johnny akes

That’s a great result eng, certainly looks like a well detailed kit and much better than one I tried a few years ago (can’t remember now if it was a Revell kit or someone else’s) which was so bad I binned it. Always fancied doing an A-10 since I was targeted by one a few years back on a road through Snowdonia - mine was the only car in sight and I was convinced he took a practice run at me!

If that’s a bad kit I’d love to see what you could do with a good one! Tremendous result.

I'd built the Airfix Valiant quite a while ago and it was interesting to note the advances made by the company in the 5 years or so between the two kits being released (2011 - 2016 according to Scalemates): a clear step up in refinement and build quality, which they've continued pretty much ever since. Next on the production line is the Vulcan so I'm looking forward to see how it stacks up against their much more recent releases. The size & shape of the Victor makes it hard to photograph, let alone display but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Thanks for looking, J.A.

Amazing result, it could easily pass for a 1/48 or even a 1/32 kit.

Here's my recently completed Kotare Spit. You don't get many parts for your near-£100 quid but you do get great accuracy, meticulous research and no loss of building enjoyment. The detail in the casting is exquisite - you can't quite see the raised rivets at the back of the fuselage in my photos for example, but it is there. Of course you could pay a bit more for a Tamiya Spit and get a much higher parts count and a full engine if that's your thing, but it won't be an early version - you pays your money and takes your choice. Both are a joy to build in their own way. Thanks for looking J.A.

Happy Easter folks! Here is my attempt at Revell's new(ish) big Hurricane. Decent enough kit for the price, although some quite clever design in places is let down by the soft plastic as the pieces aren't as sharply moulded as they might otherwise be. Nothing a bit of effort can't overcome though. Thanks for looking, J.A.

Fabulous paint job!

Proper modelling, that. I’m very envious of both your skills and patience.

That’s very impressive, I’ve built the 1/48 version and from your photos it’s hard to tell them apart.

I suspect it was more a case of the WnW Lanc moulds falling into their laps so to speak, and too good an opportunity to turn down. Their first 1/35 kits must have been in the planning stage well before the Lancs hit the shelves.

I seem to remember this issue being discussed previously re Border’s FW190 - I think the difference in actual size between a Revell 1/32 Heinkel and Border’s 1/35 version for example will be very noticeable, with the latter being much more ‘shelf friendly’.

That’s a terrific result Nikola, construction, weathering and decals all look completely faultless. Although I’ve never built one I’ve always had a soft spot for the Corsair, I much prefer its squat lines to those of the Crusader.

Hi All, This is my last one of what has been a quiet year output-wise, ICM's CR42 LW in Luftwaffe service, Italy 1944. A nice, straightforward but well-detailed kit with no fit problems. And to finish off, here's a couple including the figures supplied with the kit which I actually painted quite a while ago: As always, thanks for looking. Season's Greetings, J.A.

Wonderful! One of the best Hurri’s I’ve seen in any scale.

Hi All No way I can find space for the full kit, so this'll have to do. Its WnW heritage is obvious, with quality and detail at least matching Tamiya's Mosquito. Shame that there is no way of displaying the interior though as the double-skinned fuselage means a clear section (as per HKM's otherwise vastly inferior version) isn't feasible. Photos will have to do instead. Only problems I encountered were that the instructions are a little vague in places as to the the locations of some minor fittings, and the decals are the thinnest I've ever come across - while usually a good thing, it meant that the larger ones were prone to curl and stretch, hence the wavy lines of bombs on the mission tally; and I completely destroyed the one of the "Phantom of the Ruhr" text which meant I had to hand paint it instead. The duplicated flight deck in the foreground is my own resin cast of the Border one with a heavily modified/scratch built seat, which I'm going to use to try to bring the HKM version a little closer to representing the actual thing: Thanks for looking, J.A.

That’s a great effort, especially for your first foray back into the modelling world. Every kit is an education and you will learn as you go along, as you clearly have here. As for your masking attempts, they aren’t really necessary until/if you move onto an airbrush; if you stick with paintbrushes then a faint pencil line will suffice for plotting your camouflage. Blu tack sausages are useful when you want to spray a feathered demarcation to the pattern, as you’ve already found out they don’t offer anything to your brush painting. Good luck with your next kit(s), be prepared to lose hours to the hobby without realising it as well as £££!

That’s a tremendous result, I know from painful experience how difficult it is to get all those p/e gondola supports into any kind of convincing shape. Suffice to say, I didn’t have the nerve to post mine up for wider scrutiny!

Brilliant work, museum standard. You should be very proud of that.

Always a treat to see a Stirling, especially one as good as this. I wish I had your focus and clarity of vision Heather, to research a subject so exhaustively and then bring it to fruition. The Airfix kit might be ancient and lacking in a few areas, but to my mind it’s still better than the Italeri one with its trench-like panel lines. I’d love someone to give us a 1/48 Stirling kit, but it’s probably too obscure (to non-Brits) to ever see the light of day sadly.

Wonderful work there, it’s new owner will be blown away I’m sure. It’s unfortunate when a big model needs such a large amount of additional work to correct it, but if the respective Nose Art kits are anything to go by you’ll have a much easier ride with the Border version - they really are chalk & cheese in terms of accuracy and detail.

Fantastic work there - base, figure and of course the plane all absolutely top quality and ultra-realistic. I wish I had the patience to try such vignettes but I’m usually too eager to just get on with the next model, but your presentations might just be the incentive I need (not that I would get anywhere near your standard).

Thanks Nils, good job I made the attachments interchangeable! I did wonder about the direction of the flag put couldn’t find a picture to check it out (admittedly it wasn’t a very exhaustive search). I’ll have to find a way of covering it or amending it some way. thanks all for your kind comments, much appreciated.

Hi folks I was regularly put off starting this whenever I opened the box due to the number of sprues and its apparent complexity, but once I started it I wished I hadn't waited. Typical Tamiya perfection, and still the benchmark others can only hope to match. I've done this as a 333(N) Sqn of the Banff Strike Wing, c. January 1945 using a mix of decals from Vingtor, Barracuda and a couple of Tamiya's own. The bombs and drop tanks are fixed with magnets to be interchangeable. A departure for me is to include a couple of WIP pictures - the cockpit is completely OOB and I thought deserved to be photo'd prior to being locked away: The obligatory 'everything uncovered' image. The magnetized cowlings fit well but don't really stay on securely enough, so they probably won't be taken off again: Thanks for looking J.A.

Cracking model Marcello, for all the hard work and frustration along the way the result was well worth it. This would take pride of place in many a collection.

Lovely little model Ragnar, must be small even in 1/48