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Hi Folks, I was reluctant to start this Mig-21 in Indian air force color as there are many MigNazi here but a good friend name Ratish who is also a member here will always help me out and encourage me and finally able to build this kit. It is an Academy kit labeled as Mig-21MF which actually is a Bis. There are two aircraft with a yellow and black stripe on the tail, one is the Oorial and the other the Lancer, since I don't have the decals for it has omitted it, however making the Oorial will be easy to design so in future, once I get my decal paper will print and apply it. Here are some shots I took yesterday, hope you like it and thank you for watching. Cheers

Hello, I would like to present my 1/72 SA.330 Puma in Bristow’s livery. Based around Sumburgh, Shetland & Dyce, Aberdeen circa 1979. Airfix kit with Whirlybirds resin conversion for the radar and sponsons. Decals were a mix from my spares. Certainly not my best effort but I am pleased with it. Thanks for looking Aaron

Hi, Here is my Italeri Blackbird Original panel lines are raised. So i do at first a sanding on all the plane and the panel lines were engraved I use Tamiya & Gunze Acrylics for painting Wheathering was done with pastel and oil. [

Yet another long term stash resident gets built. This is the old Esci Tu-22. I have no idea on its accuracy but it builds quite nicely and needs only a small amount of filler. One build note. Leave the engines off until after it's painted.... It's finished using Iraqi decals from the Revell version of the kit. The colours were a bit of a mystery so I've gone for a green scheme that appeared in a few photos. z20190814_195950 by Derek N.Ferguson, on Flickr z20190814_195924 by Derek N.Ferguson, on Flickr z20190814_195913 by Derek N.Ferguson, on Flickr z20190814_195903 by Derek N.Ferguson, on Flickr

I'm back from San Francisco! I spent a lot of time doing social media, a lot of time NOT getting to visit the USS Hornet (CV-16)) in Alameda, which, as we all know from Star Trek IV, is across the bay, a lot of time eating fancy food, and along with my colleague, a former award-winning TV journalist, got pursued on foot for two blocks down Turk Street by an irate and extremely verbally abusive homeless man while on an abortive quest to find one of the top ten best breakfasts in the SF Bay Area. I got punched in the head by a mentally ill transient back in 2005 or so in a bad part of Chicago, and I'm thankful I didn't get to replicate the experience on the west coast. And I did it all in a suit and red Chuck Taylors. The food was pretty good, though I think Chicago is still better as an eating city than anywhere in the USA that doesn't have a very distinctive and specific regional cuisine can ever be: there are a lot of us, we're very fat, so we have a lot of chances to get it right. Those whisperthin Californians and kale chip-munching Tech CEO imports have no idea what it's like to eat a whole pizza. For us, that's breakfast. I know Britons in general aren't overmuch impressed by US bacon, but this had Millionaire's Bacon, and it was pretty good. Three months until I dine upon Full Englishes! The opportunity to fly 2100 miles west into a more congenial climate and stay at the Westin and do what I more or less do anyway is obviously a huge -- and some might suggest the only -- perk of my job. It's about the same temperature here as it was back there, but the humidity here is through the roof; I got back late last night and spent today catching up on yardwork (whenever I was doing something particularly likely to send rocks whipping through the air or atom-sized razor sharp grass particles flying about like a whirlwind, I would look up to discover Mrs P had set the children outside and vanished somewhere, super helpful, but I suppose it's what I get for being gone for six days) and managed to dehydrate myself pretty comprehensively. Always an adjustment to have to return to real life. Nothing is better, of course, for the ol' modelling mojo than not being able to model (as opposed to being home and not modelling, which is deadly), and a few Wolfpak decal sheets should hopefully be winding their way to me, along with the new Sword Skyraider AEW.1 and their somewhat older TBM-3W Avenger (fun fact: in my innocence, the Mach 2 TBM-3W kit was one of the first models I built when I came back to the hobby in 2011), thereby blowing out of the water my secret, highly unofficial resolution to "buy not more than ye can builde". I'm sure Sword appreciates it. I haven't had a ton of time to myself since getting back (though this morning when I went to get Grant out of his crib, how did he react to see me for the first time in ten days? He shook his head and said "No. Mommy."), but I did step downstairs tonight and smooth out my finish a bit: What sort of cloth or whatever do all of you use to clean off the surface of a model before spraying? I'm looking for ideas.

This is my recently completed Fairey Seafox , L4526, 702 Sqn, FAA, HMS Asturias, 1942 Life started by using the dated Matchbox kit and was updated some what to include more detail: Cockpit deck added and seating positions corrected. The observers pit was updated with black boxes, MG replaced with Miniworld option and mounted on a corrected mount. Moulded-on landing lights removed and scratch clear options fitted. Oil cooler replaced by scratch option. Engine intakes hollowed out and scratch engines added. Moulded-on exhausts removed and scratch options fitted. Moulded-on venturi removed and resin option fitted. Control horns and lines added to float rudders. Flaps removed and fitted for 'landing'. Colourcoats enamel paints used externally and painted in the 'Shadow Scheme'. Some kit decals were used but roundels and codes were Xtradecal. Rigging was Uschi line. All mounted on a sea base depicting 'touch-down'! Work in Progress here: Thanks for looking. Comments and critique welcome. Stuart

