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Couple of quick shots on the bench of the latest build. This is the Airfix 1/48 kit done as one of Flight Refuelling’s D3 Drones XN652 circa 1980-84. I used Pavla’s resin cockpit, Aires undercarriage, Wolfpack wing fold and Eduard seatbelts. Pitots are from Master, the engine covers and UDP were scratched. Decals are from the kit and Model Alliance both of which weren’t great - ‘bloody awful’ is a better description though this may be down to their age or way they were stored. Big thank you to Dave Swindell for coming up trumps with a photo of the Universal Drone Pack that replaced the Observers ejection seat. Pity you can’t see much of the detailing when the things together but I know it’s there and it’s probably my favourite part of modelling. The kit did put up a fight especially around the forward fuselage and flaps and I hate spraying yellow. Love the Sea Vixen and the kit though If I’m honest I’m quite glad it’s all over. The undersides and air brake do look quite nice if I say so myself but to be honest I darn’t move the thing now to photograph them - should have done it before attaching the wings. The next project was going to be a second but I’m not sure I can face it right now. Think I’ll wait and see how the therapy sessions go first. With the cancellation of the project XN652 ended her days at the Catterick Fire School as instructional airframe 8817M. Hope it’s of interest.

I'm not sure why but the AEW version of the Gannet has always been one of my favourite aicraft and I was very pleased when Sword came up with the first injection moulded version of the AEW3 in 1/72. gann4 This version of the kit came with a resin radar operators bay which was a very nice addition although makes avoiding tail sitting very tricky - mine is stuffed full of ball bearings and there is even tungsten putty in the spinner and it only just remains on its wheels. gann2 by pat cauthery, on Flickr The fit of the kit is relativey good for a limited run kit - I found it difficult to get the fuselage all closed up at once and so glued aeverything but the radome together, and then dealt with that separately. The Sword instructions were also rather vague in parts - fitting the fairings around the exhausts had me scratching my head for a while, but by reference to a few pics on the internet was able to work out what that area was supposed to look like. Had some trouble with the finlets as well - they had a canted backwards stance which I did not think correct and I had to resort to some firm sanding to get them more in line with the real thing. gann8 by pat cauthery, on Flickr Paint was Xtracrylix XDSG over Gunze Aqueous Sky, with the trim being Humbrol Roundel Blue and white decal stripes applied to the finlets. The rest of the decals for this machine from D Flight 849 NAS operating from HMS Eagle came from the very nice set by Alley Cat models. gann1 by pat cauthery, on Flickr Hope you like Pat gann9 by pat cauthery, on Flickr gann7 by pat cauthery, on Flickr gann5 by pat cauthery, on Flickr

Hello all I finished this one yesterday, Eduard's FW-190 A4 shown as one flown by Siegfried 'Wumm' Schnell in Jan 1943. I was pleased with how this one went together and with the amount of surface detail, quite a big difference after my last two builds (Airfix Hurricane and Tamiya Spitfire Mk1s). I added more detail into the engine but this is covered up by the 'fan' behind the propeller- I know its there... This is largely painted using MRP paints which spray very well, I'm a definite convert, and certainly made the mottling easier. I also got a lot of silvering on the top crosses so took them off and painted them on instead- they do look better painted but not too keen on wanting to repeat that masking process! I've kept the weathering light as all the pictures of Wumm's plane show it to be very clean. A flory wash and some oils were the main of it but I did try splattering some un thinned matt varnish over certain areas to try and help simulate fading. I think this has worked well in some areas but now I've seen the close up pictures is maybe a bit heavy in some areas! Overall I think I'm making progress and each model is better than the last so looking forward to next in line which is the Tiffe Italeri/Hasegawa re-boxing. Thanks for looking. To prove that a little work went into the engine

Hi all, Done a while ago this is my IL-20 Coot. An Amonster, the wings and fuselage come in fibreglass with the rest in plastic. The parts all need cleaning up before assembly with drilling, cutting and sanding required on the fibreglass parts. Thereafter fit, fill and sand are the order of the day. The model is from the box other than the Little Lenses used for landing lights and Kristal Klear cabin windows. The U/C is drilled and reinforced with brass rod as there is a considerable amount of lead in the front end. More recently I had another go at the paint finish. These aircraft had very faded paintwork which I have tried to replicate using Tamiya powders with a blue hue to fade the grey base. Oil stains were done using the same product. Promodeller wash was used for Panel lining. The aerial is new and the propellor bosses now sport black tips. At a later stage I may convert it into the M variant which has many more interesting lumps and bumbs. We shall see. Hope you like it Pete Thanks for looking Pete Ongoing in the shed Il -14 Albanian Air Force 1, MiG-23UM Hungarian AF, Ermalayev 2, Su-15UM

