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For once I decided to do something about the stash of kits that are massed in the loft. I've got to get around to building some of the kits I bought twenty years ago, otherwise what's the point of it all? So, less new models from now on, and more time spent on old gems like Eduard's fourth release from 1994. I always wanted to build this but just never got around to it, and it's a sharp reminder of how far Eduard have come. It's a limited run kit, the parts of which clean up pretty well and if you don't mind photoetch, most of it builds up quite easily.The Hansa Brandenburg's star-struts are a real pain to put together though, and it was just as well I had already decided to build mine as a crash victim, inspired by a photo that's appeared in a number of publications, notably the Windsock Datafile. So, mainly built out of the box but with a few scratch built items that included a new tail, undercarriage, and a hand carved prop made from a coffee stir stick. Other bits and pieces here and there were replaced or altered, and a modified Alley Cat figure from A2Zee Models was added to the base. Hope you like it. Hoping to go back forty-plus years for the next build! Haris

Okay, the easy bit is done.. Next up is the base.. Anyway, here's the tired old girl.. And, to remind us how big/small this thing actually is..

So, apologies about the lack of updates of late - I've been rather busy with another modelling project of sorts - which has been keeping me out of trouble and in all sorts of other trouble. In fact, the photos here were taken in the room I'm currently doing up! However, I have been quite busy at the desk too and this is the first of three recent finishers. I apologise about the crud lighting - as I took the photos, there was an impending thunderstorm and the sky went really dark. Hence why I took the photos in the room that I'm doing up. I will put some better ones on here before too long - as soon as nature stops playing with me and my plans!! It's finished in as many different shades of Alclad as I could fit, and Tamiya paints including Smoke. A joy to build - but with a slight confession - the front canopy is cracked! So this week, I'm hoping for a replacement to arrive from Eduard, and to be able to do the final finishing touches on it. Chris

And this is the third of my recent builds. It's a lapsed Battle for the Reich group build job, that involved a lot of filler, a lot of swearing and a lot of frayed nerves. However, I finished it in the end. Painted in the markings of Gunter Rall in 1944 and finished in Gunze paints, which incidently, I'm converting over to. Bloomin' fantastic stuff. I will put some better pictures on here as soon as I get some decent light to take them with - as posted in the other threads, nature had thrown a great big sparky cloud in my direction and I wasn't able to get the photos I wanted from them! Anyway, here you go! Chris

Supermarine Attacker F1 800 NAS, RNAS Ford & HMS Eagle, 1952 This is the AZ Model Attacker - the latest addition to my 800 NAS Jets collection (I needed a change from Buccaneers). I hadn't built an AZ kit before and I was quite impressed. Nice surface detail, resin cockpit insert, well detailed undercarriage, etc. Decals weren't the best, though. The quality was OK in terms of usability - I used the J, 106 and stencils from the kit sheet - but the roundels needed replacing (for anyone building an Attacker, note that the roundels are 33 inch diameter, and not 36 inch which I had thought. You CAN see the difference - I wasted a couple of valuable 36 inch roundels finding that out). The underwing serials also needed replacing as the kit ones are far too small. Attackers had their own style of serials, as on that good old Modeldecal sheet which also includes the 56 Sqn Lightning F3 and the early blue RN Lynx. Overall a fairly quick build and enjoyable build.

Not much to say about this kit it's already been said, though for me it didn't quite fall together and I had some issues with the pit tub fuse join and wing roots! Still I'm happy with it and they really have nailed the look of the IX. Had to do the box art markings, gotta love a Spit with nose art! All OOB, (why would you need anything else, even the exhaust stacks are beautifully moulded). Hope you like it. On the flight line with 2 of her sisters

Hi guys! Thank you for your replies and encouraging comments! I'd like to show you now my completed diorama. It took me 8 months to finish and I enjoyed every single minute of it! Hope you like it! Cheers, Panos.

OOB model.

