Hi everyone!
I decided to open a new thread here to show you my latest finished models. I will continue here every now and then, so I don't have to open an new topic each time something comes off .... errr .... leaves my workbench

After I finished my two little Italians https://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/forums/180385&page=1#1514563 just before my holidays in Sweden, I thought it would be time again for some sons of the Rising Sun, as I havn't build any Japanese this year yet. As usual, I prefer to build "Dual Combos", so here we go.
First I have here the Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden ("Jack") from Hasegawa in 1/48, my standard scale.


It came out in 2009 as a limited edition and is finished as an aircraft of the "Genzan Kokutai". This Air Group was established in November 1940 in Korea and renamend as 252. Kokutai in September 1942. The unit fought right to the end of the war. About 500 Raidens (japanese for "Thunderbolt") of all versions were produced and the aircraft was well liked by its pilots because of its speed and agility, though it had an unreliable engine.


This model is quite easy to build and gives you no hassle. There are only some minor problems with the fitting of the canopy, which comes unfortunatly in one piece.


For IJN Grey and Green I used Tamiya XF 11 and XF 12, Black is Revell 08, for the wheel bays I used Aluminium Revell 99 and the interior is painted in Dark Green Revell 68. Quite usefull is the Eduard mask EX 095 for the canopy.

Sorry for the dust on this model but somehow I didn't succeed in getting it all off. But it looks worse here on the photos than on the original. As you know, macro kills .....

Happy modelling
Torsten

The other model which was finished just a week later is kind of a "colour spot". It's a Kokusho A6M2-K Type 11 Zero Fighter Trainer. A rare sight on expos. The model is also in 1/48 and again from Hasegawa, who have all different variants of the Zero in their program.


This fighter trainer was a modified two-seater of the ordinary Zero Fighter, produced by the IJN Flight Technology Center. This aircraft used the same Sakae engine as the fighter, the airframe was slightly shifted forward of the cockpit to accomodate the seat for the instructor behind the trainee. While the 20 mm wing guns were removed, the 7,7 mm machine guns were left in the fuselage for aerial gunnery training. Also a stronger tail wheel was fixed for bumpy landings. The production of this aircraft lasted from January 1943 to July 1945.


This kit came out in 2009 also as a limited edition and is finished as an aircraft of the Tsukuba Kokutai. It's one of 3 choices you have. I think this is the most colourful one.


As with all Hasegawa Zero kits there is unfortunatly a problem with the fitting of fuselage and wings. A big gap grins at you on both sides. Well, some clear tape, putty, sanding and patience solves also this problem. It just takes time. The rest is easy.


Here I also used a variety of paints. IJN Green comes from Agama (J1M), Yellow is Revell 310, for which I used White Revell 301 as a primer to get the colour opague. The wheel bays are painted in Interior Blue J6M from Agama, Black is Revell 08 and the interior is also Dark Green Revell 68 like on the Raiden. Very helpfull with this wild green house canopy is Eduards mask EX 272. Notice the missing main wheel covers. I'm not sure if there were wires leading from the tail angle to the targets under the wings.

When the trainees were thrown too early into action they flew Raidens or Zeros, like this A6M5, which I've built a few years ago. Btw, it's one of the aircrafts Tetsuzo Iwamoto, the most successfull non-german/austrian fighter pilot of WW2, flew during his Rabaul time.



Happy modelling!
Torsten

Super work there! Thanks for sharing. I especially like the "Jack". I always thought it was a great looking bird!! Russell

Thanks for your comment, Russell! Yes, beside the slender Zero, the Raiden looks really like a fat noodle.

When I finished the Anti Shipping Campaign in early February, which I finished with my Do 217, and before starting the Zerstorer Campaign in March I had some weeks for doing something else. I looked at my stash for an easy build and found this 1/48 Bell P-400 Airacobra from Hasegawa.



