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Hello everyone. This is the last of a pair of Sea Vixen FAW.1s that I started building as a project in 1/72 scale back in 2019 in order to go beyond what was available in kit form in terms of quality and detail. The first of these aircraft - XJ481 - was completed last October in her Martel trials livery and can be seen here. The aircraft represented here - XN708 from 890 NAS - crashed into Lyme bay killing both crew on the night of 25th Nov, 1964. A fuller history of both aircraft, as well as the build log for designing and printing them, can be found here: Source materials used in developing the CAD designs comprised of the Sea Vixen maintenance manuals cross-referenced with photographic imagery, a combination I've come to rely on in terms indexing what you see against its actual function. Aside from printed resin, the build also required the use of vacforming for the pilot's canopy and the production of homebrew PE for a range of internal and external features. All markings are painted using custom mask sets. Walkaround: Wingfold: Radar and nose area. (Yes, the scanner dish moves...) Engines: I've a list of people already who want a copy of this to make a FAW.1 for themselves so I'm going to be producing it as a multimedia kit in resin, brass and vacform over the coming months, to include all the details shown here. If you like what you see and want to register an interest in having a a copy as well, please feel free to drop a PM. As ever I'd like to finish simply by thanking all those forum members who gave so generously of their time, humour and expertise in following along with this project: it's always chastening to realize that no matter how certifiable my ramblings, there are other equally disturbed individuals out there prepared to read them. All power to you, and of course, peace. Tony Ps. The pair of them together...

Across the line... Well finally the beastie is finished! it was an epic build and my first all resin kit. Jetmads did a piece of wonder there even though it shows that they still have kinks to work out. For a resin kit it was humanely priced at $190 for a preorder. They kept the price down with using 3D printing technology and that was a mixed blessing. Even though it got cheaper it demanded more work to remove printlines, I suppose you have to reach compromise of speed and resolution when you have to fill hundreds of orders. Though I think they could have done things a bit better by aligning the parts as to minimize the printlines. For example the cockpit and it's parts suffers greatly from printlines and they are hard to remove. It was actually so bad that the printlines in many cases ruined the fantastic details they put into the model. I found that the best way to remove lines was to brutally scrape with scraping tool or knife. This meant in turn that details on the fuselage had to be removed to asure the best surface treatment. The hardest part was the joining of the fuselage and main wings, it ate lots of putty and was hindered by the hot air exhausts on the fuselage as they were always in the way and got damaged in the blending process. They would have benefitted from being separate parts. The next thing I didn't like that much was the decals, The big sheets were good quality and printed by Cartograf, though they skipped a lot of stencils! As a nerd I frown upon such short cuts! But the air wing insignias were terible, I had a friend print new ones for me that truly made them justice. The resin pitot tubes and probes was another headache...they snapped as fast I looked at them, I finally managed to replace them with brass from Masters 1/32 Gripen set It sounds like I bash Jetmads but I don't really, their product is fantastic and with a wee bit of extra tinkering it would be absolutely, incredebly awesome! My suggestions for improvement is as follows: New instruments, preferably 3D printed acrylic ones like Red Fox or Quickboost. Metal parts for pitot tubes and probes And add the fuselage hot air exhausts as separate parts instead of molded on to the fuselage. Improve the decal sheet These are the big things....all the small things you just have to deal with as a model builder Finally, I truly enjoyed the build and I learnt a lot about working in this media and in the end I got pretty close to what I wanted to achieve.... This is NOT my last Gigant Viggen! Cheers and thanks for all the support during the build!

Another cracker of a kit from Sword. Yes there are slight fit issues but the detail is superb and it goes together with a little persuasion. Primed with Tamiya Neural Grey Painted with ColourCoats Dark Slate Grey, Extra Dark Sea Grey, Sky S Type, Zinc Chromate Green. FAA/RAF Yellow, Tamiya Flat Aluminium, Nato Black, Rubber Black ,Gun Metal, Clear Green, Clear Red and Posca Pens. Washes used, Flory Dark Dirt, Citadel Nuln Oil and Citadel Seraphim Sepia. Oil filters with Windsor & Newton White, Lamp Black, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Yellow, Green, Abteilung Starship Filth and Paynes Grey Finished with Windsor & Newton Matt and Satin Varnishes. Rigging Uschi Van Der Rosten Fine Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair

Hi fellow modellers, this is my second attempt at the Arma Hobby kit, this time in the recon version. The markings was chosen from the box and it depicts Lt. Col. E.O.McComas machine flown in late 1944 over China. The was painted with Gunze SM and Aclad II shades. This time I can't avoid using some aftermarkets: Eduard direct print of the exhausts and resin wheels. The opened canopy sections were replaced for vacformed items I scratch built from a clear foil. Cheers Libor

The model is assembled straight out of the box. The model is similar to Hasegawa's, but in some parts it is much better, such as for example wheel bay and cockpit. AMG-65 is Eduard's resin, and GBU-12 are from Tamiya's f-14d.. The super hornet collection is slowly growing

Hi, guys... It's been a while since I posted here on Britmodeller, so I thought you might like to see the latest addition to my collection. This is the wonderful Gotha G.IV kit from Wingnut Wings. It's a large kit when finished, with a wingspan of almost three feet, but like any other model, spend a little time and you'll likely end up with a good outcome. So, to begin with, I painted and assembled the fuselage floor, bulkheads and cockpit area. Everything you see in this first image comes from the kit and I especially liked the seatbelts, oxygen bottles and the instrument decals, all of which bring great realism to the model. The floor was given an enamel undercoat of pale khaki, then overpainted using burnt sienna oil paint from the Cass Art range. I was very pleased with the wood effect on the floor and bulkheads. In this next photo, the framing around the cockpit has been added in and its rigging shows up well. The 'steering wheel' control mechanism is well produced, as are the integrally-moulded fuselage frames, although some of the cockpit areas in my kit had a lot of ejector pin marks. These were in tricky areas in some instances, but all were easily enough removed. The majority were on the right side of the fuselage, so had to be addressed, as they would have been very prominent if left unattended. I took this photo after the fuselage was closed up, and you can see some of the detail in the gunner/bomb-aimer's forward position including the bomb release mechanism and the oxygen bottle. Once I was happy with the internal areas of the fuselage, I moved on to building the engines, leaving one covered and the other without its engine panels in order to show the detail. The central section of the bottom wing was also painted up and the walkways painted metallic and then blackwashed to give a bit of a 'worn' look. I liked the fine detail on the radiator grills and the exhaust pipes came up very well with their grungy appearance; this was oil paint used again, and blackwashed. After varnishing the fuselage, the relevant decals were attached and the external fuselage rigging - which extends to the tail and connects with the control surfaces - was added on at this point and later tidied up when the elevators and rudder were attached. The few transparent pieces included in the kit are small, but are very clear and fit well. Some additional blackwashing was applied to both the panels and small fitments on the fuselage sides, and the engine cowlings. Moving on to the wings, both upper and lower surfaces were painted in the dark grey-blue, with the exception of the underside of the top wing, which like the engine covers, struts, wheel hubs and fuselage and nose panels, were left in the extremely pale blue shade, almost an off-white tone. Adhesive tape was added to cover the wing ribs after a whilte undercoat had been applied, thereafter being oversprayed in dark brown in a non-uniform manner before the tapes were removed. When this happened, the original white undercoat was again uncovered on the ribs, and these were later given an overspray in the relevant camouflage colour... ...which in turn, was a process that was helpful in drawing back any excess of the brown paint and also helped to remove the white and bring the ribs, generally speaking, back to the appropriate colour. I deliberately left them slightly 'untidy' in their appearance as I felt this gave a good final presentation. Once varnished, the national markings were applied. So, in the following image, you can see the extent of the wingspan with the lower wing sections now in situ; the cabane struts have also been attached. The Gotha's wings had noticeable dihedral and on such a large kit, you may think this would be difficult to effect properly, but the lower wings have the correct dihedral built into them and have quite a bit of 'play' as well, and the top wing, after securing the rather flimsy lower central section into place, rests easily on the cabane struts and engine frame struts without any additional support required at this stage. Now you can see that I have started to attach the interplane struts; I rigged the inner areas between the engines and fuselage first as these are the most difficult to get access to and some of the rigging crosses over other lengths of rigging diagonally and therefore, awkwardly... patience is definitely needed here, and possibly a leather mouthpiece to bite into if/when things don't go according to plan - you don't want to scare the neighbours with aggressive yelling, cursing and swearing at the top of your voice! 🤬 🤣 The cabane struts and each section, moving gradually out towards the wing tips, were rigged in their entirety before moving on to the next. The struts themselves were easily inserted into their location holes due to the 'play' in the wings, and this flexibility was very much instrumental in making the whole rigging process much easier. I resisted all thoughts of turning the kit upside down to complete the rigging under the top wing, instead electing to use two blocks of upholstery foam to support the model while accessing these areas in order to attach the turnbuckles into the leading and trailing edge points. The larger block of foam, which stood about four inches tall, allowed me to tilt the model forward onto its nose, thus giving better access to the trailing edge. The thinner strip of foam was used to support the undercarriage and raise the front of the kit, thus giving better access to the leading edges. In the latter process, it's good to remember to position the tail against something solid in order to support the model and minimise the likelihood of it slipping off the foam, and this should be done before attaching the tail control surfaces. All of the above negates the requirement to move the model around as it takes on more and more weight and size, and also reduces the need, in my opinion, to go boring right through the upper wing to draw rigging through before secuing it. I have seen this done online and admire modellers who use this method, but I wouldn't have confidence to try that, and given the rarity and cost of obtaining the model nowadays, I feel my method is every bit as effective. The rigging was completed using elasticated thread and the turnbukles came from the excellent GasPatch range. These last few photos show the model in its final stages of construction. All control surfaces are attached and rigging finished; upper wing fuels tanks, MG mounts and the guns themselves, the bombsight and all external ordinance has been added, and only a space in the cabinet needs to be found! All enamel paints used were from the Humbrol range and markings largely from the WnW kit itself, although the 'Lori2' markings were taken from the Pheon decals after-market offering for this model. So, I hope you have enjoyed seeing the photos from my build. There is a more extensive build article which you can access here: https://imodeler.com/groups/imperial-german-air-service-luftwaffe-group-build-may-1st-1910-to-present-day/forum/topic/wnw-gotha-g-iv-1-32-scale/, and I've made a YouTube video which you may also find interesting, available to view here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQqvVuxKUyM. Thanks for looking in... ;-). Regards, Paul

Hello everyone. This is my first post. A few weeks ago, a post was made on this forum about Wildcat V, JV368, piloted by an Australian in the Fleet Air Arm: Grumman Wildcat JV368 - An Accidental Australian in the FAA I also have had JV368 on the workbench, having come across the articles in the South Coast Register and read the book (An accidental hero) via my local public library last year. My model is the Tamiya 1/48 Wildcat, modified to represent a Wildcat V with 4-gun armament. My model has an IFF antenna underneath and whip antennae as per the photographs in the book and a number of photographs of late war FAA wildcats on the IWM website. These were made from steel guitar strings. Decals came from the Techmod Grumman Wildcat VI 1/48 set, except the 6B on the nose, which is from the Ventura Eight Inch Serials, White RAF, RAN, Commonwealth Air forces 1/48 set. I didn’t know about the red cowling bands for Operation Dragoon, referred to in the earlier post. As I had already applied the decals when I read the post, I decide not to try to add the red cowl. JV368 was undertaking bombing missions at the time, so I have added 250 Ib bombs. These and the universal bomb carrier came from the Airfix Walrus kit in my stash. They were installed as per photos on the IWM website. The model is painted in Dark Slate Grey, Extra Dark Sea Grey and Sky, which is my interpretation of colour photos of pieces of the actual aircraft in the FAA Museum. Weathering was kept to a minimum, except for some wear around rivets and from exhausts. The pilot wrote that dive bombing and strafing were a daily feature in the life of pilots during the invasion of France, and so smoke staining from guns was also added. American escort carriers had flight decks made from Douglas Fir (also known as Oregon or Oregon Pine). Oregon was a very common building and furniture timber in Australia, with much of it imported from America and Canada. The Base is the Eduard US Navy Aircraft Carrier Deck, mounted on a base of recycled 1930s/1940s Oregon, which I routered to size. In retrospect, I probably should have painted the deck markings in white. Colour photos seem to show both yellow or white but white might have been more appropriate. Sources: Sherborne, Guy. (2017). An accidental hero. Longueville media. Crawford, Robert. (2017, July 12). Fleet air arm museum to be new home of downed World War II plane parts. South Coast Register. Imperial War Museum website.

This is my rendition of HP Victor B.2 XH670 circa. 1970 when stored at Woodford for K.2 conversion - which never happened for her. Using the Airfix kit with the Air Graphics Models early B.2 conversion fin root. If you have any photos of her, you can clearly see that my version is in a much "cleaner" guise. XH670 was used by the A&AEE for trials. Dave. IMG_2477 by ravodavo, on Flickr IMG_2478 by ravodavo, on Flickr IMG_2479 by ravodavo, on Flickr IMG_2480 by ravodavo, on Flickr IMG_2481 by ravodavo, on Flickr

This is my first RFI post, so it might all go horribly wrong as I'm a bit of an IT numpty.... anyway, press on. This is the kit, Airfix's 2019 re-release of the Jet Provost T4, with markings for an aircraft of No 79(R) Squadron at RAF Chivenor in 1989. The unusual but attractive scheme drew me in... I had intended to suppress my instincts to faff-about and build it straight out-of-the-box, and just enjoy the process. This was going swimmingly, a nice easy build, just a few sink marks around the tail are the only issues I can remember. The thing was primed, the yellow fuselage stripe painted, almost done, but then..... one evening I started googling for photos of the aircraft, and finished-up looking at the walk-arounds right here on BM. I realised there were a few missing features that were quite prominent and I couldn't stop myself from trying to get them onto the model. I added 3 air scoops to the top of the fuselage, and one on the starboard side just below the canopy, from laminations of microstrip filed to shape. A red (anti-collision?) lamp to the top surface from painted sprue, and a new tail lamp from clear sprue. The trim tab actuators were simple solid wedge shapes, whereas the real things sit noticeably proud from the surface, so these were carved away and new ones fitted from bits of strip and sprue. (Curiously the actuator on the underside of the starboard tailplane was in totally the wrong position.) There are a number of aerials on the undersides, but I couldn't establish where they all attached so I opted to stay away from that. The model is finished in Xtracrylix paints, airbrushed, with detail painting in various Vallejo and Citadel colours. A thin coat of satin varnish to finish off. Medium Sea Grey uppers, Barley Grey below. The kit supplies a single piece decal for the yellow and black fuselage stripes, but I couldn't see that working out very well as it would have to wrap around the tapered body and the fin fillet, so I painted the whole thing. I nearly overlooked the medium sea grey outline to the roundel and squadron bar – I realised this very late in the day and had to resort to some fiddly masking to get that done. The additions I made were not difficult, but to me they made the world of difference to the look of the finished model, and to the fun of building it, so I'm glad I went to the extra trouble. I'd recommend the kit to anyone, straightforward to build and an attractive scheme. Thanks for looking! Dave

Dear friends, On 1967-1968 the Chilean Air Force (FACH) received the first of 54 Hawker Hunter Mk.71 that served in the skies of my country until December 1994. Worldwide known are the images of the coup de etat of September 1973, when a flight of Hunters shot Sura P-4 rockets on the Presidential Palace helded at the time by the socialist President Salvador Allende, who commited suicide later that day. The accuracy of the Chilean pilots to hit the Palace located at the centre of Chile's capital, Santiago, and surrounded by taller buildings was a piece of crafted markmanship. Later, on 1978, the Hunters played a starring role on the Beagle Conflict with Argentina, a few of them being armed with the israeli Shafrir II missile, as the model that I show you here. They contributed to avoid an all-scale war with our neighbours. After the Falklands conflict in 1982, Chile received 14 Hunters (mostly FGA.9) from Britain as a gift for the help provided to UK during the short war at the South Atlantic. Hunter J-702 was part of the first batch received in late 1967, and served until 1994, now been at exhibition as a Monument at the Ala de Abastecimiento. Colors on Hunter J-702 are the same as the British cammo, with Dark Sea Gray and Dark Green as the upper colours and Light Aircraft Grey as the down side color. Hope you like it, a few differences with the FGA.9, and some twicks have to be made on the good Airfix kit to really represent a Chilean Cazador. Cris.

This one is finally over the finish line. Build log can be found here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235106243-matilda-ii/ Cheers! Kristjan

Hello, i am new on this forum, i wanted to share this F 15 i finished couple of months ago. I hope you like it

Morning all, My latest build is a bit of a beast, Trumpeter's Backfire. I've built this kit before, but was asked by a friend to build his own for him, which I was only too happy to do. Built completely OOB, warts and all- there are a few inaccuracies, but I had neither the time nor ability to sort most of them. Regardless, it still builds into an impressive model of this monster jet, and best of of all, it's new owner was delighted with the result Thanks for looking, comments welcomed Shaun

My model depicts IJN heavy cruiser Aoba at the end of WWII as a wreck in Kure harbour. Many photos of the wreck are available, except for the starboard side. I was also inspired by Marijn Van Gil and his wreck of IJN carrier Amagi. I used the Hasegawa 1/700 kit of IJN Aoba as a starting point, added a Rainbow model PE set for the kit, and various other modifications. The WIP photos are available here on this forum. Nanond.

Here is my 1:72 Su-27UBM-1 "Blue 67" Ukrainian Air Force. Trumpeter kit (not very good) with Eduard PE set, Pavla resin ejection seats, Aires resin aux air intakes, Master metal Pitot tube and some parts from old Heller kit. Foxbot decals and paint masks. Painted with Hataka Orange. It took me hundreds of hours to finish it and I`m still not very happy with a result. But looks nice in this camo. 😎 Thanks for watching!

This is the next instalment in my 1/200 collection of "every airliner I've flown on, in the livery of the airline I flew it on". It's a slow project. This guy sat on the Shelf of Doom for about three years before I finally spent a night finishing it up - as always for me, it's wheels and engines that slow things down. We flew Air Do from Osaka back to Sapporo in 2018 when we detoured from our vacation in Hokkaido to attend my brother in law's wedding. It was just a short hop on this baby 737. As always these Hasegawa 1/200 kits are neat and easy to build. The decals were good and finished up reasonably well, allowing for them having to curve so much on the big blue and yellow sections. So far, I've finished three 737s as part of this project - this one, the China Eastern -800 pictured, and a Lufthansa -500 I posted some months ago. There's a long way to go - just in the kits I have in the stash or on the Shelf of Doom there are three 777s, two 747s, three small Airbus (319, 320, 321) and a pair of 767s. Diecast/premade models have taken care of the 757, 330, 340, 380 and 747-8, as I can't find kits of those in 1/200. I still need a solution for the Qantas 717. Anyway, I think this one came up ok. Thanks for looking!

Another Sweet Sea King flies off the Shelf of Doom. In the end it only needed about 15 minutes to do the last steps - how many models do we all have on the SOD with just a night or two's work left in them? 😆 This helicopter served with the Royal Australian Navy from 1975 to 2011. In its earlier years it flew off the carrier HMAS Melbourne, and later in life from HMAS Tobruk (which was a big landing ship). My main memory of RAN Sea Kings is watching one carry an enormous Australian flag over Sydney Harbour in either or both of 1986 (a big Tall Ships event) or 1988 (which was the year Australia celebrated what was then called the Bicentennial, 200 years since the first white settlers arrived in NSW). These Sweet kits are precisely that - sweet. There's no cockpit detail, which it could probably use, and there are a few other simplifications (like the winch mount). For that, though, at least if you buy from Japan, you get a very cheap and cheerful kit. The decals are great. I have five kits in total, with now three completed. LOTR above is the Belgian Westland Sea King, a Japanese Sikorsky Sea King, and the RAN Westland Sea King. The remaining two are another Japanese one and the USN "66" from the moon missions. It was a busy day at my 1/144 helicopter fly-in today!

How has it come to this? That I have to waste one of my 196 remaining free photo uploads on flickr to post a piccie of my trusty (well it'll do - and it's pointless me having anything more sophisticated) Neo.... This lack of trust. It's cos I'm a lawyer innit..... Don't think it was obvious and I don't think I posted a picture iof it before. Unless I've not been paying attention... I created all 3 of the nose wheel undercarriage doors (port, starboard, rear) with their own supports before it occurred to me to combine them into one object to print. So most of the odd large shape is simply a crude extruded base to join the 3 elements together for printing. I dunno why I cut circles in the middle and then added fillets. Just moments of whimsy - and/or avoidance activity delaying by a few seconds having to go back to doing real money-earning type work....

Thanks for all your very kind comments - they are very much appreciated. As to the big "R" - I'm loving it though don't seem to have much more modelling time Too much cycling to be done at the moment. So onwards. A dark deck wash is applied over the wood deck (after you've applied a light coat of "Klear") Allow it to dry for 10-15 minutes and then with a slightly white-spirit whetted cotton bud - gently run this along so as to pick up the wash that remains on the raised bits The non slip dark grey is then sprayed onto the superstructure decks There is a small contrats between the "wood" 507A decks and the Non-slip Grey decks The rather splendid automatic Micromater twin Oerlikons are completed. The Detail is, as we've come to expect from Simon's products, simply stunning. How nice are they!! And whilst we're on the subject - another order arrived from sunny New Zealand - It's one of modelling's pleasures to open these........ You can work out some of the future builds by seeing what's within. I'm needing to plan 4-5 builds ahead The Flower vents are just wonderful as are several of Simon's newst offerings I petitioned Simon to produce some "Not in use" 20mm Oerlikons - the ones with the barrell pointing vertically. They appear like this in a surprisingly high number of original wartime photographs He's also produced stairs that are a) Very detailed and b) A cowards way out of folding etch that I mange to muck-up a depressing amount of times Having scratched one of these in 1/72, I'm pleased to announce that Simon's is 3 x more detailed at the much smaller scale These 20mm ammo lockers will feature on this build and many more - mundane but hugely valuable And finally an increasing necessity is to label the pots which prevents frantic rummaging So back to to the build. I always spray Klear over ALL of the hull and superstructure paintwork. That's partly because I can then use oils and enamels to weather without fear of "lifting" the Colourcoats paint, though I'd do the same if I used acrylics. You can handle the model with the light varnish without fear of wearing paint down and Klear gives a very slight sheen whch I find pleasing versus a very dull matt. Hull was duly sprayed and then masked and the below waterline hull was sprayed with a Grey enamel. It won't be seen when the ship os "planted" in the base and is really only done for you all to see what the ship looks like. I warm to @dickrd's research regarding the colour of antifouling and I find it aesthetically more pleasing. It's so warm currently that paint dries within an hour so it's not long to the reveal The hull is now nearly complete Detailing and base next. Thanks for looking Rob

Not perfect but I haven't built the perfect one yet. Just happy to have i finished after staring at the box for years....

A bit of background ... In the 1940's, a rather loose arrangement of revolutionary organizations and individuals cooperated (with different degrees of success) in attempting to overthrow dictatorship regimes in Central America, predominantly focusing on Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. This "Carribean Legion" or "Légion del Caribe" benefited from a range of military equipment (and crews) becoming obsolete following the end of WWII, including aircraft such as the P-38 Lightning. During the summer of 1947, one of the Legion's operations was aimed at the Dominican Republic, being prepared from a remote area in Cuba. Plans for this operation were apparantly not kept very confidential, as the Cubans stopped the operation from ever taking place while confiscating weaponry including 6 P-38's, with the incident known as the "Cayo Confites affair". Summary based on a.o. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Legion I used the Hobbyboss “easy-assembly” 1/72 P-38L kit for this scene - and an easy assembly it was. Mostly out of the box, with a few tweaks: Added some parts of an Airwaves cockpit PE set (designed for Hasegawa) Scratchbuilt the radio compartment behind the pilot’s seat Scratchbuilt the supercharger intakes on the outside tail booms Removed the camera on the right wing pylon Added a few lines of rivets The model is finished with Tamiya/Gunze acrylics and Alclad, decals are from LF Models (working OK, but very very delicate handling needed!). Weathering is done with oil paints and some pigments. The base plate is from Italeri, I added a Joefix palm tree and some railroad modelling grasses. The figures are 3D printed resin items from Germania's set of Cuban revolutionaries. Hope you enjoy the pictures, thanks for looking!! Patrick Credits background picture: designed by Freepik, photo by freestockcenter: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/beach-with-palm-trees_1017245.htm?query=palms indonesia beach

grazie mille Silvano. How has this viscous (sic) rumour stuck? Main doors computery type stuff now all done and dusted. Supports designed in and printed in port and starboard pairs. Looks like they'll fit ok. I expect to use little blobs of gator's grip to do the adhesiving-type thing. And I now have a couple of sets of home-brew main and nose undercarriage doors primed with a squirt of colourcoats light aircraft grey (which looks a bit green under my study lights) See - I have a working airbrush - and I'm not (much) afraid to use it.......

Hello friends. I thought it would be natural after my Macchi 200, to present the legend of the Italian Air Force, the Macchi 202. In fact this model was done some times ago for a customer and I did recover the pictures only recently. I will not repeat myself for what has to be done to do a correct 202, WIPs are abundant enough on the web. This plane was the mount of Marquis de Briona when flying with the 74° Squadriglia, 23° Gruppo, 3° Stormo, wearing the "Angry wasp"unit emblem and the mid-production Breda elaborated branched out mottling. The superb SBS cockpit was used as the welcome Eduard's wheels bay to improve the poor parts of the kit. The individual code is inside the white triangle on the fin, an unusual feature. Best regards. 7B7CC310-DE12-4E95-9298-E5416380AF5D by jean Barby, sur Flickr 94073B4C-7CF2-4766-9E2F-B6F12DE4E63E by jean Barby, sur Flickr 4742F88B-28CD-464C-96A3-8A2219BB8227 by jean Barby, sur Flickr 2BD889C2-605D-4B3C-B823-736CA57B13AC by jean Barby, sur Flickr B147A827-77FF-4C0A-AEC5-14D1574C6974 by jean Barby, sur Flickr A23F2A26-EC79-438F-9129-8953DD9ED4FE by jean Barby, sur Flickr 25A30866-3316-4306-945F-6F6E349232F4 by jean Barby, sur Flickr 40E6F1EF-8680-400A-B932-FD7209FCC0C8 by jean Barby, sur Flickr

Here are some photos of another truck model from my collection. Renault AHN, kit from ICM, I enjoyed building the model, everything fit well, no special modifications were needed.

Hello, I was going to start my participation in the forum with my build of the Huayra, but decided against it, because the WIP has been going for a bit on a different forum. So I am building my other Pagani on here, which nowhere else is even mentioned that I am working on. I wasn't going to start it before I finished the Huayra, but I can't help it. I am starting with the Aoshima kit And just yesterday, I received the Detail Up Parts.

Well Since I just finished one old kit, why not drag out another kit I haven't built since the mid-60's. This time though, there WILL be improvements. I hope. I present to everyone direct from the USNS Seaview... "drum roll" ....... The amazing, the fantastic, and the absolute outlandish beyond all doubt The Flying Sub. circa 1965 Last time I built this Johnson was in the White House. Lyndon....not Andrew , puuulese I'm old but not that old. Yet. And at that time I had also built the USNS Seaview.. Unfortunately, that was an Aurora kit and not germane to this GB. But I do have the great big 1/128 Seaview that one day I may get to. when I can figure a way to display it. But speaking of scale this kit says it's 1/160. Nope it ain't. My last build was 1/110 scale and that would make the wingspan of this craft to around 120ft and the pilot around 13ft tall. More like 1/60 scale. Now when I first built this I was disappointed that was no landing gear. And as such was a real pain to display. So this time, no, no landing gear, something better, a splashing water base. Hopefully giving the look of the old girl bursting from under the water and leaping skyward. Ehhh, that's the plan, we'll see. The only other thing I would have liked to have done is lighting everything up. Drawback is the one light kit I found was for the 1/32 kit. won't fit and at $90, out of my pocket book. But no matter, let's go back to the time when adventures await soaring around battling bad guys, and sea monsters, and of course a few aliens once the kit was built, not dry, mind you, just built patience was not in my creed then. So open the Bay doors and let's launch this sucker.

Here she is. The pak38 auf gp.mun.schlepper from Daswerk. You can find the buildlog in the work in progress section. ( still don't know how to direct link it 😵 ) It was a fun little build. I struggled with the link and length tracks but the rest was a welcome breeze of fresh air after the StuGIII. In the end i didn't do a pinwash. Just some light streaking and a dustcoat. Anyway, here are the pictures for you to comment on. All feedback, tips etc. Are more then welcome as always! On to the next build. A KV2 from Zvesda. I'll keep you guys posted in the next buildlog. Cheers!!! 👍👍👍

1/144 Pit Road Avro Vulcan XH537 with Skybolt missiles from AIM72 conversion. Dave IMG_2464 by ravodavo, on Flickr IMG_2465 by ravodavo, on Flickr IMG_2466 by ravodavo, on Flickr

Hi all Here are the photos for my latest finished model. Academy kit 1/72 Very nice kit to build straight out of the box. I didi a few scratch built details like the seatbelts for the ejection seat, the canopy tinting, threads on the tyres and a landing light on the nose landing gear. I regretted to made the option to leave the canopy open since it was very hard to glue it in place and it still a little bit crooked. The have glass painting was a mixed of Tamiya and Gunze to get the match. I've tried SMS 69 Have Glass but I wasn't happy with the colour (too greenish to my taste). Comments and critics are welcomed.

Alan, Phil, Ian, Simon, Bill, Adrian, Pete, Steve, Keith, Neil, Bal, Mark, CJ, Crisp, Nige, Bill, Jason, Michael, Terry, Giorgio: my thanks all of you and just to say that the RFI is up here now:

Not wanting to pick holes but there's no propulsion paraphernalia, this may be a hoax! Box on Strickers

I note that whereas the US is able to quote figures of the spread of Covid from an IMPS convention, but the the UK was not able to quote any equivalent figures from ours. Leaving the incurably optimistic dreamers to suggest no effect. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. A couple of weeks ago I stopped wearing masks in shops. Bang- my wife and I came down with Covid.. Don't try to tell me it's all over. Fortunately, being topped up with vaccines, we only had a couple of days being pretty dodgy, but I took eleven days to show negative. I am still weak and get very tired just walking to the coffee shop and back. I don't recall taking six monthly vaccinations against colds, and have never been affected for quite as long afterwards - My brother-in-law took four weeks to get back to normal.. Another more remote family member ended up in hospital. Some cold. Of course, this is just anecdotal evidence...But there is large holes in the statistics. You can catch Covid, attempt to report it, and if you didn't use an NHS test you will not be included in the official figures. These understate the true spread of the disease - it isn't even necessary to test, or isolate if you can't be bothered because it affects your precious "rights" And if you take an unacceptable time to die (over 28 days) you are not counted in the death toll. It is tragic - in some cases quite literally - to see how selfish lazy attitudes "it's too much trouble..." have coloured the public response. But supporting such a blinkered approach is despicable. If anyone wants to s off and die he/she is welcome to do it, though preferably in a way that doesn't occupy hospital space,, but taking other people with you is evil.

Evening BMs To finish off the Turn and Slip gauge: My gauge face needs some life and an easy way to do this is to apply my graphic as a sticker! Here's 3 faces on sticky A4 paper. These are simply cut out and stuck to the 3D printed face. I next paint over the items on the face which will glow in the dark (Radium items on original gauges). I use children;s glow paint from Amazon, any will do. The centre hub I printed off a few days ago is now assembled. Then airbrushed black. Hands and a few brass screws are applied. Then it is attached to the face. I cut out some .75mm clear plastic (purchased from ebay) with scissors and I airbrushed the glass support black. Finally, I assemble the gauge. That is a complete build, ill do the other gauges but I wont go as deep as they are all similar in construction, design and assembly. Hope you pick up some tips.

RAF BE2C 1/32 Lukgraph The journey is over and I have to admit I have enjoyed it thoroughly. The BE2 is an extremely interesting subject and the CDL , woodgrain and metal is something I simply love. I find the kit to be the best by Lukgraph so far. No issues and and an extremely enjoyable to build. Painted with AK RC, AK 3GEN, Gunze, Tamiya and other. Weathering with AK pencils and oils. The propeller is hand-carved and as always with help of Michał Jakś (laser cut outline) and the hub is by Proper Plane.

Not sure if this really merits an RFI thread but it’s been on the shelf of doom so long I think I’ll do one anyway. Revell 1/144 Apache US Army completely oob, a nice little kit.

Afternoon all, Here's the latest model to take off from my bench - the new-tool Airfix 1/72nd Avro Vulcan BMk2. After grafting on some very long-term projects of late I decided I needed something relatively straightforward for a system reset and mojo reboot and this proved to be just the project. I found it an absolute delight to build - actual construction only took four evenings and the whole model was completed in just under two weeks. In fact, it's the first model I can remember in absolutely ages that I didn't put down for a few weeks and return to it later as I'd lost interest - I just wanted to keep going! As with most of Airfix new-tool kits, tolerances are very tight indeed and therefore I gave each surface to be glued a quick swipe with a sanding pad and this meant an almost perfect fit for all components. I was really impressed with how the intakes went together, and with a quick swipe of Milliput White they look seamless with the minimum of effort. I wanted to do a later version than is currently supplied in the box so bought an Xtradecal sheet to make a 101 Squadron machine based at RAF Waddington in the mid 1970s. Two type of jet pipes are provided in the kit, and I had no idea which were fitted to this aircraft so went with the same as the one currently preserved at Duxford as they seemed of the same vintage. The kit's bomb bay is beautifully rendered and with some careful painting comes up beautifully out of the box. If you build this kit, don't waste your time detailing the interior of the cockpit as next to nothing can be seen - I just did the absolute basics. Xtracolor enamels were used throughout and I gave it a satin varnish as these machines seemed very well maintained in service and other than a few streaks and stains here and there, I kept her reasonably clean as period photos suggest. I recommend this kit to anyone looking for a large and impressive model in their display cabinet but not requiring a huge amount of effort - it's a pleasure! Tom

Zakończony, which according to Google Translate is Polish for completed (probably! Sprayed with flat varnish and the tiny windscreen fitted. Just a little touching up to do - as ever - and then I will get it in the gallery. A nice simple build which I thoroughly enjoyed and it is not a bad looking plane, even if it was approaching obsolescence by the time the war started. I was sorry to have lost the original but now I have replaced it with what I hope is a slightly better rendition. That will be my one and only entry in this GB so it only remains to thank the organisers, and also those who have provided information, encouragement and other helpful comments along the way. Good luck to all who are still building - I will watch with interest over the coming months, whilst I have a break from GB's and get a few other kits from my stash either completed or, in some cases at least, started - there is always the KUTA to fall back on should the need arise. I guess now I can start the decorating my wife has in mind! Cheers Pete

I got the Navigation Lights done this morning and I'm calling this one done. RFI Here. As always a huge and grateful thanks to all of you who took the time and effort to follow, comment and react on this one. Your support and encouragement has been invaluable. Next up. Something a little simpler while I get on with the spitfires and plan how to rescue the Sunderland. I have never built an Airfix Hurricane so this should be fun. WIP Here Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair

That's why hospital admissions have been rising is it? As a person who understands the scientific information, and a former NHS worker, I am fed up with the "get on with it" ignorance in this country and all the nonsense excuses banded around by people who are clearly in denial, and only get their (mis)information from dubious social media accounts. We've now got Monkeypox being spread around like sweets at a party as well as a new variant of SARS-Cov-2 which is looking like the most problematic variant so far. Seems like we're back in the 80s when HIV/AIDS first emerged! How many viri and diseases do people want to take the risk of ending up, or putting others, in hospital with? SARS-Cov-2 being an IQ test would be funny, if it weren't for the disruption and pressure it puts on public services, and the consequent negative impact on people's lives. Sorry. /rant

As if COVID and monkeypox weren't bad enough, we'll now have "Sea Vixen withdrawal syndrome" to deal with! I look for a warning from the World Health Organization any day now.

Isn't it, though? It's amazing what adding just a few AM bits have done for it. It looks like a completely different model than the one I have. Best Regards, Jason

Man, that's the best build of the CyberHobby kit I've ever seen. Cheers, Bill

Well…. Not so fast. We haven’t seen it, have we? You could have easily reprogrammed the resin’s molecular structure to print in shades of grey. You’re probably working how to print in camo, too.

Hi! Even the Tamiya tape leaves big marks in the varnish...I'll let it dry for a few more weeks, or a few months... I will be able to finish the long canopy which will remain open. In any case do not intend to put it in place CORRECTLY on the kit. Its shape is wrong. It should be rounded at the front and not pointed as represented by Mikromir. Another bad point for them. I sanded the front to round it but it's still not enough. Impossible to do more considering the angle there is in the windshield. It would in fact have to be redone in its entirety...but no. The plastic is thin, which is a good point, but the uprights are very "thick" especially towards the front, you can sand them with a wedge without touching (or almost) the parts which must remain transparent. The surfaces are not smooth which can be seen very well. After sanding the uprights and polishing the surfaces: Mikromir provides masks but they lack precision and ESPECIALLY leave glue everywhere. A piece of advice, don't use them! After a layer of black, white and finally red: I started to remove the glue with a little alcohol, it's hard to come off, especially in the corners. I am very afraid for my painting. There is a frame inside the canopy. You can see it clearly in the first photos. At least part of it will have to be redone... Regards

He probably just printed it yesterday! Ian

Here’s my version of Tamiya’s 1:48 Vought F4U-1D Corsair. Aftermarket: HGW wet transfer (highly recommended) Montex glazing and insignia masks Ultracast seat & harness (resin) Quickboost engine (resin) Brengun wheels (resin) Paints used: 502 Abteilung oils Akan mig Mr Color MRP Tamiya vallejo I was inspired to build a “well used” Corsair after following @Dansk’s excellent Birdcage, his build gave me the notion to try multi-layer chipping and to portray both zinc chromate and salmon pink primer, I’m reasonably sure that salmon pink primer would have ceased being used before this version of F4U? Here are the photos… You can see my build log here… there you’ll be able to see the help and encouragement from numerous forum members who I owe a huge debt of gratitude to 👍 until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins)

Right, apart from some paint touching in, a windscreen wiper I need to source, and the stickers, this little beauty is done. And, as a taste of things to come…

Have been waiting for my pilot... Tub, seat, console and pilot all painted up. Dude in his seat. Canopy glazing on although I had noted a small bubble in each of the parts...and there is always a spec of dust that manages to get in, ho-hum. Stuart

Morning chaps There won't be much progress for the next 4 weeks, as my son who lives in Canada is coming to France for his holidays, with his wife and my grandson, and his brother will join us with wife and daughters ! That said, whenever I can steal an hour or two here and there to continue this project, I'll do it. Currently always working on the chassis, which suffered a new modification. Indeed, I've found on the Web some other pictures, which show a little better the underside of the fuel tanks. And it appeared that Revell was partially right and me partially wrong. So, I've modified it: I'm beginning to see, after a lot of testing and measuring, how I'm going to go about connecting the frame, doors and bath. There are several modifications and additions to be made to hopefully achieve this. See you later

For the ones interested in my lunacies, here is the WiP, or production line.... I love multi builds, a good way to compare and improve old kits !! Here we go for a comparison, Old Monogram vs Eduard..... The shape is right on both 2, Eduard wing is a bit on the thick side but the detail level is better.... More modern too.... I engraved the Monogram kit and as the plastic was prone to break, it has not been an easy journey.... Eduard plastic is far easier and soft !! I will not rate one over the other.... Both 2 are fine rendition !! The problem encountered on the Monogram are from my desire to improve the kit.... Well..... And now ??? Family pic again??? Daaa Daaaa Daaaa Tavaritch modeller..... Cannot say more.... TheSturmovik is a biiiiiig beast..... The MiG 3 and the P-39 are almost the same size !! Well Gents, I hope that I did'nt disturb for too long..... Next RFI will bring us on the other side of the planet.... Stay safe and enjoy modelling !! Sincerely. CC