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I've made a start on a new model which will be something I never really do - a diorama of sorts but really it's two model aircraft. I've had to depart from my preferred 1/48 scale for this for various reasons but let's simplify it down to kit availability. The ultimate aim is to try to recreate a scene like this: I expect the readership is well familiar with the USAF's Combat Search And Rescue (CSAR) efforts which really came to maturity during the Vietnam war. The Sikorsky S-61R model in USAF service as the CH-3 was modified with long range tanks, refuelling probe, pilots' seat arm, winch and some defensive guns and became the HH-3E, nicknamed the Jolly Green Giant. They didn't and couldn't work alone though. They were still relative sitting ducks to ground fire, expected to fly into a hover in an area where a fast jet had been shot down. They flew in pairs, a high ship providing cover and a low ship which went in to pick up the downed airman/airmen. They usually had an escort of around 4 Douglas Skyraiders which flew under the nickname of "Sandy" which would provide heavy suppressive fire support for the helicopters. The whole operation was initiated, supported and coordinated by the crew of the Combat King however - the HC-130P would patrol and listen on the US military's radio frequencies monitoring ongoing air operations. As soon as they heard communications that suggested a friendly aircraft was in trouble the CSAR machine was warmed up. The Combat King crew would direct the rescue aircraft to the scene but also provided refuelling services to the fairly short-ranged Jolly Green Giants. The models then - I'm using a Whirlybird kit of the HH-3E which is almost entirely resin with a fret of photoetched brass. Unlike their earlier S-61N conversion which used a Revell donor kit, the HH-3E is a complete kit. Good then. The HC-130P is going to be provided by Italeri, with HC-130P conversion parts from David J Parkins' Flightpath, with photo etched details (mainly to get the flaps which, as can be seen above, were normally extended to allow the big Herc to fly slow enough for the helicopter to keep pace and take on fuel) and the correct Alison T56-A-15 engine nacelles from same. I still need the air to air refuelling pods from Flightpath and they're not available right now but David, if you're reading, I'll be keeping an eye on your website for them coming back into stock. It'll be a while before they hold up proceedings though. Never one to be content however, I have decided to attempt to make this much more difficult. I've never been impressed by clear plastic discs with blurry blades and the like, so to try to get a good impression of movement, I've decided to electrify this little ensemble. That's going to be easier said than done... Apart from any thing else, when you've actually seen things like the helicopter (or at least are familiar with its family members) things like relative RPMs begin to matter, within fairly broad reason. When photographed, the relative blur achieved by an camera will be more telling than just looking and since most people will see this through the results of a camera, I wanted to make a reasonable effort during the parts procurement process to try to get it close-ish. I've known 3 Hercules pilots, and have no way of contacting any of them so I've had to guess at what is probably a sensible propeller RPM for a C-130 flying straight and level with flaps down - and my guess is that 1200 RPM isn't going to look out of place. I ordered 4 of these for the Herc: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC3V-1200RPM-Micro-Mini-6mm-Planetary-Gear-Reducer-Motor-Precision-DIY-Robot-car/254151008187?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2648 These are approximately 17mm long and 6mm in diameter. The solid resin engine nacelles are, I believe, a benefit here since I can drill the nacelles in my pillar drill and get all the motors and thus all 4 propellers on the same axis. It would look dreadful if they all had different up/down/side thrust. Everything needs to be straight and aligned properly. On to the helicopter for now though. I needed to measure up what I had to work with, and that meant cleaning up the fuselage halves: The fit is pretty good, but there is a mismatch on the top of the fuselage to deal with later - but it doesn't affect what I need to know now: I have a bit of space to work with for the main rotor, but still the smaller the better - I don't really want a huge silver monstrosity gleaming through the cabin windows: The tailrotor however is a real issue: I have better data here (I think) about what speeds I want, but in truth that probably makes me less satisfied with whatever I get in the end! I have my father available who was licensed on the Sikorsky S-61N and has all of his Sikorsky course notes. I'd love to show some of the amazing reference material inside, but Sikorsky never miss an opportunity to sue people and the course notes have prohibitions on unauthorised disclosure all over them, so you'll have to take my word for the rest. Not knowing any S-61R drivers, but believing the powertrain to be very similar to the S-61N, my dad's course notes state that 100% on the mainrotor is 203 RPM. The same drawing shows that the power take-off for the tail rotor runs at 3030 RPM at 100% and that the 45deg gearbox at the bottom of the pylon is a 1:1 gear ratio. The final drive gearbox to the tail rotor itself has a ratio of 2.4375:1, making the tailrotor run at 1243 RPM at 100%. The best I could find that would fit in the fuselage for the mainrotor was this 242 RPM geared motor, measuring 16.5mm long by 6mm diameter: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253771137237 That's at 3v so I've also ordered some little potentiometers to, hopefully, tweak that down a touch. Compromise is the key here. I considered asking someone to design and 3D print me tiny bevel gears and sit a motor in the pylon coaxial with where the transmission shaft would be on the real thing, but then I found these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC3V-3-7V-4-2V-Ultra-mini-Coreless-Motor-3-2mm-12-2mm-Vibration-Vibrating-Motor/283101330780?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=583506556671&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 They are tiny little things 3.2mm x 12.2mm overall including the shaft which has a vibrating counterweight attached, so I've ordered 2 of them incase I ruin one. This should just fit in there. I expect it spins far too fast for what I want, but I will mock it up first with a potentiometer and see how low I can get it - but really I think I'll just need to take what I get as this really seems to be the absolute bottom end of what's readily available on the market just now. Since I had the stuff out, I made a move on the sponsons. Whirlybird provides sponsons with separate end plates; one with floats for the HH-3F "Pelican" used by the Coast Guard, one plain as used on some of the CH-3C utility versions and one with the pylon for extended range fuel tanks. The fit isn't great unfortunately. I spent a while trying to make sure the pylons were aligned and looked like they would be at the same angle of incidence as each other - I don't want one fairly long, spindly fuel tank pointing up and one down! I've had this stuff for a while but have never used it, so thought I'd give it a go It's like Milliput but seems a bit softer and easier to knead/mix than my packets of Milliput. That said, my Milliput has always been quite old whenever I've used it - mixing epoxy putties always seems a real faff so I'll use solvent types normally. For resin here though this is probably more suitable. Thanks for looking in. This won't be fast paced - and indeed I need to wait for motors to arrive, but I will work away at it along with my other projects. I'm not always in the mood for shaping / painting / photo etch / sanding / scribing so I like having different models at different stages of build and pick up whichever I'm in the mood for. I'm not a linear person.

