+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (NATO reporting name: "Farmer") was a Soviet second-generation, single-seat, twin jet-engine fighter aircraft. It was the first Soviet production aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. A comparable U.S. "Century Series" fighter was the North American F-100 Super Sabre, although the MiG-19 would primarily oppose the more modern McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and Republic F-105 Thunderchief over North Vietnam. Furthermore, the North American YF-100 Super Sabre prototype appeared approximately one year after the MiG-19, making the MiG-19 the first operational supersonic jet in the world.

With the advent of the MiG-21, though, their career did not last long. Even though many machines were updated to carry the K-13 (the IR-guided AA-2 "Atoll") as well as the improved K-55 AAMs, with no change of the type’s designation, most MiG-19bis were already phased out towards the late 1960s and quickly replaced by 2nd generation MiG-21s as well as heavier and more capable Suchoj interceptors like the Su-9, -11 and -15. By 1972, all MiG-19bis had been retired.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 13.54 m (44 ft 4 in), fuselage only with shock cone in forward position

15.48 m (50 8 ½ in) including pitot

Wingspan: 9 m (29 ft 6 in)

Height: 3.8885 m (12 ft 9 in)

Wing area: 25 m² (269 ft²)

Empty weight: 5,210 kg (11,475 lb)

Loaded weight: 7,890 kg (17,380 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 9,050 kg (19,935 lb)

Fuel capacity: 2,450 l (556 imp gal; 647 US gal) internal;

plus 760 l (170 imp gal; 200 US gal) with 2 drop tanks

Powerplant:

2× Sorokin R3M-26 turbojets, rated at 37.2 kN (8,370 lbf) thrust each with afterburning

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,380km/h at sea level (Mach=1.16)

1,850km/h at 12,000m (Mach=1.8)

Range: 1,250 km (775 mi; 750 nmi) at 14,000 m (45,000 ft) with 2 × 490 l drop tanks

Combat range: 500 km (312 mi; 270 nmi)

Ferry range: 2,000 km (1,242 mi; 690 nmi)

Service ceiling: 19,750 m (64,690 ft)

Rate of climb: 180 m/s (35,000 ft/min)

Wing loading: 353.3 kg/m² (72.4 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.86

Armament:

No internal guns.

4× underwing pylons; typically, a pair of PTB-490 drop tanks were carried on the outer pylon pair,

plus a pair of air-to air missiles on the inner pair: initially two radar-guided Kaliningrad K-5M (RS-2US)

AAMs, later two radar-guided K-55 or IR-guided Vympel K-13 (AA-2 'Atoll') AAMs

The kit and its assembly:

Another submission for the 2018 Cold War Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and again the opportunity to build a whiffy model from the project list. But it’s as fictional as one might think, since the SM-12 line of experimental “hybrid” fighters between the MiG-19 and the MiG-21 was real. But none of these aircraft ever made it into serial production, and in real life the MiG-21 showed so much potential that the attempts to improve the MiG-19 were stopped and no operational fighter entered production or service.

However, the SM-12, with its elongated nose and the central shock cone, makes a nice model subject, and I imagined what a service aircraft might have looked like? It would IMHO have been close, if not identical, to the SM-12PM, since this was the most refined pure jet fighter in the development family.

The basis for the build was a (dead cheap) Mastercraft MiG-19, which is a re-edition of the venerable Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) kit – as a tribute to modern tastes, it comes with (crudely) engraved panel, but it has a horrible fit all over. For instance, there was a 1mm gap between the fuselage and the right wing, the wing halves’ outlines did not match at all and it is questionable if the canopy actually belongs to the kit at all? PSR everywhere. I also had a Plastyk version of this kit on the table some time ago, but it was of a much better quality! O.K., the Mastercraft kit comes cheap, but it’s, to be honest, not a real bargain.

Even though the result would not be crisp I did some mods and changes. Internally, a cockpit tub was implanted (OOB there’s just a wacky seat hanging in mid air) plus some serious lead weight in the nose section for a proper stance.

On the outside, the new air intake is the most obvious change. I found a Su-17 intake (from a Mastercraft kit, too) and used a piece from a Matchbox B-17G’s dorsal turret to elongate the nose – it had an almost perfect diameter and a mildly conical shape. Some massive PSR work was necessary to blend the parts together, though.

The tail received new jet nozzles, scratched from steel needle protection covers, and the tail fairing was adjusted according to the real SM-12’s shape.

Ordnance was adapted, too: the drop tanks come from a Mastercraft MiG-21, and these supersonic PTB-490 tanks were indeed carried by the real SM-12 prototypes because the uprated engines were very thirsty and the original, teardrop-shaped MiG-19 tanks simply too draggy for the much faster SM-12. As a side note, the real SM-12’s short range was one of the serious factors that prevented the promising type’s production in real life. In order to overcome the poor range weakness I added an enlarged spine (half of a drop tank), inspired by the MiG-21 SMT, that would house an additional internal fuel tank.

The R2-SU/K-5 AAMs come from a vintage Mastercraft Soviet aircraft weapon set, which carries a pair of these 1st generation AAMs. While the molds seem to be a bit soft, the missiles look pretty convincing. Their pylons were taken from the kit (OOB they carry unguided AAM pods and are placed behind the main landing gear wells), just reversed and placed on the wings’ leading edges – similar to the real SM-12’s arrangement.

Painting and markings:

No surprises. In the Sixties, any PVO aircraft was left in bare metal, so there was hardly an alternative to a NMF finish.

Painting started with an all-over coat with acrylic Revell 99 (Aluminum), just the spine tank became light grey (Revell 371) for some contrast, and I painted some di-electric covers in a deep green (Revell 48).

The cockpit interior was painted with a bright mix of Revell 55 and some 48, while the landing gear wells and the back section of the cockpit were painted in a bluish grey (Revell 57).

The landing gear was painted in Steel (unpolished Modelmaster metallizer) and received classic, bright green wheel discs (Humbrol 2). As a small, unusual highlight the pitot boom under the chin received red and white stripes – seen on occasional MiG-19S fighters in Soviet service, and the anti-flutter booms on the stabilizers became bright red, too.

After the basic painting was done the kit received a black ink wash. Once this had dried and wiped off with a soft cotton cloth, post shading with various metallizer tones was added in order to liven up the uniform aircraft (including Humbrol’s matt and polished aluminum, and the exhaust section was treated with steel). Some panel lines were emphasized with a thin pencil.

Decals were puzzled together from various sources, a Guards badge and a few Russian stencils were added, too. Finally, the kit was sealed with a coat of sheen acrylic varnish (a 2:1 mix of Italeri matt and semi-gloss varnish).

The K-5 missiles, last but not least, were painted in aluminum, too, but their end caps (both front and tail section) became off-white.

The Mastercraft kit on which this conversion was based is crude, so I did not have high expectations concerning the outcome. But the new nose blends nicely into the MiG-19 fuselage, and the wide spine is a subtle detail that makes the aircraft look more “beefy” and less MiG-19-ish. The different drop tanks – even though they are authentic – visually add further speed. And despite many flaws, I am quite happy with the result of roundabout a week’s work.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was a World War II German high-altitude fighter-interceptor designed by Kurt Tank and produced by Focke-Wulf. The fighter was a development of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft. Originally it was intended to be made in three versions—the Ta 152H Höhenjäger ("high-altitude fighter"), the Ta 152C designed for medium-altitude operations and ground-attack, using a different engine and smaller wing, and finally the Ta 152E fighter-reconnaissance aircraft with the engine of the H model and the short wing of the C model.

The fighters, esp. the high altitude variants, had top priority. The initial Fw 190's BMW 801 engine was originally designed for bomber and transport aircraft flying at medium altitudes in the 15,000 to 20,000 feet (4,600 to 6,100 m) range. In keeping with this role, it used a relatively simple single-stage supercharger that lacked performance above 20,000 feet (6,100 m) altitude. This presented a problem for fighter use, where high-altitude performance was desirable. Through careful tuning, the Fw 190 instead emerged as a powerful medium altitude design. Several experimental models of the 190 with different engines were tested, primarily aiming at an improved high altitude performance. But these were not high priority projects or failed through various teething troubles with the innovative engines.

The Ta 152 J-2 remained the only production variant with the new engine, though, because the complex Jumo 222 was hard to manufacture and resources had become increasingly scarce by mid-1945. Consequentially, even though production of the Ta 152 J started in late 1945, the fighter’s production numbers remained low and only a small number of aircraft were finished and eventually reached front line units in serviceable condition. Probably only 30 machines went operational, with 30 more in the production lines in a more or less uncompleted condition. But those which countered bomber raids proved to be highly effective at the Western front and over Northern Germany against medium bombers and their escort fighters coming in from Great Britain.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 10.29 m (33 ft 8¾ in)

Wingspan: 11.65 m (38 ft 2 in)

Height: 3.35 m (11 ft 0 in)

Wing area: 19.80 m² (212.42 ft²)

Empty weight: 4,175 kg (9,205 lb)

Loaded weight: 6,054 kg (13,346 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 6,995 kg (15,422 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Junkers Jumo 222E liquid-cooled, 24-cylinder six-row inline piston engine

with a two-stage supercharger, rated at 2,500 hp (1,850 kW) at sea level

and 1,930 hp (1,439 kW) at 9,000 m (29,530 ft), driving a four-blade propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 760 km/h (408 knots, 470 mph) at 6,600 m (21,655 ft)

Range: 835 km (519 mi) with internal fuel only

1.480 km (919 mi) with Doppelreiter auxiliary tanks

Service ceiling: 12,600 m (41,500 ft)

Rate of climb: 22.1 m/s (4,360 ft/min)

Armament:

2× 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151 cannons with 250 RPG above the engine

2x 30mm (1.181 in) MK 103 in the wing roots with 150 RPG

1x ventral hardpoint for a 500 kg (1,102 lb) SC 500 bomb or a 300l drop tank

Attachment points for a pair of “Doppelreiter” 270 l conformal slipper tanks above the wings

The kit and its assembly:

This is a what-if model, but, as usual, it is rooted in reality – to be precise in the German late-war plans to mate the Ta 152(H) with the mighty Jumo 222 engine. I do not know what the official service designation would have been, but this combo would have resulted in a powerful fighter – AFAIK, German engineers’ calculations indicated a performance that would have been comparable with the post-WWII F4U-5!

Creating a model of such this paper aircraft called for some serious conversion work and ended almost in a kitbashing. The starting point became a (cheap) Mistercraft Fw 190D-9 kit, and I originally planned this model to be a Fw 190 variant, but eventually this turned into a Ta 152, since it would better match up with the late war time frame.

The Mastercraft/Mistercraft kit appears to be an indigenous mold and not a re-issue of a vintage kit. At first glance the parts look pretty crisp, but the kit has some serious fit and flash issues. Another selling point is the detailed decal set, which comes in three sheets and encompasses a lot of stencils – even though the instructions where to place them are not consistent, and there are even 1:48 scale(!) markings included. But that’s a Mastercraft/Mistercraft standard, anyway…

Well, the basis was sound and the kit would, in any event, be thoroughly modified. From the OOB kit, fuselage, wings and stabilizers were taken, as well as the landing gear and some other bits.

The wings were extended, in order to keep overall proportions with the new, much more massive engine cowling balanced (see below). Not an easy stunt, but I was lucky to have recently bought a set of resin Doppelreiter tanks from Airmodel which were just perfect to cover the cuts and seams on the upper wing surfaces. Inside of the wings, a styrene strip secured stability while the lower wing surface was sculpted with putty and the trailing edge of the outer wing panels was cut down by 1 mm, so that the wings’ outlines match again. Some further PSR work was necessary to blend the slipper tanks into the wings, forming the upper side of the modifications, but in the end the whole thing looks quite good.

The fuselage lost both its original engine and the tail. The latter is a donor part from a Frog Ta 152H (Revell re-boxing), but mating it with the Mistercraft Fw 190D was not easy because the fuselage shapes of the two kits are totally different! I also used the Mistercraft stabilizers because they were markedly bigger than the same parts from the Ta 152 kit!

The Jumo 222 front end was simulated with parts from the spares box, and it is a bit exaggerated. Actually, the Jumo 222 was hardly bigger (in both length and diameter) than the Fw 190D’s Jumo 213 V12 engine! The cowling and the radiator for my conversion came from a Frog He 219 engine nacelle (Revell re-boxing, too) which is utterly dubious. The nacelle parts were turned upside down and integrated into the slender Fw 190 front fuselage with several layers of putty.

Inside of the cowling, a radiator plate from an Italeri Fw 190D was mounted, together with a styrene tube adapter for the new propeller. The latter was scratched, using a drop tank as spinner and single propeller blades from the Mistercraft Fw 190D, plus one donor blade from the Frog Ta 152H kit, which had to be trimmed in order to match the other blades. But with some paint, no one will tell the small differences…

Once the bigger engine was integrated into the fuselage, the exhaust system had to be added. In real life, the Jumo 222 would have featured three clusters with two rows of four exhaust stubs, distributed evenly around the cowling. Using a drawing of this arrangement as benchmark, I started with square cuts for the cluster openings. From the back side, styrene sheet closed the gaps and offered a basis for the exhaust stubs. These were improvised with H0 scale roofing shingles – each of the 24 exhaust stubs was cut individually into shape and size and then glued into the respective openings on the upper flanks and under the engine. Finally, styrene sheet was used to create small spoilers and heat shields. The result is certainly not perfect, but comes close to what the real world arrangement would basically have looked like. In a final step, two air intakes for the two-stage supercharger, scratched from sprue material, were added to the flanks.

The cockpit remained OOB, simple as it is, as well as the landing gear, but the canopy was modified in order to allow a presentation in open position. This meant that the OOB canopy had to be cut in two parts and that the model’s spine had to be cut away, making place for a donor canopy (the late, bulged variant, IIRC from an Italeri Fw 190D-9). Internally the fuselage gap was filled with putty and the headrest had to be modified, too, but the conversion turned out to look better than expected.

As a small cosmetic improvement, the molded gun barrel stumps in the wing roots were replaced with hollow steel needles, and the outer guns were completely removed.

Painting and markings:

I wanted a typical “German”, yet improvised look, as if the machine had been rushed to a service unit after minimal exterior decoration. I found a late war Fw 190F as a benchmark for my design, which basically carried a standard paint scheme of RLM 74 and 75 from above (wing surfaces and spine), but the undersides camouflage (typically in RLM 76) was completely missing. Instead, the aircraft was left in bare metal, and it carried only very simple and minimal markings.

I adapted this scheme for my build with RLM 74 and 75 for the upper wing surfaces, but the spine was painted with RLM 75 and 81 (all from Modelmaster’s Authentic line). The NMF areas were painted with Steel Metallizer instead of aluminum. I went for this darker tone because I wanted a rather weathered and unpolished look. Some camouflage mottles with thinned RLM 75 and 81 were added to the flanks and the fin, too.

The landing gear covers as well as the undersides of the Doppelreiter tanks’ rear extensions were painted with RLM 76, while the undersides of the rudders on wings and stabilizers were painted with a greenish grey (similar to RAF Sky and frequently misidentified as RLM 84, a tone that never officially existed). The fin’s rudder was painted in a rusty red (Humbrol 70) – again a typical German primer tone for metal replacement parts.

The cockpit interior became RLM 66 (a very dark grey, Humbrol 67), while the landing gear became RLM 02 (Revell 45) – all classic Luftwaffe tones for the intended era.

The markings were puzzled together from various sources, including the OOB sheets from the Mistercraft kit plus aftermarket material from TL Modellbau and Sky Models.

While most of this build was improvised, I like the beefy and purposeful look of this über-Ta 152. It’s certainly not 100% what the potential real thing would have looked like, but, after all, it’s intended to be a whif model plane. The massive engine changes the look considerably, even though in a subtle way since the original silhouette remains intact. But if you place a standard Fw 190 next to it, the overall growth becomes recognizable – as if you place an early Spitfire next to one of its post-war, Griffon-powered evolutions that only share the general outlines. The shaggy look due to the NMF undersides might look strange, but many late-war builds arrived in a similar, unfinished fashionat the front line units.

DISCLAIMER

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Some 50 countries over four continents have flown the MiG-21, and it still serves many nations a half-century after its maiden flight.

A total of three aircraft were lost during service. Finally in 2004, with the much delayed introduction of the Eurofighter Typhoon imminent, the decision was taken to retire the MiG-21G as quick as possible. JG 71's aircraft were withdrawn in August 2004, all airframes were scrapped.

General characteristics

Crew: 1

Length: 15.0m with pitot (49 ft 2.5 in)

Wingspan: 7.154 m (23 ft 5.66 in)

Height: 4.125 m (13 ft 6.41 in)

Wing area: 23.0 m2 (247.3 ft2)

Empty weight: 5.560 kg (12.246 lb)

Gross weight: 9.350 kg (20.594 lb)

Powerplant

1 × Turbo-Union RB199-34R Mk 103 afterburning turbofan with 43.8 kN (9.850 lbf) dry thrust and 76.8 kN (17.270 lbf) with afterburner

Performance

Maximum speed: 2.090 km/h (1.300 mph)

Maximum speed: Mach 2.1

Range: (internal fuel only) 1.400 km (870 ml)

Service ceiling: 17.600 m (58.500 ft)

Rate of climb: 225 m/s (44.280 ft/min)

Armament

1x internal 27 mm (1.063 in) Mauser BK-27 revolver cannon with 150 rounds

A total of max. 2.000 kg (4.405 lbs) of external ordnance on five hardpoints, including up to 4x AIM-9L Sidewinder AAMs (typically only two carried on the inner wing pylons), drop tanks (490l under the outer wings or max. 800l under the fuselage) and unguided bombs or missiles of up to 500kg (1.100 lbs) each.

