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Hi, I have been building the most recent boxing of the venerable Monogram F-102. This is a great kit.. Not in the same way a Tamiya or WNW is a great kit but in the execution of the model when you consider it dates from the early 90's IIRC. I think Monogram reserved it's best efforts for US subjects and the Century series in particular got special attention. If you want to build a 1/48 F-102 then you don't have a lot of choice. Although the Squadron / encore boxing offers a few bit of resin to help things along... So this is built OOB. I just added some seat belts the rest is what Monogram offer. I chose not to re-scribe. But knocked panel lines out where required. If you take your time the kit fits very well. The intakes need help but it's nothing that test fitting and CA as filler cannot resolve. It builds into a big model.. I ran with the kit decals for the 176th FIS or Wisconsin ANG. The William Tell Marks on the tanks sold me on that. The other scheme is a NY ANG scheme in SEA camo. The 176th got its F102's as hand-me downs from 317th FIS based in Alaska hence the international orange 'Arctic' Markings. 'Detail n Scale' is well worth getting hold of if you want to build a F-102 The kit is painted in a variety of paints Tamiya mixes for the ADC grey and International orange and model master enamel for the chromate green. Weathing is kept light as ANG aircraft were generally very very well maintained more so if you're at William Tell... Thanks for looking...

G'Day All, and Merry Christmas Finishing up my 2018 modelling year is the Trumpeter 1/32 Hellcat F^F-3 which I have converted to a Hellcat MKII This is easily done by not cutting out the rear windows on this boxing. I also had to modify the -3 windscreen into a -5 windscreen by sanding off some frames and repolishing. Strictly speaking the aerial mast should be upright and offset to port too, but I left this alone. It should also have a circular rear view mirror mounted on the top of the windscreen. As soon as I can rob one from a spitfire kit, I will fit it. The Trumpeter kit s not the most accurate one, as it looks like its eaten too many pork pies, being a bit too rotund around the middle. Were I to do this again, I would use a Hasegawa fuselage mated to the trumpeter wings. The kit has an Eduard interior set, HGW seatbelts for the sutton harness, although the lap belts are USN type as I managed to mangle the fabric ones. Gun barrels are from master Models, and seats are by Roy Sutherland National markings are all painted on, thanks to a friend and his cutter. The serial numbers are the only decals and of course they silvered didn't they The observant amongst you will also note I have the ammunition boxes around the wrong way. The yellow one should be the rearmost one, To be honest, I just wanted it off the bench at this stage so left well alone. I'ts now time to clean the bench for next year. A safe Christmas and New Year everyone. I'd like to send a big Thankyou to Tony O Toole for the help he fgave me with some questions I had about the markings on this scheme. You're a true gentleman Tony. Cheers Bruce

I wasn't sure where to put this, but more people seem to hang out in WW2, so I'm putting it here. Mike/Julien- if you feel this is not an appropriate location, feel free to move it. I used to do one of these parodies for my teaching staff each year when I was an administrator, and they always seemed to look forward to reading it. This is my way of saying 'thank you' to everybody here on BM who have shared their modeling and aviation knowledge with me since I have been a member. Those of you mentioned, please understand it was out of friendship and because your usernames fit the poem- wish I could have included you all, but there's SO many of you! I also want to thank Julien and Mike for the tireless and thankless job they do every day to keep this website as the one to beat! Best holiday wishes to all my new modeling friends. Mike T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the pad, I was sneaking new kits in so the Missus wouldn't be mad. The stockings were all hung on the mantle in a row, Hoping for some goodies from Airfix or John Aero! The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of Airfix starter sets danced in their heads. When up on the rooftop there arose such a clatter That I sprang from the hobby bench to see what was the matter. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a Short Skyvan pulled by eight tiny reindeer! With a little old driver dressed in red velvet, I knew in a moment that it must be General Melchett! More rapid than a Hunter, his coursers they came, And he whistled and shouted, and called them by name: Now ToT; now SabreJet; now Moa; now Ridgerunner; Now Giorgio; now Replicant (Whose models are all stunners!) As I drew in my head and was turning around, Down the chimney came General Melchett with a bound. He was dressed in an old flight suit, weathered from his head to his toes, And each panel was inked in. (You know how THAT goes!) He spoke not a word, but to my surprise He filled all the stockings with kits and supplies. And, placing an airbrush aside of his nose, Like a Westland Wasp up the chimney he rose! He sprang back into the Skyvan and gave his team a shrill tweet, And away they all flew like a Lightning in reheat! And I heard him exclaim as he chandelled out of sight, "Merry Christmas to all- how about finishing a model tonight?"

First post in here so go easy This is my last build, totally out the box. Now I do like my ww2 aircraft to be well weathered, some will like it some won't. Hope you all like anyways, there is a few build posts on my Instagram @tomgotobed 👍👍

