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OOB, paint scheme from Barracuda Decals although the checkerboard nose was painted as the decals didn't fit properly. Regards J A

Hi, Got this ages ago, decided to give it a go with the airbrush. For a Hasegawa kit, it didn't go together as well as others i'd done, but maybe it was me! The decals seemed to have not survived too well, and had issues with several. Was meant to have been finished with low vis decals, but couldnt get hold of any so just built OOB as ASA MM6808 in the end! Pitot tube not had its stripey decal done yet either as hoping to an alternative. Anyway, here you go, first attempt so be gentle Hasegaw 1.72 F-104ASA MM6808-2 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr Hasegaw 1.72 F-104ASA MM6808-1 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr Hasegaw 1.72 F-104ASA MM6808-3 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr Hasegaw 1.72 F-104ASA MM6808-5 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr Hasegawa 1.72 F-104ASA MM6808-4 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr Thanks for looking Jon

Out of Box build with MRP paints and Fightertown decals (FTD 48011)

Ready for inspection are my pair of 1:72 Spitfire's. The first being Airfix's Supermarine Spitfire Mk.1a, and the second Eduard's Spitfire Mk.IX (from its Royal Class kit). My aim was to compare the kits as I built them, simplicity Vs complexity at its greatest. The Airfix kit comprised a minimal amount of sprues, decals and instructions. The Eduard kit contained bags of sprues, pe, tonnes of decals and an instruction booklet to rival war and peace. Both kits went together well, both delivering problems when it came to securing the fuselage to the wings......tight fit is an understatement! That said, the rest of the journey was painless, and I am really happy with the results. Thanks for looking.

First aircraft kit finished in about two decades. Airfix have certainly come a long way from the blobby bits of plastic I last threw together. I used the very nice Eduard interior detail set.

Hi all, Latest one to get finished on the bench is Hobby Boss' very nice 1/48 F4F-4 Wildcat. I've built this as part of the excellent Mediterranean Theatre GB which you really should check out as there are some truly excellent builds going on and some really good finished ones in the gallery. The model was built OOTB with the exception of some seat belts and aftermarket decals from Superscale which performed excellently and I used both Vallejo and Lifecolor paints. Here are the pics; Hope you like her and thanks for looking in, all comments and criticisms are gratefully received. And for anyone interested here is the link to the WIP; Craig.

Hi folks, This is a kit I made from Hasegawa. Have enjoyed painting miniatures for some years but this is my first stab at a plastic kit since I was nipper and bodging together Airfix Spitfires and Panzers. I love seeing the Flanker in air displays after first seeing it in the early 90s so after some research on which kit to buy got this one from Hasegawa, and have to say thoroughly enjoyed it. Had quite a few learning moments - hopefully these will get fewer as time goes on! - Variable air pressures: Turns out trying to spray with 60psi isn't for the best, as a snapped off tail fin can attest to! - Don't leave the model in a dusty environment for a month, then do an inadequate job of cleaning it before doing the next coat. - Undercarriage/weapons etc: leave these off until the rest of the build & paint is completed so they don't get in the way (I did learn from my mistakes after re-gluing part of the undercarriage for the 5th time. Any criticism or tips very welcome! After a quick google search on the aircraft number, this is apparently the aircraft that appeared at Farnborough in 1991.

http://www.hurricane303.pl/ I'm so excited! Arma's kits so far have been excellent, and we richly deserve a good new Hurricane.

Having built a Short Stirling and Dornier this year, I thought it time to build the iconic American heavy bomber of WWII the Flying Fortress. I've always seen this beautiful aircraft as the USA's alternative to our Lancaster (one of which I have in my stash). So here goes........ I am going to build Revell's 1:72 B-17G, in the livery of the 91st Bomb Group 'Little Miss Mischief'. The box contains a medium size decal sheet and large clear sprue. There are also 7 silver coloured sprues (although I think there is supposed to be less, and one had broken in half). These have a fair amount of detailing, and a little flash (they are pictured here drying in the bath). My aim is to build this straight from the box, with its gear down. Let the fun begin.....

