Leaderboard

Hello Gents.... I'll add some pics later.... Since 3rd day of gales.... I took some pics and saw the kit moving with the wind.... Stressful experience.... So family pics will come later.... Sorry about that..... In Oz country I sayyyyy..... That will maybe please @Dunny.... NAS Nowra in 1953, if it is an improved Airfix kit, the decals came from the Errormaster sheet 48-703 724 NAS Paints are ye good old Humbrol... It was a looong time that I didn't used glycero paints.... Seemingly, it has been an one of a kind paint scheme used for airshows I was tempted by another EDSG:Sky scheme in Korea but I already have a FAA one.... And another FAA one with that same paint scheme.... Interior has been improved with scratchbuild parts and a quickboost gun sight.... More pics will come when the weather will permit it.... For the one interested by the Sea Fury factory, here below it is Comments are welcome, banters are mandatory.... See you soon. Sincerely. CC

Hello fine people of Britmodellerland, Please forgive me for sharing yet another rendition of this popular Airfix offering. There are many wonderful creations of this fine model here on Britmodeller and beyond but with good reason. Airfix are to be commended for bringing kit assemblers like myself a model that builds easily and looks about right (to my untrained eye). It's not without it's faults but these are generally minor and easily corrected by the use of the myriad aftermarket sets available. Indeed, I opted for a number of embellishments to get the best I could from this model. One set that gives plenty of bang per buck is by Airscale and upgrades the already passable Airfix cockpit. The etched IP takes it to another level though. Add in a bit of fettling and some scratch building and it's possible to arrive at a nice, busy looking office. The model pretty much fell together thanks to clever design by the Airfix team. I believe it's been well documented elsewhere so I won't go into it in too much depth here. I chose to close everything up except for the cockpit door. There is a nicely rendered Merlin provided in the box but having gone to town on the Tamiya Mk XVIe (and having never removed the panels after the initial batch of photos) I wanted to keep the lines of the aircraft intact. This airframe is depicted as a 412 sqdn RCAF. I discovered that this squadron started life at RAF Digby in Lincolnshire, a stone's throw from where I live. This gave me a tenuous connection and the excuse to build something other than the kit supplied versions. The masks were created by a member of the LSP forum community and worked beautifully. I used those markings in conjunction with the 1ManArmy stencil and data masks plus the ArtScaleKit canopy masks that all worked perfectly. It's tough to beat painted on markings. In addition to the masks I also used Eduard Brassin wheels and exhaust stubs After all of that, here are a few pics of the finished article. Then some using photo manipulation software to create an older picture. I hope you got as much enjoyment from seeing this as I did from building it. If anyone is on the fence over whether to treat themselves or not I can heartily recommend the model. Well done Airfix. Now, if you could just give us a nice late, Griffin powered version please? A Spitfire Mk24 or Seafire FR47 would do very nicely. 😄

Hello all, Here is my recently completed 1/48 Tamiya A-1H Skyraider, marked as BuNo 139768 of VA-25 'Fist of the Fleet', flying off the USS Midway during the Vietnam war in 1965. Delivered to the Navy in 1956, this Skyraider served with VA-42 and VA-122 prior to being transferred to VA-25 in July 1964. On the 20th June 1965, this aircraft was piloted by Lt Clint Johnson and was credited with downing a North Vietnamese MIG-17 along with Lt Charlie Hartman. 139768 was passed to VA-115 in 1966 and forced to ditch in the Gulf of Tonkin due to battle damage in March 1967. Build thread: Extras used included: Aeromaster - decals Brassin - wheels and seat New Ware - masks Quickboost - canopy shroud Quinta - cockpit decals Bombs are from Hasegawa, paint is MRP and the weathering is mixture of Abteilung oils, Flory wash, AK pencils and Tamiya sets. Thanks for looking. Dave

Hi guys! I want to show You recently built model. The well-known F4F-4 Wildcat from Arma Hobby. Built didn't cause any problems, except those that were my fault. I added positive rivets from HGW, unfortunately the effect is not very visible in the photos, you have to look closely, it is much better visible in real life. Moreover, I decided to minimize the number of decals, so I painted the markings. I also replaced the position and formation flight lights, which were cast together with the wings and fuselage. The whole thing is enriched with 3D printed parts that I received from Marcin Ciepierski (engine elements, cockpit elements, bombs and bomb racks). You can watch build process o YouTube:

Finally managed to take photos for the gallery, I know photos taken quickly but you can see something on them. I invite you to view the gallery of the Northrop P-61 A "Black Widow" model. - "Lady Gen", Florennes, Belgium, december 1944.

The Sunderland is massive in 1-32… …and the Halifax too! I have one of those built as well. In fact it seems HK is rumoured to be following my lead (by that I mean I spend 2+ years building one in vac and then HK release one!) so you can bet your bottom dollar a Stirling will be next!

This is my first build of a model ship in over 50 years so please forgive my ham-fisted efforts. This is the Revell boxing of the ICM 1/700 SMS König. It was one of those spontaneous purchases that had me wondering what I was thinking about before I'd even got it home. I have taken liberties with the colours used and the rigging is a bit of a mess but it was good fun and broke the mojo block that I have been suffering with lately. I now have even more respect for the folks that can make these things properly, with all the PE, bells and whistles. Duncan B

Decal debacle over!! I’ve been re-enthused and have raided the spare decal stash and have cobbled together enough stencils to at least give a representation of a Vulcan - the green/grey camo previously damaged on the nose through stubborn decal removal has also been corrected and repaired. The roundels came from Xtradecal and I’m just waiting on delivery of some stencil lettering for the serial on the fin. Thankfully, I managed to salvage the Aeroclub fin badges and got them applied ok. I’ve also painted the smaller detail areas and it’ll soon be ready for some matt varnish. Air brakes, bomb bay and gear doors need adding first - a job for another day. Anyway - excuse the terrible lighting in my kitchen and the too-shiny appearance at the moment, but I think I’m back on track… More when there’s more… Tom

Hi All I've built this for the WW2 twins Mega GB, you can find the build log here: Another B-25 Mitchell This has been build all out of box, no extras included. Quite a straightforward build, used an airbrush for the varnish for the first time. The decals were a bit tricky (quite thick and fragile), but otherwise an enjoyable process. I did almost lose my modelling mojo part way through, but that wasn't anything to do with the kit, just life getting in the way of the important things Plus one from the build log to show what the cockpit looks like, since I can't get a good picture through the canopy. Hope you enjoy Matt

A man in the locker room of an upscale gym in NYC answers a cell phone and puts it on speaker while he dresses. Everyone else in the room stops to listen. Man : Hello? Woman : Hi honey, it’s me. Are you at the club? Man : Yes. Woman : I’m out shopping and found a beautiful leather coat. It’s only $2,000 – is it OK if I buy it? Man : Sure, go ahead if you like it that much. Woman : I also stopped by that new Lexus dealership and saw one of the new models I really like – it’s on an opening special. Man : How much? Woman : $90,000. Man : Wow! OK, but for that price I want it with all the options. Woman : Great! Oh, and one more thing … I was just talking to Jamie and found out that the house we wanted to buy last year is back on the market … they’re asking $980,000 for it. Remember it was well over a million when we looked at it? Man : I dunno. Make an offer for $900,000 and they’ll probably take it. If not, we can go the extra $80,000 if that’s what you really want. Woman : OK. I’ll see you later! I love you so much! Man : I love you too. The man hangs up. The other men in the locker room were staring at him in astonishment, mouths wide open. The man turns around and says, “Anyone know whose phone this is Simon.

Hello! Here’s my recent project, the Bf-110C. It has been in my "need to build" list for a while, such an iconic bird. However, I have to say, after several built Eduard kits, this one was kind of a disappointment. I mean, the details are great, specially in the cockpit, but it has some fitting issues. The nose/guns bay is engineered to be built open, because if you decide, like me, to have it closed, brace for impact! You’ll end up with steps, gaps and a lot of sanding and scribing. Also, the area being rounded doesn’t help either. The machine guns are really fragile (broke one of them a few times). The landing gears are just ok, I’ve added a lead wire to simulate hydraulic lines, and they also require attention to have them in place. And let’s not forget the clear parts. The landing light is a chunk of clear plastic way larger than its place to be. And, to glue the front lateral windows and gunner panels in the open position is also a hard task, for they don’t have any decent points of contact with the fuselage and/or other panels. To maintain these areas free of excess glue is quite challenging. The kit has a few row of rivets between the engines and the fuselage, so I’ve decided to rivet it all, and I’m happy with the result. Rose the riveter was the tool of choice. A very nice point are these new Eduard decals that you can remove the film from afterwards. They’ve worked great and the final effect is really good! Paints were a mix of Gunze lacquer and aqueous, well diluted for the motling, when needed. Hope you’ll enjoy. Cheers!

THis is my attempt at the excellent Tamiya Panzerkampfwagen IV Asf G early production kit. Superb value at around £35 and includes the tank + 6 figures and a motorcycle (used already elsewhere by me!). Usual Tamiya brilliant fit etc, although on the fence with their link and length tracks that just make painting a bit more difficult. Depicted in an eastern front autumn just as the Rasputitsa season starts (season of mud), I have shown it with an early grey turret and later camo chassis to show it was put together from parts in a field workshop to get it back in the fight. It may be historically incorrect by I liked the idea). I also added most of the extra stowage supplied by Tamiya designed for their other variants, as well as a large oil drum and unditching log with field made brackets. Figures are as supplied by Tamiya and unusually didn't feel the need to swap heads for a change!

Hi All, I was looking at the recent Airfix Lightning kit and wondered how easy it would be to convert it to a F3 and found it was very easy indeed. The smaller belly tank was donated from an old redundant model and it was very easy to put it on the Airfix fuselage with a little bit of fettling. Some filler was required at the back end but nothing serious. The wing leading edges also require the kink to be straightened out very easy!I really wanted to give my AK Extreme Metal paints a good workout to see how robust they were to handling and masking and also how gloss varnish would affect the finish. Well I have to say they excelled all my expectations as I went out of my way with rough handling and mask removal none of which fazed them. I had applied an Alclad Gloss Black Base coat which was left for 24 hours and then masking the areas that were going to have a chrome finish before applying the various metal shades. Once all the shades had been applied I then gave the model a complete coat of Vallejo Metal Varnish and left for another 24 hours. I have used a mix of Airfix and Sword decals to finish it off and am very pleased with the end result and now plan to do a lot more natural metal finishes !

Simon.

Done Cheers Jes

Done Cheers Jes

Todays efforts here chaps😀bottom hoses on just some smaller ones and a power lead for the camera to go,then some minor repairs and clean up so should be close to done. cheers Ivan

Not so long ago, Mrs Hnz put new curtains in our lounge. I wasn't convinced it was a good idea but since when has that been taken into consideration. It took Jonesy, the youngest & most lunatic of our two Burmese, very little time to figure they were easier to climb than the previous ones, so up he goes, paw over paw till he gets to the curtain rail from where he gets a back paw onto that & boostes himself onto the window sill, I'm guessing the view from up there is not bad. It is close to 9' up to there. Getting down involves getting front paws onto curtain rail, swinging himself around & then backing down till he feels low enough to jump. I'm picking there are more new curtains in our not distant future, maybe Kevlar ones this time. Steve.

Extra Dark Sea Grey, with a bit of Dark Sea Grey sprayed over to show some fading. Like all of the final colours, these are Sovereign Colourcoats. It’s a quite low contrast disruptive scheme, and it was a bit ‘either or’ as to which of the top colours was sprayed first. Paper templates for the pattern are ready to go.

My team's just lost again - four-one down on aggregate. I wonder if they'd play better on grass?

Good morning, afternoon and evening, Today I would like to share my 1/48 Lindberg Gloster Gladiator Chinese Airforce, 2909. The plane 2909 was flown by American- Chinese ACE pilot John Poon- Yeung Wong, 29th squadron No.9. Picture below quoted from "Aces of the Republic of China Air Force" - by Raymond Cheung. The kit was bought from an aftermarket, the interior is all PE parts by AirWaves and the decal is made by Kora. Rigging was the hardest part of this plane as I needed to make turnbuckles myself. I did not take more pics of the interior this time. But I took some in-progress pics. If anyone is interested in the process of building, I would like to share them in the comments. Cheers, Tommy H Liu

There are some paint colours modellers find problematic – Red and Yellow for example, but I am beginning to take quite a dislike to White as well, particularly on such a large area as on the Valiant! I remember my late father having problems with that colour as well – he had decided to “modernise” the look of the interior doors in our old house, and instead of the panelled finish which now is once more popular, he decided to cover them with sheets of hardboard and make them flush surfaced. As with everything he did he prepared them meticulously, rubbing down the wood to get a glass like finish, putting on a coat of primer, flatting that down, putting on another coat of primer and flatting that down also before trying what was then the new “Brilliant White” gloss paint that had just come on the market. Even after 3 top coats he was not entirely satisfied – there seemed to be a “patchy” finish but we subsequently realised that it was due to reflections. I may be having the same problem as every time I look at this model there seems to be patches where it looks like I have missed a bit - painting white over white is not that easy! Hopefully it will look a bit more even if and when I get a finishing coat of varnish on. Anyway, in between other builds and allowing for the enamel paint to dry thoroughly I have been slowly working away at the detail painting. Still a fair bit of tidying up to do but it is getting there - should be starting to put the decs on by the weekend hopefully. There are a lot of stencils of course, and getting the fin flashes over the vortex generators should be fun - I see Gen Melchett cut the generators off and presumably replaced them later but I don't fancy that. I see lots of setting solution being used and maybe a razor blade as well - we will see. Pete

VESPID MODELS 1/72 Tiger I (Early Production), Kursk,1943

OK! Here I am again, back at the bench. I was thinking how best to over-paint this tank. I imagine out in the field they weren't using brushes so much as something akin to hand mops. And it's whitewash, which isn't really white paint...So I used an old, stiff hairy brush and some off-white paint. And afterwards. I used an ear bud to wipe away the parts for the numbers on the sides and rear of the turret. I neglected to do the same for the crosses on the sides of the body. I'll fix it, don't worry. I think the next step will be painting the rubber wheels and then assembling the tracks. There will be some fine weathering needed here. All the different places where hands and feet will have been, exhaust stains, oil, mud and dust... --John

Here all. Here is my recently completed build of a Savoia-Marchetti S.55 Torpedo Bomber of the Regia Aeronautica Italiana using the Dora Wings kit in 1/72 and was built as part of the World War 2 Twins GB. Built out of the box with only a figure and rigging added and mounted on a sea base. Build log here: This thing is big for me, taking the space of 4-6 of my 'normal' sized subjects... Stuart

Also as a base for one’s entire model collection…

It's the one that many people have waited many years for, but it's finally almost here. The long-awaited F-86A in 1/48 will be officially announced at the Mosonshow on 20/21 April but the manufacturer has given me the OK for a sneak-peek at what's to come. Manufacturer is Clear Prop! and I've been working with the amazing team there for a few years, making sure we capture all the subtleties of this landmark Sabre. So here a couple of images of the plastic: more to follow this weekend. And an impression of the CAD work that's gone into this one. Suffice to say, multiple subtypes will be possible via the insertion of interchangeable parts etc. Good work Clear Prop! - you deserve to sell these in the millions!!!

After my previous two projects, I feel like tackling something simpler for a change. That's why I set my sights on the Boeing 717 by PAS. I've already built the DC-9 and MD-82, so technically, there's no reason for me to build the Boeing 717. But, there will come a time when I've built all the Boeing aircraft, and this one would be missing. That just wouldn't do. The livery is that of Spanair, simply because it's an easy scheme to replicate. That's partly why I've specifically chosen the EC-KRO, as it's the only one without Coroguard on the wings. Spanair was founded in 1986 as an initiative of the regional government of Catalonia, aiming to position Barcelona as a significant aviation hub. The company commenced operations in 1988 with a fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft and primarily focused on domestic and European routes. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Spanair expanded its network and gained a reputation as a reliable airline with a focus on customer service and operational efficiency. Despite its successes, Spanair faced financial challenges. In 2008, the airline encountered a severe crisis due to the global economic downturn. Efforts to attract investors to improve the financial situation proved unsuccessful. In 2011, Spanair reached a tragic low point when an MD-82 aircraft belonging to the company crashed at Madrid-Barajas Airport, resulting in the loss of 154 lives. Following this tragedy, Spanair's financial problems worsened, ultimately leading to the cessation of operations. In January 2012, Spanair abruptly announced bankruptcy and suspended all flights, resulting in the termination of the airline's aviation activities. The kit is from PAS and as per usual is pretty good. The decals are from Classic-Airlines. Windows from Authentic Airliner decals, as are some details. Antennas are from Counting Rivets Models. Display bases made by myself. At any rate, the pictures: All in all I had a lot of fun with this kit and comes recommended for sure. My next project will be the Authentic Airliners ERJ-145 in the KLM Exel livery. Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Most of the PE and other small parts are now in place and some more scratch building done. I don’t have any clear pictures of the mounting for the single Vickers K Gun on wartime Dingos so my installation is a scratch built creative interpretation which matches the two grainy images I have and looks practical. The gun itself is a spare from a Dragon kit. The brackets for the sand channel should have lightening holes so I have drilled them out. I was very tempted to add the sand channel itself as it comes with the kit, but very few photos of Dingos in NW Europe show them. The Gerry cans are from a MiniArt set. The kit comes with two of the earlier flimsy cans and has retaining strips on the mud guard to keep them in place. These strips were removed if the crew wanted to carry different loads, so I have removed them from mine so I can match the load in my reference photo. I spent a morning at Bovington Tank Museum looking behind the wheels of their Dingo to examine the wiring and plumbing hidden there. Perhaps surprisingly the museum staff didn’t seem bothered by a baldy bloke sprawled on the floor and shining a torch under the mud guards. It probably happens quite often! I took plenty of pictures and have dug out some very fine wire to have a go at replicating what I found. This is underneath the rear left wheel, you can see the electrical cable running up the suspension bracket and then out to the rear lights (these seem to be a post-war modification, wartime Dingos did not have them). Bovington’s Dingo. It is a Mk III so should not have an armoured roof, I suspect it has been added by the museum to secure the interior.

Finished number 2 for this group build which I'm very much enjoying, I've achieved the main goal of having one in each gallery, now to see if I can add a third Ready for inspection posted here: Hong Kong Models 1/32 B-25H Gunship Work in progress here: Another B-25 Mitchell As usual thanks to everyone involved for the support and creating and monitoring this beast of a GB

This update has been a lot longer arriving than I had anticipated for a couple of reasons, the main one being that I've been ill for a while. Again.😒 I searched and searched for the right kind of braid to cover the large diameter HT conduits on the engine, but despite getting lots of samples and even trying to adapt some likely looking options to my needs, I failed to find anything that really cut the mustard. In the end I decided to just get on with the the best that I'd found to date and use that. Not ideal, but at least I'd finish the model. The braid on the Smithsonian engine is silver in colour (see below). I've checked and rechecked the drawing for the conduit and for some reason the example fitted to the Smithsonian engine is the negative of what's called up on the drawing. That asks for overall copper with a single nickel plated locating thread rather than the overall nickel with one copper thread you can see above. In the end I decided to go with what was on the drawing rather than what was on the Smithsonian example. You can see the problem with the scale of the best weave I was able to find. The part is just about removable, so if I find anything better I might make a new one. Having finally fitted the HT conduit that runs under the aftercooler I was able to fit the latter and the Ki-Gass priming pipes. Fitting the large conduit HT up the side of the aftercooler also allowed the rest of the ignition system at the top of the engine to be installed. That went without any dramas at all thankfully. I'd left the mixture, throttle and automatic boost controls until almost the last because they are so fragile. They fitted in place quite easily though. That really only left fitting the HT leads to the port exhaust plugs, fitting the exhausts and sundry oil and water pipes. Again no dramas involved. One of the joys of 3D printing is how well everything goes together provided you've got things lined up correctly. In my experience, if the fit is awkward you have a problem somewhere else that needs addressing. So that pretty well wraps up the build of the actual engine model. The detailed stand will follow at some point in the future when I've got the right wood and am up to all the cutting and sanding required. That might be some time away though. Hence, trying to at least establish and end on the basic model build rather than leave the thread hanging and unloved. The finished model:

Thanks guys for your comments. I'm in the process of building suitable figures for my scene-Frankenstein sends his regards! MD The figures were included in the Tamiya kit. To get different poses, I used the legs from various Dragon kits. See you!

It’s been ages since I updated any of my WIPs or even done much in the way of modelling – a bit of a mojo downturn I’m afraid. I’ve blown the dust of the old airbrush though and finally moved this one on a bit. First though, there are a few holes visible on the sides of the lower hull where a handful of internal fixtures are attached. Sprue goo as usual was used to fill these, using scraped flakes of the sprue that came with the kit, mashed into place with lashings of TET. Once dry, it was all scraped/sanded back of course. The gun got fixed together as well, although I’ve left the shield off for painting. It all went together fine, although there are some really tiny and delicate details - though there aren't many of these on show in these pics..... I painted the control panel and made up the dial backing plate. After a bit of oil washing and drybrushing it was fitted together with clear glue which was also dripped into the dials. I’d already cut out the engine access hatch and separated the external louvre, so I knocked up a new door with a scratchbuilt interior louvre. It’s a little strange that a number of hatches are moulded separately, but not the main engine hatch. Oh well, the transmission hatch got its fixing bolts drilled out and I added corresponding holes in the frame. And finally a bit of painting. I’d already brush painted much of the interior with a mix of enamel rusty brown and rub-n-buff. On reflection, it doesn’t offer much of a metallic sheen and is really too light, but following washes should darken it down. I masked up the parts that would I don’t want to be interior green. I mixed up a couple of different Tamiya green shades, and after a couple of coats of cheap hairspray they were squirted on using water to thin, and I broke out the scrubbing brushes. Once this is fully dry, I’ll mask the floor off, repeat hairspray and spray the walls white.

It's largely together now & I think mainly square, though sometimes when I eye it up I think the fin is a bit on the wazoo. If ever a kit needed a spar form of construction this is it. 😠 Had I realised how difficult I was going to find getting things together, I'd have planned something early in the piece but by the time I realised the wing & tail locations were only there to get you in approximately the right place, it was too late. Some more clean up to do but I think it'll come up looking OK in the end. I think I need a bigger in process photo background too. As the largest kit I have built since an Airfix Stirling about 55 years ago, this has been a revelation in other ways, like I'm going to need a bigger canister to store it in. Steve.

NMF: ✔️ As usual, I used Vallejo Metal Color acrylics. They seem to have changed their formula lately. The smell is a tad stronger than before but I can now apply them easily with 1 bar of pressure and a 0,2mm nozzle when I used to work at 1,5 bar with a 0,4mm nozzle before. And there is much less paint build-up on the tip. All my "old" (ca. 3 years) jars had dephased and were impossible to mix. So, I hope the new formula helps better stability over time as an added bonus. But the main thing is that they kept their nice finish while being more workable. The result in pictures: First, I painted and masked the rudder and dorsal spine antennas. Then, I airbrushed a coat of Vallejo Metal Color aluminium. Once it had dried, I applied masks (Tamiya tape) and painted some panels in silver. The forward rib on the fuselage was painted in duraluminium and the aft rib was painted in matt aluminium as it appears clearer than the forward rib on the pictures of early IIICs. I also brush painted some panels randomly using the above mentioned colours. Finally, I applied some masks cut with my Silhouette and painted the registration numbers. I should have made them a bit wider. Now, I can proceed with the decals.

Hello gents, and thanks for taking some time to leave your comments! I appreciate them! Especially, as the headaches mount 😲😄 So, the upside of scratch building: it's a challenge, requires some research, allows you to build some non-kitted projects, requires the builder to consider how to best represent whatever it is - good fun! The downside, well, shoot - sometime a guy might build what he thinks he sees, rather than what he actually sees.....sometimes, the "eyecrometer" needs adjusting, and sometime, for the sake of laziness, a guy might just go ahead and use some kit parts because they look to be close enough.....even though, there appears to be a problem from the outset 🤦‍♂️more on this below. But, in the meantime, I went about making up the bed: So this is coming right along, and almost done - I need to add some D rings to the bed, and a few odds and ends, then on to other parts. Looking pretty good - no problems at all! 😀 Oh what a treat! so much model building goodness! but, - uhh, wait a minute.....is that?? is that rear end still floating!???? what the?? I have torn apart and rebuilt that at least twice already! what the??? Hmmm - I guess I'll need to figure out what's wrong now. This is what I referred to above. At the outset, I was concerned that the kit's walking beam suspension parts did not look right, and I keep getting proven right - hooray for me. First time through, these wheels, inside and outside were floating about an 1/8" above the ground....and now, well, only the inside part is floating. Early on I pondered just making up my own walking beam and brackets, specifically because when you do that, you can keep the central pivot point moveable, which results in a self-levelling suspension, which in turn, lets wheels and tires/tyres to seek the ground independently - which translated means that all four sets of tires and wheels usually touch the ground as planned. 🧐 Not sure what I'll do about this. The good news is the bed and tires/wheels are not attached, so it's easy to reach this area. But, well, what to do next? I used brass axle shafts, so I could bend it upward, but, that might just raise the outside tire, and make both float.....again. I guess I'll futz around for this when I'm done with the bed. While the purpose of this picture was to show the ramp, and tilting extensions, I realize now it also proudly illustrates my floating wheel! 🤦‍♂️ At this point, I think I'll get back to the bed later - and will instead fool around with the suspension and try and resolve the floating tires, without destroying something else! Cheers Nick

I have made a start, just not where the instructions begin, which is predictably with the fuselage internals and cockpit. I felt that the kit instrument panel could be improved upon so I have ordered the Eduard photoetch set designed for the Monogram/Revell kit. With a bit of luck it will fit. I have also ordered the seatbelts from Eduard, I am surprised ICM didn't include belts. For the most part the details in this kit do look great and are perfectly adequate but I'm sure the aftermarket companies will be all over this one. So whilst I wait for the photoetch I decided to tackle the wings. The wings themselves consist of an upper and lower half with separate flaps and ailerons which are also split into two parts. The ribbed roof of the wheel well is moulded into the inside of the upper wing half... but if you look carefully you can see some sinking on the upper surface. It's only slight but it could show up on a bare metal finish. It's not very obvious in the photo but it will definitely need sanding. I decided that it would be easier to paint the inside of the wheel wells before joining the wing halves, and whilst the paint was in the airbrush it would make sense to do the insides of the nacelles and cowlings as well. The three vents make the cowlings quite a complex shape which would have been difficult to mould as one part so ICM have used multiple parts. This was the first test of the kits engineering and I'm pleased to say it's very good indeed. It looks as though, for the most part, the joints are on what would be panel lines. However I felt that, as can be seen in the photo above, the fit isn't quit good enough to be left as a panel line, so I shall fill them and rescribe as necessary. I just need to find some decent quality photos to see exactly which should be panel lines. I know in reality the panels weren't always a great fit but it's hard to portray that without it looking like poor modelling. Talking of joints on panel lines, the ICM plastic feels quite soft which means that care needs to be taken when using Tamiya extra thin to avoid molten plastic oozing out of joints. Of course the upside of this is that the oozing plastic is ideal for joining parts that are not on a panel line and makes for a seamless join. It looks as though ICM have thought very carefully about where to put sprue attachments and ejector pins. There a couple on the inside of the nacelle halves but they are easy enough to get to and remove. Once this was done I sprayed on some Mr Finishing Surfacer primer. The instructions call for the insides of the nacelles to be painted Olive Green, my limited research tells me that it was more likely they would have been Aluminium possibly with a protective clear coating. This seems to make sense so I used Alclad Aluminium lacquer. The ends of the exhausts really need drilling out as they will be quite visible on the model. The edges of the shrouds could also do with thinning down a little to give the appearance of sheet metal. A little effort made quite an improvement. Test fitting of the wing and nacelle halves showed that the guide pins are a tight fit in their corresponding holes, this was quickly remedied with 0.8mm drill bit. The fit was then perfect. Most of the panel lines are very well done but I'm not sure what happened here. I wonder if it's on all of the kits. Here are all of the wing components ready for assembly. The fit of the nacelles to the wings is almost perfect. Impressive engineering once more. As is the fit of the flaps apart from the gap between the aileron and the middle flap... I'm not sure if this is right. It's the same on both wings but I think it I will need to add some plastic strip to the end of the flap. I'm not sure what's going on with the landing lights either. I feel they could have made an attempt at adding some detail here especially as they are quite prominent and the inner faces of the housings will need some sanding. Here are the real ones for comparison. Not difficult to scratch build but a little frustrating, especially considering the detail they have put into other parts. Apart from the couple of niggles mentioned it does look as though this kit could be built into an impressive model without too much effort. The parts need very little in the way of clean up and the odd seem line can be dealt with vey easily due to the soft nature of the plastic. I'm currently working on the engines and hopefully will be able to make a start on the fuselage next week. It seems as though my mojo can be restored with this one. Wayne

The Starboard Formation Keeping Floodlamp (10) is shown in the December 1940 Hurricane Mk.II Pilot's Notes (https://ibb.co/zNJcZL0).

So we are four month's into 2024 and this is my first finish of the year. This one is the Academy PBY 5 Catalina Black Cat boxing I received for Xmas, so I pick up some FCM decals for south American operators (Brazil and Argentina). Built OOB using Tamiya and Mr Colour acrylics, if anyone uses the Mr Colour day glow red and yellow just be aware that the yellow need a solid white base and the red is best applied over yellow. As usual all comments are welcome.

Following with interest - I've always found this particular aircraft more attractive than the MkII or Mk V. So much so that I made one in my teens from the Matchbox kit - probably not very accurate; I just looked at some photos, IIRC.

I don't know man, I've never smoked either of them. . .

my stupid leg and my hospital pyjamas. 😡 sprockets from the Elephant Blue stuff freshly microwaved Squish on the blue stuff and leave to cook Two part resin. I use a weighing scales to ensure a correct mix. sprocket mold ready for another go Poured about twenty mls of resin Cures in about ten to twenty minutes. resin castings before cleanup. So I’ve done 24 road wheels next I have to do two sets of sprockets.

Morning all,have to say this has been a joy to build and paint bodes well for the other two.Last lap now only the small amount of rigging and the glazing to add.

Finaly finished, had to change plans as the FUG antennas was not in the kit, only the genetic supports, and as i had no antennas in the stash, i chose to build the V-7 instar that is without Radar installed. Cheers Jes

Spring vegetable planting season coming up, so I am making hay while the sun shines, modeling-wise. I suppose I will still have plenty of time at the bench, but the garden will be the source of one more competing activity and demand on my time. Come to think of it, our Antipodean friends will have no such coming concerns 🙂. At any rate, just one day's work installing the Carly Float racks: Revell shows the splinter shield below the raft rack outboard of the 2-pounder as blue. They were right about the blue on the 4 inch gun shield and the ASDIC office, so I went with it. I will will remedy the shield's pristine, rust free appearance somewhat tomorrow. Best, Jeff

I started to set the decals There are plenty decals. And some are very big (on the wings for exemple) You must take your time and you need some seances. I set one big decals with the microset. And when the decal is dry I use the microsol so that it fits the shapes perfectly The hasegawa decals react very well to the combination of microset and microsol

Here we go. Single-mould-full-hull. Exactly as it should be. Some teething problems with the beam being a little too narrow after installing bulkheads. Removed half of them amidships. Better by far. Turning the boat over. Here we see the propeller shafts installed. Connection pins are made ofsoft styrene, and I fear that propellers will easily snap off. I will replace them with metal rods as I did to the connection pins on the rudders. Happy with that and now the main deck. Some jiggling and wiggling to get the right fit. No nasty gaps to report. Everything sits perfectly along the gunwhale. On top of the main deck we have the casemates with the secondary deck. Quick dry fit. Yes. As expected. Some problems fitting the focsle. The deck is 0,5 mm too wide. I could sand off the edges or simply remove another bulkhead. Will ponder on that one.

After some considerable cutting and filing and trial and error, I have one of these... I think I've got the arched front piece about right and it fits to the shape of the bodywork . There's no engine sump or anything underneath, but the front is sheeted with thin, flexible styrene and the supercharger is fitted with only a touch of filler. There's a shielded opening beside the supercharger which houses an SU carburettor and I made a long hole which recieved a piece of squeezed plastic tube. One step at a time with this 😇 I've tried the fit of the radiator piece-- it has to attach to the front of the bonnet and just butt up against the back of the supercharger box. Seems OK 👍 Some blue paint was tried to see how it looks with the rest of the bodywork, but of course it's all thoroughly wrecked again. Never mind, clearly the paintwork is a minor issue to be sorted later. So there's something, some kind of framework to attach other things to, by way of a start. 😎