Mish

Thank you Cees, glad you like it.

Thanks Mike

Thanks guys

Now finished and in RFI

Trumpeter 1:32 Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat VF-4 USS Ranger (CV-4) Atlantic Early 1942 The Grumman Wildcat began service with the United States Navy in 1940. First used in combat by the British in Europe, the Wildcat was the only effective fighter available to the United States Navy and Marine Corps during the early part of World War II in 1941 and 1942; the disappointing Brewster Buffalo was withdrawn in favor of the Wildcat and replaced as units became available. It had a top speed of 318 mph (512 km/h), the Wildcat was outperformed in the Pacific theatre by the faster 331 mph (533 km/h), more maneuverable, and longer-ranged Mitsubishi A6M Zero. However, the F4F's ruggedness, coupled with tactics such as the Thatch Weave, resulted in a claimed air combat kill-to-loss ratio of 5.9:1 in 1942 and 6.9:1 for the entire war. Often forgot is the USN involvement in the Atlantic theatre, where the Ranger was the largest carrier in the Atlantic after being transferred from the Pacific, deemed to be too old, slow and small. Starting initially with Neutrality Patrols in the area of Trinidad and Tobago. She was heading for her home port at Norfolk in December of 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. After leaving Norfolk she took up patrol duties in the South Atlantic. From there she moved to more northern duties as an escort carrier although she mainly took part in training exercises. She was also called on to deliver Curtis P-40s to Africa for onward transportation to the famed Flying Tigers. She was first equipped with the Wildcat F4F-3 in December 1940, replaced with the F4F-4s as they become available. The Wildcats didn't see much action until Operation Torch in December 1942 The Wildcat I have reproduced is one of the early deliveries to the Ranger And thus looks very new and clean. Painted with Mr Paint and after market decal from Techmod. The decals, although thin didn't want to pull down with normal setting solution so in the end I ended up carefully applying Tamiya X20A thinner to gather to pull down into the detail. The base is one provided for review by Costal Kits being one of their new circular range available in 200mm and 300mm diameters. Thanks for looking

Thanks guys A great day at the bench, very nearly got her finished. The Techmod decals, although thin and easy to slide, just didn’t want to pull down. In the end I had to use multiple applications of Tamiya X20A to get them to conform. I have eight more small decals to apply, the Matt coat and lights to affix. So with luck she will be making an outing to the North Essex Modellers Show next Sunday.

Thanks everyone. Good progress today managed to get the base colours on the Wildcat and she will be ready for decaling tomorrow.

Thanks guys, Gonzo I used the Mondex Masks set, that provides both inner and outer masks for the canopy.

Finally got back to the bench this weekend and made good progress on the Wildcat. She's just about ready for paint I need to mask the engine and undercarriage bay first. The folding wing joints are not the best and are designed so that you can fold the wing after the kit is finished but it does look too good if you want to display the model with the unfolded. So I have elected to cement them in place. The fold join required a little filler, no so much that it hides the join though. next update will probably be in a couple of weeks and you should see her with some paint on.

Thanks guys

Started this one back in March and just realised I never posted it here. Anyway this has benn a bit of an on and off build as my mojo did a runner. She will be built as an Atlantic bird from USS Ranger circa 1942 using Tecmod decals. As Trumpeter don't provide either moulded or Photo Etch I will be using some Fabric and PE belts from HGW, and she will be painted using MR. PAINT Here's the after market bits The fuselage halves to judge the size The bench cleared for action Anyway, today's progress. Started on the cockpit and it all goes together well but to me sadly lacking in detail. I know the Wildcat was a basic aircraft but there is just something missing from the kit. The painting guide is non-existent so I will need to refer to references to get the cockpit right. Seat harness and side frames next along with a bit of weathering. Spent the morning making up the HGW seat belts, and yes I know the belt should go over the bar behind the seat but it's moulded and I'm not that good at scratch building. Next I put the side Panels in and again had to guess at the colours. This afternoon I started work on the engine. I still have to put the heads in place and I will add the ignition leads. Wildcats engine is now just about complete, next stage is to built its frame and put the two together. Firewall and engine frame done Cockpit in And the fuselage halves together First up was the tail planes and elevators. They went well so I assembled and painted the main undercarriage assembly. Then it was on to one of the wings. More soon

Special Hobby 1:32 Yakolev Yak-3 "Onward to Berlin" Following the German attack against the Soviet Union, it's soon become clear Soviet fighter aircraft lacked performance against the invading German types. The German attack came during a period when the new Soviet types were just being introduced into both production and service. Types such as the Yak-1, Lagg-3 and Mig-3. Apart from the Mig-3 high altitude aircraft, all the other types were inferior to German machines. Soviet designers were struggling with the storage of high quality raw materials, insufficient equipment, poor performing engines and lastly with directives from the Communist leaders. The Yakovlev design bureau were developing new subtypes based on the Yak-1 fighter, trying to meet the VVS requirements. However, all the versions that emerged from the Yak-1 development, which was designated as Yak-7, were still lacking in performance compared with their German contemporaries. In 1942, a new fighter type known as the Yak-9 was introduced. This type, originating from the Yak-7 seven, was the first of the Yak heavy fighters family. Simultaneously in 1941, a new type was being developed. A nimble and light weight design with smaller dimensions and of mixed wood and metal construction. It utilised a new wing design as well, with a shorter span and the oil coolers moved to the wing root. This type was latter to be known as the Yak-3 and formed the light weight family of Yak fighters. Of interest is that the Yak-3 designation had already been used by the Yakovlev bureau. However it belonged a heavier armed fighter prototype built back in 1940 which, had not progressed be on the prototype stage. This second Yak-3 also had it quite tough from the outset, and development was not easy. The acceptance trials not being completed until October 1943. The new Yak was equipped with the Klimov M105PF – 2 engine. However, because of poor performance and production standards, the overall weight exceeded the limits specified for the test aircraft, which meant that the first production aircraft were armed with only one 20 mm cannon firing through the propeller shaft and 12.7 mm machine gun mounted in the forward fuselage above the engine. Later production machines received the full designed armament of 120 mm cannon and two 12.7 mm machine guns. The new machines were not introduced into service until 1944, and the first units to receive them were the elite units of the VVS plus the French volunteer unit known as the Normandie Niemen regiment. This French unit made its return to France in June 1945 and the Yak-3 remind with them and in service with the new France Airforce for some time after the war. Besides the Soviet and French Air Forces, the Yak-3 saw service with Poland and Yugoslavia. The Yakolev bureau tried to develop the type further, but with no great success because of lack of dedicated engine development. It was only after the war that a small series of Yak-3 M–107 planes were produced. This type was fitted with a Klimov M-107 engine and was of an all metal construction and metal skin. Yet another version appeared, the Yak-3RD with a rocket engine mounted in the rear fuselage. Also the Yak-3 M–108 and the Yak-3U appeared, all of the types failed to progress further than the prototype stage. The Yak-3 fighter is considered amongst some to be one of the best World War II fighter types of soviet design and is the one of the very best to see action over the eastern front. Hot on the heels of their non Hi Tec version of the Hawker Tempest Mk.V. Special Hobby have released a similar version of their Yak-3. It comes like the Tempest in a similarly style of box and as there isn’t any resin or Photo Etch parts the box isn’t too full. Once you get the very tight fitting box lid off, you’ll find five sprues of grey styrene packed into a plastic bag, a separate, smaller bag contains one clear sprue, and lastly there is one bag with two decal sheets be very careful when opening the bag with the decals in as there is a very small plastic bag stapled to it containing a gun blanking piece for one of the decal options. At the bottom of the box is a lovely glossy, colour A4 manual. Sprue A This has both the fuselage halves, the upper gun cowl and two parts of the lower radiator housing. The overall finish on the parts is good, with nice surface detail with finely engraved panel lines (there isn’t too much detail to be seen as the aircraft is of metal and wood construction). The moulding has a satin finish rather than a super smooth finish found on other kits. You might want to give the surfaces a light buffing before applying any paint to the kit. Inside the fuselage there is some sidewall cockpit detail, but not much as the cockpit is inside of a tubular framework. There is also some tail wheel-well detail moulded in the rear of the fuslage. The cowl that covers the machine guns looks very good, and has some lovely detail such as rivets and panel lines Sprue B This sprue has the upper and lower wing, and the sprue is split into two parts to allow it to fit more easily in to the box. As the wings are moulded