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I’d like to present my Avro Shackleton AEW.2 WR960 ‘Dougal’. What a monumental build it’s been! I started this as my first Britmodeller WIP a little over a year ago, with only a few simple kits completed since the turn of the millennium. Since then the support and encouragement I’ve found through this site has been quite profound, and I’ve been able to finish this to a standard that I’m quite pleased with. I couldn’t have built this without all the kind and helpful comments and advice, this place really is one of a kind. The kit itself has been through some quite considerable life events with me- I found it in a clearance bin while buying presents for my son’s first Christmas, I started building it to decompress during a stressful year. When Dad died in February, I went from holding his hand as he succumbed to ten years of dementia, to pulling a late night to finish all the decals on the fuselage in one go- knowing I had to completely organise a funeral within a week and just needing to get away from everything for a bit. Anyway, before it gets too heavy, some notes. -Built out of the box, no aftermarket except for: -Some old invisible thread for the radio aerials. -Primed with Tamiya Extra Fine Primer, and Stynlyrez for some (a lot of) remedial work. -Painted with Tamiya Acrylics through an Iwata HP.CS -The overall grey was a 1:1 combination of XF-24 and XF-54. -Wing walk markings masked and sprayed. -The nose turret cracked, so I painted the top with a simulated unrolled blind. I’d like to replace this part one day. -Weathering with chalk pastels and oils. As a disclaimer, the exhaust staining is more akin to that from earlier MR.2s- I got carried away trying the technique, although I'm happy with the final effect. The kit really did go together quite smoothly- again, this was a case of forewarned is forearmed. The two key points recommended were. -Test fit the interior parts as you build it up, tolerances are tight. -Cement the engine nacelles to the lower wing first, so they’re flush. Then adjust as necessary to allow the top of the wings to fit in place. There were still quite a number of ups and downs, but these were all self-inflicted. If anyone’s interested the WIP is here. I’ve been working very much in parallel this year, so the plan is to finish any remaining models before I start anything new. Next year I’ll try and complete models in series instead. The next kit will be at the other end of the scale range- think very small biting insects, and the subcontinent! And yes, there will be some more AN/APS-20 carriers later.

Hello all, Here is my recently competed Eduard boxing of the 1/48 Hasegawa A-4E/F Skyhawk, in the markings of BuNo 154186 of VA-192 'Golden Dragons' flying from the USS Ticonderoga off the coast of Vietnam in 1968. The build thread is below: Extras used: Eduard - etch and mask (from the kit) Hasegawa - TERs Phase Hanger Resin - Escapac ejection seat and 400 gallon fuel tank Quickboost - FOD guards Tamiya - Mk.82 bombs Paint is from MRP with weathering added from a mixture of AK pencils, Abteilung oils, Flory wash and Tamiya powders. From looking at images of this jet prior to the cruise, it appeared to have faint corroguard on the leading edges of the wings, stabilisers and tail and no red trim around the undercarriage doors. With the other member of the 'Tokin Gulf Yacht Club' (F-4 to follow ) Thanks for looking Dave

Whenever Modelers gather in groups of three or more, tales will be told of the Legend of the "2010 great home bargains 21st century toys glut" when grown men could be seen struggling with shopping trolleys full to the brim of Stukas,Macchis,Bf109s and Zeros,( Not, unfortunately round my neck of the woods, However some kind souls on this very forum were happy to pass on their great good luck and pass on the bounty at cost) I remember my Dad building me the Revell 1/32nd Stuka, with its striking box art and red snake, and back in those days ,with the drying times of enamel paint, we truly understood the concept of delayed gratification So, in a burst of nostalgia I dug out this kit from the stash, yes ,its a bit toy like, but the pilot figures do a good job of covering for the sparse cockpit, and the decals are excellent ,and it was fun to do. Thanks for looking

Avis's tiny Bristol Racer. Although it was technically advanced for it's time (retractable undercarriage, streamlining, monocoque monoplane, estimated 220mph top speed) it was ultimately unsuccesful. Designed to showcase the Bristol Jupiter engine in air-races it suffered from poor handling due to overlarge ailerons which damaged the wings in flight! Subsequent modifications helped but despite being enterred for the 1922 Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe competition in France it wasn't ready in time. It only flew 7 times in total. Quite a nice kit to build, added a few extra details (pitot tube, bars on undercarriage). Rigging is stretched sprue. No real issues with fit - some sanding needed on joins. the interior is quite detailed (for 1/72) and just about visible through the wheel wells (although not clear in the photos). There are a reasonable number of reference photos to help. The kit decals are excellent and they provide spares. There were two windscreens too. Main issue that everyone mentions is the undercarriage - it isn't clear at all exactly how it fits (and the photos of the real thing are too dark to see).

Presenting the SNCASE Aquilon 202, a license built Sea Venom. It’s depicted in the markings of a 16F aircraft, as served over Algeria from 1957 to 1959. There’s a great Les Français en Afrique Group Build going to the bunfight this year, I’m thinking of this as a nice warmup. I first wish to acknowledge Colin @heloman1 for very kindly sending me the decals that enabled this build to take place. Thank you! The kit was built for the Frog Classic Group Build. Looking at some of the variously repopped sprues around the net, I was lucky to find an original Frog boxing for a tenner, as the moulding was still quite nice. There was a small amount or warping but the plastic was malleable enough to straighten out. The canopy was crystal clear, although I didn’t use it… I also bought the Tasman detail set, but ended up fighting with and then discarding the white metal parts. The Model Art decals from Colin were far superior, so the only part I actually used from Tasman was the vac formed canopy. With the specific Aquilon canopy I spent some time incorporating it into the overall form, after scratch building an interior. I think the lines of the Aquilon are a lot prettier due to the lower canopy- a bit like comparing a Citroen SM to an Austin Princess! Some other Aquilon features were additionally scratch built- twin pitots on the fins, the extended tail plane, and I sanded down and rescribed the different panel lines around the nose. I added vanes in the intakes, and replaced the slightly amorphous fins on the tip tanks. Painted with the usual Tamiya Acrylic over Stynylrez primer. The WIP is here. Thanks for looking!

Smile if you've had your turban painted:

Made some more progress on the Escort. Glass is in and body is now ready for having the chassis and interior inserted. The front and rear screens have been separated from the kit part and they do fit reasonably well. Side windows are cut from clear sheet, the door windows are going to be open. Dashboard is now ready to fit. I found some spare keys and a ford keyring left over from a '32 Ford 3 window etch set. They had to go in !! Final job on the underside was to sort out crossing the exhaust over. The Pinto manifold is on the opposite side to the BDA. It was a fairly simple task, using some 2mm Aluminium tubing. I also cut a piece to replace the solid tail pipe. Initially, the kit part was warmed up in hot water and I attempted to massage it into shape. The resin didn't like that approach and promptly split ! Rear brake drums were punched out of card stock, drilled and glued onto the axle. The rear wheels will only require a thin spacer to fit them at the correct stance. Interior is completed. I think the fabric and vinyl effect on the seats has come out quite well. Love the details Chris at C1 has provided for the interior, the seat belt stalks, centre console, etc. All work well and the fit is superb. Finally tonight, I have the two parts together. Most engine bay details are added, just need to do a bit of detail painting and try and find some generic underbonnet decals in the spares box. On the home stretch now. Atb, Steve.

Here is my Takom 1/35 Stug III. Built stock OOB.

Hello all, here's the latest from the shed. I have been making this for a friends 70th birthday. In all its taken about five months to do. In 1982 my friend found himself bobbing about in the South Atlantic on the Atlantic Conveyor heading for the Falklands. On board were Chinooks, Wessex, Harriers and Sea Harriers. Him at the top And here Prior to departure the Chinooks had their blades taken off and placed in bespoke racks inside the aircraft. Other external items were also removed and stored away. The aircraft were then enclosed in greasy purpose made ‘Banana Bags’ to protect them from the harsh Atlantic elements on the way down to the Falklands. On arrival the Chinooks were de bagged and the smaller external items and blades refitted, and the ‘Cab’ prepared for flight. BN was the first in line, BT was to be next. BN was successfully flown off and was engaged in a task when the Conveyor was hit by two Exocet missiles. My friend was part of the small contingent of 18 Sqn groundcrew on board the Conveyor who were carrying out the Chinook rebuilding process. BT was being worked on and was almost ready but had yet to have the bolts on the blades wire locked. Fire now spread through the ship and despite firefighting efforts by those on board it became apparent the ship was lost. My friend and the rest of the servicing team donned their emergency immersion suits and prepared to abandon ship! The remains of BT By this time there was much smoke and heat, the decks becoming too hot to stand still in one place for any length of time. It was not possible to pass the bridge superstructure which was burning so people at the front of the ship climbed down scramble nets, people at the rear climbed down rope ladders that were draped over the side. Being at the rear of the ship with BT my friend started to climb down a ladder to the sea, this was made more difficult because of the immersion suit and by the people above treading on the hands of those below them. He recounted how compressed gas bottles stored below decks started to ignite and burst through the side of the ship. Because the ship was wallowing in the swell, the lower part of the ladder was being submerged every time the ship rolled. To prevent a dangerous dunking there came a point where jumping became necessary. He did this from a considerable height and then had to try to swim to dinghies that had been put over the side and were now drifting around the hull of the ship. After an exhausting swim he and the others in the water hauled themselves into the dinghies and awaited rescue. For my friend this came in the form of a Sea King helicopter which winched him aboard and deposited him on the deck of the Hermes. For others not winched up by helicopters there were more scramble nets to negotiate, this time having to be climbed up to the deck of the rescuing ship. Difficult enough without being cold, tired and waterlogged. He and the other survivors were returned to the UK. 12 people were killed in the attack. Ground crew are often overlooked in such conflicts, but had it not been for these men there would have been no helicopter heavy lift capability in the Falkland’s at all. So I have written this precis of the events that befell my friend and the other shipborne 18 Sqn ground crew to bring their bravery to light once again. And so to the model and some pics. It is the original Airfix Chinook model with the following:- Blackdog resin Chinook big set. A72006 Airwaves Photoetch set. AC72-12 Photo etch pre painted canvas troop seats. Loads of scratch building in the cabin Re arranged/scratch rotor heads. Scratch built blade rack and chocks. Model Alliance Decals. RBF tags by Flightpath Deck Base: Coastal Kits 3D printed Resin containers and palettes from Rail Reality Case: Trumpeter Brass plaque: Timpsons The kit wasn’t to bad, only a few minor fit issues, probably brought about by the amount of surgery involved to get the resin parts in place. The interior details were pretty much made from plastic card and brass rods. Its finished using Xtracolor paints and varnishes with panel lines picked out using Flory black wash. Minimal weathering as they were newly delivered airframes. Scratch made blade rack. Each Chinook had its own blades inside it for the journey down. I hope you like it, he did which was the aim of the project. Thanks for looking Pete

