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BradG

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Everything posted by BradG

  1. This is P-51B Mustang registration 43-27460 as she appeared when owned by Colonel Jacqueline Cochran. It was her first Mustang and was registered NX28388 and was used to set 4 air speed world records and appeared at multiple air races in the late 1940s. The combat record, if any is unknown but the serial number both before and after saw combat with the 361st Fighter Group and both were lost in action. Cochran bought the aircraft in August 1946 for 10 points and other considerations. Following her third place in the 1948 Bendix Air Race, she asked her friend and test pilot Sampson Held to ferry NX28388 back to California, however on route it suffered a catastrophic wing spar failure and crashed, killing Held. The model is the duel boxing from Hasegawa in 1/72, you get a second kit and decals for 'Thunderbird', also owned and flown by Cochran at one stage. The model is showing it's age a bit, with very shallow wheel wells and the landing gear seems a bit short. That said, it goes together well and the decals are excellent. For the air racer, they give you some extra sprues for what they call an Aeroproduct's propeller, however looking at pictures I think the Mustang was using an uncuffed Hamilton Standard, which unfortunately you don't get in the kit. I decided to use the kit supplied cuffed Hamilton Standard, because I know at one point it did use this prop and in one race she had propeller issues so it might have been changed after that. It's also worth noting that they do give you both slogans that were painted under the exhaust stacks and this is not mentioned in the instructions. I am unsure of when the motto was changed. Cochran mounted P-38 drop tanks under the wings to ferry the aircraft, but these are not supplied in the kit. Leave off the kit supplied hard points. Apart from this, the guns and ejector ports were filled over and the resin fin fillet was glued in place and sanded down to fit. I painted her overall Gunze gloss bright green straight from the bottle and applied 3 coats of future, 2 before and 1 after decals. I decided to weather her as she appear after a race with big black and white exhaust stains that extended down the fuselage. Now I have to get to building 'Thunderbird' in the blue.
  2. This is the Fine Molds Kit in 1/72 that I picked up last year. There isn't a huge amount to this model, but it was a little more than a weekend project. Fit is good enough, but you will have to sand through the nicely molded welding seams. I replaced these with a fine brush and Mr Surfacer 500. There are a couple of options in the kit with regard to submarines used in different operations so pay attention to which version you wish to build. I chose to represent one of the boats used to attack Pearl Harbor on December 7th. The ships were overall matt black, with the torpedo being painted in oily steel. The instructions say black, however the torpedo that washed up on the attack on Sydney Harbour appeared to be unpainted. Weathering was kept pretty restrained. I had no problems with the decals and I finished things off with some EZ line and a small base whipped up with some pine and stain.
  3. I noticed recently a lot of aftermarket isn't coming into Australia. A large retailer that use to stock a lot of that pulled the pin and post from anywhere is expensive to down under. Not to mention the issues on the docks here with unions threatening strikes and recent go slow work conditions, a lot of stuff is probably still sitting in sea containers.
  4. I sent this one to my vegan mate....and yes, his wife is vegan....
  5. Straight from the box, decals and all. A pretty nice kit all up, just be careful to get the interior all aligned so the fuselage goes together well.
  6. I've been wanting to build this model for around 20 years, but I was never good enough with painting natural metal to attempt it. However skills improve and new products hit the market. I recently picked up some SMS Super Silver and wanted to give it a try. The kit itself from Tamiya is very nice, but it does lack a little detail and I had a small etch set to improve on the cockpit, undercarriage doors and other small items. SMS Jet Black was used as a base for the Super Silver and I'm pretty impressed with it's look and durability. I've handled this a fair bit and it has not caused any damage to the surface. The tail decals, excluding the fin flash which was masked and painted, came from Dying Sun II decals from Rising Decals, the US insignia was from the spares box. This particular aircraft was captured at Clark Field in the Philippines. Repaired to airworthy, she suffered a landing gear collapse and was grounded, with the intent to take her back to the US shelved, it's probable that 'S9' was scrapped onsite sometime after the end of the war.
  7. There was only 1 or 2 known to have survived so I'm not surprised it went for that price.
  8. Between a swap and sell and the local Cash Converters. I paid less than half sticker price for the ones you see.
  9. This is the Yak1b of Sergey Lugansky, who was one of those lucky individuals to fight almost the entire war and survive. Joining the Red Army in 1936, he would fly various aircraft starting in the 1939/40 Winter War. In the Summer of 1943 he was presented with this Yak 1, which was built with money raised by the city of Alma-ata. He would end the war at the Air Force Academy in Moscow, after flying 390 combat missions and gaining 34 victories. He was also twice awarded Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war he held various high ranking Air Force posts until retiring in 1968. He passed away in 1977. The kit itself is nicely molded with good decals, although you only get one decal option. Detail is nice, the fit on the other hand does require some patience. The wing fit in particular requires some work, but it is not beyond the skills of the average modeller. It did make me feel a bit better reading that the Yak 1, especially early production aircraft suffered from poor quality control, requiring modification on the production line meaning that parts between individual aircraft were not interchangeable. Paints used were Vallejo Air range; AMT 11, 12 and 7.
  10. I'm freezing my cods off here guys, -1C last night and it looks like it will get close to freezing again tonight.
  11. It can get very humid, especially up north where it's in the tropics. Last summer was humid though as we had a lot of rain up till December.
  12. *laughs in Australian*....mate our heat out cut off for cricket is 104F, or 40C. 98F is just a good day to win the toss and bat.
  13. You'll be lucky to get enough useable bits for one. You'll find the tubular frame and probably the wings, the articles say they were stripped and I imagine that included the engine and pretty much anything the Russians would find useful. "Broken apart" probably means smashed to pieces with a bulldozer. Honestly I've seen and heard of so many of these "recoveries" over the years, it all starts with people being enthusiastic about the find and thoughts of rebuilding aircraft etc etc only to end with a bunch of twisted, corroding metal being dug out of a hole and dumped in or on some poor museum who then, after all the enthusiasm and back slapping dies out, quietly dumps it back in a hole because it wasn't worth recovering in the first place.
  14. That's interesting, I didn't know that. I guess every bit of armour you can get is a good thing!
  15. Super work. Did you miss taking off a canopy mask or was the forward port quarter panel painted over?
  16. For a new kit this presented a few challenges when being built. OOB, just the addition of a couple of RBF tags on the seeker head covers on the weapons.
  17. Sadly I hear these stories a lot. We all do in my group. I'm sorry man, that's women for you. The more I hear of these kinds of things, the more it confirms that life long batchelorhood is the only way to go. Go your own way my friend.
  18. Bought some large scale armour as an early birthday present to myself.
  19. I really hope someone revisits a large scale Mk 22/24 Spitfire.
  20. It's telling that you don't see many of these uber kits actually built. I see even fewer when going to model comps, but there are no end of Tamiya and Hasegawa LSPs that are without all the open panels. I'm sure these kits sell well, but they seem to just sit in many people's stash forever.
  21. I was looking at getting this kit, but looking at your thread I'm kinda glad I didn't as it was in excess of 200 dollars down here. That said you are doing a nice job on it.
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