S H OWC A S E The HobbyBoss Douglas A-4E By Colin ‘Flying’ Pickett S H O W C A S E The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a diminutive aircraft, so small that it was able to operate from the capacio
Trang 1April 2019 • £4.75 Volume 41 • Issue 02
A Cold War Swinger Su-17UM3 Fitter-G
Spitfire Vc Conversion Revell and Pavla in 1/72 Malta needs Spitfires
Back to the Fold – Revell Gannet in 1/72
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Condor Moment – AMG’s scaled down Bf 109D RAF Tornado Swansong – Farewell to The Fin American Patrol – More US Miscellany
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Trang 2Military & Civil Aviation – Military Weapons & Equipment – Naval Vessels
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Trang 4S H OWC A S E
The HobbyBoss Douglas A-4E
By Colin ‘Flying’ Pickett
S H O W C A S E
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a diminutive
aircraft, so small that it was able to operate
from the capacious aircraft carriers of the
US Navy without having the need for wing fold
or other such devices to reduce its dimensions,
which in turn simplified and lightened the
airframe It is also highly manoeuvrable and
despite being a design that is well over forty
years old, still finds itself in service today
Modelwise there have been
numerous 1/48 kits about, the
Hasegawa kit being considered the
most accurate to date by most
knowledgeable persons on the
subject The HobbyBoss kit
A dig through my library found a couple ofuseful references, these being Detail and ScaleVolume 32 and an old Japanese languageBUNRIN-DO No.123 dating from 1981
In addition to the kit parts I also added twosets of Eduard etched parts to the kit along withthe canopy mask set These were A-4E SeatbeltsSTEEL (FE872), which adds additional detail tothe kit seat, A-4E Detail Set (49 871), which addsprepainted cockpit panels, parts and
undercarriage bay detail, and A-4E Mask Set (EX569), providing canopy and wheel masks to helpspeed up the painting process
Following the landscape format A4 instructionbook was simple enough and I found that the fit
of the parts is certainly very good, with therebeing no discernible gaps or crevices unless theyare supposed to be there Generally the buildwas problem free, with any confusion or issuesonly being introduced by my own clumsymanner Flash was almost non-existent on theparts themselves, requiring only a slight cleandown in a couple of areas Don’t forget to add achunk of nose weight I used some off-cutroofing lead
wrapped in Blu-Tack and sealed in place withsuperglue There is plenty of space in the nosefor this I fitted the Eduard parts as I went along,and whilst the kit has ample enough detail formost tastes the etch does lift the bar a bit higherand is worth the additional effort This wasespecially the case in the cockpit area, where theprepainted etch and additional details add detailmore in line with a much larger scale Skyhawk.Before long the kit was pretty much togetherand it was time to fire up my compressor andsort out paints
The kit comes with two different markingchoices, and it’s worth noting that both of thesehave the large avionics hump that wasretrofitted to the majority of A-4E aircraft,though should you have the need for an aircraftwithout this it is simple enough to omit withoutupsetting the quality of the parts fit The first ofthe kit options is an A-4E of VC-1, Bu.No 150056,
of the US Navy in standard Light Gull Grey overWhite undersides, whilst the subject of
my model, Bu.No 1551074, is a threetone green and grey schemeover white undersides of VA-
155, from USS Constellationfrom 1966, a short livedexperimental
scheme thatmakes it all
Trang 5S H OWC A S E
APRIL 2019 • VOLUME 41 • ISSUE 02
the more interesting All colour callouts are in Mr
Color, Vallejo, Model Master, Tamiya and
Humbrol, so it should be simple enough to find a
paint choice that suits your liking
I started the painting process by coating the
entire undersides of the model in satin white
before masking this off and then airbrushing the
upper surfaces in Light Green (Mr Hobby H303) I
then applied Dark Green (Mr Hobby H302) and
Engine Grey (Mr Hobby H301) freehand to match
the colour A4 diagram provided The paint was
made airbrush ready by simply topping up the
level of a new jar of paint with the correct
thinner A coat of gloss varnish was then applied
to the whole airframe prior to applying the
decals
The decals are certainly crisp and neat, with a
decent depth of colour, particularly important
when being placed over a dark colour scheme
They also settled down well into the panel lines
and detail, so with no further treatment they
were again coated with gloss acrylic varnish
prior to a Vallejo dark grey wash being applied to
give the panel lines more depth and clarity I also
added some staining along with wear and tear
marks before sealing everything up with a coat
of satin varnish in keeping with the original
aircraft
Finally I set about adding a full set of drop
tanks and bombs under the wings of the
Skyhawk along with the undercarriage and bay
doors, coupled with those important small
details such as aerials and antenna
It would be worthwhile to
comment that this kit certainly built
simply with absolutely nothing in
the way of drama
The Skyhawksaw, and is still ingreat number of air forces around the globe so akit such as this has great sales potential forHobbyBoss, and unlike so many kits hasn’t falleninto the trap of having many over engineeredparts to allow all the versions to be kitted fromone set of moulds This is due in part to theSkyhawk’s design, but also the way thatHobbyBoss have put the package together
Certainly if you wanted a first 1/48 kit then thiscould well fit the bill
Dimensionally it looks to be in keeping withthe original aircraft, and builds to a tidy replicawith little effort, sitting high on its impossiblythin looking undercarriage legs for a carrieraircraft
I would say that the only weak part of the kitwas the instrument panel, which was easilyaddressed with a replacement Eduard etchedpart, but again isn’t really an issue if you plan tohave the cockpit closed, though this itself may
be an issue as the transparency is really onlydesigned to be displayed open
I would be happy to build a few more of these
in different guises with the appropriateadaptations and decals, and that’s arecommendation in itself
e fuselage before the addition of theionics hump It is possible to build an A-4Ethout this and the parts needed arecluded in the kit if required
The camouflage in place, sprayed free hand,prior to the decals being added
I used some primer to check the joins weretidy and masked the intakes with chunks offoam rubber cut to shape, which also forms adecent mask for painting
Once completed, with requisite etch parts from Eduard, the cockpit
is most acceptable
Trang 6Published by Guideline Publications
& printed in the UK
Unit 6, Kensworth Gate, 200-204 High Street South,
Managing Director: Alan Corkhill
Sales and Marketing Director: Tom Foxon,
tom@guidelinepublications.co.uk
Editor: Gary Hatcher, blisterwhelk@outlook.com
Assistant Editor: Karl Robinson
Associate Editor: Neil Robinson
Newsdesk: Colin 'Flying' Pickett
Book Reviews: Ernie Lee
News & Industry Editor: Tom Foxon,
tom@guidelinepublications.co.uk
Design: Lincoln Rodrigues
Artist and Illustrator in Residence: Jan Polc
North American Contact: Larry Weindorf
Post Office Box 21, Annandale,VA 22003
ph: 703-639-7316, larry@larryslegions.com
SAM Subscriptions, SAM Shop & Back Issues:
Unit 6, Kensworth Gate, 200-204 High Street South,
Dunstable, Bedfordshire LU6 3HS
Telephone: +44 (0) 1582 668411
12 Months' Subscription
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This Magazine is copyrighted material!
