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Hello all. I just finished the A6M2 Type 0 Model 52 Zero in ATAIU SEA (Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit South East Asia) BI-05. This was a unique find when I was looking for something to complete for an RAF Group Build on another site. I like Japanese aircraft very much and was fortunate to to find decals for it from Rising Decals. The kit is the Hasegawa kit and went together quickly and easily as most 1/72 Hasegawa kits do.

Finally managed to get something finished after a long period of ennui, during which unfinished project have been building up around my workbench. So , here it is , Supermarine Swift F4 ,WK198 , this is the jet that attempted to beat the world speed record. The model represents the aircraft just before the record attempt , as the wing fences were removed for the actual record flights.. The model is a conversion of the 1/48 Falcon Swift FR5 , finish is from a Halfords rattlecan , Ford Riviera blue. Andrew

My take on Roden's Lockheed C141b Starlifter finished off using Caracal Decals. The only mod I made to the kit was to lower the windows of the rear emergency escape doors. Otherwise it's a cracking kit but I have to admit that the paintwork very nearly pushed me over the edge. Standard 4 x 4 walkaround : ...with an extra for good luck Okay, so my paintwork isn't entirely accurate but it's in 1/144 and it does have a cheatline ! Time to head off back to the work bench. Thanks for looking. mike

Hello everyone I'd like to present my latest model, first 1:32 Kit Hasegawa ST 29 PE Eduard cockpit+ seatbelts RB Montex mask painted with enamel MM a few photos of the finished model: P-40 E Maj. Edward F. Rector, China 1942. enjoy the photos.

Completed today and finished in a very test weary scheme. Will be on display at Cockpit Fest on the 17th June.

Hi Folks, This is the build that nearly broke me, everything that could've gone wrong went wrong. I bought this kit on flea bay ages ago for a song. It comes with demonstrator or Australian AF schemes. I decided I wanted a Hawk T2 from Xtradecal's excellent 4 sqdn package....................this is where my problems began. Looking at a T2 walkaround I saw that the wing fences on the kit were unlike those on the T2, so more daption and scratch building the fuselage halves didn't fit well and required much filling and sanding to get a good fit........................then you find you should have fitted the tail pipe before closure so you split your flawless work to insert it !!! Undercarriage doors were also a major problem, they are too thick to fit together so I replaced with plasticard. The final insult came when I went to fit the canopy, when the blast screen was fitted the canopy would not seat properly, hence the open canopy(showing the poor interior that wasn't meant to show Believe me this model nearly actually 'flew' on a number of occasions. On the plus side I learned a lot and the supplied stencils were very sparse !!! Cheers, All comments welcome PS: I just noticed the tail fillet is wrong too !!!!

Some days ago Sandbagger shows his Nieuport 11, something I can show here too. This one was flown by Turenne. This was my last finished model 2016. The base of this build was the Eduard weekend edition, but I added the offered PE set and used the precut mask set too. The engine is again a kit from Small Stuff, Gaspatch provided metal turnbuckles and the resin Lewis. The struts, air screw and skid assembly are self made from different kind of wood. The painting was done with Alclad and Gunze, some oils are used for weathering. I hope you will like it, Frank The view from below with real metal plate on the front: Some details, here engine, brass fuel cap and wooden prop: The engine on a 1 Euro Cent coin: And the mentioned wooden/metal skid assembly. The flat spring is from a cordless mouse, because it has to carry the whole model.

Hi All, This is my completed Bf 109 E-3, which I just built for the Messerschmitt Bf 109 STGB. For some reason, I find the kit looks much better in the video than it does in the photos. Build Summary The purpose of the build was to get my Mojo back. So I built it fast, and how I felt, painted it with Humbrol enamels and did the panel lines with a Copic Multi liner marker. I could have taken more time detailing it but didnt really want to. In the end the goal was achieved, feels good to complete a kit in a while. Accuracy is the concern here, just a decent finish, a decent built and decent paint job. Build thread http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235020900-tamiya-172-bf-109-e-3/ Final Reveal Video (Please watch in HD for best results!) Final Photos I hope you all liked the post. As always all comments welcome.

Hi Everyone, My second build, I was recommended by my old mate Richard (Jenko) to have a go at a Tamiya kit and I ordered the 1/32 Spitfire MK1X. Once I started it I couldn't leave it alone and it took me just under two months to complete, two months of pure pleasure. I know Tamiya kits are expensive but you get what you pay for, it goes together so nicely. I made a few mistakes during the build but I learnt a huge amount and hopefully my next effort will be better. I guess the hardest part was painting the camo, I tried free hand with my airbrush but I wasn't happy with the result, then I tried making masks but that didn't work out either. So took Richards advice and used thinly rolled blu-tack and sprayed at 90 degrees and that worked out nicely giving a nice feathered edge. The only part of the kit that didn't work out were the decals, the stencils went on ok but the large Roundels cracked so I replaced them with aftermarket ones from Red Roo models here in Australia depicting a RAAF MK1X from 451 squadron and they went on perfect. Anyway here are some pics for you to check out. Cheers Success with the camouflage. Well I was happy with it, will be better on next project which will be the MK XV1. Jim

