New Purchase - RetroWings and Freightdog Model parts.

 So I said I would post some pictures of these resin parts, I've tried to give them a little wash, but the only wash I have is a light grey.  Hopefully you can see some details on them.  Onto the pictures.

   First up is the "Freightdog 1/144th Tornado GR.1/1A Gulf War weapons set pack".  You can see 3 LRMTS pods, one TILAD pod, IR Line Scanner and two JP233's. I love the details on the JP233's, altho one thing I am not too sure on, is the fact that the Tornado had a TILAD pod.  I know towards the start of the war, the Tornados had a Blackburn Buccaneer buddie who designated the targets for the Tornados.  Which pretty much turned the Tornado into a bomb-truck.  Will have to check up on that one.  Ironically enough, I read the other month that the RSAF is planning on doing the same thing with their Typhoons, using them as bomb trucks and using the Tornado as the designator.  Might do some kind of diaorama at some stage with that in mind.

   Hawker Hunter cockpit, lots of flash here, will have to be careful of what I cut away and what I dont.  The chair is well detailed tho.

   The Hawker Hunter's cockpit again but this time you can see the business end of it.  Looks likes fun to paint this lot. 

   Front end of the A-6 Intruder, hope you can see the details in it.  Once again the chairs look cool, look forward to painting these.  Will knacker my eyes out tho.

   The "Office" for the A-6 again, lots of detail there.  Very impressed with these :)

   New nozzles and intakes for the Revell A-10, not much here to look at, SYSIWYG.

   Cockpit kit for the Revell ECR Tornado, very cool, even got the holders/arms for the HUD.  Gonna have to find some thin clear plastic for those.  Still lots of bits to paint up again.

   Tried to get a better shot of the cockpit, hope you can see the details.

   This time a close up of the chairs and my left hand.  Loving the chairs, lots of detail to bring out on them.  You can see the HUD holder better here.

   Dragon Tornado set, pretty much the same as the Revell one, just a darker resin.  Still will have fun painting this bugger.

   Close up of the Navigators (back-seater) console.  That bit glues onto the plain flat bit you can see in the cockpit tub.

   Same kit again with a close up of the cockpit tub, lots more details to paint up there.  Hoping I can bring out the details in this one.  Might see if any of the decals can be used on here.  Probably not tho.

  This is the set I got for the F-18 "legacy" models.  Now that I have the model, I am rethinking if I want to cut it up or not.  I'm thinking not and getting another Hornet to cut up instead. Lots of details in the wing tips and the elevators too  Got the flaps and slats as well as the control surfaces for the rudders.  Might be a good addition if I can EVER get a carrier deck.

  Hope you can actually see the details in that lot.  I tried to get as close as my camera would allow.

  Peace!

  Dazz

RetroWings/Freightdog bits and bobs

  After speaking with Ant Sized Man (check out his blog, the dude has serious skills!) about some resin parts he has received for his models.  I think it was a cockpit tub for an F6 Hellcat, a beautiful plane btw, but back to topic.  I decided to get some parts for some of my models, haven't really looked at them yet but pictures and a little about them.  Oh the links below will take you to the actual items.

   Got the A-10 Intake Lips and Exhaust Covers as I will be starting it soon and thought why the hell not.  The prices are very good with Retro Wings so why the hell not?  The Tornado cockpit was bought for the Dragon model, which the cockpit from that model is shocking!

   Not too sure how bad the Revell Tornado's cockpit is actually, just added this to the list because I could :P The same can be said for the Hawker Hunters cockpit too.

   Now the A-6's cockpit is a disgrace, almost as bad as the Dragons Tornado.  So this was a must if I wanted to make that cool plane.  The LRMTS pods where added to the list because I wanted to make a few GR1's.  There is something else to add to that plan below :)

  Got this one because it looked cool and I am bound to pick up an Legacy F-18 at some point looks like it'll be some fun work to get these parts on but I am willing to try it.

 
  Saw these Tornado JP233's for sale on Freightdog Models, these will fit in perfectly with my Kits-World decals and the various Tornados I have.  The timing for these couldn't of been better.  I hope they release more stuff for the 1/144 scale in due course.

  I'll try to get a wash on them and show the details they have in due course.

  PEACE!

  Dazz

New models 1/144 and 1/72

  Me and Nat went out to Lakeside the other day, first time in ages and we had Wagamamas... yum yum.  Anyhow I always go into Modelzone to check out what they have and usually I try to sneak out with a model that Nat hasn't noticed that I have picked up :P  Well we went in there and I was on the look out for a new E-2C Hawkeye as mine has fubar'd up.  I might be able to recover it but I am not in the mood for it right now.  Well I spotted this instead, Nat told me to get it as it's not a "little fart arse thing"... anyhow below is what I got.

  I love the look of this plane, looks mean and it's a European theater plane too, which wins point for me as I saw the Battle of Britain's Memorial Flight C-47 Dakota fly over the other day.  Such a beautiful plane, anyhow it was in the colours of the D-Day landings and I was kinda inspired by it

  I also got these 3 in the post from Ebay, I did order an EA-18G Growler too but I am waiting for that to turn up.  Anyhow I was looking through the kits and I had brain storm concerning the two models below.

  Now these two both had nothing but Air-to-Air missiles in it, I wanted to do something different.  Then when I was researching the Tornado GR4 (Below)...

 It comes with 4 Storm Shadows, as you can see on the box art, there is two Storm Shadows on the wing plyons.  As far as I am aware that would hardly ever get used, its very rare to see a Tornado without the fuel tanks on that station.  I have only ever seen a Tornado without a fuel tank when it was on QRA or parked up.  But I know the Storm Shadow can be put there so technically it's not wrong, just odd.  Anyhow, while researching where they went I saw that the Storm Shadow is used on the Dassault Rafale and the Typhoon FGR4, and I had an idea once I saw the GBU-10/GBU-12's in the kit.  I am gonna turn my Typhoon into an FGR4 and the Tomcat will be turned into a Bombcat.  As far as I can see there wont be that much to do to either models.  The Bombcat put it's bombs where the AIM-54 Pheonix goes (the wiki picture demonstrates this perfectly) and there is some Mk.84 "dumb" bombs in the kit too.  The Typhoon FGR4 is easier, I just gotta find the right pylons to put the bombs on, now I can either have 6 GBU's on the wings, 4 GBU's and 2 Storm Shadows or a mixture with the "Supersonic" Fuel tanks.  I liked the look of the fuel tanks so I am going to go with that.  Now one part that was missing was the LITENING or TIALD pods for the Bombcat, I'll have to find out which it used but that problem was solved by the next kit...

 
  What do you see on the inner-most plyon?  A LITENING pod... well I think it's a LITENING pod, I gotta check that up, but still as I only bought this kit for the decals and the weapons.  I think I am sorted here.  I got the spare Sidewinders too.  Now part 3 of this weapon mix up.  I've got these pictures of an F-18 that I think looks cool...

 Or

  Now, the top one from what I can see has 8 ARMAAMs (AIM-120) possibly 10 with 2 in the body recess with two Sparrow AIM-7's and two Sidewinder AIM-9's.  And the bottom one has 6 AIM-120's with 2 Sidewinders.  Now I dont think these are viable load outs because as usual carrier aircraft usually have extra tanks on.  But it looks cool, so I am going to use the missiles I have left over from the Tomcat and the Typhoon and use them on the F-18.  Cool idea no?  I also got this model turn up...

  I have always had respect for the pilots of this aircraft and the amount of bombs this thing could carry was ridiculous.  I'll make one as the A-6E but I might try to make the other one into a Prowler, I'm sure that Retro-wings do a conversion will look into it.

  For people who like to read I purchased this...

 I was a little disappointed with this book, I thought it was going to be a book about the actual "fights" of the war day-by-day kinda thing but it describes what planes where involved and the paint they had on them instead with a little of the history behind it.  I likes this one tho, there is a few Pumas in it and I have an 1/144 Puma awaiting some loving care, I might get some ideas from this.

  More ideas as and when they come to me...

  PEACE!

  Dazz