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I present my Zvezda Boeing 787-9 in Norwegian’s UNICEF livery G-CKLZ. I chose this livery as it’s a great show of support for the excellent work that UNICEF carry out all over the World and it’s great to see Norwegian, like many other airlines, supporting this great cause. The kit was OOB with aftermarket decals from Ascensio and the windows and cockpit decals from Authentic Airlines. The Satcom antenna comes as standard with this kit. It was straight forward to assemble with minimal filling required. The paints used were Halfords Appliance white, brush painted Humbrol acrylic Scarlett 60 for the red section. I wish I had sprayed the red section now though instead of brush painting it. I have a special livery Vietjet A321 to do in the future and will likely spray the red on that I think. The metals were various Revell Aqua colours. The decals are laser printed with additional white screen printed decals where they are required. They are easy to use and work well with Microset/Microsol. The only thing I did differently was paint the lower fuselage billboard red, as the decal supplied doesn’t match the actual aircraft livery after studying photos of the underside. I made the ice indicators myself for the wings using left over 777 decals and cut it to reflect the shape seen on the Norwegian 787, as it’s not common on all 787s that I’ve seen. As always an excellent product from Authentic Airlines, they really do bring a model to life. My next project to hit here in the future is likely to be my A321N in the Hawaiian Airlines livery. As always thank you for looking and any constructive feedback and comments are very much welcomed. Regards, Alistair

Hello, Here's my just finished 1/72 Italeri SF-5B. I was looking through the stash after my previous build, a grey Harrier GR.7, and thought this would be a nice colourful change. The kit does offer a Spanish version out of the box, but the decals didn't look right to me, so I ordered an aftermarket sheet from Series Españolas. These were much better, and worked very well. I painted the model with Vallejo Metal Color and some Tamiya black. Overall, it was a fun build, with only the canopy actuators being a bit fiddly. Thanks for looking, I hope you like it.

Hello Friends, My follow up project to the Great Wall Hobby F-15I Ra`am was the Special Hobby SMB2 Super Mystere. Here are the notable features and my thoughts on the kit......... 1. Built mostly straight from the box. Used 0.6mm brass tubes to replace front pitot tubes under the intake. 2. Used Model Master, Mission Models, and some old ( but still useful ) Polly Scale acrylic paints. 3. Weathered with Flory & Vallejo washes, pencils, paint, and chalk pastels. 4. Depicted from No. 105 Squadron based at Hatzor, Israel. 5. Plumbers putty and small lead fishing sinkers were used to have the Mystere sit properly. 6. The kit supplied decals were excellent and responded well to setting solution. I found the kit to be mostly delightful with a few “fiddly” sections. For some odd reason, I had a couple of issues completely eliminating some of the seams. The kit is very well detailed and with little need for aftermarket accessories. I hope you enjoy this version of the French designed fighter-bomber. Thank you in advance for all of your comments and criticisms. With much respect, Mike

One of the most interesting cold war jets. MiG-23MF with side number 122. Model Trumpeter 1:32 scale, model made straight out of the box + Techmod decals.

Hi all and here's my first finish of 2020 - Revell's re-boxing of Heller's CL-415 Fire Bomber in Canadian Gov markings. First started for the Flying Boats GB here last year; never got finished for that but now all done! The short build thread is here but to recap: Kit: Revell 04998 CL-415 Build: OOB Paints: Tamiya Pink primer from a rattle can, Revell Aqua Colours with an airbrush. Klear, Flory Models Wash Decals: From the box...they were shocking. 😧 Extras: 30g of lead sinkers in the nose and Metal u/c set from Scale Aircraft Conversions Notes: The extra kit parts for the 415 model (new engines/Aerodynamic bits) don't fit very well. I think the metal u/c set is needed as the kit parts are very skinny and not sure the would take the weight. The decals didn't actually stick and had to be stuck down with multiple coats of Decal setting solution and Klear. Trying to fit her on the table for a photo was a laugh...just managed it! Revell CL-415 Done_1 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell CL-415 Done_7 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell CL-415 Done_5 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell CL-415 Done_8 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell CL-415 Done_13 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell CL-415 Done_11 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Happy to finish it and something different for a change. Thanks for looking and happy modelling. Cheers, Dermot

