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Showing content with the highest reputation on 30/01/21 in all areas

  1. Here my latest. It's Revell's 1/32 Tempest V. This is a re-box of the Special Hobby kit and is really quite nice. The moulding is just sublime with wonderful panel details and thousands of subtle rivets, which look just fantastic on the finished model. The fit of the parts can be challenging at times but care and a little test, dry-fit and adjust gets it done. I added Kamizukuri paper seat belts (the wong style I now realise - they should not be Sutton type), Master Brass gun barrel (SUPERB!) and the Barracudacast Nose Correction Set. They jury is out on the Barracudacast nose, it is a slightly different shape than the kit but mine was mis-moulded requiring a lot of work to correct. Add to that the fiddling to get the radiator parts in, the radiator door , to get it to fit to the fuselage (hot water, hairdryer and some bending to make it wider/less tall) and trimming the exhausts was a lot of work to fix a subtle error on the kit parts. Oh well, it's on there now and looks the part. The correction set includes a new spinner and propellor blades and these were very nice. Paints are basically Tamiya acrylics over Tamiya laquer primer. Decals are from the kit. Minimal weathering is my preference. The final finish is Future floor polish with a little Tamiya Flat mixed in. WIP is here: Hope you like it!!! Comments/critiques/ corrections (and cash) always welcome!!!!
    43 points
  2. Greetings Folks, May I present you my latest built Microace Ki-67 Peggy 1/72 (LS molding) The kit is a bit dated but was truly fun to build? The two most challenging parts were masking the glass panels and trying to match the color. The masking took me a whole day, it was a lot of work for a few minutes of painting. For the paint, I did lots of trial and errors, first I thought I should go for the green but some I see brownish olive. So I settled for the brownish olive if incorrect my apologies. The kit was over-engineered for its time for sure, and in some places it was tricky but the fit was awesome. I will keep it short so, here it is Thank you for watching, cheers.
    32 points
  3. Hi all. My latest finished aircraft is Kinetic's 1/48 F/A-18A Hornet in Agressor colours. On the internet I found foto's of the actual aircraft which had some miss-matched panels that were probably taken from another airframe. Also, the paint was pretty worn in several places. This was the version I just had to build of course. Aftermarket parts used are resin exhausts from reskit, an ejection seat from Aires and the ALQ-167 pod from the AMK weapons set. Kit decals were used and everything was painted with Mr Hobby acrylics over Alclad black primer. Thanks for watching. René
    27 points
  4. Hi folks! Got this kit as a Christmas present to myself courtesy of @Robert and decided to round off my odyssey of classic WW2 fighters with this one. It's built from the box with the addition of Barracuda ailerons and radiator/oil cooler covers and a CMK seat. I'd only recommend the Barracuda set if you really can't stand the metal ailerons in the kit, the other stuff can be remedied or left as is for the casual builder like me! It's an excellent kit for the price. Fit is very good all round, the usual places requiring filler at the wing roots and underside just behind the wings, Other than that, you can almost get away with none. The surface detail is lovely. Can't speak to the accuracy of the whole (Barracuda replacement bits seem to cover most of those) but while I do pay attention to glaring inaccuracies in model kits, I'm not obsessive and prefer aesthetics over form anyway! I used MRP lacquer paints for the camouflage with Colourcoats enamel for the staining and worn/used effects. As usual, I never do pre-shading, it's amazing what you can do with just enamel paint, cotton buds and thinner! The decals were from the Revell box and their usual excellent quality (most of their recent releases have been superb decals) I've built some very clean models recently but I wanted to see if I can still do realistic effects and studied whatever pictures and newsreel footage I could to try to represent a used warplane. The Spitfire was a genuine warfighter and I wanted to reflect this in the finish. Very pleased with the results. This is exactly what I wanted from a Spitfire kit - cheap, good quality and an easy build. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking to move up to 1/32. Anyway - hope you have a pleasant weekend and thanks for looking, Alan
    27 points
  5. Hello to all of you.Here is one model I built OOB.It is a nice model to work on.I used tamiya paints and caracal model decals for the markings. Regards,Dragan
    24 points
  6. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Another of my unduly protracted "OOTB+" construction projects, this one was started in 2015 I think, and substantially completed in late December, but I still haven't added aerial wires or the ring-and-bead sight. This bloody thing fought me every step of the way. It was the first of several new-tool Airfix Tomahawks I've built, and I didn't yet know how to fettle the main parts to fit nicely, so filling and sanding was required. After laying fallow for some years, I was off on a P-40 kick and started it up again. I used Vallejo paints for the Curtiss/DuPont RAF equivalent colours. They look nice but don't stick well. Much repainting was down to the Vallejo chipping and peeling. I used an AML masking set for the camouflage, which didn't fit or work well, so there was a lot of repainting to adjust the contours of the camo pattern. The wing gun barrels broke off almost immediately, so replacements were fabricated from Albion tubing. The .50-calibre nose guns were "taped over" to keep out debris. It was a simple task to drill the exhausts out; the kit parts are quite adequate IMHO, no need for AM resin. After I'd applied the Kuomintang roundels to the wing tops, I took a look at some photos of the real Number 68. The real markings were significantly farther outboard than the Airfix profile indicated. Out came the airbrush for a repaint. I must say the kit decals by Cartograf behaved in a most civilised manner, and were easily hidden under fresh paint. This wouldn't be the last time I was glad to have a backup set of markings. A rectangle of berry-box plastic was used to replicate the windscreen armour after I'd gotten the canopy painted (which took four tries and two canopy castings). The little rudder control