This is the Italeri UH-34J built as used by the US Navy Helicopter Training Squadron 8. The H-34 had so many names I am not sure which to use but I believe the UH versions were called the Seahorse. After my last 2 builds, which were really kit bashes, this one was a pleasure to build. For an Italeri kit it had pretty good detail and fit. The only aftermarket parts I used was Scale Aircraft Conversions SAC72189 white metal landing gear but only because the boxing I used didn't have the wider gear as used on this particular aircraft. The decals were from an Italeri HSS-1 boxing and worked fairly well but with some silvering. The paint was Tru Color International Orange. Total build time was 10 days I have another one of these in my stash that I plan on building as an Air Force search and rescue helicopter but I am waiting for @CaracalModels to release their 1/72 H-34 for set, or I find the discontinued Wolfpak one. So next up is the Sova-M HU-16B. I have had mixed results with Sova-M kits so wish me luck. Enjoy.

Even though I had plenty of other models in progress, I decided to open yet another box and actually finished! No need to introduce Arma Hooby's Hurricane: it is the best around and a really nice model OOB. It still can benefit from some improvements and I tried to do my best. I chose to depict MW367, coded DR-B and nicknamed "Jessie" from the ADLS (No1697) flight. I had never painted D-day stripes, let alone giving them a hastily applied aspect, and found its weatherbeaten looks very attractive. Finished model: Guns from Masters Scratched improvements using plasticard, aluminium foil, copper / lead wire, Albion Alloys micro tubes, etc. Painted with Mr Hobby Aqueous paints. Touch-up with Vallejo references Washes from True Earth Weathering with felt tip pens, watercolor pencil, True Earth True Dust products, Vallejo acrylics WIP: Improvements / added details are shown with the red arrows During the final assembly, I added the following (no arrows pointing towards these!): - Round rear view mirror made using a punch&die. The mirror supplied by Arma Hobby is a rectangle. - Canopy slide rails on the cockpit sides - Cable outlet drilled and micro tube inserted behing the dorsal antenna - Belly antenna (IFF?) - Trim actuators with their flyweights and cables It took me close to 65h to get to the finish line but I enjoyed this build a lot. I hope I have not made too many blunders as I am not at all versed into WW2 aircrafts. Please let me know.

Before going to bed last night I painted the uppers and sides in Gunze RLM 71 and left it to dry overnight. The blobs of masking liquid make it look like it has got mumps or something😄. Anyway, I have now "rubbed" off the mask so time for the reveal. It needs a little tidying up and I will probably spend some days time working round it picking little bits of mask out of the joints between cowlings ,elevators etc but it has actually worked quite well. Whether this was the best way to do it or not I have no idea, but my apparently ingrained inability to produce random patterns is not perhaps as evident as usual, except on parts of the Starboard wing - I blame it on my Engineering training. It is not of course "perfect" but then I suspect the real thing was a bit rough anyway. I would love to know if they sprayed the green over the grey or vice versa. Once I am satisfied with the cloud camo I will apply some RLM 76 to the under surfaces, and the main painting will be finished. Pete

