Mikester

My first entry will be the 1/32 Trumpeter P-40B done as Charles Older's "White 68" from the American Volunteer Group's 3rd Pursuit Squadron (Hell's Angels) operating from Burma in 1942. I'll be using KitsWorld decals and will be doing this more or less OOB. I have a plan to correct the too shallow cockpit issue that doesn't involve buying the Lone Star cockpit, stay tuned!

I believe these are from an "E" model but I don't remember the exacts details of the aircraft:

I was lucky enough to be at Planes of Fame several years ago when some maintenance was being done on "Skidoo" and the crew chief was gracious enough to let me get underneath and get some good photos from usually inaccessible areas.

Outstanding, Dave! Did you detail the engine? I'm thinking about doing a Kiwi version for the Pacific GB but don't feel like getting bogged down with all that engine detail, especially after seeing guys like Wolf Buddee do his I can kind of feel like anything I would do in that department is "amateur hour".

Rog, The only ones I'm aware of are from the Kagero book that was reviewed by our own Peter: http://scaleplasticandrail.com/kaboom/index.php/all-things-aviation/everything-else/book-reviews/1420-arado-ar-196-top-drawings-14-from-kagero Unfortunately not the markings you're looking for. You can always get some customs masks made for the fuselage codes but if the plane had a unit badge that may be more difficult.

I've got one in the stash, very nice kit.

That's because I do all my reviews before 0800, after that all bets are off!

Well the G-14/AS is about 15 minutes away from being finished. My last five finished kits are: Trumpeter Bf 109G-5 Eduard Bf 109E-7 Hasegawa Bf 109G-14 Dragon Bf 110D-3 Hasegawa Bf 109G-14/AS That's a lot of Messy's even for me! Going to do a P-40 or two for the Pacific GB and WNW for the GWGB.

If you have a sheet of EagleCals decals for a 109, look at the side profile line drawing they use as a decal placement reference. The rudder on the drawing they use and the detail on on the Trumpy rudder are an exact match. From the too small size to the raised detail they're pretty much identical. I wish they would have just copied Hasegawa instead!

The problem is that the Trumpy also suffers from an incorrect spinner (too blunt just like Hasegawa) and IMO S/C intake is worse than the Hasegawa. It's not horrible by any means but when I add up all the little things I have to fix, the list on the Trumpy G-6 comes out considerably longer than the Hasegawa. I think Trumpeter gets beat up simply because a lot of the errors are just glaring and could have been avoided with a little research. Hasegawa got their spinner wrong because the restored aircraft they used for measurements did not have an original spinner. I can live with that, honest mistake, but some of the Trumpeter mistakes are real head scratchers. I'm pretty sure they don't even send out people to do measurements, just do it on CAD and hope it's relatively close. I'm looking forward to the Revell as wel even though at this point I'm a suffering from some (gasp) 109 burn-out!

Wow!

