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After the post on the WIP here is the third model, a B-2. After some minor modifications to the wings, I moved on to the construction of the visible part of the barrel of the MK101 30 mm cannon, obtained with Albion Alloys tubes. The aircraft operated with the 8.(Pz)/SchG 2 and was abandoned together with others on the Tunis-El Aouina base. The camo, as always made entirely by brush, was originally in the classic 70/71/65, with a dense sand drapery on all the lateral and upper surfaces, and partial obliteration of the nationality insignia and the white band. The colors are mixes of Humbrol Enamels, the decals are almost all from the Eagle Cals sheet n.17, the others printed by me. Finally an image of the lower surfaces. Hope you like it. Thanks for your attention. Criticisms and suggestions welcome. Giampiero Piva

Hello to all of you.I have just finished this little zlin.it is not the best kit out there but again nothing that an avarage modeller cant build.I painted the model with gunze acrylics and varnished it with vallejo satin varnish. Enjoy the photos

Hello friends! My COVID build no.32 in this year is the prototype of Turkish P.24G. This plane - serial number 2136 was built by KTF in Turkey as a P.24C with Gnome - Rhone 14Kfs, than got the engine version 14N 07 and become prototype of Turkish P.24G in 1939. You know that IBG kit is very nice, I replaced canopy with a self made vacu part, because the front windows in the moving part are without glass. Only point which I will point out is that decal for engine cover is to long ca.1,2mm, to place it on kit like in manual, it have to be shorted. Enjoy. PS. PZL P.11c going slowly forward, it is to hot in my workshop.

Hi there, so I finally was able to finish the Lukgraph Hawker Nimrod MK I. And what a job it was… I dropped it halfway through, I learned the hard way that 3D printed parts do not flex, they are hard but brittle so either they break or become unstuck. Oh, and good as they are 3D printed parts have ridges, so even if it does not show directly, under paint and especially metal paint it will show! So take your time in cleaning them up. I like to dabble in scratch building the small parts, especially replacing PE parts and 3D printed parts and stepping up to 1/32 scale made that even more possible. So, I did my best but remember this was my first 1/32 scale kit in decades and a resin biplane at that what was I thinking. The Valeyo metal paint gave a nice finish but even by looking at it, it scratched… I could not get MRP when I needed it so tried the Valeyo metal paint but I like MRP a lot more. And it is a wonder I even was able to make the photographs, yesterday evening I dropped a bottle of Tamiya black lacquer paint. It covered everything, tweezers, brushes my worktable and splashed under and around the model but no drop on the model itself. Sometimes you need a bit of luck. Euh cleaning everything up was not fun… It is a great model but complex so it takes time to build but I thoroughly enjoyed it. So here it is, hope you like it.

Kinetic's 1/48th scale Harrier Gr1. A lovely kit with the option of making a GR1 or GR3. No real dramas encountered during the build. A great selection of decals, though I used a set from Model Alliance to depict a GR1 of number 4 Squadron based in Germany in the early seventies. Painted with Mr Color acrylics. The pilot is a figure from Airwaves. Thanks for looking, Angelo

Hello all. Here is my rendition of the Arado 234 B-2 from Hasegawa. It took me longer than usual because I have used the very nice Aires cockpit and wheel bays, some part of the CMK set showing the fuselage tanks, and also because it was important to protect all the transparencies from any blemish or scratches as this is one of the main attraction of the first Jet Bomber in aviation. As a matter of fact one is obliged to glue the undercarriage legs before the painting and it is not the best of things.The plane belongs to the 8/ KG76 and participate in some bombing missions on Antwerp and Bruxelles and on the Remagen bridge as well. Camo is RLM81/82/76 from Mr Color lacquers, markings are made with masks. Thanks for your comments to come, bye for now. 45594791-B51D-4FFA-9318-1196B54C439C_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 50E7C2D2-B3AD-4675-B91F-ACB7C19374E5_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 6679AC7A-27F1-47D5-8645-258E3D14B319_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 8CCF5C80-793A-4FFA-97D0-69C447650283_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 2B3B2B59-FDD9-4767-B0A0-6B79360FDB54_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr FAA5D30A-8A05-4BAD-B831-3938530247ED_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 2CF72B53-5142-4154-8D03-674F0B58AEEB_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr

Hello everyone, I'm mostly AFV modeler and I don't have much experience building aircraft, so any feedback is very welcome. This is Macchi MC.205 Veltro, flew by Giancarlo Galbusera, 84a Squadriglia, X Gruppo Caccia, 4th Stormo. This being my third aircraft kit, I don't have much material to compare, but I would say it's a very nice kit. Built it without any trouble. Not happy how aerials turned out, but it's my first try to build them so I guess I'll have to live with it. They should definitely be thinner. It's painted with Italeri Nocciola Chiaro 4 for upper surfaces and Gunze mix for Grigio Azzurro Chiaro 1 for undersurfaces. Smoke rings are decals. I would always rather choose to freehand them. However, I was thinking, it would be a waste not to use all those decals... o well, let's do some practice. It was even therapeutic experience Did juts some minor weathering. Thanks for watching and thanks for feedback. Cheers, Nenad

I recently finished up a quick build of Tamiya's 1/48 scale Tiger I (late). I don't typically build German subjects, but it was a fun distraction and I enjoyed it overall. I upgraded the base kit with a Monroe Perdu zimmerit set, an RB metal barrel, and some PE screens my friend donated to me. It was painted with AK Real Color and Tamiya paints and weathered with Ammo enamels. Comments and criticism welcomed as always!

Is this not a classical case of requiring people to state their sources and methods which led them to their conclusions? I strongly object to the modern trend of anti-intellectualism whereby everyone thinks their opinions are valid. That neither means that anyone is not able to carry out research, nor does it mean that there is no such thing as a subject matter expert. I'm frequently disagreed with on certain subjects, but often it's because someone thinks something is a reasonable argument because they only possess some reference material I have to hand. Had they already been aware of all of the circumstantial facts then they'd have arrived at a different conclusion. I've learned that no matter how much reference material we gather, there is always something we don't have and there will always be someone comes along who has it. It can be embarrassing to be corrected, especially in public, but it's ok to acknowledge that we weren't previously aware of something and have now revised our views. Often though, people choose to be aggressive about it. Basically though, if people want to make statements about stuff, then the burden of proof is upon them to construct a robust argument which will argue their point for them. We should not listen to someone simply because they make a statement. We should listen to them if their evidence is compelling. Often contradicting arguments are both based on evidence, but usually some of the evidence holds more gravitas than the other evidence does. I'd trust a primary source reference such as an engineering document with the manufacturer's stamp on it before I trusted a 3-view drawing on airwar.ru for example. I'd trust an official contemporary military publication over a modern book. Like Graham I don't know or particularly care what may or may not be wrong with this kit, but I do know what compelling evidence looks and feels like. Kit parts laid over a skewed photograph is pretty much bottom-drawer evidence. Even ignoring parallax errors digital photographs are just too easily resized in height or width altering their aspect ratios so unless it was definitely my own photo I wouldn't trust it much. That said, depending on who said "experts" were and what they based their claims on, it might either be better evidence or fail The Laugh TestTM spectacularly depending on whether this evidence was eyeballing and un-referenced opinion or factory drawings or measuring a fullsize original example. Again, I don't really care which is the case here - but the sentiment of "Experts" Wrong Again makes me a bit uncomfortable but that's perhaps me making a bigger societal link that wasn't intended, since nowadays every other person seems to think their opinion or Youtube Research confirmation biasing qualifies them to contradict, well, take your pick really - lawyer, economist, doctor, climatologist - the list of people who have dedicated their lives to a particular specialism being contradicted by folk who don't realise how much they don't know about it really is vast.

A small teaser of one of my latest finished models. The kit is really nice, except the very weak main gear. I used a little wire to strengthen it. The decals are very thin and needs only a very short dip into the water!!! Thx to ICM for the very good support to sent me spare parts.

This is my model of the Dutch manufactured short-range jet airliner Fokker F28-1000 Fellowship. The plane made its maiden flight in May, 1967 and during the next twenty years total of 241 Felloships were built. The first airline to operate the plane was the Norwegian "Braathens S.A.F.E." (= South America and Far East) The company had a total of six Fellowships in their fleet. One of them crashed in December, 1972 near the Fornebu airport (the old airport of Oslo) because of navigational error. Afterwards the company decided to delete the somewhat misleading abbreviation SAFE. I built the model from a 1/144 scale Authentic Airliners resin kit. The Braathens livery decals are from 26Decals and the cockpit/cabin window decals from Authentic Airlines. Building the kit was straightforward without any problems. I sprayed the upper side of the fuselage with Tamiya Fine surface primer which I then covered with Tamiya clear gloss spray. The underside of fuselage and the wings were then painted with Mr. Hobby grey 1000 primer. Since the primer was of the right grey shade I covered it with the Tamiya Clear gloss spray, as well. For the smaller details I also used Humbrol enamels and Vallejo acrylics.

