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Hi all This has been on my workbench awaiting completion since about November last year - lots of other stuff getting in the way. This is Hasegawa's excellent 1/48 G-6 kit, finished as the mount of Uffz Rolf Burkhardt of 9./JG 301, based at Zerbst during Spring 1944. The colours and markings are from a Claes Sundin profile, (I couldn't find an original pic). Hope you like

I have just finished these for the Fw 190 GB, all in 1/72. A-5, F-2 from Eduard and A-7,8 from Hasegawa. Aftermarked decals used on all. Cheers Jes

I nearly forgot it's Blitzbuild weekend! I've got a 1/72 Hasegawa Ki-61 from 1973 that was going to go in the "Big in Japan" GB but I'll give it a go here. It seems like a simple straightforward kit, with nice details and delicate recessed panel lines. I'm not starting yet, but here's a pic to get going: (The PE was in the box when I bought it second hand - not sure if I will use much/any) Regards, Adrian

I currently have four ongoing builds in this groupbuild. Three are approaching the final furlong. It's a long groupbuild, so why not start another? This one is a true classic. The Hasegawa Mirage F1C, from 1983. I love this kit and have built numerous models from it over the years. It has been surpassed by the recent Special Hobby kit but in my opinion it is still very worthwhile and stands up well in comparison to the SH kit. A few years ago I had a number of these in The Stash (mostly the Revell boxing) but I have built them all. This is my last one. The kit is typical Hasegawa fare from that period, with raised panel lines and a very sparse cockpit. But it's a pure joy to build. This is gonna be fun!