horn was made from plasticard to replace the blobby moulded-in unit. The red tail band went down far more easily than feared, I expected to be forced to paint it. The shark mouth decals went down perfectly, contrary to expectations. I'd gotten that far when I re-read @opus999's build log, wherein he points out the blue paint above the red tongue. Out came the airbrush again, blue paint was applied (I could've gone lighter, TBH), and a second set of decals was applied. While I was at it, I applied a darker blue to the wheel hub design as I reasoned it'd be less faded than the wingtip roundels. The starboard side "Hell's Angel" was applied facing forwards in accordance with the box profile. This was wrong. A bit more repainting and a second decal set got that sorted. I noted in the famous photos of Number 68 the Disney "Flying Tiger" appliqué was applied over a base of fresh green paint, so one decal was applied as a reference mark. Green paint was then laid down, and a second decal was stuck on top. I figured that since this was becoming such a recurrent theme, I might as well turn it to my aid. I wanted to apply a fresher, less-faded looking Kuomintang roundel to the wing undersurfaces. I had several options to choose from, and I'd never before realised the lack of standardisation in their design on various decal sheets. No two center circles were the same diameter and no triangles matched. The closest I had were some from Print Scale that @Rakovica had sent me, so down they went. Many wingtip marker lights were created with UV-setting glue on a scrap of vinyl sticker backing, where the best were coloured and then applied to the wingtips. All in all it was a ridiculous and protracted struggle to finish a mostly-OOTB pocket-money kit, but it's over now and many lessons in what not to do were learnt. Despite the overlong landing gear legs (which I simply can't be bothered to give a toss about at this point) I'm quite happy with the model. I think it might even deserve a proper base to show it off on. Thanks for looking and bearing with my tedious tale of woe. 😎
    24 points
  7. Hallo This is my next Spitfire. A IXc variant. Quite straight from the box. With some use of some etched parts. Some more ahead. I choose Techmod decals, because this colorful option won my heart. Beside this I had a book about the southern theater of operation. Well, next time a Spitfire again! Happy modelling
    23 points
  8. Hey Brits- I just finished the Typhoon with alot of help from this forum in the WW2 Section. I ran into areas of question such as ID stripes, sky color codes, under canopy Color and bomb rack location which with the great help from you guys I was able to overcome and make an accurate model of my favorite British airplane of ww2. I usually prefer the bubbletop with underwing rockets! But this is the earlier car door version with Bombs that I fell in love with. The Decals are from Techmod and were really great... The Scheme is Dirty Dora and I referenced the color image that is posted online, and it had the right wing gun covers in reverse color and certain cowl screws with chipped paint (which I represented in the model). The Photo has very light usage on the plane and almost no exhaust staining so I represented it as such in light weathering. It was as it was in Spring 1943 with the yellow over wing stripes removed. The Paint is Gunsie Mr. Color British Colors C361, C362 and C363. I also used the C368 Sky for the band and spinner and these matched the decals very well... (I had to order these from Taiwan as these colors are not imported to the USA) and the clear and wash is Tamiya. This was built OOB except for Decals and the Eduard 'Look' Instrument Panel (excellent!), Eduard Resin Exhausts and a resin seat with molded in harness. Thanks for all the great help you gave me on this project!
    21 points
  9. Some time around 2015 I became aware of the deficiencies of available P-51B kits in the proper scale. I promptly obtained a Hasegawa P-51B kit, which still has the best available fuselage. I then fitted the cockpit and wings of an Academy P-51B, the best available at the time (I'd use AZ/KP wings now). The wing panel lines were filled in accordance with NAA practice (at least on the top surfaces, wink wink) and the ammunition loading doors were revised as they are too long OOTB. Attaching the new wings was surprisingly easy; a wee bit of plastic had to be trimmed between the flaps to clear the Hasegawa intake scoop. While I was at it, I cut out and dropped the flaps, which was easy enough once I quit dithering and got on with it. Miraculously, I used no filler on this model. Progress then stalled after the airframe was assembled and the clear bits were masked off. I periodically revisit stalled builds, and one night about two weeks ago this one happened to be sitting out on the bench, alone and helpless, after I'd had a couple of pints. As tends to happen, a few units of alcohol overcame paralysis by analysis and so the airbrush was loaded up and off we went. Primer was dismissed with a beery hand wave and thirty minutes later I had a P-51B in factory fresh OD over NG (I used Tamiya Khaki Drab and Neutral Grey cut with Mr. Levelling thinner). As this model was intended mostly as a Proof Of Concept I didn't go overboard with detailing and initially intended to use kit decals. All three of the "viable" options had red noses, so the nose was dutifully painted red. I then discovered that both sets of Academy decals I had were even more crap than normal, and both sets of Hasegawa decals I had were dried to a flaky crisp. A rummage through the decal box yielded an Xtradecal D-Day set with markings for "Leakin' Lizz" and so the day was saved, all I'd need to do was repaint the nose and add the invasion stripes. My cunning plan was to decal and seal Lizz, then add the stripes around the markings that would have pre-existed them on the real aircraft. Fortunately I had spare star-and-bars and a sheet of white code letters from Kitsworld, I needed them to replace the decals chewed off by the stripe masking. The prop markings and aircraft data block were salvaged from the crunchy Hasegawa decals by immersing them in puddles of Future. I suspect the red fuel filler caps were simply overpainted with invasion stripes on the real aeroplane, but I think that splash of colour makes the model pop a bit. Fuel stains are Citadel Nuln Oil. I like the way Hasegawa replicated the quarterlights as part of a larger transparency which includes a section of the fuselage spine, but I could've done more to fair it into the rest of the fuselage. There's a bit of a step on either side. The landing gear and gear leg doors are from the Hasegawa kit, the main doors are from the Academy kit. They're crisper than the Hasegawa units and have the reinforcement plates (which may or may not be prototypical for this plane, but look nice I think). A Molotow chrome marker was used on the oleos and lights; marker and formation lights were replicated with Tamiya clear colours. Clear tape was used over the wing light. Now that I've gone to the trouble of bashing this together, I see ArmaHobby are preparing a P-51B/C kit, which is the way it goes, isn't it? Hope that turns out well, it's high time we had a one-kit solution for this iconic type. That's all for now, hope you enjoyed a look. 😎
