I was never in only one GB. I strated with 2 when I first signed up and then the GBFS (group build fanatic syndrome) kicked in...

Bish

SchattenSpartan

Yeah, Bish is almost as fanatic as I am when it comes to GBs...

Be warned, it gets worse. There was a time 5 or so years ago that I was only in 1 at a time.

O they were the days.

i was in only 1 GB at one time. IIRC it lasted about 5 minutes until i saw another one i was interested in.

SchattenSpartan

Yeah, Bish is almost as fanatic as I am when it comes to GBs...

Be warned, it gets worse. There was a time 5 or so years ago that I was only in 1 at a time.

O they were the days.

Yeah, Bish is almost as fanatic as I am when it comes to GBs...

O ye, I have been planning that one for a long time. And when I decided to cut out a couple of the GB's I had in mind, that was certainly not one of them. I really really like Stuka's

If all Borg were like 7 of 9, I think we would all be happy to be assimilated.

Haha, thanks Bish, I didn't even realize you were running that GB as well. You're a busy man!

Assimilation sucks, but Borg like Seven of Nine take some of the sting out of it:

Raven728

Bish

I have a word document with my planned builds on it, with those in GB's at the top, all in order of those that end next so I know which order I need to build them in.

Anyone would think GB's were addictive.

I was just thinking yesterday that I'd like to build a Ju-87 Stuka, and what do I see on the GB forum today? A Stuka GB. Now, how can I resist when it was obviously meant to be?

You can't resist.

Come and sign on, plenty of room.

Eric, interesting choice on the Mustang III.

I've had some correspondence, a few years back, with a Canadian who has been researching for about ten years now, to publish a book on British and Commonwealth use of the P-51.  So I emailed him some questions for his insight.

From his response, I can say that escort missions over Norwegian waters occurred after D-Day (though of course Mustangs would still be weathered from escort duties over Europe).

"UK based Mustangs were normally repainted with British colours."

He also isn't aware of any other colours used other than the black and white for the invasion stripes.

"Temporary paint was used and could look pretty scruffy after a short period of time".

----------------------------------------------

Myself, I wonder if it did happen, it wasn't official and would have been a local decision to use something other than black.

The white nose front cowl section, I think this was a carry over from American practice, as the Mustang had been misidentified as a 109 during combat.

regards,

Jack

It's pretty clear that at least the RAF had very untidy stripes indeed on D-Day. Here's a Spit being prepared:

I suppose that means we hand paint them. I did stumble across some posts that suggested that RAF stripes (or at least some of them) were not black but a dark RAF gray or, in the case of the P51 MKIII, olive drab. If I can confirm that, I'll put them on - I think it would look neat. One problem - anyway I look at it, it does appear that the D-Day 51MXIIIs had a white spinner and a white theater stripe (which I'd bet should be put on.) Do wish it was sky, a color I've seen in color plates of the 315 and 316 aircraft both earlier and later in the war.

Bish

I have a word document with my planned builds on it, with those in GB's at the top, all in order of those that end next so I know which order I need to build them in.

Anyone would think GB's were addictive.

I was just thinking yesterday that I'd like to build a Ju-87 Stuka, and what do I see on the GB forum today? A Stuka GB. Now, how can I resist when it was obviously meant to be?

Gamera

I know what you guys mean, I keep saying I'm going to stop signing up for GBs and just just do something I want to do myself but keep signing on anyway! So far I've resisted signing up for the Light Tank GB and 1944 GB. Gosh they look cool but I can't keep the balls I'm already juggling in the air much less add a few more...

I didn't have that much self control Cliff :)

Cheers

Tony

More hippies means less gun and model buying competition for me.  

Of course I don't have anywhere to build models yet . . .

Oh go back to your Pacific Northwest Hippy commune...

Oh, just lurking here in the shadows waitng for an opportunity to attack stik.

Also, I moved out of California recently so I was without a computer for sometime.  Some nice builds going on  here! 

Yep, breaking strain of a Kit Kat.

Where you been hiding bitbite.

You lack discipline.

Bish

Anyone would think GB's were addictive.

They are.... and so many are way too tempting.... 

I thought that might have been the case but wasn't sure. No problem, I have done that myself, all gets confusing doesn't it. lol

Eric: Tamiya's P-51B kits are both exactly the same with the decals being the only difference. I have the P-51B with USAAF markings in my stash and it features the malcom hood as well. Looks like you are off to a great start.

Bish: Oops, my bad. wrong GB... I meant to post this in the Duck hunter GB, but it looks like I mixed things up a bit. Sorry 'bout that mate.

My real entry for this one is Tamiya's P-47 Bubbletop built as Maj.General William E. Kepner's bird (with invasion stripes, of course)...

Clemen's, I still have you down as a TBC for this GB, did I miss a post lol. Interesting choice, I didn't realise these were still around in Normandy. I have the Dragon kit of this on my shopping list, so will be interesting to see what this one is like.

Gamera, I know what you mean. I never get to my build list I just keep bumping up kits for GB's. But I am cutting down, honestly.

Eric, there was a discussion on invasion stripes a few pages back, I think it was for one of the P-38's, either Shiv's or ken's. Theres a post here by Ken which may be of interest, the main bit being this.

