airbus320

Thanks for the comments all! Inverted - the blue used for the 19 squadron jet was mixed specially using tamiya paints. IIRC I darkened standard acrylic blue (X3????) using the Ian Black 'last of the phantoms' book as a guide. Chris

Beautiful straight wing hunter!

In preparation for the STGB I have just finished refurbishing two of my hasegawa tooms that I built some years ago. The first example used to be a very early FGR2 as they appeared on delivery in 1969. It is now a mid-70s 31 squadron machine. The second used to be in 92 squadron colours and now wears late 74 squadron markings. The whole gang back together Now on to the STGB! Thanks for looking, Chris

Hello fellow BMers, I have recently finished this Spitfire PR XI and thought that I would take advantage of the fine weather to take some pictures. Was going to join the STGB but did not think I would finish in time, apparently I build quicker than I thought! The basic airframe is a combo of the falcon vac conversion and the italeri/accidental kit. The rudder is aeroclub, prop is otaki and the late style elevators are from a scrapped hobbycraft seafire. Paint is xtracrylics and decals are from the spares box. The serials are from a letraset sheet and hence are A) the wrong size and skew-whif! It represents an aircraft based at Eindhoven in late-'44. Sources alternately claim that she was either destroyed during boddenplate or went on to serve with the Danish AF post war. Thanks for looking Chris

Hi all, I will be starting my build for the GB soon. In the meantime I have recently finished refurbishing two of my hasegawa 1/48 phantoms so I thought I would take advantage of the sunshine and have a 'family snapshot' so to speak. The camo 31 and low viz 74 squadron jets have just had a full strip and respray. They were built about seven years ago. Black mike and the blue toom are more recent builds. My build for the GB will be an early 43 squadron jet with full colour markings. Hope you like them and thanks for looking Chris

May I join in? I have just won a 48th Hasegawa FG.1 on ebay, will become an early 43 Squadron example.

Hi all, thanks to those who voted for my lanc. I have to say I am surprised to have got any given the superb quality of the builds on here! My own personal choices were woodys' Manchester and Canberramans' Lincoln and I deliberated for a long time before voting. Well done to all! Thanks once again and hope to see you in another GB soon! Chris

Ahhhh I see now, should have read your previous post more carefully! Sounds like a good plan to me!

The paints used were xtracrylix (which I have learned the hard way should be applied over a coat of primer!) I have one other pic: It was something of an opportunistic build, I was ripped off by an unscrupulous seller on eBay who sold me the aeroclub 21 with a mangled fuselage. I replaced that with one from hannants to build my 21 and grafted the damaged tail onto my 22. Must admit I do prefer the XIV style tail to the later spiteful tail. With regards to the seafire, a XIX nose would not be correct for a seafire XV as this and the XVII had the earlier/shorter single stage griffon nose like the spitfire XII. You could maybe use the xtrakit spit XII if you can get hold of a cheap one?

Looking good so far, I built a model of PK312 myself in 48th by grafting an aeroclub 21 tail onto the airfix kit: I am watching this one closely, keep up the good work!

Thankyou for the kind comments everybody, most appreciated. Roland, regarding the exhaust stains the procedure followed was as follows. The paint used was a combination of tamiya flat black and red brown, mixed about 70/30 in favour of the brown. This was then thinned out to about 70% water. Standard airbrush pressure was used and the topside stains were then sprayed starting at the leading edge and tailing off towards the trailing edge. Successive layers were built up until the colour density was adequate. The airbrush was then cleaned and loaded with very thin tamiya buff. This was then sprayed on the underside as well as the centre of each upper stain to simulate the lead deposits. I was aiming at an effect like your Egyptian Lancaster, but sadly most of this disappeared under the flat coat! What remained was satisfactory but barely shows any trace of the buff paint. I think making the buff coat thicker might improve this for next time. I hope this description was of some use!

Revell 1/72 (new mould) kit pretty much OOB with Xtradecals to represent a Fuerza Aérea Argentina machine circa 1951. Chris

Finished at last! Please excuse my poor DIY photo studio, it was the only place in the house that was well lit. On to the Spitfire GB... Chris

Nearly there...

Ooooh that looks rather nice, she looks beautiful in that scene IMO. Now you have completed the conversion, sod's law states a new tool Lincoln will be announced shortly. Come on airfix!

Decals on:

Looking excellent so far - that instrument panel looks the mutts nuts!

Further update - I have a week of leave now, so no excuse not to finish this one! Sprayed the undersides with Revell Panzer Grey, removed the masking and found this: Grrrrr... should have undercoated it. A quick touch up led to this: And a coat of clear got me to this: Next up, my favourite part - decalling! Usual apologies for the poor pictures. Chris

Thanks for the comments everyone... A quick update, I have painted the camouflage on the upper surfaces. These a/c were delivered in standard bomber command camo and I figured they would have a hard life given the weather conditions and the fact that they were involved in at least two revolutions during their sevice life! I used Xtracrylix DG/DE faded in places with flat white and can't say I'm thrilled with the results. The colours look somewhat off. I will have a look at touching them up when I get back from Mexico next week. Chris

Have decided to change direction a little on this one. As there is another Egyptian Lancaster in progress I am going for a little extra variety and will finish this one as an aircraft of the Fuerza Aérea Argentina. That leaves the decals for my future Egyptian Halifax (if I can just find out what the colour scheme was...). I have now got the major bits together, just the glazing to do and then she will be ready for some paint. I have used a lot of filler so far, but most of this is down to my ham hand rather than the kit, which is fantastic! I did increase the dihedral of the outer wing panels however. Chris

Thank you all for the kind comments - just to clarify I was only going to strip and repaint the area affected by the glue smear, not the entire aeroplane. Fortunately I have been distracted by my Lancaster build for the GB! Chris

What a beauty! I must get one of these.

Hi all, a few pictures of my work so far: Fuselage is basically complete, just a little rescribing of lost detail to do before moving on to the wings. Chris

Ohhhh yes is that beautiful! The thing I love most is how you've made the SHAEF stripes look like they were quickly painted rather making them look badly painted, which is what happens when I try to imitate this effect! Very well done mate!

Hi all, after an epic 6 month build (including a 3 month hiatus spent in Indonesia) I have finally managed to finish something! Kit is the Hobbycraft 'Korean War' boxing enhanced with airwaves wingfold, cockpit set and white metal u/c, prob blades and arrestor hook. Decals were cobbled together from Aeromaster and the spares box. Canopy is by Squadron. It represents VR930, which is the current RNHF Sea Fury as she appeared with 801 Squadron aboard HMS Glory in 1953. Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures - A) the light in my house is terrible (darned energy saving bulbs!) and I am a rubbish photographer at the best of times... There are a number of faults, one of which is a paint repair just aft of the cockpit on the right hand side (you can see where the roundel is slightly straightened), it is almost unnoticeable but I know for a fact it will eat away at me until one day I sand it back and respray it!! Hope you enjoy looking at my Sea Fury as much as I enjoyed building her. Chris