The kit and its assembly:

Just in case you are in doubt: the German Luftwaffe never operated the MiG-21 actively, and the MiG-21G version is just a (maybe good?) story. The MiG-21s you might see with the Iron Cross were all written off, only used for tests. Officially they have never been with the active forces like the MiG-29, which were only operated at a basic level.

Anyway, the gap between the F-4Fs’ retirement and the much delayed Eurofighter was a true fact, and the timing was right to come up with a “westernized” MiG-21bis, the most modern version which had been operated by the NVA/LSK before Germany’s re-unification.

24 17 is a real registration number: this truly was a NVA/LSK MiG-21bis (a Fishbed N), formerly carrying the tactical code "837 red" (C/n 75051347), but this aircraft was withdrawn on 3rd of October 1990, as almost any other former NVA aircraft, and scrapped in Dresden on 2nd of February 1993.

The kit is a Mastercraft MiG-21, one of the many clones of the vintage Kovozavody Prostejov (a.k.a. KP) kit with some mods, including engraved panel lines. It is a good basis for such a conversion since almost no part fits to another. Especially funny is the nicely depicted KM-1M ejection seat in the building instructions, with a detailed description and painting instructions - but the kit just includes a crude, L-shaped "thing" with a blob as a head rest...

Additions include a new engine exhaust nozzle (a shortened piece from an Italeri F-15), the new gun blister under the fuselage, the IR sensor under the nose, a RHAWS pod on top of the fin and the extra air scoop at its base, the blow-in doors under the wing roots were opened, chaff/flare dispensers added from scratch, a pair of AIM-9Ls with respective launch rails and a different drop tank (from an Academy MiG-23).

A new seat was added, from an Italeri Tornado, as well as a Matchbox pilot figure. Landing flaps and the rear fuselage air brake were opened for a more ‘lively’ look. Changes should only be visible at second glance and in superficial details, but still set this fantasy variant apart from the real thing - much like an IAI Kfir from a Mirage V.

Painting and markings:

This whif rather draws from its livery, even if it is subtle, too. For the MiG-21G I tried to transfer the German F-4F’s so-called ‘Norm 81A’ paint scheme, which is appropriate for the model’s time frame, even though rather late: Norm 90J was next, which was introduced with the F-4F KWS.

Norm 81 is REALLY complex. There are two basic patterns, comprising alone four(!) grey tones for the upper sides, one light grey tone for the sides and then, additionally, a two-tone scheme for the lower sides! Huh!

Since these colors are all RAL tones, I had to approximate them:

Upper sides:

RAL 7009 Grüngrau à Revell 67 (authentic)

RAL 7012 Basaltgrau à Revell 77 (authentic)

RAL 7037 Staubgrau à Humbrol 106

RAL 7039 Quarzgrau à Humbrol 92 (not available anymore, used Revell 47)

Fuselage sides/fin:

RAL 7030 Steingrau à Revell 75 (authentic, but used Humbrol 64)

Lower sides:

RAL 7001 Silbergrau à Humbrol 127(used Humbrol 166)

RAL 7035 Lichtgrau à Humbrol 196 (used Humbrol 147, which is a tad darker)

You get authentic RAL tones (e .g. from Revell), but emulating them is not a true problem since the Norm 81 scheme quickly deteriorated and lightened up in real life, so much that you can hardly tell one color from another. Besides, you rarely see a ‘clean’ German F-4F in Norm 81 livery. Hence, the model received a double wash with very thin black ink and also a treatment with very fine sand paper, which helps blend color edges and creates pretty realistically 'worn' areas and flaws. This was further enhanced through dry-brushing with shades of grey.

Other external color mods are the di-electric panels, e .g. the shock cone in dark grey or the fin cap in medium grey instead of the typical bright green of Russian origin. I mixed Humbrol’s 32 with 168, for an unidentifiable tone which was later dry-brushed with light grey for a worn and ‘plastic-like’ look.

The markings were puzzled together from various sources: national insignia, the tactical codes and the JG71 emblems come from TL Modellbau aftermarket sheets. Stencils and other small markings from a German MiG-21 and other appropriate scrapbox findings. Another nice detail are the formation light strips - it adds some color to the grey-in-grey aircraft. Another 'copied' detail are the four thin white stripes on the radome - an idea I took from German Tornado fighter bombers.

Since Revell enamels do not go well with Humbrol matt varnish (which I prefer), I tried Revell's acryllic matt varnish - and the expeiment was a real success. Good stuff!

So, a small project with little effort – done in just four days from sprues to varnish. Painting the model kit was the most complex task. But even though the MiG-21G looks a bit ‘grey in grey’, the result is pretty plausible, even elegant. Nice whif!

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

Although the performance increases of jet-powered aircraft introduced towards the end of World War II over their piston-powered ancestors were breathtaking, there were those at the time who believed that much more was possible. As far back as 1943, the British Ministry of Aircraft Production had issued a specification designated "E.24/43" for a supersonic experimental jet aircraft that would be able to achieve 1,600 KPH (1,000 MPH).

The Levin served only with RAF 29 and 65 Squadron, the latter re-instated in 1970 as a dedicated fighter squadron. When in November 1984 the Tornado squadrons began to form, the Levin was gradually phased out and replaced until April 1987 by the Tornado F.3.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length w/o pitot: 51 ft 5 in (15,70 m), 55 ft 8 in (16.99 m) overall

Wingspan incl. wingtip launch rails: 34 ft 9 in (10.54 m)

Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)

Wing area: 474.5 ft² (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 8937 kg (lb)

Loaded weight: 13,570 kg (29,915)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,210 kg (33,530 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce RB.106-10S afterburning turbojet,

rated at 20,000 lbf (89 kN) dry and 26,000 lbf (116 kN) with afterburning

Performance:

Maximum speed:

- 1,150 km/h (620 kn, 715 mph, Mach 0.94) at sea level

- 2,230 km/h (1.202 kn, 1,386 mph, Mach 2.1;), clean with 2× Red Top AAMs at high altitude

- Mach 2.4 absolute top speed in clean configuration at 50.000 ft.

Range: 1,650 km (890 nmi, 1,025 mi) on internal fuel

Combat radius: 500 km (312 mi); clean, with a pair of wing tip Red Top AAMs

Ferry range: 1,270 mi (1.100 NM/ 2.040 km) with overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 16,760 m (55,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 136.7 m/s (27,000 ft/min)

Wing loading: 76 lb/ft² (370 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.78

Takeoff roll: 950 m (3,120 ft)

Landing roll: 700 m (2,300 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) ADEN cannons with 120 RPG in the upper front fuselage

2× wing tip hardpoints for mounting air-to-air missiles (2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

2× overwing pylon stations for 260 gal ferry tanks

Optional, but rarely used: 2× hardpoints under the front fuselage for mounting air-to-air missiles

(2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

The kit and its assembly:

Another contribution to the Cold War GB at whatifmodelers.com, and the realization of a project I had on the agenda for long. The EE P.6/1 was a real project for a Mach 2+ research aircraft, as described above, but it never went off the drawing board. Its engine, the RB.106, also never saw the light of day, even though its later career as the Canadian Orenda Iroquois for the stillborn CF-105.

Building this aircraft as a model appears simple, because it’s a classic Lightning (actually a F.1 with the un-kinked wing and the small fin), just with a single engine and a rather tubular fuselage. But creating this is not easy at all…

I did not want to replicate the original P.6/1, but rather a service aircraft based on the research aircraft. Therefore I used parts from a Lightning F.6 (a vintage NOVO/Frog kit). For the fuselage I settled for a Su-17, from a MasterCraft kit. The kit’s selling point was its small price tag and the fuselage construction: the VG mechanism is hidden under a separate spine piece, and I wanted to transplant the Lightning’s spine and cockpit frame, so I thought that this would make things easier.

Nope.

Putting the parts from the VERY different kits/aircraft together was a major surgery feat, with several multiple PSR sessions on the fuselage, the air intake section (opened and fitted with both an internal splitter and a bulkhead to the cockpit section), the wings, the stabilizers, the fin… This model deserves the title “kitbash” like no other, because no major sections had ever been intended to be glued together, and in the intended position!

The landing gear was more or less taken OOB, but the main struts had to be elongated by 2mm – somehow the model turned out to be a low-riding tail sitter! The cockpit interior was improvised, too, consisting of a Su-17 cockpit tub, a scratched dashboard and a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Bae Hawk trainer.

Since most of the fuselage surface consists of various materials (styrene and two kinds of putty), I did not dare to engrave panel lines – after all the PSR work almost any surface detail was gone. I rather went for a graphic solution (see below). Some antennae and air scoops were added, though.

The overwing tanks come OOB from the NOVO kit, as well as the Red Top missiles, which ended up on improvised wing tip launch rails, based on design sketches for Lightning derivatives with this layout.

Colors and markings:

There are several “classic” RAF options, but I settled for a low-viz Eighties livery taken from BAC Lightnings. There’s a surprising variety of styles, and my version is a mix of several real world aircraft.

I settled for Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces (Modelmaster Authentic) with a high waterline, a fuselage completely in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165 – had to be applied twice because the first tin I used was obviously old and the paint ended up in a tone not unlike PRU Blue!) and Light aircraft Grey underwing surfaces (Humbrol 166). The leading edges under the wings are Dark Sea Grey, too.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (Humbrol 32 with some dry-brushing), while the landing gear is Aluminum (Humbrol 56).

Once the basic painting was done I had to deal with the missing panel lines on the fuselage and those raised lines that were sanded away during the building process. I decided to simulate these with a soft pencil, after the whole kit was buffed with a soft cotton cloth and some grinded graphite. This way, the remaining raised panel lines were emphasized, and from these the rest was drawn up. A ruler and masking tape were used as guidance for straight lines, and this worked better than expected, with good results.

As a next step, the newly created panels were highlighted with dry-brushed lighter tones of the basic paints (FS 36492 and WWII Italian Blue Grey from Modelmaster, and Humbrol 126), more for a dramatic than a weathered effect. The gun ports and the exhaust section were painted with Modelmaster Metallizer (Titanium and Magnesium).

The decals come from several Xtradecal aftermarket sheets, including a dedicated Lightning stencils sheet, another Lightning sheet with various squadron markings and a sheet for RAF Tornado ADVs.

The code number “XS970” was earmarked to a TSR.2, AFAIK, but since it was never used on a service aircraft it would be a good option for the Levin.

The kit received a coat of matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can – jn this case the finish was intended to bear a slight shine.

This was a project with LOTS of effort, but you hardly recognize it – it’s a single engine Lightning, so what? But welding the Lightning and Su-17 parts together for something that comes close to the P.6/1 necessitated LOTS of body work and improvisation, carving it from wood would probably have been the next complicated option. Except for the surprisingly long tail I am very happy with the result, despite the model’s shaggy origins, and the low-viz livery suits the sleek aircraft IMHO very well.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

Although the performance increases of jet-powered aircraft introduced towards the end of World War II over their piston-powered ancestors were breathtaking, there were those at the time who believed that much more was possible. As far back as 1943, the British Ministry of Aircraft Production had issued a specification designated "E.24/43" for a supersonic experimental jet aircraft that would be able to achieve 1,600 KPH (1,000 MPH).

The Levin served only with RAF 29 and 65 Squadron, the latter re-instated in 1970 as a dedicated fighter squadron. When in November 1984 the Tornado squadrons began to form, the Levin was gradually phased out and replaced until April 1987 by the Tornado F.3.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length w/o pitot: 51 ft 5 in (15,70 m), 55 ft 8 in (16.99 m) overall

Wingspan incl. wingtip launch rails: 34 ft 9 in (10.54 m)

Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)

Wing area: 474.5 ft² (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 8937 kg (lb)

Loaded weight: 13,570 kg (29,915)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,210 kg (33,530 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce RB.106-10S afterburning turbojet,

rated at 20,000 lbf (89 kN) dry and 26,000 lbf (116 kN) with afterburning

Performance:

Maximum speed:

- 1,150 km/h (620 kn, 715 mph, Mach 0.94) at sea level

- 2,230 km/h (1.202 kn, 1,386 mph, Mach 2.1;), clean with 2× Red Top AAMs at high altitude

- Mach 2.4 absolute top speed in clean configuration at 50.000 ft.

Range: 1,650 km (890 nmi, 1,025 mi) on internal fuel

Combat radius: 500 km (312 mi); clean, with a pair of wing tip Red Top AAMs

Ferry range: 1,270 mi (1.100 NM/ 2.040 km) with overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 16,760 m (55,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 136.7 m/s (27,000 ft/min)

Wing loading: 76 lb/ft² (370 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.78

Takeoff roll: 950 m (3,120 ft)

Landing roll: 700 m (2,300 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) ADEN cannons with 120 RPG in the upper front fuselage

2× wing tip hardpoints for mounting air-to-air missiles (2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

2× overwing pylon stations for 260 gal ferry tanks

Optional, but rarely used: 2× hardpoints under the front fuselage for mounting air-to-air missiles

(2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

The kit and its assembly:

Another contribution to the Cold War GB at whatifmodelers.com, and the realization of a project I had on the agenda for long. The EE P.6/1 was a real project for a Mach 2+ research aircraft, as described above, but it never went off the drawing board. Its engine, the RB.106, also never saw the light of day, even though its later career as the Canadian Orenda Iroquois for the stillborn CF-105.

Building this aircraft as a model appears simple, because it’s a classic Lightning (actually a F.1 with the un-kinked wing and the small fin), just with a single engine and a rather tubular fuselage. But creating this is not easy at all…

I did not want to replicate the original P.6/1, but rather a service aircraft based on the research aircraft. Therefore I used parts from a Lightning F.6 (a vintage NOVO/Frog kit). For the fuselage I settled for a Su-17, from a MasterCraft kit. The kit’s selling point was its small price tag and the fuselage construction: the VG mechanism is hidden under a separate spine piece, and I wanted to transplant the Lightning’s spine and cockpit frame, so I thought that this would make things easier.

Nope.

Putting the parts from the VERY different kits/aircraft together was a major surgery feat, with several multiple PSR sessions on the fuselage, the air intake section (opened and fitted with both an internal splitter and a bulkhead to the cockpit section), the wings, the stabilizers, the fin… This model deserves the title “kitbash” like no other, because no major sections had ever been intended to be glued together, and in the intended position!

The landing gear was more or less taken OOB, but the main struts had to be elongated by 2mm – somehow the model turned out to be a low-riding tail sitter! The cockpit interior was improvised, too, consisting of a Su-17 cockpit tub, a scratched dashboard and a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Bae Hawk trainer.

Since most of the fuselage surface consists of various materials (styrene and two kinds of putty), I did not dare to engrave panel lines – after all the PSR work almost any surface detail was gone. I rather went for a graphic solution (see below). Some antennae and air scoops were added, though.

The overwing tanks come OOB from the NOVO kit, as well as the Red Top missiles, which ended up on improvised wing tip launch rails, based on design sketches for Lightning derivatives with this layout.

Colors and markings:

There are several “classic” RAF options, but I settled for a low-viz Eighties livery taken from BAC Lightnings. There’s a surprising variety of styles, and my version is a mix of several real world aircraft.

I settled for Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces (Modelmaster Authentic) with a high waterline, a fuselage completely in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165 – had to be applied twice because the first tin I used was obviously old and the paint ended up in a tone not unlike PRU Blue!) and Light aircraft Grey underwing surfaces (Humbrol 166). The leading edges under the wings are Dark Sea Grey, too.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (Humbrol 32 with some dry-brushing), while the landing gear is Aluminum (Humbrol 56).

Once the basic painting was done I had to deal with the missing panel lines on the fuselage and those raised lines that were sanded away during the building process. I decided to simulate these with a soft pencil, after the whole kit was buffed with a soft cotton cloth and some grinded graphite. This way, the remaining raised panel lines were emphasized, and from these the rest was drawn up. A ruler and masking tape were used as guidance for straight lines, and this worked better than expected, with good results.

As a next step, the newly created panels were highlighted with dry-brushed lighter tones of the basic paints (FS 36492 and WWII Italian Blue Grey from Modelmaster, and Humbrol 126), more for a dramatic than a weathered effect. The gun ports and the exhaust section were painted with Modelmaster Metallizer (Titanium and Magnesium).

The decals come from several Xtradecal aftermarket sheets, including a dedicated Lightning stencils sheet, another Lightning sheet with various squadron markings and a sheet for RAF Tornado ADVs.

The code number “XS970” was earmarked to a TSR.2, AFAIK, but since it was never used on a service aircraft it would be a good option for the Levin.

The kit received a coat of matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can – jn this case the finish was intended to bear a slight shine.

This was a project with LOTS of effort, but you hardly recognize it – it’s a single engine Lightning, so what? But welding the Lightning and Su-17 parts together for something that comes close to the P.6/1 necessitated LOTS of body work and improvisation, carving it from wood would probably have been the next complicated option. Except for the surprisingly long tail I am very happy with the result, despite the model’s shaggy origins, and the low-viz livery suits the sleek aircraft IMHO very well.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was a World War II German high-altitude fighter-interceptor designed by Kurt Tank and produced by Focke-Wulf. The fighter was a development of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft. Originally it was intended to be made in three versions—the Ta 152H Höhenjäger ("high-altitude fighter"), the Ta 152C designed for medium-altitude operations and ground-attack, using a different engine and smaller wing, and finally the Ta 152E fighter-reconnaissance aircraft with the engine of the H model and the short wing of the C model.

