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Hello, here is a summary of my montages of this year 2020, all at 1/32 :

Good day to you all once again, hope you are all tickety boo and surviving well what with one thing and another! This is my latest completion, the Airfix 1:48 Sea Vixen depicted as an aircraft of 893 Naval Air Squadron on board Victorious circa 66. I started this build a couple of years ago then stalled before digging it out over the summer. I tarted up the wheel wells and airbrake cavity with some wire and stuff as well as adding some Pavla seats (My homemade versions just dont cut it!), CMK resin wheels and Master pitot tubes. I used Vallejo paints and did try a bit of preshading, it worked on the underside but I think the DSG I used was too dark. I did try to do some post shading with Gunship Grey but not sure if that worked. This was also the first model I used Pledge floor polish (in Canada) on , its like Klear and sprays well but takes a couple of coats to work well. The biggest achievement was doing the red crosses on the back and not getting any silvering so the under coats worked well i think. I was going to tool her up with missiles but had problems painting them and the build just stalled again so I though bugger it and stuck on some rocket pods instead. I did take liberties with the flaps though, I doubt if they would be regularly deployed with the aircraft parked but want to show a bit of interest. In hindsight I wish I left them stowed I enjoyed the build and it is one of my favourite Naval types, such a graceful (if a bit deadly) plane and glad to finally have one in my collection. She is a bit of a shelf space stealer but in my opinion not one that deserves it wings folded up, it needs to show its graceful lines! Any how, enjoy the photos, apologies for the poor lighting, I rushed them last night and had no natural light, I may have to look into a lightbox or something. Thanks for looking in and stay safe! Bob

Hello everybody, Here is another double build I finished recently: the Accurate Miniatures reboxings of the old Monogram F-4D kits. I built both kits largely out of the box, adding only some wiring to the backseater's IPs, gunsights and spare PE mirrors. Construction was pretty straightforward, but filling and sanding is required, especially around the intakes and exhausts where fit is somewht problematic. Open airbrakes and lowered flaps are options in the kit. Despite their age, I really enjoyed building these two classics: the level of molded detail in the cockpit and around the airframe is just great!! For the 23rd TFS / 52nd TFW aircraft, operating from Spangdahlem AB, Germany, I used a (very, very old) Superscale sheet, showing the aircraft during the 1976 Tactical Air Meet at Twente AB, The Netherlands. These Superscale decals worked surprisingly perfect. This particular aircraft was credited with downing a Mig-17 over North-Vietnam in October 1967, hence the killmark on the splitter plates that was maintained. Stencils are taken from various spare decal sheets. Paints are Gunze. The travel pod is modified from a spare napalm cannister, the gun pod is taken from the kit. I also replaced the kit’s LORAN antenna with a spare one from a Hasegawa kit, as this is molded much finer, and finally I used an ECM pod from Revell's F-4F. "Ripley's believe it or not" flew with the 13th TFS / 423nd TFW, being stationed at Udorn AB, Thailand, during 1969 operations over Vietnam. I added a chinpod taken from the Italeri F-4C/D. Bombing load-out consists of Mk.82's from the kit (on Hasegawa TER's) and spare box Mk.83’s on the outboard pylons (found in the Fujimi kit). Sparrow missiles are Hasegawa items and the ALQ-87 is from the kit. Again, Gunze paints were used, followed by Eagle Strike decals. Hope you enjoy seeing my 2 SEA Phantoms, comments/feedback always appreciated! Thanks for looking and regards, Patrick

Stefanwest did such a nice job on the Grief, that I will post the one I also completed this year. I have been fascinated by this kit since I was a kid in 1980, and after sitting on the shelf for a few years, decided to do it. It was fairly challenging.....lots of filler - the nose area is problematic - fitting the Canopy and Greenhouse was not easy. I fitted it with 2 Henschels and an Open Bomb Bay....the largest of the some 175 1/72 scale planes I have made in the last 6 years or so! The paints are Tamiya enamels (spray paint)

Another model finished. Hasegawa with Quickboost wheel wells and Eduard details. Gunze paints and varnishes were used, the decals are Hasegawa, some of them RS and the "Cross of Lorraine" decals are from a very old ESCI sheet - VERY difficult to apply. At the end of the day I had to stick them using Johnson’s Klear 😂

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Out of the box except brass rod for the pitot tubes on the tail. Superb Caracal Decals. Tamiya white and Xtracolor International Orange for the main paints. Great old kit.

