106 FEB / MAR 2023 • £7.95 UK $16.

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ALL HANDS
ON DECK
ANDREA VIGNOCCHI’S 1:72 CRUSADER DIORAMA
 2 Crusader Part One
Andrea Vignocchi converts the 1:72 Academy F- 8 and drops it into a diorama.

14 Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane

Ian McGonagle’s stunning scratchbuild in 1:35.

22 Scratchbuilt Skyservant Part Two

Master modeller Megas Tsonos continues his build of the Do28D-2.

32 NATO Tiger Eagle

Pascal Klasen builds the GWH 1:48 F-15 with a detail and decal boost.

42 Kyiv- Not just War

France’s Jean-Louis Maupoint shows the solidarity of scale-modellers.

46 Cheetah
Christoff Theunissen models the Kinetic 1:48 kit of the SAAF custom Mirage.

56 Invader
ICM’s B-26B-50 proved a perfect project for lockdown for Alex C. Vourvachis.

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1
 VOUGHT F-8C

CRUSADER
ANDREA VIGNOCCHI converts the Academy kit and sets sail PART ONE

2
1:72

3
 PERSONAL CRUSADE

The Crusader is one of my favourite planes; it was the first
supersonic US Navy fighter (mach 1.7), it was armed with four
20mm guns and a series of unguided rockets, bombs, Sidewinder
and Bullpup missiles, depending on the various versions. Over
1100 Crusaders were built and many aircraft were updated to
more modern standards, making it difficult to keep track of the
exact number of fighters produced. Let's say that the original
versions were: F8A, F8B, F8C, F8D, F8E, then many aircraft were
reconditioned in the F8L, F8H, F8J, F8K versions.
The Crusader had a long war career: it participated in the Vietnam
War, shooting down 16 Mig-17 and 3 Mig-21, losing only 3 aircraft
in combat and becoming the US Navy aircraft with the best kill
rate. However, it was an aircraft with a demanding and sometimes
dangerous handling, especially during landing, when many
accidents occurred. Crusader pilots called themselves "the last
Gunfighters" because the new fighter plane, the F-4 Phantom, was
armed only with missiles. One of the peculiarities of the F8 was
the variable-incidence wing designed to increase lift, facilitating
take-off and landing. The fighter was powered by a Pratt &
Whitney J57 engine, upgraded in the most recent versions.
THE KIT.
I think the best Crusader kit is the Academy which, however, only
reproduces versions E, J and the French F8E (FN); some time ago
I bought the now unavailable Muroc Model conversion to get the
F8A. I've wanted to make a Crusader for years and over time I
bought all kinds of sets: resins cockpit, landing gear, J57 exhaust,
photoetched parts, decals, wings folding set, etc. to the point that
I would have to build at least five or six F-8s to get rid of
everything...

To begin with, it is necessary to study the differences

between the two versions, even if the planes are not very
dissimilar: apart from the nose and the dorsal hump,
there is a number of small details that must be modified
during assembly. The first problem is to adapt the air
intake duct with the resin front landing gear well and the
new nose: I had to split the original plastic part into
sections, then trying to adapt it to the new pieces.

Unusually, I started the job with the Wolfpack

resin wings. I must admit that they
disappointed me a bit because they are not
complete: the front slats must be taken from
the original kit and the flaps and ailerons are
integral with the wing, forcing me to a tedious
separation job. I was thinking of using resin
flaps and ailerons from the CMK set, but I
noticed that they are not accurate. The Muroc
Model set provides the correct dorsal hump for
the C version, without the bulge that contained
the avionics for the Bullpup missile, installed
only from E version. The internal detail of the
wing is scratchbuilt, even if nothing will be seen
when completed...

The CMK resin insert of the internal part of the variable pitch wing fits quite
well, but the connection with the hump of the E version must be eliminated;
when closing the fuselage it will be necessary to fill the hole that has been
created. A dry test of the wing is used to check the mating of the various
resin parts.
After cleaning the resin parts from the molding stubs, I begin to adapt them
and add the missing details. Curiously, the nose gear leg is correct for the C
version but not for the kit version.

I continue the detail work by adding cables and boxes in the main landing
gear well and in the wing compartment; in these areas the resin parts do not
match well with the kit and a lot of work will be needed to close the crevices.
I found it more complex to create the rocket launcher pack that is located
inside the air brake compartment, typical of the C version: I had to build the
part with plasticard drilled to size and in the end it looks good. If you want to
leave the ventral air brake open, this is a mandatory add-on; I add that this
type of armament proved unusable and dangerous, to the point that it was
never used in combat and eliminated in the next version of the Crusader,
the D.

4
It is now time to improve some external details of the fuselage, even if the surface
detail looks very good, with thin panel lines and rows of very delicate rivets; it is
useful to increase the depth of the various engine air vents and to drill the gun
muzzles. Even the internal detail of the cockpit walls must be eliminated with a
motor tool burr.

Now is time to work on the

cockpit; I used the Aires set,
designed for the E version, for
which some changes are
needed in the instrument panel
and in the side walls.

Now we start to get serious: with a precision

hacksaw I eliminated the part of the nose to be
replaced with the Muroc Model set; in the picture
you can clearly see the difference between the
two noses, since the radome of the C version is
more pointed and oval, while the larger and
more rounded one belongs to the E version and
houses a more powerful radar. The upper part In addition, the resin cockpit floor must be thinned as much as
under the windshield comes from the Aires set possible. A more important change was the rebuilding of the rear
and although some adaptations are needed, the part of the cockpit, with the oxygen bottle and other details; in
detail is much better. The air intake duct is glued the kit this area was simplified and not deep enough and even if
to the new nose. not much will be seen, I preferred to do something about it.

The most obvious difference in the cockpit is

the seat: a Martin-Baker Mk5 seat was
mounted in the C version which differed
from the model mounted on the E version,
the Mk7, for the headrest pack made with
soft fabric. The seat frame is the same and
there are only minor differences in the upper
part. Luckily for me, Quickboost has in its
catalogue a seat that should be a Mk7, but
which looks a lot like a Mk5... I just had to
use a file to simulate the soft appearance of
the canvas in the upper pack, add some
pipes made of tin wire, a few more minor
modifications and the transformation is

The instrument panel, on the other hand, is very different: the

radar screen must be scratch-built, as well as the bottom panel
and some boxes and levers. Another important difference is the
yoke which in the C version still had a single handle, while later
it featured two "horns"; I just modified the kit one, eliminating
one of the two handles.

In the pictures you can see how the air intake duct is
considerably shorter than it should and obtaining a decent
mating with the new resin nose was not easy: I had to put a
plug at the end, so as not to see the wall of the nose gear well,
then I painted a shaded hole inside the plug that gave the idea After the long adaptation and detail work of the various resin sets, I am ready to
of depth. I was rather skeptical about the result but the final start their painting and assembly.
effect turned out to be quite good. 5
 First the beautiful Aires resin exhaust is painted and assembled, trying to
recreate the burnt effect of the real J57. The base colour is applied to the other
parts: white for the landing gear wells, air brake and mobile wing interior, grey
36231 for the cockpit and black for the instrument panel, seat and glareshield.

Cockpit and ejection seat are painted with acrylic colours using
my usual high-contrast technique, in order to make all the
details visible, even in the narrow cockpit in 1:72 scale. With
many difficulties in obtaining perfect alignment, the tub is
inserted and glued inside the nose; the seat will be glued only
at the end and it is present only for photographic needs.

To highlight the details of the white parts, I first
paint the details with acrylics, then I do an oil
wash with a medium grey; to avoid a too
pronounced effect, I remove the excess with a
brush moistened with thinners. A coat of matt
transparent will isolate the wash, allowing the
finishing of the various details with Vallejo
acrylics. On the inside of the wing I tried to
recreate the effect of the pipes covered with
crumpled insulating aluminum by painting; once
the wing is assembled, unfortunately not much
will remain visible.

moreover, greater emphasis will

The landing gear wells have make details more visible. After
received a more contrasting painting all the resin parts, it's time
painting, reproducing oil leaks and to think about their assembly: I
various kind of dirt; glue them all with cyano glue on
one side of the fuselage and the
final effect is remarkable!

If the insertion of the various resin sets required only

some adaptation with plasticard to close the various
cracks, the nose was a real puzzle: it is slightly smaller in
diameter than the kit fuselage and to obtain a good
connection it took liters of cyano and a long sanding job,
followed by a boring process of re-engraving the lost
details; I first pass a sharp point to trace the panel lines,
then a light pass with the engraver cleans the engraved
line eliminating irregularities, in short, a real grind!
6
A very delicate step is the assembly of the vac-
formed windshield provided by the Muroc Model
conversion: unfortunately it does not fit well, but I
could not use the one of the kit that features the
infrared sensor at its base and is slightly larger.
After cutting out the windshield, I improved its
transparency with a couple of dips in Future floor
wax, since the acetate was not of excellent quality.
Now is time to prepare the wing; as mentioned
earlier, the moving surfaces provided in the CMK
set do not fit well with the wing provided in the
Wolfpack set, so I have separated those in the
Academy kit which have the right shape and fit
much better on the resin part. I also hollowed out
The transparency is fixed with cyano, then the
cracks are filled with vinyl glue which becomes
transparent once dry. With Humbrol black I filled
the cracks; the purpose of this step is to make the
white Tamiya putty invisible from the inside, which
will serve to make the junction with the fuselage
perfect. Then I protect the part that will remain
transparent with adhesive tape and apply the filler
the outer edges to try to reproduce the camber
that can be seen when the flaps and ailerons are
down. In the C model the control surfaces have a
different degree of inclination: the small flaps near
the fuselage lower less and it is a detail to take
into account if we want a faithful reproduction of
diluted with nitro; it must be liquid enough, so as
to fill the cracks well and when it is perfectly dry,
sanding gently. A new coat of matte black to
check that there are no imperfections and the job
is done; assembling vac-formed transparent parts
is challenging, but the result is excellent.
the Crusader. The visible part of the wing tip
folding mechanism has been improved with some
cables and some missing holes. After masking all
the compartments of the model with Tamiya tape
and Maskol, I'm ready to start painting.
7
 First of all I make a premise: choosing a specific Crusader livery among the
many beautiful ones worn by the US Navy Squadrons at that time was not
easy, but the one worn by the VF 111 Sundowners has always fascinated me;
I had never done a plane of this unit and therefore the choice was easier. I
have reproduced the plane in which Lieutenant Anthony Nargi scored the last
victory (or penultimate, according to some sources) of the Crusader's career
on 9 September 1968, by shooting down a Mig-21 with a Sidewinder missile;
after a short time the fighter was replaced by the much more powerful F-4
Phantom. The first thing to do is to apply a coat of Alclad glossy black on the
part of the fuselage which will remain in metal colour; in the pictures this area
appears quite dark, so the stainless steel effect obtained with the black base
colour is correct. The windshield frames are also painted in this phase,
cutting the masks from Tamiya tape, since the windshield is different from the
E model.