The fighters, esp. the high altitude variants, had top priority. The initial Fw 190's BMW 801 engine was originally designed for bomber and transport aircraft flying at medium altitudes in the 15,000 to 20,000 feet (4,600 to 6,100 m) range. In keeping with this role, it used a relatively simple single-stage supercharger that lacked performance above 20,000 feet (6,100 m) altitude. This presented a problem for fighter use, where high-altitude performance was desirable. Through careful tuning, the Fw 190 instead emerged as a powerful medium altitude design. Several experimental models of the 190 with different engines were tested, primarily aiming at an improved high altitude performance. But these were not high priority projects or failed through various teething troubles with the innovative engines.

The Ta 152 J-2 remained the only production variant with the new engine, though, because the complex Jumo 222 was hard to manufacture and resources had become increasingly scarce by mid-1945. Consequentially, even though production of the Ta 152 J started in late 1945, the fighter’s production numbers remained low and only a small number of aircraft were finished and eventually reached front line units in serviceable condition. Probably only 30 machines went operational, with 30 more in the production lines in a more or less uncompleted condition. But those which countered bomber raids proved to be highly effective at the Western front and over Northern Germany against medium bombers and their escort fighters coming in from Great Britain.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 10.29 m (33 ft 8¾ in)

Wingspan: 11.65 m (38 ft 2 in)

Height: 3.35 m (11 ft 0 in)

Wing area: 19.80 m² (212.42 ft²)

Empty weight: 4,175 kg (9,205 lb)

Loaded weight: 6,054 kg (13,346 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 6,995 kg (15,422 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Junkers Jumo 222E liquid-cooled, 24-cylinder six-row inline piston engine

with a two-stage supercharger, rated at 2,500 hp (1,850 kW) at sea level

and 1,930 hp (1,439 kW) at 9,000 m (29,530 ft), driving a four-blade propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 760 km/h (408 knots, 470 mph) at 6,600 m (21,655 ft)

Range: 835 km (519 mi) with internal fuel only

1.480 km (919 mi) with Doppelreiter auxiliary tanks

Service ceiling: 12,600 m (41,500 ft)

Rate of climb: 22.1 m/s (4,360 ft/min)

Armament:

2× 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151 cannons with 250 RPG above the engine

2x 30mm (1.181 in) MK 103 in the wing roots with 150 RPG

1x ventral hardpoint for a 500 kg (1,102 lb) SC 500 bomb or a 300l drop tank

Attachment points for a pair of “Doppelreiter” 270 l conformal slipper tanks above the wings

The kit and its assembly:

This is a what-if model, but, as usual, it is rooted in reality – to be precise in the German late-war plans to mate the Ta 152(H) with the mighty Jumo 222 engine. I do not know what the official service designation would have been, but this combo would have resulted in a powerful fighter – AFAIK, German engineers’ calculations indicated a performance that would have been comparable with the post-WWII F4U-5!

Creating a model of such this paper aircraft called for some serious conversion work and ended almost in a kitbashing. The starting point became a (cheap) Mistercraft Fw 190D-9 kit, and I originally planned this model to be a Fw 190 variant, but eventually this turned into a Ta 152, since it would better match up with the late war time frame.

The Mastercraft/Mistercraft kit appears to be an indigenous mold and not a re-issue of a vintage kit. At first glance the parts look pretty crisp, but the kit has some serious fit and flash issues. Another selling point is the detailed decal set, which comes in three sheets and encompasses a lot of stencils – even though the instructions where to place them are not consistent, and there are even 1:48 scale(!) markings included. But that’s a Mastercraft/Mistercraft standard, anyway…

Well, the basis was sound and the kit would, in any event, be thoroughly modified. From the OOB kit, fuselage, wings and stabilizers were taken, as well as the landing gear and some other bits.

The wings were extended, in order to keep overall proportions with the new, much more massive engine cowling balanced (see below). Not an easy stunt, but I was lucky to have recently bought a set of resin Doppelreiter tanks from Airmodel which were just perfect to cover the cuts and seams on the upper wing surfaces. Inside of the wings, a styrene strip secured stability while the lower wing surface was sculpted with putty and the trailing edge of the outer wing panels was cut down by 1 mm, so that the wings’ outlines match again. Some further PSR work was necessary to blend the slipper tanks into the wings, forming the upper side of the modifications, but in the end the whole thing looks quite good.

The fuselage lost both its original engine and the tail. The latter is a donor part from a Frog Ta 152H (Revell re-boxing), but mating it with the Mistercraft Fw 190D was not easy because the fuselage shapes of the two kits are totally different! I also used the Mistercraft stabilizers because they were markedly bigger than the same parts from the Ta 152 kit!

The Jumo 222 front end was simulated with parts from the spares box, and it is a bit exaggerated. Actually, the Jumo 222 was hardly bigger (in both length and diameter) than the Fw 190D’s Jumo 213 V12 engine! The cowling and the radiator for my conversion came from a Frog He 219 engine nacelle (Revell re-boxing, too) which is utterly dubious. The nacelle parts were turned upside down and integrated into the slender Fw 190 front fuselage with several layers of putty.

Inside of the cowling, a radiator plate from an Italeri Fw 190D was mounted, together with a styrene tube adapter for the new propeller. The latter was scratched, using a drop tank as spinner and single propeller blades from the Mistercraft Fw 190D, plus one donor blade from the Frog Ta 152H kit, which had to be trimmed in order to match the other blades. But with some paint, no one will tell the small differences…

Once the bigger engine was integrated into the fuselage, the exhaust system had to be added. In real life, the Jumo 222 would have featured three clusters with two rows of four exhaust stubs, distributed evenly around the cowling. Using a drawing of this arrangement as benchmark, I started with square cuts for the cluster openings. From the back side, styrene sheet closed the gaps and offered a basis for the exhaust stubs. These were improvised with H0 scale roofing shingles – each of the 24 exhaust stubs was cut individually into shape and size and then glued into the respective openings on the upper flanks and under the engine. Finally, styrene sheet was used to create small spoilers and heat shields. The result is certainly not perfect, but comes close to what the real world arrangement would basically have looked like. In a final step, two air intakes for the two-stage supercharger, scratched from sprue material, were added to the flanks.

The cockpit remained OOB, simple as it is, as well as the landing gear, but the canopy was modified in order to allow a presentation in open position. This meant that the OOB canopy had to be cut in two parts and that the model’s spine had to be cut away, making place for a donor canopy (the late, bulged variant, IIRC from an Italeri Fw 190D-9). Internally the fuselage gap was filled with putty and the headrest had to be modified, too, but the conversion turned out to look better than expected.

As a small cosmetic improvement, the molded gun barrel stumps in the wing roots were replaced with hollow steel needles, and the outer guns were completely removed.

Painting and markings:

I wanted a typical “German”, yet improvised look, as if the machine had been rushed to a service unit after minimal exterior decoration. I found a late war Fw 190F as a benchmark for my design, which basically carried a standard paint scheme of RLM 74 and 75 from above (wing surfaces and spine), but the undersides camouflage (typically in RLM 76) was completely missing. Instead, the aircraft was left in bare metal, and it carried only very simple and minimal markings.

I adapted this scheme for my build with RLM 74 and 75 for the upper wing surfaces, but the spine was painted with RLM 75 and 81 (all from Modelmaster’s Authentic line). The NMF areas were painted with Steel Metallizer instead of aluminum. I went for this darker tone because I wanted a rather weathered and unpolished look. Some camouflage mottles with thinned RLM 75 and 81 were added to the flanks and the fin, too.

The landing gear covers as well as the undersides of the Doppelreiter tanks’ rear extensions were painted with RLM 76, while the undersides of the rudders on wings and stabilizers were painted with a greenish grey (similar to RAF Sky and frequently misidentified as RLM 84, a tone that never officially existed). The fin’s rudder was painted in a rusty red (Humbrol 70) – again a typical German primer tone for metal replacement parts.

The cockpit interior became RLM 66 (a very dark grey, Humbrol 67), while the landing gear became RLM 02 (Revell 45) – all classic Luftwaffe tones for the intended era.

The markings were puzzled together from various sources, including the OOB sheets from the Mistercraft kit plus aftermarket material from TL Modellbau and Sky Models.

While most of this build was improvised, I like the beefy and purposeful look of this über-Ta 152. It’s certainly not 100% what the potential real thing would have looked like, but, after all, it’s intended to be a whif model plane. The massive engine changes the look considerably, even though in a subtle way since the original silhouette remains intact. But if you place a standard Fw 190 next to it, the overall growth becomes recognizable – as if you place an early Spitfire next to one of its post-war, Griffon-powered evolutions that only share the general outlines. The shaggy look due to the NMF undersides might look strange, but many late-war builds arrived in a similar, unfinished fashionat the front line units.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

Although the performance increases of jet-powered aircraft introduced towards the end of World War II over their piston-powered ancestors were breathtaking, there were those at the time who believed that much more was possible. As far back as 1943, the British Ministry of Aircraft Production had issued a specification designated "E.24/43" for a supersonic experimental jet aircraft that would be able to achieve 1,600 KPH (1,000 MPH).

The Levin served only with RAF 29 and 65 Squadron, the latter re-instated in 1970 as a dedicated fighter squadron. When in November 1984 the Tornado squadrons began to form, the Levin was gradually phased out and replaced until April 1987 by the Tornado F.3.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length w/o pitot: 51 ft 5 in (15,70 m), 55 ft 8 in (16.99 m) overall

Wingspan incl. wingtip launch rails: 34 ft 9 in (10.54 m)

Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)

Wing area: 474.5 ft² (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 8937 kg (lb)

Loaded weight: 13,570 kg (29,915)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,210 kg (33,530 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce RB.106-10S afterburning turbojet,

rated at 20,000 lbf (89 kN) dry and 26,000 lbf (116 kN) with afterburning

Performance:

Maximum speed:

- 1,150 km/h (620 kn, 715 mph, Mach 0.94) at sea level

- 2,230 km/h (1.202 kn, 1,386 mph, Mach 2.1;), clean with 2× Red Top AAMs at high altitude

- Mach 2.4 absolute top speed in clean configuration at 50.000 ft.

Range: 1,650 km (890 nmi, 1,025 mi) on internal fuel

Combat radius: 500 km (312 mi); clean, with a pair of wing tip Red Top AAMs

Ferry range: 1,270 mi (1.100 NM/ 2.040 km) with overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 16,760 m (55,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 136.7 m/s (27,000 ft/min)

Wing loading: 76 lb/ft² (370 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.78

Takeoff roll: 950 m (3,120 ft)

Landing roll: 700 m (2,300 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) ADEN cannons with 120 RPG in the upper front fuselage

2× wing tip hardpoints for mounting air-to-air missiles (2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

2× overwing pylon stations for 260 gal ferry tanks

Optional, but rarely used: 2× hardpoints under the front fuselage for mounting air-to-air missiles

(2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

The kit and its assembly:

Another contribution to the Cold War GB at whatifmodelers.com, and the realization of a project I had on the agenda for long. The EE P.6/1 was a real project for a Mach 2+ research aircraft, as described above, but it never went off the drawing board. Its engine, the RB.106, also never saw the light of day, even though its later career as the Canadian Orenda Iroquois for the stillborn CF-105.

Building this aircraft as a model appears simple, because it’s a classic Lightning (actually a F.1 with the un-kinked wing and the small fin), just with a single engine and a rather tubular fuselage. But creating this is not easy at all…

I did not want to replicate the original P.6/1, but rather a service aircraft based on the research aircraft. Therefore I used parts from a Lightning F.6 (a vintage NOVO/Frog kit). For the fuselage I settled for a Su-17, from a MasterCraft kit. The kit’s selling point was its small price tag and the fuselage construction: the VG mechanism is hidden under a separate spine piece, and I wanted to transplant the Lightning’s spine and cockpit frame, so I thought that this would make things easier.

Nope.

Putting the parts from the VERY different kits/aircraft together was a major surgery feat, with several multiple PSR sessions on the fuselage, the air intake section (opened and fitted with both an internal splitter and a bulkhead to the cockpit section), the wings, the stabilizers, the fin… This model deserves the title “kitbash” like no other, because no major sections had ever been intended to be glued together, and in the intended position!

The landing gear was more or less taken OOB, but the main struts had to be elongated by 2mm – somehow the model turned out to be a low-riding tail sitter! The cockpit interior was improvised, too, consisting of a Su-17 cockpit tub, a scratched dashboard and a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Bae Hawk trainer.

Since most of the fuselage surface consists of various materials (styrene and two kinds of putty), I did not dare to engrave panel lines – after all the PSR work almost any surface detail was gone. I rather went for a graphic solution (see below). Some antennae and air scoops were added, though.

The overwing tanks come OOB from the NOVO kit, as well as the Red Top missiles, which ended up on improvised wing tip launch rails, based on design sketches for Lightning derivatives with this layout.

Colors and markings:

There are several “classic” RAF options, but I settled for a low-viz Eighties livery taken from BAC Lightnings. There’s a surprising variety of styles, and my version is a mix of several real world aircraft.

I settled for Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces (Modelmaster Authentic) with a high waterline, a fuselage completely in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165 – had to be applied twice because the first tin I used was obviously old and the paint ended up in a tone not unlike PRU Blue!) and Light aircraft Grey underwing surfaces (Humbrol 166). The leading edges under the wings are Dark Sea Grey, too.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (Humbrol 32 with some dry-brushing), while the landing gear is Aluminum (Humbrol 56).

Once the basic painting was done I had to deal with the missing panel lines on the fuselage and those raised lines that were sanded away during the building process. I decided to simulate these with a soft pencil, after the whole kit was buffed with a soft cotton cloth and some grinded graphite. This way, the remaining raised panel lines were emphasized, and from these the rest was drawn up. A ruler and masking tape were used as guidance for straight lines, and this worked better than expected, with good results.

As a next step, the newly created panels were highlighted with dry-brushed lighter tones of the basic paints (FS 36492 and WWII Italian Blue Grey from Modelmaster, and Humbrol 126), more for a dramatic than a weathered effect. The gun ports and the exhaust section were painted with Modelmaster Metallizer (Titanium and Magnesium).

The decals come from several Xtradecal aftermarket sheets, including a dedicated Lightning stencils sheet, another Lightning sheet with various squadron markings and a sheet for RAF Tornado ADVs.

The code number “XS970” was earmarked to a TSR.2, AFAIK, but since it was never used on a service aircraft it would be a good option for the Levin.

The kit received a coat of matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can – jn this case the finish was intended to bear a slight shine.

This was a project with LOTS of effort, but you hardly recognize it – it’s a single engine Lightning, so what? But welding the Lightning and Su-17 parts together for something that comes close to the P.6/1 necessitated LOTS of body work and improvisation, carving it from wood would probably have been the next complicated option. Except for the surprisingly long tail I am very happy with the result, despite the model’s shaggy origins, and the low-viz livery suits the sleek aircraft IMHO very well.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

Although Japan had designed and manufactured a number of military aircraft before and during World War II, it was forbidden according to the Potsdam Declaration from engaging in the production of airplanes and other products that could be used to rearm a military. These restrictions, however, were lightened by the United States during the Korean War, opening up the possibility for a Japanese company to produce a civilian aircraft.

The YS-21 turned out to be a reliable and sturdy aircraft, popular among its crews for its good low speed handling. On 29 April 1995, the last YS-21s in service flew their last commercial flights. Throughout their combined cumulative operational lifetimes, the YS-21s accumulated a total of 1.18 mio. flight hours, during which 80.4 million passengers were carried across 1.3 mio. individual flights, without any accidents and an impressive 98% in-service reliability.

General characteristics:

Crew: 3

Capacity: 85 with 8,400 kg (18,519 lb) payload

Length: 32.40 m (106 ft 1 1/2 in)

Wingspan: 34.3 m (112 ft 6 in)

Height: 10.80 m (35 ft 4 1/2 in)

Wing area: 146.7 m2 (1,579 sq ft)

Empty weight: 22,200 kg (48,943 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 46,000 kg (101,413 lb)

Powerplant:

2× Mitsubishi-built Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9 low bypass turbofans, 64 kN (14,500 lbf) thrust each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 590 mph (950 km/h, 510 kn) at 6,100 m (20,000 ft)

Cruise speed: 470–530 mph (750–850 km/h, 400–460 kn) at 6,100 m (20,000 ft)

Range: 1,700 km (1,100 mi, 920 nmi)

Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 16.7 m/s (3,300 ft/min) at 2,135 m (7,005 ft)

Takeoff roll: 1,859 m (6,099 ft)

Landing roll: 1,755 m (5,670 ft)

The kit and its assembly:

Even though I am not a fan of small-scale airliners, I have recently (and successfully) built two what-if conversions, and I still had the idea of this short-haul airliner in the back of my mind since my Il-60 airliner build. The latter was based on a Caravelle airliner and featured two turboprops on the wings in new nacelles as well as a low tail. However, when I built it, I already considered a similar conversion, just with podded jet engines under the wings like the Dassault Mercure or the Boeing 737.