All, Because everyone has to do one at some point, and I managed to get my hands on this kit for £3, I figured I'd try my hand at new Airfix. Apart from a small issue getting the fuselage together she was a joy to build and, although I wish I'd stayed away from the paint scuffing and chipping (which is so bad I think it rather ruins the whole thing), I'm pretty happy with the results. So she's brush painted with life color for the top colours and Vallejo model color pastel green on the underside. Panel lines were done this time with a burnt umber watercolour pencil and a citadel satin finish from a can for the final coat. Once again, I forgot the best way to paint a camouflage pattern is to paint the light colour all over and then put the dark over the top, so I spent an age brushing each colour into its appropriate area. Which explains why it took an age to build. More than anything I learnt what a difference a well made kit really makes. Anyway, here are the pics. Time to tackle my Tamiya 1/48 Mossie in PRU blue I think. Cheers, Richard Edit: Autocorrect thinks Mossie is Missile :-)

The 2nd of my recent finishes - again, apologies about the lighting - nature was having a laugh at my expense! Chris

Finished today, from the Swig Wing Group Build, the Hobbyboss 1/48th F-14A Kit, with an Aires Cockpit and FCM Decals for the Sundowners. Painted with Gunze throughout - the build thread is available here Peter

Here are some untouched, fluff and all slide scans taken by my Grandfather. The box they were in said Brawdy Air Display 1966. Beyond that I know nothing else. Apparently I met him once when I was about 2 so never knew he had an interest in aircraft When I have time i'll sit and retouch some to remove the fluff. Cheers Chris

The only thing I bought at the IPMS Seattle Spring Show was some new storage. I loaded it up with 1:72 Hawks (18 of them), Tornados, Eurofighters, and Hurricanes. A relatively small case, but it fits in the upstairs hobby room and provides some relief from the display case crisis out in the garage. Here are some shots.

Found an interesting website for Westland Whirlwind fans! I really do hope these guys can pull this off! and bring this lovely but sadly extinct aircraft back to life!. http://whirlwindfighterproject.webs.com/

- Here is a model I built some monthes ago.It requires a lot of job of course as a whole resin model with some white metal parts. -The changes are around the nose with an greatly adapted Sea-Fire cowling, a new cockpit, wheel wells and some other minor changes. -The last photo shows TOMY, my Technical Adviser ,without him no modelling possible

quick look at my (almost) completed Zvezda Fw 190 A-4 .. [/url]

New photos as promised!: Resin undercarriage bays:

I like all the prior Enterprises apart from the botched up one in the new JJ Abrams Reboots ...... they took a nice design and goose-necked all the proportions outa whack...... its now one ugly looking ship equal place goes to the teacup shaped Heart of gold in the hitchhikers guide movie ....blah hardly the "sleek running shoe" of the original

All I see is someone who has found an interesting document and has engaged in speculation with no real evidence to back it up; "pretty sure that an undiscovered order exists". Perhaps I'm just getting old and cynical, but what I generally see in revisionist history are people trying to rewrite things with fantastic new discoveries to make a name for themselves and ultimately, sell stuff....and that is speaking as someone who has a degree with honours and did revisionist history as his honours year.

Thankfully you are not a cardiac surgeon, I second that but you never know what might happen at sea ! Detlef would be a prime candidate for your scalpel if you were. Anyway what an ugly aircraft that is, an Alpha jet crossed with a Buckeye with a Hawk canopy and Tornado airbrakes. I doubt even British Leyland in it's heyday could have produced a better parts bin special. Lovely model though and the Japanese Airforce now know what to expect if they run out of Wadpol and paint. DB (not a Hospital porter)

Just rescently finished this one, a gem of a kit. Im still not "up there" when it comes to the final touches, so i`ll leave this as it is, so i dont mess it up more. Need some practicing on exhausts......eek. Well, pictures says more than words. And i must learn how to not get my pictures so damn grainy......... :/

Evening ladies and gents Buoyant from success in finishing my Tamiya Spitfire I've decided to restart my Hurricane build. I've given up on using the Aires resin cockpit tub as a lost cause, I was spending way too much time on it and to be honest I lost interest. So I'm going to use the kit cockpit with elements of aires and Eduard to help pad it out a little. Here is where I am as of tonight. It's not a huge amount to show but at least I know it fits the model! More to follow very soon. Yours aye Iain

A couple of shots from Hendon, they actually had the lights on in BoB hall which was quite nice; don't think I'd ever seen the tail of the Ju88 in the dark. Cheers Ken Will add a couple more soon.

Finished this in less than 24hrs. Simple kit but a lot more filling and sanding than the War Machine one, and you cannot paint and then assemble as you can with the latter. Painted in Alclad Pale Gold (on Halfords Primer) with Alclad Transparent Red over the top of that after some tricky and awkward masking. Nice little stress-reliever for me...thanks for looking And finally Tony Stark with his mate Lt Col Rhodes (finished yesterday and posted separately).

Savoia Marchetti SM79 JIS / JRS B & SM79 JRS B1 Azur 1:72 Kit FR004 - SM 79 JIS/JRS B Kit FR005 - SM 79 JRS B1 This famous trimotor Italian workhorse started out as a proposed passenger aircraft in the mid 30’s. With a good pre-war performance, it was also envisaged to be capable of air racing and did in fact set several air speed records in 1935. It was constructed out of wood and metal, with a wooden wing including the spars with a welded steel tubular frame, plywood and duralumin fuselage. Powered by three Alfa Romeo radials of 780hp, the aircraft could endure at over 220mph and had good low speed handling thanks to the flaps and slats fitted to the wings. Indeed, it could land in 200m and take off in just 300m! The aircraft took a crew of 5 or 6 of whom it was popular with and operated in the bomber and torpedo role. The SM.79 first saw combat in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War and went on to serve with several air forces including the RAF in the Middle East. In 1937 Romania ordered a twin-engine version of the SM.79 to serve with the Aeronautica Regala Romania. An initial order for 24 aircraft powered by 1000hp Gnome-Rhone Mistral radial engines proved to be underpowered so a new power plant was sourced in the guise of the Junkers Jumo 211 engine with 1200 hp. The first 8 aircraft were built in Italy as the JIS.79B (JIS standing for Jumo Italia Savoia, B standing for Bimotor), however subsequent aircraft were license built in Romania. This included the JRS 79B (R indicating Romanian built) and the JRS 79B1 which had the more powerful Jumo 211F engines of 1380hp. As well as having only two engines, the cockpit arrangement was changed from a side-by-side arrangement to a tandem set up. Production continued in Romania until 1946 with 72 license built machines being produced in total. Romanian combat was initially against the Soviet Union, but as the war progressed, attention was turned to Germany and its allies. The kit Presented in a top opening box that judging from our review samples seems to be the standard for their newer kits, you are welcomed by three bags, one containing f grey sprues, one containing the clear parts and one containing the resin supplements. These kits were first released in 2009. First impressions are of a very good quality limited run kit; typical of such kits is a lack of location pins. Surface detail across the kit is a mixture of fine recessed panel lines for the metallic & plywood area and subtle raised fabric effect where it would be stretched across the stringers along the fuselage sides. They have got the effect spot on in my opinion given the scale we are dealing with. The instruction booklet comes in an A5 folded form with text in English, French and Romanian. Whilst the parts on the sprues aren’t numbered, there are suitable drawings in the booklet giving the part numbers to refer to. Paint references are to Gunze colours. The assembly diagrams are quite straight forwards to follow and include where to fit the rigging & aerials wires if you choose to fit them. Assembly starts with the interior of the aircraft. The tubular steel framework is represented on the interior of the fuselage halves and is more than adequate for the scale considering what will be seen once closed up. The interior is very well catered for with the tandem cockpit, nose area, rear gun and rear fuselage areas getting suitable attention to the detail fairy! Using a wash when painting the interior will give much opportunity to reveal the detail in most places. Unfortunately, there is no option to have the rear facing gunner position open immediately behind the cockpit which would show off some of the interior detail; however I’m sure this could be done by cutting out the sliding panels and replacing with some thin sheet plastic bent to the correct profile to simulate them in the opened position. As there are no location pins, I’d strongly suggest plenty of dry fitting as you build up the interior to ensure that it all goes together as planned. With the fuselage closed up, the tail planes and rudder go on next. The tail planes are secured by two struts below for each side; however there is no locating tab so making your own out of some thin steel rod would be advisable. This is the type of thing that would differentiate the kit from being suitable for beginners. There are a lot of windows on this aircraft. The glazed nose comes supplied in two halves which inevitably leaves a seam down the middle to take care of, so care will need to be taken to get this assembled without glue marks. The JRS B1 kit (FR005) only has one nose type, although both boxings come with the same clear sprue containing two options. The earlier JIS variant contained in set FR004 utilises the second option. Apart from the nose seam as just mentioned, the clear parts are thin and free from distortion. Many kits that provide side windows suffer from concave profiles resulting from the moulding process, but the windows in these kits are beautifully flat. A quick attempt at locating one of the windows into the rear fuselage indicated that some fettling will be required to get them to fit, however a snug fit should be achievable as a result. The wings are a straight forwards affair and the wing spars are simulated by plastic strips that sit within the gear bays before joining the top and bottom parts together. The full wing section fits into t5he completed fuselage section. The gear bays are quite basic other than the wing spars, so you may choose to add some detail in here. With the wings on, the next major assembly is the engines. The cowlings are simply two halves with the exhausts attached. Again, detail in the surfaces and the exhausts are very refined. The large radiator housings are mounted below the cowlings and have resin radiators that locate inside. The undercarriage mounts across the wing spars inside the gear bays. I suspect these will be fiddly to assemble as the trailing links don’t have locating pins to attach them to the main legs, so patience and your best set of tweezers will be necessary here. The gear doors are lacking in any interior detail. What the real items looked like, I couldn’t say, but you may want to add some creative detail through scribing or plastic strip to add some interest. Finally the props are added. These come moulded as complete units that then sit on a back plate with the hub fitted over the top. Good photos of these variants are few and far between. If they had the same props as the Ju-87, the leading edge roots of the props where they enter the hubs look a little too straight, but this could be corrected (or at least improved) by filing the plastic away if it bothered you. Someone may be able to comment on this better than I can. Decals The decals are printed by Aviprint. Register of the colours is excellent and the colours vivid. The decals have a glossy finish to them. The schemes included are as follows: Kit FR004 – SM.79 JIS / JRS B JIS 79B ‘155’ - ‘Yolanda’, Escadrila 71, Grupul 1 Bombardament, Stalingrad, October 1942 JRS 79B ‘4’ – Escadrila 75, Grupul 2 Bombardament, gruparea Aeriana de Lupta, July 1941 JRS 79B ‘134’ – Escadrila 72, Grupul 1 Bombardament, October 1942 JIS 79B ‘120’, summer 1942 Kit FR005 – SM.79 JRS B1 ‘216’ – Trencin, Slovakia – April 1945 – Dark Green ‘154’ - Trencin, Slovakia – April 1945 – Dark Green ‘219’ – Markings prior to coup 23rd August 1944 – dark green / light brown / light blue camouflage Conclusion These are very fine kits and great to see such unusual variants being produced. Due to the limited run features, they aren’t kits for beginners; care has to be taken with some of the inherent features such as lack of locating pins if this is something new to you. It would of been good to have the rear gunner position with an optional 'open' position from the box, but this shouldn't be too difficult to scratch build. The quality of the moulding is excellent and with average skills a stunning and rare model may be built. Review sample courtesy of

Hi all... Just a couple of pics of my latest build, which I finished today. I got this kit a few months ago as I thought it would be a nice little kit to do, something different. At first I was only going to do the Drone, but in the end I decided to give the base and figures a go as well. Academy have an interesting way of doing the digital camo on the figures, it's all decals. It works ok, as long as you don't look too close. Anyhow, here are the details and pics: Kit: Academy RQ-7B UAV Scale: 1:35 Paint & Weathering: Brushed painted with Revell Aqua Colour, Citadel Nuln Oil Shade, Promodeller Wash Extras: None

Hi All, this is the last of my three calibration B.57's This one was the only B.57B used for the satellite trials. The kit is the Italeri 1/72 scale B strait out of the box except the markings of course! The three amigo's Thanks for looking! John

I've spent a few hours today getting as many screen grabs and prop photos as possible of the Klingon D7, to use with my buuld of the Revell kit, and I'm amazed at how it changed between TOS, CGI update and DS9. The version from the DS9 episode Trials And Tribble-ations, is the obvious basis for the Revell kit, having all the recessed detail, so I'm going to attempt this one first. I've ordered another 3 from MZ at £6.99 so I can eventually build the original one ( based on photos of the prop that was at the Smithsonian), the CGI updated version, and the one I'm most looking forward to building, from the animated series. I'll post up a few pictures tomorrow with my progress, so lets see how it goes....... Mark

- This model in 1/32 does NOT belongs to me but to my friend Mr Paul COUDEYRETTE who enlisted Britmodellers the 30 th of April this year. Being not very proficient at English language it is not easy for him to show his models so I'll do it for him as I think his models deserves to be seen. - According to me me this man is an artist as all his model are hand brushes painted, for his metal finish he exclusivly use rub'n buff. and some weathering pastels But let's see

Aermacchi MB339 The old Aeroclub part vac form / part low pressure injection kit in 1/72 with Sky's Decals

Hi. Thought it was high time I started my first 'Work in Progress' build. After a couple of long builds I have decided that I need something fairly straight forward, so I have pulled the newish Airfix A6M2b Zero from the stash. This will be an OOB build and will be brush painted an a mixture of Revell and Tamiya acrylic's. This is the first Japanese aircraft I have ever built so I don't know how accurate my rendition will be, but as long as I enjoy the build I'll be happy. First, the box contents:- At first glance this seems to be a great little kit, with lots of nice detail. Thats all for now, hopefully first update a bit later. Cheers Andy

Hello nicE1, Thst is quite an interesting project .thanks for the linky I also hope that they pull it off..volunteers and everyone , MY best wishes for a good job so far.

Started this as all my other builds were stalled....again! Decided to make it out of box, the only addition being Eduard's pre-painted (yuck) seat harnesses. In general, the fit had been nigh-on perfect, except for the lower wing section to the fuselage which required some plasticard shims. I'm going for the orange-yellow prototype colour scheme and because FineMolds Hinomaru decals are two piece and very thick, I felt that no amount of setting solution would get the red disc to bed into the panel lines, so I decided to mask and paint them myself. I tried this method of replicating the wing lights. Which turned out ok. I couldn't determine if this plane had coloured lenses or a coloured bulb under clear as there is very little information available, but I'll be painting them with clear red and blue now anyway! I tried lightening and darkening some of the panels prior to the panel line preshading so as to break up the uniform scheme a little. Here goes... Reasonably chuffed with the finished result. Masked up the prop too.. ...for a better result. Just finishing up the weathering now and that includes the exhaust staining from 8 separate stubs so that'll be a maker or breaker. All going well, it should be in RFI quite soon(-ish)!

Excellent build! I'm currently working on Tamiya's 1:72 version of the Razorback - hope it turns out half as good as this!

Available NOW at www.fundekals.com! Spitfire Mk I K9962 LO-A flown by S/L Andrew Douglas Farquhar of 602 Sqn RAuxAF, Drem, Scotland -- February 1940. Download the FIVE PAGE instruction sheet from our website and see the whole story about this colorful and significant Spitfire. http://www.fundekals.com/spitfireFarquhar.html Oh, and we have yet another Spitfire sheet at the printers already (perfect for a recently released kit!).

Hi, Matcham 11. That looks very cool, indeed! Did you use an airbrush for the camo scheme? It certainly looks like it. I am very envious of your build... had this kit in my stash for a while now and have never plucked up the courage to start it... Thanks very much for sharing. Cheers. Chris.

Cliché or not, I'll not tire at looking at Airfix Mk Is. Well done!

more progress. Engine nacelles on, center pylons done, also built the pylons for under the swing-faring. Completed 4 missiles for the center and 2 fuel tanks. Starte don the tail surfaces (first vertical was a bad fit - not sure if it was me or the kit....) think now its a case of filling the obvious gaps (a couple round the rear... nothing major tho) and taking the rest off the sprue and mounting it all for painting... hoping to have a bit of quiet time this week to at least get that done and the primer....

Good morning, the model is after an oil wash: More to come.

Really nice model Russ.

Kein Problem meine Junge, bitte lesen sie ein bischen Wiki: In July 1944, the newest version of the SN-2 radar fell into Allied hands when a fully equipped Ju 88 G-1, of 7 Staffel/NJG 2, flew the wrong way on a landing beacon and landed in England by accident, with the crew not realising the mistake until it was too late to destroy the radar or IFF gear. This led to successful jamming of several frequency bands of the FuG 220 (I to III, 72, 81 and 90 MHz), and a partial adoption of the use of the low-to-mid VHF band FuG 216 and 217 Neptun radar set, but several other bands that the SN-2 used were still operational. After the Allied jammings the FuG 220 antenna setup was optimized for the still operational bands, the 90-degree vertical dipole setup was changed to a 45-degree diagonal setup.

Great model and paint is spot-on.

VERY nice indeed!

Dea on, I think it looks quite MAGNIFICENT... Yeah the Astute is a fine one indeed ..Brilliant build. Are you going to put then on display bases or in water diorama.

Would be good to see some photographic evidence of that colour scheme.

chooses some sanding. touch lightly chipped camouflage pattern to cover sanded and use a revell schwarzgrün to water. with gloss varnish I hope that unifies all progress: repaired, masked and dark green. Monday gloss varnish and decals sanding the poo-poo Masking Schwarzgrün : tapes removed, the thing is pretty good:

CA? That's some seriously neat work then!

Today's work on the Tomcat First lightening some panels Then a coat of klear over the top Then on with the decals - did have to touch up the fins, as always seems to be the case with Sundowner's fins Peter

Made some progress with the cockpit. I still have to do the HUD, seatbelts, Throttle and Joystick but I'm quite pleased with it so far......

The bugler, a mere boy, realizes that the firing line won't hold. A dramatic scene from the 'left flank' of this companies' fight when it became certain that there would be no escape.. This is a general overview of the 'main diorama'