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Hi all, Only 13 months after I started, I am finally calling this done. This is my build of the Airfix Shackleton MR2 to represent WR964 "204/Q" of 204 Squadron RAF based at RAF Ballykelly in c. 1963 just after its upgrade to Phase 2 configuration. For me this is the archetypal Shackleton "look" and role - hunting Russian subs for hours over the north-east Atlantic so I was keen to get it looking right. There's a WIP here but it rather peters out, I'm afraid. My work has been pretty well horrendous this year and it was quite enough of a mental struggle plodding through this build - it nearly stalled completely on several occasions. This build is relatively OOB for me: aware of the risk of burning out on such a large project and struggling to find any suitable references, I decided not to correct the AEW.2 interior fit to resemble the MR2. Since you can hardly see any of it through the tiny windows and the pre-Phase 3 interior was all black anyway, I feel like this was a good call. For the sake of sanity, I also didn't bother attempting to modify the kit's incorrect undercarriage bay sidewalls (they are identical in details for both sides whereas they should be handed!)🥴 Where I did go full AMS was making sure the exterior details matched the Phase 2 fit, as far as I could with less than perfect references. List of mods to base kit below: Filed off nearly all scoops/vents etc on nose and rear fuselage, as most of these are copied by Airfix from WR963 and are thus appropriate for Phase 3 and/or AEW.2 Added NACA intake and tiny round vent on upper starboard nose. Added small drain pipe and tiny vent on lower starboard nose Added small heat exchanger on lower port nose Added forward facing scoops/intakes on upper fuselage above port wing root, lower port rear fuselage and starboard rear fuselage just aft of wing root Replaced later radio masts with smaller, raked masts further forward on cabin roof Added four whip aerials per photos (with several coats of white these are a bit over thick now!) Added aerial or drain pipe on spine aft of ECM antenna. Added prominent object on port fuselage in front of wing root also seen on Lancasters (I think this is a trailing aerial chute?) Filled in forward galley window and amended position of aft window one to represent original configuration before the galley was modified at Phase 3 upgrade - unfortunately I manged this correctly on the port side but neglected to fill the forward window to starboard! Oh well... Added three prominent rod aerials under each wing tip Finished interior entirely in black. Fitted hydraulic actuator rams for radome forward of crew door, apart from replacing the throttle levers and adding seatbelts this is the only interior modification I made. Early-type exhausts and wheels are sets from Barracudacast Decals are a mix of kit stencils and Xtradecals. The yellow wing walk lines are not provided by Airfix, as the 205 Squadron Dark Sea Grey option has the FEAF white upperwing strips and corresponding red stencils in this area. I used a Modelcraft sheet for the Frog MR3 for these markings, but cut the over-wide yellow lines down with a scalpel and steel ruler! The end result looks OK under all that exhaust staining! It's finished in Mr Hobby Aqueous Dark Sea Grey (the white is Humbrol rattlecan). Humbrol have rudely stopped making no. 164 in acrylics so I tested a couple of other brands and this is what looked the best shade to me. It doesn't go on well with a hairy stick, but coincidentally @Cookenbacher extremely kindly gifted me a spare Iwata airbrush at abut the time I was scratching my head over paint colour. Now in 23 years of modelling I have never so much as picked an airbrush up, and this kit wasn't exactly cheap or simple, so it was with great trepidation I gave it a first-ever go. I have to say I am rather pleased - I have a way to go to get halfway competent (or halfway confident, for that matter) but I have learnt a lot and it certainly doesn't look any worse than I could have managed with a brush and more tractable paint. In addition to Cookenbacher I'd like to thank @alhenderson for some excellent photos of WR964 (check out his excellent build of the same aircraft!) and contributors to the WIP especially @amos brierley who provided a vast amount of detail info and useful images of the bomb bay. Here she is - hope you like the result as much as I do!

Hello fellow modelers, This is my final kit for this year, and I wanted a really fine one. There’s nothing else to be said regarding Tamiya’s F-14A, so let’s just say it worths every dollar spent. Decided to do the Bounty Hunters because I’m a big fan of the colorful high-vis US Navy jets in the 70’s. I’ve used the Quinta 3D decals for the cockpit, which are really great and easy to set. Also, used Galaxy masks and they’re a big help for painting details with precision. Weathered as a mid cruise bird, not too much dirt, but not pristine either. The kit decals are typical Tamiya, i.e., slightly to the thick side, but Mr Softer dealt with them easily. Hope you enjoy and, of course….. Merry Xmas and a very good New Year!! Cheers! George

What an absolute joy of a kit. Some lovely slide moulded parts and great fit. The Cockpit is for another Vampire variant but as virtually nothing can be seen, I just went with it. Any issues were of my own making but mainly managing to break the port boom off when cleaning up a wash. Primed with Tamiya Nato Black Painted with ColourCoats Extra Dark Sea Grey, Sky Type S, Xtreme Metals Jet Exhaust, Tamiya Nato Black, Rubber Black and Flat Aluminium and Flat White. Washed with Flory Dark Dirt and Citadel Nuln Oil Finished with Windsor & Newton Satin Varnish. WIP Here A fun little build that I thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair

Having picked up a bit of an RAF Bug I decided to go rooting through the stash for my old Airfix Buccaneer. The kit was a gift from my Brother and much to my delight (or torture depending on how you look at it!) there were 2 whole kits in the box so I have a feeling an Early RN S.2 is on the books... This kit however was destined to be an RAF Brick from the outset. I used Pavla's nice little cockpit set to spruce up the interior and a lot of patience getting the rest to fit!! However, once victory was mine, I used Mr. Colour Acrylics to paint the aircraft, and employed pre-shading to vary the tone. Following this I mainly weathered with oils and picked out the details in Humbrol enamel. To finish the model off, I sprayed the aircraft in Xtracolour Enamel Matte Varnish in order to add to the weathered affect. Thanks for looking, Angelo