Here’s some pics of my latest project. Thanks for looking!

Hi guys, Since my current build is taking me embarrassingly too long to finish I thought I would fill the gap with this (very) old model of mine. It is my 106th build, finished in June 2002, some 17 years ago. It took me 14 months to build but there are no WIP photos. Here is some WIP info instead: The Mauve kit has fine engraved panel lines which were enhanced by the addition of engraved rivets. The cockpit was improved by the use of Eduard's No.48135 photo etched set. There is a lot of scratch-building in the power-plant area around and behind CMK's Allison V-1710 (set No.4032). True Details provided the wheels (set No.48015) and Tally HO! the stencils (set No. S 48001). The markings come from Aeromaster: Allied P-40N's Pt.1 No.48-126C. I chose Sqdn. Ldr. John Waddy's mount, an 80th Sqdn P-40N-20 of RAAF based on Noemfoor island in Dutch New Guinea during September 1944. Keep modelling.

My final build from my Covid internment, not a full build but a build finish, a long story about a cracked canopy and a part build. Anyway, here it is with only an Eduard mask set and a set of Flying Leatherneck decals added. the kit is a massive leap ahead of the previous offering of a prototype aircraft. Now I have an empty work bench, what's next??

So this technically isn't a "latest acquisition", but I returned to my office today for the first time since early March of 2020, because they want to move desks around and I had a lot of stuff still there. So I retrieved the following: Think of it as a time capsule from before the world ended temporarily but for far longer than most of us expected.

Hi folks Latest off the bench today.... the 1/144 Platz A-4E repackaged by Eduard. Lovely little kit but sooo tiny! You don't realise how small the Scooter is until its parked up next to an F-14 or F-18. Built completely OOB but I had to scratch build the refuelling probe as it snapped off during assembly! Grr! (my fault) I went back to Vallejo paints for this one, and experimented with masking fluid for the camo. Not quite sure I'm that happy with it but it was lot easier than using tape or white tac at this scale. Might try something different next time? New scale.....new techniques me thinks! Anyway I hope you like! All the best.

My latest project is this fairly recent release from Special Hobby in co operation with Eduard. As far as I'm concerned its a little gem throughout. The exquisite surface detail is what 'll probably catch your eye on opening the box along with the finesse of the parts. This particular boxing also comes with some resin parts for the engine, cowlings and wheels. These fitted without any problem and builds into something a little different form closing everything up. The usual photoetch seatbelts are provided for the seat and as you would expect the rest of the cockpit is nicely detailed too. Unfortunately tho' after painting most of it black you can't see a great deal through the small opening. The wheel wells are just as nice too. Parts fit together well and the only real niggle was around the forward wing to fuselage joint. 5 choices of markings are provided and I opted to do something a little different from an RAF one so chose the Pakistan one. The others are 3 RAF ones, two in grey/green, one in silver and a silver Indian Air Force one. With regard to the markings on the one I chose I might have got my research completely wrong but I think its actually a 9 squadron aircraft which means it should have a red spinner and not black? I'm only going by a photo I found of this particular aircraft and the caption states its 9 squadron. Further on in the article it gives the spinner colours for Pakistan Tempest squadrons and black isn't actually listed. Anyway, if I am wrong its a quick respray of the prop and change the squadron number on my label. If anyone has a definitive answer I'd be very grateful. Anyway, that's it and thanks for looking. T II 2 T II 3 T II 4 T II1 20210727_180029

Afternoon guys and gals, Another update for you - can you tell I'm a teacher on school holidays? I've been working on the last of the major airframe construction which has been the vertical stabiliser. Here's how it comes in its raw form: As usual, I had to scribe on the surface details and then I set about making some internal reinforcements. Being such a massive fin, I made some beefy spars from plastic card and used some old scrap sprue to reinforce and help the bonding of the leading edge. The spars were made to protrude from the base of the fin, as they would then be attached through the top of the fuselage and secured to the spar for the stabilisers using Araldite Epoxy glue for a really solid joint: The fin was then blended into the upper fuselage with car body filler, polished and then the missing and damaged panel detail reinstated. Unfortunately, the distinctive curved fairing at the lower rear of the fin was missing in the kit, so I fashioned the basic shape of the fillet from plastic card and blended everything in with filler - see the red arrow below. This will still need some more tweaking when I work on the turret as it's actually quite a complex shape at the back end: I've also added some Evergreen ribbing on the rudder in an attempt to match the elevators - this has since been sanded right back and is much more subtle: It's now looking more and more like a Sunderland: It's good to get the main construction done and I've been on a bit of a roll... the next logical step will be the engines so I'm off to do some head-scratching about how I can convert a 14-cylinder Hercules engine (from the Revell 1/32nd Beaufighter) into a 9-cylinder Pegasus. Should be fun! Until next time, Tom