I decided for the 2nd decal version, which is from the 35. FG, 39. FS, flown by Lt. Eugene Wahl in New Guinea in 1942. I don't know if it was this aircraft which he had to crash land near Port Moresby on the 9. June after being shot down by a Zero. He wandered 6 days through the rugged wilderness surrounding Port Moresby before returning to his unit battered and bandaged.



The aircraft shows the typical RAF early war two-tone-sheme of Dark Earth (Revell 82) and Dark Green (Agama B1M) with Sky (Agama B5M) on the underside. Blue on the spinner and the tip of the rudder comes also from Agama. Interior Green is Revell 360. The profile in Osprey's "P-39 Aces" looks a bit different to what Hasegawa suggets. The word "Pat" is blue like the spinner and not yellow and the underside looks more Neutral Grey than Sky. I don't know what version is closer to the original, but mine looks pretty colourful ....



The kit is typical Hasegawa quality - just add glue and shake Everything goes together easily, no filler is needed, just the canopy doesn't want to fit, also the doors, which come also as a clear part. I closed the starboard door, as I've never seen both doors open in original photos. The canopy is a little bit too small to fit to the fuselage, so I had to widen it by simply pressing it on my little finger for a while. That worked. Here I also used the Eduard mask EX 200. I finished this kit within 3 weeks. As with all my models the Cobra is build oob and not weathered. I hope you like my little walk around. Comments are welcome.



In the meantime I've got Eagle Strike's decal sheet "Venomous Cobras of the world" for a little bit more than nothing with 9 (!) different versions. So you can bet, there will come a few more of this interesting Bell fighter from my side - got already some Eduard kits .....

Happy modelling everyone!
Torsten

As probably not everone of us searches all the Campaigns for completed builts (incl. me .... ) I want to show you my latest finished models also here. For the "Sky Pirates Campaign" I've built 2 F4U Corsairs from Tamiya in 1/48.


The first Corsair is an F4U-1A from the Royal New Zealand Air Force, based in the Solomon Islands in 1945. It was delivered to the RNZAF in May 1944, flying its first missions over Guadalcanal with No. 15 Sq. It served with several units before returning to New Zealand in October 1945.


This Tamiya kit is well known for its quality, though surprisingly I had some minor problems with the fitting of the outer wing parts to the inner wings on both sides. But after all it's another great kit of this huge fighter.


It was a bit of a problem to find out the colour for the upper camo. I ended up using Grayish Blue FS 35237 from Gunze (H 337) which should come close to the original, I hope ..... For the underside I used Light Gull Grey FS 36440 from Agama. Always helpfull but here not really necessary is the Eduard mask EX 033. The decals are from the stunning Corsair set from Sky Models, which I was happy to get last year at the expo in Basel



Happy modelling!
Torsten

The other sky pirate I've built is a Corsair Mk. I from Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. The only information I have at the momnent is, that it belonged to No. 1835 Sq. in 1945. I hope to get some more info one day .....


As this kit offers the option for extended or folded wings I have chosen the latter one for this bird, as the Kiwi has already extended wings. They never landed on carriers, do they?


This Corsair has also closed cowling flaps (compared to open ones on the RNZAF Corsair). There are no problems to fit the outer wings to the inner wings. You just stick them together, that's all. You don't even need glue for that.


The whole aircraft was more or less painted with these great czech colours from Agama. The underside is painted in Sky B5M and on the upper side I first airbrushed Extra Dark Sea Grey B7M. After that followed Dark Slate Grey B8M. The camo is airbrushed freehand. Only Interior Green comes from Revell 360. Quite usefull for this birdcage canopy is the Eduard mask EX 061. The decals are from the same superb Sky Models sheet as the other Corsair. You can choose between 16 (!!!) different Corsairs from Great Britain, New Zealand, France and Honduras.
As always comments are welcome!




Happy modelling!
Torsten

Fabulous work there Torsten! I really enjoyed looking. My dad loved the Corsair, of course he served in the Pacific in WW2 and that was "their" bird! ha ha Good job. Russell

Hi Torsten

Really nice clean builds! I've got to ask though... shouldn't a Royal Navy Corsair have clipped wing-tips?

