Leaderboard

Here is the Roden Boeing 720B finished as G-BCBA, a former American Airlines aircraft operated by Invicta International in the summer of 1974. G-BCBA seems to have been the only jet to carry Invicta’s full red and black livery. The model was inspired by reading “Take Off to Touchdown” by Malcolm Finnis, a fascinating book highly recommended to anyone with an interest in second-level British airlines and the lives of those who worked for them. To digress for a moment, the book also contains a thorough debunking of the official report into the 1973 Basel Vanguard crash which blamed Invicta’s pilots. The author argues a persuasive case that the accident happened because of problems with the airport’s navigation aids rather than errors by the crew. Since the pilots died and the aircraft had no CVR they were convenient scapegoats. Well worth a read for anyone interested in that tragic event. Getting back to G-BCBA, this was my first build of the Roden kit and it didn’t give me any major problems although I was surprised by the amount of filling at the wing roots. I knew the fit of the engine pylons to the wings was poor so I attached these before painting and managed to achieve decent joints but at the expense of fiddly and awkward masking complicated by G-BCBA having unusual grey pylons. I replaced the over-sized and inaccurate nose wheels with a pair found in the spares box, possibly from a Revell B767. I also added plastic rod pegs to strengthen the rather precarious joint between the tailplanes and the fuselage. Otherwise the build was OOB. White paint is Halfords. The lower fuselage was noticeably darker than normal Boeing Gray and I used Halfords Ford Polar Grey because I had a can handy. Natural metal is mainly AK Interactive Aluminium plus some rattle can silvers, a little Rub’n’Buff and a touch of MiG Polished Metal. Coroguard is a home brew of Humbrol 11 and 128 mixed by eye (probably about 1:5). The grey forward sections on the upper wings (which don’t show up well in the photos) is Revell 374 sprayed on to clear decal film. Some aluminium decal completed the ensemble. Decals are by 26 with an Authentic Airliners windscreen. Although the decals are accurate and a good fit on the model I found considerable care was needed with the red ink which was very “fragile” - easily scratched and prone to flaking if I looked at it the wrong way. It didn’t help that the red is a difficult colour to touch up and a few areas of G-BCBA don’t really bear close inspection, particularly around the fin. If I was building the model again I would spray the fin with a circle masked for the logo. Thanks for looking and as always constructive criticism is welcome. Dave G

Great little Tamiya kit with excellent fit but without much surface detail, so I've added the rivets. Cheers, Jorge

Here is my finished Revell Airbus A320-251N(SL) in the livery of British Airways registration G-TTNH. This has been my first build for nearly 5 months due to personal reasons, and my skills were a bit rusty. The build was a simple OOB although I had to change the engines as BA use the Leap 1A engines and luckily I had previously built the Revell A321 Neo kit which had both engines with it. I do like the new Revell airbus kit, it is well detailed and the only thing I don’t like is the fact that the A320 Neo kit doesn’t come with the landing gear. However, this wasn’t a problem for me as I was building this as a desktop model for myself. This is the first time I’ve built a kit without the gear extended. The decals are another great example from RichW Decals and fit the model seamlessly. The photo real windows and cockpit are from Authentic Airline Decals The paints I used were Halfords Appliance Gloss white, Halfords Fiat Capri Blue which is a good out of the can choice for British Airways blue. The wings are Holts Grey with authentic airlines A320 decal for the coroguard sections. The greys and metals are a variety of Revell Aqua Colours. As this was going to be a desktop model, I wanted to try and find a ‘creative’ way to display it for the presentation photos. I opted to use cotton wool balls to create an ‘in-flight’ effect. As always thank you for looking and any feedback/comments are always greatly received. Regards, Alistair

Hello all; Here's my just completed Helldiver. There's a story to the paint scheme which is too long to relate here; there's a WIP thread which has most of the story and the rest can be found on my site if you're interested. The short version is that I reckon this to be a repaint of an airframe that was originally finished in the four-colour scheme. I must admit, the WIP itself is a bit light on detail, I need to up my game in that department! I added a fair bit of aftermarket on this one, most notably of course the wing fold. Almost all of it was a waste of money however, either because it wasn't much of an improvement on the kit parts or it really can't be seen. The wing fold was excellent though, and I would recommend it. Overall it was a fun build, but the extras aren't usually my thing and this one reminded me why 🙂 Anyway, the pics; Cheers; Mark.

