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When I embarked on my rather single-minded pursuit of trying to model at least one example of each aircraft in military service in North-Western Europe during 1940, I didn’t realise it would lead me down such interesting byways of discovery. The Netherlands in 1940 was a neutral country and had remained outside the growing conflict between its neighbours. This didn’t mean the Dutch authorities weren’t worried about the situation. While the 1920s and early 1930s had seen the Dutch military being neglected, the rise of a belligerent neighbour to the east caused a flurry of investment and renewal in the late 1930s. The Fokker aircraft company hoped to get in on the deal. Fokker G.I "Mercury" No 307, 3rd Jachtvliegtuigafdeling, Luchtvaartafdeling, Waalhaven Airfield, Rotterdam, May 1940 With the single-seat D.XXI fighter already on the drawing board, the same designer, Erich Schatzki, began working on a twin-engined concept known as jachtkruiser, or heavy fighter. The aircraft was expected to be able to gain air superiority over the battlefield, as well as being used as a bomber. The twin-engined, twin-boom layout had a central nacelle housing up to three crew members. It also featured formidable armament, concentrated in the nose. Like all Fokker aircraft of the time, the G.I was of mixed construction. A welded frame covered in aluminium sheeting made the front of the central nacelle, while the rear and the wings were built from wood. The original prototype was displayed at the 1936 Paris Air Show, to much interest. Testing began in early 1937, the prototype powered by a pair of 650hp Hispano-Suiza radial engines. After an accident, the engines were replaced with 750hp Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasps. Interest in the new plane came from the Spanish Republican government, which placed a contract with Fokker for 26 P&W powered aircraft. Although the deal was paid for, the planes weren’t delivered as the Dutch government placed an embargo in supplying military equipment to Spain. The aircraft were still built, with a cover story they were intended for Finland. The Luchtvaartafdeling (LVA), Dutch army air force, ordered 36 aircraft, to be fitted with 825hp Bristol Mercury VIII engines for ease of maintenance since several other aircraft used Bristol powerplants. The Fokker classification system seems to intermix Roman and Arabic numerals, but interestingly the “a” and “b” suffix to denote different versions is a post-war affectation. For reference, I shall continue to refer to this model as the G.I “Mercury”. Four were to be ground attack, the rest finished as two-seat fighters. Twenty-six were operational with the 3rd Jachtvliegtuigafdeling (JaVa) at Waalhaven Airfield, Rotterdam, and 4th JaVa Fighter Group at Bergen, near Alkmaar. The aircraft were active patrolling the Dutch borders and ensuring neutrality. All this changed around 4am on 10 May 1940. The German invasion started with attacks on the Dutch airfields. The 4th JaVa lost all but one aircraft on the ground, while eight 3rd JaVa G.Is scrambled in time from Waalhaven and engaged several Luftwaffe aircraft. The surviving aircraft suffered mounting losses, with three still flying by the end of the first day. By scavenging spare parts, the 4th JaVa could still fly some aircraft. During the so-called Five Day War, available G.Is were used on ground attack missions, and also used to attack Luftwaffe Ju52/3m transports. Reports are fragmentary, but G.I crews are credited with contributing to the loss of 167 Ju52s, scoring up to 14 confirmed aerial kills. The model is the Mikro-Mir kit, released in 2021. It is a well-engineered kit, with a very detailed interior that takes up most of the construction process! I have a link to the WIP thread, which also features the next model, at the end of this post. Fokker T.V No 863, Luchtvaartafdeling, Schiphol Airfield, May 1940. Like the heavy cruiser concept that gave rise to the G.I, the LVA was also interested in the luchtkruiser, or aerial cruiser, concept. It was a multi-purpose aircraft with a primary role of intercepting and destroying enemy bomber formations, but also capable of operating as a long-range bomber. Colonel P W Best, commander of the LVA, controversially said more luchtkruiser should take precedence over smaller fighters, such as the D.XXI. Indeed, he proposed cancelling D.XXI procurement to release funds for the larger aircraft. Fokker had been working on a design since the LVA specification, which was accepted in late 1934 and became the T.V. A five-seat, twin-engined monoplane, of mixed construction of wooden monocoque centre fuselage, fabric-covered steel tube rear fuselage and duralumin forward fuselage. To meet the bomber destroyer remit, a 20 mm Vliegtuigmitrailleur M.37 (Solothurn S18-350) cannon was fitted in the nose. I have seen photos with a large machine gun also fitted in the upper fuselage behind the second pilot’s position. Defensive armament was five 7.92mm Mitrailleur M.20 Vliegtuig (Lewis gun without jacket) in dorsal, ventral, and lateral positions, as well as in the tail cupola. A bomb bay under the centre fuselage could carry up to 1,000kg of bombs. The aircraft was powered by a pair of 930hp Bristol Pegasus XXVI 9-cylinder radials driving 3-bladed variable-pitch propellers. Sixteen T.Vs were ordered in December 1936, and the first production aircraft taking to the air in October 1937 from Schiphol airfield. The first 11 aircraft were delivered as medium bombers in 1938. While the type had good handling characteristics, engine and propeller reliability was a serious problem and the Dutch government seriously considered purchasing 24 Dornier Do215s to replace them. On 10 May 1940, eight T.Vs managed to take off from Schiphol to avoid the incoming air attack, and encountered a formation of Luftwaffe bombers, shooting down two. The T.Vs then reverted to the bomber role, attacking German airborne troops landing at Den Haag and Rotterdam. By the end of the first day of fighting, only two T.Vs were still serviceable. They were sent to attack bridges over the River Maas at Rotterdam on 11 May, with one aircraft shot down. The last airworthy T.V was shot down attacking bridges at Moerdijk on 13 May. The T.V compared well with its contemporaries of the 1930s, but proved to be outclassed by Luftwaffe aircraft come the invasion of 1940. Nevertheless, the crews flew the aircraft valiantly, and gave a good account, in defence of their country. The T.V is the Valom kit. It could be said to be a little basic, but it has everything you need to make a creditable model of a Fokker T.V. I like Valom kits. They make some interesting models of aircraft that fit right into my 1940 kick. Work in progress thread for both models begins here:

