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The most expensive kit with the most extras I’ve ever tackled. Painted in mostly Alclad airframe aluminium but weathered with the kitchen sink. Master Details pilots navigator & radio operator, brass gun barrels, magic scale modelling light & sound kit, brassin resin wheels. If you decide to watch the video at the end be sure to turn the sound up! Thanks for looking. She’s a bit of a modelling cliche but I love the scheme so here’s my main reference pic: couple of views from before I sealed her up Here she is in action

Just completed this great model. Challenging kit with a lot of very small and delicate parts. But fit is overall very good. Plus you get a full crew who you now cannot see but they are in there trust me

my last built , the very old kit (1969)

Another A319 got finished. Its actually my last A319 from my stash unfortunately.As the kit is out of production by Revell,its not so easy anymore to get one for a reasonable price. There had been many builds and kit introductions,so I wont go to further detail on the kit here. Fit is great and its a joy to build. Everything was straight forward,only decalling the Airbus was a very time consuming task which needed careful planning,research and systematic application of the many decal pieces for the blue pattern. 15 decals each side for the blue patterns and many more for stenciling and other details. The decals come from PAS decals and have a great quality, are durable and easy to work with.And they are cleverly designed,which helps a great deal in the application process. They fit very well on the model,I had only little issues around the wings. As they have no white backing,the cabin windows will disappear on the blue,so there I used the ones from the kit decals,as well as most of the details on the wings. Rossia painted this Airbus in 2014 as it was the official carrier for the soccer club "Zenit St.Petersburg" Its a very striking livery in my opinion and I am happy that PAS decals produced such a wonderful decal set. I painted the model with Revell and Gunze enamels,coroguard panels are my own mix of Revell grey 374 with a few drops of Revell silver 90. Cheers Alex

Kit - Hobbyboss AMX A11 / Ghibli Paint - Tamiya acrylics Decals - Gekko Graphics & Kit Extras - Brengun LAU-131 pods, Revell Iris-T AAM's, 'unknown' resin designator pod. Scratchbuilt radar nose & RWR. AMX Kaitiaki (Defender) 2 Sqn Afghanistan 2012 Ok, I know that there's often been some erm... 'resistance' to What If modelling in the past and that used to bother me, but I'm too middle-aged to care nowadays so here's my plastic model of an aircraft that doesn't actually exist in this form and let's move-on. I cannot prove it, but I've had this idea bubbling since before we decided to move to NZ in 2012, the fact that we did move here, simply made the the idea even more real, just a case of when not if I was going to do it. The kit is not great, but I couldn't find a Kinetic kit at a reasonable (to me) price, so you work with what you have, right ?. I made three or four experiments with old drop-tank noses and putty to get the radar nose but ended-up by using the kit nose that I'd removed and changing the length and rear contours with plastic card discs - odd isn't it how sometimes it's the simplest 'fixes' that solve the problem. The RWR pod at the bottom of the fin is plastic card and an old Sparrow missile head cut and shaped to how I wanted it to look. I did think about adding some 'warts' to the ECM bar at the top of the fin and may still do this in the future. The designator pod is an anonymous resin one was in a kit I bought off eBay a few years back, I cut down an old pylon from something I couldn't Identify from the spares box as HB doesn't provide one in the kit - strangely tho' it does provide FOUR droptanks for some reason. The LAU-131's were an indulgence, but they aren't expensive and were exactly what I needed for the 'Armed Recce' / FAC feel I was aiming for. For the paint scheme, I tried as hard as I could to NOT think about [other] contemporary aircraft and just go-my-own-way, now that It's done, it does seem to owe a lot to the CAF & RAAF Hawk 127 scheme, (again) I cannot prove it, but that is entirely coincidental. I've used Tamiya Ocean Grey & Medium Sea Grey with a lot of post-shading and XF-24 Dark Grey for the radome, RWR and fin tip. I have a whole back-story to go with the build but I'm not going to bore folks here with all of that. It's 'just a model' as mein Frau says, it was a great fun project that had a few hiccups along the way, but was definitely a shed-load of fun... pretty sure that's what the hobby is supposed to be about, right ? - Feel free to make any comments, ask any questions or hurl any abuse. All the best from NZ. Ian.

follow up from the earlier postings seen here .... I have completed the conversion of the new Airfix T3 to a first Jet Provost T.Mk1. It needs briefly another fuselage, slightly changed wing and long undercarrriage. "Prop piston" Provost info and model was also used to make some parts . Finished in the scheme of "The Sparrows" Aerobatic team flying from the RAF Central Flying School at Little Rissington in 1958. Full conversion info can be found on my website along with other Jet Provost and Strikemaster models made.