Don't threaten me with a good time. My parents spent most of my childhood on the brink of divorce (they celebrate their 42nd wedding anniversary this year), and after a particularly venomous spat on a family road trip to Maine, my mom slept on the bench seat of the Dodge Caravan on the same assumption while we enjoyed the dubious comforts of a motel. Oh boy was she ever wrong on how much worse her back could get! Mrs P was equal parts horrified and impressed by this factoid. Today was a federal holiday to commemorate Rev Martin Luther King Jr, which meant that Winston and I had the day off, but Mrs P and Grant, both at her school, did not, though chatter suggests the leadership there are beginning to realize they can no longer get away with ignoring the day in the present century, given what I can only assume they must regard as an adverse conclusion to our Civil War. So I spent the morning with the Win-Pin, who ventured into the grotto and received my favourite model, the silver Eduard Spitfire XVI that I built last year but which lost a cannon and a landing gear leg during one of our house showings. (mutter mutter.) He seemed pleased, as you can see by his expression, which is probably the only thing that's kept him from being left in a truck stop hundreds of miles from home. Anyway, after polishing off The Witcher with Mrs P (and I've never felt great about my body, not even when I could run ten miles flat out in the morning like it was nothing, which now seems like another life, for a different person, but hearing Mrs P exhale sharply every time she sees Henry Cavill's absurdly muscular trunk has brought me to new lows of self-loathing), I ventured into the grotto. I opted to use a bomb left over from the Hasegawa B-24J Liberator I built...oh...before Winston was born, I think, oh happy time when I got to sleep on days off, indeed, when having a day off meant something, anything at all, so from about five years ago. I trimmed it to fit, and I think it will answer nicely: Based on the photos in the MMP book, the tank (which, incidentally, started as an extra fuel tank and was modified into an extra oil tank, which explains a lot) is approximately cylindrical, so this might actually be even better than my initial stab at it. I packed the tank full of Miliput, not my favourite modelling product (my hitherto-unopened box of it was purchased, a receipt inside revealed, in 2015), but the one which I think would work best: We can sand it down after it dries. I also got to work on puzzling out the control surfaces. See the top one? These two parts are glued together to form the ailerons, but the sprue attachment points carry on to the (flimsy) surface of the aileron itself. When I attempted to trim it down with a scalpel blade, the tip of the aileron broke off and shot off into the ether. Amazingly, I was able to find it and even more amazingly, reattach it. But a scary moment. The flaps themselves are also on: I suppose it's nice they're separate parts, but since the slats are fixed and would never be up while the flaps are down, it's just provided a head start for the people who enjoy making life harder for themselves while doing nothing for honest plodders like myself. I also started applying a little filler. So far, surprisingly little has been needed, either because I've been careful, or because, as someone else suggested here, part of the problem is this was designed in CAD/CAM and all fits perfectly there, and any issues we've seen so far are from the unwelcome intrusion of Clausewitzian friction into the mix. I used PPP on the gap along the cockpit side, and Mr Dissolved Putty on that supremely unfortunate join line just ahead of the tailplane. I also started on the landing gear, which are a little complex, but nothing I can't handle, but forgot to get any good pictures.

My latest completed kit is the 1980s Airfix 1/72 Lancaster which my dad picked up for me at a car boot sale. She's pretty much built out of the box though I added a bit of detail in the cockpit with plasticard and scribed some extra panel lines on the wings. She goes together really well for a forty year old kit and very little filling or sanding was required so I managed to preserve most of the raised rivets. I decided to model her wheels up - there's not much detail on the undercarriage or wheel wells and I figure it's hard to beat a Lancaster in flight anyway! The stand isn't finished yet, I'll add a proper piece of threaded rod to the wooden base, rather than balancing on the m8 caphead which you'll see in the photos. The stand will screw into a nut glued into the bomb bay doors and the doors are held on the model using two small neodymium magnets at each end of the bomb bay. This allows the Lanc to be easily removed from the stand (without unscrewing anything) and also reveals the bombs. The paints are mostly Tamiya acrylics but I went for the Mr Color version of Dark Earth. The only real problem I had with the kit was trying to use the original decals. I ended up cutting away as much of the yellowed carrier film as possible and had to "glue" some of them on with Future, they also reacted oddly to the decal softener (with and without Future) so aren't settled down particularly well. One good decision I made was to mask and spray the thin black and red lines on the top and bottom of the wing so I didn't need decals for these. Finally, the weathering was a bit of an experiment. I did a mottled pre-shade between the rivet lines to get the tonal variation in the panels and I added to this with brown and black oil paints. The chips are done with Tamiya flat aluminium and a fine brush and the exhaust stains are a combination of sprayed and painted oils. Spraying thinned oil paints works really well and has the advantage of being very easy to clean off if things don't quite go to plan. Thanks to everyone who tagged along for the WIP, your reference photos, tips and encouragement kept this one going right to the end, even when the decals were driving me mad! The WIP is here if you're interested: Enjoy the photos! I hope you like, thanks for looking! Sam

The kit is the always nice to build Hasegawa model. Aircraft is that of Hptm. Adolf Borchers, who flew as the leader of Stab III/JG 52 in the closing months of the war and this machine was abandoned at the end of hostilities. Borchers flew some 800 combat missions scoring 132 victories, almost all on the Russian Front. He would survive the war and Russian internment to return home and start a ski school with his wife, Olympic gold medal skier Christl Cranz. Borchers passed away at 82 in 1997.