This is the Revell 1/48th Eurofighter Typhoon Kit 04568. I found it on eBay for a pretty decent price and it included a nice variety of RAF decals. The build was good. a few fit issues but overall not that bad and I actually had fun with this kit. Putting it "in-flight" was easy as the landing gear doors fit well in the closed position. I was confused by what type of armament the typhoon utilized so I did some research and found pictures of the typhoon with Paveway bombs and a targeting pod mounted on the bottom of the fuselage (attached pictures for the references I used). I used the GBU-16's and AN/AAQ-14 from a Hasegawa Weapons set D. The pilot is from a Tamiya F-16. I had to shave down the seat to make it fit with the canopy glass in the closed position. I know the Markings are from 2005 but they work to make the kit look like an FGR.4. I am not a Typhoon expert but it works for me. I would definitely build this kit again. Thanks for looking RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr RAF typhoon by Reginaldo Reyes, on Flickr

Hi, This is my fourth (or rather fourth and half, due to extras 3 engines and one fuselage) Heinkel He 111 constructed within He 111 STGB. The construction is reported he: It is Hasegawa He 111 Z-2 kit under small conversion into Z-1 variant. The fuel tanks are resin cast copies of Italeri Do 217 one, the Walter HWK boosters taken from spare in Me 323 by italeri )there were 8, i installed inmodel only 4 following the pictures), side codes home design and printed, other decals either from drawer or Hasegawa. Machine is in winter scheme from Eastern Front 1942-43. Here she is: And from bottom Comments welcome Regards Jerzy-Wojtek

Here's another trip down memory lane. This kit dates from 1970. For those not familiar with FROG, they were making wooden model aircraft kits as far back as the 1930's and were one of the first to transition to all plastic kits. The name, FROG, stands for "Flies Right Off the Ground", as most of their early rubber band powered models did. I had to do a little research as I knew little about this a/c. It had an Allison engine instead of the later Merlin and came with two 20mm cannons, although the British models exchanged these for four 50 cal. mgs. From what I read, it was not intended to be a fighter-bomber, rather as a pure fighter, so the hard points under the wings for ordnance were removed. HOWEVER, obviously, Frog intended the kit's parts to suffice for both versions, so they compromised, using the mg wings, but including rather clunky bomb racks under the wings. So, thinking it looked cooler with ordnance under the wings and since it is a British a/c, I ground off the kit's bomb racks and substituted ones from a Blenheim kit. In addition, even though the racks were there the kit did not come with bombs, so I pirated two from the same Blenheim kit. The rest is OOTB with the exception of the decals. The ones in the example I got were too far gone to salvage, so I used ones from the spares box. The invasion stripes are painted on. I don't know how accurate the outline and/or dimensions are, but it looks like a P-51A to me.

A6M5c | Hobby Boss | 1/72 W.O. Takeo Tanimizu, Pilot, Imperial Japanese Navy, 203rd Flying Group, 1945 I finished this on 10/13/2020. This is the Hobby Boss A6M5c, which I built to replace the Hasegawa boxing of Tanimizu's aircraft which I built in late High School and whose molds date to 1972 (according to scalemates). I love the double cannons in the wings, it just looks dangerous! Although in reality the extra weight without a more powerful engine made it a dog. But it looked cool. Of the 1/72 offerings of the 5c, the Hobby Boss was the one that had very few negative comments. As is typical with Hobby Boss there are some glaring omissions. I found they forgot a headrest, which I had to fabricate, the loop antenna in the cockpit, and missed the fourth exhaust stack on the starboard side. The exhaust stack I noticed in the 11th hour, but was able to make a new one that is reasonable. HB provided a cut out in the cowling for a 4th stack, except they provided it on both sides. If I'd noticed earlier, I would've tried to fix that. On the plus side, this was one of the better HB kits I've done in terms of fit and also had very few raised mold lines to sand off. Comparing it with the Hasegawa, the wing guns are longer, the pitot tube is shorter and the canopy doesn't stick up as high. All of these are not very noticeable when the model is sitting by itself. Takeo Tanimizu had 18 victories. He is known for his regrets later in life, praying nightly at his in-home Buddhist altar for the men he killed. He is equally known for an incident where he flew low over a US pilot he downed in the sea to throw him his life preserver. He lived through the war and into the late 1990s. Paints: Mr. Color C15 (Top) > Mr. Color C35 (bottom) > cowl was Hataka RLM 66 (black gray) dusted with black until it looked about right > aotake in wheel wells was 3 parts Testors Model Master metallic blue with 1 part Testors green. Decals: Kit decals WIP is here. The cockpit had more detail than typical HB kits, but it was pretty inaccurate. I tried to make it at least a little more accurate, even though it is very hard to see through the somewhat opaque canopy. Here's the headrest I made and the loop antenna, which I later painted silver: And here it is next to the Hasegawa I made a long time ago: As always, questions, comments and constructive criticism welcomed!

