Search the Community

Here’s my most recently completed build, GWH’s 1/32 P-40B, built as an RAF Tomahawk. This kit took almost 11 months to complete and very nearly got shelved on more than a couple of occasions. It was built out of the box except some Eduard PE seat belts. Painting was done with MRP, SMS and AK real colours. I used masks designed and cut with my cricut machine for the markings. Mostly happy with the final result, and very glad to see the back of it.

Hello Hawker fans, here is the result of this WIP here completing, in a whirlwind of varnish, superglue and extremely shakily-handed hairy stick touch-up action (oo-er missus, etc). I don't often do full resin kits, but this is an example of a really well executed kit, which was mostly vice free - the exception being the wing to fuselage join, which had gaps several millimetres wide (and infinitely deep, from the point of view of the araldite I injected to hold it all together). Artful use of choosing where the fuselage/body paint demarcation line, plus adding in rubber black walkways onto the shiny finish, went a long way to disguising the seam. Otherwise, there really weren't any to be concerned about, due to the fuselage being cast as a single, monumental tube. Also a shout to @Scimitar F1 (Will, one the guys behind DBMK), for furnishing me with a spare tail wheel from the forthcoming injection moulded version. On with the show. The pictures were all taken with my phone, a Google Pixel 8 Pro. It never ceases to amaze me how far the technology has come, and how much easier it it to use the phone than my fancy-pants Canon mirrorless job. Coming in to land on HMS Eagle (probably) HMS Ocean (see @Whofan's remark below), foolishly not using the flaps, and (even worse) apparently having left Lt 'Hoagy' Carmichael back in the ready room! Next up, a couple of glamour shots showing it on its chunky brass undercarriage... The kit comes with a superb cockpit, I think mastered by the guys behind Barracuda. As it says in the WIP, and just in case any Sea Fury fans out there weren't aware, you won't see much! 😞 Black, very very dark grey, black, and a tiny amount of red and yellow exist in there, to punctuate the gloom... The teeny panes of perspex on the gunsight were a trial! Two pictures of its belly, in case any aircraft fondlers out there would like to tickle its tummy... And finally, here it is, lined up with the other members of the family... (And to keep a running theme from the WIP, if any manufacturers want to design a 1/32 Sea Hawk, and are looking for a willing test builder, I could probably be persuaded to step up to the plate... You wouldn't even have to pay me... Just sayin'... 🙂)

Hello fellow modellers, welcome to my first WIP! The kit I’m working on is a Revell 1/32 Mirage III: This was a surprise Christmas present from my wife, I hadn’t built a single model for over 30 years! So, I was to build this shiny Mirage, but to be honest it didn’t quite appeal to me. Of course, its livery is splendid… …but I never saw this particular jet ‘in the wild’. The decal set offered two alternatives, an Australian version… …and a French Mirage IIIRD: In 1984 I visited Gilze-Rijen airbase to witness the NATO Tactical Air Meet, which was an impressive event with masses of different aircraft types and numbers, like Canadian Starfighters, RAF Jaguars and Phantoms, USAFE F-4s and F-15s, Belgian F-16s and Mirages, German F-4s, and French Jaguars and... Mirage IIIRDs! One of these Mirages was Mirage IIIRD 368/33-TQ: To keep the memory of this exercise alive I decided to build this particular reconnaissance jet. I joined britmodeller.com in January 2021, but I never intended to start a WIP because I was quite intimidated by the high skills and superb results by most of you lot. However, @The Spadgent appeared to build a similar kit, check... ...and he and @81-er encouraged me to show some of my progress, too. So, here I go! First an overview of my desk, with the supplies spread out to give you an idea: Documentation (the upper photo was taken during TAM 1984 too, by a good friend of mine): Aftermarket stuff: And what I've done so far. The manual warns for the danger of tail sitting for the E and O version, but to be safe I added a redundant nut to avoid this for the RD version too. The 'inside job': My box with preliminary stuff: And for the final result, I decided to add the pilot as well. Meet Jean-Claude: He is supervising my progress: That's it for now. I hope I can entertain you with upcoming posts, and feel free to comment! Cheers, Rob

I will be building the Williams Brothers 1/32 Curtis F9C Sparrowhawk, originally tooled around the mid 70s. Williams Brothers, (not be confused with Williams Brothers Brewing Company) their website suggests they been around for 60+ years. Link to website https://www.wmbros.com Not a prolific producer but have a small range of some interesting subjects. They don’t seem to have produced anything new for a while but do occasionally re-releases kits. I have built a few of their kits, they need a bit of work but turn out nice.