Stans Switzerland, the museum owned reccon Mirage taken out for a spin, here is a sample portfolio loads more shots in my photostream

a bit out of my usual modelling comfort zone is this Matchbox Twin Otter flown by the now defunct Costa Rican airline Nature Air. I built this kit about three years ago as my son worked in Costa Rica for a while and flew on one of their aircraft to get to the Pacific coast site he was working at. The model is more or less from the kit, although the windows were blanked off and decals used instead as the modelled aircraft had a different window arrangement to that of the kit. The kit is a bit basic in places and I ended up refining some bits like the nose gear and as it was in the original three colour moulding of white, yellow and black was fun to paint. Decals were I think from Aztec and seemed to work OK, if a little fragile. Hope you like it.

Thanks Keith I'm not sure 'working' is the right word. I think, as they're designed for ink, they'd be better with thinner paint like Colourcoats? You know, not thinned (Humbrol thinned doesn't cover very well) but thinner? Thanks Dave, appreciated Who? Me? Thanks Bill Appreciate the tip and stored for later use. However (here it comes) I will wobble as much as you (if not more) and what about the slot for the collective and the gaps between the seats? Thanks matey for the demonstration though, really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks guys, always good for a laugh Thanks Johnny - Pick a scale, that's the answer Couldn't go to bed without doing the seats, now ready for a gloss coat in the morning: No, not perfect, but the best I can do. The seatbelts will hide any bad bits - oh yes they will! At least now I can start assembling stuff and get on with it!

Thanks AW (I got that one!) Thanks Keith Yes, I'm finally getting some perspective on scale etc. Finally. Thanks Giorgio So, new perspective. What can we see? The i/p, if you get the angle just right: Otherwise not (but it was fun, sort of) The different coloured control columns, if you get the angle just right: The battery and the (new) belts: Then you do this and, well, most of it gets obscured: Ho hum. Yes, the bubble is scratched and will get some attention when it's fixed on. Next page of the instructions, once some kit greeblies are glued on the bottom (snurf) is the tail boom. At last.

Thanks hendie and Bill - I guess you mean the little bottle and fans and… but wait… will they fit? Could they be seen? See below… Thanks Roger, very kind It's things like this that build up in my head, require new tools (of course) and then… my efforts let me down. Sometimes even new tools won't improve my modelling skills (or patience) Joking - what! Now what am I going to do with the tiny, tiny motors I've ordered? Now I'm joking I should point out that one of my many faults is that I don't get 'teasing'. I think my Mum brought me up to be truthful and always take things seriously. This means that, when someone suggest something I think 'Oh, OK' and not 'You're joking aren't you?' My fault entirely and not posted with any emotion, just for clarity. They er, mess you up your parents! So, if anyone posts something that is a tease and I miss it, do please let me know. You can wait until after I've ordered the tools (of course), that's a given So, what's caused all this emotional clap trap? Assembly, that's what. I put the seats and all the controls in and then thought I'd better try the bubble fit to see where the i/p should fit: WHHAAAAATT! (In case you can't see, it doesn't fit, it's banging on the front of the floor) Remember this? I noticed the gap between the seat backs and the tape insulation last night and thought 'idiot', peeled off the tape, stuck in some wider stuff, painted it and cut out the headset control panel and painted that. The phrase 'That's odd, I'm sure that fitted before' never occurred to me i now realise that the floor was glued in too far forward. Right. Curses. A lot of them. All back in now and bubble dry fitted: Recap… Dave is right. It's tiny. Now I've removed my strongest magnifiers and stepped back a bit I have a new perspective. It's tiny. I don't have the skills (or patience) to do much more on this so I think the little bottle is out. The tubes definitely are. Belts yes, curly headset cables no. Onwards.

I reckon you’re going to need at least 3 more tools to reproduce those in 1/72, Ced

Not long after I met Mrs WAFU we had lunch with her parents. Naively I had assumed that our Civil War was pretty much done and dusted over 300 years after its conclusion, but boy was I wrong. One inattentively positive reference to Oliver Cromwell later...

OK, touch up repairs done, will wait a bit to clear coat and then decals, in the meantime I painted the Exhausts and U/C, no photos of those

So I'm fairly new around here but the group builds look like fun, so I've just ordered this: Coming from Japan, so hopefully it doesn't take too long to get here. Martin.

