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After a long build which took most of this year, my 1/48 scale Do 217E-1 is complete. The plane I have chosen is F8-DM. This was a late 1940 KG40 plane so would have been quite new at the time, as a result I haven’t heavily weathered it. I have not used drop tanks as this would have been used against England during the Blitz period on night bombing raids. The build was straight forward except for the Canopy which isn’t the best of fits. It is a fraction too narrow and needs some putty work to get it to look right. The model was built out of the box with handmade masks. I have used aftermarket decals by Eagle Strike. These were good decals although the separate white outline gave me trouble. I ended up using three decal sets before it was completed. The tail marking are separate to the swastika which I had trouble getting in the right place as you will see. Thanks to Dave (Rabbit Leader) who came to my rescue twice with the white outline “D” and when the right side decals were damaged by a mask dropping on to them. I did have problems with the canopy as mentioned. To start with I dipped it in future which would have been fine if it had gone on easily. After removing it and the resetting it the inside surface showed fogging when the mask was removed. This would have been a major problem if I hadn’t cut the access hatch open earlier. This allowed me to get some future on the inside window surface and clean out some dust that had got inside. Still in the end it was a lot better, but not what I would call great. Once again it was Dave’s suggestion that got me through it. I have also just noticed the spinners should have had white tips. Something for another day. I cut out the crew access hatch and added a scratch built ladder. This makes the plane much more interesting. After lots of minor accidents when I would knock off bits in the last day the plane was finished at long last. I took it to a friend of mine to get some images. On the way the wing Pitot tube was knocked off and I didn’t notice it until the photo shoot was finished. As a result I have used Photoshop to show it. It will be back on the plane tomorrow. I also used Photoshop to add the aerial wire that goes from the fuselage to the main aerial wire. It was on the plane, but got knocked off last night I will get it back on later. These are the only parts added in Photoshop. The rest of the image work was removing the join line in the back drop sheets in some of the photos. Well that’s it after a very interesting journey I present my Do 217E-1.

Eduard's great MIG-21 kit all build OOB. Thanks Jason Brewer for the pictures! Thank you for checking out my build. Thanks!

Here is my Matchbox 1:72 Bristol Beaufighter TF.X which I built back in 2008. It represents RD147/PL-U of No. 144 Sqn RAF based at Dallachy, Scotland in spring 1945. I added the Aires cockpit set and some parts from an Airwaves etched set. The thimble nose and the tail fin extension were both from Quickboost. The rear canopy came from an old Airfix kit and I added a machine gun. I added the strike camera, various aerials and probes, wingtip lights. Improvements were made to the engines and various intakes as well as the rockets and their pylons. And more... but I can't list it all here! The main scheme was painted with airbrush. Thank you for looking and all comments are welcome Miguel

My favorite MiG 29 SMT version is often called "humpbacked". This is quite interesting versions especially in terms of painting. First, camouflage cut sharply The second is quite interesting colors made with not the best quality paints. This causes quick changes on the surface. Model as always straight from the box. Set: MiG-29SMT G.W.H 1:48 Painted: Sikkens Auto Wave II Decals: GWH set.

OK...finito...Time to get cracking on something else, namely the Duck over in the Maritime Patrol GB. I might also start another Bf-109 and/or Spitfire. Although, now that I have begun work in the darkroom with my winter group (23 of them)...no, I will build as much as I can, when I can. This was a fun kit, if a little nerve-wracking at times and it is good to see it done and out of the stash. Some of the plastic is so thinly moulded that it threatens to break; some of the exhaust pipes needed are not supplied; some of the plastic parts are as small as photo-etch...But it built into a nice representation of this very famous aircraft. I'll get around tp fashioning some more exhausts later...Trust me, there were no leftover parts save for the skis. Thanks for all the support! -John

Hello Everybody, one day I saw a picture of probably the most beautiful plane in the history of aviation - XB-70 Valkyrie. It was "in flight" with wings folded: That moment I decide I must build one in exactly same position - in flight with wings-fold. So here it is: At the beginnig I planned clean plane as for experimental one then I saw picutres that showed it used to be really tired at a time: So this is my final build. The kit is infamous 1/72 Italeri kit (ERTL one before). This is truly a horrible kit, with few really huge parts extremely difficult to snap together, lots of sanding etc... So it was like 2 months battle, few times I nearly gave up but finally we have a draw: The kit is reallllllly big - here with 48 Spit: Here with other 72ers (Revells Transal and Blohm&Voss): And here with my 48ers - it is really dominating the whole pack:

Pretty sure I`m not going to have to explain the inspiration for my latest in-flight diorama......! (Prop blur courtesy of Flickr photo editing) Thanks for looking.