I inherited this model from the late Tom Weinel, former F8U Crusader pilot, model builder and Naval Aviation curmudgeon. It arrived in a largely-constructed state, but i needed to take a few steps backwards in order to fix some elemental construction issues in order to get some assemblies to play well with each other- mainly the upper fuselage seam and the leading edges of the wing. Either due to kit design or operator error, the wing did not "sit" in proper alignment with the fuselage saddle when i test fit it. As usual, i wrote an extensive "Deep Dive" (some may call it an incoherent, rambling diatribe) on building this huge Douglas monster. It is available here: Let me get the executive summary out of the way. Subject: Douglas A3D-1 Skywarrior, BuAer No. 135431 from VAH-123. NAS Whidbey Island, WA, 1962. Kit: Hasegawa A3B Skywarrior, Kit No. 04041 Scale: 1/72 (You'll need to pay me to build a bigger one) Additional Parts Used: Resin Nose Radome and 20MM tail Gun installation from Hasegawa A3D-2 Skywarrior "Early Version", kit No. 00029; resin main wheels from Reskit, part no. RS72-0170. Paints Used: Tamiya Acrylics mixed to FS595 specs per guidance found over at www.replikator.club; Tamiya LP-series metallic lacquers and Mr Color Lacquers for the undersides and the faded orange. Decals: National Insignia from Fundekals sheet FD 72-011; BuAer Numbers and Modex codes robbed from Microscale sheet 72-26 and Zotz RA-5 Vigilante decal sheet; Itty Bitty BuAer numbers kluged together from a couple of Eagle Strike/AeroMaster F-4 decal sheets. Modifications/Additions: "Blunt" nose and tail cut from fuselage and replaced with earlier version nose and tail from the Hasegawa "Early Version" kit. The Quickboost conversion parts i think are identical, and should work as well. Intake Bullets had the oil cooler inlets drilled out and plugged with tubing of smaller inside diameter; Bullets were subsequently filed, sanded, and re-profiled to make them more pointed. Intakes were cut from front of nacelle and seams were filled on inside; subsequently primed, masked and painted the insides before re-attaching to the nacelle. Aerodynamic fairings removed from inboard sides of engine pylons and corresponding gaps and cavities filled. Inboard wing slat panel lines eradicated. This was required in order to backdate the aircraft to A3D-1 standard. Locating pins on the nacelles removed and replaced with longer, more substantial pins made from Copper rod. Nacelles were painted and weathered prior to mounting on the wings, towards the very end of the painting stage. Anti-collision beacons removed. Fuselage Fuel Vent Mast replaced with smaller, earlier version, mounted on underside of left tailplane. Void between top of nosewheel tyre and inner side of nosewheel fork opened out and cleaned up Multiple layers of filler, added to rear of canopy at the base to improve the profile and integrate it better with surrounding fuselage sheet metal. Weathering: Panel lines highlighted with mix of Model Master Grey enamels; Oil, Lubricant, and Hydraulic leaks depicted with Windsor & Newton Payne's Grey artists oils; Hand prints and foot traffic depicted with Tamiya Weathering Master, Set B "Soot". Shadowing on landing gear, flap tracks, gear doors etc. done with a wash of water, Future, and Tamiya Flat Black. This model came to me with the interior already assembled and painted, so with the exception of a wash i added, some seam filling and the addition of masking tape belts, there is nothing else added. Late in construction i discovered the model did not have sufficient nose weight, so i fixed this by mixing copper BB shot with 5 minute epoxy and i poured it in through the opening for the lower entrance hatch/bailout chute (having masked off the surrounding surfaces first, to prevent epoxy drips from ruining the finish). The model was a test case for closing up 90-degree gaps by using a combination of black woodworking CA, and bare metal foil. The result was a joint that was not eliminated, per se but mitigated to a degree where it was appropriate for scale. This allowed me to delay engine installation until after the model had been painted. Since the model came to me with the wings assembled, it was not practical to cut out, and depict the aerodynamically actuated Douglas slats (something of an Ed Heinemann design trademark). While it would make the model more accurate, it would definitely complicate the assembly task in the construction end game. BuAer 135431 was the 39th Skywarrior built, and was part of the second batch of A3D-1s. Originally delivered in overall gloss sea blue, it was assigned to NATC at Pax River and served as a service test aircraft. I'm not sure if it ever went to sea with an operational squadron, but it was re-painted in the Light Gull Grey over Gloss White paint scheme and assigned to VAH-123; the west coast A3D Fleet Replacement Group. Many of the aircraft in the squadron wore high visibility Fluorescent Orange markings as a preventative measure against midair collisions. The dayglo did not stand up to the elements very well, losing its fluorescence first, then fading to a pumpkin orange colour before the dayglo wore away exposing the white primer underneath. I based this model off a profile photo found in the Aerofax book on the A3D, written by the late Rene Francillon. Other photos taken of different aircraft from the same squadron helped to "Fill in" the knowledge gaps, so the markings represent something of an only partly informed, educated guess. Omission of the twin 20MM cannon in the tail was not an oversight; Early on in the service testing and evaluation, the gun system showed poor reliability and it's effectiveness as a defensive measure was uncertain at best. This was my first test using the Tamiya LP- series of metallic lacquers and For the most part they worked well. I used a 50-50 mix of LP-11 Silver and LP-61 Metallic Gray for the stainless steel "hot sections" on the aft engine nacelles. Masking the canopy framing was difficult and only made bearable by using the KV Models vinyl A3D canopy masks. They are accurately cut but they are somewhat thick and occasionally they had difficulty adhering to some of the tighter radii on the upper canopy. Eduard masks would have been my first choice, since the washi-paper material is thinner and it sticks well enough to the clear part, but not too well. The thickness and tenacity of the KV masks combined with the multiple coats of filler, primer, paint, and clear coats resulted in chipping when the masks were removed the first time. This required substantial re-work. Speaking of the canopy, it's thin and clear, but the attachment to the fuselage is problematical because it sits on a curved "saddle", as it were. Also, built from the box, the canopy profile has an exaggerated bubble shape when simply placed onto the model. The A3D canopy was actually integrated fully into the surrounding sheet metal structure and it was not installed as an afterthought. I applied multiple layers (3, i think) of Mr Surfacer 500 to the back of the canopy to build up the profile and blend it in more seamlessly with the upper fuselage. However, i think it was definitely worth the effort. I would like to take more photographs of the finished model, but right now i need to take a breather and ponder my next project. I have another Buccaneer close to the finish line, a Boeing 720B in progress and of course there's still more decals to put on the Phantom. As the largest and heaviest aircraft to serve aboard a carrier, the A3D makes an impressive centre piece in a Carrier-Based Naval Aviation collection. While it seems somewhat simplified compared to contemporary offerings from Academy, Airfix, and Clear Prop etc. It's a good starting point for just about any A3D Skywarrior one would choose to build. Fly Navy!