I'm continuing my flooding the forum with Bf109's. Another 1/48 Hasegawa Bf109. This had been one of my longest reigning shelf queen, being left half-built since 2001. It started out as a G14 but, with tiny bits modification, now finished as a G6 in the color and markings of one of Hartmann's machines. Nanond

1/72 Academy F-100D Super Sabre, "Pretty Penny", 481 TFS, Tan Son Nhut AFB, Vietnam, 1965 This was another build that was sitting on the SOD waiting for some inspiration to finish it. The poor fitting insert in the belly for the cannon led to its stay at the SOD Hotel.... Flown by Lt Lt Peter Vanderhoef and Lt Jerry Sloame, Pretty Penny was named after Sloames Wife. Other than the cannon insert, the kit goes together very well. Not many parts to throw glue at and you have a decent Super Sabre for your collection. Airbrushed using Tamiya paints and a Flory wash for the panel lines. We all know that the standard Academy decals are rubbish so I was not expecting any different from these (I had aftermarket standing by) - I was pleasantly surprised in how well they behaved. Very nice indeed. Cheers all, Phil

The Blohm and Voss 138 Sea Dragon AKA the 'Flying Clog' entered Luftwaffe service in the early '40s in a maritime patrol and reconnaissance role. I was surprised to see it was powered by Jumo diesel engines. I don't know how common it was to use this type of engine and wonder what life was like for the exposed upper gunner behind three of them. This is a Revell boxing, but from Scalemates time line it appears to be a reboxed Supermodel from 1977 and did present some challenges.

This is the F-8E Crusader from the F-Toys US Navy Collection Volume 2. These are pre-painted Gashopon trading kits from Japan - apparently you can buy these in vending machines. Oh how I long to live in a country where I could pick up a kit in a vending machine! I stripped and repainted it completely. Well worth picking up if you want a few evenings worth of fun. More familiar in this scale is the Platz F-8, though that is an earlier mark. For a gashopon, this is among the nicest I have built in terms of fit and details. I'd quite forgotten how good it is. I think the only Gashopon kit that rivals it is the F-Toys Curtiss Helldiver. Truly must have been a labour of love for the creators - the attention to detail is brilliant for this scale (and a kit that sells for less than £6 over there) - even the interior of the engine burner can is nicely moulded. Yes the panel lines are heavier than the Platz kit but they are very modest indeed compared to many other styrene or resin kits being released in 144 these days. The only bits I added were to tart up the cockpit a bit with some seatbelts and a few details on the ejector seat like the yellow/black pull cord. I also stole some Zuni rockets and pylons from the Platz kit (incredibly fiddly to assemble I found) as the photos I could find of a VF-13 Crusader showed it with Zunis mounted. Paint was Hataka. I probably weathered it way too much for a mediterranean cruise but you do see photos of these quite dirty and I was having fun and trying some new techniques. I'm really quite pleased with the results, I have to say. My one regret is the oil panel wash on the white belly particularly is too harsh, but I don't really want to mess with it any more. Knowing when to stop is good - ask me how I know... The decals area also from the kit - though I stole the insignia from the Platz kit as well as a few spare stencils from the old Microscale sheet. The F-Toys decals worked remarkably well - they are often very hit and miss. Though on the thick side they settled into the surface detail very well with some setting solution and they are very well printed (none of the graininess of some F-Toys decals). The one thing I notice now is missing is the number 1 on the flaps/ailerons. I'll have to add that now - I always notice something when writing these things! The scheme I went for is for an aircraft from VF-13 Nightcappers which flew the F-8E from 1964-1966 on several cruises in the Mediterranean aboard USS Shangri-La. The paint scheme changed in 1966, so this dates this particular aircraft to mid-1965. I wanted a change from photographing things on aircraft carriers so this particular F-8 has put down on land. Probably never happened but indulge me. Heroes Models figures and cart, Brengun MD3. A lovely kit - looking forward to the new F-Toys Crusader release in November (which my conscience is now cleared to buy having finished all my previous release boxes!). Finally - with some of the other USN aircraft I've finished the past couple of months. There's a bigger brute in the works next... Thanks very much for looking, as always, if you made it this far. Angus

Afternoon, Hope you're all well - thought Id jump in here. - Just a heads up, that we're not in this for the money. i.e we're not going to retire on 20 kit sales. I'm here as I love seeing these builds! So, when we manage to decide on a kit I am more than happy to check our pricing and supply the kits to you all at cost plus P&P. Id also extend this to a kit of any value, so if you fancy building something a little more exotic/expensive Id of course be happy to apply the same level of discount. So, no need to be concerned about getting hold of the kit, we're make sure its something we can get hold of (but will most likely have in stock anyway) and offer it to you as cheaply as we can. - Ideally we'd like to see everybody build the same kit, this promotes thinking outside the box. i.e last time we did a P51 Mustang and it was great to see variation from the box livery to awesome race liveries etc. - As for a "winner", last time I'd let my staff review the pictures and vote for their favourite. Be aware that not all of my staff are model builders, thus several will probably vote for the "coolest" paint job! So, if you make an awesome looking model, then its likely they could overlook any minor imperfections! Finally, with the power of social media I could quite easily promote this GB to a load of our existing customers. What do you think? Try and get some new members on Britmodeller and onboard or leave as it is? Cheers, Russ

The last summer has been a productive one for me. I took 3 Hasegawa Bf109's down from the shelf of doom and finished them all (plus 4 others!). This Bf109F-4/R1 was the newest among the 3, being on the SOD since just 2014. Nanond N.

