ajmm

Very nice. Following with interest!

Very nice! I’ve built a couple of Nieuports (which have much easier strut arrangements) so understand how much work went into these and it shows. Congratulations- I hope you’re pleased with them.

Wow - looks a monster. I’m looking forward to starting mine once the builders have cleared out and I have somewhere other than the kitchen table to do so - as you say, it’s not petite!

Looks lovely despite your trials. I’ve never had that problem with cling film - I’ll beware.

Mike are these still available? Was the French set ever released?

Thank you very much for the kind comments! They are greatly appreciated.

Just stumbled across this. What a fantastic build! If this languishes it languishes in style. I hope you get to pick it up again soon.

Thanks so much for the kind comments guys. @PattheCat Yes I agree - it’s hard to make the Connie look drab. Even in SEA Camo it’s pretty special!

Of course - I only have pictures of one that I converted to an airborne early warning Connie - but it's essentially out of the box with the windows faired over and a few small bumps here and there... The other I built in a MATS Air Force scheme. I didn't take any build photos of either I'm afraid.

Very nice progress! I've just finished this kit and I can feel some of your pain. You did well to block those hubs from slipping back inside the engine nacelles - yup, guess how I know...! I've built two of these but not yet had a go at a civil one. This is very inspiring.

Beautifully finished - congratulations, you must be very proud of that.

Superb.

Thank you all very much for the kind comments - they are really appreciated. Thank you! @72modeleri agree such a shame one wasn’t preserved. 100% the meanest Beech, agreed! You should definitely build yours - I’d love to see that. @oz rb fan so nearly, wasn’t it. I was so tempted to go what if with mine - theres so many possibilities. I did seriously look at putting the B-25H Butch noseart on it. Alas I was conventional… I look forwards to seeing yours too one day! @Shalako ha - I know what you mean. Although I do have those moments alarmingly often…!

I think that’s right. The -B and other longer wing variants have opened up fuselage. The short wing early variants are sealed. But I’d have to double check.

Thank you so much for the kind comments @SAT69 @JamesP - they are greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you Michael for the compliments - that’s very kind of you to say! You’re quite right about the Tigercat of course - I was unclear. I meant that they had about the same number of ponies rather than the same powerplant.

Wow that’s superb. I think easily the best Vacform I’ve seen in this scale. Seriously impressive and all your extr work paid off. Thank you for showing us!

I don't know about you but I don't particularly associate mild mannered old Kansas-based Beech Aircraft Inc. with ground attack aircraft. No more than I associate Piper with rocket powered interceptors or Cessna with four engined nuclear bombers. But here you have it... Perhaps that's what attracted me to this, Beech's XA-38 Grizzly. Perhaps it is the name Grizzly - surely the coolest and most appropriate name for this aircraft (step aside Airbus A400M). Perhaps it is its eye watering performance. Perhaps it's that ridiculous punch-in-the-face artillery piece in the nose. Everything about this aircraft is impressive. And very un-Beech - a far fling from the Bonanza, Expeditor, Mentor at any rate. This was designed as a bomber-killer, but when fears of long-range German raids abated it found its groove as a replacement for the Douglas A-20 Havoc. It first flew in mid-1944 and is one of the handful of aircraft in history which have actually exceeded their anticipated design potential in initial testing. But herein lay its achilles heel: the key ingredient to its superb performance were the two colossal Wright R-3350s (a ferocious 2,300hp apiece if you must know - same as the Tigercat). This gave it a blistering top speed in level flight of 320kts - compared to the Marauder's 249kts, Havoc's 275kts or the Mitchell's 236kts. The A-26 Invader came closer, at 312kts. The 75mm cannon (which you may or may not have noticed on the nose of the aircraft - it's rather bashful and discreet) was also fitted to the B-25H with success. In fact, had the Mitchell not been so successful at doing its thing, the Grizzly would have been employed flying in and out of the coastal inlets of the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan, knocking out shipping and bunkers. This is the Anigrand kit. Mr. Anigrand produced a 1:72 kit of this which I drooled over for a few years and was overjoyed when they released a 1:144 bonus kit with their Sikorsky VS-44. I started this in the first lockdown over a year ago. It goes together very nicely indeed - very little seam cleanup. I don't quite know why I set it aside actually. I made only a couple of modifications - I replaced all the cannons and machine guns with metal tubing; I used a dremel to make two more gun ports in the forward nose that were not cast on; I replaced the plain kit wheels with some from the spares box; I added some 500lb bombs to the moulded pylons (thank you Platz P-47); I put a few stencil decals on from the spares box. But that was it. There's not much more to add. The kit is pretty accurate I think - shapewise it looks right. Two minor things that could be improved: I had to shorten the main undercarriage legs or this sits too snout-high. The exhaust panels aren't quite right - it should have recessed scoops like on the A-26 but is moulded flat. I painted this AKI Xtreme Aluminium as usual. There are lots of very good reference photos of this aircraft and its sistership. This was fairly plain overall natural metal (so plain that I wondered whether it was painted an aluminium lacquer). I did a bit of weathering on the upper wing which was very exhaust stained on the real thing... ...but after an abortive attempt in which I applied far too much staining and the whole thing looked faintly ridiculous, I scrubbed it back and had another go with a dollop more restraint. I'm happy with the look now. Overall these were pretty clean. The Jeep is a Brengun number by the way (improperly painted for this scene in post-war guise but forgive me). Finally with another twin engined bomber that's approaching completion. Next I'm going to build Slingsby's jet-powered anti-submarine warfare seaplane. Thanks very much for looking. Angus

Fantastic!

Lovely to see the rapide built up. The dc3 is very neat too.

That is very nice. Did you use the decal for the fuselage orange-red band or paint the lot? I’ve got this kit on the bench and about to start painting once I’ve got the cockpit on. I can’t decide which approach to take.

This is fantastic. I’m about to start the same kit but in a different scheme. It won’t be nearly as neat as yours but here goes…

Brilliant, Miguel!

Oh excellent - it demands patience but this is a really nice kit.

Mine arrived from UA Hobby too - I think they must have been posted on the same day! You beat me to it, but I'll second everything you said. It looks really nice. I have most of Mikromir's RAF kits and this is the most refined one I've seen. - I agree the decal cheat line is a bit bright but it's fine. - The cockpit is pretty decently populated and the overall surface detail looks really nice. - I fear the cabin windows will be a bit tricky to insert - I suspect quite a lot of fiddly fiddling to do that, carpet monster waiting at heel, mouth wide. - I also notice it comes with cargo doors separated and the cargo door panel is thinned on the fuselage inside so you could pose this open. I couldn't see any cabin interior though so this would either have to be scratched or perhaps will be included in the next boxing (presumably in the T5?). - I like that many of the sprue attachment points are offset to help cleanup - you don't find many short-run kits that bother to do that in this scale. - location pins are great. Fairly new for Mikromir I think - I can't recall whether the Victor had them or not, but certainly the earlier kits had nothing of the sort. I'm limping over towards the finishing line with the Valiant - which is how I know! - which reminds me, these instructions are really clear (the Valiant instructions are slightly mystifying in places). If anyone wants to do a Kiwi Hastings, OldModelsDecals do some - https://www.oldmodelsdecals.com/RNZAF-45-57.html I'd like to do a Malaya-based one so will need to sort out my own decals I think.

Best Marauder model I’ve seen. By a big margin.