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BAC 1-11,Scandinavian Airline System (SAS) 1:144 Airfix, with classic-airlines.com decals. In 1968 SAS leased a BAC 1-11 from British Eagle, which was painted in full SAS colours, but retained it's British Registration (G-ATPL). I believe the reason for the lease was to alleviate aircraft shortages pending the arrival of their DC-9's. I rather like the old Airfix kit, but it represents the 1-11 prototype more than a production machine. However a few simple modifications make it look a lot better, see the end of this post. Having spotted this decal sheet on classic-airlines website, I thought it would make an interesting model, as not may people know SAS operated the 1-11. G-ATPL went on to serve with Dan-Air after the collapse of British Eagle 'With something else', a sister 1-11 in British Eagle colours, also an Airfix kit with classic-airlines decals. And with part of my growing SAAS fleet. If you have one of these kits in the stash, it is well worth building. These are the basic mods I did; Thanks for looking, John

The WIP is finished, so I decided to post the finished pictures here as well. I've wanted to make a DC-9 for a while now, but never came around to it until now. The DC-9 was the last civil aircraft that was designed exclussively by Douglas. I'm sure many civil aircraft enthousiast knows about the venerable DC-9, so no need to go into details here KLM had a total of 25 DC-9 aircrafts (both the -15 and the -30) and they served the airline from 1966 to 1989. I decided to build the DC-9-30 from Authentic Airliners. Many a great build has been made with Airfix and the kit is actually reasonably accurate, but this time I choose ease of building over price. With the airfix kit you have to do a lot more filling and sanding and I wanted to do something easy for now. Some things that I’ve noticed though is that the engines of Airfix are too short and too thick, the fuselage is too short, the vertical stabilizer has the incorrect shape and the wing sweep isn’t a 100% correct. Whether or not that is worth a more expensive resin kit is up to you. Anyway, without further ado: The DC-9 by Authentic airliners is a joy to build (as are all the other kits by AA). I’m happy with the way the colour of engines turned out. I’ve experimented a bit with the metal colours as I want to get more experience with them. After all, aircraft such as the DC-8 or DC-10 in KLM colours had their bellies entirely metal coloured in more or less the same colour as the DC-9 engines, so I can use all the practice I can get before I even start working on those! Thanks for looking and see you next time! Regards, Martijn

I've wanted to make a DC-9 for a while now, but never came around to it. Now's finally the time! The DC-9 was the last civil aircraft that was designed exclussively by Douglas. I'm sure many civil aircraft enthousiast knows about the venerable DC-9, so no need to go into details here KLM had a total of 25 DC-9 aircrafts (both the -15 and the -30) and they served the airline from 1966 to 1989. From an old Dutch newspaper article: "KLM has chosen the twin engined DC-9 as its successor to the six Vickers Viscounts, that have been in use since the sixties. There wasn't much choice. Apart from the DC-9 only the British BAC 1-11 was a possibility. However, since the positive experienceKLM has had with the DC-8, the DC-9 was an obvious choice" That wasn't entirly true though, as KLM did think about the French Caravelle for a while. However, when the negotiations with Air Franch in Air Union came to naught, a possible order for Caravelle's fell through. On hindsight not a bad thing, as the DC-9 was a better choice in this case. Still, she would have looked nice in a KLM livery... On a final side-note, KLM did fly the BAC 1-11, which was leased while waiting for their DC-9. I'm definitely going to build the BAC1-11 from AA in KLM colours one day. Anyway, I have flown on the DC-9-30 at least once! I can't remember exactly when, but it should have been somewhere by the end of the eighties, begin nineties. I can't remember if I have ever flown in a KLM DC-9, but I did fly one from Iberia of which I have a picture. The man with the red shirt in front is my father. The little running guy with a cuddling cloth in is hand is me I decided to build the DC-9-30 from Authentic Airliners. Many a great build has been made with Airfix and the kit is actually reasonably accurate, but this time I choose ease of building over price. With the airfix kit you have to do a lot more filling and sanding and I wanted to do something easy for now (my next build is probably going to be the Aeroflot AN-10, which will require a lot more work I presume). Let's get this show on the road! This is going to be it: The parts (all crisp and greatly moulded as per usual with AA): The decals are from F-Decal The cockpit and window decals are from Authentic Airliner decals. Resin models should be thoroughly washed. If not, you can have severe problems with painting later on (as I have learned from experience). Next, the parts can be removed from the casting leftovers. I use a small saw for this like on the picture, or a Dremel. Make sure to use respiratory protection and proper ventilation. Resin particles can be nasty for your lungs. The rudder should be attached seperatly. Nice one from AA, this makes for a more realistic effect! The stabilizers can be glued too. See what I mean when I say AA builds quickly? The engines will take up most of the time, due to the necessary filling, sanding and airbrushing the different shades of metal. Glued the behind of the fuselage. The engines have been glued as well and have been filled, just as the stern of the fuselage. The flap hinge fairings have been attached, Those look a lot nicer compared to the Airfix kit. The fit has been excellent so far. The small crannies that are left will be filled with Mr. Dissolved putty. The engines have been sanded, but still some slits are left. It will require a second round of filling and sanding. The stern has been sanded down as well. The fuselage, tail and engines are now ok, so they can be primed. I have used Mr. Resin for a primer. However, the wings can no longer be primed with Mr. Resin, as it is no longer available on the market. Hopefully the normal primer will work as well. The line that was left over from casting on the fuselage was still visible, so I had to sand that down a bit more. Still some small holes where left on the engines. I filled them with car filler and sanded it down with a fine grit for a more smooth whole. The airbrushing can already commence. I masked the lower half of the fuselage and added a normal white primer. The top of the fuselage has been airbushed! Is used Revell 50 with a bit of white to get the 80's KLM blue. The engines have been primed with Alclad II Gloss black primer (as a base for the metal) I'm not sure which metal colour to use for most of the engines. It's a dull metal colour, so I'm guessing I'm going to use either aluminium or steel, but I'm open for suggestions. To be continued!

