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Hi guys, some photos of my SWIFT FR5, Airfix 1/72 built for my friend... box model with added Eduard photo-etched dedicated. ciao Silvano

Built for the upcoming 50th Harrier Event at NAM, some may remember I made the same in-flight dio a few years back, albeit a little cruder. Hopefully I`ve improved it a tad in this reincarnation. For those new, the story goes like this. Squadron Leader Bob Iveson left HMS Hermes as part of of a strike force against the Goose Green area in East Falkland. He completed two attack runs over Argentine positions and then decided to make a third. His Harrier was hit by 35 mm shells which knocked out his controls and started a fire in the cockpit. He immediately pulled the ejection handle and left the cockpit while the Harrier was doing around 450 knots at 100 feet. His aircraft exploded in mid-air shortly afterwards and he hit the ground after being under the parachute for only ten to fifteen seconds. Squadron Leader Iveson suffered spinal compression and wind-blast damage to his eyes but hit the ground sufficiently far from the Argentine positions to make good his escape and was picked up two days later by a Royal Navy helicopter. Kit is the old Airfix 1/48 scale, base from Coastal Kits, finishing frame fro Evilbay. Thanks for looking.

Hi Everyone, Just finished my latest `49er` P-40 Warhawk ( I`ve got a thing about Warhawks 🙄 ) Built from Hasegawas 1/48 P-40N kit and finished to represent an aircraft of the 49th Fighter Group, New Guinea,South West Pacific Theatre in 1943-44 Wanted to do this one for a while as it had nose art on both sides of the nose which was a fairly common practice in the 49th Built mostly from the box contents..... with the usual additions of brake pipes and dodgy home made seatbelts The decals came from SuperScale set MS48-903 I`ve only seen b/w photo`s of the plane with port side looking like the nose trim was painted black and the starboard looking a lot lighter so the red is a best guess... and matches the red on the nose art. Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking, Cheers Russ

Just added the finishing touches to Airfix's 1/24th Hawker Typhoon MkIb this week: a project I've had on the bench for the last 6 months or so. Admittedly I've picked it up and put it down as and when I've felt like it, but regardless this kit is most definitely a long-term investment in regard to time and effort. I found it an absolute joy to build and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. Fit was exceptional but you must follow the instructions to the letter, especially where the engine and its piping is concerned, as tolerances are very tight. The only after-market was a set of Eduard seat belts - everything else was OOB. PIC 9 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 8 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 7 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 6 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 5 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 4 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 3 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 2 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 1 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr PIC 10 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr I opted for the post-war scheme so other than some tonal variation to the paint, I kept the weathering restrained. Paints were Xtracolour enamels with Humbrol flat as a top coat. Decals were from the kit and were excellent, bedding down well over the recessed/raised details without any problems. All in all, a fantastic kit - roll on the big Hellcat! Best regards, Tom

Hi all, here some pics of my GasPatch Hs 123. Just a nice kit I built nearly OOB. Just add some Eduard PE`s for some cockpit details 3

I present my next model. Vickers Wellesley from the Polish Aeronautical Technical School for Minors in Heliopolis (Egypt). At that time, it was already a flightless, serving only to learn cadets, and got the number 4723M, which was generally painted "traditionally" M4723. The plane was repainted from the night bomber (apparently it was L2657), the lower black surfaces were repainted in yellow. Kit is the old Matchbox with Aeroclub Bristol Pegasus, propeller from spare and vacu canopy from Falcon, painted with Xctrarylics paints.

Hi everybody, here's my latest off the workbench; I bought this kit last summer, at the gift shop of The Flying Leatherneck museum in Miramar, San Diego. I was there for vacation with all my family, and my youngest daughter in particular enjoyed so much that visit that she asked me to buy this kit and if she could help me building it. She did help during the first phases of the build, in fact; then, when things became more complicated for her, she just checked for progress She said she's happy about the final result, so ... It took me a little more than 3 months to build this kit, which I found refreshing compared to the 9+ months of my previous build. Here are some details KIT: TAMIYA 1:72 F4D-1 Skyray AIRFRAME: DOUGLAS F4D-1 Skyray 134895 of VMF 115 MARKINGS: mostly airbrushed using self made masks, except for the smaller MARINES and VMF 115 writings, the drop tanks stripes and the stencils, which are kit decals. PAINTS: Mission Models paints for the camouflage (Light Gull Grey and White), Italeri, Lifecolor and Tamiya acrylics for the interiors, markings and inisgnias, AK Interactive Extreme Metal Steel, Tamiya Gun Metal and Tamiya Clears (Red, Yellow; Blue) for the exhaust nozzle area. WEATHERING: tempera washes, black and dark grey. AFTERMARKETS: none SCRATCHBUILDING: - Seat belts, with wine bottle foil - Seat top and ejection handles, using kitchen alu foil for the former and 0.6mm solder wire for the latter - Seamless intakes, plounge molding white styrene sheet (0.25mm thickness) around a master carved out from a rubber gum - Brake lines and cables on the gear struts and inside the wheel wells, using various copper and solder wires Edit: here's the WIp thread, in case you are interested in: Here are a few more pics of the finished model Underside In progress shots of the interiors Thanks for watching, all comments welcome Ciao

Flight over the North Atlantic. Pilot Beryl Markham.

Here is my Revell 1:72 Focke-Wulf Fw 190F-8 which I built back in 2013. It represents "White 11" of I./SG4, Luftwaffe, based at Picenza, Italy, in May 1944. The kit was built mostly OOB adding etched belts from Eduard and replacing the nose ring with a correct replacement part from Quickboost. The kit was painted by brush except for the mottling and varnish which were done by airbrush. The white underwing tips were made from white decal sheet. One thing of note was the lack of swastikas. Revell never includes them but in this case it was correct as, together with the white theatre band, they were overpainted for camouflage purposes but it is believed the swastikas were painted out under orders of the unit's commanding officer for other reasons.... (he was later relieved of command!). Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome Miguel

The model I made a long time ago, at the beginning of my modeling adventure, so I apologize in advance for the quality of the model and the terrible quality of the pictures. However, I wanted to show you this model because I am a big fan of this combat plane. BAC Lightning F.6 Trumpeter 1:32 Model straight from the box, and the other I try not to build.

Hi Folks My first of the year! This is a classic Trumpeter kit, i.e. 3/4 good, 1/4 poor/bizarre: the front end and wheel spats are wrong in shape and size, a detailed engine is provided which is too small and can't be seen anyway, a 1000kg bomb is included which is 4 times bigger than the Stuka ever carried, the wing mounted guns and gun blisters are included but absent from the instructions etc. etc... I've used the Brian Fawcett resin AM set to correct the front end forward of the engine firewall and undercarriage and I've robbed a 250kg bomb from my Revell Ju88. The 'Jericho Trumpet' is scratch built. Regards J A.

A few to remind me what I was a doing of The Vixen and I would like to thank you all for your help, without which she would never have been built THANK YOU FRIENDS FOR EVERYTHING RFI LATER THIS WEEK

Hasegawa/Eduard kit straight out of the box, except additional Eduard PE set, and some correction of the few kit parts were made by hand. Thank you for the looking any comments are welcome.

My first “big” build after i started making model planes about a year ago... Thinks this is the sixth model i have made so far... The 1/48 C-47 “Honey bun III”, Italian, Normandy, Holland and Bastogne veteran! Hope to improve my weathering techniques in the future... Please let me know what you think, i can only learn and hope my next plane will be better 👌🏻

more details...

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this, hasn't it? My apologies. On Thursday, which thank heavens is my work from home day, Grant fell backwards down the entirety of our second-floor staircase, which is narrow and steep. I was moving over to get him when he fell, because he was sitting at the edge of the staircase, and so I found myself running after a baby bouncing down step after step and always just out of reach. I'd love to say I remained calm and collected, but Mrs P informs me I was screaming "No! No! No!" desperately over and over again. It's no exaggeration to say the experience was straight out of the sort of nightmare new parents are tormented with. When I got to him, Grant's nose was streaming blood and he was bawling, which though horrible, was a relief because I expected him to be dead. I spent an anxious day working from home while he was with the sitter, and emerged from my study every hour to make sure he wasn't leaking cerebo-spinal fluid from his nose or ears. He did not enjoy this. Poor Mrs P had a late day at work, and in the confusion, she forgot she had no car (because it stayed with me in case I needed to race to the emergency room), and so missed her last possible train home and was unable to reach me, because I'd fallen asleep putting the kids to bed. (She got home eventually, don't worry.) Grant is fine, aside from some exciting new bruises. If you question the value of your NHS, incidentally, I invite you to consider that we opted not to go to the hospital unless we had clear evidence our baby was about to die, because we simply couldn't afford to go to the ER for anything less than a life-or-death emergency, and we're not doing too badly compared to most Americans. Anyway, that only took one day, but it's left us all a little worn down here at Hedgehog Manor, so it wasn't until tonight that I got back to the grotto. I've now primed all three Hurricanes. One thing I want to reiterate here is the incredibly user-friendliness of Arma Hobby's photoetch, which actually fits the kit. When I built, just for example, Eduard's 1/72 Fw190A-8, this wasn't the case. And they've been making PE (and kits) for a while! The thing I love about the Arma Expert kits I've worked on so far is that you really get the sense that the people working on them build them, too, and they've put a lot of time and effort into the parts of kits that normally cause problems. Case in point: the tiny PE landing lights fit perfectly into the clear parts for the lights. I mean P E R F E C T L Y. Some work had to have gone into that. The downward-facing light on the aircraft is lacking a mask, so I used masking fluid on it: I also had two of these little f...I mean, parts ping off into the ether, though I was able to recover one, so when building yours, maybe keep some tape handy. Lastly, I masked off the prop tips and painted the blades and spinners: If I have time tomorrow night, Sky goes on the undersides. Exciting!

A few snaps here of the interior before most of it disappears forever! Brown oil wash was applied in the cabin and a few nicks and scratches added with silver paint and fine brush. The cockpit has also been weathered with the same approach, black oil and silver highlights - I'm quite happy with the results, the Eduard bits and pieces definitely help and hopefully will be able to see some of it through the canopy. Fuselage halves and bottom part of wing all fit pretty well, a few seams to tidy up but not too bad. Similarly the three-part greenhouse on the front went together surprisingly easily. Plenty still to do on this one - next steps will be to paint the wheel bays, spray the canopy dark grey and get an undercoat on. I'm also going to get the rivet wheel out again (enjoyed it with the Bf109E) but will do this on the wings before gluing everything together. Thanks for looking!

I Know exactly what these Merlin kits are: an attempt of Kaos to disrupt the modeling world, to sow utter confusion among unsuspected modelers, to drive Control mad trying to build unbuildable, amorphous lumps of plastic in a vain, futile effort to obtain a model! This "kit" should be a prominent character in one of Poe's or Nathaniel Hawthorne's scary stories, or be in one of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu myths... Oh, the horror... If you have the strength of heart, and can bear it, you may consult the step-by-step Modeling Noire genre story here: Yes, after all that time and inordinate amount of painstaking effort, a not totally indecent model was produced. Was it worth it? Get yourself a Planet Lockheed Air Express (I did after this!) and trash this miserable lump of Merlin plastic if it happened to have sneakily crawled into your stash. Or donate it to a Museum of Horrors, to be displayed aside (or better in) the torture chamber. Or wait -if you don't like resin kits or their prices are not for your modeling budget- until a manufacturer produces these Golden Age beauties in styrene form. One very good thing came of it, though: I commissioned the decal sheet from Arctic Decals (the kit decal sheet was as miserable -and wrong- as the plastic), and it is superb, of exquisite quality. So I now have spare decals for my other Air Express, yippee! I represented the plane as flown by Frank Hawks in the 1929 National Air Tour, as a pathfinder plane for the entrants. Once again I reiterate that this plane went through a large number of modifications in details and marks (some listed on the WIP post), so be careful, if you attempt to model it, with your research, and base it not on drawings, but on photos.

Well calling this done it is my interpretation of the Revell 1/144 scale LSM used by the US navy during the later part of the Pacific war to Island hop large amounts of men and armour The build was inspired buy a model from Julian Swallows(Gremlin 56) who sadly is no longer building with us but I hope he is looking down thinking not bad BUT? The only concern I had with the kit was the stanchions I had to replace because my clumsy hammer hands broke most of them trying to remove from the sprue I added the crew using the Shapeways 3D printed figures good but need to be handled with care during wash down of the wax residue again hammer hands It was a fun build away from all the extras of late so Thanks for looking in and even helping along with the build Well that is the third one completed this year so not doing to bad Now for that BPBC beefy

Hello you, and a belated welcome to 2019. Here is a quicky I did in the post Christmas blues, a Mozzie carved from wood and camouflaged with wood stain. Its a bit of a mishmash, its supposed to be the cannon armed fighter, but the cockpit and exhaust blisters are from the MkIV bomber and the Brownings are too high in the nose. Still, it kept me out of the wife's way for a couple of weeks so it's all good. Enjoy.

They're the original prototype for 'Beats by Dre' headphones: 'Syncopation Anunciators by Dr. Andrew Young, FRS.' Just keeping the seat warm for you old boy! (Until you're able to rejoin the throng.) Sincerely hope that 'busy' means 'fulfilling busy' so that there is a plus somewhere to being denied your company Crisp. A Stormbringer perhaps! Thanks on all counts Chris. Cockpit fitting continues and in the wake of @galgos's kind donation of those superb seating closeups, metal was cut: I used the original PE back as a template for the seat back, scanned it into the Silhouette drafting software in order to extend and reshape it to match Max's photos. I then cut the shapes in Washi maks and transferred these to some thinn sheet for cutting with nail scissors. These parts are for the pilot's and radio-op's seats (which are broadly similar). 'The Waiting Room': With bases added: The driver's is the one with the hole in the base, whereas the wirelessman has a door in the base of his. I know not the purpose of those details. The all-important 'are they to scale with the other bits' shot: Next tasks are the padded podium for the nav, plus folding 2nd pilot's seat and the fold-down one that sits athwart the rear wing spar to starboard. Hopefully I can continue in the current mode of grabbing 20 mins here and there during the week. Roast beef dinner later with homemade horseradish sauce and half an acre of roast spuds. I miss Lovejoy or Bergerac not being on Sunday nights..... Tony

Finally completed, here is the iconic racer in its green, incredible hulk aspect. Again congratulations to KP (Kovozávody Prostějov) for their increasing line of very appealing civil subjects, in this case a classic that deserved re-edition. As you can see, the kit can be turned into a nice replica, if with some (normal modeling) work. Without wanting to get into a lengthy exchange regarding this, I deem it a giant step upwards and forwards from the two very old Airfix and Novo-Frog ones. The price is convenient, and I believe you get a fair quality/price ratio. Still, I believe the SBS Comet to be the very best around, if in resin and with a larger tag price. It becomes a matter of personal choice. Many of you don't like to deal with resin or like to keep the modeling budget in check, so this is a good option. As usual you may visit the WIP thread here at BM: I am bit confused by threads that talk about a Micro-Mir DH88, and the shown digital renders exhibiting a highly detailed model. Not sure if this is going to be in production soon, or it's some kind of echo or variation of the KP kit due to the (for me) ever-tangling, mysterious, and shifting hobby company relations in Eastern Europe (whose intricacies and history I completely ignore).

OOB, I did one! It was a bit of suffering to get it together, but it looks good from far, but far from good. I do realize the goof on the serials... I was thinking about it and telling myself not to for hours, but still goofed... I like it, I MAY build a second one later if I find a nice 111 Sqn RAF scheme, we shall see. I also have Academy's offering in both scales to play with...

Hello everybody ... Sorry for my slight delay in joining the fun, there was a family medical emergency on Friday. I haven't been idle though, First the obligatory sprue shots. Im planning on building this with the pilot. Reason being is i will be mounting the Mk.7 Device on the port wing. I doubt even for drills they would have a practice device on a plane, without a pilot on board. So for my first day i built up the cockpit. I did mount the office to the starboard fuselage side. Currently its drying and i will photograph it tomorrow. The ejection seat is still seperate and i will attempt a better photo as well. Still not sure which markings i will be going with ? The kit decals are for the 78th FBS “The Bushmasters”, part of the 81st FBG. From 1952-1992 they shuttled between RAF Shepards Grove, RAF Sculthorpe, and RAF Woodbridge. I believe that means they qualify ? I also have the other units of the 20th FBG (55th & 79th). As well as the other units of the 366th FBG (389th, 391st, & 480th) to choose from. I only mention this as @rafalbert was a little concerned about duplication of markings. I will let him have the 77th and i can sort out which unit to go with. Questions, comments, or jokes ? Dennis

greetings once again dear fellows. It feels like it's been forever since I last posted whereas in reality it has only been around two weeks since I last updated this thread. I've had to reread my last update to try and remember where I was and where I was heading.. to no avail. So let's bash on regardless. The lathe came out of hibernation and I turned down some aluminum rod to make the three hydraulic caps, actually about 7 in this instance - they kept flying off into the ether when I was using the cut-off tool to remove them from the rod. I show this shot purely because it shows off the bracket just above the oleo mounting point very nicely. No other reason. Well, that and you can see where I have recessed the trans deck panel for the hinge mounting point (the white rectangle thing) - another thing Fly missed. I used a 1 mm Tamiya chisel to carve out the recess and got the back face as flush as I could, then dropped in a small piece of styrene to make it look better. My home brew etch was used for the fuel cover. It's not great but certainly better than what Fly give you. Then the reinforcing plate around the rear fuel cap was fitted. This looks like kak here - it still has globs of GS-Hypo seeping out from under it, plus my pencil location marks make it look a bit scabby - it really is better in the flesh - honest. You'll just have to take my word on that one. The front end was dressed up a bit with more etch, brass rod and other assorted greeblies. Once again, home brew etch for the fuel cap and surround fitted with GS Hypo - easy. The harder part was to relocate the drain and the hydraulic brake line as Fly had them in the wrong place as far as I could tell. They were too close to the three hydraulic fittings, so I filled the panel lines, sanded, then relocated. All very easy modifications but completely unnecessary had Fly had them in the correct position to start with. A quick shot of where we are up to on the starboard side - the most interesting side on a Wessex and always the most photographed. Now take a gander at this photo below.... see the three circled brackets on my home brew etch? And see the circled bracket mounted on the fuselage ? Well, apparently the genius in me decided way, way back when doing the etch stuff, to include the mounting brackets for the blade fold. What a genius move! Unfortunately, the numpty in me omitted to actually look in my little box of bits 'n' etch 'n' stuff before I took the hard route and made the brackets from scratch one evening. What a heid the baw! While I was thumping my head off the bench for being such an utter eejit, I happened to notice that something didn't look right.... oh yes! Fly did not include the rear fuel dump thingy. Well, they did but it was just a very faint line on the surface. I wish I had spotted this sooner as it would have been a lot easier to remedy. As it turned out, the fix was relatively simple. Start with a hole as close to the correct location as I could get. Then gradually open out the hole with various drills, split the seam along the fuselage. No! wait, I didn't mean to do that, it just sorta happened. Cue Tamiya extra thin to the rescue. Finally the hole was opened up to the appropriate diameter using some rolled up sandpaper gently rotated in the hole. I made up a fuel dump cap from several diameters of plastic tube - the larger diameter will rest against the inside of the fuselage, and center the protruding tube in the hole (in theory!) Sorta like this.... the small scrap of styrene rod is just a brace while the glue dries and will be removed later. The rear fuel cap is looking better once cleaned up though there's still a little bit more cleanup to perform. I also added 4 little slices of styrene rod to portray the bolts fixing the blade fold bracket in place. Lastly for this evenings episode, I added the comms plugs/caps just in front of the cabin door though after looking at this photo I think the two caps nearest the door look a little bit on the large side.... thoughts anyone? Oh, and I also started adding the hydraulic fittings just above the cabin door - again, aluminum rod turned down on the lathe - and while fitting that one I managed to knock off two electrical boxes inside the cabin. They are going to be a right pain to get back on place. (and the observant among you will notice that the loadies seat has also come loose... darnit!) This kit is slowly sapping my will to live. There's times I wish I had never started it, but now that I have, I have to see it through. Now, it's personal! Fly had so much opportunity with this kit, but sloppy research, or just plain carelessness has ruined the experience. The cabin door surround is going to be another area of frustration - Fly provide a nice couple of PE pieces to fit around the door, but again, they bear no resemblance to reality whatsoever. Anyways chaps and chappesses, until next time...

The model I made a long time ago, This is a model from the "OLD SCHOOL" category. Model Hawker Hunter Revell 1:32 Model straight from the box, and the other I try not to build.

This is my build last spring. F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is so popular that I decided to build it with an alternative way. That's the very reason i put it up on a brass rod, and have its landing gears modified as without ground load. Hope you enjoy it...

I love Savioa Trimotors (my newest fetish), especially the civil types, this is the Supermodel SM81 Pipistrello converted to an SM73 using an Italian kits / SEM models conversion set. It will set next to its relative the SM75 I built a while back.

Thanks very much gents, a little knowledge of the potential pitfalls is very useful So as we are cleared to go, here are the parts - the sprue specifically for the MiG-15: It takes a bit of finding if you have the Royal Class box set, but there is a serial stamped on the sprue (just above the starboard fuselage half in the picture above) which differentiates this sprue from those of the MiG-15bis. The sprues with the wings and small parts are identical for both of the single-seat Mig-15 kits. The pre-painted etched parts are specific to the early MiG-15: I don't have much in the way of 'modern' aircraft colours and I assume Eduard have done their homework when deciding on the colour of the interior etched parts... a root through the paint store found a good match* to their colour, it is Colourcoats RLM78. As we are now officially allowed to start, I removed the resin ejector seat parts from their moulding blocks: I hope to get the interior colours painted up today. Cheers, Stew * Of course you can't really compare them in the picture as you can't make out the colour either of the paint or the pre-painted Eduard parts so you'll have to take my word for it, which might be a bold step seeing as my evil overlord @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies takes inordinate pleasure in pointing out that I am now at an age where my colour perception is basically right down the toilet and effectively past the u-bend.

Seatbelts on and another close up of the cockpit:

This Hawk comes from Hobbyboss. The model was bulit almost straight out of box, except for modifications on wings. I removed the small wing fences that were intended for model Hawk 51, Hawk 60, Hawk 65 and Hawk 67, and added stall strips on the leading edge of wings. The model was painted with white and yellow primers, then painted with Super Italian Red. All paints used were from Gunze. Decals are thin and soft. Several layers of Gunze GX100 clear coats were applied before polishing and applying decals. A few layers of Gunze GX100 clear coats were applied over the decal before final polishing. One should be careful with decals under wings since Hobbyboss did not cut out the place were flap hinges are located. The detonation cord inside the canopy is represented with white decals, which were a bit smaller than the embossed detail on the plastic part. Other than the small issues above, it is a pleasant experience to bulid the Hobbyboss Red Arrows.

Here is my contribution to this group build. The latest boxing of Airfix`s classic Supermarine Spitfire Mk22/24. The intention is to build a Royal Auxillary Air Force Mk22 from the late 1940s so hopefully qualifies for this GB. Opened up the box this morning to find some sweets included! My plan is to use a Xtradecal sheet for an appropriate aircraft. Just a picture of the sealed contents as no doubt this is a well known kit...…. https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X48091 The intention is to do PK613 LA H for 603 County of Durham Squadron R.Aux.A.F at Oulston in 1949. Regards Grahame.

Here is the completed model of this attractive and widely produced parasol monoplane in its colorful civil guise, that started over the Holidays at the in-laws under extremely harsh conditions (British food and unintelligible language). My thanks again to friend and fellow modeler Sönke Schulz, the kind donor of the kit from his Zekret Vaultz at the Volkano Lair. The aftermarket photoetched set and decals were a nice complement to the kit, that in spite of its age can still be made into a nice model. I have two more kits of this charming little thing, that I look forward to turn into companion models. It will be much easier now that I learned the tricks they need. You may visit the WIP thread in this very site here: RWD-5, RWD-6 and RWD-8: with the Praga E114b: "Sturm und Drang", the very popular duo from Volkania, cheer-up the day:

Thanks for the kind comments Jade, pleasure to give you encouragement … and erm … and some mistakes for you to avoid … purely for demonstration purpose of course I've got all the stickers on. Where possible I cut away as much carrier film as possible to prevent any silvering. It worked fine, but getting the wing stencils to line up straight was a proper faff. Of course it didn’t help when I put a couple of them on the wrong way round, had to remove and re-apply. It seems I am a right proper bozo after all! My biggest gripe is that the instructions are in colour. Nice you think, but on the underside everything is jet black so there are no panel lines showing as reference points. There is something to be said about the old school black and white instructions. Even though it does bring to mind the classic quote by Ted Lowe (former BBC snooker commentator): “And for those of you who are watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green.” Anyroad I got them all down and gave a coat of klear: I must admit I do like the look with the G for “George” livery on the side and the type C1 roundel. After returning from the Brum club meet and a perusal of Bill’s Sea Vixen – along with plenty of other fine models on the bench – I’ve made a start on the panel line washes. First up is all the black bits. I made up a mixture of Paynes Gray and soft white diluted with Sansodor. The latter I find more conducive than turps because it is milder (less likely to react) and it it’s not smelly. This is the effect so far (the fin on the right hasn’t received a wash yet so you can see the contrast). I have to say I’m quite taken by the effect. The wash to date is taking very well to the panel lines. Once dry they won’t be as bright as they are now, so should be just enough to break up the black blandness. I will be using pastels to add some tonal variation too, but I’ve got quite a lot of lines to get through first…

