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Here's my 1/72 Italeri/Wingman C-130J-30 Stretched Hercules operated by the RCAF. It started out as a Testors/Italeri AC-130a 'Spooky' with a lot of scratchbuilding and modifications. I'm very happy with how it turned out, hope you like ... Thanks for looking, Colin

G'day All Not wasting any time after returning from my recent trip to NZ attending Classic Fighters, I put the finishing touches to my Trumpeter 1/32 razorback Thunderbolt. Enhancements to the kit were a set of HGW seatbelts, Brassin wheels and master models gun barrels. Model was painted with Gunze RAF dark green and sky. Markings - with the exception of the cowl checks - were all sprayed on using a set of custom masks from Ad Astra Masks (sadly now defunct) to depict "Miss Behave" from the 78th FG. The cowl checks came from an old Superscale sheet. The aircraft looked fairly clean with little or no chipping or fading evident, the only staining seemed to be that huge oil streak back from the oil cooler doors. The pilot does not look a happy chappie, nor do his ground crew! Whilst I enjoyed the build, I would love Tamiya to release the thunderbolt in 32 scale Thanks for looking, all comments welcome Bruce

Hallo, here is my last OOB built. NIce kit, without serious troubles. I used Vallejo Colours. Every comment is welcome and useful.

This project has taken over 4 years to come to fruition and completion. I'd always wanted to build a FROG Shackleton and with that in mind bought a couple of Eastern Express examples at the Newark Model Show way back in 2004, along with a very expensive Aeroclub AEW Mk.2 conversion kit and the Aeroclub decal sheets that also cost a bomb. Several years went by and after visiting the Newark Air Museum I decided to start building an MR. Mk. 3. I didn't know anything about the Phase 3 modifications until I started studying the many photos I had taken and noticed the Viper jet engines in the outer engine nacelles. To see how things progressed from there have a look at the build WIP thread on this site. The model ended up on the shelf of doom in October 2015, until earlier this month when I decided it was time to finish this one off at last. The model fought me all the way, especially those expensive Aeroclub decals that fell apart in water. The Aerclub AEW bits have been consigned to the spares box and even more pain was heaped on the project when I read on this forum that Revell are actually going to release an MR.3 version later this year, and a Phase 3 version to boot! Well I had started so I decided to finish it. Worst bit: those damned decals. Best bit: I love the way those side domed windows turned out, its amazing what you can do with a warmed bit of acetate and a paintbrush handle! Thanks for looking. Ian

After two months of work, I'm happy to present my Tamiya Leopard 2A6 I bought this kit on a total whim. When I opened it a few months ago, I was indifferent to it. Typical Tamiya - nice sharp plastic parts, but pretty basic looking details. I eventually shaved off all of the plastic tabs representing grab handles and replaced them with wire. I doodled around with a few other details not really worth mentioning. I then started to paint and really took a liking to the kit. I have never built anything in NATO tri-color before, and it was a lot of fun to paint. The weathering I applied was a bit different for me. Typically, I apply dark stains to light paint. Here I had to do the inverse, with light sandy colors needed to stand out against the dark base colors. It was pretty challenging to get things balanced just right. Base paints are Tamiya thinned with MLT. Nearly all of the weathering is thing glaze coats of Tamiya paint and artists' oil. The caked on mud is a wet mud effects product from Vallejo, which I really liked. I'm still working on a figure, but I'd since the tank-proper is done, I figured I'd post a few shots. Also, I'm glad to be finished because almost every time I sat down to work on this beast, this song would get in my head 😄 😄 😄 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5es5MQX0VVA&feature=youtu.be

Finished my self imposed one month posting and forum hiatus but still got this one done for April and my seventh for the year: A sweet but full of casting /moulding flaws kit from Anigrand. I scribed and riveted the surface, Alclad and Mr Color for a "Man in the High Castle" vibe. Decided that post war the victorious Luft '46 boys would have dumped the camo and gone full shiny. Scratched an exhaust and throttle body to distract from the strange oval hole Anigrand presented, then made up some aerials for radar/drone use and drove myself crazy gluing 0.1mm nickel rod. Decals from various Skys sheets and spares box. Fun was had and no styrene was unnecessarily hurt. WIP here:

It's all done now. Here's the link to the building. I wasn't sure to put this in vehicles or aircraft since both are represented. So I'm putting it in both. The Huey in the aircraft forum and the Frieghtliner in the vehicles section. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235032875-124-uh-1d-huey-conversion-take-me-home-huey/&page=4 https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235041358-freightliner-fl60-take-me-home-huey-hauler/&page=2&tab=comments#comment-3329083 Unfortunatly this and the Kenworth in the backround didn't place at all, but that doesn't matter, it's done. Had a lot of people gravitate to it. Maybe they know some Vietnam vets who could be helped by it like the real one was meant to do.

Hi All Here at last, mostly OOB, Eduard SA Zoom set for the interior, WIP here Comments and suggestions welcome Cheers Steve

Hi Folk's,built for the C-47/Dakota GB,has lingered on the shelf for week's through loss of interest not down to the kit it has to be said.It's been a roller coaster with at least two re-paint's and really awfull decal's (only for this version) I ended up using the wing stripe decal's and paint for the fuselage one's the fuselage roundel's had to be doubled due to the see through white area's and were a nightmare to settle over the port door hinges,Soon to follow is the same kit in post war Italian colour's which is nearly done.Many thank's for looking in.

Hi comrades! Here is another one of my past works It's GWH Devastator - fantastic kit built OOB with some modifications and Eduard brass, National insignia painted. Most critical areas to update in the kit - wheel wells and main undercarriage legs (must be shortened). Thanks for looking!

#11/2019 My dad keeps going with his "captured" theme, this time a British 190. Tamiya kit with Rising Decals, True Details resin wheels, EZ Line for the antenna wire, Tamiya XF-81 and 82 for the upper RAF camo. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235052547-under-new-management148-focke-wulf-fw190a-3-raf/ On June 23th 1942, Oberleutnant Armin Faber from III./JG2 accidentally landed his aircraft at the RAF airfield Pembrey in South Wales. The aircraft then was tested and compared to the Spitfire. In September 1943 the aircraft was struck off charge. The wing underwent an endurance test, the fuselage was shot at and the engine was sent away for evaluation. DSC_0001 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0007 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0009 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0010 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0011 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0012 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0013 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0014 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0015 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0016 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0017 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr DSC_0018 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

Sorry to follow on so closely from a similar post, but have just finished processing my photos as well. I and a friend attended this New Zealand airshow for the first time over Easter, primarily to see Peter Jackson's aircraft fly. We were a little disappointed they didn't due to some internal dispute, that disappointment being compounded upon learning they flew a couple of days ago at Masterton. Anyway, that aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the show, seeing the Anson, Spitfire 14 and Fw190 fly plus other types we just don't see here in Australia. Photography conditions were excellent, and we got in three good days of shooting before the rain set in. Im certainly keen to go back, anyway, onto some of my photos. and a link to my album for more, if interested, just click on the below photo. Thanks for looking Bruce

Meant to be a quick mojo-restorer, I ended up having some issues with the decals and paint. I do love the look of the silver plane with camouflaged wings. It was built OOB with a resin pilot figure from PJ Productions and EZ line rigging (no turnbuckles). The centre section of the wings was cut out and the framing added with styrene strips, covered with .005" clear plastic. I used Tamiya acrylics and the kit decals to represent George Guynemer's airplane.