Italeri 1/48 C130K - Markings are mainly Xtradecal I flew in XV185 during an RAF Lyneham family day back in the eighties. They used to take the kids up for a flight and how some were not lost out the back when the ramp came down is still a mystery. Current status on XV185- scrapped 🙁 This was built over a decade ago and was badly damaged in transit from the UK to Oz. Not flak as such, just over stressing the airframe due to my packing. Fuel tanks detached, fin partially detached. Now partially repaired with undercarriage raised. It's a bit big so stands on its side on a shelf in the den. Today has been such a beautiful autumn day I thought I would give it an air, although I found the direct light a bit harsh for photography.

I haven’t finished anything since the Tilly, so I dug out some of my early builds. This one is from about 10 years ago and is the Italeri Crusader Mk.lll. I did a bit of detailing on it such as replacing the slats at the rear with thinner card, adding the fuel line from the auxiliary tank and used the etched set from Eduard. I also replaced the main gun with one from RB models. It’s painted in a plain G3 green (I think) using Tamiya paints, and is based on a tank of the 17th/21st Lancers in Tunisia in 1943. Thanks for looking. John.

Hi all, After having had a bit of a hiatus, this is my second posting within a few weeks so I can get on with it when I put my mind to it 😝 This time round, I chose a kit I've had in my stash for a while - the Italeri Hs 129. This is actually the first Italeri kit I've built and apart from the odd bits here and there that took more effort, the kit went together well and I think it has really good levels of detail for 1/72. I bought this kit because the Hs 129 has always intrigued me - purely because of it's shape - as it has an almost triangular fuselage which is very unusual. There was also a good choice of schemes to complete the kit in - a couple of Eastern front schemes, a Romanian version and then the one I chose which was Hs 129 B-2 - 4 (Pz.)/SG, Castel Benito, Libya 1942. I was drawn to the mottling for this scheme used to blend the aircraft into it's surroundings in the desert environments. I've never done any amount of mottling before so decided to bite the bullet and give it a go - hopefully I've done it justice So here goes - my Libyan tank buster - hope you like it and as always you're feedback and comments are greatly appreciated. Kris

Hello all, for my entry I will be building Italeri's A10. The kit come with four decal options 2 European green schemes and 2 low vis grey schemes but one has the shark mouth and the later the snake teeth options. I haven't decided which on to build as yet as the kit is not right for a or c model. Just found the Print scale decal sheet which has an experimental camo with warthog tusks and nostrils, 3 tone brown camo looks unusual. Now that the Blackbird is finished I can get started on this one. IMGA0746 by neil Connor, on Flickr

Just finished this one, Italeri's 1/72 SR-71. Built OOB with PJ Production French High Altitude Flight Crew which are excellent, even used the kit decals for the most part worked well. The kit had raised panel lines which I have rescribed, a first for me but went quite well. As its built in flight it only has 38 parts, very low for such a large aircraft. Finished in Tamiya paints. IMGA0825 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0823 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0822 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0821 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0820 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0819 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0818 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0817 by neil Connor, on Flickr As usual any comment are welcome.

Hi, I'll join with this kit; It's Typical 90's Italeri kit, raised, and simple details, based on prototype of the Tiger. But, a good friend of mine gave me this kit, and what way to honor him better than to build it, right? The build is straight forward, and coming rather quickly. After the cockpit and few sub assemblies I thought.yhis going to be a quick build But a dry fitting session afterwards proof the otherwise This gonna be fun.. Cheers, Mario

Just finished this 1/72 Italeri jaguar GR3 for my grandson. Depicted as the final flight from Coningsby in 1990 (although Sgt Vernon's name on the side comes from the final taxi at Cosford I believe?), The kit is very straightforward but the decals are a bit 'challenging' so buckets of microsol were required! Pilot figure is an awful Sword (I think?) figure from the spares box, but all I had at short notice unfortunately.

Morning folk's,second build for the Dakota GB is this Italian schemed version from the 1960's,two thing's I usually avoid are white or silver scheme's! Anyway Halford's white and Humbrol silver from rattle can's were used and turned out OK the kit is getting on a bit now but still build's well the only issue I had was the decal's as the white hasn't a lot of density,as I had two set's I was able to "double up" which helped a lot.Many thank's for looking in.

Saved from the shelf of doom, I started this kit couple of years ago under rather funny circumstances. It all started with me having a go at the rather modern Hobby Boss F-5E only to discover its biggest glaring issue - the windscreen being way too short. To remedy the problem, I bought a water damaged Italeri kit off of eBay mostly for its clear parts. Seeing that the Italeri had the right shark nose and squared off LERXs seen on most US aggressor aircraft, I wondered if the HB kit was worth proceeding with. Eventually, I used the Italeri canopy as a basis to form a new windscreen for the HB kit and decided I would do a twin Tiger build. Long story short, I ran out of steam midway and both kits were packed away after reaching primer stage. Fast forward to 2019, I was looking for something to 'finish off quickly' and came across these two again. I decided to just focus on completing the Italeri while I used decals from the HB boxing. I made some minor mods to better represent the subject aircraft, nothing crazy. Modifications made were - Seat headrest changed to improved style (using putty to build the headrest buttress), scratch built the canopy lift mechanism and fashioned an ACMI pod using styrene pipes. The canopy lift feels like an absolute must have for anyone building 1/72 F-5s and took the most time on my build to get right. This is quite characteristic of the F-5 and I have no idea why kit manufacturers decided to leave it out. This was finally finished off over the last week since so much work was already done. I was too lazy to use blu tac on the camo and ending up free-handing it at 1 bar psi. I think it turned out OK. Hope you all like it.