This is my 50th build which was a present from my wife. The academy kit is quite basic and does need some enhancing. I used Eduard PE and some scratch building and the pilot was from PJ Models. Painted with Vallejo. The base was designed for me by Coastal kit display bases. The full build can be followed on:

Well I know what it isn’t... a de Havilland Venom or Bristol Beaufort!! Why does there seem to be a market for fictitious subjects like this and not one for these two forgotten aircraft? Cheers.. Dave (who’s frustratingly shaking his head)

Hi there fellow modellers. First time post in ready for inspection. It’s my second build with my new airbrush (Revell’s basic set, single action) and my tenth build overall, so I ‘m still figuring things out. Overall I’m happy with the result but there are things that need improving. First of all when I painted the fuselage paint looked nice, really happy with the result. Then I gloss coated it before putting on the decals (with Vallejo gloss acrylic varnish 26.517). After coating the paint didn’t look that nice/smooth anymore. In hind side I don’t know if the paint never was that smooth to begin with and the gloss coat just accented it or that I simply messed up applying the coating. (perhaps more/less coating?). I do know that after the coating the plane feels a bit sticky, even after 24 hours and is a dust magnet. After coating I did cover the plane with a shoebox to prevent dust falling on to it. Thinking about using another brand of gloss next time. The second thing I struggled with is putting the separately painted small parts on to the fuselage without messing up the paint or leaving glue residue. I know the preferred order is first gluing and then painting but with some parts I just don’t see any other way to pull it off. I guess experience and gaining more modelling skills will lead to improvement in this area. Then there is the fr#@k!ng canopy. For me without a doubt the most difficult part of a build. In videos I see all those people cutting maskingtape like it’s the easiest job in the world, but now, for me free brushpainting and scrapping the excess paint with a toothpick works best. I see a lot of improvement compared with my older builds but still a whole lot to gain. The Corsair purists among you will notice the paint color is a bit of. I think I messed up the color mixing percentages, but considering the points I mentioned above, it doesn’t bother me that much. My last build I started to use Tamiya panel line accent color but the panel lines on this kit are so shallow that I didn’t think the result would justify the work I had to put in. Well, all the disclaimers are in place 😉 so plane is ready for inspection!

Well, another wonderful little kit by Avis of an appealing subject rendered in great detail, with sound engineering and molding, which makes for a pleasurable build in all departments. The step-by-step build is here: Even as a short-run kit, these last civil releases by Avis have raised that bar in that category high up. As you can see, I built three of their recent kits in a row, something I seldom do, but I was enchanted by the subjects and the quality-price ratio. The care on the details, the good instructions, clear and at a readable size, the good decal sheet, the printed clear parts, the accessories included, what a delight! There is a minor issue with the decal placement under the wing, please refer to the WiP for correction. As I said elsewhere: It warms the cockles of my heart!

With Plasticard inserted at the back everything more or less fits: Something has to be glued so I decided to do the wings. The end bit looks as though it fits until you turn it over: More excess plastic, of course: With that trimmed and sanded the fit is much better so it's all been glued and the wheels assembled: I see some Milliput in my future. Or maybe Humbrol filler if it's not too bad? We shall see…

Progress Motorboat under construction Decking underway Anchor deck getting there, one more capstan to complete, planking here well underway

A little more of Plan B; tidying up the new Carley float shelf from the other day (including filling the hollow ends) and adding some Tetra brass galleries further aft. The latter are over the top of Merit’s less accurate effort at depicting the same thing, so now you can probably see why I filled Merit’s version. The extension to the boat deck, seen above the new brass, is merely dry fitted. I also had to remove some over-scale styrene support brackets under this deck - not just too thick (which could be fixed) but no longer aligned with the openings below (which couldn’t). Once it’s fitted I’ll replace them with some scrap brass. P.S. The sharp-eyed among you will notice that the rectangular openings above the double hull opening, mentioned yesterday, have now been removed entirely. More soon Crisp P.P.S. I’ve also decided that the Kagero drawings - far superior to the Morskie ones - are going to be my master guide on this build, so I’ve had 3 or 4 copies printed blown up to the right scale (or very close). Cursory comparison with Merit’s flight deck generally favourable.

Finally got around to writing this up. This particular aircraft was operated by 1771 Squadron Fleet Air Arm (FAA) from HMS Implacable in 1944. It was lost during an attack on the Rorvik port in Norway on the 26 October 1944. The pilot Sub Lt R.M Shaw (RNZN) and his observer Sub Lt G.M. Smith were killed during the attack. Full details with more photos at my blog but here's a couple of photos

