Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 26/07/20 in all areas

  1. Hiya Folks, I was so pleased to hear that Valom were releasing the Vickers Valetta as a 1/72nd scale kit and as soon as it was released I bought `a few'! The kit is lovely and I can very highly recommend it, although the instructions can be a bit obscure in places and photos of the real aircraft are a real bonus. The decal sheet is quite limited too as the roundels are the wrong size and there are no wing walk stripes, which were prominent on the real aircraft....... hopefully a decal manufacturer who specialises in post war RAF decals might help fill a void,...I have dropped some hints and provided some info! Here is my WIP if anybody is interested; The Valetta which I have modelled is VW202/C of 84 Sqn which took off at daybreak from Nicosia, Cyprus along with 17 other Valetta`s from 30, 70, 84 and 114 Sqn plus 14 Hasting`s from 99 and 511 Sqn`s to take part in Operation Telescope, the Airborne Forces element of Op Musketeer, the Anglo French operation to regain control of the Suez Canal. These aircraft were to drop 668 men of the 3 Para Group consisting of 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment plus attached arms onto El Gamil airfield on the 5th November 1956 while French paratroopers along with British Royal Engineers and The Guards Independent Company `Pathfinders'also took off from Tymbou, Cyprus in their French Noratlas transports to jump nearby at Port Fuad, the plan being to hold both flanks of the invasion beaches for the troops coming ashore next day. Each Valetta carried 20 paratroopers and 7 of the Hasting`s carried 30 paratroopers while the remaining 7 carried a smaller number of troops plus the heavy drop consisting of Jeeps and trailers/anti tank weapons which were mounted under the fuselage on special beams. As the formation approached El Gamil a Canberra dropped a smoke bomb to mark the DZ and help assess the wind which was critical as the troops were jumping along the runway and there was water on either side. This forced the pilots to fly directly into the low rising sun but this had already been accounted for and tinted screens had been erected inside the windscreens to prevent the crews from being dazzled and the first troops jumped over El Gamil right on time at P-Hour which was set for 0515hrs. Small arms fire from the ground was encountered and a number of aircraft received hits, as did the men under their parachutes including the battalion doctor who was hit in the eye and wounded,.... but the entire drop was completed within 10 minutes and all of the aircraft returned to Cyprus safely while El Gamil airfield was swiftly secured within 30 minutes following heavy fighting. A follow up drop arrived later in the day consisting of 2 Valetta`s and 5 Hastings bringing in 3 Para`s D Company and more supplies including an ammunition resupply. The British Para`s fought along the narrow istmus where the airfield was located and down to the main beach defences in Port Said which were captured and held until the amphibious landing the next day, the 3 Para Group lost 4 men killed and 32 men wounded during the assault and subsequent fighting and the amphibious assault was a great success,..... including the very first use of helicopters in an amphibious assault. Although the military operation was a sucess,... the politics were not and the British and French were forced to withdraw under the threat of nuclear attack from Russia and financial ruin by the USA and the Anglo French built Suez Canal remained in Egyptian hands. My father in law was one of the men who stormed the beach and I am proud to know a few of the men of the 3 Para Group who jumped at Suez,.... the last time that British Airborne Forces have parachuted into action in large numbers. Here is the aircraft that I am depicting; And here is the model; And seeing as I ws asked,......here is a comparison between the Valetta and the Dakota too; All the best wishes, Tony
    31 points
  2. Hi folks, this is the Dora Wings kit built with couple of mods for the upcoming Airframe Detail No.9. Not an easy one, but definitely looks the 'Lizzie" every inch. Painted with Gunze H and AK Real Colors, markings from the kit - V9287 from 161.sq (SD), Tempsford. Cheers Libor
    27 points
  3. This is Contrail's 1/72 vacform of the Miles/HPR Marathon. Decals are by Arctic Decals (awesome service!), props by Aeroclub and paint is Mr Color throughout. The WIP was posted here: Hope you like it!
    18 points
  4. B-52s are festooned with various lumps and bumps covering a wide array of sensors and jammers etc., but these are not covered by Sanger so it's a case of making your own. So when it's a rainy afternoon, it's time to get out the BUFF and Milliput... Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr First off, the rear fuselage has this (what I presume is) chaff dispenser that later model Hs don't have: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr This was swiftly removed with a razor saw to make way for a new fairing to be made: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Speaking of making fairings, I've adopted a fairly fool-proof method of getting a snug fit to the fuselage. Step 1: place some masking tape on the area the fairing will sit, and then make an approximate shape of the required fairing in Milliput: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Step 2: When fully cured, remove the tape (which by default removes the fairing,) sand to shape and then reattach to the fuselage for a perfect fit: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr There is a fairing in place of the chaff dispensers on the rear fuselage, as well as one on either side of the fuselage near the rear landing gear bays: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr As well as two atop the forward fuselage: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr As you can see from this image, I've also started adding the various strengthening plates at the upper wing-roots and atop the mid-section: Untitled by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Until next time, Tom
    18 points
  5. Here is Italeri`s rebox of Hasegawa`s Macchi 205, in 1/48 as always. There are smokering decals in the boxing but I decided to be brave an give it a try with the airbrush. Paint is Tamiya, underside XF25 (light sea grey) upper side desert yellow (XF-57) with olive rings. The build is easy, the fit is very good. I used exhausts from the spare box (of a Me 109) which seem to be a bit oversized but look much better than the kit parts. In the cockpit there is some Eduard PE, which is very good but unfortunately invisible. Thanks for looking. Volker
    15 points
