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Or a teeny, tiny triangle! Less affectionately, this was known as the Black Widowmaker. Charming. It had a short life, crashing three weeks after its first flight. Fortunately, the test pilot "Ben" Gunn managed to eject safely first (in the process gaining the dubious honour of becoming the first person to successfully eject from a delta wing aircraft). That's him on the right. Looks pretty unflappable to me. He was a Spitfire and then a Tempest pilot during the war and shot down the last V1 of the war over the South Downs so I guess you could say it figures. Also - somewhat unusually for a test pilot from the 1950s - he lived to the ripe old age of 76. He wrote a memoir which I'm trying to track down. This is the Boulton-Paul P.120, the last aircraft that Boulton-Paul designed and built and an evolution of the outwardly very similar P.111 (the main change is in the tail). Both the P.120 and P.111 were testbeds, designed to evaluate different delta wing configurations at various speeds. The P.111 was very tricky to fly because of its power-operated controls gave the pilot little feedback. This was sort of resolved in the P.120, after the controls were spring-loaded - it was a bit more docile but retained some unpredictable handling quirks that could not be ironed out. In preparation for the 1952 Farnborough Airshow this was repainted from its natural metal finish to this sharkish black and yellow livery, though it crashed and was destroyed before the airshow took place. This is the 144th.co.uk kit and it's a little beauty. Resin and removing the parts from the casting blocks takes a bit of time and care, but the overall fit is really good and it's a pretty simple build. I am ashamed to say I started this way back in 2019, and it has sat dormant in its box over various house moves ever since. The reason was that the kit does not have a transparent canopy (but it does have a separate solid resin one) and I stubbornly wanted one... so I made a smash-moulded one which I fitted earlier this week after years of procrastination. I believe it was worth the effort and am frankly delighted with the results - now scratching my head wondering why I kept putting this back in the box again. After that it was a simple question of masking the canopy and painting the whole thing black. The decals are superb - really, really nice. I think they are printed by either Cartograf or Fantasy Printshop and are very sharp and vivid. I replaced the thick undercarriage doors with plasticard and added some aerials and pitots from scratch. But that's about it. A quick build that I just took an appallingly long time over. I've started the P.111a so that should join this in - oh - 3-5 years too. Finally with another, larger British triangle... Thanks very much for looking! Angus

Here is the other of my first kits of the year, finished during this week simultaneously with the Airfix Buffalo. I had hoped to finish both before year's end but I didn't make it. It's F-toys 1:144 Brewster B-339C Buffalo finished as B-3110 flown by Kapt van Helsdingen of 2 Vliegtuig Groep V, Netherlands East Indies Army Air Corps (ML-KNIL), Singapore, in January 1942. It is basically a repaint and rebuild of a pre-painted Gashapon snap-fit kit with a few improvements. The partially-assembled parts were taken apart and all of the main parts were left in alcohol for a while after which removing the paint was quite easy. I made some modifications in the cockpit. Dutch B-339s didn't have a headrest so I cut it off. There was a gap between the seat and the rear cockpit decking (for the canopy tabs). I filled the space with scrap resin leaving space for the canopy tabs on the sides. I scratchbuilt a roll bar from stretched sprue. The propeller was completely replaced from spare parts from Mark I Models kits and is a great improvement over the F-toys part which has seriously undersized blades. Another missing detail I added was the small mast on the tail fin. The Dutch aircraft had a different radio wire arrangement with the middle wire in front of the cockpit rather than behind. The colours of the F-toys kit were awful and way off. From various sources, it seems these machines were painted with US colours so I painted the kit with US Medium Green 42 and US Olive Drab 41 (Aircraft Colors range). I really like this scheme! The kit was fully brush painted and varnished. I'll be repeating this scheme on a captured IJAAF B-339D from one of the Mark I Models boxing I'll be starting this weekend. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome. Miguel

Dear fellow modellers, I would like to show you my latest finished model. I built it for a competition/Group build in a german modelling forum with this year's subject "French aircraft". I used the vacu kit by Welsh models. Unfortunately the decals fell apart when I tried to apply them and so I used decals from F-RSIN, which are more accurate anyway. There is no provision in the kit to show the clamshell doors in the opened position, so I modelled all the interior structures from scratch. The model is painted with Gunze Mr. Hobby white and Vallejo Aluminium with True Metal polishing paste. The wire antenna is made from Uschi van der Rosten rigging. Hope you like it! cheers, Norbert