Hello! It is my first model on this site. This model I received as a gift. It was assembled many years ago. This is an old set NOVO/FROG. I got it broken. The model was disassembled and assembled again with modifications. It was done very much: cockpit, canopy, landing gear, control surfaces and brake pads. Painted with gunze Mrobby paints. Sorry my English... 1 by Andrew Zhi 9 by Andrew Zhi 8 by Andrew Zhi 7 by Andrew Zhi 6 by Andrew Zhi 5 by Andrew Zhi 4 by Andrew Zhi 3 by Andrew Zhi 2 by Andrew Zhi 78 by Andrew Zhi 73 by Andrew Zhi 51 by Andrew Zhi 39 by Andrew Zhi 21 by Andrew Zhi 12 by Andrew Zhi 8 by Andrew Zhi 6 by Andrew Zhi 2 by Andrew Zhi 1 by Andrew Zhi 01 by Andrew Zhi

This is my rendition of a 1940 Tiger Moth from the RAF Flight Training School. It's the 1/72 Airfix kit plus the Eduard PE set and some additional bits from the Eduard PE "stretchers and control horns" set. The build was started in August 2015 as my entry to the "Tiger Moth STGB". As usual, I didn't manage to finish it in the GB's time frame and could only resume the build this year. This time, it was finished. Some notable points of the build: Extra detail from Eduard's Tiger Moth PE set Extra control horns and stretchers (underside of the tail plane and inter-wing rigging stretchers from the Eduard PE "stretchers and control horns" set) EZ-line for rigging and control cables Control mechanism and cables for the ailerons added (underside of the fuselage, behind the landing gear) Rudder deflected to the left, as usual in TMoths on the ground Alclad Grey Primer Paints from Gunze Aquos Light weathering using dry brushing of lighter tones on wing ribs and Vallejo acrylic brown wash overall Alclad Flat coat The WIP thread is here. Here are the pictures: 1. General views IMAG6375 IMAG6376 IMAG6377 IMAG6378 IMAG6379 IMAG6386 IMAG6380 IMAG6381 IMAG6383 IMAG6382 IMAG6384 IMAG6385 IMAG6387 2. Rigging and control cable details IMAG6389 IMAG6390 IMAG6395 IMAG6396 IMAG6391 IMAG6392 IMAG6398 3. Cockpit details IMAG6393 IMAG6394 4. Aileron control mechanism and actuators IMAG6397 IMAG6401 5. Landing gear details IMAG6399 IMAG6400 6. Family picture Here we can see a Spitfire Mk. I, the Tiger Moth and a Defiant, all from 1940. IMAG6402 Thank you for looking. All feedback is very welcome. Cheers Jaime

Hi, everybody! It's my next model from excellent "Hasegawa". I used two etched set (interior+exterior) from "Eduard" and "Miniworld's" gun barrels.

Hi mates, @Antti_K, yes I am using the Airfix 1:48 stencil placement drawing. I promised some photos to explain my comments on the fin, so here they are. First, the three fuselage sections (Airfix in grey, Frog/Novo in white edged with some occasional yellow, and Plastyk in some kind of a dark swirling morass of a colour): Note that Airfix is the only one who incorporates the bottom of the fin into the fuselage top. The separation line is the bottom of the rudder. Also note that the bottom fin section on the Airfix fuselage is thicker at the back. Now, placing the vertical fins onto the drawing (which has been scaled to 1:72 based on the published dimensions of the wingspan). First, Airfix (note how I aligned the base of the fin at the bottom of the rudder): I think that looks pretty good. If there is an error in sweep-back angle, it's tiny. Next comes the Frog/Novo fin (again note how the bottom of the fin is aligned to the top of the fuselage): The angle looks OK, but the width across the top of the fin looks a wee bit short, as can be seen at the aft end. I don't think this would be noticeable. Lastly, the fin from Plastyk - the placement is a bit arbitrary, as the bottom of the fin is not straight, but rather convex. And you can see that it shares the undersized width at the top of the fin with Frog/Novo, plus it's a bit too short in height. Again, I'm not sure any of that would be all that noticeable. I also measured the thickness of all three fins at their thickest point using a digital caliper - Airfix 5.92 mm, Frog/Novo 4.2 mm, and Plastyk 4.0 mm. So, as mentioned, the Frog/Novo and Plastyk pieces are thinner probably due to being moulded as one piece. This type of error (if it's an error, I don't know the actual dimension) is most visible looking head-on at the fin and comparing the different models. Someone might see it, others may not. I'm not too concerned. Yet. OK, so besides all this malarkey, what have I been doing? I found a picture of the airbrake roof parts from the Airfix 1:48 scale kit - this is what I need to replicate. As promised to @Martian Hale, I cut out a piece of white card stock, placed the photoetched airbrake over the top, and used a fine point marker to trace out the openings. This is done solely to give me a guide showing where to put additional pieces of plastic. I cut out a whole pile of little pieces of styrene, approximately 1 mm wide by 4 mm tall, then selected the best ones to use. I taped a straight edge aligned to the guide markings, and then the tiny pieces were then glued in place. Using this instead of the Airwaves PE part adds a lot of 3D to the roof the airbrake bay. I taped this into the fuselage and posed the airbrake. This will work for me - I like it much better then the Airwaves PE. The 1 mm wide strips I used are a wee bit too wide, and I may try to slice some a little thinner. We'll see, it's probably good enough as it is. The only real problem is I now have to do this three more times! Movin' on... Cheers, Bill