    20 points
  10. The torpedo boat 11 (as well as the numbers 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16) was built in 1884-1885 at the German shipyards Vulkan and joined the Greek Fleet in 1885. It took part in the war of 1897. In 1905 it was transformed in the factory " McDowell and Varvour "in Piraeus. On October 18, 1912, during the First Balkan War, under the command of Lieutenant Nikolaos Votsis, he sailed to Macedonia, during the operations for the liberation of nations, from the Ottoman Empire. Sailing with the traffic lights off, having instructions from the local Greek boat captains Michalis Koufos and Nikolaos Vlachopoulos, who had shown him the entrance area to the port of Thessaloniki, which was part of the Ottoman Empire, he secretly entered the port. It was essentially a suicide attempt, as the port was guarded by the cannons of Karabournou Fortress and by mines. Defying the danger, which was enormous, it passed over the mined waters and fired three torpedoes, it managed to sink the old Turkish armored vehicle FETH-I-BULEND anchored there. The torpedo boat 11 sank after a grounding on April 23, 1913 in the bay of Moudros of Lemnos island in Greece, as a result of severe bad weather, without casualties. It later ascended and returned to active action. In 1918 it was turned into an aquifer. It was decommissioned in 1920. The model it’s scratchbuild on a scale of about 1/625, based on photos of the real. colors of friendship
    20 points
  11. Beginning with a topic of British interest. Scorpion in the Falklands War. Construction of the old kit was completed in early 2020.
    19 points
  12. Hello my Friends. This is my latest. Had fun with this until a slight mishap when I broke the wing because of my own stupidity(I hope you can't tell). Anyway alls well that ends well. All the best. Ralph
    18 points
  13. Greetings Brits- Here is the 4th of 4 of my Recent German model build. This is the recently released Eduard Special edition 'Adlertag' kit of the Bf110C for Battle of Britain. It includes a lot of decal schemes, but I settled on this one from the kit decals. This was a fantastic kit! The Kit Comes with an Ammo and gun servicing Luftwaffe Crew of about 5 or 6 excellent figures with a work table and tools. I will build them some day and I left the Nose gun hatch loose and repositionable for a clean aircraft (fit is ok) or with hatch off to show the guns. It looks handsome in the splinter cammo. I was never a fan of this color scheme, but it looks really good on this plane. After almost thru the build, I realized that Resin Exhausts (That look far better) were available and ordered a set. So I just tacked these kit exhausts in place until the resin arrives and will fix that. This kit has a lot of PE in it and I was selective about applying that because I really like building from the molded plastic parts and applying dry brushing to raised details. I don't like looking at the edges of the PE just sitting on the consoles. So cockpit is nice, but not all the detail contained in the kit. Overall I was happy with this kit and it was a very fun build! Enjoy...
    16 points
  14. 2nd of my builds Talbot lago gp
    16 points
  15. My next finished project is Zvezda's Boeing 767-300ER. Finally a type again that I myself have flown in (in 1998 to Florida). This was the second time my parents and I went on holiday to the US. The first time was in 1992 and then we flew with the KLM 747. I had hoped that we would fly with the 747 again in '98 but "unfortunately" (as I thought then) it turned out to be the KLM 767. I thought that was strange, because the 13 year old me did not understand that a twin engine aircraft could fly so far :). In retrospect, I am glad that I flew with this type, because after that for whatever reason I never did fly again onboard a 767. I started building this kit in december 2019, but only finished it just now (due to us moving and a lot of DIY work around our new house). Also, I wanted to finish it before our second child (a baby girl!) will be born in April. The excellent kit is by Zvezda (a much better kit than the Revell offering). The Satcom is from Bra.Z. Decals are from Draw (livery), Authentic airliners (cockpit windshield and windows) and Flying colors (Corogard). I used Xtra Color 302 KLM blue for the top of the fuselage and Canadiaan Voodoo grey for the wings, stabilos and engine pylons. The tail is Tamiya White. As for the engines and the underside of the fuselage I used Tamiya white with a tiny bit of black. The metal colours (leading edges and engine exhausts) are various types from Allclad. At any rate, the pictures: I'm not sure what my next finished project will be. I have the Antonov 10, Ilyushin 14 and Lockheed L-14 in the works. I might even start building the IL-62 and A220 also soon, but we'll see. Anyway guys, thanks for reading and see you next time! Martijn
    15 points
  16. 1st attempt at a group build and my 8th model since I started during lockdown Unfortunately due to Xmas and COVID I haven’t been able to do any modelling for the last 6 weeks Didn’t quite get all the finishing touches I wanted anyway here it is 1928 Citroen c4 thanks for looking
    15 points
  17. (Updated pics) Heller L083 P-40E RAAF Markings, painted with Vallejo model colour paints, finished with Winsor and Newton Matt
    15 points
  18. Bit of a Frankenspitfire MkXVIe, in the end I think parts from 5 different kits were used, still it did start as a Heller 282 kit. Fuselage, tail, canopy, interior and exhausts are all french at least. Decals from the Eduard Combo set. Painted with Xtracrylix and Vallejo, varnished with Winsor and Newton Matt. Spinner was handpainted with Humbrol yellow once realised the decal couldnt be applied fully with the prop in place.
