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Presenting my entry to this group build: This is the recently re-issued kit from Tamiya that comes with a Motocompo folding scooter and middle aged man pretending to be a student. The sprue for the scooter isn't very well thought out and would involve seams and way too much masking for my liking (the car already requires a load for black trim), so I got the resin version from ZoomOn that is much more logically thought out. Also, I have the Aoshima Honda City Turbo II kit, so will use the spare Motocompo for that, when the time comes. The sprue shots... The car kit is quite basic, possibly originating from a motorised version looking at the rear axle area, and it has no hub or brake components at either end. 🤔 Now to the plan...! Obviously, I'm going to lower it and swap the wheels! I feel like this car need slamming on the floor with some aggressive camber and fat wheels/stretched tyres... BUT! Because this is the 80s, and that sort of nonsense doesn't exist yet, I'm going to refrain (and save that for the Turbo II ) and give it tasteful 35mm lowering springs with -1º of camber and a set of 1 inch wider, 15 inch (1in larger diameter) Work Equip 40s that were available at the time. In the process of creating the lowering/camber system, I'm planning to model the missing hubs and brakes and get rid of the metal axle and screws that hold the front wheels in favour of the current Tamiya wheel fastening system. Finally the colour scheme... and this is entirely inspired by @Toftdale's builds of a few months back. Specifically some shots of the paint in progress where the car looks pink. I thought the colour suited it so well, I'm going to paint this one, and the Motocompo, in Porsche Frozen Berry over pink primer from ProScale Paints. As you can see, the pink primer really 'pinks' it up a bit Anyway, that's it for now. I need to go and finish my Trabant for the 'Give Peace a Chance' GB. Thanks for looking! Martin

Whilst struggling with the canopy on my PR XVI I’ve been looking at other possibilities. And having seen so many builds on the go using them as a basis I had a question to answer. OK, so what is all this about the Tamiya Mosquito kits? (As mentioned before soemwhere, I've never built a Tamiya kit of any sort so probabaly rank as some sort of modelling eccentric! ) They are continually held up as examples of modelling kit excellence. I’m not usually swayed by majority opinion so feel I have to investigate for myself, although this is most definitely not a kit review. Evidence that I have taken the bait ….. Of course, this is going to provide a challenge for myself as the end date for this STGB is less than 30 days away. Just to add an extra frisson of excitement (for me if not for you, dear reader) is the need for a little scratch building that would seem to be almost within my grasp. This is because of the choice of finish. I said in @John’s wip here that I fancied the EDSG over Sky finish – so Banff it is!! The picture that came most easily to hand was the 143 sq NE – D / RS625 linked (here). What I hadn't realised was that when I opened the Tamiya box and looked at all that wrapped loveliness, the decals in the box have this aircraft as one of the 3 supplied. That save's a bit of decal printing. However, the need for the aforementioned scratching about is evident when you see a 100gal drop-tank with 2-tier missile mounting outboard on each wing. BM as usual is a good source of info, so I have drawings of the mounting system and the guard rails added to protect the rockets when the tank was jettisoned. I think I can carefully modify the kit rockets into 2-tier configuration. I’ll just have to have a go at the guard rails. The kit includes the smaller (50 gal?) drop-tanks, so these will have to be replaced if possible as well. Whilst there is quite a lot of detail moulded-in on the kit, I rather like the Eduard 3-d decals I used in my PR XVI cockpit. Replacement of exhausts and wheels/tyres with resin examples is becoming fairly frequent on my builds. Then I remembered that Charlie @Johnson had pointed out to someone a combined Eduard set (with all these elements) was due for release about now. Success! E’en now it is hurtling this way courtesy of Royal Mail. Hence the kit list with extras looks like this: - Tamiya 1:72 Mosquito FB Mk. VI/ NF Mk. II - new Eduard set for this kit (Cockpit IP 3-d painted decal, canopy masks, exhausts, wheels) - Blackbird Models resin 100 gal Mosquito tanks – on order - Bits ‘n pieces of plastruct or brass wire for the guard rails. So off we go. I have downloaded the 143 sqn ORB entries for March, April and May 1945. A quick peruse of the March entries (it's all I've had time for so far) shows that aircraft “D” is in regular use. I’m assuming that the photo is of the right period and hence that the records are indeed about RS625. As time is short, I won’t dig too much further just now but if someone can confirm my assumption that the ORB and the photo are talking about the same aircraft, I would be grateful. Before finally committing to this scheme, I decided to try adapting the kit rockets into “double-deckers” and also have a go at the guard rails. The rockets have come out like this …. ..... Still some painting to finish off, but almost there. Black warheads and fins, dark green missile bodies, aluminium rails. The mounting straps need to be "picked out" in black or alu. I believe there's a white painted ring around the noses as well. IF I have time I might look at the wiring at the back of the rockets (it is just about visible) but seeing as I've compromised a bit on the guard rails the wires might be omitted to aid completion For the guard rail, I first tried bits of plastic strip and rod. Those of finer dimensions could barely support their own weight and sagged at the first opportunity. After deciding against the thicker bits, which were structurally ok, because they were far too clunky I decided to attempt using brass rod. After quickly establishing that I couldn’t use CA, I’ve attempted soldering for the first time. [I seem to set myself challenges ..... ] This is the result …. A lot better than the plastic versions but still a bit blobby where I couldn’t get the solder off!!! But I’m going with these as they are just about ok and will be sandwiched between the rockets and the 100 gal tanks and hence not so obvious. [Needle in pin-vice shown for scale.] So I have some slightly agricultural guard rails and some 2-tier rockets; all I need is the ordered resin 100 gal tanks to arrive. So I will go with this and the next instalment will start on the main build. Comments and advice always welcome. Thanks for looking Rob

In the general cemetery at Hoorn in the North Holland province of the Netherlands are headstones belonging to four RAF personnel of World War II. https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/2059219/hoorn-general-cemetery/ They are, in grave order, from left to right. Flight Lieutenant Victor George Brewis https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2620167/victor-george-brewis/ Sergeant Jack Ratcliffe https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2620168/jack-ratcliffe/ Sergeant David John Young https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2620170/david-john-young/ Flight Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2620169/arthur-whitten-brown/ Sergeants Ratcliffe and Young were killed on the night of 15 February 1944 when Lancaster LL689 of No. 115 Squadron was shot down by a Nightfighter flying from Leeuwarden airfield. Flight Lieutenants Brewis and Whitten-Brown were killed on 6 June 1944 when Mosquito VI NT122 of No. 605 Squadron was lost, crashing into the IJsselmeer at around 02:00, having left RAF Manston at 00:31 for a Night Intruder mission against Leeuwarden airfield. Some of you may recognise the name Arthur Whitten-Brown. This is because Sir Arthur Whitten-Brown was one half of Alcock and Brown, the first to make a non-stop transatlantic flight. Flight Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown was his son and only child. This build will be of Mosquito VI NT122 and will be respectfully dedicated to the memory of Flight Lieutenants Victor George Brewis and Arthur Whitten-Brown. I'll put some more details on them up during the build. The Tamiya 1/48 Mosquito seems to be rather popular and I’m hoping will make this a relatively straightforward build. I think there’s some aftermarket hanging around for it somewhere in the stash but I’ve not found it yet… My main concern is probably going to be actually making a space on the bench space that’s big enough to work on this; there might be a slow start as I try to clear some other builds. Cheers, Richard.

This will be my kit for this GB. I picked it up recently and after a bit of research realised that New Zealand's army bought a fair few of these tanks, mainly Mk2, Mk3 and Mk5 variants. Because the kit is a Mk2 this'll most likely be one that was used for training in New Zealand, (I'm waiting for some decals to turn up so I will be a bit more precise soon.) I also bought a couple of books to help me on my way.👍 I am currently finishing off another project so once that is done I can get on with this. All the best.