I had based the Il-60 on the rather crappy Caravelle kit from Mastercraft, so that I switched this time to the new (but much more expensive) Amodel kit – in this case the Caravelle 10R model, which comes with proper JT8 engine pods.

Despite a completely new layout of the aircraft, I wanted to change as little as possible and use only few donor parts. In fact, the only additional/new parts are the radome (actually a propeller spinner from a Matchbox He 115, simply glued onto the Caravelle’s nose and blended into the fuselage with PSR) and longer landing gear struts, because the re-located engines under the wings called for a bigger ground clearance. The front leg was completely replaced (taken from a 1:200 Space Shuttle, but still with OOB wheels), while on the main struts only the legs were replaced with longer parts from a 1:72 F4U. A weird detail: the kit comes with separate struts and bogies, but this makes this surgery relatively easy. In order to change the profile of the aircraft I replaced the round fin tip with a square one, scratched with styrene sheet and PSR.

Lots of PSR went into the build, in part because of peculiar solutions the mold designers chose. For instance, the window section consists of three clear panels per side, to be glued into recesses on the flanks, which have back walls. The benefit of this construction is beyond me, because it just causes surface mess and calls for sanding and filling. Naturally, the three panels per side do not lie perfectly flat or even in their recesses, and they are in total 2mm too long for their intended openings…? WHY!? If Amodel had wanted a clean solution, they could (and should) have molded the complete fuselage halves as clear parts? Another weak point I came across was the windshield, which comes (Minicraft style) as a clear cockpit area section and seemed to belong to an altogether different aircraft – it did not fit into the respective fuselage opening at all and called for massive trimming and more PSR…

These problems with the clear parts almost ruined everything, and that’s a shame because the Amodel Caravelle is a nice kit of this airliner, with fine, recessed surface details and delicate details. Nevertheless, even though it is a modern mold the kit does not get together easily, a typical short-run affair without locator pins.

As a typical feature of my airliner builds, I added a vertical styrene tube in the fuselage’s center of gravity as a display holder adapter for the in-flight scenes.

Painting and markings:

I had a hard time figuring out a potential manufacturer and operator for this aircraft – placed into the Seventies time frame, there were many similar designs on the market, so why add another short-/medium range airliner with a rather limited capacity which would rather be a Sixties design? After long considerations I settled upon a Japanese aircraft – national pride and stubborn processes might certainly lead to such an aircraft, and the YS-11 shows that the idea is not far-fetched.

I also considered a fictional airline as operator, but when I checked options for an aftermarket decal sheet, I realized that the early ANA livery, the so-called “Mohican” scheme due to the blue dorsal stripe, featured a da Vinci helicopter as a logo. I never noticed this before or wasn’t able to identify it, and I found this badge so charming and weird that I eventually settled for ANA as the aircraft’s operator. After some more search I even found a decal sheet from 26decals for an ANA Boeing 767 from 2009 in a retro scheme, and I was also able to organize a Mohican livery sheet from a Hasegawa 1:200 Boeing 737, because the 767 fin emblems were simply oversized for the Caravelle’s fin.

Creating and adapting the early ANA scheme to the model was complicated, though. In an initial step I gave the model’s underside and the upper wing surfaces a coat of White Aluminum from the rattle can – I opted for this simple quasi-NMF finish because of its retro look. The upper fuselage became white, with the help of decal sheet material and enamel paint (Humbrol 22). The blue spine and the fin were also painted with a brush in French Blue (Modelmaster), which came close to the cheat lines’ blue tone from the retro 767 sheet – even though these are IMHO a bit dark. Some fine-tuning and decal trimming had to be done in order to make the livery work, though, but I think the result looks quite good – better than expected after this material mish-mash.

Once the basic livery had been applied, the windows were added with decals. The cockpit windows had to be improvised, since Amodel’s Caravelle sheet does not offer a decal option for the windscreen. But I am not sure if it would have matched the modified nose section at all? So I trimmed down the Boeing 767 windscreen from the 26decal sheet and improvised. The cabin windows were taken from the 767, too. I wanted a very different look from the Caravelle’s original triangular window rows, and with the 767 windows' rather oval shape and higher density, this worked well. It also makes the YS-21 look bigger than it actually is.

After that, the airline markings and some more details like walkways on the wings (created with generic decal strips from TL Modellbau) were added.

In a final step, the landing gear was finished and some more detail painting (position lights, exhausts and thrust reversers) was done, before the kit was sealed with an overall coat of gloss acrylic varnish for a clean and shiny look.

I am torn about the outcome of this build, esp. the Amodel base. After long waiting, I hoped for a decent Caravelle kit in 1:144 scale. It is basically there, but the weird window panel construction really ruins what could have been a crisp up-to-date offering. This does not ruin the model as such, but the panel solution is IMHO far from perfect and user-friendly. :(

The layout conversion into the 737-style YS-21 whif worked well, despite some problems, and I think there’s only little left of what reminds of the model’s Caravelle heritage. The ANA Mohican livery also looks stylish, it adds a nice retro touch to the aircraft, very Seventies (if not Sixties?). With the glossy and bright finish, the model even looks, from certain angles, like a vintage Chinese tin toy?

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The history of the PZL P.11 started in 1929, when a talented designer, Zygmunt Puławski, designed an all-metal, metal-covered monoplane fighter, the P.1. While most of the world's forces were still using biplanes, the new P.1 used a high-mounted gull wing to give the pilot an excellent view. A second prototype, the P.6, was completed the next year. The design generated intense interest around the world, the layout becoming known as the "Polish wing" or "Puławski wing". A further improvement, the PZL P.7, was built for the Polish Air Force in a series of 150.

On 16 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, Bohemia and Moravia were declared as German protectorates. The occupation ended with the surrender of Germany following World War II.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 7.55 m (24 ft 9 in)

Wingspan: 10.719 m (35 ft 2 in)

Height: 2.85 m (9 ft 4 in)

Wing area: 17.9 m2 (193 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,147 kg (2,529 lb)

Gross weight: 1,630 kg (3,594 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 1,800 kg (3,968 lb)

Powerplant:

1 × Bristol Jupiter VIIF 9-cylinder radial engine, 520 hp (388 kW)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 390 km/h (242 mph; 211 kn) at 5,000 m (16,404 ft),

300 km/h (186 mph) at sea level

Stall speed: 98 km/h (61 mph; 53 kn)

Range: 800 km (435 mi; 378 nmi)

Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,247 ft) absolute ceiling 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,404 ft) in 5.2 minutes

7,000 m (22,966 ft) in 11.5 minutes

Wing loading: 91.1 kg/m2 (18.7 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 0.279 kW/kg (0.166 hp/lb)

Armament:

4× 7.7 mm (.303 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns with 500rpg

The kit and its assembly:

This quickie whif was a rather short notice build – I had a surplus Mastercraft PZL.11c in my stash, originally part of a cheap lot, and for a long time no idea what to do with it …until I read an article about the Hungarian/Czech clash right before the outbreak of WWII, with very detailed army and air force activities, including profiles and pics of some aircraft of that era.

That spawned the idea to build a Hungarian PZL.11 from the kit, more or less based on a Fiat CR.32bis (aircraft V.107) in Hungarian service with a very attractive paint scheme as “design benchmark”.

The PZL.11 was built almost OOB – the kit is simple, but has very nice surface details. Fit is mediocre, though, especially the stabilizers puzzled me. The only thing I changed is the propeller; instead of a two blade wood piece I installed a three-bladed alternative (from a Matchbox Provost, coupled with a spinner from an Italeri La-5) for a modernized/different look.

Painting and markings:

This is an individual interpretation of a real aircraft’s paint scheme - I found VERY contradictive sources about the potential paint scheme. MKHL aircraft began to be camouflaged in a three-tone scheme from October of 1938. The upper surfaces received irregular, undulating patches of Green/Grey/Brown, while the undersides were painted light Grey-Blue.

As no specific official camouflage patterns were issued, a wide variety of styles and colors resulted, depending as much on the means available in every case, as on the particular tastes of the maintenance personnel detached to do the job. I also guess that many foreign aircraft like the Italian CR.32s or He 70 reconnaissance bombers simply kept their home countries schemes/colors and were successively re-painted with whatever was at hand.

I based my scheme on a CR.32’s profile in a magazine, and I assume that the print colors are brighter than the real Hungarian aircraft – on other profiles of the same machine it looks as if it was painted in RLM 61, 62, 63 and 65! Anyway, I liked the more saturated colors, so I went for this more decorative option.

The colors I used are Olive Green (RAL 6003 from Modelmaster), Dark Green (FS 34079; Humbrol 116) and Brown (Modelmaster), with Pastel Blue (Humbrol 44) undersides. The latter tone is also found as irregular patches on the upper surfaces, it really looks wild and colorful – esp. in combination with the Hungarian national markings.

Personally, I think that the typical Hungarian paint scheme of the time was just a crude addition of paint on top of the original bare metal/aluminum finish of many aircraft, but pics are difficult to interpret.

A quickie, finished in the course of three evenings and some finishing touches before the fourth day's breakfast - the colors are certainly totally wrong, but it's a whif aircraft after all. ;)

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

Although the performance increases of jet-powered aircraft introduced towards the end of World War II over their piston-powered ancestors were breathtaking, there were those at the time who believed that much more was possible. As far back as 1943, the British Ministry of Aircraft Production had issued a specification designated "E.24/43" for a supersonic experimental jet aircraft that would be able to achieve 1,600 KPH (1,000 MPH).

The Levin served only with RAF 29 and 65 Squadron, the latter re-instated in 1970 as a dedicated fighter squadron. When in November 1984 the Tornado squadrons began to form, the Levin was gradually phased out and replaced until April 1987 by the Tornado F.3.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length w/o pitot: 51 ft 5 in (15,70 m), 55 ft 8 in (16.99 m) overall

Wingspan incl. wingtip launch rails: 34 ft 9 in (10.54 m)

Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)

Wing area: 474.5 ft² (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 8937 kg (lb)

Loaded weight: 13,570 kg (29,915)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,210 kg (33,530 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce RB.106-10S afterburning turbojet,

rated at 20,000 lbf (89 kN) dry and 26,000 lbf (116 kN) with afterburning

Performance:

Maximum speed:

- 1,150 km/h (620 kn, 715 mph, Mach 0.94) at sea level

- 2,230 km/h (1.202 kn, 1,386 mph, Mach 2.1;), clean with 2× Red Top AAMs at high altitude

- Mach 2.4 absolute top speed in clean configuration at 50.000 ft.

Range: 1,650 km (890 nmi, 1,025 mi) on internal fuel

Combat radius: 500 km (312 mi); clean, with a pair of wing tip Red Top AAMs

Ferry range: 1,270 mi (1.100 NM/ 2.040 km) with overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 16,760 m (55,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 136.7 m/s (27,000 ft/min)

Wing loading: 76 lb/ft² (370 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.78

Takeoff roll: 950 m (3,120 ft)

Landing roll: 700 m (2,300 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) ADEN cannons with 120 RPG in the upper front fuselage

2× wing tip hardpoints for mounting air-to-air missiles (2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

2× overwing pylon stations for 260 gal ferry tanks

Optional, but rarely used: 2× hardpoints under the front fuselage for mounting air-to-air missiles

(2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

The kit and its assembly:

Another contribution to the Cold War GB at whatifmodelers.com, and the realization of a project I had on the agenda for long. The EE P.6/1 was a real project for a Mach 2+ research aircraft, as described above, but it never went off the drawing board. Its engine, the RB.106, also never saw the light of day, even though its later career as the Canadian Orenda Iroquois for the stillborn CF-105.

Building this aircraft as a model appears simple, because it’s a classic Lightning (actually a F.1 with the un-kinked wing and the small fin), just with a single engine and a rather tubular fuselage. But creating this is not easy at all…

I did not want to replicate the original P.6/1, but rather a service aircraft based on the research aircraft. Therefore I used parts from a Lightning F.6 (a vintage NOVO/Frog kit). For the fuselage I settled for a Su-17, from a MasterCraft kit. The kit’s selling point was its small price tag and the fuselage construction: the VG mechanism is hidden under a separate spine piece, and I wanted to transplant the Lightning’s spine and cockpit frame, so I thought that this would make things easier.

Nope.

Putting the parts from the VERY different kits/aircraft together was a major surgery feat, with several multiple PSR sessions on the fuselage, the air intake section (opened and fitted with both an internal splitter and a bulkhead to the cockpit section), the wings, the stabilizers, the fin… This model deserves the title “kitbash” like no other, because no major sections had ever been intended to be glued together, and in the intended position!

The landing gear was more or less taken OOB, but the main struts had to be elongated by 2mm – somehow the model turned out to be a low-riding tail sitter! The cockpit interior was improvised, too, consisting of a Su-17 cockpit tub, a scratched dashboard and a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Bae Hawk trainer.

Since most of the fuselage surface consists of various materials (styrene and two kinds of putty), I did not dare to engrave panel lines – after all the PSR work almost any surface detail was gone. I rather went for a graphic solution (see below). Some antennae and air scoops were added, though.

The overwing tanks come OOB from the NOVO kit, as well as the Red Top missiles, which ended up on improvised wing tip launch rails, based on design sketches for Lightning derivatives with this layout.

Colors and markings:

There are several “classic” RAF options, but I settled for a low-viz Eighties livery taken from BAC Lightnings. There’s a surprising variety of styles, and my version is a mix of several real world aircraft.

I settled for Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces (Modelmaster Authentic) with a high waterline, a fuselage completely in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165 – had to be applied twice because the first tin I used was obviously old and the paint ended up in a tone not unlike PRU Blue!) and Light aircraft Grey underwing surfaces (Humbrol 166). The leading edges under the wings are Dark Sea Grey, too.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (Humbrol 32 with some dry-brushing), while the landing gear is Aluminum (Humbrol 56).

Once the basic painting was done I had to deal with the missing panel lines on the fuselage and those raised lines that were sanded away during the building process. I decided to simulate these with a soft pencil, after the whole kit was buffed with a soft cotton cloth and some grinded graphite. This way, the remaining raised panel lines were emphasized, and from these the rest was drawn up. A ruler and masking tape were used as guidance for straight lines, and this worked better than expected, with good results.

As a next step, the newly created panels were highlighted with dry-brushed lighter tones of the basic paints (FS 36492 and WWII Italian Blue Grey from Modelmaster, and Humbrol 126), more for a dramatic than a weathered effect. The gun ports and the exhaust section were painted with Modelmaster Metallizer (Titanium and Magnesium).

The decals come from several Xtradecal aftermarket sheets, including a dedicated Lightning stencils sheet, another Lightning sheet with various squadron markings and a sheet for RAF Tornado ADVs.

The code number “XS970” was earmarked to a TSR.2, AFAIK, but since it was never used on a service aircraft it would be a good option for the Levin.

The kit received a coat of matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can – jn this case the finish was intended to bear a slight shine.

This was a project with LOTS of effort, but you hardly recognize it – it’s a single engine Lightning, so what? But welding the Lightning and Su-17 parts together for something that comes close to the P.6/1 necessitated LOTS of body work and improvisation, carving it from wood would probably have been the next complicated option. Except for the surprisingly long tail I am very happy with the result, despite the model’s shaggy origins, and the low-viz livery suits the sleek aircraft IMHO very well.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

Although the performance increases of jet-powered aircraft introduced towards the end of World War II over their piston-powered ancestors were breathtaking, there were those at the time who believed that much more was possible. As far back as 1943, the British Ministry of Aircraft Production had issued a specification designated "E.24/43" for a supersonic experimental jet aircraft that would be able to achieve 1,600 KPH (1,000 MPH).

The Levin served only with RAF 29 and 65 Squadron, the latter re-instated in 1970 as a dedicated fighter squadron. When in November 1984 the Tornado squadrons began to form, the Levin was gradually phased out and replaced until April 1987 by the Tornado F.3.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length w/o pitot: 51 ft 5 in (15,70 m), 55 ft 8 in (16.99 m) overall

Wingspan incl. wingtip launch rails: 34 ft 9 in (10.54 m)

Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)

Wing area: 474.5 ft² (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 8937 kg (lb)

Loaded weight: 13,570 kg (29,915)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,210 kg (33,530 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce RB.106-10S afterburning turbojet,

rated at 20,000 lbf (89 kN) dry and 26,000 lbf (116 kN) with afterburning

Performance:

Maximum speed:

- 1,150 km/h (620 kn, 715 mph, Mach 0.94) at sea level

- 2,230 km/h (1.202 kn, 1,386 mph, Mach 2.1;), clean with 2× Red Top AAMs at high altitude

- Mach 2.4 absolute top speed in clean configuration at 50.000 ft.

Range: 1,650 km (890 nmi, 1,025 mi) on internal fuel

Combat radius: 500 km (312 mi); clean, with a pair of wing tip Red Top AAMs

Ferry range: 1,270 mi (1.100 NM/ 2.040 km) with overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 16,760 m (55,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 136.7 m/s (27,000 ft/min)

Wing loading: 76 lb/ft² (370 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.78

Takeoff roll: 950 m (3,120 ft)

Landing roll: 700 m (2,300 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) ADEN cannons with 120 RPG in the upper front fuselage

2× wing tip hardpoints for mounting air-to-air missiles (2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

2× overwing pylon stations for 260 gal ferry tanks

Optional, but rarely used: 2× hardpoints under the front fuselage for mounting air-to-air missiles

(2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

The kit and its assembly:

Another contribution to the Cold War GB at whatifmodelers.com, and the realization of a project I had on the agenda for long. The EE P.6/1 was a real project for a Mach 2+ research aircraft, as described above, but it never went off the drawing board. Its engine, the RB.106, also never saw the light of day, even though its later career as the Canadian Orenda Iroquois for the stillborn CF-105.

