Paul J

Found some pics of my work in progress when I was part way in to building this in 2019! You can se the extent of some of the work I have tried to describe in first post for this topic. The white areas are the plastic card and strip mods to the wings and tail plane tips of the kit and filler/ plastic card under the nose.

Bristol Mk. 32 Freighter '698' RCAF Europe 1960s; . 1/144th scale . Welsh Models Vac form kit. Decals from kit and other generic sets.

Finally finished it. Added the undercarriage spreader struts from aerofoil shaped plastic rod, some antenna( the 'rugby ball' DF loops are from the kit and white metal). Nose clamshell doors depicted with very fine black decal stripe. ( the pics here and in gallery look as if there is paint chipping around the doors but not so... could not get rid of the decal film silvering) Last pics here and more over in the gallery. The glazing did get a dab of gloss but that didn't work either??? I must be losing my touch.( there is a hint there) I have a few more kits that are perfect for this GB but I am not sure I will do any of them.

Looking nice. I have built two of these nice kits. One as the Tiger Club aircraft G-ATKC and one as a single seat Belgian one of the display team 'Les Manchots' during late 1960s early 70s as V18 in black/white with red sunburst to top wing. Looking out for your finished specimen. BY the way I have two more in the stash saved for a rainy day.

Thanks. But the Aeroclub one I show here is the injection version.

I used AK Xtreme aluminium airbrushed. Didn't bother about different shades though. I let the changing lighting conditions give any effect.

That was nice. I like a nice Piper Cub now and then. The trapeze launch and recovery system makes me think of those 'Flying Fox' / Zip -Wire things dotted around play parks around the country! Great fun! The footage was interesting to watch. Noticed the L-4 Cub had only one wing with the blotchy camo... replacement wing on one side or other maybe?

DHC-1 Chipmunk T.10 WK630:15 of 2 AEF/ Hamble 1971. One of the Chippys I have flown in and still in the country somewhere. Finally got this one out the way. I am not sure why but this build was jinxed! Had a job with the clear parts messing them up but 7quid later and Airfix sent me a replacement set. The two tabs that are supposed to help locate the wing in to place I cut off because they interfered with the fit and at the rear end,. Then it was the decals. A lovely set from Xtradecals but I really messed up the lovely 2 AEF/SUAS unit emblem which is why it is missing on starboard side. On the whole, I enjoyed making this one despite a couple issues and look forward to doing it again.. With experience of this kit it should be better. THis one and the pic below it is alongside my Aeroclub kit as WD346:3 of the same unit but in 1968 and the very first Chipmunk I flew in. Re the unit badge, if anyone has the same set and not going to use the items, I will be very happy to give it a home on my build seen here. Many thanks for looking.

Final one for this afternoon and moving up a scale again this time to 1/48th. Bought this kit from a BMer earlier this year or last, but not started until a around three months ago. Basically its the AIrfix kit of the Mk.IV from the box but finished with decals by Model Maker of Poland. I chose to finish it as a post war example before the code changed from 'RF' to 'PD'. Serialled KM112. In the future I may well change the code to PD and add the underwing seral as per the original airframe. As a reference, I used the rather nice book from the Polish Wings series and it helped a lot with all sorts of useful pointers such as the date the orders came through regarding the code change which the squadron members disliked as the RF codes were a symbolic part of the units history during the wartime years. The decals are very nice but I found the upper wing roundels are too big on the decal sheet so I found a pair from my Modeldecal sets. Why did I not use the kit roundels you may ask??? Well I really do not know what has happened to them! A real mystery. They have simply vanished from the box and surrounds in my shed!! I did manage to use the cockpit decals while it was on build but after that they just went AWOL!!!! Really frustrating and I hope they reappear.... maybe... Well that s it for now. Going to park these now and set about doing pics of another recent finisher but also a very recent issued kit.

Moving up a scale to 1/72nd this time, another long term dust collector waiting to be finished and now finally done. This my rendition of the Beechcraft?(Pilatus?) Texan II. As a base for it I used the Aeroclub Pilatus PC-7 I picked up a couple years ago for £3.00 quid. It needed some mods to get it to look like the Texan II so what I did was to add some plastic card 'squares to the tail plane forward edge tips , micro strip around the wing where the taper starts, cut down the fin a little bit and added the ventral fin from plastic card. Gave the nose a little more depth but mainly to create a nosewheel bay which was non existent in the kit, a NACA scoop to top of fuselage just forward of the cockpit and another larger scoop to the nose underside as part of the aforementioned work. The cockpit insides was re done a little as the seats would not fit the supplied cockpit tub. All the decals were from OldModels Decals of New Zealand. The dark blue was a mix of Humbrol 15 midnight blue and some gloss dark sea blue. It all looks pretty close to what I wanted. As a guide to the work I did on this, I used my 1/48th Ibex model which helped in the work I needed to do. I still need to make some new main undercarriage doors that I just noticed after uploading the photos. The silver or polished leading edges to the flying surfaces are all done with silver decal stripes. The canopy frame was painted freehand and edged with white decal stripe. Its not 100% perfect or accurate but is good enough for me for now until a reasonably priced kit comes along. I am hoping that someone like Airfix will honour us with a new kit in the coming months/years with RAF an RCAF marking choices.

Good day to you all. This is the first of three finally finished models started just about a year ago roughly. First up then, is the Roden 1/144th DC-3. I was going to complete this in another civvy scheme but I had so much trouble with the decals curling at the edges and not staying put! I almost binned it but a rub down and some fresh paint took it to a level ready for decals again and a search for something I liked. Finally came up with the Classic Airlines decals by Nick Webb. I chose this BIA example as I used to see it regularly over my home way back on its way from Gatwick to the Channel Isles. Used to haul fresh cut flowers etc and also newspaper runs around the country. The rather nice decals went on well and only some very careful trimming was needed for them to fit around the fin, tailplanes and flying surfaces leading edges for the de icer boots.. The rudder trailing edge needs attention to remove the raggedy decal edge but otherwise I think its fine. I suppose it could do with all the roof top furniture like antennas etc but I have left them off ... why spoil it for a ha'porth of tar! I have got another Roden kit and a Minicraft one still to do and will be going back to see what Nick Webb has on his site. By the way G-AMRA was one I flew in while with Air Atlantique at North Weald in June 1987.

Great to see a civvy Herk. Like Martin said above of their visits to Gatwick. I also recall Pacific Western one there one time. The An-12 looks interesting too.

Look forward to seeing this one Ade.

Thanks for all the additional info. I noted most of these studying your excellent book sub titled 'Poor Mans Spitfire'(with other writers). However, all very useful info. In 1/72nd a lot of work would be needed to modify the AZ or Airfix kits.

Nice work. I did the same subject in 1/72nd with the Italeri kit and Leading Edge Models decals.