Bombardier CRJ-100 1:144 BPK (Big Planes Kits) The Bombardier CRJ (Canadair Regional Jet) is a a highly successful small airliner which started life as a development of the Canadair Challenger, and has been developed and stretched from the -100 series to the -1000 series. Entering service in 1992 the 50 seat CRJ-100 was soon developed into the CRJ-200 with more efficient engines, and sold widely to many airlines around the world, with a total of 1,021 of both models being delivered. The stretched CRJ-700/900/1000 series is still in production, with over 600 having been delivered. CRJ's can be seen at virtually any major airport around the world, and are likely to be in service for many more years. The Kit BPK from Ukraine is a relatively new manufacturer who started off producing a lovely 1:72 Boeing 737. They have now branched into 1:144 scale and chosen the CRJ-100 as their first model. This is a good choice as it is such widely used aeroplane, and no doubt the aftermarket decal manufacturers will be along soon with many of the liveries worn by this aircraft. (The CRJ-100 is due to be released in 1:72 scale soon, as noted on the side of the box). The kit comes in a neat top opening box, with a side profile drawing of one of the 3 options contained within. Inside there are 3 grey plastic sprues of components, 1 clear, 1 photo etch fret, resin engine parts, a sheet of window masks, and a decal sheet. A pretty comprehensive kit of parts. The first thing to notice is that model has a complete flight deck, with pilots seats, instrument panel, centre console, and rear bulkhead. Decals are supplied for the panel and console, and even for the rear bulkhead. This assembly fits into a separate nose moulding, which itself is in clear plastic, which is then fitted to the main fuselage sections. This is a great idea, as it should create an excellent blended in windscreen with minimum effort, particularly as pre-cut windscreen masks are supplied. Also unusual is the treatment of the cabin windows. The fuselage has recess running along it, into which you fit a clear plastic strip each side. Window masks are the placed over these, and removed after painting to reveal the cabin windows. You could either cut out part of the recess leaving a lip around its edge for the clear strip, or paint it black before fitting the clear part. Either way, it should create nice flush windows and I am keen to get on with the build and see how it goes. The engines are made from injection moulded upper and lower halves and pylon, with resin exhaust cones and intakes. Having the intake and fan detail as a single piece like this is by far the best way of doing it, as there is no awkward join inside to clean up. The rest of the construction is conventional, with a 1 piece lower wing with 2 uppers, and a main gear bay. The 'T' tail and undercarriage complete the model. Apparentlt there is a flaw on the injection moulded fin, so a resin replacement is provided. All the mouldings are nicely done, with fine detail and minimum flash. Panel lines are very lightly engraved, and the trailing edges of the wings and tailplanes are lovely and thin. Decals are provided for 3 liveries. 1) is the early 'Delta Connection' Comair cheatline scheme, 2) is the later plain white Delta Connection scheme with a blue underside, and 3) is the overall white Air France scheme. The decal sheet is silk screen printed with good colours and in perfect register. All the edges and lettering are crisp and sharp. A large range of tiny little stencils are supplied, along with a choice of several registrations for all 3 options. Conclusion. This is an impressive new release for BPK's first entry into 1/144 scale. The attention to detail is excellent, with the use of photo etch and resin where appropriate, and the decal sheet covers every last detail that will be found on the external airframe. I really like the innovative way of doing the cockpit and cabin glazing, it should give a very good result. It is a very well thought out, high quality, complete package (do you know of any other injection moulded airliner kit that comes with etched windscreen wipers!). So impressed am I, that this kit is going straight on to my workbench today and will shortly feature in the 'Work in Progress' section. [Edit] WIP thread is now here. [/Edit] [Edit] Finished model is here [/Edit] Finally, I hope that BPK consider doing some more 1:144 airliners, top of my personal wish list would be a Q400 (in FlyBe colours please!) which would make the perfect companion to this one. Highly recommended Review sample courtesy of

Hi there. Here is my, late, entry to this group build. The zvezda ekranoplan. looks like it's going to be a fairly quick build, as there isn't a lot of plastic in the box. For instance there is no cockpit, or any other interior detail whatsoever. Here's what's in the box.. Two fuselage halves. Some nice engraved details on it. A pair of stub wings. Two rather wide tail sections. This sprue contains the rest of the kit plastic. One rather small transparency. The decal sheet. Gives two options for operational craft. I'm not sure if the decals have yellowed, or not, or if they should be that colour. The kit has a tooling date of 2013 cast inside the fuselage, so doubt they've had chance to yellow. Construction has started, and will post some progress later. Matt

