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Greetings! Another old Airfix kit - this time the Boeing 314 Pan Am Clipper - a beautiful machine, but an epic styrene struggle! Many thanks for having a look. Questions and comments always welcome! Bill From the Wilds of the Inland Empire . . . . .

Hi fellow modellers, I just finished my third build after coming back to the hobby after an absence of more than 10 years. It also counts as a Covid build since we were in quarantine for a long time… I had to pause the build when we got infected with Covid in april, Its what they call mild infection but we were pretty sick.. my wife is a nurse and she got it at work. Three weeks ago I got to go back to hospital because I got memory problems and its a good chance that it was Covid related… took me out again for some time… modelling is what kept me going in between sick periods. But now I am better and was able to finish the build. Sorry its another Tamiya P-38F.. but I hope you like it!

This is the 1/48 Revell British Legends kit (reboxed Hasegawa). This is my first Revell/Hasegawa Phantom in 1/48 scale. Not my best work but not my worst. I did enjoy building it. Coming off building Tamiya F-16's and F-14's I knew I was in for a challenge so I did alot of dry fitting, sanding and filling etc. Overall, I believe it helped me in certain skills. I still can't believe that this mold is at least 30 years old or more and no other company has a molded FGR.2 in 1/48 scale since the RAF and Royal Navy had so many cool markings and options. I am now a Phantom fan and will be building many of these. This build was OOB and I added the usual sea blur from Coastal kits and cut it down to ft the base which I got at a local art supply store which I stained and colored. i waited almost one month for the decals from Hannants to show up in the mail and they are the Xtradecal RAF Phantom FG.1 and FGR.2 part 4 sheet. The stencils (which were never ending) came from the the kit itself. It had a few options and luckily the right stencils came with the kit. The clear riser is from "Wings or the Great War" which i found on amazon (only available in the US). I am happy with the outcome and learning more as I go. It's nice to get back into building after not doing so since I was a teen. I wanted to represent "Desperation" conducting a patrol over the waters of the Falklands Thanks for looking Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr Fgr.2 by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr

Hello to all of you guys.I have just finished my `1:72 Demon.Pretty much built OOB.If you to see the build process follow the youtube link bellow.

Here's my Tasman (ex-Heller) 1/72 Dragon Rapide, just finished in the A Kit You Built As A Kid group build. I've used Arctic Decals' Railway Air Services decals and the SBS PE rigging set. The decals were excellent and the set included masks and self-adhesive chrome window frames - these went on nicely but the ones on the curved windscreen needed a bit of help from some canopy glue. The PE rigging set was a huge time saver and resulted in much better rigging than I could have achieved without it! Build thread is here. thanks for looking Julian

Latest finished build, 1/48 Hobbyboss KA-27 Helix. Really good kit to build. Quickboost seats Brengun exterior photoetch Begemot decals UMP black primer Mr hobby & tamiya paints UMP and AK washes Uschi rigging wire

Hello, this is a Cessna T-37 converted from the Trumpeter A-37. It belongs to the 89th Flying Training Squadron, Sheppard AFB. Decals were self made...

Hi All, Here is my effort at Airfix' excellent Wellington GR MkVIII. Here is the WIP if anybody is interested: The kit was built OOB with only Eduard masks for the glazing (a must for this build!). The aircraft was modelled as HX379 of 172 Sqn, based at RAF Chivenor in 1942. Here's a shot of the actual aircraft: It's far from my best build but I'm not unhappy with the final outcome. I'd highly recommend the kit and to my eyes this is a lovely scheme for the Wimpy! Here's a final shot with her Bomber Command stablemate: Thanks for looking, Roger

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

Dear all, Please find below some images of my recently finished SAMI review kit of the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300. The VS-300 was the first practical US-designed helicopter and pioneered the now familiar lay-out of a main rotor and small tail rotor. The kit is a reissue by Brengun of the Extratech multi-media kit. The review article will appear in one of the upcoming issues of SAMI. Peter

MN317, 247 Squadron, Royal Air Force.

Cheer !! Thanks for watch !!

