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Howdy all, Just come to bother you with some photo`s of my latest completion My attempt at Special Hobby`s 1/48 MkIII Seafire kit Finished in the markings of an aircraft, probably 887 Sq, aboard HMS Indefatigable with the British Pacific Fleet Inspired by a photo I found on `Armoured Carriers` website, which when I saw the asymetrical markings on the wing, couldn`t resist attempting The kit is built straight OOB and went together quite well, I had a lot less trouble than I did with their Spitfire VC Just getting the cockpit to sit straight in the fuselage gave me any trouble Decals are some of the kits and some from the stash Many thanks to: 112 Squadron@ , Seahawk@ , Graham Boak@ , iang@ and Peter Roberts@ for their help and suggestions on my post in Discussion by Era WWII. Hope you enjoy the pic`s, thanks for looking Cheers Russ

a very nice kit :

I'm in process of adding to my collection of Wisconsin-related aircraft. Currently, I'm building three classic fighters of the Wisconsin Air National Guard: F-89C Scorpion, F-86A Sabre, and F-51D Mustang. Here's a link to the WIP: First to cross the finish line is the F-89C Scorpion! Let's get straight to the pics . . . . A few detail shots: Cockpit is mostly stock, except for the bang seats, which are from Pavla: For some reason, this little detail brings a smile to my face 😁 . It is an HO-scale locomotive windshield wiper, re-purposed. I used Albion tubing to add the gun barrels (one of which needs to be cleaned out, I see): I added steering hydraulic lines to the nose gear with lead wire. The engine compressor fan comes with the Hobby Craft kit: I also used Pavla exhausts, but in retrospect the kit items are just as nice: Decals specific to the Wisconsin ANG were home made. The star & bars insignia are from a Microscale sheet, and other stencils were scanned from the Revell F-89D/J decal sheet (which, unfortunately, resulted in loss of detail). Wing tank lights are resin items by CMK: Tail lights were made using UV-activated acrylic gel: The natural metal finish was done with AK Interactive XTreme Metal paints, which were a joy to use. The base coat was XTreme Metal "aluminum" over a layer of Alclad Gloss Medium Gray. To create the worn appearance, I lightly over-sprayed the base coat with polished aluminum through a mottling mask.

Hi all. I just completed the build of Kinetic's very nice Sea Harrier FA2 kit. I used a cockpit set from Aires, which is not so nice. To be able to wedge it into the fuselage, you need to remove a LOT of plastic and resin. In my opinion too much work for a bit of improvement. Just add a resin seat and maybe some pe parts and you're fine. I painted the model Mr Hobby H335, Medium Se Gray, over Alclad black primer. Weathering was done with Abteilung 502 oilpaints. Thank you for watching. René

My final build for a while (my wife wants her dining table back.....a bit unfair!!) Spitfire Mk iXc No 416 Squadron RCAF May 1944. Straight out of the box with no extras. I really enjoyed this one and it went together really well with very few problems, other than snapping the undercarriage strut whilst putting the decals on 😤 So had to use the superglue. Hope I’ve done a reasonable job 👍😊

Dear all Now I’ve got a decent camera I’m going to post a few from my 20+ Years collection This is my latest: 617sqn GR4 climbing out from Gioia del Colle October 2011. Typical Libya load out : 3 Brimstones, 2 500lb Paveway IVs, Litening pod. Took about 5 years - Divorce intervened. No Revell gr4 back when I started this! Italeri kit as base , world’s supply of aftermarket... will post some others shortly. Enjoy. Andrew

Hoping not to bore you all with some more Mustangs, these are the bulk of my 1/72 models of the type, again built over several years and from different manufacturers. Probably won't build any more in this scale, enjoy and can cope with the larger scales better these days (apologies to the gentlemen amongst you). P 51c by peter crossman, on Flickr Pattie Ann P51b/c by peter crossman, on Flickr Flying Scot P51 by peter crossman, on Flickr BBD P51b by peter crossman, on Flickr Checker Tail Little friends by peter crossman, on Flickr P51 by peter crossman, on Flickr Bengal Lancer P51 by peter crossman, on Flickr Jumpin jaques P51d by peter crossman, on Flickr Estrillita P51d by peter crossman, on Flickr Was that to fast Untitled by peter crossman, on Flickr

#5/2021 My dad´s latest completion. Hasegawa kit, painted with AK Real Color IJN Amber Grey and IJN Green Black, EZ Line for antenna and Eduard seatbelts. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235086644-aquatic-guns-in-the-sky148-nakajima-a6m2-n-type-2-rufe-imperial-japanese-navy/ Aircraft of Takuma Flying Group DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0007 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0009 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0010 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0011 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0012 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0013 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0014 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0015 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0016 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0017 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0018 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0019 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