No. 12 Operational Training Unit, Chipping Warden. While flying night circuits and landings with a Canadian instructor pilot, their aircraft, Wellington BJ622, JP-R, crashed just after half-past midnight, on the night of 11/12th of July. ”12/07/1944: Wellington III, serial no. BJ622 of 12 OTU belly landed at Chipping Warden. Sgt J C Ridley RCAF and crew were unhurt.” This is the Airfix 1959 tool, 1/72 04001 with: Etch – none Additional parts – none Paints – Humbrol, Vallejo Panzer Aces and Vallejo Model Color acrylics by brush Decals – Xtradecal, E. D. Models, Airfix

Thanks Zac - but sorry, too late (phew) Thanks Tony, really appreciated Thanks Giorgio, really appreciated too Oooh, at least three Thanks John Yep, or TET Quick setting and moving down the frame a bit at a time (BM tip) Indeed! MARS printer maybe? no, resist, resist… Online at the mighty river - lots to choose from (I checked their .com website for you) Hey CC - thanks! Blind Siouxs! Thanks Andy What, just the tail behind a hanger? Thanks Ian I checked the reference for these: 131 doesn't have the unpainted rib. Where does the battery go? You haven't been paying attention, have you? Top frame glued in after some sanding on the edges: I think I'll give that lot a spray over before I (wait for it) fit the engine.

Just finished another Academy F-8 Crusader. I absolutely love this mould, I would love to shake the designers hand and buy them a pint...! F-8E, VF-162 'The Hunters', USS Oriskany 1966, Task Force 77, Vietnam. Airbrushed with Tamiya acrylics (beautiful to work with), light wash with Flory grime and sealed with Xtracrylix flat varnish. I have used etch for the seat handles as the kit ones are overly thick. Etch for the seat straps too. I love this shot: Cheers gang. Phil

Hi Everyone, Thought I`d show you some pic`s of my very latest effort, yet another attempt at making Matchbox`s finest into something resembling a `Fat Faced Spad` Finished to represent an A-1E of the 602nd Air Commando Squadron, based at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam in the early/mid 1960`s Made quite a few improvements, including: widening the propeller blades, reshaping the cowl front, ignition harness, vent on the fin leading edge, wing fences at the wing trailing edge,...... steps on the fuselage, static whips on the rudder, much work on the undercarriage and wheel wells, tarted the seats up, a little detail in the `blue room`, aerials, made a windscreen wiper... and cowling shutters ( that you can barely see ). All were made from scratch, I did get an old Monogram one with the intention of robbing it, but decided to build it instead ( coming soon !) the weapons all came from the stash and I tried to recreate a fairly common load for the plane and time frame The decals came from Caracal Decals set CD48046 Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking Cheers Russ

My First post on here so please be gentle It’s a standard Revell Foose Ford D100 I’ve been meaning to build for a while and thought I would try to achieve something more personal and in keeping with my “what if” truck fleet based on many years in the tanker industry. So I decided to add a smaller truck to the fleet, it needs a bit of detailing and a clean-up, to be finished at a later date but 99.9% complete. Mostly Halfords rattle cans which I like, but could do with building a filter/extractor box to keep the bits off the paint when paintworking in my very untidy garage Hope you approve

I had fancied doing one of these, but seeing how much is visible in the cockpit, and with that latticework tail boom, I think I'd take the coward's way out, and do one like this:

Thanks Giorgio and Keith Over the page. Fiddly. The parts fit very well together - if you hadn't painted the seams (ahem). The bottom bits (titter) fit together to form a round tube, the 'large' tail support fits well and the front bits go into locating holes, so little room for error. Trouble is, it's so twisty that you end up going here, there and everywhere. And if you try to use clamps the round sections separate. In the end I used TET Quick Drying and just held bits together until it set (seconds), but that did leave some squiggled plastic: What do you mean I missed a bit? That unpainted bit goes somewhere across the internal frame - I think I need to check some reference shots. Lunchtime.

