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Hi, Here's my Tamiya P-38J. What a great kit... I know because I built a P-38H of theirs and I enjoyed it immensely. I'll build this as one of Robin Olds' aircraft in the 479th FG. It is part of my project to build at least one aircraft of each FG of the 8th AF. The project is off to a good start with a P-47M of the 56th FG completed in the P-47 GB of 2023, this year hopefully this P-38 and a P-51 in that STGB. That would see at least the 3 main types covered. Cheers, Stefan.

Who doesn't love a Beaufighter?! I do, and the RAAF sure did.. The Beaufighter was one of the RAAF's most effective combat aircraft in the South West Pacific Area during WW2, initially operating a mix of British built Mk VI and X aircraft (designated locally as the Mk IC), before from 1944 taking delivery of 364 Mk 21s built locally by the Department of Aircraft Production (DAP). One of those will be the subject of my build, A8-27 DU-A, 'Rockabye baby', operated by 22 Squadron. The basis for my build will be Tamiya's 1/48 Beaufighter kit, in my case the Mk VI night fighter boxing. Believe it or not this will be my first Tamiya build! All I have read online suggests it builds beautifully. You can pretty much build a Mk 21 Beau straight from the box. The Mk 21's most obvious external difference to British Beaus is the nose fairing for a Sperry autopilot (which from memory was never actually fitted to production aircraft), and is included in the sprues - despite Tamiya never offering a RAAF Mk 21 Beaufighter boxing. But I do have just a little aftermarket! CMK offers a Mk 21 conversion kit for Revell's Beaufighter kit, from which I am using the decals and the hedgehog exhausts. The Brassin set for the Mk X (which the Mk.21 was based on) yields masks, a preprinted instrument panel, and PE seatbelts. Buying the two sets worked out to be better value than buying the bits and bobs individually, even if I have a few left over bits for the spares box. As well those sets I also bought separately some rather lovely CMK resin wheels. One of the decal sheet options depicts A8-27 as it appeared with 22 Squadron on the island of Morotai (in modern day Indonesia's North Maluku province), where they were based from January 1945 until the end of hostilities. The nose art is pretty grim - it shows a Beaufighter about to strafe a caricatured Japanese solider, with the pilot hanging out the cockpit window grasping a club - but would have been perfectly acceptable at the time. 22 Squadron has an interesting and decorated combat history (including the RAAF's only Pacific theatre VC recipient). It had been the RAAF's only Douglas A-20 Boston unit until November 1944 when most of its A-20Gs were lost or damaged on the ground in a Japanese air raid on Morotai. As a result the surviving Bostons were handed back to the US and the squadron re-equipped with Beaufighters in January 1945, operating then alongside 30 and 31 Squadrons and their own Beaufighters as part of the RAAF's 77 Wing through to the end of the war, including supporting the Australian landings on Borneo. It's a tough, muscular looking aircraft, the Beaufighter - apparently the crews use say it was two big engines followed closely by a small aircraft! - and it looks just right in RAAF foliage green. Looking forward to building this! Gerard

Well final build of the year completed tried a new method for the wake waves using Clingfilm I think it looks ok maybe need a bit more practice. WIP; https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235124878-japan-torpedo-boat/ Stay Safe and Best Wishes to everyone. Keith

Over the years I have built quite a few Mosquitos - two of the original Airfix FB. VI first released in 1957, one Frog B.IV from 1968, all three versions of the second Airfix moulding released in 1972 - NF. II, FB. VI and FB. XVIII, and at least one of the 1976 Matchbox NF. 30/ B. IX, but I thought I would build a couple more in this GB starting with this one. I bought this 2000 reboxing of the Tamiya 1999 moulding to replace the old Frog version which had several minor inaccuracies and one major one - the wing was mounted too high on the fuselage (at least according to reviews I have read)! I have fancied the Tamiya Mossies ever since they first came out but they were a bit expensive, so when I saw this on offer for £9.99 10 or so years back I snapped it up. I am tempted by the PR version but I will build it as the B.IV and throw the old Frog kit out. Being a Tamiya kit it should make a nice change from the various short run kits I have just built in the "Not my Comfort Zone" GB! Pete

Hello! This is my most recent project. Nothing else to add, or praise, regarding this wonderful kit. It is a pleasure to build and everything works just fine, even the decals. Except for the roundels, that I've painted using masks, all others reacted really well to Gunze's Mr Softer. This particular kit represented a Spit in 1940, so perhaps I may have weathered it a little bit too much, for they should have been relatively new then. But, it's done! Hope you'll enjoy! Cheers!