Following on from so many kind comments about my silver Skua, I feel brave enough to share some photos of my second model of this quirky aeroplane; this time in more war like colours... The Skua's "finest hour" has to be, I think, the attack on the cruiser Konigsberg on 10th April 1940. This is my attempt to reproduce an aircraft from that strike - and in particular the machine flown by Lieutenant Commander William "Bill" Lucy. There are not a huge number of easy to find references on the Skua in general, and I could not find any photos of the Skua's from the date of this mission. There are some from the later, disastrous attack on the Scharnhorst in June, by which time I think some changes had been made to the markings/colours - but I make no claims to be an expert on the numerous variations in Fleet Air Arm camouflage and markings that seem to have been a feature of the early war years in particular. By way of a quick explanation, I have used the tail code A6F on the basis that: A is for Ark Royal; and although the mission was flown from Hatston in the Orkney Islands, I read somewhere that 803 NAS was only recently and temporarily shore based, and therefore unlikely to have received the code L. 6 (along with 7?) is for a fighter squadron and, despite its various shortcomings and better performance (relatively at least) as a dive bomber, I think that Skua's were classed as fighters. The kit includes the code A8F - my reading is that 8 was for various training types/squadrons and so I converted the 8 to a 6 with a touch of black and Sky Grey paint. F was the individual aircraft letter - I think I picked this up from the book by Richard Partridge who flew Skua's on both missions referred to above... As fighter aircraft the undersides are marked with the black/white scheme often seen on early Hurricanes, Spitfires etc. I know some photos show these markings on early war Skua's, but whether they were there for the mission in April 1940 I really don't know. Other points of interest (?) are: the crew who come from the Tamiya Swordfish kit. The pilot was a relatively easy fit; the observer had to have some rather drastic surgery to squeeze him into the rear cockpit. So too did the "clam shell" opening part of the rear canopy - most of the centre section had to be cut away to fit around the observer's head - it's not the neatest of jobs when seen close up. The observer's Lewis gun is a lovely resin one from Eduard. I stole a 500lb semi-armour piercing bomb from a Wellington kit and, as with the silver model, scratch built a bomb crutch to replace the inaccurate kit one. Skua's had a large and very prominent sight that filled most of the centre section of the windscreen - Special Hobby have not included this in the kit and I failed to replicate it... Enough waffle - some pictures! Cheers, Nick.

This time the model is not typical in my collection. Occasionally I am submitting models from WWII times. P-51B Tamiya 1:48 The model is very easy to assemble like the Tamiya model.

Here with my last completed build in 2018 - The Airfix 1/48 Sea Fury FB.11. Overall a nice kit but it wouldn't be Airfix without the odd foible would it? Well there is no gunsight for a start and, similar to the Tomahawk, someone forgot to finish the engraving on the trim tabs on the tail which had to be scribed. Another annoying thing was the treatment of the surface details - it is mainly nice engraved lines but on the tail, for some reason, the 60's mad riveter crept in so there are a a number raised rivets adorning the tailplane - why? and why just here? - photographs show the all parts of the airframe were flush riveted so I simply removed them. Also, the small panels on the top of the nose are represented as raised lumps!? Again, photographs show that the panels are flush so I removed them and rescribed. Some people have mentioned in reviews the poor fit of the cowling. I found the fit a little off but not as bad as I was expecting. Despite buying a resin insert, I managed to join the parts and rescribe the details quite neatly. I will save the resin replacement for another build. I wanted to model a Royal Canadian Navy machine (don't ask me why, I just did...). Unfortunately this opened a can of worms re the colours. I won't dwell on it now but I chose to depict a machine from 871 Squadron which was a later delivery to the RCN by which time Hawker had finally got the RCN Extra Dark Sea Grey/Sky colours correct (They were quite different from the RN colours). The colours were Tamiya mixes based on suggestions from Canadian modellers. Well it might not be totally right but that is my spin on it anyhow. I used an old Aeromaster sheet for the markings. I found a picture which shows (I think) the aircraft I was modelling. I was going to use the rockets but the kit versions were poor so I left them off - I may add some if someone does some nice resin versions. I hope it looks OK - Have a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year all of you. Cheers Malcolm

Hi, Following Widgeon I made Grumman Goose. It is also within Grumman GB, where I am doing a triple build: This is almost OOB build. My changies are: 1. painting scheme (I followed the Aeromaster set 48801 - which contains decals in 1/48). National insignia by Techmod, numbers home designed and printed. 2. bomb racks and depth charges by Attack Squadron 3. Added bars inside canopy, behind the front windows 4. Riging with EZ I added some Humbrol 89 to 144 for intermediate blue . The others colours are Humbrol 77 and 34. Here she is: Here a family photo, only two wvailable now, I hope to finish Duck soon Comments welcome Regards Jerzy-Wojtek

this time with an early Harrier of the 8th Squadrille, Spanish Navy, or Armada Española, Octava Esquadrilla hard to come by Monogram kit, as Kinetic did not manage yet to release a very early Harrier single seater... fingers crossed they will soon! (GR.1, Gr.3 and AV-8A and AV-8S) Decals by Series Españolas, looking great, as usual! Quickboost Stencel seat here we go! ingredients and WIP and output: no long time retired after having been sold to Thailand were they had a second spring!

A build from 4 years ago: Inspired by the reading of "The Pulitzer Air Races" by Michael Gough (a very thorough, intelligent book packed with information) I started this project, depicting the specially modified Loening M-81 that participated in that race. Racers have a special appeal, even if -as in this case- are converted existing airframes. For racing purposes the standard Loening monoplane got new wings of less span and chord and different planform, plus a refined elevator and other details. It did not fare particularly well (you may read its story in the book) but had the merit of being a monoplane -in a biplane supremacy time- with adjustable stab incidence, and had a squatty stance that had its charm. The wings were separated from the fuselage by a very small gap, and it had no dihedral whatsoever. I was aware of the existence of the an old kit by 12 squared (O.O.P. now), a nice model but with some minor accuracy issues, and the Pro-resin release of the "normal" versions, but I decided to go scratch when I found a nice plan and specs at the Dec 20th 1920 issue of Aerial Age Weekly. The procedures, materials and techniques are the ones I have been portraying here often. I used a Hispano Suiza white metal aftermarket engine -plus wheels and seat- (thanks, Armando Gil!) and the customary styrene sheets and rods. Home made decals were designed and printed as well.

All, another great kit from WNW - apart from the lower wing, this kit goes together very well. To get the lower wing on it is necessary to trim away some of the cockpit structure under the cockpit floor. Great decals that are really easy to use although the version I chose has a lot of lozenge fabric decals to apply. No much else to say on this one so pictures below: Regards Dave

Dear comrades... This year has been a good year for me. I've rediscovered the hobby, and I've completed 4 models This post is to share with you my last work, the Great Wall Hobby F-15D 1/48 kit. Additionally, I've added aftermarkets ejection seats and exhaust noozles. Next we have uploade some photos, but a complete album is hosted on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/104148904@N02/albums/72157703431801541

Great model to build... Thanks for watching.

Good evening. Please, let me show you a few pics of this kit. It's the old Gavia kit in 1/48 scale, depicting the famous "Jiminy Criquet"........ My brother Rodrigo began building it some years ago, and even brought it to the SMW at Telford. Once back in Tenerife, the kit suffered some damage and was put aside for some time, lurking into a cabinet for a few years, waiting to be restored. A few weeks ago, he decided to give it a try, and began working with it again. The plan now is to make a new small base to display it. Most of the interior detail, cockpit, engine area, etc..has been scratch built. All the inner frame was built using Minimeca tubes. I hope you'll enjoy it. WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.27.03(2) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.27.04(2) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.27.04(1) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.27.02(1) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.27.02(2) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.27.02(2) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.27.03(1) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.17.39 by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.17.38(3) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.17.38(1) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.17.37 by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.17.37(2) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.17.37(1) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.17.36 by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.17.36(1) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr WhatsApp Image 2018-12-20 at 22.17.38(2) by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr

This is the 1:48 Special Hobby kit of one of my favourite aeroplanes, the Blackburn Skua. Compromised by the need to be both a dive bomber and a fighter, it was not particularly accomplished at either role, but never the less achieved a number of significant "firsts" - including (I think I'm right in saying) the first confirmed "kill" by a British aircraft in WW2 and the first aircraft to sink a major warship by dive bombing. I am indebted (again) to Tony O'Toole for one of his excellent magazine articles which really helped with the build. The kit isn't bad. The interior is relatively basic and could be improved if you felt the need (although references, especially for the rear cockpit, are not easy to find). My main criticism is that the wings come in a total of seven pieces (plus two resin wheel wells) as if designed to have a folded option, but without any internal detail or structure to allow you to do this. This makes it needlessly difficult to build the wings spread for flight - although I concede that it will make it easier if you want to use an aftermarket set to model the wings folded. I tackled the wings by trying to turn the kit back into a more conventional format - I joined the three parts that make up the full span lower wing and reinforced the joins with thin plasticard. I repeated this for the two pieces that make up each upper wing half and only then did I glue top and bottom surfaces together. I scratch built the bomb crutch from plastic rod as the kit version isn't very good, and I followed Tony's suggestion of replacing the prop blades with ones from a Tamiya Mosquito as the kit ones are too short. The silver paint is Tamiya TS 17, decanted from the spray can and sprayed through my trusty Paasche VL airbrush; the spinner (these were, it seems, always highly polished on the silver aircraft...) is Alclad Chrome; the exhaust stain (very distinctive on the Skua and I don't think I've got it quite right) is Tamiya Smoke. A coat of Xtracolour matt varnish helped to dull the finish and make it look more like an aircraft painted silver and serving at sea... The panel line wash seems to stand out rather more starkly in the photos than "in the flesh". The decals are from the kit and worked really well, with only the slightest of touch ups required for Ark Royal's blue-red-blue chevrons. The markings represent a machine from 803NAS in May 1939. Cheers, Nick.

Hi folks. Here I present my last aircraft model of 2018, an F-86E Sabre 'RUTH I' No. 2 "Flying Cheetah" Squadron of the SAAF, Korea. The donor kit is from Hobbycraft and the wings back-dated to pre- 6-3 wing with the customary filling and sanding. Tank pylons moved inboard to the correct position. Humbrol Metalcote Enamel paints were used for the NMF, albeit something like Alclad might have been better but I had started with the Humbrol and for consistency, I stuck with Humbrol. The model was 'Kleared' before a mixture of the generic kit decals were applied followed by RUTH I decals from Micro Scale and recoated with Klear. The 'Trio from Korea' 5 of ??? Thanks for looking. Merry Christmas to you all. Stuart

Hello, here is my latest work. Mini Art 1/35 SU-122. Not an easy kit but the end result is wort it. I hope you will like it. Thanks for looking, Ilan.