    15 points
  19. Hi Brits... More German planes in my recent 'Fatherland 2021' Build. This one is the excellent Tamiya 1/48 Me262 kit. Very great kit with diecast metal nose structure it sits perfectly on the gear. I painted with Gunsie Mr. Color Paint, tinted for 1/48th scale effect. Tamiya Clear coats used... Decals are Sturmbirds pt1 Eaglestrike (they give you the tail number for White 2). Wash is Tamiya Dark Brown in the oily areas like the control surface hinges and access panels. Soot is the Tamiya Makeup Compact kit which is really nice. Light dry brush foot-wear in traffic areas like wing roots. A relatively new plane in the famous photos from 1944. This is the early Splinter Me262 scheme in mid 1944, and notice the plane is dated as such with the early nose gear with scissors. I highly recommend this kit if you haven't yet, its fantastic build. Only lacks for the deployed leading edge slats... Enjoy and as usual I like to hear feedback to become a better modeler! My goof up that bothers me is that I filled the panel line in front of the canopy where it glues in. So I lost that panel line and did not have the nerve to try and recut it thru the filler. I thought I would make a mess of it and so filled it in. I use automotive Bondo filler for gaps and it chips if I would try and recut the panel line in and that would look very bad, so I left it. I was debating on actually drawing it in with a grey pen! Thoughts? One other issue I had was that the Pilot in the kit was very undersized and looked ridiculous in the cockpit. I really LOVE having pilots and crew in my models. It makes the model more 'alive' to me. The Pilot is a great part of that to me. The Kit Pilot could not see over the side of the canopy! Way too undersized. So I looked at photos and gauged the pilot in the Tamiya Do335 that I just posted here in RFI would be perfect. So thank goodness you get TWO pilots in the Tamiya Do335 Kits! Tamiya kits are great because they give you pilots! So this has the Tamiya 1/48 Do335 pilot in it... Your modeling buddy from USA... Bob
    14 points
  20. Okay I admit it. I cheated for this one. Having had a nightmare with the invasion stripes decals I decided to omit them. So I now present the aircraft as it may have been on the days before the order to paint black and white invasion stripes was promulgated. Here is the evidence. It's a great little kit, I just wish I had done it justice. Next time I'll paint the stripes on given the advice and guidance from fellow Britmodellers ! FFH
    13 points
  21. Morane Saulnier M.S. 406, Smer rebox (horrible decals!), Turkish markings. Build thread here:
    13 points
  22. Dear Colleagues: As there has been some discussion on the airliner part of this forum about the relative merits of the Airfix and ESCI kits, I thought I'd share the model I finished about 10 years ago. The base kit is the 1962-vintage Fokker Troopship. To complete it as an F-27-200, I drew heavily upon others' suggestions contained on a Dutch modeler's site. I deepened the fuselage with laminated sheets of styrene, cut to the the rough shape of the underside, and modified the tail, ailerons, and engines. I ensured the cockpit retained the V-shape through its curvature. I also employed parts of the ESCI kit's nose, heat-exchanger intakes, tail fairings, landing gear, etc, as well as added LORAN antennas from an ESCI C-47. Given a choice between the two kits, I'm partial to Airfix, which gets more correct, shape-wise, than ESCI's, especially with the cockpit and engine nacelles, including the pronounced fairing that extends up and over the wing trailing edge. I tried to replicate AirUK's periwinkle blue using Southwest Canyon Blue. The white is PollyScale.
    12 points
  23. Citroën 15 Six Traction Avant, 1/8, #799 Here are a few photos of the finished model. I never thought that would happen inside the time frame of this GB when I started. It felt like a hopeless goal, but since this GB was all about classic Heller kits I felt the need to ensure one of Heller's most ambitious and iconic kit efforts, from 1977, would be represented. This kit is the reissue from around 2008/10. Apart from substituting most of the wiring and plumbing parts, that come as moulded soft vinyl squids, and some other vinyl parts with better materials the model is generally built OOB, albeit with a good deal of care applied in part preparations, a bit of altered assembly sequence and some engineering adjustments. I have added my own registration plates, the net carrying the maps under the forward headliner and some minor details. Much has been said over the years about this kit's complexity and more or less hopeless features and details. I must say though that in general I have been very impressed by the old school Heller engineering. The tooling work is after all soon 45 years old. It has been a difficult build for sure, a challenge, some modifications have been applied, but nothing has been impossible to achieve. OK, sometimes with some hacking and tricks. Even the vac formed headliner worked out well in the end. I used the option given in the kit to build it with fixed shock absorbers, although it can be built with fully "working" suspension. This way my model is actually supporting its own weight well, perhaps not over many years, but certainly over a few days on display if I want to. It's been a joy to build the model within this GB, and I'm very grateful and humbled by all kind praise that many of you have given during the build. It has most certainly helped along the way. Thank you very much! The build thread can be found here: It's not easy to wrap it up in five photos, but this is it:
    12 points
  24. Well I’ve added a bunch of representative rigging and called it enough: I need to let the black dry, paint Copper on the bottom, add a couple of decals and then decide whether to make a sea base. Now, where’s an aeroplane?
