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Consensus on the Airfix Spitfire Mk.1a seems to be that it's currently the most accurate 1/72 Mk.1 in shape, but has panel lines that you could grow spuds in. Knowing this before paying my £6.99 to Lidl last December, I decided to set about ridding myself of those panel lines. As I saw it, I had two choices: 1) Completely fill and re-scribe them, but what with ? 2) Partially fill and just reduce them I decided upon both approaches. All panel lines on the fuselage and centre underside wing section were filled with CA and re-scribed, with those on the wings being partially filled with Mr Surfacer 500 until of acceptable depth. My intention being to have the panel lines only just visible on the finished model. I also decided, what the hell, and riveted the whole a/c. Fiddly and time consuming yes, but not overly difficult once a consistent strategy had been applied and very satisfying. Regarding leading edge puttying and after a lot of reading, I decided to rivet them as I 'believe' that puttying wasn't applied to BoB Spitfires and tbh, I couldn't find a consensus. The a/c modelled is X4382 flown by eleven-kill ace Plt Officer 'Pedro' Osgood Hanbury of 602 Sqn. Westhampnett c. September 1940. Hanbury was awarded the DSO in 1943 and was granted leave to return to the UK to get married. Unfortunately, when returning to North Africa soon after, the Hudson that we was aboard was intercepted over the Bay of Biscay by a Ju88 and shot down, with all occupants reported as 'Missing'. The figures are from the classic Airfix RAF Personnel set, with the accumulator trolley being scratch from plasti-card and rod except the wheels, which were from the said Airix set. Btw, Osgood Hanbury actually sported a rather nice moustache, but as these were the first 1/76 figures that I'd ever painted, I didn't think that I was up to moustaches ! Addons used: Eduard PE cockpit detailing set Rob Taurus vac-formed canopy Replacement pilot's seat Xtradecal Battle of Britain set X72221 Peewit canopy masking set Radio aerial hair donated by my wife Paints used were all acrylic from Vallejo, Humbrol and Mig Ammo. Varnishes were Pledge, Mr.Aqueous Gloss and Winsor & Newton Galeria Matt. Weathering was a Flory wash followed by oils and Tamiya weathering powder. The Xtradecals were superb and went down without any issues. Thanks for reading and taking the time to look. This is my first Spitfire in over 30 years, and having now well and truly disappeared down the Spitfire 'rabbit hole' comments and critiques will be most welcome in helping me improve my future builds ! And here is a selection of WIPs:

Hello friends, another good old model. The model turned out to be better than the new Italeri model of this plane that they modernized. Apart from the fact that this model has a poor cabin and that the panels are positive, everything is better on the new model. The fit is perfect and I really enjoyed making this model. Here are the pictures.

Second kit of the year, a really straight-forward and easy build. Kit is the well known 1/48 Tamiya, a Christmas gift from my little brother. Coming from Eduard kits to be honest I noticed a little lack in details, but the build was extremely easy and the fit was wonderful. The only tricky part was attaching the wings, since you are forced to glue all the internal components visible (and engineered) for a folded wings display, but nothing unsolvable with a little time. It represent a famous and documented Corsair of the ''Jolly Rogers'' squadron as it was at the Ondonga airfield in the Salomon islands (pictures of the real plane added for reference in this thread). Pictures of the airport show a simple strip of land and sands, surrounded by the ocean and the palm trees, so I tried to make a small diorama like this. According to the pictures online there were no marston plates there, but I thought that the base was way too empty with only some trees, and couldn't stop myself from adding them. Chipping was done with a 0000 brush and a sponge, and since this is the first pacific plane I've done I couldn't avoid to apply a very heavy weathering lol. I added the eduard PH set for the cockpit, marston plates from Green stuff world (a nightmare to frame them, I can't reccomend them), while palm trees are some really low cost diorama accessories bought on Amazon and required to be sanded/primed/airbrushed and weathered to look way less than presentable. Pilot figure is from the kit, painted by a very talented friend of mine. As usual I made many mistakes and imperfections, but I, quite satisfied with the final result. All airbrushed with vallejo model air, weathering done with vallejo pigments and abteilung oil. Thanks for watching, and critics are really welcome!

Starting with glue. Then the other half of the fuselage. Of course I managed to pop those two windows just to the rear of the cockpit out. So, some Krystal Klear and careful placement with tweezers. Once the glue had dried sufficiently I went for another dry fit. This is a seriously impressive conversion kit. I think Roger should get a mention in one of this years Honours Lists. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair

Hello friends, here I present to you another completed model. In question is the Ki-44 Shoki, Hasegawa's model. In my opinion, a model for enjoying work. Everything fits as it should. Everything was done OOB, only the rings were painted. Here are the pictures.

Normally you find me in the Aircraft section but sometimes i build armour models. This time Das Werk Panther Ausf.G. I really like this kit, easy to build and it is very affordable.

Atenhut, stand at ease gentlemen or ladies! So Airfix Gannet’s seem to be like buses at the moment, wait ages and then at least 3 come all at once! Here’s my rendition to throw into the ring. It is as many people say, a cracking little kit. If Airfix keep designing them like this. It puts the company in line for a very good future. (Hurrah, 1/48 Short Stirling please🤪) Anyway here it is, the only addition was an Eduard 3d cockpit, paint was MRP, wash was MIG. Few mistakes along the way. I’ll keep stum, if you dont spot them then that’s ok! Thanks for looking. Peter And here are some cockpit close ups whilst building.

