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Hello All, As this is my first post on Britmodeller, I thought I'd start with something British. This is my recent build of Airfix's 1/72 Lightning F.2A. Painted with Tamiya colors and mounted on an Airfix display stand. Cheers, Mark

After looking through this art gallery of beautifully built models it's time for me to stick another one of mine up on the fridge in the canteen. I still haven't had the guts to try weathering and went with just trying to get it all together without any disasters. Fairly user-friendly kit, I found, not too complex but not so simple as to be boring. (The arrester hook already attached to the tailwheel was a bit optimistic... Broke as I cut it off the sprue). I'd originally wanted to use the checkerboard scheme shown here.... ... but when I had a crack at putting the wrap-around decal on the cowling..... ... it ended up quickly in the bin! Fortunately, I had some yellow paint kicking around and went with the other scheme. and here she is... I was busking on the colour a bit... The instructions gave a Tamiya colour but the LHS didn't have Tamiya paint nor did they know the equivalent Humbrtol number so I grabbed a royal blue Humbrol and darkened it up a bit with some gloss black. I decided to make this one clean totally spaced out and forgot to drill out the wings before closing them up so there are no fuel tanks or rockets on board. A few Work In Progress pictures.... I suppose if the glasshouse is open it should have a boarding ladder in place but I hate to cover up all the hard work that went into the office. Maybe I'll knock up a set of steps at some point in the future... ... not that it can be seen anyway! You'll notice there's no tail flash.... ... silly me put the right one on the left, realised after a few minutes and tried gently lifting it off to switch sides. Yeah, right! I didn't trust myself to paint a new one on so, if anybody built this in the checkerboard scheme and has the tail flashes for the arrow scheme left over, I'll gladly give a hatful of precious stones and a camels weight in gold for them (or I'll send a SASE, whichever is cheaper). Thanks for looking.

The Morane-Saulnier MS.406 was one of those mid-1930's intermediate designs, with many of the features of the more definitive types like the Spitfire, Bf 109 and the like but with some facets that recalled an earlier age: a fabric covering on the tail and a skid rather than a tail wheel. The design suffered from some issues that greatly affected its success: it had a pneumatically activated armament system, which introduced short, random delays into the firing circuit which made accurate fire very difficult. This was compounded by a lack of heating to the wing guns, which froze (and jammed) at high altitudes. The worst feature was the retractable engine radiator. The idea was that the radiator could be extended into the airstream at low speeds to provide more engine cooling, but would be retracted to reduce drag at higher speeds. The problem was that with the radiator retracted there simply wasn't sufficient cooling capacity to prevent overheating, but with the radiator extended the maximum speed (already quite low) dropped dramatically, enough to make the MS.406 largely uncompetitive in air combat. The effectiveness of retractable radiators, with their additional complexity and weight, can be largely determined by the number of designers of fighter aircraft that used them on their types. I can't think of another one, but if anyone can enlighten me I'm definitely interested. The MS.406 was the most numerous fighter aircraft in French service at the outbreak of war. Its effectiveness was not high. The type was ordered by a number of other air forces: Turkey, China, Poland and, as here, Lithuania, all showed interest. The Lithuanians were quite enthusiastic. To me this has always seemed slightly odd, given that the prototype crashed at the hands of a Lithuanian pilot! The French went so far as to paint one up in Lithuanian marking as part of the sales pitch, and an order for 13 was forthcoming. No was delivered, however. France couldn't meet its own needs for fighter production, never mind spare any for export and the whole Lithuanian order was requisitioned by the Armee De L'Aire for use in the Battle of France. The Hobby Boss kit builds quite well. It needs some improvements, especially changing the engraved wing strengthener detail to raised bands (easy to do with some Tamiya tape). The oil cooler intake also needs to be narrowed down, and the cockpit as provided is very sparse. I added brake lines, fitted nav lights from clear sprue and replaced guns barrels, pitot tube and the ring and bead gunsight. Paints are mixed from Tamiya, and the decals are LF Models (very nice indeed).