What's this? Strange things are afoot at the atelier: Last Wednesday I returned home after work to find a care package from Hannant's. Among the enclosures were two of the much-heralded new-tool Airfix Spitfire Vc kits. Despite the bewildering array of half-completed models cluttering my work space, I couldn't resist tearing into one. It really gave me that old Airfix spirit, lads. Out of respect for the nostalgic feeling of excitement I used to get when I'd spent a week's pocket money on some new kit, I boldly forged blindly ahead with: no references! no research! no dithering! no qualms! [/url] Here it is one short week later, in defiance of my usually glacial completion rate. T'was a fast, fun build. It's not in the same league as an Eduard Spit, but on the other hand, it didn't take me a year to get onto the Shelf of Honour. Cartograf decals went on like a dream. Cockpit detail is adequate. I rigged up a Sutton harness from Tamiya tape. You can't really see much through the distortion on the hood casting, even after I polished it out. The windscreen and quarter light are acceptable, but a vac hood will be de rigueur for any who use this kit for a Very Serious Model. Colours are a little intense; if it winds up bothering me I'll try toning it down later. I mixed Tamiya acrylics for this, so colours are not strictly accurate (waves hands dismissively). I didn't bother with a panel line wash, they're plenty visible as it is. I didn't worry about weathering either, I was having fun just getting it all together. I'll probably go back and emphasise the margins on the empennage hatches and the cowl and maybe scuff up the cowl fasteners. And I just remembered Airfix neglected to represent the fuel filler cap forward of the windscreen, that will need to be addressed. Later, as I'm too chuffed ATM. (I don't know why the coding on some of the text is AFU, tried to fault-find but no joy. Please forgive me, I wanted to go ahead and get this posted before heading into today's bout of thankless toil at my work sector.)

I just can't resist them.... We all know how good the models are by now so I shall dispense with the formalities... As I hadn't built a IId yet I wanted to finish it in markings other than RAF, so I decided to add to my Irish Air Corps selection. As they only had one IId, the serial number markings were going to be a problem but thanks to Terry from Dorset who answered by request for an old SAM sheet from the July 1981 issue, the problem was solved although I still had to modify the old Airfix kit's serial number for under the wings as the SAM decals did cover those. Thanks also to Joe Maxwell at Max Decals for filling in some other information. Anyway, as always thanks for looking. H3 H2 H1 H4 H5

One of the most capable Japanese plane of the the period, a successful reco Navy plane, the Myrt has range and speed to escape the deadly F6F from the CAP carriers. hasegawa has done a great job on that one, but I have used my masks policy as usual. Nakajima green has a very dark hue as one can see.Best regards fullsizeoutput_2260 by jean Barby, sur Flickr fullsizeoutput_2261 by jean Barby, sur Flickr fullsizeoutput_2262 by jean Barby, sur Flickr fullsizeoutput_2263 by jean Barby, sur Flickr fullsizeoutput_2264 by jean Barby, sur Flickr fullsizeoutput_2266 by jean Barby, sur Flickr fullsizeoutput_2267 by jean Barby, sur Flickr fullsizeoutput_2268 by jean Barby, sur Flickr

Shape-wise to be said to be THE best Mirage out there, at least in 48th scale. here in its two seater derivative! Israel had ~4 B models, that also saw action in the 6 day war in 1967 one of them 787 from 119 Bat squadron Heller High Tech concept model (metal landing gear, wheels, Ejection seats, PE for cockpit, ) 1/48 Master pitot AMK external tanks Reskit exhasut nozzle ArmyCast decals definitely not the easiest kit, brittle plastic, regular fit, raised panel lines but GREAT shape! and shiny, with Alclad II airframe aluminum WIP in the recently finished HELLER group build with a good set of neighbors and favorable company: thanks everybody for having a look, leaving a comment, a like or dislike, or criticism! cheers, Werner

Hi all, here's the first of 2021. It is the Sword kit straight from the box except Eduard etch ejection seat handles and scratch built pitot. Nice kit though not for the complete novice, and the decals are so thin they are very difficult to move once placed. Anyway thanks for looking 20210214_152721 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20210214_152731 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20210214_152744 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20210214_152803 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20210214_152832 by bryn robinson, on Flickr 20210214_153227 by bryn robinson, on Flickr

I've just completed this build, the latest in my old airliner kits. I really enjoyed this build, but it's taking longer than I'd like because of work and bad weather outside (I use rattle cans outside). I don't have any liveries with green, so I thought the Alitalia livery would add something interesting to the collection. This is I-DIRI, Citta di Siena. The previous Airfix 727 I built had the Iberia markings, but I used Humbrol gloss white, which yellowed really badly over time. This time, I used the standard Halford's appliance gloss white, with Humbrol gloss varnish and Autoglym super resin polish for a deep shine. It might be a very simple kit, but I didn't have any challenges or fit issues with it.

