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A beautiful nightmare! After a disastrous glas shell crash and the truth about my error of wrong decal settings (see WIP thread http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234937136-mirage-iii-cz;-148-hobbyboss/page-4 ) I proudly presents my nightmare Mirage! Enjoy and feel free for criticism!

I'd reached a bit of a block when I lost the canopy windscreen for my Revell Gannet so I threw this wee beastie together quickly to stop the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It went together with a little filing and some filler but not much. It wasn't a proper build, like I said, just a quickie to save my anguish. By the way, whilst I was raiding the (50 kit) stash for a quickie to build, this was all I could find. My comment to the wife of "I need a bigger stash" was met with howls of derision and "Why don't you just finish some of those on the Shelf of Shame!" She just doesn't get it does she? I need a bigger stash and the Shelf of Shame is there because I need a bigger stash! I need more kits to build whilst I contemplate the Shelf of Shame and what I'm going to do about it. I'm sure you lot will understand.

Accurate Miniatures’ Avengers, along with their SBD Dauntless and F3F series, are among the best 1/48 scale aircraft kits ever produced. Everything – from surface and interior detail to fit of the parts – is about as good as it gets in injected molded plastic. The fact that almost no aftermarket parts were made for these kits is a testament to how good they were out of the box. The only drawback to the Avenger kits were the instructions – the drawings were crudely done and hard to follow, but this was rectified in the SBD and F3F kits. Aside from some True Details photo-etched seatbelts and an antenna wire, this kit was an out-of-the-box build, including decals. I used no filler – just careful assembly and seam sanding resulted in a near-perfect fit of the main airframe parts. I did find that the lower dorsal gunner’s clear part didn’t fit very well, but that’s probably as much my fault as the kit’s. The rudder is a seperate piece, so I installed it offset to the left for a more candid appearance. I armed my TBF with a standard anti-submarine load of two 500-lb. general purpose bombs and two aerial depth charges. I also cut out and dropped the flaps. For the Atlantic anti-submarine paint scheme, I used Model Master Dark Gull Grey and Floquil Reefer White enamels. (I really hate that Floquil is now out of business – Reefer White was the BEST!) I used kit decals to depict a TBF-1C from VC-55, deployed aboard USS Block Island in the North Atlantic during the summer of 1944.

Just finished building the Revell 1-144 Eurofigter Typhoon. A nice wee kit that went together well. The panel lines are a bit too deep as the Typhoon seems to be quite a smooth aircraft. I still haven't decided whether to leave the canopy open or closed. Hope you like it. Here's the cockpit first: Bang Seat with straps from foil (I think) The kit had no ASRAAMs so I scratched some from sprue and styrene and added bands from printer coloured decal paper. Body pics With some N Scale figgies This is the three 1-144 kits I've built so far: Revell Typhoon, Revell Tornado and Airco De Havilland DH-2 (fully rigged too - very proud of that one). I must admit that (to my great surprise) I'm really enjoying building in this scale.

My latest build for the year is the Hasegawa 1/48th CF-188A Hornet which needs no introduction. It's a great kit with a few fiddly areas to deal with but builds into a great looking aircraft. Like most of us I guess, I have seen many aircraft over the years that were always destined to be modeled by me soon. Well this is one but it's taken 21 years to finally come to fruition and if I keep going at this rate I may as well not bother buying decals for anything after 1999, forget the post millenium, I'll never reach it in modelling terms. I'm glad that I got around to it though as it was a great looking CF-188A and worthy of taking on the challenge. I added the Aires F/A-18A cockpit set and exhausts, some metal AOA probes, Royale Resins beautifully cast wheels and, of course, the Leading Edge 'Tiger Scheme 92' decals. All painting was achieved using Xtracrylix, Humbrol and Valejo acrylics with Future gloss coats and Xtracrylix Matt to finish. Weathering was Florymodels Dark Dirt and Mig Productions Dark Wash. The highlight for me was getting to the end of 10-11 hours of decals with a successful result because it took a fair amount of concentration to get those on, as anyone who has done a tiger scheme would testify. Enough waffle, onto some pictures: - Apologies for the number of pictures but, as usual, I couldn't decide which ones to leave out. Comments and critique also welcome, hope you like it, Pete

Just finished these 2. Hasegawa 1/72 P-51D's finished as 352nd FG a/c. Hope you like.

Hello All, Here's my Academy Airacobra. More or less out of the box, except: * Open out nose wheel fork * Box in nose wheel well * Add a nose weight * Replace moulded in fuselage guns * Foil and wire belts and buckles * Move rudder * Vac-form front half of canopy after unfortunate accident! Humbrol 155 over Hu34+Hu27 with dirtied Hu34 white bits. Weathering was by drybrushing lighter shades, followed by acrylic brown/grey wash. It's a really nice kit with no problems that I didn't create for myself... Thanks for looking, Adrian

Dear Fellow Modellers Touch of nice weather gave me a chance to take some more photos of my 1/72 Trumpy Wimpy. Wanted to make the shots look like you were looking up at the real thing... A close up of the Bristol Pegasus Can't get this photo the right way round sorry! Finally an overhead view Hope you like it Regards to all Andrew

I thought it may be an idea to consolidate all the shop status information in one place as the Modelzone page doesn't show closing dates (here; http://image2.e-msg.co.uk/modelzone/store_locator.html ) I'll try and keep it up to date an new intel arrives; Basingstoke: Unit 56 Festival Place, Hampshire, RG21 7BF CLOSES 12/9 Birmingham: S26 Martineau Place, 89/90 Bull St, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7AA Brighton: 37 West St, Brighton, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 2RE Bristol: The Galleries, Unit BG22 Broadmead Gallery, Bristol, Avon, BS1 3XB CLOSED 29/8 Bromley: 272 The Glades Shopping Centre, High St, Bromley, Kent, BR1 1DN Cambridge: 15 Fitzroy St, Cambridgeshire, CB1 1ER Chester: 71-73 Bridge St Row East, Cheshire, CH1 1NW Crawley: Unit 97, County Mall Shopping Centre, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1FD CLOSED 29/8 Croydon: Unit 31 Centrale Shopping Centre, North End, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 1TY Derby: Level 1 South Mall, Shopping Centre, Westfield, Derby,DE1 2PG Eastbourne: 68 Seaside Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 3PD Gateshead: 75 Russell Way, Metro Centre, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, NE11 9XX Glasgow: Unit 69/70, St. Enoch Centre, St, Enoch Square, Glasgow, G1 4BW Harrogate: Unit 30 Victoria Centre, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG1 1AE Kingston: 30/32 Eden St, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT1 1EP Lakeside: Unit 96 Lakeside Shopping Centre, Thurrock, Essex, RM20 2ZG London - Stratford: Unit SU0061, Westfield Stratford City, 2 Stratford Place, Stratford, London, E20 1EJ CLOSED 29/8 Manchester: 209 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3NW CLOSED 29/8 Merry Hill: 59 Upper Mall, Merry Hill Centre, Dudley, DY5 1SR CLOSED 29/8 Milton Keynes: 17 Acorn Walk, The Centre : MK, Milton Keynes, MK9 3AD Newcastle: 129 Grainger St, Newcastle, NE1 5AE Norwich: 54/55 Castle Mall, Norwich, Norfolk, NR1 3DD CLOSED 29/8 Nottingham: 149 Upper Boardwalk, Broadmarsh Centre, Nottingham, NG1 7LQ CLOSED 29/8 Plymouth: 22 Frankfort Gate, City Centre, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 1QD CLOSED 29/8 Portsmouth: 105D Commercial Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire,PO1 1BQ CLOSED 29/8 Reading: Unit 65/66, Broad St Mall, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 7QE Rochester: The Signal Box, 382-386 High Street, Rochester, Kent, ME1 1DJ CLOSES 12/9 Southampton: 85 Above Bar St, Southampton, Hampshire, SO14 7FG CLOSED 29/8 Hope this helps people plan visits and avoid unnecessary journeys and/or upset! EDIT: Rochester Signal Box added (Missed off MZ list at administrators) this shop closes earlier than the rest which Deloitte WILL be closing on the 14/9.

OK diorama might be a bit grand for it but you know what I mean. Here is the link to my build thread: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234943450-148-revell-natter/page-1 I think that says it all so will just put the pictures here: I rotated that one in photobucket but it has not translated here for some reason, perhaps someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Oh, Now its magically the right way round - more computer spookyness. Well that's it - es todos. I hope you liked. Nigel

This is the tiny little 1:144 Dragon Rapide from Aeroclub in AA colours. It's a little jewel of a kit, injection moulded with etched details like struts and propellers. Constuction was fairly simple - it's the colour scheme that complicates things! I assembled all the plastic parts. including both wings but not the struts, then painted it yellow. A lot of masking later, it was sprayed black to give the basic scheme. Note that this version does not have the extra cabin windows on both sides behind the wing, you'll need to remove them from the decal sheet. I toned my windows down a touch with paynes grey oil paint thinned down, to darken the windows a little. Rigging is stretched sprue. Not very big! 35 years between first flights. You can still fly on one of these aircraft, but not the other! Cheers John

Hi gang, I'm not getting much time at the old modelling bench at the mo' so my big projects are on hold. The itch is still there though so I'm trying to satisfy it by building less involved models. This one resulted from a trip to the NAM and an unsuccessful search for a little Tiger Moth. I saw this Fury on the shelf for a reasonable £5:99 and since it fits in with my own "Icons of British aviation through the eras" theme I plumped for it. The kit was reasonable for the money. The usual Revell exploded view instructions, basic detail with a neat pilot figure and a single decal option. Fit was ok in some places, less so in others. One area that could be improved was the prop and spinner. The way the kit part is molded leaves it mishapen around the circumference of the spinner. Although it would have made the rigging easier I decided not to shell out for EZ line. Instead I rigged the model using fishing line threaded through loops of wire glued into the wings and fuselage. Some lines were ok, others less so... For the paint I used Alclad II polished aluminium for the metal areas but my airbrush gave out half way through so I had to finish it off with buffable Humbrol metalcote for the front cowling and radiator. The linen is brush painted Citadel Miniatures Mistril silver and the yellow is also Games Workshop acrylic over a white undercoat. I used floor polish to get a gloss coat before decalling. The kit decals are tough and reasonably thin although the blue of the roundels looks somewhat light to me. They seem to have settled down neatly over the surface detail though. MicroSol or Set was used sparingly in places just to ease the process. I've enjoyed this build and think it represents good value for money. The surface detail is sensible and the finished article resembles a Fury to my eyes. Perhaps I'll look for an SE5a for my next subject or perhaps a Sopwith Camel in 1/72nd scale All comments or criticism welcome. Edit* I've just noticed that in my haste to get out in the sunshine for the photography session I've completely forgotten to fix the tail skid. I'll get it done tomorrow.

Hi all, here is my hawk. Hope you like it.

Hobby Boss Corsair Mk V, HMS Implacable, Operation Olympic, late 1945: regards, Martin

finally gaining its original size

While building this project i was following a couple of other Alley Cat Bf109 builds on other forums and both came to an abrupt halt around the same point of construction ,that being attaching the nose to the fuselage to the wings. When i got to this stage i decided to go with a mix of the other methods and it worked for me . I recon it must have taken over 50 dry fits and many nights of sanding and cutting. Love the process of seeing the parts slowly come together and trying to work out which areas to trim. Here is my Messerschmitt Bf109B-1 in factory fresh finish

G'day David, Thanks for the heads up. I will have to have a look at my wings and see what shape they are in (no pun intended!) G'day Rich, I have been watching yours and other people's builds and they are all stunning. I think mine will be the stripey D-Day machine. I have basically been cherry picking bits from everyone else's builds, after all, that isn't one of the reasons we all come here? What colours (brand) are you using on your build, I lie the look of the green especially, olive drab? I have taken some better pics of the innards, Front office A quick dry fit to make sure everything will fit, The fit of all the internals is good, but you do need to make sure the edges of all the sub assemblies (in particular the gun turret) line up and that can be a little fiddly. I think the gun turret is designed to be dropped into place after the fuselage is closed. This would make masking and painting much simpler but the tapered fuselage opening suggest that this may not be possible? The bit that makes it go forwards, The bit which goes around the bit that makes it go forwards, The fit of the three piece engine cowl was superb. I had to restore the fastener detail at the lower centre seam as this was mostly sanded away, but otherwise the fit was almost flawless. The cowl ring was dropped into place and a bead of Tamiya extra thin cement run around the edge. Once dry, I simply buffed with a nail buffer and the results are as you see them, cheers, Pappy

This is amazing......... http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/30/mars-eclipse_n_3841449.html?ncid=webmail18 Graham

Techno trousers! Ex NASA!

Decals are on, it's starting to look like Pavlov's bird! Still need to slice/poke the decals and apply more solvent, but at least it's pretty now! Once the decals are settled, I can do an oil wash and some weathering so I can get a flat coat on this thing so it won't look like a toy anymore

After quite a long break from modelling I thought I'd better post some pic's of my Hawk that was finished in Febuary, I lost interest and life got in the way. Anyway for those that are interested heres the WIP And the finished article... Cheers Rich

I built Italeri's M-24 Chaffee some time ago. I used metal tracks and other detail sets on the tank. The figures are from Tamiya and were painted with Humbrol enamels. The base is from foam board covered with plaster. the tree is an old root from the garden and the wall is built from fragments of plaster. upload an image software screenshot image hosting websites screen grab screenshot utility windows online photo storage prntscr screenshot windows 7 screen capture windows 7 imgurl screen capture windows 7 free upload image hosting no account greenshot download online photo storage Thanks for looking.

I can remember admiring the Tamiya dinosaur range when I was a kid, and checking out the fantastic builds in the catalogues of the day. I never did buy one though, even though I was quite a dino fan in my youth, but I was at Monk Bar Models in York the other day (well worth a visit if you're in the area(, and there was one there for a snip, so with the vocal approval of my little boy, we went to the cash desk with this and a little Corgi Typhoon (he had been a very good sprog that day). Yesterday, we set about building it together on the patio table, under the cover of a large umbrella to shelter us from the sun. We'd prepared the assemblies the night before during a short session while he was telling me dinner would be ready in half an hour, so it was a case of clean-up the seams with knife-edge and sanding stick (he helped with a very worn-out fine stick), and assemble the majority of the few parts in the box. It goes together pretty well considering its age, although the leg joints have some pronounced steps here and there, so some folds were reinstated and created using some files and the edge of a sanding stick. I also broke out the Milliput, and ably assisted by the Boy, we rolled out a big sausage and created a mouth to fill the void between his jaws - the dinosaur, not the Boy A lower mouth was roughly sculpted from a blob of putty pushed into the gap, then a tongue was fashioned and laid on top of it, with tiny depressions marked with a modelling tool to simulate a rough tongue. The upper mouth was created the same was as the lower, and marked in the style of an animal's mouth from memory, with the rear dropping down to hide the gap between the two halves. I also drilled and carved out the nostrils to give them more depth, and sanded a sharp edge off the eyes to give them a more rounded look. The spare Milliput was rolled into thin sausages and packed into the leg seams, then tooled to create more folds and creases to further hid the joints. Although the joints on the legs have been well hidden now, I couldn't tell until I'd primed it whether the seam down the front of the head and neck collar would need any further work. It does The seam is far too prominent and smooth, so a little extra putty will be pressed into service to hide that. Pics before priming, although I'd already started the upper mouth when it occurred to me to take some It's primed now, which has shown up some areas not mentioned above that need work, but it's starting to look the part. I just hope I can do it justice with the painting

Hello guys I'm back now with a large and challenging project for me. This construction has not forecast to be completed, but I'm getting a lot of knowledge and perfecting various techniques with this project. The model is being constructed with rigid PVC and polystyrene. This material guarantees good looks and great resistance to the model.

Hello, here is my Mosqutio in the IAF service. W.I.P here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234941991-tamiya-148-dh-mosquito-fb-mk-iv/ I hope you will like it. Cheers, Ilan. Thanks for looking.

Paint was dry enough tonight to take a couple of quick shots... All over Barley Grey courtesy of Xtracolour. I gave her a coat of dark grey primer, and used this as a dark base to enable of bit of shading to add some variation to the grey and break the surface up a little. It doesn't show up particularly well in the these poor quality phone pictures, so will attempt to get her outside in some natural light in the next day or two to show this better - I'm pleased with how it looks - it's nice and subtle and I'm pleased as I was desperate to avoid the 'patchwork quilt' effect. The tail is in gloss white here as the black tail decal has light grey and yellow in it - this way the colour density won't be spoilt going over black underneath. Hopefully I'll be able to get some decals on soon... Tom

Great work there

Well here is my wife's effort in painting. I think she has done absolutely fantastic job especially as she did it without blu tack, masking tape or string. She did it completely free hand. I will say that her painting skills are completely outstanding for someone who has never painted a model before. She is going to do the lower fuselage tomorrow and I will then be able to commence final assembly and decal application. I have to go to our local hobby craft in the morning to find a tiny paint brush for her so that she can paint the gaps on the canopy. Comments welcome on her amazing effort. I will make sure to pass along any comments to her. All the best, Rick

Thanks for the kind words - I do like the prop effect, they turned out well! It involved no skill at all, just the right tools! I've painted up the dam now & this is all but finished. I may do a bit more work on the grouting on the dam tomorrow but I think this is pretty much done! I'll get some better pics up tomorrow (I may try to take some pics in the dark - will be interesting trying to light that up!) Not sure what to do next - possibly the ghostbusters ECTO-1 ambulance

Somebody mentioned an airworthy Mk.XIV - this link might be of interest. http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/426/language/en-CA/Identity-Crisis.aspx I'm looking forward to seeing this project completed, as Vintage Wings is but a short half-hour drive from my home.

If anyone mentions Button Moon, I know some people who can authorize a Fatwa!! Pete

I've just about finished the cockpit, so I decided to grab a couple of photographs this morning before I fix it into the fuselage. I have added the decals to the cockpit tub and have then used some of Humbrol's rather excellent Dark Grey enamel wash to bring out the details in the cockpit tub, seat and sidewalls. I also borrowed the harnesses from a spare Eduard set for another Harrier and added them to the seat. I think the seat is good enough to pass muster with the addition of these parts - good work, Airfix! The engine intake trunking and landing gear bays have been primed ready for paint. Once painted and weathered, they can be installed in the fuselage halves, which can then be glued together - I can't wait! BTW, the pics in this post were taken with my 50mm macro lens. They are greatly magnified so don't be too harsh!

I’ve built two of these and have to say that this is probably my favourite kit of all time. Builds beautifully OOB and still looks fantastic, you have done a rally good job there, great stuff…

Lovely finish all round,might have to get one of these.

I know id be burnt at the stake for this but I like your choice of markings!

Good job.

Who needs aftermarket? That looks really fantastic

Although both are 14-cylinder sleeve-valve radials, identical in design and shape, the Hercules is a "twin-row Perseus" (so 2360 cubic inch displacement and 52" diameter), while Taurus is a "twin-row Aquila" with 1550 CID and 46" diameter.

That's great, you're right about the house squeezing it up a bit. On another note, it might be worth seeing what it looks like without the figures with the weapons. The wingspan on that Storch is deceptively big though! Great diorama, nice to see.

Hi there, While busy dusting and cleaning Le Renard got me thinking what had made me put the project down some 12 years earlier well the reason for this was two fold, firstly, although always having an avid interest in models I was fighting a losing battle to make my run down cottage habitable, and came to the grim realization that even if i finished the boat i would have nowhere to put it, so on one of those odd occasions in my life sensibility kicked in, and decided it would be best if I made a space for it first. Secondly, after spending the previous 12 years in the trues sense of out of it in the middle of nowhere, i went out and brought one of the most stupid things that i have brought in my life, a Computer, and that was that. Anyway, after a day cleaning out the workshop i was able to find some walnut that had been put by long ago with the project in mind. I had in mind turning the masts on a little model making lathe that had been given to me some years ago . However when i got the plans out It was soon realized that some of the masts would be too long to go in between the centers, and although I have got a bigger lathe it would impossible to steady the work being so thin. So its times like that when you go make a cup of tea, go sit in the garden ,and take stock of the situation . While looking at a tall larch, it hit me that they never turned these masts when these ships were built, just adzed and drawknifed most probably from a tree just like the one i was looking at; So instead I tapered them using an upturned jack plane, After a pleasant afternoon whittling in the late summer sunshine, i was so chuffed with my first ever couple of masts, like a big kid i couldnt wait to do the rest, and went back to refer to plans to see what was needed next and this is where the probs really started . There are 3 sets of full size plans with this kit ,1 printed on the back of the other , and also a very vague set of instructions with a few photos and written all in French, the problem is every drawing contradicts the other, and to cut a long story short makes reading a set of revell instructions like understanding the meaning of life. So with a little help from an old book i have found on model ships, im playing it by ear a bit. So please correct me if i seem to be doing this wrong. Fortunately, this boat is still in use today and sails out of the port of St Malo , being just an hours drive from here it might be a good idea to pop over there with my camera this weekend and try and sort things out. All help welcome, very confused , Mike

That really is a big Storch in 32nd scale. With the exception of those with the Kubelwagen the figures look like the Airfix Afrika Corps

Or Firefly, or Seafire, or Sturmovik...

Oh, dear... bad news for those ESCI hoarders.

That's very fine work there Alan, makes me want to pull mine out...so to speak!

I must admit their resin casting is very good, but as Jennings knows they have a habit of not getting things accurate

When applying the primer to correct errors, I could not resist and painted the radome black. I liked the result

Bear in mind that the OP is building the old kit (and making a cracking job of it), not the new one.

I have just got the straight kit i.e no Dam, I will be following with interest. It seems you got a rogue there, looking at the mouldings on my kit they see pretty clean. Just hope that I can build it that way. Having just seen you updates its looking gooood!!!

small update, hope to paint her soon! nosecone, pylons, cockpit and lots and lots of small stuff like rescribing lost panel lines.... Regards,