So for a change from the WW2 subjects I have been working on so far this year I have started the Italeri SR-71 Blackbird in 1/72. IMGA0767 by neil Connor, on Flickr Its a 2011 rebox originally released in1985 so has fine raised panel lines, I haven't decided if I am going to re-scribe it as yet. It will be built in flight for 3 reasons, first it won't fit in my display case on its wheels and needs to be at 30 degree angle, secondly the wheel well detail is minimum and I don't want to buy the etch set as I only paid £10 for the kit and thirdly the Harrier GR3 I did in flight turned out pretty well so I thought I do it again Started on cockpit and undercarriage doors, will order a couple of pilots as the kit doesn't have any. IMGA0768 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0769 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0770 by neil Connor, on Flickr The front undercarriage doors needed some sanding to be flush but otherwise fitted well. IMGA0771 by neil Connor, on Flickr And a quick comparison with the Zero I still working on.

Italeri 1/35th scale General Motors DUKW with Master Box 1/35th scale World War 2 era women and Tamiya 1/35th scale World War 2 British soldiers: More photos and build info on my web site: https://everardcunion.com/plastic-models-2/plastic-models-land-vehicles/plastic-dukw/

So, here we are. I'm not ready after more than a year of waiting. No point in having an extensive discussion of the Italeri M47 kit here; it is almost as old as I am, and has been around the block a few times. That said, it holds up well compared to any other armor kit from the 70s, and is still a good model today. Someone at Italeri poured a lot of love 💓 into this model box then, and it still shows. Here's a look at just a few of the boxings of it out there through the years.

Ready for inspection is my Italeri 1:72 FW 189 A-1 / A-2. I have built this kit straight from the box, using Vallejo acrylics. This is a fantastic little kit, great instruction booklet, clean detailed sprues, and fantastic selection of decals. I opted for the winter distemper paint scheme, and attempted the hairspray technique to distress the paintwork. Several of my practice attempts at this went well, however on the actual build disaster struck and I had to remove all the white top coat, and start again. Second time proved lucky and I am pretty happy with the finished results. Thanks for looking.

Here with my recently finished Italeri 1/32 Mirage IIIE What can I say about this kit? Well I love Mirages and particularly the Mirage III. If I didn't, this kit would be in the bin! Soft and sometimes incomplete surface details. The surface is rough. The instructions are unclear in a number of areas. The nose cone in particular and some other major parts are poorly fitting - in fact I would go so far as to say the nosecone is an appalling fit for a modern kit! The wheels are a joke - the tread on the main wheels, well, what there is, bears no resemblance to the real thing. I wasn't helped by a strangely moulded canopy which didn't even start to fit and was strangely flexible (Italeri did replace this after an argument). The afterburner area is horrible! The indicated position of the holes to mount the underwing fuel tanks are in the wrong place and if, like me, you choose the large 1700l tanks, they foul the U/C doors. I filled and repositioned after much swearing. The sprue with the ECM pods on has some weird short shot areas, luckily on the inside, out of sight (though I am going to tackle Italeri again for some replacements). I certainly didn't find this easy. I was going to use some Berna decals and build something a little different but ultimately, the kit did not seem worth it to me so I went with the kit decals which worked superbly - but some of the decals are horribly over-scale and unreallistic. In the end, it looks quite nice but I am truly fed up with it now so I'm calling it finished. I did intend to do some more weathering/chipping etc and I may go back to it later. I replaced the nose probe with a Master turned one and I replaced the wheels with IIIC ones from Eduard which luckily include the later E type brakes. So without more ado - some pictures (And yes, I do need a bigger base LOL!) Cheers Malcolm

Hello. Here is my Italeri 1:72 Junkers Ju 188A-2 U5+KH, of 1./KG2, Luftwaffe, based at Bron, Lyon, France, autumn 1944. I completed this kit in 2005. The cockpit was incorrect so I scratchbuilt a new one. The top turret interior was also modified as that of the kit was more correct for the Ju 188E/F variant. The exhaust flame dampeners came from a scrapped Dragon He 219, if I recall correctly. Several other details were added. The main scheme was painted with an airbrush. Decals came from a Begemot sheet. Thanks for looking and, as always, all comments are welcome Miguel

This is my first entry for this gb: an Italeri's 48th scale A-10. I will build it in old camo scheme. The box some bits to detail my model ciao Ale

Hello all, Placeholder for my specialist GB build, the Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird from the Italeri kit: Cheers, Mark.

T-34/85 Zavod 183 Mod.44 (6545) 1:35 Italeri The T-34 gave the German invaders something of a shock when they first encountered it during operation Barbarossa, their attempt at conquering the Soviet Union, and they were instrumental in reversing the tide through both their impressive performance and weight of numbers, due to their simple construction and the overwhelming industrial capability of the Russians. Even when the Germans were knocking on the gates of Moscow and Stalingrad, production was shifted lock-stock-and-barrel further east with barely a flicker, and in Stalingrad there are stories of fresh tanks rolling off the production lines and almost straight into combat. The simple design used tried and tested technology, together with innovative sloped armour that increased its effective thickness when hit in the horizontal plane. It was initially fitted with a powerful 76mm gun, but when this proved less able to penetrate the frontal armour of the Tiger, it was upgraded in 1943 with a bigger ZiS 85mm gun, which was equipped with a larger three-man turret that reduced the combat load on the crew, enabling the commander to concentrate more on the task in hand. It's diesel power plant gave it a good speed over most terrains, and as production ramped up there were over 1,000 produced each month, plenty to replace losses and more besides. The 1944 mod introduced a simplified new gun, improved crew layout, better sight and the radio moved into the turret to take advantage of increased space. The Kit This is a complete new tooling from Italeri, and shouldn't be confused with older toolings and collaborations, as it's a different animal. It arrives in a standard box with a fetching painting of the subject matter ploughing past ruined German armour, and inside are four sprues in dark green styrene, one in grey styrene, two lengths of insulated cable, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, two rubbery tracks, decals sheet and the instruction booklet. The tooling is well-detailed, and as well as the rubber tracks there is also a full set of link-and-length styrene tracks, which should please almost everyone. What will also please many is the inclusion of a complete interior, even down to the engine compartment, the parts for which are on the grey sprue, so may have been a later addition. Construction begins with the lower hull, which has slots for the suspension, and circular holes for the drive sprockets, which are glued together from two halves, and fitted to a cone-shaped moulding with a cap inside to allow you to leave the idler movable. The suspension units are added to the inside of the hull with springs in diagonal housings, comprising two sections on each side, leaving enough room for the engine, which is next. You don't get a full engine, but the detail is plenty for the installation. The firewall has the engine top slotted into the back, and the aft of the engine with big fan is attached to the aft end of the top panel. The exhausts and large fan are glued in place, and the assembly is dropped into the hull, locating on tabs in the floor. The final drive housing is built up and dropped in behind the engine, and a set of ammo boxes double as a turret floor in the centre of the hull, with the driver's controls fitted at the front with some rather arm-chair style seats for driver and bow gunner. A scrap diagrams shows the correct position for the tools, controls and air bottles, after which the suspension and wheel set are glued in place, with nice detail on the wheels and their treaded rubber wheels, which are moulded-in. They fit onto swing-arms with stub axles in pairs that fix into two holes each in the sides of the hull to ensure the correct angle. The idler wheels are also added at this stage with their axle, two-part sprocket and hub cap holding it in place, and allowing it to rotate too if you're sparing with the glue. The final drive cover fits from underneath, with a note telling you to install parts 38A after adding the towing cable later, and then you can choose which style of tracks you'll be using. The rubber-band tracks are the simple option, and are moulded in a gun metal plastic that can be glued using super glue (CA). You can even forego painting them if you hate that sort of thing. The more complex option is to use the included link and length tracks, which have more detail, and will leave you with the correct faceted appearance where the tracks wrap around the ends of the runs. The top sections are each moulded as one piece, the bottom sections in two parts, while the curved sections are individual links, which are each made from two plates. More care will be needed for this option, but the results