Hello modellers, this is officially my first post on a British modelling site; so why not post a couple photos of my recently completed "Canuck flown" FAA build. haha Base kit was, as I'm sure you're all aware, a 1/32 Tamiya F4U-1A. Aftermarket included a bunch of Eduard PE parts; from interior, Look dash, exterior, engine detail, seatbelts and R.B.F. tags on the AMSE equipment. Scratch building includes metal pitot tube, metal forward aerial post, landing gear down-lock springs, antenna whip tensioner spring, and hydraulic line piping in the wheel wells and engine bay.. maybe a few other pieces as well. I kept weathering to a minimum, because I didn't want to build a derelict and/or neglected aircraft. Model was painted using almost exclusively Tamiya paints, which was pre-shaded, then painted panel-by-panel only in the direction of airflow to add some slight streaking effects. Roundels, fuselage markings, and wing walk lines are painted using masks I created in illustrator, then scuffed post spray to weather them a bit. The rest of the small decals are from EagleCals Royal Navy kit. Exhaust soot and gun smoke staining was added using Tamiya weather master paints after clear. General dirt and grime in the cowl, w-wells, and wing fold areas was added using both black and brown panel line accent colors. Anyways, on with the pictures. If there's any problems with dead links, please lmk.

The Quarterdeck is now nearing completion; hawser reels installed today (the stream anchor only dry fitted, and will stay that way until the deck is glued into the hull): And here a couple with the Tetra brass bulkheads dry fitted so you can see where we’re heading: More soon Crisp

Hello everyone This is yet another one of my builds that I have added lighting to and this time it is the Italeri Landrover Fire Truck. Overall it has been a good kit to build with good quality plastic and very little flashing at all. The component went together well and there is enough detail to please most. The rear door is moulded into the top half of the truck so I decided to cut it out so that I could pose the door as open with a small tailgate that I added. If you would like to see how it was built then please click HERE and a video of the lights working can be found HERE I hope you enjoy viewing it as I did making it. Kevin

Last post on this thread, I think I'm done bar the base, waiting on the oak plank to complete that. Since yesterday, the scale figure has been added (shapeways), the aerials are in, more rope coils and more work on the waterline weathering. Here's the lookout, note the ships bell by the aerial, I couldn't stand the thought of painting it, so its left natural brass Focus on the stern, showing the ladder stowed against the railings And off into the sunset, I'll be back with a RFI post in a couple of weeks I think that was less than 3 months start to finish, what time pressure will do when combined with lockdown and retirement. Thanks to all who followed, commented and liked what I was doing. That's the last build from me for 6 months at least as we are moving next month and have a house project to work on before I can build my new workshop. Stay safe Steve

As usual, I started this kit ages ago, in fact, not long after completing my Parasaurolophus diorama last August... I got on and did the base quite quickly and even got on and built Tye reasonably fast. Then, having done a basic paint job, I stopped. Online teaching took up too much time and I was too knackered to do anything but do latch hook cushion and rug making - a fairly mindless hobby which allows chatting and TV watching. I finally decided it was time to get the kit finished - and, as I always like to incorporate a younger creature in the scene, I once again took something from the Tamiya Mesozoic animals kit - this time the baby T Rex. I had made him at the same time I built the baby Parasaurolophus. I then finally finished painting Tye, before putting the whole diorama together. As usual I really enjoyed building it, especially the base, adding scatter and other scenic effects to create atmosphere. All the paintwork was done with thinned acrylic paints which I put on with brushes. I hope you enjoy it. Photographs, as ever, courtesy of Mr.PlaStix: And with a sky background I've now started the final one of the five Tamiya Dino Dioramas - it takes me right back to my first ever Dino build, the Triceratops. This is, of course, a later kit and the finish is less coarse than that on Trixie, but it should be interesting to see how they compare...