Hello guys, here is my F-84G Thunderjet in Dutch colours. Except for the decals(from Dutch Decal), it was a completely OOB build. Sprayed with 4 shades of AK Extreme metal. And with it's successor; Erik

Hi everyone the last in this series of completed models. Completed and initially painted I think about two years ago, finally glued small pieces and done very light weathering few days ago. Since this plane was from period when the Japanese "advertised" their planes and before the war begin, my approach was to keep weathering minimal. The ARII model, nicely modeled, apart from the cockpit glass that had to be fixed with a super glue to lie about as much as I wanted. The decals are perfect, old but they went down without problems. Hinomaru are painted. Colors Gunze. And that's it, best regards to all

One of the 2 kits I've been working on. Fw190D-11 from Eduard JV44 combo boxing. Eduard's Fw190D has it strength and weakness. I didn't try to fix any of them. I got this kit at a bargain price and decided to just enjoy it. It took some effort to close all the gun access hatches. The undercarriage is weak and difficult to get into position. Strangely, the stencil and fuselage national marking decals seem to be over-sized. The stencils are almost 1/32. Anyway, here it's done.

Since I no longer had to rush to get this finished for the show, I took the opportunity to re-do the wing-root join with some more filler and sanding - it's still not perfect but it will do for me - before spraying the RLM72: Next I'll mask off the splinter pattern before adding the RLM73... Cheers, Stew

Well at last I can get some of my own work done I had lost some of the deck vents and was not to happy with the carly floats the kit comes with them joined together so while at the Scot Nats in Perth at the weekend I purchased some seperate ones And dry fit of the vents Oh and i also got another thing from Coastal Craft among a few other bits beefy

RMS Carpathia - 1/500 Scale - Scratchbuilt I present for your viewing pleasure my recently completed model of RMS Carpathia. She is depicted as she may have appeared on the night of the 15 April 1912, the night that she sped to the rescue of the beleaguered survivors of the Titanic disaster. The model is constructed from wood, brass, plastic-sheet and various other bits and pieces. It is completely scratchbuilt except for the lifeboats that are 3D printed. The WIP thread that tracks the process of the construction of the model and the sea-scape can be found here: I am quite pleased with the result - especially as the project took less than 4 months from start to finish. The model will be on display at next weekend's WASMEx scale model exhibition at Cannington community hall in Perth Western Australia. Thanks to everyone in the Britmodeller community for showing interest in this project. All comments, criticisms and queries most welcome. Best Regards, Bandsaw Steve 👍

For those who have endured the WIP for this, it needs no introduction, so let me introduce my 1/48 100% scratch-built A7V tank and base (I may have got a little carried away with the 'basic' base which is also 100% scratch-built and cost me £0.00). It would have been nice to use some figures (preferably in 'running away' poses), but of course none are available in this scale. Thanks to anyone who has offered help and encouragement during the build and particular thanks to @SleeperService for giving me the idea. If you're interested this is the WIP thread. Gorby.

Thanks guys for your thoughts and support. Sorry for the tardy reply, couldn't log into BM after the change Gone with the micro balloons for moss and pumice powder for the lichen Watch this space . . . . Kev

Now this girl was left alone for faar to long Blastbags painted plus deck gratings finally emerged from the acid... I can at last move on to the superstructures Cheers Mick

Thanks Stuart, you make some good points there - one other good reason for fitting out the model with crew is that it will mitigate the lack of detail in the interior, which in this case is limited to a pair of armchairs and a floor; detailing the interior would be perhaps equally time-consuming as painting the crew would be and additionally I don't have any references for the interior to use as a guide. There is an etched set available which would go some way to ameliorating this, though you could argue this is akin to putting lipstick on a pig In short, then; I painted the crew: In between doing this, I fitted the wings and tailplanes: Some filler was needed at the wing-roots and to be honest later it became clear I should have spent a bit more time fixing this, but hey ho. I fitted the major float struts: ... and the clear parts - the nose parts in particular did not fit terribly well, and I broke the barrel off the rear-cockpit MG almost straight away : I've got into the habit of 'black-basing' my models but have found that it is not particularly beneficial with low-contrast camouflage schemes, and since the original purpose was to have an example of this particular low-contrast camouflage scheme I decided to use a neutral grey base - enamels don't usually need a primer coat, but it is useful not as an aid to adhesion but so that the topcoats will be applied on a regular colour and not three colours of plastic: I gave it a couple of hours to cure (actually I had a trip to the dentists, but allow me a façade of professionalism here please) and applied the RLM65 to the undersides: I'll mask the undersides tomorrow and hopefully can get this finished in time for next weekend so long as I don't lollygag as I am prone to... Cheers, Stew

