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So we are four month's into 2024 and this is my first finish of the year. This one is the Academy PBY 5 Catalina Black Cat boxing I received for Xmas, so I pick up some FCM decals for south American operators (Brazil and Argentina). Built OOB using Tamiya and Mr Colour acrylics, if anyone uses the Mr Colour day glow red and yellow just be aware that the yellow need a solid white base and the red is best applied over yellow. As usual all comments are welcome.

I picked this up real cheap from my local retro computer games store as he bough it in a lot of diecast models. Fortunately this is better than their 1/48 offering which I attempted to build a few years ago. Detail is ok, the same with the fit of the parts, nothing the average modeller couldn't contend with. The one fault with the kit is the decals, mine were badly out of register so I painted on the yellow ID stripe and sourced spare IAF insignia from the decal stash. AK Interactives RC229 'Army Helo Drab' (FS34031) was used for the base colour and it looks spot on. Weathering was achieved with MiG pigments and washes along with Tamiya pastel kits. i also chose to mount some inert blue Hellfires for a little colour. Thanks for looking.

Hello Everyone, Here is my ready for inspection thread for my Academy models, 1:288 scale Space Shuttle Orbiter, Solid Rocket Boosters and External Fuel Tank which I have built as the Space Shuttle Enterprise. In reality, the Enteprise never actually launched into space but at one time I believed was setup in a launch stack. I picked the Enterprise out of the 5 decal schemes available because of the link to Star Trek but also the Dale Brown book Silver Tower is one of my favourite books. It features a refitted space shuttle Enterprise which NASA and the US military have been launching into space following the Challenger disaster in 1986. This build has been one of multiple firsts for me : 1st Academy model build, 1st use of MiG paint for the external fuel tank and 1st model in 1:288 scale. I'm really happy with the quality of this kit based on the low price of it (£9). Anyway here are the finished build photos. I hope you like this build as much I enjoyed building it especially as this is my 1st finished build in almost 10 years. All the best, Rick

Its been a while since I last posted anything here, but have just finished Academy's lovely new-tool 1/48 A-10C Thunderbolt, and thought I'd share some photo's. Kit: Academy 1/48 A-10C Thunderbolt "75th FS Flying Tigers" - Kit no.12348 Additions: Phase Hangar Resin corrected inlet/fan, some Tamiya tape seatbelts and a JDAM pinched from a Tamiya F-14D kit Paints: Mr Hobby, Tamiya and Vallejo Decals: TwoBob's "Hoosier Hogs" sheet for main markings and kit decals (which are excellent!) Weathering: Flory Models Grime wash, Windsor and Newton oils, and Daler Rowney pastels, graphite pencil Will I build another one? Absolutely, I loved this kit, went together incredibly well and the detail is superb. Personally I think this is an absolute steal for the retail price. All comments, good and bad, more than welcome. Enjoy, Eng

#8/2024 Suggesting my dad most of the time more rarely seen or exotic schemes. So here´s his latest effort. Academy Special Edition kit version, decals form the kit and Siam Scale, added Eduard seatbelts, rocket mounts and bomb racks. Painted with AK Xtreme Metal Aluminium. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235137187-siam-spit148-supermarine-spitfre-frxive-royal-thai-airforce/ In 1950, the RTAF bought 30 Spitfire XIV (F and FR) from the RAF. Only 24 were airworthy, the rest was used for spareparts. Because the overall condition of the planes wasn´t that good, the Spitfires were in Thai service only until 1955. DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0010 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0014 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0015 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0016 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0017 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0018 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0020 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0021 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0022 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0023 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0024 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0025 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