JG 51 - Jagdgeschwader Mölders Kagero - Units 4 by Marek J. Murawski Available from Kagero Publishing for €16.71 Werner "Vati" Mölders was one of the Luftwaffe's early luminaries and the leading German fighter ace in the Spanish Civil War. Mölders became the first pilot in to claim 100 aerial victories and was highly decorated for his achievements. He was instrumental in the development of new fighter tactics which led to the finger four formation. Mölders joined the Luftwaffe in 1934 at the age of 21. In 1938, he volunteered for service in the Legion Kondor, which supported General Franco's Nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War, and shot down 15 aircraft. During the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain he claimed another 53 enemy aircraft. With his tally standing at 68 victories, Mölders and his unit, Jagdgeschwader 51 (JG 51), were transferred to the East in June 1941 for the opening of Operation Barbarossa.. By the end of 22 June 1941, the first day of Barbarossa, he had added another four victories to his tally and a week later, Mölders surpassed Manfred Von Richtofen's 1918 record of 80 victories. By mid-July, he had 100. Prevented from flying further combat missions for propaganda reasons, at the age of 28 Mölders was promoted to Oberst, and appointed Inspector General of Fighters.. He was inspecting the Luftwaffe units in the Crimea when he was ordered to Berlin to attend the state funeral of Ernst Udet, the World War I flying ace. On the flight to Berlin, the Heinkel He 111 in which he was traveling as a passenger encountered a heavy thunderstorm during which one of the aircraft's engines failed. While attempting to land, the Heinkel crashed at Breslau, killing Mölders and two others. Following his death, JG 51 would bear the honorific "Mölders". Jagdgeschwader 51 (JG 51) Mölders is the subject of the latest installment in the "Units" series by Kagero. JG 51's pilots won more Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes than any other Jagdgeschwader, and flew combat from 1939 in all major theatres of war. Flying Bf 109s and then Fw 190s, the wing claimed over 8,000 air victories. Experten included 'Toni' Hafner, Heinrich Hoffmann, Heinz Bär, Richard Leppla, Karl-Gottfried Nordmann, Günther Schack and of course the legendary Mölders. The book follows the familiar format of it's predecessors, 32 pages presented in a soft cover landscape format with English text containing a chronological overview of the unit's history supplemented with 40 photos; tables of unit commanders and planes used as well as color profiles of 4 aircraft painted by Janusz Światłoń and Arkadiusz Wróbel. A decal sheet printed by Cartograf contains 1:72, 1:48 and 1:32 individual markings for four different aircraft. The narrative begins with the unit's pre-war history, starting off in 1937and contains some interesting photos of early Emils and even an He 51 biplane. It moves on to the campaigns in Poland (minimal participation) the "Phony War" and the Battle of France. After covering the Battle of Britain the focus shifts to and primarily remains on operations in the Soviet Union and the East, although some space is devoted to the Mediterranean theater and the defense of the Reich as well. The text provides a broad historical overview with some achievements by individual pilots and it's squarely aimed at giving you the big picture of the unit rather than a day by day detailed diary. The photos are a nice mix of 109s and 190s and even a couple late war D-9's thrown is as well. The combination of the text and photos should be enough to satisfy most casual historians and modelers. So let's take a look inside. Four color profiles and accompanying decals are provided: Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4; W.Nr. 1641, 'Black 6', flown by Hptm. Ernst Wiggers, Kapitän of 2./JG 51, St. Inglevert airfield, France, early September 1940 Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2; W.Nr. 6797; flown by Hptm. Hartmann Grasser, Kommandeur of II./JG 51, probably Orel-Nord airfield, Russia, mid-July 1942 Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-6; W.Nr. 550182, 'Black 7', flown by Ofw. Josef Jennewein of 2./JG 51, Orel-West airfield, Russia, July 1943 Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6; W.Nr. 442013, 'Black 1', flown by Oblt. Anton Hafner,Kapitän of 10./JG 51, Hüttenfelde airfield, East Prussia, October 1944 I think Hauptmann Grasser's F-2 will be the clear favorite here with it's full array of unit markings and Luftsieg on the rudder. Decals are beautifully printed by Cartograf, perfect register and minimal carrier film. Not that we expect anything different! So what do we think? Another interesting installment in the "Units" series, providing a little bit everything to the historian and/or modeler at an attractive price. Highly Recommended! With thanks to Kagero for the review sample. To purchase directly, click HERE. Mike O.

Outstanding build and welcome to LSM!!!

Cool, wish I could have been there!

Excellent, Chris!

Nick, are the profiles just a re-hash of "Luftwaffe Fighter Aircraft in Profile" Vol. 1 & 2? (Assuming you have these to make a comparison)

Sweet!

Nice!

Looks great!

Great work!

Very nice! Glad to see you had more luck with CE Erla conversion set than I did.

Really nice work!

Outstanding, Jeroen!

These kits kill me! Just like the MDC Ar 234 I've been waiting to see if someone will do it in plastic (and it looks like the case with the 234) before I shell out big bucks for resin. This is one of my favorite aircraft though, may not be able to resist!