And a buon Natale to you and yours too Giorgio! 😄 With the amount of brass getting added it may well need an RSJ to dangle off Ian! To make some replacement hub covers for the wheels I punched out some 5mm discs from 0.3mm brass. The notion is to epoxy these on and then drill the hole for the axles afterwards: The big slab of brass to the left of it is some crushed brass pipe (I can't remember what I crushed it for originally but there you go... ) that I was pleasantly surprised to find was of the required thickness to make the upper faired part of the radius arm. A couple of 3mm wide blanks were cut off from this and thenannealed with the blowtorch, ready for hammering into shape: Prior to this I used some cardboard to draw up a guide outline: With that to work off of it was then down to business on the anvil: All the recent practice seemed to pay off as a few taps later a working leg began to emerge: After a few more taps to smooth out the curve to match the cardboard profile, it was time for a check in the nacelle opening: A slight run along that needed later with a sanding drum but otherwise happy with the match. Both pieces now curved to the desired degree: Followed by running some solder into the far end to keep both sides joined together: Those Japanese clip/heatsink thingies are absolutely the business for both stabilizing bits like this for soldering and in ensuring that not too much heat gets pumped out around the structure. After silvering both the outer curves of those parts and the inside of the flange part, the two elements were then incrementlally soldered together in a vice, via running the soldering iron along the underside of the flange so that the two lots of solder on the other side of it would melt together to form a strong seam all along that curve: I need to sand down the inner curve a bit more to both get the height of that box section reduced a little, and also to make the inner curve a bit more subtle. Here['s the other one: A tricky job done gettting them radius arms built. I'd hope to get a bit more time in tomorrow also in order to add the front bits that grab the axles. Tony

Hi, After picking up the hobby again in 2017, this felt like a much needed rite of passage: building the one kit I drooled upon as a kid. I'm happy with the result of this first try, even though I could have worked better on the front joint and tried some oil weathering before I decided to wrap it up. I managed to snag a few of the 90s boxings since, so this won't be the last cat on my shelves, I just had to leave myself some room for improvement 😅. Hasegawa Atlantic fleet boxing with quickboost seats. Painted with Mr Color. Decals are a mix of the box and a chinese Hobby Boss knockoff sheet (red hues are all over the place, although it's mostly hidden by my mediocre photography). Thanks for watching!

Hello, Here is my first RFI on this board. This is a fun Italeri kit I built in early 2018, and recently completed by adding tanks from a F-111 and sidewinders/launcher from another A-10, both Hasegawa boxings. Paint scheme mixed from Tamiya paints, simple wash and weathering with AK paneliner. Please excuse the photography, this is one of many things I am struggling with For a detailed and much more accurate build of the same kit, you should visit @giemme's thread: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235032010-its-a-hog-172-italeri-a-10a-thunderbolt-ii-completed-pg32/ Cheers.

Hi everyone! I've finished cleaning the 1/72 scale 3D printed torpedo racks & the PT Boat crew, and sprayed a light coat of primer on the parts. The primer really makes the details on the 3D printed parts pop. Here are some photos. I tried taking the photos in different lighting conditions to accent the details. First the torpedo roll-off racks. And the PT crewmen. I really like this set as it's very detailed, it has the crew in a number of different poses, and it has little sailors of various body builds from skinny to heavy set - very realistic. As this is probably going to be my last post until after Christmas, I'd like to use this opportunity to wish all of you who have been following this build, as well as those who look in from time to time, a very Merry Christmas & Best Wishes for the Holiday Season. John

A bit more done to the motely crew of pirates . . . . Trying to get a mish mash of colours and dress for an informal dock yard scene in Bastis, Corsica. Many uniforms would be patched, faded etc Still a way to go but the block colours are close A couple of Milicast artillery men have had their gaiters filled with putty Thanks for looking in Kev

For a long time i have avoided Airfix kits, only building the odd one of there older ones. But i have ben gathering a collection of their new tooled kits ove rthe last couple of years and finally got round to building one. The Phantom was a really nice kit, there were a couple of fit issues which i think were self inflicted. The only really down side with the kit was the decals, mainly the stencils. The 250+ took me 6 days to apply. I added an Eduard Big Ed set, resin wheels and metal pitot tube. The tractor is from F4 models and the base from Coastal kits. Its not completly finished as i am awating the release of some RN deck figures including a tractor driver, from Air Graphics.

UPDATED with very late entry (see end of thread) Here's this year's shelf fillers that were reconstructed from bits of plastic insulating the loft and are now collecting harmful dust and pollutants on the display shelf. Not a particularly productive year, let's say quality over quantity - I wish! No whales or cute cuddly animals have been known to be directly harmed in the making of these kits. Panel lines have generally been left alone too! 😉 All models are 1/48th unless otherwise stated and are brush painted. On with the show ... First build of the year was a Harrier (now, there's a surprise, eh?) representing VMA-214, "Black Sheep" of the USMC. This particular model represents the jet when it participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom ... Next up, sunglasses at the ready, is a BAE Systems Hawk Mk.120 with the 85th Combat Flying School in the South African Air Force. Unsurprisingly, it's known as the "Vlaggie" (the flag) jet. It's the Kinetic 1/32nd scale version of the Hawk but with home made decals for the squadron markings ... Keeping with the special schemes, the next one is a Dassault Rafale B, 118-HT / #323 of ECE 1/30 Côte d'Argent in its 2013 Tiger Meet scheme. This is the Revell kit with home-made decals for the tiger markings ... And yet another special scheme, this time a Saab Gripen JAS39C (but using the Italeri JAS39A kit unmodified!) with the Czech Air Force. This is 9238 in its "Picasso" scheme, which was also at the 2013 Tiger Meet. Once again, home made decals for the markings and serials ... For those of you who lose the will to live looking at Harriers, you can depart now as you'll regard it as all downhill (vertically) from here. Whereas Harrier fans may find something of interest or difference? A return to the Harrier project now with a Harrier GR.7 of the Air Warfare Centre. It's the Hasegawa kit with home-made decals for the AWC markings ... Continuing the STOVL theme, I then had a go at a Harrier T.12 using the conversion resin mastered by Nick Greenall (ng899) of the Harrier SIG. This is ZH661 of 20(R) Squadron ... And here's the Harrier T.10 using the same conversion resin, this time as ZH656 with 3(F) Squadron in the two greens scheme ... A point of modelling order here - the MDCs for the 3 Harriers above were made by cutting glossy white self-adhesive vinyl using a Silhouette Portrait Cutter and are not water-based decals. And finally a switch to first generation Harriers and a Sea Harrier FA.2 with 899 NAS OEU in a trial Dark Sea Grey scheme before the widespread adoption of Medium Sea Grey. This is the Kinetic kit and mixes their decals with spares ... There's an Indian Navy Harrier T.60 nearing completion, so if I get it done in the next week or so I'll add to this thread, else it will go into next year. Because you can never have enough Harriers. UPDATE - And here it is, better late than never ... That's all folks, Thanks for looking and Happy New Year to you.