Evening everyone, I came home from work tonight to find that my wife has surprised me with a very small present of something that I have wanted for a while. She knew I wanted a space shuttle in launch configuration, but that I didn't have room for a much larger kit. She found an Academy kit in 1:288 scale in our local Hobbycraft shop and went to get it for me. It's a very basic kit but does have decal options for all of the space shuttle orbiters (Enterprise, Columbia, Atlantis, Challenger, Discovery and Endeavour. I always wished that after the Challenger accident, NASA had refitted the Enterprise into a spaceworthy shuttle as they did in Dale Brown's amazing novel Silver Tower (which is one of my favourite books). I am therefore considering building this one as the Enterprise, but will be doing it with an orange external fuel tank rather than the white that it specifies the tank should be painted in the instructions. I just wish it was easy to find out what shade of orange to paint it. The painting instructions from Revell's instructions call for the tank to be painted in a Wood brown colour mixed with 10% white. Here are photos of the box art and sprues. I will be making a start on this one at the weekend and will probably have it finished quite quickly as I'm off work for a week after tomorrow. Look for updates as I start the building and painting process, All the best, Rick

This Phantom was originally built for the US Navy as 153795 and served in Vietnam with VF-154 ‘Pukin Dogs’ on USS Constellation before later serving with the Marines. Following the UK’s decision to purchase 15 Phantoms for the RAF to fill the gap left by 23 Sqn deploying to the Falklands, the aircraft entered service with the RAF’s reformed 74 Sqn at Wattisham, Suffolk in October 1984 as ZE354. Along with its squadron mates, this Phantom was soon adorned with the unit’s famous black fin and served until mid-1991 when the Tigers took on surplus Phantom FGR2s until disbanding in 1992. This is the 1/48 Academy kit, and it was not without its issues, particularly the fit of the intake sections to the side of the fuselage. The nose section also required filler underneath, but although due to age it compares unfavourably to new-tool Airfix (understandably!), with some care it’s a reasonable build. I particularly like the breakdown of the tail section as it makes painting much simpler. WIP here: I used the Eduard cockpit detail set to enhance the instrument panels, and made my own canopy mirrors. Markings are from the Xtradecal ‘History of 74 Sqn’ set, plus a few stencils, etc from the spares box. I’m still looking for the crew names for the canopy rails. Paint is all rattle cans, with Mr Color 11 for the fuselage and outer wings, Tamiya AS-16 for the underside and TS-81 for the inner upper wing surfaces, plus Halfords satin black for the fin. All comments and discussion welcome! …

Hi everyone, This is a kit I was not supposed to enter. In fact I was not even supposed to join this GB... And then I realized that it may be a very long time before I can build a good-fitting kit with panel lines already scribed. So here I am, hoping to find this kit ridiculously easy and rewarding. First, a few photos: This is the box art: And now the plastic: And last, the decal sheet: I will not be using this sheet, but a Xtradecal decal sheet. More later on that one. Have fun, all of you. JR

Gonna add a companion for the chakra roundeled Tempest. Seems there is no foto evidence, that RIAF Mk XIVs wore chakras, but it´s possible. DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0009 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr according to the info provided by a fellow Indian modeler and book author here on Britmodeller, almost all RIAF XIVs had clipped wings, so did cut away the wing tips DSC_0010 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

Hello all 🥳 After a long absence, 2 hospitalisations and 4 stents later, I'm back on track. Today I am pleased to present to you a perhaps old acquaintance of mine in a new look. I used the time of healing to rework the M12 vignette, i.e. figures, weathering, snow effects etc. were edited or added. What started here as a GB developed into one of my longest projects. I hope you like it - comments are always welcome! MD See you!

The Hellcat seems to be my "go to" subject for when my modelling is a bit distracted. I'm deep in a BPK P-8A at the moment (fuselage complete, wings built about to be painted, engines being built), but progress is fairly slow, so I'm doing other things in the sidelines. This is the 1/72 Academy kit, using Freightdog decals for an aircraft of 808 Sqn immediately after WW2, at Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). 808 were part of the British East Indies Fleet, operating from escort carriers HMS KHEDIVE and HMS EMPEROR. The chequered cowling is a bit out of the ordinary for an RN aircraft, which adds a bit of interest for me ! FredT

This is the Academy models Sherman Calliope. You can find the buildlog here: It's not my best work but i wanted to finish the model and the base so i made the best of it. Comments are always welcome. Thanks for taking the time to have a look. On to the next one!

