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486 Bomb Group 384 Squadron out of Sudbury. This aircraft survived the war to be broken up in Kingman AZ. After waiting a few months finally got some green grass and an overcast day. Hope you like. Products used Paint: Ak Real color, Model master and Alclad Aftermarket: Eduard wooden floors and ammo boxes set Eduard Zoom cockpit Eduard engine set Eduard Radio Compartment Eduard masks Master gun Barrels Thanks for looking Rod

Bought earlier during 2025. Great plastic, let down with poor decals. Mine broke up.

Well, while hosting the "Give Peace a Chance" GB at the moment, and another one last year, I've also been diligently chipping away at my (groaning under its weight) Shelf of Doom. I started this Hasegawa Strike Eagle in mid-22 in an F-15 group build and I finished it ...last night 😅 In the pics, all I can see are errors, blemishes and "room for improvement". But on the shelf (of Display, not Doom) I think it looks pretty good. Having now sent three Hasegawa F-15s from Doom to Display since the beginning of 2025 I am confident in saying I'm done with Hasegawa F-15s for a good while. The nosewheel door is AWOL but I'm calling it done for psychological reasons! This is the more modern Hasegawa F-15E - it's not the original very inaccurate and raised-lines edition from the 80s. It's spray painted with Tamiya "Gunship Grey 2" AS-27 and armed with bombs and missiles from Hasegawa sets. The two pods came with the kit. The loadout was taken from a diagram on a website about F-15E combat loads in the early part of the Iraq Forever War. (The shelves of Doom and Display are both in my garage which gets pretty hot in the Aussie summer - I think it's affected the decals on this and other models) It also has Quick Boost resin seats but to be honest they're not really any better than the kit seats and a lot more hassle. I know that an unpowered jet wouldn't have its screens on, but the cockpit decals are nice: Anyway - there it is, finally finished thank goodness.

Good day to all! I present to you my next model. This is already the eighth Bf 109 in my collection in 1/48 and I am sure that it is not the last (just like my beloved Spitfires, Mustangs and Thunderbolts).

Good day, Here is my third submission for the year. Highlights of this kit are as follows…………. 1. Fuselage : Tamiya Flat Black ( XF-1 ), Flat White ( XF-2 ), Life Color Flat Red ( UA616 ), Ammo Light Grey panel wash. 2. Rotor Blades : Tamiya German Grey ( XF-63 ), AK Pale Grey dry brush highlights on leading edges 3. Rotor Hubs : Tamiya Gun Metal ( X-10 ), Metallic Grey ( XF-56 ), Black panel line wash 4. Landing gear and wheels / tires : Life Color Flat Red, Tamiya Titanium Silver ( X-32 ), Flat Black, Black Panel line wash. 5. Yellow Frog Tape for the hard edge lines between the colors. I built this in large part for an upcoming contest focused on First Responders ( police, fire, EMS, USCG, etc ) and the vehicles they operate while conducting their assigned tasks. I felt this Jayhawk helicopter would be a perfect representative. The kit was simple and straightforward with a surprising amount of detail given the scope of the kit. Recessed panel lines highlight the surface across the Jayhawk. I built this entirely out of the box including the provided decals. I opted to close the main access door but it can be posed in the opened position and the inside cabin is nicely detailed. The decals are excellent with zero problems and adhered well to setting solution. Helicopters are a somewhat unique subject but something representing the United States Coast Guard appear to be even rarer. My colleagues have commented that they enjoy the colorful appearance of the Jayhawk in USCG service and I would agree. Self inflicted wounds only added time to this kit and even with some very tiny parts, I can recommend this outstanding helicopter of the Jayhawk in USCG livery to most every skill level. Thank you in advance. Respectfully submitted, Mike And here is the instruction sheet in it`s entirety. Just one page and that is it. Simple and easy. I`m certain many would enjoy this 72nd scale kit of the Jayhawk.

