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Meng’s brand new 1:48 F-35 Lightning II
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Contents 52
modeller military illustrated
ISSUE No.077 September 2017
4
NEWS
6
REFERENCES
8
PREVIEW
What’s happening in modelling and aviation
F-35A Lightning ii in raaf service Full sized reference
Tamiya 1:32 F4U-1D Corsair
10 FIFTH GENERATION
Meng Model 1:48 F-35A Lightning II by Brett Green
22 PREVIEW
Eduard 1:48 F-8E Crusader
24 RABEN’S RAVEN
Encore’s 1:32 scale Fokker F.I Triplane by James Hatch
38 FULL AND FRANK
Hasegawa 1:32 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate by Kamil Feliks Sztarbala
52 DELTA TROJAN
Roden’s 1:48 T-28D Trojan by David W. Aungst
65 NEXT ISSUES
What’s coming up in the next issues of Military Illustrated Modeller
66 TAILPIECE
The Editor takes a new circle cutting tool for a test drive.
10
38
AIR Edition
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News COPPER STATE MODELS H-P O/400 PREVIEW Copper State Models has released preview images of its forthcoming 1:48 scale resin Handley Page O/ 400 model kit. Copper State Models is an acclaimed Latvian-based producer of multimedia model kits and aftermarket accessories that have been favourably reviewed by prominent hobby media internationally. Copper State Models is developing a popular new range of WW1 aviation subjects which began with the Sopwith Snipe and continued with the Caudron G.IV land bomber and its naval counterpart the G.IV Hydravion, then followed these with the recent new tool injection moulded kits representing Early, Mid and Late versions of the Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8, a popular WW1 two seater operated by the Royal Flying Corps and never previously produced as a plastic model kit in 1:48 scale. The company is currently developing a resin 1:48 scale Handley Page O/400 and has released images of test shots of its O/400. The Handley Page O/400 was the biggest and best known British WW1 bomber aircraft. It was rugged and dependable, with a crew of four to five and was powered by two RollsRoyce Eagle engines which gave it a range of more than 1100kms. With a wingspan of 100ft (30.4 metres). It was the largest aircraft operated by the British and flew chiefly as a night bomber against German targets in France, Belgium and the Rhineland.
The design of the Handley Page Type O series began just after the outbreak of WW1 as the British looked for “a bloody paralyser” aircraft for long range bombing. The O/100 bomber entered service in 1916 and the improved O/400 followed it later in 1918 with a total of 549 O/ 400 aircraft built. It served with seven RAF squadrons and was the standard British heavy bomber. Copper State Models, whose history dates to the 1990s when it was established in America as a small cottage industry producing resin model kits, was purchased by new owners in Riga, Latvia and re-launched with a programme of wholly new tool model kits. The company is also producing a range of aftermarket engines and aviation figures in the popular scales. For further information please visit the Copper State Models Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/copperstatemodels/ Copper State Models website: http://www.copperstatemodels.com
NEW SPARMAX AIRBRUSHES
The Airbrush Company has added three new airbrushes to their Sparmax range. Code Description SRP inc VAT SP-GP-35 Sparmax GP-35 pistol trigger airbrush £75.00 £90.00 SP-GP-50 Sparmax GP-50 pistol trigger airbrush £75.00 £90.00 SP-GP-850 Sparmax GP-850 with fan/round air caps £95.83 £115.00 The Sparmax GP Pistol Trigger airbrushes offer simple, ergonomic operation. Featuring a pre-set handle, these airbrushes allows even the beginner to spray consistent coverage or consistent lines and prevents accidentally pulling back too far to flood the surface you're spraying. The Sparmax GP-850 features both a fan pattern and round pattern air cap. Based on preference you can switch between caps, which has great advantages when applying spray tans for example. The fan pattern delivers with minimum of overspray giving it a unique advantage over mini touch up guns. Great for small areas such as chip repair, fender welds, door jams and other hard-to-reach areas. It is also great for airbrushing RC body shells and larger scale models. View full descriptions live on Airbrushes.com here: https://airbrushes.com/advanced_search_result. php?keywords=sp-gp-
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NEW SWORD 1:72 SCALE RELEASES
Sword Models has sent Preview images and information on three new 1:72 scale kits due out now: • SW72104 - Fiat G.55, 2 in 1 series. This model contains two complete kits with two tail versions. Seven marking choices are offered. • SW72105 - RF-80A Over Korea, with six marking options. • SW72106 - P-80A/B, with five marking options. We will have more details upon the release of these three kits. Thanks to Sword for the information and images http://swordmodels.cz/en/
Military Illustrated Modeller - September 2017
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REFERENCES RAAF F-35A Lightning II 1
RAAF F-35A LIGHTNING II
We take a look at the first and second F-35A Lightning IIs in RAAF service.
I
n 2009, the Australian Government announced its selection of the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35A Lightning II to replace its classic Hornet fighter fleet, building on a more than 50-year partnership between the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Lockheed Martin. Sqn Ldr Andrew Jackson, RAAF, on flying the F-35:, said “The fifth generation F-35A capabilities represent a quantum shift over legacy fighters... This aircraft will give fighter pilots a level of situational awareness that far exceeds legacy platforms. Experiencing this level of capability first hand is
6
something every pilot dreams of." Every F-35 built contains parts and components manufactured in Australia local companies are already realizing the industrial benefits of the program. By operating the same aircraft as allies in the Asia-Pacific and around the world, the RAAF will take advantage of the F-35’s powerful sensors to share data to an unprecedented level of interoperability. The global fleet of F-35s will also give Australia advantages in economies of scale on production and sustainment of more than 3,000 F-35s for decades to come. •
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1. USAF and RAAF F-35As flying in formation. In this image, the pale RAM boundaries appear to be raised from the upper surfaces. Note the light reflecting from the leading edges of the boundaries. 2. The second RAAF F-35A, A35-002. The reflective main camouflage colour is slightly glossy, whereas the RAM boundaries are flat in finish. 3. When viewed from certain angles and in certain light, there is almost no contrast between the main camouflage colour and the RAM boundaries.
2
4. RAAF F-35 taking off during the Australian International Airshow and Aerospace & Defence Exposition 2017. Note that the RAM boundaries appear darker and flatter when viewed from this angle.
3
4
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AIR Edition
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KIT PREVIEW Tamiya 1:32 Vought F4U-1D Corsair • Kit No. 60327
Sprue A is the new wings. LEFT: Sprue B includes subtly different fuselage halves.
WHAT’S NEW WITH THE -1D?
The Editor compares the brand-new Tamiya 1:32 scale F4U-1D to its predecessors.
T
amiya has transformed its F4U-1A Corsair into the F4U-1D with no fewer than five new grey sprues and another new sprue in clear plastic. The first of the new grey sprues, Sprue A, contains the upper wing parts with a new sprue gate to exclude the early version lower wing halves. Next up is Sprue B, a new fuselage sprue which is subtly different to the sprue supplied in the Birdcage and -1A kits. In fact, the differences are so subtle that I haven't quite managed to pick them yet, but it is a new (or at least revised) sprue, as indicated by the moulding date and serial number. The new Sprue B1 comprises a single part - the lower mid-wing section now moulded with provision four mounting the underwing ordnance racks. Two identical Sprue Vs offers bombs, new propeller blades, the large drop tanks and eight rockets with separate fins. Sprue W includes the new reinforced lower wings. These have provision mounting the rockets. The footstep is also cut out of the port side flap and a new propeller hub is included. The new clear parts supply the clear vision canopy. They are thin and sparkling and totally free from distortion. Self-adhesive canopy masks are included for the new canopy and windscreen. The frames are printed onto the sheet but not die cut, so you will have to cut the individual masks out yourself (not a great chore though). Otherwise, the plastic sprues are the same (and just as gorgeous) as those included in the F4U-1A kit, although the ordnance Sprue T for that specific type is not included in this box. Surface detail is possibly even finer than Tamiya's 1:32 scale Mustang. Crisply recessed panel lines are supplemented with rows of extremely restrained rivets. The visibility of the rivets varies depending on the angle and intensity of available light, ranging from subtly noticeable to almost imperceptible. Several different sizes of rivets are apparent too, as are selected slotted screw heads and raised hinges. Fabric detail on the control surfaces and on the outer wing panels is restrained. The fuselage halves are each presented in two main parts. Several options are possible for the turtledeck, mid upper spine and the top of the aircraft nose thanks to the use of inserts. The joins for these inserts fall on natural panel lines.
8
The cockpit is beautifully detailed and is modified for this version. The seat was raised in the -1A, and this is depicted correctly. The instrument panel follows the lead of Tamiya's other 1:32 scale kits, with a clear part sandwiched between a grey plastic panel and decals at the rear. Photo-etched parts make an appearance in the cockpit. They are used for the harness straps and several other details. The R-2800 radial engine is beautifully detailed too. This is an all-plastic affair so assembly should be straightforward. The ignition leads are not included, so you might like to add fine wire to depict these. The ends of the exhaust pipes are hollowed out. Cowl flaps may be posed either open or closed. Different parts are supplied for each option. The landing gear legs - all three - also look fantastic. Tyres are vinyl. The horizontal stabilisers and fin are attached to the fuselage via stout fixed locating slots. A stout black plastic stand is supplied for "in-flight" display, along with a self-adhesive metallic label. Two pilot figures round out the package – one standing and the second seated in full flight gear. I like the clear goggles provided for the seated pilot! Markings are supplied for two aircraft - an F4U1D and FG-1D, both in overall Gloss Sea Blue - plus extensive stencilling. Wing walks, a reversed instrument dial decal, placards and more stencils are supplied on a second sheet. Both decal sheets are in register on my sample. Once again, Tamiya has delivered a truly outstanding model. If you have the slightest interest in the F4U Corsair family, Tamiya’s newest 1:32 scale kit will be an essential ornament for your modelling bench. Do yourself a favour and build one soon. Highly Recommended. •
The new lower centre wing section has provision for mounting bombs or drop tanks.
One of the aforementioned drop tanks, along with the -1D-style propeller blades.
The main decal sheet with national and unique markings.
A second decal sheet covers stencil, wing walkways, instrument dials and more.
Self-adhesive masks are offered, although you’ll have to cut them out yourself.
Thanks to Tamiya Japan for the sample www.tamiya.com Tamiya kits are distributed in the UK by The Hobby Company Limited www.hobbyco.net
Two interesting schemes in overall Gloss Sea Blue are included.
The new frameless canopy.
Military Illustrated Modeller - September 2017
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FEATURE ARTICLE Meng Model 1:48 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II • Kit No. LS-007
FIFTH GENER A Brett Green wastes no time building Meng Model’s brand new 1:48 scale F-35A Lightning II.
T
he Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole fighters. The fifth-generation combat aircraft is designed to perform ground attack and air defence missions. It has three main models: the F-35A conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) variant, the F-35B short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) variant, and the F-35C carrier-based Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) variant. On 31 July
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2015, the United States Marines declared ready for deployment the first squadron of F-35B fighters after intensive testing. On 2 August 2016, the U.S. Air Force declared its first squadron of F-35A fighters combat-ready. The F-35 descends from the X-35, the winning design of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. An aerospace industry team led by Lockheed Martin designed and manufactures it. Other major F-35 industry partners include Northrop Grumman, Pratt
& Whitney and BAE Systems. The F-35 first flew on 15 December 2006. The United States plans to buy 2,457 aircraft. Its variants are to provide the bulk of the crewed tactical airpower of the U.S. Air Force, Navy and the Marine Corps over the coming decades. Deliveries of the F-35 for the U.S. military are scheduled until 2037 with a projected service life up to 2070. The United States principally funds the F-35 JSF development, with additional funding from
Military Illustrated Modeller - September 2017
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R ATION Upper and lower fuselage halves.
RAM boundaries are slightly raised from the surface.
Optional wing pylons are included.
Weapons include two AIM-120C Sparrow missiles and eight GBU-53 SDBs arranged on two pylons.
The kit’s clear sprue.
Photo-etched parts for the harness and the engine flame holder.
partners. The partner nations are either NATO members or close U.S. allies. The United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Turkey are part of the active development program; several additional countries have ordered, or are considering ordering, the F-35. The program is the most expensive military weapons system in history, and has been much criticized inside and outside government, in the U.S. and in allied countries. Critics argue that
the plane is "plagued with design flaws," with many blaming the procurement process in which Lockheed was allowed "to design, test, and produce the F-35 all at the same time, instead of… [identifying and fixing] defects before firing up its production line." By 2014, the program was "$163 billion over budget [and] seven years behind schedule." Critics also contend that the program's high sunk costs and political momentum make it "too big to kill."
The decal sheet includes markings for two USAF aircraft.
AIR Edition
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FEATURE ARTICLE Meng Model 1:48 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II • Kit No. LS-007
F-35A
The F-35A is the conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) variant intended for the U.S. Air Force and other air forces. It is the smallest, lightest F-35 version and is the only variant equipped with an internal cannon, the GAU-22/A. This 25 mm cannon is a development of the GAU-12 carried by the USMC's AV-8B Harrier II. It is designed for increased effectiveness against ground targets compared to the 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannon carried by other USAF fighters. The F-35A is expected to match the F-16 in manoeuvrability and instantaneous high-g performance, and outperform it in stealth, payload, range on internal fuel, avionics, operational effectiveness, supportability, and survivability. It is expected to match an F-16 that is carrying the usual external fuel tank in acceleration performance. The A variant is primarily intended to replace the USAF's F-16 Fighting Falcon. At one point, it was also intended to replace the A-10 Thunderbolt II starting in 2028. The F-35A can be outfitted to receive fuel via either of the two main aerial refuelling methods; this was a consideration in the Canadian procurement and a deciding factor for the Japanese purchase. On 18 December 2013, the Netherlands became the second partner country to operate the F-35A, when Maj. Laurens J.W. Vijge of the Royal Netherlands Air Force took off from Eglin Air Force Base. On 27 January 2014, General Mike Hostage, head of Air Combat Command, stated he would fight "to the death" to not have a single plane of the USAF's planned 1,763 F-35 purchase be cut, because the allies and partners of the US got "weak in the knees" when seeing the USAF "back away" from the F-35. He said the F-15 and F-16 fleets would become tactically obsolete in the middle of the next decade regardless of improvements. Hostage also commented that the F-35 would be "irrelevant" without the F-22 fleet being viable as the F-35 was not an air superiority fighter, and that an F-35 pilot who enters a dogfight has made a mistake. The F-35As for the Royal Norwegian Air Force will have drag chute installed. Norway will be the first country to adopt the drag chute pod. On 2 August 2016, the U.S. Air Force declared the F-35A basic combat ready. The 34th Fighter Squadron located at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, has at least 12 combat-ready jets capable of global deployment. F-35A is scheduled to be full combat ready in 2017 with its 3F software upgrade. Air Combat Command will initially deploy F-35A to Red Flag exercises and as a "theatre security package" to Europe and the Asia-Pacific.*
The one-piece photo-etched harness in place.
The six piece seat is nicely detailed.
Cockpit parts cleaned up and ready for assembly. The cockpit parts were sprayed “scale black” before receiving a wash of Future Floor Polish, water and black.
Cockpit sub-assemblies.
A decal represents the wide screen display instrument panel. The assembled cockpit tub with coaming.
Black-on-black ejection seat…
…now in the cockpit. Fit was so good that glue was not required at this stage.
MENG’S 1:48 F-35A LIGHTNING II IN THE BOX
Meng Model's two most recent releases have been very impressive - their stunning 1:72 scale F-106 Delta Dart and their innovative press-fit 1:48 scale P-51D Mustang. Meng has now turned its attention to an ultramodern subject - the F-35A Lightning II in 1:48 scale - which is just rolling off the production lines and entering service now. Meng's 1:48 scale F-35A comprises 222 parts in dark bluish-grey coloured plastic, eight parts in clear, three photo-etched parts and markings for two aircraft. Moulding quality is excellent. Ejector pin circles have been carefully placed so that they will not be visible on the finished model.
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Military Illustrated Modeller - September 2017
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The nose landing gear and bay parts.
The nose gear leg test fitted to the nose bay.
The nose gear was assembled separate from the undercarriage bay.
The landing light was painted silver at the back and masked with a circle punched from Tamiya masking tape.
The same process was repeated for the two main landing gear bays and legs.
Clamps were used to hold the gear bays in place while the cement set.
Main gear legs were fitted without glue.
Elements of the two ordnance bays.
AIR Edition
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FEATURE ARTICLE Meng Model 1:48 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II • Kit No. LS-007
I like Meng's representaion of the Radar Absorbing Material areas (RAM), moulded as raised zig-zags and strips on the surface of the model. There is some contention as to whether these are raised on the real aircraft too. In some photographs they seem to be flush with the surface but in others, the boundaries seem to pick up reflections as if they are raised. I posted a few of these ambiguous photos in the preceding reference pages. Whether they are flat or not, they certainly give the illusion of being raised from certain angles and in particular lighting conditions. Surface detail is almost always a matter of taste and personal opinion. Model companies apply their efforts to representing notable surface textures in relatively small scale, which almost inevitably demands some additional emphasis lest the features disappear altogether. I think that Meng has done a convincing job with their RAM areas, but you'll need to make your own masks if you want to paint the zig-zag RAM areas in a different shade of grey (although I'm sure we won't have to wait long for after-market masks from Eduard). The fuselage is broken down into upper and lower halves. The lower half is moulded with openings for the landing gear and the big ordnance bays. The separate bay areas are all crisply moulded with structural, hydraulic and electrical cabling detail that should look great with some restrained weathering. The various hinges and rams for the are multi-part assemblies by themselves. However, all undercarriage and ordnance doors may be closed if you prefer. The small vent doors on the top of the fuselage may be posed open or closed too. Alternative parts are supplied for the open and closed positions. The cockpit of the real F-35A is quite clean and simple, and Meng's front office reflects this. A single decal is supplied for the wide screen instrument panel display. Most of the side console detail is moulded to the tub, but the throttle and rudder bar are separate pieces. The one-piece canopy is moulded in clear plastic and may be posed closed or open with separate stout hinge parts. The canopy is admirably thin and free from distortion with no raised centreline seam. In addition to the frame detail recessed into the clear canopy, Meng also supplies a separate grey plastic frame that is fitted inside the clear part. The seat is nicely done, with crisp detail on the sides and rear plus photo-etched harness straps. Full-length intake ducting is included. The exhaust nozzle and the photo-etched flame holder assembly looks great. All the wheels are supplied in plastic (not vinyl hooray!), and are not bulged or flattened, leaving that decision to the modeller. Elevators and flaperons are separate parts. The elevators may be fixed at 0 degrees or 10 degree deflection thanks to alternative kit parts. Ordnance for the internal bay is supplied in the form of two lovely one-piece AIM-120C missiles and eight GBU-53 SDBs arranged on two pylons. Optional external wing pylons are offered for USAF and Italian aircraft, although you'll need to source ordnance elsewhere. Note that Meng is also releasing three separate modern American weapons sets. More on these later. I was curious to see if Meng had employed any of the "press fit" features from last year's P-51D on this kit, but it appears that engineering and parts breakdown of the F-35A is pretty conventional. The instructions suggest that the undercarriage legs and wheels should be fitted before the fuselage is closed up, but I would recommend that these
14
The two intakes are designed as a single sub-assembly.
The engine fan is included. The outer sections of the intakes were not fitted at this stage.
All the parts that are destined to be painted white are tacked to a small cardboard box. This makes handling easier during painting.
The parts were sprayed with Tamiya Fine White Primer straight from the can. The white bay parts were weathered with a wash of water, Future Floor Polish and a few drops of Vallejo Panzer Aces (acrylic): 337 Highlight Ger. (Black).
Exhaust and afterburner parts. Exhaust parts painted. The tail cone was not fitted until overall painting was finished.
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The intake parts, painted and ready for assembly.
The completed intake sub-assembly.
Ready for a Lightning II sandwich!
Don’t forget to drill out the holes as indicated in the instructions.
The sub-assemblies were glued into the lower fuselage halves. I glued the front edges of the intakes to the inside of the fuselage, which caused a minor fit problem later on.
Lots of open areas on the lower fuselage. The upper fuselage half has been glued to the lower.
AIR Edition
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FEATURE ARTICLE Meng Model 1:48 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II • Kit No. LS-007
Each wing is made up from five parts, including separate leading edge and flaperon.
should be left until the model is otherwise completed and painted to avoid the risk of damage. Instructions are called out across 29 clearly illustrated steps. A separate painting guide is also provided.
MARKINGS
Markings are supplied for two USAF F-35As. Stencil markings and coloured stripes for the AIM120s and GBU-53s are included on the sheet. The glossy decal sheet is perfectly printed by Cartograf. Printing, colours and registration is perfect on my sample.
NONE MORE BLACK
I have built two Meng aircraft models in the past, and they both fitted together very well. This one was no exception. The instructions commence in the cockpit. The cockpit is quite simple, as it is in the real F-35A. The instrument panel is a single wide screen display. Meng provides a colourful decal for this. Otherwise, to quote Spinal Tap, “It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black”. The cockpit tub is black, the seat is black, the harness straps are black –
The wings are secured with large locating pins.
none more black indeed! All of the cockpit components were painted in my mix of scale black – a 50/50 mix of Tamiya acrylic XF-1 Flat Black and XF-64 Red Brown. I did apply a pure black wash and highlighted slightly with a dry-brush of dark grey, but the result is still pretty murky. This is not a fault of the kit - just the nature of the black hole.
AVOIDING UNDERCARRIAGE DAMAGE
Next, the instructions suggest that the undercarriage legs and wheels should be glued into the wheel bays. I am always worried that this will result in damage to the relatively delicate and very dangly legs during subsequent construction and painting. It also makes masking more complicated. I therefore assembled the undercarriage bays, then assembled the gear legs. I then dry-fitted the legs into the locating holes in the undercarriage bays and allowed the glue to thoroughly set. After leaving these overnight, I removed the legs from the undercarriage bays and set them aside to install once construction and painting was complete. I had no trouble fitting the assembled legs later in the assembly process. I also left off the exhaust, Part F3, until all the other assembly and painting was finished.
The big locating aids deliver excellent fit at the wing root.
MAIN CONSTRUCTION
Apart from these small diversions, I followed the instructions from this point onward. The undercarriage and ordnance bays were sprayed white using Tamiya’s Fine White Primer straight from the can, then weathered with a wash of water, Future Floor Polish and a few drops of Vallejo Panzer Aces (acrylic): 337 Highlight Ger. (Black). After a coat of AK Interactive Item No. AK 183 Ultra Varnish Matte, the painted bays were glued into the lower fuselage pancake. I glued the sides of the intake assembly to the inside edges of the lower fuselage. In retrospect, I would not do this again as I had a little trouble when trying to glue the upper fuselage half in this area. Without glue, there would have been a bit of play in the location of the intake, and fit would very likely have been easier. This was really the only fit problem that I encountered on the whole model. I did not install the external pylons as Australian F-35As are not fitted with them – at least not at this stage. The elevators may be posed flat at 0 degrees or deflected down at 10 degrees thanks to optional mounting parts. I decided to pose my elevators deflected. I also decided to seal my canopy closed. There
Horizontal and vertical tail surface parts – components (left) and assembled (right).
These mounts allow the elevators to be posed with a 10 degree downward deflection.
The wings and fuselage are held in place with clamps and masking tape as the glue sets.
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really isn’t much to see inside the ultra-black cockpit anyway, and I think the whole hood hingedforward looks a bit awkward. With the wings and tail planes fitted, it was now time to take a pause in construction while the model was painted.
PAINTING
I masked the canopy, the tail section and temporarily attached the undercarriage doors in the closed position. Meng offers a separate single closed-position nose gear door, so I tacked that in place with a few tiny spots of Gator’s Grip Acrylic Glue. I used a combination of Gator’s Grip and Blu-Tack to fix the main gear and ordnance bay doors as temporary masks. The model then received an overall coat of Tamiya’s Grey Primer straight from the can. This highlighted a few minor gaps and blemishes that were dealt with before a second primer coat. I tested a few colour combinations for the main camouflage and the RAM boundaries. In the end, I decided on Tamiya’s spray can colours AS-10 Ocean Grey for the overall shade, and AS-32 Medium Sea Grey for the RAM boundaries. I kicked off with an overall coat of AS-32 Medium Sea Grey.
Basic airframe assembly is complete. Fit is very good. I only needed a smear of Mr Surfacer here and there.
Lower surfaces of the completed basic airframe. There are a couple of gouges that need to be filled. I was a bit aggressive removing some of the parts from the sprues.
MASKING RAM BOUNDARIES
Without question, the most visually distinctive aspect of the F-35A is the grid of straight and zigzag RAM boundaries. Also without question, the most challenging aspect of this project is depicting the contrasting colours of the RAM boundaries. Meng does not supply decals or masks for the RAM boundaries, so we are on our own. I searched the Internet and found reference to Paul Boyer’s 1:72 scale F-35A, which he masked using self-adhesive Bare Metal Foil. Brilliant! The foil is very thin, it may be pressed onto the raised RAM boundaries and recessed panel lines, and it is easy to cut while in place on the model. I decided to use the Bare Metal Foil for the zig-zag and irregular shaped areas, and strips of Tamiya Masking Tape for straight sections. I pressed sections of Bare Metal Foil onto the RAM boundaries and cut around the outlines with a new hobby knife. The excess was peeled off. For the straight sections, I cut slices of Tamiya tape and laid them onto the model, cutting them to length when they were in place. I masked the entire upper surfaces but only masked selected panels below. The whole masking process took about eight hours.
The one-piece canopy was glued shut and masked with Tamiya tape. The exhaust was also masked off before painting.
PAINTING REDUX
With the masks in place, I sprayed the model with a coat of Tamiya AS-10 Ocean Grey straight from the can. Between the primer coat, the RAM boundary coat and the main camouflage colour, painting itself took about ten minutes using the Tamiya spray cans. Of course, masking – and removing the masking – was another matter entirely. The Tamiya masking tape peeled off easily but the Bare Metal Foil had stuck pretty fast to the painted model. I used a toothpick to chisel off small sections of foil bit by bit. It was fortunate that I had used Tamiya’s tough lacquer paint otherwise I am sure that this process would have irreparably damaged more delicate acrylic paint. Three hours later, once all the RAM boundary masks had been removed, I was generally happy
The clear prism at the bottom of the nose was masked with Bare Metal Foil.
The large gear and ordnance bays were temporarily tacked shut to act as masks. The tape is only there while the Gator’s Grip glue is drying. AIR Edition
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FEATURE ARTICLE Meng Model 1:48 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II • Kit No. LS-007
Tamiya’s spray can colours were used - AS-10 Ocean Grey for the overall shade, and AS-32 Medium Sea Grey for the RAM boundaries.
The model received an overall coat of Tamiya’s Grey Primer straight from the can…
with the effect but I thought that the contrast was a bit high. I therefore sprayed a light misting coat of Ocean Grey over the entire model to blend the RAM boundaries a bit more. Not long after I had finished the model. I received an email from a new Chinese company called Galaxy Model that has released a selfadhesive die-cut masking set from material similar to Tamiya’s masking tape made specifically for the Meng F-35A. This will make masking the model a significantly easier and faster proposition.
… followed by an overall coat of AS-32 Medium Sea Grey.
DECALS AND FINISHING TOUCHES
The kit decals looked interesting enough, but I could not resist the temptation of finishing my F-35A as one of the two first aircraft to enter service with the Royal Australian Air Force. Fortunately, Furball Aero Design released a set with the RAAF’s A35-001. I bought the decals online and they arrived just as I had finished painting. The model was sprayed with two glossy coats of Future Floor Polish and the Furball decals were used for the roundels and unique Australian markings, including the characteristic 2 OCU tiger’s head on the fins. I used Meng’s kit decals for the stencils and other markings. All the decals performed perfectly under a coat of Solvaset setting solution. The model now received a coat of Alclad II Lacquer Item No. ALC 313 – Klear Kote Matte. This actually has a slight smooth sheen, similar to the finish seen in reference photos of operational F-35s. Canopy masks were now removed. The final step was to fit the undercarriage legs and doors, as well as the bombs, rockets and ordnance bay doors. The first step was to prise off the tacked-on undercarriage and ordnance doors. Although I had only used tiny spots of Gator’s Grip, they really stuck tight. They eventually popped off after being levered with the tip of a hobby knife. I was very impressed with the precise fit of these final fixtures. The fit of the undercarriage legs in particular was precise and stout.
I used Bare Metal Foil for the zig-zag and irregular shaped areas.
Sections of Bare Metal Foil onto the RAM boundaries…
… and cut around the outlines with a new hobby knife. The excess was peeled off.
Selected panels were masked on the lower surfaces too.
CONCLUSION
Meng has been quick off the mark with their 1:48 scale production model F-35A Lightning II. Moulding quality is excellent, detail is very good, the equipment bays are busy (including ordnance), and the RAM panels are subtly done. The parts count is quite manageable and the breakdown is modeller friendly, making it a pleasant build too. I can thoroughly recommend Meng’s latest aircraft model to all modern aviation fans. •
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Straight sections were sliced from Tamiya tape and laid them onto the model.
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With the masks in place, the model was sprayed with a coat of Tamiya AS-10 Ocean Grey straight from the can. A toothpick was used to chisel off small sections of foil bit by bit. This process would have likely damaged more delicate acrylic paint.
A light misting coat of Ocean Grey was sprayed over the entire model to blend the RAM boundaries a bit more.
Some of the scraps left after the masking.
I could not resist the temptation of finishing my F-35A as one of the two first aircraft to enter service with the Royal Australian Air Force.
Ordnance door components, including stout hinges.
I found that the hinges needed drilling out to comfortably fit the plastic rod.
The outer surfaces of the gear and ordnance bays have been masked prior to the interiors being painted white. The landing gear and wheels painted and weathered separate to the main model.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Meng Model 1:48 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II • Kit No. LS-007
Doors and undercarriage have been installed here. The fit was excellent.
MODELSPEC Meng Model 1:48 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II. Kit No. LS-007 Accessories Used: Furball Aero Design Item No. 48-038 – F-35 Anthology Part One Modelling Materials and Tools Used: Tamiya Extra Thin Liquid Cement Revell Contacta Cement Gators Grip Acrylic Glue Selleys Super Glue Hemostats Plastic Clamps (various sizes) Bare Metal Foil – Matte Aluminium Tamiya Masking Tape (various widths) Blu-Tack Paints and Finishing Products Used: - Tamiya Spray Cans: Fine White Primer; Grey Primer; AS-10 Ocean Grey; AS-32 Medium Sea Grey. - Tamiya (acrylic): XF-1 Flat Black; XF-64 Red Brown; XF-82 Ocean Grey; XF-83 RAF Medium Sea Grey 2. - Tamiya Weathering Master Set B – Item No. 87080 - Mr Hobby Mr Color Leveling Thinner 400. - Vallejo Model Color (acrylic): 865 Oily Steel; 891 Intermediate Green; 919 Foundation White; 70953 Flat Yellow; 70957 Flat Red. - Vallejo Panzer Aces (acrylic): 337 Highlight Ger. (Black) - Alclad II Lacquers - Shade D; Hotmetal Sepia; Flat Clear Lacquer Finish - Testors Model Master – Aluminium Non-Buffing Metalizer - Gunze Mr Metal Color (lacquer): 211 Chrome Silver; 214 Dark Iron; 217 Gold; 217 Brass - Solvaset decal setting solution - Future Floor Polish - AK Interactive Item No. AK 183 Ultra Varnish Matte - Alclad II Lacquer Item No. ALC 313 – Klear Kote Matte Nice surface textures; high level of detail; very good fit; includes internal ordnance and optional wing pylons. Some won’t like the raised RAM boundaries. Rating: 9 out of 10
The clear wing tip lights were secured with Gator’s Grip Acrylic Glue.
