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OFFICIAL: Battle of Britain 75 Campaign
MichaelSatin
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Posted: Wednesday, July 01, 2015 - 11:32 PM UTC
Peter,

Thank you! But actually I've been unhappy about the Dark Earth. I used Tamiya's recommended mix of XF-52 and 64, way too red and dark. So I mixed my own using XF-52:2 + XF-49:1 and a touch of XF-51. Much happier with that:

 photo 20150702_121956_zpsizhydk1d.jpg

It actually looks better in real life than this pic. Gloss coat next!

Michael
almonkey
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
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Posted: Thursday, July 02, 2015 - 12:32 AM UTC
hello all! im chucking my hat into the ring with (hopefully) two builds.
the first is an old tool airfix hurricane plus some valiant wings resin and p/e upgrades-


and one from the other side!


im going to try to build these at the same time, to hopefully get them both done in time!
MichaelSatin
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Posted: Saturday, July 04, 2015 - 01:08 AM UTC
And here's my finished 1/48 new tool Airfix Hurricane in the markings of Flt. Lt. Frank Carey, 43 Sqn., Summer 1940:

 photo 20150704_123939_zpsmxjavnl4.jpg

A really excellent kit! The broken antenna masts are my fault. In all I think this is clearly the best 1/48 Hurricane out there right now. Airfix is definitely back!

Happy 4th of July all!

Michael

RussellE
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Posted: Sunday, July 05, 2015 - 03:41 AM UTC

Quoted Text

And here's my finished 1/48 new tool Airfix Hurricane in the markings of Flt. Lt. Frank Carey, 43 Sqn., Summer 1940:



A really excellent kit! The broken antenna masts are my fault. In all I think this is clearly the best 1/48 Hurricane out there right now. Airfix is definitely back!

Happy 4th of July all!

Michael




Great work Michael! Totally agree-the new "Airfix" just keeps on getting better and better! Now, hopefully they re-tool their 1/24 range!
MichaelSatin
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Posted: Sunday, July 05, 2015 - 03:57 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Great work Michael! Totally agree-the new "Airfix" just keeps on getting better and better! Now, hopefully they re-tool their 1/24 range!



Thanks Russell! I'm not holding my breath on the 1/24 stuff, but who knows. The Hurricane's not too bad but the Spit needs a rework. Now if they'd only go into 1/32. An up to date 1/32 Hurri... sigh.

Michael
RussellE
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Posted: Sunday, July 05, 2015 - 05:35 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text


Great work Michael! Totally agree-the new "Airfix" just keeps on getting better and better! Now, hopefully they re-tool their 1/24 range!



Thanks Russell! I'm not holding my breath on the 1/24 stuff, but who knows. The Hurricane's not too bad but the Spit needs a rework. Now if they'd only go into 1/32. An up to date 1/32 Hurri... sigh.

Michael



Can't see Airfix venturing into 1/32 territory, Michael, what with Tamiya holding the crown in that scale...

You're right though, lots of opportunity for Airfix to re-tool the 1/24 range. I've got their Tiffy in the stash, and looking to add the Mozzy when it's re-released this year.

The only other competitor I can think of for Airfix in 1/24 scale is Trumpy, but with Trumpy's range being hit'n'miss, I'm sticking to 1/72 for the time being in the hope that Airfix give the Tiffy treatment to all their 1/24 range...

Fingers crossed anyway
almonkey
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England - East Midlands, United Kingdom
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Posted: Sunday, July 12, 2015 - 12:59 AM UTC
I've been a busy little beaver working mostly on the hurricane, had to do a fair amount of fettling to get the p/e and resin to fit, and done a little bit of scratchbuilding to box in the wheel wells-






all I've got done on the 109 is to paint the pilot!
tinbanger
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Ontario, Canada
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Posted: Friday, July 31, 2015 - 08:45 PM UTC
Phil
I see that you are useing a Douglas Bader Pilot!
tinbanger
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Ontario, Canada
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Posted: Friday, July 31, 2015 - 08:48 PM UTC
An update on my entry:

Primed and some touch up required.
TimReynaga
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Posted: Sunday, August 02, 2015 - 01:41 AM UTC
Hi guys! Thought I’d play too - This kit is the 1/72 scale Airfix Messerschmitt Bf-109E from 1975. This poor fitting, rivet studded little beauty is rarely built these days, but I thought I’d give it a go.

Here is the start picture:



The overall dimensions look ok on this one, but some of the fit is not very good. Huge gaps at the back of the canopy, and a front windscreen that just sits too low will be a challenge.


Yeah, there are numerous better 109E kits out there (like almost all of them), but this dinosaur should be fun!


TimReynaga
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Posted: Sunday, August 02, 2015 - 09:12 AM UTC
As I begin what will be an out-of-the-box build, I wonder if Airfix’s scheme is accurate?
The hatchet and pistol-toting Mickey Mouse indicates that the Messerschmitt is Adolf Galland’s aircraft, and the background appears to be the white cliffs of Dover – but would the top German fighter ace of the Battle of Britain really have been carrying a bomb? I like the bright colors, but I suspect that the scheme may be imaginary...

GazzaS
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Posted: Sunday, August 02, 2015 - 10:31 AM UTC
Hi Tim,
On the old Monogram kit from the seventies, Galland's (if it accurately portrays it) plane had the Mickey Mouse under the cockpit. I don't think there was much yellow either. If I remember what I read correctly, the main unit to use the 109 in the Jabo role was SKG 210.

But I am getting older... So my memories may be off.

The interesting thing I noted about your kit was the attachment points for the landing gear in the fuselage.

Happy Building!

Gary
windysean
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Posted: Monday, August 03, 2015 - 05:55 PM UTC
...Sean enters the fracas...
Hey, ladies and gents, I'm planning on keeping this one relatively simple with an OOB build. I bought Tamiya's 1/72 Spitfire Mk. 1. At $18, it's $6 per fret (2 gray, one clear). The parts count is nice and low.
My 1/72 collection doesn't have this icon, and I am eager to do the green/brown camo. I had wanted to apply the black/white underneath scheme too, but the instruction say that came after the BoB, so not this time.
Battle of Britain group build starting by windysean, on Flickr
The FSM issue in the pic is to verify the month this was taken.
Cheers!
-Sean H.
ZAPanzer
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North-West, South Africa
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Posted: Tuesday, August 04, 2015 - 03:15 PM UTC
Morning

I have not posted in a while and had many mishaps with this kit. I'll call her the putty queen from now on, almost nothing fit perfectly together , I don't know if it's because of our warm climate but absolutley nothing would fit, even the wheels seem to be off canter. Anyway enough moaning, I have some pics, I seem to have lost some pics so this is all I have for now

 photo WP_20150804_004_zpsnmhnadlw.jpg

 photo WP_20150804_003_zpskhzlyvjc.jpg

I am building the Tamiya Spit Vb in the Sailor Malan colours at the same time and what a pleasure,

greif8
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Bayern, Germany
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Posted: Thursday, August 06, 2015 - 10:01 PM UTC


Hi guys, there are some very beautiful high quality builds in this campaign already. I am getting a bit of a late start as the summer is not my normal "building season"; however, I have a couple of weeks vacation and can spend some quality time at the bench in addition to my other summer activities.

As you can see by the picture I will be building a Trumpeter 1/32 scale Bf109 E3; actually I started this build on 03 August and have just gotten around to posting a few pictures. This is the 3rd 1/32 scale 109 I have built, the other two being Eduard's Bf109 E4 and Cyber Hobby's Bf109 E3. Though I don't plan to "compare and contrast" the Trumpeter kit with the other two, some assessment will be unavoidable.

I plan to paint the kit to represent an aircraft flown by Heinz Bär of JG51. I don't really like the basic color scheme of the plane represented in the kit, so some research is in order to see just what paint scheme Bär's aircraft had during the late August-early October 1940 timeframe.
greif8
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Posted: Thursday, August 06, 2015 - 10:32 PM UTC




Like most of my aircraft builds, work begins with the cockpit, and right away there are a few glaring errors. It looks like Trumpeter confused the BF109 F with the Bf109 E. The two worst errors are having the cannon cover between the rudder pedals for the engine mounted cannon and having the fuel control box on the port side of the cockpit, both these being correct for the Bf109 F2 onwards; but very incorrect for any "E" series 109. There are a few other mistakes, but they are not really apparent when the fuselage is closed up. I decided to just correct the two bad errors by plugging the holes, scratch building the oil line cover, standard in all "E"'s, from a piece of scrap resin and relocating the fuel control box to it's correct location on the starboard side of the cockpit. I did a massive amount of scratch building for the Cyber Hobby 109 I just don't have the motivation to go through the same thing for this build to correct all the niggling errors in this kit's cockpit; again, most of which can't be seen well - if at all - any way.

The two photos show the cockpit in the initial stages of construction. I have to give Trumpeter some good marks for some nice PE parts that come with the kit. The PE looks good and is easy to work with.
MichaelSatin
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Posted: Thursday, August 06, 2015 - 10:38 PM UTC
Nice work everyone (special kudos to Tim for being a masochist!)

Ernest: it sounds like so far your experience is that if one wants an accurate 1/32 109E, Eduard is the way to go.

Michael
greif8
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Posted: Thursday, August 06, 2015 - 10:45 PM UTC




Final post for today shows the engine and radio equipment after initial construction. Trumpeter does a lot better with both of these. According to my research sources, the radio equipment looks pretty accurate and is well moulded. I plan to do a bit of scratch building to add some detail to this area and will leave the access plate off the final build so some of the work can be seen.

The engine is a nice representation of a DB601 engine and the quality is right up there with the other two kits. Unfortunately this build will be buttoned up, so none of the nice detail will be seen. I am already feeling the pressure not to let my AMS run wild here, and just do a basic construction and paint job on both the engine and MG tray as almost none of the detail will be seen at all. Cowling fit issues also have me a bit worried, and if this kit is like the Eduard kit, I am in for some scraping and trimming to get things nice and tight - we shall see how many naughty words are in the future when I get to that point!
greif8
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Posted: Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - 11:12 AM UTC
Michael, first off - very, very nice work on your Airfix Hurricane, it looks quite good.

As to the 1/32 109 kits, I think the Eduard and CyberHobby kits are pretty equal in quality and accuracy. Both need very little extra work to produce an excellent replica of a BF109 E. The Trumpeter kit limps slightly behind the other two, but it is a good solid kit, whose few warts can be removed as the builder desires. All the scratch building on the Cyber Hobby kit was my choice, as I wanted to take a crack at producing a very accurate DB601 engine with all the piping and wiring. The kit would have been just fine without any of the extra work I put into it, but I sometimes suffer from advanced AMS!

Sincerely,
Ernest


Quoted Text

Nice work everyone (special kudos to Tim for being a masochist!)

Ernest: it sounds like so far your experience is that if one wants an accurate 1/32 109E, Eduard is the way to go.

Michael

greif8
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Posted: Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - 11:26 AM UTC
Here are a few pictures showing the progress of my build. I wanted to try out some new metallic paint that I recently purchased and airbrushed the engine Dark Iron and scrubbed it with an old toothbrush after it had dried to give it some sheen. As none of the engine will be seen after the cowling is on I plan to leave it as it is in the picture below. I still needed to touch up the IP here and there when I took the photo, but it was pretty much done. I used some MDC decals to add instruments.

The seatbelt is an RB Productions offering. I now use either that company's seatbelts, or HGW's. Though they are a bit more work to assemble, IMO the seatbelts look much better than PE ones. The overall shot of the cockpit floor section was taken after weathering was completed. The worn areas look a bit garish out in the open, but once everything is closed up it will look pretty balanced in the poor light and close surroundings.







ZAPanzer
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Posted: Tuesday, August 18, 2015 - 03:13 PM UTC
Hi

Pics uploaded to the gallery, here is a pic with Sailour Malan's spitfire that I built at the same time.
I'm going to call this the "Tale of two Spitfires". The Tamiya kit (Malan) what a pleasure to build and finish, even the decals, the Airfix(Battle of Britain) was a headache, filled to the brim with putty, as a result it is noticeably heavier.

 photo WP_20150818_004_zpsstucfdvr.jpg
greif8
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Posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 - 06:17 PM UTC
Hi Robert, those are two very nice Spitfires. It looks like you nailed the colors for both of them and I really like how smooth the paint finishes look.

Ernest


Quoted Text

Hi

Pics uploaded to the gallery, here is a pic with Sailour Malan's spitfire that I built at the same time.
I'm going to call this the "Tale of two Spitfires". The Tamiya kit (Malan) what a pleasure to build and finish, even the decals, the Airfix(Battle of Britain) was a headache, filled to the brim with putty, as a result it is noticeably heavier.

 photo WP_20150818_004_zpsstucfdvr.jpg

greif8
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Posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 - 06:28 PM UTC
Its been a few days since my last post. I have made a lot of progress on the build and finally uploaded some of the "in progress" photos I took. This, and the next post will show some of the work.

The first photo shows the fuselage about ready to be closed up. I installed the radio equipment after I took the picture having added a few pieces of copper wire as I had planned to leave the access plate off. Once the fuselage was together I found there was far too little light to see much of any thing and I ended up deciding to put the access plate on as the hassle of cutting the decal for the access plate and fuselage just was not worth to me given the lack of visibility.


Here we have a very mundane shot of the aircraft after priming.



Finally, and overall shot with the RLM 02 paint applied.


greif8
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Posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 - 06:35 PM UTC
All taped up and ready for the RLM 71 color. I forgot to take a photo of the model after I had airbrushed the RLM 65.



The next few photos show the aircraft with the base painting complete. The next step will be a gloss coat, followed by decals and weathering, which I should be able to finish over the next few days.





MichaelSatin
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Posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 - 06:40 PM UTC
Very nice work everyone! Today is the anniversary of Churchill's speech which honored The Few.

Michael