Lufthansa took delivery of their first Boeing 727 in 1964 . I always liked their livery from that time so I wanted to build one of my many Revell 727 kits in that scheme. The decals are from Classic Airlines by Nick Webb. They are nicely printed and fit almost perfect on the Revell kit. The build was more or less OOB,I only changed the wheels and used the Airfix ones. The kits wheels are too big and have no real detail on them. The front gear doors were replaced with self made ones from evergreen plastic as well. Paints are Revell 04 white,Testors aircraft grey and Gunze Super Metallic Chrome,with a gloss black base coat.Some panels are painted with Revell silver 90 to give some subtle differences. They cant be seen well on the pictures but they are there. The details come from the extensive decal set of the 2016 Germania release. No weathering was done as I wanted to depict the 727 as she looked fresh off the production line. Cheers Alex

This one has been on the go for quite a while now but I've managed to find the time over the last few weeks to bring her to completion. A Royal Australian Navy Sea Fury (VW 632) from HMAS Sydney circa 1950. The kit is from Trumpeter in 1/72 scale with a few corrections and modifications. The main decals are from Aussie Decals and the stencils come from the Airfix boxing of the Sea Fury. I did not post a work in progress thread but can say that the kit does go together quite nicely. I kept weathering light, only accenting some of the engine panels, moveable control surfaces and dirtying up the undercarriage and wing fold which I'm sure would accumulate grease and grime. I did however fail miserably when trying to replicate the distinctive exhaust patterns! The crude carrier deck was designed in Powerpoint and is printed with a background of Hobart Harbour.

Hi all, Just finished my Airfix 1/72 Swordfish 😬 Firstly the good stuff - it’s a beauty of a kit. I ended up going off piste and constructed/ painted/ rigged the wings separately to the fuselage. I added them right at the end and - they just clicked into place! Not even any glue required. The decals were sublime, as good as anything I’ve ever used before. Secondly the less good stuff - the surface textures looked, frankly, awful! 🥴 So poor in fact I thought there must have been an issue with the moulding. Everything was gritty. I contacted Airfix with pictures and they very efficiently sent me a complete new set of sprues. However, these weren’t much better! I ended up having to sand down pretty much everything. This seemed slightly odd? Anyone else have that issue? But once that hurdle was crossed, a great fun build 👍 I’ve added a couple of pictures of the offending surfaces. It sits very nicely next to my recent Armstrong Whitworth Siskin and Hawker Demon ☺️ Anyway, here she is... Thanks Guy ...and the not so good....🤨

Here we have Academy’s ’90s vintage M60A1 RISE/Passive, in US Marine markings from about the time of the Second Gulf War. It’s a fairly decent kit. I’ve heard it described as a copy of the old Tamiya M60 kits, but there are differences in the engineering and the parts layout that make me doubt that. Back to the old principle - all kits of an M60 in 1/35 should look fairly similar, or something’s going wrong somewhere. Not a lot I can say about how it went together - no major dramas, no real highlights either. The extra armour is nicely done but, despite my best efforts, the tilted panels on the hull foul the lowest panels on the turret. Test-fitting would be tricky but my advice is, trim a little from the tops of the hull panels and you should be there. The kit gives you separate vinyl tyres for the road wheels, which is a mixed blessing. They fit nice and tight; but they take a lot of painting to make the surface finish right. And, as ever, you need a barrier coat between vinyl and polystyrene to be on the safe side. The kit tracks are okay, but I went for AFV Club replacements. So nice to work with. Other than that it’s all out of the box. The decals were among the worst I’ve ever met. Reluctant to move, inflexible, prone to coming apart under provocation - but enough about me, the decals were pretty grim too. That’s why there are even fewer than the handful there ought to be. The paintwork is a mixture of earth and sand shades, all enamel, dry-brushed with pale stone, and the weathering is watercolour washes.

My latest completion built for a group build elsewhere and just finished. This is the MPM 1/72 Spitfire PR.XI kit with Ventura Decals. Painted using Mr Hobby RLM colours. The kit is an earlier release from MPM and had been hiding in my stash for more years than I can remember. It had all the hallmarks of a short run kit and needed a lot of filler to blend the wings in. I used the prop, spinner and wheels from another kit as the MPM ones were really not up to it. The wheels on the real thing were changed to these disk types at some point during it's Luftwaffe career, there are photos of it with Supermarine ones and these fitted. Unfortunately when I took the canopy masking off this morning there were big white blobs all over the inside so I've tried to wash them out with water but to no avail, hence the condensation in the photos. Not one of my better builds but I'm glad it finally made it out of the stash. Duncan B

Hi, everyone! It's my next model from Ukrainian model firm "Dora Wings". It's made by "shortrun" technology, but it's very high quality, more better than "typical shortun".

The beauty of this kit is the ingenuous wall mount it comes with. I’m doing another one to go next to it as, and get this, my wife said it looked silly next to the picture & would look better next to another one!