Scale Aircraft Modelling (ISSN 0956-1420) is sold through the
news distribution trade subject to the condition that no
material written or pictorial is copied from editorial or
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publishers Guideline Publications accepts no liability for the
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Opinions expressed by authors and reviewers are their own
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84
Trang 7Distributed to the UK and International news trade by
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110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU
Little Green Skyhawk
The HobbyBoss Douglas A-4E
By Colin ‘Flying’ Pickett
Revell Fairey Gannet in 1/72
Special Hobbys Vickers
Vildebeest Mark III
By Dave Hooper
Sukhoi Su-17UM3 Fitter-G in 1/48
A Cold War Swinger
Two views of the Tornado’s finale
Call Sign Monster by Mark Young
and
New Schemes at Marham
By Ray Ball
More Carrier Conundrums
Flight Deck Colours of Royal Navy Fixed
Wing Aircraft Carriers
of the of the Cold War Era
1946-1978 By Paul Lucas
By Paul Lucas
With Artwork by Jan Polc
Aero's Aggressive ALCAMiniwing in 1/144
by Mike Verier
Tempest V in 1/48Eduard Rise to the Occasion
90 IPMS UK Column with Chris Ayres
93 Stash in the Attic – Trevor Pask worksthrough the loft insulation
94 American Patrol – US modellingmatters with Steve Palmer
Cover Artwork: 72400 1/72 VickersVildebeest Mk III by kind permission ofSpecial Hobby
T here are a lot of
modelling magazines on sale
at present, and the reader might well consider themselves spoilt for choice, so why chose Scale Aircraft Modelling instead of one of our competitors? Looking around the marketplace I am confident that no other title offers such an inclusive approach as SAM, nor such a broad base of coverage Many of our writers offer expertise and specialist knowledge, indeed many are core members of IPMS Special Interest Groups and can speak authoritatively
on their subjects, and it is this expertise that we try to channel into the magazine’s pages , something that
I think is reflected in a couple of this month’s features in particular.
It is not uncommon for a modelling magazine to run an article on the Supermarine Spitfire To run one in the same issue as an article on the Bf 109
is almost a cliché, but we seem to have achieved that with this issue, albeit with a difference Not content with some glossy pictures and a minimal text that more or less says ‘here is a Spitfire what I built’ we have Michael Hase’s very hands on conversion of the Revell 1/72 Vb with Pavla’s resin wing Our Bf 109, on the other hand, is the infrequently covered Dora, and an expert analysis of the AMG kit, also in 1/72.
Here at SAM we like to be the same, only different, and it’s that difference that makes our content go farther than any other magazine, and makes
us the best value for modellers looking for something more than simply cosmetic.
By Gary Hatcher
Editor
Trang 10Following on from their almost perfect B-25C/D,
Airfix have rereleased the exact same mouldings
with new decals as the RAF's Mitchell II As befits
a rerun, it's much the same story; brilliant, but !
Maybe CMK or someone will do a set of
replacement tipped-up wingtips one day, but in
the meantime it's the single necessary fix for
every one of these kits we build Personally I
think it's a price worth paying, because the rest
of it's so good
The aircraft depicted are EV-W of 180 Squadron
and SM-E of 305 (Polish) Squadron, both serving
with 2 Group/2 TAF during 1943 Both had
astrodomes and bulged navigator's windows,
either from new or as upgrades
Of these, FV923 SM-E is the easier build There
are photos and supporting artwork in Typi Broni i
Uzbrojenia (Polish Profile to us old hands) No 99,
which show, rather fuzzily, that this machine
indeed had the Clayton exhausts and 0.50" nose
gun FV923 was built as 264736, a C-25, with the
clear view windscreen etc., so if you follow the
instructions for the second option to the letter
you'll have an accurate model C28, apart from
the Norden bombsight Both these machines
need the Mk XIV, and since my last opus I got the
Haynes RAF 100 Technical Innovations Manual in
my Hogswatch stocking Scratchbuilders and
Quickboost please note page 110! You'll also
need an ammunition feed to the gun, and long
tubular tails for the bombs if they're going to be
on show
The decals are perfect except for the style of S inthe squadron codes The horizontal stroke at midheight ought to descend at about forty fivedegrees I have Modeldecal and Almark generics,but neither supplies this style SM-C appears(with correctly styled codes and a dozen otherMitchells) on DK Decals’ sheet 72043 N.A B-25Mitchell Mk II/III in RAF Service
The other option is more difficult Theinstructions and decals give its identity as FL-212for a start Well, I have a starboard and three portphotos of this one, and it was definitely FL-218!
Frog got it right, apart from the hyphen, thoughtheir codes were too big and fat, and the artworktoo simplified
Anyway, '218 is a B-25C, 112806, and the earliestversion the kit as moulded covers is a C-1
Hence, in order to use the otherwise excellentand accurate decal sheet, we need to alter themidships windows and the carb intakes, asdetailed in the recent Aircraft in Profile in SAMVolume 40 Issue 9 Airfix's parts breakdownwould easily allow for alternatives to G1 and G2,but I asked, and they won't, so as the 'new' littlewindows clash with the ‘old’ there is no realalternative to filling, cutting-out, and reglazing Irecommend a complete glazed oval for thestarboard side, with a lick of paint across the top
As for the carburettor intakes, I'd razor saw themhorizontally off the top of parts C2/C3, replacingthe saw cut with suitable thin card, and take theexcess width (5") out of the middle, to keep the
round ends undamaged Replace them on top ofthe bulkhead, then shave the cowlings andupper wing fairings to suit and extend the gillrings inwards I know it's messy, but it does showwhen you compare before and after Note thatthe rectangular panel behind the exhaustcollector outlet is not camouflaged, butdiscoloured bare steel
This aeroplane shows no sign of having a nosegun, either stowed or deployed It did howeverhave a short rod aerial under the nose, justforward of the port nose hatch andperpendicular to the skin The bombsight ofcourse remains a Mk XIV
Despite '218's depiction in Aircraft in Profile andPaul Lucas's articles on the subject, neither ofthese aeroplanes was green The instructionscorrectly suggest Humbrol 155, and I reckonRevell 146 (NATO Olive) would be just as good.I'd lighten either, just a little, with light grey andthen splurge a darkened version over the centresection, the nacelle tops and the forward half ofthe outer wings as far as the ailerons This is notpaint, but muck, neither neat nor symmetrical,but glaringly obvious nonetheless And afteronly seven trips, too
Overall it's marvellous, with minor annoyances.Airfix deserve to sell shedloads of them, if onlybecause the conversion potential is so extensive.And having already got a 2TAF Mitchell on myshelf, that's where I'll go with this one Don't wait
up
www.revell.de
PLUS MODEL
Constellation Plus…
Plus Model’s adoption of the Heller C-121 has offered modellers the
opportunity to build a striking model in 1/72, building on a classic
tooling that already had much to offer, and adding an assortment of
upgrades and detail sets that are now joined by this latest addition, a
set of four engines and propellers comprising some forty six resin parts,
a small etched fret and a decal sheet
Also new from Plus Model are acouple of pilot figures AL3001 is a1/32 standing figure of a RAF Tempestpilot depicted with a cup of tea in onehand and his flying helmet folded inthe other AL4082 is a 1/48 US Navypilot figure designed to posealongside the F4U Corsair Both arevery finely sculpted with superb detailand a great deal of character
www.plusmodel.cz
DROPPING A BRICK
Apologies for the incorrectly creditedarticle in last month’s issue The Buccaneerwas of course the work of Ray Ball Thanks
to Ray for the piece and for his patience inthe face our lapse Likewise to BrianDerbyshire, who confronted with aBuccaneer would probably wonder wherethe propeller was Thanks to both for theircontinuing contributions and expertise
Trang 11See you at the Scottish Nationals, Perth
Trang 12B O O K R E V I E W S
A look at some of the latest publications received for review Edited by Ernie Lee
F11F-1 Tiger Aircraft Walkaround CD
By: Steve Muth
Publisher: Peregrine Publishing
Published inword and JPEGformat fornear universalaccess andsimplicity, theauthorpresentsclear detailphotographs
of thecockpit, landing gear, wheel wells, exhaust,
wing fold and other details of interest to the
scale modeller This CD follows on from the
acclaimed twelve page booklets and other
previously published CDs by Peregrine
Publishing
The photographs were taken of the F11F-1 at
the National Museum of Naval Aviation at
Pensacola, Florida This CD will make an
excellent reference for the any of the F11F kits
now on the market, particularly the Old
Lindberg kit The later F11F-1F with the J-79
engine gave it a much needed boost in
performance but too late The F-8 was already
there This is an accurate restoration of the US
Navy’s first supersonic shipboard fighter and
it has been captured in all its glorious detail
The photographs were taken with the
cooperation of the National Naval Aviation
Museum staff, thus assuring adequate access
to the cockpit and other details
Priced at an affordable $12.00, these CDs may
be ordered from Steve Muth at Peregrine
Publishing, 70 The Promenade, Glen Head, NY
11545, USA, by telephone on (516)759-1089,
by FAX on (516)759-1034 or email
sgmuth@optonline.net Payment by check on
a US bank in dollars or PayPal For overseas
orders add $12.00 US dollars for postage
of theConcorde, theastestcommercialaircraft everbuilt Sadly it
s nowelegated to
he historybooks withnothing on
he horizon
to replace it To design and build such amachine cost a great deal of money andexpertise and the British aircraft industrylooked for a partner in this project Theobvious one in Europe was France, in fact theonly country capable of such a project otherthan the British
This book is not just about Concorde butother studies of high speed flight on bothsides of the channel Some of the designswere out of this world The ArmstrongWhitworth M-Wing was one of them Thewing shape from above was just that Aforward designed inner section, then theengine and the outer section swept Theswing wing was another concept looked into,although they got over their giddy periodand started to look into more conventionaldesigns It is obvious that a lot of research hasgone into this work and although much hasbeen written about this aircraft, I do not know
of any other book that covers the wholesubject so well
If your interest lies with modern commercialaircraft, then you have to include theConcorde Although modern commercialaircraft are not my thing, this is one machine Ifancied building, unfortunately all the reports
I read were anything but complimentaryregarding the available kits Seeing thisaircraft taking off at Heathrow is something Iwill never forget so I am glad that we have anauthor who has done such a good job ofrecording this one of a kind
Format: Paperback, 80 pages A4
From the end
of theeighteenthcentury,Germany,Austro-Hungary andRussia hadoccupiedPoland At
he end ofWorld War IPoland tookadvantage
of theituationand expelled theoccupying forces and resurrected theindependent Polish state They then started
to collect a considerable number of Germanaircraft, which formed the beginning of thePolish Air Force Among them were theseFokker E.V/D.VIII fighters
We get an in-depth story of their service with
a good number of photographs and, as far as
modellers are concerned, a superb collection
of colour profiles and in some cases upperand lower views What makes themparticularly interesting is the mix of theoriginal German lozenge coloured fabric andnewly painted wings However watch out forsome Bolshevik machines These are easy toproduce in modelling form as the paintschemes were very basic, one with skis wasdark green overall with a natural metalcowing and just red stars on the upper wingsurfaces The other had a strange colourpattern The fuselage had large areas of threedifferent shades of grey and the only insigniawere white circles on the rudder
Mushroom have given us yet anotherinteresting aspect of European aviation andthe mix of German Lozenge fabric and Polishadditions makes for some interestingschemes This is something you could notmake up!