Hi guys, To celebrate/commemorate the last day of sixth form for me (yesterday) I've decided to embark on a little project. Unfortunately I damaged the seals on my airbrush after trying to thin down Alclad with cellulose thinners; a new airbrush and official Alclad airbrush cleaner will need to be sought at the start of next week hopefully......Anyway... Running alongside my 1:48 Canberra pr.9 build (found here) I'm going to build an aircraft in a particular scheme that I have been wanting to do for quite a while. The kit is the new(ish?)-tool Revell A320 1:144 in an Ethiad scheme: I won't immediately reveal which aircraft I'm doing, I shall reveal bits and pieces as I go along (what a tease I am! ) but I shall start by giving a considerable hint; Red. Any guesses? That's all for now, at least until the airbrush is sorted. Kind regards, Sam

I've had these on the back burner for a while - they're good tinkering projects while main pre-occupations like the Grumman OA-12A Duck I'm building on KG144 as part of a group build and other biggies are drying (or being otherwise uncooperative). The North American T-6G Texan is Valom's kit. Pretty nasty really, I'm afraid. Poor to non-existent fit, shape issues and thick, clunky detail. Compared to the Platz/F-Toys kit (of which I have quite a few) it pales very rapidly in fit, surface detail and everything except decals. BUT it remains cheap, readily available and actually very, very good fun. I also think you can get it to look ballpark like a Texan if you totally ignore the panel lines scribed onto the canopy (which would have you create square side windows that look very off). Pretty much out of the box except for a bit of cockpit detail and the undercarriage doors which are plasticard. Valom's decals are excellent, however. Good, interesting schemes, thin and well behaved - can't ask for more and really raise the kit up a notch. I did mine in markings for aircraft No.74 of the Ecole de Pilotage de l'Armee de l'Air, based at Cognac (Base aérienne 709 Cognac-Châteaubernard) in 1964. I'm happy with it and feel I gave it my best shot without getting out the scriber. I have another in the works, again on the back burner. The Miles M.14 Magister is a conversion from the Anigrand Trailing Wing bonus kit that comes with the Short Shetland (another Titan on my workbench at the moment - more of that soon, I hope). The basic resin kit is quite, er, basic. I filled in the slots in the wing which on the trailing wing aircraft take the booms. I decided quite early on that I wanted to do one of the yellow pre-war ones with an incredibly polished cowling and the glam spats. I thought that could look marvellous in this scale. I sprayed the aircraft with Halfords white primer and then airbrushed with vallejo yellow, then when I was happy with the tone I painted the cowling glossy black. Over this I brushed AK Interactive True Metal, which I know can give a superb natural metal finish. I polished this with a cotton bud. It took several applications but I'm happy with it. I added the IFR hood behind the rear cockpit using small gauge lead wire bent to shape, with the canvas being vallejo filler built up in layers backwards to give the wrinkled effect (not really visible in photos), then painted green, before washing in a darker green to bring out said wrinkles. I also added the curious two-pronged pitot and an exhaust pipe (using more lead wire). This was an absolute joy to build, I have to say. One of those kits where you really look forward to every little bit and every step, no matter how small is somehow hugely satisfying. If I win the lottery, I may buy more Shetlands simply to build more Magisters. I've done it in markings for L8338 of No.30 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School based at RAF Burnaston in 1939. I think. I don't really know but that's my guess based on serial numbers. Doesn't matter hugely - they all got moved around a bit. Decals all spares and Mark1 for the pre-war serials. Thanks for looking!

I have come to the conclusion that I have to start reducing the stash of model kits I have, starting with one that has been lurking in the bottom of the draw for the last 15 years. This is a model kit of the Deutsche Marine Type 143 Fast Attack Craft produced by Revell. Along the way I have lost the original packaging and there has been some minor damage to the mouldings on the sprue but nothing to prevent me building the model. I cannot remember why I bought the model in the first place, it was probably one of those spur of the moment things or I wanted to use it for bits, which was my want back in the distant past. However for whatever reason it was never cannibalised or built and has lain unloved until I saw a marketing picture of a completed model on the internet for the recently re-released kit. Having seen the picture my interest was rekindled and step one in stash reduction has been achieved. As I previously said, the box was lost along the way and some of the items have come off the sprue so I can’t start with the usual box and contents photograph so a picture of the new box art on the Revell website will have to do: I have to say that the new instructions with the re-released kit on the website are far better than the ones I have and so I have down loaded them to help me with the project. The German Navy has had a long association with S-Boats and the Type 143 was introduced into service in the late 1970s with a follow on sub class of Type 143A (which was also subject of a Revell kit). The Type 143 went out of service in 2005 with some being sold onto other navies. The Type 143 S-Boats were all named after birds with the lead ship in the class of 10 being named Albatross. These in common with all Fast Attack Craft were heavily armed and suited for operations in coastal waters, in the case of the Type 143, the Baltic, although they did operate as far afield as the Mediterranean. Armament consisted of two Oto Melara 76mm Guns, four MM38 Exocet Surface to Surface Missiles and two 21 inch Torpedo tubes facing aft. The ships were constructed with a composite hull (wood, grp and aluminium) and had four MTU propulsion engines developing a maximum speed of 40 knots. I am not sure what they were like to serve on but I suspect the shallow draught and narrow beam made them quite uncomfortable in a decent sea way. I am going to have to rely heavily on the internet for modelling reference and found a couple of useful web sites to help me although I am hoping not to deviate too far from the original kit: www.schnellboot.net/ http://s-boot.net/sboats-german navy.html The kit is at 1:144 Scale which is quite a nice size for adding detail. However I have decided that I will try and keep to the script and not deviate too far from an out of the box build. Although that said I have already decided I am going to replace the moulded railings, there may be one or two other minor adjustments but this should be a relatively straight forward build. As for the model kit itself the mouldings appear to be of good quality and I am hoping will fit together with little or no problems. I think replacing the kit railings with PE would make a massive difference and that is my starting point. So that is the introduction out of the way. I will be posting updates of progress of the build very shortly. Thanks for looking. Paul

