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Finish No5 for this year is Italeri's B58 Hustler in the rumoured SEA camo used on the Project Bullseye test program which used a B58 to use its sophisticated radar bombing system to guide a flight of F4 on night time raids of North Vietnam as the accuracy of the F4 was not great but it never got beyond trials due to political concerns that America latest most technical bomber could be shot down. The kit is not bad but has some issues with wing and engine mounting but otherwise is fairly straight forward. I used Caracal's decal set supplied by Billin after his excellent build last year, using the Project Bullseye test aircraft rather than doing a NMF scheme. There is 3 crew from Revells pilot set seated but only the pilot is still visible and the 4 Mk84's came from a Hasegawa weapon set. Paints are all Tamiya and no weathering was applied as the aircraft (if painted in this scheme) where on test for a short time. As usual all comment are welcome.

A recent build by my son Nathan. The Northrop YF-23 has always been a fascinating aircraft looking more like a Science Fiction object than a modern fighter. The Italeri kit is the better rendition in 1/72, the only other kit available being the Dragon one. To me the YF-23 has always been a better aircraft than the YF-22 that won the ATF contest. It's stealthier, better super cruise and certainly a much nicer looking design. The YF-22 was more agile. The official line regarding selection is that the selection panel "had more confidence in Lockheed in their production capability". An evolved YF-23 would have even been neater looking as conjectured in "The Warzone" https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/24911/this-is-what-a-northrop-f-23a-wouldve-looked-like-if-lockheed-lost-the-atf-competition I still think an evolved F23 would fly rings around the Su 57 or Chengdu J20. This model represents PAV-1 which was finished in a dark grey and had a "Black Widow" motif under the fuselage. The Italeri kit was pretty good except for some sinkage in the flaps which needed filling. The decals were replaced by a more accurate "Caracal" sheet. Nathan fitted a bunch of F15 etch to the cockpit which confused me until I read the reference which discussed how such parts were used to speed up the prototype. I have the Testors boxing of this kit (and the left over Caracal decals) to model PAV-2 (though the kit actually represents PAV-1). Cheers Michael

Now I have the Beaufighter finished I am starting this one, been after one since Billin's great build last year and ebay came up with this for £20. It will be done as the fabled Project Bullseye test aircraft in SEA over black camo with 4 mk84's on the underside pylons. I haven't decided if this should be an in flight build or not yet, if so I'll need some crew. Should be fun!

As I've nearly finished the S4 barring a couple of detail bits I'm waiting on, I thought I'd choose my next victim. As I'm running low on white paint and awaiting supplies, I thought I'd do the Stratos as I seem to have plenty of red to hand After all the detail of the S4 I thought this as a curbside kit would be easy and quick as there aren't too many parts, but looking at it I think I'm going to have to do a lot of de-seaming, flash removal and loads of filling sink marks, but that's all part of the hobby I suppose

Thats my first build up there, one I did a year a go - an Italeri Super Sabre. Was fun enough build to get me hooked again after a really long pause. I thought It would be fun to re-live that build with my current knowledge - but obviously with a twist, not gonna do the exact same build, but rather a Danish double seater. Here's the scheme. As far as I know, Danish Super Sabres were not NMF - but painted with aluminium paint, a rather dull and grey aluminium paint. Looking at the pics, first I thought they were painted ADC Grey as it was so grey. I can already imagine that bright red will look great against the aluminium and the heat stained rear end! Whats in the box. Simple stuff, only two sprues and the clear parts. Decals look still ok. Scheme and decals. This is the 1999 boxing of the kit. Details are okay, little bit soft maybe but considering this is a 1982 tooling, not bad at all. Rather simple clear parts. I had hoped to display the canopy open, but no luck. There are few things I'm hoping to do with this build - and one is scratchbuilding an intake tube. That is not a good look as it ends so sudden. Always a problem with these nose-intake planes. Not a big one - but still one that bugs me. No idea how I am gonna do it yet, but let's find out, shall we? Other thing is that this build will be titled 'SPRING' and it will be displayed on a simple display base. Not a diorama but something to liven up the build a bit. This build will be followed by three other builds fitting the overall theme, but more about them once/if we get there!

