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Hi Work in progress for the aircraft Completed diorama 20191117_125040 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_125034 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_125026 by Richard Page, on Flickr Burnt out engine with feather props 20191117_125048 by Richard Page, on Flickr20191117_124941 by Richard Page, on Flickr

After some trial and error I've managed to sort a few photos of my finished Airfix toom... my first proper 'plane kit in 30 years or so. Quite enjoyed the experience and there's a work in progress thread that I used to track my "build"... but this will do for now. One mistake I made at the end was to paint the flightpath etch steps in yellow (because that's what the instructions said to do) but these should instead be a dark red.... which they now are, and awaiting some gloss varnish to seal and give some gleam. I'll grab a few photos once that's all sorted. Anyway... crit welcome... and yes, its a bit clean underneath; it's just had a wash 😉 Phantom 2 by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Phantom 1 by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Phantom in profile by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Phantom 3 by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Airfix 1:72 Phantom upper and lower by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr XT864 upper view by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr XT864 Starboard front quarter by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Thanks also for all the comments and support that I received during the build. It's what these forums are for.... thanks one and all Jonathan

Double checked...just in case. These days. that's probably pretty close to the truth Crisp we'll all look forward to Ced pulling out his chopper in the near future It's still funny y'know brought a tear to my eye that did Bill Pretty boring stuff this go around, but I didn't want to get too involved in anything as it was one of those weekends where all that could go awry went awry. I took a days vacation on Friday to be at home for the delivery of a new stove and microwave. I managed to snag some free delivery and installation due to previous foobars by Lowes (sort of B&Q over here). Stuff arrived on time but the new stove wouldn't fit due to an overhang of about 3mm of cabinet on one side. So I needed up getting a free drop off and had to install the damn thing myself. Luckily I had an old rusty plane that soon got rid of the offending lumber. Now I just need to get an electrician to replace the power socket as it's a big hefty beast and the new cooker won't sit flush against the wall so I need to have it recessed. Between that and mounting the new microwave it took me most of the day - and the wife had some chores in line for me too. Then I destroyed the under-cabinet lights when replacing the microwave (they'd been bugging me for months anyway) so Amazon to the rescue, they arrived yesterday and I got them fitted this morning. Anyhoos, yesterday I did get some time down in the basement. First job was to eliminate the humongous Dunlop logo on the side of the tires - easy enough Then re-blacked and reglossed - without damaging the white creep marks. I did a Flory wash, but I'm not too happy with it so I'll probably remove that and try again later. Supplies arrived this week which included some Dark Sea Grey so that was applied to the tail unit. I'm quite pleased with the way those rivets turned out. So while the grey was flowing I also did the cabin door, followed by some RAF Dark Green. Then window pushed in place - after some sanding as it was way too large for the opening. Now it gets nasty. Take a ganders at this below. Spot anything? No, neither do I. I mentioned a while back that I (wait for it!) found a flaw in Fly's design. This particular flaw was that they seem to have completely missed the scab panel below the windscreen leading on to the nose. That panel is very distinctive and really dominates how the Wessex looks from the front. All we have here folks is acres and acres of blandness. Dammit! Well, nothing for it but to try and fake it somehow or other. I started by marking out the center panel, taking multiple measurements to make sure the panel was a consistent width all the way up the nose. - a lot more difficult than it looks. Then drew in what I thought the profile should be based on references. Again this was a lot more difficult than it looked due to the complete lack of features on the Fly nose. Eventually, I got what I thought was a reasonable approximation of the curves - and went for it. That gave me my baseline that everything else is going to flow from. Now the center strip was complete I had the two side strips to attack. I cut a bunch of strips at 8mm long and laid them up to the center panel. That gave me a consistent(ish) spacing from the center panel Then a long thin strip was laid along the nose following the 'spacers' Now to get the width of the white panel, I cut a bunch of 10mm long strips. They were laid from the new strip and once they were in place, I then laid a bunch of shorter strips butted to the end of the 10mm strips. The 10 mm strips were then removed, leaving only the shorter strips - which were my guidelines for the next long strip. Kind of like this. The same technique was used on the port side though it appears I wasn't quite as successful this time around - that section either side of the grill needs redone to make the curve "flow" better During this endeavor I found that there is something else wrong with the Fly nose. - that white strip should partially cover the front end of the cable cover just below the cockpit door - but it's way off. Not quite sure what's wrong - several things probably, but I'm going to live with it otherwise this kit is going to devour my retirement and probably my will to live with it. See ya next time around folks

Here is the Eduard profipack SPAD XIII. I used turnbuckles and replacement vickers guns from gaspatch, otherwise OOB. Decals are for Nungesser's aircraft, including the experimental gun camera on the top wing. Most of the markings are painted with stencils, only the serial # and the black heart are decals.

Hiya Peeps, For those that don't know, the SR-A1 was a prototype flying boat fighter plane and was the first jet-propelled water based-aircraft in the world. The concept was a reaction to Japan's successful use of military floatplanes and the emergence of the turbojet engine. In 1947, the first prototype (TG263) made its maiden flight, with a further two built. Being outclassed by land-based fighters and lack of orders, the project was cancelled with the last flight in June 1951. Of the three that were built, two were lost due to accidents, one of them being flown by Eric Brown. Here I present my latest from the 'Flying Boats and Floatplanes' group build, a Saunders-Roe SR-A1 using the Planet Models resin kit. Built mainly OOB, with the exception of a scratch built cockpit and the addition of a scratch intake grill. Build here: Stuart

And again the model in NMF finish. This time I'll take a break from finishing the NMF. My last model in NMF in this year P-51D Trumpeter 1:24 Made straight from the box, the masks are hand made. There are a lot of mistakes I made too poor numbers on the tail but I hope that despite this model you will like it.