Airfix BAC 1-11 500ED. Two-Six British Airways 'Landor' decals. Ok, so if you want a beautiful, accurate 1-11 500 then you need to get hold of the Authentic Airliners resin kit. But I got this out of the stash and thought I'd have a bit of fun improving it and converting it from a short bodied 200 series 1-11 into the stretched 500 series. I've thouroghly enjoyed it from start ti finish, and have a second 500 under construction as well now. Lots of work with sheet plasticard undertaken, full build log Here The main changes were extended fuselage, extended wingtips, new wing fences & flap tracks, engine pylons, engine hushkits, and a reshaped nose. The decals from Two-Six were superb and a delight to use. A plus is that the sheet covers all BA Landor 1-11's incluing the short bodied 200's, so if you don't want to do all the extending work, you can just do the wing fences, flap tracks, and nose. I chose to do G-AVMO which was preserved at Cosford for many years and is now at east Fortune in Scotland, very fitting really as it was named 'Lothian Region'. Enough words, here is the completed conversion. And 'with something else' - another 1-11 500, this one a Welsh Models Vac with Two-Six BEA decals. Thanks for looking. On with the second conversion now, which will be in BEA Red Square finish, to show the BEA/BA 1-11 500 in its first and last schemes. John

Fokker F.27, Air Anglia Welsh Models 1:144 Vacform The F.27 was Fokkers very successful entry to the twin turboprop regional airliner market, first flying in 1955. Very few remain in service,, but it had a long and varied career with a wide range of operators The Welsh Models vacform is one of my favourite kits, this one being my third to be completed. The Air Angliadecals come with the kit and are designed & produced by Twosix decals and performed beautifully. There is no white printing on them so the 'Air Anglia' titles are clear printed in the black area. The bottom of the fuselage then needs painting in black. I scratch built my own props from sprue runners for the spinners and 10 thou sheet for the props. And finally 'with something else', more F.27's! Thanks for looking, John

Douglas DC-4 - 1:144 Minicraft Aer Turas decals - classic-airlines.com This is the lovely Minicraft DC-4 kit, with decals from classic-airlines,com. The decals are laser printed on constant film, so need individually cutting out.They do some wonderful schems from the 60's and 70's, I just can't resist buying them! I'm deveoping a real liking for Irish aviation, as well as the smaller independant airlines of the 60's, so this one scores on both counts. Having seen Ian Turbofans beautiful British Eagle Brittannia, which he photographed using a hairdryer to spin the props, I thought I'd do a couple of photos like that myself! 'With something else' - its' close relative the ATL Carvair, in real life actually converted from a DC-4. Also has classic-airlines.com decals. Thanks for looking John

OK, this is is my first foray into the odd world of airliner modellng, so be gentle! This year I've been introducing my lovely girlfriend Louise to aviation history, bit by bit. Among other things we've been to Duxford for a look round, and enjoyed a couple of Shuttleworth shows and Flying Legends together. ] Anyhow, for no reason that I can determine, the two aircraft she has most taken to, out of all the things we've seen, are the DH Comet and the Fieseler Storch. She's also shown quite a bit of interest in my modelling, so I bought her the Academy Storch for her birthday (very much still a WIP) and agreed to make her a Comet for Christmas! So here's the result. From the start I wanted to convert my 1:144 Airfix kit into a Comet 4 of BOAC, as well as improve the detailing. Changes to the base kit are was follows: Cut 1.99 scale metres (two windows) from the fuselage length-this was tricky as the fuselage tapers subtly outward towards the nose! Cut off the wingtips, and added new carved from scrap plastic to reach correct wingspan for longer-winged Comet 4. Wing pinion tanks from 1:72nd Vampire T.11 drop tanks (they're an amazingly good match) Tank fillet fairings from scrap resin and filler Re-profiled fin tip Detailed exhaust cans Added rudimentary cockpit including floor, instrument panel, seats and yokes. Cut out near-nonexistent nosehweel bay, built new to appropriate depth with plasticard, detailed with more plasticard. Thinned out nose and main u/c doors and added extra struts to legs Replaced cockpit glazing with individual windows from CD case Cut out underside thrust reversers and various vents etc. Lined intakes and added rudimentary compressor faces. Drilled out auxiliary intakes between main ones Drilled out landing lights outboard of intakes and replaced with shaped clear sprue Plasticard aerials, intake scoops, anti-collision beacons added to added to fusleage and centre section Plasticard fuel dump pipes added to wings and tanks, hinge actuators added to aileron trim tabs, and wing fenclets added to leading edge. Scribed majority of panel lines, filled and re-scribed double joints between control surfaces The model is shown below before painting with Halfords Appliance White and Hunbrol Metalcote rattle-cans. I used the S&M sheet for Comet 4 to represent G-ADPC, one of the two aircraft which flew the first scheduled transatlantic jet service in 1958. The decals were of very good quality but rather over-sized, for example the tailfin decal was much too big, and the fuselage stripe needed cutting down to fit the kit windows better. The bit where the stripes widen and join around the nose was a nightmare, especially as I had to cut around the cockpit windows. In the end I mixed paint to as close a match as possible for BOAC blue, and had to touch up! It doesn't notice too badly under a coat of gloss varnish though. Hope you like the results! Horrible flash shot shows up all sorts of nightmares, but it's the only way to see the intakes properly: U/C bay. Just noticed the ruddy stripe isn't central. Grrrrr! Happy customer.

