Battle For Germany 45 GB Starts Now - 08 May 06

That's good news Jay.  Looking forward to the finished build.

Regards,  Rick

Karl, I saw a preview on Hyperscale for the Airfix Spitfire Mk IX and it looks pretty darn good, I even posted about in the aircraft section.  I think I may have to get one to check it out.

Oh yeah, update on the decals issue.  The white residue is mostly gone! I think I can live with it now.  I put the future on this morning and it looks like there is only a little bit left on the fuselage.  I think I may be able to hide it with a little weathering, which is all I pretty much have left to do (whoohoo!).  This weekend is shapeing up to be crazy busy with absolutely no time for playing with the plastic so I'll have to finish it some time next week!

Jay, word to the wise mate, parents and toys that make a noise are a definite no-no!

Every year my parents buy toys for my three that are loud and require batteries, and every time those damn batteries are flat within hours, and then Daddy can't find the rechargables. Shame I know, but one of those things!

Tom, is that the kit that Revell have just reboxed? Also there's the new Airfix Spit which looks pretty nice.

Dave, thanks mate.

Progress Update

All the major components for the 162 are cleaned up and ready for the paintshop, so I'm hoping to get the RLM 76 on this weekend, and maybe paint the engine now I've cleaned up all the seams in the intake and exhaust.

Karl

Chris - ironically, I too am a Tigger addict.  I even have a tie (from way back in my cubicle dwelling, Dilbertesque tie wearing days) with Tigger looking over his shoulder sticking his tongue out...

Also I am a fan of "Bumbles" (from Rudolf the Red Nose Riendeer)   maybe it is the bouncing thing...

"Ya know the thing about Bumbles boy????  BUMBLES BOUNCE!!!!"

That said, if anyone is planning on building a clipped wing Spit, the Hasegawa  1/48 kits come with both options in the same kit.  Both my Mk.Vb and Mk.VIII have the clipped wing versions available...

Hello everyone my name is Chris and I'm a TIGGER Addict yup i collect tiggers even to the point of.... OH THE SHAMEBuying HAPPY MEALS ! ! ROFL Back in the day (im not saying when in highschool will suffice) my nickname was TIGGER I'll have to scan and post my drawing of TIGGER as a P-40 pilot lol.I think it is in one of my portfolios.

Well on to modeling I got the gun mounted onto the brackets that hold it onto the halftrack i think i will finish painting & weathering it before mounting it in the bed of the track to make things easier

on another note this weekend I will be posting a new GB of my own Just a LIL one "The Braile Scale Armor Vacation GB 06" a 2 week 1/72&1/76 armor GB if anyone's interested

Jay Thanks for the links and saving me the research time I do need all the modeling time I can get.   Your right it does look like a full winged MK Vb that's great however I am going to look for a clipped wing spit

As for bouncing tigger do yourself a favour and invest in rechargeable batteries.  We got one of those for my grandson he loves it, unfortunatly after the hundredth time in a hour it was still going strong that's when Nana & grandpaBear did a tactical retreat and left mom & dad to deal with Squirt and tigger

Cheers

Bear

jboutin wrote:

It may freak out a little kid the first time but after that I'm afraid of the cost for the batteries!

Don't worry about the batteries Jay, after your kid has played for the hundredth time in less than an hour it will suddenly develop a "lose" connection in the wiring somehow and won't play any more.

I know you love research Marc (me too), but i'll give you a HUGE help, check out:

 www.ww2aces.com in particlular this link: http://www.acesofww2.com/Canada/aces/morrison.htm  scroll down to the bottom and you can see a pic of him beside his MkVb.  Looks liek his Mk Vb had full wings...

Also I've seen these decals at my LHS http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/ISL/Water%20Mark%20Decals/Water%20Mark%20Decals.htm in particular the top one (with Morrison's Mk Vb).  Water Mark Decals makes excellent decals, I haven't used them before but I have seen several finished Spitfires with these decals on them and they look awesome!

Sorry to do your research for you but I had seen these before in previous research and thought I should pass them along and save you some time (now you have more time for modelling, right?)

EDIT - Chris I just saw you post after I posted this one and I just had to make a note - If you like TIGGERS, my wife and I are making a winnie-the-pooh theme for our babies room and she found the coolest toy!  A stuffed Tigger that stands and when you push on his head he sings "hoo, hoo, hoo, hoooo, tiggers love bouncing cuz thats what tiggers do best" then a mechanism inside connected to the legs makes him jump! It may freak out a little kid the first time but after that I'm afraid of the cost for the batteries!

Thanks for the info guys for some reason I just like the look of the "clipped wing" Spits I am more or less mostly a "tread Head" so I dont usually build aircraft. but this past year I have been trying new subject matter 1/72 armor,aircraft in any scale and maybe even ships (I'm waiting on the new Trumpeter USS The Sullivans ) so thanks for all the help TTFN

Oh the wonderful thing about TIGGERS is TIGGERS are wonderful things !!!!!!!

