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Finished this morning, ready for the Hornchurch Battle of Britain weekend (14th/15th September) and tomorrow's IPMS Farnborough show. Thanks for looking. Martian 👽

Hi friends, Here is my third attempt to build a reasonably good Miniart P-47. I have to say that everything went better with the third model and you know the small shortcomings of the kit. The rivets are a matter of taste, but I find them quite ok. Have fun with the photos Yours Andy

Another day, another Mustang! This is the second of three fighters I’m building for the Operation Overlord Group Build. Stay tuned and there should be a P-47 showing up soon. All three will be part of a maintenance diorama Kit: Eduard P-51B Mustang Royal Edition 1/48

In my 25+ years old stash, there are five Starfighter kits, since I planned to do a display of more or less colourful Starfighters. The majority of kits is from Revell and one Hasegawa, four are 1/72, and one (Revell) is 1/32 and will be the last to be built. The 1/72 F-104G kit by Revell is very similar in parts breakdown and quality to the Hasegawa kit, sometimes I have the impression Revell blatantly copied the Japanese kit. In certain respects, it is a bit better than its Hase counterpart, then again Hasegawa has the edge. But Revell does not offer an -S version in 1/72. So this was the first of the series I built in my "stash elimination" project. I had an ancient Modeldecal sheet with the early Bundesmarine markings, and the French AS-30 anti-shipping missiles, the predecessor of the German Kormoran missiles, came from a Heller armament set. The huge amount of tiny stencils shocked me at first, but when looking at the reference pictures, they are there, and very visible even on small pictures. So I had to accept my fate and I placed all decals - more than a hundred - on that small model. Marcus

I've been on an Arma Hobby binge recently. Brilliant surface details and really fine tolerances make for really satisfying builds. This is one half of their Cactus Air Force boxing of the P-39/400 and F4F-4, based on Guadalcanal late 1942-43. Painted with Tamiya and Aqueous acrylics. Thanks for looking!

Latest off the bench this weekend is this Eduard 1:72 Bf110G-4 night fighter. Although it is a weekend edition, this one actually comes with a small photo-etch fret containing the Fug202 radar array. Becareful with the contruction of this radar as the instruction does not give you the right dimensions. It calls for two pieces in the M sprue to be cut and attached to form one side of the antenna when you can find the correct parts in the B sprue. This model represents Bf110G-4, flown by Oblt. Ernst-Georg Drünkler in June 1943. The aircraft was damaged by a bomber's defensive fire and ended in a crashed landing into a small canal. /Nanond A less than glorious end of a successful mission.

Hi, Few years ago I caught out of NAS Landivisiau a EA-18G Growler from VAQ-137 Rooks. So when I decided to build the Meng kit I chosen this Rooks decals. Meng kit is nice, the fitting is pretty descent, and you can built it OOB I used AK 3G acrylic paint The real one And the kit

I'll put some pressure on myself by adding in this Short Skyvan. The Olympics markings really caught my eye. In fact, the transfers look to be in amazing condition. ...and, this is a Series 4 kit with a big stand! There are a lot of parts, particularly the seating. The Instructions include transfers on and window aperture punching before fuselage close up. This looks like a kit with a lot of detail OOB. I'm definitely doing the Olympic Airways version - quite appropriate for 2024. The bag was sealed and all the bits look to be undamaged and free of flash.

Hello, I have been a member of your forum for several years, but have posted very little. I am belatedly sharing some of my work with you. Below is the 1/350 Bismarck from revell with the Pontos set as a complement. The diorama represents the Bismarck on its completion quay in December 1940. She was docked for 3 weeks to install the final components. All the platform elements (cranes, buildings, train components, production and storage workshop, etc. The crates and lorries came from L'Arsenal before being converted to 3D printing. I spent 18 months on this project. Best regards Alain.

Excited to share my completed opened Eduard P-51B 1/48 as my first contribution to an Operation Overlord Group Build I’m participating in. This build went together in just over a month along with 2 other fighters which really challenged my pacing. This plane and the other fighters are planned to be part of a maintenance diorama in the upcoming few weeks. Expect to see the other fighters in a day or two 😅. Kit: Eduard P-51B Mustang Royal Edition 1/48 + Brassin Engine & Gun Bays The WIP For this plane as well as the two others can be found here:

Whilst looking through my stash, with a view to finding something to build whilst waiting for the Stuart GB to start, I came across this Sherman of the Israeli Defence Force. It's the issue that contained the Israeli paratrooper set. I've had it for a few years and always intended to get around to it at some point, but when I opened the box, it would appear that at some time, I'd made a start. I didn't get very far with it though, just assembled the lower hull, complete with the rear hull plate. Late HVSS M50s, like the earlier VVSS equipped tanks, were built on a number of different hulls. The Dragon kit is one that was based on an M4A4, and they haven't done a bad job of it. Here and there there are things missing, or things that can be improved. To be perfectly honest, that's my kind of kit. So without any more waffle, let's get stuck in. Upper and lower hull. So, we start off with the two halves already joined together. I added the rear hull plate and substituted a couple of handles made from brass wire bent to shape, instead of the kit's rather thick ones. Dragon did a half ways decent job of the engine cooling slats, but left one off. So I left the kit part off and added two slats from thin card. Up the other end of the hull, like most kit manufacturers of this time, Dragon left off the eight bolt heads which secure the FDH to the lower hull. So using my Waldron Punch and Die set, I punched out the sixteen bolt heads and glued them in place. That's it for now. Hopefully some more tomorrow. Thanks for looking. John.

Flown by Ten. G. Gianelli, 365,A Squadriglia Sciacca, Sicily, July 1943. Painted with Mr. Hobby lacquers As always thanks for looking.

This was a fast build and it is a nice ans small Dragon kit with some PE out of the box. I've joined to it some long time ago built Tamiya Horch with 20mm FlaK. Thanks for watching

However, I decided to post one of my larger works here as well. Since the history of this ship is strongly related to Estonia, I wrote a longer text about the history of the ship for my work, which I will also edit here. Sorry if anyone thought it was too long. But let's start right from February 10, 1939, when a completely new ship arrives at the port of Gdansk in front of a large crowd. It is a matter of real national pride, because even if it is made in the De Schelde factory in the Netherlands, it is still the design of Polish engineers. And this is not some small and miserable ship! It was a very large, powerful and, most importantly, very modern ship. Speed on water 20 knots, armament 20 torpedoes, 105mm gun on board and double 40m anti-aircraft gun in tower. Orzel also had a twin sister named Sep. This ship survived the war in Sweden and then returned to where it was in service until 1969. A fact that perhaps says something about the modernity of this ship at the time. But Orzel's story begins to gain momentum soon after the first presentation to the jubilant crowd. In August, when the threat of war was already very real, Poland had 5 submarines armed, and when the war began, all of them were ordered to go out on patrols to protect Poland from the sea. The operation was called Worek. Orzel's story is written quite precisely, and in this description, a detail emerges at the very beginning, which will become very important in the future. Namely, the ship's captain and first mate did not get along very well. The captain was 37-year-old Henryk Kloczkowski (hereinafter Klocz), the most experienced submarine captain of the Poles. A tough and straightforward man who was highly respected by the team. However, the other man on board was 32-year-old Jan Grudzinski (later Grudz) Grudz had served Orzel for three months and had quite a bit of experience. For some reason, the captain did not trust or tolerate him, and since the crew respected the captain very much, they also tended to the captain. On the morning when the ship was supposed to leave, the captain was late and Grudz, accustomed to military discipline, was furious. Klocz arrived an hour later and at 06:35 in the morning Orzel set sail from Gdansk with 63 men on board. Initially, the patrol area was supposed to be near Gdansk, which was considered one of the most dangerous areas, as the threat from German planes was constantly high. For several days that followed, they operated cautiously, and thus the enemy's ships were not found. This created a tense atmosphere in the team at the very beginning, because everyone knew that the situation in Poland was very bad. Thus, the team hoped to fulfill its obligation to do something with a small number of submarines. On a couple of occasions, Orzel was immediately attacked by German planes, but did not receive major injuries. Orzel also met other Polish ships at sea, and the news they received about the situation and progress of the war made the captain even more cautious and pessimistic, which caused the crew to become more and more frustrated. The relationship was also strained by the situation where the captain, contrary to the officers' opinion, gave the order to surface during the day, where he immediately came under attack by the Germans again, which was once again escaped by diving deep. The situation worsened further when the captain suddenly decided to change the patrol area without notifying headquarters and obtaining permission. On the seventh day of the war, having just passed through the German mine barriers again, Captain Klocz reports that he is not feeling well, and Grudz investigates what the problem is. The captain announces that he is getting seriously ill, but Grudz does not believe him and claims that the captain is afraid to fight. Over the next few days, Grudz demands that he be able to contact headquarters to take control of the ship, but the captain refuses. A few more days passed and on September 10, the captain gave permission to contact the base and explain the situation. By that time, 6 days had passed since the last contact with the base and it was feared that Orzel had lost. After getting an overview of the situation, the headquarters was given a choice whether to take the sick captain to the nearest neutral port and hand over command to Grudzinski, or to return to the base together and take on a new captain. However, it was still days before the decision was made, and since the German ships were not close, it was still not possible to find action. In addition, there were some disputes between the captain and the officers about the origin of the ships seen in the periscope, and the tense situation continued to worsen. And that's when Orzel's hydraulic system failed. On September 13, the captain announces that his health is deteriorating and he has decided to choose a neutral port. The nearest options, which at that moment were the ports of Sweden and Latvia, are also shown immediately. However, Klocz refuses and states that his wish is to head to Tallinn. Everyone is very surprised, because they know that Estonia is neutral, but on friendly terms with the Germans. However, the captain remains firm, leaving everyone with the impression that the reason could be his personal connection with Tallinn. However, there will be no major controversy this time, and Orzel will head to Tallinn. This was an overview of the circumstances under which Orzel ended up in Tallinn. Since I wrote this at length, I will briefly summarize what follows: After escaping, Orzel hid for a while and then wandered off towards Gotland. Since there were no maps, etc., miracles of navigation were performed by keeping an eye on the beacons and trusting the gut feeling. In the meantime, our boys were dropped off on Gotland, given a decent amount of money and other things, and sent home. Since in the meantime the Germans and the Russians had both made a strong propaganda and claimed that the Estonians had been killed, the captain had to say the legendary words. "Those who come back from the underworld must travel home first class only" Unfortunately, the Soviet authorities took advantage of Orzel's escape, claiming that Estonia could not defend itself and forced the establishment of its own bases to Estonia, which eventually led to the occupation. At the same time, it can be said that this would have happened later even without the Orzel case Orzel himself ventured on and, despite all the hunters and minesweepers, reached England, where it was received with great astonishment and was soon sent to sea for the benefit of the Allies. The ship managed to make some patrols until it disappeared and has mysteriously disappeared to this day. Poles have tried to find their national pride with several expeditions, but so far the wreck has not been found. Orzel is believed to have lost hitting a mine. Model: Now it just gets complicated. Yes, the model industry has this 1/400 plastic to offer, but it was such a wrong scale for me that it stayed there. One day, while browsing the internet, I discovered a mysterious chinese company that offered paper models. All kinds of ships and planes and pretty much any scale. And Orzel was there too. Not only that, it would have been possible to get this model past 1/144-1/18. Or was it some other mysterious size, anyway, the seller announced with a face that the largest model is more than 4m long when assembled..like really..a paper model? Ok, I was satisfied with the number 1/72 they offered and without thinking about it, I put the money on the road. Well, we'll see what happens later. It wasn't very expensive either. A nice neat A3 folder, full of paper, also arrived. The package looked like this picture: I later learned that it was a copy of a former Modelarz paper model that appeared in a magazine. I didn't know if this copy was legal, and I didn't want to make a model out of paper. So I decided to put Chinese paper on plywood. This is how the frame was born, which I later shaped with different materials. Finally, my model is made of plywood, wood, plastic, resin, aluminum, copper, paper, and more. It took me a very long time and effort, but I am more satisfied with the end result than I could have hoped at first. I am putting here some pictures of how I made my Orzel from several materials based on a paper model. All the material from China remained unused: And finally the finished model. I have to say that it took me an awful lot of time and messed up all my previous plans and schemes for building the models. But today I am satisfied that I did it and as the story of this submarine is strongly connected to Estonian history and besides, it's such a beautiful ship, so I just had to do it: Thanks for looking! Kk

Hey. I’m back at work after various leave periods, so not as much done during the week days but the little bits add up. Decisions, decisions. I’m obvs going to weather this but I’m not going to go too Crazy. I’ll probably do a little chipping on the wing leading edges, spinner, and wing roots. Only back to the original colour and I’ll possibly do a little around hatches etc. so with that decided I started the preshade. It’s going down well so I think I’ll do a lighter pass after this. Underside is done. Hey @CedB it’s a dead one🤣. And top side. Something wasn’t right while I was painting them it dawned on me that I really should be adding the canopy and rear glass. Before that I need to paint the cowl. And before that I did the fuel tank. Luckily I was flicking through some reference imagery when I saw this. Which clearly shows the mounting brackets for said tank. Scouring the parts trees I found the bits. Not the same length as they are for the bomb but I should be able to make them work. so any way, eager to get paint down I painted the cowl. And did a test fit of the canopy mask. I also made a little clear part for the target sight but forgot to take a pic. 🫢 Glue on the clear part , Gators grip as always. Repurposed the masking and closed up the new section. Now. Look at the gates on these really nice clear parts. 😬 wish me luck. Thanks for dropping by. I’m hoping to get some passing down this weekend so keep an eye out. All the best and as always. Happy modelling. Johnny

Over the years I have built multiple kits of some aircraft types and the 3rd most numerous is the Harrier, falling in between the Fw 190 and Bf 109 though way behind the Spitfire. The first Harrier I built back in 1973 was the prototype, and since then I have built another 9 in various versions, including 3 Sea Harriers, but somewhere along the line the P.1127 got lost/thrown out, and for a good few years I have intended to replace it. I must have missed the 2nd boxing released apparently in 2000, but when I heard that it was to be released as a "Classic" this year I placed an order. It was due in July but actually arrived today! So - Harrier number 11 will be started before too long. In the instructions Airfix credit Roy Cross with the artwork. Pete

I'll be doing the following, newish Miniart kit. It has a full interior so I am going to come up with a way of displaying it so the interior won't go to waste.. Maybe a garage scene.....

Eduard F6F-5 in 1/72 VF-87 on USS Ticonderoga. Used the prop from a Tamiya Corsair, Added a seat harness bracket made from fine wire, Eduard PE in cockpit, Gun sight glass replaced with clear plastic sheet, Quckboost guns and drop tank, Barracuda Studios resin wheels, wing tip nav lights added with clear sprue, fuselage recognition lights added with MV lenses. Antenna rigged with Uchi super fine rigging thread and whip antennas added with .009" Nitanol wire. Decals were from Illiad and painted with Gunze Mr Color paint. Exhaust staining was done with Tamiya acrylics.

well, here we are... ..after a chance conversation with Torben Dunn at Telford last year about how I was finding the Firefly a drudge to work on, we started talking about different projects - he said he loved the Supermarine S5 and when I saw it, so did I. This set me on a path, and while I chose the S6B over the S5 for a number of reasons this model simply would not exist without him - I owe you my thanks Torben - it has been a delight to build the aircraft needs no introduction from me, suffice to say it is one of the most iconic race aircraft of all time and is literally the absolute minimum of material you can put around a man and a Rolls Royce R engine.. ..started here.. ..ended here.. ..and that's it another one for the cabinet, I will take it to Telford this year if anyone wants to see it TTFN Peter

Here's mine, Italeri's 1/72 KA-6D Tanker Intruder of VA-95, Green Lizards. The short build thread is here but to recap: Kit: Italeri 004 KA-6D Build: Out of box Paints: Tamiya, Mr Hobby, Klear, Flory Models Grime wash, W&N Matt Varnish Extras: Eduard paint mask for the canopy Thanks for looking and Go Navy! Italeri_KA-6D_Tanker_1 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Italeri_KA-6D_Tanker_build_7 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Italeri_KA-6D_Tanker_build_3 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Italeri_KA-6D_Tanker_build_6 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Italeri_KA-6D_Tanker_build_4 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr

A couple that I built a few years ago. The first is a New Zealand Royal Artillery M3. This is based on the Academy kit, but with a replacement horseshoe turret. And the second one is a Stuart Vl (M5A1 Late). This is finished as a tank operated by the Czech Independent Brigade Group, using the AFV Club kit. Sorry, couldn't find a bigger photo. John.

Cleaned the fuselage a bit and a small bit of Tamiya filler

Jetpipe-oplasty: I didn't like the looks of the rear fuselage masquerading as the jetpipe, so I hacked it off and grafted on a bit of styrene tube. Later, I'll try to thin the walls of the tube a bit. I should have taken a before shot as the difference is considerable. Masking the greenhouse is next. She's getting dangerously close to some paint. Any preferences out there for the scheme? There are three I'm considering: Taxiing trials April 1941 - natural metal with grey or red oxide primer on fabric surfaces. No roundels or serial nos. just the thermal strip along each side. Cranwell May 1941 - Dark Green & Dark Earth over trainer yellow. No yellow "P" prototype marking in only photo of first flight. Farnborough 1942-45 - Dark Green & Ocean Grey over trainer yellow with finlets on tailplanes for some flights. Cheers, Bill

Hello all. this is my Airfix Jaguar 420, which was tooled in 1968, but it took until 2023 for me to realise they had even done one! Thanks to Airfix for reissuing it. It was not the easiest build I have ever done, but I enjoyed it, and it was a nice change from planes and boats. A description of my trials and errors is here if you missed it, where you will also find out why the paintwork is like it is, it was all planned of course (not): And finally, one with the classic Roy Cross artwork, with the Jag in it's natural element, at speed: PS, I chickened out trying to paint the wiper blades, my hand is not steady enough! Thanks for looking, and a huge WELL DONE to all of the other completions Ray

I’ve been looking forward to this group build. My entry will be AFV Club’s 1/35 M5A1 and I will be doing it as a 4th Marine tank at Kwajalein, more specifically, during the battle for Roi-Namur. Not pictured are some Tiger Model Designs goodies I have to dig out of somewhere. A combination of the kit decals and Star Decals will be used to depict “Hothead” from Company B, 4th Marine Tank Battalion. During the Battle For Kwajalein, the heaviest action took place on the islands of Roi-Namur (connected by a causeway). Because they figured to be the most heavily defended in the atoll, the task of clearing them went to the Marines. Roi was home to a large airfield while Namur had the support buildings. Intelligence figured the airfield would be more heavily defended, so M4A2 Shermans were sent ashore there while the M5A1 Stuarts, which were quickly falling out of favor with the USMC, went ashore at Namur for what figured to be little more than mop up duty. Unfortunately the opposite happened. The Shermans raced across Roi with very little resistance while the main fighting greeted the troops who went ashore at Namur. The four Company B tanks (Hothead, Hunter, Hornet and Heater) did their best to help, but some never made it off the beach after falling into shell holes. Furthermore, during the first day of fighting, they lost their commanding officer. Capt James Denig in Hunter was advancing across the island when his tank got caught up on a tree stump. Half a dozen Japanese soldiers then used this opportunity to swarm the small tank. A nearby marine left cover and emptied his BAR at the soldiers, cutting down five in one blow, but in the short time it took to reload, the sixth enemy soldier was able to climb on top of the tank and drop a grenade in the signal port. The marines rushed to the aid of the crewmen, but the grenade fatally wounded Denig and the driver. Roi-Namur was secured the next day but it had come at a cost and further proved to the Marines that the Stuart was no longer a front line vehicle….by the summer of 1944, all Stuarts in their inventory had been replaced with M4A2s. Capt Denig’s burnt out Stuart.

Morning folk's,my other build for this GB is this absolute stunner of a kit,Creative Models have a few 1/32 ICM kits on offer right now I picked this one up for £26 posted and thats a lot of kit for what these days is very little money in fact when this arrived and I saw the quality I ordered the 1/32 Finnish Gladiator for the same price.Anyway I'll get cracking on the Yak 9 first then see where I am time wise.

I finished this model in August last year, and whilst I completed my work in progress thread, I didn’t get around to writing a RFI thread. Now that some months have elapsed and I’ve become accustomed to seeing the completed model (almost) every day on its “concrete” hardstanding base (scratch built), I think that I can reflect back on the build and bring out a few highlights. Yes, it took me about a year to complete, but that was because of other life pressures and the thinking and dithering time that ensued with my build. So, let’s get ion with it. In summary, this has to be the best-fitting F-14 Tomcat there is. The (2019 tool) Academy kit is also excellent, but there are some very clever assembly details with the FineMolds model that just helps produce a very robust end result. It has some wonderful details too; whilst some of these can appear a bit toy-like in their bare plastic, they look quite delightful once a few paint layers have been applied. Some details do warrant improving, and there’s plenty of aftermarket resin and PE available in this regard. In fact, with the details and assembly robustness, it should be the best 1/72 F-14 on the market… but for me, there was a serious let down which means that I could not hold it in such high regard - shape! Very early on, some shape discrepancies came to light. I will not list them all, as I’ve had to live with most of them but I did tackle two of them: Wings and wing-glove fairing. But before I go into these in detail, briefly the other items include the overall fuselage being too tall (especially around the nose and canopy), tail fins slightly disproportioned with fin “noses” too short, wing pylons oversized and ventral fins too short. All of these are subtle, but if you’ve built a cross section of the current 1/72 offerings as I have, the differences stand out. Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite satisfied by the finished article, but the shape issues are likely to prevent me making another of these in their present tooling. I imagine, that had I modelled it with all of the panels open and radome lifted (as you can choose to do), some of the shape issues might well be hidden, but personally, I found the choice of panels to open a little un-prototypical for anything other than on-maintenance… so then choosing to arm the aircraft would be just wrong. I did decide to open one panel, but this was based on observation of likely panels to be open when on the ramp… the refuel panel on the starboard side of the nose. There are no 1/72 kits on the marked that allow for this to be open, so my model is, in this regard at least, unique. I had a number of attempts at scratch building the inners of this panel and the door, the latter finally formed of a thin piece of plasticard with a shaped photoetch inner (to control the curvature easier), the former had a 1mm x 1mm neodymium magnet glued in as the fuel receptable; the scratch built fuelling hose attachment had a short length of steel pin inserted in the end to attach to the panel. Because I was opening this panel, I opted to open the refuelling probe too; photos tended to show this open when the refuelling panel was open… maybe it’s something to do with the fuelling process (I don’t know) but it looked good. Whilst lacking in a little detail, the attachment of this refuelling probe was by far the best I’ve seen on a kit in this scale, although I still needed to move the hoe that it plugs in to about 1.5mm aft to allow for correct placement. Other panels to open would be the “daily” panels on either side of the engine tunnels just aft of the main gear bays. These are something I’ll attempt on a future build, but again, no kits are available with these open in this scale today. What also put me off using the kit’s suggested open panels, were that the moulded panel doors were quite thick, and whilst the open spine details looked nice, the kit did not provide the removed panels to sit alongside the open bays whilst they were off (as most often seen in photos). So, the wings…. The kit wings are essentially too broad in chord. Whilst this possibly is liveable if these are all you’re comparing them with, put it alongside a Academy, GWH or Hobbyboss, and something will look odd. I covered this in a bit more detail in the early stages of my Work-In-Progress thread ... in fact it was the first thing I tackled. Taking the easy route initially, I detail-corrected and adjusted the “fit” of a pair of Hobbyboss wings to replace the FineMolds wings. Later, I decided to also modify the attachment of a pair of Fujimi kit wings. I quite fancied (again) a pair of dirty wings (slats and flaps only) rather than just the clean “sweep-able” Hobbyboss wings. I’d considered a pair of Hasegawa wings, but the Fujimi wings were more accurate and had a more adaptable “fit” for the FineMolds kit. One think that neither of the replacement wings (nor the FineMolds kit wings either) had, was the leading-edge anhedral crank at about 25% span; so far, only the 2019 tool Academy and GWH kits have this. So, nothing was going to be perfect. The wing glove fairings on the kit are a little too tall on their inboard edges (near the anti-slip panels) and present a too-straight upper surface when compared to actual photos and profiles. This was a relatively easy task to tackle, just by sanding back the top surfaces, flattening out the inboard-most edges and producing a more rounded profile than the kits parts. Once finished, the profile is better, but the overall shape of the glove fairing is still wrong, but much harder to rectify, so I left it as it was. My intention had initially been to portray VF84 Victory 201, BuNo 162702. Part way through my build the shape issues made me rethink this, and I decided for a more subtle scheme, picking VF11’s Ripper 101 (of which I found several photos online), using DXM’s excellent (double excellent in fact) decals. The decals did include a warthog face and tusks for each side of the nose, but given that this looked a bit comical and that I could find no photos of the aircraft carrying the markings, I left those off. The instructions in the decal set also showed an odd anti-glare panel demarcation, which made me wonder whether the aircraft had carried a completely different radome when those markings were carried; I wanted the nicely curved front to the anti-glare panel, so I felt my choice was vindicated. The other reason for picking VF11, was that having just finished my GWH build as a VF31 aircraft, the two would sit alongside each other well, both being Forrestal aircraft in the same period and having very close BuNos too 161858 (VF31) and 161855 (VF11)... practically twins! So, to summarise, I’ll not list out everything that I did to the kit, but the following image lists it all (I hope) out. Finemolds 1/72 F-14A detailed by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Origins by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Loaded up by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Back end by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Cockpit unmasking and checking by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Refueling hose connector by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Canopy by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Canopy underside by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Fuel hose test fit by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Ripper 101 from above by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Ripper 101 wings spread from above by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Ripper 101, Wings spread, Starboard rear by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Ripper 101 Starboard Profile by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Ripper 101 rear quarter by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Finally, before I go, I thought I’d just leave this final image for you to ponder. Having built the four “current” tool 1/72 Tomcats, I wanted to compare them shape wise, especially given my FineMolds experience. Initially, I set up a photo session, where I could place each model in the same orientation, with the nose wheel on the same spot on the level (x marks the spot) with my DSLR with it’s 100-400mm at 250mm focal length to minimise wide angle or tele-distortion and photographed each one. Initially, I overlaid each image atop each other, but that would be difficult to share, so I laid them out as shown. I shared this on a few Tomcat-focussed FB groups and received considerable interest and debate. I then acquired an early Grumman “blueprint” side elevation and overlaid that on each model (as shown). The line drawing lacked the spine strengthening strakes and vertical fin nose sections (because it was intended to depict the interior space on the centreline), but it illustrated the overall shape. I even had a comment on that post from the author of the drawing… which was great! Some them commented that this was inaccurate, and that the best option may be to use the artwork that appears in the Tamiya 1/48 kits… of which I had one in the stash. I duly laid that artwork out and photographed it, overlaying it on the Grumman drawing – 100% alignment! So, that silenced the doubters. Thus, here is the shape comparison image I shared with luminaries of our “toy” industry and others late last year. The models are listed top-bottom lower right. I think the Academy still has the best shape! And don’t worry about the canopy positions; I just need to find some longer pins. 1/72 F-14A Tomcat models' shape comparison by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr That’ll do for now. I’m taking a slight break from Tomcat’s at present, working a 1/48 chinook for a good friend… but I’ve another Tomcat sat here with all the additional bits to start working on, just as soon as time and focus allows… and it’s a 1019 tool Academy – still the best shaped 1/72 Tomcat so far. Thanks for reading.

Hello all, here is the second Dakota I've been busying myself with in the South of the Rio Grande group build. Quite a difference from the type of thing I normally build and all the more fun for that. I'll leave the preamble about the kit to the build link above. Hope you like it And here's the both of them Thanks for looking Pete

I just finished the second of two Tatra cranes. Both are build from JMPK kits, both typical short run resin kits. The 111 is basically from HaulerCZ, at least the chassis, wheels and cab look 100% identical, and the PE sheet is even Hauler branded. The crane itself seems to be JMPKs own design. Built OOB. The 815 was (or still is) also available from ICAR. I replaced the wheels with some Hauler ones + my own hubcaps. Laid down PE checkered plate on the crane platform and added many, many hydraulic lines from copper and lead wire. Florian

First post on the aircraft side of things after a few on the armour side. I previously enjoyed building the Arma Hobby 1:72 Hurricane, so I picked up the F4F-4 Wildcat expert set to build the Martlet Mk II option. As expected, the detail is excellent and the fit is very good, good enough that I left the engine cowling removable. The Techmod decals were a bit stiff so they didn't really sit into the subtle panel lines well even after a lot of setting solution. Aside from that, the paint scheme worked out better than I expected after just using paper cut up and stuck on with tack. The colours were a confusing topic as usual with WW2 subjects. After some testing of the various Vallejo model air colours called out for the kit and comparisons to other colours, I stuck with the relatively dark Vallejo colours. Weathering was done with an enamel wash, some dry brushing on the underside (not great) and an aluminium weathering pencil (better than expected). Detail highlights: the cockpit, the PE seatbelts worked well; the wheel well and landing gear, where the parts fit together incredibly well and the PE bike chains really add an extra touch. Oh also I broke off the rear radio antenna pole and replaced it with some wire and a lot of swearing.

Here's where I am now, with the bodywork painted (but still to be polished and/or glossed). I've struggled to get a good photo representation of the colour, but this is pretty close (at least on my screen). It's very much a '50s blue-grey. Cheers

Asked and answered. We're a modelling forum. If we ban one bad actor, where do we stop? China? The Nazis? They're not well-liked by most of us, America? Israel? The UK? Didn't we once do bad things too? The Italians? Romans enslaved most of Europe and North Africa. Spain? They did a lot of bad things in South America that ended a civilisation, and let's not get started on the whole of North America. No. We have to remain apolitical or it's a slippery slope to an empty forum with nothing to discuss. The Swiss Air Force isn't for everyone, and didn't they play a part in hoarding Nazi gold? OK, that's it. No-one's left. Note: I've brought several hot-topics into the conversation purely to illustrate the impossibility of choosing who to exclude based upon what they've been up to now or in the past. Anyone trying to continue this and create friction will be suspended forthwith. No further discussion. Now, back to the thread.

Why did I go to a local Antiques warehouse which has a stash of model kits.... I came away with this - a Type 4D boxing of the Short Skyvan. It was the Olympic markings which caught my eye. It made a dent in my 'allowance' but hey ho!

Now there's an idea.... Thanks for that. I just need to keep concentrating here and not mess it up. With that said, I am taking seam filling very slowly and carefully.

This is what I'm thinking - F-84F and RF-84F, which is of course two distinct versions. Not sure it counts as famous enough and not my first choice, but would be nice to see some new tooled ones.

Nearing completion. Have attended to the spinning prop problem using a technique described to me be my friend Bill Christie in my Canadian club many years ago. To cut a circle of clear plastic I used a tool which belonged to Dave Allen of IPMS Mid-Sussex. Both these people have now passed so this model will remind me of them Here a spare prop has had its blades removed. I cut the spinner in half lengthways to sandwich the clear plastic disc Dave's X-ACTO compass cutter, the cut disc masked and a bit of emery paper to scratch the surface Looks alright In position

Thanks everyone and with the wings and rear canopy added, she is done. The folding wings was a bit fiddly as the attachment points aren't that clear. Very happy how this one turned out. More photos in the Gallery Italeri_KA-6D_Tanker_build_6 by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Thanks for all your comments and seeing your Navy builds too. Cheers to @LorenSharp for leading a great group build. Take care and happy modelling! Dermot

Time for the wings

So here's Roy, eyes on the road and hands upon the wheel... and the scoop opened up. The top half and wheel will also lift off out of his hands without disturbing anything. Time for some Milliput and shaping around the shoulders... best, M.

Trying out the Gen 2 Humbrol. Bottle says shake for 45secs. Hah! Now I know I'm out of date with my modelling and an old man (ahem) but why did I forget that the 'F' in Tamiya (you said it) means 'flat'? Glossy. Rats. I also forgot that this paint doesn't like overcoats; it pulls itself off (behave). The H15 is also glossy but I like the way it brushes: I'll matt those down later. I'd also forgotten that yellow is a pain: More coats required, of course.

All the parts painting before assembly is now finished. Although I have raided my collection of decal sheets and spares for anything useful for this build, it couldn’t provide everything. So a little image searching, some drawing and preparation and then printing was called for. And we have yellow sprayed on the body and hardtop. I’d say it’s just a slightly warmer yellow than it looks at least on my screen.

Thanks Pat. Inspiration came from Inspector Morse: his Jag looked so cool in a similar colour, so I wanted mine to be nearly like it Cheers Cliff, much appreciated. Well, the 420 is now done as well as I can get it. The final bits went reasonably well. I resprayed the bonnet, added a chrome strip down the middle, played 'find the orange indicator light in the orange carpet', 'find the door handle in the carpet' and other variations thereof for a while, and pretty soon I had one complete Jaguar. The Mr Metal Colour Chrome on the bumpers and radiator grille worked quite nicely, and the metallic silver ink pen I showed you last time did well for the door handles and the boot handle. Oh, I had problems with the masking I used to protect the maroon from the silver window surrounds. When I lifted the tape, paint had bled under, but worse than that, the tape left a residue on the maroon. I was using Modelcraft tape and it had only done that on silver paint previously. However, I found that a cotton but with some of my naphtha thinners removed the residue, and also some of the errant silver. What silver it did not remove, I re-touched with a nearly but not quite correct Revell acrylic. This is what I ended up with: This model shows Jaguar 420 RRL 675 at a later stage in it's life, after a re-spray from the original gold and with a replacement interior. The car had been a bit under the weather and had suffered from not being in a garage. The new owner had a few paint repairs done by Messers I Bodgett and Co, Ltd from Much Conning in the Marsh just south of London, which had not gone according to plan. It also accounts for the slightly off-kilter front bumper. This was an enjoyable build, and although the kit threw up some issues here and there, I am pleased to now finally own a Jaguar. I'll pop some more photographs into the Gallery shortly. Thanks for looking, for the likes and comments, and for the encouragement Ray (who is going back to doing another ship next)

I will make one of the first German tanks. First I planned building of OOB. Checked the photos of the real tank I found errors in a model. I plan to correct these errors.

Hello everyone … I will be taking an old build from the 1990’s. I will modify, refurbish, along with repaint the kit. It will be modified to USMC M3a1 Satan flamethrower tank. These variants had the internal tank and hose layout which limited the traverse of the turret. They were first used on Saipan in 1944. A quote from a webpage on the Satan. “The Ronson flamethrower was mounted in the turret of the mothballed obsolete M3A1s. To mount the weapon, the 37mm gun main armament was removed. The mantlet was retained, but a wide tube was introduced into the void left by the absent gun barrel to protect the flame projector. The coaxial machine gun was retained on the right of the flame aperture, though some vehicles did have their bow machine guns deleted. On the inside of the tank, a huge 170-gallon fuel tank was introduced to give the weapon as much burn time as possible. The projector had a range of up to 80 yards. This conversion had an unfortunate side effect. The piping connected the projector to the fuel tank limited the turret traverse to 180 degrees left and right.” I will add photo’s of the older kit and Satans when I can. Please be patient and feel free to ask questions or post comments. Dennis

My first entry will be one of a pair of T-26 light infantry tanks by UM. Russia used armoured cars and armoured trains during WWI but never tanks – they did come up with a few impractical designs such as the “Tsar Tank”, a sort of reversed tricycle thing with 10 meter diameter front wheels each with its own engine, but it proved impractical, and orders for British “heavies” were not fulfilled before the revolution. However, after the “intervention” in support of the White Russians, when the allied forces withdrew they left behind a mixture of British Mk V and Whippets and some Renault FT 17 which the Soviets pressed into service. They decided to make their own version of the Renault – the so called Russkiy Reno though it is debatable if these included new builds or just re -manufactured captured tanks. Over time they modified the design and eventually came up with the T-18 but their efforts were hampered by their infrastructure as they lacked engineering/production facilities for making not only the tanks but also the engines. Before and during the war they had arrangements with companies such as Ford and Fiat to licence build their lorries and engines, but these ended with the revolution and it was not until some time later that they re-established that sort of contact and modernised their factories, so the real growth of Tank design and building did not really start until the late 1920's. The Soviets managed to purchase 8 Vickers Carden Loyd light amphibious tanks, 26 Mk VI tankettes, 15 Vickers Type E, and 15 Vickers Medium Mk II in 1930, and although official attempts to buy Christie M1930 tanks from the US failed, they managed to import a couple of chassis disguised as “tractors”. The amphibious tanks and tankettes paved the way for several Russian light tanks/tankettes and the Christies led to the BT series of fast light cavalry tanks, whilst the Vickers E was the basis of the T-26 light infantry tank. Vickers produced 2 versions, the Type A with twin one man turrets fitted with machine guns for anti infantry and trench clearance work, and the Type B with a single three man turret mounting coaxially a .303 mg and an Ordnance 47mm 3 pounder for fire support. The so called “6 tonners” (actually between 7 and 8 tons in reality) fell midway between the Vickers light tanks Mk I to Mk VI and the Vickers Mediums Mk I to Mk III used by the British Army, who felt they did not need yet another type, so Vickers set about exporting them. Both Poland and Russia bought them, amongst others and they were the basis of their 7TP and the T-26 respectively. I took this photo in the Tank Museum many years ago – the Type E is on the left I believe, and on the right is one of the few modified light tanks Model 1936 intended for export to the Dutch east Indies but retained in the UK for training purposes – they were known as the “Dutchman” As David Fletcher explains in this "Tank Chat" clip this one is slightly modified from the standard. I will talk briefly about the T-26 once the build starts. Pete

Hi Everyone, For your consideration please find my 1/72 scale Ryan X-13 Vertijet from Mach 2 built for the Project Cancelled Group Build (GB). Some models are a joy to build from beginning to end. I regret to say that this was not one of those kind of kits. The results I’d say are mixed. It looks ok and better with every additional step you take away from it. The pieces do not align and the launch stand is hopelessly warped. It is a good kit? No. Can you build a decent version of this obscure aircraft with this kit? Yes, but it will take a lot of work and patience. My suggestion is if you have a desire to build vertical launch aircraft I’d go with the 1/48 scale BA-349 Natter from Dragon instead. All comments and suggestions are welcome. GB Link: Cancelled Group Build Ryan X-13 Vertijet by Mach 2 Regards, Tomcat101 The wonky warped stand.....

My experimental attempts at masking using Tamiya tape, UHU White Tack and photocopies of the Italeri painting guide. An "interesting" point is the difference of the Dark Earth in natural light in the previous photos ("caramel custard") and under a fluorescent strip and contrasting with the colour of the photocopied masks here. I thought I had cut the masks sufficiently under size to allow for a border of tape to get sharp edges, but probably not. I am also struggling up the learning curve with getting the tape to stick in nice smooth curves rather than a series of straight lines. I can only stay focused on this for about an hour at a time, then I start trying to rush and have to take a break. Ho-hum!

53mm from centreline in 1/48 35mm in 1/72

Noticed the green needed another coat so took the opportunity to address the grey bit on the fuselage

Blimey, long time since I updated this, for some reason the doors do not fit. The clear parts are to large, only noticed after painting (must remember to dry fit first), hence the doors being open. No for the bad part, some idiot 🤐 managed to throw the spures out, including the exhaust pipe. You live and learn.