jfgesquire

I figured it was either because of torque or because of the aircraft's unique stalling properties which necessitated the stall strip on the starboard wing.

So, doesn't look like a lot of progress, but it was. Wings are glued together, fashioned wingtip lights, some bolts and a seam on the crankcase, .020 styrene push-rods, drilled out blast tubes which are waiting for 1/64 brass tube for 20mm guns, One blast tube split while drilling it out, so had to reconstruct one, and an OK picture of the milliput fashioned cowl/intake. A coat of filler/primer showed some more smoothing/filling is needed, but it already looks a lot better than the round stock cowl. Cowl is only taped on so it looks a little crooked, but it's fine. Going to be a real tri

Wow - just really let myself get irritated at all the people repeating the same garbage over and over again - that the 1/48 Heller Corsairs are short. One person starts an idea and so many people repeat it without ever checking the facts - so sad. The Heller F4U-7 and AU-1 kits are NOT SHORT!!!!! Here is a picture of the Heller and Hasegawa AU-1 kit fuselages taped together, side by side - the Heller kit is the EXACT same length as the Hasegawa kit!!!!!!! Since the Hasegawa is a much better AU-1, I was just going to slap the Heller kit together for paint and decal practice - but when I p

Thanks, guys. Unfortunately, I've already seen all that info. Interestingly, many sources state that the Beaufighter VI was the first to get the tailplanes with the dihedral, but it was actually a result of the poor performance at low speed of the Merlin Beaus that the tailplane was first fitted, and that picture is proof that the II had them. There is also a Pilot's Notes available on the web for the Mk II. In it is a discussion about poor low speed handling. http://www.amazon.com/Bristol-Beaufighter-...4603635-2386908 Yet, that picture you posted is the ONLY picture of a Merlin Beau wi

I'm going to bump this once! Really? Nobody can recommend ANY references for Merlin engined Beaufighters? I can find volumes on Japanese and German WHIF'S and prototypes but nothing on an aircraft of which over 450 were produced? Speechless. Anyway, I recently purchased an old 1/48 conversion set that Mike West was selling on Hyperscale (thanks Mike) and already hacked up a nice new Tamiya Beaufighter. I am going to build the top one on this decal sheet: http://www.hiplanes.com/new/images/D4811COV_large.gif Can anyone tell me any more information about this aircraft, where to find phot

The Merlin Beaufighter had some 450 examples produced, with both straight and angled horizontal tail, High Planes has some nice decal sets for black, green/grey FAA Beaus, and even a post war NMF bird, yet there are no injected kits oob in any scale. Even finding decent profiles or photos other than the same 4 repeated on the web is a real challenge. 1. What is the best reference resource for Merlin Beaus? 2. What other major WWII combat aircraft had that many variants produced without any injected kits of said version?

No, I'm not fixing the wheel wells!

progress pics:

So, in 1/72, I have the Special Hobby Mustang Mk I, the Academy P-51 and the Italeri hodge-podge with an Allison fuselage. The Special Hobby kit actually gives you two complete fuselages and wings - so I'm not going to let them go to waste! One set will be built as the boxed Mk I (which still requires alot of work, like the wide carb intake needs to be sanded thinner). The other set will be built as the one A-36 sent to the RAF for testing. There is a great picture of it carrying some bombs with the brakes opened up. Does anyone make 1/72 PE dive flaps? I would like to build this on a

CRAP! I've been had!! It is a Ki-27 from Il-2!!!!! Here is the youtube link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiyyPcM-vmQ The problem is that half of the video is real with the sim crap thrown in. Arghhhhh!

Can someone please identify these aircraft - the caption that these screen grabs are taken from identify the near one as FR-82 of LeLv 24. When played in real-time, it looks as if the code on the side of the plane is in fact FR-82, which should mean that this is a Fokker D.XXI, but it doesn't look like any D.XXI I have ever seen. Help?

