This is a current Works in Progress. I have decided to give the Marabu designs (http://www.marabudesign.com ) PE set for the Beaufighter a go. I have a 1/144 Mk.1c from Mark1 that I will probably do in RAAF colours of Foliage Green and Earth Brown over RAAF Sky of a 30Sqn aircraft based in PNG in 1942. I am not one of those modellers who takes satisfaction in building items that can not be seen by others only 'knowing they are there'! I plan to detail this kit with the PE (and maybe some other items depending on how my time and sanity go) and allow it to be seen. I have had a few suggestions as to how to do it but as I am not that big on dioramas and the exploded view although intriguing (and something I may do at a later time), leaves me with more of a "instructional 'cut-away' display as they used to do with weapons when training soldiers. I am using the SAM Publications. Modellers Datafile number 6 "The Bristol Beaufighter" as my main reference So the pieces involved; PE set: Mark1 kit Described in detail in other threads but nevertheless a great kit with some areas that need addressing (in my opinion): Floor pieces: Glued together and the two exits cut out: Pilots entry well sides made with two part putty. I plan on having the front hatch open and so need to make the walls of the entrance well between the floor and the fuselage (otherwise the space under the floor will be seen). I am not planning to open the rear one as yet (but may change my mind!) : Some of the interior parts including 20mm cannon ammo boxes, radio and table, and side fuselage pilot consuls (I have added a box (APU) already to the floor that can be seen in the above picture): Starboard fuselage interior being prepared by thinning away a little of the plastic where the PE side will sit up against: Port fuselage side with some PE interior side panel pieces added and a large section dremelled away to allow for viewing: And the outside of the Port fuselage (I have also cut out the observer's hatch surrounds as this will be a PE part and displayed open): I will have to do painting as I go (both interior and exterior (as I am afraid that I might not adequately mask the interior when I come to spray the camo!!)).

With nearly two months to go, I thought that I would make a start on a final model for this GB. My choice of subject is this little 1/144 Welsh Models Heron 1 and here are the obligatory box and contents shots before I get started. After giving the parts a wash in some warm soapy water, the next job will be to separate them from the pouring lugs.

Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation TAP, Portugal, late 1950s Minicraft kit with Classic-Airlines.com decals Tamiya Gloss White / Xtracrylix Light Aircraft Grey / Vallejo acrylic Aluminium with Klear coat Limited surface detail was scribed into the wings as the basic kit wings are featureless. Some decals from the Revell kit were used for walkways, stencils, etc. Chris

My contribution to this group build will be the F-RSIN 1/144 Trident 3B, in British Airways colours. By the time these were built it was known as the Hawker Siddeley Trident, but it's a DH design and I'm told it qualifies, so here goes. Box and sprue photo to start with: There aren't a lot of parts so it ought to be a quick build - however I think a lot of the effort in this build is going to be in cleaning up the parts. There's a lot of flash, the plastic all has a very rough surface, and there are some pretty big moulding flaws such as these strange craters on the surface of one wing: So I think I'll be getting through some filler on this build! Apparently the kit's shape is pretty good, and I've seen some good builds online (including on Britmodeller), the one thing that people seem to consistently want to deal with is the shape of the centre engine inlet - it's a bit pinched and looks a bit triangular. So this is where I've started - I've built up the shape of the inlet with plasticard, and filed out the inside (which you can't see here) to get a better shape. It'll need some blending in with filler, which I'll do when the fuselage is together.