This is the Fireflash Trials Meteor built from the Red Roo kit https://www.redroomodels.com/product/fireflash-trials-meteor-nf-11-1-72/ It is certainly a different looking Meteor [ [

Here's my latest build. Painted with MRP sprayed through a PS771 airbrush and used decals from a Special Hobby kit. Thanks for looking! Rich

Thought I'd start to share my completed builds from my inventory. To make it easier for myself, I'll also go in alphabetical order of manufacturer (so expect a fair few Airfix kits next ) so here begins with Academy's 1:144 B-1b Lancer. Lovely little kit with the exception of the top to bottom join along the front fuselage to nose section and the incredibly lacking detail on the afterburners. All finished in Hataka Orange Line paints. I do have another one of these kits in my stash in which I plan to get some 3D printed engine exhausts for it instead of the awful kit options. I built this kit with the ability to swing the wings to my liking so the wing sleeves were glued in the open option. Depicted as B-1b Lancer 86-0139 "Drifter" as she was the first B1 I had ever seen at the fence of RAF Fairford. A great and late friend printed the nose art decal for me from a photo from the original painter of the nose art. Thanks for looking and don't hesitate to ask any questions!

Hello all, This is my latest build, it's Tamiya's 1/72 A6M5 Zero. The fit of the kit was perfect, like all other Tamiya kits (in my experience). The model was painted with Ak real colors and Tamiya acrilycs, the yellow band on the leading edge and markings on the propeller were painted. I initially wanted to build Saburo Sakai's aircraft, inspired by his biography "Samurai!"; but I discovered that the Peddinghaus decals I had were wrong (dimensionally) and the other ones I had from an AJ Press Zero book were bad as well. So after some research I decided to do an aircraft from the 203 kokutai, at Omura airbase in Nagasaki, August 1945, from the Rising Decals sheet Zero pt.V, I decided to depict the aircraft with the tail number of it's first owner. The decals went on wonderfully. Some aftermarkets were used: Brengun Pe, a Yahu models instrument panel, master model 20mm canons and resin machine guns. The weathering was done with Tamiya enamel washes and powders, and a silver pencil for chipping effects. Hope you enjoy it! Next up is Arma hobby's F4F-4 Wildcat!

Hi Everyone This is the excellent Tamiya 1/48 scale Do-335A Pfeil built out-of-the-box, more or less! I made the crew ladder and nose cowl gun sleeves from stock plastic, other than that I just added the PE seat belts from Eduard. I wanted to recreate a fictitious Bodenplatte type blackened weathering/camo pattern to bring a little more presence to the otherwise tame colour palette usually seen on the Do-335. I’ve also tried a few new techniques to the upper surfaces which I’ve not seen on the usual YouTube channels. I’m trying this on some other kits and hope to share the techniques when I know it wasn’t just a one-off. Anyway enough of the rambling. Kind regards Trace

I recently wrapped up a small stable of armor models, that I'll be photographing and posting over the next few days. The first is this Rye Field Models Jagdpanther G2. This was a fairly fun and easy to build kit. It has a partial interior, but I only built the gun. I replaced the over-engineered tracks with some Panther G indy links I had lying around. The brass shells are from a Tamiya set. The model is painted with Gunze acrylics, with details done up in Vallejo and AK 3rd gen acrylics. Weathering is simple, and limited to oil washes and Vallejo pigments. The "tarp" is tissue painted in a acrylic/white glue/water solution. Nothing outside of the bog standard here, but I'm happy with how it turned out. My photos, as usual, are less than stellar.