My latest completion, an A-10 in one of the many JAWS schemes. Decals are from the "A 10 Early Years" sheet from Caracal. And a few of his friends

More: Here's the low-down. The shape of the side window for the front canopy, as supplied in the kit, is wrong. My intent was to sand the canopy completely smooth, polish everything back up and let my masking fix that. But, the panel lines for the canopy are engraved - so much for that plan (I don't have any clear putty). I decided to just mask everything (to the correct shape), paint it and see how it goes. And the answer is - meh. The engraved lines that ended up being painted over are still quite visible and just look weird. The canopy is not attached yet, so if I get another brainstorm it will be accessible. I suppose I'll have to strip the paint, fill the panel lines and find someone to vacform a copy or two. If I can get that far, I can cut things open and display the canopy open in all its silly design. It's a thought anyway. In the meantime, I think there is just the nose probe and weather vanes to finish. I can still do the FOD covers, of course, but I'm not sure they're needed. The interior of the intakes is very dark - you can't see anything in there. You may recall that I cut out the bulkhead that was close to the front of the intakes - that really helped. Cheers, Bill PS. The boarding ladder is just about done. I thought about using the PE as a template and making the ladder from styrene rod, as someone suggested, but the actual ladder was made from flat tubing so the PE is more accurate. Whew - saves me from some more work!

My last completed project and at the same time a memory of the beginnings. Pz.Kpfw.I Ausf. A is a new kit from Takom. Pz.Kpfw. I Ausf. B is an old kit from Zvezda = licensed Italeri. Both models are 25 years apart. The topic of Pz.Kpfw. I is very interesting, it can create quite an interesting collection of different variants and subvariants. I will definitely return to this topic in the future. Here you are my future project.

My build of the Airfix 1/35 Austin K2/Y Ambulance (A1375) I used CMK resin "weighted" wheels and aftermarket helmets, bags and blankets. Unfortunately, I had a senior moment and forgot that I had a photo-etch set for this kit until I had almost finished it, so I had to make do without! Dave

Thanks Terry, Alex and Giorgio Nearly there indeed! I must admit my love for this kit has withered, especially after seeing a 'proper model' in the display cases at the Midlands museum I think @The Spadgent or @81-er took some photos for me - feel free to post them here Johnny / James and you'll see the difference between a proper modeller and kit builders like me. Has to be finished though. After drying overnight she's on her legs: This has allowed me to test the ramps: The wing roots aren't as good as I thought: …so that's had some filler and the ramps have been glued: I've also redone the internals: Better.

I don't remember exactly when i started this model, but i was definitely working on it in the 2019-2020 time frame. I consider it however, a Shelf of Doom project. Let's get the "Navy Bird Briefing" out of the way, shall we? Kit: Hasegawa A-1H, kit number 51406/ BP6 Scale: 1/72 (because reasons.) Aftermarket Products Used: Reskit A-1 Skyraider wheels, part no. RSK-72-0166 Quickboost A-1 weapons pylons, part no. QUB 72291, A-1 Horizontal Tailplanes and elevators, part no. QUB 72238 Master brass pitot tube and 20MM cannon barrels, part no. MAS-AM-72-111 New Ware models Skyraider canopy mask set, part no. NWR-AM0502 Eduard USAF and USN WWII Seatbelts, part no. 73004 Eagle Strike Decals sheet 72-030 Paints used: AK, Tamiya, Mr Color If you want the nitty gritty on the construction (to the extent that i documented it)- it can be found here: I didn't start off this project with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm; i probably wouldn't have built an AD (now) were it not for the colourful markings i found in Angelo Romano's NAVA1: Naval Air Weapons Meet 1956-1959. However, i did need a Skyraider to fill a missing gap in my Douglas attack aircraft collection and by extension attack aircraft in general. The kit was originally issued in 1996, same year as the A-3 Skywarrior. Fundamentally it's a nice model and definitely head and shoulders above the Airfix, Fujimi and Tsukuda Hobby offerings. Fit is generally good, recessed detail is nice and the basics are there for a good cockpit and landing gear. The main drawbacks of the kit are your typical spartan Hasegawa wheel well detail, decals for the instrument panel and side consoles, and a very basic seat. These shortcoming are not too difficult to overcome. I evaluated several aftermarket products, and my opinions are rather mixed. I got the KMC Skyraider detail set and i didn't use it. The Quickboost wing pylons, while detailed, were not that big of an improvement over the Hasegawa pylons. Cutting the pylons off the casting block resulted in many snapped off sway braces; the locator pins tended to shear off; the gaps where the pylon joined the wing undersurfaces were pretty bad. I got around the gaps by using white acrylic glue to fill them, and then disguised the dried clear glue with a wash of Future/water, and Tamiya flat black. I used the Quickboost elevator set because i liked the option to position the elevators in the parked, "Up" position. They fit fine, though the elevators are so thin that they tend to warp a little. It is nice to be able to paint the elevators separately from the stabs. One thing i did really like were the Reskit wheels. The multipart construction made painting and weathering easy. Also, the New Ware canopy masking set fit very well and helped a lot with painting. I didn't use the Master 20MM cannon barrels (yet), but i did use the Static Mast, which also served as a convenient attachment for the antenna wire which was made using Uschi "Rig this Thing" elastic thread. I'll say here that you want to think this step through before paint goes on the model, and not after the landing gear bombs, propeller and such sundries go on. Aside from the Eduard belts that i added, i also installed an LSO line up light in the left wing leading edge, plus i installed the forward inlet flap position indicator... Late in the game, i changed my mind, went ahead and added the centerline station, mainly to keep the option open to add a drop tank or a practice "Special Weapon" down the road if i find something i like. With this model finally done, i can turn to my Wyvern, a project that goes way back, plus other projects that go back even further in time (727, F-104A, etc.). However, the Big Corsair is not far off from being done so, naturally it kind of goes to the head of the line. Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement. Until next time- Keep your knots up, and your powder dry. Fly Navy!!

