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Good evening all. After a 'little' break between June and now, Ki-84 has been already finished. Now it's #1 kit on my personal list in 'fine detailed, easy to build & fun' category. During work I had some troubles with finding a photo of real plane so I focused only on gaining experince in painting the scratches. If I build one Ki-84 more then I'll paint all yellow straps, as there is currently a small colour difference between the decal and the leading edge 😪 (but hard to see on photos 😄)

Hi everyone, Finished this one just after the Invader, so thought I`d subject you to some photo`s My latest attempt at Academy`s 1/48 P-47N kit Finished to represent a Very Long Range Thunderbolt to go with my VLR Mustang I did a bit ago As usual, mostly from the box contents with a few embellishments here and there. The biggest one was to make the front of the engine more like a P-47N one....... .......so I chopped the front off the Academy engine and cobbled a new one together from bits and pieces from the spares box, stretched sprue etc smaller changes include: reshaping the propeller blades, replace gun barrels with metal tube, brake pipes, ignition harness and tank braces from wire The decals came from Super Scale International sheet 48-956 and went on beautifully Hope you enjoy the pic`s, thanks for looking Cheers Russ

Evening all, Another one completed this week, Eduard's 1/72 Spitfire VIII. Another lovely little kit, this is the Profipack edition finished OOB, except for the stencil decals, which are from Techmod, as the kit stencils were awful. Mr Color paints used for the main colours, Tamiya, Hataka Orange Line and Alclad for the details Eduard 1/72 Supermarine Spitfire LF VIII by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Eduard 1/72 Supermarine Spitfire LF VIII by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Eduard 1/72 Supermarine Spitfire LF VIII by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Eduard 1/72 Supermarine Spitfire LF VIII by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Eduard 1/72 Supermarine Spitfire LF VIII by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Thanks for looking, comments welcomed as always Shaun

hi all, This is the 1/32 Italeri F-104G finished in the markings of JaBoG 33. The kit is very good but not perfect. Fit of parts was excellent in places and poor in others; some details were crisp, others not; the plastic was soft and accepted glue really well, but the nose undercarriage leg is very weak; and some areas were well detailed others not. On the whole it went together well, but i incorporated an Aires cockpit and seat (both superb), a Reskit exhaust and wheels (again superb), a Master pitot (excellent) and Peddinghaus decals (not so good). The decals conformed well and were very strong, but they were about 15% too small and slightly inaccurate. As a consequence, i used some of the decals from an old Revell kit which perfomed well. However their falcon's legs were too big by about 20%! In the end it was a bit of a mix and match plus some help from my friend Richard who provided masks for the black bird outlines, thanks. Hope you like it Andy

My second build from "The Longest Day" box set. Having built the first one this was a little easier as I'd got the snags out of the way. Well, apart from the self-inflicted ones. Primed with Tamiya Neutral Grey, Painted with ColourCoats Interior Grey Green, Dark Green, Ocean Grey, Medium Sea Grey, RAF/FAA Yellow, Tamiya Flat White, Nato Black, Rubber Black, Buff, Clear Red, Clear Green, Clear Orange, Flat Aluminium. Washed with Citadel Nuln Oil, Seraphim Sepia and Flory Dark Dirt. Oils used from Windsor & Newton and Abteilung 502. Finished with Windor & Newton Galeria Matt and Satin Varnishes. WIP Here. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair

Hello Dear Friends! After the japanese 'Pete' I chose to build the american counterpart, the ubiquitous Vought Kingfisher. Not the prettiest kite over the Pacific during 1941-1945, but surely one of the most important unsung heroes of that war front. I got lucky and found a 1990's reissue of the old 1967 molds by Monogram. As a lot of you dear fellows know the Monogram kit suffers from a lot of shortcomings and innacuracies, mostly regarding the EDO float, the engine cowling and the rather spartan and simple cockpit. To fulfill that deficiencies I ordered the superb Flight Engineering pack with all the troublesome parts rebuild in resin. 10 points to the FE pack! The other interesting experience I had building this lovely seaplane, was the search for the correct colours of the 3-tone (actually 4-tone) cammo of the US Navy since the early 1943... I put my confidence in the accuracy of the AK Real Colors Intermediate Blue and Sea Blue to reach the goal, but the result was rather dissapointing when I compare their tonalities with some color photos of the time. I decided to intervined the 2 colours, adding some more blue and a little bit of red... and the results -at least for me- were much better. So... enough words! Here are the photos of this rugged and sturdy sea bird, ready to get catapulted from some American battleship or cruiser. Cris.