* Historical summary courtesy of Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II Meng model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For details visit www.meng-model.com
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The inside of the exhaust was treated to white Tamiya pigment to represent the chalky exhaust residue.
Meng has captured the lines of this 5th Generation multirole fighter.
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KIT PREVIEW Eduard 1:48 F-8E Crusader Limited Edition • Kit No. 11110
Eduard weaves its highly detailed “Limited Edition” magic on Hasegawa’s 1:48 scale F-8E Crusader. The Editor takes a close look.
H
asegawa, Monogram and ESCI all released 1:48 injection moulded Crusader kits. Of these, the best is the Hasegawa kit from early 2003. It is the F-8E variant. The kit provided plenty of useful choices for the modeller including optional position wing (up or down), separate flaps and slats, Zuni rockets and mounts for additional ordnance (but the ordnance itself is not supplied). Surface detail is excellent. Vents, hatches and panel lines are crisp and fine. Some of the detail is a little
IMPROVED CRUSADER 22
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er.
soft on the bottom of the fuselage, but even in this area the features are acceptable. However, there are a large number of ejector pin marks, both raised and recessed, in visible areas of many of the smaller parts. Engineering of the kit is straightforward. I testfitted the Hasegawa kit when I originally reviewed it in 2003. Without glue and even without tape, the fuselage halves matched up without steps or gaps. The wing sits nicely over the fuselage, lining up well with the top of the fuselage at both the front and the rear. The wing is secured with three poly caps in the top wing well of the fuselage. Similarly, the horizontal tailplanes are movable thanks to their connection via poly caps. I am a little concerned that this method of construction may not be secure enough for these large parts. If this turns out the be the case, it will be relatively simple to underpin these areas with stronger glue and/or reinforcement rods. Although a two-part canopy is supplied, it can only be displayed closed without modification. This is due to the deeply recessed locating positions in the fuselage. The canopy hinges are moulded as part of the clear part. These hinges click securely into the locating recesses in the fuselage, but they do not permit the canopy to be displayed in any position other than closed. It might have been nicer for Hasegawa to supply two inserts for the fuselage area immediately behind the canopy - one with the recesses in the closed position, and one positioning the canopy open.
In recent years, Eduard has been supplementing their own original kits with limited edition packaging of other companies’ products plus BRASSIN resin, Eduard photo-etch, masks and colourful new decals. A number of these have been Hasegawa sprues. This is an excellent pairing as Hasegawa's kits, while they feature excellent surface textures and are generally very accurate, are sometimes a bit lacking in the cockpit and undercarriage departments. The latest of these is Eduard's "Crusader" package based on Hasegawa's kit. Hasegawa's plastic sprues are light grey. There are only 106 plastic parts, and of these 14 are marked not for use. 14 clear parts are also included, with three marked not for use. The eight BRASSIN resin parts are the ejection seat, pilot's back and seat cushions, headrest, main wheels with separate resin brakes plus the nose wheel. Casting quality and detail of all the BRASSIN parts is excellent. The coloured photo-etched parts are destined for the cockpit, including side consoles, instrument panel, harness straps, ejection pull handles and other small details. The brass fret adds yet more detail. The canopy is provided in two parts. Eduard acknowledges the open canopy issue in the instructions, where they suggest that the back of the main canopy part including the hinges should be thinned from the inside, and the recesses for the
hinges on the fuselage spine should be extended to permit the canopy to be fitted in the open position. Somehow, Hasegawa has cunningly avoided the dreaded raised seam line down the centreline of this canopy. At least this will save some heartache in the modeller's day. Self-adhesive die-cut masks are provided for the canopies and the wheels. Markings are provided for five machines with bright markings. The basic colours for all five options are the standard Vietnam-era US Navy scheme of Light Gull Grey over White, but the nose and tail markings make for some very interesing subjects. One large decal sheet is included, which also contains stencil markings. The artwork and research is by Furball Aero Design. The decals have been perfectly printed by Cartograf.
CONCLUSION
Hasegawa's F-8E is a very nice kit, but it was certainly lacking in the cockpit. Eduard's Limited Edition package adds meaningful resin and photo-etched parts to Hasegawa's simple sprues to deliver a best-of-bothworlds result. The five colourful decal options by Furball Aero Design are a great addition too. If you want a Crusader with crisp, petite surface features AND a high level of detail, Eduard now gives you the solution in one box! Highly Recommended. •
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FEATURE ARTICLE Encore 1:32 Fokker F.I ‘Werner Voss’ • Kit No. 32003
RABEN’S RAVEN Fokker’s Iconic Triplane at 100
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I
n early 1917, Germany’s mastery of the air over the Western Front took a hit. At the time, the Luftstreitkräfte was operating the Albatros D.III as one of its principal fighters, and despite its own structural shortcomings, this heavily armed fighter was particularly successful, easy to fly and well-liked by its pilots. A year earlier, in May 1916, Sopwith’s dainty Triplane design first flew, and its performance was impressive. The ‘Tripehound’ as it was known, was a derivative of the Sopwith Pup, and employed the same fuselage and tail-plane as the Pup, but with three narrow-chord wings. Frontline service began in November 1916, and despite the relatively light armament of a single Vickers .303 machine gun, the agile Tripe proved to be more than a match in combat with the Albatros D.III, with an excellent rate of climb and service ceiling. The appearance of the Triplane caused alarm, and German designers began to instigate their own Dreidecker, with over 30 machines being built by various manufacturers, including Fokker. Fokker’s own initial triplane design. It’s often been said that Anthony Fokker’s inspection of a captured and damaged Sopwith machine was the seed of the Dr.I, but that wasn’t the case. Rheinhold Platz was charged with designing a new triplane, with no information about the Sopwith machine being forthcoming from Fokker himself. The resulting machine was the V.4, which was very similar in appearance to the eventual Dr.I, but with unbalanced ailerons and elevators, a shorter wingspan, and no inter-plane struts. Fokker himself made amendments to the design which included the changes that we now relate to the eventual Dr.I. The new machines were designated as F.I, and two machines were built for service. Apart from the curved leading edge of the tail-plane, these were virtually indistinguishable from what would become the iconic Dr.I. These test machines were flown by Manfred von Richthofen and Werner Voss, with both machines eventually being destroyed in combat, with Voss and Oblt. Kurt Wolff being killed. Despite this, it was generally said that these machines were superior to the Sopwith machine and certainly rivalled the performance of other German fighters. Production was now designated as Dr.I, and a legend was now born. Structural problems with the wings did initially beset the Dreidecker, but improvements in quality control and process did largely this potentially fatal problem. In total, 320 Fokker Dr.I were built, with its most famous protagonist being Manfred von Richthofen himself, flying his red/ scarlet machine in which he was eventually killed. Further problems with the quality of manufacture eventually finished the Dr.I, and the machines in service were phased out in favour of the superior Fokker D.VII.
THE KIT
James Hatch builds Encore’s reboxed and upgraded Roden 1:32 scale Fokker F.I Triplane.
I’ve always wanted to build a Fokker Dr.I. For me, it is probably, next to the D.VII, the most aesthetically pleasing aircraft of The Great War. Its diminutive appearance and highly-stacked wings, against a short fuselage, give it a real compactness which is hard to resist for a modeller like myself. Ironically, the kit which I eventually sourced was the later Encore (Squadron) release of the Roden kit, and is sold as an F.I. There are additional resin and photo-etched parts in here that weren’t a part of the original Roden Dr.I release, including resin tail-plane, ailerons, forward upper cowl, engine and engine cowl. PE parts include interior detail for the cockpit, as well as external detail such as stitching lines for the lower fuselage.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Encore 1:32 Fokker F.I ‘Werner Voss’ • Kit No. 32003
Two frets of PE are included, with one of these being colour-printed. Of course, production is via Eduard. More PE will be introduced with sets from Part. Encore market this F.I kit as a Werner Voss machine, with a resin figure included. As strange as it may seem, my plan is to build this as the original Roden Dr.I, but employing as much of the new resin as possible. My plans also include the replacement of the slightly undersize pilot seat with that of a spare from a Wingnut Wings Fokker D.VII, and also some Gaspatch Spandau MGs to replace the plastic parts, even though PE options are included in this release. When it comes to schemes, unless you build MvR’s red aircraft, then most schemes have the streaky Fokker paintwork applied, either wholly or partially. As I wanted something quite striking, I initially opted to build the Dr.I flown by Leutnant Eberhard Mohnicke. Whilst the front of the aircraft and wings were streaked, the rear fuselage, tail-plane and rudder were painted in a light blue not dissimilar to Luftwaffe RLM65, and a rather anorexic swastika was applied forward of the national insignia. The cowl, wheel hubs and inter-plane struts was painted in red. Wing crosses were painted on white panels. I agonised over the streaking camouflage for a couple of weeks, and made some tests using oils and Vallejo colours. Looking at period images, I really couldn’t achieve the same appearance that I really wanted for this model, so instead I chose a new scheme. This was the rather colourful machine flown by Leutnant der Reserve August Raben, who was Commander of Jagdstaffel 18. His machine was bright red on the forward fuselage (with white cowl), and had a white rear fuse. Wing upper surfaces were red, with light blue undersides, and the struts were light blue. Period images show an overpainted white block onto which the upper crosses were painted. This was more than likely painted out at the same time they changed the crosses from the old-style Maltese. That will be my depiction.
A couple of deep ejector pin marks were filled with Perfect Plastic Putty and sanded back, whilst the shallow indents were removed with a glass fibre pen. Those carburettor intakes really look better when drilled out, so I do the honours with a micro drill bit, thinning the walls as much as I dare risk.
It’s just as well some of this sidewall detail is being removed. Here you can see a short shot on some of that detail.
The Encore kit comes with some rather nice PE detail parts, including coloured, which will be made good use of.
I was also given some PART photo-etch. I didn’t think most of this would be worth fitting, but there was definitely some nice elements that would be of use on this project.
COCKPIT
Before work can begin, there are some ejector pin marks/pin towers inside the fuselage, and they really need dealing with. The towers are easy to deal with. First they are cut back with sprue cutters and then scraped with a curved blade. To finish, a glass-fibre pen is rubbed over the surface to fully eradicate, followed by sanding sponges of successively finer grades. To fill the recessed ejector pin marks, Deluxe Materials Perfect Plastic Putty is applied, after first brushing the divots with Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. I tend to find there’s a better chance of these acrylic putties actually staying in place if this is first done. Its science I think…surface tension and all that malarkey! With the remedial work now done, the first of the metal parts are applied using thin CA. These are the outer edges of the wooden sidewall panels that can be seen from within the cockpit. I put these parts to one side now and concentrate on the cockpit elements. The side frames on this model are extremely fine and due care and attention should be taken when both removing them from the sprue, and when cleaning the parts up. Very little flash is to be seen here, but there are a few very light seams that need paring away with a sharp scalpel blade. Roden moulded the magneto in the wrong place and wrong side to where it should be, so this is removed so it can be replaced with finer PE parts. A small cockpit floor is included, with integral foot boards. Onto this is glued a vertical stanchion which holds the rudder pedals, as well as an armature for control surface cable attachment. I
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To say the Roden ammo bins were basic would be an understatement. I opted to use the PART metal option, which is a massive improvement, and also correct.
One weak area of the Roden kit is the pilot seat bulkhead. Thankfully, this was addressed in the PART set, including the stitching detail. I removed the plastic from around the cable pass for ease.
Three interpretations of the seat. From left to right; PART, Roden, Wingnut Wings (D.VII). The first is too small, and the D.VII seat too large. I opted to stick with the kit part.
The basic cockpit parts are now complete and ready to see some paint.
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Metal parts represent the stiffening strips for the curved wooden panel that creates the shape of the forward fuselage. These are fitted with CA.
I opted for XF-76 for the interior framework, as suggested with WNW kits, and the fabric and wood areas were given a representative coat that would work underneath the clear decals.
quite like the control stick in this kit. Roden made a great job of the fine details on the grip. This will further be augmented with colour PE. For the moment though, I now add the linkages and associated pushrod. The latter is left over-length and will be cut down later in assembly. One area that was a little lacking in detail was the bulkhead onto which the pilot seat would fit. Compared with the state of the art Fokker D.VII kits with their filigree fabric lacing, this was very plan. However, thanks to a PE set from PART, I was now able to remedy this. Firstly, the cross bar is cut away and then the control cable grommet detail is obliterated. I also decide to remove the plastic in this area so that its thickness won’t be seen when this assembly is complete. The PE part is then
carefully applied with CA gel and when set, the laces are then pulled round the perimeter. The effect is superb. Thin plastic rod (0.5mm) is now used to replace the seat bracket cross bar that I previously removed. When it comes to the seat itself, I had been warned that the part was perhaps a little undersize. In comparison to the WNW D.VII seat, it was indeed smaller, but worse than that was the PART metal replacement which was positively tiny! I opted not to use the latter, but stick with the kit part, especially as there would be a dumpy looking map pouch to be fitted, and this would be vying for space with the seat. The pouch itself is made from PE on the Encore sheet, and I would add creases to this to make it look a little less like folded metal. The PART details set also came in useful with the
ammunition bins. The kit ones are very crude and don’t have the detail or shape they should. PART’s metal replacements were both correct in shape and were also easy to fold into shape with nothing more than a pair of Xuron PE pliers to complete the job. As with all metal parts on this model, a quick airbrushing with Mr Metal Primer is used as an insurance policy before painting commences. Roden made a slight mistake when it came to the fuel tank. Their depiction only has a single filler pipe, whereas it should have two (one on each side) Encore supply an extra resin part so that this can be corrected, as well as measurements for fitting it (although it’s easy enough to fathom from the position of the original styrene piece).
Wooden areas were treated to Uschi can der Rosten decals. These do look very good, but the camera seems to pixelate their appearance somewhat. For the fabric, I used Aviattic linen decals.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Encore 1:32 Fokker F.I ‘Werner Voss’ • Kit No. 32003
FIRST PAINT
Unlike the Fokker D.VII, it appears that not a single Dr.I left the factory in lozenge fabric. Instead this was likely to have been something akin to clear doped linen. Apart from the typical Fokker green tubular framework, the rest of the interior was timber, such as the side fairings that gave the distinctive curve to the front of the fuselage, and of course the cockpit floor. Instead of tackling the timber areas with oils, I opted to use Uschi van der Rosten’s wood grain decals. For the linen, it would be Aviattic’s linen decal sheet. For the latter, I wanted to replicate, more or less, the appearance of the decal whilst on the sheet. After some experimenting, I settled on Tamiya Flat White with a touch of Tamiya Deck Tan. This was now airbrushed onto the areas where the linen decal would be used. For the timber areas, I used Gunze Radome, and for the framework parts, Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan. Once a couple of light coats of Klear had been applied, I began the decal work. Aviattic’s fabric decal was the first to be fitted to the interior. Once settled, these panels were trimmed with a brand new scalpel blade. Three attempts were made with fresh pieces until I was satisfied that it passed muster. The shape I was decaling was quite a challenge and I wasted more than I really wanted to. Thankfully, the wood grain decal wasn’t as big a drain on my resources. Carefully planning and pre-cutting made this a fairly quick. For all decaling, Mr Mark Setter was used to help bed the product down over any raised structures. A small piece of wood decal was added to the control cable grommet area on the pilot seat bulkhead. With all primary decals now added, Klear was again used to seal and protect the work so far. I airbrushed the photo-etch ammunition bins and fuel tank with Xtreme Metal Aluminium and after a coat of Klear, I applied Dark Aluminium to a piece of Eduard packing foam, removed the excess and then dabbed this over the bins to create a galvanised appearance. The same was done for the fuel tank, but using a base of Duralumin first. A small number of sidewall details could now be added to the frame parts, such as the throttle and fuel mixture handle, altimeter, magneto and fuel priming pump etc. The Dr.I didn’t have any instrument board, so things look a little random within the cockpit. For the throttle and fuel mixture rods, some 0.5mm styrene lengths were attached, followed by a small number of PE parts from the Encore sheet. A missing tachometer was also added to the cross bar that sits where the instrument board would normally sit, and two dataplates were added to the forward ammunition bin. These would clearly be seen in the cockpit. Other parts such as the leather pouch were now painted with Vallejo colours and then fitted. A short length of lead wire was attached to the control column to represent the MG firing cables, and a cable was also later added that runs to the Spandau guns themselves. Mr Metal Color Aluminium was brush-painted onto the metal tread plates on the cockpit floor. Encore had supplied some PE bracing wires for the interior, and these were now added. I decided to paint a little thin PVA over the turnbuckle areas and when dry, paint these in black to simulate the coverings that some of these turnbuckles were given. As with the paint callouts I’d seen on the Fokker D.VIIF, I opted to paint the seat mounting frames in black, and not the general interior green that I’d used elsewhere. Once painted, these were mounted to the bulkhead. To liven the seat up a little, I handpainted a mixture of Vallejo Cork and White to this
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A slight modification to the fuel tank was needed to add the second filler tube.
