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  1. Hello everyone … Id like to present build #9 for the year. It is another 1/72 scale Airfix F4F wildcat but this time in the markings if a Martlet/Wildcat Mk.V. This particular one was flown by 846 Squadron on D-day from HMS Tracker, thus having the invasion stripes. I hope it meets with your expectations. Please feel free to ask questions, add comments, or visit the build thread. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235140549-a-martlet-over-the-beach/ Dennis
    24 points
  2. This kit was definitely more annoying that I wished for....but I really love the camo and how it came out.
    19 points
  3. Good day, ladies and gentlemen. I continue to entertain you with products from the Polish company ARMA Hobby in 48th scale. The kits are of fairly decent quality and fully meet modern requirements. In the presented assembly, except seat belts, not additional kit was used.
    17 points
  4. Its been a while since my last post here on BM. But work ,weather and in the end some health issues kept me from taking pictures of my many models that have been completed since end of 2023-summer 2024. This project was actually planned to post in my 2019 747 anniversary post. But kit issues and thus lack of energy to continue,kept it unfinished on the shelf. The 747 was ok,even though the 2012 issue as set with the Shuttle showed its age. The biggest problem was the Space Shuttle,which must rank among the worst kits Revell ever produced.The flaws showed even more through the worn out moulds. The sets Shuttle went into the bin after trying to make anything pallatable and replacement kits were ordered.This time some older issues. They were slightly better but still crap... The highlight are the decals,which bring this kit to life.After more than 6 years in production, its finally done and finds its way into the collection. I had planned another SCA (in American Airlines livery),the 747 has been completed but its unlikely that I will finish the 2. shuttle . It will show up sometime here too but I still need to glue the shuttle mounts on... Cheers Alex
    17 points
  5. This is the 1999 boxing of the 1984 hasegawa kit, and as usual from hasegawa of the era the molding is sharp with nice fine panel lining but fairly spartan detail and almost absent wheel well and cockpit detail. Built almost box stock just with the addition of a centreline tank from the revell tornado kit, and chaff/ecm from a hasegawa weapons kit. Decals for the 'sadman' hussein noseart are from an ancient xtradecal gulf war special sheet i had knocking around. I decided to try chipping using masking fluid for the 1st time, which didn't turn out too bad but i think i'll stick with the usual hairspray technique next time (which i use on the centreline tank). Weathering and panel lining is all done with W&N oils.
    16 points
  6. My last Revell Boeing 707 kit from my stash. As stated in my previous post on the Atlantis Models demonstrator version,Revell's offering represents,if at all,more of a 707-120. So any livery applied to this kit is of course not really representing the real thing. But nonetheless,I like the kit and I have built quite a number of them in the past years. This one is one of Revell's later releases that came out in 1982 with Lufthansa markings. I found the Sudan Airways decals on ebay and liked the livery. The set is pretty old,slightly yellowd but otherwise usable.Most important of all,it is designed for the Revell kit. Unfortunately,the decals are designed for the Revell kit with the shorter tail,so I had to paint the top of the fin yellow and extend the stripe accordingly. This kit has the cockpit window as a clear part,so there was no need for a replacement canopy. Glueing in the window,some putty over it and sanding/blending it in,did the trick. The decals were still in usable condition and the application went quite smooth. The cockpit window decal is again from AA,the cabin windows and other detsils are from a 707 detail set. The painting was a bit tricky,getting the demarcation between the white and silver correct. I used copies from the decal as templates and it came out well. The wing colour pattern is somewhat complicated as it differs a lot on the 707 and finding reference photos is not so easy.Here I opted for a pattern to hide those hideous seams on the wings. Revell's solution of designing the wing halves is still a mystery to me... Cheers Alex
    15 points
  7. Hi All, A chap at work asked if I'd build a kit for him. Managed to complete it at the weekend so thought I'd share it here. I had to wrestle with it at bit (it's certainly not a Tamiya build) but I'm hoping he's going to like it! Cheers Nigel
    12 points
  8. G'day All, The latest off the bench. Hasegawa 1/48 SAAB Draken. Mostly OOB except for metal probes, extra external tanks & pylons and the Sidewinders. Cheers, Motty.
    11 points
  9. Finished up the RFM and Dragon kits. Both are excellent and were very enjoyable builds. I'll give the RFM a slight edge because fit was perfect and it has an engine and positionable wheels, but the Dragon is no slouch. My hat tip to the 70s Matchbox kit with the RFM Puma: And the Dragon offering: A link to some in-progress comparison shots is in this post: I just picked up Miniart's non-interior version from a Lightning Deal (very cheap!), so it looks like I'll be going from squared to cubed...