I've got this kit for birthday last year and wanted to do some special livery. Searching through the net, i found some interesting aggressor schemes and decided to do the "Arctic Splinter Aggressor". The kit ist the Revell / Italeri rebox - not the best F-35 but a good base. I've added some Eduard PE for the cockpit, a pilot vom PJ Production and a mix of TwoBob and kit decals. The "Ground Blur" for the base is from Coastal Kits. 22 by Falk Röllig, auf Flickr 19 by Falk Röllig, auf Flickr 20 by Falk Röllig, auf Flickr 13 by Falk Röllig, auf Flickr 15 by Falk Röllig, auf Flickr 12 by Falk Röllig, auf Flickr 21 by Falk Röllig, auf Flickr 14 by Falk Röllig, auf Flickr complete gallery: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzTzqR

Hi all, just posting an old build because it's still probably my favourite build to this day. The Special Hobby IAF Sa'ar / (Super) Super Mystère in the beautiful blue and brown Israeli scheme, this specific airframe was the first to be fitted with the A-4 Skyhawk engine in 1968-69. The kit was fantastic and the reason I'm such a fan of Special Hobby, my only complaint is that the extended exhaust and bomb racks make it a mega tailsitter and there's nothing in the instructions to warn the builder, but it was nothing some weight up the intake couldn't fix. Thanks for looking in!

Very slow getting back in the masking groove: In my defence, life has been getting in the way. I've picked up my new specs which are making a huge difference - the cheap ones didn't correct my astigmatism apparently, but these (more expensive) vary-focals are great. I can see! Had a trip to the Roman Villa at The Newt - amazing. They found a villa in the grounds, had archeologists document it and then built a full sized 'replica'. Stunning! Hot though - 28º, phew. We grabbed a quick break too - overnight ferries to St Malo and then four nights looking at Chateaus in the Loire. Very relaxing, if not a bit hot one day - 38.5º! Leonardo da Vinci moved there for the last three years of his life and there's a great museum at Chateau Clos Luce (sorry, can't remember how to accent 'e's) Also found a great hotel in Chateaubourg; Ar Milin stands across the river and in large grounds with art works scattered around. Worth a trip. Police Advisory Group taking my time trying to recruit. Eldest down for the weekend with connected grandchild care. Old Theatre - my first tour, went OK. No more excuses. I shall continue to mask. Slowly.

Finished my MIG 31 today, my first 1/48 aircraft in almost 20 years. It's entirely OEM except from 2 pilots. I only used Revell aqua paints and weathered with some artists oil paints. The engines have two flickering leds in each of them, but sadly, one led in the left engine broke down during construction. The base is made from some scrap plywood. I really wanted something different than the normal light gray, so went for a much dark grey with light blue underside. The kit itself is great. Everything went together easily with good fitment and the decals went on without problems, good instructions,...

The third of my recently finished armor kits. I have to thank @PlaStix for this kit getting built. I started this model in 2021 at around the same time I adopted my dog Charley. When Charley first joined our family, she explored her new surroundings by chewing on them I left the box of the partially built model on the floor of my worksop, under my desk, as I normally do. In the morning the box and some of the sprues inside of it were mangled and I thought the model was done for. I decide to hold onto it for spare parts, but then PlaStix hosted his M3/M4 build and I was so inspired to join that I went looking through my stash to see what I had available. All of my sherman kits were more than 25% built, and thus ineligible for the build. But then I had this taped up M36 box in the back of the pile. I took it out to assess and realized that while some parts were destroyed, I could cannibalize the many other sherman kits for parts. By the time I had joined Stix's GB, it was May 19th. The closing date was June 19th. I had recently read Spencer Pollard's new book on reviving the Verlinden style, and having had just completed my Panzer IV repaint in said style (see my previous post), I felt confident I could do it. I had finished building the hull in one week, and then went on a week-long vacation. I came back, got the turret built, and with 5 days left, I began painting. Then I got inspired by Steven Zaloga's wintery M36 in his Building American Tank Destroyers book. I love Steven Zaloga's work as much as Spencer Pollard (and I) love(s) Verlinden's work - so I had to do it too! With a day left, I had a convincingly distressed winter whitewash by way of the hairspray method. Buuuut, I decided to add stowage. Long story short, I didn't finish in time, but just barely so. The GB wrapped up on the 19th, and my build took until the 24th. But here we are. Better late than never. So I present to you my Academy/Airfix M36B1, with some details from the Meng M4A3E2, tracks from a Tamiya M4A3, stowage items from Value Gear and Academy, and tarps from the Kleenex Corp. Paint was Tamiya, and weathering is limited oil washes and light drybrushing. All in all, not bad for a model finished in just over a month.

Hello everyone I'd like to present my latest model. Spitfire 303 Squadron 1943. enjoy the photos

That's it. RFI post up. I have two further Dutch aircraft in the stash, and I plan to acquire a few more - if the kits are available. This thread will live again, as the story of the Dutch air force in 1940 isn't done yet!

