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Another of my 'lockdown' builds. I think this is a rebox of the MPM kit as it certainly isn't an Airfix mould. More like a short run offering with no locating pins and very basic instructions. But the surface detail is really nice and it went together pretty easily. I have to say that the engine /wing route design is a lot better than on the Special Hobby NF kit which seemed overcomplicated. Represents a No. 63 squadron aircraft mid 1950s. Paints are from Tamiya, Gunze Aqueous and Vallejo with Xtradecals to finish. Thanks again for letting me bore you with more builds! 😁

Hello everybody... as some of you know Im a fan of Robert Stanford Tuck. Last year I decided to start building collections of aircraft based on my favorite pilots. I started a build for Josef Pips Priller first and recently started the second series of builds dedicated to R.S.Tuck. He for some reason has always struck me as the quintessential RAF pilot. My first build in the series was his Mk.Vb and was built for the recent Spitfire group build. I present to you one of his Mk.I Spitfires coded QJ*Z from 92 Squadron July 1940. To build this I used the 1/72 Airfix Mk.I and aftermarket code letters donated by another member from the Forum. Please feel free to ask questions, post comments, and or add thoughts. Feel free to peruse the build WIP or the Tuck build thread. Dennis

Hello all. In a fit of nostalgia a couple of weeks ago, I ordered from KingKit a couple of Airfix Lightnings. Not the excellent F.6 and F.2A, but the rather old F.1A and F.3. I have built these many time in the past, when the world was different and my view of it more so. I have recently built a Sword Lightning F.1 with markings by Model Alliance. I had found the markings pretty good, except they silvered and were highly translucent. I wanted a cheap model which was not too important in my great scheme of things, and I wanted to try an alternative way of adding the transfers. This fitted the bill! This is what I ended up with, and I accept it is not to the high standards usually associated with Lightning (or anything else) builds on here, but is was a good learning curve! I tried a few new things on this, but the first thing was to remember that this was a 'snap-fit' kit! Well named - the location aids were all too big, and if I had used enough force, it would have been a definite snap! I tried to represent the various metal panel tones, I painted matt black and dark grey on various panels, then brush-painted Revell 90 Silver acrylic overall. It was just translucent enough to show the panels in the right light - not too 'in your face'. I also had some fun masking for the red spine and tail, the triangles forward were interesting to say the least, but I had some Sword markings for 111 Squadron which acted as a photo-copied template for the masking and that helped. The unit markings were Model Alliance, and this time, rather than using Micro Set and Sol, I used the new Pledge/Klear stuff, and that settled them down much better than the previous attempt. You can see how thin and see-through they are though with the St George cross badge on the tail. I know I got quite a few things wrong with this - the rake of the main undercarriage looks too severe forward to me, and the fin flashes should not have a yellow surround, but I was quite happy with the final result. Thanks for looking, all the best. Ray

The postie dropped this off yesterday, but due to shielding requirements, and with Mrs N, being the responsible adult out of the two of us, suggesting that the safer option would be to refrain from opening the box for 24 hours, I have managed to keep my grubby mitts off the package until this afternoon. But now the genie is out of the bottle. Anyway, enough of all that nonsense, this is my first entry for the group build, and the plan is to finish it as either one of the KG.30 aircraft that targeted Driffield airfield on August 15th 1940 (fortunately some KG30 markings are included in the box), or as the Ju.88 shot down by three Hurricanes of 312 squadron when based at Speke on the 8th October 1940, but I would have to see if I can source some unit markings for that aircraft. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr With both aircraft coming under fire from Hurricanes, I hope to add a second build of one of the other aircraft involved, if time permits.

Hello everyone... Ive never done a Mk.I Spitfire so Im looking to build one of these pretty soon. If anyone can provide photo’s of the Sprues so I can answer some questions. I found some ok photo’s on cyber-modeler but they aren't the best. First question are the landing gear solid with the doors, and do they share the same odd mounting as the 1/48 Mk.I ? Second is it only the three bladed prop ? If so thats good but the two blade would be a bonus for future builds if its in there. Im looking to do either a 65 Sq. bird, most likely YT*L R.S.Tucks K9906 or YT*A R6883 F/Lt. Gordon Olive’s plane. If not I have 19 Sq. F/Sgt. George Unwin’s P9546 or even the kits decals. Any help is gratefully received. Dennis

Hello here is the Airfix 1/72 scale Hannover. This kits dates back to 1967 and shows every year if it’s age. Saying that enjoyed it a lot. The colour scheme of the aircraft is for an early version of the Hannover but I had no lozenge decals so you will have to let that one slide. I added a an impression of the cockpit but apart from that it is oob. thanks.

Here's my Lincoln, just finished in the Lancaster STGB - build thread is here. This is the Airfix 1/72 Lancaster II converted to a Lincoln using the Blackbird Models resin conversion and converted to the Armstrong-Siddeley Python testbed RF403 using a combination of 3D-printed nacelles and bits from a couple of Trumpeter Wyverns. I say 'testbed' but I don't think it really was - this was the third (I think) Python Lincoln, built for use at Woomera in high-altitude trials of the Blue Danube bomb. It was a fun build - the Blackbird conversion is excellent - just marred by a small SNAFU when a big drop of paint somehow got inside the canopy - hence I've only photographed it from angles where it's barely visible! thanks for looking Julian

The second 'lock-down' model! When I was little.........when I was a child I saw a picture of Revell's 1/32 Stuka with the RED (!) Wüstenschlange. This is my version of those childhood memories. Airfix' 1/72 Ju-87B7R - a great kit! : I know, I know - the RED (!) Wüstenschlange is debatable, but the memories - the memories..... Cheers Hans J

Afternoon all, My second build for the GB will be an 'in-flight' S.50 using: I hope to do the aircraft depicted carrying AS-30 training rounds, purely because I like the aircraft scheme and the black and white stripes on the missiles. I have some Alley Cat resin bits on order for the aircraft, they also do a set of Nord Aviation AS-30 missiles and pylons but I think that the Martel missiles still supplied in the Airfix kit and the spares I have from an earlier Tornado build will do as a basis for creating the AS-30s with some judicious cutting, sanding and general fettling. Cheers, Mark.

Yes, yes I know about as much resolve as the bathroom cabinet after a big night out! As far as SWMBO is concerned my finger slipped OK! So, anyway the other big idea I had for this GB is now on its way to me: Cheers, Mark.