This is Meng's new Rolls Royce armoured car, which can be built in either the 1914 Pattern WWI version or, as seen here, a 1920 Pattern in WWII desert configuration. It's a decent kit, albeit one with a few iffy areas that you wouldn't expect from a Meng kit. Despite that, it's still lightyears ahead of the old Roden kit and builds into a very nice model. The caunter was painted with a mix of AK's Real Color shades and some Tamiya mixes, mainly for the Silver Grey as the AK version didn't look very convincing. The full build can be found here Thanks for looking Andy

Last built this kit about 20 years ago & it stands up really well against more modern offerings. There's the more recent Trumpeter kit of course which sells for at LEAST twice what you can pick up this one for & although I've never seen it in the box OR built, I doubt it's twice the kit. Raised panel lines of course which requires care during assembly to avoid loosing them while sanding joints. The undercard is a bit on the clunky side, plus I found the retraction struts a little too long but that may have just been me screwing up the assembly. I attached the windscreen about 1.5mm too far forward but as the canopy was going to be open, no great shakes! Decals from the kit. Really enjoyable build.

This one proved a lot more difficult than I thought it would, but I reckon the end result is worth it. It's an old 1/72 Matchbox HS125 converted to become the Blue Vixen (Sea Harrier FA2) radar/weapons integration trials aircraft, using putty and elbow grease! The nose was cloned from an Airfix FA2, using silicon and Milliput, to give me:  New nose  Block unused cabin windows  Stbd Cockpit modifications (but only those that can be seen!)  Doppler altimeter fairing under fuselage  Wing Pylon  Various underwing strakes and flap operating fairings  Open up and fill landing lights  Open up and fill Nav Lights  Add new antennae FredT

Re Izal, In many an RAF toilet could be found the legend "Airmen are reminded, that it is an offence to use the smooth side of the paper". It being for the exclusive use of Officers. John Modelling Par excellence, Moa

Just finished this in the Brits Abroad group build - a 1/48 Beaufighter target tug using the Tamiya kit and Red Roo conversion. The Red Roo conversion is excellent and includes the most detailed instructions I've ever seen - highly recommended. WIP is in the group build here thanks for looking Z

Phantom FGR.2 XT911 228 OCU / 64 Sqn Coningsby, 1970 This is the 1/72 Fujimi kit with Modeldecal markings apart from the roundels, which are Xtradecal. I haven't built the Airfix Phantom yet, mainly because I have a fair stock of unbuilt Fujimis in the attic. I like this Fujimi kit - the panel lines are just about right and the shape and detail are good. I've gone back to the early days of the RAF Phantom with this one. I like the R/W/B roundels and glossy finish, and it now complements my Harrier GR.1 and Buccaneer S.2B in this scheme. Having looked at photos of the new Airfix kit, it seems to provide the tailplane with positive incidence - i.e. leading edge down. If you look at RAF Phantoms at rest the tailplane seems to come to rest the other way round - i.e. leading edge up - and this seems to make a big difference to the overall look. The Fujimi kit gives neutral incidence but I modified mine to give the at-rest look.

Steve, As I understand it, all Spitfire Mk.VIII aircraft were built by Supermarine. They had three main assembly plants, at Eastleigh, Keevil and Chattis Hill. Each assembly plant had minor variations in the camouflage pattern, particularly around the nose area, regardless of the scheme applied. Spitfire Mk.VIIIs in the JF, JG, LV, MB and some MD ranges were finished in the desert scheme. A few MD aircraft were finished in the DFS as were all those in the MT and MV ranges were finished in the DFS. All Spitfire MK.VIIIs sent overseas were dispatched in their factory applied scheme. Early aircraft that were sent to India, initially saw service in the desert scheme. JF835 would have arrived in India in the desert scheme, still carrying standard RAF roundels. It is a moot point as to when it was repainted in the SEAC scheme. You need to check the date when the photo was taken and which scheme it was carrying at that time. A good clue is the tone of the colour through the cockpit area. If it is the lighter tone of the two upper surface colours, it is probably in the desert scheme, if it is the darker tone, probably repaint after arrival. Peter M

