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Good afternoon all, The latest off the production line: Zvezda's 1/144th scale Boeing 777-300ER finished in Emirates' livery using 26-Decals. This kit is by far the best airliner model I've ever built - it fell together and it's the first time I've ever built a model where not even the tiniest bit of filler was needed. Detail is also very good and a huge step up from the old Minicraft Triple Seven kits. 26's decals were a pleasure, too - all in all a very enjoyable build. DSC_0018 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0010 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0021 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0025 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0023 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0007 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0027 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr DSC_0004 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr Best regards to all, Tom

As a bit of a palette cleanser, following my Blenheim and to get something new for the SIG stand at Telford, I put this little beast together. It is the Mark 1 Model 1/144th scale kit of the workhorse of the RNZAF from the early fifties to the early seventies. It is a simple kit as befits it size buy has plenty of detail. I used the decals I have had printed for SIG members , which come on a sheet on both 1/72nd and 1/144th scale and cover both 75 and 14 Squadrons with lots of appropriate serials. The only thing missing are the roundel and fin flashes that already provided in most kits. All the sheet provides are the silver ferns to save cost. I need to find a replacement for the fin flash lost as although there are two complete kits in the box my kit decal sheet has only one set of D type fin flashes. Thanks for looking.

I posted my earlier attempt at this kit earlier, but as there are two in the box it would be rude not to build both. So this one is a machine of the Squadron commanders bird from the 87th FIS. Both together Thanks for looking.

Recently I've built eleven 1/48th scale F-101s, 102s and 106s but am rapidly running out of space so I downsized to try out the new Pflatz kit. Here is the result. The fir is incredible especially after the bigger models so I hope a few more of the 10x series become available in the smaller scale.

Hello all! Just for a change, I decided to do a kit that was issued within the last couple of years rather than something as old as me! Oh yes, and it was relatively big too. The Blackburn Beverley. I remember seeing these flying when I lived out in Aden, and was always impressed with them. I was very surprised when MikroMir indicated they were producing an injection-moulded kit of it, and it went to the top of my 'watching' list at Hannants! It duly arrived in my stash, and I got round to building it back in June this year. My overall impression of the kit was good, there was plenty of detail (how accurate I know not): there was a central console, instrument panel (with dials), control columns and a pair of seats. I added some tape seatbelts just for fun. I had to sand a bit off the assembly and remove the location ledges on one fuselage half to get the fuselage to close up, but it was nothing untoward. This aircraft needed a lot of weight to not tail-sit, so I built some 'cargo' in the shape of a large crate (modeled from memory of the crates we used when relocating overseas) and loaded it with lead and CA'd it in place. The wings went okay, with quite a good trailing edge. The four wing halves each needed a small triangle cutting off (indicated in the instructions) and the slots on the fuselage needed a little paring from the inside to allow the wings to fit. Clamshell doors were a good fit too, and they (along with the wings) only needed a little filler to blend in nicely. I needed to do a bit more work with the engine nacelles, and they were not too bad, but when I came to put in the engine faces I could not get them to sit straight. They were eventually hidden by the prop spinners. Transparencies fitted well, and there were even masks supplied for painting. The tail assembly was okay when fitted, but I left off the vertical parts for later. I drilled out all the portholes as they were represented by black dots on the transfer sheet. I sprayed the whole thing Tamiya White Primer, then gloss white for the cabin roof. I then hit a hitch. The instructions suggested Light Stone and Dark Earth for the upper camo colours, but Light stone looked too pale to me, so I asked for help in the Cold War section here on BM. Light Stone was correct (I always thought the lighter colour was darker and more yellow), so I used Humbrol 121 Pale Stone and 29 Dark Earth. For some reason I kept thinking 121 was Light Stone, and that may be the reason it looked wrong. Anyway, during the chat on the other thread, I decided to repaint the Light Stone with another colour, and when it was confirmed that it should be Light Stone, I decided to start from scratch. I went out and bought some Tamiya Light Sand (yes I know, I STILL got the colour wrong!), and sprayed over the paintwork... The topic was discussed here, where you can see the transfer problems: You can tell what is coming next, can't you? Yep, It made the paintwork underneath blister and go 'orange peel'. OOPS! Well, I sanded it back as best I could, and then repainted it in the original colours I had chosen, 121 and 29 with Revell Matt Black undersides. Lesson learnt (I hope). I brush painted the black and camouflage colours, with a mixture of enamel and acrylic paints. The transfers went on brilliantly, no trace of silvering at all, but it had been pointed out that there were a number of hitches on the transfer sheet. The fuselage roundel placement was wrong on the instructions, but in the right place on the box top for my chosen 84Sqn aircraft, the Scorpion motif looks like it should have red in the body but is black only and I am not sure if they face the right way. 'MIDDLE EAST' was spealt 'MIDLE EAST' so I have left that off for now until I can source replacements. Having got that out of the way, a few minor mods to the wheel location holes were needed before the plane was able to sit on its back four wheels and its tail, which therefore meant I needed to add more weight! Off came the nose transparency and in went loads of spare lead, and eventually it sat how a Beverley should. Amazingly ALL wheels touch the surface. Masking the props was an exercise in patience but was worthwhile. My verdict? This was a cracking kit of a rather ungainly aircraft, and although it stretched my skills a lot, it was well worth getting. The only bit I did not like was the way the props went together. Each one had problems - the props would not seat inside the spinner too well, and no matter how much I trimmed the openings they would not fit. When I was pressing them in, each spinner cracked like an eggshell, but some Tamiya Extra Super Fast Drying Cement put them back together again. Enough waffle, here are some photographs: That last photo shows just how ropey my paintinwas for the props, but they do not look so bad in real size on the model, honest! Finally, just to show the paint problem I had after respraying: I suppose I could say the wings are made from fake leather! I was so impressed with the quality of the kit I went into Hannants on Tuesday and bought the MikroMir Argosy (and an ATR-72, a DH-88 Comet, a DHC Chipmunk and five transfer sheets for other kits) and hopefully will do it better justice than this one. You never know, I might even get the colours right! Thanks for looking, any advice or suggestions are welcome. All the best, Ray

I feel like it's been decades since I did any proper modelling, becoming a dad last Sept, growing my business and everything else in between just gets in the way. Using an old photo for the time being but will get more up later when I have the camera to hand.. Using this kit twice, I shall be building two different aircraft as the sprues allow you to do a 215 and 415 (and 215T if you really wanted). Nice little kit, including a small etch fret and a nice '50 years' special scheme decal sheet.

From other end of the scale after working on my Monogram F-106 comes this 1/144 Canberra. It is by A-model and I think I used nearly as much filler on this as I did on my Airfix 1/48th Canberra. To allow for multiple variants the nose centre section and tail are separate assemblies so alignment was fun. I'm not sure I got it right though. Like it's 1/48 scale counterpart no matter how much lead shot I packed into the nose it was still going to be a tail sitter so as with the real thing a prop was placed under the rear fuselage. I reshaped the nose to remove the bomb-aimers window to create a T.13 nose then disaster struck and I ruined the canopy. Hence the black painted cockpit. Something that looks ok-ish in 1/144 but I reckoned the chances of a replacement part were less than zero. The decal are mixture of the kit, which surprisingly nice, Xtradecal for the codes and the silver ferns on the roundels are hand painted. As always thanks for looking.

Hi guys i received 2 Pitt road vulcan b2 kits last nigh i will start work on them today and post here in a bit. cheers Rob

Afternoon gang, I bought this kit (Revell 1/144th C-17) when Home Bargains had them for £7 (or £8, I can't remember the price?) a few months back, I bought it to convert and generally play around with modifying. No photos yet, but i'll get some up a bit later on. Fuselage half's are joined and I'm now just getting all the seams sorted, ready for some lumps and bumps to be added.. until later.... Radleigh.

Hi folks well its my first Vulcan with the wheels down not including the lindy I made for my dad. This is her as she was on display at Telford this weekend. I have really enjoyed this build I hope you enjoy the photos of her. She is on a diorama base I made to represent the end QRA pan at waddington. Cheers Rob Comments good and bad welcome but I apologies in advance for being photo heavy... Many thanks to Precision Ice and Snow for letting me display this on their table. I absolutely Love their product its made this dio look quite magical with the frost. Also it was fantastic to meet so many people off Britmodeller at Telford this year. I was very good fun indeed. Cheers Rob

Hi guys, due to a change in my personal life and work (for the best) I'm not doing any large scratch building/modelling at the moment as I just don't have the time, so to keep my mojo afloat I'm doing this as it's fairly small and will keep me busy enough in what spare time I have. Needless to say I was happy to see these kits cheap in Home Bargains so I went back and grabbed one asap before they all went. I'm not a 1/144th person, even though I've always wanted to do this conversion I am now as a kit came up at the right price, perfect timing really! I will get photos up tomorrow.... Anyone want to guess what I'm up to? It's nothing exciting, just fun!

Hi guys ive been off the scene for about 6 months due to various reasons but im back now and wanted to share with you what i think is exciting news. I do not know if this has already been broken on here but there appears to be a new 1/144th scale plastic injection moulded avro vulcan which for me is fantastic news as im sure it will be for many who think the airfix is too big or the dragon too small.(i think not for either but anyways) this model looks fantastic to me here is a link to the test shot models http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?scode=TOY-SCL2-14156 I have just picked 1 up off ebay and when it lands here i will do a review/build of the new kit. cheers Rob