Building this aircraft as a model appears simple, because it’s a classic Lightning (actually a F.1 with the un-kinked wing and the small fin), just with a single engine and a rather tubular fuselage. But creating this is not easy at all…

I did not want to replicate the original P.6/1, but rather a service aircraft based on the research aircraft. Therefore I used parts from a Lightning F.6 (a vintage NOVO/Frog kit). For the fuselage I settled for a Su-17, from a MasterCraft kit. The kit’s selling point was its small price tag and the fuselage construction: the VG mechanism is hidden under a separate spine piece, and I wanted to transplant the Lightning’s spine and cockpit frame, so I thought that this would make things easier.

Nope.

Putting the parts from the VERY different kits/aircraft together was a major surgery feat, with several multiple PSR sessions on the fuselage, the air intake section (opened and fitted with both an internal splitter and a bulkhead to the cockpit section), the wings, the stabilizers, the fin… This model deserves the title “kitbash” like no other, because no major sections had ever been intended to be glued together, and in the intended position!

The landing gear was more or less taken OOB, but the main struts had to be elongated by 2mm – somehow the model turned out to be a low-riding tail sitter! The cockpit interior was improvised, too, consisting of a Su-17 cockpit tub, a scratched dashboard and a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Bae Hawk trainer.

Since most of the fuselage surface consists of various materials (styrene and two kinds of putty), I did not dare to engrave panel lines – after all the PSR work almost any surface detail was gone. I rather went for a graphic solution (see below). Some antennae and air scoops were added, though.

The overwing tanks come OOB from the NOVO kit, as well as the Red Top missiles, which ended up on improvised wing tip launch rails, based on design sketches for Lightning derivatives with this layout.

Colors and markings:

There are several “classic” RAF options, but I settled for a low-viz Eighties livery taken from BAC Lightnings. There’s a surprising variety of styles, and my version is a mix of several real world aircraft.

I settled for Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces (Modelmaster Authentic) with a high waterline, a fuselage completely in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165 – had to be applied twice because the first tin I used was obviously old and the paint ended up in a tone not unlike PRU Blue!) and Light aircraft Grey underwing surfaces (Humbrol 166). The leading edges under the wings are Dark Sea Grey, too.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (Humbrol 32 with some dry-brushing), while the landing gear is Aluminum (Humbrol 56).

Once the basic painting was done I had to deal with the missing panel lines on the fuselage and those raised lines that were sanded away during the building process. I decided to simulate these with a soft pencil, after the whole kit was buffed with a soft cotton cloth and some grinded graphite. This way, the remaining raised panel lines were emphasized, and from these the rest was drawn up. A ruler and masking tape were used as guidance for straight lines, and this worked better than expected, with good results.

As a next step, the newly created panels were highlighted with dry-brushed lighter tones of the basic paints (FS 36492 and WWII Italian Blue Grey from Modelmaster, and Humbrol 126), more for a dramatic than a weathered effect. The gun ports and the exhaust section were painted with Modelmaster Metallizer (Titanium and Magnesium).

The decals come from several Xtradecal aftermarket sheets, including a dedicated Lightning stencils sheet, another Lightning sheet with various squadron markings and a sheet for RAF Tornado ADVs.

The code number “XS970” was earmarked to a TSR.2, AFAIK, but since it was never used on a service aircraft it would be a good option for the Levin.

The kit received a coat of matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can – jn this case the finish was intended to bear a slight shine.

This was a project with LOTS of effort, but you hardly recognize it – it’s a single engine Lightning, so what? But welding the Lightning and Su-17 parts together for something that comes close to the P.6/1 necessitated LOTS of body work and improvisation, carving it from wood would probably have been the next complicated option. Except for the surprisingly long tail I am very happy with the result, despite the model’s shaggy origins, and the low-viz livery suits the sleek aircraft IMHO very well.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

Although the performance increases of jet-powered aircraft introduced towards the end of World War II over their piston-powered ancestors were breathtaking, there were those at the time who believed that much more was possible. As far back as 1943, the British Ministry of Aircraft Production had issued a specification designated "E.24/43" for a supersonic experimental jet aircraft that would be able to achieve 1,600 KPH (1,000 MPH).

The Levin served only with RAF 29 and 65 Squadron, the latter re-instated in 1970 as a dedicated fighter squadron. When in November 1984 the Tornado squadrons began to form, the Levin was gradually phased out and replaced until April 1987 by the Tornado F.3.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length w/o pitot: 51 ft 5 in (15,70 m), 55 ft 8 in (16.99 m) overall

Wingspan incl. wingtip launch rails: 34 ft 9 in (10.54 m)

Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)

Wing area: 474.5 ft² (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 8937 kg (lb)

Loaded weight: 13,570 kg (29,915)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,210 kg (33,530 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce RB.106-10S afterburning turbojet,

rated at 20,000 lbf (89 kN) dry and 26,000 lbf (116 kN) with afterburning

Performance:

Maximum speed:

- 1,150 km/h (620 kn, 715 mph, Mach 0.94) at sea level

- 2,230 km/h (1.202 kn, 1,386 mph, Mach 2.1;), clean with 2× Red Top AAMs at high altitude

- Mach 2.4 absolute top speed in clean configuration at 50.000 ft.

Range: 1,650 km (890 nmi, 1,025 mi) on internal fuel

Combat radius: 500 km (312 mi); clean, with a pair of wing tip Red Top AAMs

Ferry range: 1,270 mi (1.100 NM/ 2.040 km) with overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 16,760 m (55,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 136.7 m/s (27,000 ft/min)

Wing loading: 76 lb/ft² (370 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.78

Takeoff roll: 950 m (3,120 ft)

Landing roll: 700 m (2,300 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) ADEN cannons with 120 RPG in the upper front fuselage

2× wing tip hardpoints for mounting air-to-air missiles (2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

2× overwing pylon stations for 260 gal ferry tanks

Optional, but rarely used: 2× hardpoints under the front fuselage for mounting air-to-air missiles

(2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

The kit and its assembly:

Another contribution to the Cold War GB at whatifmodelers.com, and the realization of a project I had on the agenda for long. The EE P.6/1 was a real project for a Mach 2+ research aircraft, as described above, but it never went off the drawing board. Its engine, the RB.106, also never saw the light of day, even though its later career as the Canadian Orenda Iroquois for the stillborn CF-105.

Building this aircraft as a model appears simple, because it’s a classic Lightning (actually a F.1 with the un-kinked wing and the small fin), just with a single engine and a rather tubular fuselage. But creating this is not easy at all…

I did not want to replicate the original P.6/1, but rather a service aircraft based on the research aircraft. Therefore I used parts from a Lightning F.6 (a vintage NOVO/Frog kit). For the fuselage I settled for a Su-17, from a MasterCraft kit. The kit’s selling point was its small price tag and the fuselage construction: the VG mechanism is hidden under a separate spine piece, and I wanted to transplant the Lightning’s spine and cockpit frame, so I thought that this would make things easier.

Nope.

Putting the parts from the VERY different kits/aircraft together was a major surgery feat, with several multiple PSR sessions on the fuselage, the air intake section (opened and fitted with both an internal splitter and a bulkhead to the cockpit section), the wings, the stabilizers, the fin… This model deserves the title “kitbash” like no other, because no major sections had ever been intended to be glued together, and in the intended position!

The landing gear was more or less taken OOB, but the main struts had to be elongated by 2mm – somehow the model turned out to be a low-riding tail sitter! The cockpit interior was improvised, too, consisting of a Su-17 cockpit tub, a scratched dashboard and a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Bae Hawk trainer.

Since most of the fuselage surface consists of various materials (styrene and two kinds of putty), I did not dare to engrave panel lines – after all the PSR work almost any surface detail was gone. I rather went for a graphic solution (see below). Some antennae and air scoops were added, though.

The overwing tanks come OOB from the NOVO kit, as well as the Red Top missiles, which ended up on improvised wing tip launch rails, based on design sketches for Lightning derivatives with this layout.

Colors and markings:

There are several “classic” RAF options, but I settled for a low-viz Eighties livery taken from BAC Lightnings. There’s a surprising variety of styles, and my version is a mix of several real world aircraft.

I settled for Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces (Modelmaster Authentic) with a high waterline, a fuselage completely in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165 – had to be applied twice because the first tin I used was obviously old and the paint ended up in a tone not unlike PRU Blue!) and Light aircraft Grey underwing surfaces (Humbrol 166). The leading edges under the wings are Dark Sea Grey, too.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (Humbrol 32 with some dry-brushing), while the landing gear is Aluminum (Humbrol 56).

Once the basic painting was done I had to deal with the missing panel lines on the fuselage and those raised lines that were sanded away during the building process. I decided to simulate these with a soft pencil, after the whole kit was buffed with a soft cotton cloth and some grinded graphite. This way, the remaining raised panel lines were emphasized, and from these the rest was drawn up. A ruler and masking tape were used as guidance for straight lines, and this worked better than expected, with good results.

As a next step, the newly created panels were highlighted with dry-brushed lighter tones of the basic paints (FS 36492 and WWII Italian Blue Grey from Modelmaster, and Humbrol 126), more for a dramatic than a weathered effect. The gun ports and the exhaust section were painted with Modelmaster Metallizer (Titanium and Magnesium).

The decals come from several Xtradecal aftermarket sheets, including a dedicated Lightning stencils sheet, another Lightning sheet with various squadron markings and a sheet for RAF Tornado ADVs.

The code number “XS970” was earmarked to a TSR.2, AFAIK, but since it was never used on a service aircraft it would be a good option for the Levin.

The kit received a coat of matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can – jn this case the finish was intended to bear a slight shine.

This was a project with LOTS of effort, but you hardly recognize it – it’s a single engine Lightning, so what? But welding the Lightning and Su-17 parts together for something that comes close to the P.6/1 necessitated LOTS of body work and improvisation, carving it from wood would probably have been the next complicated option. Except for the surprisingly long tail I am very happy with the result, despite the model’s shaggy origins, and the low-viz livery suits the sleek aircraft IMHO very well.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (NATO reporting name: "Farmer") was a Soviet second-generation, single-seat, twin jet-engine fighter aircraft. It was the first Soviet production aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. A comparable U.S. "Century Series" fighter was the North American F-100 Super Sabre, although the MiG-19 would primarily oppose the more modern McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and Republic F-105 Thunderchief over North Vietnam. Furthermore, the North American YF-100 Super Sabre prototype appeared approximately one year after the MiG-19, making the MiG-19 the first operational supersonic jet in the world.

With the advent of the MiG-21, though, their career did not last long. Even though many machines were updated to carry the K-13 (the IR-guided AA-2 "Atoll") as well as the improved K-55 AAMs, with no change of the type’s designation, most MiG-19bis were already phased out towards the late 1960s and quickly replaced by 2nd generation MiG-21s as well as heavier and more capable Suchoj interceptors like the Su-9, -11 and -15. By 1972, all MiG-19bis had been retired.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 13.54 m (44 ft 4 in), fuselage only with shock cone in forward position

15.48 m (50 8 ½ in) including pitot

Wingspan: 9 m (29 ft 6 in)

Height: 3.8885 m (12 ft 9 in)

Wing area: 25 m² (269 ft²)

Empty weight: 5,210 kg (11,475 lb)

Loaded weight: 7,890 kg (17,380 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 9,050 kg (19,935 lb)

Fuel capacity: 2,450 l (556 imp gal; 647 US gal) internal;

plus 760 l (170 imp gal; 200 US gal) with 2 drop tanks

Powerplant:

2× Sorokin R3M-26 turbojets, rated at 37.2 kN (8,370 lbf) thrust each with afterburning

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,380km/h at sea level (Mach=1.16)

1,850km/h at 12,000m (Mach=1.8)

Range: 1,250 km (775 mi; 750 nmi) at 14,000 m (45,000 ft) with 2 × 490 l drop tanks

Combat range: 500 km (312 mi; 270 nmi)

Ferry range: 2,000 km (1,242 mi; 690 nmi)

Service ceiling: 19,750 m (64,690 ft)

Rate of climb: 180 m/s (35,000 ft/min)

Wing loading: 353.3 kg/m² (72.4 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.86

Armament:

No internal guns.

4× underwing pylons; typically, a pair of PTB-490 drop tanks were carried on the outer pylon pair,

plus a pair of air-to air missiles on the inner pair: initially two radar-guided Kaliningrad K-5M (RS-2US)

AAMs, later two radar-guided K-55 or IR-guided Vympel K-13 (AA-2 'Atoll') AAMs

The kit and its assembly:

Another submission for the 2018 Cold War Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and again the opportunity to build a whiffy model from the project list. But it’s as fictional as one might think, since the SM-12 line of experimental “hybrid” fighters between the MiG-19 and the MiG-21 was real. But none of these aircraft ever made it into serial production, and in real life the MiG-21 showed so much potential that the attempts to improve the MiG-19 were stopped and no operational fighter entered production or service.

However, the SM-12, with its elongated nose and the central shock cone, makes a nice model subject, and I imagined what a service aircraft might have looked like? It would IMHO have been close, if not identical, to the SM-12PM, since this was the most refined pure jet fighter in the development family.

The basis for the build was a (dead cheap) Mastercraft MiG-19, which is a re-edition of the venerable Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) kit – as a tribute to modern tastes, it comes with (crudely) engraved panel, but it has a horrible fit all over. For instance, there was a 1mm gap between the fuselage and the right wing, the wing halves’ outlines did not match at all and it is questionable if the canopy actually belongs to the kit at all? PSR everywhere. I also had a Plastyk version of this kit on the table some time ago, but it was of a much better quality! O.K., the Mastercraft kit comes cheap, but it’s, to be honest, not a real bargain.

Even though the result would not be crisp I did some mods and changes. Internally, a cockpit tub was implanted (OOB there’s just a wacky seat hanging in mid air) plus some serious lead weight in the nose section for a proper stance.

On the outside, the new air intake is the most obvious change. I found a Su-17 intake (from a Mastercraft kit, too) and used a piece from a Matchbox B-17G’s dorsal turret to elongate the nose – it had an almost perfect diameter and a mildly conical shape. Some massive PSR work was necessary to blend the parts together, though.

The tail received new jet nozzles, scratched from steel needle protection covers, and the tail fairing was adjusted according to the real SM-12’s shape.

Ordnance was adapted, too: the drop tanks come from a Mastercraft MiG-21, and these supersonic PTB-490 tanks were indeed carried by the real SM-12 prototypes because the uprated engines were very thirsty and the original, teardrop-shaped MiG-19 tanks simply too draggy for the much faster SM-12. As a side note, the real SM-12’s short range was one of the serious factors that prevented the promising type’s production in real life. In order to overcome the poor range weakness I added an enlarged spine (half of a drop tank), inspired by the MiG-21 SMT, that would house an additional internal fuel tank.

The R2-SU/K-5 AAMs come from a vintage Mastercraft Soviet aircraft weapon set, which carries a pair of these 1st generation AAMs. While the molds seem to be a bit soft, the missiles look pretty convincing. Their pylons were taken from the kit (OOB they carry unguided AAM pods and are placed behind the main landing gear wells), just reversed and placed on the wings’ leading edges – similar to the real SM-12’s arrangement.

Painting and markings:

No surprises. In the Sixties, any PVO aircraft was left in bare metal, so there was hardly an alternative to a NMF finish.

Painting started with an all-over coat with acrylic Revell 99 (Aluminum), just the spine tank became light grey (Revell 371) for some contrast, and I painted some di-electric covers in a deep green (Revell 48).

The cockpit interior was painted with a bright mix of Revell 55 and some 48, while the landing gear wells and the back section of the cockpit were painted in a bluish grey (Revell 57).

The landing gear was painted in Steel (unpolished Modelmaster metallizer) and received classic, bright green wheel discs (Humbrol 2). As a small, unusual highlight the pitot boom under the chin received red and white stripes – seen on occasional MiG-19S fighters in Soviet service, and the anti-flutter booms on the stabilizers became bright red, too.

After the basic painting was done the kit received a black ink wash. Once this had dried and wiped off with a soft cotton cloth, post shading with various metallizer tones was added in order to liven up the uniform aircraft (including Humbrol’s matt and polished aluminum, and the exhaust section was treated with steel). Some panel lines were emphasized with a thin pencil.

Decals were puzzled together from various sources, a Guards badge and a few Russian stencils were added, too. Finally, the kit was sealed with a coat of sheen acrylic varnish (a 2:1 mix of Italeri matt and semi-gloss varnish).

The K-5 missiles, last but not least, were painted in aluminum, too, but their end caps (both front and tail section) became off-white.

The Mastercraft kit on which this conversion was based is crude, so I did not have high expectations concerning the outcome. But the new nose blends nicely into the MiG-19 fuselage, and the wide spine is a subtle detail that makes the aircraft look more “beefy” and less MiG-19-ish. The different drop tanks – even though they are authentic – visually add further speed. And despite many flaws, I am quite happy with the result of roundabout a week’s work.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

Although the performance increases of jet-powered aircraft introduced towards the end of World War II over their piston-powered ancestors were breathtaking, there were those at the time who believed that much more was possible. As far back as 1943, the British Ministry of Aircraft Production had issued a specification designated "E.24/43" for a supersonic experimental jet aircraft that would be able to achieve 1,600 KPH (1,000 MPH).

