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Not a bad kit, instructions need some interpretation. Built from the Box with Max Decals for an Irish Air Corps plane.

Hi Guys, Recently I got this kit from a yard sales and it seem like it is with him for almost 20 years and when I opened the decals is all messed up, I tried putting in the sun for a few days with a coat of future but no joy anyway. The kit was very basic and fairly simple to build, but there are catches tho the wing root need some filling and sanding also amount of plastic flash were just too much and also it wasn't yr typical thin flash but a rather thick one. The cockpit didn't sit very well and it was bit daunting and I have to apply some putty to give uniformity and even surface. This was also my first attempt on major mottled camo it was fun doing tho I used Tamiya paints for it. Decals, i didn't use all as some were really bad also the detail on it was mediocre and some crumbled away some too yellow after keeping outside for many days, if any of you have spare decals please do let me know. I would really happy to pay or trade. Now here is the picture, hope it is looking good, any feedback welcome, cheers

Douglas DC-8-62CF 'Thai Airways International' 1:144 Minicraft with 26Decals. One of my favourite airliners in one of my favourite liveries, a combination of two classics. The DC-8 is the Minicrfat kit available from S&M models but without any decals. This is not a problems as I expect almost all buyers would want to choose their own aftermarket decals anyway. I've always wanted to make one in the beautiful Thai Orchid livery, and found that 26 decals do a sheet for the the DC-8-63. I could have built the kit straight from the box and the decals would have been perfect for it, as Minicraft provide the fuselage for the stretched -63 version. However they also provide recessed cut marks inside the fuselage to show you where to remove sections forward and aft of the wing to shorten it down to a -62 version. I much prefer the -62 as it looks like a much better proportioned aircraft. The only thing was that Thai operated the stretched -63, but I came across some images of a single -62 Combi Freighter that they used for a while. Being part owned by SAS, Thai used lease/borrow/purchase several of their aircraft. I'm assuming this one was leased as it retained its Danish registration OY-KTE. All I had to do was shorten the cheatline decals, and find some suitable purple letters for the registration, which I did on the Thai A350 sheet I already built (never chuck anything away!) On with the photos: 'With something else", a Thai 737-400 in the same livery! Thanks for looking John

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Tamiya P-47D Razorback, built from the box, with decals from Xtradecal. The model represents "R3-G" of 410th Fighter Squadron, 373rd Fighter Group, based at St. James, France, in August 1944. The model was painted with various shades of Alclad II lacquers and Gunze acrylics. All photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. Thank you for your interest, best greetings from Vienna!

Here is my Revell 1:72 Northrop F-89D-40 Scorpion which I completed back in 2003. It represents 52-1894, “FV-894”, of the 75th Fighter Interceptor Sqn, 23rd F I Wing, USAF based at Presque Isle AFB, Maine, in 1958. I built it OOB. If I recall correctly, the metal finish was by a Tamiya spray can and the red areas were airbrushed. Metallic paints were dry-brushed on various panels to give different shades. The rest was painted by brush. As always, thanks for looking and all comments welcome Miguel

Hello everybody.... This originally started out to be a post-war Yugoslavian Bf.109. While in the building process discovered i had the wrong variant for said aircraft. So switched lanes mid build and reverted to a late war Luftwaffe build. I had been wanting to build a high altitude escort fighter from the western front for a long time. I present my G10 in overall RLM76 circa 1945. Here is a link to the build log. I hope it meets with your approval. Questions, comments, and or thoughts ? Dennis

Hi All! I decided to build a simple model FW-190 in a strange size for me 1/72. Chose the easiest kit - HobbyBoss. Consciously, to work less. Built such repeatedly on a larger scale, 48 and 32. I have enough for a small Bodenplatte. There are few improvements:bottom of cowling and rigging holes. Lateral wings guns removed. Colors RLM 81/82 and 75 for cowling. War End scheme. Grey Birds tired of. Thanks for looking!

Vulcan pix. Excuse the rotten quality, the lighting is abysmal.

That’ll be early in the new year... You see most of us Airfix lovers are getting on a bit age wise, Airfix don’t want to elevate our heart rates and blood pressures too high, that’ll just kill off a big percentage of their clientele!

Great day and now at the hotel ready for SMW tomorrow and our meet at Bill’s stand at 1300! Meanwhile, more selfies... Great place and I’m sure PC will share the stories. He got to add to his bomb aimer certs in the Valiant ... and Vulcan Sorry, really hard to photograph the inside of this: I have to say this was another ‘best day’ with Barry, the Chairman and Curator, telling us stories, opening the nose on the Sea Vixen (they broke their ‘coal hole’ cable too - that’s three now) and introducing us to Gordon who has rebuilt the entire flight deck on their Valiant and took great pride in demonstrating all the knobs, switches and lights ...and nice to be joined by our BMer Gorby Well worth a visit.

Wrong scale... 😥 Source: https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/news/workbench/big-news-from-airfix-at-scale-modelworld-2019 V.P.

Nice pic’s Ced! And looks like you guys had a great tour round the museum. I really enjoyed the midland air museum, loads of stuff to look through, I sat in the meteor cockpit I think! Did they have the book sale on?? did you get to have a look at the aircraft graveyard/workshop at the back? I would love to have a good look round there! see you soon! Rob

Hello from Telford! I finally met up with mon frere d'autre mere Stew Dapple and am thoroughly plastered thanks to the magic of multiple double scotches, so today's update is of necessity a brief one. We went to the Midland Air Museum and met up with @Gorby, a thoroughly nice fellow, and got to sit in their Victor cockpit section, which was amazing, and also in the Vulcan; Ced got photos of me in the bomb aimer's positions on both, and while the Vulcan had the more spacious spot, the Victor was clearly the most modern cockpit. We also met the director of the Midland Air Museum, and he (unprompted) brought out a HS.681 brochure for me to peruse; he's a very cool guy, and their Victor cockpit has to be seen to be believed. Their shop is also quite dangerous. We then picked up Navy Bird, whose baggage was lost in transit, and then it was time to meet Stew and Jamie from Sovereign Hobbies, both of whom I'm happy to say are even more likeable in real life than online. Mrs P must never hear Jamie's accent, however. she'd melt. Anyway, I'm frantically downing glasses of water now, and tomorrow: TELFORD!

Is it just me or is there something about the association of Airfix with the Vulcan that sorta feels right - made for each other. Oh and whilst we are just spotting details, anyone notice they seem to have done intake covers too for those that want to add a splash of colour to an all white scheme or perhaps avoid tricky masking on the camouflage aircraft. I love it when Airfix add those little details. Well done guys for making my wish list smaller each year . Now whilst we are on the subject of jet bombers, about that Canberra B2/B6 in 1/72... (just joking...) Rich

Hiya Folks, This was supposed to be a D-Day tribute build but it lasted longer than I thought it might,....... anyway it is finally finished. Here is the WIP if anybody is interested; The Hamilcar was able to carry a Tetrarch or Locust light tank or other heavy loads such as a Bren or Lloyd Carrier and a 17pdr gun and large ammunition resupply loads. The 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Squadron deployed its Tetrarch tanks on the evening of D-Day during Op Mallard and they performed quite well, although as very light tanks they were not suitable for action against other armoured veh`s. The Hamilcar was used at Arnhem without deploying tanks and also during Op. Varsity, crossing the Rhine in 1945 when 6th AARS went into action with US built Locust tanks. Here are some period photos,..... Here are some of the Army pilots of the Glider Pilot Regiment who flew the Hamilcar; RAF Halifax tug crew and Army Hamilcar crew with the troops they are conveying,.... this may be for the Rhine Crossing? A Tetrarch inside a Hamilcar being watched by Monty and the 6th Airborne Division top brass. Both pilots sat in tandem above the cargo compartment but if the glider dug its nose in upon landing on soft ground it was prone to tipping over and the heavy load would then fall down onto them, often with fatal consequences; Here are a few reference photos; Middle Wallop Army Aviation Museum,.... partial airframe A Tetrarch tank inside a Hamilcar fuselage frame at the Tank Museum, Bovington. The Tetrarch tank model is a 1/76th scale white metal kit from MMS ; And here is the model; And here is a Matchbox Halifax converted into a Halifax GT.V, the only wartime aircraft capable of towing the Hamilcar (the Hastings could tow it post war too!). Cheers, Tony

#26/2019 Some more Latin-American stuff from my father. Airfix kit (export version), Quickboost gunsight (kit has none), Eduard Superfabric RAF seatbelts, Barracuda Studios replacement resin cowl, a scratch part for the missing headrest cushion. Initially intended to use decals from Blackbird Models for the rudder, but the red triangle was too long and you would have had to paint the blue and white stripes anyway. So my dad decided to mask and paint the complete Cuban flag. Only the white stars are decals from a Microscale WW2 US vehicle markings sheet. Gunze H309 FS34079 and AK Real Color US Interior Yellow-Green used for the camo. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235060681-bay-of-pigs148-hawker-sea-fury-fbii-fuerza-aerea-revolucionaria/page/2/ After a bunch of Cuban aircraft were destroyed by airstrikes and an invasion became imminent, the FAR added additional field camo to their remaining aircraft for better ground coverage, each looked different. The colors used are subject of discussions, my dad chose the above ones. DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0007 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0009 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0010 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0011 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0012 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0013 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0014 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0015 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0016 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0017 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0019 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0020 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0023 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

Mille grazie Giorgio! Still waiting on brass sheet (buying from Australia is cheaper than buying from Ireland - go figure!) but a couple of parcels arrived during the week whilst I was away - one of ferric chloride and sodium hydroxide, the other with some PCB printing transparency. Having seen Hendie and Steve banging out such gems from their alembics I've been itching to give it a go and reckon that fans for the Avon engines might be a useful learning exercise. I've stopped believing them when they say that now Vince - that excuse has worn a bit thin... Do you have to spray outside Simon? Last thing any postman wants is 633 Bin Squadron barrelling down the street at him! Ta Pete. Had to walk up the old cobbled backstreets between the brewery vat houses to get to work each morning: Wasn't until the second morning that dense moi cottoned-on to why this was called Crane Street... On a rainy November morning you can feel such deserted streets crowded with ghosts... Exactement mon ami! It's a tactile as well as a visual process ain't it? Ta Keith. Butter wouldn't melt on their....no wait. it bloody did! 😹 Busted! My whole life has been a charade and now the tawdry truth is out for all to see.... You and me both Ian. Nearly succumbed earlier in fact. Sorry I won't be at Telford to get to meet you this time but we will meet one day I'm sure. I did Johnny but that foil is so shiny that it lifts so readily: I've since learned from @Ex-FAAWAFUs Ark build that there's stuff called Mr.Metal Primer that he uses on brass, so a pot of that has been ordered for next time to see if that helps. Not a jar of the stuff to be had this side of the Irish Sea and some nasty price gouging on Evilbay so had to order it in from Wonderland Models in Edinburgh. Thanks Mr. P. We seem to be on a asymptotic curve at the moment - the closer we approach the apex the slower progress gets... Noel: I stayed at the Aparthotel here on St. Augustine St and can recommend it highly: https://goo.gl/maps/CxmvdHLfhesVed2h9 Clean, secure and cheaper than B&B. (Plus a good Burrito shop at the end of the street) Exactly. Had a lurk meself in an alleyway off Thomas' St. eating a breakfast roll out of the rain but wouldn't dream of standing here after dark: Most of the box is still intact! 😁 Well now. Being the weekend of Telford this is likely positing on a ghost forum today but here goes! Returned now from a mad working week in Dublin. Despite having grown up in London as a teenager, living for the last two decades out in the sticks means you just crave a fix of city vibrancy sometimes don't you? The heady anonymity of the flâneur. As with all work-related trips, there's never sufficient time outside of obligations though to ramble and soak up sensation as much as you'd like. Also re-reading Mervyn Peake's Ghormenghast after several decades gave a particularly Steerpike feel to peregrinations. Since a week has elapsed since any activity on here I was dying to get the bulk of the paint scheme nailed down today so headed in to touch up all those foil areas that paint had lifted from. After repriming, greens and browns were reapplied in all the required areas. Handy thing about having the original designs stored in the Silhouette library was being able to cut some paper masks to hand hold in place when redoing the demarcations between colours: After a decent interval for the paint to dry, I then set-to buffing the airframe all over with a calico rag head in the Dremel: I like this combined polish-texturing process enormously as in this instance it really helps to pull the separate areas of camouflage together around the aircraft and offers an extra dimension in the way it catches the light. The black primer/ dark blue acrylic combination on the underside are Night enough for me when similarly buffed: The difference in sheen also helps to pull out the foil detailing in areas like bomb traps and fairings: Must remember to 're-exhaust manifold' the exhaust with some Alcald: Chomping to pull the masking off the windows and stbd engine bearer: Landing lights turned out ok wit hthe Oramask removed: (Ughhhh. Just noticed that arc of overspray at junction of wing with engine nacelle...) Quick test fit of the port aileron: As proof of the bonding strength of Gator's Grip, check out the outermost aileron hinge where I clumsily bent the brass whilst slipping the aileron into the opening - the bond with the wing hasn't moved at all. Happy also with the way the revised foil detailing for both the engine nacelle and fuels tanks brings the surface relief to life under the light: Anyway. This is how Annie sits now this evening: Minor touch ups in one of two places but nothing heavy. Then it's time to cast attention on the national markings. Mask roundels already done of course but realized whilst away that I'd forgotten to cut any fin flashes so will need to get those designs done; hopefully tomorrow. 🤞 This could be ready for Christmas at this rate! 🤣 Wherever your weekend has taken you, may it bring you pleasure and peace of mind. Tony

Here's my Anigrand 1/144 Convair R3Y-1 Tradewind, just finished in the Flying Boats and Floatplanes II group build. My first resin kit and I enjoyed it - won't be my last. Build thread is here. thanks for looking Julian

Hello every one. This is my latest build for a dear friend who is a Marine. These Academy kits are absolute jewels, fun to build, very little sanding and filling, and a wide range of options. I'm even thinking of taking a crack at Academy's Big 1/32 scale of this same jet. This is a war weary CAG Bird from its 2007 deployment to Afghanistan. The base is from Coastal Kits and represents Kandahar Air Base. Well, on to the pics! Semper Fi!

The third of my Japanese aircraft, an Airfix Mitsubishi Zero. Built OOB with H models decals for an aircraft captured by US Marines in June 1944 on Saipan Island. Tamiya painta nd quick oil wash for panel lines. IMGA0795 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0796 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0797 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0798 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0799 by neil Connor, on Flickr

Hi folks, this is the new Arma Hobby kit and the build thread is HERE, where I believe all essential has been said. All in all, great little kit with plenty of details and some great features. Cheers, Libor

Gidday All, here is a model of Alistair MacLean's HMS Ulysses, the cruiser that was the subject of his book of the same name. This book was written in 1955 and first read by me in 1970 I think. The ship was a fictitious vessel, the fore-runner of and very similar to the Bellona (Black Prince) class of light cruisers. The ship was armed with eight 5.25-inch dual purpose guns, twelve 2lb pompoms in three quad mounts and eighteen 20mm Oerlikon AA guns, plus depth charges and six 21-inch torpedo tubes. The model is in the scale of 1/600, as are most of my model ships. It uses an Airfix Ajax hull shell along with the shafts screws and rudder, main gun turrets and HACS (high angle control station) came from a KGV kit, main DCT (director control tower) torpedo-tubes rafts search-lights anchors boats and davits came from a Belfast kit and I scratch-built just about everything else, including all decks superstructures funnels masts depth-charges and light AA guns. The funnels have grills on top but they're not very noticeable in these photos. Here is a photo of the bridge structure. I built the wind deflectors around the fore-bridge and added the windscreens. On the port side of the fore-bridge is Admiral Tyndall's raised arm chair. It's a bit rough so I didn't zoom in any closer. The captain's shelter is inside the round base of the DCT, with the door on the stbd side I think, as shown here. The rectangular structure just forward of the DCT contains the ASDIC cabinet on the stbd side here, and on the port side it contains the chart house. Doors are on either side. Directly below the fore-bridge is a twin pedestal 20mm Oerlikon mounting. It features in the story. The black dot on the front of the gun position is the navigation light, obviously not used when 'darken ship' conditions apply. Below and aft of that gun position is a twin powered 20mm Oerlikon mounting, and forward of the bridge structure is one of the quadruple 2lb pompom mountings. It is a bit blurred because the camera was focused on the bridge structure. There is more detailed discussion and photos in my WIP thread regarding the choice of guns and fittings on the model. As you can see, my scratch-built parts are nowhere near the quality of PE parts but I prefer to make my own if I can. Thank you for your interest. Regards to all, Jeff.

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 AZ Model P-51C Mustang “Lucky Leaky II”, coded SX-M, of the 352nd Fighter Squadron, 353rd Fighter Group. She was one of the later production series with the 'dorsal fin' filet. Based in England, she crashed due to engine failure on May 2, 1945. I built straight from the box using AZ Model decals. These did not perform as good as usual, being brittle. Some pieces simply broke off the surface, most notably on the US Insignia on the right hand side of the fuselage. The model was painted in various shades of Alclad II over a gloss black basecoat. I found it pretty difficult to match the yellow spinner to the decal color; it took several attempts of mixing various yellow and orange paints to achieve the result. The black spinner stripes were masked with White Tamiya tape. Thank you for your interest in this topic. Best greetings from Vienna!

No no a Canberra B6 would be most welcome . . . . (I'm getting ready to start campaigning to Airfix )

Hi comrades! The "Perk's Pet" on her "legs", with decals, panel lines highlighted, oil dots applied. At least OD over NG finish don't looks boring...Next step is to paint the exhausts smoke. Thanks for looking!

This is my first post of a finished 32nd scale model on this forum. Years ago after a terrible day at the office I decided to do some modelling to calm down. But something went wrong and in my frustration I smashed the almost finished fuselage against the wall. At least I collected the debris and put them back in the box. I pulled the box out of the stash some weeks ago (withe no boss anymore - only SWMBO) and my guilty conscience told me to finish it, which I did. I need to mention that I did not thoroughly research the subject, it's more or less based on my interpretation of the few - partly conflicting - information I have. But I've enjoyed the build Hope you like it: BTW: It's the Hasegawa 1/32 Bf 109G-6 kit with a few etched parts in the cockpit and the Barracuda canon gondolas, paints are all Gunze. Markings are a mix of Sky Decals and Montex masks. Thanks for watching. Lothar

I thought I'd build an Eagle. Looking around a bit I found a Hasegawa boxing with some nose art I liked (one of the Mystic Eagle ones). On the other hand I've heard a lot of really good things about GWH. And so I went with the "a certain kind of madman" option and will be building the GWH plane with Hasegawa's decals. Luckily I have my man in Tokyo so I could get the Hasegawa kit at Japanese prices and no shipping. Starting out the cockpit tub is the usual fare for the pilot's side of things, while the electronics pit behind him is built up with front and rear bulkheads and side wall parts. Unfortunately the side walls and rear bulkhead wouldn't play along nicely with each other at all. The instructions aren't exactly clear on how to fit them to each other, and fiddling with the parts there simply didn't appear to be any right way at all to do it. Also note part X2. There are no holes for its pegs on V3, V7, W1 or T2. The only place where such can be found is right on the face of V1. But there you also have some wiring going across, right between the holes, so X2 wouldn't want to seat there either. Luckily the plan was to build things canopy down anyway, so this will all be hidden, and some test fitting showed me that it wouldn't get in the way of the fuselage either. The more attentive may notice here that we appear to have parts from five different sprues (V, W, X, T and F) just for the cockpit. Which is indeed the case. Plus sprue R for the seat. GWH seems to go approach sprues much like Flyhawk does, ie having a huge number of small sprues in a kit. For this kit you get 21 different sprues, five of which you get doubles of, so 26 sprues in total. Keep the sprue map handy... Some paint later I had planned to use Hasegawa decals for everything but the missiles (since Hasegawa as usually didn't include any), but as it turned out they and GWH had some rather diverging ideas about how big an F-15 instrument panel is. So it's full GWH decals inside. They were reasonably well behaved. Main fuselage and wings fit together nicely. Upper fuselage and wings are in one part, no no seams to worry about. Nice surface detail as well. Some fo the joints between this main piece and the lower wing parts, well, they did fit nicely but I mostly just got this feeling that there were balancing just on the edge of turning into a real mess. [Colourful Swedish language] Happily it buffed out. The front fuselage also closed up nicely around the cockpit. Some good use of having panels both for extra detailing on the top/bottom and to cover the main seam. Though once again we get to some oddities with the manual. See, you get a full radar and can build things with the nose open. But if you do the nose closed up as per the manual you get this: Now if you just clip off the tabs there it all fits nicely, but the manual never tells you that. Single piece slide-moulded nose btw. Slide moulding was also used to give us single piece AAM-3 and Sparrows. Gas bags were the usual two piece affair, and did require a bit of filler. When it came to stuff the front fuselage into the main body the fit wasn't quite brilliant. And then it was time for the intakes (provided in both up and down positions). Oh dear.The horizontal gap is of no concern, that'll be covered by another piece, but the vertical one is right out in the open. And even getting things to this state required a significant amount of brute force. And with this not being quite aligned the bit that plugs into the holes here (the gun and its cover on this side) won't match up with the wing root bit either. That was pretty easily solved though by just clipping off the pegs and matching it against the wing root. All of that taken care of it was pretty smooth sailing for the rest of the pre-paint assembly.

I fancied building the 2005 Sebring 12-Hr. GT-1 category winner -- the early-configuration DBR9 with the cooling louvers over the front tires. The 1/25 scale resin kits were out of my reach price-wise, so I used Airfix's tidy little 1/32 kit for the mod, with a combination of kit and home-made decals. [I actually started this as a WIP some years ago, but the included louver-mod photos got lost in the Photobucket fracas, and the finished result never got posted.]

Mirage IIIO A3-31 3 Squadron, RAAF Butterworth, Malaysia ~ 1985 ingredients: Kinetic kit, incl RPK-10, Mk-82s Caracal/ Kinetic decals SBS cockpit AMK 1300 l tank and pylon HPM MB MK6 seat, wheels Brassin Matra Magic 1 ResKit nozzle good advice form the BM community, thanks! build in the fantastic and just ended 1980s frontline Asia GB! WIP thanks for looking, any comments and criticism! cheers, Werner

I have just calculated that a new SYVDE cabinet from IKEA will do the job nicely. It even has room for another nine of them!

I'm glad they didn't. I think the proper scale for big multi-engined types is 1/72 - despite the recent glut of massive bomber kits from other manufacturers. That way you can actually afford to buy them, are more likely to finish them and have the space to display them. Even in 1/72, the Vulcan will still dominate any display cabinet.

Stuff the kit - I want that huge poster/banner! 😂

I believe that’s the voice of Simon Owen, Airfix’s lead researcher and holder of the ‘Best job in the world’ title! Well done Airfix.. looks smashing!

As long as they include 😂

You and half the members on this forum.

Sorry for the slight delay in updates, chaps, it's been a busy two days. Yesterday we went to Boscombe and met up with @Avereda and @Ex-FAAWAFU, both very nice fellows, though I'm afraid I was too star-struck at meeting a Falklands veteran to really properly speak to Crisp. We puttered around the hangar there, and in a sudden burst of unwarranted confidence, I became convinced I could wriggle into the bomb-aimer's position of a Canberra B.2; I cannot, which I'm putting down to my broad, manly shoulders and the fact that halfway to having my face pressed to the glass, I became dead certain that if I got in all the way, I was never, ever going to be able to get out. How a crewmember was supposed to get into there in flying gear, let alone get out, is one of life's great mysteries. Cookie, more cautious than me, elected to sit in the Tornado F.3 cockpit, which he adjudged to be the most comfortable-looking available. Look at this steely-eyed killer: I don't know about you, but I feel the need for speed now. Crisp had to leave (or was simply fed up with us, can't rule it out), so Avereda, Ced, Cookie, and I all proceeded to the Army Flying Museum, where @Aeronut very kindly took us on a lengthy tour of the museum, which was most informative. Happily, it also turned out 234 Squadron flew from the field during the Battle of Britain, and I'm doing a pair of 234 Spitfires right now, so that was a nice bonus. There's much to recommend the museum, but I was most taken by their selection of artisanal jams, a product I think we can all agree is virtually synonymous with army flying: After an emergency stop at Tesco's -- apparently, in England, people have two weeks worth of clothes and wash them at the end of that period (or wash half of them after a week, but have to wait for them to dry then), whereas JD and I headed over with pretty much every item of casualwear in our dressers and had less than a full week of clothing -- during which I took the opportunity to pick up some wine gums and some Cadbury bars, we then visited Salisbury Cathedral, which has, I'm assured, the tallest spire in England, 123 meters. Yes, I know I'm fat. I blame my children, I was in pretty good shape before they came along. The Cathedral is pretty nice even if you're not trying to murder someone on behalf of an authoritarian government: We then made our way to our hotel (a very long drive which Ced managed with aplomb -- he really is a very nice man), where I was totally bushed and fell asleep almost immediately, despite not being able to figure out how to turn on the detached cottage we'd rented's heat. Today, after our third Full English breakfast in a row (I may achieve my goal of dying in Britain, via heart failure, before the two weeks are up) we headed over to the Shuttleworth Collection, which is really, really impressive. Flickr is unfortunately betraying me and refusing to upload my photos of it, but it wouldn't be a proper trip to Britain without seeing a Spitfire, and theirs is quite lovely. It also had two of my favourite Bristol aircraft: the M1C and the dangerously alluring Boxkite, an aircraft that in kit form would be little more than a collection of arts and crafts materials: There's something about it, though...majestic. After that, we lunched in the Shuttleworth canteen, and I had a cheese and pickle sandwich, which is indeed spectacularly good. Ced had cake, but we mustn't tell Mrs B. Then it was time to go to Old Buckenham, where my great-uncle Mike flew B-24Hs with the 734th BS of the 8th Air Force's 453rd BG, including on D-Day. I never met Uncle Mike, as he died in the 1960s from cancer, but I'm immensely proud to have some small family connection to the liberation of Europe. This leg of the trip turned out to be incredibly special. There's a small memorial to the 453rd at Old Buck, and I paid it a visit before we went into the museum proper: Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. We then went into the museum itself and looked at the many interesting exhibits, when suddenly Jim, the one-man-band who takes care of the museum and collects and provides the artifacts for the displays appeared, by a stroke of incredible luck; he normally isn't there on Mondays, as we later learned. He overheard me talking about my uncle's aircraft, and he asked me if I was interested in a particular plane. I explained that Uncle Mike had flown a few aircraft, but Sky Chief was the one on D-Day, and he told us to come 'round the back to his archives in the other building in just a few minutes. When we got there, he had pulled out a heap of photo albums with photos of aircraft and crews, and among them was a photo of my uncle with his crew: He wasn't done either, not by a longshot. When Cookie mentioned his own grandfather had flown with the 466th BG, Jim handed him a thick volume on the group and refused to take any money for it, then plied us with other stuff: 453rd BG pins and keychains, and a personal guided tour of all of the many amazing artifacts he'd accumulated. As we stepped outside to say our farewells, he said to me "you're walking in your great-uncle's footsteps; this is where he would have stood before heading to take off." Perhaps it may sound foolish to you, but I felt just a wave of indescribable emotion. All of Jim's kindnesses and his great goodwill and generosity to us had been bought and paid for before we were ever born by men largely far younger than me who got into these great machines and headed out to take the fight to the enemy; when they died, and died they did, they were burned alive or blown apart by cannon shells, or killed while or after coming down in their parachutes. And here, four thousand miles from their homes, a single man has dedicated his life to preserving their memory at considerable personal expense. I will never deserve that kind of love and devotion, but they did. And they've gotten it. Jim also mentioned to us that he could use some help getting models for his Eighth Air Force displays; he'd like eventually to have a model for each group. If you'd like to donate to him, please shoot me a PM and I'll give you his contact information. Anything you'd care to do for the museum, I'd consider a personal favour.

Here's a model I did a few years back and is one of a very few that I entered into a competition and won 1st place the kit is Tamiya's 956 plus I used a Tamiya photoetch set and different decals I cannot say how I painted it as I had only just got an airbrush at the time so chances are its all Halfords or Tamiya rattle cans I also had a mirriad of books on Porsche so it was easy to detail engine is wired I did some plumbing but everything else is as it comes the decals we're superb and I had no problems at all although I did use Micro Sol/Set. One of my most satisfying builds

Hey everyone Sorry for the total lack of updates over the past few months but we have had a lot of work carried out on the house, I've been working away and life has been very hectic in general. I have been watching (as many of you have) Johnny's (The Spadgent) rather splendid Hurricane build and pining to carry out some work on mine for quite a long time now and last week I managed to make a start on the port gun bay and this evening I managed to almost finish it. I trawled the internet for pictures of a Hurricane gun bay and managed to find one or two rather detailed shots. The Airfix rendition is rather good OOB (other than those awkward injector pin marks grrrrrrrr) but I decided to add a little more detail by adding the solenoid's to each gun, their control cables, some other pipe work in the gun bay plus the plate that sits behind the gun breeches and houses the connections for the gun control cables (does that make sense?) I have to say bravo to Airfix coz when the gun bay is fitted into the wing it looks (to my eye's anyway) pretty blinking good! I have done a little more work on the cockpit by adding some bracing to the front of the cockpit frame work but that guys and gals is pretty much it. Cheers all Iain

Time for a Victory Beer™! Not brilliant when blown up on a monitor, but in the flesh it looks OK. Tomorrow I'll add the weapons, but for tonight I've had enough. Also, whilst panic searching for a spare a canopy I saw that you can get this kit for £9!

There will also a Falklands version with shrike and ecm pod, from the designer's mouth. Regards Robert

As mentioned last night, I wasn't happy with the sit of the rocket pods, and despite removing the inner ones, that didn't look "aerodynamically" right either. So I re-fettled the attachment and managed to get a better look to how they sat - all because one port TER isn't quite straight on the pylon - serves me right for trying so many after market items on a first build (but lots of lessons learnt). A few more images, snapped using a 98000 lux light source - filtered by some thin clouds this morning. Images stacked and shorted in Photoshop XT864 Starboard front quarter by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr XT864 upper view by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr XT864 Front port quarter by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr I think, that will do. I've found some slightly damaged (scuffed) varnish on the starboard mid body (careless handling) that I might touch up - or leave... will see! Thanks all for following this, my first build. It's been fun Jonathan

Looks amazing! Certainly I would have used the CAD drawings in the video it looks mighty impressive! so we can see.. alternate noses, bomb load and Blue Steel (And separate bomb bay inserts) and potentially alternate jet pipes and a set of FOD covers (nice touch!) crew ladder full crew positions, separate control surfaces and air brakes ! a Blue Steel transporter, pressure refueller , Houchin and a Land Rover Would be a smashing ‘support set’ for all the V bombers as well! Well done Airfix to quote A Bridge Too Far ‘you may be late but we’ll forgive you!’ TT

So, I already have a Nimrod, a Valiant, and two Victors, all from Airfix. Now there's going to be a 21st century Vulcan kit. I need a bigger flat.

I'm with you on that. I am currently unemployed and, probably won't work again due to medical reasons. It's a very good month if I even have £25 to spare in a kit😀 So, I will pass on this and keep the Vulcan kits I already have. Same with the Victor. Completely unaffordable but, I was able to pick up three Revell Victors over the last few months for about the same cost as one Airfix kit. I'm sure this will do well though. While not for me unless I may be receive as a gift ( Hint! Sandra, Hint!), I am personally more looking forward to what's new / reissues in the lower end Airfix range and, Vintage Classics range! Certainly been stocking up on them!😊 Allan

Felt a little under the weather today, so I didn't spend much time at the bench. I did some research, and found that the P-40B wheel well had a brown fabric lining around the inside of it. I couldn't find a picture of the very center of it, but the model makes it look like there was corrugated metal or metal supports running along the center. So, I had to guess about painting the wheel wells. I tried to match the fabric color I saw in the FHC and Duxford P-40s and ended up using RAF Dark Earth. After putting the decals on my P-40N, I had to put the shark mouth on this one. I couldn't wait to find out if I painted the blue in the right spot or not! Well, it was about 99% right, but I'm not telling you where it's wrong! I'm really excited about this! I think it looks great! Tomorrow I will finish the decals, and I need to paint the canopy and landing gears.

The mule.

Celebrating '65, the long-lived North American Rockwell OV-10A Bronco, straight OOB. This would have been in Binh Thuy, South Vietnam, late 1969. This was a USNavy aircraft, therefore flown by the Marines. A very fun build for me although I was unhappy with the decal quality. Thanks for a splendid GB! --John

Anigrand 1/144 Convair R3Y-1 Tradewind

Hi! The first painting session.. Mr Hobby H325 for the grey , Tamiya X2 for the white

Evening guys. It’s been a busy old week. Work has been relentless but I did manage a little time over the weekend to push this big lady over the line. Well almost. 🤪 Here let me explain. Radio aerial added. I drilled a hole and popped through some EZ Line. As you can see in that last shot the canopy is fitted. I even built the handles, inside and out. i has to prop it here to dry but this shot is better to see the work. 😇 I drilled out the tail and fitted the rear radio spike made with plastic rod. The rear view got some foil added to make the mirror too. I popped down to make a brew and caught this shot in the corner of my eye. Modellers dream. Soft radio 6 in the back ground and a warm workbench. Bliss. 😇😇 The eagle eyed among you will have noticed in the last pic that the nose is indeed on. I however didn’t take any pics. 😂🤣🤪 I’ll save that for the final post. I was tidying up the bench, the ritual I do after every build in raiment for the next and I found this. the oil cap I lost months ago. 🤨 It seems the carpet monster has been sick. 😂 The bench is all clear now as you can tell from the newly turned over cutting matt. I nearly forgot about the gun bays so I managed to pop them off without causing too much trouble. Guess what I found??? 🤪😩🤪😩🤪😩 Doh!! Totally forgot to do anything to the underside. 🤪 not even fixed the pin marks. Oh mannnnnnn. So they got sanded and primed. Just gotta paint ‘em weather ‘em , fit the wire and we should be done. Being a eager beaver I have started something new. Here. it’s something I be wanted to try out for a while and There will most likely be some cool painting and ROBOTS!!!! Or kind of robots?!🤣 if you’re willing to tag along I’d be glad for the company. 🥰. I’ll get the big lady finished and RFI her and the tank and the Torino too. Thanks for all the hurri love. see you on this side or tother. Johnny.