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Finally complete after many many self induced screw ups. A great kit, fits well. I installed an Eduard cockpit and after market weapons and decals.

I've had a thick line drawn under this GB ever since it came through the bunfight. US Navy aircraft dominate both my stash and my completed builds, maybe because I am a Top Gun baby, or maybe because I find most USN aircraft interesting and colourful (both figuratively and literally). My choice of a Phantom for the GB is an unimaginative one, but I'm excited nonetheless, especially as I'll be building this beautiful kit: You probably can't tell that the box is still wrapped in clear plastic, but you can probably see the Japanese price tag. My daughter bought this for me from a model shop in Osaka when she was in Japan on holiday back in January for the very reasonable price of JPY 6050 (which if you do the conversion works out to about half the retail price here in Aus!). She bought it for me as a present for my recent 50th birthday, which makes me a 1974 baby, and so I figured that makes a VF-74 bird somewhat appropriate for a birthday build. So I'll be building this as a VF-74 'Be-Devillers' F4H-1/F-4B when the squadron was the first to take the Phantom to sea with their 1962 cruise aboard the USS Forrestal - hence the 'First in Phantoms' moniker. Here's the Bullseye decal sheet I'll be using (some lovely, printed-by-Cartograph goodness): And I have some bits from Hypersconic models to make it a period correct early F-4B/F4H-1 - namely the plain fin cap and non-IRST chin pod. Plus some very nice looking seats (well, they do look nice when the light is not reflecting off the packaging). I'll take some better shots of he Hypersonic bits once I make a start and removing them from their packaging. Likewise I'll take some sprue shots then - for now I am saving myself the treat of opening the box and savouring the sprues until I make a start after clearing off my other GB commitments. Am looking forward to making a start, but in the meantime enjoy this McDonnell promotional film on the Phantom's first cruise with VF-74, it's 23 minutes very well spent: Best of luck with your own builds, I'm looking forward to following along. This should be a cracking GB, Gerard

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour and Malaya in December 1941, the Royal Australian Air Force was forced to evaluate how poorly it was equipped to counter any Japanese movement towards Australia. Up to this time, under the principle of Imperial Defence, its principal task had been the training of aircrew to fly with the Royal Air Force in the European and Desert theatres of war. The only ‘modern’ single-seat fighter that it operated was the Brewster Buffalo, equipping two squadrons based in Malaya. For home defence, the only ‘fighter’ that it had was the two-seat Wirraway. Under the guidance of Bill Air and aerodynamicist Fred David, the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, using some Wirraway components, rapidly developed the Boomerang interceptor. This aircraft was powered by the Pratt & Whitney R-1830, then entering licence production in Australia. The first Boomerang flew in May 1942. Its performance was similar to the Buffalo, and although it had the advantage of two 20mm cannon and four Mgs compared to Buff’s puny armament, it was clear that it also would be outclassed by the Japanese fighters, particularly the Zero. By early 1942, reports were coming in from the RAAF and the USAAF that the Japanese fighters were operating at altitudes where the P-39 and P-40 were ineffective. These aircraft, as did the Boomerang, lacked an effective supercharger. A fighter that could meet the Japanese at altitudes of 20,000 plus feet was needed. Spitfires from the UK were still unobtainium as were P-38 or P-47 aircraft from the USA. It was decided to fit a turbo-supercharger to the Boomerang. Thus was born the CA-14, which first flew in January 1943. The original version was a minimal change of the CA-12, being basically a system test bed but, the second iteration, the CA-14A, was refined to a proposed production standard. The performance of the basic CA-12 Boomerang was greatly increased at altitude. The CA-14 was able to reach altitudes in excess of 30,000 feet and at 28,000 feet was able to achieve over 350 mph. These figures were roughly comparable to Republic’s P-43, with the Boomerang having the superior armament. However, by 1943 the RAAF was, at last, starting to receive Spitfire VC aircraft which finally gave the RAAF its desired high-altitude capability. This, plus the refusal of the USA to release turbo-superchargers to Australia, resulted in the cancellation of the project. I plan to use Special Hobby's CA-12 kit as it is the best available in 1/48. Having said that, it has many problems and deficiencies. I will be relying on the 'spares box', plasticard, and copious amounts of filler to complete this project. To the kit, I have added the RedRoo enhancement set, and an Aires R-1830 as the cylinders in SH kit were badly moulded. At the bottom left are some possible candidates for the engine cowling and I have started the basic assembly of the cockpit 'tub'.

I've been a bit quiet modelling lately. Or, at least, plastic modelling - I have completed a couple of wooden boats, with a third fitting out. Here, I hope to get back to plastic with an F=86 in Portuguese colours. The kit is (obviously) Airfix, with a few AM pieces: some decals, and a pilot. I might have a think about the little guy; maybe go for an F80 or F-100 driver? For what it is worth, I believe Portugal received F-86F-35 airframes, though these were fitted with F-86F-40 wings (the latter had slats).

I am currently building four Avon Sabres. Since I had already started them I checked with the Mod and have been allowed to enter two in this group build since I have only completed the fuselages on those two. I still intend to complete all four and there may be some mixing of them as I get further down the track - it will be difficult to keep the two builds separated. 😕 Basic kit is Hasegawa F-86F. The Avon Sabre fuselages come from RedRoo / High Planes. To these I am adding RedRoo 166 gall and 100 gall drop tanks and Aires cockpit sets, suitably modified to suit the Australian aircraft. Winders and other stores will come from the spares box. I have decals from High Planes, RedRoo, Dekl's, Ventura, and Model Alliance. This should be enough to allow me to find the markings I want.

Greetings fellow Britmodellers! Here's my summer holidays project - the Trumpeter 1/48 scale Focke-Wulf Fw-200C-4 Condor. I started this kit with the intention of it being some light relief and a relatively quick and simple build as a nice break from the more complex projects I have on the go. Unfortunately that didn't turn out to the case and it was far from straightforward - although it looked gorgeous in the box, I foolishly spent hours building and painting a very complex interior, 99% of which will never be seen again. The real issue was attaching the wings, however, as Trumpeter (in their wisdom) have the lower wing and central fuselage section molded in one, but with absolutely no locating points to ensure this structurally critical part of the model has any strength whatsoever - it's simply butt-joints which would obviously crack under any sort of load. Being the large model that it is, I therefore made an alloy spar and epoxied this in place to give the wings some strength, and then added thick plastic card tabs to the wing root joints as well as the lower fuselage joints: Unfortunately, this mod meant the wing to fuselage join needed a lot of filling, sanding and rescribing to come good... ...but it has given the model much-needed strength - although it still creaks and groans like an old piece of garden furniture when picked up! Anyway, despite not being the easy shake and bake I hoped it would be, I did enjoy it and it makes for a large and impressive model. I used my usual Xtracolor enamels and finished it off with some heavy exhaust staining as seen in references with Mig pastels. All the best, Tom Focke-Wulf Fw-200C-4 of 8./KG40, Summer 1943:

I am proud to show off my completed Operation Overlord Maintenance Diorama. From start to finish, this entire project was completed in roughly 40 days. This diaroma is a mirror image of the Luftwaffe diorama I finished a little over a month ago. I tried to emphasize a more organized and functional scene with this build when compared to the Luftwaffe one since this would be later in the war. I used the following kits and accessories to build the diorama: MiniArt P-47D-30RA Advanced Kit 1/48 Eduard P-51B 1/48 Eduard Brassin P-51B Gun Bays Eduard Brassin P-51B Engine Additional 3D printed engine parts for P-47 MiniArt Field Workshop MiniArt Tool Set MiniArt Marston Mat Set Tamiya Allied Jerry Can Set Tamiya U.S Army Infantry At Rest Tamiya German Tank Maintenance Crew

