch. Then, I glued it into place.
THE WHEEL WELLS
I had already used the belt sander to remove almost all the resin over top of the wheel well
THE WING FLAPS
I bought Lone Star’s lowered resin flaps for the T-28.
THE WING FLAPS
Another of the Lone Star resin updates I bought for the T-28 was the lowered wing flaps. T-28s almost always park with the flaps down. The reason for this is that the “boarding ladder” for the aircraft comes in the form of footsteps in the wing flaps. The proper way to board a T-28 is to climb the flap steps. So, I needed the flaps down on my model. Issues with the Lone Star wing flap pieces caused me to choose to discard them and just scratch-build my own flaps. Having already cut the flaps from the wings, I had easy-to-measure places to determine the sizes of the new wing flaps. I cut sheet styrene for top pieces and a bottom pieces that matched the cut-outs in the respective wing halves. I measured the thickness at the inboard and outboard edges, then cut a strip to match those measurements. Using liquid cement, I assembled the freshly cut pieces. This gave me the rough wedge shapes of the flaps. I added a rounded upper front section from strips cut off an appropriate diameter plastic tubing and walled off the ends of the flaps. Then, I did some sanding to complete the final shapes. With a little more measuring, I built up the wing spar that is visible when the flaps are down using strip styrene. I also needed to add a few ribs and some pipes to complete the inner wing area. The last things to address were the flap hinges. I added the hinge fairings to the underside of the flaps. These are paired to extension fairings on the wings. Together, these define the pivot points for the flaps when they are lowered. The image above shows the various scratch-built items for the flaps. Also visible is the Lone Star main wheel well and the scratch-built air brake well. The white dots on the wings are the filled weapons pylon locator holes. The image to the right highlights the flap hinge detail with the scratch-built flap in place. I opened the air brake by cutting along the moulded lines. The Quick Boost air brake is actually intended for the Roden kit, but it is a bit small for the Roden kit, making it look just right on this Monogram kit. The lower image to the right highlights the scratch-built air brake well.
THE COCKPIT
The Black Box cockpit was designed specifically for the Monogram T-28 kit. As such, after the inner fuselage mounting points for the kit cockpit were removed, the resin cockpit tub slid right into place. I added some styrene blocks inside the fuselage around the edges of the cockpit tub to
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I had to tinker a bit and add a shim to get nose wheel well to fit square.
Issues with the Lone Star wing flap pieces caused me to choose to discard them and just scratch-build my own flaps.
I needed to add a few ribs and some pipes to complete the inner wing area.
A little filing improved the seating of the wheel well on the wing.
‘With the number of update sets I incorporated into the project, only ten of the original Monogram kit pieces were still used, some heavily modified.’ lock it into place. Then came the “moment of truth”, did the resin cockpit interfere with the wheel wells? After a few tense moments of dry fitting, happily the fuselage would close up around everything. But, they did actually touch with the cockpit resting on the top of the nose wheel well. This would eventually prove to be an issue, but I could not tell that at this point. The Black Box cockpit builds up rather easily. After carefully studying the resin parts, I figured out which pieces were which and assembled the cockpit into a few sub-assemblies. Since I was building a Roden T-28D kit at the same time (with an AiRes resin cockpit for that project), I had extra cockpit pieces from that kit and resin set to use in this project. This gave me the ability to swap parts for what I felt were better representations of the details. While the cockpit tub basically fits into the kit, I
Hinge fairings were added to the underside of the flaps. These were paired to extension fairings on the wings.
needed to add shims to get the fit tighter. I added strips of styrene on the cockpit sides to provide better spacing inside the fuselage. The fuselage was not wide enough to reach the wings, leaving a small gap at the wing roots. The shims on the cockpit tub pushed the fuselage sides out to better fit and meet the wings at the roots. The shims also provided “breathing space” that allowed the cockpit sidewalls to fit better without covering details on the side instrument panels. This image shows all these features. You can see the styrene blocks the define the cockpit location, the shims on the cockpit sides to improve the fit, the assorted cockpit detail parts in resin and styrene, and the cockpit side-wall pieces glued into the fuselage halves. It is the painting that brings the cockpit to life. After a quick check of sources, I came to the
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THE COCKPIT
Additional scratch built parts and elements from the Roden kit were added to the Black Box cockpit.