Another fairly recent build, this is the Sword Seafire XV of 806 Sqn Fleet Air Arm based on HMS Glory. The Seafire XV was basically a strengthened Seafire III airframe with a Griffon VI engine. This was derived from the Griffon IIb used in the Spitfire XII and unlike the engine in the Spitfire XIV etc. had a single stage supercharger. Compared to the Seafire III, the Seafire XV had an improved performance, particularly at low altitude. The first squadrons received their aircraft in September 1945 and by mid-1946 had completely replaced the Seafire III in first line FAA service. 806 Squadron received their aircraft in October 1945 and became part of 16th Carrier Air Group embarked in HMS Glory in September 1946 and based in the Far East. The Squadron disbanded in October 1947, reforming briefly in 1948 and more permanently with Sea Hawks in 1953. The model is basically the Sword kit from the box with only the addition of seat belts and a whip aerial. The decals are from the kit and I chose this scheme as it was a little unusual in that it was the post war scheme of Extra Dark Sea Grey and Sky but with British Pacific Fleet Roundels. There is a colour photo of the aircraft in Vol 16 of ‘Planes of Fame’. The kit itself posed few problems apart from the perennial problem I have with Spitfire kits of getting a good fit on the wing joints. The canopy could also have been a bit easier, but it was a short run kit and as they go I think it is one of the better ones and a much better kit than my previous effort of building a XV using a conversion kit (Brigade Models?) that used the Italeri IX as a basis. Hope you like it.

Finished today - lovely kit. Painted with Tamiya acrylics, weathered with Oils, Oilbrushers and Pigments Peter

Hi all, Here is another Britannia that I made a few months ago. It has languished on the 99% finished shelf just requiring the addition of antennae, nav lights and a one or two other things not covered by that lot. Transglobe can trace its origins back to the registration of a company called Air Links in 1958 who used a Dakota purchased from Aer Lingus. Over the next few years, Air Links flew a series of inclusive tour flights with the Dakotas and later Hermes aircraft (which commenced operations with Air Links in 1962) all over Europe, sometimes leasing out their aircraft to other operators as required. With the introduction of the three Hermes, the Dakotas left the fleet. However, with the increasing popularity of the IT flights, Air Links began searching for a Hermes replacement and initially thought they had found it when the they started negotiations with BOAC to buy their 100 series Britannias then parked up at Cambridge. But BOAC wanted too much money and Air Links walked away. Aware of the pressing need to replace or supplement the Hermes fleet, Air Links bought some C-4 Argonaut aircraft (there's a beautiful colour picture of G-ALHW resting at Gatwick in June 1965 on page 52 of Adrian Balchs' fantastic book Vintage Glory - this is probably the one book I want to be buried with - I love it) and together the fleet roared all over Europe during the 1965 season carrying passengers to such destinations as Brindisi, Zurich, Barcelona, Palma with some long range charters to the Middle and Far East for MoD trooping flights. May 1965 marked the introduction of the Britannia to Air Links fleet and shortly afterwards changed its name to Transglobe (August 1965). From then on, the Argonaut fleet were slowly withdrawn as more Britannias entered service, with two of the type ready for the start of 1966 operations followed by another in May. Expansion plans by the company saw them purchasing six CL-44 and applications for trans Atlantic passenger routes. Finally being granted permission to operate the CL-44 and given the licences they sought, Transglobe started passenger trans Atlantic charter flights in mid 1968. However, competitors were flying these routes with jets and so a couple of the CL-44 were leased to Trans Mediterranean Airways as passengers preferred the speed and newness of the jets. Suddenly in November 1968 operations ceased as the major shareholding companies sought to wind up the company that had been having financial difficulties for a number of years. As detailed in my IAS Britannia thread, this is the lovely model put out by Roden. This was the first one I built just after its release. I hadn't intended to build it, merely dry assemble it but things went so well that glue was used and by the end of the day the model was more or less built. Painting took the route of Revell matt black enamel then Tamiya XF-2 white followed by a couple of Kleer coats. The underside natural metal was AK Interactive xtreme matt aluminium. This over the matt black didn't work, so next time I'll use a gloss black. Decals came from 26decals and worked very nicely. However, I chose to leave the windows unfilled and noticed that the decal cheatline window spaces didn't fully line up with the kit. Not sure if I stretched the cheatlines a bit applying them, but Revell Aqua Lufthanse blue (I think) matched almost perfectly and was used to touch up. It's been sat on my 99% finished shelf which, sadly, means it'll probably never been fully completed. Once a model ends up there that's it. All i need do is add some antennae, paint a couple of nav lights and that will be it fully finished. Don't study the nose area too closely, the anti-glare panel is a bit rough. On with the pictures Thanks for looking, Jeff

Hi Everyone, First off a small introduction, as I'm new here on the forum. I'm a 32 years old (as of next week) Dutch entrepeneur with passion for passenger aircraft. I only build in 1:144 scale and my goal is to have at least one model of every type of civil aircraft that has room for at least 12 passengers and has a closed cockpit. Usually I build around 8 models per year, but since the birth of my son last year I don't have as much time as I used to obviously . I'm usually active on the Dutch Modelbrouwers.nl forum or the Airlinercafe, but I was directed here by a member (Turbofan) to go and check this site out. With that out of the way I'm pleased to show you my latest build, which is the Roden Vickers VC-10 in the colours of East-African. Build pretty much out of the box, except for the four wing fences that where missing, that I added from styrene. I also sharpened the tailcone as it is a little too blunt. The kit is really good, but I found the decals not too great. The cheatlines don't extend onto the rudder for example. After market decals would probably have been better in retrospect. The window decals are from Authentic Airliners (BAC-1-11). The "photo-realistic" cockpit decal is home made by myself (which I have made for a lot of other builds as well, such as my recent Trident model) Anyway, enough talk. On with the pictures! I'm aware that in the last picture the hind wheels aren't completely touching the ground. That has since been corrected. Thanks to Turbofan for some building tips. My next project will be an A330-300 in KLM colours that has long been overdue. If you guys like I can make a WIP thread out of it. Cheers!

2 long cool G&Ts out t'back and I had to come back to the coolth of the bench for a bit. Head buzing and wanted to get a few more fiddly bits under the belt before the weeks starts...(We desperately need a gin & tonic emoticon in the forum toolkit...) Hope you're day is going ok as well. Seeing what's at stake I shall be keeping an earnest eye out for floats for you Martian. Hear hear! No. But my chicken-people do little T! Lazy git that I am I still haven't got to the poly tunnel. The spirit of Monty Don is weak in this one... Thanks Ced. I've been at it like a fiddler crab the last hour - see below... Thanks Terry. Once I've got the interior kitted-out I think some judicious drawing out of the door to work out what's needed.... Pray do not over-excite yourselves brethren, but I've added some mountings for the central rail: 0.8mm tubing squeezed in flat-head pliers to produce a mating surface for the rail, the the tubular ends bent over at 90 degrees and inserted into holes drilled into the ceiling. One each for back and front of the rail. There seems to be another mounting point halfway down the fuselage as well, so I've added this out of scrap PE: Closer in: I also needed to work out exactly whereabouts a couple of oxygen bottles are mounted up on the ceiling over the fuel tanks on the starboard side, so it seemed wise to put floor and celing together for dry fit to check that the overall look and scale is still ok: The bottles themselves are made from kit sprue, rounded off on the lathe with a curved chisel and nail file: The mounting plates are just canniblaized Barracuda wing racks that seemed to match the profile of the relevant parts on this kit: I need to chop the ends of those racks down so that they are flush with the edges of the tanks one the glue has dried and add a bit of piping around the base; both tanks and rail I'll leave off attaching to the ceiling until after painting the interior to avoid any making unecessary work in terms of masking off parts. In reference photos those tanks have bright yellow uper surfaces and bright blue undersides - I wonder does that have any significance as colour coding? That's it for today - wishing you all a pleasant evening. Tony