This is the Hasegawa AV-8B, Kit #07228. Built OOB with the exception of: Scratchbuilt (printed/cut) canopy det cord, using a Cricut Explore Air 2 SuperScale Decals #MS481249 I've built a few harriers but was eager to try a different paint scheme. I came across VMA-513's CO which is (to my knowledge) the only US harrier with some color in their scheme with the blue tail. I got hooked on it. Not to mention I never really see many modellers depicting this. Hasegawa has a kit depicting this specific scheme (#09815) but it is rare to find. Paints used: Badger Stynlrez Black Primer Vallejo FS36118 (Top Fuselage) Mission Models FS36320 (Bottom Fuselage) Mission Models White (Intakes) Vallejo Metal Color Steel (Metals around aircraft) So here it is, and please leave some comments and let me know what you think!

Just finished the old (1983) kit from KP Unusual for me it became a build straight out of the box. I like the red nose and leading edges together with the red registration. But the red letters wasn't dark enough but I let it pass. Just wanted to get it finished.

Hi guys!! So this is my 3rd model and I have deceided to go with the GWH F-15C. I prefer the F-15E color scheme so I deceided to go that route even if it is not 100% accurate.. Also, I didn't hide the avionics bay because I kind of like the details in there and I wanted to show them. Hope it doesn't bother you that much 😜 The kit is great and I had no real big issues with it, fits nicely from start to finish!! Since everything is brushed I went with Vallejo paint just like my other 2 models, this paint is really good for Hand Brushing!! I have put some pics of the 3 jets just for fun 😄 Thanks for watching!! Hope you enjoy!! I am opened to any constructive comments if you have some tricks for hand brushing!! Thanks a lot guys!! P.S. I also put a pic of the next one on my stach, feel free to comment and tell me what you think or give some advices if you have done it!!

Hi Pals, I will try to comment on the assembly and painting of the model, without the support of WIP photos. In the first place, the kit is really a SU-85M, but when seeing that the 85mm barrel that the kit came with, it was a "little small", and that by chance there was a 100mm metal barrel available, for a SU-100 , I decided to switch and build the SU-100. Being the SU-85M model, seeing photos of it and the SU-100, I found no differences (at least substantial), between one model and another, not so with the SU-85. I do not remember major problems with the assembly of the kit, its fit is good, some doubts in the instructions, but nothing that is not easy to achieve. I started with a coat of black primer, then added some rust. When I looked for an appropriate green for the paint, after trying several colors, I did not find any that I liked, so I chose one to see how it would look, thinking that the weathering would end up darkening it ... I continued with all the normal processes, (washing, chipping, etc ...), but the result, I did not like, because the tone that was taking green, made it very dark, just what I did not want ... Cleaning the model, a slow and dirty process, for a new attempt, this time with another green one, not the one that suited me the most, but one had to be, of course ... This time, I tried to clarify it in areas, so that later, the same did not happen. I'm happy with the result, although I would have liked the tone a little clearer. The next model will be with a different color. On the other hand, the tracks are the ones that the kit comes with (individual links), quite good, with adjustments in some points to fit their full length, with some saggy ... The kit included as a "bonus", a set of Soviet infantry equipment, which I have included with the model, at specific points, I added a chain, antenna, some vegetation, here and there, flanges for the spare track segments, some wire handles, pigments like dried mud, especially at the bottom of the hull. I think that is all that is relevant to montage and painting. As always thanks for watch and comment. Cheers and TC Francis. SHOTS WITH BLACK BACKGROUND: . SHOTS IN WITHE BACKGROUND: .