Once protected the areas that must remain black, I apply an Alclad white
basecoat, which will provide an excellent base for pre-shading, essential for
this livery. Lately I have seen some really exaggerated weathering, especially
on planes that have never really been in such conditions; I understand that all
the products on the market encourage you to overdo the weathering, but as I
always say, if you use things designed for armoured vehicles on an airplane…
n the end it will look like a tank too! I would also like to urge you to use
common sense: people are starting to read advice not to exaggerate with
weathering, especially if they have no contact with reality... I have seen a
Gripen in a worse state than a B-17 with 100 missions on Germany... I don't
want to demonize the use of certain enamel filters that are so fashionable,
but the heaviness of these products is sometimes excessive, creating an
unreal patina of dirt. Well, after the lecture from the old fashioned modeller,
back to work: Crusaders were usually quite clean, even during the intense
operational tours in Vietnam, so the challenge is to get a colouration that is
not flat but at the same time with a clean appearance. I started with a base
halfway between preshading and the black and white technique; you have to
be very precise, working at low pressure and trying not to create a too regular
effect.

Once the preparation is finished, I first airbrush matt white on all the parts
that will be of that colour; it is necessary to dilute the colour a lot, airbrushing
many light coats that will leave the underlying pre-shading visible. Gunze's
grey 16440 is a simply perfect hue, I only added 10% white for the scale
effect and a bit of Flat Base;
this colour too is applied in light layers, in order to perfectly control the
transparency of the basic effects. In the picture you can see how the painting
is lively, but without exaggeration. The dividing line between the white and the
seagull gray on my specimen is blurred and follows a different trend from the
usual one under the tail; these details are easily reproducible in relatively
modern airplanes, of which it is easy to find excellent pictures, even in colour.

After yet another masking, I applied black to

the areas under the tail, at the base of the
stabilizers and along the fuselage panel; I
imagine that these were areas with anti-slip for
technicians and to make the trace of the
auxiliary turbine exhaust less visible in the
fuselage.

On the Sundowners planes, the front of the

moving wing was painted red, sometimes with
the squadron name written on it, but not in the
case of my F-8. As always, I
didn't use pure black but a
very dark grey, more suited to
the 1:72 scale; at this point
the basic painting is
complete.

8
To make my model I used a now unavailable decal sheet that reproduced all the
Crusaders which had shot down Migs in Vietnam. The decals turned out to be of excellent
quality, but I preferred to make the sun setting on the rudder and the red parts on the
wings and fins using masks, obtained by copying the motif of the decals on Tamiya tape;
the result is better, especially on an area rich in raised details such as the rudder.

Another masking is prepared to paint

the natural metal leading edges on the
wings, fin and tail planes; I used an
Alclad aluminum, sturdy and resistant to
the adhesive tape of the next masks. As
I have already said, I do not like making
the model too shiny; a few very diluted
coats of Pollys gloss clearcoat were
enough to obtain a semi-gloss finish,
sufficient for decals and oil washes.

The rear part of the fuselage remained in natural metal due to the great heat developed by the engine; in the
pictures of the time you can see varying degrees of wear in this area and in the case of my fighter the burns
are not very evident. I did some tests to find the most suitable colours and, after masking the fuselage for the
umpteenth time, I sprayed Alclad magnesium, chosen for its dark shade; the traces of heat are obtained with
Transparent Smoke glazes on the panel lines and Hot Metal Sepia to create the hue of the burnt metal. I
really like the final result, realistic but without exaggeration.

The decals are of excellent quality, but for safety I

preferred to cut them out as much as possible, in
order to eliminate the risk of silvering. The usual
Micro Set and Micro Sol liquids made the decals
adhere perfectly. The only difficulties encountered
were with the shark mouth on the air intake and the
nation insignia above the bump of the in-flight
refueling probe: for a good result I had to use more
aggressive products and then the decals curled in
a horrible way, but luckily, with the help of a brush
and a lot of patience, I managed to fix everything.
The yellow lines of the gaskets are supplied in
decals by the Academy kit, which greatly
simplifying their creation. A second coat of clear
gloss protected the decals from the following steps,
making them uniform to perfection.

9
 WEATHERING

US Navy Crusaders were well maintained and obtaining an operational look
that gives life and interest to the model without falling into exaggeration was
the hardest thing about this project. All the painting and the various
techniques that I used must overlap delicately, keeping the clean look of
these aircraft and at the same time creating a certain emphasis on the scene
I had in mind. With this premise, the use of the traditional oil wash was
essential: I created a mixture with shades slightly darker than the basic
seagull grey, mixing 502 Abteilung dust and sepia colours. These are
excellent oil colours, with very little binder, for an optimal wash density. As you
can see from the pictures, the panel lines are barely highlighted by the oil
wash, integrating perfectly with the delicate preshading done at the beginning
and creating a deep and shaded colour, which maintains, at the same time,
the clean look of period US Navy aircraft.

The model was airbrushed with

Xtracolor matt transparent, one
of the best ever produced, in my
opinion. Applying light and very
diluted coats throughout the
painting process allows you to
obtain a taut and thin
appearance of the paint, that
looks to scale. In the pictures you
can also see how on a matt
model the panel lines become
more evident, eliminating the
reflection of the gloss surfaces; I
love matt models, I can't help it...

The second part of weathering consists in giving a slightly worn look to the
model; I looked at many pictures of Navy Crusader during the Vietnam War,
trying to spot the areas where dirt and traces of oil, gun smoke, etc.
accumulated. I then deposited small traces of oil colour in the areas seen in
the picture, then blended them gently with a brush moistened with AK White
Spirit. I also added some trails behind the engine vents, while with a sand-
coloured oil pastel I treated the walkways under the fin to achieve a faded
and worn look, also creating a slight halo of dirt in the area. I then also added
some scratches; all these effects must be barely perceptible, visible only with
careful observation.

The gun smoke traces around the

muzzles must be light but visible. They
are essential to give the model an
operational appearance and are
obtained by gently blending a black oil
pastel with a dry brush. Some small
scratches around the cockpit access
steps, on the guns cover and on the in-
flight refueling probe complete the work.
At the rear of the fuselage I made some
shadows around certain panels to give a
minimal idea of dirt and heat generated
by the engine.

After the weathering of the upper part of the

model, I moved on to the lower one, where
the leaks of the various liquids are much more
evident: I painted dark traces of oil colour until
I got the desired look. I then began to take
care of all the parts that will be assembled at
the end, painting the landing gear, wheels,
missiles, hatches, airbrakes and foldable
wings; weathering must be identical to the
rest of the aircraft. In a fit of laziness I used
the brake hydraulic cables provided by the
Eduard photoetched fret: they are flat and I
was afraid that it would be very noticeable, but
after painting the difference is imperceptible.

10
 I finally arrived at the final stage of
assembly: I glued the landing gear legs,
wheels, all the gear doors and the ventral
air brake, making sure that everything is
perfectly parallel, which is not easy with
that type of landing gear.

Fortunately, Academy has provided an

excellent fastening system, which positions
the landing gear legs to perfection; just
check that the wheels have the weight
effect parallel to the ground and that's it! I
then glued the foldable wings; Wolfpack
provided a too weak a fastening system
that would not have withstood the trips
between the various exhibitions but a small
steel pin folded into an L shape and
inserted in two holes made with precision
between the two parts to be joined made
the assembly strong enough. The Crusader
is finished; it is really a beautiful plane,
colourful and aggressive!

IN THE NEXT ISSUE:

BUILDING THE DIORAMA

11
12
CRUSADER

13
 Ian McGonagle’s
Stunning Scratchbuilt
Sikorsky S-64
14
Developed for the U.S. Army as a heavy lift capability
helicopter and given the designation ‘Tarhe’ by the U.S. Army
after the 18th century chief of the Wyandot tribe whose
nickname was Crane, the CH-54 came into service as the
U.S.A’s involvement in Southeast Asia was building. The CH-54
soon became an integral tool in the U.S. Army’s inventory
recovering downed aircraft, suppling troops on the ground with
heavy equipment, clearing helicopter landing sites in the thickest
of jungles with the daisy cutter bomb and even delivering a field
operating theatre via a pod attached to the underside of the
helicopter. The U.S. army retained the Skycrane into the early
1990’s within its National Guard but the Boeing CH-47 Chinook
gave additional options and so the Army elected to cut back on
the CH-54’s use, finally retiring it from active service.
With the CH-54 being retired from service, civil operators looked
at how this remarkable helicopter could be used. Erickson Air-
Crane took up the retired airframes and in 1992 were fully
certified by the F.A.A. to operate and support their fleet of now
designated S-64’s. From that point the Erickson team set about
utilizing the full capability of this helicopter in the logging role,
heavy lift and the most high-profile use, Forest Fire Fighting.
Corpo Forestale dello Stato, the Italian Forestry government
agency undertook to operate the S-64F to access the vast
natural resources from wildfires, the S-64 slotted neatly into its
existing fleet of helicopters already operated by the Forestale
and this is where my interaction with this leviathan began. Whilst
I was working in Italy, the S-64 used to pass through the airfield I
was at with its accompanying fleet of MD-500’s of AB-412’s, it
always made the whole flight line stop and watch as it operated
through the base.
15
 So, you want to scratch build a helicopter? After building a
1/35 MD-500E, MD-500C and AB-412 in Forestale colours, I
wanted to add to the set by building a S-64 but nobody at that
time made such a beast. The crazy idea of scratch building one
crashed into my head and after speaking to modelling friends I
decided to give it a go, what could possibly go wrong?
Research started with the obligatory online search, not a lot
popped up, but I did find a set of PDF tech manuals. I then looked
at the Revell 1/72 Skycrane, surely this wouldn’t be viable? The
Revell kit proved to be remarkably accurate compared to the tech
manuals, using the airframe station lines the measurements
proved to be workable. I set about measuring and making the
basic airframe from a 1/72 kit that eBay provided. Leaving off the
sponson, I measured and marked out the beginnings of my build,
strength had to be at the forefront of the build, this would be a
build that had to support the weight of everything around it. So, it
began.
The Airframe. I had to start somewhere, and this was the obvious
place. Getting the basic airframe right would set the groundwork
for all the component parts that followed. From the rear of the
cockpit to the tail pylon break was the starting place, once this
was done and it measured up to my ever-growing calculations, I
moved on to the Undercarriage sponsons. These in place and
again measured for accuracy the engine firewall was loosely
assembled. All so far had been with stock plastic card and box
sections. Now the fun began, I reached out to a friend on how
best to create the cockpit area, it was decided that foam board,
sculpted would be a good starting place. Using the Revell Kit
again, a rough template was achieved. This was then used, and a
The old but accurate
Revell 1/72 kit.
The start of the airframe build, ensuring that strength was the
keystone to the build. The basic airframe shape would have to hold
all the other parts of the helicopter so using plastic box section and
0.25” card gave me the rigidity I was looking for. The Revell 1/72
airframe in the background provided invaluable source of reference.
16
3D render was made by said friend. With the cockpit ‘plug’ in my
hands I started to trim and fettle this to match it to the airframe I'd
made. Again, the accuracy of the Revell kit shone through and
surprisingly very little work was needed. This, with the rear of the
cockpit made, was then sent back to be 3D printed and the walls
thinned to allow easy fixing. Whilst the 3D magic was being
performed my focus turned to the major assemblies, engines,
gearboxes, rotor head, A.P.U. (Auxiliary Power Unit), undercarriage,
tail rotor and all the associated pipework, filters, pumps and sub-
assemblies. This left out the firefighting equipment, that was its
own challenge.
The nice thing with the S-64 is its lack of an expansive cabin area
to build, instead the area of the cockpit and rear gondola seat is
the focus of the detailing. Pulling together my spares box of parts,
I set about replicating the pilots and firefighters area. Using all the
resources available, flat plasticard, rod, soft wire and foil were
brought to supplement scavenged parts and finished off with
specific aftermarket items like, 5 point etch harnesses from
Eduard, Airscale instrument bezels and decals, Reedoak Pilots
helmets and Meng soft drink bottles. Final touches of folded maps
and Flight reference books set the scene of a cluttered flight deck.
Time for one last check and after a very nervous cutting of the vac
formed canopy. I measured and measured again before a new
scalpel blade was used to make the cut precise and neat, I then
set about closing-up the front and rear glazed areas. The rear of
the gondola where the fire fighter sits, was made in one
continuous clear part, wrapping around the rear including the
access door to the main two-part windows. At this point I decided
to have one pilot door open and one closed, cliche I know.
Pushing ahead on all fronts. With the
airframe assembled and primed, the 3d
cockpit was starting to take shape,
Engine fire wall, Undercarriage
sponson’s made and attached, the
main water tank began and even some
of the transmission and APU parts
coming together. Progress on all fronts.
The cockpit and gondola takes shape. With the help of my spares box and aftermarket items, this area Helmets, seat belts, soft drink
of the build came together with the overarching thought that once the vac formed parts were attached bottles and instrument details all
there would be no going back, or at least not without seriously messing up the build so far. went to add a touch of realism to
this busy work space.

17
 Rivets. Lines of rivets cut from the MicroMark sheets attached, aided with
Micro Set and Micro Sol.

The massive water tank housing the various water intakes and selected
outputs was sprayed and marked separately, this gives the impression that
the water tank and helicopter are not as one, as in real life the firefighting role
kit can be removed allowing the helicopter to fly without it, although this is
rarely seen.

18
Engine and Transmission. Again, like so many times in the
build, 3D printing allowed me to get a basic shape before adding
details and form to a sub assembly, the engines were one such
time. After working out the differing diameters for the intake,
compressor, turbine and exhaust a stepped diagram was drawn
up and compared to tech manuals and the many pictures I was
now collecting on my PC. Once done my friend quickly replicated
and handed me the basic shape of a Pratt and Whitney JFTD12A-
5A engine with the exhausts handed to each location. The spare
parts bin took another bashing and with the soft wire, rod and
coloured wires to replicate the FADEC (Fully Authority Digital
Engine Control) harness the engines sprang into life. In between
parts I sat and thought how I would replicate the Transmission, a
slow build-up of parts from the spares brought me to a point
where I had the two input drives from each engine and the outputs
of the main rotor, tail rotor and rotor brake. Constantly offering
each sub assembly to the airframe allowed me to keep an eye on
accuracy and the interwoven parts around each sub assembly,
building as I went and always looking at what was needed two
steps ahead. Before I knew it, I was looking at the tail rotor drive
shafts to the tail gearbox, through the intermediate gearbox.
Tail bound. With the main gearbox in place the drive shafts to the
intermediate gearbox were next. Taking a long metal tube so no
sagging could be induced, a hole was drilled in the rear of the
airframe tail boom, ensuring that an equal distance from each
bearing hanger was achieved. Six individual shafts make up the
tail drive to the inter box, each one being coupled and supported
as the drive train heads to the gearbox. Underneath these are
mounted the tail rotor flight control cables, with the bearing
hangers acting as host to each cable as it passes to the rear of
the airframe. Taking the drive through a 45 degree angle the
intermediate gearbox is mounted to the aft face of the tail boom
and the drive continues to the Tail gearbox. The Tail gearbox
changes the drive through 90 degrees and supports the tail rotor
and the flying controls to allow for changes in yaw axis, it's like the
rudder on a fixed winged aircraft but more complicated. This is
controlled by the yaw pedals in the cockpit and allows the pilots to
change direction in the Yaw axis, again like the rudder does in a
Fix winged aircraft. The intermediate gearbox, tail gearbox and tail
rotor hub were all 3d printed in basic form, then detail was added
as required. The Tail Rotor blades were made from plasticard and
shaped with the aerofoil profile.
Constantly adding parts led to its own problems, how not
to knock off other parts? A plywood jig was made to allow
the build of subassemblies. This all came back to the
strength of the model airframe construction at the very
beginning of the build. The decision to not permanently fix
the rotor blades to the rotor head allowed for relatively easy
transportation in its custom built wooden box.
19
 Fire Fighting Equipment. With the helicopter taking shape my
mind started to look at the equipment carried by the Skycrane that
makes it a firefighting helicopter. The obvious start is with the
water tank and again measurement taken between the airframe
hard points gave me a starting point for dimensions. Back into the
20
depleting stash of card and rod I went and with the great aid of
Tamiya extra thin the tank started to take shape. Slowly checking
references, I added pipework, wiring and plugs to show this busy
scene of a purposeful bit of equipment.
Later additions from the original Erickson kit
were the addition of a Boom, this allows the
helicopter to slowly fly forward with the boom
down, to force water into the tank. This is the
long pipe on the right side of the water tank.
On the left side is the more conventional
snorkel pipe dropped into the water via the
hoist behind the lefthand sponson, with the
aid of a pump in the tank, this ingests the
water through the strainer on the end of the
pipe. It's worth saying that coming into the
hover burns far more fuel than continuing to
fly forward, so the use of the boom is
preferred, if the water source allows. A further
addition is the fire lance on the front of the
cockpit, this allows a small, directed use of
the water, such as to small individual fires and
has been used in more than one occasion at
high-rise building fires when a single flat or
apartment is starting to catch fire. 3D printing
came to the rescue again with the strainer
head and boom head, everything else was
scratch built.

21
 continues his masterclass in
scratchbuilding
THE INNER SIDEWALLS
I roughened the inner side of the fuselage and glued thin styrene
with tube CA glue (101); this was to act as the cabin interior
upholstery. I added more CA glue, this time a thin one (102),
around the doors and window edges. I finished the work with the
gluing of the cabin ceiling, taking care to leave a gap between the
styrene panels cemented (103), which would close when the
fuselage was to be folded. Scribing was done here as well, as the
interior upholstery comprises of several individual panels. The
interior was given a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1200 (104) and painted in
medium grey and light grey (actually FS36622). The rest of the
sidewall detailing was carried out at this point (105), namely the
addition of the first aid kits, the emergency exit signs, natural
metal trim lines and fresh air outlets.
The time came to fold the fuselage sides along the perforated
lines provided for this purpose. Every measure was taken not to
deviate from the 90o angle (106), a mistake which, if done, the
22
whole fuselage would go astray… I added the rest of the natural
metal trim lines between the panels (107), using Albion Alloys’ fine
nickel-silver tube (NST06). Then I modelled the underwing curved
panel with its telltale silver strip (108), indicating to passengers to
mind their heads when moving inside the cabin and under the
wing area.
I turned my attention to the main body outer sides, completed the
folding of the brass, and glued a piece of sheet styrene (109) to
hold the folded parts together. I finished the work on the main
body by adding the curves (110) at the edges of the sides. These
were fabricated from Evergreen tubes suitably cut along their
length and sanded accordingly. The same was done for the aft
section curves (111) which, in this case was not just a modelling
addition as above but a structural one, as it held the flat sides
together, in addition to the obligatory internal styrene reinforcing.
In (112), the finished aft section is seen to advantage.
 103

101 102 104

105 107
106 108

111

109 110 112

DETAILING THE CABIN FLOOR
Back inside the cabin, and the photo-etched cabin floor was fitted
with the -soldered- four posts which support the three stretchers
(113). Next I added the four seat tracks which were embedded on
floor recesses incorporated in the design of the photo-etched floor.
I used an ancient Eduard ‘negative rivet’ strips fret (114), from
which I took four lengths; then enlarged the ‘rivet’ holes (115) to
get the effect of the standard seat tracks as they appear on the
floors of passenger aircraft of all types (116).