  6. Hello mates, here my Mersu Mercedes by eduard built recently with changed (very nice) figures from CMK (they were german from Siebel accessories), now finnish with selfmade caps and finer details. Before research i didnt knew how dirty the finnish Gustavs were in the 1950ies! Only flying full throttle, no cleaning anymore! Fun only for the Finns! Cheers, Tom
    14 points
  7. This is my first WIP, as a newcomer to BM and many years since building anything! The kit was a much appreciated birthday present although it’s taken me a month or more to roll my sleeves up and get started! It’s a great kit of a fascinating aircraft with plenty of detail to get my teeth into. Here are a few photos from the early stages which I hope you’ll find interesting. I’ve also been testing out my macro photography skills as you can see. Phil
    14 points
  8. 1/32 Tamiyia F4 Phantom VF-33 TARSIERS The main build was OTB, apart from the ordnance which is Eduard, the pilots are resin figures and the yellow shirt is from Reedoak. Many of you will know my preferred paint is MRP , just because it drys really quickly, and allows a lot more applications of weathering than other paints. The decals are from MILSPEC, which I have to say were very nice to work with. And on this occasion the base was built by my good friend Mario Catania, he’s very good , you should go over to his face book page and see what he’s doing. Established in September 1943, VF-33 were first equipped with the Grumman F6F "Hellcat". Their first operation was to the Soloman islands, the first time a US Navy squadron has used the F6F in combat. VF-33 was land based at this time, supporting the island hopping Pacific campaign. VF-33 disestablished in July 1946. VF-33 was re-established on the 11th of October 1948, this time flying the famous Chance-Vought F4U "Corsair". After seeing action during the Korean war (and being awarded the Navy Unit Citation for their success) several changes of equipment and location followed in quick succession. By 1962 the unit was flying F8U-2NE "Crusaders" from the world's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) and as part of this team took part in the blockade of Cuba. In 1964 the squadron started to become familiar with the aircraft which (in two different versions) would last them the next 17 years and became the backbone of Naval Fighter Aviation. The plane was, of course, the F-4 "Phantom II". Initially equipped with the F-4B, VF-33 set a new Atlantic Fleet record by winning the CNO Aviation Safety Award for four years in a row (1961-64). However VF-33's time with the F-4B was short and in 1967 they upgraded to the F-4J. The new F- 4 featured a different radar, higher thrust engines, slatted tailplanes, extra fuel cells and larger main wheels (to handle the increased weight). Almost as soon as the new F-4's were received VF-33 was once again deployed to combat, this time to South-East Asia onboard USS America (CV-66). During their time in theatre VF-33 dropped over 3,000,000 pounds of ordnance! This was in the space of 4000 combat hours flown over 5 months. On the 10th of July 1968 a VF-33 bird downed a MiG- 21C, the first air to air kill by an East Coast Fighter squadron over N.Vietnam. After returning from Vietnam VF-33 continued it's association with CVW-7 and USS Independence (CV-62), deploying most years. Several awards were won during this time, including the CNO safety award in 1969 and 1970. The 75-76 cruise saw the squadron win the Golden Tailhook Award,
    13 points
  9. my last built , enjoy :
    13 points
  10. Airfix B-24J Liberator. My third and final entry to this excellent GB. Many thanks to the hosts and all who looked in on my builds. Cheers Greg
    12 points
  11. I finished this a while back, but it has taken me time to get round to photographing. Not my favourite activity, especially with whoppers. Anyway, after a long and educational build, here is my completed 1:72 Super VC-10, based on the Mach 2 kit, as a late service British Airways G-ASGI: A few mm bigger than the Heller 707-320, she is now (marginally) my largest model! The choice of airframe was largely inspired by this picture: https://www.airliners.net/photo/British-Airways/Vickers-Super-VC10-Srs1151/1202712 There is little to distinguish the Negus airframes, and Golf India as far as I know had no particularly distinguished history – not going on to RAF service afterwards, for example – but I like building ‘vanilla’ models to represent a forgotten moment in time, rather than recreating a famous airframe. With so few VC-10s built, its quite hard to come by one without an interesting story – Gulf War veteran, taxiing at Bruntingthorpe, Sultan's personal transport, blown up by terrorists..Golf India achieved none of these accolades, but does represent a late build Super in honest BA revenue service in the autumn of the 10's civilian life. I’ve tried to create with this model a visually striking and reasonably accurate representation of the Super VC-10. When dealing with a very basic and limited kit like this, where no details can be relied upon as accurate, there is a danger of driving oneself slowly crazy as the list of fixes mounts up, especially with a large plane - and this is meant to be a fun hobby. So I make no apologies for inaccuracies that are undoubtedly there, but at the same time I warmly invite anyone to point them out, after all can be useful for those who follow after with later, and better builds. Also pro apologia, there isn't a single straight edge or smooth surface in the kit, so its all down to my sanding and finishing, and plenty knarly close up! The build thread will give you the gory detail, but the main structural work involved converting the nose to be a more accurate, flush profile – in the end this meant pretty much scratch building it. This was hard. The fuselage has been extended with 3D printed plugs to create a Super VC-10. This work was not as difficult as I anticipated, and I have learnt a lot about 3D part finishing along the way. This technology has a lot to offer us, and there are other areas where I could have employed it – for example replacing the errant window line on the rear fuselage – that would have been relatively easy to design and print. I’d like to thank those who followed the build and provided indispensable encouragement, advice and resources along the way, particularly @71chally for a very useful nose reference pic and @Scott Garard for the British Airways logos. I’d also like to thank my Mum…who in the absence of my regular print shop actually printed the decals for me! (She is a retired graphic design teacher with a decent laser printer, so this isn’t as mad as it sounds). I could also thank BA for painting their planes white and not leaving them bare metal - I think if I had to do this in BMF, with the amount of filling and sanding I had to do, I would be in The Priory by now... Would I recommend the Mach 2 kit? Well, its