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Finished this Do17Z built in the WW2 twins group build. It's the modern Airfix 1/72 kit which goes together quite nicely, apart from the engines which are a bit of a pain. Displayed next to my old tool version WIP thread:

Good evening all, Here today I have my 2nd attempt at this Revell kit. The first was a disaster, broke pylons, glued the wings too far forward amongst other things. Parts used for this kit were the SBS models nose and pitot tubes and also the freightdog conversion kit. All other little modifications were scratch built (badly) by me and the decals were supplied by Xtradecal. I opted to use tiny neodymium magnets to connect the pylons to the wings which have turned out to work really well. Thanks for looking Dave

Hello! Here’s my recent project, the Bf-110C. It has been in my "need to build" list for a while, such an iconic bird. However, I have to say, after several built Eduard kits, this one was kind of a disappointment. I mean, the details are great, specially in the cockpit, but it has some fitting issues. The nose/guns bay is engineered to be built open, because if you decide, like me, to have it closed, brace for impact! You’ll end up with steps, gaps and a lot of sanding and scribing. Also, the area being rounded doesn’t help either. The machine guns are really fragile (broke one of them a few times). The landing gears are just ok, I’ve added a lead wire to simulate hydraulic lines, and they also require attention to have them in place. And let’s not forget the clear parts. The landing light is a chunk of clear plastic way larger than its place to be. And, to glue the front lateral windows and gunner panels in the open position is also a hard task, for they don’t have any decent points of contact with the fuselage and/or other panels. To maintain these areas free of excess glue is quite challenging. The kit has a few row of rivets between the engines and the fuselage, so I’ve decided to rivet it all, and I’m happy with the result. Rose the riveter was the tool of choice. A very nice point are these new Eduard decals that you can remove the film from afterwards. They’ve worked great and the final effect is really good! Paints were a mix of Gunze lacquer and aqueous, well diluted for the motling, when needed. Hope you’ll enjoy. Cheers!

Well, that's not a very flattering thing to call your wife! 😲

Was driving towards the offramp leading to a great local hobby shop, and my wife suggested I pop in for a treat. Left the motorway like Ari Vatanen rounding a corner! Anyway, came away with an Eduard MiG-15bis Profipack. Can't decide on the United Arab Republic or Hungarian scheme, both are visually compelling.

It's almost done. I have to add the props, wheel bay doors, fabricate a pitot tube and maybe some more small work. I also got a new camera set up with one of those photo tents, so I'm playing around with that a bit as well.

Hi Everyone, Had this kit lurking about unstarted for a couple of years, as I wanted to do a different scheme to the kit offerings So here`s Revell`s 1/48 Ventura done as an earlier aircraft in the two colour US Navy scheme and 1943 markings Finished to represent an aircraft flown by VB/VPB-136, Adak, Aleutian Islands, 1943 Built from a combination of the Octopus marked boxing and the more recent RAF marked issue The decals all came from the stash and used Steve Ginters `Naval Fighters Number 86` as main reference The `Grumpys` are a bit of artistic license as early Venturas often had factory applied Walt Disney Cartoon figures painted on them. Added a few blinds and curtains to the windows as quite a few photo`s seen to show. Lastly here it is with my earlier effort of the same kit in the markings of VB/VPB-135 also an Aleutians based aircraft Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking Cheers Russ

Bad for head-gasket repairs

The good old '163 Academy requires various interventions, both in the cockpit area… …and in the exterior of the fuselage, in the wings and finally in the complex undercarriage-skid. The specimen being built is the Me163 B V45, in charge of the Erprobungskommando 16, as it appeared in Bad Zwischenahn in July 1944. The following December it was used to test the SG500 rocket system, which caused irreparable damage to the airframe. The camouflage scheme, slightly different from that of most Komets, consists of RLM 81/82/76. The fuselage decals are Print Scale 72-303 and, as always, the model is painted entirely by brush with Humbrol Enamels color blends. View of the undersurfaces. Hope you like it. Thanks for your interest. Giampiero Piva

And another model completed and the photos go to the gallery, S.M. 79-II "Sparviero", 283 squadriglia, 130 gruppo autonoma, Mediterranean 1942. feel free to visit the gallery.