in full span there will be no issues trying to judge the right dihedral etc. Both flaps and ailerons are moulded in, which would which would require you to cut and reposition them should you wish to pose the aircraft on a base or diorama. Surface detail once again is very minimal as the wing is of wooden construction. However, the ailerons have good rib detail. The wing fairing is nicely blended and has well defined fastener detail. There is two holes in the upper wing, these are for the wing mounted fuel gauges. They are supplied as decals that you fix to the underside of two clear plastic lenses (located on the clear parts sprue). The centre section of the upper wing has the moulding for the cockpit floor with foot plates and control column base. The radiator housing is moulded on the lower wing, and you will need to add the radiator parts before fitting the upper wing as none of this area will be assessable after the wing halves have been cemented. There is more detail on the wing undersides, these are the recesses for the main great wheel well walls, and the inside of the upper wing has detail for the upper surfaces of the wells. Sprue C This has the horizontal stabiliser and elevators, all moulded in the conventional way. The elevators and stabilisers are of a two part construction of upper and lower halves. Once again as the horizontal stabiliser are of wooden construction there is no detail moulded on them. However, the elevators and the moving rudder part has the same ribbing detail as the ailerons. Also on this sprue are the separate propeller blades along with a two part spinner, and the main undercarriage doors, once again with very good rivet and internal detail. Sprue D Contains is the ‘smaller parts’ sprue, on here you will find some of the main gear well walls, the undercarriage ‘legs’, the tail wheel strut, instrument panel, cockpit seat tub and the seat backrest. Also there is the cockpit sidewall panels, main instrument panel, tailwheel mounting plate, radiator actuator parts, and other small parts for the cockpit and wheel wells. There is also parts for the wheels and exhausts. Sprue E This has the cockpit tubular assembly, control column and numerous other small parts for the cockpit and the forward walls of the main gear wells. Before moving onto the clear parts sprue, it is with noting that the kit styrene does seem to be of quite a soft nature. I don’t remember other Special Hobby kits styrene being quite this soft. However with out digging a box out from the stash I’m not sure and I may well be wrong. Sprue CP Sprue CP has the aforementioned clear parts. The canopy of which there are two option one to have the cockpit canopy open the other to have it in the closed position. There is also the two clear parts for the wing fuel gauges, again mentioned earlier. Decals The decals are on two sheets, both very finely printed by Cartograf, and as expected the decal quality is excellent. The larger sheet is a colour sheet with the various markings along with some very nice silver printed borders for the red stars.,The smaller sheet has the the red stars mentioned above, instrument decals, stripes for the tail of one option, the wing fuel gauges and various ‘stencils’. There are three schemes offered in this boxing and they are: Aircraft 15 flown by, Lieutenant Semyon Rogovol of the 64th Guards Fighter Regiment, 4th Guards Fighter Division, 2nd Baltic Front, Autumn 1944. This aircraft was presented to Rogovol by sailors of the Alum River Flotilla located in the Far East. Aircraft 114 flown by Senior Lieutenant Valentin Gregoryevich Ernokhin of 402nd Fighter Regiment, 256th Fighter Division, 1st Belorussion Front, Spring 1945. Aircraft 10 flown by Colonel Boris Nikolaevich Eryomin, Deputy Commanding Officer of6th Guards Fighter Division, 2nd Ukrainian Front, Spring 1945. This aircraft was being Eryomin’s second was paid for by Ferapont Petrovich Golovatyi and was an early production machine with one cannon and one machine gun. Instruction Booklet The instruction booklet is a glossy, colour printed 16 page A4 affair, that started with the history of the Yak-3, the sprue ‘maps’. The construction is listed in 36 steps, with very clear line illustrations with the paint numbers for Gunze-Sangyo paints. The last pages of the instructions are the three scheme illustrations, in colour, with the decal placement guides. The lat three pages of the booklet contain some more of special Hobby’s offerings, several of which have caught my eye! A PDF of the instruction booklet can be seen here. Also in my box but not included in the kit was a replacement resin radio by CMK. Nice crisp moulded replace meant for the kit part. Two Vacform Canopies for the Yak by MH Models, one for an open cockpit and one for a closed canopy. Both come with inner and exterior masks and look very thin and clear This boxing of the kit is well worth waiting for as it give a cheaper and easier option than the Hi Tec boxing as it omits the Resin and Photo etch parts of the previous boxing. I highly recommended this kit. My sincere thanks to Special Hobby for the review sample

Thank's guys. Thanks but it way too late now, anyway it's 100% better than what Trumpeter suggest. Anyway on with my build. Spent the morning making up the HGW seat belts, and yes I know the belt should go over the bar behind the seat but it's moulded and I'm not that good at scratch building. Next, I've put the side Panels in and again had to guess at the colours. This afternoon I started work on the engine. I still have to put the heads in place and I will add the ignition leads.

It's been a while since my last large scale build, this is due to other smaller projects and a serious loss of mojo. Anyway, mojo restored this will be my next build. She will be built as an Atlantic bird from USS Ranger circa 1942 using Techmod decals. As Trumpeter don't provide either moulded or Photo Etch I will be using some Fabric and PE belts from HGW, and she will be painted using MR. PAINT. Here's the after market bits: The fuselage halves to judge the size Realising that a 6 inch square space on the bench will not be big enough it was time for a tidy up. The bench cleared for action Anyway, my progress. Started on the cockpit and it all goes together well but to me sadly lacking in detail. I know the Wildcat was a basic aircraft but there is just something missing from the kit. The painting guide is non-existent so I will need to refer to references to get the cockpit right. Later today I will tackle the seat harness and side frames along with a bit of weathering.

Want one, very nice kit and review James

Purchased on impulse for a bit of fun that's exactly what this little kit has been. A simple snap together kit, with some dodgy figures, turned out quite nice. Thanks for looking

I was getting a bit bored with the current project so I had this mad idea to try and recreate part of the battle scene from the start of film featuring the Rebel forces in their Snow Speeders and the attaching Empire forces in their ATATs. I had the Revell 1:72 Snow Speeder but when I tried to get a 1:72 ATAT the cost was prohibitive to I found some cheap Snow Speeders and ATATs from a Hong Kong dealer on ebay and chance it. The Snow Speeders are cast in resin and roughly 1:144 the ATAT is made from plastic and needed some assembly. However, the ATAT is a little under scale All it needed to finish it off was a little weathering. I decided to try and replicate the famous scene where Luke Skywalker realises the only way to take out the ATATs is by using the rear facing grappling gun on their Snow Speeders and to trail the wire around the ATATs legs and thus 'trip' them up. In order to recreate this scene, I would have to support Luke's Snow Speeder with its grapple cable. After some experimentation, I found that I could just support the Snow Speeder on some 22 gauge florist wire that would give me the required 'stiffness' to recreate the Snow speeders flight around the legs. I started off using a blank base that I got from Topnotch Models and the snow from Treemendus Scenics which as stuck down with PVA wood adhesive. Having two Snow Speeders I decided to use a little bit of modelling license and have acrashed Snow Speeder in the scene as well. Once nearing completion I was left aith some 'empty space' in the front of the base, especially in the front right quarter. So at the sugestion of a friend I decided to see if I could stretch my modelling license a little further and scratch build a blaster tower also seen at some point in the battle. Using a top off of a CA 'Zip Kicker' bottle at the base and a chopped down turret and gun from a 1:72 Sherman Firefly kit I fasioned a blaster tower. Now added to the diorama totally out of place it did form a pleasing to the eye placement. Now to the shocker this little diorama took me just three and a half hours to put together! And do you know what? I'me quite 'chuffed' at the result of my mad idea. Thanks for looking.

Thank you both

Thank's, but it's not really that small at 1:32. Suits my eyesight nowadays.

Thanks Coolboxx, Well got a little more done today, mainly little bits and bobs and masking ready for spraying.

Today's progress More tomorrow.

Finally found time to get back to the bench and crack on with the Lynx. Made some good progress today. More tomorrow

Today's progress on the 1:32 Revell Lynx, This is the Royal Navy HAS.3 which I'm converting to a French Navy Lynx. Got to take some of the wash off of the rear bulkheads and fit the centre seats.

Finally finished my Wings Cockpit Figures pilot finished for the Spitfire, my painting of it is not as good as I would have liked but it will look okay from normal viewing distance.

Yes it's a lovely kit Mike and it would be nice Revell would produce some different marks. This one has been on hold due to me being ill and attending model shows. However I have a five day weekend so I should be getting some more done.