Here is a quarter-scale Humvee I finished a while ago. It isn't my best work, as that is what happens when you rush, and I really rushed in the end. Despite my screw-ups (including wiping off some pigment from the tyre while setting up for photos! AARGH!!!) It is a really nice little model and I built it out of the box. Some day I may add a figure or something to spice it up. Paint is Tamiya, weathered with oils and some ground artists' pastels.

If Jamie was doing it, yes Joachim-Friedrich Huth would be a better choice, he flew for the Luftwaffe so right air force, and he only had one leg, so would match the kit crewman (though I'm not sure if it would be the correct leg missing)... but in any case, I liberated a couple of these chaps from the Airfix Gladiators in my stash: Sorry for the blurry but I can't get a better picture. I mean I can't be bothered to get a better picture, of course. There follows a rather pedantic little paragraph, please feel free to skip this unless you are really obsessed by incredibly small details on very small plastic figures: This is the crew figure provided and he appears to be a scaled-down and modified version of the pilot provided in the 1/24 Bf109E kit. He's not correct for the RAF versions of the Gladiator as he is wearing the Luftwaffe early-war kapok-filled life-jacket and Luftwaffe flying boots - I'm guessing Airfix's intention was that the be used for the Finnish markings provided in the kit, but I'm not sure that is correct either as while the Germans might well have provided flying gear to the Finnish Air Force prior to and during the Continuation War I don't think they did during the earlier Winter War when the Gladiator depicted in the kit flew, and also it was a Swedish volunteer group who flew those Gladiators so unless the Germans also provided flying gear to neutral Sweden he's probably not correct for that either. However he is a perfect match for a crew member of an early-war He 115 The only question is will painting and installing him and his colleagues be worth the time it will take to do so. I got my paints sorted too: ... and spent a couple of hours masking the clear parts with the Eduard set: It wouldn't have taken a couple of hours if I'd done it in one fell swoop, but I was wandering about and doing other stuff inbetween. The Eduard set doesn't fit perfectly with some of the panes as moulded, a couple on the nose-side sections needed trimming, but it's still an invaluable investment for a kit with this many windows. I got the newly-masked clear parts and the interior parts sprayed in RLM02: Last thing yesterday I got most of the sub-assemblies er, assembled. Or perhaps sub-assembled. Cheers, Stew

Given the imminent arrival of the new Airfix kit, but mostly because I ran across this, Supermarine_Spitfire_Mk.XIVe,_TX994,_1946. while image hunting, not an image I remember seeing before. Some interesting points, look to be SEAC, but still in DFS (repaints seemed to get white serials) plus has the Sky band. the roundels are really curious, are these the SEAC type that have then be repainted to to be like the standard blue/white/red? Spitfire production has this the Boxart den has a scan of the Aircam Griffon Spitfire book https://boxartden.com/reference/gallery/index.php/Modeling-References/Osprey-Aircam-Aviation-Series/08-Supermarine-Spitfire-Mk-XII---24 which has a fair few images not floating about singly the Image above of SN888 shows an example of the white serial, indicating the the Ocean Grey has been repainted with Dark Earth, the low contrast of the upper colours suggests this. some more here A (??349?) looka to still be DFS. the next two are noted as being Dark Green/ Dark Earth RN 218 looks to be repainted I can foresee a Belgian sheet at some point the Academy Special markings low back XIV kit has a silver doped Belgian plane as an option while on the subject of Belgian Spitfire, while these are high back, it is in colour Spitfire LF XIV's of 349 (Belgian) Sqn. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr note this there is also a useful page on Belgian Mk.XIV here http://www.belgian-wings.be/Webpages/Navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Supermarine Spitfire XIV/Supermarine Spitfire FR.14 Frontpage.html if the listing has a camera icon on the left, there is a photo a couple more from the Academy Special markings boxing here '80' from the Cleveland Air races, (there are colour shots this about) and a Thai machine I presume before delivery There are some images here of Royal Indian Air force Spitfire XIV in Japan 46-47 http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Galleries/History/WW2/Balan02/ this is an interesting one here over aluminium dope with SEAC roundels https://defenceforumindia.com/forum/threads/history-of-indian-air-force.3821/page-3 There is another shot of RIAF XIV with the Chakra markings.... I'll edit that in when I refind it this one is oft reproduced, but I just found the correct caption NH757, 414 Sq RCAF, April 1945, Wunsdorf, Germany Spitfire mk. XIV. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr I'll edit in anything else I think of later, but hope of interest, certainly some interesting markings for the new kit. cheers T