When our neighbours moved in a few years back they were having new carpets fitted. The van parked outside bore the livery 'Lino Richie - is it me you're looking floor?' Made me chuckle... SD

Nice kit everything fits together nicely. Very good decals, except No. 51 that was too wide for the back panel, so added a black composite panel and a smaller white logo from the other set of decals included in the kit. Although tyre logo's weren't of that era I had some in my decal box so added them anyway.

Здравствуйте, коллеги! Ещё одна построенная модель из ретро ностальгии. Принадлежность машины (Индонезия, провинция Малуку, остров Моротай, 30 Sqn, 1945г.) («OT-AS-ELL», LY-M, коды A8-72) («Ведьмин нос»). Покраска и лакировка кистями: уретан-акрил GSI Mr.Color, акрил PC88, лак Tamiya, + простой карандаш. Декали Ventura Decals. Приятного просмотра!

Well, I'm calling this done (well, almost). All that's left to do is add some shelves and I hope to build a couple more display units to go where the CD storage rack stands at the moment. The spray booth is in place, as is the compressor underneath it. You can tell by the organised chaos that I've already started building models again. Throughout the recent hot spell, the temperature outside reached 32 degrees, but remained at a very comfortable 22 in my new room. I hope that when the cold weather arrives, that the insulation keeps it nice and warm in there. And now, after long wait, it's back to the models. John.

I bought this on a whim as I like the subject, I had a few moments of worry when I read on the box that the moulds were made in 1964; no problem, the castings were beautiful with almost no flash. It has been a joy to build. Complete except for the two fork top bolts which are currently awol due to carpet monster issues - confident they will turn up eventually (still on a small piece of sprue).

It's my box and I am going sit in it weather your in it or not. The box normally belongs to the ginger and white fellow

Thank ya mother for the rabbits 🙂👍

Just finished Yak-1b and BZ-38, 1/48 Yak-1b from Zvezda (AMT) and BZ-38 from UM. My first time to use DIY flockator. More fotos https://photos.app.goo.gl/urt13fifiFYFuQT9A

Know a bloke who is in love with two women. One writes beautiful poetry and the other makes the best Yorkshire puddings he has ever tasted. He can't decide if he should marry for batter or for verse?

Box art - ref. 61122 - Grumman F-14A Tomcat (late model) - carrier launch set Source: https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/148-aircraft/grumman-f-14a-tomcat-2/ V.P.

Started on the engine and suspension, this is very nice so far.

How do chaps, Having a bit of down time in the shed with this. As Lee @BeltArmor says the cast texture is lovely. Got the various stowage boxes, grab rails and tools fitted. Now these are on its turret time! Again some lovely texture. More to follow soon. Regards, Steve

Hello, again! I've taken a little detour from mast building & decided to attempt scratch building a tiny upgrade that HMCS Regina received during her modernization refit - Fire Control Directors. Regina has two FC directors, one on the bridge roof & one aft on the hangar roof. Originally the Halifax class frigates had STIR 124CA fire control radar installed. These were changed during the refit to an updated Saab Ceros 200 FC directors. New mounting bases for the directors were installed as well. This meant that I first needed to modify the model's resin STIR 124CA FCR base on the hangar roof. This included cutting off a portion on the resin base & adding new maintenance platform. After painting, I'll be adding a handrail & ladders to finish off the platform. Next, I attempted to scratch build the 2 Ceros 200 FCD bases & the 2 directors using plastic card & rod. This ended up being no easy task due to their tiny size & having to dimension the parts from photos. After a few attempts, i finally got something that resembled the actual equipment. Here's a close-up photo of the end result. (Note to self - I still need to add a door to the bridge roof's director's base.) And finally, a photo showing the directors after a coat of primer. Now, it's back to building the last mast located amidships ... once my eyes & fingers are given a little rest . Thanks for looking. Be safe! John

Dusty joined ZZ Top in 1970 - 51 years ago. I could be wrong but I think they held the record as the longest running band without a change of membership. Sorry to learn of his death. ZZ Top were unique.