Next on the bench. Something to take the edge off. After building the Wittmann Tiger i need a straight foreward, simple build. first look in the box and the sprues and other parts look descent. They added new figures that look a whole lot better then the old Tamiya figures. Still, i ordered some Alpine figures. If i decide to use the Tamiya ones i can use the Alpine ones on my future Valentine build. This will be nothing fancy. No aftermarket stuff, no photo reference. Just an oob to relax and enjoy myself. Feel free to tag along. Cheers!!! 👍👍👍

Hi, Here's my P-38H. I believe that the most unique P-38H parts are the small sprue "J" that I've placed on top of the other sprues and the clear parts. I placed the clear parts on the box-top, but not much is visible in the photo. The really special part is rear part of the canopy, it does not have the small internal reinforcements that are present in the P-38F/G. Such an awesome kit, I hope to do it some justice. Cheers, Stefan.

Hello fellows, Let me show some pics of my last model, the Tamiya King Tiger (Porsche Turret). I've tried to reproduce the camo scheme that is shown in the Tankmuseum... Here the real thing: All the build was easy, as is usual in Tamiya, and the only problem I had were with the zimmerit. But that was my fault...🤫 Apart from this, I'm pretty glad with the whole result, I hope you like it! I left out the right front fender. As you can see, I put and extra chain in the left side of the turret. And one slight layer of mud in wheels ans fenders. Your comments will be welcomed. And thanks for watching!! Josep

Hello fellows, Let me show some pics of my last model, the Tamiya King Tiger (Porsche Turret). I've tried to reproduce the camo scheme that is shown in the Tankmuseum... Here, the real thing: All the build was easy, as is usual in Tamiya, and the only problem I had were with the zimmerit. Applying it was a mess...; but, honestly, it was my fault...🤫 Apart from this, I'm pretty glad with the whole result, I hope you like it! I left out the right front fender. As you can see, I put and extra chain in the left side of the turret. ...and one slight layer of mud in wheels ans fenders. Your comments will be welcomed. And thanks for watching!! Josep

Hello fellows, Let me show some pics of my last model, the Tamiya King Tiger (Porsche Turret). I've tried to reproduce the camo scheme that is shown in the Tankmuseum... Here, the real thing: All the build was easy, as is usual in Tamiya, and the only problem I had were with the zimmerit. Applying it was a mess...but, honestly, it was my fault...🤫 Apart from this, I'm pretty glad with the whole result, I hope you like it! I left out the right front fender. As you can see, I put and extra chain in the left side of the turret. ...and one slight layer of mud in wheels ans fenders. Your comments will be welcomed. And thanks for watching!! Josep

Hi! I'm not really into jets, but I'm a naval aviation lover and always had a soft spot for the Tomcat (who hasn't?)...So when the Tamiya box reached the shops...well, you know. The kit has been sitting in my stash for five years, and I really haven't the skills for this kind of project, but this GB motivated me to have a try! I would have loved a colorful VF111 aircraft on my shelf, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed, can't find those decals. Oh well. Here is the well known box: Bye 🙂

Hey, I have been working on the F-51 mustang from Tamiya for a few years off and on now, and made a serious botch when gluing the canopy on, by getting a huge glue finger print on the middle of the canopy, and have been unable to clean it up... I have tried several methods, i.e. sanding it, polishing it, tape, etc. It is so bad it wrecks the entire model, so if you have any other ideas on how to rectify this situation, or a source for a replacement canopy, that'd be greatly appreciated! I look forward to all the responses! https://www.scalemates.com/kits/tamiya-61044-north-american-f-51d-mustang-korean-war--122762