Well, good news, bad news. Good news first: Kudos to Revell!!! I received my replacement part during the same week I ordered it Wow! Ordered on Monday, and in my mailbox on Friday! Bad news: The part is exactly the same. Same amount of frost in the same locations. Something must be wrong with their molding process - plastic must be the wrong temperature going into the mold or something, because the parts looked fine in the original Promodeler issue, as seen in Swanny's review: http://www.swannysmodels.com/images/Do217E/clear.jpg Oh well. I was able to get the part 90% fixed with p

If you want me to scan the instructions for you, just say the word. As for a Future bath . . . . I polished it with a plastic polish, and then double-dipped it. It came out about 90% the clarity of the rest of the parts before they were dipped in any Future. I think for my own shelf, that will be good enough. I ordered the part anyway - so we'll see how it looks. If there is no difference, then I guess I will have a spare to send to someone else who may really need it down the road. We'll see.

Oh, I'm not worried about replacement parts, I ordered the replacement part right away. And I'm very confident that I will get the part. In fact, I have never had a problem with replacements for any kit manufacturer, except for one Tamiya kit. I clearly stated that this was for the modeler that put the kit in the stash without looking. This could be bad if, two years from now when the kit gets opened, and Revell doesn't have any spare parts laying around anymore. I was just trying to help out the other guy.

I know that some of you buy a kit and then stick it in the stash, and it may be that I'm the only one with a bad part, but . . . check part 209, the clear nose piece. Mine is frosted really bad and polishing and Future are no help - it is IN the plastic.

I have good news and I have bad news. He had the set, but it has a few problems. I will e-mail you all the specifics!

I know of a hobby shop that had two "new old stock" the last time I was in there about a month ago. In fact I was going to pick one of the sets up. Since you have the instructions, can you tell me if the instructions say anything about filling in the wing guns and access panels there for? The TBF-1C added a .5 inch gun to each wing, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the access panels were not already in place in the production run, and just waiting for some internal modifications, switches, panels, etc.

"I actually wanted to build a 4-bladed Merlin-powered Spitfire" There were a few Vc with 4-blades - as per the Airfix Vc/Seafire III instructions. Below is from the Modeling Madness review of the Airfix kit: (3) Vc of the Special Duties Flight, 103 Maintenance Unit, RAF, Aboukir, Egypt, September 1942. This represents one of the aircraft modified by 103 MU into a high flying interceptor to counter the high flying Ju 86P recce aircraft which were up to then flying over the Nile Delta and Suez Canal with impunity. This aircraft has locally fabricated extended wing tips, 2 x 0.5†mg a

Is this 1945 during the war or after the war? I have never seen a photograph of a wartime A-26 with the 8 gun nose. In fact I still haven't as this is just a profile. Are there any pictures of 3rd BG A-26B's that saw WWII combat?

It's the Arii/Otaki kit if I'm not mistaken. Recessed panel lines and a very large decal sheet. Beyond that, the Tamiya kit is much nicer and even the ICM kit, at about the same price, is a better kit for the money. Don't let that stop you from buying it. I bought one and it certainly looks very much like a Mustang, and does come with an engine! The Arii boxing is probably half the price of the Airfix kit and might be a better buy if you plan on using aftermarket decals. Airfix decals can be real hit or miss. not my build, but it looks nice: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal3..

Well, as stated earlier, if you have any problems with the decals, ask around for anyone who built the Eduard kit boxed as the P-40M/N Shark mouths over China. It came with those CAF decals, although the blue may have been darker, hard to tell.

You are right about the wear, but it also looks like the blades themsleves have the face forward, just set to a negative pitch angle at the tip.

I have a few pics of British Razorbacks - e-mail me and I'll reply with the pics. The pics are black and white, but some look like they are Green/Grey not Green/Brown. The 1/48 Otaki P-47 Razorback used to have decals and profile for a Brit Razorback in Green/Grey, but I've been told it is incorrect. jfgesquire @ cs.com (remove the spaces)