This is Airfix's Gnat which I purchased soon after finishing my Chipmunk (Found Here on RFI) and getting a taste for the training scheme. Overall this aircraft is a lovely kit, and went together nicely. The detail out of the box is superb and thus I kept this to an out of the box build for the most part. I painted her using Tamiya Acrylics, followed by a weathering down lightly using mainly oil paints. Finishing up, I went in with a Tamiya Semi-Gloss Varnish. Overall I highly enjoyed this build, and the Gnat makes a nice little stable mate for my Chippie, which may form part of what seems to be a collection of RAF trainers if I can get my hands on a Hawk! Many thanks for looking, Angelo

This is Airfix's new Chipmunk. I have fond memories of this type from having my first flight experience in one of these as an air cadet! I still have my old logbook somewhere so I would dearly love to get another 'Chippie' to do as one I flew in. I built the aircraft out of the box, bar adding some Kitsworld Decal seatbelts. The Kitsworld set additionally came with 3D decals for the instrument panel but I omitted these on account of the actual panel being the wrong colour, some dodgy green, therefore I decided to stick with the 2D but more accurate kit decals. Overall the kit was nicely detailed but the kit was questionable in some areas, I found each assembly needed to be accurately put together as the tolerances weren't forgiving when coming to add on the next part or sub-assembly. The model was painted using all Tamiya acrylics, and the kit decals were employed too. The model was lightly weathered, mainly with oils, before finishing off with a semi-matt gloss from Tamiya. Here she is along with Airfix's Gnat in the same scale Many Thanks for looking, Angelo

I hope you liked

Buccaneer S.1 700Z Naval Air Squadron, RNAS Lossiemouth, 1961 Having finished the beautiful recent Airfix 1/72 Buccaneer S.2 I was left with all kinds of bits and pieces designed to turn the old Airfix 1/72 kit into something decent so I thought I may as well use them up on the old kit. The result was this pre-production, or very early production – not sure which – Buccaneer S.1. This is something I’ve always wanted to build but never got around to it as there was always another S.2 to do using my old Airfix kits. This is what I was aiming for: I wanted to keep the natural fibreglass panel on the fin which XK532 originally had – just visible in this photo (the farthest aircraft): This was a fairly major rebuild of the old Airfix kit which included (from front to back): - Freightdog resin nose (a must have item for any Buccaneer) - Whirlibirds resin S.1 main air intakes and wing root intakes (access panels scribed in and fasteners added). Fitting them was a real struggle as they were designed for the Matchbox kit: - Cockpit interior and seats from the CMR resin S.2 kit (I bought one of these cheaply years ago then found there were too many surface bubbles and never built it – amazing instructions though) – note there was no internal blast screen for the observer in these early aircraft. - My own crash-moulded canopy, based on the Frog S.2 kit. - Aeroclub white metal undercarriage. - CMR resin undercarriage doors. - Pitot replaced with a sewing needle. - Wingtips cut back to S.1 shape - Missing vortex generators on wing top surface added – one on each wing (correctly missing on the old Airfix S.2 kit which represents a Martel capable aircraft). - Fin leading edge air intake removed – replaced with small side intakes on these very early aircraft only. - Blisters added to the bomb door - Anti-col light added under fuselage ahead of the bomb door. - Aeroclub white metal tail bumper added. - Freightdog resin tailplane / fin tip. I should have modified the exhausts. They look too big but I thought I would get away with it – lesson learned. The finish was Halford’s Appliance Gloss White for underside and fin, with Xtracrylic Extra Dark Sea Grey on top. The pale red/blue roundels, codes, underwing serials and ejection seat warnings were from a Freightdog decal sheet, with the small white serials from Modeldecal. The correct size and style ‘Royal Navy’ on the fin was difficult to find but I came across them on a Model Alliance sheet for HMS Ark Royal’s air wing. Photos are not that brilliant (indoors in ambient light) and maybe I will replace them a) when the sun comes out and b) when it’s warm enough to mess about with outdoor photography.

Good afternoon good people, This was the first Eduard Spitfire kit I build. I love the Eduard kits and specially the Spits. After I build the T9 in RNAF colors I decided not to use a panel wash on this kit as I think it looks a bit out of scale in 72nd. She has not been weathered but I think the result is pretty nice although in hind sight it would have been better with stencils. Definitely looking forward to doing my first 1/48 Eduard (Spitfire Mk.I is waiting in line). I hope you like it.

A quick Christmas' Eve update before falling silent for a spell of family and indulgences. Will do Pete - hope you get plenty of time off shift to get the feet up by the fire. Hope yourself and famille Chally are all doing ok James. 2022 might be the year I finally finish this thread! Danke Benedikt - frohe Weihnachten. That sounds perilously like someone about to buy a 3d printer Mark! 😁 Thank you Roger - I hate to say it but I think two Vixens will be enough to last the rest of this mortal coil now. 😁 Enigmatic response - duly noted! Reasonable cogitations Bill. With the beefy main fetlocks on this beast plus a brass axle on the nosewheel I'm going to place my trust in prayer and hubris that this will stay locked onto the base I'm going to build for it. Bookmark this page now so that in the summer you'll know where to quote from when saying 'I told you so!' I have it on good authority though that if you place a picture of Jeff de H in front of the aircraft it remains standing to attention out of sheer tremulousness... He's secretly teaching himself 3d printing isn't he - I just know it. (If you're reading this Ced we miss you mate). Been poring over undercarriage diagrams of late: In those not entirely abundant photos looking up into the Vixen's well (Vixen's Well sounds like a good name for a neighbouring village in Midsomer Murders...) there's a lot of lovely hydraulic pipework, fire extinguisher bottles and the like tucked away in the recesses but unfortunately it's only visible due to the inboard half of the main gear door being lowered- which doesn't happen under normal circumstances when the gear is locked down. It only drops when the gear is being cycled up/down, as you can see here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=724129844661424 I'm not sure therefore if I'm going to add all of that internal gubbins only to immediately hide it under the door forever but as soon as I type this out I realize it's a ridiculous things to say and of course I'm going to add at least something representative. Just not today... A test fit of said inboard doors however revealed that whilst the fit of the doors themselves is pretty much spot on, full disclosure means showing you a couple of minor issues to the rear of the well where there was a slight deformation of the resin due (I suspect) to suction inside of there during printing. I did use a series of supports inside the wells to try and mitigate such problems but it looks as if there was still just enough of a pressure wave going on around those supports to leave a small void (circled) where the wing and fuselage mate, plus a little sanding back needed (red outline) on the front of the boom underside to let the door sit in at the correct angle: I'd class this under 'minor fettling' in needing about 10 mins work with a file and filler to tidy both sides of the aircraft. Having attended to that I had a restful couple of hours streaming a mixture of Hawkwind and Ebo Taylor whilst sorting out the excess top and bottom where the inner wings are glued on to the fuselage: The best tools I've found for levellling the resin seams are a small Xacto blade to plane off the bulk of the resin, followed by 600 and 1200 grit W& D with water: Using the same material as an adhesive that the aircraft is printed from means that the seams basically disappear into the bodywork. You get the same surface smoothness using an epoxy resin like Araldite as an adhesive, just that the seamline remains visible due to its slight translucency compared to the opaque grey of the resin. After finishing the underside seams as well: - it was time for a test fit of the main gear legs: A little modest filing to get the tops of the legs to slip into place inside the well but otherwise a good solid fit with no vertical orientation issues when viewed from the front: It'll come as absolutely no surprise to anyone to notice in the above shot that the wing hinges went for a Burton. I didn't mess about but very professionally dropped the fuselage onto the ground from shoulder height whilst examining it yesterday, resulting in said hinges flying off simultaneously into oblivion. Having mystically predicted in a previous post that I would do something this stupid, I'd already taken the precaution of doing up a design to print off sets of spares for these parts: That's it this side of Yule, it just remains dear fellows to wish: Tony