A couple of days ago I finished my latest build, the Finnish army's StuG. Ausf. G III .These assault guns played a very important role in halting the red army's massive attack in the Karelian isthmus near Leningrad during June-July, 1944. The fate of Finland was at stake. If the Russians had been able to break through they would have marched directly to Helsinki and conquered the whole country. It would have been the end of Finland as a nation. But the advance of the red army was halted in fierce fights. One important element were the 59 German assault guns that were bought just in time to strengthen up the Finnish defence. These StuG III's destroyed in total 87 Russian tanks while own losses were 8 StuGs. My model is a kitbashing build of the Dragon 1/35 scale StuG III kit and the Tamiya Finnish StuG III special edition. I vandalized the Tamiya kit of its Finnish modifications, for instance the large tool box in the rear, the spare wheel racks on the sides of the StuG,, the modified shield for the machine gun and the DT assault rifle as well as the C-shaped hooks. The tracks are white metal ones of Master Club. The problem I noticed too late was the size of the tracks.They didn't exactly fit the teeth of the drive sprocket. I will have to fix that problem going forward. For the markings and the Finnish swastika (nothing to do with the nazi one, though) I bought the very good decal set of Echelon. Building the model was straightforward and maybe the hardest part was painting the complex green, brown and beige camouflage. I used Vallejo color's paints for the job. I finished the build by weathering the model with several AK's pigments. Many of the StuGs had a wife's or girl friend's name written above the visor of the driver. My model was named "Liisa" and it was one of the highest scoring assault guns with nine tanks destroyed.

Latest one off the bench, Tamiya's classic P-51B Mustang with a good bit of work thrown at it. 1/48 Tamiya P-51B Mustang Capt William J Shackleford 375 FS / 361 FG Bottisham, England August 1944 - Aires cockpit - BarracudaCals cockpit placards - Ultracast spinner, prop, exhaust, flaps, and wheels - Squadron vac canopy - Gun barrels replaced with Albion Alloys tubing - Fuselage riveted - Wing panel lines filled - Custom paint masks for all major markings - AMDG decals for "Queen Jean" script and playing cards Anyways, on to the pics!

Hello, My next thread will be StuG III Ausf.B. I have chosen Tamiya kit for this one and since I have few leftovers from Dragon's Panzer III family kits I've built before, I use them wherever I can. I have few Aber upgrade sets also to use and aftermarket decals, as I'm going to one of the StuG Abt. 185 vehicles. I'm not very happy with the Tamiya kit, but there are not many options when building Ausf.B. Bolts are rounded and need to be replaced, weld seams are often missing and need to be reproduced, fit is loose and need a lot of filler. But main problem with this kit is that upper hull, when removing the molded fenders, appears to be 1mm wider than lower hull. I really don't know what to do with that yet. Here is the front driver's plate compared to hull: But Aber's etched sets seems to be awesome and offers a lot of fun. Here's the assembled ammo storage cabinet. And yep, the lid is movable: Tracks are from MasterClub this time and oh are they awesome. Compared to Friuls, these need very little cleaning and go together with little resin pins. Til' next time, Kristjan

Finished! I enjoyed every moment of this build. Will get my hands on Tamiya's Phantom soon. If you want to see the different stages of painting, you can find it here: All but one of the pix are close ups, since the model i huge even in 1/48. I made one huge mistake, let's see if anyone spots it. And it's ready for pickup, Axel! Stay safe, take your shots and keep glueing plastic! /Torbjörn

I don't normally like making more than 1 model at a time, because for me its a recipe to not complete anything. However the Alpine is suitably near completion (as long as I do not screw up reducing the paint run) that I know it will be completed and with 2 more weeks until the clear is suitable cured to be sanded I have started on a 7. I have not done much, just enough to show the direction I am going. I have often wondered how I could manage to make one with an aluminium body and painted wings. It would be nigh on impossible to mask. It is very easy to remove the wings, but the trick is getting them back on. But I have com up with a cunning plan 🤫. On the model the vertical surface of the front wings touch the body are so thin that they disappear when the wings are cut off. Therefore I have glued some thin strips of plastic below, then used stretched sprue between this strip and the wing to reinforce the joint. Then a small amount of filler. Next Drilled two holes on this new strip straight through into the body before cutting of the wing. Now I can use pins to locate the wing back in place after either painting the body or using Bare Metal foil, still not decided.

Dear All, Tamiya's interpretation of F-16 is an outstanding kit with pretty fine details and easy build. Added only resin ejection seat and PE from Eduard, painted with Mr. Color. The plane stationed in Japan, a few years ago I had the opportunity to see it and walk around at Yokota Air Base (friendship festival). (Some of the static dischargers were broken off, need to replace them.)

With it's front wheel drive (which gave it its name) and monocoque chassis, this little Citroen was quite innovative on it's introduction in 1934. It stayed in production until 1957 by which time over 750,000 had been built. Aside from civilian use, it was popular with the French army, and was captured or confiscated in huge numbers by the Germans who used it in all theatres of the war. I'm going to build a pre-war civvie version using one of the options on the decal sheet but I'm going slightly off piste in that instead of the standard all black bodywork I'm going to attempt a two tone scheme I found on a Google image search. This is what I'm aiming for: The box. They were very popular with Luftwaffe pilots as they offered a little more luxury than standard issue vehicles. The plastic. It's not big, but knowing Uncle Tamiya, it is very clever. There are also instructions and decals. I'm already tempted to get another one to do as a military example. Speaking of examples, there's one showing clever Tamiya engineering; the windows (apart from the windscreen) come as a single big clear piecce to be inserted into the body at the last stage before body and chassis are joined, making both construction and painting as easy as possible. Lots of chrome silver and gloss paint on this one. What could possibly go wrong? Andy

Hi All, My next completion is Tamiya's mighty Stringbag, which I will say from the outset is a superb kit. I've completed it as LS276, which flew as part of 836 Sqn FAA from Merchant Aircraft Carrier (MAC) Amastra in 1943. Here's a photo of Amastra, which was a coverted oil carrier: I couldn't find any photos of LS276, but here's another aircraft from 836 Sqn: These aircraft were unusual in that the 'Royal Navy' above the a/c serial was overpainted with 'Merchant Navy', initially as a joke but eventually a source of some pride. As my grandfather served in the Merchant Navy throughout the war I feel a small personal connection - these aircraft could well have been flying as part of the many convoys he sailed across the Atlantic. Here's the WIP if anyone is interested: The kit was built OOB with the exception of the Tamiya rigging PE set, which was veeeerrry fiddly. This build nearly ended up on the Shelf of Doom due to decal disasters, so I'm glad I had a word with myself and pushed it over the line. Anyway, on with the photos: Despite a myriad of minor imperfections and errors I'm pretty pleased with the way she's turned out, and she certainly has shelf presence. I might move on to something a little simpler next time though! Thanks for looking, Roger

Need something to mess around with whilst waiting for a GB to start, pulled this classic off the shelf. Not sure what to add. It's Tamiya so that should cover the moulding questions. Two grey and one clear sprue is all there is. However got this somewhere, a really old Microscale decal sheet (for the Airfix kit...). Still looks good. Not sure which version I want, VF-74 with the red rudder bar or VF-213 with the Blue & White checkered tail. Will see what strikes me when I get to decals.

My recent history with finishing group builds isn't good (think the low point was MTO III where I completed 2 models but never put them in the gallery). I do have a good record with Tamiya 1/48 armour though. I've managed to get a couple of them finished in Blitzbuilds. I have the Pz.III gun tank and a couple of StuGs in the stash, but since the latter are so well represented, I thought I'd stick with the original tank. I've built the Matchbox Ausf L at least three times so I have a fair idea of what it should look like with it's long gun and fancy spaced armour. The only thing I'm not sure of is which scheme to use. The box top one is from s.Pz.Abt. 502, a soon to be Tiger equiped battalion that kept a Pz.III company as screens so the Tigers could concentrate on killing Russians at long range. Given I'm involved in the massive Tiger build thread, that appeals but that scheme looks like hard work witth a hairy stick. There's a DAK scheme too, which would be my usual go to as I love painting desert colours, but it's not shouting to me this time. Last option is a Panzer Grey example from the Herman Goring regiment in 1942. It's not very colourful. there are no unit markings and I've never tried my dodgy weathering techniques on such a dark base. And yet... Any road up, enough waffle. Here is the box: Inside there are a plethora of sprues (relatively speaking, this isn't a modern 1/35 super-kit) and a metal lower hull tub. Decals and instructions are all present and correct, although the instructions had a fit of pique and refused to be photographed 🙄 Roll on Saturday Andy