After over a year, I have finally finished "3 Kittens" i.e. 3 Tomcats in braillescale I had few bad moments unfortunately, some of them are visible, some are not until you see them in real. - white undercolor on both F-14As have gone to blueish hue, due to failed brush which I was using for thinning color - brush has blue handle, and that blue probably resolved under thinner and mixed with white... it was very painful trying process, end in the end it turned out a bit blueish - in vivo is not so visible, but on this white background for sure is - while glueing wheelbay doors, I didn't notice that Tamiya Extrathin glue went to the trailing edge of fixed part of wing, and glued movable part of wing in position you see on photos - I've tried my best to unglue wings, but with no success, so they stayed like this - fortunately in same position on all three kits - middle wing position on F-14 Everything else is more less out of the box... Painted with Gunze acrylics, wash is made from artistic oils... Well, enough talking, here are the photos... F-14A, VF-84 Jolly Rogers ("Final Countdown" movie) F-14A, VF-142 Ghostriders F-14D, VF-101 Grim Reapers Family portrait Cheers, S.

Been having a sort out in my model display cabinet and this needed a bit of TLC . A rear wheel and the prop shaft had fallen off , so while repairing it , I thought I would post some photos on the forum . I think I built it about 10 years ago when Revell produced the kit . Some good detail in the kit , but I remember parts didn’t particularly fit together very well , probably due to it being an old ESCI rehash . Decals still look good , the shines gone though . I will be fitting an aerial while it’s out of the cabinet , must have missed it back then .... Thanks for looking , Gary.

First of 2021 is Finished. Very enjoyable build. An excellent model kit from Kineticmodel - The Harrier GR.3 1/48 scale has an awesome fit, nice details, and its an Icon of the Aviation History. Love to have him on my Collection... Paint job with Ammo and Lifecolor acrylics. The aircraft presented is from RAF 4th Squadron, Home Based at RAF Gütersloh, West Germany, 1992.

Hello, I present the M48A3 Patton model from Dragon. Added the mantlet and searchlight set from Legend, PE parts from Eduard, AFV Club tracks and machine guns from Aber. Painted Tamiya Olive Green on B&W base. Enjoy watching and I hope you will like it.

Evening all, After a delay sourcing replacement decals, the next Century Series fighter is complete; Hasegawa's Starfighter, finished as an F-104G of the German Navy using Xtradecal for the main markings and Astra decals for the myriad of stencils. The Xtradecals were out of register, which is especially disappointing when you pay for aftermarket, and some of the stencils have silvered a bit, which is more my own fault, so overall a frustrating result of many hours applying them all! I also added a Pavla seat, which I think is intended for earlier version, plus there's a few other niggles which annoy me. Pleased to have this mad aircraft on the shelf, but as ever I can only see the errors... Finished with Hataka Orange Line and Alclad for the metallic areas used as usual. Hasegawa 1/72 Lockheed F-104G Starfighter by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Hasegawa 1/72 Lockheed F-104G Starfighter by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Hasegawa 1/72 Lockheed F-104G Starfighter by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Hasegawa 1/72 Lockheed F-104G Starfighter by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Hasegawa 1/72 Lockheed F-104G Starfighter by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Thanks for looking, hope it was of some interest, comments welcomed as always Shaun

Two guys were playing a round of golf. As they finished one hole & headed for the Tee on the next hole, one of them realised he'd left his jacket back at the previous Tee. Hang on a tick he said to his mate, I'll just run back & get it. As he did so, he noticed two women about to Tee off on the previous hole. Suddenly he stopped & turning around, headed back toward where his mate was waiting. "Hell, he said, that could have been awkward, that was my wife & my mistress back there" "Blimey says his mate, that could have ended badly, no problem, I'll shoot back & get it for you" but like the first player, he got half way to the previous Tee & also turned around & retraced his steps. Reaching his mate he looked somewhat flustered & said "Small world isn't it?" Steve.

The trimmed hull floor has been added along with the rear engine access plate. The kit includes copies of the Italeri suspension that is A- Bad and B- the incorrect type - upswept roller arms. Thankfully I have a box of sherman spares that have the correct straight roller arms and much finer detail and casting numbers. The vvss plates are installed and still some sanding to be done. I will be using the very nice Formations final drive assembly so I used a razor saw to cut the front of the hull flush. I also added the mounting bolts along the hull sides where the final drive is bolted to the hull using Meng styrene bolt heads.