This is my Italeri AC-119K Stinger in 1/72. This is a mid 1980's vintage kit and it shows with its raised panel lines and somewhat fuzzy detailing. It was what I consider typical Italeri with good fit in some places and lousy fit in others. But on the whole it was a fun build. The decals that came with the kit were printer by Cartograf and while nice there were a bit minimalist, and were kind old so I went with the AOA Gunships: Raining Fire (I) set, also printed by Carograf and excellent. other then that it was OOB. The Vietnam era SEA color scheme it is a pain to do all that masking, but I really like the way it looks: It's hard to get a shot showing all the ordnance Next up it their AC-47 Spooky Enjoy

Italeri 1/72 Short Sunderland MkIII, always wanted to build one of these. Nice kit, unfortunately the painting didn't go according to plan, initially started with Tamiya Flat White which thinned with Levelling Thinners lays perfectly, but ran out part way through and finished with Revell Aqua White. What a mistake that was. Totally ruined the finish.. spent days trying to sand it back and find the motivation to finish it, but it never really came back, then topped off with Ultimate Weathering Wash sticking to the gloss surface despite being fully cured and smooth. Haven't added several aerials and rigging which I may add at a later date, but calling this one done before it ends up in the bin. Extremely frustrated. Didn't meet my expectations at all, but I guess with the current climate and worries an occasional unhappy build here and there is inevitable. Lots of lessons learnt on this one.

Did the Parachute Regiment use this type of stripped down Land Rover as produced by Italeri? I know they used a version for the anti-tank platoon’s WOMBAT wagons but I wondered if this version saw service with them, particularly during 3 Para’s BAOR tour in the seventies; contemporary pictures would be most welcome.

Introducing this Italeri Spitfire 6, This is my first long-wing, complementing several clipped-wings that I've built. Bought at Monk Bar Models, York in 2019, for £9.99. Parts. Options and decals

Good day one and all! Just seen the thread open so laying down my marker. I am going for Italeris Avenger in 1:48 (the old Accurate Miniatures kit). This one will be decked out as a Fleet Air Arm version, hoping to do a Pacific Fleet one. The only thing I have done is blow the dust off and give it a good wash! I will do the obligatory parts and accessories shots tonight and post them up tomorrow, along with more details on what version I am doing. Until then Laters! Bob

Hello, Here's my just finished 1/48 Hawker Typhoon Ib. It's the Italeri rebox of the Hasegawa kit. The Hasegawa kit is not without its issues, mostly around the cockpit, but Italeri added a whole bunch of more trouble. For some reason they included the 3 bladed prop only, while all the decal options are for 4 bladed ones, as far as I could find. The same goes for the horizontal tail surfaces, only one type is included, although I haven't researched if these are the original ones or the later Tempest type. Therefore they might be incorrect for my build. Other problems were the exhausts, and no mention about what to do with the landing lights in the wing leading edges. I had some problems finding good pics of the combination of 3 bladed prop with later canopy, but @KoenL and his 2 ATAF books helped me out. I settled on MM963, ZY-W of 247 Squadron flown by Flt.SGt. J.A.D Meechan at B.6 Coulombs some time after D-Day. The camouflage was done with Humbrol paints,, the invasion stripes are Tamiya, the markings and roundels etc were all done with Colourcoats using Maketar masks. The serials are cobbled together from a Spitfire sheet by Flevodecal. The exhausts are from Eduard. I'm glad it's finally finished. Thanks for looking, I hope you like it.

Part of the reason I bought and built the Lynx (RFI coming soon, honest) was to get my head in to the right space for building helicopters and hopefully do a better job of the Chinook as a result. I have the Italeri HC.2 / CH-47F kit which is a bit of a weird thing even before the get go, because (if I understand it) the HC.2 was the UK version of the D. Except for the Netherlands D, they had the analogue cockpit instruments. The CH-47F in contrast was the basis for the HC mk 6, which had the glass cockpit. I guess you could build either ( but not both!) from this kit, although it only comes with decals for the analogue cockpit so... Anyway The plan is to build ZA-712 ER of 7 squadron during its green HC2 phase. It features in the superb model alliance decals as an HC1 in 1991 / op Granby, but I want to make an HC-2 and I don't think I could pull off the black "scribbling" over desert pink camouflage. So I'm going to model the same aircraft, but from a later date when it was painted green, which means that I'll be using a combination of kit and Model Alliance decals. The reason I picked this aircraft is because 7 squadron is part of JSFAW which supports the UK special forces, meaning that I can include the beautiful miniguns that I bought from Live Resin. So, onwards. Cockpit first. The rear wall of the cockpit needs some detail removing and slightly bulking out the area where the PE goes as it doesn't quite look big enough. You can see it here. I added some PE to the cabin bulkhead, but I've read / seen that mostly the LHS is covered by soundproofing and often the RHS is too. I've ordered some clay "stuff" to make the sound proofing. In some of the pictures I saw the heater is partially exposed on the right, so I might go for something like that. More PE. It looks quite smart before it's painted black However, after painting it loses some of the detail. I tried to help by picking some of it out in a semi-gloss... Also, being all black makes it double-hard to photograph. Apparently. The PE instrument panel came out ok though Lastly it was on to the cargo floor which I did with the usual 2 shades of grey and a dirt wash. I'm hoping the wash will settle down a bit when I give it a coat of clear matt because I think I went a little bit over the top. Anyway, that's everything for now. Thanks for looking.

