I normally focus on armor, but my boy has been asking me to make him a pair of models to suspend from his ceiling that shows on pursuing the other. I'm game, but unfortunately I don't have a clue about aircraft kits. Can someone help me out with a couple questions:

1) What is the "standard" scale for aircraft - 1/32 or 1/48? Which would you recommend for this sort of thing?

2) I was thinking about the following pairs of aircraft: Zero and Corsair or ME-109 / FW-190 and Mustang. There are too many kits on the market for me to evaluate easily. Are there especially good kits you would recommend?

Thanks in advance for any help.

for a first bash at aircraft i would suggest either the tamiya Beaufighter or Mosquito, in 1/48 scale, both of these are really nice kits, and just fall together. As for a suitable target for them? i'm not into axis aircraft that much, but the eduard FW190 is a superb kit, more intricate, but a nice kit.

You could also give the Tamiya P47 a go, any of them are good, possibly the best kit cockpit ever. this would be good with a FW 190. i can't comment on the tamiya FW 190, but i expect it is good.

HTH

Andy

Hi there Bill. You could also build 1/48 or 1/72 scale. The 72 scale is the smallest but you could build them quite quickly, the only problem is they are small.

Any of the Hasegawa or Tamiya kits are great choices. Just take a look at what is offered. Russell

Hi.

I made a somewhat similar thread just last week. Some good information in there. good luck.



http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/forums/159994&page=1

Thanks for the tip, Jesse. I don't spend much time over here, so I missed your thread.

I reckon that the Tamiya 1:48 P-51 Mustangs and the P-47 Thunderbolts would be good choices for the allied planes. They's both pretty much the best kits out there for their respective aircraft, and they have a sort of gutter just inside the edges of the gear bay openings that should make attaching the landing gear doors in the closed position really easy. I think the Tamiya 1:48 BF 109's have this too. I built a Tamiya FW 190d-9 with the landing gear up and I remember the fit being quite shoddy for the landing gear doors and there was no "gutter" like on the P-47 and P-51, but I had no problems at all with the rest of the kit.

I hope this helps mate

Dean - Thank you for the suggestions. Any particular P-51 / P-47 models stick out or are they all pretty good? What about victims? If aircraft modelling is anything like armor modelling, there MUST be a ton of good German subjects. Maybe a tasty Me 109?

Pretty much any Tamiya P-51, P-47, Me 109 or FW 190 should be good for your purposes.

As a tank guy I think you should start with the flying tank. AccMins Il-2 Sturmovik in 1/48.

It is re-boxed as Eduard and Italeri. Cheap too.

http://www.hyperscale.com/2007/reviews/kits/italeri2657reviewbg_1.htm

Welcome to life above the mud.