Hey there, I decided to stop here now and call it finished, don´t want to overdo it. This is the Tamiya KV-1 1/16th scale full option kit. Painted with Acrylics and oils. Enamel, Pigments and oil washes for the dirt on the hull and the wheels and AK weathering pencils up top. Got the ABER detail set and one or two other detail kits by ABER or Schumo. Tracks are a bit tight as the adjustment is rather rough for the idler and the track runs better a bit tighter than too loose. Thanks for watching.

Thought I’d make one of the bad guys as well. Planned to wait till finished with previous entries, but I don’t have patience to watch paint dry, so while the Defiant and Hurricane is going through that I’ll start fiddling with this: I only bought this kit because the carpet monster ate an Airfix E-4 canopy and this kit, which contains an extra such, turned out the most cost-effective way of getting a new. But now the bonus kit that came with the canopy comes in handy. I shall build the box-art machine, with factory number 3714 and in which Heinz Bär was shot down by a Spitfire in September. He parachuted into the Channel, swam around for two hours and clung onto a buoy until rescued. For this he got an audience with Göring who asked what Bär was thinking, lying there bathing. Bär reportedly answered something along the lines of ”your speech, where you said England is no longer an island”. Bär had a modest background and had joined the airforce to gain enough experience to become a Lufthansa pilot. He had bad timing and instead ended up flying missions from beginning to the end of the war, never to fly Lufthansa. He shot down 10 planes during the BoB but also got forced down a couple of times himself. Wiki has a bio, from where I got the above. Here’s a sprue shot. One opaque, one clear sans the superfluous canopy: Compared to the Airfix E-4, the details appear finer and the prop has not been on a diet. For those who like resin exhaust pipes it may prove annoying that these are moulded into the fuselage. There are recesses on the outlets so hollowness can be more easily simulated than on the Airfix. I will not use any aftermarket anyway, except swastika decals (I feel that evil Nazi planes without swastikas are missing something, it feels like white-washing history, and German laws do not apply here).

The Indian Government signs the contract for Mig-29 in 1986 and the Mig-29s coming to Indian by 1987 and inducted into No.28 and No.47 squadron. The Indian Mig-29 went into action during the Kargil war and was used as an escort. However, by the mid-2000s it was getting older and IAF decided to upgrade in a similar line of Mig-29SMT, however, it included many foreign-made avionics and took her maiden flight in 2011, considered one of the most advanced Mig-29s in service around the world. All IAF Mig-29s will be upgraded to the UPG standard. It was a nice kit and I truly enjoyed building it, the details are very nice and I would say it is one of the best kits out there, Trumpeter has done it job well. The Indian Mig-29UPG is almost identical to Mig-29SMT in appearance except for a few add on the most visible being the ELT-568 jamming pod at the right vertical tail, I scratch built it, there are many small details but I omitted it. For painting I used three types of Tamiya grey and eyeball with ref pictures. Midway through the construction, I realized there is an error I made and it will cost me almost 3 months, The front canopy broke into two parts due to my silly errors, however, a fellow modeller sent me a ICM canopy which took some time to fixed on the trumpeter kit as the dimension was wee different, but finally managed to fixed it to a satisfactory level. So here it is the Mig-29UPG of Indian air force, Thanks, for looking Cheers.