will be improved, and even more so with careful painting and weathering. The upper hull needs 11 small holes drilling out before you begin its assembly, mainly for the later mounting of fuel tanks, so get those out of the way before things get busy, or you might regret it. The louvers for the engine deck are inserted from the inside, and the hull is then turned over and detailed from the topside, with a central engine hatch and a big radiator box on top of the aft louvers, which has a two layer PE grille glued over its aperture after gently bending it to fit the curve of the box. Another two boxes with louvered parts are added to the sides of the engine deck, and a little tool box gets added to the starboard fender at the rear, then spare track links are assembled and lashed down with PE straps, with an additional length pinned across the glacis plate. The glacis plate also has the ball machine gun mounted and the large driver's hatch, which can be fitted open or closed and must have been a bullet-magnet when open. This is then fitted to the hull over the inner front panel, the turret insert is added, and three fuel drums are fixed to the hull sides along with some pioneer tools, more stowage, lights and shackles glued in place, with an overhead diagram showing their correct location. The two hull halves are married up, the front fenders added, and yet more barrels, this time smoke dischargers are added to the rear bulkhead skin, which is a separate part. The armoured exhausts are assembled and fitted to the apertures on the skin, and a central access hatch can be modelled open or closed. The whole rear bulkhead can be posed open on its hinge-points, and a PE lip is included on the brass sheet to give this a more realistic look. The exhaust pipe tips sleeve onto the main exhaust during the closing process, although the break-point looks slightly different from the pictures I have seen, so if you want to add a little more realism, drill out the ends of the pieces and add a collar near the end of the fixed part of the exhaust that comes out of the mufflers. The tip that is visible outside the tank already has a hollow end, which is nice. As yet the tank is turret-free, so the next steps rectify this with a full breech, ready rack holding 12 rounds, sighting equipment with gunner's stool attached, and the relocated radio gear, as well as a couple of periscopes in the roof. The commander's hatch has a periscope built into the front half, and can be posed open by gluing them into the ring in an appropriate position, then mating them with the cupola ring. This and the gunner's hatch are fitted to the top of the turret along with a couple of mushroom vents, various tie-downs and rails, while the mantlet with cover, two part styrene gun barrel and cheek armour are added during the mating of the top and bottom sections. These cast turrets weren't put together with extreme care, and the joints are sometimes horribly rough, so check your references and decide what they look like in the flesh. The turret has a nice sand-cast texture moulded-in, as does the mantlet, rear bulkhead and final drive panel. The barrel is split horizontally, so there's a seam to fix there, and once that's in place, the turret fits to the hull, locking with a bayonet fitting. The last job is to create the towing cables from the two insulated wires that are included in the box. You cut them to length, twist the strands as you slide off the insulation, then glue the styrene towing eyes to each end, draping them over the fenders and attaching them on the shackles as indicated. Markings There are four decal options from the box, all of which are painted Russian/Soviet Green, and one is over-painted with white winter distemper camouflage. Each tank has unit markings, as well as some additional markings and emblems. From the box you can build one of the following: 9th Guards Tank Corp, 2nd Guards Tank Army – Berlin, Apr 1945 64th Guards Tank Brigade, 1st Guards Tank Army – Pomerania, Feb 1945 44th Guards Tank Brigade – Yugoslavia, Spring 1945 2nd Motorcycle Tank Battalion, 1st Tank Corp, 2nd Polish Army – Jul 1945 The decals are printed by Zanchetti in Italy for Italeri, and have good sharpness and colour density. They are all either black or white, so there's no issues with registration either, as there isn't any! Colours are called out in Italeri acrylic paint codes, as well as FS numbers, which should be a help if you use another brand. Conclusion It's nice to see Italeri moving with the times, including PE and metal towing cables with their kits, and options to please modellers with different needs, such as the two track options here, and with this being a popular subject it should sell well, particularly with their wide distribution network. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi guys! Im new here and this is my first post (fingers crossed ). Its been nigh on 25 years since i last built a model, and wanted to make my brother something special for his 50th birthday. This is an Italeri 1:24 Ford Escort MK II RS 1600 kit, I didn't go with the paint or decals as I was trying to reproduce what my brother had built himself IRL, the RS Mexico version of the MKII. some pics of the model, with some of the real thing at the end. Still getting to know my airbrush and paints, things sure have changed in the past 2 decades Painted with a mix of Tamiya X and LP with dash of Italeri acrylics. Looking forward to reading the critique. Tips on the airbrushing side are very welcome, just couldn't get a nice even gloss for the life of me.

