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Hi all; I realised that I never did post an RFI for this one. Here's the WIP: The simplified version is that this is a very good kit which I found well engineered, well moulded and produced a nice model. Having built the ProModeller version some years ago I felt the Meng kit was superior enough to justify the price differential (should one be able to find one of the older kits, that is). I only had trouble with the wing to fuselage join and I am sure I caused that with poor cockpit/fuselage assembly. I painted the markings using masks I designed and created with my Silhouette cutter. This was one of my better Luftwaffe camouflage efforts and was pleased with how it turned out. I used some Gaspatch #D printed radar arrays which were close in shape and style as on the real one, but exactly the same; best I could do. The pics; I had only three reference pics to work from and none were of the complete airframe so there's some educated guesswork in how the markings were applied but I think it's reasonably close to how the real one looked. Thanks for looking. Cheers.

I used Tamiya's Lancaster kit to backdate it to Avro Manchester. From Sanger's kit i only used the engine nacelles which i reworked a lot as they were outshaped, outer wings and the clear parts for upper and rear turret. I scratchbuilt the bomb bay, turrets internal structure, fuselage interior, lead landing lights ,exhausts, radiators,propellers. I reworked the poor Sanger vacuform wings with Archer resin details and rescribed the panels and the tail section. The Browning guns came from the excellent MASTER sets. All other details such as cockpit, flaps etc came from Eduard biged set. The roundels on wings were painted using masks. All other insignia and squadron codes are from Xtradecal sets. I painted it using Xtracolor paints. It represents an aircraft from 207 squadron RAF at Waddington Lincs. during 1941.

Hi everyone, apologies if you have already seen this elsewhere. I am very happy to have been able to finish my first ever WnW kit. The 1/32 kit was finished with MRP PC10 'late' and Clear Doped Linen and the rib tapes were Aviattic 'Aged Clear Doped Linen.' The propeller was from proper Planes, the seat belts were from HGW and the bracing wires were my own AIMS bracing wire set. Hope you like and thanks for looking John

Hi all, about time I put something up on here so here's a build I did for Airfix Model World in August of last year. Now, while I'm not really a huge chopper fan, I do like oddities (you may have noticed) and this contraption certainly falls into that category. It's the Italeri 1/72nd Piasecki H-21 Workhorse/Shawnee, also known as the 'Flying Banana' for obvious reasons, a fairly successful design used by several armed forces around the world. Back in the sixties US Forces agreed to provide CH-21Bs to support military operations of the Forces Aérienne Congolaises (FAC) during the ongoing Congo crisis between 1960 and 1965. All six aircraft were flown by Belgian crews, based at Kamina airbase in the south of the province. Interestingly a CIA front company, Ansalt WIGMO provided maintenance support to large parts of the FAC between 1964 and 1968. Sadly the CH-21Bs were found to be unreliable and underpowered in the harsh conditions and all six were lost to flying accidents during the first six months of 1965. Overall, I found Italeri's H-21 a decent little kit that provided a solid foundation for a CH-21B conversion. This was furthered by the Whirlybird resin set, which included all the components required for the conversion including an excellent decal sheet for each of the six aircraft operated by the FAC. While Eduard provided some excellent PE goodness, I found the kit parts detail to be a little too basic so quite a few of the details were scratchbuilt. Along with my own 3D printed barrels, ladders, and "cargo," which these machines may well have carried during the more covert CIA-backed missions. I also made a scenic base that represented the typical concrete platforms used by the aircraft when operating from the African tundra. At some point I may well add a few suitable figures, if I comes across them.... I'm quite tempted with its 1/48th big brother, maybe as an abandoned/crashed airframe, in a jungle setting. . Hope you like and thanks for looking. Cheers Melchie A few detail images. Basically I scratchbuilt the interior including missing fuselage ribbing, new doors and floor, roof centre conduit with lights, engine bay and missing upper prop-shaft structure which can be easily seen through the grill meshes. Also worked on the cockpit, adding scratch seats, seatbelts, anti torque pedals and various pieces of ancillary equipment including a fire extinguisher.

My latest completion, Kara Hultgreen’s F-14A BuNo 160390 which crashed on approach to U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in Oct 1994. The Base kit is Tamiya #61114, brought up to a later spec using quickboost tail stiffeners, TCS pod from an Italeri kit modified and with a Tamiya lens, late gun vent panel from the Late-A kit #61122. BRU-32/ADU-703 racks and HGU-55 helmets also taken from the Late-A kit. AIM-7M is from the kit, AIM-9Ms & TERs are Eduard Brassin. The ADM-141 I made myself from sheet styrene and I like how it turned out... Not sure it suits the build but it certainly is different. All reference pics of the aircraft show it carrying the TERs so I chose the ADM-141 over a boring MK76 practice bomb. My vision from the start was to create a wing bend thus implying the aircraft was pulling some Gs. The wing stubs were cut and re-glued in a slightly upwards angle and the wing halves were glued while clamped into a bend. Gear bay doors modifed to be closed. Internal modifications using evergreen tube and card to allow mounting via the engine exhaust. Most of the Paint is Mr.Color Lacquers, some Tamiya LP & XF also used. Black based with colored marbling and lots of off-colored patches. Decals started life as the SB Decals “Feisty Felines Pt.1” set but I had to make some new decals for it, particularly the Lions which were grossly oversized. Lots of OPR all over to make it dirty, mostly black & Burnt Umber mix. Enjoy.

