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Latest project finished over the Christmas weekend. The only changes I made were the addition of new seats and wheels from Aires and the metal nose probe and AOA sensor. The decals are from Eagle Strike sheet 48020. Thanks for looking and a Happy Christmas to you all.

A while back I built one of these in the final Ansett scheme for a friend of mine.. I was reluctant to let it go as I think it is quite a handsome aircraft and makes a great model, I convinced myself I needed one of my own and about 4 years later finally built it. I have reached the stage on it where I just don't want to do any more on it in case I bugger it all up. I will wait until my emotion subsides before dirtying it up and flat coating it, so she is done for now and rests splendidly in my cabinet. next to finish:

This isn't the best photo I've taken, but here it is anyway. The aircraft depicted is XH838, a MK7 in the colours of 33 Squadron RAF. The kit is the Airfix 1/48 and the AllyCat conversion. My dad was a Junior Technician, (instruments) on the flight line and worked on this very aircraft, which was my motivation for doing this particular aircraft. I do need to replace a couple of vortex generators on the starboard wing though!

This is a private aircraft paint scheme. Hope you like how it looks. Happy Holidays. DSC_0025 by Steve Cook, on Flickr DSC_0023 by Steve Cook, on Flickr DSC_0021 by Steve Cook, on Flickr DSC_0019 by Steve Cook, on Flickr DSC_0015 by Steve Cook, on Flickr DSC_0014 by Steve Cook, on Flickr DSC_0008 by Steve Cook, on Flickr DSC_0007 by Steve Cook, on Flickr DSC_0004 by Steve Cook, on Flickr

Hi, I thought it time to post on here after a couple of years reading. I was moved by reading the book 'Devotion' which relates the story of Thomas Hudner, who won the Medal of Honour trying to save Ensign Jesse Brown (the first black US naval aviator), during the battle around the Chosin Reservoir. The aircraft depicted is the aircraft he flew on the day he won the Medal of Honour, whilst flying with VF32 from the USS Leyte on 4 December 1950. The aircraft is a 1/48 F4U-5 from Trumpeter.

Boxing Day 2016 and the LYSANDER is FINISHED !!! that's all folks !

Kit - Airfix 1:72 Paint - All enamels. Decals - Xtradecal. Extras - None. DH Vampire T.55 75 Squadron RNZAF Whenuapai 1969 Almost certainly my last finish for a couple of months as we're coming back to the 'old world' straight after New Year for a months holiday. This has been a delight, a vice-free build and I heartily recommend the Airfix Vampire to everyone.AFN Ian.

Originally intended to build this for the Battle of Britain GB, got no where near completing it by the deadline, luckily I didn't let it linger on the shelf for to long. It's finished in the marking of Flt Lt. Kents A/C, 303 Sqn. I actually planned to have it as Douglas Bader's kite but a mishap with the decals I had to change my mind last minute. Anyhow I am pleased how it's turned out, not my best but learn a few points for next time. Unfortunately the photos are taken with my phone, so they're not the best. On temporary display with my Hobbymaster Spitfire until I inbox the rest of my models after a recent house move. Thanks for looking

Also shown on the flory Models site, so firstly apologies for duplication! This is a flight of fancy, but let's pretend there's no BAe Hawk, and that the RAF still use the classic red/white/grey colour scheme..... Academy kit Xtradecal decals (for BAe Hawk) except serials that came from a Revell Typhoon tamiya paint Flory models 'wash' Just a fun build, never done a 'what if' before, hope it's acceptable! IMG_0108 by bryn robinson, on Flickr P1010799 by bryn robinson, on Flickr P1010801 by bryn robinson, on Flickr P1010802 by bryn robinson, on Flickr P1010804 by bryn robinson, on Flickr P1010806 by bryn robinson, on Flickr P1010807 by bryn robinson, on Flickr

Finished this yesterday, took the final photos today in daylight. I like this kit - you get a lot for your money, though a few bits of the engineering could be better (specifically the engine / nose panels being in clear). Painted with Mr Color laquer paints (which I love), and weathered with Oils. Decals got damp and didn't play, so used home made masks for all the markings apart from the slogan which was hand painted, and I apologise in advance if the spelling / sentiment is wrong. Wip is available here Peter

The known Revell kit of the 262 has it's oddities. E. g. the fact it has a detailed cockpit tub and blanked of wheel wells. I tried to open these up a bit to show off these parts of the plane. I stuck with the rather shabby canopy though which is a known drawback of this kit and doesn't do the rest justice. Here you go.

