Airfix Spitfire 54 Sqn Mk I KL-T Colin Gray, Bretschneider's Revell Fw 190 ..again!

Two models finished during August, even if they were a couple of small fighters..I can't seem to make any progress on the bigger kits currently underway, and even dealing with two 1:72 WWII fighters at the same time posed a challenge. I used the 3D kits MK II conversion decals and Rotol prop on my Mk.1 to depict a 54 Squadron machine as based at Hornchurch during early 1940. Decals silvered despite coats of Klear and then bubbled under a coat of matt varnish - not terribly impressed..

54 Sqn machine KL-T was flown by Colin Gray and is shown "somewhere in Essex, 1940". The camouflage and marking scheme, along with the condition of the aircraft, date the photographs sometime between March and May 1940.

Colin Gray was a New Zealander with Grey flying as wingman to Deere and his KL-B. Both were Mk.I's with the Black/White underside markings. Gray went on to be NZ's highest scoring ace with 27 1/2 victories & only retired from the RAF in 1961.

54 Squadron Spitfire I's featured the more rounded spinner of the Rotol Constant Speed prop and bullet proof windscreens.


The Revell Fw 190 A was finished as Klaus Bretschneider's 'Red 1' from September 1944 when Bretschneider was Staffelkapitän of 5.(Sturm)/JG 300, decals from the Aeromaster 'Rammjäger' set. I've added plastic card 'armour plate' to the cockpit sides, faired in the upper cowl MGs and fabricated some 30 mm cannon in the outboard wing stations from sprue! Bretschneider did in fact 'ram' a B-17 in this aircraft, or more probably just collided with it, since he was able to land 'Red 1' safely - full story in the Eagle Editions JG 300 history. It is getting to be very difficult to get a decent result out of this kit - flash everywhere, some parts misshapen and the clear parts just aren't clear any more..

Scale Model Blog - The Display Case

Check out Atty's blog and some of his great builds..here's a very talented modeller who deserves loads more followers !

Scale Model Blog "Build what you love, love what you build": The Display Case: "Hi this page is for all my completed builds, to see a gallery of the model click on the title below the picture. 1/48 B-58 Hustler ......"

50 years of JG 74

super model building & photography from Thorsten 'bullseye' at flugzeugforum.de. More subjects/photos at this link. Kits are Revell/Hase 1:48 scale

http://flugzeugforum.de/forum/showthread.php?66866-50-Jahre-Jagdgeschwader-74........und-seine-Flugzeuge.......

More Airfix Spitfires

More Airfix Spitfires being built - or at least painted, while mostly still on the sprues. A couple of Mk 1s, in 72nd and 48th....see for yourself how neat these new tool Airfix kits are.

ICM P-51A Mustang

The North American A-36 Apache and early model P-51 Mustangs had a slightly different profile from the more familiar P-51D, which hasn't been terribly well captured in existing kits. While most agree that their 'D' is a pretty good representation probably based on the Tamiya 'D', the ICM Allison-engined Mustang has a certain number of shortcomings. Basically it is a mish-mash of a kit. It is boxed as a P-51A, but has the narrow air intake above the nose of a Mk.I or Mk.IA/P-51. The wings have the aerodynamic fairings ahead of the ailerons typical of the P-51B/C - although it should be perfectly possible to do something here with a sanding stick. More importantly and probably impossible to correct is the fuselage profile, Allison-engine P-51s having a shallower profile than the Merlin-engined variants - some 3 ins from canopy top to fuselage bottom on the real thing according to Mustang researchers and specialists on the web.

(Above; a long-time exhibit at the Champlin Fighter Museum, A-36A Apache 42-83731 was based at Duxford during 2002-2003)

Nor does the kit feature locating lugs, holes and pins, and it looks like the fit will be rather 'hit n miss' as the fuselage parts are warped. I've seen this kit described as a " sort of a hybrid between the AM mouldings and Tamiya mouldings, quite odd in fact ".  Perhaps because of the hybrid nature of the kit, you get lots of spares box bits eg. it comes with  props and so on for a P-51B/C, two clear instrument panels, different types of exhausts and other details not used in the P-51 A.

(Below;  A-36 at Duxford - a good view of the slotted retracted airbrake in the wing upper surface and the flattened elongated air scoops, both upper and lower)

Colourful captured Butcher birds and the Focke Wulf 190 stash

Not much to report here. After our trips to Greece and Belgium and a chance to see the USAF Thunderbirds in action little if anything has happened on the bench for a while now. Another Revell Fw 190 (1/72) nears the painting stage, this one hopefully finished as Oblt. Bretschneider's 'Red 1' complete with faired-over cowl MG troughs and armoured Panzerplatte from card..

Having recently picked up two of the new Karaya 'Captured Butcher birds' sheets no doubt this Fw 190 will be followed by several more...in fact a red, yellow and blue example to go with the white one already completed will make for a nice if rather gaudy display!  Elsewhere Mike Grant has just built the yellow captured 354th FG machine 'Cobras prize' in the current issue of SAMI...

Above 404th FG captured machine from 5./JG 4 and below Fw190G-3, W.Nr.160057 (CE.No.2900). This example was one of two captured at Gerbini in Sicily by the 85th FS of the 79th FG in September 1943. It was shipped to the US in January 1944 where repairs were made and it was flown to NAS Patuxent River in February. Model is the old Airfix A-8 with replacement white metal cowl cover and vacform canopy.

Elsewhere the stash continues to grow - most notably of Eduard 1/48 scale Doras.

Airfix Spifires 1/72 scale

A selection of recent  - and not so recent - Airfix Spits including the new IX, the Ia and PR. 19, along with the rather elderly Vb  and Mk 1. These are mostly OOB - the PR. 19 has Freightdog decals and the Vb is finished in the markings of Don Gentile's 4th FG machine taken from an old Promodeller decal sheet..