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I have started the new Walrus and done some initial construction and test fitting. As I only sprayed the interior green today I am letting it dry overnight then will do some of the detail painting and weathering inside tomorrow. This is going to be wings folded, hatches closed up and no rigging while the second one I will start later on will be wings extended, hatches open and rigged.

Hello guys; This is my latest build: an Eduard F-2 1/48. It was out of box. I used Kagero decals: Bf 109 F-2; 'White 9', flown by Oblt. Hans Phillip, Staffelkapitän of 4./JG 54, Mal. Owsischtschi, 10 August 1941. Paints: Tamiya and Gunze acrylic paints. Thanks for watching!

Hi all here are some pics of my latest project, it's ICM's lovely 1/48 Dornier DO-17Z built and painted as a DO-17z-3 of the Ilmavoimatt (Finnish Air Force) and finished in a temporary Winter scheme. I thoroughly enjoyed this build and found the kit to have the right mix of detail and ease of build and can highly recommend it and also the decals by SBS Models which are superb. Anyway here are the pictures; If any of you haven't been along to the Radial Engines Rock GB (which I built this for) then I recommend popping along and having a look at the cracking models in the gallery and those still in wip, there are some great ones to look at. And if you like the colour scheme (and who wouldn't!) there is a Winter War GB proposed which I suggest you have a look at and sign up for. Here is a link to the build of her; Thanks for looking, and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received. Craig.

The much anticipated Airfix 1/48 P-51D has just appeared on our shelves! Packed with great detail, two very eye catching schemes and a 10% discount it won't be around for long! https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/airfix-148-north-american-p51-d-mustang/

Without a two pronged crown; although I was tempted to an H6K Mavis with twin fins, I actually going to attempt the N1K1 Kyofu (Rex), which lost it's floats to become the N1K1-J Shiden (George) as I'm much more likely to actually finish it. A little background from Wikipedia: Kawanishi's N1K was originally built as a single pontoon floatplane fighter to support forward offensive operations where no airstrips were available, but by 1943 when the aircraft entered service, Japan was firmly on the defensive, and there was no more need for a fighter to fulfill this role. The requirement to carry a bulky, heavy float essentially crippled the N1K against contemporary American fighters. Kawanishi engineers, however, had proposed in late 1941 that the N1K would be the basis of a formidable land-based fighter too, and a land-based version was produced as a private venture by the company. This is a placeholder while I sort out picture hosting, and until the postie has been with the actual kit. Andy

This is one rescued from the shelf of doom, a Dynavector 1/48 Scimitar F1 , nice vacform with a fairly easy build , but not helped by my decision to fold the wings. Seemed to lose interest about half way through the build so it got left for about 12 months, but decided to get it finished , after all the Scimitar is one of my favourite aircraft. Finished in Halfords finest, EDSG over appliance white, with scratch built ladder and intake blanks. Aircraft represents a machine of 800 Sqd FAA in 1961.

Howdy, my second entry in to this GB... "You finished your other one?" I hear you say, no, stupid me started a second to make things harder for myself... Anyway, here's the progress over the last few weeks on this one: Getting there on this one. Need to do a few little extras in the cockpit, mask the canopy and temporarily attach it, then I can prime and start the next fun bit. P.S. Just to show you how dumb I really am, these are the other kits I'm working on at the same time, looks more like a Lufwaffe airfield after the war! All the best.

Having had some time off work - I decided to tackled this kit - which has been sitting in the stash for some time. All in all it's a nice kit to make. The cockpit is a real joy. Lots of detail, nicely designed, goes together very well. I sprayed it Tamiya gunship grey, then sponged on vallejo neutral grey, and pale grey to break up the surfaced and create some highlights on rims of seats etc. Once the cockpit is done, and the canopy masked off the rest of the kit is actually extremely fast to finish. The part count outside the cockpit is pretty small. I used the Eduard masks for this, as the idea of doing it myself was too terrifying. There was a fair amount of sanding needed to get the transparent parts flush with the wing roots. Once the plane was together I decided at the last minute to go down a 'what if' route. I am a bit bored of doing the usual green / grey splinter camo, and had some rattle cans knocking about that would allow for a desert version. I haven't seen any photos of a Bv-141 in the desert, so this is all a bit fanciful. Once the main 3 colours were on, I did quite a lot of post-shading using white and umber oil paint - put directly on the kit then blended in roughly in panel areas. Quite happy with how it went, once I practice I think it will be better at keeping it to the right areas and accordingly it will look better. Finally I splodged the with humbrol weathering pigment 'sand yellow'. The landing light is a little bit of kitchen foil. Seat belts are wine bottle foil. Thanks for looking - all criticisms welcome! Bruce

