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Since I’ve been told to self isolate while I wait for test results I’m not likely to get anywhere near the bench for a week or two , so on my way to my bedroom I snagged these three kits from my stash. I’ll cleanup the various bits ahead of time so when I can get back to the bench they’ll be ready for a serious assembly session. I already have a Pup and a Snark built and a triplane well advanced so will end up with a fairly comprehensive Sopwith fighter collection. Kit quality varies. The Dolphin is beautiful and comes with a PE fret for the fine detailing, which I’ll copy in 10 thou card as much as possible for the other two. I don’t have the premium edition which has an engine and metal exhausts but still a great kit. The Camel sits squarely in the middle, no PE but finely molded and a nice decal sheet. The Snipe is a short run kit and has some lovely white metal parts for the interior and the engine, which will probably be copied for the other two. The moldings while looking fairly accurate are the flashiest things I’ve ever seen and need a lot of cleaning up, but there’s a pretty good model in there trying to get out. As for colour schemes the Dolphin will probably be one of the kit schemes. Likewise the Camel. Still undecided on the Snipe no PC10 but I might opt for a PC12 scheme, I’m also toying with an all silver one or an interesting Russian scheme with black stars but I’m not sure of the accuracy of that one. Retrospectively decided to add a scratch built Swallow as the three kits have yielded a rudder, some wheels, an upper deck and a Cowl, most if the tricky parts to scratchbuild and I’ve been threatening to do one for ages along with a Salamander ( hmm will leave that one for later) There’s also a 1 1/2 strutter and two mr craft Camels ( bought as parts donors) in the stash, but again another build. Might be a slow thread but for the moment will be all I’m working on.

Hi This is the very old Monogram 1/48 Do 335 A which has been modified to a B-2. I had to scribe each of the panel lines, make new gun pods for the wings and a few other small modifications. It's also got a new front windscreen but it's been in the sun hence why the clear plastic has discolored, lesson learnt. I've got the Tamiya Do 335 nearly completed so I hope to show that one soon, regards. Trace

Last year I picked up a group builds worth of F-16s on ebay. I first got an ESCI Viper just to get the ground crew set with it. Then a mixed bag of 2 more ESCI and one Monogram kit followed, so on with build. The first three became Dutch, Belgian and Norwegian Vipers earlier this year. Here with my previous Dutch F-16 and Academy Bentwaters Aggressor. But the fourth stayed in the box. My plan for the last one was to build a Weasel. Then I found that the decals I have are for a Spangdahlem F-16C, not the later Wild Weasel. I have a Spang F-4G Weasel to build in Euro One camo so the F-16 will sit nicely with her. So the plan is to convert the ESCI A model to a C, rescribe the panels and add the shark mouth decals. To my mind the shape is pretty good. So the aim is something like this When I built the others I tidied up the cockpit so this is what is in the box The rear stabilisers are coming off to be replaced by the scratch built Everdrenn sheets ones. They can then be angled upwards rather than the moulded on early A model ones. The tanks are from an Academy kit but I think I have ESCI ones too. And now toying with the idea of cutting off the slats. Flaps are already separate. And maybe the airbrakes too So let’s see what this one turns out like. Thanks for looking in