Hi all, I am finally able to get the second member of the Sarcife trio rolled out and RFI for your delectation 😊. It follows my earlier AD-4N, The link being the French pilot, Jacques Borne. Jacques had 663 hours on the Magister. The Groupment Aerient Presidentiel de Gabon (GAP) received four of these machines, while the Gabon Air Force is reported to have also received three (to be confirmed). While their role was formally to protect the head of state in practical terms it was ceremonial to a very great extent. These aircraft came from Austrian stock and, following Gabonese service, this machine – TR-KFJ/368 – went to the Congolese Air Force as 9Q-CPC. It was previously 4D-YQ in Austrian service. https://fougastribute.forumgratuit.org/t192-le-fouga-au-gabon-entre-1975-et-1990 The kit used here is the exceptionally fine Special Hobby offering. It is super-detailed, and I’d venture to suggest that it is the best in scale for this machine. There are a few fit issues but essentially it is a nicely engineered kit. My main area of angst was the upper nose gun section – which is slightly narrower than the lower section. To correct that I inserted a small shim after halving the section vertically (thanks for the encouragement @Wez). For anyone contemplating a similar build be aware that there are many minute parts! Also, the French liking for complex canopy mechanisms did not help, either. Having said that I managed to corral them and get them in the intended locations. Note also that the nose guns do not fit too well. I replaced them with Plastruct rod. For the markings I used the Max Decals set Fouga Magisters Part 1 (7205). The decals settle beautifully but I quickly discovered that they are not accurate in dimensions. The wing roundels are too small, the side pennants are too big, for example. In fairness it was a set that was designed before the SH kit came along. Anyhow, as it is the only option (to my knowledge) I soldiered on and got a nearly decent representation of the aircraft early in its Gabonese career. What did I use? 1. Kit – Special Hobby Fouga CM.170 Magister (72284) 1/72 2. Aftermarket – none 3. Decals – Max Decals (7205) See above, some kit stencilling and warning marks, 4. Paints – Humbrol Polished Aluminium (27002), Matt Black, Steel (27003), Gunmetal. Model Masters Fluorescent Orange-Red undercoated with white and yellow. Various other Humbrols. All enamel. Finished with Humbrol Satincote. 5. Other – broom bristle for the dorsal aerial. 6. Weathering etc – Flory Dark dirt to accentuate the numerous hatches etc, kept to a minimum plus a few wipes with Tamiya Weathering Powders here and there. I hope you like her. Now on with the third part of the trio 😊 Martin PS: now to get the Harvard III done

Hi all, Thought that I would share some pics with you all of one of my latest completed models. Built as part of the ongoing (and excellent) Corsair STGB it is Hasegawa's 1/48 F4U-5NL built as an aircraft operated by the Argentine Navy during their 1963 (unsuccessful) revolt against their government. Still a nice kit to build despite getting on a bit it does have a few issues but nothing drastic. I used an old set of FCM decals and they performed very well indeed and certainly seem to be accurate to the pictures I have seen. Enough waffle here are the pictures; Thanks for looking and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received, and for those of you wanting to see any more here is a link to the WIP. Craig.