I suspect, with tons of accumulated evidence that I have always been an awkward, perverse bugger so when I was at school I resisted joining the school ATC Squadron and pestered my dad to let me join the local Squadron in Kings Heath 493 which had an affiliation with his branch of RAFA This meant I didn't have to parade every Tuesday and Thursday in battledress at school (in retrospect probably a very bad choice at the time, oh well) Anyway many years later I applied to Warwicks and Brum Wing to become a CI and was granted the coveted certificate Funnily enough they appointed me to 1600 which had been my school unit and had transferred to another school when St Phils turned sixth form college So I didnt get away with not being 'IN' the school squadron And like Andy when the lads, yes only boys back then, had their flights in we got to ride and drive the Chippy before it was put to bed Also meant I got my range certificate and was qualified to put them through their paces with the No 4 rifle, happy days Anyway, back to B&Q... Does this look better? at the back I have done all the fiddling around with pipes cables and devices, the last thing in was the ramp control handle on the starboard side The differing greys are more obvious on photos than to the unaided eyeball so I am not worrying about it, it's done A quick look down the hole at the layout and its almost time... Seat feet to be encouraged to sit on the floor yet And then the moment I was beginning to wonder whether it would ever happen And suddenly, as if by magic...

I use one of Mrs Avereda’s old white t-shirts. Being Scottish she has imparted just the right amount of natural abrasion to the cloth, it smooths matt surfaces beautifully.

Thanks Ben Nope, no tools provided, sadly! Thanks Simon What's the difference between a Fly kit and an onion? Nobody cries when you chop up a Fly kit. Good news - the nacelles and bay doors almost fit without the resin: The gap at the back is where the resin would have been so that answers that question for people building wheels down - the back of the resin goes outside the nacelle. I'll have a look at the wheels and decide how to mount those next before I commit to more glue.

Over the past few days I have started painting the hull. I began by drag brushing some acrylic yellow ochre over a white undercoat and going over this with some raw sienna. When dry, I painted over the whole with some AK Interactive Dark Wood Wash. Next up will be to spray a couple of coats of clear over the hull. This will protect the finish as well as adding some depth to the wood. When dry I will then see about getting the deck and bulwarks painted. Hopefully my new supplies of rigging thread should arrive soon and I can crack on with getting the main elements of the shrouds and stays prepared. Martian 👽

I wasn't happy with shape of her stern. Slapped some more Isopon P38 on her bum and did some more sanding and reshaping. A lot happier with the contours now but think she still needs a bit more shaping: Done for tonight.

Couldn't find a suitable place to post this...just consider it as artillery. 😉 It's an old L&S 1:1 scale kit that I've had for some time now, but badly finished in the past with car spray paint. I'm sort of between builds at the moment, so I thought I'd refurb this while I'm waiting for a kit to arrive in the post. I started by soaking the parts overnight in Mr Muscle oven cleaner, which did precisely zip to the paint. I got hold of some brake fluid, soaked the parts again, and within an hour they were bare plastic. Useful to remember... The parts were pretty poorly moulded, and the barrel and frame had a crinkly finish to the moulding, almost as if they'd designed it not to look too real. A lot of primer and sanding later, and it was just about acceptable. I used Alclad Gun Metal for the blued finish, as it seems to replicate it well...it's a sort of purply black colour, and when glossed over it looks about right. The sights and the top of the barrel were done in matt black as per the real thing, and the trigger and hammer were done in Alclad Steel with case hardening effects painted on using clear red, blue and smoke, although it's hardly visible in the photos. I simulated the wood grain of the grips by using oil paint, and glossed over it to look like polished walnut. All in all, I think it worked ok. And before anybody pipes up about the VCRA, yes I do have a valid defence for owning a RIF. Here it is: Cheers, Dean

Howdy Folks, I've just completed my first 1/35 AFV and figures - it was a lot of fun and easy on my aging hands and eyes - I hope you like it... So there you have it - it's so big the only place I could find to photograph it was on the kitchen top - hence the reflections. The build thread is - CLICK HERE As always any constructive comments are most welcome. Thanks for taking a peek - Steve

Hi folk's we've just had a couple of days down in Whitby and while SWMBO was doing the usual round of gift shops I had a chance to snoop around the second hand shops.In the back of one I found this model,Am I right in thinking Great eastern? It was nicely done all the anchor chains metal and I could kick myself for not paying the £10 asking price and repairing the few bits lying on the chair it was on that's Airfix's Bismark beside it for scale and Nelson was on another chair,so I can only assume it's Revells oldie or I've just let a scratch built little gem through my hands.

A long-time member of our local modeling group passed away earlier this year. Automotive modeling was his favorite and he was a great fan of "kit bashing". Our annual show and contest is being held at the end of this month, and we will have a special kit-bashing category in his memory. He once brought a stack of old car magazines to our monthly meeting, and the advertisement below caught my fancy: So, here's my entry for this year's contest: Bashed together using these kits: And, here's a few in-process shots showing how I grafted the tank tracks & suspension onto the Lincoln's chassis: It was an entertaining little project, but not something I would normally do.