My Bandai AT-AT finally turned up yesterday (after the ***** at the post office had fleeced me to the tune of £12 for VAT and misshandling). Before I get going on the build, I thought I'd post up some sprue shots and close ups (there are plenty of other sprue shots out there on the net, so you're probably not seeing anything new here), and today, May 4th, seemed as good a day as any to post them. To see how it all looks built up, jump over to John's multi AT-AT build The box is quite large, but that's mainly taken up by the sprue holding the head and body sections, which have each been slide moulded in one piece. The rest of the sprues are pretty standard Bandai fare Sprue A The neck, parts for the head, the cheek guns, and other assorted bits, including all new 1/144 scale Mr Flatty, now in AT-AT driver disguise (he really is the Mr Benn of the Star Wars world) Sprue B1 The lower body sections that slip inside the main body moulding, and provide some internal detail behind the separate body panels Sprue B2 The chassis parts, including a nice representation of the Pegasus engine used on the original filming models Sprue C This is the one that requires the box to be as big as it is, due to the orientation they've moulded the parts in. You've got the main body, the upper head, the base of the head, and the main chin cannons Sprue D (x2) The last two AT-AT sprues supply all the leg parts, together with the two, microscopically small, seated driver figures The final sprue is for the standard Bandai base, this time in white to represent Hoth. This is the same size base that was supplied with the 1/144 Falcon Some close-ups of the parts, starting with the head and it's base plate The main cannons. These have been slide moulded to leave an open barrel You get a choice of two (slightly) different cheek guns Internal cockpit rear wall. Nicely detailed, considering you won't actually see any of it And no doubt also invisible on the final build, the AT-AT driver. Pretty well detailed for the size (about 8mm high), although someone seems to have amputated his hands The neck. This comes in two halves, split vertically, so there'll be a seam to fill on the top and bottom Main body moulding. Being one-piece, it will at least keep everything square. This is the right-hand side, with the hatches moulded in place. The left side has them separate Lower body inserts, with the detail panels that sit behind the open hatches on the main body There's a small moulding flaw on mine, in the upper left corner of the detail panel. Quite rare for a Bandai kit. Looks like something's hit the part after coming out of the mould. Not a big deal, as I'll probably have the hatches closed. Underside of the chassis and, yes, they are jerry cans on either side More chassis detailing The Pegasus engine And, of course, the 222 hull for the rear panel... ...and the accompanying gun shields The upper parts of the feet are split vertically, so more seams to fill, although the lower foot parts are single mouldings And to give you an idea of just how small an AT-AT is in 1/144... It really is a bit smaller than I'd prefer, which is what stopped me ordering it earlier. I don't think there's much chance we'll see a bigger one from Bandai though, so we'll have to make the most of it. To give you another comparison, this is the Bandai head compared to a Wizards of the Coast AT-AT that I repainted a few years ago. That one is (depending on the measurements you use) just under 1/48 More when I get started on construction Andy

I wanted to have an EC-135 ARIA version of the KC-135 in 1/144... and I only saw one way to accomplish that...! So, out came the saw, plastic sheets, glue, and references... Minicraft KC-135E is the starting point... http:// I didn't take any in progress pics (like I should have) but after adding epoxy wood, miliput, super glue, plastic putty, Mr. Surfacer, and primer... here's where I am now... http:// http://

This is Bandai's latest addition to their ever growing Star Wars range, and probably their best one yet. They've done an incredible job both with the moulding, and with the engineering, meaning the kit has some stunning detail, and will slot together perfectly. The only thing they need to do is make it BIGGER. The original studio models famously featured a raft of parts from various classic Tamiya, Revell and Airfix kits, and Bandai have faithfully reproduced all of these, the most obvious one being the German Sd.Kfz 222 Armoured Car that sits on the back of the AT-AT's hull. For this build I've gone with a non-movie dark colour scheme, which was based on some profile artwork I produced for the project. You could see it as a special forces version, or anything at all really. I'm leaving it open to interpretation. The full build is here The original artwork that was used for inspiration And the build itself And some scale comparisons, first with the proverbial paint pot With Bandai's 1/144 Y-Wing... (at this point @Gekko_1 will be thinking up plans for a AT-TC (All Terrain - TIE Carrier)) And, obviously, with a Nigel top hat Thanks for looking Andy

Big Planes Kits (BPK) is to release 1/72nd and 1/144 Bombardier Challenger kits. Source: https://www.facebook.com/BigPlanesKits/photos/a.1510613519216386.1073741829.1509837872627284/1664192343858502/ V.P.