#14/2021 All good things come in three, so here´s my dad´s third and last 262 for now. Hobby Boss kit, "712" decals from Kagero book "Messerschmitt Me 262 In Defence of the Third Reich", rest of decals from the sparesbox, painted with different MRP metal colours, simulated all the filler stuff by airbrushing different grey tones. Brake lines and seatbelts added, EZ Line used for the antenna wires. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235091248-naked-bird148-messerschmitt-me262a-2a-jv44/ In May 1945 the rest of JV44 ended up in Tyrol/Austria. A bunch of 262s and other aircraft, standing and lying around in the mountain valleys, partly destroyed, have been captured there by US troops. Can´t tell if this aircraft was an A-1 or A-2. It had racks like an A-2 but four gun openings like an A-1. 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_0021 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0022 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0023 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0024 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

Here is my Bf109E - Northern France 1941. Pretty happy with the result although with the benefit of hindsight I could have rescribed the panel lines and got the fuselage join tidier. The poor fitting engine cowlings also drove me mad so I just glued and filled in the end... It's my third build since a very lengthy hobby gap - it's a 1:72 Phantom II next. Cheers Sean

I received the Veronico/Ginter volume on the Privateer from HobbyLink Japan just five days after I ordered it. Amazing. And it still had that just-printed smell when I removed the packaging. Needless to say, I've been devouring that book. My hat is off to the authors, it is an incredible job of researching and collating. I think I now have a pretty good idea of where everything is situated, but this brings up quite a quandary for me - very little interior detail will be seen once the fuselage is buttoned up. I'm not getting any younger and I don't want to spend a lot of time on stuff that no one will ever see. I think the flight deck, bombardier's station, the turrets, the nose gear bay - these need work for sure. I suspect that's what I'll concentrate on. Sure, the book shows me where the loo is (and if you look close enough you can also see the paper holder) but I don't think I need to add that to the model. (Although it is just a "can" and I did add the relief tube to the PB4Y-1 model...) Cheers, Bill

Decided to revisit the first Argentinian aircraft I built (2018). Originally, the slat bays were painted in RLM 02 because I didn't have red. Photo of the real aircraft. You can also see that the inner portion of the flaps were painted in camouflage colour:

G'day Chums,here's my take on the Ark Models Hurricane I. I wasn't ready for this one,there is a lot of work involved in putting it together.The sliding portion of the canopy is the closed item from the Airfix new tool kit suitably warmed and manipulated to alter the shape and sit.The wing leading edge lights were scratched from runner and thin wire,the glassware was flat clear sheet bent and let into the wing.The gun camera housing came from the Airfix kit as did the antenna mast and the decals.The upper wing roundels were home brewed masks and hairy sticked.The Sutton Harness was painted masking tape. Otherwise this one is OOB with Milliput taking care of the sink marks and builder induced steps and mismatches. I nearly got it right. As demanding as it is I like this kit,all the goodies for all the variants are in the box and most of it is useable. Would I build another one?Yes,a PR variant and a Sea Hurricane certainly and night fighter are on the to do list. Thanks for looking in Chums.

After some Revell Concordes I wanted to try the Airfix kit. Compared to Revell's offering,its simpler detailed,no optional nose installation and it has raised panel lines and open cabin windows. But I must admit that I like the Airfix kit more. Revell has its Concorde kit for decades in their catalogue and its really starting to get a bit long in the tooth. Besides the Airfix kit,I also worked on the Revell one simultanously.The Revell kit ended up in the bin in the end as the parts had a terrible fit and the wing seams kept cracking open,no matter what I did. The decals come from the ill fated Revell kit and are superb,both in printing quality as well as details. Painted overall white using Revell 04. Engine exhausts are a mix of semigloss black mixed with a few drops silver. Another Airfix Concorde and a Entex kit are currently on the bench as well which should show up here in some time to join her sister ship. On with the pics Cheers Alex

Good day! Following my post of the radial engine Ro37, here is the in line version, the Ro 37bis. Equiped with the Fiat A30 engine, this version was very elegant and was used intensively by the Regia Aeronautica before some more modern planes were available. The pre-war scheme is a real headache to do as all the colors overlap each other with round edges, plus the benefit of a biplan! Model was built on commission some time ago. Best regards. 6A72CA9E-F45F-4ECA-92CC-E476BCBF9ADE_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr A236E00F-5BBF-4BD1-B9E9-FC071279E9A0_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 410CF037-8670-4B79-9FB5-CCB52CC21E34_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 918F8B14-542C-4406-9DE3-29421CEC4E00_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 5F87B194-8443-4730-94A9-CCB52CC21E34_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr D1367CB3-6DC9-4CFE-A25E-714A0083F737_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr

I finally put the final touches on the my latest "two-fer". This is the first time I nursed two models along to the finishing line simultaneously. Not sure I'll do that again. Whenever I felt a feeling of accomplishment after a particularly challenging subassembly, I had to face doing it all over again. Case in point was the stretched sprue antenna. The first one, White 1, took 5 tries to attach, shrink with a glowing ember from a lit toothpick, position the cones then add insulators made with white acrylic paint. It would snap off at the slightest provocation. Next in line was Yellow 8, with not one, but three antennae. The center wire fought me through eight attempts. I was reduced to maniacal laughter more than once as the modeling gods toyed with me. After that multi-day ordeal, the two adjacent wires obediently worked at the first try. Go figure. Since I didn't post photos of my first SH 109 earlier, I will include some here. So what are my impressions of this kit? I hold it is as high regard as any other 109 in this scale. But for ease of assembly, Tamiya it is not. I wonder how many Tamiya E'S I could have cranked out in the same time period. But it presents so much of a challenge that I find myself inexplicably drawn to it. I've started two more during these builds but will have to take a break before moving them along. The sophistication in areas like riveting, panel lines, stitching on the flying surfaces and cockpit interior are state of the art. However, other problems are nagging; i.e. the canopy is too wide (although some of this may have been builder induced, but not all of it). The attempt at brake lines is commendable, but they resemble rain downspouts more than thin tubes. On the latter two builds I removed them (again, no small task) and replaced them with stretched sprue and lead wire. Thank you Giampiero Piva for that inspiration. Beware of the tailwheel strut. I broke it off during two of these builds. As a precaution I installed an Albion Alloys tube in the rear fuselage on the third one and inserted the strut after major assembly and painting was done. The plastic in this kit is very soft. I used it to stretch sprues for the replacement brake lines. I had the impression that after glueing this to the gear legs I would be able to press it into recesses for a natural look. That notion was correct. Other plusses are separate, posable flaps and slats, a first in this scale for the latter. Finally, the main landing gear struts are too long. Quite a bit too long. I removed a fair amount from the top of the gear then reprofiled the end into a peg to fit in the recess on the top wing. I think this dramatically improved the appearance of the model. Eduard says in one of their recent monthly newsletters that they worked with Special Hobby on this kit. SH started with Eduard's research on their 1/48th model and improved and adapted it to 1/72. I believe the too-long gear is a vestige of that. The same issue characterizes Eduard's large scale 109 E's, along with the brake lines. Finally, I just like the character of this kit. It LOOKS like a 109 E. Some have claimed online that it is too portly. Perhaps. But all of the other kits have their own shape issues, including the ICM and Tamiya kits. To me, this is the best of the lot. Now on the the last details. Much work was done on the canopy. I used the Rob Taurus vac center section for the Fine Molds 109 F. The kit part would be acceptable for the beefier 109 G, but the E was more delicate. I added some riveted sections at the base of both sides. These were actually bolts, but .005" plastic sheet embossed with a Rosie the Riveter does a convincing enough job. A locking handle was made from more .005" plastic and stretched sprue. More very fine sprue was dipped in superglue to make a bulb. This was painted silver and about .015" was cut off the end. I used these to represent the knobs on the canopy side panels which were used to slide them open. A retaining cord and spring were made from very fine wire. Canopy frames are strips of painted clear decal sheet. Weathering was done with various oil paints and dry pigments. Yellow 8 has the new replacement resin wheel set from SH. They look good, but so do the kit items. That's enough for now; on to the pics. I would be happy to answer any questions. 81EBFE95-2F72-4D69-A632-93918F32B23B_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr C3D5ADB4-BA05-4F73-BFF4-554A41FC18CB_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr 3F60AF03-09CE-4288-BF05-F68E4528E990_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr FFBD7E23-283F-4C75-AD5E-1A46BF8ED70F_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr 35B7C9E0-2FE9-4DAE-93E5-5EA605B28BEC_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr B1A03634-0DFA-455F-8384-340CF89810E5_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr AF742898-D85E-488F-AFC8-6D0EB6FA91AF_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr F1D21E60-4191-460B-B79F-EF764B2308DA_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr 22B80BDA-4265-4E10-8745-AE11C7D0C78E_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr B8A64094-EACD-47FA-8298-607164BF8620_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr 217CD45B-B735-45EF-B8E8-1302D9644655_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr 175AB80C-27D8-475C-BA21-F069E13CD3F6_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr 5E2D9EC1-7BDF-4C65-958B-B00DDC8363BC_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr C2262719-FE94-4161-9943-80C79BE933B8_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr 34D99201-61F7-4B9C-8BF4-C1BA47276764_1_201_a by Barry Numerick, on Flickr

Spent the night spraying more mr surfacer . More parts painted with RAF interior green . For the cockpit parts that normally are black i decided to go with NATO black . For the seat i ised Tamiya Hull Red. Sitll more interion parts to prime . Enginer was sprayed with Tamiya NATO black. Next i Will do a gloss gloss black wash on the engine. Brian

Martin P6M-2 Seamaster Naval Air Station Harvey Point, North Carolina, 1959 1/72 Mach 2 kit Surely one of the coolest looking aeroplanes of all time, the Seamaster was just a step too far into the field of far-too-expensive-aeroplanes. In some ways it captures the spirit of 1950s military aviation in America in which anything was worth a try. I bought this Mach 2 kit at a good price (£40) last year but really never thought I would build it. Opening the box revealed the size of the beast, but also revealed huge amounts of flash and poorly moulded parts with rough surface finish. Once I had cleaned everything up though (which took a huge amount of time) it actually went together fairly quickly. Not having to bother with an undercarriage helped, but I did have to mould a new canopy because the kit canopy was very thick and completely the wrong shape. The kit included the complex beaching trolley, which is so necessary for flying boats. Cleaning up the parts for this was something else, but it went together OK in the end. Decals were just about usable, but the white parts had yellowed which looked awful against the painted white of the hull. Thankfully I managed to find enough letters and numbers from other sheets to replace them. The previous Mach 2 kit I built was the Valiant, some years before the Airfix release, and the experience was about the same as this, but I did get the same feeling of satisfaction to see it finished.

My latest finished build. Roden's Globemaster II "Old Shaky". To be honest - it was my first 'short run', and I'm not very satisfied with end result. But I'm glad it is finished and now have time for something new 😉 I added to less weight in nose section, and model is tending to be "tail sitter", so I had to add the tail support, which I have seen on real photos, so it is not pure sci-fi 🤣 Now I've got two Globemaster's in collection: C-124 and C-17. Please feel free to provide constructive criticism 👍

This is the Revell model of the P1099B, an aircraft that never left the drawing board in terms of design. It's a rather ugly aircraft but that's kinda what I liked about it when I bought the kit. According to the instructions this aircraft was from KG 76, a bomber squadron, so I found a much larger pistol packing devil for the side of the aircraft, I think it came from a KG 76 Junkers 88 kit. Since it was a fighter bomber, I also added a bomb and rack under the fuselage from an Me 262. Colour scheme is RLM 82 light green with RLM 83 dark green patches over RLM 76 blue. The squiggles are RLM 76 which I applied with a brush to get the nice hard edge. This was based off an Me 262 camouflage schemes that I liked. Overall the kit is good fitting, although there was some filling and sanding required on the engine nacelles and the nose wheel insert. Some weight was also required to prevent tail sitting.

So the decals are in place except the ones for the bonnet which I will apply towards the end of the build. The last few parts have been painted and i should be able to finish this build tomorrow. Then I will add some weathering to the car so it looks a little more used than it does atm. Here's a few pic's of today's progress I'm happy with progress so far and look forward to seeing the car completed. Thanks for looking back soon 🙂👍

Thanks CC You heavy metal fans! Finally: It must be part of Leigh-Mallory's 'Big Wing'. Single part tree: …plus the canopy (in that lump somewhere) and transfers: Look, wheels up/down options: If only all manufacturers did this - in my dreams! Very soon: Of course I painted the cockpit. I've left the peg 'flesh' so it gives the impression of a pilot. (I'm sorry, I don't do impressions. My training is in Psychiatry ) The RAF is mustering:

All shined up and ready for the Stickering Department: As typical these days, shininess was provided by Mr. Color GX UV Cut Gloss (#GX112). Thinned with Mr. Color Levelling Thinner, it dries very quickly and levels out nicely. Prior to starting the decal barrage (there aren't many to apply) I did a quick Black Future wash to bring out the detail in the gear bays and the landing gear struts and linkages. I also added the Res/Kit wheels and tyres. I think they look great. The first two stickies went on nicely: Next I added the intake warning triangle on the starboard side. (Gawd, I hate these super close-up photos.) It conformed to the compound curvature with just a bit of Micro Set. (FYI - The TwoBobs decals are printed by Microscale according to the package.) Next, I did the same on the port side. Hmm...something looks different. On this side, the lettering and danger arrow are white - they are "clear" on the other side. Knowing TwoBob's previous work and their attention to detail, I quickly checked my photos to see if the real aircraft was like this. Nice try, but nope. Letters are white on both side. Bob & Bob made a boo & boo. I think I will have to live with this, and quite frankly I'm not all that worried about it. Moving over to the markings on the vertical fin, and we have another problem. The white areas do not fit well on the Hasegawa fin. Here is the port decal on top of the fin from my F/A-18A Blue Angel kit: Hopefully you can see the edges of the lower white area and see that they go beyond the rudder in both directions (down and to the right in this photo). Which is good, as it means I can trim the decal to fit. however, it also means that these decals were probably designed for the Academy kit and there is a significant difference between Academy and Hasegawa with respect to the size of the vertical fin. Who's right? Probably neither. I'm not aware of any difference in the size of the vertical fin between A/B and C/D marks of the Hornet, just different bumps and lumps. Good thing I have these extra fins (another set came in the box for the kit I'm using). It will be much easier to trim the decal to match the fin when it's not attached to the fuselage. I shall continue to mush along... Cheers, Bill