The Levin served only with RAF 29 and 65 Squadron, the latter re-instated in 1970 as a dedicated fighter squadron. When in November 1984 the Tornado squadrons began to form, the Levin was gradually phased out and replaced until April 1987 by the Tornado F.3.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length w/o pitot: 51 ft 5 in (15,70 m), 55 ft 8 in (16.99 m) overall

Wingspan incl. wingtip launch rails: 34 ft 9 in (10.54 m)

Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)

Wing area: 474.5 ft² (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 8937 kg (lb)

Loaded weight: 13,570 kg (29,915)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,210 kg (33,530 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce RB.106-10S afterburning turbojet,

rated at 20,000 lbf (89 kN) dry and 26,000 lbf (116 kN) with afterburning

Performance:

Maximum speed:

- 1,150 km/h (620 kn, 715 mph, Mach 0.94) at sea level

- 2,230 km/h (1.202 kn, 1,386 mph, Mach 2.1;), clean with 2× Red Top AAMs at high altitude

- Mach 2.4 absolute top speed in clean configuration at 50.000 ft.

Range: 1,650 km (890 nmi, 1,025 mi) on internal fuel

Combat radius: 500 km (312 mi); clean, with a pair of wing tip Red Top AAMs

Ferry range: 1,270 mi (1.100 NM/ 2.040 km) with overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 16,760 m (55,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 136.7 m/s (27,000 ft/min)

Wing loading: 76 lb/ft² (370 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.78

Takeoff roll: 950 m (3,120 ft)

Landing roll: 700 m (2,300 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) ADEN cannons with 120 RPG in the upper front fuselage

2× wing tip hardpoints for mounting air-to-air missiles (2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

2× overwing pylon stations for 260 gal ferry tanks

Optional, but rarely used: 2× hardpoints under the front fuselage for mounting air-to-air missiles

(2 Red Top of Firestreak AAMs)

The kit and its assembly:

Another contribution to the Cold War GB at whatifmodelers.com, and the realization of a project I had on the agenda for long. The EE P.6/1 was a real project for a Mach 2+ research aircraft, as described above, but it never went off the drawing board. Its engine, the RB.106, also never saw the light of day, even though its later career as the Canadian Orenda Iroquois for the stillborn CF-105.

Building this aircraft as a model appears simple, because it’s a classic Lightning (actually a F.1 with the un-kinked wing and the small fin), just with a single engine and a rather tubular fuselage. But creating this is not easy at all…

I did not want to replicate the original P.6/1, but rather a service aircraft based on the research aircraft. Therefore I used parts from a Lightning F.6 (a vintage NOVO/Frog kit). For the fuselage I settled for a Su-17, from a MasterCraft kit. The kit’s selling point was its small price tag and the fuselage construction: the VG mechanism is hidden under a separate spine piece, and I wanted to transplant the Lightning’s spine and cockpit frame, so I thought that this would make things easier.

Nope.

Putting the parts from the VERY different kits/aircraft together was a major surgery feat, with several multiple PSR sessions on the fuselage, the air intake section (opened and fitted with both an internal splitter and a bulkhead to the cockpit section), the wings, the stabilizers, the fin… This model deserves the title “kitbash” like no other, because no major sections had ever been intended to be glued together, and in the intended position!

The landing gear was more or less taken OOB, but the main struts had to be elongated by 2mm – somehow the model turned out to be a low-riding tail sitter! The cockpit interior was improvised, too, consisting of a Su-17 cockpit tub, a scratched dashboard and a Martin Baker ejection seat from an Italeri Bae Hawk trainer.

Since most of the fuselage surface consists of various materials (styrene and two kinds of putty), I did not dare to engrave panel lines – after all the PSR work almost any surface detail was gone. I rather went for a graphic solution (see below). Some antennae and air scoops were added, though.

The overwing tanks come OOB from the NOVO kit, as well as the Red Top missiles, which ended up on improvised wing tip launch rails, based on design sketches for Lightning derivatives with this layout.

Colors and markings:

There are several “classic” RAF options, but I settled for a low-viz Eighties livery taken from BAC Lightnings. There’s a surprising variety of styles, and my version is a mix of several real world aircraft.

I settled for Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces (Modelmaster Authentic) with a high waterline, a fuselage completely in Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165 – had to be applied twice because the first tin I used was obviously old and the paint ended up in a tone not unlike PRU Blue!) and Light aircraft Grey underwing surfaces (Humbrol 166). The leading edges under the wings are Dark Sea Grey, too.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (Humbrol 32 with some dry-brushing), while the landing gear is Aluminum (Humbrol 56).

Once the basic painting was done I had to deal with the missing panel lines on the fuselage and those raised lines that were sanded away during the building process. I decided to simulate these with a soft pencil, after the whole kit was buffed with a soft cotton cloth and some grinded graphite. This way, the remaining raised panel lines were emphasized, and from these the rest was drawn up. A ruler and masking tape were used as guidance for straight lines, and this worked better than expected, with good results.

As a next step, the newly created panels were highlighted with dry-brushed lighter tones of the basic paints (FS 36492 and WWII Italian Blue Grey from Modelmaster, and Humbrol 126), more for a dramatic than a weathered effect. The gun ports and the exhaust section were painted with Modelmaster Metallizer (Titanium and Magnesium).

The decals come from several Xtradecal aftermarket sheets, including a dedicated Lightning stencils sheet, another Lightning sheet with various squadron markings and a sheet for RAF Tornado ADVs.

The code number “XS970” was earmarked to a TSR.2, AFAIK, but since it was never used on a service aircraft it would be a good option for the Levin.

The kit received a coat of matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can – jn this case the finish was intended to bear a slight shine.

This was a project with LOTS of effort, but you hardly recognize it – it’s a single engine Lightning, so what? But welding the Lightning and Su-17 parts together for something that comes close to the P.6/1 necessitated LOTS of body work and improvisation, carving it from wood would probably have been the next complicated option. Except for the surprisingly long tail I am very happy with the result, despite the model’s shaggy origins, and the low-viz livery suits the sleek aircraft IMHO very well.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was a World War II German high-altitude fighter-interceptor designed by Kurt Tank and produced by Focke-Wulf. The fighter was a development of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft. Originally it was intended to be made in three versions—the Ta 152H Höhenjäger ("high-altitude fighter"), the Ta 152C designed for medium-altitude operations and ground-attack, using a different engine and smaller wing, and finally the Ta 152E fighter-reconnaissance aircraft with the engine of the H model and the short wing of the C model.

The fighters, esp. the high altitude variants, had top priority. The initial Fw 190's BMW 801 engine was originally designed for bomber and transport aircraft flying at medium altitudes in the 15,000 to 20,000 feet (4,600 to 6,100 m) range. In keeping with this role, it used a relatively simple single-stage supercharger that lacked performance above 20,000 feet (6,100 m) altitude. This presented a problem for fighter use, where high-altitude performance was desirable. Through careful tuning, the Fw 190 instead emerged as a powerful medium altitude design. Several experimental models of the 190 with different engines were tested, primarily aiming at an improved high altitude performance. But these were not high priority projects or failed through various teething troubles with the innovative engines.

The Ta 152 J-2 remained the only production variant with the new engine, though, because the complex Jumo 222 was hard to manufacture and resources had become increasingly scarce by mid-1945. Consequentially, even though production of the Ta 152 J started in late 1945, the fighter’s production numbers remained low and only a small number of aircraft were finished and eventually reached front line units in serviceable condition. Probably only 30 machines went operational, with 30 more in the production lines in a more or less uncompleted condition. But those which countered bomber raids proved to be highly effective at the Western front and over Northern Germany against medium bombers and their escort fighters coming in from Great Britain.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 10.29 m (33 ft 8¾ in)

Wingspan: 11.65 m (38 ft 2 in)

Height: 3.35 m (11 ft 0 in)

Wing area: 19.80 m² (212.42 ft²)

Empty weight: 4,175 kg (9,205 lb)

Loaded weight: 6,054 kg (13,346 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 6,995 kg (15,422 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Junkers Jumo 222E liquid-cooled, 24-cylinder six-row inline piston engine

with a two-stage supercharger, rated at 2,500 hp (1,850 kW) at sea level

and 1,930 hp (1,439 kW) at 9,000 m (29,530 ft), driving a four-blade propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 760 km/h (408 knots, 470 mph) at 6,600 m (21,655 ft)

Range: 835 km (519 mi) with internal fuel only

1.480 km (919 mi) with Doppelreiter auxiliary tanks

Service ceiling: 12,600 m (41,500 ft)

Rate of climb: 22.1 m/s (4,360 ft/min)

Armament:

2× 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151 cannons with 250 RPG above the engine

2x 30mm (1.181 in) MK 103 in the wing roots with 150 RPG

1x ventral hardpoint for a 500 kg (1,102 lb) SC 500 bomb or a 300l drop tank

Attachment points for a pair of “Doppelreiter” 270 l conformal slipper tanks above the wings

The kit and its assembly:

This is a what-if model, but, as usual, it is rooted in reality – to be precise in the German late-war plans to mate the Ta 152(H) with the mighty Jumo 222 engine. I do not know what the official service designation would have been, but this combo would have resulted in a powerful fighter – AFAIK, German engineers’ calculations indicated a performance that would have been comparable with the post-WWII F4U-5!

Creating a model of such this paper aircraft called for some serious conversion work and ended almost in a kitbashing. The starting point became a (cheap) Mistercraft Fw 190D-9 kit, and I originally planned this model to be a Fw 190 variant, but eventually this turned into a Ta 152, since it would better match up with the late war time frame.

The Mastercraft/Mistercraft kit appears to be an indigenous mold and not a re-issue of a vintage kit. At first glance the parts look pretty crisp, but the kit has some serious fit and flash issues. Another selling point is the detailed decal set, which comes in three sheets and encompasses a lot of stencils – even though the instructions where to place them are not consistent, and there are even 1:48 scale(!) markings included. But that’s a Mastercraft/Mistercraft standard, anyway…

Well, the basis was sound and the kit would, in any event, be thoroughly modified. From the OOB kit, fuselage, wings and stabilizers were taken, as well as the landing gear and some other bits.

The wings were extended, in order to keep overall proportions with the new, much more massive engine cowling balanced (see below). Not an easy stunt, but I was lucky to have recently bought a set of resin Doppelreiter tanks from Airmodel which were just perfect to cover the cuts and seams on the upper wing surfaces. Inside of the wings, a styrene strip secured stability while the lower wing surface was sculpted with putty and the trailing edge of the outer wing panels was cut down by 1 mm, so that the wings’ outlines match again. Some further PSR work was necessary to blend the slipper tanks into the wings, forming the upper side of the modifications, but in the end the whole thing looks quite good.

The fuselage lost both its original engine and the tail. The latter is a donor part from a Frog Ta 152H (Revell re-boxing), but mating it with the Mistercraft Fw 190D was not easy because the fuselage shapes of the two kits are totally different! I also used the Mistercraft stabilizers because they were markedly bigger than the same parts from the Ta 152 kit!

The Jumo 222 front end was simulated with parts from the spares box, and it is a bit exaggerated. Actually, the Jumo 222 was hardly bigger (in both length and diameter) than the Fw 190D’s Jumo 213 V12 engine! The cowling and the radiator for my conversion came from a Frog He 219 engine nacelle (Revell re-boxing, too) which is utterly dubious. The nacelle parts were turned upside down and integrated into the slender Fw 190 front fuselage with several layers of putty.

Inside of the cowling, a radiator plate from an Italeri Fw 190D was mounted, together with a styrene tube adapter for the new propeller. The latter was scratched, using a drop tank as spinner and single propeller blades from the Mistercraft Fw 190D, plus one donor blade from the Frog Ta 152H kit, which had to be trimmed in order to match the other blades. But with some paint, no one will tell the small differences…

Once the bigger engine was integrated into the fuselage, the exhaust system had to be added. In real life, the Jumo 222 would have featured three clusters with two rows of four exhaust stubs, distributed evenly around the cowling. Using a drawing of this arrangement as benchmark, I started with square cuts for the cluster openings. From the back side, styrene sheet closed the gaps and offered a basis for the exhaust stubs. These were improvised with H0 scale roofing shingles – each of the 24 exhaust stubs was cut individually into shape and size and then glued into the respective openings on the upper flanks and under the engine. Finally, styrene sheet was used to create small spoilers and heat shields. The result is certainly not perfect, but comes close to what the real world arrangement would basically have looked like. In a final step, two air intakes for the two-stage supercharger, scratched from sprue material, were added to the flanks.

The cockpit remained OOB, simple as it is, as well as the landing gear, but the canopy was modified in order to allow a presentation in open position. This meant that the OOB canopy had to be cut in two parts and that the model’s spine had to be cut away, making place for a donor canopy (the late, bulged variant, IIRC from an Italeri Fw 190D-9). Internally the fuselage gap was filled with putty and the headrest had to be modified, too, but the conversion turned out to look better than expected.

As a small cosmetic improvement, the molded gun barrel stumps in the wing roots were replaced with hollow steel needles, and the outer guns were completely removed.

Painting and markings:

I wanted a typical “German”, yet improvised look, as if the machine had been rushed to a service unit after minimal exterior decoration. I found a late war Fw 190F as a benchmark for my design, which basically carried a standard paint scheme of RLM 74 and 75 from above (wing surfaces and spine), but the undersides camouflage (typically in RLM 76) was completely missing. Instead, the aircraft was left in bare metal, and it carried only very simple and minimal markings.

I adapted this scheme for my build with RLM 74 and 75 for the upper wing surfaces, but the spine was painted with RLM 75 and 81 (all from Modelmaster’s Authentic line). The NMF areas were painted with Steel Metallizer instead of aluminum. I went for this darker tone because I wanted a rather weathered and unpolished look. Some camouflage mottles with thinned RLM 75 and 81 were added to the flanks and the fin, too.

The landing gear covers as well as the undersides of the Doppelreiter tanks’ rear extensions were painted with RLM 76, while the undersides of the rudders on wings and stabilizers were painted with a greenish grey (similar to RAF Sky and frequently misidentified as RLM 84, a tone that never officially existed). The fin’s rudder was painted in a rusty red (Humbrol 70) – again a typical German primer tone for metal replacement parts.

The cockpit interior became RLM 66 (a very dark grey, Humbrol 67), while the landing gear became RLM 02 (Revell 45) – all classic Luftwaffe tones for the intended era.

The markings were puzzled together from various sources, including the OOB sheets from the Mistercraft kit plus aftermarket material from TL Modellbau and Sky Models.

While most of this build was improvised, I like the beefy and purposeful look of this über-Ta 152. It’s certainly not 100% what the potential real thing would have looked like, but, after all, it’s intended to be a whif model plane. The massive engine changes the look considerably, even though in a subtle way since the original silhouette remains intact. But if you place a standard Fw 190 next to it, the overall growth becomes recognizable – as if you place an early Spitfire next to one of its post-war, Griffon-powered evolutions that only share the general outlines. The shaggy look due to the NMF undersides might look strange, but many late-war builds arrived in a similar, unfinished fashionat the front line units.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The history of the PZL P.11 started in 1929, when a talented designer, Zygmunt Puławski, designed an all-metal, metal-covered monoplane fighter, the P.1. While most of the world's forces were still using biplanes, the new P.1 used a high-mounted gull wing to give the pilot an excellent view. A second prototype, the P.6, was completed the next year. The design generated intense interest around the world, the layout becoming known as the "Polish wing" or "Puławski wing". A further improvement, the PZL P.7, was built for the Polish Air Force in a series of 150.

On 16 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, Bohemia and Moravia were declared as German protectorates. The occupation ended with the surrender of Germany following World War II.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 7.55 m (24 ft 9 in)

Wingspan: 10.719 m (35 ft 2 in)

Height: 2.85 m (9 ft 4 in)

Wing area: 17.9 m2 (193 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,147 kg (2,529 lb)

Gross weight: 1,630 kg (3,594 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 1,800 kg (3,968 lb)

Powerplant:

1 × Bristol Jupiter VIIF 9-cylinder radial engine, 520 hp (388 kW)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 390 km/h (242 mph; 211 kn) at 5,000 m (16,404 ft),

300 km/h (186 mph) at sea level

Stall speed: 98 km/h (61 mph; 53 kn)

Range: 800 km (435 mi; 378 nmi)

Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,247 ft) absolute ceiling 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,404 ft) in 5.2 minutes

7,000 m (22,966 ft) in 11.5 minutes

Wing loading: 91.1 kg/m2 (18.7 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 0.279 kW/kg (0.166 hp/lb)

Armament:

4× 7.7 mm (.303 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns with 500rpg

The kit and its assembly:

This quickie whif was a rather short notice build – I had a surplus Mastercraft PZL.11c in my stash, originally part of a cheap lot, and for a long time no idea what to do with it …until I read an article about the Hungarian/Czech clash right before the outbreak of WWII, with very detailed army and air force activities, including profiles and pics of some aircraft of that era.

That spawned the idea to build a Hungarian PZL.11 from the kit, more or less based on a Fiat CR.32bis (aircraft V.107) in Hungarian service with a very attractive paint scheme as “design benchmark”.

The PZL.11 was built almost OOB – the kit is simple, but has very nice surface details. Fit is mediocre, though, especially the stabilizers puzzled me. The only thing I changed is the propeller; instead of a two blade wood piece I installed a three-bladed alternative (from a Matchbox Provost, coupled with a spinner from an Italeri La-5) for a modernized/different look.

Painting and markings:

This is an individual interpretation of a real aircraft’s paint scheme - I found VERY contradictive sources about the potential paint scheme. MKHL aircraft began to be camouflaged in a three-tone scheme from October of 1938. The upper surfaces received irregular, undulating patches of Green/Grey/Brown, while the undersides were painted light Grey-Blue.

As no specific official camouflage patterns were issued, a wide variety of styles and colors resulted, depending as much on the means available in every case, as on the particular tastes of the maintenance personnel detached to do the job. I also guess that many foreign aircraft like the Italian CR.32s or He 70 reconnaissance bombers simply kept their home countries schemes/colors and were successively re-painted with whatever was at hand.

I based my scheme on a CR.32’s profile in a magazine, and I assume that the print colors are brighter than the real Hungarian aircraft – on other profiles of the same machine it looks as if it was painted in RLM 61, 62, 63 and 65! Anyway, I liked the more saturated colors, so I went for this more decorative option.

The colors I used are Olive Green (RAL 6003 from Modelmaster), Dark Green (FS 34079; Humbrol 116) and Brown (Modelmaster), with Pastel Blue (Humbrol 44) undersides. The latter tone is also found as irregular patches on the upper surfaces, it really looks wild and colorful – esp. in combination with the Hungarian national markings.

Personally, I think that the typical Hungarian paint scheme of the time was just a crude addition of paint on top of the original bare metal/aluminum finish of many aircraft, but pics are difficult to interpret.

A quickie, finished in the course of three evenings and some finishing touches before the fourth day's breakfast - the colors are certainly totally wrong, but it's a whif aircraft after all. ;)

Full Blown Hollywood Regency fabulous MASTERCRAFT dining chairs. Go ahead, find these online and compare our price to others....you'll be very pleased.

Totally FABULOUS set of 8 Mastercraft dining chairs....they're perfect...that must be why they sold so quickly!

Steyning Country Fair

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The history of the PZL P.11 started in 1929, when a talented designer, Zygmunt Puławski, designed an all-metal, metal-covered monoplane fighter, the P.1. While most of the world's forces were still using biplanes, the new P.1 used a high-mounted gull wing to give the pilot an excellent view. A second prototype, the P.6, was completed the next year. The design generated intense interest around the world, the layout becoming known as the "Polish wing" or "Puławski wing". A further improvement, the PZL P.7, was built for the Polish Air Force in a series of 150.

On 16 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, Bohemia and Moravia were declared as German protectorates. The occupation ended with the surrender of Germany following World War II.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 7.55 m (24 ft 9 in)

Wingspan: 10.719 m (35 ft 2 in)

Height: 2.85 m (9 ft 4 in)

Wing area: 17.9 m2 (193 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,147 kg (2,529 lb)

Gross weight: 1,630 kg (3,594 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 1,800 kg (3,968 lb)

Powerplant:

1 × Bristol Jupiter VIIF 9-cylinder radial engine, 520 hp (388 kW)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 390 km/h (242 mph; 211 kn) at 5,000 m (16,404 ft),

300 km/h (186 mph) at sea level

Stall speed: 98 km/h (61 mph; 53 kn)

Range: 800 km (435 mi; 378 nmi)

Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,247 ft) absolute ceiling 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,404 ft) in 5.2 minutes

7,000 m (22,966 ft) in 11.5 minutes

Wing loading: 91.1 kg/m2 (18.7 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 0.279 kW/kg (0.166 hp/lb)

Armament:

4× 7.7 mm (.303 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns with 500rpg

The kit and its assembly:

This quickie whif was a rather short notice build – I had a surplus Mastercraft PZL.11c in my stash, originally part of a cheap lot, and for a long time no idea what to do with it …until I read an article about the Hungarian/Czech clash right before the outbreak of WWII, with very detailed army and air force activities, including profiles and pics of some aircraft of that era.

That spawned the idea to build a Hungarian PZL.11 from the kit, more or less based on a Fiat CR.32bis (aircraft V.107) in Hungarian service with a very attractive paint scheme as “design benchmark”.

The PZL.11 was built almost OOB – the kit is simple, but has very nice surface details. Fit is mediocre, though, especially the stabilizers puzzled me. The only thing I changed is the propeller; instead of a two blade wood piece I installed a three-bladed alternative (from a Matchbox Provost, coupled with a spinner from an Italeri La-5) for a modernized/different look.

Painting and markings:

This is an individual interpretation of a real aircraft’s paint scheme - I found VERY contradictive sources about the potential paint scheme. MKHL aircraft began to be camouflaged in a three-tone scheme from October of 1938. The upper surfaces received irregular, undulating patches of Green/Grey/Brown, while the undersides were painted light Grey-Blue.

As no specific official camouflage patterns were issued, a wide variety of styles and colors resulted, depending as much on the means available in every case, as on the particular tastes of the maintenance personnel detached to do the job. I also guess that many foreign aircraft like the Italian CR.32s or He 70 reconnaissance bombers simply kept their home countries schemes/colors and were successively re-painted with whatever was at hand.

I based my scheme on a CR.32’s profile in a magazine, and I assume that the print colors are brighter than the real Hungarian aircraft – on other profiles of the same machine it looks as if it was painted in RLM 61, 62, 63 and 65! Anyway, I liked the more saturated colors, so I went for this more decorative option.

The colors I used are Olive Green (RAL 6003 from Modelmaster), Dark Green (FS 34079; Humbrol 116) and Brown (Modelmaster), with Pastel Blue (Humbrol 44) undersides. The latter tone is also found as irregular patches on the upper surfaces, it really looks wild and colorful – esp. in combination with the Hungarian national markings.

Personally, I think that the typical Hungarian paint scheme of the time was just a crude addition of paint on top of the original bare metal/aluminum finish of many aircraft, but pics are difficult to interpret.

A quickie, finished in the course of three evenings and some finishing touches before the fourth day's breakfast - the colors are certainly totally wrong, but it's a whif aircraft after all. ;)

MasterCraft X-Star Wakeboard/Wakesurf

Manufacturer: MasterCraft USA

Year Built: 2010

Length x Beam: 7.05 m x 2.54 m

Draught: 0.60 m

Displacement: 1'950 kg

Material: GRP

Propulsion: Inboard Direct-Drive

Engine Performance: 1 x 400 HP / 294 kW

Fuel Type: petrol

I went with a buddy of mine to go watch the pro wakeboard event that was in town never shot wake boarding before was kinda boring shooting form the water. I tried to get on a boat but no luck :/

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was a World War II German high-altitude fighter-interceptor designed by Kurt Tank and produced by Focke-Wulf. The fighter was a development of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft. Originally it was intended to be made in three versions—the Ta 152H Höhenjäger ("high-altitude fighter"), the Ta 152C designed for medium-altitude operations and ground-attack, using a different engine and smaller wing, and finally the Ta 152E fighter-reconnaissance aircraft with the engine of the H model and the short wing of the C model.

The fighters, esp. the high altitude variants, had top priority. The initial Fw 190's BMW 801 engine was originally designed for bomber and transport aircraft flying at medium altitudes in the 15,000 to 20,000 feet (4,600 to 6,100 m) range. In keeping with this role, it used a relatively simple single-stage supercharger that lacked performance above 20,000 feet (6,100 m) altitude. This presented a problem for fighter use, where high-altitude performance was desirable. Through careful tuning, the Fw 190 instead emerged as a powerful medium altitude design. Several experimental models of the 190 with different engines were tested, primarily aiming at an improved high altitude performance. But these were not high priority projects or failed through various teething troubles with the innovative engines.

The Ta 152 J-2 remained the only production variant with the new engine, though, because the complex Jumo 222 was hard to manufacture and resources had become increasingly scarce by mid-1945. Consequentially, even though production of the Ta 152 J started in late 1945, the fighter’s production numbers remained low and only a small number of aircraft were finished and eventually reached front line units in serviceable condition. Probably only 30 machines went operational, with 30 more in the production lines in a more or less uncompleted condition. But those which countered bomber raids proved to be highly effective at the Western front and over Northern Germany against medium bombers and their escort fighters coming in from Great Britain.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 10.29 m (33 ft 8¾ in)

Wingspan: 11.65 m (38 ft 2 in)

Height: 3.35 m (11 ft 0 in)

Wing area: 19.80 m² (212.42 ft²)

Empty weight: 4,175 kg (9,205 lb)

Loaded weight: 6,054 kg (13,346 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 6,995 kg (15,422 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Junkers Jumo 222E liquid-cooled, 24-cylinder six-row inline piston engine

with a two-stage supercharger, rated at 2,500 hp (1,850 kW) at sea level

and 1,930 hp (1,439 kW) at 9,000 m (29,530 ft), driving a four-blade propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 760 km/h (408 knots, 470 mph) at 6,600 m (21,655 ft)

Range: 835 km (519 mi) with internal fuel only

1.480 km (919 mi) with Doppelreiter auxiliary tanks

Service ceiling: 12,600 m (41,500 ft)

Rate of climb: 22.1 m/s (4,360 ft/min)

Armament:

2× 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151 cannons with 250 RPG above the engine

2x 30mm (1.181 in) MK 103 in the wing roots with 150 RPG

1x ventral hardpoint for a 500 kg (1,102 lb) SC 500 bomb or a 300l drop tank

Attachment points for a pair of “Doppelreiter” 270 l conformal slipper tanks above the wings

The kit and its assembly:

This is a what-if model, but, as usual, it is rooted in reality – to be precise in the German late-war plans to mate the Ta 152(H) with the mighty Jumo 222 engine. I do not know what the official service designation would have been, but this combo would have resulted in a powerful fighter – AFAIK, German engineers’ calculations indicated a performance that would have been comparable with the post-WWII F4U-5!

Creating a model of such this paper aircraft called for some serious conversion work and ended almost in a kitbashing. The starting point became a (cheap) Mistercraft Fw 190D-9 kit, and I originally planned this model to be a Fw 190 variant, but eventually this turned into a Ta 152, since it would better match up with the late war time frame.

The Mastercraft/Mistercraft kit appears to be an indigenous mold and not a re-issue of a vintage kit. At first glance the parts look pretty crisp, but the kit has some serious fit and flash issues. Another selling point is the detailed decal set, which comes in three sheets and encompasses a lot of stencils – even though the instructions where to place them are not consistent, and there are even 1:48 scale(!) markings included. But that’s a Mastercraft/Mistercraft standard, anyway…

Well, the basis was sound and the kit would, in any event, be thoroughly modified. From the OOB kit, fuselage, wings and stabilizers were taken, as well as the landing gear and some other bits.

The wings were extended, in order to keep overall proportions with the new, much more massive engine cowling balanced (see below). Not an easy stunt, but I was lucky to have recently bought a set of resin Doppelreiter tanks from Airmodel which were just perfect to cover the cuts and seams on the upper wing surfaces. Inside of the wings, a styrene strip secured stability while the lower wing surface was sculpted with putty and the trailing edge of the outer wing panels was cut down by 1 mm, so that the wings’ outlines match again. Some further PSR work was necessary to blend the slipper tanks into the wings, forming the upper side of the modifications, but in the end the whole thing looks quite good.

The fuselage lost both its original engine and the tail. The latter is a donor part from a Frog Ta 152H (Revell re-boxing), but mating it with the Mistercraft Fw 190D was not easy because the fuselage shapes of the two kits are totally different! I also used the Mistercraft stabilizers because they were markedly bigger than the same parts from the Ta 152 kit!

The Jumo 222 front end was simulated with parts from the spares box, and it is a bit exaggerated. Actually, the Jumo 222 was hardly bigger (in both length and diameter) than the Fw 190D’s Jumo 213 V12 engine! The cowling and the radiator for my conversion came from a Frog He 219 engine nacelle (Revell re-boxing, too) which is utterly dubious. The nacelle parts were turned upside down and integrated into the slender Fw 190 front fuselage with several layers of putty.

Inside of the cowling, a radiator plate from an Italeri Fw 190D was mounted, together with a styrene tube adapter for the new propeller. The latter was scratched, using a drop tank as spinner and single propeller blades from the Mistercraft Fw 190D, plus one donor blade from the Frog Ta 152H kit, which had to be trimmed in order to match the other blades. But with some paint, no one will tell the small differences…

Once the bigger engine was integrated into the fuselage, the exhaust system had to be added. In real life, the Jumo 222 would have featured three clusters with two rows of four exhaust stubs, distributed evenly around the cowling. Using a drawing of this arrangement as benchmark, I started with square cuts for the cluster openings. From the back side, styrene sheet closed the gaps and offered a basis for the exhaust stubs. These were improvised with H0 scale roofing shingles – each of the 24 exhaust stubs was cut individually into shape and size and then glued into the respective openings on the upper flanks and under the engine. Finally, styrene sheet was used to create small spoilers and heat shields. The result is certainly not perfect, but comes close to what the real world arrangement would basically have looked like. In a final step, two air intakes for the two-stage supercharger, scratched from sprue material, were added to the flanks.

The cockpit remained OOB, simple as it is, as well as the landing gear, but the canopy was modified in order to allow a presentation in open position. This meant that the OOB canopy had to be cut in two parts and that the model’s spine had to be cut away, making place for a donor canopy (the late, bulged variant, IIRC from an Italeri Fw 190D-9). Internally the fuselage gap was filled with putty and the headrest had to be modified, too, but the conversion turned out to look better than expected.

As a small cosmetic improvement, the molded gun barrel stumps in the wing roots were replaced with hollow steel needles, and the outer guns were completely removed.

Painting and markings:

I wanted a typical “German”, yet improvised look, as if the machine had been rushed to a service unit after minimal exterior decoration. I found a late war Fw 190F as a benchmark for my design, which basically carried a standard paint scheme of RLM 74 and 75 from above (wing surfaces and spine), but the undersides camouflage (typically in RLM 76) was completely missing. Instead, the aircraft was left in bare metal, and it carried only very simple and minimal markings.

I adapted this scheme for my build with RLM 74 and 75 for the upper wing surfaces, but the spine was painted with RLM 75 and 81 (all from Modelmaster’s Authentic line). The NMF areas were painted with Steel Metallizer instead of aluminum. I went for this darker tone because I wanted a rather weathered and unpolished look. Some camouflage mottles with thinned RLM 75 and 81 were added to the flanks and the fin, too.

The landing gear covers as well as the undersides of the Doppelreiter tanks’ rear extensions were painted with RLM 76, while the undersides of the rudders on wings and stabilizers were painted with a greenish grey (similar to RAF Sky and frequently misidentified as RLM 84, a tone that never officially existed). The fin’s rudder was painted in a rusty red (Humbrol 70) – again a typical German primer tone for metal replacement parts.

The cockpit interior became RLM 66 (a very dark grey, Humbrol 67), while the landing gear became RLM 02 (Revell 45) – all classic Luftwaffe tones for the intended era.

The markings were puzzled together from various sources, including the OOB sheets from the Mistercraft kit plus aftermarket material from TL Modellbau and Sky Models.

While most of this build was improvised, I like the beefy and purposeful look of this über-Ta 152. It’s certainly not 100% what the potential real thing would have looked like, but, after all, it’s intended to be a whif model plane. The massive engine changes the look considerably, even though in a subtle way since the original silhouette remains intact. But if you place a standard Fw 190 next to it, the overall growth becomes recognizable – as if you place an early Spitfire next to one of its post-war, Griffon-powered evolutions that only share the general outlines. The shaggy look due to the NMF undersides might look strange, but many late-war builds arrived in a similar, unfinished fashionat the front line units.

1991 Mastercraft 22' ski boat project. Very sound hull sitting on an original mastercraft trailer with clean title. Boat needs interior and engine work.

Working on our Mastercraft

Great day on the water with our friends over at Roswell Marine and Pro Wakeboarder Rusty Malinoski. Rusty hit double ups all day - the man is fearless! Rusty is riding behind his 2020 Mastercraft X-Star. It's an incredible boat that throws a huge wake!

Give Rusty a follow at:

IG & FB: @rustymalinoski

Learn more about our friends at Roswell Marine at www.roswellmarine.com/

and give them a follow!

IG & FB: @roswellmarine

Check out the full lineup of Mastercraft boats at www.mastercraft.com/

Follow them at:

IG & FB: @mcboatcompany

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The history of the PZL P.11 started in 1929, when a talented designer, Zygmunt Puławski, designed an all-metal, metal-covered monoplane fighter, the P.1. While most of the world's forces were still using biplanes, the new P.1 used a high-mounted gull wing to give the pilot an excellent view. A second prototype, the P.6, was completed the next year. The design generated intense interest around the world, the layout becoming known as the "Polish wing" or "Puławski wing". A further improvement, the PZL P.7, was built for the Polish Air Force in a series of 150.

On 16 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, Bohemia and Moravia were declared as German protectorates. The occupation ended with the surrender of Germany following World War II.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 7.55 m (24 ft 9 in)

Wingspan: 10.719 m (35 ft 2 in)

Height: 2.85 m (9 ft 4 in)

Wing area: 17.9 m2 (193 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,147 kg (2,529 lb)

Gross weight: 1,630 kg (3,594 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 1,800 kg (3,968 lb)

Powerplant:

1 × Bristol Jupiter VIIF 9-cylinder radial engine, 520 hp (388 kW)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 390 km/h (242 mph; 211 kn) at 5,000 m (16,404 ft),

300 km/h (186 mph) at sea level

Stall speed: 98 km/h (61 mph; 53 kn)

Range: 800 km (435 mi; 378 nmi)

Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,247 ft) absolute ceiling 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,404 ft) in 5.2 minutes

7,000 m (22,966 ft) in 11.5 minutes

Wing loading: 91.1 kg/m2 (18.7 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 0.279 kW/kg (0.166 hp/lb)

Armament:

4× 7.7 mm (.303 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns with 500rpg

The kit and its assembly:

This quickie whif was a rather short notice build – I had a surplus Mastercraft PZL.11c in my stash, originally part of a cheap lot, and for a long time no idea what to do with it …until I read an article about the Hungarian/Czech clash right before the outbreak of WWII, with very detailed army and air force activities, including profiles and pics of some aircraft of that era.

That spawned the idea to build a Hungarian PZL.11 from the kit, more or less based on a Fiat CR.32bis (aircraft V.107) in Hungarian service with a very attractive paint scheme as “design benchmark”.

The PZL.11 was built almost OOB – the kit is simple, but has very nice surface details. Fit is mediocre, though, especially the stabilizers puzzled me. The only thing I changed is the propeller; instead of a two blade wood piece I installed a three-bladed alternative (from a Matchbox Provost, coupled with a spinner from an Italeri La-5) for a modernized/different look.

Painting and markings:

This is an individual interpretation of a real aircraft’s paint scheme - I found VERY contradictive sources about the potential paint scheme. MKHL aircraft began to be camouflaged in a three-tone scheme from October of 1938. The upper surfaces received irregular, undulating patches of Green/Grey/Brown, while the undersides were painted light Grey-Blue.

As no specific official camouflage patterns were issued, a wide variety of styles and colors resulted, depending as much on the means available in every case, as on the particular tastes of the maintenance personnel detached to do the job. I also guess that many foreign aircraft like the Italian CR.32s or He 70 reconnaissance bombers simply kept their home countries schemes/colors and were successively re-painted with whatever was at hand.

I based my scheme on a CR.32’s profile in a magazine, and I assume that the print colors are brighter than the real Hungarian aircraft – on other profiles of the same machine it looks as if it was painted in RLM 61, 62, 63 and 65! Anyway, I liked the more saturated colors, so I went for this more decorative option.

The colors I used are Olive Green (RAL 6003 from Modelmaster), Dark Green (FS 34079; Humbrol 116) and Brown (Modelmaster), with Pastel Blue (Humbrol 44) undersides. The latter tone is also found as irregular patches on the upper surfaces, it really looks wild and colorful – esp. in combination with the Hungarian national markings.

Personally, I think that the typical Hungarian paint scheme of the time was just a crude addition of paint on top of the original bare metal/aluminum finish of many aircraft, but pics are difficult to interpret.

A quickie, finished in the course of three evenings and some finishing touches before the fourth day's breakfast - the colors are certainly totally wrong, but it's a whif aircraft after all. ;)

SOLD

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The history of the PZL P.11 started in 1929, when a talented designer, Zygmunt Puławski, designed an all-metal, metal-covered monoplane fighter, the P.1. While most of the world's forces were still using biplanes, the new P.1 used a high-mounted gull wing to give the pilot an excellent view. A second prototype, the P.6, was completed the next year. The design generated intense interest around the world, the layout becoming known as the "Polish wing" or "Puławski wing". A further improvement, the PZL P.7, was built for the Polish Air Force in a series of 150.

On 16 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, Bohemia and Moravia were declared as German protectorates. The occupation ended with the surrender of Germany following World War II.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 7.55 m (24 ft 9 in)

Wingspan: 10.719 m (35 ft 2 in)

Height: 2.85 m (9 ft 4 in)

Wing area: 17.9 m2 (193 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,147 kg (2,529 lb)

Gross weight: 1,630 kg (3,594 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 1,800 kg (3,968 lb)

Powerplant:

1 × Bristol Jupiter VIIF 9-cylinder radial engine, 520 hp (388 kW)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 390 km/h (242 mph; 211 kn) at 5,000 m (16,404 ft),

300 km/h (186 mph) at sea level

Stall speed: 98 km/h (61 mph; 53 kn)

Range: 800 km (435 mi; 378 nmi)

Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,247 ft) absolute ceiling 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,404 ft) in 5.2 minutes

7,000 m (22,966 ft) in 11.5 minutes

Wing loading: 91.1 kg/m2 (18.7 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 0.279 kW/kg (0.166 hp/lb)

Armament:

4× 7.7 mm (.303 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns with 500rpg

The kit and its assembly:

This quickie whif was a rather short notice build – I had a surplus Mastercraft PZL.11c in my stash, originally part of a cheap lot, and for a long time no idea what to do with it …until I read an article about the Hungarian/Czech clash right before the outbreak of WWII, with very detailed army and air force activities, including profiles and pics of some aircraft of that era.

That spawned the idea to build a Hungarian PZL.11 from the kit, more or less based on a Fiat CR.32bis (aircraft V.107) in Hungarian service with a very attractive paint scheme as “design benchmark”.

The PZL.11 was built almost OOB – the kit is simple, but has very nice surface details. Fit is mediocre, though, especially the stabilizers puzzled me. The only thing I changed is the propeller; instead of a two blade wood piece I installed a three-bladed alternative (from a Matchbox Provost, coupled with a spinner from an Italeri La-5) for a modernized/different look.

Painting and markings:

This is an individual interpretation of a real aircraft’s paint scheme - I found VERY contradictive sources about the potential paint scheme. MKHL aircraft began to be camouflaged in a three-tone scheme from October of 1938. The upper surfaces received irregular, undulating patches of Green/Grey/Brown, while the undersides were painted light Grey-Blue.

As no specific official camouflage patterns were issued, a wide variety of styles and colors resulted, depending as much on the means available in every case, as on the particular tastes of the maintenance personnel detached to do the job. I also guess that many foreign aircraft like the Italian CR.32s or He 70 reconnaissance bombers simply kept their home countries schemes/colors and were successively re-painted with whatever was at hand.

I based my scheme on a CR.32’s profile in a magazine, and I assume that the print colors are brighter than the real Hungarian aircraft – on other profiles of the same machine it looks as if it was painted in RLM 61, 62, 63 and 65! Anyway, I liked the more saturated colors, so I went for this more decorative option.

The colors I used are Olive Green (RAL 6003 from Modelmaster), Dark Green (FS 34079; Humbrol 116) and Brown (Modelmaster), with Pastel Blue (Humbrol 44) undersides. The latter tone is also found as irregular patches on the upper surfaces, it really looks wild and colorful – esp. in combination with the Hungarian national markings.

Personally, I think that the typical Hungarian paint scheme of the time was just a crude addition of paint on top of the original bare metal/aluminum finish of many aircraft, but pics are difficult to interpret.

A quickie, finished in the course of three evenings and some finishing touches before the fourth day's breakfast - the colors are certainly totally wrong, but it's a whif aircraft after all. ;)

Este un dibujo o anuncio del Aerocoach Mastercraft modelo P-372, como el del anuncio de Omnibus Menendez.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The history of the PZL P.11 started in 1929, when a talented designer, Zygmunt Puławski, designed an all-metal, metal-covered monoplane fighter, the P.1. While most of the world's forces were still using biplanes, the new P.1 used a high-mounted gull wing to give the pilot an excellent view. A second prototype, the P.6, was completed the next year. The design generated intense interest around the world, the layout becoming known as the "Polish wing" or "Puławski wing". A further improvement, the PZL P.7, was built for the Polish Air Force in a series of 150.

On 16 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, Bohemia and Moravia were declared as German protectorates. The occupation ended with the surrender of Germany following World War II.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 7.55 m (24 ft 9 in)

Wingspan: 10.719 m (35 ft 2 in)

Height: 2.85 m (9 ft 4 in)

Wing area: 17.9 m2 (193 sq ft)

Empty weight: 1,147 kg (2,529 lb)

Gross weight: 1,630 kg (3,594 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 1,800 kg (3,968 lb)

Powerplant:

1 × Bristol Jupiter VIIF 9-cylinder radial engine, 520 hp (388 kW)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 390 km/h (242 mph; 211 kn) at 5,000 m (16,404 ft),

300 km/h (186 mph) at sea level

Stall speed: 98 km/h (61 mph; 53 kn)

Range: 800 km (435 mi; 378 nmi)

Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,247 ft) absolute ceiling 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,404 ft) in 5.2 minutes

7,000 m (22,966 ft) in 11.5 minutes

Wing loading: 91.1 kg/m2 (18.7 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 0.279 kW/kg (0.166 hp/lb)

Armament:

4× 7.7 mm (.303 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns with 500rpg

The kit and its assembly:

This quickie whif was a rather short notice build – I had a surplus Mastercraft PZL.11c in my stash, originally part of a cheap lot, and for a long time no idea what to do with it …until I read an article about the Hungarian/Czech clash right before the outbreak of WWII, with very detailed army and air force activities, including profiles and pics of some aircraft of that era.

That spawned the idea to build a Hungarian PZL.11 from the kit, more or less based on a Fiat CR.32bis (aircraft V.107) in Hungarian service with a very attractive paint scheme as “design benchmark”.

The PZL.11 was built almost OOB – the kit is simple, but has very nice surface details. Fit is mediocre, though, especially the stabilizers puzzled me. The only thing I changed is the propeller; instead of a two blade wood piece I installed a three-bladed alternative (from a Matchbox Provost, coupled with a spinner from an Italeri La-5) for a modernized/different look.

Painting and markings:

This is an individual interpretation of a real aircraft’s paint scheme - I found VERY contradictive sources about the potential paint scheme. MKHL aircraft began to be camouflaged in a three-tone scheme from October of 1938. The upper surfaces received irregular, undulating patches of Green/Grey/Brown, while the undersides were painted light Grey-Blue.

As no specific official camouflage patterns were issued, a wide variety of styles and colors resulted, depending as much on the means available in every case, as on the particular tastes of the maintenance personnel detached to do the job. I also guess that many foreign aircraft like the Italian CR.32s or He 70 reconnaissance bombers simply kept their home countries schemes/colors and were successively re-painted with whatever was at hand.

I based my scheme on a CR.32’s profile in a magazine, and I assume that the print colors are brighter than the real Hungarian aircraft – on other profiles of the same machine it looks as if it was painted in RLM 61, 62, 63 and 65! Anyway, I liked the more saturated colors, so I went for this more decorative option.

The colors I used are Olive Green (RAL 6003 from Modelmaster), Dark Green (FS 34079; Humbrol 116) and Brown (Modelmaster), with Pastel Blue (Humbrol 44) undersides. The latter tone is also found as irregular patches on the upper surfaces, it really looks wild and colorful – esp. in combination with the Hungarian national markings.

Personally, I think that the typical Hungarian paint scheme of the time was just a crude addition of paint on top of the original bare metal/aluminum finish of many aircraft, but pics are difficult to interpret.

A quickie, finished in the course of three evenings and some finishing touches before the fourth day's breakfast - the colors are certainly totally wrong, but it's a whif aircraft after all. ;)

Great day on the water with our friends over at Roswell Marine and Pro Wakeboarder Rusty Malinoski. Rusty hit double ups all day - the man is fearless! Rusty is riding behind his 2020 Mastercraft X-Star. It's an incredible boat that throws a huge wake!

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IG & FB: @rustymalinoski

Learn more about our friends at Roswell Marine at www.roswellmarine.com/

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Another episode of "something's better than nothing" brought to you by Mastercraft Doors from Menards. Because rain was forecast for Sunday, Mom and Dad came over to Omaha on Saturday so that I could have some help replacing my exterior door. I'd heard this Herzog GPS train had an 0400 call at FTD and would be dumping from about Woodbine until it ran out.

Despite only taking a few hours to purchase a new door, remove the old one, install the new one, and grab lunch; we were only able to catch the train as it was pulling into the yard at Council Bluffs. It would have been a perfect day to shoot a rare daylight westbound, but work comes before play. At least my kitchen atmosphere has been vastly improved. And, hey, it isn't often you see a big train like this and the full surf gang in town.

Omnibus Mendez, Compania de Transporte Omnibus Mendez S.A. El dibujo ensena un Aerocoach Mastercraft P-372.

Foto e informacion cortesia de Ramon.

Total chrome front face micro receiver with flexible metal cord that at its end has a square plate. Eigth transistor chassis powered by two mercury batteries type RM-640, now obsolete, wich leak corrosive liquids once exhausted, causing serious damage to the circuit and contacts, so it is very difficult to find in working order.

It came with gift box, soft leather cover, earphone with pouch, clam shell case, service card and instructive.

Taken from the Brady Mountain Public Use Area - Lake Ouachita, Arkansas.

The kit and its assembly:

I am not a big F-16 fan, but in some cases it’s an unavoidable canvas – just like in this case here. This fictional aircraft model (or better: this model of a [yet] fictional F-16 operator) was spawned by two ideas. One was the simple question: what if the Ukraine had after the USSR’s dissolution chosen a stronger attachment to (old) Western forces after the dissolution of the USSSR? And/or: what if the Ukraine had started to procure non-Russian equipment, esp. aircraft? So, what would an Ukrainian F-16 might have looked like, in general but esp. after the Crimea annexation in 2014 when such a scenario had become even more possible?

The other source of inspiration was a picture of an Ukrainian Su-24 with grey digital camouflage, a scheme that was/is also worn by some Su-25s. When I stumbled upon an Authentic Decals sheet for this unique paint scheme that allows to apply the complex and delicate pattern through water-slide transfers, I thought that the relatively “flat” F-16 surface would be an ideal basis to try this stunt?

What sounded like a very simple livery whif on an OOB model turned into a construction nightmare. Originally, this project provided me with a purpose for a dubious Trumpeter F-16 kit that I had bought some years ago – dead cheap, but righteously so. This kit is cruel, the model even has no concrete variant specification and is apparently the re-boxing of a kit from an obscure Chinese company called “Income”. Effectively, the Trumpeter F-16 is a rip-off of Italeri’s quite nice F-16C/D kit – but the Income/Trumpeter clone comes with MUCH deeper engravings esp. on the fuselage that remind a lot of the dreaded Matchbox “trenches”. Everything is rather “soft” and toylike, the clear parts are poor and the (few) decals look like toy stickers (!!!). I’d call it crude, even the instructions are apparently poor scans or photocopies from the Italeri kit, including hints for detail painting with no corresponding reference what colors should be used at all… All that could have been overlooked, but after starting with the kit I could not commit myself to use it any further. It’s rare that I give up because of a kit’s basis!

Next idea to “save” the project’s idea of an Ukrainian F-16 was to dig out a surplus Intech F-16 from the pile, also bought long ago because it was cheap, as conversion fodder. This kit has also been re-released in infinite variations under the Mister-/Mastercraft label. Upon closer inspection this kit turned out to have massive flaws, too, but in different areas from the Trumpeter thing. For instance, the Intech kit’s wings are utterly thick, certainly 1mm thicker than the Trumpeter model’s parts. This does not sound much, but on the really thin F-16 wings and stabilizers this looks really awful! Furthermore, the clear parts had not been fully molded, so I’d have needed a replacement canopy, anyway. Again, I gave up on building…

…until I decided to make the best of this mess and combine the “best” parts from both gimp models, trying to mend the worst flaws to an acceptable level. This led to the glorious kitbashing that this model eventually became! From the Intech kit I took the acceptable fuselage, including cockpit interior, air intake and landing gear, as well as the fin and the weapon pylons. The Trumpeter kit donated its thinner wings and the stabilizers, as well as the much better open exhaust nozzle (there’s an optional closed one, too; the Intech kit only offers an open nozzle, without ANY surface detail at all, it’s just a blank pipe!).

Beyond these basic ingredients, some more donors became necessary: All clear parts from both Intech and Trumpeter kit turned out to be rubbish for various reasons. The decision to build an F-16D two-seater was dictated by the fact that I had a leftover canopy from an Italeri F-16 kit in the donor bank – luckily it fitted well to the Intech kit’s body. Two crewmen from the spares box populate the cockpit and hide the rather basic interior, which was not improved at all. Furthermore, the ordnance came from external sources, too. The characteristic drop tanks with their cut-off tails were also leftover parts from the Italeri F-16, all AAMs come from a Hasegawa weapon set.

Some PSR was necessary to blend the parts from different kits together – thankfully, almost all F-16 kits are constructed in a similar fashion, even though there are small detail differences. In this case, the wings had to be slightly modified to fit onto the Intech fuselage. However, even those parts from the original kit(s) that are supposed to fit, e.g. the fin or the alternative cockpit opening frames for the optional single- and two-seater canopies, do hardly match at all. Horrible.

I rather focused on the model’s exterior, and a personal addition to improve the overall look of the otherwise rather basic/poor model, I added some small blade antennae that were totally missing on either model. Another extra detail are the small static dischargers on the trailing edges, created with thin, heated sprue material. Only small details, but they improve IMHO the model’s look considerably.

www.instagram.com/chriscoxphoto/

We had the pleasure of working with Rusty Malinoski to make this one of a kind #customseadek kit for his 2018 MasterCraft X-Star. Big thanks to our friends at Hyperlite for sending us these photos! Photo: @rodrigosmaps

Find a SeaDek Certified Fabricator or Installer near you at www.seadek.com/customseadek.aspx

Ski Fluid Classic

Polk City, FL