Here are some photos of my recently completed B-36, representing a plane (01086, “Miss Featherweight”) based at Carswell during the early 1950's. This model was built using the Roden 1/144 kit, with a few scratch built details. I used an aftermarket decal set from Caracal, because those that came in the kit looked very blurry. I also purchased a wide-base display stand from Academy in order to represent the plane in flight. My additions were the gun barrels (tungsten rod, in place of the kit plastic), rigging (using UNI-Caenis thread) and a very basic set of crew figures (created from Milliput). The kit comes with no interior whatsoever, and I felt that it would look silly to have plane flying with no one inside. There was also no provision for representing the plane with the undercarriage retracted, so some of the wheel bay doors had to be created with Evergreen sheet. This was not an easy build. Cutting a very long story short, basically every single step was accompanied by a lot of filling and sanding to avoid unnatural-looking seam lines and mould sinks. If you are interested I have shared pictures of some of the worst offenders in my web site (https://www.marcellorosa.com/1-144-b-36d-peacemaker), but here today I am celebrating the end of this saga, so I will concentrate on positives! This was my first experience with attempting a natural metal finish. It was a steep learning curve, not helped by the fact that I chose a complicated scheme that combined the metallic surfaces in most places, with anti-flash white in some parts of the bottom surfaces. This meant a lot of masking, particularly keeping in mind that even at 1/144 this B-36 model still manages to be longer, and to have a wider wingspan than my 1/72 Privateer (Itself an elongated version of the B-24 Liberator). Just shows how insanely large the B-36 was, for its time. An entire roll of Tamiya tape was used in this "mini-scale" model... The anti-flash white bottom surfaces were painted with SMS white followed by a bit of insignia white. Panel lines were suggested by running a fine pacer along them, before the last coat of white paint was applied. Pictures of the B-36 suggest two main characteristics of the metallic finish. 1) The crew compartments (aluminium, front and back) look more reflective than the middle parts (magnesium), and 2) there is some variation in shade and reflectiveness between panels. I tried to evoke similar impressions by using different Alclad paints, and by using different final coats after the decals (Vallejo semi-gloss for most of the wing and fuselage, very glossy floor polish for the front and back crew compartments). Weathering was kept to a minimum, with most of it happening "organically" by not becoming too fanatic about cleaning and fixing every little speck of imperfection in the paint. I found trying to weather a 1/144 model surprisingly hard, since everything I did looked like a huge smudge in the plane. Surely, the crew chiefs would not allow that much to stay. Little bits of oil stain were added where I saw in them watching the movie "Strategic Air Command" multiple times. I really wanted a B-36 in my collection, and the Roden kit did provide the materials to build a correctly shaped one - albeit almost driving me crazy, in the process. Unless you have the real estate required to accommodate one of the increasingly rare 1/72 Monogram kits, and the willingness to splash money in the litres of metallic paint required by that kit, the Roden is the best option available. Just don't think it will be a quick and relaxing build. If you are planning to build this kit, feel free to enter in contact using the email in my signature panel, I will be happy to give more details.

Hello all, this is my effort to do a Lakenheath F-15C from the Tamiya kit. I choose to do 84-0027 as it had an odd 'camo splat' on the horizontal stabilisers and it had quite a hard edged camouflage, the F-15C's seem to have a mix of soft-edged and hard-edged schemes. So to do this scheme i made my own mask set for it, which made it a lot easier. The add-ons to the basic kit were Red Fox Studios cockpit set, Reskit AMRAAM's and burner cans plus i used PK Productions 'BIG USAFE MOD EAGLES' decals.....all three are excellent products, plus my own masks DM Scale Models Camo and Canopy set. Hope you all like it, it was a nice build and turned out well i think.

This is the result of 6 months worth of work. The Airfix 1/24 Hellcat. Quite frankly an incredible kit to build. Considering there's close to 600 parts I had to use absolute minimal filler. The interior is a tight fit so mating surfaces have to be clear of paint or you'll have issues. The entire model is directly oob with no add ons as you honestly don't need any. The fit is really very good. I just wish I had sanded the plastic smooth prior to painting as the grainy surface is visible under the paint. I can tell you I sanded each layer of paint and gave it several gloss coats plus an absolute ton of Tamiya polishing compound from coarse to finish and it's almost mirror like in finish. The reason I went with such a high shine is because of the stressed skin effect and this shows it better. Overall this is easily the best kit I've made and no details were omitted from the box that I could tell. The folded wing is not glued in place as it hides a lot of the plane so it can be removed. So please enjoy the photos. I am going to celebrate this with a cold beer and think about the next project. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. If anyone has any questions about this kit just ask away. I decided to give this a clean finish as the details speak for themselves and I think weathering it might hide the sheer fantastic moulded surfaces of this kit. Overall this is in my opinion better than the Tamiya 1/32 F-16 which I think is so good I've built it twice. I'm not a WW2 enthusiast but as I built this I learned about it and have to say I actually really like this aeroplane. If Airfix decides to do a 1/24 Zero I'll have an opposite number sitting on my shelf as I'll definitely be buying it. The parts which I anticipated difficulty such as the engine were surprisingly easy to assemble and paint. I actually built the engine fully wires and all before painting. Like I said the tolerances on this kit leave ZERO space for adjusting so painting is a step that you need to consider when fitting. Anyway enough of my essay here. Enjoy the photos. Somehow they never look as good as on real life but hey ho. I'm going to grab a cold beer and put my feet up and enjoy my work. Cheers everyone!

Always liked the 'look' of the Spitfire Mk XII, maybe not as elegant as the Merlin powered versions, but with the clipped wing tips, pointy rudder and a whacking great Griffon engine stuck on the front, they did look very purposeful. Grabbed one of the Airfix Spitfire Mk XII's a while back, did not want to go down the route of 'all singing, all dancing' modifications and added detail and such, just wanted something to build more or less straight out of the box. The only real additions I made were adding a seat harness, instrument panel and cutting out the flap-down indicators on the upper wing surfaces, and scratch building the indicators from plasticard and rod. Before anybody says anything, I am fully aware that the standard procedure was to retract the flaps after landing, however, they COULD be lowered for inspection, or maintenance, or whatever, so as far as I am concerned there would of been perfectly viable circumstances when the flaps may of been in the down position, so that is how I have depicted them. It also makes the model more visually interesting, from my perspective. The model was airbrushed in Xtracolour enamels, thinned with cellulose thinners, and all decals were standard kit ones, straight from the box, and they responded well using Micro Set and Micro Sol decal solutions, they pulled down nicely into all recesses and details. Panel shading was achieved mostly with Paynes Grey oil-colours, thinned with White Spirit, and some low-key paint chipping applied by small brush. I know that the kit is not perfect out of the box, but enjoying the build was my main priority in making this particular Spitfire Mk XII. Nice to now have one of the lesser-know variants in my display cabinet.