They are rather delicate creatures aren't they? . . . . No two reference pictures the same? Perish the thought! Luckily there were publicity stills of the crew inside the rear of Pelican 9 taken immediately upon landing with the Discoverer 14 film capsule and that only shows the small ladder on the port side, the longer one isn't there. John - they were rather more photogenic weren't they? Unfortunately the panels of insulating material across ther roof in the C-119 were streteched out rather more taught across the ceiling, akin to the way leather is stretched and pinned with buttons on an armchair or sofa. I must admit to being more taken with the mule style myself but had I done so, I'd have had to explain to the forum why I'd done up the interior as 'Milady's Boudoir'! (I bet @perdu recognizes the Aunt Dahlia reference...) 'Do they know it's Christmas-time at all?' Presumably aircrew had to be explicitly ordered to aim at the target and not the tug.... Only a modest increment to report as the Triffid home planet polytunnel is in such a neglected state I need to go make it fit for my lettuce people. Tarting up the boudoir mainly, giving a bit more visual variety to the surface and adding some reinforcing strips along the edges of the respective ionsulation panels: I also hit upon a moreaccurate way of matching the appearrance of the lights so redid the back four, as these will be the most visibleof the set at the end: Essentially the same 2mm foil disks pricked from behind to produce a small light-bulb; the difrence this time around is that when gluing, iof you press them into place at the centre using a 1mm hole punch, this produces a rather acccurate concave dimple around the bulb, as per the real thing. That's all been sealed with a coat of Klear now, plus I've finished off the small separate section from right at the back, adding the square holes for the ladder mount to go up into later on: The wrinkles on that back part look more pronounced than the rest but they'll diminsh as the glue dries out and shrinks back. Next tasks over the course of the week are to knock up the various roof details i.e., brackets to mount the paratainer rail down the centre, a couple of oxygen tanks, plus the aforementioned ladder stub for the port side. There is some framing/station structure to add above the roof to be visible through the central portion of the ceiling of course, plus what look like a few runs of control cabling (I think that's what they are but without a maintenance manual can't be sure) that I reckon 0.4mm piano wire wil be perfect for. You can see the kind of stuff I mean here in this medevac shot: Image credit: Brian Wolfe Oh. One other thing. I found a .pdf guide that Italeri put out with their other 'C' version of this aircraft. The photos ain't great in many cases but there are some very good reproductions of maintenance drawings - station and spar details provided in this are particularly good (though too late for me in some if I'd had this at the start of the build I wouldn't have needed to try all that jiggery-pokery with desperspectivizing interior photos) There is in particular a very handydrawing showing the structure of the beaver-tail dooor and associated mounting. You can't have failed to notice that I haven't mentioned that part of the aircraft at all as the whole thing will need to be scrach built and will be a major sub-project of this build. Very charmingly Italeri suggest in this publication that trying to make a 'J' from their kit is 'a major undertaking'! Ho, and indeed, hum... Tony

Thanks guys for all the lovely comments. I have managed a little time at the bench this Saturday. Iets begin with masking. here we are ready for the O.R it took longer than I thought it would to do that. Once done I was about to pre shade when. how did I miss that? So out with a little milliput. all better. Smoothed with a little water and left to set. then pre shade. all good. then a light coat of olive drab. waiiiiiiit a minute that's not olive drab! Damn it I accidentally used the cockpit colour I had out. right, not to worry I'll mix up a light olive drab mix to bring out the center panels. then lightly spray over the top with a thinned olive drab. That's better. let it all dry then off with the tape. Nice. The over spray will be covered by the turbo chargers and the canopy overspray is in the T tape so no trouble there. I'm happy with that. Next the nose and the tail. Thanks for looking in. All the best and Happy Modelling guys. Johnny Drab.

Hi all , this is Airfix's Mustang, another great little kit from them. I used Eagle Cal's P-51D decal sheet, and chose the Thunderbird option. When I was doing a bit of extra tidying I managed to take half the logo off the nose with masking tape, bringing the build to an abrupt premature end...so these are the pics I took just before that point, warts and all. (if anyone has the Eagle Cal sheet with the unused T-bird logo I'd be happy to buy/swap btw...) C&C always welcome, thanks for looking in. All the best, Dave.

Look what you've gone and done @Killingholme Italeri hub's, FROG tyre's, it didn't take too long either. John

Thanks Giorgio, Johnny and Stew - oh, how I miss airbrushing! Thanks Rob and John. It looks fine from a distance but not close up: Not too obvious brush marks but what are those bubbles / lumps? Weird. I'm not sure what 'a good rub down' means in this context (fnaar!) but I did give it a going over with 8000 Micro-mesh, trying NOT to end up with white ribs: Then I thinned some paint 50/50 with Humbrol thinners and brushed it on: Not surprisingly it hasn't covered very well and I got more bubbles so I may do another thin coat later. Weird stuff this H15 Blue - it looks dark but it stains, really stains, the brushes 'light teal'. My patience is being tested - not much left! Hannants have despatched the RAF transfers but no news from Fantasy yet. I think some time on house jobs is required today.

Hi Will There is one way to find out, stay tuned! AS for the High Planes Kit, I've not built the B.57A but I have the RB.57D and I've just had a look at the wheels, the hub is the same as the Italeri kit but it looks like they may have corrected the size issue, but it's hard to tell for sure as it has a lot of flash around it. Yes Bill I did say, but because it's you I'll tell you again, She's going to be a very early Able Mabel RB.57E in silver, John

