Leaderboard

Well the epic build is over - this took forever ( 6 months ), with a 3 month break while I had to source a replacement canopy. Built using the Kit decals (which weren't great being honest), Aires Cockpit which is nice and fits, Eduard External etch set which has some great bits and some pointless bits, Orion vinyl MDC cord which is great if very fiddly and finally HGW Fabric Remove Before Flight tags which are nice. It's a nice kit, but is very fiddly in parts and a bit of a pain to assemble. It's a nice size for a 1/32nd Jet though, not too big. Painted with Gunze Aqueous throughout, weathered with oils and true-earth and pigments. build thread is available here Comments welcomed as always Peter

As featured in this month's edition of Scale Aircraft Modelling. Cheers

This is based on the Model Airways kit, with a lot of scratch built updates. The kit doesn't have a metal cowling, or the 'hump' over the guns that gives the aircraft it's name, so I designed these in 3dsMax, and had them printed out. All the rigging points and cockpit instruments were designed in Photoshop and then made into a photo etch sheet. It took me about 10 month in total, and I'll admit to rushing some things towards the end. But I had fun making it, and I'll probably make another some day. The work in progress thread is here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234925788-116-sopwith-camel/

I have not put much on recently, but I thought I would submit this. It is a conversion using the 1980’s Airfix Lancaster and the DB Lincoln conversion in resin and vacform. I cannot remember what year I bought the conversion, but it must have been in the mid 80’s, so I thought I ought to get round to building it. In the conversion there are new wingtips, engines and nose in resin. A vacformed fuselage extension and outer engine nacelles with clear vacformed mid upper and rear gun turrets, bomb aimers transparency and H2S radome are also provided. The props had to be sourced separately if I recall and came from Aeroclub. Anything else had to be scratch built. This conversion turned out to be a bit of a challenge, partly of my own making. Most of the resin parts fit quite well, but apart from the wing tips everything is a butt joint and I used epoxy resin adhesives and for some parts I used P38 car body filler to fill joints for added strength. I had problems with two areas. The vacformed plug to extend the fuselage is too long (Guess how I found that out!) and the plastic on the outer engine nacelles is very thin. I used the original engine nacelles as a support for the resin engine nacelles and ended up using quite a lot of scrap plastic and filler to give some strength to vacform nacelles. The rudders were kit items with extensions from plastic card and the gun turrets had scratch built interiors suggestive of the real thing. Aeroclub provided the 20mm cannon and the rear 0.5 Brownings came from a Revell B17 being built as a RAF 100 Group Fortress III. The interior had detail added and as so much of the exterior detail was sanded off, a fair amount of secribing of panel lines etc was done. The new taller astrodome was plug moulded and Colin at Freightdog released his treaded Lancaster/Lincoln wheels at jus the right time. They fit well and I think were the easiest part of the build. The markings are from a Kits at War sheet for a 57 Sqn aircraft in 1950 finished in Medium Ses Grey and Black. Apparently at that time nose guns were not fitted (seems to be supported by the photos). The model lacks the exhaust stains which are always present on any photo of Lincolns and will be added shortly.

Hi everyone, Seeing as I`ve finished shifts this week, thought I`d show you some pic`s I`ve took today of a build I did a while back HiPMs 1/48 Mig-19 OOB build except for some work in the undercarriage bays which I detailed with some bits of copper wire as they were completely blank in the kit also carved quite a bit off the rear canopy fairing to get the open canopy to sit better quite a bit of Araldite and filler went into this one but I`m happy with the result Always liked the `Buck Rogers` comic strip look of these and might give the Trumpeter one a go one day Hope you enjoy, Thanks for looking, Russ

Two linked models leaving the bench this month, both Vought Corsairs, both Hasegawa 1/72, but also very different: The first is a Chance Vought F-4U Corsair Mk.1, from the British Delegation at Roosevelt Field, New York in the late summer of 1943. and alongside the rest of my growing fleet of Corsairs: The second is the A-7A Corsair, as used by VA153 US Navy onboard the USS ORISKANY on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin toward the end of the Vietnam war. And alongside the Crusader that I built last month: FredT