Hi all This is finish number 3 this year, the Special Hobby 32nd scale Westland Whirlwind. What a cracking kit. I was so excited when this one was announced. I got the first kit release and was wondering what option to build when I saw a link to Op Starkey, posted in the Rumourmonger thread for the re released 72nd Special Hobby Whirlwind kit, by @brewerjerry. Thanks Jerry the photo showing the scheme made me want to have another go at this scheme to try to get it right this time. I previously built the Classic Airframes 48th scale kit, but used the profiles which were not right. The SH 32nd kit is fantastic and gives the correct undercarriage and main wing trailing edge inboard of the radiator flaps. I added a few extra bits here and there using the Kits World 3d decals for the seatbelts and IP and some extra details such as wiring, rudder pedals etc brake and Hydraulic lines. I also cut off the moulded fuselage aerial mount and scratched a new one in the offset to port slightly as it is incorrectly moulded on top of the spine in the kit. Here is the link to the build thread The model was brush painted, using Humbrol enamels and weathered using oils and weathering powders Extra levers and gun camera panel control added Folding cowl sides made from post it note paper ID stripes have raggedy edges as does the nose I really enjoyed this kit, it looks impressive on the shelf even though it's a small aircraft, not much difference in length to a Spitfire and Hurricane really , what a fantastic beast this must have been, shame tge change of props from the prototypes let it down . Thanks to all those that have followed and offered support and encouragement along the way. Chris

I'd like to share my latest build – the Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1a from Revell in 1/72 scale. The kit is quite old (from 1997) and had significant fit issues. It required a lot of putty work, and the canopy was a real pain to fit — it took a lot of trial and error to get it properly aligned with the fuselage. The Werfer-Granate 21 rocket launchers were scratch-built using plastic tubes of matching diameter, as the kit parts looked more like something from a vintage Frog kit. On the positive side, the cockpit detail is decent, and the decals are excellent. The painting scheme is somewhat speculative — I found only one photo of the original aircraft, and it’s of poor quality. I couldn’t tell whether the wing camouflage was hard-edged (the classic Luftwaffe splinter style) or soft and blurry (which was also used late in the war), so I went with something in between. The result is a sort of “average” representation based on various JG 7 patterns. Paints: Mr. Hobby Gloss coat: Mr. Color GX100 Super Clear III Wash: Dark wash from MIG Ammo Final coat: Revell Clear Matt Weathering: Tamiya Weathering Master pigments, AK pencils, metallics from MIG Ammo Antenna wire: AMMO Rigging 0.01 mm thread Thanks for looking!

Hello Modellers This time I want to show you another of my 1/72 builds, I started it back in January and just got to the finish line a couple of days ago. I usually have 2-3 kits that I work on in paralel, so there's always something to do. This is the Hobby Boss' 1/72 kit of a French SEPECAT Jaguar A jet (plus a mean looking MP from Hasegawa figures set 🙂), painted in the desert camouflage. The build is completely out of the box, with just a couple of scratch build touches like seatbelts, HUD glass (none provided in the kit), some hydraulic pipes for the landing gear and couple of bits and pieces in the cockpit. Painted mostly with Tamiya acrylics, the camo was painted free-hand with an airbrush, then postshaded - including the panel lines. Very nice and well designed kit, it is easy to build, the parts fit great so there's very little sanding. Enjoy!

