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My good friend Nearsighted John has finally convinced me to start posting my builds on Britmodeler… I’ve been consuming the content here for some time now, and now it’s time to contribute. 🙂 I like building old kits out of the box because I like the challenge. Depending on the kit, one can get models that look (almost) as good a newer kits. Well, maybe… As long as you don’t put them side by side. 😜 I think there’s a relatively new IPMS category called “Classic Builds” just for people like me. With that introduction, I present my build of the Monogram 1/48 Hawker Typhoon. This kit was tooled in 1967 and released in 1968. Most people forget that at the time, Monogram was the premier kit manufacturer in the world. And with good reason. Although their catalog was small, they continued to raise the bar, both in terms of accuracy, molding and fit. This model is a good example of the state of the art in the late 1960s. This is 100% out of the box. All rivets and panel lines are raised. Typical of Monogram, all panel lines matched when the parts were assembled. On that subject, parts fit was excellent, and no putty was used. The only gap was on the underside where the wing joined the rear fuselage. I filled that with styrene and sanded flush. I painted this bird with Tamiya acrylics and weathered with oils. I did make one modification. The rockets were molded with the fins in the wrong position. So, I cut them off and repositioned them. That’s it! In my “library”, I found a copy of the Profile publication for the typhoon from 1967. It’s obvious Monogram used this as their reference for the markings on their kit.🙂

Hello At the beginning I was not very motivated by the build because the comparison with the armastangs I started in parallel was not fair... But well... At the end I am pretty happy with this rather simple build. I am not used to Braille scale so to say... But I enjoyed it. Mostly from the box with 3d printed hvar, arma mustang plastic wheels, kit decals. Painted in Tamiya Lp11/lp38 for the wings. Mr hobby super chrome silver on the fuselage, later coated with satin gx114 varnish to break the metallic shine. Oil weathering. Oh and I had to remove the clear parts and replace them with Tamiya ones. I managed to get cement infiltration on the windshield, and ugly white marks on the joint line of the canopy. Pics taken with canon 800d, transfered and a bit processed on my smartphone. Cheers!

My first finish of 2023. Tamiya 1:48 P-51B Mustang finished as a P-51C of the 25th fighter squadron, 51st fighter group, based in China in 1944. The plane has a special place in history as the only US fighter lost to an RTAF fighter during WWII. In an engagement on November 11, 1944, 7 P-38s plus 1 P-51 escorted a flight of 8 P-51s on a strafing mission in northern Thailand. After a brief but deadly encounter with 5 Ki27s fighters of the Thai air force, all five Thai fighters would be shot down or severely damaged, with all five pilots wounded. However, they were able to inflict damages on two of the escorting P-38s. Once P-51C, flew by 2nd Lt. Henry Minco was less fortunate. He was shot down and killed in a dog fight with one of the Ki27s. The crash site of the P-51 was recently rediscovered and there is an ongoing effort to locate the grave of its pilot to return to his homeland. Cheers! Nanond

F-106A Delta Dart, 72-502, 101st FIG, Massachusetts ANG, during William Tell 1980 weapons meet. The kit is 1:72 Meng Models and was rather nice kit with good details. You could have built this with missile bay and radar open and comes with extra missilles and a missile carriage but I made this almost closed up to make sure the nice lines are visible. Basically no weathering apart from soft panel line wash to show it's near mint condition (I haven't seen a pic of F-106 in dirty/bad condition). And I thought as it was a plane to be sent for the William Tell weapons meet, it would have likely be seen some extra care before the event. No aftermarket apart from Master pitot tube. Painted with Vallejo acrylics and weathered with Flory Models washes (I made a mix from Grey and Dark Dirt). Decals by Experts-Choice. They were meant for the Hasegawa kit so the fit was not 100%, needed to do some adjustment by painting. Cool thing was that the USAF and U.S. AIR FORCE text are in dark blue as they should be and not black as they are usually printed in the decal sheets. Built for the Century Series GB but missed the deadline. WIP:

The new kit from Airfix a joy to build, build out of the box, Information on plane history found at Public record office. Cheers Jes

The backstory .. 21+ years ago, I acquired the Airfix 1/24th Hurricane Mk 1, which I began with so much enthusiasm and grand plans. So much for that, and due to various reasons, it was put in the loft, where it laid quietly waiting for the build that never came until late 2021 when I decided to pick up the modelling tools again. I wasn't sure if the kit had survived a house move 10 years ago, but it had. I wasn't sure how well it would go together, but the trials and tribulations can be found in the work in progress Here I've now decided that I'm calling this finished, but before the pictures .... There are some areas that I'm not entirely happy with, such as the tailplanes due to the fit and my rusty skills The decals are the originals that came with the kit and there is some silvering on the fuselage ones, despite using decal softener and fixer The tail fin red/white/blue are painted on rather than use the decal Weathering is a mix of oils and pastels and I wanted to attempt to give it a look to represent constant sorties and the toll it would take on the airframe So onto the main event ...... Thank you for taking the time to look and your comments/feedback are welcomed. Keith 😁

Israeli Mirage III by SH. It's a nice kit though nearly managed to screw it up by misreading the instructions. Impressive selection of stores included so have a bit of space in the spares box. Tamiya Chrome Silver as main coat with a few panels picked out finished with a MiG panel wash. . Box decals that went on fine. Thanks for looking Stu

Hello folks! With this model I end up my project of the late 109 production. Really hard to tell the differences between a G14 As and a G 10! This is the plane of Lt Walter Köhne when flying with the 6 /JG11, thus the yellow band of the defense of the Reich. Köhne used to have the name of his pet on the fuselage, Satan was his dog!This deco is provided by Eduard but I did it with masks. Now I am finished with the late 109! 89CB361B-EF4E-4564-A45B-016275B1CB30_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 610C0390-DF65-440C-BC55-6B5EC05A3A5F_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr E14AF735-C85F-47C0-9ADA-0131118CBE41_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 3CECA677-1D2C-426A-A4B4-62AC168EC919_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 0DA8E740-4734-470A-9FE9-24BB6DA3C539_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 3D4FA779-F3C4-41C2-B8A2-27EF7AB085C5_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr

Hi all, here my new build: Tamiya`s new F-35A Lightning II in 1:48. Amaizing kit with great details. Add the Eduard PE set for the cockpit and Caracal Decals (48225) for a 495th FS aircraft from RAF Lakenheath.