Another one that has been lingering in the stash. I have very fond memories of my friend building the Airfix Sunderland when I was younger. Always wanted one but didn't have the space. Still not sure I have. I was going to build this for my nephew but he has now emigrated. It will still be the version he wanted though. I have bookmarked @tonyot 's fabulous build and will be referring regularly to that and his magazine article in January 2021 Scale Aircraft Modelling. I need the help and will have to look to see which portholes to blank off and fill. The only bit of aftermarket but a necessity for this. I will try to get some plastic cut tomorrow. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair

I've made my own bed all week now, and I took a cup of tea in for Mum and Dad last night. I hope they have forgotten about next doors window and that tiny bit of paint on the dining room table... Please let it be a B17, just a B17, only a B17. I'll try to be better behaved next year honest I will. Just a B17. And a tin of silver paint.... Happy Christmas everyone. Tony.

Hi all, it's been a while since I actually finished a kit, this house moving malarkey sure takes a big bite out of modelling time! I'd like to show you my build for the Nordic II GB which I very recently finished. I started out with this, one of the classic Italeri kits. This is the 2017 reboxing I believe so it does have the rubber tyres and generic Italeri rims as opposed to the plastic tyres of early releases. I used KFS rims and hubs though, they look so much nicer. As the title says, this should be a crane truck and the crane itself also comes from KFS. This is such a lovely little kit which contains resin, white metal, PE, aluminium and styrene. As you can see these come in standard lengths and you have to cut these down to the correct sizes which makes this kit a little more interesting to build. When done it gives a realistic result! So the truck and trailer are originally dropsides, but I scratch built a flat bed for both truck and trailer, not using any of the kit parts. Also, I built storage boxes for the truck to fit under the rear overhang. I had PE Scania badges from Czech Truck Model. The build thread is here: This was quite the project! I started out with building the trailer in last summer's Blitz Build. The crane was the first bit to tackle in Nordic GB. It really deserves a special mention, it's a seperate kit anyway. It's completely movable and it works. Unless you glue it down like I did 🙂 ... I wasn't planning on playing with it and didn't want to take the risk of breaking something. The yellow is a mix of Tamiya's Flat Yellow and Clear Orange, it gives this nice utility look. The decals are my first attempt at home printing, with mixed results. A bit of touching up and weathering took care of the worst. It looks better than without any decals so I'm still happy. There are (were) decals for the kit by the way, but I didn't buy them with the kit (I don't know why, they're seperate items so I probably didn't realize). Hence the home printing. This was a really fun build. Here's the trailer, fully wired (in a Blitz Build, I must be mad) and with scratch built wooden coffee stirrer flat bed. The rear end is also scratch built. Now for the truck itself. Photographing this thing was a bit of a challenge, it's huge! The truck measures 37 centimeters and the trailer adds another 34. I have a couple of "barn" backdrops but they're too small to be able to photograph the whole truck in front of it. But I was still able to get some decent shots. Right now it's sitting safely in my cabinet where it's taking up a whole shelf. I hope I haven't bored you all to death there.... There's more 😄... full album here. Anyway, hope you like it and Merry Christmas to all! Thanks for watching.

hello guys i want to show you my 262 night fighters i hope you liked

Thanks guys, That would make a great dio Hunter. I guess there's a chance someone might make a 3D print of the lading gear for the Bandai RC. I've got most of the cockpit painting finished now. Some parts still need a little cleaning up, and I might add an oil wash around some of the raised details. Most of the filming set interior is shades of black, but I've gone a little lighter here to help keep things visible throught the cockpit glazing. I've done some very basic painting on the raised details on the cockpit sidewalls, but I've not done too much as most of that detail falls in the aft section and won't really be visible once everthing is closed up. Andy