Here's the endgame and finish line. The final bits included completing the canopy. There was more here than I anticipated. The 109 V-30 used a pressurized cockpit. These versions had a flush fitting armored plate at the back of the opening section. It included two small triangular windows in the upper corners to give the pilot some semblance of rearward vision. I made this from clear acetate sheet. The windows had to match exactly on the front and rear surfaces, so a tape mask would not do. I decided to make them from shaped sections of .005" plastic card. They were attached with tiny drops of white glue and one side was sprayed RLM 66. When that dried I popped off the masks and reattached them on the opposite side and sprayed it. The canopy frames are strips of painted clear decal sheet. Other bits included tiny white discs cut from white decals using a sharpened piece of Albion Alloys brass tube. these represent the desiccant tablets inserted in six canopy panels. There are also opening knobs on the front side panels made from stretched clear sprue, then flared by holding them near a candle flame. They were painted silver and attached with white glue. Finally a retaining cable and spring were made from very fine wire. Here is a photo which doesn't show very much, but some of the details can be seen on the completed model shots. The canopy was glued to the fuselage using my usual plastic card brace. The final doo-dads were added then it was on to the antenna wire. This is stretched black sprue with white paint used to represent the insulators. The tiny cones protecting them were made from .010 plastic sheet. This was heated over a candle flame and a sewing needle was plunged into it. After making about 20 of them, two were acceptable. The tips were painted silver and then sliced off. I used the same needle to punch a hole through the tip and they were threaded through the sprue. It all worked fine until 30 minutes after I was finished. The wire decided to separate from its mast for no apparent reason. Time to do it all over again. Remember modeling is fun...modeling is fun. Thanks for following.

This is a grand kit from Tamiya, a lot of details. Everything moves and opens. All signs are color by mask. Regards, Alex.

Hi all, As its new broom time on my internet presence and rather than flood the page with individual posts I'd like to present some of the stuff I've done while I've been away from the site. What will quickly become apparent is while I have zip diddle interest in anything to do with flak bait I have more than a passing interest in RAF MT, to include all that used by Penguins and Rock Apes alike. Almost all are 1/72 scale with the exception of the Airfix Albion AM463 cassis cab, and most are fully scratch built unless otherwise stated. First, A full scratch built Austin K6 flat bed made using my chassis/cab master For those that care about what its towing...... And yes the land trailer is fully scratch built too..... Next another full scratch build triptych of a Type 13, Type 14 and 'ready to move' Radar dish set A selection of RVTs (Radio Vehicle Transmitter) Copies of masters I made for MAFVA Models, (I believe you can still obtain these if you are a member) based on the Bedford OX chassis Bedford OXC I mastered as an alternative to the shockingly under scale Airfix offering Master of a Commer Q2 van I made for a short run kit I manufactured, My take on the famous photo of the Monitor half track Another short run kit I manufactured, Beverette MkIII with all turret combinations An IBG Otter with wheels and tyres mastered by me to replace the rubbish IBG thinks is acceptable..... Finally an Attack Models Marmon Herrington Recce Car, converted to an RAF Reg Forward Radio car Thanks for looking ATB Sean

Finished a couple of days ago, this is the latest addition to RAF Ouston's Harvards, a Revell 1/72 T-6G Texan kit, converted to an RAF Harvard. The work involves making a longer rear end to the canopy, using an Airfix Canadian Chipmunk canopy, plus using the old Airfix Harvard kit long exhaust, removing the various hard points for the Texan's weapons, and various small detail changes. KF193, 607 Sqdn, Ouston, Sept 1951 (3) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr KF193, 607 Sqdn, Ouston, Sept 1951 (10) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr KF193, 607 Sqdn, Ouston, Sept 1951 (12) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr KF193, 607 Sqdn, Ouston, Sept 1951 (14) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr KF193, 607 Sqdn, Ouston, Sept 1951 (22) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr KF193, 607 Sqdn, Ouston, Sept 1951 (26) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr It is finished as KF193, one of three Harvards used by the Spitfire equipped 607 (County of Durham) Squadron at RAF Ouston, and seen in the colours it wore at the September 1951 RAF Acklington Battle of Britain display. RAF Ouston's Harvards could fill a book, and the following photos show the schemes built so far - 22 SFTS KF314 'FCIT' all yellow in 1946 - KF373 'RAN-A' still in wartime camo, ex-22 SFTS but now 607 Squadron's first aircraft in 1947 - and KF193, also ex-22 SFTS but repainted in modern post-war colours with 607's new code letters 'LA' following transfer from Reserve Command to Fighter Command in 1951. KF193 did not wear the usual post-war yellow 'T' bands on wings and rear fuselage, and the position of its fuselage roundel shows that it never had done. Ouston Harvards (1) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr Ouston Harvards (2) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr Ouston Harvards (4) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr Ouston Harvards (7) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr I've identified two further schemes which will follow in due course - FX280 'RAN-B' all yellow, 'C' type roundels; and wartime camo/yellow 'FCJA' of 22 SFTS, serial nor yet found. I'm also searching for an example in post-war silver/yellow 'T' bands, but no luck with a photo so far. Durham UAS is a likely contender. Any help with photo sources would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for looking.