Spitfire Vb X4272 501 Squadron D Day - 'New' Revell Kit 1/72 This Spitfire Vb was one of the first to provide air cover over the D Day convoys at dawn. It certainly gave the British tax payer value for money, having first flown in the BoB in September 1940 as a Mk1a. It was later converted to a Mk1b and after storage, converted to a LFVb. It served with 501 Sqn during the summer over Normandy until they received Tempests. The kit was the newish Revell kit from the 2010s. It is a clumsy kit with some poor detailing (cannon bulges and cannons). The kit canopy was badly cast, so i used an old Airfix canopy along with an Airfix DH Prop (the kit prop and spinner is neither Rotol or DH) and bodged in some later type exhausts. At least the D Day stripes hid the cannon bulges. Thanks to the GB organisers, it gave me the rationale to build this kit, which would otherwise have languished on rthe shelf.

Here is my third British Airways Concorde from the Airfix 1:72 kit. I still love this kit and enjoyed the build (but not the filling and sanding). For the Negus livery, I didn't use the blue stripe decals. The decal sheet only supplies short strips for the front, middle, and rear fuselage. Sections where the cabin windows are need to be hand-painted. I didn't want to risk lifting the decals with masking tape, so I decided to hand-paint the entire length with Humbrol 15 midnight blue. The upper red section of the vertical stabilizer is also painted with Humbrol red. The main overall white is Halford's gloss appliance white. For my other builds, I used Draw Decals's detailing, which includes cabin windows, where I filled the cabin windows and used the window decals because the moulded windows are too large. On this build, I left the cabin windows open, painted the blue stripe, then used PVA glue. They aren't very visible because of the darkness of the blue, so the oversized windows aren't noticeable. As with my other builds, the nose and visor mechanism works, although it's always a worrying moment the first time I lower it. This is G-BOAB in British Airways Negus livery: Nose up: Nose down: With fleet mates, noses up: With fleet mates, noses down:

I'm sure many of you are aware of the Miyazaki film Porco Rosso. If you can get by the cartoon characters and animeisms I think this film really captures the wonderment and exhilaration of aviation better than any other film I've watched on the subject (It also makes me really, really, want a film about the Schneider Trophy). I was surprised to find the FineMolds kit still in print so jumped at the chance to get it shipped from Plaza Japan. It was a really easy build and I think makes a really good looking model. Painted with SMS Italian Red and various Aqueous and Tamiya paints. Porco was my first foray into figure painting which I quite enjoyed. Thanks for looking!

Ive just noticed that this build took exactly a year, which by my standards is actually good going. The main challenge on this build was to see if I could fit a Honda engine into a classic mini as per the real world conversations. Thankfully I did and hence here we are 😁. I've thoroughly enjoyed building this (which is the main point, isn't it? ) and learned a few new skills along the way and very much appreciated all you comments and input along the way - Andy Just incase you didn't notice my WIP thread, here it is and more importantly where have you been? 🤣😂. Just be warned there are lots of micro updates. So with out future ado, the beauty shots 😍 A couple of double exposures (created in photoshop) Some construction photos These just seemed appropriate 😁 Thanks for looking, oh and "Hang on a minute, lads. I've got a great idea." - Andy

Hello I am going on with my kits which were waiting for some work to be finished. This time it is an old Azur kit of the Nieuport Delage sesquiplan family that I had already built three. This is a NiD-52 which was selected in a contest in 1927 and built under license. There were more than 90 built between 1929 and 1931. They equipped three groups with two flights each and became the lead fighter of the new republic. The NiD-52 had the small straight lower wing and the upper wing with ailerons on the outer two third of the trailing edge. They were at the beginning covered with aluminium paint. At the beginning of the civil war they got some red stripes and a few like this one were camouflaged. S/N 3-50 had a modified windscreen and was based at La Rabasa airfield (Alicante) at the beginning of 1937. All comments are welcome. Cheers. Patrick

Hi Got fed up with modelling 😝so far a break I thought I would add another finished build to the site. This was one of my first attempts at a resin kit, it’s just resin and PE and a very small amount of 3D printing. It was also a first for doing something more with the sea base, I think I may have got carried away a bit (you would certainly say that if you saw it’s original version - it looked like the ship had hit a massive Cindy Floss blob!!!😜. I have a picture of it somewhere in the archive - if I am feeling particularly brave I might dig it out and give you all a laugh. Paints were exclusively Vallejo (this was ‘BC’ - Before Colourcoats!) and the ‘Sea’ - such as it was - is all Plaster of Paris with a gloss varnish (which I don’t do anymore!🤬). I bought this because it was a cracking kit with buckets of detail (all wrapped up in less than 4 ½ inches!) and a bit different from everything else out there at the time.