Hey folks, this is the Airfix kit built with few modifications (shortened legs, replaced scissor links, wheels, cannon barrels, added spent ammo chutes and ammo boxes, FuG16/25 antennas, etc.); a build report should appear soon in Model Airplane Int. Cheers Libor

Hi everyone! Well, three and a half days of work and my latest model is ready to be used in a new book that will be released by ADH. As you can see, I elected to build the excellent Tamiya 1/72 Mosquito FB.VI, creating a full, step by step guide to it's construction and painting, along the way. Normally, I wouldn't have spent so little time on a model, but I needed a 1/72 build and so had to tackle this one at the last minute. These are some teaser shots that give some idea of the finish that I've applied to this model and the quality of the other models that will feature in what I hope will be, a very exciting addition to ADH's roster of modelling titles. I hope you like it! Spence

Real scheme

Hi The Boeing 767 is a nice plane, especially in the British Airways livery! Revell released there 767 in the 1990's, they included RB211's as an extra sprue. They released one of there kits with British Airways decals, the Gulf Air boxing. The Revell 767 has been out of production for a while now, but it's still knocking about. Your best bet to do a British Airways Boeing 767-300 is finding one of the Revell 767's as they have the correct engines, RB211's. The zvezda boxing doesn't have RB211's, it has CF6's. These power nearly every other 767 in the sky! So your choices are buying a revell 767 and building it out of the box or buying the Zvezda kit and after market engines. Braz models have released 1/144 RB211's for the 767. They are solid resin and will need a bit of work, but they are RB211's. You cant use or even mod the engines from the Zvezda, they are completely different! The RB211's on the 747-400 have different pylons i think. If you can get a set of Revell 767 RB211's you can use them on the zvezda kit, just fill the pylon gap on the wing and glue it on! Anyone who has built a Revell 767 with CF6's will have a spare set of RB211's. The Engines CF6's RB211's The engines are different shapes. The Kits Revell Boxing's Ace Models Boxing Zvezda Boxing Braz Engines http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/BZ4006 Liveries You have plenty of choice when it comes to doing a British Airways Boeing 767-300. You have the Landor, ethnic and chatham tails. Chatham The Current Livery The current livery (with the crest) The Crest - RichW will supply them Ethnic Tails Old Livery Landor Old Livery The Decals Several decal makers have provided the decals for you. If you want the Chatham livery you have a choice between Two Six and RichW. If you want the Landor livery you have Two Six again. Two Six - http://www.twosixdecals.co.uk/epages/62035508.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62035508/Products/STS44178 & http://www.twosixdecals.co.uk/epages/62035508.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62035508/Products/STS44186 RichW - http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/user/7216-richw/ Boeing 767-200! For a short period in the 1990's US Airways operated a couple 767-200's in British Airways livery, these have the CF6 engines, so the engines in the Zvezda and Revell kit will be okay. Although it will require you to shorten the fuselage. The instructions are available on Draw Decals website. The decals for the 767-200 are also available by Draw Decals Draw Decals - http://www.shopdrawdecal.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=44-767-36 Other RB211 767 Options If you decide against doing a British Airways bird there are a couple other 767 operators who have RB211's. These are China Yunnan, China Eastern, Mongolian Airlines, Orient Thai, Saudi Arabian (Leased) and Qantas. Hope this all helps! Thanks Bradley

I greet all. This is my last model, set Eduard 1/48 profipack. Fast and simple job.

Moi? Mistreat a Dalek? Only starved when it came on board. Well treated since...