Hello gents, here's my fourth completion of the year: Tamiya's 1/48 Vought F4U-1D Corsair: A very nice kit, I hardly remember building it in fact, so stress-free was it. I bought the 'towing tug' edition as it contains the full rocket and fuel tank load, which I don't think the standard boxing does, and because I wanted to use the little guy leaning out of his cockpit I did cut the forward 'prong' from the wing-join pieces and it seemed to give a better fit without them. I was a bit cheesed off having to build it with the flaps deployed but them's the breaks, you don't get the choice unless you are brave enough to do it yourself. I used the Quinta 3D cockpit decal set and it is actually at least partly visible through the cockpit opening, also at ASK double-sided canopy mask set; both of these worked as advertised. The aircraft was finished in Colourcoats enamels, overall ACUS34 ANA623 Glossy Sea Blue with the anti-glare panel in ACUS33 ANA607 Non-specular Sea Blue. The interior was done in ACUS09 Interior Green with the wheelbays in ACUS23 Zinc Chromate Yellow. Detail painting was done with various Citadel, Vallejo and Tamiya acrylics. The final coat was AK Interactive Satin varnish, with Ultra Matte varnish used on the anti-glare panel and wing walkways. I used the kit transfers for the 2nd option from VBF-6 based on the USS Hancock (CV-19) in March 1945. The transfers felt a bit thick, but they went on fine and to their credit did not 'silver' at all. I appreciate the 'Pacific Island' backdrop is not really appropriate for a carrier-based Corsair, but I had the background already (from Coastal Kits) and it was a bit more interesting than just taking the pictures against a white or grey background like I usually do Thanks for your attention Cheers, Stew

Here's the start of my 1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Vb, in markings of an aircraft flown by one of the "Eagle"squadrons, American pilots who flew with the RAF before the US joined the war. I was minded to do this subject because my late father served as RAF groundcrew and was stationed at Martlesham Heath during the time that 71 Squadron, made up of American volunteers, was based there. I don't know whether he ever worked on these particular aircraft, but I think it's likely he would have been aware of them. I'll be using the Aviaelogy decal set, and the Tamiya kit. Hoping for a fairly quick build, although I'm tarting up the cockpit a bit with an Eduard set I picked up at Telford last year. I've spent a few evenings so far on the cockpit - here's a couple of pictures before everything gets hidden away inside the fuselage. All fairly straightforward so far - the only wrinkle was that the Eduard set refers to a mysterious "part 45" which is absent from the fret. It appears to be a wiring bundle on the left hand side of the instrument panel; I've made up something from fusewire and tape.

Obligatory box shot. I'm aiming to build Eduard's 1/48 Spitfire Mk 1a in the markings of an aircraft flown by Douglas Bader at 222 Squadron, initially at Duxford and then at Kirton-in-Lindsay. Bader famously lost both his legs in a flying accident, crashing a Bristol Bulldog whilst attempting low-level aerobatics. I remember, as an aeroplane-mad kid, being driven past Woodley aerodrome, near Reading, where the incident had occurred. His determination and courage in learning to fly with prosthetic legs made him an inspirational figure, and although he is most associated with flying Hurricanes, he began his RAF service in WW2 on Spitfires. I have Eduard's dual combo boxing in 1/48, and am looking forward to this GB. I'll hopefully get started fairly promptly, but I am currently finishing off another Spitfire, a Tamiya Vb also in 1/48.

Hello, I will start a build of this gem, a 1996 Eduard 1/48 Sopwith Triplane. Got it from a connection during the pandemic. With my luck, Eduard will retool it and sell a Profipack version after I finish this one, on half the price I paid for this one (without shipping and custom fees). At least it will have some people interested in this amazing plane. I went to London in April, and I manage to visit the RAF museum and take a good look at the one of the only two surviving Triplanes, and document it a little. This will be a Collinshaw's "Black Maria", by the way. The kit itself is very simple with two sprues, details are average, decals are impeccable. Comes with a photo etch, but not as detailed as the profipack version, so I bought a photo etch detail that is intimidatingly damn small. Now, this will be a very slow build, as I do not have much time left, and I want to make justice to this gem, so I do not want to rush things. Let's see how this will turn out, wish me luck.