I had built an Italeri RF-4 once before, so when one came up boxless & cheap on eBay I thought that I could either use it to convert the nose to a later batch rounded nose US RF-4C in Euro One camo, or keep the chisel nose and go Luftwaffe splinter camo. Then I built an Alpha Jet in splinter camo & the decision was made. So here she is. No aftermarket, but I did rescribe it to remove the raised panel lines, and scratch improved the cockpit area. The flaps were detached and lowered, making it look more in line with the pricier kits that usually come with separate flaps. Two RFs for the price of one! And without the dio. Thanks for looking

This is my Mirage 3E in 1/48 scale. This is a rebox of the quite old ESCI kit, but it captures the general shape of the Mirage 3 quite well I think. It has raised panel lines, which I accented by slightly polishing the paint off the panel lines with a very fine nailbuffer. I am not completely happy about the way the NMF turned out, but it was a good project to learn from. Most of the paints are Vallejo and Mig acrylics. Kind regards, Gerben

Here's my second completion of the Group Build and the year: the 1/72 Arma Hobby Hurricane I. This model represents P3039 RE-D of 229 Squadron in September 1940, flown by the Belgian Pilot Officer Victor Marcel Maurice Ortmans. A potted biography of 'Vicky' Ortmans is here. The Arma Hobby kit was mostly a pleasure to build, there are some really nice features and a couple of traps for the unwary, but thanks to the groundbreaking builds of @Procopius and @lasermonkey I largely avoided them except where I clearly hadn't been paying attention. It was built more or less OOB with the additions being the Eduard Superfabric seatbelts, the Peewit canopy mask set, the P-Model camouflage mask set ('A' scheme) and a small disc of clear acetate for the gunsight reflector plate which is, of course, entirely invisible in the pictures above... The paints used were Colourcoats Sky (ACRN01), Dark Green (ACRN09) Dark Earth (ACRN10) Night (ACRN17) and Interior Grey-Green (ACRN28), the decals were from the kit (national markings) which in the BoB Edition set are printed by Techmod and were excellent, and Aeromaster (squadron and aircraft codes, serials and nose-art) from their Battle of Britain Hurricanes set, long out of print. The model was matt coated with Xtracolour Matt Varnish, and exhaust and cartridge ejector chute-staining were done with ground-up hard pastels and the slight oil-staining under the nose was a mix of black and brown Citadel washes thinned down with a bit of Klear. The final touch was adding the aerial wire from Infini Fine White Lycra rigging thread. I'm pleased with how it turned out, and doubly pleased to have finished more than one model this year Ongoing build thread is here; two more Hurri's are in the works... Cheers, Stew

Well kudos to you as well, if you hadn't put me onto the 1/200 aircraft fraternity I would still have a big problem, and thanks again for the Seahawk ! As for the carrier, its the Heller (well actually very little of it survived) 1/400 Illustrious, built, (predictably enough) as Victorious in 1941.....you can probably spot a theme here !! I did post some pictures of it on here several years ago but I think that they have been "photobucketed" before anyone says anything, I know the colours are not strictly correct ! And finally, the gratuitous lighter shot ! Yes he most certainly would Crispin, that could possibly lead to being disowned !! Cheers all David

Having had a wee lull I finally managed to finish this 1/72 Micro-Mir Canberra T17. I ended up finishing as a 360 Sqn aircraft from RAF Wyton in 1985, mainly because the decals with the kit were incorrect. Built OOB using the Modeldecal 85 set and addition of the HF aerial using fishing line. Was looking forward to building this when it came out but probably used not far off as much filler as there is plastic and it fought me all the way. Got the weighting in the nose wrong but the trick with the wire in the wheels worked a treat. Apologies for the poor photographs but they hide the flaws quite well. 😀

1/72 Airfix EE Lightning F.6, XR761, 56 Squadron, RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, 1975 Flown by Wing Commander A L Blakely. The Airfix Lightning and indeed the Lightning itself need no introduction. Here is my representation using Tamiya paints and decals by Xtradecal. A Flory dark grey wash was used to highlight the panel lines and you can imagine that a Wing Commanders aircraft would be kept pristine! I have added etch ejector handles and also the twin whip aerials using sprue. With so many lovely schemes available for the Lightning you could keep yourself busy for many a year. Cheers all, Phil

Hi guys. Want to show you my second Viggen. Early this year I built the Sk 37 from the Special Hobby Duo Pack, now the AJ 37 followed. Some extras were a pilot from PJ Production, pitot tubes from Master and the m/70 rocket pods from Maestro. I used the nice vinyl masks from DN Models for the paint scheme. Cheers Daniel