While the cockpit tub basically fits into the kit, I needed to add shims to get the fit tighter. I added strips of styrene on the cockpit sides.
conclusion that T-28B/C cockpits are the typical modern grey colours, or so I thought. I painted the overall cockpit in Dark Gull Grey (F.S.36231). The instruments and consoles are black. Details are painted in several colours - red, yellow, and assorted greys. I found references that showed the main instrument panel as being either all black or all grey with black instruments. I chose the latter of these because I felt it looked more interesting that way. After I was done painting the cockpits and had glued the fuselage around them, I was contacted by Ken Hildebrandt, who does restorations on T-28s. Some of my questions on T-28 colours had caught his attention on the HyperScale forum. He shared with me some of his research, including that most all T-28s of all versions had black cockpits from the factory. He had pictures to prove his point. This presented me a difficult decision. Do I turn around and re-paint my already painted cockpit that was already trapped inside the fuselage, or do I leave well enough alone and keep the grey cockpits?
T-28C CONVERSION
Painting brings the cockpit to life.
I decided to take a “measured” approach. Ken had some in-the-box unused T-28 rudder pedals that he had sent me images of, and they were clearly Dull Gull Grey. So, he admitted that some portions of the cockpits were likely still grey. My assumption was that the grey portions were likely the lower parts of the cockpit, below the side consoles. I decided to paint the cockpit back walls, cockpit sills, seats, and rear cockpit deck in Interior Black. These are the most visible (and easiest reached) areas of the cockpit and give the effect of black cockpits without a total do-over of the cockpit painting.
T-28C CONVERSION
There are a number of detail differences between T-28Bs and T-28Cs, but the biggest and most easily seen difference is the arresting hook under the tail on the T-28C. The rudder is slightly shortened on the bottom and the lower rear fuselage has a “notch” where the hook is mounted. The Black Box T-28C cockpit set provides these items in the resin pieces.
I painted the cockpit in Dark Gull Grey. The instruments and consoles are black. Details are painted in several colours.
It was a simple matter to use my Dremel saw blade and slice off the shaded portions of the kit. I purposely cut a little short of the lines so I could adjust the pieces and the cut lines in detail to get them to fit exactly where I needed them.
ENGINE AND COWL
After the Quick Boost engine and cowl set arrived, I did a quick comparison with the kit part and was very glad I decided to get the replacement pieces. See for yourself... I still needed to add some details. Quickboost provides an “engine blank” to which the modellers then have to add details. There are no instructions with the set, so this was done from reference photos. The engine needs two push rods and two spark plug wires per cylinder. I have a lot of respect for the modellers that do radial engines all the time and routinely add all these details to every model they build. It is delicate work. Monogram moulds the engine exhausts incorrectly
ENGINE AND COWL After the Quick Boost engine and cowl set arrived, I did a quick comparison with the kit part and was very glad I decided to get the replacement pieces. See for yourself...
Details were then added.
It was a simple matter to use my Dremel saw blade and slice off the shaded portions of the kit in preparation for the resin T-28C conversion parts.
Monogram moulds the engine cooling gills closed. Lone Star provides simple insert pieces, but I was not happy with the detailing.
I decided to try to replicate the engine exhaust stacks and open cooling gills myself.
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FEATURE ARTICLE: MONOGRAM 1:48 T-28C TROJAN. • Kit No. 0121
AIRFRAME
The conversion parts and flaps test-fitted against the fuselage and wings.
All the extra work around the nose is worthwhile.
The resin conversion fitted, complete with lightening holes and other added detail.
as a series of raised circles. I wanted these corrected to look more like exhaust pipes. And, generally, the engine cooling gills are open when the aircraft is on the ground. Monogram moulds the engine cooling gills closed. Lone Star provides simple insert pieces to replace the kit engine exhausts and cooling gills, but I was not happy with the detailing. So, I decided to try to replicate the engine exhaust stacks and open cooling gills myself. If I failed, I could always cut away the area and use the Lone Star pieces. I opened the engine exhaust areas and added the exhaust stacks using appropriately sized round styrene stock (drilled out to look like pipes). For the cooling gills, I had picked up the Quick Boost engine exhausts and cooling gills for the Roden kit. I found they were not too out of size to match the Monogram kit. So, I decided to use them. I cut away about half of the kit gill covers and filed the remaining portions into a sloped contour. I added a bit more of the slope from scrap styrene sheet. I drilled a small hole for the actuator rod and added the exposed exhaust collector pipes that are visible inside the cooling gills. The last item to deal with was the cooling gill for the oil cooler on the lower left nose, just ahead of the wing root. Lone Star provides a piece for this, but again, I was not liking the detailing. I decided to continue on my own. I used the same approach with a Quick Boost piece like I had done on the upper cooling gills and in no time had an opened oil cooler gill.
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The wings were not sitting straight so I spent a few extra minutes getting the fit right.
AIRFRAME
The engine and cowl are now fitted to the fuselage.
With the fuselage together, I was feeling good about the project... but not for long!
With all the assorted resin and scratch-built updates being integrated into the kit, the airframe was looking like Frankenstein’s monster. I had grey plastic, white plastic, grey resin, and tan resin all over the place. The trick was to make all these assorted pieces “play nice” together. Closing up the fuselage around all this and getting the wings to sit straight took some work. The wings were not sitting straight. I spent time tracking down all the places that things touched to see if one of these places was the cause of things not quite aligning. This is a process that should not be rushed. Minutes spent getting the fit right to start with will save hours of puttying, sanding, and being aggravated later. After a little study, I found the issues. There were two. First, I had cut away some of the inner structure of the kit to make room for the wheel wells. I had not cut quite enough. Cutting the inner wing root bulkhead back another sixteenth of an inch freed the fit and allowed the wing to be positioned square to the fuselage. The second issue was the nose wheel well. While the cockpit and wheel well did fit into the fuselage together, they touched. I had initially thought this was not a problem. Well, guess again. The nose wheel well was about 1:32 of an inch too tall. This was making a step form under the fuselage on the front of the wing joint. I could not sand more off the top of the wheel well because the top was already to the point of breaking through. I needed to break it free so I could remove
some resin from the bottom of the piece. Once off, I filed away some of the bottom of the wheel well. Then, I re-attached it. Success! The lower wing was now fitting a good as it did before I put all the resin updates into place. With everything fitting so nicely, I started thinking I should add glue to the mix. So, I permanently attached the upper wings to the lower wings. With a little more adjustment, the wing flaps fit perfectly. I did not glue on the wing flaps at this point, though. I decided they could wait for the final assembly after painting and decals. Unique to the T-28C is the carrier approach light in the left wing leading edge. I needed to make one of these. I used an X-Acto file to create the notch in the wing and trimmed it off with some sheet styrene. I painted the interior of the notch with the box shape installed in Dull Gull Grey (F.S.36231). I painted Tamiya Clear Red and Clear Green on the front side. I filled the notch with solid super glue. It took a few applications because I could not accelerate the super glue (no bubbles that way). After this, I filed and sanded the clear super glue back to the shape of the wing leading edge. After getting the cockpit painted, it was time to glue the fuselage. The Roden instructions say they need 25g of weight in the nose to make the model sit correctly on its landing gear. I made the assumption that the Monogram kit would require the same. I measured out 25g of lead shot, and built a small container out of styrene sheet that was custom fit to the space in the nose. I filled the container with the lead shot, and
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DISASTER STRIKES!
Disaster! The wings and tail did not align not even close!
It was also obvious that the nose skewed left.
I fixed the twist in the tail first by cutting the rear fuselage from the main fuselage, then re-attaching it.
A line was drawn around the forward fuselage...
This is what I wanted it to look like.
...and the cowl was carefully cut off with my motor tool.
‘All the reviews of the Monogram kit mention its shortcomings. This is to be expected on a kit where the moulds were cut sometime close to 1960.’ glued it to the front of the cockpit tub in the upper nose space. Attaching the engine and engine cowl to the front of the fuselage left me here. Next was the tail. I inserted the horizontal tail (it is one piece from tip to tip) into the cut open rear fuselage. I then trapped the tail into place with the resin insert piece provided in the Black Box cockpit set that is the actual T-28C conversion. With care, the conversion piece fit with minimal issues. I sealed the seams with super glue and sanded it all smooth. Moving on to the rudder, the new resin rudder exposes (rightly so) the inner hinge area of the rudder. I added some detailing to this area. I had some good images I took at an air show showing a line of lightening holes running down the front side of the rudder hinge line. I also needed to re-add the hinge points that I had cut away with the kit rudder. I opened the slots in the resin rudder for the hinge points, then slid the rudder into place. The rudder fit where it belonged without difficulty. The image below is where I was at with the fuselage, and I was feeling really good about the project at this point.
