Search the Community

Greetings, I wish to get involved with this GB with this little Airfix mustang that I bagged for about a fiver from Aldi (or Lidl I can’t remember). Not being particularly fond of the stars and bars, I found a nice decal sheet with a lovely 2 Squadron RNZAF aircraft. I seem to have a a soft spot for a nice roundel with a checkerboard. This should hopefully be a relatively quick and straightforward build once I get started! Famous last words... Cheers, Ash

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!

We've been asked a few times now so we have released a small range of colours particular to the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Our RNZAF national listing also references British and American paints commonly used by the RNZAF during WW2. Here though we've presented only the main specials which differed from those which we already make. As can be seen, these are the BALM S13-934 Blue Sea Grey in both fresh and faded forms, along with BALM S13-907 Sky Grey and BALM S13-909 Duck Egg Blue. Thanks for looking in

Hello everyone. Today 25.04 ANZAC Day, and in honor of this day i introduce my old model PV-1 Ventura in RNZAF colors. Model was build 5 years ago. Best regards. Michael.

Hello folks. I introduce my Corsair, this model was built last year. I used TAMIYA kit & XTRADECAL for RNZAF scheme. Best regards. Michael.

Hi there, As the title say, are there any aftermarket decals for RNZAF Skyhawks out there, covering all the aircraft's career? I've got a Novascale sheet, but this cover only the A-4G early in their RNZAF service. IIRC, there was also Gekko Graphics, but I don't know if they're still around? Any idea, or others optionss?

This is Academy's 1/72 P-40M/-N done up as the well-known NZ3148 G/"Gloria Lyons" on the strength of No. 4 Servicing Unit of the Royal New Zealand Air Force's Fighter Wing, operating through the Solomon Islands from October 1943. Gloria Lyons was a 19-year old spinal tuberculosis patient in hospital in Christchurch who had become a pen-pal of several members of the squadron, and was 'adopted' as a mascot by the unit as a whole. This was the first of four aircraft that would be named in honor of Miss Lyons---(3) P-40s and an F4U Corsair---each earlier aircraft crashing, lost in action or otherwise being taken out of sevice. NZ3148 was damaged in crash landing at Torokina on Bougainville island on 09 February 1944; the engine failed just prior to landing and the aircraft missed the runway, hitting a mound of earth and somersaulting. Sergeant Pilot Charles Woods of No. 18 Squadron was unhurt. The airframe was written off the books in March of that year. [For those who are curious...Miss Lyons herself eventually recovered, married, and moved to Australia; she had a long life, passing away in 1998.] NZ3148 was a P-40N-1, similar to the earlier -M model, still with older-style canopy and six wing guns. Scheme was the factory-applied standard OD & neutral gray with Medium-green 'blotch' pattern on wing leading and trailing edges; white spinner, tail surfaces and fuselage bands were theater and unit markings. The Academy kit itself is basic but cleanly-molded, and comes with the option for the older style canopy with quarterlights aft (which I used) or the cut-down aft fuselage with 'greenhouse' style canopy. Kit isn't 100% perfect---a few gaps and some shape issues here and there---but went together well with overall great fit. I used bits of both Eduard and Part etch sets, mainly to amp-up the simple kit cockpit (most of which is barely visible), and as a more-articulated option to the single-piece cowling flap assembly beneath. Decals came from the excellent AeroMaster RNZAF set (SP72-10), and---as per my previous experience---were utterly trouble-free. These birds were hard-used and at the end of a long and iffy supply chain, and photos show them heavily-weathered. I used a combination of washes, dry-brushing and pastel highlighting to try to make it look suitably 'bitty.' I've always found the long-tail P-40 marks the most elegant-looking of the lot, and few were more attractively-marked than the Kiwi birds of the RNZAF. Hope you enjoy!

This one fought me somewhat, but I got there in the end. It was missing an air intake and its canopy, so some old-school modelling was needed to finish. The underlying kit is a FROG issue of the Hasegawa mould - I am told that there are shape issues, particularly around the nose, and that the hump is too rounded, but it is a good kit to assemble and it looks OK to me! Replacement air intake from Milliput, moulded using another kit and some silicon mould material: Replacement canopy, crash moulded again using another kit, Milliput and silicon mould, then acetate, a hair dryer and some force! Looks OK, but a little Tippex filler needed: And Voila: .... As always, everything is hand brushed using Humbrol enamels. and finally, for comparison, I built the same kit a few years back as an A-4G, without a hump, but with decals courtesy of Modledecal: FredT

From other end of the scale after working on my Monogram F-106 comes this 1/144 Canberra. It is by A-model and I think I used nearly as much filler on this as I did on my Airfix 1/48th Canberra. To allow for multiple variants the nose centre section and tail are separate assemblies so alignment was fun. I'm not sure I got it right though. Like it's 1/48 scale counterpart no matter how much lead shot I packed into the nose it was still going to be a tail sitter so as with the real thing a prop was placed under the rear fuselage. I reshaped the nose to remove the bomb-aimers window to create a T.13 nose then disaster struck and I ruined the canopy. Hence the black painted cockpit. Something that looks ok-ish in 1/144 but I reckoned the chances of a replacement part were less than zero. The decal are mixture of the kit, which surprisingly nice, Xtradecal for the codes and the silver ferns on the roundels are hand painted. As always thanks for looking.

