MY EFFORTS IN 1/72 SCALE

Basically I build models in 1/48 scale and I have also some 1/32 stuff in my stash. My 1/72 builds are all rather old, exept the Hannover, which I build recently. (text updated in May 2014)

Hannover Cl.IIIa - Airfix 1/72 OOB


I started to build this old Airfix kit years ago. Now I decited to finnish it just for fun and to do an experiment with covering the fuselage with lozenge decal. I used a Pegasus 1/48 sheet for the fuselage and the upper wing mid section. I sprayed some Citadel Regent Blue thinned with Future on the fuselage lozenge. The 1/72 upper and underside 5 colour lozenges are from an ancient Almark sheets I found from my stash. The stork insignias are home made decals and the crosses surplus from Eduard's Junkers J.I.

Junkers J.I - Eduard 1/72


A two seater from Eduard! Nice! I hope they'll release more of them every now and then. I did not have a lot of references for this one, only a bunch of old photos gathered from here and there and Kenneth Munson's good old The Pocket Encyclopaedia of World Aircraft in Colour vol 6. The model looks a lot like the original metal monster of the pictures.(Update on April 4 2004: WRONG!! The tips of the upper wings should not bend down like that!) Eduard's excellent quality and easy to build . Except the upper wing, which is rather tricky to put on its place. The plane's structure is such that even Eduard can't help you! WW1 modeler gets rarely the opportunity to imitate paint worn out from the wings. You seldom see the phenomenon on the old photos of aeroplanes with linen or plywood covered wings. So, once I got the opportunity with a model of on aeroplane with metal wings, I just had to do it. And I ended up to exaggerate badly! Well, there is always the Profipack version of this model to have a second try.... (Update on April 4 2004: ... and correct the wings this time too! Should not be too difficult they say!)

LVG CV - Hit Kit 1/72


They say that inside a rock there is a statue. It just takes a sculptor to dig it out. Inside this lump of plastic, there was a beautiful model. It just took a stubborn modeler to sand it out. Photo etched parts were good, thought, and white metal machine guns reasonable. Instruction sheet was messy and printed with eye watering font. Decal sheets were basically plentiful, there was options for 5 planes, but the black crosses with white edges were all useless. The black printing was far aside from the white one. Luckily I found some spare crosses for the tail and fuselage sides. They're not quite the right size, but definitely better than the kit's own. For the upper wing crosses I used the kit's own white Maltese crosses with thin black 'Balkencreuz' inside and the normal Maltese crosses one on the top of another to make reasonable National insignias. After all this critics, I still think Hit Kit's LVG was worth the money I paid for it (10 Euros only!). After all German two seaters are rare. Mostly you'll get them from Pegasus or resin and vacuform companies. All of them are as laborious to make and at least twice as expensive! I'm quite happy with my painting. It's all made with brush, also the 'airbrush' lines between the camouflage colours. I painted a thin line of 50/50 mix of the green and the mauve between the colours and then obscured it with dry brush!

Anatra DS 'Anasal' - Red Star (Emhar) 1/72


A British label Red Star has re-released the old Emhar Anasal kit. The price is reasonable indeed and the kit is easy to build. Red Star's one sheet instructions are exemplary good and clear. The kit also looks a lot like Anasal. The fuselage behind the observer's cockpit is too long, thought. I took 6 mm away from the tail, so that the model's length is right, if the real plane was 810 cm long excluding the propeller. If the propeller is included - which might be the case - you have to take off 10-11 mm, which is much more laborious, since you have to make the fuselage thinner backwards of the observer's cockpit. The profile of the wings would have needed a bit of correcting, too, and the windshield seems to be slightly too big. I chose this "green beauty" color option for sheer nostalgia. You find it in my dear old The Pocket Encyclopaedia of World Aircraft in Colour vol 6 by Kenneth Munson. For others - however - I'll recommend the clear doped linen version, since the decals are a little bit transparent. The strong green penetrates through, cdl probably won't.

Pfalz D III - Mac Distribution 1/72


One of the earliest efforts of Mac Distribution. Quite nice kit and accurate too, I think. Only the wings seem to be a bit too thick. You don't want to sand them thinner, though, since you'd lose all the details, including the radiators. Easy to build. Only the cabane struts were a bit difficult (very much in the early Toko style!). The kit includes a small plate of photoeched parts, too, but the parts were mostly useless! The decal sheet is good with options for four different planes, but the instructions could have been better. So this is ok, but a look in any box of Mac Distribution's more recent Phönix releases tells you, that the company has improved in all the respects. Roden might be better choice for Pfalz D III in this scale.

Morane-Saulnier I - Eastern Express 1/72


A charming little model from Temek, now re-released by Eastern Express. No big mistakes in this, but a lot of small improvements and detailing can be made. The most obvious place to get some extra detailing is the cockpit, since - on the contrary to other ww1 models of this scale - you can actually see the inside of it! The model offers no cockpit details at all and the walls of the pit are also too thick. I thinned the walls, scratch build an instrument panel and avoided the rest of the detailing by putting in a pilot. He is, by the way, Han Solo himself! He fit in so perfectly, that it seemed to be his destiny to fly this thing! I only put on the flying helmet and the scarf and - harasho! - Han is Ivan. The tail needed also some sanding and the rudder had to be cut off the fin. I replaced the kit's own Vickers with an Aero Club white metal one and made a hole for it trough the 'hut'. I also added exhaust pipes and reworked the whole tail skid. I made new decals for the rudder with my Inkjet on Bare Metal & Foil white decal sheet. The kit's own were almost ok, but the 'smile' of the skull was not wide enough. This is supposed to be the machine of Ivan Smirnov, KAO 19. May the force be with him!

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