Mikester

miniTopcolors 30 "Luftwaffe’s Baptism of Fire Part 1" by Maciej Góralczyk, Andrzej Sadło, Janusz Swiatłoń, and Arkadiusz Wróbe Kagero Publishing, Price: €14.10 Hot on the heels of my last review on early war He 111Ps of KG 27 comes some more early war (and pre-war) Luftwaffe goodness from Kagero, "Luftwaffe's Baptism of Fire, Part I". As I mentioned last article the outlook for large scale early war Luftwaffe subjects is considerably rosier than in years past. We now have state of the art kits for most of the notable aircraft of the period but not exactly a plethora of decals to support them so this installment of "Topcolors" is a welcome addition. By February 1935 Germany had abandoned any pretense of abiding by The Treaty of Versailles and the Luftwaffe was well on it's way to being a force to be reckoned with, it continued to grow to become one of the strongest, most doctrinally advanced, and most battle-experienced air forces in the world when WW2 started in Europe in September 1939. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had nine Jagdgeschwader (fighter wings) mostly equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109E, four 'Zerstörergeschwader (destroyer wings) equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter, 11 Kampfgeschwader (bomber wings) equipped with mainly the Heinkel He 111 and the Dornier Do 17Z; and as it had encountered design difficulties, was just starting to accept the Junkers Ju 88A for service with only a dozen aircraft of the type considered combat-ready, and four Sturzkampfgeschwader (dive bomber wings) ready for combat, primarily armed with the iconic Junkers Ju 87B Stuka. Owners of other books in the series will feel right at home, the familiar twenty page booklet presented in landscape format features eight aircaft. Each subject is accompanied by a beautiful 4-view color profile and a short narrative on the aircraft. The eight aircraft featured offer a nice variety of subjects, including the Bf 109, Bf 110, Ju 87 and the He 111. Two aircraft from the Spanish Civil War are welcome addition. aircraft featured in this volume include: - Junkers Ju 87 B-1; coded '29•8' of 5. K/88, Legion Condor, Sanjurjo airfield, Zaragoza, Spain, late 1938, - Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-1; coded '6•119', flown by Hptm. Siebelt Reents, Staffelkapitän of 1. J/88, Legion Condor, León, Spain, spring 1939, - Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-1; 'Black 14' of 2.(J)/LG 2, Poland, mid-September 1939, - Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-1; W.Nr. 4048, 'Yellow 7' of 3./JGr. 101, Hoya, Germany, 18 November 1939, - Messerschmitt Bf 109 D-1; W.Nr. 630, 'Black N+7', flown by Oblt. Johannes ‘Macki’ Steinhoff, Staffelkapitän of 11.(N)/JG 2, Hage, Germany, April 1940, - Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3; flown by Oblt. Wilfried Pufahl of Stab II./JG 53, Mannheim-Sandhofen, Germany, April 1940, - Messerschmitt Bf 110 C-2; coded 'L1+KK' of 14./LG 1, crew: Uffz. Hans Bechthold (pilot), Uffz. Wilhelm Harder (radio operator); Mannheim-Sandhofen, Germany, late spring 1940, - Heinkel He 111 P-2; coded '1G+HL' of 3./KG 27, crew: Uffz. Otto Keiser (pilot), Hptm. Robert Sichart von Sichartshoff (observer, CO), Uffz. Gustav Bergmann (radio operator), Uffz. Paul Kleinitzke (flight engineer); Neukuhren, East Prussia, 15 September 1939 (1:32 and 1:72 decals only). As we've come to expect we're treated to a couple of beautiful sheets for Cartograf. Do I ever get tired of extolling the virtues of these decals? No, I don't, nor do I tire of a good beer or Cuban cigars, but that's not particularly relevant here! So what do we think? A sure fire hit, unique subjects that are often overlooked by the modeling community, looking forward to the part two! Highly Recommended With thanks to Kagero for the review sample. Available directly from Kagero here: http://www.shop.kagero.pl/en/30-luftwaffe-s-baptism-of-fire-part-i.html

I'll limit my inputs to kits that I think might actually be financially viable, I realize that a couple of these are available in resin but resin kits have a tendency to be overly pricey. Me 410 Ar 234 Do 17/217 Bf 108 Hs 123 Hs 126 Hs 129 Fw 189 P-51B B-24 B-26 Yak 1,3,5,9 Lagg 3 La 5,7 Pe 2

Man, that looks great! I would love to do this one but need to build a display case that can accommodate it first.

