Phantome

Absolutely amazing stuff. Love all the Latin American builds!

Thanks! I usually average just 4-5 a year. Not sure why this time I felt so inspired. It helped that I had a "finish at all costs" mentality which means I didn't bin anything or leave them half built.

Awesome build, and great job getting the pink just right!

It is interesting how our eyes deceive us with the finished product. Overly shaded and washed aircraft look unrealistic on their own. However, when they are photographed in a "natural" environment such as a fake sky, they often look more realistic than the more subtly done ones. It's a shame I don't have the link but there was once an extremely well made F/A-18 which if photographed on a white background would have looked overdone yet with a natural background looked not different from a photograph. I too am of the belief that subtle weathering is better. I am not a huge fan of massive tonal differences guided by panel lines. In recent months I have attempted to try some different things and have come up with an alternative that produced a pretty good result. I call this method the "Assymetric Three Tone" and it's entirely done through post-shading. Here's how it works: 1) Prime first and then paint the base color completely evenly 2) Whiten the base paint and thin heavily. Paint on the insides of random panel lines - not all of them! And certainly not symmetrically 3) Darken the base paint and thin heavily. Paint along all panel lines but do an extra heavy pass on certain panel lines, again not all of them, not symmetrically and irrespective if that panel had been whitened or not in step two. The result of this is that with practically the same effort as post-shading, you have many more tonal changes. It looks far more worn out than with a simple darker panel line/whiter panel technique thanks to the asymmetry and randomness of the tones.

I've been thinking of doing the same! Congrats on having the initiative to start yourself and good luck selling them out!

Indeed, it is IMHO the best kit ever made in 1/72 scale. That good! Never built anything that fit so well, had such brilliant engineering and had such fine surface detail. Unfortunately I do not see an easy way for it to be backdated to previous blocks which is a shame. You're stuck with a Block 50 which is quite limiting since you can't build any aircraft from the 80s and most of the 90s. The Revell Block 50 kit allows you pretty much every C variant. It's a great kit, but my main gripe is that it's sold only in special markings which lack most stencils and missile decals and in the case of the latest Solo Turk boxing, horrible black plastic. The Revell F-16A (the one with the Spitfire markings) does give you a full set of old style (orange) stencils which is great.

Or we can just hold a collective prayer so that Tamiya releases a block 30/40 just like they did in 1/48 scale...

Tamiya doesn't make an F-16A, only an F-16C Block 50 (its other F-16s are Italeri reboxes for the Japanese market). Revell is your best bet. Hasegawa also makes one for around the same price but its an older less detailed kit

2016 may have been an awful year for the human species but it was an excellent modelling year for me. I decided to include as many of my builds in one same place so here goes and also a description of each one (in order of build). All are 1/72 scale. 1) Academy F/A-18C USN Golden Dragons with mission markings. Built entirely OOB 2) Hasegawa F-35A USAF. Built entirely OOB 3) Tamiya F-15C Block 50 USAF. Built OOB with Astra decals 4) Revell (Hasegawa) Harrier GR.7 RAF. Dreammodel photo-etch 5) Trumpeter MiG-299-12 Soviet Air Force. Built OOB with Hi-Decal Line decals for Britmodeller's 80's NATO vs WP groupbuild http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235006196-172-trumpeter-mig-29-912-ussr-red-46-finished/ 6) Revell Tornado IDS German Marineflieger. Built OOB with Italeri decals for Britmodeller's 80's NATO vs WP groupbuild http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235010686-172-hasegawa-f-15c-e-gulf-war-eagles/ 7) Revell Tornado GR.1 RAF "Amanda Jane" Desert Storm. Built OOB with Italeri decals 8) Revell F-4F Luftwaffe Norm 90J camo. Built entirely OOB 9) Hasegawa AH-1S US Army. Built entirely OOB (intended for Britmodeller's Huey groupbuild but too late) 10) Hasegawa F-15E USAF. Built OOB with Hi Decal Line decals (just markings) 11) Hobby Boss Rafale C Armée de l'Air. Built entirely OOB 12) AZ Model Bf 109G-6 White 9. Built entirely OOB for Britmodeller's MTO groupbuild NOT SHOWN 13) Hasegawa F-15C USAF Capt. César Rodríguez Desert Storm MiG Killer. Built OOB with Microscale decals http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235010686-172-hasegawa-f-15c-e-gulf-war-eagles/ 14) Xtrakit Sea Harrier FA.2 FAA Built OOB with Airfix decals http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235008901-172-xtrakit-sea-harrier-fa2-the-hate-myself-build/ Tanks (Not shown) 15) Hasegawa Crusader Mk. III 16) Hasegawa Churchill Mk. I "Assist" 17) Helped girlfriend build Harrier egg plane http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235007556-egg-plane-harrier-gfs-first-model/

Ok, here's my contribution. A few errors during the build and not 100% happy with the paint job since the airbrush was a bit dirty and didn't come out smooth. It was definitely rushed but today was my last day of modelling this year and wanted to do one WW2 build as all the others were moderns. Where's the other 109s?!?! EDIT: Forgot to mention, this is the AZ Models Bf 109G-6/Trop built entirely OOB Btw, lost the pitot tube piece, but due to time constraints did not scratchbuild a new one

Ok, I forgot to take a picture of just the paint job so next up was with the decals already in place Decals, as usual with Eastern European kits, are quite fragile and tend to curl. However, this was only a problem with the bigger decals. The stencils were quite easy to place. On the plus side, they conformed to panel lines quite well, without even needing Microsol. They are very thin and defintiely looked painted on in the end.

Impressions of this kit: I'm rather underwhelmed by this kit, despite so many people raving about it. It has numerous annoyances that most reviews seem to have ignored. 1) Fit is not great. I had to sand off sides of the cockpit piece so that the fuselage sides would fit and even then, the fit wasn't that great. There are noticeable seams on smaller pieces, and others like the cap (?) on the hole behind the rear wheel are impossible to fit without some major surgery. The ammo bulges also have some space on the sides, the radiator also has awful fit and there's some needless complexity in other areas. 2) Too many small pieces (with bad fit). Ok I get it, there's so many variants of the 109G that this was bound to be a problem but I think AZ went the route of "minimum molding effort" and could have saved the modeller a lot of headaches if there were a few extra pieces. For example, the starboard ammo bulge comes as the Trop version, which means if you want a non-Trop you have to surgically remove the extra bulges and it's nearly impossible to get a proper rounded shape again. Why couldn't AZ just mold two of these pieces? 3) The cockpit is nicely detailed but... what's the point if the canopy can only be displayed closed? 4) I expected the spinner to be locked in place by friction but that is not the case. If you don't want to fall off, you'll have to either glue it or scratchbuild something to fasten it from the inside (the manual does not mention this). Again, was it that hard to mold a fastener? No it wasn't. 5) The overall feel of the kit is that of a very sophisticated short run kit... or a very unsophisticated steel mold kit. There's minimal locator pins but feels a bit rough around the edges at times. I do look forward to their F series which from the looks of it has some simplified engineering. But be warned if you're building a Gustav. I guess for the definitive post-Emil 109s we'll have to wait until Eduard decides to have a go at them.

Why so few Messerschmitts? Ok yes, this is BRITmodeller, but no reason to leave out the most important Axis fighter in the MTO! I have a number of AZ 109s in the stash, and one of my favorite ones is White 9 ever since I saw it on the box of the older Italeri kit. According to the box, White 9 was flown by Staffelkapitan Emil Clade of JG 27 and operated from "Malemo" which I suspect is a typo of Maleme, Crete. I started work on this kit last week hoping to finish it by Thursday of next week as I am off on holiday and won't be at my modelling desk until the new year. Let's see if I finish. Here's the construction stages up until painting which I hope to do tomorrow. First off, spraying RLM 02 and 66 on the relevant bits Cockpit pic taken with flash All built up. Lots of putty...

What Procopius said. Trumpeter is THE choice for a 9.12 Fulcrum. Fit is good and surface detail is among the best I've seen in this scale. Miles ahead of the Italeri which was the previous best. There are some accuracy issues but not critical ones, my main complaint being the shape of the canopy when looked from above (tapers too much at the rear). Zvezda will be releasing a 9.12 but who knows when. Their 9.17 (MiG-29SMT) is next in line for next year they are slower than Trumpeter in releasing new variants.

I have a feeling Recall has two design teams. One produces the fantastically detailed kits like the Tornado, F-4F, F-16, and some of their WW2 kits. The other doesn't like rivets and loves big panel lines like in their F-14 and this Gripen. That said I'm sure this kit is way better than the atrocity that is the Italeri!

No wonder the Soviets could not win in Afghanistan, their bombs and missiles were invisible

Still substantially cheaper. I'm glad they're remembering the modeller's paradise that is the Gulf War. Nobody has bothered with a similar series aside from one offs. It's a shame that not all of these kits are the best in the market though, except for the A-10 and Mirage 2000. The Jaguar A is not too shabby either and unlike the Hobby Boss has a two piece canopy and extendable air brakes (a must on a Jag!). The Tonka is a pretty awful kit though.

The Desert Storm boxing of the Hasegawa Jaguar pops up regularly on eBay and typically doesn't go for too much (£10-15), it comes with two drop tanks. Sadly does not include the jammer and dispensers which were standard at the time. For me that is the main limitation of the otherwise pretty decent kit. The Italeri (Revell rebox) has all the goodies but detail is not great and some people on this forum have complained about the accuracy of the fuel tanks. I believe it also carries the recce pod.

Yellow is tricky even for airbrushing! I often spray a white or light grey base first. I have never found an easy way to brush paint yellow. Even with brush able paints like Vallejo model color

True, I had forgotten about the bulged landing gear doors. Oh well, Revell it is!

I believe Attack Squadron makes a resin closed intake for the Trumpeter kit. Shame they haven't done the opposite for the Zvezda.

I have binned models for way less damage than that. Great job!

Just FYI, Akan paints spray beautifully, closer to Tamiya and Gunze than anything else. Much finer spray than Vallejo I must say, which is not that great for fine patterns on small kits. They're worth the extra effort to get them.

That's standard practice for decal application. Alas it does not guarantee that poor quality decals won't silver. Case in point being a recent double build of a Hasegawa F-15C and E. Both had the kit fuel tank decals. The E's silvered, the older C's didn't. I also used the E's kit decals for the stencils and almost all of them silvered despite dousing them in Microsol. So yes, decal quality matters almost as much.

To press my last point, how many F-15s are on the tarmac with canopy open and airbrake open at the same time? Tornados? Yet nearly everyone who builds an "open" one does it. Realism need not get in the way of making models look the best and Fulcrums with closed top intakes just don't look as awesome