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Hello dear colleagues! Today I want to show you my first non-civil aircraft in my standard scale. What can I say about C-130? Some people says that it's most beauty-looking plane. But in my opinion it looks ridiculous, short and fat fuselage looks strange enough. But anyway, it has own charm, especially in old schemes with naked duralumin body. And I think the most popular military cargo plane will be a good replenishment for my collection. Hercules was produced in many different modifications, the most famous of them is monstrous AC-130 Spectre, the flying artillery battery. Also, C-130 is the biggest plane ever landed and taken off from aircraft carrier. The kit from Amodel was purchased about half a year ago, but for long time I didn't dare to start with it. I've read a lot of negative reviews about this kit. OK, it's short-run technology. How we say in Russia, swearing removed And I have to say that this proverb describes progress of building the model good enough. There was no one connection that didn't need many time, sanding paper and putty to get it acceptable-looking. Usually I spend much more time for paint-works, but when you have a deal with Amodel, you have to be ready to spend some days before you will take airbrush in your hand. On the picture there are two engines from left side - one before and another after correction of them. Also kit has incorrect geometry, when I've placed the wing over fuselage, I've discovered that there is a big fail with engines. They were inclined down. After saying some kind words to Amodel manufacturers, I disconnected engines and took putty and sanding paper again... Taking stock of building progress, there was very long and complicated work to get something looking like Hercules from that sadly-looking plastic pieces, that you can find in the box. BTW Amodel writes in their instruction that "Kit destined only for skilled modellers". I think it's something like disclaimer of responsibility. Paint work was easy enough after finally getting assembled model. First I've used black Decorix primer from the balloon. Then I masked nose and areas behind engines and painted the plane with Tamiya X-11. Then I tried (not very successfully) to imitate panel effect on the fuselage and wing-edge. Red colour for tail was mixed from red and orange Master-Acrylic paints. First, I had an idea to paint the whole plane in metallic, like it is pointed in instruction. But discovering hundreds of C-130 photos, I've found one with red tail and metallic body. It was C-130A from one US museum. I liked this scheme very much and decided to paint my model in something like that prototype. And here I've to say that there is no any real prototype of my model. It only can be named collective fashion of Hercules from the Golden Era of 1960's, with fantastic design of cars, fascinatingly-looking planes and time of Elvis Presley 🤟 Decal from Amodel matches all the (un)quality of the kit. Though it was covered with lacquer, anyway it has crumbled. So it was "US air force' stencils for fuselage. But after it had crumbled, I had to content only with "USAF" instead of correct stencil. Big "S" letter on the upper part of the wing had crumbled as well, but fortunately there was another one in reserve. I"ve used Pledge Future prior and after decals. Also I've applied gray and deep-gray wash from Pacific-88 to get effect of old and exhausted plane. Finally, I've covered model with Master-Acrylic matte lacquer. Summary, what can I say about the model. I haven't create a masterpiece, sure, and there are a lot of mistakes. Painting is not very pretty-looking as well, especially on the photos. But I wanted to get Hercules in 1/144 on the shelve, and I've got it. Will I build Amodel kits in the future? I don't think so. But never ever say "never" and maybe some time I'll want to get another one special plane and the model will be non-alternative.. May be. Wish all of you modelling inspiration! Respects, tMikha.