    12 points
  25. This is Amusing Hobbies 1/35th scale Centurion AVRE from the first Gulf War. A straight forward kit, no real dramas. Tracks are individual link, click together and they are "de-sprued" so are simplicity itself. Stowage is from the spares box as are the figures. The driver is a Tamiya item, the other two are white metal figures who's origin completely escapes me! Painted with Xtracolor enamels. Thanks for looking Angelo
    10 points
  26. Well there I was all smug for clearing my shelf of shame last year. As I glance to the right, I can see that somehow a bunch of kits have crept in when I wasn't looking! So in addition to my two "current" background projects (Empire and Fairey Long Range), I seem to have accumulated an Airfix P1127 (Helis/VTOL GB), a FROG Baltimore (MTO III GB), Aeroclub Osprey (don't ask how many years that's been going), and an Airfix Cutty Sark. Wait. Back off a minute. A what? I bought it in an Airfix order to make up to free postage, started it and got dismayed very quickly: I thought I'd better get it out of the way now. Sorry for posting in this forum because frankly I'd be embarrassed to post it in the Ships section! I made some progress last night and early this morning: I'm using brown cotton run through some black acrylic for the standing rigging (which was covered in tar) and I'll use the same cotton run through PVA for the running rigging (which wasn't). I'm approximating the ratlines with just the verticals, which I think is scale-appropriate. The objective will be to look busy and feasible, but I don't want to be responsible for any cardiac or apoplectic events in Ships. I will move onto wingy things next post. Although in all fairness, this one has nearly flown across the room a couple of times...
    10 points
  27. After the disappointment of my Crusader Mk.I mishap I thought I would start a new project to restore my mojo. I wasn't sure which one to start but with Valentine's day round the corner this one seemed quite apt. The Mk.IX valentine was made in answer to the need of a more powerful gun than the 2pdr. To accommodate the 6pdr gun the turret needed to be redesigned. Vickers engineers freed up space for the new gun by reducing the turret crew to 2 men and the coaxial machinegun and smoke bomb launcher were removed. The removal of the machine gun meant that the tank couldn't defend itself against infantry and so was unpopular with its crews. The bomb launcher issue was partially resolved by mounting two grenade launchers externally. But in essence the Mk.IX had turned the Valentine into a tank destroyer. I am on a bit of a mission to build as many types of British AFV's as I can and I want to show a representation of all of the different camouflage schemes. There is a bit of a dispute as to which colour this particular vehicle was painted but I wanted to do the Desert Pink / Dark Olive. This scheme was introduced on the 6th October 1942 and was used until May 1943. The above picture was taken on 10th April 1943 so it seems likely to me that this is the scheme it is painted in, however Blue-Black, Slate and Dark Brown were also used as disruptive colours. As always with black and white photos it's difficult decipher exactly which colours have been used. This kit seems typical of Bronco with a reasonably high parts count and very nicely moulded details. There is a fair amount of photo etch included along with separate link tracks. I have enjoyed the ones I have built previously and this one has received very favourable reviews. Looking at the instructions there seems to be a a fair bit of the interior included. I probably wont use the transmission and radiators though as I don't intend to have the doors open. The drivers compartment and turret interiors are welcome as it means that I could have the hatches open and who knows I may even be brave enough to add a crew to this one. I think I have waffled on enough for now, I've got some building to do. Wayne
    10 points
  28. Previous builders experiences of Belkits products have been patchy , so I began this kit with trepidation . However , after a shaky start , it all came together and built up into a really well detailed and accurate model of the Group B rally icon . There’s a few areas where more detail could be added , but I’m happy with what I’ve achieved . I have built the car as near as possible to works Metros from 1986 and I found a huge lack of good photos of works cars when I was researching . Maybe rally photographers at the time found other Group B cars more interesting ! Here’s a detailed WIP , if anyone’s interested https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235081556-belkits-mg-metro-6r4/ Now some photos , enjoy . Thanks for looking , Gary .
    10 points
  29. Between Group Builds I have built something different from my usual British military aircraft, an Israeli Phantom. This is one of the RF4E's that was delivered in the Compass Grey scheme worn by South Korean Phantoms, and I have read that the handful of aircraft in this scheme supplied to Israel were originally destined for South Korea. Unlike a lot of air forces, apparently the Israelis detached a few reconnaissance aircraft to each of the active Phantom units. This aircraft was flown by the 'Hammers' which t now flies the F5I. The model is from the Hasegawa kit with the addition of a Blackbird Model resin IFR probe and is basically out of the box. The main colour scheme was airbrushed using Xtracyrics paint and the stencil decals came from a Microscale sheet. Squadron markings, national insignia and the warning stencils in Hebrew came from a Cutting Edge Decal sheet for Israeli Phantoms. Hope you like it. Martin
    10 points
  30. This is my entry for this GB. It is the 1/72 707converted into a E-8 JSTAR that was one of two that operated during Desert Storm. The build thread is here:-
    10 points
  31. Thanks Mark Strangely I find sanding therapeutic. Sometimes. Only if it goes well, of course. Mr Dissolved Putty is fairly new to me - I've had a pot for ages but only recently started to use it having learned the 'apply in layers' tip. There's some thoughts on it from other BMers here and 'thin with TET' is a saviour! Thanks Lewis My TSR2 fell off the ceiling some time ago and is now in bits in the cabinet. Of course my 'standards' have changed since I built it so I'm in two minds about fixing it or stripping it down… one day. Thanks Roger- wait no longer Sanding on the fuselage complete, prop painted and wings assembled: The engine's had some attention: Mr Metal Color Iron, polished a bit for the intakes, and the gearbox painted grey in case Chris is watching
    10 points
  32. Version 1.2 Still more to adjust yet but a bit better I think
    10 points
  33. Just back from the QMC. Over 80s Covid jab. Very quick and efficient. In and out in 15/20 min. one more to go. Dennis
    9 points
  34. After finishing my Esci/Humbrol Dodge weapons carrier, I was originally going to do a plane next, but then my eyes fell on this, possibly the longest resident of my stash, bought in (I think) 1995 from the sadly now-closed Shrewsbury Model Centre. Look at that price!! 146 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Not a lot of plastic. 147 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Was originally going to do a build thread for this, but then just got carried away and built it! Finally finished it last week, after a longer than intended hiatus from modelling over Christmas. Built out of the box, except for adding a windscreen, the warning flag and extra decals from a spare set of Airfix USAAF Bomber Resupply Set decals, that I ordered off Airfix last year. So here it is, finished in 357th Fighter Group markings and photographed appropriately on a piece of hardstanding from Leiston. Annoyingly I noticed while I was photographing it that the tiny "3" decal has come off at the back, so I will have to apply another. 20210130_150304 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20210130_150336 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20210130_150358 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20210130_150426 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20210130_150500 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20210130_150514 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20210130_150629 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20210130_150645 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr
    9 points
  35. What's going on here? Lack of forethought, that's what. I looked at the butt mount (fnaar) for the aerials and thought 'That'll never hold, better use some wire'. The aerials are tiny so I used my thinnest wire, 0.18mm, drilled some holes with difficulty but without breaking the bit (hooray) and stuck them on the wire with CA: THEN I realised I couldn't drill holes too deep in the tailplanes so just ended up with a sort of dent: THEN realised my hands were too shaky to make this easy, but after some fiddling and Anglo-Saxon they're on: What's the betting I'll knock 'em off when applying some paint? Future modellers: just use glue, it's easier.