In most cases the stripes were painted on by the ground crews; with only a few hours notice, few of the stripes were "masked".[1] As a result, depending on the abilities of the "erks" (RAF nickname for ground crew), the stripes were often far from neat and tidy.

Its about half way down the page.

cs.finescale.com/.../154026.aspx

I've committed to a AC/AFV/Ship cycle for this GB - all allied. Time to check in.

I've been modelling for three years now and I've never done a post-1970s Tamiya kit of any kind. Somewhere I picked up the circa mid-90s 1/48 P-51 RAF Mustang (MKIII). I believe it's the same model as the P-51B except that it offers a Malcom Hood. I've seen very good reviews for all of Tamiya's planes done around 2000 with many singling out the P-51B. I think I can see why. Usually the fit has been extremely good and the detail on the fuselage is outstanding. Can't say that it's been a breeze though. The kit is dated 1996 and comes from the PI. Not sure if that is the date of production or not. In any case, the fuselage halves fit poorly (dry fitted alone - the cockpit fit in perfectly) with the joining side on both bottom halves slightly warped inward. A seam line is no trouble, but getting a little valley to look right took some time.

It's together, primed and preshaded. This has been a fun build because I'm using Tamiya paints, of which I have a lot, for the first time in a year. Must say they're a delight. I've done some research and I think the plane should be colored with US colors appropriate to RAF schemes. That means olive drab (not dark green), dark sea gray and sky gray. (The cockpit is my own mixture from Golden and Vallejo Model Color. According to a big article on the IPMS page about US AC interior, export planes were given one of the various shades widely used in the US (made by DuPont) that was a close match to RAF interior green. I'm close enough.

The P51s sent to the RAF in early 44 were used in the very nasty long range war between the RAF, the RN, the LW and the KM for control of Norwegian waters - the 51s range making it ideal. Only two groups got them and Polish squadrons were well represented. That's nice because D-Day was an international affair. Anyway, the RAF 51s were all deployed to Normandy for D-Day. This has me scratching my head about how to paint the thing. A few months doing long range missions over the North Sea is going to wear any aircraft - so this kit will get some wear. The stripes are a problem. The order to put on stripes came the night before D-Day. I just watched a Tempest documentary and one of the pilots said that on June 5th someone brought in "some white and black glop that wasn't really paint." I do know that the stripes came in the night before first flight so they're obviously fresh and laid over a somewhat worn plane. The easy way to handle this is to play it as straight as possible - Tamiya's paints are really nice for low PSI work and we could mask some nice and tidy invasion stripes. From looking at most of the photos, that's what they looked like. But is that what they looked like on June 6 or the days immediately following? Other photos clearly show a very sloppy presentation probably done by hand. Now if the stuff is "glop" and not paint, we've got double trouble.

Any advice on how to handle this? I wonder if the initial batches of the stuff wasn't some kind of odd paint or even whitewash that happened to be available. Can always be tidy, but I wonder if good history doesn't argue that I mess things up a little.

Eric

Clemons: Not sure about cute but very cool though! Based on a Panzer I she's going to have to be tiny.

I know what you guys mean, I keep saying I'm going to stop signing up for GBs and just just do something I want to do myself but keep signing on anyway! So far I've resisted signing up for the Light Tank GB and 1944 GB. Gosh they look cool but I can't keep the balls I'm already juggling in the air much less add a few more...

I picked up some brass rods at my LHS today to replace a few rods on the suspension bogies of my halftrack. As I was looking through the armor kits they had in stock this little bugger caught my eye:

The Flakpanzer I has to be the "cutest" (if you can say that about a tank ) AA vehicle ever built, so I simply had to get me one of them. As the most important part of this tank, the gun, is rather poorly detailed I decided to buy one of the excellent Adlers Nest barrels as well:

The detailing on this kit is very good,, but the molding is kinda inconsistent. Some parts have no flash at all and only minor mold lines, but some of them (even if they are on the same sprue) show a noticeable amount of flash (the plates for the lower hull for example).

I started construction by glueing the big raised floor panel in place and holding it in place with some clamps:

The next task was to clean up the lower plate and the side panels. The transmission is a little model by itself and consists of several small parts that show a lot of nice details. I started assembling the major components of that subassembly as well:

Next I taped all 3 of the large plates together:

The fit isn't as bad as i feared it would be, but it's not perfect either. There were several sprue attachment points on the mating surfaces and a considerable amount of flash didn't help things either:

That's it for now. I'll continue work on this little beauty tomorrow and try to finish the M16's suspension as well.

Cheers, Clemens 

I have a word document with my planned builds on it, with those in GB's at the top, all in order of those that end next so I know which order I need to build them in.

Anyone would think GB's were addictive.

Bish

No problem, its been so hectic with GB's, I can't remember who has signed for for what, where and when.

i set up a spreadsheet to keeep track of mine. that is scary

I know the feeling Stik. I keep losing track of the GB's I am signed up for, especially the ones I am not currently building for.

Boy I had not checked in here for a bit and missed some stuff. Trabi, that is some great work you are pulling off on that AVRE.

No problem, its been so hectic with GB's, I can't remember who has signed for for what, where and when.

Bish- I just found the GB a little bit ago, so I wasn't a part of the initial sign ups. Thanks for the add! It's the 1/48 Monogram kit.

Don't worry Raven, I haven't even opened my kit yet. Look forward o seeing some paint on there, looking good