Hello Comrades! 😀 So let me show you the result of my last finished work in regular scale for me. Basically, I wasn't going to make another one of 737-series. That was finished with 4 ready models on the shelve. But one of them had found a new owner, and I've got some free space in 737s row. And after I've built Aeroflot aircraft, I've decided that UIA livery will be a good choice to place that models together. This was really quick built - it took only 2 weeks that is really "blitz-built" for me. (Usually I need at least 3 weeks or more). Zvezda-737NG kit is very high quality as always. And the only few words I'm going to say about the kit is that gradually the manufacturer upgrades kits. If the older 737-800 was accompanied with old-style Utair decals from the box, so fresh edition consists new-style Utair livery. Really it wasn't really important in my case, but by the way Zvezda upgraded the decal for pilots windows edges. Now they became thin and neat, despite the previous version that was too massive and non-scale looking. Paint-works in this built was as minimal as possible to create normal model. Usually when I need white and smooth surface, I apply a thin layer of Decorix from the can, and then use Mr.Hobby H-1 with airbrush. But in this case I've just covered plastics with three or four layers of Decorix primer, giving it some time for drying up between layers. And finally I've sanded the surface with sanding-paper (2500) plus a few water. The ready surface maybe is not as ideal as after Mr.Hobby paint, but really after covered with some Future, it looks similar. Blue tail was airbrushed with Master-Acrylic #36 (blue). Wing and stabs edges are covered with Tamiya X-11 chrome silver. Hot parts of engines are airbrushed with a mix of MAKR-aluminium plus some yellow and green Master-Acrylics. Tyres are Mr. Hobby H-77 tyre-black. Chassies I've painted with thin usual brush with Jim-scale light-gray. Decals I've purchased from Ascensio. I've used this production earlier (Norwegian 737MAX for example). So it's reach, good-quality decals. The only one thing is too thick white background for blue-area elements. In fact, the decal-sheet was enough to get ready model. But I've used some out-of-box elements as well. The technical stencils look more natural in Zvezda's decals, and also I've applied decal windows edges for passenger windows and for cockpit as well. I wasn't going invent a bicycle one more time, so the lacquer is Pledge Fuutre (two layers) under decals. After decals were applied and dried up, there is one more layer of Future, and a thin layer of satin lacquer (Future + 5% X-21 Flat base) as final coverage and to reduce surplus shine on the photos. As the model was finished, I've noticed some disadvantages as always. But generally I like the result. Hope you will like it too 🙂 The comments and criticism are welcome as usual. Respects, tMikha.

B-1B Lancer 9th Bomb Squadron, USAF – Dyess, Texas, 2014 Panda 1/144 scale kit / Caracal decals With the release of the newish Academy B-1B in 1/144, the kit I used here is redundant, but I was already half way through it so decided to carry on. It was really the release of the Caracal decal sheet that encouraged me to retrieve it from the attic where it had been part started for many many years. There aren’t many kits that I would actually call bad. This is the exception – it’s a bad kit! To start with the whole fuselage around the cockpit area just looked wrong. I decided to forgo a clear windscreen and added Milliput all over the front fuselage to reshape it, then added the ‘transparent’ bits with paint, 1/144 airliner style. Then there are the exhausts. If you were doing and early B-1B with turkey feathers you could just about get away with filling and sanding the kit exhausts, but later aircraft had the naked nozzle workings on display so I had a go at scratch building that lot (there is a resin replacement available for lots of dosh but I didn’t think this kit was worth it). Wheels were the next thing – those provided in the kit were ridiculously small. I had actually built a Minicraft B-1A years ago, wheels up, so I could use the wheels on the B-1B. Nowadays there are resin wheels available which maybe I should have bought. What’s next – ah yes, the wing section! The outer wings have so much camber that they could have come from a Sopwith Camel. I actually left this untouched because it's not that visible from the top and the engraved detail was very nice. The decals – oh, the decals. They look so nice on the sheet and have lots of good detail, but they had that too good to be true glossiness about them. Sure enough, they took an age to release from the backing, then just fell apart when touched. I tried coating them with Klear but it made little difference. Anyway that was before Caracal came along with a brilliant sheet so thankyou Caracal. Despite all of the above, and I’m sure there are more tales of woe if I think about it, out the end came a passable B-1B as part of my US bombers project in 1/144. Next up are a couple of B-47s which should be less challenging. Or should I go for the B-36 – or maybe B-58? That’s the great thing about this hobby – there’s always the next one….