Good morning All, Another one over the line! I have finished the beach buggy. On the whole it was a fairly simple build with only a few trip-ups, most notably the tail lights being tiny and my dexterity and eye-sight not being what they were! Once I had posted up the last pictures in the build, I did notice some areas that needed some attention. I fixed those, though I daresay that I still missed some bits. Paints used: ZP Metallic Blue Various Tamiya colours Good old Abbadon Black! And other Gunze and Vallejo paints as well. ZP Clear Cements: Tamiya Extra thin Revell Contacta Pitfalls: Those tail-lights! Link to the build: So, anyway, the pictures. (I really do need to up my photography game!) All bar the last taken outside, late yesterday afternoon... And, finally one on the shelf: Thanks for looking in. Cheers, Alan.

The Triumph Herald is a car that I have been fond of ever since I saw it live the first time. It was on a trip to Spain, either 1973 or 1977. The 1967 Airfix kit was out of production for many years and when it finally was re-released in 1991 it was in a pack with two other cars. By then I wasn't in to car models so I passed on it but it was once again released as a starter set in 2011. I finally bought a kit in 2016 and it has resisting my efforts to build it since then. I was going to build a dark green and white car, and started to paint it white using a Tamiya spray can but something went wrong. I got lot of small air bubbles in the finish making the surface a moon landscape. The Tamiya paint is usually very good but when it go wrong I find it hard to fix. It sticks well to the model. I started to sand it down but finally my interest vanished so it went to the wall of shame. At the moment I am trying to finish some shelf queens that is collecting dust and the Herald is one of them. I saw pictures of it used as a police car in Britain and decided to build mine as one . I finished the sanding of the faulty paint and then mixed a blue colour. It is probably wrong but pictures of real cars doesn't give an exact answer. But it still resisted my efforts to build it. The masking tape lifted during the painting so I had to repaint the white roof. The first layer had been curing for over two weeks but when I removed the masking, the tape had destroyed the blue on the roof so I had to repaint it once again. One problem when assembling it was that the body would come to far to the rear giving a large gap to the front hood. The rear wheel would be place to much forward because of this. I tried to remove plastic at the rear of the chassis to correct this but I still got a small but annoying gap at the front. So I decided to glue the hood stuck with the body but that is OK as I normally build my models closed up. The fit problem could very well be my own fault when assembling it but I have seen the gap in the front on other builds even though not as large as the one I got before carving at the chassis. Of course I had to mess up when I added the POLICE text on the doors. For some reason I made the text to large when I cut the masks for it and did not notice this before I had painted it and removed the masks. I thought about letting it pass but I know it would have irritated me to much so I sanded it down an repainted the doors. This was ment to be a straight out of the box build but I had to make some changes. The roof sign is obvious. I built it of plasticard and the police sign is just printed out on ordinary paper. I added a “mesh” in front of the radiator. It was a small etched piece from a 1/72 BT-5 tank. In my the scrap part boxes I found som head light glass that had the right size so I decided to add them. I drilled out the kit lights hoping it would work. The moulded on chrome trim disappeared when I sanded the bad paint so I tried to replace them with strips of plasticard. Not a built that I'm entirely happy with but at least it is finished. (It need some touch up)

There have been a couple of really daft cock-ups along the way, but I've really enjoyed building this big Lightning. It's a mostly OOB build (my skills are limited) but I've added the Aries seat and Model Alliance decals. The nose cone resembles a Clanger's nose because I stupidly filled it with lead shot encapsulated in 'hot' cement. After a few hours it had drooped into the most unencouraging position that Mrs Clanger is always relieved to see, and so I had to re-shape it with some old Isopon from the garage. Likewise, the cracked canopy was my fault - I plonked my laptop down on the table after a few beers and heard a faint tinkling sound.... It was my first go at a NMF and I think I'm reasonably pleased; first came 2 x coats of acrylic primer followed by an acrylic metallic Aluminium. I then blew over lightly with an enamel polished steel and finally rubbed it over with some dark panel wash. Anyway, on to the original aeroplane. My uncle joined 92 Sqn at RAF Leconfield in 1963 and flew Hunters for only a couple of months before converting onto the Lightning when the squadron received their F.2 variants. He loved the Lightning and viewed it as a real pilot's aircraft. He amassed many hours in XN733, here and in Germany, before moving to Strike Command in the 1970s. He served with the RAF for his whole career. XN733 is the aircraft he flew in 92 Sqn's aerobatic display team at Farnborough in 1964 and then again for the memorial flypast in 1965 for Churchill's funeral. The aircraft suffered major damage in Germany (not with my uncle!) and the decision was taken to repair and convert her to F.2A spec. She was scrapped in the late 70s. The kit went together very easily and presented no challenges (aside from my lack of patience and skill). I chopped 2mm off the main undercarriage legs and repainted the canopy to better represent the prototype's framing. Anyway, I hope you enjoy...... First a couple of my uncle with the real thing... And now to the model (just in case you thought it was the real aeroplane!

