I found this site and thought it would be relevant/interesting for this campaign:

http://users.telenet.be/kurt.weygantt/worldwariiaces.index.html.htm

It contains biographies and pictures of select aces from WWII.

-v-

Great link thanks Vance. Lots of reference opportunities there.
Some fabulous looking work already everyone.
Its really good to see builds coming together in a proper campaign that started as an idea while surfing the site one evening.
The engraved detail on the Eduard Hellcat looks stunning, I might have to get one of those for myself,and your Spit is looking sharp Vance.
I hope you make your deadline
Nige

Thanks for the link Vance. I'm liking that whole section about the Corsair... greatest fighter/bomber of the war? yeah, I think so!!! But that's my biased opinion!

I have been quiet for a while. But in all the quietness, I have managed to do one build, and complete a stalled build. So here we go.

I decided to build Trumpeters P-51 B. It is a good kit-but not a great one. I certainly dont think it is worth the premium price it is currently selling for. But if you can find it on sale, it is a fun build. The main problems I experienced were the fit of the engine into the fuselage. I had to pull the engine, do some creative sanding, and remove a few of the pieces that wont show. Then itwent together fine. The decals were pretty good. But some of the stencile were missing. Where stencils were required for both sides, some were only given for one side. On the wing "Do Not Walk" stencil, you get one for each side, but the writing on one side is backwards. In my opinion, this kit was released before it was ready.

We are supposed to provide a picture of the aircraft we are building. Decals are provided for two aircraft, But I couldnt resist doing the mount of a MOH Recipient. So here is Brigadier General (Retired) James Howards Ding Hao!

wow that is a quick build!

I'm not even finished with a 1/48 spitfire and i've been spending most of my (admittedly limited) spare time on, and here you go finishing off a larger P-51!

{hangs head in shame}

Wow, Carl!

That is one nice bird. I love the heavy, but not overdone weathering. Also very cool the make an aircraft with both German and Japanese kill markings.

Excellent entry!

I'm rolling for take-off now!



Build blog here



Magnus

Thanks fellow modelers. I do think I overdid the paint chipping a bit. But the dirty affect came out to my liking.

The kit had plenty of parts, but went together very very fast. I love this scale. I have 17 more 1/32s in my stash. Two of them are Mustangs from different manufacturers, and another Trumpeter P-51B. I am hoping to do one of them for the "When I Flew With" Campaign. Naturally, I am going to put my wife's name on it. She is my greatest supporter. She actually suggests that I should go and visit my LHS from time to time.

Good grief,,,,the campaigns first Ace so soon!
Thats almost a Betheyn speed build!
Lovely looking Mustang Carl.
CRS has created an album for the finished entries and heres a link on here so everyone can put their pictures in it when they are finished.
Good start Magnus ,,,we need a match for the P51 waiting in the sun!
Nige

Link to the Aces High Campaign Gallery
Aces High
Please post your finished entries in the gallery, and dont forget to include a photo of the real aircraft to qualify for your campaign ribbon.
Carl,Ive added your photos to start the gallery off so people know whats needed.
( No idea where that FW190 diagram appeared from though,,LOL )
Nige

Thanks Nigel. Time to break out the bourbon.

Ok time to start my particular ball rolling.

I'm doing the Hasegawa 1/48 Mk1 Hurricane as depicted below



but I'll be doing the Aircraft of Canadian ace Willie Mcknight so i'll be using these Aeromaster decals



and I have some Eduard Colour seatbelts and some Quickboost exhausts to add to the party.

.

A couple of quick questions. I'm planing on using what I think is the std Sutton Harness. I this first correct and secondly does anyone have any good reference piccies of the harness as i've seen several interpretations as to its layout.

Secondly the decals call for a sky blue Spinner and tail band. I have the Tamiya Sky Blue but it doesn't look right compared to the decal sheet. Can anyone confirm this.

oh there might as well be a third. The underside is the black / Sky combo. I plan on using XF-21 for the sky. Does this need lightening at all as i've seen some quite pale undsersides before.

Thanks

Making progress on the Fokker pair. All the inside stuff is in and the fuselage halfs just taped up and put aside to set. One fuselage is an early Fokker built example (to be the Loerzer aircraft) and the other a late DVIIF (the Bolle aircraft). One thing i almost did was to replace the Eduard engine for the DVIIF with a Roden BMW engine, as the Eduard version of the BMW simply substitutes a different inlet manifold. But the BMW was slightly taller.

However, as is often the case with me, laziness set in and i decided that not many people would notice the height difference anyway. But the Roden engines do seem to fit into the Eduard fuselage quite nicely- just a little bit of rework would be needed to the mounts to help it sit right.

Anyway, the rest of the airframe is all together and primed. Next step is the lozenge then all that masking for the stripes.

I have to say that whilst i really like these Eduard Fokkers for the complete package they give you, not to mention the ease of assembly....i still have a slight preference for the Roden Fokkers.



Andrew

The Sky you should be using is the so called "duck egg green", both for the bands/spinner and underside. I don't know if Tamiya XF-21 is greenish or not, but if it is blueish, use something else (Gunze Sangyo make a very good version of this color).

As far as the two tone underside, that went through several variations from the late thirties to early 40s. early on it was one black wing and one white wing, with the underside of the fuselage either silver or sky. Then they went to all sky undersides. After that, some aircraft got one black wing with the remainder in sky (which, again, is the do called "duck egg green"). This later black port wing was done in washable paint for easy removal, so probably would show a bit of wear since washable paint is not terribly durable.

The hurricane with the pointy spinner is likely to have the black and white combo, but it almost certainly also has the early two blade prop and fabric wings, so your kit can't build it accurately without a conversion set. The other hurricane with the black wing should have sky undersides with one black wing in the washable paint. Also, the color of the spinner and tail band should definitely be sky (duck egg green) as well (not as depicted on your decal sheet guide!)

I can't say why a greenish color is called "sky" - the only time I have seen the sky that color was just before a tornado or severe thunderstorm! They don't get many of those in England. {shrug}

Hello Vance

Thanks for taking the time with that reply.

I've done some further googling and managed to find a bit in the Osprey Hurricane aces book on this particular A/c where it confirms your comments that the band and spinner would not be sky blue. Where Aeromaster got that from I don't know

Update on my progress.

I have a little breathing room now, as my friend's birthday was last night, but due to a hectic work schedule, he is unavailable till next week. {phew!}

here is a picture update of my progress:



A few things left to do - a little more weathering (not much), exhaust stacks, radio wire, reomve canopy masking and clean those edges up, paint the guns, attach the cockpit door, etc...

Looks great, Vance. Good that your friend is busy - it would be tooo bad to work that hard and miss the date. It is definitely a build worthy as a birthday present.

Looking forward to see the finished Spit.

..super build Carl.....got me thinking that we couldn't have an Aces campaign without the machine of the leading P-51 ace ....by happy coincidence I have this on order from EagleCals ..



..I'm also tempted by another 352nd FG machine... 'Bill' Whisner's P-51D "Moonbeam McSwine" code HO-W, serial number 44-14237. Whisner flew this a/c on Nov. 21, 1944 when he scored 5 confirmed and 2 probable aerial victories. Decals are on an Eaglestrike sheet...




..another possible choice is Wolgang Falck's Bf 110 E - the Kommodore NJG 1 flew one of the first overall-black 110s & G9+GA has eight rudder kill markings...

ok more progress

Cockpit done



Base colour of Xtracrylix interior Green drybrushed with silver and Tamiya Yellow Green. IP primed with Halfords white then Vallejo Model colour black slapped on, wait to dry and scrape off the black with the back of a craft knife to reveal the details.

more cockpit







test fitting reveals what I know will be, for me, a real PITA



The join on the ribbed bit with a nice gap and the raised parts not lining up. What [censored] in Engineering at Hasegawa decided to put a join here



as you can see it lines up ok on top

If the Author of reading the seams is watching !!!

I am making progress on my little 1/72 FW 190 D. I have decided to go for Wubke's Dora of JV44. Wubke had 13 victories - the last ones made with this aircraft.
I could not resist the unique camouflage of JV44. I mean how often do you get the chance to paint the undersides of your planes like candy

Excellent progress everyone.
I know of a couple of people who have started on their builds for this but not posted anything yet, so there are plenty of builds on the way. I should have my Twin Spinners entry done very soon, and Im straight onto this
Jepser, are you hand painting the white stripes? I built the Academy JG44 Dora a couple of years ago
Nige

No, I plan on using decals. I have used Zvezda decals before and they are of good quality. I hope the same will be the case for the set I am using for this one. Otherwise I have a Kagero set as backup.

Just finished the camouflage painting so there will probably be another update later today.

Good luck with them, as white decals, depending on the manufacturer, may not always be opaque enough, resulting in pink stripes instead.

Thanks for the heads up, Eetu. I had not thought about that. The basic camouflage job is done now. I am pretty satisfied with the result so far, but that can quickly change if the stripes turn out as pink

I have used Eagle airbrush colours RLM 81 and RLM 83 for the camouflage. These two colours turn out very closely matched on the aircraft. Even to the point making the camouflage "blurry" from a short distance. I doubt the difference should be that small - at least looking at colour plates. But then again colour plates are also somebody impression of colours. Anyway, I will leave it as it is.

In general I think 1/48 is more my scale though - many things become a little fiddely in this scale....

There's something interesting to check out in my disaster area



I don't mind you laughing as long as you do it quietly behind my back...



Magnus