Although not of the standard of some of the Wessex Helicopters shown on these pages I have finally finished my latest work a 1/72 Italeri Wessex finished as an HU5 of Lee on the Solent SAR Flight, I wanted a Lee airframe as its my local Airfield. I have used the Eduard Etched sets and the Rotorcraft correction set, paint used was from the Hataka Public services paint set. As I said its not to the the standard of some of the Wessex Helos on here, but I'm quite pleased with it. IMGP3934 by Phillip Wilmshurst, on Flickr IMGP3932 by Phillip Wilmshurst, on Flickr IMGP3931 by Phillip Wilmshurst, on Flickr IMGP3938 by Phillip Wilmshurst, on Flickr Enjoy

Time to put my choice on show for rest of you. I have decided to build Italeri's 1/48 Ju-87D which I have had in the stash for a while which looks like a nice kit in the box with a good amount of detail in the cockpit and nicely moulded parts with no flash and recessed panel lines and even has a small etched fret included which has seatbelts and a few other cockpit and airframe details, the decal sheet looks to be to Italeri's usual hign standard and has markings for a few aircraft in a variety of schemes ranging from the standard RLM 70/71/65 to a winter wash and a nice squiggly one used for night raids over Italy towards the end of the war. I have chosen to build an aircraft operated by the Royal Hungarian Air force on the Eastern Front and whilst it is in the standard 70/71/65 scheme it does have nice colourful markings. Here is the usual selecion of pics of the box, what is inside it and some references, starting with the box top; The contents, Some references I will be using, And what it should hopefully look like, Hope to be able to make a sneaky pre-paint of the cockpit area soon. Thanks for looking in. Craig.

My second entry for this great GB from my stash - Italeri C47 with Nor-Fly decals, Norwegian airline from the 70's. This machine, LN-KLV used to be a regular visitor to Aberdeen, Dyce in 73, 74 before being replaced with Convair 440 equipment. The kit is Italeri which has nice recessed panel lines and is regarded as the best C47/DC3 in 1/72 scale. I will need to cut out a couple of passenger windows but I wont be building the passenger interior I dont think. Decals are Norwegian company Lima November - a mix of laser and silk screen for some reason - they look smart! Obligatory pre-start pics L Looking forward to a 'big' airliner!

Just finished the 1/48 A-10 Thunderbolt from Italeri, my first jet build. Had a lot of fun, learned a lot and there is enough room for improvement (just have a quick look at the canopy). I painted the model using spray cans. Starting with a white primer, Tamiya AS-28 and finishing with a matte varnish from Vallejo. The model has been weathered using some panel liner and a wash from Vallejo. For future projects I’m interested in buying an airbrush, tips are more than welcome.

Mirage 2000B No.527 / 115-OR, EC2/5 ‘Il-de-France’ Orange – Caritat, Languedoc, southern France, 2018 1/72 Italeri kit (‘Mirage 2000D’ boxing) Resin seats and added cockpit detail All antennas and ECM radomes rebuilt Modified fin shape Xtracolour enamel paints Decals from Revell Mirage 2000C kit and Syhart (badges and numbers) (Annoyingly, the photos seem to have a greenish tinge - it's blueish in real life!) Chris

