Nik W

I can only echo what the others have already said, this is simply outstanding! I would have sworn blind that this was 1/48 or 1/32 scale had it not been for that tin of Humbrol to give an idea of the size! Nik

Was just about to pop up the pics of how I got round the cockpit only to find you'd beaten me to it! You've taken a different approach from me though, where you chopped bits out to fit it in, I just slapped the resin bulkheads on top of the fuselage walls. Hopefully these pics show what I mean; Glad you managed to get it to fit in though! Nik

Hi Mick, No probs on the photos, might be around 10ish this evening before I'm home though so hope thats ok? I'm kind of surprised at the fit issues you're having with the Pavla tub though, mine wasn't all that bad at all fit wise, no more so than any other resin tub I've used. Where about exactly is the gap at the back you mention? I'm just trying to remember if I had any issues like this. Once I'd removed the locator point thingies (technical term... ) as far as I can remember there wasn't much more needed other than to thin down the fuselage sides. I hope this doesn't beat you, if someone with skills as limited as mine can manage it I'm sure anybody can! Nik

The fit isnt actually too bad on this one as far as most resin cockpits go. The sidewalls of the fuselage will need a little bit of thinning down to accept the resin sidewalls, but if I remember rightly from mine it isn't actually a massive amount. The rear sidewalls fit pretty well but may need a little bit of material removed from the bottom in order for them to sit flush with the cockpit sills on the fuselage parts. The front ones are a little more awkward, but the way I got round this was to thin walls on the kit parts slightly wider than necessary. This let me slide the front sidewalls into place after I had sealed the cockpit tub into the two fuselage halves. This gave me loads of opportunity for fiddling about with it to get them level with the fuselage sides and only needed a little bit of filler to hide the resulting gap. One of the most awkward parts is removing the material from the upper fuselage around the canopy mounting points in order for the new resin bulkheads to fit snugly. I'm not 100% certain but I may have some pictures left over from my build on my home computer which I could pop up for you later on tonight once I get home if that would be any help? Regards, Nik

That is an awesome result! Looks like you've really got the most out of what was a pretty troublesome kit, the only downside is you've made me want one! Haha! Nik

That is a nice scheme indeed! It's about time we started seeing the RAF painting up some of their aircraft to commemorate such significant anniversaries! If only we could see entire squadrons with high-vis markings like the Lightnings of old! I'll second that!

This is absolutely incredible, seriously impressive amount of work in terms of scratch-building going on here and I can't wait to see more of it. I've never attempted a vac-form before, but I have one in ths stash (a Dynavector Scimitar) and plans to have a go at one of the Sanger Shackletons and this is just reinforcing my desire to have a try myself! Regards, Nik

Thats something I wasn't aware of, but thanks for pointing it out! Nik

I wondered why I hadn't picked up it was due for re-release. Shame, would love to see that one out again. Yeah I knew about the 1/72, but when there was mention of it being from the 90s and mentioned in the same breath as the FR46/47 and the Lightning kits I got my hopes up all of a sudden! Silly me!

Is this the 1/48 scale Spitfire Mk 22 thats due to be re-released? I had missed that announcement completely, but if it is being released thats awesome news! Will be looking forward to the update sets as well for the one thats already in the stash! I can feel my Auxiliary Air Force collection growing already! Haha!

Diego, Pompeo Thanks guys! Maybe not really the best you've ever seen, but I'm pleased with it anyway! Nik

Hi Mark I've sent you a PM about the Meteor pics from Roger Lindsay's book. Got a few things which should hopefully help you out on this one, the images aren't amazing, but I think they show what you're after and theres a good text description of the markings which ought to help. If you ever see the book, I'd suggest grabbing it, its an absolutely brilliant book and worth every penny! Cheers! Nik

Hi Mark, I'm not 100% sure but I think there may well be a photo of the aircraft you're after in Roger Lindsay's book Cold War Shield. I'm going to be away all weekend sadly, but if you like (and haven't found it by then) I could have a look for you on Sunday and if there is anything there I'm sure I could scan it and send you a copy? Regards, Nik

Thanks for all the kind words folks! There are one or two areas I'm not totally happy with, but they can just serve as pointers for the other three Cranberries I've got in the stash!!! Nik

Nice Canberra mate! Seeing this was what gave me the boot up the backside I needed to get some pictures up of my own T.17! I was tempted to do something similar with the rear cockpit section on mine, but didn't have the bottle to chop up the Alleycat replacement glazing! A good end result though by the looks of things! From what I hear, the Classic Airframes Canberras aren't the easiest to build. Regards, Nik

Evening all! After seeing another couple of Canberra's being posted on here in the last couple of days (including another T.17) I decided that was the kick up the bum I needed to take some pictures of my own T.17 which has been sitting finished for a while. The model itself didn't pose any real problems during construction, the biggest problem I had was finding enough spaces to cram additional weight into the nose, as even with all that resin attached to the front end, it still wants to tail sit, so there is the best part of a whole tin of .22 Air Rifle pellets jammed into every available space! One small disaster which I managed to recover by putting on the aluminium foil intake covers was the intake bullets. Rushing to get things put together I didn't pay attention to my reference material and put the longer, pointier intake bullets on! Doh!!!! So a bit of surgery with the razor saw again and the spare, correct intake bullets I was able to remove the wrong ones and graft the correct ones on. Sadly this created a bit of a nasty join line, so out came some kitchen foil and Voila! Problem solved! This has to be possibly my favourite model I've built so far. Pictures of the real deal show that the aircraft got pretty weathered over time, so I was able to have a real crack at pre-shading and post-shading and I think it has come out fairly well! I know I seem to do it an awful lot, but I'm going to have to praise Ali of A2Zee models once again for this brilliant conversion set. It only took 4 cuts with the razor saw to perform the necessary surgery to remove the nose, canopy section and tail-cone from the Airfix fuselage halves. If only all resin conversion sets were this easy to use we'd all be laughing! Anyway, I've waffled for long enough, so without further ado, here it is! Kit: Airfix 1/48 B.2 Decals: Alleycat 360 Squadron Markings & serials, Model Alliance Canberra Stencils Aftermarket parts used: Alleycat T.17 Conversion set, Pavla Canberra ejection seat Paint: Xtracolour: Hemp, Light Aircraft Grey and an old tin of Humbrol Red! Lastly, it was nice weather outside, so I thought I'd play around a little with the camera... Now I do realise that Canberras tend not to fly very well with intake covers on, but if you scrunch up your eyes, shake your head back and forth quite fast, and shout "Lalalalalalalalaaaaa!" you don't even notice the intake covers... Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy it, and any criticism is more than welcome, I won't improve any other way and I do appreciate pointers here and there! Cheers folks! Nik

Nice looking Leman Russ! Theres something really brutal looking about that big Plasma Cannon in the turret isn't there? You mentioned that there is a new Leman Russ plastic kit out, what are the differences between it and the old version? I've built several of the old version but never seen the new version. Cheers! Nik

That would make an awful lot of sense in that case, it was something I suspected, but being far from an expert on the subject I was never 100% certain that it was the walls of the two compartments being the same thing. Thanks for pointing it out though, it's something I'll now bear in mind when I get round to building my second TSR2! Nik

Now that is an impressive amount of aftermarket bits! One word of warning though for you, I tried to put both the Pavla nosewheel bay and CMK Electronics bay into my TSR2, and failing some serious surgery to the nosewheel bay, I couldn't find a way to make both fit in at the same time. Thankfully I've got another TSR2 in the stash to use the leftover electronics bay on! Will be following this though, I do like a good TSR2! Regards, Nik

Super work here Notty, I've got the Airfix boxing of this tucked away to build for my collection of 603 Sq aircraft. One thing I had planned on using was the Aires cockpit set (and possibly their engine set for it as well), is the fit of the replacement cockpit really that bad? I've had a few horror shows with Aires cockpits in the past so knew what I was getting myself in for anyway I suppose. Great looking model though, and it really doesn't show that you had so much difficulty with it! Regards, Nik

This really is absolutely stunning work and I'm not just saying that for the sake of it. Those masks are really impressive pieces, something I've never tried using before but seeing the results here I really think I may have a go. Regards, Nik

I knew they'd stopped making it, which is a real shame as the stuff is gorgeous, but I had no idea it was worth a fair bit on ebay. I've had a look for it a few times, but never been able to see anything much come up - the majority of the Forgeworld stuff you see on there are individual miniatures at silly prices! Nik

Hi Steve, I know what you mean about them being addictive, I've already looked out an unbuilt box of Cadian and Catachan Guardsmen I was mashing together to make a Cityfight Veteran force which I started years ago with a view to finishing them off, oh and a pile of old school Forgeworld resin cityfight scenery.... The list just keeps getting bigger! I do quite like that urban splinter camo you suggested on that Leman Russ, think I might go down those lines! Nik

Evening all! In an attempt to recover from the modelling mojo draining builds I've been doing lately (namely a Canberra T.17 and a Lightning which I've been struggling to get finished for a good while) I decided to turn my hand to something I had lying around from my days of playing Warhammer 40K. The change of pace from building models where accuracy is everything to letting myself enjoy building a kit just for the sake of building it is a really nice change! Think I may have to adopt this approach more often. Build itself was pretty straight forward with very little in the way of converting taking place, so decided to blast through it in a couple of evenings and get the assembly out the way - so no pictures of that stage of the build. So here's where things are at just now - primed, based and ready for my first real attempt at painting one of these for what must be nearly ten years! The photography here isn't great as I've taken them in relatively poor light conditions with the camera on my Blackberry, but aside from being a little out of focus and the subject not being very well centred in the images, I think they're not too bad. Next step is to get some paint on to this, which is hopefully where you guys come in, my initial thoughts were to go down the lines of either an urban camo scheme in a couple of shades of grey or a desert scheme with disruptive camo made up of a few shades of sandy browns I have kicking about my modelling box - but having been out of the game for a while in terms of painting 40K stuff I'm hoping some of you guys might be able to give me a few suggestions for a decent camo scheme? Thanks for looking folks! Nik

Followed the build thread on this one, and glad to see that despite all the problems you had that you managed to overcome them and make such an absolutely stunning model! Weathering is spot on, just subtle enough to look real! Nik