James G

It may have been a hard slog but the result was worth it - fantastic!

The kit seat is not great, I'm going to use a combination of Eduard PE and scratchbuilding to bring it up to spec. Am I right in thinking this aircraft would have been fitted with a Martin-Baker Mk 12H?

Excellent, thanks

Morning all. Time to start building something new! I have the Revell reboxing of the Harrier GR Mk. 7/9 by Hasegawa, which has been winking to me from the stash for a while. I'm going to build GR Mk. 7A ZD404 'Lucy', RAF Cottesmore detached to Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2007. I believe all 'ZD' aircraft have the 65% LERX, not 100%, but happy to be corrected on this. I have the Eduard colour PE set and a Flightpath ladder to spruce it up, everything else will be from box/scratch detailed. I am going to hand some more interesting ordance off it than what is in the box, probably TIALD pod and a couple of Paveways. Can anyone recommend a good colour match for the camo greys used? I was going to go with AK. I was also considering getting the Duke Hawkins Harrier book and wondering if anyone can recommend it? Sprue shot below:

Thanks again for your kind comments all, I'm blown away! I have posted these pics on the Facebook group 'Navy Carriers in Scale' and someone who actually served on CVN-76 thought that the diorama was accurate, which was nice to hear!

Love that, very cool!

Thanks for the kind comments all, most appreciated. If you are going to Telford this year it will be on the competition table.

Evening all, after roughly 2.5 years my carrier deck diorama is done - just in time for SMW! It's an F/A-18C CAG aircraft from VFA-113 'Stingers', with the carrier deck based loosely on CVN-76 USS Ronald Reagan, circa 2005. Carrier deck is scratchbuilt, utilising the Flightpath US Navy Carrier Deck Diorama set. The Hornet is the Academy kit with much aftermarket (see build thread linked below), figures from Reedoak (4) and Scale 3D (1). The decals are from Superscale (set no. 72-904). The A/S32A-32 'Spotting dolly' and Nitrogen Trolley are fantastic little resin kits from Brengun. The LED lights in the hangar roof are ready-wired sets from Small Scale Lights - really glad I included these as they lend a nice realistic ambience (IMHO). The build thread is here if you are after more details. The diorama is called 'Hornet's Nest' - thanks again to @AlxBNE for the inspiration! Final pics below, hope you like them.

Brilliant work Fuad!

Thanks Colin!

Thanks. Crash dio would be interesting, you don't see many of those. Thanks Massimo for your kind words, glad you like it.

Sounds like a cool idea for a diorama! Definitely recommend the AK concrete texture paint, the texture is just right if you knock it back a little with some fine sandpaper. Tamiya German Grey is the best colour to paint it, IMHO. Thanks! V kind

Thanks for the kind words Rob. I think the pre-shade helped to accentuate the fine details on the Reedoak figures. I was lucky that the poses needed very little adjustment!

Thanks Colin, it was a lot of scratch building effort! Not 100% accurate, but pleased with how it turned out.

Hi all - I think one more progress pic before RFI. All the bits and pieces are painted and washed, just a touch of drybushing and a tiny bit more weathering and they are ready to go together in the final diorama.

Thanks. I used a white undercoat and it came out looking OK.

Lovely Bucc!

Excellent finish, I particularly like the fading on the decals.

Hi all - hope you like the pics of my completed Gnat from the Yellowjacks display team, built some time ago but only just got around to photographing it. Got the kit cut price from Aldi, added a pilot figure and dressed up the cockpit with some spare photo-etch from my MiG-15 build. I added some minimal surface detail, kept the weathering to a minimum and polished several coats of Alclad aqua gloss to get the shiny finish. I had seen a Hornet model displayed vertically somewhere on the internet and drew some inspiration from that, there is a short length of clear perspex rod in the tail pipe, wrapped in cotton wool. I've got a few RAF jets on the 'to build' list so watch this space...

Evening all. I'm inching closer to completion on this one. I coated all the scratchbuilt parts in my favourite Mr Color 1500 microfiller/primer (first photo) and then hit the upper surfaces with some Tamiya white pre-shade to give greater depth (Photos 2 and 3). The parts in the plastic pots are the chain and photo-etch tie-down units which will get a coat of various alclads and rust weathering, before being applied to the Hornet landing gear and fixed into the tie down eyes on the diorama base (the part I am least looking forward to....) I then got on to something more fun! Namely, painting the Reedoak figures, starting with their faces and hands and using the Vallejo flesh paints set - probably overkill on 1/72 models but I was pleased with how the faces and hands turned out. I went for a variety of colours for the five deck crew float coats: one green (maintenance), one white (quality assurance - checking maintenance), one yellow (Hangar Deck Chief), one blue (tractor driver) and one red (ordnance handler). I also went for a variety of colours for the trousers: khaki, woodland camo, desert camo and navy blue. I completed the shading, dry-brushed highlights and detail on the Hangar Deck Chief. In reality, he would probably not be sat looking at the liquid nitrogen cart control panel, but I liked the way this looked (see photos below). I couldn't resist posing him on the diorama in the last shot! Hope you find the progress photos interesting.

Lovely Lightning, spot on!

Beautiful!

Evening all. I've been fiddling away with some detail bits and pieces for the diorama. The first one shows the scratchbuilt 'wire basket' Stokes stretcher for mounting on the end wall of the diorama. I made two, and each took about three evenings! This was mid-construction - I added a second wire lop and fine mesh (see last photo). The photo below shows the underside of the Hornet with some RBF tags added. Nice to have photos showing the underside detail for when the model is attached to the base and none of this can be seen - I'm not quite sure why I spent so long on the gear bays! This shot shows the figures line-up. The one on the far right has had a head swap as he previously had a head with goggles lowered. The bareheaded figure is a 'teenager' from a 3D-printed H0 railway accessory set, who will be in the back of the diorama and dressed as a red-shirted ordnance man, pushing some boxes on a pallet truck. I slightly remodeled his shirt with green stuff, adding a roll neck and building up the bottom edge to define it. I also added a grasping hand from another 3D printed figure in the set. The figure reaching up will be examining the open radar. The kneeling figure will be on top of the Hornet, fixing something in the open panel between the vertical stabilisers. The sitting figure reaching forward with his right arm will be sitting on the nitrogen cart, reaching for the control panel. Fortuitously all this figures suited my needs with minimal alterations required! The last picture shows the fruit of my scratchbuilding labours! Top right is the suspended platform which houses some kind of winch gear (the associated buff-coloured part attaches to the wall above the platform). The capsule-shaped things are (I think) life raft canisters. We have a fuel hose reel, large diameter piping for the steam catapults, and in the plastic bags are the surrounds for the lighting units. Other bits are various gear lockers, speakers, fire extinguisher and the pallet trucks (nice little kits from Baloton models). I'm oddly proud of the ladder for some reason! Hopefully all these parts will make sense in context. There are a few more bits to do: chocks, tie-down chains and tools, toolboxes, etc. I will then have a big painting session on my hands! Hope you like the pics.

Morning all. Here's another small update on my hangar deck diorama. I've finished the detail elements of the hangar ceiling, which took a lot longer than I thought! The first (note this one is upside down!) and second pics show the pipework in place, and the third shows the final version painted white (and with a little weathering from a Payne's grey oil wash). The pipework is a combination of various diameters of plastic rod, and lead wires. The last element still to be added to the ceiling are the working LED lights - I've made 'housing' for all of them and now just need to put them in place. Note also the little hose reel in the foreground added from elasticated black thread (I will hit all this with a matt coat so there will be no shiny elements). I've scratchbuilt most of the other elements which will go against the wall, such as the hose reel, life-raft containers and the large pipes (for the steam catapults?) which will be painted and added separately. There is also a platform containing winch gear to attach. Still lots of small elements to go such as the tie-down chains, boxes, equipment, tools, etc., and of course the deck crew. The tricky bit will I think be attaching the base plate to the back wall and assuring all the vertical elements are aligned and fit well. I'm happy with how it looks so far, and I think I can see the end in sight.

Reedoak have some figures which might be suitable: http://reedoak.com/#!/1-35/c/13772390