A few books this week. Thanks to @Pete in Lincs a copy of Michael Caine's "Blowing the Bloody Doors Off" from a local 2nd hand book seller & from Amazon a couple of books to get free postage. "Gone the Dark Night" by Graham Clayton, a follow up to his "Last Stand in Singapore" I read recently & the story of the recreated 488(NZ) sqn as a night fighter unit. Also, "To Save an Army", the story of the Stalingrad airlift by Robert Forsyth, a topic I've long been curious about, this should satisfy most of that I feel. Steve.

Beautiful Cousin, it’s the Scheme I want to do.

After having a couple of projects ruined by crappy Academy decals, the 'Red Tail' P-51C that they came from was left on the shelf. No more. First coat of primer is on, combat role identified, decals easily sourced from a totally different aircraft in the stash. Note that I used the Malcolm Hood that was an extra part in the kit. Stay tuned...

A suggestion for replacing the doors you so meticulously chain drilled out. As you have a second Mariner available, why not use that as a template to make a buck to then crash mould new doors? Gondor

Not sure technically if these are true spots, but I'll post them anyway. My Caterham had a cold starting issue, so I've been at a specialist getting it repaired today (it turned out that the rubber mount the throttle bodies attach to was slightly perished allowing air to be drawn in), but she's all fixed and better than ever 😀👍. I won't bore you with hundred of Caterham pics (but trust me I could 😀). However this lovely Renault Alpine was parked outside About 100 yards up the road there is another specialist, can you guess the Marque? Saving the best till last All in all a good day and it even stayed dry for the drive home - Andy

Am a Brown Sauce on a Bacon Buty but chili sauce elsewhere. And the pen saved my sanity. Cheers Colin, I am impressed with the "Quilting effect" too. I tried that , leveled them off the best I could but still a lip sadly. Looks like a large sanding job coming up. Thanks @franky boy, @Hamden, @Retired Bob, @CH-53D, @elger, @dogsbody and @Stew Dapple. Well, how many shades of Black today ? Three.. Starting with Semi Gloss. Next NATO. Then Rubber. I have still to mask the tail wheel for the Aluminium. Wings and ailerons given a coat of primer. And the "Blanking Panels" added and filled, just a lot of sanding to do some when tomorrow. Sunshine .... Simon.

You could use plastic card, etc. to detail the internal structure. Just a thought. Cheers, Bill

Started stenciling. Still quite pristine-looking, will add some wee dirt later. Skipping stencils on the green tail, unsure if they’d put them back. Decided on olive drab warheads on the rockets, with dark grey or black fins. Haven’t found anything definite, so have to make a guess. The tanks look odd because they are hanging by a thread, literally. I always had problems getting tanks to stick on Airfix hardpoints.

I saw something interesting yesterday. The cat hid the little kittens in the woodshed. And she went somewhere on her cat business. At this time, the fox came and smelled the smell of kittens. See for yourself what happened next.

Having been quiet for a few days; well quietish on BM. The same could not be said for the Martian cave where I have been trying to juggle this beast with soldering another Zeppelin. Mrs Martian says that some of the expressions emanating from my room would make a Vogon blush. However, further reading has established that these as a bulkhead either end of the bunk compartment and that the same had a deckhead which supported a stool for the astrodome. This lets me off having to detail the entire interior of the hull. Most of the time has been spent sorting out the bulkhead and adding structure to the starboard side of the hull, all the time trying to ensure that it meets up with the portside structure. It did: eventually. I have some tidying up of the bulkhead and partition that goes just aft of it to do, so I am going to have to let the glue cure for a day or two. After a final push, you know, the one @general melchett is always going on about, we can then begin to think about adding equipment to the hull. No Melchett! not your secret "chum" Miss Lucy 'Quipment! Anyone up for helping his Generalship with an ice cold shower? The bit I am not looking forward to is the equipment rack that fits in what had been the galley on the dedicated flying boat versions of the Mariner. I keep thinking that it would be fun to do an Operation High Jump boat used for the aerial mapping of Antarctica....... Anyhow, I'm waffling now so let's have some pictures and thanks for looking. Martian 👽