I'm trying to be patient and let the paint harden before I do any more work on it. The very slight residual blemishes are only visible from certain angles, so I'm considering whether trying to improve might be a retrograde step. The perfect is the enemy of the good, as they say. Well "good enough" in this case. Untitled by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr Untitled by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr

Hi ladies gentlemen and thanks! You are right Thierry... Maybe not the good one! Today, carburetors's side, the challenge: And the beginning: Three pics, but a lot of work... Dan.

Well Maidstone as it happens, to assist in real ale disposal at a friend's 70th birthday bash. Nice one Bill. I shall of course make a note to return the compliment at an appropriate juncture. Thanks for your Teutonic support Bbudde. Trouble is, a leopard can't change his spots but a Martian can! The fashion police have already investigated and decided that there were no grounds for a prosecution to be brought. They did however caution me that I was not showing enough tentacles and grow some more. This is in hand. Mars' Epitome of Sartorial Elegance. 👽

With Steve's sensible advice whistling about in the empty space between my ears, today I have: Masked Masked and primed by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr Primed Masked and primed by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr Painted Untitled by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr

Thank you gents The jet-pipe inside was called out in the instructions as 'Dark Iron', I used the Tamiya paint of the same name and it looks a little excessively burnt to me, but then the colour call-outs refer to Gunze colours, not Tamiya so that might explain it - also I really don't have any idea what the inside of a jet-pipe looks like so it could conceivably look like that... In any case once the parts are assembled you can't see in there anyway: I'll hopefully remember to paint the outside of the pipe aluminium before I fit it... Yesterday evening I de-sprued and sprayed the interior parts: ... and today I did the assembly and detail painting - first the seat, which is like a little kit all by itself: See those yellow cables/cords on the right-hand part? That was pretty tough to paint. When the seat is assembled you can't see them at all... The cockpit floor, bulkheads, stick and rudder pedals: Sidewalls and various consoles and gubbins: The instrument panel and nosewheel bay: As you may observe, I gave all the painted parts a black wash of Citadel Nuln Oil to bring out the detail a bit, it might look a bit overdone in macro but it will hardly show at all when it is all closed up. After that I assembled all the cockpit parts: Since then I've added some weight behind the IP (lead wire) and above the nose-gear bay (Deluxe Materials Liquid Gravity) - there's still some space underneath and behind the nosewheel bay and I'm reasonably hopeful of avoiding a tail-sitter - Eduard don't specify how much nose-weight is required but it wouldn't make any difference if they did as I don't have any scales. So far I've been enjoying this build very much, the etched stuff has behaved nicely, I even used the little throttle levers. I did a dry-fit of the wings and they seemed to fit very well - hopefully they will do the same once the fuselage is joined up... Cheers, Stew

Well I should have done this a long time ago: The Airfix Beaufighter wings have really deep panel lines, even under two coats of brushed dark sea grey, so I’ve smeared some PPP into them to calm them down. I lost a fuel vent and the underside landing aerial in the process due to having too many thumbs... Thanks for looking, Adrian

Time to put the GR5 up on RFI. It’s a kit bash of a Monogram AV-8B with new Sky Models decals and a Pavla resin Martin Baker seat. Nice kit to build in the basic form thanks for looking

This is a very simple, early Airfix kit. No internal detail, Hence here's the pilot again, with a plane around him now. Wings fitted properly.