Final renders Mk.IV

Hello, Thank you for your appreciation, Tony. I consider that I have made good progress in my project, because the first B17 is practically completed Painting, decalling and weathering are almost finished. Here is an open dinghy storage compartment, you can see the rear wall riddled with shards following the impact of a shell: The rubber dinghy would float less well, after ... The plane will be presented belly landed, I used the legs in retracted position offered as an option in the box of the Airfix model: I did not break my head to represent the hydraulic lines, all that will be enough once the dio is finished. We can take the opportunity to compare certain parts between the Airfix and Revell kits, such as exhausts and compressors: The Revell model has more and more my preference I finally had fun perforating the canvas control surfaces: To do as in the photo! The Triangle and the A are painted, just to make it more realistic. I took the pin-up again with a brush, and I will be satisfied with the result, although we could play the game of the differences between the photo of the real one and the decal (dimensions, position, size of the banner, writing ... .): Note the window above the girl I find a little exaggerated on the model. Come on, I end today with a picture of TWO F Revell models!: Regards, Eric-Snafu35

Found in a batch of recently digitised photos from the Air Force Museum Of New Zealand archives. I have cropped the original and straitened it horizontally it for posting here. The original full sized image can be found here: https://fotoweb.airforcemuseum.co.nz/fotoweb/archives/5003-Search-the-Collection/Collection/2021-078.21_1.JPG.info The caption reads: Negative from the FE Fennessy personal collection. Side view of Hawker Osprey K3629, from HMS Sussex on the hard at RNZAF Station Hobsonville. HMS Sussex was visiting New Zealand between late 1934 and early 1935. Hopefully some details there for any of you building an Osprey on floats. Cheers, Pete M.

Today I present my Hurricane MK.I served in Polish Squadron 303 and 306. The kit from AH is nice but not perfect, I used "overtree set" without instruction, decals and PE parts. From aftermarket I used: exhaust, control stick and for UZ-V propeller from Quickboost, instrument panel from Yahu and seat belts from Eduard. Some additional parts are from spare. Decals are from TECHMOD and XTRADECALS, for UZ-V on right side of fuselage I used SP-DECALS code letter because Techmod cracked and was useless. UZ-V served 1941 in 306 " Torunski" Squadron Polish Air Force flown many times by Stanislaw Skalski best Polish Ace. RF-F from 303 "Kosciuszko" Squadron Polish Air Force, show us 126 kills, that this unit made in Battle of Britain. Models no.27 and 28 this year, but now lockdown is over...

Hi, everyone! It's my next model from small "Pepelatz" firm. It's full resin model, but very high quality.

Another purchase through ebay UK, but with parts of the engine missing as described! So as I had, had experience building kit cars and a friend bought refurbed and sold one of these I knew that the size of the engine block was about the area of the Twin-Cam cylinder head plus the depth. The rest of the engine ancillaries were still in the box so added to the block plus a resin cast VW Beetle gearbox, slightly shortened to fit between the rear hubs. Plus the luggage box,, And the engine lid.. The steering also works a treat!

Ok, here is a brief update on the 250 GTO. I have been getting familiarized with Vallejo air paints, and I think they are wonderful. I took Sabrejet's advice and got some Mr. Hobby's Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000. I think they likely could have fit a few more "Mr's" into the name, but that aside, it is an excellent primer. I thinned it 1:1 with Mr. Color Levelling Thinner and got great results; much smoother than the etch primer I used initially. Although, I will say that the etch primer did just fine when I began spraying Vallejo, and I can't really tell an appreciable difference now that they are all painted, though maybe others can. (Apologies for the less-than-ideal photography). For instance: The cylinder heads and crankcase cover were primed with the etch primer, and this is how they look after a few coats of aluminum and steel Vallejo Air metal colors (I tried to employ some of Ron's techniques as outlined in his Renault RE20 Turbo Thread, using a couple of different metal paints on the initial paint job). For comparison, here are the gearbox and engine block, both of which I primed with Messieurs Hobby and Primer Surfacer: Aside from the parts in the first picture being slightly darker due to a bit more steel paint than the others received, I don't notice too much difference, though the cylinder heads may be just slightly more textured. I any event, I am cautiously pleased with the results thus far, although I would be grateful for any feedback on anything I might improve on here. Finally, here are the cylinder head covers, which were a lot of fun: They're still a bit wet here from a final touch-up spray and will need a bit of tidying, but I wanted to include them to show the textured surface that MFH got on these covers; it is just wonderful. I know that the horizontal lines and the "Ferrari" name are traditionally black on these covers, but at this size the word and lines were barely visible at all when they were black, so I opted to sand the paint off so that the detail could be seen and appreciated. The next step is sanding flash off of dozens of very tiny components that will go in the cylinder heads, painting them, and then putting those together. I am having such a great time with this kit; it is my first time working with white metal, and I already feel like it is going to be hard to go back to plastic after working with this. It poses different challenges than plastic or resin, but I feel like the white metal is ultimately more forgiving, than plastic in particular. I'd be glad to hear any suggestions or feedback; many thanks for reading. All best, Andrew

No masking mojo today but I caught up my wings with Jim's: Ailerons next, then it's on to the engines - more parts than some kits!

I haven't been playing my guitars anywhere near as much as I have wanted to over the past few years so thought I'd treat myself to the latest in practice Amp technology, the Boss Waza Air headphone Amp, to see if that'll motivate me. The sound quality is impressive and they are packed full of so many different effect tones. The best bit is that Mrs B isn't driving mad by me practicing the same riff over and over again now, or if she is I can't hear her shouting about it . Duncan B

Good news Giorgio - if it's good enough for the master… Thanks SK - maybe, but I think the wheels are oversize, unlike the wing thickness, and I might have ended up with a really thin 'roof'. Also, I'm used to the 'thin the tyres' method so better the devil you know I think Otto's a bit young to be introduced to Finbarr and his Viz mates. I'll have to wait until he can read, but then… Thanks Ali - hopefully the brushed will dry faster; you know how impatient I am! Good point Phil Although 'realism' isn't my primary goal it does mean I can paint the Spits now and not have to wait until the Hurri arrives. And so… I've also started assembling bits for the 'hanging': I think a 'cross' of runners, or maybe the acrylic rod, supporting a ring of the green wire. Then I can hang the planes around the ring 'chasing each other'. I had planned to have them in pairs with, obviously, the RAF in attack but I think the 'all in a circle' will be more 'PC'. Unusual for me I know, but I'm all for an easy life…

One of my favourite Airfix kits. It builds well straight out the box. The surface detail is all raised but I think it looks better than the Italeri kit. The engraving on that one is a bit OTT for me. The canopy is slightly too small for the fuselage, but it still looks OK fitted. Falcon do a full replacement set of glazed parts but I stayed with the kit provided bits on my build. The undercarriage seems strong enough to me, no problems with it up to now. Unlike my Airfix Battle. The wonderful Bomb Trolley and Tractor additions are basic compared to the recent Airfix RAF set but they still scrub up well. I replaced the tail end of the bombs on my build as the kit parts are more like storm drains than sheet metal. It's a good kit Pat, have fun. I know I did.

So,..... for the Airfix/Uncle Les Beaufort I`m probably going for this subject,..... A9-486, `Scotty`s Homin Pidgin' probably coded QH-K (other codes have been mentioned too like J), of 100 Sqn RAAF, New Guinea, 1944; Using the decals from the Special Hobby kit,.... although I need to research the camouflage scheme as it appears to be wrong on their instructions; I also have a Special Hobby kit almost finished too and although I do like this scheme on a sheet from Print Scale, seen below top right,....depicting A9-432,JM-T 'Hallelujah Brothers- We Are Saved',.. I`m not too sure about it,..... first of all they describe it as being from 100 Sqn when the codes are actually 32 Sqn,... Below is the real `Hallelujah Brothers- We Are Saved',.... (note the lady is sat on a barrel, unlike the decal option!) but as it has bomb logs,..... surely it mustn`t be from 32 Sqn RAAF, wearing JT codes as they were Australian based on anti submarine duties? I have found a few pics of a very similar nose art, carrying the name Eskimo Nell, where the lady has dark coloured hair,.... now could this be the same aircraft flown under a different crew with a new name?; This view of Eskimo Nell does show a temporary black underside,...... I`d love to know the serial, codes and unit,..... for sure ; So that is the two choices,.... I did fancy this one but it was missing from the partial sheet that I had left over from the old Encore kit,.... having put the decals onto the Encore release of the old Frog kit years ago; Now there is an excellent restoration of a 100 Sqn RAAF Beaufort, A9-557 at the Australian Wr Memorial that I would love to see,... which began like this,... I believe the nose came from a different aircraft?; And it now looks like this,... a wonderful memorial and reference source,.... A period view of the nose area of an Aussie Beaufort (A9-488),... showing the nose guns and the propellers; I mention the propellers because I did some work on the latter today,...... and compared them to a set of Aeroclub metal propellers,.... which was interesting when it came to the length of the blades! The conversion set propellers are longer and have been painted black, the Aeroclub propellers are shorter and have been sanded and polished and also seen are the Special Hobby props, which are mid way between the others,..... also seen is the ASV antennae for the rear fuselage which I bought from High Plane`s; Here are the ASV antennae on the rear fuselage; And last of all,.... some general reference pics; A nice pic of the cockpit area for anybody building an Airfix Beaufort,..... of note is the ASV receiver set on the right hand side, the colour of the control spade and the relative complexity of the position; Colour stills from a film taken at Milne Bay,.... showing Beaufort A9-75, with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum artwork,... which also appears on the Print Scale sheet,..... but while serving with 6 OTU and only one set of Tweddle`s are included and they are in the wrong position while the camouflage pattern is different too,..... poor research and solely based on side view drawings from the Warpaint book I would say! ; Many RAAF Beauforts also had treaded tyres, unlike those in RAF service; Cheers for now, Tony Edited to add a few missing letters,.... my keyboard is broken and I`m always missing letters out without realising it until later!