Well I finally finished my attempt at the Kittyhawk Voodoo. my thanks to Nikolay Polyakov and bentwaters81tfw for there advice, knowledge and inspiration. The kit is a mixture of good and bad, partially as a result of trying to produce the whole F-101 family from a set of moulds. So the intakes are just plan wrong for the A/C models and needed cutting back to the earlier, squared off shape, the slime lights needed removing but mainly the fit took a lot of work even to get it to my botched up state. I used Caracal decals for the scheme, as I tried a few of the Kittyhawk ones and didn't like the colours, though the stencils were fine. As always the Caracal decal were fabulous to work with. The machine I chose to depict ids from a photo on another thread from Bentwaters81tfw and show how they looked later in their brief career. It seems the front section was painted silver, the mid section was Air Defence Grey and the rear was left natural metal. It was a therapeutic job masking and painting this . I'm glad I got the kick up the rear to build this stash sitter but I don't think it will encourage me to buy another one. I've also just noticed I forgot to finish decaling the serial number on the port side. I have been looking at the thing all afternoon but it took a photo for me to spot this!!!! As always thanks for looking.

Thanks for all the help mates. I think I'm at the point where I can say she's finished. Or, at least, that I want to work on something else. There are a few things I'd do differently it I were to build this kit again, but it was still a fun build. A proper RFI will be along soon, maybe in a day or so. In the meantime I get to go over to Scalemates and study my stash to see what jumps out at me. Too many to choose from, that's the problem. No, wait, that was SWMBO talking. There's never too many. Right? Cheers, Bill

Howdy All, Hope you don`t mind me sharing some photo`s of my very latest effort, which isn`t quite a `whiffer`, but more of a `might have looked like`...... My attempt at building Special Hobby`s 1/48 scale Fairey Albacore Completed to try and represent one of the handful of RN crated aircraft that were assembled and flown by 36 Squadron, RAF Seletar, Singapore, early 1942 I say above `might have looked like` as despite much searching and reading up I couldn`t find any pictures ( photo`s or otherwise ) of the subject, so once again just gave it my best shot Built mainly from the box contents but replaced some very fiddly bits with materials that my `sausage fingers` and eyes could deal with I did try to recreate some of the pipe work from the cylinders to the exhaust and collector ring but you can barely see it. Decals came from the stash and the kit, 250 lb bombs from Brengun. Main references were `Bloody Shamble` by Chris Shores and the replies to my post in BM some time ago. Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking and thanks to everyone who replied to my original query Cheers Russ

One of my sons happened to run in to this one day. "What's going on here?" - he asked. I did not know. A tree walking its slug perhaps. Anyway, I though it would be a fun scene to model. So that is what I did, but I made it an autumn scene instead of early summer. - The "slug" itself is made of modeling clay. - The tree is a wire armature tree with leafs from "Green Stuff". - Stones of various sizes and shapes are cut from cork. - The sign is made of styrene and brass tubing, with the actual signage printed on a standard ink jet printer. - The railing is made of brass tubing, with round sprinkles (yes the candy stuff you eat with ice cream!) for end knobs. - The iron tree grate and the storm drain are 3D prints from my own desgin. - Paints are mainly Vallejo.

A quick update this afternoon just to reassure people that the Iron Chicken isn't suffering from lack of mojo: I'm itching to get at the paint but the day job has been leaving me too tired for the required level of concentration for this major phase, plus Mrs. B had an exhibition opening last night that involved several hours driving and resulting in a late start today, leaving little time over across the last few days to indulge in anything except some background research on the Anson. Regarding the latter I've had a major breakthrough in researching the aircraft and it's place in history, but need to clarify a couple issues before updating that thread. Right. What small jobs had I forgotten? Well I'd apparently completely forgotten that the Chicken pulled through the air by windmills so after digging around on the bench to locate them, I spent tome time comparing the kit propellers to the real thing. From this I concluded that as long as I got rid of the raised lines on the blades and ground out the barrel/dome areas and scribed a seal round the blade/barrel join, these were going to yield a reasonable representation of the props, here shown in their before and after appearances: The traditional 'snapping-off one of the blades' ritual went without a hitch, (😩) but at least allowed me to brag to you about the fine collection of brass rod that came during the week courtesy of Eileen's Emporium, along with some more solder: Pinned thus with a 0.5mm piece, it now resides upright whilst the Gator's Grip goes off: If you look closely at photos showing the outside surface of the rudders of the C-119, you'll notice a couple of small yet prominent actuators for the trim tab. Out with some tube and the new Eileenery to construct the shroud and actuator: You can see I'm using a version of that which worked before to build the flap hinges - rod inside tube - and then crimping it in pliers to simultaneously form the required shape and lock the rod into place: These were then bent to the required angle, and the smaller, lower actuator added from rod alone: Those need a clean-up to get rid of excess glue but otherwise that really really really should be it for building now. As for paint, well, that's imminent in the next few days but one thing that I've become rather excited over is Doog's experiments with metal variance using Alclad: No doubt a lot of you have seen this already but as I'm anxious to avoid a nice pristine metallic finish (these things travelled hard under sun in maritime air after all) but also to avoid (I hear you @Martian Hale) over-weathering. Doog's trials might prove a route to giving some visual control here to surface, approximating the variations seen on an operational aircraft. I don't have all of the paints he mentions but should (I hope!) be able to finesse something that incorporates - but isn't dominated by - black gloss basing. Either way, you will as always be first to see results. Tony

Thanks Simon Cooler now, thank goodness (22o) - I can cope with that. Thanks Chris Interesting to see, especially the masking on the serials. I have some of that blue tape... A milling machine though? That might come in handy IG on:

Oh gosh, thank you, Gene! Praise from an F-4 Phantom pilot I think more than makes up for all the ways I'm disappointing my eight-year-old self. Today at the office, I received a small parcel: 20180727_090824 by Edward IX, on Flickr This is (obviously) not my scale, the kit is thirteen years older than I am (though this boxing is merely seven years younger than me, so practically a newborn babe), it apparently needs a fair bit of work to do properly, it's a wish-item of a childhood not my own, but...but...but...I dunno, I can't even put it into words. It doesn't matter, of course, no matter how many episodes of Pertwee-era Dr Who or The Professionals or The Sweeney or (getting esoteric) The Sandbaggers I watch while I build it, it will never recreate a life I never lead. I think the deaths of Geoffrey Wellum and Tom Neil, so close together, had something to do with it. They're almost all gone now, the Battle of Britain pilots, fewer than ten left. As a small boy in the 1990s, as I've mentioned endlessly, I wrote letters to a few Spitfire pilots, and received a few back, but I was always afraid, even at ten or eleven that my letters would be sent back, that I'd have to read that they were dead, and it filled me with terror. I don't know if it's a universal feeling, but I always felt like they should pass from the scene like King Arthur, borne off near death but still living, to wait until he was needed, but also, really, of course, so that we never had to see the great king* die**, or Tolkien's elves, or Tennyson's Ulysses, but of course that's not how things work, and of course now the nightmare is real: there are almost none left. It's remarkable how powerful the sense of loss can be for someone we've never met. Which I guess is somehow why I've purchased a mammoth toy. Anyway! We're entering dicey territory on the E.Vs. The upper wing is a big, thick, solid thing, and all of the struts are commendably but a little nervousness-inducingly thin, slender things, so care is needed. You really even kinda need to read the directions here, which I did not do and instantly regretted it. Also, if you're building one of these, snip the bottom part of the strut off from the sprue first, it prevents breakage. Also, test-fit a little, to make sure you know what's what. An initial attempt with superglue ended in an inglorious rout, and only the fact that I own a very handy micro-chisel kept me from throwing up my hands. So for now we're waiting for the struts to dry before trying anything else. 20180727_205324 by Edward IX, on Flickr * Churchill, working on his first draft of The English-Speaking Peoples in 1939, wrote this about King Arthur: "It is all true or it ought to be; and more and better besides. And wherever men are fighting against barbarism, tyranny, and massacre, for freedom, law, and honour, let them remember that the fame of their deeds, even though they themselves be exterminated, may perhaps be celebrated as long as the world rolls round." I love that, even though it tells us far more about WSC than he could ever tell us about Arthur. ** "Thankfully, heroes never die in movies and leave the sidekick alone. He would not stand for it. Gabby or Pat, Pancho or Andy remind us of a part of ourselves, "the dependent part that can never grow up, the part that is painfully eager to please, always wants a hug and never gets enough. "Who could sit in a darkened theatre, listen to the organ music and watch the best of ourselves lowered into the ground while the rest stood up there, tears pouring off that enormous nose." —Ronald Koertge, "Sidekicks"

Thank for posting our news! I was just preparing my own announcement... We are so excited with the kit! I strongly recommend to sign to newsletter on the Hurricane model kit website!

Thanks Chris - glad you enjoyed it Some modelling, finally. As a gentle start I drilled out the holes in the seat; the kit just has dents: Ejector marks on the corners of the extra tank need to be removed: The locator holes on the seat support needed drilling out: All the Interior Green parts stuck on sticks ready for painting: Tanks assembled - they'll need some sanding: We had a heavy rain shower this morning - refreshing!

Kit manufacture: Revell Scale: 1/72 Type:Lancaster B.III Special "Dambusters" Extras used: Eduard Photoetch interior and Masking set, brass guns, resin wheels, Xtradecals. Paints and colours used: Tamiya Rubber Black, Nato Black and Sea Blue (interior, underside, wheels) Gloss Black (props, undercarriage), Mr Color Dark Earth and Dark Green (RAF WWII). Gloss coat Alclad Aqua Gloss, matt cost Vallejo polyurethane Matt Varnish. Weathering wash Flory's Dark Dirt (top) and a mix of Light Wash and Black for underside. Hi all! So, I've got the Lanc finished, and roughly in time for the Dambusters anniversary! I would love to say that was mu intention, but in truth it was just coincidence. Still, it's nice to be able to commemorate the event with this build. The build thread got hit with Photobucket, and as such got semi-abandoned. The kit is Revell! It's good value for money (especially as I got it second hand) and the external detail is beautiful. However, the fit in places isn't great. It's not a bad kit by any stretch but does require quite a bit of work in places. The engines to wing join was the worst, but some of the glasswork was the most annoying. The kit decals are poor, out of register and not very receptive of decal solutions. I used Xtradecals decal sheet which were absolutely stunning. I didn't seal one side of the code numbers very well so they tore a bit with weathering, but decided to leave it a bit weathered! I used a few AM bits. Eduard interior set (waste of time, you can see nothing!), Resin wheels (forgot the make, a bit of work needed but worth it) and brass guns which are exquisite, ruined only by the chump fitting them! Also worth nothing I stuck all the small bits like activators on early doors to get a better hold. That was a silly idea, they've all gone! So here we go: That's about that! Thank you for checking in 🙂 Val

And we're off! Like so many of us, Airfix the Golden Years represented my formative years in the hobby. And while I've mostly moved on to modern kits, I've still got that nostalgia bug. I never built this kit back in the day but always liked its design, the twin engines and big gun. You can read more about the plane here. I can't remember where I picked this up but there she is in all her box art glory.. Airfix Hs 129 Box art by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr According to the very helpful box, this is the 1975 edition Airfix Hs 129 Box side by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix Hs 129 Box art_2 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr What's inside the box.. Airfix Hs 129 instructions by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Buster and Valiant comics - nostalgia overload! Airfix Hs 129 club by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Everything there but the decals are shot so will use spares instead. Airfix Hs 129 contents by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Henschel X-Wing Jaeger! Airfix Hs 129 dry fit_1 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Thanks for looking and good luck with your builds! Dermot

FROG 1/72 Barracuda Mk.II 829 Squadron , Fleet Air Arm, HMS Victorious  Flew on the mission to Attack the German Battleship Tirpitz, 1944 This kit has been in the stash so long, I honestly can't remember when I bought it. The recent Carriers Ahoy Group Build on here offered the perfect opportunity to build this one. Work in progress link below. Let me know what you think cheers Pat

As you may know, my main interest bubble is things 1940. Some years ago I volunteered to build some models that would help illustrate the Battle of Britain, the models destined to be placed in dioramas for display at a small local museum. That, sadly, fell through, but I retained the various kits. One of those kits is the 1978 Airfix retool of the Hurricane MkI, and so here I find myself again! (I also have the contemporary Spitfire MkIa, which will appear in another thread later on.) This boxing I believe dates from the 1990s. I'm afraid Squadron Leader Stanford Tuck is going to be usurped by Fight Lieutenant Josef Maly of No 310 (Czech) Squadron, out of Duxford in October 1940. I'm quite pleased to add this model to my collection, since this will represent a metal-winged Hurricane. The current resident in the cabinet, from the current Airfix tooling, is the fabric wing version. The instructions are nice and simple. With so few parts I shall have this kit built by teatime. I may even manage to get paint on it before bedtime. Proof, if it was needed, of the original date for this kit. Let's see… I think I was about to sit my O Level Mocks at secondary school that year. Oh, hang on. What's all this? Well, that's the teatime deadline blown out of the water. When I got this kit the World Wide Web was barely a twinkle in Sir Tim Berners-Lee's eye. To get upgrade kits, one had to pore over the small ads in the modelling press, send off stamped self-addressed envelopes for catalogues, choose what you needed and order it accompanied by a cheque. Happy days. I don't recall whose resin cockpit parts they are, but the Eduard PE isn't for an Airfix kit. It's for a Hasegawa Hurricane, but I'm sure various bits will help to enhance this model whether they fit properly or not! I note I've already nicked the seat harness for something else - lucky I have a couple of extra frets about. If you're familiar with the new tool Airfix Hurricane, you'll know the detail in the wheel wells is sublime. The PE includes the parts to box in the area on the Hasegawa kit, so I set about seeing if things will fit. First, I marked where the upper wings fitted on the lower wing, then carefully scraped and filed away the landing strips intended for the raised undercarriage doors to glue to. The PE part folded up. Let's see if it will fit nicely... I suppose that's a no, then. Oh well, it was worth checking. The bare wheel wells won't be seen under normal circumstances anyway, so onwards. What's next? The resin instrument panel doesn't really fit, either. Surgery would be required on either this part, or the floor, in order for it to fit. Happily, the PE IP fits nicely, but I will need to reinstate the moulded ledge I carefully removed from the fuselage halves some time previously. The kit includes a rear bulkhead with the seat moulded to it. It's bare bones, but if Pilot Officer Prune is installed it probably looks fine. However, I have lots of shiny PE to play with. Here, posed with my specially trained British Penny for scale, is the sum total of about 45 minutes of going boss-eyed and cursing. Looks nice, doesn't it? I'm lucky, I guess, that this part does actually fit in the cockpit. A tiny bit of reshaping is required to the plastic parts to match the profile of the PE back, but it will go in. I know this because of countless dry fitting sessions! Even the original kit cockpit floor will fit, so that's nice, too. Speaking of floors and bulkheads, it became obvious it would be useful to fit the kit parts, with some modification, to help support all that dainty PE stuff. I chopped and sanded the lump of seat off the bulkhead, and glued it, with the floor, in place in one half of the fuselage. The other half is currently holding it all in place while the glue goes off. I did this, of course, after some more boss-eyedness and cursing that saw the PE side wall details go on. You can see some of it there. Obviously, being intended for another kit entirely, some surgery has been required here and there. There's some more on the other side. I added the teeny tiny weeny bits of detail, at least as far as I felt was prudent. A lot will never been seen again, so it's been pragmatically left attached to the fret. The PE includes a representation of all the tube framework. Since it's intended for another maker's kit I will be leaving it out, mainly because it simply won't fit in this one. Another reason is I'm not sure how it actually goes together, as the drawings are a bit vague. I might dig out the new Airfix Hurri destructions and see if they might help, but I'm happy to leave them out. Next, I will make a replacement styrene plank for the instrument panel, and then attempt to paint the lacework. I suspect the first brushload of paint will knock most of the details off! More later.

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

Managed to get some time at the workbench today and started to glue things together. Making one wing look spitfire shaped is tricky, making the second identical to the first (well, mirrored) is a nightmare. Lots of woodshavings created.

With some light chipping, a brush of black weathering powder and antenna line added, both builds are finished and ready for a place in my display cabinet. I've really enjoyed working on this pair, the contrast in simplicity, and quality is amazing. I loved the Eduard kit, with its many parts, pe, masking, varients and multitude of decals, but you can't beat n Airfix spit, can you!? Thanks for joining me on my build journey, one which has helped me discover the brilliance of Vallejo acrylics. I will post more photos of the pair in the ready for inspection forum.