In 2024 I joined a number of groupbuilds that offered a long-awaited opportunity to deal with a swarm of 1/48 Curtiss Hawk biplanes withering away in my stash. Here they come to life. I hope you enjoy the story of this famous golden-age fighter. (1) The racer - Curtiss F6C-3 VF-4M MCAS Quantico March 1929 Lt. W.O. Brice, Squadron Commander The F6C-3 was the Navy version of the Air Corps P-1, specifically built for the USMC. It was the second Curtiss fighter for the US military, a development of the PW-8. The construction followed the trusted Great War concept - a wooden frame covered with fabric, a fixed gear and an open cockpit. It was powered by a 435 hp V-1150 Curtiss D-12C and armed with two .3 cal machine guns (alternatively one .3 cal and one .5 cal). My kit-bash is a combination of the Lone Star Models P-1 resin fuselage with P-6E main and tail planes from Classic Airframes and Lindberg. Obviously a lot of detail work was necessary to convert it to an F6C, particularly around engine and landing gear (for a full WIP see here). The Liberty Truck is described here. (2) The poser - Curtiss P-6E Hawk 36th PS 8th PG Langley Field 1936 Squadron Commander's Aircraft Next at Curtiss was the P-6 series culminating in the P-6E, the most popular US fighter of the thirties cleverly propagated by Curtiss' busy marketing machine. It converted to the 600 hp V-1570 Conquerer engine, a smaller 'Prestone' radiator and a 3-blade variable-pitch propeller. Other visible features are a wider oval fuselage and a cantilever landing gear. The basic structure and armament remained. The model is based on the Classic Airframes P-6E with a number of modifications such as a vertical tail and lower wing from Lindberg. This kit is not for the timid as explained here. (3) The sailor - Curtiss BFC-2 Goshawk VB-3 USS Saratoga 1937/38 Section Leader of the 5th Section The BFC-2 (formerly F11C-2) was the navalised version of the Hawk. The US Navy insisted on a radial engine and consequently the front end was adapted to take the 715 hp Wright R-1820 driving again a 2-blade propeller. The landing gear was lengthened and the wing gap increased. Other alterations included a tear-drop tank instead of the slipper tank, a partial canopy (not installed here) and a raised turtleback to accommodate a life raft. With the latter modification the name was changed to BFC-2 indicating the new role as dive bomber. The conversion and upgrading of this Lindberg kit was accomplished in two steps. When I first built the model in 1996 I raised the rear fuselage of the F11C to become a BFC-2, and made some evident improvements like the lateral bulges over the guns. With my recent revision here I perfected the model to accurately represent 3-B-13. (4) The warrior - Curtiss Hawk III 21st PS 4th PG Chinese Air Force Schien Chiao August 1937 Lt. Liu, Che-sheng The final Hawk biplane was the Curtiss Model 68C or Hawk III, the export version of the ill-fated BF2C-1. While the US Navy lost confidence in Curtiss after the disastrous failure of the new metal-framed wing, the design (with the old wooden wing) enjoyed some success in the foreign market, namely with Thailand, Argentina and China which procured 102 Hawk III to resist the Japanese invasion. The forward fuselage was transformed again to incorporate a retractable landing gear, the body was further widened and the main plane moved forward. The export version reverted to a 3-blade propeller but there was no change in armament. This Freedom Model Kit was a pleasure to work on but it's not void of flaws. Please refer to my build log here. This concludes my short narrative about one of the epochal combat planes of the interwar period (which eventually became a nail in Curtiss' coffin). I hope to continue this series with the succeeding Curtiss monoplane fighters but I'm still missing a P-36. Meanwhile please enjoy my other Yellow Wings here. REFERENCES THE CURTISS ARMY HAWKS, PROFILE PUBLICATIONS NO.45, PETER M. BOWERS, LEATHERHEAD THE CURTISS NAVY HAWKS, PROFILE PUBLICATIONS NO.116, PETER M. BOWERS, LEATHERHEAD THE CURTISS HAWKS, PAGE SHAMBURGER / JOE CHRISTY, KALAMAZOO, 1972 THE TAIL OF A SAGA - THE LAST OF THE HAWK BIPLANES, AIR ENTHUSIAST VOL.3 NO.4, LONDON 1972 CURTISS ARMY HAWKS, AIRCRAFT IN ACTION NO.128, LARRY DAVIS, CARROLLTON, 1992 CURTISS NAVY HAWKS, AIRCRAFT IN ACTION NO.156, PETER BOWERS, CARROLLTON, 1995 WINGS OF STARS, ON TARGET SPECIAL NO.6, PETER FREEMAN / MIKE STARMER, ARLINGTON, 2009 WINGS OF THE FLEET, ON TARGET SPECIAL NO.8, PETER FREEMAN / MIKE STARMER, ARLINGTON, 2010 ACES OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA, OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES 126, OXFORD, 2015 Well, Curtiss... Looking back at this history of biplane development a few things stand out - (1) For over a decade a lot of effort was put into upgrading the basic design only to bring the same mediocre punch to the fight, namely one .3 cal and one .5 cal weapon. This was rather owed to an unimaginative military than Curtiss but is still incomprehensible (and it went on!). (2) The layout of the Hawks did not progress at all. It unerringly followed the concept of a fabric-covered wooden airframe with open cockpit. Wings and tailplane were actually so similar that they could have been swapped. Any concession by Curtiss to 'modern' design was essentially forced upon them by more innovative competitors (Boeing, Grumman). (3) The once rakish looking fighter with race-plane ancestry took on more and more weight and plumpness until it became downright ugly. This was the result of ever heavier engines and aerodynamic 'refinement' to squeeze more speed out of the old design. In consequence Curtiss lost sales volume versus the competition and was finally discarded as a manufacturer by the US Navy. Had it not been for their infamous influence on the procurement office(r)s they would have been ruled out much earlier. The same pattern blithely repeated itself in the following decade with the P-36/P-40 design.

Just finished last Saturday is Hobby Boss' 1/48 A-6E TRAM Intruder. It's a very complex and complete kit, although not without its inaccuracies, and it definitely needs to be wrestled together, especially if you want anything closed or neutral. I've added some resin exhausts and a fin tip from Hypersonic, wheels by ResKit (I've not fitted them properly, so they look odd attached to the legs), metal refuelling probe and pitot by Master and decals from AOA. The lights under the fuselage had to come from the spares box (not provided by HB, although the locations are marked) and a few surface details corrected as per AOA's excellent instructions. The inboard wing fences have been relocated 7mm inboard. This represents an airframe used in Operation El Dorado Canyon in the bombing of Libya in 1986. The decals are excellent, but I messed the colours on the tail up, so the 'AK' code and horse heads are all airbrushed. I'm hoping an article giving more details will be in SAM in due course. Comments welcome and thanks for looking Jon

It's taken me ages to realise that you are not building a fluorescent green, internally lit, loading ramp .................. pegs to hold the floor in! Doh! T.

