Well it's just 3 hours until August 1 so I thought I'd kick off the proceedings with my first entry. The aircraft described in the above intro carries a distinctive and impressive camouflage pattern designed to blend in with the autumn landscape. I have just a few reference pics for this rig which should do me fine, though I'd welcome anything else someone might want to provide:
The kit that I will use will be the venerable Zvezda 109F-4 which is arguably the best 1/48 109F kit available today. Here are some pics of the box contents:
The sturdy box (something all manufacturers would do well to copy) reveals many sprues of beautifully detailed parts.
A full engine, complete with separate exhaust stacks, is provided along with some nice, delicate machine guns.
The wing underside displays some fine surface details as well as extensive removable panels with interior rib details though none of this will really be featured in my build.
The wheel wells are impressive. Whereas most manufactures will give you a rudimentary molded detail to close the walls, this kit provides a separate, detailed assembly with lightening holes and simulated fabric covers with webbing.
The clear parts are not the best I`ve seen but are passable. A dip in Future should make these shine. Plenty of spares here!
Black 12 is an F-2 which likely featured the reinforcing strips at the rear fuselage. Fortunately, two tail options are provided including the one I need.
The wheels are nicely molded and should look the part.
More details. All of the control surfaces, leading edge slats, and radiator louvers are separate parts which will allow them to be posed in any position desired, something I wish all manufacturers would do.
Zvezda even went to the trouble to accurately depict the lightening holes in the spinner back plate. Very cool.
One knock against this kit are the decals (at right) which, although they look nice, are reputed to be quite good at refusing to co-operate when applying them to the model. They are supposedly very stiff and do not conform to surface details. I ran into the same thing with my ICM kits so these will likely be binned. On the left is the Eagle Strike decal sheet that features the scheme that I want.
So far, I`ve been able to resist starting this build and am now looking forward to starting on it this weekend.