Good day, Here is my third completed project for the year. This is the tanker version of the A-3 Skywarrior family. These are the highlights of the kit……….. 1. Paint used : A. Airframe : Mission Models Hi-Lo Vis Grey ( MMP-117 ), Tamiya Flat White ( XF-2 ) 1). Washes : Ammo Medium Grey ( airframe ), Vallejo Dark Brown, Black, Light Rust 2). Cockpit : Life Color Dark Gull Grey ( UA 033 ), Gunze Olive Drab, Tamiya Dark Green ( XF-81 ) 3). Wheels : Tamiya Gun Metal ( X-10 ), Tamiya Flat White 4). Tires : MRP Flat Black ( base color ), MRP Tire Black ( highlights ) 2. Aeromaster Decals KA-3D Skywarriors #72-161 3. Uschi Bobbin Thread for antenna wire 4. Engine pods : AK Interactive Extreme Jet Exhaust ( base color ), Metallic Purple, Metallic Blue The kit was straightforward without many issues. The surface detail is excellent and the fit is very good. The landing gear and gear bays are complete with superb detail. I enjoyed this kit and I recommend it to all skill levels. Thank you in advance, Mike

Hello guys, Second build for this year, the Hasegawa 1/48 F-104G in the markings of the Belgian AF 349 Sq. Paints are Gunze and AK real colors acryls, while decals are from an Eduard reboxing of the Hasegawa kits. This build is a gift for a fellow belgian modeller. Post split as there's qui te a lot images Hope you'll like her.

Well this will be my first official GB/STGB of the year……..well we don’t talk about the 1/32nd Kingfisher!!! I have been a bit quiet of late, been mega busy with work, plus trying to clear some of the backlog of builds I have, mostly AFV’s….I have a very low completion rate with these, but have a Rhino & Rooikat done and another 3 or 4 more almost, so it has been time well spent when I have it. So this is just a nice straightforward build for me, with Hasegawa’s lovely 1/48th F-8E Crusader being the build of choice for this one. I picked this up a little while ago for the really nice price! It’ll be as close as I can do to a straight out of the box build……….so AM bits will be included …. …..a Wolfpack Cockpit set and Eduard Exhaust set…. …plus Aires Engine Duct Bay and ResKit wheel set……photos to come. The scheme will be straight out of the box, a VF-191 “Satan’s Kitten’s” bird. This will be something nice and simple to get me back into the GB groove……plus I may have a 2nd off-topic build going on at the same time (an Eduard VF-6 Wildcat), so photo-bombs away!!

This one took a long time, especially the painting. I was struggling with a good method of chipping at such a small scale. All hairspray, chipping medium etc. were producing way to coarse chips. I think they're fine for 1:35 but not 1/72. I've experimented a lot on some cheap Armourfast models and finally found a good one that served me well. Instead of any chipping medium I've coated the primed model with Alclad lacquer. After long curing I've sprayed the main yellow coat and gray-ish camo over that. Then I used very little airbrush cleaner, just to soften the paint and scratched the paint carefully with a needle, toothpick and small hard brush here & there. The advantage is that I could slowly wipe off the paint in some places creating this sort of 'gradient'. It looked like it was naturally worn off. Took a lot more time that a 'normal' method but at least I was satisfied with the result. After all that a normal enamel wash & pigments weathering came on. Another problem was the tracks. Those rubber ones gave a me a real headache as the paint was peeling off them so easily. Finally I've found out the painting the directly (without primer) with Mr. Hobby metallic paints stops peeling. They hold on the the rubber pretty well. I'm quite pleased how it came out. Some people may say it's a little bit overdone but I kinda like those heavy weathered models. The stowage comes from various resin packs I've gathered Here are some pictures And some un-photoshopped ones Thanks for viewing, comments welcome

My second build is Hasegawa’s 1/48 A-7E Corsair II. The boxing decal option is all over grey, will be looking to use some aftermarket decals to produce something a little more colourful.