Well here's a bit of a first: I'm possibly the first to start a WIP thread on this model. I don't often do WIPs, let alone the first on a new kit, but there's a first time for everything. One caveat though: I may be the first to start a WiP, but it is quite possible someone may beat me to producing a finished model. Anyway, here we go. This arrived Saturday, and I started it Sunday, again something of a record. It does mean it has not known the coziness of settling down into the stash for a long sojourn before being built, but it will have to live with that. So, the boxtop. I'm afraid I didn't bother with sprue shots, but leapt straight into it. This is one of those rare times when the box art actually drew me to the kit, even though I do have a liking for the subject anyway. I generally start by labelling the sprues with tape for easy ID, and removing a lot of "clutter" from the box by taking the main airframe parts - wings and fuselage parts - off the sprues immediately. There's a little matter of cockpit detail to go into the fuselage, but I did leap ahead in the instructions' build sequence to clean up and glue the main wing parts. The fit is excellent - the seams almost don't need any clean-up whatsoever. I did remember to drill out the hole in the top wing centre section as indicated in the instructions - I don't often. The plan is to do option 4, mainly one green on the upper surface, with the instructions indicating the top wing in pre-war three-colour camouflage. The third option, the boxtop subject, is tempting as well, and I may well try my hand at a winter white finish. I've been corresponding and talking with a friend who is very into this type. First, as would be logical from the time period, the cockpit interior would have been RLM 02. Secondly, the question of pre-war three-colour splinter camouflage on the top wing of two of the options. Apparently the entire production run of Hs 123 A and B models emerged from the factory in the three-colour splinter, and thus any machine in a different scheme has undergone repainting. Sometimes the top wing was left "as is": it was rare, but did happen. There is a photo (sorry, can't share) showing the fourth option (<4+-); such is the angle of this that it could be interpreted as showing the early camouflage on the top wing, or equally could be light effects on a single colour. I'm ambivalent - if I do this one I am inclined to do the three-colour camouflage purely as it will add interest; but then again, I may do the single colour. Decision to be made later. And that's where we are, except that I've just ordered up a set of generic "Luftwaffe Fighter" seat belts, given that there are none specifically for this type - yet. More when there's more to show. Please feel free to tag along, no need to ask permission

My club has a Battle of Britain theme for its September meeting, and this is going to be my entry for that. I fancied something a little different to the usual Bf 109’s & Spitfires, so I’ve gone for the Italian option with ICM’s 1/32 kit: A number of these were operated from Belgium during the BoB and handily there’s decals for one of these in the box: I’ve been getting the base colours on various bits so far: The instructions have the prop blades as steel on the front and black on the rear, so I primed it all black and just sprayed the front with steel (AK Xtreme Metal) without masking the back. That’s left a bit of overspray, but I figure this is just a start to the weathering: I’ve also picked out the pushrods in a darker colour to the crankcase and cylinders, though it’s not that obvious so I might redo it in something a bit darker: James

Hello gents Here's my latest (and probably last) completion for 2022, the ICM 1/32 Polikarpov I-153 Chaika, in the markings of No.102 of 71 IAP flown by Petr Biskup in the Summer of 1942: The kit was a nice easy build, as most of the ICM 1/32 kits seem to be. I didn't add much, just cobbled together a set of harness from HGW fabric seatbelt leftovers and added the rigging from 0.2mm nickel-silver rod (which didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, to be frank). Paints used were Colourcoats ACS02 - AMT7 Blue, ACS08 - AMT-4 Olive-Green and ACS04 - AMT-6 Black (which I un-blacked a bit with some dark grey). Interior and undercarriage bays were, variously, ACS21 - A14 Steel Grey, ACS05 - WUP Grey Interior Primer and ACS03 - AII Green (based on various pictures of preserved or restored aircraft so may not be accurate but are at least effectively invisible on the finished model.) The kit transfers were used, as far as I know for the only markings option which carried the RS-82 rockets. This aicraft had the undercarriage covers removed to save weight. A couple of useful references if you are building a I-153: https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/i15/i-153/i-153painting/i-153painting.htm https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/i15/i-153/tapani/71iap-kbf/71iap-kbf.htm Thanks for your attention gents Cheers, Stew

Hi all I’m planing to build a 1/32 A-4ku (Free Kuwait) Skyhawk. I got the Trumpy kit, but i want to spice the cockpit up a bit. I can’t find much information on the cockpit layout, so does anybody know what it looks like? Aires makes an E/F resin cocpit and Red Fox makes 3d decals for the M version. Which one should i pick?

Right, I've decided I don't like Takom kits. While they do bring us unusual and interesting subjects the parts are covered in moulding pips and sprue attachments in the most inappropriate places, the attachment points can be very weak and the instructions aren't very clear as to sequences and locations. Also there aren't any internal colour callouts. Another thing I don't have much time for are 'what-if's' or paper projects, I've little enough time as it is for actual aircraft. So despite all that I decided to have a go at this one as it at least made it to prototype stage, and the kit seemed to be a more appealing compromise to Zoukei Mura's warts-and-all approach. It also gave me the chance to use up my remaining sheets of Uschi van der Rosen wood-effect decals (it seems almost obligatory to build these without full paint jobs). You still get a lot of internal structure but this all gets covered up, as although the surface panels in theory could be removable they simply don't hold together well enough to be practicable, and the wing joints (four small fiddly pins per wing) leave poorly-fitting joints. I'm glad I took plenty of photos before finally buttoning it all up. Anyway, rant over and time to get on with the photos: Thanks as always for looking.

Had this one for a while, and thought I would run it up so I could practice an NMF before tackling a more serious build, the Hasegawa Ki-61 (which I have failed to take many pictures of, so no WiP there). Only AM additions are belts and some QuickBoost radio boxes, though tbh you could add some wires to the kit versions and they would look pretty much as good So bear with me on this one...as with all kits there are two basic elements to the manufacture, the design and the mould-making. On the former, Revell have done, I think a fine job; the designer (Radu Brinzan?) has done some really clever stuff with the internals to ensure a good level of detail with no ambiguity in the fit, and each section locks into the other with no simple butt joins to spoil things with their sloppy fit. So Revell played a blinder in the first half. Where it goes wrong is with the mould itself. I would be fairly sure that Revell contract out the mould-making, and my advice - find another company. The similarities with Airfix of a couple of years ago here are notable, nice design but slightly rough moulds coupled with soft plastic result in a slightly disappointing build given the initial promise of the parts. Recently, Airfix have taken steps to resolve this - I don't know if they have changed their mould-maker (though they definitely did for the 1/24th Spit as the moulds were done in the UK not India) but the plastic in recent kits is definitely harder resulting in crisper detail. And this is where Revell have their problem: the detail has been designed in, but comes out rather soft, and there are prominent mould lines everywhere, and some small amounts of flash. Joining edges can be a bit rough and need a light pass just to improve the fit, indeed every part needs a bit of fettle, and after a while this becomes a bit wearing, not to mention the amount of plastic dust and scrapings being generated. Some examples: - soft detail and mould seams on the side consoles (I have already scraped the seams off the tops of the knobs in this photo) - seams on the gear legs - soft detail on the pedals and steps inside the frames - and after clean-up This is not say everything does not go together well - it does, it paints up nicely, and Revell have provided plenty of decals for the cockpit to spice things up (albeit they are a bit bright); as mentioned I only added belts and the radio boxes, and the odd wiring loom. Pleased with the wood effect I must say. Now the instrument panel; I did buy the Eduard LOOK panel, but the white elements were really not well printed and the whole thing did not look good as a result, so I used the kit part with decal, and after a fair amount of setting solution and careful touching up it looked OK - better than the LOOK panel anyway. Then it's on to construction - no impossibly major issues here just some fettling. I did opt to add the tail sections to their respective fuselage halves to try and reduce the step that is apparent here, but it will need some sanding out. There is also a step between the intake lips and the main cowling, and the red glazing putty comes into it own here. Some shims reduce the step for the cowing underside I opted to paint the framing in the wheel well i zinc chromate as per some references And I decided to commit fully and do some rivetting (not on the wings you will be pleased to hear) I do think rivets add something to a model, even if you then choose not to highlight them too much in the painting and weathering; just compare the unrivetted and rivetted fuselage sides to see how it is brought to life Yes the wash (so I could see where I had done) does help, but when there are a few layers of silver on there it will look less blank than would otherwise be the case. Now the wings and the tail feathers are on it is ready for priming; I will be likely doing the box art scheme Lou IV, or maybe Jolie Helene if I can pick up some decals. I am afraid I do not subscribe to the "blue camo" theory arising from the famous colour picture, rather as a former printer I see an old Kodachrome transparency where the dyes have deteriorated unevenly. Classically in older transparencies certain dyes will deteriorate ahead of others, usually greens followed by reds; as any colour in the picture comprises more than one dye, the remaining colour then dominates. I think what we are looking at is a bronze green, possibly a dark green, in which the green dyes have faded leaving a more blue appearance. Hence also the olive drab doesn't really look right, and the landscape below is blue not green, the yellows are a bit washed out, and even the red of the nose art is a bit dull. So I will be doing a bronze green/olive drab mix on the upper fuselage, and dark green/olive drab on the wings/tailplanes.

I'm toying with the idea of converting the Revell/Matchbox Tiger Moth to a Fox Moth. Apart from the new fuselage. centre wing section and tweaked u/c legs, my research indicates that not much else needs changing. Does anyone have any other views to the contrary? Anyone have any scale plans?

So before jumping into Solidworks I did a Thingiverse search and came up with this 51 parts modelled I. 1:32 scale and free. So a quick download later I’ve started arranging and slicing the various bits. Going to se how big the resultant model is, if it’s a bit on the small side I may escalator 1/24 or even 1/16… Now a question, does printing the parts count as part of the build or can I go ahead now?

No, not the Airfix kit but the venerable Matchbox 1/32 Lysander. I was sent a photo of a scrapped model and was asked if I might be able to 'fix it'! On receiving the actual kit, it was in worse shape than I thought, with the wing joint snapped off, the wheel fairings were attached at odd and very asymmetric angles, and it generally looked worse for wear! Believing the mission impossible, I procured another kit from @iang and decided I would cheat and build a new one and pass it off as a rehab build, like I was some kind of wizard But once I actually started to disassemble and strip down the wreck, it began to look crazily possible to rescue it, so I persevered! This is the fully resurrected Lizzie 💖 The only additions made to the original wreck were the decals (from the Revell rebox, courtesy of @MODeller ) and the Vickers machine gun which I replaced with a 3D-printed one. Everything else was stripped back, reassembled and repainted, including the original crew figures. It wasn't a complete success, with some decal silvering and I couldn't fully rescue the clear parts as they were quite damaged by cement blobs, but overall it completely surpassed my expectations and left me pretty surprised how you can rehabilitate even the most neglected wreck of a model! Where there's a will, there's a way! All the best, Alan

First serious bit of modelling I've attempted in about forty years – so guess that makes me a newbie! My first experience of photoetch, acrylics, airbrush... you name it. So I wanted to do a subject I felt a connection to, and something that would stretch me to the max. So it's Revell's 1/32 Schnellbomber which will assume the guise of 4D+DH 'Dora Heinrich' of 1.KG30.
 This Ju 88A-1 fell to the guns of 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron on 16/10/39 during a Luftwaffe raid on RN ships in the Firth of Forth. 'Dora' was the first enemy bomber downed by the RAF over the British mainland in WWII, and was on the receiving end of the first ever Spitfire victory.
 I was born by the Forth, and have lived half my life on its banks, my family have worked for generations on its waters and in its docks and I live just a few miles from where 'Dora' ditched almost eighty years ago. So I thought I'd make her the first half of a 1/32 'Dogfight Double'. Eventually I'll get around to tackling her nemesis – XT-A 'Stickleback' a MkI Spit of 603 Squadron. Over a year in, having too much fun, here's some (unfinished) pit shots. Apologise for quality – taken with an iPhone4 Cockpit side walls, still needs wiring/some piping added Eduard PE, Aims and homemade decals Floor and curtains printed on inkjet Pilot seat, control column and BZG2 Bombsight

Hi all My latest completion, I started this one several years ago and have been an on and off build. The kit is the Luckgraph 32nd scale kit which is a 3D printed resin kit. Built mainly OOB apart from the seat and windscreen frames as they were made of pie tin foil. The windscreen from clear packaging . I had to scratch build the rudder aerial mast/mass balance from brass tube and rod, plastcard rod and a 3D print support end. Rigged with invisible thread and Bob's Buckkes eyelets and tubes. As usual I have brush painted the model using Humbrol enamel paints. Weathered using oils and powders I am very pleased to have a Nimrod in my FAA collection Thanks to all those who offered support and encouragement along the way Pie tin foil seat Thanks for looking in Chris

Evening all, A few weeks ago, I spied this on Kingkit and as I was working on the beach buggy, I thought that it might make an interesting companion piece. This is a golden oldy. It was marked as a Humbrol model, so pre-Hornby. It's obviously a product of it's time. However, there was remarkably little flash on the trees. I did a bit of research on scalemates, and discovered that the original tooling was 1964. 61 years ago! This re-boxing dates from 2000, Only 25 years ago! I have already removed some parts from the trees and cleaned them up. Obviously, with an old tooling like this one, patience and much dry fitting is required. Having said all that, this is the tidied up bits: The chassis is much simpler than the beach buggy, there not being an engine on this. The front suspension is simpler too. There was a fair bit of very minor flashing on the front suspension, and in the process of cleaning it up, I chopped off one of the pins that the damper attaches to: So, I pulled out my pin vice and redrilled a small hole in the suspension arm and cemented a bit of 30 thou styrene rod. Trying to be patient, I waited about an hour before trimming the pin back to the same length as it's opposite number. That proved successful. I then attached the front stub axles and dampers: Note that the dampers aren't on yet. I started on the bodyshell as well. I used a trick I saw on a YouTube video, where the guy used a black sharpie (Other permanent markers are available). You then sand over the areas marked by the sharpie until no evidence of the permanent marker is left. This indicates that the seam line is also gone. Only priming with the usual grey primer will show if that's true. Before: After: It "seamed" to work for me! The wheels are all done: I'll spray them silver for the wheel rims, then paint the tyres in Tamiya XF-85 (Rubber Black) and the hub-caps chrome with my Molotow chrome pen. Once I got the stub axles and dampers on the suspension part, I glued that to the chassis back-bone: That's all for the moment. More soon. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Alan.

Afternoon All, I have had this kit in my stash for over 50 years. The price on the box is, I think is 6/9, that is six shillings and nine pence, or about 34p in modern money. I bought this before decimalisation in Feb 1971. Anyway, here's the box top: It has been in part completion for some time, so here are the current images of the build: I think this is painted with Halfords automotive paints. I started this long before I discovered Zero paints! The floor pan. The front seats and engine and gubbins. I think that I may have lost the exhaust manifold and exhaust system... I guess that I will have to fabricate those from plastic rod and scraps. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alan.

Having a late run with this one - so much fun with the Tamiya Mosquitos, and the 1/32 Revell B IV came up at a decent price on eBay. Having read various reviews, the main deficiencies seem to be the lack of glazing on the fuselage for the lights and bomb-doors, the lack of detail in the cockpit, etc.. Nothing that can't be fixed, so here goes. Step 1.. rebuild the cockpit interior main deck, new radio shelf, extend floor, blank off recesses that shouldn't be there, reduce the size of the side windows, etc...

Hello gents, here's my eighth (and no doubt final) completion of the year – my second Kotare Spitfire I, this one the 'Brian Lane' edition. It's OOB apart from the ASK 3D Printed exhausts and their canopy masking set. Having already built the first release of this kit I got a bit complacent and thought I could just use the instructions as a rough guide and reference, consequently I didn't initially remove the cockpit door rims (as you need to if you are planning on not having the door open) and then wondered why the closed door did not fit properly; I didn't install the prop shaft before joining the two fuselage halves, which means I don't have a successful model – i.e. the propeller does not spin. I also managed to slightly misalign the spine part but somehow only on one side. However these things aside I enjoyed building it as much as I did the last one, indeed I'm slightly more pleased with this one. The next one should be great The paints used were Colourcoats of course - for the 'apple' green cockpit colour I used ACRA08 Verde Mimetico 53192, uppersurface camouflage was ACRN09 Dark Green over ACRN10 Dark Earth and the undersurface camouflage was done in ACRN01 - Sky "S" Type. I painted the spinner yellow as per the instructions; in the most widely-reproduced picture of this aircraft it looks white ...but Brian Lane's fitter John Milne apparently told Dilip Sarkar that it was yellow and I didn't feel I could really argue with that. I did use a paler yellow than RAF trainer yellow so that there is a difference from the roundel surround as the original photograph suggests, but in the photos I took of my model it looks exactly the same shade There is also this photograph, apparently of the same aircraft. Doesn't look like a white spinner there (and it does prove Kotare's assertion that it didn't have doped covers over the gun muzzle openings, though I imagine they would have been applied after the first time it was armed up, I'm pretty sure it was standard practice by September 1940). TLDR, I went with a yellow spinner; it's your choice what colour you do yours The markings are from the kit transfers, they are beautiful to use (they're made by Cartograph) and can take repeated applications of decal softener (and you may well need it to get them to settle down over the bumps on the gun covers and the rivets on the rear fuselage). My only gripe is that the grey for the codes looks far too light, the side-view photo linked above shows nothing like that level of contrast between the camouflage colours and the codes. The final touches were a coat of AK Varnish (Satin with a little bit of Ultra-matt mixed in); an RT wire from Infini lycra thread – slightly underscale I suspect but I prefer the wires not to be too obvious; some wing-root chipping with Prismacolour pencils in a mid- and light-grey; a little exhaust staining from a brownish-black mix; navigation lights in red and blue Tamiya Clear and some staining from the cartridge ejector slots using black-grey pastel powder as this appears to be present on the original aircraft. Apologies for all the verbiage, thanks for stopping by Cheers, Stew

Hi all My Fourth completion of the year, the Kōtare Spitfire Mk.1a, Brian Lane boxing. What a cracking kit , the fit was wonderful and I really enjoyed it. The model is built OOB and brush painted using Humbrol enamels and weathered with oils and powders . Aerial and IFF wires are invisible thread. I haven't made and painted the Bran Lane figure as I am not really a figure painter tbh, but might do one day? Thus aircraft is thought to have had no gun muzzle patches and the Spinner as yellow, although I read on another forum the Brian Lane commented that ghe yellow spinner would need to be painted. so I have gone for the white, so really in theory, both could be correct? Here is a link to the build Thanks to those that followed along and offered support and encouragement , it is always appreciated. Thanjs for looking Chris

Hi, Please find the Revell 1/32 Westland Lynx in Dutch service. The kit was converted to a SH-14D using the Mk 88 and HAS 3 boxings. The kit was more or less finished early this year, but with the kit’s basic conventional rotor configuration. Only recently have I come round to change this to a folded rotor blade configuration using the Scale Warships conversion set. The port side engine compartment was opened and a resin engine added. The dummy torpedo was modified with detail added, using parts of a 1/48 A.M. Avenger torpedo. Although, perhaps an unlikely weapon combination, in addition a machine gun with platform was added to the starboard side. The machine gun was used in some operational situations. (Ref. YouTube search for: boardingteam Tromp Taipan) Since the 1/32 Dutch Decal Lynx sheet was unavailable, I asked Heli Scale Quality to print the decals for me. I supplied various images and they delivered. The decals are now available on their site. Paints by MRP I found this to be a very nice kit. The only critique I have was the use of white plastic, which for some reason wasn’t too pleasing to the eyes. Luckily the HAS 3 boxing has many more grey plastic parts in the box, but this is just personal. The Build report link is posted at the bottom of this post. Comments, critique, feedback are all welcome. Pictures were taken outside against a white vinyl sheet backdrop using an Iphone. With clouds passing you will notice a difference in image colours. The IPhone camera made most photos a little darker than they are in reality. The model is unfortunately too big for my photo box. 📷 Warning: picture heavy The “Work in Progress” report: Thanks for watching, Regards, Rob P.S. This build was inspired by Mr. Vreeze a Dutch model builder who built a 1/32 Lynx a few years back. Just loved the look of his Lynx. To not engage in a mere copy, I decided to fold the rotors.

Hi all - this is Special Hobby's 1/32 V-1, a nice, relatively simple kit to build. Went together pretty well, although the included trolley was quite fiddly and probably took longer to assemble than what's sitting on top of it. Mostly, these were assembled from sub-contracted parts and the colours and demarcation lines rarely matched up when put together. Painted with mostly Vallejo and Mig acrylics. Minimal weathering, as these were only airborne once, so apart from a bit of ground handling, they didn't really have the chance to get dirty or chipped. Hope you like the pics..