    9 points
  36. Hi lads & lasses the Fury is moving along at a glacial pace - the next bit to do was the upper U/C strut seen here in all it's aerodynamic glory, along with many details that need reproducing.. ..note the different fixings, the bracket mounting it to the fuselage lug and the big nut at the front.. ..I started with the 3D printed parts I did - it was beyond me to get the curved fairing at the top so I did a flat profile outline and set about sanding them to shape. First up some tape to define the boundary and allow a scribed reference line.. the one at the back has been shaped.. ..the lug mounts were made and the four nuts, plus the opening for the big nuts at the front were milled out.. ..I toyed with skinning the tops, but they would be very difficult so I decided to paint them and skin the rest in litho - I don't think they look too bad.. ..a ring of solder was added where the upper & lower sections meet to represent the turned edge.. ..the lower compression struts fit via pins to the axle.. ..as do the upper mounts where they meet the fuselage - here the geometry is all out, but checking they fit the mounts.. ..here I have removed the exhausts and am having them remade as I wasn't happy with how they stagger which I took from the Westburg plan vs how flush with the skin they are in photos.. ..another step forward after much experimentation is trying to get the same ribbed effect on the wing tips as is possible with the plastic card skin.. ..here I found annealed litho made for a more forgiving material to take the compound curves involved - here is a test piece, the real one will be better still.. ..also Britmodeller member 'Lightpainter' pointed out the R/H cockpit wall is metal on the Lukgraph Nimrod he is building & asked wasn't it the same on the Fury - well you can clearly see here the big metal removable access panel which is again missed on the Westburg plans.. ..as such that side of the cockpit needed to be re-done - he also sent me loads of good pics showing areas I was missing details on.. ..here the panel has been added and the ribbing.. ...while working on that sidewall, I started to make the complicated oxygen control panel - a bit of which can be seen here on the right.. ..I had made a few PE bits including the mounting panel as the outline is shown in the Danish Nimrod drawings, I started to make up the main component by using the bevelled top of a household screw and adding bits to it.. ..there is also a wooden disc mounting plate seen so this was made from punched thin plywood.. ..I didn't take any other pics until I had finished it, but it is a collection of a lot of brass parts and took a few days to make - the two dials have decals coming and are sized to take 2.5mm punched acetate discs.. ..and it sort of goes here.. ..thanks for your help there I don't actually, it doesn't even appear on the drawings I have - I did google it though and there are loads of pics of them - I might even make one for mine! .. thats it for now TTFN Peter
    9 points
  37. Just finished this one, nice kit, of an interesting driver. https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=fireball roberts Chees Jes
    8 points
  38. Land Rover Series III Revell 1:24 I'm a bit of a lurker in the vehicles section, I enjoy everyone's work posted in here, but don't make many myself, being more of an aircraft modeller. I saw this kit made up on the Revell stand at Telford 2019 (Remember that - model shows, ah, nostalgia!) and liked it so much that I asked for one at Christmas 2019. Well it is finished now, built with a few mods to the suspension. I thought it sat too high, as did several other reviews/builds that I googled, so I reduced it to get a better 'sit'. The kit recommends Revell 49 (Light blue) for the body colour but I didn't think it looked right, so I made a roughly 50/50 mix with Revell 59 (Sky) to get what I thinks looks like the right colour. The wheels and roof are done in my own mix of 'clear doped linen' I use on my WW1 biplanes! I don't 'rivet count' preferring instead to enjoy my model making. It really needs a bit of muck in the engine bay, I'm psyching myself up to do it! I've only lightly weathered the model so far. It makes a nice companion to my Heller Fergie, made last year. My mate Mr Stringbag keeps telling me I need a trailer to hook up to the Landy, as if going to a show. Not sure such a kit exists though. Thanks for looking, John
    8 points
  39. Hi ! here I go again with another bandai SW model. this time is the rebel ship Bwing as seen on the return of the Jedi. for me is one of the most badass ships in the SW saga. once again I looked for some tips and I find an amazing step by step tutorial https://www.themodellingnews.com/2018/11/build-guide-andy-moores-172nd-scale-b.html thank you @Andy Moore ! -I removed the canopy for the pics to better show the cockpit details. -this kit can be improved with the bandai Led unit. ( I will buy soon ) here's the pictures :
    8 points
  40. I wish I could recommend this kit but it's been a struggle! Much of it my own doing by leaving it in the attic to cook and chill for over a decade so every large part was warped. The kit is their UH-1B with some additional UH-1C parts but I've made it as a UH-1B as the engine covers appear to be from that version. No rockets or guns as apparently they don't go together well and my patience had been tested enough already. But it was educational as it's the 2nd kit I've built since I was a kid and I've learned a bit about filling and sanding. Onto a recent Eduard Spitfire that should go together somewhat better! Thanks to paulsbrown for the model and a lot of advice.