Hello chaps, Waiting my dental scanner to work again soon and help me so to get convincing wipers that will add the final touch to my Ford Mustang Indy 500 Convertible at 1/16 scale... ... I begin here a new thread dedicated to my next build, the Porsche 934 Vaillant Tamiya at 1/12, a big scale! For this build, I decided to buy the expensive Scale Lab detail set, hoping this set will allow me to get a very nice result, even if I am sure you can get a fine one just with the Tamiya kit. Will this set worth it? I will give you my opinion independently. This set was bought on Spotmodel, it is about 300€, much more expensive than the Tamiya kit itself so (about 140€). Below are some pics of both boxes and their contents: The first impression with the Tamiya kit is very good despite its quite old age, 1976, it has been reissued more recently with a PE detail set and a Cartograf decal sheet (both very nice!). The Scale Lab detail set is impressive with 9 PE plates, resin parts and a sheet of masks for the windows frame painting job. It will require a careful study before use because the instructions sheet above seems to me somewhat succinct... Well, I hope I'm wrong on that point, we shall see. A word about the choice of the Porsche 934 Vaillant: as usual, the choice for a model is for me first aesthetic. From this point of view, I could have chosen the Jägermeister version, orange (I love this color) but I ever have the huge 1/8 Pocher Lamborghini Aventador in nearly the same color. This Light Cobalt Green (lighter than what the Tamiya box-art suggests imho) is though also quite to my taste, in addition to be more original. It is also very possible that the name "Vaillant", even if it is here just a sponsor (Vaillant was and is still today a heating systems manufacturer), resonated in me and more or less consciously recalled the adventures of Michel Vaillant, famous racing driver in the comic books albums of Jean Graton (the French and Belgian members of this forum will understand me very well). Looking in the Net, I found a pic of this Vaillant version showed at Autoworld Brussels. Pity, when visiting this nice car museum last year, the car was missing... The documentation will be consequently quite poor, a priori... For the paint, I decided to use mainly Gravity products, but most likely Tamiya and Vallejo ones too. Well, let's go to the bench now, hoping this build will arouse interest from the Brit community. Cheers, O

Didn't feel like painting today, so decided to start a new project. This time I chose Cromwell MK. IV. It will be done out of the box with a side order of 3D printed tracks and it will have marks of 1st Polish Armoured Division. Here is the progress that I have made so far. Next stage will be to prime and paint the lower hull.

Bit busy at the moment with two other GB's on the go, but will hopefully get round to this one in the next few weeks. I've gone for the good old Tamiya classic, so should be a nice easy build! I've also got the Xtradecal 72209 1:72 Vought F4U-1 Corsairs decal set. Some great options, but i have gone for the below. A NZ Corsair made from two damaged aircraft, hence the "cut and shut". George

Ok, I have had a small collection of Brummbars in the stash and I thought it was about time I got the project started. This is a trickier subject as there were many tweaks and improvements during its short career and, even with a good collection of reference books, it gets a bit confusing. I'll start with the Tamiya Late version as it should be the easiest to learn its quirks. It is also a reasonably new kit so should be a straight forward build. I bought the Atak zim years ago so I will use that. As the vast majority of Brummbars had zim I will use it on this one for quickness but if I'm not happy with the result I will go for handmade zim on later projects. This kit also comes with rubber band tracks but I have some spare aftermarket sets lurking about somewhere. I'll see if I can use the kit's schurzen too but they may end up being replaced. We'll see. If anyone has good knowledge of the Brummbar your input will be helpful and if any bit is wrong, bad or iffy do tell.👍 Anyway, all the best and have a great week.😁👍

Pretty good fit and fairly easy to build as expected from Tamiya. I opted for a Moroccan army scheme since I really like it and felt it was unique. The model was primed with Mr surfacer black then pre-shaded with Tamiya flat white. The camo is Tamiya desert sand and a mix of Tamiya dark green and brown. I also used some AK acrylic markers for some details like the cupola machine gun. The weathering was with Tamiya weathering kit, mostly sand and light sand. Rivets and panels were pin-washed with AK wash. Please let me know what you think and if you have any criticisms they are very welcome as well.

The Shepherd Pt I Tamiya 1/48 Mosquito B Mk.IV I'm sure many of you are familiar with Fredrick Forsyth's novella The Shepherd. I remember pulling it off the book shelf while I was bored at my grandparents' home one summer when I was around 12 or 13, and quickly devoured it. Fast forward 30-odd years when I returned to the hobby in 2020, my first kit was the Airfix Vampire T.11 and remembered the Vampire from the book. Since then I've often pondered about modelling an in-flight scene of a Mossie guiding a Vamp to safety. Now the group build planets have aligned this year with this one and the Twin Boomers in the autumn, so I've decided to give it a go. The big question was 1/72 or 1/48, but the recent Airfix Vamps tilted it in the favour of 1/48. So here we are: In case you've never read the book, you can listen to it here: I believe there's an abridged radio version that's become a Canadian Christmas tradition. Also, Disney recently brought it to the screen, I've not seen it and it received mixed reviews. I remember a bit of chuntering and scoffing on here, though the YouTube comments seen generally positive: Any tips on the Tamiya Mossie will be greatly appreciated, the biggest problem will be buttoning it up for in-flight display.

