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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

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

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!

Finally finished the meng models Husky ..I wanted to complete something different and after finding a few online pictures of the vehicle with a mine roller off I went the project stalled due to lack of information on the roller but after some shall I say interaction with Pearson engineering they came up trumps…. so here it is .mengs kit has been heavily modified to create the spec of the vehicle at the time …BV storage locker was opened a new radio table full radio fit along with boomerang..The roller is scratch built and each wheel has an independent suspension unit which works [no idea why on a static model ] a fun and frustrating build at times but I’m pleased . the vehicle is depicted on base in the lashkar valley prior to another deployment..

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

Getting shape now. DW suggest you put on the fenders and mudguards first but after a bit of dry fitting I knew this wouldn't work. There is a bit of warpage of the base so you need the aid of clamps to get the two parts to match. One side was alright so I heavily glued that side and let it dry. Then went to work on the other. It fitted well in the end. Cheers all and have a good day.👍

The final line before the end of the decals set I cuted in 2-3 parts the sides decals to catch up some differences

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.

Little progress with my build, to resolve the issue of the undercarriage mounting sequence, I removed the molded plastic wheel axles. I am replacing them with a brass tube 1.6 mm dia. as shown in the picture. Once trimmed in length, the new axles could be slid in place at the most convenient moment. Without the wheels in the way, I could assemble and finish the undercarriage structure properly and fit the brake lines made of lead wire. I also drilled lightening holes in the supports of the mud fenders. Here the completed undercarriages are posed within their locations on the lower wing halves which have been painted green. I read that to improve commonality of parts, the real undercarriages were not handed, but I left them as they are intended in the kit because their modification it would have been too complicated for me. Finally, the nacelles were glued in place and the half wings were completed. The undercarriages are now ready to be painted. That's all for now, thanks for following, best regards, Dan

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.

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.

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 👽

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

Hi there! It's been already quite some time that I keep telling myself to start posting again some WIP of mine on BM. Last time I did it was about ten years ago I believe! The release a few years ago by STAR Decals of two sheets on CVR (T) Scorpions & Scimitar makes me dig out the Scorpion's box from the stash a few month ago, as I thought it would be perfect to restart armour modelling. But well, I had to wait till last week before I kick myself enough to open the box and start cutting sprues! But then it took about two days to build it! It could have been even one day if I only took some time to study and plan... But there it is. I don't know much about the real vehicle, and even less about the kit, but it looks nice, with a good details level. The main problem to me being the plastic quality, which remind me about chewing gum!

COMPLETED!!!!!!! THANKS to those who wanted to give me invaluable advice and to the others for their patience. Here some picture. For the complete story and many other photos I refer you to the site https://brunoperfetto.weebly.com/f-4-phantom-fgr2.html Bye!!!

Another Bf-110 G-2/R3 in 1:48 from REVELL has just arrived in the workshop, a model I started years ago and which is currently sitting in a box on the cupboard, so the tidying up continues. And if all goes well I might be able to get it done this weekend, I have almost all the parts cut out and ready for assembly and painting. The extras are only the DETAIL SET from AIRESA and the masks from MONTEX-MASK, but only the cabin itself because they were in the box. The model will be in boxed painting and will depict a machine from 5./ZG 76 Reichsverteidigung, winter 1944.

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

The two type VIIs got PE rigging, but I ripped it off, it just looked horrible. Now changed to normal rigging thread. Added a grey paint on the lines as well otherwise they just "disappear" against the background

OK. Against better knowledge and against my oath to reduce the amount of shelf queens I through this one in. Pics will follow soon. For several years my Hobby Boss kit, with Two Bobs decals and a fair bit of aftermarket parts is waiting to be build as the battle damaged Irak raider. Never started this though as I was hoping to find some more photos but did not succeeded. So I suppose I need to add a bit of artistic licence regarding the battle damage. Meanwhile I did some resin printed intake improvement parts: So this build will also be a test for these as well 🙂 Rene

it's frightening the cat

Now the interior. The Classic's side panels seemed best, except I liked some of the details on the Revel Cabriolet better. Solution: graft the details onto the better panels. The Classic's seat bottoms are terrific, but the Revell Cabriolet's seat backs are the closest to the real thing out of the 3 kit choices. Again, graft them together.

The sight that greeted me when I came up the garden path

If you had any integrity, you would remove your post. Suggesting that people criticizing Italeri quality/price must be paid shills for Asian model companies is both ridiculous, and offensive.

The kit parts fit together very well, its a well engineered kit. The amount of details I found confusing, in that each stage of the build has a lot of details and it took me a while to figure out the best way to do it before I did it because I didnt want to bury any of those details. But overall I really enjoyed it. Get some Tamiya extra thin and a decent pair of tweezers.

Bad for head-gasket repairs

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.

Wash your mouth out with soap!...

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

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

So the prop - I got the colour order wrong it should be blue tips white middle band and then red Doh! I also trashed the front canopy as when removing the masks it showed some Mig Ammo ultra glue had crept under and along the join, I tried to remove the said clear part.... It shattered. Anyway I've been working on the drop tanks whilst I seek a replacement canopy part. Some weathering up on the tanks.

Looks like next boxing: from SAM 2024-05

For such bravery, I gave the cat a double portion of meat and milk. 🙂

I agree with some of the selections and disagree with some of them, however one that I haven't seen posted which could make the list is: Bat Out of Hell - Meat Loaf

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.

The first thing that surprised me was that the fit of the fuselage is actually pretty good. It's not glued or taped together in this pic but a test-fit showed it'll be ok for a kit of this vintage. I'm glad I got the resin seats - even just painted up (no PE) they're going to be way better than what's in the kit. I do like the pilots, although they are too small. The rear seater has a mapboard in his lap. Nice touch! This is the progress I have made so far. There's almost nothing you can see in the cockpit especially those control panels which will be hidden once it's sealed up. There are no instrument panels and no control sticks either. I will tidy up that untidy paint though. Still a good long way to go!

Actually apart from the one at Gisborne there are two more TBF-1's preserved here in New Zealand One is NZ2504 (TBF-1) with the RNZAF Museum Collection at Wigram (RNZAF Official Air Force Museum of New Zealand - Used with permissions) The other is NZ2527 (TBF-1c) at MOTAT here in Auckland Both NZ2504 and NZ2527 can still fold their wings Of Note NZ2505 at Gisborne is also a TBF-1 Regards Alan

The cockpit components and interior were sprayed with Lifecolor UA-033 Dark Gull Grey. Instrument panel and console decals are yet to be added.

Hi all I Continued working on the Wessex cockpit area - scratch built seat belts were made from Tamiya tape stuck to adhesive alumium tape & cut into strips. I added an assortment of buckles I had from the spares box, unfortunately I have had not much luck finding suppliers of etched sheets of seat belt buckles other than L'Arsenal way over in France & postage is a disincentive on sending for them. The seat colours are a bit of a mystery so I took a guess and painted the seat back khaki & belts olive drab although I might paint the belts a darker grey. The cyclic sticks have been added but still to be painted matt black. The red fire extinguisher is from one of Hendies boxes of bits & pieces & a coiled wire lead added to the back console copying from @hendies HC2 build. The overhead console was added inside the canopy & the canopy was masked with Tamiya tape. Must not forget to add the rotor brake handle to the overhead console and do a check to see what else needs to be added to the cockpit area. Chris

Hi Macalain, Nice RNZAF Avenger. Just as an FYI, the Academy TBF-1 is really a hybrid Avenger, as the TBF-1 and TBF-1c were two different beasties. The main difference are the cowlings and the middle cockpit section. The TBF-1 has an observers seat, whereas the the TBF-1c has a radio section for equipment. The RNZAF received both TBF-1 (6) and TBF-1c (42). Only the TBF-1c served overseas, while the TBF-1 stayed in New Zealand for training Your rendition of NZ2518 was a TBF-1c, initially flown with 30 Squadron but belonging to 30 SU (Servicing Unit) who "owned" the aircraft. The pilot was a Flt Lt Fred Ladd as seen in a the RNZAF Photo below (RNZAF Official - Air Force Museum of New Zealand - Used with permissions) Most RNZAF Avengers were adorned with some character on their cowlings Fred Ladd chose his motif "Plonky" a flying beer/liquor barrel with the liquid coming out, as he knew the Japanese took great offense in liquor spilling on them from above. NZ2518 became known to Tokyo Rose, who uttered threats in her radio propaganda broadcasts of Plonky being shot down. NZ2518 was eventually lost with all crew over New Britain 05 June 1944, but only after 30 Squadron had handed over their aircraft to 31 Squadron/31 SU and rotated home (Fred Ladd survived the war) Thanks for sharing your build Regards Alan

Yes it existed, it was supposedly a target tug for the 131st at one point. The ANG painted several F-86s in colourful schemes (yellow and orange often) for similar duties.