    11 points
  10. Revell first introduced this kit as KC-135 Tanker/Transport in USAF markings in 1959. It was re-released in many forms and variations over many decades.Its even due for re-release later this year again by Revell as AWACS. This kit came out in 2021 from Atlantis Models,who used Revell's older molds.Meaning that this kit features open cockpit windows and no clear part and the early small PW engines.Revell USA even released it once as a Boeing 720 !. Anyone who has researched the Boeing 707 knows of its countles variants/subvariants and changes of wing layouts and other things,even within the same model versions. Revell's 707 is more or less a 707-120 version,Atlantis cleverly states this too on the box and presents us this kit with demonstrator markings. A beautifully done decal set imho. As I have a thing for demonstrator/prototype markings,this was a must have kit. The moulds showed its age with quite a lot of excess plastic but overall nice looking parts. I built it mostly oob,with the exception of replacing the canopy with a Zvezda 737 part,as the front of the kit is more Caravelle-like. The version with the clear part is actually better. So replacing the canopy was a must here to get a more realistic look. The engines got newly created inlets,done with sheet plastic,cut and sanded to shape to get a round and seamless intake. As the left side passenger door was a separate piece,I added a wall behind the cockpit and in front of the cabin and a piece of floor,to build it with the door opened. The door is only taped to the fuselage,so I have the option to close it and mout the model on a display stand when display space is getting rare. Paints are entirely from Gunze,The cockpit window decal is from an Authentic Airliners set. Even with its faults and somewhat odd scale (1/139) ,for its age it still builds up to a nice looking kinda 707... Cheers Alex
    11 points
  11. This Ju88G-6 is equipped with Fug218 which looks quite different from the usual Fug220. It was quite difficult to scratchbuild the radar antenna. The basic "cross" is from the old Revell Me262 Nightfighter kit. Unfortunately the dipoles could not be used because they are at a different angle. So I tried to scratchbuild the dipoles from metal rod but failed miserably. Then I ordered the Master Fug218 which is perfect, but does not contain the basic "cross". So I drilled tiny holes in the Revell part and it turned out ok. Decals are from the AIMS Ju88 Nightfighter sheet. B4+SA was not equipped with rear warning radar, so I had to extend the rudder (like it was used on the Ju188) with plastic and putty. B4+SA was stationed in Norway and on May8th 1945 it was ordered to help in the evacuation of German troops from the Kurland pocket. On the flight from Norway the aircraft encountered engine problems and diverted to Sweden (or the crew considered that a better idea). In Sweden the aircraft was photographed a few times, the photos can be easily found on the internet. You can clearly see that the cockpit framing was not RLM66, but 76. You can also see the type of green overspray over the 76/75 factory paint and the black underside of the starboard wing. Thanks for looking Volker
    11 points
  12. The Myriad In Geoffrey Pentland and Peter Malone's excellent book 'Aircraft of the RAAF 1921 - 1978' there is a photograph of the underside of a Mirage III with a caption discussing the 'myriad of small intakes and vents on modern aircraft'. To that we can add maintenance hatches. Here is a photo of where we we up to at the end of the last post. There is a fair bit of detail in the undercarriage bays but there is little in the way of small surface details. Here are the first ones that went on. I think that these bulges and bubbles are something to do with the guns. As shown here, various other intakes and vents and so forth were added. Most are either constructed from Evergreen plastic tube or rod or are small pieces of dowelling that have been 'chucked' into a Dremmel tool and turned to appropriate shapes with sandpaper. Some of the trickier little vent shapes I have pirated from this sheet-metal kit of the US house of congress. With supersonic jets any hatches or other surface details will be completely flush with the skin of the jet. With this in mind I had to find a means of making detailed shapes out of something both adhesive and very thin. At my local craft shop they sell 'Cricut' cutters which can cut adhesives into all sorts of complex shapes. Among the many different grades of 'Cricut' laminate in store I found this roll of metallic foil. (Please note that the photo shows the wrapper not the foil itself - but I'm sure you get the idea). This stuff turned out to be ideal for this purpose. It's thinner than the usual run-of-the-mill Cricut foils that I have used before and as you can see in the photos below has a beautiful smooth shiny finish. The adhesive is very effective too. I have developed this rather crude method of working out exactly where the various hatches will go. Just trace around each cut-out to show the location of each hatch. A hole punch set allows small discs of foil to be readily created and stuck onto the model. These were especially numerous on the underside. So with this myriad of little bits stuck onto this model, including a tiny blade aerial on the fuselage spine, we are now very close to starting the painting phase. From here things might get a bit more exciting. Bandsaw Steve.