Here is my latest kit, finished earlier this week. It's Kami de Korokoro's 1:144 Brewster F2A-3P Buffalo finished as "MF-17", BuNo 01521, flown by 2nd Lt Charles M. Kunz, of VMF-221, USMC, on June 4th, 1942, during the Battle of Midway. He shot down two Japanese aircraft and was one of only three F2A-3s to return to base, despite being wounded and with the aircraft damaged from enemy fire. This was a poorly-moulded resin kit. I opened up the cockpit and corrected the rear shelf, adding scratchbuilt details. I removed the framing from the middle of the main canopy as this variant didn't have it. The engine cowling, propeller and tail wheel were lost causes and I replaced them with spare parts from a Mark I Buffalo kit. I had to modify the propeller since this variant didn't use a spinner. The radio masts and wires and the wing pitot were made from stretched sprue. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. The kit's decals were useless and anyhow I wanted a Midway machine so I used the markings from a Warbird Decals sheet and the code, minus the "M" which was painted, from one of the Mark I Buffalo boxings. Although far from perfect, I am pleased I managed to make something rather decent from what came in the bag. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome. Miguel

Just a quick build of Bandais 1:144 Tie Fighter crashed on a desert planet, undamaged solar panels scavenged for scrap.

Here is my latest kit, finished this past weekend after just over 2 months. It's Anigrand Craftswork's 1:144 Blohm & Voss Bv 222 V7 Wiking. This was the seventh prototype but the first of the C-series with diesel-powered Jumo 207C inline engines. It's first flight was on 1 April, 1943 and it was scuttled by its crew at the end of the war. This resin kit was built mostly OOB. I opened up the porthole-type windows which were represented as panel lines and filled them with Kristal Klear. I strengthened the join at the wing roots making a spar through the fuselage in front of the tab and using screws as rods behind. I also added some details in the cockpit, correcting the seats and making the steering wheels, although little can be seen! Other details added were the wingtip lights (Kristal Klear drops) and the radio wires (stretched sprue). The base/cradle was made from bits and rods of wood I had. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Thanks for looking and, as usual, all comments are welcome. Miguel

Aviation Traders Limited Carvair. 1:144 Roden kit with Classic-airlines.com decals. The Carvair was developed to replace the Bristol Freighters used to transport cars & passengers across the English Channel to France, hence its name (Car-via-air). Modified from C-54/DC-4 airframes it was considerably cheaper than an all new aircraft would have been. The modifications consisted of a completely new forward fuselage, relocating the cockpit on top, much like the later Boeing 747, and a new tail fin to counter it. Its has been widely thought that the fin was from a DC-7, but apparently this is not true, they were new build units. The Roden kit build very well, although I did have to shim the upper inboard wings to avoid a gap where they meet the fuselage. The main gear legs were way too short, initially resulting in the rear of the fuselage almost touching the ground. I removed them and inserted a platform about 4mm deep to attach the legs to, in order to achieve the 'sit' you see here. I wasn't too keen on the kit supplied colour scheme for British Air Ferries, but found this 'British United' scheme at Classic-airlines.com, which I really like. There are also several others available. They are laser printed on constant film, so you have to cut each subject out individually. I can heartily recommend them though, they went on superbly and were easy to use. Enough chat, time for the photos (ugly innit?) ; 'With something else - an easy choice - A Welsh Models Bristol Freighter. Thanks for looking, John

Here is the second kit of my Twin Spitfire project which has kept me busy these past two months and my personal favourite: Supermarine Twin Spitfire PR.II "T" of RAF No 541 Sqn based in the UK during summer 1945. The first prototypes of the Twin Spitfire didn't take long to show the potential of the design and requests were immediately made for a photo-recce variant but with some changes with respect to the planned initial fighter configuration. The most notable was the cockpit on the starboard side mainly for navigation although both crew members would end up being pilots, and the outer tailplanes which improved flight at high altitude. Due to the high degree of communality with the standard Spitfire F.XIVe, the changes were easy to make. The loss of extra fuel tanks in the starboard fuselage was compensated by extra tanks in the weapons section of the central main wing since the variant was unarmed. Various external tanks were tested and the type could actually carry up to three but a fortuitous event when one Twin Spitfire was fitted with a P-47's belly tank revealed this to offer the best performance and so this became the usual fit. The PR.II actually entered service before the F.I when three machines joined 541 Sqn in April 1945. The type's exceptional performance combined with its array of 6 cameras (4 vertical and two sideways (on opposite sides)) made it a formidable photo-recce asset, eluding the Luftwaffe with complete impunity until early 1946. For more general information of this project please see the first post (if you haven't already): It's a conversion using two Mark I Models 1:144 Spitfire XIV/XVIIIs and adding the central main and tail wings. Otherwise the build was mostly OOB. I opened up the camera ports and glazed them with Kristal Klear. I made the whip antenna and underwing pitot from stretched sprue. I scratchbuilt a pylon and used a drop tank from a Platz P-47 kit as it was the only one I had available that looked right. The decals came from various sources and the kit was fully painted and varnished by brush. Personally, I think this one looks fantastic and it came out much better than I imagined. Many thanks for looking and all comments a welcome Miguel

