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Aiming to match my GB PB on this GB with 2 entries. As ever, I didn't plan it this way and was only going to enter the S&M Models Viscount that my LHS recommended as 'a joy' Then discovered my Air Anglia Fokker Friendship is also eligible and before I knew it I've got a little Rolls Royce Dart thing going on! The RR Dart is bang on for Baby Boomers because it was first run in 1946, it powered the Viscount on it's first fare paying flight in 1948 and the Northolt/ Paris (Le Bourget) route was the first scheduled turbo-prop route. Now back to the kit, His Emminence the All-Building @Enzo the Magnificent has already been there He described it as., 'This one has been fun! The kit is simpler than the simplest thing in Simpleland.' and I'm encouraged by the parts count It's even got locating lugs and everything, so I actually feel a little built guilty about how straightforward it could be which is where DARTing About 2 comes in! Not much to the decals and instructions either... It's got to be harder than this right? One thing I've established is that the Eagle Airways red on thefuselage was prone to fading, sometimes described as a shade of salmon. The few colour photos of them on the t'internet' look that way, but how much was real fading and how much dow to poor film and print preservation? Who cares, this looks like a mojo restorer for me!

My apologies for a very last minute entry for the GB, but for a number of reasons this is the first model that I have picked up for several weeks and with a few projects abandoned mid-build, it could be regarded as a mojo restorer. I am hoping that this quick build will get me back into the swing of things and push me to completing those too. Anyway here are the photos of the bag and its contents. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr Off to wash the parts before making a start now. John

Another V-Bomber in 1/144th, the Vickers Valiant Mk.1 by MikroMir (http://www.mikro-mir.com/en/)- ref.144-003. Source: http://www.mikro-mir.com/en/97-valiant.html V.P.

Because I felt guilty about how easy this looked And the Mods said that a later livery on a Baby Boomer original was allowed, I'm back for more with this... That's more like it, vac-form, add your own dihedral etc. Anyhow the Air Anglia although from 1970 looks retro even then (but that's East Anglia all over). And the RR Dart connection is now obvious, but in early development Fokker had been planing on using Wright Cyclones, so it could've all been very different. However, they looked at how successful the Dart powered Viscounts were and the rest is the proverbial history. Obviously the pressured cabin and high wing configuration for better passenger views all helped. And back to the kit... The part/s Gone with the Welsh Models upgrade of white metal props Years ago, I built a Doyusha one and was very disappointed at the crudity of the undercarriage legs, so straight off I much happier with Denzil's white metal interpretation. There's a stash-load of eligible Dart powered planes out there but I'm stopping at the 2 so if anyone wants to carry on with Darting About 3 etc. be my guest

Douglas DC-8-51 Lufthansa. 1/144 Minicraft & Draw Decal I've had a couple of the Minicraft bagged kits of the DC-8 in the stash since they were released a few years ago. I also bought a set of the BRAZ Pratt & Whitney JT3D resin engines to convert one of them into the short body 51 series of the aircraft. Learning that X-Scale plan to release their own kit of a series 51 DC-8 later this year, I thought I'd better get a move on and build mine, or I'd never get around to it once the new kit is out. I also had a set of Lufthansa decals for the DC-8-51 which had intrigued me, as I had never heard of them operating this version of the aircraft. It turned out that in 1965 they leased one from Trans International Airlines in the US, painted in full Lufthansa colours. They only leased if for 6 months and the aircraft was N8008D, the first DC-8 built. The Minicraft series DC-8-61 kit is very nice, but I has to shorten the fuselage by 1.54 inches fore and aft of the wing to convert it from a 61 to a 51 version, and also replace the kit engines with the resin JT3D's (which fitted very well). The Draw Decals were a pleasure to use, but printed on constant film so that you have to cut around each subject individually. They work superbly, and I'm pleased with the result. This was also the first Minicraft DC-8 I've had that didn't suffer from the outer wing 'droop' that some kits seem to suffer from, where the outer section is warped downwards. One thing led to another, and I had a Classicairlines.com decals sheet for the early scheme worn by the 727-130, which I just had to make as an accompaniment to the DC-8! Out came one of my dwindling supplies of Airfix 727-100's a Daco clear cockpit section, and before I knew it, I had a pair of Lufthansa airliners c1964. There is a bit of a disparity in the blue colours though, the DC-8 being noticeably darker that the 727. Oh well, can't do anything about that! Thanks for looking, John

