Finnish Air Force Messerschmitt Bf-109 G-6 1/72 Italeri

From Künnapuu, Ants: 100 Ōhusōidukit. Illusteerinud V.Tōnisson (Valgus, Tallinn, 1975)

Another airbrushing and weathering practice target, all freehand except wingtop splinter pattern. Xtracolor enamels RLM 74/75/76, Revell matt black #8 and matt varnish #2. Out-of-the box except reg. number and tactical #1 decals. This was fun! N.B.! I found out later that the tactical number "1" should be yellow, not white. The original Yellow 1 MT-401 of HLeLv (Fighter squadron) 23 operated from Hyvinkää Air Field in autumn 1946.

Royal Navy Grumman F6F Hellcat 1/72 Italeri

Hellcat as a weathering testbed, don't know if they actually got ever this dirty on board. Italeri kit was easy to build and the British decal version was a nice touch, as the articulated landing flaps as well.

Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Mitsubishi Zero 1/72 Airfix

This model could be counted in the naval theme too, the Airfix A6M Reisen a.ka Zero (Zeke) in 1/72nd scale. The kit is quite old, cannot be mistaken as any other plane than Zero and as always, suffers badly from a lackluster canopy. I couldn't resist the temptation and augmented the cockpit with a scratchbuilt seat armor plate and a gunsight. Of which only the armor can actually be seen...

Building this thing was frustrating at times, but it was quite surprising to find in the end that sans the canopy it's a snappy little starter set kit model of a Zero after all. This is my first model about the A6M, and now I'd like to build another using a modern kit and perhaps in a bigger scale too.

Revell 371, Xtracolor Voodoo Gray, Airfix acrylics engine cover and propeller blades

US Navy Grumman TBF Avenger 1/72 Academy

Another navy torpedo bomber, Devastator's successor Avenger from Academy kit. I had a spare set of old 80's E.S.C.I. decals for an Avenger, so this is one of those models where you buy the kit for decals and not the usual other way around. This model represents an Avenger two months prior to Midway, 1942, Lt. A.K. Bert Earnest, Torpedo Squadron 8th.

Nice build, good fit, easy paint job, mission accomplished!

Humbrol 96 for Intermediate Navy Blue (?), Revell 371 for White undersides

Soviet Air Forces MiG-21 MF 1/32 Revell

Big 1/32 scale "Fishbed-J" kit from Revell isn't bad for such an oldie, but there are serious issues with some parts like canopy or tail part: they just don't fit. This model was just something to tinker with between more serious projects and looks adequate when finished. Original kit decals were for Luftwaffe "shark" special or East German Air Force camouflage, but I wanted the Red Stars and used Strike Eagle MiG-17 aftermarket decals instead. This model represents one of six MiG-21 MFs which made an official visit to Rheims, France in September 1971. There was an illustration in Aircraft in Profile about Marshal P.S. Kutakhov's "Blue 30", but I figured it would have been possible if one of the planes was a "Blue 40" like this.

From Künnapuu, Ants: 100 Ōhusōidukit. Illusteerinud V.Tōnisson (Valgus, Tallinn, 1975)

The canopy is a mess, tried already twice to fix it.

US Navy Douglas TBD1 Devastator Airfix 1/72

Airfix US Navy Devastator, full gloss finish and all. A good kit and an easy build, even the surface detail survived pretty intact in the building process. Had to sand the rivets down though just a tiny bit so they wouldn't be totally out of scale. Tikkurila Miranol enamels yellow and silver combined with Revell matt red, sealed with gloss varnish and Johnson acrylic floor wax. My only gripe is the canopy, it's thick and distorted but that's what you get with an old Airfix.

Lancaster Project references

Before I forget about these again, here are some references for a nice Avro Lancaster project:

Q for Queenie (Hopton photo archive)
Q for Queenie, First Lancaster to fly to Australia
Hyperscale Lancaster building guide (PDF)
Revell of Germany 04300 Avro Lancaster Mk.I/III Bauanleitung (PDF)
Ross McLennan's Lancaster Project FS2004