Great looking models you have there!
The prashading on the hawk worked nicely, bf443. I presume you did the shading by handbrushing?
That's what I've been doing too. I still need to hone my airbrushing skills to attempt sprayed preshading. I've heard that the whole idea of prashading is to spray it on, because of the soft edges, but I think it works fine with regular brushes as well.

I've made some progress with my brewster. Here's some pics.

Hi everyone,

Hey Nigel, your right about preshading It does work and why did I not try sooner? I like the looks of your Hurricane but it's odd without some form of Commonwealth markings.

Eetu, Yes I hand brushed it. I though about using my airbrush but it was late at night and I did not want to go through all the cleaning steps afterward. I put it on a little to thick in areas and it took several additional passes when painting to cover the edges up. Next time I will do it with the airbrush so it can be feathered on the ends.
Your Buffalo is good looking machine who would have thought it would perform so well in battle. I've held a belief after reading so many personal accounts of combat flying that even a mediocre aircraft can be deadly in the hands of an aggressive, skilled pilot

I saw another interesting tidbit about the planes sent to Finland during the Winter War. Apparently the British had gathered and repainted a bunch of Blackburn ROC's but the first war ended before they were delivered. I guess they were used as target tugs in England afterward. Given how Finland made the most of everything I wonder how they would have performed with FAF Pilots/crew. I'm guessing it would have been used as a dive/level bomber?



Sincerely,
Brian

Progress on the P-36

Hello everyone,

I just sprayed a coat of Future and I hope to apply the decals later tonight. Hopefully I will finish the model by Thursday night.









Brian

Decals on and flat curing

Hi everyone,

Here is my progress so far. I'm just waiting for the dull cote to cure some more and I will then apply a oil wash to it.









Sincerely,
Brian

hi Brian.
looking great,,another entry moves closer to the finishing post
One question though,,are the blue swastikas on the wings on the right way round?,,Ive never seen one like that?
Probably me got it wrong but I had to ask.
looking forward to seeing this finished
Nige

Hi Guys,

Gentlemen, those are some sharp looking models!

Brian, I also wonder if the wing insignias are backwards. Were they printed like that? Eetu, any input?

Great going, guys! I hope my B-239 will have more to show soon.

Regards,

Fred

Hello everyone,

Fred and Nigel, The reversed swastikas are correct. I don't know why it was done that way but it was not isolated. The Squadron book 'Finnish Air Force' also confirms in the text and with photos this was a 'Variation' but it did not offer a specific reason.

This has been one of those models that I almost feel swatting down an I-16 !




Brian

Hi Brian,

Excellent information! Thank you,.

Wash done and detail painting started

Hello everyone,

Well, I am still chugging along. Looking at the B/W photos of the plane it appears it was very weathered and used hard. So I wanted to recreate this appearance (What better look for WWII combat aircraft).

I applied a wash of Ivory Black and I almost waited to long (it was dry in places). I used a Q-tip to remove the excess and then I started to paint small details and I used a silver pencil for the paint flaking and scuff marks. What do you all think of it so far?


I know there's more to do but I'm done for the night.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................................

Brian

Looking very good indeed!
That weathering looks superb, very nice worn effect you have there.
I thought the yellow was a little pale when I saw earlier in-prog pics, but with the rest of the camo painted and weathered, it looks very nice.
What paint did you use on the undersides? Did the decals come with the kit or are they aftermarket stuff?

My brewster's about ready to be finished. All it needs is some more weathering, a flat coat, and the antenna wires.
And fixing the smaller parts (landing gear, pitot tube, antenna mast), of course.

Hi Brian
I think youve got it just right with the panel wash and weathering!
Looks great!
Thanks for the information about the blue swastica's!! I was really hoping you hadnt somehow managed to put the decals on upside down
Nige

Hi All,

My review of the Opsrey book is ready: Finnish Aces of WW 2

I concur! A Killer Kurtiss.

Canopy and pilot in!

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the compliments. Based on your feedback I won't tinker with it much more. I want to do exhaust staining on the bottom of the plane and smoke stains on the shell casing chutes. The canopy was not easy to line up so in the end I decided to leave it open. The pilot came from a Monogram P-38 kit. Personally I wish more kits had seated pilots and canopies that could be posed open. The instrument panel is more visible as well.

