Creepy Pete

Thanks guys. So far, so good. The fit is pretty good, and the detail is not bad either. I have glued the upper hull to the bottom, and put the whole gun assembly together. I've also started to work on the PE around the exhaust.

Got the nose glued on, and slowly I'm smoothing it out. Things should speed up a bit after this.

@Lord Riot, that's the ASRAAM.

I've been reading Mark Bowden's book Hue 1968 recently, and one of the things the USMC brought into Hue to turn it into a big pile of rubble, was the M50 Ontos. This was a US Army hand-me-down small tracked vehicle with 6 recoilles rifles mounted on top of it. These proved quite usuable in blasting holes in walls, allowing infantry to go through buildings and walls, rather than use the streets where they an easy target for snipers. I'm using the Academy kit, which was first released about 10 years ago, so it's quite a decent modern kit. It comes with some PE for things like fender braces, light covers and perforated exhaust covers. The tracks are the rubber band type, which is actually much like the real thing. I haven't build any armor in years, so stuff like weathering will be a nice challenge. I've completed the lower hull: And added many parts to the upper hull: Next up will be the turret with the rifles.

Hello, Here's my just finished 1/72 Italeri Merlin HC.3 in 28 Sqn markings, using the kit decals and a few from the Revell reboxing. Bit of a mixed bag, this kit. It has nice surface detail, but it also has the typical Italeri issues like vague detail on parts, errors in the instructions etc. I used the colour call outs from the 1/48 Airfix kit, which seemed more accurate than the Italeri ones. Painted mostly with Humbrol paints. Sadly my usual light I use for model photography has died, so the pics are a bit meh. Time to invest in a photo booth, me thinks. Thanks for looking, Pete

My second subject for this GB arrived in the mail today. After reading the excellent book Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden, I felt inspired to build something that was used there, so I got me a 1/35 Academy M50A1 Ontos. I haven't build any armor in ages, so that should be interesting. I will start building it after finishing a Merlin HC.3 that's nearly done. Some time next week probably.

An update:

Thanks for the kind word, everyone! Yes, but not from this unit. Although this unit did do some photo recce before the operation. There are some subtle differences, The German ones had that silvery underside that turned dull over time. The Dutch ones had a grey paint on the underside instead. Thanks! I'm not old enough to remember seeing and recognizing operational F-104's, sadly. I used MRP-209 Basalt Grey and MRP-208 Yellow Olive over a black primer coat.

Hi all, Here's my just finished Kinetic 1/48 Starfighter, which I have done as a Dutch RF-104G, using the boxing released for the Dutch market, and a Daco Orpheus pod. The markings come from a Dutch Decal sheet, and some from the kit. It's a very nice kit, and I thoroughly enjoyed building it. One small thing that needs to be fixed in the kit, is the missing centreline pylon, though. The kit comes only with the twin AIM-9 launchers for the belly, but all the options in the first release, and this boxing are for strike squadrons, which do need the centreline pylon for weapons. I got mine from a Hasegawa TF-104 kit, which doesn't need it anyway. The real D-8143 was built by Fokker, and served with 306 Squadron at Volkel, until it was sold to Turkey in the early 1980's, where it was eventually scrapped. Painted with MRP on top, and Humbrol on the underside. I may need to fix that pitot tube. I don't like the way it looks now. Thanks for looking, I hope you like it.

@mirageiv Too bad they put a look down/shoot down radar into the MiG-29 and Su-27, so they don't need to chase a Tornado at low level.

Nope, it's just the reflection of the desk light. It's all green. There aren't too many pics of these, but here's one: I glued all the interior bits in place, feeling optimistic about the fit. But of course it wouldn't. So some serious sanding and grinding was needed. Parts coming loose, paint being sanded away again, etc. It wasn't pretty. But in the end I got everything together, sort off. Still a lot of cleaning up, and the nose has yet to be fitted, but it's starting to look like a T-bird.

Well, that Nissan Skyline and the Toyota Supra both are new tools, it seems. Hasegawa just isn't that airplane focused anymore. If you go to Japanese webshops like HLJ or 1999.co.jp for instance, you will see there's a huge selection of anime related stuff. The same goes for Japanese car models. Airplane models are a lot more limited when it comes to variation. I think it's a pretty good move by Hasegawa to shift their focus on the home market.

And the new stuff: Sadly no forklift.

Ah, right. TBH, I think it could be anything, they have such a diverse catalogue these days. Maybe it's a new forklift to add to their construction equipment range (yay!), or some anime related stuff, or a new 1980 Japanese car model, or maybe even an aircraft. The artwork they use for the announcement has a F-104 in the background with a character from an anime called Gārī Ea Fōsu (Girly Air Force). Maybe it's related to that. (I had to look that show up, btw ) I wouldn't hold my breath.

Why would it be a new 1/48 aircraft kit, @occa?