CliffB

I've just seen it in the gallery and it looks great. Congratulations!

It's looking great in the gallery Heather (although maybe the grass could do with a water ). It ticks all the boxes for me! Cliff

Absolutely Col - but, as the Cutlass photo shows, things don't look quite so ridiculous once painted ! Cheers Cliff

Oh well, I guess I'll have to live the bloating. Apart from the Corsair (which I believe is a very famous Korean War machine), the other markings in the 'Fighters Four' boxing are pure fancy. I think that the Cutlass markings belong on an F7U-3 (the definitive production version), but the kit represents the earlier F7U-1. I therefore built it as one of the prototypes in last summer's Blitzbuild GB. I've built the Hellcat too (in the last MTO GB!), so just the Corsair to do now, in the 2020 STGB Cheers Cliff

This is looking very sharp Richard and you've done a great job keeping those stripes straight over the 'lumps'

Nice one dave. Getting those greys to look good is not easy

Back to the more mundane subject of plastic modelling and my little Shooting Star is now ready for priming. It's always good when there's a pilot figure included in a kit I'm not that familiar with the F-80, but I was surprised at how portly it looks. I found that the canopy in my kit was cracked, but fortunately I had a second (more recent) boxing of the kit which was able to provide a replacement. Having decided to sacrifice this second kit, I used some of its other parts where they were better moulded than the originals (hence the assortment of silver bits). Cheers Cliff

Sorry guys, but I won't be building one of Blackburn's finest - rather an F-86F from the Republic of China (aka Taiwan), Air Force. I'll be using one half of this 'dogfight double' (having already built the MiG in the 50s NATO/Warpac GB). The kit includes a sharkmouthed ROC aircraft as one of its decal options. It'll be a late start from me, but I will be joining you for sure. Cheers Cliff

KV-107 - II - 3 51st Flying Squadron, Japanese Sea Self-Defence Force 1/100 Tamiya kit, built OOB. The build thread is here. Cheers Cliff

Finished at last I've enjoyed this one more than most, so maybe I should be building a few more choppers. I might need to get a bigger display case though (and photo booth!), as they do seem to take up a surprising amount of room. For sure I'll be building the other Japanese options in this kit at some time. Thanks to all of you who have supported this build and especially to Craig for being such an attentive host. Thanks also to Craig for pointing out that this aircraft was actually grey, not blue . As usual, I'll post some more photos in the Gallery shortly. Cheers Cliff

Hi Pete. I've been thinking a bit more about the scheme and am now favouring an early, silver paint job. There are some nice in-flight images of WZ365 wearing silver and by the time she was white, she seemed to have acquired external wing tanks (which the kit lacks). Oh, the box-art shows silver too . As an aside, I've got the Lindberg 1/96 Vulcan and Victor kits waiting to be built. Both are based on the prototype aircraft and should be white and Cerulean blue, respectively. So I'll eventually end up with quite a colourful V mixture! Cliff

That's looking very mean Mario A big brother for my BO105 (if and when I ever get started on it!).

That's very nice Dermot. Congratulations! Cliff

Thanks Pete. I've got a 1/48 scale roundel sheet which got me pretty close to what I needed for my 1/96 Canberra in the Specialists GB, but as you say the white of Valiant should make DIY printing an easy option too Thanks Pat. That's a date then! Cheers Cliff

Hi all. This dropped through my letterbox this morning (or at least it would have done, had my letterbox been big enough!). A "pre-loved" Valiant, minus undecarriage, clear parts and decals, that's in need of some serious TLC. The original white plastic is now mostly a mucky shade of yellow and has become very brittle. The fuselage joint has split in a couple of places and in the photo, you can just make out that there's a meandering crack between the roundel and the serial. All of FROG's V Bombers are highly sought after, but the Valiant especially so. Whilst Lindberg produced a rival 1/96 Vulcan and Victor (both of which are still readily available), they never did a Valiant. At present, there's an unmade FROG Valiant on eBay for £170. My box of broken bits cost me £19, which I was very happy to pay (although it turns out that I was the only bidder ). On the back of the box lid is a hand written note saying that the original owner got this kit as a Christmas present in 1965. A nice bit of provenance! I'd love to build this in the GB, always assuming that I can persuade Pat that in its current state it's under 25% complete . Fingers crossed. Cheers Cliff