A couple of evenings back; luna never gets old.... Well, it does, but you know what I mean. As fascinating in daylight as darkness. Greatly appreciated on both counts Bill! 🤗 Cracking? Oo'eer Chris let's hope not with my heavy handedness! 😉 Always take your observations on such matters seriously Giorgio and will certainly be looking in detail later on at that as a display option. (This gives me a chance to watch watch Alan does with his railway carriage in the meantime and nick -errrr - pay homage to anything he comes up with... ) Your hired and can take over all my social media with immediate effect Ced! 😁 The proper 1/72 scale of course Michael! Perish the thought that this should appear in any of those 'other scales' where only the truly deviant can flourish. 😁 Done now: The top and sides were fine in fact but I'd left out the offset along the bottom. Well spotted Alan! Agreed. In fact I'm expecting quite a lot of fun at the washing and curing stage also. It gets worse. Behold the mighty Wangbot! 🤪 She didn't suspect a thing Ian - and also bought a massive banana, caramel and pecan cake with her, the dear creature! For the avoidance of doubt I was referring rather to my crudity of execution back then. 100% agree it's not an either/or situation regarding materials. (As yer man Kierkegaard wrote in his much-misunderstood allegory on modelling..) 😁 Buy a 3d printer! (Fusion you can get free for non-commercial use). I seem to recall you built your own Dobsonian - I would say that is a good index of the potential for Bill-epicness! It's all about looking and drawing: if you can combine these two to whatever degree, you can work Fusion, no problem. In fact I would say that looking and accurate observation are the most demanding part of the process - in this respect I'm blessed with being watched over by the acuity of @71chally and @hendie Typing Ho Lee Cur into the App section on the Google Play store the top hit was: - and now I have hundreds of photos of myself posing winsomely with the Korean singer/actor. Signed: 'Bewildered of Ireland' You must have been a nightmare on ops. Tower: 'Red Two, please confirm position. Over.' Red Two: 'Just behind Red Three. Over...' And you're very kind too. Many thanks Steve. It's probably true to say that I've now fitted about as much into the wingfold as I'm realistically going to be able to at this scale: At a larger scale I could probably have that latching mechanism actually working, but here, issues of material strength make that impossible to achieve. The bits in rust red are those that will be made separately from brass. (There's only a single latching pin in each of the forward latches btw purely to help me establish height/angle during building - two each in the finished article obvs..) In terms of the base drawing, the dual latching mechanism in the forward section of the fold is possibly one of the most complex pieces of draughting I've had to do for a component so far: Much of the initial stage simply involves aligning features with each other in terms of how they are articulated/interact, a byproduct of which is the assembly suddenly materializing in your mind as a working structure that you understand the nature how things activate each other in push/pull terms: To give an idea of scale, the brass rods/latch pins will be added from a mixture of 0.3/0.4mm brass tube: The rear latch mechnaism/pin assembly is an experiment for printing in that I've provided supporting extensions from the rear of them to rib 4 inboard. If these turn out to be too visually intrusive/unrealistic I can print them to be mounted separately without such supports but I wanted to see at this scale where certain visual limits lie: The vertical brackets in front of these rear latch pins' along with the large trellis-like framework overlaying the front sets' will form part of homebrew PE experiments later: All of those holes for the brass rods to fit into have had slight offsets added the diameters to (hopefully) avoid too much remedial work later: The cable-tesnioning gubbins also got added under the cable tray towards the leading edge: It won't win any prizes for detail but that is I think about as much formally as will reproduce in this scale for that section however... We've already mentioned that the reat latch will be printed as part of the wing itself, however with the more complex nature of the forward latching structures, these will by necessity be printed separately and glued into place later along with their connecting brass sections: That big silver 'knuckle' (aka the @hendie Shagbot) of the main wing linkage in the centre of the fold will likewise be printed as a separate component and locked into place with brass rod during the final construction phase of the build when the outer wing sections are added to '708: A more distant view: At this point it's sensible I think to get some further information about print viability by running some test prints of wingfold and undercarriage sections. There's no point running on through the CAD part of the process unless your design decisions are informed by the limitations of the material processes, so I want to gauge how well this level of virtual detailing reproduces as physical reality. For the wingfold, this will involve cutting about 1cm inboard and outboard of the wing sections so that only the sections of the wing immediately adjacent to ribs 4 and 4a are output - I don't need the whole wing printed to test the fold detail. For the undercarriage sections, I do have some written notes somewhere about how to break down and orient these for printing in a manner that involves as little cleanup afterwards as possible. A last look down along the sides: Hopefully in a few days I'll have some physical versions of the above output in resin and ready for you to look at! Until then, thanks as always to you all for the support - it always touches me to think of you taking the time to look over the unspeakable in pursuit of the unprintable. Tony

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

I will soon be retiring and moving to Wisconsin, where I went to University many years ago. I thus thought it appropriate to build an aircraft with some DairyLand heritage -- I chose the Lockheed Model 10 Electra of Wisconsin Central Airlines circa 1948: The worklog for this project can be found here: I began with the old, short run kit by Special Hobby, and made numerous changes & corrections. Some of the most significant are: Vacuformed a new canopy (the one in the kit had yellowed with age) Replaced the horizontal and vertical stabilizers with thinner, scratchbuilt items Added seats and details to the passenger compartment Enlarged the engine cowls and installed aftermarket Wasp Jr engines Re-built the main landing gear struts and scratch built tail wheel assembly Decals are custom made by Arctic Decals ( arcticdecals.com ). Mika did a great job on these and helped research the details. Enough yackity-yack, let's see some photos! Some close-up, detail shots: Nose lights and pitot tubes added: Aftermarket engines with added cylinder wiring and valve pushrod covers: Re-built the engine cowl, added exhausts, scratch-built correct landing gear struts, and added the leading edge landing light: Added passenger seating and detailed the interior, little of which is visible now: Mika's decals were very thin, and went on beautifully! Scratch-built rear surfaces to replace the over-thick kit items: Scratch-built tail wheel area: Wingtip and tail lights were made using UV-activated liquid gel, painted with transparent red and blue. As a side project, I converted a 1/72 WWII staff car into a 1948 Plymouth Special Deluxe sedan. Rebuilding the frontend and grille area was a real challenge to my scratch-building skills! Final beauty shots: I never expected this to become a three-plus month project. Shipping delays due to the Coronavirus pandemic left me with a lot of down time while waiting for parts and decals to arrive. But, at long last I can call this job done. My plans are to complete my Wisconsin Central Airlines collection with a DC-3 Dakota and Cessna Bobcat. But first, I have to pack up my workroom and stash for my move to America's Dairyland. That means, I won't be doing any modeling until after I've got my new workroom set up -- Probably November-ish. Wish me luck!