Wow, I hadn't realised it had been this long since an update! I lost interest in this one for a while (due to the huge amount of filling, sanding and scribing to do across the two aircraft), then Christmas happened, then resuming work..... But eventually, I realised I needed to bite the bullet and get into it. A week later, here's where we're at: Tamiya: - Joined wings, fuselage and horizontal stabiliser - Filled all panel lines and the location of the radiator - Removing the radiator is actually the answer to the propeller question! In it's final form before reverting to "standard", the aircraft was fitted with a 3-bladed propeller (same as production aircraft but with small fairings at the roots of the blades) and had it's radiator replaced with a "total loss" evaporative cooling system that vented the hot coolant overboard. I'm going to make that version because it is easy, and because I think the shiny metallic prop hub will look good. Here's a picture: - Sanded smooth - Attached canopy - Painted all over to get a uniform surface (the blue paint is quite transparent) - Painted all over with gloss dark blue (Mr. Hobby H5 Acrylic) and clear gloss - Sanded all over with P2500 to start to fix that surface texture (and removed canopy masking....removing the tape residue was a whole other story entirely that I really don't want to have to re-live *shudders*) Meanwhile on the Airfix: - Joined fuselage, wings and horizontal stabilisers - Filled panel lines on wings - Re-scribed new wing panel lines - Attached canopy - Filled the slots for the exhausts - Tried and catastrophically failed to drill some clean holes for the exhausts - Cut out all filler in the exhaust slots - Squashed some short sections of brass in some pliers to make exhaust pipes - Painted all over in a mix of Tamiya X-1 Gloss black acrylic and Microscale Mico-Gloss As for what's next: Polish the Tamiya , then paint on the silver (going to try and mask the N.17 on the fuselage sides too...) Paint the Airfix in metal colours, then spray Tamiya clear yellow over everything except the engine cowling. Going to do that quickly and messily and maybe mix up the shade with a tiny bit of clear green and a smidge of non-clear yellow. I'm once again feeling more enthused about the project. Hopefully I'll make more progress today and have more to report by this evening!

Steady progress has been made on the engine decks. I opted to make a 'base layer' from 30 thou styrene, then plank it with 10 thou. This made it easier to fit the mesh, and also meant that the thicker material would provide strength, while the thinner stuff made for easier cutting and shaping of the apertures. Then the postman brought a small parcel from Peters Spares - some model railway carriage door handles which despite being to 00 gauge are close enough to represent the engine deck catches in 1/35th. I did not fancy scratching 38 of these, and once again railway parts have saved the day for me. Only problem is they are potential carpet monster fodder! The handles allowed me to finish off the transmission deck, and the engine decks are now also ready for the handles - just need to get in the mood to wrestle with them!

I imagine Tony's voice is richer, deeper, more imbued with the indicators of manliness than my squeaky midwestern twang.

Some more small but significant progress, I've added the canopy sun shades and fitted the new radar nose cone that was turned by a friend in the USA. I've also added a few small airframe details. not too far from the paint shop now! John

Impressive. Hopefully you'll get access to some plastic kits once you get liberated from the POW camp...

I have a thing for foreign Spitfires and postwar Spitfires, so a postwar Danish Spitfire fits the bill. This will be the Eduard 1/48 IXe, which includes the Danish option which the instructions say is from the 40s-50s so fits the bill for the group build. I haven't built one of Eduard's 1/48 Spits before, I've been looking forward to getting stuck in to this one. I'd show a photo of the sprues, but Flickr doesn't seem to be playing right now. Don't have any progress to show anyway, so will post an update when I've got cracking. Z

Little adjustment to the tops: Funnel caps bit cartoonish, but I want some of it show from under the soot, that will land there further along the road to finish

Cool stuff. Thank God those letters are all too big for 1:32 Polos in the hand of my Spitfire pilot. Otherwise, I would most definitely lose the last tendrils of my sanity. But I will keep these links because one never knows what's around the next RFI post. They may come in handy. Thanks! I ended up using the photoetch nameplate because the resin rocker covers were just a wee bit too short. By the way, Barracuda never responded to my email to them, and that was quite some time ago. I shall have to ping them again. Thanks! I just wish it was going a bit more quickly, but that's the way it goes. It's amazing how long it takes to add some extra stuff - doing research to find photos, copying being motivated by other's work, etc. Here where the engine stands now, with some details added on the port side behind the engine. There is photoetch linkage on the side of the supercharger (may be hard to see) and this was all leftover pieces in the spares box. The hoses and cables are all electrical wire of different gauge, except for the brass one which is solder. The silver hose clamps are painted on. I'm going to switch over to the starboard side now and add some stuff there. However, there will still be more lines to add after the panel framework is added, as well as the forward coolant tank and oil reservoir under the front of the engine. And, of course, the ignition cables which are quite prominent. Lots more work to do! I think she'll look suitably busy once we're done. Cheers, Bill