When building some 1/144 aircraft, I bought some 1/144 pilots from Heroesmodels. They are very nicely modelled and higly detailed but when installing them into the cockpits I noticed they are to big. I had to cut off the lower body to fit them and the heads "fill out" a big part of the canopy. This can clearly be seen in the cockpit of the 1/144 Zvezda Mi24 in the picture below. So I did some measurements and compared them to the Hasegawa 1/48 Navy pilots and found out the body is closer to 1/125 but the helmets are almost 1/100. I have a Trumpeter 1/144 F117 that has a pilot included and altough it's way less detailed than the Heroesmodels pilots, the body is closer to 1/144 but still the head is to big. The helmet should be about 1.8mm wide, the Trumpeter is 2.2mm and Heroesmodel is 2.5mm. That doesn't look like much, but when building 1/144 models, 0.7mm is a lot. So what do 1/144 builders use for pilots that aren't big headed? I know about the OZmods and some people use Nscale figures, but it would be nice If somebody could measure some heads 😉

Not sure if this really merits an RFI thread but it’s been on the shelf of doom so long I think I’ll do one anyway. Revell 1/144 Apache US Army completely oob, a nice little kit.

I am a prolific model kit purchaser and pretty good at starting projects, but not so good at seeing them through to completion. Hence my appearance here at Britmodeller in a bid to curb this trend. Thinking pragmatically, my subject choice is modest in terms of size and difficulty, and perhaps most importantly will not feature aftermarket goodies or a complex paint scheme. So, here we go with Academy's new tooling from last year. According to various reviews I have read, this is more accurate than the Great Wall Hobby offering from 2020, so when I saw it going for a decent price at RIAT a week or so ago, temptation prevailed. Having built so many good Academy kits over the years, I felt confident that this would be a good decision.

Hi Everyone, just thought I would show you my first build: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1wvTMHi36P8NeQTHA https://photos.app.goo.gl/iKMNh5YPZn9y7ZoH8 It's not brilliant I know, I'm very new to this, I built it, painted it, gave it a coat of gloss varnish, put decals on, then matt varnish. Is that how your supposed to it? I used vallejo paints and varnish throughout. Jerry.

The kit. Still no idea what colour scheme I’ll build it in. But at least it’s now in the mix.

This is what my stash and my local toy ( not hobby) shop contained. In the interest of not overly confusing myself I’ll build them as a trio. They’ll be pretty much oob except where there’s some obviously wrong that needs correcting and I still haven’t decided on colour schemes yet.

Hello, it's me again 😃 So, finally I've finished with my last model of Airbus A-320 series, and with "parade" of 320's models as well. The main stages of the work you can find in WIP. And I want to tell a few words about the kit first. It was purchased about 1,5 years ago, that time there was no 320NEO in Zvezda catalogue, and this kit was named usual "Airbus A-321" (now it's named A-321 CEO and there is nice TAP-Portugal decal-sheet included). But that time it was provided with standard Airbus home livery out-of-box. So that time I had an idea to built the kit in Metrojet EI-ETJ livery in memory of that poor souls who were killed over Sinai in terrorist attack in 2015. But later I've refused from that idea, and kit was stored for all that time in reserve. Also I've "stolen" some parts to replace that I've lost during another 320's building. And now it's time has come! I've chosen Aeroflot livery as some challenge for myself: I've never done such difficult borders of colours on my models. Also, I work with Aeroflot every working day, I was their passenger for many times, but still I have no Aeroflot model on the shelve? Shame on me! 😁 So I think there is no need to tell about Zvezda kit - it's really high qulity product, as any other Zvezda civil liners. I've used only a few putty, to remove the slot between wings and fuselage. I think there is no need to tell here about painting progress in details. All that I've described in WIP topic. Only I will tell that most colours were Master-Acrylic and Mr.Hobby. The main gray-metallic was mixed from white and black MR. Hobby plus some MAKR aluminium. IMHO the result is not so far from prototype. BTW the prototype of the plane served in Aeroflot till 2018. Then it was transferred to Canadian Air Transat airlines. There it got a new livery and sucessfully flies till today. During the period it was in Aeroflot, it had VQ-BEI reg. number and personal name S. Korolev. And here I've to tell a few words about decals. I've purchased PAS-decals sheet. There were 6 variants of bording numbers but no one stencil for personal aiprlane's name. Really strange and upset fact. So I've used another one name-stencil from reserve out-of box sheet for A-320. So mu model now named Sofya Kovalevskaya. Let it be this way, BTW there are only 3 or 4 of Aeroflot planes that named in tribute of famous women, and Kovalevskaya is one of them. In conclusion I want to tell that it was another one interesting built. Though I see a lot of small disadvantages in the finished model, but anyway I like it and satisfied with the result. I'm really interested in your opinion about Aeroflot gray colour, whether it looks realistic or no. So criticism and comments are warmly welcome, as usual. Respects, tMikha. PS and one photo of my 320's finished collection on the shelve in concluding.