It was 1962. Now, I know that’s making an excuse, but times were different then. Consider the Defiant, which hails from about the same time, which was a mere caricature of the real aircraft. Yet, both these kits, bad as they were, were all that was available and they had to do. The mere fact Airfix under different owners continued to squeeze money out the moulds until the new millennium just compounds the felony, really. Another factor is how many variants and marks of the Anson were there in total? The early Anson had more or less all been consigned to history, so perhaps Airfix could only measure up a later mark which would have been a very different beast to the MkI. Again, it seems strange now, but pocket money Saturday teatime builders probably weren’t aware or didn’t really care about the accuracy as much as we do now.

Thanks John and Giorgio The mask is a bit scary eh? I think the colours are different for different filters? You don't think pink suits me? Still trying to decide where the resin fits in the wheel bay. Better dry fit the rest of the wings. This will need attention: That lump on the end should be a hole - no really - there's a resin blob to go in there. On first assembly I thought the spar was too big: The nacelles don't really fit either: Now, don't forget this is a Fly short-run. Perhaps there's method in their madness and the spar is there to shape the wing? It does bend to shape: Perhaps it's like that on purpose? How does it fit the wing root? Cunning. So all I need to do now is get the nacelles and resin bay sorted. The instructions say to chop 5mm off the top too. Panel lines on the side but not on the top, so Dymo tape was used to 'join the lines: With some fettling the bits fit - ish: But it still doesn't help position the resin. Here? Maybe I should assemble the nacelles and see what happens: Tomorrow…

Just finished the Cromwell for the latest project. Diorama already done, but still have two figures to complete, then I can put the while lot together. Tamiya kit depicted as part of the 8th Royal irish Hussars; the recce regt for the 7th Armoured Division, July/August 1944. (The track is not sitting right in one of the pics but I popped it back into place).

A-37Bs if the 706th Tac Fighter Squadron, 926th Tac fighter Group, an Air Force Reserve unit based at NAS New Orleans. At Nellis AFB for Green Flag 81-3, April 1981. 73-1070 73-1081 73-1089 73-1105 Thanks for looking, Sven

I have finally finished the pair of Pfalzen. The first, an ICM E.IV was built a few years ago and got damaged during my relocation. I decided that the restoration would be more interesting if I took the AZ Models E.I out of the stash and built that alongside it, so that's what I did. They are both 1:72 scale, and both heavily modified from the basic kit. The E.I has scratchbuilt wings and tail surfaces, while the E.IV's are heavily modified kit parts, and both have scratchbuilt undercarriage. Part PE was used for the E.IV guns and the E.I has a MiniWorld gun. Here's the build log for anyone interested. Before the war, Pfalz had obtained a licence to built Morane-Saulniers, and that's what they continued to do after the war broke out. (It is said they made good on every penny they owed M-S after the war!). So all the early Pfalz aircraft were basically Moranes, and that is what they were called by the German pilots who flew them. They were also called "flying death notices", due not just to their black outlined wings and fuselages, but also because they were regarded as "difficult" and the early models suffered quite a few tailplane structural failures, many with fatal consequences. The E.I had an 80hp Oberursel U.0 rotary engine and the various models following that basically had bigger engines and wings, to the E.IV which had a 160hp Oberursel U.III engine. There were a few E.Vs with in line engines but that was basically it as Pfalz had not put any effort into designing their own aircraft and by mid 1916 the old M-S design was well outdated. The company continued on building aircraft under licence from other manufacturers (Roland for example) but they did not build their own aircraft again until the D.III came into service in 1917. The E.I depicted here served in Vilna (Vilnius, Lithuania). The serial number on the fuselage is correct as per photos, at least on the port side. I'm not sure if the way I have shown it on the right side is correct as I had to move the cross forward slightly. It would make more sense to have the "/15" in front of the cross, but who knows whether it was or not. The E.IV depicts an aircraft flown by Rudolf Bertholt whilst with Kampfeinsitzer (literally battle single-seater) Kommando, Vaux, based in Vaux, on the Somme, France in April 1916. He suffered serious injuries when the Pfalz reputation caught up with him and he spun it in from 100 metres. He survived that, and quite a few other injuries received during the war, only to be killed in political street fighting in Hamburg in 1920. He was so badly beaten he couldn't be identified physically. I guess that's what you get when the civilians you're shooting at catch you! Anyway, here they are... They look quite comfortable next to each other in the cabinet! I hope you like them! Ian

Hi, My name is Olivier, i am 39, official in a ministery, and i am a « big scale » fan. I have a Pocher Aventador roadster and Huracan not started yet. I discovered this forum, and i was very impressed by few members like Ron (Silver911), Roy and few others. Impressed by the skill level first. But also by the way of writing/chatting, the ability to help and give brilliant ideas. I also liked the forum itself of course as it is very complete, well done and including a lot of big scale projects which i like. And, i was searching people able to help me to produce custom PE parts for my cars, and few customs machined parts too. I don’t know if it is the right place but it is also one of the reasons for me to choose Britmodeller. So i decided to come here and register, for my futur projects, with my poor english (sorry for that). I hope to know better the forum soon and i thank the owner to give me the possibility to be a member. All the best and kind regards from FRANCE Olivier