Here is my latest kit, the first of a project I have been working on for over 2 months. Supermarine Twin Spitfire F.I The original concept in service with No 11 Sqn, based in the UK in summer 1945, using the type as a "high-speed" interceptor and long-range escort, especially for the Mosquito which was starting to become vulnerable to new Luftwaffe types. Operational use quickly revealed the limitations of the one-cockpit concept and its poor visibility on the starboard side leading to the two-cockpit layout being definite in the next variants. Production of the F.I variant was short due to this. Earlier this year, I found the picture below in Pinterest which led to the "what-if" article in Hushkit.net (https://hushkit.net/2012/06/29/the-ultimate-what-if-siamese-supermarine-the-twin-spitfire/). I found the concept interesting and the idea of making one in kit form went on growing until I finally decided to get on with it. The problem is I found more ideas on the concept, mainly at https://www.strijdbewijs.nl/birds/spitfire/secret/spitproject.htm. As a result, this project expanded from making one kit to three with different configurations. This project was definitely going to be in 1:144 and, although there are no Spitfire F.21s in this scale, I decided to use Mark I Models' Spitfire XIV/XVIII kits rather than Eduard's Spitfire IX kits or F-toys' Griffon Spitfires as they were more readily available to buy and I think the bubbletop Griffon-engined Spitfire looks best for this project. I built the basic kits more-or-less from the box, cutting off opposite main wings and covering the cockpit on the starboard fuselage. The outer tailplanes were omitted and the holes covered. I used the smaller of the two types of rudder available in the kits. A central wing section and tailplane were made from pieces in my spares box. The central gun barrels came from other wings and from a rod in the spares box. The Mark I kit has some fit issues and the worst that didn't quite come out right was the propeller. Getting everything true was tricky and I wasn't 100% successful but it looks the part. The spine whip antenna and the underwing pitot were made from stretched sprue. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. I used the decals from the Mark I kits. The Sky letters and bands were too green and vivid so I had to overpaint them. Despite some problems and the tricky build, this project was fun and the end result was worth it. I think it looks fantastic though the second one looks better. I'll be posting the others as soon as I have the photos ready and time to post them. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome, as usual. Miguel

Here is the third kit of my Twin Spitfire 3-kit project: Supermarine Twin Spitfire FB.III "M" of RAF No 135 Sqn based in India in November 1945. Once the Twin Spitfire had entered service in the fighter and reconnaissance roles, its use for attack was tested and the results were promising. With the need to replace the P-47s in SEAC with something with more speed and punch, the FB.III was quickly developed. Since the emphasis was in low-level performance, the wings were clipped and the central tailplane replaced by standard Spitfire tailplanes on the inside. By now the twin cockpit layout had become definite. Most of the sub-type's production was sent to India and they started entering service in early October 1945. Even with a full load of two drop tanks and four bombs, the FB.III was much faster and more agile than the P-47 it replaced and delivered a considerable punch in fast attack missions, acquitting itself quite well against the latest Japanese fighters in the theatre. In fact, the impact of the type was such that the Japanese sent some of their very latest fighter designs to the theatre and although a couple were indeed superior, there were too few of them and losses inflicted on the Twin Spitfire were fortunately much less than they could have been. For more general information of this project please see the first post (if you haven't already): It's a conversion using two Mark I Models 1:144 Spitfire XIV/XVIIIs and adding the central main wing only in this case and, unlike the other two, leaving the standard tailplanes. Otherwise the build was mostly OOB. This time I also decided to make it with clipped wings. The only Allied WW2 bombs I had available in this scale were in Platz P-47 kits so I pinched them from there as well as the outer pylons. The other pylons were scratchbuilt. I made the torpedo-type drop tanks similar to those actually use by Spitfires from the kits' sprues. As with the other two, the whip antennae and the underwing pitot were added from stretched sprue. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. I used the decals from the Mark I kits. Thanks for looking and, as usual, all comments are welcome Miguel

I started this project in a Group Build of French aircraft in a German Flugzeugforum and today it is finished. The Nord 262 is a small commuter Aircraft which entered service in 1964. The kit is a typical Resin kit by F-RSIN with not much detail and some sanding and filling work required. Antennae, rudder levers and the typical pitot tubes had to be scratch built. Two Decal versions are provided and as I found both of them attractive, I attached both. In reality these are TWO aircraft. I hope you like this little french aircraft in service with a french airline. Thanks for watching! Norbert

I would like to show you my recently finished model. The XB-70 was capable of flying Mach 3. Only two were built, one was destroyed after a collision with a Chase F-104. The other one is on exhibit in the USAF Museum in Dayton. The kit is qualitywise on the lower part of the scale. It is a has a lot of air bubbles, some of them on the edges, so it is hard to correct them. But it is the only game in town. Typical for the XB-70 on the ground is the position of the ailerons. The are not aligned but all in a different position hanging down. Also the colour of the tyres is unique, as they have to withstand the high temperatures at high speeds. The landing gear doors were too thick and I replaced them with thin plastic sheet. No big deal. hope you enjoy this white beauty!