Thanks for all the lovely comments. I had planned to do lots of tests but I figured where’s the fun in that so decided to just try stuff live and see how it goes. 🥳 so with that I figured I’d try out my plan to sand the decals before sticking them on. Oooh might just work? Maybe. Smoothed out a bit. then popped it on. I’d totally forgotten that I’d masked the demarcation line so I rubbed that off too. Nice! 😎 With the other side I went at it with some tweezers to make it more chipped. I figured this was working so had a go with the red strip on the intakes. Almost sure but I decided to sleep on it and see what the morning brought. well the morning bought a decision to make a few changes. I figured the white was a bit much so decided to thin and lighten up some paints and do some colouring in. After a few seconds we were here. I felt better about this look. Worked well on the wings and I even sanded the stencils. And the other side. Now while adding the decals or indeed looking at what I had to add I figured it was odd there were so few I had to add. So I did a search. looks like my kit was missing this sheet. Lucky we have scale mates and I have a printer. 😍 so the immense amount of stencils started going on. Even bits I’d planned on painting went through the decal / paint option. best of both worlds keeping @giemme happy. Right Georgio? 🤔You can see (hopefully) that the multitude of mini stencils are on the top side. I have had to use Daco to settle them as they are quite thick. Next stop the belly decals. Then we can start talking about adding more wear and tear. 😊 Not a bad start. 🤩 Thanks for dropping by, hope you’re all having a great weekend. Take care all. Johnny. 🙌

BCE7465A-E85B-4E4A-AAB4-E7214BDDE66C by Ben Brown, on Flickr 0FEF8405-4849-4C21-9B9E-397B7786960A by Ben Brown, on Flickr Farm Aviation Services flew regularly from Sywell in the 60's - this particular machine was only with them for a short time before being exported to Africa and the attached photos of her flying were all I had to go on - I cobbled together info from photos of other FAS machines - but 'RZZ seems to have had red registration numbers and didnt have a full side stripe to the nose. It wasnt until I started researching the type that I realised Piper effectively designed it using parts from their spares bin - if you imagine a Super Cub wing upside down with I think a Tri Pacer tail plus a new fuselage you have a Pawnee - once you realise that you can't unsee it! C65AD26B-BFF6-496F-BB66-DB2369DE22EB by Ben Brown, on Flickr PauL Smith was the pilot - he was quite a character and he passed away a few years ago. His family donated some items to Sywell Aviation Museum including his parachute. I must admit I didn't study it until a few years later when I noticed 'Fallschirm 1940' on the label - he'd been flying with a Luftwaffe parachute which looks like it's never been deployed! 59C62F32-8414-4CC1-ACC8-A5624E805699 by Ben Brown, on Flickr The kit is the KP issue from a few years ago. Typical KP, fit isn't brilliant 'requires modelling' - but overall it looks the part. They missed the wing strut braces (which I only spotted after I'd finished it!) the U/C struts themselves are a bit chunky and there isnt an awful lot in the cockpit. I jazzed it up with some decals from the spares box but after I added an Airfix pilot you can't see much. This is also because the canopy is very chunky and has flow marks/stress cracks in the front screen - which weren't caused by me and no amount of polishing or Klear could remove. Decals are old Aeroclub reg letters from the stash which are still pretty good if a bit thick and the strips are from an old Hannants set (same thing applies) touched in with Humbrol 60 red. The detail decals are from the kit and went down fine - I printed the FAS names on Mr Decal paper on the laser printer at work - great quality. BF7A0FD1-D12E-4798-8B0C-42FEEB313FCA by Ben Brown, on Flickr KP don't give you any form of spray/dusting dispersal unit which seems a bit tight given it's an ag plane. Even a spray bar would have been something - but 'RZZ seems to have been fitted with a silver unit not dissimilar to that found under the Tiger Moth in the DH Museum, a 'Coldstreamer Duster Sprayer' no less, so I scratchbuilt one from plasticard and I'm pretty pleased with it! 7C288B0E-36B5-47EA-BFA7-C79BFD84B699 by Ben Brown, on Flickr B5675BDB-68E3-474E-9260-F9CF341AE499 by Ben Brown, on Flickr She was painted with Rustoleum rattle can white plastic primer - I can't tell you how good this stuff is - its almost the same as Tamiya white surface primer but you get three times as much for 2/3 of the price. Then Kleared and detail painted with Humbrol enamels. She looked a bit too shiny for an ag plane so I added a Flory dark dirt wash with varying success! 9DB78574-94FC-4CB2-9F11-D45E0A83B606 by Ben Brown, on Flickr Base is a simple wooden one from Just Bases (they used to have their 10 for £5 boxes at Telford) sprayed white then using wet enamels I streaked with green and yellow paint to create a blur, I think it sort of works! 86C0B991-9995-4053-8F5D-F5E6D9F7F47B by Ben Brown, on Flickr Will be placed on display at Sywell Aviation Museum shortly - as a parish notice we open on Easter Saturday at our Grand Opening (with military vehicles, re-enactors, visiting aircraft etc) thence each weekend and bank holiday 1030-1630 until the end of September with Tues/Weds opening 12-4 in the summer. Also our Book and Model Sale is on the 12th March 2023 - this Sunday - see SHOWS section for more info Hope you like it! ATB TT

This is a Choroszy resin kit in 1/72 scale. This particular aircraft was also known as the Spruce, codenamed by the Allies during WWII. The build involved some scratch building to add finer details, particularly the main wing struts. Side by side comparison with the Fujimi Claude: regards, Jack

Greetings Friends- Here is my latest. Another week-long build. It came out rather nice with the Mr. Color Super Metallic NMF colors! This is the Hasegawa Ki-44 Shoki Tojo kit. I had some wing to fuselage fit problems but overcame them. Several silvers from the Mr. Color range were used to develop a paneled appearance with satin silver, shiny silver, and darker silvers and I am getting bolder with NMF. I still like the shiny appearance as many photos I looked at of the Shoki had reflections and looked rather pristine. This kit was a fun build, and I added a PJ Productions resin Japanese Pilot to give the kit some 'life'. I used the excelent Yahu instrument panel which was a great detail... I also used aftermarket decals and made the tail graphic RED as opposed to the commonly portrayed Yellow for this airplane. The latest study on colors thinks this is red and not the yellow we have seen since the 1970's Arii kit! So I also changed the fin flash to Black because pictures show this darker than red tail graphic. Enjoy the pics and let me know what you think and how I can improve! Thanks!

Just finished this one, nice kit build out of box, decals fra spare stock. Cheers Jes

This is the second of my two restorations from remains of the old FROG kit. This time, I have represented Jean Battens' record breaker G-AARB. The only thing is, the real ARB was a metal moth with fabric covered fuselage as opposed the ply one as in the kit. So this model is a replica of a replica which was reproduced in NZ using the real ZK-ADT( as per my first resto build posted here not long ago) painted up as 'ARB. As per the previous one, I replaced all the struts and undercarriage work from plastic rod and aerofoil section rod. I also added the long exhaust pipe . For this one a spare propeller was added too to replicate the spare prop on Jean Battens aeroplane and with wheels from my box of spare wheels and scratch made tail skid though not accurately reproduce here. The decals are from the same sheet,as my previous model, produced by Old Model Decals. Not entirely accurate due to the incorrect font style and size of the wing registration lettering. Completing this now reduces my unfinished builds down to around 3 waiting in the wings. Noticeable in a couple pics is the clear portions of the decals silvering against the silver paint. I tried all my different decal solutions and methods to beat it but failed. (As too is my modelling abilities....) Meanwhile, I am waiting for the book by Jean Batten for reference and hopefully good reading.

May I present my finished 1/48 scale representation of BAe Sea Harrier FRS1 XZ451 of 801 RNAS built from the Kinetic kit with the addition of the Eduard Big Ed FRS1 PE set as she may have looked on the morning of the 1st May 1982 at the start of the air campaign in the Falklands war. Later that evening, Ian Curtis downed Argentine Canberra B-110 with a Sidewinder 9L while flying XZ451. You can see my build of Canberra B-110 here. I applied minimal weathering to XZ451 because I decided that at the start of the campaign it is likely she would have retained the original high gloss finish and her underside would not have picked up too much muck from the ships deck during take off and landing. I did consider adding a 1000lb GP bomb that appears in the first photo to the centre line pylon, but learned late on in the build that 800 sqn aircraft only carried bombs later in the campaign and so left it off. She’s configured with two Sidewinder AIM 9Ls and 100 gal tanks for flying a CAP in support of the 800 RNAS attack on the Argentine held Falkland Island airfields. I am extremely grateful for all the help I received from fellow Britmodellers Amos Brierly, Biggles87, Wombat, Pete in Lincs, Grey Beema, ERK, Whitewolf, Junglierating, Tweeky, Johnson, Pappy, Pajarito, Phone Phixer, Wellsprop, NG899, Collin and last but not least, Selwyn during my work in progress posts. There were several twists and turns during the construction of what turned out to be an unexpectedly tricky build as I learned on the fly about various pitfalls and the modifications needed to correct the some of the kit's errors, which if interested in you can review in full here . NG899’s detailed build notes and his history of the Sea Harrier’s exploits in the Falklands proved to be especially useful reference materials. I used a combination of Tamiya rattle can and Vallejo acrylic/urethane primer to prime the parts. Colour coats were a mixture of Mig and Tamiya acrylics for the details and the main colour finish is AK Real Colour Extra Dark Sea Grey lacquer with sealing gloss coats of Klear applied using both airbrush and hairy stick. The final glossy top coat was applied by hairy stick to the upper surfaces only and you can just about see the demarcation between this and the airbrush applied under surfaces in the photo below which represents the boundary between the original upper surface finish and the EDSG applied over the original white underside during the voyage south on board HMS Invincible. The nose wheel freewheels and I've just noticed that the flat I carefully filed on to the front wheel is annoyingly pointing up in these pictures! I must remember to check it's rotation when displaying it.😉 Although I've "finished", I’m thinking of making a deck scene for the model, with further details such as boarding ladder, standing pilot figure and remove before flight items which if I get around to, I’ll be sure to post.

My first post here… This is the 1968 Olsonite Eagle. This car was driven by Denny Hulme to a 4th place finish at the 1968 Indy 500. This car used the Ford 4 cam Indy engine. Hulme’s teammate, Dan Gurney, came in 2nd driving another Eagle, but that car was powered by the “stock block” production based OHV engine. First place was won by Bobby Unser driving yet another Eagle. However, Unser’s car was powered by an Offy engine. It’s interesting that of the three, the car with the oldest engine design came in first, and the car with the most sophisticated engine, was behind the other two. Go figure. So, who or what was Olsonite? Well… in 1968, Olsonite was the trade name for one of America’s most successful brands of…. Toilet seats! This model was built from the 1/25 scale MPC kit. The kit had the option to build Gurney’s car (#48) or Hulme’s car (#42). I like the 4 cam race engine, so Hulme’s car it is! This model is almost out of the box (AOOTB). I broke the windscreen trying to thin and polish it, so I replaced it with a vacuum formed unit. I also used metal tubing for the rear axle to make it stronger. No details or enhancements were added. It’s a really lousy kit (seriously lousy)! But like most things, if you exert some effort, good results can be obtained.🙂 The highlight of the kit (to me, at least) is (are?) the exhaust headers… they are molded in one piece (tail pieces were separate). I had to trim, file and otherwise clean them up, but I think they look great!

Hello all When I saw that a two seater Draken kit was going to be released I had to get one as its one of my favourite aircraft. So, what to say about the kit. Firstly it’s not an easy build. The mouldings are short run style in very soft plastic with large gates and loads of flash, the detail is in there you just have to work to release it! The fit is poor, especially at the wing joint, and many of the parts are oversize requiring the pairing away of plastic until they look right and fit. (The entire cockpit tub and the scoops on the spine behind the canopy fell into this category). Also, be warned, the big tank pylons are angled and shaped for left and right but the kit supplies two for the same side. Rather than make two new ones (the shape is quite complex) I turned one round and reshaped it slightly. This handing problem is repeated on the main U/C legs in that the lugs for the doors are on the wrong sides for one of the legs. The periscope was discarded for a scratch item as it was immense, all the aerials, pitot, and underwing stores are scratch. Finally, the rear canopy is much narrower and taller than the front. It lends itself more to being displayed in the open position and going to town on detailing the cockpit interior. The Decals are excellent. The finished model turned out much better than I thought it was going to considering the quality of the mould, which I should point out I am not complaining about, I’m merely pointing out the issues that I encountered during the build. It’s finished as an aircraft from ESK 725 RDAF which was displayed at Mildenhall air show in 1985. Like lots of you I probably have a photograph of it somewhere. The colour is Xtracolour Nato green with minimal weathering (its at an air show after all!) panel lines highlighted with Flory wash. Hope you like it, here are some pics. Thanks for looking Pete

Good evening everybody - I know I promised some pics earlier in the week, but I got caught up with things and yesterday went skiing again, so... Anyway, I managed some progress today (in fact, we have paint! ) , so here it is: outer wings glued in and cockpit masked I also glued in the spine blade antenna - hoping that it will stay there till the end of the build The antenna itself came from the Hasegawa kit, since there were none of the appropriate shape in the FM boxing More masking for the intakes and underneath, the U/C bays and auxiliary air intakes So, mid-week I had this lot of bits (and the main AC) ready for a base coat Just like I did with the Hasegawa kit, I airbrushed Tamiya Flat Black as primer/base coat Then I decided to paint the radar cone first, as I figured it will be easier to mask that and paint the camo rather than viceversa (what with the bird slicers and the gun in the way?) I airbrushed Tamiya Sky Grey for this; it may seem a bit on the bright/light side, but after a gloss coat it will darken quite a bit. Should look good with the rest of the scheme. This is now curing properly, then I'll gloss coat it, mask it and start with the camouflage scheme. Next time, though Meanwhile, all comments welcome Ciao

Hello folks I had the last time very little time for the hobby, but in small steps it goes back to the workbench. Unfortunately I could not finish the Halftruck GB, so here in the WIP for all interested at first a small summary of the work on the M3 so far. My idea to convert it into an ambulance has given me a bigger task and as so often the work took no end. If you decide for an OOB build, the kit makes no problems, but if PE parts are used (eg Voyager), a lot of surgery is required. Once again, I find that a halftruck is much more work than a tank or truck. Here you have a mixture of both, which increases the amount of detail. If you then want to show the interior and engine, it does not get easier. As far as the painting is concerned, you have to see exactly when, where and how you paint or glue together. Otherwise you will have more work later. I hope you like the model so far. MD The object of desire 😁 Ready to go! The engine is not well detailed and important parts are missing. Wheels can not be shown turned in, I have changed that. Cast on springs... ...better 😁 Work for the saw... The PE parts were not usable, so I use the kit parts. The fighting room must be rebuilt. Seats out, stretchers in. The new base. Since the ambulances were troop conversions, there are very few pictures of the interior-plus each vehicle varies in its design. Checker plates for the floor. The previously removed seats are reused. The new interior with seats, boxes and supports for 3 stretchers. The next step is the engine. A distributor is needed... Generator, starter, fuel pump, ignition coil, etc. are rebuilt. The splashboard of the engine compartment is not correct. done To simplify the subsequent painting, I have changed the model and created individual assemblies. To do this, you have to work very carefully and check everything again and again by test fits. The cooler also fits 😅 Some parts had to be rebuilt to reproduce the engine halfway reasonably There is also an alternative engine kit from Plus Models, but I preferred to rely on my references and also saved money. Everything fits together well and can also be disassembled again. The shifters were rebuilt with wire-the geometry from the kit was not correct. The fins of the radiator armor was newly created from plastic card. New, more stable axles were installed. Missing strengthening ribs and holes were added. New tailgate latch, taillights drilled out and reinserted, and a storage rack for luggage. Trial fit of the engine hood. The engine gets its base color. And again a trial fit, lamps are also installed. The complete engine is painted and weathered. The painting would otherwise not be possible later without the removable front. The result after 40 hours of work... My template for comparison See you!

For those that have followed my build of the AFV Club Scimitar Here, the project is finished ... and here's the result: Thank you for looking and your comments/feedback are welcome. Keith 😁

Finally finished this little project involving the Special Army 35002 kit, with some additional details. At the end, it was a pleasant experience for me, and paid off all the effort.

I know Alec and am in a position to know something about this, so having discussed the matter with him this morning, this is the current state of play. The person who was responsible for casting the resin components of this kit died suddenly last year. As with all sudden deaths, this one left a great deal of chaos behind it both personally and professionally. Leaving the personal aside, professionally, the same person did a lot of casting for other manufacturers besides Alec, and the workshop was full of patterns, moulds, materials and equipment about which the next of kin knew nothing. This took an awful lot of sorting out. Once the workshop had been emptied, it became apparent that many patterns had gone missing. There is not thought to be anything suspect about this, it is simply the sort of thing that can happen when a life suddenly ends and those who are left behind to pick up the pieces have no idea what these things are, who they belong to or whether something has been stored somewhere else. It was not only Alec who suffered from this, there are two other manufacturers that I know of who were similarly affected. With regard to the Warwick kit, whilst moulds for most of the kit parts were found, nearly all of the patterns for the smaller components had disappeared. No doubt they had all been put away together somewhere safe, but where? This is a major problem because without the patterns, you can't make a new batch of moulds. The surviving moulds are now some five years old and many of them, though not excessively worn, are rotting with age. Some of them failed the first time that resin was put into them to see if they would still work. In contrast, the clear plastic and metal parts and decal sheets have been produced, and Alec has possession of them. Matters are further complicated by Alec's health. As I write these words he is bedridden following major surgery and though he will make a full recovery as his condition is not life threatening, it's going to take some time during which he will not be as physically active as he would like. When taken all together, the Warwick represents a considerable investment in time, money and effort. So what to do? He has decided to 'press on' and the plan is to use some of the very early castings of the smaller components as sub-patterns from which new moulds can be made. Anything that is missing will have to be re-mastered. This process is going to be neither quick nor simple, so at the moment he can't put either a timescale or price on the finished product, though late summer might be possible and 'stupidly expensive' is in no one's interest. 'Knocking one out' is totally impossible at the moment. Regards, Paul.

More Skinning Another month has passed and most of the progress has been made has just been more skinning. The one little bit of 'non-skinning' work has been extending the central fuselage spine rearwards towards the leading edge of the tail. Somehow when the original spine was carved out, I made it too short by about 1 cm. This block of sappelli has been inserted, glued in place and subsequently carved to the correct shape. The spine now extends to all the way to the tail-fin. It turns out that skinning a model aeroplane is not an especially difficult task, but it involves patience and persistence. As previously discussed, first define the area that you want to cut the panel for and mask off areas around it in preparation for spraying glue onto the target area. Use a piece of masking tape to define the size and shape piece of lithoplate that you wish to add. Stick the masking tape onto a piece of litho-plate, cut the plate to size and then glue it in place. Remove all the tape... and start on the next piece... and the next piece. Continue until bored. Beware, it's pretty slow going. In some areas, such as on the inboard leading edges, I found it very difficult to get a single sheet of lithoplate to 'do' both the top and the bottom. This left an incorrect panel line on the leading edge that I used panel-beater's bog filler to conceal. This stuff is intended to hide imperfections in metal surfaces and so far - once sanded - it is working very well. Another trick, learned off the internet, is to make my own rock-hard, home-made filler using baking soda and super glue. This is cheap, quick and very effective, especially on minor imperfections. I will use this method again. The whole point of the skinning process it to give this jet a smooth metal surface and to try to give it clean and convincing panel lines. In order to get a sneak preview of whether it's likely to work or not I've jumped ahead and primed the underside. I'm fairly happy with this. 😀 The result could be better but I'm new to this skinning lark and - for a first attempt - I am happy enough. It's certainly a better look than I could have achieved with a wooden surface and as I build experience I'm doing each panel a little quicker and a little better. I am fully aware that there are still many details to be added to the underside; vents, blisters, pylons, covers and guns for example and there's a lot to be added to the wheel wells. All of that will happen in due course, but for now, I’m happy. Very Best Regards to All, Bandsaw Steve

The P2000 was built partly to try "windows" - using old 35mm negatives - the black bits that you get at the start of a film. I'm pleased to say that I think it worked well. Sadly the Severn moulding does not have specific bridge window "profiles" In addition there are fine details that are not represented on the kit .......so some detailing and thought will be required here. In the meanwhile I've decided to fit most of the railings at an early stage as per here. You can aso see the bridge wing where I've scratched soome lifebuoy holders I should also have mentioned earlier that I spent quite a bit of time "opening" the scupper holes and cleaning them carefully. As it arrives they are infilled with a very thin layer of resin. It's clearly well worth doing. The mid level railings on the central superstructure were slightly out in measurement terms - Beware, it's the railing Not you if you build this. there's no obvious solutionbut one side is definitley longer than the other by about 1.5mm. (who's counting!) Each of the ships in this class varied slightly. There's an aerial mount on the sloping bridge roof. Each of the aeriel mounts is drilled at this stage For once the ladders bent beautifully and the steps were angled without drama, unlike my usual experience - they really are etched very nicely Priming begins with Mig Ammo Oneshot More soon Thanks for looking Rob

1/72 Arma Hobby Sea Hurricane IB backdated to a Sea Hurricane IA of the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit (MSFU). Model has been brush painted and built mostly out of the box except for the addition of an etched harness in the cockpit. The aircraft made represents Hurricane V7070 which, flown by FLGOFF Norman Taylor DFM on 01 November 1942, was launched from Empire Heath with an FW200 from KG40 ‘F8+DS‘ shot down with the loss of its crew. Norman Taylor was rescued after bailing out of V7070 and survived the war. Tragically he did not survive the peace and died in a peacetime air accident in a Harvard in 1948. He was 27.

Thank you for clarification. Are you sure? You double checked, right? 😉 😄 Keith, I did. But naturally, the grill I have is not the one I want for the final build anyway. Not quite sure what I'm going to do about that.☹️ The reason I said that this part of the conversion is the part that keeps me up at night, is because I'm going into this without any real game plan. Everything up to this point has been pretty well thought through. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect when I got to this point. So, like most other things in life, I'll just put my head down, take one step at a time and move forward. (and hopefully not muck it up) Way back at the beginning of this build I cut off a small section of the lower front panel on the Mini body. This was a bad decision on my part. ( I know, I know, I just said it was well thought through, but......stuff happens) Now I have to glue it back in the correct place. It affects how the lower panel with the three slots fits and how the "belly pan" fits into the Hasagawa model. I thought I would show all of you a tool that I find invaluable when measuring for cuts like this. (upper right, without having to move your ruler million times) Its called a centering ruler and is primarily used for drafting and architectural design work. It's also handy for quickly finding the center of a piece you already have. I use quite regularly. A few of the other "structural" pieces I needed to cut. After making a few minor cuts to the existing plastic, it was time to glue the new panel in place. As you can see, there remained some rather large gaps to fill There is no easy fix for the gap issue short of just gluing it full of small bits of styrene, which is what I did. Then it was down to shaping it with a fairly aggressive, rasping file and sandpaper. (120 grit) This process proved rather cumbersome on such a small area and is easier said than done. Add into that, I still need to "shape in" two small "flats" below the bumper for the park/turn signals. If you notice, I am also trying to save the two holes just below the grill opening, and the two on the lower panel. The top two will make good attachment points for the new bumper and won't be seen once it's attached. The lower two are just part of the Mini body style. ( I'm sure they're there for a reason, but I don't know exactly what) Looks like it's time to "start slingin' mud"!

Hi all, I completed this one a few weeks ago, but I've only just gotten around to taking photos of it - it's so large it won't fit in my photo booth, so the photos have been taken outside (now that it's not rainy). Firstly, these new Airfix kits are INCREDIBLE and designer Paramjit has done an amazing job! This kit was built from the box with only a couple of small additions being resin ejection and metal pitot tube and refueling probe, I also scratch-built a windscreen wiper and the ejection seat handles so they are much closer to scale size. Airbrushed with Hataka Extra Dark Sea Grey acrylics (which turned out a bit lighter than expected), weather with oils, and MIG panel line wash. I've been very pleased with GX100 varnish which creates a beautifully smooth finish over which I toned down the gloss slightly with Winsor and Newton satin varnish. I rather enjoyed this build, it was surprisingly easy and a reasonably quick build too! I decided to go with a slight variation from the kit and built it with a two Martel loadout, inspired by the art below; Here's my attempt! I've just noticed, unfortunately the forward ejection handle has flopped down slightly... This now completes my "conventional" Fleet Air Arm jet collection, I'm now moving on to the STOVL trio to complete my 1/48 Fleet Air Arm jet collection Cheers, Ben

Cutey chubby tubby, like a Walrus on wings. Fun kit, but I never get used to raised panel lines. Nothing new to the tool just a new reboxing. Still fun to build and the "Tre Kronor" roundels never dissapoint me. I´ve seen the Tunnan in Gothenburg´s Aeroseum. It´s an underground bunker with a large hangar. Lots of Swedish aircrafts and choppers from the Cold War. A few of them was Saab Viggen, Draken and a couple of Chinooks. The build was brush painted and weathered with oils and Pigma Micron pens. Bit of a tail sitter due to lacking ballast inside the cowling. Figure added for size comparison.

Hi everyone, Me again, come to bother you with some pictures of my latest effort 🙂 My second go at Academy`s re-issue of the Mauve P-40N kit Finished in the markings of Geoff Athertone`s Kittyhawk IV `Cleopatra III` which is an option in the kit Made a few improvements this time: replaced the kits cockpit with one from a recently culled Hasegawa kit........ .....also used the Hasegawa kits undercarriage, propellor blades and sliding canopy. The open cowl flaps came from an Eduard PE set ......... .........and the bombs from the spares box The decals were the ones from the kit That`s it, hope you enjoy the pic`s Thanks for looking Cheers Russ

evening folks Hi PR - no, its very unlikely I will go back to the F7F - it was my first skinned model and I see to many flaws in it now - plus I just can't bring myself to scratch another R2800... Thanks Antonis - always a pleasure to see you drop in my friend I haven't Marklo, but I will look it up now as sounds like something I could really use so, round two of the opportunity to screw up, otherwise known a transparencies.. ..now I have done the windshield, I am two for two so far, so that means I WILL screw up the sliding hood.. I tried vacforming, that failed, then I realised that apart from the top cap of the windshield it is one linear wrap around sheet of perspex, so I tried clamping PETG to some sticks and holding it over a steaming kettle to then drape over the windshield mould... ..by keeping good pressure and pulling down and in, i got it to conform eventually.. ..I started to fettle it to fit the fuselage and built a card jig to ensure it is the right space from the seat bulkhead and at the right jaunty angle.. ..this is my bird, and thankfully it doesn't have the big slanted armoured glass, just two tie rods and a square gunsight thing... ..seing that makes me think I probably should have fitted the floor gunsight projector thing in the cockpit.. ..this is the sight thing mounted straight on the glass.. ..also note the emergency hood release button (the black dot) on the cap of the windshield.. ..you can also see the tie rods either side of the big glass plate I thankfully don't have to make.. I added a vacformed cap to the windshield and the rear frame etch and set out where the sight plate went and took my life in my hands and drilled 4 holes in the glass.. ..I made up the sight from brass and a plate with the tie rods.. ..the rubber grommets in the windshield were just blobs of paint pushed through the holes and cleaned off.. ..and all assembled with the emergency release cable hanging loose.. ..the winsdshield was then added to the airframe carefully with blobs of CA and a constatly running airbrush blowing air to prevent white fogging.. ..the panels were also added, but I have no photos until I masked it up for the anti glare panel (painted MRP super matt black - just about my favourite paint - it's bulletptroof..).. ..and having added the canopy rails & fairings its time for a little tour.. ..probably do the sliding part next... TTFN Peter

I saw this couple days ago. Somehow symphatic.

Hi just a small progres this time on engine part, some parts was replaced, some printed and some just removed Engine top cover was ok, but v pulley wheels and belt was completly redisigned to be more detailed due to visibility from the side 😉

Here is my next venture into 1/48 scale, the Hasegawa Bf109F painted up as Eberhard von Boremski's F4. The kit was very easy to make, I added the external stiffeners to the rear fuselage as I was originally going to be making another aircraft but had a paint issue so changed my plans quite late on. The photos I saw of this aircraft indicate that it might not have had the external stiffeners but they are there now. Painted with my usual Mr Hobby paints. I used decals by EagleCals and Montex masks for the Balkan crosses. I used the photos in the Luftwaffe Colours Vol. 3 Sec. 4 for inspiration although I didn't follow them exactly as the demarcation between colours should have had a slightly softer edge to them in reality. Only light weathering (except for the prop as I got a bit carried away with that!) as the photos were taken while the Unit was re-equiping onto these aircraft although the wing roots did have a lot of mud and dust visible. Duncan B

So, got the right wheels on and it is sitting pretty as nature intended....warning, these are quite big piccies... The broken grill is just placed for effect, replacement is working it's way here from Germany...the spotlights are just held in place with white tack until grill is fixed and they can then be glued into position. But you get the general idea. Colour on the wheels is just a titanium gold but they look very smart (I think). It sits a little lower than the film car but that is due to me odering the wrong version, but it still looks mean and menacing.

A friend of mine unknowingly directed me to a software that is able to produce 3D figurines. So I started this afternoon. The big advantage of this software is the manipulation of body attitudes which is amazing and easy to understand. You just have to add a french bachi to this american sailor to make him a french one. At 1/200 and 1/100, it is credible. I made the simplified bachi in Fusion360 and then imported it, the possibilities are endless, bag, shell, box, rifle, helmet, sitting, standing, walking etc., just move the members of the figure in the right position in a few clicks and seconds, a good free Swiss Army knife this Daz Studio. This will free me, I hope, to buy expensive figures because it takes a lot on a ship of this size. https://www.daz3d.com/install-manager-info I filled the figure with the Hollow function of Chitubox with the grid sub-function. It printed very well, it's perfect. I printed at 1/200 and 1/100, real size 1m75, the details are amazing, it will be even better when I print a test with the Photon Ultra I think. I will be able to make a nice series in different postures and really adapted to the ship. The sailor outfit is not in the default program, I bought the module on their online shop, for a small fee, I took the printing license as well. https://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result/?mature=true&q=naval+uniform This is how it looks in print:

Well spotted, those two parts are inserts: Definitely going to be fun! Ah good - should basically be the same kit, with a different spine insert (if yours is a Tamiya too, that is) Some progress made over the last week or so, here it is: main cockpit parts cut off their sprues and quickly dry fit into the fuselage Even with the windshield on, there's a lot of cockpit that will remain visible - for once! I started with the IP, removing the molded in detail to allow for the photo-etched parts: Also, that central bit needed to be removed, it's not on the PE and neither in any of the pics of P-47Ds I could find. For the PE IP, I decided (as opposed to what I usually do) to not use the printed clear sheet for the gauges, because I wanted to test a different thing. So I went with the double PE layer and put drops of clear UV resin inside the bezels, to reproduce the glass effect. What do you think? Still missing a bunch of small PE levers, but I will add them later, right before completing the cockpit assembly. I also drilled out these two holes in the rudder pedals, that were originally molded blind Then these bits received a Tamiya Flat Black base coat (by airbrush, thinned with cellulose thinner) Same for the seat After a few hours curing, I airbrushed on the Dark Dull Green color, using Lifecolor UA008 (FS34092) paint, thinned with my usual mix of water and IPA Same for the seat (paint still wet here) I did a bit of work on the gunsight too: after removing the central molding line (I had to polish back to clear the lens after that, and give it a coat of Aqua Gloss), I brush painted the structure with Vallejo Flat Black Some PE bits to go on that as well, but not before it has properly cured. That's it for the day, all comments welcome Ciao

It feels like I've been on this one forever, but made some good progress this week and I can finally get a good feel for what it's going to look like. First job was to fit all the chrome trim, which with removing from the sprue and fitting in place took up a good chunk of the weekend. But it's all on apart from the grille which sits in front of the windscreen. My feeling was that the centre bar across this was just a bit (well, quite a lot) too thick, and looking up photos on the internet confirmed that at best this would be a small bar no thicked than the ones which run parallel with the direction of travel. Time to black that bit out I decided. This is after the first coat of paint on half of it, but it does give a good idea of before and after. Need to add a second coat of matt black though before it goes on the car. Still not 100% about it being more accurate, but I definitely prefer the look of it after painting, particularly as the chrome backplate is even more obvious when it's dry-fitted. Anyway, I said I was getting the trim onto the body. Most of that was fairly painless with no real dramas to speak of. I'm particularly pleased that with the side trim in place the join between the original paint and where I had to respray the sill after burning through the paint is as near as makes no difference invisible. The chrome effect badge stickers also went on at this time, as usual a good burnishing down with a cocktail stick was enough to get them set correctly. After that it was time to fit the interior.to the body - it's at this stage where things usually go to pot on my builds. And this was no exception as almost immediately one of the hinge brackets for the bonnet fell off. Fortunately I wasn't get at the point of no return so I could glue it in place, let it set, then have another go at fitting the interior... only for the other bracket to do the same. Unfortunately this one did go wrong past the point of no return so it's rattling arund somewhere in the wing at the moment. Fortunately, the bonnet is still working as intended, but I will need to be careful that I don't place undue stress on that remaining bracket when I open it. So, with the interior in place this is where I got to. At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I am very happy with how the embossing powder looks through the rear window on that parcel shelf. Definitely a product I will be using again in future. And finally, it was time to fit the chassis underneath all that lot. It put up a bit of resistance at first until I worked out that I needed to put glue on the chassis pins to stop it falling out of the rear of the body while I got the rest put in. And the front wheel arches were a bit reluctant to spread out properly, but in the end the chassis went in with much less of a fight than I was expecting. It's a shame that the positive camber I'd noticed earlier in the build has come into play so the tops of the rear wheels rub on the arches, but on the bright side they do fit underneath the arches, the front wheels do steer and most importantly all four wheels touch the ground. And, before it gets covered up, here's the underneath with the spaceframe chassis in position. It's not going to be perfect, but if I can avoid any last-minute catastrophes this is shaping up to be one of my better builds, at the moment I'd score it about 8/10. Thanks for looking.

Hi everyone. A little more progress to report this week. I started off cutting the kits fin fillet away to make way for the resin replacement. Unfortunately the resin part dropped through into the fuselage so I had to pack it out with plastic strips. Now superglued on, not the best fit but nothing a little filler won't sort out. Filled, sanded, refilled and sanded again with a coat of Mr Surfacer applied the fill any minor imperfections. The next thing to be corrected are the wing landing lights which are positioned to far outboard so I cut some wedges out of some clear acrylic rod then cut a notch close to the air intakes on the wings and super glued the in position. After a couple of hours filling sanding and polishing I was happy with the result. I can now add the paint mask in the correct position and hopefully you won't be able to see any seams around the clear part. Numerous Eduard photo-etch parts added including a nice pair of reverse thrust grills. And finally I machined up and varnished a nice heavy piece of oak for the ready for the base. Thanks for looking gazza l

I'm not one who tries to churn out models like a sausage machine, but I do like to get the odd one finished so long as the journey is enjoyable. But for some reason, 2023 just has not really inspired me to do much up til the last couple of weeks. So here is Profil24's 1/24 Ferrari 340MM, finished as the 1953 Le Mans car of Ascari/Villoresi, which posted a retirement that year. No matter: it's one of Ferrari's finest and I'm happy with the result. It's a typical Profil24 kit: loads of fine detail and needs a bit of fettling. So it scores highly for me and I am a big fan of their products as a result.

Finally finished Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. J with full interior MiniArt 1/35 One of the most complex and detailed kit that I've ever build.

Saab Sk.60 Swedish Trainer & Strike Aircraft (48-A005) 1:48 Pilot Replicas Following WWII, the Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet) had been using British early jets, including the de Havilland Vampire, Venom and the Hawker Hunter amongst their number to fulfil their needs. Saab had realised that the Vampires used in their trainer fleet were wearing out as well as becoming obsolete, and set about designing a low-cost jet trainer that could also carry out reconnaissance and light attack duties, gaining official support from the Swedish military early on. The type 105 was designed to be useful both to military and civilian operators initially, but when little interest was garnered from the civilian market they concentrated instead on military customers, first of which was the Swedish Air Force who ordered 150 as the Sk.60, split between trainers and strike aircraft that would be designated A and B respectively. It went into service in 1967, and also found favour with the Austrian Air Force, who took another 40 105Ӧ that ran more powerful GE J85 engines that were cheaper and easier to maintain than the original Turbomeca Aubisque turbofan engines that were license built as the RM9. Later in service with Sweden, more advanced, lighter and more powerful Williams FJ44 engines were retro-fitted to the remaining 115 Sk.60 fleet as part of an upgrade programme to extend their usefulness into the new millennium. They were license built by Volvo Flygmotor as the RM15, and coupled with further upgrades have given the Sk.60 the ability to remain in service until today (at time of writing), although their replacement, the Grob G 120TP turbo-prop trainer, is expected to start entering service very soon. The Kit This is a new tooling from Pilot Replicas, and the first boxing of several that we expect in due course. To say that we haven’t been well-served with model kits of the diminutive Sk.60 in 1:48 is an understatement, and 1:72 hasn’t fared much better either. That changes for 1:48 now, and arrives in a top-opening box with captive top lid that closes outside the lower, preventing the top from collapsing in on the contents. The box is printed on sturdy glossy card, with a custom sticker keeping the lid closed until you open it the first time, a professional finish that extends to the contents. Inside are five rectangular sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue in separate Ziploc bag, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) covered in clear self-adhesive film on both sides, two decal sheets, a folded A3 instruction sheet that is glossy printed on both sides in colour, and a painting guide of the same shape and size that is printed in the same style. Each sprue is separately bagged, and on opening the two intake parts fell from one bag, as they are deep parts in the frames, so were prone to pressure from the other sprues in the box. Detail is excellent, and includes rivets and engraved panel lines, plus recessed and raised details where appropriate throughout, although there have been some very slight sink-marks where the styrene is necessarily thick, such as the supports and detailed sidewalls of the cockpit. The use of PE as standard equipment for the kit is to be lauded, rather than selling them as extras, as it offers more realistic scaled thickness for the smallest parts. The decals have been designed by Moose Republic Decals, and printed by Cartograf, the gold standard of our hobby. The instruction booklet is printed in colour using 3D isometric drawings that have likely been made using the same data that was used to design the kit itself, giving the modeller a better insight into the shape and arrangement of the build process than line drawings can. It also cuts down on instruction steps, with only 21 over three A4 pages. Around every diagram are additional helpful instructions in English, plus paint call-outs using Gunze Mr Hobby codes in a black box that is linked to the part number in an outlined box, cutting down on lines into the process. Construction begins with the main gear bays in the lower middle fuselage, using seven individual components to create each landing gear leg inside the detailed bays, adding extra information in a small circular scrap diagram off to the side, and giving left and right part numbers in doubled boxes. They are then shown being installed in the respective fuselage side along with the air-brakes that rotate out into the airstream further back down the fuselage, and the rear clear ‘quarter-light’ behind the main canopy, plus painting instructions for the cockpit sidewalls, as that’s next. The cockpit floor is a flat rectangle with upstands at the forward end that forms the footwells for the crew, which has the instrument panel and control columns fixed to it, and a rear bulkhead behind the crew. The main decal sheet provides dials for the panel, offering one for three of the decal options that were fitted with rolling map displays, and another for the option without it. This assembly is then trapped between the fuselage halves, before adding the two nose halves around the nose gear bay and at least 15g of nose-weight, then adding a small insert under the belly. At the rear the tail cone halves are closed around a separate tip, aligning the parts with the rest of the fuselage to minimise clean-up. The appearance of two Aubisque turbofan engines are created by inserting the engine rear face into a two-part cylindrical trunk, then inserting them into position behind the moulded-in centre section of the engine nacelles, then boxing them in with two cowling halves and aft fairings that hold them to the correct angle from the airframe. The rudder fin is made from two halves and inserted into a slot in the tail, with a choice of clear or opaque bullet fairing for the T-tail depending on your decal choice, and adding small insert between the elevators and rudder, then putting the aft thrust diverters either side of the tail behind the exhausts in either the open or closed position, as shown from above in a scrap diagram. The forward face of the engine is mated to a two-part trunking that then joins the intake lip, splitter-plate between it and the fuselage, and the forward cowling lower, the top later covered by the wings. The cockpit is filled with a pair of ejection seats that are made from four parts each and fit side-by-side in the cockpit with a brace between them leading from the coaming to the top of the windscreen, plus the optional gunsight in case you are going to build a B. An additional part is also fixed to the upper side of the starboard wing if you are going down the B route, drilling two holes in the surface to locate it, using the recessed dots on the inside of the part to guide you. The upper wing is mated to the fuselage before adding the lowers, and a choice of insert behind the cockpit is given for open or closed canopy options. The same clear parts are used for either option, gluing the windscreen into position and adding the canopy either closed or opened , pivoting up from the rear. The lower wings along with two fences per side, separate wingtip and clear lights that have hollow interiors for you to paint clear red or green to give the correct look. A shallow intake is applied to the top centre of the fuselage level with the exhausts, although its location is made clear by reference to the painting guide, where the overhead views show it well. The main gear bays are fitted with a single bay door that hinges up from the top, and a two-part wheel with moulded-in weighting is slotted over the end of the leg on a square peg to obtain the correct position. When complete, the two wheels should be 45mm apart from outer edge to outer edge. That should ensure you get the right angle and avoid sag, which could be assisted by making a small jig to stand them on while the glue sets. The nose wheel and strut are moulded as one, with the wheel having extra thickness from a separate layer, the finished assembly slotting into a socket in the roof of the bay, and having a door attached to each side. The nose wheel has a close-fitting mudguard, and a scrap diagram shows the correct painting of the various elements. To complete the model, you need to break out the PE and refer closely to the following two steps and your references for precise location. There are a large number of tiny parts, aerials, static wicks and blade antennae that will improve the realism of your model immensely, and the finer parts are best applied as the last task to avoid damaging them during handling. Markings With only two operators worldwide, you’d think there wouldn’t be many decal options overall, but you’d be wrong, as there have been many special schemes over the years if you’d care to Google them. This boxing includes four Swedish Flygvapnet airframes, three A and one B model in two main schemes. From the box you can build one of the following: SK60A 60043, Swedish Air Force Flying School, F5 Wing, Ljungbyhed, 1967 SK60A 60072, Swedish Air Force Flying School, F5 Wing, Ljungbyhed, 1984 SK60A 60127, Swedish Air Force Flying School, F5 Wing, Ljungbyhed, 1970 SK60B 60038, 3rd Sqn. Urban Gul F21 Wing in Lulea, June 1976 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin carrier film cut close to the printed areas. The carrier film on the main sheet is glossy, and includes many silver-backed stencils as well as the two instrument panel decals that have clear backing with outlines to assist you in locating them. The smaller sheet covers the fluorescent orange panels that were sometimes applied to aircraft for identification purposes, and these have a matt carrier film, while the few regular decals have glossy carrier. The scanner washed the orange out, so I have adjusted the colour to resemble the original as closely as possible. Conclusion Whenever I think about the Sk.60, I immediately recall that photograph of one pulled into a petrol station to illustrate its rough field capabilities, being refuelled and serviced by various pilots and crew who probably thought it was very funny. They were right. This is a well-detailed model of this little aircraft that has a personality bigger than its physical size, and is still in service with the Flygvapnet despite being older than this reviewer. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Started this right after finishing the Sword Lightning. The more observant Hunter enthusiasts will notice plenty wrong but despite that, I'm happy with how it came out. XG228 was the last Hunter in squadron service with the RAF belonging to 79 Squadron 1 TWU. Added the ejection seat handles and the IFF aerial from the spares box, scratched the seatbelts, pitot tube from Master and the RBF flags from Airwaves.

Well most of the build work completed now starting to set the boat back at the dock using the Deluxe Materials Making Waves to set in place then will add Vallejo water effects to smooth it out.. Stay Safe beefy

Hello to all.I am not going to complain how bad this model is because i Will have to write a 5 page essay. I will just tell everyone who might be intersted in buidling this one that you will need a lot of time sanding and filling plus the material smells funny when sanded.I managed to polish the glass parts a bit because they were foggy OOB.Pinting was done with gunze acrylics and everything was sealed in vallejo matte varnish.

Last Saturday we got some guests from Jakarta. Usually had their gathering at Four Seasons Hotel Jakarta but last Friday decided to have a one-day trip to Bandung 930 Turbo 3.3 in Meteor Grey Metallic, but not with Fuchs alloys. Those are 964 5-spoke alloys with deep-dish barrel, 345-section rear tyres there. As reference the 918 Spyder got 325-section rear tyres. So this 1984 Porsche 911 has wider rear tyres than Porsche's own hybrid hypercar from 2014. A mostly stock R32 Skyline GT-R with Advan Racing RG1 sets This R34 Skyline GT-R is mostly stock... but not at the same time. While the engine is only making somewhere around 400hp, the brakes are nicked from R35 GT-R. The bodywork and wheels are all Nismo Z-Tune items. Not quite full-fat Nismo Clubman Race Spec (there's one in Jakarta with full-on RB28 2.8-litre Z-Tune block), but still a stunning example of R34 Skyline nevertheless Original 964 Turbo 3.6 finished in Riviera Blue with Recaro Pole Position buckets, this car has only recently finished being restored. Riviera Blue 993 Carrera 2, equipped with the 993 Carrera RS kits and Speedline three-piece wheels. This is not an RS because Carrera RS did not get headlight washers. For lightness, obviously. Now this one is an actual RS. A 964 Carrera RS 3.6, originally in Guards Red but the owner sent it to a workshop to be wrapped in Audi's Nardo Grey. This one might look familiar from my previous post, but this is a different car. This RWB 993 was not originally an Indonesian car. In fact, it was actually a Hongkong car (no. 3 if I'm not mistaken), and only recently imported in 2021 to Indonesia. Funnily enough both Riviera Blue RWB 993s (this and the one I posted previously) actually meet each other on Friday evening.

Hi Everyone, Time for my weekly update on the Bismarck. I must say it’s been a peculiar build. As I mentioned last time I seem to have turned a corner with this kit, and at long last it seems to be bending my way. This week I began by feeling overwhelmed at the myriad of small parts remaining. Yet by the end of the week most of these have been accounted for. Where I am now is wondering how I feel about the build. One moment I am quite happy with the result and the next disappointed. As I have mentioned previously I find building ships a challenge. There are so many corners, twists and turns etc. I find whether the results are any good depends on which angle I look at them from. Some areas look good whereas others, not so much. This week I concentrated on the lower hull. I painted the red hull paint and adding the triple screws. I then added the psyllium and glue paste to mimic the decay on the ocean bed. I also added the aircraft catapult as well as some of the secondary and anti-aircraft guns along the deck. I have also been doing touch-ups from stem to stern. Finally I scratch-built a submersible along with two remotely operated vehicles examining the ship's empty turret and hull. Before I close I would also very much like to thank everyone who has viewed and commented on the thread thus far. Your interest guidance and support is very much appreciated. Kind Regards, Tomcat101

I got the preliminary painting done this evening. Pretty happy with the filling and sanding job overall. There are a few points where you could see low spots in the primer, but the colour coat has made them all but invisible. As always, I'm using acrylics through my airbrush. I settled on Vallejo Sky Type S for this build. Here it is primed and on its way to the spray booth: And here it is coming out: One disappointment is I didn't get the front canopy part quite properly aligned, but I'm going to leave it as is. All the usual bits left to do, some parts painting, final construction, gloss coat, decals, gloss coat, panel lining and oil based effects, matte coat, pigment effects, matte coat. Might finish this one with satin to simulated the polished finish a little better, but I'll have to think about this as I dislike models with glossy finishes. I haven't photographed it here, but I did one wheel well in black and one in white as the photos for N3069 seem to indicate, and as Jim Kiker did. I've also copied his approach of using the wheels up parts to mask the wells while spraying, so some Sky overspray will go in, hopefully mimicking the aftermarket spray job it got when being Cottonised. I'll paint the gear legs and wheel hubs likewise. I'll do Type B roundels on the underwing and fuselage, but nothing on the wing tops, again as my examination of the photos here on Britmodeller threads seems to indicate. Jim Kiker, who's build I've largely been following goes a different way here, but i believe this approach to be correct for the PR1 A in its earlier iteration. He left off the serial number for his N3071 (IIRC). Any of the PR1 A photos I've seen have this part of the plane either out of frame or obscured. They PR1 B photos I've seen (with the A type roundels) do have it in place, so I think it reasonable to include it on this build of N3069 when it was a PR1 A. Aside from anything, it adds a bit of visual interest to an otherwise quite plain plane (I'll get my coat...), so I'm going to go with that when the Pavla kit I finally managed to source arrives, assuming I don't find anything to the contrary before then!

When your water bowl just isn't big enough Nick

And so the Eurofighter is done, in the markings of Flt. Lt. Nicolson’s 249 Squadron Hawker Hurricane Mk.I GN-A (P3576) in which he was awarded the VC. But first, two 1/32 scale Typhoons: Intended to do much the same job the Eurofighter is somewhat bigger! The Typhoon is the very old Revell 1/32 scale kit. I think now I have to get the new Revell 1/32 scale Hurricane and finish as GN o A! On to the Eurofighter Typhoon, in detail. Brutal from the front, Elegant from the side.... A perfect Delta from above.... And from the underside.... Not the best kit in the world, the photos flatter my efforts, and mistakes. The build story is here: