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Just finished this kit and crew a few days ago.

Austin Armoured Car 1918 Pattern (39009) British Service, Western Front 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd Armour became an important part of WWI, seeing the first fielding of the Tank by the British, and numerous types of armoured car that saw various uses. At the beginning of WWI Austin’s armoured car was built on their civilian chassis, with light armour and two Maxim machine guns in separate turrets, one firing to each side, front and rear. Many were destined for Russia, but after the Russian Revolution in 1917 some of the later variants were used in British service. One such version was the 1918 Pattern, which had double rear wheels, thicker armour and used the Hotchkiss machine gun instead. A batch of 1918 Pattern vehicles were manufactured for Russia, but were never delivered, with a batch handed to the newly formed Tank Corps, to be utilised in battle using a novel method of deployment. Tanks would tow them across the battlefield through no-man’s land, after which they would peel off and roam freely along and even behind enemy lines. They caused chaos and were almost too effective, ranging miles behind enemy lines at times, and set the scene for the Armoured Car and Infantry Fighting Vehicle of wars yet to come. At the end of the Great War some were returned to the UK and repurposed, but many that were formerly in Russian possession found their way into the inventory of other Eastern European countries, and a small batch were even used by the Japanese, who were British Allies in WWI. Some of those were still in service up until just before WWII. The Kit This is a reboxing of last year’s newly tooled kit, with new parts to accurately portray the later mark included, including the new rear axle and wheels. It arrives in standard-sized top-opening box with a painting of the vehicle on the front, and inside are fifteen sprues and six wheels in grey styrene, a sprue of clear parts, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) in a card envelope, a decal sheet and the instruction booklet that has colour profiles inside the front and rear covers. It’s an Interior kit, so some of the sprues are small, but you get a lot of detail moulded-in, thanks to MiniArt’s diligent designers that make full use of techniques such as slide-moulding, which helps improve detail without creating too many additional parts in achieving this goal. Construction begins with the ladder chassis, which is built up from two longitudinal rails held apart by various cross-members, some of which have mounting points and pass-throughs for other parts such as drive-shafts for the rear wheels. The engine has its own bearer rails, and it is built up on the sump with a good number of parts, plus a note of where the high-tension leads should go, which you’ll need to make yourself. You are officially an “experienced modeller” if you go to those lengths. The transmission fits to the rear of the rails behind the engine, then they are dropped into the chassis as a unit, and joined by a number of ancillary parts, controls and a chunky radiator. Exhaust and leaf-spring suspension along with bumper irons are glued to the inverted chassis, and the rest of the driver controls are attached to the topside, even before the cab is started. The rods that turn control movements into actions are threaded through the chassis rails, or can be replaced by 0.3mm wires of your own stock, with PE tensioning mechanisms supplied if you choose this option. The big rear axle with drum brakes and the front axle with steering arms are fabricated and attached to their relevant suspension mounts, with more control linkages for the handbrake and steering joining things together. Finally, a little bodywork is attached, initially at the sides of the engine compartments in preparation for the gluing of the swooping front arches, then each axle gets a wheel at both ends, made up from single-part hubs at the front, and mated double hubs at the rear onto which the six cross-treaded tyres are fitted, each one having a slide-moulded seam where the sidewall and tread meet, removing the need to sand and scrape at the lovely tread pattern, simplifying preparation and preserving detail. That’s a good thing, and something I’d like to see more of. Now standing on her own six wheels, the floor of the fighting compartment and the crew cab plus the firewall and various small fittings are placed on the top of the chassis, with another insert providing the bases for the two turrets that have pivot-points in the centre for the machine gun mounts. Various stowage boxes are made up and sat next to the (shocker!) rear steering wheel assembly, which also has a simple seat for getting out of hot water and dead-ends just that little bit easier. Two more substantial crew seats are attached to the front along with steps at the sides, then the somewhat complex upper hull is built sensibly in a step-by-step fashion that stops the modeller from being over-faced. Several raised features should be removed from parts before fitting, and additional rivets are shown being added in various other locations, which you can slice from the flat section of the two Ck sprues, unless you’ve got a set of Archer raised rivet transfers. The clamshell crew flap can be posed open to give a wider view of the battlefield for the drivers by using two styles of rods, and when in battle it can be closed down, restricting the driver to a letterbox view of the world, which although frustrating is infinitely better than being shot. Plenty of scrap diagrams show the correct orientations of all the parts, so there’s little room for error unless you rush at it and don’t plan ahead. The hull has a number of doors that can be posed open and closed too, with vision flaps for additional situational awareness, and again there is a lot of hand-holding to get things in the right place. A number of small lights are dotted here & there, all with clear lenses for realism. Even the radiator has a remotely operated armoured cover, as engines overheating could become troublesome if the flap stays closed too long. The side-cowlings for the engine compartment can also be posed open or closed, and have small PE straps holding them closed. With the addition of the rear fenders, the hull/body is lowered over the chassis, and more stowage is located around the vehicle, including a rack of fuel cans on the front left to make sure they don’t run out behind enemy lines. Pioneer tools are attached to the sides of the car, and a pair of curved-ended unditching planks are strapped-on low down on the chassis sides by some folded PE brackets. Turrets are fun, aren’t they? You build up a pair of mounts for the Hotchkiss machine guns, including a tractor-style perforated seat for the operator and a large ammo can to feed the gun, which is fitted into a ball-mount that is glued up against the inner surface of the two-part circular walls. A few more of those slice-off rivets are glued to the top of the turret walls, mainly for detail purposes, as adding moulded-in rivets to a curved part is very hit & miss due to the way the parts are removed from the moulds. The roof is detailed with latches, searchlights on PE brackets and other small fittings, each one fitted open or closed as you see fit. There are two identical turrets included, and these drop into the circular cut-outs in the roof of the fighting compartment, held in place by gravity unless you fix them into position with a little glue. Markings There are a generous seven decal options on the decal sheet, with their five-view profiles printed in full colour on the glossy pages of the booklet, and while they all share the same basic colour, there is enough variety created by the unit markings to offer plenty of choice. From the box you can build one of the following: 17th Armoured Car Battalion Royal Tank Corps., Second Battle of the Somme, France, Aug. 1918 17th Armoured Car Battalion Royal Tank Corps., France, Summer 1918 17th Armoured Car Battalion Royal Tank Corps., Second Battle of the Somme, France, Harbonnières, Summer 1918 17th Armoured Car Battalion Royal Tank Corps., France, Summer 1918 17th Armoured Car Battalion Royal Tank Corps., France, Aug. 1918 17th Armoured Car Battalion Royal Tank Corps., Germany, Cologne, Dec. 1918 17th Armoured Car Battalion Royal Tank Corps., Germany, Cologne, Dec. 1918 Decals are by MiniArt’s usual partner Decograph, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion This peculiar early armoured car isn’t as familiar as the Mark.IV tank or the Whippet Light Tank, but it’s been great seeing MiniArt filling another gap in the available kits of WWI armour. Detail is exceptional as we’ve come to expect from MiniArt. Review sample courtesy of

