bruce bay

Very excited about this - but c.100 Euro's RRP seems a lot for a 1/48 twin engine aeroplane kit, especially one with only two schemes in the box... I guess that's the prerogative of any manufacturer who knows there's no real competition. Hope someone makes a new tool Marauder soon.

Really beautiful. Stunner.

wow! beautiful!

fantastic! Lovely finish, and a great subject .

looks great! love the hand-painted stripes.

Real cracker that. Love the scheme, and a tidy looking build all round!

And thanks to you all too. Can't take too much credit - as the kit really does most of the work. One particularly nice feature is that the internal passanger compartment is seperate from the 'walls' - so no sink marks to worry about on the inside. I think I will try a Wessex next - got rather fond of this lumpy, ugly machine. Apparently the Italeri Wessex is a good kit.

Looks fantastic - I have wanted one of these for a while, but been put off by the price... But from the looks of this you get a lot to work with!

Looking forward to seeing this come along. Lovely so far. I have one in the stash - and started it... can't remember why I stopped. It's a lovely looking 'plane. Excited to see what you do with this!

Lovely research, story, and build. I am always taken aback by how curvy the Boston is every time I see it.

Thanks to all! Oils really are great to work with. So forgiving - luckily for me. And it's a lovely kit.

Nice - always fun seeing a Spitfire in unusual colourings!

Thanks Malcolm! Yep - it's all OOB, except in the engine - which I added some wiring to, and some coiled wiring too... Only other addition - not that one can really see it is that there's a stack of ammo crates in the hold which were resin aftermarket. The kit's got lots of detail - and nice PE belts and so on. Highly recommended.

This was great fun. Quite a departure for me, and didn't end up the markings or concept it started out as - but I suppose that's fairly typical. It ended up being a vaguely made up early Vietnam Army ship, rather than the Marines one I had in mind. The kit is nice, lots of detail, nice fit, lots of photo etch for grilles and so on. It was painted with Tamiya rattle can olive green before I went to work with yellow, sap green, indian red (nice for dry brushing for that red dust of Vietnam), black, white, and ochre oils. It was great fun. That was all sealed with a brushed coat of Vallejo satin varnish. Thanks for looking! Bruce

jaw-dropping! beautiful build of a very beautiful aircraft.

Thank you Frank! There's not much detail to play with in the aircaft, but that makes it all the more fun to try!

That's a stunner. Got one in the stash, but a little intimidated by the size of the thing! Had no idea how huge they were.

I won't dwell on the kit too much, as I am sure it's been discussed on here by people more authoritative than me. But suffice to say it's a lovely, straightforward, nicely detailed kit. It's also TINY. So a great option for a short, wieldy build. All OOB except some wiring inside - which is even more totally invisible than usual... Kit painted with Tamiya rattle cans - then I played with some dry brushing on raised frameworks, various oil paints - sap green, yellow, burnt umber - to vary the tones. I painted some wood grain and silver on wing roots and used marmite as a mask (maskol dried out). All of that was sealed in with a quickly brushed coat of Vallejo satin varnish. I finally used a thin strip of self adhesive aluminium tape on the cowling, and used some dust pigments on the walk areas of the wings. Thanks for looking! Bruce

OK... It's been a little while since I committed to a WIP. I work in photography (not taking them - as you will no doubt see) - but was researching some Philip Jones Griffiths Vietnam work in the office, which led me back to an amazing, and extremely well-known photo reportage that I had somehow totally forgotten about : Larry Burrows' 'One Ride With Yankee Papa 13'. It was a LIFE cover-story, in which Burrows flew a mission in a Marine CH-34, in 1965. The photos are incredible, Burrows even mounted a camera near the muzzle of the door gunner's M60 to capture images in flight. This all led to me deciding to make a kit of YP-13. I looked around, and it seemed the Gallery Models CH-34 was the best bet, but somewhat unsurprisingly the ARMY and Marine versions are thin on the ground. So I bought the rescue boxing of the same kit, and resigned myself to having to source some aftermarket guns. However - it seems all the parts for all versions are in the kit. It has an M60, something looking alarmingly like a .50cal (?) and even seems to have rocket pods (!) in the parts - something I haven't ever seen on a CH-34... Anyway, helicopters are a long way outside my comfort zone. And this represents a bit of a jump from my usual WW2 focus. Thankfully Burrows' photos essay - which you can see in extended format here: http://time.com/3879815/vietnam-photo-essay-larry-burrows-one-ride-with-yankee-papa-13/ Is full of good (if black and white) reference images of interiors, guns, and the camera set up - which I hope to replicate from scratch if I get that far! The kit looks lovely. Very nicely packaged, delicate parts wrapped in a sort of polystyrene bandage and clear parts in their own hard box. The main crew compartment interior is a separate to the outer skin of the craft - which should I assume eliminate the usual pin mark pains of interiors... I am planning to make this a pretty battered chopper. Lots of dust, dirt, stains, bleaching. Which should be quite fun given the one-colour scheme. Thanks for looking - and to those helicopter experts here - forgive me in advance for the butchery about to commence! Bruce

cracking model!

very nice spit!

That looks fantastic.

That looks fab. And one of my favourite planes too! Inspiring me to give it a go.

One day I will take the plunge. I do love the idea, just fear it will tip me over the edge into full obsession!

Very true. I will look into the AIMS sheet too! Thank you! I give most of the kits I make to the children of friends - and the swastika has been known to knock that system out of line a little!