MiG-15bis "Fagot" | HobbyBoss | 1/72 Pilot: Maj. K.I. Syomy, 535th IAP, 32nd IAD | North Korea | Spring 1952 Finished this on 11/14/2024. Here's another build that was 27 years in the making. I bought the Cutting Edge MiG-15bis "Fagots" decals, sheet 3 which had North Korea, Cambodia and Vietnam in about 1997. I really wanted to do this North Korean tiger stripe, which is why I bought it. Luckily, I haven't gotten around to it until now because I don't think I've really had the skills to do the paint job until the last couple of years. Paints were Mr. Color C023 green, C044 Tan and Midnight Blue (instead of black because all the black paint I have sprays terribly). Bottom was Tamiya silver leaf spray paint decanted. Hope you like it! Comments, Questions and constructive criticism always welcomed!

Hi all Crikey, the Whirlwind is finished. thamks to all that have offered support and encouragement along the way. Really pleased with the way it turned out Thanks for looking in Chris

not really a joke, but this was in the Socials feed today

Finishing up the story of the voice pipes, I printed them and installed them in the wheelhouse, note the two that hang from the ceiling direct to the steering position This put me in the mood to make the compass house which made a change from those bulwark stays Here are the sides cut out, mostly 0.5mm ply. I'm using the sandwich method that I used on the wheelhouse, with the glazing as the central layer in 0.35 thick clear plastic (scrounged from the lid of grand-daughter's toy packaging) Stained, varnished, painted and some pre-assembly. That box by the door is the chart table that pushes out the back, weird detail The binnacle was turned in brass and had the wheel added, clearly shown on the ga, wheel doesn't seem to have had spokes The lino floor covering is more self-adhesive brown paper printed and varnished Painted after timber siding added in pear wood The interior and exterior have loads of boxes and equipment, plus 10 voice pipes. The roof has planking engraved Chart table with northern approaches chart. The stool is adjustable in height (still) on a 12ba bolt Exterior has box for binoculars and Aldis lamp rack and box, be sure to wipe your feet on entry Fully assembled, roof still needs rope railing and canvas dodger plus Pelorus stand And roughly where is sits on the boat. The timber pieces it's sitting on are temporary to help locate the copper deck, they will be cut off so it will sit down on the deck finally. Loud speaker added Fun little side project, now back to those bulwarks Cheers Steve

Hello, just finished my Ki-51 from Ukrainian company Wingsy Kits. OOB build but with metal exhausts from RexX have been used. Hope you like it.

I bought this kit at a show because the Arma Hobby Hurricane was the latest kit that everyone was raving about, so I wanted to see for myself. Yes, it's good. But not perfect: for one item that puzzled me is the pair of 250lb bombs supplied in the kit The instructions show them with sway braces and attachment points moulded on: these had neither. I replaced them with a pair from ICM's RAF WWII weapons set. Apart from that and the markings, it's from the box. All markings painted from home-cut masks - apart from those in the cockpit and on the bombs, no decals were harmed in making this model. I did a Mk IIc in India in 1943-1944. This utilised the tropical filter which is supplied in the kit, but not used by the supplied decal options; this is also true of the bombs. It also had an interesting colour scheme according to the reference I found: a variant of Azure Blue underneath, with Dark Earth/Dark Green in a modified pattern above. The Azure is there as many aircraft in this theatre at this time were diverted from their original destination of the Middle East, so carried a desert scheme. There are no white theatre ID bands, not least as many squadrons omitted them because they compromised camouflage on the ground at forward airfields. Thanks for looking.