Submarine UB 1 Mikro Mir 1:144 The Type UB I was a class of small coastal submarines (U-boats) built in Germany at the beginning of the First World War. 20 boats were constructed, most of which went into service with the German Imperial Navy. Boats of this design were also operated by the Austro-Hungarian Navy (Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine or K.u.K. Kriegsmarine) and the Bulgarian Navy. The group is sometimes known as the UB-1 class after SM UB-1, the class leader. In the Austro-Hungarian Navy, it was called the U-10 class. Built to meet the need for small manoeuvrable submarines able to operate in the narrow, shallow seas off Flanders, the vessels were intended to be quickly constructed, then shipped by rail and assembled at their port of operation. The design effort began in mid-August 1914 and by mid-October the first 15 boats were ordered from two German shipyards. The German Imperial Navy subsequently ordered an additional pair of boats to replace two sold to Austria-Hungary, who ordered a further three boats in April 1915. A total of 20 UB Is were built. Construction of the first boats for Germany began in early November 1914; all 20 were completed by October 1915. Several of the first boats underwent trials in German home waters, but the rest were assembled and tested at either Antwerp or Pola. The German boats operated primarily in the Flanders, Baltic, and Constantinople Flotillas. The boats were about 28 metres (92 ft) long and displaced 127 tonnes (125 long tons) when surfaced and 142 tonnes (140 long tons) while submerged. All had two bow torpedo tubes and two torpedoes, and were equipped with a deck-mounted machine gun. In 1918 four of the surviving German boats were converted into coastal minelayers. Of the seventeen boats in German service, two were sold to Austria-Hungary, one was sold to Bulgaria, and nine were lost during the war. One of the five Austro-Hungarian boats was sunk and another mined and not repaired. The five surviving German boats, the four surviving Austro-Hungarian boats, and the Bulgarian boat were all turned over to the Allies after the end of the war and were broken up. The Model The kit consists of two hull halves and a single sprue of light grey styrene a small etched brass sheet, and small decal sheet. The kit is contained in the standard, colourful Mikr Mir box. As with most submarine kits, there aren’t a lot of parts and shouldn’t take too long to build, even in this scale though it is still a small submarine model. The instruction sheet just shows one complete operation with all the parts arrowed to their positions, broken up with only a few magnified areas where required. The bow torpedo tube bulkhead is fitted with two brass rings before being fitted into position, although, you'd have to open up the tube openings to see this.. The hull halves can be closed up and the deck section attached. The two, two part bow doors can be positioned open or closed, and the two bow planes attached. At the stern, the propeller, rudders and stern plans are attached, and the PE control rods glued to their respective control surfaces. Topside, the main gun mounting is made up from two halves and fitted with the two piece gun, the assembly is then glued into position just forward of the tower. Talking of which, the tower is also made up form two halves and fitted with the tower top, two periscopes, and hatch, which is fitted with ta PE hand wheel. PE parts make up the handrails and the ladder uprights. The completed assembly is then glued into position. The kit comes with a simple stand of two cradles and two longitudinal tubes. Decals There are two decal options, the decals are quite nicely printed with good opacity and in register. The options are:- UB-5 Zeebrugge, August 1915 in overall grey camouflage U-10, Pola, August 1915, in overall grey with dark blue waves of the top of the hull. Conclusion MikroMir really have a knack of producing interesting and unusual subjects. It’s great that they have chosen to release this in 1:144 scale as it makes this small submarine that little bit bigger once built to show off. Review sample courtesy of