Hi All, Another new model from myself. This time that is the great collab product of Sir Frank Whittle and Gloster Aircraft which was destined to became the greatfather of all the British jet aircraft and with its centrifugal compressor engine heavily influenced aircraft industry across the world. The recently issued Clear Prop kit is a little marvel of injection kit industry. It's extremely well detailed out of the box, supplemented with some photoetch details for intake and undercarriage, The only my addition was a photoetch fret from Clear Prop too which helped to produce even more detailed cockpit and add some minor details into undercarriage bays. Despite kit's molding perfection - construction was not the simplest though as the fit is great but supertight. As soon as you miss fit by a fraction of a millimeter here and there - you start to accumulate gaps ending in not really well closing fuselage or wing not fitting well. Nevertheless after some careful dryfitting I think I was able to pull everything together in a nice way. The only handcrafted additions were the pitot tube from brass tube and metal wire and wire antenna from fishing line. Decals are from the kit. There are 4 options to model any of the two airframes: W4041 in three schemes as well as W4046. Decals worked perfectly. Very thin but at the same time very strong. Good adhesiveness. Not a lot of them but great quality helped to get the decals job done literally within an hour. Model was painted with Tamiya acrylics XF-81 and XF-82 for upper surfaces and Hobby Color H329 for yellow. Panel lines are highlighted with a pencil. Some weathering added to flaps and undersides. Finished with Tamiya satin clear. Lastly, here is a size comparison photo with Gloster Meteor: Feel the difference! And of course photoes of my collection of aircraft powered by centrifugal compressor engines. Kind of the the Father and the Sons: Hope you like this topic! Merry Christmas 🎅 and Happy Holidays to everyone! Kind regards, Dennis

This is my second Mig-21 of the 1/144 "super 44 dual combo" kit from Eduard. The kit itself is great, it' is my 7th 1/144 kit in a row and I consider it the best. Barely any flash and the fitment is so good that some parts "click" in place without glue. There are masks for the canopies and anti-static panels of the planer. But the best part of the kit is the instructions: a nice booklet in full colour with 8 different options. https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/0/1/3/1020013-21-instructions.pdf Compared to the black and white prints of revell with 13 different shades of gray and hatching to try to explain a colour scheme... https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/3/1/1/104311-16-instructions.pdf I cracked the windshield in half during my first mig, so I build this one as an experiment to test the metal colours of the Revell aqua line. The main colour is aluminium with some panels in iron. Pure technically the paints are great. Spray very nicely with the revel thinner and they are more durable and harder than Tamiya acrylics or Alclad.I find the finished result not bad and good enough for a lot of small applications, but a "real" metaliser like Alclad, is just on another level. The Revell metallics just don't look like metal, it looks like.. well... painted plastic. A second problem is that the range of colours isn't diverse enough. No real dark exhaust black, or a bright polished aluminium. I have thrown away all my enamels all my tamiya paints and replaced them with Revell aqua, but the Alclads, those aren't going anywhere.

Bugger! I thought that had all been covered up and forgotten about. However, seeing as how you insist on dragging up ancient history, may I remind participants of this august thread of the occasion when a certain Baron of this parish was banned for life from Broadcasting House. The incident in question as on the children's programme Blue Peter when said Baron crashed the stage, wearing nowt but the bottom half of his pantomime dame's outfit and a pair of gold comedy breasts and proceeded to do what he claimed was a little known Irish folk dance, but to everyone else looked like the worst pole dance ever! The magnums of Guinness said individual was swigging out of were allegedly only there to add a heightened sense of "realism" to the performance. Martian 👽 PS: And I was worried about how I was going to keep you all entertained while I dealt with the scribing!

I have been getting quite a bit more done on the Zepps this week, even though it might not be that obvious at first sight. I have spent a lot of time refining the frame lines, filling any gouges where the scribers have slipped and started on the long road to restoring the styrene toa mirrorlike finish. The P Class is slightly ahead of its longer sibling as I missed a few gouges on the Q Class and had to go back in with the Mr Dissolved Gloop. This is setting as we speak. I know all this sounds a bit tedious and to some extent it is. However, it does add a lot of realism to the models and as such is well worth the effort. I have found a couple of pictures where the gaps in the fabric has been taped over and this could be an alternative way to go. It would not however save much actual work on the model as a couple of miles of extra masking tape would be needed in addition to that which will be required to replicate all the different shades of fabric on the real machine. I have done my best to show how things are shaping up in the pictures and hopefully they will convey at least some impression as to where we are at. I have managed to get hold of a 54mm model of Peter Strasser and might make a start on this over the next week, if only to give you all something more to look at other than grey lines on a grey background. The really interesting parts of the Zepps will come when we can flip them on their backs and start work on the gondolas and the outriggers for the propellers. NB: The first person to mention fretting out the gondola windows will get a festive blurglecruncheoning! Thanks for looking. Martian 👽

Well 2021 is pretty much done. I don't see me finishing any of my current builds before the end of the year so it's time for the usual recap of the years efforts. Another pandemic affected year with a two month lockdown in the middle meant I did get a bit of time at the bench. That said I didn't get through as many builds as I'd hoped, This was partially because jets dominated my attention this year and they just take more time than props. This years tally included seven aircraft and one armour piece, all in 1/48. If you are interested in more of any builds the titles link to an article on my blog. But enough waffle, on to the builds Hasegawa A-4K Skyhawk of No. 75 Sqn RNZAF Those of you who know me know I worked on these for a while so the subject is close to my heart. 1/48 Eduard North American P-51D Mustang - Master Mike This is my second Eduard P-51D. After the first one (see here) caused me a few issues, (the decals anyway) I decided I wanted to have another go - partly to see if it was me and partly as the Hasegawa Skyhawks were dragging me down at the time. 1/48 Hasegawa Douglas TA-4K Skyhawk - No. 2 Sqn RNZAF Next was the second Hasegawa Skyhawk. This time T-bird depicted as a 2 Sqn aircraft base at HMAS Albatross in Australia. 1/48 Kinetic Mitsubishi F-104J Starfighter 202 Sqn JASDF This was a quick palette cleanser. It was excellent build and made me want to build more. 1/48 Airfix Bristol Blenheim Mk 1F - No 25 Sqn RAF I have a thing for early war RAF subjects so the Blenheim was right up my alley. Overall it's a decent build . I'd love to see a Blenheim MK IV from Airfix. 1/48 Tamiya T-34/76 - Tank No. 106 - Recon Platoon - 1st Regiment - Eastern Front 1944 The only armour piece for the year. I had a couple things I wanted to try on this build, those being multi colour hairspray chipping and a muddy. . I was really happy with the outcome. 1/48 Tamiya Lockheed Martin F-16C Viper - Arctic Aggressor I'd been wanting to do this scheme for ages. I had a bit of an issue with the SMS light tan paint which set me back but overall it came out ok. 1/48 Eduard Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4B - 6 Staffel LG 2 Another palette cleanser to finish the year. I managed to knock it off in less than month. It was also an experiment to try out the "new" Eduard Decals . I wrote an article on my experiences with those decals here. Well if you got this far down, thanks for looking . As for 2022, well I've got another Skyhawk on the go, a Su-122 and I have to do a Eduard Mk 1 Spitfire as part of a buddy build with a mate

8:00 am: I made a snowman. 8:10 - A feminist passed by and asked me why I didn't make a snow woman. 8:15 - So, I made a snow woman. 8:17 - My feminist neighbour complained about the snow woman's voluptuous chest saying it objectified snow women everywhere. 8:20 - The gay couple living nearby threw a hissy fit and moaned it could have been two snow men instead. 8:22 - The transgender man..women...person asked why I didn't just make one snow person with detachable parts. 8:25 - The vegans at the end of the lane complained about the carrot nose, as veggies are food and not to decorate snow figures with. 8:28 - I was being called a racist because the snow couple is white. 8:31 - The Muslim gent across the road demanded the snow woman wear a burqa. 8:40 - The Police arrived saying someone had been offended 8:42 - The feminist neighbor complained again that the broomstick of the snow woman needed to be removed because it depicted women in a domestic role. 8:43 - The council equality officer arrived and threatened me with eviction. 8:45 - TV news crew from ABC showed up. I was asked if I know the difference between snowmen and snow-women? I replied "Snowballs" and am now called a sexist. 9:00 - I was on the News as a suspected terrorist, racist, homophobe sensibility offender, bent on stirring up trouble during difficult weather. 9:10 - I was asked if I have any accomplices. My children were taken by social services. 9:29 - Far left protesters offended by everything marched down the street demanding for me to be beheaded Moral: There is no moral to this story. It's where we are

Sharing this, sent to me by a friend. I liked. All the best for this festive season team, hope there're plenty of modelling goodies under the tree tomorrow. Steve.

I strongly recommend reading of this comment posted by Mr. Sulc of the Eduard company: Source: https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?p=2462447#p2462447 So according to Mr Sulc's thinking, which I agree with, you have two options: • buy the kit and putty the panel lines or/and rivets; • vote with your wallet and do not buy the kit. This, by the way, is a broader comment to any whiner, regardless of scale or model. Don't like it? Don't whine, just don't buy it, nobody will be offended. [Yes, I'm bored to death and tired as f... with all these complaints and whines. Basically every thread, no matter subject or scale, is "marked" by at least one whiner who is not satisfied because commercial company didn't made product fitting in 200% to his own meaningless ideas.]

I didn't think I'd completed anything in the early part of the year but I was mistaken, as my diary revealed. First the Canadian Ram Tank (all armour is 1/35) from Bronco. A British Mk.IV Tank finished as a Beutepanzer in the service of the Freikorps. This is a Takom kit. I switched to figures with this 'Android Gunner' modified with battle damage. Ebay bargain from China, brand unknown. She's about 120mm high. There was another Mk.IV which was finished in January bur returned for a guest appearance later in the year in a diorama built for the Whippet. This is Takom again. The Takom Grant CDL was the last to be finished in January. In February I started but later abandoned an Airfix M7 Priest and a Takom St Charmond. Not much wrong with either of them but there were family distractions which interrupted modelmaking for a long time. In July I joined Britmodeller and got going again. My first WIP and first build in half a year was the Takom Whippet Tank which made it onto a simple diorama with the earlier Mk.IV. In the Phantom GB I knocked out a 1/72 Hasegawa F-4G And then returned to my usual aircraft scale of 1:48 for an Italeri F-4J. A bust was next. This is a 3D print but I can't remember where I bought the file or who the sculptor was. It's about 120mm tall. Next came the Renault Taxi De La Marne in 1/35 from ICM. This was my French Fancy GB entry. This was a bit of a laugh. It's an Airfix Spitfire starter kit painted as if Baron Von Richthoven flew for the RAF in 1940. It took a weekend to do this one. My fourth WWI British tank of 2021 was this Meng full interior kit, blown apart by artillery fire and under inspection by some British infantry from MasterBox. This one was in progress for four months. And that was my year. It's been interesting compiling it here. I had been dwelling on my failures and was pleasantly surprised that so many kits had actually reached a satisfactory conclusion. One a month on average. I think I can improve on that in 2022! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Is it immodest to describe your plans for the coming year here? I've seen it done a couple of times and I found it very interesting and not at all showey-offey so I'm going to nail my colours to the mast and follow suit. I'm hoping that will give me that little extra incentive to get to work on the can't be bothered days. First to be finished should be this, converted to the factory prototype version as a starter to a long series of Valentines and derivatives. It's already well along. As opportunities come up between other builds, I'll try to do a few more of the series. These are the ones on hand at the moment. The Canadian built Mk.VI will be a suitable candidate for the Canadian GB but long before that one, I'm taking this... ...into the F/A-18 GB starting in January. Also starting in January is the Bomber GB which I'd like to enter with this one. Two big aircraft at the same time worries me slightly, but I do like having two projects in hand to keep me fresh. In March we hit Big and British and a 1/32 Lancaster is both of those in spades. Just the nose though. I think that will be about as intensive as a 1/35 tank with interior. And just by coincidence, at more or less the same time I'm committed to psychiatric care to both this full interior M3 in the M3/4 GB AND the Achilles! What was I thinking? Then there's the Canadian GB starting in July with the Vally as already mentioned. and the final GB of my year is the Armoured Cars and Half-tracks GB. Isn't that the most beautiful vehicle you ever saw? You can keep your E-Type Jags and Mustangs, I want one of those for popping down to Sainsburys. That last GB runs until February 2023 but I'd certainly hope to be finished in '22. So that's the GB and Big Valley projects declared. In the copious free time between those kits I aim to fit in some random WIPs of my own. I bought that beautiful great thing for the non-running Leopard GB (Two votes short. Shucks!) but also because I was feeling rather inadequate at the time. 🤣 It was a Christmas present which I opened today and it's huge, like a crane. It will dominate my display cabinet, and pretty much my entire flat... ...especially as I'm planning to sit it on this other behemoth. I've never done anything like that before so I'm very excited, as the actress said. Finally there's a tribute to the lads which it would be cool to finish in early November. I say finally, but there might be a few little spaces in the schedule, maybe a weekend at a time for figure painting. I have a Ripley bust (but I'm taking tablets for that). She reminds me of the ex-wife, believe it or not. Well, actually the film reminds me of the ex. I think the rat from the 'hood, inna hood, is just charming. And then there's another ex - the Mother out of Law. Seriously, the resemblance has been remarked on by all. Can that lot be done in a year and a week? Now I see it on screen, I seriously wonder. I certainly wouldn't put money on it. However, I read something this morning on the Christmas Blitzenbuild pages where some crazyman is doing a 1/72 Victor in 24 hours! Go and see the carnage, do! @bianfuxia, by name, he wrote: Somebody said that it couldn’t be done But he with a chuckle replied That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried. I love that verse, it sounds like Kipling to me and I've always liked to kipple so ... Yes I'm going to give it my best shot and finish those 18 models before the end of 2022. Maybe they will look rushed, which would disappoint me, but maybe, I'll find that the more I push myself, the better I get? There are yearbooks here today with much more than this on display and of much higher quality than my standard. Maybe Stalin was right and it's true that "quantity has a quality all of its own"? It will be interesting finding out, won't it?