Camel & Co Limited Edition Dual Combo Sopwith Camel (11151) 1:48 Eduard The Camel was a development of the earlier Sopwith Pup that entered service late in WWI and was an excellent fighter, although in typical form during warfare, it soon became outclassed and was relegated to ground attack duties where possible. It first flew at the very end of 1916, and was introduced into service in the summer of 1917 where it quickly became the Allies’ premiere fighter of the time, and was responsible for the most kills of any type during the conflict. It gained its unofficial name thanks to the cowlings around the twin Vickers machine guns that were intended to prevent them from freezing up at altitude. In flight it could be difficult to control for the novice, thanks to the close proximity of the weighty elements of the airframe toward the very front of the fuselage, which was one of the aspects that made it a nimble aircraft in a turn, which is crucial in a dogfight. Its reputation became quite a problem, so a two-seat trainer was created to help overcome the problem, and went on to see wide service both with the RFC, RAF, nascent USAS and with the RNAS. Its climb-rate and top speed led to its withdrawal as a fighter, to be replaced by the Snipe, which was capable of coping with the new German fighters that were coming on-stream, such as the Fokker D.VII. Its ground attack role involved strafing enemy trenches and dropping 25lb Cooper bombs, but attrition levels were high due to their proximity to their targets and a total lack of protection for the pilot and engine. The last Camels were withdrawn in 1920, long after the end of WWI, having seen a good deal of foreign service in the meantime. The Camel was famously flown by fictional RFC then RAF pilot James “Biggles” Bigglesworth in a long series of books penned by J E Johns during the 30s and beyond, up until the writer’s death in the late 60s. Why do I mention this? Read on, MacDuff. The Kit This limited-edition Dual Combo boxing is of Eduard’s new tool, and isn’t to be confused with their 2003 original. It also has a tie-in with Biggles, thanks to two of the decal options (A & being his “kite” from early and later in his WWI career. With it being brand-new, there’s a lot to look at, especially as everything is provided times two. Looking inside the well-appointed top-opening box there are six sprues in blue/grey styrene, two in clear, two nickel-plated Photo-Etch (PE) frets with colour printing on much of it, and two sets of kabuki tape masking (not pictured), pre-cut for your convenience. There are also two decal sheets, but they’re not duplicates, just an overflow onto a smaller sheet, while the instruction booklet is surprisingly chunky, partly thanks to the ten decal options in colour at the rear. So what’s in the box? Well, two of all the below: Construction of each of your two kits begins with the pilot’s seat, which was wholly inappropriately made from wicker. The back is either made from PE curved around the base, which has a perforated PE insert and has a horseshoe shaped styrene lip to the rear. There’s also a simpler alternative made from two styrene parts if you don’t feel up to wrangling PE, and that is made from two parts. The aft section of the cockpit floor is a very sparse set of slats across a pair of stringers, which the seat and the fuel tank sit upon, the tank sitting behind the pilot. The seat gets a couple of pre-painted PE lap-belts applied, then the instrument panel is made, with two options depending on which markings you have chosen. The panel can be made from a lamination of pre-painted PE parts with wood-grain printed on the front layer and the instruments on the rear. They are glued to a styrene back-plate, or you can choose the more simplistic styrene alternative that has decals for the instrument dials. The panel is joined to a bulkhead with a lateral bar supporting it, and a choice of two types of “handlebars” across the top. The breeches of the Vickers machine guns are glued over the top of the bulkhead after replacing the chunky actuators with PE, and all this is shown from the side in a scrap diagram to assist you with assembly. The forward floor is fitted to the fuselage lower insert as are the rudder pedals, then the front bulkhead has a kidney-shaped tank glued on the cockpit side before it is glued perpendicular to the floor with the control column between the foot plates. The fuselage has some nice ribbing moulded-in, over which another layer is applied, with plenty of painting information supplied for both the cockpit and the rear interior of the fuselage. The cockpit rear and instrument panel sections are trapped between the fuselage halves along with the rear tail-skid, with instructions in red letters telling you NOT to glue the two cockpit subassemblies in place. It doesn’t say why, but it’s probably to obtain a better fit for the cowling and cockpit surround assemblies that are installed next. The front floor is inserted from below, and a choice of two styles of cockpit surround are given for different markings options. There’s an even wider choice when it comes to the engine, as Sopwith’s designers took the precaution of allowing the fitting of four types of engine to prevent issues if supply problems with one type arose. You have a choice of Bentley, Clerget, Gnome, or Le Rhone power plants, three of which have three parts apiece, one only two, with scrap diagrams showing how the parts fit together from the rear. There are three different