stevehnz

I have a couple of Modeldecal special schemes I may do at some stage. I was guilty of over thinking this a bit& might just worry less about the detail & more about the schemes. Steve.

That is beautiful. These are such a superb looking car & your green finish does it no harm at all. 👍 Steve.

Beautifully done. I remember these in new Zealand, I've long thought they were on of the best proportioned cars ever. Seeing this has reinforced that for me. Steve.

It appears there was a 1.72 version too. The Scalemates page has a link to a Modeling Madness review. I've no idea how long ago these were around, a sort of early version of a DP Casper sheet. Steve.

An Italeri Ju 87G in 1/72. An aircraft I've only early ones of & felt I should have one of these. I won't be using the Rudel marking options. Steve.

I'd not caught up with this before today, having missed the first part while working on the hop harvest & then just not paying attention I guess. Now that I've caught up, I'm full of Wow, just wow feelings. This is lovely work. 👍 Steve

I was torn over it, really. Steve.

This started back in October 2024 in the Mirage III/5 STGB, I didn't make progress in that & eventually re-entered it the next year in January 2025s Heller mega GB. I managed to run out of time in that one too & it just sat around getting in the road with me giving it accusing stares till about a week ago as I wrapped up my Spitfire builds & pounced on it & finished it. Sheesh, what was the fuss all about. It is a long way from being a stellar kit, I felt obliged to improve some things & couldn't be stuffed with others. 🤨 All in all, I'm happy enough with the result, it is an aircraft I physically saw in the Brussels military Museum 12 years ago nearly, plus it has some interesting history with Belgium's involvement in Desert Storm, which is as I've tried to model it here. I've used decals from Daco, both for the main markings & zaps. I bailed at the majority of the stencils. I used Humbrol 86, 253 & 94 for the wrap around scheme.

The second one in my Airfix Vb double build linked to in the above post, was the same kit which arrived from Classic Planes in Germany crammed into its Airfix Vb box with the conversion pieces. Again, the Airfix kit built well & the resin nose insert fitted with not too much fettling. I'd become aware of this aircraft through these pages & knew instantly I needed one, , not so instant was my build although the kit purchase ensued quite quickly. I went with the topside colour suggested by Detlef in the instructions, but stayed with all yellow for the underside as this was my understanding of the standard colour scheme used by the Luftwaffe's test field at Rechlin where captured allied aircraft were rebuilt & flight tested. Topside was Vallejo 70.892 posing as RLM 71 while Humbrol 154 filled in as RLM 04. More info can be found here, other are available too. The decals Classic Planes supplied worked well, apart from needing to find a crooked cross for the tail. Techmod to the rescue. Thanks again to the hosts, James @81-er & Col @Col.. for running this amazing STGB & their support on these builds, also to those who've dropped by with comments &support. Steve.

Time to put up the completed efforts from my Airfix Vb 1.72 double build. First up, the Floatfire. For some back ground on these, I found this website useful, a google search will reveal others. I first became aware of these over 50years ago via my copy of Warplanes of the Second World War vol 6 Floatplanes by William Green. I had most of these other than some bomber ones & literally read the print off the pages. They are treasures imho. About the time Brengun released their kit of this with AZ spitfire parts & a sprue of floats & associated bits, I had a PM exchange with @Redboost , regarding some scans of articles in some older SAM mags I'd mentioned having. I was happy to obliged & thrilled when by way of thanks, a set of parts for the Brengun kit arrived in the post. I disgraced myself by repurposing the AZ bits as a Spitfire Mk VI trop, which was possible to do from the options in the kit & for years the float sprue & decals etc, languished in its box till this STGB happened along & I decided to try using them with a spare Airfix Spitfire Vb I had. This is the result. I was looking to get the sort of weathered faded look that photos of the machines had in Egypt, to this end I added 1 of Vallejo 70.886, their RLM02 equivalent, to 2 of Vallejo 70.830, a close match to Hu 224, Dark Slate grey. & mixed Humbrol 123 & 164 1:1, which gave me a look I was chuffed with. Thanks Libor for this opportunity. Steve.

Sorry, didn't spot this earlier. After my Floatfire Mk Vb build in the Spitfire STGB, I reckon I may as well dig out the Kopro Mk IX Floatfire kit I have. I'm pretty sure the floats have some incorrect proportions in this but I should be able to cut & shut them using the Brengun ones I used in the Vb build as a guide. 🤞 Steve.

Calling these done now. From two identical kit to two widely different outcomes. Happy enough with both but really chuffed with the Floatplane, it's just what I hoped it would be . The Messerspit is OK too, I didn't have the same mental image in my head for this but still pleased with the result. More photos will appear in separate posts in the gallery tomorrow hopefully. Thanks to the hosts, James @81-er & Col @Col. for running this amazing STGB & their support on these builds, also to those who've dropped by with comments &support. Now in their respective galleries here & here Steve.

I'm desnapping mine as I go, so I can go backwards. I'm going for the one on the box art, 445. The Battle of Kursk has somewhat of a fascination for me. I've got both tracks on now, the left one from three pieces, but the right one as per the Reddit method above, it was a doddle. Glue it on the bottom of the wheels, with some superglue gel, when that had set, bend it up around the drive sprocket & idler & press down & clamp onto glue on the top of the wheels. Nuffink too it. That was after removing the pegs on the wheels & the track pieces that clipped onto them. I defy anybody to get those all aligned without a fair bit of manipulation & risking cracking across the track. I've a Zvezda Jagdpanther kit as well & will be applying the lessons learned on this to that one come the day. The side plates will hide most of the unsightliness on the left track. Time for some more painting now. Steve.

Did your's come from Whitcoulls too? When I saw the price tag, NZ$23.00, I almost dislocated my wrist getting my wallet out. I know what you mean about the others, though I've not gone further at this point. Steve.

Having finished The Grapes of Wrath a sadder if not wiser man, I'm now into Anzac Strike Wing, Operations in the North Sea with RAF Coastal Command by John Quaife. Aussies & Kiwis working together to harry German coastal convoys with Beaufighters. Nicely written & very interesting. A good reset for the spirit. Steve.