On 5 May 1942 an advance party arrived at Chelveston from the Air Forces Experimental Establishment Detachment from Ringway in connection with the carrying out of specified work on the development of towing troop-carrying gliders. The remainder of the party arrived – according to official records – whenever the weather was fit for flying. On 3 June a Lockheed Hudson was towing two Hotspurs when one disintegrated in mid-air north of Raunds. Fortunately, both the crew survived. The AFEE left Chelveston on 31 August 1942.

Fw190 A3 White 12, Uffz. J. Rathenow 10/JG1 Holland( Delen) 1942 Here is a quickie I did last weekend and finished it up Friday evening. It’s the Fw190 A3 from Tamiya; if you want to do a quickie its got to be a Tamiya. Falls together and few parts. Easy Peasy. Decals are from Aeromaster (48095) JG1 . The aircraft is misrepresented as an A4 on the decal sheet but its covered in the Kagero and the Air War Classic publication ""Defenders of the Reich, Jagdgeschwader 1 Vol 1 1939-1942". Hope you enjoy

Way too kind, Clive, thank you! Before I post a propre RFI, here are a few more pics: I had forgotten to remove one mask from port wing leading edge... Then, as I anticipated much earlier in this thread, I put together the engine assembly, with the intention of using it for a future C205 build - it basically is a DB605 engine, after all It needs TLC and improvements, but this will happen in due course. As I said, I'm going Italian for my next build. Here's a hint: it's a jet, and it's going to be in 1/72. Wanna guess? Ciao

Visited Bicester Scramble for first time on Sunday . Amazing event , ticket only which was great because visitor numbers were just right . Cars on display was , well just WOW ! Highlight for me was being stood next to an ex Le Mans Jaguar XJR 9 ( ? ) as it was casually , and unannounced , fired up ! Here are a few snaps . Gary .

Hi, I'm just going to sneak this in before the site migration (I hope!) This is the Academy/MRC MH-60S Knighthawk in 1/35 scale. It's a big old beast with loads of parts and I also included the Eduard interior and exterior sets. All the paints are Xtracrylix painted over a black base of Mr Surfacer 1500. I used the kit decals throughout - I'd heard they were terrible but luckily mine were all excellent and behaved perfectly using MicroSet and MicroSol. The photos were all taken with my Nokia phone using my newly-acquired lightbox studio! The kit is large, complex and the instructions were rubbish. That said, the only real trouble I had was with the clear parts. The front canopy and chin windows did not fit very well at all. Also, the naval variant of this well-known kit requires the doors to be replaced, and the replacements didn't fit the exact dimensions of the removed parts. I left the gaps rather than fight the windshield fitting nightmare again! It's no competition winner, but I really enjoyed doing the paintwork, markings and after-effects. To be honest, I was glad to finish this one If you looked, thanks for looking! Alan

Thanks CC! I've always used TGC for transparencies - as a matter of fact, the windshield and the rear fixed canopy of this model have been glued with that. In some cases I can use the help of some CA gel. See below for a better pic of the mess I did... Cheers Simon, much appreciated! RFI pics to be taken during next WE Thanks Fubar Thanks Ian In fact, I'm pretty happy with all the rest of the build, apart maybe the Pitot pipe that could have used an improvement ... Thanks Bigdave, very kind if you See below for a better pic of the mess Thank you Keith It is sadly much more visible in real life; as I said, see below Thanks Benedikt See pic below, it's pretty easy to spot wot I meant Thanks Ced (enjoy the sun, BTW ) Thanks John Next? I think I'm going Italian for my next project. Stay tuned.... Thanks Stix, very kind of you Here's a better pic of the mess, inside the red dotted circle Ciao

