johnny akes

All good points Simon, and on reflection I guess we’d have heard from builders of HKM’s B17 and Lanc if this had been an issue. However as much as I’d like this I’ve enough loft insulation as it is, and this deserves to be built rather than being hidden away due to lack of space. I’ve plumped instead for HKM’s nose section as much as I’d like to see the oil canning effect.

I’m out, just too big for me. I do wonder whether a polystyrene-cemented fuselage joint can be strong enough to bear the strain of the weight of two massive, no doubt very heavy wings pulling down on it from either side whenever it is lifted…. A real shame if reports are true that the nose section won’t be released as a separate kit now, I’m sure that would have sold exponentially more than the full kit will.

Excellent result there Gazza, your chosen colour scheme has certainly evoked a lot of memories - including mine! I remember asking for the Airfix kit for my birthday back in 1968 which I'm pretty sure was just after it came out. In my mind it looked just as good as yours, but of course the memory plays cruel tricks - I'm sure that in reality the windows would have been fogged with glue and there were gaps I could put my little finger into! Yours will generate a lot of additional sales for Zvedza, I might even be tempted myself!

You'd hope they would be reasonable, very low parts count looking at the sprues.

At last, someone talking sense. Jeeze…

Ha! I made the same mistake - I had a vision of the wings sticking out of the front & back doors of your house! Despite that the actual model is beautiful, a real showpiece you should be proud of. I wish someone would release this in 1/32 plastic, I go cold at the thought of so much resin! Regards JA.

That's a really impressive build and paint job! Strange that they chose to commemorate what was a pretty conclusive defeat with a special paint job (I'm assuming it isn't a whif?).

I agree, excellent painting. I’ve found to my cost that larger-than actual size photos generally don’t tend to do justice to the subject, but this one passes the test with flying colours.

I'm normally a plane & AFV builder but I've fancied doing a bust for some time, so I decided to give this one a go: I need to work on my faces a bit more (scary eyes!) but generally I'm really pleased how it turned out (funny how it looks better in real life than in photos!), such that another one is in the post for me along with a couple of proper stands. Regards J.A.

I’m in awe of anyone that can knock out these Russian jets to such incredibly high standards, I wouldn’t even begin to try. Top work Bobek.

Tremendous work there and equally good photography! It deserves all the plaudits it’s received, well done and welcome back to (hopefully) good health. regards J.A.

Just noticed the rear left wheel is outside the track. Ah well... why do I never notice these things before uploading the photos? Photos fixed now.

Hi folks My latest OOB build. Nice kit, plastic tracks work well. All the hatches can be posed open, but there's no point really unless you're an ace scratch builder as there's nothing inside. Finally, here's a few next to its big cousin for comparison purposes: Regards J.A.

That’s a tremendous result, you should be glad you found the inspiration to eventually finish it. As an aside, it’s good to see Eduard avoided the unnatural anhedral of the inner wings on the 1/32 Special Hobby kit.

Jaw-dropping, especially the cockpit! Your paintwork technique has done a great job of improving what could otherwise be quite a bland scheme on such a smooth panel-less surface. I’ve got this in the stash but can’t quite pluck up the courage to start it yet. Do the Aviealogy decals include the stencilling? I’ve read that the Tamiya decals are so thick as to be virtually unusable.