Wooden decals were again used for the pilot seat base. To create the studs, I drilled out the seat and applied some Masterclub spherical resin rivets.
Most internal parts are now painted. To achieve the finish on the ammo bins, I airbrushed them first with Aluminium, and then dry-dabbed Dark Aluminium over them.
AK-Interactive’s Dark Brown wash was used to highlight the detail within the cockpit area.
I opted to use the kit’s colour PE seatbelts for this project, but applied a wash to them to subdue the rather bright colour. CA is used to fix these parts.
I had to cut away a small section of internal plastic so the bulkhead would fit properly. This was due to the application of the PART detail that bulked out the plastic a little too much.
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The completed cockpit tub is a very fragile. At this point, I really can’t wait to get it enclosed with the fuselage halves. I still need to add the control cables yet.
The completed cockpit tub is a very fragile. At this point, I really can’t wait to get it enclosed with the fuselage halves. I still need to add the control cables yet.
Uschi van der Rosten’s rigging cord is used to add the control cables to the cockpit. Again, CA is used to bond these.
I didn’t feel the need to glue the tub within the fuselage halves. When enclosed, there is zero movement, and it really can’t come adrift.
Tamiya Extra Thin (Quick Setting) is used to glue the fuselage together. I flood the joints out and squeeze any excess plastic outwards so that it can be easily sanded later.
Another view of the enclosed cockpit, showing the seat installation position etc.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Encore 1:32 Fokker F.I ‘Werner Voss’ • Kit No. 32003
and after a gloss coat, I applied some Uschi van der Rosten wood grain decal. Afterwards, I drilled into it and added some small resin rivets to simulate brass studs. The seat was painted in Xtreme Metal Aluminium. Brass was used for the studs. I was a little at odds about the seatbelts. Colour PE parts were supplied here, and after some deliberation, I opted to fit them as they were printed on both sides. Firstly, I roll the belts on both sides to create a wavy appearance and then fit them to the seat with CA. AK’s Dark Brown wash is now applied to them and the excess later removed. This kills that bright ink and makes them look more realistic. After painting the other various cockpit elements with Vallejo colours, AK’s Dark Brown wash was applied to the various interior parts, and when dry, the excess was removed with cotton buds. Gunze H20 Flat Clear was airbrushed over the various assemblies, cut with 50% Mr Levelling Thinner. This helps to reduce the majority of the sheen, but without it looking too flat.
…I opted to modify the plastic part and bring it up to specification, including thinning the edges of the plating around the ammo bin area. The plastic part would be much simpler to glue to the model.
My original plan was to use the resin upper deck, but…
COCKPIT AND FUSELAGE ASSEMBLY
Putting together the various elements of this cockpit and ensuring they fit properly, was a challenge. Adding the PE lacing to the rear bulkhead made things a tight fit. Some plastic had to be removed in the rear fuselage so that the extra bulk of the PE lacing could be accommodated. Real patience is required here so that everything fits, especially with the new ammunition bins that seat in a slightly different way to the original plastic parts. A small number of control cables are now attached to the interior, with Uschi’s elastic rigging cord, and secured using CA. Lastly, the tailskid was added. Test-fitting the upper decl highlighted a problem. The fuel tank needed moving forward 1mm so that the filler caps aligned with the holes in the upper deck. This was an easy fix, thankfully. Bringing together the fuselage was the next task, and trying to get some of that melted plastic to ooze outwards so seam removal would be easier. For gluing, I use Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. The fuselage was left overnight and the next day I sanded back the various seams with assorted sanding and polishing sticks. Thankfully though, the lower seams are practically hidden by lengths of PE stitching that are now added. A metal plate that sits on the underside of the forward fuselage is also included, but this was oversized, so I ditched it. Instead, I added some thin plasticard detail to makeup the access panel in this area. Another reason for ditching this was that the edges of the plate would be seen on the profile of the model, without fettling and filling. To fit the PE stitching, CA gel is used. As with the control cable grommets on the wings, the fuselage detail is also replaced with PE and the slots drilled to accommodate the cables that will be fitted towards the end of the project. I now take the opportunity to fit the forward engine firewall. To this I add the internal framework that would support the carburettor, and then proceed to paint this in aluminium, followed by Klear and a dark brown wash. Lastly, this is fitted to the fuselage with thin Tamiya cement. Encore supply a resin upper deck section that has the missing MG flash plate detail added to them as well as the extra fuel filler, but the part is a little soft in detail and I’m none too impressed with it. I opt to use the plastic part and modify it as it will also be easier to finally fit, using styrene cement. To modify this part, I first mark and drill the second fuel filler port and thin the plastic from within. Test-fitting this to the model showed that the upper cut-outs also didn’t line up properly with
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The undercarriage wing of the Dr.I wasn’t removable from the real aircraft, so these fictitious straps were removed…
…and two jacking points added, using plasticard. A scriber was also used to reinstate the panel line where the straps once existed.
The wing panels are very simplistic in their design and appearance. I would have preferred a little extra surface detail.
Construction was straightforward enough, with PE grommets being added for the control surface cables.
A little plastic needed to be removed on the ailerons, as they initially fouled the separate wingtip parts that were added.
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I couldn’t resist fitting the wings together, with their struts, and getting an idea for what this model would look like.
I have no idea why Roden created a recess on the top and bottom of their stabiliser. It made no sense. Plasticard was used to fill this anomaly.
Richard Andrews of Aviattic stepped into the breach and offered to send me a sheet of prototype raised rib decals with stitching. These were duly added…
the PE ammo bins, so the slots were modified to accommodate. I also filled the two MG locating holes with styrene rod, as these wouldn’t be necessary. A scalpel knife was now used to thin the plastic around the visible cowl edges and remove the out of scale appearance of that area. This is now set aside until later in construction.
WINGS AND UNDERCARRIAGE WING
There’s nothing out of the ordinary here, and the parts generally fit together really well. A little bit of trailing edge damage was present on one piece, but nothing that would cause any problems when it came to getting out the glue. I did find that I needed to remove the forward locating pips on the lower wing panels so that they would fit perfectly together. All panels were glued with Tamiya Extra Thin Cement, and narrow lengths of tape used to hold things whilst they set. I very rarely use clamps in modelling as I find that applying pressure in one specific place can cause lessened pressure in others and result in a bad joint. Once cures, the separate wingtips were added. On a couple of wing panels, I found it necessary to drag the joint surface over some fine abrasive paper so that it had an even for the wingtip to fit. With these now added and cured, sanding and polishing sticks were used to
…and the results were superb. They would go on to provide just the right level of detail, and really make the taught fabric texture work properly.
remove all seams. I also made a conscious decision to eradicate the wing stacking pads on the leading edge of the wings. These looked rather crude and were generally removed from machines that were in service. To that end, I drilled small holes into the positions where they were, as seen on numerous photos and the Kagero reference book I have. I also found that I needed to refine the scalloped trailing edge a little. On the real aircraft, this was formed by the tension of the doped fabric over a wire trailing edge. To correct this on my model, I simply used a sharp scalpel blade and gently shaped them. Hardly any material had to be removed here, and taking it gently was important. Another area that needed some clean-up was the strut location points, as well as the struts themselves. This took a couple of hours to fix by both scraping and shaping the strut’s wing location points, as well as cleaning up the slots in the wings. When complete, the wings sit happily together without any glue on the struts. Impressive centre of gravity (CoG) too as they stay upright when sat on the bench, despite the position of the upper wing in relation to the lower! Two sorts of aileron are included in this kit. These are for the Dr.I and F.I. Resin F.I ailerons are also in the box, but as this is a Dr.I, they won’t be used. Once cleaned up and
seams/flash removed, I noticed that a little of the outboard plastic needed trimming as it fouled the wingtip on both sides. A scalpel fixed this minor problem, allowing me to fit these in place once the control horns were added. The addition of PE control cable grommets in the Encore kit allowed me to open up the cable holes and shave away the plastic grommet detail before adding the new metal parts with a little CA. If this kit has any one significant drawback, it’s the lack of rib tape and stitching detail. The moulded detail depicting the ribs is a little soft, but there is reasonable definition for the leading-edge sheeting. I really wanted to try to do something about the tapes and stitching though, but was struggling badly up until the point where I was offered a lifeline. Richard Andrews at Aviattic offered me some prototype rib tape/stitching decals that he is currently trialling. The caveat was that these aren’t quite as pronounced as the final product, but would certainly enhance the appearance of the wings. Of course, I took him up on the offer! These decals are printed in a sort of resin, by HGW. They are well known of course for their positive rivet decals etc. and these are applied in the same manner. Correctly cut lengths of rib tape are cut and then immersed in water. Mr
I found the Encore PE plate for the forward section, a little too large, so I made the access plate from very thin plasticard, and fitted this instead.
A small shim of plastic needed to be fitted to the rear fuselage, tidying up the joint where the stabiliser would butt up to. This was then fitted to the fuselage.
Thankfully, some PE lacing was supplied in the Encore kit, hiding any trace of seam on the underside of the fuselage.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Encore 1:32 Fokker F.I ‘Werner Voss’ • Kit No. 32003
Eagle-Editions to the rescue with their beautiful Fokker Dr.I Part 1 set, with August Raben’s pretty little red and white machine.
Painting begins with black pre-shade, aimed primarily around ribs and the zig-zag leading edges of the wings.
stencilling which is sorely lacking on the kit decal sheet. Pleased? You bet! There’s not too much in the way of hard surface detail to overcome with the decals, but nonetheless, I still used Mr Mark Setter as an insurance policy. Decaling doesn’t take long, and when complete, the model is set aside until next day. Klear is now brush-painted over the decals to seal them.
Mr Paint Basic White is a great colour for coverage, even over a darkish grey plastic. Here, the rear fuselage is painted prior to the red being added.
AIRFRAME ASSEMBLY AND SPANDAU ADDITION
It’s time to start to bring this one together, and this starts with fitting the lower wing. As I don’t want to damage the paintwork, I opt to do this with my Revell Contacta glue, keeping the cement as far away from the edges as I can manage, without compromising the joint. Next, it’s time for the middle wing, and this is a pretty easy affair, being sandwiched between the fuselage and the upper fuse cowl that is now applied. To add some rigidity to proceedings, I now pass the struts through the middle wing and cement them into the lower wing. At this point, I DO NOT glue to the middle wing. MASTER’s Spandau MG barrels really are beautiful. They also aren’t cheap, but this is a premium product, and you get when you pay for. These are beautifully machined with superb slot detail and reticule. Fitting them means you will need to modify the kit guns by snipping off the barrels on the high detail version, and then drill the body to accept the brass barrel of the new parts. After gluing the parts together with CA, I assemble them to the padded bar that fits to the rear of them test fit them to the model. Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black is now airbrushed over the guns. The guns are now fitted and the feed and ejection chutes added. With care, the ammunition is painted in brass, with a fabric strap added from Tamiya Buff. Back to the wings! This part is now fitted to the model with Contacta cement and left to dry. The middle wing is then adjusted so it is evenly spaced between upper and lower, and a very small amount of thin Tamiya cement applied from underneath the wing. I can now fit the cabane struts between the upper deck and underside of the top wing. After first assembling the undercarriage struts to the small gear wing and leaving to cure, the whole assembly is added to the aircraft and the wheels fitted. Vallejo paint is used to detail areas such as the leather trim around the cockpit coaming, the carburettor intakes, Spandau leather crash pads and tailskid etc.
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With the white masked off, Mr Paint Signal Red is applied. This was the closest I wanted to go to bright red, without the model looking luminescent!
At this point, I can now add the lower wing and begin to make this thing look like a Dreidecker.
The easiest way to get to this stage is to slot the struts through the middle wing, without gluing them, and then to glue the struts to the lower wing. The mid wing can then be glued at the centre and finally at the struts, once it has been checked to be even along the wing.
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…and then blast more Signal Red over them so they can still be seen, albeit not too brightly.
It occurred to me late on that the upper wing used to have white blocks onto which the crosses were painted. This was later obliterated, badly. I mist white paint onto the areas required…
Mark Softer (yes, the more aggressive one) is then painted onto the bare plastic and the decal floated into position before being bedded down with a cotton bud. With all tapes in place on the upper surfaces, the wings were then left for 7hrs. At this point, the carrier film is carefully peeled away, leaving just the details on the surface. I’m very impressed with this stuff! I then treated the lower surfaces in the same way. A slight anomaly existed on the undercarriage wing. Unlike the Fokker D.VII, the Triplane’s undercarriage wing wasn’t removable whilst in service. This meant that the strap detail on the lower surface needed to be sanded away, and the breaks in the joint line connected together into a single panel line. To achieve the latter I used my GSI Creos scribing tool, run along a length of Dymo plastic tape. After sanding any resultant raised plastic, I painted some thin Tamiya cement along the line to clean it up. Roden also omitted the jacking pads from the lower wing, so these were added with small squares of thin Evergreen plasticard. At this stage, the wings will be left off the model.
TAILPLANE, RUDDER AND FITTING
For some reason, Roden designed the stabiliser so that there was a recess in the centre area, both top and bottom. For the life of me, I can’t understand why. Very thin Evergreen plasticard was used to fix this anomaly, and the plastic sanded and faired back so that it was level with the rest of the kit part. The lost cable grommets were replaced with the PE parts in the kit. Fitting the tail-plane to the model though now highlights a small problem. The fuselage spine doesn’t come up to meet the recess in the tail-plane, and it’s even curved at this point. A knife is now used to cut this straight and a section of plasticard is glued into position. When dry, this is shaped and cut back to meet the tail-plane. At that junction, I very slightly bevel it to create what looks like a panel line. I can now add the stabiliser and elevators to the fuselage, plus the support struts and rudder. The rudder will be painted in the same colour as the rear fuselage, so there’s no real reason to omit it at this stage.
is a difficult colour to work with, and whilst some will deride pre-shade, if you gauge things properly, then the result should be as rewarding as whatever technique is currently vogue. For this model, this would form the whole basis of the appearance of the wings, with regards to shadow and illusion. Pre-shade was concentrated around the wing ribs and the wing’s zip-zag leading edge plywood sheeting. Now it was time to paint the rear half of the fuselage with MR Paint Basic White. This paint builds up very quickly, even on this colour of plastic, and the finish is very nice, and decalready. I always get to a point in a project where I realise I don’t have a specific colour. For this one, it was the undersides light blue that the wings would be painted in. Thankfully, mixing Gunze RLM78 and Sky Blue, I approximated the shade I’d need, and was pleased with the outcome. This was now applied in thin coats, building up the colour so that the pre-shade was barely discernible. With this and the white dry, both colours were masked off with tape and Blue-Tack, and then MR Paint Signal Red applied to the forward fuselage and upper surfaces. I took the opportunity to use this colour for the struts and wheel hubs too, plus the forward upper cowl. This colour is close to the bright red
that I wanted. Remember…no scarlet here! The model was then left overnight for the paint to fully cure. It was only the next day that I noticed that the upper wing crosses were sat on a partially obliterated white box. To create this effect, I masked off the surrounding area and applied a very thin, uneven layer of MR Paint White. Once dry, and with the masking removed, MR Paint Signal Red was painted over the rough white panels until the correct illusion was achieved. For the wheels, I used Gunze RLM75 Grey, masking them off from the red using Uschi van der Rosten circle masks.