Ta Giorgio, I'm very pleased with the outcome. I think it was worth the effort Thanks Ced - it is you Ced isn't it? you're not masquerading as Bill again are you? it's been a while since there was any update on this but things have been crawling along in the background. After the transfers were stick on it was the usual gloss coat to seal them in, then a semi matt coat over the top of that. With that out of the way it was on to major construction again. This time, the lower wing could get glued in place. The Eduard system of wing mounting on the F2b is far superior to the Roden version, though overall I prefer the Roden molding for quality of detail. After my last botched attempt I followed Ian's advice and went for the cabane struts before any other wing struttery. The incredible helpful and simple cabane glass roof method was used - grab a piece of clear packaging, lay it over the top wing and transfer the holes into the packaging. Guaranteed to have the holes in the right position relative to each other, and you can actually see what you are doing This top view lets you move things around so you can make sure it's as symmetric as possible. Right, cabane struts glued in position, it's time to steel myself for the sticking on of the hairy wing which for a change, went without issue, or at least none that have thrown themselves up so far. I did have one small missed heartbeat moment as the wing went on - the telescope tube thingy fouled with the windscreen, but I managed to get it plopped in front of the windscreen without damage. The window and frame is from the Roden kit but to be honest, I think it's the Eduard part that is slightly oversized. There's not a lot of room in there. Ideally, I would have removed the telescope and trimmed a bit off the mounting brackets to have it closer to the top wing, but glue was in action and I was afraid of messing things up further. Sue me. Once that all settled in it was time for the main struts. These were quite problematic. There was a mold mismatch in the struts resulting in the 'pegs' being larger than designed. I tried to shave back the pages a tad but ended up opening up all the wing mounting holes. - By the time I had shaved a couple of the pegs to fit there was nothing left of them, and the larger wing mounting holes were a lesser evil. The fun of trying to remember which rigging cable went through which rigging hole has begun. Then I remembered I should have rigged the cabane struts BEFORE I went and stuck the darned top wing on. Too late now buggrit. Thankfully I had used EZ line for the inter-cabane rigging but it was still a pigs ear of a job to get the rigging lines in the holes, not helped by the fact that my supply of superglue had aged and was now a bit treacle like and didn't grab as quickly as it should. You can just make out the inter-cabane rigging here if you squint hard enough. Oh look - you can also see the Bristol logo on the struts too. yes, I did manage to get all the logos on the right face of each strut so they do all face outwards. If anyone tells me that Bristol also put their logo on the inwards facing side of the struts too, they can go and take a hike! That my friends is the current state of play with the F2b. I'm taking my time with the rigging this time around and will take a couple of sessions to get this all taut and not end up all askew like the last one. (which I am still considering revisiting to try again) Now where did I put that Audax?

1/48 Revell F-89C Scorpion3D Printed Reheat Cans and Antenna, Alclad finish Stock Decals

A day that will be familiar to all ship modellers; lots of little pieces being built & readied for primer - from left to right 4 hawser reel barrels, 4 PE hawser reels (destined for the quarter deck, which is in the foreground), 8 WEM boat chocks (each a folded piece on top of a separate baseplate), 4 x North Star 44” searchlights & 2 x 20” signal projectors (also North Star). It feels like a lot of work for not very much, but it’s all progress. Meanwhile, I’ve been experimenting with the paint erosion so obvious in Ark in 1941 - this is simply airbrush through one of those “random” weathering templates: More soon Crisp

Hi, My choice for this GB will be an Alergian MiG-17 from the Six Days War. I'll be using Hobby Boss 1/48 kit, with some extras. 060 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr This build will be one of the parts in my still ongoing personal group build for the Six Days War in 1967 that I started in 2017. But first the obligatory box content. 061 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 062 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 063 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 064 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 065 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Some new decal, mine will be the Algerian with the snake nose-art. 066 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Resin ejectionseat and ventral fin from Quickboost and new droptanks from Aerobonus. 067 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr PE for the cockpit from Eduards and canons from Master. 068 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And last a new nose section from Cold War Studios. 069 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Let's hope that I'll manage this before the June 13 deadline. We'll see. /Bosse

This didn't really take 16 years to complete, its just that I started this ship (in 1/72) 16 years ago, but never finished it. I sold the kit to @Starspell a little while ago, and he finished what I started and did an amazing job of it. Anyway, I always regretted never finishing it, so when I saw this kit I could not resist. So here is my attempt, it has turned out ok, not perfect, but ok. Jon

Had my jab (Pfizer) this afternoon. Had to go to another Health Centre as they have centralised the storage. Very well organised with local Lions group on car park and queue duty, our practice staff were giving the vaccination and going the paperwork. Then more volunteers to get people sat down with small post it notes to tell when they can leave. This has all been worked at a local level using experience garnered from flu campaigns. I feel OK apart from an irresistible urge to tell Bill Gates where I am and obeying all commands of our lizard overlords.😉🚗🏥💉🚗☕🦎