Hi, sorry for the lack of photos - all sorted now. Here are some more taken in better light. Kind regards Andy

OK, I have decided that I will work on my 4 WIP's that are out of their boxes at the same time (being the Mirage, Eurofighter, Winjeel and this thing) I figure that I have finished 8 this year, so completing something soon is no big deal. One of the reasons this one was set aside for a while was for the simple fact that yet again, I found myself neck deep in heavy modifications that I probably shouldn't have started in the first place. Of course, it is precisely this method that delivered me my Comet, which i consider the jewel of my collection. The fuselage sides were very `gaunt' and each stringer lacked definition, almsot like the fabric was loose. To do the aircraft any justice I just had to re-do them. I sanded each side of the fuselage flat (a fairly uncomfortable exercise on a $250 kit!) and started again. Using Tamiya tape, I masked up the 3 stringers. I then sprayed a few heavy coats of Mr Surfacer over each one to build up the detail. Removing the masking reveals some sharply defined lines. I then freehand sprayed thick coats of Mr Surfacer over each one to build up the stringer further and to blend it in. After this process was completed I gave it all a light overcoat of the Mr Surfacer to check the progress. Pretty good! I will be able to sand in between each one to further refine the shape once it has cured. As can be seen, it already looks like tightly stetchd fabric over thin stringers.

Hi all, the last one for 2016. It is the Eduard’s 1/72 Spitfire Mk.IXe with Eduard bronze legs/resin UC covers, the resin upper cowl, exhausts, wheels and the tailwheel. I have also used the Master barrels as they look definitely better than the kit ones. Tamiya acrylics as usual, Clear Aqua Gloss and Pactra matt varnish. Decals are from the "Quattro Combo" boxing: A Spitfire flown by Jean-Marie Accart, CO of No. 345 Squadron RAF - GC II/2 "Berry."

With a week off, I've been making the most of time at home and started on the latest build. I've had the Aeroclub engines for a while now, but just got round to putting them to good use. Having been inspired by the excellent Merrick book - Halifax 'From Hell to Victory & Beyond', I thought I would do HR686 which was tragically lost after being hit by gun fire from the ship Amisia which ironically is the ship that rescued the survivors. You can find out more about the fateful mission HERE. I've started with the conversion bits to get the hard stuff out of the way. The Aeroclub engines are nicely shaped, but not shake & bake. The beautifully formed resin radiator intakes are a couple of mm narrower than the nacelles at the top rear, so some sanding and filling is necessary. As such, I've had to rescribe the panel lines, but they are a good fit to the wing. Given this aircraft will be white rather than black, imperfections will be more visible, so I'm spending plenty of time getting the nacelles smooth. I've added new radiator doors underneath out of plasticard due to the zealous sanding and used the Quickboost carb intakes on the sides of each nacelle. It's taken a day of fettling to get them to this point, but look at the photo's next to the kit parts and make your own mind up whether it's worth it, I'm happy about the replacements. I've had to scrape away the nacelle interior at the front to allow the undercarriage mounts to fit, but this was fairly straight forwards. Aeroclub provide modified front & rear bulkheads due to the new nacelles being narrower than the kit parts, but you can trim the kit bulkheads down as another option. The undercarriage assembly doesn't need any modifications, it will drop straight in. I've ordered some replacement Quickboost exhausts although the kit parts aren't too bad. Given the individual fitments of this aircraft, Freightdog provide the parts necessary - Tollerton nose (which is available too in the Mk.III kit) and the raised fairing. The mid upper turret on this aircraft is a BP Type A Mk.VIII left over from Defiant production and sat slightly higher than the later Type E resulting in more drag. It also had the shroud fitted, again supplied by Freightdog...

Hello! Here is my 2016 modelling output for your perusal......... 1/48 Airfix F.XVII Seafire 1/32 Hasegwa Bf-109 G-10 1/48 Tamiya P-47D 1/12 Bandai Imperial Sandtrooper 120mm American Navy SEAL 1/48 Accurate Miniatures FAA Avenger Revell T-70 X-Wings 1/35 diorama based on the novel "Generation Kill" USMC 1st Recon Batt. 1/48 Monogram P-47N-1-RE Thunderbolt 1/35 AH-1W USMC Cobra 1/48 Academy Mig-21

I bought this kit when it first came out and decided after doing so much SciFi stuff this year that a nice normal piece of Modern British Armour would make a nice change. So I started on this kit: Its an odd kit, there seems to be construction steps in there that exist only to push up the parts count! It goes together pretty well however, the only filler I needed was the part that fits under the gun mantlet in the turret. I built it all closed up because I couldn't be bothered hunting for figures with the correct gear for 1991. I decided to build the one in the kit labelled "unidetified BATUS, 1991" as this was the only British option given. That said the painting guide was decidedly rubbish, but thankfully my Google-fu came to the rescue to give me photos of the real things I could use to get the small details correct. Its painted with Tamiya paints - I used Nato Green and a mix of Desert Yellow, Buff and something else I can't remember to get an approximately correct sand colour for this era. I added some chain, stowage and some camo net from the spares box. One of the lenses for the headlight pinged off into some parallel dimension so I had to substitute for Micro Krystal Klear instead! I'm not a Chieftain expert, so any mistake please forgive me I think that will be my final final for 2016!