My first Vac-Form kit I have build.And only for the reason that it is the only Boeing 747SP kit available,except the resin kit from Authentic Airliners. The build was challenging as I had no experience with Vac-Form kits,but I managed to get it eventually together. While working on this kit for almost 1 year,I came up with the idea to make an In-Flight diaorma,which I thought would be a nice way of displaying it. For my first ever Boeing 747SP I wanted a special and nice scheme,I had Air Mauritius,South African Airways and Air Namibia in my mind. Air Mauritius decals I couldn't find and the only South African Airways markings I found where the new ones.But I wanted my -SP to have a cheatline and the Air Namibia scheme is very attractive. The decal set comes from f-dcal and is of the usual good quality,application though showed some size discrepancies,it was a tad too long.Nevertheless I managed to get it on the Jumbo. For the display stand I took another wooden board from my tv-table as I had no use for it anyway.The size was right too. I airbrushed it with different shades of brown and green to simulate sand and trees,and painted on a river with some side arms to give more depth. After that was done and dry,I used cotton balls to create "clouds". As I also wanted to create contrails,I drilled small holes in the cones of the engines hot sections and superglued thin wires in.On those I applied white glue and pasted thin pieces of cotton balls on it.I know,the contrails are appearing behind the wings,but as to hide somehow the wire I already put some thin pieces at the end of the hot sections. The model itself sits on a transparent plastic tube. For being my very first vac-form kit and also the first in-flight display like that,I am quite happy with the outcome,although the model has some flaws. I don't know if I ever will build another Vac-Form kit again,as I am more the plastic-modeller,but it was a nice and interesting experience. The only problem I have now is...where to put this diorama ? Here now the Air Namibia Boeing 747SP on its way to Windhoek.Have a nice flight I hope you like it Note:No cats included, as they are not able to "fly"...

It's back down to small scale for me at present as house move is probable - so I don't want to risk stuff that will be easily damaged.This is a Dragon kit with two in one box one navy and one marines, both nicely equipped with 12 Rockeye cluster bombs each, plus fuel tanks. I've built the navy one undercarraige up as I intend to display it on a stand with a Navy Hornet(at some point in the future !!). My first Dragon kit and I was quite impressed with the build quality and how it went together. The hardest bit was hanging the bombs they still look a bit 'off' and the yellow decals which I cut myself are far too wide. I'll excuse myself and plead small scale. Enjoy and feel free to comment Paints: Vallejo model air Cheers for looking

BRP144003 He-162A 1/144 will be in stock at EDAY Model show, Prague ( www.eday.cz ) boxart: source: http://ipmsnymburk.com/forum/viewtema.php?ID_tema=39445

Revell's Airbus A310 kit is well over 30 years old but nonetheless its a nice kit and quite easy to build. Unfortunately the kit is now very rare and the price tags are high nowadays. I was lucky to find this one for a reasonable price on a Swiss auction platform. I already built 3 of them about 2 years ago but I allways wanted one in KLM colors.This kit was the Swissair release,so the whole paintjob had to be done by hand using the good old airbrush. The decals are a mishmash and stash-bash...if this can be called this way ... The KLM logo for the tail was taken from a Airfix DC-10 decal set,the small KLM logos and the "Royal Dutch Airlines" are from a Revell 767 set,doors come from an Airfix A300 and the registration was build up using parts from the KLM 767 kit and from the British Airways 767 Revell kit. The cockpit window is from a left over Authentic Airlines set,cabin windows are from the Revell A330 and the coroguard panels and details from the PAS Decals A310 detail set. Paints are a mix of Revell,Humbrol and Testors enamels. The build was straight forward,the only thing I corrected was the nose and shape of the cockpit area.Revell did not get the look right there. With some filler and sanding it was an easy fix. I am very pleased with the outcome,altough I never used so many different decals for one project before. Hope you like it, And with "something else" KLMs other type for its extensive european network during the early 70s and 80s

Some more airliners came off my busy production line last week. The old but very nice Airfix DC-9s. Despite its age,it is very well detailed,with good fit (except the doors) and the shape is pretty well captured by Airfix. I rescribed the flaps and panels on the wings as they were just raised lines on the kit,otherwise it was a straight OOB build. The "Fly",AZmodel,Karaya...or whatever the other DC-9 kit is coming from, has recessed panellines and other nice touches,but I find the Airfix kit still a nice replica of this classic and a re-release would be highly anticipated. Anyone from Airfix reading this...?? I worked on those 3 DC-9s at the same time,so they got finished almost on the same day as well. The KLM and IBERIA DC-9s,the decals came from the respective kits. The windows and details are from the superb Flying Colors MD-80 detail set. For the Aeropostal Avensa DC-9,I used the decal set from Classic Airlines courtesy of Nick Webb. The quality is superb,very thin decals but great to handle.The only small issue was that the cheatline and the tail part is slightly too long.This required some cutting and adjusting.Otherwise the decals fit perfect. I very much enjoyed building these 3 classic Douglas airliners and they will receive a nice spot in my vitrine. Hope you like them And a DC-9-30 group shot

Hello Everyone, I was going to add a ship into this goup build, but I couldn't find a ship I liked the look off. I did think about the Typhoon, but ruled it out. I was then going to get one of the Sovremenny class ships as I have been playing alot of WarGame Red Dragon the last few days, but haven't been bothered to get one yet, yeah I know I am lazy. So looking at my stash, and I noticed I have lots of Russian things in 1/144. I haven't seen any Bears yet, which I really find surprising! So I thought I would join in with that, nothing fancy, just getting the bugger done OOB too. So onto the pictures... I bought this a little while ago after I came back to the hobby, I'm pretty sure this was in an end of year sale for ModelZone. I've had it stored ever since then just waiting for an excuse to build it. Horizontal split for the fuselage, haven't seen that since the Airfix 1/72 Buccaneer I built when I was 8 I think? Was part of a Gulf War set with the Jaguar. Anyhow, this kit doesn't look like it has too many parts to it. Shouldn't take too long to build. Wing tops and engine pod things... not much to see here. It is really strange the part breakdown of this model... I even have the raised copyright notice on the wings, gonna have to get rid of that. Still not 100% sure what version to do, although I guess they are pratically the same with little changed here or there. If I get this one done in time (which I will be shocked if I don't) I will add something else from my 1/144 collection. More to come soon! Kind Regards, Dazz

This is an early-mark Beaufighter night-fighter which I finished recently. It is of 89 Squadron while it was based at Abu Sueir in Egypt in Spring 1942. The Squadron only wore the WP lettering for a very short period of time. This aircraft is that of Squadron Leader Derek Pain. On the night of 2/3 March 1942, Pain and his Navigator, Sgt. Briggs, shot down a Heinkel 111 over Jebel Mariut near Alexandria, his second victory; the squadron's long-awaited first. Pain went on to become a night-fighter ace, while 89 Squadron was to be one of the highest-scoring nightfighter units of the war with 141.3 victories (second only to 600 Squadron with 180 kills). X7671 was also flown by the future ace Nevil Reeves and the superbly named Flg Officer 'Moose' Fumerton RCAF in 89 Squadron. It was transferred to 46 and then 227 Squadrons before being struck off charge in the second half of 1944. The Mark 1 kit has its few vices, noted elsewhere. It's still a lovely little kit though. I used the Marabu etch for the aerials and other details (although I actually didn't bother with the etch interior or dropped flaps on this one) and can highly recommend this. Will eke this etch set out for the next few Beaus I build so the next should have dropped flaps and the final one I'll try and detail the interior. Paint was Humbrol 225 and 29 - no real problems and a good match for middlestone and dark earth to my eye. I found a spare Balkenkreuz kill mark in the spares and decided to add it, possibly spurious but I could find no references to suggest this wasn't added in March 1942 and it livens things up. My wife (who is excellent, by the way) kindly gave me a bunch of 1/144 Coastal Kit bases the other day, just for taking the odd photo with. They are very nice, I think. Matt-textured and high-definition printed - good for photos like this and for goons like me who lack the requisite skills to make a full diorama of similar proportions. You'll probably see a few more from me in due course. Thanks very much for looking!

Hi Folks! I'm not newcomer here because registered since 2010 and actively using britmodeller.com as reference for many cases related to plastic models building, but that is my first topic here. So... I would like to share with you here my build is ongoing on Greenmats.Club Original body: Airbus A300-600ST BELUGA Model: Revell 04206 Scale: 1/144 Aftermarket parts: no Livery: to be announced later I'll not talk about Revell kit here, just put some pictures that show what plastic parts you'll find in the box. (+ building instruction and decal)

This is my latest foray into the world of 1/144th. It is the recently released Oz Models Bristol Mk 31 Freighter, in the guise of NZ5910 of the RNZAF The kit is limited run so needs a good amount of cleaning up, though the fit is generally very good indeed. I had to make the D/F loops and the aerials from scrap. The real NZ5910 was sold to a Canadian company and after another 10 years service was finally put to rest in a museum. Thanks for looking

Just a placeholder for the moment because I am waiting for the kit to arrive for this build. It was due to be despatched on Monday so I am expecting it any day now, I will post photos just as soon as I can I have wanted to make a model of this very sleek looking aircraft for a while now after spotting it on a display of models representing aircraft used by British Airways/BOAC/Imperial Airways at Scale Modelworld a few years ago. I thought that it would be a nice addition to this group build and set about finding a suitable kit. A brief, but fascinating, history can be found here on the Old Machine Press site.

I am still awaiting the arrival of my Welsh Models Albatross kit, so had another rummage around and came across this little fella. There are not a lot of parts but the masking for the paint should prove to be enough of a challenge to keep things interesting, I may even make an attempt at rigging it too.

Hawker Siddeley HS748 Series 2A LAV Aeropostal, Venezuela, early 1970s This is the S&M 1/144 resin kit with decals from Classic-Airlines.com. The resin parts looked so nice when I took them out of the box, but turned into a bit of a challenge to finish. Things like the angles of the engine nacelles and difficulty in getting the rear fuselage to a nice point are still there to hint of the assembly issues. The prop blades are also a bit thin, but hey its a 748. I used the Aeropostal decals because they just look pretty, and it’s the kind of scheme we might have seen on a 748 at Farnborough in the mid 60s. Finish is Tamiya Gloss White over Xtracrylix Light Aircraft Grey. Engine nacelles are 'Rub N Buff'. De-icing strips are provided in the Classic-Airlines decal sheet. Chris

This is looking very promising but I get its going to be bloody expensive to....... http://culttvman.com/main/moebius-models-2001-discovery-update/

Not only a Spitfire with nose art, but a Spitfire with drop tanks too! I posted pictures of this build previously on the KG144 forum, but this Spitfire has a pretty interesting and unusual backstory which I thought might interest someone here. The scheme came on my Kitsworld decal sheet (available in all different scales and it is also on this Jbr sheet, which I suspect is equally nice and have high on my shopping list). Having just bought Hannants out of discounted Eduard Quattro Spitfires (and a very good deal they were too - under £20 for 8 Spitfires), I had to do it for the sheer novelty value. MK210 was a Mk.IXc loaned to the USAF in early-1944, who wanted to see if they could fit long-range fuel tanks to give the Spit the 'legs' of the P-51. At Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, the Americans stripped out unnecessary weight, including the outer wing .303s, installed a large 43 gallon fuel tank behind the pilot (where the yellow filler cap is), and an enlarged oil tank. It was also modified to carry 16.5 gallon underwing P-51 drop tanks (which look vast on the Spit whereas somehow they look normal on a P-51, oddly enough). In partnership with another similarly-modified Spit, the aircraft was flown across the Atlantic in July 1944 by USAF test pilot Lt Col Gus Lundquist, seen below looking impossibly dashing (and bearing a resemblance to a young Marlon Brando). It had a hydraulics failure when it reached the Greenland staging base and was forced to make a wheels-up landing. Fortunately, the drop tanks took the hit, meaning that MK210 was deemed repairable and not written off. While Lundquist flew to the UK in a B-25 to collect the required spares, the crew chief repairing her decided to paint a pin-up on the cowling, supposedly of his wife, Tolly. Either she's idealised or he was a lucky guy. Anyway, I guess life in Greenland was pretty slow after the day's work was done. The Spit was flown on to the UK, where RAE Boscombe Down tested it. It was found to handle like a steel pig, with all the additional fuel tanks ruining the weight distribution of the aircraft, making its handling very unpredictable. Also, when the drop tanks were released at speeds above 300 mph, they had a nasty habit of damaging the underside of the wing. The British also found the nose art a bit uncouth so Tolly's offending panel was removed (although rumour has it the pilots nabbed it for the local pub). There's a question mark over whether this ever flew with the combination of both nose art and drop tanks. I have chosen to neatly ignore that question mark - while this Spit could almost certainly have made the 800-odd mile hop from Greenland to Iceland and then on to Scotland on internal fuel alone, there is no conclusive evidence that it did… so there! This is the Eduard IXc that comes in the Quattro set with Kitsworld's superb decals (comes with all the stencilling you could ever require). I stole some drop tanks and hard points from a Sweet P-51, and added the Rotol Hydulignum stencils to the prop from a Liliput Air Force sheet I have (I think these are right for a IXc). Scratch built the pitot and rear view mirror. Otherwise this is out of the box. I didn't know whether they actually replaced the panels underwing after removing the .303s, so I let sleeping dogs lie and left the cartridge ejector holes alone. At the time I also didn't know whether the full IFF MkII aerials were fitted (those are the ones going in diagonally from the horizontal tailplane to about the roundel on the fuselage) but I figured that at some point this would have been tested at Max All Up Weight, so those sorts of things probably would have been on there…I have subsequently been reliably informed that given the aircraft's date of manufacture and the note against the serial number that it had all military equipment stripped out of it, it most likely did not have this fitted (and if it did have IFF, it would have had the more discreet MkIII). Ah well, it's on there now and I am too happy about it to lose much sleep. Painted with Humbrol (topside) and Tamiya (underside), weathered with W&N oils (a new technique for me - I quite like the effect). Especially using the Kitsworld decals, this was a great fun build - I've forgotten how superb Eduard's little Spitfire is (I last built one three years ago). Needless to say I now have another seven planned! I think this has to be my favourite of all the Spitfire marks. So elegant... Thanks for looking - hope that was of some interest!