Finally done. Some antenna work. Went to Scottcon 2013 show held by the IPMS group in Warner Robins. GA. My Heinkel He 177 Greif came in 1st place in Military Multiprop All Scales. It caught me by surprise.

The grey paint on the wings and tail is now completed and the masking removed: One minor issue - I have chipped the milliput at the leading edge of the wing root ☹️. I mixed up some more milliput and added another dollop to the offending area: I will obviously need to touch up the metal leading edges, so will also fix the area on the underside where the grey seeped past the masking tape! The bogies are also progressing well. I’m now at the stage of making them look dirty!

Oh, of course you remember. Which gender generally has sticky out bits? I think that’s an appropriate point for a "fnaar", isn’t it?

Thanks for the feed back guys and welcome along @At Sea. On most of the images I have got of these tanks there has been some additional stowage added to the turret baskets, usually in the form of extra bins. There seems to be a bit of variety so I assume it was down to individual crews. But one thing that seems pretty consistent, as seen in the image above, is the extra basket for what looks like rolled up mats. Unfortunately Takom haven't included this, even though it is seen in the image of the vehicle that they have based their art work on. So the only option was to make one. I used some .5mm brass rod soldered together. Unfortunately my soldering skills aren't great and what you see below took me a whole evening. There is also a small box, that Takom had missed, that needed to be added next to the basket. I have no idea what it's for but is quite prominent. Once it was all painted it looks ok, although I have made the basket a tad too high but being as life is too short and the intention is to add stowage anyway it will have to remain that way. I have now applied the satin coat so next job is to add some markings. Wayne

I can remember going to the International Air Tattoo and seeing this in the static line up and promising myself that I was going to build it soon. Well soon has been stretched a little bit but I finally got it done. The kit had quite a few extras added to it but all worthwhile in my opinion. Eduard Cockpit Etch Set Eduard BOZ Pod Eduard Sky Shadow Pod Eduard CPU-123 Paveway II Quickboost Undercarriage Covers Reskit Wheels CMK Martin Baker Mk.10 Ejection Seats Master Pitot & AOA Probes Painting was achieved with Xtracrylix and Vallejo paints followed by a gloss coat of Klear. Decals came from Kits-World and Xtradecals. Dirty stuff was provided by Flory (Pro-modeller) Dark Dirt and all matted down afterwards with Xtracrylix Matt Varnish. All in all a thoroughly pleasing build and hope you all enjoy looking as much as I enjoyed building it. Enough waffle, on with the pictures: Thanks for looking Pete

A few photos of my recently completed Airfix Spitfire Mk1a. Brush painted with Humbrol and Tamiya acrylics. Thanks for looking!

Hi, everybody! It's my next model from Ukraine manufacturer "ICM". The kit is very good, highly recommended.

Thanks for coming along on my adventure! I should have (probably) looked to see how others had done the kit but...it's an adventure right! Assembly is progressing very quickly, it helps that its a simple kit with very few parts and is amazingly well cast. The parts are quite sharp and clean. A couple of images of the work as of quitting time tonight; the pilot suggested a back rest might be nice so, I cut a oval from .010" and cut it in half and glued that to the fuselage top. Nice pilot figure by the way, all cleaned up glued together and awaiting his ride being finished I was going to pre-shade the ribs and spars with Tamiya "Buff" but it was almost exactly the same color as the plastic so I added a bit of brown to it...and pre-shaded the ribs and spars Paint work underway (home made linen color with buff and white. Vallejo wood Thanks for looking

The "W" as they go into the fuselage: The whole frame. Now, I just soldered the "W", because at this stage I couldn't solder the rest, so it is superglued in place. But next time...may be:

Still working it out as I go along and as it looks for now I may have to extend the floor pan length, We'll see later but this is enough for today. A reasonable fit to the plan shape and a partially bended roof/floor. It may be time to seek passengers and crew. 1/32th Victorian or Edwardian seated and standing figures. More horses.

