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Well, what can I say? Venerable old Matchbox - the kits of my childhood (yes, that old) I love Meteors so much that I decided to re-scribe this one, not something I usually do... The rest is OOB, except seat belts from tape and wingtip lights made from clear plastic. Used only slight pre-shading as most photos show them quite clean. Wheel wells were left untouched though, didn't have the nerves.

Hi all. A great flypast with some rarely seen types. Sorry for the heat haze in some of them! EDIT: They were sharp until I uploaded them to Google Photos!

I built this Il-2 last year. It is on a small base together with a refueler truck. All color is Vallejo. This is supposed to be on an airfield close to Berlin in spring 1945. Hope you like it a bit, this was my second model after some 30 years doing no (static) models.

G'day, Havent put anything up in a while. House moving, settling in, Life etc. Anyway this is a Tamiya 190A-8 'converted'to the A-7. more or less. I actually built it to paint stage back in 2015 and then packed it away over the Queensland summer. At the endof summer we sold up and moved. So I eventually this year dragged the box out from a much diminished stash and decided to finish it. It represents a 190A7 of 2/JG 1 early 1944. decals were from an old Aeromaster sheet plus nose stripes from elsewhere. Sundry references were consulted. For those interested it was sprayed in Vallejo/Italeri RLM 76 with a mix of Tamiya and some Gunze acrylics for the rest. I do like Vallejo paints but I always have a hard time using them one way or another. The brush used was an Iwata HP-CS with fine tip. Final weathering and varnish (Pledge Floor shine ..the Future down under) with an old Badger! It was a lot of fun and I was pleased with the outcome and not too many cock ups (well for me anyway) So the first photo is of it primed and pre-shading added. Second is with the finished colour coats applied and masking removed and varnish sprayed ready for decalling. The rest is the finished article. cheers JH

Straight from the movie, Battle of Britain, comes "Yellow 7", a Hispano Buchon Bf109E. Academy 1/48 kit, with the wing tips squared off and guns added to the upper engine cowl, as in the movie. Decals are from my spares, apart from the Staffel shield, which was hand painted. Yellow nosed sweetheart by Paul Carter, on Flickr Yellow nosed sweetheart by Paul Carter, on Flickr Yellow nosed sweetheart by Paul Carter, on Flickr Yellow nosed sweetheart by Paul Carter, on Flickr Yellow nosed sweetheart by Paul Carter, on Flickr

So, I had a spare F-16C kit, and I always wondered what a stealth F-16C would have been like had the USAF gone down that route. It was a challenge, but a fun one. If you think HaveGlass V is hard to paint, try the stealth coating of an F-22/F-35 on a F-16 when you have zero reference material. Anyway, here it is: ...... I hope you like, and sorry if you didn't find it funny

Hi everybody, Been busy the last weeks and made an other one, was the first model i bought and kept it untill i had the feeling i could do it because it wasn't a easy model to make... I only make Tamiya for the moment as they fit wonderfull and are a easy task but the paint job was difficult... I hope you can enjoy and as always, feel free to let me know what you think as i can only learn from it but keep in mind this in only the third model i have made... Now started with the Tamiya Corsair... As always the paint i used was only Tamiya and painted it with my airbrush, otherwise straight out the box...

My 1940 interest bubble started to grow when I realised that I wanted to model examples of as many operational aircraft from all sides that flew during the year. That would have to include trainers, communications, transport and so on. Trainers could often be seen lurking about on operational airfields, too, where they would be used to brush up on flying skills, or ferry pilots about. Miles M.9 Master MkI The principal advanced trainer for the RAF at the start of World War Two was the Miles Master. Many years ago I built the Frog MkIII, the one with the Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior radial engine. I've now got the Eastern Express repop of the Frog model, which I might get round to extracting from its shell of flash when I feel masochistic enough! The Pegasus very limited run kit for the MkI came my way from an online store up in the Midlands. It is a proper cottage industry injection moulded model, which needed a lot of work to get anywhere near looking adequate. I believe there is a better kit out there somewhere, so one day this poor thing will become an instructional airframe right at the back of the cabinet! The provided decals were hopeless, essentially falling apart at the sight of water, so I cobbled together markings from various sheets in stock. It was painted with Xtracrylics, and I didn't do a very clever job with the trainer yellow - then again, it's one of those colours that is very hard to get right. Miles M.14 Magister MkI Many pilots got their first taste of flying in the classic Tiger Moth trainers. The Magister was intended to introduce trainees to monoplane characteristics. It is recorded that something like 40 Fighter Command squadrons had a Magister on strength! Like the Master, I built the Frog kit many years ago. Indeed, I still have it, albeit in pieces in a box somewhere. It's unlikely ever to be reconstructed, however, since RS Models produced a state-of-the-art kit a while ago. The kit I bought was the so-called "Maggie Bomber", where several Magisters (and Tiger Moths) were experimentally fitted with racks to carry eight 25lb bombs. These were intended to be used in the event of a German invasion in 1940. Thankfully, they were never called upon to carry out such an obviously suicidal mission, but I suppose that was the thinking at the time. I decided not to attempt to fold up the PE bomb racks. They were so spindly I felt they wouldn't survive first contact on being cut from the fret. So, my Maggie is a squadron hack, with the spatted undercarriage and the blind flying hood on the rear cockpit. Other training types ought to make it into my collection. The thing is, where do you stop? I'm okay with Airspeed Oxfords, but what about Couriers, Envoys, Queen Wasps, Cambridges? I plan on acquiring a new tool Airfix Tiger Moth soon, but there were other De Havilland types as well. If I am not careful my training and support flight will outnumber the offensive and defensive flights in my collection!