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I have sadly been rather busy and lost a little enthusiasm for modelling the past month. Partly that's also because I have lost my big lever arch binder full of decals which contains the sheet of swastikas I need to finish my Stuka WIP. It's here somewhere, but I am suffering from man-vision where things sat right in front of me are invisible. Anyway, I went to the Aberdeen Modellers' Society meet on Tuesday as I try to do every month since I restarted going, and spotted this little white box sat in a pile of unloved kits. When I were a lad, there was a man named Steve (who also goes to the AMS meets now) who used to run a stall at a Sunday market nearby. The market was rubbish, frankly. My parents used to drag me along. It was full of tcheuchter tat and music vendors specialising in Danny O'Donnell cassettes and sometimes CDs. Steve's little stall however sold, as far as I can remember, pretty much only Welsh Models kits. In exchange for my good behaviour, my dad would usually buy me a one of the simpler vacform kits. Hence in my teenage years I built a surprising number of vacuum formed kits. Mostly these were Welsh Models things such as the SA Twinpin, Valetta, Hs748, Beverley, Boeing 757 and so on. I also conquered (although in retrospec, it wasn't the masterpiece I thought it was at the time) the 1:72 BAe Nimrod from Formaplane?? (the fuselage was split behind the wing - Aircraft In Miniature I think re-did it with a one-piece fuselage - I have one in the stash) and some 1:72 prototypes including the Republic Thunderscreech supersonic turboprop and de Havilland DH.110. I saw the Valiant and decided I really, really wanted it. I haven't built anything in this scale in a long time. It's cute, and it really appeals. I am hoping to get this finished quickly. I'm absolutely not about to claim to be any sort of authority on making vacuum formed models, but since some fellow modellers have not yet had the satisfaction and seem reluctant to try, I've taken a few snaps along the way to show how I do it, if only to show that it really isn't a dark art and they are surprisingly satisfying to build in an age where kits generally fall together and somehow I personally am still never content with what I produce. So, what's inside? It says it has resin wings and tail on the box, but I didn't read that. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the sanding would be limited to the fuselage. The resin castings are of good quality. To work with vacuum formed parts, I like most start by drawing around the parts with a permanent marker, such as a Sharpie pen. Next, I use a fresh scalpel blade and score around the part around 1~2mm away from the part. The surrounding styrene can be cleanly snapped away. To prepare the mating surfaces, I use a fresh piece of fairly coarse (180grit) wet and dry paper on a hard flat surface, used wet. I rub the part against the paper. This is why you want the paper wet - imagine the dust and clogged paper otherwise! When the pen can be seen through the reverse side of the plastic, you're almost there, and the 1~2mm surround left just peels away. That's pretty much all there is to it. I tacked the wings on with a small blob of medium CA. This revealed that the wing roots moulded on to the fuselage are not symmetrical. Not a big issue really, but best prepared for now rather than later. The under camber of the resin wings also doesn't match the aerofoil on the fuselage: I made a tool (a cleverer person would just buy one) to sand the cockpit and bomb aimer's fairings: The tail castings are nice but the tailplane sat slightly too far forward on the fin. This was easily rectified by filing the backs of the slots slightly to let them engage deeper. The acid test where you get to see if your fuselage sanding was correct - this is good enough for me ! Also, the panel lines on the resin wings are assymetric, so the offending line was filled, the jet pipe fairings adjusted to suit and a new line scribed. To address the wing root issue, I backed the roots with Milliput, inserted the kit supplied fuselage formers (I changed their positions to suit my preferences) and taped it up to harden whilst I went out to lunch. It's not often I get a day off my day job so thought lunch with my wife was in order. I'm now about to attack those wing roots ...

Armstrong Whitworth Argosy 1:144 MikroMir The Armstrong Whitworth Argosy was designed in the mid 1950’s as a medium range freight transport. The pod and boom layout was chosen to give an unobstructed cargo bay. With the cockpit on top of the pod and large swing doors at the front and rear, loading and unloading was greatly eased. It was designed so that when the aircraft was parked, the floor was at the average height of flatbed trucks of the day. The civil versions were to be found working as far apart as the United States and Australia & New Zealand, with the last ones retiring in 1991. The initial version was the civil AW650 series 100, later followed by the series 200. The main differences were internal, with the 200 having a stronger & lighter wing with integral fuel tanks, uprated engines, and modified undercarriage. This gave it an increased payload advantage over the 100, from 12,700 Kg to 14,000 Kg. All external dimensions such as length and wingspan remained unchanged. A military version was developed as the AW660, with noticeable differences on the central pod. The front opening door was deleted to enable radar to be installed, and the rear sideways hinged rear door was replaced by an up & down opening ‘Beaver tail’ unit. This could be opened in flight to allow air dropping of cargo, whilst side doors were fitted for the use of paratroopers. They entered RAF service in the early 1960’s, and began to be replaced in the 1970’s by the Lockheed Hercules. The Kit The MikroMir kit is moulded in medium grey plastic with very fine recessed panel detail. There are eight sprues (or trees if you prefer) containing the majority of the parts, a sheet of etched brass details, a set of window masks, and two decal sheets. Construction begins with the cockpit area, which is very detailed for a 1:144 scale model. Instrument panel, pilot & co-pilot’s seats, and even the flight engineers stations are all provided. There is a cargo bay floor, and both the front and rear doors can be modeled open. All the windows are provided as clear parts, but it will be necessary to check which aircraft you are modeling, as not all of them had the full set of windows. They all need fitting but some may need to be filled and painted over. A distinctive feature if the Argosy is a series of little vanes running from one side to the other across the top of the pod. These could never be molded finely enough, so full marks to MikroMir for providing them as etched brass parts, with small incised lines marked on the pod to show where to place them. The cargo bay floor is also provided and I assume that some nose weight will be needed to prevent tail sitting, although no mention is made in the instructions. If building it with the doors closed it will be simple just to locate some weight at the front end. With open doors you could disguise the weight as a cargo load, perhaps covering it with tissue soaked in white glue to represent a tarpaulin. It may be worth checking the model railway section of various websites , as several small manufacturers offer N gauge ‘loads’ in white metal. There are also several die cast vehicles available. The main undercarriage legs are made up of several very detailed parts, and fitted into the main booms before joining them together. The inner engines are integral with the booms, whilst the outers are, naturally, separate units. Two complete sets of propellers are provided, one being the rounded type and the other the square tipped type. Note that the 'boom' sprues are not 2 copies of the same thing, but different. See the parts with the rudders on. The wing, in upper and lower halves, is a fairly complex molding as it has to have recesses for the central pod, the two boom/engine units, and the two outer engines. As a crucial part of the whole model, it is nice to see that it is cleanly molded and warp free. (I also have the 200 series kit, that uses the etched brass wing fences, which is the ideal way of representing these as they are far closer to scale thickness than plastic moldings could ever be. They are on the etched fret in this kit but not required on the 100 series Argosy) . A single piece tailplane locates between the booms to complete the major assembly. As mentioned earlier, the front and rear doors can be modeled in the open or closed positions, the open option being best left until all painting and decaling is complete. They’ll only get knocked off otherwise! Finishing options & decals. No less than six different liveries are offered, of varying complexity. All the logos, lettering, and door outlines are provided, but the cheat lines will require painting or cutting from solid decal sheet, of the type produced by Fantasy Printshop. For example the red trim on the BBA cargo could be cut as strips from red decal sheet, and applied to the model in sections. The Elan option could similarly be done by painting the lower fuselage red and adding the stripes from thin strips of red decal sheet. If this seems a bit daunting, some of the aftermarket decal producers have already released sheets for this aircraft, containing everything you need. The main sheet has the BEA red square logos incorrectly printed with black lettering, but a supplementary sheet has been provided to correct this. Conclusion. Who would have ever dared hope that we would get a 1:144 scale injection molded Argosy? The plastic parts are very nicely molded, with beautifully restrained panel lines and some very fine work on areas such as the undercarriage and propellers. Some of the attachment points on the small parts will require care when cutting them away, and a little bit of delicate clean up. But be assured, the moldings look very, very good. It is probably one for the moderately experienced modeler, due partly to the construction of the pod & boom layout of the subject, and partly to the complex nature of some of the colour schemes. However, it is also these very two things that will attract serious modelers in the first place. I have a growing collection of freighters, with a DC-6, Carvair, and Bristol Freighter already built. The Argosy is a most welcome addition to the fleet, all we need now is the military version with the ‘Beaver tail’ , which will make a perfect companion to the MikroMir Blackburn Beverley. A lovely looking kit, highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of Footnote. An extra word is probably useful here, with regard to the other release of the 200 series version (with a BEA liveried Argosy on the box) which I purchased before the arrival of the review kit. It also contains the small BEA correction sheet, but this does not have all those BEA elements on the 100 series large sheet. Namely - the ‘Cargo’ titles for the booms, the wing registrations for G-ASXM, the union jacks for the nose, and the little script for ‘Rolls-Royce Dart powered’ that goes on the black cheat line. None of these are present on the 200 series main decal sheet, so it won't be possible to do the BEA scheme. It seems that a simple error has been made. 200 series decals; However, there is a simple way to solve this. Both boxings have exactly the same contents, apart from the larger of the 2 decal sheets which are different. Everything else is the same. So to make a BEA machine the ‘Elan’ boxing has all the parts and decals needed to; Make a BEA 100 series machine (G-APRM) straight from the box. Use props 96 &97, and use the tiny wing fences Pe5. OR Make a BEA 200 series machine (G-ASXM) straight from the box. Use props 94 & 95, and add the large etched brass wing fences Pe2. Of course none of this is a problem if you do not intend making a BEA machine. Having checked the other non-BEA liveries offered in each boxing, they all seem to have the correct decals. There are some very attractive options offered in this 200 series box; Better still, get both the 100 and 200 series boxings and make 2 Argosies!

