Hello Jean-Luc & James,

I would like to join too. This is what I would like to enter if it's ok with you:



Thanks
Dave.

Hi all!

Jesper, you are quite a prolific builder! That Albatros is coming along nicely.

David, that Cheetah conversion looks very interesting. I'm looking forward to see your progress on this one!

I managed to find some time to continue my Rafale. The cockpit interior is quite basic in the kit but it isn't much different on the real plane. I painted the parts in a dark grey color except for the pilot area and the instrument panel. The seat is nice but the seatbelts are molded on the cushion (colored in green). It is necessary to add some shadows to have more depth. I think it will look ok with the canopy in the closed position (that's what I will do) but if you want to display the model with an open cockpit some additional seatbelts will be necessary.



I painted the undecarriage and the gear bays in silver. According to a specialist, it is like that on most Dassault aircraft. The instructions tell you to paint the gear bay in white though...



The fuselage halves are broken in two parts. Unlike what is usual on WW2 aircraft models, there is one upper part and one under part. I have placed 20 gr of weight at the front to prevent my Rafale to be a tail sitter. I also closed the air intakes with plasticard and while this is not very accurate it is still better than an open view into the empty entrails of the model. The real plane's air tunnels have a quite complex shape and it would have been a nice touch from Hobby Boss to include them in their kit.



Next time I will get the fuselage together and add the wings...

Jean-Luc

Thanks Jean-Luc.
That's very nice progress you've made on your Rafale.

The Cheetah D conversion is made by a South African company called Spinners. The set is intended for the old Heller Mirage III C/B kit.
These are the resin parts, photo-etch and decals. The conversion is a very nice comprehensive set.


I've made a little progress of my own, made a limited start before I found this thread.






The photos aren't the greatest, I'm still getting to grips with the new camera.

Wow progress is moving along, some great aircraft being built. I need to start posting myself.

Jesper, your L-39 Albatros coming along well, great choice. It’s going to look great in those colors.

Jean-Luc, your French Rafale is awesome, 25 years since your last modern jet…your pulling our leg right So how does it feel getting back into the modern stuff. Keep us posted.

Hey Dave, that’s a great looking entry, I have to say I never seen this (Cheetah) airframe before. Looks impressive, love the long nose. Will you be painting it like the box art.

Great progress guys...thanks,
Joe

Here is my entry, AMT’s S-3A Viking. I have the fuselage and wings done, still need to do some filling. The decals are old so I’ll be using the Superscale one. It’s going to be painted light gull gray over white. More to follow.







Joe

Hi Joe
I've always liked the look of the Viking, nice choice.

With regards to my build, yes I'll be painting it the same as in the box art.
Hopefully it will look something like this one



Hopefully

Good to see building is moving along in this campaign.

@Jean-Luc and Joe: thanks for the comments. Appreciate it

@David: I have some colour profiles and pictures of the Cheetah. You probably have a lot yourself, but if you are interested I can send them to you. PM me if you are interested

I have now masked and painted the yellow areas on my L-39. Unfortunently Eduards masks are made so they mask the OUTSIDE of the yellow areas. Normally I would paint the yellow areas and then cover them with masking tape before painting the rest of the aircraft. This time I painted the aircraft and then masked more or less the whole aircraft except the yellow areas. The ball of masking tape in the pictures below actually contain an aircraft somewhere in the middle

The final picture is of the aircraft before painting the detail and correcting the camouflage scheme in a few places. The colors look a little off as this picture was taken after sunset with flash.

Hey Jesper, thanks for the offer, I will pm you.

You don't hang about, great progress with the Albatros

Hey everyone sorry ive been quiet its been school and other activities latley, but its school holidays for 2 wekks so im really going to get stuck into it. its good to see the people that have made progress so far so sucsesful. my construction has been a nightmare but everything will be okay. first coat of gray to cover up all the putty will be going on today. keep it up everyone.

Heres a picture of my progress.

and here is one of my cockpit. unlike my last kit there is a really nice cockpit to work with. i just dry brushed metallic silver everywhere to create wear. im happy with it for my first time.

No all i have to do before i start real painting is the canopy masking! really daunting i had to use white tack last time

Nice looking cockpit, James. It is definently well worn.

Looking forward to see more

I have now finished my Eduard 1/72 L-39 Albatros. It has been an okay build with few problems.

This morning I got ready for the decals. Phew, for an aircraft this small in 1/72 scale, it has a lot of decals. Some of them small enough to justify finding a microscope
It was not only the morning sun that brought out the the sweat this morning. I am used to small decalsheets for 1/35 tanks. One of them can be seen next to the decal sheet for the Albatros.

After 3 hours I had all the decals in place. It was really worth the effort and actually quite fun when I got started. The tiger decals came well onto the aircraft despite having to be wrapped around wing tip pods and tips of the tail stabilisers and tail top.

After this some final details were painted and the final semi gloss coat of varnish was applied. The Albatros is now finished and it is my first entry into this campaign. Overall I am pretty satisfied with it although there are a few mistakes here and there. In my world the mistakes are weighted up by the cool tiger stripes

It was a joy to participate! Thanks for running another good campaign, Jean-Luc.

WOW! well done Jesper im very happy to see such a good little model
Are you doing a second entry

Thanks, James. I am planning to do a Mirage 2000, but I am not sure. I know I have an unbuild Mirage model at my ex-girlfriends place. The question is if it is still there.... If it is, I will probably make that one for this campaign as a second entry. Otherwise I might still go out and buy something since the choices are almost endless.

Hi all!

James, your entry looks very promising, I can't wait to see more...