DISASTER STRIKES!
I once again slipped the wings into place to start the work on joining the wings to the fuselage. My attention was caught by an alignment issue between the wings and tail. The wings and horizontal tails did not align. But, I had carefully made sure the tails were at 90 degree angles with the vertical tail. Then, I noted the vertical tail was not “vertical” and was leaning to the left. ARGH!
A view from below the nose before the surgery.
As I stared down the nose for the length of the fuselage to contemplate the situation, another issue became apparent. The nose was skewed left. To a lesser degree, the tail was also slightly skewed left. The whole fuselage had a slight “banana” shape. I guess it is a good thing I was deciding to paint this one yellow - {smile} I was unsure how I did this. I did not think I had forced the fit in ways that would impact this level of alignment. When a friend provided me a second Monogram kit to investigate, I found the nose in this new kit was straight, but the rear fuselage was twisted just like my model was now. So, somehow I caused the nose skew, probably squeezing the cockpit into the fuselage. The tail twist was probably there all along and I missed seeing it until it was too late. The question now was “How do I fix this?” I devised a rather radical solution for the issues. Since I was not going to be happy to just complete the kit with these issues, I had to fix them. There are convenient panel lines in two places along the fuselage. If I cut the fuselage at those points, I could “adjust” the fit to correct the issues, in theory. I decided to start with the tail, first. Of the two issues, I considered this the more noticeable and also the easier to fix. I used a strip of Dyna-Tape to draw a straight line around the fuselage. Then, I used a radial saw blade in my Dremel motor tool to cut off the tail. This went faster than I expected. I inserted the wings back into the fuselage and re-attached the tail, rotated to make the horizontal tails align with the wings, which then made the vertical truly vertical.
The nose was then re-attached - no more skew!
A friend had argued not to attempt the nose fix. His thinking was that with the big three-bladed prop, the skewed nose would be not so easy to see. I almost went along with him. Then, I was fitting the wings again and saw that the nose wheel well was, itself, straight while the nose bend off to the left. Thus, the nose landing gear would install offset from the skewed nose instead of being centred. The landing gear not being centred sold me (and my friend) on making the change. I used tape to mark off the boundaries of the section I needed to remove, then used a Sharpie marker to colour the area in black. The idea was that now I just cut away all the black area. An hour or so of filling and sanding cleaned up the joint line. The final result was an improvement. With the crisis averted, I could return to the standard construction.
CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES
I was happy to get back to more mundane construction topics after the nail-biting process to fix the fuselage alignment issues. I made sure I was really done inside the fuselage, glued the wings onto the fuselage. With the wings attached, I had a full T-28 airframe to fly around my workroom. Monogram moulds the wheel wells with some incorrect shapes. They make the nose wheel well a regular rectangle, but it should be narrower in the forward section. Using thin styrene strips, I boxed off the edges of the nose wheel well and made the forward section narrower. Also, the main wheel
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FEATURE ARTICLE: MONOGRAM 1:48 T-28C TROJAN. • Kit No. 0121
CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES
The wings were now glued to the fuselage. The shapes of the wheel well openings were corrected.
Squadron canopy with additional framing made from plastic strip.
wells have an additional section that should not be there on the outboard rear corners. I used an X-Acto knife to cut away these sections. In both cases, I used the resin wheel well doors from Black Box to determine the sizes of the wheel wells and adjusted the wheel well edges to make them match the doors. Monogram covers the outside surfaces of the model in rivets. I had taken a moment earlier in the project to file most of them off. This smoothed the surfaces, but left some rough areas. Now was the time to finalize the job with a little sanding. I also took some time to re-scribe the airframe. I did need to fill a few of the only scribed “panel lines” Monogram did mould on the kit. They moulded lines for the edges of the black exhaust panel on the fuselage sides and the anti-glare panel in front of the windscreen. Since these do not exist as panel lines on the real T-28, I needed to eliminate them. With everything sanded smooth and the scribing done, I was finally getting close to the time where I could start the overall paint job. The last item to address was the cockpit canopy. Squadron vacuum formed canopies are fairly thick, unlike the paper-thin squash-formed canopies I have done for myself in the past. I decided the best way to cut them out was my radial saw bit in my Dremel motor tool. This was quick and simple and did not have the possibility of me slipping with a knife blade and ruining the clear parts of the canopy. Five minutes later, I had separated canopies. As thick as the canopies were, I still did not like how thin the canopies looked on the model, so I built the inner frames inside the canopies from strip styrene. For the rear canopy, the rear bow was a complication. I needed to create a small decking area in the rear bow of the rear canopy. After trial and error testing and trying to figure out how to mount a cut piece of sheet styrene, I finally hit on the idea of thinning the Monogram kit rear canopy frame and cutting it down to size to fit inside the vacuum formed canopy. It fit the compound curves of the rear canopy like a glove!