Hy Guys. Probably you know that feeling when you just can't stop yourself from starting a new project. Well, that's what happened to me with this one. I just wanted something nice and colorful. Enter Italeri (ex-Occidental, me thinks) 1/48 T6G Texan. Soft plastic, but with nice details on the exterior. Not so nice for the interior, which is somehow sparce. In order to improve a little bit the interior (especially the cockpit and wheel bays/flaps) I will use the eduard zoom etch for this kit and some scratch here and there. The transparencies are clear enough but too thick in order to depict the canopy in open position. As I didn't found any vac replacement for this kit, I will have use the original pieces, although I would like to be able to see the interior. My intention is to depict a Guantanamo Bay machine, pretty much the same with the one from the attached pic. Anyway, here are the mandatory box contents pics:

I will join if I may. I have a couple of kits in the stash that qualify and having done some research I now know the difference between a rotary and a radial engine (yes I admit it I didn't know before but you live and learn). I am going to build the Eduard 1/48 WWI Fokker E.II. I should point out (a) I have never built a WWI plane before, (b) I have never done rigging on a plane before and (c) this looks quite fiddly. Fingers crossed. The kit. I understand its one of Eduard's older offerings but hopefully that doesn't mean problems. I will be building it OTB and have some E Z Line to try out for the rigging. The sprues. So far so good. And finally some photo etch and a very very small clear sprue. Thanks for looking. As always all comments very welcome. Cheers Dave

So far I have played about with cardboard buildings, dioramas, lighting up models and scratch building, so what to have a go at next? Now down the road from me is Wattisham so I see Apaches flying over most days. Do like them, and did fancy making one. Then one day I was in the model shop and they had these for £9 - not the version I really wanted, but couldn't really say no..... The decals look to be, er, 'challenging', but worth a go. But what else could it have? What about turning rotors? I had an old toy twin rotor flying 'spaceman' helicopter (one of those radio controlled toys with twin rotors) that never flew very well, but it had two motors in it and gears & drive shafts. So, opened the kit & tried to figure out if things will fit / work. Something like this for the main rotor And a motor right through the tail Still don't know if it will all work, but if it totally fails I will just leave it not working. Checked out where the GPU socket is and will route wires out through there. Now this clip is noisy & may well not work (photobucket seems somewhat conflicted about whether it works or not!) http://vid172.photobucket.com/albums/w16/BarSidePhotos/WP_20170629_15_34_37_Pro_zpse9jgkqap.mp4 Well trying a different photo host now photobucket is blocking everything unless you pay!

Ok I’ve been asked to post these by a fellow member. This is Academy’s T-33. I built this kit when i first got back into the hobby in 2014. Its not the best work still needs harness’s but I figured why not show it. I built the kit to represent a generic S.A.C. Hack aircraft circa late ‘60’s or early ‘70’s. Hope you like it. The only real problem i found was the lower rear fuselage. The wing to Fuselage joint and the seams were a bit troublesome. The Decals from academy just vaporised when they came into contact with water. So I pulled a hodgepodge of decals from my files and came up with this scheme. Most of the decals are monogram from the F-80 kit and The original Pro-modeler F-86D kit. The SAC Band and Badge came from an old Microscale F-84 thunderstreak sheet from the 80’s. Its good enough for my tastes And its not perfect by any shake of the stick. But comments ...questions ?

My Airfix Walrus (actually two of them, but I'll save the second for another time) arrived in the mail today, and I couldn't resist getting started. Starting with the usual open box shot: This will be my first biplane in something like 30 years. It'll also be my first attempt at rigging. Is it a bit perverse that I'm actually looking forward to having a crack at rigging? Not sure what colour scheme to go for. I have the Xtradecals on order, but I'm also wondering about whether to do one of the SAR machines that was stationed at RAF Andreas, to carry on my Manx theme. thanks for looking Z

Hello everyone! Having recently finished wrestling with the ICM Bf109F I decided to take a break from tough-to-build kits by building the....ICM Spitfire VII! I built this kit about a year ago but an unfortunate reaction with the paint meant that it was a bit of a mess underneath and I was never happy with it. I ended up scrapping that kit and using its innards to build another kit, which you see here! I decided to build an aircraft that did not have the high-altitude tips as I had recently built a Spitfire VI and quite frankly I dont like them! Pictures show that MD111 of 131 Squadron did not have them fitted in July 1944 and hence became my choice of subject. The following mods were made to the ICM kit: Ultracast Propellor and cannons Spare Eduard gear legs Cockpit door deleted and cockpit pressure bulkhead scratchbuilt. Canopy rails from plastic sheet High-altitude paint scheme, paints by xtracrylics Decals from the spares box Hope you like it! I have attached a picture of her older sister the Mk.VI at the bottom to show the contrast with the colours and wingtips. Chris

Finished build of Tamiya's exquisete 1/48 Sturmtiger, full build review article on Armorama's website Will be building a simple base / scene of an abandoned tank

Hi all Here is my latest creation. It is Italeri's 1/48 MV-22 Osprey in the colours of HMX-1 operating as an escort to the US President when travelling in Marine 1. I have added extra antennas and dropped the flaps as every picture of Ospreys has the flaps dropped. Regards Mick

My entry will be Eduard's Weekend Edition 1/48 Mirage IIIC. Won't be starting for a while, as I still have to finish a couple of other ongoing group build entries, a MIG-21R and Mk2 Transit.

My aircraft WIP started off with a couple of 1/48 RAF Phantoms I was building, but somewhere along the way I started putting together a background to photograph them with. This turned in to a hair-brained scheme to build a Hardened Aircraft Shelter (HAS). I live near Wattisham and have taken some photos while passing of the site, and using google maps I got started on some plans. A full size hanger in 1/48 would just be too big, so a single aircraft HAS seemed do-able. So this is what I was aiming for: Most of the build so far is on my other thread, so I won't repeat it all here. Suffice to say it got rolling with a bit of rolled up cardboard: The main structure is about 76cm x 45cm. But then add the apron in front, doors, vent at the back, annex, etc, etc. Its got pretty big.

Hi folks! Finally received my Montex markings masks so managed to get this finished. It's the Airfix Spitfire XII mashed together with a spare (length corrected) Hasegawa fuselage - I'm not a big fan of the Airfix fuselage as I think it looks too 'plump'. Rudder is a spare from an Eduard IXc, wing chord reduced to match the Eduard planform. Kit box, instructions and decals were destroyed by a leaky roof back in the UK, hence the national markings are from the spares box, codes and serial are by Montex. Thanks for looking! Chris p.s. please forgive the dust - it's hard to avoid it in the desert! P.P.S. links updated to Imgur in the wake of the photobucket debacle

Here is another of my occasional 1/48 builds, the Eduard Messerschmitt Bf109G6. A lot has been posted online about the accuracy of this kit and building it alongside 2 other 109s the difference in size is instantly apparent. As a 109 fan I was rather disappointed initially but once I started building that disappointment all but vanished as the kit is a delight to build with superb detail inside and on the surface so it's portliness is forgiven on this occasion. Other than sand off the strange bumps at the wing root everything else is OOB including the strange undercarriage leg angle. I painted this one as Major Franzisket's aircraft as the other decal options all have some issues, several were ERLA built G6s so should have had the extra cowl bulges on the right side but Eduard didn't include them and one of the options colour schemes is actually a mixture of 2 aircraft from different factories. I've gone a bit overboard with the weathering as the photos I've seen showed this aircraft to be very clean, I'll put it down to artist licence. Duncan B

This was buried in the stash for years until I finally took pity on it and decided to give it a go. It's a nice package with everything you need in the box (p/e, masks), only problem being the fit of the nancelles. Regards J A

I guess you guys starts to get tired about me starting WIP:s left and right and then just stall them...so here's another one! I've not forgotten about the Bf110 or the P-47N yet, they just got pushed to the back burner for a while. The Spitfire VIII will get finished soon, since a the C4 competition is getting closer by the minute. The first weekend in September my local IPMS chapter run it's yearly competition and I did my first stint as a judge there (don't laugh!) Very inspiring, and all though the 1/48 jet class was packed with excellent models I decided that I should enter one there next year. So that leaves me with just about a year to finish this: This box was definitely made to lure me in. It's Airfix red, it's got a big honking (very) british piece of metal, rockets and a sharkmouth. The only missing thing was probably a evocative nose-art of some sort, but that would probably be a bit too much. The Airfix kit looks great, but I couldn't help myself to some aftermarket candy: I was satisfied with this for a while but then I decided to just order a few more parts, but since Hannants doesn't do instant delivery to Sweden I'll just have to wait for a little while longer for the rest to arrive. It's quite a large beast this one? Meanwhile I was pondering why and where my builds stall. They usually proceed quite ok until after the decals are placed, and then I burn out on the subject. This leaves me with quite a few kits on the shelf of doom that are fully painted and decaled, just missing final weathering and all the small/loose bits. With that in mind, let's see how to tackle this one. Surely I must begin with the loose bits! That means all weapons, pylons, antennas, landing gear and maybe also the canopy must be finished before the fuselage is joined. It also seems that the air brake hangs loose, so let's start with that. Airfix in the year 2012 was using another inejction moulding company then their present ones, and those guys really liked thick ingates and hard plastic. As an extra bonus some sink marks and those pesky ejector pins must be dealt with. Razor saw is a must to get the parts out from the runners. I decided to enhance the air brake using some plastic strips and will start to add bundles of wires, pipes and hoses to the bay itself, while pondering how to paint the tanks and pylons. White yes, but maybe I should add some brown to it to be able to play with shading? Sounds like I'll need to do some testing...

Hi there, I'm new here and also a newbie - getting back to the hobby for the last couple of years . Our local model builder's forum, where I've posted my build reports so far have been, closed. I was looking for a new place to share my adventures in building and mainly learn from the experience of other builders. I surveyed the internet and Britmodeller came up as a good place - so here I am. My build chronicles will be detailed as much as I have time - as I'm out to share my experience with the specific kit I'm building as well as learn and get feedback on new techniques. The only challenge is that building time and writing time - are part of the same zero sum game of "spare time". So here goes ..... My next build is the Hasegawa 1/48 F4U-4 kit. Following my previous build, which lasted a while, I was looking for something simple, focused on painting and maybe weathering with limited time spent detailing. Also should be a quick build as I need to start reducing the stash.... The box, parts and instructions: It's a simple kit, a bit old, low part count, low detail level in the cockpit and engine - should be a breeze. I really like the 'Death Rattler" scheme - also because there are some nice color photos of a/c wearing that scheme. (This is for ref. only. I hope I'm not infringing on any one's copyright. I so - pls. contact me and I will remove the images) Before starting to cut parts I've looked up my stash list and - surprise ! It turns out this one is going to be a first as I have a CMK cockpit aftermarket for it - full with resin, PE and Canopy. This is certainly a twist as I've never dealt with a cockpit resin so far. Here goes the 'quick and easy' plan . Work started with some white paint (Tamiya XF-2) for the wheel hubs and back of the instrument panel dials transparency. The Instrument panel PE was covered in Flat Black, the painted transparency was glued to the back and Future drops added to the dials. After a quick dry fit I decided that the PE itself needs some solid structure to hang to so I dermel'ed the kits' instrument panel flat and glued them together. The dremel'ing is crude - as can be evident - the tool is new here and obviously used at too high of a speed. A quick dry-fit It looks like the CMK parts do not necessary fit the kit snugly so I will have to think about which part gets glued to which and in what order. Some putting is expected too. Another first - I sanded the wheels using my Dremel and then used a Platz circular cutter to cut masks for the wheel hubs, then hit the wheels with Tamiya Flat Black. A good first - but will need some (more / a lot of ) perfecting and clearly a paint touch up. Resin side panels glued, using VMS Flexy 5K CA glue, to the sides of the cockpit after dry fitting with the cockpit tub. The glue is sticky but sets slowly enough to allow adjustments. This is anther first. That's it for now. Comments are welcomed. Ran

Now here is something small but fast to build… It’s the tiny Tamiya German Motorcycle and Sidecar. I have seen some fantastic examples in 1/35 – but this is 1/48. Like everything I have had from Tamiya it simply ‘fell together’ in minutes. Fast drying primer by Halfords spray can / a quick blast of Vallejo gun metal and the only fiddly bit was hand painting the tyres / handlebars / seats. The ‘go faster stripes’ are black self adhesive vinyl. JOB DONE… I opted for this fictitious civil scheme to maybe use in my ‘South Downs Flying Club’ Diorama. But for now a quick background of the control tower at Elvington and some printed runway, which I think I found on here… Considering the size of the box – I expected it to be bigger – but it is 1/48 after all and absolutely tiny. I couldn’t resist the ‘penny shot’… ...and here it is with a Hurricane at sunset… A bit different – but for £8 a lot of fun – what do you think??? Steve

Pre-pre-amble: I know I have other things on the go. I don't care. I'm fed up with them and want something easy. I've been working loads recently and even any modelling time has been hijacked with work, the latest being a pair of Bf109s to go on the table at the Scottish Nationals at Perth next weekend as part of a general drive to show what the paints look like on the models. I'm not enjoying these. There's nothing wrong with the little Airfix kits, but it's not my scale and I don't like making models to deadlines (I sprint from one deadline to the next in real life and don't need any more at home). They're almost done, but they're a chore. The project: I wanted to start this little project months ago but I don't get the time to do much for myself, or at least I don't get much time when I'm not also burned out and sat like a zombie or sat answering emails at 10:30pm. I grew up and still live in the north east of Scotland. It's home and I like it here. I like how unpopulated it is, how quiet and technical rural roads can be and I like little reminders dotted around of the past, something largely bulldozed and redeveloped long since further south. I live roughly equidistant from most of the military airfields from WW2 in the area; Dyce, Peterhead, Dallachy, Banff, Crimmond, with Lossiemouth and Kinloss not that much further. But for a few subtle memorials dotted around it's generally not that well known that the Banff Strike Wing existed at all here, nor how prolific they were at the time. I decided to build a few aircraft that took part in what is now known as "Black Friday" - the 9th of February 1945, a raid on Germany destroyer Z33 in a Norwegian fjord which to be honest was probably the worst day of the war for the wing and indeed they racked up the worst losses of any Coastal Command wing during the whole war. First up is the sole Mustang lost during the raid. This was a Mustang III from 65 Squadron, temporarily based at Dallachy I understand at this point (RAF Peterhead where 65Sqn and 19Sqn Mustangs were usually based was having runway work done for around 2 months). The aircraft was HB836 and carried squadron codes YT-N. The pilot, W/O Cecil Claude Caesar, was assisting a 404 Sqn Beaufighter when he was shot down by Unteroffizier Heinz Orlowski in Fw190F-8 "White 1". Caesar was reportedly hit but kept on the offensive before crashing in to a pine forest on the side of a mountain. Two teenage Norwegian boys climbed the mountain hoping to rescue Caesar but he was dead when they reached him. Some German military arrived and had the boys extract Caesar's body from the wreckage and take him down the mountain on a sleigh to be buried. Orlowski himself was hit and forced to bail out by then too low, but was tangled on the way out and hit the ground hard with a partially opened parachute, causing an avalanche in the snow and somehow igniting the flare pistol in his pocket badly burning him. The model: For this I am returning to my preferred scale of 1/48, and will use the Tamiya kit: To help me along with minimal effort, I'm using some Ultracast resin bits: New propeller New seat New wheels I will get new exhausts for it too. Probably. Last night I sprayed a base coat of Colourcoats ACUS09 ANA611 Interior Green on the cockpit, some ACUS24 Dull Dark Green on the seat and cockpit combing and aluminium in various places. I am trying to confirm the colour of the fuselage fuel tank. I've found no photographs yet but black would seem an educated assumption if it's a self-sealing tank. If anyone can contribute here I'd appreciate that! I was about to spray the wheel wells aluminium with yellow zinc chromate spars but concluded that I couldn't live with the kit inaccuracy here despite my desire for a quick and easy build, and late last night ordered a resin wheel well insert by Vector via the nice man at Neomega. I received an email notification this morning saying it was dispatched, which is excellent. http://www.neomega-resin.com/p-51b-wheel-wells-469-p.asp In addition to this, I have already got some Xtradecal RAF squadron code letters in Sky and another set of registration code letters in black. To end the first post, if anyone has an actual photograph of HB836 I'd love to see it now rather than after I've built it with some assumptions based on typical aircraft I've found