Lovely little kit of a lovely little tank. Always had a soft spot for these and glad I've ticked it off. For a change to green or brown I thought I'd do a UN version in white. Cold and wet and miserable is the theme I think 😱 Added scratch mesh storage panels which were a thing. Aftermarket AFV Clug individual link tracks which were a PITA plus a few accessories and the Eduard PE set. This was the main inspiration Headlights were solid so I covered them in canvas which they did, well I think it was an exercise only thing but ho hum Scratched the rear canvas cover Added the bolts sticking down from the field applied mesh panels 😁 Couple of UN covered Helments. I didn't have any modern so I added 1.5mm sheet to some WW2 British helmets and trimed them down then covered with paper. I spun the wheels to get that spray effect. Scratched a civilian plastic box as well as the canvas engine covers Cable reel was left in desert colours as another point of difference. The visors were solid as well so I painted them very dark green then a purple wash then a gloss varnish. It sort of works. Plus scratched the fire extinguishers and added random decals. Now! Have I got time to fit another in before the Stalwart comes? 🤔🤣 WIP is here Cheers all Andrew

Hi folks. The Churchill tank is really ugly. So ugly, its endearing. It looks like some steampunk monster next to svelte Panthers and Pershings. Funnily enough, a friend came by while I was getting ready to take the photos, not very tank-literate person but he immediately said - "Oh that must be a first world war tank?". No, but sort of yes.... it was designed to fight battles expected to be like the trenches of France and Belgium of WW1. It came into its own in the latter stages of WW2 as an Infantry support tank, yet that tank strategy was discounted shortly after the war.... but if the Churchill was so good at it, how could it have been an invalid concept? - Churchills were used again in Korea even though the Centurion was by then well established as the British Army's main tank. I used a couple of new-to-me techniques on this tank.... firstly, I used Vallejo acrylic putty to roughen the surface of the turret to give it that rough-cast look.... I think I might have overdone it, and made it too "brushed" on the turret sides. I also used sponge chipping to try to add some rust and mud.....tbh I'm not sure that its worked very well and I now seem to have a blood-stained tank! I was happy with how this technique worked for the exhaust heat-shield on the engine deck, but doesn't seem to have come off so well elsewhere. I did try to use the Eduard photo-etch set to improve the details... but I learnt again how much I hate photo-etch ☹️ so most went unused. Not helped by the fact that the instruction sheet that comes with the Eduard set is hopelessly vague. And then just before I got setup to take the photos, I realised that the conical bit of the short radio mast on turret had come off somewhere... never to be found again. Oh well, one day I might do something about it! Anyway, I like Churchills and maybe one day I'll try the AFV Club offering to see how it compares - but not if its a fiddly build.

Ah, that seems to be working. Now all I need to do is write some historical spiel about Battles and the squadron this model represents, and post an RFI thread for it. I may be some time. Then? Well, I feel a Halifax isn't far away. Where's me references gone?!

.... and she is finished. HMS Jonquil shortly after her refit at Sheerness in April 1942. The model is scratch built and based on three well known photos, and so I have had to make a lot of educated guesses as to the details. 82 separate pieces of PE, and 38 bits of after market resin, plus plastic card, wire and putty. Very pleased with the end result. Full build thread can be found here P

Bit of an unusual subject this one against anything else I've posted, hah. Wanted one of these for years, but they were always either super expensive, hard/impossible to get, or had some inaccuracies. Finally bit the bullet with a 3D printed kit I found on Etsy. I'd never worked with anything 3D printed before, and wasn't quite prepared for the amount of prep work required to remove structural plastic or those print lines. Took a few trips to Halfords for sandpaper, sponges, and primer, and a few tubes of filler putty. Assembled with super glue, epoxy glue, an using super glue with baking soade to fill in places. Then after who knows how many hours sitting in the back garden hoping nobody paid much attention to what I was sanding or painting, I was able to finally get into the detail work. What's more, I was able to snag the correct paint colour as well courtesy of ArchiveX. Wasn't the easiest stuff to spray from the airbrush, but despite that it laid down with a nice finish. Unweathered contrary to my plans but I didn't want to muck the finish I had too bad. So consider it 'factory fresh'. Black elements are Halfords spray paint, pump and pistol grips are Tamiya NATO black spray can, body shell is ArchiveX Vintage Brown Bess. Metallic components were painted with AK Real Color paint pens and then buffed with a bit of polished metal pigment, while the stock was dusted and buffed with gun metal pigment. Counter numbers were made through a hand cut mask and using a Rubber Black paint marker to create the unlit digit, before a red was applied over that. Made sure it was 95. According to the seller the overall size and shape should be pretty spot on for the 'hero' gun, which had a ten hole shroud over the barrel. It is odd seeing it with the stock extended, and I would have preferred collapsed. Modifying the actual stock might have been straightforward, but the forward piece of it over the receiver would then be too short, so had to stick with it. Must note, this thing is huge. Thankfully, it weighs almost nothing 😅 Thank you as always for looking Gaz

I've built Revell's Boeing 747 Space Shuttle Carrier and shuttle. I have had this model for quite a while un-started as it was such a big model and was a bit of a step up from my previous ones. As with most of Revell's kits it went together fairly well, and the instructions were pretty good however the fit on the engines wasn't so good and took a while to figure out, but once they were completed the rest went well. As usual the decals were excellent, applied easily and gave a good finish, however one point to note is on the nose the cheatline decal creates an oval that isn't coloured. It took a while to work out as its not particularly clear in the instructions, but you are required to paint in the gap. The colour Revell recommends, 36151, Blue gloss is a perfect colour match and its almost impossible to tell that there is a small area painted. The only difficult part was the mounting of the shuttle on the B747. Contrary to the instructions I decided to mount the forward mount onto the B747 and the two aft mounts onto the Shuttle rather than gluing all the mounts onto the B747 and then attaching them to the Shuttle. My method worked well, but it took almost 24 hours for the mounts on the Shuttle to cure enough to not be pushed apart when placed on the B747. I used Revell's regular glue to glue the forward mount to the Shuttle as it slots into the shuttle, but as the aft mounts were surface mounted to the B747, I used Revell's clear UV setting glue so that the Shuttle would be fully glued in minutes rather than having to support it till the glue fully cured. Overall this model is fantastic, its very iconic and is one of my favorites. Its definitely one of the most impressive models I'll ever build.