All the best

Rowan

Here's a link

http://www.hms-vengeance.co.uk/corsair.htm

Looks like the planes on the deck, some have clipped and some not?

I also see a reference to 1835 Sqn FAA, seems they were based in Belfast

Thanks for your comment, Russell. I'm glad you enjoyed looking at my models as much as I enjoyed building them. I'm really satisfied with my work. Where was your father in the Pacific? Fortunatly my dad was too young to fight in the war (born 1935) but one of my uncles flew a Henschel Hs 129 on the Eastern Front and luckily survived the whole tragedy.

@Rowan
You're right! I noticed that, too when it was already too late to change .... Well, Tamiya doesn't offer this option and I don't really care now. In the end it looks like a RN Corsair, which one doesn't see often over here.

@Scott
Thanks for the link, mate! That are some interesting facts and great pics!

Hi there Torsten, interesting about your uncle flying the Henschel 129, it was an interesting aircraft but a bit on the slow side, I'm glad he survived the whole mess of war.

My dad was a Marine sergeant who participated in the invasion of the island of Roi-Namur, part of the Kwajalein atoll. He called it a "practice" invasion for the 4th Marine division of which he was apart. The only problem no one told the Japanese defenders that it was practice! This invasion occurred January '44.

Next my dad participated in the invasion of Saipan in June of '44. He remembers hearing about D-day in Europe and everyone sort of shrugged it off and said that's their war, worry about ours!! ha ha He was wounded on the fifth day while running through a field, he caught one in the right arm from a Japanese infantryman.

Next was Iwo Jima, in February of '45, where my dad turned 21 on the island! For his birthday, which was March 16th, he was brought a donut and a clean pair of socks! He was thrilled! He didn't receive any wounds on Iwo.

In later years, dad has been gone now 8 years, dying at 79, he said everything after Iwo Jima in life was gravy! Meaning of course that any life at all was great since so many were lost on that volcanic hell of an island.

Fond memories return as I type this, dad seeing my budding interest in aviation history, he taught me my first aircraft types, including the B-17, B-29, Zero, Messerschmitt 109 and of course the Corsair; dad's favorite aircraft of all time!! Rest in peace dad, miss you always. Russell

Looks like it is just as correct to have either clipped or un-clipped looking at that photo. I can just see the framies with their knibblers taking off the wingtips and rivetting on a new tip covering, or possbly tin-snips, drills and hammers..

Russell, a big thanks for sharing your dads memories of his war with us! Glad to hear, that he survived the hell. We, as we sit here in warm rooms at our workbenches, glueing some plastic kits together, can never imagine what our fathers, grandfathers and uncles went though in those dark years. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you more about my flying uncle Fritz. My interests in military aviation came up about 10 years ago and he died shortly afterwards. Today I would have many questions to him. During my army time 1985-89 I had nothing to do with aircrafts, being a crew member of a Leopard 2 tank and later a truck driver.
Concerning the F4U, it's really a big bird. In 2008 I've built one of theses rare F4U-2 Night Corsairs (only 34 were built). Now it's already an expo veteran. So I have 3 Corsairs now. And there are still some in my stash .....

Warren, I've just checked Ospreys "Corsair Aces" and here is what they say about British Corsairs: "..... Subtle mods to the aircraft inluded the clipping of the wings by 8 inches (about 20 cm) due to the smaller confines of the hangar decks on British carriers ......" So Rowan is probably right with his objection. But on the other hand, on all pics of a British Corsair, I see always a Mk. II (F4U-1A) but I've built a Mk. I Birdcage (F4U-1) of which were only 95 delivered (source Osprey). Any photos of that bird? I think I'm fine with my "non-clipped" wings ...... But ..... shhhhht ..... don't tell anybody, okay?

Happy modelling!
Torsten

Thanks Torsten, I'm glad my dad survived too; I wouldn't be talking to you if he had not! Your Corsairs look very good to me as well. Thanks for sharing. Russell

Beautiful work there!