My latest project is this Special Hobby Vildebeest. I was initially drawn to the model by the excellent box art on the new release but after researching the somewhat controversial thoughts on the camouflage scheme (ie, whether it should be Brown and Green or Blue and Green and black underneath or sky etc, etc) I opted for a basic silver and grey one. Built pretty much straight from the box except for the modified rear gunners compartment to replace the (again, apparently?) incorrect scarf ring arrangement with the Fairey High Speed version. Too late now as I'm not changing it back! The rigging is rolled wire and the aerials on the top wing are Uschi thread. Although its a nice kit to build I found I had to shorten the cabane struts a little and I was disappointed to find the wheels and spats as one piece..(or rather two but with the wheels moulded on to them) There's also a very nasty sink mark on the tail wheel assembly. Also when I can get my steady hand back I'll edge the red on the spats with black..... Thanks for looking. IMG_0103 IMG_0105 IMG_0101 IMG_0102 IMG_0104

Hello everyone I will welcome you with the b-2 bomber model. A gluing, or rather a sculpturing, took me half a year. At the time when I stuck it, it was the only 1/72 scale model on the market. Tests are not impressive with quality, it is a model from the "gniot" series. The patches date 1991, convex lines, wyppaczane items, there are many shrinkage pits, you need to improve a lot and even more earn. I collected probably the majority of photos, videos and reports from the model building available on the Internet. Unfortunately, very few photos of B-2 details are still available today. For the construction I used Eduard's plaques and airesa armchairs, the only elements available on the market for this model, and still are not perfect. Cockpit, bomb chamber, chassis recesses, engines, leaning rudders and many other things done from scratch, engraved lines. I have not used so much putty in my life, even on Mach 2 models. Model painted mr. Color C (FS36118), H. The presentation of this copy (21066) took place on November 22, 1988 at the Palmdale Air Force Base, California. The first flight took place on July 17, 1989 from the Palmdale base to the Edwards base. greetings ,,,,,

Hello Everyone This project took a little more time than i expected. A very known model from 70's, model I am extremely fond of, because it was the first model which my father made for me and introduced me to this hobby. I decided that I will do the same version, without any additional details in same colors and markings, just for him. I decided and ..... after almost 40 years I finished it...but in different way: Engraved, a complete cabin with instruments made (known only to me and impossible to see), completed made landing gear bay, replaced propeller with one from hobby boss, used Italery colors, for wash and shades used artistic oli paints, markings skymodel ... if I remember well ... and that's it, almost from the box Not to bother you more, another model old almost as me is done. I hope you like it Best regards and pictures at the end:

The first aircraft is an Italeri re-box of the Hasegawa kit and the second is the Hasegawa in 1:48. The first aircraft is also my first attempt at mottling. I would love to say the second aircraft was my first attempt at smoke rings but Italeri provided these as decals and if you look closely you can see the spray pattern. Well done Italeri.

Hello Here is my last build with this 1/72 Airfix North American B-25C from 83rd Bomb Squadron / 12th Bomber Group U.S. Army Air Force in 1942 somewhere in the North African desert area. Decals came from Xtradecal. Soon to be published in Tamiya Magazine French Edition. Patrick

Inspired by @John Aero's contribution to this thread, I got up really early this morning to get some more done on this build before anyone could put any embuggerances in my way. A quick coat of primer over the seams that I have been worrying about showed that a quick polish should have them ready for paint. I sanded the tail plain joints down but had to run some more CA into the starboard side this seems to be taking an age to set and I am guessing that it is beginning to go off so a quick trip to my LMS seems to be in order later today to replenish stocks of the same. In hindsight, I think the next Valom kit I build, I will use good old fashioned tube cement for the principal joins on the model and accept the longer setting time in return for stronger joints. The penny dropped that I had forgotten to do something about the light in the nose. Valom provide a clear part but neglected to put anything behind it. Accordingly, I glued a scrap of plastic card to the end of some plastic tubing, trimmed it to shape and inserted the whole into the aperture which I had enlarged to take account of the external diameter of the tube. This will be trimmed to match the nose contours and painted black before a Little Cars lens is dropped into place. Little Cars lenses will also be used on the wing leading edge landing lights. The pictures are not the most exciting ever taken but that is down to the nature of the work that has been taking place. Thanks for looking Martian 👽