Hobby 2000 from Poland is to rebox the 1/48th Academy P-38 Lightning kit. - ref. 48027 - Lockheed P-38J Lightning - ETO 1944 Sources: https://www.mn-modelar.com/148-p-38j-lightning-eto-1944-129012 https://hobby2000.pl/index.php?id_product=98322&rewrite=p98322-hobby-2000-48027-p-38j-lightning-eto-1944&controller=product&id_lang=1 - ref. 48028 - Lockheed P-38L Lightning - 80th Fighter Squadron Sources: https://www.mn-modelar.com/148-p-38l-lightning-80th-fighter-squadron-129013 https://hobby2000.pl/index.php?id_product=98323&rewrite=p98323-hobby-2000-48028-p-38l-lightning-80th-fighter-squadron&controller=product&id_lang=1 V.P.

Here is my third potential build for this STGB I am still trying to pull together references but it will essentially be this: Martin

So I'm in another city and away from my Ventura for a bit and decided I needed a simple little project to keep me out of trouble. I reviewed my stash on scalemates.com and decided a little $5 Academy Airacobra kit I picked up at the London, ON show in October might be suitable. I did a little searching and discovered Canada had one of these planes for evaluation in 1941 and crashed it in the Gatineau Hills across from Ottawa, where I grew up. Here's the plane flying.... ... and here's the plane after the pilot failed to switch from an empty gas tank to a full one. A write off. So I could model AH621 in its glory but at least a couple other people on the planet have already done that. Someone even made and sold decals for it. So it seemed I should do the crashed version instead. I've modelled a crashed Hurricane and Ventura, so why not? I seem to pick the underdog planes and do them in a crash. Based on crash photos I marked up a diagram for cuts. Here's the kit I am working with. Turns out the previous owner had assembled the cockpit and fuselage... without paint but with a huge chunk of putty in the nose because this is a tricycle landing gear plane. Seems he also included decals for the Mongolian air force. Here you can see what was assembled... including one landing gear door closed. This triggered a deep desire to disassemble all of this. Not sure if that was the right way to go. Unlike the Ventura restoration, I didn't want to go slow and soak in IPA. Acetone had worked wonders in the late stages of Ventura disassembly so I used it here, rubbing it along seams with a q-tip. As of last night when I had started (after drinking a stout and assembling the dough for a kugelhopf sweet bread) I was doing well separating the fuselage but then caused some nasty damage where plastic ripped along the nose and tail where the bonds were stronger. So the fuselage was still fused at nose and tail where both were damaged, and the middle was nicely separated. Cue regret and annoyance until I returned to it this evening. I decided to accept the ugly butchery and focus on making cuts according to my diagram. Perhaps the cuts would help me get the putty out and separate the plane pieces. It worked. Here you can see the rudder, second cockpit door, and nose cowling cut off. You can also see the cut along the tail around the radio access panel, and the chunks of putty I was able to remove. So mood is lifting. The crash photos show the tail was bent quite sharply. In order to facilitate the bend and overlapping panels in the photo, I cut the tail on both sides around the radio access panel, and I cut around the top panel as well. However the plastic is too thick to allow for a realistic fitting of these cut pieces together into a "crunched tail". So, out comes a file and I ground away on the edges on the two pieces of fuselage to bevel them thin. Then I assembled the pieces for a dry fit mockup to approximate the crash photo. Not a bad rough start! I need - a stronger tail bend - build a forward doorframe that gets ripped away from the fuselage (in the photo the door is ripped off and on the ground like my mockup above) - remove access panel in nose - thin out and damage nose cowling pieces - open nose piece and add a mulched up reduction gear mechanism showing I'll also work on the majorly deflected elevators and the sheared wing and aileron. Looks like my relaxing little quickie is moving along 🙃

Well, here's my Cunning Plan! I already gave a sneak preview in the STGB chat,: which have since then been joined by a couple of saucy Special Hobby Streaks. I plan to build four Koninklijke Luchtmacht models (yay, ambition!): - Fighter bomber F-84E (Academy) - Recce F-84G (Academy with ModelArt resin) - Strike F-84F (Special Hobby) - RF-84F (Sword) EDIT: now with added Heller 1/72nd F-84G! Game on, sirs and madams. Game on. Cheers, Andre

I've done a 1:48 Stuka a while a go but I wanted to do one in my preferred scale which is 1:72. And I specifically wanted to do the 'cannon bird' with the big underwing mounted cannons. So let's get a kit (Academy in this case) and build it - and we're done. Easy, right? Simple 1:72 kit with couple of sprues. How hard can it be? Maybe get a mask set, that will make things even easier. So we get few extras to correct or spruce things up. Okay it might complicate things a bit... ...oh right so we start to hack'n'slash the fuselage in pieces and carve out the existing cockpit details and install a new one - which I guarantee will not fit - and build up new cannons from a random pile of super thin resin bits and throw in some metal barrels just in case. I'm not sure yet but this might be the hard part of the build. 😬 Oh and the best part, deadline is 24th of February, hoping to attend a modelling show with this build. Oh and I still have to get some decals, Wish me luck!

Academy 2023 thread - link Waiting the new catalogue expected in February 2024. Newsletter Q1 - 2024 Source: https://academy.co.kr/article/공지사항/1/1480/ The aircraft kits: - ref. 12636 - Tupolev Tu-22M3 "Backfire-C" - (ex-Minicraft Model Kits) - ref. 12637 - Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star - USAF - (ex-Minicraft Model Kits) And the targets V.P.

Hello team, I'm planning on doing a CAC Sabre Mk 32 using the Tasman conversion with the Academy F-86F kit. I plan on chopping the aft end of the fuselage off the Academy kit and fitting that to the Tasman kit to get the open airbrakes similar to what Courageous did a few years ago with their CAC Sabre (I couldn't work out how to link a WIP thread). In regards to the Academy kit the shape of the airbrake bays need adjusting from a square to a tapered lower edge. Does anybody know the size or angle of the airbrake? If anyone has done this, how did you go about it? Any info would be great. Thanks. JG.

Folks, I've done yet another Warrior. This one as a leaving present for Tim. He's been trying to get my Warrior off me since I did it, and since he used to command one, I thought I'd do one as a gift. I finished it a while ago but I didn't want to spoil his surprise when he got it. The kit is Academy with Eduard etch (if ever there was a kit that needed etch it was this one). I love the kit (this is my 4th iteration!) but it is showing it's age and somethings, like the telescopes, are out of scale. The Meng version is a great kit but you cannot do a bog standard 510 from it. The cam net and covers are scratch built. Paints are Mig, Tamiya and Humbrol, gloss coat was Quick Shine and Vallejo for the matt. The IRR green was Mig NATO Green with a few drops of yellow. Pin wash was oil paint and terps. Weathering is Mig dark earth and dust, mixed with plaster for the thick mud. I used resin for the lights. Bill

After finishing the Vigilante and Tempest I've pulled out a kit I've wanted to build for a while, the Academy B17F. Now I know its not the most up to date or detailed kit of the B17 available which is ideal for the subject aircraft which is a formation ship from the 379th Bombardment Grp during 1942, also the wife found it in a charity shop with 2 other Airfix kits loose in the box. Turrets and all guns where removed and the crew was dropped to pilot/copilot, Flt Engr, Navigator, Rad Op and 1 observer. I not sure if any other equipment was removed such as the bomb aimer, oxygen bottles etc but I know that on the B24 formation ships they removed almost everything they could. Some sprue and decals shots. Academy's old style instruction sheet. HAD decals The Academy kits interior is billy basic but it won't be seen anyway so I've made a start on the front end.