Painting. Right, back home after playing Granddad for a few days, it's time to finish this one off. The first thing that I have to say at this stage is that when I built this model, I omitted to take any photos of the painting/decalling/weathering, so the following cobbled together shots will have to suffice. I primed the model first using Mr. Surfacer 500. Once dry, I sprayed it with a mix of Tamiya XF62, lightened with XF3 Yellow. I then lightened this mix with some more yellow and sprayed some random patches and streaks all over. Once dry, I coated the entire model with Johnson’s Klear ready for decaling and weathering. Bison Decals do a very nice sheet called “British Shermans in Italy” numbered 35089 and on it are four Sherman lll’s and a Sherman 11a of the Queens Bays. Unfortunately, the Roman numerals “lll” and the capital “B”, are too tall for the stowage shelf. They look as though they were meant to go on the original kit’s offering, which is deeper than the etched one from Aber that I had used. So these items were made up from spare pieces of decal and finished off by hand painting. The rest of the set went on with no problems. Once dry, the whole model was coated with Klear again. After drying for 24 hours, I gave the entire model a wash using the Dark Wash from Mig products. This was left to dry for another 24 hours before moving on to the weathering. I kept this fairly simple and just applied Mig’s Europe Dust in relevant positions. The figures used are a mixture of Resicast Tank Crew Summer 1944 in the turret and Miniart British Tank Crew in the co-driver’s position, this last one with the pose altered and the head replaced with one from Hornet. The base was quite simple to make. I glued a polystyrene ceiling tile to a wooden base and dug out enough material to allow the tanks tracks and the lower part of the road wheels to sit in and painted it with artist’s acrylic paints. The tank was then glued in place and the entire surface of the tile was covered with three coats of Deluxe Products Solid Water, which is a clear, two part resin. To finish I brushed gloss varnish over the tracks and up the sides of the lower hull to make it appear wet. That’s about it before putting it in RFI. I’ve added some extra items such as the foliage that appears in the photo. Thanks for looking. John.

Another massive update, I did a lot of mini-steps in weathering this beast :). I try to give an update below, but it is probably not complete :). Side rotor 1. Pinwashes with a mix of a black and dark brown oil paint 2. Streaks with a dark grey oil paint 3. Washes with medium gray, light gray and brown 4. Oil spats with AK Interactive Grease, Kerosine & Engine Oil. I used this set a lot for this kit, I like it a lot! 5. Pinwashes at the metallic part of the side rotor (hub?) 5. Wash/filter/spats with AK Interactive Grease, Kerosine & Engine Oil at the hub of the rotor Main rotor 1. Streaks with dark grey and dark brown oil paints 2. Washes with lightgray, black and brown 3. Oil spats with AK Interactive Grease, Kerosine & Engine Oil 4. Pinwashes at the metallic part of the main rotor (hub?) 5. Wash/filter/spats with AK Interactive Grease, Kerosine & Engine Oil at the hub of the rotor 6. Dust spats with AK Interactive Dust & Dirt deposits (2 colors) Helicopter 1. I re-added a number of details (not complete yet 2. Painted and weathered some details 3. Oil dot technique with medium green, dark gray, brown and yellow 4. Local filters with various oil paints 5. Streaks with oil paint (dark rust and shadow brown) and with AK Interactive Grease, Kerosine & Engine Oil 6. Weathering with AK Interactive Grease, Kerosine & Engine Oil at the main landing gear. I still need to do the rear landing gear 7. Oil spats on some local areas with AK Interactive Grease, Kerosine & Engine Oil Wheels 1. Airbrush wheels gloss black and then Alclad 2. Then cut a circular shape tape with the DSPIA circel cutter for the center part (masking) 3. Airbrush dark grey 4. Pinwash with black oil paint on tyre thread 5. Pinwash shadow brown in the center hub of the wheels 6. Pinwash dark rust in the center part of the hub of the wheels 7. Dust & dirt deposits added of AK interactive between the rim of the wheel and the tyre, and directly on the tyre tread itself 8. Spats with dust & dirt deposits On to the final steps :)! Cheers Jurrie

Yes, and:- "Skua- The Royal Navy's Dive Bomber -Peter Smith" The Blackburn Skua was notable for a Royal Navy aircraft for the large number of ‘firsts’ she notched up in such a short career: First –monoplane in Royal Naval service; First –all-metal aircraft in Royal Naval service; First –British aircraft to shoot down a Confirmed German aircraft in the Second World War; First –aircraft in the world to sink a major warship by dive-bombing; First –British aircraft to have a bomb-ejector fork for bomb to clear propeller in dive; First –British aircraft with sleeve-valve engine; First –British aircraft to feature Koffman starter gun for engine; First –British aircraft to mount four Browning guns clear of prop. No CC gear; First –British aircraft to feature two-speed propeller (two pitch positions); First –and only aircraft to be fitted with anti-spin tail parachute; First –British aircraft equipped with radio-homing beacon on new VHF; First –British aircraft to have front gun reflector sight; First –British aircraft fitted with oxygen bottles and supply lines.

