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Greetings fellow Britmodellers! Here's my summer holidays project - the Trumpeter 1/48 scale Focke-Wulf Fw-200C-4 Condor. I started this kit with the intention of it being some light relief and a relatively quick and simple build as a nice break from the more complex projects I have on the go. Unfortunately that didn't turn out to the case and it was far from straightforward - although it looked gorgeous in the box, I foolishly spent hours building and painting a very complex interior, 99% of which will never be seen again. The real issue was attaching the wings, however, as Trumpeter (in their wisdom) have the lower wing and central fuselage section molded in one, but with absolutely no locating points to ensure this structurally critical part of the model has any strength whatsoever - it's simply butt-joints which would obviously crack under any sort of load. Being the large model that it is, I therefore made an alloy spar and epoxied this in place to give the wings some strength, and then added thick plastic card tabs to the wing root joints as well as the lower fuselage joints: Unfortunately, this mod meant the wing to fuselage join needed a lot of filling, sanding and rescribing to come good... ...but it has given the model much-needed strength - although it still creaks and groans like an old piece of garden furniture when picked up! Anyway, despite not being the easy shake and bake I hoped it would be, I did enjoy it and it makes for a large and impressive model. I used my usual Xtracolor enamels and finished it off with some heavy exhaust staining as seen in references with Mig pastels. All the best, Tom Focke-Wulf Fw-200C-4 of 8./KG40, Summer 1943:

Howdy all, just thought I`d trouble you with some photo`s of the latest addition to the Pacific theme I got going My attempt at building an Australian Beaufighter Assembled from the 1/48 Tamiya kit to represent a Beau with 31 Squadron RAAF No surprises that it`s virtually all from the box contents....... ...only tweaks being: some braces for the cowling ring, filled the wing gun ports and ejector chutes, drilled out the gun barrell and an additional aerial Additions were the bombs and bomb racks which came from the spares box ( a Tamiya Beau` and Tamiya Swordfish, I think ) Markings from DK Decals WWII RAAF Twins Pt1 Of which only the Tigers Head played up a bit trying to conform to the nose Hope I didn`t trouble you too much and you enjoy the pic`s Thanks for looking, Cheers Russ

This time, it's the F-18B Hornet "Bandit Ghosts" by Academy in 1:32 scale. If any of you have the chance to buy an Academy F-18 from this series, I highly recommend it. I hope you'll enjoy the photos on the dark background.

Hi modellers. This is my latest build, the Airfix 1/72 HH-53c. This helo has been on my whishlist for a very long time. It was one of those builds where i had to take a deep breath before i started. It’s an old kit with so much room for improvement. The fit of the kit is really good and that was a great help in order to preserve the raised detail on the kit. I scratch build some of the interior and added a Black Dog engine and Reskit intakes along with some PE from Airwawes. It is one of those builds where i had to decide when to stop adding more details. Enough talk. Here it is, finally finished. Hope you like it. And a few pics from the building process.

When I moved house fifteen years ago, I emptied the model shelves of my office room, binning the more pathetic efforts and throwing a few that seemed better than the rest into an old display case, together with their thick dust layer. Off it went into the basement, until I retrieved it a few days ago. Originally I intended to give these models a rudimentary cleaning, make some documentary pictures and then give them a burial with military honours in the bin. However, under the finger-thick dust, a few of them revealed unexpected qualities and appear to be too good to be thrown away. I will show these three or four here, startiong with this 1/72 Hasegawa Sabre Dog. This kit is known to be excellent, despite its age (well, it was very new when I built it, what shows that I am old ...). I think the "Big Viv" decals were third party, I believe it was Cutting Edge (EDIT: Apparently, it was Aeromaster). The plane was brush painted, back then I think I was not bad realizing bare metal schemes with the brush. Marcus

Hi! This is the Hobby 2000 (ex-Hasegawa) Douglas Dauntless. I put in a Yahu Instrument panel (almost invisible) and some Airwaves cockpit detaling (most invisible). The rest is OOB. I used Hataka Acrylic Paint over a basecote of Army Painter Black applied by spraycan. Hope you'll like it. Anyway - enough chit-chat from me - it's time to show you some pictures: All the best. Cheers Hans J

Hi All! I managed some time off for a week or two over the summer and found time to complete a few builds. Noting clever or complicated, just aiming to finish a few kits and imporve my finishing a bit. This was the first off the bench and pretty much the definition of a mojo-build and a few things learned.

Brothers Alphonse and Rene' Caudron founded one of France's earliest aircraft companies in 1909 in the Some region of France, where they produced, among other aircraft, there type G sesquiplane. With the onset of WW1, they adapted their type G to military use, with the Caudron G.2, which was quickly superseded by the improved G.3, of which more than 2,400 would be produced between Sept. 4, 1914 to Sept. 15, 1924. Despite being eclipsed by other aircraft designs, the Caudron G.3 stayed in production until 1924, and was used by many countries, including Argentina, The United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, and many more. In the postwar era it was popular with civilian flying clubs and aviation pioneers, including Adrienne Bolland, who was the first woman to fly over the Andes mountains, and the Swiss pilot Francois Durafour, who landed in A G.3 on A snowfield near the summit of Mont Blanc. This is A great kit from Copperstate Models, painted with MRP rigged with 2lb. mono with a combination of Gaspatch turnbuckles and .05 mm brass tubbing. Thanks for Looking

I recently built this for the NATO Group Build. It's the KP boxing of the circa 2012 RV Models kit. From what I read online, that kit cops a bit of negativity for its surface detail. I actually didn't mind it, and it looks ok to me under this hand-brushed finish. The kit is not easy to build compared to say the Fujimi one - mainly because everything is a butt-join without locator pins or any other help. Patience and superglue was the answer! The whole lot is brush-painted - including the tail stripes. I put the Eduard 1/48 instructions on my laptop screen, and tried my best to translate that over with a pencil. Then I free-handed with a fine brush under a loupe. I am actually pretty pleased with it. The canopy wasn't the best fit as you can see. Ground crew have been reprimanded for doing pull-ups on the nose probe. It inevitably snapped when getting it off the sprue and that was the best I could do to repair it. It stacks up pretty well with my other Mig-21s - the two camo ones (left, Afghani MF, right Soviet SMT) are Fujimi and the silver one (Yugoslav 21R) is the old original KP one. The silver aircraft is also on the Begemot Mig-21 decal sheet I used - it has 7 or 8 different -MF, -R, -bis and -UM you can do from multiple air forces (but my silver one was freelanced, I made that years ago). The decals were well behaved and it's a good interesting sheet. I have two more of these RV Models Mig-21MF kits. I learned a few things on this one so hopefully they will be even better. If you're interested how the kit comes together, here's the build thread from the GB:

Gorgeous noise Andrew

Lovely kit to build, includes motorised drill and tracks. Hairystick painted in enamels, no filler required with plenty of surface detail. A fully detailed cockpit manned by Virgil Tracy. All the best Chris

Finally got 'er done. A few pics of the North American NA-73X, in her very first configuration, that is to say, before the crash. The original NA-73X flew only 15 hours or so before crashing, due to a fuel problem. After the crash, the NA-73X was rebuilt, with several detailed changes. Even later, two of the earliest British Mustang I's were held back to become the first two XP-51's which of course, were of yet another configuration. For those interested, all the gory build details are HERE.. Anyway, here are the pics of my attempt to model the NA-73X in her original splendor! And last of all, just for S&G, a shot of the first mustang, and the last Mustang: Thanks for looking, Ed

As is my wont, I just went ahead and finished it without pausing for more photos or narrative. Oops... I started the topsides with the super chargers for which I used an Eduard Brassin product. These were first painted with Burnt Sienna, then dry brushed with Red Brown, a bit of a dark goop wash and finally a dry brush with metal powder. After sealing them all in, I squeezed them into their slot with just a little finagling. Next, I worked on the propellers. These are a bit tricky to paint because of the way they are engineered - careful masking around the prop baled is required because painting the spinners prior to assembly isn't really possible. I was happy with how I managed to replicate the fade at the forward spinner. The contemporary photos show a lot of wear to the front and back of the blades. I worked the weathering as far as I dare but still don't think I took it far enough! Next up was the wear and tear on the deck around the cockpit. There's a fairly distinct pattern to this and I tried to replicate it with silver pencil as well as dry brushed metal powder. It took a few passes but I like where it landed. I also chipped up the inside leading edges with the silver pencil as per the subject photos. While I was at it, I also shot some black staining for fuel streaks and maintenance stains. I didn't go overboard on this as it really didn't show up much on the darker surface and there was a danger of caricature if I pushed it. Last of the tricky jobs was the antenna wire. Photos revealed that the wire was attached to a long pole attached to the rear canopy. I made this from a bit of stretched sprue and then used elastic line to make the wires. I used a bit of Elmer's Glue to represent the insulators. The final job was the exhaust stain. I used my airbrush for this, loaded with dilute tan coloured paint. A little touch up with blue was necessary to shape the stain correctly around the exhaust itself but otherwise it was a simple task. And then it was done. So that's it! Memorable for me for two reasons. The first is the kit, it's hard to think of how this one could be improved. The fit was just about perfect, the finish is exquisite, and even the sprue gates were all positioned such that painting on the sprue was without need of clean up on separation. The second reason was the Haze paint job, such fun to attempt and I might flatter myself if I say I think it came out well. It's hard to know if it's right per se, but it matches my mind's eye of what I was trying for, and that was based on various descriptions as well as a few photos. Thanks for following along with this one, all of the comments and contributions were much appreciated. Cheers.

Another recent finisher. Airfix Typhoon depicting the 245 squadron example that was the first to land at newly constructed ALG at B3, Ste, Croix Sur Mer Normandy June 10th 1944. I based this on the info I have from my late father in laws service record during his time with 3205 Servicing Commandos. The figures are by CMR except for the one on the wing who is from the Airfix ground crew set.

I know I haven't posted an RFI here in ages, so I thought after some friendly prodding, I'd throw this one up to the community. A little over a year ago, I suffered some major nerve damage to my left hand, resulting in a comparative weakening of my left arm and my thumb and forefinger functioning almost as per normal, but the other three fingers have to be manipulated to hold anything, like a pop bottle, etc. Considering I've been involved in the hobby for some 60+ years, I wasn't about to give it up - despite my physiotherapist's initial advice. However, I do have to re-think some of the tasks that I took for granted. When you really think about it, it's amazing how much a right-handed modeller depends on their left hand. Although I've finished a few others that I'd started prior to the 'incident', this Mosquito is the first 'full-build' (box-to-shelf) that I've done following that 'incident'. Oddly enough, it's the one recent build that I'm most proud of. It's mostly OOTB, but I did add the trailing antenna feed (by the crew entry door) and the 'cooling pump'(?) on the port side below the 'bomb' doors. The canopy was done freehand with the aid of liquid mask and a toothpick for clean-up. Currently. any pre-cut masks are not in my future - I realised you need two good hands to apply them. 🙂 Also, at the time I wasn't confident about my ability to deal with stretched sprue, but since then I've managed to do a reasonable job in the course of a repair or two, so if I find that the PR.XVI should have the antenna wires fitted, I may be inclined to correct the omission. One other point. IMO, the kit supplied antenna mast is too high ... so I cut it down using the Mk.1 eyeball. If kept as Airfix intended, any antenna wire would run straight from the top of the antenna mast and attach up around the pitot tube. All the photos I've seen have the antenna wire still running straight from the top of the antenna mast, but attaching mid-fin. Kit: Airfix 72nd Mosquito PR.XVI Aftermarket: Res-Kit wheels (I couldn't deal with the seam on those 'knobby' treads) Overall: AeroMaster PRU Blue (it may have been an old jar, but it was good as the day that I bought it) AK Acrylic gloss and Matte clear coats (in this case, brushed. I wasn't completely comfortable with the airbrush at this point) MIG #1206 - Dark Streaking Grime wash Decals: Combination of kit, XtraDecal generic RAF sheets (#72069 C/C1 Type WW2 & #72043 Type 'B' roundels) and inkjet printer (serial nos.) I apologize for the quality of the photos, they were taken. with my granddaughter's phone .... Scott

After my Starfighter in Norm 83 I went on to build its counterpart on the eastern side in the mid 1980s, the MIg-21MF of East-Germany`s "Luftstreitkräfte der Nationalen Volksarmee". The kit is one of my all-time favourites, I only used a resin bangseat and a Master pitot tube. Paints used were AK`s olive drab and Tamiya`s XF11 on the upper and Gunze RLM65 on the underside. Camo was applied freehand. A very enjoyable build with no problems. Thanks for looking Volker

Second of the summer builds. Just a basic 'Aldi special' Airifx A6M2 (Akagi based, Pearl Harbour). A nice robust kit, very straightforward and I only added some cockpit details and replaced a few of the finer parts with metal. Tried to keep the finish fairly clean.

P-51D-20 Maj. Norman L. McDonald 318th FS, 325th FG Mondolfo Italy This is a Mustang from the Eduard kit in 1/48. As my other Dora Mustangs, this was the 4th out of a batch of 5. Here I used the stencils from Barracuda instead of Quintas. And for the dashboard I used the Eduard items from the kit. The only thing I had in surplus were masks for the cockpit. The surface I sprayed with Gunze colors. SM 208 / SM 201 and C008. The wings are smoothed to get along with the laminar profile. All IDs were sprayed, here the background of the checkertail in yellow and the red fuselage boundary too. Just the national insignia and individual number I used decals. The aircraft of this airfields in Italy were in the last period of war constant visitors of my home country in Carinthia, the southern part of Austria. Finally it was the British occupation zone until 1955. This aircraft were constantly strafing. So, there are many horrible tales of fighting civilians. No matter where and when. Nearly all persons of my child’s neighborhood had such experiences. Even kids were targets. This should be said. So have a look: Happy modelling

P-51D-5 44-13287 Lt. William Parent 4th FS 52nd FG 15th AF Madna Italy This is a Mustang from the Eduard kit in 1/48. As my other Dora Mustangs, this was the 3rd out of a batch of 5. Here I used the stencils from Barracuda instead of Quintas. And for the dashboard I used the Eduard items from the kit. The only thing I had in surplus were masks for the cockpit. The surface I sprayed with Gunze colors. SM 208 / SM 201 and C008. The wings are smoothed to get along with the laminar profile. All IDs were sprayed, just the national insignia and individual number I used decals. The aircraft of this airfields in Italy were in the last period of war constant visitors of my home country in Carinthia, the southern part of Austria. Finally it was the British occupation zone until 1955. This aircraft were constantly strafing. So, there are many horrible tales of fighting civilians. No matter where and when. Nearly all persons of my child’s neighborhood had such experiences. Even kids were targets. This should be said. So have a look: Happy modelling

Last time I posted a NASCAR build was (I think) 2017... I started this one around the same time, then lost interest in all NASCAR modelling until about two months ago when I found this and all my others during a stash clear-out. There isn't very much to say about the build, I'm sure most builders of American Stock Cars will agree the construction is entirely predictable and formulaic, the only differences being the body shells and paint/decals. That said the early 2000's cars that Revell released are even more so as they're all related to their 'snap together' pre-painted range that were mainly sold through official NASCAR merchandise outlets across the US. Right, enough backstory, this is the less well known of the 2003 Chevy Monte Carlos driven by Kevin Harvick for that season featuring the Californian Funk Metal band 'Sugar Ray' (no I hadn't heard of them either), there aren't too many photos but I found a few, even better is to watch the end of that seasons' Richmond night race and how Ricky Rudd clipped Harvick, putting him in the wall with just eight laps to go, Harvick was running second at the time, Rudd was in third. The post-race 'altercation' was great TV. Paint here is Tamiya TS-14 Gloss Black straight from the rattle-can, when dry the larger areas were very carefully masked and then sprayed TS-21 Gold. Decals are by JWTBM, and date from 2004 - not sure if anyone reading this is connected with JWTBM, but if there is... you 'quality control' was fantastic, after twenty years the decals behaved perfectly. Four coats of Tamiya LP-09 lacquer clear sealed the decals and were left to fully cure for two weeks. Sanding and polishing-out took three days, and I'm VERY pleased with the final finish. So that's it, a toe back in the water of NASCAR modelling and I really enjoyed it. Already looking at a few of my old donor kits & decal options but got a couple of other projects I need to get finished first. Cheers from NZ, please feel free to comment, criticise or ask a question. Ian.

I have been trying to get this subject built for quite a while in various GBs. So Now before anything else crops up Here is Tamiya's 1/48 Aichi M6A! Seiran. Developed to be launched from the deck of the I-400 Submarine. Here's what we got. Let the good times roll!

P-51D Lt. Frederick E. Hutchins 302nd FS 332nd FG Ramitelli Italy This is a Mustang from the Eduard kit in 1/48. As my other Dora Mustangs, this was the 5th out of a batch of 5. Here I used the stencils from Barracuda instead of Quintas. And for the dashboard I used the Eduard items from the kit. The only thing I had in surplus were masks for the cockpit. The surface I sprayed with Gunze colors. SM 208 / SM 201 and C008. The wings are smoothed to get along with the laminar profile. All IDs were sprayed. Just the national insignia and individual number I used decals. The aircraft of this airfields in Italy were in the last period of war constant visitors of my home country in Carinthia, the southern part of Austria. Finally it was the British occupation zone until 1955. This aircraft were constantly strafing. So, there are many horrible tales of fighting civilians. No matter where and when. Nearly all persons of my child’s neighborhood had such experiences. Even kids were targets. This should be said. Here a true story: This kit I wished as a birthday present. My friends bought me the Dual Combo from Red Tails from Eduard. And asked me what so special about Red Tails. I told them about black pilots. My friend's grandfather was straffed by an Mustang with a black pilot. During the war, last months, when he told that, he got troble with the authorities. After the war he told it again. So far. So have a look: Happy modelling

Thanks Giorgio - you are my guru! Well, one of a few Thanks Ian. Yes, he has legs! Came with the kit so no need for surgery. This time Thanks Johnny. No blue in the starter paints! Hi Phil, great to hear from you. Yep, moving to Leicestershire. Our new house in Market Harborough is on the edge of the developments to the East but the house won't be ready for a while so we're moving in with our daughter in Mowsley. Be good to meet up, perhaps half way at the Space Centre? Micro-mesh should be good for your cabinet IMHO. The source of my sheets came from a kind BMer who worked in a place making canopies. Quite big canopies. I think it'll work but, as always, remember it's a polisher not an abrasive so don't press hard! Thanks John So, transfers. Had to pop the canopy off for this one: Looking at that I might tart up the internals a bit. Maybe. First side done: Of course the bench has changed a bit: Yesterday I spent some time opening boxes, choosing some simple kits for the six-month lodging and collecting 'essential' tools: Still haven't exchanged contracts. Stressy.

Two more parts of the superstructure, both need a couple more pieces adding and railings. As you can see, a lot of the smaller parts will need a paint touch up. Due to the fact that they are attached to the sprue by the top of the part, not the area that locates to the main part. Seems a bit silly to me, it would be far better to attach them to the sprue by the area that won't be seen.

The other two main fuselage pieces. It’s quite a large model, the fuselage is 317mm long. Will look great beside my Caproni Campini. ( hmm might start looking at plans for a 1/48 Airacomet & maybe that Sukhoi, I have kits for the Gloster Whittle and the Heinkel 178) I should get the control surfaces and beaching undercarriage into one print. Then I’m going to do one grand vac forming session for canopies for various projects.

Been a while since I did a build thread, an in the midst of finishing the new Airfix Mossie which I didn't think really required one. However, while the various coats of paint dry I've decided to crack on with my next project. As ever, there were many calling out from the stash, but I've decided to go for one that never really made it to the stash. Only bought it a couple of weeks ago, and it's been on the bench ever since. Shh, don't tell the other kits that have been in the cupboard for years! 🤫 Not normally my kind of thing, I was inspired to do this due to the local connection with nearby Sywell. I got hold of a set of decals for Sywell based Tiger Moths of Brooklands Aviation through the Sywell Aviation Museum. So here we are.. Box shot along with the Arctic Decals sheet. And the chosen scheme: I like the red and black scheme too, and there are decals for both so there'll probably be another of these coming along at some point 😁 I've heard this is a good little kit, plus it's little so might not take me too long.. although, I'm tempted to try my hand at some rigging which might slow me down massively. Any hints and tips on that front most welcome 👍 And we're off... Al

Hello Here is another finished kit. You can say that's a lot in a few days but actually I have been scattered since this winter and there were several in parallel. I can say some others are coming soon. So here is an EB-66E from Italeri. It is an old kit but it is quite nice with hollow lines and some details inside the cockpit. To be closer than a real Destroyer on the ground I cut the leading edge slats and with some plastic card I modified this area. I put some weight in the nose and that's all. The markings came from my huge stock of decals as I wanted to build this aircraft I saw on a picture on the Internet. This is EB-66E DL 54-440 of the 42nd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron based at Takhli AB in Thailand in late 1968. All the paint came from the Gunze Aqueous range. All comments are welcome. Cheers. Patrick

I am currently building four Avon Sabres. Since I had already started them I checked with the Mod and have been allowed to enter two in this group build since I have only completed the fuselages on those two. I still intend to complete all four and there may be some mixing of them as I get further down the track - it will be difficult to keep the two builds separated. 😕 Basic kit is Hasegawa F-86F. The Avon Sabre fuselages come from RedRoo / High Planes. To these I am adding RedRoo 166 gall and 100 gall drop tanks and Aires cockpit sets, suitably modified to suit the Australian aircraft. Winders and other stores will come from the spares box. I have decals from High Planes, RedRoo, Dekl's, Ventura, and Model Alliance. This should be enough to allow me to find the markings I want.

A very long drawn out gestation for these chaps as life and other modelling nonsense has got in the way. Anyway, I'm calling these chaps done. Some new techniques (for me) the horses have all been painted with contrast type paints (mostly Vallejo "Xpress" colours) They represent the British 13th Light Dragoons in "intermediate" uniforms with the old style Tarleton helmet. A bit fanciful perhaps. Well it might have happened on one day in 1815... Really nice figures as you would expect from Perrys' The Work In Progress thread for anyone interested

This is the 1/700-scale AFV Club Knox-class frigate with Five Star Knox PE add-on set. Other aftermarket details include Five Star whip antennas and SSModel Phalanx CIWS. I used SSModel 0.05mm memory metal for the rigging, having learned that the elastic Infini Aero rigging I used on my last build makes getting the right amount of slack in the lines difficult. Painted with Vallejo, weathered gently with Tamiya enamel panel liner and some oils on the hull. Overall, the AFV Club kit suffered from a couple inaccuracies and didn't always have the best fit. Decals often were not sized correctly and didn't include flags or helpful things like helopad markings (which, incidentally, are molded onto the plastic and I was able to bring out by painting the surface and lightly sanding the paint off the raised lines, revealing the light gray, albeit not white, plastic beneath). The Five Star kit is lovely, but is also missing some obvious adornments, like the goodies that line the mast. Still, it all comes together in the end.

This was a fun project! A commission build for a retired army veteran. He wanted a scale replica of his old anti tank AFV. The YPR 765 PRAT has been used by the dutch army for many years. I also have worked ( against ) them when i was a leopard 2 gunner. So this subject was very familiar to me. The owner had sent me the kit and he included photo's from his own personal archive. These photo's helped me alot to achieve the right look. I took some liberties with the setting, adding a bit of a dynamic look. At the same time i tried to stay as true to the photo's as possible. In the future there will be another YPR 765 build. A friend of mine who also served wants a PRI version ( with the 25mm turret ) For now this project is finished. Come this saturday the model will meet it's new owner. I'll leave you guys with the pictures and i hope you enjoy them and/ or get inspired. Thank you all for taking the time to look and comment.

Of the 341 Fw 190Ds of the JG 26 that I have, here are the “yellow 10” (excepting Götz’s D-13). Note: none of these were with the II./JG 26. Note also the absences of Werknummer being included by April 1945. Records are skimpy / incomplete (other priorities). FW 190D-9/R11 WNr.210969 Ofhr. Erich Schneider, 3./JG 26, “gelbe 10 +” Injured 24.Feb. 1945 in crash-landing after aerial combat with Tempests from 222 Sq., southwest of Fl.Pl. Münster-Handorf FW 190D-9 WNr.500603 (Mimetall-built) Fw. Wolfgang Polster, 5 victories, 11./JG 26, “gelbe 10 + |” WIA 24.Feb. 1945, enemy fire by Tempests from 274 Sq. after landing at Fl.Pl. Plantlünne. FW 190D-9 Uffz. Heinrich Herbster, 3./JG 26, “gelbe 10 +” Reported lost 31.March 1945 due to Flak near Lüdinghausen (south of Münster). Returned WIA 6.April after parachuting. FW 190D-9 Ltn. Siegfried Konrad, 3./JG 26, “gelbe 10 +” Engine fire 17.April 1945 after aerial combat with Tempests from 80 Sq., east of Ratzeburger-See. Parachuted. FW 190D-9 Uffz. Günter Rey, 5 victories, 3./JG 26, “gelbe 10 +” His aircraft at Fl.Pl. Flensburg-Weiche at the time of surrender (8.May 1945). Enjoy that 'old bird.' GRM

Two hunters are out in the forest when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy takes out his phone and calls 911 and gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a gun shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says "OK, now what?"

I’ve sprayed the base colours for the flooring and some more interior wall sections. The instructions say steel for the floors, but I think this silver is close enough as I’ll be adding dark grey lines and stuff based on this photo.

Finally getting somewhere it seems… although I didn’t touch it for a month. It now feels like a solid lump of 2 part epoxy and resin! 😃 At least it sits well on those metal gear legs. Still lots to do in terms of getting the profile right on the fuselage and rescribing the lost panel detail but it now looks like a TSR2…. couldn’t resist sitting the wing, fin and one of the tailerons on. That reminds me I need to miliputt in some brass bushings before I glue in the exhausts!

The kit was purchased about 8 years ago, I started it almost immediately, and very soon put it away! The kit is very 80's Revell, clunky details in places, pretty poor design, vague fit (very vague where it really maters!) In the end, I was sick of the huge box staring at me from the top of the wardrobe, so pulled it down to get the job done. The body is one piece and huge, as is the chassis pan. They had to be sprayed outside and I went with rattle cans, the colour is Skoda Racing Blue. I did enjoy detailing the engine bay and interior. The seat decals are actually a 1/24 set from Mr Model, but they seem to portray the Camaro seat material very well. The shell was de-badged leaving only the Camaro script on the front wing. I used the grille badge as a key fob and made up a simple wire key to fit in the ignition barrel. Wheels/tyres are from a chap in Australia. Purchased for the Tamiya 240ZG originally, I've since bought some 3D printed wheels for the Datsun project. Atb, Steve.

In my opinion is the recce version of Mirage III one of the best-looking aircraft ever. If Lotus 72 had been an aircraft, it would have looked something like this. The Kinetic kit looks great in the box with lovely details. However, fit is pretty bad. I built the Mirage IIIE years ago, remembering that as a far from enjoyable build. But the will to build the R version was strong, so I decided to go through this again. I am not so fond of special markings, but the Swiss Air Force dark grey farewell scheme with the hawk (?) head was hard to resist. In order to make this an even more difficult build, I used the SBS Model cockpit set. As with the rest of the kit, it has lovely details but bad fit. Another irresistable thing is the Soviet style colurs that the licence built Swiss Mirages sported. bril Fit was bad, but the decals (designed by Syhart and printed by Cartograf) was brilliant. Such large decals can be a true challenge - and so they were. But finally I made it, with no silvering at all. However, when decals were in place, I decided to cut the large transparent decal film areas, extremely carefully with a new scalpel blade, to avoid the risk of silvering. It could have been an extremely stupid decision, but it turned out nice. And if the decals on the upper surfaces was a challenge, still they were nothing compared to the underside... Much complaining here, I know. But even though it was a challenging build and many times during it, I was ready to throw it away, it was still pretty enjoyable after all. Probably I suffer from the Stockholm syndrome. I did not bother to fix all mistakes, but anyway I am very pleased with the result. Probably a combination of being proud of the effort to manage to build this at all, and the lovely appearance of this amazing aircraft. Thanks for watching!

Hi All Still working on refreshing my older builds and photographing them for the album. I built this many years ago, about the same time as my Hellcat, but having done a slightly better job. All I've done for the restoration is cleaned her up and added a panel line wash to the upper surfaces, there's too much paint on the underside to help much there (I wasn't very good at airbrushing light colours then - technically I'm still not, but it's relative). Hope you enjoy Here's a picture of the slightly sad state she was in... And here she is following the clean up Hope you enjoy Matt

Huh, missing decals, invisible panel lines and no attempt at pre-shading. Good engine weathering though and lots of aftermarket in that cockpit. OK for a first model build but must try harder 😉 Great post, thanks

Only a small update progress-wise today, but worth sharing to illustrate the sheer quality of the kit. Today's excitement is fitting the bonnet (hood to all those west of the Scillies). The hinge mechanism is not yer ordinary crude plastic pivot so often seen on lesser kits, but a full-blown cantilever arrangement that looks as impressive in action as it sounds. It wasn't difficult to achieve once I'd got my head around the illustration on the instruction sheet which was slightly lacking in detail. Having assembled the hinge bar mechanism and attached it to the underside of the bonnet I had to lay the whole bonnet assembly into place on the 'shell, whereupon the hinge bar sits into a less-than-obvious recess in the radiator support panel. The front panel then fits over this, holding it in place. Fitting said front panel was tricky due to the ultra-close fit of the panels and the need to keep all traces of TET well away from the hinge mechanism, but eventually all was set and the adhesive fully dried overnight. I then tried lifting the bonnet... It's a beautifully close fit over the front wings and as soon as it starts to move you can tell it's a bit different from yer average kit... The nose lifts and swings forward... ...before the whole panel gracefully lifts up and forward... Finally settling in the upright position as you see, exposing the deceptively simple cantilever hinge bar arrangement. It's neat, stable, close-fitting and looks a treat, not like yer average opening panel on any kit that often looks crude and clumsy. I have to say that I've not been this impressed with kit quality and design since the (also BMW) Isetta build I completed late last year. I know Revell's kit quality can vary enormously but from my own experience if Revell actually design and produce a kit entirely in-house the quality will be right up there with this one, but if however they've bought it in it'll likely be rubbish by comparison. Finally a hint as to the next stage - this took me all afternoon to achieve...

Assembly commences…

IT'S FINISHED!! See you at the RFI and thank you for your patience - Andy

Do people who drive electric vehicles listen to AC/DC, or is it something current?

All three major pieces. Should get the two rear pieces assembled later. Thanks said I have some music to do and a few hours of stuff for work so we’ll see. Next order of business is to go walk the hound…

Years of playing the loudest music on earth have finally taken their toll. Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend say that in future they’ll be touring as The What?

The instructions would have you attach the rear bumper near the end, and not knowing if installing it earlier would foul on something (and not having seen a completed WIP of this model elsewhere) I followed that. If I were building it again, I'd attach the bumper at the start before painting. Partly as I now know it's OK if fitted at this point, and partly because although decent sized tabs are moulded in, the amount of force to get the body over the chassis means that these tabs are probably not enough, and I've reinforced it - more gluey fingers and bits. A bit of spurted-out glue in the joint has made one of the outside body<>bumper panel lines here less than perfect, but it's not too bad. Say goodbye to the sunlight, engine. You'll be buried inside forever soon. After refitting the body & interior correctly / carefully this time, the ride height and everything sit more or less perfectly. So onto gluing the windscreen in place. Just a few details left - door mirrors and rear number plate, and so this WIP is done.

Condor was designed as passenger machine so the gondola was added later. I think in the center there was a main structural element supporting floor. Therfore the possible communication was either on left or right side of it. There is reconstruction of FW 200 ongoing https://fw200-restaurierung-bremen.de/category/allgemein/page/7/

Thanks, Hunter. They took a while, so that's good to hear. A brief update. The hull without and then with all the exhausts, engines, rails and gun pods that give life to the 'thopter surface. I test-fitted a couple of the wing mountings too; once in, they do not want to come out, although they will have to be persuaded. It all press fits easily, so I plan to paint a lot of this in separate sub-assemblies. The instructions declare the colour scheme as completely monochrome, so I want to add as much variety as I can before unifying it with all the harsh weathering one could justifiably apply to a vehicle on a desert planet. Exactly what that monochrome colour might be varies a lot depending on what source you look at - which leaves it open to interpretation. Good. There's a giant seam that runs up the tail, both above and below. It's not a fit issue (they fit well), but for some reason there's a valley where the halves join. In a way, it makes it easier to fill and sand, which I did with Tamiya putty. We'll see how it looks under primer. There are seams on the undercarriage and gun pod that are less easy to solve, but that can wait. Still, a visually striking kit that is very well engineered - no qualms yet. Thanks for looking!

The metal tracks for the type 97 have arrived! I ordered them on the 10th, the seller finally shipped them on 19th, and they arrived on the 28th. I also bought some tools for airbrush maintenance/repair. The type 97 tracks are the single box on the right. The two next to it are T91E3 tracks for M41 Walker Bulldog's. I ordered those at the same time. For now they'll go on the stack with the other tracks. 😳

These were at the same change of lights a few minutes ago. 1964 Ford Falcon Sprint And a 1990 W124 Matt