If you had not guessed already I am planning to fill the neck with resin and again I want to reduce the amount of resin used by partially filling the cavities with old sprue. Here is most of my collection: I did a fit check and found the boxing round the switch was fouling the next section. The easiest way to fix this was to razor saw throught the stepped sector here and scribe and cut out the sides: After the long side was scribed through the surplus could be clicked off: This white hexagonal section sprue does not find many other uses and having flat sides should help it nest together so I chose to use that for the prefilling operation: About an hour and a half later I had had a lot of fun and created this amazing 3D sprue jigsaw: I could then glue on the next neck segment: I used superglue, with hindsight I wished I had used epoxy. One of the main reasons for filling with resin is to get this depression round the neck ring filled solid to better match reality. The other big reason is the stabilise the socket, giving it great strength: After about 20 minutes I checked the joint and it was not quite coming together and the glue was still quite liquid. I have to confess that I had slightly overfilled with sprue and it was preventing the segments form coming together (epoxy would have set by now and it would have sorted the issue). So I placed four milk bottle tops in the centre of the top segment to act as packers and applied this insane clamping arrangement: Incredibly it actually worked. With the glue set I did some electrical continuity tests and marked up what wires were for which LED: You will be relieved to hear that on the electrical front all was fine. In readyness for the forthcoming resin operation this flexible tripod system was devised: I had thought I was out of disposable containers but in court I remembered I had these plastic cups in the kitchen oddments drawer, ideal: There then followed the now routine resin mixing operation. I did not use too much filler to ensure the resin was nice and runny. I mixed exactly the same quantity as for the second base and dome filling affair, one scoup of resin to half a scoup of hardener: I then filled using one of my disposable syringes. When the resin was all used up it had just started to appear round the cut out for the switch box. If I mixed and added any more it would start to overflow so this is a good place to stop resin type operations for the day: Here you can make out the level of the dark resin: And no leaks, I think this is a good result. Here you can see the resin just starting to make an appearance around the socket: Looking for other jobs to do, I filled the dome pivot tube with black Milliput, I was going to make it flat but decided that a pan headed profile would look better, I will sand this to a better shape when it is set: The surplus Milliput (rule of modelling - there is always surplus Milliput) was used to make a better seal around the switch wires: My current thinking is that I should get a small tube of silicone sealant for all those potential leak paths before resin operations resume tomorrow. I did quite a bit of electronic work as well but the photos seem to have disappeared, you have had a lucky escape there. Bye for now, Nigel

Glad you liked the Halibag model fella`s and cheers for saying so,.....it probably looks better on a photo than `in the flesh'! I also meant to mention the Airborne Forces Halifax glider tugs from 38 Group which deployed to North Africa for the invasion of Sicily as these had Mid Stone and Dark Earth upper surfaces too. Some had Tollerton Fairings and some had the new clear nose cone,.....and off the top of my head some may have had faired over nose gun turrets too? Compared to the Airborne Halibags used a year later, the Sicily ones were quite a rag tag bunch with different mods and most if not all had the triangular fins. I love the desert scheme on a bomber, such as the Wimpey seen here; and have plans to build a Ventura Mk.I in this scheme for a magazine article,....having found a lovely photo! All the best Tony O

Hello Folks, Here is my second Hudson finished! Built straight from the box apart from the decals as the codes seemed incorrect and were replaced by some from the spares box instead. I have a feeling that the serial A16-123 my have been proved incorrect for this machine too, I`m still looking into it. Just like my recent RAF Hudson,.....this has to be one of the hardest kits that I have ever built and the eagle eyed amongst you will realise that some of the flap runners are missing,........the model has been sat on and off the shelf of doom for a couple of years and during that time these fragile parts have succumbed to the carpet monster who is unfortunately very prevalent in my house at the moment,,..or is it just my butter fingers? Anyway enough blurb,......it isn`t one of my best but here it is, warts and all,...my Aussie Hudson; [/url] I hope you like it and next up will be a couple of Vengeances,.....which I must crack on and finish, Cheers Tony O PS- Just realised that I lied,.....it isn`t straight from the box as the mid upper turret came from the Revell Halifax kit because it is a more accurate shape than the Italeri turret!