DECALING
When I decided that I wanted to do this scheme, I had already surrendered to the idea of masking. I quite like that approach, but as I’m notoriously bad in getting my requirements out in enough time for customs to be made, it was with a sigh of relief that I notice that Eagle Editions made a set that included the very scheme I wanted, which was that of the August Raben machine! Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the set on their site any longer, but a search showed Hannants to have two sets in stock, so a quick order was sent late one night. The Eagle set is a must because it also includes all of the
Eagle Editions Dr.I set is printed by Microscale. Decals generally bedded down well, except for one wing cross that had to have some Mr Mark Setter treatment.
YOU MEAN IT’S NOT ALL SCARLET?
Correct. Whilst I love the MvR Scarlet Dr.I, it’s been done to death, and there are so many other nice aircraft to model. August Raben’s machine is one such type. To begin, I needed to add some preshade to the model, using Tamiya Flat Black. Red
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FEATURE ARTICLE Encore 1:32 Fokker F.I ‘Werner Voss’ • Kit No. 32003
Instead of the rolled PE parts offered by Encore and PART, I opted to use the far superior Spandau set from MASTER.
To say the brass barrels enhance these parts is an understatement. Yes, they can be fiddly, but the cursing is very much worth the effort.
After a coat of Xtreme Metal Aluminium for the engine, and Copper for the induction piping, a Dark Brown wash is applied, followed by selective use of AK’s Engine Oil.
A few misted coats of Tamiya Nato Brown is applied to reduce the stark contrast, followed by a light coat of Tamiya Clear Orange. Decals are applied and the hubs painted with Gunze Aluminium, followed by a wash.
I hate painting wooden propellers. Thankfully, James Machin Tamiya Red Brown is now airbrushed over the of Wingnut Wings Fans Facebook page sent me this nifty propeller and the masks removed. file to help me mask this after the initial base colour.
ENGINE, PROP AND COWL
Encore’s resin upgrade parts are quite nice, but in all, I feel they’re a little bit of a let-down. I don’t think there’s much to gain in using it. So unusually, I will ditch the aftermarket in favour of the standard kit parts. Engine assembly is straightforward and once together, I airbrush Xtreme Metal Aluminium over this and the interior cowl areas. The induction pipes were then painted in Copper, from the same company, and the parts assembled and airbrushed in Klear. Dark Brown wash was now applied to the cooling fins and other recesses, followed by AK-Interactive Engine Oil. Lead wire was used to replicate the ignition leads. One of my least favourite tasks on WWI aircraft is painting the propeller. It pushes me to the brink
of anger management. As I embarked on painting this one, James Machin of the Wingnut Wings Fans page, kindly offered me a solution, accompanied with a PSD digital file. This is composed of a series of elongated elliptical shapes, one inside the other. To transfer these to masking tape, I first pin the paper template under some clear acetate. I then lay my masking tape over the top and begin to carefully score along the lines with a new scalpel, separating the parts. After an initial coat of Tamiya Desert Yellow, it was time to start masking. First removing the inner shape and discarding it, the next layer is applied to the prop, followed by the outer shape, allowing the marking tape to conform to the prop as you go along. I didn’t get it perfect, but was more than happy enough to proceed.
Once masked, Tamiya Red Brown was applied and the masks then removed. A mist of Tamiya Nato Brown was first applied, to reduce the harshness of the tones, followed by a few thin coats of Tamiya Clear Orange. The hubs were then painted with aluminium, followed by a wash, and the Axial prop decals applied. Both the cowl and engine were now fitted to the model.
FINAL ASSEMBLY
All that now remained was to add the add the undercarriage and rig the control surfaces, plus add wires for the upper wing control cables and undercarriage rigging lines. Thankfully, I had some EZ-Line from Wingnut Wings, of the correct diameter. CA was used to spot each locating point
Tamiya Smoke and Flat Earth are misted around the airframe to weather the fabric, especially around the previously pristine white areas.
RLM75 is my choice for the wheels. Uschi’s circle masks are an invaluable tool for jobs like this. Here we see an overview of the underside prior to final mud spattering on the undercarriage wing and lower wing surfaces.
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in turn, and fine tweezers used to attach the elastic to each point. The shorter cables around the tail control surfaces were the trickiest, but for a WW1 model, you can’t really complain about the rigging on this one! The undercarriage was, and remained flimsy even with the rigging, so it’s a case of being very careful in handling the model. A more rigid filament may have been a better proposition for this, and if I revisit this in future, I may change that. The newly painted propeller was now pushed onto the engine shaft, after opening up the rear hole to accommodate the Roden plastic engine. There wasn’t too much in the way of finishing tasks for this model due to the nature of the machine. Many projects limp on for days with niggling tasks, but I could now call this one complete.
WEATHERING
Tamiya Smoke is a wonderful thing. Using a very thin mixture, I airbrushed some shadows onto the tailplane and also to the lower fuselage, to simulate grime. This was also applied to the rib detail on the lower wing. Another thin mix of Tamiya Flat Earth was applied around the lower fuse, concentrating in the area around the tail skid. Both colours were also applied to the undercarriage and wheels. Flat Earth was also applied to the inner area of the lower wing, the undercarriage wing, and the wheels. My sincere thanks to Alex Glass (Uschi van der Rosten) and Richard Andrews (Aviattic) for their help with this project, and to Dean for sowing the initial seed of thought. For the propeller masking tip, James Machin saved my sanity. •
“I’ve always wanted to build a Fokker Dr.I. For me, it is probably, next to the D.VII, the most aesthetically pleasing aircraft of The Great War.”
MODELSPEC Encore 1:32 Fokker F.I ‘Werner Voss’ Kit No. 32003 Accessories Used: PART Fokker Dr.I PE set # S32-028 Eagle Editions Fokker Dr.I Part 2 decal set MASTER Spandau 08/15 MG barrels Tools and Materials Used: Swann Morton No.11 & 15 Scalpels MDC & Albion Alloys sanding sticks and sponges 6 inch steel rule Iwata HP-CH airbrush Evergreen plasticard and styrene rod Allen Sidney Micro Drill Bit set Deluxe Materials Perfect Plastic Putty Tamiya Extra Thin Cement MXBON CA glue, thin viscosity Premi-Air Liquid Reamer airbrush cleaner Deluxe Materials CA gel Small Shop ‘Hold n’ Fold’ PE bending tool Xuron sprue cutters Xuron PE bending pliers (narrow and wide) Uschi van der Rosten wood grain decals Uschi van der Rosten circle masks Uschi van der Rosten rigging elastic Aviattic Dark German Linen decal Zoukei-mura fine paint brushes RB Productions razor saw (fine) Dymo tape GSO Creos scriber Mr Paint scriber Cotton buds (Q-tips) Adam Wilder pointed tweezers Paint and Weathering Products Used: Vallejo Folkestone Basics paint set Gunze Radome, RLM78, Sky Blue Mr Metal Color Aluminium, Brass. MR Paint Basic White, Signal Red Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan, XF76 IJN Grey Green, XF-2 White, X-18 Semi-Gloss Black, XF-59 Desert Yellow, XF-64 Red Brown, X-26 Clear Orange Mr Levelling Thinner AK-Interactive Dark Brown wash AK-Interactive Engine Oil Xtreme Metal Aluminium and Dark Aluminium, Duralumin Klear
The completed model on its wheels.
References: Squadron Signal Aircraft In Action #1098, Fokker Dr.I R. L. Rimell, Fokker Triplane, Windsock DataFile 05 Alex Imrie, The Fokker Triplane Generally good shape and nice cockpit detail. Straightforward construction. Some detail a little soft, simplified or missing. Strange recess in tail-plane. Some resin and PE not worth bothering with. Rating: 7 out of 10 The red and white scheme is particularly striking.
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D N A FULL FEATURE ARTICLE Hasegawa 1:32 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) • Kit No. ST24
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K N A D FR Part One Kamil Feliks Sztarbala scratch builds an interior for Hasegawa’s Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank). In this first instalment, Kamil builds and details the kit.
F
or some time, I have been planning to build a 1:32 scale model of the Ki-84 ‘Hayate’ fighter using the Hasegawa kit and lots of aftermarket detail sets. What’s more, this project would involve scratch building the aircraft interior structure and radio compartment, as well as recreating the stressed skin effect. Even though I’m not a big fan of large scale kits and I still haven’t fully recovered from the trauma caused by some of my previous 1:32 scale builds (check MIM Issues 061 and 071 for details), I decided to finally face this new challenge.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Hasegawa 1:32 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) • Kit No. ST24
INTERIOR
Construction started with the pilot seat. I could choose between the plastic part from the kit, a resin casting from the Aires detail set, or a photo-etched seat from Eduard sheet. The latter required some attention…
It turned out that the resin cockpit floor from the Aires set would benefit from some extra-detailing. It appears that its creator took the original kit part and added some details. I went even further, using a few photo-etched bits from Eduard sheet and lengths of styrene rod.
…but proved to be the best option in terms of detail and finesse.
The side panels were also improved with photo-etched parts and lengths of lead wire and styrene rod.
I had to use the plastic support columns from the kit to attach the seat.
The resin rear cabin frame was simply a slightly modified kit part. I therefore decide to use the original part, as plastic would be more rigid than resin. To reproduce the small rack with some radio fittings that had been attached to the frame, I again had to choose between the corresponding parts from the Aires and Eduard sets. Once more, I went for the latter, supplementing them with some styrene bits and lengths of lead wire to faithfully reproduce the details seen on my reference photos.
The cockpit should be painted with Mr. Color C129 ‘Nakajima Dark Green’, whilst the remaining interior surfaces were finished in a colour similar to Mr. Color C127 ‘Nakajima Cockpit Color’. At this stage, the latter paint had to be applied over the rear surface of the rear cabin frame and the rear part of the cockpit floor.
The details were brush painted with various water-based acrylics from Vallejo, Hataka and Ammo MIG.
I then highlighted the chosen areas and details with a mixture of Mr. Color C129 ‘Nakajima Dark Green’ and C311 ‘FS36622 Gray’.
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To finish the seat cushion, I used three colours from the AK-Interactive AK3030 ‘Leather and Buckles’ set.
The glass instrument lenses were reproduced with a few tiny drops of AK-Interactive AK893 ‘Gauzy Agent’ glass coat.
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I subsequently accentuated the details with AK-Interactive AK026 ‘Slimy Grime Dark’ enamel that had been diluted with ABT113 ‘Fast Dry Thinner’ from Abteilung 502.
Vallejo 70.967 ‘Olive Green’ paint, thinned in different ratios, was used to highlight the edges of various details and create some fine scratches on the cockpit surfaces.
Deep paint chips and scratches down to bare metal were added with a silver watercolour pencil.
The floor was dirtied with Tamiya’s ‘Mud’ Weathering Stick. I applied a small amount of this compound with a brush that had been dampened with water.
The cockpit could now be put together.
This allowed to ensure that the entire sub-assembly fits the fuselage, which is not so obvious in the case of resin stuff from Aires. Fortunately, I didn’t encounter any problems. AIR Edition
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FEATURE ARTICLE Hasegawa 1:32 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) • Kit No. ST24
Next, I marked the position of the formers within the fuselage…
…and represented them with lengths of 0.5 x 0.5 mm styrene rod. These were glued only in those areas which will be visible through the access hatch, or the cockpit canopy.
With the cockpit complete, I could deal with the interior structure of the rear fuselage half. I started by opening the access hatch. I cut its edges with a sewing needle and sanded the edges of the resulting aperture with fine metal files.
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I then thinned the formers located near the hatch aperture so they would appear to be partially hidden behind the side walls of the aperture, as in the real aircraft.
The stringers were reproduced in the same way, using lengths of slightly thinner styrene rod.
Once the basic interior structure had been finished, I added the cockpit floor extension, the battery and compressed air system.
The flap control mechanism was made from lengths of 0.2mm styrene rod and tiny discs that had been created using the ‘Punch and Die Tool Set’ from RP Toolz.
I subsequently added the radio equipment rack and control mechanism of the rudder and elevators.
The control cables were represented with a length of flexible thread. Their ends were glued to a piece of plastic that had been installed within the tail.
As the Ki-84 references available to me did not offer enough information on the radio equipment, to reproduce the latter, I had to look for images of radios used in other Japanese fighter aircraft.
The opposite side featured only a metal tank which had been scratch built from various styrene bits.
The fuselage interior was now ready to have some paint applied.
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My first step was to spray a priming coat of Hataka C003 ‘Silver (Met)’ lacquer.
The areas that will be visible through the access hatch, had been airbrushed with Mr. Color C127 ‘Nakajima Cockpit Color’, whilst the tail interior was painted black in order to deepen the false shadow.
The details were brush painted with acrylic colours from Vallejo’s Model Color and Metal Color ranges.
I then dampened the surface with small amount of white spirit, and applied AK-Interactive AK2074 ‘Paneliner for White & Winter Camo’.
The excess enamel was either removed or distributed with a wet brush.
The formers, stringers and other protruding details were highlighted with ABT035 ‘Buff’ oil from Abteilung 502.
Once the cockpit had been installed, I could add the remaining control cables.
The access hatch aperture had been faired over with a piece of Tamiya tape before I put the fuselage halves together. AIR Edition
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FEATURE ARTICLE Hasegawa 1:32 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) • Kit No. ST24
DETAILS
At this stage I decided to focus on the details and some small sub-assemblies. I began by assembling the engine. Eduard’s photo-etched frets offer quite a lot of parts that may be used for detailing this section but in some cases it is better to replace them with lengths of wire, which aren’t flat.
I first primed them with AK-Interactive AK757 ‘Black Primer and Microfiller’.
This especially concerns the electrical wiring. In this case, I used 0.4 mm lead wire.
The front part of the engine was given a layer of AK-Interactive AK479 ‘Aluminium’, whilst the remaining elements were sprayed with AK476 ‘Steel’.
It was easier to solder the small parts that build up the oil cooler louver before removing the main part of this sub-assembly from the fret.
Afterwards, I brought out the details with Lifecolor TSC208 ‘Smoke’.
The finished louver was installed within the previously modified plastic oil cooler cover.
The finished engine parts were not glued together, allowing for easier painting.
This allowed me to assemble the engine. During this process, I had to carefully lay down the wiring.
The landing gear covers were prepared in similar manner. I soldered the photo-etched details and subsequently attached them to the plastic parts.
The soldering process itself is not really complicated, and it allows us to create a stronger junction than offered by any adhesive. This was really important in the case of flap interiors. I first soldered the small formers.
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Once the parts had been treated with flux, I dry fitted them and heated the joints with the iron.
The soldered flap could be bent without fear that the particular parts will fall apart. This is another advantage of soldering: the resulting junctions are not only strong, but also flexible.
Next, I applied a thin layer of solder.
To install the photo-etched flaps, I had to remove a considerable amount of plastic from the wing. At this stage, I also opened some inspection hatches.
Cutting out such apertures is simple, but a bit time consuming. I begin by deepening their edges with a sewing needle…
…allowing for drilling out a hole in required shape… …the edges of which have to be levelled with ‘Moulding Flash Sander’ tool from Hobby Elements.
As the original hatches had been destroyed, I had to scratch build their replacements from pieces of 0.25mm styrene sheet and other plastic bits.
Inside the wing, I added some details that will be visible through the open inspection hatches, such as small sections of the formers, aileron pushers and rear parts of the guns.
To carefully thin down the plastic around the edges of the previously created apertures, I used a rubber drill bit that is normally intended for shaping the acrylic nails.
I also replicated the fuel filler points on the upper wing surfaces.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Hasegawa 1:32 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) • Kit No. ST24
The tail wheel also screamed for improvement. The original part looked like it had been up-scaled from a 1:72 kit…
I first hollowed out the fork and corrected some simplified details.