I hope people won't mind them having another quick outing here but these are my armour entries from the recent Matchbox GB. The models and diorama bases were tweaked to varying degrees and a bit of detail added here and there. It was great fun doing these old classics, although all were actually built from Revell boxes. The only thing lacking was the great Roy Huxley artwork! Jagdpanther rearranging the landscape: Captured Wespe: SdKfz 251 Hanomag and crew in action: BMW R75, SdKfz 11 and 7.5cm A/T gun: Jagdpanzer IV:

Well this is a bit of a rant I guess... For a while now I've been coming across several unsavoury aspects in a couple of the hobbies I engage in. I currently have two main hobbies, video gaming, in particular sim racing, and miniature figure painting (which I also supplemented with scale modelling up until a few years ago). Taking sim racing as an example. In recent years, in particular with the rise of online e-sports series, there seems to have been a rise in the attitude that if you're not running a powerful computer and don't use an expensive wheel and pedal set you have no business partaking in the hobby. There seems to be an expectation that you have a certain above average level of equipment and money to throw around, regardless of your ability to be competent at the game. Using miniature figure painting as an example, there's a collecting element to it. Many older figures go for stupid prices on popular auction sites, much like OOP scale model kits. It's perhaps not quite as bad as some other hobbies though. Recently I came across a youtuber who was discussing what Lego kits people should be "investing" in. The comments section was full of people talking about how one should determine what kits will be valuable and go out and hoover them all up, sit on them, wait for Lego to retire them, then flip them for significant profits. New miniature figure box set releases by a certain company suffer from that same mentality, with scalpers hoovering up releases, which the company make limited on purpose to increase FOMO. I once had a guy on another forum try to tell me that you should be expected to have £200+ per month to dump on new products or you can forget about being in the hobby!?! I find it rather vulgar, objectionable, and disgraceful. I was taught as a kid, as I'm sure many of us were, that we share our toys with each other. Somewhere along the line, between childhood and kidulthood that message seems to have been lost on a lot of people it would seem - I don't recall the message being "go and hoover all the toys up so that no-one else has any, then expect significant remuneration from people who would like to play with those toys". I also thought that in today's society that we are all supposed to be about inclusion, and yet there seems to be a lot of gatekeeping, instituted by selfish moderately wealthy people, and their hangers on, against the less wealthy, when it comes to certain hobbies that until recently were relatively inexpensive to partake in. Of course it's pointless trying to explain the reprehensible nature of said people's mentality, because inevitably they are blinkered and refuse to understand and comprehend. Thank you in advance for indulging me in my rant, feel free to discuss, although I don't feel I have anything further to add.

Hi all. Here is my first post. I loved the kit, had no issues while building it. Model and base was painted with brush. Also I felt like this little beast needs a base. So I made one from styrofoam and air drying clay. All stowage was made from epoxy putty except barrel and jerry can (they were 3d printed). All comments are welcomed. Please enjoy and happy modelling.

The second of my recent completions. This Tamiya Pzkw IV F was finished in 2021 in a tropical scheme camouflage, but I wasn't very happy with it. Earlier this year, I dropped the model and it got pretty banged up. I was able to find all the pieces that had fallen off and decided to repaint. I think I like this a lot more than I did the original. No laughing at the figures, please. I'm still struggling with painting them. I painted the model with Mission Models paint. I have read some very polarized opinions about the product and wanted to see for myself. I loved the richness of the color. When I first sprayed it, I remember thinking that I never thought gray paint could be so pretty. It has these rich greenish undertones that simply look great. On the other hand I had a really hard time working out the thinner and hardner ratios. I mixed everything very carefully to company specifiations, but it felt "heavy" and viscous coming out of my airbrush. I got a smooth coat in the end, but there was a thick overspray, and I don't think this paint would be good for freehand camouflage. I'm accustomed to thinning my Tamiya, Gunze, and AK Real Colors to an almost watery consistency and being able to spray pretty smooth lines with them, so this felt very odd. I continued to experiment with higher thinning ratios, but the paint suddenly went from too thick to too thin. Still and all, the paint dried very nice and even on the model, and produced a good durable finish (with the older Tamiya colors as an undercoat - experiments on bare plastic led to paint rubbing off). In the end, I'm on the fence with Mission Models. I loved the color, and I like how it leveled as it dried. It was also super easy to clean up. But I did not like how thickly it sprayed and how I could not minimize overspray. But back to the model. After the MM paint went on, I gave the whole thing a classic Verlinden style weathering. Some cloud patterns of the original color but lightened (with Mission Models buff) misted onto panel centers, followed by a general area wash of dark brown/black oils, a light drybrushing with a slightly ligther version of the base coats, and a sprinkle of pigments at the end. Simple and outdated, but I like it. The whole thing took one week, Photos were given a "sunscreen" filter to maintain the 1980s feel to the whole thing.

The Ilyushin Il-18 is a four engine Soviet built turboprop airliner that made its maiden flight on July 4, 1957. It became one of the best known, the most durable and the most popular Soviet airliner of the era. The Il-18 was widely exported and it was one of the principal airliners of the Eastern block countries for several decades. In total 24 airlines have operated the plane and the military versions have been employed by 13 nations. I myself had once the possibility of experiencing the Il-18 on a flight from Belgrade to Warsaw in 1981. Due to the aircraft's air frame durability, many examples have achieved over 45,000 flight hours and the plane type still remains operational in both military and to a lesser extent civilian service. The production of the Il-18 took place between 1959-1978 with 719 planes of multiple civilian and military versions manufactured. Balkan Bulgarian Airlines was the national airline of Bulgaria, founded in 1947 as a Soviet-Bulgarian joint venture under the name TABSO. The company became fully owned by the Bulgarian state in 1954, and was renamed Balkan Bulgarian Airlines in 1968. At its peak, they were the second largest airline in Eastern Europe. Balkan Bulgarian Airlines went bankrupt in October 2002. Over the years, the Bulgarian airlines have operated a total of 18 units of Il-18 aircraft of different sub-types in its fleet. I built my model from an Eastern Express 1/144 scale kit which for a limited-run product was quite ok. The fit of the parts was generally good and the molding crisp. Naturally, there was some fitting and sanding to be done but nothing too much. To enhance the details of the bird I ordered an excellent Extratech photoetch set. The plane had a wire antenna between the rudder and an antenna above the cockpit for which I used a 0.08 mm fishing line. I decided to use the Balkan Airways livery decals of the kit. They were of very good quality and not too fragile. The Balkan Airlines LZ-BEV that my model depicts was of the Il-18V sub-type. I painted the white areas of the fuselage with Tamiya Fine Surface primer which I then coated with Tamiya gloss varnish spray. For the light grey underside of the fuselage, the wings and the stabs I used Revell 374 that I mixed slightly lighter with Revell 04. For the minor details I also used Vallejo, Revell and Humbrol paints.

Got the seat finished, and it's a lovely piece of 3D printing Glued in the seatbelts and matted it and the rest of the cockpit down with some flat varnish, which was nice. I've also assembled the SPACE instrument panel, although I've not yet glued it in so I can access the rest of it a little bit easier. I've also finished off the FOD guards and painted them red. It's really glowing in that pic Thought I'd take a snap of some of the other bits and bobs while I had the camera out after failing miserably to take a shot of the upper half of the cockpit, which was almost impossible to get my lens into at the same time as photons. There's detail in there of course, you'll just never see it What's next? Oh, I dipped the canopy parts in Klear in preparation for masking on both sides I've also still got to put the acetate on the gunsight, which I'm going to leave off until I glue down the windscreen, or it'll get flicked off somewhere along the line

Hi here are a few snaps of the completed Interceptski, the build is here. The space pics were done in Gimp, I love that program At some point I'd like to knock up a hangar for it as per the TV show, who knows, I'll try and fit it in somewhere. cheers Monty

Another mix of Italian types.....enjoy

Latest off the bench. Tamiya Sherman and Jeep. Great kits. Please feel free to comment etc. Thanks for looking Dick

Hi mates This time I built the model of a very special plane! One of the unique planes in Iran air force history. McDonnell Douglas RF-4E in 1/48 scale from Hasegawa. RF-4s were used by 11th tactical reconnaissance squadron based in Tehran Mehrabad Air Base. They played a key role during 8-year war with Iraq in several important army operations. This model is dedicated to legendary reconnaissance squadron commander Col.Fereydoon Zolfaghari who lost his life in war. Colors are from Tamiya and Mr.Hobby Decals are from Modeller decal and Eduard stencils. Ejection seat are from quick boost. Hope you like With regards Barzin IMG_5392 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5404 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5397 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5394 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5393 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5391 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5398 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr AnyConv.com__IMG_4842 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5402 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr AnyConv.com__IMG_4857 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr AnyConv.com__IMG_4830 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5399 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5400 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5405 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr AnyConv.com__IMG_4855 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5407 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5403 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr AnyConv.com__IMG_4850 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5401 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5408 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr AnyConv.com__IMG_4853 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr IMG_5396 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr With his E version mate!! AnyConv.com__IMG_5346 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr AnyConv.com__IMG_5347 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr AnyConv.com__IMG_5348 (2) by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr AnyConv.com__IMG_5354 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr Real planes 2019_08_20_IMG_5947 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr 2017_11_07_IMG_2827 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr exhaust section its a video click on it:👇👇 IMG_4650 by Freddy Pilot, on Flickr

I have to say I have really enjoyed building this lovely little kit, I can honestly say I'm quite pleased with it. Not a difficult build, by any means. I was bit worried about the weathering, as it's not my most favourite process, so I hope I've done enough/ not over done it. I've done the water a bit dull to try and portray the tiddler in a polluted harbour. Paint was ColourCoat.......as always they were excellent. NARN43.....Deck NARN44.....Wheel house deck NARN46....Deckhouse C03...........Inside of the gunwales, wheelhouse and mast. C02..........Hull The water was done with..... Ammo MIG Acrylic Water...Slow River A.MIG.2204 & Lake Waters A.MIG.2202 AK Interactive...Water Foam AK8036 Name Plate by NAMEIT I'm still pondering whether to try to add black smoke coming from the funnel, if I do, I'll update here. There a few piccy's, I hope you like them.

