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Looks very good to me, While the all black scheme may be a bit boring, for me I think it works because the focus is put on the unusual shape which is where most people's interest in this aircraft would be.

Looks like the National Maritime Museum holds plans for both Grafton and Shikari (links below). But as your interest is in changes made to them later in their careers I'm not sure if those plans would also cover those later modifications, perhaps you'll need to rely on photographs. Others here are very knowledgeable on destroyers though so hopefully someone else will be along with the answers you seek. Shikari Grafton Grafton

Looks great to me. Working on an Eduard Mig-15 myself, as you say the kit is great but the fit being so precise makes any errors you may make even more punishing. I doubt my finish will look as good as this.

Lovely work, the painted roundels and serials look great.

Ashamed to say I've not progressed beyond the research stage at this point due to various other distractions. I have the Tamiya 1/700 E Class kit and the White Ensign E&F class photo etch set to go with it. My current thinking is to try and kitbash this with elements taken from another kit of a close subject such as the IBG 1/700 HMS Harvester kit reviewed on BM here. This kit is for a 1943 configuration H-Class and appears to contain many of the same surface level configuration changes that were made to Firedrake during the war such as the shortened aft funnel, additional anti-aircraft weaponry, added depth charge capacity and more. This may very well be an utterly flawed plan but for someone who doesn't normally build ship models it seemed like a way for me to attempt building something 'good enough' if not completely accurate in a relatively simple way. Was it this kit by any chance? Scalemates link. Have to admit the tiny scale is quite daunting, especially when thinking about things like rigging.

Yes I'd read that this happened to Firedrake so will have to reflect the change and her rear torpedo mount was also replaced by additional AA I believe. At 1/700 I suppose it isn't going to leave a massive amount of space to fill will just have to work out how best to fill it without it looking out of place. Edit: Thinking about it some more, for the deck areas in general would I be looking at just dark grey or some combination or that with a brown or green I've seen on other kits?

Thank you all for the input, that's extremely helpful. I'll likely go with the Tamiya kit then as the cost is a bit more palatable if I mess it up somehow compared to the AJM kit. One more question, as the H79 markings appear to be absent in the 1942 photo supplied by @dickrd were they just removed in general at this time/with this scheme or would they likely have been repainted later? I suppose in terms of identifying features for the model I could just come up with a name badge for the base of some kind if any other identifiable markings aren't present.

Looking to have a go at a naval subject for a change from aircraft, and I'd like to try some water base techniques I've seen elsewhere. As a subject I'm looking at trying to make a model of HMS Firedrake (H79) as my great uncle was amongst those lost when she was torpedoed by a U-Boat in December 1942 whilst escorting an Atlantic convoy so I thought it would be a good way to research that too. With that said, I only have very limited knowledge of anything naval so essentially I think I'll be happy if I can make something representative of how she would likely have appeared in December 42 and accepting that 100% accuracy probably isn't possible (or achievable for me anyway). In terms of kits I've seen an AJM kit for HMS Fame available but from what I can gather the E & F Classes were virtually the same so I was thinking of using Tamiya's 1/700 E Class kit as a more cost effective starting point and perhaps try using the White Ensign photoetch set for E & F class to enhance it a bit. At such a small scale I don't know if it's worthwhile doing anything else in terms of aftermarket stuff (e.g. metal masts if I'm going to attempt rigging? any rigging diagrams?) but any advice on this approach or other suggestions would be welcome. I'm mainly looking for advice on camouflage schemes and colours for the late 1942 period, if such specific information exists. There seem to be very few photographs of her available, the two below dating from 1941: The only photograph from 1942 I've been able to find is the following from the IWM collection which identifies her as the destroyer in the foreground: NEW C IN C EASTERN FLEET LEAVES TO TAKE UP HIS NEW APPOINTMENT. 14 FEBRUARY 1942, GREENOCK. ADMIRAL SIR JAMES SOMMERVILLE, KCB, KBE, DSO, LEAVING TO TAKE ON HIS NEW APPOINTMENT AS C IN C EASTERN FLEET.. © IWM (A 8356) IWM Non Commercial License To me the IWM photo and the Boston Navy Yard photo appear similar with a lighter (overall) scheme than the first photograph but I'm at a bit of a loss for what the colours would likely have been. I checked various books on destroyers and the British and Commonwealth Warship Camouflage series has drawings for E & F Class (though not Firedrake specifically) for 41/42 with a mixture of schemes using a white base and what it calls WA Green or WA Blue. A third scheme it describes as an 'Admiralty dark camouflage introduced in early 1942' with 'MS2 overall with areas of black and white' but I think this would have looked much darker in the photographs above. I don't know when I'd plan to start on this, just researching/looking for advice at this stage so any help from members with greater knowledge in this area would be appreciated. Thanks.

Nice work and great collection of Lancasters you have there.

Sorry if I missed an obvious date but is there any indication when we should expect Invincible to be available? Also how are Flyhawk kits in general for someone who doesn't normally build ships? I usually focus on aircraft but having read quite a bit about her, including letters from a gunnery officer who served on her at the Falklands and Jutland (where he was one of the only survivors) this has some appeal to me.

I've always been interested in this strange aircraft, hopefully you'll do a better job of this kit than I did! so I'll watch with interest. I chose to go with landing gear down as I had no pilot figure, this proved to be quite delicate to piece together with plenty of swearing involved but I think it turned out ok considering. That large red dash walk line decal was also a pain to fit properly but that's probably more due to my inexperience than anything.

OK, thanks. Guess I'll give it a few months and see if production/distribution picks up a bit and prices come down, I see Hannants have a couple listed as Backorder so perhaps I'll wait for that as knowing my luck I'd get hit with import duty from Japan.

As I've for some reason gotten the urge to do some SW kits in some expanded universe schemes I've been looking at these. Are the 1/72 kits from the older films (Y-Wing, A-Wing, standard X-wing etc) not in production anymore? Only seem to be available from sellers in Japan at the moment and the Revell kits that are otherwise available aren't exciting me, plus their scales are all over the place.

Looks great, love the markings.

I've always had a certain fascination with the Horten flying wing ever since playing Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe as a child on my parents PC wayback when. As you can see a pair featured on the boxart and stood out as a unique design for young me, although I seem to recall I enjoyed flying the P-47 Thunderbolt more in the actual game... Having seen several great builds of Horten aircraft on here I thought I'd have a go at the Revell 1/72 kit. Overall the kit went together OK. I'm not very experienced as a model maker and had some trouble getting the outer wings attached to the fuselage without leaving huge gaps or the wings sitting at funny angles. After plenty of time filing and dry fitting the parts I then managed to create more problems for myself when attempting to fill the gaps that remained so the finish in those areas is far from what it could have been. I also had trouble with a couple of the decals, especially the large red walk way markings decal on the left wing which didn't bed down properly in places despite the gloss surface and this unfortunately stands out in the light. I'd have liked to have a better finish but I think the camo came out as well as I could have hoped and I was just keen to get something finished in the end. I've been looking at some of the Zoukei-Mura Horten kits available now so in a few years if my skill level has improved perhaps I'll have another go at this subject with one of them.