Airfix 1983 Westland Sea King HAR.3, in turn based on the ancient Sikorsky Sea King kit. Build thread here: If and when I have the time, I'll straighten out the rotor blades, but I've got the newer Airfix kit to finish in the next couple of hours.

Last day completion for me with my Mil 4 Hound from KP. The inspiration was an old Hound sitting at Chernoye, Moscow with various panels off and having been sat outside for probably years, heavily weathered and rusting away, but I bottled out of doing a similar treatment for my model presented here. I used Hi Decal Line aftermarket decals for the very simple and standard Russian AF scheme. Tamiya paints generally, but I went for Sovereign enamel for the underside. Opened up the vents in the nose and used a metal mesh as I felt this was prominent on the real aircraft. I maybe should have opened up the side vents, which I know are an option on other Hound kits. First helicopter for a lot of years and when I came to photograph it I realised it was more difficult than I imagined to get decent pictures. The build if anyone is interested Enjoyable GB and, as ever, time always runs away with me, leaving my 2 autogyros unfinished. The pictures:

U made this model just for my own pleasure.A great change from the tons of commissions I did this year.I did upgrade the cockpit a bit.Nothing too fancy.Just adding some sidewall details and seatbelts.The model was painted in AK real colors and I used the HDL decal sheet.You can also watch the video of the build on my YT channel on the link bellow. https://youtu.be/Kxqd31zYgRE

mojo noun informal a quality that makes you successful and full of energy: · He's definitely lost his mojo. · He needs to get his mojo working if he's going to finish that model Well, I lost mine over the last few months in a big way. For many reasons I just lost interest in my Fw190 and so it has been shelved for now. It's one of those inexplicable things, those that remember the 1/24 Tigercat maybe know I have form in this area .. Instead, I have found a new source of mojo which has seen me back at the bench, enjoying my modelling which is what it is all about right? This is new for me, I don’t think I have ever built a biplane, certainly not scratchbuilt so it will be a journey of discovery I hope to share The Hawker Fury needs no introduction from me, all I can do is show you the picture that set me thinking and ultimately on this path… ..look at that beautiful form, the polished metal nose panels, the state of the art in it’s day. I don’t know yet which airframe I will model, but likely it will be a Tangmere bird as that was but a few miles from my childhood home. I gained the confidence to take the plunge from John Alcorn’s books ‘Scratchbuilt’ where various masters show how they achieve the impossible in relation to fabric covered structures such as those shown below – if you don’t have the books, get them, they are superb.. Need fuselage stringers? A few methods are shown.. Wings? Just like the originals.. I started with the Westburg plans, four sheets sourced from a 1970’s RC Model magazine I found as a PDF that my printer scaled for me.. ..these are widely acknowledged as the most accurate out there.. ..and so onto building & making a start.. ..the first element I thought would be a rigid structure that supports both the landing gear and the cabane struts atop the fuselage. This would need to be very strong and so was made of brass parts.. The very first of which is here – the main gear mount.. ..then the transverse rods that link to the main gear trailing arms and the mounts for those mounted on the mainspar tube.. I used (badly) my new Proxxon mini milling machine for those.. ..all the parts were made up over the plans and ultimately soldered together, including spigots for the cabane strut mounts.. ..the firewall looking square is to add rigidity and the hole is the prop datum that will carry forwards into the nose.. ..more of the fuselage framework was constructed of carbon fibre rod – this stuff is super stiff and easy to work with – I used an RC modeller trick in pinning the rods to a scaled plan to get everything lined up.. ..soon I had both halves (at least the bits that can be seen) which will dovetail into the brass frontal assembly.. ..the real airframe is bolted together with some quite rudimentary brackets – that’s good, I can do rudimentary.. ..I should have made these from PE, but such was my renewed enthusiasm I made them by hand with the resultant rudimentary outcome.. ..the structures were primed and painted with black MRP enamel and the assembly plates added.. ..whilst I didn’t take any construction pictures, I did make up the seat based on the few pictures I have (that’s a problem I will come onto later..) …essentially I drew parts as templates and cut them from litho, annealing & shaping them and bordering with fine solder wire.. ..to finish up for now, the work to date dry fitted together… ..now for the appeal – I have zero drawings apart from the plans, I have the one Mushroom book I could find and that is 80% about the Nimrod, not the Fury and about 5 cockpit pictures all from the same angle from the internet.. I have written to both operators of existing Furies in the hope they have drawings they can share, but if anyone out there knows of any good reference, please let me know – drop links in here or PM me perhaps So that’s it – a change in direction, for me the main thing is being motivated to pull up to my bench and enjoy myself and that I am now doing :) ..hopefully this one will see a competition table in a few years TTFN Peter

