Hi guys,

My aircraft stash is short and has only Modern Soviet Aircraft, but since the "Anything Goes" Campaign when I did a small 1:72 P51 Mustang from Tamyia I was hooked...

Great detail for a small build, great fitting as usual and very fun project.
So I was wondering if the experts around here could help me out on some other iconic fighters ?

I was looking for one British, one German, one Japanese, one Italian and one Russian.
All 1:72 .

Could use some help on the brand vs subject too.. I had my share of A-model / Skif / Eastern Express nightmares..

Thanks for the help !

Well, my U$.02
British - New mold Airfix Spitfire
German Couldn't be too far off with any Bf-109
Japanese Zero of course (pick mfg carefully, I suppose Tamiya or Hasegawa could be good choices)
Italian Hmmm, got me there
Soviet How about a P-39 or early marks from Yak or LaGG

I'm sure the assembled multitudes will be a bit more helpful

It's not properly a 'fighter', but the iconic Soviet combat aircraft would, I think, be the Il-2 Sturmovik, with more than 36,000 produced; the next-highest production figure for Soviet aircraft is around 16,000 for the Yak-9.

Good call, I will contend that the Soviets used the P-39 as a fighter as much as ground support. But the Sturmovik fits his request better.

The Italian icon would probably be the Macci 202/205 series. Hasegawa makes a good one.

Hi John, I agree with Jessica, I will provide you a photo of the completed Macchi 202 from Hasegawa in 72 scale which I built awhile back.
The Warbirds series from Tamiya is another good value, priced at around 25 dollars American, these aircraft build up nicely indeed. Some Academy kits are good too, just watch the decals, make sure you have some Solvaset around to tame the decals if necessary. Take care, Russell

Hasegawa Macchi 202




Revell of Germany kit of Blohm & Voss P.194


Academy kit of Focke-Wulf 109A-8 with decals from spares box

Hi again John, forgot to include a couple of Japanese kits for you.

Hasegawa Mitsubishi J2M "Jack"


Hasegawa Nakajima KI-44 "Tojo"




Both these kits are older kits and price around 20 dollars American. Hope this helps some. Russell

Wow... Thanks for all the answers !

@Mark

The Spitfire is the British choice for sure.

The Emil would be the German choice, but I love the looks of the Fw190..
The Japanese choice ... mhhh love the Jack that Russell posted

Thanks Jessica for pointing out the Italian Macci !

Yak-9 for the Russian choice .

Russell, thanks for the photos, nice builds !

I see that Tamyia / Hasegawa models are the ones to choose then,I'm guessing Academy or Airfix can be good choices too..

Let's see what I can find out there

Most of the newer Academy kits are pretty good. I was impressed by their P-51B that I built several years ago.

Hi my NZ $0.02c worth For the German I'd go for the Fw190 1/72 scale Revell kit I've built a couple and I really like the way they fit together and the pricing is just great.

Japanese I'd go for the Ki44 Shoki late war and early war the Ki43 Hayate and Tamiya and Hasegawa make great models of both.

For the Italian I agree with the others the Maachi Mc202 and MC205 for late war but for Early it would have to be the Maachi MC200 or the Fiat G50. You could also perhaps look at the Fiat G55 for late war as the lines are really quite attractive.


Russian I'd actually go for the Lavochkin La-5FN or the La-7 Italeri do the La-5FN in 1/72 not to sure about the La-7


For the British everyone loves a Spitfire, but for shear brute force and rugged good looks I like the Hawker Tempest and Academy make a damn fine model of it 1/72 scale.

Went to my LHS... couldn't resist...







So just the Russian & Italian Icons missing...

Regarding the iconic Russian planes, I've built if you want an La-7, I can recommend Eduard's kit. Really nice kit. The only fit problem I remember was the fit of the wing to the fuselage, but that only needed a little filing and trimming, and a bit of putty. Other than that, it went together really smoothly. Apparently the kit is lacking the radio decking behind the cockpit, so keep that in mind if you want to add it.


For an early-war plane, Roden/Toko LaGG-3 kits are definitely worth a look. Note how you can build nearly any variant you want, regardless of the boxing you have, since they all have the optional parts regardless of boxing.
I've built one. It's not a "Tamiwaga" shake & bake kit - it needed some cleaning up and putty, but nothing serious. Thanks to the mostly wooden construction of the original, and the way the kit is designed, practically all the seams needing putty and sanding were on areas with no surface detail to watch out for.

John,

Iconic? Siderius & Jessie have a good one with the Macchi 202; otherwise the most iconic for Italy was the SM 79/82.

The most iconic IMHO is the P-36 / P-40 - almost every Allied and neutral country (and some Axis!) flew a Curtiss Hawk! You have a smorgasboard of camouflage and markings! There are many good kits in all scales to choose from.

@Eetu

That La-7 looks stunning !! Congrats !!
The camo colours are great !

@Frederick

Hi,

I might go with the Macchi.
I agree with you on the P-40.
But I wanted to build one WW2 fighter of the major nations present in the conflict, so far:

USA: Tamyia's P51
UK: Airfix Spitfire
Germany : Fw190
Italy: Macchi (or Fiat G55)
Japan: shedenkai "george"
Russian/ USSR : Yak 3 or (Yak9 / La-7 / Mig 3)

I've been away from WW2 birds for sometime..
This one was in 2009, my first WW2


and lately the P51

An Italeri Macchi & a Zvezda Yak will be here maybe next week.

How about a GB about second string aircraft, also rans, or aircraft that were overshadowed by their more famous colleagues.

Everyone knows for examples, the Spit, the Me109, the zero, the stormovik.

The Russians did well with the Airacobra, The Finns did well with the Brewster Buffalo. 'm sure you could think of other cases.

That might make an interesting GB.

Just throwing it out.

It sounds like an interesting concept. Post a thread about it in the campaigns forum and see what kind of interest you can drum up

Here they are...



and



I will start the Fw190 next week !
the Macchi and Yak will be build for 2 Campaigns.

Just wanted to post what was done so far:






It was nice to see Russell's builds again and remember his kindness and help.