Hello, dear friends and colleagues! Let me present my yet another model Blackburn Shark Mk.II by Eastern Express. This kit is the repack of the "old school" Frog model. The kit offers wide choice of varieties – with floats, on wheeled chassis, with folded wing or in-flight configuration – and leaves you rather pleasantly impressed. For its time the model seems quite respectable and can be transformed into a perfect replica if you give it a certain effort. As far as I know, this model of Shark aircraft hasn’t got any alternatives nowadays. The main drawbacks are the following: horrible engine which you must change undoubtedly, empty cockpit (though this feature is characteristic for all models of that time) and wrong number of ribs on the wings which can be seen while imitating the sagging of canvas. I managed to deal with the first two problems but the last one was resolved only partially – I didn’t have neither energy nor desire to remake the whole wing. The model has been made out of the box and materials at hand such as plastic sheets, wire of different gauge, fishing line, cotton buds tubes, hand-made sprues. From aftermarket I used only the Вrengun sight for the tail gun. The model was totally rejointed, riveted, remade the engine, added a cockpit interior, detailed the wings and fuselage. Cross-bracings and aerials are made of fishing line, guns – of wire and a drawn cotton buds tube, navigation lights – of drawn colourful party picks. All in all, the building produced positive impression and turned out to be useful experience for me. Colouring – enamel and acrylic paints Revell, Humbrol and Tamiya, lacquers Tamiya. I tried to highlight the sagging of canvas with paints and some graphite chips, so part of ribs and primary wing structures are merely hand-drawn. Accentuation of jointing – Tamiya panel line wash, oil paints. Toning – oil and water-color pencils. So, nothing out of the ordinary. Decals from the kit turned out to be of very high quality in spite of their age. I liked working with them, they are thin, very good to attach and don’t flake while masking. The result is the torpedo bomber 820 Naval Squadron K8471/652 from HMS Courageous air group as in 1937. Pleasant viewing! Thanks for watching!

Avro 504 F3 - and a merry Christmas to all... Before launching into the main body of this post I must answer some questions: So, where's the mess? You obviously haven't been looking at the photographs very closely - the mess is mostly in the background - sometimes concealed behind a blue backdrop made of insulation foam. (have a look at the first photo below for example). The mess is also plainly visible if you look closely enough at the model. I believe that a strict 1.5m minimum viewing distance should be enforced for all of my work. 🙂 You haven't said why you're using that magnetic stuff! Actually the Formica is not itself magnetic and it's not magnetism that I'm after. Why this stuff is so good is that it has is a thin sheet of very strong steel (that's the stuff that any other magnet like a fridge magnet for example will stick to. ) This sheet of steel is 'welded' permanently between two thin sheets of Formica and imparts great strength to the stuff. Formica, on the other hand, is a sort of very hard plastic or maybe resin sheeting but is susceptible to carving and shaping and works well with a wide variety of glues. So - what this material gives us is a hard, ridged, cut-able, shapeable, gluable sheet of modelling material that is extremely strong and quite workable. I've used it on the tail and now have a very strong yet thin vertical tail-fin. I think this stuff will have all kinds of future applications. So far the only bits I've managed to procure are these small samples from a kitchen renovation outlet, but I want a lifetime supply of big sheets of this stuff. 🙂 Was the mono a jet? Yes - it was also a pioneering UAV - as you can see it had no provision whatsoever for a pilot. The aircraft was a single-use airframe as it had no undercarriage... 😂 Anyhow - now that the preliminaries are over - let me continue with some more historical details... Following the success of the Multi Role Avro 504 GR1 and the Avro 504 Monoplane Racer the British Ministry of Defence, in conjunction British Aerospace and the Royal Air Force set about developing a long-range air defence interceptor based on the Avro 504 airframe... First they permanently affixed a 'turtle-deck' to the rear of the fuselage as shown below...(using PVA Glue clamped overnight). Then - they assembled an engine and some other bits and pieces that had been developed previously - added a Foxhunter radar, four Skyflash Semi-Active Radar Homing Missiles , four Sidewinder missiles, a single Mauser 27mm cannon and painted the whole thing Air Defence Grey. The result was the Avro 504 F3 monoplane, as shown below. The Royal Air Force based the type at Conningsby, Leeming and Leuchers - where it gained a reputation as a capable air-defence asset - but always with the caveat that it was never a sufficiently capable dogfighter to engage with first-rate air-superiority fighters such as the F15 eagle or the Sukhoi 27 - at least not on even terms. The aircraft received only limited export success, being purchased by Saudi Arabia, and used on a lease basis for a few years by the Italian Regia Aeronautica. The type is now retired, having been superseded by the generally superior Eurofighter Typhoon. An experimental biplane version of the Avro 504 F3 was developed with a view to increasing the aircraft's agility and weapons load. However, the resulting benefit was considered insufficient to enable this aircraft to tackle any fifth generation fighter - including the F35...😜 Anyway - that's where I'm up to; Mr Hobby primer all over the thing (finally) and the wings and other main bits on (finally). This photo makes my little Avro look more complete than it actually is though, since many of the components are just held in place with blue-tack for the purposes of these photos - so don't worry you haven't missed anything. I'm off on holiday for a bit now so probably won't be making any further major updates prior to Christmas. With that in mind - have a great festive season everyone and thanks very much for following along with this project. 🎅 Best Regards, Bandsaw Steve...