I am about to begin building Italeri's 1:72 FW 189 A-2. I was lucky enough to receive this kit for Christmas, having been keeping an eye on it on several online shops. I love the twin boom, and huge greenhouse effect cockpit of this aircraft, and in its winter distemper colour scheme of 'Heeres-Aufklarungsgruppe 32' it looks like a mean bit of kit. So let's look at what the kit has in store.... As usual the box art is beautiful, and the instruction booklet is detailed and clear, has the option of 4 colour schemes and decals suit your choice of build. There are 3 grey sprues, which appear free from flash, and have a nice amount of detailing, with panel lines that are not too deep. Then there are four clear pieces, these are going to take quite a lot of attention and time to mask up properly (but should be worth it in the end). This is going to be a straight from the box build, with landing gear down. I have decided to build the scheme of FW 189 A-2, Heeres-Aufklarungsgruppe 32 based in Finland, 1943. This is the aircraft pictured on the box art, and I have chosen that scheme firstly because it looks stunning, and secondly because I want to test my skills airbrushing the winter paintwork. I only hope I can come close to doing it justice.

So I thought it may be interesting to record my journey building only my second boat, the first being Revell's 1/72 U boat Type VIIc. Whilst I'm pleased with how this turned out the Elco 80 presents a specific challenge for me, it's made of wood! If you wear the paint away that's what you should see, wood. The bigger scale also really appeals and my hope is to produce a much more subtle weathering effect than my usual efforts. Mr U Boat got me some of the way there so let see what I can do with this one. I have a plan of attack that I hope will work but more on that as I progress. So here's the kit: I also have the Eduard PE set for this kit which should add some additional interest, not to mention some Anglo Saxon! I'd better hide the swear box now!

This is gonna be my dad´s first 1/35 build since over 20 years. He will try to recreate one of the GMC trucks he drove during his conscript time in the Austrian Army in 1966. Our Jimmys had steel beds, so the Tamiya kit wasn´t an option. Between the Italeri and the Heller kit, my dad chose the latter one because it includes a canvas for the rear. DSC_0009 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr Here´s my dad back then 🙂 Scannen0004 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr Scannen0003 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

My entry will be Italeri's C-47 finished as an aircraft operated by Buffalo Airways using the Leading Edge decals.

Hi All, I hope I can build this subject this year. There are couple others before in pipeline and I have some questions related to topic. D-AFFT was quite special plane. It was operated by Hansa Luftbild and this was basically unit to get intel information outside Germany before war. This plane crashed in Helsinki Malmi airport 1.10.1939 and crashed plane was returned quietly back to Germany. My first question is: Was this plane carrying cameras and if so where those were located? Second is: Should I use Revell kit as a starting point or Kora conversion set? Scan is from Suomen ilmailuhistoriallinen Lehti 2/1996