Hi fellow Britmodellers, since we should see later this year another upgraded kit of FAA type from Special Hobby in this scale, I thought it was time to finish the 'Barra' which is out quite some years now... Basically, not really a kit you would love to tackle again anytime soon, but eventually I was quite happy with the result. The markings for a machine from 831.NAS taking part in 'Operation Tungsten' came from Xtradecal sheet, while I also replaced the wheel from BarracudaCast and exchanged the propeller with a larger type. I eventually open the gunner hatch for which I cut to pieces the Falcon canopy I had in my stock for ages. I tried to figure out the exact weapon loads during the attack too, but at the end of the day I opted for a post-attack period and fitted the antisubmarine bombs from CMK range. Painted with Gunze Hobby Color and AK Real Colors. Cheers Libor

This is my third Eduard P-51D. You can see the first here and second here. The third was to be another bare metal aircraft as bare metal is not something I feel I'm particularly good at. I chose this one from from Eduard's Chattanooga Choo Choo Boxing after seeing Spencer Pollards build online. I do like the Eduard P-51, but it's a fiddly kit to build and rewards patience. There is article on my blog for this build and it contains a list of the issues I've found building these kits.

Hi all, This is one of two builds that I flew through in the last few weeks, trying to get my mojo back after not building anything for a year. So it was quick and dirty, cutting corners and if I hit any issues I didn't put a lot of effort into fixing them. The main point was getting something finished! It was my first Hasegawa kit and I like it, decent fit, though the cockpit canopy was too wide! The decals weren't great either, a little too thick and they do love their carrier film. Still, I like the Osprey, it's a nicely strange looking aircraft, and it stands out on the shelf, not least due to the size of the rotors! As always, all comments welcome! Kit: Hasegawa MV-22B Osprey Scale: 1:72 Paint & Weathering: MRP, Tamiya and Revell paints, Oil Washes. Extras: None

Artificially long build this i`m afraid, my own fault, too many distractions! I am very pleased to have this in my collection as it is a service and period that is not very well provided for. Thanks again to Ben for making this possible and I hope I have done his creation justice. Thank you for looking in. Keith

My version of the RAAF’s Meteor F. 8, flown by George Hale of 77 Squadron, stationed in Korea. In 1953, Hale famously shot down two MiG 15s - an opponent that outclassed the Meteor on many levels - earning Hale and his mount the famous sobriquet ‘MiG Killer’. Apparently the Meteor was better-suited to low altitude ground attacks; however, its elongated lines make it look faster, more graceful and more futuristic than perhaps it was. This is the Airfix kit, and it went together like most other recent Airfix kits - easily, for the most part, with an economic parts break-down and some satisfying engineering. No nose weight is called for in the instructions, but it needs a load to stay balanced on its tricycle undercarriage (as did the real plane; the F.4 required 1000lbs of front-end ballast, apparently) . As has been noted, fit of the nose over the front wheel cover is difficult, requiring shaving down both parts to get a satisfying join. There were also annoying sink marks on every missile head and on a couple of other pieces, but these didn’t destroy the fun of the build. I used Tamiya lacquer LP 11 to represent High Speed Silver. I bought a bottle of Mission Model Paints for this, but it was like porridge and had to be binned. The Tamiya paint went on easily, and is opaque even when very diluted. I tried to show restraint with weathering, but nevertheless wanted to give a sense of heft and purpose to the airframe. Also, I was moved by the dismembered parts of an F.8 I saw at RAF Tangmere, beautifully decaying in the car park; it certainly informed some my choices as I painted. Plenty of self-induced errors that hopefully aren’t too obvious. Perfection eludes me every time, but that’s always one motivation to move on to the next one. Thanks for looking.

My attempt at the '90s Airfix Seafire, built from its original boxing. This represents VP 461, flying with 800 Naval Air Squadron, based initially in Hong Kong before deploying to the Korean War aboard HMS Triumph. I can see why this was a landmark kit for Airfix; fit and detail are generally excellent; only the thick, ancient decals were an obstacle - I can see why they were abandoned in later boxings. Partly because of this - and partly to retain as much of the nice surface detail as possible - I opted to paint the invasion stripes and roundels, plus the larger codes, using Montex masks. The only other additions were a Falcon canopy, Eduard PE harness (and some stencils), plus some scratch detailing in the cockpit and a couple of rudimentary oblique cameras. I tried to conjure an airframe pushed hard in action, but maintained to withstand life on a carrier. I’m sure no exposed metal would’ve been permitted, although the wear of constant use must’ve built up over time. Of those planes that survived the conflict, only a few were airworthy; many others were scrapped upon their return, driven to the end of their functional lives. This final iteration of the Spitfire is such a striking, muscular end to the line. Although piston engine fighters were pretty much obsolete by the time the FR.47 entered service, the Seafire is a mighty last gasp. Thanks for looking. I had a great time with all aspects of this kit.

Hi friends, this is one of my latest builds. The fantastic Stearman from ICM in 1/32. Added the Big ED Set from eduard, but some parts were useless. The kit is quite easy to assemble, no big issues. The Wasp figurine are also from ICM.

My latest model to get finished and an impressively large beast - the 1/48 Airfix TSR-2. Built entirely OOB and a fairly straightforward build with no real issues. I've modelled XR220, simply as this aircraft had a few more extra modifications to include. For the same reason, I've modelled the bomb bay doors open and airbrakes extended. I would have opened the canopies, but the cockpit is rather basic...! The build thread is here if you want to see how it came together. The only obvious issue is the undercarriage looks to be too widely splayed - apart from that, I'm quite happy with how it all came together. A few photos to show how she looks. The patio slabs are standard 18" ones, to give an indication of size: As ever, comments and critique are welcome!

Hi everybody, this is my first aircraft completion of 2023 - A 1/72 Modelsvit Mirage IIIO built in the Marcel Bloch/Dassault Aviation Group Build. The build thread is here: The finish is Model Master Metalizer brushed/polished on - the details of the technique are in the build thread. As usual, it's difficult to capture how a metal finish looks in photos, so I tried to take these RFI photos in many varying lighting setups. I really enjoyed the Modelsvit kit and have their Mirage 2000-5 and Mirage 4000 in the stash, so I think I may just keep building them!

Kit was donated by a friend...X friend now (joke) and was realized with scratch building, borrowing from other kits and much cutting cobbling sanding super gluing filling cursing and a bit of paint Not true to any particular aircraft currently operating merely an attempt at representing a Canadian CP-140 to the best of may abilities. I used resin props and tires designed for Kinetic's 1/48 Hawkeye, resin flaps designed for Italeris's 1/48 Hercules LSC pot metal landing gear (also designed for the Hawkeye) and decals from Canmilair (now Above and Below graphics) as well as dozens of parts from the spares bins Some images of the build, followed by the finished kit An intensely enjoyable project that also taught some lessons in modelling and patience. As always, striving for mediocrity Thank you for looking!

Hi all! Some pics of my new built Special Hobby Vampire Mk.6 in Swiss AF markings. Add some Eduard PE`s und CMK wheels, the rest is OOB.