Ok I think I need a NAP insomnia strikes again

JAY I see a trip to my LHS in the very near future  I'm also going to try and find out what type Donald Morrison  flew (I love research).  Thanks for your imput it's always appreciated.

Cheers

Marc

Jay Thanks for the great follow up.  I'm glad I'm not totaly insane plus I would have had to start looking for a 1/72 scale clip winged MK Vb spit  for the Aces GB does it exist???.

Cheers

Bear

Okay Marc you are right.  Chris and others, sorry for the confusion but I only got it partially right.  I got this off wikipedia:

Spitfire used five different wing types, designated "A" through "E," which overall had the same dimensions but different internal arrangements of armament and fuel tanks.

• A
  • Eight .303 inch (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns, 300 rounds/gun
• B
  • Two 20 mm Hispano HS.404 cannons with 60 rounds/gun
  • Four .303 inch Browning machine guns with 350 rounds/gun
• C - "universal wing" allowing either "A," "B," or four 20 mm Hispano cannon armament. Main landing gear was strengthened and moved 2 inches (5 cm) forward to reduce the tendency to "nose over" on landing. There was added provision for a 250 lb (113 kg) bomb under each wing. In practice, most aircraft carried:
  • Two 20 mm Hispano HS.404 cannons with 120 rounds/gun
  • Four .303 inch Browning machine guns with 350 rounds/gun
• D - long-range wing for reconnaissance versions with armament replaced by fuel tanks
• E - universal wing allowing two weapon fits
  • Two 20 mm Hispano cannon with 280 rounds/gun
  • 2x .50 inch (12.7 mm) Browning M2 machine guns, 500 rounds/gun
• or
  • Four 20 mm Hispano cannon with 280 rounds/gun

Beginning with the Mk.21, the Spitfire had a new wing design armed with four 20 mm Hispano cannons.

Heres the part on clipped Spitfires:

Some Spitfires starting with the Mk.V had wingtips removed to improve low-altitude performance. These aircraft are sometimes incorrectly referred to as "LF" versions. The "LF" designation referred to the low-altitude version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and while many "LF" Spitfires indeed had the "clipped" wings, a number did not.

Looks like the clipped Spitfires were really a non standard modification and was applied to many different marks.

Jay  Now you've got me confused (I know it does'nt take much) I  have seen photos of MK Vb's with the rounded wingtip though are they miss captioned? Now I can't wait till 16:30 to get home and check out  Spitfires in action.  Your reasoning sounds good to me though.

Cheers

Bear

Chris, for Sptifires with clipped wings it was actually a wing option, I think it was the "b" wing.  So when you see a spitfire MkVb, it means it had the clipped wings. An "a" wing had 8 .303 machineguns, the "b" was clipped and had two 20mm cannons and four .303s, the "c" was the same as the "b" but not clipped, the "d" I think was the extended high altitude version and the "e" wing had four 20mm cannons.  I'm not a Sptifire expert but I am sure that was how the wing designs were labeled.  Hope this helps.

I think only a few of the Mk IX had the clipped wing and some Mk XIV also had clipped wings.  It was most common on the Mk V.  The clipped wings increased the role rate and speed at lower alltitudes which helped it compete with the Fw-190s.

Jay glad to hear you got your airbrush back up and running.

Chris  Some of the  MK Vb Spit's came in clipped wing format.  I'm not sure if there were other models with clipped wings though I'll check my referances at home tonight.

Cheers

Bear

Hey all I have aquestion as I dont know much about what versions of spitfires are what which Spit is the one with the "Clipped" wings???

My "Hacktrack" is coming along well except for the aforementioned track Decintegration i just filled the gaps on the rear with some CA glue except for 1 that i had to shim with some strip styrene things are running along smoothly now I'll probably finish it without the tracks as aftermarket tracks seem priced a bit steep so i will save up for them i will probably go with the Friul ones as alot of people seem to have had good results with them. as always Happy Modeling & TTFN !

Update on the airbrush, I have got the new part, I ran to a LHS at lunch and they had all the pieces I needed.  phew! that was a close one. I thought I'd have to wait a week or two for a new part to come in. 

Okay now for a serious question

I was just over on Hyperscale and saw a reveiw on a new Airfix (I know, bad word...) Spitfire Mk IXc.  It was a pretty favuorable review.  It supposedly has new tooling on the fuselage and wings with engraved panel lines.  I was thinking I should try to pick one up.  Has anyone else heard about this new kit? what are your thoughts.