CAMOUFLAGE AND MARKINGS
After painting the inner frames and the gunsight details, I permanently attached the windscreen. I masked the clear sections of the cockpit glass using Parafilm-M, and I left the canopies separate, masking the cockpits with a strip of tape all the way around.
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The canopy test-fitted to the completed and corrected airframe.
PAINTING
Next, the model was primed with Floquil Reefer White. Testor’s Model Master enamels were used for the paint. The green wing stripes, the walk ways and anti-glare panels were painted first
I followed up with Chrome Yellow (F.S.13538).
Once the overall colours were dry, I could remove the Parafilm-M masks and expose the rest of the painted areas.
I did not need an overall gloss coating since the paints I used were already glossy.
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DECALS The Aeromaster sheet only provides one sheme in yellow.
I created custom markings for the unique tail codes.
I finished the decal stage with a coat of Floquil Crystal Coat.
Markings were sourced from an old Aeromaster decal sheet.
WEATHERING
The model looks almost “wrong” since it does have dirt on it, but this is closer to how they really looked when the military was actively flying them.
I wanted my model to be an active duty US Navy bird. In active US Navy service, T-28s were originally overall yellow, then later changed to all white with orange trim. Except for a few minor exceptions, that is about all. The decals I had gotten for the project (AeroMaster 48-614) provided both of these options. I like both options, so choosing one was the issue. I like the basic white and orange scheme, but I have other models on my display shelve already in that scheme. I can’t think of another model I want to build that would be overall yellow, so I decided to go with that on this model.
PAINTING
I used mainly Testors Model Master enamel paints to build this model. Any paints I discuss here that do not specifically mention their manufacture are Model Master enamel paints.
I had some changes in my plans for some of the markings on the model. The decal instructions name Olive Drab for the anti-glare panel and wing flap tops. I was planning to paint them in that colour. But, Ken Hildebrandt provided more information, this time on the exterior colours. Through his research, he informed me that the Olive Drab colour was only used on the first 399 T-28Bs (up through BuNo 138328). All subsequent T-28Bs and all T-28Cs in the yellow scheme would have had black for these areas. He also confirmed the engine exhaust area is Engine Grey, not black as some references call it. He even provided some colour photos to back up his research. Since all I had available in vintage photos was black and white, I had no way to know these differences. This time his information was no too late to change the colours I was using. I had decided I wanted the green bands on the
wings and tail that signify an instrument trainer. The green was a nice touch of colour to break up all the yellow and accent the black markings. When it was time for decals, I would need to adjust the markings and BuNo to be an aircraft that had these stripes. I decided it would be easier to do “positive masks” on the green stripes and other markings on the T-28C instead of doing the yellow first and then doing “negative masks” for the markings. I painted the black wing walkways and the natural metal at the engine exhausts. Then I painted the green stripes. The last items were the Engine Grey exhaust panels. After all these had dried, I used Parafilm-M and masked out the areas. It was time for the overall Yellow. A good yellow colour requires a starting point of a good white primer. I used Floquil Reefer White for the overall primer white colour. The Floquil paints are lacquers. They “surface dry” to the touch in about a hour, but it takes them a couple days to totally dry/ cure so that the model can be handled for painting the next colour (yellow). It was tough having to look at the model in all white and not be able to do anything about the yellow coat for a couple days. When the white finally dried, I followed up with Chrome Yellow (F.S.13538). The yellow paint has the advantage of already being a gloss colours. I wanted to guarantee a good white in the national insignias, so I masked off the national insignia areas to keep them white when I painted the yellow. Once the overall colours were dry, I could remove the Parafilm-M masks and expose the rest of the painted areas. It was impressive to finally see all the colours at the same time. I was starting to really like that I chose to do the yellow scheme with the green stripes instead of the white and orange scheme. I did not need an overall gloss coating since the paints I used were already glossy. I did a spot painting of gloss over the flat paint areas like the anti-glare panel and engine exhaust bands. Time for decals...