Hi mates, Having not gained any additional common sense from my last resin build, I decided to jump head first into another! This time it's the oft-neglected subject of the Supermarine Scimitar in glorious 1:72 scale, courtesy of the master craftsmen from the Czech Republic, CMR. The Scimitar, of course, was the last fighter to wear the Supermarine name, and the direct descendent of the legendary Walrus, er, Spitfire from WWII. Project: Supermarine Scimitar F.1 Kit: Czech Master Resin (CMR) Supermarine Scimitar F.1 (kit number 221) Scale: 1:72 (The Gentleman's Scale - then why am I here?) Decals: From the kit, representing XD324, 158-R, aboard H.M.S. Ark Royal in June of 1965 Photoetch: Included with the kit, primarily for the cockpit, air brakes, antennae, and wing fold area Vacuform: Two copies included with the kit, and for once I only needed one! Paint: Gunze H333 Extra Dark Sea Grey, H331 Dark Sea Grey, H339 Engine Grey FS16081;Testors 2143 RLM 21 Semi-gloss White, 2038 FS36492, 1168 Flat White; Alclad 101 Aluminum, 115 Stainless Steel, 314 Klear Kote Flat, and a bunch I forgot about. Weathering: Primarily post shading to simulate paint fading and wear, and the assorted stains and hydraulic fluid/oil streaks. I applied a light gray wash to the white underside, and black to the EDSG topside. Improvements/Corrections Just to fix ham-fisted mistakes from bone-headed modeller. Build thread: Link Now that all that nonsense is over, let's see some photos! Edit: The eagle-eyed amongst us will now doubt notice that I've had a bit of a nap and forgotten to add the port wing probe! Yikes! Please read through all the comments towards the end of the thread, and you'll find a photo showing the mysterious appearance of said probe, in its proper place on the port wing. No, not a bit of Photoshop magic, just the silly modeller fixing his mistake! I shot the underside before adding the outer wings and wing braces, since I didn't think I could figure out a way to prop it up when everything was finished! I couldn't resist some shots with her FAA stablemates and with her wing probe attached (in the photo with the Gannet). These photos were originally added in response to posts in this thread, but I figured while I was editing this (to replace the links to Photobucket) I would include them up front as well. It's back to normal (i.e. plastic) for my next build, if you call trying to build a B-24 kit from 1965 normal. Have a look in the Obsolete Kit Group Build every now and then and see how it used to be. You'll never complain about a missing rivet again! Cheers, Bill

I built Italeri's M-24 Chaffee some time ago. I used metal tracks and other detail sets on the tank. The figures are from Tamiya and were painted with Humbrol enamels. The base is from foam board covered with plaster. the tree is an old root from the garden and the wall is built from fragments of plaster. upload an image software screenshot image hosting websites screen grab screenshot utility windows online photo storage prntscr screenshot windows 7 screen capture windows 7 imgurl screen capture windows 7 free upload image hosting no account greenshot download online photo storage Thanks for looking.

Brengun (http://www.brengun.cz/) is to release a 1/72nd Messerspit Mk.V kit - ref.BRP72010. Source: http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=15269 Box art V.P.