Hi all, Here's my builds for 2018, when I look back its been a busy year in the shed of dreams. First off a homage to the Italian Forestale, the Dragon 1/35 scale Bell UH-1N converted to the AgustaBell 412EP, the Dragon OH-6 and MD500 with decals and tweaks for the Forestale. Moving on to a heavy phase of US Naval aviation, inspired by the BM Carrier Group build... Kinetics Hawkeye with additional decals. Followed by the Tamiya 1/32 Phantom with replacement decals cos the Tamiya ones exploded when being applied. Hot on the F4's heals came the EA-6B from Kinetic, again the decals have changed and a Avionix's cockpit was added. As the second part of the aftermarket decal sheet included a FA-18G it seemed rude not to follow the Prowler with a Growler.. So a FA-18G from Hasegawa was next... This led to a shelf queen being resurrected, the Revell FA-18F straight from the box.. That concludes my completed kits but I now have an idiotic scratch build on the go with a shelf queen filling in the blanks The scratch build in 1/35 And inspired/shamed into dragging this to the finish line my Fly 1/32 Wessex V. I've used this build to see the pitfalls of the Fly kit and use Hendie's tail wheel yoke and a Weapons fit that I've been collaborating with. I've learnt a lot from the build so far and so will put that towards my next build of my aircraft during the Falklands war. Thanks for your time and I hope you all get modelling time in 2019.

Merry Christmas to all and I hope you all get at least something you asked for (socks don't count). Best wishes for 2019 and let's hope that our only problems are made from resin, PE and plastic.

Hi Folks Another of my bargain Spitfires. This one from 607 [County of Durham] Sqdn based at Raf Ouston in 1949/50 Decals are from Xtradecal and painted with Xtracolor and compucolour paints. Cheers Ian

A scratch build USAAF Runway Control Caravan.

Provided nothing breaks, that's the rear suspension sorted.

Glad to have you illustrious gentlemens aboard, lets see if we can do something with these shall us I have mentioned that the CH-53 is getting minimal alterating but Merlin certainly seems to warrant a trifle more application huh As I mentioned this morning I found amongst the stuff Richard sent me,( bless him) the sonar ducting and a grey box Using photos readily available in the Walkarounds near the back pages of the site I saw the sonar box (sic) I think the grey box was intended to replicate that box so I modified the box to look like the base unit and made up a top section from extra plastic to look like this Consider this is in 72ths of a inch I thought not bad Til it was put inside the fuselage And filled it SO I made it again in a more 72th looking size Much more proximate to the size of the cabin and its windows I think this will do and this is me off to the pub, in the rain... catch y'all tomorrow

Eduard's rebox of the Zvezda kit with some PE Slightly different from normal, work starts with the Wings then finish off the wheel wells once boxed in with some mud / grease The starts in the fuselage sides So far it's a nice kit, but somewhat overly complex - it is however zvezda plastic so very soft but has almost complete interior. Peter

Hi, everyone! It's my next model from "IBG Models" new kit.

Hello Everybody well its time to post this year’s yearbook photo’s. I was able to finish 19 total this year, and have 7 more in the almost finished pile. Starting in January i was able to build my 1st target since I've come back to modeling. I built a 1/48 Tamiya generic M-10 Achilles of the British army in Italy. With a name like this it gives new meaning to the term “Chelsea Tractor” (Thank you Jeremy Clarkson). Next up was my KUTA build an ancient 1/48 Lindberg Beech Stagger-wing that i converted into a bush plane w/ski’s. I dedicated it to my Brother Mike, he passed away in 2010. Next up was my entry into the Forums 10th anniversary build. I opted for the 1/72 Academy OV-10 Bronco. In this case the colors are from an U.S.Navy example based at China Lake with VX-5 in late 1986-87. Not exactly sure why the desert colors on a U.S.N. Bronco ? My working theory is a camouflage test. Possibly anticipating getting involved in the Iran/Iraq war. I then finished up a few builds that had been started in 2017. The 1st of those was this Grumman Hellcat. I chose to do it in the markings of a Hellcat from VF-33 on Espirtu Santo in late 1943. I found the marking scheme while looking at an Eduard Hellcat, and yes i have a photo as well. Followed by a 1/48 Tamiya Mk.VI Mosquito, from the Banff Strike Wing. If memory serves me 143 Squadron. I was able to get into some more modern stuff as well. I did this VMA-311 Tomcats Harrier. And this F/A-18C as a CAG Bird from VFA-86 Sidewinders late 1990’s. Then probably some of my Favorite builds of the year. First up is “Geronimo”. A P-40N from the 15th Fighter Group, 45th Fighter Squadron. Its a gilbert Island based unit and was a sister to the Makin island P-39’s. My take on Revellograms Ju-87D/G Stuka, was built for the Mediterranean G.build. I opted for a Ju-87 of Nachtschlactgruppen 9 in Italy early 1944. I followed this up with a build i started 15 years ago. I finished my RAAF Black cat from #20 Squadron. Its not 100% glued as it has to be able to be stored in a broken down condition. These were followed by a 1/72 quickbuild Hobbyboss Me-262 for that Single type build. I built V056 which was a constantly modified prototype used for testing different weapons. In my case the prototype of the Single seat night fighter. I opted to do Lothar Von Richetofen’s Yellow Fokker for “The final hour build.” Next up was one of two builds for the 1960’s NATO/Warpac grp. Build. I chose an early Mig-21 from the Polish Air Force, I used a Bilek 1/72 kit. The 2nd build was one of my Unicorn models since ive come back to building. I used the Revellogram F-102 Deuce. I chose the markings of the 431st FIS. Zaragoza Spain 1961. Next was the P-47D for the STGB. I opted to do “4-F” from the 356th Fg. This was followed by the Dedicated type build where everyone built the same 1/72 Airfix P-51D. I opted for “Run, Rabbit, Run” from the 20th Fg. Both the P-47 & P-51 are also part of a side project I’m building concerning 8th A.F Fighter Command. The last couple of Builds are the Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIb in VVS markings. This was built for the “Brits abroad” build. Last up is the 1/72 Hobbyboss quickbuild P-39N that was built for the p-39 stgb. This was built to Represent an Airacobra Mk.I of 601 Squadron. I did forget to add this model. I completed a Tamiya 1/72 Fw-190D a month or so ago. So officially thats it folks, thats all of my 2018 builds. I still have 2 spitfires, hurricane Mk.I, Tempest Mk.VI, & a B-18 Bolo. Im currently working on all of these but dont think they will make the 31/12/18 deadline. If anyone would like to see the WIP’s please ask i will add the appropriate link. This post is a bit long as it is, and adding 18 links would just make it longer. As is my usual finish, questions, comments, or jokes ? Dennis

1/72 Wolfpack F-5A - Skoshi Tiger - 65-10525, USAF, Bien Hia AFB, South Vietnam, 1965. In October 1965, the USAF began a five-month combat evaluation of the F-5A titled Skoshi Tiger. A total of 12 aircraft were delivered for trials to the 4503rd Tactical Fighter Squadron and after modification with probe and drogue aerial refueling equipment, armor and improved instruments, were redesignated as the F-5C. Over the next six months, they performed combat duty in Vietnam, flying more than 2,600 sorties, both from the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing at Bien Hoa over South Vietnam and from Da Nang Air Base where operations were flown over Laos. Nine aircraft were lost in Vietnam, seven to enemy ground fire and two to operational causes. Although declared a success, with the aircraft generally rated as capable a ground-attack aircraft as the F-100, but suffering from a shorter range, the program was considered a political gesture intended to aid the export of more F-5s than a serious consideration of the type for U.S. service. From April 1966, the aircraft continued operations as 10th Fighter Commando Squadron with their number boosted to 17 aircraft. A lovlely little kit, went together without any major issues. Airbrushed freehand using Xtracrylics and Vallejo paints. Phil

shouldn't that be 'radius'? Now.... Ladies and gentlemen, please give a standing ovation to the recipient of the 2018 FMTUIASMO Award (for most tools used in a single modeling operation) goes to... Now that's just showing off that is. Poor Ced will be having palpitations and if he spirals down into a tool envy induced depression we all know who to blame. aside from appreciating the general build progression, it's also very entertaining to watch your skill sets grow from build to build

My last finished kit for 2018, which as been a very productive year. I' keep thinking I've finished all my Classic Airframes kits in the stash then find another. This is almost straight from the box but I did use Barracuda Intake which fitted perfectly. They were the only parts that did. Thanks for looking.

I wouldn’t normally go out of my way to build an Airfix 1/72 Spitfire as it’s not really my cup of tea, but having received this kit as a gift I thought it rude not to have a go. It started life as the newer moulding for the Mk.1a and I guess thousands have been made as per kit recommendation, but I wanted something different so I purchased the Pavla resin conversion kit for a PR version and the Eduard cockpit upgrade.Three options are possible with the Pavla upgrade and I went for the later Mk4 which served overseas in Palestine and researching the full size showed that it was a very scruffy looking plane so plenty of weathing would be need. Having never weathered a war bird before I wasn’t sure what sort of job I’d be able to, but I was up for trying out a few techniques I’d seen on YouTube and in this forum. There were quite a few modifications required to the basic Airfix kit, but I won’t go into all the gory details as I’m sure most readers here will have done similar projects. Anyway, here’s the finished model so please feel free to give a few pointers where I can improve as I’m aware it’s far from perfect, but the Christmas period is upon us and time was of the essence! Oh, and I am aware of the small seam that’s showing over the engine/fuel tank cover, but I’ll live with it. Bill. This shows the Pavla resin auxiliary fuel tank and some of the Eduard cockpit parts.

They are looking the dog`s as usual Bill. PS Happy Christmas (and to everyone else reading Bill`s thread). PPS Apologies for hijacking your thread Bill (you can get me at the next Brum IPMS and I know this is of interest to you), but I`m all excited as this came in the post today:

A Clowder of Wildcats All 1/48 scale. Hobby Boss. F4F-3 Wildcat. VF-72 USS Wasp (CV-7) Hobby Boss. F4F-3 Wildcatfish. Tamiya. F4F-4 Wildcat. VF-41 USS Ranger (CV-4). Wingfold from Wolfpack Designs.

I thought I’d better do some modelling sharpish before the cosplay photos start flying around... So here we have the exhausts and mounting plates. They will need quite a lot of clean up and filler, but I can make them work: Thanks for looking, Adrian

Model from the 80's set This set has a lot of years so you can not have high expectations. Model as always made straight from the box. I really like this plane and I hope it will have a good model. I also have a Tornado on the shelf in this painting. Painting from beginning to end is hand made

A milestone reached today, the wings are now attached, she will need a lot of filling to make up the difference in wing chord still. I've also added the upper fuselage equipment hatch which is unique the the RB.57F A comparison photo of the 1/72 scale Mack2 RB.57F and my 1/48 build John

The secons one of mine triple amphibia build: the Grumman Goose, 1943. Model by Sword 1/72, scheme follows that presented in Aeromaster decals (for 1/48 set No 48801), here national insigna by Techmod, numbers printed at home. Cheers J-W

As if ready to embark on the transatlantic feat that gave it fame, from Poland to Brazil to Argentina, here is the simple but charming figure of this Polish single-place monoplane. For those curious about the building process, here is the link to the step-by-step post: Aftermarket decals and photoetched parts were used on this model, plus some surgery to open the door and engine cover; an engine was added obtained modifying a resin item from Matías Hagen in Argentina. As it is often the case, I forgot to add the Venturi and Pitot, a fact I only discovered -naturally- after the photo session, so I added those items and photographed the model two more times -images at the end. It happens. Stanisław Jakub Skarżyński During the research for this model I found a Polish book titled: "ON THE RWD-5 THROUGH THE ATLANTIC" that describes the whole flight and (to my joy) the stay in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the plane arrived in June 11 1933. The chapter made me giggle continuously, as Stanislaw Skarzynski, the pilot, is exposed to the effusions and celebrations of the remarkable Argentine people. He was impressed when he saw Buenos Aires from the air before landing, and describes its skyscrapers, boulevards and squares. Once he landed in the El Palomar airport, a huge and enthusiast crowd broke de police and military barriers and launched into the airport. The military personnel, in an attempt to control the crowd, draw machine guns, but that had no effect whatsoever on the crowd. The pilot was squeezed, crushed, embraced, bent, stretched, tugged, given fortifying pats on the back and generally overwhelmed by this traditional demonstrations of affection and admiration. He finally was taken to the safety of an hangar. The stay is described as a succession of banquets, festivities, interviews, conferences and social engagements with all the parties involved: the press, the Polish delegation, the military, the wide range of local and foreign authorities and dignitaries, and the public in general. The poor pilot -if completely grateful and gracious- was exhausted and got a cold. He declined to cancel those social engagements and states that he needed super-human strength to endure the endless demonstrations of unquenchable Argentinean love 😉 He was treated of course to the traditional drink: yerba mate, a sort of hot tea (but nothing like it) served on a gourd and sipped through a straw. Now, we absolutely love this caffeinated, stimulant drink of indigenous origin, but like any other foreigner I know of, the pilot didn't seem to be particularly thrilled by it, although he was gifted a "gourd" (mate vessel) made of silver. He was awe-struck by the night life of the city (and it is still like that today), where people stay out until two or three in the morning. He was impressed that radio stations will put aside their customarily tango broadcasts and instead play mazurkas and other Polish traditional music in his honor. He was showered with gifts, and was moved by the demonstrations of affection and respect. Skarzynski will eventually, at the break out of world war II, join the RAF in several important capacities, but he insisted in getting a combat position. Flying back from a mission in 1942 his plane had to ditch. He made all others evacuate the plane, but being the last, unfortunately he was washed away by the stormy waves. SP-AJU had one occupant and one door as the RWD-5 bis that crossed the Atlantic, and when later went back to Poland it was reconverted to the original variant as a two-door, two-place plane with a long exhaust and other minor changes in details and decoration, but keeping the registration.

Kia Ora from Aotearoa (New Zealand). It's almost Christmas and I know I can't finish any more models before years end, so I decided to scratch that itch which has tickled my spine for ages. There have been a few disasters in 2018 (paint peeling) so my moral had dropped a bit low. Fortunately this build will get me back on the horse (Mustang pun) and recharge my model mojo. I decided to build another 1/72 Hasegawa P-51D as this has to be my favorite Hasegawa kit of all time. It has good fit, fineness, ample detail, fine panel lines and a crystal clear canopy. The latter doesn't show any sign of wear on the molds, though it's probably been produced thousands of times. If I were stuck with building one kit for the rest of my life it'd honestly be this. I love Spitfires, but there so much more variety in the P-51D. As said, I've been itching to build another Mustang for a while after testing the water on other subjects. Below is a list of extra's I'd purchased in preparation: 1/72 Hasegawa P-51D (New Mold) Eduard Pre-painted interior detail set Quickboost P-51D seat with belts Quickboost unshrouded exhausts CMK weighed wheels with cross tread Aeromaster Aces of the Eighth Pt.VI Does anyone know if Red Roo still make their etched set with swap braces for the wing racks? Would love to get hold of a set again. To the build: I wanted to try the black base method so interior was initially sprayed Tamiya flat black lacquer which covered great. Masked off the radio compartment area and sprayed Mr Color Zinc Chromate Type I, then the tail wheel area Chromate Yellow. The 'office' was painted the same along with the seat & console. Cockpit floor was painted a red brown, brushed with acrylic raw umber and sprayed over with clear orange. Gives a convincing wood look in small scale. Seat cushion painted yellow, head rest brown, harnesses buff with silver buckles. PE parts added and everthing was flat coated using Tamiya satin varnish lacquer. Dry brushed with Tamiya tank grey and applied a Raw umber acrylic wash to give it depth. Next phase is to button it up. I've made a small grill for the rear outlet using plastic strip & mesh and the Eduard PE set includes an intake grill too. The resin exhausts require a blanking plan to be added inside which were also glued in with Zap-a-Gap CA glue. A word on the wings. The wing root needs to be shaved back maybe 1/2mm as the top wing piece is a bit big. If not rectified it'll case the wing to have less angle than it should. About 15 scrapes with a blade along the fuselage wing root should suffice. I didn't do this on my RAF Mk.IV and it looks...dippy. This is not he case on their P-51B though. So that's where we are with it currently. I have a trifle and a sticky date pudding to create tomorrow (Sunday) so it's a delightful, fulfilling weekend for me. Save for calling the police on the drunken, viscous argument occurring across the road last night. Will post more pics when progress is made. Links to three of my 2018 builds below.

I am calling stumps on this one. I can't really recommend this kit for anyone who dislikes fiddling with tiny bits as there are many of them in this kit. Stay tuned for my next trick! Warren

I won't dwell on the kit in much detail - as most here will have read thorough reviews or seen WIPs - but it's a real treat to build. Lovely detail, and nicely engineered. My only issues was that for some reason the top of the instrument panel ended up too high, and as a result the instrument hood (?) didn't fit. Took a bit of whittling. My fault I am sure. I don't have an airbrush, which has always put me off making planes which require the typical Luftwaffe mottling along the fuselage. But I do love the FW190, so doing a desert scheme seemed a neat sidestep of the mottling fear. I got the tropicalised Eduard resin cowling, which was my first resin aftermarket experience. I was a little surprsied that there were no instructions about how to fit it to the plastic kit. Not sure if I did it wrong but I ended up having to chop quite a lot of interior parts off to make it sit flush. Anyway - it's a lovely and detailed addition. Kit was painted with Citadel primer and tamiya rattle cans. All details brush painted. And then weathered with oil paints. Pretty happy with the result. And a kit I would recommend to anyone! I made up the markings, and used a fun spare of what looks like snoopy walking over Africa with a bomb... Think it was from an Eduard Bf108 kit sheet. Cheers, Bruce

I present in no particular order the dozen 1/144 airliners which I finished this year. I haven’t really been as productive as the number suggests - several of the models are delayed 2017 builds which for various reasons weren’t finished until early this year and some are older models which have been refurbished and repainted usually, although not always, quicker than building something new. The better and/or more interesting builds have been in RFI but several are appearing here for the first time. Thanks for looking and I hope you like my civilian collection. Happy Christmas and see you in 2019. Dave G Condor Boeing 707-430. Heavily modified Minicraft kit with decals from various sources. British Airways Boeing 767-336(ER). Revell kit with Two Six decals Air France Airbus A319-113. Revell kit with F-DCAL decals. Cambrian/BOAC Vickers Viscount 701. F-RSIN kit with Two Six decals Flybe Bombardier DHC-8-402 Q400. Welsh Models kit with RJS decals Hapag-Lloyd Express Boeing 737-4K5. Daco Skyline kit with mixed BOA, Drawdecal and Brasil decals. Built for the Boeing 737 STGB. LOT Boeing 787-85D. Revell kit with F-DCAL and Authentic Airliners decals Air UK Fokker F27-600. Doyusha kit with Two Six decals. Donbassareo Airbus A320-233. Revell kit with BS Modelle decals. Britannia Airways Boeing 737-204. Airfix kit with Two Six decals. SAS Scandinavian McDonnell-Douglas MD-81. Minicraft kit with Welsh Models decals. BOAC Cunard Vickers Super VC-10. Roden kit with Two Six decals.

A few years a go was busy with the Airfix Lysander SD version. I have scratch build the interior because it was very basic and the observers place was not the same by the SD versions as by the Army Cooperation version. I have read that they could move some times three man two man on a seat and one lying on the floor. I have not found any pics. of complete the after cockpit of a SD version, only a part. So I had a little bit freedom to improvise. Further I had decided to open the cockpit, also fitting a ''Kopra'' engine housing because the Airfix one is not the right for a MKIII. The front cockpit had a bad fit with a gap, so it was a lot of sanding and fitting, even after airbrushing I have seeing it was still not good. So again sanding and a small layer of putty, also I have remove the framing of the front cockpit witch was not good in my opinion. After I had airbrushed to plane and camouflaged I had a layer of ''Future'' airbrushed. Then was it time for the decals…….and that was disappointing, I put first the serial on it and I saw that there was a white outline on it…... Not good at all. Also a outline on the roundels on the wing, so I ordered replacement roundels (noting in the spare box) and I search the internet for red serial, but there are no serials for SD Lysanders in the after markt productions. So I used the good old paint brush with acrylic red from a starters kit, to paint the red of the squadron codes. The Lysander was airbrushed with Tamiya colors I'am very satisfied with the result. Gerhard 1/72 Airfix, Westland Lysander Mk.III SD. 161 Special Duties Squadron RAF Tempsford 1944

All done! I'll write a bit about it in the gallery... --John