The Great Lakes XSG-1 needs no introduction is about as obscure as you can get and exactly the sort of thing that fascinates me. A single prototype scout seaplane from the early-1930s (designed to spot the fall of shot for the big battleships and cruisers), it is surely one of the ugliest flying machines ever designed - and a total, dismal failure. Its history actually reads like an elaborate practical joke - or the long-lost plot to a Laurel and Hardy film. It is partly its looks - as if the designers tried really, really very hard indeed to think of all the possible ways to introduce drag on an airframe. To me it looks One measure Grumman Duck, One measure Republic Seabee, both shaken and stirred, then mangled a tad - and finally served tepid, with a fresh slice of Heath Robinson. But it's definitely one of those instances where you actually can judge a book by its cover - performance was feeble: it was underpowered, heavy on the controls, aerodynamically unstable and, to cap it all, slower than its contractual guaranteed speed. But spare a thought for the gunner too - if this had ever been attacked by an enemy fighter he would have had to reach outside the aircraft to lift the machine gun from its stowage point in order to fit it to the cumbersome rack mounting in his compartment. IF he managed all this without dropping the gun into the slipstream or being whipped overboard himself, he had virtually no field of fire so could do precious little to actually defend against the enemy! At least his bailout (by the looks of things he'd just have to let go and gravity would do the rest) was easier than the pilot, who would have had to negotiate a thicket of cabane struts before leaping into the slipstream while attempting to clear the colossal tailplane mitt bracing wires. Then there's its first water handling tests where, among other things, the spray was so appalling that it nearly blinded the pilot, the observer/gunner compartment started filling up with water and nearly drowned him (but with no intercom or link to the upper cockpit, the poor man couldn't alert the pilot to his plight - though I imagine he banged wanly on the cabin walls - he did survive) and finally the engine drowned. All in all, the whole testing experience seems to have been about as relaxing as trying to give a Bengal tiger a vasectomy with a pair of nail clippers. And all this from the company that produced just the year prior one of the prettiest and sweet-handling US biplanes ever designed (in my meagre opinion)... If the XSG-1 was a prank, it was a ruddy marvellous one if you ask me. Sadly, I can find no evidence that it was. The kit comes with the Anigrand Sikorsky XPBS-1 (which I finished last year). It's fantastic to have a kit of something as bizarre and unusual, especially in 1:144 - one of the many reasons I love this scale. The build itself provided no major challenges - there's a build thread here if you're interested. I replaced most of the kit struts with plasticard which had a better scale fitness (I also removed one of the inner struts which should not have been there and added a handful more that Anigrand omitted). I added some other bits like the .30 cal gun and thinned down a few other bits to give them a better scale look. Paints were Hataka. I replaced the insignia with some thinner ones from the spares box (the Anigrand ones are very thick). Rigging was with Uschi VanderRosten thread. There are definitely compromises in here in the name of structural integrity. Given infinite time and patience I would have replaced the W strut on the forward fuselage with something daintier - I feared doing so would jeopardise whatever it was that was holding the upper wing on. Same deal with the floats - the rear struts I left alone as they provided the strength, the forward struts are prettier stretched sprue but merely decorative. I would also have filled the exaggerated rib lines scored into the wings. Inevitably all these things are much more evident in photos than in the flesh. But anyway. I am basically really happy with this. Anigrand also do a 1:72 kit of this aircraft if you find yourself with a sudden passion to build one yourself. Not a great deal more to say. A fun build and a good challenge. And with a somewhat more successful water bird that first flew just a couple of years after this - incidentally the same year that Great Lakes Aircraft Company went bust. Thanks very much for looking. Angus

I would like to show you my recently finished model. The XB-70 was capable of flying Mach 3. Only two were built, one was destroyed after a collision with a Chase F-104. The other one is on exhibit in the USAF Museum in Dayton. The kit is qualitywise on the lower part of the scale. It is a has a lot of air bubbles, some of them on the edges, so it is hard to correct them. But it is the only game in town. Typical for the XB-70 on the ground is the position of the ailerons. The are not aligned but all in a different position hanging down. Also the colour of the tyres is unique, as they have to withstand the high temperatures at high speeds. The landing gear doors were too thick and I replaced them with thin plastic sheet. No big deal. hope you enjoy this white beauty!