I am proper confuse now. In homo sapiens,even it has to be said (you arsked for it lady) homo erectus both genders have sticky out bits. I know which sticky out bits would be on my radar, every time. 🤔 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Backing up a bit… What, you mean the kit part isn't any good? Horrid. I spared you from big pictures at least I think I'll have to model the earlier metal lower engine shield. Oh wait, Bill said that. Hmmm. More work then. Thanks Pete, good idea, and he's responded! Thanks Mark, that turned out really well! Right, pack the kit parts with Plasticine, making sure not to split the join that the parts are aligned: I know I need to have a visible cut line in the vac form but my head can't work out the male/female moulding thing. Which one has to have sticky out bits? At my age I don't remember… I'll make necessary changes to the mould/buck. Probably. Into the box: Prepare the 'chemicals': This stuff's old. January 2017. I think people say it lasts though? Coat the master and box in release agent: Then read the instructions: Future readers note: Don't use the release agent. Rats. Alchemy is in progress: I've just noticed those bubbles and applied 'the vibrator' - my electric nail file. You know, the one that looks like a… During the pouring I did get that 'have I mixed enough?' moment but it turned out just right. The pot says 'demould time 8 to 24 hours'. Better do something else then until tomorrow.

Last one for tonight

A step into the unknown here, my first ever Heller kit build but it looks like a beauty - the Prinz Eugen. As you all know, this is the German heavy cruiser which accompanied the battleship Bismarck on the ill-fated Operation Rheinübung in 1941. The Prinz Eugen then participated in 'The Channel Dash' in 1942 and survived the war to enter the US Navy for a very brief period. Fantastic art on this big box. Actually, plenty of room in the box and the parts are still in the sealed bag, apart from the hull halves. The hull is very long and slim - just checking, Prinz Eugen was 212.5 m (697 ft 2 in) overall with a beam of 21.7 m (71 ft 2 in). Very slim compared to the Bismarck which was 251 m (823 ft 6 in) overall with a beam of 36 m (118 ft 1 in). Lovely big sheet of decals, tooo, which look in good condition. This boxing of the kit was released in 1998 (according to Scalemates). My big issue with modelling at the moment is attempting to keep it under the radar of Mrs V, although I have put my foot down and declared 1hr on a Sunday afternoon to be 'Craft Hour'. I was wondering how I was going to hide this large hull as even the dog will notice that it's not the usual 1/72 aircraft! However, looking t the Instructions, Heller have you making up all the small sub-assemblies first and the hull only goes together in step 26 - this will be doable!. Also, I'm impressed with the internal jointing/bracing that Heller have included to prevent the hull imploding while you try to glue the halves together. You can see how it all comes together in the final assembly. I'm looking forward to this one - the last time I made up a warship kit it was for floating in the bath!

Hi Kids! Time for an update. The middle of the mighty Bucc has been built up, and the aft fuselage has been glued in place. I've selectively glued one area at a time, allowing things to set and harden up before i muscle certain parts into better alignment. I started with the upper part of the fuselage last nite, and today i'm gluing the first half of the belly. The rubber band is holding the parts close together after i flowed liquid cement into the join.... I glued on the clear wingtips before sanding out the wing leading edge rebate joints on the underside. Since the trailing edge tips are very pointy (plus they're made from clear styrene), you can see i've covered them with bits of Tamiya tape as a preventative "Bonk-Resistant" measure. The next task to take on are the bulges just upstream of the intakes. General "Buccy Mad" Melchett explained to me that these were retrofitted to Buccaneers as part of Mod 1044 in an effort to reduce wind noise around the cockpit. I was intimidated about removing these, but it was surprisingly quick work. First I masked off the raised rectangular panel below to protect it. Then, with a curved No. 10 X-Acto blade, i just started whittling away very tiny chinks of the bulge at a time. Once the bulk removal was done, i took a flat file that had a smooth side edge, and just started leveling the area, using the smooth edge to steer the file around the curved perimeter of the "Boss". I did a slight bit of filing the edges of the boss to clean it up a bit, then took a 220 grit sanding stick and a 320 grit Tamiya sanding sponge to sort of clean up the area. The end result looks a little bit rough in these closeups, but given its a featureless area (and somewhat upstaged by the intakes), its probably more than good enough to press on... Forward fuselage mate comes next. Stay tuned. david