Hello everyone again. Mustang P-51B, pilot - Donald Beerbower What has been improved in the Academy set: Firstly, these are the landing gear bays. All manufacturers offer them in the wrong shape, because... plastic does not allow them to be cast in the required volume. The niches were completely cut out and built from scratch. The machine gun ports have been redesigned, arranged in a cascade and equipped with barrels made of syringe needles and metal tubes. The rear support was dismembered and also completely rebuilt using metal components. The rear support niche is also somewhat filled with parts. Oil and cooling radiators were made and filled with radiator niche parts. The main landing gear struts were also modified on our own - the shock absorber rods were replaced, and the two-link links were cut out. The cockpit was partially redone on our own, complemented by etching from Eduard. Mounted landing light, manufacturer - Elf, Navigation lights - pins made of drawn transparent sprue, painted with a mixture of futura and acrylic. Other additions include True Detail wheels, QuickBoost exhaust tips, and a Squadron vacuum canopy. The main identification marks are decals from KitsWorld, technical inscriptions are from Techmod. *Sorry for the automatic translation and thanks for watching.

Greetings. The model was assembled several years ago. Briefly about the construction: of the ready-made additions, I used only a small set of photo-etching from Eduard, which applied almost exclusively to the cockpit, while the canopy was still made in a closed version, since at that time it was not ready to work with “vacuum” products, but “ native” lantern is thick. Well, the barrels were replaced with brass ones from Aber, although the latter are also far from ideal in terms of the fact that the wing-mounted 13 mm machine guns should be in a perforated casing; I couldn’t imitate these casings myself. Otherwise, the same cockpit was subjected to the greatest modifications using available materials. Significantly altered the landing gear struts and flaps - reducing the thickness of the flaps, rods from medical needles, jumpers of the flaps, cut off and made again, because relatives do not reach the landing gear, the brake pipes are made of thin wire. The riveting has been improved in some places, unrealistic sagging of the fabric on mechanized surfaces has been removed, and the rudder contour has been trimmed. The 7.7 mm machine gun port on the fuselage is plugged, as it should be on the 52c modification. I drilled out the exhaust pipes as far as possible and worked on their shape, cut ventilation windows for cooling the oil tank and removed the thickness of the fuselage side in this place. Navigation lights from the CMK set. The shape and details of the air intake have been corrected, as well as some other minor details. In terms of the quality of the kit, I can list several shortcomings - this is the already mentioned undercut of the rudder contour; poor fit between the wing and the fuselage (I removed the shelves above the wing, a gap along the bottom of the fuselage); These also include landing gear flaps. Painted primarily with Tamiya acrylics. I didn’t use Academy decals; they turned out to be very inconvenient to use; they were replaced with decals from AML. *Sorry for the automatic translation

Well it's all a bit late but I'd like to enter these two: and: they are both relatively modern, state of the art kits. The Revell mould seems tired and has a lot of flash, particularly round the open cowling flaps: Revell correctly gets the gun alignment parallel to the ground, Academy doesn't. But the elephant in the room is the huge difference in fuselage depth: The Revell one (lighter plastic) has a huge belly. Now I don't know for sure (Academy is a -D, Revell is an -M) but I (and the Internet) think that may be a mistake on Revell's part. More digging required... Regards, Adrian

Although I built one of these many, many years ago in my youth, this subject is outside my normal sphere of interest or knowledge. That said, who cannot love the lines of the Blackbird. I remember a TV programme many years ago about this aircraft, how the crew wore space suits and how fuel leaked wherever it stood, but it was all worth it for the performance. There really isn't much to this kit. Not that many parts, goes together without issue, and it looks the part to me. Painted with Vallejo, Humbrol, Revell, and Hataka acrylics.