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FEATURE ARTICLE: MONOGRAM 1:48 T-28C TROJAN. • Kit No. 0121
FINISHING TOUCHES
The cooling gills are Quickboost items.
For a little better detailing, I added a hinge bar to the inside of the doors and scratch-built the actuator rods.
A view from below. The landing gear was replaced with white metal items from Scale Aircraft Conversions.
The navigation lights are clear tinted parts from an old Cutting Edge set.
The sliding section of the canopy has now been fixed in place
DECALS
AeroMaster 48-614 provides only one aircraft in the overall yellow scheme, and it is not one with green stripes. So, I created custom decals for all the tail codes, the nose Modex numbers, the unit designation, and both the small BuNo that goes under the tail as well as the larger “last four” numbers that go on the tail. I also re-created the NAVY titles so I could correct the “A” and “V” text style from what AeroMaster provides. This was all done quickly in Microsoft Paint using fonts I have for USAF and USN block lettering. To print them, I imbedded the artwork in a Microsoft Word document and re-sized it to the correct size to print in 1/48th scale. Since AeroMaster provides minimal airframe data markings, I had to look elsewhere for these. Fortunately, the Monogram kit decals had a significant array of airframe data. So, I used AeroMaster decals for the national insignia, custom printed decals for the rest of the bigger markings, and Monogram decals for the airframe data. I always finish the decal stage with a gloss coating with Floquil Crystal Coat. This seals the decals and prepares the surfaces to receive some washes for weathering.
WEATHERING
Here is where making a more accurate “period” model of a T-28 in active military service got challenging. Everyone is familiar with the civilian war bird T-28s that are seen at most air shows. These civilian war birds are generally kept immaculate and wiped down after most every flight, so everyone has the impression that T-28s had little to no exhaust staining and very little oil staining.
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Looking at vintage images of T-28s, this impression is wrong. They did get quite dirty. Finding a few vintage images of T-28s in military service became necessary for researching the weathering of the aircraft. The model looks almost “wrong” since it does have dirt on it, but this is closer to how they really looked when the military was actively flying them. There are oil leaks from the engine, boot scuffs on the upper wings, significant engine exhaust stains, and general grime. I did not go as crazy as some of the extreme examples I found in pictures, but I also did not want it too clean.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Excitement mounts when I go into the “home stretch” with any project. I am working on all the various detail parts at the same time as the main airframe, so by this time, the project is mostly an excursion in attaching the detail parts. First up were the cooling gill doors, which are QuickBoost items. They are real thin and nice. For a little better detailing, I added a hinge bar to the inside of the doors (it is mostly not visible). I also scratch-built the actuator rods. By this point, I have a sizable investment in the painting on the main airframe, so I want to get the model up off its belly and sitting on the landing gear. That protects the painting on the bottom of the model from damage. The Monogram kit landing gear is a joke. As moulded, the kit’s landing gear is operational. The landing gear legs are bulky to withstand the stresses of being operated and lacking of many details. I decided to take the easy way out and replaced the landing gear with metal T-28 landing gear from Scale Aircraft Conversions. The SAC landing gear
is just a copy of the Roden kit’s landing gear. I modified the landing gear to fit the Lone Star wheel wells and used super glue to attach them. The retraction linkage arms and bracing for the wheel well doors were sourced from the Roden kit. I only needed to scratch build the large “H” linkages in the main wheel wells and the arms that attach the larger doors to the main landing gear legs. Also visible in the image above are the air brake and wing flaps. With the landing gear was on place to hold the model off the ground, I could also attach the air brake and the lowered wing flaps. This was really starting to look like a T-28! This is the part of most aircraft projects where a ton of little bits come into play. This project was no different, in fact it had a few more just because of all the details lacking on the original kit that I was needing to add. I pulled out from my after-market resin stash several old Cutting Edge sets that provide clear resin navigation lights - clear, clear red, and clear green. The lights I needed are tiny, but very noticeable on the completed model. I cut and attached the red light to the left wingtip and the green light to the right wingtip. I also cut and attached the lower red beacon light under the rear fuselage. Note that the upper red beacon did not get added to the aircraft until later in their service lives. Instead, there is a small clear teardrop light on the upper fuselage, so I added a clear teardrop upper light to my model. (Thanks again to Ken Hildebrandt for providing this information.) Other tiny, but noticeable details are the tie-down lugs under the wings and tail. After trying and failing to make these myself out of fine brass wire, I located an etched brass set from Caldercraft that provided a