Transport aircraft design can throw up some of the most dreary and downright ugly aircraft but I think the dolphin-backed Constellation has to be the most elegant and graceful - even with a beer belly and shark fin! This is the naval version of the early-warning Connie, the WV-2 Warning Star. These aircraft ploughed up and down each American coastline for up to 20 hours at a time, usually below 6,000 feet (very much 'in the weather'), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This helped provide a radar barrier or 'picket line' to warn of incoming Soviet bombers or - as was feared at the time - paratroopers. Missiles weren't so much of a bother just yet. These missions could be anything but pedestrian. Take this (actual) flight report from a Willy Victor commander: Proper pilot stuff that - love it. The commander was part of VW-13 - this model represents an example from this squadron. VW-13 was established in 1955 and helped comprise the Atlantic Barrier (BARLANT) force. It was based formally at NAS Patuxent River in the late-1950s and early-1960s, but in reality it often called NAS Argentia in Newfoundland home, and roamed to and fro across the Atlantic fairly frequently (there are some great photographs taken in Glasgow). Weather in Newfoundland was diabolical - the norm in winter was a 600' ceiling and visibility less than 1.5 miles. Argentia itself is very exposed, and colossal near hurricane-force crosswinds could often be expected on landing (many of which were made on instruments almost the whole way down). The accounts of the ice build up are astonishing - on a 15 hour barrier flight, one Connie staggered home with ice on the underside of the wings one foot thick in places! Fascinating, gutsy flyer stuff - shot through with skill and courage. Anyway. This is the Revell kit, kitbashed with a Minicraft Connie picked up for a fiver on eBay. I know some on here have been able to fashion great things from the Minicraft Connie. Alas I did once try to build a Minicraft constellation but found the experience so miserable and unrewarding I promised myself never to do it again. After plundering the parts I needed for this build from the Minicraft kit and using a few spares on other projects, I'm afraid I just binned the rest of it. The Revell kit is superb. The fit is basically really good (wing fuselage join needs a bit of attention) and detail is excellent (yes, panel lines are a little deep, but I'll forgive that given the lack of alternatives). The only problem with the Revell kit is that it is the passenger transport version - so you have to fill, sand and rescribe a fair bit to lose the passenger windows. Not as big a chore as I feared, but the first time I've done this. The Minicraft radomes fit fine with no real problem - the bottom one is a bit tricky to get right. The top radome is actually much too thin in plan, but I didn't amend this. I just won't look at it from directly ahead! Paint was Hataka as usual. I have the Caracal Decals sheet which offers lots of enticing EC-121 and WV-2 schemes. I went for this fairly plain WV-2 scheme as I want ultimately to do all of these schemes (yup - yet another ludicrously ambitious plan). This being the first conversion I'm doing, I wanted a fairly simple and forgiving scheme to learn the pitfalls for something more complex next time. Still, it's pretty handsome, I think, and the scheme is faintly nostalgic for me as the Minicraft kit I did build before was a VW-13 aircraft. Oddly the Caracal decals, which are otherwise excellent, only offer one set of the three white stripes on the nose - but I did manage to find some others from the Minicraft decals. Also the wing walkway is incorrect. I made half an attempt to correct it but it should have another box towards the leading edge between the nacelles. But they behave superbly and couldn't be recommended more highly. These got very worn-looking towards the end of their life in service (see the aerial photo above). I did some weathering with pastels and pencils, but tried to keep myself under control. I don't know what it is about transport aircraft from this period but painting the props is always a royal pain! Anyway - glad I made the effort. (By the way I went for yellow tips for an early WV-2 - in the late-1950s these were repainted with red-white-red tips as you can see on most photos in this post). I also added a multitude of tiny aerials which was quite satisfying actually. Unsurprisingly the radio antenna locations changed quite a lot so it's worth checking your references quite carefully if you're into getting this more or less right. I think what impresses me about the Constellation is its size. It was designed to be high off the ground so that its engines could turn massive propellers at fairly low revs giving it superb range and fuel economy (relatively speaking - it's hardly a Prius...). I've seen one flying at Duxford and they are much bigger than they look from a distance. And finally with something almost completely unrelated - but a transport. Thanks very much for looking. Angus Niche side note: the USN vs. USAF naming is confusing and took me a little while to decypher. The WV-2 (or Willy Victor) was the same as the USAF's EC-121D, but later versions of the WV-2 were fitted with a more sophisticated radar, making them the equivalent of the EC-121K even if the naval name didn't change. Just on the off chance anyone is taking part in an aircraft designation pub quiz over the weekend.