The second wall glued on

Well yes you really should, you'd have no problems keeping it all lined up would you? I one the other hand do have a problem of that nature to deal with because the side frames of the lower deck needed setting at an angle due to the taper on the side panels. Obviously we start with parallel lines but the induced taper takes command and pushes the top line of them out away from the shape we need. Now I am sure truck, wagon and bus modellers have tried and tested techniques for bringing them back to a parallel section but I dont have the foreknowledge to cover the eventuality so it's time to get out of the box when thinking. The top planks need setting parallel to the sides of the bus which will leave the box with a higher front than back but if I stick two planks along the top of the side I am going to have planks getting further away from each other as we get closer to the platform. I had a bit of a think about that and decided to try stopping the sides from diverging by cutting the planks out of a rectangle of card which I am going to leave on the boards until the side walls are glued in place. So the rectangle cut out and a hole the size of the bus interior cut out. To the left is the front and it is square to the boardat that end. The piece to the right will be cut off later so it didnt need squaring up. The foot well/bed section has been glued to the upper board here and the long sequence of affixation begins Here only the front rail is fixed on and the side walls taper away underneath the side plank piece so then the side is fixed with Tamiya Green Glue. And two bulldog clips. The other side is next for glueing down Using the Bulldogs has made the shapes take up the proper positions so next glue that one down. And now it's time to make up the side walls and build in the frame structures. Wish me luck.

Well I supposed I'll start this little yule time clambake off with 6 done, 1 in final stages and 3......somewhere in between ahhem, to put it delicately. In no particular build order ,all 1/48, first up a IM-99 Bomarc , and the smallest build I ever did the XF-85 Goblin. Behind Door #2 a very war weary Chance Vought f4U-1 Solomons campaign, Another test vehicle, The Martin XB-51 . Behind Door # 3 A Fairey Albacore and the venerable test Vehicle XB-26H "MIddle River Stump Jumper" Finally, Since this was too .....big to set on the desk or fit behind any door, B-36J Peacemaker and a really tiny ,by comparison F-86D Sabre Dog PAy no attention to the Great white Beast that was 2019 and she's always to take over the shot. Once I get them lined up I'll add the build links. To everyone, this has been a rough year, not only for myself but for many here. Not only financially, but physically and emotionally. I know for myself personally had it not been for oddball crew of Ladies and Gentlemen, this year would have been a lot harder. And for that Thank you. I would like to add no matter where you are or your situation I wish for ALL of you that Happiest and Peaceful of holiday seasons. And for an excellent and bountiful New Year. Now where did I put my Guiness..... and my scotch chaser... this has been a year for the books! There ,now for those who are in the mood for a "little light "reading here are the links to this years builds. My final build of the 2020 season heres the WIP. Merry Christmas ALL

Hi everybody! I built Trumpeter's KV-1 as a German scheme with sparmax sp-35. I hope you like it. P.S: I believe your reviews one of the best tool for improve myself, so please don't be shy while writing

This is my build of the MPM 1/72 Northrop X-4 Bantam. The X-4 was built to test the theory that an aircraft without a horizontal stabilizer would have better transonic and supersonic because it would not have shockwaves coming off the main wing interfering with the stabilizer. As it turned out it disproved the theory and showed that without the stabilizer the control surfaces did not have enough authority to keep the aircraft stable at transonic speeds. The MPM kit was nice and simple and for a limited run kit there were no real issues. The kit decals were excellent. During the testing of the X-4 it was found that thickening the wing trailing edge of the wings would improved transonic performance, so in a bit of irony the usual complaint of limited run kits having too thick a trailing edge turned out to be a blessing in this case 😀. So here is the results of mu efforts; Next up is the Special Hobby X-1A. Enjoy