tricky. I can't see how it is an advance - even marginal - on either the Anigrand resin or the Airways vacform, although I haven't built either. To put it into context – I didn’t use anything smaller than the engine pods from the original kit plastic. I think Darth Vader has more original components than this model. In its favour though, Mach 2 is marginally cheaper and more available than either of the alternatives, and it will build up easier. The wings attached remarkable easily for example. But without extensive mods, it will not be an accurate model, and if you are keen enough on VC-10s to build one in this scale, that will probably bother you. There is still, in 2020, a vacancy for the position of decent 1:72 VC-10 kit. Not an international scandal of course, but when I can buy a very nice 72nd kit of the Il-62 from HpH, or even the An-225 from Modelsvit, albeit for an arm and a leg, you can't blame a chap for looking forlorn! Anyway, it was a good lockdown project, though I do think it drove me little crazy at times and my attention span is now completely shot. For something a bit different, I have moved on to tiny car models done on my 3d printer, which make fun diorama accessories. I call this “British Engineering – A Paradox”: Thanks for stopping by! Harry
    11 points
  12. Hi all, my latest offering to the modelling gods! A bit of a struggle all round, not helped by the many trials and tribulations thrown up by Real Life during 2020... Anyway that aside, for the most part it was a fun build - the headaches were, as is my habit, almost entirely self-created. The WIP thread, for anyone interested, can be found here. Aircraft of this type were the mainstay of the RFC training units in Canada during WW1. The markings depict an aircraft of 'C' Flight, 88 Canadian Training Squadron, 44 Wing based at Armour Heights Field, Toronto, during 1917/18. One of several very interesting photos I found on-line was of this very aircraft, in flight over Central Ontario: (Image in the public domain) Hawk-eyed individuals will note, perhaps with the same level of incredulity as I did, the presence of the trainer on the wing adjacent to the trainee's cockpit whilst approximately one thousand feet above the ground - no doubt explaining to his pupil, in words of one syllable, the fundamentals of flight! So without further delay, here are a set of photos of the finished article: Thanks to everyone who looked in, commented etc on the build, your interest was much appreciated. Comments and criticisms, as ever, welcome
    11 points
  13. Hello Gentlemen, Haven't been completing anything in a while, here's the 1/48 HobbyBoss F3H-2 Demon, of VF-31 Squadron "Tomcatters". A very impressive kit, quite an easy build providing you correct the few version mixes by Hobby Boss. Corrected : F3H-2 has the short beaver tail type, while the kit provide the long one. Weapons stations1 and 8 are moved closer to the wingfold hinge line Kit is providing Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles, but only Sparrow rails. If using sidewinder, rail is to be changed Other : dash is to be trimmed so the front windshield can sit and the articulation plates for stabs were sanded from fuselage and redone in plasticard, so stabs could be posed angled. Paints are Gunze and Tamiya acryls. You need to make room on the shelves, this one is a big boy ;). Hope you'll like her. Best, Stéphane
    11 points
  14. Despite the crazy eBay price inflation of Wingnut Wing kits since the company closed down, I decided to pull one out of my stash to build. I picked the post-war DeHaviland DH.9a and built it in RAF in 1924 Iraq dress. A big bird in 1/32 scale with a simple monochrome paint scheme that would give my rigging skills a good work out. This kit was typical WNW - everything fit perfect as long as paint was scrapped off of mating surfaces. I used thin EZ line and Bob's Buckles for the rigging. I tried the heavier EZ line but it just looked too thick, something between the thin and heavy line would probably have been more appropriate. Rigging took me 3-1/2 days and definitely exercised my skills at tying knots with a pair of tweezers. The excellent Cartograph decals seemed a little on the brittle side which makes me wonder what the shelf life of the decals will be on all the WNW kits being horded these days. A fun straight forward build I highly recommend!
    11 points
  15. Thanks to Giorgio, Meatbox, Keith, Johnny, Cookie, Mark, John (WhoFan), John (Biggles) and Will for the kind comments and info on the Polish population! Great stuff Nothing done yesterday - elder daughter had a 'baby shower' (yes, in the rain) so taxi duties and puppy sitting: I would say Tils is getting bigger but she's about the third the size of Monster Molly! Cute though. She's being collected in about half an hour so not much time this morning. I did get the Arma props together though. Seeing this: I was about to reach for the PropMaster, then I saw the clever peg and hole locating system: Clever! With a dot of TET in the hole at the back: …you can push the blades down to their proper angle, fit the spinner, put some more TET around the circle and press everything into perfect prop: My next task is to mask the bottoms (fnaar!) of THREE Hurricanes: Multi-builds? Bad idea.
    11 points
  16. Evening all, Here is my finished F-22 Raptor in 1/48 from Hasegawa. This was my first experience with Hasegawa and I am very impressed! That said, I did add a few details, mostly to the cockpit - all of this is in my WIP thread: Here is the finished build: Some detail photos of the cockpit: Thanks for looking!
    10 points
  17. The new 1/72 Airfix Gladiator is a real sweetheart of a kit. No flash and any mold seams are slight and easily dealt with. Fit is as with all new Airfix kits, precise to the point that you need to be very careful during clean up not to remove too much anywhere before checking. I did mine OOTB with the exception of using the S.B.S. rigging wire set. (#72046). It gives you a complete set of rigging all pre-made to the correct lengths. You do, however, need to pre-drill holes to receive the wires, so advanced planning is necessary. As they are made in a silver metal, I painted mine a darker metallic color before cutting them from the fret. Almost all the wires fit spot on, but a few needed a slight bit of tweaking, probably due more to my assembly technique than any error on their part. The only thing missing is the antennae. It would have been nice to get that as well, but it's either easily made or can be omitted entirely from some versions on the a/c. I did mine in the camo of the Swedish volunteer unit that flew for the Finns during their war with Russia. (P.S. Notice how I forgot to remove one of the pieces of masking from the left rear of the canopy. What a twit. Problem has since been solved.)