Perfect timing for the STGB with Hasegawa doing the recent re-pop of their lovely 1/48 F-8E Crusader kit. I pre-ordered to ensure I snared one (wish I bought two). And the usual box of plastic. A lot of really nice decal options in the box. However, I had Furball's wonderful decal sheet MiG Masters 48-007 with markings for 26 aircraft. Printed by Cartograf. Who could resist? This gave me the problem of what scheme to choose. Adding the kit's 4 options gave me 30 aircraft and 1 kit. So many to choose from. I decided to go thematic rather than pretty and focus on the "Last of the Gunfighter's" only two gun kills achieved out of the total 18 (now sometimes increased to 19) kills credited during the Vietnam War . The last gun kill was an F-8C flown by LCDR Robert Kirkwood. I did not feel like back dating the E to a C so an E it must be. This leaves only one option, the first credited gun kill, LT Eugene Chancy VF-211 USS Hancock June 21, 1966. Just to make life interesting, I plan to throw a fair bit of resin at it. Whether I use it all will depend on how we go. Plus some Reskit wheels if this aircraft had the later hubs. The two aftermarket kits that would add to this build would be Wolfpack's Air Brake and Wing Folding kits. As rare as the original Hasegawa kit. Yes, can be tracked down, but expensive. I'll probably scratch-build these additions. The air brake is a must. Always seems to be cracked open when the aircraft is at rest. Now, looking forward to the starting gun. Ray

G'day all, Finally finished this one after lots of stops and starts, primarily due to moving interstate and a lack of room in our new place - can't wait to get back to our own house when this year's over! You can see my 'Harry Potter cupboard' under the stairs I'm working in at the moment in a few of the shots. What can I say? It's the Hasegawa kit, with a heap of extras added - most of which I shouldn't have added! All the dramas are detailed in the WIP build link below. It represents A89-281, which is now at HARS and, unlike her sisters, A89-273 and the ex-Aeronavale 566, is very unlikely ever to fly again. She's depicted as she was just before her removal from service in 1978. Finished with Mr Surfacer White, Humbrol 40 Grey and 85 Satin Black and a mixture of detail colours from Colourcoats and Testors Model Master (all enamels). Weathering pastels (barely visible) to depict exhaust staining and Mr Colour weathering solution (brown) in the wheel wells. All coated with Future with Tamiya X-21 added to flatten the finish, where required. WIP and extras detailed at: I'm glad it's done and off my bench but it's not reflective of my current skills and will sit in the cabinet as a reminder not to go crazy on aftermarket and detailing and not to use 30 year old decals!! And one with the aircraft it replaced in-service - the GAF-built Lincoln B.30: Sorry about the stuff in the background but I'm a bit too over the model to care, to be honest! Hopefully the 1/48 Harvard will be better...

Kit - Hasegawa Paint - Lacquers & acrylics Decals - Superscale 48-1249 Extras - Eduard etch, Hasegawa Weapons Set A McDD AV-8B Harrier II Plus VMA-513 'Flying Nightmares' MCAS Yuma 2011 No it wasn't an easy build - the work required to get the underside of the LERX's to meet the fuselage was extensive and needed cutting, plastic card, lots of PSR and a fair helping of harsh language. Strangely I found it all to be challenging in a good way and actually enjoyed the whole process. Had the kit and the decals for years and years and was never any doubt which of the three options on the sheet that I was going to build. Paint is Mr Color lacquers (Extra Dark Sea Grey, Dark Compass Grey and Light Compass Grey for the drop-tanks.). The typical Harrier soot and staining is all done with W&N Oils. The loadout may be a little anachronistic, it's not too far beyond the realms of possibility for a shore-based aircraft on a live-training hop. Please feel free to ask any questions, make any comments or hurl any insults. All the best from NZ. Ian.