    8 points
  41. Hello all, Today I have the ancient FROG dh.60G Moth in 1/72, marked as an aircraft of the Belgian Air Force in the spring of 1940. Previously a civil machine, it was impressed at the start of the war. I used KORA decals for the first time, and can generally report favorably of them, but the red stripes that were supposed to go on the fuselage sides ended up tearing in several places and were thus binned. The only modifications I made to the kit were the addition of some interior framing (which is hardly visible now) and the addition of an exhaust pipe, sourced from a ZTS Models RWD-5. I'm still getting used to my new Tablet camera and trying to understand why photos taken in the same place at the same time come out so differently. Hopefully by the time I finish my next build, a combination of the Airfix and AModel AVRO 504K's, I will have the problem solved. Surprisingly, it built well, and currently looks like this: It'll be marked as a machine of the Swedish Air Force when done, in overall doped linen with a black forward fuselage and engine cover. That's all for the moment, Thanks all - stay safe, Tweener
    8 points
  42. Hi all, figured it's about time i finally got around to doing my first RFI Thanks @opus999 for the prompt. fast forward but I'll keep it short I'll say that I have mixed feelings about this model, the results i feel were so so as I tried to concentrate on details over process and the costs of this was borne by the finish. Ill put this this to a mix of inexperience and at times inpatience The kit: Tamiya 1/72 Bf109e3 war birds collection Decals: Parc Models Paint: Tamiya acrylics, dunklegrun spray can, washes and Abteilung oil paints Mods: .02mm rigging wire, and .3mm lead wire for brake/hydraulic lines, small scratch cushion on seat. Drilled guns x5 and vents. I really messed up with the spray can as it is just too thick, over spray underneath from topcoat. The canopy will need to be better done next time as a lesson learned what not to do. oh i forgot to mention, some of my fingerprints made it to the nose, and i also dropped it on its tail, breaking a strut and paint! Better be more careful next time! I'm very unhappy with the canopy Decals in the wrong spots, only found out after Well that's the good the bad and the ugly. Hope you enjoy! Darius
    8 points
  43. Hello chums, I have been a life-long modeller, mostly in plastic, but for the past 11 years I have concentrated all of my builds in paper. Since changing to this medium, a whole world of subjects have opened up and I am at the stage where I will build just about anything, aircraft, ships, afv's, figures, real-space and sci-fi. So, on to my newest post. I have no idea what the chapter is, but this is one of the Rhino APC's. This is one of Patoroch's kits, in 1/60th scale and is freely available for download. What got me on to this? They are all free! Have you seen the price of Warhammer kits? Shocking! This is totally from paper. Card structure, skin from printed templates, paper tubes, paper rivets. I had loads of fun with this build and had to have a go at making a Space Marine to go with it. From paper of course.
    8 points
  44. I don't know what it's like where you are but bitterly cold here today, which led to: Scene 1: (Car interior) 'Out shopping with Mrs. B' Male protagonist sits in car freezing his nuts off whilst trying to work out how to get its climate control to defrost said nuts. There is an air of tension as he struggles in the cold to read from the online manual on his phone screen, using an intermittent mobile data signal in rural Ireland. 🚗🥶 I can see why. I devoured it in a few days of late night giggling. For some reason this guy reminds me of him - sans valve of course.... Your talking to a failure in CSE Mathematics (Kingston upon Thames 1981) here Bill. My hopeless number skills not helped by the maths teacher being a psychotic Ulsterman called Mr. Hanna: he scared even the hard men in the class with a violent temper at any infraction of his fractions.... It keeps threatening to snow here Chris (and is doing so again tonight) but is all forecast and no trousers. Would I kid you guys Giorgio? I mean to say, pshaw!... 😁 I only know how to shovel snow from American television Ian: I hope you were always dressed in regulation red check shirt, galoshes and a green peaked cap with ear mufflers when doing so. Hit it boys! Most gracious of you to say so Kev. As I've said more than once before on this thread, if an innumerate oik like me can do this kind of technical design, then anyone can. Besides, CAD is only 50% technical skill, the remainder is made up from a mixture of magical incantations and unspeakable sacrifices! I like that. I like that a lot Keith. 😁 I feel sure that you're already aware of the very first episode of South Park Ced. 😁 I made wild boasts some time back about wanting to get a test print of the second aircraft out of the vat before January was out but it looks like it'll go down to the wire. Surprisingly good progress was made in spare moments over the week modifying and redoing the print layouts for XJ481 based on observations of the beast in its assembled form. Over the last 2-3 days I made similar progress with doing all the hollowing out and support structures necessary to print XN708 as well: A not-inconsiderable task on this more complex version of the Vixen, constantly remembering/forgetting various bits and having to go back and add them in in a series of tiresome lacunae. A methodical modeller would no doubt have committed an index of parts to a spreadsheet but Excel is up there with Teams in my list of infernal software (add to that any software designed by - or for - academics). I've been reading up recently on some of the more detailed print settings, so put an initial print of the fuselage and nose sections overnight last evening to find that one of the nicest/smoothest prints yet emerged from the vat by this morning. Such optimism was cruelly dashed however when the second print set failed completely. I didn't discover this until six hours after it had gone on, upon returning from shopping to find a thin mangled layer stuck to the FEP film instead of the build plate. I've had the odd ropey reproduction as you'd expect with the art as much as science of interacting light with a fluid substrate, but never a complete failure to print of this kind. After much pondering at how the first print went so well and the second so badly, rather than a single discrete cause I believe it to have resulted from a combination of factors: 1. After the first print overnight I opened the studio windows this morning to vent any remaining resin fumes - as the temperature was warm enough last evening but dropped down to about 4°C while we were out, there was a large thermal difference while the second print run was on. 2. I forgot to wash the build plate in warm soapy water to get rid of any remaining IPA on it from cleaning off the resin. 