Airfix now have pretty much all the "ruined buildings" kits on sale, presumably prior to withdrawal. You probably know the ones, Czech Restaurant, Polish Bank, Italian Farmhouse, European City Steps, etc. It occurs to me that they could reissue these all together as a commemorative "Brexit Set".

This was a quick build that was thrown together as part of a 1 week helo build challenge. Total build time was 6 days. The kit was built OOB with the exception of scratched sonobuoy launcher & ASW station. No aftermarket. I didn't spend much time on the launcher or ASW station, as it's not terribly visible w/ the doors all closed up...but I wanted to at least have some kind of carcass back there to add to an otherwise spartan interior. USN HSL-41 SH-60B Seahawk ASW HeloKIT: 1/72 HasegawaPAINT: Testors MM / Tamiya AcrylicDECALS: kitAM: none, but some scratch built interior filler Cheers.

MiG-21UM Trumpeter 1/48 F-35C Kittyhawk 1/48 MiG-21PFM Eduard 1/48 Bf 109G-6 Trop Eduard 1/48 Jak-1B Eduard 1/48 Sea Gladiator Roden 1/48 SBLim-2A Trumpetr 1/48 Spitfire Mk.IIA Tamiya 1/48 Sea Harrier FA.2 Kinetic 1/48 Ła-5FN UTI Eduard+AML 1/48 Spitfire Mk.IIB Tamiya 1/48 I-153 ICM 1/48 CH-46E Academy 1/48 Su-33 Kinetic 1/48 Sea Hurricane Hasegawa 1/48 MiG-23BN Trumpeter 1/48 Gripen Kittyhawk 1/48 Saetta Italeri 1/48 MiG-21PF Eduard 1/48 Defiant Airfix 1/48 F-20A Freedom 1/48 Hawk T.1 Italeri 1/48 He-162 Tamiya 1/48 Super Etendard Heller 1/48 Hurricane Mk.IID Hasegawa 1/48 Su-22M3 KP 1/48 StuG III Dragon 1/35 DD-161 Akizuki PitRoad 1/350

Hello All, All kits except for the nice new ones are shockingly old kits, or sometimes shocking old kits... All painting is brush with Humbrol/Revell acrylics except where stated. A Grace Models solid wood aeroplane, started by my dear late Dad somewhere in the early 1940's, finished by me in January: Then, as if for contrast, the new Airfix Spitfire FMk22, brush painted in Revell Aqua Silver: Nice kit once you have scraped down under the back of the wing root so it actually fits. Next up, a Frog Blenheim 1 from the shelf of shame (actually the shelf of mild embarrassment because it's less than a year), lightly converted to a Finnish version with skis: Nice kit and fun build, from a Revell re-pop. Then this whole helicopter thing started. I should get therapy. Airfix Old Sea King from an old mould when it fitted together well, as "Old 66": Starfighter decals but my own stencilled "66"s. Watch out for that photo later... I bought an Airfix F-5A Freedom Fighter from a man at the Cosford/Shropsire model show simply because I remember it was such a terrible kit: It still fought me all the way but I was ready for it this time! Silver from AK Interactive True Metal paste - weird stuff but good. Academy Mustang III - fell together, lovely kit, made a plunge mould canopy for the sliding bit: Frog Wessex, updated and detailed but a fabulous basic kit even after 50 years: Aftermarket decals were harmed during the making of this kit. RCR short run Breda 65: Good old Airfix PE-2, with quite a lot of scribing and upgrading: The ancient Revell Fw190, seemingly made out of sugar crystals, the plastic was that brittle: And for the Vignette GB I converted my photo of Apollo 11 into a scratch built model: An Airfix P-47, lightly detailed but mainly OOB: So I'm still hoping to get my Matchbox Privateer over the line, and also a little Christmas stressbuster project... Have a great break! Well, I had a sneaky 1/48 Inpact (Lindbergh/Round2 rebox) Bleriot on the go over Christmas as well as the Privateer. The Bleriot finished first, despite the mad amounts of rigging (mainly stretched sprue), a pilot figure and my first go at home-made wire wheels: Regards, Adrian