    10 points
  18. So this is the 1st one on RFI. I bought my first model on 1st of may during lockdown looking for something to do this is model no 5 and the 1st to make it here ,1 to 4 can be found on wip although there all complete now i have not had much success with painting and less with decals hence the model below but I am enjoying the process this one is my first attempt at weathering ,and a little bit of detailing with spark plug wires battery leads and a lone brake pipe pictures are not great taken with an old iPhone any pointers welcome bearing in mind I’m the wrong side of 50 with fat fingers failing eyesight no patience and not a lot of finesse thanks for looking
    10 points
  19. Here is another (the last) of my Sweet 1:144 Messerschmitt Bf 109Fs built back in 2008. It represents Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 "Yellow 7", of 9/JG3, Luftwaffe, flown by Lt Victor Bauer, in the USSR, in June 1942. I always liked these unique scheme used by JG3. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome Miguel
    10 points
  20. I just built one for the Spitfire group build and i sprayed it white with a dusting of the pink over that.
    10 points
  21. Been a while away from here, just busy with models. Seems that most have found more time to get to projects what with all this lockdown stuff. Has made little difference to my daily routine to be honest,and where I am has been barely touched,it seems,by World events.So far. Started on this thing more years ago than I care to remember,certainly more than 15 years since I first "laid down" the hull. Has gone in fits and starts over the years,and been rebuilt and hacked about continuously. Anyway, might be on the home straight with it now,so thought I'd show some of it. Entirely scratch built,don't use 3D printing etc, never have and never will. If I can't make it it ain't worth doing,though I am sure many won't agree. That's ok. So all my own bodges,mistakes,errors and cock ups. These photos date from 2013 and show the hull construction, mostly plastic card but with a lot of Milliput,a method I tried this one time for a hull this complex,and though it "worked" I went back to traditional methods after and have only used millput for shaping hulls,sponsons etc and not hulls. It is actually a hollow hull made from a plastic card inner and Milliput over for the shape. It will eventually be cast in metal and building a hollow hull that doesn't warp or distort is more difficult than it might at first appear. It has moved on quite a bit now,though nothing changed until 2018,when I thought it was about time it got finished.
    9 points
  22. Hello all, I hope you all have been surviving lockdown by modelling-on.....this is the second Jug of lockdown. I set about Trumpeters P-47D Razorback version this time and found that the Razorback was a bit more of a drama than the Double top version, I think it maybe a different mould completely. Its a little tricky to get together and line up, but as long as you proceed slowly with the build, you should be fine. I added a few aftermarket pieces, these were the resin wheels by Brassin and the gun barrels set from Master (32115) and I get rid of the metal seatbelts and made my own from masking tape as I can never get the photo etch belts to 'sit' right. Paints were from Gunze Mr Colour range and as ever.....are brilliant. I added some magnets into the wing where the pylons attach, then added some magnets in the pylons so the lower wing is untouched for displaying without the pylons attached or kept clean. So here is aircraft 42-75242 which was flown by Capt Michael Quirk flying for 62nd FS/56th FG, Halesworth. I'll add a link to the Bubbletop..... https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235076868-132-p-47d-miss-firerozzie-deth-ii/&tab=comments#comment-3758317 Thanks for looking
    9 points
  23. duck egg blue (Sky Type "S" ) is how this is written in the orders. This implies that duck egg blue is the colloquial term, as proper names for paint colours are Capitalised Sky is the official name, Type "S" refers to it being Smooth, the S type paints being new type of paint note this from here the colour chart supplied with the book. has Sky Grey, Sky, Sky Blue. no duck egg blue Sky was the same colour as camotint, developed for PRU use. It was adopted for general use after it's success in the PRU unit. this image maybe of interest, as it has both Sky (spinner and underwing) and Sky Blue undercowling Seafire by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr I googled "Duck egg colour" "Duck egg is described in the dictionary as a pale blue-ish green" Given 1 in 12 males have some defect in their colour vision, and the colour space, and a colloquial colour name, this from a discussion about Du Pont 71-31, Sky Type "S" Grey the X-rite test is here https://www.xrite.com/hue-test
    9 points
  24. The latest model off the bench is Trumpeter's 1/24th Bf-109 G-10. More or less out of the box, but I did add a couple of extras in the form of Eduard seatbelts and Barracuda wheels, and I opened up the armour plate behind the pilot (as the kit had it molded solid) and I added some clear acetate to replicate the armoured glass. Paints were my usual Xtracolor enamels, and it is my first ever attempt at mottling which I was pleased with. Best regards to all, Tom DSC_0055 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0062 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0065 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0061 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0058 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0053 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0048 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0043 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0040 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0035 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0034 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0072 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr
    9 points
  25. This is my interpretation of the famous photograph of the 3 inch mortar team of no23 Mortar Platoon, Support Company, 1st (Airlanding) Battalion, The Border Regiment, commanded by Cpl Jim McDowell, inside the perimeter at Oosterbeek on the edge of woodland, just to the south of Van Lennepweg. The location is still identifiable today. Figures and mortar are from Resicast, other airborne bits and pieces from Bronco. Thanks for looking!
    8 points
  26. There is a back-story to this build which is as much a part of this project as the kit itself. My story is told in the first couple posts of the WIP, I encourage you to take a look, it's an interesting read. Basically, my challenge was to build this old kit: In a manner that would meet my standards. As a former submarine officer on Nautilus, my standards were pretty high! Before I begin, I wish to thank these individuals who helped with this project: Mika, of Arctic Decals ( www.arcticdecals.com ), who ALPS-printed the white markings Steve, of Model Monkey ( www.model-monkey.com ), who sourced an appropriate anchor from the many detail items he sells MikaK, of Lahha's Mechanical Components (Shapeways shop), who customized a set of five-bladed screws to my specifications, and Ron, of Grandpa's Cabinets ( www.grandpascabinets.com ), who built a beautiful display case very quickly and at a reasonable cost The WIP, which I mentioned before, can be found here: Here we go! Standby, I have a lot to show you.... First, the beauty shots: Next, close-up details. I filled in the superstructure's limber holes, enhanced the edge where it joins the hull, included a home for the anchor (the original kit didn't have one), and added the small "DUUG" sonar dome on top: The sail (a.k.a. fin, or conning tower) is scratch-built: I detailed the deck by simulating Nautilus's wood planking; adding various hatches, openings, & the emergency messenger buoys; and added the safety track that ran from bow to stern: The large sponsion (and smaller on on opposite side) were for the large MACS acoustic research antenna (photo of that coming up). The two openings are for the diesel exhaust and seawater cooling outlet. The kit's stern was hacked off and replaced with a scratch-built one: I included a full array of ballast tank floods and various seawater inlet/outlet openings, using custom made decals: It so happened I had a second Aurora kit in my stash, so I built this straight out-of-the-box, per yellowed instructions, for comparison: Camera perspective makes my new build look much longer than the original. In fact, it is only slightly longer (due to the new stern): This pic shows how I re-shaped the bow to add the chin "bulge" for the BQR-4 sonar array: Comparison pics of the original and re-built sails: Aurora's missile launcher and storage container were never part of Nautilus's equipment. But, we did occasionally carry things on our rear deck. Here is the MACS (Mobile Acoustic Communications Study) array I mentioned earlier: Comparison of the original and re-built sterns: Aurora's kit was too broad in the beam, and had a "squashed" cross-section. I took out about 1/8-inch in the beam dimension, which helped bring the model's proportions back into alignment with drawings I have. That about wraps it up! I hope you enjoyed the show, and thanks for viewing! - Bill
    8 points
  27. Hi everyone, There is my latest build completed pretty much out of box. More details can be found in WIP here. Hope you will enjoy final photo set and thanks for watching.
    8 points
  28. Hi, Just finished this Tamiya 1/48 JS-2 ChKZ Russian Heavy Tank. 7th Independent Guards Heavy Tank Brigade, April 1945, Berlin. Ended up being a bit more heavily weathered than I intended but good to practice some techniques. Finished with Vallejo paints, oils and pigments. Thanks for looking!
    8 points
  29. Night Owl Models "Up all Night" proudly displays this Great Wall Hobby hand painted digital camouflage Mig-29AS in the Slovakian Air force scheme. Construction details posted in Under Construction forum.
    8 points
  30. I am currently building a 1/24th scale model of Hawker Hurricane with reporting code UF*S from my Grandad's squadron during the Battle of Britain. With it being a very large project I am interspersing it with a few small projects, the first of which is this, a small version of the same aircraft. I used the Arma Hobby kit, which is gorgeous and painted it in Alclad enamel colours. With most of the aircraft during the Battle being fairly young I have kept the weathering light, with only gun and exhaust staining and a bit of mud above the wheels. The last shot shows it head to head with an Airfix Hurricane I must have built nearly 20 years ago with Humbrol starter kit acrylics! 20200725_160440_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr 20200725_160715_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr 20200725_142615_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr 20200725_160516_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr 20200725_142143_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr 20200725_141218_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr 20200725_141237_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr 20200725_141920_Film2 by OutcastJoel, on Flickr
    8 points
  31. I love when these Jungian "meaningful coincidences", or "synchronicities" happen. A friend sent this card for us (feather-counters, please abstain): Well, as prop, engine, radiators, water tank, and wheels are ready somewhere else, it's time to deal with the dreaded wing-supporting structure, complicated landing gear, and I am not even yet mentioning the rigging!:
    8 points
  32. I thought some of you might be interested in my E Type that I actually built for DeAgostini/ModelSpace. It's on the forum pages as a custom build. I used the DeAgostini kit but added a full leather interior, completely new seats - the kit ones are not quite right. I completely cut up and altered the kit engine to get it a better overall shape. Carpets, head-lining, MOUNTAINS of extra engine detail. Removed countless screw heads I didn't want to see. Carb linkages added. Fabric wrapped wiring looms added. I corrected the three fluid bottles (brake and clutch) which had the lids on the wrong way round, added brake and clutch pipes, modified the radiator, air box, heater control valves and added the missing ones, carpeted the glove box,, changed the dash gauges for photo-correct ones... The list goes on and on. It's a superb kit that can really be gone to town on. It's easily up there with anything Pocher have done in their new range. You can now get it as a full kit from DeAg - highly recommended. I'm currently building my third one.
    7 points
  33. This is my build of the Planet Models 1/72 resin Douglas XTB2D-1 Skypirate. The Skypirate was a contender to replace the TBF Avenger with a R-4360 engine and contra-rotating props, but by the time the prototypes were finished the Navy had decided that it no longer wanted dedicated multiplace torpedo bombers so it never went past the prototype stage. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_XTB2D_Skypirate for more information. The Planet Models kit consists of thin walled hollow resin castings that fit well but had numerous surface pinholes. Luckily these were only on the surface so once filled and sanded more of them did not keep appearing. Fit was good and there were no other major issues. However it is definitely a tail sitter and there is literally no room in the node for weights. I tried hollowing out the large cowling and filling it with lead shot but that was nowhere near enough. I ended up drilling a hole in the roof of the nose wheel housing and pouring in more shot until it stood on your nose. This means that if you look down into the cockpit you would see shot surrounding the pilot's seat and stick. 2 sets of vac transparencies are included with the places to cut well demarcated. The decals were good, went on easily and snuggles down nicely, but they suffered from a slight misalignment of the white that wasn't noticeable until they were down and it was too late to fix. So here it is. Another obscure aircraft. The low area behind the cockpit is where a power turret would sit but the turret was never installed in the prototypes. Also there was originally a spinner for the contra rotating props but it was removed early in testing and never replaced. The kit includes an optional spinner to use. I love aircraft with contra-rotating props. Next up is the Italeri F4U-7 which I will be building as an AU-1 Enjoy
    7 points
  34. A build from 11 years ago> While some designers choose to do away with the fuselage and the tail and create a “flying wing”, others choose to eliminate the wings and create a lifting body. That was the choice of William Horton, from California and Vincent Burnelli, both of them shaped the fuselage as a wing section. The Horton design featured large “endplates” –apparently described as “sealers”- along the fuselage/airfoil to improve its efficiency. A number of control surfaces can be seen at its rear end: a central, finned elevator and two surfaces on the sides that look like elevons (elevator+ailerons). Two fins and rudders are integral with the endplates. It is of notice that the concept of lifting body in this case was linked to the “roadable” plane too, since it was suggested to develop such machine later on. The design can be also described as being of “negative aspect ratio”, since its span is less than its length, roughly a 0.5 to 1 ratio. And perhaps we should clear some recurrent confusion: William Horton was an American from California, while the Horten (with “e”) were brothers from the nazi Germany that later got a free-pass to Argentina for a while. The Horten Bros. designed a number of flying wings and William Horton, as said, worked on the concept of lifting bodies, creating first the plane which model is here depicted, and later a more futuristic-looking, twin-engine bigger machine also called the Horton Wingless. William Horton associated with Howard Hughes, a joint-venture that apparently didn’t work out very well due to the iron grip of Mr. Hughes. Unfortunately, Hughes stalled in every possible way the development and sales of the Wingless. Shame on you Howard. Nevertheless the prototype achieved some flight and its beautiful lines were preserved in a few images. Simple lines on a model don’t necessarily translate into simple construction. Once the planning and engineering started, it was obvious that once more simple design didn’t mean simple construction. One or two parts were modified spare bin sleepers, while wheels and prop –Hartzell on the original plane- were modified Aeroclub items. Only a bit of the interior can be seen in the available photos of the real plane, enough to see the bulk of the long Franklin 68A engine in the middle of the cockpit/cabin while the shaft protrudes ahead of the fuselage. The pilot seat seemed to be the located on the left. The part count was about a hundred when I judiciously stopped counting. Although undiscriminating fellow modelers whose visual education and taste leaves much to be desired dared to call this beauty a “flying toaster”, one thing can not be denied: imagination was for sure abundant in the blooming 50’s.
    7 points
  35. Remember this one? I popped it on the back burner a while ago as I didn't want to rush the build. I'm going to restart and continue on it for a while, it won't be full non stop build as this is going to involve a huge amount of scratch building and I don't want to burn out on it at this point in time. So this a quick recap, I'm building my old wagon 09EA90 G3 Ops, 6th Armd Bde ( AFV 436) . I've done a lot of the basic construction of the Takom 432 kit which represents the MK2/1 version. My wagon was just a MK2 and had a different NBC filtration system from the MK2/1. A large box was mounted on the side to accommodate the filters was used on the MK2 which isn't the correct version that Takom have kitted. Scorpion Models have released the conversion a few months ago so this was must for me, saves whole heap of scratch building. The bits in the set. New hull side in light grey resin -top . Bottom side is the kit part which I removed from my hull. you can also see the new filter box and NBC fan. You also get a couple of spare track links which I'll not be using, We never fitted them to the top of the filter box but carried 10 spare links in the cage. I'll scratch up the link brackets from plastic and also add the step to the brush guard. Basic parts cleaned up and just placed on the new hull side. More to follow chaps. Dan
    7 points
  36. Huh Hey Pete !! that look like a grrrreat pub !! Don't you worry poor Martian !! I took it for you and me yesterday !! I hope it will help you my dear dehydrated friend... I'll try to find this hand made rocket fuel for SMW 2021 You see that I take care of you... Then you send me on Venus... Sincerely. CC
    7 points
  37. The game's afoot! ...a couple of qualifications first though... this is a shelf queen for a good year or two between build and finish so can't recall everything I did at the time, so may either miss bits, or claim credit for Pete Hall's hard work in places... also, Ajax was my plan, Dido may have had subtle differences.... while I'm fairly good with obscure names for bits of ships, may not get them all right, or even know what they are... and this close I can see exactly where the paint wasn't quite right! Ikara Zareaba: Staboard side Triangular web between Zareba and bridge front, just below flying bridge Air-conditioning box just aft of hatch is bulkier than mastered Conical/trinagular vent on launcher housing, just aft of forward ladder (I think the master has one modelled on the portside, not staboard, should be both. Think I might have added handrails somewhere. Deck: Deflector/coaming behind launcher cover Collapsable RAS davit on deck I think I did something with the large locker and the long hatch (missile loading?) on deck - can't recall what though. Portside: Triangular web between Zareba and bridge front, just below flying bridge Triangular web between zareba and deck, just aft of the RAS platform Vent just behind that Small hatch in deck just forward of the superstructure. I might have done something with the deck lights (small triangles on the bulkheads) here and there - possibly one on the bridge front? Foremast/signal deck: Platforms under ESM antenna 2x RU lockers and spare barrel/cleaning kit? locker for Bofor Not in shot, but there would be flag lockers inside the coaming (can't remember if they were in the master or not) Electrical panel and cover? on rear face of the mast (Don't miss the glass in the hatches to the flying bridge like I did!) Move the aerial bases to the aft end of the liferaft platforms Tiny binoculars for the lookout positions! Spurnwaters/tripyouuponadarknightatsea around the edge of the deckhouse Biggest one, but quite easy is the set of cable conduits between the satcom house and the antennas - I just used .20 square evergreenv strip trimmed to size once fitted and set Rigging: I know this is still to come, but I think it took me a while to work it out I'll pick up with the the rest later...