Use them to power the tiny fans. Joking. AW

For the avoidance of doubt, I was 100% joking when I talked about motorising rotors. I mention this because I had also assumed Andy was joking about the piping on the seats... but not only have you gone ahead and done it, but you even used it as an excuse to obtain not one but THREE new tools. One per seat, I guess.

I see no challenge there. Tell em to send it round.

Be careful what you wish for! I'm going to the Indy 500 in May, and that's not too far from Chi-town. I can sleep in my Jeep parked out front. It's not a problem, since my back is already shot - I can't really hurt it any more. Congrats on grandkid number 6!! Please remember, though, that none of your progeny need inherit any of your estate. Spend it all and have a good time! Hmm...lunch at the FAA museum. I vaguely remember that? Did I have hardtack and rum? Cheers, Bill

Masks are off, so the fuselage interior and front positions can be seen: All the other miscellaneous bits are ready too, we can proceed with final assembly:

I would like to enter this one. Cheers Jes

I would like to enter this one. Cheers Jes

Hi Pals, I have finished the model, along with its base. A well detailed OOB kit and easy to assemble, with the exception of the tracks, which are very laborious, although not particularly difficult. I added some small extra bit, such as the headlight wires, and the rearview mirror rods, and the strips of the barrel's thermal sleeve straps, as well as a pair of antennas. The only thing that could have focused better, is the behavior of the bogies of the undercarriage, when climbing the vehicle on the slope, although it is not too steep, and the solution was, or take off parts (too risky), or lay it flat on the terrain, but I prefer as it looks ... and that is that at first, I didn't think about making a base ... I wrote it down for a next occasion ... I have had a lot of work with the photos, because although I have the means to do them quite well, the backgrounds are a real headache to get them to have a pure color, either white or black. As far as I can tell, you have to do post-process, that is, some software to use (Photoshop). There are different series of photos, with different background color, different lighting, and different post-process. I include some photos of the real model that have inspired me, and to see how much I approached the real model. I will indicate a small comment in each series. The main thing for me, when making them, is that the color of the model does not change, and if it does, the minimum possible, because the one that has, for better or worse, is the one that I want to show. Thank you very much everyone for taking time to watch, comment and suggest improvements. Until the next model and Cheers. Set of black background, with two lights, and white / black Photoshop setting. Set of White background, with a lights, and brightness adjustment with Photoshop. Set of White background, with two lights, and brightness adjustment with Photoshop. Set whit diorame, and white background, with two lights, and brightness adjustment with Photoshop. Black background, with two lights, and brightness adjustment with Photoshop. Real photos of the model and box art, for inspiration ...

Life after Fly. I have now officially been declared criminally insane by the collective BM Judiciary following my misadventures with Fly's missed opportunity of a Wessex. As punishment I have in my absence been sentenced to complete of all things, a plank wing. Horror!) A species which is way out of my comfort zone, but never being one to turn down a challenge (see aforementioned Wessex as prime example!) I have accepted my punishment as fitting as it may be (I've already been detained in the colonies for many years now) and shall attempt this strange shaped flying machine with what is left of my sanity. This is the object of my punishment. In various corners of t'interweb I have read several reports and reviews of the Classic Airframes Venom and Vampire. It appears that one of them is a little kitten to assemble, and the other is a right pig. Which of those I am starting, I do not know, nor do I wish to know. Hey! I even cleaned up my workbench for the occasion. As always, I started without looking at the instructions. There don't seem to be many parts so I should finish this in a few days, okay then, months. Still way ahead of any of my other builds. First thing up were the rotor blades. Easy enough. Though after looking through all the bits I couldn't find a rotor head anywhere! Better check the instructions then. Wow! No rotor head! How does this thing fly then? Ah, the instructions do make things a little clearer. So, hiding my disappointment I resorted to removing some of the resin parts from their plugs. The hacksaw may seem like overkill, but I've found that it's much easier to remove the major part of the plug with a hacksaw, then go back in with a razor saw to remove smaller sections with the razor saw to get down to the actual part - it also stops me breaking so many razor saw blades. If I followed the instructions I'd be starting with the cockpit so here's one of the tail booms instead. Is this a little bit of a gap I see before me? Undeterred, I forged ahead, reckoning I could sort that problem out later. The wings presented a bit of a head scratcher though. The instructions say to remove the aileron completely from the upper wing half. However, on examining the aileron I see that the upper surface has the end of the aileron just inboard of the outer edge, but this is not shown on the lower surface. So where exactly do I cut? (after spending much energy looking for decent photo's on interweb I just found the shot I'm looking for in the BM walkaround section. After reaching that dead end I went back to the cockpit. CA provide a nice little resin instrument panel, but don't include anything to decorate that darned thing with. My limited transfer collection doesn't offer much in the way of solace either. Most of the Airscale dials are too large and it looks like my best chance lies with trying to re-purpose some 1/48 Wessex transfers So I consoled myself with making a start on the ejection seat. This was a strange new world to me - I've never built anything with an ejection seat before and it offered much confusion and head scratching. What Mk of seat was this? What colors should everything be? Again, resorting to the encyclopedia of Google, I really wasn't that much better off. I had answers ranging from the MkIF to the MkII(insert anything from the alphabet here). Cockpit photo's of the Venom are a bit of a rarity on the internet. They obviously don't have much in the way of porn factor and can only be found in the odd cobwebby corner here and there. The seats that I did find that purported to come from Venoms didn't look much like the part I have here. Well, I had decided that I am probably going to do this as much out of the box as I can and from the reports, you can't really see anything once it's assembled so off I went adding generic colors, starting with dark earth Then decided that was too dark and went for a buff color - but then I got distracted as a new monitor for my work bench turned up and I had rearrange a bunch of things to make a space mount it on the wall. Not a very auspicious or exciting beginning, but boy does it feel good not to be working on that damned Fly kit after all this time. I should have mentioned that I shall be doing this as one of 28 Sqn's Venom's - luckily the kit does include transfers for just such an outcome, which is great as photo's of 28 Sqn's Venoms are about as rare as an accurate Fly Wessex til next time...

