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Thanks Allen!

Technically not starting until tomorrow, November 1 folks. Looking forward to some great builds!

Michael

Given that my fondness for civil models is so well known I can hardly disappoint so here are my choices:
1954:

2014:

Okay, it's not an actual 'now' now, but it will be 'now' soon. If this doesn't meet with our esteemed leader's favour, I have a 767, A-330, A-340 or even a DC-9 I can substitute.

Or perhaps a twofer?
1947:

1967:

Either would be fine with me Jessi, and very interesting too! And I don't know if "esteemed" is quite right, maybe just "eh"?

Michael

So a pleasant day's building gets me to this point

The initial build goes quickly, but there's still much to do.

Hi.
These will be my two entry's for this campaign:-






Both will be built as 425 SQ RCAF
Decals for CF-18A are from Leading Edge.
Build will start later this year.

"Ops in a Wimpy, ops in a Wimpy,

Who'll come on ops in a Wimpy with me,

And they sang in the flames

As they pranged upon the hangar roof,

Who'll come on ops in a Wimpy with me."

Now Jessie, play nice.

Still trying to choose between:

1/32 Sopwith Tripe/Snipe and Hawker Hurricane
1/32 F4U-1 Corsair and A-7E Corsair II
1/48 F4F-3 and F-4B Red Rippers

Happily, I have to finish my PT-109 still so a little more time to think about it.

Michael

Thank you Jessica!

The left over decals from the CF-18 will be used on my CF-18 in the Canadian campaign over at the ArmOrama site.
The only good thing about the ESCI CF-18 is that it will be finished soon!!!
Looking forward to the Academy build.

You'll have to talk with the Wimpy crews who wrote that...

Well... you quoted them! All right, give me their contact information and I'll get right on to them

As usual, you seem to have jumped right on your project. Well done!

Michael

One of the things which makes a North Star not a DC-4 is of course those four big beautiful Merlin engines. Being Merlins, they have no use for the DC-4's great big carburetor air scoops on top of the nacelles, so they have to go. The problem is that they're hollow inside, so I've packed them full of Milliput. Of course white Milliput stuck to white plastic reflects the flash the same, so there's nothing to be seen in the picture

But it is there, and all 4 intakes are filled. Once it finishes hardening, I'll file the offending scoops off and smooth the nacelles down.
The fuselage is glued, and resting for a test fit on the wings

And a quick pose with its partner in time

Jessie, as usual, making the rest of us look bad.

Right. I have an idea forming in my head. Extra points if you get the reference.



Snipe flown by Edward Mulcair 43 Sqn. RAF, 1918
Hurricane flown by Flt. Lt. Frank Carey, 43 Sqn. RAF, 1940
Last RAF rotary engine fighter and first RAF monoplane fighter.

Fits the bill two ways. Same squadron, same manufacturer. I consider Hawker to be a direct successor to Sopwith since T.O.M. Sopwith founded Hawkers a couple of years after Sopwith Aviation went under due to over-taxation.

Whadda ya think?

Michael

Damn my fickle nature!

I'm modifying the plan. RAF's last rotary engine fighter and last piston engine fighter:





It doesn't look like they were in the same squadron, but they are the same manufacturer. I'll be doing William Barker's Snipe:


And David Fairbanks' Tempest:



Hopefully both in better shape than they appear in the photos. With any luck, I might be able to stick to this one! Of course, if I start with the Snipe I can put off the final decision for a bit longer yet...

Michael

What makes a North Star different from a DC-4? Wizardry, of course! In this case 4 Merlins

It's looking more like an airplane now

Jessi, Nice work, as always an interesting project!

Modeling friends, I have a serious case of modeler's block. This is a problem as I have this week off and should be spending the time blissfully building away. But I've sat for two days staring at the Snipe and Tempest and just can't get myself started. Great models, but just not doing it for me right now. I have two other ideas (with a twist, of course, on the second) but just can't seem to get the spark. First possibility:





Both from 107 Sqn., IAF, the Spitfire in the early-mid 50's and the Sufa from today.

The second idea has two options. The first kit either way would be:


I would match that up with:


My problem with this one is that a couple of other entrants have suggested they want to do this combo already, albeit in a different scale. Alternatively, I could re-mark my 1/32 F-4J as a VF-84 Jolly Rogers aircraft (something I've been wanting to do anyway).

I really don't want to waste this time off, so I need to come to a decision soon. Anyone want to weigh in with advice? It would be very welcome!