I spent most of my modelling time yesterday messing about with instruments, or rather facsimiles of instruments. The Sea Gladiator's transfer for the compass face (nubered '3' in the picture below) was adequate, but I ended up using two of the Airscale versions, as they looked nicer and it's probably going to end up being one of the most visible instruments in the cockpit once it is assembled: ... and here they are installed (along with the second set of the Kits World seat straps - the shoulder straps for these still have to be attached, but they pass through the bulkhead behind the seat so I'll be doing that a little later): Although the ICM instrument decals are numbered on the sheet as group entities 1 and 2, the dials are in fact separate transfers for each dial: On the one hand, this is a bit of a faff, but on the other it means you don't have to worry about carrier film as basically there doesn't appear to be any at all The placement of the dials was therefore a little time-consuming, and gave me the opportunity to fit one of the fuel level dials at a 90-degree angle to what it should be, but was pretty stress-free: Once that was done the instrument panels were stuck on a 'paint-kebab': Given a coat of matt varnish: ... the detail painting done: ... and the instrument dials 'glazed' with Micro Kristal Klear': Which brings them about halfway-up to the standard of the Yahu or Eduard pre-painted instrument panels Still, they will do for me and should be adequate given what will actually be visible when the fuselage is closed up Cheers, Stew

This is the former Frog moulding of the 1/72 Lightning F.6 as produced by DFI in Donetsk in the Ukraine. It is a fairly crude kit by modern standards and I have added a resin replacement cockpit tub, IP and seat, and a Master pitot tube, but other than that the only additions are a pair of aerials behind the cockpit. I have done it in the old Modedecal set markings for 56 Squadron. I don't imagine it is very accurate but it looks passable to me, but then I am biased😄! Cheers Pete

Micro update time chaps, really not had much bench time and work has taken me away from the bench once more Cheers for all the likes and comments, all appreciated So moving on slowly, a couple of ready rounds are now stowed in the turret, commander figure is done and I've equipped him with some bars on his helmet and removed the rank from the stowed helmet. All the crew have had the unit badges and rank applied now. Decals on the rest of the rounds are drying off now and the indirect fire gun sight added. Just the side skirts, crew seats, antenna and stowage to add, tie in the weathering, blast of matt varnish and it's done. Easy

This is my ancient Airfix 1/72 F-86D from the 1970's. It is actually quite a nice kit though the decs were well past their best. I have used one of the two schemes Airfix provide and it carries the markings of the 512 FIS, 406 FIW which was I believe based at Manston in the UK in the mid 1950's. Cheers Pete

This is my take on Italeri's 1/72 kit of the Spitfire VII. I was advised that the kit nose was short and shallow and so I grafted on the nose from a spare Airfix Spit Mk IX I had. The plane was part of the station flight based at Skeabrae in the Orkneys to provide cover for the fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow, and they decided to use the code letters DU which had originally been used when 312 Squadron were in residence. On February 20th 1944 a detachment from 602 Squadron were manning the flight and Flight Lieutenant Ian Blair was scrambled in this plane to intercept a high flying Bf 109G attempting to take photos. He shot it down, but his plane was damaged by debris and was written off after landing. At that time the plane was fitted with the extended wing tips and painted in the High Altitude scheme of Medium Sea Grey over PRU Blue, but the lack of German High Altitude targets resulted in many having the tips removed and being painted in standard Day Fighter camo for normal use. Cheers Pete

I'm going to join in with the old Airfix Alpha Jet kit in 1/72. I think I will do it as a Togolese example. I'm not paying $25 for a decal sheet to put on a kit I got for three bucks on eBay, so it will be a freelance job. For this reason I may go with a Cote d'Ivoire one as the roundels seem easier to handle! I'll decide as I go along and post up the starting pics soon. Already some super interesting subjects coming up in this build!

Hello, I'm very excited by this GB, and my first entry will be Trumpeter's Rooikat AFV in South African service. The vehicles are used for reconnaissance and in the tank destroyer role. They entered service around 1990 and took part in the South African and Botswanan 1998 intervention in Lesotho. About 250 of these decidedly strange looking vehicles are still active. The Trumpeter kit looks pretty nice, but these tie downs on the turret could use replacement...or at least some kind of camouflage netting to conceal their solidness. Im not looking forward to drilling 88 little holes and bending 44 tiny cleats, but I guess I have a few days to figure it out before the build starts.