Hello, here's my newest ship model completed after a hiatus off modeling. Pretty straight forward build with the Infinis super detail set! Hope you enjoy!

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

My recently completed Revell 1:72 M48A5 in Norwegian Army camo To put it mildly, this is by far not the best Revell's effort. For example, roadwheels are molded as a single barrel together with arm and no hint of it being double wheel. Details like lifting hooks and towing cables are not molded with turret parts. Nor they are provided as separate parts. But they are drawn in assembly and painting guide. Like, they just are there without any indication how they got there. And the list continues. But as far as i know, this kit is the only option if you want M48 in this scale. A couple of WIP pictures:

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

Latest kit off the production line after the Corsair is my Monogram 1/48 A-37 Dragonfly built as an NA-37B used by the Test Pilots School at Edwards AFB. Having seen some pictures of these in posts by @Old Viper Tester I was really taken by the colour scheme, especially the pied USAF lettering on the starboard wing. I used decals from an old Superscale sheet for most of the markings but the pied USAF required masking and painting. The only additions to the kit are seats by Quickboost and the test probe which is a slightly modified example By Master which is designed for the F-16XL. Here are the pictures; Hope that you like her, thanks for looking and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received. Craig.

1960 part of a Jersey Airport Diorama. Build 1.http://

I have just finished the RS Models 1/72 Airspeed Envoy, but wanted to do it as G-AEXX of the King's Flight as used by King Edward VIII between 1937-39. The RS Models kit comes is several difference boxings with different engines and the version modelled is the one with Cheetah engines, which come in resin form. The kit goes together very well with some very fine details and a full cabin interior. The very nice good quality decal sheet is for all military versions - RAF, Spanish and Republic of China Air Forces, but strangely there are no decals for the King's Flight aircraft, which is well documented. Undaunted, I had a Rugrat Resins Envoy kit in my stash, which does have these decals, so I extracted the sheet from this kit and sold the kit without decals, for which my buyer was quite happy about. The Rugrat decals are quite old and frail, which I struggled with, but here is the result that fills a gap in my Royal Flight collection.

The 1:72 Zvezda kit of the Sy-24M built in Algerian markings. No real issues with the build. a nice simple kit this one. This colour scjeme is a more recent one which is lighter than the delivery scheme the aircraft originally wore. Colours used are SMS PL90 blue on the underside, on the upper side SMS PL16 sand and SMS PL92 brown. Used Begemot Decals sheet No 72-040. No issues with using Begemot decals. Su-24MK-68 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr Su-24MK-69 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr Su-24MK-70 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr Su-24MK-71 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr Su-24MK-72 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr Su-24MK-73 by Ryan Hothersall, on Flickr

Well still dealing with building dust after the bathroom upgrade (must keep wifey happy😁) I managed to get everything finished. The tin of humbrol #11 paint has been disposed of if I'm to do a kit in natural metal or silver doped it'll be from a rattle can from now on! So here goes and to make it look half decent stand back from your PC/laptop and hold your IPhone/Ipad at arms length 😂 I've always shy away from this scheme it does make a change from the standard day scheme, I will give it a bit of staining. So on with the next one

Drilling for the control and rigging cables starts. The idea is do as much as it can be done at this stage, when is still comfortable:

DH 106 Comet C4 Amodel 1/144 I bought the Amodel Comet 4C intending it to be a simple build to add to my theme of 1960's - 70's RAF aircraft in 1/144 scale. How hard could it be? After all there are just 2 fuselage halves, a 3 piece wing, a fin, a single piece tailplane, and the undercarriage. And then I read this thread going on in the civil section. Suddenly it wasn't so simple. Many thanks to Tommo and Skippiebg who added much useful information. It turned out that the kit is undersized in both fuselage length and wingspan. Anyway, I persevered and stretched the fuselage, and increased the wing area, (the WIP is here), reshaped the nose, and have now finished. It makes a change to see a civil airliner in uniform. The C4 was the the same as the civil 4C and in fact this particular aircraft XR395 was sold to Dan Air and became G-BDIT. I remember seeing it parked up at Blackbushe airfaild in the late 70's, where it was planned to turn it into a cafe/restaurant, but sadly this never happened and it was scrapped at the airfield. Decals are from 26 Decals, and were a pleasure to use. and the finally 'with something else. I'll need to crack on with the VC10now ! This is briefly what was needed to correct the kit, lots of plasticard and milliput: Thanks for looking, John

It is not widely known that the Hurricane IIA was operational in the BoB, and to be fair, there were not many, but they were... see this courtesy of @tango98 " Here are the Hawker production figures for Mk IIs built during 1940: Aug. 12 Sept. 34 Oct. 24 Nov. 47 Dec. 54 Total 171 B of B casualties from the early batches were: Z2308 111 Sqn damaged in combat 9.20 am 4 September (A/c repairable) Z2309 111 Sqn FTR from operational sortie circa 9.15 am 4 September (P/O J.Macinski MIA) Z2315 111 Sqn F/landed following combat with Bf 109s at 9.00 am 4 September (A/c repairable) coded JU-E Z2345 421 Flt F/landed due to unknown cause at 4.55 pm 26 October (A/c repairable) coded LZ-H Z2352 421 Flt F/landed due to unknown cause at 2.51 pm 19 October (A/c repairable) coded LZ-U If memory serves, the LZ code of 421 Flt was hyphenated. And some other Mk II trivia: F/flight of prototype (P3269) 11 June 1940" here is an early IIA Note Z2345 in list above.... Now, the Hurricane Mk.II is 4 inches longer than the Mk.I as the engine is longer, and the extra length is at the back of the engine bay. the cut line is marked... 50620109 by losethekibble, on Flickr I'll add more on the detail of this in the next post, and edit in some detail on what required in this in a mo... OK, here's where the changes happen from

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

Hi guys, While working on my North Africa themed subjects (currently working on Hobby Boss DAK Panzer IA, WIP soon to come), I did a little detour with this subject. It was a quick-build, straight from the box. I am no expert for French tanks and I decided to keep research to minimum as well. So I am sure there are many inaccuracies. The only change I did compared to the official Tamiya instructions is color scheme. Even though there were all kind of camouflage combinations used on this subject, light green proposed by the instructions was not very convincing to me, as it didn't match any particular paint choice from the official directives. So I just selected colors (from the Hataka French WW2 set) that matched reference photos the best and one of the combinations that was mentioned in the directives. I also did one experiment on this. As I find Hataka lacquers quite durable when fully cured I decided to do the paint job without any primer and without any clear coats. No primer was not that good idea (I had some minor chipping when pulling masking tape), but I was quite happy with the decision to not use any clear coats, as I like the Hataka semi-gloss finish, especially for the vehicles that were not exposed too much to the harsh conditions. Anyway, It's painted with Hataka lacquers, weathering was done with a combination of Mig's Europe Earth, Dump Earth and Earth and mix of 2 - 3 pigments. The build itself was super easy (as expected from Tamiya kit). I didn't even had any problems with indy link tracks, there were minimum cleanup involved. The only thing worth mentioning is that I was not able to complete the track with 102 links as recommended and I had o use 104 links. Also, photo-etch straps for stowage and tools would be welcome. Looking forward to your feedback. Cheers.

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!

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

Hi all, It feels like its been too long since last update, so here are a few bits Freshly scraped bodywork, it was therapeutic and calming, honest 😂😂😂 My delivery within a day of ordering, you can't beat hiroboy for speed We've been away for a few days, and work is pretty full on now (and I accidentally picked up a guitar) all of which have stolen my time recently. Not going to lie, the paintwork setback has had a bit to do with it, but I'm getting the motivation back, lol Freshly re-primed and filled Almost ready to turn red again after a bit more sanding on the rear. Still unsure which red to use just yet, I'll have a test spray with the zero paints red and see how it goes before jumping in I think Hope everyone is keeping well and sane Thanks for looking as always 👍

I think Johnny's right. It aint a zero sum game. Blow any cognitive dissidence; I'm gonna admire both too. He's right too. This posting lark is a lot less demanding when other brighter bods have already said it all......