113 114

115 116

23
 117
120
121
123
124
127
I moved on to model the stretchers, and I started by adding the
horizontal beams (117) which support them. The stretchers and
the cabin seats were made in parallel, styrene was used
throughout (118), and soft lead foil was used to simulate the
safety harnesses of all the parts. The painted parts found their
places on the assembly (119), and I turned my attention to the
baggage safety net. Very thin styrene strips were used; these were
placed over a paper template (120) and were initially ‘woven’
together before being cemented. Then I cut and removed the net
from its template. I curved it so as to give it a ‘loose’ form, and
cemented it over the baggage compartment. I also added its
buckles (121) and painted it in a light grey colour.
COMPLETING THE ASSEMBLY
I brought the three assemblies together as seen in (122). With a
sliding motion I inserted and cemented the floor to the main body;
I attached the rear section taking care not to stress anything and
cemented its periphery to the main body. I secured the cabin
ceiling protruding from the main body backwards (see also photo
110) within the gap provided for at the aft section (see also photo
24
118 119
122
125
126
128 129
112). I used the nail fix powder/ CA glue mix to achieve the
strongest of bonds between the assemblies (123). The main body
undersurface was finished inasmuch the same way as the topside
(124); finally I removed the excess styrene over the nacelles
torsion box cutout.
I blanked off the windows (125) and additionally masked the
seams in preparation for the finishing of the whole. Clothes dry-
cleaning petrol (straight back from the early days of dry cleaning-
but still on the super market shelves in Greece!) was used to clean
up the exterior from finger oil deposits (126) and an etched primer
coating was airbrushed overall (127).
Then a coat of Mr. Hobby’s Mr. Surfacer 1500 white was applied
(128) in preparation of the remaining exterior detailing. The
surface was sanded to a high sheen and was scribed and riveted
in the normal ways. When researching the Do28D-2 I found the aft
fuselage ‘vertical’ members (the formers) to be at an angle in
relation to the main body. So the measurements taken on the real
aircraft (129) had to be followed to the letter, if I was in any way to
have a sound platform for the application of camouflage and
decals later on!
STEP 4: TAIL SURFACES INSTALLATION
With the fuselage completed as far as the flying surfaces are
concerned, the tail unit (and-in the next chapter-the wings) could
at this time be put in place. I usually do the vertical stabilizer first
as in most subjects is placed on top of the fuselage and thus
acting as a jig to the correct positioning of the horizontal stabilizer,
the wings or even sub-assemblies as the cockpit canopy or,
perhaps a landing gear, depending on what aircraft one builds. On
the Do28D-2 per se, the vertical stabilizer can be assembled
correctly due to the ‘simple’ slab-sided fuselage shape.
Of course, it had to be …modelled… first and foremost, and this in
turn was when the photo-etched way of doing things, stepped in
once again. The vertical stabilizer sides are stiffened by the
method of embossing, i.e. adding horizontal corrugations, which
follow the skin curvature. A detailed set of measures was obtained
from the Air Force Museum aircraft, a part of which is shown in
(130). They were carefully transferred to a specifically made
drawing; this helped into making the vertical sides in photo-etched
form, a time-consuming work indeed. The end result was put on a
3mm thick piece of styrene (131) and used as a guide to
determinate the rest of the vertical assembly minus the rudder. A
primary shape was thus cut off the sheet (132), and was shaped
to the vertical’s airfoil section. The sanding of the vertical fin was
made with an allowance for the photo-etched parts thickness
(133) so that the maximum thickness of the airfoil should not
130
131
136 137
140
exceed the fuselage width at the vertical stabilizer root. I finally
applied etched primer Surfacer putty (134) and did the rest of
exterior detailing (135).
Even if the fuselage helps somewhat with its shape, a jig is
absolutely necessary, so I made one (136) from foam board. I
inserted paper shims (137) to align the fuselage correctly and
went on with the gluing of the vertical stabilizer in place. Three
pins, two for the main section and one smaller for the dorsal fin
(138) were more than adequate to complete the job. Additionally I
did some roughening of the surfaces to be mated together so that
a more robust cementing could be achieved. I ensured that the
fuselage was exactly horizontal using a spirit level (139), and
checked the positioning of the vertical stabilizer with an angle
protractor. An additional check to see that is stood right in the
middle of the jig (140) was also carried out.
Final step was the rudder (141), made in the same way as the
ailerons. A beacon light was fabricated from a piece of red
Plexiglas (142) and was added at the top, and the trim tab was
made from a spare piece of brass as it is located at the extreme
end of the model, where accidental dents and nicks and damage
is rather the norm than the exception. The rudder was deflected to
the right (for no particular reason) and I ended wishing that I
should remember to fix the rudder pedals in the same position a
couple of months later!
132
133
134
135
138 139
141
142
25
 143

144 145

146 147

148

THE ELEVATORS well as from the top. Satisfied, I inserted and glued the stabilizers,
The aeroplane’s elevators are all-moving surfaces connected via a jigging them, whilst a heavy piece of weight (147) pressed the
set of supports within the rear fuselage to the rest of the flight fuselage firmly on the cutting mat. The finished tail unit complete
control system. In order to duplicate this, I did the same (far with its tailwheel (mention of which is included in the description of
simpler of course!) as the elevators should NOT TOUCH the the landing gear) is shown in (148).
fuselage at any point leaving a gap large enough to convince that
they are all moving surfaces indeed!
I started again with photo-etching, this time
I worked on the panels surrounding the
fuselage opening for the elevator spars. I
used a nickel-silver template (143) to locate
the exact position of the panels which
themselves were etched in thin nickel-silver
as well. The outlines as well as the fuselage
openings were thus drawn in pencil on a
piece of self-adhesive tape attached to the
former. On each side an opening was drilled
out (144), and enlarged; then, following the
panels’ installation, was brought to its final
shape.
A brass cruciform assembly was made, the
vertical member of which to be installed
from the fuselage (145) underside; then
pass through a drilled horizontal member, its
exact horizontal position being determined
by a spacer sleeve (145b), and end up into
a hole drilled under the vertical stabilizer.
Needles to mention the countless dry fits I
endured so as to get it right. A duo of
checks was carried out, ensuring that the
horizontal tube was at a right angle (146) to
the fuselage sides when seen from astern as

26
 149 150

151

152 153 154

156

155

157

STEP 5: WING AND FLAPS INSTALLATION

I marked the area to be removed (149) prior to fixing the wing in
place. By doing so, I created a cavity, half of which within the
wing and half directly over the cabin ceiling (150). From the start, I 158
had decided that I should use the excellent bonding qualities of
the Milliput White epoxy putty, instead of using any normal gluing
deviation, as the cockpit ceiling and consequently the angle of the
procedure. This in itself allowed me to make all corrections I
windscreen depended on the above value, finally affecting the
wanted as this putty’s curing is a long process. However, the wing
shape of the fuselage nose section. However trivial this might
had to be pressed firmly against the fuselage for the putty to get
seem to the uninitiated, a trained eye might catch that little
into every corner of the cavity. The danger of the ceiling breaking
difference in the nose section shape without being able to pinpoint
into the fuselage became imminent so I had to use all possible
what is wrong and where…
skills to avoid that. The gambling paid off, and hours later, I came
Directly in front of the wing front spar, the cockpit ceiling shape
up with an assembly as strong as everything I could ever imagine!
was initially modelled from a piece of styrene onto which a small
Initially a dry fit (151) ensured that the wing positioning should
amount of Milliput was added to help blend the wing to the
leave no mistakes whatever the gluing method would be. Then the
cockpit ceiling (156a). The wing leading edge shoulder fairings
putty was applied (152); its quantity, just a bit less than the cavity
were also added; finally the inside was also blended to become
itself, so as to avoid the aforementioned trouble.
the cabin front-upper upholstery (156c), thus finally completing
Back to the checking process, and with all the time on my side, I
the build of the cabin interior. Finally the wing underside root
ensured that the wing was at right angles to the fuselage (153).
fairings were added; Milliput was used over carefully masked
Its centre section checked to be exactly horizontal (154) when
areas (157), and an equally careful sanding followed soon after.
seen against the elevators and, of course, its distance from the
The areas worked were airbrushed with a coat of Mr. Surfacer
latter to be the same on both sides (155).
1200, and the work ended with brushing a small amount of liquid
Last but not least, the wing was kept lifted at its leading edge (in
Surfacer 1000 (158) at the point where the wing rear edge meets
relation to its rear edge in front of the flaps), to cater for a 4o angle
the fuselage topside.
of incidence. And this was something to be addressed without 27