I’ve had this kit for a long time; it’s an Accurate Miniatures re-pop. I’ve been wanting to do this as an Atlantic Scheme and settled on this version. The thing that delayed the build for years was the lack of information on the underwing strike camera and if I did find the info, how to make said strike camera. While going through the stash I found a camera that looks very similar to the one in the photo in an Accurate Miniature F-6B kit and the die was cast. To add to the oddballiness of this build, to my eyes, the pilots sliding portion of the cockpit and antenna look like replacements but instead of Atlantic Scheme colours, they look like the are for aircraft painted Glossy Sea Blue. The aircraft was painted with Vallejo White Surface Primer with some Grey added to tone it down some. The upper colour was Tamiya XF-54 Dark Sea Grey toned down with white to stand in for Dark Gull Grey. Decals came from the stash and the antennae were Uschi van der Rosten Super-fine. The worst part of the kit was the instructions. No words and some vagueness on locations. And the worst part of the worst part was the turret in build and when to place it. Do not…I repeat…don’t install the cockpit clear parts and then expect the turret to fit…it ain’t gonna happen. Too late, I found a set of Accurate Miniatures instructions, upload these and use them instead. A God send for the clear parts was the Eduard canopy set

Hi all Here's my latest 1/48 Hunter T8 conversion, which is a combination of Heritage Aviation T8 conversion and Academy single seater. A fun project!

Hi Steve. Thank you. Hi Craig. Thank you and you are partially responsible for the paintwork as you kindly got me the tub of Desert Yellow I'm still using!! Hi Ozzy. Thank you. Not sure mine comes with any jigs - I will check though - but I don't think so. I've made some of these type of tracks before - last time with winterketten - and they weren't too hard to do. Thank you Robert. As I mentioned to Ozzy above, I have made some Magic Tracks before and they weren't too bad. Hopefully these will be similar. Thank you Glynn. Hope the tracks work okay Aaron. Thank you Bob and thank you for your thoughts on the tracks. I have an idea about getting the sag between the rollers. I'll try to remember to take some photos when I do them. So - after the previous photos above - everything was give a very, very thinned wash of Revell's Gunship Grey. - I thin it with just water. Once that was dry, I used a very fine, pointed brush to apply some very thinned Revell's Anthracite in and around the detail. When dry - I dry-brushed everything Desert Yellow with a lightened version of Desert Yellow - the latter was made by adding some Matt White paint. In the photos below, you can also see I have painted the tyres with thinned Anthracite - applied thinned with a small pointed brush. The exhausts were painted with thinned Anthracite and then dry-brushed with Humbrol's Gunmetal. Some closer views: I need to get some weathering started on the sides of the hull and on some of the other parts before getting the wheels, etc. attached and the tracks on. Also got to make the tracks! Comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

I'm still getting used to the GB cold turkey and the void it's left. It's a bit like going to the pub with all your mates, nipping off to the loo and coming back out to find everyone gone 🤣

Given the likelihood that some of these people will be on other medications, they will be in for an interesting time if they demand to know where all their medicines are made. If they are going to refuse stuff that is made abroad, then they are going to be in serious trouble if they have high blood pressure, need antibiotics, have certain sorts of cancer etc.

I was without use of my usual picture taking set up so I apologize for the previous bad pics. They should be decent from here on out. I glued the bogies to the lower hull and let it set overnight. I kept looking at it and something started bugging me, the bogies look like they sit too low so I started checking things and the lower hull is 2mm too tall! I checked the height from the bottom of the sponson to the bottom of the lower hull plate (22mm) against the Tasca m4a4 hulls in the stash (20MM) and other Tamiya and Dragon hulls and they all ended up at 20mm, I wish I would have realized it before gluing in the bogies but ..... I came up with a plan. all the detail on the lower end is correct and I didn't want to cut and lower the sponsons with the bogies in the way so I added 2mm of styrene (1mm spacer with 1mm plate) to the bottom of the sponsons and trimmed 2mm from the upper hull attachment points so the extra height is hidden inside the upper hull. I am waiting for it to dry so I can sand and get a good fit to the upper hull and final drive.

Hi all, Here is my latest model off the bench, Eduard's 1/48th Mig 21bis. A very nice kit, excellent fit overall with the usual Eduard's stunning surface detail, the only downside I found was that it was slightly complex in places and the instructions were a bit vague. this is partly due to the multiple build options all with slightly differing parts. Painted with Alclads and MRP lacquers, and then an oil wash. The only addition I made was Master pitot tube. Thanks for looking, gazza l