Ok, those of us of a certain age will remember the Space 1999 series of the mid seventies, and no doubt clamoured after the Dinky toy Eagle Transporter from the series. I certainly did, as it was and still is my all time favourite science fiction spacecraft. I was mildly surprised to find that the Dinky version was a lurid metallic green as opposed to the more conventional white of the prototype, but that didn't stop this seven year old having a whale of a time in the playground with it. A friend had the Eagle Freighter, which for some reason WAS white, and I was unsuccessful in getting him to swap his Freighter body for my Transporter body. A few years later when I started painting models, I gave my poor old Dinky toy a badly brushed coat of white Airfix enamel in an attempt to bring it closer to the TV version. Eventually it went west as did all my toys from my childhood, and I can't remember who it was passed on to. Fast forward a few decades, and idly perusing ebay one day I found quite a few Dinky Eagles for sale for spares or repair, and thought "why not?" From a couple of auctions I managed to gather enough useable parts to rebuid one Eagle. I actually had the idea of building a better replica with scratchbuilt parts, but as I've recently acquired an Airfix Eagle for an extortionate amount (and guess what's being reissued by Round 2 next month?!) I decided to leave the scratchbuilding for that. I decided to just refurbish a Dinky Eagle instead, but just like the one I wanted as a kid, rather than had. So, I started off with a pile of bits: Which I then soaked in Fairy Power Spray to get rid of the old chipped paint: Good stuff, eh? I gave the metal parts a good going over with white Halford's primer, and then a liberal coating of Halford's Appliance White, as I've heard good things about it and wanted to try it out: Remember I'm not going for accuracy here, or even originality - just giving it a good coating like it would have had in the factory: The engine cluster was given a spray of Plasticote Chrome from an aerosol can, which resembled the original chrome plating on these parts: The passenger pod was given a coat of Appliance White on top: ...and Halford's Satin Black on the underside, as per spec. All this so far and I haven't used my airbrush, only spray cans: With all the red plastic hardware added, it looked pretty original: The main body was then reassembled, as I couldn't resist seeing how it looked: But then I had to do a bit of masking for the cockpit windows: ...and I thought using the airbrush would be easiest for this: After that, the engine bells were added, and the refurb was complete: Ahh, that takes me back... Now, what's next..? Cheers, Dean

Looking at those Italeri F-35 sprue shots in 1/72, and assuming that one day there'll be mainstream (non-Panda) kits of the thing in service, I'm declaring the official end of my interest in the latest military hardware. In my teens, I built 200+ more or less "current" 1/72 aircraft from Hunters and Mirages right through to state of the art Eagles and F-16s. I had a model of every current USN aircraft, and most of the combatants from Israel and her enemies. But now we're not only in the era of boring grey jets, but they're even UGLY boring grey jets. I bought an Academy F-22, but can I be bothered to make it? The last cool jets were the Eagle and Su-27... IMHO. So, in my view, we're officially at "the end of history" for military aircraft. Instead of ten new types a year, we have planes designed to be in service for decades, with software upgrades. Plus they don't even look good... Good job there's plenty of history to go at, and other modelling genres, eh? Bring on the McLaren F1 and Avro Mirage 720, I say... Bestest M.

Here it is. My second refurbed Sabre model. This one is the Hobbycrfat kit and was in RAF 20 Squadron marks. A paint strip, clean up of all parts and reassembly. Then the paintwork and decalling. Leading Edge Models decals used from the most recent set featuring the Sabre in Europe.Strongly recommended for pure quality, quantity and price!! After much decision making, I opted for the 439 Tiger Squadron 23674. The model also had the underwing tank positions moved, the 'sugar scoops' added to the fuselage lower sides and a bit of an undercarriage rebuild.: Note the sugar scoops to the fuselage undersides. This last one the 1/72nd one is alongside a 1/144 version in plain RAF colours. More of this in a follow up post.

Hi all I know I have another thread set up in the WIP section (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234947163-what-ifrnli-had-a-merlin/), but I didn't want to add my research and plans for it in there and clutter it up The base model is going to be the Italeri 1:72nd Merlin HMA.1, makes sense really being the Navy version Hers an idea on the scheme, I think im gonna run with run with question, where are the lights on the outside of the merlin???? im thinking of doing electronics on this too for now, mark

one of those KG 26 machines with (likely 76) blotches and black under surfaces (from the on-line archive of the Preußischer Kultur Besitz )