Started on the paint job. Cheers Jes

Well, decals... I bet anyone who follows this thought I'd thrown the thing in the bin and disappeared, not quite. It's likely most of you experienced modellers already know about all the problems I experienced but I will relate them here just in case they might help someone else save some time. The OOB decals went on fine, I am only using Future (or Long Life the Australian version of it) nothing else. The only difficulty I had was the red canvas gun port covers. Future just wasn't sticky enough to hold them down around the leading edges. In the end I resorted to applying one side (the one with most surface area) and leaving the other end flapping in the breeze. Once they'd dried I painted a little Future onto a ceramic plate and gave it a minute or two until it became tacky, I then used this sticky Future to bond down the second half of the decal, it seemed to work well. Then came my drama. Being new to all this I never realised what I was letting myself in for building a specific aircraft whose decals were not included in the box or third party. All I had was a mono laser printer. I bought some cheap, clear decal paper from Ebay, created a sheet full of letters, numbers and roundels and took it to my library to be printed. The paper just didn't hold the coloured inks, the blacks were fine but the colours didn't adhere to the paper, especially the blue. The Sky letters for my serial number looked fine though so I sprayed with Polyurethane spray and tested one but the ink dissolved when wet. I now suspect that it was the cheap paper leaking fluid from the back. So... I got myself a free inkjet printer from Gumtree, yep, free, from a very kind lady who no longer needed it. I bought myself some BMF clear decal paper and tried again with my new printer. These ones didn't break up in the water but I discovered something new. Printers are extremely clever. For the lighter colours (such as Sky) the printer actually uses the white of the paper to create the colour by putting a thinly dispersed coating of ink on it. As soon as I slid my decal off the white backing and onto a painted test surface the translucent ink layer just turned the decal to a shadow effect on the painted piece losing any resemblance to it's Sky colour. Pushing the decal through the printer twice just adds more green again losing any semblance to Sky. Now I had read in my research to use white decal paper for light decals on dark backgrounds but nowhere did it tell me why. My problem was that if I were to print my custom Sky serial number - which is only two millimetres high and six wide - on a white background there was no way on earth I'd be able to cut out the white. I pondered it for a while before a solution hit me. I ordered some BMF white backed decal paper and printed my serial as shown below but added a border which I colour matched to the surface it was going to be placed on removing any stark white. I pushed it through the printer twice but only for the background the second printing didn't include the Sky lettering. This worked well apart from one consideration. The decal paper provides a sealed background, the ink is applied to it, then the polyurethane spray traps the image by sealing it in. By cutting close to the serial number and letters I was effectively slicing through the ink layer opening the sandwich side to the water. This didn't matter on the extremely small serial numbers but I did get a small amount of colour bleed on the bigger squadron codes. I found that the BMF white paper is a lot thicker than the clear and both need very little time in the water compared to the OOB decals. By reducing the time in water to the shortest possible I was able to reduce the bleed to just a very slight tint of red, hardly noticeable. My finished decals aren't perfect by any means but I am happy with them, especially the miniature serials. I could have bought a sheet of pre-printed third party letters for the squadron codes but they would have cost as much as I paid for the kit and since Sky lettering in FAA aircraft is not common I figured it was not worth the expense. Still, once again I have learned a whole truck load from this experience so this "simple" practice kit continues to deliver in terms of education. I'm still working on blending the cockpit to the body which is why the paint is still matt in that area. I guess next step is to stick some of these leftover bits on and then try out some of this weathering stuff.

Progress over the last day or so has been a bit fitful. Fitted the canopy with plenty of PVA to try an fill some nasty gaps, followed up with some Mr Surfacer 500 which will need a bit of fettling. I painted seams with silver paint to see where extra work was needed - which it will be in several places. Also worked on the undercarriage, using some spare parts from an unbuilt Italeri Vb and some plastic card as well as the white metal legs that came with the kit. And looked what arrived here in Australia, little over a week after ordering from the UK:

A real battle of a build, made up of parts from 3 different kits. 2 of which were finished models. But finally done, not perfect especially the canopy (I broke all my spares and indeed that one is from a unbuilt one). Edit god those pics are awful

Welcome to CC and the goat Hi Ian, nice to have you along Gorby I'm pleased to see that the old 'keep them busy looking for a fictitious bottle' kept you and Pete amused... Nasty fly, nice Bluebottle retort Pete Welcome to Johnny, founder of the new 'how many feet is that' measurement standard used on the B-36 (see link in last post) John I hope your WiFi's back up. Solar flares? Crikey... makes one remember how puny we are in the Universe, best not to think about it too much eh? Thanks for the link Grey - added to my 'damned Sun' stories Thanks Kallisti for the link to your build of the ASR Lysander - she's a beauty. There's some footage of a Lizzie in this mode in that video here that might also interest Chris: Modelling? I've, er, stuck the radio together: I think I'll paint the kit part to match the PE prior to storing it in the stash (and forgetting it's there, no doubt!) Nice example of "1/48 is not less fiddly - they add more detail". I can imagine some sadist saying "Hey, at this scale we could make a tiny PE part for the radio knob. Better let them have two as they're bound to lose one - it's tiny". Thanks Guys...

Hello All... Here are some update photos. Finished the landing gear, and attached them...she's standing on her own 3 legs! Taking a great shape so far! The gear doors are completed, but as yet unattached. I'll get to those this week sometime. Finished the touchup around the gear bays, and the aluminum polishing, but sill a long way to go on the finishes required before she can accept her colors and livery. probably won't post for a while, until she's made some progress putting her "clothes" on. Engines will be attached as the last step.... Thank you again for your encouragement and kind words...

In for a penny, in for a pound! If it is ok, I am piggybacking this build along with one on Facebook, as the kit ticks two boxes. It is the 1980's boxing, and i have Falcon replacement canopies, Xtradecals and Airwaves PE to try to improve things.

Having made good progress on the Interceptor, I thought that I would throw this one into the mix. According to Scalemates, this kit was originally released in 1960 as a 1/72 scale model, but by the time the Red Stripe boxing came along in 1971 it had changed to OO Scale and this particular boxing is OO Scale kit from 1973. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr I do hope that this doesn't prove to be a kit too far, but we will see how things progress.

Airbus A350 Thai Airways. 1:144 Revel kit with 26 Decals. I bought this kit when it first came out a few years ago, in the prototype scheme. I didn't much fancy doing that, so waited for some aftermarket producers to come out with some alternatives. Having a liking for all things Thai, I bought these decals from Two Six when they came out. I started the model a year ago, and more or less finished it by June of last year. It has been sitting on the workbench ever since, waiting for the aerials to be fitted. I'm having a bit of a purge of 'nearly finished' models on the bench, and this is the first one to be completed. The kit itself is excellent, the fit is amazing, one of the best I've ever worked on. The engine fans actually rotate if you blow on them. I haven't even glued the wings on, they push fit in and stay in place so well, that it gives me the option to detach them for storage. Now, I've got a couple of Airfix lightnings, a Wingnut Wings Albatros, an Eduard Pfalz, an Airfix DC-3, an Authentic Airliners 707, and two Group build 737's to be getting on with before the bench is clear. Anyway, after a long delay, this one is at last complete. I hope you like it. A couple of 'With something else' shots. It it a huge aeroplane, much bigger than I realised. Two regularly seen at Suvarnabhumi airport, teh A350 and an A320 of Bangkok Air Pretty much the same size as a 747, it's only slightly smaller; And the fit is so good I've left the wings detachable for storage; Thanks for looking, John

Hi this 1 72 scale diorama is the 60 c m morter being unloaded from its rail transporter along with other items to get ready for firing . The first photo is the kits used, and the dio is three foot four inches long. Hope you like Bazer.

A satisfying 11-day project. This is the UM 1/72 M12 155mm GMC and Academy Jeep with AB Figures personnel. A few items are scratch-built including the Jeep's windscreen and folded canopy frame, the 155mm gun's breech, the cordite storage tubes, tarpaulins, and the shell-sling being held by the two loaders. The Jeep is detailed with a PE set by 3D Miniatures. My build log can be found over on Missing Lynx: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/missinglynx/m12-155mm-spg-open-topped-gb-t315848.html

I’ve been in the modelling doldrums recently due to a variety of reasons. Had a few weeks of extended leave, so I dug this one out of the stash. It was meant to be a quick build, but didn't quite work out that way. I did finish it before heading back to work on Monday though! Brush painted with Tamiya acrylics, build thread can be found here: here Finished with the markings from the box for ZF290 of 207 Squadron RAF, May 2012. Thanks for looking. Looks pretty good with its gloss black Hawk brethren I completed during this break as well.

