Scargsy

Thanks, might be worth a shot - this Zero Paint stuff is supposed to be pre-thinned, but the final coat I did add a bit of self-leveling thinners, which I think helped (although that was over the already rough surface).

A couple of sanding and repriming sessions later and I think I've got all the wrong bit right (hint I hadn't). I tried to paint the front splitter directly in Tamiya X-5 Green, but it didn't show up great over the black primer, so I mixed some of the grey primer I had on hand into it, giving a priming 'minty green coat' Body was then given a coat of Zero white, and the splitter another coat of Green - this time going down much better. The body I gave another 2 light coats of Zero Paint white - I'm not why but I always end up with a kind of texture? The final coat I'd actually added a little bit of extra thinning in the form of self-leveling thinner, hoping it would help by 'sinking' into the low points and also by softening the paint but it didn't seem to help... I'd love to know what it is causing this texture because if I could do it when I want (and remove it when I don't) then that would be handy. I tried looking at it under my 30x hand held microscope and what it appears to be is small pits in the paint surface, could it be badly mixed paint, bad atomisation in my airbrush? Me applying the paint in too much of thin mist coats rather than wet ones? My primer coat? What's unusual is it is pretty uniform over the entire model (i.e. it doesn't look like I'd expect orange peel - with a bit too much paint in one area and it being blown about by the air as it dries - but maybe it is?) Anyhow - I'll try and remove the larger dust lumps and try flatting it back a bit with some 2500 grit, but the issue is that the paint has pits (it actually feels smooth to the touch) so it's not like tiny high spots I can knock off. Next will be masking and painting the purple parts - the kit comes with decals for them which I might use down the rear top section but hopefully I can paint the parts that at least have the yellow border decals.

M3 Grant CDL Takom kit in 1/35 OOB (other than the usual paint, glue, etc.) Build thread here, Fun build, nice kit.

I gave the hull a few over-shots of lighter tones - a mix of AK Real Colors SCC15 and Faded Olive Drab, a slightly darker mix to start with then a lighter mix, trying to give it a bit of highlighting. Here it is after the first coat I think... The wheel rubbers were painted and the link and length tracks attached... The tracks were a hellishly fiddly bit of messing about trying to get fitted - you can see I've kind of chipped the PE (I didn't add any metal primer), also I had to add in an extra link per side, luckily there were some spare track parts that are unused in the kit, annoyingly it was about 1/2 a link too short. I decided to not clearcoat but just try and lightly sand smooth the paint a little under the decal placements, it didn't come out too badly - but there's a little silvering under the larger clear decal sections. I then gave it a quick once over with Mr Topcoat Gloss. Once dried I then brushed on some Microscale satin (thinned with a little IPA) - the alcohol does have a tendency to slightly loosen the paint slightly but a small amount of blending/bleeding isn't a problem here. I tried a couple of filters (neutral grey and yellow/green) but they didn't sit too well so I thinned/spread them with some white spirits to be more of a wash, then did some detail painting on the tools, dry brushing on the track guides and painting some of the track pads I hadn't. After that I added a few dark dirt/grime washes (water/clay based Flory Models stuff - which is great as you can wipe or wash it off later if you don't like it). I added some 'dried splash mud' flicking it off the paint brush with a tooth-pick, then a little more grime washing on the mud. I gave the whole thing a coat of rattle can Tamiya flat-clear, then removed the masking for the periscopes and added the other clear parts (the lens for the mirror I painted silver on the inside then fitted through the turret). I painted the headlight interiors then attached the clear parts - I may have added a bit too much Microscale Krystal Klear, hopefully it will eventually dry (if it hasn't completely sealed itself in airtight). So there it is - another group build finished. Quite a nice kit I have to say, my first Takom one and I reckon I might need to do another at some point! Some of the bits are a bit fiddly (I managed to brake/snap off both the grab handles on either side at one point or another) and the PE was a bit fiddly but overall an enjoyable build!

Oooh I hadn't expected them to swing/slide inside, I'm not sure how the kit version/parts work - I presumed they hinged on the ends/flapped open like a door there are hinge parts I guess I'll have to take a look later, luckily there are also some photos on the box of a completed model so I can reference how they presume it fits together.

Yep I built that up for the Nordic GB. @Redstaff I used some aftermarket decals in mine so should still have the original Tamiya ones (minus a couple like the dash) if you need some spares for free, I'll take a look later in my box - I always get terrified about messing up big complex decals at the final phase! I'm planning on joining the GB, probably with a car (or two), plenty of options in my stash but I'm not sure what to go with yet (rally and road cars), I only have one lone Japanese plane in my stash (F15J) but that I'm earmarking for the F15 GB. Just need to make some space first (3 GBs on going)!

Small amount of progress - The body shell was primed in a mix of Mr Surfacer White 1500 and Grey 1000 (with self-leveling thinners) along with the wing parts. However I'd forgotten to remove the seam lines down the sides of the body shell so I've since sanded them out and re-primed those areas. The rest of the parts I primed in a mix of Grey 1000 and Black 1500, the instructions call for black but I thought a very dark grey might make it more interesting. The wheels and seat I primed in just black for contrast.

Small progress - the wheel wells were built up and wing halves closes up, I couldn't help test fitting them onto the spars. I'm planning on doing it wheels up but thought I'd stick a little bit of something greenish in the wheel wells just in case it's visible. I haven't decided whether I'll do the bomb bay open or closed - open will require cutting the single piece into 4 parts! The interior I gave a bit of a wash with Army Painter 'dark shade' acrylic wash and attached the inner fitting windows before sealing up the halves and adding the nose extension pieces. The rear of the bomb bay didn't want to nicely sit against the lower part of the hull but with a bit of glue and persuasion via pressure from the back of a knife handle pushed through the turret ring and it finally played ball. Engine nacelles/parts were attached, I need to do a whole heap of seam cleanup on the wings and fuselage halves before fitting any of the smaller fiddly bits and risking snapping them, for now the wings are just slotted on and not glued.

So I finally managed to make a start on this - the M3/M4 GB taking priority due to closing dates... Interior parts built painted and built up. Clear parts have been dipped in Pledge awaiting drying before attaching to the interior parts. I might give the interior parts a quick wash before closing up the halves.

I managed to get a bit of progress on the M3, though there's plenty of other GBs I need to get on with - this is the closest finishing date. Main parts all fitted together well - though I wished I'd fitted the final piece of hull sides (by the main gun) earlier as is would have been better with the glue slightly soft still to get a good fit. A slight annoyance is that piece also that the sprue attachment points were on the visible part, and have left marks - I could have sanded them out but that risks removing the cast texture on the piece! Another slight annoyance on the kit design is that the front lower glacis plate piece (I guess gearbox cover) doesn't include the upper part on the real thing (with the bolts) and there's an obvious joint (would have been nicer if that was where the physical joint was). With all the main parts fitted I added some small amounts of filling - the fit in general is great on the kit... One thing I found odd is that there are some clear parts for various vision blocks/periscopes - but not others (e.g. in the drivers window). I've added some small bits of masking for the clear periscope parts but have left out the main clear part on the turret for now (I'll fit that post painting as it would be a paint to mask and it should be easy enough to fit into the turret later from the inside). I fitted most of the PE parts, though I hate using CA glue. The Bob Smith thin stuff is just too thin for my liking - it just runs like crazy but is too thin to pickup on the end of a cocktail stick to move blobs where you need it. Trying to attach the the thin side plates I ended up with a bunch of the glue running up onto the door - but fear not, I raided the wife's stash and used some Boot's Nail Polish Remover (mainly acetone) and managed to remove most of the mess with a cotton bud soaked in it. Some of the PE parts were a bit of a PITA - like the light guards, even with the bending guide, but I got them fitted. I was in half a mind as to whether or not to fit the stowage and tools pre or post paint - but given I hate using CA glue and poly solvent attacks paint I figured I'd fit it first. I also added some rough masking for the bogie fittings, I plan to attach these post priming, so I at least get some primer coat on the harder to reach points - masking off the areas I hope to get a better plastic to plastic bond for the glue post priming. Time to add the primer; I went with Mr Mahogany Surfacer 1000 - hopefully any bits I miss paint from later will at least look muddy, plus I tend to find that lacquer paint/primer has a tendancy to bleed through subsequent paint coats, so a muddy base colour should work well for my tank. Unfortunately I managed to crush one of the handles on the side during painting (though fixed it), though worst still one of the side panel parts I'd managed to knock slightly loose - so decided to run some of the extra thin CA glue along the joint however it was so thin it ran all the way down, up the glacis and onto the upper glacis! I decided to again try the nail polish remover to clean up the spill but my words - I didn't expect it to shift the primer as much as it did! I think I may have just found my new airbrush cleaner solution! On fitting the bogies I discover I'd fitted half of the return rollers back to front and it's too late to remove them - still it could have been worse than 50:50. Also the idlers didn't seem to fit on the spokes, so I needed to sand down the spokes and drill out the holes a little. I decided that the primer might not be a dark enough base colour, so I applied a coat of Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab which is quite dark, in full sun here it doesn't look too bad though it is quite dark. I did notice that the front seam on the gearbox cover is still pretty obvious - I'm wondering if I can fill that up and also there are some pretty nasty seam lines on the bits on the back of the rear stowage bins (fire extinguishers?) - though I'll sand them out.

I managed to make some progress over the weekend... Firstly building up all the suspension bogies - are these things termed bogies? This was a rather complicated affair as they are all moveable. from the lower arms to the cross-brace stabilisers and the return rollers. They do look pretty smart when finished. The return rollers are a multi-part affair too with a very fine inner ring to fit on either side. I even managed to successfully cut the small nuts (or whatever they are mean to be - end of the cross braces on the arms?) which are tiny little dots, supplied on the edge of the sprue on a flat bit, then carefully position these on the lower arms near the pivot ends. There's plenty of glue runs in them though but lets just call that, erm, 'pre-weathering'. I managed to do all this and keep them all free spinning/moving even with the extra thin glue - the trick is (because invariably you'll get some down the wheel axles) to just keep spinning the wheel as the glue dries so it doesn't get chance to bite. Given they still seem a little fragile I'll be leaving these off until the rest of the hull is built up, the lower arms are simply held in place by shape/fricition - a small piece either side that slots into some shallow depressions front and back. Once I've attached all the suspension I may glue it all up to give it some more rigidity, I'll be using the link and length tracks supplied so not much scope for posing it rock-crawling, so once the suspension is mounted a bit of glue and a flat surface should hold help align them all in a level configuration. There was rather a lot of tall flash from ejector pins on the inside of each half of the suspension parts - so much in fact that I initailly mistook it for some part of the suspension - to limit the travel! After what seemed like a massive time sinc with the running gear, once I got onto the hull it all seemed to fly by quickly and start to resemble a tank! The roof is just loosely placed on in the photo, to check alignment, seems like it should easily fit with a bit of glue and firm persuasion. Running gear safely stowed in the hull for now.

So I'm going to be building this for the GB... I do like obscure subjects and odd looking and/or asymmetric vehicles so this is right up my street. Apparently they were designed to use powerful carbon-arc lamps to illuminate and disorient the enemy at night - though I'm sure in combat that would see them draw more fire on themselves. Apparently the turret gun in these M3 conversions was simply a fake dummy one, in order to disguise them more as regular M3 tanks to the enemy. Onto the kit, the box contains a nice sprue layout on the side... Here's a few shots of those sprues, lots of parts in this kit... Pretty much all individually bagged, apart from the duplicates and also 2 sprues in one bag, though the bag there was folded down the centre so the two sprues were separated. All looks very nicely moulded with lots of detail, haven't seen any nasty flash, ejector marks or mould lines so far. I think this is the first Takom kit I've built but the quality seems great, I like the fact the sprue identifying letters are big and actually cut out voids so easy to see. Only issue I've found so far is that the long piece of photoetch seems to have been bent in the box as it's got caught under the corner of the instructions, but hopefully easy to flatten back out if needed. The instructions are in a nice glossy black and white booklet, with a colour foldout paint/decal guide. My only issue with that is that it's quite small scale but given the minimal number of decals and overall olive drab scheme it shouldn't be too much of an issue (there's also a high quality scan version on Scalemates.com I can zoom in on if I need to help my poor eyesight). So without further ado I decided I'd make a start, fit and detail is great - so good that I mistook some of the detail on the inside edges of the drive wheel casings (I think this is part of the cast markings) for glue drops and started sanding it out. So that'll do for a start, the next part is assembling all the wheels, bogies and tracks. There seem a lot of potentially fiddly little parts and I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to tackle these link and length tracks, wheels and painting everything. Ideally I'd like to paint the tracks separately then attach after painting everything else, I'll have to see how easy that will be to achieve, but that's for another day.

So time to start this build, on opening the box I'm immediately confronted with a mountain of sprues, mostly packed 3 to a bag... I can forsee lots of frustration trying to find the correct sprue/part with all that lot, though there seems lots of optional pieces - e.g. 3 or 4 blade props. The parts themselves look nicely moulded with lots of detail, I haven't seen much flash or other marks so far. Also the single biggest clear sprue I think I've ever seen (sorry about the reflections, I like to keep the clears sealed until I need to open the bag)... The instructions are the older Revell style of black and white booklet, there's 101 steps in there (OK some are for various optional parts and 2 are actually paint guides). Some of it isn't overly clear though - e.g. optionally removing things that from the image I can't see what and more importantly I can't see why, I'll need to study it to work out what options I'm going with and maybe cross out bits before I start gluing. Here's the aftermarket stuff - turns out I do have some decals! I also found (for some odd reason) I'd put the sales receipt in the box so I can tell you this has been sat in the stash since September 2012, almost 10 years! I've also got some Hataka "Bomber Command" paints (orange line = lacquer) that I previously used on the Bristol Beaufort build and somewhere a Haynes manual for the Halifax, which should come in handy for reference. I decided to dive right in (so much for reading the instructions first), fit seems pretty good - I'm using the fuselage halves as a jig to help ensure the alignment of the interior parts. Oddly the cross wing spars are moulded directly onto the floor piece. Interior detail looks pretty nice, though I'm not sure how much will be visible when completed.

OK so time to make a start - the MiG GB entries now finished, here's what's in the box... Not a huge number of pieces (and some are used for other variants), no engine so quite a simple kit - I guess the challenge will be in getting a good paint finish. the only tricky construction part appears to be the rear wing support which looks like it could be fiddly and a bit flimsy. The kit includes decals for all the purple parts but I'm not sure I trust them, or my skills to get them on all those large areas smoothly so I'll be attempting to paint the purple parts, luckily the yellow stripes are separate decals for the most part so can be overlayed on the joins to help cover up any untidy masking edges hopefully. The only exception to that will be those parts that run over the roof towards the rear, I'm not sure if I'll use them as is or attempt to cutout those purble bits and mask/paint the purple areas on the roof. Let's hope the colours are a good match. All the white plastic parts were packaged into a single poly bag, so unfortuantely there's a few small scratches on the side of the bodywork I'll need to sort out. Instructions all seem pretty simple and straightforward, however I'm not looking forward to masking up the interior of the windows to paint the glass edges. Anyhow I decided now was as good a time as any to make a start so attached in the side panels. Annoyingly these only attach on two of the three sides (the edge towards the front and the top edge) with little lips, so I added some thin strips of plasticard on the rear edge (after test fitting the body to check I had clearance). I also added the wing mirrors at this stage, as I wanted to get a good join prior to paint, as well as a tiny in-fill piece that goes into the front air scoop. The interior cabin was attached to the underside and I separated off the spoiler parts - leaving some small sprue attachements to help me hold them during painting. The seat was also tidied up - it had come away from the sprue already, it appears to have some raised moulded parts to represent the seatbelts, so I guess they'll need painting - would be a pain to have to sand them out of the concave seat, they seem quite soft in terms of detail/edges though. So that's it so far - I'm planning on try to sort the pieces for an airbrush session, I like to paint as much as possible in one go, rather than a piece at a time. I'm not sure on what paint to use yet - I have some Zero Paints white and purple for the Jag but I much prefer using self-leveling thinned Mr Color stuff as it's more forgiving in terms of application mistakes. No idea on what colour to prime the white too, sometimes I have issues with grey primer bleeding back through whites.

There are a few pics online I found - the actual aircraft 144-2 is on display at Monino Museum in Moscow, there's a few pics online it seems to have been left outside next to a Tu-144, can't quite see what colour the cockpit is though!

PK-75 Humber Mk II Armoured Car, 1/76, Revell Reboxing Build log here Finished a while back, just forgot to post to the gallery, photographed here against some real Saharan sand blown into Surrey from Africa (which I may collect for weathering powder)

Thanks, yep if only I could hide that stand

Zvezda 1/72 MiG-21bis "Fishbed" with Polish markings OOB, build log here.

So I've managed to get another GB over the finish line, it's been tandem built along side my MiG21I so that kind of helped - especially with my 'free' photo limit rapidly filling up on Flickr! First thing was to get all the small details attached and fill the joins. The canopy was clear dipped in Pledge before attaching the canopy mask. One thing with the mask - it was an Eduard mask set for this kit however it didn't seem to be developed for it! Firstly the main canopy cover was too short (I had to snip them in half then fill the gap with some tape) and also the kit has a small sensor array/mirror/something lump on the top of the canopy part, which the mask set didn't seem to be designed for. Still after a bit of fiddling I managed to get everything where it needed to be. I decided to apply the weapon loadout as shown on the box art (multi-launch rocket pods on the outer pylons and the larger missles on the inner). From the info I could find it appeared that the pods and the drop tank should be bare aluminium like the rest of the aircraft so I decided to attach them now before paint. One odd think in the kit is that it supplies a little 'jig' to correctly position the outer pylons relative to the inner ones, though this was a bit fraught trying to line this up and get everything glued together without the glue wicking underneath the jig and sticking it, since it's also styrene, but I managed to do it without creating a glue bomb! One thing I noticed is that unfortunately the top side of the wings had deformed where I'd pushed the undercarriage doors in to make them flush (this plus the glue must have softened them enough that the shape now pops through the topside somewhat annoyingly! Primer was Mr Surfacer black 1500 (white for the missiles) mixed 1:1 with self leveling thinners. I decided to try AK Xtreme metal for the surfaces. First I airbrushed a bit of dark aluminium over the whole thing, then mixed that with aluminium and then additionally a few patches were overshot with their dull aluminium, I'm not sure I got the effect I was looking for but I was aiming for something that didn't look too uniform in colour across the whole aircraft. The small green patches on the tail fin and stabilizer I hand painted in green. I decided to apply the decals directly to the metal coat, then do a sealing clear over everything. I avoided using any Microset as I wasn't sure how well the metal colour would react. however with just water the decals were a little prone to moving (I can see one of the stencils on the left side of the tail fin has wandered off somewhat!) I managed to get some scratch marks when attempting to buff the metal coat but applied some AK 'True Metal' paste which seems to have covered the worst of it. I also used some on the exhaust portion of the fuselage to attempt to get a slightly different colour. I did see somewhere a review of this kit suggesting that it shouldn't have the Polish emblems on the top sides of the wings given the age of the aircraft but given I'd kind of messed up with the undercarriage doors poking through I decided to apply them anyway to attempt to distract from the humps and bumps! The underside wing emblems the kit instructions would have had me place underneath where the rocket pods and pylons are located, I decided to move them inboard for visibility. Overall the decals went down very nicely - the large 9494 ones I'd been worried wouldn't conform or would silver but they went down amazingly well. I gave the decals a small going over with some MicroSol, hoping that the solvent would help melt and 'stick' them where they were a little reluctant to stay, such as some of the tiny stencils. With the decals on and dried I gave the whole thing a clear coat with Mr Topcoat Gloss rattle can, then left it overnight to cure. The final stage was a wash with Flory Models 'grime' - it's a clay/water based mixture, you apply it, let it dry then using a moist cloth, etc. remove the excess to taste. So that's it finished, another GB finished that, as always, takes twice as long as I predict it will when I start!

1/72 MiG21I (prototype used to test the wing design for the Tu-144) Modelsvit kit Build log here

So a few tiny detail greeblies to fit, I discovered I hadn't needed to fill the holes in the bottom for the drop tank pylon as it comes with it, so I drilled them back out with the pin vice and fitted the pylon. After dipping the canopy parts in Pledge I added the canopy mask - unfortunately I couldn't get one designed for the kit and the Eduard one for the Modelsvit MiG-21F-13 wasn't a great fit but a but at least it got me somewhere close without having to do everything from scratch (the front window fitted fine and the main canopy parts needed cutting and shutting, just leaving the small front side windows to make. When fitting the canopy I discovered it didn't quite fit, the seat was just too high, so I needed to snip the headrest off, file it down a touch and reattach to get some clearance. Then onto primer - I used Mr Surfacer 1500 black thinned 1:1 No drama with the primer, this stuff does go on well and is quite forgiving. I was planning on maybe doing some or all of it then in a gloss black before the silver but since time was pressing I decided to just crack on, so after leaving that overnight to cure I decided to try using some AK Xtreme Metal. I had a couple of shades (dark aluminium, aluminium and flat aluminium), I was attempting to see if I could mix and blend them though my airbrushing skills need some improvement. There is a slight 'graininess' to the cover I got, but I believe this is due to not using a gloss black underneath. After leaving it to dry I did try polishing it, that didn't seem to work well for me, I had a few scratches though I'd accidentally made in it (seems quite soft) I did a bit of touchup with AK 'True Metal' paste stuff (it comes in oil paint type tubes, is wax based and can buff up, never used it before) - I figured since you can wipe it on/buff it I could hopefully get it to fill the scratches. It's a bit of a pain to use as it seems it can dry a little too fast when initially brushing it on, but it did enough for my needs. I also tried their dark aluminium on the exhaust - though it seemed not very dark compared to the fuselage. Once I'd let that dry off overnight again I added the decals, which seemed a little brittle though I managed to get away with only snapping a small point of one of the Soviet stars... I was concerned about trying to not make the thing look too 'toy like' with multiple clears over the silver finish, so decided I'd skip adding a clear coat before decals, I figured that it should be glossy enough. I wasn't sure how well the metallic paint would react to decal solution so didn't use any 'fix' soloution and once in place gently just brushed some small amounts of Micro-sol onto the decals. The final stages were a coat of Mr Topcoat Gloss (this seems pretty unreactive and decal safe in my experience) and once that had dried I gave it a clay wash / wipe with some Flory Models 'dark', to highlight the panel lines and hopefully give a small amount of weathering. I should have maybe sealed that in with another clear coat, but I'm unusure how the clay wash would react if I went on heavily and I was kind of happy with the visual appearance. There are two small clear parts to fit on the underside - however in the end I decided to make some lenses in place using Micro Krystal Klear - though at the time of photographing the larger one towards the front undercarriage door hasn't completely dried clear yet. Photographed against a backdrop of freshly deposited Saharan sand on my garden furniture cover (thanks to the recent weather here in Surrey) - I think it makes some interesting naturalistic looking coastline like features. Anyhow another GB kit finished, onto the next!

I'm now living The Good Life in Surbiton (SW London) - though without the goat or Felicity Kendal next door.

Update time. So the exhaust was built up - seemed again (like the cockpit/seat) an overly complex affair. The nose cone I filled with 'Liquid Gravity' but I had a bit of an issue - firstly it was a bit too wide (using the side 'tabs' to attach to the the fuselage halves) so I shaved some off - and then it was too thin! Also given the connection points are at the back and I've weighted it - it wouldn't nicely and securely fix. I notice it's twin build I'm doing alongside (with no weight in the nose) seems to have suffered a bit of 'nose droop' as the glue set. After a bit of head scratching I decided to use some plasticard 'spacers' to connect to the back of the wheel well. Since this isn't a completely vertical face I also added some additional 'bracing' pieces, as well as a small safety cross section in front of the cockpit instrument panel - this is to stop me accidentally dropping in the top cover piece later on as there'd be no way of fishing it back out easily! The cockpit was then added - one of my major gripes with this kit is the general lack of locator pins meaning everything is kind of wonky with my building - I ended up needing to chop a fair amount out of the cockpit side instrument panels as well as the sides of the front panel in order to get everything in - probably at least in some part due to me misaligning everything! The alignment issues/lack of helper locators also struck with the exhaust placement, I wasn't sure exactly where it should go but it seemed to fit best quite far back (when compared to the Zvezda kit I'm building alongside - only just inside the fuselage at the rear. The fuselage halves were then closed up (not too bad a fitment) but still needed a lot of cleanup along the seam (since otherwise it'll show up like a sore thumb with a NMF), also the holes for the fuel tank needed filling on the underside (no optional fuel tank in the kit, or for the variant AFAIK). Wings were then added and it started to look more like a plane (or a tiny space shuttle) than a pencil... The wing fitting wasn't terribly great either - I still need to fill those top wing joints and it seems (maybe a little late to fix now) that the wings are actually different shapes/width/profiles/sizes (especially towards the front). Anyhow enough for now - here's the shot (above) of it next to it's sister build. I haven't decided if I'll do it undercarriage up or not yet - possibly up as it will keep the smooth lines but maybe make hanging it difficult (nothing much to attach to at the front end).

So my second entry for the GB and I'm finally building something other than an aircraft this year! Hopefully suitably big and British - 7 litre, V12, 720HP monster, 4.8 metres long and loud as hell. I prefer the look of the open rear wheel Le-Mans version but this is what I have in the stash and I'm going to build it OOB. I'll be adding the cancer stick logos for historical accuracy (I think they come supplied in the kit) - hopefully I'm OK posting those logos/pics on BM? Build to start / sprue shots / etc. once I get the two tiny MiGs off the workbench!

Another rendition of this Revell kit for the GB... It's going to be mainly OOB - I think I've picked up some masks (camo and window) somewhere in my stash over the years as well as some resin wheels - which may or may not get used. This has been sat in the stash some time, I think I got it when the Model Zone chain of shops closed down when they were selling off stock, certainly one of the larger kits in my stash (I'm sure I've already filled the hole it's made in it). I'm not sure I like the Mk II tailfins (I prefer the later D shaped ones) or the yellow strips on the wing leading edges but I'm not in the mood for going for any more aftermarket and will just build it as is - the kit does give 2 options and I think with the different nose and possibly the D tails for the GR coastal command version but I'm going for the box art version I think, if I can dig out that camo mask, I've been doing too many grey or black aircraft of late so a bit of sand and spinach camo will be a welcome relief.