Here are the pictures. Patrick

Thank you so much for making us aware. I had a PM from Ronnie out of the blue on the 1st August, basically because he and I had exchanged a few conversations in the past, often when he was disposing of his collection and if I thought he might have got his prices out of phase with 'the market' and I had a dig around first to see what this or that was being sold for so that he could adjust his price if he thought he should. Prior to that we had a couple of exchanges on various matters when he had been selling bits and pieces. I was quite moved that he should go to the trouble to contact me and I replied in as positive a way as I could but he was obviously very well aware of his situation but said that he would continue to keep his eye on all of use here. So its sad when his journey comes to an end but, as I said to him, 'Blue Skies' and we can be grateful that he has been part of our hobby. Simon

Another one for my Suez theme. Its the Airfix Vampire T.Mk.11 as a Mk.55 of the Egyptian Airforce. Decals are from the DP Casper op Muskateer set. Even though they're for a single seat version by cutting up the serial numbers I was able to create the correct one for a 2 seater. Seats are Pavla Resin. Painted with Tamiya TS spray.

Nice work, particularly well finished.

No pre-shading there, or weathering in fact.

fantastic build russ,looks great very nice paint and scheme and nice weathering

Hi Pip, Yes definitely best removed! They represent a small flap that popped open to allow the flap actuators sufficient room to deploy the flaps and then closed back down once the flaps were selected up, flush to the surface of the wing. The actual structure is a flat metal plate that is hinged to rotate up and away from the actuator, so really nothing like the little cheese wedge supplied by Airfix! If you look in the same place on the XII you will see these panels engraved. As leaving the flaps down resulted in a CO's interview (i.e. bollocking) and a stiff financial penalty (buying a round in the mess), it was rare to see them open unless, i.e. the airframe was undergoing maintenance on the flaps or immediate area, etc. It always amuses me to see just how many wonderfully made models of the Spitfires have their flaps deployed but not the actuator or its little flap! Happy modelling, Christian the Married and Exiled to Africa (but today it is not raining!)

Test shot pics. Source: http://www.hphmodels.cz/index.php/en/shop-2/produkty-hph-models/modely-v-meritku-1-32/dh.103-hornet-in-scale-1-32-detail V.P.

Regarding the downward facing lights, Dave Brown's book has 1:48 scale drawings which show the lights as well. I definitely recommend that book, it has a wealth of information - although especially the drawings are sometimes quite small. http://www.sampublications.com/books/aviation-guide/mosquito-fb-vi/prod_35.html

That clamping arrangement may have looked insane, but it clearly did the job. Do you sketch out what you intend to do, or keep it all in your head? Fascinating stuff .

The CEO of one the companies we do business with brought a Parrot quadcopter that's controlled by an iPhone to show us. If you're on FB, here's a link to it in action: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=610513785628136&set=vb.174956842517168&type=2&theater We didn't larf at all when he misjudged it and bounced it off one of the lightning spikes on one of our dishes and crashed it!

Annoying when anything like this happens I once bought 2 revell 1/144 airliner kits picking them off the shelf at the same time not noticing anything out of the ordinary the guy in the shop even took each one and scanned the box,got home and one box did,nt even have a kit in it! just decals and instructions,took it back and maybe because i was a regular changed it,pop a wanted add on the site I am sure you will get a response I have given and received decals this way.

And in the absence of any personal modelling progress on this GB (I plan to start at the weekend, honest!) here are some more 1/72md oldies of mine: Revell Ju88C-6 nachtjager Heller Spitfire Mk XVI Airfix 'Grand Slam' Lancaster Matchbox Spitfire Mk IX Matchbox Mosquito PR.XVI The last two are what's been preventing me from participating on this GB thus far! regards, Martin

OK, it's been a while since the last update. That's not to say I haven't been working on the ship. It goes with the territory that sometimes you look at a part you just made and know it could be better...happens a lot actually, but hey you learn, eh? Here's the binnacle. Not sure if it'll do...bit like a starved Dalek... I've also made a pair of 'elm tree pumps' haven't shot them yet. One thing you need a lot of on a ship is ringbolts. At this scale they're pretty small. So this is one way of making them. I've started working on the masts and the bowsprit/jib boom, lots of bits, lots of ringbolts. In this pic they-re being checked for the look of it and a reminder of the overall size of the model ...and here-s the mast top for the foremast. Came out pretty much as I'd hoped. The 'slats' are CA reinforced watercolour paper . easier to cut tiny strips from than wood! Ta for looking!

Built for the Hornet group build. Ace Corporation = Revell mould with different decals Build thread

Been going through an old kit phase recently heres my last three builds posted recently but shown all together here.Airfix DT-A.Heller NN-A and Heller nightfighter.

Very slight update. Had to start on the surgery to replace the front fuselage section. This was the end result. I have always been amazed at how a straight metal blade always seems to make a curved cut whenever I apply it to plastic. The wonders of my nature and talent. Probably explains why my main wood working tool is a belt sander. Anyway, the front section is removed so I can replace it with this. I began with attaching all the innards in one side of the fuselage and that went rather well . . . Until I test fitted the intakes sections. Now the fun and games began. Whittle a little plastic off, sand a bit, test fit. Realize I missed a section, whittle a little, sand a bit, test fit. Stop to consider how much fun I am having as it still doesn't fit right, whittle a little, sand a bit, test fit. I will not be defeated, the intakes will fit flush and the halves will come together without a quarter inch gap. Whittle a little, sand a bit, test fit. Seems to be getting closer, I do note progress. After the better part of an hour, taking my time, it looks like the halves will fit together reasonably well and both of the intakes will fit flush against the fuselage body and not muck up the engine section. My work area looks like a severe case of dandruff has hit with all the little plastic shavings and sanding dust. So a bit of housecleaning is in order since my work desk is actually at work and it is my paralegal's desk (hers is so much cleaner. Seems mine is cluttered up with an overabundance of legal documents that I should be reviewing and/or filing.) So that's it for now. Will join the halves with actual glue tomorrow and wonder why it doesn't fit right and which gremlins came in the night to muck things up.

Just finished this old Heller 1/72 Ouragan yesterday, I bought it off eBay for £6 and I'm hoping to find another to do a Patrouille de France example, not a bad kit at all, quite an easy build, OOB, kit decals and Humbrol paints. IMAG1434 by [email protected], on Flickr IMAG1435 by [email protected], on Flickr

I had two guys come to my house last night and told me if I didn't buy Eduard overtrees by the weekend I'd be in trouble. They knocked my bicycle over as a warning.

With some minor modification the bottom artwork could make an interesting canard/pusher arrangement in the style of Burt Rutan?

Heres some more...

Excellent work. I have a real soft-spot for the Marauder and have acquired the Hasegawa, Airfix, Revell and Matchbox offerings - along with various aftermarket decal sheets.

Shoot ! Really got bogged down with this build. Still asking myself if I really needed to try and build three of them at the same time ? Did I really need to prove to myself that I can't multi-task ? Anyway, got a bit fed up with staring at three white fuselages on the work-bench, so I decided to give myself a KUTA and test drive my home-made decals on the CargOman -55 : Now I know where the demarcation line needs to go on the lower fuselage, I'll strip the decals off and put the replacements on when the paintwork is finished. Onward and upward, hey ? mike

Some modified pictures by my friend Spiton:

Nice Is it me or do those rear cockpit Spits look sort of "Italian"?

Rotors turning the overall length of both aircraft is the same at 30.14 meters but the HC3s fuselage is just over 300 mm longer (15.87 meters against 15.54 meters), I suspect the additional length is the different shape of radar nose. The RAF's HC3 is essentially the same airframe as the US Army's MH47E special operations Chinook which has been kitted by both Italeri and Revell in 1/72nd scale. HTH Richard