Hiya Folks, Well probably the last one for the year,.... but we`ll see! The new Airfix Vampire F.3 kit includes most of the parts needed to build an FB.5 or FB.9 too, apart from the wing tip light covers,...... so as I have wanted to make this 8 Sqn aircraft for some time,..... I used the decals from an Alleycat kit combined with Xtradecal to replicate WR259 with its large OC`s pennants on the rear booms. Here is the real aircraft; I enjoyed the build, but despite cramming in lead weight everywhere,.... including the wing tanks,.... it was still a tail sitter,.... so a section of clear sprue was used to prop it up! Here is the WIP, which was pretty painless,,,,,,, although the cockpit pod took some jiggling and some of the smaller flap parts were fiddly to locate,... that aide,.... this is an excellent kit; And here is the model; Cheers Tony

hello guys i want to show you my p40n I hope you liked

It's not widely know that our dear Martian and G. Melchett first met when they worked (briefly) as presenters on the BBC magazine programme 'Pebble Mill at One', back in the 1980s. Contracts were terminated however after the duo managed to pipe a supply of helium gas up into the microphone during Barbara Dickson's live performance of 'January February', leading to abandonment of the number in a string of high pitched obscenities from the diva that left viewers at home shocked and upset. Attempts by our duo to save the moment by leaping onstage to perform their infamous 'Castanet Dance' led to the live broadcast being cut by a horrified producer who was subsequently led away whimpering: 'Those weren't castanets... those weren't castanets..'

Hi all and just a bit of fun finished for the KUTA GB here on the forum. Very short build thread is here but built OOB except for two crew for the 'Fry Way to the Danger Zone' tribute. Hasegawa_F-14A_Eggplane_1 (9) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Hasegawa_F-14A_Eggplane_1 (3) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Hasegawa_F-14A_Eggplane_1 (2) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Hasegawa_F-14A_Eggplane_1 (10) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Hasegawa_F-14A_Eggplane_1 (8) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Thanks for looking, stay safe and happy modelling Cheers, Dermot

So, my second (and possibly final) build for this GB - the magnificent Viggen! Kit: ESCI 1/48 SAAB JAS-37DI Viggen Markings: "Red 8" - 1 Sqn "Johan Röd", F.4 Division, Swedish Air Force Extras: Maestro resin cockpit, ejector seats, instrument panel. Airscale "Modern Jets" instrument dial decals Paint: Vallejo acrylics Tamiya lacquers, Alclad metals and Alclad and Klear varnish. Weathering: Windsor and Newton Oils, artists' pastels on undercarriage and in cockpit. Lightened and darkened base colours at extremes of panels Build link here: Thanks for looking, Icarus

Hi all, 2021 was a busy year for us because we moved house and that takes a chunk out of modelling time if anything. I think I effectively only did some modelling for about 6 months, so taking that into account I'm quite happy with my output. As I was compiling this year's list I noticed that I unwittingly built from small to big, without exception 🙂 So, as we started with the house move in February I took advantage of the lull that was January. I have a thing for the IBG 1/72 truck range, I just love these little things. They're just really nice kits. I started the year with the Chevrolet C15A. IBG 1/72 Chevrolet C15A After which I opened the box for the Diamond T Wrecker. IBG 1/72 Diamond T Wrecker I built these little ones in the middle of another small scale build, a 1/43 Peugeot 203 for Heller Classic GB. Heller 1/43 Peugeot 203 Well, that was the starting point anyway. It got seriously chopped real quick and converted into a pickup version. I was pleased with the outcome, I'd never built 1/43 before. Build log here in case you're interested. After this our house move started in earnest and I wasn't able to get back to the bench (there wasn't any) for quite some time. I think I started some builds around May but these all need KUTA. I started a build for Unarmed GB and although it was neglected during the summer when I was working in our back yard, I finished it just in time for the GB's deadline. This was the first completed kit in the new hobby room. It was Heller's nice kit of the 1/24 Ferguson tractor. I didn't paint it in obligatory grey but rather modelled it after a Steyr tractor I drove when I worked on a farm 30 years ago. Heller 1/24 Ferguson tractor The Heller kit builds really well, it's one of their better ones. Build log here. Well, I got the taste of modelling back and picked up a Revell 1/24 Unimog which I'd rescued from a second hand site a couple of years ago. The kit was a mess when I got it. Revell 1/24 Unimog The build log is here. I set about patiently restoring the chassis and other parts. I had aftermarket resin wheels for it which look way better than the kit's soft and squishy vinyl tyres. I scratch built a flatbed for it, building it as modified Army surplus. This turned out nicely, definitely worth the effort of the restoration. My last build for this year was a build for Nordic II GB which I'd been looking forward to. Although interupted by again more yard work I was able to put some quality time into this one. It's Italeri's classic kit of the Scania 142M flatbed and trailer. Italeri 1/24 Scania 142M I had resin hubs and rims for it, and also a crane kit from KFS. I scratch built flatbeds for truck and trailer and also the storage boxes for the truck. Its total length is over 70 centimeters. The build log is here. RFI here. This is the crane: A really nice "multi media" kit which takes more than just glueing the parts together. The trailer: The truck: And finally the "ensemble". Edit: I managed to squeeze in one last built thanks to Blitzenbuild! Emhar 1/24 Bedford flatbed (dropside originally) Thanks for watching, have a good Christmas and see you all next year!

Good morning Merry Christmas to all Brittmodellers and their family Stay safe Patrice

Er, I haven't been around the GB area much since I succumbed to my 'histrionics'. Embarrassment has kept me away, to be honest. I guess social media has more traps for me than I'd anticipated. My apologies to you all. However, I'm delighted to see that @Paul821 is carrying the idea forward and would like to say that I support it and him fully. Paul did PM me to ask if I had any objections and I said 'go for it'. Unfortunately I didn't make that sentiment public at the time - my apologies to him for that error of judgement. And on the subject of belated apologies, I'm very sorry @Marklo for losing my temper with you over nothing, really. I hope that you didn't take it personally, if it hadn't been you, it would have been someone else, sooner or later, which is why I withdrew from the hosting in such a hurry. And won't ever be passing that way again!

Pretty much figured this out. The fuel distributor is slightly too long, so I need to horizontally compress it a bit. I think its getting close though now. Nick

Todays second update! Picking up speed I can hardly fathom the good fit between the forward and aft fuselage.... Yes I had to fill and sand but it looks good and I don´t need to combat the model for a month to make ends meet. Now I added the KCA gun bulge. Quite a gap between the gun pack and the fuselge...needs to be dealt with. I did the little rescribing needed and started prepping for primer. Never throw away the packing material from Aires resin sets they are marvelous for masking On with the primer and it looks awesome! So I glued on the canards...needed some tape to hold them in position until the glue cured. The fit is good but the loss of some resin at the edges at the wing roots needs to be cleaned. Added the tail fin as well. Getting seriously big and heavy! Lastly I filled the gap between the KCA and the fuselage with acrylic putty and just wiped away the excess. Cheers!

It is HMS Ark Royal IV (R09) as this photo shows: As you can see, the waves are identical to the advent calendar. If Airfix aren't doing this ship then I can only think a 1/48 Buccaneer is on the cards. Hopefully, it is the ship. Dave

@Ravens Ross, I scratch-built the 1350 HMS Queen Elizabeth for the ship's naming ceremony in 2014: and I made a 1/350 HMS Prince of Wales for Airfix for the Hornby Visitor Centre in 2019: . Dave

Glazing the scuttles I use "Formula 560 Canopy Glue". The windscreens on the bridge are finished with strips of Clear plastic For the mast I used a 1/700 taperd Master offering (indispensible!!). In this occasion I opted to solder the yards. I use solder paste which is pretty forgiving The 2291" antenna comes from a Mk 1 etch set of Royal Navy Radars. The Mainmast was straighforward - rolling the cage less so. As there'll be an ensign flying form the yard - this was also soldered for strength I was inpatient to crack on and on-one has replied to my post above - so I just copied the pic using a degree of guesstimation. This scale allows you some licence And at last the bridge structure with lattice supports pre-attached was stuck down to the hull And a quick "plant" to check .......... I'm always uncertain what colour masts should be painted and the CB3098 (R) May 1943 paper is not much help. The photos show Poole's mast was in 2 colours - the lighter portion presumably bein B55. The top part eas dark without obviously being black. i went with G10. And with that, the mast was stepped. This needed to happen so that i could rig this before fitting the funnel which would otherwise have got in the way. I'm working from forwards backwards and from centreline outwards (makes sense?) And that leaves me only to Wish You All a Very Happy and Safe Christmas. Party Hard Dudes and Stay Covid free!!!! Rob

Hi all, Here is another build of Oxcart/Blackbird series: A-12B "Titanium Goose" based on 1:48 Italeri/Testors kit. I had built this kit 30 years ago but during some house moves (one of them was international) as many of my other models this bird was also heavily damaged. I decided to recover this model 2 years ago and applied the black primer to complete the build. But after the announcement of 1:48 Revell Blackbird kit release this projects was suspended till today. As many of you I had pre-ordered my Revell sample too and this new kit has arrived in beginning of December. Recently @Alan P has started a work in progress topic here: I follow this topic with great interest and it helps a lot to see the areas/parts that need to be improved. I decided to launch here this topic to share the results using the 3D printed parts developed in my another topic: In this topic I will convert 1:48 Italeri/Testors SR-71A/B "Blackbird" model into A-12B "Titanium Goose". It will be also a good test bench to check how all these printed parts look like in 1:48 scale and if they fit the kit... I wish you all merry Xmas. Serkan

Hello all, Here are my completed builds for 2021. I'm sure, like all of you, 2021 has been another strange and tough year, during which i've been thankful to have a hobby that allows me to take my mind off the madness for a while along with the interaction of all the members on here, so thank you all. I'm also thankful to my other half, who along with her NHS colleagues, have been under immense pressure, but she still doesn't mind me talking about planes or get angry when I stink the house out with lacquer paints! She even tagged along to a load of museums when we were able to travel a few months ago. Must be a keeper. Anyway, a good haul this year. Some better than others and most not up to the standard of some on BM but they'll do me! All are 1/48 except where noted. I've added links to the RFI for anyone interested in a few more pictures. First up, Revell's Tornado F.3. I hated building it, terrible fit, poor plastic and so on but I was happy with the end product. More pictures here Hasegawa Phantom FG.1: More pictures here The old, but rather enjoyable Airfix Jaguar GR.1: More pictures here Tamiya F-14A: More pictures here Hasegawa Hurricane IIC: More pictures here Kinetic 1/72 MQ-9 Reaper. Meant to be a 'quick' build but was tricky enough! More pictures here Eduard Spitfire MK.IX. First use of the photo box too! More pictures here Another enjoyable one from Airfix - Canberra PR.9: More pictures here Eduard BF-109E7: More pictures here Tamiya F-16C: More pictures here Eduard Hellcat MK.II: More pictures here Eduard F6F-3 Hellcat: More pictures here Revell Rafale B: More pictures here Finally, Tamiya's new and rather wonderful, F-4B: More pictures here 2022's builds are already planned out Hope everyone has an enjoyable Christmas. Stay safe. Dave

I've got this kit from my friend, but without box, assemblying manual and decals, so I decided to do it as what-if, in "retro" livery, as I had spare decals from Crusader kit - 9th Queen's Lancers, 1st Armoured Division from North Africa, December 1941. Painted with Gunze acrylics, but black fields that were brushpainted with Lifecolor matt Black. Wash and dot filtering done with artistic oils, while weathering was finalised with MIG pigments. Headlights were made from Kristal Klear.... Cheers - have nice and safe holidays and Merry Christmas to all BM members that celebrate it tomorrow Srđan

I haven't done much at the work bench since April, "real" work and 1/1 scale car projects preventing, but by then a few models had actually been finished. The first completed was this Heller 1/43 Renault 30 TS -76, part of the Heller Classic GB. WIP - RFI However, my main entry for the Heller Classic GB was actually this 1/8 Citroën 15 Six. A daunting task to enter such a large kit in a four month GB perhaps, but it got completed in time, finished as a 1950 model. WIP - RFI Then followed Italeri's 1/12 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300, finished as Tazio Nuvolari's winning car of the 1932 Monaco Gran Prix. The wire wheels are from Fernando Pinto, FPPM, and I added some of my own details and modifications. WIP- RFI Something a little easier after those two then. In a week's time this Arii (originally an old LS mould) 1/32 Hino Contessa 1300 Coupé -66 was finished with only minor added work. WIP- RFI The old classic Airfix 1/32 Renault Dauphine required quite a bit more work to raise the standard a bit. It was finished as the well known artwork by Roy Cross, a red 1960 Acton built RHD car. WIP- RFI Last completed this year is the 1/24 Mercedes W154, finished as Dick Seaman's 1938 German GP winning car. The base kit is 1/24 resin from FPPM, Fernando Pinto. The twin compressor setup is my own 3D-part to make the engine more correct for this time frame. WIP-RFI That wraps up my finished models of 2021. I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2022!

Hi After three years of work, the first Scania 141 has been rolled off the assembly line. It is scratch-built of metal, brass and many parts are cast in metal so the weight has reached 10 kg. The series is followed by three more Scania's, A 141, 142 and a 143. Klaus

Hi all, my wife and I have lived in Canterbury, New Zealand for 10 years now, having moved here from Hampshire, England to be closer to our children and grandkids who live in NZ and OZ. I am just starting the road back down the rabbit hole that I know this hobby will become. The last model I built would have been in the 60's, so I have a lot of catching up to do 😄 To start my journey I have ordered a Tiger Panhard AML-90, which will hopefully be here next week, and I am sure I will be asking for a lot of advise from the knowlegable members here. Until then, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Garry

This arrived a few days ago: I built one of these a long time ago. Long gone. Wanted to have another go to see if I could make a better job of it. Cheers, Alan.

Yes certainly brings back the memory of getting the Airfix pontoon bridge gift set and setting up battles on the living room floor,even if some of the tanks were not of the correct period.

I can do no better than quote the words of the baby eating Bishop of Bath and Wells. "Bend over Melchett, it's poker time!". Martian 👽

Some 1/72tailoring with a narrow sanding stick and some aluminium tape:

This is as close as I think I can get to the correct camo pattern and markings for Sea Mosquito TW257 405/CW of 790 Squadron at Culdrose in 1949. I chose these markings based on photos of the late Lieutenant Commander Jim Summerlee who was a pilot in 790 squadron. They can be found here: https://www.naval-history.net/WXMemoirSummerleeJ1.htm. I know the font for the 405 code is a bit too chunky but this was the closest size of lettering I could find in yellow. In common with others on the squadron, she had her cannon troughs faired over and patched in a dark colour. There's no way I could tell what colour the patched areas were. Tonally it looked like EDSG so I used that but they may have been red or grey-green primer. Photos show her with different colour spinners. In one, they are probably Extra Dark Sea Grey but in another they are definitely glossy black. So that's what I used. This is the Airfix FB.VI/J.30 release. It contains the 4 blade props necessary for a Sea Mosquito. I added the arrestor hook, wing hinges and port fuselage strake from an old C Scale conversion set. The longer 'tropical' carb intakes are from Paragon. I was really lucky to find a set online but I see now that they aren't quite the right shape. They should sweep up more so the actual intakes are a bit closer to the bottom of the engine nacelle. The elevators were extended with plastic card. The reshaped nose cone is cut from a spare 1/32 Harrier drop tank and the radome is the front of a bomb from the spares box. The unique Sea Mosquito undercarriage is from an MBox Wellington coupled with MBox Mosquito mudguards and some plastic rod. The real thing has a web of tiny pipework at the foot of the u/c legs but I couldn't manage to reproduce it convincingly. The slightly smaller mainwheels are anonymous ones from the spares box. I also had to leave the canopy as provided by Airfix - the TR33 canopy actually had a bulged window on the starboard side. Apologies for my exhaust stains - another skill I need to work on! David

"It was a dark and stormy night, A shot rang out, The maid screamed. And suddenly a ship appeared on the horizon."