I love it when a plane comes together!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

May I just say at this point "You're nuts." That is all.

I have three of those Tornado GR.1 kits, for they are truly wonderful. But because of all those decals , I've yet to start any of them. I reckon I could build maybe five, six or even more WW II fighters for the same time and effort as one of the Tornados.

I know if I tried that there would be strong evidence of a tornado.

[klr]

Another one straight out of the factory - the last lick of paint hasn't even dried yet, and the masking tape under the wheels won't be removed until it finds a storage space. Say hello to the new Airfix Spitfire PR.XIX (photo reconaissance):








This kit harks back to the old days in terms of decals - just 12 for this RAF aircraft, and 4 of those were the roundel centres.

[klr]

Just finished ... another Corsair. This time a Smer (ex-Heller) kit, and another Marine ace, Ira Kepford:






I fitted it with a spare bomb from the Academy kit above. I figured that even aces had to do some ground support, especially if they were Marines.

The upper wing surfaces have a semi-gloss finish(USN regulations ), which was left deliberately patchy.

[klr]

... and yet another Corsair, this time an old Airfix kit in the marks of Fleet Air Arm (aka the Royal Navy air arm):




FAA Corsairs had clipped wings to allow them to be stored in the smaller hangars of Royal Navy carriers. That was the easy bit. Removing all the thousands of bogus rivets and correcting various other problems (or trying to) ...

I knew this kit was crude, having built it back in the day (as in the early 1980's). But I was lured in by the FAA paint scheme.

[klr]

Judging by the overwhelming recent responses to this thread, everyone is dying to know what my next kit will be.

So, while I have a fast-growing stash of "just completed" kits, I will restrain myself for now and post some purty pictures of a Douglas TBD Devestator (Airfix) in pre-war colours. This kit was built built some years ago:









Applying the wing decals on that corrugated surface was an interesting experience, but I got there. Suffice to say that I don't build too many Ju 52s.

I have another of this kit in storage, waiting to be built as an aircraft of VT-8 from Midway ...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Kev, do you have a night-fighter Corsair kit?

[klr]

Kev, do you have a night-fighter Corsair kit?

I do of a Korean war version, although it's not yet built. Guess who the pilot is of the featured aircraft?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Kev, do you have a night-fighter Corsair kit?

I do of a Korean war version, although it's not yet built. Guess who the pilot is of the featured aircraft?

Leon Trotsky?

[klr]

Kev, do you have a night-fighter Corsair kit?

I do of a Korean war version, although it's not yet built. Guess who the pilot is of the featured aircraft?

Leon Trotsky?

http://www.acepilots.com/korea_bordelon.html

[GenesForLife]

Lovely stuff

I've always had a thing for planes.

[klr]

Lovely stuff

I've always had a thing for planes.

Then hang around, as I'm going to post some more soon ... promise.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm uploading C-47 pix now.

[Calilasseia]

I've just been trawling the web for information about WWII US fighters (in particular, which of them was nicknamed "Whistling Death" because of its unusual fly-past noise), and I alighted upon this bizarre anecdote from Wikipedia's article on the F4U Corsair, which I suspect will amuse 'Zilla enormously ...

One particularly interesting kill was scored by a Marine Lieutenant R. R. Klingman of VMF-312 Checkerboards, over Okinawa. Klingman was in pursuit of a Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu ("Nick") twin engine fighter at extremely high altitude when his guns jammed due to the gun lubrication thickening from the extreme cold. He simply flew up and chopped off the Ki-45's tail with the big propeller of the Corsair. Despite missing five inches (127 mm) off the end of his propeller blades, he managed to land safely after this ramming attack. He was awarded the Navy Cross.

So apparently this thing was tough enough to let you use the propeller as a buzz saw.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've just been trawling the web for information about WWII US fighters (in particular, which of them was nicknamed "Whistling Death" because of its unusual fly-past noise), and I alighted upon this bizarre anecdote from Wikipedia's article on the F4U Corsair, which I suspect will amuse 'Zilla enormously ...

One particularly interesting kill was scored by a Marine Lieutenant R. R. Klingman of VMF-312 Checkerboards, over Okinawa. Klingman was in pursuit of a Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu ("Nick") twin engine fighter at extremely high altitude when his guns jammed due to the gun lubrication thickening from the extreme cold. He simply flew up and chopped off the Ki-45's tail with the big propeller of the Corsair. Despite missing five inches (127 mm) off the end of his propeller blades, he managed to land safely after this ramming attack. He was awarded the Navy Cross.

So apparently this thing was tough enough to let you use the propeller as a buzz saw.

There were several "Fox 4" kills in WWII.

[klr]

I've just been trawling the web for information about WWII US fighters (in particular, which of them was nicknamed "Whistling Death" because of its unusual fly-past noise), and I alighted upon this bizarre anecdote from Wikipedia's article on the F4U Corsair, which I suspect will amuse 'Zilla enormously ...

One particularly interesting kill was scored by a Marine Lieutenant R. R. Klingman of VMF-312 Checkerboards, over Okinawa. Klingman was in pursuit of a Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu ("Nick") twin engine fighter at extremely high altitude when his guns jammed due to the gun lubrication thickening from the extreme cold. He simply flew up and chopped off the Ki-45's tail with the big propeller of the Corsair. Despite missing five inches (127 mm) off the end of his propeller blades, he managed to land safely after this ramming attack. He was awarded the Navy Cross.

So apparently this thing was tough enough to let you use the propeller as a buzz saw.

The Bristol Beaufighter was called "whispering death" by the Japanese, but purely because of the sound of the engine - nothing to do with ramming or "chewing" the enemy.

Some Royal Navy aircraft (supposedly) had their blades cropped to help preserve the supply of propellers, as the aircraft tended to nose-pitch into the deck during many landings, thus wrecking the blades. Cropping the blades eliminated this problem, while having very little effect on performance.

...
There were several "Fox 4" kills in WWII.

Still working away on kits BTW, but it's mostly tanks at the moment. I know I have plenty of pics of completed kits that I could post, but I need to organise them first.