My third project since picking up the hobby again. This time I went for an all time classic, Cromwell MK. IV and used 1st Polish Armoured Division markings. Although the kit is quite old it still goes together without any major issues. It is not 100% accurate, as a few BM members have pointed out, but never the less it goes pretty nicely together. Just what you expect from Tamiya. All except the 3D printed tracks (QuickTracks) is out of the box. Painted and weathered using Ammo products - One shot primer, Atom paints, Oilbrushers, Ammo acrylic washes, Ammo shaders, Ammo pigments & Ammo mud splashes. Here is the link to the WIP thread But most importantly, here are the money shots 😊

Good afternoon all, This is my first post on this forum! Ive been a lurker for quite some time but today I decided to come out of the shadows. I recently visited the incredible tank museum in Bovington and was inspired by the very unique tanks on show. One of these is their uniquely painted Panzer II: This tank immediately caught my attention and so was the topic of my next scheme. This is the final result. It was an extremely enjoyable build. Thank you again!

The last 5 months I've been busy starting a new project. And I think it's finally at a stage where I can share some progress. While building my Eurofighter model I noticed how much I enjoy the shape of a flying jet. However at the same time I love the detail of a nice wheel well. So the idea was born to display a jet during takeoff, with the wheels in the process of retracting. Additionally I wanted to do something nice with surfaces. And I just love the surfaces of the F-35 and how they have glossy and matt parts to the pattern. So I choose the Tamiya F-35A. For the interior and engine I went with Reskit. As well as the bombs. It will have magnetized bomb pylons, so I can display it in stealth and beast mode. For masks I got a bunch of Galaxy model spray masks. I hope this will save me some time when I do multiple clear coats to create the different surface textures. First off, as you all probably already know, the kit is amazing. This is the dry fit, I assume I will need almost no filler. All the parts fit 100% perfectly. Pure joy. The front wheel bay was easy enough. (usually the front wheel is retracted first, so it just sits there nicely in the folded position.) The back wheels are not nice and easy sadly. They will have to sit at a half retracted angle, with all the doors open. Sadly the Tamiya kit has those doors in the shut position, so I had to cut them open. Additionally I had to find that perfect angle where the wheel can actually properly retract into the fuselage. The way this works on the F-35 is apparently a cone tilt angle, so the wheel rotates just over 90° while folding forward. Finding that angle was... not pleasant. Wrapping my head around on how to construct it even less so. But ultimately I think I found an angle that looks half decent. I also tested it with wheels attached. It actually works! In the end the wheels will be glued in place at the half way position, but I wanted to make sure everything is in the right spot. For the stand my dad was so kind to help me bend a 3mm stainless steel rod into a nice circle. On the inside it is held in place by a piece of hard rubber with an about 2.8mm hole inside. As mentioned before, the weapons are attached by magnets inside the wings. Fast forward: I Painted the wheel wells and all other parts that need to be painted beforehand. Added holographic foil to the EOTS And now all the main parts are in the process of being assembled! (Shots are still the dry fitting. The glue is setting as I type.)

Back making stuff again after a long break. Managed to construct the engine for this beauty Now just got to build the bike around it 🙂

Hello fellow modelers. Here is my stab at the Tamiya P-38F. What an awesome kit this was! But of course, with my ridiculous passion for details, I added a few after market parts; Quinta 3D cockpit decals, Master P-38 Gun Barrels, Fine Molds USAAF Seatbelts, HGW P-38 Stencils/seatbelts, and Kazan P-38 3D Landing Gear Prints. Painting was accomplished with various MRP green and brown shades with final color being Mr Color Olive Drab. Underneath was predominantly MRP Neutral Gray. Hope you like it! Feedback and suggestions are always welcome. History: This P-38 was piloted by Captain Robert (Bob) L. Faurot of the 39th Fighter Squadron out of New Guinea and sadly was KIA during the Battle of the Bismark Sea on March 3, 1943. His loss was felt by many. The radio and office before closing it up.

for some diversity between all the aircraft, my dad´s gonna start Tamiya´s new Stuart kit DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

Hi Apologies for a lack of a build thread for this Tamiya Cromwell, joining this forum has made me a bit more organised with regards to a photo record of my future builds. Kit from built OOB, and I added a fuel drum, a couple of jerry cans and Milliput made tarp sitting on a couple of wooden beams on the rear deck of the tank. I've tried to represent a Cromwell IV "just in theatre" so not too much damage to the tank, weathering etc. Bench taken photos as I need to organise some decent lighting etc going forward.