I'll start the thread off, then, as I'm still a relative newcomer round here! Everything is 1/72nd scale, apart from the road and rail stuff which is 1/76th. We had a lot of fun in the summer with the "Airfix - the Golden Years" Group Build. My first group build with this forum, and I enjoyed it immensely. The Rotodyne was supposed to be my only entry, but the bug got me! A couple of Battle of Britain kits fell off my stash for the Group Build, too. In fact, most of my 2018 builds occurred during the GB, which tells you a lot. Here's another Airfix GB model. And four more! Another set of wagons was planned, but unfortunately the extra detailing sets I ordered failed to arrive in time. Fancying something a little different, this RS Models Avro C30 Rota MkI arrived on the bench. Back with Airfix, a modern kit but still in my 1940 interest bubble was this Blenheim MkIF. Special Hobby produced this Blackburn Roc, again for my 1940 thing. Finally, this venerable Matchbox Lysander was a reasonably short and entertaining build. So, that was my 2018.

Essentially this post is just to see if I can get to grips with posting photos from Flickr to Britmodeller. Been a member here for a long time but rarely contribute, maybe that'll change if I can successfully show photos... Just finished this old figure from my stash. It's C22 from Shenandoah Miniatures. For those who don't know, these are 54mm metal figures of American Civil War subjects, originally produced in the 80s & 90s by Paul Clarke in Australia. For those who do know, the same applies. I've swapped the kit head for a different one from the same manufacturer and painted him as a generic Confederate infantryman. Painted in acrylic using the ubiquitous Vallejo with a little Citadel and Scale 75. Jon.

Hi Folks Number 7 from the shelf of doom the Revell H19 kit. This is one built by Sikorsky and sold to the Royal Navy while Westland were tooling up to produce their version. The photo I worked from shows it to be lacking the winch which was a bonus as the one in the kit bears no relation to real real thing. The only things I did to it were some home made seats, mesh over the openings above the engine and rubbed down the rivets. It's time someone did this as new moulding considering it was probably the first useful helicopter available to many armed forces. Ian

The kit will only appear in early January, I have that information directly from Airfix. Also a direct confirmation both sets of exhaust sections are being included with the first release, so a 6 a 6a and basically a 9 can be built from the box I hope to start showing some more work in progress on the two seater versions in a few weeks time, just working hard to finish of the Wellington Mk.VI conversion and another little correction set in 1/32 scale, then the desk will be cleared to make way for the two seat Hunter versions. cheers Ali

