Wow, sorry to see that Magnus. Really difficult to work that precise in 1/72 scale. Hope you can see it and get a good result.

After the warning from Eetu, I could not wait to see if my JV 44 stripes would look white or pink on the underside of the aircraft, so I had to jump in a little early in the progress and add the decals.
They are perfectly white - phew! Not bad for a 4 Euro aircraft Although markings are missing for the tail section But I guess I can cut them from some spare fuselage bands on the decal sheet.

Pictures will follow shortly when more decals are added.

Wow, Magnus, that looks like something that I could have accomplished! It is human to err, but it is devine to show it off here at Aeroscale! I'm sure you'll work it out in the end!

Personally, I keep filing away on my Mirage IIICJ! Nothing seems to fit! The whole project is a highly educational excersice. I try to find places other that surfaces to sand down. I'm going for an NMF airframe, and I dont want to destroy all detail and panellines. Hopefully, I'll have some pics to post later this week.

Cheers! // PolarBear

So! Here I leave for two weeks in the army No big progress in the campaign (I think), so I'll be quite ahead when I can get started (I think) Now that I'm back, ready to start, you people have filled two complete pages with efforts, and my desk at work is full, so I can't get started until the weekend Is that fair? Huh?

Anyway, great work as usual, and since I'm a cockpit connoiseur - I really like Gary's Hurricane and Vance's Spit. I hope though, that my tan and blue 109 is easier to fight than Magnus' stripes and Björns metal Mirage. Good luck to you anyway.

Thanks for the encouragement, I need it!

Jesper: You're as fast as usual!

Björn: Sorry to hear about the fit issues with the AML Mirages, I've heard rumours but have never had any first hand experience with them.

Tony: There is no tropical filter in my Fine Molds boxing, apart from that I am perfectly ready to tackle a desert-109 as well!

Things have improved, or at least gotten a bit different:


more experiments with that tricky camo



Magnus

Hi all.
There are some fabulous builds in progress here and its shaping up to be a great campaign!
Keep at it Magnus, Im positive you'll end up with a stunner of a 109 when youve overcome this small obstacle
Nige

With my Twin Spinners build coming to a close its time to throw my hat into the ring with my entry for Aces.
Its going to be the Tamiya P47-M.
Yep,,a 1:48th build. I got used to having the Halesworth Razorback around and theres a big space now its in the museum that needs filling. ( My stash is slowly moving towards 1:48th nowdays! )
The build will be OOB apart from extra wiring and some of those excellent Eduard pre painted seatbelts.
I'll be using a combination of the kit decals and Miracle Masks to depict Cpt George Bostwicks UN-Z. One of the more colourfull P47 schemes!


Hands up who thought Id be doing the Gabreski T'bolt

I'll hopefully be making a start on this tomorrow.
Nige

Ha! this is pretty much the same one I would have done. Well, I might have gone for the same scheme but different aircraft letter (though I guess that isn't a 5+ kill bird)

Anyway, I am done with Bader's Spitfire Mk II and will hopefully be delivering it as a belated birthday present this evening.

I took photos, but as I had to rush to finish a couple things before heading to work this morning and actually take the photos, I didn't get a chance to upload them yet - maybe tonight or tomorrow (if I don't get carried away with working on my "between the wars" build, which I need to catch up on).

-v-

After a slight delay caused by the domestic engineer I started the Nieuport, then read the campaign rules a bit more closely, do you know how difficult it is to get a picture of a particular WW1 aces aircraft. I now have two kits and decals for 8 aircraft, 3 of them aces, one a Nieuport 16 (Lenoir) one a N11 (Thieffry) and one a Bristol F2B (Staton) but photos of NONE of them. In the meantime I built the engine and if I find a picture of Thieffry's machine I will have to convert it back to a 9c

Here is the promised picture of the Zvezda decals on the undersides of the FW 190D. Quite satisfied with the result so far, but I still have to come up with extra stripes for the tail.

More to follow

I took a peek in my 109-stash, and I have two 109 K's (Hase and Fujimi) in 1:48 that has tropical intakes on combo-sprues for F/G/K kits. Give me a hint if you want them in the mail. "It's never too late to give up!"

Saturday is cockpit day!

Well done Vance.
When youve posted the required photos you'll be the campaigns second Ace
Looking good Jesper, adding a few stripes shouldnt cause you any problems
Good luck with finding a photo Andrew, and welcome to the campaign.
Tony,,people have been progressing very quickly on their entries, and its shaping up to me a great campaign.
Ive made a start on my entry, and when theres anything worth posting pictures of I'll post them. Probably wont start a build blog, or should I ?
Its certainly a striking colour scheme on the Bostwick P-47M. 3 different blues, red and black cowling, nmf undersides, and white squadron codes.



Vance. Each aircrafts paint job was unique, so check your references if you decide to do a 63FS "M". Alternatively,, you could use the SIG

Nige

Aren't Fine Molds' Bf-109s all 1:72? At least I'm not aware of them doing 1:48 Bf-109s (yet).
anyway, if you're in need of a tropical filter in 1:72, I got one left over from an Academy 109 G.

Ok, I here are the finished pics as promised (plus orginal photo of Douglas Bader's Mk. II, summer 1941):









The light gray codes I used are a bit too small, but close enough for me (it was either that, too large, or paint them myself, and I didn't have time for the latter). The serial numbers are cludged together from several a/c and touched up a bit by brush to give them the same style as in the orginal photo.

Haven't managed to catch up with my friend to make it a birthday gift yet....

I don't need to explain to a UK based campaign leader about Douglas Bader's flying career and how he certainly had ace status before switching from hurricanes to spitfires, do I?

I didn't think so!



I'm done!

I may get a wild hair and do another though if I have free time before the campaign ends (uh..., wishful thinking?)

-v-

Very nice build, Vance. Very nice subtle weathering and chipped along the "walkway" to the cockpit. I am sure your friend will be impressed and very thankful.

Thanks for sharing

Thats a real beauty Vance!
10/10
Im sure your friend will be delighted to recieve it as a present. Will it be a surprise for him?
I see youve posted the required pics in the gallery.



Who is this Bader bloke anyway ??

Congratulations Vance, you are the campaigns second official " Ace"
Nige

Thanks for the props guys!

I think this is a new start to finish modeling record for me as well (at least as an adult).

The gift is definitely a surprise - one of my best friends, Tracey, is his girlfriend, and she financed the project. Hopefully we can give it to him together during brunch this coming saturday morning (only ten days late!).

When I first met him when they started dating back whenever that was, he saw my model of the prototype spitfire and a spitfire print that is signed by 20 or so battle of britain veterans hanging on my office wall, and he was very interested. I remember he started telling Tracey about the exploits of Douglas Bader that night. It is quite fun listening to a limey go on like that! Every time he comes over, he is sure to peek into my office to look for any new additions to my display case as well. So when his birthday came rolling around ths year, it just made sense to do a build of Douglas Bader's spitfire for him. I think he is going to be well chuffed.

A limey in Texas!
Good to see there are still some out there. My father was based at #1 BFTS at Terrell.
Your friend is going to LOVE this Spit. Its enough to bring a tear to an ex-pats eye.
The sad thing is, if you were to ask people under 35 in the UK who Douglas Bader was and what was the Battle Of Britain the percentage of people who would know either answer is very low.
We WILL Remember Them!
Nige

Good point about the younger generation Nigel some do actually read history but too few, I asked my 20 year old about what event happened on 4/21 about 90 years ago and he nailed it, it helped that my hobby room is half bright red and that I have pictures and planes of MvR on 2 of the 4 walls but he was brought up around history.

4/21,or April 21st in real money
My sons birthday,,not 90 years ago,,LOL,but 1990.
but trivia broadens the mind.
I didnt have any strange urge to name him Manfred though
Nige

hi all! heres my entry, an airfix aircraft of the aces tempest V (which turns out to be a heller kit in an airfix box!) its a kit that shows its age a little with raised panel lines but has a fair amount of cockpit detail. it was flown by wing commander evan dall mackie, and on the tempest website there is this bio of him-
"Evan Mackie
Evan Mackie was born on October 31 1917 at Waihi, New Zealand. Before joining RNZAF in January 1941 he worked as an electrician.
Career Details
He joined 485 Squadron (flying Spitfires) in early 1942 after completing his training. In January 1943 he was posted to the Middle East and joined 243 Squadron in Algeria, becoming a flight commander shortly afterwards. On 7 April claimed two Ju 87 "Stukas" and three days later a Bf 109. In the next four weeks he destroyed another two and shared a third. He was subsequently awarded the DFC."


i simply added a harness made from foil and added a clear gunsight glass on top of the gunsight "box"

as another little tweak i put a piece of fine mesh over the radiator to better catch the look of the louvres

and this is where i'm up to at the minute i.e. the prime, fill, sand,prime fill sand.........part!

Vance,
your spit is a beaut.
Kudos.

Jean

Hi guys,

here's some pics of my slowwwwly started La-5fn

I added some details to the kit.
Interior is painted with White Ensign Wood Use Primer since the interiors are made mainly of wood.
Of course there's no weathering nor any detailing done.
I won't use the engine since I don't like open engine bay.

The seat and belts are resin made. Unfortunately I can't remember what make :-(











More to come in the next few days.

BTW I modified the Campaign banner and put some Hero of the Soviet Union on it.
Popkov's La-5fn and Baranov with is Yak-1

All the best.

Jean

So, finally on the move. I got myself an afternoon of lousy wheather here in Sweden, pinned in between sunny days so I got started with Marseilles 109 F.


Unfortunately I'm between apartments since half a year (live in 3:rd hand at the moment) so my workbench is slightly crammed, but on the other hand it's very mobile.


And as a bonus I have to use the compressor at work. There's a serious need for extra water and oil filters, but I'm never out of air.


Anyway, this is the first time I decided to get the airbrush out from the beginning, because normally the god of laziness decides for me, and I brushpaint the interior. This felt a lot better.


It feels like airbrushing gave a better base for drybrushing too. I'm more happy with the panel than acceptable in Sweden. (Don't think you're something special, is kind of a rule here)




So now it's time for dryfitting, assembling and priming, and hopefully I can decide in which order to paint. White nose and waistband, red rudder, yellow oil cooler, tan top and blue belly. But which comes first? I guess this calls for thinking

Since all the special parts light colored, I would paint them first (following the usual rule of thumb, working from light to dark). Paint all those areas with white, so you get the nose and waistband to the right color and a good base for the yellow and red parts as well. Then paint the red and yellow, mask up, and finally spray the tan and blue camo.

Eetu: Thanks for the tips. Going from light to dark is the obvios choice, and I guess that I can do the red rudder and yellow cover even before fixing the wings and stabilizer. Should be easier to mask that way.

Vance: Love your Spit. I also got a stupid idea. Take a Imperial TIE-fighter (star wars, that is), paint it like a Spit Mk 1 and Voila -we've got Darth Bader roaming the space

Jean: Post a lot of pics of that LA-5. I want to take the step of scratch detailing soon, so I'm happy for all tips. Your interior looks like it's going to get too nice to close up.