Aviation Traders Limited Carvair. 1:144 Roden kit with Classic-airlines.com decals. The Carvair was developed to replace the Bristol Freighters used to transport cars & passengers across the English Channel to France, hence its name (Car-via-air). Modified from C-54/DC-4 airframes it was considerably cheaper than an all new aircraft would have been. The modifications consisted of a completely new forward fuselage, relocating the cockpit on top, much like the later Boeing 747, and a new tail fin to counter it. Its has been widely thought that the fin was from a DC-7, but appaently this is not true, they were new build units. The Roden kit build very well, although I did have to shim the upper inboard wings to avoid a gap where they meet the fuselage. The main gear legs were way too short, initially resulting in the rear of the fusleage almost touching the ground. I removed them and inserted a platform about 4mm deep to attach the legs to, in order to acheive the 'sit' you see here. I wasn't too keen on the kit supplied colour scheme for British Air Ferries, but found this 'British United' scheme at Classic-airlines.com, which I really like. There are also several others avaialble. They are laser printed on constant film, so you have to cut each subject out individually. I can heartily reccomend them though, they went on superbly and were easy to use. Enough chat, time for the photos (ugly innit?) ; 'With something else - an easy choice - A Welsh Models Bristol Freighter. Thanks for looking, John

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!

This is a quick fun build to finish the month after putting a lot of effort into a Lynx. I'm not sure where my current enthusiasm for airliners has come from, but I am enjoying building them, even if the large white surfaces are still a bit of a challenge for my brush painting skills, especially over grey plastic like this one. A British Airways Trident was the second aircraft that I ever flew in (the first was a Wasp), back in 1980. Tridents used to do the shuttle run from Edinburgh to Heathrow, making good use of their advanced zero-visibility automated landing systems ( a world first at the time) to keep running when the other airlines (in those days British Midland and B-Cal) came to a halt. This is the old Airfix kit of 1966 vintage (mine was an early 1990s re-issue), pretty much out the box. Cockpit windows are a little dodge and would definitely benefit from filling and a decal, but otherwise it is a nicely fitting kit. Of course it has a number of accuracy challenges, not least the cabin window layout, lack of wing to fuselage fairing and the wings are too straight. But unless you know all about Tridents, you would never guess! I altered the nose wheel to be offset to one side and used Krystal Klear for the cabin windows (with a black "screen" behind them), which seems to have worked really well (although a couple of them haven't fully cleared yet). Otherwise, what you see is what you get in the box! FredT