I have some paint and detail inside now here the water tank gets flexible hoses This side of the water tank will not be visible from the port door which means I can fake the pump section and the input from the window space This input Luckily for this build my HC4 from Airfix has open and shut port side cabin doors, the open version of which are getting used here to allow a bit of interior to be seen. Laters peeps

I'll certainly try Thanks Crisp. An order from Resolution models duly arrived 3 days post order - SOOO good to have keith back at the helm. Thanks @beefy66 It's a novel feeling masking a ship bridge..... The supplied etch watertight doors are double sided and excellent. Some will left open. I finished the quarter deck detailing - almost None of it will be visible but it was good practice with the grey wash etc For the over-zealously toilet trained, I now realise that the Fairleads should sit outside of the rails - Foreart got that wrong and I'd already "welded" mine in to the slots given. It's possible that the kit's Fairleads are slightly too small, I have some alternatives winging their way from Black Cat. I'm conscious that @Ex-FAAWAFU Crisp had the same issue with Fearless. Watch this space. I attached the deck to the hull and "closed-up" - say goodbye to the Quarter-deck. Fit was good needing only a smidge of filler. Meanwhile I couldn't resist painting the Bridge even though once again - nothing is likely to be seen through the Bridge winidows.... It's in Light Admiralty Grey which seems to have been the colour used. Painting this means I can crack on with the bridge /forward superstructure assembly and painting. I am really liking the Mr Hobby "Finsihing surfacer 1500" and strongly suspect that will be my primer henceforth - it dries smoother than Alclad/A-stand. Nuff said. First coat of Weatherworks grey applied And a dry-fit shot to illustrate progress Some more detailing on the hangar assembly And a final progress shot.... I've been surprised as have others, as to actually how small this type was. Thanks for looking Rob

I was given these 6 models at an exhibition, in February of this year.. Five farm tractors and one Unimog vehicle, all 1:32 scale die-cast models, were given to me, as the client puts it; 'Make something outta it, and make it work together'. Check out the 'before' collage photo of all six vehicles and the 'after' photos of the completed commission. Before weathering & diorama: ---------------------------------- After weathering and placed on a simple flat base diorama:

Finally uploading images of this project, which was completed mid 2023. The story behind this is much the same as my recent Mosquito topic. A family member acquired a wristwatch that contains a part of ED825, one of the Lancasters deployed on the Dambuster's raid. The aircraft survived the raid, but sadly crashed some time later. I created this model for my relative as a Christmas present. Sadly, they became incredibly unwell around the same period, and although they did receive the present, they passed away in early 2024. I was at least glad they got to see a depiction of the aircraft they were carrying around with them at the time. For this build I employed an Airfix 1/72 B.III special kit, along with a Zvezda aircraft stand (with some modification to mount the Lanc to it. I decided to depict the bouncing bomb having been dropped, and with a strange quirk of the water gel I applied retaining a bit of whiteness, made it look a little like moonlight. KitsWorld decals were used for the correct numbers and letters, although they required a hand overpainting in order to match the correct letter colouring (being too red orange). Two small disasters accompanied the build, one being the tearing away of decals on one side that nearly ended badly. The other right as the model was completed when a mysterious drop of a still unidentified fluid got onto the right wing and ate through every layer of paint, requiring some emergency surgery and repaint that thankfully paid off 😰 Anyway, here's the finished article Thanks for looking as always ^-^ Gaz

Another kit I've had completed for several years. Takom's 1/35 Chieftain Mk.10 in the Berlin Brigade camo scheme. Painted with Mig Ammo for the grey, brown, and NATO green, and Tamiya for the white. Pretty happy with the overall outcome of this one. Took a LOT of masking tape, hah Thanks for looking as always ^-^ Gaz

Not the best of nights looking after No4 son, resulting in about three hours sleep, but I did get a few things done at the bench. I added the triangular fillets above the quarter lights to the external canopy framing and the internal frames to the rear panels. While I was playing with my home made decal strips I made red and green stripes for the cookie as well. It all needs more Decalfix to settle it down and that Humbrol light green was particularly resistant to flushing out of the air brush but I think I got there in the end after multiple soaks and rinses with thinner, airbrush cleaner and deionised water. I also fixed the seam inside the roof of the Mossie's nose and got most of the masking done. The nose side windows are the first parts of the kit that have required significant sanding to fit. Once the Clearfix is set I shall mask them, and the clear nose, with pre-cut masks from the Eduard set. Elsewhere there is masking tape on the exhausts, the cracked canopy tacked over the cockpit, blue tack on the mounts for the spinners, small pieces of sponge packed into the rear wheel housing and my opened-up crew entry port, liquid mask on the wingtip nav lights and kit parts closing off the wheel wells and bomb bay. Blimey, I reckon that is just about every masking technique I know! Onwards and Upwards, I'm off for a snooze.

One of my outstanding memories of the '80s was the brutality of Group B rallying Spent many a happy (usually wet and cold) hour watching Quattros, Lancias etc hurtling past with only a token single wire fence keeping you safe from sideways cars and flying gravel 😅 Working at Lucas at the time, I always had a fondness for the Metro 6R4 as it was built locally, so this seems the ideal time to give one a bash. It'll be built pretty much OOB, but I may splash out on an aftermarket set of wheels as the kit ones aren't well liked by some of the builds I've seen. Roll on the weekend Ian

RS Model Ki-27b Nate Captured by Chinese Air Force. Equipped by IJA during the Sino-Japanese war, and was involved in the conflict with the Soviets in 1939. In 1945, most of them were captured by the Chinese Military after the Japanese surrendered. I referred to the camouflage scheme by the Kora Model. Primer - Vallejo Mecha Colour: Humbrol Acrylic and Tamiya Acrylic Varnish: Humbrol Clear and Vallejo Semi-gloss varnish

A model from many years ago, which required quite a bit of work, in particular the construction of the rear part of the Jumo 213 engine (visible through the landing gear well) and the replacement of the tail-rudder complex with that of a Ta152. This D-9, one of the rare examples with an enlarged tail, belonged to 7./JG 26 and was found in fair condition at Celle-Hustedt in May 1945. The upper wing camo is RLM 75/82 (light variant) and the lower one is always 76 and natural metal, while the fuselage is RLM 81/82/76. The colours used are Precision Paint and Humbrol Enamels mixes, all applied exclusively by brush. The decals come from EagleCals sheet no. 4; the kit is an Academy, completed in 2000. Hope you like. Thanks for viewing Giampiero Piva

Hello all. This is the second P-40E as the Royal Class box is giving you two kits. I was reading again the chapters of the Java air battles on the Vol II of "Bloody shambles" and came upon a very nice picture of this plane. After the Philippines, the remain of the group went to Australia and from there went to help defend Dutch East Indies. January and February of 42 saw a lot of dogfights over Java and Palembang where Lt Joseph Kruzel gained his first victory against a K-27, followed by two Zeros the following day. Another move to Australia to join the 9th FS found him with George Preddy as a wingman. Then he moved to England with the 361st FG where they were equipped with P-47. Kruzel ended the war with 6,5 victories and left the Air Force in 1970. Od over NG was the rule in 42 ! So I have tried to simulate the wear of those colors without falling in the caricature! Best regards. 45BB4155-14D5-46E9-9FE8-AB0E802BD804_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 79981576-44F9-4207-A31B-954085094AFD_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr BCBAC94A-0498-4980-A949-CA9872FF4994_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr DCA5F8EB-D7D7-4DEE-858B-749DDEA0EBF3_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 240F3037-DD71-4B1F-BA18-7121C3C32906_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 5485A773-6EFF-4FBA-858F-C6B79168DFC0_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 9343FB94-1821-46A3-B1E7-4614996F18A2_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr B5912839-000C-47E3-84E6-594AED7D710D_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr

Saw this in the car park at Thornton-le-Dale today, the owners looked old enough to have had it from new 😀

Hi Folks, Ever since I started scale modeling, I’ve always wanted to have an F-22 in my collection. For a few years, I couldn’t get one, but last year, I finally bought an Academy 1/72 scale F-22. I read many forums and articles about how confusing it is to paint an F-22. I even asked a friend from the U.S. who does aviation photography to share some of his F-22 photos. Looking at them only made me more confused—the paint seemed different on every aircraft. Some looked metallic, others more plastic-like, and the modulation varied from jet to jet. Since I had already started the project, I figured, why not give it a shot? I narrowed my reference images down to two or three and focused on replicating them as closely as possible. None of the paints I had matched, so I spent three days experimenting through trial and error. Eventually, I settled on this approach: first, a metallic base coat, followed by a mix of red, blue, titanium, and black. That combination created a purplish metallic tone. After that, I avoided using decals where possible and instead painted each panels. Most of the colors were mixed from blue, red, brown, silver, gray, white, and black—each layer was applied by eye, comparing it to my reference images. This project turned out to be quite a challenge. I’m not entirely sure if it’s accurate or a bit off, but I really like how it came out—so I’ll give myself a little pat on the back. Here it is! All feedback and criticism are welcome. Cheers!

THIS is shiny... (Not great photos, but you get the idea, I hope)

Hello fellow modellers! Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire C - Academy 1/144 - Extended fuselage - Scratch built flaps and spoilers - New panel lines scribed We are the same age with this kit (1984), so a lot of shortcomings were expected. The front section was out of shape and length, so it had to be cut and extended. It was a case of sculpting a kit. The wings were plain and they had to be rescribed. All modifications were made with polystyrene sheets. The spoilers are a little thick, but it was an attempt to improve the kit. There were no hatch panel lines, so they had to be rescribed. The angle and shape of the windshield were off, so it had to be cut and fully sanded and polished to the appropiate shape, and afterwards it was masked and painted with mr.surfacer to make the windshield frames. All painted with Mr Color and tamiya lacquers. Sorry for the low quality of the photos! Greetings from Chile Here are some pictures of the building process, including the front section extension.

Hello friends, here I present to you another completed model. In question is the Ki-84 Hayate, an old Hasegawa model. In my opinion, the only complaint is that the panels are positive, otherwise everything else is great. Everything was done OOB, only the rings were painted. Here are the pictures.

Thanks for all the comments so far, glad to have brought something unexpected/unknown into the WIP area. As with the Pulsar I've just built, I prefer to mask and spray and remask so the black areas are done *before* the main colour. The usual logic: It's easier to touch up black with body colour overspray than vice-versa. It does involve some extra masking but only that in the bottom right of the 4 images. The main masking (top left) would have to be done regardless of the order. Here, three coats of the final colour. Goes on smooth, bodes well for the clear coat.

Welcome aboard Bill. Welcome back all. I have been a little busy, although mostly coming to terms with the dimensions of the interior, its layout and what mods to make. Needless to say I have been busy researching and cutting away bit and un-assembling more than gluing stuff together. Here is a dry fit of the interior bulkheads. A nice fit as it happens with hardly any fettling or sanding necessary. However, it is far from accurate, The rear bulkhead lies too far back; the top floor is too high (and is stepped which it shouldn’t be; and the bottom floor … well there isn’t one on the real aircraft. I could go go on, but don’t want to sound negative about an old school Airfix kit, which is rather nice, and I am enjoying the kit bash. Anyroad. I’ve now got my head around what it should look like and made a start. I removed a few sink marks and lugs (these are intend to mount the gun and its mount which I don’t need), plus sanding it back so it’s sort of nice and smooth. Also there is quite a prominent sunken mould where the wings are joined to the fuselage. This would be visible so that needed filling. There is an aperture in the floor to access the passenger compartment (rescued downed pilots), and the observer’s seat is on a pivot which retracts through an aperture in the rear bulkhead giving access to aforementioned passenger compartment – quite ingenious methinks. Now I know what I’m doing (well almost) I can add the other bulkheads, ribbing and other details. Plenty of stuff to do upstairs and downstairs. Here is my observer’s seat: I also opened up the engine vents: Now I know where I’m supposed to be I can get some momentum going. Thanks for looking and to be continued...

Greetings from Australia. After much procrastinating about what kit to build for this GB, I’ve chosen Airfix’s 1980 moulded 1:48 Mosquito Mk. VI. At the time of its release, this kit was ‘THE’ Mosquito kit to have. It eclipsed everything before it and pretty much held its own until Tamiya graced us with their excellent selection of 1:72 and 1:48 kits in the late 1990’s. I first heard about this kit when it featured quite prominently at the start of the 1977 Airfix Catalogue and since then have always wanted to build one. I have no idea why it took a number of years to eventually be released as the year ‘1980’ is clearly embossed inside one of the fuselage halves? For its day this was quite a well detailed kit and from what I’ve read in old magazines it was initially designed as a 1:24 scale Superkit. Cockpit detail probably matches what Monogram were doing at the time, however the undercarriage is a little plain in comparison. On the plus side, it looks to hit all the right accuracy points and once built up has that Mosquito stance that ticks even more boxes. A while back, I hunted down an initial issue ‘New’ kit in the hope of ensuring the kit parts were as crisp as possible, however I have to say, my examples moulds seems to have suffered badly in certain places. There are quite a few sink hole marks and the engine pylons are warped to some strange degree. Thankfully I also possess an example of the ‘re-tooled’ Mk XVI kit and here Airfix kindly supply a whole Mk. VI kit along with upper wings, nacelles and fuselage halves to make the dedicated box version. Inside the box you almost get two complete kits, so I’ll use the better moulded parts here to help me with this GB build. Chosen Scheme? (Now amended) My choice of scheme is No.47 Squadrons’ KU:H RF942. This is an early Post War machine that along with 84 and 110 Squadrons performed air strikes against the Indonesian Independence movement after the collapse of the Japanese occupation forces at the end of WW2. I’ll try to print my own Squadron codes, so we’ll see how well that goes! As with ‘most / all’ SEAC based Mosquitoes, tropical filters are also required and thanks to a talented local Aussie modeller, I now have a set of resin tropical intakes for this build (thanks Uncle Les!). Enough of the long waffle, best of luck to all STGB modellers and roll on the 29th of March. Cheers.. Dave

A worse build than a 1976 Allegro, Friday after lunch, just before a long weekend. Let's get all the bitching & whining out of the way first shall we ? THIS KIT IS AWFUL !!! If anyone reading this has one unstarted or is considering searching one out......don't. Flash, parting seams, poor to non existant chroming, warped parts etc etc, the list goes on. Released in 1984 supposedly, I assume Monogram were on the downhill spiral by then & jumped on the monster truck bandwagon in the hope of propping themselves up for a little longer ? It's basically the F150 stepside body & frame cobbled together with all sorts of random bits to make what, in fairness, isn't a bad effort at a 1980's monster. The daft blown engine through a 2:1 what looks like a catalytic convertor, a muffler into a scale 2 1/2 ~ 3" single tailpipe is one obvious clue. Suffice to say I struggled with it in the beginning having bought it when it was current, probably around '85 ish. The box disappeared completely during various house moves, but amazingly I only lost a single part (a wheel hub), even managing to hang on to the decals & instructions. The wheel hub was easily turned on the lathe from some suitable diameter styrene rod so no drama there. Fast forward to mid 2024; I dig the kit out & audit the parts list & begin trying to complete it to some kind of standard. I remember the chassis being twisted when I bought it & impatient teen me glued it badly without any cleanup, care or thought for alignment, likely figuring it was later me's problem (thanks). It was so badly glued in places I managed to spring it apart, but much of it wasn't going to budge without real destruction, so I took to warming, twisting, clamping & generally trying to encourage it back into shape. It's better than it was for sure, but I'm calling my repairs a fail ultimately. Again, long before I joined BM, so the pics start with an assembled & painted engine / chassis I'm afraid. Pics all date from this year, sorry. You can still see the twist across the axles in this shot. Poorly lettered tyres, something I KNOW I'm not good at, 4/10. Main colour is Tamiya X3, just as it came out of the airbrush Parts nearly ready for final assembly The back wall of the bed shattered while I was coaxing it back vaguely toward squareness, this was after paint & I wasn't going to entertain stripping & repainting. I glued the final fiddly chrome bits tonight & mocked it up on it's wheels Wonky nudge bar / bumper, despite being glued to the body which does look square even if it doesn't sit straight on the chassis ? All in all a ....ahem....challenging build, not one I'm especially proud of, particularly my slapdash beginnings, but given the issues with the kit there is no way I had the skills back then to make anything like a decent job of it. But there it is, warts n all.

Got another older build here, hah. Sadly this one ended up accumulating a bit of shelf dust before the pictures, and as usual I couldn't get it all removed (stuff always sticks). Ukrainian 2A6 in 1/35 scale. My second Tamiya Leopard after the original 2A6 release from the early 2000s (which didn't turn out so well at the time for some reason). Luckily, I've gotten much better 😅 Enjoy Thank you as always for looking Gaz

Done. To say I enjoyed this would be slightly stretching the truth. It's not been difficult, other than the awful part to part fit, the amount of flash and the seams where the mould halves didn't quite line up. It's kit from a very different time.... As witnessed by this piece of sprue. But its been very good practice, and has really shown how kits today, have advanced. Without the Atlantic Models PE, it would have been quite poor, but this PE has lifted it. I'm not doing a RFI, so here she is, done. Now, I'm off to enjoy the last of todays sunshine, clean and tidy my bench and start planning my next foray into the world of plastic. Jon

Glad I wasn't the only one that thought that (but I wasn't daft enough to admit it.... 🤣 ) Keith

Good afternoon, folks.😎 Before fitting the headlights to the body, I'd like to show you the hinges for the boot lid, which I fitted a few days ago: View from underneath: While lifting the lid: Lid almost closed: Boot lid closed: Conclusion: it was worth all the pain and effort of making this system and all the time I spent on it!

The masts are in place. So all that remains are the railings. Jon

Apologies Troy, I read this at the time but failed to reply - thanks very much for the pointers, hints and link to the Bf110 build! On the Mk.21 contraprop (which will inevitably have the same issues as this one) I'll try shimming first, and maybe invest in some milliput (I used it early on in my railway modelling days but never really got on with it - possibly because of the mess it made of my fingers whilst mixing it, which seems short sighted...) I've largely been concentrating on my two three model railway builds for the 'Give Peace A Chance' GB, but I've got rather too much stuff filling my office/modelling workspace at the moment; I decided that painting and finishing the Mk.VIII was a no-brainer way of clearing some of the decks as it shouldn't require much in the way of complex thinking. Accordingly, it's now been painted and, since I took these photos, gloss varnished: I'm pleased with how the white has turned out, but as can be seen I managed to get the yellow on the nose a bit wonky. I'm going to have to live with it, as I think I'd make more of a mess correcting it. I also corrected the over-high masking of the starboard cannon fairing with a smear of dark green from a hairy stick. Next - decals, varnish, detail painting, weathering... and trying to get that prop to sit flush against the cowling!

So here is how she stands at the moment. Full disclosure, I consulted with @robgizlu on some variances from the colors called out in the Coastal Craft History book and, as a neophyte, used his recommendations. I also used his formulas for mixing the requisite hues with Vallejo Model Air acrylics. The match in camo pattern is not exact, but it’s pretty close. I did use the camo putty and then corrected shapes by hand. Not sure I’m ever going to use the putty again, but it did have a quite benign quality of being very low tack—no worries about peeling up paint beneath it when removing. As I said above, I’ll apply some filters to get some color variation, use a pin wash to pick out some details, and do a tiny bit of weathering. Then the pennant number and depth marking decals will get slapped on. Thanks for all the suggestions, both here and in PMs—they are most helpful and welcomed. Best, Jeff

This will be my contribution to this particular party. Yes it’ll be another Airfix Mosquito, along with a selection of after-market bits to slow me down even further. The Xtradecal sheet has one particularly intriguing option, shown below. It’s KC-L allocated to 617 squadron - a Dambusters Mosquito. This looks to be unusual as although 617 squadron used a number of Mosquitos in the pathfinder role in the latter stages of WW2, I gather that these were loaned from other squadrons and usually didn’t spend long enough with 617 to get their codes repainted. I’m guessing that 617 would have been using the borrowed Mosquitos very much in the ‘master bomber’ role, which I need to read up more about during the build. For inspiration I have these ‘Mosquito Pathfinder’ I am finding virtually un-putdownable, a first hand account of flying pathfinder missions. A definately recommended read. For now I’ll shuffle nervously towards the start line and wait for the starting gun.

Good evening , fellows😉 I'm so very delighted , because with a tad of filing and scraping on the mountings holes , the insertion is perfect. The block is neatly tucked on the vise , thus allowing to drill the cylinders fastening holes , as well as those for the rockers camshafts and lubrication hoses. In order to relax a bit , I cut a draining lid😜 Then plates to adorn the foremost part See what I mean ? Take care😎

HMS Edinburgh - Chwarae Teg. Thanks Steve - absolutely!!! I'm tempted to say "I'm 64 you know" Rob

Saw this come past and noticed it pull in to B&Q, so toddled out with the camera. 1980 Volvo 244DL Walking back this was parked at the BP 1969 Triumph Vitesse. And this recently imported 2000 Mazda RX7 came past too Matt