Me likey!

Holy inferiority complex, Batman! Amazing work, Peter!

Jeroen was recommending a compressor with a moisture trap and an air reservoir tank. The reservoir tank helps maintain a steady flow of air rather than a stop/start that you might get on a compressor without one. There are so many different compressors that it's hard to make any specific recommendations. When I was painting in the garage I was using a large industrial type compressor that could also be used to fill car tires! Now that I work inside I have a small Grex hobby compressor that is much less noisy. I'd say decide on what you want to spend and then start researching compressors in your price range.

Very cool, Ralph. Gotta love those Wilde Sau schemes!

Nice work, Erik, thanks!

The Peak C-5 is an excellent airbrush for under $100, good for beginners and will serve you well as you advance too. http://www.bearair.com/PEAK-C-51-PRO-Gravity-Feed-Airbrush/productinfo/100360/

Excellent work!

Looking forward to this one, Mike!

Well there you go, no speaka 'da Francaise!

Well done, Matt! I think the set is winner, would have been nice if they could have addressed the gun trough spacing issue and extended the spinner a bit but it's hard to cover everything.

Nice!

Interesting, I thumbed through JG 300 Vol. 1 by Lorant yesterday and apparently they didn't include this photo.

Nice start, cockpit looks really good!

Said it before but worth repeating, OUTSTANDING! You really nailed every aspect of this one, Frank, glad to see her finally done. Hope you're feeling better soon too, buddy.

For those of you with 21st CT MC. 202/205 in your stash, I found these wheels for the MC 200/202/205 by SEM Model (from Italy) on ebay: Price was about $10 a set. Quality is OK, the detail on the hubs is a little rough but they should look decent once cleaned up and painted.

Very cool!

Ha! I think the onlly meeting I missed (except for work) was when the box of models that I was bringing to show turned over in the car on the way there. It looked like a post-war Luftwaffe junkyard! Miss the meetings and the post-meeting calzone and Newcastle at Stadium Pizza!

Sweet!

Absolutely amazing, Tom!

True, some influential people in the hobby have probably given the kit a worse reputation than it really deserves. Accuracy-wise it's probably the weakest of the three though.

I don't think so, at least I hope not. I think a lot of what we went through with Group Build/Review is that there was so much pre-release hype about the kit that there was going to be some inevitable let down. I know I learned some lessons on the one I built that will make the next one easier and already have some ideas that I want to do next time around. I think a lot of what this thread revolves around is that Revell knew there were some issues but decided that it wasn't cost effective to fix them. In my mind that doesn't make the Revell Gustav horrible, just flawed, and that's true of every kit out there to an extent. When the sales start this kit will be available for under US $20. That's a hard price to beat and speaking for myself I'll probably buy them at that price and pick up the Allee Cat correction set or one of other sets that will inevitably come along. It's here to stay and as a 109 fanatic I'll be happy to see it built along with The Hasegawa and Trumpeter kits or anyone else who decides to produce one.

The Revell kit does have one big advantage, flexibility. Although I still prefer my Hasegawa 109's, Revell offering standard and Erla canopies and standard and tall tails in the same box does give you a good deal of lattitude. If you have enough Hasegawa G-6's and G-14's in the stash you can swap back and forth between kits obviously but not everyone has that advantage. I think for me whether I continue to buy Revell depends on if some reasonably priced A/M Beule become available. Most of the other issues I can deal with on my own.