This is the old Airfix kit which like most of us on here is showing it's age. Decals are from an old Aeromaster sheet. As regards to the exact colours of the camouflage... your guess is as good as mine as I could only find one photo. It was in black and white and had seen better days. Please free to comment etc. Thanks for looking Dick

Finish no3 for the year is Meng's F102A Delta Dagger (case xx). Been working on this one in the back round while doing the shiny Black Widow. Built OOB as an aircraft operated by 509th FIS from Adorn RTAFB in 1969, using my usual mix of Tamiya and Mr Hobby Colour acylics. Went together fairly well but I found that the colours that Meng recommend (only Vallejo) didn't look like the photos of the aircraft so I substituted Tamiya XF11 for the dark green instead of H304 and used the H304 as the light green instead of H464. The decals went down well except the large fuselage band which needed a lot of Mirocsol to conform to the shape and ripped in one of the corners.Light weathering with Flory Dark Dirt wash. The instructions also have the main undercarriage door actuator upside down in step 8 and the canopy doesn't fit well in the closed position. Otherwise straight forward build less the masking of the canopy for the sealant tape, not had to do this before. Now this one is done I can get back to the P61A, as usual all comment welcome.

This has been on and off the workbench for around 6 months but finally finished today 😁 Its been challenging at times but I’m happy with the final result . Masterbox 1/35

Hi Folks, I recently had reason to clean up an old laptop prior to donating it to a local (Estonian) charity initiative supporting Ukrainian refugee children. In doing so, I found a load of photographs that I had totally forgotten about so I thought I would share some of them with you all. First up, some Italian AV-8B Harrier II Plus of the Italian Naval Air Arm.

Here’s my completed F-86 from the Hasegawa kit. The paint scheme on this turned into a bit of a mission - turns out Alclad chrome is v delicate and would chip easily so I spent a huge amount of time doing spot repairs and touch ups throughout the build. Masking and painting yellow on top of that made things even more difficult- I got there in the end but wouldn’t consider it one of my best builds. There are a few issues with the model including decal film showing and minor seams. That said it’s still nice to have a shiny Sabre in the collection. The kit is okay for its age and probably the best option for a Sabre in this scale. I used aftermarket decals some eduard photoetch in the cockpit and a resin seat replacement.

Man, you guys should try competitive airgun shooting! It's fun when folks talk down to you because you shoot with a rig consisting of a spring-powered rifle made up of used parts and a second-hand scope that come to £350 in total, whilst telling you that unless you can afford to drop three or four grand on a rife and scope combo you haven't got a hope. What's even more fun is when you comprehensively outshoot them and then listen while they explain that the conditions don't suit their rifle, or that their pellets came from a shonky batch, or that their mum didn't pack their favourite shooting mat.... Elitism has no place in a hobby; people should only ever be encouraged by others. I'm glad to say that I've experienced plenty of that here.

A bit of a curates egg job here. Decided to progress the removable running gear for my Tiger I Ausf. E. Having had issues in the past with a step appearing in the sprocket to first roadwheel I decided to fit the indy links and then the first diagonal length. I fitted 9 as opposed to 8 specified as I wanted a realistic sag from the sprocket. Having cleaned up the sprocket as much as possible I used @Sgt.Squarehead supplied (green) links with the length that came with the kit. I then dry fitted a couple of middle row wheels to the RHS and placed a long lower length of tracks under them. This was to try and ensure level LHS lower length. I cemented the bottom of the diagonal length to the first roller then slid the lower length under the wheels and cemented that too. There is one inner wheel dry fitted to ensure that the rear diagonal to the idler goes past the inner roller. Then I put the 8 indy links on the idler. The diagonal length cleared the inner wheel ok so I cemented it at both ends, trying to avoid cement on the inner roller. I left it to set for a while. And was then able to remove the whole section. Unfortunately the inner wheel was fixed but it came off and tidied up ok. Next was the top run. I used the long length first with a bend in it. Unfortunately the last indy links were not quite straight There was a gap. I added another link to the idler and then a cut down link from the ones I massacred when I cleaned up the sprocket. It is a little uneven but if I fit the rear fender section it might tone it down a little. Also this made the track-run a smidge too long so I filed down a flat on the axle so that the idler could move back 0.5mm Getting the inner wheels to fit between the upper and lower track runs proved a little tiresome but I persuaded them in the end. The whole lot is removable and dismantlable for painting. Comment, criticisms or ideas for the RHS all welcome. 😅