Thanks for the clarification Gents, I didn't think mine was likely to be correct

Google says: A "cheat line" is so-called because it was discovered that a horizontal stripe (or stripes) running the length of the fuselage would "cheat" the viewer into seeing an airliner appear to be longer (i.e. larger) and faster.

Eduard Profipack kit + resin pipes, wheels and photoetched. Regards, Alex from Russia.

It's probably one of those ubiquitous over worked little vehicles which are found in every harbour, freight yard or flight line that are used by the techs who work 24/7 in the background to keep everything else functioning to fetch and carry, lift and shift and pull and push.

Well, the plane is just about done, just an ariel to fit at the side of the nose and a bit of touching in here and there. I'll build it a base before posting gallery shots but this pair of pictures will do for now. Tony.

I introduced my teenage daughter to Camberwick Green on YouTube a few weeks ago. She was horrified when my wife and I explained that that was cutting edge children's TV in the 60s!

My first build will be a EC-121K, early designation WV-2 by Jan H, auf Flickr WV-13 kit decals for a plane that used the Keflavik and Prestwick bases in the late 50's and early 60's by Jan H, auf Flickr Hunchback device and guppy bottom.... by Jan H, auf Flickr

I had a few unsuccessful attempts to build the engine cowling. This is the one that worked (the fourth attempt). I started with a disc of 1mm card the diameter of the inside of the cowl, and glued to that a strip of .5mm card 8mm wide. I pre-curled the .5mm card before I attached it to the disc. After that had set properly I wrapped it tightly, gluing it in stages as I went, until I had built up a thickness of about 1.5mm. That needed plenty of time to set because I used a lot of glue. When it was ready I thinned it down to about 1mm and sanded in the correct profile - rounded at the leading edge, and tapered to a fine edge at the trailing edge. Then I added the tubes for the machine bullets to pass through. (I was a bit surprised the original aircraft didn't have blast tubes.)

Well that's certainly put my photos on the kitchen worktop in its place ! Nice one cheers Pat

An interesting photograph of a BV139 showing some of the camouflage pattern. The aircraft has the inner engines running probably for taxiing. This view shows the starboard navigation light at the wing tip. Firstly I painted a small blob of paint of the correct colour to the location of the light, in this case green. Then I apply a small blob of Gorilla PVA glue over the colour with a pin. The cream coloured blob of PVA glue will dry clear. I find this water based glue ideal for this and for fixing canopies or other glazing in place. Better go out and get some more before President Trump slaps an export ban on it .............. Hand painted red walkway lines. Warning notice from the kit's decals. I find that the Mach 2 decals are of a very good quality. These decals went onto the model over the Future Klear varnish beautifully. Applied straight from warm water without the use of any setting solutions they adhered superbly over any detailing. The thoughtful way in which Mach 2 engineer the engine fixings and the thin trailing edges of the cowlings means you can see through the cowlings and past the engine cylinders just like on the real thing. Close up of the BMW engines. Note the BMW badges between the bottom cylinders. The tail supporting struts took quite some cleaning up and then fettling to get them into place Note tail navigation light again from a blob of PVA glue. Radio aerial wires made from invisible thread...............you probably can't see them And suddenly, she was finished I have to say that I have enjoyed building this model over the last three months. I finally have a multi-engined Luftwaffe aircraft in my collection. I may ask Didier to bring me one of his Junkers JU352s to Telford. Hope you enjoyed this journey. regards, adey

Here's my first GB entry, a 1/35 Rolls Royce armoured car in the Middle East with a Miniart figure. WIP here

I finally finished this armoured car with some oil paint washes to add some depth and dust. I tried filling the lamps with Pledge to make lenses but after filling them, letting them dry, and then filling again many times, they are still only half filled. I'll try clear resin next time. Much as I like the look of it without markings I feel like it should have an air recognition symbol. Photos have been added to the Gallery. Many thanks to you all for the camaraderie during this GB.

Right guys, I am back with it again. The air intakes have been attached, filled and blended, and the wings assembled ready to be attached. Now to crack on!