You, getting out of the Naughty Corner CC? The only chance you have of getting out of the Naughty Corner is by opening up a portal to another dimension; and then you would probably find Mme CC waiting for you with a Naughty Corner of her own devising. Sill want to escape? No? I thought not! Cynical of Mars 👽

Quick update - the FA.2 had a probe mounted on the leading edge of the vertical tail as can be seen here: Although Special Hobby provide this in styrene it looks rather like the Blob That Ate Cincinnati™. I figured there had to be another way, so I rummaged through the Island of Misfit Fiddly Bits and found an unused turned metal pitot from Master that looked reasonably close. I fashioned a fairing of sorts, added it to the tail, and drilled a 0.010 inch hole to accept the pitot. I popped in the metal bit and I think it will work. In any event, it looks better than the Blob. Also note that I had to drill a hole to accept the port tailplane - for some reason Special Hobby left that out of my kit. It's no doubt hanging out with those other holes from Blackburn, Lancashire. Cheers, Bill PS. Note also added a hole for the RAM air exhaust. The windscreen is on, and I've blended it into the fuselage. I'm now doing some minor work on the intakes, and then it will be time for paint. Luckily, in my rummaging around, I found a bottle of Hataka Roundel Blue. I have no recollection of ever buying it. PPS. Most importantly, I cleaned my workbench. Much better now.

The blue Sea Fury is done just great. Then you gave a bonus of the beautifully built and finished Spitfire and the loaded Fury. All are really nicely done. Thanks for sharing.

Let's not confuse the internet in general with a forum like this where kits are discussed by people with a certain knowledge of the real thing. Yes Britmodeller may have a good following but it is still only one source on the web. Numbers may look high but within the bigger scheme of things they are not as massive as they may look. We may have 28,000 visits a day but how many of these are multiple visits by the same person ? Sure there are at any given time several hundred people connected (checked just now, there are around a thousand people at the moment, over 800 of these not members) and mind, they are great numbers! Still, overall it's only a few thousand. Even assuming that all of them would be reading about say the Italeri Fw.190D and its issues, how many of these few thousands would actually change their mind because of what they may read here ? Some will sure do but I bet that a lot would just not care. Similar things may be said about other forums.. of which there's a good number although generally only the ones in English language have an international reach. I have to say that forums too vary in regard to the aspects discussed. We may harshly criticize a kit here but the same kit may well be highly rated on a different forum because of the different slant of the members. Model companies are sure well aware of the importance of an online presence, it would be a crime not to be ! Italeri has a long established online presence and as a company they are very "social", with not only a presence on the main platforms but also a number of initiatives aimed at involving the modelling community. For any bad thing we may say on this forum about one of their products, they would be able to counter on multiple channels with a "firepower" much superior to ours. The same applies to all other companies, they are all on the web, they all have their social media pages, they all run initiatives to connect with the customer base. They pay people to organize these things, people who do it for a job and know to best get the message through. I can't see why they should be scared by my comments on Britmodeller when they can access many more people in more convincing ways. Then there are all the other websites, youtubers, Facebook groups and so on... Websites... some are run by enthusiastic modellers (a number also contribute here) and will have no problem in pointing the good and bad of a kit. Others are run by people who have less interest in analysing a kit and may focus on other things. Then there are websites that have as a policy to never criticize a kit. I know as a fact that there are even people running websites who contact model companies asking for free kits promising good reviews in return! Modellers as a result will find very different opinions on a kit depending on which of these websites they hit. They may get a complete assessment of every rivet or they may get a "builds well, little filler needed" rating or even a "great kit, just buy it so next time I'll get another free kit" kind of review. Facebook... there are a lot of Facebook groups devoted to our hobby and it's not hard to find groups with over 10,000 members. Granted, only a fraction of them will actually contribute (same as here in the end) but the contributions can really be very variable, from some real insight to some that can't tell a Spitfire from a Buccaneer. Yet these have quite a good reach... although it's a fact that single individuals are often members of more than one group. Youtube is pretty much the same, channels there vary a lot in quality but most of the time they don't go into much depth in the pros and cons of a kit. Personally I've seen some impressive builds on youtube with some very useful videos showing how to apply a certain technique but if I need an assessment on a kit it's a platform that gives me very little... but maybe I just haven't found the right YT channel. So really do we think that if we on this forum don't like the newest Italeri issue this will make a big dent in their sales ??? Our voice may be authoritative (at least to me the voice of some here is) but it's but one in a crowd. Of course sometime the crowd may start singing with one voice and companies may change their mind (see the Trumpeter 1/32 Wildcat story). Most times the criticism would just be confined to a niche and companies would still keep offering the kit as it is. Companies that received heavy criticism are still around while companies that offered great products have closed. When a company has to close it's because they have done something wrong, most of the time something that has little to do with the plastic kit that ends up in our ends. Most times it's because they are badly managed or have financial issues or they got the distribution wrong and other similar things. That brings me to Italeri (afterall this is a thread about Italeri): sure they must have done something right if they are the only European mainstream company from the '70s still around in the hands of the original owners ! And it's easy to see where they their strengths are: a wide but balanced catalogue (proper mix of safe and less common subjects) and a very good distribution. In the past these were also complemented by a very reasonable pricing policy. Now this has been changing quite a bit and Italeri is becoming expensive, too expensive for the quality they offer. Will this continuous increase in prices be a problem for the company ? Not if others suffer the same fate (Airfix prices are also increasing considerably), however others manage to offer quality at good prices. Someone here keep criticising companies like Eduard for their prices... well, today Italeri is the expensive company, not Eduard ! Italeri still holds the advantage in terms of distribution so they may not worry (and Eduard's range is still very limited). My local hobby shop however is now starting to have more Hobby 2000 and Special Hobby kits than Italeri ones in the window.... So, Italeri's Fw.190D... it was considered the best on the market in the '80s, superior to the then recent Airfix one and the various older offerings. Today however we're not in the '80s anymore and there's better stuff around. Yes the Academy kit may be OOP but it's easy enough to find for a tenner or little more and it's a much nicer kit. Italeri's old Dora may still be of interest for those who don't mind raised panel lines but at €16 ???? To me it's an absurd price compared to the competition. I've already seen shops offering the kit for less, at say €12 it may be a more interesting product.. but then the same shop that sells it for €12 sells Eduard Spitfire kits for €10

works great for masking

Good morning, afternoon and evening, Today I would like to share my 1/48 Lindberg Gloster Gladiator Chinese Airforce, 2909. The plane 2909 was flown by American- Chinese ACE pilot John Poon- Yeung Wong, 29th squadron No.9. Picture below quoted from "Aces of the Republic of China Air Force" - by Raymond Cheung. The kit was bought from an aftermarket, the interior is all PE parts by AirWaves and the decal is made by Kora. Rigging was the hardest part of this plane as I needed to make turnbuckles myself. I did not take more pics of the interior this time. But I took some in-progress pics. If anyone is interested in the process of building, I would like to share them in the comments. Cheers, Tommy H Liu

Hi guys! I want to show You recently built model. The well-known F4F-4 Wildcat from Arma Hobby. Built didn't cause any problems, except those that were my fault. I added positive rivets from HGW, unfortunately the effect is not very visible in the photos, you have to look closely, it is much better visible in real life. Moreover, I decided to minimize the number of decals, so I painted the markings. I also replaced the position and formation flight lights, which were cast together with the wings and fuselage. The whole thing is enriched with 3D printed parts that I received from Marcin Ciepierski (engine elements, cockpit elements, bombs and bomb racks). You can watch build process o YouTube:

A Unicraft Boeing Bird of Prey. I'd heard Unicraft castings could be, erm, challenging but lets just say I am somewhat unprepared for the workload I have ahead of me when I come to tackle this one...... To top it off, Igor has just posted me an Avro 606B, lets hope its better.

This allows me to airbrush the underside of the model while it's on its back, then carefully flip it over onto the cocktail sticks to continue painting the upper surfaces. You could do the same with the actual undercarriage parts installed, but sometimes they need to be a different colour, and sometimes they get in the way when trying to mask the lower sections. It's just easier to use something temporary and removable. Kev

Wash your mouth out with soap!...

I should have kept; My Dutton Sierra Kit Car, built in the lockup!

New SBS Models dedicated set: https://aeroscale.net/news/b-17-f-g-early-engine-cowl-set Available soon!

Hello model builders, thanks Yes, as Trevor, said, "two steps forward, one back"....right. And, Andy, good eye! the resin rims are indeed two part, and because the tandems connect, only the inner halves are shown for now. As I've explored this problem I've come to wonder if the "levitating"/"anti gravity" tire/tyre situation might be exaggerated because of a loose fit for now. I'm adding some backing between the wheel hub and wheel to see if that helps. And, if it doesn't, well, maybe a custom base is in order 😄 OK, thanks for having a look - Cheers Nick

I considered it, but had the following thoughts: The main hatch on top of the storage is glued shut, would look a bit odd having removed a shell then closing it afterwards. This was a bit of a necessity as gluing that hatch shut was the best way of getting the other panels nice and square. There isn't a figure operating the crane. The best setup I can get of the figures is them milling around, not loading the gun. Maybe I'm focusing too much on the realism here?

Thanks to Martin at air-craft.net my airbrush spares have arrived and I’ve “tested” the new parts by giving the QuickBoost exhausts a coat of Mr Surfacer 1500 black primer, followed by a coat of Xtreme Metal AK480 dark aluminium… …then a light coat of Xtreme Metal AK 484 burnt metal… …AK light rust was used to give a rusty appearance… …followed by a mix of MrWeathering Color multi black and white dust. Once the additional aftermarket arrives I’ll continue with the nacelles. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins)

"The new tool kit P-51D in 1/72 scale in Royal Class (Dual Combo) edition will be sold at our webstore in a pre-sale from end of April until the beginning of May 2024, shipping will start in late June. It will be available via our business partners in July. The kit will also be released as a Limited Edition Dual Combo in August 2024. Stay tuned for more details in the coming days. As with the 1/48 P-51B kit, our designer Stan Archman will guide you through the features of the 1/72 P-51D kit. In the first part, you'll focus on the wheel well: 1. The part above the wheel well is more massive than in 1/48 scale to avoid breaking this part. 2. Simplified transition to the radiator inlet. No need for a plug. This will simplify moulding and stiffen the fuselage. 3. Even in the 1/72 version we did not forget to show the internal details of the radiator." https://www.facebook.com/EduardCompany/posts/pfbid0355tXrqH6Fb8a8qEFx65b3ZytfvTP9eDyCPbiopxbixSdgWx8eZwenvzXAywy9Y6il

Finished the three props: Thanks for looking. AW

here, hold my beer

Thank you very much Alan, and a special thank's for your nice informations. Alain

falsetto, whilst wearing Docs

If I win the lotto jackpot I will make you an offer that you won’t refuse on the build. My grandma built those during the war, she always told me about all the wee little parts that went into the machine. She loved telling me those stories and she was so proud of her work.

I'm modifying the 1/35 Kittyhawk MH-60S into an Iraqi war vet. Most of the parts for a UH-60L are in this kit, just had to scratch build the nose and tail missile warning sensors and fill in and rescribe a boat-load of fuselage details. To make things more interesting, I also added raised rivets, using a combination of .03mm solder balls and Archer's wonderful rivet decals. Replaced the IP with the Eduards PE version since the kit one has large MFD's instead of the analog gages of the Lima. Used the Werner's Wings UH-60 detail kit for a bunch of interior details, Reedoak's amazing helmets and helmet bags and WW's floor armor panels, which were mandatory for deployed US Blackhawks. Also added dozens of scratchbuilt details to the interior. Inlet sand filters which will be added to my helo later in the build. Rivets, rivets and more rivets. Can't believe KH just opted to go with recessed "divots" for this kit. Just doesn't look right. Decals on (using the Werner's Wings UH-60 decal set). That's it for now....

Done Cheers Jes

Lucked out and found an AMK Mig-31BM/BS going for half the MSRP. on Evilbay. I'll save this for a rainy day when I can do a proper full build, This is a monster of a kit.

Thank you for this exhaustive post on a very interesting (and colorful) subject. Don't want to hijack this thread, but since you are the F-86 guru and we're talking about the Hog, did you ever find more images of this subject and the reasoning behind this most peculiar paint scheme? I see its role as a target, but I can't remember any post-war a/c painted that way, it reminds me one of the Liberator assembly ships!

YF-23 Black Widow II | Testors | 1/72 Finished this on 3/15/2024. I've had this in the stash for ages. This kit dates back to the mid- to late-90's and features raised panel lines and so-so detail in the cockpit. I sanded off the panel lines and rescribed them, which is a rarity for me. I felt that the scribed panel lines would show off the anti radar features of the panels better than pencil would, since I felt the pencil wouldn't be visible on the dark gray. The decals were typical 90's Testors with that milky gunk on them that would turn brown after a couple of months. Luckily for me, Caracal decals had a new run of their YF-23 decals back in December and so I used those instead. The kit seat wasn't too detailed, so I ordered an Aires resin ejection seat. Other than that kit was out of box. Fit wasn't terrific since the parts were warped and there were some really large gaps in some of the seams. I got it whipped into shape though. WIP is here. Hope you like it! Comments, questions and constructive criticism always welcome.

Greetings all, An Easter holidays completion from me - Revell's 1/32nd scale Hawker Hunter FGA.9 more or less OOB, other than some aftermarket decals from AeroMaster and some home-made FOD guards. This kit is really under-rated in my humble opinion - it has lots of detail OOB and beautiful surface detailing from a time when Revell were at the top of their game. I had no issues whatsoever with the build - it's about as close as you can get to building Lego - and it went together in a few days. Paints were Xtracolur enamels with a splash of Humbrol Matt Cote to finish it off. Some light weathering was done with Mig pastels. All in all a very enjoyable build - and it only cost me a tenner under the table at a show! All the best, Tom Hawker Hunter FGA.9, XG207, 58 Squadron, RAF Wittering, mid-1970s.

Brussels Airlines introduced around half a dozen special liveries on their A320 fleet,all representing Belgium arts. In this case the Smurfs. I assume everybody remembers the cartoons with those blue dwarfs and their enemy Gargamel... PAS decals offers almost all of those liveries,but I guess some of them are just too difficult to reproduce in decal and kit form. The smurf design has its fair share of difficulties as well but it can be done. The decals are very nicely printed and of excellent quality. The most tricky part is the paint and masking job. Lots of photo reference was needed and I also made a copy of the decals that went over the windows to line out the demarcation between the blue and white. For the blue I used Revell blue 52 which I found a good match. The fading black to blue on the fin was achieved with a piece of paper holding in front of the blue.A few trials were needed to get it right. Its a funny livery and a real eye catcher in my cabinet. Thanks for looking Alex

It just had to be you didn't it Pete, well, you or @general melchett but fair's fair, congratulations, you pipped him at the post. On somewhat less weighty matters, this is how I sorted the fit of the wing centre section out. The issue lies with the inboard end of the flap channel fouling the saddle that the wing sits on. Grind this level with the rest of the wing root and the fit is greatly improved. I also ground off a bit more of the inside of the wing part where it sits on the hull just to allow myself a bit of wriggle room should I need it. The top of the centre section features a hole where there is a hatch and porthole or astrodome (it seems to vary from aircraft to aircraft) and to give the im pression of it opening out into the hull rather that just being backed by a bit of plastic, I drilled out a hole larger than the diameter of the porthole: There is no getting away from the fact that if you have the bomb aimer's window exposed and/or the bow door open, you are going to see quite a bit of the inside of the bow compartment. This also holds true if you are fitting the utility nose that has windows. This being the case, and not being happy with level that I had originally set the deck at, I raised the deck and carved a frame for where the deck ends. This is very prominent in photos of the real aircraft. I finished up by adding the remaining structure to the bow compartment, constantly testing to ensure that the structure did not interfere with the fit of the ring forthe bow turret: Thanks for looking. Martian 👽