AIRCRAFT - Battle of Britain Group Build (Jan 1st 2005 - May 31st 2005)

Thanks guys for the comment on my pit, (way back on page 60 I think?) We sure are moving fast. I had some good progress on my Hurricane this weekend and after some minor sanding/filling maybe next week I'll get to painting it?

Rick, I think I solved my problem with the regulator, I had bought a bungled one so I took it back and the new one works fine.

Nice work Tom, Tweety and Nicodemus (I like the uniqueness of the Martlet). I hope my 'cane will come out even half as good. I've got a Typhoon I started like 8 years ago that I worked on this last weekend a bit and is now at about the same point as my 'cane so I'll be able to practice with different painting techniques on it first.

Jay, glad you got the regulator problem squared away. I thought it must have been defective somehow, as the problem you described was most unusual.

Regards, Rick

I'm masking the canopy of the do-17. Planning on closing up the fuselage today and attaching the wings maybe. I should get some paint sprayed on it on the weekend...

wow! come home from work and there is SO much activity!

Sean - so what's the holdup? let's see some pics! I heard you and old Mr. Thunderblight got into it again... he might think he's awful healthy for 94 but you showed him what a young guy can do to and old body like his! Good going!

Jay - great news! nothing worse than something that doesnt work right.. good to hear you're back in business!

Bob - good luck looking for cameras... good rule of thumb is if worse comes to worse and you are confused, the same people that make 35mm cameras (Canon, Nikon etc...) make decent digitals as well... but check out the Kodak line.,. for a low to midrange cost camera it does good work!!

Jules - Me and the brigadier made up now, he has his glass eye back and loaned me his walking stick to poke old Fatty Larkins while he sleeps... the old soldier is a ball of fun under all that hard coating!

And a group thank you for the comments on my Martlett.. I really enjoyed it and it is definitely something I wouldn't have thought of as a British, might less a BoB aircraft a few months ago... gonna do the one for the N Afrika build with a bit more detail to it though!

Tanky, post some progress pics so we can all be awe struck . Seriously, I'm curious what the old kit looks like. I built one many years ago, but don't remember much about it.

Regards, Rick

ACK!!! I let Tanky slip through the cracks!!! yeah Tanky.. even some 'in progress' pics are nice! I like to see them as I can see how someone else tackles a tough area and learn from it!


---edit---

I broke down today and did a little weathering after the fact... not much but some I feel would have been historically accurate. the only thing so far was to dry brush some mud color very lightly on the tires as the strips were most probably grass and knowing what I hear about Fall/Winter in england they were a bit muddy as well... put a few mud specks on the hubs with the same dry brush and some mud thrown up on the undersufraces behind the tires... it's hardly noticable at all but it made me feel a little better, knowing my aircraft wasn't new out of the box even though it was fairly fresh during those months...

QUOTE: Originally posted by tho9900 knowing what I hear about Fall/Winter in england they were a bit muddy as well...

...and I thought it was just the English who were masters of understatement! (BTW, yes, my bf-110 is slowly advancing forward, just that I needed to get my Churchill finished first for a model show last Sunday, which I missed anyway! I'm going to try and rebuild my part made Tamiya Spit, and have in it BoB colours, is it against the spirit/letter of the GB to include it?)

Well, I apologize but the only pics I can post are when I'm done with the kit. On the bright side that should be very soon!! But I will give a brief rundown here. The cockpit detail exists, but barely. The pilot has a seat and a yoke on a simplified and very small floor piece. All around him the gunners sit on little seats that levitate in the middle of no where. Trough the numerous greenhouse canopies you can see staright to the bottom and back of the plane, making painfully obvious the deficiency in details. This problem is made worse by the fact that the kit supplied canopies are EXCELLENT. Once dipped in Future, these are the best clear pieces I have evr seen. However, this ensures you can see evry inch of the lack of detail. On the outside, most details are coverd but are simplified. I'm OK with this as most of the major things are covered. The fit of this kit is very very nice also. I forsee very little filling and sanding needed... only at where the wing mates with the fuselage. Not too many pieces included in this kit, making it quite a quick build. I could improve it quite a bit, but I do not have the time, because i'm putting a tremendous amount of serious effort (read tons of AM) into my MiG-29, which is meant to be a contest model. On the whole the revell kit is very nice, and you should pick one up if you ever have a chance.

Thanks for the rundown Tanky... guess what I found for ya? a set of decals for a Ju88... which would be "roughly" the size of the Do17.. at least for the 'no step' type decals... I'm sending you the whole lot... crosses, swastikas etc tommorrow... you could probably use the squadron codes if no one has a problem with that... a bit make believe but being you're in a tight spot and other suitable decals are not in production, on my part I say go for it!


what you do with the decals is your business!! Well... don't eat them.. Tweety was in the infirmary at Happy Acres for a whole week once with decal poisoning... it wasnt pretty at all!

Thanks Aurora-7, Jboutin, and J.S. Harrison for the kind remarks.
I appreciate them all!

Now I can anticipate seeing all your cool builds now!
Plus building and finishing my little 1/144 Clipper for that group build too!

p.s.
Aurora-7, I am trying to finish up another Connie too. This one will be in the white/red scheme of a TWA liner. I had two builds going last summer. I finished 'Columbine III' and posted her on the IFIF's thread if you haven't seen it yet!

later,

osher - good to hear! I've been looking forward to your Bf110... and yes, I was being nice about the weather there haha... I imagine it is as wet if not wetter than weather here the same time of year (my part of Texas, nothing but fog everymorning that turns into drizzle by afternoon, puncuated by sun here and there but it always comes back)

tho, thank you SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll get to work on that award right away. Anyway, I might move to Shady Pines anyway. I'mm getting a little bored with Happy Acres... hehehe

Ok heres some pics of my Bf-109E-4. It represents an aircraft from 9./JG.2 "Richtoven", flown by Ofw. Rudolf Rothenfelder in Sept. 1940.





I noticed after the pics were taken, of course, that I had forgot to tighten the anttena wire . That's what happens when you grow old & senile. It has now been corrected, but I didn't feel like setting up to reshoot the pics. Hope you enjoy it anyway.

Now, back to the Hurricane.

Regards, Rick

wow that's a very nice build.

Thanks Tanky. Glad you liked it.

Regards, Rick

Tanky - make sure you make the woman in the award surly looking... I want to capture the true spirit of the "Kremps Award for Heroism and Good Table Manners"

Rick - that is one nice looking build!!! I love the yellow nose Bf-109's like I said and yours is a beauty! That the way I feel everytime I post pics.. "Ooops I forgot this or that" .. that one reason there are so many pics of my build.. I take pics of each step as not to miss something in the cockpit before I close the fuselage etc./...

I am very impressed and with your 400 builds displayed I may want to move to your house soon.. with Tito Rudy and Frank... of course your Corgi may or may not like that... so we can negotiate!


-edit-

like I told someone else here.. I didnt even notice the antenna wire until AFTER I reread your post then went back and looked... we are our own worst critics!!! should have similar finished type pics in the next day or two... got the lower windows (on the belly) placed tonight as well as the landing and navigation lights... may just take pics anyway and say screw the antenna if I dont find my thread tomorrow... ::grumbling about my wife taking it for her scrapbook stuff::

Rick fantasic looking Emil mateSo whats that now 401 finished....
BTW did you paint the mottling on freehand

Tweetsare you useing that EZ line for rigging cause if you have found something better let me in on it

well i finally managed to put that U-Boat down and resume work on the Stuka, I couldn't be buggered firing up the A/B so i busied myself building the engine cowl and wings, all went together fairly well but i did have to thin out the cowl to get everything to fit properly, give me another week and i should have some pics up

Darren you should be getting my C/pit pics in a week or so mate

Jeez!!!

