Ralph

Top effort. The nose correction really does make a huge difference. Ralph

Hallo, very rude of me...forgot to say thanks for some fascinating pictures! Would it be too much to ask to see the pics of the F-106s? And possibly any of the Eagles?🤔😁

A bit more...I've sanded back the ahem, rather impressionistic zimmerit and added the turret details... ...and gave it all a shot of tamiya hull red as red oxide primer. Am pleased with how the zimmerit appears...by no means great, but doesn't look too bad under a coat of paint. This is going to be turret 314, otherwise known as Annaliese. Despite being an early KT, she survived France to serve in Hungary in the winter of 1945. As such, she got various late mods such as turret hangars for track spares. I have a mind to do her as she would probably have looked before she got the coat of whitewash that she's mostly associated with, but we'll see. I wonder if there's a pic of her out there as such?

A little progress...last night I cracked open the white milliput and had a first pass at doing zimmerit. As per the above, this is aiming to be a representation at this very small scale rather than 100% fidelity and because its the first time I've done it! Basically, I smeared on a very thin layer of milliput and then had a go at creating a basic rectangular pattern with a scalpel blade. Easier said than done; a bit rough, and a few tiny bits came off...we shall call this battle damage! It's dried over night and the plan is to give it a gentle rub down with fine grade wet and dry to smooth out the rough edges. I am hopjng that with paint, weathering, equipment and a bit of foliage it will be less obvious. Having said that, I am learning to not make 'good' the enemy of perfect and to enjoy experimenting with things!

Evening all, This GB had passed me by until I saw it while browsing the current GBs. The King Tiger is one of my favourite AFVs, so had a quick look at my stash...found this very second hand Revell box, with no decals, instructions and parts loose...the wheels are in a loose bag so I hope they are all there! Am intending to have a go at applying zimmerit as all Porsche KTs had this apart from the three prototypes. I think I 'll try and use white milliput for that.. we'll see! At this scale an approximation will probably be OK...pics show it was very finely applied, with a barely noticeable pattern...am hoping with chipping painting and weathering I might br able to gloss over any issues! Hopefully a quick, fun project!

Hallo all, Right -another off the shelf of doom! Treated myself to the new Tamiya uberkit of the F-35b at Christmas and thought I'd better finish off the rather challenging Kittyhawk model that's been sitting half completed for years! As much as anything, I wanted to trial different Have Glass /Fs36170 paints before I commit to the Tamiya...in that respect it worked out very well! It's not a particularly good kit-lots of trial fitting goes a long way, especially if you do it all buttoned up as i have, but it is a very good model, if you understand me- definitely catches the shape of the real thing. I ended up using AK third gen acrylic...this captured the slightest brown shade very well, without overdoing it on the metallic side, which just about every other manufacturer does. The downside was that I found it difficult to spray even with their thinners. I have just tried Tamiya' s suggested paint mix of IJN grey (xf91) and NATO brown (Xf68) and that looks really, really good- and being Tamiya sprays incredibly well! The contrasting grey was Tamiya xf87, which I think gives the right contrast as per the real thing. I wanted to something bright and rather than buy aftermarket decals so I gave Tamiya's a go. With very hot water they did very well indeed- won't have any issues with them when I do the Tamiya version! I also added quickboost FOD covers for a splash of colour but also because it meant I didn't have to deal with sorting out the intakes...they were meant for the Tamiya kit so needed a little work to get them to fit. In any case, here is the finished item! The kit wheels went in the bin and replaced with Reskit aftermarket. She's marked up as she was when embarked on HMS QE on her first strike group...I'll do the Tamiya one in RAF colours to go with her!

Evening all, a consistent interest of mine over the years has been aggressor and adversary aircraft in all their flavours, really ever since I got the Osprey Aggressor book on the very early 90s, and their Superbase series that followed. The former book had pics of 86-272 in its original Flogger colour scheme...having been through about six schemes, and having spent the entirety of its life with this unit, she was finally retired to AMARC in December 2023. This is the last scheme she wore...the v.attrarctive Fullback scheme of gunship grey over blue, with fake dielectric areas in light grey and with a black radome. Could be a modelljng project in its own right just to cover this one airframe! For this project used the superlative-and still the best- 1/48 Tamiya F-16c Aggressor boxing, which has the ACMI pod and 'dead gekko' ECM pod necessary for this airframe. I used modelcolour paints, Tamiya reinforcement plates and Two Bobs decals, which all performed v.well. It took me longer to finish than anticipated...Two Bobs would have you put the light grey dielectric areas on both sides of the fin, and I was 99% finished when I saw from pics it's only on the starboard side...hence a long while before I mustered up the courage to carefully mask and respray the offending area, with minimum reapplication of decals. Oh, and I also updated the ACMI pod to reflect thd configuration seen on pictures with stock plastic rod. There is something just 'so right' about the F-16; hope you enjoy the pics!

Wow...most cool! That's something I should like to have seen!

Hall all, I have a bit of a thing going with T-33s...this Heller kit(which is pure retro modelling for me in terms of simple construction and not over laden with parts) was built to complement my Oregon ANG example in low vis greys which I posted back in January. The 5th FIS, based at of Minot AFB, is pure early to mid 80s coldwar to me, smacking of War Games, Red Dawn et al. The decals came from Wolfpak, a v.under-rated source of quality 1/72 decals for a very wide variety of markings. Get them while you can...I understand the producer is no longer with us, having gone to the great modelling den in the sky sadly. Anyway, the kit was delightful; I added a pva/tissue blind flying 'bag' stashed behind the rear seat, plus a scratch built frame for it as per Wolfpak's decal notes and finished in Xtracrylix ADC grey and Windsor andGalleria Satin varnish. I now need to the contemporary 5th FIS F-15a also provided for on the decal sheet, and to an immediately preceding F106 from the same outfit...at some point! I also have a Platz T-33 which I plan to do as a dayglo Norwegian aircraft, so it will be interesting to see how thd two kits compare. The veey petite raised lines of the Heller kit look more like the real thing, but we'll see. Anyway, pics... Ps...have just read that the USAF has just redesigned the 18th AGRS in Alaska as the 18th FIS...the first Fighter Interceptor Squadron for, what, about 30 plus years? Sign of the times...

Quick update...spent a v.pleasant hour or so adding major airframe parts last night to the backdrop of Radio 2's Hits of the 80s to produce something that's beginning to look very F3 like! This is going to be late in the F3's career when with full Asraam and Amraam integration, JTIDS, BOL rails etc it was an extremely effective fighter. I'm also v.excited because in the long pause in this project some one finally released decals for 1435 Flt in the Falklands. Just need them to do the same for the Typhoons there! 'Hope' (with the Falklands coat of arms on the nose) is probably going to be choice! Really enjoying this...of course, when I've finished this hybrid, Airfix will release a new tool version!

Perspective...but I think CMK figures are slightly too large for 1/72!

Evening all, Am making a concerted effort to clear the shelf of doom. This is Airfix's rather good Lightning in the blue spine and fin of 92 sqn. Great kit to build (aside from the multiplicity of stencils!)-finished with Airfix's stand and in flight for that retro look! Ralph

Evening all, I've always liked the two seater Typhoon...looks like an old fashioned prize fighter with that thick neck! I wanted to do one as up to date as poss...I found images of ZK303 in 41sqn marks, and given I could cobble that particular serial together from various Xtradecal sheets I went with that! The kit is the excellent Hasegawa Typhoon...I just wish that they'd upscale it to 1/48! The only accurate Typhoon of any scale, I built it OOB with the exception of a PJ productions pilot for the rear seat (with an ordinary flight helmet) and stock plastic and wire to dress up the basically accuate-in-outline ejection seats. Paint was Tamiya XF19 for the Barley Grey (my go to paint for that colour) and finished with Windsor and Galleria Satin varnish. Reflective of my gradual transition back to childhood, I've done it 'in-flight!

I've loved the imagery of the Battle of Britain for as long as I can remember, and a huge amount of my modelling time goes in this direction. I am also drawn to representing those scenes in scale, so when I saw Ameras Nissen hut vacform diorama base, I knew I wanted to have a go at reveeating a moment from the Battle. I mounted the vacform base onto a picture frame and the gradually added details. The Airfix Bofors gun was added first, then CMK and Airfix figures; a Flightpath trolley acc, an Airfix fabric winged Hurricane from 605 sqn ( which must have been one of the oldest Hurricanes left in service by the time of the September 1940 pic I used for inspiration) and finally a BeCon Models Hillman Tilly to round things off. A bit of a composite image-I seriously doubt all of the elements would have been that close together in real life- it nevertheless sums up for me a scene from that crucial summer.

Evening all, only rarely do I move away from aircraft to do the occasional tank, but this is a further departure from my normal fare. This is the Beacon Models 3D printed 1/72 Hillman Tilly, which I got because it was just the thing to set off my Battle of Britain diorama - see the diorama section for pics of that if of any interest. The kit - if two parts can be called that-was great fun to do- a minimum of clean up and straight on to painting and weathering. I based the paint scheme off the Airfix instructions for their kit of the same vehicle, and used decals from the old refuelling set I had in my stash. I added a clear plastic windscreen, and lightly weathered it with Tamiya pastels - all very satisfying! Onto the pics.

After a short break of, oh three years(!) I've decided to clear some of the shelf of doom, and get back to my Tornado F3 project. The nose of this aircraft is something of an elusive shape; not completely sure anyone has it got completely right, and this project has seen rather a lot of filling sanding, and polishing in close reference to photos. I think I'm there, more or less; see what you think with the before and after shots with an initial coat of primer to see where we are...

Superb!

Is that the Revell kit? How was it? I have the C version to do...one day!

Evening all, 2nd completion of 2024, and following on with the V-tail theme from my recent He162D. I can remember very clearly the unveiling of the F-117 after years of rumours...all very 80s Cold War style! I can equally remember Desert Storm kicking off during my first year at college...a mate came running into the common room at about midnight to say it had all kicked off;I still have the model box lids I used to write down all the initial reports thst came in for the next few electric hours. Of course, the F-117 was the media star, and despite not being the best looking of jets, it does have that iconic shape. I did attempt an Italeri kit in the mid 90s, but never finished it for some reason. Having bought the new Warpaint book on the F-117, it was a short hop to getting the Hasegawa kit(generally considered the best in 1/72), masks, and Caracal decals. A simple but imposing model(it's a big plane even in the Gentleman's scale) and I am well pleased with it. I used Tamiya xf69 Nato black for the main coat, with Xf63 German grey sprayed along the edges of the facets, which really emphasised the impression of the real thing. The Caracal decals behaved flawlessly. In any case, here she is, complete with mission marks!

Evening all, Don't often do Luftwaffe (the occasional Battle of Britain model aside, just to give the RAF models something to aim at!), and not really into what-if, but this release by AZ tickled my fancy! More of a very-nearly...I understand that the prototype was partially completed at least, so not quite as outrageous as some Luftwaffe 46 models! The kit itself was an odd mixture of soft detail and unclear fit...that said, it did come together to provide a strangely convincing model. I think Mike McEvoy, late of Scale Aircraft Modeller Tail Piece fame ( for us modellers of a certain age) would have approved...a historically plausible paint scheme with a plausible unit badge (a BoB unit as well) over a simple but very interesting 'almost' aircraft. My first for 2024...my second will continue the futuristic V-tailed theme, albeit something that actually flew, and a little closer to today! More anon. Paints AK Interactive and Tamiya. Decals kit and from the spares box.

Well I do actually live in Eye, and regularly run on the old runway and taxi ways. Great to sed such a well executed model of an Eye based airframe!

Off beat but very cool! I had no idea about the propect of Estonian Spitfires...less of a what-if' and more of a 'if only!

Hallo all, All as per the subject line really....does anyone know if the Ecuadorian airforce still has the two seat Cheetah D in service, or if not, when they were retired? Am contemplating which markings to do my Kinetic Cheetah D in. I know they were delivered around about 2012....I have a inkling that the two seaters may not have made it past 2015, and I did see one article that suggests the whole fleet(Inc the Cheetah C single seaters) may have been retired in 2021. All very vague however so if anyone has up to date info that'd be great! Cheers Ralph

Doing the same in 1/72...will use this as an excellent reference!👍

Ideal! Ralph No.25! Getting there!