Hi fellow modellers, my last three completions of the year. All made out of the box and painted with K4 acrilics. All very enjoyable kits. First the Airfix Spitfire Mk.22, decals, the only additions were the seatbelts and a PE instrument panel. Second is the beautiful Eduard Spit Mk.IXc. A very complex kit for me, but, excellent and very detailed. And third is the Academy Spitfire MK. XIVc. A very simple kit, thee fuselage is a it fat but it looks like a Spit to me. The decals come from the kit and are excellent, made by Cartograf. I hope you like them. All comments and critics are welcomed. Best regards and happy new year! Ignacio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_P.7 PZL P.6/II ]

Thanks, everyone. Placards duly added, and while everything dries around the pylon, a quick move to the other part of this folding tail malarkey. With the tail folded (i.e. as I intend to finish this model), the real thing looks like this: Mr Hasegawa, clearly intending that you will be building the aircraft with tail spread, gives you this as the starting point: More a sort of impression of a folding hinge rather than anything else - but could be made perfectly adequate with some fettling for a spread aircraft. Hopeless for a folded one, though. The short section of Albion Alloys tubing (0.6 inside 0.8 inside 1.0mm) seen above the tail gives you the clue as to how I proposed to tackle this. The only only difficult part was drilling a suitable vertical hole to fit the 1.0mm section, but once that had been achieved it was pretty simple. Here is the final outcome, with which I am pretty pleased: Much crisper definition, I think you'll agree (no pun intended). We're going away to Holland for New Year, so I only have one more day of modelling left this holiday. Onwards and upwards. Crisp

North Amarican F-6A Mustang Mk. 1A Royal Air Force, 225 Squadron Algeria, May 1943 the building tread here: Cheers,

It's the company I keep here that does it Keith.... Me too! Got any close-ups? Well. I woke up this morning this is sounding like a blues intro may as well go with it Got me a tube of full of epoxy 'Cos my woman gone left me on a girls day out And I got a Barracuda hinge upon my bench but poor rhyming skills Well that hinge needed realigning So I broke it down and soldered him again And I scuffed up that wing interior To help that hinge to be retained Then I mixed me up epoxy From the red tube, and the black duck to avoid bottles coming on stage And I stuck down that metal mother So my wing would fold right back It's looking like a foreign resin Secreted there from some big bug Just like that stuff they had in Alien are you kidding me To pin you down for a face-hug. Thank-you. My number's in the book. Now run. Poxy epoxy. Great for bonding but a test of nerve to make sure that all the critical angles are right. Either very runny initially and keeps sliding out of position. Or hardens-up quicker than a choirboy watching the Playboy channel. Underside ok on flight-ready posture (that gap btw is just left so I don't press the hinge in too hard before the glue is cured and knock it out of position on the fuselage. Again) And wing-back from above. I guess I'll leave that for 24 hrs to cure properly before moving it again. The next job is to prime that, get some interior green onto both sets of wing internals, add the (slightly reduced to make space for the hinge) fuel tank and button the outer wing up in order to finish detailing the folds, both wing root and rear flap. I doubt I'll get much in tomorrow, at least during the day, as we've been invited out to lunch with friends a county over so the day will be largely taking up with eating and driving. The closest I've gotten to any healthy outdoor exercise in the last fortnight is reading Anne Wroe's Six Facets of Light; a beautiful and sensual book about the relationship between poetry, art and the English landscape. I suddenly want to be on the South Downs again very badly... Tony

Build log here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235005424-revell-flower-class-corvette-1144/ Thanks for looking Rob

I have three new Airfix Martlets and rashly a few days before Christmas though; 'I'll bash up a couple of them for the Mediterranean Theatre GB as the markings in the box are for two Operation Torch aircraft'. Not a good idea with three days to go and my speed of building. Thankfully sanity prevailed and I will work on them alongside by Tungsten Barrracuda at a more leisurely, and eminently sensible, pace. I'll still build two together and do one of each of the options in the box. They are both for aircraft from 888 Squadron from HMS Formidable. Both are classic Dark Slate Grey/Extra Dark Sea Grey over Sky but one has the US Stars instead of British roundels so they will look quite different. Airfix also give the option of folding the wings so I'll do one with straight wings and one with folded. No idea why Photobucket has inserted the pictures upside down. I'll see if I can fix them later. There are things about Photobucket that only Photobucket knows.

Hi folk's a major return to I/48 scale aircraft this year for the most part after a start with some 1/72 builds for GB's also a token couple of armour kits yet again ship model's defeated me,here,s a selection. I/72 scale,Airfix Spitfire Mkix as a PR machine. Airfix Mustang. I/48 Airfix Spitfire. 1/48 Airfix Seafire. Eduard Fokker Triplane. Eduard 1/48 Airacobra Airfix 1/48 Hurricane. Tamiya Panther. Tamiya Mustang 1/48. Airfix Spitfire PR 1/72. Tamiya Beau in 1/48. Revell 1/144 747 for the airliner GB. Hobbyboss easy kit's Buffalo and Wildcat 1/72. Matchbox siskin. Trumpeter 1/48 Attacker Airfix Spitfire Vb in 1/48. Airfix 1/48 Hurricane Trop. AMT Warhawk in 1/48. Airfix Soitfire Mkxii in 1/48 WW1 Trench scene. Eduard Yak 3 in 1/48. Airfix 1/72 Wildcat. Eduard 1/48 Me109e Revell 1/48 Seafire Tamiya Corsair 1/48. Airfix1/48 Hurricane. Airfix 148 Defiant. Airfix 1/48 Warhawk ICM/Revell T 34 And the trench scene taken on the windowsill which I think is my favorite. Airfix1/72 Banshee Tamiya Mustang 1/48. Eduard Spitfire Mkix in 1/48. Eduard 109e in 1/48 And lastly Academy/Revell p-47's for the GB at the begining of the year. That's the lot now folk's many thanks for looking.

This is my 1/48 Hasegawa F-4EJ JASDF 50th Anniversary boxing with a very nice Cartograf decal. It was build out of the box with resin seats from true details and some resin resin intake covers. Model was primed with Gunze Mr. Surfacer 1200 and painted with Acrylic White. Exhaust and NMF was done with Alclad II. Only modification was cutting the flaps and drooping it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_P.6 PZL P.7/I

Hi, Here is my freshly completed ESCI F-100D the decals in the kit were shot so I used the set from Xtradecals. These went on ok. I like messing around with NMF and for this build which was for a buddy build on Instagram I added the decals directly to the painted finish there is no varnish or clear coat. The paint is a mixture of Alcald and Gunze MR Colour Super Metallics along with Tamiya enamels and Acrylics. the Kit is OOB more or less I replace the BullPups with ones from the Hasegawa weapons set which were a bit better. And added some seat belts from foil. Hope you like it.. Thanks for looking.. Cheers Plasto

Hi All I hope you all got what you wanted for Christmas. In my case, I got some quiet modelling time in. I have been fettling the port wing and starboard tailplane. They are both in shape, and the tailplane has even been scribed. I am now getting rid of imperfections, as this is going to be a metal scheme. Once I'm happy I will get the fuselage internals done and join the fuselage. Once that is done then the other wing gets started. In the meantime, I have got a shot showing the difference between the B-36 and the B-60. Thanks for looking in and happy modelling. Ted

Yep 272 is still flying, crazy to me that it is approaching 40 years old! I will not add the fuel tank or any weapons as my theme for this build is a brand new machine ready for delivery to the RNoAF waiting at the Fokker plant, though a center fuel tank might be a nice addition Ok here is the next update, still lots left to do! First a word on the wheels. The early wheel hubs are not present in the Tamiya kit but can be found IIRC in the Hasegawa or AM from Royal resin and Eduard Brassin. I elected for the Brassin ones as they come with some nice wheel chocks too which will be perfect for this build. One problem, the are noticeably too small, check this not ideal picture for the comparison of the correctly sized Tamiya wheels and the Brassin ones. Not sure if it is resin shrinkage but it is noticable, Checking the Goodyear F-16 A/B sizes, https://www.goodyearaviation.com/resources/pdf/databook_7_2016.pdf , the Tamiya ones are bang on, the Brassin ones too small by slightly over a mm. I wasn't going to bother doing anything and go with the Brassin wheels anyways until I mocked up the undercarriage set up and it looked kinda obviously too small to me. A fellow BM member suggested swapping the hubs and I had a go at it as it gives the best of both worlds, the accurate early style hub (same hub size for the Brassin and Tamiya wheels convienitently) and the correct size tyre. The Brassin wheel was sawed in half, then the hub isolated and carefully sanded from the wheel. The centre of the Tamiya wheel was removed but not all the way where the rim meets the tyre, I left a little rim to ensure a nice clean meet of the rim/tyre joint, just placing the centre hub inside. Bit risky as you only get one go at this but luckily it paid off, also I made the brake disc and drilled out the cooling holes for a more 3D feel. And the result so far. Brassin for the left two, then the Tamiya/Brassin combo. I did add a little miliput to the bottom of the Tamiya tires and sanded to give a slight bulge appearance but its not really noticeable at all. Here is a good link showing the early wheels from originally a Block 1 jet (updated to Blk 10 I think), http://www.zim-pix.com/danish-f-16a-e-174.html I need to weather the tyres now, also notice how off-centre the below Brassin (right) wheel is? It isn't weighted on the bottom so I guess it was weirdly cast off-centre. Here are the some of the landing gear legs that I added various wires to with references coming from the Squadron book. I'm not using AM wheel bays or properly bothering to detail the bay insides too much as they are decent enough oob for me, I have added some but will be shown later. I prefer to concentrate on the bits that will definitely be seen like the legs, really is a modelling hatred of mine adding wires to things, just takes forever! Kudos to the guys who have the patience to do full bays. Only gloss white so far and need detail painting up yet, The Aires PW exhaust is I think finished now, lots of exterior/interior masking and painting stages like so, but I really like the end result. Contrasting to the new airframe, the engines going by pictures had a good few hours on the clock and suitably weathered. The inner nozzle portion is slightly too small for the outer petals so I will glue each pedal individually to the inner exhaust contact points when I get to the final assembly. Back to the airframe all the main decals are now on. I used a combo of Zotz/Vingtor/DACO (for gunship grey stencils)/ Hasegawa (some early stencils) and Techmod decals, the Vingtor ones were probably the best decals I have ever used, they really do melt onto the surface and look painted on like I've personally not seen before. I recommend only positioning them with water and adding softener later on once they are correctly placed as they stick and become permenant very quickly once you add microsol (I had to sand off and repaint one or two! ) Lots of things left to paint and detail up here but the my attempt at the early ECS exhaust is there near the MLG bay. Nothing is glued yet, just positioned to display. the ID spot light, the lighting isn't really doing justice here. The IP is still in the works and will be in the next update but the Black box Ip coaming will be used. The pitot is from Master and the AOA probes will be added later, they are very sharp! Weathering wise I've added a very light wash, only slightly darker than the base colour, to only a few select panel lines. Covering the entire model with a wash with all the rivets just would not be right for this brand new jet imho, I tested it and it didn't look right. I did tone down the decals with a light overspray of the base colour which has helped make everything more scale. Fortunately the panel lines in the Tamiya kit are so crisp they stand out just fine without a wash

A bit of old-fashioned dry brushing to bring out the detail - the raised bumps are added Micro-Mark decals, cut down, but the rest is all FlightPath: A couple of Peter's irreplaceable data placards and then just the hinges to scratch build. You can't see it in this phot, but the seam up the spine has been filled and sanded. Crisp P.S. As a reminder, I am trying to build the right-hand side of this:

Cheers Dave. Wasn't planning on doing any but needs must! Thank you Rob and great to have you along! Hi Greg and thank you for the advice - I will watch out for that. The plastic is a bit on the soft side on these new tool kits. Are there any photos of your Airfix Mustang? I had a quick search but I always find the search engine doesn't find everything. I've got your lovely shark mouth Revell Mustang III bookmarked but cannot spot your Airfix version. This morning I managed to get some more done - mostly painting interior detail and the wheels: I also got the IP decal fixed in place: As usual Airfix haven't attempted to make it look anywhere near realistic. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

Guess what ??? There may be news later in this post.... But before that, I added the drivers sliding windows, or at least a tiny portion of them to suggest that there's a window in there somewhere. Then it was time to attack the aerial. Now I know I bought some of that stretchy stuff that everyone uses, because I used it in the Wessex build. Therefore, I know I have some. I can even find the receipt - but can I find the *safe place* that I put the EZ line in ? Not a chance matey, not a chance. So, I resorted to using thread. I cut a tiny piece of small diameter tubing, then threaded some fine wire inside the tube. In the loop that protruded from the other end, I inserted the thread, and pulled the wire back through the tube. This gave me the "insulator block" and the aerial (sort of) The vertical stabilizer was drilled, then the wire was inserted and a dab of cyano held everything in place. Then I realized that I still had a few other jobs to finish off before I could attach the aerials to the wing masts. (otherwise I'd just break them off again) One of which was attaching these minuscule PE actuators for the flaps. Take a good look because it;s the last time anyone will ever see them ! particularly once they're painted. Then the aerial could be attached to the wing masts The sliding roof section of the canopy was made from vacu-form leftovers, and some aluminum tape folded around the edges. That was painted then I attached two rods underneath for the window to slide upon. Slightly easier to see the rods from this angle, and since it was now the right way up I finally fitted the observers bang bang machine The next job was to give me palpitations and more than a few breathless moments - the gun sight on the collector ring. I had some ridiculously small brass tubing which appeared to be about the right diameter. The collector ring was drilled - any slip up at this points would be disastrous - the collector ring was painted a number of colors and I couldn't simply touch up any single area as it would be blatantly obvious afterwards. Drilling in the topside was bad enough - the drill was so small I was terrified of it breaking off and leaving a part in the collector ring. But the next part was even worse - the two small stays that held the sight upright - they curved around the front of the collector ring - and the only thing that was going to be able to be used as a securing method was the dreaded cyano! For once it worked ! Then I had the fun of adding the additional sight inside the cockpit - which turned out to be straightforward (thankfully!) Several last minute items were glued back on - the bomb rack on the stub wing, the tail light, the pitot tube etc. It's now Boxing Day 2016 (btw our American colleagues will have to google that term!) and I declare this Lysander FINISHED !.... unless anyone spots some glaringly obvious something or other that I have missed. There follows a number of photo's for no other reason that it's finished, it's going off to the modelling cabinet and I'm going to jump trains over the vehicle forum to carry on with the train carriage build now. in fact, I'll start another post for the finished photo's - there are a few of them!

Just posted this up in ‘Vehicle discussion’ and thought it may be a useful tip for others. For sanding sticks and sponges I sometimes make my own. Hobbycraft, A4 sheets of ‘craft foam’ about 1/8 inch thick, 50p a sheet. Spread on a thin layer of ‘Tacky glue’ and stick on whatever grade of grit wet n dry you want to use. Leave to dry, then use a sharp blade to cut out whatever shape sanding stick/sponge you want. Glue onto a stick or just grip with a pair of tweezers to get into those awkward areas. Mart

A photo of the port side was posted in an Italian modelling site: Source: Modellismopiù

OK, so after de-greasing, soaking, scrubbing and cleaning the MFH engine pieces I'm finally ready for a first look and some drilling and test fitting before the Zero Etch primer goes on. Lots of parts here. About one third of what's in the whole kit. Some lovely detail when you get down to macro level though Gearbox Fuel injector module ( I'll be drilling out the holes for the lines on this ) Some holes already drilled for spark plugs and cable retainers here I also decided to drill the tiny distributor cap holes to take the wires. 14 holes x 2 distributors at this scale had me questioning my sanity at one point, my hand was aching. Much more straight forward than drilling plastic though, no sign of any sidewalls splitting at all. I presume I'll have to re-drill once it's primed and painted but the initial work is done so that should be easy. I'll have do this all again too with the Fujimi engine transkit distributors too. And then, of course, the damn drill bit snapped which has kinda ground the whole priming thing to a halt until I get a new bit ( I bought a few ) One thing I've noticed on the 1/24th version of this kit compared to the 1/12th is there is absolutely no provision for any kind of distributor plugs ( on the distributor or the engine block ) the instructions show the wires going straight to the top of the distributor so whether I paint the base of the wires black or look at dropping some heat shrink over the top of the wire ( or even a dab of painted Kristal Klear like I did on the 956 ) I've yet to decide. Shame really I thought there would be a set of plugs in this kit. And then a test fit of the main engine block. No problems now after the initial frustration the other day, it all fits together nicely now I've done a little jigging, drilling and sanding. I intend to build the MFH and the Fujimi engine in parallel here too but the transkit is still in the post coming over from the US. Should be here in the next couple of weeks hopefully. And that's it really for now, need some damn drill bits to get this bit up and running again. Thanks for looking.

Ok all my good work the other day with the painting was…..well a complete stuff up!! I got my colours completely wrong, for some reason I just used the same colours as I used for the Macchi’s! But as so often is the case there wasn’t a standard set of colours for all aircraft! Each manufacturer basically had their own colour mixes, so these colours were completely wrong for SIAI produced aircraft! Plus each manufacturer had their own camouflage pattern as well and they even varied them! So with the right paint in hand this time she was repainted! This particular aircraft had a “Schema C” pattern which was a network of small mottles in two colours; Verde Mimetico 53192 and Marrone Mimetico 53193 mottle over Giallo Minetico 3 (Camo Green & Camo Brown over Camo Yellow). The underside were Grigio Mimetico (Camo Grey). I still have to redo the undersides, they need to be slightly darker in shade, plus I need to touch up the white band. She so needs her panel lines done, plus I need to do plenty of weathering to help fade the paint more. I’m super happy with the finish, she took ages to do, if I had to comment at all on it, then may be to say the mottle might be a bit too much on the large size. But there was a lot of variations in the patterns between aircraft so I’m not too worried about that. Hopefully progress should be pretty quick now the last major job is done!

Hi fellow modellers, that's my take on the IAF Sufa built from Hasegawa kit. As the base kit is rather ascetic as far as the underwing stores go, I went for Skunkmodels Workshop IAF Weapons set which sourced out the Pythons 4 and Delillah 2. The Litening II and Lantirn pods came from Hasegawa weapon set no.12, while the AIM-120's and fuel tanks are from the kit. The kit was further enhanced with Aires inlet ducting, wheel bays, the exhaust pipe and Eduard Zoom etched. All in all not a cheap affair, but I enjoyed the build as the kit went together without problems. It was painted with Gunze acrylics as per instructions except light green which is applicable for older IAF types like F-4 or Vautour. The actual shade should be more pale, so I went for slightly darkened H74 Sky instead. The plane depicts one of the "The Negev" squadron machines. Be warned tough, being not a hopeless IAF nut I may have missed some features, so please excuse my ignorance:-) Cheers Libor

That brings back memories as this was my first published article! And I never expected then to get some flights in MiG-23s 12 years later. one of my my rides. My driver. The outcome. The MiG-23 is not the best platform for air to air pictures as the view from the rear cockpit is a bit limited. The MiG-29 flights had been more fun (see my avatar). Sorry to go a bit off-topic. Cheers, Peter

Finally calling it done. Here's a link to the building, http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235001342-2015-peterbilt-tri-axle-wrecker-150/

This kit is quite difficult to find nowadays. It was released somewhere end of the 90s by Doyusha with Japan Airlines decals. The kit has recessed windows on the fuselage which need to be filled and sanded if decals are used.The cockpit windows are too small anyway. Panellines are also deeper as on actual kits so the Doyusha 777 shows a bit its age.Its nonetheless superior to the Minicraft offering though...ok,that was not difficult but I had to mention it anyway... Fitting of all parts is very good and as the kit consists only of a few parts,like the Hasegawa 1/200 Boeing 777 kit for example,the build is quick and easy. A nice addition are the 3 different engine options provided by Doyusha,so one can build every version and airline with this kit. The engines are of course much simpler in design compared to the Zvezda kit but they do the job. For my build I opted for the British Airways Landor livery as the first 777 for BA had been delivered in this elegant scheme. The decal set comes from Xtra Decal (Hannants) and provides registrations for 4 aircraft. I chose to build the very first BA 777. Paints used are Revell light grey 371 for the upper fuselage,Humbrol 15 blue for the lower fuselage and engines,Testors Voodoo grey for the wings and Testors metallics. All sealed with Testors metallic sealer and polished with Tamyia Wax. The finished kit,although much simpler than the Zvezda 777-300,still represents a nice 777-200.Too bad as this was the only one in my stash.I would like to make another one...hopefully I find one somewhere ... Cheers,

A fantastic GB and when I had moments to pop online it was fantastic to see such quality, a few stand out builds in there i'm sure you can all agree. Russ at Jadlam is a little busy at the moment with the come down after Christmas, so I can't promise too much in regards to the final standings for the winners and prizes immediately, but we did agree once the new year is over there will be some time. Once the winners have been chosen, then the prizes will be sent out.

G'day people, I am still playing around with the things under wings. The kit provides a nice pair of Sea Eagle missiles. The problem is that the air intake as depicted is for an in-flight missile. The Sea Eagle is powered by a paraffin fuelled turbojet engine. The intake has an aerodynamic fairing fitted over it when carried by the parent aircraft. Upon launch, the engine is initiated the intake fairing is jettisoned to allow the engine to breathe and propel the missile. I decided to have a crack at replicating the air intake fairing using some scrap resin. The modified intakes were then offered up to the missile proper The back end of the kit missile is just an empty hole. I added some ally tube with a small section of exhaust turbine glued at the inner end. I am not sure where the exhaust turbines came from, I just looked through the spares box until I found something that looked appropriate. I won't be using these on my Falklands jet, but if I ever get around to building another SHAR, they may get a guernsey. cheers, Pappy

Another brief update: Inserted a pin of copper wire to connect the Fowler flap to the rest of the engine nacelles. Hopefully I can dress it up a bit more. The actual connection is a bit more complicated but perhaps I can get a little closer to the look.

Roll-out time.