Hello all, I found it difficult to pin down a specific model that defined the feeling of ‘building as a kid’ but for me and I suspect many others it is the overall experience and brands that hold more in the way of memories, for me that brand is Airfix. I can remember building kits on the dining table (covered with plenty of newspaper of course) at my Grandparents house during the long summer holidays and being fiercely loyal to the brand, especially when my cousin was building a Revell kit, using some strange liquid cement and casting disparaging remarks about my favourite manufacturer. It was great fun but only a limited amount of time was allowed to sniff the different types of glue before being instructed; ”come on you lot outside and get some fresh air!” My Grandad was the tool shop foreman at Smiths Industries (GE) in Cheltenham and was a keen model maker himself, though not of plastic kits. He made up a set of tools for me all in a slide top wooden instrument box which smelled of machine shop oil and lubricant, I’ve still got it along with his modelling books, much treasured. Later, the little toolbox contained some of my drawing instruments as I went to learn technical illustration at college. For my brother and I, model building was for many years the all-consuming passion, pouring over the Airfix catalogue, marvelling at the artwork, planning purchases and writing out Christmas lists or entering models in the ATC squadron competition. In addition, it was a godsend to our parents as they knew that to keep us quiet during the regular Saturday torture of being dragged around town, the promise of doughnuts and a model from ‘Woolies’ would be the reward. The reward was, more often than not, constructed, painted, decaled and hung from respective ceilings (not the doughnuts) long before the football results teleprinter had finished and it was time for tea and Doctor Who. Of course, my younger brother’s efforts included completely fictitious colour schemes which for the most part were dangerously Hi-Viz, especially for a combat zone, I mean Matt, really a black and yellow striped Lancaster?! It took me a while to decide on the subject of this Group Build and as I said in my initial post to the GB proposal, there were plenty of options, all Airfix, the Beaufighter with bullet holes along the fuselage made with a drawing pin, The 1/12 Figures built for my Gran, the M3 Halftrack with real mud on the tracks and of course the P-61 Black Widow which was the first to pop into my mind, however I have finally settled on the Airfix Series 5 1/72 Heinkel He.177 ‘Greif’ which first appeared in the Airfix catalogue in 1968. I am not sure exactly when I built it, but I would imagine that it was between 1974 and 1976. Not only was it the first German aircraft I can remember building, it was also a departure in terms of size, it sticks in my mind because it was so much bigger than anything I had built before. I can remember that a certain amount of re-jigging of the ceiling holding pattern was required to accommodate the Germanic behemoth upon its completion. I can also recall the frustration with the clear parts, an aspect of the hobby that persists to this day! Airfix’s ‘Greif’ is not a stellar kit, is definitely a kit of its age and to be sure has been long surpassed by Revell’s rendition but for me, that’s not the point of the GB or indeed our hobby in general, you make of it what you will, including a striped Lancaster if that’s your want. The Heinkel He. 177 box art by Roy Cross, I remember having this box art on my kit...... ...unfortunately, and I know it was a forlorn hope that a similar box would turn up in the post....this is what infact did: Hmmm, well never mind the contents are bound to be better: ....double hmmm......I think the parts are all there, would we actually notice if they weren't!? lots of rivet detailing and I thought about taking a close up of the "clear" parts but people of a nervous disposition might be reading and I don't want to be responsible for anymore calamity at the moment. ..anyway the instructions: Blue...nice... ...and some slightly out of date paint references and I'm not holding out much hope for the decals: Awesome, should be a blast! Mark.

Hello everyone... Id like to present my Airfix 1/72 Bristol Bulldog. It was built in the Nordic group build and wears Finnish markings. It represents on of two IIa Bulldogs donated by Sweden to Finland for defense in the 1939-40 winter war. They were used as trainers in the Finnish Air force. Here is a link to the build. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235066999-bulldog/ I did attempt to rig this but there was a minor disaster during the attempt. I think I was lucky just to rescue the build itself. Questions, comments, and or thoughts ? Dennis

Nice to get this one finished finally: Airfix's 1/72 Spitfire Ia tinkered with to produce K5054. The model depicts the aircraft in early 1937, around the time of its wheels-up landing at Martlesham Heath. By then the Spitfire had the eight brownings fitted and they were experimenting with different kinds of exhaust pipes. The cowling had a strengthening strip above the exhaust stacks, which I created with plastic card. The exhausts here came from the early Airfix Hurricane kit and look similar enough to what's in the photos. The aircraft also had a tailwheel by then, so it was looking very close to what became the Mark I Spitfire. There is no doubt lots wrong with the model: information about the original is incomplete so I didn't go all-out for correctness as I would never be fully sure whether it's really right. Instead I wanted to capure the spirit of it in 1/72. For the colour I made a bright summery mix of Tamiya XF-23 Light Blue, X-3 Royal Blue and X-2 White. I changed a few of the panel lines, some the obvious ones, some less so, to get close enough to the real thing, and to reflect what I know about the prototype (which ain't a huge amount). And I added the daisy-cutter wheel doors as I think they were still fitted at this point in time. The wheels came from the good old Matchbox Mk IX kit, and they look decent enough. Decals are from Xtradecal, and they behaved very well. I should thank them for including a pair of spare fuselage roundels in the set as I made a placement mistake first time around and had to remove them, sand, repaint and reapply. Anyroad enough verbiage, on with the photos: And here's one of the real K5054 having landed wheels-up near Martlesham in spring 1937. Thanks for looking. Justin