Ok……I am having too many work in progress build here and none completed. Here’s another one, my first 1/144 and a tiny one too. The big 1/144 B777-300ER will have to wait for next year. My inspiration came because of one top view picture of the plane blending with the ground. So I will build this tiny plane flying with a blur background, all mounted in an enclosed picture box. So, here’s the plane; a New Zealand A-4 Skyhawk. The kit came with 2 planes, so I may build 2 planes with different camouflage.

Well - my little 1/144 UFO'ish thingie is done, finished - and it came out almost as I had envisioned it! Can't ask for more. Link to WIP: The pictures show the DRA-G1 on the day of the first flight. The mechanics are making the last adjustments, while the flightcrew are viewing the cockpit. A young belgian journalist and his dog are having a chat with the army intelligence officer at the entrance of the DRA-G1. They seem to have a little problem with the leading landinggear, which is a bit crooked, but I'm sure they'll have it fixed before take-off. I hope you liked this little trip into my little fantasyworld - I know I had a lot of fun! Cheers for now Hans J

Hello dear colleagues! Today I'm happy to show you my last finished project - Revell kit A-320NEO. It's the 3-rd of my 320-series "parade", and one more is in progress for today. The progress of assemble you can find here. Also I've done a short music video of main steps of building progress 😎 And there is a really exciting coincidence that I've finished my build almost at the same day with another one BA-Revell 320NEO kit from @lomasca 😀 So what can I say about the kit? Really it's not bad at all - well in joining of parts, neat moulds (except of really bad main landing gears). But actually Zvezda 320s are better IMHO (and cheaper twice in MSK)))) But that's no doubt - I enjoyed building new Revell product - it's really well-done. So about building: First I've used dark-gray primer for inner parts to prevent translucency of fuselage under bright sunshine. Later all antennas were removed due to neat sanding of seams between parts of fuselage. The engines that are common to be difficult to paint in Revell kits A-320 doesn't seem too difficult for me. And there was the main task to remove the seam between transparent part and fuselage, that made me to use some Tamiya putty and some sanding paper. Painting That was my first attempt to paint bi-colour livery... And what can I say - it wasn't fully successful. I've used some masking tape, but the border of colours that I've made first was incorrect: the border was rising up from wings to nose, though it's strictly parallel to ground on real plane. And the worst of all is that I've noticed that fail only during first photo-session of the model. So, that was a big choise 1) to drop-off the model to garbage (no-no, really NOOO - there is too much invested labor) - or 2) to remove all the paint and to give it new (and easier) livery or 3) to try to save the situation. I've chosen 3-rd way. So I've lost 1/3 of wonderful decals, BA logos over doors, and sanded nose part till the plastics. Then I've used plasticine masks to save remaining stencils (TNK over the windows for example), and painted once more with new borders of colour. In result it's not very well done, but it's sure better than first attempt. And after all - that was a new problem to find decals for BA one more time. Red-blue strips and a lot of stencils were destroyed as well as front doors. I had to purchase one more decal-sheet from Brazilian manufacturer. Though the decal was really thick, bad in applying, and the main thing that it was developed for early BA-320's with ethnic tails. So if today there is a logo of crown after BA stencil, that time there was no crown after it. I've used Mr.Hobby H-1 for white colour, some mix of H-1 + dark-gray Tamiya for wings, MAKR aluminium for wings and stabilisers edges, MAKR royal-blue for bottom of fuselage (maybe it's really not the same as on prototype, but it's somewhere near IMHO) Also the out-of-box red part of decal isn'n enough - that made me to turn to my reserves and to cut a little pieces from Aeroflot red flag-colours (tail part) of decals. Otherwise decals are stunning, even I can say they are too detailed for 1/144 scale! I really enjoyed it, though I've spent half a day while applying it. Additions Usually I am "out-of-box" builder, but this time poor realisation of main wheels made me to purchase resin wheels from "I-modelist" manufacturer. Really they look lovely for me and not too expensive. Also I've added beacons, lights on the edges of the wings, and applied masks from KV-models. In place of conclusion: Really - that's not the best one of my models, and I see a lot of disadvantages looking at it. But I really glad that it was enough of my patience to get this finished. And (to tell truth), I like it. I hope you'll enjoy watching this))) Criticism and remarks are welcome as usual! Respects, tMikha.

Hi all, my 144 airliner collection is starting to resemble a boneyard in 2020. As such, i'm looking to buy a bunch of consistent stands, ideally with a small circular hole required in the model. I've been looking for Corgi aviaton archive stands but can't really find many available to purchase separate. Open to options, any suggestions? Thanks Chris

Hello all! A couple words for the start. This kit was purchased by me about 2 years ago. Now Zvezda produces it as "A-321 CEO" and gives nice-looking Condor livery in the box. Maybe if I've purchased it with this decals, I would decide to built it with out-of-box livery. But that time A-321 was availible only with Airbus home livery. It's too boring for me and I prefer to give my models liveries of air-companies who really operates or operated in past (at least) with passengers, not prototypes or test-flying machines (Hello to MC-21 - after it will arrive to any one company and carry it's first commercial passengers, I'll buy the kit on the same day) So when I've purchased the kit, my idea was to build Metrojet Ei-ETJ, I've even bought decals from PAS for it. But that was one big problem - my skill was drastically low. And i wanted to built serious, neat and lovely model in tribute to victims of that terrible air-crash in Sinai. But the further the more I have doubts about ethic side of making this model. I never want to get any feedbacks or praise on human tragedy. And last one circumstance that made me to decide not to build Metrojet was well-known events in Ukraine. There is no any communication between two this events. But I said "enough blood, enough sad circumstances, life goes on anyway!" By the way the kit was in progress of cannibalization - when I built other Airbuses, I used to loose different small parts. And now I've told myself that kit is to be built now or other way it will be cannibalised till the end. I've some doubts about livery. But once I decided to give a challenge to myself and to built kit in Aeroflot livery. Really - it's not my favourite Russian company (my favourite S7 and it's even more difficult to built it, ha-ha) But it's something like a shame - to work in Sheremetyevo, to handle hundreds Aeroflot flights, to be their passengers for many times, and not to have at least one Aeroflot liner on the shelve. But the livery is really complicated, so I'll have to be very careful with paint-works. So, start is usual for me. I'll built model with transparent windows as always, some weight of plasticine and coins in the nose (though there is no word about it in instruction, but I've decided to be safe). So for today I have painted cockpit interior, and connected two parts of fuselage. Then I started with wings and with wheels. That is about cannibalism 😆 I had no one of the slats and also I had no inner parts for main wheels out of box. But I have 4 defective wheels from previous Revell A-320NEO kit, plus one extra resin wheel and plus one Revell wheel from first my A-320. So, I've solved the wheel-problems cutting-off some plastics from Revell wheels and inserting into out-of box wheels plus one resin wheel. And what about slat - I've decided to make it by myself from Tamiya putty. Now it looks not very good, but don't worry, the problem is easy-to solve with sanding sponge 😉 So... today I plan to sand it, and maybe to connect wings with fuselage. And constantly I stay with my thoughts about difficulties with paint-works, which to be overcame... 😟 Respects, tMikha.

I received a surprise in the post this morning, it was a package from my fellow modelling buddy and all round good 'egg' @Hockeyboy76. Inside the box was this 1/144 Platz boxing of the Thunderchief, along with some very nice edible packaging. Cheers buddy, I hope that I can do them justice and I know that Mrs N and I will enjoy the Stroop Waffles and Welsh Cakes. In the box are two kits with a choice of three colour options. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr Cheers. John

Hello there! Another one of my Airbus A-320 family. This is experimental model for me and it has own little history. So, it was about two years ago, when I started modelling. And once I've purchased Revell 1/144 kit. That time i was really about zero in theme, but I liked white plastic and noticed good connectivity of parts. But all we know what usually our first models look like 🤦‍♂️ There were all possible mistakes and fat layer of paint and lacquer painted with usual brush. It was Air Astana livery first. So, this terrible product of my model life activity stood on the shelve during long time. And once I've decided to make some experiment with reanimation of the model. Engines, undercarriage and tail stabilisers were disconnected. All paint was removed using 646-solvent. Then I placed weight into nose part (oops, I've forgotten about it first time) The model was covered with Decorix primer and painted with blue MAKR paint. Passenger and pilots windows were covered with putty and sanded. (I prefer to make transparent windows in any case, so I had great desire to keep windows transparent, but there was no other option - the plastic was completely dead, yellow and opaque. And I don't see the point in leaving a transparent cabin with a deaf cockpit) The fuselage and wings were reassembled, the joints were removed, and the engines were repainted. MAKR #16 yellow I've used for nose part. Gray colour for wings was mixed from Mr. Hobby #1 plus some Tamiya dark gray. I did not repaint the hot part of the engine and undercarriage - on closer inspection, it turned out that they were painted not much worse than I know how to paint them now. The choice of livery was also approached "creatively" this time. Usually I like more classic and strict liveries. But today we have an experiment so let's add some craziness. I've chosen Eurowings special decal from PAS. Pledge Future was used as lacquer prior and after decals. And one photo in before-after style you can find in the end, but I can't recommend it for people with a weak nervous system 😂 Respects, tMikha.

This was the second Mark 1 boxing of the Starfighter discovered in my stash search and contains single and two seat variants. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr

A further hunt through the stash uncovered a couple of boxings of Mark 1's Starfighter kit, this one was entitled In Europe and contains a couple of single seat variants. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr

Hello everyone! Today I'm glad to introduce once more of my models, and to finish the "parade" of 737-family. The last one is most popular today type 737-800. Zvezda kit is neat, easy to build and needs only few putty, especially compared to previous EE 737-100. I've thought about livery choose for last one 737 for a long time. First I really wanted to build it in NOK-air bird livery, but later decided that it's too complicated for my skill till that days. Another one idea was Aeroflot classic old livery, but I am not a fan of "whatif" liveries. Finally I stopped choosing and purchased another one high quality and easy-to buy in RF livery from PAS. OK, it's another one standard and not eye-catching design. But first, I was a passenger on Nordwind couple of times (though flights were operated on 321) and the second and main reason that I've sent to trip this plane for great number of times as a handling-supervisor. Nordwind is one of Russian companies, far not the biggest but well-known inside the country. They operate park of different aircrafts (737's, A-321, 777-200 and -300). Mainly they perform domestic flights, and flights to Antalya (AYT) during high-season as well. In addition, I have warm feelings for this carrier for their easy-to-communicate and not arrogant flight attendants. Serving their flights, you will never be denied a cup of hot coffee in the cold season, a bottle of Cola in the hot, or some food if you feel hungry. So, enough lyrics, let's talk about painting 😁 First I've used ZIP-maket primer (that time I usually used it, but later replaced it with Decorix from a can). Grey colour of fuselage was mixed by eye from mr. Hobby #1 + Tamiya XF-24 Dark grey. Wings are painted by eye as well, the difference is in quantity of grey paint. Then I've chosen correct colour for engines, but finally stopped on Mr. Hobby H-18 steel. As I think, it's not far from real colour. Wheels, undercarriage and gear-flaps painted with zvexzda #30 light gray. Tyres covered with XF-85 Tamiya Rubber black. Wing-edges ant other heated areas painted with X-11 Chrome silver. Pledge future before and prior decals, as usual. And final layuer is mixed Future with 5% of X-21 Flat base. Decals from PAS are wery high-quality as usual. Technical inscriptions and others - from the included decal-sheet. (Basically it's Utair livery out-of box) Also I've added beacon on the top of fuselage (on the bottom there are a hole for the rack), and red and green lights on the wing-tips. Though highest quality, the decal has few minor disadvantages. For example, instead of "www.nordwindairlines.ru" on real plane, this inscription without WWW on decal-sheet. And what was pointed later by colleagues, I've applied some inscriptions not enough straight, and destroyed little red N logos on the engines. It's all on the side of my crooked hands 🙄 Model was finished in last days of 2021. The last two fotos is for compare with prototype of the model. Respects, tMikha.

Hello there! Today I've uploaded one more of my B-737's park 😀 Model from Eastern Express well-known for it's poor quality. But it's the only way to built 737-100. First, I used half a kilo of Tamiya Putty and one meter of sanding paper to get normal surface and to fill all the junction points 😃 After Zvezda kits that was really complicated work but interesting as well. I've built 737-MAX8 (presented on this resource a few days before) and decided to make "grandfather" for it. 737-100 looks really interesting and a few funny when compared with NG or MAX. It's so short, and seems "fat" but with the same nose part. Old-school livery is amazing with shine of aluminium on the fuselage. I don't understand, why such liveries with shine naked aluminium are not used by carriers today. First commercial flights of 737-100 were performed in Lufthansa in 1969. So, it's 53 years history and 4 generations of 737 till today. Model packed in pretty box with interesting box-art of 737-100 with steps and flight crew getting out from plane to crew bus. Inside the box there is only one pocket with dark grey plastic, looks sad... Also scheme of assembly and decal-sheet for LH included. As i've said, the most difficult part was to sand all the joints. Also it was a big task to assembly pilot's windows. There are only one piece of bad-looking plastic in the kit. Also, there is no windows for passengers in the kit. Really I always try to make gloss windows as it possible, and much less I like decals for windows. But this time I had no skill and enthusiasm to drill the windows. For cockpit I used masks from KAV-models. ZIP-maket primer and Mr. Hobby H-1 for white colour. And here I must to say few words about livery. I do not pretend to be one 100 % historical compliance with the prototype. Firstly, apparently different planes and in different periods of time were painted differently. The border of gray and metallic on the bottom is located differently on different sides and in different photos. I took as a basis a certain averaged version of livery. Silver is Tamiya X-11 "chrome silver". Grey colour mixed from Mr.Hobby H-1 and some dark-grey Tamiya. The decal is high quality enough, easy to apply. But the other side that it's very poor, with no technical inscriptions at all. So I've used the rest decals from previous 737 and also realistic windows instead of included in kit. The silver edging of the windshield was made by myself from scraps. It was another one not easy job. In the end I added ligts in the wing-edges and beacons on fuselage. Also I redesigned the hubcaps of the outer wheels of the main landing gear - what the EE gives in the set looks really toylike. Pledge Future as first lacquer layer prior decals and after as well. Mechanization of wing and engines got a little dirty with oil-paints. Final lacquer is mix from Future and about 5% of Tamiya X-21 flat base. Summing up - it's not the best of my models, but taking int account quality of EE-kit, I was satisfied with the result. Respects, tMikha.

It’s in the post from the Big H.

Well now - this will take a bit of explanation. When I was little (that's a lie - I was never 'little'! ) there was a danish comic strip 'Willy på eventyr' (Willy on adventure). It was a scifi inspired comic strip centered around the hero ' Willy, a professor - Onkel Hans (Uncle Hans) and a love interest - Jonna. They took on adventures in a flying vehichle, which looked a lot like a flying saucer. As I found out, this comic strip was a sort of continuation of a british comic strip- Rob The Rover. Links: https://comiccreatorsuk.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/rob-the-rover/ Link to picture of Willy's ship: Now my UFO is inspired by Willy's ship, but I'm making it as if the danish goverment of the time, was indeed inspired by it to make a real version (does that make sense?). So they formed 'Dansk Rumfarts Agentur' (Danish Space Agency) or DRA and the ship was called: DRA-G1 (Generation 1) I used the radome of an old Fujimi E-2B, a christmas dekoration and a lot of plasticcard! OK let's start this: Now let's see how this works out - I have no masterplan, just a slight overview of where I hope to end up! This may change i as I go along! Cheers for now Hans J

Hello all! I've decided to tell and show my progress in 320NEO building and painting. First, I've built 4 737's different generations. And later decided to go on with his main competitor A320. First model from Zvezda was finished yet. And now I compare kits from two manufactures and build 320NEO from Revell. So till today I have done this basic work First, it was really useful advise for Revell kits - to paint in dark colour from inside. Otherwise ready model will be yelowish if positioned under bright sun shine. I've used decorix the primer from the cylinder - it has strong adhesion and easy-to apply. So, while fuselage dries up, I've painted cockpit interior. In Russian model communities you can often read something like "I've spent a lot of time for interior but actually, it's "gopher". This slang comes from one old russian comedy. It was one dialogue there: -Do you see the gopher? -No, I don't. -And I don't see, but the gopher exists! So this case is certainly about "gopher" - it's unreal to explore cabin interior in 1/144 scale on ready model. So I must to confess - I hadn't spent too mush time for perfect painting of interior. My "gopher" is ready 😃 So on, the next day I pasted the cockpit and nose gear niche into fuselage. Plus for more reliability added a piece of plastic between them. As Revell says in instruction, 10 g weight was added. I think couple of rubles 🪙 and some plasticine will be enough 😀 And clear details of passenger windows are already mounted. Later I'll protect them using masks. Now we are reapy to connect two parts of our fuselage together. Next day I've mounted cockpit clear detail, and began work with engines. Cockpit detail рas not been established very neat, so I was forced to use some putty, then apply sanding paper (from 600 to 2500 grain size) And what about engines - in many Reviews Revell was blamed that engines division is very complicated, illogical and heavy-to paint. Well, I must agree with that reviews. For example, I can't imagine how to airbrush this detail in two colours. So I airbrushed in steel Mr. Hobby H-18 and then painted light grey Zvezda paint #30 using usual brush. Then also I've painted with Tamiya X-11 chrome silver the shapes of blades. You can see the left and right details before and after. So... now engines are glued together, and today plan is to finish with cockpit and engines grinding, add masks and cover with decorix white primer on my plane plus paint engines main colour (I've applied primer onto all small details before assembly). I think to use MAKR "royal blue" #47 for this. Maybe it's not the certain colour of BA engines, but as i think it's somwhere close to the truth. So, hope it's would be interesting to view project. Criticism is welcome 😀 Respects, tMikha.

Celebrating Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee with this trip to Malta, by Trident. Her Majesty The Queen, Greeted By Archbishop Michael Gonzi, Luqa Airport, Malta, 23 November 1967 This kit. The only mod necessary - creation of that X on the registration.