    7 points
  38. Well, after a period of maximum effort she is finished! Finishing the last bits on my models are always the most painstaking times. Firstly i lost the nose turret glazing and spent ages combing the work space for it. After crawling around the floor and emptying every box i hadcome in to contact with i had given up hope. Ah well, best finish what i ve got then. Picking up the engine cowlings unearthed my quarry! It had got stuck inside somehow so i was well chuffed to find it and had cleaned the work bench as an added bonus. Painting the cockpit framing was tedious and at best a bit of a guess as these old moulds have long lost the guides Airfix printed on them all those years ago. Anyway we are all done and dusted, so here are the pics, which don't really do it justice. My photography skills leave a lot to be desired... Thanks to all for watching, its been a blast. A couple of photos show the Airfix B-29 as a companion/comparason shot. The kit came with both models in one boxing as part of the Bombers series, and it seems fitting to show them together. All the best Greg
    7 points
  39. Jamie, thanks for that explanation. It makes counter-intuitive sense! In fact, I put it into practice just now to repair the G.50's grey underside. Sadly, I don’t think the same technique will work with the Humbrol acrylic on the CR.42, so I shall resort to hairy stick for that. It’s only on the underside of one tail plane, and will hardly notice in the big scheme of things. My ColourCoats collection consists of the French, Dutch and Italian air forces, but I’m thinking I will invest in further sets to cover the RAF, FAA and Luftwaffe. I had been hoping to switch entirely to acrylics, and I’ve been very happy with most of the models painted with Xtracrylix, and those I’ve brush-painted with Humbrol and Revell, but the CC range is luring me back to enamels. I like the smell of naphtha in the mornings. Now, I think I shall let the paint work dry and harden for a while before I think about starting the mottling. Besides, there’s another model to get on with.
    7 points
  40. Good to know we have not lost PC ( @Procopius ) Very good to know G has produced one of the finest T-birds of the Lightning era too The rest of this page has deteriorated, but you all know that. Hi PC How's the gang and the new house...
    7 points
  41. Ah, my chance for a story… I took my PPL at Thruxton and the advisory ATC (Controller in this case) was known to be 'a bit of a wag'. One of the students (not me, honest) called for a 'practice QDM' (Magnetic bearing to a station) and received the reply "Unghh, I'll have to get the direction finder out. Is it really a practice or are you just lost?"
    7 points
  42. Not quite as much as I would have like completed as there were a few hiccups along the way. Here we are with the rockets. Better than they were. 🤗 the stripe worked well but I have made better ones. They will look ok stacked and in place. The flaps got glued in place using the initial actuator I scratched and the pylons got added. The flaps got some hinges made from lead wire for strength. not a bad fit. 😇 I’ll add the actuator arms when that all dries. The hiccup I mentioned. 😖😩 The only part of the UC I didn’t replace with brass. 🤔I glued with TET and Oddly it just flopped off? Not sure what happened but it literally wobbled and fell off. 🤯😳 I drilled out both halves and added some brass. 🧐 should be good to go once dry. I fitted the brass axel into the nose wheel assembly. Excuse the blurred shot. the whole unit was then glued in place. And that is about it for tonight. Things left list: •Main wheels and doors on. •Nose doors on. •Aerials fitted. •Actuators fitted to the flaps. •Air brakes on. •pylons made and Rockets in place. •Scratch and fit a front wiper. 🤗 After all that I can finish where I started, the seats. •Ejection handles, seat belts and straps to build, paint then fit. There seem to be a bunch of aerials and probe type things that are on some Venoms but not on others? I’m not sure whether or not to build these? If anyone knows please pipe up now and I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for dropping by. Not long now. Take care and as always, Happy Modelling. Johnny. 🦈
    7 points
  43. That's the new kit arrived, so l can moved forward and also the P.E. arrived so can get going with that also.I got carried away with the bridge.I have drilled out pole holes and added hatches to give more detail.Everything is ready for painting.Started the sea base that all my models finish up with.I have try to put the photos back on for the G3,all l could do was the the introduction,after that its classes me as a guest,so I will put her in the complete section.more photo's .
    7 points
  44. Kit: Hobby Boss Mil Mi-4 Hound Extras: Nil Scratch: Seatbelts (tin foil) plus replaced and added a few grab handles/foot holds with fine wire Decals: Hi-Decal for an East German machine Paint: Mix of tamiya and Mr Color (see pic) Gloss: Hataka lacquers Weathering: Some enamel panel line washes from AK and oils from Abteilug 20200721_164831 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20200721_141155 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20200721_141150 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20200721_141130 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20200721_141114 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20200721_141040 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20200721_140955 by bryn robinson, on Flickr
    7 points
  45. Hi folks, Stew has now left after a full week of help. We had a quality issue and had to reject the latest large batch of our best seller, but apart from that our first trade consignment to the US in over 2 years is done. The replacement 507C (yep, it's that one) should be finished by the mid/late week as I have to go back to day job tomorrow morning since the bills still need paid. To serve as addendum to the opening post though, this photo has finally been found - it was at my mother's house:
    6 points
  46. I’m calling this one done chaps. I’ll stick these shots up in the gallery shortly. Really enjoyed this kit, what a piece of engineering perfection tamiya made, it fell together. I will definately build another. I made a few errors as usual, most noticeably the ‘Big Hog’ Decal disintergrated on the tail so that’s an omission but generally I’m really happy with it. Thanks to the hosts for a great GB and their, and others, valued input along the way.