I have a Draken! It's the Hasegawa 1/72 - rather nice looking kit. Some light reference material too. I have a proper book about Finnish Drakens too (I think) - I just need to find it. My hobby room is a mess at the moment due to some renovation. Plastic parts. I will be doing DK-215 which is 35S variant. DK-215 is the same plane which flew the Draken's final flight in Finland in a rather striking yellow scheme with a big european bison painted on top. But I will be doing it in normal service era camo. Some aftermarket stuff - PE inside the cockpit, pitot tube and a resin seat.

Hello, I'd like to join this groupbuild with a 1/72 build of this subject: I have both the original Hasegawa boxing and the later Revell rebox with Cartograf decals, will decide which to start after inspection. Need to clear a bit the bench so don't expect a quick update. Thank you!

I suppose it is possible I might find something else in my stash but I know I do not have any Japanese "subjects" ie planes/tanks/ships and as far as I know I only have two Japanese manufactured kits left, one of which is in tended for another GB, so that just leaves this- It cost the princely sum of £3.99 from a discount store on the outskirts of Leeds back in the 1990's and I bought it to replace my original A-6A kit bought in Ellesmere Port in the late 1970's which is in a pretty sorry state though I may be able to renovate it at some time. I gather that they did upgrade the original kit a little, particularly the arrestor hook which was wrong, but I suspect the only other changes were to add the sensor turret under the nose for the A-6E version. The cockpit still has terrible seats which are moulded as part of the rear bulkhead, and not staggered as in the real thing, so I will be doing some work on that and perhaps the u/c bays, but other than that and probably a modified weapon load-out it will be OOB. The kit comes with two optional colour schemes - gray/white and two grays and I will probably be doing the latter. Given the number of GB I hope to be involved in the next few months, this may be a slow build! Pete

This is a placeholder for my build which will be a boxing of the Hasegawa Spitfire Mk.I in 1/72 (originally released in 1975 according to Scalemates).

I have a "Delta Combo" boxing of the old Hasegawa F-102A and F-106 and built the F-102A for last year's Century Fighters GB. So next up is the F-106: Not many parts, but very crisply moulded. I will probably do the bicentennial scheme. The tooling dates from 1969. It needs a little bit more detail in the cockpit and wells, but otherwise it's good to go! FWIW, here's the Deuce from the combo: Regards, Adrian

My entry is Hasegawa’s 1/32 Boeing F4B. Scalemates has this first kitted in 1971. The box has certainly seen better days. Parts are on two sprues, interestingly they are on different colour plastic. The wings are a silvery plastic, the second sprue is grey. Whether it was released like this or I have sprues from two different boxings I don’t know. Not many parts but a lot of ejector pin marks that will need cleaning up. Hoping for a quick build. The decals are showing their age, so I will be using a sheet from Yellow Wings Decals.

Another one finished this time the 1:72 Hasegawa F-106A Delta Dart. Another old kit needing lots of filler especially around the wing joints and some rework to get the canopy and nose cone to fit, and missile bay doors that just kept wanting to fall off! This aircraft 72470 of Massachusetts ANG 102 FIW 101FIS "Cape Cod" (demonstrator at 1985 Copper Flag) build in San Diego and shot down as a target drone Feb 1994 over the Gulf Of Mexico by an AIM-120 AMRAAM. Tha just leaves the 1:48 F-102 Delta Dagger in the stash to build to complete the Century Fighter Series.

