eng

Have to echo everyone else so far Shaun, awesome builds that just get better and better. It's great to see you have no fear about trying new techniques and you've obviously done your homework on these each time because your first go, looks to me like you've been doing these for years! i could learn alot from your approach to modelling! Keep up the great work in 2009. Nice one, Rgds, Eng

Eh, yeah just a bit! I did the Revell Harrier GR.7 a few weeks ago and they do tend to make your eyes go a bit , not to mention providing plenty food for the carpet-monster. Found out last night there's a Laminate-Beast as well!! Only advantage is in this scale 1) I can build them pretty quick (for me anyway!) which will keep Merv happy and, 2) they take up very little space. Hopefully get more progress done Tue-Thurs. Eng

Flippin stunning pit, dude!! Well worth the effort there, can't wait to see the rest of the project. Nice one, Eng

Made a start tonight (to avoid "X-factor: The Final!!), and decided after looking at the wheels and gear doors that both kits will be built "in-flight" and on a display base. The gear legs are pretty good, but I just don't have the time and patience to correct the wheels and doors I'm afraid. kicked off by fitting and filling the speed brakes and main gear doors, then glued the aft part of the 2 fuselage halves together allowing the front to be sprung open to slot the wings in when ready. I basically did as much as I could that meant avoiding having to deal with the "2 bad robot's" up front!! The 9 Sqn machine will be built with a couple of practice LGB's fitted and the fuel tanks, both outer pylons empty. The kit SkyShadow pod is OK but the BOZ pod fins are way to big and the pod shape is wrong I think. Would this load-out be feasible Merv? There are 4 Storm Shadows in the kit but these look to deep to my eye. I don't know much about these weaps to be sure though. Here's the sprue - Finally after cleaning up the fin, wings and forward fuselage halves, I slaved it together for a wee look to see how big the thing would be and here's how it looks - Ta for looking. All comments, hint's, tips and critism, good and bad, gratefully accepted. Eng

Evening all, after Merv's taunting I thought I'd better get my finger out! Had suggested I was going to do the 1/72 Revell (Italeri) F.3 in 43 or 56 Sqn markings, but given my rate of progress in this scale I'd never be done in time, so here's my 2nd choice and a (pair of?) kit I've been keen to do for a while now. I reckon I can get these complete in time given I've some leave coming up over Xmas and New Year, and provided I don't get side tracked by a Zvezda Mil-26!! I'm going to use a wee bit of artistic license on the "25th Anniversary" jet as I don't really like the scheme, so I'm going to adjust the decals slightly to get something as close as possible to a standard 9 Sqn jet, the 2 Sqn "SHINY TWO" jet will be as per the box top. Below is a shot of the sprues, of which everything is times 2 as this is one of Dragons 1+1 kits, the GBU's are separate coz I'd misplaced the sprues after blagging 2 of the GBU-12's for my Revell 1/144 Harrier GR.7 and as usual they turned up after I'd taken the rest of the pic's. There's a couple of disappointments in the sprues, the 2 "bad robot's" are going to be the biggest (or should I say smallest!) thing to correct and this'll be a bit of re-shaping, filler and some delicate painting I think to cover them up as best as possible, the canopies are particularly thin and clear. Also the wheels are somewhat ropey in having very deep hubs and badly tapered tyres, and there is only parts for the LRMTS, nothing for the FLIR despite the kit being marketed as a GR.4. The top and bottom fuselage halves have some heavy rivet detail which will disappear under a bit of filler and paint, and the fwd fuselage halves have some flash around the cockpit openings. Will post more as progress continues, I'm going to build both separately, the first being the 9 Sqn machine as if the decalling goes "pete tong" then my back up plan is the Xtradecal sheet for the GR.4/F.3. Eng

What lack of talent? A few sweet builds there mate, love the Jag but the 110 and 109 are beautiful. Eng

Wow, you've had a great year matey, stunning collection of builds. Have to echo what Mike said above, the Weisel caught my eye as well, what a beautiful kit and a superb diorama. Love the Italeri Wokka and the Tonka too. Here's to a good 2009! Eng

Agreed, theres alot of truth here!! Quite a few good points, would be interesting to pick out the more appropriate, print them off and put them next to a model on a competition table! Check out an A319/320 or 321 next time you're at the airport! Whats even scarier is that the elevators can move independantly as well. Eng

My 737-500 is very similar to the BBJ/700 kit above but as mentioned earlier the wings are split just outbd of the pylon area, from L/E to T/E. The pic's above would suggest production processes have improved since I bought mine many moons ago. Eng

Superb pic's! Does anyone know when some of our Puma's started getting enlargened fairings around the main gears and why? I'm assuming its additional fuel. I saw one taxiing into Glasgow a couple of months back in overall dark green and sporting these large fairings, it looked pretty cool - very ""Special Forces"-like, and I quite fancied having a go at modelling one. Only kits seem to be the Italeri offerings (x2 if memory serves correctly) and the Airfix one but none appear to have the enlargened fairings. I guess they could be done with some plasticard and putty, along with a couple of good pic's. Eng

I've got a 737-500 in Braathens markings that I've had in the stash for a long time now, purely through not being ready/in frame of mind to build it. I've always viewed it as being a long term detailed project with a lot of scratchbuilding and the kit really just being a base for this. What I've got is a vac-form fuselage that is fairly thick and sturdy plastic. All the tail surfaces are in resin, wings in resin that are split just outboard of the pylon giving you an inner section and an outer section. The inner sections join in the middle and the fuselage sits on top of these (similar to the way the real thing is built up in the factory). The engines are in resin as well, split into a forward section and an aft section with the pylon moulded between the wing and engine sections. The cockpit is a resin section with white metal seats, columns and the gear is in white metal. Some of the panel lines on the wings are incorrect, and some are not there at all (I have access to both the 737 and A320 through work, so picked up on this straight away), all the flap track fairings are integrally moulded and the join between the inner and outer sections will probably require a bit of work to keep nice and clean. The white metal castings will need a fair bit of tidying up but should be fine if care is taken. Only one set of markings is supplied but I dare say someone out there could help in producing alternate schemes if reqd. There are no windows cut out on the vac fuselages obviously, but they are marked up. there's also bulkheads for strengthening the fuselage on the vac-form sheets. I'd love to be able to afford to purchase one of the A320's as well to go with my 737 but they're just a tad out of my price range these days. My kit is buried up in the loft but I could try and dig it out for some pic's if you are desparate to see it. Feel free to ask any further questions, or PM me if I can help anymore with pic's or info. I'm sure they will build into nice kits and as far as I'm aware are the only way to go for 1/72 kits of the 737 or A320. Rgds, Eng

Wow thats quite a different profile altogether. I wonder if carefully cutting the windshield into 5 separate panes and gluing them into place individually then filling the gaps where the pillars would be will be an alternative solution? Window's 2 and 4 (counted from either side) are sliding DV windows that open outwards and aft, these could be posed open if the helo is to be modelled on the ground. The panes are thick in real life to, check out the 1st pic here - http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/mi-26.php Thank's for posting the pic's, gives me time to think of the best fix for this, Rgds, Eng

Wow that MiG-21 looks hot, and then "BLAM", what a pair of kits, your Phantom is stunning. Nice work. Eng

Flippin eck, ONE whole CM too wide!!! How the heck did that slip past QC! I wonder if the aftermarket brigade will maybe produce a vac-form replacement. I hope there's a relatively easy fix, I'm afraid thats the sort of thing that would put me off buying a kit at £20......well, normally, in this case I might still cave in and get one. Thank's for the heads up, will be interesting to see if this is in all kits and how modellers will get around this problem. Have you seen any artwork of the Begemot sheet, I've seen the sheets themselves but not artwork for each option? Eng

I found the fit of the Zvezda Tu-154 to be superb, the only problem I still have is that one wing has the perfect anhedral, but unfortunately the other is almost a perfectly match but in dihedral!!! I'm hoping a pan of very hot water and a bit of patience will sort the problem out. I was totally blown away by the Mil-26 yesterday (in case you hadn't noticed!) and I found the Begemot decal sheet thats still to be released last night on t'internet - http://begemotdecals.ru/showpos.php?〈=2&id=57 Stebos, Will be interested to see how you get on with your Mil-26, are you starting it straight away, or is it a future build? Rgds Eng

Yeah, read somewhere Revell are to re-release it in March 09. Don't think I could hold out that long, not now I've seen one!! Eng

I know South Front had one of these out earlier this year but I was in Jamiesons in Glasgow this morning and saw this - http://www.scale-rotors.com/news-reviews/z...mi-26-halo-7270 and I just HAD to have a look in the rather huge box! I'd already purchased earlier in the year a Tu-154 from Zvezda and was really impressed with the quality of the moulds. The Mil-26 "Halo" is awesome, a beautifully detailed interior, cockpit, both main and tail rotors are superb, the main rotors are moulded on 'bent' sprues to simulate the droop of the blades. Cargo and access doors can be left open or closed, and there are 4 nicely moulded crew figures. There's only 2 decal options an all white UN machine (anyone whose read "Joint Force Harrier" will know what I mean), and a Russian camo machine, but apparently Begemot are to produce a sheet with plenty more options. Anyway to get back to the point, after having had a good look at Revells C-17, Airfix's 1/48 PR.9 and all the other nice new arrivals in the shop.....I asked the guy's to put a "Halo" aside for me til Xmas!! My lovely wife has already offered to get it for me for Xmas . Just think of the diorama you could build with this beastie.......I don't really build choppers either. Here's a linky to some sprue shots - http://scalemodels.ru/modules/myarticles/a...oryid_1272.html Anyone already got one, or taken a shine to this? Looking forward to Xmas!! Eng

Had a look at it in Jamiesons in Glasgow today, still not commiting to buying one though, I thought the gear struts looked a bit on the flimsy side and I had actually expected the kit to be a bit bigger. Moulding looks quite tidy though, although Stephen has said his has a section by the cockpit thats moulded short. Hope to see some built here soon! Eng

Hope this helps - http://www.f-15estrikeeagle.com/ Eng

Looks cool so far, can't wait to see finished article. There's something bizarrely attractive about this heli, but I do like the drab green schemes. Eng

Beautiful job, some of those Academy 72nd prop kits are lovely. I've got a P-51B and a T-6G in work just now. Cracking job. Eng

Great build, what crackin job! Eng

Jamiesons in Glasgow had a huge stack of the 1/48 PR.9's and the 1/144 Revell C-17 this morning! I didn't partake of either, got an Xtrakit PR.9 already, and am hanging out for some reviews on the C-17 first. Eng

Pardon one's french but that is F***in sweeeeeet!!! What a stunning bit of painting. I'm defo keeping an eye on this beauty. Eng

A340! Eng