And the yellow figure has been transformed...

I see this photo and can only think that the van has eaten the mechanic for lunch!

Giorgio, their highlight is getting to sit in the Batboat. I'll bet that's one riddle that even Batman couldn't get. Holy Polar Lights Batman, looks like you're gubbed! Well I'll be darned if this thing isn't putting up a fight right to the very end. I was hoping to get this out of the way to start a new project, but alas, 'tis not to be. Like all of you who have commented, I'm liking the kit stand. I think it compliments the Batboat nicely and is very much of it's era. Kitsch but classy kitsch. So it was off to the paint shop with it and it got some primer, some coats of many blacks and lashings of clear gloss, which didn't seem to gloss very well for some reason. Nevermind and on with the show anyway. I have two chances at this. though I do have a backup plan if it all goes south. But jumping right in and things aren't looking promising. Holy jumping ovals Batman. Why didn't they make the transfer the same size as the big bloomin' dimple they molded in to the base? Not only is the transfer big enough to climb up the sides but it also folds over the top rim as well as having to confirm to the big compound curves of the base itself. The transfer started breaking up so before things got too out of hand, I removed it and stuck it back on the decal paper... just in case, you understand. Then I had a go at transfer number two. You can guess how that went, so that now brings us to this point... which should put a smile on that Italian fellows face. ...and Italian Red. Getting that paint into the corners (do curves have corners?) proved troublesome and I think I stopped just short of having runs everywhere. Despite metric furlongs of tape, and a small acreage of polystuff, I still managed to get some red on where no red stuff should be. Touch ups will be easy so no big problem. However, I'd had enough of that for one day, and sought excitement elsewhere. Like drilling throttle holes for throttle levers. In case you were wondering, I find that adding a piece of plastic tube to the carbide drills makes them much easier to handle and less likely to misalign, and thus break the tip. Throttle made up from 0.8mm brass rod, soldered, chromed up,and fitted. Dunno wot the dynamic duo were up to in the background but they don't seem at all happy. To ease their pain I stuck some blue-tac on their bums and stuck them in their seats. As luck would have it, Batman can actually grasp the steering wheel... just. While Robin just sits looking out over the waves trying hard not to remember what just happened back there. I'm going to try and finish off the base this week but in the meantime here are a few shots of the finished boat That has been a relatively quick build for me and while not as much fun as I originally anticipated it was still an enjoyable build, and I'm glad I've breathed some life into an otherwise rather mundane and dare I say, another poor kit from Polar Lights. Just the stand to finish now. Just the stand...

Hello fellow britmodellers, Long time since I’ve posted here but finally my hands were free enough to create this post and show you my project from last year. Eduard 1:48 FM-1 in Atlantic scheme. The wildcat line from this manufacturer is well known for its excellent quality and engineering. I’ve also bought some aftermarket goodies (wheels, wheel bay and the cockpit) to test 3D print upgrades and was weary satisfied with the result. Also I wanted to try folded wing configuration. My soon to be wife was very interested in the grey coloured version so the choice landed on VC-1 squadron which operated in south Atlantic in 1943-1944 from USS "Block Island". When I was trying to find any information regarding this squadron I found reports from 28 of October, 1943 where another wildcat from VC-1 piloted by Ensign Harold L. Handshuh together with TBF-1C Avenger successfully destroyed one U-220 submarine. Link to the report for all interested: https://www.uboatarchive.net/U-220A/U-220ASW6.htm Unfortunately H. Handshuh went MIA and I’ve decided to honour this pilot’s sacrifice by recreating his plane. The only difference from the basic Eduard VC-1 scheme was the plane number so it was easy task. The model is a pleasure to work with. The only little problem was with the folded wings as the contact area to glue was very small for such a big wing. Coloured by mix of Tamiya and gunze acrylics, then enamel wash for panels, salt method for weathering and enamels for leakages and stains. Thank you very much for your attention! Enjoy modelling! Alex

I asked our esteemed hosts if it was ok to enter a 75% finished build with sole intention to enter the Inspiration gallery. Well here's the relic from 2021 deep COVID-era Unarmed GB. Its' supposed to represent a NASCAR Winston Cup 1984 Monte Carlo SS, driven by Darrell Waltrip. I finished all the chassis job back in 2021, but never got to assembling and painting the carbody. This is what's hiding under the decal sheet. I think the Monte Carlo SS was one of the nicest looking US cars of the eighties. Monogram mold makers, on the other hand, didn't have their glory day when matching those exhaust headers. This kit is pure Eighties nostalgia to me. I bought and built one of these Monogram NASCAR models just when they had become available in 1983. My build back then was the same Darrell Waltrip's 1981 Piston... erm, Winston Cup winning, Mountain Dew sponsored Buick Regal. This Chevy Monte Carlo kit differs from it only in the carbody parts - and the decals, of course. V-P

Built in Iraqi markings using Linden Hill Decals sheet No LHD72019. A very simple kit this one, so building wasn't hard. However, the kit decals did not work. Colours used were SMS PL81 sand, SMS PL152 olive drab and SMS PL101 blue. The smoke effects were done by brushing on Tamiya X-20 smoke. Build progress video

Well after a quite long time I am finally finished. This is the 1/72 Airfix Bristol Super Freighter converted to a standard Freighter using a Magna Models conversion set. Quite a challenging build with the resin and the paint job. The tail logo was obtained by painting the fin white, masking the logo and then painting the red. All other decals home made. Thanks to @Ray S, @bianfuxia and @stevehnz for the comments, pictures and suggestions along the way.

Yes, Jeff. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes if he caught him. 😁 Now that's what I call a collection, Zoran. Respect. 👍 But I've also added a few more. 😉 A new little update. Continuing with the preparations for the next internal structures. The MK set also clearly wins the race for the chimney stacks over the Pontos set. The brass sleeves look excellent. Here too, Pontos had no improvement to offer for the original component. I’m amazed at how well the MK set is performing. The extra expense was definitely worth it for me. The fourth cradle for the pinnace has also been adapted and installed. And so the boat can take its place. Which brings me to my next dilemma. Micro Master’s boats look so incredibly good that I’m considering leaving the boat cover off.🤔

@klubman01: As mentioned in an earlier post, I've decided to keep the wheels uncoloured as (a) matching the body colour would I think be too much brown, and (b) they look so damn' good as they are...

Hi, Not at home and still away for a week, but before leaving I had worked in the engines and cowlings. Of course I stuffed up and for some unexplained reason I inverted the keyed parts supposed to fit on the wings... so more work for nothing. Anyway, it will work out at the end... It always does. Here is a photo of the parts that will need tidying up before gluing to the wings. Thanks for watching. JR.

I requested some more decals from Special Hobby, and today (less than a week later) they arrived in the post: Got the main ones applied OK, and some of the stencils. They are indeed quite fragile, but I'm back on track:

Thanks Keith Nearly there. Thanks Alex I used one of the sets of tiny chisels shown in this picture: Dead one, with wheels: Also attached the tailwheel. With Sprue Goo 'cos the hole was too big:

This is probably the worst of paint bleed. Easy to fix, as is the fin flash where it drops a bit too far down into the fillet. There are other bits and bobs needing retouching, but I think that’s for tomorrow. Meanwhile, I chickened out on yet more masking for painting the underside. That’s a fib, actually. I used thin tape to mark the boundary between black and the top colours. The yellow blobs are the masking circles over the underside roundels. Getting there.

First let me advise anyone interested in a 70 Chevelle...don't buy this one. Pretty much out of the box, added some details here and there. fit is terrible, warpage, flash and all the other issues you'd expect from what must be a re-pop of an old kit (notice the bent A pillars) I used a representation of a Holly carb from the spares box the head pipes wouldn't reach the exhaust pipes with a 7mm gap between the pieces, I cut a couple of lengths from aluminum tube and spliced them no detail in the cowl area and I'd run out of ambition to correct any issues the car is a beautiful design and really needs to be better represented in my opinion the rear bumper was a really bad fit, maybe me... maybe the kit but I couldn't get a goof fit here the hood decal cracked and broke as it dried the worst part of the decal shown here. If I was to try this again I'd try something other than an AMT kit. I know it sucks but, it's all I got right now. Thanks for looking

Found some more pics; I fabricated proper light buckets after slicing off the rear end, you can also see the 2mm neo magnet that forms the lower half of the tailgate latch This is how it looks with the glass in place I'll shoot some update pics later too as I've made more progress since I took those posted so far.

Hi folks, new boy here, not sure if this one qualifies as it's not technically a car / bike, but it is however, my most recent acquisition that's not aircraft / shipping / armour ? NOS AMT GMC General 1/25. It came from fleabay so I probably paid over the odds for it, but other than box wear it's mint inside.

🇬🇧This is the moment – the 1/72 scale model of the Curtiss H-75 A1/A2 is now so close that we can reveal what its instruction manual looks like! From the instructions you can learn practically everything about this model kit – how it is divided into parts, what camouflage and marking variants and production versions it contains, as well as what paints you will need to paint it. 👉Look and see for yourself the whole instructions: https://armahobbynews.pl/en/blog/2025/03/20/curtiss-h-75-a1-a2-kit-instructions-70080/ https://www.facebook.com/share/1XSVKc5Wyh/

A new set from Zvezda, ordered by me as a pre-order at https://quinta-studio.com/ and enhanced with add-ons. I-16 (TsKB-12) "sixteenth fighter" (colloquially known as "Ishak" or "Ishachok") is a Soviet single-engine monoplane fighter from the 1930s, created in the brigade of Nikolai Nikolayevich Polikarpov at the OGPU design bureau. It was the world's first mass-produced monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear. It is the most numerous fighter of the interwar period in the world: by the beginning of World War II, more than six thousand I-16s had been built. The aircraft had a wooden structure with a skin made of plywood and fabric. It was the primary fighter of the Red Army Air Force from 1936 until the beginning of 1942. I wanted to assemble an interesting aircraft from the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940 on skis: . The first steps in assembly: this is the assembly of the interior! I have never encountered such a rich interior, considering that the model is 12 cm long! Everything is reproduced: control elements, fuel tank, oil tank, engine! And almost all of this will not be visible!

BAH!! I clicked submit instead of insert link

Expected in late May 2025 - ref. 87275 - Grumman TBF-1C Avenger Source: http://www.hobbyboss.com/index.php?g=home&m=article&a=show&id=277&l=en Box art V.P.

some of these pieces are getting a tad small , the bow anchor area , starboard side . the bow anchor area port side . I nearly went crosseyed trying to do this , 🤪

Today I have reached something of a milestone - my first attempt at proper spray painting with an airbrush and compressor! The decal film arrived today too, so after some practising spraying deionised water around I did a bit of experimenting with varying amounts of thinner and flow improver and then had a go at spraying onto the film to make decals for the Mossie's cockpit canopy, or is it coupe, frame. From left to right those are Humbrol Interior Green and Vallejo Ocean Grey and Dark Green, both over the interior green. You can see that I used too much flow improver for the ocean grey and the interior green, which was probably not completely dry, has bled through. The blemish on the dark green is from me poking at it to see if it was dry. It was not. Still, it was an interesting exercise and each of those rough squares is about 2.5cm x 2.5cm so there should be enough usable strips for the frames when I come to slice them up. So buoyed up by that little victory I made a Green G3 mix and tried spraying that on my bomb trolley. I need to decide whether I am going to use the decal film to make the coloured bands on the cookie, or mask and spray them. But that is for thinking about next time! Onwards and Upwards, mes amis.

I started drilling holes for the rivets; I suggest you use a jig or something to help position the holes, I didn't so they're all over the place. I found that using those carbide bits in a rotary tool did cause some breakages; So I reverted to using them in a pin-vice for more control. A bit of placing later and we have rivets in, it's amazing how many it takes, I put about fifty in, well I got through 50 at least!; Next was working on the rear axle. There were two lumps representing the rear brake cylinders, these should protrude from the non-existent brake back plates and not be attached to the axle so they were snipped off; Axles aren't massively complicated anyway, but I felt this could be improved, plus thre was a handbrake linkage on the real thing, so some broken drill bits later; Pin vices don't always help......and look there goes another one! and finally we were getting somewhere; I need to look into getting a laser drill. Thanks for watching TTFN

The latest thing to play with are the vac-forms a friend made for me based on bucks I sent her. Here's one cut from the backing sheet, alongside the buck. As you can see, it's pretty clear! Test fits look pretty good with the 1mm thick keel beam installed and the upper fuselage skin pushed upward to where it needs to be:

Whenver I see those, there is a part of my brain always imagines it means the rider has lost a leg in a motorcycle accident 😄 As for today, all dashcame shots but I thought the colour on this MacLaren 720 Spyder was lovely and really suited the car. I've blocked out the number plate because when I looked it up to see which MacLaren it was I discovered the MoT had expired 😲. And given I picked up a cracked windscreen today so there is the argument mine isn't roadworth while I wait to get it repaired I figured it would be a bit hypocritical to 'name and shame'! It was also being driven sensibly too so may have been getting checked ready for it's summer outing. A little bit further on I followed this across the "Roundabout of Death" at Welwyn - again no MoT but as an early Silver Shadow that's allowed. I think this is the first one I've seen with overriders on the bumpers too. Again a light blue which really suits it. And finally one for @Neddy since we mentioned Deranged in his Range Rover thread a couple of weeks ago - a Deranged Ford Ranger:

Only just seen this,so this may have been come up beforehand. I used to be a BT telephone engineer in London’s West End. I fitted a phone system for a company called F**K OFF Records.. Someone told me a few weeks afterwards that he didn’t think they would last very long as when they answered the phone they said Hello,F**K OFF. What would you do? Just put the phone back down!? I think this was round about the punk period. Chris.

A word of warning to anyone who still uses E-Bay to sell privately (there must be someone still out there)... E-Bay are now effectively insisting that you print out a "delivery label" and pay them directly to post an item. Using your own postage set-up has been removed. This is ridiculous, unjustified and just plain wrong. After the disaster of the "Buyer Protection" fee, this is the final indignity. After nearly 23 years of buying and selling on the 'Bay, it's obvious to me that E-Bay is more hassle than it worth, now. I'll will be cancelling my account shortly. There are many, much better websites to sell on. Chris.

Mucked about. Added an oil wash to pop the details. Then brushed on some highlights, some rust on the hands and face. Poked at the eyes to try to get them more similar and darkened.

Well nothing seems to happen but I have applied Gunze black surfacer and then some Gunze Base White.

Before kick off, I thought I’d share one of my most treasured possessions. After training with the RAAF in Nova Scotia, my Grandfather had this model built in Canada before returning to Australia. No one in the family really knows much about the subject aircraft itself. Some brief research suggests KB306 was a Canadian built B.VII operating with the RCAF, transferred to the USAAF as 43-34931. During a ferry flight it had to make a landing with a loose hatch. And later had a prang at Wright field, taxying into an A-36! Presumably, KB306 served with one of the OTUs in Nova Scotia and my Grandfather would have flown in her. I’d love to hear from anyone who might be able to shed more light on this! When I’ve had more time to learn about the necessary conversion, I have a Tamiya 1/48 B Mk.IV in the stash to build as KB306- I’m quite keen to push the boat out on that one.

Finished build on Tamiya 1/32 F4 Pantom Had a few issues with box decals and canopy (just age of decals and dropping canopies). So had to use aftermarket for these, rest is OOB. I then had to alter colour scheme to try and match Black Knight decals. The variant probably doesn't match the decals, for the purists, but at least it's finished. Battle damage patches are also on as I didn't know about these until someone pointed it out in the wip. I don't think I have skill etc to remove anyway without leaving like a scrapheap challenge. Paints used, tamiya and vallejo and vallejo gloss / satin varnish. Bit of nuln oil here and there. mixed my own washes using mig and AK washes as a base and adding thinned oil paint. Tried mixing these directly but there is enough difference for them not to be compatible. Weathered using oils. Really need to work on photography! Thanks for looking.

Here we go. Again. I left things for a day - that Real Life thing again - and when I reviewed the sitch this fine morning it didn’t look all that bad after all. The fuselage Type A1s needed a revisit to the yellow ring, but the rest can be dealt with by careful hairy-sticking. The fin flash blue needed another couple of light coats, as did the wing Type Bs. After a quick redesign of the cutter artwork to include the blocking out square, I then spent a while carefully applying masking tape and stuff again. No matter how careful I may be, there’s bound to be some accidental overspray somwhere. The misalignment issue is really down to the slight flexibility of the mask material. No matter how careful I am removing a mask from backing material, it will stretch a little bit. It will also stretch during the painting sequence, as parts of the mask are pulled off and replaced. I will set about some practice masking on my paint mule to see if I can mitigate the misalignments, but let’s get this model further along the road to completion first.