Its a 109 fest!
Another fabulous looking model on its way Eetu
( I was in Finland a couple of weeks ago and it was warmer than the UK ,LOL )
Great job Steve!
The handpainted noseart looks very good. The actual noseart on aircaft wasnt always as precise as the decal manufacturers make it seem, and yours works very well.
Dont forget to upload your minimum of 2 pictures to the gallery to qualify for the ribbon. One of the model and one of the actual plane.
Same goes for you Phil

So here we are with just over 3 weeks to go in Aces High.
Time to start thinking about finishing those entries everyone.
Dont forget, to qualify for your ribbon you must upload a photo of the finished model and a photo of the actual aircraft into the ACES HIGH GALLERY
I will be using the photos in the gallery to reference who recieves a ribbon.

So far we have 18 confirmed Aces. 20 when Phil and Steve have uploaded gallery photos.
56 prospective Aces have signed up to the Campaign, and while I dont expect every entrant to complete, that still leaves another possible 36 Aces scrambling for space at the Officers Club Bar.
Some of us have been here for quite a while now and our livers are feeling the strain

Nige

Thanks Nige, really appreciate the comments. I will put some more photos up as soon as we get some better photographic conditons.

Steve

Hi,

@Steve: Really nice brush work with the nose art and speckled camo scheme.
@Nige: I appear to have hit a slight snag. I can't find a photo of the actual plane "White 50". I've done some serious googling and looking in "Wildcat Aces of WW2", no joy. It seems the pilots of Cactus Air Force in Guadalcanal would fly a number of different aircraft. I do have solid documentary evidence that Foss flew White 50 for a number of his victories, but no photo of the plane itself (If anyone has a photo I'd really appreciate if you could post it here for me). I have a photo of Foss with a Wildcat, would this do? If not, no worries, as I've said joining this campaign occured as an afterthought so it's no biggie if there's a problem with the lack of a photo. Just wanted to know what you and the other campaign participants think.

Cheers,

Mike.

Hi Mike.
As you state,the pilots would fly a number of different aircraft, and you have evidence that Joe Foss flew White 50. Plus you have a photo of Foss with a Wildcat.
I have no objection, glad to have your entry
The idea behind the photo rule of the campaign was to encourage entrants to carry out some research and to learn something new that they may not have learnt if they had just grabbed a kit and built it.
Youve certainly been doing the research
Nige

Nige,

You're a gentleman and a scholar (as we would say in my neck of the woods)

Thanks for your quick answer, enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Mike.

Mike.
" A gentleman and a scholar"?,, I must have been getting it wrong all these years.
Whenever I've been in Cork, (either Live At the Marquee or the Mill Street venue), I've been saying " Sláinte!"
Ah,,happy memories of that little hotel bar in Macroom
Where were we,,oh yes,,,modelling, I remember
Nige

Much obliged.

Today I got the RLM74 sprayed on the wings and stabilators following a late-night masking operation I conducted yesterday (although I think I did most of it after midnight, but I'll say yesterday anyway! )
Coming along pretty nicely, I think.

Speaking of weathe, it indeed is much more of a continental type up here. Although November is perhaps the worst of the whole dozen - Trees are tend to be leafless, it's dark with no snow around yet, temperatures tend to be well below 10 degrees celcius. And add to that freezing cold rain, fun times.

Eetu.
When I did the Stockholm -Helsinki boat it was 10 degrees and all the trees on the islands were showing fabulous colours.
Im going to be back there in a few weeks (Cable Factory, Helsinki), bet its going to be colder then
Nige

Door bangs against its hinges, the stink of cordite and engine oil fills the room. The figure of Molders silhouetted in the doorway. "Sorry I'm late chaps had an appointment with a few Rata's I just had to keep, pour me a drop of schnapps, if you'd be so kind"

Nice one JP!
Ive just got to get another bottle of Schnapps from the cellar.
While your waiting would you be so kind as to load a photo of your model and one of the real aircraft in the gallery?
I can then pour your schnapps and allocate you a ribbon.
Nige

Posted to the gallery.

Cheers JP!
Would you like ice with the schnapps?
Nige

Not a chance it is freezing at 5.000m. chink!
Thanks for a great campaign Nige and really interesting builds everyone.

Basic camo painted:


Before spraying on the gloss coat for the decals (and removing the masking tape from the yellow areas, of course), I think I'll try my hand at replicating the overpainted original German crosses. For that, I'd appreciate any tips you might have. I presume a paper mask, held above the surface of the model would work best? Should I just mimick the overpainting by airbrushing, or would it be best to actually apply the markings (or paint them on using masks), then go over them?

Also, what do you think, should I apply some more mottles of RLM74? I.e., is it just me, or did I apply a bit too many RLM75 mottles?

WIP photos of my Focke wulf fw 190A-8/R-2 Sturmbocke flown by Unteroffizier Willi Maximovitz



I painted the plane in RLm 74/75/76 scheme, but you have to understand that I am painting only with brush, so it was almost impossible to paint it like it really was. I have now placed all major decals and all the smaller ones on left hand side. I still have to add landing gear, racks etc. to bottom of the plane.

Well, it's back in the saddle time for me!

This must have been my most difficult build to date, but since this is the most successful campaign and since I really want a shiny Mirage IIICJ in my collection, I am going to finish it! Somehow, I've lost the Martin Baker seat that I spent so much time and effort on! Good thing that I have one more AML Mirage III (the reccon version) that I can plunder for spare parts! I'm also going to borrow a couple of decals from the other kit, since the AML did not provide enough stencilling to cover both sides of one aircraft!



This is where I'm at! There should be no difficulty to finish this kit in time (but then again - with this kit, I'm not going to swear by it!).

Cheers! // PolarBear!

Great work guys!
Keep going, theres only two more weeks to go
Dont forget to post those photos in the gallery when your finished in order to qualify for the ribbon.
Nige

Nigel wrote:


I'm hard at work, and I hope that I'll be able to make the deadline! I decided to keep the cockpit closed (the beautiful streamline of the Mirage deserves it), but I still put in some work on the new seat.


Now, this kit keeps making life difficult for me! Two minutes after taking this picture, I accidentaly broke of the pitot tube (for the umpht time)!


No time to waste! There are details to paint, decals to add, Shahak 2 missiles to mount, and finishing coats to apply!

Cheers!! // PolarBear

Wow, lots builds have finished since I was here last. Great builds everybody. This is going to be a stunning campaign gallery!

Bjoern, nice to see you are back in business with the Mirage. Nothing gets the motivation back as scribing plastic blobs of Spitfire wings

Jesper: If nothing else, it makes me realise that the AML Mirage III is not the worst kit in the world!
Someday, I'm going to build a good kit from Tamiya or Hasegawa... I believe that is going to be my New Year's resolution this year!

Cheers! // PolarBear

Go go go Björn! You will beat it, and then you can take a picture of your own camera, reflected in the wing, just to show the Mirage who's the man!

Looking good.

Want to learn a fool-proof way to success with Academy decals? Then read on!

Painting done:


I decided to go for the overpainted German markings then. Fearing I would make a mess trying to airbrush them freehand, opted for masks.
Yes, you probably guessed it already, I used the decal sheet for cutting up masks. And it worked well. Just cut along the lines, attach to the model and spray.
I used sticky-tac rolled into thin sausages for keeping the masks a short distance away from the surface of the model, then sprayed a mixture of RLM74 and 66.
Eyeballing the masks in place seemed a bit daunting, but I think I got them pretty well positioned. Drawing lines to the masks helped aligning them with the wing panel lines.

The lower portion of the right side cross looks a bit wide in the photo but that was probably because of lighting and due to the paint still being fresh. (the picture was taken just minutes after painting and removing masks) They're nice and tidy now.

Next it's time for a gloss coat and decals.

what's wrong with academy decals? I've an academy p39 on the go and you've given me the fear care to give me a heads up? Thanks Jaypee

Some people seem to have little or no problems with them, but I've had nothing but trouble with them. They're stiff, resistant to decal setting solutions and are quite finicky regarding the surface they're applied to (a high gloss required to avoid silvering).

I bet Academy got some customer feedback about them, as they nowadays have their decals printed by Cartograph.

Before rushing to buy aftermarket decals, see how the kit-decals work for you. If they don't, they should come off like decals usually, with tape.