Still plugging away at the figures, things are certainly improving but i needed a break from the face painting So i have done the inside of the ruin with just a few small touch up's needed and i decided not to use the unit i made for the inside ...it just looked a little too B&Q for my liking and didn't fit the 1930-45 look. Thats all...stand at ease you orrible lot. Steve

Here's my Heller 1/72 Dragon Rapide:

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!

The build was less straightforward than I imagined. It is curbside with the rear engine cover fastened down. Elements for the front and rear wings, barge boards and winglets had to be scratch made, however the engine cover reshaping went very well using the conversion piece supplied. The Sauber decals were beautiful and well produced, although setting solution and hairdryer was essential in places, I also used the C/F template set from S27 which was exceptional. On top of the conversion set I added flocking to the steering wheel, scratch made the windscreen I added tyre valves, wheel nuts and the aerial sets all designed for the F2003GA. All in all not a conversion for a beginner but nonetheless a handy practice for when I tackle the actual Ferrari F2003GA. Next up... Mansell's Lola indycar 🙂

Well, its all glued together and looks like a B-17 at last. Some filling has been done and a number of canopies sanded and polished to get them flush. Next step is canopy masking, primer and painting. regards Toby

Most of the core structure has now had two coats of the right base colour, this picture doesn't really give it credit, its very dramatic in real life, I'm loving the contrast of the MS2 and White Steve

Thank you @modelling minion and @Hewy Here's another update: the upholstery has been painted, along with the underside of the chassis. I'm basing my paintwork on this restored example, although I might pass on the 'Carpetrite' floor covering! Cheers

Now, funny you should say that but yes there was a distant relative who plunged toilets for a living, (usually for coins, lost jewelry or for the hell of it). He went by the name of Olaf Melchetta the Ever Fragrant, king of the Norse Dunny, a master handler of the berserker bog-brush. Sadly he drowned when his beard got wrapped around his plunger while clearing out a particularly stubborn port-a-potty in the Halls of Valhalla. He went down clad in only his horned helmet, his pillaging sandals and a big silly grin...at least he died doing what he loved best.

Well, that’s it. All finished. Really pleased with the result given that it’s the first car I’ve built for years. The kit went together really well and there’s scope here and there for a bit of scratch building. I suppose those that like to really go to town on the engine compartment have plenty to add or change, but I’m happy with the extra work I’ve done and how it looks, which I suppose is the all important thing. So here’s a few pictures to celebrate completion. I’ll post more in the appropriate place when I’ve had time to take them. Oh, and many thanks to those who have provided help, guidance and words of encouragement through the build.

Decals arrived late last week (three weeks from Finland), so this weekend I was able to finish up my Electra project. Here are a couple of pics at the finish line: More photos in the RFI section, here: Thanks to everyone who followed my work and contributed suggestions and comments! Special thanks to Colin for the excellent drawings, Moa for research, and Mika at Arctic Decals ( www.arcticdecals.com ) for providing the custom markings I needed.

Can I join in with this one please?? Its from the stash, always a good incentive to get it built! Battered box - surely the previous owner looked inside and said - nah.... cool box art tho Sprues - apologies for lighting - cant really see the quality of the plastic... Looks t be a bit of flash and some indistinct moulding here and there - nothing I am not used to And kit and aftermarket decals from Steelwork-Models.DE. I am fancying a splinter 3 colour camo machine - a few options. Kit decals present the serial in white, whereas I have only ever seen black serials - anyone comment? Wont be starting until I have completed the three models in the Heli group build, so need to push on with those. Cheers JP

First coat of Mr Surfacer 1000 on to see how we're travelling before adding the multitude of antennae. Not too bad; just a few details to tidy up. I'm going to remake the antennae pallet underneath, too as I didn't quite have the size or shape right. I've primed the spinners and prop blades and coated the clear parts in Future, too.