Way back in October of last year I entered the Mustang Single Type Group Building with two Airfix F-51Ds in 1/72. Both aircraft were to be RNZAF/TAF Mustangs from the 1950s. One based from my home city (Auckland) the second from the home of my father's family (Wellington). I managed to finish the first aircraft during the group build, the Auckland based aircraft. I've been plodding along with my Wellington based aircraft ever since and am happy to share it with you all here today. Natural metal is Alclad Airframe Aluminimum over Humbrol gloss black. The level of shine is captured by the underside photo. The wings were filled in, sanded, and painted with decanted Tamiya AS-12. Decals from Ventura. Canopy is Squadron/Falcon and was intended for the Hasegawa kit, which meant it needed a bit of surgery to fit. Very happy with the result.

Now the F-14 is done , I'm onto the next project, a Hasegawa A-4K. I'll be doing a SEA A-4K from around the mid 1980's to replace the kit below which I trashed stripping it prior to wanting to repaint it This will be an in flight build so not much aftermarket, just the excellent Gekko Graphics decal and a seated pilot from Aerobonus. Anyone who has built this kit knows the fit isn't particularly great. This coupled with the, IMHO, far to fine panel lines means you can have a bit of fight on your hands. First step is to deal with the poor fitting intakes, basically the intake is not as wide as the kit so you end up with a step on the inside where the engine face piece mates with the middle part of the intake. The easy solution here is to cut the engine face in half. Then glue each half to the respective fuselage half. now you'll have no step and unless you've got a boroscope you can't see the centre of the engine piece once everything is together. I fitted the tubular piece, which simulates the CSD/CFG roughly in the centre of one of the cut pieces. As you can see, no sign of the split and we haven't put on the rest of the intake, which makes the gap even smaller

Hi all, I recently completed this a few weeks ago and I decided to upload it here. The build wasn't that enjoyable and I'm not to pleased how it turned out to be honest . The decals are just a bunch of markings I had spare so it is in no way historically accurate

Inspired in part by Mrs Plastix and her brilliant depiction of the Tamiya Komatsu bulldozer, I am looking to start building a Pacific Theatre base for a number of RNZAF 1:48 Aircraft. This needs to be a crushed coral runway and airparks, the bulldozer will be repairing bomb damage (I think). So the question, how to make 1:48 scale crushed coral. I am thinking crushed kitty litter might be a good start and or crushed plaster wall board? Any ideas greatfully explored. Cheers Pinetree

Well I’ve been neglecting this section for a wee while unfortunately and I think there may be a couple of stalled build threads somewhere in here as well!!!! Anyway time to sort of make amends, I hadn’t planned this build at all, it sort of happened as an accident. Well an accident caused by a wally who didn’t check his research before buying stuff for a build!!! That and I still blame Beelzebub for creating that which is call F-16 block numbers!! Only the work of the devil could make them soooo confusing! Anyway the upshot of all this is I have a completely spare F-16 that I didn’t know what to do with. So a solution is a nice simple Whif! So why an RNZAF one (hence the “K”), well I didn’t what another boring grey one and I really like the European 1 camouflage of the A-4K’s. So this is what I have to play with… a Block 52 F-16 I pinched the intake from and the now left over Block 50 intake! I know why not just build the white one as a 52…….well that would be just too easy…and an admission I’d completely stuffed it up in the first place! The colour scheme…well I’ve got a nice set of A-4 decals Gekko Decals on the way (thanks Richard). Weapons loadout….not sure yet, have heaps from the F-111, F1, and F-16 so will have a think about it. I’ll sort of be building this in parallel with the other F-16 which is for the F-16 STGB, so will start this one in a couple of week. Should be a nice simple build, and no mod work!!

Kit - Airfix 1:72 Paint - All enamels. Decals - Xtradecal. Extras - None. DH Vampire T.55 75 Squadron RNZAF Whenuapai 1969 Almost certainly my last finish for a couple of months as we're coming back to the 'old world' straight after New Year for a months holiday. This has been a delight, a vice-free build and I heartily recommend the Airfix Vampire to everyone.AFN Ian.