    6 points
  47. As threads about colours are the most shut down here due to people going off on one, I would ask that this thread does not degenerate. Thx
    6 points
  48. Figures are white metal from Beneito Miniatures in 54mm. They were painted with Humbrol enamels. Thanks for looking Angelo
    6 points
  49. Nearly another week gone by since last posting evaoprated between domesticity and work. On the home front, all those building & repairing job put off since the year dot suddenly gained priority, but the icing on the cake was having to spend a whole day and a half with Damien (our IT tech at work) trying to puzzle out why the new toy he'd got me for compositing (an Alienware egp with 2080 card) had put the laptop into an endless repair/can't repair cycle that wouldn't allow you to step into safe mode to manually sort it. I swear it started singing 'Daisy' at one point - ironic considering that it was actually my mind that was going... Finally back on line last evening after a complete reinstall of everything and its sons & daughters and now wondering if it was all really just a bad dream.... I'm really quite annoyed at the Luftwaffe. This arrived in Robbie the postman's paw last evening - something that I'd been stalking the 2ndhand bookshops online for quite some time since it contains both parts of Commander Jenkins' excellent monograph on the evolution of Furious: It was with some optimism that I thought that the bibliography would contain cogent pointers to documents in the archive: dismayed to read however in the esteemed Commander's footnotes that much of Furious' design documentation was in fact destroyed in an air raid in 1941. I remain hopeful that NMM in Greenwich has plans of her 1918 appearance (or else this particular dream is over). Getting scans done by them isn't cheap - but as I've yet to see reference to anything that detailed in commercial publications, my hand may be forced. It's a tricky subject due to brightness levels isn't it Keith? A fast lens definitely needed along with a steady set of legs! Takes some time once the eyes are dark-adapted Benedikt - where we over near the Atlantic it's not really dark enough to see until about 11.30pm or so local time. My response to that comes in two parts Alastair: Oh noes! My upgraded Sea Vixen FAW.3 floatplane (now with rear gun turret and mixed torpedo/railgun loadout) is still experiencing problems with its rubber band! 😬 From that article: 'Defence Secretary Ben Wallace issued an extraordinary appeal...' JFC. (What an indictment). 📣 So glad you got to see it Bill! Good question - and an interesting one! I'm glad it's not just me that does this sideways cognitive thing. (I've lost count of the number of song lyrics that I've misheard as something completely different from their actual sentiment....) A spin down to Box Hill or Newland's Corner possible Adrian? And I'll pinch myself if all of it prints! 🤣 I heff to say that detailing the wingfold mechanism is rapidly turning into a build-within-a-build (to paraphrase Poe): Everything you see thus far should - en theory - fall within print parameters regarding thickness and the manner in which I've broken these structures down into sub-assemblies for print. Wherever possible I've been trying to build any required support structures into the design as unobtrusively as I can, along with incorporating any raised surface detailing into printing as part of the wing itself. Here's a simplified view of the fold mechanisms built thus far: Main linkage in centre, flanked by front and rear hinges along with the cable tray up front. Also seen, the sequencing valve (stubby thing behind rear hing), plus several pipes and openings for the various swivel sections of the fuel system. The actual pipe sections will be bent from brass to be mounted in position later for reasons of strength and aesthetics. The hinges (along with lower section of the forward latching mechanism you see will be printed as part of the inboard wing as a single unit - supports being added to the upper sections that mate with rib 4a on the outboard wing section. You an see them here bing tested for alignment with the recesses in the outer wing section: You're right in thinking that the rears of those upper hinge sections look deucedly odd - extensions have added in order to mount them into recesses within the outer wing like so: The extensions themselves are about 1mm long and slightly tapered in order to help with fitting into the recesses, which additionally have a slight offset to provide further clearance. The extra circular and rectangular holes you see along the inboard rib for are there for the various fuel pipe sections &etc. that will be bent from brass rod later: The cable tray I'm printing at this stage as a separate part to mount into slots in both halves of the wingfold, though if I'm not happy with the visuals/strength, some thin brass strip can be bent into shape as a replacement: The other rectangular slot seen just behind the main linkage in the shot below doesn't of course exist on the real aircraft. In this region a series of hydraulic hoses arc between the two wing sections: Those hoses will be far to small to meaningfully represent with any kind of plastic/resin at this scale, but I reckon that some whiskers of thin fuse wire may do service for his task in terms of gluing them into the slots in parallel after bending to the required radius. We'll come to experiment with that in due course anyway. Transparency back on for a final X-ray of all the ins and outs of the mounting process to finish with tonight. At this point I'm happy enough that this is about as much as can feasibly be added in terms of hingery and surface shapes - tomorrow I want to get stuck into all of the remaining baroque of those latching structures that lace the lower wingfold. Chunky bits should be printable but brass for thinner arms and rods perhaps! Time to finish now though - our youngest has his girlfriend joining us for dinner in a few minutes; poor woman - first time meeting us and she gets to witness Famille Baron debauching themselves on Enchiladas.... Tony
    6 points
  50. Hi all. I hope you are all well and I apologise for taking so long to reply. It's been over two weeks since my original post and I had to hunt for my thread - which had ended up down towards the bottom of page 4 - the last page of build threads for this GB!! I'm normally posting a lot more regularly than this!! Thank you all for your interest in my project. I have found time to work on this project over the past few weeks but not had chance to post any progress updates. For pictures of the sprues please check out my previous build of a version of this kit - which are identical apart from the decals and the extras I used and can be found here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235033375-hawker-hurricane-mki-new-tool-airfix-148-up-w-finished-and-in-the-gallery/&do=findComment&comment=3001655 My first job was to cut the parts required for the cockpit area of the Hurricane from the sprues and clean them up. There were a few seam lines and ejector pin marks that needed sorting. You will be able to see that I leave some parts with sprue sections attached - this is so I have something to hold on to when brush painting: Everything was then given a couple of thinned coats of Revell's Anthracite - applied with a medium flat brush: You can see I decided to do the cockpit side walls as well. Then the areas that are to be aluminium were dry-brushed with Revell's Metallic Aluminium: Green areas painted with thinned Humbrol 78 - Cockpit Green - applied with a combination of small flat and pointed brushes: You will also see I had done some detail painting and light weathering and got the decal applied to the IP: The decal settled quite well and the IP should look okay in the closed up cockpit with a pilot in place. Then I started getting some assembly of the cockpit parts started: It is quite a nicely detailed cockpit even without any extras: Sorry for the amount of photos of the cockpit but I always like to have a record of what I have done in cockpits as they mostly disappear once the fuselage sides are joined. Then I made up a pilot. I had used the one from this actual kit for another project - so this one is from the old Airfix Seafire kit - so not as nicely detailed but should look okay: His legs and feet took some work (breaking!!) to get them to fit even vaguely on the pedals. They won't be seem once sealed up. Then he was given a base coat of thinned Revell's Anthracite: Next painted and weathered: Finally sat in place: I also decided to get the motor fitted. I drilled out the centre of the spinner pin to enable the drive shaft to fit snuggly inside. I used sheets of thin plastic to build up the area from the inside of the exhaust support and then glued the motor in place using two part epoxy: More soon I hope! Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix
    6 points
×
×
  • Create New...