Here is my just-completed Hasegawa 1/48th Phantom FGR.2 (F-4M). My Work in Progress build thread is here: Falklands Phantom 1/48 Hasegawa - Work in Progress - Aircraft - Britmodeller.com Falklands Phantom 1/48 Hasegawa (britmodeller.com) The items added to the kit were the Aires FGR.2 cockpit and Aires wheels. I don't remember where the AIM-9Ls came from. The chaff and flare dispensers on the inboard pylons are from the True Details USAF F-4 Pylons set. I had some interference with the forward flare dispenser adapter and the AIM-9 rear fin. I had to trim both parts and slide the AIM-9s slightly forward to get them to fit. One thing that I didn't expect was that the kit canopy actuator pistons would not fit with the Aires cockpit. The rear actuator fit in but was too short to actually touch the canopy. I could not even get the forward canopy actuator in between the seat back and the center canopy section. I just left it off. That's something I'll have to look at for later builds when I use the Aires cockpits. (I have an E and G model Aires cockpit that I plan on using.) I tried to show a well-used jet, suitably dirtied up. I left the SUU-23 gun pod fairly clean since I thought the armourers might keep them stored in a relatively clean area. I used a thin lead mechanical pencil to make random scuff marks on the fuselage sides to represent boot marks from the techs working on the jet. Just a few random swipes. I also showed some wear on the left intake and canopy rails showing the yellow-green primer peeking through. Questions and comments are welcome. Thank you for following along.

With all that has befallen the UK in the last few days, it has been all too easy to overlook other worldwide events. Yesterday, 11th September, was the 21st anniversary of the massive co-ordinated terrorist attacks on the United States. This year also sees 50 years since the F-15 first flew. To mark both events, I have built the 1/72 Academy F-15E kit, with Two Bobs decals for "Lady Liberty" of the 48th Fighter Wing (The Statue of Liberty Wing), USAF Europe, based at RAF Lakenheath in the UK. This aircraft also bears the image of the Twin Towers along with the text "Never Forget". ... and with my other build of the month, more of which later !

It’s funny how one can be totally indifferent towards a certain aircraft and then one specific paint scheme sparks the inspiration. I noticed the (mid-90s) splinter scheme on the painting instructions of an ACE decal sheet I saw online and was intrigued, then somewhat disillusioned when I saw the real colors in an Airliners.net photo, then intrigued again after I finally found some pics of the aircraft in service. Of course everyone likes the signature digital camo of the Ukrainian Air Force, but for me the older splinter scheme is just too cool. The new Zvezda Su-25 seemed to be the perfect opportunity to implement this project, and I was delighted that Zvezda brought their A-game to this kit; it's miles above the competition. Cockpit interior details are very basic, but with a closed canopy and the awesome pilot in there, it won't be noticed, and the coaming & HUD are excellent. People who build this with an open canopy will want to use aftermarket parts anyway. The surface details are great, even if the thumb-sized mushroom rivets of the original are clearly under-represented on the model and the execution of panel lines is a bit uneven in certain areas. Part fit and engineering is perfect, and lastly, you can't beat the price, which is about 40 Euros around here. Fuselage construction is a multi-part affair, and I think it’s best to glue only limited sections while ensuring a proper fit. The decals (from Begemot?) are a dream to work with. There's a gazillion stencils to apply, since every panel seems to have it's own ZIP code on the original. The Ukraine markings were taken from a sheet for the Su-17 that I had around. The kit comes with a comprehensive and well-detailed weapon set. Unfortunately, Zvezda decided not to include the clear parts for some of the missiles, so I had to improvise for the S-25 seekers. I added and air duct and mirrors in the canopy and the target camera from an Eduard kit on the HUD, everyhing else is OOB state. Colors are custom mixed Tamiya acrylics and Vallejo Metal Color for the dull aluminium. Thanks for watching, and C & C are welcome!