Loren, Decided to have another go at a group build. Way back in the late1950s, when I first saw photos of this aircraft, I fell in love. What aspiring pilot would not want get his hands on this beastie? A fighter with incredible performance at that time. Mach 2.5, 65,000 ft ceiling, and capable of manoeuvering at supersonic speeds. Unfortunately, a man called McDonnell spoiled the party. The Navy were persuaded that the the next generation fighter should have two engines and a crew of two, and, oh, you really didn't need air-to-air and intercept capability - multi role and ground attack capability were what the Navy really wanted. The Navy swallowed it and got the F4H phantom. A bit like replacing a Ferrari with a pick-up. I discussed this project a number of years ago with my best friend, Fred. He and I both worked at the Aeronautical Research Laboratory, Fred in structures, me in aerodynamics. Many a lunch break was spent modelling and discussing projects, when not working on the local IPMS magazine. Fred was a great ideas man and modelling engineer. When the Revell 1/32 Spitfire was released, Fred quickly converted one into a MK.VC. I followed up by then converting one into a Mk.VIII. Fred then followed up with a Mk.VIV and to cap it off then converted one into a Seafire 47! Couldn't keep up with that! Anyway Fred suggested that one way to get a Crusader III would be to start with two A-7 kits. I investigated this and decided that apart from the number of open panels in the kit, the cross-sections did not match. The project then went onto the backburner for many a year and, apart from picking up an incomplete F-105 kit at a swap and sell, stagnated. This GB has reinstalled the fire and I have decided to have a go at it. The idea is to cut and graft an old Monogram F8U fuselage, add the rear fuselage from the F-105, and the intake from an A-7. The cockpit transparencies will need to be modified/stolen from the spares box. New fin and rudder and tail surfaces will also need to be made - a simple job. 🤔 Finally the F8Uwings will need to be modified to increase the span and root chord. Will it really be that easy? It's never that easy, but let's have a go! The assembled bits comprise: Monogram kit. An incomplete Hasegawa kit if needed. Fuselage from Monogram F-105 for the rear end. Some A-7 bits and pieces but, primarily the air intake which closely matches that on the F8U-3. Sparrows from Eduard. Plasticard. Cockpit from Cutting Edge. Metal undercarriage from Aeroclub to replace the 'collapsed' on in the Monogram kit. and a lot of filler! Using the old Monogram kits has the advantage of not having to fill unwanted panel lines, just scrub off the raised ones in the kit. OK! Time to pull out the saw, grinder, files, sanding paper and start cutting! 😈 Peter M

Hi, I am giving up Ebay, I am glad that I stashed all I wanted in 2020, because that site is unusable now. The prices in shipping are a joke, as everyone is trying to avoid Ebay fees. 50 USD for shipping? Yeah right. I would rather print one. I was looking at a Eduard 1/48 DFW T.28 Floh, this guy: but it is just not worth it. For the joke, I checked if someone have it as a model, and here it is: So, I downloaded the pieces, and used a Ultimaker 2+ Connect printer I have access to. Happy with my first piece, but I realised that the orientation was not the best. Back to the printer, and this time printing it on a way that the fuselage curves are one in the xy-axis, not in the z-axis which will always be "pixelated" Much better now. Also, since the Floh pictures I see do not have exhaust pipes, I decided to print two "port" pieces, one mirrored so I can do my own exhaust holes. The rest of the pieces were mashed together on a single session. I am not sure if I will use the 3D printed struts, but at least they are useful for measurements. The wing was also an experiment, to see how the rib indents would print out. Yeah, it looks terrible. Printing the wings with the leading edge down. They look thin, strong and retain the airfoil curve. The only con is that they do not have the rib indentations, but that is not a big deal. Adding a tail for the second prototype using sprue sheet. This is going to be a quick kit only to test the 3D printing capabilities. So far I am enjoying a lot, this kit looks doable in an acceptable way, although I will skip most of the cockpit details. Plastic is harder and more annoying to work with (and probably glue), but that also comes with the benefits of thinner pieces.

Hi, Here's my Academy F4U-4B. I know that it is not fully accurate, but I'm not going to attempt corrections. I just want a model of a Korean war USMC F4U-4B. Cheers, Stefan.