Hello Everyone, This is my first work in process post i have done so i hope its format is correct. Theres a lot to describe up to the point i am right now so ill try and be brief as much as i can. Unfortunately i joined this community after i had done most of the initial build of the hull and turret and i don't have the pictures of it in its creation unfortunately. So first up is the Hull. The initial build took around 3 days give or take 2 mins and probably could have been done a bit faster had it not been for work and homelife commitments and also i used Mr Surfacer 500 to "paint" the armour sections to add a different texture to them. Once i had it built i primed it in Vallejo Mecha Primer - Grey Primer(73.641) and with an idea in mind to add chipping later on i painted the whole hull in Vallejo Model Air - US Olive Drab(71.043) and glossed with Vallejo Acrylic Varnish(28.517). Leaving it to dry overnight i sprayed it with hairspray and moved onto spraying it in Vallejo - Iraqi Sand(70.819) i know that this may be deviating from the norm but i wanted it to be a darker sand colour than the stipulated Light Sand colour suggested by the box, ultimately ill be placing this IFV in a diorama with a Fallujah Street battle setting (Urban combat) with a rainstorm that had just passed. I wanted to go for that dirty look! (Big ambitions i know, and it'll probs will look a bit naff but im definitely going to give it a try!) Using Ammo mig - Brown for Desert yellow filter(A.MIG-1504) i plastered this over the whole hull which darkened it down some more. With that dry i used Ammo mig - US Modern Vehicles wash(A.MIG-1007) for the panel lines and nooks and crannies and finished off with Ammo mig - US Modern Vehicles Streaking effects(A.MIG-1207) and feather it off with enamel thinner. The rest was simply just hand painting all the tools and bits and bobs with a combination of Vallejo and Tamiya paints and AK Interactive - True Metals Wax. I still have the lights to do as well as decals before i place the weathering pigments but ill catch up with that as and when i can. [You will see a difference between the colour of the viewports from this side and the front, the sides and rear were painted in Tamiya - Royal Blue(X-3) and the front viewports painted in Vallejo - Transparent Green(70.936) at this point in time, i cant decide what i want them to be.] [On the aerial at the back i used AK Interactive - True Metals Brass wax for the base of the aerial and also the ones on the turret] [The TOW System will get attached onto the turret near the end of the painting] [I used Ammo mig - Gun Metal Modelling Pigment(A.MIG3009) and wiped this on, which i think gives a nice "Gun Looking" effect (Normally i would just use Tamiya - Gun Metal(X-10) but i decided on a change. The Laser designator is currently Masked whilst painting the turret.] [Its hard to make out in this picture but 4 of the 8 Smoke dispensers have been drilled out, i am looking for that deployed look but i may have to lighten it in a sooty kind of colour to make it more obvious] [Crew primed and shaded. hopefully itll make them more stand outish when i come to paint the faces and uniform....lol we will see...... im rubbish at painting uniforms!] [Track and gear all painted and just waiting on me to finish faffing about with the hull, i used Tamiya- Rubber Black(XF-85) for the rubber part(I also cut bits out of the wheels to give it a used look, not clear in the picture) and also the track with additionalAk Interactive - Track Wash(AK083) to make it pop! And thats the update of my work in progress, a bit long winded but, ive done a lot to it before joining, just a shame i didn't keep the pictures of the build up. I look forward to answering any questions you have and also any suggestions(Like keep your posts down to at minimum word count! lol) Rossco

Here is my recently completed Tamiya Stug III G, which I have depicted with a well-worn whitewash. Unfortunately, I was a little too far advanced with it to join the current group build. It was painted with acrylics and weathered with oils and pigments. I used the kit rubber band tracks, which I think turned out ok. I used little bits of sponge to push the tracks down to create sag, then super glued them in place before removing the sponge pieces. I also lost the fire extinguisher and will try to make one soon. Thanks for looking, Greg

Hi All, My latest completion is Tamiya's lovely Mustang III. El Mojo has been somewhat depleted of late, so I was looking for a straightforward build - I didn't bother with a WIP for this one (for the aforementioned reason). I chose to model this as GA*Q of 112 Sqn, based in Italy in 1944. Here's a photo of the aircraft: This aircraft was a little unusual in that the Sky identification band was painted out (except around the serial number), and it did not have the usual yellow leading edge stripes. Although there is much speculation around the camouflage colours for these aircraft I've chosen to model the aircraft in DG/OG over MSG. Rather curiously, Tamiya's decals provide the incorrect serial number for this aircraft (FB309, whereas any fool knows it should be FB247 🤣). Never fear, a quick firtle in the spares box yielded the appropriate digits). The kit was an absolute joy to put together - it was pretty much OOB with the exception of a lovely instrument panel from Yahu. I drilled out the ID lights on the underside of the wing and mixed appropriate paints with Krystal Kleer - I think it worked rather well. Anyway, on with the photos! Here's a lovely pair of shark mouths to warm @corsaircorp's frozen cockles (I hope you've now defrosted a bit Alain?) - one with her 112 Sqn forebear: Finally, who doesn't love a family photo? One with her kissing cousin from 3 Sqn RAAF, later also based in Italy: I've thoroughly enjoyed this build, and with mojo at much more normal levels I can gird my loins for a more challenging project. But what, you may ask??! Thanks for looking, Roger