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lifetime’s worth of tiny eyelets (250) on a small metal fret. I only needed three for this T-28C. I drilled holes and inserted the eyelets, then painted them silver. I attached the tail hook, complete in its black and white stripes, to the lower rear fuselage. I had needed to scratch-build a new hook from brass wire because the Black Box piece in the resin set I had was warped beyond salvaging. T-28s have folding landing lights that are located in the outer panels of the wing underside. I did not want to extend these, but they needed to be represented. Monogram has a moulded round circle that marks the location of the lights. I used M.V.Lenses for the lights. I selected appropriately sized lenses, drilled a shallow holes to receive the lenses, and then glued them into place. Next on my list was the right wing pitot. Monogram has no representation of this. I did a little research to find the right place for the pitot, then drilled a hole in the wing leading edge and mounted a turned aluminium pitot I had in my spare parts stash. Being aluminium, I left the tip unpainted and only painted the mounting tube to match the yellow wing. Then, I insisted to myself that the static discharge whiskers had to be added to the wings and tails. These, like the other details, are little, but they are quite noticeable. I was using thin fishing line (8 pound test) for these. The problem was that the round cross section gave very little mating surface to mount them. Any light touch would make them fall off. One of the members of the HyperScale forum gave me a solution for this. He said to crush the mounting end of the whisker in a vice. The flattened cross section gave lots more mating surface for the super glue. They will actually stay in place now if I accidentally brush them with a finger. I curled them to make the appropriate sag, then I painted these a sand colour with a yellow tip. The cockpit seats were still not in the cockpits at this point. I needed to be able to access the bars at the back of the cockpits to anchor the ends of the shoulder harnesses. I created the harnesses with thin strips of lead foil. I added buckles from an extra etched set in my spare parts stash. I painted the harnesses Light Ghost Grey (I know, they are not F.S. matched, but that colour is a good representation of the silver-grey that many belts are coloured). After attaching the shoulder harnesses, I permanently added the seats into the cockpits. With all these details completed, I was finally up to the typical conclusion of any of my aircraft projects - the canopies. The T-28 has unique canopies when they are opened. It is the look of the open canopies that really drew me to wanting to build a T-28 model. The rear canopy section goes way back to make space for the forward canopy to come back enough for the training pilot to enter as well as also leaving space for the instructor pilot to enter the rear cockpit. As I mentioned earlier, the Squadron vacuumformed canopies are not paper thin, but still too thin for my taste. I had added inner frames to the canopies with styrene strips. I also needed to solidify the seating of the canopies in the opened position. The canopies on the T-28 have very specific positioning when they are rolled back. Both canopies tip back and have the rear sections lower than the leading sections. I found the easiest way to get the seating of the canopies to be where I wanted them was to add more styrene strips inside the
The tail hook was attached to the lower rear fuselage.
lower canopy frames that would rest on the cockpit sill edges and solidify the seating of the canopies. I painted the inner frames in Interior Black, then glued them in place. It was finally time to take pictures of the completed model!
CONCLUSION
There you have it -- the “ancient” Monogram T-28 kit built and updated with lots of after-market sets as well as a bit of scratch-building. As other reviews of the kit have said, “It is not a bad little kit if you do something to fill in the missing details like the cockpit and wheel wells”. Okay, forgive me. With the number of update sets I incorporated into the project, only ten of the original Monogram kit
pieces were still used, some heavily modified. Arguably, these ten pieces define the actual airframe of the model (less the engine cowling). All the update sets just add detailing onto that existing airframe. So, let me rephrase it, “It is not a bad little kit if you replace the majority of the kit with after-market items and do a little scratch-building”. Most of the after-market sets I used are still available if you search for them, so it is just a matter of doing the work to include these in the project for anyone wanting to follow my footsteps. The result can be a very nice looking T-28 model. Or, buy the Roden T-28 kit, although, it also needs some help on fine details that start adding up to big kit changes, too. I still have no idea how the fuselage nose was skewed after I got it glued together. Fortunately, I was able to salvage the situation. I do not feel this would ever be an IPMS Nationals competition piece, anyway, but I am pleased with how it turned out. •
The final result - the ancient Monogram kit updated with lots of after market and scratch building!