www.mmpbooks.biz
Ernie Lee
Fury from the North
Author: Douglas C Dildy Publisher: Helion and Company ISBN: 978 19123 903 35 Format: Paperback, 96 pages, 297mm by
210mm
While dozens
of accounts of
he Koreanair war havebeenpublishedover theime, nearlyall of theseocus on thehigh profilecombatsbetween
he NorthAmericanF-86Sabres ofthe US Air Force(USAF) and the MiG-15s opposing them.Consequently the story of the North KoreanAir Force remains largely unknown Theservice was diminutive service was virtuallywiped out of the skies in a matter of weeksafter the start of that conflict Thereafter, theimpression is that it never took part in theActually, the KPAF was rebuilt initially withpiston engined fighters of Soviet origin andconverted to jets fairly early on
This book tells the story of the KPAF Clearly,building a modern effective air force wasalways a daunting undertaking, even in thelate 1940s when there was abundance ofcombat aircraft left over from World War II.This fascinating account includes somesurprising truths, as well as a wealth ofessential information for the modeller andgeneral enthusiast
www.casematepublishing.co.uk
W W W S C A L E A I RC R A F T M O D E L L I N G CO.U K
Trang 14Scale Aircraft Conversions
Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2b Late Landing Gear (for Wingnut Wings kits)
www.scaleaircraftconversions.com
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Supermarine Spitfire Mk 1 Landing
Gear (for 2018 Tamiya kits)
www.scaleaircraftconversions.com
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Bristol Beaufighter TF.X Landing Gear (for Revell kits)
Lockheed P-38 Lightning Main and
Nose Wheel Set with Dust Covers
Airbus A319-112 Croatia Airlines
(for Revell kits)
www.risingdecals.com
Trang 16Special Hobby’s kit of the AF-3S
Guardian is a rerelease with
new parts and decals, and
contains nine sprues of grey and
one clear sprue of injection
moulded plastic, one etched fret,
fifteen resin parts, two decal sheets
and one full colour
assembly/painting/marking guide
booklet The parts are nicely
moulded with finely engraved
panels lines and etched parts are
supplied for the cockpit, wings and
landing gear The resin are
predominantly for the Pratt &
Whitney engine and prop
Colour call outs are for Gunze
paints throughout
the build
The buildbegins withthe interiorand thecockpit
instrument panel, which has decalsfor the instruments along with aresin scope The pilot seat hasetched seat harnesses and thereare two other crew stations withinthe fuselage and though both seatsalso have etched seat belts there is
no other interior detail provided
The cockpit has decals for the twoside consoles with etcheddocument stowage and a resinequipment parts behind the pilot’sseat The cockpit was painted mattblack throughout with off white forthe remainder of the interior
The resin engine is very nicelycast with loads of detail, most ofwhich is lost once it is installed inthe fuselage as the only thingvisible is the front which is a pity
This version of the aircraft differschiefly in the fitment of the MADBoom fairing, a resin part that isglued into position on the rearstarboard fuselage once the mainairframe has been assembled
The model was given a coat ofUltimate Grey Primer prior to beingsprayed with Lifecolor UA 047FS15042 Sea Blue The decals aresuperbly printed with good colourdensity, which is needed when youhave white decals over a dark bluecolour scheme The decals sheetcontains options for four aircraft:
• AF-3 Guardian S, Bu.No130365.153/7L, Naval Air ReserveTraining Unit (NARTU), NAS LosAlamitos, 1956 This aircraftwears the Grey/White colourscheme
• AF-3 Guardian S, Bu.No 130367,12/SM, VS-27 Aircraft CarrierCVS-36 USS
Antietam,
Mediterranean, 1953 Thisaircraft wears the Sea Blue colourscheme
• AF-3 Guardian, Bu.No 130382Naval Air Reserve Training Unit(NARTU), NAS Los Alamitos,
1956 This aircraft wears theGrey/White colour scheme
• AF-3 Guardian, Bu.No 13036512/SV, VS-20 NAS Atsugi, Japan,Spring/Summer 1953 Thisaircraft wears the Sea Blue colourscheme
Conclusion
Yet another superb model fromSpecial Hobby The Guardian looksvery smart in its Sea Blue scheme,which really sets the aircraft offvery nicely The parts go togetherextremely well and the fit of them
is superb The resin engine isexcellent but the detail is lost once
it is installed, although by superdetailing the model and opening
up the engine cowls it could berevealed in all of its glory, but that’sfor another project maybe Builtstraight from the box the kit isnonetheless impressive, and in 1/48scale it is quite a big model.Special Hobby’s instructions arevery nicely laid out and with thembeing in colour it helps todistinguish the parts somewhatbetter than monochrome onesHow times are changing in themodelling world and the kits seem
to be getting better and betterevery year
AF-3S Guardian MAD Boom
By Andy McCabe
Trang 194 W W W S C A L E A I RC R A F T M O D E L L I N G CO.U K
S U B C U TA N E O U S
Following publication of the Colour
Conundrum article that dealt with the
colours applied to the Flight Decks of Royal
Navy Aircraft Carriers it became apparent that
information on how the interior of the Hangar
Deck was painted would also be helpful to some
people With the publication of a similar second
article dealing with the colours applied to post
war flight decks, it seems likely that a few words
about the colour scheme of the post war Hangar
decks would also be of interest
With regard to the wartime Aircraft Carriers,
the only document I have found at the time of
writing that touches upon the subject is
Admiralty Fleet Order (AFO) 1850/43 entitled
Painting of Hangars dated 22nd April 1943 This
stated that in order to provide better lighting in
the hangars of aircraft carriers, it had been
decided that the hangar bulkheads should
generally be painted white The lift openings, the
surface of the fireproof curtains and armour
doors facing the lift opening were to be painted
a dull (i.e matt) black to reduce the possibility of
light being reflected up through the lift
openings A dado approximately three feet high
of dark grey or black was to be painted round
the lower part of the hangar bulkheads The AFO
made no mention of the deck itself, and it is
thought that this was left as bare unpainted
steel as this is implied by the Post War AFO that
superseded AFO 1850/43, AFO 7197/46 Hangars