Hi folks, this time no guns, bombs, rockets or camouflage colors, just a peaceful agricultural airplane from 1970's, built as per a photograph taken at a Slovak field in 1975. This is the excellent Eduard kit built from the Profipack edition, I only opted for a different livery coming from their separate decal sheet. Cheers, Libor

The green camo stripes are done..... not my best work. I used vallejo dark olive and i couldn't get the right mixture. I think i can correct most flaws with weathering. I decided not to put brown stripes on. I think this green and dark yellow looks better. One of the roadweels broke off due to uther clumsiness.... i've put it back with a drop of superglue and some cursewords. I also started working on the tracks. The panzergrey basecoat is on. Now i can start with rust&dust. I'll keep you guys posted. Cheers!👍👍👍

Sausages High on my list of hateful tasks You have to turn chunks of Blu-tak* into smooth round sausage shaped roll things to us for camouflage masking and I hate the task Does anyone make masking rolls we can just pop to the shop or e-emporium and buy a batch? If not why not? Just thinking whilst I put off making sausages... *Other stuff is available in white

Got another look inside my neighbors secret garden of exotica. Can you name them? I didn't know, I had to ask him!

So been hacking away at this one for the last few days, and to be honest it's started to get away from me a little bit. I think all stemming from the roughish paint and the decision to try and gloss that, it's all build up a little and got bit bloated and grubby. Most recently, I got rather heavy handed sanding back the gloss layer finally and did quite a bit of damage. Some decals took a hammering and have had to be 'repaired'. The finish had gotten unintentionally rather uneven, and the upshot of sanding back also showed up the panel work to be pretty heavy handed; it's much less subtle than I was aiming for. Ho hum. Here's masking for some of the decal and ID stripe repairs I cut about 20 circle masks to get it 'just right'. Note also I'd taken the front of the 'P' on the tail fin. Funny story, having masked and painted the front lobe of the P rather nicely, the tape came off and with it the rest of the decal, leaving just the bit I'd managed to sand off! The roundels likewise would get shredded within about 10 minutes of this photo, that tape running over behind the cockpit pulled off the decal carrier film and the nice sling decal over the top with it. In all cases, I thought I'd left some gloss protecting them and so was not at all careful detacking and whatnot, but clearly had gone straight through the layer. I juggled with the idea of putting new ones over the top (there are spares!), but the fight just wasn't in me! I made the mistake of thinking I could repaint the P by hand with predictably dodgy results. Hey ho. Some more decal patchwork. Since then the ailerons got some dark ally (they're clearly replacements in the RATOG photo), various bits of dodgy touching up were done, and I finally gave it some matt varnish, which thankfully toned down some of the contrast and bad paintwork at least a little, and we ended up with this: The canopy isn't on yet, but I couldn't resist unwrapping it and opening up the cockpit again. The forward section will need some careful masking and painting when in place to 'hide' the wiggle. Overall, it's looking way too heavy and 'stylised' for my taste, particularly the upper wing panel wash, but I'm fortunate that the matt later hid a vast number of other horrors. Don't judge me too harshly on those panels, it was unintentional and I'm the poor muggins that will have to look at it😆! I think I've struggled so much to get washes to work and particularly over dark colours, that I went all in and got... aaaallll of the panels. Anyone know what colour the 60lb rockets are supposed to be? they're not called out in the instructions, and I'm colourblind! IIRC the airfix had them as a slightly dodgy silver with red warheads, the box looks more green?/brown? all over with a pair of yellow stripes. Anyway, thanks for looking in. I'm getting towards that 'next model please' rush, so frankly anything could happen at this point. All of it bad. Cheers, Andy

Now this thing is not politically correct, but I have to finish it. It's nearly there... Cheers Mick

The decals are very thin and need a lot of soaking to get them off the backing paper. If you try to force them, they will tear. But once on the model, they respond very well to Microsol. The red band is sprayed with Xtracrylix XA1217 RLM 23 Rot. The white circle is from the kit decal sheet and is nicely opaque. The swastika is in two parts but it is very difficult to line up so I binned them. I used swastikas from an Xtradecal general sheet instead.

Hi all and very happy to be part of this one! Here's what I'm in with. Plan is to build and finish as a US Coastguard HH-3F Pelican - you can read more about its history and service here I've a bit of a thing for USCG aircraft so looking forward to adding it to the 1/72 collection! Family Album - USCG by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Thanks for looking and good luck with your builds. All the best, Dermot

Hi, I have several century series in the shelf, but none was actually slotted for GB... and the I found this when we were packing for a move.. I can't remember when I bought this, but when I saw the decal.. I know it should be build at the earnest.. and it would be a good reason to join this GB, with a NASA bird. Beside, I already build the natural metal zipper few years back... So after a short permission on the GB chat room, I start the build; Hasegawa provided the instrument panel as clear parts... Can't really understand why, though. I'm sure the 1/72 F-104 is one of their older masterpiece.. the fitting and level of detail surpass their other releases in 1/72. I just add throttle lever in the cockpit Cheers, Mario

I'd say that this site is the home of the Spitfire, because after looking through all the past posts I'm convinced that just about every one of us has built one at one time or another. I'm also convinced that we all may have a problem, and the only cure is more Spitfires! This is another quick build of mine, here for your scrutiny. The kit was one of the newer Airfix sets, and the fit was pretty good overall. Not as much detail as I would have liked, but still a more than adequate kit. The decals had a bit of silvering, despite being set over a glossy surface and using lots of setting solution. They were also the tiniest bit out of register, which you can just make out with the wing roundels. Finished with Tamiya acrylics and Abteilung oils for weathering.