Calling this massive flying boat done as it's been a 2 year slog where it sat on the shelf of doom for a year after a weathering experiment went very wrong indeed and I had to re-spray a wing 😩 So I am classing this one as "saved from the bin". With all the crew to paint these 4 engine jobs are a serious investment in time, I won't be in a hurry to build another but I have 2 more of these unbuilt 🤣 I might go back and some exhausts stains and work on the propellers a bit more

Hello my friends, now i will let see you my latest model. This is a Mirage 2000 from Hasegawa/Italeri. Additionally I used a ejectionseat from Pavla, etched parts from Eduard and a wheelset and exhaust nozzle from Reskit. The look is the first time a "The Idolm@ster 2". The designe are a little different to my previous "The Idolm@ster". The Color are again from MRP, Jägermeister Orange. The Matra-Rockets are from a kit of a Mirage F.1 from Special Hobby. I hope you like it.

Ok I'm tired of waiting for someone to come up with a nice dash 4 Corsair. And no the Hobbyboss isn't a nice dash 4. I'm starting with sadly the best looking (IMO) dash 4. The Hasegawa rebox of the ancient Mania kit. I was initially was going to build OOB except for the True Details cockpit set. Then I bought a set of Minicraft wings from their clone kit to gain scribed lines and flaps that weren't split with a difficult seam to fix. Then I remembered, hey I can poach some parts from a Hasegawa F4U-5N kit. My initial inclination was to use the the engine, wing pylons and some other details. Then I started to think I can have dropped flaps and better details if I can add the appropriate fabric panels. The dash 5 wings were too long in front and short in the rear. Not nearly the drop fit of the Minicraft wings. After eyeballing it a while I decided to try adding the dash -5 wings. First I had to find a piece of plastic to fill the giant open space between the rear edge of the lower wing and fuselage. I found a P-47 engine cowling with close contours in the spares box. Cut that in half and dry fit it approximately to the fuselage. Next was to cut off the F4U-4B kit cowling and check the fit of the wing again before I cut back the lower fuselage extension. It's bad enough that I might have ruined one kit. I didn't want to cut up the wing and ruin a second kit if I didn't have to. So I'm at the point of no return. Normally I have a hard time finishing simple kits (like a Tamiya P-51B 🙄) without a lot of drama, so this should be interesting. Stay tuned and wish me luck. Cheers Ron

As my other 3 builds are coming along fairly well I might hazard yet another USN jet. This is a 1983 boxing of the 1979 moulding, and since then at least a further 19 re-boxings have been released, some with new decs. Over the years the Prowler has had numerous modifications - the so called EXCAP, ICAP-1 and ICAP-2 programs - there are at least 3 versions of the latter - and Grumman planned a further ADCAP version but the Navy decided not to buy it. I suspect there will have been other changes as my source material is quite old and I have seem mention of an ICAP-3. When D&S reviewed this kit back in 1984 they quite liked it, rating it far better than the Matchbox one of the same vintage which I built at the time. Their main "nit-pick" was the tinted glazing which is fine except that the windscreen was not tinted. Apparently Hasegawa have alternated between everything tinted and untinted though some of the more recent boxings may have got it correct. The second hand kit came with an extra Microscale decal sheet so quite a bit of choice available, but before I decide I will have to read through my info to decide what if any modifications I will be adding. Resin cockpits range from £16 to £26 but I will probably just get new seats! Better check I have enough gray and white paint. Pete

Three weeks of this GB have already passed by and there are still three months to go! Plenty of time for another project. Again I will do something I have never done before and completely different from my recent two entries to the SSDGB. Having built objects that fly high above the salty sea I'll now build something that dives deep down into the salty sea. This is my new project: the Japanese research submersible Shinkai 6500, which is able to reach the depths of 6500 m. Box contents. Seems to be an easy kind of kit. Instructions, decals and a nice fact sheet with description of the instalments on the real thing. Haha - talking about 'easy' - lots of detail painting ahead... ..and white all over! 😱 Someday I'll break the spell and I'll get a nice and smooth white finish! Some interesting informations provided by Hasegawa (I hope it's okay to post this, if not, please tell me and I'll remove this immediately). It will be started soon. Please @TonyOD add this to the build list, thank you!