Michael

OK, good day today! I finally decided to go for the F4U-1. After some research including some reading in Tom Blackburn's "The Jolly Rogers", I've decided to do his birdcage as it appeared in the summer of 1943 during VF-17's working up. He states that it was marked "17-F-1" with the hub and first 18" of the prop blades painted in flight colors (red for him) and "Big Hog" on the tail. No photos I've been able to find so I plan to use the "Big Hog" decal from an old Eagle Strike sheet. Call me wrong!

I've also started striping the unwanted decals and repainting the F-4J and thought I'd post a couple of pics:





I've already pulled most of the unwanted markings off the port side and painted the fin cap and wing tips yellow. Since then I've also painted the tail black. I've done a lot of pre-painting on the F4U as well (interior green, salmon and black). Now we'll see how it goes!

Michael

Some filler to smooth off the joins between the resin and the plastic

The Bra.Z conversion provides 4 extra propeller blades to round out the correct number required by a North Star. Unfortunately, the blades had air bubble holes in the tips. I solved this problem by supergluing in some segments of plastic rod

And after cleaning them up, and supplementing them with the plastic blades from the DC-4 kit, I have 4 blade North Star propellers

Each blade is less than 1 cm long, so it's a rather fiddly procedure to cut them off, clean them up and then glue them into the tiny little 4mm wide spinner without getting superglue all over my fingers.

Aww c'mon Jessie, a little super glue on the fingers is part of what lets us know we're modelers! Seriously though, nice work so far.

Here's where I'm at on the F4U. I know up above I said I had to pre-paint three colors (green, white and black) but I was WAY off. I think I've painted just about every color in the kit except for sea blue (and that's coming!) But the seprate cockpit module is done:





This is a seriously nice kit so far and if it needs a fair amount of prep work that's the price we pay. My only issue to date is that the left lap belt went into the black hole and I had to make a new one from the parts bin (you couldn't tell, could you? ) In no way the kit's fault. Otherwise, smooth flying!

Michael

The North Star's basic construction is complete


And the first coat of primer is on

Very nice work Jessie! It's amazing what a coat of primer can do.

I have made some progress on the 1/32 Tamiya F4U-1. For reasons I need to examine more deeply with a therapist, I decided to wire the engine:



That took way longer that I thought. Getting the copper wire to stick to the ignition ring turned out to be a bit of a fiasco. I'm a little worried if they will interfere with the cowling panels, but nothing ventured nothing gained!

Here's the fuselage basically closed up:


Love that pink!

Mixed just as Tamiya suggested but without the dullcoat mixed in.

So it goes! Maybe I'll stick to this one. The problem is I believe my wife may have gotten me (finally) the Trumpeter 1/48 F-100C for my 4th FG/W collection and I can see that and the F-15E in my future. We'll see...

Michael

The DC-4, having radial engines, needed to hang its oil coolers beneath the nacelles, therefore the landing gear doors were cut away to clear them. The North Star, not being blessed with such built-in headwinds, had slightly larger doors which came to a point. I trimmed off the redundant oil cooler mountings and grafted on some scrap card to the doors. Once the glue has set I'll trim them back to the correct shape.
Here's the North Star with a DC-4 wing showing the difference

And the doors with their additions awaiting trimming


Turning to the DC-9, I have the wings on and the white base coat applied

Jessie: Seriously nice work there. Looking forward to seeing more.

As you could probably tell from my earlier posts, I'm having some real trouble getting into my F4U/F-4J build. While the Tamiya 1/32 Corsair is an excellent kit, I just can't seem to get fired up about building it. So I've been poking around in the stash and keep coming up with a desire to build something that would include an Eduard 1/48 MiG-21, I really like the look of those kits. Well, long story not-so-short, I was doing a little research today and came up with a coincidence which seems like a message to me:



Yes, the markings in the Yak kit are for Lidiya Litvyak when she was with the 296 IAP. And lo and behold, the MiG-21 has markings for that unit in the box too! So, here we go...



Both are essentially unstarted. The MiG-21 is actually so and the Yak-1 had some interior base coat laid on but I have to repaint that for various reasons, so I'm calling it new.

We'll see how this one goes, but I'm feeling better about it already!

Michael

VVS is under-represented in these pages so those will be a good choice

The North Star's main gear doors trimmed to shape

And white on the fuselage top

The DC-9 has its aircraft grey on the wings and rear fuselage