Welcome to the 2015 Bomber Fighters Campaign!

The campaign will run from July 1, 2015 through December 31, 2015.

If you haven't signed up yet, or want to see the rules, go here.

Please post your initial and in-progress photos as well as campaign discussion in this thread. Please post your finished build photos in the campaign gallery.

Looking forward to some fine builds of interceptors here! On with the show!

Michael

Ok! I found the link with no problems and will post a kit photo soon.

Bob

Can't hide from me. Found the new thread and even managed to find both the F-89 and the F-106.

I thought I'd already posted here, obviously not!
I'm in with the Airfix 1/48 English Electric Lightning - pure interceptor!

@ Dave, you haven't lost your mind, just your place. Michael started a new 'Official' thread after you posted about your selection.

@Dave - I'm looking forward to seeing that lightning of yours, it is an absolute monster of a plane!

Anyway, I'm in with a potential double build of slightly more old-school interceptors - it took me a long time to choose my subjects (or victims may be a better word once you see the finished products, I make no pretence of possessing any kind of skill ) but in the end, I went with a couple of late war Pacific theatre machines, A P-61 Black Widow from Revell (re-release of the old monogram kit) and an N1K1 from Hasegawa that I picked up at the recent VE day air show at Duxford, both in 1:48 scale

The Widow



The decals were not supplied with the kit, I opened the box, and everything but the decals was there, so I did some digging, firstly by contacting Revell for spares, but they had none, so I started looking for after market stuff, and found these from squadron products on Amazon, after trying to buy them from an independent company who wanted to charge me $55 for shipping! Any way, long story short, all is good now

The N1K


Thankfully nothing wrong here, all present and correct!

Time stamp


Looking forward to this campaign, and it looks like there are going to be some very interesting builds going on here, also this will be my first time building a Japanese aircraft, so that could yield some...um...questionable results..

Starting photo, and the 'pit. Quickboost seat is a wonderful bit of casting, but both resin and plastic needed minor surgery before it would fit.




I'd forgotten how big the Lightning is, even though I've seen the real thing at Tangmere. It's easily the size of a Phantom if not slightly larger!

Dave that is a killer airplane. Just reminds me of either the biggest bullie or the fastest car.

Bob

Lightning progress - 7 hours today

Proof that I have a kit for this campaign:

Another 6 hours and finished:




I know some of the stencil decals are missing, but I ran out of patience. I can't even see most of them anyway.

I may end up building both AC for this Campaign:-

Hi Everyone!
My first campaign. When I hit the enlist button I was expecting a 'are you sure?' button. So, here I am with my entry...still in plastic bags:


Gary

I will be doing a frightning too, nice going with yours Dave.

Pete

Dave, you are a fast builder!!! Nice result as well!!

Gary, great choice. I have this kit in my stash as well, so I will follow yours with interest.

I am considering a BF-110 for this campaign in the interceptor role or a Fw-190 rammbock bomber killer.

Hey Jesper!
Glad to hear from you. I was torn between the Heinkel and an Eduard Fw-190A8. And, I love 110's too, so whatever you build I'll be keen to watch, too. Good luck!

Gary

Hi Everyone,
I started first by removing recessed details that need more depth than I could paint into them faultlessly. I no longer have steady hands or good eyesight.

The plane has 6 ports for ejecting brass cartridges, four small holes of gas(I'm guessing) and deep recesses at the front of the engine that would be difficult to paint cleanly. So, I used my Dremel to remove a lot of unwanted plastic, and a knife for the final paper-thin bits.

The cockpit is full of dark shades. German night-bombers also seemed to have been full of dark paint. At this scale, I'm not up to much detail. I did make my first seat belts....ever



The pilots console is photo-etched white metal. Everything else is plastic. I made my seat belts from 3m blue tape painted with a mixture of Tamiya khaki and white. Buckles are painted silver.

The wheel well only connects to the inner wing at the short curve at the front. I added some plastic tabs from the sprues to give an attachment point at the rear.


I've crammed every empty area forward of the rear landing gear with old lead sinkers either mashed, or cut to fit in the tiny confines.

I've got to remember to place some in the front of each engine nacelle, too. I really don't want it sitting with it's tail on the ground.

Thanks for Looking!

Gary

Just won the nightfighter version of the Italeri (AMT) F7 Tigercat - been after one for ages. I guess that qualifies as an interceptor as this version was built for that role?

If so I'll use it as entry two for this campaign

Hello Fellow Campaigners!
Despite a day full of other things besides modelling I found some time to get some paint on. The last few days have been on and off filing, puttying, sanding, puttying, sanding, and finally polishing with newspaper.

I put a lot of lead into this plane to make it nose heavy. I filled the fuselage forward of the landing gear that are in the engine nacelles and added a 9mm wide lead sinker to each engine nacelle to get it nose heavy. Still, it doesn't take much effort to make it sit on it's tail.
Almost every seam needs putty. and the ventral gun tray is about 3/4 a millimeter more narrow than the fuselage. Since I had already made some parts of the tray paper thin, I decided to sand some and live with the rest. Had I known beforehand I might have cut the tray in half and added some card.

The tailplane needs a lot of dryfitting and shaving to get it right. As with the wings, it's not a piece you can slap in there and expect it to hold the right angle(s) until the cement dries. I prefer plastic cement to CA, but this thing is held together with primarily CA.
My RLM white-blue looks a little more blue than I see on other completed models. That being said, I actually saw a larger scale 219 that was more blue.

After using a silicone tipped brush and liquid mask, I painted the canopy framing RLM 66 (black gray) and then pained over that with the whiteblue. I haven't been impressed with my ability to mask canopies with tape. So, I'm still seeking a better result with other methods. I really hate dealing with pieces of tape that are only a few mm long.

Thanks for looking!

Gary

BTW...this kit is old. The white part of the crosses is now yellow. Is there any chance of any of these decals working, or should I just go ahead and replace them all?

Starting photo of the Tigercat, build will begin tomorrow

Today's progress

Assembly completed, waiting for paint. Warning to anyone else that builds this - it needs a LOT of weight in the nose! Even though I'd filled the area above the undercarriage with shot I has to resort to feeding lead shot through the open front of the nosewheel bay, then dripping epoxy glue through the same hole to stop it falling out again.

Fast work there Dave ! That's a really sleek looking design, I've often thought about adding it to the stash of heavy twin fighters so it is great to see one being built here.

Gazza, nice work on the Uhu, another heavy twin design that catches the eye.

Cheers, D

Excellent work so far everyone! I'm working on a WNW Fokker D.VII for a different campaign but I think this one is up next. I'm torn at the moment between:

Airfix Gloster Javelin
Eduard Fw 190A8/R2
Eduard MiG-21PF

all in 1/48. I just can't seem to settle on one!

Michael

I'd go for the Javelin, just 'cos I love'em!