Leaderboard

Hi mates, It's been a while, but I'm still alive and kicking. Well, maybe not kicking but alive anyway. Here is my first model completed this year, and there is no excuse for that. Sure, I help babysit the grandkids, I did a special project for my old employer, I bought a new telescope to play with, and of course my usual spat of medical tests and biopsies - but no modelling? Curb your tongue, knave! So, I'm back in the resin groove. I really, really like resin kits - this may be the reason they make me sit in the corner at our model club meetings. Here is my usual summary: Project: 1:72 Blackburn Firebrand TF Mk.V Kits: Czech Master Resin (CMR) Blackburn Firebrand TF Mk.V (kit number 234 "Early FAA Schemes") Scale: 1:72 (my thumbs aren't large enough for 1:48) Decals: From the kit, representing EK747-T, Naval Air/Sea Warfare Development Unit & Carrier Trials Unit, No. 703 Naval Air Squadron, RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus), July 1947 Photoetch: Included with the kit, primarily for fiddly bits like antenna, cockpit details, probes, IFF, canopy handle, etc. Resin: Uh, um, the whole thing is resin! Vacuform: For the canopy, must be cut into two sections to be displayed open Paint: Colourcoats Extra Dark Sea Grey, Dark Slate Grey; Gunze C364 Interior Grey-Green, H74 Sky, H47 Red Brown, H11 Flat White, H12 Flat Black, H77 Tyre Black, H329 Yellow FS13538, H4 Yellow, H18 Steel, H76 Burnt Iron; Alclad 101 Aluminum, 115 Stainless Steel, 314 Klear Kote Flat. Weathering: I planned on doing some weathering, but I really like how she looks and didn't want to muck it up. So let's just say this is how she looked right out of the paint shop! Besides, the panel lines are visible enough and don't need any tar put in them. Improvements/Corrections Not much! These CMR kits are pretty complete. I replaced the cannon barrels with ones from Master (AM-72-078) I broke off most of the engine cooling blades removing the piece from its casting block, so I had to replace all of those with card stock. Same thing for the flap rails - the broken resin bits were replaced with card stock. WIP build thread: Link Now, let's see some photos. Enjoy! Those bloody little fan blades (remember this is 1:72!) You can't see any of the cockpit once she was buttoned up, so here it what is in there: Cheers, Bill

During the recent "kit you built as a kid" Group Build, it occurred to me of all the kits I built as a nipper, the one I remember most fondly was my Airfix B-17 "A Bit of Lace". This had pride of place on my bedroom ceiling, with Germans attacking from one side and Japanese from the other. Having found the kit in exactly the same box as the one I would have bought at the time, it just had to be done. I have included the build thread below, if you fancy a trip down memory lane. Here are the photos of the completed build and one of the actual aircraft herself, I hope you like them Heres the real thing Finally my thanks to Scott aka @Jinxman for the decals and @Dansk for hosting such an inspiring Group Build. Please let me know what you think. Cheers Pat

Started in march, in the beggining of Corona lockdown. Heavily modified, all improvements were inspired by excellent article by Carmel J. Attard at Seawings. In short, I completely reworked the engines and cowlings, rescribed the entire model, opened the cockpit and scratch built the interior, scratch built turret and dome, reworked the nose glazing, scratch built the entire beaching gear. All gun barrels were replaced by medical needles. I also scratched the pitot tubes and fuel dump pipes. Painted with Gunze RLM65 and Extra dark Sea Gray. Finished with AK Satin varnish. Stars are from spares, and the large number is from kit decals. All in all, I'm pleased with the result, it's not Trumpeter, but it's good enough for me.

Su 22UM3 Kitty Hawk 1:48 scale. The model, as always, made straight from the box, using the decals from the set. About set - typical model for KH cut with no sense. I do not recommend this set to beginners and those with little patience.