I've done working pins in the past. A conversation piece at the model club at the time, but not the most durable of ideas. These ones, assuming I get to grips with them, will be fixed to the hoods in question. I'm also probably going to fix the hood shut as this build is turning more about the color and shape for me, rather than a detailfest. I can get involved with engines and stuff later in the GB, the Revell Boss 302 would be a better starting point than this one for instance. Here's a sole survivor hood pin effort, Monograms '69 Superbee. A twenty year old build now. The pins looked good while they lasted. A logical build for added hoodpins as the real deal had a lift off fibreglass hood. The pins, plates and wires and whatnots have fallen by the wayside over the years. Ho Hum, I'll get around to a bit of repair at some point.

It's only taken me a little over 7 months to finish this build. I don't think I have done a bad job I am pleased with the result but the decals were completely shot and unusable hence why in some of the pics there aren't any as I have only had them delivered today they aren't the correct ones but they do fit.

Chipping is done. Oil render next.

Здравствуйте, коллеги! В процессе строек, доводиться посещать этот ресурс. Предпочитаю ретро наборы FROG-NOVO и его дальнейший розлив и переиздания. Представляю вам одну ностальгическую модель. Подобный тип машины строил впервые. Стройка включила существенные, но не во всём удачные доработки. Покраска и лакировка кистями. Краски: уретан-акрил GSI MrColor, лаки Tamiya. Приятного просмотра!

Right then, my latest completion, the Tamiya (now) classic or old kit of the Bradley. No interior is included so it’s all buttoned up. M2A2 1 by phil da greek, on Flickr Depicted at a halt on the road to Baghdad with it’s TOW mount up & ready. The kit comes with a fair bit of stowage, enough to depict a squad inside. The aftermarket stowage is from the Tamiya stowage kit & Accurate Armour. The commander is a Mini Art figure. Apart from that the kit is out of the box. Brush painted in Humbrol enamels, 117 green as an undercoat & 096 brown in very thin coats to try & let some green show through. The main weathering colour is 110 brown. I tried some spong chipping on the bottom of the skirt but I’m undecided about the results. Finished in Winsor & Newton Matt varnish. M2A2 20 by phil da greek, on Flickr M2A2 10 by phil da greek, on Flickr M2A2 17 by phil da greek, on Flickr M2A2 14 by phil da greek, on Flickr M2A2 17 by phil da greek, on Flickr M2A2 11 by phil da greek, on Flickr M2A2 12 by phil da greek, on Flickr M2A2 12 by phil da greek, on Flickr M2A2 18 by phil da greek, on Flickr M2A2 19 by phil da greek, on Flickr Thanks for looking.

I managed to pick this kit up on eBay a short while ago, it was stashed on the pile as a "to do" but I wasn't planning on doing it before a few others. However, following @theaa2000 1/48 Tamiya build of his F-117A, I decided to go for it. So the results. and the tribute underside I painted the underside gloss white and then masked it off. The top got a Matt Black coat, but it looked too black. The majority of pictures of the F-117A look a very dark grey. So over the Matt Black, I hit the highlights, airbrushing on Revel Granite Grey, which isn't as dark as the colour swatch looks, so just to blend it all in, I went back to the centre of each panel with Revel Tar Black. Then used a dark grey wash over panel lines, which ended up darker than the overal finish. Happy with the results though. The only thing I didn't really like from the kit was the colour of the underside decals (could be there age), but they looked cream more than white, so the decision was made to cut the decals and apply just the red segments Decals https://imgbox.com/QPyQXn1T So I went in, one stripe at a time. On to the next build

I just read through the whole thread and was about to write some comments and then saw your last comment and it is one of the things that has made this hobby so enjoyable for me - it is about the journey and not the destination. I have a busy life so need to break a build down so when I get some bench time I focus on a small part of the whole, it becomes a series of mini projects. I am still amazed how quickly they come together. A few other things that have improved my satisfaction in the hobby: I have no shelf of doom. It is now finish it or bin it. The fact is that I have binned nothing because my number one rule is: Only one build at a time. If I am unhappy with something I do the corrective work. Often it is a minor irritation. If I leave it for a night or when I am next at the bench and it is still an irritation I fix it. You learn great skills with corrective work. Don't divert to that next kit. All my focus is on the build at hand. I spend much more time on new build planning and seeing how things fit. Trying to anticipate problems before you're into a build. I like it when I was a kid just twist the parts of the sprue and start gluing. Reality is this would not please me now. I need to really check what is going on and this has now turned into a very pleasurable part of the build. For example, after doing all that great work on that B-26 cockpit I know it is going to go into those fuselage halves without issue. I avoid fillers like the plaque. It is my No.2 rule after "one kit at a time". This needs the planning. Am I going to shim, what do I need to alter, how's the geometry, no offending nub, flash or coat of paint? Try to avoid the mess later in the build. Eliminate surprises. I keep my bench space clean and well organised to also assist in picking up where I have left off. That doesn't mean during a session things aren't everywhere. Develop and take pleasure in your own style. We all have our own style. I am amazed how often you see a builder's signature in the way they work and the look of the finished kit. Sorry to go on a bit as I could write a lot because I have come from where the hobby was stressful and now it is a delight. Ray

Afternoon chaps I've begun today to put on the homemade decals, and haven't faced any difficulty with them, because finally after several weeks of drying, they got strength and became able to withstand several handlings without cracking. It remains to put them on the right door, and then to cut each numerals of the doors between the bottom of the door and the body, what need to wait a bit: the decals must be dried and adhesive enough to allow this operation. To be continued

But did it or the cream go on the scone first? Myriad we can do Pete. 😁 (it's uniformity that gives me the real problem...) Expect nothing else on my threads AW. I know this audience.😉 Sounds delightfully Goth, or at least a bit Souixsie tbh... 😄 I'm anticipating a lot of fun pretending that lucky accidents were the product of thoughtful deliberation! Bit premature chaps; I'd ask you to wait until seeing an actual completed engine rather than a quick test snort on unprepped materials a la: No Sherlock or update today - have to drive youngest youngest to a job interview at short notice. Wings have moved closer together on the bench in a coquettish manner... Tony

Well, it didn't take too long to complete this. I have fitted a canopy as a temporary measure until I get a better one. ( There is a step at the base of the windshield that looks a bit too much I think; other than the national insignia which are from various decal spares , the codes emblems and serial are from a Techmod set. Paints used were Xtracrylics and I tried some Humbrol Matt finish that I found among my stuff. Its quite old but with some aviation grade white spirit to thin it, it airbrushed OK but still a bit glossy for my liking. It depicts BS456 of 306 Polish Squadron at RAF Northolt 1942. The aerial mast is from the AZ kit I have of the bubbletop MK.XVI so would not be used for that one. Another useful part that saved the day Note the slipper tank. This was from the Eduard kit. I used this as lots of photos in the Mirage book by Wojtek Matusiak, shows these fitted. Anyway, its another Spit to add to my builds. So, as a rundown of the parts used they are: Upper wing halves : Airfix new tool MK.Vc Lower wing half: Sword MK.XIV Fuselage, tail planes and rudder, aerial mast, floor section for cockpit , exhausts : AZ Models. Main undercarriage legs, covers, cockpit interior, slipper tank, canopy, guns, carb intake under chin : Eduard. Propeller: Aeroclub Tail wheel, main wheels, seat: Airfix MK. Vb (1970s issue/version) Underwing radiator tubs : CMR resin ( donated by another modeller.) Decals: A mix of Modeldecal generic sets for roundels, Techmod for stencilling and unit markings. So, its a : Swedazfix. clubcmr kit!! Thanks for looking in.

Last nights progress saw more fiddly bits applied to the Italeri kit. Its getting close to being complete now. Main items left to do are the front turret grab rails, towing cables, headlight guard and turret tie downs. The lower hull and engine have also been primed. Unusually for me I will need to paint this in subassemblies due to the resin tracks which will have to be fitted before I can glue the hull top and bottom together. More soon

Mine in progress with MR.Paint colours - https://mrpaint.sk/farby/lietadla/Švédske letectvo MRP-175 BLUE-GREY 058M MRP-176 BLACK 093M MRP-177 DARK GREEN 326M MRP-178 MID GREEN 322M MRP-179 TAN 507M V.P.

Believe me, I've been tempted! It all looks better with a coat of primer: A few minor blemishes to fix, then it's time for the gloss coat. The propellers were 3d printed and supplied by @Bangseat at VFR models - thanks Harry, they look much better than the originals!