Hi Guys, With the completion of the Seafoxes, I thought it was about time for another Sabre, namely a fighter-bomber variant from the 67th FBS, 18th FBG in Korea. The plan is to represent this aircraft (as good as any) from Ospreys 'F-86 Sabre Fighter-Bomber Units Over Korea' reference book. Having already built a small number of early Sabres, I don't envisage much in the way of problems as I haven't got to worry about back dating the wings. So this is a 6-3 wing, so I've got to check the wing fence position is correct and being a FB, will have to get my bomb and tank pylons correct. These birds could carry a 1000lb or two 500lb bombs, so I need to check if their was a dedicated wing for the 1000lb'er? Paint job is NMF with a pretty black/ red/ NMF nose. Decals shouldn't be any problem really except the 67th Sqn badge: Fortunately, a model buddy has fixed the skew and stuff and resized it for 1/72 but yet to print the decal. Kit of choice for this build is the Academy F-86F, No. 1629, if you're interested. This is a prequel and will be a slow start as I also want to get my SH-2 on my works bench. Any comments are welcome. Stuart

Back again for my second visit, still feels a bit odd being in this section as things with wings are what I generally do. Again it’s also for a GB……seems to be the only thing I have time for these days. But I have managed to finish my 2nd AFV/tank (only 8 or maybe a lot more to go!!) and again it was lost of fun to do. Tried new things and effects and for an amateur I’m really happy with the results. I hope you enjoy, I’ve attached the link to the build. Thank you for looking. Paint: Tamiya & Gunze Acrylics, Model Master Metalizer Lacquer, and some I’ve already forgotten! Extras: Friulmodel – Tracks J’s Work – Airbrush Camo-mask custom guards

On a wet summer day Alex (8yrs my favourite Grandson!!) chose a Harrier from the Starter Kits to put together. How fortuitous because the kit was based on a Harrier from RAF Wildenrath 1974. As a RAF Cadet (School) I had spent a wonderful week at this base in 1974 with other UK School based RAF Cadets. My daughters kitchen table was going to be the construction site! Other things bought, a tray, some nail cutters, cocktail sticks, a set of make up brushes, nail files, silver and gloss Humbrol acrylic range and cheapest Asda superglue. My aim was to build the kit quickly enough so that Alex's attention span didn't flag, something that we could both enjoy and didnt turn into a trial... Organisation In the tray, glues away from the kit pieces, seperate food trays for parts to be glued and those glued, washing hands, washing brushes and crossing off on the instruction sheet all helped to keep some asemblance of organisation. Putting together We followed the instruction sheet closely and used my experience as to when to paint, when to glue and when to leave. It also allowed me to practice some skills - dry brushing and use of water colour pencils. Alex cut the parts from the runners using scissors and he\we nipped the lugs off with straight and curved nail clippers. Gluing we used the kit glue and cocktail sticks. I usually gave most joins a run of superglue to speed the process up. What Alex could do and what I had to do, evolved during the build until Alex was cutting the parts out, nipping the lugs off and then sanding these parts. The fuselage join needed a phased gluing with "plastic' and 'super glue' with clothes pegs. This was done while we were putting together the under carriage fuel tanks and rocket pods. Painting We used the kit paints and the kit brushes. We used 4 straight strips of masking tape. Painting I drew the out lines and Alex blocked in the colours. He was surprised beyond belief - when I asked for his mum's hair dryer! The paint dried so quickly esp. with the hairdryer that we could paint almost continuously and the paints at this level were excellent one coat covered mistakes. Breaks for sandwiches water tea were generally governed by Alex. Stickers!!/Transfers Alex thought the transfers were stickers, so he found it very frustrating, to have to place them in water and then put them on the model, this took more time that he could give... We discussed whether to put the wheels on or not, I persuaded him to keep them off because they would break far too easily doing touch and goes and attacking his Lego. I did some touching up and practised some of my skills when he was a sleep. Mistakes not many but gluing one of the fuel tanks the wrong way round was mine! Two days and the job was done it will be interesting to see whether Alex wants to make another, when Grandad comes to look after him during the School hols?

This is my build of Fujimi's Kaman SH-2F helicoptor. These served as the ASW helicopters on ships too small to carry the SH-3 Sea King and were replaces by some variant of SH-60. This is a very old molding from Fujimi from the 70's, and may boxing looked to be that old. While it had recessed panel lines the fit and detail were only so-so and the plastic was very brittle. The left fuselage broke into 3 pieces while removing it from the sprue, with a sprue cutter. The decals were toast. I tried to use the instrument panel decal but after soaking for 15 minutes in very hot water I concluded the paper would disintegrate be for the decal would let go. So instead I used Microscale set 72-396. These worked pretty well except where they had to wrap around so compound curves and a less then perfect color alignment. Total build time was 11 days (who counts the hours?). So let's take a look: I would like to do the Italeri HSS-1 Seabat next, but I don't have decals for the HS-x ASW squadrons and no one seems to make them. @CaracalModels has an H-34 sheet "coming soon", but I don't know how soon or if it will have the marking I want. So I will probably go with the CyberHobby SH-3D Sea King. Enjoy