Nice builds Torsten! They are a bit too clean for my taste, but they look nice. (being an AFV modeler originally, I like my birds worn and dirty )

I also have that P-400, waiting in my "to-do" stash. Let's see how it turns out compared to yours (I cheated and bought Squadron's vac-form canopy).

Thanks for your comments, guys! I really appreciate that.

Emre, you know me, I always build my kits without any weathering just oob. I like them clean and "factory fresh". They get dirty by themselves as I leave them on a rack and the dust falls ..... Also on expo weekends when I come to my place on Sunday morning, my models are all dusty .....

My next rollout here will hopefully come in early January

Thanks again and happy modelling!
Torsten

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a good start into 2012.
In December 1941 was not only the attack on Pearl Harbour; on the other side of the world the "Operation Taifun" of the German Wehrmacht was in full swing with the attack on Moscow in bitter cold weather, followed by the counter attack of the Red Army which ended in early January 1942. I think that's a good reason to build some well known aircrafts of the VVS (Voyenno Vozdushnye Sily), the Red Air Force.
Just finished in the week before Christmas I want to show you my new MiG 3 from Trumpeter in 1/48.


Trumpeter offers 3 decal versions for this late MiG 3 and I have chosen this quite colourful version. Unfortunatly they don't give any information about unit, time or area. All I found out is that this must have been a special aircraft for testing with a more powerful engine .....


This kit has some fitting problems especially where the air intakes meet the fuselage and the wings. It took me a few days with filling and sanding. The decals are very thin and so the "95" on the left side reverted when I took it from the paper. So I had to paint parts of the "5" with a small brush. To make things worse small parts of the left side red star torn off. No, I was not swearing, I just spoke loud and clear ..... But with patience and a calm hand I got it right in the end.


Here I again used the great colours from Agama. The underside is painted in Russian Light Blue (R 31), for the upperside I used Russian Light Green (R11) and Dark Green (A7). The camouflage was again painted freehand. Silver and Black for the propeller come from Revell. As always this kit is build oob and not weathered. The only extra was the Eduard mask EX 229.


Here comes my little Eastern Front shelter to life again. That little GAZ 67 from Tamiya is also new and the pilot is from an ICM kit. There are two more MiG 3 in my stash and the next will get winter camo .... Hope you like my little walk around.


Have a look at this video of a MiG 3 at an airshow a few years ago and listen to the awesome engine sound!

Happy modelling!
Torsten

Torsten, your MiG-3 is spectacular! I need some Russian aircraft in my collection, I don't have a one from WW2 at least. Great work, thank you for sharing. Russell

The other aircraft I have build together with the MiG is legendary. I think beside the T-34 tank there is nothing more well known for the Great Patriotic War than the Ilyushin Il-2 "Sturmovik". My kit is from Italeri, who reboxed that old Accurate Miniatures model and of course it's also in 1/48 ....


The "Flying Tank" was heavily armoured around engine and cockpit and much feared by the German ground forces throughout the whole war. The aircraft played a vital role during the Battle of Kursk in 1943 as a tank buster with two 37-mm-canons under the wings. It's one of the most produced aircrafts in WW2 (over 36.000). While the single seater was easy to shoot down from behind for German fighter pilots, this double seater was a dangerous opponent.
Italeri offers 5 decal versions for this kit (4 Russian and a Polish post-war) and I went for this colourful bird from the 233. Guards Assault Regiment.


While this kit is fine detailed, it really has some major fitting problems, oh man! On the underside where the wheel wells are glued to the wings are gaps on both sides and where the wings meet the fuselage, on the upperside where the front part of the fuselage comes to the rear part and of course the famous wings/fuselage areas. That needs a lot of filling and sanding and a lot of patience, too. I think I was doing just this for 2 weeks .....