A few updates as its done- just had too many other things to regularly post but plugged away at this beastie during my posting hiatus: RFI: Well its my first resin kit and and for the "what the hell is that?" reaction, it was worth it. Riveting and scribing are fun, Anigrand resin quality less so. I've seen a few folks online start and then give up on this kit, perhaps if you're looking for an easy build this may not be the best option. Resin is remarkably easy to work with and I'm sure that some more Luft 46 weirdness will follow. As usual Alclad seems to work very well for me but perhaps should have micromeshed this beastie more thoroughly but TBH, I just wanted it done., Thanks for dropping by Anil

Thanks. A bit late with the update. Actually I tried to post them last night but the servers was already down. So now just quickly theprepared pics without much aditional text: The weathering and tonal variation in the NMF panels were done with Tamiya weathering sets. I put a post-it on the panel line and applied the weathering with the small sponge included in the Tamiya sets. No pics of the procedure - just the result. The post-it was also the reason for the damaged tail number 😞 The decal is ioncorrect anyway so one day in the future I will print a replacement. Thanks for looking, Rene

I thought @TheBaron‘s ‘Iron Chicken’ build set the standard on airborne thunder boxes, but I think you have just shot into the lead. Lovely interior. The cabin heating system in the dear old Seaking invariably filled the aircraft with Gnome fumes guaranteed to induce headaches inside 5 minutes; everyone I know tried it once and thereafter wore more layers when flying in cold weather. Clearly Sikorski was not put off by his earlier exhaust-and-dunny combo

You are too kind General Sir. Thanks Jason. I would have you know that this is a Blitzbau by my standards. Has anyone ever considered the possibility that the carpet monster could be a black hole cunningly disguised as a carpet? I have to ask, are you actually related to our dear General? Clearly Pete is! Mrs Martin claims that I flatulate in the complete range of notes and that as a result she I writing a symphony for me. 🎼 Martian the Musical 👽

Holidays done, time to go back to work Scum plus wash on G20. Cheers Mick

I managed to spend a lot of time in the shed over the weekend working on the Shackleton MR.3. Here's the results: Yes after all that weight in the nose and an extra 10 grams she ended up a tail sitter! Hence the clear acrylic tail prop. I tried to hide it under the tail plane but only partially succeeded. The wing walk decals were a nightmare and took hours to get them any where near right. Next I applied all the under wing serials, warning stencils and rescue arrows. Fortunately I am aiming to finish this model as the actual aircraft appeared after a rub down and repaint applied by the volunteers at the Newark Air Museum in recent years before the dreaded filigree staining took hold. I guess I'm going to call this one done now as I want to get on and finish building the Revel AEW Mk. 2 version I have on the stocks. I'm hoping that it is going to be a much easier build and the decals will play ball. Thanks for looking. Ian

Hi everybody; long WE, long report. I call this completed, although with a major cockup that happened when gluing the very last bit First things first, though: the blue stripes needed toning down and becoming darker, so I brush painted some Payne Grey (which is actually blue) oil on them and removed the excess with a paper towel Not as shiny, as you can see. I then completed the weathering by adding a black tempera wash on the movable surfaces lines and on the red areas; all the remaining panels received a dark grey tempera wash, to keep them subtle I also airbrushed some staining around the exhausts area (also restrained, period pics show this area not very dirty) , and a final clear satin coat Bottom side Then I brush painted the wingtip lights with Tamiya Clear Blue and Clear Red Time for the reveal: I removed the canopy masking and look, I still have a cockpit 😮 A few touch ups to do, but all in all not too bad On her legs bottom view resin gun barrels glued in and all the remaining bits added And here's the cockup: when gluing the sliding canopy (the last bit I put on), I also applied some Tamiya Green Cap along the back vertical sides, but it leaked in by capillarity and reached up to the visible part of the back fixed frame.... And since I'm an idiot, I did this both sides (even more visible here) No way I can fix it, no way I can hide it - not that comes to my mind, anyway... One more frontal shot As I anticipated, I call this completed. I think I'll post an RFI anyway, despite of the final boo-boo, but that'll have to wait till next WE, probably. All comments welcome, as usual Ciao