When I was growing up there were three choices, if one wished to build a P-6E. There was the Monogram 1/72 scale offering and two 1/48 scale kits, the Aurora Models example and one produced by Crown Models. I built the Monogram example a few times and the Aurora kit, I remember that the Aurora kit cam molded in a metallic green color and, as was typical for them, it had the markings molded on the parts, in addition to having decals. I suppose it so one could paint the markings in lieu of the decals. I do not recall ever seeing the Crown Models example on the shelves of any store I frequented, though I do remember a kid who lived a couple of houses down from me had one on display that had been built by his father. The next time I would encounter a P-6E was in the nineties, in the form of a vacuform kit, the name of the manufacturer escapes me. I built it, using the wings and struts of a F-11C, even though they aren't correct for a Hawk. Unfortunately it befell an accident, however about this time the Lindberg kit showed up on the market and I salvaged the white metal, prop and exhausts along with the cockpit floor, control stick, seat and instrument panel. As it turns out the Lindberg kit is the old Crown Models offering, Lindberg bought up the molds from other makers when they went out out of business, such as Crown, Pyro, etc. Considering the vintage of the original molding it's not a bad kit, I'm glad that I saved the cockpit parts, however, the IP and seat left a lot to be desired, the vacuform kit parts along with some parts from the spares box and PE lap belts and shoulder harnesses made the cockpit much better. Another thing that needed to be addressed was the radiator, it had completely inaccurate crosshatched mesh for the intake and the rear was blanked off, so I opened those and replicated the fins of the grilles with thin plastic rod laid side by side. I think it worked well. I decided not to use the white metal exhausts, the kit molded ones look good enough. Flying wires came in the kit, it came with thin steel wire that is cut to length, for some reason they look thicker in the photos than they actually are, the aerial wires were made from stretched sprue. Decals are from the kit and went on very well, the markings represent the aircraft flown by the Commanding Officer of the 17th Pursuit Squadron 'Snow Owls' based at Selfridge Field. And so, on to the photos. Thanks, in advance, for looking.

Hello I have finished the 1/72 Zvezda Sukhoï Su-57 kit. I have chosen No 511 prototype as it has likely operated form Russian bases in Syria and I have found a couple of pictures of her. The build is easy as with every new aircraft kits form Zvezda. On the other hand there is nothing for the pixelated camouflage except a wrong scheme on the instruction sheet. So I used my Silhouette Portrait to make masks and get a better camouflage scheme. Both colors came from the Tamiya Lacquer Paint range and how I saw them on the available pictures.. Patrick

Heir to the CAUDRON RENAULT line of aircraft designed by the engineer Marcel RIFFART (victor of the DEUTSCH de la MEURTHE cups), the CAUDRON SIMOUN made its first appearance during the XIV Paris Air Show in 1934. Baptized the C 620, it was the first passenger aircraft to fly at more than 300 km/h. It was an instant success and attracted many orders. The French Air Force alone ordered 490 SIMOUN C 635s.In addition to its military missions, the SIMOUN was the star of many expeditions and many pilots - of whom St EXUPERY, Maryse BASTIE, Marcel DORET are the most famous - used it for their pre-war flight attempts. The illustration on the box shows the C635 with which Doret and Micheletti attempted the Paris-Tokyo journey in January 1937 in less than 100 hours. This attempt came very close but ultimately failed due to difficult weather conditions. Heres the box, this is an original from 1978 Heres the parts I got the kit very cheap because the decals were missing, however a fellow Britmodeller James aka @invidia came to my rescue, so I can build this one in all its stripy glory ! Cheers Pat

Hi there, this is my first post in britmodeller so I hope you guys like it. A couple of months ago I came back to the hobby after a long seven years without modelling anything… Since I got into model making I always wanted to build the Bismarck. 13 years ago I purchased Revell’s 1/350 scale kit, back then the best and most complete kit you could it have. Unfortunately soon after I moved across the world to Sydney and I couldn’t bring it with me. Then years later I got Trumpeter’s 1/700 with a bunch of aftermarket detailed sets but then again, after my daughter was born I was not able to build it because of lack of time and I put it aside with the hull and turrets done. But this year when browsing online at my local hobby shop I stumbled upon this AMAZING Flyhawk kit. I got the deluxe FH1132S version which comes with 8 plates of photo etched parts and metal barrels. Because this was my third attempt to build it and motivated to do the best possible I’ve also got a wooden deck and detailed metal mast by infini models. And finally, exactly after a month of working every day I’ve finished. I decided to build it as seen on the 21 of May of 1941 when at the beginning of operation Rheinübung, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen stopped briefly in Grimstadfjord, southwest of Bergen in Norway. The baltic camouflage on the superstructure was no longer there but it is still visible on the hull with the sailor starting to paint it over. And here just a couple of images from the building process: Cheers, Jorge

Special Hobby 1/72nd de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito project is not dead! Evidence here in a recent (27/09/2020) SH blog publication: https://www.specialhobby.net/2020/09/poznate-na-cem-pracujeme.html A NF. Mk.XV? V.P.

