Foxbat

If I'd found an affordable fighter E instead of the RF I would be doing the one with the sharkmouth and the trident on the fin. It will happen one day Andy

This is an RF-4ETM from 173 Filo 'Safak', in the then new disruptive camouflage scheme. This particular aircraft was shot down by Syrian air defences above the East Mediterranean on June 22nd, 2012. Basic kit is the Revell RF-4E because I could get one, and reviews suggest it is a decent compromise between accuracy, detail and ease of construction; better than the Italeri and a fraction of the price of the much better Hasegawa. Research suggests the ETM upgrades were largely internal to do with systems and electronics so I should be OK with the basic kit if we agree to ignore the instrument panels (and the aftermarket already has, so I'm kind of stuck as scratching 1/72 IPs isn't in my skill set). Box is a bit battered but whole. Contents are fine. That decal sheet looks very impressive but is a bit yellowed so a new decal sheet is a boon. Decals are by Hi Decal. Don’t think I’ve used them before but they look good and there are millions of stencils for me to go cross eyed over. I can already see me only using an edited highlight of the sheet. I'd also like at least one standard E to do a fighter scheme On to the build. More news when it happens. Andy

You sir are a scholar and a gentleman, but on this occasion please hold on to them and do them justice. It will be some time before I'm in a postion to even start my build never mind getting to the marking stage and I'm sure something will come along in the meantime BTW, I have a special interest in the Red Rippers as the boar's head in their badge is pretty much a straight lift from my clan badge. I have several kits in the stash already covering their history from WW2 when they were VF-41 flying Wildcats up to their current F-18F Super Hornets. The French EC3/3 are another favourite unit for the same reason. Andy

I was going to be good as I haven't got the decals I want for my Tamiya F-4B yet, and the scheme I would have done is already in the GB, but Phantoms... So I'll sneak in late and pretend I was here all along with something just a tiny bit different - a 1/72 Turkish RF-4E using the Revell kit as a base (since it was available and affordable). Andy

I'm very jealous and shall follow this build closely whilst cheering from the sidelines - I NEED a set of Rippers decals for my Tamiya F-4B and know of three sets. Two (including these) are out of print, the third is only sold by Sprue Brothers in the US and they don't list the UK as a shipping option Andy

Well, that's the Gatto in the Gallery. Thanks to Col. for hosting and encouragement and to everyone that looked in and commented while I was building. That was fun, now to sit back a bit and enjoy all the other great builds going on. Andy

Grumman F6F-5, Uruguayan Navy, Florida/Texas, 1952 Eduard kit (with teardrop fairing from a Revell Harvard), LF Models decals, Vallejo and Akan paints and inks. Thanks for looking. Andy

The more I see of your build the more I'm kicking myself for not going 1/48 too. It's a great kit and you're bringing out the best of it. Andy

I based my exhaust stains on photos like this one (there are a lot of similar ones out there): Uruguayan Navy Grumman Hellcat Given that these were refurbished airframes that hadn't seen any active service at that point it seems hard to go overboard on weathering, especially for used aircraft in the Pacific Andy

It is an exceptional kit, and makes a superb model with just a little care and attention. Andy

Think this is about done. Couple of touch ups and some proper pictures tomorrow (actually later today now I've seen the time). This is a great kit, all the blemishes and errors are entirely self inflicted. I'm tempted to have a go at the 1/48 version just because there's more of everything Several pictures show prominent exhaust staining so I stuck some on mine. Eduard give you roughly half a million stencils. I didn't use any from the little sheet as they're mostly black on a dark blue surface but I couldn't leave off the ones from the prop Went with the open canopy. Still hate painting them, and I need to find a different fixative - I'm gong through a bottle of Clearfix per kit as it keeps going solid in the bottle. That's all for now. See you in the Gallery soon. Andy