I don't know about you but I don't particularly associate mild mannered old Kansas-based Beech Aircraft Inc. with ground attack aircraft. No more than I associate Piper with rocket powered interceptors or Cessna with four engined nuclear bombers. But here you have it... Perhaps that's what attracted me to this, Beech's XA-38 Grizzly. Perhaps it is the name Grizzly - surely the coolest and most appropriate name for this aircraft (step aside Airbus A400M). Perhaps it is its eye watering performance. Perhaps it's that ridiculous punch-in-the-face artillery piece in the nose. Everything about this aircraft is impressive. And very un-Beech - a far fling from the Bonanza, Expeditor, Mentor at any rate. This was designed as a bomber-killer, but when fears of long-range German raids abated it found its groove as a replacement for the Douglas A-20 Havoc. It first flew in mid-1944 and is one of the handful of aircraft in history which have actually exceeded their anticipated design potential in initial testing. But herein lay its achilles heel: the key ingredient to its superb performance were the two colossal Wright R-3350s (a ferocious 2,300hp apiece if you must know - same as the Tigercat). This gave it a blistering top speed in level flight of 320kts - compared to the Marauder's 249kts, Havoc's 275kts or the Mitchell's 236kts. The A-26 Invader came closer, at 312kts. The 75mm cannon (which you may or may not have noticed on the nose of the aircraft - it's rather bashful and discreet) was also fitted to the B-25H with success. In fact, had the Mitchell not been so successful at doing its thing, the Grizzly would have been employed flying in and out of the coastal inlets of the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan, knocking out shipping and bunkers. This is the Anigrand kit. Mr. Anigrand produced a 1:72 kit of this which I drooled over for a few years and was overjoyed when they released a 1:144 bonus kit with their Sikorsky VS-44. I started this in the first lockdown over a year ago. It goes together very nicely indeed - very little seam cleanup. I don't quite know why I set it aside actually. I made only a couple of modifications - I replaced all the cannons and machine guns with metal tubing; I used a dremel to make two more gun ports in the forward nose that were not cast on; I replaced the plain kit wheels with some from the spares box; I added some 500lb bombs to the moulded pylons (thank you Platz P-47); I put a few stencil decals on from the spares box. But that was it. There's not much more to add. The kit is pretty accurate I think - shapewise it looks right. Two minor things that could be improved: I had to shorten the main undercarriage legs or this sits too snout-high. The exhaust panels aren't quite right - it should have recessed scoops like on the A-26 but is moulded flat. I painted this AKI Xtreme Aluminium as usual. There are lots of very good reference photos of this aircraft and its sistership. This was fairly plain overall natural metal (so plain that I wondered whether it was painted an aluminium lacquer). I did a bit of weathering on the upper wing which was very exhaust stained on the real thing... ...but after an abortive attempt in which I applied far too much staining and the whole thing looked faintly ridiculous, I scrubbed it back and had another go with a dollop more restraint. I'm happy with the look now. Overall these were pretty clean. The Jeep is a Brengun number by the way (improperly painted for this scene in post-war guise but forgive me). Finally with another twin engined bomber that's approaching completion. Next I'm going to build Slingsby's jet-powered anti-submarine warfare seaplane. Thanks very much for looking. Angus

So I've been asked to do a custom build for a friend, he asked for a 1:144 Vulcan, thankfully I knew the LHS had one on the shelves so could pick that up straight away. I've got the Hataka cold war RAF set in the post. Excellent start. Checked which bomb bay he wanted (conventional) and if he wanted the undercarriage up or down (down). That meant it would need a base of some kind, so I showed him the V Bomber base from Coastal Kits, liked that. Then he suggests doing it taking off so I've got a blurred runway on order, a trumpeter display case arrived this evening. If I do it rotating I need to do surgery on the tiny undercarriage so my options are one acrylic rod under the centre of the aircraft having just lifted off, or 4x 5mm rods coming from the engines. I'm kind of loathed to drill a big hole in the underside. Any one got any other ideas? TIA Chris

Here is my latest kit: a fictional Convair F-92A Dart in JASDF markings. This is an Anigrand 1:144 resin kit that came with the Firefox I built previously. It was supposed to be the XF-92 masquerading as a MiG-23 in the 19578 film "Jet Pilot". The kit didn't come with markings neither for this nor for the XF-92 prototype. Although I later found where I could get the latter I was already set on converting it into an operational fighter in Japanese markings as I saw it as something that wouldn't look out of place in those old Japanese sci-fi films. Apart from fixing moulding flaws, one of which caused me to square off the wingtips, and correcting the overly wide cockpit sides sills due to the narrow canopy, I made a series of modifications and additions. The canopy was modified to a more appropriate fighter bubble-type. I replaced the nose probe for a thinner one without the extra experimental parts as well as the missing tail fin probe. I also added the missing radio antenna but moved it back so it wouldn't be in the way of the canopy when it slid back. The nose undercarriage was shortened to a correct height and the doors were thinned as much as I could. The arrangement of the main doors was altered as one would end up lower than the wheel. I also decided not to split the rear nose door. As this "variant" was fictional, I could get away with it! The missile pylons and missiles came from the spares box. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. The fuselage decals came from a Platz F-104J kit and the wing hinomaru came from generic Mark I decal sheets. The end result was exactly what I wanted to achieve and I am very pleased with it. Thanks for looking and, as always, all comments are welcome. Miguel