    11 points
  13. Back now with progress on some minor items. I'm not sure about others, but I find the process of scratchbuilding takes a lot of thought in particular about build sequence. I'm currently waiting on a big order of milled brass sections to start the bridge structure I need to make progress on the bulwarks, so while waiting, I decided to tackle three small items, to mix things up a bit. First the ASDIC dome. I'm a little puzzled why so many illustrations and some models do not include this detail on the keel. These ships were sub-hunters, they all needed ASDIC. The dome is clearly shown on the docking plan, small snapshot below For more detail, I found these illustrations in a paper about wartime ASDIC developments And a more useful drawing with dimensions that almost match the docking plan sketch Which turned into this 3D model And printed like this, mounted on a 4mm brass rod. This rod slides into the tube I set in the keel, making it work like this, just aft of the keel projection (note its not symmetrical fore and aft). Obviously this will wait until the hull has been plated and some putty will be used to smooth it in. While I had the printer warm, I drew the bridge telemotor and wheel, a complex structure that is just visible through the windows This is my 3D model, hydraulic lines to be added with .3mm copper wire later Which printed OK. I printed 4 and managed to finish 1 without breaking anything, really its too fragile. The copper wire turned out to be too ambitious, still I got a few pieces in. Most of this detail is pure vanity, shown below in primer This is where it goes, lots more stuff to go in there Lastly, the rudder. For some idiotic reason, I want the rudder to move. As there is no access above to secure it later, I decided to mount the core shaft to a plug that will glue into the tube I set into the keel. Above the plug will be a securing nut that supports the rudder and allows it to rotate. This process starts with turning the core in brass, shown here during that process, ~2deg taper set on the cross slide I was going to make the central plate in brass, but as the rudder has quite a lot of thickness and that's build up in 2part epoxy filler, in the end I was lazy and make the core frame in ply. You can see the plug and home-made nut in the background, it very occasionally pays off to have tap and die sets 2 layers of filler, sanded back later Checking dry dock pictures of Sackville shows the rudder had exposed rivets (just visible through the scaffolding) The covering is 0.1mm aluminium, rivets using a pinwheel (red handled thing in the background). It's really just to give an impression of detail. Wire wool rub to removed excess cyno and provide key for primer And lastly, here it is in place held with some bluetack. This will be fixed quite late, but this solution allows me to get the hull clearance right as it is easily adjustable Next job is the first photo-etch sheet for the items I need for the hull structure and bridge framing, the list has begun Cheers Steve
    11 points
  14. Pretty much straight from the box. There are a couple of issues with this model that I would fix were I to do another one, the worst being some mould indentations on the folding roof. The only thing I've done that shows here is to drill the wheels. A further alteration was to open up the port and place a Bren gun there (looks like the barrel has taken a slight ding, grrrr). I managed to break the mirror assembly whilst painting so the arm was replaced with a length of brass wire. It glued at a slightly odd angle but as this might be how the driver adjusted it I think it looks OK. Sloppy bit of photography here - you can see the edge of the monitor displaying the background behind the posed model. I was going to tweak the colour balance too but instead changed the colour temperature of the light on the model. Here we see Lt Hugh "Gibbon" Fortescue-Warner in command. A cruel nickname from his old school chums due to his incredibly long left arm... The Tamiya figures aren't great.
    10 points
  15. This year I built ,amongst other kits, my last 5 Revell A310. 3 of them are done,the other 2 await their engines. Revell's A310 kit is now a good 40 years old and its becoming harder to find,esp. for reasonable prices. Its very simple in detail and has only a few parts and suffers from some inaccuracies. But I like the kit ,as it goes together reasonably well and with a few corrections,builds up to a nice A310 model. The most obvious error is the front section. There are some resin replacement noses on the marked,but I chose with all my builds,to correct it myself. As there is enough material,its an easy fix.I glued in the cockpit windows,then used liquid plastic and sheet plasic cut to the shape of the front window and placed it in the correct angle. After all dried for a few days,some filler was used to cover the whole window section and then sanded carefully to shape.The rest is taken care of by individually applied window decals. The flaps on the wings are only shown through slightly raised lines.These were engraved by me and then sanded down a bit. After painting was done,the flaps were highlighted with a sharp pen. For the Lufthansa A310,I used the superb decals from 26.The kit is built oob. I actually planned to build the first LH A310 D-AICA ,but the "A" fell victim to the carpet monster,so its now D-AICB. The Balair A310 has decals from 8A decs. The quality is good but suffers a bit from size issues,although the set states its designed for the Revell kit... The winglets are scratch built as I had only 1 -300 Revell kit that provides winglets. The kits engines were replaced with the correct PW4000 from DRUZ. Absolutley delightful resin parts and worth every penny. The A310 came new to Balair in 1986 and in the 90s was transferred to Swissair,when 3 newer A310-325ET (Extra Tank) joined the fleet,then in the new "parrot" livery. This particular A310 will show up soon here on BM...stay tuned. The Interflug A310 is done with the respective kit decals and aftermarket window decals. The engines come from Authentic Airliners. In comparison with the excellent DRUZ engines,they were a bit of a disappointment in terms of material and fit. It came a bit as a surprise as my past AA builds were nice and troublefree... I also recently finished their A310 kit,which I found quite a disappointment in terms of fit and resin quality. More on that when I get around posting the finished model. Interflug received 3 A310s in 1989,shortly before the reunion. They flew until Interflug's demise in 1991 and then joined the German Airforce as transporters. 2 were scrapped recently and the 3. still awaits its transfer (in pieces) to a park where it should be on display. All models were painted with Gunze white primer 1000 for the white parts,Gunze metallixs and Revell enamels. Cheers Alex
    10 points
  16. I've bougth this kit almost exclusively for the superb decals sheet Italeri F-2000A typhoons, in fact, is an outdated kit depicting one of the prototype of the The eurofighter typhoon and, today, is largely surpased by Hasegawa and Revell. Nevertheless, at some poit, I nurtured the idea of using this kit as an experiment to improve my aircraft's modellig skill ( or lack of it, being mainly an armour modelling) So, having some leftover of a Revell's kit, I replaced ejection seat, exhaust, IR seeker and wingtip pod. I rebuilt the front cockpit panel with other leftover from a 3D decals set, changed the kit's improbable AIM-120 and, above all, riveted the surfaces painting was done wit lifecolor, weathering with oils Decals from the box for an 18th Gruppo caccia ( fighter squadron) 37th Wing bird This is the result.. After all, I had fun with it
    9 points
  17. Morning all, Thought I'd share a few images from a couple of airshows I've attended this month. Firstly, the always excellent Victory Show at Cosby Avro Lancaster BI | PA474 | Royal Air Force | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Hawker Hurricane I | P2902/G-ROBT | Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Douglas C-47A Skytrain 'Drag em Oot ' | 2100882/N473DC | Aero Legends | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Commonwealth CA-18 Mustang 'Jersey Jerk' | 44/15152/G-JERK | Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Curtiss Hawk 75A-1 | G-CCVH | The Fighter Collection | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Commonwealth CA-18 Mustang 'Jersey Jerk' | 44/15152/G-JERK | Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Curtiss P-36C Hawk | NX80FR | The Fighter Collection | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Hawker Hurricane I | P2902/G-ROBT | Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Hawker Hurricane I | P2902/G-ROBT | Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Supermaine Spitfire Vc | EE602/G-IBSY | Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Avro Lancaster BI | PA474 | Royal Air Force | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Beechcraft D17S Staggerwing | PB1/N18V | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Yakovlev Yak-3TI | WHITE 27/F-AZIM| Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Commonwealth CA-18 Mustang 'Jersey Jerk' | 44/15152/G-JERK | Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Supermarine Spitfire IXT | ML407/G-LFIX | Air Leasing Ltd | Cosby | 01/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr I also attended the Saturday of Duxford's Battle of Britain Airshow last weekend. Always a tricky location for photography, but the light came good for the Spitfire finale if not a lot else SAAB B 17A | 17239/SE-BYH | Swedish Air Force Historic Flight | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 'Sally B' | 124485/G-BEDF | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 | ZK913 | Royal Air Force | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Big Wing Formation | Duxford | 14/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Hawker Fury II | SR661/G-CBEL | Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Supermarine Spitfire LF IXe | ML417/G-BJSG | Comanche Fighters | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Supermarine Spitfire Ia | P3708/G-AIST | Comanche Fighters | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Supermarine Spitfire Vc | JG891/G-LFVC | Comanche Fighters | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Supermarine Spitfire FR XIVe | MV293/G-SPIT | Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Hawker Hurricane IIb | BE505/G-HHII | Hurricane Heritage | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Airco DH9 | E8894/G-CDLI | Historic Aircraft Collection | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Albatros D.Va1 | D.2263/G-WAHT | WW1 Aviation Heritage Trust | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Fairey Swordfish I | W5856/G-BMGC | Navy Wings | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Supermarine Spitfire Ia | N3200/G-CFGJ | IWM Duxford | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Supermarine Spitfire LF IXc | MH434/G-ASJV | Old Flying Machine Company | Duxford | 14/09/24 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Thanks for looking, hope they were of interest Cheers Shaun
    8 points
  18. Hi Everyone, Here is another recently completed helicopter from my collection. This is a Hiller OH-23G from the kit produced by LF Models. I got it done last year and thought it's a nice opportunity to post it now alongside my recently completed Sycamore. I called the thread 'a little great helicopter' because obviously it's a very small bird. However over 2000 exemplars were manufactured during more than 15 years and it served in 20+ air forces and with even larger number of civilian operators. Still the helicopter is much less known than similar Bell H-13 or Sud-Est Alouette. Despite leaving quite a noticeable footprint in aviation history it was not available in plastic in 1/72 before. I think there was a Special Hobby mixed media kit maybe 25 years back and that is it. The prototype I've chosen is from Vietnam War era of the Raven usage (Raven was it's name adopted in US military service). Vietnam was a swan song of this type in US military as it has been actively replaced by the next generation of light helicopters such as Hughes OH-6. Raven first came to the scene during Korean War where it played an important role as a medevac and observation chopper. I was able to find a photo of the prototype offered in one of the LF Model boxes: Here it belongs to 10th Cavalry Regiment of the US Army. The photo has been useful to confirm markings and details of the configuration of the prototype and make necessary adjustments to LF guidance. And also kept me restraint in weathering the model as a tribute to these two chaps thoroughly washing the chopper! Some notes on the construction. LF Models kit is definitely not for beginners. The parts do not really fit. Even despite the fact the helicopter is super small - dryfitting, trimming, adding plastic stripes, dryfitting again, using filler after you glue parts together and again and again - that is the process. Engine only marginally gets between the struts. In fact engine is not too bad. Problem is in the engine mounting structs as they are overly thick. I should have replaced them with brass rods - that would be to scale and would permit to easily insert engine into its place. Canopy is split into two parts that fit each other finely but the assembled bubble has been fitting fuselage very poorly. Some improvements that I did for the kit: - added seatbelts from the spares (nothing is in the kit but without seat belts the cabin would look super-bare); - added antennae on the supports on the tail boom (these were installed to all military Ravens at least at Vietnam War time - unfortunately LF totally ignored this part); - added aerial must at the tail boom end; - created a landing lamp on the nose by just masking it from outside and painting silver inside; - also some parts had to be scratchbuilt per instruction - such as undercarriage mounting struts on the fuselage bottom, tail skid, pedals in the cabin. The above photo of this machine confirmed it should not have US insignia (unlike what instruction says). I get at some point Army deleted national insignia from all the choppers and replaced white and orange lettering with black in an attempt to reduce visibility. According to the picture I installed wheels on the skids and added the above mentioned antennae. What I really did not do - rotor head details - all those fragile struts added between engine, gear box and airscrew. One note on LF decals - they are horribly bad. They are inkjet printed and somehow not within register. White colour shows up on the red 'danger' arrow on tail boom and on '276' number. 'UNITED STATES ARMY' is printed okay. US insignia were total disaster not in register with visible inkjet dots and strange hue of blue. Decals are on constant film, quite thin, tend to wrap up and quite fragile. They attach to plastic really poorly but aggressively react to decal setter. So I was not really able to fully defeat silvering at places especially on corrugated tail boom surface and I immediately covered them with decent layer of Future to make sure they do not unstick. Cabin is neutral grey, seats are darker shade of grey as well as the engine, and exterior is olive drab. All Hobby Color acrylic paints. Some zoomed-in photoes: And lastly I did some family shots of my small helicopter collection. Three olive drab Vietnam choppers and one bright yellow Sycamore: Thanks all for watching! Cheers Dennis
    8 points
  19. Hey everyone, I'm still here and working on the "Whittle." I had to take some time to close the pool for the season and go to several Bingo games so my wife wouldn't get mad at me and stop cooking my dinners. I'm finally satisfied with the putty work on the model (or perhaps I'm just tired of sanding!) so the canopy was masked and the Dark Earth sprayed on. I'll do the Dark Green next, and lastly the Prototype Yellow underside. I chose the Dark Earth/Dark Green scheme because it is what she wore for the first Allied jet flight and it's just weird to see that scheme on a jet. It did not have the circle P on the fuselage for the first flight, which is good for me since I don't have a good decal for that. From the single (!) photo that was taken on that historic day, it just looks like roundels and serial number. Now, the good news. My grandson Carter (just turned 8 years old) entered three of his models into the junior categories at our local contest yesterday. This was his first contest! He won a gold for his USMC RF-4B Phantom, a silver for his AH-64 Apache, and another gold for his Ford GT. I took a few photos after the contest was over and the club members were taking things down and packing up. I think the smile says it all! Now, I never buy raffle tickets as I never seem to win. Carter wanted some so I bought a bunch, and during the raffle itself a few club members gave Carter some of their tickets too. Anyway, the kid made a pretty good haul - I think the highlights were the Tamiya 1:48 Mustang, the Hobby Boss 1:72 Me 262, the Hasegawa 1:72 F-8 Crusader, and the Revell 1:48 F/A-18E: All told, eleven kits and five books. For his next project he wants to do a diorama with the Revell 1:48 Super Hornet and the ground support equipment. When I was eight years old, all I wanted was a lolly. My three-year old grandson Dexter is already trying to get a hold of my airbrush. He may end up competing with Carter. Plus, there is another grandson on the way...and yes, my granddaughter has also expressed interest in building a model but hasn't decided the subject yet. Pretty soon I expect something from her. OK, back to work... Cheers, Bill PS: I matched Carter's medal total - My big Victor won a gold, my QinetiQ Harrier a silver, and my Tigercat a gold. I managed to find a few things to buy (all 1:72) - a Hasegawa F-4D for only $15, the old Revell SPAD XIII for $1, and the old Merlin Models English Electric P.1 for $15. The last item is a bit odd - a vacuform fuselage, injection moulded wings, fin, and tailplanes, and white metal gear struts. Surprisingly for a kit this old, the decals look like new. Anyway, the kit is rough and looks like a big challenge that might actually be fun. Or, a colossal headache. I bought this kit primarily so that the resin Whirlybirds P.1a kit would be re-released.
    8 points
  20. Well, predictably enough... Yeah, not much! At least it's an open cockpit so no wobbly 1960s canopy.
    8 points
  21. I've had my saw out again, the patient this time is Heller's Renault Estafette Van with much of it removed to create the Plateau [pickup] version by the addition of the cab back panel and the bed panels and a few other smaller parts. I decided to give it a mild custom tweak with slightly lowered suspension, disc brakes to hold in check the 39bhp output, alloys and a custom colour paint job. The company logo Le Cochon Volant [The Flying Pig] a small artisan brewery, hence the barrels and sack truck in the bed. The UK reg plate is purely for fun, no interest if it exists or not!
    7 points
  22. The Minicraft 757 kit was always subject to severe bashing with its somewhat crude execution and simplistic parts and quite bad fit. The release of the new Zvezda 757 kit,which beats Minicrafts offering into oblivion further lowered the interest in that kit. As I had bought this one together with some other kits as a set and the fact that it came with the NASA markings,I decided to build it anyway. Last year I built already 2 of them,with some changes and lots of TLC,it can be built up to a presentable 757. The biggest issue on the Minicraft kit are the engines,the kit offers both engine types operated on the 757.The RR ( crap) and the PW version ( complete and utter crap) On my other builds,I tried to enhance the look of the RR engines and the sit of them on the wings. If glued on as they come from the box,they point upwards, similar to the 737MAX engines... Here I chose to bin the kits engines and use the RR engines from the Zvezda kit. They fit perfectly and improve the look significantly. The rest of the build is pretty much oob,just the front end received a light sanding to improve somewhat the appearance.The cockpit decal does the rest. The decals are very nicely printed and worked well. Painting is straight forward as well,white upper fuselage ,engine and wings,light grey belly,black nose. All done with Gunze paints. The NASA 757 is still active to this day and is probably the oldest 757 in service. She initially started her long carreer with Eastern Airlines. Cheers, Alex
    7 points
  23. The wheel covers, or I think they should actually be called fairings(?), were done with only two rounds of filler/sanding, and some small touch up after that. All rivet/fastener marks were refined with a small drill. I also did the front and rear axle fairings and made sure they will fit the wheel fairings straight and square while I was at it. The two body sections are close to finished, I think. Work remains inside the cockpit. The bottom section did challenge my patience as new bubbles kept appearing round after round along the critical edges, but in the end I’m winning.
    7 points
  24. I do believe I have got the colour. My original gold was too pinky so I took a visit to my LMS. There they had and old Humbrol 54 'Bronze', the new paint I have is awful. More importantly I bought some Humbrol clear colour No 1322. This really makes the bronze colour jump and makes it look close enough to Mr Cross' picture. Will Airbrush both finishes. And just for good measure my shop supplied me with this 'Black Standard Flying Twelve' car - which looks a bit like the one in the picture
    7 points
  25. Hi All A much smaller update for today, while I did manage a bit over the weekend, it can all be covered with three photos.... First up, I've built the front funnel, only painting etc to complete here In the interest of building all the remaining deck parts, I've built the crane now Finally, the main work for the weekend, more Bofors. I'm building them in pieces so that I can do a better job of painting them - 18 to go now Am I on track to finish on time - at this stage I'd say no (unless we get an extension), there's just too many odds and ends to do in the few weeks remaining, but that could change - I've got next Monday off with no jobs to do, so I'm hoping to go on a Montana blitz. No doubt something will get in the way though. See you soon Matt
    7 points
  26. Thanks for the likes and comments chaps. Apologies I haven’t updated for a while, my iPad stopped working. All fixed now, thankfully. @alhenderson I cut pieces of polythene bag to shape after marking the blu-tack outline onto it with a biro, then stick it along the ‘shakes’, filling any gaps with masking tape. Here’s the initial result. Just a few bits of tidying up required, but overall not too bad. I bought some Tamiya brush paints to touch up a few areas. The Eduard masks are excellent, highly recommend these! Flight deck windows lovely and clear. Chocks inside the front doorway just visible along with some of the flight deck detail. Quite a bit of progress in the last few days, with the radome and undercarriage fitted and most of the little aerials. Still a fair bit left to do though, including a bit more nose weight to get the nosewheels on the ground!
    7 points
  27. My last bit of progress last night: The fit is amazingly good: the tailplanes need no filler at all; and I may be able to just sand down the wing joint on the underside to eradicate it. There is a bit of a discontinuity where the decking joins the fuselage, but I'm going to ignore that as most of it is hidden under the top wing and cabane struts. I think the rivets will be staying too. Regards, Adrian
    7 points
  28. Now to add that fairing over the air ducts on the left side of the fuselage. First, I did a rough sketch to give me some idea of how the ducts ran in this area. Not a lot of hard info, just a few photos showing glimpses of the ducts. These gave some idea as to their positioning in the vertical plane and, knowing that they ran down the outside of the fuselage frame, I was able to get an approximation of the size of the fairing on the external fuselage. The engine nacelle has now been fixed on and the fairing under it added. I have also fixed on the fin and rudder. The duct fairing, was added from some, I think, parts of an old Esci FJ-3 Fury drop tank, (I knew those tanks were would be useful for something but certainly not for the Fury!). The whle mess then had copious amounts of putty added and the blending process started.
    7 points
  29. Wow … 6-7 weeks since I posted. My apologies but case if lifus interruptus. I was able to start the 104 last night this morning. Sadly forgot to post the photo’s until now. Please feel free to ask questions or add comments. Dennis
    7 points
  30. Evening folk's not a great deal left to do now should get her finished tomorrow.
    7 points
  31. Thanks for the interest everyone! Friday night I jumped into this build and am pleased to have finished all 4 engines from the Eduard Brassin Engine set. Overall the set went together well, just many many parts.
    7 points
  32. Some good progress on the wings this week… With a good 24hrs for the glue to dry (I use good old fashioned poly cement to ensure a really good bond between the plastic) I sanded the joints smooth and neatened things up with some white Milliput. With this, too, sanded I then boxed in the wheel bays and wing bomb cells with 0.5mm plastic card. This also gives the wing even more strength where it’ll mate with the spars which will run through the fuselage. Top sides: Wing bomb cells and u/c bays: And the full lower side of the wings: All coming together well. Next up will be adding a bit of detail to the bays whilst they’re easily accessible and get the main spars sorted and how they’ll run through the fuselage. More when there’s more… Tom
    7 points
  33. I'm preparing the way for this, my next build, a lot smaller than Hermione and more my usual size. I'm thinking that this time I'll venture into the dark arts of 'weathering', having watched that master @robgizlu and his current build HMS Avon Vale, which is looking lovely, I feel inspired or slightly bonkers, take your pick. I think I'm leaning towards bonkers. So she'll be on a sea base which I suppose will have to show a choppy sea, I usually do flat calm, but it's time to push the skill levels a bit. Any help achieving this will be MOST welcome. First will be to order some goodies from Micro Master, and as I'm soon to depart for France now is a good time. The MM parts will replace the Radar Lantern, Quad Machine Gun, DC Rail, the 27' Whaler and the 16' Dinghy. I already have 20mm Oerlikons, 4" main gun and Carley floats from Black Cat. So all being equal she should turn out alright. But in the meantime, here are the kit parts.
    6 points
  34. Hi folk's last of the single engine fighter builds for this GB is the 1978 boxing of the FW190D.
    6 points
  35. Some of the deck levels base painted need a few touch ups done but starting to move along after a week in Northumberland dog walking weather is completely different now the dog just gave me a funny look when I picked up his lead. 🐶 Stay Safe beefy
    6 points
  36. - ref. 2519 - Macchi C.205 Veltro Sprues, decals, PE set, schemes & test build Source: https://www.italeri.com/notizia/834 V.P.
    6 points
  37. ... and now, the 'cuffed' leading edge! I trimmed 1/16" off the mating surfaces of the wing leading edge (beveled from to tip to the I/B edge of the aileron) and added a beveled section of sprue (approx. 45 degrees nose down -viewed from the tip). Faired it in with Millput, and , low and behold, the distinctive drooped (cuffed) leading edge. The tip still has to be rounded off, and the nav light added. I'll rescribe the missing panel lines, round off the tip, and reprime to see any flaws, then on to the nav light.
    6 points
  38. Fouga Magister IAC "Silver Swallows"
    6 points
  39. While the 'Hunchback of Jasenica' is in the paint shop, after much indecision, but duly inspired by Pat's @JOCKNEY Alcione Bideriva, my Cant Z.1007 Alcione Monoderiva has moved from the stash into the assembly plant, or should that be the carpenters shop? It's a really old looking Super Model. This will be a OOB build of aircraft 172-3, part of Corpo Aero Italiano operating from Belgium towards the end of the Battle of Britain. About that camouflaged....... I must be Here goes anyway.
    5 points
  40. Two sets of 3-d prints by Dolphin G-S. I'm not sure what the guy on the right is doing. It looks like he's firing a sub-machinegun. Can't be that, but what is it? I found another type of uniform for the second crew set. I don't know whether one uniform preceded the other, or whether they were/are seen together (in the same timeframe).
    5 points
  41. Here is my second finished CH-53, here in the version CH-53GA, A for "advanced". The first model, a CH-53G can be seen here: Click The GA has got new avionics, a full auto pilot, a 5-display-glass cockpit, HF-Radio, SatCom and a new Electronic Defence system. Since 2013 the former army operated CH-53 Helicopters are now flown by the Luftwaffe, The GA are stationed in Holzdorf, south of Berlin. The Revell kit is very old, only the new parts for the modern versions are nicely researched and moulded. So almost every single part has to be worked on, sometimes even completely scratch built like the windshield wipers or the front gear cover. Again the list Things I have changed or improved: - Remove the part for the air refuelling boom from the glass part and polish it, - shorten all three landing gear legs by 2 mm - add details to the top of the instrument panel like map storage and stand by compass - Remove the crude mechanism of the tail rotor and rebuild it - add hydraulic lines to the main rotor head - reduce the height of the main rotor head above the blades by 2 mm - rebuilt the front wheel cover completely - add details to the wind shield wipers - add two small pins above the cockpit for the ice detection system and the outside air temperature gauge (which is already gone again) - add the shimmy damper to the the right front wheel (that cylindrical thing) - add various hydraulic lines for the blade fold mechanism at the main rotor head - drill holes for the air intakes in the "dog house" above the cockpit for heating and Auxiliary power plant (APP) Now, here are the pictures. Enjoy!
    5 points
  42. Lovely sanctuary! Mine's a shared music and modelling room that I have had since my youngest left home. You can probably see his hasty idea of decor. 🤣 Mainly used for my music though.
    5 points
  43. Our local bus operator has opted for hydrogen power instead of electricity for new vehicles, and our local route is now starting to receive them. Very smart they look, too. Matt
    5 points
  44. So, after real life conspiring against me, I got some time over the weekend to put a couple of hours in ..... and we now have tracks! Both sides are done, and to be honest I found them a bit fiddly and in hindsight should have fitted them before the hull was joined. I need to spray the tracks now, so careful masking needed .... also note that the outer road wheels are not fitted .... they'll go on after the tracks are done. Thanks for looking and your comments are welcome as always! Keith 😁
    5 points
  45. Wings are on. It's time to mask the canopy. --John
    5 points
  46. And now it has some decals. They survived quite well and being so thick didn't break !
    5 points
  47. Painted the cockpit and a few details: Now I can close up the fuselage and find out how little of it you can see!
    5 points
  48. Hi everybody, long time no see, uh? The last part of the summer has been definitely hot around here, too hot for painting, even in my basement. That lasted till a couple of weeks ago, then I went on this businesses trip to Germany, then I was very busy, and to top it all I've been having an annoying cold since last friday, but it seems almost gone now. Alright, mailbox first: Yes you are, you devil! Cheers Adrian, thanks! Here's an idea,.,,, I have plenty of those around here too! Thank you Keith, much appreciated! Cheers Simon, thanks! Great to hear from you! Way too kind, Cookie But I have to admit I was pretty chuffed with how the engine came out Since temperature now allows, I set out to masking and preparing the various stuff for painting. Here we go: I used the spare canopy as a mask for the cockpit, with just a smear of water thinned PVA glue to seal the gaps, and some liquid mask foe the wingtip lights and the wing camera window. I masked the canvas areas because I intend to spray Tamiya Gloss aluminium as a base coat on the actual metallic parts, as a base for the chipping. The non metallic areas will recceive a generic grey base coat, which should also (hopefully) show some variations on the paint job. Similar treatment for the tail planes and more masking for the cowling and the other sparse bits I also prepped the drop tank, although none of the pictures I have to the real aircraft show it mounted; I guess I'll decide at the last minute if I'm going to fit it or not, unless someone has some sound advice Here all the bits after an airbrushed coat of decanted (from a rattle can)Tamiya Gloss Aluminium: And the main AC: ...which shows the really bad job I did on the central seam in front of the windshield - hoping it won't show up under next paint coats, though Conversely, next pic shows the good job I did on the bottom side central seam, if I say so myself In other news, I recently received a very unexpected and very welcome packet from my good friend @Cookenbacher, that contained this: A nice resin pilot, which means now I have to make a base and a small diorama, too... In for a penny, in for a pound, so I cut out the second pilot figure in the kit (the first is a sitting pilot, I wasn't going to use that anyway) I think it holds up to the resin figure, so I'll be using them both. But that wasn't the only thing in the box: this was in too A GSI CREOS PS770 airbrush, with a 0.18 needle! This is going to come in handy for spraying the feathered edges of this airplane's camouflage! Thanks Cookie! Alright, paint has to cure overnight before I remove the canvas masking and spray the grey base, then I'll gloss coat, spray some hairspray and lay down a YZC base, and the chipping can start! This will obviously be repeated over the YZC coat too, chipping away the camouflage colors. Fingers crossed! All comments welcome, as usual. Ciao
    5 points
  49. A brief update... I found the time to fiddle with the engines and nacelles. I painted the engines with black followed by a random gray (I think it was light gull grey) followed by a black oil wash. I also picked out the exhaust rings with a rusty brown concocted from brown and orange vallejo acrylics: E795E3DC-8288-48A5-8F1E-14C4E6C5696D by Evan Bailly, on Flickr And then I battled with getting them fit into the nacelles and on the aircraft... 3FE9FEB3-1E62-468B-ACFD-8DBB47CCFB8B by Evan Bailly, on Flickr The engines themselves were slightly too big to fit nicely into the nacelles without spreading and distorting them. This was easily, if tediously, rectified with a file. The little stay-rods were an entirely more fiddly matter. There's a fine line between too long to fit in the nacelles without breaking and too short to contact the inner diameter of the cowling once they are in there. There was a lot of back and forth, in and out, and carefully chosen bad-words. I managed to break or otherwise bend several of the stay-rods, which resulted in even more bad words and tenuously holding tiny bits in place with tweezers while waiting and hoping for glue to dry. In the end, the pencil has engines though.
    5 points
  50. Not far off with this now, realised today I hadn't put the invasion stripes on the U/C doors, done now & will tittivate up the bits that I've stuck on last like the aerial, pitot & rear view mirror & of course the main gear & it'll be a good thing. Steve
    5 points
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