My take on the Trumpeter 1/72 kit of this beast of a recce bird. Main points from the build were the addition of vertical spreaders made from sprue to make sure that the rear fuselage does not have a valley running down its spine, and a little reshaping of the tail to correct it to the later vs early shape. It was also worth studying pics of the real aircraft being modelled as there seem to be some differences in avionics fits between aircraft (i.e. some have more protrusions at the rear end than others!). vig8 vig7 Decals came from a Wolfpak Decals sheet showing a colourful bird with bicentennial markings. One thing I found interesting about Vigilante markings is that the white areas on the upper surfaces of the wings seem to extend beyond the moveable control surfaces (the Trumpeter paint scheme has this wrong) and neither did the Wolfpak instructions show it. Also the all moving horizontal stabilisers are edged in white when you might expect them to be all white. Curious to know what the thinking was - it has the effect of making the plan view of the aircraft look smaller from above which perhaps was the rationale? vig6 vig10 Paint was trusty Gunze Aqueous LGG/ White with Insignia Red nose, and Burnt Iron on the slots and rear end/ burner cans. The Master brass pitot finished it off nicely. vig4 Hope you like - must have been quite a sight to see one of these launching/ recovering!!! vig1 vig3 Pat

A one of prototype on the road to the inline variants of the venerable Fw-190. I had the hots for this variant and once considered scratchbuilding a conversion. Saner heads prevailed and I just had to wait for this mainstream release. She's kind of a chunky bird, and I'm not sure I'm as enamored as I once was. Out of the box except for Eduard belts and some tires swiped from the spares box to replace the anemic kit tires. I kept the weathering to a minimum as this was a flight test bird.

No build update today to busy at work, however i do have a stash update 😀. Meet the latest two recruits, couldn't decide which one so I simply had them both 👍 Yep a couple of Tigers my favourite tank of all 🙂👍Just think of all that lovely zimmerit waiting to be added.........can't wait 😉

Thanks Keith - it's now repaired! Cheers Eamonn - you're welcome! 👍 No excuse now Dennis - you'll have to start yours! As mentioned above, I have now fixed the chip: It's all blended in again - you can see the slight colour change in the milliput which shows where the repair starts. I guess my mixing isn't quite 100% 50:50! Once the leading edge is repainted I will tackle the corogard sections. Tomorrow sees the final flight of the final aircraft - G-BYGC in BOAC colours from Cardiff to St. Athan. And that truly will be the end of an era...😢

Finally, some noticeable progress and the end of filling and sanding is in sight (little areas to touch up only, such as that rudder). However, before that, I completed the stern arrangement of rudders and A frames, hull has shifted to red primer, leave a better finish and is close to the final colour below waterline. Love those props... I've also drilled all the holes in the hull and cooling water outlets etc. with aluminium reinforcing plates And here she is on the stand looking purposeful I've drawn the hatches in 3D and printed the first 8, handles from .5mm wire, these will work I think The deck house is yellow becuase that is the filler primer I use to seal plywood and fill the fine grain. This will get a super fine finish for painting. In the background is the first wooden buck for the long vents And here is the first one finished in copper. Using my rule of metal for metal, copper is easier for these as I can solder the ends and (hopefully) add the wire to bottom using solder paste. The glazed lights in the top will be added with a brass etching, I decided against drilling them out Beginning to look the part now Steve