I finished the interior and it looks like I can start assembling the main parts now. Airfix' detail is lovely but I added some aftermarket. Some Eduard PE and the Vickers machine gun is from Miniworld. I ended up removing the gun sight before I painted and installed it into the front turret. There was only one really big problem with the Eduard set and that is that the interior green of the pre-painted parts is very blue (almost the colour of Soviet jets). I repainted these components as well as I could with Tamiya XF71. I painted the interior back of the cockpit aluminium, like Stirlings and other early British heavy bombers. The navigator's table is folded against the side wall, revealing the two parachutes stored underneath. The way Airfix designed the kit is unusual but very satisfying. I've attempted adding rivets to the model. Wings are okay but they're not exactly straight on the fuselage. The wheel bays I painted black (dark grey with highlights and shadows). Thanks for looking!

Right, I finally got round to getting the airbrush out. The Roc was first to get it's interior primed. I used Stynylrez black primer for this to assist with shadow shading the cockpits. I will give this a full day to prime and then get the interior colour on. The interior should proceed quite quickly once this is done as we will be onto brush painting, which I find quite therapeutic. Thanks for looking Martian 👽

Here they are! I was very happy with both, especially one I came closer to finishing them. In terms of weathering, Black 89 has some sandy FloryWash and a little bit of black FloryWash to bring out the panel lines, especially underneath. White 26 just has the black. Decals on both kits were a cinch and it is interesting to notice the different sides of blue used by each company for the Mogen David. I much prefer the Eduard, yet the KoPro has that touch of indigo that makes them not so much blue as...well, kind of purple. Speaking of blue, I am happy that the Blue-Grey camo colour comes off as more if a very dark blue/black once it is paired with the sand and then weathered a bit. While the Eduard kit is more finely engineered than the KoPro, I still am very fond of these KoPro kits. They offer a no-nonsense Spitfire with a wide variety of markings if one looks at the whole of the KoPro catalogue. Eduard does too, but they seem to be more specific (D-Day, Aussie 8, etc...) Both kits are worth building and investing in. A happy modeller am I. Here is the WiP thread... How about some pictures? Maybe I should build more Messerschmitts...? --John

Hi Craig. As ever you are way too kind. Not done anything extra on the tracks yet but I have been working on the turret - fancied getting it a bit further along. Thank you Nigel. Hi Glynn and thank you. Yes I found a while ago that very thinned Desert Yellow makes a good base for further weathering on tracks. Hi SleeperService - thank you for making me aware in the first place. With regards the weathering effects on the lower hull sides - I first stippled on very, very thinned Humbrol Desert Yellow - making sure that lower areas are slightly more concentrated in colour coverage. I then stippled on very, very thinned Humbrol Dark Earth on lower areas of the hull, but in patches - it sort off makes these areas are still damp and the Dersert Yellow areas are the dried dirt. The textured mud is Vallejo's European thick mud - which has stuff in it that makes it look like there's some bits of vegitation in it. I applied this very sparingly with a cocktail stick - trying to work out were some will be spashed up and where some might have fallen from the moving tracks. It's a bit hit and miss but I think you need to know when to stop! It would be too easy just to plaster the stuff on! As I mentioned above - over the weekend I decided I wanted to do some work on the turret - so most of it is assembled and I have started the weathering. The gun, front armour plate and 'ears' are not glued in place yet: It is quite an ugly looking thing!! I also took a few photos with the turret in place: I'm probably going to work on the side stowage bins next. Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix