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Hi Everyone, Glad so say I`ve finally finished my attempt at building a `Sonia` from Wingsy Kits 1/48 kit Finished to represent an aircraft of the 27th Hikosentai, Burma, 1942 ( Oh why did I chose _that scheme and _that armament ! ) Built almost entirely from the box contents, the only additions being the aerial wires I found the kit to be a bit of a struggle and, because of Wingsy`s `why make a part out of one piece when you can make it out of five` approach, a bit of a chore too The fit of the parts is great and the level of detail is very high......... ....but the plastic is very similar to Kitty Hawks `Twougar` kit and is hard to sand and doesn`t stick well ( I found Humbrol Liquid cement worked best ) The opening part of the pilots canopy isn`t a good fit either, it`s very thick and really needs a vac formed part. Still, got there in the end and am glad to have one in the collection. Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking Cheers Russ

Hello, I just have complete this nice kit, it was a short run made by Sword in 1/72. The kit is not to bad for a short run, picky model builders might say that an interior needs more detailing. Inside instruction, sheet you can find some minor mistakes in part for the interior assembly. Better is to crosscheck outside historical reference. The details on wings and fuselage are very good and accurate. That makes this kit so nice, but I added a resin engine because one form the kit didn't look like one. It was so nice that I couldn't force my self to covet it. That is why I made it open. The car is from Kora, it needed some upgrade. It was done a bit sloppy, railing and wheels were horrible and beyond repair. Arado was painted by AK Interaktive paints, the scheme is from Kreta. Enjoy.

XV336 No. 800 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Eagle, June 1971 DSC_0004 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr DSC_0007 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr DSC_0011 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr DSC_0012 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr DSC_0013 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr DSC_0014 by Richard Linnell, on Flickr

As part of my club's "Hollywood" group build, I put together this Hornet to represent the aircraft flown by Capt Steven Hiller, played by Will Smith, in the movie "Independence Day'(1996). A great kit and I used aftermarket VMFA-314 decals, MRP paint, and Harpoon missiles from a Hasegawa weapons set. Also printed his name on decal paper. Thanks for looking!

Hi all, Finally, I have the next one wheeled out of the paint shop. I had some delay because the white star decals I needed went out-of-stock. She is an F-86F-30 with the -40 wing, as supplied to Venezuela from US stocks in the late 1950s. You will have seen an earlier iteration of this machine when I built her around five years. I chose to build her again as I like the markings. These markings are of the earlier type, i.e. without the “wings” on the roundels. These gradually changed from 1958 following the January 1958 attempted Military coup. She is “8C36” in the older serial system, indicating the 8th aircraft of “C” Flight and is seen here (below) while awaiting delivery from McClellan AFB. The aircraft, like all the FAV Sabres, was assigned to Escuadron de Caza No. 36, Fuerza Aerea Venezolana, known as “Los Diablos”. The Venezuelans ordered 22 Sabres from the US in 1955. Some eventually went on to Bolivia to be the last operational Sabres anywhere in the world. The kit is the Fujimi which, in my view, is the best F-86F available in the scale despite being long in the tooth now. It has some drawbacks, not least of which is the fact that the wing doesn’t have the separate Leading Edge flaps. As you can see, I cut these and built my own. I’ve chosen to load her up with tanks too, appropriately, as shown in the image below. Apart from the seat, the inner tanks and the decals there are no another aftermarket extras on her. So, what did I do/use?. Well: 1. Kit – Fujimi F-86F-40 1/72. I removed the starboard inlet behind the wing which was a feature of the -40, rather than the -30. 2. Aftermarket – Pavla seat, Red Roo tanks 3. Decals – Aztec Juicy Jugs set for the roundels, Detail Decals (US-109) 1mm white stars, home-printed the serials etc, and the rest were from the kit. 4. Paints – overall Humbrol Metalcote Polished Aluminium (27002), with some 27003 Steel added to vary panels. Others paints used were: Humbrol Insignia Yellow, Insignia Red, Matt Black, Aircraft Grey (140), Light Grey (147), Colourcoats Insignia Blue. Finished with Humbrol Satincote. 5. Washes and Weathering – a mixture of Humbrol Dark Grey wash, Flory Dark Dirt, Tamiya Weathering powders. Prismacolor silver pencil for scratches etc around the canopy. Here she is. A few mistakes along the way but I hope you like her: Martin

Recently finished project. Like the one offs and weird ones. Prototype Fw 190V18 High-Altitude fighter. Goes together easy peasy. Used AK's new Real colors RLM 02 and a few of their metal shades for the bare metal areas. Some discrepancy on the colours of certain panels of the Hirth turbo supercharger underneath from different sites but I just couldn't be bothered and left it in RLM 02. Additions: Rivets to the panels underneath cockpit as per pics of the real thing Ultracast Fw 190 A-F resin seat with seatbelts Fuse wire brake cables Albion Alloys Pitot tube Antenna wire still needs to be attached when I find the best position for the canopy as the real thing had a tensioning system. I know the photos aren't the best, will look into taking better shots so as to upload more of my adventures. Cheers, Enjoy This should be in my recently completed list under signature but its not showing even though I've updated it in my profile 🤔

This is the ancient Airfix kit (1963) so pretty basic - but reasonably accurate in outline. It was from a 2008 boxing so the decals looked OK. However, I chose to use an Xtradecal set which included an 88 Squadron Boston based at RAF Hartford Bridge (Blackbushe) in and around D-Day. On D-Day itself, some of these Bostons were used to lay down smokescreens along the beach landing areas to try and hinder the German shore batteries. They were also used extensively before and after D-Day in the intensive bombing campaign waged against the German defenses and transport infrastructure. The colour scheme depicts an 88 Squadron machine a few weeks after D-Day, by which time some of the invasion stripes had been oversprayed and the aircraft were beginning to look a bit tired due to the intensity of operations in the preceding month.

Hi friends, here you have my last build, a big project: the King Tiger from Takom. Tanks are not my preferred subject, but this one I think turns out quite well. I like specially the interior of the model. It's been difficult to me to ensemble the tracks, since this are separated and I don't know how to calculate how much of each goes for each side. I added some rifles and an MP40 in the interior and three used munitions. I'm think in sell this model... Thanks Ricardo https://flic.kr/s/aHsmHGoht5

Hi All I put my trolley build in the RFI Aircraft section, since it’s very aircraft related. If the moderators could sort this out, I would be happy! It’s the Transporter, Bomb, Airfield, Standard, according to AP.4306A, Section 12 (A.L.28), also known as the SABT. My bomb trolley project began when I visited General Melchett in May to attend the Cold War Jets Collection Open Day. I brought my measuring tape and at the Newark Air Museum I gave their SABT a very thorough measuring session. Coming home I began drawing the trolley. As you all know there is one at Cosford including the mud guards which are missing at Newark. At that time, I was not aware of the fact that the SABT trolley never carried the live Yellow Sun, only the dummy round. The trolley was originally painted Traffic Blue. The bomb remnants at Newark is a very faded light blue with some stencilling in white. Does anyone know of any drawings or good images of the Type L bomb trolley for the Yellow Sun? Here is my scratch-built version of the trolley, made from styrene sheets of different thickness, strips and rods, and wheels from the Mastercaster Victor inner main landing gear. It’s equipped with cradles for the Yellow Sun. SABT. Note that I have set it in the lowest position like in the photograph from Images of War. It's tiny, the frame is 20 mm wide and 60 mm long. Cheers all Jan

Building 1/72 kits of the German naval aviation pretty much oob is a kind of a hobby of mine (pun intended) compared to the 1/48 kits which get much more attention. Also, they go with my 1/144 German navy ships .... Here's the collection so far: Lets start with the biggest (and I noticed how big when putting it beside a 1/72 Lancaster that I build as a kid!!) staying with the sub hunters, and same profession the fighters and the final one is admittingly a "what if" (by the time this bird was introduced, the navy had passed their jet aviation to the Luftwaffe ) the liaison and transports ... two more rotary wings ... >>>>> and yes, I just noted the typo in the picture >>>>> and as an appetizer, in 1/44 the embarked chopper for the LST which I still need to build one day I probably will post the ships in the appropriate section .... GO NAVY!!! As always, thanks for looking! (and please keep in mind, some of these kits were built like 30 years ago)

I'm going to tell mum Uncle Arthur. Here's a land-boat-missile launcher-mole type thing for you to Kreigerize old son: Six months of painting will just go by in an instant Chris - you watch! Interesting. I hadn't realized that. (This forum never ceases to surprise in matters such as tree lore). Fixed that for you above Ced. I need to get my Golden Bough out again and dust it off. 😄 Thank Gawd nobody's twigged about the 3x life size hand I use in all these photos Steve. You can keep a secret can't you? I'd be mortified if the others knew... That raises more: than it answers...

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's another AZ Model Bf-109 (#17 in my collection) representing the aircraft of Lt. Wöffen of 6./JG 27 in March 1945 at Rheine-Hopsten airfield. The main differences of the Erla G-10s compared to those built at WNF or Regensburg plant consisted of a new engine cowling (“Type 110”), differently shaped gun throughs, a wider oil cooler, missing chin bulges and different rudder. AZ failed to replicate some of the small changes to this particular version, such as the position of filler caps, but only the 'experts' will detect them. More concerning is the shape of the front lower cowl, which seems not deep enough at the junction of the wing root and fuselage. The difference becomes evident when you compare the AZ Model Bf-109 to the Fine Molds offering. On the other hand the AZ kit is considerably cheaper than the FM kit, and readily available in many different versions - and it does look convincing enough to my eyes! The model was painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics, for weathering I used Winsor & Newton artist's oils. All photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. I have not seen a photograph of this aircraft, and AZ Model instructions are a bit sketchy. For painting, I referred to a color profile in "Bf 109 Late Versions", MMP Books, p.75. This aircraft seems to carry an overpainted fuselage number which I replicated with a paper template cut from Post-Its. The DF loop is a piece of scrap photo etch rolled around a cocktail stick. The pitot tube is Albion Alloys 0.3mm steel wire. The morane mast under the wings is from a Brengun photo etch set. The very fine IFF antenna under the belly is 0.1mm Albion Alloys steel wire. Thanks for your interest, best greetings from Vienna! Roman

Engine wired and plumbed. Refinished in BASF lacquer, DuPont urethane clear coat. Scratch built parking brake cables, fuel lines and PCV system.

invention of destruction, Model is Brasin from Eduard, 1/35 scale. Every participant of the Czech Plastic Modeling Championship got it. At the championship I won first place in the category "Czech-Slovak Maritime Regatta" and second place in the hobby category.

Hi all.. Recently completed, nice straightforward build but the Dayglo orange nearly sent me mad! In the end after several brush paints and repaints I invested in an airbrush and started again. Paints are from Vallejo, their flourescent orange from the Model Air range is very nice indeed. Decals are aftermarket from Xtradecal for an RAF College Cranwell machine. And with other Airfix stablemates made recently....

Cheers Terry at last we are getting somewhere, the sacrificed red rod gets smaller And painted blue and a small lamp impressed on it This will sit on top of the transmission cooling fan duct and act as a hi-viz lamp It should get an Oscar, lookit! Now then, should I? Airfix give you a little spinner to finish the tail rotor, not this Pondering that one Getting closer, wheel time now Soon

Calling it done after 18 days of feeling the need for speed. Mostly OOB with resin wheel sets from Def.Model and pilot/AoA from MASTER. Going to add some figures later but I need to get some good sleep first. Fitting is ok - some parts are perfect but some parts you need to sand & putty. Decals are good - thin and touch, just make sure you put more water before you slide them onto your kit. More options - 3 wing options + 3 tailplane position options + open/close spoilers + 3 intake ramp options + 2 nozzle options + 2 nose landing gear options Canopy - choose between Pikachu and Bulbasaur, of course no I am joking. Just choose between 1-pieced molded clear canopy or, clear part with plastic frame which you really save a lot of time on masking. Wide range of ordnance - AIM-54C, AIM-7M, AIM-9M, GBU-12, GBU-16, GBU-38 JDAM, GBU-31 JDAM, LANTIRN pod and TARPS. Sleep time, baby! 💣🐱 You can check out the W.I.P. post here:

Well here it is. My first complete Airliner kit. The kit itself is a quick build and with a little filler and heaps of sanding it turns out ok. Kit decals were stickers and were a let down so I printed my own on my inkjet printer. Decals are a little thick but I'm still happy with the overall result. Thanks for looking. Jurgen

Hi all, This is my attempt at Tamiya's kit of the GMC deuce and a half. Dating from 1997, I found the moulding and fit to be excellent - a good choice for my first vehicle kit in this scale. I also bought Tamiya's accessory set 231 to go with it, this having the 0.5" Browning mount over the cab area plus a few other bits and bobs. The kit was built out of the box(es) apart from the cable for the winch. I also used the kit to try out weathering techniques and learnt a lot from a fellow modeller who showed me the oil dot technique, the use of pigments for dust and mud effects and gave me some links to helpful videos on YouTube, so many thanks to him. Thank you for looking, Pat

I'm with you 100% on that Bill. And if the darned strakes had any attachment stubs in the right place - I'd have bloomin' well used em. There aren't any fold/society fees to be paid? or any strange initiation rights? or owt ? Right? Painful isn't it.........Sorry Neil.......But I'm expecting the pace to pick up - I'm only a several years away from retiring I'm holding on for a decent kit I dunno why so many people seemed to find this funny So. Seeing as there was a little time last night when I wasn't too distracted.....I nervously cut a slot in the lovely neat wing.....(I measured it at least 4 times first) Into which an Airwaves wing fence (thankfully) fitted....... I thought the fuselage strakes would probably (inevitably) get knocked during handling if I stuck them on at this point; so they've joined the numerous sub-assemblies in hiding storage to be fitted just before painting. See. At some point all of these sub assemblies will get fitted and progress will accelerate to a breathtaking speed (or at least to a rate of progress closer to the Britmodeller average........)

Hi there. Just finished another swedish jet a few days ago. It´s a conversion from Hasegawas J35F to a S35E using a lot of Maestro Models nice stuff. I used etched parts for the cockpit, a new nose and extra fuel tanks, a KB pod, the RWR pods under the wings and the complete tailcone. From Pavla came a new vacu formed canopy, from Pilot Replicas the pilot and from Hasegawa the ground crew member. The ladder is also an etches part from Maestro. Daniel

Another great Airfix kit, built OOB apart from aftermarket decals. Brush painted with Revell Aquacolor and then Vallejo matt varnish. Added some Mig Ammo light grey panel wash and Tamiya weathering powder to break up the black monotony.... although it doesn't really show up too well on the photos. Thanks for looking 🙂

Another build from the recent past. The Hobbyboss Easy Assembly kits are great for a quick mojo restorer or paint experimentation. This was made to test out my airbrush mottle and fading patterns. Unfortunately some visible decal film lets it down a bit. Decals were from the spares box, paint was Vallejo. Thanks for looking.

I've been building a few Bf-109s to include a couple odd variants. This Buchon stood out and I really like it! Some might consider it ugly but something about it is attractive to me. Built OOB which included resin exhausts and wing cannons and finished with MRP paints. Nice kit but being "short-run", it does require a bit more attention while fitting parts. Probably got the positioning of the radiator flaps wrong...but thoroughly enjoyable build!

Hello, guys! 👋 I started to rescribe the fuselage panel lines and lost the mojo on it, then decided to attach the wings and intakes before riveting and application of putty, because it needs some time to cure the glue and get the mojo back: I haven’t had any serious issues here, but the lower fuselage section intake area needs some attention: Now the Vigilante looks bigger and closer (just closer) to completion: That’s all for today, thanks for looking! 👍

Thanks for the comments, This is the Belcher Bits bomb, and of course it's 1/72nd scale. Jan

Last week baby O (for Oscar) landed so that will keep me busy and take me away from the bench for a while - Elger

Hi all, here some pics of my new Kinetic F-104G Starfighter. Pretty good Kit, I added some PEs (Eduard), Pitot (Master), Nozzle (Brassin), SUU-21 Bomb Dispancer (Daco) and Decals for an AMI aircraft of 6.Stormo (Sky Models and Tauro)

Hello folks - now this: With all the buzz about that new P51 kit from eduard, I thought I’d pop this one from the stash and get this oldie but still a goodie made. After my last 2 builds being nmf, I thought I’d do one more - hopefully using the lessons learned and expanding my alclad chops a little further. Also going a scale bigger to 1/48 - more plastic making more fun I hope. It will be nice doing a larger model after so many 1/72s - detailing those smaller models can be hard on the eyes..! (Maybe there’s a part of me that wants this built so I can justify buying the eduard one😀!!! ) In spite of its age, this looks like a pretty sweet kit. I’ve got some aftermarket: A big sheet of pe, including interior, precut masks and some resin wheels - all from eduard. I’m planning on doing petie 2nd - the scheme from the box art: I’m a sucker for nmf and blue schemes so this suits me fine. This image will be my primary source - as you can see she’s a well weathered beast with lots of nice tonal variations on the blue nose and airframe- I’ll be looking to recreate that😊. I understand that this plane survived the war and still flys today - on her 3rd engine:) But mine will be a portrayal of her dirty grimy wartime years. Of course this means using the dreaded Tamiya decals - I did shop around for some aftermarket ones but the good ones all seem to be sold out - maybe because of that aforementioned kit release. Into the build! First job was sticking some pe onto the pilots seat: I went about adding some details to the radio boxes at the rear of the cockpit. I drilled some holes for the wires and glued them in - used different gauges of copper wire. I looked at a few references for the placement of these - which pointed out some big inaccuracies in the kit but not to worry. I made an oxygen line by wrapping some small wire around big wire... First time I’ve tried this and it came out okay I think. I attached some more pe to the side walls: That green is what eduard thinks is correct for usaf interior green. Maybe sometimes it was that colour but I’ll be using a different shade so this is getting painted over. The hose was installed - I used some crystal clear to create the plugs for this - not very successful but it will do... I had already primed the surface with some Tamiya fine so I was now ready for some paint. I mixed up some tamiya flat green and flat yellow - also some interior green and some Olive drab to get this shade - Then lightened it with more yellow to do some highlights. I used a lighter shade on the seat bulkhead as some references showed that this was a lighter shade of green. The black head rest area was painted with Tamiya rubber black - then dry brushed with a light grey colour. The back section was also painted with rubber black and dry brushed in the same fashion - I also hand painted the frame with the same interior green color as before. The floor of the cockpit was painted using different shades of brown and rust colours from Vallejo model colour - more of a nod to wood grain as opposed a full wood grain finish. This will be covered with chipping medium and then a dark grey to simulate the rubber floor. Some details on the radio boxes where painted.. And lastly a quick dry fit to see how I’m going: So that’s it for the first few hours work 😎 With the bigger scale I have to get used to a slower pace but I’m very much enjoying it so far. I’d be keen to hear from anyone who’s built this to see if there’s any issues to be aware of - but from what I can gather it’s supposed to be more or less hassle free. More to follow soon. Thanks for checking in. Cheers John

I've recently finished my latest project which is this Revell Shackleton MR.3 (Phase III) Built pretty much straight from the box except for modified serials and codes. I found the rivet detail on this release much shallower than the original AEW 2 particularly on the rear fuselage. The front section was much better defined. Maybe something to do with a slighter older moulding against the new parts? The biggest disappointment for me were the amount of horrible sink marks all over the place especially toward the rear of the wings where the flap mouldings are underneath. I had to fill in a whole section with super glue and replace all the rivet detail as best I could. The inner wings around the rear of the inboard engines were the same. There were also some nasty ones along the top of the fuselage so as the rivet detail was so weak here anyway I replaced those completely. As for the nose weight, I doubled what the instructions and added 10g for good measure which in the end wasn't really necessary but the undercarrige is strong enough to take it anyway. The model represents an aircraft that flew with 42 Squadron out of St. Mawgan up until 1971. The aircraft was then scrapped and ended up on the fire dump at RAF Benson in the mid 70's. I've always wanted to do this particular aircraft because as a boy back then Dad would always take me up to the perimeter fence every time we went by the airfield. https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1274426 I'm sure those that have the old Frog kit will recognise the serial (XF707). This is in fact the same aircraft as the Frog kit depicts but now fitted with Vipers. All I'd like now is something to put in the weapons bay. Thanks for looking. IMG_0252 IMG_0253 IMG_0255 IMG_0258 IMG_0256

Hi everyone, I'm pleased to be able to share this build which is 99% completed. Need to add the aerial wire. For anyone interested here's the build thread The kit didn't go together as well as I had hoped but I think I've done a fairly decent job. I tried some new techniques which I'm really pleased with such as a marble pre shade. I've added the following aftermarket. Montex masks for the crosses and swastika (which I know is incorrect) Profimodeller brass gun barrels for the cowling and wings HGW fabric seatbelts Brassin wheels Brassin engine I hadn't intended adding this much aftermarket but I'm pleased I did in the end. Paints were a mixture of tamiya acrylics and Mr hobby aqueuous. The Mr hobby paints are fantastic and spray beautifully. Weather with a flory dark dirt wash. No oils or pastels with this one. Clear coat is just tamiya thinned with Mr hobby levelling thinners. I did enjoy the build although it did sap my enthusiasm in stages, but she's virtually done and here she is in all her glory. I know it has it's faults and errors and it's not the best or cleanest build ever but I had fun and learned new things so that will do me! For the purists the base it's on is my general one for photos. She will have her own grass base at a later date 😉 Sorry for the waffle. Enjoy the pictures and please be gentle 😂

Just finished this one earlier today. The old Italeri B-57G kit with an Aires resin pit and replacement bombs from a Hasegawa weapons set. Raised panel lines were sanded away to give a better finish for the fuselage join. Little bit of re-scribe work on the wings for the wash to take. EZ line for the wiggly amps. Airbrushed free hand using Tamiya acrylics. Great kit to build and I have the standard B-57B kit in the stash somewhere as well. One more for my Vietnam collection. Cheers all, Phil

Here is my Harrier T.52 ZA250/G-VTOL, Paris Airshow 1979, built from the Sword kit with a Master pitot, painted with Hataka and Lifecolour acrylics and finished with decals from Vingtor set 72-118 Harrier Test and Demonstration Aircraft #3. The kit was a bit of a challenge, the fit of some parts was poor, particularly the intake trunking and front cockpit instrument shroud. There were gaps that needed shims and steps, especially behind the cockpit. The front instrument shroud provided by sword is way too big and I ended up replacing it with a part fashioned from a cut down drop tank half. I opened up the auxiliary intake doors, in future I would recommend replacing these parts with Freightdog resin ones. The Vingtor decals are nice and thin and generally went on well, conforming over curves and bumps, although delicate. I had some small of the smaller stencils break up, possibly as I had the water too warm. Frustratingly, one of the fuselage roundels was misprinted without the white segment, and I managed to pull of part of the serial when handling and needed to touch up by hand. Anyway, here it is, a bit rough in places but good enough for my cabinet: Thanks for looking. AW

I have used YF-12 parts to make seamless front and rear canopies and prepared the master pieces to create molds: Then I have filled the molds with soft silicone: Next step is to cast canopy and windshield copies to use in forming final nose shape. Serkan

I built this kit a while ago just after I got back into modelling. As with all Tamiya kits it's a joy to build. The only minor issue was keeping the shape of the clamshell halves accurate. Even had go at a bit of oil wash. Airbrushed with Ultimate primer and finished with Tamiya acrylics. Apologies for the over the top wiring on the engine but I had a bit of fun. Thanks.

As you should. Personally, I can't be doing with these slow modellers............

I can help with the pub crawl bit! You can tell Mrs Navy Bird that you are in the care of the BM Martian so what could possibly go wrong? A safe set of tentacles me! Helpful of Mars 👽

Thank you. And welcome back. Over weekend IMPS event attendance always gets the desire flowing. Under carriage fitment but not attachment: Wheel work begins: AM parts:

I present the good old Airfix Caravelle in the Alitalia green stripe livery. The Airfix Caravelle came out in 1961 when I was nine years old but despite its venerable age it can still provide the basis for a decent model. As I had a couple of Airfix Caravelles in my stash I decided to see what some t.l.c. could achieve. I invested in the Extra Tech PE set although in the event I only used some of it, mainly around the undercarriage. I used Milliput to improve the nose shape. The point of the nose needs to be shifted slightly forwards and downwards. It’s not a difficult job, certainly no harder than fixing the nose of the Airfix BAC 1-11 or Vanguard, but it does make a difference. If you compare the kit’s nose profile with a good side-on photo like this you will see immediately what needs to be done. The other main modification to the fuselage is the narrow door for the nose wheel strut which Airfix missed completely. F-RSIN engines replaced the kit items. The strengthening bands above and below the engine pylons are narrow strips of white decal which had been sprayed with a slightly off white to give a faint contrast with the purer white of the fuselage. As on the real aircraft these are only visible under certain lighting conditions. The wing fences were refined as best I could without actually replacing them and I added the triangular sections to the trailing edges. At the same time the raised detail was sanded off and re-scribed. I used home-made decals scanned from a PAS sheet to represent the airbrakes on the upper and lower wings. Extra Tech provide brass airbrakes but a dummy run on a scrap kit showed that making the necessary rebates on the upper wings for the thin and fragile PE was nearly impossible, at least for me, so I took the line of least resistance. Paint is Halfords Appliance White and AK Interactive Xtreme Aluminium. Decals are by Two Six and Authentic Airliners plus some bits and pieces from the spares box. The door outlines and the windows on the Two Six Alitalia sheet aren’t totally accurate - the emergency exits are not quite prominent enough and green stripe Caravelles didn’t have silver framed windows. Matters are further complicated by the Authentic Airliners cabin windows being too widely spaced for the Airfix fuselage. (After the issues I had with my Malev Boeing 738 I ran a ruler over the decals before I started using them and I’m glad I did). Luckily I had Two Six’s SATA/CTA 10R sheet in my decal stash and it includes spare grey door outlines and unframed cabin windows all of which which were duly “borrowed”. The Two Six windows were then overlaid with the Authentic Airliners ones applied individually. Thanks for looking and as always constructive criticism is welcome. Before anyone says “the pinstripe scheme was prettier” it should eventually appear on a DC-7C if I live long enough. Dave G

Hi all New to posting here so thought I'd share my latest build.....hope the photo link works! Really nice kit, finished OOB with Vallejo Model Color and Modelair

Latest pics.... Partial painting of the sky done and masked ready for the EDSG. The unders. I use cheap low tack DIY tape for large area and Tamiya for the important edges etc. The bottom halves of the top wing pre painted together with the tail planes, tip floats, engine cowl and prop spinner. The one piece top wing top half to the left. The centre struts and engine nacelle in place and the EDSG paint applied. Port side top wing/bottom half in place Flipping tricky and only butt joined!! No tabs or locating pins!! Very careful handling and tense moments during this stage. Rigging passed through pre-drilled holes and fix in place. The small tabs of masking tape are there to secure the waste end while glue hardens to hold the rigging taught. Aligning the main struts and wing root to the nacelle/pod was worrying but got there... Starboard side in process. Getting the alignment was darned tricky and had to watch where fingers went to avoid snagging the rigging. Top half of top wing about ready to be fixed in place. Moment of truth about to be had... ( Note here, the awkward angle of sweep of top wing not quite right. Something I overlooked while holding the model during the rigging work, I was not going to try and straighten it now I got thus far!!!!)) ..... Well its on and the clamps (small sized bulldog clips) were used to hold the parts together and maintain the join straight..... As it happened and after tense moments in getting this far I found the the top RH wing doesn't quite line up with the bottom wing. Its out by a couple or so degrees... I managed the double forward wires OK on this side but on the left I got it wrong as the forward most wire is kinked against the one behind and like wise the rearmost wire.. All noticed after the final gluing had set.... The left wing wire issue can just about be made out here. The ones running from lower inboard leading edge to the forward strut. Oh well Wheels and prop next and on to the end...

Blaggering freck if I ain't been laid up by vertigo again for the second time in two months. This time the sawbones reckons it might be migraine-related and am being packed off in the near future for a brain scan. This is of course a mere precaution to check that there is in fact one present and not - as many of you have no doubt come to suspect - to ascertain whether or not I'm being cerebrally controlled by a small mannequin of Ken Dodd. At least being laid abed today has let me spent time pricing houses on the Isle of Mull so that I can fantasize about retiring to the location of When Eight Bells Toll. I harbour a love for the Western Highlands and Islands* partly from spending time near Rannoch Moor and Skye during college years and nearly ending up jacking in college altogether to work on a fishing boat out of Portree with a pal even more scundered on Glenmorangie than I was... *Voydanoi extra: Kind of you Martian. Obrigado, as they say in the Porteguese quarter of Syrtis Major. Aaawwww. That's really sweet Keith. ☺️ Most kind Ian. Typically I think she looks embarassingly crude in that condition.... I'd read somewhere that the Victorians appropriated them as somewhere that coffins were means to have been laid the night before burial. As with folklore and music those boys and girls had a tendency to 'reboot' original sources to their own 19th sensibilities. Of interest perhaps is the fact that Lychgate was also the title of a book published by Lord Dowding (he of Fighter Command) in 1945, as he became increasingly obsessed with reincarnation and afterlife in his later years, in part due to the death of the young men under his command: I seem to recall first discovering the interesting afterlife to 'Stuffy' sympathetically told in the historian David Edgerton's excellent England & the Aeroplane. 'Tis nearly panto season after all! All too human judging by the pits and troughs to be seen in some of those photos Giorgio! Each to their own dear heart, each to their own.... Thanks Benedikt! The eye just gets pulled along the perspective of that cool colonnade doesn't it?

I think they are what I am going to have to get next time around Ced but I think they are very wasteful when compared with these not many left now though sadly But they have the advantage of being double ended with no useless bits needing throwing away, have a decently near round cross section and are made of decent workable plastic nevermore I fear Where's me raven?

Meself, I find it hard to understand how non-normal things like aeroplanes can fly when they are not properly spinning their wings around above their heads Witchcraft undoubtedly Tssk tssk, someone has to pay for this insult to the gods Hope it aint me, I dont trust them big noisy things that fly just over my roof all day en route to BHX Anyway back to god's own helichopter the H-19 S-55 Whirlwind All the transfers seem to be on and it is time to ancilliarise, this is the very last piece of the red plastic cocktail stick from the set I bought in Rackhams back in the seventies Still got many yellow ones, blue is also available but red and green have all headed to pastures new on various and many models, adorning wingtips and spines as lamps.nav As they say, when it's gone it's gone, pity really these have been very useful over the years but an end is in sight ciao

Keith, as you asked so nicely... Transkits for the forged alloys and RF roof are on their way so I hope to create a 1/24 version too!

I like the thickness of the rear bulkhead, it makes me think of armoured plate, anyhow the gap between the rear bulkhead and the fuselage sides was filled. I’ll need to colour the inside of the filler. The lower halves of the wings had the holes for the bomb attachments drilled and then attached to the spar. The upper part of the lower wing was then added. …and just because I had to, here’s the twin booms placed to give an idea of what it will look like. next I’ll be building the upper wing. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins)

Third time lucky......maybe. This time I thought I’d try applying the rib tapes a little more systematically rather than one after the other and hope it all comes out right. With 21 tapes to a side I needed the correct spacing from one tape to the next. After working that out, I cut strips of styrene for 1, 2, 3 and 4 tape spacing and used these strips to mark out the location of each tape. Every space the same on both wings. This time, rather than .010 strips, I cut the tapes from my last, hoarded, square of .005 styrene. I use Tamiya Extra Thin which dried quickly but gave me a few seconds to shift a tape if need be. I only did a couple of sections and the took a break to avoid inhaling the cement fumes. And, shame shame, I’ll not be doing underneath the wings as they won’t show once the model is on the diorama. Thanks for looking in. Dennis

Phew.... that was lucky! Saw a bunch of updates and thought for a moment there we'd had an outbreak of modeling Carry on.

Oh for goodness sake, don't distract the guy, will you? Ciao

Small Update. Still need to do all the little things (paint the air refueling hatch, static wicks, gear and gear doors....you know, all the little things that take forever to get done!! Cheers Collin