Hello to all.here is one of my latest finished models. The 144 Zvezda Il-76.it is not the best kit out there. Too complicated and overengineered while having the shallowest of panels that wont hold more than one layer of paint.Other than that it is an ok kit I guess.With a bit of work it can be made into a nice representation of the il-76.Pinted in gunze acrylics. Regards,Dragan

Here is my latest kit: the MiG-31 Firefox of the 1982 Clint Eastwood film. It's the Anigrand 1:144 resin kit. Keeping in mind the discrepancies between the full-scale film prop and the "flying models", the kit has some inaccuracies, namely around the undercarriage. The nosewheel should have twin wheels and the bays and doors are wrong but I left well alone and only cut the nose bay door in a way that made it closer to what we see in the film. My only other modifications were replacing the WW2-type seat with one from a Revell/Mark I F-104 kit (chopped down a bit in height to fit) and adding a landing light to the nose u/c leg. One of the major discrepancies is the finish. The full scale prop was a dark grey colour whereas the flying models had a highly glossy or metallic) blue-grey tone. I found a comment of the prop designer in internet that stated that Clint Eastwood wanted the plane to be very shiny and that the plane was a dark blue-grey colour. I tried to get somewhere in between. I made some mixes and the final one was Tamiya Gun Metal with Medium Blue and Gloss Black (+ Vallejo Black when the latter ran out). I got a nice pearly dark blue-grey colour. The kit was fully painted by brush. The kit's painting instructions were fictitious so I tried to follow what I could make out from the film. The leading edge panels were painted Vallejo Natural Steel. The kit's decals were oversized so I used some from a Mark I red stars sheet and I placed them according to what I could make out in the ice floe scene. I applied a slightly gloss satin varnish (mixed from Vallejo varnishes) since a high-gloss sheen would look awful. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome as usual. Miguel

Here is the other Miles Magister Mk.I of Heroes Models in 1:144 scale that I finished this week. It represents R1918 of 312 (Czechoslovak) Sqn, RAF, UK, 1941. This is a delightful resin kit with the windscreens made from thin plastic sheet and the exhaust pipe from plastic rod. Obviously some work is involved and for more information see my WIP in the Kampfgruppe144 forum: http://www.kampfgruppe144.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=7326. As with the other kit, it was built OOB with my only addition being the underwing pitot. I'm aware the main legs are in the extended position but I realised too late. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Thanks for looking and, as always, all comments are welcome. Miguel

Here is one of a pair of kits I finished this week. It's a Miles Magister Mk.I of Heroes Models in 1:144 scale. It represents 1208 of the Força Aérea Portuguesa, at Base Aérea Nº 2, Ota, Portugal, in 1952. Portugal received 10 Magisters in 1946 serving under the Aeronáutica Militar. When this merged with the Aviação Naval to form the Força Aérea Portuguesa in July 1952, 10 new serial numbers were allocated even though several had been withdrawn form service. The Magister was officially withdrawn from service that same year although there are reports of one still being used from Ota in 1956. These aircraft were painted aluminium overall. This is a delightful resin kit with the windscreens made from thin plastic sheet and the exhaust pipe from plastic rod. Obviously some work is involved and for more information see my WIP in the Kampfgruppe144 forum: http://www.kampfgruppe144.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=7326 The kit was built OOB with my only additions being the oleo links of the main legs and the underwing pitot. I'm aware the main legs are in the extended position but I realised too late and they were too delicate to modify. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Thanks for looking and, as always, all comments are welcome. Miguel

Hello Again; For those of you already follow construction stages on my Instagram account may notice, I just finished 1/144 Revell Airbus A319 CSA Livery as of today. My initial plan was to finish her in 2020 however decal problem which I encountered (DRAW decal totally destroyed while application) did not allowed to finish her on time. As for the paints, Tamiya LP4 used for the fuselage, lower section of the fuselage painted with Mr. Color C325 , wings and horizontal stabilizer painted with the mixture of Mr. Color C325 and 316. Engines painted with Mr. Color GX-3. All metalics are Alclad. Following to painting stage, model clear coated 4 layers of GX 112. Decals are BOA, cabin windows and cockpit windows from Authentic Airliners. Thanks for looking Greetings from Frankfurt Berk