You get a lot for your money with the Revell 1/144 Flower Class. Yes it needs etch railings - but it's a good easy to build kit with a lot of impact And if you start enjoying it, there's plenty to pimp it up from l'Arsenal or Micromaster (though Micromaster should carry a Health warning because when you buy once you'll surely be back and buy againa and again - "Waiting for my Man" kinda stuff. And I've yet to see one of these modelled - I think the US took 8 of them Just sayin........................ Rob

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been doing some much needed 1:1 work on the house. I finally have got around to taking pics of work done weeks ago. I added the photo etch side skirt brackets, antennas, tow cable ( it is laying funny near the drivers hatch it got knocked over there during dusting, I have since fixed it.) and a bit of stowage on the back. Construction should be done unless anyone sees something I messed up. It will sit for paint for a bit until I have a free weekend to do some painting. Thanks for looking!

Hi mates Here comes my latest collection, a collaborate work by my friend and myself, to memorize one of the most famous WWII battleship, KMS Bismarck which was sunk 80 years ago. The model was mainly built by my friend Xiaohui Mu, retouched/modified/rigging and photoed by me. Kit: Flyhawk 1132S 1/700 Bismarck deluxe ver. Aftermarket goods: K2 studio 3D printed Bismarck barrel canvas YX model 3D printed anchor chain Shipyard Bismarck PE & metal parts full set Shipyard Bismarck metal badge Flyhawk metal barrels (shorter ver. to fit canvas) Northstar 1/700 Kriegsmarine sailor figures Modelkasten 0.06mm metal rigging Customize ordered wooden deck & acrylic clear cover It took us more than 4 months to finish it and hope it will match the 80th anniversary of Bismarck's short voyage in North Atlantic. Thanks for watching.

I got lucky... mine was out when these two big boys landed simultaneously this morning.

I have started with painting. The fuselage is still waiting for the decals to arrive that simulate the plywood it was covered with. Well, I have applied white XF-2 from Tamiya to the tail, to the lower part of the RLM 65 wings from Gunze, the yellow is the RLM 04 from AK Real Color, the metallic is aluminum from AK Extreme Metal and for the part upper wings I have used dark green XF-81 from Tamiya and purple H-39 from Gunze. This last color is brilliant, so to work with it during the painting phase, I have applied Vallejo flat varnish. Masking to simulate the internal structure of the wings and tail is quite a looooong and tedious process so even though it's unfinished I show how it goes. For the ribs that formed the structure of the fabric parts, I am using 0.5 mm tape. So I don't have to worry about whether the piece of tape (Tamiya) that I cut is exactly the same as the previous piece I cut. Andrés S.

Well in the end I went with Andy's suggestion. Worked well as you can adjust the letters and even remove them as they are vinyl and not decals. That will be very handy when doing the rear number plate as I can see that being a bit more fiddly. Here's what the front one looks like. Just held on by blue tak at the mo. Still needs a bit of work but at least the letters fit! 😀 Cheers, Nick

Thanks for the kind remarks folks and I`m staying out of the XXXX thing,..... I`m a Theakston`s Best Bitter man,...... followed closely by Thwaites,.. (both nice and cold by the way,... not warm!).....I don`t drink weak gassy rubbish!! Right,... a bit of an update,...... the final coat of Earth Brown applied; Cheers, Tony

Couple of shots of our museum GA11 XE707, both with and without the Harley Light.

Been a while since I did anything on this as I have been distracted by the PzIII group build, but behold! There is paint! I used Mike Starmers mix for the SCC15 on it.