Direct from the 'Big and British' Group Build I thought I woud share my finished HK Models Avro Lancaster. Almost straight from the box, this is a superbly engineered kit requiring little additional work. I modelled one engine exposed which required some work as athough the kit includes 4 merlins, the supporting engine bearers are not included, requiring a bit of scratch building to make them look realistic. Decals are from Xtradecal depicting a plane from 625 Sqn RAF Kelstern Lincs, April 1945 with 93 missions and 7 from "Op manna food to occupied Holland in 1945."=100 Ops. Enjoy. Interestingly the Lancaster is the smallest model in my 1/48 Avro collection! Build Thread here Colin

BOOM! WALLOP!! What you can't see from these gloomy photographs is how much time I've spent cutting bits of carpet from DC Fix black velour and tinting them grey. And you definitely can't tell how much time I've spent tinting the seats a very subtle blue-grey on the front faces then spaying them with matte coat. In fact, this lighting does me no favours whatsoever. I don't know why I bother...

Out of the paint shop and made a start on decalling. Always enjoy this stage as it is when the model starts to come to life.

Just been notified that my one is being delivered by courier tomorrow And Mrs T is likely to be out all day

So, on with the masks. I photocopied the transfer sheet first, so I could work from that and still have the originals as a fallback in case of disaster. Then I found the centre point of the insignia on the copy and used the circle cutter thing which looks like a school compass to cut the outer then inner circles on the masking tape sheet. I took the copy insignia and cut it from the tip of each star point to the next, ending up with a pentangle. Using the centre point holes to align them, I taped that photocopy over the tape circle, and used a pin to mark the points and inner angles of the star, removed the copy, and joined the dots using a scalpel, ending up with a full mask. Then it was on with the stencil outlines. And the outer ring of yellow went on first, Tamiya XF3. Tried to get it super tight over those wind deflectors. To prepare for the white, the outer ring of tape was replaced, and the join between it and the outline mask was sealed with tape, as they never fit back in perfectly. Then it was time to mask off the stars. I’m not really one for giving tips, but if I’d thought of this before, it would have saved me loads of hassle! I always had an issue positioning stencils and masks like this accurately. I’ve always found that the more they are respositioned, the greater the chance of paint creep underneath, so I really don’t know why I never thought of this. With the backing paper still on, position the mask exactly where you want it. Then tape one side in place. Peel the backing from the other side and remove it, allowing you to fix that side permanently. Then remove the other side, and stick that down too. It’s like having a third hand just when you need it! And on with the blue; Vallejo Modelair Signal blue. All the paints were laid down in multiple thin coats as I wanted to allow for some random shading, particularly allowing the white to show through the blue for a faded effect. All in all I’m pretty pleased with the results overall. Just one fairly minor issue on the fuselage port side, but to be honest I’ve almost got to the point of convincing myself it could be weathering/wear and tear on the real thing. The problem being that I’m almost certain of making things worse if I try to fix it! So this is where we are for now. Almost time to break out the glue and hope everything fits. That’s it for a while though, as I find myself back on the road, so no more plastic for me for a couple of weeks. It’s almost like the before times. Thanks for looking, Peter.

Hello Dears, Well, yesterday, my son Nicolas get in his school for the last time !! 15 years spent there.... So, he get his certificate and 2 more prizes !! he is now bound for university !! It was a good day for a good beer Oooooh look, precisely the fav one of our Dear @Martian Well, 3 evening work day to do right now !! Modelling will be on idle but here I am with the SHar I made my prayers and incantation dance to San Giorgio nel decali..... And it worked well for these loooong red lines.... Stay safe Gents !! And enjoy modelling.... Sincerely. CC

I ran a 2 litre Sierra wagon for a couple of years in the early noughties when things were a bit tight for us, #3 had arrived unordered, then her indoors spent most of a year undergoing breast cancer treatment, my beloved Series IIa SWB Land Rover was sold to pay for that & an $800.00 Sierra replaced it. It turned out to be a surprisingly decent drive for the time we had it. It was replaced with an Isuzu Trooper , still got that 17 years later & her indoors is still going strong. Steve.

Even if they did it wouldn’t worry me. I laugh in the face of such threats Now just the thought of Mrs T spotting a box that size being delivered results in a change of undies. Now that’s what I call a threat.