I know,some of you may think "how on earth can he churn out so many models in one week ?" As my stash has grown bigger and bigger,I decided to increase my production rate and work on several airliners at once. It's also more interesting to work on different projects on and off as only on one,at least for me...I have usually 3-4 kits on my bench on which I am working on and off so from time to time 2 airliners roll off production line almost simultaneously. So,here we are,the last of the bunch is also probably the most special one. The Air France Concorde in the striking Pepsi livery. Pepsi struck a deal with Air France in 1996 to brand one of their Concordes in this special livery. Altough the Jet could not fly more than Mach 1.7 due to the color,it flew 16 flights to 10 cities from Europe to the Middle East. After that,the Concorde was repainted back in the usual all white Air France livery and entered regular service again. The whole story can be found here... http://jalopnik.com/remember-when-a-concorde-wore-this-ridiculous-pepsi-liv-1709488664 I saw pic of this Concorde back then and always though it looked cool. So I was more than happy when I found the rather rare decal set for this particular aircraft.Having the decal set,I needed to get me another Revell Concorde as the other one in my stash will receive the Singapore / British Airways livery. I am not sure but I think the decal set was made by Gio Decals.The set was already a bit aged but it was still usable,although with much care. The tail logo was the most tricky part,esp. as they didn't really wanted to lay around the edges.I had to use a lot of decal softener and carefully repaint cracks that were unavoidable. Its not as perfect as I wanted it but I can live with it and from a normal distance its not really noticeable. All additional markings come from the original Revell decal set as it has lots of detail to enhance the overall look. The build was straight forward with only minor filling and sanding areas,esp. around the wing halves. I also shortened the front gear but it still sits a tad too low on the back. I airbrushed the whole kit by using Revell enamels. Revell Blue 54 with some drops white 04 to get as close to the Pepsi blue as possible.The instructions from the decal set are no help in that matter. Revell Gloss White 04 for all white parts and Aluminium for the landing gear. The engine hot sections were painted with a mixture of satin black and iron. The fuselage and wings were also clear coated after all decals had been aplied.The Pepsi decals didn't really wanted to stick,probably due to their age ?,so the clear coating did the trick. To tone down the too shiny surface a light mist of Testors Metallic Sealer was sprayed on the whole model. Enough writing on with the pics....after this one the next batch of airliners awaits its turn on my bench...

Whilst I'm messing around with the workshop upgrades I thought I'd carry out a feasibility study on scratch building in 1/144 for what I hope is an upcoming model Started with the barrel 5 diameters of brass tube soldered together, bit of car filler voila Underside with recoil cylinder fitted Work started on the base plate Quick tip for cutting bolts etc to same length Drill a hole slightly bigger in a piece of scrap, slip over the rod and slide scalpel across simples Thanks for looking Kev