Hi folks, When I saw that the French Fancy GB was coming up I knew exactly which kit I was going to build. It had been in my stash a while and as usual when a GB comes along with the right subject - then it's a done deal as to kit choice. My kit of choice is the RS Models Bloch MB-152 and from what I've seen of it so far it appears to be a very nice little kit. There's plenty of detail, nicely moulded parts and even includes a couple of resin parts - in particular a resin engine which will really add to the detail. So here's the obligatory box art shot: Some nice schemes on offer - obviously the Vichy French red and yellow is particularly eye catching but as I've never built a French aircraft to date (and the camouflage is eye catching in it's own right) and then I'd have to mask those red and yellow lines to paint, I've opted to go with this scheme: There's only 2 sprues in the kit - not a heavy part count but as I mentioned earlier the parts are nicely detailed and moulded and there's the addition of the resin parts too: Lastly, there's just the canopy which again appears to be nicely moulded and nice and clear as well as the decals which again - can't complain just looking at them but we'll see later on in the build how they perform: Hopefully, I'll be able to make a start on her very soon - before then I need to get my build finished for the Unarmed GB as well as push on with my build for the Bf 109 STGB - so plenty to be getting on with. Again there's already some fantastic builds going on for this GB - I've got my eye on @fatfingers Tamiya 1/35 Somua S35 which is one of my favourites in the armour world so looking forward to seeing that completed and then no doubt being the impetus for me to finally get it in my stash too So until then - 'Bonne chance mes amis et Au revoir' Kris

A few Airfix 1/48th Lightnings on Ebay at the moment, most around £20 -30, the odd one for stupid prices. When it was first issued IIRC it was about £24.00. Early issues had the finest part of the wingtips warped a bit but that was fixed in later issues, and the only things I ever read said against it was the simplicity of the cockpit, which as said abov is well enough fixed with an aftermarket seat, or some dressing up of the original. Regarding T4/5 conversions, there was also the CMK version. Maybe I got a bad one, but based on my experience, avoid - lots of detail but major warping of the main components and canopy, not readily fixable with hot water. The Aeroclub conversion was nice, injection plastic and white metal. IIRC some of it was later replaced by components from the Neomega kit. I should know, I used one, but my memory is ................................ what was I saying? I don't yet have a Sword Lightning but have built some of their kits from the same period and don't think there should be much of a problem - perhaps just check the cable ducts are the right length for the version you want. Paul.

Hello everyone I've just completed the Airfix Beaufighter X, so I thought I'd post some images of the finished model. It's my first ever Beaufighter, which, considering how much time and pocket-money I spent on models in my youth back in the 1970s and 1980s is a bit of a miracle... There's a Work in Progress thread here: As I mentioned in the W.i.P. thread, I chose this particular Beaufighter as it had a local connection to the North East, as its pilot, Flt. Lt. James Davies Taylor, D.F.C., was born in Sunderland in 1921. He served with 236 Sqn, was awarded the D.F.C. in October 1944, but was killed whilst serving with 84 Squadron in Indonesia on December 8th 1945. It's been a very enjoyable build, with some pretty minor hiccups along the way - it was certainly more 'shake and bake' than the Airfix 1/72 Blenheim I did before it... It's pretty much 'mostly' OOB, with a few extra aerials, some scratchbuilding in the middle and rear fuselage (which needless to say you can't really see...), Eduard etch sets for the cockpit and undercarriage, Quickboost exhausts and my own decals printed by DrawDecal for the MB-M codes. Base is my own, done in Photoshop and spraymounted onto a sheet of 3mm polyboard. Anyway, on to the photos: I had some great fun with the weathering, and I'm pretty pleased with it. Thumbs up to Airfix for such a great kit. Cheers Simon

Back on the Mustangs today see's a bit more done on the Blue Meanie. Hood pins need making and although I haven't managed to make any today, I have learned how not to. I bought some .2 and .3 jewellery wire that has proved not big enough for the pins. The only other wire I had here was a bit too big a gauge. What I need is not too big and not too thin. Baby Bears wire! Although a bit of ham fisted finger juggling can bend wire to something like the right shape, I'll be making a jig for the next batch, once the new wire arrives. Although using a dab of Molotow ink to replicate the round plate of the hood pins worked, I've made new ones that are just that bit rounder. A piece of Bare Metal Foil was stuck on some thin paper and then rounds were punched out with the smallest punch I have. Picking up the round with a needle, dead centre, I then pushed the needle through the holes on the hood and secured the chrome circle with a dab of superglue. The white hood has one fitted. The slightly off centre one is a Molotow effort. The panel beneath the trunk lid got painted in a subtly different blue. Something just didn't look right at the rear. This was an effort to sort that. I quite like it. And to finish, a side view. What a beautiful shape the first fastback was. The front end will sit a little lower once things are buttoned up. The chassis to body fit isn't the greatest. Next up is the glass. The rear panel is OK. The windscreen isn't quite wide enough and the fit around the A post is poor. I'll be having a go at making my own glazing. It's a bit involved as there's a subtle double curve going on front and rear. That's for later though. More as it happens. Tony.