159
162
165
168
THE FLAPS
The Do28D-2 flaps are of the double-slotted type, combining a
built-in fixed-slot with a variable one which is a function of their
operation, i.e. extension and retraction. They comprise of six
segments which are identical. Nevertheless, they operate
differently as the inner sections possess no dihedral (159), while
the mid and the outer sections follow the wing dihedral. In addition
to this, the outer sections extend at a lower angle value for a given
flap lever position. As if this is not enough, when the flaps are
extended they block the fuselage entry door front half, so there is
a warning light installed in the cockpit to refrain the crew from
operating the flaps whenever the door is opened…
Be that as it may, I decided to present the flaps at position ’20’, so
as to show their slotted construction and different angles of
extension (quite a challenge!), and only keep the entry door rear
half slightly open so that the door could be removed with tweezers
to show the fuselage interior when needed. As I mentioned
already, the flap segments, their operation notwithstanding, are
identical. I obtained their sidewalls in photo-etched parts (160)
which also included the flap bearing arms. These parts were
cemented on the sides of one master flap and one master slot
which were modelled from styrene. As the flaps are also fabric-
covered I went over the masking (161) and spraying procedure
again, albeit for the last time on this model! The masters were
sent over to Y.S. Masterpieces for making multiple copies (162)
and whilst they were made, I devoted some time into soldering
the flap sidewalls together. As the flap bearing arms are located
between the flap segments and each one of them supports two
flap segments, I designed the photo-etched sidewalls as a
28 common piece with the arms, adding a spacer in between, to
161
160
164
163
166 167
169
provide the gap seen between the segments; then again two
pieces to be soldered on each outer side (163) to give some
strength to the arms. Each set of five pieces was aligned under
the grip of tweezers (164) then soldered together. The excess
lead was removed with a glassfibre tipped pen (165); the end
products are seen in (166). A keen eye will notice the angle
difference of bearing arms #2 & #7 in the same photo, as both
outer flap segments are extended at a lesser degree compared to
their mid and inner counterparts (see drawing in photo 159).
I made a makeshift jig to align and cement together all the parts
which comprise each flap. On the Do28D-2, the total flap span is
4.17m with each segment being 1.39m. Converted to 1/48, this
equals to 28,95mm for each of the segments, including the photo-
etched sidewalls plus the gaps between them. So each resin copy
was trimmed down a little (167) to make space so that the
completed flaps in 1/48 are measured to the total sum of 86,8mm,
or 87mm. The completed assemblies minus the fixed-slots are
illustrated in (168); the latter were glued in place between their
own sidewalls soon after (169).
Then I drilled the wing undersides (170) at the points where the
flap bearing arms should be cemented. And in order to achieve
exactly the same flap deflection on the starboard fuselage, I used
the entry door as a guide (171); remember the flaps are blocking
the door when extended, a useful tip considering there is no
reference point on starboard, as to where the flaps should go
exactly…
The completed assemblies are shown in place in (172); thus, one
of the most elaborate steps of the whole build and one which one
might not think of as demanding for such a small model came to
an end. Indeed, small can still be tough.
 170
STEP 6: NOSE SECTION AND COCKPIT
In this section, its heading apart, the smaller details which bought
the build closer to its painting will be described as well. Doors,
windows and landing gear are among them.
Having installed and painted the cockpit floor at an earlier point
during this build, the time came to extend it forward (173) and
have it completed. Then I used Chemiwood resin block to
fabricate the nosecap. I started with a single block onto which I
glued the top profile and cross section (174) then gradually I
removed the excess resin and fine-sanded the rest to the shape I
needed. I coated the exterior in CA glue to seal off the porous
surface and sanded smooth. I finished the part by removing the
resin internally, to make space for the front end of the cockpit floor
previously mentioned.
I used the foam board jig (175) which was made for aligning the
fuselage main body to the vertical stabilizer, to align the nose
section to the rest of the fuselage. I ensured that the extreme
nose was in line with the vertical stabilizer (176) and made two
very important lines in pencil, the centre line and the windscreen
bottom line. These lines helped to exactly define the shape of the
nosecap (177), and do some corrective sanding. I used a minitool
173
176
177
180
181
184
171 172
to sand and pulverize a Chemiwood block, and added the powder
at places where some additions should be made. The powder in
place was soaked in CA glue (a warning note here: the glue
reaction produces vapours which are harmful to eyes and
respiratory system so a mask and goggles must be worn during
this process); then sanded like the rest of the nosecap (178). The
rest of the model was sealed off for its final coating of Mr. Surfacer
1200 (179), following a check for blemishes and/or possible
corrections. Needless to mention, the cockpit roof was modelled
in the same manner, and was dry-fitted to allow for the making of
the master shape (180) which would produce a heat-pressed
windscreen. The master shape was sanded to a very high finish
(181); then pushed through a hole made on a balsa plank (182)
with a piece of clear acetate pinned underneath, and heated
accordingly. The utterly ancient, nonetheless extremely useful
method!
I made three copies (183) and chose the best. Then I cut around
the edges in normal fashion (184) to get the windscreen needed.
The same procedure (185) was used to fabricate the styrene
sunshade, illustrated during its dry-fit over the instrument panel in
(186).
174
175
179
178
183
182
185 186
29
 DETAILING THE INTERIOR
A set of photo-etched nickel-silver details was designed and used
to advantage, this time including all I needed (187) for completing
the cockpit interior.
Starting with the instrument panel, this was initially fitted with a
piece of clear acetate and a series of instrument decals (188)
were added behind it. Then the back side was airbrushed in black
(189) and cemented on a piece of styrene (190), which I used as
a handle for the rest of the proceedings regarding the panel. I
added the switches, made of thin stretched sprue and put the
black-painted instrument bezels in place (191). The completed
instrument panel, complete with its sunshade and its supportive
pedestal front part is seen in (192). The assembly was inserted at
its place in the cockpit, masked and sprayed in Mr Surfacer 1200
(193). In this way the sunshade became uniform with the rest of
the nose.
Next in line is the pedestal assembly with its nine knobs and the
associated details. This was started as a shaped styrene block
over which I cemented the nickel-silver top surface (194) and the
lever slots. Following its detailing, it was sprayed in a thin layer of
Mr. Surfacer 1200 and then painted black (195) with appropriately
coloured details.
Work was carried on with the rudder pedals. A photo-etched affair
as well with the notable addition of the red gust-locking device
forward member (196) in its retracted position (the rear one folds
up in front of the control column). This is a part located on the
pilot’s rudder pedals only, and when engaged, it secures all flight
surfaces at their neutral positions.
Going towards the centre of the cockpit, I dealt with the control
columns of which the aileron control yokes were again photo-
187
191
190
194
30
etched (197) but …here more work had to be done to make them
rounded. So a small amount of nail fix powder/ CA glue mixture
was prepared and applied (198) with the aid of a precision
applicator (stretched sprue, of course!). I cut-off the rear sides and
glued them over the front ones (199), at the same time trimming
off any excess material. I made the columns at this point (200)
and placed the yokes in a position relative to the ailerons
deflection chosen when I modelled the wings. I painted them
(201), and then cemented them in a forward position, as the
elevator was also deflected downwards. As a next step I did the
pilot’s seats (202), fabricated from styrene and small copper
lengths which support the armrests. Lead foil was used for the
harnesses. The sets were painted blue (203), a little lighter than
the real ones so as to bring them a bit out when assembled into
the confines of the cockpit.
The final step was the overhead details located on the cockpit roof
(204). A rudder trim crank, ailerons and elevators trim wheels,
compass deviation cards, cardholders, fire-extinguishing switches,
circuit breaker panels and a portable Halon1211 fire extinguisher
are all there (205), completing the picture of a cockpit where
thankfully nothing went amiss. The ceiling was carefully glued in
place and it was airbrushed with Surfacer (206) to blend with the
rest of the fuselage.
Other small details soon followed. A crew headset (207) was
placed on the sunshade, just before the windscreen installation.
Fitting the latter necessitated some more work with Milliput (208)
so as to make it flush to the rest of the surrounding surfaces.
The cabin heater air intake, in itself a brass tube, was modelled
with the aid of Milliput (209) and sanded to the aerodynamic
fairing which surrounds the intake.
188
189
193
192
195 196
 201

197 198 199

200

202
203

207

206

204

208 209

205

CONTINUED IN THE NEXT ISSUE

31
32
1:48
33
 A Little History
In January 1977 the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing, Bitburg, Germany
received the first McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle. The 36th TFW's
full strength of 79 fully operational F-15As was reached in
December 1977. In 1980, more advanced F-15Cs and F-15Ds
would replace the original F-15As. Some modified MISP II late
production aircraft with the Fiscal Year 84 markings joined the
53rd and 22nd Fighter Squadron in the late 1980s.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the squadrons 525th “Bulldogs”,
22nd “The BIG 22: Last of the Red Hot Fighter Squadrons” and the
53rd “Tigers”, accomplished routine training missions until the
outbreak of the 1990-91 Gulf War. In operation Desert Storm First
Lieutenant Robert Hehemann of the 53rd Fighter Squadron, 36th
FW achieved THREE aerial victories, two of them with the F-15C
MISP II serial number 84-0019. For each kill an Iraqi flag was
painted beside the cockpit by the proud crew members.
My model represents the 84-0019 of Captain Robert Hehemann in
1993 at Bitburg Air Base. I’m a big fan of the Mod Eagle paint
scheme and the tiger strips on the tail.
Due to the inactivation of the 36th FW the 53rd Fighter Squadron
The modified GWH cockpit upgrades with Eduard etched After the painting was done I used decals
parts ready to paint. by ANYZ to add all the little labels,
numbers etc.
The Aires Aces II ejection seat upgraded with scratch built rails and the early
pad. I used Lifecolor and Vallejo paints for the seat, decals from Airscale give
the realistic look. Note also the serial number under the Aces II logo 0019.
Because there is no resin cockpit set on market, I choose to detail
it up as much as possible. For jobs like that, Tom Anyz created
some amazing decals and 3D printed knobs / switches.
First of all, I drilled several 0.4 mm holes into the panels for the 3D
printed AN035 - Toggle switches and AN034 - Dials & Knobs.
Some parts like the throttle lever and the oxygen hose needed to
be replaced by scratch built parts. On the Bay 5 behind the
cockpit I added also more details with help of different types of
wires and plastic tubes. To connect the wires 3D printed - Line
connectors AN016 from ANYZ were used.
After those upgrades the cockpit received a grey base coat with
34
or better known as “Nato Tiger Eagle driver” moved to
Spangdahlem Air Base Germany and joined the 52nd FW in 1994.
The squadron was inactivated in March 1999 and the 84-0019
moved to the 493rd Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath Great
Britain.
Great Wall...Great kit?
Great Wall Hobby have done a good job, the details are amazing.
But there are some badly researched parts like the canopy, its
shape is too oval and should be more circular.
GWH became aware of this and they corrected the clear parts on
the 1:72 version of the kit.
At the bottom of the two pylons there are no recesses for the
MAU-12 like in reality, but there are some correction sets on the
market which we’ll look at later.
Something that many of you already know is that between the
cockpit section and the fuselage are some fitting issues, but they
can be solved by sanding some parts down.
The poorly detailed main wheel bay is not so visible but also need
some reworking.
As last step on the panels I added the 3D
printed buttons and knobs of ANYZ.
Also, for the front panel I used a mix of
decals of ANYZ and Airscale.
I used different types of wires on the
ICMS Module system.
FS36231 mimetic dark gull grey by airbrush, the panels are
painted by brush in several black tones.
Early eagles do have a metallic green Bay 5, but later ones like the
84-0019 were painted in white. As a finial step before applying the
decals I covered all areas with a gloss clear coat.
ANYZ AN005 - Universal Labels and Stencils 1/48 Part 1 (white)
are perfect for any kind of cockpit, I placed those decals around
nearly all drilled switch and knob holes following reference
pictures. Finally, the 3D switches and knobs get pre-painted and
then placed in the different holes on the panels. On the instrument
panel I used several decals from Airscale and ANYZ.
 A mix of Tamiya XF- I really enjoy the 3D printed parts of ANYZ, they can be used
01 and XF-55 were For the highlights and chips, I used a everywhere.
applied by airbrush. small brush. The placards on the boxes
came from Jira-GIO decals, a small
company located in Thailand.

On the right cockpit side wall, I scratched the canopy control lever by a piece of
plastic card and a lead ball. Regarding the CB/Relay panels I drilled several 0.4
mm holes and put in placed plastic tubes simulating the circuit breaker.

Regarding the ejection seat, I used the Aires type B seat with the
cushion from a Tamiya F-16 kit seat. Unfortunately, Aires offers no
Aces II seat with the early pad, all versions have the later style
pad. To replace the badly designed rails of the ejection seat, I fully
scratched them with plastic card.
After finishing the different cockpit parts I put them all together
marry the cockpit with the fuselage. Now it was time to think
about the clear windshield, regarding the shape issues of the kit
parts, I planned to use a replacement set from Fairy Hobby but
the clear resin parts the set
started to get a yellow tint after
one year in the packaging. My fear was that the parts get even
more yellow in the coming years, I decided to use the clear parts
of the Hasegawa F-15C kit. It was very hard to get them into place
and I can’t recommend doing it, but the shape is pretty correct.
Some other areas were replaced with 3D printed parts from
Richard VanZandt. He designed a one peace part for the gun
muzzle area, because the seam line is going straight horizontally
through the gun area, what makes it difficult to putty and sand it.
The fitting of the 3D printed part is quite good, there is not much
rework needed.

35
 There is also a replacement part for the round exhaust louvre for
the regenerative heat exchanger, which is used in reality to cool
the avionics. You can find this louvre on the right side of the
fuselage around the bay 5 area.
On several spots like on the engine area and around the seam of
the vertical stabs, I added rivets with help of a riveting tool. Most
modellers fill the seam between the vertical stabs and the
fuselage with putty, but they are actually visible on the real F-15.
Great wall Hobby did a good job researching of the reinforcement
plates, but compared with my reference material I had to add
some more. Eduard offers also some of them as etched parts,
but not the right ones for my F-15. I used 0.2 mm plastic card to
create my own, they were placed around the left air intake and
the vertical stabilizers.
Looking at the top of the stabs and comparing this area with my
reference pictures, I was shocked. It seems that there were
Around the seam of the vertical stabs I The top and bottom of the fuselage received some extra rivets.
added rivets with help of a riveting tool.
I replaced the round exhaust louvre for the The replacement louvre fitted.
regenerative heat exchanger, with an 3D
printed part.
36
different versions of the small fairings for the ECM antenna and
the clear white/red navigation light over the years. GWH choose
the latest style version, but I needed the old fashioned ones. I
replaced what was necessary with Hasegawa kit parts. Kopecky
Scale Models offers many F-15 aftermarket parts in 1:32 and
1:48. If you plan to build an Eagle those parts are a most have, I
used the 48003 F-15 Antenna/ballast set to replace the not so
well detailed GWH radar warning antennas. I also replaced the
pylons with Kopecky Scale Models 48007 F-15C (late) Pylons +
Rails (GWH).
The position lights on the main wings are represented by GWH
only as a panel line on solid grey plastic. To give them a realistic
look, I replaced them with clear self-made plastic parts, which will
be painted later in clear red. A detail which is missed by most
modelers and even by GWH are the flap stoppers, I created them
by plastic card and with help of my punch and die set.
Gaps were filled with Tamiya Cement Easy
Sanding.
Reinforcement plates were created from plastic Eduard etching parts were used instead of the kit Position lights need to be replaced by self-
card the antennas and position lights on the upper antennas and reflectors. made clear parts.
right came from the Hasegawa kit.

Here the differences between the oval GWH windshield

and the correction set part is visible. Note the problem of
Some details need to be added on the instrument panel cover. yellowing though of the aftermarket set.

A few aftermarket companies produce exhaust nozzles for the
Eagle, comparing the Aires, KA Models and Reskit exhaust, I
choose to use the KA Models. It’s a one-piece 3D printed part,
which is so thin that you can see through it. But I can’t
recommend using the Afterburner of KA Models, therefor I used
the Aires Afterburner parts with the KA nozzles.
The landing gear received some upgrades, several hydraulic lines
need to be added and fixed by thin strips of Tamiya masking tape
and super glue. On the front gear GWH missed some holes but
that was an easy fix. With help of Archer’s 3D rivet decals and
Eduard etched parts I pimped-up the gear doors. Those rivets are
available in different sizes, so you can use them for any purpose,
even for buttons in the cockpit.
Some of you are maybe wondering why the AIM-7 has no wings
mounted, but at Bitburg /Spangdahlem Air Base those training
missiles (blue strips around the rocket) had none. Booth missiles
are aftermarket parts from Eduard, unfortunately there are no blue
strip decals included. So, I decided to paint them, with help of
Tamiya masking tape it was an easy job.
But regarding the other decals
Eduard did an amazing job!

37
 Self-made rivet decals were used to
create the rivets along the red frame.

The bottom of the canopy

framing received several
upgrades. Archer 3D rivet decals
simulate the positive rivets
ahead the canopy framing.

Grey Matters It is a very tricky job to get the right colour tones for the decals,
First step of painting was a preshading with XF24 and after that, because many stencils are in the camouflage colour. The tail code
all other areas were painted in XF-02 white from Tamiya. This is painted in black for a better visibility, because it was heavy to
technique is like a primer for the Hataka paints and gives a more identify the jets on foggy days. After finishing the drawings, I got
dramatic effect. Hataka offers a great set for all variants of the the idea to create a full decal sheet with F-15A/B/C/D of Bitburg Air
Eagle which is called ‘Ultimate USAF F-15 Orange Line Paint set.’ Base Germany.
The finish of the orange line paint is amazing!
I used thin strips of Tamiya masking tape to do the outlines of the
camouflage. With this technique it’s possible to create exact
camouflage patterns by original pictures. After removing the tape,
I spray the outlines freehand with my airbrush, to achieve a softer
blending.
As finial sealing before applying the decals, I sprayed a coat of
Hataka Orangeline Gloss. A tip from me, let the paint dry a
minimum of 24 hours, before starting with the decals and softener.
After weathering and decals follows a flat clear coat of Hataka.

Decals
For this project I compared three decal sheets, the most accurate Here are the self-designed decals,
sheet came by Astra Decals. But some logos have the wrong available now
https://www.pkproductions.de/shop/
shape and the darker stencils are too light in colour. There was no
other solution, so I decided to draw my own decals. Therefor I
spent many hours in researching pictures of F-15s from Bitburg.

After the paintjob was done, I applied a coat

of Hataka clear gloss.

The whole fuselage received a

base of Tamiya XF-02 White,
afterwards I added a pre-
shading.

Decals were placed by Microscale Set

and the decal setting medium of Daco.
The yellow tail stripe is painted and
later I had to add the tiger strips.

The Hataka Ultimate USAF F-15

Orange Line Paint set is the ideal
choice for realistic colour tones.
A general wash
was applied by
oil colours.
38
 The landing gear
got some upgrades
by etching and
scratch parts.

Archer rivets were needed after the gap

filling process of the landing gear doors.

GWH forgot to drill some holes,

but that was an easy fix.

The resin wheels of RES-IM will

finish the landing gear. I created
the metal effects of the hydraulic
cylinders by aluminum foil and
aluminum decals of ANYZ.

It’s the first time that I used

asphalt texture ground by Ammo
of mig to simulate the runway /
the area in front of the shelter.
The product was easy to apply
and can be diluted with water.
Plastic card simulates the
concrete slab and plaster mixed
with sand the earth around. With
my airbrush I sprayed several
layers of Tamiya XF 52 flat earth
as base before applying the
grass.

My plan was to create a scene of the parked

aircraft in front of a shelter, near the runway.
Styrodur from the local hardware store is used
as a light weight and easy to form base. Several grey layers were applied on the concrete
slabs. Mininatur is my choice for grassmats etc. the
stuff is very realistic and easy to apply. Finally I did
some washes with oils and apply pigments on some
areas.

39
40
41
 ‘Not Just War’
Scale Model Meeting
Ukraine-France, Kyiv, August
13th, 2022
Since the Russian attack on independent Ukraine
on February 24th I felt strongly to personally act
on the principle of democracy everyone deserves
and set up several missions in March to help
Ukraine at war and their refugees, with the
support of many of my friends.
As a scale modeller, I also wanted to create a solidarity event
through our hobby, on the occasion of my second visit to Ukraine
in August.
To the great surprise of the Ukrainian modellers and
manufacturers, I proposed and organized, before leaving France,
a scale modelling meeting with the enthusiastic support of the
president of the IPMS-UA, Andrii, and the store manager of Hobby
DN Ivan Reshytko, and the brands Master Box, ICM and USCP
(Ukrainian Scale Car Production).
The exhibition was held on Saturday, August 13 in Kyiv at Hobby
DN. Because of the air alerts, for security reasons, it was limited
to about twenty people, excluding visitors. But it was the first
event here since 2019, after two years of Covid and six months of
war the event was very welcome by the modelling community.
The aim of the exhibition was to celebrate Ukraine rather than
through the sufferings of war, but as a free country, full of creative,
hard-working warm people, and among the most skilled in our
hobby. It was an opportunity to showcase their growing role in our
scale model market over the last ten years, with already more
than ten companies: MB, ICM, Mini Art, Mikro-Mir, Dan Models,
Roden, Reskit, Skif, and many other talented producers.
Report by
Jean-Louis Maupoint
42
Most of them are currently working in terrible conditions !
The exodus of Mini Art to Poland and the loss of a number of their
production moulds and tools in the south-east of Ukraine, the
death under fire of the main illustrator of the brand Roden, or the
incredible creativity of Master Box, less than 80 km from the front
and about to market a set of 2022 Ukrainian fighter figures which
should now be available.
With this second mission there was also a gesture of solidarity
with the Ukrainian people, the intensity of suffering I was able to
measure during travel in Borodianka, Irpin and… Butcha, or
working with humanitarian organizations that host 70% of Russian
speaking Ukrainians.
I can assure you, after this trip in the northern suburbs of Kyiv, that
the capital faced very hard times at the end of February and in
early March. The incredible reactive action of the Ukrainian army
saved the desperate situation, the first Russian tank wrecks being
visible less than 5 km from the city centre.
I was excited by the technical level of the models presented,
including many conversions and even full scratch builds in all
categories. In the armour classes many contemporary subjects
could be seen and even a few in the aircraft classes.
Here are some of the aircraft subjects on display to give a flavour
of the standard of modelling on display.
I was very impressed in Ukraine and then back in Krakow and Prague by the
dynamism of our hobby in Eastern Europe. In Prague alone, more than ten
hobby shops for a city of 1.3 million inhabitants! The number of (very) young
modellers attending the IPMS-Ukraine courses and clubs would be the envy of
clubs in Western Europe, the hobby is buoyant with a new generation of
enthusiasm.

Our friends at IPMS have organized an online 2022 contest including several
countries. A French group quickly joined this ‘on line’ competition in mid-August
following the meeting with our friends in Kyiv with some awards heading across
to France!
Many thanks to the IPMS UA for the extraordinary welcome, to the Hobby D.N.
store (a refugee in Kyiv since 2015, originally located in the Dombass), and to
the ICM, MB and USCP brands who supported this Ukraine-France meeting with
so much enthusiasm. A big ‘thank you’ to the Musée des Blindés de Saumur for
it’s support through the gifts and prizes brought to Ukraine and to AIR Modeller
for sharing our story about the strength of the modelling community.

43
 In March this year, we pulled the modelling community to-
gether to produce a book to raise money for Humanitarian Aid
for Ukraine. We raised over £19,000 for the Disasters Emer-
gency Committee Ukraine Appeal.

 


Models for Ukraine, Vol.2
So we decided we needed to do it again. Now 23 modellers
from 11 countries, have built Ukrainian-made models and
donated their articles, to again support the Disasters
Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal. Including: Calvin
Tan, Paolo Portuesi, Fanch Lubin, Alex Clark, Ian Barraclough,
Robert Blokker, Chuck Wojtkiewicz, Harvey Low, Emilien
Pepin, Aleandre Blech, Matt McDougall, Mike McCabe, Filipe
Costa Ramires, John Colasante, José Brito, Stephen Ward,
Brian Denklau, René van der Hart, Ken Abrams, Sam Dwyer,
James Hatch, Kateryna Derbilova, and more

You can buy yours now, at insidethearmour.com

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46
Introducing...
The pride of the South African Air Force (SAAF) for almost 3 decades,
the Atlas Cheetah is a South African fighter aircraft designed and
produced by Atlas Aircraft Corporation (later Denel Aeronautics). The
arms embargo placed on South Africa by the United Nations, forced
the SAAF to look to the Mirage III, already operated by the SAAF, for
upgrade options. With Israel’s assistance, the then state-of-the-art
Cheetah fighter and strike aircraft, was developed and introduced into
SAAF service in 1986.

The three Cheetah types, C,D and E, served with distinction in the
SAAF, including the Border War, until 1992 when the Cheetah E
variant was withdrawn from SAAF service, followed by the Cheetah
C and D versions in April 2008.
Since its retirement by the SAAF, a limited number have been
exported to the Ecuadorian Air Force (EAF). In the recent past, the
privately owned company Draken International have acquired some
of the remaining South African Cheetahs for use as an adversarial
aircraft for combat training in the United States.
47
 A peek at the Kit
The Kinetic 1/48 Cheetah D is based on the Kinetic Mirage III
tooling, and like the Cheetah itself is a crossbreed between the
Mirage III and the Israeli Kfir. In the box, the majority of the parts
trees are re-issued from their Mirage IIID and Kfir kits. This leads
to the builder having to take careful note when assembling the
kit as there are several sprues having the same number but
consisting of very different parts, as well as a multitude of spare
parts not used for the Cheetah.
The parts unique to the Cheetah are included in a single sprue P.
Since the sprues originate from different toolings, the quality of
the parts and details range across the spectrum from excellent
to mediocre, bordering on poor in some cases; the Cheetah new
tooled parts are excellent, the other older tooling parts, not so
much. In terms of markings, if you are looking for colourful
models, this is not for you; four marking options are provided in
the box for three SAAF aircraft and a single Ecuadorian export
version, all in air superiority grey overall colour schemes and low
visibility markings for the most part, but more on that later…
For this build, I decided to rather represent an airframe early in
the career of the Cheetah D, without the refuelling probe fitted
yet, and the early SAAF markings. There are a few things to look
out for when building an early version, and I will be pointing them
out as I go along.

I ditched the kit martin-Baker Mk.10 ejection seats and opted
for Aires resin replacements instead. The detail on these
seats are exquisite and a joy to paint. However, the seats do
not fit into the cockpit tub, and liberal sanding on the bottom
of the seats are required to force them into the cockpit tub.
Once in place, they look beautiful though.
Assembly started with the cockpit in order to close the fuselage halves up. The detail
provided in the kit should be adequate for a closed canopy, but overall presents itself as
soft. Extra detail was added using stock plastic and wire to spruce things up in the front
office.
The cockpit was painted and finished off with Dark Gull Grey and black, with individual
details drybrushed in light grey before being picked out individually with other colours. A
dark brown enamel wash highlighted raised detail further.

The assembled cockpit with the

replacement seats and extra scratchbuilt
detail compares favourably with
references and the seats really bring the
small cockpit to life

48
Moving on to the front undercarriage bay, the kit parts are nicely detailed and
sufficient for the little it will be visible once completed and installed. Some
detail was added using a riveting tool, the tub painted with Tamiya LP-11,
given a dark brown wash and details picked out with Vallejo acrylics.
The air intake trunking requires some effort to fit, with the cockpit squeezed
between the two intakes and the trunking folding around it. Here it is also
worth noting that some Cheetahs had different air intake splitters in various
stages of their lifespans, and so it is worthwhile checking that detail when
building yours. For mine, I required the straight edged splitter, which was
included in the kit on the Kfir sprue (D), and not using P11 & 14 as directed in
the instructions (the instructions make no mention of alternative intake
options). The intake assemblies were then painted LP-11 for the trunks, and
Tamiya XF-82 Dark Sea Grey for the rest.

The bottom wing assembly requires some I also added extra detail in the main
scrutiny when building your selection of undercarriage bays as well as the rest of the
aircraft and markings. Most of the auxiliary bottom wing assembly. The chaff and flare
intakes and vents are correct, as indicated in dispenser provided in the kit is correct for
green, and only requires opening up. the later versions of the Cheetah, but
However, the vents next to the cannon muzzle incorrect for an early version. Not having
breaks are to be removed (red), and a choice a correction part available yet
will have to be made between the single or (Scaleworx will be releasing a
twin intakes on the centreline; on my and correction set), I bit the bullet and
most early Cheetahs, the single intake is used the incorrect dispenser for
correct, however some early and most later my early Cheetah…oops.
versions was fitted with two intakes (parts P20
as per the instructions). The attachment
points for the bomb pylons just aft of the
cannon muzzle breaks are not represented in
the kit, and was added using plastic card and
rod.

With the subassemblies completed and detailed, it was time to

bring them all together. Here you can clearly see the extra detailing
done on the bottom of the aircraft. Not so clearly visibly is the odd
way in which Kinetic designed the air intakes and wing assembly to
come together; it requires a lot of dry fitting, tweaking, sanding and
some filler to get the intake and wing root areas to look decent.

Looking at the top of the completed airframe, there were some

absent strengthening plates on the tail added using plastic card,
and for the forward antenna on the spine I used part L27 instead
of C42 as directed in the instructions. The early Cheetahs used
the Mirage III front windshield, which is provided in the kit (the
instructions only mention H1, which is the frameless windshield).

The characteristic long nose of the

Cheetah D is beautifully moulded and
correct in most ways, most importantly,
its shape. However, there are still a few
details worth adding or correcting, most
notably the two vents behind the radar
warning receivers; they were hollowed
out and fitted out with plastic card and
rods to bring it more in line with
references.

49
 Painting commenced with a layer of AK Interactive Black
The main undercarriage bays were painted white,
Primer and Filler, thinned a touch with Tamiya Lacquer
given a wash of dark brown, and details painted in
Thinner. Any irregularities, seams and flaws were corrected
individual colours using Vallejo acrylics. The air brake
at this stage, and touched up with primer again.
bays were also painted white at this stage.

The go-to colour mix locally in South Africa for the early
SAAF overall dark grey colour scheme is 1 part Humbrol
125 and 2 parts Tamiya XF-66. However, since I prefer
working with acrylics or lacquer paints, I had to find an
alternative to the enamel mix above.

Through some testing I found Tamiya XF-82 Ocean Gray 2

The top surfaces
(RAF) to be a near exact match for the Humbrol-Tamiya
were also
mix. I used that, as well as Tamiya XF-25 Light Sea Grey
preshaded in the
and XF-24 Dark grey to impart colour variation and
same way, following
highlight certain areas as part of preshading.
references closely…

Panel lines and other surface details were highlighted with

AK Interactive dark brown enamel wash directly onto the
painted surface using pin washes. The excess was
cleaned off using a soft cloth moistened slightly with white
spirits. Due to the inconsistencies with the various toolings
used for the kit, some panel lines are very shallow and I
had to resort to drawing them in with a pencil afterwards.

Once the preshading was completed, the entire model

received a few very light filter coats of heavily thinned XF-
82. These filter coats tie all the preshading together for
the final overall effect. Details were picked out with
Vallejo acrylics, most notably the radar warning receivers
on the nose and tail, or “katballetjies” as they were
affectionately called in Afrikaans.

To ensure that any subsequent handling,

weathering or decal setting solutions don’t
damage the paint, the model was sealed
with Tamiya X-22 Clear thinned with Tamiya
Lacquer Thinners, and let to cure overnight.

