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Hi All, Just completed this kit and managed to get a few piccies so thought I would post them up. The kit is the Revell Hurricane Mk. IIC. Its one of their nicer efforts, lovely recessed surface detail, good fit (apart from the tropical air filter!) and even the transparencies (which seem to be a bit hit and miss on their small scale kits) were good. There was a desert or south east asia option in the box, I went with desert as I do like the mid stone/dark earth/azure blue scheme. The only additions were a tag to the top of the radio mast, aerial wire from fishing mono and replaced the thick leading edge lights with some heat moulded from PETG sheet, they look a bit a bit better that whats in the box but not great. Paints used were gunze for the mid stone and Xtracrylics for the rest. Finished with an oil wash and Xtracrylics matt varnish. Anyway on with the pics and thanks for looking, Stu

Hi all, Just completed this kit and got some sunlight to take a couple of photos by so thought I would share here. It was a thoughtful gift from the office secret santa, not a bad kit for its age and goes together pretty well. I have childhood memories of giving up trying to get my last pair of rubber band tracks to join on an Airfix Chieftain but time, wisdom and a gas hob and hot knife did the trick this time round. I replaced the gun barrel with a bit of brass tube as the one in the kit was a bit bent and made a little aerial and flag for it but other than that its as Mr Airfix intended. I managed to bodge an attempt at weathering it so it ended up with a very heavy dousing of Tamiya buff to try and hide my shame... Anyways on with the pics, thanks for looking, Stu

Hiya Folks, I`ve finally finished these two models which feature in this thread on Work in Progress; (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234979498-new-airfix-148th-scale-hurricane-mkiwhat-a-great-kitfinished/ ) The first model depicts Hurricane Mk.I, Z4769,during its flight from Takoradi to Egypt in 1941. It later went to 237 Sqn but ftr 2.12.41. The temporary `convoy number' 3 was hand painted onto the model to try and match the roughly applied original and the white tail markings were also temporary on the real aircraft, intended to help spot the aircraft if it were forced down in the harsh African terrain. The white panel on the canopy was probably doped fabric and was intended to give the pilot some shade from the harsh sunlight. The second model depicts Hurricane Mk.I, V7434, DZ-R of 151 Sqn based at RAF Digby in October 1940 during the latter stages of the Battle of Britain. It was often flown by New Zealander Pilot Officer Irving `Black' Smith who scored six kills during the battle and his personal Maori Tikki god insignia appeared above the roundel. Smith later converted onto Mosquito`s and took part in Operation Jericho, the raid against Amiens Jail. The codes, serial and Tikki markings came from left over decals from the Italeri kit, although the codes are unfortunately slightly too short compared to a photo of the real aircraft. The kit is excellent but one surprising omission is a rear view mirror for the windscreen which was fitted to almost every wartime Hurricane! Both models were brush painted as usual,.....I hope you like them and sorry for so many pics. Cheers Tony

One of the few warships that I have ever built. HMS Dreadnought, 1906, lying at the buoys. Quite a challenge. Built from plans in The Anatomy of a Ship series. Bob

Hi Back to my archive shelves - the old Airfix kit of Savoia SM 79 Sparviero. I made it in two appearances - first as almost OOB (with some work anyway - mostly around engines and new decals), markings of 283 Squadron, 130 Gruppo Autonomico, Reggia Aeronautica, Medditerranean area, June 1942. I made her many years ago - roughly lets say 20: Since I really do like making scratch conversions I made also a second model - a two-engined version of SM 79 JRS in markings of 3rd Corpus of Royal Romanian AF, Eastren Front, 1943. Now there is a model of this machine by Azur-Fromm... Here is my scratch work: Could be a play- "find 100 details in which those models are different" I hope you like it, but criticism welcome! Regards Jerzy-Wojtek

Hi Still some Japan airplanes from my archive shelvs remains not posted yet. Today I would like to share with Mitsubishi Ki 21 II type 97, in Allies code "Sally". Markings are from 12 Sentai, 1 Chutai JAAF, China 1942. NM is sprayed from can, green spots are painted with hairy stick. Original Hinomarus cracked with years - just before posting I had to replace them by a Techmod ones. Comments welcome and regards Jerzy-Wojtek

Hi Another twin engin bomber of JAAF - Nakajima Ki 49 type 100, Donryu, in Allies code "Helen". This is model by Revell, I thought that it must be pretty old considering high rivets - but I have check it in net and it was released in 1973. I made her about 1995. Model is mostly OOB, markings 95 Sentai, 3 Chutai, South-East China 1944, then Manchuria 44-45. Please - comments welcome Regards Jerzy-Wojtek

Another 70's classic oldie but goodie from Italeri... I'm quite enjoying these old Italeri kits as they have all the basics of a decent kit, just in need of a bit of updating and TLC. She's had a full rescribe, adding in more historic detail than was present on the rather sparse original raised panel lines, I've also added a fair bit of scratchbuilding, including an accurate cockpit, flap levers, dive brakes, P/E guns, sights and brass barrels. Anyway - as always, all feedback and constructive criticism is much appreciated... so please fire away chaps!

hi, Here are a few from Lossiemouth and Leeming this week - hope you like 'em and thanks for looking in. cheers

Just recently completed this Airfix 1/48 Mk. XIX. I used model master paints throughout except for the spinner which was Alclad. I used the Barracuda studios snapshot cockpit set, prop, exhausts, wheels carb intake and the sliding portion from the vac form canopy. The model was weathered with oils, pastels and silver pencil. I hope you like it. Last photo shows it next to its 1/72 scale twin!

I thought I'd take advantage of the gorgeous weather we're having here in Kent (a balmy 27c on the patio!) and make a start on painting the engines on the C-17. I like to get these smaller areas of the model painted first, as it means it's far easier to mask these smaller sections when it comes to applying the top coats than the other way around. The paint job on the interior of the engines themselves is quite tricky to replicate. When you peer inside the inlet cowl of the real aircraft there is a section of reinforcing visible around the outside of the fan blades - this is protect the airframe in the event of a blade failure and keep any debris contained within the engine. This was recreated with careful masking of the base-coat of filler primer, as the colour is almost identical. The cowl itself is made up of various sections, which meet under strips of grey, so after a quick spray of a medium grey, these were masked off and the whole inlet given a coat of aluminium. The fans themselves were then given a coat of Humbrol's MetalCote and polished to a metallic sheen: Considering the 'blobs' (and that's being generous) that I started with for the engines, I'm chuffed with how they've come out. These sections will now be allowed to harden off for 24hrs before they are masked off for the main paint job. Tom

An excuse to thin the stash Valom 1/72 Magister in Luftwaffe Markings. Italieri (ex Heller) CL415 in a very nice anniversary scheme. Soooo much yellow. Nice Pelicans for the nose Just one sprue for the Magister. Etch an resin included.

Here it is, my OOB build of Airfix's classic Spitfire IX. This is of course Johnnie Johnson's JE-J based at Ford in 1944. Ford is just down the road from me, one reason why I stuck with these markings. In earlier iterations of this kit Airfix provided the invasion stripes as decals - this one doesn't have them, which is a bit of a pain. I mean they could have just provided the black stripes! Finish was Xtracrylic - can't say I really like using it, and the Medium Sea Grey is too dark so I usually lighten it with white - making this colour too matt so the decals silvered. Should have Klear-ed it but you usually forget something. Final finish is Xtracrylic matt of course, can't complain about that. For further stuff about the build see my WIP thread...

Lots of discussion going on in the Star Wars-themed barbers two doors up from me. I have to admit I was very impressed, and yes, that crashed Star Destroyer vista was stunning. Lots of analysis on t'interweb. As for me, I think that the galaxy is in deep civil war, with the Empire still in existence and still a powerful force, albeit riven by factions. Luke has become a recluse while Han and Chewie have gone back to their old ways. I don't think there has been a big Jedi revival, and there are few Force-sensitive people in the galaxy left (maybe because of Order 66 and the way the Empire did its best to kill any remaining Jedi). I think that the new female character,Rey, is a Force sensitive, and that is who Luke is seemingly speaking to. Is she a distant relative? By the way, notice the present tense he uses when referring to his father. It seems to me that of the new trio, Rey appears to be the central character (equivalent to Luke in Chapter IV), and will spend a lot of time keeping the peace between the other two, as one seems to be a Stormtrooper and the other an Alliance pilot. Of course, I could be totally barking up the wrong tree (or just totally barking) but either way, oh, am I looking forward to this.

G'day people, I have finished up the aircraft ordnance. I spent some time today adding the kit supplied PR mesh screens. The majority of the PE fit exceptionally well. I did anneal a few pieces (the part above the APU exhaust, the curved section at the front of the doghouse and the part at the leading edge of the fin) to help them conform but I had no real problems. cheers, Pappy

greetings fellow muddlers, seems like it's been a while since I was last here though apparently, it's only been a few days. (with apologies in advance for my appalling photographic skills this week) The train build caught my attention and diverted me over the last week or two but now it's time to get back on track (oops!... bad pun) with the Wessex. I found this piece of etch left over from the Dauphin build and whaddya know.... it's a perfect fit for the intake on the HC2. Now, me, etch and superglue don't really get on at all, so as a precaution I punched a hole out of tamiya tape so that I didn't get CA all over the nose. Despite taking as much care as I could with the absolute minimum of CA, I still managed to cock it up. I didn't get glue all over the nose, which was good - but I did get a small drop or two wicking into the mesh area. I did try to pick it out with the tip of a new blade but I think the mesh was about to give way so I stopped before I caused any more damage. I hate PE! Heading as I am, down the inevitable path to priming, I am trying to finish off all those little jobs which seem to take forever, but are absolutely critical to the end effect. - My problem is that I keep finding more and more of those little blighters! I was hoping to keep the tail rotor assembly off until after final painting because old cludgey mitts here knows that he's going to break something on there before he's done. Unfortunately, I also need to add the PE grill over the gearbox area before then which necessitates fitting at least the tail rotor hub before I can continue. A quick try with the PE part showed that it lay too deep in the recess provided on the kit... a quick infill with some styrene strip raised the grill up to the right height. Next step was to trim the strips to make them a lot narrower. If you leave the kit "as is" - you can see the support strips showing through the grill. I trimmed them back until they couldn't be seen. The tail rotor hub was pushed into place and I attempted to fit the retaining ring. That job wasn't too bad - I filed two flats on the ring so I could grip it securely with a pair of tweezers - the ring was then pushed onto the shaft and I slabbered some styrene glue over the rear face of the ring until I was sure the shaft and ring would become one with the rotor..... feel the rotor... be the rotor...... sorry. That allowed me to fit the last piece of etch on the tail. Some filler has now been applied and will get finished off at the weekend.... after I've repaired my car, got the wife's car tested, done the shopping, some yard work, got the lawnmower going for the first time since last year... you know the drill! Another job which I have been studiously avoiding is the fitting of the door surrounds that I cut off many months ago when I was working on the gearbox area. - I think I am developing a phobia of sticking italeri parts together - I don't seem to have the same fear when slapping glue on any scratch parts I have made but putting glue on kit parts gives me the jitters.... dunno why Anyways - when I came to dry fit the door surrounds I had a nasty surprise awaiting me. Can you guess what it was from this photo ? S'gonna be a bit drafty in there for anyone up front isn't it ? That was easily fixed by adding a styrene strip to the front edge of the surround. That was probably one of the fiddliest parts I have had to fit on this thing so far - mainly because I was trying very hard not to get glue everywhere. I got it in place, and still have a small gap at the front lower edge where it was originally cut. That should be a relatively easy fix (and probably take me an entire evening to accomplish!) The stbd side went a lot easier, but still required a small infill strip Moving forwards... recognizing my Scottish lineage, and being the tight git that I am and not wanting to part with the cash for ridiculously expensive Eduard parts, I decided that I still needed something to represent the hinges on the nose area access panels. Originally, I was going to use aluminum can metal, but the challenges in getting a good bond in that area were too frightening, so I took the easy route and made up some hinges from styrene. The other side will be a bit more challenging as those access panels will be displayed open. Of course, looking through my photo's I discovered yet more missing features - which are calling me to scratch and fit (is there any form of treatment for this?) So, a quick trawl through my "spares" box (and I use the term very loosely) came up with this little treasure..... a piece of the brain from my Lost In Space B9 build a while back care to guess what that will be used for ? (that's if I do actually use it but the intent is there... for the moment!)

They just released the second teaser trailer for the new movie, still no idea what the plot is

Hi Everyone, Finally finished my attempt at making an early F-4E from Hasegawas 1/48 kit Wanted to do one after seeing that some recent after market sheets with a million options came out but decided that it wasn`t worth paying £20 on top of the kit price, so.... found a set of CAM Decals for a third of the price and was immediately drawn to this one as it had a different set of teeth to the ones you normally see. Had to make a few alterations to the kit as the serial no of the aircraft pointed to an unslatted version, so had to deleted the slats and various lumps and bumps on the airframe Went with the extended gun barrel as I found many pic`s of a/c with earlier serial no`s had this fitted Also wanted to load it up with an alternative to the usual low drag bombs, Sidewinders and tanks so went for the Super Bullpups and Bombs So went for the Super Bullpups and bombs as I found on a photo of anothe Korat Phantom Otherwise just had to make some rear view mirrors and added the crew for a change Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking Cheers Russ

I built this one afternoon when I had nothing better to do. The Confederate ironclad Tuscaloosa, but I never got round to putting it in a river or display case. I seldom build warships! Bob

Thanks guys, much appreciated. A bit of a Vrooom, vroom moment tonight. I got a little bit carried away . . . . Thanks for humouring me Cheers Kev

Yes mate, great to catch up, was a rather busy day though, kept missing people! £11, now that is a bargain you lucky blighter! Still managed to spend loads there despite not buying a single kit, how does this happen? Well, got the silver on now. It's taken a few goes, I tried some Airframe Aluminium Alclad, but in places, it looked like primer was showing through, but that wasn't the case. in the end, used predominantly Alclad duraluminium and polished aluminium with the spar section done in Valejo Chain Mail. It's had some Kleer applied to protect it whilst masking to get the black painted.

I am on holiday today, so first got some airbrushing done, here are the engine fronts and intakes: Here is the anti-glare panel: I matt varnished the cockpit but I could still see some bare plastic past the foot well so I just brush painted on some matt black: That's sorted it: While that was drying I masked up the canopy: I then glued in the cockpit tub and the instruments: I keep breaking the lower flaps so I installed some protective buffers: I decided it was prudent to reinforce the flaps with a fillet of five minute epoxy before I close up the fuselage: In went the engine fronts: Now I could close up the fuselage: That went OK but there was this gap at the side of the cockpit: I might be able to get that to close up better with a little more work but I'll leave it to harden up over the weekend as I have as plane to catch. Maybe I will get some more done on Sunday evening. Bye for now, Nigel

The Tea Clipper Kaisow, of 1868, lying at anchor. 32'=1" Bob

Steam clippers were quite popular in the 1860s, they combined a substantial sailing ship rig with a powerful engine, so they could make the most of wind or steam, as the weather conditions dictated. The Moravian carried a large number of passengers on the North Atlantic run. Bob

Well here is a good use for Bog Roll and Tea Towel centres. The master with the block attached is Gator glued to some Plasticard and then I have sprayed it with some Mann Ease Release 200 and the inside of the bog roll. (Ease Relase and Bog Roll... hmm ) I will leave this for 30 Mins or so I have blue tak'd the Roll in place and confident it will be ok but think I may opt for glue in the future.

That trailer's not just cool, it's sub-zero!! But just wondering - are the new Stormtroopers inspired by a small Japanese car??!!...

Good afternoon everyone! First of all something needs clearing up, the vulcan build will not be proceding in the immediate future due to my realisation that I had made the whole thing wrong, I won't go into detail but I will consider that practice for scratchbuilding :| Anyway, let us begin on this build! I came across this large kit at the Cosford model show, only a few days ago, and as it happens I had purchased a book on the Tupolev Tu-22 "Blinder" as I am very interested in "the other side's" technology and aircraft. While the Tu22 may not have been the most prolific aircraft in the Soviet arsenal-due to the high landing speed and relative obscelence after the development of the Tu22M. So what do I plan to do with this kit? Well, I would like to have one side as a standard "out of the box build" with the other half containing pieces that have been cut away to reveal sections of the engine/payload bay/cockpits and nose section. The key feature that I would love to implement is the downward-firing ejection seats that would be wound up into the cockpits before taking off. I am always open to any suggestions and tips that anyone wants to incorporate into the build and will do my best to try and do this with a decent level of quality although I will apologise if I don't do particular features of this aircraft-I model for my own enjoyment, I am sure you all understand. Alas! Some photos shall follow: The box The book... The downward firing ejector seats-not suited to low level operations More to come! Sam

The E-Type's broken down in the lay by thanks to some extremely frustrating white metal that won't hold any paint, I'm going to try some acid etch primer as a last resort. Anyone who can suggest anything I'm all ears, I've no experience with white metal parts. Anyoo I'm currently recovering from tennis elbow release surgery which hasn't helped in doing much of anything but slowly getting back to 'normal' (whatever that is). I've got a couple of 'old school' Skyline's in my stash so I'm going to attempt to build the Fastback version from Fujimi. The bonnet is non opening for some reason, despite there being a nicely detailed engine. So I decided to scribe it open similar to the Tamiya model. I started by drilling some 'stop' holes to prevent me overcutting & damaging the wings. Then just use my Tamiya scriber to follow the lines. I had to stop while my work was being inspected!!!! Eventually There's some cleaning up to do then I'll see how the chassis part lines up with the open bonnet, expecting to have to add some firewall & inner wing filler panels. Also need to construct some bonnet framing & some method of hingeing, all good fun. That's all for now, thanks for looking.

Hi Guys, Here's my take on a burnt out and damaged Super Sherman. The Kit is a 1/35 M50 by Dragon No strict historical references used here just good fun and trying to improve on my techniques etc Cheers! Sam

Hi mates, My latest project is the superb Academy kit of the Vought F-8J Crusader in God's Own Scale. The Crusader has always fascinated me, since it's such a dichotomy. Winner of many aerospace awards for technical achievement, yet a very dangerous aircraft to fly based on its accident record. Known affectionately as the "Last of the Gunfighters" yet it achieved the overwhelming majority of its combat kills with missiles. Nonetheless, it looks the part - it's menacing yet graceful, both important attributes of a fighter jet. In its day, many pilots preferred the Crusader to the Phantom II, and that says a lot. The build process is detailed in the WIP thread here. The model won Gold (1st place here in the US) at the recent Buffcon competition in beautiful downtown Cheektowaga, just outside of Buffalo, NY. Project: Vought F-8 Crusader Kit: Academy Kit No. 12412 Scale: You have to ask? This is me you're talking to! Decals: Xtradecal X72160 markings for VF-302 Stallions; stencils and other decals from kit Resin: Aires cockpit detail set 7110; Wolfpack F-8J Crusader “Flap Down” set WP72026; Quickboost Martin Baker Mk.7 ejection seat set 72406; Quickboost F-8 Crusader Flaps set 72269, Air Scoops set 72107; Eduard AIM-9D Sidewinder set 672043; CMK 72062 Crusader wheels Photoetch: Frets included with Aires cockpit set, Quickboost ejection seat, and Eduard Sidewinder set; Eduard Remove Before Flight set 73008 Turned Brass: Master Model F-8J Crusader Pitot Tube Canopy Masks: None - Ha! It can be done! Paint: Gunze H3 Red, H4 Yellow, H26 Bright Green, H77 Tire Black, H70 RLM 02, H90 Clear Red, H94 Clear Green, H305 FS36118 Gunship Gray, H317 FS36231 Dark Gull Gray, H319 Light Green, H315 FS16440 Light Gull Gray; Testors 1180 Flat Steel, 1181 Flat Aluminum, 2143 Semi-Gloss White RLM 21; Floquil 110004 Crystal Cote, 110015 Flat Finish; Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black; Alclad ALC101 Aluminum, ALC103 Dark Aluminum, ALC115 Stainless Steel, ALC314 Klear Kote Flat Weathering: Just a panel line wash - I kept the model pretty clean, after all there must have been a time when the actual aircraft had just rolled out of the paint booth. Improvements/Corrections Replaced kit cockpit with Aires resin cockpit set and ejection seat Replaced kit missiles with Eduard resin AIM-9D Sidewinders Seemingly random position and alignment of missiles on their pylons is intentional, and is required so the missile can clear the refueling probe, the RAM air turbine, leading edge flaps, and each other (during firing) Added Eduard “Remove Before Flight” flags Aftermarket decal sheet for U.S. Navy Reserve Squadron VF-302 Stallions Replaced kit pitot tube with turned brass part from Master Models Added canopy restraint strap made from photoetch metal Replaced kit parts with Quickboost afterburner air cooling scoops Replaced kit wheels/tyres with CMK resin wheels/tyres Added Wolfpack “double drooped” resin leading edge flaps Cut out kit flaps and ailerons, replaced with Quickboost resin and posed in typical parking position Detailed top of engine tunnel (underneath raised wing) with tubes, conduits and other fiddly things Elapsed Time: Only a month! I know, you want the pictures. OK, here they be. The oddball alignment of the Sidewinders in this head-on photo is accurate. The missiles were mounted in such a way to make sure they cleared everything when fired, including other missiles, leading edge flaps, ram air turbine, etc. Kudos to Academy for paying attention and getting this right. Adding the photos to the post has made me realize that I didn't take any photos of the underside. Let me do that and I'll add them soon. Thanks! Cheers, Bill

The Xtracylix paint has arrived, but only a few hours before I disappear to France for a week on holiday - so no time for much more than a quick comparison. In the foreground, the test boom, Tamiya side showing. Then left to right, "RAF Dark Sea Grey", "RAF EDSG" and "US Gunship Grey". The RAF Dark Sea Grey will be useful in other builds, no doubt (like the perma-stalled Barracuda!), but it's completely wrong here; too much green in the shade. Compass grey is too dark, but the EDSG looks nice - just the right amount of blue tint to it. For my faded paint purposes, it is too dark, but it does look like a good base on which to build.... assuming I can persuade it to spray, of course, which will have to await my return. For comparison, the same line-up, but this time with the Vallejo side of the test boom showing. To my eyes (certainly in real life, though it might not be so obvious through a monitor via an iPhone photo under artificial light!), the Vallejo is better than the Tamiya (though the scratch provides evidence of how fragile this stuff is without varnish over it to protect - something i already knew from experience. So where does all this leave me? When I get back I plan the following: 1. See if I can get Xtracrylix to play nice with my airbrush. There are too many horror stories out there for the issues to be made up, and certainly I was amazed at how fast these test stripes (done with hairy stick) dried - I can see how the paint might dry in mid-spray, which seems to be a common issue. 2. If 1 works OK, I will experiment with a home-brew faded EDSG, made from lightened Xtracrylix. 3. If 1 doesn't fill me with confidence, I will still brew the faded EDSG from Xtracrylix, but then use it as the pattern to reproduce from Vallejo Air (of which I have a fair amount after a generous Xmas present from my Mrs). Then I might get round to actually painting the bloomin' thing! I won't say "more soon", because there will now be a gap in modelling (though no doubt I will lurk if I can find a signal; I find this place addictive!). C

Thanks John, that is interesting and not the result I was expecting, assuming the dates on the decal instructions are correct the 222 Sqn aircraft would be the only one that might have had the two-tier pedals (referenced as "Summer 1940", the other two aircraft being dated May for 72 Sqn and July for 266 Sqn)... fortunately you provided this in time for me to 'mix and match', cheers 1.42 inches? At least my pilots will be safe then - I'll try to remember your advice but to be honest I buy plastic card so seldom that I will probably have forgotten it by the time I next need a sheet Today I got the internals done; the fuselage halves (all three look pretty much the same so forgive me for showing just one - if it bothers you, you can look at the picture three times ): The shading looks a bit overdone, but once the fuselage is closed up I will be lucky if it is even visible... I also got the seats harnessed and fitted: Once again I used the Eduard micro-fabric seatbelts for this, I really do like them even if they are a bit 'challenging' to use on occasion. Then I decalled and fitted the instrument panel/gunsight parts: ... and all that is currently setting/drying/curing/whatever the hell it is that those things get up to when I am not looking. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the cockpits installed and the fuselage halves joined. Cheers, Stew

These Academy kits bear the product codes 2105 & 2174, but they are identical apart from the decal options. 2105 completed in the supplied decals for WZ*S “Eileen” of the 84th Fighter Squadron, 78th Fighter Group, Duxford, 1944. These decals were very thick and did not conform the to complex surfaces of the fuselage. For 2174 I chose decals by SuperScale (sheet No. 72-886) to make WZ*V “No Guts No Glory” flown by Major Benjamin J. Mayo of the 84th Fighter Squadron, 78th Fighter Group, Duxford, 1944. The SuperScale decals performed better than the kit supplied ones. Both together...

This weekend fella, Mike has given me some Ultimate Burnishing Liquid to try so all being well I'll report on how this stuff looks. No problem fella, if you have ever been strung up in a cam net you'll know why they changed them to the front on CS95, one of the funniest things I have seen is my old troop Sgt being caught by the buttons of his leg pockets and then jumping off a 432 ... I almost wet myself laughing at the sight of a 30 plus something guy upside down hanging by his pants screaming blue murder. It was so funny to watch as the more he wriggled the more snagged he got and more frustrated so his choice of words got much worse... in the end we had to cut him out of the net So much for being fully Tac in the forest, reckon the locals in a near by village heard him !

Last crew mic done. Cheers Dan

So now I have mixed up and poured some of the Rubber, Now just have to wait then get some casts done hopefully. I have been tapping the sides to help any possible trapped air out. cheers Rob

This is my go at the Eduard 1/72 scale Mig 15. I think the decals were from RVA?. This was done as part of a club mass Mig-15 build, as such I was not to worried about the accuracy of the kit. Does look like a Mig-15 to me :-) Only problem was getting everything into the nose area (cockpit, intakes, wheel well....), took a bit of hacking. Tim

The Skeleton Coast on South West Africa is full of shipwrecks. The sea often recedes from the area, leaving wrecks a considerable distance inland. This model is of no particular wreck, but just representative. Here is a link to an image of the steamer Eduard Bohlen, ashore for over 100 years on the Skeleton Coast. http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/02/24/75/86_big.jpg

Aircraft is from 141 Sqn RAF shot down near Dover July 19 1940 Details: Kit: Decals: Kit and Xtradecal/TechMod for roundels) Vac Form Canopy: AP Models - (not recommended) Barrels: Master Model Exhaust: Ultracast (Spitifire Mk 1) Scratch Built Pitot from 2 pieces of brass tube Paint Dark Green - Mr Color Dark Green, Tamiya XF81 Dark Earth - Mr Color , Tamiya Dark Earth from the Aerosl can Sky – Mr Color Clear Coat – Gaianotes Gloss, Testors Dullcoate for matt Weathering –oils, pigments, pastels and Tamiya weathering sets

Small Japanese car?!

Rank tabs on the back....Its so you know that your shooting your comander...... Darren

One of the problems when starting a bad quality kit is that decals can be as bad as the plastic. While markings and national insignia can be sorted relatively easy, the stencilling is usually another story, This kit of course suffers from this: not only the decals look quite bad, there are also very few stencils. Not too much of a problem, however the Kfir has a number of quite visible lines in either red or white depending on the colour schemes. In my case walwways and other lines are white. While I may not apply them all, at least the most visible will have to be added. Fortunately here we're talking simple white strips and I realised there were a few possible ways to make these: - mask the lines on the model and spray white paint. Tedious and it's not easy to mask all lines so that they are the same width. - go to the hobbyshop that I know has the Tauromodel white strip decals and buy a sheet or two. Easy but the shop is the other side of the city, means 2 hours driving if there's not too much traffic - cut strips from white decal film. Not too difficult but I've tried before and it's a pain, particularly with long strips. So I tried something totally different.. and it worked ! Over the last year or so I've experimented with a number of different paint markers, particularly in white. Some don't cover well enough but I found a type in a local toy store chain that is quite good, the Japanese Zebra Craft-Star. This has two tips and of course I used the smaller one. Of course I could not draw directly on the model so I tried to draw a few straight lines on the leftover bits of the Expert's Choice decal sheet, with the help of a ruler. I found that not only the marker covered pretty well but the paint is also not affected by the water. So I prepared a few white lines, cut them approximately to size and started to apply the walkways I'm quite impressed by how opaque the white paint is, even over quite a dark camouflage scheme. The walkways are probably a bit on the thick side, should be slightly narrower, but will do for this build. I also have a red and yellow marker from the same range, I will try these very soon in the same way. Zebra seems to have a range of paint markers, there may be some that are even better suited to our needs, for example even thinner tips. I should go and search for more !

Ah, got that, understood and thanks TW, I'll have a look at those and weigh the merits against the cost... Right, so I was back to business and one thing I nearly forgot to do was a bit of filling here: ... no, not the bit where I clumsily hacked the plastic from the kit part in removing it from the sprue, but to the right of it, where there is a small panel line and a hole, which Airfix advise that you stick a small decal like the gunport cover on. I believe that this represents a combat-damage repair on whatever Spitfire that Airfix measured up; if no internal parts were damaged rather than take the aircraft out of service to replace the bullet-holed panel the ground crew would just stick a patch on it, and often this would be either very similar or identical to the gunport patches. In short (and you can either trust me on this or not as you choose) this should not appear on every single Spitfire or really on any of them except the one which Airfix used for their reference, and I don't know which one that was Then, courtesy of Messrs Hannant's Emporium in Lowestoft, my plastic card arrived - it was a little thicker than I intended (I have no real way of visualising what '20-thou' looks like beyond a vague idea that if it is twenty-thousandths of an inch it must be quite thin) but adequate, so I made up the seat armour parts using a couple of Eduard etched parts as my guide, first the seat armour: ... and then the head armour - I first tried to drill a hole in this to fit it over the headrest (see exhibit one to the left, the failed example) before reasoning that it would be quicker and infinitely easier to cut off the headrest, fit the armour and glue the headrest back on, which is what I ended up doing: Oh, I also cut off the top section of the rudder pedals for the two earlier Spitfires, as the two-level rudder pedals were not fitted on the early Spits... but I understand they were fitted before the start of the Battle of Britain and if that is the case the third Spitfire can keep hers - I still need to round off the cut-off tops or might just replace them with a bit of plastic strip, as I believe they looked a bit like leather stirrups. So more fiddling and detail painting today, very little of which will be visible on the completed kit, but it keeps me amused, occupied and busy, cheaply Cheers, Stew

bit related, the first model ships

Sadly work on the Sutlej has been progressing at the proverbial snails pace. A lot of time is spent just cleaning up the parts and checking the fit etc. Anyway, some progress has been made. Massive engines! and check out the towing arm, supplied in the kit, nice. The gear legs looked a little stark and needed a bit of detail. My first attempt at hydraulic lines, using fuse wire (5amp!) and the nose gear, Most of the main components are coming along. The fit of the two fusealge halves is not great when offered up against each other. May be a bit of a headache, but I'm sure it will be ok. Thanks for looking.

p.s. also need to find some time to get these on the ceiling. Big Brigand!

Warp resin Babylon 5 Inter Stellar Alliance Whitestar wip link http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234977183-babylon-5-isa-whitestar-by-warp-finished/ All the best Chris

Thanks, Andrew! Production offices? Well, OK, I guess I can do some more gull gray and white. My name is Navy Bird after all. But I need to do some Glossy Sea Blue and Extra Dark Sea Gray too! So I've done a good job Photoshopping the blue background behind a picture of the real plane then? You can thank Academy for that. I just assembled it, and everything fell into place. This may be the first Crusader kit that got the stance right. Well, I did make one adjustment - the main gear tyres had no camber, so I had to "lean" them in a bit so there was some negative camber. The yellow seals around the canopy frames are decals. They're part of the Cartograf decal sheet that comes with the kit. I think you're right, it was easier than the usual crop of short-run or ancient model kits that I have been building. Everything is fun in their own way, though. I thought I would add this photo - a family portrait of an F7U and the F8U: A lot of creativity on the Vought design staff back in those days! Oh, I found some photos of the underside that I took before I added all the fiddly bits. These were taken back when the white balance was set to the wrong colour temperature, so there is a bit of a green cast to everything, so just ignore that. The nose gear bay detail: The main gear and speed brake: Cheers, Bill

Time for more work on the front end! I decided on a more curved profile for the area as it is more in keeping with the rest of the model, but I've struggled to fabricate or find the right shape for the 'nose'. This evening I remembered that I had my mum's broken computer mouse sitting around waiting to be taken to recycling and after pulling it apart I finally found some nice compound curves I could work with I decided to use the mouse button bits (the part on the left) and separated these from the supporting block I took some careful measurements and marked out the bits to cut off Then made the cut and it was starting to look about right! Unfortunately when I dry fitted the bits to the airframe I found my 'careful' measurements were a bit off so after a little more measuring, cutting and sanding the pieces were added to the fuselage with some additional stock styrene as a backing plate Thankfully the parts now all line up and should form a solid basis to start filling the gap... hopefully this weekend!

Finally done. Kit: AFV Club 1/48 F-5F Tiger II Decals: VFA from Malaysia, terrible in many areas Aftermarket: Quickboost seats, pitot tubes and gun barrel Paint: Decanted Tamiya AS-12 and Gunze acrylics Difficult kit in some areas, most notably with the surface detail, great overall but really hard to keep looking so good. Also tricky in the exhaust area with poor alignment points.