Aircraft Edition
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ISSUE No.057 January 2016
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Tailpiece OVER KOREA BY NIGHT Sword 1:72 scale F2H-2N Banshee (Nightfighter). Kit No. SW72092 Mark Davies reviews Sword’s new 1:72 scale F2H-2N Banshee Nightfighter.
T
his is a typical Sword kit with cleanly moulded parts, very fine surface detail, and narrow sprue gates. There is just a little flash in places, but this is easy to deal with. Parts break down is largely conventional for the type. There is a styrene control column and cockpit tub, the consoles of which are garnished with photo-etch, whilst the floor is covered by a photoetched floor incorporating rudder pedals and footholds. The styrene tub needs to have some raised moulded detail removed in order to receive these photo-etched items. Photo-etch also provides the upper portion of the rear cockpit bulkhead. The instrument panel is photo-etched and topped by a styrene housing for the camera viewing lens. PE belts, placards, and firing handles garnish the resin ejection-seat, which also has PE leg restraints. There is a choice of styrene or PE cockpit coaming (the latter needs rolling into shape). Two PE rails fit to the inside of the fuselage walls at the top-rear of the cockpit opening. I think that the real canopy rides in these, enabling it to slide up and towards the rear when opened. Cockpit detail is a huge advance on the old Airfix kit; and I feel that whilst Pro Resin’s cockpit may actually have slightly more detail, the effect of Sword’s coloured PE results in a better looking cockpit overall. This kit is uses the same main sprues as the F2H-2P photo-recon kit, so unlike the F2H-2 fighter-bomber boxing, the fuselage halves are sectioned just ahead of the cockpit. The longer radar-equipped night-fighter nose halves come on their own small sprue, and are a butt-fit to the main fuselage. The gun-ports have slight hollows moulded
The kit photo-etched fret.
in place, but many will opt to drill these out a little deeper for a more realistic appearance. The instructions would have you add the nose section to the remainder of the fuselage as a subcomponent. However, unless you are very sure of a perfect fit with no step in the join, I would suggest fitting each nose section to its fuselage half separately before joining the fuselage and nose. The instructions do advise to add ballast between the camera nose and cockpit to avoid a tail-sitter, but not how much. The fuselage halves enclose the arrestor hook bay, resin nose-wheel bay, and cockpit subassembly. The arrestor hook is nicely done, and can be modelled lowered if whished. The inner lining of the engine intakes are cast separately from the wing halves. This ensures that internal intake ducts are seamless, and they have a nice compressor face cast in their rear. The exhaust ducts are moulded with the wings, into which resin turbine sections fit. The wingtip tanks are separate items and include four small PE inspection plates to fit to each. Two payload pylons are also included. The main wheel wells are very small openings, as the larger doors over the wheels outboard of the wing-fold are moulded closed (per the original, in general). The small open portions include some detail and cleverly moulded sidewalls that achieve an undercut effect. The undercarriage legs are nicely done and quite adequate for the scale, with resin main-wheels replacing the slightly off-centre items included on the sprues. There are coloured PE faces for the inside of two of the styrene undercarriage doors, and PE tie-down hooks for the main-legs.
Nice surface detail on the wings too!
Not much remains to mention; obviously, there is the tailplane, a pitot and nose undercarriage, all of which look fine. The two-piece canopy is clear and thin, and can be modelled open or closed. The kit includes PE parts that ride in the internal canopy slide tracks mentioned earlier. These raise the front of the canopy to the level of the fuselage rear decking as it slides backwards. Some additional parts form the internal framing of the canopy, and what I think is the seat catapult safety pin cable reel. Finally, there is what I think is a small motor and associated gearbox to open the canopy that sits on the fuselage rear decking just under the back part of the canopy. Overall, I should think that this kit should be a simple and enjoyable one to build. Sword’s F2H-2N Banshee kit has very nice surface and cockpit detail. It is well engineered, all components are produced to high standards, and it looks to be straightforward to build. I think that it also represents excellent value from the right supplier. In many ways, this is Sword at its best, and equals or even surpasses the much more expensive Pro Resin kit. It definitely has the potential to produce most attractive and interesting model, and I happily recommend it. Thanks to Sword Models for this review sample http://swordmodels.cz/en/ •
The canopy is supplied in two pieces, allowing it to be posed open or closed. Resin parts are very well cast.
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