mawz

Note both kits come with the wrong engine, and it's a doozy of an error. You get a nice 18 cylinder dual-row radial (IIRC it's a late R2800) in resin instead of the correct 4 row 28 cylinder R4360 unit. Since the difference is 2 cylinders per row (9 vs the correct 7), it's pretty visible even inside the cowl.

I'm in, Revell's 1/72 P-51B Mustang III in the box markings for the Polish Squadron bird. Might do a second as well if I have time, there's a few Mustangs in my stash.

Note that there's a reported difference between many Allison engined P-51 Warbirds and war-era Allison P-51's. The warbirds may have had their gear door mechanisms replaced with the easier to find Merlin variants and thus will bleed down, the originals lock up.

The build was great fun

I can't comment on the Hasegawa kit as I've never built it but the Academy builds up very nicely. The only issues are a slight case of over-engineering, the nose assembly in particular is more complex than it really needs to be and you can get some minor alignment issues due to that. MUCH nicer than the Italieri kit (that Revell also reboxes). The detail is gorgeous though and no mods needed, the A boxing comes with everything needed to build an A or C (two sets of tails) and a marked hole for the spotlight complete with a clear part to fill it.

Well after the last post I headed back to the desk to get just a bit more done before calling it quits for the night and ended up finishing off the Academy kit as well Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr And one shot with both. Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

Well after the last post I headed back to the desk to get just a bit more done before calling it quits for the night and ended up finishing off the Academy kit as well Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr And one shot with both. Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

Well I got at least one aircraft done by the end, the Italieri I'd abandoned and restarted Italieri F/A-18C 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Italieri F/A-18C 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr I'll post some better pictures on Wednesday when there's more light available.

Well the Italieri is done, as 776. Italieri F/A-18C 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr Italieri F/A-18C 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr And the Academy's almost there Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr I'll finish off the Academy Hornet on Wednesday night.

Very nice build, looks like you got all the stencils sorted out. The end result sure is gorgeous. I'm doing the same scheme (and decal set) on the Academy Hornet. And yep, it's pretty tedious to do, I've got to do a blitz tonight and get the smaller markings & stencils on so I can get the bird done in time. It really is a nice sheet by Leading edge (unfortunately, it doesn't fit the Academy Hornet as well, the LEX's are longer, causing all sorts of problems for the nose decals).

Yeah, that Lanc looks gorgeous!

And here's a couple photos of the actual progress The Academy: Academy F/A-18A 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr The Italieri: Italieri F/A-18C 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr The Italieri should be done aside from the final dullcote later tonight.

Wow, what a great little build!

The Italieri's all but done now. Need to finish up the gear doors, wheels and exhaust, attach the antennae and paint the weapons. It'll be done today or tomorrow. I used most of the Academy sheet on it, so it's done up as 776 with Balkan Rats markings. I did leave off many of the minor markings, the Academy sheet's as complex as your typical 1/48 sheet but most of the small bits are near-invisible and way too fiddly to bother with on a build with as many compromises as this one already has. I am using the Academy weapons, tanks and pylons with the Italieri targeting pods. Loadout is fictional,

Well, I should have the Italieri CF-18 done in time, it's being decalled (using the much better, but also more complex Academy sheet). Not sure I'll get the Academy CF-18 done though, it's still in the painting stage.

That's the Italieri kit reboxed, although it sounds like the Decals are MUCH better (not hard, the Italieri decals are awful). Gotta wonder if it has the same weapons sprue (Sparrows, Sidewinders, HARMs & Harpoons?) It's a mediocre kit but it looks like you've managed to get some good results out of it.

Since it's on Aeroscale as a Campaign build, I don't have a link to my build, but there are updates in the campaign thread itself which can be found here: http://aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=170965&page=8#1472570

That's looking great! I'm actually building one of these right now for the Cold-War Jets campaign over at Aeroscale. It's a nice kit overall, but a little lacking in the wheel wells. Wish I'd known about the cockpit set though, that would have been a nice improvement.

Interesting WHIF, but I can't help but think it really calls for a F-82 instead of the Cavalier.

There's not that much in common between the two, the F4U-4 featured a completely redesigned cockpit from the earlier F4U-1/2 and the differences are fairly visible from the outside unless you're working in 1/72 or smaller.

The N had a completely new wing and a completely different dorsal fin extension. The wing is the stumbling point as it is substantially different from the P-47M wing, most notably in the wider span and the squared-off tips.

And paint is on the Italieri bird, which has been going much better than I had expected. I'm using the Academy pylons, tanks and weapons as they're much nicer and the Academy build will be clean anyways. Note sure which set of targeting pods I'll use, may mix them. Italieri F/A-18C 1/72 by mawz_models, on Flickr

Hunting Po-2's and R-5's does make sense of the Fw189 as a night fighter, I wouldn't want to be chasing biplanes operating low & slow in a Bf110 at night, let alone one of the higher performance Luftwaffe Nachtjagers. Note I've also been reading history for decades. This was the first I'd heard of Fw189's in the night-fighting role and given its performance characteristics I was extremely skeptical, and the use of fake units of fighters and false victory reports isn't exactly unprecedented with the Luftwaffe (see the He113 and the initial reports of claims for the He219A-0's vs Mosquito's

Frankly, given the performance of the Fw189 in terms of both top speed (220mph) and ceiling (27,000') without a schagemusik installation, I find it rather hard to believe it could actually catch anything to shoot down since it was so much slower than even Heavy Bombers. I could see it being used as an armed AEW platform with the radar, but an aircraft whose performance is grossly inferior to the Bf110 (which was was being phased out of Night Fighter use at this point) being used as a late-war night fighter, with significant kill numbers? That frankly smacks of propoganda measures, either with

A mythical Fw-189 variant? Why bother. The Fw189A-1 was the standard recon/support aircraft, not a night fighter. If they wanted an up-gunned Fw189, doing an A-4 with the 2x20mm for light ground attack or the V-6 prototype would make more sense. The Uhu night fighter wasn't an Fw189, but the He219, a completely different aircraft which didn't have an A-1 variant (it was, ironically, a proposed reconnaissance variant that was never built).