Today Winston turned three. It's been scary, expensive, frustrating, and often, despite what you might imagine, intensely boring. But there's a lot to love about him, too. Last night we built an Airfix quick-build Mustang that @06/24 sent him, and he was so excited to build "my own pretty airplane". He could still become anything or anyone, a statement of fact that's as much threat as promise. I'm forever torn by the desire to save him from my own childhood and early adulthood, and fearing the end result will be someone I can't understand and who won't understand me in return. Inherent in every act of creation is an element of risk, as any modeller can tell you. Speaking of risk, I dropped the Spitfire tonight, but it landed safely on a cushion of F-Bombs and seems to have been mostly unscathed (now wait and see, I bet the canopy's cracked under the mask). The wing seams were cracked a bit, so out came the TET and maybe even a chance to improve the dihedral. I also added a smidge of filler to the tip of the nose. 20181002_204315 by Edward IX, on Flickr The roots have been sanded down, and I've moved to the middle of the wing-fuselage join for some more touchup work with Mr Surfacer 500. I sanded down the spinner and primed it with some decanted Mr Resin primer I had in a spare Tamiya jar...to my immense surprise, after I shook the jar to remix it and opened it, the primer came fizzing out like soda pop. I cannot for the life of me remember how the prop blades are supposed to be oriented, so I'll need to puzzle that out before I put it in the ol' prop-a-matic for real. I feel like we're pretty close to primer here, so I added the horizontal stabs, which are butt joins and don't fit very well -- I usually apply some TET to soften the fuselage portions up and gouge them a little with a pin to enable the tailplanes to better fit. I stabilized them with Blu-tac, as can be seen.

This is the Zoukei-Mura 1/32 Ta-152H1. A kit that has been sat on my shelves for far too long, it kept on winking at me - and kept on being put back. However, I finally summoned up the courage and off I went. The kit itself has a reputation for having a bit of a bad fit, but I found that with a decent amount of dryfitting, a lot of sanding and a small bit of patience, that it actually went together really quite well. There were a few problem zones - the wing root on the underside was one, as were the wing fillets (which had to be sanded to paper thin in order to get a decent join!). However, as with every Zoukei-Mura kit, the end result is rather spectacular. With all that glorious internal detail, it would be a terrible shame to have it all sealed up. Zoukei-Mura provide decals in different colours for the fuselage numbers and squadron markings giving the builder an almost unimaginable amount of possibilities when finishing the kit. I opted to go for Red 7 for no particular reason other than the fact that the red number (in my opinion!) helped to set the fuselage out a little bit and make it look a little bit less drab. Other options included Blue, Green and Yellow! Anyway, the markings are fictional, the kit was great fun to build and I'm now looking forward to my next challenge - a WNW Felixstowe. Prepare the liquid calmer Sir! Enjoy! Chris

This is my first RFI for a long time - since photo bucket took down their service, I've been struggling with my motivation to put builds online. Coupled that with work and the family pressures of having a 1 year old baby crawling around, and it's been a long time! However... I'm going to post two that I've finished in the last week today! The first is the newish ICM I-16 Type 24. Finished in the markings of the 4th Squadron, 72nd Fighter Regiment of the USSR Navy, Murmansk in August 1941. Although regularly attributed to the famous ace "Safanov", it is likely that this aircraft wasn't assigned to any particular pilot. The kit itself is great - one or two small issues though - the instructions were very vague on the exhausts, the locating pins in the lower half of the wing had to be lowered in order to get seemless and stepless join, but apart from that, it was a beautiful little kit to make. Aftermarket wise, I've used Begemot Decals, an Eduard Zoom set and an HGW seatbelt that was modified from a 4 point sutton harness in order to better replicate what was actually installed on the I-16s! Thank you very much for looking, Chris

Hi This is my latest completion, built for the P-47 Thunderbolt STGB I show it now because I didn't know it could be done before Hasegawa 1/48th P-47D Bubbletop Lifelike Decal for the P-47D-28-RE flown by Lt. Clarke Bresmeth of 405FG/510FS Ultracast resin seat with harness and bulkhead Italian Classic resin wheels Eduard Zoom PE set Alclad II and Hobby Color paint This is my first attempt with NMF, I'm quite satisfied

My first model from the Grat War Additives used Master Taurus The propeller was made by hand Painted Tamiya

Three Hobby Boss 1/72 MS.406C! From left to right, we have: an aircraft of the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia (Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske, ZNDH). The MS.406 had been outclassed in 1940 by Stukas and Do 17 escorted by Bf 109E's, so the difference in performance between them and B17's and B24's protected by P38's can be imagined. In the middle we have an example painted in the colours of the Lithuanian air force, done as part of a sales campaign. The Lithuanians ordered but received none as the French confiscated the lot for their own use. Finally, on the right we have a "what if" painted as an aircraft of Esc.142 of the Polish Air Force. Poland ordered 160 MS.406, but again, didn't get any. Interestingly, production of the Polish order actually started: when the Turkish Air Force received their machines, they were probably quite surprised to find that the maintenance instructions stencilled inside some of the panels were in Polish! The Lithuanian markings are from LF Models, the Polish markings were scavenged from the spares box and the Croatian ones are home-made. Enjoy!

Another model to add to my 1940 interest bubble. The Cierva C.30 was a mid-1930s design of autogyro which was licensed and built by Avro in the UK, Lioré-et-Olivier in France, and Focke-Wulf in Germany. The UK version, powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major I radial, was given the name Rota. Initially sold for civilian use, the type was also acquired by the RAF. It was intended to use the aircraft's capabilities for the army co-operation role, and twelve were delivered to the School of Army Co-operation at Old Sarum between 1934 and 1935. When the Second World War was declared, all the civilian UK Rotas were impressed and joined the dozen RAF examples equipping 1448 Flight at Duxford. The Rota was an ideal aircraft to help with calibrating the new radar defence systems, and eventually No 529 Squadron was formed at Halton for just that work. The RS Models kit was the 2016 issue. The company has so far released three versions of their kit, covering most of the operators of the Avro C.30 as far as I can make out. The boxing included decals for a 1930s RAF Rota MkI, Swedish, Swiss and Spanish Navy Avro C.30s. I dug around on the internet to see if I could find the typical camouflage and marking for a 1940 RAF Rota MkI. What I have ended up with is my best interpretation, and I am open to correction - though the model won't be changed now! I did a short WIP thread for this model. I brush-painted the finished model with Humbrol enamels. Fuselage roundels came from a generic Xtradecal set, as did the tail flash, and Ventura serial numbers. The tail flash needed some paint retouching, and I might have been better painting it from scratch.

Outside my usual WWII Europe theme, another kit kindly donated by Phil ( @HP42 ) - the nice old Matchbox Phantom. A short (for me) WiP here with lots of help from the experts. Pretty straightforward with some thrills and spills; well, OK, mostly spills. Stynylrez white primer left 'raw' for the white, Mr Hobby Aqueous EDSG, W&N satin varnish and kit transfers. Tamiya Titanium for the tailplanes with 'smoke' sprayed over that for the darker areas: Flickr

Massive update today, she's almost completed. Ordnance: Sidewinders weathered and dull coated Same for the Mavericks, on which the clear head was glued in (looks a bit "bulbous", what do you guys think?) In place Bottom ailerons/aribrakes glued in place as well And "The Gun": Time to unmask the canopy; I already knew it had some black paint leaks Here it is after some cleanup with a toothpick and a microfiber towel Seat and control stick in place (forgot to take a pic from the back to show it ) and top ailerons/airbrakes in place Completing the canopy: opening mechanism glued with CA gel to void fogging I painted on the two canopy release handles, there just wasn't room enough for any scratch built item I also included in the cockpit the prototypical GPS navigation system: to wit a folded paper map Then I glued the canopy in place, followed by the ladder, ladder door, avionics bay door and pitot tube She's almost completed, I just need to add a few RBF tags on the pylons. One thing bothers me though, which you probably can't really see from pics (edit: you can actually see it in the top aileron pic): there'a visible gap around the attachment point of both the Sidewinders (they are carved out in that area, albeit much more than necessary). I think I'l try to replace them with some leftovers from my Harrier build, they were marked as AIM9/L but I think they are almost identical in appearance the the AIM9/M supposedly represented by the kit plastic. Again, what do you guys think? Ciao

The opposite direction to Merlin Spits. Edit: (My post is of no help, if you can't remember which way Merlins go.) The propellor rotates anti-clockwise, from the pilot's point of view.

Hi everybody, Just finished this nice seaplane. It is a Mirage Hobby kit that has been around for quite a while. I was in between making the land or the sea version, but in the end floats won. A simple kit, few parts count, but it does take some extra effort to build, especially the alignment of fuselage, support struts and floats. I used some photo-etched bits and pieces, and the Yahu instrument panel for Lublin R-XIII (funny brass color). A bit of scratch-build for lights and the cockpit. The model is finished with Tamiya and Akan paints, and Microscale Flat varnish. It has an impressive wing-span for its scale, almost the size of a Stuka. Comments, questions and critical observations all welcomed! Dimitris K. 93

Here is my F.M.Models H.P.Hampden 99% done , airbrushed freehand with gunze acrylics with Iwata HPC ,still a few paint touch ups and aeriels etc that need attending to and...... i do realise some things are out of alignment etc but have chosen at this stage to live with them and say to myself it looks good in the cabinet the way it is , My love of the Hampden can be traced to a traumatic episode in my childhood where i was given an Airfix kit of the same to build as therapy, it worked !!!!, i loved that kit and remember sitting in the passenger seat of my Uncles old Black Vanguard using the front qtr panel window to let in some ''wind'' to spin the props as i bombed the Huns and anyone else that got in the way, Fast Forward 50 years and i built the F.M. kit and wind up needing therapy !!!!........just joking, but it did take me almost 5 years of start stop etc, it is in my mind far far far.....from perfect , But its a 1/48 Hampden and its mine, What a journey, there were soooooo many muck ups both my doing and the kits , way too many to list, one of the last was when i was about to install tall tail fin flashes only to find a pic or series of pics in an old mag of the actual aircraft in its many guises i.e , with black demarcation line below and then above the wing ,then different roundels and different shorter fin flashes, it was around 1940 and there WAS a war on and local units did the painting amendments the ministry issued so i guess thats the reason for the variations, anyway this is MY interpretation and mine alone i do not profess to be an expert on the subject just a lover of it Comments welcome http:// http:// http:// http:// http://

OK, so this has been done for almost a year now but since it's the only actual modelling I've done (aka completed) in the last couple of years, thought it should be posted The designer goes by the name of Xenonray and has done a few other characters, also in this scale. If anyone is interested Tim

Only a couple of shots of my LCM

Right so I have done a bit of painting here and there, I know I've said this TWICE now but seriously the situation I was in has changed and I'm now able to focus on this again. This was the bit of painting I've fitted in in the past few weeks, I've started throwing some more brown on the actual figure and also added some dark red as an experiment and actually really like it so went with it here and there and may even add some to the torso sides, but I'll see when I get to that. 20180824_170730 by Nick Frost, on Flickr 20180913_134035 by Nick Frost, on Flickr 20180913_134055 by Nick Frost, on Flickr 20180913_134105 by Nick Frost, on Flickr 20180913_134458 by Nick Frost, on Flickr 20180913_134541 by Nick Frost, on Flickr Next up I want to finish off the last bits of tentacle now I've got the figure bits painted where the are close/touching, and I'll copy the brown and dark red paint onto the other leg. Thanks for looking, more soon (seriously!)

I got home late tonight from my trip to Bristol - but couldn't resist getting the aerials on - I guess my mojo maybe back... three aerials for a command tank and I just can't get him off the radio - '10-4 for a copy good buddy - come back'... That's all folks - Thanks for a great GB 😍

You think you've got problems.

Hi Folks Number five from the shelf of doom, why it was left there I have no idea as it is one of my favourite aircraft. Built from the box apart from the aerials and using the kit decals. This is one of the easier CA builds goes together much better than some I have built, the decals held up well considering how old they were. Cheers Ian

I've finished Italeri's 1/72 Short Stirling mk.1 as W7442 ("-B") of 1651 Conversion Unit (previously coded MG-M). The aircraft was lost on June 26th, 1942 during the 1000-bomber raid on Bremen. The entire crew was lost. A fisherman once caught a part of this aircraft in his nets, which turned out to be one of the escape hatches. This escape hatch was given to my father, who still has it hanging in his hallway. The Italeri kit has left my feeling very cynical about it. I would describe the kit as "mildly infuriating". Some things are right, but most of it is just wrong. But not entirely wrong, just a little bit wrong. As if the designers had five minutes to look at reference material, and then had to rely on notes and memory. I've gone from thinking it's some kind of elaborate joke on scale modelers who want to build a decent model of a Stirling to thinking that perhaps this is a kit that Italeri could have used to show investors to keep them happy. It looks okay in the box, but really isn't. As I said, the kit gets almost every detail slightly wrong, but the most obvious problem with the kit is the surface detail. I was inspired by a build from a few years ago of Revell's B-17 which the builder covered partly with Scotch tape to cover the (somewhat) exaggerated panel details of that kit. Having build Revell's B-17 myself, I can say that kit is not nearly as bad as Italeri's Stirling, nor as mildly infuriating in terms of getting the strangest things weirdly wrong. A good example of getting things weirdly wrong is the bomb bay, which I addressed. In the box, the bomb bay looks nice and detailed, with ribs and everything. But upon closer inspection, you'll notice that all the ribs are in the wrong place. Eduard's detail set is an improvement, but those ribs are also in the wrong location. In the end, I'm fairly happy with how this turned out - but the kit is frustrating, and the Scotch tape is not as neat as I had hoped, and using it poses problems in later stages of the build: it's fairly fragile in and of itself, but paint also has some problems sticking to it and so do antennas and actuators. Build thread with more details here: Now, on to the photos: I like that in the last photo you can just see the window of the hatch that I added in the floor through the crew access door. Thanks for looking - feedback is always welcome of course. Thanks to everyone who supported me during the build, and especially @12jaguar from the Stirling Project who provided tremendous help and input (and his friend James!) and @Josip for sharing the Scotch tape technique in his B-17 build thread from a couple of years ago https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234956473-revell-b-17g-got-a-new-dress/ - Elger

Thanks Phil - yep, time to do something more challenging Thanks Charlie You're right, of course. The Wiki entry has a diagram that clearly shows the different front end and mid 'turret' on the LRDU version. Welcome John - hope you had a good kip Thanks Giorgio Toddler? Oi! (I think it's the yacking - good stuff though and I like it) Not missed much, welcome Crisp Mixed mojo this morning. Some chopping and glueing: Remembering to take care on the joins when you don't have locating pins. These will clean up nicely though I reckon: The colour chart shows the internals as either H27 or Mr Hobby H333. Hmmm, sort of grey then: I need to decide what to do about the geodesic frames…

Just to demonstrate, the Salt Water actuator is in the correct orientation and position on the oleo pictured. I do appreciate that the Helicopter museum staff and volunteers are not type engineers. It echo's the hard and fast rule of modelling to a specific picture or aircraft/subject on a certain date in time. The radius arm and oleo look a lot better than the Fly parts, how many times can we say that about Hendie's parts though?😁

Welcome Thanks Chris Thanks Simon and welcome - bottle openers on the bar… Indeed! Or even its Father Short run kits eh? Always a pain challenge Thanks Tony - great photos, and very timely; I'll be painting the internals tomorrow, hopefully Tomorrow your time or our time? Nice to see you Dennis These little rib things are a pain - hard to glue ON the rib and, of course, they're not quite the right shape: Can't see them? Good. Two on each side, either side of the forward frame. The radio room is coming together: Some care needed as there's a 'shelf' on the bottom of the floor and the gates left lumps in it. Ready for some paint.

Some aircraft, you don't their existance until you find a box in your favorit dealer. The Let L-410 is that some aircraft. I have bought this box 4 years ago and stock it in my stockpile. I now the time to exit it. I choose the military version for his artbox The box propose 4 scheme : one for a UVP version with a three blades propellers, and 3 for the UVP-E version with a 5 blades propellers. I choose the UVP version for his 3 tones schemes The AZ kit is the Gavia kit with some little improvement. A resin noise and PE parts for the antennas. This kit has a very fine engraved, but I think it is too thin and should don't resist at a sanding seance. Now, lets go and start the kit. I start with the interior. The notice didn't tell me the interior color and I choose a USAF grey. May be not realistic but without information of the real plane, I choose this color like a military color. For the seat, my first choice was a blue, but finally, I choose a more classical brown. I paint the instrument panel with a mix of black and grey. Some instruments are paint in white for rendering a little life in this cockpit that you never see after closing the fuselage. For the next step, I glued the engines on the wings It is more easely to adjust on the wing that when the wing are in place on the fuselage. A gap must be fill on the "interior" side In the same time I adjust the wing on the fuselage. I cut the part that enter in the fuselage and sand the contact surface onto the wing and fuselage. I add the fin on the tail. No problem at this place I cut the nose like the scheme said but it is a bad idea. Now my fuselage is too short. I should find a solution in the following steps A little view of test fit The propellers. Because I choose the three tones version, the propellers are the 3 blade version. The spinner must be filled and the hole of the blade must be enlarge. The main gear : The main gear bays are in 2 pieces that did not adjust on the fuselage. The instruction propose to glue the 2 pieces together and after add it on the fuselage. I prefere to glue the upper piece on the fuselage and after glue the second piece to avoid hardwork at this place But you escape at a filler seance A view with the propellers in place Now it is the hardtime to close the fuselage I try to insert the interior and find some points needing to sanding. In the front of the panel instruments and in the upper section of the passagers part I cut some evergreen L part for reinforce the section using to glu the interior And now the interior is in place I can close the fuselage and try to fit the noise on it On the noise I add supports for having the correct position. The gap between the part is very impressive. 1mm in some place. I think that my filling seance did not finish after a couple of day or more

I will start at the beginning,bought this model at a model show with parts missing,for only £10.The trader had tried everything.I tried one of my sellers on eBay,bingo, he was able to get the part.That was 2yrs ago.Bought extra aircraft cheap,yes like cheap.One of the boxes were SB2U scout bomber,the first monoplane aircraft to serve on Saratoga. The research started,first the etching from Eduard ,the bridge is upgraded to 1940,which mean I could put more modern aircraft on board. Sb2U-1 Vindicator x12 TBD-1 Devastators x20 F2A-2 Buffalos x12 F3F-1 x12 the biplanes are tiny when, compare to the modern aircraft. VS-3SBC x12 Next problem was a display box ,most were showing to be £200.Fainted .At another show in Aberdeen.there is a trader who will make then much cheaper.The catch he will not post any(too many were getting damaged),or bring to shows,not enough space in his van.I,m in luck because he lives in Glasgow, which is only an hour for me each way.Same price as postage,which would have been,when he did post.That's why it's taken two yrs to get round to making this monster 90cm in length,height 23cm and width 20cm.

I'm start another Mig -) Project inventory: For comparison, ejection seats from left to right; resin from Pavla, Eduard Mig-21PFM KIT, ICM kit (this model) Cockpit:

Hello, Here is my another model kit build in past but I add a simply diorama and I make a new photos, also I tried to make some vintage photos of this tank somewhere in field ... maybe Kursk? 😉 It is kit made by Tamiya in 1/48 scale. And here is bonus: I hope you will like it 🙂

Hi, Yakovlev from the box with Eduard PE. Difficult model, but version PP will buy too.

Found a blog with a few more photos: http://lstfazz.blogspot.com/ regards, Jack

Decals on: I wanted to see how closely the paint job matches the reference photo here. I have taken the photo on a chair with predominantly green fabric to get the right background reflection and post-processed the picture a bit to imitate the effect of old film stock. The ceiling is white, not blue and grey, so that throws off the top surface reflections a bit, but I’m getting close. More weathering needed... I’ve still got some work to do on undercarriage and bomb bay doors and other details but completion inside the GB now looks probable. Thanks for looking, Adrian

Hiya Folks, Well I`ve got the model sanded and the canopy fitted,..... as I said I`m not fully happy with the look of the canopy,..... I cannot quite put my finger on it though! And I found this very dusty model on the shelf of doom,......a very old Tamiya Beau which I had started to re paint as a desert based night fighter with the addition of a resin flat tailplane; Cheers Tony