Afterwards, I replaced the rather crude representation of the leather cover with a new one that had been sculpted from Green Stuff two-part epoxy putty.
At this stage, I test-fitted the resin exhaust pipes from the QuickBoost set. It turned out that I need to attach small pieces of 0.2mm styrene sheet to the resin parts, in order to improve their fit with the engine cowling.
The gun sight from the Aires set did not require any further detailing.
The main landing gear struts also required some attention. Aside from adding the wiring, I modified the scissor links, using some of the original plastic parts, photo-etched bits from Eduard sheet and a few plastic discs that had been punched from styrene sheet of different thickness. For this purpose, I again used used my faithful ‘Punch and Die Tool Set’ from RP Toolz.
The metal gun barrels and pitot tube from Profimodeller were dipped in AK-Interactive AK174 ‘Photoetch Burnishing Fluid’. However, I didn’t intend to create the final patina this way. I only noticed that such treatment enhances the paint adhesion to the metal parts.
SURFACE DETAIL & FINAL ASSEMBLY …and subsequently airbrushed a layer of AK488 ‘Matte Aluminium’ from the AK-Interactive’s Xtreme Metal range.
Before I could put the wings together, I had to paint the interior areas that will be visible through the open inspection hatches. I primed them with Mr. Paint MRP-085 ‘Fine Surface Primer-Black’…
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I then had to pay some attention to the gluing process. I applied two-part epoxy adhesive over the areas where the photoetched flaps will be installed…
This allowed me to safely join the wing halves and flaps, and ensure their correct alignment. The parts were subsequently held with clamps and left to dry for a while. …whilst the sockets for plugs that strengthen the centre wing part, had been filled with small amounts of ‘Roket Plastic Glue’ from Deluxe Materials, which doesn’t dry immediately.
“…this project would involve scratch building the aircraft interior structure and radio compartment, as well as recreating the stressed skin effect.”
Same concerned the assembled fuselage.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Hasegawa 1:32 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) • Kit No. ST24
My first step was to deepen some panel lines with ‘Mr. Scriber Narrow Type’ tool from Mr. Paint. Once I’d ensured that both main sub-assemblies fit perfectly, I could proceed with improving the surface detail.
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In a few cases, the lines had to be enhanced with JLC razor saw.
Afterwards, I began the laborious process of adding the stressed skin effect. I first marked the rivet rows on the wings and fuselage.
Next, I gently scraped fine grooves over the previously drawn lines, using the rubber drill bit again.
In those areas where I was worried that I may damage the details, I used a knife with a curved blade instead.
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The edges of the grooves were then smoothed with polishing sponges of different grit.
With the stressed skin effect complete, I could add the rivet rows. These were created with ‘Rivet-R’ tool from RB Productions. I used the wheel with 1.5 mm pitch.
By pressing the riveter into the surface of the plastic, we end up with a slightly raised area around each rivet. These had to be removed with polishing sponges to leave the surface uniformly smooth.
To finish the process, I polished the entire model with ‘Mr. Laplos’ polishing cloths from Mr. Hobby.
Now it was time to join the fuselage with the wings. However, I first had to apply the interior colour, i.e. Mr. Color C127 ‘Nakajima Cockpit Color’ over those inner areas that could be visible in the finished kit.
Even though both sub-assemblies fitted well, a little filling and sanding was necessary. This mainly concerned the junction between the rear part of the centre wing and fuselage.
Afterwards, I improved the wheel wells, using a number of photo-etched details from Eduard sheet and lengths of lead wire…
…and scratch built the drop tank rack.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Hasegawa 1:32 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) • Kit No. ST24
MODELSPEC Hasegawa 1:32 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank)
Kit No. ST24
Accessories Used: Aires 1:32 scale Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate cockpit set – Kit No. 2084 Eduard 1:32 scale Ki-84 Hayate-I detail set – Kit No. BIG3228 Montex 1:32 scale Ki-84 Hayate masks– Kit No. K32033 Profimodeller 1:32 scale Frank wing gun barrels type A – Kit No. P32264 Profimodeller 1:32 scale Frank pitot tube – Kit No. P32263 QuickBoost 1:32 scale Nakajima Ki-84 exhausts – Kit No. 32041 Tools and Modelling Products Used: Tamiya Extra Thin Cement Deluxe Materials Roket Plastic Glue Styrene sheet and rod Lead wire Magic Sculp and Green Stuff epoxy putties Hobby Elements Molding Flash Sander JLC razor saw RP Toolz Punch and Die Tool Set RB Productions Rivet-R Mr.Paint Mr.Scriber-Narrow Mr.Hobby Mr.Laplos polishing cloths Tamiya masking tape Paints and Finishing Products Used: Paints: - AK-Interactive Xtreme Metal metalizers - Hataka lacquers - Mr.Hobby lacquers - Mr.Paint lacquers - Tamiya acrylics - AK-Interactive waterbased acrylics - Ammo MIG waterbased acrylics - Vallejo waterbased acrylics AK-Interactive & Hataka clear varnishes Microscale decal solutions Talens white spirit Talens Van Dyke Brown oil paint Abteilung 502 products: - ABT035 Buff - ABT113 Fast Dry Thinner - ABT115 Liquid Mask - ABT150 Field Grey - ABT160 Engine Grease AK-Interactive weathering products: - AK026 Slimy Grime Dark - AK082 Engine Grime - AK083 Track Wash - AK174 Photoetch Burnishing Fluid - AK2074 Paneliner for White & Winter Camo Tamiya Weathering Sticks: - 87081 Mud - 87086 Sand - 87087 Light Earth Well moulded; high level of detail; good fit. Landing gear struts require some attention. Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Hasegawa kits are available worldwide from specialist hobby shops and online.
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NEXT TIME
Kamil paints and weathers his super detailed Frank. AIR Edition
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FEATURE ARTICLE Roden 1:48 T-28D Trojan • Kit No. 450
DELTA TR O David W. Aungst upgrades Roden’s T-28D Trojan.
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R OJAN
I
have always wanted to build a couple T-28s at some point, with one of them being a camouflaged T-28D. When Roden released their kit of the T-28D, I knew I had to get one. Being newer moulds than the ancient Monogram kit, I figured I could get a nicer model with less fuss. Well, that was the plan, anyhow. I could not leave well enough alone and acquired a number of AiRes and Quick Boost resin update sets for the kit. This included the cockpit, wheel wells, engine, and more. After looking the kit over and planning the work to integrate the resin parts into the kit, I was starting to doubt the idea that this would be any much easier than using the Monogram kit with all its resin updates. To test the theory, I decided to build the Monogram kit at the same time as this kit (click here to read that posting).
THE KIT
The Roden T-28D kit is a nice kit. I love the box art since it more or less represents the T-28D that I wanted to build. Roden released a family of T-28 kits that includes both the T-28B and T-28C. This is likely the reason that the T-28D kit has a belly air brake. While T-28Ds did not have the air brake, the T-28B and T-28C did. Roden shared the moulds between the kits and therefore their T-28D kit has the air brake.
THE UPDATE SETS
I will admit it - I am a "resin-aholic". When I logged into the Sprue Brothers web site to locate the T-28D kit to purchase it, I did a search for all "T-28" items in 1:48th scale. In the list were lots of resin goodies in addition to the Roden kits. On my initial order, I limited myself to just the following: • AiRes T-28D Cockpit set • AiRes T-28 Wheel Well set • Quick Boost T-28 Engine replacement I just had to have these items, even though the reviews I had read said the kit was nice enough without much resin after-market added. I guess that is the definition of a "resinaholic". There was even more "T-28" resin goodies in the list, but I drew the line at these items on my initial order since these items had already nearly tripled the cost of the project over getting just the kit alone. After the kit arrived and I investigated the details, I had to admit the kit was not bad on its own. But, the finely moulded resin pieces were improvements over the kit pieces. So, I decided to go all-out and place a second order to fill out the other items in resin that I wanted to upgrade on the kit. The second order contained the following: • AiRes T-28D Wheels and Paint Masks • Aerobonus USAF T-28 Pilot and Instructor with Belts set • Quick Boost T-28 Seats with Belts • Quick Boost T-28D Weapons Pylons • Quick Boost T-28 Engine Exhausts and Cooling Grills I got the "pilots" set on a whim. I seldom have pilots in any of the models I build. I thought this model could be a nice change for that. With the large, open cockpit area of the T-28, the pilots would be quite visible. I have found I like the look of the models on HyperScale that I see with nicely painted pilots in them. I might want to give it a try on my T-28. I got the "seats with belts" set in case I decided not to use the pilots. The AiRes T-28D cockpit set represents a cockpit with the "Yankee" ejection seats. I was not sure when these came into use during the Vietnam War (perhaps after the period I wanted to model), so I picked up these "standard" seats to use in the cockpit. Getting the resin seats with belts already moulded to them eliminated the need to come up with seat belts if I was to just use the plastic kit seats. The other resin sets were mostly just "because they existed". All these after-market sets nearly quadrupled the cost of the project over buying just the kit. But, in all the cases, the aftermarket pieces were what I considered legitimate improvements over the kit parts (other modeller's opinions may vary).
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FEATURE ARTICLE Roden 1:48 T-28D Trojan • Kit No. 450
Integrating the resin main wheel wells into the kit entailed joining the lower wing pieces to the center wing / belly piece.
The plastic parts prepared for the Aires resin replacement wheels wells.
CONSTRUCTION BEGINS
In the instruction sheet, the construction starts with the engine. But, I had replaced the engine with a resin update set, and I was most interested in getting the wheel wells integrated into the kit, so I decided to start with the wheel wells.
WHEEL WELLS
The kit main wheel wells are split with portions moulded to the lower wing pieces and other portions moulded to the center wing / belly piece. AiRes moulds each resin main wheel well as a single piece. So, integrating the resin main wheel wells into the kit would entail joining the lower wing pieces to the center wing / belly piece. First step was to remove the slag from the resin pieces. My belt sander makes short work of that, but I had to take care not to sand through the wheel wells. Next was the removal of the kits moulded wheel wells. I pulled out the Dremel to do this, but the job was not as straight forward as I would have liked. The center wing / belly piece is quite cramped with the wheel wells and the air brake well all moulded quite close together. Instead of the usual saw bit for the Dremel, I had to resort to using a grinding bit and taking off the wheel wells a little at a time. It took a bit longer and made more of a "plastic dust" mess, but the outcome was the same. With the kit wheel wells gone, next up was fitting the resin wheel wells into place. As I was expecting, the wheel wells do not fit into place without thinning the kit plastic. I found that it was needed to remove about half the thickness of the plastic on both the upper and lower wings. It was a tedious task and not without peril. I did have a few "oops" points. And, I was covered in plastic dust when I was done. One accuracy note on the wheel wells -- as good as they look, the right main well is incorrect. AiRes apparently only had pictures of the left well and made the right well a mirror image. There are significant changes between the wells. The fuel sump holding tank and piping is found in the right well. This amounts to some big black rubber hoses
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The wing sections of the wheel wells were also removed.
Details were added to the resin main wheel wells prior to painting and installation.
and the holding tank, itself. These are all quite visible in the well. See the image below and note the holding tank and pipes in the right well. Originally, I had decided to leave well enough alone. I did not want to risk messing up the wheel well over details that will be visible, but hidden under the model. Then, I changed my mind and decided to give it a try. I created the holding tank first. If I was not happy with the tank, I could just leave the wheel well details in place. When I was satisfied with the look of the tank, I cut the appropriate details out of the AiRes wheel well and put the tank into place. The black piping was easier, being just some copper wire bent to shape. The resin wheel wells are (correctly) a significant amount larger than the wheel well openings. Due to this, I opted to paint the wheel wells before attaching them into place. After some research, I decided the wells were Interior Green. Alternately, they may have been Zinc Chromate, but the vintage black and white pictures I could find looked darker than what I would expect Zinc Chromate to look like. I followed the overall green painting with some detail painting in silver, grey, and black. This was followed by a gloss coating, a black wash, and a flat coating. A little dry brushing finished the look. Then, it was time to attach the wells into place. Experience with the Lone Star wheel wells on the Monogram T-28 kit made me more cautious of firmly attaching the wheel wells on this kit just yet. I
only tacked the wheel wells in place with a dot or two of super glue. This way, if I ran into fit issues with the other kit parts around the wheel wells (like the upper wings), I could more easily pop off the wheel wells to adjust their fit, rather than having to further thin the kit pieces to make room for the resin. After some minor adjustments, I found the modifications already done to the kit parts fit around the new wheel wells just fine. I added a bit more glue to lock the wheel wells into place and started assembling the rest of the model around them. At this time is also when I did the work to close and seal the air brake.
COCKPITS
Like the wheel wells, work on the AiRes resin cockpit started with the belt sander to remove the slag from the resin pieces. Also like the wheel wells, the next step was to pull out the Dremel tool to grind and thin the fuselage sides to make room for the resin cockpit replacement. Using motor tools makes this work quick. In a short period, I had the basic fit of the resin cockpit. I attached some styrene pieces inside the fuselage to hold the resin cockpit in the correct location. And, the cockpit and wheel wells "played nice" together and fit without added grief (Yay!). With the cockpit tub location finalized, I turned my attention to adding all the fiddly little bits. AiRes is very complete with both resin and etched metal parts to add into the cockpit to complete the
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detailing. There were a few items I was not happy with, though. I found the control sticks looked too small and fragile for this cockpit. I decided to use the kit control sticks. The lower sub-panel in the front cockpit main instrument panel is an etched metal piece. I did not like the minimal relief of this part, so I replaced it with a suitably sized resin subpanel I found in my spare parts bin. Lastly, AiRes missed the flap lever on the throttle quadrant. I added it with a small piece of styrene. AiRes moulds some details on the side walls incorrectly. The canopy slide bars are moulded as solid top sections on the side walls. I cut these off the side walls. I planned to re-add them with brass wire at the end of the project when I do final assembly and attach the canopies. One thing both the Roden kit and AiRes set is missing is a gun sight. I snagged an extra one from my spare parts bin (I think from a Mustang kit) to use in this project. The last update I wanted to make was on the back side of the rear instrument panel. AiRes moulds the wiring details pretty "flat" and featureless. The area is visible from the front cockpit, so I decided to add my own wiring using fine copper wires. This made the detail more visible and "busy". The rest of the cockpit set worked as advertised. It was time to start painting. For painting, I had to look up the colours. Cockpit colours for the time period when T-28s were built could been any one of several choices metal, green, black, or grey in any one of several shades for each. The kit instructions named a grey colour and the on-line images I found of restored T-28 cockpits showed grey. Wanting to be sure, I placed a question on the HyperScale forums and someone replied with some images that were reportedly from a T-28D-10 that was returned from Laos and not yet restored. The colour in the pictures showed an overall black cockpit. I decided to go with black for the cockpits. Black cockpits are challenging to make them look like more than a black hole on the model. I decided to give it a go. I painted the cockpits in overall
Interior Black (F.S.37031). This still looked too dark, so I cut the Interior Black with a little white (10-1 ratio, Black to White). This looked better. Then, I used "true" black on the instruments and assorted dark grey colours to break up the cockpit. Details are painted in assorted colour - red, yellow, silver, and L.Ghost Grey (F.S.36375). It looked nice to me outside the model. I hoped that wrapped inside the fuselage and surrounded by camouflage paint on the completed model, it would still look as good. I have never been a big fan of the etched metal instrument panels that lay over top of a photo film with the printed instruments. I guess I never had a good set that worked for me. Well, this AiRes T-28D cockpit has made a believer out of me. What you see above is a three-piece "sandwich", laid into place on the resin instrument panel pieces. The "sandwiches" are made up of the painted etched metal bezels glued onto the photo-film printed instruments, then all laid over a white backing piece of styrene. I was very impressed by this look and feel. Next, I had to decide on the cockpit seats. I had three options. Quick Boost provides the standard T-28 seats with seat harnesses. These are nice and thin with fine details that look great and do fit into the AiRes cockpit. Aerobonus provides the standard T-28 seats with pilots moulded to them. These look really good if having the pilots onboard is desired. The pilots are each moulded with different details. They are not the same pilot figure, twice. They have separate arms and heads. The rear pilot has an alternate head option with a soft hat in place of a fighter helmet. The AiRes resin cockpit provides the "Yankee" extraction system seats. The AiRes seats look somewhat different from the seats the Cutting Edge provides for their A-1J Skyraider cockpit, but not entirely off. There is no telling who is really right, and after reading up on the "Yankee" system, it seems that the seats may not have been identical between the A-1 and T-28, anyway. I liked the idea of having the pilots in the
cockpit, but of the three options, the last one with the "Yankee" extraction system seats was the most attractive one to me. I liked the look of the bulkier seats, but I was unsure they would have been in use for the period I was building my model to represent. So I did a little research on the seats to find when they were introduced to service. No web site comes out and gives a date for the introduction of the seats. I had to "triangulate" the date through pilot's reports. In the Skyraider, a report I read said the US Navy introduced the seats in 1967 to two different Skyraider units. A different web page quoted a USAF pilot that was flying Skyraiders in 1965 and again in 1968. The seats were not in use in 1965, but when he returned to the unit in 1968, all the Skyraiders had them. The model I wanted to build was for the 1968 or 1969 time period. Extrapolating from the Skyraider information and assuming the T-28s were getting the seats around the same time, I was feeling that it was very possible that the T-28s may have had them, too. I posted a question to that effect on the HyperScale forum. I got one reply e-mail saying it was unlikely they were installed in the period I was building my model to represent. While Skyraiders were getting them in that time, the T-28s got them much later. Too bad... So, if I stayed true to the time period, I was back to my second choice of using the seats with pilots (or possibly without pilots). Alternately, I could build the model with my first choice of the Yankee seats and place a small "N number" under the tail, saying it was a modern day civilian "war bird" that was renovated to include replicas of the Yankee seats. Fortunately, I could postpone this choice to later in the construction and decide on the seats as one of the last steps to finishing the model. I continued with building and painting both the pilots and the Yankee seats. Note, the pilots in the images above lack arms. I was waiting to attach the arms until I had the cockpit permanently mounted in the fuselage. I wanted to position the pilots with the arms resting on the cockpit sills, but I needed the cockpit-to-sill position to be locked in first.