Tamiya 1/48 P-38G. This was a most pleasurable build. The fit and finish were fabulous. Added Quinta 3-D cockpit decals and HGW seat belts. Enjoy! Finally figured the pic posting out!

Nice kit, this, went together with minimal effort and filler, just a little where the engine nacelles meet the wing leading edge. Undercarriage legs are a bit fiddly, but are fairly sturdy when they're all done. Not even 45g of nose weight was enough to stop it being a tailsitter, so the kit-included oil drum and ammo crate, as used in-theatre, is necessary. After some good advice on here, i've decided to keep it completely clean, and have given it a satin rather than glossy finish. As a recon bird i doubt it would ever have been fitted with the rockets, but i had already drilled the wings with the mounting holes, so it now just replicates the box art.

I rediscovered these two old photos today in the bottom of a biscuit tin - where else? I was a teenager when I did this one. It's the Tamiya Flakvierling onna 'alf track with some snow. I mads a silhouette of a diving aircraft and stuck it on the window for a target but that photo hasn't turned up yet and this is just a routine close up taken on film and developed by Boots the Chemist. I've photographed that old photo for your amusement tonight. This is the Tamiya (what else was there?) Bren Gun Carrier with a 17 pounder AT gun on tow. The officer is checking the time and calling "Move out lads!" as the crew mount up for action. Looking back nearly 50 years, I'm still proud of these, my first ever dioramas. I hope you like them too.

My first build of the year... This is Revell's 1/32 Bell X-1. Fairly decent and simple build. Finished in Humbrol acrylic No.18. zz20220911_181212 by Derek N.Ferguson, on Flickr zz20220911_181152 by Derek N.Ferguson, on Flickrc zz20220911_181145 by Derek N.Ferguson, on Flickr zz20220911_181135 by Derek N.Ferguson, on Flickr zz20220911_181128 by Derek N.Ferguson, on Flickr

My latest project was the new Airfix K2 Ambulance. It's built straight from the box. Everything fits together perfectly with no issues found. Unfortunately you can't help comparing it with the Gecko kit (which is ongoing at the moment) as that kit is far more detailed (and complicated) but this Airfix one is very nice in its own way particularly the decal options and ease of construction. Unlike the Gecko kit theres no engine supplied (just the sump shape) but I don't mind that as with the bonnet closed I feel it retains the classic Austin shape. I did think it strange tho' that a radiator is supplied but it's hidden behind the grill. I'm sure someone will release a photo etch one soon as it really could do with that. I'd certainly build another one. Since I took the photos I've realised I have the wheel nut colours the wrong way round so I now have red on the outer ones and white on the inner. Oops! Not that they were always painted anyway. The Caunter colurs are from AK Real colors. Thanks for looking. 20220904_123606 20220904_123627 20220904_123645

Say what you like about airfix but I really like their range of 1/48 kits Featuring the markings of Ken Taylor of the 47th Pursuit Squadron at Wheeler Field, Honolulu, Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbour. This was done with a mix of kit decals and masks made with a Cameo 4. I think these birds were fairly fresh and well maintained at the time of the attack so minimal weathering was done with washes and Ammo oil brushers, the only after market was a set of eduard belts. I'm also testing a new light setup so pictures are few but I'm trying a more 'moody' approach

Hi, I post some pictures of one of my builds from this year. I wanted to depict a Spitfire IX in french service in Indochina. I used a Berna decal sheet, one of the profiles is an interesting plane with a sharkmouth, from GC2/4 Lafayette squadron in 1947. On the sheet it is depicted with a C wing, but some pics of Lafayette spits I found on the web show a E wing, so I used an Eduard weekend edition of the Spitfire IX E. I started with a preshading in black highlighting some panels with white. All the markings except the squadron emblem where done with a Silhouette cutter. I used Tamiya paints, the weathering is done with oil paints and pigments. I also did a diorama base, supposed to be from India or Burma, but looking acceptable for Indochina also. The ground is covered with Marston matting, a kind of wire mesh set on tarred felt sheets. The sheets are done with Canson paper, the wire mesh with tulle. The elephant and his mahout come from a CMK resin kit. The harness is done with Tamiya epoxy putty, with a little chain from some cheap necklace. The pilot comes also from the CMK kit, I just changed the head which was full of bubbles for a head from a ICM kit. The accumulator trolley is scratchbuilt, the weels come from a Tamiya mototug which I thinned as much as possible to replicate some reference pictures. Here are some pics of the completed dio: have a nice weekend, Christian.

Third box of MiG-23 schemes - ref. СР72032 - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23MLA/ML "Flogger-G" Source: https://www.facebook.com/Clearpropmodels/posts/pfbid02MGzEcavtHWDwhjQwSKb9sE6Vhs7VLeJzSNHdLnbnjX24ZRct9vH85ENTy8Q1uvfhl V.P.

Italeri was present with a stand at Tornado 40 years celebration event in Ghedi (IT) and I had the chance to talk with the staff : they told me that 1/72 AMX is planned for 2023 along with 1/32 Macchi 202. They will be part of 100 years of Italian Air Force re-boxing, re-edition and brand new kits. It is expected around Christmas a new re-box of 1:32 Tornado that will include the decals to reproduce the special color livery presented during the above mentioned event. Finger crossed!

A new tooled 1/48 scale Canadair CT-114 Tutor !!! For your information. A renowned Canadian model maker who wishes to remain anonymous for the moment have recently started a project for a new tool 1/48 scale kit of the Canadair CT-114 Tutor. The project is currently on its first steps and we are here far from being able to set a possible date of availability. This future kit will most probably be a mixed media type with injected plastic parts, 3D printed resin parts and photoetch. The markings will be produced by an internationally renowned decal printer. For the moment, this canadian model maker has allowed me to share with you some 3D / CAD images of his project. A project to follow with great interest. 😎👍 SharkOwl from Quebec.

This one has been sitting for a while while I sourced the necessary decals. The idea for it was put in my head by @bigbadbadge and @Dandie Dinmont as Airfix had scanned a TT version of this I thought why not do it as one. I don't know if there is anything structurally needed to make it accurate but I'm just going with the Silver, Yellow and Black paint scheme, which, if I can pull it off should look good. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair

hi all, Following on from WallyinOz's photos from Exercise Pitch Black 2022, here are some of my pictures from the same event. I have also included a Hawk from Williamtown and PC-21s / King Air from East Sale. Hope you like them.

Hi guys, the Falklands war serie continues with a tribute to all the crew that participated in the epic Black Buck missions. While still a matter of controversy as to how effective these were considering the tremendous draw on resources, there is no doubt that the guys that flew them over the vast expanses of the South Atlantic deserve high credit. Handley Page Victor, Revell kit: Avro Vulcan B.2, Airfix kit:

Not much happening here today. A little seam work done and the empennage built up. A wee dry fit. Not going much further with this today as i need to decide whether to use the Eduard photo-etch parts for this or not. My concern being that they might not be strong enough to hold the rigging when I get round to it towards the end. This is certainly a big beastie. A comparison with a 1/72 spitfire and some of the tail end. Oof. No Idea where this is going to go. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair

It's done. My thanks to all of you who took the time to follow, react and comment on this one. My opinion hasn't changed about the perceived overengineering but it's a great kit. The fit is good and it looks like a Spitfire. It was still fun if a little exasperating in a couple of places. Will it stop me building another Eduard Spit. No. I've got quite a few 1/48 ones waiting in the wings. RFI Here. Next up. Hope to see some of you over there. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair

Many people don't like this kit (I've even seen someone bin theirs!), but I've really enjoyed building it. There haven't been dramas, even the red cheatline down the fuselage was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The decals were still fresh and went on really well. I don't know why people are so put off by this kit! In my opinion, this kit turns out really well. The only thing left is to do some touching up of the gloss white on the visor, where very small sections peeled off when I removed the masks. This is G-BOAA: With nose and visor drooped: With fleet mate G-BOAC (from the Revell boxing): With G-BOAC and F-BTSD (the Heller boxing): With all three noses drooped: I've got another Heller box upstairs; I do regret not having the landing gear down on F-BTSD.

Hello everyone. I am happy to present my finished model of A-10A as flown in Operation Iraqi Freedom back in 2003 by Captain Kim Campbell. On 7/4/2003 this specific aircraft was badly hit by A/A over Bagdad, however Cpt Campbell managed to bring the aircraft back and land safely!!! The model is the Academy 1/72 kit and no aftermarket products were used. It is painted in Humbrol colours Hu127 and Hu128 and received a mat finish with GUNZE acrylic matt coat. I managed to do a few improvements to the cockpit, the landing gear and added some antennas, sensors, etc. The overall impression of the kit is that it has very nice detail in panel lines, rivets, etc, but the fit is just horrible! There was no part that went together with another without the use of putty and sandpaper! The decals went on nicely even thought they are thick. However the sharkmouth decal was not used on the aircraft's nose. Instead it was painted. I understand that the weapon load is non realistic (someone told me that the plane can not take off like this) but when I was putting it together I didn't know that. Well, it could be a display plane in an Air Force Open Day! In any case, these is the complete model that I hope you like! Thank you very much for your time. Take care everyone and keep modelling!!!

Thanks Alistair, we did too. Thanks lads, a bit of a problem coming up. Cheers John, hope all is well with you and yours. Thanks @elger , @shortCummins and @Dr. Quack. Well folks, sorry for the late reply but life rears it`s ugly head again. These Eduard kits are great but their locating pins are very small and make things a bit frustrating to say the least when trying to dry fit the cockpit . So. You can see the size of the pins ( Look at the one on the upper engine cover. So my plan is to add some tabs to make lining up a bit easier. Plastic strips. Then fitted wit C/A . I will leave those to set before trying them out. Well it`s peeing down again so no spraying but hopefully tomorrow? Stay safe. Simon.

Hi everyone, Finally I have managed to find some time for modelling. Not an easy feat these last several weeks. So I decided to resume the lilliputian Boeing and tackled the top wing. Brush painted it, and not unhappy with the result; The yellow was painful: 4 coats of enamel and 2 coats of acrylics brushed on a white background before I was satisfied... Not fun. The Yellow wings decals behaved very well, but I am disappointed with their research: the top roundels are claimed to be 45 ", but they barely reached 40" on the decal sheet, and the narrow diameter was glaring. Thankfully I had an Aeromaster decal sheet with perfect 45" roundels, so I used them. The red center had to be added later though. Anyway, the fuselage is almost ready for priming, so all is well. Thanks for watching. Have fun! JR

'Virtually there in fact Giorgio! 🤣 Now I know what that mysterious triangular box beneath the engine deck was for Alan - it was the coal bunker! Have...have I just been libelled by a lawyer in my own thread? Get me Carter-Ruck on the phone Matthews! Important question Steve: am periodically testing (especially on tightly-curving sections) to see what adjoining surfaces can receive a 'stitch&thicken', as distinct from those that will need to be thickened individually later prior to combining as solids. I think you raised a similar related matter in your Hawk thread a little while ago whereby sometimes you can simply leave solid bodies overlapping/up against one another (without combining in any way) and they will quite happily print as one. Iirc on the Vixen there was more than one section that wouldn't combine due to a Boolean error but happily printed as part of a larger assembly - as long as there were no gaps greater than the print tolerance. A classic case of established orthododoxy succumbing to the 'whatever works' rule of thumb: mind you, I wouldn't be too keen on a designer of real aircraft adopting this procedure....

Finally, I’ve managed to finish something! It’s the 1/72 Airfix De Havilland Vampire T.11/J-28C kit, which I started for the 2nd Blitzbuild. I didn’t finish for the deadline, but I did manage to build it in under 24hrs of work. Alterations from the kit are limited to the pitot replaced with Albion Alloys tubing after the kit one snapped off and seatbelts made from tape (first go for me). It was also my first attempt at dot filters. The day glow panels are also painted rather than the kit decals, which didn’t look very convincing. The build thread is here: Comments gratefully received James

Hello there! I will not bother you with the famous history of the raid to kill Admiral Yamamoto, as it is well known by now. I did built the superlative Tamiya P38 on commission , "Miss Virginia" was the customer's choice, and seldom did I took so much pleasure in modelling. My customer had provided me with a lot of Brassin extras, Eduard photo etch etc. And sure I had a ball! To such a point that recently I bought the P-38J for myself! The only modification I made was to show the front wheel oleo extended which gives some stance to the model. Now on to the pics, best regards. BD4BDCEB-5C70-4BF5-A211-7DB8652D40AC_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr D95E1DE8-1EB1-4A96-B1B6-9B3CE2898FEA_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr F52E5D19-DB4B-43FC-ADC5-E62CE181FAC7_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr A27D5138-B480-46D3-954D-A4AE988E0272 by jean Barby, sur Flickr DCF47DD6-D493-45A3-BB08-5BB102A25D20_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr D07769E5-A648-4004-A552-9DF810F294FA_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 483FE7F6-F961-4B99-8BB6-1CC8A04BB366_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 04A5239A-6EB2-4D00-A72E-39C35EF4D0A2_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr B595DFFE-12FE-439D-A2B8-93F17FAF8B95_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr

So, now the next model. This time a J.A.S.D.F. RF-86F, flown with the Air Defense Command, Headquarters Flight Squadron. The kit is from 1986 and therefore quite old. However, I find it quite good and the decals still worked very well. It was mostly painted with colors from MRP. I also used an Eduard PE kit (SS139), masks from Montex (SM72105) and beautiful wheels from ResKit (72-0078).

Still moving forward with this little beauty . I have used the tail assembly as practice for the aircraft as a whole as anything that I was not particularly happy with would be easier to rectify. The top surfaces were ribbed with plastic strip and the lower with Tamiya masking tape. The plastic worked out better as it was easier to sand right down to what I thought looked OK. After a good couple of coats of paint they can take quite a beating. That is as it is today, model club tonight so no progress again! This has my full attention when at the bench so onward with some painting and the mount the tail assembly. I hope this is of interest. Keith.

Hi all, Only took 7 years to finish this! Started originally just after the kit was released and worked on in fits and starts ever since. For some reason I just never had the motivation to finish it until now. Matt

Thanks Craig, I think she looks alright. Mr Color 365 sea blue for the dark blue (quality as always). Not 100% happy with my masking, and it’s quite hard to photograph, but I do like the incongruous sight of an F5N (sorry F-5N) dressed as an F6F. Just the hot section and some tidy-ups left to go for painting.

The floo? Is this it at the back of the cabin wall? Looks like a very nicely styled chimney breast doesn't it? We should surely hold it in awe, very superior design features. Although I am bemused that the Royal Navy should refer to the floo in such an archaic term, whatever is wrong with the modern Anglicised word Flue? Comedy, albeit lame and feeble like this doesn't detract from the brilliance of what we are watching unfold. Lead on Tony, I'm trying hard to follow the designs and brickbats of the structures.

No. They did not. It is still too green and too blue.

I knew the Navy had it cushy like, but they got fireplaces in their helos? I guess they needed both hands for flying so the mantel would be handy place to rest their G & T's. Nice update Tony. The little fella is surely creeping out of the larval stage now. Prints by the weekend?

Next on my build list, the Tamiya 1/35 M60A1 (the US Marine version with the Reactive Armour). I'd been putting off building this one for a while because I didn't know how I would make it look interesting with all the armour panels on it. Well, no more - since I've been practicing weathering techniques and I am now getting to the point of being happy with my what I can do, I thought I'd finally tackle it. First off, here's a picture of it built and painted - last year it would have stayed like this - other than adding decals - exactly what I didn't want And following the lessons from my progress with weathering so far, here's the outcome of a few more rounds of attention on this one. On to some of the other vehicles I've been putting off for the same reason, then I can start on ones I've been putting off for other reasons (like building tracks). Thanks for looking as always

My first venture into the rotary model world and one that I enjoyed despite being out of my comfort zone! I used the BigEd pe set (33104) and the scalewarship rotor fold set along with a lot of scratch building. I painted it using Tamiya XF's and pastels.

I built this British Airways Concorde in the elegant "Union Jack / Chatham dockyard" scheme some time ago. For me as an enthusiast of vintage airliners having a model of the Concorde on my shelf was a must. The last flight of the Concorde took place in October 2003, so almost 20 years ago. So, IMHO we can call her a vintage airliner. The terrible crash after the take-off at Paris CDG airport was, of course, one of the reasons for the termination of Concorde's era but the consumption of fuel according to present standards was also astronomical, about 10 times the amount per passenger than in today's airliners. This is a Revell 1/144 scale kit with aftermarket parts from Draw decals and Metal detail's photoetches. The kit was quite ok, the only problem being the cockpit windows. As usual in Revell's airliner kits the cockpit and cabin windows are clear parts. Since the cockpit window frames of the Concorde are very thin I simply wasn't able to paint them accurately enough to the somewhat thick clear plastic part of the kit. Thus, I decided instead to order a Concorde details decal set with cockpit windows from Draw Decals. It really beats me that the excellent decal sheet of the kit doesn't include a decal for the cockpit windows.

I feel this is a historically important subject, which should be exempt from the usual Bunfight. Therefore am making an executive decision. This GB will run from 4 April 2024 to 28 July 2024.

Hi comrades! The fuselage interior finished; the fuselage assembled. Wings prepared for the interior painting and weathering. Thanks for looking!

Amazing to reach 101 and still be relatively mobile and lucid, especially considering he was almost killed at age 20 (7 December 1941). His powerful voice and very firm handshake have weakened very considerably, but he is still at it. What an amazing life he's had! Now both remaining USS Arizona survivors are aged 101.

There were for blades. The markings at the blade base were for these differences, different colour discs. "Regarding the markings within the coloured disc I can add that the Horden-Richmond Aircraft one shown in my first response above with the green disc and HRA text was made of Hydulignum with a Rotoloid covering and Armoured Sheath as identified by the disc and letters HRA. Jablo Propellors Ltd blades had pink discs while Horden-Richmond Aircraft Ltd blades had green ones, Rotol Airscrew Ltd blades had white while Yellow ones were seen on The Airscrew Company Ltd blades. The lettering within the disc would vary which would indicate the Material , Covering and Sheath of the blade so marked." They may vary in shape, they do on other Griffon Spitfires. Study photos. also https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/103145-propeller-markings https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/37940-help-required-spitfire-prop-blade " JP' are the code letters for blades manufactured by 'F. Hills & Son Limited'. For future reference:- 'RW' manufactured by Rotol Limited'. 'D' manufactured by 'Airscrew Company Limited'. 'HRA' manufactured by 'Horden-Richmond Limited'. This blade is from a five blade set as fitted to 20 series Spitfires. The RS marking on a 'Pink' disc indicates the Material is 'Jablo Wood, the Covering is 'Rotoloid' and the Sheath is 'Simple'. The RA denotes 'Rotol Limited' and always prefixes the Drawing Number" I can't find the help manual drawings also http://www.spitfireperformance.com/jf319.html note individual blade numbers. @gingerbob @Graham Boak @Magpie22 @Peter Roberts maybe able to add more details.

Now, if that came up behind me in my MR2....😳 I think my rearview would be roughly in line of those six lights.

The rear wheels are 19" Rudge Whitworth. With a 4'' tyre width, the recommended rim width is 2.5", and with no other information, that's what I've used. This wheel has two rows of spokes on the rim, in the centre and on the outside web, 36 spokes at the back and 24 at the front. Here are the basic parts The jig is similar to the front wheel. I used 3 spokes on this one so it's easy to tell the difference from the front one. No spoke guidelines, I only get confused! This was my reference I had to make a shortened spoke nipple for the outer row as there isn't so much rim to go through I spent a while getting the square adjuster right on the end of the nipple, even though it's difficult to see in 1/8 scale.... First row of spokes And a completed wheel This time I've got the tyre valve in the right place - where you can get a hand to it... I've got some F69 resin to print the tyres - more on that later. Another curiosity on BM is the rear brake. The drum is attached to the rear drive sprocket and the brake actuator (from the outside handbrake) must come from another vehicle, but I've never seen one... This photo looks back to the rear axle. The drum is on the right, and on the left of the contraption is the operating arm. You can see the shoe return springs inside the drum. The front of the arm is bolted to a piece of shaped steel and rests (!) on top of the gearbox (this is a top view) Here's the basic arm, I'm going to use brass for the bit that rests on the gearbox (ooh metal again at last!) Jo

I thought 1/48 was the province of rebels and rascals… In this case however, I will let you off and pretend it’s a genteel scale - just keep those rulers hidden! Regards, Adrian

Thunderbird 2 is now in primer. As always, it has highlighted some seams that need a bit more work but, overall, I'm pleased so far, especially with the join between the fuselage and the nose which needed quite a bit of work. I decided to sand down the raised panel lines and I'll represent the panels at the painting stage. A bit more filling and sanding tomorrow but she might be green by the end of the week... John

Evening all. Straight down to business as the build - can I call it a build yet? - 'proto-Wasp' manybe? - anyway, whatever Schrodinger-like condition this currently exists in it requires some decisions to be taken at this early stage about how it will eventually be printed in sections. The first step down this path was to complete blocking out the main interior spaces. This basically involved cutting in through the underside of the engine deck so that the triangular gimp-cupboard and fuel tank areas are all one unified volume, as well as adding the cockpit floo and rear cabin wall to define the main volumes there as well. Punching some measurements up you can see in theory that it would be possible to print the entire front section and engine deck as a single unit: In theory; but this would ignore the realities of the printing process in terms of supporting such a long structure without either wrecking the nose in a forest of supports (if printing from the front) or having too little a support area to be of use at the rear of the engine deck (where it meets the boom). It makes sense then to divide the airframe into three for printing purposes, namely, nose/cabin, engine deck and fuel tank bay, tail boom. This should ensure that each section has a good sturdy 'base' to support it during printing. The other matter rapidly approaching is the need to begin turning what are currently just a series surfaces describing the shape of the Wasp into solid bodies that can be printed. You could - again in theory - simply stitch together and thicken all these existing surfaces into a set of solid objects and later on cut out things like doors and windows, but I reckon it makes more sense to cutout the required shapes from the surfaces first, like a tailor marking up a suit. This should prove easier when - as is always the case - you need to go back and make alterations as more parts gets added and errors emerge in previous work. I started down this route then by setting out the front and rear doors: Swiftly followed by using the same drawings to produce the corresponding framework in the cabin walls: Every now and again I pop everything back together to check the overall look & feel: It's too easy to get tunnel vision working on individual sections and you have to keep reminding yourself that what you're working on is intergrated within a larger structure VVry much like those old abandoned airframes in this condition.... You wouldn't be human if you didn't pop the doors back on at this point and waggle them open and closed: The windows need doing next and I must remind myself to keep the cutout panes safely tucked away to turn into bucks for vacforming. I havent quite finished with building the shell of the airfame yet though - there are a number of symmetrical features still to add to it at this stage before it all gets thickened and mirrored: That graphic isn't entirely true; after doing it a few days back I've had a closer look a that lamp housing under the nose and it isn't a symmetrical shape in it's own right, plus it has some detailed work needing doing on it with regard to the lamps and their housings which means it makes more sense to add it later as a fitting. The other three though I'll do up as surfaces next time. Looking out the bedroom window on Saturday night I caught Jupiter gleaming in the moonrise: Hope your weeks are off to a good start in this mad world. Tony