A new update folks, the next few stages deal with the outside of the turret, Miniart provide PE for the tie down brackets, but they are flat and don't look right, so i decided to make new ones myself. The instructions also show that there are small cut outs for these brackets to go into. But there is nothing on the actual model so i had to eyeball these on using some reference photo's, they seem about right. I also stretched some sprue and added to the side of each bracket to try to simulate weld. The large handles always look better in copper rather than the plastic, I just used the Miniart brackets as templates. View showing turret with hatch and last two shells on their brackets all ready for painting. I had to modify the top plate slightly by cutting around the mount, the one that has the PE on top of the light, otherwise this would have locked the top plate in place stopping removal and giving a restricted view. This is the underside of the turret, some smashing detail, which will be seen upon finishing. Finally painted, detailed and weathered the underside of the turret. The underside of the turret with the top plate in place. That has now taken me up to stage 95, just another 9 stages to go, then i can start on painting the exterior, I'm nearly there!!! The next stages are more parts to the outside of the turret, hatches, lights etc then finally gun barrel. I'll update as soon as i can. thanks as always for looking in... Ed

Thank you gents 'Vicky' Ortmans' Hurricane is in the Gallery here Now to get on finishing 'Widge' Gleed's... Cheers, Stew

Ta-daa! Blimey, all tbose strut ends look rough...

Thanks Jabba First one finished: I'll take the 'glamour' shots for the Gallery later when the light is better. The wing lights fitted fine but I did take the precaution of clearing the areas they fit into of any paint that might prevent a good fit; it was still pretty tight. I used Infini Fine White Lycra thread for the aerial wire, it's almost invisible which I think is fine for the scale. I used ground-up blackish grey, dark brown and light grey hard pastels for the exhaust and gun ejector port staining, and some Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade mixed up washes from Citadel for the oil leakage under the nose; 'Vicki' Ortmans' Hurricane showed surprisingly clean undercarriage doors in the one photo I found that showed this aicraft so it may be that this particular engine did not urinate oil in the way that some Hurricanes show the signs of, so I kept the leakage to a minimum on this one. Cheers, Stew

Hello everyone, sorry it has been a while--I feel like I have let a few of you down with my lengthy delay--especially @giemme , @The Spadgent to name a few. That said, on to the build. So this was a big airbrush re-learn/education for me--I can hear Martin @RidgeRunner telling me to thin my paint--especially Tamiya acrylics. The first series of photos is the initial paint job. As you can see, I believe the primer, pre-shading and neutral grey went on fine. The issue was a really old bottle of Tamiya Olive Drab that was not thinned--it had the consistency of sand paper. (I am sure many can understand why I did not make a great photographic record of this learning point🙄) After acknowledging, that I screwed this up, I then used lacquer thinner sparingly to get down to the plastic for a repaint. Once the paint stripping was done, I left the plastic alone for a couple days--I am very grateful that everything dried up nicely. Once this was dry, I then primed, shaded and painted the OD over Neutral Grey with THINNED Tamiya acrylics🤞----really grateful this coat worked out well. I still think I need to thin down some more, but given "Squirt" is near victory fresh, I believe post shading around the control surfaces and engine panels will do the trick. 😎 A few quick detail about the "boring" OD/NG scheme on "Squirt". The most distinctive feature to me are the contours of the chin's grey/OD lines. On many P-40Es, I believe this was a straight line, but on Squirt, it was more curved/countered line towards the front intake & just before the ling leading edge. A great tip for 1/72 scale P-40s is to use silly putty on the knuckles--I got to paint twice with spot on results I was also very happy with how the photo etch radiators look--it is a actually noticeable in their foil intakes--thanks to @rob Lyttle for getting me into foil. 🙌@opus999 , you can see in the 1st paint, how the tape canvas covers will look--given the amount of re-work, I decided to brush paint the canvas color OD at a later stage in the 2d paint to create greater contrast mimicking the cotton duck on the real thing. Thank you again for your earlier compliment. Finally, please note that I painted the rudder white--the DK decal set I will be using on this build only has the red stripes. Thank you all for you help, encouragement and humor--there was a time this P-40E might have been headed to on a short flight, but now I think it is headed to a respectable model. Best to all, Erwin

Westland Whirlwind Mk.1 - 263 Squadron RAF - 1941 Classic Airframes model with EduardPE (for Trumpeter), some scratch in whellbays, cockpit, full riveting. Invite...

Build #1 - 1/72 MiG-21 Fishbed Original tool/boxing. I forget how I ended up with this one, but it is the oldest kit in the stash...both in terms of possession and outright age. The only kit I've had longer is the Academy F-8...which is currently next to the bench technically in work, therefore I don't consider it part of the stash. There has been a little painting started...however it's incorrect for the early F-13s so it will all need to be repainted anyways. I've got a couple little bits to dress it up, though I'm not certain on the decals yet. I'll have to size them up, as technically the set is for the MiG-15. I do have some Polish MiG-21 decals (from a MF) that I can rob from if need be. Intent is to build wheels up in flight...hence the addition of the pilot (hope they fit ).

Dear fellow Britmodellers, I built Brengun's Yak-1 "Aces" boxing with markings for Mikhail Dmitrievich Baranov's "Red 1", flown in summer 1942 with 183.IAP. The kit is a multi-media affair, with plastic, etch and resin parts. Painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics, weathered with artists oils from Winsor & Newton. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. # Thank yo for your interest in this topic. A detailled build review will appear in an upcoming edition of Scale Aviation Modeller International. Best greetings from Vienna, Roman

Hiya Folks, As many of you will know I am an ex paratrooper and as such I have a long lasting love of the C-130 Hercules,.....especially the stretched Hercules C.3 from which 90 of us used to jump plus equipment, 45 from each side door. I have wanted to model the C.3 variant for a long time and I eventually bit the bullet by using the Italeri 1/72nd C-130H kit plus the resin fuselage inserts from Flightpath, to which I added the the new resin engine nacelles and propellers from Attack Model/Arma Hobby. Here is my WIP if anybody is interested, it also includes lots of reference info, photos and also stories from myself and other Britmodellers who love the Herk,...... especially the RAF ones. For my subject I wanted to choose an aircraft that I have jumped from and I chose Hercules C.3, XV294, a photo of which can be seen here,.... from my collection; XV294 was traded back to Lockheed Martin on 4th Sep 2001 and sadly was ultimately scrapped. Photos of this aircraft appear to be quite thin on the ground. Here is the model,... however I realised after taking the pics that I missed a set of antenna from the sides of the fin, which will b added later! I have left off the wire antenna to allow it to fit into the cabinet; Cheers, Tony

Hello everyone! This is P-42 (former T-10-15 Su-27 demonstrator modified to set time to climb records) in 1/144 scale. Base kit is Trumpeter, with some chopping done to align with the original airframe. Anything that was not essential to the very basic purpose of flight - including paint finish - was removed. Tips of vertical stabilizers, ventral fins, IR dome, tail sting - are all gone, so are most of antennas. In 1986-7 the P-42, equipped with uprated engines which along with other modifications gave thrust to weight ratio of ~2.0, set series of time-to-climb records, beating those set in 1975 by likewise lightened and stripped out F-15 Streak Eagle. This model served as a prototype for Shelf Oddity brass Time and place: Thanks for watching! Leszek

I've sure Jadlam can put a little note in the box that says "congratulations on your competition win, here is your prize"

Cheers folks for the feed back and the likes. Slow progress again I'm afraid, just sorted the Browning out tonight, was going to use the Tasca version but decided to use the kit body with the RBM barrel set, this comes with nice turned grips and a cocking handle along with the sights. The mount is a little wobbly at the moment and its nose heavy so it doesn't sit level, again its one of those items that will be added last. Cocking handle and the spade grips were soldered just to made them a bit more robust. Cheers for looking in Dan

This is Voiio's newish (I think it was released last summer) M1 Abrams with the SEP V2 upgrades. It's Voiio's first, and so far only, release, but they seem to have hit the ground running as it's a really well engineered kit with some very nice detailing. The tracks are rubber bands although, to my mind, don't really suffer for it as most of the track run is hidden behind the skirts anyway. Fit was very good and it looks to be accurate for the most part. Construction is also pretty rapid as they've kept the parts count to a sensible level. Probably the best bit is the inclusion of a full set of stowage including some lovely clear-moulded water bottles with appropriate labels supplied on the decal sheet. Speaking of decals, Voiio include a fair number of marking options including camo, plain green and deset tan schemes. P.S. If you don't know the company, their website is here. They do have another product in the form of a black vinyl cat figure with removable pants and who wouldn't want one of those - I know I do Andy

Bf-109E-3 | Hasegawa | 1/72 Lt. Waldemar Wubke, Germany, 9/JG54 Finished this on 9/27/2020. This was a pretty straightforward build of the early 90's Hasegawa Bf-109E-3. I chose Waldemar Wubke's aircraft because I love the impromptu camouflage stripes applied at the unit level. Other units at that time had "X's and other different schemes to break up the light blue on the sides of the aircraft. The kit was pretty basic, so even taking my time the build was only about one week. The decals didn't look very sharp, so I only used the stencils and the "11". The rest of the decals came from the spares. Once on the aircraft the decals actually looked better, so I probably could've used them all. This kit was not as detailed or easy to put together as the Tamiya one I did a couple of months ago, but it was still a fairly stress-free build. In terms of external detail, it looks about the same as the Tamiya. The only frustrating part was the landing gears: the holes for the gears were oversized and they weren't keyed, so you could rotate the gear and get it misaligned (which is what ended up happening). Also, the wheel wells were enclosed, but still didn't have detail in them. Since this was early war, I did a minimum of weathering on the paint and a minimum of wear on the aircraft. I wanted the exhaust to be lighter colored (assuming the engine wasn't as worn) so I used Tamiya smoke. It turned out OK, but I'm not a real fan of the smoke paint . Paints: Decanted Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black > Hataka RLM 02/71/65 > Mr. Color GX113 dull coat Decals: A mix of different kits > stencils and numbers are kit decals Aftermarket: Eduard steel seat belts > SBS wheels Thanks for looking! Questions, comments and constructive criticism always welcomed.

Day off today, as yesterday was SWMBO’s and my birthday, and we’ve been out for a nice lunch time meal. Couldn’t go yesterday because most restaurants in France are closed on a Monday. Yeah! I know. Mad!! Home straight now. The first job was to paint the tracks with a 50/50 mix of Tamiya black and brown, and then give the steel chevrons a light dry brushing of Xtracolour’s Oily Steel. They’ll be weathered later. On the box cover, the Easy 8 Sherman is depicted with T66 tracks, but fortunately, what is included is actually T80 steel chevron tracks. They are a bit of a tight stretch to get them on and they didn’t seem to take kindly to being glued. As this tight fit would make a glued joint a waste of time, I stapled them together with a couple of small staples which (hopefully) I will be able to hide with some paint. All the remaining jobs are stowage items starting with the tow rope. The ones that I had were too thick, so I wound a new one from strands of copper wire. The only problem was that I didn’t have any 1/48th scale end clamps for the rope but nil desperandum!! I did what I always do in cases like this….I improvised! In other words, I buried each end under some stowage. So once it was wound I painted it with some Extracolour Oily Steel, and when dry, super glued in place. Next, something to bury the front of the tow rope. IDF Shermans were frequently seen carrying a roll of barbed wire on the front of the final drive, wrapped in a (usually torn) canvas material. To make this, I first wound some thin, copper wire into a circle, and then covered it in some paper towel, soaked in dilute PVA glue. 24 hours later I wound some barbed wire into a circle and glued this to it. The barbed wire came from an etched set by Eduard. It comes on a small fret and measures a total of 0.75m, so you get quite a bit. It’s meant to be for 1/35th scale, but I don’t think that this will notice too much. Once the glue had hardened, I covered it in some more tissue, only this time I used toilet paper (unused). The paper is made up of about three layers, and I stripped one away. Obviously, it’s very fragile, but that’s what I wanted. Again, it was soaked in dilute PVA and wrapped around the barbed wire and smoothed down with a damp brush. The action of the brush began to tear the tissue until some of the barbed wire was exposed. Once it had dried, it was glued in place on the final drive housing, over the end of the tow rope. At the back, on the LHS of the hull I added a typical IDF camnet. They look a little like a Cumberland Sausage, and I made it from a roll of Milliput. Once it had hardened, I glued it in place over the other end of the tow rope. There was a bit of a gap on one side, so I covered this up with a tarp made from PVA/paper towel. To add something to the fold down stowage tray at the rear, I made an oblong shape from Milliput and when it had hardened, I wrapped it in some more PVA/paper towel and then tied some cotton thread around it. It didn’t sit well on the tray, so I made another tarp and pushed it into place, before adding the oblong piece of kit. There was one job that had been niggling at me for some time, and after Steve pointed it out, I thought that it couldn’t be put off any longer. The stripe around the turret was hand painted and it was far more solid than the Hebrew characters on the turret sides and the hull sides, which were decals. I needed to over paint them so that they didn’t stand out. I used artists oil white for this as I thought that it would cover better and there was less likelihood of brush marks. I’ll let you be the judge, but I am reasonably happy with the outcome. I just need to leave it to dry, as being oil paint, it’s need a couple of days. Edit; The smudges are testament to the fact that 48 hours later, the paint was still wet! Nearly there. Thanks for looking and for any comments. John.

I need therapy. It's not even 9am and I've just bought a Smer rebox of the LeO 451 for eleven quid inclusive on ebay. Help, Adrian When I start looking at Amiots I will be checking myself in at the Priory...

Here's what I have been up to in recent months. Pretty crummy compared to what everyone else manages to achieve, but they have kept me busy!

SOVA-M is to release a 1/72nd Grumman SA-16A Albatross kit - ref. SVM-72024 (14 plastic frames+PE sheet+decals for 1 livery: Global Wildlife PP-ZAT) Sources: https://www.modelsvit-eshop.com/c/aviation-1/sa-16a-albatross-flying-boat-155 https://www.aviationmegastore.com/grumman-sa16a-albatross---expected-november-2020-svm-72024-sova-models-svm-72024-aircraft-scale-modelling/product/?action=prodinfo&art=173170 https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/SVM-72024 V.P.

Hi all, Hot off the bench, very nice kit - but the Meng additions are average - Instructions/ Decals. The wings were bent, but easily reformed with hot water and brute force! All insignia masked and painted. Work in Progress here: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11486.0 Guy

Just finished this Ryefield Sherman Firefly and I must say it is a superb model but very fiddly to build, especially with old fat fingers! paint is Lifecolor with some very small amounts of oil weathering. depicted as grenadier Guard Sherman Holland 1944. It will eventually form part of a larger diorama with a universal (bren) carrier, some crew and infantry hopefully

Cracking on: Another short length of track assembled, don't worry this hasn't boiled down to a length by length wip! Along with the afore mentioned track: Bulk of hull assembled, the detail is excellent, even down to fuel filler caps beneath the outer cap and teeth for the turret drive. Speaking of fuel fillers, comes with the drain holes too btw! I'd guess judging by the detail provided, gun breech, hull bulkhead, radiators that an interior version must at least be being considered... Meng do supply a small etch fret covering the lamp guards, I felt the etch version looked very anaemic whilst the plastic option is perhaps a little heavy, after a little deliberation went with the plastic option. . . . (The decision had nothing to do with making a Horlicks of shaping the first one...) Couldn't finish without mentioned the tracks again! They still articulate!!! That's all for now folks....

Hi All. Here my new project: Steyr 2000a with a 3cm Flak 103/38 on the deck. Unfortunately war time pictures are very rare (AFAIK only two). So I rebuilt the driving compartment and the whole rear area using two photos of Steyr 2000a from PzGren Regt 40, 17 Panzer Division, Silesia/Prague area 1945 + the pics gently posted this year on Missing Lynx by Paul Hocking (thank you, Paul!). Flak 3 cm 103/38 on deck is from Dragon kit no. 6353 (I hope to find a turned brass gun!). Tamiya Steyr 1500 is a perfect base for chassis and driving section but it needs some modifications to make a late Steyr 2000a: - dashboard (simplified + photo-etched from Aber kit no 35076); - front lights (from Tamiya Kubelwagen); - front doors (simplified); - frame for front tarpaulin. The cargo bed will be built using the WWP book as reference (no 9 Steyr 1500a + no R077 Steyr 1500a in details) even if, imho, there are some errors such as rear cargo bed too long (no war time Steyr 2000a had the extended rear deck) or wrong area over rear wheels (must be more rounded). Besides, Steyr 2000a had the reinforced rear spring but no double rear wheels. The Steyr is almost completed, it lacks some minor details. Three doubts: 1. The original pic from 17 PD show a rounded wooden panel that it seems the support for spare flak gun. Is it correct? 2. In the original pics posted by Paul I don’t understand how the hinges for lateral pivoting doors are hooked at the bottom. Any help? 3.Which camo? The original pic seems a two tone camo, maybe large green stripes over sand yellow. Is it correct? I hope a negative answer as I’d a three tone camo! Thanks Feel free to comment. Ciao F

Almost finished, & to keep @nimrod54 happy, some brass rod has been used to replace the out of scale pitot

Afternoon all....just a quick update. The upper hull is one and all shell's/rockets are in. I decided to leave one out......to show the rack system better..... I can't say it was easy to get them in......in the end I had to cut off the detail at the end of the hidden/centre divider rod between the rounds....otherwise, pretty much impossible to load them up without doing this. Next is to do final touch up and some personal gear in areas you can see. .....also some final chipping and weathering on the interior of the rear inner wall....I couldn't find any reference to the locking system of the rear hatch, so might have to crib something from another vehicles inner locking feature. If anyone has some pics of any hatch of this type would be appreciated....offn on to finalise the exterior PE and detail.

Finished this a little while ago. Airfix 1:48 javelin. Really nice model to build fits nicely just let down by the decals. Fin flash too large, “port outboard gun” for the port and starboard side, and flap control on the aileron? Minor let downs on otherwise I really nice model.

About to start working on this one, now the Tornados are completed. Here are the parts. I'm sure I'm not the first to do this, but last night I compared the instructions with the Wildcat. It was as I'd thought, only difference being the engine and cowling. This time I'm forewarned of the undercarriage.

Things got interesting at the wing. The upper wing has quite a large gap between it and the wing root. The wing is also about 0.25 mm thicker than the root. Sanding the flare at the end of the top wing as well as sanding along the joining surface, has flattened it sufficiently. Some styrene shimming should help it fit the root. We'll see of the other wing has the same problem. This being an SH kit, I'll wager the other wing has an entirely unique fit issue The upper wing has not been glued on yet, in this photo.

This is my latest finished model, a Zoukei Mura's F-4S Phantom. Amazing kit, i've enjoyed every single moment of the building process. Built OOB except a Quickboost air intakes cover and p.e. seat belts for the seats. Comments and critiques are welcome. Hope you like it. ciao Ale