cowlings that fit all the engines, so your choice is dictated by your last option, then there’s another choice for you to make in front of the pilot’s station. Firstly though, you install the two cooling jackets of the Vickers guns, then a choice of a wider two-pane windscreen with a circular PE sight set between the guns for one option, or a tubular sight that is pushed through a small windscreen panel, but not glued. A side view shows the correct position of this installation, again between the guns. The tail is first of the flying surfaces to be made up, starting with the horizontal fin and the elevators, which have their styrene guide-horns removed and replaced by PE parts that are mounted in 0.3mm holes you’ll need to drill out. The rudder and its fin are inserted vertically, and the horns are removed and replaced in a similar manner too. The lower wings are single-thickness parts with superb detail of the ribs and tape, and have their ailerons separate with the PE horns replacing the styrene lumps, plus a small clear window over the pulley within the leading edge of the wing. Both lower wings slot into twin holes in the fuselage on long rectangular pins, and if you’re doing one of the markings options, there’s a strange little part added offset on the aft edge of the cockpit surround. The upper wing gives you more choices, with a different main span part used for three of the options, both fitted with ailerons and their PE horns, plus more of the clear inspection windows for the control wires. There’s bound to be some rigging going on before you finally join the wings together, but the interplane struts and the cabane struts are inserted into the lower wing and lined up with the top wing, with one option having a new PE propeller and brackets to its wind-driven petrol pressurising pump, which is attached to a blank strut and consigns the alternative moulded-in part to the spares. The bicycle-wheel landing gear has yet more choice available to you, with two types of wheel and four types of supports on one side, but only two on the other side. Odd, but who am I to argue? There’s only one aerofoil-wrapped axle part, and another scrap diagram shows the correct angle of the parts from the front. The optional bomb-racks are made from PE, and have four small styrene bombs and a PE spinner fitted to them before it is glued to the underside behind the landing gear. The prop gives you more choices again – sorry about that. The two-bladed prop has moulded-in front detail that is replaced by a PE part after cutting off the redundant softer detail, or with a choice of two short spinner caps, again depending on which decal option you have chosen. Rigging This might put some modellers off, but there’s not a huge amount of it, so gird up your loins and crack on. There are two pages of drawings, with the lines marked in blue on greyscale drawings, and there is a central aerodynamic bullet suspended by four wires between the Vickers guns. Good luck to you, and remember to keep it scale, and don’t use cotton as it’ll go fuzzy. Markings The kabuki tape masking will allow you to cut the demarcation between the tyres and their hubs neatly, mask off the two types of windscreen, and also those inspection windows on the wings. There are ten markings options on the sheets, only two of which are from Biggles, so if you want to depict the real thing, you still have eight to play with. From the box you can build two of the following: J4613 Capt. James “Biggles” Bigglesworth, No.266 Sqn. RFC, March 1917 J1936 Capt. James “Biggles” Bigglesworth, No.266 Sqn. RAF, March 1918 B3889 Capt. Clive F Collett, B Flight, No.70 Sqn. RFC, Poperinge, France, August 1917 B7190 Capt. Walter G R Hinchliffe, C Flight, No.10(N) Sqn. RNAS, Téteghem, France, March 1918 N3893 Capt. Arthur R Brown, No.9(N) Sqn. RNAS, Leffrinckoucke, France, September 1917 N6377 Capt. Harold F Beamish, No.3(N) Sqn. RNAS, Furnes, Belgium, September 1917 Capt. Henry R Clay Jr., 41st Aero Sqn. USAS, Colombey-les-Belles, France, October 1918 C6713 Capt. D’Urban Victor Armstrong, No.151 Sqn. RAF, Crécy-Estrées, France, April XXXX C1555 Capt. Francis L Luxmoore, No.78(HD) Sqn. RFC, Hornchurch, Great Britain, January 1918 F1471 185th Aero Sqn. USAS, Colombey-les-Belles, France, March 1919 Decals are printed by Eduard with good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin carrier film cut close to the printed areas. The picture above isn’t quite how they appear on the sheets, as I photoshopped them into a more convenient shape to make a better picture. Aftermarket The kit as it stands is excellent, but some of you want to add more to any kit you buy (yes, I’m guilty of that too), so Eduard have created a raft of sets to enable you to do just that. We’ve now reviewed a bunch of sets here, and you can get wheels, cockpit in 3D printed resin, seatbelts (not needed for this boxing), a fabulous wicker seat in resin (you really need this one), and even resin and PE fuel-pumps that attach to one of the struts to keep the engine running. The engines, bomb rack and other items will be coming too. Conclusion With two full models in the box, there are a lot of choices multiplied by two, but then again, you end up with two Camels on your display shelves. You can go full Biggles, half Biggles, or zero Biggles if you wish. Lots of detail, lots of choices, and lots of colourful schemes to choose from. Did I mention that there were two full kits in the box? Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