Hi all, I'm not a regular plane photographer - mostly when travelling on holiday. Back in Autumn 2015 we went to Peru for some hiking and had a four hour layover in Lima. A found a nice quiet window and was treated to some incredibly diverse displays of military aircraft and vintage 737s. Here are a few highlights which I hope may be of use for some. Apologies for the very grainy photos - not expecting to be getting any plane photos, I only had a bridge camera with me: Peruvian Naval An-32 takes off from Lima by Timothy Young, on Flickr Peruvian Navy An-32 departing Jorge Chavez Airport by Timothy Young, on Flickr Peruvian 737-200 OB-1841-P pushes back by Timothy Young, on Flickr Peruvian Air Force An32 taking off from Jorge Chavez Internatio by Timothy Young, on Flickr Peruvian Navy Beech 200 lands at Jorge Chavez Airport by Timothy Young, on Flickr Peruvian Navy Fokker 50 landing in Lima by Timothy Young, on Flickr Aer Carbie An-32 OB-2098-P at Lima by Timothy Young, on Flickr Aer Carbie An-32 OB-2098-P departs Lima by Timothy Young, on Flickr Peruvian Air Force Mi-17s by Timothy Young, on Flickr Peruvian Police Mi-8 PNP-501 in Cusco by Timothy Young, on Flickr Amazon Sky liveried An-32 OB-2085-P by Timothy Young, on Flickr

Lovely: thank you so much! [Incidentally, that underlines my thinking about the fairleads; that chunky thing in the upper view of post 143 sure ain’t no thin piece of brass!] Continuing with the midships section [starboard, Ian ;-)], I’ve installed Tetra’s brass Carley shelf. The builder’s plans came into their own here; if I’d been guessing I would have assumed that they were directly above the lower shelf, but in fact there were ladders at either end, so the upper one overhung, as below. The thing on the left is the base of one of the folding aerials that were so characteristic of RN carriers at this time (the large upside-down hockey sticks that lay flat during flying ops). I had to fold it in order to get the geometry / alignment of other things right, but it’s not glued, and won’t be for a long while yet. It shortly goes back into one of my many bomb-proof plastic boxes for safe keeping. ...and one of the things that needed aligning was the scuttle that sat right in the middle of it, like so. Also the one immediately below it on the aft end of the Carley float stowage. Next up will be to fit the ladders and supports in this area, and measure, drill and fit several more scuttles Merit missed in this region. More later Crisp

I have not got decs for the Skua but I probably have for the Vengeance should the need arise. It builds up quite nicely though I had to add exhausts and new gun barrels. These days it is generally dismissed as a failure, but the crews seem to have thought well of it and it did a decent job. One USN Aviator apparently said it was better than the Dauntless after flying one - very steady in the dive! Here's my Revell re- boxing behind the Javelin FAW5 and FAW 9R (Hybrid Frog and Airfix ex Heller for the former and the latter is Chematic ex Plastyk). I painted it in my take on the DuPont RAF equivalents, and the decs are not as good as the Frog ones with white overspill around the roundels and fin flash which had to be painted out. Hope this one works out better than some of your recent builds Pete

Some of us still haven't really grown up though - accuracy, whatdatden....?!

It's early Airfix. They didn't! See also my Fairey Battle build. Edit: After reading the rest of the post I see Heather has already explained that. I'll retire to the corner. Make that the bar. Ian

Will this do?

Sometimes I am a little slow, my memory isn't what it used to be. I forget what day is my birthday🤔, so thanks for cutting me a bit of slack! I always wondered how they made models before the age of CAD, and other modern techniques. What they did back in the day, must have been similar to how they made automobiles, literally carving them out of clay before they went to the production line. 62......I wasn't even born then, it took another 8 years before my daddies flicker in the eye, made a baby😁! Thanks again for setting me on the straight and narrow, until the next time I forget anyway😳 Anthony

S.1.E Scheme. Extra Dark Sea Grey / Dark Slate Grey / Sky Grey (similar to Barley Grey)..

For what it's worth, when compared to the Airfix 1:48 kit drawing, it's spot-on. I have a couple of other layout drawings of unknown provenance, and I don't see any appreciable error with those either. I then took the Frog/Novo fin and it seems fine, too - but you have to make sure you take into account the fact that the bottom aft portion of the Airfix fin is part of the top fuselage piece. That's not the case with Frog. Once you align accordingly, the two kits are very close. If you just compared the fin pieces, Airfix would look swept back too much, but it really isn't. Does that make any sense? I can post photos if you'd like to see them. Cheers, Bill

Cheers chaps, Only a small update today, should allow you all to catch up. So the rear fuel tank, I wasn't going to alter it but I changed my mind, it just looked too long. I cut 5mm off one end and re joined it, much better but not 100% accurate. Academy kit part before surgery And now, I might take some off the other end of the tank yet, I'll see when I test fit it into the interior. I need to squeeze in the radio shelf to the interior yet so more might need to taken off to get it looking right on the inside. More detailing to be added yet such as fuel lines and stop cocks to the tank itself. More details added to the drivers firewall .50 cal cupola mount reduced by 2mm, it looked to high up on the mount to me? Still have quite a few parts yet to add to the cradle and gun, I'm just taking a break from micro PE folding and frustration at the moment. Enjoy Dan