Since P3D has been driving me nuts lately thanks to crashes into invisible objects, I've been busy reverting to model building which is something I've been doing since I was seven. I've been participating in a group build of Russian front planes up to the end of WW2, so here's the results. These are all 1/32 scale, as my eyes are not up to smaller scales any more .
First up is a Yak 3 by Special Hobby kits. The Yak 3 was a small wooden fighter powered by a Klimov V12 of about 30 litres, producing about 1350hp. It was quite fast at about 410mph in speed and very manoeuverable thanks to light weight. Considering the lack of resources available to Russia, they learned to design some very good planes.
I modified the model to make the canopy slide using stock plastic 1.5mm right angle pieces, filed and painted to fit.
Cockpit.
Next up is an Airacobra P-39Q. This one is the KittyHawk kit, which is not an easy kit but turns out well if you take care with every step. Fitment is very tight. The P-39 is a very polarising plane. Some hated it, and some loved it. But you can say the same of the F4U Corsair too. The Russians loved it and used it to great effect and it remained in service as late as 1952. German pilots avoided it as much as possible. The P-63 King Cobra was designed largely with exports to Russia in mind, and with a lot of input from Russia too.
On this one, I made hinges for both doors from 0.5mm brass wire and 1.0mm brass tube so that I can open or close them which keeps dust out of the cockpit.
Here's the actual plane. The pilot is seated on the far left.
Lastly, a Polikarpov I-16 Type 17 on skis. The I-16 was the most advanced plane in the world when first flown, with cantilever monoplane wings, retractable undercarriage and an enclosed cockpit but very quickly overtaken by more advanced designs in just 2 years. Pilots didn't like the enclosed canopy, so that was soon dumped in production. However, it acquitted itself very well during the Spanish Civil War against the Messerschmitt 109B as performance was about the same, and the I-16 was more manoeuverable. Alas, by the time of the Type 17 in 1939, performance had dropped thanks to big weight increases. This model represents a plane flown in the Winter War of 1939-40.
This one had cabling added for the manually cranked undercarriage and other things which was later fed through a hole below the pulley at the base of a cockpit frame. I also added a floor as the cockpit was enclosed within the fuselage, then the wings added
I've also added spark plug wires to the engine.
I'm presently working on a P-47D Thunderbolt in Razorback form. The engine is what I'm presently fixated on, wiring all the spark plug wires. Then I'll be hacking holes in the side of the model to see the turbocharger workings. I'll bet I get this finished before a P3D version of the same plane is released here
Cheers,
Mike
Another of my hobbies.
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Re: Another of my hobbies.
Nice detail Mike!! Love the cockpit stuff.
Re: Another of my hobbies.
Great details. I've a bunch of 1/72 models build more than 20 years ago (realizing I'm getting old) and it's hard to get details.
"Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please."
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Re: Another of my hobbies.
Beautiful work, love the I-16 inparticular, but I am bias having got a nice kill online recently in the il-2 sim whilst flying the Rata. The detail you are putting into the cockpits is amazing, great work, thankyou for posting.
cheers,
Lewis - A2A
cheers,
Lewis - A2A
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Re: Another of my hobbies.
I recently discovered a Youtube channel by maxmodels that has the history of every model company you've ever heard of. I've seen models in his videos that I haven't thought of in 50 years, including the Lindberg UFO that was my very first and the Testors Cessna 337 Skymaster that I bought in 1970 to help visualize forces on an airplane when I was taking lessons. My best friend had a lot of models that I still remember. Did anyone else have the Phantom Mustang?
Thinking back on it, I can't believe the number of models I've built.
Thanks for posting.
Hook
Thinking back on it, I can't believe the number of models I've built.
Thanks for posting.
Hook
Last edited by Hook on 15 May 2020, 13:30, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Another of my hobbies.
Nice pron
Comanche, Skylane, Cherokee, Bonanza, Texan, Spitfire
P-51, P-40
P-51, P-40
Re: Another of my hobbies.
Yes I did! I sadly gave it to a younger cousin a long time ago. I actually just got a bee in my bonnet about that model a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd found one. The sale was completed online and the next day I got a notification that I was being issued a refund because it was not in stock and out of production...
Rob Wilkinson
A2A: Civilian Mustang, T-6, Bonanza, Comanche, Cub, C182, Spitfire, P-40, Cherokee, P-51 - VATSIM P4 and some other stuff...
A2A: Civilian Mustang, T-6, Bonanza, Comanche, Cub, C182, Spitfire, P-40, Cherokee, P-51 - VATSIM P4 and some other stuff...
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Re: Another of my hobbies.
Remarkable intricate detail and a great hobby
Congratulations with your results
Congratulations with your results
Re: Another of my hobbies.
Hello,
Stunning models and attention to detail man! Congratulations for your achievement in making these!
--
Vladi
Stunning models and attention to detail man! Congratulations for your achievement in making these!
--
Vladi
Bonanza, Skylane, Skyhawk, Cherokee, Cub, Texan, Mustang, Warhawk, Spitfire, Flying Fortress
Re: Another of my hobbies.
Super great work on all that detail in the cockpits! I used to enjoy putting models together and painting them a lot when I was a youth, but got away from it once I started my career in the military.
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Re: Another of my hobbies.
Thank you all very much for your kind words. This is a hobby that has given me many happy hours building over almost 60 years, plus one or two hours that have me questioning my sanity . There have been periods in my life where I haven't built anything due to the usual constraints put on us all as we try to build a life and have a family etc, which I'm sure everyone here is familiar with. I can't remember the last time I built on out of the box, and most of them get photo etch additions plus a few more bits of my own made from plastic stock extrusions, various gauge wires and tubing too.
It so great to see new large scale planes released and mostly to a very high standard too, and there's some unusual kits being offered. There's a Vampire and Whirlwind on the way, which is just two I can think of, and a new company recently released a Polish PZL P11. There's also a very nice Gloster Gladiator released about a year ago, which I have to get my glued up fingers on. I recently finished a Gloster Meteor which I converted into a T7 from a Mk4. Alas the person who made the resin conversions for this lost everything in the California fires a couple of years ago and won't be restarting, so I won't be doing a Meteor Mk8 conversion on that kit. I have a stash of about 20 unbuilt kits which is both a fairly small stash in comparison to others that I know of, but strangely never seems to shrink. I started off last year with 21 kits in the stash, built three, and finished the year with 21 kits. Are they breeding in the cupboard???
Cheers,
Mike.
It so great to see new large scale planes released and mostly to a very high standard too, and there's some unusual kits being offered. There's a Vampire and Whirlwind on the way, which is just two I can think of, and a new company recently released a Polish PZL P11. There's also a very nice Gloster Gladiator released about a year ago, which I have to get my glued up fingers on. I recently finished a Gloster Meteor which I converted into a T7 from a Mk4. Alas the person who made the resin conversions for this lost everything in the California fires a couple of years ago and won't be restarting, so I won't be doing a Meteor Mk8 conversion on that kit. I have a stash of about 20 unbuilt kits which is both a fairly small stash in comparison to others that I know of, but strangely never seems to shrink. I started off last year with 21 kits in the stash, built three, and finished the year with 21 kits. Are they breeding in the cupboard???
Cheers,
Mike.
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Re: Another of my hobbies.
How about the engine stuff?? I'm sure you'll like this.
This is a beautifully detailed kit, but I've added all the fine cables and pipes together with the ignition harness made from 0.5mm plastic rod and 0.3mm wire, plus a couple of tubes made from old guitar string. The cable retainers are made from old wine bottle lead cork wrapping.
And a bit more cockpit.
Unfortunately, I found out too late that there's a big error in this picture. I should have taken out the rear fuel tank, as that's what happened to the real thing. The plane I was building was Spitfire MkXVI SL721, which was the personal hack of Air Marshal Sir James Robb from 1946 until his retirement in 1951. At the period in it's history that I was modelling, it was painted light PRU Blue, but was later repainted in Dark PRU blue after repairs following a crash landing at the hands of Air Chief Marshal Sir John Boothman, of Schneider Trophy fame. The plane still flies today in the hands of it's Belgian owners, and it's one of those rare planes that has never had a complete restoration, although it's had many overhauls. Here's the completed model.
You may be interested to know that I have two more of these kits in my stash, both the better looking high back versions. One is a MkIX, which I plan on building as one of Pierre Clostermann's Spitfires, and the other is a MkVIII, which will be built in RAAF markings.
Cheers,
Mike
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Re: Another of my hobbies.
Nice work, thanks for sharing! Most of my collection is 1/72 to save space and I've done a handful of 1/48. I think my wife would stab me if I started building in 1/32! I'm already having trouble coming up for the current 1/72 B-17 I'm working on.
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Re: Another of my hobbies.
So a 1/32 Lancaster is out of the question??AviationAtWar wrote: ↑16 May 2020, 13:59 Nice work, thanks for sharing! Most of my collection is 1/72 to save space and I've done a handful of 1/48. I think my wife would stab me if I started building in 1/32! I'm already having trouble coming up for the current 1/72 B-17 I'm working on.
https://www.hk-models.com/hkm/shop/wwii ... r-b-mk.-1/
Yeah, space is always an issue, but my kids have left home so I use one of those bedrooms now as my hobby room. Plus, being a larger scale leaves plenty of room to add more detail which means each project takes longer, so I don't need to add more shelving for a while now.
Cheers,
Mike
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Re: Another of my hobbies.
Awesome Spitfire!
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