First go at a WIP and I have to make it a bit of a blitz! (I'd like to get this one done before the Phantom GB starts in a mere couple of weeks.) My gear is all over the place, I don't yet have a proper bench, there are certain issues with the kit, my camera handbook remains unread, there's 106 miles to Chicago, I've got a full tank of gas, it's dark out, and I'm wearing sunglasses. Hit it! This is the Meng 1/35 British Army (but see below...) WWI Medium Tank Whippet Mk.A. It's goint to be strictly an out of the box high speed build and then a slower and more considered painting session. I'm pretty sure I can do all of the building and then all of the painting, which is pretty well unique strategy. That's the way we used to work when we were kids, no? There's no interior detail, and it's one colour all over, apart from the tracks which I will paint before I clip them on. Clip, not glue so that hardly counts as building to my way of thinking. Suddenly, I'm more confident that I can do it in the time allowed. One update per day, promise. Probably in the morning while the dog is sleeping off her breakfast and our big walk of the day. But I digress... The kit came slowly on a boat from China which saved me some money but may have given me some grief. It was reasonably packed and I've never had any problems before but look at the box. I wonder where in its thousands of miles of travel, some idiot stood on it? My local sorting office? On the last sampan out of nowhere? Whatever, it didn't look too bad until I noticed this... My apologies, the photo has gone! And so has the box, so I can't retake it! 2/8/21 "The box is bent outward, like it exploded from inside." Let's hope its not something that will give me indigestion after my stir-fry. "They musta broke the mould after they made this piece!" Otherwise, how did they get it out? Yes, I know, everyone is doing slide moulding these days but I'm still impressed with this large lump. It's detailed nicely all over and will simplify my build and keep everything on the square and level. I have astigmatism which makes it difficult to judge angles visually so that's a great help to me. The rivets are huge and crude just like the real thing. The plates have a subtle rolled steel texture. Perhaps too subtle (boring). So I might add a few dings and dents to add a bit of interest. Another photo evaporated. Probs my error, sorry. The back door. Upside down, I now realise. Side plate detail. Look at those 'U' bolts. They will look smashing under paint. And this is the piece that was driven through the roof of the box. It's tiny and by rights, should be flattened entirely. I was lucky. The other side of this idler wheel has deep holes to take the other ends of the broken bars so they will be easy to locate and repair. AS far as I can tell, this is the only other transit damage. I was very lucky but Meng helped by putting it all in a very stout box which sacrificed itself for its plastic contents. That gun's a beauty. I wont be spending days making the track as its a snap together system, similar to the Takom type which I used on a couple of MkIVs last year. An hour tops on assembly and paint it afterwards. Great. This is a mystery. The box art says three schemes are included but doesn't say what. The instructions don't mention any. There's a colour profile page which details two schemes, both British. And the decals have four, including a German Beutepanzer and a Russian version. No worries, I'm doing a British one anyway. I rapidly found the other two online and they are no more exciting than the British one. (This could be a good kit for the 'In the Wrong Hands GB??) So there I have it. I'll shut the laptop and make a start. See you in the morning. p.s. Please feel free to advise me what works well, or not, for you as readers. Are the pictures ok (new camera with the unread instructions and inadequate lighting). Too few or too many photos? Do I ramble on too much? And do please take the thread wherever you want to go, digress, talk to each other, take the mick, have some fun!