The colours I used here come all from Revell and Agama. For the underside I used Russian Light Grey Blue (Agama R 27), on the upperside Brown is Revell 82, Medium Green is Agama A 8, Grey is Agama R 4, White is Revell 301 and Blue for spinner and fuselage band comes from Revell 56. The kit is also build oob and not weathered. I only opened all gun barrels and the exhaust pipes. The few decals are perfect and give no hassle. Very usefull is the Eduard mask EX 188. This will be my only Sturmovik .....


And here are all my last 3 kits of 2011 together. The GAZ 67 is really a weekend edition, started on Friday and finished on Sunday. Main colour here is Revell 68 Dark Green
I say "Spassiba" for looking and hope you enjoyed walking around.



Happy modelling!
Torsten

Hi Torsten, and Happy New Year my friend !

It was great to read through your thread once again and I love your work on the Russian duo. The Sturmovik really is a big aircraft when you look at it alongside the Mig.

Great work, I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Cheers, D

Russell, good to hear from you again! Yes, I also like the painting on my MiG. With this slim fuselage it looks more like a racer - a Reno Racer - than a fighter aircraft. It's quite easy to get aircraft of the VVS. In quarterscale ICM offers naturally quite a range. I have Yak 7, LaGG 3 and La 5 FN in my stash from them. But they have also Yak 3 and Yak 9 in program. Eduard offers the Yak 3 and I-16 as Weekend Editions. I even have a Pe-2 from MPM in my stash ..... Not to forget my other two MiG 3. So you have really a choice if you want to build a Red Star prop.

Damian, Happy New Year to you, too and thanks for your kind words. Yes, I think this thread develops really well. I was also surprised how big the Sturmovik became in the end. It has about the size of my twin engined Zerstörer like the Me 410 or the Mossie. These Russians are my first since I built the La-7 from Academy in 2007 and they will fly around some Expos here this year.
You can see in my signature what I'm working on right now and the roll out might be sometime next month - that's if I don't spoil them ......

Happy modelling!
Torsten

Hallo Torsten

Ich wünsche Dir ein gesundes und erfolgreiches neues Jahr!!!

Schöne Sowjets hast du dir da zusammengebaut! Die Il-2 liegt bei mir halb gebaut (mit zig Zubehörsätzen) im Schrank ... manchmal ist weniger eben mehr ... nämlich fertig gebaut!

viele Grüße

Steffen

Your builds are very fine, almost none of them are subjects I build, but the workmanship level is obviouslly quite high.

I am interested in the jig you use to photograph the undersides of you models.
At first I thought you made it from sprues, but now I dont think so.
What was it's origin?

It's an odd request, but do you have a photo of just the stand?

Mike

Steffen, Dir auch ein gesundes und erfolgreiches 2012! Mögen die Modellbaugötter mit Dir sein Tja, ich denke mal, warum Deine Il-2 noch halbfertig im Schrank liegt, liegt sicher nicht nur an den vielen Zurüstteilen, sondern sicher auch daran, dass es ein besonders spassiger Bausatz ist, bei dem viiieeel gespachtelt und geschliffen werden muss und das braucht Zeit und Muße. Aber irgendwann wird Deine Sturmovik sicher auch fertig werden. Nun weisst Du ja, wie sowas aussieht ..... Wenn Du mal wieder in der Gegend bist, kannst Du gerne bei mir vorbeischauen.

Mike, thanks for your compliment about my work! What do you build if not aircrafts? Well, the frame I use is not made of sprues. That would probably be too weak and break in the end. No, it's made of metal clothes hangers you usually get at a Dry Cleaner. Then bend in the right shape and painted in something like RLM 02 The rest is from a hobby store and felt glued to 2 pieces of wood, that's all. I always use it when I work on the underside of an aircraft, especially when the landing gear is attached to the wings and has to dry (over night). This rack fits for nearly all my 1/48 kits, even the huge P-61 Black Widow, and has seen many of them already, believe me!
Here are some pics.




I think this is the first time that I wrote something in German here on Aeroscale. I hope it's okay .....?

Happy modelling!
Torsten