Woohoo, the Sabre GB is about start and I have this little box of awesomeness. I like all 3 decal options, but I'll go with the "hat in the ring" squadron: the 94th FS. Cheers, Stefan.

Outside one of the Gates of the Millennium Stadium (formally called something else for sponsorship reasons) in Cardiff is a statue of a bespectacled older gentleman. There are plaques on four sides of the statue's plinth. Each plaque is topped with his name: Sir Tasker Watkins VC GBE PC DL Three of the four plaques provide details on aspects of his life and the fourth his dates of birth and death (November 18 1918 to September 9 2007) and a quote from him. One plaque details his distinguished legal career, ending as Deputy Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1988 to 1993. One details his time as President of the Welsh Rugby Union from 1993 to 2004. The third contains a summarised version of his citation for the award of the Victoria Cross which reads: “On 16 August 1944 at Barfour, Normandy, France, Lieutenant Watkins' company came under murderous machine-gun fire while advancing through corn fields set with booby traps. The only officer left, Lieutenant Watkins led a bayonet charge with his 30 remaining men against 50 enemy Infantry, practically wiping them out. Finally, at dusk, separated from the rest of the battalion, he ordered his men to scatter and after he had personally charged and silenced an enemy machine-gun post, he brought them back to safety. His superb leadership not only saved his men, but decisively influenced the course of the battle.” It is this plaque that has inspired the build planned. I've been considering how best to do this. It turns out that Sir Tasker rarely talked about his VC and apparently refused to allow the Welch Regiment museum to display a painting of the incident that led to its award as he felt it ‘over-glamourised’ his actions. I thought any sort of ‘action’ diorama might be interpreted the same way. I feel therefore that it might align better to his views to depict the moment when he returned to battalion headquarters with the remnants of B Company; 27 men. Tired, weary men who had lived through terrible events; their officer amongst them but barely distinguishable. I therefore intend to use the below kits to try and represent at least a selection of those men and some of the vehicles that might be found at the battalion headquarters. I'll probably need to get more British Infantry. I hope that I can complete this diorama to represent in this GB not just Sir Tasker Watkins VC, not just the men of B company, but all of the ‘Poor Bloody Infantry’ who fought and suffered and died in Normandy. According to the Imperial War Museum “All seven infantry divisions that fought in Normandy had lost three-quarters of their initial strength by the end of August. The rifle companies had been the hardest hit. Though they formed no more than 20% of the whole, they had taken 70% of the casualties. In an echo of the First World War, junior infantry officers had a mere 1 in 10 chance of surviving unscathed.” https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/tactics-and-the-cost-of-victory-in-normandy I’ll leave the last words to Sir Tasker Watkins VC himself, speaking on the events that led to his Victoria Cross award, as quoted on the fourth plinth of his statue. "I did what needed doing to help my colleagues and friends and saw more killing in 24 hours than is right for anybody. From that moment onwards I have tried to take a more caring view of my fellow human beings and that of course always included my opponents, whether it be at war, sport or just ordinary life."

My initial thought for this GB was a Spit, everyone loves a Spit particularly an early mark. I have an Eduard Me109E "in the stash"but I didn't fancy modelling the "bad guys" this time. I took a bit of advice and settled on a Gloster Gladiator. 247th Squadron flew the Gladiator in protection of the SW ports from a pretty rough strip near Roborough (also known at one time as Plymouth Airport) (More history of the site here). The strip was unsuited to more modern monoplanes at the time so the Glad was deployed having moved the squadron down from Sumburgh in Shetland where they were tasked with providing cover for Scapa Flow. Since deciding on the subject of my model I have done some internet research and I will add more of this as I add to this thread. So this is the kit (love the pixie boots!) Contents of the box... And these are the add-ons I have chosen I decided against the resin engine and cowl as they almost doubled the cost of the build and I'm not particularly fond of working with resin. So I have the Yahu etched instrument panel a set of turned brass gun barrels (as I more often model armour plastic bun barrels seem, wrong) and then we have the real challenge of this kit... rigging on the recommendation of another Glad builder I have chosen this elastic material. Wish me luck! One thing that does concern me is the decals. I am told to expect these to be a pig to work with. I will try the Finnish swastikas to see how they handle. If they are as bad as people suggest I will be looking for alternates and would welcome pointers as it looks like I will be buying multiple sheets. This is what I hope to model.