My first completion of 2021. Revel 1/72 Sopwith Triplane (mainly) OOB. Rigged with EZline.. Really enjoyed this little kit as a departure from my main theme of Royal Navy Aces (ooops)... Sopwith Triplane N5493 8 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service Saint Eloi, Nord Pas De Calais July 1917 Flight Lieutenant Robert A Little Thanks for looking in

Time on my hands but not able to get to the bench so I decided to go through a few reference books and amongst others decided that I should add these two to my collection. Both are quite diminutive and should be a much easier build than the Nighthawk, so a semi mojo restorer. The PV 7 aka the Grain kitten. A terrible aeroplane with an unreliable engine. Designed to be small enough to launch from a transport ship with a 30hp 2 cylinder engine and a single Lewis gun( not fitted) The PV8 aka the Eastchurch Kitten a great little aeroplane but still an unreliable engine. The single Lewis was fitted to the prototype. Given a reliable engine it would probably have gone into series production. Last up my 1/48 scale drawings drawn from my copy of warplanes of the First World War vol 3. As you can see both fit in an A4 sheet even in 1/48 they’re tiny. More to follow, should start cutting plastic soon.

Been a long while in the works but finally done. known as the flying tank, nicknamed the flying furniture van. Unique in being the only purpose designed army cooperation plane in WWI and extremely successful in its role. Not modelled after a specific machine but hopefully representative of the type. I might just add that the real thing was noted for the roughness of its metalwork and the photos look more like the side of a barn rathan an aeroplane; I think I’ve captured that

Greetings All. For those of you who saw my recent Whippet: and I’m pleased to say that your fantastic feedback has urged me to get cracking with the next proper project. So here we go – obscure WWI scratchbuild!!! I’ve selected this… For a number of reasons: 1. It’s got flat armour. 2. It’s got covered wheels (no spokes) 3. It’s got virtually no info about it available (as far as I can tell). I’m new to scratchbuilding; the Whippet was my first and I don’t have a toolshed full of lovely treats like lathes and milling machines – so everything needs to be do-able with just a few simple tools, especially at the moment under re-located lockdown. Scalpel – check. Pin vice – check. Tweezers – check. Glue – check. Right, let’s get cracking! This vehicle makes it as easy as I can get it, and with very little reference material, who’s to say I’m wrong? No worrying about whether I should model the 1916 pattern leather belt flange spronglets, or the 1915 tin and papier-mache versions with overlapping fringe dongles….. nice! First (and possibly the biggest) challenge – wheels. I used Alexandr Bondar’s excellent card model instructions from the landships II website - http://www.landships.info/landships/models.html# Scaling these up in photoshop to an estimated, and as close as I can get by eye, 1/35 (fingers crossed), the wheels scaled out to 21.6mm internal diameter (inside of the rim), and 28mm external outside of the tyre. As luck would have it, a furtle around in my plumbing spares came up with some 22mm plastic speedfit pipe. The bends and connectors unscrewed to reveal a bunch of 28mm diameter O rings. Sheer luck, but I’m taking it as a good omen. I studied the 3 photos and instructions that appear to be all that is known about this vehicle and concluded that as with most other WWI era British armoured cars, double tyres were installed on the rear wheels, with minimal if no tread. The O rings have it! So far, so good, but a tricky bit had to occur somewhere, and in this case it’s the rear wheel itself. The solid centre of the front wheel is clearly flat, but the thicker rear is dished, with a conical plate – hmm. Not so straightforward. I cut a few over-sized circles and sliced them to make cones. A few experiments and a couple were glued together, held in place while the glue set by mounting them within the cut sections of tube that will form the rims. On releasing them, it was clear that the join wasn’t perfect, tending to meet at an angle rather than curve, so a bit of milliput will be smeared in with plenty of water to smooth it. All this wheel work required a few circles to be cut out of 0.5mm and 0.2mm plastic card. Here’s (one of) the way(s) I do it – pin in a pin-vice, scribed repeatedly ‘round a circle template. Snap out the circle and clean up with sandpaper. All ok so far, but don’t hold your breath – this could take a while…. See you next time!

it’s been over thirty years in the making, the bridge between my first modelling era and my second. It’s almost a scratch build as I’ve only used the fuselage, spinner and wheels with a scratch interior, wings, tail plane. Pretty happy with the result, feels weird to be finished it after so long. One step closer to restoring the balance of power on the WWI shelf. From left to right, ( front row) the Albatros, scratch Pfalz DrI, Sopwith Triplane, scratch Wight quadraplane (back row) DFW Floh, scratch Sopwith Pup, Scratch Sopwith Snark. Next build to finish is my Scratch Junkers JI.

I needed to do something worthy of being shut in so I took the one kit that intimidated me the most and this was it. I just completed this and I am very very happy with the kit from Copper State, it just an excellent kit! Not that this was a simple or easy build - you clearly get your modeling money out of it. I could not get the decals on the roundels to lay down so I took them off and used my circle cutter to mask and spray them (I love that circle cutter). Also, the instructions are lacking in two particular areas, 1) I had some trouble with color call outs for some parts and 2) the rigging diagram for under the wing is lacking. The latter might be something the Copper State could post online as there were references here on Britmodeller when the kit was first announced that helped a bit on this. Anyway, you would think you might need a jig to get this all squared up but the kit is designed such that the struts going through the nacelles and cockpit provide an excellent and very solid connection between the two wings and also the booms are solidly connected. This is just an excellently designed kit comes with an extensive set of photo etch. Odd with all that photo etch there are no seat belts, which would have helped. I could use elastic thread through out the build and did not need to pin any of the struts, they were easy to get into place and solidly connected. Aftermarket, other than Eduard seatbelts is Albion Alloys Brass Tube for turnbuckles (.4MM OD/.2MM ID) with worked very good. Love that stuff as you can score and cut it with an exacto knife without crushing the tube. I added wire pushrods to the engines and rigged with Uschi standard rigging and threaded the top wing connection with 2lb test fishing line. I realize it is not perfect - it is still only a model but it looks cool on the mantel.