So the fenders proved to be a bit more complex than i was expecting....... while doing further research on Ursula i had managed to convince myself that she was wearing different fenders than the usual depicted in photos of other panthers...it turns out that i was misunderstanding how the fenders work on the panther ...... as most of you know the panther was equipped with double length fenders, one attached to the hull.... the extension attached to the fender to make it wrap further around the track... when the extension wasn't used it was turned 180 degrees and then attached on top of the standard fender using butterfly screws... hopefully i have got it correct this time around.... yes second set of fenders and second attempt at getting them to sit correctly, nothing more depressing than throwing away an expensive set of PE just because you didn't do the proper research before diving in (actually third attempt if you count the scratch built ones i did in copper when i realised the mistake i had made) I made sure to damage and distort the brackets and such because as you can see they were very small and exposed so would more than likely have been hit with debris and trodden on by the crew during entry and exit of the vehicle

This is my Monogram Phantom in 1/48 scale. It took me quite some time to finish. Especially the intakes took quite some filling and sanding. It's more or less OOB, but I used a decal sheet from Caracal (ANG Phantoms) and an an-alq119 from the Italeri RF-4E kit. Paints I used were mainly Vallejo and Mig Ammo acrylics. Some oils for washing and weathering. When kit has raised panellines I use nail buffers to remove the paint from the panellines. O, and I added some RBF tags from Eduard and scratchbuilt rear-view mirrors and some other stuff for the cockpit. Hope you like my Spook.. Kind regards, Gerben

It's nearly 10pm here and in Oz, we've got no watershed ! Can't get enough water to fill a bath, let alone a shed ! Carry on, folks !

I realised, even as I typed it, this would be the case. My problem was really how to explain it the other way round and still stay within the bounds of decency! Still, we all know Ced was being rhetorical.

Thanks for that Bill. Just had a peek at their website, and a virtual mini tour. Very nice indeed. We have something a bit similar down this way at Basingstoke in the form of Milestones Living History Museum, and Beaulieu has one or two commercials but one of the mecca's of public "road" transport for me has to be Crich Tramway village in derbyshire - heaven! At this rate you'll have me resurrecting my long abandoned bus builds, the main components are of course soldered together - tricky but very doable as @Heather Kay will attest I'm sure! There's more where they came from too.... Terry aka closet bus nerd

😱😱😱 Whatever happened to the 9pm watershed! Terry

I admit that I got a bit carried away, so I spent time at the bench but not taking pictures... Main fuselage sections attached together, wing glued to the fuselage, radome and fin attached. And while I was at it, I also glued the gun pack on the lower fuselage Cockpit area is masked as I've been spraying black primer in the intakes. The fit of these was pretty bad and I had to work a lot to sort the area. As a result unfortunately I lost part of the formation light detail, so I decided to sand them off completely. Annoying as this was an interesting detail, at the same time it's true that they were a bit too thick. Now I'll just glue a strip of thin plasticard in place and place the decal over it. removing the formation lights also allowed me to smooth the junction between upper and lower front fuselage sections. In hindsight I think I made a big mistake in gluing the fin in place as the pitot tube has already been bent twice. I'm afraid this may be knocked off at some point during the build, maybe I shold cut it and drill a hole for a metal tube.

Ok, I know I said I would not bother with the hinges in the IFR opening, and I certainly could never make accurate ones, but after a couple of glasses of wine with my diner, I remembered that when I was building my Su-9 in this GB I made a pile of small triangular peices of card to lengthen the drop tank supports, several of which were left. Not sure if you will be able to see them in themin the above poor Macro pic but with some careful painting they will give the impression of hinges - I hope! Really should not be modelling after a few drinks, but it does seem to lower my inhibitions so I am brave (or daft) enough to have a go at things I would not normally do - not that I want to give the impression that I am inebriated - it takes a lot more than a couple of glasses of wine to do that! Incidentally, after seeing it in the pic I have got rid of the gash plasic shaving that shows up behind the "hinges". Wings, intakes and nose are now on. Bit of tidying up to do then I can prime this like the F-102! Cheers Pete

Some more work on the seats has been done. I masked the seams with thin strips of Tamiya tape. Then I used the airbrush on low pressure and higher flow to dust some thin green and grey. The seams were unmasked and a thin mist of beige was added. I finished the work by hand painting the edge piping in brown. This will be followed by an overall flat coat. But the main work of today has been the installation of headliner. It's done! As I suspected it's the most difficult job so far. I must have spent closer to three hours at the workbench, hours that just vanished, before I was finished. It all became rather involved and I didn't manage any photos during the work. The fit isn't perfect in the corners just aft the windscreen, but that will disappear, as apart from the sun visors to be added I also hope to add a net for storing your maps and important papers, that is seen in some cars. But here is the finished and fitted headliner after necessary touch ups and fitted courtesy light and handles. It wasn't easy, it needed trimming and fiddling, but Heller's engineering must be admired.

This is uncharted territory for me, having never built a pre war...(Jurassic?) aircraft model before. The kit was given to me buy a local club member who in turn had received it as a gift from a family member from years ago. The kit immediately hit my "that's an interesting model" button and had to be tackled. I searched for some spokes for the wheels but gave up finding anything then viewed some videos on making spoke wheels for models. Mine are crude but may look better with grass and dirt applied to them. Here's some images of the kit as of today; made a jig to make wheel spokes; first attempt looked promising but over scale; 2nd attempt (using the long blonde hair from my wife's hair brush) again, please excuse the crudity of the model... Thanks for looking

I really like the Hobby Boss kits - cheap and of reasonable accuracy (I am just not the type to spent more than $25 bucks on a kit....although I do have a more expensive 1/72 Flying Wing I will be building soon!). HobbyBoss kits can be assembled fairly quickly (usually I detail the cockpit just a bit) and then I can concentrate on painting. As I have written before, I prefer the more obscure subjects - as a result I have several HobbyBoss Dewoitine D.520s, Morane 406s and Me109s and Hurricanes done up in various Air Forces. Although the fit of the D.520 windscreen is terrible, and the infamous wheels of the Hurricane are WAY too small, I still buy these kits. I like the insignia to be accurate - but am not an absolute stickler for this - my philosophy is, how do I NOT Know that an aircraft was painted the way I have done? (as long as one reasonably sticks to the traditional colors). So I might add the odd obscure Luftwaffe "mascot" decal to a Romanian aircraft for a little color. This, of course, is even more true of WW1 aircraft, due to even more scant photography. So here are two of my Bulgarians. I have a soft spot for Bulgarians, because while posted to US Embassy Moldova, I was good friends with the Bulgarian Consul. I only wish there was some way for me to bestow on him one of these aircraft.....lots of good Memories!

It's crazy huge! I'd love to be able to comment and cheer on every build, but this GB is so large, it's a full time job just to keep up with what's going on. What with the inconvenience of everyday life, actually trying to enter some builds into the GB and Christmas on top, there's little time for much else. There's a lot of cracking builds going on here, so welcome to the party! Steve

Ced's rhetorical powers being uber-legendary of course. In the interests of calming overheated worry beads might I point out that it is past nine-o-clock somewhere always in this polyspatial paradise.

Oh many tentacled one, we inhabitants of the tropical realms salute you and rejoice at the sound of your occasional laughter. Long may it continue and in greater blasts than previously (I think I read that on a medicine bottle recently). Onward fair fellow, cry havoc and unleash the Llamas of Plastickery. Whilst it is great to try out new seasonal music, can I suggest that we do not forget the old classics such as: 1) A Llama he did a wassailing go (but not in Poole harbour) 2) I saw three ships and a Llama (being chased out of Poole harbour by a small but agile boat) 3) While Shepherds watched their Llamas 4) Oh come all ye Llamas 5) The folly and the Llama 6) Follow, follow, follow fair maiden to where the Llamas play by the potting shed (a less traditional song but the chorus certainly gets the sopranos going) I think I hear the choir warming up, even as I write this. I need to go and grab the bucket of ice water before they overheat. Cheers Don