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The Ilyushin Il-18 is a four engine Soviet built turboprop airliner that made its maiden flight on July 4, 1957. It became one of the best known, the most durable and the most popular Soviet airliner of the era. The Il-18 was widely exported and it was one of the principal airliners of the Eastern block countries for several decades. In total 24 airlines have operated the plane and the military versions have been employed by 13 nations. I myself had once the possibility of experiencing the Il-18 on a flight from Belgrade to Warsaw in 1981. Due to the aircraft's air frame durability, many examples have achieved over 45,000 flight hours and the plane type still remains operational in both military and to a lesser extent civilian service. The production of the Il-18 took place between 1959-1978 with 719 planes of multiple civilian and military versions manufactured. Balkan Bulgarian Airlines was the national airline of Bulgaria, founded in 1947 as a Soviet-Bulgarian joint venture under the name TABSO. The company became fully owned by the Bulgarian state in 1954, and was renamed Balkan Bulgarian Airlines in 1968. At its peak, they were the second largest airline in Eastern Europe. Balkan Bulgarian Airlines went bankrupt in October 2002. Over the years, the Bulgarian airlines have operated a total of 18 units of Il-18 aircraft of different sub-types in its fleet. I built my model from an Eastern Express 1/144 scale kit which for a limited-run product was quite ok. The fit of the parts was generally good and the molding crisp. Naturally, there was some fitting and sanding to be done but nothing too much. To enhance the details of the bird I ordered an excellent Extratech photoetch set. The plane had a wire antenna between the rudder and an antenna above the cockpit for which I used a 0.08 mm fishing line. I decided to use the Balkan Airways livery decals of the kit. They were of very good quality and not too fragile. The Balkan Airlines LZ-BEV that my model depicts was of the Il-18V sub-type. I painted the white areas of the fuselage with Tamiya Fine Surface primer which I then coated with Tamiya gloss varnish spray. For the light grey underside of the fuselage, the wings and the stabs I used Revell 374 that I mixed slightly lighter with Revell 04. For the minor details I also used Vallejo, Revell and Humbrol paints.

Ilyushin IL-62 is probably one of the most successful Soviet built intercontinental airliners. The plane carried max. 186 passengers to a max. distance of 10.000 km. Its maiden flight took place in January 1963 and a total of 292 planes were built during the years. Its main operator were Aeroflot and it was also the biggest plane used by Interflug, the East German state airline. The company operated a total of 24 planes. IL-62 was also widely used by many other Soviet block airlines. Ilyushin IL-62's were in use until the early 2000 but because of stricter noise regulations and new and more economical plane types they went almost totally out of commercial traffic. The only airline still using the plane for domestic tourist flights are Air Koryo of North Korea. I built the Interflug IL-62M from a Zvezda 1/144 kit with BOA decals I ordered from the web. I also used a photoetch set from Extratech. The Zvezda kit was of very high quality, very detailed and its fit was excellent. I primed the fuselage with white Tamiya Fine Surface primer which I then sprayed with Tamiya rattle can gloss varnish. The lower part of the fuselage, the wings and stabs were painted with Xtracolor X137 light gull grey. For the smaller details, wheels, lights, etc. I used Humbrol enamels and Vallejo acrylics.

Decided to break out the 1:72 Concorde and have a go at taming the beast. I've Read so many accounts of it being a difficult kit I thought it was time to have a go and see what I thought. I also fancy having a Concorde in the cabinet. I bought an Extratech photoetch sheet a few years back from the Czech Republic (Llona Mullerova). I also bought an transparency mask and a weighted wheel set from Hannants a while back. The story so far... Started the engine bays to be finished later. The instructions say the darker areas are either Hu85 or Hu53 but I'm inclined to think it's more of a dark metallic (was it titanium?). I may opt for a dark Alclad and then do lots of panel variations. These things will go on towards the end and I'll probably pick some supplies up at Telford (for it is not all that far away!) The Extratech photoetch, one of two sheets. Looks to be very well made. Weighted resin wheels for later. Look much better than the rubber jobs it must be said....now where's my razor saw?

Hello and thanks for your interest, here's another Lavochkin La-5FN from Kovozavody Prostejov. "Yellow 8" was flown by pilot P. Rakov in summer 1944 (according to kit instructions). I used photoetch parts (for dashboard, seatbelts and landing gear covers) from an old Extratech set. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel.

I did it again. I bought one of these expensive ExtraTech pig-in-a-poke aftermarket stuff. This time for the AMT/Italeri XB-70 Valkyrie. "Pig in a poke" because it is next to impossible to get any information of what detail enhancements the ExtraTech sets provide. I had the same issue with their Concorde set (reviewed here:http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234949458-concorde-etch-set-172-extratech/) before but as I was rather pleased with this I waited for a good opportunity to get the XB-70 set as well. Here we go: Included are these two pieces of etch sheets: The instruction sheet is two pages of rather simple copy paper: As you can see the following areas are addressed: - intake - exhaust area (only inside detail - but no exhaust cones - the kit ones are poorly detailed and too small) - under carriage - U/C doors - wheels - various vents Edit: What I miss here are the various antennas of the XB-70 and what would have been very nice: A windscreen frame (under the visor similar to the Concorde - the windscreen is missing in the kit) and a visor frame, so the clear parts could be added with clear sheet. Armory also offers an etch set for the Valkyrie (reviewed here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234938609-xb-70-valkyrie-172-exhausts-by-armory/?hl=valkyrie) which includes new exhaust cones (which really make a different!), various vents (same as the ExtraTech set, so you will have some double if you buy both sets) and the lightend "end plate" above the exhausts (again this is the same part included in the Extratech set). If you want to dress up your Valkyrie I can recomment the Armory set noted above and only suggest the ExtraTech set as a second set which will add further less obvious (than the exhaust cones and vents) details. As the Extratech set is rather expensive (IMHO the price is 50% too high compared with other offerings from other manufacturers) for what additional details you get only die-hard Valkyrie maniacs will probably buy this. But for these I can recomment it :-) Rene