Fubuki4

This is the very nice Hasegawa kit in 1/72. It really does fall together with no filler at all used. Decals came from my spares box, with the fin flash masked and painted.

Built this for the Vietnam Group Build on another site. Not a bad kit, but fiddly in places to get the joins right. Overall detail is nice, decals are good, I had some silvering problems but that could have just been me. Several aircraft from Vietnam and one from the Congo can be modelled straight out of the box, although some extra ordnance would have been nice, but what is supplied works.

Great work I really like it.

Captain John B England's P-51B Mustang 357th Fighter Group. Hasegawa 1/72

I decided to finish things off today. The hot weather had everything drying very fast. More pics in the GB Gallery.

Nice work. Have you checked that the windscreen fits the fuselage yet?

Nice work. You're right about the interior, almost none will be seen. I did a lot of detail work on the Trumpeter Wellington, but I should have just painted it all black for what can be seen!

On the home stretch now. I also threw on some gloss tonight while I had the chance before the hot weather. Decals will be on tomorrow.

Thanks nspreitler. With the weather a little cooler (going to be 40C later this week) I got some more painting done.The olive drab went on well. Now masking for the white in the invasion stripes. I did the fuselage and wings separately. That worked well. There is a little bit of overspray but I'll fix that up later.

I really hate decals that wrap around fuselages or wings, so I decided to paint the spinner and front cowling. It's not perfect, but looking at pictures of other aircraft, neither are they, probably painted by hand and eye.

Finally some cool weather, so I applied the natural metal with a base of gloss black.

I've found his books overall decent, but sometimes inaccurate or incomplete in details.

A little more work. It's been rather hot here so airbrushing has been difficult then I got some stomach bug over the weekend which was not fun, but feeling better now so I got some modelling done.

Thanks mate. Uh I dunno, I just bought this kit at a swap meet, it was in a bag, no box or decals for like 5 bucks and I just felt like doing something silly with it with a nice paint scheme. I don't mind building the odd what if.

In the late 60's, Communism was the threat around the world and with it looking increasingly likely that New Zealand would fall to a Communist dictator, Australia decided that it needed to bolster it's carrier strike force. With the retirement of the Sea Venom ans Sea Fury, strike aircraft were limited so we purchased two squadrons worth of A-6 Intruders from the US, freeing up the Skyhawks to perform the dedicated CAP duties they were optimised for. In 1970 New Zealand fell to Communism and Australia, unwilling to have a 'Cuban Missile Crisis' in this part of the world launched Operation Shee

Just like D Day the enemy has not showed up yet. I might have to change that lol

Ah ok good, I knew it had something to do with the hydraulic pressure. Haha not done yet, was busy watching Australia get smashed all around the ground in the cricket today and besides, it was 43C painting was out of the question.

Upper wings clamped, so far so good. Tail fits nicely. Ran into some issues here. The front of the radiator intake was solid, looks like slag had filled it in, so that had to be drilled out. I also put the inner gear doors in the up position, I know not technically incorrect just not often seen like this. It hides the very shallow gear bays mostly.

Made a start today after cooking the BBQ for new years. Some paint on the interior, I don't bother much with the small details in 1/72, you will hardly see anything once the canopy goes on apart from the basic colours. Lower wing fit is really nice. It looks like the top wing will fit just as well, but that's enough for today. Nice to start the year off with a good little Hasegawa kit.

John Brooke England enlisted in the Army in April 1942 and was accepted into flight training, graduating in March of 1943. After starting on the P-39 with the 357th, he would transition to the P-51 upon landing in England in November of 1943. The 357th first combat mission came on February 11th 1944 with an escort mission for bombers striking at V1 sites in Northern France. England would score his first victory a month later on March 8th when he shot down a Bf 109 near Steinhunder Meer. He would become an Ace 48 days later. In August he was transferred to command the 362nd FS and would end t

They look pretty nice Ryan. I've got a few Luftwaffe aircraft in the stash too, we'll see how I got with the Mustang first.

I've had this 1/72 Hasegawa P-51B floating around in my stash for years and years, I think I picked it up for 2 bucks at a swap and sell, I might pull it out and build it. From memory both options are 357th with full D-Day stripes.

I like late war aircraft but realised on looking through my build models I don't have many kits build in that era. Here's a couple though; A JG 400 Messerschmitt Me 163 A captured Focke Wulf 190A formerly of JG-4, shot down over St Trond on January 1st 1945.

I finished things off tonight with a bit of a wash and a flat coat. Thanks for following along.

Thanks mate!