When I was in 6th grade, we were divided into two classes, one all boys and the other all girls. Our boy's class teacher really wanted to be a commercial pilot and wherever he could, he worked flying into our classes. About halfway through the year, he gave us an assignment: build a model airplane, bring it to class, and it would be hung from the ceiling above each of our desks for the rest of the year. I'd never built a model before, never thought of such a thing, in fact. But my mom went shopping the next day and brought home a Lindberg F6F for my homework. I loved that little model. And I was so proud of it hanging up there among the other 30 or so planes and helicopters. It's long since disappeared but when I was building the amazing Eduard 1/72 kit, I thought about that first model a lot, My original kit was a bit smaller than 1/72, but that little kit is shockingly expensive, so I picked up a 1/72 Lindberg kit and drafted markings and printed decals to match the original. This is an oddball build for me, an almost straight-out-of-box assembly of a super-simple kit, tho' this time around I did paint it. This kit came with no missiles, so they came from the Eduard kit, as those were (needlessly) replaced by the Brassin missiles. No filler, and the barest minimum of sanding seams. It could have used a couple coats of clear to blend the decal edges but I'm pretty sure the original build had decal edges, too. The decals match the original, except that I couldn't abide the red bar on the insignia, so I didn't add that. And this time around, they're straight. And you know, I'm fonder of this model than any I've built in years. I don't think I'm going to hang it from the ceiling, or play with it in the driveway, but I'm going to put it somewhere where it's always close. To first models! And to first modellers everywhere!!

At first glance this is the same plane that Rob modelled and posted in the Gallery just above, except that he has been brave enough to weather it and I have not! That is partly because we both used the decs from the Matchbox kit, but there are quite a few differences. Rob built the Matchbox kit and had to scratch build or borrow from other kits as it came with a few bits not included, including pylons and armament. Mine on the other hand started life as the old Airfix 2nd moulding which came with an anti shipping weapons loadout. However, I have added a Freightdog conversion set including a new nose, horizontal tail, IFR probe and the wing leading edge bullet aerials. I have also grafted on the intakes from a spare Matchbox kit and used its main undercarriage legs and wheels and of course the decs! The pylons were the kit ones with the launch rails removed, and a load from an Airfix "High Tech Weapons kit" which was released a couple of years after the Gulf war and contains several useful items. I have modelled the plane with 11 mission markings towards the end of the war, when the Buccs no longer carried a Sidewinder for self defence and were loaded with 2 RAF 1000lb LGB so that they could join in the fun. Of course, by that stage they would have been badly faded, scuffed and covered with stains, but I just did not have the heart. Not perfect of course, but maybe not too bad. Cheers Pete

I thought I was ready to start painting and then I looked again at the wings, or more precisely the leading edges and the 8 machine gun ports. Frankly they were a complete mess. The holes were too large, misshaped, misaligned top and bottom. What size should they be, and were they even in the right place? I could have just covered them in doped linen (red painted Tamiya tape or similar) but I want the option of having them open, post flight / fight, as it were. Luckily Britmodeller isn't short of people more knowledgeable than me and I put a post asking for advice on the correct size in the WW2 Aircraft Forum. The result was outstanding and I'm yet again much in debt to those who helped - @JackG, @Ray_W, @Graham Boak, @BS_w, @JohnT. Many thanks! In the end I completely filled the holes with CA Glue/talc mix and re-drilled the holes, and as Bob @gingerbob suggested, starting with a pin-hole ( - see edit note!) in what I judged was the right place and enlarged the holes with successively larger drill bits until I reached 2.5mm, the size of the MG port. The advantage of the CA/talc mix is that it's a bit harder than my normal Humbrol filler and the drill bit is less prone to being forced off track by the surrounding plastic of the wing. And now for some paint! Cheers,

Time for another milestone update. When I started this it was always going to be a wraparound scheme but I didn't think much beyond that and the headaches it would cause. I had some No.6 Sqn markings from a Kits-World sheet that ticked that box and I thought that I had the stencils covered with an Xtradecal sheet that shows a wraparound jaguar on the front sheet. The trouble is, on opening, there isn't a single piece of data on the sheet that covers a camouflaged Jaguar purely the grey ones. I don't know why I thought that it be plain sailing because it never is. The following days were spent finding and adding decals from Kits-World, Model Alliance, Xtradecal. Microscale. Hobbyboss and any number of other sheets. I did even look at the Airfix sheet but that behaved just like you'd expect a twenty odd year old sheet of Airfix decals to behave. To be fair, they behaved like a new Airfix sheet of decals would have behaved from that era. Lot's of making decals from pieces of data added over a piece of white decal, thin roundel blue stripes for the fin flash and so on. It's fun this hobby of ours 😁. Anyway that all leads to here: Decals are all on, well as least as many as are going to be on, and they're sealed with a gloss coat. Next comes the job that I've been dreading, the undercarriage. It's a pretty good fit in the location groove but, as anyone who has built one will know, it doesn't fit perfectly and aligning it to be level and true isn't a walk in the park. I've added a brace between the axles to help and this will be cut out when it's all set. Fingers crossed that it sits wings level when all done. Lots left to do and a few hurdles ahead but getting there. Pete