The Bristol progresses. The decals are on and the bottom wing is on- Eduard have done this aspect of the kit very well, it's looks far easier than the Roden Bristol (i have the Sunbeam Arab powered Roden kit as well). The white areas of the markings were overpainted in PC10 to lessen visability at night.

I keep knocking off the control surfaces on this one, especially the elevators.. They are very delicately attached and next time i will just leave them off until final asembly.

The scary part now: puttin on the top wing.



Andrew

Andrew:
The Bristol looks great. That has got to be one of my favorite bi-planes and you are really doing it justice

Taylor

My entry for this campaign is finished. It ended up being a test of patience for me in the end, see the separate thread for this in the early aviation section for the reasons why!

This is aircraft Bristol Fighter C-4636 which was nicknamed "Devil of the Dusk" by it's usual crew of Lt. AJ Arkell and First Air Mechanic ATC Stagg. On the night of May20 they flew this aircraft to shoot down a Gotha after a lengthy fight. The Bristol itself was also riddled with bullet holes from the Gothas gunner. So the fight was not one sided and could very easily have gone the other way.

Successful night interceptions were actually quite rare against the Gothas and Giants. Remembering that they had no radar early warning like in WW2, by the time the heavy bombers were located they were on their way home. And even a fast aircraft like a Bristol could not catch up and climb to 10 000 feet where the bombers were. In reality interceptions were pure luck...a patrolling aircraft just happening to be in the right place at the right time.

I'll put pics in the Campaign folder as well of course. But it seems to be down at the moment.






Andrew

Andrew: Really impressive build, and fast also. The canvas looks good with the weathering and the rigging adds so much.



Robert

test of patience or no, your build turned out to be extremely nice andrew!

Some great build happening out there, Andrew, Like the Biff, shows my efforts up. 1 1/2 Strutter started Have taken a couple of photos but don't have them here (in another hotel room).
Basic structure is together with the identical problem to Andrew's Biff, lower Fus joint doesn't fit. Solved it the same way. Cowling and sheeting behind in painted in Alclad Dural undersides painted in Tamiya Deck Tan and White mix top surfaces in PC10, except I thought Tamiya Olive Green looked fine. PC10 was a moveable feast anyway as the colour changed over the life of the aircraft and according to who did the original mix. Pics to follow at the weekend

I agree with you Andrew about PC10. From what i read in various Data Files, there were at least 2 distinct colours anyway, then variations from manufacturers and it didn't stand the test of abuse from the elements very well either.

That is why i plan to use a different colour for PC10 for each RFC/RAF subject that i do, otherwise you would end up with a line of same looking aircraft.
That is the main reason German subjects are far more popular in my opinion, we're modellers and are naturally attracted to more eye catching schemes. The powers that be in the RFC were not thinking of us modellers some 90 years later...some people just don't think about anyone but themselves!

Andrew

Just to show that I have done something so far, Strutter pics






Upper wing next, build is oob Roden 1/48

Andrew: Your strutter is looking good, can't wait to see the finished product. I like the wood sim. on the struts.


Robert

That marking option is actually the second one in the Hasegawa set. If you like it I can send it to you for use on your Bf 109 - if you have not applied the full paint job yet?
Great job on the peilG. It looks better than my blob of plastic.

Andrew, great job on your Bristol entry! Nice to have one of the very early night stalkers in the campaign

Love the strutter, it is just a beautiful simple a/c.
I think those cabane strut where metal though.
See this excellent photo of the french memorial flight one.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17350451@N08/3064668965/





Thanks jesper,

It was dead easy to make the casing it was my first go at smash
moulding I'm going to try and do canopies this way now.

If I was to make the aerial again I'd use some leftover PE fret.
In fact I just threw some out last night, damn!

If you don't like the frosty thing do like Steffen says and over-paint it black.

I'll be all black for this campaign, thanks for the offer though.
I'm 1/72 anyways.

Fingers crossed I'll get some black sprayed on tonight.