Tough Break Jay, I always blame stuff like that on the Cats!!  At least they are good for something!  I have never taken that part of my airbrush apart (Maybe I should ) but I have come close to losing the set screw that holds the tip in place a couple of times.  BTW great job on the Dora's. They are coming along nicely.

Karl, great looking 109, I totally love the weathering job

Tigertankman, looking good so far.

Tom:  what can I say, the 335 is totally awesome   But are you sure that last photo is of the C-16?  I thought it was the K-9 "Snouzer" version!  (Okay okay I know... too obvious)

ARRGGH!

I went to get some airbrushing done this morning before work and I couldnt find a piece of my airbrush!  I have a paasche H and the outer part that screws over top the syphon has a plastic washer that is held in with a metal screw washer with threads.  I lost the metal washer with the threads!  I have no idea what happened to it! It was there with my AB stuff after I cleaned it last.  At least I think it was...  Everything is on hold now until I find a place that sells parts and go get one.  I'm not ready to buy a new airbrush just yet so I want that part.  A while ago I had to replace the little plastic washer and that took a while to find a place that sold parts.  argh!

Tom, nice job on the 335, the NMF looks great.

Jay, the Doras are looking really good. The mottling looks fine, and I'm sure the very slight marks around the decals will vanish under a coat of Future.

Guys, thanks for all the encouragement, and I'm glad you liked the build.

Meant to say that the aircraft depicted was from NJG II, captured at Fassburg in May '45, just to establish it's bonafides in this GB.

The camo on the 109 is RLM 76, with RLM 02 over the black portions of the spinner. There are quite a few late war all RLM 76 camo schemes out there, especially on 109s and 190s.

Now to crack on with the 162.

Karl

Nice looking Tiger, Tiger.

Regards,  Rick

Thanks to all on the kind words!!!  I will try a few more things hopefully tonight... I had an interesting idea with the mention of the post shading my Pfiel, (it came to me in one of my 'zoned out' moments at work..) I might try it with pastels.  When I did the Martlet for the N. Africa GB I accidently did it when applying some of the sand colored powder and found it an interesting effect..   I might be on to something new!!

Jay - I think the mottle looks fine, I did a search awhile back and saw quite a few 190's with very little to no mottling, just the hazy demarcation line at the lower and upper colors.  Frm the pics it looks like the residue will PROBABLY disappear when you future it... if not probably become unnoticable to everyone but you... It's wierd, I've had the white haze like on the outer edge toward the tip but surrounding the cross is a mystery!  Interestingly the decals I had fits with on my build were Hasegawa (the roundels for the wings, I had a horrible time removing them when they wouldn't settle, it left a ton of residue on the wings I had to use windex and sandpaper to get off!

Chris - tough breaks.  I was finally too exhasperated to finish the indy tracks on the Tiger II I was doing, I finally put it away for a rainy day... I'm going with Fruil next time.  Just as fiddly but they'll keep their shape easier...

Tigertankman - (sorry can't remember your name) looking good!!  The zimmerit looks great, one day I will have to get me one of those tools, I know I will be doing more armor down the line!

Ok, I know I havent posted here forever. but I forgot I was in this one! Sorry! Anyway, here are some progress pics of the Tiger 1,  I have since repainted it, because I felt the yellow overtook most of the tank and made it look only yellow. So I've since decided to, instead, model tactical no. 112(as opposed to the original 212, the well know tank Micheal Wittman used during the battle at Villers-Bocage), Anyway, these are pics of the original paint job, I would take more, but I dont feel like it right now cause I'm playing a Battlefield 2 demo (FRIKIN AWESOME!), but here they are...

EDIT: The zimmerit is made using the basic tamiya putty and tool technique, and is my first try, just thought I'd add that little detail LOL...

Hey gang good news and bad news on the DML "Hacktrack" first the goodi got the upper hull fit problems taken care of going to need a little clean up but overall not too bad And now for the bad as I was putting my carefully and frustratingly assembled indie tracks on the wheels the things DECINTEGRATED! so i now need to replace them anyone have any reccomendations for decent replacements??? thanx again and TTFN

TOM & JAY looking good guys awesome jobs

P.S. Magic Tracks MY SWEET GRANNY ! ! ! ! ! !

Tom,  Very nice Anteater.  Great job !

Jay,  The Doras are looking real good.  The mottle is fine.

Regards,  Rick

So I have some progress pics for you.  You can see the white residue around the decals on the one for this build.   I still have to seal them with future though so as I mentioned before, I really hope (fingers crossed) that the future takes the white away. 

I want your honest opinion of the mottling.  I didn't want to over do it as it was my first time trying the luftwaffe mottling but I think I may have gone a little too light.  Oh well, there is always next time.  I am really enjoying building these 1:72 Doras.

I'll also post the other Dora too, even though it is for the Langnase GB.  These hasegawa decals went on absolutely beauitfully, no issues what so ever.