Here's my second recent build of this kit, first released in 1974. This is the second scheme from the kit, showing a 132 Squadron machine based in Hong Kong in 1945: I made quite a few changes to the kit, summarised in the WIP here. Thanks for looking, Adrian

G'day people, Here is my recently 1/72 Fujimi EA-6A Intruder built for the SSD GB. Based on the earlier A-6A, the EA-6A was adapted for the role of Electronic Attack/Warfare during the Vietnam war. The nose was extended to accommodate additional avionics and the top of the tail (the 'football') was also enlarged to house jamming equipment, Even though the EA-6A remained capable of carrying all the weapons that the A-6 was cleared for, in practice stores were typically limited to the external fuel tanks, ALQ-76 ECM pods and the ALE-32 Flare pods. Some units also carried the AGM-45 Shrike and AGM-78 Standard missiles. Although the EA-6A was not the sole EW platform used during the Vietnam conflict, it was considered the most capable The markings represent the colourful COs jet of VMAQ-2 'The Playboys' and was adorned with the iconic 'Playboy' symbol on the rudder in the attractive LGG over white scheme. The unit retained the marking when the low-vis TPS was introduced and eventually transitioned to the EA-6B, a dedicated EW platform. The long arm of the PC police eventually caught up with the playboys however, and they changed their Playboy emblem for a jester to become 'The Jokers', being the last unit to operate the EA-6B before it was phased out Early A-6s used fuselage mounted air brakes however, issues with fatigue cracking resulted in a design change to the wings and horizontally split wingtip mounted speed brakes were adopted. The fuselage brakes were made inoperative during flight but could be opened for maintenance access. Later the solid doors replaced the perforated design however the EA-6A did not receive wing tip brakes and retained operation of the fuselage air brakes. The instructions correctly indicate that the external actuator fairings should be removed but do not instruct that the control surface outlines should be filled in. I missed this detail as I thought the surface would act as a normal aileron but this is not the case. I realised this error too late to correct it, hopefully others will avoid this pitfall My WIP is here; I initially was going to have the kit sitting on the ground so I added a few details to the cockpit and canopy I decided I liked the look of the jet airborne instead and Fujimi include a pair of very nicely moulded figures for this purpose. The fit of the u/c doors in the closed position was mostly very good as was the fit in general. Anyhoo, onto the piccies I also made a few additions to the exterior, AoA probe added to upper stb'd intake Pitot probe added to exterior of port intake the lower anti-col light was added to a small pedestal and added off-set to port An additional antenna was added to the stab'd lower fuselage nose A small ILS antenna was added to the underside of the stb'd intake The single point refueling cap was added to a recess beneath the stb'd intake The landing and taxi light was added to the nose wheel door. This was re-positioned off-set to stb'd to accommodate the large blade antenna but Fujimi forgot to include this detail The spinning RATs for the ALQ-76 ECM pods was represented with some acetate discs The perforated speed brakes were left just cracked open cheers, Pappy

A-4G N-13 154903 882 of VF 805 Squadron Royal Australian Navy 1982. Hasegawa 1/32 A-4E/F converted to a G. Black box cockpit, load out is a mix of Tamiya and Trumpeter. Intake bungs covering a truly woeful intake paint job are Steel Beach. Jam from Humbrol Model Master and SMS. Decals are Hawkeye.

This was my first 3d printed project, I download the files for this and made the model smaller then the original printed version this is about 6" long.

At the second attempt, I got the new(ish) Airfix Vulcan to a satisfactory standard! Apart from the serial and squadron badge decals and a bit of scratch building in the bomb bay, the kit is oob. I used Tamiya spray cans (AS-30 and TS-81) for the camo, and a can of Humbrol gloss white spray for the undersides. The wheel wells and bomb bay I sprayed satin white for contrast with the underside. Please feel free to comment so I can improve for my next one … or two … XL444 was apparently prone to technical issues, so spent a fair bit of time in servicing, but there are still plenty of reference photos of the aircraft out and about. It first flew from Woodford on 12th October 1961, being delivered in an all white scheme to 27 Sqn the following month. It was back at Woodford on 18th September 1964 for a refit before re delivery to the Scampton wing in June 1965. It served with 617 Sqn as part of the Scampton wing before receiving the unit markings on its fin in May 1971. It ended its service days with 44 Sqn at Waddington in September 1982.

Hi all I have been working on this one for a while and am chuffed to get it finished finally. The kit is the Fly 3nd scale kit, there is some lovely detail on the kit , but it's not the easiest kit, but mostly enjoyable, with only a couple of mojo sapping moments. I have added some extra cockpit details from PE spares and scratch and have also added the extra aerials underneath. I used the vacform sliding section of the canopy but ruined the windscreen so used the injection moulded one instead. The undercarriage doors were clipped to avoid snagging the arrestor wired and I think I have cut a bit too much off but I could only find one image and it was nearly head on . The model is brush painted with Humbrol enamels and the kit decals were used for an 824 Squadron machine NF694, code U on HMS Striker in 1944, flown by Sub Lt.P.A.Clark. Here's a link to the WIP if interested I would like to thank all that followed and offered support and encouragement and also to @Troy Smith, who offered help and advice and posted some great photos as there is not too much in the way of reference around. The kit's cockpit with added PE bits and pipework and some scratched bits Thanks for looking in Chris

Thanks to the generosity of a good friend in the hobby, this is my entry for the Crusaders and Corsairs GB here on the site. It's a Hobby Boss TA-7 built as an EA-7L from VAQ-34 'Flashbacks'. This particular a/c often flew with an all female crew. Photos I had showed a very patchy paint finish so tried my best to follow that. The build thread is here but to recap: Kit: 1/72 Hobby Boss TA-7 Corsair Extras: Folding resin wing set from Wolfpack; resin seats by Aires;; scratchbuilt ECM pods; aftermarket decals. Paints: Mr Hobby; Klear, Flory Models Wash & oil weathering. W&N Matt Varnish Thanks for @Dansk and @Corsairfoxfouruncle for leading a great GB and I'm off to find some female pilots in 1/72 scale! All the best and happy modelling. Dermot HobbyBoss_1_72_EA-7L_VAQ-34_ Flashbacks (15) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr HobbyBoss_1_72_EA-7L_VAQ-34_ Flashbacks (7) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr HobbyBoss_1_72_EA-7L_VAQ-34_ Flashbacks (12) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr HobbyBoss_1_72_EA-7L_VAQ-34_ Flashbacks (13) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr HobbyBoss_1_72_EA-7L_VAQ-34_ Flashbacks (8) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr HobbyBoss_1_72_EA-7L_VAQ-34_ Flashbacks (14) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr HobbyBoss_1_72_EA-7L_VAQ-34_ Flashbacks (9) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr

Handley Page HP.52 Hampden MkI, P1355 OL-W, No 83 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, September 1940 I don't usually build "celebrity" models, preferring to select a representative example of a type instead. This time, almost by accident, I found I had selected the Hampden in which Flight Sergeant John Hannah performed his extraordinary act of courage that earned him a Victoria Cross. The announcement and accompanying citation for the Victoria Cross was published in supplement to the London Gazette on 1 October 1940, reading: The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the VICTORIA CROSS on the undermentioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery :- 652918 Sergeant John Hannah :- On the night of 15th September, 1940, Sergeant Hannah was the wireless operator/air gunner in an aircraft engaged in a successful attack on an enemy barge concentration at Antwerp. It was then subjected to intense anti-aircraft fire and received a direct hit from a projectile of an explosive and incendiary nature, which apparently burst inside the bomb compartment. A fire started which quickly enveloped the wireless operators and rear gunners cockpits, and as both the port and starboard petrol tanks had been pierced, there was grave risk of the fire spreading. Sergeant Hannah forced his way through to obtain two extinguishers and discovered that the rear gunner had had to leave the aircraft. He could have acted likewise, through the bottom escape hatch or forward through the navigators hatch, but remained and fought the fire for ten minutes with the extinguishers, beating the flames with his log book when these were empty. During this time thousands of rounds of ammunition exploded in all directions and he was almost blinded by the intense heat and fumes, but had the presence of mind to obtain relief by turning on his oxygen supply. Air admitted through the large holes caused by the projectile made the bomb compartment an inferno and all the aluminium sheet metal on the floor of this airman's cockpit was melted away, leaving only the cross bearers. Working under these conditions, which caused burns to his face and eyes, Sergeant Hannah succeeded in extinguishing the fire. He then crawled forward, ascertained that the navigator had left the aircraft, and passed the latter's log and maps to the pilot. This airman displayed courage, coolness and devotion to duty of the highest order and by his action in remaining and successfully extinguishing the fire under conditions of the greatest danger and difficulty, enabled the pilot to bring the aircraft to its base. In 1932, the Air Ministry issued a specification for a fast twin-engined day bomber. The specification was issued to Handley Page and Vickers, with what became the Wellington the preferred option. The Ministry liked to hedge its bets, so also ordered the Hampden in case the Wellington failed to come up to the mark. Worries had been expressed about the innovative geodetic construction might delay deliveries unduly. Handley Page set about designing the new aircraft, and the first prototype was ready to fly in 1936. The Hampden's unusual shape, with a fuselage only 36 inches wide tapering to a thin tail boom and twin fins, rather compromised the usefulness of the new bomber. It was soon nicknamed Flying Suitcase or Flying Tadpole. Although it carried a crew of four, they worked in a cramped space. Defensive weapons were fitted in cupolas, to save the weight of power-operated turrets. The maximum bomb load was 4,000lb, including a pair of bombs mounted under the outer wings. The pilot had a single fixed forward-firing 0.303in Browning machine gun mounted above the nose. The bomb aimer/navigator could have a single Vickers gas-operated 0.303in gun mounted in the nose with limited arcs of fire. The rear compartments originally sported a single Vickers GO each. Following combat experience, these positions were fitted with a pair of guns each. Two Bristol Pegasus XVIII 9-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, each of 1,000hp at 3,000ft, gave the Hampden a maximum speed of 247mph at 13,800ft. It could cruise at 206mph at 15,000ft. Operational range was 1,720 miles with maximum fuel and 2,000lb bomb load. The service ceiling was 19,000 ft. As designed, operations soon after outbreak of war saw Hampdens flying daylight reconnaissance and leaflet sorties. Despite the aircraft's manoeuvrability, it proved no match for Luftwaffe fighters, and operations switched to night time. The Hampdens were used for mine-laying, and later were used as torpedo bombers. The Hampden was also used by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), Aviatsiya Voenno-Morskogo Flota (AV-MF: Maritime Military Fleet Aviation) of the Soviet Union and the Swedish Flygvapnet (Air Force). The Valom kit has been around a while now, and been available in a variety of schemes. I acquired my example from a fellow BMer. I hadn't intended to go overboard, but ended up adding some better internal detail. Some modifications were also made to the rear gun positions. I cut out the wing tip navigation lights, too. The model was painted using ColourCoats and Phoenix Precision enamels, and the markings were designed and cut as masks/stencils by me to be airbrushed. Detail painting was done using the enamels, plus Revell Aqua and Humbrol acrylics. As ever, thanks to the BM crew for the support during the build, and locating detail photos that I failed to find when searching. This model is the first to be completed from a project I've begun, where I hope to build an example of every RAF bomber flying in 1940. As you probably know, it's an obsession of mine! The Mega WIP thread is here:

F-4D PHANTO II, 66-7751, 93rd TFS, 482nd TFW, USAF Reserve. Homestead AFB, Florida, March 1984. Kit Tamiya 1/32 Changes applied: -Elimination of incorrect relief panels and re-engraving of some details -Cabin interior with addition of details and improvement of the instrument panels, Aires seats, reconstruction of the internal part of the roofs (non-existent). -wings, worn out wing trailing edge and adding some riveting. -trolleys, improved trolley legs with the addition of details and cables, Aires wheels. -rebuilt pitot tubes, antennas and sensors. - modified air intakes, modified Aires engine exhausts. Hope you like it. Good vision and good life Pier Here you can find all the photos: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/5529188314213485356/8419484431821475621

A few extras here which shows the gloss better.

Finnish Hornet finished! 1/48 scale Kinetic kit with Quinta cockpit, Reskit wheels and Modelmaker decals. You really need the Modelmaker decals for any FI F/A-18C as they provide the correct Finnish-language stencils. Some images also include an Italeri Finnish Hawk Mk. 51A which I built last year.

Hello all, Here is my recently completed 1/48 Hasegawa F-8E Crusader in the markings of VF-162 'Hunters', flying off the USS Oriskany during the Vietnam conflict in 1967. 150879 downed a North Vietnamese MIG-17 with an AIM-9D on the 14th December 1967. The jet was destroyed in a crash at NAS Miramar in 1969 while assigned to VF-194. Extras used included Furball decals, Sparkit MB.MK.5 ejection seat, Eduard etch, Master pitot tube and New Ware masks. The AIM-9s are from a Tamiya F-14. I also shortened the exhaust nozzle as the kit part protrudes from the fuselage, which is incorrect, and I added a canvas boot on the IP coaming from some putty. The build thread is below. Paints are MRP with the weathering added with a mixture of Flory wash, Abteilung oils and Tamiya weathering sets. The first two in my 1/48 'Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club:' I have built an F-4B but it was shore based so doesn't count Thanks for looking Dave

About the aircraft: MiG-21MF - representative of the third generation of MiG-21 aircraft. Quite numerous in Poland (120 pieces). About the copy: MiG-21MF-75 with the side number 7399 - one of twenty MiG-21MF-75s delivered to Poland, produced at the Gorky factory. It was stationed at the 34th Fighter Aviation Regiment in Babie Doły. It was painted in an atypical for Polish's MiGs "pigeon" gray. As it turned out during later operation - with the help of radar-absorbing paint . Presented with armament as for a pair of duty aircraft: 2 x RS-2US + 2 x R-3S. About the model: The base was Eduard's kit "MiG-21MF Interceptor" in 1/72 scale. Own decals, Bilmodel paints. More photos in WiP gallery on Scalemates.

Thanks to everybody who followed along during this slow build - I like to get my money's worth out of each kit and make it last!! A bit like playing golf - if I'd paid to play a round of golf I'd want to get good value and play as many strokes as possible! Anyway - thanks for looking in good people - your interest is greatly appreciated. This is from the 1/48 Revell Tornado GR.4 "Farewell" boxing, which contains all of the bits for a GR.1. Just choose the appropriate spine, leave off the under-chin FLIR, and retain both nose cannon. I wanted to arm the machine with Alarm missiles, just for something a bit different, but this limited the airframes I could model - as you can see I chose ZD746 AB "Alarm Belle." Aftermarket stuff included Kits World transfers - not much choice available for a 1/48 Gulf Tornado. The Alarms and Sidewinders are Brassin - lovely additions and far better than I deserve. Cockpit uses the Eduard Look set but the only parts actually used were the instrument panels - certainly better than I could paint. Seats are CMK, ladder is by LP models. Background additions are Flightpath. WIP is here. Anyway - enough prevarication - I suppose pictures are expected........ 97a by Dr. Quack, on Flickr 97c by Dr. Quack, on Flickr 98a by Dr. Quack, on Flickr 98b by Dr. Quack, on Flickr 99 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr 100 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr 101 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr 104 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr 106 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr 107 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr Thanks for taking the time to look - and thanks to everybody who followed the build in progress, and tolerated my ramblings. Please feel free to comment / advise / make suggestions - all comments and questions welcomed. Next problem is to decide what to build next.......help! I can't decide. Choice is all 1/48 - Italeri Hawk T1 (It has to be black!), Airfix Lightning F.6, Kinetic Sea Harrier FRS.1 or Airfix Canberra PR.9 That's the choice cos that's what I have in my stash. Maybe I'll have to let Colin decide for me. Best to all. Keep Calm and mangle plastic! Q

Hello! I present here my recently finished ICM 1/72 Ki-21-Ib in the markings of 58th air group operated in China. There is not much to choose from when it comes to the camouflage scheme of this bomber in China front, especially early in the war. Actually, there were examples that operated without any markings at all. In my opinion, this plain colour scheme helps highlight the beautiful, clean design of this bomber. Ki21 is without a doubt a long-awaited Japanese bomber in any scale, and ICM surely filled that need with this high quality kit. One area I believe ICM made an error is the undercarriage. Although it is intricately designed, you should watch out for the right undercarriage. The parts and attachment points on both the left and right undercarriage are the same. However, the attachment point on the wings seems to call for the undercarriage to be mirrored (even the drawing for step 52 seems to suggest that the parts are mirrored, not an exact copy). The fix is not difficult if you plan it during assembly. Other than this minor point, it is a pleasure to build this model. Cheers! Nanond The interior is also well-detailed. The markings are all painted on. Only the stencil decals are used.

Hi All, My latest completion is Airfix' Defiant, completed as an Air Sea Rescue variant V1121 of 277 Sqn RAF, based at RAF Hawkinge in 1942. I couldn't find any pictures of V1121, but here's another Defiant of 277: The aircraft is modelled in TSS 'B' Scheme, with Sky codes and spinner. There was some discussion in the WIP over the scheme itself - here's the WIP if anybody is interested: The ASR variant carried a dinghy pack along with smoke flares - here's the dinghy pack: These did not come with the kit, so they were designed in Fusion 360 and 3D printed. I also added an Eduard harness and rivetted the airframe, but it was otherwise OOB. Anyway, on with the photos! Here's a final shot with an 'original' Mk.I which I completed a few years ago: This has been an enjoyable build, and it's nice to have an unusual version of the Defiant in the collection! Thanks to all who have offered advice and support along the way - it has been much appreciated! Thanks for looking, Roger

- I don't know wether it is a diorama or a saynette doubfully this is a resultof too many spare kits, Sukhoi Flagons and a Flogger in direlict visited by much more peacefull locals -Oddly the red stars remain almost prinstine condition.....may be the nostalgic shepperd maintain them........

When I started building this model, I wanted it to tell a story. About a machine piloted by allied pilots bravely fought on the front of WWII. About a plane that, despite having more than fulfilled its task in the skies of Great Britain defending it in the Battle of Britain, when it came time to give way to others, was not put back in the hangar. Instead of a well-deserved retirement, this machine returned to the aircraft factory where it got a new life. Like a phoenix from the ashes, Hurricane was reborn as Sea Hurricane. The carrier-based fighter was born. A difficult task was set before the rebuilt aircraft - to face the Regia Aeronautica and Luftwaffe aviation over, among others, the waters of the North Sea and the Mediterranean. The conditions in which these machines operated left their mark. Airplanes, like people, bore the scars and traces of quick repairs made on aircraft carriers by their crew. This is the Sea Hurricane I wanted to show. An aircraft with a rich history, on which a long service has left visible traces, nevertheless being a deadly weapon in the hands of an experienced pilot. The machine I chose was, in my opinion, uniquely suited to this story. This aircraft served, among others, in the Polish 317th squadron where it was damaged. After repairs, it was converted to a Sea Hurricane and assigned to the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle. Unfortunately, it sank with the torpedoed ship during Operation Pedestal on August 11, 1942. You can watch whole build process on Youtube:

It was the first assault aircraft designed specifically for this role to enter the Luftwaffe inventory. Produced in about 270 units in 1936/38, it left an excellent memory and even in some tactical situations during the Polish and French campaigns, its intervention was decisive. The Fly model is overall discreet, but requires some modifications and additions in the cockpit area and others, more numerous and demanding, scattered throughout the rest of the aircraft. The final result is a Hs123 A-1 of 10.(Schl)/LG2, operating in the Smolensk area in the summer of 1941. The model, painted as always entirely by brush, is in RLM71/65, except for the upper surface of the upper wing, which is in the old scheme in RLM 61/62/63 (wing replacement ?), a feature that can also be seen in other specimens. The colors used are Vallejo, Gloy and blends of Humbrol Enamels; the decals are from Colibri sheet 72041. Hope you like. Thanks for viewing Giampiero Piva

This build has been on and off for the last two and a half years. Appropriately enough I finished it now, exactly 80 years after the famous dams raid the night between 16th and 17th of May 1943. The build was relatively trouble free, just a lot of filling and sanding to blend everything together as well as a quite labour intensive masking job for all the clear parts. A masking set would have been a clever investment. Feel free to comment and critique Isak

L

Hello gents, here's my fifth completion of the year, Kotare's 1/32 Spitfire Ia (Mid). I had a momentary sag when I realised I was on the final stages of this kit, the same way that you might when you realise you're on the last few pages of a book you were really enjoying and you don't want it to end. It's an expensive kit, for sure, but it's beautifully moulded and engineered, not so complex that it's difficult to build, doesn't require weeks, days or even hours of sanding, filling, scratchbuilding etc. so depending on what you enjoy about modelling this may not be the kit for you I had a couple of minor irritations - I didn't like the look of the landing gear leg attachments at all so I ended up fitting the landing gear legs before adding the upper wing... I wasn't too keen on adding the fuselage spine light before fixing the fuselage spine in place, but in fairness that was a good solution and I only had a bit of resentment due to the fact it meant I had to mask it before painting. Finally I wasn't terribly happy at having to shave off part of the cockpit door opening in order to have the door closed as if it were me who was the freak here and not those oddballs who want to leave the door hanging open The paints used were Colourcoats of course - for the strange interior green colour noted in the instructions I used ACRA08 Verde Mimetico 53192 which is a close eyeball match for the Humbrol 120 recommended in the instructions (I needn't have bothered, you literally can't see anything except the pilot's seat and armour if you have the cockpit closed, and I had painted those in ACRN28 RAF Interior Grey-Green as this was one of the optional colours noted in the instructions). Upper surface camouflage was ACRN09 Dark Green over ACRN10 Dark Earth and the undersurface camouflage was done in ACRN01 - Sky "S" Type. I wasn't really taken with any of the kit's markings options; Al Deere has always been a hero to me but I just don't like to see a Mk.I with a Rotol prop and spinner, plus the proportions of the fuselage roundel look strange (though they are accurate); Richard Hardy's aircraft is basically famous for being captured more or less intact which doesn't strike me as a great claim to fame, and the 610 Squadron Spitfire has the fuselage codes on wonky... I tell you building this kit I learned quite a lot about Spitfires (and I thought I already knew a fair bit but I was overestimating quite a lot as it turned out) and one of the things I learned is that I can get quite uptight about some strange things Anyway I ordered some aftermarket decals and used the ones for one of the 92 Squadron Spitfires from August 1940; it too has a misproportioned fuselage roundel but for some reason I like that one. I almost managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by picking the model up to test fit the underwing pitot while the decals on the starboard side were still wet with decal setting solution: the serial and squadron code on that side both disattached themselves from the model and stuck as little crumpled decorations on my fingertips. By a stroke of extreme good luck, our late forum-buddy Silver Fox had sent me some years ago the 1/32 transfers from the Kagero Battle of Britain Part II set which included the same aircraft as an option - the stroke of the serial is slightly thinner and the grey of the squadron code a little darker than the individual aircraft letter, but I was happy to accept the trade-off for the save. Well, sorry for the ramble, if you made it this far, thanks for your attention Cheers, Stew

Hi, guys... this is my recent conversion build of Trumpeter's 1/32 scale Me262, from the fighter variant to the reconnaissance version. A good kit to build, although most of the parts have a very tight fit. The conversion set is from AIMS, which provides resin and PE parts. With a little care, everything goes togther well with few issues. The biggest problem I had was of my own making... messing up the underside colour paint work, and had to spend a few days reviving it. Paints were Humbrol enamels and the wave-pattern was applied in both variations of the late-war RLM83 Green shade. Some small access hatches were opened up and new access panels for these were made from plastic card and attached with Tamiya tape using Krystal Klear so as to avoid getting adhesive on the paintwork. All of the additional wiring behind the instrument panel, on the engine, in the wheel and camera bays was made from various thicknesses of fuse wire. None of the detail is intended to be 100% perfect, but I wanted to make it a bit more interesting than just OOB. There are no plastic wheels with this model, only black rubber ones, although having said that, they're probably some of the better offerings I've encountered. I scuffed them up and took the glaring black shade away by applying a cream shade oil paint mixed with a little pale grey onto the tyres and into the tread detail. I left this for 10/15 minutes, then removed the excess, which gave the desired effect. The finished kit, showing 'White 29', was supplied direct to III./EJG2 in early 1945 for training purposes; a small batch of similarly-painted 262s had been delivered to the reconnaissance unit NAGr6, but were almost immediately passed to III./EJG2 for their pilots to get familiarised on the type. I hope you like the images below, and if you want to see the YouTube video build instalments, then the last of four is available here and you can navigate backwards from there to the earlier episodes if you choose. Thanks for looking in... ;-). Paul

Mój stary F-14A Tomcat z zestawów Monogram. 1/48, VF-142, USS AMERYKA

This is my third build since returning to the hobby after a break of 36+ years. So I am still very much in learning and catch-up mode. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Defiant so decided to have a go. The WIP is here and you can see that it was not always straightforward for me. But I survived and had some fun (also hopefully raised a few giggles along the way) and here are the results. Thanks to all the people who encouraged, advised, provided expert subject knowledge and generally made life pleasanter when I was struggling a bit. The Airfix kit went together very nicely. I used After Market items for the first time: Air Master brass gun barrels and pitot probe, BarracudaCast wheels and Xtradecal RAF BoB sheet X72117. I also butchered part of a turret glazing from Falcon Clear-Vax Canopies set no 2. It was brush painted using Colourcoats Dark Earth, Dark Green and Sky, supplemented with Humbrol 116 and other Humbrol enamels as needed for sundry bibs and bobs. I used Humbrol Clear gloss and, after a disaster with a different product, Tamiya TS-80 Flat Clear rattle can for the final matt coat. This latter was a revelation to me – but as I said, I’m very much still in learning mode. Exhaust and oil staining was done with artists pastels applied by dry or damp brush and cotton bud. Other bits were done with simple watercolour paints. I also have a positive shout-out for Airfix. One of the “challenges” I had was that I managed to break the sliding part of the pilot’s canopy so badly that I couldn’t repair it. Using the spares system on their web site, I was sent a replacement glazing sprue in only a few days. I know others have had problems with this service, but I can only say that in my case it was excellent. As the parasuit for the gunner is so synonymous with the Defiant, I felt obliged to try and include it somewhere so cheerfully butchered the kit figure to try and achieve this. Normally I avoid figures altogether, so this was another first. This is my first RFI, so I’m a little nervous. But here goes The model is supposed to represent Defiant Mk I L7026/PS-V of 264 Sqn RAF as it was in July 1940. The over wing roundels appear in several photographs of the subject to be somewhat paler than “normal” so I spent quite some time trying replicate this with home made decals. Flying out of Rochford this aircraft was lost in combat near Dover 28/08/1940. The crew PO's PL Kenner and CE Johnson did not survive. Just to try and see whether the roundels do look paler in B&W .... I really enjoyed this in the end despite some trials in the middle. I've learnt a lot from the BM members who stoically followed my efforts (again, thanks) as well as my own trial & error approach. Thanks for looking Rob

Hello to all. This is a model i finished a week ago but only now have the time to post the pics. The kit is almost perfect. I had great fun building it. The cockptu was partiall yupgraded by adding homemade seatbelts. The rest is oob. Iused gunze and tamiya acrylics. R.V.Aircraft decals and vallejo and ak varnishes to finish this one. Regards,Dragan

Good morning and welcome to the RFI of my Fairey Firefly 1/48 by Trumpeter I finished the build a while ago but the weather has been so awful I couldn’t take pics. We had a lovely sunny day yesterday so decided to catch up on some RFIs I had outstanding. The Trumpeter kit has some real hate but overall I think it’s a great kit. If you’re willing to put in a little time and effort (That's what it’s all about right) you can get a nice result. For this build I build and 3D printed some cockpit walls, wheels, nose vents, intake covers and cannons. I think that was it? Scratch built some new flaps the dog ate from plasticard and fixed the rest with Sanding, painting and care. The decals were mostly from the kit but the roundels were changed as the colours were a bit off. The WIP thread is here for those who are curious. Not loads of pics but at least they’re here. Hope you like em. That’s your lot. I hope you like the pics and if you followed the WIP. Thanks for tagging along. As always all comments and questions welcome. Happy Modelling Chums. Johnny.

Dear fellow Britmodellers, this is my 1/72 Italeri A-26B Invader in markings of 416th Bomb Group in 1944/45. I added Kitsworld decals, True Details wheels, parts of the Eduard exterior set, Scale Aircraft Conversions landing gear, Quickboost gun barrels and self-made "clamshell style" canopy doors to represent a late production aircraft. Painted with Tamiya, Mr.Hobby and Alclad lacquers. Photos by Wolfgang Rabel. A full build review will appear in an upcoming edition of Phoenix Aviation Modelling magazine. Best greetings from Austria, Roman

I always had a soft spot for the "Long nose", and I remember the days when using the Kookabura booklet with so many informations and plans, and the venerable Airfix kit, I struggled to correct the MG bump. Eduard's model is not a gift as you have probably noticed through the many comments on this kit. Without a constant attention during the built you can really head to misery and deception! But if you take care, then a really nice representation of this bird will be your reward.Nevertheless it is about time for Eduard to do to the long nose the same process they did for their FW 190 A, and it will be warmly welcome! The plane was riveted and Brassin exhausts used, the Eduard's photo etch set is really enhancing the level of detail, but I did not use all of it. Your choice. The choice of decorations is a great one and I choose a plane from the 7/JG26 late in the war as the Japo book Vol 2 has a complete analyse of the plane on pages 282/284, very complete and useful. This plane is one of the last produced by Mimetall Erfurt and landed with a seized engine in Schleswig, before production switched to the TA-152. A very interesting camo indeed! I used Eduard's decals as a master to cut my own masks all worked very well. So here is the plane of Lt Günther Seyd from 7/JG26in April 45. Best regards. A82C97B2-B3BA-434F-BA3E-4FCCAAADC21F_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr C9931E1F-B1D6-494D-84E7-5DD98A9045ED_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr C7622ADC-C9C8-4B9F-A0E0-BE4798FEF4C0_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr BD0C40B5-3A15-4623-AA80-0ACCB2E95F18_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr F59FEC89-F87C-4AB5-8817-25C79DCAC812_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr F59FEC89-F87C-4AB5-8817-25C79DCAC812_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr E4C032D9-8EE3-42B6-B00F-17DA59D9ACBF_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 4CB36D0A-4402-4C5F-9D17-560315936FA7_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr BC2612C6-4E4B-4E22-8A7C-97126DE3D214_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr

¡Hola amigos! As I advance in the history of the Pacific Campaign during WWII, the actions in the South Pacific get more and more interesting. The passage of the complete anihilation of a Japanese convoy to New Guinea in the so called "Battle of the Bismarck Sea" in March 1943, made me stomp with the feared Bristol Beaufighter. What a beast! I picked up the good ol' Tamiya kit of the Mark VI and started the really enjoyable building of the model. It is mostly OOB except for the letters that identified her as a member of 31st Squadron based in Coomalie Creek during 1942-43, that came from NZ Ventura decals. Very helpful about the usage of TSS, TLS and later Foliage Green (on the Aussie Mk.21 Beau) was a particular forum and debate here in Britmodeller (special thanks to @Sydhuey @Ozhawk40 @Biggles81 and @Nick Millman). All the best, Cris.