You guys have been REALLY busy!! My hat is off to you all - some great builds coming through this group!! Congratulations to you all.

If I can just get off this "WORK" thing, I might find time to start some progress for this one!! [:S]

Rick: Awesome 109 you have there. I love those yellow noses too. What colors are the upper splinter camo?

Tanky: I sent you some decals today too so you should be well covered now that Tom has sent you even more!!!! Oh well, You'll probably still need the swaztikas I sent as the Do 17's twn tails are quit a bit smaller than the Ju 88's. I sent two different sizes so you can pick whish one looks better. Just make sure you crop the swazrikas before you soak them as the carrier film covers the whole paper. My LHS has that Do 17 kit you are building but I have sooo many other things on my wish list that I think I'll hold off for now.

As for my He 111 I masked and installed the Gondola canopy and I am going to start on the main canopy tomorrow. After looking through all the info Darren sent me on the different variants though I think I'm stuck with the H-6 as building an earlier version requires a different prop and smaller landing gear to be accurate. Technically this doesn't fall within the BofB guidelines for this build. However I know you guys aren't going to throw me out on a technicality (right?) so I'm going to stick with the H-6 variant and do one that showed up in early 1941.

QUOTE: Originally posted by tho9900 osher - good to hear! I've been looking forward to your Bf110...

Thanks Tom! Actually, part of the reason I've been delayed is that my current contract involves 3-4 hours of driving a day, so by the time I get home I'm exhausted and it's late... However, I've pulled a fantastic new contract which starts next week for 3 months. It finishes earlier, and it's just 20 minutes from home! Yippee! (oh yes, and it's a huge promotion too, so I now can waste er, invest, in more models...!)

Thanks for the comments guys. I'll try & answer your questions.

The Mottle was sprayed freehand.

The colors are RLM 71/02/65.

REgards, Rick

Nice work Rick. I like the clean look, before you know it you will be up to 500.

Thad

Thanks Thad. I'm working on it . With the 109 finished, I hope to make faster progress on the Hurricane.

Regards, Rick

Nicely done Rick!
I like it, and didn't even notice the antenna, to busy sussing out that yellow cowl!
Gonna have to build a clean 109 one day.
Theres something about the 109's with the yellow nose, so different, and yet looks cool at the same time.

Jules, I'm saving the EZ line for a bi/tri plane when I do one, seems like a waste to put it on as an antenna.
But the wire I've got suits just fine, should have a finished build by the weekend!!!

Thanks Sean. I've always been partial to the yellow nosed 109's as well. Want to do a white nose sometime as well, but haven't got to it yet.

Regards, Rick

Great looking bf109 Rick, so, with 400+ models, I suppose you could field several staffel of 109s.

I have always been partial to the bf109 myself for German aircraft, I won my first modelling competition with a bf109g-6, when I was 14. I actually only won 2 awards ever, both as a junior as I sort stepped back from modeling as I went through highschool and university. But I'm back now and looking forward to it.

wait, ho0w do you go about tightening the antenna wire anyway? how did you make it in the first place? nice build if I didn't say so already...

Thanks Jay & Tanky. The anttena wire is actually 2lb. fishing line. I glue it in place with a little slack, then apply heat which makes it snap tight. Works sorta like shrink tubing.

Regards, Rick

Hi guys, I haven't been around much lately due to some heavy work commitments, but WOW have some great builds have been posted.

Nick, I know this was posted a few pages ago, but great job on the Hurricane

Rick lovely 109 build and I agree with the others, I have always loved the yellow nosed 109's

I have updated you both on the first page of the build. As for the Spit I had a lot of trouble replicating the shade of blue I needed for the spinner and the fuselage band. It took three re-sprays before I was happy with the color. I should have the base coat coats done soon so that I can have something more to show.

Cheers
Darren

great darren! really looking forward to seeing your build! I am fighting the urge to go straight into another BoB aircraft.. I have to get into the Aussie Gb one first.. then maybe I will come back for another! (more well known AC this time, He111 or Me110 probably)