Hi. Finally finished the Wolfpack dio. Both planes are from Tamiya. The pilots are a mix of Verlinden and Eduard. Decals are from Aeromasters Wolfpack series. The crewmen on the wings are also from Verlinden and Eduard. Comments and suggestions welcome, Wingman out.

Very nice.

Here's a suggestion : if the propellers of those kits turn freely, install them and blow air over them, then take a picture. The effect will be much more realistic.

I'm saying this because I'm not good enough to duplicate your neat turning props!

:-)

Nice dio! Great subject, too! The Wolfpack schemes are very unique and make a great addition.

Congrats on the great work!

Thoese camo patterns and figures are VERY cool but i agreee with Ollie about the props.

cheers

Philip

Wonderfull, the low angle shot in pic 1 is particularly atmospheric. The models and figures are very well done and the "spinning" props look pretty good too. Yes blowing the kit props wouls give a more realistic affect but you can't do that with a dio? The only realistic way to spin the kit props would be with electric motors? If you don't want to go that route you need to simulate the spinning props, which is very difficult to do, but I think you will agree that Wingman has done a very good job
Only thing I could pick up on is the guys on the wings, certainly the one lying down. He looks as if he's er floating. I think he needs to conform to the wing a little more.
Mal

Thanks guys. I think the next time I do a spinning prop, I'll try to make it more clear betwee the the blades. Mal, your right about the crewmen on the wings. Today I got out the Dremel and ground away in the area of his stomach and the leg and butt of the sitting crewmwan. I think I was a little nervous at first to do this but I got up the courage to try it and little by little it worked out. I'm going to enter this in a model show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the aircraft dio category, we'll see what happens, thanks for looking guys, Wingman out.

Wingman - let us know how the contest turns out and shoot us some pics of the updated figures. Good luck!

Oh yeah, too bad these still aren't made. Kinda neat IMO: http://modelingmadness.com/scotts/accessories/propblur.htm

Wow action packed!!!
thanks for sharing!
I like all the Nazi kill flags!!
Ron

Thanks for looking Frank and Ron. Frank, those photo-etch frets are cool. I'd like to see them in person done up on a model. I'm going to show it to my dad, he gave me some advice and was a big help. I'll shoot some pics with the reconfigured figs and try to post them today[Saturday]. The contest is in April, I'll take a load of pics of a bunch of the models there and post them after the show, Thanks again for looking, Wingman out.

Hi Michael

Sorry my time on site has been limited lately - pretty CR*P really!... but PLEASE! let's sort out a proper Feature on this fantastic build! (...and swap some more music in the process )

You know what stands out for me?... the PERFECTLY fitted windscreen in the close-ups. We all take things like that for granted... but let's go and check out the last kit we built and see if we did as good a job...

All the best in the Show... you should cream 'em!

Rowan

What's up Rowan? Thanks for the nice comments. The reason the windscreens fits so nicely is simply, Tamiya quality. Did you ever see the cockpit detail in these kits while it was still on the sprue? One word, Outstanding. How do we go about setting up a feature? We'll see what happens at the model show, there are some nice dios there. Glad to hear from you again, Wingman out.

I was very taken by the first picture - a most atmospheric shot. Exactly how did you reproduce the spinning prop?

Re the ground crew on the wing - here's a little story from the RAF...

It was the practice at some fighter stations to have an "erk" (ground crewman) or WAAF sit or lie on the tail of Spitfires, to prevent ground looping during taxying. Apparently one pilot forgot one of these WAAFs was there and took off! She managed to keep hold of the tail as the plane went higher and fortunately for her, the people in the control tower saw immediately what had happened and instructed the pilot to land immediately (tactfully omitting to tell him the true reason for the aborted flight). Once the Spitfire had rolled to a stop, the pilot jumped out, demanding to know whay he had to land so suddenly; at which point, he saw the WAAF still gripping the tailplane, and promptly fainted!. The WAAF in question related this exciting tale on a TV programme a few years back; I think she handled the situation better than the pilot did!

Fantastic diorama all around....

What color did you paint the underside of the a/c?

Thanks Ian. That's quite a story. I can't imagine what a beating she was taking with prop wash and dirt and dust from the runway. I made the spinning props by using a circle cutter on a thin piece of clear plastic. This cutter was made for cutting circles from paper, it took awhile to get through the plastic. After I had a circle, I put a whole in the center and and using a mask,I applied black and yellow to simulate the blades. I then chucked it in my drill and while it was spinning I took a piece of steel wool and dragged it from the center to the outer edge. I eventually used some rough sandpaper to get a better spinning effect. If and when I do this again, I will make the space between the blades clearer. Thanks for looking,Wingman out.

Thanks Nathan. I used ModelMaster neutral grey on Gabreskis plane and ModelMaster light grey on Schillings plane. Thanks for looking,Wingman out.

Really, really nice dio and work!
capnjock

That really is so-very-cool!
I've thought about trying something like that but I can barely paint planes, and you can forget about doing figures. :-) :-)
Thanks for shareing your work and good luck at the show!
-scott

I'm not a plane buff - haven't built one for 15 years or so - but ot me those props look bloody marvelous!!