Here we go again folks! GP bringing you another tandem Pedestal build (its nice building these in pairs). This time with the two F-Class destroyers HMS Fury, who managed to complete the Operation safely, and here sister HMS Foresight which was hit by an Italian aerial torpedo; blowing off her stern and killing four men- the result being a later scuttling at the hands of HMS Tartar. For this build I will be using two Tamiya E-Class Destroyers along with a associated 3d upgrade sets from Starling Models, (a detail improvement but also allows me to use the HACS on the P-class models) For colours... I have seen on the armoured carriers website a graphic of various ships from Pedestal (I am not sure of the actual origin of these images) showing Forsight in a Mountbatten Pink (along with the Manchester) which I would really like to go for, it will make the fleet even more colourful and in the image of the Foresight prior to scuttling she is one uniform colour so it works for me. And for the Fury I'm walking along the lines of a WA scheme, the vast majority of pictures I have found of her show this on the Starboard side from around 1941 and then a more disruptive pattern in the same colours on the Port around the time of her beaching after D-Day. Cheers, GP

Hello all, I’ve hankered after building the famous “VeRA” (more formally known as ‘The Mynarski Memorial Lancaster’) flown by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum out of Hamilton, Ontario, ever since it made the long trip across the Atlantic back in 2014. I was invited up to Biggin Hill where she was residing whilst displaying at the Eastbourne Airshow and seeing her sitting on the tarmac along with the BMMF’s Lancaster, I instantly fell in love! This love affair was exacerbated seeing her perform at numerous air shows during the time she was in the UK. Fast forward 11 years (how has it been that long?) and I’m finally getting around to it - using the Tamiya classic 1/48 kit as a base. Tamiya’s kit is very well known so there’s no need to go into any detail describing it, but as we all know it comes in BI/BIII guise with the classic Frazer Nash FN50 mid upper, which is not suitable for the Canadian Lanc, being a MkX and fitted with the later Martin Turret. There are also a few other subtle differences, such as the fuselage window arrangement (the centre section is actually a replacement from an earlier machine) as well as a modern aerial fit. The picture below, borrowed from the CWHM’s Facebook page and used for illustrative purposes only, shows her in all her glory: So… I began by building up the interior out of the box, the only change to the Tamiya instructions being to paint the seats in a deep red as seen in photographs of her in her warbird guise. I’ve used an Eduard set for the instrument panels and seat belts, and added the second control column from an old Lanc I built years ago and have since salvaged - VeRA is dual control and always flies with a copilot, as do the BBMF. I have carefully studied pictures of VeRA and blanked off and filled the appropriate windows, and the main mod has been blanking off the mid upper position and opening up a new one above the rear escape hatch. The Martin turret, being heavier, was moved forward to restore the correct CoG. I’ve also made the fairing for the turret and added the strengthening strips on the fuselage from plastic card. All raised panel lines lost in the filling/sanding process have been restored using a sharp scalpel and a dousing of TET and then a light sanding back. I’m in the process of converting a 1/48 Monogram B-24 to a Privateer, so fortunately have a spare Martin turret. The MkXs were fitted with a ‘high hat’ dome but the B-24 turret is earlier, lower version, but with no other option I’m aware of in 1/48 it’ll have to do. Today the fuselage has had a squirt of primer and, so far, so good: I’m really enjoying this so far - more when there’s more… Cheers, Tom

A few years ago I saw one of these built up on IModeler and was blown away by the amazing retro look and how colorful it was. I knew one day I HAD to build one. I purchased this kit off eBay and it is in okay condition. The decals were in rough shape which lead me to purchasing an aftermarket set. Which of course all of the nice aftermarket sets have also been discontinued 😅. I found a website in Canada that has a lot of rare/out of production decals in stock and was able to purchase a really unique Eagle Strike set. I’ll be doing the scheme with the yellow fuel tanks and blue lightning. It sorta reminds me of Vault-Tec from Fallout 🤟🏼 The only other aftermarket item I am after is masking which will hopefully arrive before too long. Really surprised how detailed the cockpit is for a 27 year old kit. Even the injection pin marks don’t seem as bad as some of the more modern Tamiya kits. Applied interior green and black to the panel Masked to paint more black accents per reference photos: Applied a black base coat and went over with dark grey to add depth I attempted to apply the instrument panel decals, but they disintegrated as soon as I slightly touched them. Since the decal was useless, I had to hand paint all of the gauges. Definitely not the most fun task 😵‍💫 I used photo etch seatbelts from Eduard meant for an F-104. Comparing reference images, they looked close enough to me. Another detail I added was wiring behind the instrument panel. Mostly won’t be seen, but I’ll know it’s there 😎. Cheers, Keith

While waiting for some information on my Valentine build I thought I'd do something quick, cheap and an easy vehicle to try out a few techniques. Having some Kubelwagens in the stash they became a prime target. I have one where I will try out some winter whitewash again but first I'll do the AK desert/balloon tyred one. Simple sprues. And a very quick, easy build.

Hi guys, it's been 8 months since I last finished my model which was the Chinese J-7B. Not very productive during these months, huh? Ok, here is my Tamiya's latest brand new 48th scale kit. What is special to talk about this kit is the details. Tamiya has done a very good job putting in more details while not compromising the ease of building in their later kits. Engineering and parts breakdown are excellent. Of course there are many aftermarket detail up parts released in the market lately but the detail level out of the box is pretty acceptable especially in the weapons bay. I scratch-built the seat belts as Tamiya provided only the decals. The only drawback of the kit is the decals. They are thick and need a lot of decal liquids to soften and set. Otherwise it would be a perfect kit. This is a commission build and my client wanted me to do the Italian Air Force so here it is. Hope you will like it. I willbe building more as I am settled at the new place and have set up the workbench. See you next time, thanks. #tzwf35

Hi, I would like to start and share my new build of a De Havilland Mosquito 1:48 scale. The kit is the old, but still very nice Tamiya of the FB Mk VI. I believe that neither a presentation of this aircraft nor of the kit is necessary. Since long, I wanted to build a model of this aircraft because of its fame and because of its remarkable design. For me, this is the first mosquito build as a grown up modeller if I exclude the ancient Revell 1/32 kit that I built when I was a kid. To start my build, I followed to the letter the Tamiya instructions which called the engine nacelles as a first step: I just thickened the frames for added 3-D effect and added few interior details. The white panel shown on the inside of the walls is an artistic license of mine having used a piece of thin styrene to hide annoying ejection pin marks which I didn't want to fill and sand. In the following, the nacelles are shown completed: Finally, they are test fitted with the wings and the main undercarriage struts to check that no interferences with the new parts are present: That is all for this first instalment, I hope you will enjoy following it. Best regards, Dan

He is my second Mosquito build. I bought this in error for my Mosquito Racer build and some smarty-pants suggested that I build both, so that's what I'm going to do. This will be an OOB build of a FB Mk VI using the 1/72 Tamiya kit and will be built in flying mode with wheels up, fitted with a crew and will be destined for my ceiling. The box. The plastic. See you soon. Stuart

After WW2 ended, the Chinese Nationalists ended up with a few Ki-61s in their inventory. From what I can tell, it was at least four Tonys (Tonies?): three Ki-61-Ic's, and at least one Ki-61-Ib. This build is a mostly out-of-box build of Tamiya's excellent 1/72 Ki-61-Id. While I can't verify that the RoCAF ended up with any Ki-61-Id's after the end of the war, I also can't verify that they didn't, so this build is what could be considered a semi-historical "what if." The decals were from Mark I Models, and the only extra addition to the Tamiya plastic was a set of Eduard photoetch seatbelts. The paints were a mix of Tamiya "acrylics" and AK Real Colors. I'm not too happy with how the Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum turned out - I have a hard time spraying it in such a way that it doesn't appear grainy. The build thread is here.