It's been a while, but I've finally finished a ship! This is a scratch build of HMS Jamaica that I kicked off about 2 1/2 years ago, but then stalled while I collected a few accessories and brass sets. My aim was to model her configuration in December 1943 during the Battle of NorthCape. Here's the rest of the photos: Closeups And a couple of shots alongside my HMS Sheffield, also at both North Cape nad Berents Sea battles: I'll try to be a bit quicker off the mark with HMSs Belfast, DoY and Norfolk... Andrew

evening folks thanks for dropping in so, on to whats been happening - I have been a bit slow lately as my day job has changed where I have double the responsibility and double the people for no more money (go figure...) so bouts at the bench have been limited by new demands.. ..I needed to start making up the panel on the other side where the camera lens is - you can see here it is on TZ138 - just a window rather than set into a door like the other side... ..again the panel is laid out in tape on the model.. ..this is then detailed and the window laid out... ..and the panel before being rolled flat to stop all the detail looking 'blown'... ...now on to preparing the fuselage to attach the panel - it is masked and hinged to a bit of tape so the positioning is right... ..after that, the panel sitting below the camera window was prepped.. ..and both attached to the airframe.. more panels to come - I have a numbered order to do them in so they overlap in the right way - I also need to just do some more tests as these panels are from a new batch of metal and it seems to be reacting differently to the finishing process, the older stuff seems to polish up to a mirror finish, whereas this is needing a bit more work.. thats it for now... TTFN Peter

A little more done this weekend. I've never really done dioramas but though I might have a go with this one. I like the idea of a model ship in water but am less enthusiastic about waterlining the model. I like a full hull. There's a young Korean man by the name of Lee Won-Hui (who westernises to Won-Hui Lee due to western social media displaying the family name last) who makes incredible dioramas using tinted epoxy for water. I would like to try that. Likewise, a long-term customer of mine by the name of Alan Bird makes rather nice warship models too and his recent 1/200 HMS Rodney was a full hull model on pedestals featuring ratings sat on boards hanging down painting the hull. I liked that idea too so have thought I'd try to combine the two. So to summarise - I'm well out of my comfort zone here. Still, if I want to get better I have to push myself a little! Now then, time for some paint. According to my reference - the WEM published book on IJN Greys, Mogami was painted in the Kure Naval Arsenal's shade of grey from 1935 until sunk at Leyte Gulf in 1944. IJN02 Kure Grey is the lightest of the 4 Colourcoats IJN greys. Granting myself a little artistic license though, I used some IJN04 Yokosuka Grey left over in the airbrush jar after teaching Gill how to build up a shaded, patchy coat with the airbrush in close for her Akagi build, and I painted the whole hull badly and very unevenly in the slightly different shade. I then tried the rusting technique I'd seen by wetting the model with the relevant thinners and touching on a rusty colour, letting it disperse into the thinner. I used Tamiya X-9 Brown with Xtracrylics thinners for this. Although a strong brown, the Tamiya paint gives a nice reddish rusty tone when used this way and doesn't hassle the enamel underneath. And cruel closeup To be honest I planned to go quite heavy on this for effect and may have overdone it, but I'm telling myself it'll work out fine in the end... IJN10 Linoleum was brush painted. I didn't feel like masking today. And the quarter deck received some dirty wash using whichever Tamiya paint is the tyre black colour. This is heavily shadowed so I deliberately went OTT here in the hope that something would be apparent in the shadows. That dried, and it was on to stage 3 of the master plan. This is why I didn't use IJN02 Kure Grey to paint the hull first time around - I masked with blutac squarish areas and sprayed in them with the Kure Grey without much patchy shading to represent freshly applied paint. To try to enhance the effect slightly, I sprayed a light satin clearcoat over the fresh Kure Grey. My cunning plan is that the painters will be positioned on boards hanging down looking like they're part way through repainting the ship.

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Hi all, This is my completed Tamiya 1/72 Bf 109 E-3. Build Summary The purpose of the build was to get my Mojo back. So I built it fast, and how I felt, painted it with Humbrol enamels and did the panel lines with a Copic Multi liner marker. I could have taken more time detailing it but didnt really want to. In the end the goal was achieved, feels good to complete a kit in a while. Build thread is here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235020900-tamiya-172-bf-109-e-3/ Final Reveal Video Final Photos I hope you all liked the post!

This is Tamiya's 40 year old kit, OOB except for replacing the plastic latch arms with metal ones: Regards J A

Hi All, Niko 1/700 HMS Hardy, done as HMS Faulknor. Still working on the Base, will not be using the one here. This for me is more of a test of photoimage to see if I can upload from my phone as I'm far to lazy to put the pictures onto the computer. The kit is spot on for my money, the detail of the resign is very fine. The photoetch is delicate but forgiving to clumsy hands and the wire for the masts is supplied in a good quantity, as it keeps pinging off all over the place! For me the only thing the kit could benifit from would be turned barrels, but I'm not capable of fitting them so no loss to me! Comments and feedback greatly appreciated. Geoff

Hi everyone. I am still here and still with AMK. Been extremely unwell but working hard on my own company and AMK stuff. So much to do with such little time. The reason we are asking for preorders is so we can assess when the release date will be. We guarantee that we will release the D on December 1st if we hit a magic 5000 preorders globally. This is because we still have to do other work to keep the factory going. The company is doing well but it’s a risk making a run of 5000 and declining other work. If we get the 5000 preorder then we will release the kit in time for Christmas. If not, then we will still release the kit but we cannot guarantee the date. I wish we could but we can’t. Kfir is released next month. Boy, you’re going to love it! Cheers and sorry for my absence of late.

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Thanx guys, I have made some progress today. Because there is no need for a cockpit in the Ju-88 this can go fast. Here are some pictures. O, I need to remember it will be big. The first thing to do was to make the tailwheel parts. here a picture without and later painted with RLM02 from Tamiya over a coat of black. Now that was finished I put the fuselage together with all the ribs etc. This was done in about 20 minutes. As it was taped I removed the front part for the war head. This was done on the line from the cockpit edge and front of the bulkhead. Than I put some strips in the front to support the warhead. And I thinned down the inner lip of the warhead so the strips will fit. As you can also see the resin warhead is hollow. It is still heavy enough, so before I closed the fuselage earlier I placed some lead in the tail. And Finally the warhead was matted to the fuselage. The fit was quite good. There are a few small gaps, but nothing really serious. It is a big sucker, but looks good. Now it will be time to do the wings. Cheers,

These last few days I have been spending my time mostly getting the cabin seats painted up. As with the rest of the detail painting thus far it has been time consuming but rewarding. I have also added the long support struts running from the top of the transmission housing to the rear of the transmission deck. The sonar well and sonar bouy have been painted up and Eduard seat belts added to the pilot's and co-pilot's seats. Next up I have to find what I did with all the black boxes associated with the sonar that I so painstakingly constructed so that I may start getting them painted up. Another room tidy I guess! Post Image having issues today so its back to Phototurd for this update. Thanks for looking Martian

Thanks very much gents Jason I hope you will do a post on BM when your book is ready, that's how I found out about the first one Progress sort of skidded to a halt yesterday as the primer revealed that the seams I thought I had dealt with were merely biding their time and need a bit more merciless eradication. I did the undersides yesterday but then somehow me and the dog ended up in the Brewdog bar and... well, that was Saturday pretty much down the u-bend after that (I regret nothing) so I'll have to re-do the upper fuselage spines again today. Never mind. Cheers, Stew

Thanks Cookie and Giorgio Thanks Stix - great to have you overseeing this - I aspire to your brushed finishes. Coat five. i think the nacelles and certainly the struts are done. Perhaps one more coat on the wings: Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

I've started to go through my old RFI's which both Photobucket and Village Photos have managed to mess up, one way or another. Instead of having to click on each one twice to see them (and risk going into VP which has no security certificate), I'm uploading them again. Apologies to those who've already seen them, and thanks for your understanding. Basically, what this is, is Tamiya's M1 Sherman upper hull and turret, Dragon's M4 Hybrid lower hull and running gear, T49 tracks from Panda Plastics, and Sabingamartin decals. The WIP is still there, but minus the photos. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I finished this a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't want to put it into RFI until I'd put it on a base and added a couple of crew members. Well, now that's done. I used the two figures that came with the Tamiya kit but I wasn't happy with the faces. Most of the figures supplied with kits are a little lacking when it comes to definition with regards to the facial features. For me, nothing beats the resin variety. So I changed the heads for ones from Hornet. Unfortunately, the only ones that I had were British, but I thought that there were many Europeans who emigrated to Israel after WW2, so they'd have to do. I made the base using a small picture frame bought from Wilkinsons, balsa wood for the sides and polyurethane foam sheet. I wanted to keep it fairly simple, so I mixed up some household filler, PVA glue and some yellow ochre acrylic paint with water, and spread the mix over the top of the foam. Before it went off, I gently pushed the tracks down into the mix. Once it had hardened, I added some clumps of grass. It would have been better if they had been a bit more parched, but once again, I used what I had. If you want to see the build log, it's here; Any questions, comments or criticisms, please feel free. Thanks for looking. John.

Hello In the meantime when I'm finishing building next two yellow models: I'm have started with next model with series "Yellow wings". This time I'm taking with something bigger. Resin model Martin T4M from polish factory Ardpol. Ardpol have some models which are close to my collection, one of this -T4M is very atractive - big biplane, with torpedo and outside machine gun in rear cockpit, plus especially interestig interior of plane. American torpedo-bomber was used by US NAVY between 1928 and 1938, and now my turn use this konstruction;) I have started from building engine - small warm-up before harder things. Next, this what I like - interior: Before: After: BTW. My documentation:) -> http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/116328-martin-t4m-1-torpedo-bomber-circa-1930/&. Thanks for attention and to the next time:) Chears, Jaro

Group shot of the kit and extras, (small set of turned brass guns and antenna still in transit): Might go with the bottom scheme of the Nachtjagdgruppe, so good thing the kit has a spiral decal as none are provided by H-Models set. Going fo an inflight model, so a resin pilot from PJ Productions replaces the sort of chunky looking injected one. Canopy mask are designed for AZ Models, but hope they prove of some use here. regards, Jack

Hi guys, here is my latest build, the Eduard Macchi MC 202. It is the Hasegawa kit with Eduard goodies. i've added the brassin engine bay. This build will appear in a future issue of the french magazine Wingmasters. Cheers, Manu.

To mark the retirement of the RF4E from Hellenic Air Force service and the disbanding of 348 squadron a spotters' day and formal retirement ceremony was held at Larissa air force base. Although initially limited to 300 places, overwhelming demand to attend led to just over 500 enthusiasts from 28 countries being granted access to the spotters day Thursday 4th May. As to be expected security was tight but despite the numbers, entry and processing was carried out pretty quickly and the whole day was efficiently run. The organisers had very helpfully laid out a crowd line of what must have been at least 2,000 feet along the southern taxiway to allow everyone plenty of room. There was also a souvenir stall which was busier than the first day of the Harrods sale. We were treated to several sorties by the resident Phantoms and F16s of 337 squadron as well as a practice flight by the T6 from Team Daedalus and the F16 from Zeus both of which were displaying on the Friday. The F4s, along with a Mirage 2000 and an F16 were also practicing their formation for Friday's ceremony. Unfortunately they practiced (quite naturally) along their crowd line which was at the western end and at 90 degrees to the runway which meant they were quite a way away and on the Friday we were facing the sun which was obviously not great for photos. We would love to have had them do a practice down the runway of course! A few low passes and top sides would have been terrific and although the squadron had opted for a flying programme to benefit the spotters the final decision regarding the flying was out of their hands. The Friday saw the base open to the public for speeches and a religious ceremony combined to mark the squadron's disbanding. I reckoned the spotters present outnumbered the locals 2:1. The airshow consisted of the mixed formation flypast, the three F4s and Zeus and Daedalus as mentioned. Everybody was then allowed onto the apron for a closer look at the flagship Phantom, a retired RF84 and an F16. By midday it was all over and time to leave the base. The weather was officially scorchio and so while much, much better than standard UK issue grey overcast the heat haze was unhelpful. A huge thank you to the Hellenic Air Force and the personnel of 348 squadron and the 110th Combat Wing at Larissa for putting on such a great event and which was entirely free of charge as well. For those interested the June edition of "Combat Aircraft" magazine has a 12 page spread on 348s Phantoms. I picked mine up from the newsagent this morning but have yet to read it. 1. Today, for you, we make the exception. 2. 3. 4. The flagship. 5. The old adage - follow the smoke and you'll find your Phantom. Spot the second one. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Friday's flypast. Unfortunately we were facing the sun. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. The coolest job in the world. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. The pilots did a great job. Turning towards the crowd and stopping along the taxiway as well. 23. 24. 25. 26. 26. It was intended that we get access to these by being bussed over using an hourly service. I was told that the busses arrived when everybody was along the crowd line photographing the flying Phantoms and thinking there was no interest the buses disappeared never to be seen again! 27. Team Daedalus. 28. Good luck waiting for the crowd to clear. 29. 30. Contrary to expectations the base museum was not accessible on the Friday which was a huge shame. 31. There is a memorial in the south-east corner of the base outside the wire and which sits on a mound some 25 feet high. Taken from there. 32. Worn with with pride! 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. There were a few of these littering the airfield. 40. A sad sight. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. That's the lot. Thanks for looking

Having firmly forbidden myself any new WNW Sopwith Camel until I had finished at least one of the old Academy kits in my stash, I did this one with a Part/Poland etch set and a home-made decal for the personal insignia. New Zealand ace Harold F. 'Kiwi' Beamish flew with No. 3 Naval (later No. 203 Sq. RAF) on the Western Front, credited with 11 victories in some 500+ hours of combat flying, most of it in Camels. He scored 4 of those victories in 'Tiki' (N6377) during the summer/autumn of 1917. Poor 'Tiki' ended up on her back following a landing accident, but Beamish apparently took the panel with his personal markings with him home to New Zealand, where it was proudly displayed on the wall of his home. New Zealand's last surviving WW1 fighter pilot, he passed away at the age of 90 in 1986. The Part p-e set provided a lovely interior, detail parts for engine and control surfaces, and lots of tiny rigging brackets (with separate attachment parts, no less) which I used with EZ-Line (and lots of CA) for the flying and landing wires. Major mods to kit parts included adding styrene-rod pushrods and brass-tube and rod spark plugs to the engine, and cutting the kit-molded 'rigging loops' from all the struts. Guns are kit breeches with the Part set's p-e jackets and faces/ringsights. Most tedious of all---but necessary---was sanding down the molded rib detail on wing and control surfaces, which looked more like corrugated sheet-metal than the fabric-over-rib surfaces we all know and love. Paints are my own mixes of Tamiya acrylics, weathered/textured with oil glazes and drybrushing. Decals are almost entirely from the old-but-sturdy kit sheet, with name and serials made up from railroad letter/number sets. Beamish's personal insignia---the golden fern leaf, iconic symbol of his beloved New Zealand---was made up from a tweaked online image of a real fern leaf, and printed on my home inkjet. Great fun, and rather an absorbing project once I got into it. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Hi folks, here is my newly completed Hasegawa Hawker Typhoon MkIb of Wing Commander Davidson, the leader of No.143 Wing in May 1944. I like building kits that have a relevance or a geographical proximity and this aircraft was briefly based at RAF Funtington in West Sussex which is not too far from me and is somewhere I always just thought was a load of pig farms, until I started looking into its history and found the role it played during D-Day! Nowadays there is a Qinetiq establishment shown in the photo below. Where the road is, was roughly one of the runways running East/West: The kit was airbrushed with Xtracrylix over a black base. Extras include resin wheels, exhaust, vac canopy and Ultracast British bombs. Decals by Avieology. Thanks to Chris Thomas for a lovely reference photo. Next time will be a Mustang MkIII that also flew from Funtington. Cheers Nick

Used the new Caracal sheet. OOB otherwise.

The railings on top of the Wheelhouse are now completed, it took some careful measuring and cutting because the support post spacing were the wrong distances. I decided to fit the flag next. Rather than just wrapping it around the top of the mast I thought I would fly it like a proper flag. I cut the flag out, I think it’s a waterslide decal but I didn’t fancy trying to get the two sides lined up, folded it half and glued some nylon thread inside the fold. I used the back of a scalpel blade to “curl” the flag up a bit. I tied the top part of the flag (hoist?) to the mast ok but had no end of fun (?) trying to get the bottom end of the thread tied to the base of the mast. Having spent the best part of an evening doing this you can hardly see it. I finished painting the 2 Lifeboats and glued them in place. I am in the middle of painting the 2 Steam launches. When I painted the main deck with primer I accidentally dislodged one of the mounting brackets for a Steam Launch and couldn’t find it. I cut some P.E. fret to size and filed the cut out. It’s not exactly like the other mounts but once it has a Steam Launch on it no one will notice. I have started to fit the railings that go round the edge of the ship. Using the handle of a scalpel to roll over the railing on my cutting mat to curve the railing, I soon had the correct curve. I have one railing fitted, and one partly fitted. The picture of the completed ship shows the 2 Anchors just sitting on the front of the deck. This to me looks a bit strange so I found some chain in a wooden deck pack I have for the Borodino that’s waiting to be built. I opened up a link on the chain and it fitted nicely in the hole on the Anchor, it was glued and the 6 links that are needed were painted black. I will fit them once the railings are finished. I am going to give the decks a coat of varnish to hid the numerous glue marks that show up and then fit the propellers, all 6 of them. I have them all made, remembering to angle the blades on 3 of them the opposite way to the other 3, and gluing on the small conical bits that go on Propellers. Hopefully by the end of the week you might see the finished ship in the RFI.

Hi all, Here are a few pics of a quick build I did. This built straight from the box. Hope you enjoy the pics. Rod [URL=http://s806.photobucket.com/user/rodbettencourt/media/A4-4.jpg.html][/URL]

Hi guys Here are the final photos of the Consolidated PB2Y Coronado JX501. I hope you like it. Many thanks for your help Cheers Santiago

A little more on the Kate today. The pit is installed and painted as well as the interior fuse. Next will be mating the fuse and wings then adding the stabilizers and rudder. The kit is fitting very will and the interior detail is quite nice.

- ThE Firebar is very fashionnable as it appears in those days. - Here is mine. Mostly OOB; I wanted to built it with the long radome but it was missing in my kit , losted ? I don't know II didn't pay attention wether it was in the kit or not - You can even see other Firebars practising over head

Hello gentlemen, I've finished this little bird recently. It comes out of the Eduard Limited Edition kit, which is basically Hasegawa kit with some extras. I've added some more from Eduard range, namely wheels, nozzle, PE set, ordnance and RBF flags. Quickboost came for the rescue with gun barrels and the bang seat. I've added refueling probe tip from Master and accessory from Hauler/Brengun. Except stencils and several smaller decals it's all painted mostly with Mr. Paint colors and Gunze Mr. Color (C range). Depicted airframe served aboard of USS Oriskany (CV-34) during WestPac Cruise 1969 on Yankee Station, which marked the first deployment of VA-195 Dambusters with their famous eagle emblem and their last deployment on Scooters. I hope you like the result.

Royal Malaysian Aux Air Force Circa 1950 till 1960 DH chimpunk Kit 1/48 Heritage Aviation Thanks brian

That's the rigging finished,on to the aircraft,a swordfish with floats,the model comes with another Walrus.There is no model of a swordfish with floats ,so stole one from Hermes and floats (Japanese) from the spares box.