50
 The decals provided in the kit are disappointing: although nice and crisp,
most feature wrong colours, missing stencils, the castle roundels being
slightly inaccurate in shape, the Lion squadron markings being identical and
therefore one side facing aft instead of forward when placed, to mention but
a few. The decals provided in my box also does not match my instruction
sheet versions and callouts….odd…

Locally based in South Africa, LeVos Decals came to the rescue however,
and produced a decal sheet with the correct markings, including low
visibility castles, correct no-step markings, missing stencils, to name but a
few. In the end, the only kit decals used were for the ejection seat warning
markings, the two cheetahs on the nose and the canopy jettison markings
aft of the canopy. Once fitted and sealed, the markings were given a filter
coat of the overall XF-82 to dull them down as was the practice on the real
aircraft, especially during the Border War.

The model was given a coat of Alclad II Flat before
detailed weathering was done on selected
surfaces using thinned Abteilung 502 oils.
Splattering the thinned oil paint on selected areas
really brings the surface to life, and breaks up what
would otherwise a monotonous colour scheme.
The same oil paint was used to shade selected
areas a bit more, to augment the preshading.
Moving onto the undercarriage, care must again
be taken between the early version Cheetahs
and the later versions. The instructions only call
for the later version, although both versions are
included in the box. To represent the early
undercarriage, I replaced D69 with C31, and D68
with C23 (main undercarriage legs). I also added
some extra details and wiring to augment the
rather soft details on the undercarriage legs.
Not only were the undercarriage legs different
between the early and later versions, but so too
the doors: for early versions, replace D51/52 with
D24/25, replace D23/24 with C32, replace D53/54
with C22, D25/26 with C29/30 and D75/76 with
C53/54.
The undercarriage was then painted Tamiya LP-37
(they are not white…), doors Mr.Color 316 and XF-
82, given a pin wash with the dark brown enamel
wash, and details highlighted with Vallejo and
Tamiya paints as required

During the early part of their career, Cheetahs

were often seen sporting the bare metal external
fuel tanks from the Mirage IIIs. To replicate a
reference photo that shows these tanks as being
very worn and dirty, I base-coated my tanks with …I then applied a filter coat of Stainless (Steel) over Finally, the tanks were given a wash of the dark
Mr.MetalColor Chrome Silver, followed by random the preshaded tanks, and added scratch and scuff brown enamel wash, including some splatter
patches of Dark Iron trough a stencil. marks using my sharp pointed tweezer… effects.

The canopy received some detailing as per The canopy then received a coat of AK Interactive …before receiving more detail that would have
references on the inside frame of the canopy RealColor NATO Black… hindered the masking and painting process…
using plastic card, and the interior masked off in
preparation for paint.

51
 The overall colour of
XF-82 was finally
applied, along with
the white strips on
Another weakness of the kit is the very poorly detailed exhaust. I left it as it
the canopy and aft
was and just painted it with Mr.MetalColor paints and weathered it with the
canopy sides.
dark brown wash. Ideally this is a part best replaced by a resin or 3D
printed replacement part.

Finally, all the subassemblies were added to the
model, including antennas, pitot tube, AOA
tubes, etc, bringing to a close this project…and
what an impressive sight and model the
Cheetah is when done!
As a South African it is really great to see
mainstream manufacturers taking an interest
in South African subjects, and the Cheetah is
certainly a subject that has been waiting too
long for that attention.

The kit itself satisfies the need to build a

Cheetah out of the box and not having to
convert a Mirage or Kfir to have one in your
collection…but it comes at a cost: either
settle for what the kit gives you, or spend
some time and effort to correct the various
inaccuracies or shortcomings. In either case,
well done Kinetic for giving the SAAF fans a
kit of this wonderful aircraft!

52
I would like to thank Kinetic Model Kits
and Vinicius Pompeo for providing me
with the kit, and LeVos Decals for the
decal sheet and its development and
testing. A special word of thanks to John
Weideman from Scaleworx Resin Models
for the plethora of advice and references,
who will also be releasing a correction set
for both late and early Cheetah D
versions. Finally, a special thank you to
Daan Conradie for the references and
encouragement!

53
1/72

B-25
5J
Mitchell
c St
S raferr
ProfiPACK edition kit of US W WII meddium • Hasegawaa plastic parts
bomber B-25J Mitchell with solid noose in • Color phooto-etched details and die-cut mask
1/ 72 scale. Thee kit is focused on plannes used • Decal sheeet for 5 markings
in attack on ground targets from low level
sky on the batttlefields of the Pacific and
S utheast
So th t Asia
A ia.

B-25J-30, 44-30934, 1/Lt Charles E. Rice, Jr

J .,
449th BS, 345th BG, 5th AF, Kadena, Okinawa,
w July 1945

B-25J-10, 43-28145, 71st BS, 38th BG,

5th AF, Lingayen, Philippines, 1945

B-25J-20, 44-29147, Lt. William J. Faucher,

396th BS, 41st BG, 7th AF, Kadena, Okinawa, July 1945

B-25J-20, 44-29657, 1/Lt Thomas Cockrell,

100th BS, 42nd BG, 13th AF, Puerto Princesa,
Palawan, Philippines, 1945

#7012
www.eduarrd.com B-25J-30, 44-31063, 498th BS, 345th BG, 5tth AF,
le Shima, Okinawa, Japan, July 1945
56
What else would a modeller do during a
pandemic lockdown? The only decision to make was
which kit or project to concentrate on. We all of course
hope the World can leave the desperate measures of 2020
in history but our hobby certainly helped many of us
through difficult times.

Back in the old days the box-art of a kit was often the main
inspiration to acquire a kit. Those who were born in the 70s
can recall many box-arts by painters like Roy Cross or Roy
Huxley and later Shigeo Koike that inspired them during
their construction of the kit they were building. These days
most of the box-arts are 3D renderings and due to
politically correct manners no combat action can be seen
anymore. But sometimes even a 3D rendering can inspire
a modeller to buy and build a kit... just like me and ICM’s
new tooled Invader. The Korean War theme with the
heavily weathered B-26 Invader gave me a nudge and as
soon I bought the kit I started the construction!

57
 I started the construction with the cockpit area and the only
details that I added were some wires and a few hydraulic lines
in the rear section, all of them made by lead wire. Also, I added
seatbelts in the pilot and co-pilot’s seat, made of aluminum foil.
The cockpit and the rear gunner’s position were painted with
Gunze’s H464 chrome green for the main parts and Tamiya’s
XF-1 black for the instrument panel, when dry, I used Vallejo’s
Black and Rubber Black to give some different tones in the
black panel. With a few drops of Future (clear acrylic) I
replicated the glass on the dials and with light grey and silver I
painted the switches and buttons. I dry-brushed the area with a
light toned grey and green and after a wash with Sepia oil by
502Abt, everything was set for final assembly. The bomb-bay
area was painted with AK’s Xtreme Metal Aluminum and I did a bays and two excellent miniature engines.
wash with Engine Grease oil by 502Abt. On the real plane one Of course, if it’s wanted, a lot of extra detail can be added, but
can see a lot of wires, hoses and pipes inside the bomb-bay, I decided to keep the construction as simple as possible so I
but I decided to keep it simple and add the bombs. The two added only brake hoses on the gear legs and spark-plug wires
fuselage halves were glued together without issues and the on the engines. But with some extra work, an experienced
next step was the assembly of the wings. modeller can add all the necessary hoses and wires to the
engines which can be builts exposed without any covers.

The kit provides the flaps as separate parts, but they can’t be
placed in the ‘down’ position, due to the complexity of the
mechanism it’s not represented. Also the Invader’s flaps are
actually a double slotted type; extra work has to be done if
someone wants to replicate them set downwards. Ailerons also
are separate parts, but I decided to place all of the control
surfaces, including rudder and elevators, in the neutral position.
The detail and the surface of the wing area are really nice, with
sharp detailed panel lines. The assembly is easy and precise
and the use of putty shouldn’t be necessary. Engine nacelles
are nicely replicated with good amount of detail in the wheel-
Fuselage and wings fit together so perfect, that I decided to
paint and weather them separately.
The main coat of paint was Xtracolor’s X111 Olive drab for the
upper surfaces and X133 Neutral Grey for the underneath. After
the main colours dried, I sprayed X113 Faded olive drab in the
centre of the panels and then a mixture of Olive drab and buff
to give some extra fade to certain areas. I let the paint dry a
few days and then I applied the excellent decals. The film is so
thin that you need not worry about any silvering at all. I did not
apply any clear coat, due to the extra sheen of Xtracolor’s
paints. After decal application, a flat coat of Xtracolor’s varnish
was applied before weathering. During construction I found a
period photograph of the actual B-26 and the aircraft was
heavily weathered. Well, great news for me, because I just love
heavily weathered aircraft models!

58
I enjoy the weathering process and always spend lots of time. First
of all, I applied ‘Engine Grease’ oil colour by Abteilung 502 near
the engine nacelles with a fine brush, and then with a thicker
brush I started to wash the areas and try to give them a dirty,
greasy look. I let it dry and then applied a thin coat of flat varnish
to protect the layer from the next layer.
The next step was to replicate the smoke stains around the
nacelles. I used Tamiya’s XF-1 flat black with a few drops of red
brown in very thin layers that followed the airflow around the
nacelles. Then, an equally thin layer of XF-2 flat white with a few
drops of buff sprayed to replicate the sulphur that can be seen in
the remains of engine combustion. After drying, a small piece of
sponge and AK’s true metal paste help me to do some chipping
on the leading edge of the wings and around the areas that
ground crew step and on the cowlings. Several coats of Ivory
black, Vandyke brown and Sepia oil paints from Winsor and
Newton’s range followed to replicate the different tones of dirt
around nacelles, fuselage and the main part of the wings.
A final coat of flat varnish by Xtracolor and the Invader was ready
for the final assembly.
59
 Finally, the wings and fuselage fit together with a
few drops of cement and now the Invader took
shape at last. Of course, a lot of things had to be
placed such as landing gear, antennas, guns, two
gun pods in the wings, two napalm bombs,
navigation and formation lights and the propellers.
Propellers were painted with a mixture of Tamiya’s
NATO and flat black, with yellow tips and some
chipping on the leading edge. The wheels were
60
painted with tyre black on their tread and with a
mixture of flat black and brown on their side walls.
Now everything is in place and after almost a
month during the lockdown, my Invader was ready
to display!
I enjoyed the trouble-free construction and I made a
promise to myself that I will certainly build another
one someday, but add more detail!
61
 Legends of Battle of Britain


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