In December last year I had some fairly major heart surgery done to fix a leaking valve and to bypass some blocked arteries. Glad to report that the operation went well and I am now in recuperation and recovery mode. The bonus of this is that I have 12 weeks off work and an opportunity to sort out and scan some of my photo collection. To begin with I have examined my RAF VC10 archive, and have scanned a number of older slides using my new Plustek scanner. I have combined some of these older air to air slides from my collection with more recent work done digitally, and here's the first instalment. Hope they are of interest, c&c always welcome. VC10 C.1 XV108 of 10 Sqn in the original RAF white/LAG/blue livery seem somewhere off the East Coast of the UK in May 1991. VC10 K.4 ZD242/P of 101 Sqn in the original hemp/LAG scheme worn by the tanker tens as seen in March 1998. VC10 K,2 ZA140 of 101 Sqn in the final all over camouflage grey scheme photographed in May 1996. VC10 K.3 ZA148/G of 101 Sqn. one of the four ex East African Airways Super VC10s, that were converted into 3 point tankers for the RAF, as seen in October 2000 over the North Sea. VC10 K.4 ZD230/K of 101 Sqn in the later overall grey livery. This aircraft was formally registered as G-ASGA - the first Super VC10 built, and is seen here in December 2002. VC10 C.1K XR808 in 10 Sqn markings, seen over ARA 8 in Feb 2008, To mark 40 years of RAF service, VC10 C.1K XV104 was given this commemorative scheme in 2006 and is photographed here in October of that year. 101 Sqn celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2007. To mark the occasion VC10 C1K XV105 was given a black fin and special markings and is seen here near the Bristol Channel in November 2007. VC10 C.1K XR807 in 10 Sqn markings seen in the company of three Tornado F.3s in November 2001. VC10 K.3 ZA147/F of 101 Sqn seen about to tank 2 x Tornado GR.4s in August 2012, the penultimate year of VC10 operations. Another photo of ZA147 from the photoshoot in August 2012, this time formating alongside C.1K XV108/Y of 101 Sqn. VC10 K.3 ZA150J - the last VC10 built, of 1312 Flt at Mount Pleasant Airport, seen overhead the Falklands Islands in the company of a pair of 1435 Flt Typhoon FGR.4s. Thanks for looking. Mark

I had this sitting in my stash for awhile. It was an absolute joy to build - up to the very last stage. I had intended to do the very attractive XP629 of the Macaws display team from the Xtradecal sheet X72291. Here is the only photo I have of the almost complete model (sitting next to my in progress Victor). On spraying a coat of Tamiya Semi-Gloss clear from a rattle can, within seconds I got a nasty crazed look on the paint which starting lifting. Somewhat odd, as I hadn't done anything different that I was aware of from last time I used the rattle can. After much gnashing of teeth I stripped back the paint, and started again. This time I decided to do XN577 from the RAF College at Cranwell in the 1960s. I have a Gnat and a Vampire T11 in the stash Sio I figured it would be good practice for the silver/orange-red colour schemes. Obviously this time round I don't have a complete set of stencils, and I had to bodge up some walkways by cutting up some spare decals. Paints are Tamiya Bare Metal Silver from a rattle can, orange is a home brew of brush painted Tamiya acrylic. I scraped, sanded and polished the frame across the top of the main canopy as I gather this is correct. The lights on the nose are 1 mm little-lenses dropped into small indentations drilled in the appropriate places. A fairly light oil wash, as I guess this aircraft were kept pretty clean. Finished off with a brushed on coat of Tamiya Semi-gloss clear. She looks a bit bashed up, but I am pretty happy with the rescue job. Looks nice in the early evening sun. Have a great weekend everyone! Thanks for looking.

I’ve never done one of these before so this was new territory for me. I hated the decals on this as they didn’t hold very well, and the red ones on the wing fronts fell off, so I painted them on.

This is now completed. Please feel free to leave comments in either thread. Hope you like it. Built up nicely with a few added details. Needed a little bit of fettling here and there, but for the most part, a nice simple little build. Thanks for looking, Coops

Finished just before Xmas..... Hagbard by Black Sun Miniatures ATB Sean

Like this? It's a nice party trick and only the Viggen could do it!

I have been plugging away at tAires resin cockpit for over a week now . The depth of detail is fantastic and for an aircraft like the Ju 87 i think its money well spent .A few years back i built a 1/3 kasegawa 190 d and used the Aires cockpit but the 109 has a bit of a black hole of a cockpit so never showed it off . Assembly has been fairly straight forward but a little trimming of both resin and kit parts has been needed . I have used super glue for most parts but also a new product i found in the local hardwear shop ,Araldite Instant . This epoxy sets in 90 seconds which gives more time for adjusting parts into an acurate position . Found it useful for small parts too as they are held in position easily and dont just topple over like they can when useing Super glue. Here are some pics of bits done sofar . P1030338 by Alistair Pearce, on Flickr Im probably going to use the kit instrument panel P1030334 by Alistair Pearce, on Flickr P1030333 by Alistair Pearce, on Flickr The ammo drums are made from 4 parts The lower side wall part is from the kit P1030332 by Alistair Pearce, on Flickr P1030331 by Alistair Pearce, on Flickr The Aires parts come in two colours. Thh rudder controles are made up off eleven parts P1030330 by Alistair Pearce, on Flickr P1030329 by Alistair Pearce, on Flickr Next job is to attach sidewalls to kit parts then get some grey primer on .

I have progressed to the weathering phase of the RLM 76 light grey. This was done with oil paints. It is actually not a wash but just a slightly thinned paint from the tube. I used a light grey, burnt umber and black, mixed as I went. Darker colors were used near the wing roots and lighter grays further out on the wings and undersurfaces. After about 20 minutes the colors were rubbed off (in actually) with Q-tips. When first applied the look is horrendous. But after streaking it with randomly I got the look I wanted. The cowling panels have not yet been attached. Those in the photos are spares used for ease of handling during this phase of the build. I'll tweak the weathering then let the oils set up for a bit. A coat of Gunze GX-100 clear gloss will fix them and the final semi gloss will be sprayed. Thanks for looking.

Things begin to get interesting with the application of decals. Actually there have been a few things added. Among them is some overpainting with RLM 02 grey around the panels containing the fuselage crosses and some of the cowl panels. The unusually large Stammkennzeichen (manufacturers codes) really set off the scheme. I used some Fantasy Printshop decals that I picked up at Telford a few years back. They are invaluable since they come in a large variety of sizes. Next up will be another clear coat then oil washes on the non-metal areas.

This will hopefully be my build in this GB, a SAAB S17BS Floatplane built OOB with some little details. First the 'stuff' as like me, many may have not heard of Marivox. Boxart- front. Colour options, one option for me...a floater. Sprue 1 Sprue 2 Sprue 3 Clear sprue Decal sheet The sketch Looks like it'll be fun but have first got to get the Mustang GB out of the way. Until next time Stuart

Hi there, i was glad to got hold of some very old kits and tried to make the most of it WIP pics you can find here: Link Cheers Macki

You think you have a challenge? Try a trip to Malta... That’s going to take more than a few smears of filler and swipes with sanding sticks...

Evening everyone, spent a little time getting Miss America looking more decent! But first she needs a pilot I guess that'll be....Captain America: And in the office with the cool fighter pilot shades: I haven't expended a great deal of effort on the cockpit although I have added the rear seat, for me Miss America is all about the outfit....I mean the paintwork of course But the Cap's helmet is quite prominent so worth a bit of effort. And this is how I intend to mount..Miss....America......this post isn't going the way I envisaged! The canopy is only placed in position for effect and I'll put a twist in the brass so I can get her at a better angle....of bank! Time to sign off I think. Cheers, Mark.