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Been wanting to build one of these for a long time. I love the shape and the whole concept behind the bent wing bird. Just adds that bit extra. Last year I finally set to work as part of a Pacific build off with some others. Took longer than I expected. The Tamiya kit was excellent other than fitting the engine cowl around the engine. Spent a fair amount of time rebuilding the cockpit and adding more detail. I didn't want to weather this bird but rather have it in, shall we say, museum condition, all lovingly polished.

Hi Folks My first of the year! This is a classic Trumpeter kit, i.e. 3/4 good, 1/4 poor/bizarre: the front end and wheel spats are wrong in shape and size, a detailed engine is provided which is too small and can't be seen anyway, a 1000kg bomb is included which is 4 times bigger than the Stuka ever carried, the wing mounted guns and gun blisters are included but absent from the instructions etc. etc... I've used the Brian Fawcett resin AM set to correct the front end forward of the engine firewall and undercarriage and I've robbed a 250kg bomb from my Revell Ju88. The 'Jericho Trumpet' is scratch built. Regards J A.

Hi chaps. This is going to be my entry into the group build. Hk models 1/32 meteor f.4. I picked this kit up last month, whilst on holiday in briddlington, from croppers models. I've been itching to start it since, and this group build has given me the perfect excuse. Everything comes nicely packaged in a sturdy top opening box. Comes with a massive 1 piece lower wing! 2 individual upper wings. Notice the open engine hatches on the nacelles. I think they might have been intending to supply engine details, but none are included in the kit. There are a couple of really good aftermarket engines, but they are too expensive for my liking. The transparencies are nice and clear, a nice touch is the tape over the main canopy, to protect it from scratches. Nose weight is included too. Decals look nice, although there aren't many of them. As an added bonus, there is a 1/144 meteor kit included, with a little stand, but no decals. Looks to be a nice kit overall, but for a kit this size the parts count is lower than I expected. Matt

No build thread for this one, just made it over the course of the last couple of weeks. Having been away from the bench for a year or so, I decided to break out the starter set to re-hone my abilities. I am fairly happy with the result. The kit is small and fiddly and both the chassis and body were warped. A trying build but definitely a good one to get my hand back in. I have a kit that is half done and I really want to do it justice. Any how, enough waffle, enjoy the photos and as ever, C&C welcomed. Thanks in advance for looking. (and yes, I do have a Registration decals to apply, but that can wait)

Hello all, I just noticed, that I have no instructions of my 1/32 Hawker Hunter from Revell (04703), first edition. Unfortunately, Revell offers only the instructions of the re-edition as download. The first edition from 1998 has more decal options and the numbering of the stencils is completely different. Maybe some of you could provide a scan, or could mail me the instructions. This is the box art of which I need the instructions: Thanks, Thomas

Just finished this one today. Not a bad kit considering it's 40 year age!! All that was required was a quick rescribe. Not much filler either which was a pleasant surprise! Paint used was Hataka in the main with Alclad Kleer Kote Flat to finish. Hope you like it!

That was my 3-year-old's reaction when I showed him a picture of the Sopwith Triplane so it seemed an ideal thread title.. 🤔 I picked this up in JohnT's sale. So I thought I'd get on with it. Plenty builds of this already posted on here so I'll forgo the pics of the box and contents and all that. It's well documented that the Roden fuselage is too short for the production tripe but OK for the prototype. Ideally, John's sale came with the Novascale decals for Flt. Cmdr. R Dallas, who flew the prototype in service ("Brown Bread"). Tail plane's the wrong size and shape, I believe but I can live with that I also got these HGW belts, for a laugh, erm I mean to improve my PE/detailing skills... 😂 I've made a start whilst I was waiting for the Dove's paint to dry and all that. Here we go then... W-D

Evening all, I think I'll get my metaphorical towel laid down and get a WIP thread started now After spotting a Trumpeter GR7 going pretty cheaply on eBay, I had the inspiration to condense a few different project ideas into one airframe. My dream for many years was to end up flying 4 Squadron Harriers. Since the Harriers have now been retired, 4 Sqn has been relegated to the training role and a variety of issues meant the RAF was no longer to be an option for me, the dream has had to end. So I've decided to put it into model form - rather immodestly with my name on the canopy and a little bit of noseart. I'll be supporting the build with the Aires (or maybe Wolfpack) cockpit, possibly Aires/Eduard extras, as well as Piero's nose if it's still available (has anyone got a means of contacting him? He's been off BM for a while), all supported with a healthy dose of scratch. I'm undecided at this point whether to stick with the kit's 65% LERX or do a version with the 100% LERX. Finally, as a little test of this forum's demographic, I'll tell you this bird is going to be named "Keelah Se'lai" Watch this space - good stuff coming soon Tim

I returned to this hobby after a seven year hiatus. I have been lurking this forum for many years and decided to join. This forum is very active with a myriad of spectacular builds, and the crowd alway seems friendly, civil and helpful. Plus I have a soft-spot for the Brits 😏 I have already completed an HK Models 1/32 Gloster Meteor F.4 (also in Dutch colours). It was quite the comeback with old lessons learned all over again, but also a lot of recognition. When I went shopping in Eindhoven I saw the box of this 1/32 TF-104G and just could not resist, this a/c has always had great appeal to me, two-seaters are just much more sexy than their single seat counterparts. I am amazed at the diversity of new kits these days, I any scale....but I digress. First impressions: It's no HK Meteor in terms of surface detail (which was superb), but still quite nice and a step up from what I am used to with Italeri kist. Parts details is also high enough and leaves room for scratch- and aftermarket, but it is not needed persé at all. Fit so far has been good also, but again, not as good as the HK Meteor (which for now is my only reference). The decal sheet is....wow. It seems every stencil is there. I will comment on how the decals perform at the end of this build. The engineering is also nice, even when overdone in some areas. The instructions are sketchy in a few spots, but very good overall (the cockpit side walls for example are shown as glued in to the retainer instead of behind it. Luckily it looked goofed up when I dry fitted and I found out in time. The real-deal: I don't have much to show for yet, some sub-assemblies going on: One of the tanks: Italeri's colour callout, wrong! Dutch (camouflaged) Starfighters were light grey underneath, not aluminium like the German ones. I have sprayed the tank underside in the colour suggested in many places: RAL7001 Silbergrau fro Xtracolor, but this is way too dark. I found the the base coat of Surfacer I primed it with is much much closer, so I will be using that instead. Currently working on the nice engine, which I will present next time. Cheers!

Hallo again This is my Me-109 E-3. 1/32 Kit is Eduard. All painting, insignia, and stencils are as explained in: Stencils are wet transfer from HGW. Happy modelling

This is the reveal of my Eduard 1/32 Messerschmitt bf 109 D using the Alley Cat Conversion. A tricky build in places but overall very enjoyable. I have linked my full video build for this one below if you’d like a more detailed look at the build. I used Kora Decals for the Prop blades, not totally accurate as they should be slightly different but a good attempt, I also added an Eduard etch set and Quickboost gunsight as well as the Conversion kit.

Hello everyone, In the following days I will join this group build with not one but two Type B buses. One will be done following Airfix instructions, but the second one I will try to transform into pigeon-of-war mobile loft. Britain used over 100.000 pigeons during the Great war, and they were vital channel of communication. What is more interesting in for us modellers is that these mobile lofts were all patterned and camouflaged differently. It will be interesting to guess which colours were used on this one 😀 Anyhow, here are the obligatory pictures of the kit and I hope to start this week, and I will try to inform you on the progress on regular basis.

For this group build I'd like to have a go at the Wingnut Wings Sopwith Snipe (Early) which was a gift from my friends and evil overlords at Sovereign Hobbies, Gill and Jamie I've not built a Wingnut Wings kit before but the unanimous opinion of the BM Hive Mind and beyond indicates I should have an enjoyable build as long as I don't make a total hash of it through some gross stupidity or carelessness of my own (and let's not rule that out until I am finished). Forgive the quality (or lack thereof) of the pictures, the light is pretty poor here at the moment but I didn't want to use the flash... here's the (very sturdy) box: The instructions and the large sheet of transfers - there is a little etched fret in with the transfers too, mostly seatbelt details and gun parts: The fuselage sprue: Wings: Mostly internal parts: Engine parts, clear parts and various ancillaries and a card showing it was purchased from BlackMike Models : ... and finally something I bought just to see how it looks, the HGW fabric seatbelt set designed for this kit. As the open cockpit will give a lot away I thought I might need all the help I can get Cheers, Stew

Glad to get this one out of the way to be honest - not the kit's fault of course, but I made such a hash of fitting the top wing that I ended up having to replace the cabane struts with metal pieces cut from one of those big thick paper clips. I think it was pride more than anything else that forced me to finish it, although I've just noticed I haven't braced the landing gear yet.... Regards, J A.

Well this is the first plane I've build since I was about 11. Its supposed to get me back into the Wokka. Its Pacific Fleet, and they got hammered by the elements. Cant decide if I overdid it, but here you go

Hi gang, I’m doing the 1/32 Tornado and I have the Paragon Flaps & Slats AM set. The wing glove/bag is a million miles away from the kit part and will require some serious cutting to make it fit. The instructions say replaces kit part, but this will be a tall order. Anybody previously done it, as I just want to check before I start cutting....... Steve.

I'll mark my corner with this little kit in 1/32 scale, i'll add a few bits of my own and discard a few, i'll post some pictures soon, hope to build it part stripped down, in a rough barn/worshop setting kind of been under a tarp for a few years, in fact that may be my fall back if it gets too much, bit of tissue soaked in pva draped over the top, but the time scale of the gb is quite lengthy so hopefully i can pull this off, Glynn

This is my Spitfire Vb built from the Hobbyboss kit, I know many complain about it for a few reasons, but to me it looks like a Spitfire...…...and that's good enough for me lol! Its was built out of the box and MRP paints were used. Hope you like it, but here is a bit about the man in the machine first. The son of Polish-born Swiss parents, Zumbach was registered as a Swiss citizen and hid his nationality in order to join the Polish army in 1934. He served as an infantryman until 1936 when he transferred to the Polish Air Force. After graduating from flying training in 1938 he was posted to 111 Eskadra Mysliwska. Zumbach did not fly during the German invasion of Poland due to a broken leg as a result of a flying accident during the summer of 1939. He returned to his unit only to be evacuated to France via Romania. While in France, Zumbach flew the Morane 406 and Curtiss Hawk 75 with GCII/55. On 10 June, he was one of several pilots shot down by Bf 109s, but escaped unscathed. On 18 June 1940, he traveled to England by boat and on 2 August was posted as one of the founding members of the newly formed No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron. During the Battle of Britain, Zumbach scored eight confirmed kills and one probable, mostly against Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. Zumbach was shot down by a JG 3 Bf 109 over Dover on 9 May 1941 when returning from a mission, but he was able to bail out unharmed. Zumbach became one of the first Allied pilots to engage in combat with the German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 when he damaged, and in return, his aircraft was damaged by a "single radial-engined fighter" on 13 October 1941. In December 1941, Zumbach was posted to 58 OTU, and in March 1942 returned to 303 Sqn as a flight commander. In May, he was promoted to Squadron Leader and took command of the squadron, a post Zumbach held from 19 May 1942 until 30 November 1943 During this period, Zumbach flew three Supermarine Spitfire VBs, carrying the serial numbers BM144, EP594 and EN951. All these aircraft carried the same code, RF-D, ("RF" being the squadron code for 303 Sqn) and "D" being the individual aircraft code. All three aircraft carried a cartoon of Donald Duck on the port side of the fuselage, slightly forward of the cockpit. Zumbach's victory tally was marked with German crosses under the cockpit on the port side; confirmed kills were outlined in white, probable kills in red, and damaged aircraft with no outline. After handing over command of 303 Sqn to Sqn Ldr Bieńkowski, Zumbach spent a year in staff appointments, including the Polish Air Force Staff College. He returned to flying duties as the commander of the 2nd Polish Air Wing, No 133 Wing. On 25 September 1944, he scored his final victory of the war, a probable kill over a JG 26 Fw 190 over Arnhem. On 30 January 1945, Zumbach was posted to HQ, No. 84 Group. While flying an Auster that was used to visit units under the Group's command, he made a navigational error and ran out of fuel. He force-landed in enemy territory and spent the final month of the war as a prisoner of war. Zumbach's final victory tally was 12 (and 2 shared) confirmed kills, five probables and one damaged.

This is my Spitfire Vb built from the Hobbyboss kit, I know many complain about it for a few reasons, but to me it looks like a Spitfire...…...and that's good enough for me lol! Its was built out of the box and MRP paints were used. Hope you like it, but here is a bit about the man in the machine first. Squadron Leader 'Buck' Casson, who has died aged 88, escaped from France in May 1940 to fly Spitfires over south-eastern England during the Battle of Britain; later he was a flight commander in Wing Commander Douglas Bader's "Tangmere Wing" before being shot down over northern France in August 1941. Casson was one of the original three trainee pilots to join the newly formed 616 (South Yorkshire) Auxiliary Air Force Squadron at Doncaster in early 1939. Training at weekends and during the annual summer camps, he qualified as a pilot in early 1940 before being sent to France as a reinforcement to 501 Squadron. But, before he could join them, the train on which he was travelling was bombed outside Amiens and he lost all his belongings. Casson managed to escape by boat back to England from Cherbourg. After a brief spell flying Hurricanes with 79 Squadron at Biggin Hill, he rejoined 616 at Leconfield, Yorkshire, just as the Battle of Britain gathered momentum. At lunchtime on August 15, the fighter squadrons based in north-east England were scrambled to face the Luftwaffe's most concentrated attack against industrial targets in Scotland and the north of England. Casson flew one of the 12 Spitfires which met the enemy as they crossed the Yorkshire coast. Within minutes, 616 Squadron had accounted for six of the unescorted bombers, with similar results achieved by other northern-based squadrons. A few days later, 616 flew south to Kenley where the squadron was involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the battle as part of Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park's No 11 Group. Once 616 became fully operational again in early 1941, it was transferred and came under the command of the new Wing Leader, the legless pilot Douglas Bader, at Tangmere. The squadron boasted a glittering array of outstanding pilots, including "Johnnie" Johnson and "Cocky" Dundas. With his steadying and mature influence, allied to the experience gained during the hectic summer days of 1940, Casson became a section leader. On May 5, he shared in the destruction of a Junkers 88, but was hit by return fire, and was forced to bale out over Chichester harbour. On August 9, the "Bader" Wing took off for another sweep over France. During a hectic fight in which German fighters surprised them from above, Bader was shot down, and the Wing was forced to scatter. Casson had accounted for an Me 109 when he went to the aid of a lone Spitfire, but before he could join up he was engaged by a German fighter. Cannon shells damaged his aircraft's engine, forcing him to crash near St Omer, where he was captured. Shortly after his arrival at Stalag Luft III at Sagan, it was announced that Casson had been awarded the DFC. (The Telegraph)

Hi! I haven't posted here before, but having just finished a Supermarine Scimitar ... ...I decided to make 'Something Completely Different' to quote Monty Python! I've had this kit in 'The Stash' a couple of years now, so I thought it was time to put some glue to the plastic! This is once again supposed to be a fun project, so I don't want to go overboard with detailing etc. - ....just a little bit! Cheers Hans J

1/32 Scratch-built Sopwith Camel in mainly basswood with oak prop, walnut axle, gun barrel cooling jackets and cylinders and bamboo struts plus brass odds 'n' sods, finished with 0.1mm rigging thread. As with my earlier Spitfire the brief from Controller, Home Forces was that it could be a wooden sculpture rather thaan a painted awar machine, so it is left just varnished. About a month start to finish, but actually more like two solid weekends of doing with lots of gaps in between. Not sure what's next!

Hi guys, this one has been creeping up on me. But as promised I will build the 1/32 Revell P-39D. As you all may know, but this is a re-box op the special hobby kit. I will build it out of the box, but maybee I will get some goodies for it. I am thinking of buildig it as a Russian version. I will need to get a decalset for it or some maskes. The foto's of the box and content will follow later. cheers,

my last built , enjoy : voila voila

Hey everyone Below is a complete pictorial list of the models that I've completed since coming back to the hobby in 2012. They aren't in any chronological order... Airfix 1/72 Avro Shackleton Airfix 1/48 Gloster Javelin Tamiya 1/32 Spitfire Mk IXVe Airfix 1/48 Spitfire Mk 1 Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire Mk 1 Eduard Spitfire Mk IX (my first proper completed build) Tamiya 1/32 P51 Mk IV Airfix B17 Mk III Hawker Typhoon Mk1b Tamiya 1/48 Mosquito FB MkIV Airfix 1/72 DC 3 Dakota Mk IV Airfix 1/48 Boulton Paul Defiant Mk I Airfix 1/72 Bristol Blenheim Mk 1 That's all for now. Cheers Iain

Hi All, Looks like I've got about a month off work and doctor's orders to take it easy, so it's time I started this behemoth of a kit! It seems like a good subject for a WIP thread as I'll be doing a bit each day for the next month or so - this is a BIG kit and I'll be throwing the kitchen sink at it. I've got a proper digital camera instead of my phone for pictures, so hopefully I will be able to keep a record that is visually explanatory as well as detailed in words. Trumpeter's by now familiar 1/32 Su-27 Flanker-B kit. I bought it seven years ago on my first visit to China - it cost me about £40 at the time when it was double that in the shops at home. Since then I've gradually accumulated practically every aftermarket item worth having, with still some more on the way! The main purpose of the aftermarket stuff is to deal with some of the well-documented shortcomings of this kit. I'll outline those in this post and tackle them as I go. As far as the kit goes, it was among Trumpeter's first forays into the 1/32 jet world in the early 2000s, which brought us several very popular subjects that had never been released in this scale before. No-one really expected to see large aircraft like the F-105, A-10 and Su-27 in 1/32, but Trumpeter surprised us all with their efforts. Unfortunately for all these early kits, though very nicely produced, they were blighted with some fundamental shape problems, and the Flanker was arguably the worst offender. From studying drawings, I think the shape of the Trumpeter kit is based on drawings of the earlier development airframes (T-10-10/11), rather than the production model T-10-S. That said, there isn't a kit in any scale out there that captures the correct shape of the Flanker's fore section (except, I'm told, the new Zvezda 1/72 version), and this kit is very finely detailed in good quality plastic, nicely produced with minimal flash, and fits together well. And it is seriously HUGE! The three Aires sets for the kit - cockpit, wheelwells and exhaust/nozzles: Superb quality - I haven't used many of these Aires add-ons, but they are amazingly detailed: These items are luxuries to upgrade the kit detail - out of the box the kit versions are very much acceptable! Now for the corrective items - all from Zactomodels. These are the intakes and new nose. The kit intakes are too narrow and curved along the bottom profile. The kit nose is much too short and conical and these replacements are spot on. The other problem shape is the canopy - the kit windshield is too sloped and the overall shape is too short and bulbous looking. I did get Zactomodels' canopy set as part of the combo, but since I'll be posing the canopy open, it's less apparent that the shape of the canopy is wrong. I've test fitted the canopy and Aires instrument panel coaming and there is likely to be an interference fit with the HUD as well, so I've decided only to use the canopy accessories from the Zacto set and keep the vac canopy for another day. I can't overstate how very, very good these items are. The quality is the best I've ever seen in resin. The surface is almost creamy, perfect fidelity and very finely detailed. They also fit the kit exactly. This stuff is by no means cheap, but it is good value for what you get. It's also sufficiently accurate to throw suspicion on later releases of the Trumpeter kit which mysteriously "fixed" the intake and nose problems within a year or so of Chris' (Zactomodels) release. Make of that what you will! I also have the obligatory Eduard etch sets for the ejector seat and airframe exterior - some of the exterior is for the FOD guards, but as they are based on the kit intakes, which are quite dimensionally different to the Zacto ones, I won't be using them :'( Decals - I have Linden Hill's stencil set and Guardians of the North decal sets - I've also got some leftover Begemot MiG-29 decals, so who knows what I will end up with?? I'm leaning towards one of these two at the moment - 03 Red or 41 Blue. On the other hand, it would be nice to do a bang-up-to-date 2014 version seeing as these may be becoming very relevant in the coming months! If that were not enough, I also have MasterCasters' replacement wheel set, and the seated pilot figure. The wheels are pretty much exact copies of the kit wheels but without the need to use the rubber. Personally, I have no problems with rubber wheels, and have several completed kits going back eight years with rubber wheels that have suffered no ill-effects. So I may not use the MasterCasters wheels unless I have trouble reshaping the rubber ones. The last aftermarket items (still on their way) are some wingtip Sorbitsya ECM pods courtesy of Wolfpack Designs. I could have also got these from Zactomodels, but I could buy the Wolfpack ones here in the UK. This solves the problem of the kit's mis-shapen wingtip missile rails which are conspicuously wrong and very visible. I intend to build this as a modern-day Su-27 interceptor with R-73, R-77AE and R-27(E)T missiles, so two less R-73s won't make a huge difference. The missiles will come from the Trumpeter 1/32 Russian Weapons Set which I bought years ago and luckily have all the required missiles included. They are not spot on but perfectly acceptable, as I used several for my MiG-29UB built two years ago: Well, that's that little introductory thesis over - the casting blocks are cut off, the resin is drying off after a marathon washing and scrubbing session, the parts are cut to shape - we begin at dawn tomorrow, Comrades! 8) Hope you enjoy following the build, I'll try to be as detailed and explanatory as I can, tell me if it gets too boring or tedious with minutiae!