- Painting of in Fleet and Light Fleet Carriers
dated 13th December 1946
AFO 7197/46 went into much more detail as
to how the hangars were to be painted The text
of the appendix to this order, which was entitled
Specification for Painting Hangars of Fleet and
Light Fleet Carriers, stated that the scheme of
painting for the hangars of aircraft carriers was
designed for the purposes of the preservation of
the structure, cleanliness, and to provide a high
degree of light reflection The last requirement
was considered to be of great importance to
ensure that the best results were obtained from
the hangar lighting so that maintenance work
on the aircraft could be performed under the
best possible lighting conditions
Hangar bulkheads were to be painted with
one priming coat of aluminium paint followed
by two finishing coats of White Fire Resistant
Paint, which gave what the AFO describes as a
half gloss white finish The lower portion of the
hangar bulkheads were to have a dado
extending for a distance of eighteen
inches above the deck, which was to
be applied using what the AFO calls a
light grey shade This was to be mixed
by adding 7lbs of blue-black paste to
each cwt of the White Fire Resistant
Paint used to paint the rest of the
bulkhead
The deck head over the hangar and all deepsupporting beams and girders were to bepainted in a similar way to the hangarbulkheads
The fittings in the hangar such as accessplatforms, stowages for equipment both on thehangar bulkhead and overhead, and equipmentpermanently fitted in the hangar were to bepainted in a similar manner and to the sameshade as the hangar bulkheads
The hangar deck itself was to be left bare andunpainted The AFO mentioned however that itwas under consideration to coat the hangardeck with a plain oil and petrol resisting paint orsimilar composition, which had non-slipproperties The adoption of such a finish woulddepend on the result of trials and this section ofthe AFO would be amended as necessary in duecourse
The bulkheads that formed the boundaries ofthe lift wells were to continue to be finished withblack paint as previously
The Hangar Decks of the Korean War periodwere described by the contents of AFO 761/53entitled Aircraft Carriers - Hangars - Painting of
in Fleet and Light Fleet Carriers dated 13thMarch 1953 According to this AFO the hangarbulkheads were still to be painted white, thoughthe undercoat was now to be yellow zincchromate primer The eighteen inch high dadowas no longer to be light grey but was now to
be Brunswick Green BS 381C (1948) No 226 Thiswas actually Middle Brunswick Green
The other major difference between AFO761/53 and AFO 7197/46 was to be found inparagraph (d) which was headed Hangar Decks
This paragraph stated that:
'It has been found that, although painting ofhangar decks improves appearance cleanlinessand light reflection, it fails in its most essentialfunction of providing a non-skid surface and isparticularly slippery when AVGAS and Kerosine arespilt It is therefore decided that hangar decksshould be bare in future
To ensure that the hangar deck plating ismaintained in good condition, these decks should
be inspected periodically, and where surfacerust is discovered, the affected partshould be wire scrubbed and coatedwith light mineral oil.'
Evidently the trialsmentioned in 1946 hadbeen carried out andthe paint finishhad beenfound
unsatisfactory At the time of writing, I have notfound any documents relating to these trials thatmight suggest what colour the paint used was.This scheme looks as though it remained inuse unchanged until 1959 when it would appearthat the Mid Brunswick Green dado started to bereplaced by one of a range of colours
provisioned for the purpose of applying dados
to interior compartments, which were takenfrom BS 2660 Colours for Building andDecorative Paints The BS 2660 colours did nothave names, only having reference numbers TheAdmiralty therefore appears to have assigned itsown names to 1-025 (Red) Admiralty Pattern No.10600; 3-036 (Fawn) AP 10601; 3-045 (Brown)and 6-073 AP 10603 (Green)
AFO 3060/59 entitled Painting Schemes for
HM Ships dated 18th December 1959, fails togive details as to how the hangar deck was to bepainted in a sufficiently clear manner for thislandlubber firmly to grasp It is evident that thebulkheads were still to be painted white but it isnot clear whether a dado in one of the coloursdescribed above was to be applied If it was,instructions were given that the dado was not toexceed twenty four inches in workshops Thebulkheads of the lift wells were still to befinished matt black but there is no specificmention of the hangar deck itself
Unfortunately, AFO (U)852/62 PaintingSchemes for HM Ships dated 11th May 1962 isidentically worded and Defence CouncilInstruction (RN) (U)442/65 of the same titledated 19th March 1965, which is the lastdocument dealing with the subject that Icurrently have, is equally silent on the matter Inthe light of some anecdotal evidence I found onthe Internet, it is thought that the hangar deckremained unpainted steel until at least the late1960s
It is however apparent from photographs that
by the time Ark Royal retired in 1978, her hangardeck did have some kind of paint upon it, and as
an educated guess based on what appears tohave been subsequent practice, it is suggestedthat this would have been Dark AdmiraltyGrey BS 381C No 632 in colour
The Hangar Deck By Paul Lucas
Trang 21Okay, it's an old and these days politically
insensitive joke that circulated around
the Fairey plant while the Gannet was
being built in the 1950s The Fairey Gannet is a
British carrier borne aircraft of the post World
War II era developed for the Royal Navy's Fleet
Air Arm (FAA) by the Fairey Aviation Company Itwas a mid wing monoplane with a tricycleundercarriage, a crew of three, and a doubleturboprop engine driving two contra rotatingpropellers
The Gannet was originally developed to meetthe FAA's dual role antisubmarine warfare andstrike requirement It was later adapted intoelectronic countermeasures, airborne earlywarning and carrier onboard delivery versions
The Gannet was unique among carrier borneaircraft in that the wing folded in two places toform a distinctive Z shape on each side to allowfor easier storage on British carriers The Gannetused two Armstrong Siddeley Mamba turbopropengines mounted side-by-side and coupled tocoaxial contra rotating propellers One engine