Oh, hello there. *wipes finger along shelf* *creates cloud of dust* *waits for coughing fit to subside* *wipes eyes and blows nose* The Manchester has been sitting forlornly on the Shelf of Doom. I had hoped a solution to the slightly wonky wing might present itself. Nothing sensible turned up, at least nothing that might not end in a catastrophic failure, so I’ve decided to just ignore the problem. I’m going to pick the model up and finish the blasted thing, and hope the combination of other details and a decent paint job will prevent the casual observer from spotting the problem.. If I keep my fingers crossed, one of the kit manufacturers will finally make a full injection moulded kit of the poor old Manc. All that to say, expect some kind of progress to appear soon.

Hi all This is my most recent finish, the cracking ICM Sea Gladiator kit. I built the kit using the AIMS PE sets and Resin Engine and cowling replacement set. I added a few additions to the cockpit as well. The PE set really does make the cockpit superb. The AIMS Engine set is wonderful and really enhances the front end no end The kit only provides the 2 blade Watts and 3 blade Fairey Reed Props, however all the Malta Gladiators received Blenheim Props which improved their climb rate, by the time period this one was modelled from. So I put a wanted add out on BM for 32nd Props and @Pete in Lincs came to the rescue with three P38 props do I thinned and reshaped the blades of one and cut the boss down on another and made a new prop adding the ribs between blades new centre and balance weights from padticard and brass, very pleased with the result The model was otherwise built as per the kit, but I deflected the elevators and rigged with Prym Knitting in Elastic and invisible thread. The model was brush painted using Humbrol and Colourcoats enamels. I modelled N5524 as best as I could in January 1941 as I only had the image showing it in TonyOT's wonderful book, No Place For Beginners, which was the inspiration behind the build, so thank you Tony. Also I came across the Silverwings profiles online although this is showing as Dark Earth, Dark Green and as Tony suggests in his book more likey repainted in Royal Navy colours down the sides of the Fuselage, which I would think is correct as the aircraft had been recently taken over by the Royal Navy . Decals are a mixture of Kit, AIMS and Xtradecal for the Codes and Serial numbers. Anyway here is the model. Thanks to everyone who has offered support and encouragement along the way. Thanks for looking in Chris

Hello everyone, I've been a viewer of the forum for a while now, and today I'm going to make my first post about a project I recently finished. It is a UH-60 Black Hawk, in 1:35 scale, from the manufacturer Academy. To assemble this kit, I used some photo etcheds from Eduard, paints from Gunze and decal sheets from FCM. Thank you in advance to everyone who supports this work. Greetings everyone! 😃👋

A little bit of fun. The Airfix starter set vehicles I think are really superb and at £15 a pop good value. This is my take on what you can do to give it a little bit more interest. Hope you like. Please feel free to comment etc. Thanks for looking Dick.

…and what if the charger's broken? Oh good grief… I've ordered a cheap battery. Survey yesterday didn't find any major issues (phew) so just waiting to hear the buyer's response. More stress. Three weeks to our proposed completion date so I'd better get the wardrobe sorted. Some of it is bound to have shrunk. Ahem. Anyway, the model. One of the ramp parts is warped: See the back one is sticking up and it shouldn't be. Quick YouTube visit - soak in hot water: …and clamp: The only award I've kept. Nice and heavy. No I didn't have to do anything extra for it except turn up. Ta dah: Note the different ends on the parts, one thin and the other to sit on the step: Of course I won't glue this until I have the fuselage on its legs or the wheels might be off the ground. Just checked the video and the wheels do sit on the ground when installed, presumably to take the weight. Dremel required to clean these up: I guess I could use scalpels. Maybe I'll put those aside and do something else.

Well, Pete...I hope this doesn't disappoint, but the answer is 'not much'. This will be OOB, except for the pilot. I'll leave him out. I gave the sprue some white primer... And assembled the fuselage, minus a couple of external pieces, and the wings. --John

So these are a commission paint...sound posh but I'm doing them for free. Someone on a local Facebook page some was asking for some help to paint 2 small figures, so I answered and got these, alond with some bastic colours they wanted. when I returned them, the couple were so happy they are going to top there wedding cake, made me all warm and fuzzy....

Evening all. Work had stalled on this project, mainly due to the arrival of this beautiful little lady (my daughter Raya, now 3 months): But I've nabbed some time here and there, so on to some progress pics. I primed in Mr Surfacer 1500 white this time as the top coat is quite dark, and preshaded in black. I used AK Real Colours for the main paintwork. The dark sea grey looks about right, but the dark green is too light so I will go over those areas with Tamiya XF-62 olive drab (the green on Tornadoes looks closer to this in photos). More to follow soon (hopefully)!

all rockets mounted further adding some detail, the Firefly had t-shaped antennas? under each horizontal stabilisers, at least the Dutch ones had an antenna? under each wing and added a "stirrup" and a pitot tube, the kit has none DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

George W. Rarey was a commercial artist and cartoonist working for the Washington Star when, in early 1942, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent for pre-flight training. On November 22, 1943 the 379th Fighter Squadron, along with the rest of the 362nd Fighter Group, set sail for England. George Rarey designed and painted the nose art for almost 30 aircraft. He would sketch a design based on the pilot's character and, if they were happy with it, create it on the cowling. His letter home of March 5, 1944: “Painted some cowlings this afternoon - have about half of them finished. It is a colorful thing to see the old 379th lined up for take off - looks like a menagerie. It sort of gives personality to an otherwise pretty cold collection of machinery. I think it means quite a bit to the pilots, and the crews that keep the planes in shape get a kick out of them, too - and I enjoy doing it, a pretty good thing all around.” He was described by fellow servicemen as gentle and friendly, always drawing or sketching during his free time. At grand old age of 25 he naturally was called “Dad”. On the 22nd March he heard that he had become a father to a son, Damon. In his letter to his wife he said “this happiness is nigh unbearable” and in celebration he renamed and repainted his P-47 as “Damon’s Demon”. In April the 362nd moved to the Advanced Landing Ground at RAF Headcorn in Kent. This meant more dive bombing and less escort duties although D-Day saw them escort a large group of C-47s towing gliders to the beachhead where they dropped onto the Cherbourg peninsula. But ground attack was a risky business and sadly he would never meet his son. On June 26, 1944, Captain George Rarey was leading a flight of four on a search and destroy mission which spotted a German lorry transporting troops. As they attacked, 20mm AA flak appeared around them and, George Rarey's plane exploded. Damon, the son who never met his father, later published a book of his father’s wartime sketches and cartoons entitled “Laughter and Tears”. There is also a website devoted to his father which includes sketches, extracts from letters and how he found the crash site. I can recommend it: http://rarey.com/rareybird/ This is the Tamiya 1:48 P-47D razorback which, as you might expect, was an enjoyable build. The extras were a Yahu instrument panel (I love those things), Montex canopy masks and Barracudacal decals for 'Damon's Demon' from the Maugin's Maulers sheet which includes stencils. The decals worked perfectly – my one gripe being no placement guide for the stencils so there was a bit of research done. Here we are then. Captain George W. Rarey's 'Damon's Demon' of the 379th FS, 362nd FG at RAF Headcorn, Kent, UK which I've attempted as at 6th June 1944. This last picture is my slowly growing collection of 9th Air Force planes - 'Damon's Demon' alongside 'Beantown Banshee' of the 354th FG just a few miles away at RAF Lashenden. I live near those old Advanced Landing Grounds

Not quite as nicely as I'd hoped, so there has been quite a lot of fiddly filling & just as I thought I was ready to slap some Dark Earth onto it I spotted a couple of bits I had missed, so here we are, masked up for the bottom demarcation & still rubbing bits back. Getting there though. Steve.

A bit late I know,but these are my random pictures from Brands Hatch Britannia day,from last weeks August Bank holiday Monday. Two mini related ones,I can’t describe one of them,but the other one is a nice Mini Marcos racecar. The Lotus Elite I think is my all time favourite car along with Silk Cut Jaguars, the exposed engine and rear view is the XJR11 turbo car,Metro based? not the V12 engine. Chris.

Well, touch and go for page 1... Maybe if the cars are under scale that will compensate for the thick walls. Shocking kit - about five weeks pocket money and precisely zero guns, bombs or rockets. Mutter, mutter... Regards, Adrian (edit) no-o-oooo... Page 1 Denied!

By September 1939, the PZL P.11 was considered obsolete compared to modern fighters like the German Messerschmitt Bf 109. The P.11 had been designed in the early 1930s, and despite its innovative design features for its time, such as the gull-wing configuration and robust maneuverability, it lacked the speed, firepower, and technological advancements of its contemporaries. The Polish Air Force operated around 145 P.11 fighters, mostly the P.11c variant, at the start of the invasion. Despite being outclassed in terms of speed, armament, and overall performance, Polish pilots in P.11s put up a determined resistance against the Luftwaffe. Stanislaw Skalski, who had four individual kills and one group, and Hieronim Dudwal, who had four confirmed kills, were the top-scoring pilots. The model is from Arma Hobby. It is well-designed but has some flaws. To upgrade this lovely kit, I bought some more goodies, like a resin engine, PE parts from Eduards, and gun barrels. I hope you'll enjoy the journey of following this build. I don't know which regiment or pilot markings this fighter will have. It will most likely be Lt. Hieronim Dudwal.

I am looking to build this kit: Which I can remember never being finished back in the 70s and hanging around forlornly until it ended up in the bin. The intention will be the above scheme P02 (I think that is the UK prototype) or the camouflaged and unloved P03; at least that has the advantage of not trying to airbrush and mask white, black and red. Thanks in advance to @BritJet who has kindly sent me a PNG of the P02 markings, the kit transfers are currently sunbathing as they are somewhat yellowed. To be continued in October.

Good evening I will take part in this Gb with the Azur F 86 K Sabre I will represent an aircraft used by the 13e Escadre de Chasse Tout Temps Armée de l'Air-All Weather Fighter Wing French Air Force based at Colmar in 1960 .. The box art The decals sheet The sprues The canopy ane the resin wheels See you soon for the start of the build .. Patrice

Hi all, I am a born-again modeller; restarted in Covid (despite working through it). I have had a forty-odd year break (I think the last model I made was a brush-painted . 1/32 Revell Mosquito in about 1983) but as a computer programmer I like something less abstract as a hobby. physical. I am a a serial/parallel hobbyist and collector (ok, so not in denial!), but I find modelling quite relaxing at the moment, and the refinement in tools, models and techniques since my first modelling era simply astounds me. I now have an airbrush, and have dived into acrylic paints, Micro-Sol/Set, washes and weathering. I have a very slow output (it took me a month to make a paper/photo-etch Sutton harness for a 1/32 Spitfire, and about nine months overall, so I have built up quite a stash! I just finished an Airfix starter 1/72 Spitfire Mk.1 in two weeks, so it may be getting better. My main interests seems to be RAF, WW2 and cold war at the moment, although I would like to have a go at some WW1 biplanes whenI feel confident enough! I discovered britmodeller.com through web searches for information on kits and techniques, and plan to learn more and contribute when I can. Cheers for now! Tim

This is going to be a deep dive down the rabbit hole that is the bridge arrangement of Alisma following her early 1943 refit. Accordingly, normal people may wish to skip this post. I fully recognise this will probably not be of interest to anyone, but I wanted to document the build fully and explain my build decisions, so here goes... Alisma seems to be very unusual amongst a class of similar but at the detail level all very different vessels. At this point in the war, she retained the short fo'c'sle and also the mast stepped forward of the bridge, but had been re-fitted with a type B compass platform extension. I have saved approximately 80 pictures of different flowers and none of these pictures show this arrangement. Indeed, running through them, it is apparent that the side bracing for the compass platform side extensions differed between shipyards, there is certainly not a single plan being followed. My starting point was the Marine Modelling plan drawn by John Lambert, who I once had the opportunity to talk to and who have immense respect for. Unfortunately, this time that plan was obviously really just a sketch and does not align with the photographs in a number of areas. It certainly was not intended to be used for a model this large. Here is the scanned extract of the bridge area I've been working with I aligned this with an extract of the original rigging plan from the IWM archive and went back to basics with the frame lines. I'm going to be a broken record on the need to align things with frames. On the drawing above, the vertical double line forward of the boat deck are actually frame extensions and the horizontal double line beneath the upper bracing is in fact the rearward extension of the fo'c'sle sheer line. What they had done with this refit is completed much of the work necessary for a long fo'c'sle mod but for some reason not plated it in. It was completed later in 1943 with her third refit. What is not shown clearly on this drawing is that above those frame extensions was a new deck area that ran from the forward boiler room casing (really the boat deck). That should be shown as a line above the horizontal tie member. The extract picture below shows (just) the horizontal tie frames running back to the deck house beneath the bridge deck, sorry, its very zoomed in Next, there was an extension bridge constructed from the fo'c'sle back to the wheelhouse forward bulkhead. This is not shown on Lambert's drawing but is very clear on this image You can also see that the steps to each side of the wheelhouse have been removed (they would clash with the new side beams) and so the bridge to the fo'c'sle gave forward access to the fo'c'sle steps in this picture. That bridge had to be accessed somehow, I've assumed steps down from the walkway to the immediate side of the compass house as you will see in the drawing Next, the radar tower rear base support needs to sit on a frame line. This makes it wider than drawn and the opening curve semi-circular This is all clear in this picture. You can see that this tower base support wing is make from 4 frames and is quite open, it in not fully boxed in as some kits portray it. The openings at each end have a short flange covering the sharp edge of the opening. The large opening provides access for the hose to the fuel oil pump fitting for fuelling, which sits on the boiler casing aft of the compass house Lastly, the radar enclosure is the later model circular enclosure, not the octagonal one on the drawing. Also, the three columns that support the front of the bridge extension are set back from it so they rest on a frame line. The new fo'c'sle bridge deck also helps to break the long vertical span of these columns and provide sway support So, bearing all that in mind and lining stuff up correctly this is what I came up with, some detail omitted for clarity. The radar enclosures are both drawn with dimensions in the ship craft publication, also drawings by Lambert Anyway, this is what I plan to make. To me, it aligns correctly with the photographs and that is the main thing So, end of geek post, back to making stuff... Cheers Steve

Wings get the stripe treatment Nose to get the blue paint next, a delicious job indeed and one I'm relishing - Yeah !

This I notice today.

A local shop was hosting a car meet yesterday so a friend and I popped by to check it out. They had the street blocked off but cars came and went as the show went on. There was quite the mix of cars there. As the crowds were decent it was a bit hard to get pics but here's a few. A Corrado with and engine swap. Buick GN. My friend said he saw a GNX earlier but it was gone by the time I got there. R34 Absolutely no idea what this is. It's registered as a motorcycle though.

Chopped 1963 Moggie, the 'Mercury' look is more apparent from the front but I did not pick the camera up quick enough. It seems to be being tidied up rather than ratted, it was black before. Matt

Greetings All Apologies for the silence only a little bench time availble lately . Primer on and mising decals scourced so the BEA scheme is go . More soon hopefully . Martin H

Having had a closer look at how I can fit the glass I think it's not going to fit without more force than I really want to use. As you can see it is one single piece. Problem is when I try to make the front fit it forces the back out even more and vice versa. So my idea is to cut the glass into two taking out a chunk in the middle. Btw the scratches at the top are intentional! I just want to give something to the glue to grip to.ill probably remove the bit between the scratches. That way there is still enough material to put super glue on away from the clear parts if required and means gluing the front and back separately should in theory be easier... 🤞 I've also finished the wheels. Added a bit of black paint in the recesses to give a bit of depth. I tried panel line wash but it was going up the sides too much. Also tones the wheels down a bit as well. Thanks for looking, Nick

Recognise that life is too short for anything other than OOB work. Make it a discipline that if it's not in the box, it doesn't get added (filler and paints excepted). At first you'll be twitching and spasming at the thought of the little details you should be adding, but in time you'll detox from detail dependency and go onto the rewarding pleasure of completion.

G'day people, Well, I am finally back at the bench. My first decision is which kit to build? As problems go, this is a good one, in the end, I decided to go for the cute Tamiya 1/7 F-35B I managed to see one 'doing its thing' at Mindil Beach (that is in Darwin, Northern Oz for our overseas cousins) and I even managed to score a Squadron patch from a pilot as long a I built this kit in MM colours So a deal is a deal. I apologise for the topic switch, I was originally intending to build an RAAF jet but the release of the Tammy kit was just too hard to resist Box contents An awaaaay we go! cheers, Pappy

Slowly creeping towards the finish line, the 'Invisa-clear' decals were out of register and had a depressing tendency to shatter! Much replacing, careful masking,and respraying later ...

A bit more slow progress, the Belgian machine is now painted. I will apply the decals, add the undercarriage etc. and it should be done. The Fire Orange paint on the Silver Swallows version is horrible, one of the worst paints I have had the misfortune of dealing with, but I am getting there slowly.

So, a little bit more work done today. It was all about bits and bobs. Adding the tools and putting the upper and lower hull together. The tools have the clamps molded on. I went ahead and drilled all the clamps to give it a bit more of a detailled look. After all the tools were done and added to the kit i started with the assembly of the main gun. Nothing fancy, just simple modeling. And after 2 hours this is where i'm at. Just a clean looking panzer 4. I'm thinking of packing this thing with stowage. Maybe i'll scratchbuild a rack to the back. I got a boatload of jerrycans and boxes in the spares box so we'll see what we can add. Tomorow is track day. Let's get those subassemblies done. I'll keep you guys posted Cheers!!! 👍👍👍

I’d been wondering what to use for the webbing behind the seats as I can’t find the Eduard set for this version, and the kit, strangely, doesn’t include any. Necessity is the mother of invention they say, and it proves correct with some rug underlay being reasonably close enough. I know it’s not perfect, but it gives the right impression, and as we know the first impression is the most important! It does look a bit more convincing once I painted it red. Then I realised I had the seats folded the wrong way and needed to fit the flight deck and cargo floor first. Here’s where I’m up to after a few hours on it this afternoon. Some way to go yet before I close it up. I didn’t need to glue the rear doors, they just click into place, so if I need to remove them when I fit the ceiling gubbins then no worries. I used some decals from the spares drawer for the yellow outlines, and scored across the doors with a pencil for that quilting effect. The first aid bag and other green bags are just offcuts of firm packing sponge painted dark green. Anything I’ve missed or got horribly wrong in there?

Eduard P 51 D 1/72 Capt Donald EMERSON 336 FS 4 Fighter Group Summer 1944 Humbrol brushpainted [/url Build thread is here Patrice

I'll put in a vote for an extension. Once again my group build commitments have been writing cheques that my modelling time can't cash