Karls RAF Journey. Pt2.
So Spitfire finished, Pt1 here, learnt not to use Humbrol, stuck it on it's base and it's now in the wee lads room.
Next up a Mustang, these Tamiya kits fall together so the build will be quick. One downside though is the Malcom hood cannot be displayed open, yet the original American spec hood can be. The Malcom hood was insisted on by the RAF as it improved visibility where as the USAF didn't want the small loss of performance, even if it meant pilots having to push their heads against the hoods for combat and even take off and landings. Though when you look at later marks it becomes obvious that the Americans did see the benefits of the bubbles after all.
I may get a vac form canopy so I can display the hood slid back.

This kit was actually bought of eBay and arrived with an unusable decal sheet, so a new set of decals was sourced, all Polish pilots, though strictly speaking the PAF retained it's independance it did fight under RAF command, some 14 thousand personel forming 15 squadrons. To assist integration technical manuals had been translated and English lesson also provided. By all accounts they fought extremely well and even the ground crews maintained a very high level of aircraft servicability, so this is my small nod of appreciation.

I picked up the Eduard prepainted cockpit set, but the colours do seem a bit off here, the interiors seem to be chromate yellow, not the usual green and in my small bit of research I've found nothing to support this. (And looking on Eduards website the set appears green and the belts more vibrant, maybe some UV bleaching has happened.) And a mask set too, though this doesn't cover the malcom hood that will be easy enough to deal with.
So Spitfire finished, Pt1 here, learnt not to use Humbrol, stuck it on it's base and it's now in the wee lads room.
Next up a Mustang, these Tamiya kits fall together so the build will be quick. One downside though is the Malcom hood cannot be displayed open, yet the original American spec hood can be. The Malcom hood was insisted on by the RAF as it improved visibility where as the USAF didn't want the small loss of performance, even if it meant pilots having to push their heads against the hoods for combat and even take off and landings. Though when you look at later marks it becomes obvious that the Americans did see the benefits of the bubbles after all.
I may get a vac form canopy so I can display the hood slid back.
This kit was actually bought of eBay and arrived with an unusable decal sheet, so a new set of decals was sourced, all Polish pilots, though strictly speaking the PAF retained it's independance it did fight under RAF command, some 14 thousand personel forming 15 squadrons. To assist integration technical manuals had been translated and English lesson also provided. By all accounts they fought extremely well and even the ground crews maintained a very high level of aircraft servicability, so this is my small nod of appreciation.
I picked up the Eduard prepainted cockpit set, but the colours do seem a bit off here, the interiors seem to be chromate yellow, not the usual green and in my small bit of research I've found nothing to support this. (And looking on Eduards website the set appears green and the belts more vibrant, maybe some UV bleaching has happened.) And a mask set too, though this doesn't cover the malcom hood that will be easy enough to deal with.
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