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 KP Cessna UC-78A in USAAF Colors, representing an aircraft of 405th Fighter Group in 1944. The KP kit seems to be a re-box of the Pavla moulds, originally released in the late 1990s. Fit is generally good, but I noticed some surface irregularities, especially on the wings. These are easily corrected with sanding sticks. The clear parts are relatively thick, which resulted in unpleasant light fames around the side windows - I should have painted the fames in a dark color before attaching the clear parts! I've added brake lines from stretched sprue. The model was painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics, all photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. Thank you for your interest in this topic. Best greetings from Vienna, Roman

Here is my latest, and possibly the last of my lockdown builds for a while (?) Monarch Airlines operated a fleet of 7 Boeing 720B’s through the 70’s and into the early 80‘s, forming the backbone of their fleet. Operating from many U.K. airports on inclusive tour flights mainly to the ‘Med’, Canaries, and on a short and not very successful Caribbean programme. This particular example started life on lease from Northwest Airlines to TWA in 1961, before going back to its original operator in 1962. Monarch acquired ‘Kilo Mike’ in January 1972 and operated it for approximately 11 years until replaced by new technology Boeing 757’s! KM ended it’s days at Davis-Monthan AFB, as part of the U.S Airforce’s programme to re-engine it’s KC-135A’s. The model is the exquisite Authentic Airliners example which comes with a choice of either turbojet P&W JT3-C’s, or turbofan JT3-D’s. As Monarch operated turbofan examples I’ll be able to use the spares on my Roden B720 that is currently a in my stash. The decals are from 26 Decals screen printed range, and although beautifully printed, proved a little problematic in that as soon as they were placed on the model they immediately bedded down onto it and stubbornly refused to move. Sadly this resulted in some of the smaller decals tearing, and the model being a little devoid of detail. Despite the aforementioned problems I’m pleased with the end result. Once again thanks for taking the time to look, and as always all comments and feedback is gratefully received. Cheers, Nick.

Hello all, Just another completed towards my ongoing quest to build up a collection of eccentric biplanes. The ICM He51 - rather a poor kit if I’m being honest. Poor detail, poor fit, poor connection points, but apart from that - excellent 😄 Nice subject though and the decals performed well. Just difficult to make into a nice looking model close up. That said, here she is... And here’s my huge collection so far... And here’s my collection stash! Hopefully to be transformed into mini aircraft soon... Guy

Pete, thanks for that reference. Is it very easily bent into shape like brass? I had a look for some in the 'bay last evening but the smallest offering was about 2.3mm diameter. Stone of course! 🤪 Still gets me that these bits had anything to do with me when I look at them printed Giorgio & Johnny. Still seems like a too magic process every time... Thanks Adrian: like many of you I feel that inner pressure to see how far you can push materials. As so much of the design process involves drawing and observation, I find it strange to call such things 'virtual' processes when they involves staring so hard at physical reality. Fear not Ced. I've kind of been keeping notes (for myself as much as anything else) about how to fit various assemblies together. It's a new departure for me to have to design a realistic sequence of how to put things together in a given order! Of course I'd forgotten the bloomin' jury struts 🤦‍♂️ (even though they're in my design notes to add holes for later on) so thanks for the nudge! Albion Alloys are my staple for anything brass and cylindrical anyway so will not be found wanting.... Plan. Coming together. Liking it and lighting cigar &etc. 😁 Slowly but slowly physical parts have begun to emerge Benedikt! 😄 It's basically a square aircraft carrier Crisp - a shoo-in for someone with your elite level of detailing skills! Could have been said by the great Terry Thomas himself! Actually yes Bill! Our one no longer toasts the bread so much as feebly warms one side whilst producing drawing charcoal from the other... Can't help wondering how the de Havilland lads must have felt the first time that the real thing locked successfully into place and the Woodbines were passed around... 😁 Cheers Daddy M. Hope all well with yourself and doughty shipmates involved in dredging the over-confident out of Poole harbour after they've fallen overboard from their plague boats... There's no plateau in sight is there Terry with the continual changes in tech? 👨‍🦳😀 In my experience, the desire for the former leads to the acquisition of the latter if one is demented/incautious/imaginative/stubborn enough.... 🕸️🧨 Today on Last of the Summer Wine.... Barely capable of writing any sense at all after giggling at that last lot of back and forth back and forth... 🧝‍♂️ Glad to see you're all in good spirits. After the intensity of the last couple of weeks getting the wingfold completed, things will be a bit slower for a while as: a) I don't want to burn out and jeopardize motivation levels b) there's still a lot of building decorating work to do on the house c) need to put a lot more time in on prepping materials & planning projects for the day job - especially as the autumn/winter will in all probability be an extremely challenging environment to work in. Noting done yesterday as up very early and over to the fowl market in Roscommon to add some chickens to the flock: Bit of a mad scene tbh; a sort of Irish rural version of Beyond the Thunderdome what with the hundreds of squawking/clucking/honking ducks/geese/chickens spread out around you. A rather stout gentleman was alsoparading a massive billy goat up an down in our midst, superbly aloof as if he were out walking with the devil. We came away with a beautiful pair of a Gold Laced Barnevelder and a Cuckoo Maran at a reasonable price, who are now settling in with the others this morning. After a later start today (Bank Holiday) I went through the list of wingfold amendments to be done in Fusion based upon the printed output of the weekend. Main highlights were the latching pins all added in now to be printed as part of rib 4 itself, plus all holes with wider offsets in order to allay some of the definition issues encountered at the printing stage. I realized also that I'd left out the male and female flap dog clutches at the rear of the fold, now included. A final render of the completed fold then: Next stage will be to start work on the RAT as a way of building myself up to the main event of engines and bays, which was always my main point of interest at the start of this build (despite a few 'minor' matters intruding into proceedings between now and then....) More as it transpires then. Tony