I’ve not posted on here for some months now mainly due to a combination of other interests and work, but I’ve finally completed another build. It’s the 1:72 Italeri Merlin helicopter as featured in the 007 film ‘Skyfall’. It’s built OOB apart from some photoetch seatbelts and cockpit instruments and the weathering has been kept very low key as the 1:1 scale version in the film looks quite clean...until it crashes! The kit isn’t particularly well moulded with a few gaps here and there and the main rotor blades didn’t have any droop on them, but a heat gun and some judicious bending soon sorted that problem. Perhaps the most frustrating issue was that the instructions have omissions and inaccuracies which caused a fair amount of head scratching. As there aren’t too many detail photos of the real thing it was a challenge to recreate a reasonably accurate looking model. As just one example, the tail rotor painting detail in the instructions is nothing like the odd ball scheme on the real thing. Anyway, I’m calling it done as I’ve a tasty little Gloster Gladiator on the bench which needs my attention. Bill.

Introducing my Italeri JAS-39A Gripen, to be built straight from the box. The only eligable kit in my stash. Bought 2000, from Andy Pack Models, and costing £6.50. Here are the parts. I've got a 2001 SAMI review of the Revell version of this kit. Scalemates says they're the same, but for stores options. And the options available to me, undecided as yet. Edited with new photo - showing all 3 options.

Hi Chaps I dislike individual tracks on kits. Could I use the tracks off the 1/35 italeri fury on the Dragon Firefly because as I see it they are both the extended length tracks. The Fury kit has 2 sets of tracks so both kits can be built if I rob one set for the Firefly. Many thanks in advance Rodders

My next build is Italeri's 1:72 Wellington Mk IC. I have had this in the stash a while and am excited to begin building it as I live a few miles away from Moreton in marsh, which during WWII was home to Wellington bombers. The box contains a detailed set of instructions, decals and colour schemes for 6 aircraft and some lovely artwork. There are 5 grey sprues, and a clear sprue. All with a nice amount of detailing, and little flash, and it looks like a nice kit to build. I plan to build my aircraft straight from the box using Vallejo acrylics, in the colours of No. 304 Polish Bomber Squadron, RAF Costal Command 1942. I've already given the sprues a wash and primed the interior parts, so here goes!

Ready for inspection is my 1:72 Italeri Wellington Mk.IC. I found this one of my toughest builds, ill fitting pieces, poor moulding and a broken clear sprue all led to a long slow process. However, I do think the aircraft looks pretty smart in its coastal command colour scheme. It is a straight from the box build, painted using Vallejo model air acrylics. Thanks for looking.

I got the Italeri kit, not knowing that it was just the old Supermodel kit with some recessed panel lines; a bit disappointing. Maybe I should have gone for that Sword mega-box, but what on Earth am I going to do with 6 Reggianes? The 2001 is nice , but.. *mope-mope-mope* Anyways; onward. So I saw this neat trick on how to apply mottle camo with chalk powder. I forgot who posted those models here, but; big thanks! Made me very happy with the results, hope you like it too. Cheers, Luka

This will be my entry build to this group, Italeri's Junkers Ju 87B in Italian service, or "Picchiatello." Here's the box art: Several sprues in light grey plastic, one in clear plastic, and a single photoetch fret. And the decal sheet, nicely printed by Cartograf. It covers four schemes, two Italian, one British captured, and the legendary Snake Stuka B-2/R2. I won't start building this right now because I have an Me 262 on the bench, but this Stuka will be my next project.

I really should not be doing this with 2 other GB looming in 1 and 3 weeks respectively but my fifth and last build in this excellent GB will be the 2011 reboxing of Italeri's 2000 moulding of the Gripen. As far as I know it is exactly the same kit but with some rather fancy new decals for 4 aircraft from Sweden, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and South Africa. Unfortunately at least 3 of the machines represented seem to be the later and upgraded C model whilst the kit is still, I believe an A model! Fortunately I have been kindly offered some spare decs by other BM modellers so that I can produce a standard early Swedish version - thanks guys. Tim @theplasticsurgeon is building the earlier boxing on this GB and it seems to go together fairly quickly, so I will risk starting it as my Viggen is not too far from completion hopefully - I just hope I don't regret it later!. At least, unlike my Lansen and to some extent my Viggen it comes with a full load of underwing stores - Sidewinders, Mavericks, some sort of cruise misslile, a drop tank and what is either a jamming or targeting pod. Must do a bit of reasearch to see what they actually are! More as and when. Pete