I'll be building two kits for this group build, two Airfix F-51Ds in RNZAF markings. These aircraft flew in the Territorial Air Force and only flew for a short period between 1951/2 to 1955 before being retired. They had arrived in New Zealand in 1945, but were put into storage due to the end of hostilities with Japan. I'll be building NZ2425, seen at the top of the Ventura sheet here. I believe this aircraft was still in its factory finish of natural metal with the panels joins in the wings filled in and the wings painted aluminium/silver. The roundels were painted directly over the American markings on the fuselage, upper port wing, and lower starboard wing. And NZ2413 seen here. This aircraft was repainted in high speed silver and had a cuffed propeller. According to Anderson's Mustangs of the RAAF and RNZAF when the Mustangs assembled 1951 the wings, control surfaces, and undercarriage doors were painted in high speed silver. I was going to give NZ2425 painted wings regardless as I believe they came this way from the factory, but I'm not sure about the control surfaces and undercarriage doors. Need to get myself a copy of the definitive Mustang resource, Southern Cross Mustangs, by David Muir. I originally wanted to depict NZ2415 in the markings of the Canterbury squadron of the Territorial Air Force. This used to be a popular aircraft flying at shows around the country, but I haven't seen it in the air for quite some time. However, I'm happy to be able to depict two Auckland based aircraft in different schemes from this sheet! I'd like to depict a few other Auckland aircraft in the coming years. I've got a Spitfire Mk Vb W3577 I'd like to build with the crest of the University of Auckland on the port side under the forward section of the canopy.

Next project, something quick and easy for the WW II category in next years comp. Plus I want the bench clear for the Tamiya Tomcat when it arrives Decided to go with the Eduard (Accurate Miniatures) SBD-5 Dauntless. I'm not sure what decal option I'll do but it'll obviously be a RNZAF one. Lots of PE in this box. Most of it was reasonably easy to apply even though it was a small I've used this as an exercise to improve my PE skils. This was quite successful

Hi Chaps I was just finishing a model after the Hunter STGB when I suddenly realised this one was already started. Where do the days go? Anyway I have the Italeri UH-1D which Im planning to do as an RNZAF Antarctic machine in signal red. I am actually torn between the RTAF and the RNZAF as I build both countries but only have 1 huey but I think the red scheme will win. Cheers Colin The finished pictures are all added into the last post on Page 3. Cheers Colin

Hi guys, I finished this one for the corsair GB and thought I would share it here. Any comments welcome. Painted with vallejo. Build thread is here, http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234997190-tamiya-148-f4u-1a-nz5248/. First time using resin which was abit of a challenge but enjoyable. Anyway picture time; Thanks for looking Joss

I'm up for this with a triple build of the excellent Tamiya kit in 1/72. I'll be doing a Birdcage Corsair as a Fleet Air Arm Mk.I, an F4U-1A boxing as a Brewster built Mk.III and an F4U-1D boxing as a post-war RNZAF aircraft. Decals will come from Xtradecal, Fündekals and Freightdog, wheels from Barracudacast and a sprinkling of etch from Eduard. Mark.

Along with the A-4M posted last night I have also finished this Kiwi A-4K Skyhawk. It's the Hasegawa 1/48 A-4E/F converted to an A-4K. The changes are all minor, and they are well described on the Gekko Graphics decal instructions. I used Xtracolor enamels for the SEA scheme and Gekko decals to finish it off. I armed it according to the Gekko instructions using a couple of LAU-10 fra the Hasegawa weapons set. Jens

Just a quick build of the great Starter Kit from Airfix of the de Havilland Vampire T.11, Royal New Zealand Air Force No.14 Squadron. Used the seatbelts and 'D' rings from the Eduard etch set. Alclad and Vallejo paints. Thanks for looking Kirk

Here are a few of the better images of my 1/48 RNZAF Corsair. It is OOB Tamiya kit with Ventura Decals markings for 'Tutae Wera' NZ5416 used in both No 3 and No 30 Servicing units RNZAF. Here are my completed Corsairs so far.

I was doing an RNZAF Mustang for an Aus/NZ GB, but couldn't decide which of the four squadrons to depict, so did all of them! The kits are all Airfix, 3 F-51s and a P-51 and the decals are by Ventura. NZ2413 is the odd one out from the P-51 box, as it was the only RNZAF Mustang to use the cuffed propellor, and the only one of the four in a painted HSS rather than factory painted/NMF finish (the models are a bit shinier/more distinctive than in the photos). These aircraft were operated by the RNZAF Territorials in the early 1950's and very well looked after, hence little to no weathering, with the checks being the provincial colours of each squadron. 1 Squadron (Auckland) 2 Squadron (Wellington) 3 Squadron (Canterbury) 4 Squadron (Otago) Thanks for looking

Oldmodels Decals announces the latest group of decals to move to its Digital Range. These are: RNZAF C130H Delivery scheme RNZAF C130H 1970s High Viz scheme Available in 1/48, 1/72 and 1/144 RNZAF B170 1960s scheme RNZAF B170 last scheme Available in 1/72 and 1/144 These decals are available through my website www.oldmodelsdecals.com or through TradeMe (NZ customers only). For UK and Europe customers - S&M Models have been appointed my distribution agent in your neck of the woods. Stock should be with them within a month. John Oldmodels Decals