Hi all One more Phantom in the line - finished. Again very old mold from Italeri, this time F4G WW. Will not bother you to much as this is so well known model, ans same as the F4S i enjoyed every second working on it. Some details added in the cockpit to make it more busy, colors Vallejo, minimal weathering with pastels, and semi gloss finish with gunze. I AM VERY GRATEFUL to our colleague Andre (hook on the forum) who sent me a decals for this model and those rockets, as i bought this Phantom without decals ad some parts. One of most problematic was radar cone which i copied from another phantom. I hope you will like this model. Best regards to all, and ....pictures

It's finally done ... for the third or so time, after having to remodel due to moves or new ideas ... Before you judge to harshly: - it was meant to be a display for photographing models - so it needs to be somewhat variable and have nothing in the foreground that blocks the pics - it was also to place my larger kits that don't fit in the shelves - so it needs a lot of free space - it was supposed to allow me to build all kind of aspects of daily live on an airfield: maintenance , hangar, refueling, fire trucks, all kind of aircraft weaponry and so on - so a lot of different things have to find a place within the limited space which means a lot of activities are in close proximity that never would be like that in real life - it needs to display all my 1/48 non a/c kits - so it is kind of main & central during rush hour wrt vehicles etc. and it needs to fit in my hobby room - so ... To sum it up: one giant compromise - and I still have things built that I cannot get onto it (like an aircraft shooting range). I guess that means that there is another remodeling in the future. But for now I'll leave it be Thanks for looking!

Here is one of my two Revell 1:72 Fokker Dr.Is which I built back in 2006. It represents one of Ltn Josef Jacob's black triplanes (he had three different machines if I recall correctly), serial unconfirmed, flown with Jasta 7 at Ste. Marguerite, France, circa September 1918. There was an accident towards the end of the build affecting the top wing and that's why some of the rigging is no longer taunt. The kit was fully painted with brush except for final varnish which was airbrushed. The decals came mostly from Roden's Dr.I kit and from a Pegasus sheet using references as a guide. The finish of the real machine was glossy but I went for a more satin-gloss finish as the glossy finish would have been too much in 1:72. As usual, thank you for looking and all comments are welcome Miguel

The Baron and his Fünfdekker Fokker was released in 1971,I managed to get one a couple of years later and built it straight out of the box. I probably didn't even paint it. It was already red. After some years I decided to remove two wings and the V8 engine to get a Triplane. I then painted it gren and red like the boxtop on the Revell 1/72 kit. I've wanted to build this kit again for many years and in 2005 I found an old kit at a reasonable price so I built a Triplane again. Those old kits had self adhesive stickers so I made new decals for it. I wanted a second kit to build as the Fünfdecker with the V8 as well but I found the kits to expensive but finally it was re released by Revell so I went for it. I think that I need a third kit. I didn't manage to build the V8 version. As I had the V8 left over from the Triplane build I decided to make this one a double V8 engined plane. Strange. After waiting all those years to build it, I fail. But it was the same with the Tijuana Taxi I never managed to find as a kid. When I finally got the chance I blew it big time: https://baecklund.eu/scalemodels/gig/tijuana.html I had to get a second kit and build it again: https://baecklund.eu/scalemodels/gig/tijtaxi.html But finally I managed to finish the Baron. It has been lurking on the desk for month waiting for the wheels and the propeller.

A lot of firsts with this build First ever diorama (not going to be my last, I really enjoyed it) first time building my own base and using sculptamold (again, not going to be my last!) First time adding bullet, flak and shell damage to an aircraft and cutting off the wing was a scary prospect first time using Mig chipping fluid, which was used for the broken off engine. Build log for Aircraft can be found at Build log for the diorama can be found at On with the pics. hope you all enjoy. I have realised since these pics were taken that I have hung the crew access door the wrong way round. This has since been sorted. Looking forward to displaying this with the club next year 20191117_124301 by Richard Page, on Flickr Burnt out engine, prop has been feathered 20191117_124426 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124325 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124646 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124332 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191116_144503 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124347 by Richard Page, on Flickr Two mechanics deciding there is no way to fix the engine! 20191117_124352 by Richard Page, on Flickr20191117_124544 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124619 by Richard Page, on Flickr20191117_124315 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124814_001 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124506 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124522 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124527 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124501 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124615 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124604 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124533 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124448 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124434 by Richard Page, on Flickr20191117_124634 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124319 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124325 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124439 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124748 by Richard Page, on Flickr 20191117_124518 by Richard Page, on Flickr

It has taken some time but I have finally taken some decent photos of my 1/350 1994 build of HMS Westminster. This is the Trumpeter 1/350 kit with White Ensign photo etch, a Trumpeter Lynx, 30mm cannons and main gun barrel from Veteran Models, some 1/700 battleship anchor chain, lots of 0.1mm wire, and decals from Hawk Graphics. This is a gift for my dad who was the XO in 1994 so getting the build as accurate as possible was really important to me: a big thank you to all the guys over in the WIP thread that helped me out with the details.

OOB, Xtradedals.