TopDrawings 89 British Fighter Aircraft S.E.5a ISBN: 9788366148765 Kagero Publishing via Casemate UK The S.E.5 stood for Scout Experimental 5, and was developed at around the same time as the Sopwith Camel, with similar performance, but some minor issues with the Hispano Suiza engine that put a crimp in production initially, with less than a hundred made before the improvements made resulted in the S.E.5a. It was a fast aircraft, and although it couldn’t turn quite as quickly as some, its stability made it a good platform from which to fire with accurate results from a skilled operator. It quickly gained favour with pilots and officials alike, and over 5,000 were made once the engine problem was resolved, with many powered by the Wolseley Viper and plenty of Aces achieving their tallies in S.E.5a airframes. A few US squadrons were also equipped with them by the end of the war, at which point the type was quickly retired from service with only one example of the more streamlined S.E.5b having been made. We have kits in almost every scale from 1:144 upwards, some old, some new with many major and some minor manufacturers getting in on the act, showing that it's still a popular subject over 100 years later. The TopDrawings series majors on scale plans, which is the main thrust, but also includes a little background information, some pertinent profiles, and separate A4 sheets printed on both sides with drawings of various aspects of the aircraft. The book is written in English on the left of the page, with Polish on the right, which translates to top and bottom for the captions to the various drawings within. The book itself is bound in a card cover and has 20 pages, and the rear cover devoted to additional profiles of two S.E.5as in radically different schemes. After the introduction, the first half of the plans show the S.E.5 then S.E.5a aircraft from every angle in 1:48 with smaller detail drawings in 1:24. After this are the colour profiles with four pages of profiles wearing some interesting camo schemes, including one captured by the post-Czarist Bolsheiviks in 1920. After the break are more plans, including a number of minor variants with twin trainer cockpit openings and one with a single seat and a partial canopy over the front of the area. At the end are profile drawings of civilian variants, then two pages of detail pictures of the real thing. Throughout the book, there are numerous smaller diagrams that show cross-sections, equipment layout such as the cockpit, armament, engine and prop. The loose sheets contain three more profiles of various airframes on one side, with the remaining three sides full of drawings that show the internal wooden structure of the wings, fuselage and tail, plus detail of the instrument panel. Conclusion These books are essential for the modeller that enjoys comparing their models against scale plans, and wants them to be as accurate as possible, with the loose pages handy if you wanted to strip away some of the fabric of your model to show the inner workings and wooden structure. Review sample courtesy of

Hello all. This is my first time posting anything on this site so I will try and get things right. I have started making the 18Pdr filed gun and limber from the Tommys War resin kit. This is what I have so far: The detail is fantastic but the instructions are a little bare. The gun sights I had to figure out from online photos of the real thing and then figure out how to attach it. I also have a bit of a problem with the carriage of the gun being a bit warped. The I've added some extra detail on the limber with a rifle, handles and strapping up what I believe is called a "swingle tree"

Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin C3799 Capt. Irving Today I finished my third model this year: a Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin created from the fantastic Copper State Models 1/48 kit. This was a looong running project, started in 2018, but paused also due to participation of an Group Build. My entry (Fokker D.VII) was awarded with two sets of Pheon decals, so I changed my plan to the blue Dolphin C3799 of Capt. Irving. This was the Premium edition of the kit, so it has a resin engine and metal exhausts. Beside the Pheon decals I used RAF wire terminals, turnbuckles, Vickers and Lewis MGs from Gaspatch. The seat belts are done by HGW. Some wooden parts are scratched like airscrew, boxwood struts and tailskid. Also metal parts are added made from brass and nickel silver like fuel caps, a metal landing gear and more. Paints are used from Alclad, Mr. Paint, Gunze and oils. And now I'm curious about your opinions! Enough of the introductory words - now the pictures! A negative stagger wing. If not ugly, at least strange. Please not the thin outlets of the exhaust. This project was a lot of fun! Cheers Frank EDIT: Please scroll down for detail and outdoor pictures!

Hi all This is my last finished model, an Albatros from Eduard in 1/48. Beautiful model, with a very good level of detail. But really hard to build, a test for our patience. It's my first 1/48 wwI model, and the first time I do wood textures... Cheers R.

Iv'e been working on this kit from Special Hobby. First up are some engine shots; it builds up from resin and PE parts. I added 50+ some scratch parts like valves, rocker arms and spark plugs. Morane by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Morane by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr And here painted up, weathering consisted of Tamiya Dark Brown panel liner over a Vajello Aluminum base coat. A fine toning of the Tamiya product shot though the airbrush tied things together. Morane by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Morane by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Thanks for looking, more soon. Ryan

At one point I had decided there were too many planes to build without having to deal with WWI biplanes. They just seemed like too much work with the rigging and getting the wings straight but I still had that temptation to try one. So I took a leap and this was my first Bi-Plane, with I guess must go back about 10 to 15 years. It is DML kit #5902 their first boxing of the 1/48 SPAD XIII and I have to say it is a great kit and a perfect kit to get you started into bi-planes. It comes with rigging in the form of wires and a bit of photo-etch but not alot. And best of all the fit is .fantastic. Only problem I had is the decals were not great (but this was an old kit by the time I tackled it). The stars are from the spare's bin and are too large for this specific plane but they worked for effect and the white on the roundels is translucent but other than that you get a very nice colorful aircraft that easily fits into any cabinet. This specific aircraft was flown by the United States shortly after the war in celebration of victory (thus the red and white stripes with white stars on a blue background). Not perfect by any means but fun to build and it got me hooked.

Here is my last build, which is the Mirage Hobby Halberstadt 1/48 CL..IV. This is a nice kit with my only issue it did not come with Lozenge and I don't think these are exactly the right colors as this was an aircraft built by Roland and I believe they had a lozenge that looked a bit more brown. I have also included it with the CL.II which it shares quite a bit in common, such as the wings and engine. This was a ground attack aircraft that served late in the war.

Just staying at home, thankfully I have a large stash of models to keep me busy but no more going to the LHS for that one-off paint color – it is going to have to be mixed. I either have it here or I will need to do without or wait for mail order to arrive. Am waiting now of a decal set for my next project so here is my latest effort, the Mirage Hobby Halberstadt CL.II. This served as a German ground attack aircraft in WWI. A two-seater that had the pilot and rear gunner in the same extended cockpit. There are problems, one in particular is the fuselage band is not far enough back. Also, I have concluded that I hate doing lozenge but what choice do you have if you want German aircraft from later in WWI. The kit is expensive to begin with and then they don’t include lozenge decals. And this particular aircraft had bombs which are also not included in the kit (I scratch built a few). The decals for the fuselage which try to duplicate the stipple (dot) paint scheme is going to be hard to get right as they are not sperate by panel but continuous so I scraped that idea and used large old brush from my wife and it worked OK. Also, there is no way the wings are going to stay put unless you insert pins, which I did. That done it seems to stay together. Comes with lots of photo-etch with I used some of. I am also not convince all the colors are right as they only have Vallerjo call-outs and they don’t easily translate to Tamiya (which I have lots of).

Modelling seems to be quite a nostalgic thing, and I might be one of the worst in this. I've grown an habit out of building models, that I did as a small kid, like the Swordfish recently, and some others. But I want to stick only to the topic and model, not the specific kit - so I secretely dream of Special Hobby doing a Westland Scout, but shying away from the old, yet original Airfix kit from the 70ies, which I remember having build not only once, in it's blister bag. I loved it. And here's another of these all time favourites, which I build on sunday mornings with my dad, before having lunch with family and therefore moving the kit aside for our traditional Wiener Schnitzel - but still having an eye on the kit while eating - I'm talking about the bagged Fokker Dreidecker from Airfix, in 72 scale, molded in red, when detailled accuracy was only secondary to easy fun. So, it struck me some weeks ago and finally bought Eduards Dr.1 in 48, the Profipack to have all the niceties coming along. I'm a bit in an undecided state of mind; I definitely want to do a good looking model,, but on the other hand I feel like building one, that looks like the old Airfix model, with all of it's historic inaccuracies. So, what I found on some of builds of this specific model, the final result looking a bit, say, "blunt". Not that it lacks any detail, but it just, I don't now, as if the layer of colour on it is a bit to thick. Do you know what i mean? Might be just like that, too many layers of colour, or might also be the red to bright and shiny, looking like a Ferrari and not like a weathered WWI bird. So, what IS decided so far ist the colour, being a red - I used Revell Karminrot matte - added a drop of black, macking it slightly brownish and darker. Also I think of doing some chipping on the cowling, which I painted in Alclad steel yet. Also, I think of painting it semi-matte or even glossy, to make a difference in painted linen and metal. First idea from the workbench: But, then, should I go for one of the historic correct versions, then it will be the all red earlier bird? Or should I take the freedom to mix, my idea is the white tail of the later, but still wearing the croix pattée, instead of the latter (but correct) solid cross. I even think of the white square around, just as depicted on the cover art of the Airfix model. Until continuing, what do you think? Would you opt for accuracy, or allow some freedom for the sake of nostalgia?

This is my second completed kit of the year, the Albatross D.II by Eduard. I have built quite a few of their WWI kits and I have to say I this they are great. This was my first attempt at a wood grain finish on the fuselage and I think it came out nicely. I added Eduard seatbelts and used Uschi's high stretch elastic rigging thread. If not for this thread I think I would have thrown in the towel on building WWI aircraft long ago. Also, I used Gas Patch anchors for the rigging but I am not happy with the results but it was my own fault - I should have thought out the order of attaching them as they went in too early in the process and it is difficult to open those holes up again. I don't normally weather my WWI aircraft, no particular reason except I like the bright colors so I just leave them as they are.

Being Austrian, the topic of Aviation is something, that you're only involved from a distance, if any. Apart from being famous for the prolongued use of Swedish flying history (we used the Draken until 2005, making it a 50 year old plane in active service) and difficult purchasing processes, there isn't much aviation happening in Austria in the recent years. That wasn't always the case, as in the very early days of aviation, the Royal Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops (or K.u.K. Luftfahrttruppen) where the seventh-largest airforce in the world, While, to be honest, most of the models where derived from German models, there was a kind of an Aviation industry in Austria. Me definitely not being exposed to patriotic influences in a larger dose, this just being a bit of a historic sideletter to larger chapters in the book of flight. But not too long ago I found out, that one of the larger companies, the Phönix Flugzeugwerke AG, had it's original location close to where I was raised and used to play as a small boy in the 70ies. Even the original factory buildings where partly in use then, in my memory a transport carrier was located there until the early 2000s. So, this has become something a bit personal, and when I discoverd that Special Hobby had a DI in their offering, I had to order one sometimes last year or so. Giving it the usual time to mellow it in the stash, I stated to work on it this summer. Sorry for not involving you in a WIP, it just started as a side project and sort of a late night build, but nevertheless I finished yesterday. About the build; the modell is somekind of basic in some aspects, with only some 30 plastic parts, complemented by some resin- and photoetch parts, Some parts are really beautiful, like the body with nicely molded caps and lids, and some nicely structures for rivets and various structures, and some very parts are so basic, like struts and landing gear, it almost hurts. Also, there is no structure for holding or giving a bit of positioning aid when mounting the upper wings, so from a point in build, about when the lower wings has been mounted, I'd say, you mainly use CA-glue as, plastic cements just doesn't do the job any more. Also, the instructions are somewhat very basic, giving just an rough idea what to do. So there where moments when I sincerely doubted to finish this - but I've went through, but ordered some help in form of a biplane jig from JS models, without I doubt I would have been there. And, yes; I know there are other jigs as well, but this was the only one available late night, when I suffered a moment of deep desparation. For the version I wanted to display; as I didn't like the brown mottle camouflage offered with the decals, I decided to give here a bare livery without any paint, of natural wood and bare linen. I painted the wings in Light Stone Grey from Lifecolor, giving it a quite yellowy linen colour, the body/wood structure with Cold base Wood, also from Livecolor and giving it a cover of Uschi Van Der Rosten wood decals. For the rear struts (after some examination, if these are thin struts, not wires). I used some electric guitar strings. Beware, these are very strong and can easily kill some modelling tools. Caps and hoods were painted with Alclad Semi Matt Aluminium, which maybe turned out a bit to matte, but I think it's okay. Rigging is done with EZ Fine, I decided not to make any turnbuckles, as these are so tiny one would barely see. Maybe I'll change this in future builds of that scale, but I do not miss them overly on this, to be honest. Mayor difficulties where the installation of the upper wing, as stated before, the mounting of the exhaust pipes, which I didn't manage to align properly, due to having installed to upper wing prior, and not having drilled some holes at the very beginning, but according to the manual. While definitely not being perfect and having a lot of flaws, I'm happy so far with the result of this little bit of kind of exotic early aviation. 😉 Here are some impressions, some details look much harsher as on the real model, due to small size:

French Zouaves (1914) ICM 1:35 (35709) Like most of the colonial powers France recruited troops from its colonies. The Zouaves were mainly recruited from French North Africa these men were lead by French officers and NCOs. In early WWI there were four regiments of such troops and these troops still wore their colourful local dress. Due to the nature of WWI they would adopt Khaki from 1915 onward. These troops played a major part in WWI with 9 regiments in total being raised, they were committed troops especially in attack. This set of four figures from ICM is for the figures in 1914 still in their traditional uniforms. There is one sprue with three local troops and one French Officer. As usual with ICM the figures are well sculpted and look like they will assemble with no problems. There is then another sprue with a lot of French infantry equipment, some o which will not be used and will be handy for the spare box, Conclusion This is a good set which provide colour for a WWI diorama. Highly Recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

FE.2b Early My next project is the FE.2b early of Wingnut Wings in 1/32. The machine will be the FE.2b with the number 6352 “Baroda 15” from 23 Squadron in March 1916. His opponent was Immelmann, with his Fokker E.II I will build it afterwards. Until now, I did not find an original photo of this machine. If someone has a photo of this machine, so please put it into the forum. That would make me very happy about it. If somebody has the book about the FE2b from Cross & Cockade, which is out of stock, and the pdf not ready yet. Maybe. One thing more: You suggestion for the top color PC8. What did you use in opposite to PC10? In Hendon, RAF museum, I only saw the black FE.2b. Happy modelling

Albatros D.I – D.III Warpaint No.122 Guideline Publications The Albatros was one of the better WWI fighters, entering service in 1916 and utilising advanced (for the time) construction techniques to lessen weight while gaining structural strength. It initially suffered from lack of manoeuvrability due to the high wing load, which was partially addressed by the D.II with a narrower gap between the two wings. Engine cooling was via the centre section of the upper wing to avoid draining the system I the event of a bullet strike, but scalded pilots might disagree with that idea. Its successor the D.III had further redesigned wings and struts but used the same fuselage, and this version saw extensive service to the end of the war, while the later D.V superseded it on the production lines and often served alongside its ancestors. A lot of the survivors of WWI were sold to Poland where they carried on in service but saw limited combat until the Polish/Soviet war where their age and stresses of combat caused their eventual removal from service. This book by author Dave Hooper covers the birth and development of the airframe in much more detail, as well as providing tons of excellent pictures, many of which are in black and white due to their being contemporary shots, plus plans and profiles in the centre, penned by Jan Polc. The book is in the usual Warpaint format of portrait A4(ish) with a soft card cover and 48 pages plus content printed on the four glossy pages of the covers. A short introduction details the birth of the type and its subsequent upgrades. Introduction Albatros Werke Gmbh Before the War The Genesis of the D-Type and the Jasta The Birth of the Jasta and Boelcke’s Dicta Enter the Albatros The Albatros goes to the Front First Blood Two Colour Profiles with overheads October – A month of Successes, Ending in Tragedy The Albatros D.III Four Colour Profiles The Beginning of a New Year – Winter 1917 Operation Alberich Four Colour Profiles Drawings by Jan Polc Four Colour Profiles Blood April The Beginning of the End The Austro-Hungarian Albatros (OEF) Albatros in Combat The Albatros in Foreign Service Albatros D.I-D.III in detail. 8 pages of a preserved airframe in colour Kits, Decals & Accessories list Four Colour Profiles The pages include a lot of useful pictures with informative captions of aircraft in maintenance, on the field and even pranged/scrapped, with appropriate photos and drawings dotted around. Throughout the "In Detail" section there are many, many close-up photos with some items numbered that will be a boon to modellers as well as people that like to know what everything does. Conclusion The Warpaint series always gets a thumbs-up due to their inability to produce a dud! This is an excellent book that will see plenty of use by anyone interest in, or building a model of one of these wooden warriors. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of