Tim R-T-C

Well, like most people I suspect, family commitments on those days are now gone, so I'm in. Got my local club Group Build due for the 4th Jan so might try a shot at that. Its the Revell 1/32 VW Beetle open to all adaptations.... 🤔

Hello all, I've got some figures on the way for Christmas from the masterbox range and want to spice them up with some firearms but can't find any packs in scale like you get in 35th. Does anyone know of any, or any 24th figures that come with spare weapons. I see there are a handful of police figures etc. from ICM. Many thanks

Still been working on this intermittently - you will also note that I have a new cutting mat! Almost complete, just tidying up the sand texture. Here is a teaser...

Hello modelling friend. I got back into modelling last year, encouraged by my wife and the persuasion of the IMPS Keighley secretary who happens to live locally and with whom I occasionally shared a commute (for future readers - that was when you worked from home, but in a big home with lots of other workers and it was called an office and you had to travel there on a train with other people). After a few basic builds I re-discovered my love of 144th scale aircraft and joined the 144 SIG. I displayed a couple of models at SMW 2019, on the club and SIG tables and planned to make 2020 a year where I would hopefully build new models for each show on the calendar we attended. Obviously (spoiler alert) that wasn't to happen and I managed to get to the Bolton show in January and Halifax in February before that stopped being possible. My favourite build from this period was the first of my Airfield series, an attempt in 144th scale to make a vignette of an airfield scene with two or more aircraft, along with figures and sometimes vehicles too, putting the aircraft in context and giving some more substance to these diminutive models. On impulse I picked up some mini-canvases to use as a base and found they worked very well and the resulting RAF Boxted 1944 scene is still one of my favourite completed scenes. I did record this build as part of the Mustang IV STGB At the same time I did produce a couple of other models in different scales, trying my hand at a first 1/35 figure in a scene entitled What was it worth? As well as building a 1/288 scale An-24 from an Eastern Express kit. The whole scene is entirely contained inside the lid of a coffee tin. At the beginning of March as it became clear that modelling was going to be a major and long-term hobby, we invested in some of the HobbyZone pieces for our rapidly growing paint collection, which was quite a long but worthwhile building process! ------------------------------ Chapter 2 --------------------------------------- Then of course, you-know-what happened and I was put on furlough for what would turn out to be two full months, during which time my wife and I literally only left the house for a weekly shopping trip that felt more like a scene from a zombie film. As a result, we chose to dedicate essentially all of our waking hours to modelling (and eating!). Wanting to continue to develop my skills, I pushed myself to try new things in each build - my first two additions to the 144th Airfield Collection being an Irish Baldonnel airfield mid-60s scene featuring a resin two-seat Spitfire conversion and first try at metal finish, and a scene from the Zurich 1937 airshow with a rigged Eduard Avia B.534. To create a scene from El Pato airbase, Peru in 2005 based on reference photos I did my first heavy weathering and first use of aftermarket schemes to make two stored Su-22s and a taxiing Su-25. Wanting to avoid my builds from becoming too homogenous, while ordering the lettering decals used on the above project from Minibits, I picked up a handful of £0.29 15mm wargame metal figures, just for fun and combined with a deep picture frame and some cardboard model railway building kits I made a scene called Old York. Which lead onto my Bank Holiday Blitzbuild, the Dwarven Watchtower at Old Filey Point - a 24 hour conversion of a toilet roll core (a topical theme if ever there was one!) into a castle vignette. -------------------------- Chapter 3------------------------------------------ June and then July rolled around with a partial and then a fully return to work, but I was able to keep the modelling moving on - my wife long ago agreed to permanently sacrifice our dining room table to become a fulltime modelling spot (she in fact being a far more prodigious modeller than I and with her love of bucolic 1/76 dioramas, producing a far great size of output too!) and it became a welcome relaxation after a busy day at work. My focus was definitely on more 144th scale planes and more attempts to find interesting ways to present them. Marsaille's Bf109F and his iconic Kubelwagen The miniscule UT-1 floatplane UT-1 and UT-2 trainers at a Soviet training airfield somewhere East of Moscow, early 1942. Hurricanes of the Rhodesian Air Training Group 1945 I did make a thread for these Rhodesian Hurricanes too. My first attempt at brush painting Vallejo Air and using chipping fluid - I think reasonably successfully too. A post-war Chinese Nationalist P47D Razorback A post-war Belgian Spitfire XIV, part of a GB. A Kuwaiti SA330 - a long time in gestation, I actually started this back in about 2006 - read the full saga in the post below... But 144th scale isn't just for planes and there are some very nice vehicle kits available too. Like with the planes, the amazing advantage of such a small scale is being able to incorporate everything into a pocket sized diorama. A British Army Warrior operating in Bosnia, 1994 In Scenes from the Russian Civil War - the crew of a Red Army armoured car (Brengun resin Ruso-Balt B ) including the ubiquitous Mr Trotsky, inspect an abandoned White Army Whippet (Arrowhead whitemetal). And combining the two to make my most elaborate scene to date: In Bad Day at the Office - after flak damage and a run in with an interceptor over France, this P47D pilot suffered stuck gear and made an emergency landing at the first airbase he found back across the channel - going sliding off the end and into a field with a rescue jeep in hot pursuit! Now Lt. Kibbe has to explain to the RAF officers that he doesn't need to attend their medical facility but instead to get back to his own airfield (is a town visit night!) while the rescue jeep crew put away their unrequired extinguishers and a couple of US soldiers arrive on the scene having been summoned to guard the aircraft from souvenir hunters. Platz P47 with Arrowhead vehicles and figures. -----END OF PART 1----- (I need to take some new photos and have another evening to type up the second half of the year, I hope you have enjoyed reading so far).

Lovely work and delightfully esoteric scheme

I'd certainly be game for this one. I've got several aircraft with RAE marking options (maybe enough to make the 1945 open day as a diorama?)

Lovely build, such an unusual topic.

Looking forward to seeing this one build up. Like the mini 737-500s, the SP has such a memorable look.

A great selection of planes, I think my favourite would be the Birddog for the nutty armament! Thanks also for some great feedback on my builds though the year too. Very encouraging for a rookie. Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you. 😁

Inspired by some lovely urban decay dioramas on Instagram, I thought I would give it a try. Almost entirely scratchbuilt using brick texture styrene from Slaters along with several sheets of foamcore and styrene. The pipes are from kit sprues and the aircon is just sheet styrene. A Tamiya oildrum made the bin and the signs and packaging are from the excellent ETA Graphics collection. The graffiti tags are mostly based on reference photos.

I've had a few orders like that this year without the note and it looked like only half the order arrived until I started opening boxes! Presumably the reason for the notes. It makes sense, a lot of kits have huge amounts of extra space in the box - see Miniart diorama accessories!

I've got one kit and two decal sets - Iranian and North Yemeni - so I'd be game. Might try and find a donor for the Retokit F model resin two seat conversion for the Yemeni scheme.

Thanks, I've already got Iranian and North Yemeni decals for that kit 😁 Need more airframes to play with 🤔

Thanks, I had seen a profile but never looked at the details!

The Revell kit, long OOP. I know there is a Dragon two-plane boxing, but I'm wary to order anything from Japan at present - wait until Christmas and Brexit customs changes settle down. Should be able to get in time for this GB though 😀

I'm scouring my references for a unique aviation project. Anyone planning a Botswanian F-5 yet? Problem is I've only got one F-5 kit and three sets of decals for it.... and they are hard to come by.

Delightful scene, really captures the period feel.

I'd certainly be interested in an Iran Air SP at that price 😁

Well whenever I open my Eduard drawer I'm confronted by a stack of Bubbletops, so I'm certainly in! Also got a couple of Thuds in the stash too. Would love someone to release the P-43 in scale but sadly Dora Wings seem to have stopped downsizing to 144th 😔

Hmmmm..... lets see Desert Storm GB Sun, 17 Jan 21 Sat, 15 May 21 - not sure at this time but I've got an SDV 1/87 MT-LB with Iraqi colours which will probably be unique in this GB! Africa Sat, 20 Feb 21 Sun, 13 Jun 21 - got a whole stack of MiGs and African decals just perfect for this one. Anything But Injection Sat, 20 Mar 21 Sun, 11 Jul 21 - lots of cardboard kits and whitemetal fantasy figures ready. T-6 Texan STGB Sat, 3 Apr 21 Sun, 4 Jul 21 - three in the stash - possibly a faux-Zero, or a Syrian AF gate guard. Less Than A Tenner Sat, 15 May 21 Sun, 5 Sep 21 - most of my collection would fit here. Try to get a whole diorama in for under £10? Bf 109 STGB Sat, 29 May 21 Sun, 29 Aug 21 - 11 in the stash, possibly an East Front model being painted in winter scheme. French Fancy II Wed, 14 Jul 21 Sun, 7 Nov 21 - part 3 of my French Indochina trilogy F-4 Phantom STGB Sat, 21 Aug 21 Sun, 21 Nov 21 - if I've not built it already, I've got an Academy F4 and some IRIAF decals. Nordic 2 Sat, 4 Sep 21 Sun, 26 Dec 21 - I have slightly started a Finnish airfield scene for 1942 which if not already finished will be ideal here. F-14 STGB Sat, 18 Sep 21 Sun, 19 Dec 21 - my IRIAF F-14s, or the Tomcats for my Nimitz 1941 diorama. Might join some of the others too if time and stash allows.

My last order of Eastern Express kits from China had a declared value of $10... so how many 144th scale airliners am I allowed to enter? 🤔😉

I'd like to throw my stylish beret into the ring please. Having started my French Indochina trilogy with a 1954 scene in the Corsair STGB then gone back to 1951 with the Normandie-Niemen battalion's Hellcats arriving in the Vietnam GB, I can go back to the late 40s for a bomb armed Spitfire, visiting Aéronavale Dauntless and pair of decaying, captured Ki-51s.

JBr decals do a nice sheet in 144th of African Fishbeds, all the schemes are illustrated on their website. http://www.jbr-decals.com/index.php?typ=shop&lang=en&action=product_detail&pr_id=11 Might be some inspiration for people. I've got this sheet along with 4 MF, 4 bis and two UM models ready to build. Plus some UARAF MiG-15 bis/UTIs too. So I'll definitely be bringing some MiGs to the party.