What you see above is a three-piece “sandwich”, laid into place on the resin instrument panel pieces.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Roden 1:48 T-28D Trojan • Kit No. 450
ENGINE AND COWLING
I made a few upgrades to the engine and cowling. What comes in the kit is workable, but leaves room for improvements. The Quick Boost engine replacement was a onepiece drop fit replacing the "sandwich" of plastic kit pieces that combined to make the engine. The only drawback was that I was going to need to add for myself the little details like push rods and ignition wires. However, done from scratch, these items would look nicer and finer than the plastic kit pieces. The engine exhaust collector pipes are on the back side of the resin engine, but they are not far enough aft to be in the right place when viewed through the cooling gills on the cowling sides. Also, there is a baffle missing between the engine cylinders and around the engine perimeter. When looking into the cooling gills, you can see straight through and out the front of the cowling. This is not correct. I added a thin sheet of styrene to the back of this resin engine piece to block the view through the engine compartment. The Quick Boost engine exhausts and cooling gills replaced kit parts with much thinner detailed resin pieces. The thinner cooling gills in particular made a better view inside to see the exhaust pipes on the back of the engine. So, after covering the exhaust collector pipes moulded to the back of the resin engine, I added some new pipes in the correct location, inside the cooling gills. I also was not liking the engine exhaust stacks, neither the kit's nor Quick Boost's. Quick Boost simply cleaned up and detailed the kit pieces, but the kit had it wrong to start with. The kit part has the exhaust port being blocked off with the three stacks emerging out of a "wall". On the real aircraft, the exhaust stacks emerge from an open hole. I took some appropriately sized styrene rod, drilled it out to make pipe ends, and mounted the
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newly scratch-built exhaust stacks into the already present hole on the side of the cowling. This better represents the real exhaust stacks on the T-28. Adding the new cooling gill covers completed the look and was a major improvement over the basic kit pieces.
AIRFRAME DETAILS
The remaining update sets replaced outright a number of other kit parts as direct replacements. Most were substantial improvements over the kit parts that they replaced. All were a bit "pricey", too, but I liked the detail improvements enough to justify the prices, at least to me. The Quick Boost weapons pylons looked really nice. They had better (finer) details moulded to the sides and included all the sway bracing on the parts without needing to add these separately. The AiRes T-28 wheels were also improvements over the kit wheels. The masks made it simpler to paint the wheels. However, the AiRes nose wheel is the smaller size found on naval T-28Bs and T-28Cs. I chose to use the kit-provided nose wheel that was the larger size. None of these had any assembly required. I simply replaced the kit parts with these at the appropriate times during the construction and moved on.
wings around the resin wheel wells. This was not a big deal in itself. I had modified the wings to receive the wheel wells and dry fitted them many times. The wing pieces fit tight enough to need no filler. I was impatient to see the camouflage colours so the image here shows the preliminary camouflage painted onto the wings. Having the wings assembled made me want to play with the wing flaps to verify how they looked. The right flap was no problem, correctly fitting tight to the wing with no gap on the top. The left flap had a gap on top, and I was having trouble tracking down what the issue was. I had attached all the hinge pieces correctly. Then, I saw it. The kit has a mould error on the left wing. The "eyelid" panel is missing over the flap. The size of the gap I was seeing matched the size of the missing panel. I quickly measured the right side "eyelid" panel, cut a matching size strip of 0.010" styrene and glued this strip into place. The gap over the left flap vanished. Next step was to assemble the fuselage around the resin cockpit. This was also not a big deal. Like the wheel wells, I had been dry fitting this together for a long time. I finally added some glue. Like the wings, with a little care in the assembly, I needed
ASSEMBLING THE AIRFRAME
Fortunately, with all the assorted resin sets included in the kit, I did not have to do much to make all these "play nice" together. I had already confirmed during initial construction that the cockpit and wheel wells did not interfere with each other inside the fuselage. First step was to assemble the
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no filler for the joints. With the fuselage finally glued together, I could do some work on the rudder hinge. Roden captures the rudder attachment quite nicely. On the real aircraft, there is a sizable gap where the inside structure of the tail is visible with a row of lightening holes running down the hinge area. I used appropriately sized drill bits and opened the lightening holes, then attached the rudder. I also used thin styrene strips to produce the metal lip around the edges of the rudder hinge area. I like the added detail that these simple updates provided. The moment of truth was joining the wings to the fuselage. While I had dry fitted this many times, I had not done it with the wings and fuselage all solidified and solidly assembled. The wings still fit and the wheel wells and cockpit did not interfere with each other. A small gap existed at each wing root. The easiest fix was to add some spacers to widen the fuselage at the wing joint. The gaps were less than a 32nd of an inch, so I did not need to do much widening of the fuselage. A little super glue along the wing roots sealed the seams with minimal sanding required. Next came attachment of the engine cowling.
Earlier, I had already installed the engine into the cowling. But before doing the cowling attachment, I added some lead weight inside the forward fuselage so that the model would not be a "tail sitter". The instruction sheet says to add 25g of weight, which is a considerable amount of weight. There is just enough space for the weights around the upper nose, over the nose wheel well. I measured 25g of weight on a postage scale and crammed it all into the nose. Then, the horizontal tails were added. It was starting to really look like a T-28. The final thing to address before starting the overall paint job was the cockpit glass. But, before I could attach the windscreen, I needed to add a gunsight. Surprisingly, as complete as the AiRes T-28D cockpit is, this is something that they missed in their cockpit set. I lifted a gunsight out of my spare parts bin (from a Mustang kit, I think). I carved a notch in the instrument hood to fit the gunsight and added a wire detail to add interest to the installation. With the gunsight into place, I permanently mounted the windscreen. I normally will "loose mount" the canopies using Blue Tak so that they will mask the cockpits and get their frames painted at
the same time as the camouflage. In this case, the canopy fit was not cooperating and the Blue Tak was not holding the canopies. So, I masked the clear sections of the cockpit glass using Parafilm-M in a technique I discuss in this posting, and I left the canopies separate, masking the cockpits with a strip of tape all the way around. It was time for painting. I could finally make the fuselage and tail match the camouflage on the wings and engine cowling.
CAMOUFLAGE AND MARKINGS
The biggest draw for me to wanting to do a T-28D was the camouflage. I wanted to do one of the aircraft as seen in the Vietnam conflict, flying counter insurgency missions in the 1960s. The description of the camouflage I read (and liked) was that they used "B-52 camouflage colours on top" and an overall black bottom. The B-52 colours were known as "SIOP" and they are a particular favourite of mine. The description went on to note the camouflages were all field applied, so I could use a little artistic license on the camouflage pattern. Armed with this rather brief description, I set out to create one of these aircraft.
I needed to add a gunsight. Surprisingly, as complete as the AiRes T-28D cockpit is, this is something that they missed in their cockpit set.
With the gunsight into place, the windscreen was permanently fixed to the fuselage.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Roden 1:48 T-28D Trojan • Kit No. 450
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. Based on images I found of the Vietnam-based T-28Ds, the Roden painting instructions are mostly correct for the camouflage pattern, but wrong for the colours. The instructions name the standard "South East Asian" colours, not the "B-52 SIOP" colours. The "B-52 SIOP" colours are Dark Green (F.S.34079), SAC Bomber Green (F.S.34159), and SAC Bomber Tan (F.S.34201). The way Roden draws the diagrams, the lightest shaded areas get the darkest colour - go figure. The colour call-outs name the colours as "B", "S", and "T" from the colour key on the instruction sheet. • The "B" coloured areas should be Dark Green (F.S.34079). • The "S" coloured areas should be SAC Bomber Green (F.S.34159). • The "T" coloured areas should be SAC Bomber Tan (F.S.34201). I "scale effected" the three camouflage colours with white in a 4-to-1 ratio (colour to white). This toned them down and gave them a more worn look. For the underside colour, since true black is too intense to use as a camouflage colour, I used Interior Black (F.S.37031). But, even the Interior Black seemed too dark, so I cut it with an 8-to-1 mixture of white. I did some "shading" with Engine Grey (F.S.36076) and European Grey (F.S.36081) to give the black bottom some depth and feel. I free-hand painted the camouflage on the model using my Badger 150-IL air brush. I painted the colours from the lightest to the darkest, ending with the black bottom colour. I paint with fairly thin paints and keep the pressure down to about 12 or 13 PSI. That pretty well controls most of the paint overspray. However, I still did need to do a second pass through all the colours to clean up some minor overspray. A quick gloss coating with Floquil Crystal Coat (yes, I still have this horded into my paint stash) readied the model for decals.
Based on images I found of the Vietnam-based T-28Ds, the Roden painting instructions are mostly correct for the camouflage pattern, but wrong for the colors.
DECALS
Decals on this model were a snap (sort-of). According to the descriptions I read, the aircraft had next to no markings. They typically flew without any national insignia. Being field applied camouflage, they would have painted over most all the airframe data markings and did not likely re-apply them. So, the decals for the aircraft airframe amounted to three - the tail code and serial number (all one decal) on each side of the tail and the armament rectangle on the left side above the wing flap. That was it on the airframe. A few more decals were used on the weapons - some thin yellow striping and small yellow stencilling. I applied the Roden kit decals to the tail only to find they silvered badly and did not respond at all to setting solutions. I immediately swapped over to "plan B" and created some custom decals. I only needed black lettering and numbers, so my laser printer was more than able to do this on clear
decal film. I lifted the Roden decals off with a piece of tape and laid down my custom decals in their place. This gave me the chance to fix the tail code font style (the kit decals "TO" was too thin and badly proportioned) and swap to a different serial number that I confirmed was also in the same unit (just to make my model more "unique"). The "pilots or Yankee seats" question had to get answered while doing the decals. If the Yankee seats were used, I needed ejection triangles on the fuselage sides. I slaved over this for a whole night, but decided to go with the pilots. In the back of my mind, I was considering a possible diorama that the pilots would play into quite nicely. I always finish the decal stage with a second gloss coating of Floquil Crystal Coat. This seals the decals and prepares the surfaces to receive some washes for weathering. With only three decals on the airframe, this second gloss coating was quick and only covered where the decals were found.
Custom decals were created for the model, as the Roden decals silvered badly.
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WEATHERING
Combat reports I read indicated while the aircraft were well maintained, they were also heavily used. With that in mind, I put some rather heavy weathering on the airframe. Radial engines leak oil a lot. I have spoken with mechanics that have told me a radial engine that is not leaking oil is broken (or about to break because there is no oil in it). Likewise, the engine exhausts leave significant exhaust streaks on the fuselage sides. I started with the oil stains while the model was still glossy. I used thinned brown and black paints for the oil streaking of the lower fuselage, mostly in the nose area. Oil tends to seep out of fasteners and panel lines, then flow either with the air flow (in flight) or with the gravity lines (on the ground). This kind-of got lost in the black bottom colour, but it is there. For the rest of the airframe, I used my typical style of thinned down enamel paint washes to highlight the panel lines. After applying a clear flat coat with PollyScale Clear Flat (I still have a stockpile of this in my paint stash), I applied air brush shading to make more highlighting of airframe details. I finished the weathering with some dry brushing of specific areas to pop out the surface details. There are a lot of black scuffs on the wings from ground crews crawling around and maintaining the aircraft. This added a lot of interest to the upper wing surfaces. I apply exhaust stains at the end of weathering as the last part after all the clear coats (gloss, flat, or semi-gloss) are applied. I used an air brush and thinned grey, brown, and black paints in the engine exhaust stain. Piston-powered engine exhausts have three general portions in the exhaust plume. The lead content of the fuel causes a light grey portion of the exhaust plume. Depending on the source for the fuel, the lead content will vary, causing the length of the grey portion of the exhaust plume to vary. Low lead fuels will have very little of this portion of the plume being visible. The grey portion is easiest seen over darker airframe colours. The grey portion is usually the longest part of the exhaust plume. Not that this grey colour is F.S. matched, but I used L.Ghost Grey (F.S.36375) for the grey. Burned surfaces form a small brown portion of the plume. These form near the exhaust stacks where the exhaust is the hottest. I used D.Tan (F.S.30219) for the brown. Soot causes the black part of the stain and is not generally as long as the grey portion of the plume, staying closer to the engine exhaust stacks. Depending on how recently and how often the aircraft is cleaned, the black portion of the plume can stretch the length of the fuselage and cover most of the grey and brown portions of the exhaust plume. I used straight flat black for this part of the exhaust stain. I applied the colours in the order I just described them, here, using extremely thinned paints and building up the stains slowly. The colour image of the aircraft I was building showed a significant grey portion to the exhaust plume with lesser of the brown and black portions. So, that is what I applied. I needed to be careful as I built up the exhaust stain. There is no easy way to fix an "oops" when doing this part of the weathering without stripping half the model and starting over.
The cooling gill doors are QuickBoost items. They are real thin and nice. The Roden kit pieces for the doors are thick and clunky (like the actuators). For a little better detailing, I added a hinge bar to the inside of the doors.
