MRMRL

Heck yes. I've been waiting for this ship in 1/350 for too long. Dido class coming soon as well, it's a good year already 😁. A few more RN and I'll be a super happy puppy (I won't say what though). Hopefully these examples will sell enough to tempt manufacturers into others later.

I don't disagree with the group think on this one, I don't think there's any other ship class than the Nelsons with those mast/funnel/foredeck arrangements. I've been waiting for a 1/350 Nelson for years, first company for do so can take whatever money they want from me 😉

That's a great build with tons of detail. I like the base as well, made me shiver looking at it, looks like a flight out of Siberia 😀

Good shout, I've looked it up. Apparently it's 1cm longer but has a 2cm shorter wingspan than the 1/32 he-111 (which is the biggest of my 1/32 twins - I've built 2 others and have another 11 or so in the stash).

That would be a winner, no conversion kit for that one that I can find though, so unless anyone wants to scratch build it (don't look at me, I rarely scratch build anything 😉)

A spin on the biggest twin conversation, do we know what the biggest model of a twin that meets the criteria for this one. I've scanned the current entries and there's that 1/72 Ju88, a couple of 1/32 beaufighters to go with my 1/32 He111. Are there any bigger model options available on the market that anyone knows of?

That looks great for a first go, I'd be happy with that now. Lots of techniques on display, I like the wood effect on your boxes and your chipping, both nice and subtle.

Welcome from a UEA alumni (although I'm from South Wales and live in Bristol these days). Hope you enjoy your time back in the hobby. From someone currently spending ages masking up a He111 canopy, can't say I don't understand not enjoying that activity. I do all sorts though to keep it all interesting, which usually helps.

My word, this GB is living up to the mega in the title, just as well you've got two photo galleries - it'll need it if a decent percentage of the builds underway get completed, nevermind if there's many who go for multiple builds (I'm still optimistic for at least 3).

Thanks Keith, it is quite the beast isn't it, more so than I was expecting. Thanks James, and no I haven't yet, although my two year old would enjoy that. Too much danger of him wanting a go though 🫣

Some quick looking progress over the weekend - firstly, I've got the wings attached now And the tail And I've started putting together the remaining "fuselage" parts (anything other than undercarriage etc that will get in the way of painting the main camo scheme). Masking all that glass is going to slow me down, I don't tend to buy masking kits, although in cases like this I fully understand why anyone would, cutting masking to shape is tiresome at the best of times, when you've got to do a nose like this one Anyway, I made a start on the interiors of the upper and lower machine gun positions Got a wooden panel to fit on the lower one before attaching it, and I'll probably mask the exterior beforehand as well, lest any windows pop out and fall inside where I can't get them. It's all the fun of masking next, then I can start filling gaps before paining can start in earnest.

I'm trying very hard to complete this one before I open the B-25, otherwise I'll go down a rabbit hole and probably start another 4 twins and then not finish anything. I've already got 4 other models on the bench at varying stages, although I should finish one over the weekend.

Hi, I'm back after taking a couple of days to be distracted by another model (it keeps my short attention span happy). Not loads of progress made, but some fiddly stuff out the way. Starting with putting all the bombs together. And the bomb bays to house them in have been assembled and attached to the lower fuselage bit. Fiddly on both counts, the thin plastic of the bays was difficult to assemble and didn't really fit into the grooves and locators on the relevant parts. Then, probably because I'd not done a good enough job of that, they bays didn't really seem to sit right on the fuselage. I have gaps and they sit at an angle which probably isn't right, but I've gone with it, no-one's going to notice once it's all buttoned up. And voila, attached to the rest of the fuselage so far, that was a complicated manoeuver, the design didn't leave much tolerance, but it fits pretty well and seems quite robust once it settled down and I'd "persuaded" all the bits to sit in the right place (not too many unprintable words used). I then proceeded to build a wing and dry fit it so I could get a feel for how it goes together and the verdict is that I think lots of holding in place is going to be needed until glue dries. It gives even more of an idea of the size of it already though (that's an A4 instructions booklet underneath), going to be fighting for third place in my biggest aircraft so far category (behind the Lancaster and B-17 for sure, got a few jets of similar size like the A-10 and Su27, but I think it's bigger than the Beaufighter and Black Widow - without looking up statistics). See you again next week, I'm hoping to make a lot of construction progress over the weekend so I can hopefully get started on painting the exterior next week.

Hi All Made a bit more progress over the weekend, although I was also a bit distracted by another ongoing model as well Finished the section of the cockpit I was working on... There's no red in the door, it's just the scalpel handle behind two little holes. There is a little artistic license in the painting, but only because the instruction call outs are a little vague in places. Same goes for the radio? room, I've used a picture of the quinta studios decal for the instrument panel as a guide and then made it up where the two items differ. Not a problem for me since it'll be hard to see once its all closed up anyway. And here it is in-situ Then, with the windows all in place and masked up in advance (just in case I poked any out, I made that mistake with my Lancaster and then had loads of fun trying to get them back in) the two halves of the fuselage are now attached. Decent fit to be fair as well. And that's my weekends progress, hoping to get the bombs and bomb bays underway tonight so I can attach the nacelles and wing roots properly soon.

Another little beauty, you're seascapes and ships never fail to impress, they always look great

Ha, agreed. I'm going to display my nerdiness now and say it looks like a fat N1 Starfighter 😉

That's a stunning build. Looks like the 1/200 kit is pretty impressive, and you've done a super job of it.

Hi All, and thanks especially to @81-er and @Alan P for the colour assistance for Revell's "light olive". The ideal world I wanted was to use a paint I already had, and looking online I found that supposedly Tamiya "Field Grey" was a near(ish) match for the RLM02 so having that in the model box, I went with that one. And I've started a bit of detail painting in the cockpit, mainly on the wooden parts with a multi-layered bit of painting. I've found that this will look better once its been varnished and had a dark wash added. Hopefully I'll get the majority of the cockpit painted and assembled tonight.

Managed another decent session yesterday. Assembled the wheel bays and inner wing/nacelle structure. After being happy with the engineering of the kit, I've come upon my first fit issues here, mainly around how the engine housings fit onto the wings. I think some of the part calls in the instructions were incorrect, the small side panels (see third picture) fit better on the opposite engines to the instructions, but still with some gaps showing. Nevertheless, its all together now, with some filler to add later where needed. There always seems to be something that doesn't join up right on every aircraft model I've built so far, which is a shame. I couldn't resist at this point seeing how the fuselage fit together and then into this section. Thankfully, this appears to be a much neater (albeit complicated) fit. And at this point, I felt it was time to get cracking with painting, before I have a whole pile of bits that can't be put together until other bits get painted. So an application of "gray" - that's all I got from the instructions anyway, I've done a bit of research and got what I think is an appropriate German interior paint colour. Need to do a pass with a "light olive" next and then start painting details so that I can start putting these bits all together. That's all for another update. See you again soon

I'll be keeping an eye here. It'll be interesting to see how it compares to the 1/32 version by the same company, mine might make it into the GB if all goes well

Cockpit done already, that's a fast start - looks great too. I usually need about two weeks for that and then it all goes a bit quicker. Hoping to buck that trend for this GB to be honest 😁

Bit more progress on building last night, might need to start some painting later if I get the chance. Another interior sub-assembly completed first, with some nice looking dials to paint, which you probably won't be able to see once its all buttoned up And the other side of the fuselage. There's not much to see here, I did more work on the outside scribing panel lines for later. And the rear landing gear is installed already. This was probably the most fiddly bit of construction so far, getting it to stay put while the glue on the struts dried a little was challenging. And here's a start on the parts that make it eligible for this GB... These were also interesting to hold in place while glue dried enough to get the next part on, an unusual assembly order, but as you can see, not too problematic. Might need a tiny bit of filler/smoothing out in a couple of places, but overall a good fit. That's all for today

Thanks and I agree, plus I'm very fond of any aircraft with an asymmetric cockpit (the Canberra especially), hopefully I'll do it justice. Thanks James, I'm a bit impatient, so I don't like taking too long on most projects, ships are the only exception really. I also like seeing them next to ordinary things and each other for scale. Got to love the number searching, good luck with the Me-410 😉

Crikey, 3 days in and this GB has gone really really big already. Well I was super psyched for it already, and even more so now - time to add to the madness. I'm a bit late to the party having been 250 miles away for new year, but I got back on Saturday and was straight in the attic to fetch down the first offering (of hopefully several) for this GB - and here it is: I ought to say at this point that I'm building this OOB and using one of the European camo/decal schemes rather than the tropical on the box art as I fancy it more in Battle of Britain style regalia rather than North Africa. I haven't decided which of the two I'm going with yet, I'll have a closer look at the more individual decals later before deciding. The first thing I noted was the usual horrible numbering of any Revell kit was present here, in as much as which of the dozen sprues any given part is going to end up is anyone's guess. Unlike my previous Revell experiences (in which the reason for the numbering at least made sense - part 1 = the first part you need, etc), this one has no conceivable logic for how the parts are numbered (I'm starting in the 200's). There's a lovely list of all the parts that tells you what they all are, but no hint as to where you might find them, which I'd have found way more helpful - nevermind. So, the first night of activity got me this far.... Which left me a bit deflated as to how long it might take to build this one. But I'm not giving up that easily, so I plowed on yesterday and got a bit more progress. I will note one upside of this kit, it does seem so far to be very well engineered and with a good amount of detail, even if the numbering is going to drive me nuts until I start eliminating sprues. I've now finished the first parts of the cockpit sub-assembly ready for painting And one side of the fuselage interior (minus the clear parts)

Thanks Boris I'm not familiar with the catalogue numbers but it's the "premium" Tamiya Yamato, plus a MkI design etch set and deck.