Hi guys, the Colombian Army modified a small number of M8s to carry a quad .50 caliber machine gun mount. So, after a long pause I decided to build this interesting modernized version, with a beautiful camouflage scheme, and I will use as a base one M8 Greyhound from Tamiya, code 35228, and one Quad Gun Trayler M55 from Dragon, code 6421. Necessary changes: raise the engine covers; change the position of the exhaust pipe; scratchbuild the air brake system on the rear axle, front mirrors, quad gun base and headlights, and others small things. No details inside due to lack of references... The vehicle and your amazing camouflage scheme. No markings visibles in some vehicles: Rear view (see the different exhaust muffler and new air brakes): Steps 1, 2 and 3 from Tamiya instructions ready...an easy and fast assembly: Some simple little modification: the raised "diesel" engine deck and new exhaust muffler: Now, I adapted the base of the quad on the upper structure of the hull: New progress...new exhaust muffler on place: A gasoline engine power driven charger and the battery located in the rear of the mount...I'm added some little details in scratch (but in the photos above the general power charger group appears to have been removed (????) - I do not know when and why) : A little more progress... That's all for now...

British Aerospace Hawk T.Mk.1, No.151 (Fighter) Squadron, Royal Air Force Chivenor, Devon, England, July 1983 Built this new re-release of Airfix Hawk T1 kit to reprise a 1980s build I did with a Matchbox kit This modern kit has the later ejector seat style so I re-used some Aerooclub Martin-Baker Mk10 seats from that original build which add detail, nose weight and replicate the correct early style of seat. The enamel painted metal castings were stripped back with oven cleaner then repainted. Rest of the model is pretty much as it comes from the box, little bits of filler were needed. All paint is acrylic - Hataka RAF Paint Vol. 2 was used mainly with MIG Ammo varnishes before and after decals. Wheel wells were painted and then masked with the closed undercarriage door parts attached using Maskol. Dark Sea Grey was applied over a Vallejo primer undercoat; camouflage was then masked using re-scaled printed scan of instruction sheet as a guide to cut Tamiya tape sections. Beige (Games Workshop Bleached Bone!) canopy surround was mixture of painted decal film for edges with centre strip being masked using print of Eduard mask set as a guide to cut more Tamiya tape. Pitot was replaced with a piece of stretched sprue as cleaning up kit part with 2 large sprue attachment points looked destined for failure. Work in progress pictures here: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=cjhm airfix hawk Lots more pictures here: http://blog.cjhm.net/172-airfix-hawk Base is from Coastal Kits Hope you enjoy

In the real world of military vehicle collectors, the "Holy Grail" would be to find an original Jeep in its shipping crate. Of course, other than those at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in the holds of sunken ships, it's very unlikely anyone will ever find one. The whole "Jeep in a crate for $50" idea came from a post war scam, trying to con people out of their money. However, there are a number of photos around the net showing Jeeps in crates, although how they were packed and how disassembled they were seems to vary from picture to picture. This model was built for a friend, with the hood number matching his Jeep. The Jeep is from the Italeri kit with a scratch built crate from ramin strip wood and 1/32 birch plywood. The metal tie down straps are black painted paper, with painted wire over paper holding the wheels into the tub. It is presented in an A4 box frame.

Thanks Ian. Good to hear you're getting settled in and that the necessities of life will soon be with you. Which window will you be behind I wonder? 😀 Ta Simon. I'd best stop now lest the whole thing become engulfed in the silvery stuff and become a foil-wrapped chicken.... Blimmin' 'ot. Much more of this and I might become contented with life.... I got both sets of intakes faired-in: I discarded the original plan to cut those panels out on the Silhouette as it was a simpler job to simply apply the foil to the wing, trim to size and shape before slicing horizontally along the opening to rub the foil in around the lip of the ducting with a blunt cocktail stick: Finally I could delay sorting out the flaps no longer, so wedged them in to approximate the way that they're angled in reference shots of Pelican 9 swooping on the capsule: Looks about right by eye: Not quite sure why I've been putting this off really as it shouldn't be a hard job: could it be a reluctance to stop building and fear of having now to paint it? Anyhow, this - as they say - is the general arrangement: The actuators push the flap back and down, guided by a hinge at each end of the flap. To make sure that both sets of holes in wing and flap match up later on, some precautionary marking out: For smaller hard-to-get-at places, brass strip makes a handy ruler... During test fitting all of this I noticed a kit discrepancy in relation to reference photographs: The outer part of the inboard flaps (f'you see what I mean in the photo above) butt up flush against the booms whereas Italeri - rather as they did with the tailplane - had a stub of wing running along the boom, which was the point I'd cut the flaps out using their panel lines as a guide. As a consequence that 'stump' has now been carved and sanded back on both sides to correct the error. Having learned the hard way back on the Do-18 just how delicate actuators can be at this scale, this time around I decided to use just a single piece of brass (3.5mm wide strips cut from 0.15mm thick bands) and shape it by hand, rather than stick two separate pieces together to achieve the desired angles: More time-consuming but a physically stronger result: To test my measurements I completed one first and test fitted it before proceeding (Just noticed I had the actuator in upside down for this photo - need to put the head back in the fridge...): Then built the rest knowing that they would do the job: To make these, I simply roughed out the blanks with the Dremel locked-off sideways to turn it into a bench grinder (effective), before final shaping with sihrsc and needle files. With the flaps only being partly deployed I didn't really need to go to the trouble of shaping the whole actuator as the ends will be buried inside the wing and flap, but felt it bad karma not too... Here's the remainder test-fitted to the flaps: The brass fits the slits in the flaps nice and tight but I'll epoxy them in later, plus where they meet the flap there's a sort of tiny pyramidal bracket that I need to look at. Then it's on to the hinges at each end over the next couple of days. France v. Belgium later - I bet @corsaircorp's sitting astride a keg of Triple Karmeliet with a straw as we speak! Take care til next time chums. Tony

Here is another model from my past captured on a 35mm camera. It was not a choice of subject that I would have built but it was presented to me by a member of our model club who travels to Poland frequently. The kit was moulded in a soft and chunky grey plastic. Cockpit comprised of two convincing ejector seats, a floor and instrument panels. There was also a nicely detailed engine which was odd as it disappeared for ever inside once the fuselage was joined together. The kit did not go together at all well and really did test my patience. The cockpit canopy was a particular bad fit I remember. I added a wire grill to the front of each intake. My boxing was like this one. I initially gave it an all over silver finish with Halfords Aluminium car paint to represent a Polish Air Force trainer. I was then attracted by a camouflaged ground-attack example in a Polish publication so I repainted the model with Humbrol enamels completely with a hairy stick. This view shows the side consuls and levers that I added to the cockpit That was my Iskra, hope you liked it. regards, adey

Getting on with it! Hmmmm…. The last substantive post had no commentary at all. That was the 'Modelling in Mime' post. That post scored 11 'likes' My next post after that was in my very best mock Shakespeare - it was in iambic pentameter and everything. Not that I think anyone noticed. ☹️ In fact that post has got zero 'likes' so far... 😢… zero...😪 and a call to 'get on with it'... Oh well... genius's are rarely appreciated in their own lifetime... Seems I'd better just 'get on with it'... 'And trim't to a spar' said Mr Mock Shakespeare so those biscuits have to go folks. Leaving two sets of wings as shown. Lot's of holes and gaps and dents and things to clean up with some car body filler. And all of this scrap - kinda cool really. Looks like my hair in the morning! Use lots of filler - it's good stuff. Smells bad though. Sand, sand, sand. Start with the coarse paper and move to the smooth. You know the drill. I found that that jig that I made for plan 'B' worked really well as a support for the wings while sanding them as it's specifically made to hold them at exactly the correct dihedral. And after a good dose of sanding I've got something like this. Note the bit of damage on the trailing edge - still to work out exactly how I'm going to fix that. I decided to get rid of the 'sticky-outy' bits on the top of the lower wing. I don't think I'll use them to attach the wing to the fuselage and they were getting in the way of the sanding. All gone... Now we can see that the dihedral in both wings is almost exactly equal - that's a good result. Following my recent success using white spirts to clean up paper templates that I had stuck to the wood I used it again to clean up the sanding dust and other residue and give the wood this 'faux' polish. It's only shiny here because it's still wet. And here's where we are up to now. Not looking too bad. Not sure what I'll do next. There's plenty more to do on the wings but from here I'm confident they won't be show-stoppers for the rest of the project. I now think that the wings are under control. From here I could move onto the cockpit or the fuselage or the tailplanes or the engine cowling. Plenty of options now. Bardsaw Steve

This is another model from my past, the 1/72 Heller SAAB J-21A. It was beautifully moulded in an olive green coloured plastic and had plenty of very fine scale detail, especially the undercarriage. It had a well equipped cockpit with a detailed representation of the early ejector seat fitted to this aircraft. An ejector seat was very necessary for obvious reasons ................. Surface panel lines detail were of the raised line type because of the kit's vintage. The bulged cockpit canopy sides were cleverly accomplished by Heller by splitting the canopy into two halves with the join running down the canopy hinge line. My boxing was similar to this one. The model was completely brush painted with Humbrol enamels ( they worked back then, not like now ). I had an attempt at the soft demarcation line between the green and blue by stippling the edges of the green paint before it had dried with a brush which was wet with White Spirit . The only thing I needed to add to the model was a pilot from my spares. This is the only photograph I have of this model. regards, adey

Paddling pool! Maybe we should get Mols one... when Mrs B took her for a walk yesterday she reported her shooting across a field and diving into a water trough... bit like this old picture: It's the webbed feet I guess - she looks more like a seal when wet

Hi Guys, Nice little kit from Tamiya, it was little tricky to assemble but fit well. I decided to do a natural metal finish (nmf). I used mr.color silver and added a pinch of black or mixed of different colors for modulations of different shades, don't know how much I have achieved tho. I might add Hinomaru later. Please, any suggestion or advice is welcome, thank you for your time. Cheers

Messerschmitt Bf109E-3 – III./JG 51, France 1940. Oblt Werner Pichon-Kalau Von Hofe. Another lovely little kit from Airfix. When I was beginning to acquire various kits for my 1940 obsession, I realised I could save myself some time and money by purchasing the boxed set Airfix released for the Battle of Britain 75th anniversary. It contained an He111, Spitfire, Hurricane and the Emil. As far as I could make out, they were all new tools, too. The paints went into a drawer, though. 😉 The model went together well. I lost the gunsight, and the windscreen transparency had been slightly short shot. I filled the small hole near the base with some PVA. I wasn't going to lose any sleep over it. I did destroy the infinitesimally small aileron balance weights, but you don't know that. Having opted to "lose" the box set paints, I had to check my research materials for the proper colours for the camouflage. Xtracrylics were used throughout, airbrushed, aside from some details like tyres and cockpit interior where I brushed Humbrol enamels. It was enormous fun - not! - masking up this little model. It's always a nail-biter when removing masking tape as it reveals where bleed, or worse paint is lifted off. Happily, I got away with a relatively clean job. The kit decals were used, which went on quite well, despite being from the same sheet as the ghastly Spitfire ones that I didn't get on with at all. I know have three Emils in my collection. Two older ones were constructed many years ago from Academy kits and were destined for a dispersal diorama I have yet to make! Of the three, I think this Airfix one is my preferred choice. The temptation now is to buy many more so I can cover the Heinz 57 varieties of Luftwaffe colours and markings of the Battle of Britain period!

Brought some new cat furniture and within half an hour here's the picture the three boys are enjoying it and poppy took one sniff and went back to the window sill aprently not to bothered with it.

Watching the coverage on TV now. They have just described the atmosphere in the Abbey as "A moment of serenity prior to the arrival of Her Majesty the Queen." Are they expecting her to come in and cause havoc?

Just don't do it on very hot days Giorgio or you'll end up with a sticky tip! 'Weymouth - the Skegness of the South' Great adverts Adrian: reminds me that I'm nearly out of Harpic... My threads are just one big long drift, so you blend in perfectly. Hand me that wrench, I think I can get at it from this side... I would dearly love to know what it's called Ced so that I can buy other versions! Any make-up fans out there on the forum able to help?

Howdy folks! Bubba's the name.....Just got my wings and itching to see my new steed. Apparently it's a super long range high altitude escort, so I'm counting on it being one of those P-51 Mustangs..... Aww shoot!

P-47D 'Tipsy' 42-76520 510th FS, 405th FG Pilot Lt Harris S. Boyse. Decals Kitsworld - 1/72 Scale Decal Sheet P-47 Thunderbolts - KW172070. Kit Academy, engine replaced by the parts from Tamiya kit

- The comments about MARS are in WIP by mistake

Thanks Keith and John Pool vetoed by Mrs B She asked who was going to clear up the mess when Mols came back into the house and, as the immediate answer wasn't "I will darling", decided it wasn't a good idea. Great test bed Giorgio - I hope mine turns out as well as yours Thanks John, I think you're right. Hannants have despatched the harnesses so hopefully they'll be with me soon. Good news, thanks Dave While I'm waiting for the belts I turned my attention to the wings. Sadly one of the ejector marks has gone straight through the flap: Luckily there's no panel lines on the 'real side' so I'll just fill and sand it later. The front spar needed clamps to make it meet the wheel bay: … but soon everything was in and brushed with AK aluminium: Another fine detail - the underside light has a frame moulded so I blobbed some chrome on the top and marked the frame with a Sharpie: Looks OK from the bottom. Wings are together now, clamped and drying:

Watched the spread formation from a few miles up the road. Started with the King Airs. The Typhoons joined from the North at that point , so they were off track. Typical, I get cloud cover, so photographing grey jets against a grey sky. Difficult to get a focus lock on the F-35s until they had gone over. I got a few decent shots considering. I thought it was jolly decent of the RAF to give me a flypast on my birthday, even though I'm not 100.

One sandwich side and then the other are added: Once the glue is set the streamlining will begin:

I completely overlooked the fact that I tell you really Italeri donated a part to go in there: The reality is a little more complex (as you might have surmised) with deep ducting that splits inside the wing into two directions for carburettor filters and de-icing vents and all sorts of malarkey. Part d43 up there is intended I think to be some kind of baffle or screen which although barely discernible in one or two reference photos it isn't shown in the parts manual and so I'm going to leave off here and concentrate on building ducting because ducting... There was one there I believe Keith but I recall reading somewhere that there was a fatal crash involving it. Whilst the lads were up I got chatting to another fellow airfieldee who was waiting for a powered glider to come and pick him up for a swoop over Purbeck; he told me the previous week he'd been for a flight in the oldest flying Tiger Moth - based somewhere over in Kent, iirc. Were they not a bit of a menace with the rudder pedals Keith? Thanks on both counts Roger! Any more of this enviable stuff and I'll be turning as permanently-green as a Martian modeller Terry.... Practicing to invade Love Island no doubt - quite the thing with the RAF these days I believe: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5931987/RAF-crews-break-bombing-targets-Syria-watch-Love-Island.html Thanks Terry & Giorgio: saves time and eminently carvable/sandable when cured... Ever have one of those days when you change your mind fifteen times an hour about what you're going to build next? Actually Benedikt it has to be the Anson next 'cos the boxing of it I've got is the same one I built as a lad in Somerset in about 1975 and it fills me with nostalgia just seeing that pert little nose and Thomas the Tank Engine nacelles on each wing. I've also managed to source maintenance manual for this aircraft, which has become one of my touchstones for commencing a build now. I don't suppose anyone knows theserial number of the Y-Service Anson that successfully detected the Knickebein beams? As you say though hendie, the rotary world cannot be denied forever and as I'm getting FAA withdrawl symptoms I've a nice little Airways vacform Westland Dragonfly that might provide some decent sport post-Anson. Bridport'd do me Bill. Forever 'n ever... None to keen on the prospect myself but after consulting the parts manual it seemed possible to build the ducting without surgery - thin plasticard curved and glued for the sides of the intakes: Flat inserts added top and bottom to complete the boxing-in: You can probably just make out a bit of Milluputtery on the outboard intake in the photo above? When I was gluing the top of the ducting inside on that part last night, the TET seemed to react quite vigorously with the leading edge of the wing in that region, leaving it all a bit: I resorted to cutting out said doughy bit and pressing some Welshpaste on, carving the required profile back-in this afternoon. As another delaying tactic to put off building the flap actuators (I know, I know....) I reprised the foil/Silhouette method for the outer wing fairings. That metal make-up tool you see below is a superb yoke for smoothing Washi tape into corners and around changing curves: Marked out in three-dimensions: A Silhouette test-cut applied: Due to the interacting curves and corners involved his is a really necessary stage to make sure that you've caught the essential outline correctly - I never get it right the first time so this test-fit lets you iron out any discrepancies before committing to more expensive adhesive foil: Not every aircraft needs this of course: I reckon with the Alclad Primer & Microfiller being applied later, that these should blend in very nicely to enhance the overall visual interest of the aircraft: These sets took a lot longer to do than the inboard ones did previously, for a rather idiosyncratic reason that took me a while to work out. Despite the blade of the Silhouette cutter being freshly-cleaned it had a tendency to rip some of the corners when cutting out those long strips for the fairings - an annoying occurrence that I eventually narrowed down to the fact that the current humidity and heat were making the adhesive of the foil much more tacky and causing it to foul the blade. As soon as I touched the adhesive with a fingertip, fine strands of it would stick to it in a way it hadn't previously when cutting a few weeks back in cooler conditions. Heat affecting adhesive properties - not always an issue until you go to cut complex shapes from it... 🔪 Move over Monty Don, Stevie Wonder's doing the garden now... Tony

Blimey, the biggest flypast over London...both the RAF and the Luftwaffe managed bigger than that @78 years ago !!

My latest model tank, the Chinese/Taiwanese Type 64. The model kit is Tamiya's 1/35 scale M41 Walker Bulldog, which was originally released in 1975 as a remote control toy & has been in production ever since. It can be bought really cheap & is recommended to any beginners because of its simple & easy construction. Because of how common this kit is I decided to do something a bit different & convert it into the rather obscure Type 64. Which was an upgraded version of the M41 developed in Taiwan in 1964, it featured a new engine, extra armour bolted onto the turret sides & new side-skirts. Only two prototypes were built, one was destroyed on a firing range & the other is currently displayed in a museum. The extra turret armour was made with plastic card that was warmed up & bent into shape, the side-skirts are made from aluminium cut from a drinks can & the ROC insignia I printed myself. As this kit was originally a motorised toy it is full of holes for the electronics which I filled in & sanded smooth. I also scratch-built several extra parts that aren't included in this kit, such as the third exhaust, support bars over the fenders & all of the vision ports were drilled out & replaced with new clear parts. When I started this build I thought it would be quick & simple but it turned into a bit of a chore & I felt rather drained after. So much so that it's taken me two months to get around to taking pictures of it. Note: There are actually two different tanks called Type 64, the other (& better known) Type 64 was a hybrid of an M42 Duster hull & a M18 Hellcat turret. This "hybrid" Type 64 was build as a stop-gap design after development of this Type 64 was cancelled.

Hello folks, 2018 - Celebrating 100years RAF and looking forward to our local show where we will have a dedicated table about that topic. So this is my first contribution to it: short wip sum-up Kit: Airfix Scale: 1/72 Aftermarket: Exhausts from Quickboost & Masks from Eduard Colors: Ocean Gray (The Color of Eagles (Aircraft Colors) Medium Sea Gray (The Color of Eagles (Aircraft Colors) Dark Green (The Color of Eagles (Aircraft Colors) Sky (for Spinner) (The Color of Eagles (Aircraft Colors) Engine Cover Red (for the fuselage band) MRP Colors Weathering: Oil Colors

Hi All Having sulked on the unfairness of the modelling Gods (I shall call them Phil and Sandy), I rifled through my kit box with a glass of Shiraz and the urge to cut, paint and glue without endangering my other builds, and happened upon this water damaged stowaway. Less than an hour later I had brush painted the interior with Warpaints colours named by Tolkien, had closed up the fuselage, and had a punnet of parts freshly sawn from the sprue (did I mention how much I love my saw 😍?) I shall clean the flash and gates from them later... This isn't going to be a special (or even accurate!) build, and it might end up being one of those experiments that never gets to see the light of day, but hey, no worries. Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers 🍷 Steve

In anticipation of travelling to London on July 10th for the mass flypast I checked the RAF 100 Years website for further details (it's at 1pm) and found the following statement: "The pinnacle of RAF100 celebrations – the flypast. Taking place on The Mall and over Buckingham Palace, the flypast will feature 100 aircraft (and - this word is missing on the website) will be the biggest ever undertaken by the Royal Air Force. Come down and join us to see what will be a once in a lifetime event." https://www.raf.mod.uk/raf100/whats-on/flypast/ That is simply a wrong statement. Some 300 aircraft (yes, some of them were probably FAA - I haven't checked) flew over London as part of the victory celebrations in 1945 while at RAF Odiham on July 15th 1953 640 aircraft mounted a flypast for the Coronation. I was fortunate to watch the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain flypast at RAF Abingdon as the formations flew over the airfield on their way from London and there were nigh on 170 aircraft in the flypast. I may be a pedant and yes, life is too short, but I find it pretty depressing that whoever in the RAF/MoD is responsible for making such statements can't be bothered to do a bit of basic fact checking in relation to the Service's 100th anniversary celebrations not to mention actually writing the sentence incorrectly by missing out the word "and".

He says he's fine thanks - heat seems to reflect off the great beast. There was however another ice cream related incident earlier, it appears a Mr Whippy van, complete with driver & contents has gone missing in Swansea..... I'm keeping quiet about the couple of tyres & mangled steering wheel I found in the front garden.... not to mention the 'Match of the Day' tune that emanates from little T every time he burps K

Must be all that paving you do Giorgio! I know what you meant - at a certain point at this scale you just run out of bits to grip with the pliers! The weird thing is Cc neither do I until the World Cup comes around and then it becomes a transitory passion. A bit like eating a whole pudding yourself and then being sick of it until the next time... Mrs. B's even worse - she was quoting possession statistics at me during halftime earlier.... He's now a verb? 📖 May our gods help us... Ta hendie. I suspect that you have told me that already and that it has not lodged in the 'making actuators' part of the frontal lobe. Note to self: either bring the big vice in from shed or upgrade the pitiful nutcracker currently on the bench.... <cough> Someone should engineer some kind of custom bend/squeeze jig for this kind of thing...actually I suspect that in the bowels of the Science Museum in S. Ken there is a beautiful 18th century precision device for doing precisely that. Oh, you know - can't complain. Wandering around with a brain befuddled by heat is quite pleasant at the moment and stops people expecting too much of me... 👨‍🎤 Thanks Ian - I wasn't aware of the significance of the side rails but that makes perfect engineering sense (to a non-engineer like myself). Thanks for the hooking out those pics - great minds think alike as I've been relying on cross-referencing that Cybermodeller set against the maintenance manual for some time now - they do indeed seem to be the best collection of images for that particular portion of the bird. I first read that as 'mental patient' and thought: 'Curses, I've finally been rumbled...' How's Little T doing in this heat Keith? I've finished epoxying those actuators into the slits in the flaps just now - all fitted surprisingly well in the end. That pyramidal bracket between flap and actuator I approximated with a conical blob of epoxy, though let's see if it looks more like melted ice cream in the morning! Sweet dreams modellers....

Is that not really exciting news. They all got out of that cave just remarkable. So pleased that with other nationalities that we have our nations expert divers there. My wife and I have been overjoyed to hear each snippet of news. Seems the boys went into the caves to carve their names on the walls. The youngest the same age as my youngest Grandson 11years. A few notes on the coach. My daughter told me that he lost, at the age of 5 his whole family through some deadly virus. Mum dad brother and sister. He was left alone At 15 years old he became a monk until his twenties. He left to support young people. No doubt a throwback to his own young year's tragedy. In the cave he has used his meditation from his years as a monk to support the children. He also gave all his food to the children and was when they were discovered in the poorest of condition. So sad that in this world there are conflicts where it is or seems to be the aim to kill. Here we have support from the country and from around the world to preserve life. Inspirational. Laurie

Postshading done.

Last night I was able to tinker with some more of the PE and dry fitting the cockpit walls together

Messerschmitt Bf110C-1 – M8+DH, 1st Staffel, ZG 76, Lt Helmut Lent, Oslo, Norway, 1940 Another Airfix new tool, albeit one now dating from about 2010 or thereabouts. Compared to some of the really new kits, this one was a little basic. Very little cockpit detail, for example. I enhanced it a bit with some PE I had got to super detail an Italeri Zerstörer about 20 years ago. That kit got thrown away as being not worth the effort, although I had hoped I might salvage the multi-part transparencies to fit on this Airfix one. Alas, it was not to be. The "towel rail" antenna under the rear fuselage also came from the PE set. Painted using Xtracrylics colours. I airbrushed the basic RML65, and a coat of RLM70, but chickened out on masking for the splinter camo and brush painted the RLM71. After a couple of coats of Humbrol Clear, the aftermarket decals went on like a dream, followed by an airbrushed coat of satin varnish. I'm always wary of overdoing weathering, but I applied a fair amount of chipping around the bits where boots scuffed things while climbing in and out of the plane. I just dry-brushed aluminium enamel, old school. I'm yet to attempt any of the modern techniques to replicate chipping effects.

That's stealth for you.

I watched on the Beeb,enjoyed the Flypast although they'll never be the same without Nimrods/VC-10s and Seakings .....

No need to get a grip, all cat lovers here know exactly what you're going through, most if not all have been through it and I am sure you have all our condolences.

Morning folk's she's progressing further with the wash cleaned up and decal's 99% done,hoping that like the Heinkel once I spray the matt coat the wash will tone down a shade and blend in nicely.Canopy painting next a little fettling needed for a snug fit.

My feathery hat is well and truly off CC...I'll have a look to see if I have any WIP piccies, it was started some considerable time ago. The engine parts were scratch built, using a spare Atar from somewhere, as you say suspended in mid-air. The real challenge will be achieving the highly polished aluminium finish to the pebble dash and filler surface of the thing...Darling will have to break sweat on this one! Fairweather modellers eh.....where's your spirit of adventure man, your je ne sais quoi? To be serious though, it's a tad unusual to build a model where virtually nothing fits and every single part needs serious fettling...(especially when it comes to the glazing). Even the wing roots have different depths! The fact that the kit's fuselage is dimensionally all over the place doesn't exactly help matters but a good set of drawings, a power grinder and the old 'Blitz Spirit' will see us through.

If there's one thing we Battle of Britain followers desire it's a good modern kit for the Ju88A-1. There's any number of kits for the later variants, particularly the A-4, but the A-1 seems to be sorely neglected. In fact, it's quite hard to find a mid-1940 period A-5 in kit form. Junkers Ju88A-5 – B3+EH, 1st Staffel, Kampfgeschwader 54 “Tötenkopf”, Evreux, France, August 1940. So, what does any self-respecting BoB modeller do, in lieu of a decent A-1? Why, get an A-4 kit, a PE conversion kit to make an A-5, some resin bulged wheels and decent decals, of course. The 1990s Italeri Ju88A-4 was probably one of the best Ju88 kits around at the time. Yes, it has raised panel lines, the cockpit is a bit sparse, the cockpit greenhouse is a bit very lacking in frame lines, but it looks the part. The biggest changes required are for the engines. For those that don't know, the Ju88 development history is a bit convoluted. Let's just say the A-1 was a good plane, but had some issues. The next production iteration, the A-4, had problems with the new engines, so the A-1 engines were used on A-4 airframes giving the A-5. I think that's right. Anyway, some surgery on the kit was required to remove the oil cooler bulges below the engines, PE parts were added to the radiator cowlings, and some styrene bits and bobs fitted to detail around the exhausts. The PE set was also used to detail the cockpit a bit more. I chose to rescribe the raised panel lines, which became more of an issue as various joins were filled and sanded. Painting, again, by Xtracrylics, initially airbrushed for the base colours, then brush painted for the splinter pattern. The decals came from an aftermarket set, the provenance of which eludes me as they were acquired over twenty years ago now! The end result is an adequate representation of an A-5, which sits nicely alongside the other Luftwaffe bombers in the collection. Here's hoping someone makes an A-1 sometime.

Nope. I start out with a piece of card the right width and then I chop off triangles on the corners and see if it fits. At first it doesn’t fit but as you get closer to a good fit guessing the right size of next triangle to take off gets easier. Then when I’m happy I can make a mirror image for the other half/side. I do have a very old profile gauge but I find it more trouble than it’s worth! I’ve not seen the older version in the flesh (although the old header art was fab) but this kit is indeed very nice. I can see why - it’s great fun to build! Must be the smallest twin they do too, apart from the DH88, and that’s not going to be anyone’s favourite until Hell freezes over! Regards, Adrian

One or two fella, one or two: And those pictures are like, so last week.....It's grown by at least a dozen since they were taken!

Well, let's have a closer view... Flashes ?? Did I hear flashes somewhere ?? The fitting now… Well, no fitting at all !! The clear parts ??? No framing at all, that's far more funny !! Every one here know that Rene Magritte was a Belgian… So I call this pic "This is not a Hole !!" The part on the right corner of the PE fret is the control stick…. Aaaaand what's this ??? I bet for the craddle of a babyTroll, but it can be a dwarf either but NO Dear Gents, it must be a Martin Baker Mk IV... Someting like that in fact But we have a very good ejection handle here !!! Precisely my Dear it's a handle for a Troll... One cannot miss such a handle, the only problem is that the Hood cannot be closed with it….. Enough fun for today, I'll save a bit for the future…. Would I have a well fashioned brain, I will bin the whole thing right now….. BUT, NO !! However SMW 2019 is may be a bit optimistic…. Sincerely. CC

Thank you, EVERY one for your kind encouragement. I've gotten the upper fuselage white painted, allowing it to cure for a few days before masking it for the Alclad black base coat on the bottom and wings. I did discover a major blunder while painting...that the left outboard engine nacelle was cut unevenly (by me) when removing the original kit flashing. Left as is would result in the left outboard engine drooping when mounted, so the preliminary thought for a fix will be to add a small shim to the nacelle before painting to lift it, thereby making it even and level with the inboard. I'm planning to use leftover PE brass cut to fit. I'm nearly positive it won't be noticed at all, and won't be seen when painted. Upper fuselage painted with Tamiya TS-26. Also finished the engines with attaching the cowl flaps in the slightly opened position.