This is the RealSpace 1/144 Atlas V - 500 series rocket kit. It comes in 17 resin parts, three of which make up the main rocket body. The main tube and fairing are both cast resin; the rest of the pieces are 3D printed. There were some serious mold issues with the main rocket body which would have prevented proper alignment of the final construction; when I reached out to Glenn he quickly sent me a new 3D-printed version of the part. (He said that later versions of this kit would be fully 3D-printed, but for now I'd be building a hybrid of sorts.) Considerable surface prep, a few fit issues, but everything came together in the end. Tamiya and Alclad paints, and a light enamel wash in places for contrast. I added some plasticard strip "embellishments" on the SRBs and fairing. The final model is a good size: 16" tall and top-heavy with the solid resin "grenade" perched on top. But, the model balances (metastably) on its boosters, avoiding strict need of a mount. Thanks for looking! And together with a Delta II and Atlas-Centaur:

Wuhan type 033G submarine, OOB with all flood holes opened out, glazing added to sail and scratch built handrail to main deck. Hairystick painted in Humbrol enamels. All the best Chris

As a 12 year old,my grand parents took me with them to Kenya for hollidays. That was back in september 1990...how the time flies... We should have had a flight from Zurich to Mombasa on the Balair DC-10-30,but for some reasons this was changed,and instead Caledonian Airways took us to our destination on a Boeing 757-200. Due to the limited range of the 757,we had to make a tank stop in Athens. I always had a latent interest in airplanes but this flight actually started it all,my passion for airliners and modelling. In fact,my very first kit that I bought was a Hasegawa 747 in 1/200 soon after our return. But I always wanted to build the aircraft that started it all. Unfortunately back then,no 757 kit was available or none that I was aware of nor could I find decals for the Caledonian version,no internet back then,so tracing such items was rather difficult and one had to rely on the local hobbyshops to stock the latest kits. Anyone remember ? Some good 25 years ago I came across the AHS decal set but was still missing a 757 kit... Some years later Minicraft released a 757 kit that was average at least. I bought some of them but for some reason I never actually built one with the Caledonian decals that I had.Maybe the reason was that the AHS sheet had white parts that needed to be applied first before the yellow decals and also a lack of detail on it. Many years later,in 2021 Zvezda released a bew 757 kit which beats the Minicraft version in every aspect. 26decals released also many decals for the new kit,offering countless airlines,amongst them British Airways/Caledonian. So finally this year I came around building the very 757 that I had flown on back in 1990. The Zvezda kit is superb with almost perfect fit and only a minimum of filler needed. I built it straight out of the box The windows are open,no decals used,so also a bit of the cockpit can be seen. To get the correct windows/doors layout,I had to close 4 windows as Caledonian,as well as many other airlines,have/had an additional door aft of the wings. The last row of windows consists of 13 windows,so just need to count from the back forward and then close 4 windows in a row. The additional door is provided with the decals. The emergency exits on the wings need to be filled and sanded and one window between the former exits added. Yep,I still have the onboard magazine from that flight... Paints used,Tamyia Royal blue with a few drops black for the belly and engines,Gunze light grey 315 for the upper fuselage,Testors Voodoo grey on the wings,the corogard is a mix of dark grey mixed with aluminium. Othe metallic parts are painted with Gunze metallics. As mentioned,the decals are from 26 and are absolutely wonderful. The fit is perfect and the carrier film is almost invisible. The window frames are from the kit decal sheet Caledonian Airways was founded in 1988,emerging from British Airtours In 1999 it merged with Flying Colours Airlines to become JMC,which went to become Thomas Cook Airlines in 2003. Unfortunately,this company went into bankruptcy in 2019. The Boeing 757 G-BPEA was delivered factory new in march 1989 to British Airways and came to Caledonian in april 1989. It was frequently leased out during its service with Caledonian and after being sold in 2001 it remained in service with different airlines until its retirement in may 2018,aged 29. Sadly it was scrapped in 2019. I have still vivid and fond memories of that flight and those wonderful hollidays in Kenya and because of that,this model has a special meaning in my collection. Hence the slighly longer than usual thread... Here some pics from my grand parents photo album,of the 757 upon our arrival in Mombasa I hope you enjoyed my walk down memory lane cheers Alex

I hit a stage with my 1/72 Colombian P-47 that I'm less enthusiastic about and today felt more enthused at the idea of trying something else... I recently acquired a stack (or two) of 1/144 kits, including some Platz P-47s. Earlier this year I built some 1/144 Hawker Hurricanes and found I enjoyed the scale much more than I expected! So, I opened this one today. I'll build the cover art version. You can build two aircraft from each kit, and there are four marking options in this one. For now I'm just going to build the one though. The decals look nice, and including the red highlights so I don't have to paint those (yay!). Here are all of the sprues. I stuck half of these back into the box, along with all the load out parts--pylons, drop tank, bombs, rocket launchers (all of which look great at first glance, by the way)--and extra props, etc. that I won't need on this version. There are two parts for the cockpit, but it all fell together so fast I didn't think to photograph until I had the wings and fuselage assembled! Fit is remarkably good, which was also my experience with the Sweet 1/144 Hawker Hurricanes.

I finished up my first entry in this GB a month or so ago, a Syrian air force Spitfire, and I assumed that would be it, but I saw the deadline got extended and I recently obtained a stash of 1/144 kits I've been excited to get into. So, let me see if I can complete this Bf 109F in the next few days! I've built some Sweet Hawker Hurricanes before and they were a joy to build, and this one looks like it will be a similarly wonderful experience. The box contains two sets of sprue, but I'll just build one for now. After ten wonderful minutes, here we are. The kit almost falls together on its own.

I decided to have a crack at one of these a few weeks ago. Not sure why but I think the re-release of this kit from Mark1 in December triggered an impulse somewhere. This comes from the Malta boxing. N5525 flew with 802 NAS when it was based at HMS Grebe (or what is now Alexandria Airport) when HMS Glorious was stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1939. The black tail indicates it was a Squadron commander's aircraft. The record is slightly hazy but I think it was then boxed up and dropped off at Malta with a bunch of others when HMS Glorious was recalled to the North Sea to take part in the Norwegian Campaign in early-1940 (where Glorious was sunk). It was never actually re-assembled but was used as a source of spare parts to keep the handful of other Gladiators flying in defence of Malta. I built one of these Malta Gladiators at the start of Covid lockdown in 2020. This is the first Gladiator I've built since then. I decided not to do the full photoetch treatment I did with the previous build, but added a few external bits a pieces from the spares box, like the step (quite proud of this - made out of 1:700 ship railings). There were a few bits about the last Gladiator I built that bugged me afterwards, which I have rectified, or tried to, here. First was shaving down the canopy rail fairing behind the cockpit - this is very pronounced as it comes in the box, giving the tapering rear fuselage a curiously boxy shape. So I sanded this right back to what reference photos suggested was about right. Second was replacing the kit-supplied cabane struts with plasticard. Less telegraphpoleish. Otherwise I made all the the other changes I made then, including shortening the undercarriage and main wing struts, and closing the cowling opening a bit. Rigging was Uschi Van Der Rosten thread. Gladiator rigging is quite complex but it was satisfying to finish it. Painting was fairly simple. I painted the areas not to be silver and then sprayed AK Dull Aluminium over the rest. There are some superb photos of this aircraft in flight, taken mine armament and before it was delivered to 802 NAS (see above) but which show all the stencils. I used Shelf Oddity's excellent set of Hurricane stencils. The rest of the kit decals worked nicely. And with another Alex resident from three years later. And there she is with another pre-war RAF biplane, the (by comparison) extremely dainty Hawker Fury. Thanks very much for looking. I really enjoyed this build - a satisfying end to 2023. Happy new year to you all! Angus

Alright, alright, another excuse to dig into my new 1/144 stash, why not!? I'll build a Sweet P-51B Mustang in Swedish markings. I cut and washed the sprues tonight, but photos and more to come!

Now that the holiday and furniture sales adverts have started on TV, joining you with this kit with this option, and parts. Official start time 20:05

Another older work of mine, but I think FGN (Federal German Navy) ships are a bit underrepresented. Hence ... As always: thanks for looking Cheers

Here is my latest build of a 1980s General Dynamics F-16 A Fighting Falcon of the Royal Netherlands Air Force. It is the J-257 of the 322 squadron based at Leeuwarden. Cheers!!!

Latest addition to my collection of 1/144 rockets: the New Ware Atlas Centaur SLV-3D Pioneer 10 Launch Vehicle. All-resin, 14-piece kit, crisply molded. Metallics with Alclad, and a couple spare decals to supplement. Sparingly applied enamel and clay washes. Scratch-built magnetic stand. Complete model is around 11". Thanks for looking!

Hi, After seeing this elegant fighter with its rugged landing gear during Frisian Flag 2022, I had to build one. It is the Dassault Rafale M26 van Flottille 12F “ Les Lascars”. The kit is from Revell with decals from Syhart. The Thales Areos pod is from RetrokiT. For the gray paint I used Gunze H306. For the lighter parts I mixed it with H338. Hope you like it. Best regards, Tjeerd

PLAN Wuhan project 33G, 1/144 bit of a beast, the flood holes just had to be opened out, or did they LOL. Still going, one hull half done, half the other, mid casing started on one side other to do. Opened and glazed with kristal clear wheelhouse in the sail. Missile tubes done, building OOB with the exception of flood holes etc. All the best Chris

Been busy with Dads DIY for my daughters new home the last couple of month so not much time for modelling but we got rid of her yesterday she finally moved in yesterday. So should have more time now to relax and build again I built the 1/350 scale version of this back in May and then got the bigger version a couple of weeks ago at Scale Scotland show Started it at the club on Thursday night and got this far great kits and good value hopefully gives me some inspiration to get back to building again I had gone to the dark side with a Sherman build on the kitchen table. Stay Safe beefy

This is the ICM kit of Aeroflots TU144 in 1/144 scale. I have not done any research into the kits history, if the mouldings belong to a previous vendor or if they relate in anyway to Revell's version of the same - enlighten me please... At face value, the kit looks OK for the price paid (£20). There are the normal delta wing join issues (if you have built Revells 1/144 Concorde or 1/72 monster you will know what I mean) and there are some nasty sink dips. The surface is finely scribed with crisp surface detail and the kit offers a nose up or nose down with canards extended option. The 2 fuselage halves are particularly flimsy and needed tubing added in between them stop them falling in on themselves while assembling. My pictures highlight the wing join issues; I have inserted some internal plasticard stripping where the fuel would have been stored to pack this out and have almost eradicated the problem. I am not going to bust a blood vessel on this as the subject is not too much of an interest to me (we got it right with Concorde didn't we) and I am enjoying other civil things in 1/200 scale, however it is a nice distraction from my norm and the first Russian subject I have ever built. It is different and not often seen as a completed model. The subject really lacks the majestic curves of Concorde, and I get the feeling I am modelling an ugly troll who had a beautiful British (& part French)sister. Intended to be modelled posed touching down with canards extended, I have made appropriate alterations to the wing ailerons.

Good evening Fellow Modellers Aged 11 this was the first aircraft I flew, all the way from Newcastle to Belfast Aldergrove, back in 1975 for my first day at school. I was on my own but accompanied by my own stewardess so felt suitably important. This is the beautiful resin kit from Authentic Airliners with their window decals and markings from 26 decals. Local flying around the UK was often by Viscount in those days and I remember with fondness watching the world go by from those huge windows The Mammoth Major refueller and Sherpa van are from the excellent Ray Rimes Designs (3-D printed) Does it bring back any memories for some of you? Regards Andrew

The kit. Shelf space is a premium so for bigger subjects I usually go for 1/144. I paid a little bit more than that The kit has no interior and pretty low parts count so goes together pretty quickly. Will need a little sanding and filling. I’ll let the adhesive set overnight first.

Hello all Another brail scale completed today....the really nice Saab Draken from Platz in 1/144. Super simple construction made this a breeze of a build. Nothing added apart from a brass wire pitot tube. Paints were Mr Hobby, Xtracrylix and Vallejo. I looked at various photos to try and match the camo colours but every photo seemed to be different, so I used the Scandinavian Historic Flight machine as an example of what the paint colours would have been when factory fresh. Interestingly the blue grey ended up being close to EDSG so I chose that. Hope you like. Comments much appreciated IMG_20230911_190028 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_190105 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_190042 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_190115 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_190137 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_185927 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_185940 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_190012 by Gray-1969, on Flickr

My entry for this Blitzbuild.

Being a long time fan of the Hawker Sea Fury, I couldn't resist one of Mark I Models more recent kits. Two Sea Furies in one box! And for me, it had to be Korea where they distinguished themselves on interdiction operations from Royal Australian Navy and Royal Navy carriers. Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 VX764 / 134-K of No.805 NAS flown by Lt Cdr (P) W.P. Bowles (OC 805 NAS), HMAS Sydney, Korea. Autumn 1951 Hawker Sea Fury FB.11, WJ223/106-O No.802 NAS flown by Sub Lt. Brian 'Schmoo' Ellis (who shot down the MiG-15) HMS Ocean, Korea. Summer 1952 A few modelling details; Paint - Xtracolor X5 EDSG, X7 Sky and X814 Deep Bronze Green for the bombs, Humbrol 74 Linen for the Hawker primer yellow. Final coat of Winsor & Newton Artists' Acrylic Matt UV Varnish. Decals - Mark 1 and home produced. Scratched - Canopies and RAN rocket rails. Nice kits, built mostly OOB and not without the odd challenge. Took a bit longer than I'd planned. For those who might want more details of the builds, here's a link to the WIP; Thanks for looking.