I offer this for RFI ...Another 'Lockdown' project i completed. This is the old tooled Airfix 'Sharkmouth' which i dedided to do OOB as the 445th BG from Tibbenham in Norfolk.. Hope you like it? The photos are not the best and probably hide a multitude of 'sins' lol and i took them at my WFH station.( Apologies ) Hand painted with Humbrol Enamels . I love the Lib as a plane wish there was a new Airfix 1:48 tooling for this! I did post these pics on another recent Liberator thread but actually this is where i should have put them..

Just finished the B-727/100, Stretched VEB 1/100 to version 200, home made decals

Dear all, In my builds I tend to swap between 1:72 aircraft and armour. This is my latest in the latter category; the Heller M4 Sherman with deep wading gear from their D-Day boxing. The little vignette is depicting one driving up the beach in Normandy. The building and painting went pretty straightforward, just the vinyl tracks annoyingly wouldn't hold their paint. I may swap them for after market tracks from OKB Grigorov later on. The deep wading trunks are included in the kit, but also a regular rear engine deck in case you want to build a standard M4. The kit also has three different gear cases that IMHO are way better than what UM provides in their kits. The canvas cover and the tarp over the stowage were made with tissue paper soaked with thinned white glue, while the stowage items themselves are from Black Dog Resin. Weathering was done with diluted black brown enamel paint and 'mud' from Tamiya weathering set 'A'. I hope you like it. Peter

Well my take on this ship after a 4 month build period trying some new techniques grinding the hull to get the oil-canned effect some people said they thought I was mad going at it with a Dremel but I think it came out OK. Used the new Vallejo coloured water gel jury is still out on that one and used the Big Etch set from Eduard added some needed details I will be adding some figures later when I can get round to finding the ones I used on my LSM build from Shapeways but the prices looks like they have gone up a fair bit. Stay Safe beefy

Kit Manufacturer: Italeri. Scale: 1/72. Paints used: Gunze, couple of Tamiya and Vallejo. Clear coats: Tamiya semi gloss. Weathering products - a clay wash overall. Aftermarket - Master pitot and AOA, Xtradecals RAF serials, acrylic rod and MDF base. This was my reference, the photo purporting to be from 1982 at "RNAS Yeovilton on return from Falkland Islands conflict aboard HMS Invincible" - http://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=183426 Ever had one of those models where past a certain point you just want to bin it... I started this back in April. Kept on "losing enthusiasm" for it, but finally "finished" it today. I wanted to mount this on an acrylic rod, but couldn't do the usual trick of shoving it up the tail pipe, so I used the rear wheel well as my hole, and stuck a piece of styrene tube inside to take the clear rod. I used Xtradecals RAF serial numbers for the 006, they're a bit oversized though. The rest of the decals are from the kit. There's a litany of problems with this model though. Mostly my own doing since getting the paint down on the main bulk of the model. Firstly I put the decals down over a semi-gloss clear coat, they silvered in places and I couldn't resolve that. The model had a clay wash over it, but it seems to just have come straight off, hasn't even gone into most of the panel lines. The barge boards behind the rear exhaust nozzles didn't turn out the colour I wanted, I must not have shaken up my Vallejo Jet Exhaust enough when I brush painted it on. I have somehow managed to get the exhaust nozzles the wrong way round in terms of the colour they are painted. I've lost a couple of parts to the carpet monster just before photographing. Some parts didn't fit nicely (the sidewinder rails for example). There is also a gap at the back of the canopy which needs filling, I've given up now so I've left that as it is! Photos - Thanks for looking.