So thanks to @shortCummins who has done a really amazing builds of one of these Eduard kits, I took some inspiration and managed to grab a few boxings of this kit. @chrisrope Here's looking at you mate 🙂 (I picked up the 8th Airforce boxing from him for a later build, but will use the profipack as a work up) A few bits that will go into the build but as always I reserve the right to change things More to follow

Another day, another Mustang! This is the second of three fighters I’m building for the Operation Overlord Group Build. Stay tuned and there should be a P-47 showing up soon. All three will be part of a maintenance diorama Kit: Eduard P-51B Mustang Royal Edition 1/48

Due to the timing of the release and the fact that all the decal options are geared towards D-Day, I'm sure Eduard's new pony will be a popular subject for this GB, but I'll still jump on the train anyways. But instead of doing one of the kit markings, I will be using an Aeromaster sheet to do the Mustang flown by Maj Ray "X-Ray Eyes" Wetmore who finished the war as the 359th FG's top gun with 21.25 aerial kills. Wetmore flew this aircraft from May 7th until he completed his first tour of duty on July 2nd and was rotated home. During this time he scored 4 kills; 2 Bf-109s on May 19th and 2 Fw-190s on May 29th. The first 109 on May 19th was his 5th kill, making him the group's second ace. More importantly for this group build, it was the plane he would've flown on D-Day. The second photo shows the Mustang shortly after invasion stripes were applied and features a red scoreboard with 13 crosses that indicate the 4 grounds kills and 8.25 air kills Wetmore had amassed by this time. As for the 359th FG as a whole, June 6th was just the beginning of a busy and costly month. On that "Day of Days", the briefing for the first mission took place at 0200 and the last plane landed at 2315. In all, 6 sorties were flown: 1 air patrol, 1 escort and 4 dive bombing/strafing/ground attack. When pilots returned from one mission they would try to catch a nap wherever they could, still in full flight gear, so they were ready at a moment's notice to get back in the air. June 7th saw the group fly 3 more missions, followed by 3 on the 8th and 4 on the 10th. In that first week following the invasion, the Unicorns (yes, the official group emblem featured a unicorn) flew 21 missions in 7 days but it came at the cost of 11 pilots killed or captured, including John "Posty" Booth, one of the top aces in the group with 8 kills. During the month of June 17 pilots were lost including a squadron commander, operations officer and 4 flight leaders. But the sacrifice was not in vein. Flying mostly air patrol and ground attack missions during the month in support of the advancing ground forces, rough estimates for damage inflicted on the enemy included 16 locomotives destroyed and 31 damaged, 18 armored vehicles destroyed and 48 damaged and 2 ammunition trains blown to smithereens. This was done by way of expending some 128,000 rounds of incendiary armor piercing ammunition and the dropping of roughly 97 tons of bombs.

So it's been a little while but time to update on the next project, yep another F-15! This one is a late C model courtesy of the 1/48 Eduard F-15 kit which is an upgraded Academy kit. The upgrades include nice decals, resin wheels, ACES ejection seat and most importantly some very nice exhausts. The kit also includes some PE including colour PE for the cockpit which all together make it quite an attractive bundle. The only slight caveat is that it is still the academy kit which does have some fit issues especially regarding the engine intakes and nose-to-fuselage join. As most of the essential bits are already upgraded, I'm not planning too many additional items however, this will be lit up with some LEDs which always requires some additional thought/patience/sanity-check on a 1/48 scale model. Subject of choice will be a blue aggressor machine from the 65 AGRS at Nellis similar to this one (but not a twin seat version). Decals for 65 AGRS machines are courtesy of an old Afterburner set I bought ages ago (as who doesn't like some more Aggressor options!) and as this will also be an in-flight display, I'll need a pilot . Right onto the kit and straight into the first issue - which to be fair I knew when I bought the kit second hand. The cockpit had been started but it looks like initial efforts to assemble the PE elements had not gone well and subsequent attempts to rectify the situation with copious amounts of super glue had also not gone well. Even the cover-up paintwork failed to improve the look which was probably the point the previous owner decided to call it a day. Anyway, never shy of a challenge (and knowing that a closed canopy will hide a multitude of sins) I set about removing the super-glued paint as best I could with chemicals and assorted files/sanders. All the front cockpit PE was trashed so I purchased another set and set about to recover what detail I could. As you can see, there was not a lot left to play with. Some clever paintwork required here I think or more likely for my skill level, just rely on the seat and pilot covering up most of the issue. The new PE for the front IP should also help. Talking of the seat, at least the Eduard resin one is nicely detailed and some additional PE should detract nicely from the melty-mess of the rest of the cockpit. More to follow soon, intake heaven (not).

Well, I finally finished a kit. Just trying to get back into the swing of modeling and see how much of my meager skills I have forgotten. This is the Tamiya Spitfire Mk.1, an excellent kit that I almost managed to screw up entirely. I just screwed up some parts of it; all my fault. I managed to knock off any little hangy off thing on the kit such as radio antenna, mast, pitot tube, etc. If it could be knocked off, I did it during the course of construction. If you look carefully you will find I meticulously arranged the seat belts on the seat with just enough left over to come within a hair's breath of making sure I could attach the end to the back of the airframe. So, it is just sorta hanging there. I did weathering without sealing first; that went quite well. All it took to cure was repainting, then sealing and then weathering. I made a terrible go at the radio wires and hate the way they look, but just wanted this puppy finished. So, here is a miserable representation of one of England's finest from an absolutely wonderful kit to build if you knew what you were doing. Please be gentle. I might get better. Oh yeah, it's been so long since I posted, I forgot how, along with which host I used in the past. Hopefully, the pictures will appear. And here it is with a couple of former foes in one of the displays. Any and all comments are welcome. Sorry it isn't up to the standard of most builds here. Next one I will do better, I hope. Thanks for looking

My aircraft WIP started off with a couple of 1/48 RAF Phantoms I was building, but somewhere along the way I started putting together a background to photograph them with. This turned in to a hair-brained scheme to build a Hardened Aircraft Shelter (HAS). I live near Wattisham and have taken some photos while passing of the site, and using google maps I got started on some plans. A full size hanger in 1/48 would just be too big, so a single aircraft HAS seemed do-able. So this is what I was aiming for: Most of the build so far is on my other thread, so I won't repeat it all here. Suffice to say it got rolling with a bit of rolled up cardboard: The main structure is about 76cm x 45cm. But then add the apron in front, doors, vent at the back, annex, etc, etc. Its got pretty big.

I was fortune enough to snag this kit from my local hobby shop after I missed out on the preorder. Since purchasing the kit, I was surprisingly contacted by Eduard about doing a collaboration for this build. They asked for a list of parts/accessories I would like to include in the build. At first I had only sent them a few things, but they responded and asked me to send a longer list with any and all things I would want. To my surprise, they sent me every single accessory I mentioned. In exchange for the parts, I need to supply Eduard with photographs of the build along the way. When looking back at where I started in building models, I never knew I would eventually reach this level. I am beyond words and feel extremely proud and honored. Item list: •Eduard B-17F 1/48 •Eduard B-17F Brassin Engine Set •Eduard B-17F Brassin Bronze Undercarriage Legs •Eduard B-17F Brassin Resin Gun Set •Eduard B-17F Exterior and Undercarriage detail set •Eduard B-17F Waist Section Set •Eduard B-17F Radio Compartment Set •Eduard B-17F Nose Interior Set •Eduard B-17F Ammo Feed Chutes Set •Eduard B-17F Wooden Flores and Ammo Box Set •Eduard B-17F Bomb Bay Set •Eduard B-17F Landing Flaps Set •Eduard B-17F Cockpit Detail Set I will be starting this build in a few weeks.