I see the Three Wise Men With Lockjaw emoji is back for Christmas CC! 'We Three Kings of Orient are, One in a taxi, one in a car...' Haven't been near the bench all week, having been in a cycle of up early, insane workload, home, eat, sleep, repeat. Except for Tuesday when up early to head to Dublin. This is what a rural Irish railway station looks like at 5.30am in December with the temperature at 0: No Stroudley came through. On arriving in Dublin, I decided to walk from the Heuston station to the hotel my training course was at - a walk of about 40 mins through old backstreets around the Liberties area with a crescent moon and Venus in the dawn sky like something out of Gormenghast. The walk back to the station was even more stunning at dusk, for similar reasons. Also had the schadenfreude of standing waiting at the traffic lights for the lights to change behind the Guiness works and witnessing some young nerk of a businessman loudly Facetiming somebody at his office, walk straight out and fall over the bonnet of a car sat waiting in front of us for the lights to change. Driver of the car - a large and uninhibited gentleman - gets out and gives said nerk 3 minutes of pure full-on Dublin dog's-abuse. Poetry I tells you. Had a kip when I got home this evening and unexpectedly found some sparte energy from somewhere so decided to have a lash at some undercarriaging. As @galgoshas already noted a while back, the kit job on these areas are of their time. Again, no complaints from me about that, but given the prime inspiration for this build, the plastic status quo will not hold. Here you can see the kit moulding alongside some various diameters of tube and rod cut out to make a replacement. Biggest size of tube on this will be 1mm for the main shock-housing and axle hubs, smallest will be some rod of about 0.3mm for the internal bracing: First step was to sweat-solder the shocks into the their lower mountings: Followed by some 0.8mm tubing to create the lower sections that run down to the axles, again soldered in: Some 1mm tubing soldered across to form the axle tunnel: Simpler to do it that way in terms of keeping things shipshape and Bristol-fashion until the rest of the assembly is done and then I can cut out the central part of the axle tunnel to add the wheels. Next I added the upper cross-section, which actually forms part of the retractable frame that draws the undercarriage up into the nacelle when being raised: Final task was to add the diagonal bracing from 0.3mm rod: The card is there to raise them up off of the wood so that they'll be centred on the surrounding parts for soldering. I'd expected these to be fiddly but as it turned out they went on nice and handily: Whether it was having had the week to mull over this structure and then the pleasure of getting back to the bench again I don't know but this was one of those pleasant sessions where you seem to make headway almost effortlessly: A bit of clean-up need on the solder in a few places but otherwise a satisfying burst of activity. A final check to see if after all that my measurements were ok and that it actually does fit into the nacelle: Could have been made for it! Well, it was, but you know what I mean. I need to trim the upper parts of them for length so that they fit higher into the nacelle as you only see the lower third of the diagonal bracing, plus some strips of foils to add in one or two places to mimic a number of collars that vary the thickness of the uprights in places, then it's on to the radius arm. You can see the bloody great agricultural sweep of the thing coming down from the rear of the nacelle and grabbing the axles in an iron first: Going to be a right old howsyerfather getting that bloomin' thing sorted out for shape and distance I can tell you. Might be some banging on the anvil involved... I've gorra work this weekend chucks so mightn't have much for you, but hope you're getting some in yourself. Tony

Some O-2s from the 23rd Tac Air Support Squadron based at Davis-Monthan AFB. Images taken on the Nellis AFB transient ramp, November 1980. The Skymaster informally known as "Duck" (reference to the forward fuselage shape) or "Push Me/Pull You". 68-10164 68-10857 69-7614 69-7682 "Beep-Beep" "Hit My Smoke" Thanks for looking, Sven

Hi, everybody! It's my next model.

Hello Britmodellers, Three of a kind. Now: Number 3, the first prototype, kit bash of 3 kits, Heller, Academy, KP 1:72, some left parts of the 4th, one of the 2 Tamiya kit,s and a lot of scratch with self printed decals.. Different keel, fuselage, cockpit, glass is milled and sanded for right curvature, older MLG cutout, wheels, front strut, navigation lights etc. I hope you like it! Cheers, Tom

Thanks everyone. It's great to see the level of interest in the period I'm covering, and I hope I can keep some kind of momentum up. I tend to reward myself with some aeroplane modelling when I feel I've earned it from sufficient wrestling with client models in the railway side of things. I often feel a bit guilty about snatching some quality time with a plastic kit, though why that should be I don't know. Anyway, all that to say this thread might be a bit protracted, but then that doesn't seem to be particularly unusual for Britmodeller! To keep some level of anticipation going, I thought I might post images of what's to come... A pretty simple kit, but I found someone who spent a lot of time making a truly spectacular model from this very kit. I shall probably fall in between building from the box and a museum quality model. Life can be too short sometimes, don't you think? As with the Mureaux, the Amiot 143 is a good blank canvas onto which the modeller can lavish plenty of time, especially the interior. You might laugh, but after attempting to build a decent model from a former Heller kit - I may share that Mister Craft misadventure one day, or perhaps not - I searched about to find which Dewoitine kit was the best one. The Hobby Boss one came up time and again as about the most accurate modern kit. It doesn't have many parts, and won't take long to build at all from what's in the box! The decals supplied are for post-Armistice/Vichy France planes. I might decide to stick with those rather than source correct Battle of France markings, as it would still count toward my 1940 period interest, after all. You will have noted, I hope, that I have so far managed to mostly find kit boxings that cover the particular period of interest. I haven't tackled an AZ Model kit yet, but I notice I have two more kits from that company in the stash. Not a lot to say, really. The MS-406 was the most numerous French fighter at the time. An odd looking critter, but it appears it was quite capable. The Potez 63 series is difficult to pin down. There are several variants of this twin-engined machine, all of which seem to have been assigned slightly different roles. I ponder whether I should seek kits that cover the other variants or not. The question, I suppose, is whether it helps to tell the story or not. This kit is about to reappear from the Special Hobby brand, I believe. I'm not going to buy it again! There are one or two other aircraft that have been flagged up for my wish list, but this is the current French Air Force 1940 collection. It ought to keep me busy for a while.

Maybe some interlude and rescue by your wife and your family for christmas apart of the hendi spaceflight cruiser with Captain Ced?

I bought this little fellow from Mr Lee's Minis at SMW Telford and couldn't delay painting him. He's 'The Passionate Ringmaster', part 1 of the 'Strange Love' duo. I think the title has lost something is translation because, whatever he resembles, he doesn't remind me of a traditional ringmaster. It matters not; he's fun to paint. He stands 54mm tall but his head is more like 75mm. Painted in Vallejo acylics, a quick and simple exercise in painting directional light & shade. I have something in mind for the groundwork, maybe I'll complete it at a later date....

Brother-Chaplain Viator Primaris Space Marine Chaplain of the Raptors 4th Company Brother-Epistolary Maurinus Primaris Space Marine Librarian of the Raptors 4th Company I've recently gotten back into painting and playing Warhammer 40K (Kill Team, to be specific) and decided to add a couple of commanders to my Raptors chapter kill team. I chose a chaplain because they've always been my favorite space marine sculpts and a librarian because I've never painted one before. As far as paint schemes go, the chaplain is pretty standard except I tried to go a little easy on his bright and shiny bits since Raptors space marines favor stealth and hit-and-run tactics. Also, I used no black paints and instead used only dark greys to paint the "black" armor. Librarians are typically clad in blue power armor, but that doesn't really jive with the Raptors "tactical" manner of waging war in the name of the Emperor, so his armor is instead painted the usual olive drab of his battle-brothers leaving only his helmet blue to represent his position within the chapter. Comments and criticism welcome!

This time the model F-117, the model is very simple to fold and very difficult to paint. I tried to make this model many times I took it off the shelf and put it back. Reason? One question: How to make a black model wouldn't just be black? I build models straight from the box and so I always try to focus on painting. I often make models that are a bit too heavily damaged, dirty but in my opinion is the only way to give them a bit of life. F-117 Trumpeter 1:32 the model is very easy to fold and you will not have any problems. At the begining few photos 1: 1 1:32 If you would like to see more pictures please let me know - I will add

Finally finished the sub components tonight, hopefully I can get the assemblies welded together tomorrow. Once all the soldering has been completed, I'll start to build up the finer detail with plasticard. There's a good chance it will be finished in 2018 now although the year book will be a bit empty 😂 This is the jig I made up. All the parts were cut to length first, soldering them didn't take long.

Some bits of photoetch this afternoon - the rocket pylons and pitot probe thingies for the nose. The forward probe under the nose always looks odd to me, but the probe tube itself has to be in line with the airflow I guess. You can see it (and the rocket pylons) in this photo of may gal's sister ship: AZ provided injected parts for these nose probes, but they seemed to be too big in diameter and rather clunky. The Airwaves photoetch, on the other hand, is too thin, being two-dimensional. But I decided to use it since most folks won't be looking straight down the axis of the beast. In order to get these photoetch parts to stand up and stay attached to the fuselage, I drilled some tiny holes, 0.015" diameter, as if the parts had an alignment peg. Then, on the PE fret, I left a bit of the fret attachment point at the appropriate spots, and used that as the alignment pegs which I superglued into the holes. I think this makes a much better joint, and they all seem pretty solid. I borrowed some rockets from the Airfix Typhoon Mk.IB kit, and the paint is drying as I type this. I'm also building an arresting hook and putting some Alclad on the exhaust. I think there may be some more whip antennae, but the location seems to vary a lot. I'll probably use my Nitinol wire for that if I can figure out where to put it. What else is left? Control column in the pit, sliding canopy, wing tips...that's about it I think. And, of course, the nit-picky things that gnaw at me when I step back and look at what I've wrought. There are already a few things in that basket... Cheers, Bill

Definitely doing a Wirbelwind (me and a few others). Bought the Tamiya kit...not the newest but good value and I am an armour novice... Then I got some extras... Then I saw this and had an impulse buy... Decisions, decisions...or both. Dave

Coming on nicely Martian. Can't help but notice a similarity here though................Mine stayed hollow! 😁 Terry

Over on @Tramatoa's thread the HC 2 reigns. What about the Royal Navy ones? Can we justify another Wessex theme? Let's see.. I never got to fly in a Royal Navy Wessex but hopefully those on here who did will forgive this retired part-time crab for starting this. I found these on line. Interesting scheme on the first one. I wonder if they painted the replacement boom in sand and spinach or the rest green?. The second one posted because it's just a lovely picture!

Hi all, after the L-39 I built another Czech AF jet: The MiG-23MF! Used the new nice "Bedna" Kit by Eduard (ex Trumpeter) and add Brassin intakes, nozzle, wheel bays and tyres, the Eduard PE update set and a Master pitot. Hope you like this MiG!

Model and pilot from ICM. Pilot was painted by the author - sculptor Anatoly Gagarin.

Target tub Foxy Lady? Been there, done that. There's something about those black and yellow stripes...they're so beguiling. Your Vixen is coming along nicely, and in her proper colour of EDSG. It just so happens that a box containing the CyberHobby 1:72 FAW.2 is sitting on the bookshelf right next to my computer desk. It is always staring at me...it's like hypnosis - build me, it says! I know that its shape is not the most accurate, but it has to go together better than the Xtrakit/MPM/Special Hobby kit I used for the tug. Besides, I still have the EDSG on my bench after painting the Attacker. What to do? Cheers, Bill

I have been harbouring a guilty secret. My turret vacform wasn’t fully formed. Because of webbing I had cut away a big piece at the back. So today I tried vacforming it on a little balsa platform. The idea is that the plastic folds in on itself to make the webbing at the bottom of the platform and then snuggles up nicely to the turret shape. It worked. Twice: With vacforming into a cavity like the Falcon canopies you don’t get this problem because the plastic is always stretching. Anyhow, here’s the new one against the old one, showing how the old one was missing a lot of its back: And here’s the new one sitting on the turret ring with the sliding portion of he glazing marked out: That’s my fun for the day. Time to get the Christmas decorations down from the attic and put up the tree... Thanks for looking, Adrian

Thanks gent's Now onto the bow wave started by attaching the trimed slithers of silicone to the bow with the making waves Then added more silicone at the base and heat dried that with an old hairdryer then when the silicone has a skin over it I started to shape it with a cocktail stick Building up the wave with a couple of layers of silicone and the other slithers of dried silicone Time to let dry pick and shape more and then dry brush the wave edges in flat white beefy

Few more 72nd's and two 1/144th's. To @giemme and @TheBaron, thanks for asking me to post some pics, most of these were built so long ago that I'd forgotten about them! Amodel Yak 25 I'd loved this jet since seeing a grainy 'spy' shot in an ancient 'Observers Book of Aicraft when I was a kid, so built this for a Soviet aircraft group build on BM. Thoroughly enjoyed it too! Airfix 'new mould' Zero Revell Hunter F6 4FTS Fujimi Phantom FG1 Eduard L-39 Albatros And the couple of 1/144 builds I could find; Final Countdown diorama Trying to recreate a scene from one of my all time favourite films, where Kirk Douglas has given the alert flight Tomcats the order to shoot down the time travelling Zeroes! F-14 from LS with crew from Dragon's flight deck figures, 'Zero' converted from a revell Spitfire Mk1...!! Revell Super Constellation Built for, IIRC, the first BM airliner group build Went a bit daft with that one and made a crew for it! And as they say in all the best cartoons - That's All Folks!! Thanks for looking and enduring my trip down memory lane! Keith

Crack on good Martian. The little trolley under the Port wing in the photo is the lavatory servicing cart, so don't stand too close when he removes the pipe as we could all be in .... John

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

Where this is going to go when it's finished I have absolutely no idea!

Fnaar, snurf and various other suitable retorts Now: T'other side: I need some surgery still but, with the vents and lights to do, I think I'll come back later for a final clean up. Lights next.

At last - pretty much finished. Virtually the only thing left to do is add a small black decal rectangle on each fuselage side to represent a window: I searched through my spare decal folder for white underwing serials and found absolutely nothing that would suit, so I got round the problem by ignoring it. As it's in 1/144 you would have to try quite hard to see under the wings anyway. The other decal 'issue' is that the serial, which was displayed in black on both the rear fuselage side and rudder, is missing from the rudder: I managed to make one complete set (J8810 was a genuine Hyderabad) from the remains of my Aeroclub 1/72 Gamecock decal sheet, but couldn't manage 2 serials. Ho hum. I now need to create a small display base for it, then it will be off to the RFI section before deciding on my next Braille-scale scratchbuilding subject. Jon

finished. Previous posts pictures only displayed as a link. Enjoyed this but did have trouble with panels.

Avro 504Z Monoplane Racer A little known part of the Avro 504 story is the development, in the early inter-war years, of a monoplane racing variant of the type. The reason that it is so little-known is that I just made that 'fact' up. It's a shame really because if it were true I would now be much, much closer to finishing this thing... It's time for the lower wing to go on... A recurring feature of my builds is my tendency to use two different types of glues on one joint. Here 'liquid nails' will provide the strength for this critical joint, while aquadhere PVA will add some rigidity. The correct term for this technique is - 'making a mess'. Some model-builders seem to be able to maintain a near surgical degree of cleanliness and control throughout their builds. Not me... 😨 Anyway, slap the two bits, wings and fuselage, together and clamp them for 24 hours. And then you should be able to do this for the first time - take a photo of the model in 'mid-air' with the lower wings at least in the right spot. I'm happy with this, it's a major milestone, if for no other reason than I can now walk around the house 'flying' my Avro going Bzzzzzzz... Budda-Budda-Budda-Budda….Bzzzzzzzzzz…. which really is the entire point of the hobby I think... 😉 Next step was to remove the rather flimsy plastic tail that was probably not going to survive the rest of the project anyway (who would be so stupid as to try to build a model from plastic? I ask you...) Use some Lego to ensure that the tailplane goes on straight, whack some liquid nails on it and clamp it down for 24 hours. Now have another go at the tail-fin. Cut out the correct shape from some 'Magnetic Formica' - I'm going to write a lot more about this stuff in a forthcoming post because it's completely awesome stuff and apart from @albergman (who kind of clued me into it when I read his absolutely awesome 'Flying Scotsman' thread) I do not know of any other modeller who uses it. Anyway - Magnetic Formica - Yes it's a real thing, and yes you can stick magnets to it, and yes I never want to build another model without it - ever again... ever. So now we have it - a 1922 Avro 504Z racing monoplane - resplendent with a stripe of British racing green running down it's back. Thanks for your support I couldn't have finished this model without it... 👍 Will be posting this on RFI very soon. No I won't - them's all lies... still got miles and miles and miles to go... Soon I'll have to face some more fears - the cockpit (again) and how on Earth to put that damned top wing thing on... Bandsaw Steve...

Hi. This is what I did yesterday. Ejection pin marks in the exhaust have to go. 029 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr The same in the main landing gear bay. 030 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr With a piece of sprue of the same diameter I filled the hole. 030 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr I drenched the parts with Tamiya Extra thin and let it set for a few hours. Afterwards I sanded it flush. 032 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And scribed in the lines. And the Rb04's have got the first layer of paint. 034 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Humbrol 129 (FS16440) for live weapons. Now I'm gluing the nose gear bay together and the PE for the ejections seats. I might maybe have the cockpits in the fuselage by this evening. To be continued...... /Bosse

Was walking along a night flea market in Pattaya, Thailand when I came across an old man selling this kit. Of all the places to have found a kit. Managed to buy it for about the equivalent of GBP8. It seems to have all the parts but the decals are gone. Some of the parts have been cut from the sprue but it seems all there. Now wondering what to do with it. Should I build it? I mainly do jets. Have to stencil and spray the decals though. Too bad the fella is not selling a 1/48 F-14 or something.

A while back I did a little cross kitting to produce a more accurate looking 1/76 Bedford QL bowser - https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235010404-bedford-ql-aircraft-refueller/&tab=comments#comment-2510934 Since then, the remnants of the Airfix QLD/QLT and Refuelling sets have been looking at me asking to be built. I did consider doing more conversions but in the end decided on some nice, relaxing from-the-box builds. So here we have the QLT, 100% straight from the box and the AEC 0854 again pretty much from the box, with the addition of a set of Wee Friends wheels, acetate windows and a raised fire shield behind the cab. Both have been finished in 'Mickey Mouse' style camouflage, the Bedford using the box top scheme and the AEC using my own artistic license as the colours of these things are ambiguous to say the least! Hope you like them.

Thanks for the kind remarks lads, Here is the model after the decals were applied,....... they are a mixture of decals left over from the SH kit and generic decals...... the `4M' codes are from a Fantasy Prinshop sheet although the `M' doesn`t match the one on the real aircraft exactly,..... it was the best I could find, those from the SH sheet were much too small. Cheers, Tony