could be stopped to conserve fuel and extendendurance for cruise flight In addition to theUnited Kingdom, the Gannet was also operated
by Australia, Indonesia and West Germany.Most folks considered the Gannet an uglybeast at best but like the contemporaryGrumman TBF Avenger it had a brutish beautyand unlike the Avenger sported some attractivecolour schemes
The Kit
Previous to the release of the Revell kit theonly offering in 1/72 scale was the clunky Frogkit from 1965 and all its subsequent reboxingsand reissues by companies like Donetsk andNovo With the release of the new tool Revell kit
Eduard’s set 73315 includes a
comprehensive set of colour
interior parts that will bring
the cockpit to life
Warpaint offer an excellent one-stop reference on the type
Woldpack’s wing fold parts mate up to the kit fuselage almost perfectly after a little clean-up
Trang 22Pavla's Mk Vc conversion set for the old Revell
Supermarine Spitfire Mk V with separate
ailerons, flaps and complete armament bay
Revellution to Scratch…
Some plastic surgery for the Revell fuselage
You don´t always need to use a lot of heavymetal
Cockpit complete and painted I used ModelMaster's Interior Green for the green paintedsections Some detail was highlighted withFaber-Castell Polychromos pencils
Do you know the feeling when you start a
project with a very expensive conversion
set and then out of the blue one of our
friends from the Czech Republic or Poland
comes up with a decent kit of the conversion
begun not too long ago? I bet you do! After
some considerable time however the project
resurfaces from the mess and you decide to try
and finish it That's where this story begins
I have always been interested in Malta's World
War II history and the aircraft involved During
my several visits to the island I have been lucky
enough to meet with both historians andexcellent scale modellers, among them BrianChauchi and others from IPMS Malta, to discussthe subject No Mk V has been recovered fromthe sea around Malta and Gozo and none hasbeen preserved there, only a rebuilt Mk IXc atthe Malta Aviation Museum The surviving info
on these aircraft then, so vital for Malta'ssurvival, is sparse
Malta's 1942 Spitfires are famous for their stillvery much debated camouflage and so I decided
to do a Mk Vc from a Pavla conversion set(LU72051) and a Revell Mk V I had in my stash Atthat time only Sword offered a decent Mk Vcwith very good interior and extra details, butthat's another story Today we have theAZModels’ Mk Vc, which will allow both a verygood Mk Vb and Vc in 1/72
Until 2015 there was only Brian Cauchi's workMalta Spitfires 1942 – Their Colours and Markingsfor reference, but in SAM 12/2015 and 01/2016Paul Lucas featured two very well researchedarticles about the Malta Spitfires, together withinteresting paint suggestions for several Mk Vbsand Vcs
I opted for BR130 T°D, a Mk Vc delivered toMalta with Operation Calendar in April 1942 just
in time to meet further German attacks on theisland This aircraft survived the siege and was
transferred to the USAAF in 1943 Interestingly ithad the inboard mounted cannons deleted andkept the outboard ones
The old Revell Mk V is not the worst kit of aSpitfire I have seen but the wing configuration ismore of a generic type than that of a Mk Vb.Additionally the gull wing section iscompletely wrong Pavla's conversioncame to the rescue and having both athand I started this project almostthree years ago Previous trialswith mating fuselages of otherSpitfire kits (AZ and Tamyia) werenot successful at all so I stayed with the Revellkit
First I created the interior of the cockpit Asthere would not be much to be seen I left itmore or less basic using sprues, rods and otherbits and pieces from the spares box The onlymetal part used was the panel from anotheraftermarket set The Sutton harness came fromEduard and was enhanced by the tension stringcables aft of the cockpit
The control column was also scratch built anddetailed as this will be seen clearly in thecockpit Before that I decided how the aileronswould be positioned and the control stick waspositioned accordingly
The whole assembly was painted Interior
Trang 23M A LTA S P IT F IR E
31 APRIL 2019 • VOLUME 41 • ISSUE 02
Mk I V
Grey primer and still some
holes and gaps
It s getting better with again filling, sanding and polishing…
ensued but at the end of the day it worked outwell The reason I wanted to use this wing setwas that it was correct with the wing rootsection aft and showed the armament baysopen As a nice gimmick for a maintenancescene it had separately moulded flaps Notsurprisingly the wing tip parts did not matewithout a lot of filler Pavla supplied them but Iused the Revell ones Both were equally difficult
to fix
Spitfires had a very distinctive gull wingcentre section aft of the wing and Pavla suppliedthis part as a replacement for the wronglyshaped Revell part Again the glance towards the
waste bin when it did not fit! Eventually I usedone from an AZ Spitfire, together with yetanother sheet of plastic and some filler Just have
a look at the pictures
Spitfires had a special metal sheet plate tocover the tank in front of the cockpit Althoughvery thin, especially in 1/72, I wanted to includethis into my build I cut a very thin Evergreensheet to the size 12mm by 20.5mm and gluedthis onto the fuselage
I cut off the oil cooler from the wing andadded a slightly larger and better fitting one tothe wing The Malta Spitfire Mk Vcs mostly had
Green and highlighted with light green after awash with a dark grey-brown oil colour Nothingnew to the experienced modeller For detailwork I prefer Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils.These stick very well to painted surfaces and are
a great help with the finer touches
Next the fuselage halves were glued togetherand the first test fitting of fuselage and wing
followed The immediate impressionwas ‘never ever’ and my thoughtsventured for the first time towards thewaste bin adjacent to my modellingdesk Sanding and sawing,sawing andsanding
Trang 2434 W W W S C A L E A I RC R A F T M O D E L L I N G CO.U K
V I L D E B E E S T
Building Special Hobby's Reboxing of the Azur/Fromm
Vickers Vildebeest Mark III
By Dave Hooper
Kit No: 72400
Scale: 1/72
Type: Injection Moulded Plastic
Manufacturer: Special Hobby
www.specialhobby.eu
Main Reference:
Vickers Aircraft Since 1908, Putnam
The Vickers Vildebeest was designed as a
torpedo carrier and bomber to meet the
requirements of the RAF specification
24/25 for a high altitude bomber intended to
replace the Hawker Horsley The first prototype
was completed in the spring of 1928 and began
trials in September of that year, in competition
with the Blackburn Beagle These and
subsequent trials resulted in a development
order for nine Vildebeests to a rewritten
specification of 22/31
The Mark III was the result of an air
ministry request for a redesigned rear
cockpit to
allow for the accommodation of a third crewmember Mark III Vildebeests went into servicewith 36 Squadron in 1934 and 22 Squadron in
1935 The Royal New Zealand Air Force alsoevaluated and purchased several examples ofthe Mark III
Like the better known Fairey Swordfish, theVildebeest was still in active service at theoutbreak of World War II Vildebeests of 22 and
42 Squadrons were Coastal Command’s onlysource of torpedo bombers until the BristolBeaufort arrived in 1940 while 36, 100 and 236Squadrons served in Asia 36 and 236 Squadronswere based in Singapore where they wereoutclassed against the oncoming tide of theJapanese in 1941
The Kit
This Special Hobby 1/72 kit of the Mark IIIVildebeest is a direct reboxing of theAzur/Fromm kit that first surfaced around 2011
I’m no expert but as far as I can tell the SpecialHobby version is exactly the same as the Azuroriginal, even including the same decal sheet,resin block and photo etch fret
The kit itself has a limited run look and feel to
it, in that the plastic fuselage is reasonably thickand the location points are either non-existent
or minimal However the actual quality ofthe moulding is very good and theplastic is reasonably clean of defectsother than faint lines caused by themould joins The photo etch fret isfairly busy but thankfully sticks todepicting parts of the model that
are more suited to the medium There are also afew a few small resin parts covering details such
as the Vickers gun and the Bristol Pegasus radialengine The colourful decal sheet, produced byAvi-print, contains options for four Vildebeests,with two in RAF green and earth browncamouflage, and two silver wings, of which onedepicts an RNZAF training aircraft Theinstructions come in the form of a booklet Lineconstructional drawings are mostly in black andwhite, with the odd coloured area and aregenerally fairly easy to follow with a fewexceptions
Interior
Considering the scale, this kit has a fairlydetailed interior The forward pilot's section ismainly constructed around a detailed andrealistic flooring part on which the seat, which ismoulded in two pieces, control column andrudder bar fit The seat assembly includes photoetch Sutton style harnesses There is also a nicelittle instrument panel and a few photo etchdetails such as trim wheel and throttle that aredesigned to fit in to the fuselage side wall Therear observers section includes spare Lewisdrum racks that fit directly to the rear floor and aseat which can either be set in a horizontal orvertical (folded) position Some framework parts,designed to fit across the fuselage, forward andbehind the observer’s position are also included.The fuselage sidewalls have some niceframework detail that looks impressive once a
little paint has been added
A small piece of plastic rod
was fitted across the window
to complete the missing
framework
The pilots station
in progress
Sidewalls painted
Trang 25V I L D E B E E S T
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APRIL 2019 • VOLUME 41 • ISSUE 02
drilled out forthe aileron controlrods that fit betweenthe upper and lowerailerons I personallyfound the drawingsthat are included toshow you the position ofthese location points initially
very confusing as there was nothing to tell me
what the diagrams represented I did however
get there in the end, it just took a little longer to
figure out Perhaps the old brain's getting a little
slow! At this point in the proceedings I also
drilled rigging location points in to the fuselage
and wings, upper and lower The wings on these
models have a reasonable substance which is
enough that I didn’t feel that I needed to drill all
the way through in order to achieve a secure
bond to the rigging Therefore I produced small
wire rigging attachment loops to fit in to the
underside of the upper wing This was done by
wrapping wire around a 0.3mm drill and twisting
the end so that when cut they produced a pin to
fit in to the location point Once this was done,
mending thread, which I used as my preferred
rigging material, was fitted in to some of the
harder to reach locations between the cabane
struts on the fuselage The upper wing was then
glued to the cabane struts being careful to
ensure that the wings aligned from all angles
Again I chose to replace the interplane struts
with parts made from Strutz which were spring
fitted between the wings I then began the
process of rigging the wings The Vildebeest is
not a difficult subject to rig because there is
plenty of space between the two wings The
rigging process was a simple in that one end of
the monofilment thread was fitted in the
location hole in the lower wing The other end
was threaded through the corresponding loop
in the upper wing It was initially cemented to
the loop, but the thread was then knotted and
the knot cemented, before cutting away the
excess As long as there are no blockages or
poorly bonded loops, the process is a fairly quick
one to complete
Engine
The Bristol Pegasus IIM3 engine is supplied in
three parts The main engine including the
cylinders is supplied as a nice little resin part,
while the various pipes that connect with each
cylinder are supplied in plastic While the resin
part is very nice, it is missing what somebody
more used to writing about World War I rotary
engines would assume are push rods These
were manufactured from brass rod and fitted
between the central hub and each cylinder
head Each part was painted separately before
construction took place Then the fun part
began
as the fitbetween theplastic pipe workand the resin engine isnot obvious and needs to beworked at I began by fitting therear pipe work in place This part needed someadjustment to enable it to fit but nowhere near
as much as the front section of pipe work whichhas the added complexity of ensuring that thecorrect pipes are fitted to the correct side ofeach cylinder I wasn’t too worried if during theadjustments of the position of these pipes somebroke away from the central hub as it was franklyeasier to individually refit each pipe than it was
to make the whole piece work Somehow I gotthere in the end, although I’m not entirely quitesure how The engine was then fitted to thefuselage Two exhaust pipes are designed to fit
to the central hub of the front pipe work section
These were also painted before gluing inposition, which was done after the main engineunit had been fitted to the fuselage
Undercarriage
The undercarriage is supplied in three partsper side V shaped struts that sit under the lowerwing fit to the wheel spats, which includes thewheel as part of the moulding A third strut thenfits between the fuselage and the wheel spat Ipainted all of these parts separately prior toassembly Some decals also need to be wrappedaround the spats on the option that I wasbuilding This part of the process concerned me,but the nature of the decals are such that Imanaged to apply the decal to this area withoutany problems with just the aid of a little Mr MarkSetter Neo I then glued the spats to the Vshaped struts and fitted these to each lowerwing, drilling out location holes to allow me to
do so The third strut that runs between thefuselage and spat was found to be too short
Luckily the kit includes two different types ofstrut for this purpose which has slightly differentend detail I therefore used the strut materialfrom the spare parts to extend the parts that Ineeded Small brass rod was used to pin theextensions in place The rear tail wheel ismoulded from one piece of plastic This is finebut I felt that the main attachment to thefuselage was at risk of damage and thereforeopted to replace this section with stronger brassrod
Final Details
On most models of this scale, once you reachthis stage you feel that you are on the homestrait In the case of the Vildebeest there are still
a lot of areas that still need attention, and a lot
Trang 28If there is one area of aviation that needed a
little extra attention from kit manufacturers it
has to have been Cold War Soviet aircraft
Thankfully the last few years has finally seen an
abundance of releases covering many of the
important types with modern tooled kits in most
scales, but more specifically in 1/48 For those
wanting to build these types we have long had
to struggle with kits that are either very old
and/or basic, with many being designed backwhen access to the actual airframes was virtuallyimpossible and therefore produced from dodgygrainy photographs of early or prototypevariants, or kits from the former Eastern Bloccountries that were a little more accurate butrequired the combined patience of a BuddhistMonk and the mind tricks of a Jedi Knight inorder to produce any half decent result
Thankfully this boom time of releases has solvedthe issue and provided the type of kits we couldonly dream about fifteen years ago
First flown in 1969, the Sukhoi Su-17 Fitterwas a development of the Su-7 fighter/bomberseries intended to improve low speed take-offand landing performances by the addition ofvariable wing sweep technology Enteringservice with the Soviet Air Force in 1970, andlater the Russian Air Force after the breakup ofthe Soviet Union, the Su-17 enjoyed a longcareer seeing action in Afghanistan during the1980s and again during the First Chechen War inthe mid 1990s, finally retiring in 1998 with thewithdrawal of the last Su-17M4 Designated asthe Su-20 and Su-22 for export models it alsoserved with the air forces of Bulgaria, Poland,Armenia, Czechoslovakia, East Germany,Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine,Belarus, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Angola, Egypt, Libya,Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Vietnam and Peru with atotal of 2,867 airframes being produced.Although universally known by its NATOdesignation of FITTER, it was unofficially dubbedthe Martlet (Strizh) by the Russians, and even lessglamorously the Iron Cricket by some EasternBloc countries during its service
As with many 1/48 scale HobbyBoss kits youare faced with a whole lot of plastic when youopen the considerably sized box In fact in thisexample there are eighteen individually baggedplastic sprues tucked inside along with otherparts that are carefully enclosed in a separateinternal boxed area such as the photo etch fret,vinyl tyres and clear plastic parts A nice touch isthat some of the more delicate parts on thesprues are wrapped with a protective covering
to avoid any damage Clear and conciseinstructions are provide in the form of detailedthree dimensional drawings in a number ofstages for the whole build process Along withthis there are two full colour A4 sized sheetsproviding camouflage and weaponry paintingguides If you have built any previous HobbyBosskits in this scale then you will probably notice alittle bit of similarity Being clever they havedesigned certain parts that are commonly used
by different types of aircraft such as ejectionStraight from the box the cockpit and
ejection seats are quite detailed and
when combined with some careful
painting and decalling
it all looks quite
convincing
Nothing overcomplicated is required inside the fuselage with the completed cockpit, intake shock cone and exhaust all slotting neatly into place Being hollow and made of two halves the shock cone is the ideal place to conceal nose weight
Trang 29I highly recommend Mr Hobby Aqueous
paints as they are probably the easiest and
nicest for airbrushing, allowing for clean and
precise work with the airbrush, as per this
freehand camouflage, with none of the
horrible tip build up
Randomised light shading and darker panel line
shading makes things look rather dramatic and
excessive at this point, but thin layers of
paint sprayed carefully over things
create a well-blended result and
add depth to the overall
finish
The same process was used on the underside, which really helps to break up a large uniform colour and add some life
Separate internal
framing is provided to
sit inside the canopy
sections and provide
extra depth and
realism to the interior
S U K H O I S U 17U M3
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Things quickly move along and before you know it you have a near complete airframe Separate outer wings are provided for forward or swept settings and simply push fit neatly into place
.
.
.