I started building 1/72 German WW2 jet & rocket models years ago and when I started building kits a few years back I got a Revell Messerschmitt P1099B kit. I saw some Luft 46 sketches of the P1099 built with just the upper rear facing guns and since the kit came with a rounded nose option I built it that way. I went on to start a Horton Go 229 kit as that aircraft always fascinated me. About half way through I started building 1/48 Cold War jets and the Go 229 got shifted to the shelf of doom. About 5 or more years ago I guess. Then recently @The Spadgent started his multi build project and I thought the Go 229 needed to be finished. So here they both are. Not the greatest builds, thing I would do differently now, but I like them, hope you do too.

At last completed. A-Model 1/72 De Havilland D.H.60 Genet Moth J-8816, one of five used as single-seaters by the team of Central Flying School instructors during summer 1927 display season. A-Model produces whole series of the Moth family, I have three more in stash - classical Cirrus Moth, D.H.60M and Moth floatplane. I will build them all, they are all neat little kits. The build thread is here: Altogether very enjoyable, I am really happy with the outcome. Most of the parts come from the kit. I used Eduard steel seat belts, substituted the kit engine cylinders with resin replacement from spares and added a few scratchbuild details both inside and outside. Brush painted with Humbrol, Model Master and Revell enamels. Roundels by Xtradecal, with the non-standard red centers from an old Aeroclub sheet, serial numbers by Modeldecal. Without rigging as usual. My first attempt to make the photos outside, in natural light. Unfortunately, the sun has not shown up for more than a couple of minutes in a row for the whole last week, so the photos were made in typical English weather today - overcast, short break between two rain showers.😀

Thanks Mark, but… Me neither John - shrinks far to much for my liking I think I'll go back to Humbrol. Thanks Johnny Don't more about the grandad clip, honest, what's Dunn is Dunn Sanding. Boring. I did get the Skyhawk wings glued though: Very impressive fit, if all the gate residue is removed.

Guess I should probably get around to posting in here since it's been done for a while. I was hoping to get some better pics outside...but that didn't happen. Kit: 1/72 Special Hobby AH-1G Cobra Paint: Testors MM & Tamiya Acrylics Decals: kit AM: none Build thread: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235076193-vietnam-cobra-172-ah-1g-completed/

This time Lockheed F-104g from Danish Air force from Kinetic.

Dear Colleagues The Universal Carrier was a truly British vehicle. No other nation in WWII had anything quite like it. Capable of bringing up ammunition under fire, evacuating the wounded and leading assaults, it was the maid of all work for a Commonwealth Infantry Battalion. Riich make a lovely example although don't expect to complete it in a weekend! Having read the book 'Lion Rampant' about life in the 6th KOSB I had to choose this one from the Riich decal sheet. Yetholm is of course on the Scottish borders. Hope you like it? Andrew

Well I have really enjoyed this build first full resin kit for me some very fine details in the cast parts I have added a couple of crew figures from L'Arsenal and finally managed some daylight photos Thank you to everyone who has helped with information and encouragement. Stay Safe beefy

Hi folk's,having a tidy up of boxed up kits,this and the Airfix Sea Fury were boxed up and a bit battered,the Fury was beyond repair but I cleaned up this one and did a few Photo's as the original's from a few years ago are long gone. Thanks for looking in.

Here's my 1/72 AW101, finished in the colours of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, built for the helicopters group build. It's converted from the Revell Merlin HC.3, which required a change of the window configuration and a few other detail differences. Decals were (mostly) custom printed, paint was Tamiya and Gunze (although I think the dayglo was AK real colour). Thoroughly enjoyable build, experimented with a few new things, windows didn't work out quite as planned but I learned a lot. Build thread is here. thanks for looking Julian

This my latest finished model. Tamiya kit built oob execpt for the exhausts and machine gus by Quickboost. Iliad Design decals, painted with Gunze's and Tamiya's acryl paints Hope you like it: Ciao Ale

Yesterday was a good day for standing up against the forces of entropy that threaten the well-being of a person's buttocks with the onset of winter. I'm calling this one 'Intimate Causality No.5': With the perimeter hedging cut back I've also now got a better view of the carrier pigeons rooks arriving with the forum mail: What tidings bring you sweet e-birds? Ooo-errr. {withdraws job application to Diplomatic Corps...} Thank you young Peter - you're a damn' decent cove for saying so. Most kind of you ED - you are most welcome to the forum also! Due to their heavy 'naval' nature Simon I'm pretty confident that those resin pillars will support the weight of the aircraft right up until the point that they snap. (I'm a great believer in the preventative application of hindsight...) Grazie Giorgio. (There's more I would have loved to have added but that simply wouldn't be reproducible in a convincing manner at this scale). Out of curiosity Michael, what is the commonly acknowledged geographical boundary that bourbon can be said to authentically hail from within? In some Glasgow bars the difference used to be whether you kept your front teeth or not when making the case for false distinctions. In the late 80s I was privileged to be present near closing-time in a Glaswegian hostelry as an elderly boor from South of the border treated the bar staff to his views on the superior qualities of gin compared to those of the favoured uisge-beatha: I don't really need to describe the ensuing events in any detail as you've all seen the pub scene in 'An American Werewolf in London'.... I really really like this idea Alan (also the plastic razor blades a genius addition for which I thank you). I *think* (based on my current parlous knowledge bank) that I would be unable to unfold the kind of three-dimensional curved surfaces of the Vixen canopy using the sheet metal function as it seems to required a flat 'base' feature to open the surrounding parts out around in relation to. What I really need to discover is some CAD process similar to UV unwrapping in Maya that would let me translate curved geometries into a 2D pattern. There is a plugin for Fusion called Exact Flat which I thought might be good at task this but having just checked it out, it costs over $3000 per annum for the ensuing cloud online conversion service back-end. That's obvs a non-runner so I may experiment with exporting an .obj into Maya and UV unwrapping it there. This happy fellow gives a perfect view of the challenges involved: I think it may be possible to 3D print that big heavy diagonal/vertical framing for the front windshield whilst having a look at the method you outlined for some of the thinner rear framing. That front frame is quite a clunky beast into which the rear canopy slides shut: - whilst the central heating duct up the front of the windshield and the allied frames on either side of it are perfect candidates for slivers of brass. On the earlier canopy of XJ481, there's only a small front fairing to be added, but with the later Mod. on XN708, there is the larger rain-shedding / heating duct arrangement to deal with: The simplest route I think is to vacform a common perspex transparency for both aircraft, along with common brass fixings and printed front upright frame. The two different sets of fairings can then be printed separately to be added to create the differing early/later canopies. Has some animal put slices of tangerine on that? Citrus fruit has no business near savoury foodstuffs unless it is lemon or lime - the rules are quite clear on this and yet some people seem quite determined to act as if they don't apply to them. On the plus side, if you leave a microwavable meal out for the afternoon it should be cooked in time for tea... Quite so. I reckon once the canopy(ies)s are done and the hatch for the coal hole it will be time to bang on another print to check quality control Ian. Being so busy at work I'm finding each weekend now I'm a bit tireder than the previous so progress up to that point might take another three weeks. Either that or shaving sex dolls. Canopy then. Obligatory 'mood board' cluster of refs: To build the transparent perspex section of the canopy was essentially a reprise of the method used previously to create bulges like the Microcells and airbrake - define the vertical centreline profile and then project the plan outline of the part in question onto the curved surface of the airframe, ensuring that both intersect with each other where the vertical and horizontal outlines meet: From this, you can then add the required number of additional vertical profiles to give you an accurate rendition of the changing nature of this shape through three dimensions: This drawing process took rather a long time due not only to the complex set of interactions as you go from the rear 'teardrop' to the segmented windshield, but the asymmetric nature of the canopy laterally due to the differing heights of the fuselage caused by its curvature in this region. An additional complication is that some reference shots taken looking forward from inside the cockpit l have clearly been photographed using very wide angle lenses that exaggerate both perspective and curvature of the canopy cross section. Until I copped to this my first draft looked more like canopy of an F16 than a Vixen in the mid region.... Due to the complex nature of the plan outline around the curve of the top fuselage, this wouldn't loft into a solid object in a single chained operation, so in the I had to create this out of six separate surface sections and then stitch these together to form the required solid. Or rather, giving the resulting solid the material properties of glass so that it becomes transparent: I should add I made the canopy about 0.2mm smaller than it should be in order to allow for the thickness of the material to be vacformed over it. I plan to trytwo approaches for vacforming: 3D printing a resin buck and seeing how this will handle vacforming directly. Create a negative mold of the canopy shape in resin in order to make a Milliput moulding of the canopy as an insurance policy should the resin melt/deform. I've an old test print of the radome knocking about I can try a test on before committing anyway. Listen, that's enough for today - I'm sorry there isn't more to show but too tired for longer intense sessions these days. Tony

Thanks for looking, hope you liked it... WIP is here: Cheers JJ

I would like to join with this if I might, according to Scalemates the kit was first released in 1979, This will be a first for me as I have never built a sailing vessel of any kind before, so I'm not too sure how this will end...🙄

Hi folks, this is the latest Arma Hobby kit build OOB with few add-ons: - brass tubing for outer gun barrels - newly moulded canopy hood - resin exhausts from Quickboost - riveted Painted with Real Colors and Gunze Aqeous paints. Decals from the box depicting the 274.sq machine from Egypt, 1942. Overall, a gorgeous kit, I love especially the subtle yet nicely visible wing surface improvement compared to the previous C wing. Cheers Libor

Thought it high time I did an RAF machine from Mini Art’s lovely 1/35 kit. DR623 KX-N (c/n 709) was an impressed civil machine ex G-ACWH hence the Cierva C.30a designation rather than Avro Rota. The aircraft was used by 74 Calibration Flight (Signals) based at Duxford circa 1943. The aircraft survived the war and returned to the UK register as G-AHLE. Hope it’s of interest.

Evening all, I've been making some good progress this week on the big Sunderland. Lots of plastic card and Evergreen strip to the rescue, combined with a fair bit of reference checking and head-scratching, and I now have the basic structures of the bomb room and forward fuselage/flightdeck completed. The bomb room has been kitted out with the basic structure - the doors are actually open on the real aircraft but as I'm not detailing the areas either fore or aft I've used a bit of creative licence and added some doors: I've made the basics of the bomb racks which will eventually carry the depth charges and added these to the roof structure, which slots nicely between the bulkheads: The whole structure then sits nicely into the fuselage, which has had its sidewalls detailed with Evergreen for the ribs and stringers: I've also been busy detailing the underside of the flightdeck floor and added the stairs: And I've also begun making the basic structure of the flightdeck itself - again the door in the real aircraft would be open but I'm adding large spars to support the wing here so have added a closed door: This again fits nicely in the forward fuselage section, with more Evergreen for the sidewall structures: I've also begun making the floor for the forward nose section which has numerous perforations, I imagine for water drainage. I think I may have made these a little large but we'll see how they look under some paint: The fuselage is doing its best to come apart here, but you can see how the internals sit in the model: Here's a sense of scale - a Halfords' rattle can is dwarfed by this beast! A few more bits to make and add before I can give a first squirt of paint to see how it all looks - a nice mixture of interior green and natural metal should bring it all to life nicely. Until next time, Tom

Tailcone fillets added. As you can see it's details after details:

A little more done....

The navigator had an external support on the fuselage under a removable window to plug a measuring instrument. The tailskid is added at this time too:

Hello all, I hope I will start again the topic in better place. This is project of upgraded Tempest - Academy kit I made a lot of stuff by 3D design in Solidworks and then 3D print (more details here: ) Now the project of build starts ... no way back. The first step is rivetting

Hi Everyone, this is something I've been working on as part of a bigger project to cover the (rather neglected) female pilots of the Star Wars OT era. Each project will have a craft and figure. For those of you that don't know, when they were made, ANH and ESB had no female pilots, but ROTJ was supposed to have them. They even shot video of three, but apparently test screenings of ROTJ with them in got negative comments about women in combat (this was 1983) so they took them out. Except one - an A-Wing pilot called Sila Kott who you can glimpse for a second before her death. But they over-dubbed her with a male voice! Of course, films like Rogue 1 and Book and Graphic Novels have since put matters right, but so far despite all the alterations, ROTJ is still female pilot free - although you can see them in the briefing room scene if you look very carefully. The first pilot I have done is Evaan Verlaine. She was the pilot of Y-Wing Gold 3 during the Death Star attack in ANH. You can see her craft at the very end just as the Death Star is about to blow along with Luke, Wedge and the Millennium Falcon. This is a canon retcon based on the Leia Graphic Novel (in Legends this pilot is Keyan Farlander). To create Evaan and Gold 3 I used the FineMolds 1:72 Y-Wing and a custom based on the Black Series 6" Luke Skywalker. Evaan Verlaine So far Evaan Verlaine has only been visualised in comic book form (in the graphic novel Princess Leia). The base for her figure is the 6" Black Series Luke Skywalker. All of the figure (apart from the chest box) has been repainted using Vallejo acrylics, using wet-blending, glazes and other interesting techniques I learned on YouTube. Her helmet is based on the supposed official one, but that is exactly the same as Blue Leader Antoc Merrick (in Rogue 1) so I made the alliance symbols Gold to make it different. Her head is 3D printed (using Shapeways) based on one I created using FaceGen Artist, DAZ Studio and 3DS Max. So who is she based on? Well officially there is only the graphic novel, however, there is a female cosplayer who thinks they may have based Evaan on her! I think she might have something, so the head is based on her. Y-Wing The main feature of Y-Wings is their beat-up Clone Wars era nature. To re-create that I initially sprayed the whole thing silver, then went round with maskol covering up places that would get worn or places damaged by attacks. A coat of FS36622 from Mr Hobby went over the top followed by rust for the pipe work. There is no accepted scheme for Gold 3 AFAIK, although due to script changes, Gold 5 has squadron markings that indicate Gold 3 (the cockpit stripes). So I just used a bit of artistic license and made it look as I wanted - I'm not a fan of the overuse of blue on the cockpit and engine pods so I made it as subtle as I could. Worn areas were left silver, but any battle damage areas were edged in black to simulate paint singeing. The whole thing was washed with Tamiya Panel line Dark Grey and a small amount of dry brushing of dirt was done. Ten points for anyone who can ID the R2 unit. This isn't canon (yet) but you never know! The next pair in the series will be TIE/Ln and Iden Versio from Battlefront. Thanks for looking 🙂 Chris

Hobbycraft Boeing Vertol CH-113 Labrador 1/72 Finished in delivery scheme (around 1965) with the aid of Belcher Decals, here the build thread: I know some details are missing and I will add them in due course, but the main goal to me is achieved since I wanted to model this rare paint scheme. Thanks to the hosts and to all that contributed with their threads and encouraging others in this fantastic group build!

ABM family With Heinkel HD-55

Hello everyone, my name is Jose and I live in the Basque Country in Spain. Following the kind invitation of Dennis, I am here to share with you my current job-fun with the Panther V ausf. G 1/16 scale from Trumpeter. Hope you like. Cheers José

Morning folks, So this is my latest piece. I had some trouble with the yellow wing stripe decals so decided to leave them off; call it artistic expression 😉 First attempt at a natural metal finish and pleased with the result, maybe have to do another one as I love the way the colours really pop on this. Thanks for looking.

Hasegawa 1/72 AH-64 Apache Longbow My humble contribution to the Helicopter / Autogyro / STOVL GB. Nice kit except for the canopy which isn't the best of quality. The main rotor assembly isn't the most stable either, but apart from that I found it to be a fair kit for it's scale. Still some work to be done on tidying up the silver frame around the windows and some weathering as well. But given that the gallery will close in an hours time, I'm happy I managed to finish it within the time frame Many thanks to our host, co-host and everyone who participated or just took time to pass a kind comment !! Here's build thread: She's not perfect at all. but considering it's my overall second build after picking up on the hobby again, I'm pleased with how she came out: Cheers Johnny b

Airfix 2015 Westland Sea King HAR.3, the 2015 kit (2016 starter kit version). Build thread here:

Almost ready for dull coat.

Hi folks, Here's a quick update to show where I'm at with this. I've bodged up a gun ring and decking - how on earth did I forget about that before adding paint?? - and I've fettled a windscreen from clear acetate: The windscreen still isn't a great fit at the edges but, rather than remove it and risk pulling the paint off, I'll fill the slight gaps under the end corners with Formula 560 canopy glue. Once the windscreen is tweaked I'll only have to add a wind-driven generator before it will be ready for rigging, then I can call it done! I've put some wooden chocks (which still need painting) on the simple base to support the retractable wheels, and I'm trying to cobble together a couple of convincing figures from my minimal 'spare figures' collection to emphasise the ungainliness of the Gurnard in this configuration. I've also been trying to decide what to tackle next after this: another complete scratchbuild, or something much easier like a nice vacform? 😉 A very recent opportunity, however, means that I'll almost certainly have very little time for modelling over the next few months, so I won't be starting anything too complicated just yet. I am under some time pressure to finish this model, though! Jon

Good morning everyone...in the last 20 hours Ive spent 10 at the bench. Im tired, Im sore, and I spent an hour on my Knees today fighting the Damn carpet monster. Being disabled Im not supposed to get on my knees, it usually requires emergency services 🚑 to show up and pick me back up. I was able to get all my builds up to the same stage. Everything's done now except for the fragile stuff like antennas, pitot’s, and canopies. Those will be on Tuesday or Wednesday. Please feel free to ask questions, post comments, and or add thoughts. Dennis

I forgot to post rfi photos of this. This is the 1/72 Meng kit. WIP thread is linked below.

Anyone who knows rural France will be aware that at this time of year, lots of people wearing hi-viz jackets/ tabards and carrying guns appear and shoot at anything that moves ( including each other ) accompanied by noisy dogs. I’m not complaining about them, they were here before me and I was well aware that this kind of thing happens here when we arrived. Having two horses, we have a little land, and yesterday we had a visit from the local hunt who beat back and forth through a long copse between two of our fields, with lots of shouting, baying hounds and a few gunshots for about three hours, then went away. This morning at about 0900 we decided to put the horses out in one of the fields next to the copse where they had been yesterday, and as we went through the gate I looked across the field and saw three deer, about 35m away looking at me looking at them, then they wandered off into the trees. Funny thing life.

After a coffee and a think I attacked the underside of the cockpit floor and main U/C bay with a file or three. This helped out a lot, enough in fact for me to be able to attach the wings without any fancy clamping arrangements. I also added the tail feathers and fuselage spine too. I am going to let this lot set overnight before messing around with her. All comments welcome. Simon.

We now have a control position, well we would have if someone hadn't liberated the instruments and wheel. The two spade grips are the throttle/ forward/reverse controls. The lever for ramp control and a dog house Lots of weathering to be done but as the house was made of high tensile steel it will be different to the hull (I hope) I've been giving some thought to the dio. The US 29th Infantry Division left the Falmouth / Helford river for D Day. So I'm thinking lost and forgotten (after her duty was done) up a small creek in the area. Thanks for stopping by and all your comments and likes Avoid the numpties and stay safe Kev

Not much progress to report. Wings have be assembled, and tail fitted. Dry-fitting, the wing joint to the fuselage is good, so have decided I will paint the wings & fuselage separately. Will make it a lot easier to fit in in the paint booth. Despite the nose weight added, dry-fitting revealed that it is a tail sitter. Experiments suggest I need to fit another 30g in the cabin. Does raise the question as to whether the undercarriage will support the finished build.

That air intake is not present in this version of the plane, and has to be removed: The cavity will be filled with Milliput and the surface restored: The air intake, headrest and horizontal tail feathers are added:

The covers in the racer were not only different, but also slightly asymmetrical -spot the curved inner face corner and angled outer face corner of the covers: You can also see that the aft covers are angled down leaving a space between the fairing and wing surface, this is replicated too:

A very pregnant woman was travelling on a on a bus when she noticed the young man opposite her was smiling at her. She felt slightly uncomfortable, so she moved. Then the young man's smile turned into a grin. She moved again, and the man burst out laughing. She moved once more and thee young man was howling with laughter, with tears streaming down his face.. By now the woman felt very uncomfortable so she complained to the driver. The Police were called and the man was arrested for breach of the peace. When the case reached court, the chief magistrate asked the man what he had to say for himself. He replied "Well, sir, when the lady got on the bus, I couldn’t help but notice her condition. She sat down under a sign that said, “The Double Mint Twins are coming” and I grinned. Then she moved and sat under a sign that said, “Logan’s Liniment will reduce the swelling”, and I had to smile. Then she placed herself under a deodorant sign that said, “William’s Big Stick Did the Trick”, and I could hardly contain myself. But when she moved the fourth time and sat under a sign that said, “Goodyear Rubber could have prevented this accident”, I just totally lost it!" The case was dismissed..... Simon.