Onwards to the undercarriage. For some reason this fought me like a cornered (Hell)cat. Checking my reference pictures showed the undercarriage legs were in bare metal rather than the sea blue they originally came in. I couldn't for the life of me get any of my vaguely relevant Vallejo metallics to stick and give good coverage. "Not to worry," I thought, "bit of black ink for shading and weathering and they'll be right". Except the heavily thinned ink went on like tar and the entire legs looked like they had been bought in a sale as fire damaged I buffed it up and left it. The wheels and tyres are separate parts to make for easy painting. That worked. Then when I can to stick them together, one just didn't want to fit so in the end I had to resort to squeezing them together in the jaws of a handy pair of pliers. All good, except for the paint which was now mostly missing and had to be reapplied to both hub and tyre, neatly negating all the advantages of having two parts 🤬 I got the wheels onto the legs without any major drama, and then dropped them on the floor. Twice. Finally managed to get glue, leg and wing in close proximity, but they really weren't friends and demanded a trial separation 😢 Third or fourth time lucky and everything stayed stuck. Here it is with the glue setting Cowl and prop next. Cowl went on sweet as a nut. Painted the prop blades and masked off the ends to paint white, then yellow, then yellow ink to deepen the colour as the yellow paint was a bit thin and weedy. No bleed and almost exactly straight lines when I took the tape off. Hurrah!!! Touched up the black and was happy. Painted the hub in the same silver that hadn't worked the day before and it went on no bother. Life's like that. Painted the boss red but it was too dark and browny. Overpainted it but that red was too pink. Slapped some red ink over it and it was just right. I've mounted the prop to the airframe before it could escape and ruin the paint so this is where I am up to: By my reckoning there are 6 parts to stick on and only 30 or 40 little jobs to do and she'll be finished. Andy

I built two car models in my teens (a '56 Chevy Bel Air coupe painted lime green is the one I remember) and then there was a 40 year gap until I built Tamiya's 1/48 Citroen as a civilian car for the Unarmed GB. I've popped my head round the door here a few times with no intention of joiining in because I don't have the first idea how to build and particularly paint cars. Mustangs though. Cooler than the tip of a penguin's beak and the latest ones are meatier than an elephant's leg and meaner than a junkyard dog. Kept looking at kits, then thinking "That's a lot of cash to sink into something you don't know how to get the best from". Until tonight... Amazon are currently knocking out the Tamiya GT4 at £29.50 with free shipping. I took that as a sign, so I have on in the post. Just checked and while there are a couple of other builds of the same kit, neither is using the box top colour scheme so I will. Wish me luck, this will be a vertical learning curve so I'm going to need it in bucketloads. I'll start a build thread when it arrives. Andy

Count me in. Just checked my list and I've got a shocking number of kits that would qualify. Need to Enzo them Andy

Got mine from Japan with no extra charges, just checked and I paid VAT at their end so nothing to pay here. Postage was quite a bit more than it used to be but still a substantial saving over UK RRP. Which I naturally spent in my LMS Delivery was glacially slow though - my pre-order came after a couple of people had already nearly finished their builds. Andy

I would hope this one will be the same as the 1/48 Hurricane; the plastic is the same in the Mk.I, Mk.I Tropical and Sea Hurricane boxings, just the decals and instructions differ. Andy

You wait ages for an update then two come along together. Decals are almost done. I decided I wanted to do them now because they looked more fun than painting the undercarriage. My build, my rules - take that Mr Eduard and your carefully considered instructions!! Please ignore the awful paint. The camera adds 10lb... sorry, wrong thread. Ahem, the flash is very unforgiving and it looks a lot better under natural light. I'll Decalfix and trim the tail flags in the morning when they've had a chance to dry. Have to say after the first anchor the rest of the decals have been a joy to use. Only the numbers for the undercarriage doors left to add so I'm probably past the point of jinxing anything by saying that. Andy

Some people have added a couple of tabs to help get the fuselage halves together. I forgot but had no problems anyway, which was nice. Yours is looking great so far, looking forward to the next instalment. Andy

Another little update, just to show I haven't forgotten. Got the underside painted to an acceptable standard. Decided to fill the mounting holes for the rocket rail stubs as I've seen photos with and without and the latter seemed more in keeping with no guns. Started to apply decals and discovered they're all covered by a single carrier film so need cutting close to the design. No problem for the roundels, but the crossbar on the anchor folded up and took some persuading - then fell off 😕 Nothing I can't fix, but another chore. Stuck the engine on and gave it a basic paint job. I actually mounted and painted each cylinder bank seperately, but didn't take pictures in the middle. Looks a bit messy at this point but a) it's hugely magnified compared to the model, and b) it's not finished here I decanted some paint and gave the uppers one more coat to try and get close to a decent finish. The colour is consistent now, but the paint is still weird: it won't brush out the way matt does because it's gloss but it dries in no time flat so you also don't have time to make corrections - I held the model by the dried starboard wing while I painted the port one. Hopefully the huge decals and a top coat of nice thin varnish will make things OK? Engine has a wash of smokey tint, push rod tubes and valve covers are painted black and the crankcase and gubbins at the front has been painted, highlighted and washed. Looks lovely in 1:1 scale and will be almost invisible one the cowl and prop are on. We'll know though won't we so still worth it. Got to love the detail, right down the bolt heads round the boss where the prop shaft emerges. That's it for now. Finished page 2 of the instructions. I'm dead excited to see what comes next . Andy

I like big trucks and I cannot lie. Found a site with a sale on, and saved enough that the MAZ-7313 was effectively free. Didn't really want the KZKT trailer, but couldn't get the tractor without it - life can be so cruel sometimes Where do I put the weights to stop them being nose sitters? Andy

I used to have a WW2 computer game that featured that as one of the battles. Managed to get knocked out by an M3 Stuart once when I was playing the Tiger. Learnt how to avoid major losses playing the British, but the AI was very cautious which made it easy. Usually lost all the Tigers by the end of the game as the British relief column just swamped them and you always ended up side on to one Firefly whilst stalking another. Andy

Paint. Love it or loathe it, you can't avoid it forever - unfortunately First coat of Xtracrylix Sea Blue Gloss. It's not very anything really; thin, streaky, runny and horrible. Nothing like your humble scribe then but nothing like the finish I would have expected from any other brand of paint in my stock either (and there are a few - including the Xtracrylix I used in the cockpit which was fine). The undersides took a couple of coats too, but they're getting there. Still need a least one more though. Tailplanes and gear doors probably need another two or three. Third coat and it's coming along, as long as you can ignore the bits where paint has pooled or run. I'm having to rub it down (sometimes back to plastic) between coats. I HATE gloss paint 🤬 Fourth coat and that's me done for today. It's mostly blue, mostly covered and you can mostly still see Eduards lovely surface detail. Would have been a lot simpler if it was matt green though 😕 I'm scared to take the masking off now, I just know there's going to be a monumental ridge, plus bleeding through and bits where the tape didn't stick properly. How you airbrush users cope is beyond me. More next time. I hope it's more positive because this was a lovely kit and it deserves a good finish. Andy

I needed to remove the gunsight from the top of the IP as the Uruguayan aircraft were delivered without them. The easiest way to hold it steady was to button the tub up in the fuselage (honest ) so that's what I did. There's a nice big aperture there so you can see lots of the lovely cockpit detail. I'm tempted to go with the open canopy option when the time comes which is a rarity for me. I stuck a coat f primer on to help with checking seams - there wasn't much in the way of work required but that applies to this kit generally, it is still being a joy to build. I did remove the forward light from the fuselage spine (thanks to dnl42 for mentioning that in the reference section ). Something to note - only the first batch of -5s had the windows behind the canopy. Luckily Eduard have this covered too as they give markingsand therefore parts for both versions. On the clear sprue, parts E1 and E2 have the windows, while E3 and E4 don't so it was a moments work to fit the right parts for my build. They just clicked into place too - almost didn't need glue. Finally for this installment, I glued the wing halves together minus the gun inserts and filled in the ports on the leading edge. I still need to decide what to do about the stubs for the rockets as I have a couple of photos that show them still in place even though all the other armament was removed. It'll be a chore snipping them off the rockets and gluing them in place but that may be the easiest option long term. In the meantime. here are the primed wings and cowling added to the fuselage. Cowling is just pressed on for now as I haven't started on the engine. More later. That's how time works I'm afraid. Andy

Got mine too, similarly well packed. Haven't had more than a quick flick through so far, it needs to be savoured when I have the proper amount of free time Andy

Yeah, sign me up for this one. Might even be something with wings Andy