The Case of the Solitary Cyclist was this afternoon's accompaniament: The episode that contains that splendid bout of public bar fisticuffs between S.H. and a frightful blackguard. Rewind first to last night and time was spent with the Naval Treaty episode, giving the newly-wed nose and fuselage a final polish in strongly oblique light in order to show any remaining flaws. Upper: and lower Vixen: I've previously discussed the surface qualities that I'm going for here - smooth, but not uniformly so, in order to mimic the (very) slight irregularities revealed on the actual aircraft by the way light falls across the curvatures when viewed from such angles. Just before hitting the scratcher last evening I also put a waft of primer along the seam where the two sections were glued together, just to be sure three were no blemishes. Job done I think: I nearly set about fixing the wings on earlier this afternoon but thankfully recollected in time that some metal treatment was needed to each end of the engines and their associated intake tunnels prior to doing this, as I wouldn't have sufficient access for painting once these parts were fitted together. A qucik scan of the maintenance manual I have for the Avons revealed that it gives little away in terms of the metals from which the various parts of the engines are built, save to mention that the turbine blades are manufactured from 'Nimonic' alloy. Not having any nickel/chrome paint mixtures to hand, for '481 all I rally need is something bright and shiny peeking out from the tunnels, so I resorted to a snort of Vallejo aluminium in order to give the required gleam: As to the tunnels themselves, to mimic the kind of dull metaI seen in images like this Vallejo steel was used to give a kind of irregular patterning: That'll all be mostly in shade and invisible later but you have to make the effort.... Same drill for the rear turbine blades and exhaust tunnels: That should be fine for the concealed appearance of engine details visible on this particular aircraft but for '708, where the exposed Avons will be a significant aspect of the build, I see Vallejo do some nice looking chrome as well as one or two other bling pigments that I'll add to the inventory for that job later on. Whilst I had paint in the airbrush however, I couldn't resist a little bit of indulgence on an old Avon test print 'just to see' how the Vallejo stuff performs: Oooh! Think it's going to be great fun playing around with painting those when the time comes. Sprayed here at about 15psi (same as for the primer, Aluminium with a misting of steel around the exhaust.. These Vallejo water-based metallics have really been quite a revelation for me; that said though, you'll still have to prise Alclad's black primer/microfiller from my cold dead hand... Producing adequate colour references for both the Avons and their associated engine bays has meant spending a bit of time recently making some educated guesses using colour balancing procedures in Photoshop. The problem in terms of colour images is this - with no period colour photography showing such features of operational (i.e. maintained/serviced) aircraft to speak of, it would be easy to be misled into producing overly weathered and dirty looking representations based on how unmaintained static display aircraft look today. To this end therefore I've been collecting a range of imagery put out there by the ever-excellent Navy Wings guys when servicing their SV, in order to get a feel for an aircraft being maintained for flight (as was... ) in terms of how her engines and bays should roughly look. The problem with this is that although they are excellent in getting a feel for how a well-looked after should look in terms of cleanliness, the bulk of images available from this source are either shot in mixed colour temperature environments (ie. hangar lighting with daylight bleeding in) or with smartphones that are not colour balanced with sufficient accuracy. Here's a selction of images from the mood board where I've removed as much colour pollution as I could. Notice how much cleaner the Avons look than many of those you see floating about the web taken of static aircraft. You can see from the skin tones of the chap in the middle photograph that with multiple colour temerpatures in a shot you're never going to get a totally accurate balance. As far as I can make out, there's a mixture of bare metal and what looks like zinc chromate around areas Foxy Lady's bays, but I can also see what appears to be Lt. Admiralty Grey in some other shots of her. Unless anyone has compelling evidence to the contrary, I think for my FAW.1s here I'm going to use LAG overall and bare metal for specific details on the engine bay areas. Either way, there's enough visible here to help with getting the actual visible condition of a flying aircraft to look reasonably accurate. Thanks for looking in as always, I hope to have wings on '481 next time you see her. Tony