Jesper you are again the first one to finish. Maybe we should create a special award for you The Albatros looks cool with these markings but are you sure you want to ask your ex-girlfriend for the Mirage kit? Didn't she already threw it in the dustbin?

I made some progress on the Rafale...


The fit of the Hobby Boss kit is good but I had to use filler in some places nevertheless. For example the slats on the leading edges of the wings have sink marks which must be eliminated. These marks would probably be noticeable on the finished model if left like they are. The upper part insert of the fuselage also needed some adjustments (the Rafale kit was designed by Hobby Boss so to allow them to produce the two-seater version as well). Finally, The air intakes probably required the most work and the biggest amount of putty.


The only difficulty on the underside is that the forward landing gear bay insert is a bit undersized. Here also filler is needed. Be carefull not to glue the main landing gear legs to the wheel bay before gluing the fuselage halves together, because if you do it, you won't be able to position them afterwards! Getting them properly in place requires some care and patience...

So far so good, I encountered no real problems with my first jet since 25 years. I hope it will continue like that...

Jean-Luc

Thanks

He, he, he, maybe she already threw it out. She contacted me some months back to let me know she had it. However, since I am now living (most of the time) in Latvia. I did not really have time to pick it up. So if she has thrown it out now, it is actually fair, since I did not pick it up.

Just I case I never see my Mirage 2000 again How strict is the rule about the modern aircraft (still?) being in service with an air force? I feel tempted by some of the Tiger meet versions of various aircraft after the tiger stripes on the Albatros. Not all of the Tiger meet planes are still flying

Hi all,

I thought I'd join the campaign, if that is ok. I'm planning my return to the "BIG" scale, i.e. 1/72 and getting back to my favorite subject, i.e Swedish aircraft. What is a Viking to do, eh...



I understand that any "modern" subject is ok for this campaign, as long as you're having fun. I thought I'd build one of these Saab aircraft (both very modern in my view - one was ground-breaking in the early fifties and the other one is state of the art today). I haven't finally decided yet, but I'm leaning towards the "Barrel", since this is one of the coolest aircraft ever (besides, I started building one this weekend anyway ). Would the J 29 qualify as modern, or should I opt for the JAS 39 Gripen?



Cheers!

Polarbear

Jesper, the Albatros looks great. Well done!

Good work on the cockpit James.

Jean-Luc that Hobby Boss Rafale looks very nice, I might have to try out one of their Mirage kits.


As for me, I've almost finished work on the replacement leading edges. Needs a little more filler and sanding then on to the cockpit

Dave, nice process on the Cheetah. Glad you could use the profiles and pictures I send you

Bjoern, nice that you are moving "up scale" to 1/72. I am looking forward to see what you can accomplish in 1/72 since your smaller work in the Pacific war campaign is outstanding

What aircraft that would be allowed in the campaign is up to Jean-Luc, so there I do not know if the barrel would be allowed. I wonder where the inspiration to this aircraft came from - It has a reseemblence to the TA-183 does it not...?

JEAN LOOKING ABSOLUTLEY STUNNIG YOU PRO!
DAVID UR MIRAGE IS LOOKING LIKE A KILLER ALREADY!
Björn I would have no problem with you doing that little J 29 it looks very internesting, But it is up to the leader If you can do it or not, besides all that welcome to the campaign and good luck!

Hi Björn!

No problem with the J 29, you can enter it. As I said before, I won't nitpick for this Group Build and it has a "modern" look for me too. But don't come with a WW2 aircraft next time!

Jean-Luc

So would it be alright to enter with a F-105 Thunderchief then ?
Great looking builds so far guys.
Jesper, the Albatros looks great. I have one in my stash that I keep meaning to build, but the size of the decals keeps putting me off
Dave, I'm really looking forward to seeing the Cheetah finished. That and the Kfir are the best of the Mirage III/5 "variants" produced.
Jean-Luc, Watching your build with interest for when I finally tackle my Rafale B.
Andy

Tedmamere wrote:


Hi Jean-Luc!

Great news! I've always wanted to build a J 29 - one of the coolest aircraft ever - and I hope to put a lot of effort into this build! I might need to, since the kit is the Airfix 1/72 (which is a rebox of Hellers kit, which in turn dates back to when you and I were young...) Nothing modern about that!!



Anyhow, it has raised panellines, "inexistant" cock-pit etc, but it looks very much like the real thing. I've purchased the Pavla resin cockpit set and some aftermarket decals (I don't know yet which markings that I'll choose) and I've started rescribing the panels.

Here is what the ejection seat is supposed to look like;


...and this is my work so far (the seat has just recieved a wash - hence the wet look!)... A few touch -ups needed...



1/72 is small, but having been working in 1/144 for a while, this is HUGE!
The only sad thing about 1/72 is that hardly any of this effort is going to show once the model is finished!

Jesper - I believe that some of the technichians from Nazi Germany ended up in Linköping...

Cheers!

Ps: I just might build the JAS 39 Gripen as well...

Hi Andy!

I modified the rules "slightly"...

The goal of this special Campaign is to honor Joe Szczygielski's (mother) son-in-law Mark Sharpe by building a modern military aircraft, with focus on Helicopters and Jets.

I think it opens the spectrum of building possibilities and since everybody has a different definition of the word "modern" I think it is better that way. But everything prior to 1950 WON'T be accepted!

The Saab Tunnan is therefore the oldest aircraft I will accept for this Campaign (nice start by the way Björn )

Jean-Luc

Thanks Andy, appreciate it The decal sheet is quite extensive for such a small aircraft.

I have just received confirmation that my Mirage 2000 left at my ex-girlfriends apartment is okay, so this will be my second build for this campaign.