mquan

My mistake Dick, it is not a DH-4, but an F2B Brisfit!

Hi Dick. The gentlemen from left to right in the picture are: Pat Stein (from Atlanta), Don Alberts (from Albuquerque NM), Bob Davies, and John Alcorn (now from Seattle WA). I cannot comment nor recognize the builders of the DH-4 nor P-63.

Victory Productions Aces of the Empire decal sheet #48-006 Southern Expo 70th Anniversary Battle of Britain decal sheet: Hornchurch vs Luftwaffe, sheet #48-001

Hi Dick. I had a hard time seeing/visuallizing what you were describing on your original post. The picture in Jim's reply though is of an He-115C (not 'B') model. In William Green's "Warplanes of the Third Reich", page 320, he attributes to the He-115C-1armament : "… and a fixed aft-firing 7.9-mm. MG 17 machine gun was introduced in the tail of each engine nacelle for use against pursuing fighters." The A and B variants had much shorter engine nacelles than the He-115C variant. HTH, Mike Quan IPMS-NCT

Looking great Mark. Glad to see your decals are being utilized! I am a user and believer in the new Alclad II. Good stuff.

AKAN acrylics Russian colors available from Linden Hill in the US.

Very nice build. Great photography, George!

The single seat A and C model aircraft never carried Falcons. In TAC service, they carried a nuclear weapon on the centerline station, along with two fuel tanks. The 20mm cannon were for "defensive" purposes only. Reference Warpaint #47 by Kev Darling.

Post convention, Rare Plane Detective in Las Vegas was selling these decals.

Sweet Ron! I have the same kit on my workbench. It is an updated tool from Airfix, but nonetheless builds into a terrific model of a Mark I Spitfire. Among Airfix aficionados, it is known as the "BT-K" Spitfire, as the BT markings are fictitious and do not represent an actual squadron. The other markings and configuration are however, 1940-correct!

RLM 72 and 73 are officially Grun. Grun = green. Grau = gray.

The instructions are correct. The chips on your attached chart look "off" to me on my monitor. 72/73 have a more distinctive bluish/gray tint to them than 70/71 greens to suit over-water usage.

Beautiful Mark, even after all these years! You should come up for the NCT ScaleFest contest as Lonestar Models is one of our vendors. It would be great to catch up with friends as well!

Thanks for the response Mark. Since posting my original question about the orange alignment stripe, I have confirmed via photo references as well as a contact at Fairchild AFB flying tankers, that the stripe has always been and still is insignia yellow. The TO also confirms this. The kit decal sheet is incorrect here.

I appreciate the comments on this kit posted so far. The decal sheet features two current overall AMC dark gray (FS36173), camo schemes. Can anyone confirm that the orange color used on the decal sheet for the receiver alignment stripe on the belly is correct? I know that the stripe was yellow for the original, corogard, overall ADC gray, and "orca" schemes. TIA

Tim, I used the Airfix kit for my build back then, but as you can see, it has raised panel lines. Engraved panel lines more in keeping with today's state-of-the-art can be had in the Hasegawa 72nd kit. Squadron mail order actually had them on sale last week, though I think the sale is over.

Tim, the decal was supplied without separate instructions, as the schemes/drawings were provided in the 1982 issues of the IPMS Journal as articles. The decal was sent as a supplement to our Journal/Quarterly. Attached is a shot of my completed Airfix F-86D - wow, can it be over 30 years ago!? HTH, or if you want to provide an email, I can send the original digital pic of 2+ Mb.

F-86D Tim. I remember that decal sheet. . . . . .

They're probably referring to using short brass pins to pin the ends of the struts to the fuselage for alignment and attachment/reinforcement.

Beautiful beautiful model David. A very detailed rendition. I have a technical question for you though: Is the depiction of the open ejection hatches for the two rear crewmen accurate in reality? I always thought those hatches over the two rear ejection seats were a permanent part of the airplane structure? Thanks for the clarification.

Hi Mark. They were buying back surplus decal sheets for $6 at the convention, and extra decal sets were selling for $7 in Colorado. I would be happy to send you my 48th scale decals if you PM me, as I build in 72nd only. Let me know. cheers, Mike

"Dr Asher" is Gerald Asher of Fort Worth, Texas. Renowned Artist and proprietor of Fox Studios model conversion products.

Ron, Paragon released some 72nd resin conversion kits featuring H2X. One was for the symmetrical radome that replaced the ball turret position on both B-17s and B-24s, and thus was raised for ground use and lowered in-flight. Camouflage & Markings No. 13 - Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, USAAC & AAF, 1937-1945, by Roger Freeman has a photo on page 17, top of a B-17 with radome lowered in-flight, and bottom of page 18 with the radome raised. Both B-17s were assigned to 8th AF Pathfinder squadrons. Other US terms for H2X were "Mickey" and "BTO" = Bombing Thru Overcast. Another Paragon conversion set was for 100 Group RAF which featured the H2X mounted in a chin radome where the forward chin turret was on the B-17G. This type of installation used the RAF-style streamlined, 'teardrop' shaped fairing, as shown on the attached model I made many many years ago with the Airfix B-17G.

Very neat job on a classic kit of old, Steve.

Terrific Trio of unusual USAF markings John. Thanks for sharing with us.