Dealing now with the ailerons, that need extending and re-shaping:

Hello fellow modelers, I prefer 1/48 modern military aviation, but two years ago I built these M1A2 Abrams 1/35 No. 35269 from Tamiya and placed them in diorama. Every now and then I like the variety of building 1/35 modern tanks and armored vehicles, in combination with figures, this gives the model in a Dio even more expression. What I can remember was painting the US Army ACU of the military figures was not an easy thing to do, I stamped the paint with a brush. I used two figures kits, U.S. Tank Crew Modern from MiniArt 1/35 No. 37005, US Check Point in Iraq from Master Box Ltd. 1/35 No. MB359 and CONCRETE & Plastic BARRIER SET from Meng 1/35 No. SPS-012. I hope you can appreciate my first Dio! Cheers, Jos

Gaspatch kit. Great fit and details right out of the box. There is really no need for anything, maybe just a IP from Yahu.

Another of the £4 Aldi starter kits I did a couple of years ago.. I rather liked this kit very tricky to get the spiral white line on the spinner. Anyway hope you all like this one too!

I decided to have a fandabbydozie workbench session and finish this baby. Proper RFI to follow. Cheers, Bill PS. I can't believe this is the first model I've finished this year. And it's August! Arghh...

My take on the Airfix 1/72 McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom (493) Since contracting Covid-19 earlier this year, I am finding modelling can be bit of a trial sometimes. To help combat this, I decided that my contribution to a current ATF GB was going to be the 1971 boxing of the Airfix Phantom. It was supposed to be completely OOB, with no aftermarket stuff, no weathering, no scribing and a hairy stick finish. However, I had to use aftermarket decals and decided the IAF scheme needed an airbrush. The scheme and armament fit might not be totally accurate but I don't mind as it gave me some enjoyment. Dave

A build from 7 years ago: The issue #102 (April 2013) of Skyways has a long article on the Mystery Ship. “Scratchbilt” brand kits could be qualified as the most optimistic kits of all times (no kidding, and you will see why). Their #3 Travel-Air Mystery Ship is portrayed in one of the accompanying photos. The contents are as follows: three printed sheets with a 3 view, patterns, several drawings and depiction of the construction. Also there was a decal sheet by Microscale, two plastic rods and two vacuformed canopies. In this particular case the review should start: “You are on your own” (you were anyway, don’t worry) since the method given to build the model (keel, many half bulkheads, stringers, strip covering, puttying and sanding) could have worked on a larger scale or for a galleon, but it is hopeless in 1/72. The instructions also advise you to ruin other kits by cannibalizing spats and cowls that are an ill-fit anyway. The depicted method for building the stab and wing was used by the Spanish Inquisition. A truly remarkable kit, this “Scratchbilt”. Their logic and business model are equivalent to giving someone a box of rivets, the directions to an iron ore mine, a sketch and a piece of Camembert cheese and tell them to build the Eiffel Tower. I have to concede that they have a sense of humor, though, and that their brand name, “Scratchbilt”, does not hide their purpose. That being said, you still have those decals. Or do you? When David The Irrefutably Unbound from Glen Ellyn sent me some material related to the Mystery Ship, I exhumed the “kit” from the dungeons where it was kept under lock inside a coffer marked “evil”. As you can see in the photos I followed my own path here using wood for the fuselage and spats’ vacuforming plugs, the traditional one-two styrene punch for the rest, and white metal engine, prop and wheels from Aeroclub. The engine had to be modified to fit the plane’s one, which had a particular front case. The short wing struts and landing gear struts were made from brass “Strutz” stock, for which I am indebted to Andrew of England, The Slightly Iridescent. An interior was scratched as per photos, some was structural and some pour la galerie. The first Microscale decal I used was for the instrument panel and it was the source of momentary panic as I had to wait about twenty minutes for the decal to come loose from the backing sheet. Once all the main components were ready, the puttying/sanding/priming/repeat cycle ensued. The painting stage -which involved a good share of masking- required attention. At this point I tried to use the rest of the decals, but the first ones shattered in myriads of little pieces. The ones that remained in the backing sheet were treated with Testors decal bonder, but later on a few more shattered anyway as they were applied. The few remaining ones were given a few coats of Future, but again to no avail. Now, this is not Microscale’s fault, the decal must have been between 20 and 30 years old, and not properly stored. I printed the decals that failed and had a great time cutting the regs from white decal stock. The transparency was cut in three parts, the frames depicted with metal-painted decal strips, and arranged in its open position. The underwing oil coolers were made of thin aluminum sheet, engraved, cut and glued. The two Venturi probes were attached after the photos were taken (the photos of course made me realize that they were still unattached). Regarding real kits, I am aware of the 1/72 Dekno resin model of the Mystery Ship. I also built a sister ship, as I had made the wood vac masters already: Many, many pages have been written about the Travel Air Mystery Ship but I can’t tell you anything because of its inherent mystery. No ostriches or people from outer space were harmed during the construction of this model. We would like to extend our thanks to the sponsor, The Intergalactic Soenkish Empire. They used to call this a "kit". Can you believe the cheek!? A few printed sheets, a solitary strip of styrene, and a molded canopy. Even the decals shattered.

Hi mates, This is my little presentation of my latest diorama in 1/32. the Revell kit is easy to build , the MPM resin parts are mostly scrap, except the engine. I added some cables and tubes to the engine. The b/w photography was the reference. hope you like it.. have a nice weekend 🍻🍻🍻🍻 Andy .

She's on her legs now. Many touchups have been done as well. The gear was a challenge, but with the use of templates, it appears to be OK. 8AF555DD-4001-4561-812F-CEFC19B17860_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr AA63F148-06F1-439A-986F-91371945F23D_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr AA66BFF8-749D-484C-8663-39CAAA02B0A5_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr

Hello. Here is my recently completed model, the Kinetic 1/35 Bradley. A lovely kit to build. I hope you will like it. Thanks for watching.

I know they're not rigged and that the paint could have been better thought out for a clear demarcation between silver doped linen and highly polished aluminium panels but these are the first five of around 55 interwar kits I'm going to be concentrating on. I'll be building several more of each of these in different Sqn markings as I love the bright colours etc. Mostly simple builds but one or two fought me all the way (Bulldog and Demon) and I learnt a lot from each kit so hopefully each one more I build will pick up on the mistakes of the first. Finally I apologise for the pictures, I'm no photographer and haven't got the snazzy studio stuff that some have so these are taken in my garden on our patio table. All kits are built OOB and finished using a combination of Halfords and Citadel rattle cans, MRP & Vallejo airbrush ready and Revell/Citadel brush paints. Next up will be the Fairey Swordfish, Bristol 138, De Havilland Gypsy Moth, Vickers Vimy and the Blackburn Shark. All old Frog/Novo/Matchbox kits but still nice subjects and definitely kits I wanted to get done before moving onto the AModel/AZ Model/Kora/Aeroclub etc kits that were more expensive. As always all comments, questions, suggestions, queries and complaints are most welcome.

Hi...my last model....marvellous 1\48 Tamiya plus aires cockpit and same other small improvement.....largely painted:national insegna serial codes,walkaway,fuselage band....Ciao from Italy

Here my early MIG collection. MIG 15 from Tamiya and Revell. MIG 17. Kit, oh I do not remember! MIG 19. Here, the kit I do also not remember!

Hello, Here's something silly I just finished. It's a 1/32 kit from Arii, and it was only a few bucks from HLJ, so I figured, why not. It was a joy to build, not super detailed, and not the best clear parts, but otherwise pretty decent for a kit from the mid '80's. I used the recommended mix of Gunze paints for the blue, and the rest is mostly Tamiya and Vallejo. Thanks for looking!