I hope this is the right place to post this - I cannot see a What If section, and weird though this is it is not Sci-Fi! Please do move it if not. I don't post many of my builds on here but this is a bit of a rare kit and aircraft so I thought I'd share it (apart from anything else, despite searching the ends of the internet I can find no images of completed models of this aircraft in any scale so this might help the one other human on this planet who might want to build this kit!). This was a genuine but unbuilt anti-submarine patrol seaplane from Convair. It kind of looks like a Martin Marlin on acid, I think. Either way - it's damned ugly. If this had entered service, I think there's good money on it being called the pelican (in fact, half way through this build I realised what it reminded me of - Nigel from Finding Nemo!). Info on this design is very scarce but I managed to track down some decent three view drawings (Secret Projects Forum has a lot of helpful info if anyone is looking for it). The history of this aircraft is intriguing. In 1957 Mother Russia decided to fit SCUD missiles to their Zulu class submarines, giving the Soviets their first ballistic missile subs. This caused great alarm in the US, and a strong fear that the existing sub picket lines on the Atlantic and Pacific needed upgrading. So an aircraft was sought to replace the Martin Marlin and Lockheed Neptune - the designs of both were nearing ten years old. Both Convair and Martin submitted proposals (XP6Y-1 and XP7M-1 respectively), with two prototypes of the Convair aircraft ordered before budget cuts forced the navy to see sense and decide on a long range land-based aircraft which ably fulfilled this role until only a few years ago - the Lockheed P3 Orion, of course. The idea was this would fly along, land - dunk its sonar and sit for a few hours waiting for a Russian sub to amble past. Spare a thought for the unbelievably seasick sonar operators in the back! It would then take off and repeat the exercise somewhere else. To actually hunt the sub, it would have flown a similar pattern as the Orion subsequently did and use its extendable MAD boom at the rear to fix the sub's position before dropping depth charges or homing torpedoes. Here's the small scale model that was built in 1958: It's only as I put this together that I've really appreciated what a whacky thing this was. The whole design was centred on reducing the stall speed in order to enable this to land and take off in short distances in any sea state the Atlantic or Pacific might throw at it. So it had absolutely massive 'blown' flaps suspended from a flying wing - like a Catalina in a way, just less aircraft and more scaffolding. The height of the wing would presumably have kept the flaps out of the spray on takeoff. To power it off the water, the aircraft was designed with five (5) engines - and a rocket. The three massive Wright R-3350s in the nacelles are obvious, but the central nacelle also housed two jet engines which could be angled over 150 degrees up or down (although quite why you'd want to angle it up I don't know). There was also a JATO rocket in the rear just in case none of this was really enough oomph for you. This would have been able to carry a colossal array of weapons - I was puzzling over what looked like two massive cargo doors in the side of the model amidships (I feel very nautical when I say words like amidships - after this, I must go and don some chunky knitwear and gaze thoughtfully at the middle distance). Actually these were bomb and torpedo bays which rotated through 180' when needed. Similar to the Canberra bomb bay arrangement. The Navy actually liked the design quite a lot - more so than its competitor the Martin Submaster (of which a partial, full-scale mockup was actually built). It ordered two prototypes built before budget cuts led to these being cancelled. Anyway - history aside, there's a WIP in a thread here on Kampfgruppe144 if you're interested. This was largely built out of the box, but I had to source beaching gear from the spares box (these came from a Constellation) and a few other bits and bobs were scratch built like the searchlight. The paint scheme is entirely speculative but I have gone for how I imagined the first prototype (147206) might possibly have looked when it rolled out of Convair's San Diego factory for the top brass - painted in the contemporary white over seaplane grey that Marlins wore, complete with dummy depth charges. I borrowed quite a lot of paint ideas from pictures of the Marlin - especially the props. I don't usually love What If aircraft but there was something fairly liberating doing this knowing there was no prototype let alone production aircraft to base this on. It is surprisingly large. It's not often in modelling in 1:144 that you can fit the entirety of your smartphone camera underneath the wing of the aircraft you're photographing! I say surprisingly, because it was only when I finally put the wing and fuselage assemblies together properly last night that I really appreciated this properly. Quite noticeable next to the Sikorsky Dreadnought I built last year... And particularly so next to what would have been a contemporary naval fighter (even if the Cougar was fairly petite). thank you very much for looking and for reading if you made it this far! Angus p.s. I'd be very surprised if another one of these appears on this forum anytime soon. If one does, I promise to eat my airbrush!

Here is the second of a trio of two-seater Starfighters I have been working on the past month-and-a-half. It's F-104F Starfighter BB+362 (s/n 59-4996, c/n 5049) of WaSLw 10 (Waffenschule der Luftwaffe), Luftwaffe, at Jever AB, German Federal Republic, in the late 1960s from Mark I's reboxing of the Revell kit. Only 30 of this variant were built, all exclusively for Germany. The F-104F was basically an F-104D with the F-104G's uprated engine. Like the F-104D, it had no radar and no weapons capability and was exclusively for pilot training. Apart from sanding down the main undercarriage door bulges as indicated in the instructions, I made some more modifications that Mark I missed. The arrestor hook was removed as this variant didn't have it. The tip tanks had symmetrical horizontal fins so I reshaped the inner ones to match the outer ones. No underwing stores were carried either. One good addition by Mark I was the Lockheed-type ejection seats. Although simplified, they do the part being very different from the Martin-Baker seats that come in the original moulds. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. This scheme required more work but the end result was worth it. Thanks for looking Miguel