I blame @Procopius and @Cookenbacher. And @CedB In what feels like a very different world, c.2 years ago, 2 young(-ish) Americans well known to this community came to visit the UK. They visited a truly epic number of air museums in a short time, met many of us at Telford and/or some of the museums, and generally appeared to have a blast. As far as I am aware there was no direct evidence of their being over-sexed, but they lived admirably up to the example of their ancestors 75 years ago by being over-paid and over here. One of the museums they visited was at Old Buckenham, SW of Norwich, dedicated to the 453rd Bombardment Group USAAF during WW2... and they got talking to the curator, who reckoned he could use some more models. Many emails and 18 months later, several of their BM friends found large parcels arriving; somehow all those years in the Navy and the instinct never to volunteer for anything... wasted. What was I thinking? [All joking aside, it is an honour to pay tribute to those young men so far from home. No, not Edward and Cookie; the proper heroes.] So I find myself building not just one aircraft miles out of my comfort zone... but 3. The idea is the Museum provide the kits; we do the building. You’ll see other BM 453rd-ers appearing in the coming weeks - it’s kind of like a weird group build. I’ll document all 3 of my builds on here, and no doubt others will do the same. Closer to home, though, there are other reasons for this. Many of you already know that completely out of the blue I had a heart attack on 6 March, while out walking the dog on the downs near Salisbury. It was very, very scary, but I managed to avoid meeting that nice Mr Reaper quite yet. 10 days on and I am still pretty weak and lack stamina (quiet in the cheap seats!), but off work for a few weeks. So I need something to do. My Ark build will continue in parallel, but I feel like something self-contained; the plan is for this to be pretty quick, especially by my standards - this is a celebration of still being here! It has to be said that I’ve wangled 3 corkers, all in 1/48 (so at least some of my comfort zone remains intact): the Eduard P-51D, Tamiya P-51B and, up first... the Tamiya P-38F/G. Every review I’ve seen of this kit since it was released in 2019 has positively drooled, so I’m pretty excited about building it. I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert on either the Lightning or the Mustang; if you are and you see me about to make a howler, then feel free to tell me! I have the kit itself, and Jim (the Museum curator) is sending me sone after-market stuff... including the markings, so I cannot yet tell you exactly which airframe this will be...other than that it will be a P-38 of the 479th Fighter Group, based at Wattisham. OK, enough rabbiting on; the kit and the obligatory photos of the box and its contents. Even on initial inspection I can see why everyone raves about it; beautifully moulded, and some really ingenious engineering. ...and the proof that Tamiya engineering is ridiculously good; no tail-sitters here: The game’s afoot. More soon Crisp

Well, here we go! Looking forward to this one. I'll be building Eduard's1/48 F6F-3, pretty much OOB. I do love a sharkmouth, so it has to be the USS Princeton markings. I'll hope to start snipping later.

The third and final part of my "Quiver of Bulgarian Arrows" will be in the post-war Republican OF scheme. The BF-109 soldiered on in Bulgaria into the 1950's (ref: Bernád). By then it may of had the Soviet star although I have not seen an image and chose White 30 at the time of this accident. There is some speculation about the colors so I will go with Bernád's very reasonable proposition of Soviet AMT-11, AMT-12 and AMT-7. Besides this has given me an excuse to use the Mr Paint range for the first time: The aircraft is said to be a G-10 and I always enjoy studying such EDIT: After review I do not think so. It is a G-6 or G-14. I was planning to build the pair in parallel. Now, with a third 109 in the pipeline, I'll opt for my usual one kit at a time. First up the Emil. Ray

Entry No.2 will be built from the Kinetic F-16DG/DJ Block 40/50 kit - originally purchased at a very good price as I wanted the CC sprues (Harm missiles + pods). When it arrived those sprues were no longer included and had been replaced by two MER + Cluster bomb sprues. However I've since managed to do a swap to get a Harm sprue. Although this kit only has parts for an F-16D, I can take the unused F-16C parts from my Polish C/D boxing and build this as 92-0920 in the (Two Bobs) 2015 special livery reflecting 50 years of Wild Weasel operations: As the decals include a comprehensive selection of inert missile markings you can expect this one to have a fairly full loadout! Mike

First of the two kits Jim sent me for the 453rd Museum build it's the well known Tamiya 1/48 P-51D I wasn't part of the group that visited the Museum but I'm friend with many of them, and I hope I'll be able to join them soon for a proper visit Jim asked me to build the boxart aircraft, which by coincidence is my favourite Mustang scheme Let's see what's in the box: a total of four sprues, including the transparents So a relatively low parts number, and the kit isn't like the most recent Tamaiya issues. Still it's a Tamiya, with some great detail all over Jim also included an Eduard PE set for the cockpit I started with a quick dryfit of the fuselage halves an the cockpit tub bottom view Typical good Tamiya fit, but it will need some work along the seam line, because of the metallic finish of this aircraft. The sidewall detail is amazing: I don't think I'll entirely replace it with the provided PE parts; I'll probably go with an integration, and some scratch building too Surface detail is also great: Alright, this should be fun! All comments welcome Ciao

Here is my contribution to the group build. I have finally got around to building aircraft that I have worked on during my RAF career. During my tour out in Germany, at RAF Gutersloh, I worked in the Radar/Comms/Recce Bay and part of my duties was to download and replenish the camera systems of several NATO aircraft types, including Dutch F-16s that visited Gutersloh. This was known as Exercise Ample Gain, which was an ongoing training exercise in the 80's to train for the possibility of the Russian horde decided to invade Europe - Gutersloh was one of the nearest NATO air bases to the East German border and so would be the place where aircraft would refuel and rearm etc. Every year I would go to the RNLAF air base at Volkel (306 Sqn) to be retrained which was great fun! I picked the Italeri NATO Fighter boxing as it contains decals for a 306 Sqn aircraft, which was the sqn I trained with, and luckily, DACO Products make a 1/48 Orpheus pod (they actually supply two in the pack so if anyone else is after one I am sure we could come to some arrangement) so I can reproduce one of the aircraft that I possibly worked on (I didn't keep tail numbers! . I normally replace the seat with a resin one and use Eduard's Cockpit Zoom set but this is the first time I have bought a resin exhaust. Looking forward to starting this very soon. Mick

Serial number 4082 to be built using the Kinetic kit (and decals). Part of the appeal for this particular airframe is the fact that parts of the special livery vinyl overlays were lost en route from Poland to Orland - so I'm aiming to finish one side as it left Poland and the other as it arrived in Norway! As usual, Eduard cockpit etch and seat belts and I think there are some masks lurking around too: Back in a week or so, Mike

This is the kit, it’ll be oob as much as possible. Sprues. There’s a nice decal sheet but that’s gone straight to the decal box as I won’t be using it. This is the scheme. Although I think it should be khaki not PC10.

And we’re off!!! I am probably bitting off more than I can chew but I want to try and build two Hellcats in this Group Build. Both aircraft were flown by Pilots who went on to become Aces whilst flying with 1844 Naval Air Squadron FAA aboard HMS Indomitable. Trouble with two is that I’m a slow builder with not much time but we’ll give it a go.. I’m using the Eduard 1/48 Hellcat MkI & MkII kit(s). I won’t bore you with the sprue shots, just the box opening (after all there are several of this kit being built). I am going to attempt both the MkI and MkII though. I’m starting with the MkI first. The specific aircraft I am building is FN411/R5°E. This aircraft was used by Sub Lieutenant Edward (Tug) Wilson to destroy two Ki-45s on 12.01.45 during air strikes over Nicobar Islands (Operation Millet). SLt Wilson was a Volunteer in the South African Naval Force serving with the FAA. Once I have the cockpit safely installed in the fuselage I will start on the MkII. This will be another 1844 aircraft flown by a distant cousin of mine Sub Lieutenant William (Bill) Atkinson during Operation Iceberg again building and installing the cockpit in the fuselage before moving the two aircraft along in parallel. The build starts in the Cockpit and I have gone with the coloured etch for the panels (you get decals as well but I’ll save them for a couple of weekend editions I have). So this is my day’s work (stopping for the GP)... Thanks for stopping by.

Hello all, my first entry in any group build on BM. Hope I'm gona make it.. to finish this model.

Hello, Here is my Hasegawa 1/48 A-4N with the Israeli air force. It's OBB, with isradecal. I hope you will like it. Thank for looking.

Hi all May I present the latest off the bench and into the cabinet- Tamyia's 1/48 T-34/76. Built oob but apart from some small details like the headlight wires, antennae and some battle damage to the turret. Typical Tamiya fit, only wish there was a bit of sag in the tracks! I finished the tank quite a while ago now but the scene took a while to finish. I chose to try and replicate a scene from one of the bridgeheads on the Dnieper crossing in 1943 after the Battle of Kursk. A bit of history- In a risky move, Vatutin chose to reinforce a bridgehead held by a rifle division by sending in the 5th Guards Tank Corps to cross the Dneiper in the marshy area around Litezh (I added a raft and a discarded maxim to hint of the rifle divisions previous crossing). Many T-34s were lost in the bogs but some managed to forced their way through by keeping their speed up. My intention was to leave the sides of the resin free to see through the marsh a bit, but it was in such a mess after I removed the walls that I then boxed it all off with balsa. The marsh vegetation was a mix of home made and shop bought. All in all pretty happy with it.

Hello my modeling friends. 4th build this year and I think I wasted too much time on this one as I took nearly 4 months! Anyway, I was satisfied with the result although far from perfect. Got many experience handling the resin parts as they have to be cut and glued precisely. The fit and detail of the kit is excellent. Eduard's Brassin resin engine has the best details and enjoyed every moment assembling and painting it. The Variant of this Spit is Mk.VIII and the markings were the one flown by the Canadian pilot Paul Ostrander over Burmese skies. That's what pushed me to the finish line! Hope you like it. Enjoy and stay safe! TZW.

My entry, the venerable 2 sprue wonder from the 90's. Got the Eduard mask and will be getting the French PE seatbelt set month end to spruce up the cockpit. Probably going for the scheme used during the Battle of France. If my luck holds, I might have a Special Hobby 1/72 Mirage F.1AZ to use as a second entry, depending on whether I get my hands on one that's just landed here. It's going to be a punch up to get one I think !

Hi all I have been working on this kit. I have modelled DK438 a Mk1 of 1771 Squadron, HMS Implacable, task force 37.1 Pacific Ocean 1945. The Sqadron carried out strikes over the Japanese Mainland at the end of the war. The Grand Phoenix model is a limited run kit and has some astonishing detailing in the cockpits, undercarriage bays and radiator in the form of resin parts and although it is a limited run kit, goes together quite well. The model was brush painted in Humbrol enamels . I had a bit of Loss of Mojo early on in the build but overall it was an enjoyable build. I also used some aftermarket parts, a less bulbus spinnered prop, wheels cannons from Barracuda and also the rear cockpit glazing was a vacform part, but I couldn't get the windscreen right so used the kit front canopy parts. Anyway enough waffle here's the link to the WIP and some photos. A look through the arched window Some cruelly close Macro shots Thanks for looking in and thanks fofcyhe support along the way. Chris

Well, I wasn't intending to enter this group build but then along came this model As the "Unarmed" and"F-16" group builds are also running at the same time this one might not get finished by the deadline but I'll give it a go. Mike

For part two of my reparations to Col I shall be taking my build to the other temperature extreme from the deserts of North Africa, the freezing cold of the Russian front in Winter. I have an interest in the equipment flown by Germany's allies and have wanted to build up a collection of 109's in their various markings so this seemed as good a place to start as any. I was going to go with a Romanian E but the Airfix decals I have for them are a bit pants with the yellow looking very faded which will only get worse when put onto a dark green camouflage scheme, I then thought about a Finnish G-2 but thought I would save that for the Scandinavian GB later this year, Bulgaria is being expertly covered by @Ray_W in great detail, I already have an Italian ANR G-10 so that left Hungary and Slovakia, and Hungary was the best option in my opinion. The Hungarians operated almost every version of the 109 so there is a lot to choose from, including a great variety of colour schemes. The version of 109 I am going with is the F-4 which in my opinion is the best looking 109 version, and the kit I am going with is the recent offering from Zvezda which is a very comprehensive kit of around 200 parts, not all of which are used as there are parts in the kit to allow you to build an F-2 as well and there are options of open or closed panels on the wing undersides and complete engine should you decide to display your model that way. Here is the ubiquitous box top shot, with some pretty nice art work; And the untouched sprues; And a look at some of the details on the wing interiors; And the aftermarket decals by SBS that I will be using for this build; And the sheet itself; Don't think I will be using the decals for the tail stripes, paint will work much better. And a look at what for me was the absolute stand out scheme on the sheet; I do love a winter camouflage scheme! Also gives plenty of scope for weathering, the plan is to paint the aircraft in it's normal 74/75/76 scheme and then apply the decals and then to carefully mask them and spray the white over the top, just like they did in the field. I need to get Emil either finished or very close before I can make a start on Friedrich, hopefully that will be soon. Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received. Craig.

After the Jag, I still feel the need for 80’s RAF metal, and what represents that era better than a Norfolk land shark? This is the older Revell kit, with a rather cavernous box containing more sprues than I can recall for any other model. There seems to be enough plastic for two Tornados in here! I’m delighted to see I’ll be able to model it with everything sticking out and hanging down! Makes a nice change after my DIY efforts on the Jaguar. Loving the upper spoilers. Although I assume this is where I’ll be informed no Tornado ever sat on Marham’s flight line with them sticking up!? I might just claim artistic licence, as the more protruding bits the better in my opinion. The kit was my usual eBay special, so came without decals or instructions. I’ll print the instructions off Scalemates or somewhere, and I have these beauties for decals. Look at all that green and grey camo, proper fast jet colour! For now I’m intending to do the 27 Sqn one from Marham. Im going to need some aftermarket cockpit bits …

So here's something new: Douglas Bader's 242 squadron Hurricane in 1/48 scale! OK it's been done before, but not by me, so here goes Why Douglas Bader? Actually why indeed? I don't think I would have liked him, he was iconic, and driven, and crashed lots of planes. On a serious note I see there is quite a lot of Bader-bashing going on, particularly amongst non-Brits - I ask this simple question: Would you rather he be on our side or the opponents? Exactly - I think that's why he merits the admiration and respect of recreating his aircraft The kit will be Airfix of course, no Tamiya or Eduard alternatives yet… (correction - I see Tamiya reboxed Italeri's 2011 model - most reviewers suggest the Airfix kit is better) I've tried airbrushing Vallejo acrylics, which I didn't get on with, but do leave a great finish, and Humbrol enamels, which I didn't like the finish of, so I've settled on Tamiya acrylics which spray well and leave a nice fine finish I intend to do some pre-shading with some post panel line enamel wash. I'll be aiming for minor wear, putting down some aluminium, then isopropyl alcohol, then sodium carbonate over the chipped areas around the front of the cowling and wings and on the panel lines of the wing roots before painting the camo I'm aiming to mask the camo pattern using Frog delicate decorator's tape hand cut. I used thick leather sewing thread under the edges on my Spitfire to give the soft transition, very fiddly but came out well, so aim to repeat I've taken to hand painting canopies with a 000 brush, excess acrylic is quite easily removed from the glazed areas using a fine wooden toothpick, so will be aiming to do that here I built the original Tamiya Spitfire Mk 1, which I thought was a nice kit, but the decals were a nightmare, so I'm aiming to airbrush most of the roundels and lettering (LE-D), then use the kit stencils with Humbrol Decalfix, which I've not used before. I'll hand cut the lettering masks, but use Montex for the roundels, another first for me I have the full 491104 Eduard photoetch kit, although the second fret is mainly gun bay stuff, and I'm in two minds whether to open the gun bays at all Reading around I see Wikipedia mentions that Bader actually flew three different Hurricanes while at 242. I'm aiming for the one in the group 242 squadron photo In fact I've only found four photos of his aircraft: Bader standing on the wing Bader sitting on the edge of the cockpit Bader and two others standing in front of the 242 boot kicking Hitler The 242 group photo These are probably all the same aircraft and appear to have the Rotol spinner and the A camouflage scheme There are some colorized versions of the B&W photos, but these seem to be wrong! So it seems the boot kicking Hitler should be on the panel under the port exhaust which should be (mostly) Dark Earth. The boot is pretty clear in the B&W photos, of course the colours aren't. I don't have any Bader decals so I'll attempt make my own using some old Jetcal - that is the boot, Hitler and the Squadron Leader graphic Having looked at various cockpit pictures, it seems there was a migration from aluminium finish to interior green from before the war to around 42, I'll be following the Finnish photos, aluminium tubing, rudder pedals and seat, green panels, aluminium gear and gun bays I'm not really certain if the aluminium finish is lacquered aluminium, or alloy painted in aluminium coloured laquer, I'm assuming the latter because it seems to flake off with age, so I'm thinking of reverse dry brushing (painting the parts in flat aluminium, then dry brushing with white and light grey for the wear) - we'll see what it looks like... I'll be aiming to use Airscale 1/48 cockpit placards, they do seem to add some sense of realism I'm never very happy with photoetch harness, so I will try and make my own from tape, but estimate a 50% chance of success... OK, so that's the plan, we'll see if it survives contact with the kit itself, off to open the sprue bag and dunk in some detergent water I should add this is only my fourth model since I restarted, I'm expecting it to take about six months. I doubt it will be the best Hurricane you'll see on this board, but it may give hope to others restarting the hobby... All comments very very welcome...

My first jet since I was around 16. Wonderful kit, this Tamiya Tomcat. I like challenges, but sometimes I do like to build a kit that goes together without snags, and where you don't need a plastic to putty-ratio of 1:1. Others have built their cockpits and displayed them, and done a better job than I can. Therefor I focus in this build thread on the external painting. Feel free to suggest solutions or tricks. The following techniques aren't new, but I like the result so far. I primed with Ultimate Primers glossy black (I love the way it performs! Never let's me down), then sprinkled it with salt when the primer had cured. That was followed by spraying a speckled/marbled pattern, quite randomly, with Tamiya XF-57, XF-59 both on the upper surfaces (that will end up light grey), and lower (which will be white) with some XF-49 on the upper and XF-55 on the lower surfaces. With the salt removed it looked like this. I then sprayed it with Vallejo 71.001 on the lower surfaces and XF-19 on top. I tried Tamiya white first on the lower surfaces, but it didn't behave the way I wanted. Either it was too opaque to get the effect of the preshading I had done, or it became too "runny", resulting in spidering and pooling. Hence Vallejo, which performed brilliantly. This is the result, and it's almost exactly as I had hoped for. I managed to stop in time, and did it in two sessions, so I wouldn't overdo it. Patience is the trick! Now I'm gonna seal it with some Aqua gloss from Alclad, then put on the decals (there are about a zillion of them!), followed by some washes. Stay tuned, and stay healthy. /Torbjörn

Having purchased my 1/48 Revell Tornado as used without decals, I’m wondering what the best solution is for the cockpit. I’m building a mid/late 80s GR1, and looking at decal options for instrument panels I can only find the very nice looking Kits World 3D set but for a GR4. My question is, how much difference is there between the two, would I get away with it if it’s just a few little buttons, or is it quite obvious? Are there any GR1 instrument decals out there, I couldn’t find any on eBay.

XX970 was delivered to the RAF in January 1976 and served much of its time with 6 squadron at the home of the Jaguar, Coltishall in Norfolk. It served in the Gulf War, receiving a temporary sand colour before reverting back to green and grey, then being converted to GR3 standard in the mid 1990s. This Jaguar is still complete and currently used for technical training at RAF Cosford. This is the 1/48 Airfix kit, and needed a bit of scratch building to display with the flaps and slats down. I used the Eduard etch set and Air Master probe, plus a mix of Xtradecals and Kits World decals for the markings, serial and tail code. All comments and suggestions welcome! Here is the WIP: