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This is a nice kit of an early "D" Mustang. However it took a little bit of work to get it up to a better standard. Some of the highlights of the kit were the cockpit, the wheel wells, the positional flying surfaces and the lack of an engine (for those of us who like to button everything up) and decals. It was an enjoyable build and looks the part once done.

With both ends painted I am drawing to a close on this one... ...it's an odd thing to do with a kit - but it was either this or the bin for it.

I finally finished something. Homemade Milliput seatbelts Cheers Collin

Cheers Fella`s,..... Ian, the turrets on this kit are superb,..... I`ll start building them soon. Right,..... hopefully I`ve got the final coat of Dark Green on and patched up the Dark Earth,.... although I`m not too happy with the Pactra acrylic paint! I`ve alo painted the MPM Wimpey too,... and have decided to finish it in the scheme seen on many Middle East based Wimpey`s,.... which appears to be a faded Temperate Sea Scheme with Azure Blue undersides; Cheers, Tony

Hiya Folks, I`ve got a first coat of Dark Green disruptive camo brushed on,...... but as I had no access to my ref photos I had to guess a little as to the exact areas of camo,..... since photographing I`ve been able to get the computer back,.... but still been unable to print any photos to use as reference! Since the pic was taken, this evening I have done some tweaking to this basic pattern! Cheers Tony

I've alluded to this visit on a couple of other threads and now the flypast has taken place then I feel free to publish the photos. The Centre of Aviation Photography http://www.centreofaviationphotography.com/home arranged with Jim Robinson, the media officer at Coningsby for a small group visit on Friday June 29th when one of the flypast formation rehearsals was due to take place. In exchange we were asked for a donation with the entire proceeds going to the station's charitable funds. Even if most enthusiasts could guess at the formation's configuration the RAF were keen that the number of aircraft involved be kept as a secret in order to surprise the public on the day itself and to that end we were asked not to publish any photos ahead of July 10th or, if we did, then not to refer to the visit as a flypast rehearsal. It was a shame that the BBC's Sophie Raworth was unable to do the same. As you can see from the photos the weather was truly glorious but also created the problem of heat haze. We were also covered in horrible little black flies which seemed attracted to our high-viz vests. Of 35 aircraft on the ramp, 26 were to take off and fly 160 miles out over the North Sea to practise the formation. Technical issues delayed the take off by an hour or so. However, this was to our benefit as an instructor from 29 Squadron introduced himself to the group followed by the OC 1 Squadron and one of his flight commanders. All three had been involved in the planning and despite a very busy morning they spent half an hour talking us through the planning process and issues for the flypast and answering our questions. It was really very nice of them. Once all the Typhoons landed we then had a look round the BBMF hangar. It was a terrific day and huge thanks to Jim Robinson, his colleague Elaine for looking after us and the personnel of RAF Coningsby and Lossiemouth for helping us get the shots we wanted. 1. When we arrived on base at 9am this Hurricane was carrying out an air test following maintenance earlier in the week. 2. The sight that greeted us on the ramp. 35 Typhoons in total. 3. 4. 5. 6. The Dakota taxied out for take-off but shortly after was attended to by emergency vehicles. It flew later in the day. 7. Not long after we'd arrived this Rivet Joint flew overhead. 8. 41 Squadron Typhoon in the circuit. 9. Jamie Hunter, editor of "Combat Aircraft" magazine was recruited to be the whip. His other jobs during the flight included filming for the BBC and takings stills shots. 10. Two Typhoons of 41 Squadron flew together in the morning. 11. Post mission tow back to the squadron area. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Ground crew walking out to their aircraft. 17. The formation pilots gathered outside 29 Squadron's building. 18. For some reason the pilots didn't take off for a good half hour after strapping in. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. Flt Lt Jim Peterson the 2018 display pilot. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. Once the formation had landed back they were mostly dispersed amongst the HAS's with only a small number returning to the ramp. 33. That's it, thanks for looking.

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.

Greetings, Never published anything about modelling before so here goes: Thought I'd share my Ansaldo ISVA in 1/72, mainly cos I'm not aware of such a kit new or old......... Recently completed this started out as a Pegasus SVA, with pretty much only the wings and fuselage used. Tail surfaces are plasticard. The floats, hydroplanes, struts and launching dolly parts were all scratch modelled and replicated in polyurethane. Prop, seat and other small parts cloned in polyurethane from various Roden kits etc.

Epoxying the actuators into the flaps, I wiggled the flaps into the recesses on the aircraft at the required orientation, using the aircraft as a jig to make sure that the actuators set at the correct angle overnight before gluing on at the end after all the paintwork gets done: An early start this morning allowed me to get to work on the hinges at either end of each set of flaps. Since hendie giving me a nudge that a judicious squeeze of the rod might help out here I decided to reprise the technique I'd used previously when making the blade antennae for the top of the aircraft, to whit: 0.4mm rod inside a 5mm length of 0.5mm tube. This was then bent on the PE jig to produce this: Which was then squeezed in pliers to produce this: Close enough: Bona! With the test example working I knocked out the remainder in short order: Wedged-in for a quick test-fit I reckon that these will provide a good enough expression of hingery at this scale: Due to the delicacy of those bits, you won't be surprised that I'll mount those right at the end of the build: A few scrapes on the flaps will need a schmear of PPP to avoid showing up under a metal finish: Otherwise that's it really for the flap regions - makes you wonder why I dallied so long over that don't it? Aside from summat similar from brass to make the roof hinges of the BT I reckon that's nearly it for the construction phase. Almost a shock to think of it really! I'll take a day or so to do do an inventory of anything I may have missed structurally and need to do up a paint plan but otherwise we could be spraying soon! Not too soon though. I've to go in hospital for the day on Friday under a local so that the sawbones can inject various dyes into my spine to work out what's going-on. The hospital letter asks me to wear 'a dressing gown and self-gripping socks'. What the hell are self-gripping socks? They sound alarming... New set of drill bits popped through the letterbox just now: Just as well as I've spent the last few days comprehensively snapping every one I have under 0.5mm whilst working on the flaps. I'm such a clumsy git with these small needles that I've now taken to ordering single sizes in batches of 10...... If you're watching the match later: 'Howay the lads!' If you're not watching the match later: 'Bloody football, I'm sick of it' 😉 Laters potaters... Tony

Decal time. Main problem I had was with the second hand instruction sheet that had a lot of the decal numbers blacked-out, which didn't help with placement. So, the main decals went on and some of the bigger stencils. Decals were MicroSold and settled nicely, and when done, Tamiya satin varnish was applied. Here we have bombs, pylons, Martels and undercarriage (top). Canopy, blast shield, undercarriage doors (middle). Antennae and seats (bottom). Next stop, putting it all together. Stuart

Looking for things to do while I'm waiting for the postie I saw that Paul also used the HGW harness and had also made a nice hose for the oxygen supply. Thought I'd give the hose a go so got out my wire supply: Those reels of enamelled wire have to be 50 years old... I bought them when I was winding coils during my 'electronic hobby' days. Wine bottle wire and stripped electrical cable, something should suit. I chose the smallest enamelled for the 'core' and the stripped cable for the outer: Didn't take long and quite satisfying. What colour should I paint it? Paul did his sort of yellow but the SAM database shows it light grey?

75-0751 was the longest serving FSD F-16 in basic flight test. Primarily used for stability and control evaluations, it also was used for an early program for demonstrating high angle-of-attack and departures (spins) behavior to operational flight crews that would come to Edwards specifically for the "E-ticket" flights with test pilots serving as the instructors. July 1982, "High-Alpha" mission with the departure recovery parachute package, AKA "spin chute", carried above the engine exhaust nozzle on a quadrapod. July 1982, on the tanker during a High-Alpha mission. During these missions it wasn't unusual to hit the tanker in between test points several times in order to keep the aircraft center of gravity within a specified range. Engineers in the mission control facility used a fuel-burn "map" real-time to determine the center of gravity location based on total fuel quantity. Center of gravity location is critical in most all aircraft as the further aft the CG, the more longitudinally unstable the aircraft. November 1982, with 'yarn' tufts installed on the wings and vertical tail to visualize air flow over the flight surfaces. Note the aircraft still has the original Stencel ejection seats. I don't think she ever got the ACES II seats installed. June 1983, ready for another High Alpha mission March 1984, yet another High-Alpha mission March 1990, ready to taxi November 1990, on the tanker's wing during another High-Alpha mission. The characteristic red head rest covers of the Stencel seats. Thanks for looking, Sven

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

This is my entry for this GB. It is the Hasegawa 1/72 E-2C Hawkeye, with the wing fold set from Wolfpack Design. The deals for VAW-123 "Screwtops" come from various sources, but mainly a Vagabond sheet. The build thread is here.

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

Hi, everyone! It's my next model. It was the famous soviet long-range bomber from 1930.

Here´re the promised photos of my Ta 152H from Revell. This kit is a reboxing of the old Frog kit from the 70s, and it shows it mainly in the raised panel lines, flash, and the (flashed) hole for a stand. The only troublesome area of the kit was with the tailband: Firstly I positioned it correctly by sheer luck (I wasn´t looking at the instructions), and secondly, it was long enough to cover the entire rear fuselage and it curled, without any chance of straighten it again. The instructions also show an incorrect placement of the inner landing gear doors, if you ever build this kit, make sure to follow the painting instructions to place the inner doors. The wheels were glued in place, and the caps were left in their sprue, together with the pilot. The propeller was designed to spin to the left, so I opened another hole to be able to make it spin to the right. I also wanted to preserve the raised panel lines, so the aircraft unions weren´t filled with putty, most visible on the right hand fuselage/wing section.

The 1:72 ICM kit of the MiG-25PD built in the markings of Turkmenistan. Since some of the fuselahe parts are quite big, they had warped, so making it all fit wasn;t easy and needed quite a bit of filler in places. Used the metal undercarriage made be SAC as the kit parts did not look strong enough to support a big model like a MiG-25. Plus the big lump of weight needed in the radome to stop it being a tail sitter. Colour is overall Model master 1730 grey. Decals are Linden Hill Decals sheet No LHD72022. No issues with the decals. Build Progress Photos MiG-25PD-61 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr MiG-25PD-62 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr MiG-25PD-63 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr MiG-25PD-64 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr MiG-25PD-65 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr

Hi all Thanks Adrian. Bit more progress, wheels on along with mudguards, two of the engines and cowls on. Cable guides made from Etched steel fret. I am going to slice .5mm brass rod for the guides themselves. Thanks for looking in All the best Chris

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

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

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.

I actually finished the aircraft that forms the central basis of this back in February time but then put it to one side and didn't finalise the project. So whilst putting the figures together for the Carriers Ahoy Seahawk, I thought this would be a great opportunity to paint the aircrew figures to complete the Firefly. The basic kit went together as well as you might expect for a mixed media, limited run kit with no alignment tabs and a plethora of butt joins. The resin was actually lovely and the cockpits looked really good once they were complete - it was almost a shame to fit them into the fuselage. Unfortunately that's where the problems started because the resin wasn't a great fit to either cockpit space and meant that it was near impossible to get the Observer's canopy to fit properly. I'd shaved off as much as I dared but still they were a tadge too wide. I tried a new pre-shading technique on one lower wing - a fine line permanent marker. Complete disaster. It took about 17 coast of Vallejo Sky to cover it up and even then it's still way too prominent. Fortunately the model is glued to the base so its impossible to see unless you go looking specifically for it. I also didn't notice until I took the photos that the propeller blades are somewhat swept back. The final photo with the close up of the aircrew seems to show silvering on the decal; I think this is a symptom of the flash as to the naked eye it seems fine. The figures are from CMK, ostensibly RAF WW2 aircrew. I wasn't especially impressed - the mouldings on other resin figures I've had have been better and there was a lot of fine rubbing down to get rid of seams etc. The pilot (with his back to the photos) originally had a moustache so milliput made that into a beard. The kit represents an aircraft from 1792 NAS embarked in HMS OCEAN in 1946. The squadron was especially formed for night fighter duties which possibly explains why the Observer is looking wistfully up at his cockpit with a nervous disposition. If he is like me, I used to hate night flying. Punching off the deck into the dark knowing that at least 50% of your brain for the next 2 hours is completely pre-occupied with trying to find mother again in the middle of a dark and featureless ocean, or go for a swim, and then totally placing your trust in your pilot to land the thing on the deck in near zero visibility; I imagine it was worse in the 1940s! [

Bit more done today - first masked and sprayed the ID bands Then on with the decals Peter

OK, I admit it, I'm just filling in time... Here's a thing for us tool 'fans'. If you measure the inside of a wheel bay with your digital vernier and then realise that the circle cutter gauge is, er, less accurate... you can halve the reading on the vernier and then us IT to set the cutter: Then you can cut some masks for the top of the wheel bays: What else. Flat black the radiators and coolers and dry brush with aluminium: That's it, I'll have to wait for the harness now.

Cheers Steve,.... go on,..you`ll have plenty of time for a Frog Maryland,.... it is a decent kit too! Right,....I`ve got the first coat of Dark Green camo onto the Baltimore; Cheers, Tony

On page 115 of the Merlin SAM datafile is a more specific diagram for the rear fuselage tank in standard back IX +.

Got my nameplates a very lucky find on eBay being ecthed as well.

Hi BMers. Many modelers have slowed down over the last few weeks/ months to various reasons; heat, humidity, football, DIY, holidays and for me, a backlog of models awaiting a paint job. Backlog cleared and it's the Bucc's turn. Painted overall with EDSG (ACRN02) and bays painted with Blue/ Grey (GW13), both from Colourcoats. I have read a few debates about the colour for the bays and seeing that I already had a blue/grey, I used that. The Bucc was then 'Kleared'. Next stop, stickers and bits. Stuart

The Academy kit (I've built one of these before) DSC_0010 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr DSC_0008 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr DSC_0009 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr References and aftermarket decals DSC_0006 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr DSC_0007 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr

Quick update. Engine, side pods, winglets, spine faring added, and missile built. Angelo

Slowly getting more done Wings and all attachments added, although the silver plastic shows like the join hasn't been cleaned up, it has been. DSCN1326 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr Siting on it's legs without wheels ready to go into the paintshop DSCN1327 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr A coat of primer to see where I'm at

Thanks fubar Nice idea... I'd already thought about the oversprayed roundels on the top of the wings (probably) but worn off Night over camo sounds cool. Thanks Johnny Hopefully the belts will be here tomorrow... Wings done, including mask on the underside light: Just need to remember to repaint the wheel bay walls.

Mk.XVIs and some Mk.IXs were fitted with the aft fuel tank, but as long as it was full aircraft could not carry out combat manoeuvres safely. This made it unusable by Fighter Command in Eastern England which already operated with external tanks. What was needed was the new larger tail that was never fitted to Merlin Spitfires. However the fighter bomber units operating on the Continent could not carry external tanks because they were using that position to carry bombs, so they found this extra fuel capacity very useful. The restriction was that the aft tanks should be emptied first, before reaching enemy territory. The same restriction applied to P-51 s and P-47s of the 8th AAF. My understanding is that deliveries of the Mk.XVI was delayed until these aft tanks were cleared, resulting in a large stock of these fighters building up until December 1944.

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....

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

Well Ahoy all. Here we have a small viginette of Capt Eric 'Winkle' Brown landing the 3rd prototype Vampire and first Sea Vampire on HMS Ocean in 1946. Kit Classic Airframe 1/48 Vampire FB5. Pilot from PJ production, canopy, hook and main wheels from Aeroclub. Fins, flaps, speed brakes and hook fairing scratch built. The flaps were 40% larger than normal so hit the deck on the 4th landing and were reduced in chord. Base from a cork board painted in MSG. Thanks to Tricky Rich for the support and all those who liked and commented The sequel to this will be Lt Cdr Dunning landing hip Sopwith Pup on HMS Furious in the 11th Hour GB next month. Check out the build details here Vampire First jet carrier landing here Cheers Colin

Hi, I’m going to have a go at building Expected Goose.... A classic Ie Shima based P-47N Im going to use the 1/48 Academy kit. I think the base plastic is reasonably good. The kit is the basis for the recent Academy ‘jugs’ kits... IIRC I have some replacement decals... But for the most part I’ll build it OOB... I’ll dig the kit out of the Stash tomorrow for some initial shots... and look to make a start over the weekend I’m aiming for an OOB build with perhaps some belts and a few tweaks and some fun with the NMF... Chur Plasto

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...

Hello All, I’ve been tidying up the wing and fuselage joints, and I’ve scribed the trim tabs and flaps, which take in the rear portion of the nacelle. Here it is with a pristine(ish) coat of brushed Humbrol 90 acrylic: And now of course I have to paint one wing black. I’m going with HE-H because I’m not sure -V had the black wing. Xtradecals to the rescue for type A and A1 roundels and fin flash: I will use the B roundels, serial and stencils from the kit and mask the HE-H with Humbrol 64. [Edit - I'm going to go for HE-V because my "Camouflage and Markings 11 - Meteor, Whirlwind, Welkin" has a (the only?) picture of the much-weathered instance and I can see that the bottom of the port nacelle is Sky, so I can assume that the whole underside is that colour, and it has an explanation and a profile of the scheme. And I can cobble serial P6969 together from P6984 and the zero from P7102, so I don't have to mess around with individual letters. Too many interesting schemes - good job I have the Bilek!] Thanks for looking, Adrian

Begemot now can show how will look future Su-34 1-48 decal:

I was in 2 minds whether this was a WIP subject or Armour Chat. Went with WIP. In another thread I mentioned that the weather was far too nice to be stuck indoors modelling, especially in a garage/cave with no windows and just daylight bulbs. Then I remembered that somewhere under the workbench gathering cobwebs was a portable work area I built probably 8 years or so ago in my last house when my youngest son was heavily into Warhammer, so that he could build and paint at the dining table instead of also being confined to the garage cave. And here it is in the light of day, devoid of many, many cobwebs, several insect cadavers and several mm of dust. I cut down a new cutting mat from a lovey pink A3 one I'd acquired somewhere in a moment of dubious taste: it must have been really cheap...... So now I can model outside on the decking. Next task - adapt it to fit over the lounger .......... It's made just from 6mm MDF and 12mm square timber. The base is 40x40cm and it's 23cm tall. I'm lucky enough to have a really good old-fashioned local hardware store which cuts timber to size for you. Give them the drawing or dimensions and they do the rest. They do a roaring trade: not everyone can saw accurately. I just cut the diagonals and the 12mm strips and sanded the edges. It's all glued with waterproof PVA: no nails or screws. The back top shelf unhooks for storage. The hole in the lower shelf is for a plastic cup for brush washing. Or putting files etc in while building. Somewhere I have a clip-on Ikea flexible LED light that can clip on the side.

Bubba settles in: But he really didn't want to.....It took a surprising amount of faffing about to get the seat flat, Bubba in position and the joystick in contact with both him and the tub floor. I had to revise my plans and glue the seat to the floor, this meant removing the aft bulkhead (Which I'd glued in place in an attempt to determine the relative position of Bubba et al. ) and unsurprisingly I managed to damage the floor in the process. Not something that will ever be seen once the model's closed up of course, but irritating nevertheless. I'm starting to see why people have so many gripes with this kit.....The cockpit detail is lovely OOTB (at least compared to what I've been used to, at any rate), but it's festooned with tiny ejector pin marks in places that would be a nightmare to fill (I didn't bother, Bubba should hide them for me). PS - Bubba may yet get a partial 'Bader' as I'm concerned that his feet and the rudder pedals will quarrel.....Hopefully a razor-saw cut at the front of the ankle followed by brute force and glue will be enough to fix the problem if there is one, if not young Bubba is in for the chop!

Evening all........hope your all well........progress report.🤔 Upper hull "chipped" and main gun fitted. The side walls of the fighting compartment still need fitting permanently, once in they'll be chipped to match the hull Mud finished on lower, just needs blending in once the upper hull. Once the glue is dry and final upper to lower hull is chipped the mud effect will be blended to bring them together. Shot of the rear before the back plate goes on and the detail get's harder to see. Tracks fitted - just need some touch up on chipped areas here and there. Wheels and tracks need a dust coat to bring it all together.

A few more for luck

My edition of the MIG-21 aircraft in the colors of all the countries that used them continues. I present to you the MIG-21 MF of the Cambodian Air Force. Here's the picture.

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

Hey you guys. After what seems like forever I have managed a little time in the cave. 😵 I had a splendid weekend in Hyde park watching the Cure with my Father in law. correct attire for a goth gig right? 🤣 A feb time was had! Just in case I booked Today off. No head ache to speak of so quality bench time ensued. 🤩 I had a quick look at the new guns. Pretty good really. Enough of that let’s get to plastic. The new exhaust wasn’t right. So I made a new one from the old one. Re shaped and fitted. Now before anyone has the chance to stop me........ paint time. 😍 wellllll pre shade time. half way through and looking good. I know the underside is black but I’ll make a slightly lighter colour to show the pre shade. the top got finished. Sooooo many lines.😅 hopefully all those rivets will show through. Here’s the underside finished. Remembering my Messerschmitt I added some squiggles in the pre shade. The flaps got done too. Phew! That was a lot of lines. I’m going to high light pre shade too but my mind wonders to green and brown. There are tonnes of different ideas. I’m guessing the green is right. These two browns are both mixes for suggested raf brown but as you can see they are very different. I’ve seen examples of browns that look like both of these. oh I don’t know. 🤨 does anyone have a good mix for raf brown? Tamiya please. Maybe a bit more tonight. But I’m getting a pit waspish in this heat. Thanks for any help on the colours and Thankyou for sticking with this long drawn out build. Take care and as always. Happy Modelling. Johnny boy. 🖤

Hiya Folks, Well after more filling and sanding I think that I`m getting somewhere,.... I`ve painted the area around the waist positions and then sanded, hence the brown lines; And after a few brushed on coats of Pactra acrylic Dark Earth; So onwards and upwards eh! Cheers Tony