JP

Curse you JP for being right, I dug out a couple of other Strutter oics and the cabane struts are probably too small to be wood streamlined. However, just to bung a spanner right in the works I have two more pics of Camel 2F1s, one with wood streamlining on the cabane struts and one without. Bless you as well for telling me now and not when it would be REALLY difficult to change. Mind, I'm not showing the undercarriage wrapped in bubble wrap , but it will be shown as metal with a wood streamlined axle.


Andrew, while looking for strutter photos came across a pic of a number of Camels on HMS Courageous in 1918 with the roundels blanked like yours. I had never seen it before, and certainly wouldn't have thought of modelling it. I have the Eduard Biff and am now looking forward to building it after seeing yours

Thats is true. You are on one of the small 109s. Anyway, I also prefer the all black myself. It has a very sinister, but cool look to it.

I will check out how the frosted blob looks before deciding if I should paint it over.

The Strutter is looking very good Andrew. Especially the metal cowling and propeller. I think the PC10 shade looks good too, probably more accurate than the Pollyscale one that i used.

The Camels you mention were probably ex Home Defence aircraft as well then. Another option for the Bristol Fighter now is the Wingnuts Wings kit...it even comes with markings option for a HD aircraft that was used for night interceptions!

Andrew

I'm in with a Pe-3 from Grand. Lots of clean up to do but looks like a quite good kit.

Nice pick John, what were the color shcemes that were used?


Robert

I've just started an AMT F7F-3N Tigercat for this campaign. I'm still waiting for some decals and props I've ordered for it to show up. Looks like a decent kit apart from the messed up props (replacements are on the way from Ultracast) and the wheels (True Details already on hand). The canopy was in a bag with the vinyl tires and as a result the rear portion has been melted from contact! A Squadron replacement will be used.
Hopefully I can get it done for the deadline. I'm usually not very prolific with my building but thanks to these campaigns, I've finished 4 or 5 kits in the last year! Unfortunately only a couple were done in time to get a ribbon, but at least I'm finishing stuff!!!

Ryan welcome to the thread and your list of after market items will make the F-7N look really nice. Ultracast is more than good in my books, cannot wait to see your finished a/c.



Robert

Well Robert, the kit has 2 markings, both written in russian.. not much help, one from 1942 the other 1944, that's all I can manage..

One of several approaches to the red, outlined with white a/c letter is painting the existing decals.
Other things I'll try also try are to
1. mask and spray it onto plastic. White followed by red
2. cut a white decal sheel and use a red transfer cut just smaller
3. Mask and spray a white decal sheet.

Also I've sprayed a coat of black/buff mix. I preshaded certain panels white and that has sort of worked
A coat of future is also on. A little touch up needed where the future pooled. I'll try spraying it from now on.

You are right about the sinister look of a black 109. I've been reading Gunning for Enemy. Wallace McIntosh
biography. A tail/mid upper gunner with 8 kills, which is an incredible achievement. Really good read, his
humour is great and pulls no punches.

Some pics for you, clickable for larger images.

JP: your 109 is looking good, and yes a black one is sinister.






Robert

Looks good, JP. Looking forward to see it finished.

Meanwhile the bigger 1/48 brother is finished. Looking at the pictures just now I realise I have forgot to mount the PeilG blob. That will be done.
It was a very injoyable build. It fitted together well and the colour scheme is very striking in my Bf 109 E collection.
It was a joy to participate and I look forward to follow all the other builds.

Comments welcome

Very Cool, Jesper!

a bit too black for my taste, but extremely well done!!!!

cheers

Steffen

Nice job Jesper, I love black planes. You and JP have a squadron comming together, I will have to get to work on my Spit. now.


Robert

Nice 109 Jesper. Still my all time favourite A/C...i ahven't made one yet this year, i think i may have toi do that Eduard 1/32 one soon.

I also notices that you are in almost every Armorama campaign as well...you're just a model making MACHINE!!

Andrew