Hi All! This is my first thread in this forum. Some of you may know me from LSP. I would like to show a model that I finished earlier this year after 8 years and over 2000 hours of work. I never expected that this project can take me eight years. I thought about three or four years. Of course I had breakes, holidays etc. As base I used old Hasegawa kit, but it was only excuse to start this project, the rest is scratchbuilding. Main assumption was to cut all structure of fuselage from kit’s moldings. I showed this model at a competition in Madrid where it won the best aircraft and special price from IPMS Portugal and in Italy first place. This is link to WIP on LSP for those who would like to see my battle with this project. https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/45212-132-boeing-f4b4-almost-naked/&tab=comments#comment-474471 Regards Tomasz Hajzler

If it persuades you Heather I've not regretted the outlay for one moment - indeed, I find the device indispensable now for a whole range of tasks. It'll be a while longer yet I'm afraid Chris - time is in such short supply at present around work. I will do Simon! Ey-oop. Let's see what tonight's prize is: All hail the Oramask is all I can say! I can't hear you. Thanks for that info G as it's the use I'd intend it for. Time will tell.... Merci mon General. Sorry not to get to Telford to meet you this year but maybe next? Your battleshorts looked magnificent however! Much breath is bated in this instance Bill! Honeyed words from you esteemed xenomorph. Kind words from the Pigmentmeister himself Johnny. A week later and am still waiting for the Alclad Aqua to cure on them.... Back last night from a sensational time at the Ulster Aviation Society at the weekend. More on that in a sec. Firstly, despite the time-famine at present regarding access to the bench, I did manage to get this done during the week: Looks all nice and smart &etc. but try mating that flap to the tray and a succession of those ribs just cant over or drops off, despite the ministrations of Gator's Grip. Utter PITA and we ain't talking Greek bread. It's not the fault of the Flightpath PE for those ribs - in their original design and construction they worked fine with the rest of the etch for the flaps that locked those ribs nicely in to place; however, as you recall the PE is designed to the inaccuracies of the Airfix kit and so of no use here. Truth be told I'm out of patience now trying to salvage what remains of the internal flap structure so will live with having them just open a peek to indicate structure, but not enough to show the lack of internal detailing. Hopefully I can get the primed and some green on them during the week. Back to Belfast and as mentioned a great day out with friends who had organized a surprise visit to the UAS hangars over at the old RAF Long Kesh / Maze/ Long Kesh prison site. These are a set of old T2 hangars built in 1940 that originally held two Stirlings at a time but which now house an amazing set of well-looked after aircraft: - both mainstream and also many related to specifically to Shorts and N.Irish aviation heritage. Being the winter months the hangars aren't open to the general public so it was more like visiting an actual working hangar with all the volunteers fixing and moving stuff - they're about to take delivery of a Tornado and in a few months a Hawk, hence the way that things were currently piled in around each other. I didn't get to photograph everything of interest (there was simply too much), but amongst other things was able to climb in/under/around: Westland's attempt at @hendies HC.2: He's yet to reveal to us though how he's going to build the fluffy dog: (late in the day H but managed to get lots of closeups of stbd side and interior if anything needed) As seen above the PR.9 was beautiful in the winter ligth streaming in through the hangar windows: We were taken round by Ray, the Hangar Manager, who was always ready to swing open a panel or nose upon request: Ray was also enormously tolerant of me sloping off and crawling under places you weren't normally allowed - including getting my head up into the hatch for the recce camera at the rear of this beast. It had been explained to him in advance that I was a modeller so suspect he was aware of the species and its peculiar needs. He was also a fund of incredible aviation lore and experience, not least of which being how two of them got the wings off the PR.9 on their own to bring it Belfast (frozen wing bolts...). Obligatory homage to 007: Did get to crawl around under the belly and take plenty of shots but no plans to build her. It has to be said that their paint guy is an absolute wizard isn't he? (Despite being RAF and having to hold his nose and do an FAA job! 😄) She's so well preserved because when they got her (from Leuchars I think?) there were 5 coats of paint on the airframe.... Ray himself is still working on the Wildcat Mk.5 that was salvaged from Portmore Lough after crashing there in 1944: Being buried in freshwater and silt there's some amazing preservation of original parts - check the edge of that wingfold - it's all the original structure. Ray's bench is light years better than mine: He's working on a new windshield: and wing: You certainly just shut up and listen reverently when a craftsman of this calibre allows you into their worskspace. Spent a long time at the end stomping around XV361 also: It's astonishing just how BIG this thick-ankled beast is up close! Some VGs for the afficianados: and the airbrake: By this stage we were losing that beautiful light and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed myself. I was persuaded by friends to reluctantly sit in the cockpit of the replica Spit at the end: I'll bung the full album up on Flickr when time permits. To finish: they are an awesome group of people doing truly world-class work in preserving aviation heritage and need all the support they can get. If you go to N.Ireland and do not visit them I shall hear of it. Catch you later in the week mes braves. Take care until then. Tony

When doing the Russian method of male moulding vac forming (Sukova) rather than the Japanese female moulding method (Sukinto). the best way to drag the hot plastic down (draping) over the former (model or pattern) is to have a lot of holes closely drilled around the periphery of the former. also warm the former as much as you can. Also drill some strategic holes through the former it'self, such as at the point on the fuselage where the hard chine of the hull has a trough or dimple The vacuum in a simple setup is not very high, so when the heated sheet touches the surface between evacuation holes it seals the area and if there is a hollow in the former surface there is not enough vacuum for the external air pressure to push the thickness of the plastic into the hollow. When using the male moulding method don't put any detail on, however tempting such as the cockpit cutout. It will just leave an awkward rounded lip on the edges of any recess when it's cut out. Just light score lines on the former are sufficient as these will show on the inside of the moulding, so you still have a guide to cut the part out. If you have made your pattern to have an accurate centre line then mount your formers on a plinth of thin (1.5 mm) sheet cut tightly to the profile. This extra height will take care of the webbing curve at the base of the plastic moulding. This curved edge has to be cut off but the joining/ centre line of your plastic fuselage will be accurate and a much better fit. You can make a simple cutting tool by bonding a new Stanley blade onto a piece of 1 mm plasticard so that a corner of the blade pokes over the edge, then bond another thicker piece of card on top to act as a handle. Place this tool flat on the backing sheet of the moulding you wish to remove and slide it around the fuselage part so that the exposed blade scores the fuselage halves all the way round. The blade 'V'edge mounted on the 1 mm base is then roughly 1.5 mm high from the backing sheet so it allows the waste backing material to then be broken away, like a normal vacform. If you are moulding over a deep narrow object then you may encounter webbing or creases at the corners. if this happens then build a Plasticine dyke or moat around the model about 15 mm away from the former and 15 mm high. If it's something like an engine cowl then the dyke can be smaller For the Former/pattern, use fine grained timber. English Lime or American Bass wood are among the best. Balsa is not good. Miliput is very good and P.38 type fillers are fine up to a reasonable temperature. Styrene distorts at around 70 deg C Mould release 'wax in suspension' aerosols are readily available but DO NOT use one containing silicone. John Burn and Co, Alchemie, Tiranti and MTT all sell them. The smoother the surface the easier the moulded plastic will come off. Send for the Tiranti catalogue or look up mould making supplies. Health warning - Sukova and Sukinto are my own humorous vacforming terms and may be lost in translation. John

Had some nice weather today so took a few pics of a kit I finished last year but haven't posted yet. Tamiya's 1/48 P-51B Mustang of Capt. John Bennett of the 352nd FG. Part of the 'Blue Nosed sweethearts of Bodney' (Sweethearts??? Oh edited by site. The b*astards!) Kit went together a treat. Painted with Tamiya acrylics. Decals came from a sheet that was part of Eagle Editions book 'The P-51's of Major George Preddy' by Mark Proulx and Sam Sox, Jnr. Book and decals cover all of Preddy's aircraft all called 'Cripes A'Mighty' and Bennett's shark mouthed P-51B. Only addition was an Ultracast seat and Albion Alloys brass tubing for gun barrels. Tried to make the Invasion stripes somewhat hastily painted ie. rough and uneven in places. Should've weathered the Stars and Bars decals in hindsight. Oh well, live and learn. Comments welcome and Cheers for looking.

My first WIP, and I’m stepping in the ring with this, Tamiya's brand new P-38G Lightning. Inside the beautifully designed box you get a sumptuous kit without a fussy mix of materials - just plastic, all of it crisply moulded and finely detailed. I don’t think I would’ve chosen to build a P-38 without all the superlatives being thrown at Tamiya’s new tooling. However, it’s a fascinating subject, and part of the fun of building kits is the research it can lead you to. I’m going for the P-38G, Rex Barber’s legendary ride in Operation Vengeance, one of the longest interception missions in WWII. It seems to be widely accepted that he was the one who shot down Admiral Yamamoto’s Betty, although the controversy surrounding this is worth reading about (https://modelairplanemaker.com/2019/08/09/tamiyas-1-48-p-38-lightning-and-significance-of-miss-virginia/). Not only is it a compelling story, but the plane itself offers so many opportunities for weathering - a fun part of building Pacific theatre subjects (I sound as though I’m talking from experience, although I only have a Corsair under my belt so far). I'm hoping to get close to the beaten look of Barber's plane, complete with its lattice of marks left from the packing tape it was shipped in. I'll be building this OOB, apart from an Eduard seatbelt that might arrive one day (how about it, 1001modelkits?). The cockpit has a wealth of detail, and slips together with the kind of fit for which Tamiya are rightfully celebrated - ie. perfect. I've heard that a more authentic colour for the interior would be closer to RAF Interior Green, but this is art and not life, and I wanted the punch of the yellowish green called out in the instructions. All the details were painted by hand. I gave the IP decal blobs of gloss coat over the dial faces - a nice pop against the Nato black of the panel. The tub sits in the fuselage snuggly; every part of the build reminds you of the level of engineering in this kit. I just hope I can do it justice. Thanks for your time!

My first time posting any model photos here, so I hope this turns out ok. This is my recently completed Macchi C.94 flying boat, which uses the Broplan 1/72 vacform as a starting point. Most of my models are scratchbuilt, or based on vacform underpinnings which have a significant scratchbuilt content, so my completions are somewhat infrequent. Major projects like this typically consume around 1000 hours' work, thinly spread over several years as I usually work on multiple projects in rotation. As is typical with my vacform builds, only major components were used and practically everything else was scratchbuilt, except for the engines, which are Vector resin Bristol Pegasus. Cockpit and cabin are fully detailed throughout. The Macchi C.94 was a product of famed designer Mario Castoldi, but a distinct change of pace from his more familiar Schneider Trophy seaplanes. With an all-plywood structure and hull lines reputedly derived from WW1 Curtiss flying boats, it was a curious blend of ancient and modern. 12 were built: 6 Serie I aircraft with Wright Cyclones and 6 Serie II with Alfa-Romeo Bristol Pegasus engines. All initially served on the Mediterranean routes of Mussolini's airline Ala Littoria, beginning in 1936. But in 1938, the last 3 constructed were transferred to Argentine affiliate Corporacion Sudamericana de Servicios Aereos, where they were named Rio de la Plata, Rio Parana and Rio Uruguay. As their names suggest, they served the River Plate and tributaries and also a coastal route running from Rosario in the south to Montevideo in the north. After around 8 years of reliable service through the war years, all 3 were destroyed in a suspicious hangar fire and replaced by Short Solents. Probably the only 'Golden Age' Argentinian subject I will ever make. Most of my projects are American or British, but occasionally I get the urge to build something exotic !

Hi, here a model of a B-25 in RAF Dunsfold markings of 320 Squadron. Mr color paints and Aclad flat coat. Great Kit but fiddly.😅 Have a great day.

Cheers pete,I've given them blow over with some aluminium, I'll do the orange band when its dry and paint the cylinder appropriately . I shall move on to a couple of fossets and the pipes ,then i may get stuck a little while while i learn to print my own decals for the sundries , my resin for casting the wheels is dead so I've got to order some off the net ,the bit i had was off and lumpy but i tried it, and the mold should be fine

Hiya Folks, I may not be widely known but the USAAF used a number of Hawker Hurricane Mk.II`s as unit hacks in the Middle East and the Airacobra equipped 350 Fighter Group even converted some of theirs into 2 seaters, as seen here; and one was painted overall white; Some bore standard RAF roundels but others had USAAF markings. Now I did toy with a 2 seater conversion and may do one in the future but for now I chose to reproduce 2 single seaters, first BP654 which wears a fearsome sharkmouth and appears to have had the upper surfaces refinished in Olive Drab,....here is the real thing; And here is my effort at reproducing it,....using the 1/72nd scale Revell Hurricane Mk.IIb; The sharks mouth was hand painted and the decals came from the spares box although i`ve just realised that the light coloured exhaust stain still needs to be applied! The canopy is from Sqn/Sig as the kit item is rubbish, the cockpit has been moved forward with the `dog house' filled in and the trailing edge of the wing has been `trimmed' in order to reduce the chord as the Revell wing is too big; And here is the other Hurricane, although only the partial serial KZ can be made out; Looking into this I found only a few KZ series Hurricane`s assigned to the USAAF in the Med and I chose to depict my model as KZ492, but could not find out which unit it belonged to. The model is the Legato 1/72nd scale Hurricane Mk.IIc kit with a Sqn Sig vacuformed canopy although now that I`ve seen the blown up photos I`m a bit disappointed with how it looks,....my eyes are certainly going and I`m struggling with canopies in Brail Scale! The dark and light blue of the upper wing star were hand painted over the top of a star and bar decal with the bars cut offs; [/url] And here are both models together; , I hope that you like these `different' looking Hurricane`s and my thanks to the 350 FG Association for making their photos available on line and they have been reproduced here under fair use. Cheers, Tony

Calling this one done..... You can see the build log by clicking here.......Space Seed Build Log A nice build to do, even though it was a snap fit, some of the fittings were very tricky and didn't quite sit right. You had 3 choices to build in the kit which was great. The decals were easy to soak and released very easily, though they were complex in their layout and did tend to break a lot as they slid off of the sheet. Esepecially the registration markings on the secondary hull and the nacelles. The Original pilot episode enterprise from the "The Cage". the Mirror universe Enterprise, which is basically the pilot episode Enterprise but with ISS markings, or the "Space Seed" episode whish is what you get to see here.... Had to use the flash as the pictures were coming our really dark. A nice side effect was the flash bouncing off of the navigation lights. All in all, a fun build to do and one I would recommend. Thoughts and comments all welcomed

Hi all, well considering how basic this kit was when I first looked it over, I think it has turned out looking pretty spiffy. The kit really was going to have to be super detailed to make it look convincing; I used a basecoat colour that I had mixed for a motorcycle tank I was respraying for a client. It was Suzuki Maui blue; it seemed to match the full size car's colour perfectly. Not one of Hasegawa's finest, there was some nasty fit issues, around the front fender, the lower valance did not want to fit, as well as the rear wheel covers. I had to replace the front windscreen and quarter side windows with some clear acrylic sheet as the kit one was starting to split and was too poor quality to really use anyway. Overall I am pleased I took the decision to convert the car into a convertible and save the kit from returning to the stash and probably never being built.

I have finished assembling that mast. It's a nice snug fit on the model although it wants to lean to port by a few degrees. It's shown unglued here - obviously I will spray it 507C separately before gluing it in! I have realised I've missed a cleat from the very top of the mast head.

Re-submission with special thanks to Wombat, Alancmlaird and Scimatar - Richard (put me in touch with Alan) for providing me with the decals. Calling this finished thorghly enjoyed this rather ancient kit.

Evening All, Many thanks to all who have left encouraging remarks - they are always appreciated when scratch building! Ian: until I was introduced to this by Softscience I too was unaware of this type. I have been given a copy of the pages of the Blackburn aircraft book that refer to this type and will provide some more details later, but it was a little bizarre even by WW1 standards!! The floats have been assembled and completed. These were two pairs (remember two of nearly everything....) front and rear. The rear pair are rather small and were made from 20 thou card rather than 30 thou. All needed a little filler around the edges but this will not show when they are painted. I am making the fuselages one at a time to show the construction method and parts. The sides are 30 thou card cut to shape from the plans with a section cut and curved to fit over the lower wing. I added some basic framework and a floor, seat and for the left (pilot's) side a seat and control column and IP. Card was used to make a series of bulkheads so that the sides could be cemented together: here is the partly assembled fuselage on the lower wing making sure that the fuselage/wing joint is not too uneven and the fuselage is the correct width: A top and bottom surface was added. Then I started to cut and assemble the observer's side which will just have a seat - I am not adding the fire extinguisher, (more of that later), as it cannot be seen and I am not sure what one would have looked like anyway! The curved upper decking of the fuselage was push-moulded from 30 thou card. This mould was made a little too long so that I could also cut out the curved fairings which were fixed to the front of the fuselage behind the circular engine cowling. The mould was a single long piece which I cut to length and filed the rear end so that it slopes correctly behind the cockpit opening. The front end of the fuselage was blocked off with card to make a firewall. Liberal amounts of filler were used to complete the rear of the upper part of the fuselage and fill the odd gap between the curved upper decking and sides. Finally the curved pieces which fit behind the engine cowling were cemented in place and more filler and sanding took place. Here is the completed pilot's fuselage and the semi-complete observer's. I also tried to mould some engine cowlings but after several attempts decided that I had not got the time to keep making awful units and so I dived into the spares box and found the last two which would be suitable: More to come later. Thanks for looking. P

Hi All, Long time in the making but I finally completed this 1/72 Italeri EF-111. This was my first attempt at weathering so would love some feedback on how it looks. The model was built out of box using no extra parts since it was to be more of a training mule than serious attempt to make this kit flawless. Relatively basic weathering to start with. Model was painted then gloss varnished, After this a wash was applied using Revell weathering powders watered down the sealed in using a Matt clear coat. I also attempted some pre shading however realised I applied the dark grey on to thickly so it can’t be seen very clearly however it does show through a little on the light grey areas (hard to see on camera). Definitely techniques I’d like to use again so I’d love your feedback to improve. Thanks BR60066

I've never been known to refuse free beer. Just saying. Cheers, Bill

I've hastily cobbled together a beer barrel and a gas bottle . convincing.? , we may have to wait till @Pete in Lincs gives us the yay or nay with him knowing more about such matters ,a bad bit of pipe work may do the trick, i made the barrel out of a 1/35 oil drum,cut down a bit top and bottom and added thin card stock top and bottom ,i knocked the gas cylinder up from a bit of old sprue , not much to see i know but it does progress at least

A little more progress.... The lower wing root is quite flexible - so I've added supports made from square-section plastic..... Whilst waiting for the wings to set, I constructed the two underwing sampling pods - each made up from six parts... Each pod has two tiny hinge-like antenna at the rear - provided as teeny-weeny etched brass parts - almost at the limit of my eyesight.... The starboard pod also has a flate-plate structure - again included on the etched-brass fret - here it is on the real thing... More later... Ken

And in a particularly fortuitous moment grey happened Some of the PPP needs a tidy up but not a lot And a few more places need more actual paint skin attention (Viz: the fore pylon)I am kinda pleased with the Airwaves grillework More tomorrow! Further Dark Sea Grey and Mr Levelling Thinner

Nearing the end with this build - just a few bits and bobs - sorted out some bits: These were sprayed with Vallejo metal color aluminum- then given a wash of enamels from ak interactive- finally some further dirt added with pigments. These wheels are the brassin resin ones from eduard. Little wheel is from the kit. The resin wheels were nice if a little tricky to cut out and put together. I’m still learning how to do resin - they are a decent step up from the kit offering. The rims were painted with metal color aluminum- then given a wash of Tamiya panel line. Rubber is Tamiya rubber black... and again, dirtied up with pigments. I used oils to weather the propeller blades -another experiment that I wasn’t that happy with. I put a light Matt clear coat on in an effort to finish with a satin finish... half successful. I added some pe parts to the wheel struts - hardly noticeable but maybe make them look Slightly less mundane... added a wire brake fluid line also. I painted the hydraulics with a chrome ink pen. As for the rest of the build... as ever, it’s a stop start situation- I do something. Then decide I don’t like it and do it again. Oil stains on the underside for example - tried doing these with mig engine grime which is a enamel- I’ve used this successfully in the past but this was the best I could come up with here... meh. I ended up taking this off and doing it with oil paints. Not that much better but I decided to cut my losses and went with that. You can see I installed the undercarriage which went in without much fuss. So after a few more little touch ups she is mostly done. I really love the scheme of the bnbs - and I’m very pleased with that colour on the nose. Works so well with the nmf. The colours look positively dull in these pictures but she looks more lively under better light. These where taken on the kitchen table which will have to do for now - my beauty shot set up is not adequate for 1/48 airplanes so it might be a while before I can get some shots done for the RFI - I’m playing with the idea of making a lightbox as I haven’t been happy with the last few photo shoots I’ve done of finished models - so this might be a good investment. I’m overall pretty happy with the model - tried a lot of new things - some of which actually worked out😀 others not so much. This is probably my best work to date but yet again I feel like I can do better. It was my third nmf project in a row and I feel this is the best one so far - I have lots more I want to do but I’ll take a break from shiny things for now. I was battling illness (strep throat and various infections) for a good chunk of time during this project - but I still really enjoyed it so I guess that says it all. And it’s great having a nice P-51 in the collection - one of my all time favorites😎 It was also nice to work on a 1/48 - only my second ever at this scale (I’m a 1/72 guy normally) This scale does seem to work better for aircraft of this type - you can really go to town on the detail but leaving some things basic seems to work as well. As ever I really appreciated you guys following along on this build - your comments, suggestions and encouragement where brilliant as usual. They really egged me on and it’s nice to share in the fun of it all. Special thanks to @Squibby who’s work on his own mustang was a great inspiration for me here - and didn’t seem to mind me blatantly plagiarizing his ideas. Im still mulling over what the next build will be - I’m looking with lustful eyes at the many 1/48 spitfires in the stash so it might be one of them...😊 I’m thinking very weathered RAF camo - I’ll see you in the Wip section soon enough!!! Cheers John

Just spent yesterday afternoon climbing round inside an HC2 up in Belfast. After following this build so long I had the bizarre sensation that I was actually very small and stuck inside your model!

Thanks Dan! Our local club champs were last weekend, so it gave me the impetus to try and finish the build... I ran out of red paint so decided to assemble what I had and put it on display. As you can see from the photos, I still have some work to do with the paint. I have trialled semi-gloss lacquer on the bonnet and headrest fairing, and I think I'll spray the whole car with it - perhaps waxing afterwards to add a bit more gloss. At the moment it's sitting in the cabinet for a couple of weeks to allow the paint to harden fully, and then hopefully I'll finish it!

Its good to be back enjoying building something again - recently I have struggled to maintain interest in the models I've built and have ended up abandoning three in a row that I lost interest in due to various reasons. So now its about getting the initial shape of the APC put together to support the work on the interior. First the floor and it has this interesting pit of moulding... So since this will be covered by a piece of textured plastic card, it will have to come off!!! This is what will comprise the floor of the APC - not sure if you can see it in the white but this plastic card has industrial style floor hatching which will make a good surface I reckon Next we have the wheels as I mentioned before. I put together one of the wheels from the kit to compare with the resin ones so here they are What is most noticeable is the tread pattern - the kit ones are straight cut whereas the resin ones are more accurate angular, compare with the earlier pic of the real thing Finally for today, here is the floor with the two sides added along with some of the front panels This now gives me an idea of how much needs to be detailed inside that will be visible from the door, so combine that with the blue prints and pics I'll screencap, this will give me the basis for the scratch building I need to do. Can't wait!!!!!

Hi everybody; another week went by without time for modelling Luckily I managed some during the WE: more metallic painting, that required more masking. On the rudder and around the plates strips But also around the exhaust cans This time I sprayed AK Extreme Metal Steel, and after unmasking It's all way too shiny now, but the plan is to knock it back with some judicious ( as if ...) weathering. Before that, I airbrushed a couple of Aqua Gloss coats on the main airframe and the rudder, so that they are now ready for decals. I completed the base coat for the exhaust cans with the brush technique, using Model Master Metallizer Exhaust (buffing version) These will now cure at least overnight before I do any more tone variations. That's it for the day, all comments welcome Ciao

UPDATED - Clear Prop Models is to release in 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 ? a 1/48th Blackburn Firebrand T.F. Mk.V kit - ref. CP480? Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/greenmats/permalink/2711731475553044/ 3D render V.P.

Hiya Folks, I built these two 1/72nd scale models quite some time ago and having found some old 35mm photos from the time, I`ve scanned them to share them here. The C-47A model represents “Turf Sport Special” belonging to the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron, 314th Troop Carrier Group at RAF Barkston Heath during Operation Market Garden in September 1944 and was built from the old Esci kit, which apart from its skinny looking nose was probably the best kit available until Airfix released their new kit. On the 17th September the 61st dropped British paratroopers of the 3rd Parachute Battalion, 1st Parachute Brigade onto DZ X and on the 18th dropped 11th Battalion of the 4th Parachute Battalion onto DZ Y. The aircraft still survives at the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover AFB, Delaware and after I included the model in a magazine article back in the day the pilot from those days kindly wrote to me to say how much he liked the model! The real aircraft,...... September 1944; And Paratroopers of the British 1st Airborne Division aboard a C-47, they have not actually been eating too many pies,......these men were super fit and the chubby bellies are actually the soldiers laden smallpack and webbing stored under the outer jump Jerkin and unlike US Paratroopers, the British did not use a reserve parachute either,..... usually jumping with over 100lb of kit; And,......today at Dover AFB; The decals used,... however the incorrect yellow codes were overpainted on the model using Medium Sea Grey; The model; The Horsa glider is a Mk.I variant, made from the Italeri kit and it represents DP283, one of the gliders used to convey the British 1st Airlanding Brigade to Arnhem on the 17th September 1944,.... as with the C-47, it is brush painted; After the Horsa Mk.I landed, explosive bolts were used to blow the tail off so that the load could drive straight out; The Horsa Mk.II had a slightly longer nose with a side opening nose section, making loading much simpler, here is one with Army pilots of the Glider Pilot Regiment; The Model, being loaded with an Airborne Jeep and a 6 Pounder ant tank gun; Cheers, Tony

I'm shocked that @Procopius was silent during his 15 seconds of fame courtesy of the Airfix camera crew. He's usually such a talkative chap. Cheers, Bill

More Seagull assembly... I will try to step on the gas a bit with this one. I feel like I am lagging behind...

Thanks @giemme, will check it out. Well , I added the nose section on temporary to lay down some very, very light grey. Some rough bits need tending to. And on the wings too. Will leave that a while to dry before lightly sanding back and applying a second coat. I still have some work left to do concerning the under wing stores though. There is not a lot of instruction to how exactly they fit on to the pylons. Anyhow some thing for me to mull over with a coffee and biccies. Until then. All comments welcome. Simon.

Thanks @john-w, @Hamden and @giemme. Await no longer G. the primer is on and lookin...? Good for base coating gents? Have made my coffee now, so dunking time is here. All comments welcome. Simon.

Just a "little" update. While working on the command centre's observation tubes, I thought it would be good to have some observers. Not sure what Colonel White and Captain Scarlet have seen, but Blue & Symphony Angel seem more interested in each other! The figures were carved from cocktail sticks with wire used for their arms. They a about 4 to 5mm in height. Back to sanding & filling, filling & sanding

What's worse is we've another 12 days to go. Part of me wants to ignore this thread 'til then and only look once the results are announced as the excitement, or maybe Rich's jokes, is all getting too much for me Regardless of how it all goes I know it's going to be a great year for GBs and STGBs

Hi again, Some more progress was achieved this weekend. Painting has already been started. As I intended to paint the back of the windscreen black, since there's nothing to see inside, I started by protecting the front of the transparent part with tape: IMAG6566 There are some areas of the fuselage that will be painted with Alclad metallics. Some parts that will be assembled between the fuselage halves, like the grids of the engine intakes, must also be painted with metallic paints. All things considered, in order to paint most metallics right away, before starting with the acrylics, I opted for priming the whole of the fuselage halves, even before closing the fuselage, as well as all the smaller parts: IMAG6567 IMAG6568 Here's the wind-shield after painting the back with black primer and removing the tape. The front is not painted, though it may look like it is: IMAG6571 This area of the fuselage halves is where the main landing gear will be installed and must be painted before glueing the landing gear part in place and closing the fuselage. Here it is already primed: IMAG6570 The first metallic colour applied was Gunmetal because it is the colour of the circular area where the engine exhausts will be glued to, as well as the interior colour of the main exhausts. Here we see the said area, after painting with Gunmetal and already masked, as the surrounding walls will be painted Steel: IMAG657 The circular masks were done with a cutting compass and are 1,1 cm in diameter. Gunmetal was also applied to the interior of the exhaust area of the propeller engine, on the tail fin. Notice the metallic shine compared to the plain black primer: IMAG6569 Gunmetal was also applied to the propeller blades and to the cannons: IMAG6574 The next metallic colour applied was Steel, which was applied to the area around the main engine exhausts on the fuselage: IMAG6575 ... and to what seems to be an auxiliary exhaust near the tail fin: IMAG6576 The final metallic colour, Burnt Iron, was applied to the engine exhausts and engine intake grids: IMAG6573 Notice the white blu-tac inside the main engine exhausts, to protect the Gunmetal paint of the interior. The metal colours are all quite dark and the black primer doesn't help much in making the pictures exciting. Sorry about that. Thanks for looking Jaime

Evening (morning ?) Gentlemen While the car body is drying, I've worked on the new set dashboard / windshield. I've spent all my Sunday to get an acceptable result, but it was worth the effort ...well, I suppose 🙄 The new kit went with new decals for the dashboard, which are very realistic . I've scratch built the auto-radio and the rear-view mirror....I'll stop here for the extra-detailing, because at this scale, it's a painful job, and moreover, you can't see it. Hereunder what I got finally: (the magnification provided by my camera brings out the defects, obviously, but with the naked eye, it's correct) Also, I've begun to work on the hood 😎 Stay tuned if you like and thanks for watching

I'm working on the paint chipping in the wing roots. Prior to laying the camouflage, I had sprayed on some aluminium + clear gloss. Plus dabbed on some Microscale Micro Mask. I think this was a mistake, and that Micro Mask is not very suitable for this kind of job. I think I will try Humbrol Maskol next time. I had problems removing the camouflage and reveal the aluminium underneath. In the end I managed somehow, but removed may be too much? I consider applying some paint by bush in order to reduce the amount of chipping and may be make it look more convincing. I'm not really sure how to proceed. Any tips?? Ragnar

you don't have a pink mouse to run and fetch bits for you Bill ? Different temps - very useful Steve. If you are only soldering two parts together, you can use pretty much any type of solder. If you are soldering more than two - if you can get them all fixtured sufficiently, then again, one solder type will do. If however, you have a bunch of parts to solder and you can't do them all in one operation then different temperature solders come in very handy indeed. You start off with the highest temperature solder and make those joints. Then step down a melting temperature on the solder and you can solder the next bunch of parts - because you are using a lower temperature, the first parts you soldered don't get hot enough for that solder to melt, thus the original joints stay intact. I still try and wrap them in wet kitchen towel though... just in case. More parts... lower temperature solder and so on. It's the clean up that makes it look easy Crisp Thanks Tony - I have those, but only the shot with the ammo provides any detail worth using. I should have qualified my statement regarding worthwhile detail. Thanks again though. I had the stand laser cut from plywood by a friend. Sadly not Bill. I did look into making kits, and actually got a few cut before finding out that postage just makes the endeavor horrendously expensive. Someone in the UK was looking to have some made and I provided the drawings, but I don't know what came of that. Karma will hunt you down y'know! Ced - well spotted. I've been using that mat for years now and never noticed that. I'm sure it will com in handy one day. Just a smattering of an update this afternoon. Most of the weekend was spent doing footery bits on Pegasus. (you know where to find it) Wheels - I spotted that Fly did not include the hollow axle so drilled a hole or two. Eargghhh, the more I look at that Dunlop marking, the less I like it. I think that is going to see the wrath of micro-mesh in the not too distant future. Then I noted that you know who, also did not include the pneumatic valve for inflating the tires. Strange, cos they included it on the tail wheel. Anyways, a 0.3 mm hole drilled and stainless wire glued in place. A quick coat of gloss, followed by the application of some white decal for the creep marks Lastly, the tail casting got some decals. The picket point is Fly's decal which I think is oversized. They also spelled "Picket here" as PICKED HERE. Numpties. I hummed and hawed about whether to actually use the decal or not and eventually gave up humming an hawing and just went with it. There are times to pick a fight with Fly, but this wasn't one of them - at least not today.

OK folks, a quick update. Decided to paint the exhausts . My mix was... To spray this lot. And after a few light coats, this.. Leave to dry for a few hours and then de-mask and see what`s happened? Coffee break now. All comments welcome. Simon.