This one is for Evan and Mike.

I am sure this is hard work, but it looks fun.

Egregious

What happened here and the way the FBI misled the court ought to result in a lot of agents and officers losing their jobs.  It won’t but it should.

Blackburn Firecrest

I was completely unaware of this aircraft.

Tank porn

This is just mesmerizing.  

Evan strikes again

Surprise, surprise, Evan is building another Stug.  A great video, as usual.

Way cool!

Aussies doing really cool stuff.

That is a lot of tanks

Big, if true.  Story here.

Can the Russians absorb the blow?

Color me skeptical. Story here.

Mummified and Awesome Wiff: Thoughts On Kits Direct From China

As usual Steve has some real insights here.

Sprue Pie With Frets

The golden age of plastic modeling is upon us, and it’s not just that the kits and supplies are better than ever. We modelers also have unprecedented access to hobby products from around the world, thanks to e-commerce.

It’s currently possible, and even advantageous from a consumer cost perspective, to buy kits directly from the countries of origin, if not from directly from foreign manufacturers. Safe, secure e-commerce platforms and increasingly safe and reputable online payment methods make possible purchase of model kits directly from Ukraine, Poland, or China, and at reasonable prices.

Indeed, for certain segments of the new kit market, such as my favorite 1/72 armor, buying direct from China or Ukraine is the most expeditious way to get what are turning out to be the best, most innovative 1/72 styrene kits of military vehicles that have ever been offered, such as those on offer from Ace, IBG…

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The Pearl Harbor Kates (Pt.1)

Because I want to have a Pearl Harbor collection, I recently started a (mostly) out of the box build of the Airfix B5N2 Kate.  Little did I know that the markings of the Kate (particularly the torpedo carrying Kates) was such a confused area.

I figured that, given the many Pearl Harbor photos from the Japanese perspective, that there would be no questions as to the markings of these aircraft.  I was wrong.  Boy, was I wrong.

Let me give you just one example.  The photo below is a frame from a film showing the strikes of the Kido Butai in the Indian Ocean in 1942.  It is a fairly famous series of photos.  

Note that this reference book mis-identifies the aircraft as returning from the Pearl Harbor Strike.  As such there are some decals or marking references that suggest that Fuchida’s aircraft should look like this for Pearl Harbor.  This is not correct.  I believe that is should appear as an unweathered version of this aircraft.  Something like this.

 

Here is another Pearl Harbor strike aircraft. EII-307.  This is a famous one from a series of photos or film still grabs.

This aircraft has been depicted in multiple ways in the Kate references.    Here is one way.

I don’t think this is right.  The Red on the tail does not match the photo.  In addition , I don’t see the two tone green and brown anywhere on the photo.

Here is another reference that depicts the aircraft in the same way.  Frankly, I think it is just copied from the previous reference.

Again, I don’t see evidence of the solid red tail, nor the two tone Brown and green camo.

 

Again, another photo from the same series or stills from the same film of the same aircraft.  Do you see evidence for what is depicted above in the side-views?  I don’t.

I don’t think the tail is red.  I think the center section where the code is painted is solid green.  I think the rest of the tail used to be ame-iro (the taupe color similar to RLM 02 that quickly faded to a gray) and was overpainted in a not totally opaque green.

EII-307 isn’t a torpedo bomber, but I use it to illustrate my position that much of the info on the Pearl Harbor Kates is wrong.

Part 2 follows at some point.