Good day again from sunny Nova Scotia! This is my version of the Revell Embraer 195 recently released by Revell. I originally bought the kit last year for the airline GB. I built that one oob but had to go wheels up because the mouldings were quite poor. I was quite dischuffed with this so complained asking them to replace the complete white sprues, which 6 weeks later they did, so kudos to them! And they also included a canopy so had a complete kit bar the decals. I do like the Air Canada ice blue schemes and got some decals from V1. The only snag being that AC only have 190s and not 195s. As it was relatively easy to shorten I went for that. A search in the modern civil forum will give the dimensions and here she is in pieces. Alot of filling, dust creating and polishing later she turned out alright. The grey is Model Master light grey and the blue is MM duck egg blue both from the acrylic range, I added the silver trim from Vallejo Model Air chrome.first time I used that and I liked it. Lots of nose weight added and she is sitting quite nice. Her she is complete.... Cheers now Bob

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!

Pitot Probes 1:144 Master I’d really love to see the machines Master Models uses to make their amazing pitot probes, whilst I can get the manufacture of the 1:48 and even1:72 scale probes, this selection in 1:144, just defy comprehension. As to how you use them, normally I would say just drill a hole and glue into position, but in this scale it will be a case of, very carefully drill a tiny hole and glue. You will obviously need a good magnifier, a fine pair of tweezers and a very steady hand. They are all generic, so can be fitted to any 1:144 sale kit of the particular subject. [AM-144-013] – This is for the North American F-100 Super Sabre [AM-144-014] – Lockheed F-104 Starfighter [AM-144-015] – Republic F-105 Thunderchief. [AM-144-016] – Convair F-106 Delta Dart [AM-144-017] – BAC Lightning [AM-144-018] – Convair B-58 Hustler [AM-144-019] – Hawker Hunter Conclusion I think I need to buy a macro lens, as these items are so small my poor camera couldn’t cope with trying to focus. That said have looked at them under a magnifying glass, they are superbly made, with only a tiny bit of swarf and the blunt end. Do be careful when fitting these, as they are really sharp. Review sample courtesy of Piotr at

BAC TSR.2 1:144 Great Wall Hobbies I don't need to introduce this do I? I'll just say TSR.2, the peak of technological development, axed just as flight testing on XR219 got underway in 1965. 2 more (XR220 & XR221) were days from taking to the air and joining their sister. t looks like a beautiful and menacing looking bird of prey, and many avaiation enthusiast have a soft spot for it, including me. This is the Great Wall Hobbies 1:144 kit, which fits together beautifully and does full justice to one of my all time favourite aircraft. But it is small! With a Mikro Mir 1:144 Valiant for comparison Size reference - a standard UK Tamiya paint jar Small? certainly is against my 'What If' 1/48 Airfix TSR.2! Thanks for looking, John

Revell 1:144 Embraer 195 Two Six Decals 'Aurigny'. In service since 2005, the Embraer 195 is the largest version of the E series of narrow body regional jetliners produced by the Embraer Company of Brazil. The Revell kit was released about a year ago and I finally got around to building it. A discussion on civil forum of this site revealed that several people had copies of the kit with sink marks affecting the mouldings. My kit was fine, apart from a little bit on the jet intakes which was easily filled. Revell have now corrected the problem from what I can see on other discussion boards. It builds up very nicely with a complete cockpit, which is unusual for airliners in this scale. I rather like the Aurigny scheme, so got a set of 26 Decals to replace the kits 'Air Dolomiti' scheme. As always, the 26 Decals went on beautifully and settled down perfectly. Easy decision for the 'With something else' pic, the F-rsin kit of the ATR 72 also in Aurigny colours!; Thanks for looking, John

Season's Greetings Folks, Disappointing year really, lots of models started, few completed. This is the Revell 1/144 Airbus A380 with TwoSix Qantas Airways decals. It was built for an Australian colleague after they saw the Air New Zealand B787-9 built for a Kiwi colleague. May be it was me, but this kit fought all the way and practically refused to be built. First the wing dihedral was completely off, still cannot understand why, the end result being that the wings drooped so much the engines touched the ground. I ended up cutting hacking chord wise slots in the upper wing surface (two per side) and manipulating the wing angle section by section until the engine clearance look reasonable. Queue lots of filling and sanding of about a third of each wing's surface area, oh may be half dozen times until I was satisfied. And then a full rescribe of the upper wing surface. Things were so bad I contemplated starting again and bought a second kit. Not sure I have the will to endure this again... Enough ranting you get the picture. Other corrections were the body gear doors, shortening the length of the wing gear legs (so the body gear no longer hang in the breeze), and filling lots of fuselage sink marks. Paints were Halford's own Plastic White Primer, and Gloss Appliance White, first time used straight from the can due to the sheer size of this model. Fed up with Xtracolour Airbus Grey I tried the Revell Aqua 50/50 Blend of 371/374, which looks good, but some reason it turned into an unsprayable gloop in my airbrush even with Revell's own thinner. So I reverted to Xtracrylix ADC Grey for a pale grey, which is too warm a grey, but will have to do. And Xtracrylix Neutral Grey for the corroguard. Plus various Alclad shades for the engines. Kit decals worked well, even the wing walk markings, but why the spinner spirals are printed yellow is a mystery. 26Decals were incredible as always, exceptionally thin, very tolerant and snuggled down nicely with MicroSet and Sol. The final annoyance was that the damn thing doesn't fit in my photo studio, compromising the photos! Best regards, Darren