Hello Dears, It's now usual, I finished a kit in the middle of the night and I share it on the Spot ! First let's show a pic of the original ! V. Emelianenko has been awarded an hero of the soviet union ! The musical drawing depict in fact the first notes of the "Song of the Sturmovik " This book has been of a great help ! And everything has been done Under the close supervision of the Great camarade…. I mean Sylvester Staline ! Cannon has been done mith Syringe needles, paints are Life color and a home brewed green from Tamiya paints Decals from Eduard boxing, As they looked pretty accurate !! I used this kit because there is really a great difference, accurate has missed the point on this one ! On a lot of Sturmovik I saw the wings on which there was almost no painting left !! So I restrain myself, assuming that the aircraft of a hero will receive a bit more of attention ?? I will carry on later SWMBO need the PC, See you later !! CC

More than enough for the Colonies. We don’t want them getting ideas

It’s under paint, copious amounts of paint, hopefully that will hide the worst of it.

The aeroplane I'm building was based in UK until 30 August 1944 and the reference photo (see above) shows it with upper stripes covered, flying over what looks like English countryside, which dates it to July/August. So I will restore the underside stripes. That works for me because I'm not happy with the underside treatment. I am hoping to find something that strips off acrylics but not Halfords rattle can aluminium. If the worst comes to the worst I will end up back at the Halfords grey primer layer, because pretty much nothing strips that. I knew there'd be something to slow me down! [edit] and if I'm wrong I can always stipple over some more colour underneath (or not)... Regards, Adrian

Initially the stripes were removed from the uppersurfaces only, by the start of July. Then they were removed from the underside of the wing, then completely in September. However in October the RAF bombers had the fuselage stripes reinstalled, because of "friendly fire" problems.

If you're up for a bit of scratchbuilding and conversion work the FWD-COE can be built from the Matador. There was an article in Military Modelling magazine in the late 70s(?) covering it. I have a friend with every copy so I think I'll nip round and see him

Finally wrapped this up over the weekend although the changes are pretty minimal. Mainly cleaned up some of the hull markings and added edge highlighting in some areas such as the missile turret. Then sealed everything with a coat of Testors Dullcote. I learned some valuable lessons during this project in terms of how to 3D model to get the best output for painting and I'm putting together my notes so that I can improve my next design. Below is a digram that I put together for reference, evaluating the size of specific model features to how they turned out with regards to "paintability". I'll be turning this into a set of guidelines for my next model. In fact, I might try giving this model another go, correcting the features that needed to be more prominent to show up better in the final painted model.

Here all week, try the veal!

Found these a few days ago while sifting through stuff toclear out at home. There comes atime when this has to happen. But, I thought you guys and gals out there may like to see these. Thye both still have the haniging cords and are printed on a thin card. I have posed my two most recent finished models in one of the pics. Not sure of the year these were around. Clearly during the mid 1960s and on going by the JP colour scheme. I saved them while I was in the ATC and when we moved from our old hut in to a newer one. They almost ended up on a bon fire!! I wonder if they are worth anything??

Hi all, Here is my latest – the 1970s era 1/48 Arii Spitfire Mk.VIII. This one is built straight out of the box, with the addition of seat belts made from masking tape. It’s painted up in the markings of SQNLDR S. Susans of 79SQN RAAF, 1945, using the DK decals set plus some homemade masks. I have fond memories of building this as a kid back in the early 90s, ham-fistedly painting it with thick coats of humbrol enamels and fictitious markings, and thought it would be fun to build it again~25 years later – indeed it was. In comparison to the contemporary Eduard kit, this one certainly shows its age, but for the relative price difference (I picked this up for ~$10), it still builds up to a nice model relatively simply. On the negative side, the kit has a very simplistic and inaccurate cockpit, the canopy is thick, distorted, and doesn’t fit (lots of filling was needed here), some filling is needed around the wing attachments (roots, chin, under-fuselage), the chin scoop doesn’t fit, the exhausts are thick and simplistic, and the characteristic “gull” shaped wing / fuselage underside is not represented. On the plus side, this is a simple kit (only 40 pieces in total, it has some very fine recessed panel lines and rivet detail, and the overall shape looks like a Spitfire to me…! The (simple) interior: And some fun with pre-shading: Unfortunately, the pre-shading doesn’t show well in the photos, but at least I know it’s there :) All in all I enjoyed this build and would recommend it to anyone after a (relatively) simple build. All comments / feedback welcomed! Cheers BC

Creating a bevel frame for the 3 mm Perspex sheets that will encase the diorama. Used scrap 3mm Perspex, plus 1 mm card, for a gap spacer during construction. Not having a jig for cutting angles, I made a few initial errors (top right). Glued and nailed the frame to the base. One Fifty is asking why I added an extra row of piers. The last position where a pier would be is where the bridge deck joins the land. The pier is not needed. So now I have six spare piers, which will become handy. Last night I was thinking of making a few more piers just for showing POWs debarking tree trunks for piers. Now I have six for this mini diorama. As soon as I started applying wood putty, the spalulate broke. It was a reasonably new. Lucky I still had my old spatulet of over twenty years.

and, as a result the Airfix canopy, and windscreen are too high, which look even stranger. I'll edit in some pics later if need be. pics in link If you want an open hood, get a vacform canopy and fill the step.

Hobbyist in his natural environment, the relatively clean and tidy working area should be taken with a pinch of salt however...this is one messy modeller! Cheers, Mark.

I think I got the steps the wrong way around on the robes, or maybe just a bit too much dry-brushing at the end? So I'll need to do some tidying up in daylight to make things a bit neater without losing the texture and contrast. I also need to do the red bits and skulls. Still, not too far to go with these now. Two units in a week will be a record Cheers, Will

5 spoke wheels were only used on the L**** and N**** serial planes, that lack the starboard rectangular side hatch, the kit represents the standard BoB Mk.I, with the side hatch and 4 spoke wheels, so 5 spoke are not needed. Post 5,801 for me.... I need to get out more...

Nobody mention the breathing thing ok? Thanks heavens we're such a multi-planetary forum! Ruddy Rudder's Really Rectified. Since @galgos unloaded such photographic bounty on the rudder region, I went back also to the maintenance documents and found a clear structural schematic to match and realized my first attempts at simply giving a quick rub down to the kit part to get rid of all that spurious ribbing was simply not going to do. At all. The lateral profile of the kit part was fine however, so I simply used this to transfer an outline onto some leftover roofing from the Iron Chicken which were then roughly profiled-down and stuck together in order to form the two halves required for the necessary thickness at the base: If you glance back at Max's photos you can see that the widest point of the rudder is at the base, where the quadrant fits into the fuselage, from where it then tapers both vertically and horizontally to the trailing edge. First job then - to get the outline correct: I have to say that is one pleasing set of curves they designed on the rudder on this aircraft. Dare one say a bit 'Art Nouveau'? Possibly not, but my gran did have a dressing table from the period with side-mirrors of almost exactly that shape. To get the necessary tapering done in two directions (meeting at the apex of the base) I taped some bog-standard sanding paper to an old joint-making stand that I inherited from my father-in-law and simply sanded the rudder against at an angle it to get the required dimensions sorted out: After about 20 minutes and the loss of the top fingerprints from both thumbs, a plectrum-like form emerged: A nice wet smooth down with the W&D and it was time for a test fit: Considerably better than the first lame attempt and that shadow at the bottom of the rudder (due to the rounded profile down at the quadrant) now matches what I see on photographs of that region more convincingly. Need to tidy up the openings on the aircraft around it of course, fair-in the top of the fuselage and build a mount for the quadrant to slot into and so forth, but shapewise that's something I can stand over now. Need to inset a couple of hinges and work out how to fit a delicate mass balance that sticks out forward of the top of the rudder but that can wait until a subsequent detailing pass. Next job has to be looking at vacforming some replacement cowlings to go with the Cheetahs - which reminds me at some point I need to stop avoiding the fact that I need to make a resin copy of the one I have. They were apparently quite reliable: Tony

I will find my pic of the poor F-84, waiting for her fate on old tyres and pallets! Now !! we've got her back, not sure that it was a 100% the same aircraft but I'm glad to see her back ! Painted in RAF colors and moreover to depict the Aircraft of the Maj Marette, who performed aerobatics in airshow ! And also off airshow…. And a last one before we go ! Thank for watching ! Have a great modelling time ! Sincerely. CC