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FEATURE ARTICLE Roden 1:48 T-28D Trojan • Kit No. 450
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. I was very tired of the big holes on the sides of the nose, so my first details to get added were the engine cooling gill doors. To do this, I first needed to create the door actuators. The Roden kit actuators are big and clunky. So, I scratch-built new engine cooling gill actuators. I used 0.010" brass wire and punched out two small disks, drilled in the centre so I could insert them over the brass wire. I painted the whole actuator in steel (brush-painted Metalizer). After drilling a hole in the fuselage (Roden moulds a dimple in the correct location), I inserted the actuators. The rust-coloured item in the picture is the engine exhaust collecting ring. Then, the gill door was glued into place. The cooling gill doors are QuickBoost items. They are real thin and nice. The Roden kit pieces for the doors are thick and clunky (like the actuators). For a little better detailing, I added a hinge bar to the inside of the doors (it is almost not visible). Next up was the landing gear. 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. Of course, I could not work on the landing gear without a little drama. The nose wheel fork looked quite fragile, to the point that I was wondering if it could hold the kit's weight. Well, when reaching to pick it up, I managed to grab it the wrong way, and you guessed it, I broke the fork. This is the sort of break that can haunt a model on the display shelves for years, breaking off again and again every time the model is moved. I wanted a better option. I decided to build a new fork from brass wire. And, I decided to drill and pin the newly shaped brass fork to further enhance its strength. Five micro drill bits later (the bits are not forgiving of being bent while drilling), I had two 0.020" holes drilled into and through the 3/32" brass wire fork, then pinned to the nose wheel strut. I was painting and finishing the landing gear and wheel well doors as I worked on the rest of the airframe. T-28D landing gear appeared in the pictures I could find of vintage aircraft to be natural metal. I painted it with Alclad Steel Metalizer. A quick black wash and dry brushing brought up the detailing nicely. The wheel well doors are resin items from the AiRes wheel well set. They are much thinner with better detailing on the inside than the kit doors (and no knock-out pin marks). There were no modifications needed to use these because they are simple, direct replacements of the kit pieces
for the landing gear doors. From what I could make out on vintage T-28D pictures, the interior colour of the doors seemed to be natural metal, like the landing gear. Turning to the weapons loading, I had been painting finishing the Quick Boost pylons. These are direct replacements of the kit pieces with the weapons sway bracing already in place. While the kit provides weapons, I chose not to use any of the kit provided weapons. I had found an image of a T-28D with 250lb bombs and SUU-14A dispensers. I wanted to build that loading. The bombs were easy. I secured the 250lb bombs from a Hasegawa weapons set. I painted them Olive Drab with yellow tips on the noses. I painted the fin sections with Green Drab (F.S.34086). Some yellow stencilling from a "weapons data" decal sheet and a flat coat completed them. I weathered them with dilute sand paint after the flat coating to make an uneven blotching effect. After attaching the bombs to the weapons pylons, the last item added was the arming wires that connect to the fuses and arm the bombs as they are released. The SUU-14A dispensers were an issue, though. The Roden version of these dispensers is "crude". I checked the Tamiya Skyraider kit in my stash and found the SUU-14A dispensers in that kit had the same issues. In fact, it appeared that Roden may have simply copied the Tamiya pieces. I was going
With all the fiddly bits dealt with, weapons were attached to the wings.
Static discharge whiskers had to be added to the wings and tails.
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to have a lot of seams to clean up which would remove the raised details from the binding bands. Since the dispensers are really nothing more than a grouping of six aluminium tubes strapped together, and I was going to be forced to replace all the raised detail on the bindings anyway, I decided to just scratch-build my own dispensers. I used Evergreen 0.062" round styrene stock for the tubes. I drilled out on one end and cut to them to length. After gluing them into the pyramid stack, I wrapped 0.010" styrene strips around them to form the bindings at the midpoint and at the front end. A piece of 0.010" styrene sheet capped the front end to complete the basic shapes. Using a Waldron Micro Punch set, I punched out 36 0.018" disks to represent bolt heads on the bindings for each dispenser. Last things to add were the firing wires. The entire unit is aluminium coloured with different colours bands on the front to designate what type of munition is loaded inside. Yellow is for live explosives, so I chose that for the stripes. Note, these are not rocket pods. I have seen many modellers think these are rocket pods of some sort and mount them backwards on their models. I have even seen a full-scale museum aircraft with these dispensers mounted backwards. The openings go toward the back. The tubes get loaded with a series of bomblets, looking like hand grenades with stabilizing fins. When "released", the bomblets are ejected out the back of the dispenser. I understand they were quite potent against personnel and "soft skin" vehicles. The dispensers could also be loaded with smoke canisters, mines, or a couple other specialized munitions. Talking with my 20-year-old son (who also dabbles in modelling) about the dispensers, he joked that I needed to load them with grenades. I thought about it a second and then told him he was right. He gave me that "you're crazy" look and wandered off. Since I am modeling the aircraft heading out on a mission, not coming back, the
dispensers needed to be loaded. I punched out some more disks that were slightly smaller than the drilled out ends of the tubes, then plugged the holes. These "plugs" represent the munitions in the tubes and get painted yellow. This is the part of most aircraft projects where a ton of little bits come into play. I started with the antenna farm under the rear fuselage. I believe in some cases, the T-28s were their own Forward Air Controllers, and as such, they needed radios to talk to the ground forces they were supporting. I studied several period pictures of T-28Ds in Vietnam to try to figure out the antennae for the lower fuselage. It varied a bit from aircraft to aircraft, but I think I got the general arrangement right. The big blade antenna is a Roden kit piece. The grey skinny blade antenna is a spare from a Hasegawa A-4 Skyhawk kit. The small blade antenna is the kit moulded item. I scratch-built the
whip from styrene strip and brass wire. The messy paint comes from me having to relocate the red beacon light. I had attached it too far forward. It is impossible to cleanly touch-up black paint and have it not show. So, I purposely made it more messy so people would think it was intentional. I pulled out from my after-market resin stash a couple old Cutting Edge sets that provide clear resin navigation lights - 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. Other tiny, but noticeable details are the tie-down
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FEATURE ARTICLE Roden 1:48 T-28D Trojan • Kit No. 450
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 lifetime's worth of tiny eyelets (250) on a small metal fret. I only needed three for this T-28D. I drilled holes and inserted the eyelets, then painted them silver. 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. Roden provides the lights as moulded holes on the wing underside that get a clear cover. I painted the inner hole silver, then attached the clear part. Next on my list was the right wing pitot. Roden provides this, but it is a plastic item with a mould line to clean off. I decided to replace the pitot with 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 paint on the 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. Looking at them cross-eyed 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. With all the fiddly bits dealt with, I attached the weapons to the wings. I did not want the weapons hanging under the wings and getting in the way
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while I was doing all the other details. The last things to do to complete the project were to insert the pilots and attach the canopies. I normally build without pilots in my models. Something about this model screamed to have pilots. When I found the Aerobonus (AiRes) resin pilots set for the kit, I decided I had to use them. But, I wanted the pilots to be more than just sitting in the cockpits. I wanted them to interact with the model. I decided to pose them like they were at the "last check" point at the end of the runway, getting their safety pins pulled. While pulling the pins, the ground crews require the pilots to have their hands outside the cockpit. This prevents the pilots from accidentally touching a switch that activates something which could injure a ground crewman and provides piece of mind for the ground crewman. The arms that came with the pilots were not designed to have the hands outside the cockpit, but the shapes of the arms seemed to work. Three of the four arms are from the Aerobonus set. The front pilot's left arm is cut off an old kit pilot figure. I transplanted the hand from the resin arm, though. It looked more like a hand than the plastic one did. Below are the completed pilots. They look weird out of the cockpit with the arms suspended in the air. The arms are posed to rest on the cockpit sills. I painted these just like the aircraft - overall colours, gloss coat, washes, flat coat, dry brushing, and finishing with some detail painting. It is a lot of effort for two rather small pieces of the model, but arguably, they will get as much attention and scrutiny in the completed model at the whole rest of the model does. So, they have to look their best. Side note - I do not generally think twice about cutting up and rearranging pieces of a model kit. Repositioning flight controls, opening canopies, or exposing inner airframe details - all are easy decisions and do not cause me to think too much before I do the work. However, I did a great deal
of thinking before hacking away and dismembering these pilot figures. Mentally for me, transplanting airframe details is nothing. However, transplanting arms and hands seemed somehow "wrong". But, I got over it. The poses are not quite as "relaxed" as I would have liked. But, then, it is not relaxing to have to hold your hands outside the cockpit while live explosives are armed that are strapped to your aircraft, so maybe a bit "stilted" in appearance is not so bad. One of the replies I got on the HyperScale forum mentioned the "crew dogs" being pretty psyched up prior to a mission with looking "cool" not being a big consideration. I also had to scratch-build the armour plate behind each seat. The Roden kit armour plate pieces were way too thick and heavy. The seat harnesses run through holes in the armour plate. The seat harnesses are moulded to the pilots, except for the shoulder harnesses. I created shoulder harnesses from lead foil and threaded them through the armour plate, attaching them to the pilots. An old Hasegawa high-grade Phantom etchings set provide the microphones. Once the pilots (in their seats) were permanently in the cockpits, I could turn my attention to attaching the canopies. T-28s have very noticeable canopy slide rails on both sides of each cockpit. In reality, they are rounded "U" channels and the canopies have rollers/pins which slide through them. I was not going to try creating a 0.020" "U" channel; I used fine brass wire instead. I painted the rails metallic grey. The location of the canopies when they are opened is not just resting on the cockpit sills. Both of them pivot back just slightly, having the rear lower than the front. I attached some small styrene plastic triangles inside the canopy frames to give me a more solid position for both canopies. Attaching the canopies completed the project.
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The Monogram kit is notably smaller, being actually about 1/51 scale, not 1/48 scale. Roden’s model scales out to about 1/46 scale.
CONCLUSION
This was a fun project. I used way more updates on the kit than I was originally planning, but I feel that they came out well. It felt good to use some of the after-market update sets that I seem to buy all the time and never use. One of the interesting parts about this project
was seeing how technology has changed. I was building the Monogram T-28 at the same time. Comparing how the two kits were different (and the same) was very enlightening. Here is a picture of the two of them together. Part of the technology change was better design tools for creating these kits. Monogram is “old school” with manual design
techniques, being a 50 year old moulding. Roden is the “new school” with CAD design techniques. The Monogram kit is notably smaller, being actually about 1:51st scale, not 1:48 scale. Roden’s CAD did not help them that much, though since their model scales out to about 1:46 scale go figure... •
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modeller Next Issues military illustrated
ISSUE No.077 September 2017
Aircraft Edition - Brett Green AFV Edition - Marcus Nicholls Publisher; Alan Harman Graphic Design; Alex Hall Advertising Manager; Sean Leslie Office Manager; Paula Gray Administration Manager; Hannah McLaurie Administration Assistant; Julie Lane MIM Website; Doolittle Media Web Team Editors;
SMALLEST BIG CAT
A different look at Amusing Hobby's 1:35 VK.10.02 Leopard
Military Illustrated Modeller Issue 78 - AFV Edition
on sale 21 September 2017
Printed by; Henry Stone Ltd, Oxfordshire
FROG NEEDS TO BE TOWED
Distributed by; Seymour Distribution 2 East Poultry Avenue, London, EC1A 9PT Tel; 020 7429 4000
Trumpeter's 1:35 9P113 'Frog', abandoned
Newstrade; Select Publisher Services 3 East Avenue, Bournemouth, BH3 7BW Tel; 01202 586848 Email;
[email protected]
DOWN TO THE RIVER
Military Illustrated Modeller is published on the third Thursday of each month by; Doolittle Media, Doolittle Mill, Doolittle Lane, Totternhoe, Bedfordshire, LU6 1QX UK www.doolittlemedia.com Tel; +44 (0)1525 222573 Fax; +44 (0)1525 222574
A highly original way of presenting a wrecked KV-1
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[email protected] Reproduction in part of any text, photograph, or illustration without written consent from the publisher is strictly prohibited. While due care is taken to ensure the contents of Military Illustrated Modeller is accurate, the publishers and printers can not accept responsibility for errors and omissions.
Military Illustrated Modeller Issue 79 - Aircraft Edition on sale October 19th 2017
THE GREY GREYHOUND
Brett Green details an ANR Macchi C.205.
Advertisements are accepted for publication in Military Illustrated Modeller only on Doolittle Media’s standard terms of acceptance of advertising, copies of which are available from the advertising department. Please write to the address above. All advertising, circulation and subscription enquiries should also be directed to the UK address above.
Subscription rates are; Option 1 - 12 Issues (AFV & Aircraft) 1 year UK - £60.00 / Europe - £75.00 / World - £85.00 (prices include shipping) Option 2 - 12 Aircraft Editions 2 years UK - £60.00 / Europe - £75.00 / World - £85.00 (prices include shipping) Option 3 - 12 AFV Editions 2 years UK - £60.00 / Europe - £75.00 / World - £85.00 (prices include shipping) For all orders, please call; (UK) +44(0)1525 222573 or visit www.doolittlemedia.com
© Doolittle Media 2017
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FELIX F/A-18E
Revell’s 1:48 scale F/A-18E Super Hornet.
JET TRAINER
James Hatch converts HK Models’ 1:32 scale Meteor Mk.4 into a Mk.7 two-seater.
DER STUKA!
Contemporary techniques and aftermarket revitalize a classic kit by Rafe Morrissey.
...AND MORE! AIR Edition
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Tailpiece
SHADOW HOBBY THINNERLINE CIRCLE CUTTER
To create a circle, simply rotate the tool anti-clockwise.
The Editor takes a new circle cutting tool for a test drive.
M
odellers have many applications for cutting circles - instrument dials, panels, masks, custom scribing templates and more. I have been using an Olfa Circle Cutter for many years. This is a simple but effective tool. You adjust the diameter of the arm, press a pin into the centre of the material and rotate the arm to create a circle. The downsides are that you have to deal with a small hole in the centre from the anchor pin, and also that slippage is possible if you are not careful. The smallest size is also not quite small enough for a lot of modelling applications so I tend to find myself using my Waldron Punch and Die for tiny circles. The new Shadow Hobby THIINERLINE Circle Cutter addresses these issues. The THINNERLINE Circle Cutter is a stout metal and plastic tool that will cut circles in materials up to 0.2mm or more, depending on the blade used. The main body of the tool is a metal circle that rotates smoothly due to the use of ball bearings. A cutting arm and knob are fitted to the main body. These parts may be adjusted to produce circles from 0.5 to more than 50 mm diameter. The body features a graded scale and the cutter arm has an arrow to allow you to precisely set circle sizes. The cutter includes a 60 degree blade that will cut material up to .001 in diameter - ideal for paper, light cardboard and masking tape. 45 and 30 degree blades are available separately for heavier stock up to 0.2mm and more. The blade may be adjusted via a tension spring and adjuster. I found it best to make the
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adjustment with the tool flat on top of the material to be cut. The tool should always be adjusted and operated on a cutting mat. To create a circle, simply rotate the tool anticlockwise. A single rotation will be sufficient for thinner materials. Rotation is smooth and easy using the metal knob. Also, the operation of the tool does not require a centre punch, ensuring a clean circle straight away. I set the tool to various sizes from very small to quite large and was impressed with the clean edges and precise cutting on Tamiya tape. I also tried the largest diameter setting on paper. Once again, result were very crisp. Instructions for assembly and operation of the tool are included. The tool feels robust and of high quality.
The tool has a scale and arrow help setting the size of the circle.
I set the tool to various sizes from very small to quite large
I also tried the largest diameter setting on paper.
CONCLUSION
Shadow Hobby’s THINNERLINE Circle Cutter is a high quality and robust tool that will find plenty of use for aircraft and military modellers. With circle diameters from 0.5 to more than 50 mm, it will suit most circle cutting applications. The option of alternative blades is a nice touch too. The THINNERLINE Circle Cutter has now superseded my Olfa Circle Cutter as an essential part of my modelling tool shop. Highly Recommended. •
Thanks to Shadow Hobby for the sample www.shadowhobby.com
Different angles of blade are available. Printed instructions are included.
Military Illustrated Modeller - September 2017
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AVAILABLE in the ‘HOW TO BUILD...’ series NEW How to Build The Steel Wheeled Tiger I A New and revised edition of the ultimate guide to building the Tiger I Steel Wheeled version by Angus Creighton. The new revised edition includes: ■ Early-batch Sturmtiger, using Tamiya’s 1:35 kit with factory zimmerit, ModelKasten battle-tracks ■ Late-batch Sturmtiger, using Tamiya’s 1:35 kit, Dragon late pattern road wheels, extra frontal armour, no zimmerit, ModelKasten battle-tracks ■ Dragon’s 1:35 Tiger I (SPzAbt 510 194445), ModelKasten transport tracks ■ and more...
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