OK, I wasn't going to get into another GB without finishing the one I'm in, (P-51) but I did get one done in the Kuta XII GB, so thought I might try this one seeing as I have until May 10th, starting late though. So, I was so keen I forgot to take the basic photos, and started spraying paint First the interior with Humbrol 78 and some of the exterior with Humbrol 230 PRU Blue, so I wouldn't have to mask the camera ports was my cunning plan After looking at it with some PRU Blue on it I thought the panel lines were way to big and deep, so using some Vallejo Plastic putty, this stuff dries quickly, only time will tell if it's any good so the box shot Contents part painted bogged up with putty I found it was easier doing the filling over the PRU Blue. Now this kit has Swedish decals that come in this boxing, but they just look the wrong colours, so thought I would give them the flick, went online and bought some Moose Republic ones from the big H, never tried them before, but they do look better.

Greetings! In January 1942, Sonderkommando Blaich under the command of Hauptmann Theo Blaich, conducted a daring long range raid against the Free French forces at Lake Chad. The raid was a success, but on the return flight the HE-111 ran out of fuel and was forced to make an emergency landing deep in the desert. Several days later, an Italian search plane located the stranded HE-111 and a JU-52 flew in with supplies and fuel. The stranded aircraft was subsequently refueled and returned to base. Although the actual aircraft used in the raid was a HE111, I wanted to twist history a bit and depict the aircraft in the Lake Chad raid as a HE-177. Starting with the ancient Airfix kit I added Falcon vacuum formed canopies, a Hasegawa Kubelwagen, various decals from the spares bin (including the Sonderkommando Blaich unit badge), figures from Preiser and a desert landscape made from a textured ceiling light panel. The figures were posed to depict the crew gathered for a group photo in front of their aircraft. I had great fun with this build and while it is not historically accurate, I am pleased with the result. No attempt was made to remedy the faults with the Airfix kit except for the vacuum formed canopies and some details added to the cockpit. Almost all of the raised surface details was left in place. Many thanks for having a look, questions and comments always welcome! Cheers, Bill

Aaaarrgghhh I can’t take it anymore!!! The Messerschmitt Me 262B-1a/U1 By Airfix 1/72 Good evening you lot. I’d like to welcome you to my first build of 2020. 😇 As the title suggests “Aaaarrrgghhh I can’t take it anymore !!“ I’m talking about the kit I’m currently finishing off. It’s one of those Sci-Fi jobbies. There’s just no glue, fit issues, learning new stuff, banter, all the stuff I love about modelling. It’s looking good but all I seem to be doing is disassembling parts I’ve already assembled and painting said bits on sticks before assembling again. I don’t know what it is but I need an Aeroplane in my life. So watching @CedB’s recent mottled wonder I checked the stash and found this. I picked it up from Ian Allen In Brum before it closed. 75% off which going by the price on it it must have cost £4.75. ( Happy and sad in equal measure ) I’ve wanted to learn about this beauty for ages and now seems like a perfect opportunity. 😍🤩 Join me if you will for a kick start to the new year and a mottled wonder. If she turns out as good as Ced‘s one I’ll be happy. I don’t even know how to do a mottle but it’s going to be fun finding out. ❤️🐆 Enough of this. I need to Glue something!!!!! Here are the sprues. The detail is quite lovely. 😇 This. Is the mottled scheme I’ll be doing. Black bum too. 🥳 Look 👀Glue!!! There at the top it’s glue. 😇🥳🤣🤪 With this thing cast to the far reaches of the bench for a bit. I can get my teeth into this little beauty. 🤩 Look I had to file some bits. 😀 sorry, I’ll calm down in a sec. 🤪🤦‍♂️ Ahem. Right.... Office first. These bits went together easily, I was worried about the pin marks but the seats will cover those. See. 😀 The side instrument panels got added along with the pedals and a floor section. The detail for such a tiny kit is ace. this top section. Needed a little attention to get rid of the slight seam on the inside.( Easy peasy) The Front IP is like this. So with this in mind I positioned the kit part. Not a bad representation with paint and decals. There is a box in the rear part of the office that looks like this. The kit part had zero detail so I scratched some and glued it in place. The control column got a dry fit. As did the whole assembly thus far. Front. And rear. That is where we are as of tonight. I can tell you it’s been such a breath of fresh air, I’m loving it. Any issues that any of you know please pipe up, hopefully before I get to that particular bit. 😎🥳🤞 Hopefully as I said earlier some of you will tag along for this one. No huge plans just a nice fun start to the year with some history lessons thrown in for good measure. Thanks for popping in and as always. Happy Modelling. Johnny. 🙃

OK, i'm doing the newish Airfix F-51D kit which has the later Hamilton Standard uncuffed square tipped prop in the box Also plan on the kit option of Dominican Republic, last world operator of Mustangs in an air force that I know of, and a long time operator of Mustangs in total I have the Aerofax Datagraph 1 on North American F-51 Mustangs in Latin American Air Force service for eference I have been reading up on the FAD Mustangs, and these later ones had been through some upgrades with Cavalier over time, some to the full standard some not. On opening the box I see that I have painted part of the cockpit and props, sure this is well under the 25% rule, so will keep calm and carry on. One thing that Sirfix got wron with this kit is the Dominican Insignia, which they handed, but as it is an interpretation of the national flag that is not the case, the red should be on the top right and loser left each side. I was lucky to get some additional ones from @Rabbit Leader to cover off that problem.

Morning All, After a pause for the Cenotaph this morning I'm now able to post up my first completion in a good while. One of my favourite Mustangs, again using the Airfix 1/72 kit. It's an early D-5 model from the 20th FG. The beautiful nose art and KIS(S) fuselage codes have stayed in my mind since I first saw the colour profile in my Dad's copy of "The Mighty Eighth". So when I found that PrintScale had done the decals in 1/72 I knew the time had come to build it. The Airfix kit is straightforward enough but I had to remove/reshape the tail fillet and correct the hinge lines on the elevators. Then it was a question of getting the paint job right which was a bit complicated around the nose art, but worked out OK. Hope you like the results. You'll notice that the wheel well ceilings are two different colours. This was a bit of fun: I read somewhere (on BM) that wheel well ceilings were either left natural aluminium or painted yellow zinc cromate, depending on what was in the parts bin. Ribs were usually YZC, as was the rear spar. Given that the wing skins were constructed separately before being mated with the fuselage, I thought I'd do one wheel well in each colour. With some friends: Here's the original, taken around August-September 1944, not long after 20FG converted from P-38s, using new airframes that it seems never received invasion stripes. So they just had the black theatre stripes which were overpainted on the topsides, probably with RAF dark green. This aircraft crashed in an accident in October 1944, the pilot - Lt Walter Mullins, being lost, and commemorated at the Cambridge US cemetery. And here's a good photo of a sister-ship. Finally that profile that sparked my interest years ago. Thanks for looking, Justin

Just completed this one and another cracking kit from Airfix. It's worth buying for the box art alone! Construction was fairly straightforward but joining up the fuselage halves seemed to give me a little bit of trouble. The seat is 'suspended' and fitted between two locating pin holes as well as the tailwheel in the same manner, which made alignment tricky. Also the instrument panel and coaming were a tight fit and once the fuselage was sealed up i realised the instrument panel wasn't seated correctly. In trying to reposition it i lost it into the abyss never to be seen again! Oh well it's dark in there so you won't see much! I don't think it's a difficult build, but there's a lot of fitting to be done at the same time, and as is the case with the new run of Airfix kits they're all a bit of a CAD designed snug fit. I could have done with another pair of hands at times to be honest! Next time would be easier I'm sure. Anyway the rest of the build was a breeze with some nice well engineered touches here and there. Airbrushed with a mix of Vallejo and Tamiya and finished with Vallejo premium satin varnish. First time I've used this varnish and it gave a slight eggshell finish so not too matt and lifeless. Weathering kept to a minimum with just some mig ammo panel wash here and there. Cheers for looking 🙂

Now i know this is not totally accurate, as i only found out part way through finishing this one off that the A-4C has a different nose shape to the A-4B! I was too eager to have a go at the unusual White / Green / Blue camouflage to notice the difference and reshape with putty. Oh well.. it was a fun build, gave me some airbrush practice and looks ok at the back of the display cabinet with the lights dimmed! 😁 Decals are from Xtradecal. Paint from Vallejo. Pin wash from Mig. I may compliment this with a Navy A-4Q machine that Airfix had just released next....at least that will be accurate!

Hi, here I'm sharing with you my Vampire in the RNZAF colors! It's the 1/72nd Airfix vampire starter kit. Little bit of a back story, I chose a started kit because it's the first aircraft kit I've done, and the first time I weathered (washes only), and also the first time I used acrylics extensively (used a lot of lacquers and enamels on my ships), and also the first time i have to mask that many things (canopy and all). So first of a few things, I'm quite happy with it, please be frank and full of tips, I'd love to learn new things for my next model (1/72 AB-212). I initially wanted to dive in a big-ish project with a flanker is a special livery but decided onto something simpler (and cheaper) to learn. As you can see here, I started the wash on the right wing but ended up leaving it too long, forcing me to scrape the excess, and chipping a bit of pain... Well, I learnt my lesson. Overall I'm really happy with it, I love the real paintjob, learnt a lot of things along the way, and It doesn't look too bad on my shelf!

Re purposing this thread to be a general farewell to 1/72 thread. Not that I won’t build some models in that scale but 1/48 is now my default. the list Airfix Typhoon P51D FW190 Swordfish Gnat Revell Ta 154 Me 109G Heller Me109K The 109s now have several friends and are reserved for the STGB but the rest must go. First up the TYPHOON Found this when going through my stash for bits for my current wip (guns, engines etc) I also happen to be reading this and have a new airbrush and compressor (my first this time around) sitting in a cupboard. So I decided to start the typhoon, that it will be largely if not completely oob and also that ...... it will be my first (attempted) airbrushed build. So off we go. The obligatory sprue shot Zipping it up, my new berna clamps are extremely useful here. Wings on. A little filler at the wing roots and seams (liquid green stuff btw) and it's ready for some airbrush action........ Now I've ordered some ultimate primer so I need to decide if I wait for that or bale in with the Tamiya light sea grey as an undercoat. Just arrived in the post no excuses........

The fifth of 2019 and a swansong to my Airfix Therapy Build thread: Their F-4F-4 done as an early F-4F-3 . Some liberties were taken as usual and the WIP is here: Paints are Alclad and Mr Color lacquer and the chevrons, cowl and fuselage bands were painted so as to match the new spinner Also a test run of my Amazon freebie review flashheads, which seem much better behaved than my el cheapo ebay continuous lights. Thank ye, one and all fer tuning in, have a fab weekend and eat more fruit! Anil

Re-posted from the inter war forum On the aft deck there are 6 upright cylinders topped by parts 147-150 and 159, 160. Are these storage tubes for the Vickers GO drum magazines or engine room vents or fuel filler pipes etc.? TIA Tom

And the third finish of 2019 from my Airfix therapy build thread: The loveable li'l Airfix Scooter. paints by Mr Color and an Xtradecals set used. Nice little kit with usual issues for new Airfix but looks good to me. BTW the repeated comments about missing pilots, drones etc have been registered and are just as funny as they were six months ago : These are being sold on as desktop models to non-modellers who don't care for little plastic men with smeary badly painted faces! Great to get three done in a month but really could do a lot more with organization: Took some liberties with this one- blue windscreen? Decals for intakes instead of painting and that factory fresh sheen that all Scooters seem to have , even after a jaunt to Hanoi.. WIP Here