3. The FEP film was a year old and probably due for renewing anyway. I've put a new FEP film onto the vat now, this being the old one - considerably the worse for wear after me trying to prise the stuck resin bases off: Most of the suspect bases popped albeit off (albeit with some effort) but those pictured above were stuck fast. Heater's been on in the studio all afternoon as well, as a precaution for the second attempt at set #2: providentially the printer has just beeped to so I'll pause melodramatically at this point to see how it looks. It looks like a decent set has emerged so fingers crossed that's the problem solved. It's not terribly exciting to post shots with everything cocooned in support structures but here's a quick shot of it now curing behind me under UV as I write: I've the wings on in the resin now overnight and hope to get the tail and engines printed through during the day tomorrow as well. (That's enough 'phew' emoticons for one update - Ed.) Tony
    8 points
  45. Sticking to the port forward bay, I cannot put off building the second pair of paravanes any longer. It's been a while, so may I remind you of the fact that there are already two stowed paravanes on the bulkhead of the equivalent bay to starboard, along with their associated winch (also North Star, and superb): The good news is that the North Star paravanes (actually US cruiser paravanes, but the right size and generally the right configuration, so more than good enough to pass muster as a means of busying up Ark's bays) are beautifully done. The bad news is that they are TINY and complicated and the brass for their PE is extremely fragile; it bends if you breathe wrong. Still, needs must, so here's one en route (resin body & 3 pieces of PE): ..and here are two as at the time I stopped this evening to wait for everything to cure; a further 2 bits of brass on the left hand one to give it a stand. The tall thing is a retaining strap that will fold over the top - the right hand paravane still has the upper PE part to be added [I've lost its tail to the carpet monster, but it won't be visible in the configuration they'll end up]. There are other bits which I will be leaving off as invisible. The North Star ones are excellent, but there does come a point when you reach the "You have got to be kidding me!" stage, and the 4 straps marked 6 on this PE runner are well beyond that point. As are the 'tails' which would be invisible against the bulkhead anyway; you can see that I tried one and then didn't try any more! Here is a photo with a scalpel blade for scale. All you stunning 1/700 modellers are no doubt shrugging your shoulders at this point, but there is a reason why my 1/700 Ark 2 has been stalled for about 2 years (and possibly for ever): While waiting for the glue to cure on the paravanes I thought I could turn to the boat booms; there are 4 of them to add. If anyone within 100 miles of Salisbury heard an outbreak of regrettable language a few minutes ago, I apologise; can the people at Merit really not measure anything? [Incidentally, you can see the paravanes in this close-up of a Kagero drawing re-scaled to 1/350] I mean, I know that there are areas of the ship where evidence is scarce... but there are others where a clear photograph is staring you in the face if you care to look: [IWM photo, obvs] Ah well. Even Merit's brackets are hopeless, so yet more scratch building lurches into my future. Honestly, I continue to applaud them for producing a kit of Ark 3 at all - after all, no-one else has - but the number of simple and easily avoidable errors is astonishing. It's not as though producing a boat boom that is about 25% too short is any simpler or less effort than producing one that's right. Ah well. More soon Crisp
    8 points
  46. Risk of headache, fatigue, sore arm... I'll take any of these over a) being dead or b) making someone else dead.
    8 points
  47. The problem with scratch-building is creating each piece in such a way that it doesn't let the other items down. The bridge rear platforms are just not good enough in the light of day and after painting. Not only are the platforms slightly tilted, the 1mm rod is too big, out of scale, shame. So, today's I've redone the 3d model, added the platform to it and re-printed. That didn't work, too fine now, printing separated, so re-re-printing, results tomorrow. Meanwhile this is what I mean about just not up to snuff, see how large those handrails look? The new version will use 0.8mm wire, not a big difference in size, but it will look so much better While all that printing was underway, I've sort of completed the port torpedo tube assembly (just door hand crank to add) one down, one to go, shame some of the detail is hidden by the checker plate steps Steve
    8 points
  48. One of Airfix’s first wave of six or seven small sailing ships, after the tractor, and the same age as their first Gladiator. They did a similar (but much better) Mary Rose a few years ago, but otherwise that range has been around for “ever”. I don’t think I’d be able to even see the ship to get it in the bottle if I drank that much rum... At 85m/130mm, ie 1/650 scale, they are two feet diameter at the top and around six feet diameter at the bottom. Good for a stiff breeze, I should think! Thanks Roger. Whenever someone says “Cutty Sark”, I’ve always thought “tea”. I didn’t know they carried wool! Every day is a school day when you’re modelling. Well, it’s rude not to start a new kit now and again, just to feed the shelf A modern kit, made over 50 years later than the first batch. I have made the Mary Rose and liked it, so I was quite shocked when I first saw this one! Somebody told me they bite More Harrier high jinks. Undercarriage well built with the right roof this time: But it’s going to need cutting down to a shallower depth to allow for the thickness of the plastic: I can’t stop messing with this: So the easiest thing to do was to finish it. No white stripe, no Plimsoll line, no flags: One down...
    8 points
  49. If I stand close to you can I get 5G on my mobile phone now? Just kidding, congrats.
    8 points
  50. I hope you've got parental permission ..... Mast clamped fitted Chain plate formed. Allows the mast shrouds to attach to the hull Kev
    7 points
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