Hello everybody, Here is the recently finished result from pandemic quarantine days. This is 1/32 Hasegawa P-47M with the markings of “Josephine / My flying machine” from 62FS 56 FG in Boxted January 1945 Cockpit modified with Aires cockpit set and Yahu instrument panel. Wheels are from Barracudacast I have used Zots decals set (ZTZ32/013) Paints: Gunze Sangyo acrylics and Alclad lacquers. Happy modelling

This is my build of the Italeri 1/72 Vought AU-1 Corsair. This actually started as the Italeri F4U-7 but the kit included the correct parts (cowling front) for the AU-1. While I am not usually a fan of Italeri kits this one went together very well. The only issue is that the fuselage is the correct length for the F4U-4 and earlier versions and is too short for the F4U-5 and later version by 10 scale inches (.13" at 1/72). I fixed this by clamping an Evergreen of .125 x .040 strip around a 9/16 socket and putting it in boiling water to make a plug that I inserted right behind the cowl flaps. This boxing did not have AU-1 decals but I found Printscale and Superscale sheets with markings for the same aircraft. I have found both companies sheets to be problematic (Printscale's tends to want to curl up into a ball when you try to move them, and Superscale's tend to fall apart) so I bought both and while both exhibited their characteristic problems I was able to mix and match to get one complete set. Comparing them side by side the Printscale decal films disappear on the model better then the Superscale ones. Anyway, here it is. Next up will be the Eduard F6F-5N. Enjoy

Hallo, this is my latest Jet built during Lockdown times. The old kit is still worth to build! Added some parts like Aires nozzle and PE parts in the cockpit. Also added complete rivets wich is hard to see. Decals were from Airdoc and colours came from AK Real colours wich appears quite dark, so that I light them up a little bit. Please enjoy the pic’s! Cheers Andy

I was wanting to have a go at some figure work and I saw some pictures posted by Stevej60, I was inspired and decided to give it a try. This is built from the Masterbox 1/35 'Before the Battle'. The box includes the figures and trench, I built the box from artists board and stripwood. The result doesn't meet the standards of Steve's but I'm fairly pleased for a first attempt.

Built oob.Nothing much to add.I painted them with tamiya acrylics.

Looking closer to what it should be now:

Another model I did before I came over to the Dark Side of Britmodeller! one of my all time favourite aircraft.. Lightning. Remember seeing these as a kid and how impressive they were! Hope you Like this one.. it's hand painted again and with Humbrol Enamels.

I was posting a reply yesterday after having read iang book, where I found several interesting information, when he replied himself... I had also gone through a good number of colour pictures, trying to find the oldest showing Sky and comparing them with more modern use of the colour (meaning mainly FAA and RAN postwar types). Still I felt that I was missing something and this was the chapter in AK's book. Now that I have read this I feel more confident,,. There was not much new to me in this chapter, apart from the indication of the use of different formulas. However no mention is made of a change in the resulting colour and I read this as an indication that the author did not find any evidece on this. Knowing how thorough Millman is in his research, he would have mentioned a change in colour if he had found any evidence for this. But what about Bowyer's observations ? There's a problem here that is common to all eyewitness observations (and to pictures too): an observation only accounts for whatever object is observed and if not used together with other information can not be used to determine a standard. The matter is not that people don't believe in what Bowyer saw, the matter is that we can't tell if what he saw was an indication of one thing or the other without having access to further information, I personally believe in Bowyer's observations, but what do they mean ? I believe that Bowyer saw a greener Sky used in the early days, but does this mean that the original standard for Sky was greener? Or did he witness the result of the confusion on the appearance of this new colour that most commands seem to have experienced ? The reality is that we don't know. Unless he had access to the MAP colour chips, he could not know what the standard was supposed to be so all we can learn from this observation is that some aircraft featured a greener Sky compared to the colour he saw on later aircraft. He may have simply seen the kind of hues that Lucas mentions in his findings. We know today that the confusion over the true colour of Sky led to the use of various blue-greens and even blues, maybe this is what he saw. Or maybe the original composition for Sky led to excessive variations and he witnessed one such variation, maybe this was one of the reason why the formula was later changed. This does not mean that observations like Bowyer's are useless, they are on the contrary extremely useful. However they are even more useful when used together with the wealth of documentation we have today, part of which was not available during the war or immediatly later since it was only declassified in the '70s. Not that all these documents make things easy, the continuous mixing of colloquial and official names for example has likely led to a lot of confusion among researchers and modellers... there's a reason why I like the use of numbers in colour standards ! Personally I believe that, according to the information researchers have made available to us, the standard for Sky did not change during the war and that there was just one Sky. What did change was the application of the same colour, not only within the variations common to every colour (variations in production batches, different application methods etc) but also in the early lack of paint that led to a number of different interpretation of what the colour was supposed to look like and in the need to reproduce something for which only a basic description had been given.

Thanks Keith Mr Surfacer eh? Is that smelly? Does it fill too? I have 'a stock' of Stynylrez so I'll be staying with that for a while. Mojo's still a bit low but I wanted to see how the masks fit the Airfix. Got the wings done before mojo expired: As you can see it's quite tight on some edges and there's a 'step' in the port wing root which I assume will get filled with the fuselage mask. The schemes are also slightly different so I had to go with the Arma positioning. Ho hum. Tips of note (not new but worth a reminder): Thanks to John (Biggles) for suggesting a nail tool thingy for burnishing - the smooth side is great for general rubbing down and the sharper tip for shoving the mask into panel lines. Thanks to Giorgio (Giemme) for suggesting using a cocktail stick to balance the mask on while positioning with tweezers.

Hi FS As requested As to your request for further details. I used to include more details as to how I managed to fudge together my builds. This evoked little to no reaction leaving me feeling as if I was blowing my own trumpet. In addition this build will involve very little scratch building and therefore it would be inappropriate. As to PE work I'm a novice If you wish to ask questions feel free on the forum or by PM. Keep up the good work on the Vosper Kev

so i got some of the new style 14ml Humbrol paint to try, i have used tamiya and vallejo for the last 15 years finding humbrol products to be sub par and generally unusable so i wanted to test these as i still know paints the H numbers, any matt black will forever be 33 . They spray very well when thinned with Isopropyl, they are very dense paints and take a lot of thinning but they don't seem to bobble on the plastic and very little tip dry, very easy to get fine lines , this paint is a massive improvement on what has come before, on the jar it is claimed to be made in UK, i may well start to switch to this paint . First test spray laying paint on an old test model, nice even coverage with little effort with highly thinned paint .

Trumpeter 1/35 Veroshilovets Tractor, build 2016. 👋

A very fun build now completed. Hope you like how it turned out. Stay healthy and cool out there. /T

- Coincidentaly, after the excellent KORALIK64 this is another Fitter two-seater. in 1/48 scale - This one is from HOBBY-BOSS. I had this in my stash, the one from KITTY-HAWK definitely better. - The ladder , platform and wheels shocks are from a new brand (to me) 3D printed stuff.

I've started this build five years ago, and i've only finished it today, I am glad that I could've saved this model. I just need to varnish it, I wanted it clean so I did not made a wash or gun fumes, on the next models i guess. I wanted to finish this kit quick to start a new one.

A build from 12 years ago: The Nemeth Umbrellaplane, as its name indicates, was created to minimize the weather impact while waiting on the tarmac on rainy airstrips. Or not. Thanks to one of the very good publications issued by Bill Hannan at Hannan’s Runway, this model could finally see the light of day (under the umbrella, that’s it). This beautiful machine was the brainchild of Mr. Nemeth, and was built by students of the University of Miami. The fuselage is from a stretched Alliance Argo, and was powered by a Warner Scarab. Later in its life the wing was altered to another, even stranger, split configuration. A bit more of information can be found at Aerofiles: http://www.aerofiles.com/_n.html The model, as you can tell by the “in progress” photos, is made basically, as usual, from styrene sheet and rod. Aeroclub engine prop and wheels completed the needed parts. The forest of struts was dealt with using brass “Strutz”. Once I got all the parts on the table I gently blew over them and pronounced the powerful word “Shazam!” And the model came to life. The truth is out there.

Cab is done. This is where it's at now... This is with doors and bonnet dry fitted. The doors will be red on the outside. Running boards black.

Well, I’ve given up on Peddinghaus coming up with the decals, in fact, I’ve given up on them even replying to my emails. So with that in mind, it was down to me to come up with an alternative. Fortunately, the one that I chose has simple markings. A simple inverted V on each side of the turret which looks as if it was hand painted, so that helped. It’s painted with ExtraColour’s matt white using the hairy stick. It took a couple of coats until I was satisfied with the result. The gun barrel was masked off and the white stripe sprayed on. Then it was given a coat of Vallejo’s gloss varnish and left to dry. The only other markings are the registration number 109158, front and back. For these I first applied a strip of black decal. The numbers came from a couple of sources. 10915 came from a Hasegawa sheet for the F5F Panther and the 8 from the Airfix Banshee. At the end of the number there is a dash and the Hebrew letter Tsadic. The only way that I could achieve this was to “paint” them using a very pointed cocktail stick. It came out a bit thick and indistinct, but in this scale (and with some mud and dust thrown over it) who’s to know? Most IDF turrets had their own registration number, a practice that started in the late 1950s. The number for this tank is supposed to be 6826, but anyone with perfect eyesight will be able to see that that’s not what’s on this turret. I was lucky just to be able to find numbers this small, and again they came from the Panther kit. It’s followed by what looks like an upright 7and Tsadic. Again, the cocktail stick came into play. I also added a couple of washes to bring out some of the detail. 24 hours later, the model was sprayed with a matt acrylic varnish and left to dry. Then I'll be moving onto some detail painting and working on the wheels and tracks. As always, thanks for looking and any comments are welcome. John.

Speaking, as I'm assuming we are, as people to whom that particular epithet is very unlikely to ever be applied it's easy enough to say "It's just a name" or "It's just a word" but what might have been hilariously funny or even ordinary enough in 1940 definitely isn't acceptable today bearing in mind black people have had it used against them by people with exactly the sort of untermensch mentality that ironically Gibson and all the others involved were fighting against, knowingly or not at the time. That's not a dig at you Peter, but if 'political correctness' means having a bit of respect for the feelings of others then I don't have a problem with it. Anyway as you say we don't do politics here so let's leave it there and move on to more wholesome pastimes... Cheers, Stew

Evening Gentlemen A little bit of progress today, infinitely less than I wanted, because my grand-daughter is at home since yesterday and she monopolized me (hum, is that sentence correct in English ?) Overall, I've wasted the few time I had, spoiling my steering column during the plating process. In fact, the very tiny welds have been injured, and when I've cleaned the part after the plating, the left switch detached from the steering column. So I've redone all the job, and finally got an acceptable stuff after 3 hours of hard work And I've also glued the tiny knob on the left lever and painted it semi-gloss black. As you can see, it remains to scratch the two levers (not the easier work ! ) of the right switch and to paint the steering wheel. Stay tuned if you like nd thanks for watching

No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition! http:// Beware, Bill.....🤣🤣🤣

Guys, many thanks for your comments. Yes, she is coming to an end, only minor works left to be done. I did a bit of weathering, mainly some washing aroud the engines, where I forgot the preshading. Also I tried to create some exhaust stains under the wings, which barely ever will be seen - looks ok but I failed to take a picture. 😉 I tried to accentuate the rivet lines with the washing as well, but it didn't turned out the way I wanted. It left to many stains on the surface and the rivet lines are to small to be seen, so I skip it. My guess it's the oil mixture, to much colour and to little turpentine (which I don't find at the moment). Mounted the counter weights on the tail as well as the speed probe(?) on the left wing, replacing the rather old plastic lump with a piece of guitar string, and here's so far. Just waiting for the stains to be dried, removing the masks, mounting the propellers, the ladders, and the antenna wire - that's a silver lining.

So, a quick catch-up of the weekend's progress... the rudder was attached and I used some Albion Alloys brass rod to replicate the rudder actuator rods - Eduard do provide these as part of the etched set, but they are a bit two-dimensional for my taste: The tailplanes are completed; the tabs fix them in the neutral position but I imagine if you had a mind to, you could cut off the tabs and droop the stabilisers: Then it was on to the wheel-wells for the main landing gear. It's a curious construction process with part of the bay going into the upper wing and part into the lower wing. I ignored Eduard's colour call outs (alumium for the bays and black for the gaiter in the round part of the well) and went with RLM02 - I painted the gaiter a couple of shades of tan and gave it a brown wash for a dirtied effect: The 'leg' part of the bay was attached to the lower wings: ... and the wing guns were added, as you can't just pop them in after the wing halves are joined: Finally, the wing halves were joined, it was a bit of a squeeze here and there but it all went together in the end: I think the next steps are to add the ailerons, leading edge slats and flaps, I'll have a study of the instructions before I move onto that... Cheers, Stew