AIR Modeller - Issue 63 (2015-12 2016-01).pdf

MENGAIRMODELLERDECEMBER/JANUARY2015 DECEMBER/JAN 2015 • £6.50 UK $15.99 www.mengafvmodeller.com 63 BUZZIN’ HORNETChen Zexi brings Hasegawa’s kit up to speed AIR 63 cover_Layout 1 09/11/2015 15:49 Page 1

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1 Meng AIR Modeller welcomes contributions from interested parties, but cannot accept any responsibility for unsolicited material. The contents of this publication including all articles, drawings and photographs originated by AFV Modeller ltd become the publishers copyright under copyright law. Reproduction in any form requires the written consent of the publisher. Whilst every care is taken to avoid mistakes AFV Modeller ltd. cannot be liable in any way for errors or ommissions. Meng AIR Modeller is published Bimonthly by AFV Modeller ltd Old Stables East Moor Stannington Northumberland NE61 6ES Tel: 01670 823648 Fax: 01670 820274 email: david@mengafvmodeller.com Editor and Designer: David Parker Deputy Editor: Mark Neville Sales Director: Keith Smith ISSN 2059-5964 We are now on Facebook, ‘Like’ us to follow what we are doing and follow our build projects. 2 ‘Big Wing’ Ta-152 H1 Zoukei-Mura’s 1:32 kit modelled by Tristan Estoppey. 12 P-40 Warhawk, part 2 Daniel Zambarbide Suárez takes us step-by-step through his 1:32 project. 20 F/A-18C Hasegawa’s 1:48 kit is reworked and detailed by Chen Zexi. 30 Man Overboard! Jaen-Bernard Andre describes his dramatic F-8 diorama. 38 Westland Wessex HU5 Grega Krizman builds and details the 1:48 Italeri kit 48 Air Born New releases. 56 IPMS Hellas 2015 The Editor presents a small photo report from the Greek National Championships held in Athens. 58 F-5E Tiger II Luc van den Ende reworks the veteran 1:32 Hasegawa kit with spectacular results. CONTENTS AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 10/11/2015 12:46 Page 1

2 Z O U K E I - M U R A’ S 1 : 3 2 K I T M O D E L L E D B Y T R I S TA N E S T O P P E Y Ta-152H1 ‘BIG WING’ AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:28 Page 2

3 H aving missed the initial release of Zoukei-Mura's Ta-152H1, now sold-out for some time, I used the so-called "Slipstream Edition" of this gracious airplane. Compared to the initial release, this edition features optional decals for a manga-style black painted aircraft and a well rendered 300l drop tank (unfortunately not the right type of tank and attachment system for an operational Ta- 152). Pieces are moulded in a soft black and silver-grey styrene which might not be to everyone's taste but eventually proved to be comfortable to work with. As usual, I began by detaching from the sprues and carefully cleaning up every piece, a time- consuming task since many of them feature prominent moulding lines and steps. This boring stage is crucial as the typical Zukei-Mura modular assembly sequence requires a rigorous approach to minimize fit issues later in the build (think butterfly effect). AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:28 Page 3

4 Engine Assembly of the liquid-cooled Jumo engine was trouble-free and only a couple of enhancements were made: • My references show that exhaust tips must be flush with the side cowling panels (a noticeable difference with the FW-190D), accordingly the exhaust shrouds rectangular boxes were trimmed-down in order to place them closer to the engine sides. • Once assembled in its mount, some pipes/cables were added to the engine as its rear end is clearly exposed through the open wheel wells. Alclad white aluminium, steel and Tamiya Nato Black (my ubiquitous scale black) were used as base colours. A thin coat of Klear floor polish was sprayed on the black parts for a semi-gloss finish and a coat of flat varnish over the aluminium parts to kill the shine. Details were picked-up with acrylic aluminium paint and weathering was achieved using black and brown washes and a 6B lead pencil. Cockpit The cockpit is not the best area of the kit, both in term of moulding finesse and details. • Both kit seats (with and without moulded harness) are oddly shaped and softly defined so I opted for the bare one and sanded it down to a better shape and scale thickness. The seat attachment points were scratchbuilt out of styrene card and a cushion was sculpted in Miliput. • The harness was cut out of a Verlinden lead foil and photoetched buckles were taken from a HGW set (also used as reference for the straps length/width). Lead is resistant to manipulations and allows the harness to be twisted and bent into natural shapes with great ease. Once in place it was painted with an off- white/sandy colour (but an olive green colour would be appropriate too) and slightly weathered with a brown wash. • The instrument panel is crudely defined and the kit instruments decals poorly printed. In addition, most Airscale instruments decals I was eager to use were much too large for the ZM panel. I sorted this out by sanding flat the dials contours and applied a mix of Airscale and ZM decals. A compromise conveniently hidden below the deep coving. AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:28 Page 4

5 • The kit gunsight was replaced with a Quickboost item, which fit nicely into the coving hole. • The fuel and GM-1 tanks, placed below and behind the cockpit, respectively, are totally invisible but I decided to give them a quick paint job anyway! The cockpit base colour is Tamiya XF-66 German Grey. Chipping was applied using a small piece of foam dipped in Vallejo aluminium acrylic and further weathering was done with black/brown washes as well as with my airbrush loaded with a highly diluted black/brown mix. Assembling Assembling of the main parts started with the multi-parts wings. Despite numerous dry-fits, I ended-up with wide joint lines. Cyanoacrylate glue and Mr. Surfacer were called into the rescue and eventually all engraved details, except the wing root panels, were filled and re-scribed. Once the wings were assembled I gave the model a full rivet job, following the Model Art 336 plan and references pictures. I used the small diameter MDC punch for this task. The provided MDC spacing ruler and Dymo tape were used to keep rivet rows regular and straight. Mr. Surfacer was also required to tone down the predominant kit rivets on the cockpit flanks. Closing the main fuselage halves required some attention, mostly in the upper front area. To make the windscreen sit flush with the fuselage, the width of the portion where it sits was reduced. On the rear end, the mating of the 2-parts tail with the half- fuselages required the locating tabs to be removed, a careful sanding and some AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:28 Page 5

6 plastic card. Mr. Surfacer, wiped-off using Mr Hobby Leveling Thinner to avoid any rivet damage, was used to complete the job. Joining the wings to the fuselage required plastic card, spacers (made from sprue sections) and Mr. Surfacer on both the belly sides and wing roots. Allow yourself plenty of dry fits as this is the most complex assembly stage. Note that the MG tubes must be put in place before gluing their access hatch (MG are included should you want to hatches opened). Unless you choose to leave a side cowling opened, I strongly advise to depart form the assembly guide and glue the engine mount to the upper cowling first. This will make sure the engine and its mount, a crucial element for the assembly of all the other forward elements, are correctly positioned. Once this done, the upper cowling was joined to the fuselage main parts. The lateral cowlings fit perfectly but care must be taken to correctly align the exhausts on both sides. I removed the mesh from the air compressor as this an element added by the Americans on their captured Ta-152H stored at the NASM. Unveiled, the inside of the intake was rebuilt using plastic card and filler. The small cowling bumps at the front of the exhaust shrouds were removed and replaced by a flat piece of plastic card, as observed on the Ta- 152H0 stored at the NASM. The Ta-152H1 might have a small bump at this location but in any case much less pronounced than what which ZM provides. AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:28 Page 6

7 Painting I started by priming the whole model with a good layer of Tamiya TS-30 Spray Aluminium Paint decanted into my airbrush. A few imperfections were corrected at this stage and primer re-sprayed locally. Since main markings were painted, a layer of white was then applied at the wing upper crosses location. Tamiya tape, cut into shape using an Hasegawa decal sheet as a template, was then place at the cross locations. The same process was used for the fuselage numbers and RV bands. Alclad dark aluminium was then sprayed on the wings undersides. Some areas were then oversprayed with lighter shades. Slightly lightened Gunze RLM65 (which was typically used on fabric covered structures) was then sprayed on the rudder and on the ailerons undersides. Note that on some aircrafts, flaps were made out of wood and painted RLM76 or RLM65. Gunze RLM76 was then applied on the fuselage sides and on the underside, following a W2 scheme, i.e. leaving the 2nd half of the wings bare metal. This base colour was slightly reworked with a lighter shade to break uniformity. The swastikas and fuselage crosses were then painted using self- AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:28 Page 7

8 The markings applied and ready to start weathering the model. The exhaust stains are built up gradually in thin layers and then areas of wear and selective cleaning are created with scalpels and micromesh cloth to lift the colour. AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:28 Page 8

made masks. They were painted at this stage since they were partially overpainted with the upper camouflage shades. Starting with the wings, the upper colours were applied freehand with a tight demarcation. After having hesitated for ages, I opted for a RLM81/82 combination, which was the standard camouflage pattern for the TA-152C, and other German aircraft, from November 1944. Gunze RLM83 was used, reworked with touches of dark green, violet and brown to achieve the so-called green variant of RLM81. Gunze RLM82 was slightly darkened. The paint was applied in a slightly uneven manner as a first weathering step. The model then received a couple of coats of Future Floor polish, applied straight from the bottle with my airbrush (to get an overall slightly glossy finish) and then every spot where decals would be applied was oversprayed with a good coat of Tamiya gloss varnish X-22 to obtain an ultra glossy finish, thus eradicating any silvering risk. Decals were applied using a mix of the kit decals and those from and EagleCals sheet. They were then sealed with Tamiya X-22 again. 9 Worn paint on the wing roots is created in the same way. AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:28 Page 9

10 Weathering The exhausts were built up gradually using a 3:1 black/red brown mix using photographic references. A browner mix (2:1 black/brown) was used to indicate dirt on the whole aircraft. Oil stains on the underside were created using a similar mix, in combination with black-brown oil paint applied with a brush. Wing root chipping was done using scalpel blades (mostly a curved one) and micromesh pieces held in self-locking tweezers . The area was then reworked with oil paint and airbrush. Micro-mesh was also used to wear selected parts (cockpit flanks, cowling panels). This is particularly efficient when rivets rows can be exposed, if kept subtle. Finally, a coat of a 1:1 mix of matt and gloss Pébéo varnish was applied. Last bits • The Pitot probe, FuG 16ZY (both whip and direction finding loop antenna) as well as the FuG 25a IFF (the rod under the fuselage) were replaced by steel tubes, wire or fine straps. • Undercarriage position indicators were made out of stretched sprue and painted red. • Antenna wire was made of very fine brass wire. A material that allows the antenna to be coiled like the real thing at attachment points. Isolators are small section of 0.4 mm steel tubes. Conclusion Slow progression, anticipation and plenty of dry fits are the key to obtain the best from Zoukei-Mura's second kit. With its beautiful profile and endless wings, this aircraft won't go unnoticed in your WWII aircraft collection! Oil stains are built up along the belly of the aircraft using these products AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:28 Page 10

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12 Curtiss P-40N WarhawkPART TWO AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:32 Page 12

1:32 MODELLED BY Daniel Zamarbide Suárez To begin the phase of painting, I always begin with the lighter colour or underside colour, which in this case are the same and that is none other than neutral grey (Tamiya XF-53). That colour was mixed with other greys, lighter colours, cream or earthy colours or white in small proportions, varying the tone of neutral gray in each of the panels that will bring more rich colour to be painted with one colour (Pic1). To the top, before you start applying olive green in the wing roots I apply a layer of silver, in my case, I used a Enamel paint type in silver (Tamiya X-11) (Pic 2) after one hour drying, I started applying the olive. One of the most interesting effects of the P-40 is worn weathered paint on the wing roots and for that I did the following: 1 2 3 4 5 Building up the tones of Olive drab on the upper surfaces, leaving the aluminiums paint showing through on the wing roots. Darker Olive drab shading is then applied. 6 7 13 AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:32 Page 13

14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 tracing over the scale copy. The masks were then positioned on the model and the painting began paint applying the colours with the airbrush as you can see in the step by step sequence. The black detail on the eye was added using a fine drawing pen. Now with sand or cream Vallejo acrylics, applied by brush I made small chips, (pic 19-22) especially in the areas of the engine and weapons covers. This was 1) diluted paint until it almost transparent, with a rough mix of these proportions: 90% solvent (Tamiya X-20) + 10% Olive Drab (Tamiya XF-62) 2) Then I applied successive almost transparent layers on the wing root area. 3) As I'm working away from the fuselage to the wing tips, I will thicken the paint mix to stop the degradation of green paint until you just see the metallic undercoat at the roots leaving it as nuanced as possible. At this point, the plane and the basic colour scheme are complete so the next step is degrading the olive green. To do this, I mix the base colour (Olive drab) with different shades of very light brown, cream-colours or sands that give more life to model. This is a rather lengthy process but worth doing as you get as you apply them, various shades for each of the panels. The model greatly improves. The next job is to paint the shark’s mouth on the nose of the aircraft. To do this I made a copy of the mouth to the scale of the plane, and then, with scissors, I cut the teeth and the pattern from masking tape, AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:32 Page 14

21 22 23 repeated in the same way on the undersides but with a clear or pearl grey. I applied a coat of gloss varnish over all surfaces of the model in preparation for applying the decals and I positioned the decals and small stencils before applying another coat of gloss varnish. Now with the glossy surfaces I started the degradation of green and grey with various shades of those colours but this time using oil paints, which after going blending them, they create an appearance of wear and use on the plane and then sealing the entire process with a final layer of matt varnish (Pic 24). 19 20 15 AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:32 Page 15

16 25 26 27 28 24 An interesting effect is adding the fuel stains around the filler located near the cockpit glazing and this was done using the set of AK-Interactive engine oils and grease. A build up of different densities of stains follow the effects of gravity and airflow from the filler point (pic 26). Gloss varnish will add the feel of fresh spills and contrasts perfectly with the matt finish of the rest of the airframe. AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:33 Page 16

17 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Pics 29-30, panel line washes are applied to the underside and blended for a subtle finished effect and deposits of dirt thrown up by the undercarriage are added to the wings around the wheel wells. The exhaust pipes are painted individually starting with a very dark red/brown and then stippling tan and brown shades over this. The details on the exhausts are picked out with a high contrast black wash (pics 31-33). The exhausts are glued into place and pigments are then used to add the exhaust staining to the pipes (pics 34-36). The drop tank was next to be weathered (pics 37-43) beginning with some graphite chips made using a pencil and then a dark wash was applied. Assorted fuel stains were added from the filler cap using different tones of AK Interactive engine wash. Grey oil paint was used to break up the uniform grey paint of the tank before brown dirt washes were applied to the bottom of the tank. The final step was to apply a matt varnish to the tank. AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:33 Page 17

18 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:33 Page 18

19 Finally, following the same steps of painting as used on the fuselage, I finished the landing gear with its covers and wheels. For the wheels, the wheels of the Hasegawa kit have poor detail, especially in the tire tread, so I replaced them with resin tires by Barracuda Studios designed for the P-51 Mustang. I was able to insert the plastic wheel hubs into the tires which required some sanding but with excellent results. After having completed all the exterior parts and the finished aircraft only the final assembly of the detail parts that complete the model, with the last job being to add the antenna cables. Conclusion These 1:32 Hasegawa kits are sensational, fun, simple and very practical to do allowing the modeller to enjoy in all the fields of this beautiful hobby with this type of model. It is a highly recommended kit that does not give you problems and makes you want to build another! Next time it would be one with a skull instead of a shark's mouth! AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:33 Page 19

20 F/A-18CHasegawa’s 1:48 Kit Modelled by Chen Zexi 陈泽熹 F/A-18C Hornet is one of the main fighters of modern U.S Navy. It has great flight performance, climb rate, and is very multifunctional. They have participated in many of the regional conflicts and served as ground attacker and close air support and established an excellent reputation. As a modeller, my favourites subjects are modern jet fighters, so the F/A-18 is definitely one of my greatest loves. In 1:48 scale, Monogram and Hasegawa both have kits which were released at the end of the last century. Comparatively speaking, Hasegawa’s kit has the better shape and details, and also supports various update sets like the Aires cockpit, wheel bays, exhaust nozzles, radar and electronic bays. Wolfpack offer a set of folding wings and a Hornet upgrade set and Eduard have a photoetched detail set all of which enhance the details and accuracy of the model. AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:39 Page 20

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22 Construction I started with the cockpit and I used the Aries replacement resin product which is very accurate and detailed. It is one piece with a tub for the sides and main floor. To get this to fit into the fuselage it was necessary to thin down the kit fuselage walls around the cockpit, which was done using a burr in a mini drill. I painted the cockpit with a light grey to balance the visual effect since it usually looks darker in photos because of poor light. I painted the smaller details with a brush, for example I used 3 and 4 different deep greys for the control panel, which increased the illusion of depth very well. Some parts of the control panel was made from photoetch and film After finishing the detail painting, I applied a dark wash over the cockpit parts and then it was ready to be assembled. The next area I looked at was the radar, for which I used Aires resin parts too. The F/A- 18's radar has a sliding structure which allows service crews to take it out for routine maintenance. Because the Aires radar only shows the surface details before radar is moved out from the fuselage, I planned to add more detail, showing the whole radar when it being serviced. AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:39 Page 22

23 First I cut the front part of radar out carefully, sanded it thin. I used plastic card to build up the rear structure of the radar and I used a knife and hand drill to add wires and rivet details to the radar, and made the cooling grille on the top from PE mesh. Thin plastic card and brass wire was used to make small detail parts on the radar which were made by working from some pictures of the radar from the internet. I spent a couple of days working on the radar and adapting the fuselage and nose cone to accept it. Moving on with the assembly of the rest of the fuselage and adding all the update parts like the avionics bays and wheel bays, I had to cut away the original parts exactly to be the same size as the aftermarket parts. I had to keep cutting and dry fitting the parts and it took me a whole AIR 63 Dec-Jan 2015_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 09/11/2015 15:39 Page 23