Eetu,
The decals came from Aeromaster sheet 'Foreign Hawks' the main paint colors are bottom RML 65, Sides and top RML 71, Yellow ID stripes RML 04 all are Model Master enamels.











Late night again..............................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Brian

That RLM 65 you used looks paler than the xtracrylics paint I used on my Morane, which is a tad too dark out of the bottle. Or did you tone it down or weather to make it lighter?

Hello Eetu,

I sprayed the colors full strength then I added several drops of flat white to each mixing container of paint and sprayed that over the corresponding colors to lighten them. I worked from the center of each panel out to the next one.

Sincerely,
Brian

My brewster's almost done. In fact, it's so complete that there's no sense in posting in-prog pics now. I'll show you the finished model soon. Now there's only the antenna wires to attach and a few final touch-ups to make.

Speaking of models of Finnish aircraft, I made the mistake of purchasing my first resin kit... I had been looking at this kit for some in a LHS now I bought it. It wasn't exactly cheap, but now I have a kit of this Finnish fighter that flew only a few times before the project was canceled because of lack of funds and the fact that the air force had more than enough 109's left from the war.


Edit: Fixed an error, according to my references, Pyörremyrsky flew a couple of test flights.

Hi Eetu!

I'm looking forward to see that finished Brewster! I just ordered Classic Airframes F2A-1 Buffalo in 1/48 scale (the one with Finnish markings) and will use your build as reference for painting.

About that Ardpol resin kit, could you perhaps review it first for Aeroscale before building it? I know Rowan would love it!

Jean-Luc

The paint schemes differed a little from plane to plane. But if you're going to build I. Juutilainen's "orange 4", CA's marking guide show a little different camo scheme to BW-364 when compared to Hasegawa's kit instructions. Most of my reference supports Hasegawa's marking guide. But I can't really say if it's incorrect as Hasegawa's scheme is apparently from around late 1942 (Osprey's book has the same camo scheme and tells it's from December 1942), while CA says Autumn 1942. Perhaps the plane was painted in the field, resulting in small differences in the camo scheme?

Here's the paint scheme for BW-364 give in Hasegawa's marking guide:


And here's CA's:
Click!



That's actually just what I had in mind. I borrowed book about Finnish fighters from the library some time ago so I have some reference at hand to analyze the kit. I also found some pics from the web, but not much. Not big surprise though, as there was only one aircraft built.
Do I send the finished article using the kitmaker support center or should I email it directly to some moderator?

Hi Eetu!

Thanks for the heads up about the paintscheme

For the review, use the Support Center if you can. Email should be used only if it doesn't works with the SC.

Thanks again!

Jean-Luc

Hi Jean-Luc,

You are getting ready to start your entry? I look forward to it!

As the campaign creator, I am embarrassed to admit that my B.239 has stalled. Setting my cockpit bulkheads has been a pain and I resorted to a flood of supergluing with gel. Now I have to file the parts to fit. I started putting the consoles in the cockpit the other day but a variety of at work and afterwards have devoured my time like a Finnish schwarm devoured Soviet attackers :-) ! So I have gone off in search of some easier prey--Academy's 1/48 P-47N. But the B.239 is calling to me...

I must admit the wing / cockpit/ firewall assembly looks good all primed with aluminum

More B.239 very soon!

Regards,

Fred

Hi Fred!

Not really I'm afraid... I still have to do my Me 309 and there is my Potez 631 for the Duel against Lampie. But I think I can start it in a month.
By the way, I won't build the Buffalo but a G.50 ...in Finnish Air Force Service!

Jean-Luc

Do we have a campaign photo album?

Hello everyone,

Fred or Jean-Luc, did I miss something ? where do we place completion photos of our aircraft ?

Sincerely,
Brian

Hi Brian, et al.,

Ooops, I confess I never thought about it! A great idea.

How do I make one? I'll ask Jean-Luc, Merlin, etc.

Thanks for the idea, Brian.

My brewster's finished! Here's two quick pics from my workbench. I'll set up a proper white backdrop and take some better pics next week. Now I don't have the time because I'm taking my Morane and this B-239 to a model fair this weekend and I have to pack the models today.