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Hi all! I've recently sold a few model kits I wasn't going to build so I though I'd reinvest in a kit I've had my eye on for a while now. Picked up Meng's F-4E and the Isracast conversion set to build a Kurnass, as well as the Isradecal Kurnass set and some Quinta Studios 3D cockpit decals. I also have Hasegawa's US aircraft weaponry set which includes early GBUs and targeting pods. This is my first look at a Meng kit and just looking over the sprues it looks absolutely brilliant! I've heard good things about this kit and I've never had an issue with Quinta or Isradecal parts in the past so I'm very much looking forward to this build. I'm going to take things slow and hopefully do this kit justice. As far as the scheme is concerned I have a few potential options. I own the Double Ugly IDF Phantom books so have a great source of reference images. My options are: -201 Squadron Kurnass 2000 with 4 x GBU-12s and a Pave Spike targeting pod. -119 Squadron Kurnass with 2 x AGM-62 Walleye guided bombs and datalink pod. -119 Squadron Kurnass with 4 x GBU-10 guided bombs and a Pave Spike targeting pod. Source: Double Ugly Israeli Phantoms I'm still undecided, the Kurnass 2000 would require extra work as I'd have to scratch build a few small parts but the heavily worn underside looks like a great challenge to replicate. Thanks for looking in- looking forward to this!

Ok , yet another Spitfire, but a Mk., Model and Manufacturer that I'v not tried before. Going to make this one think. Will make a change from RAF colours Already made a start... and found my favorite new tool... This kit comes with far more comprehensive photoetch than I've used before.. i didn't find superglue very much fun.... but this is a game changer ..for me anyway Already enjoying the kit... more complicated than the Tamiya Mk. I

So, after finishing a jet, it's time for a prop. If Scalemates is right (and it usually is), this is the 1984 box. A second-hand one that the original owner has already carved out the raised panel lines and put in recessed and came with a canopy mask, some 3D IP and a Airwaves PE set. Which was nice... So, without further ado. I was 13 when this was released. Cockpit base. No fancy cagework in this kit! PE is a godsend over the kit. (You don't even get an IP decal in the kit!) That's all for the moment.

Well, almost a year and a half to complete this one - not bad timing by my standards! This was the Eduard version of the academy kit which included some nice extras like cockpit details and the exhausts. However, none of that could offset the kits main weakness which is poor fit - namely intakes, cockpit area and rear fuselage. I then didn't help myself with adding lighting which is always a challenge in confined spaces - even though the kit at 1/48 is reasonably large. The colour scheme was chosen by a good friend of mine, who will ultimately benefit from acquiring it, so the decals are from Afterburner. The work in progress is here if interested: OK, on with the photos! The stand is made from a wooden base and 2 acrylic rods bent into to shape using a heat gun. And some close ups. I kept the weathering pretty light as these jets were generally well looked after. And luckily after all that, the lights still worked! I had to 'cheat' on the Form lights as they are too difficult to do properly in this scale so those are glow-in-the-dark decals. Many thanks for looking, til next time!

Academy 1/48 A6M2b Zero Type 21 ------------------------------------------------------------ Hi everyone. This is my first output of the year. I have been building this since last year but the build was paused and moved onto the GWH Mig-29. After that, I decided to continue and finish it recently. As for the kit, I had some fit issues which were not very bad and acceptable. Some scraping, sanding and filling did the job. Surface details are good with nicely engraved panel lines and rivets. As for the colours, I decided to follow Eduard's Zero Type 21's color reference as I felt the Academy's Color references were not accurate. Academy did remarkably well with the decals. After applying using some decal softeners, they really look as if they were painted. Seat belts are from Fine Molds (Nano Aviation seatbelts for WW2 Japanese Aircraft). Just before finishing this kit, I heard the sad news that Academy Plastic Model Founder has passed away. My deep condolences to his family and may he rest in peace. #tzwzero

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).

So this is as much a statement of intent and a request for help as the start of a build thread. It’s the centenary of the formation of the Irish Air Corp, and the Martinsyde was the Air Corps first plane. So what better model to mark the event. This is the beast. But I have a slight problem, this is the closest drawing I can get hold of; and notwithstanding the obvious fuselage and rudder differences I’m not sure if the planview is correct for the Big Fella. So can anyone point me in the direction of a correct plan view?

Looks to be 3D printed. It’s obviously not for everyone, especially considering the price: https://www.hlj.com/1-48-scale-zero-fighter-type-21-skeleton-full-set-model-umltp-004

What ho! May I present the Eduard weekend edition of the Hawker Tempest Mk V. This has taken just over 2 months, and follows on from my Spitfire build. Build log is here: And so to the pictures .. As aircraft are not my usual subjects, comments are welcome. Thank you for looking! Keith ☺️

After the success of the Spitfire build, I'm going to stay with the 'winged things' theme with the 1/48 Tempest Mk. V series 1 from Eduard. Pre-flight briefing: At risk of upsetting fans and lovers of all things Spitfire, I have to admit that my favourite WW2 aircraft is the Hawker Typhoon. I like it's 'thuggish' and rugged looks .... it's like a tool made for the job in hand. I acquired the Airfix 1/24 scale Typhoon and added a load of aftermarket and, as much as I'd like to build it, I'm not that confident with aircraft and want to do it justice, so more flying hours are needed, so what better way to add to the log book than with this one? I've added a pilot from CMK and Montex masks, although after the experience of them with the Spitfire, they may not get used! Rather than a specific pilot, I'll be building this as JN735 operated by No. 3 Squadron, based at Newchuch, Kent in June 1944. And here's lies first challenge - invasion stripes! The stencilling looks to be not too bad - less than the Spitfire - until I noticed S47 relating to the 'Amal' fasteners ....... so I counted up on the decal sheet and immediately wished I hadn't. There are over 100 of them! As seems to be the norm, here's the sprue shot: And, as I had some primer in the airbrush, I thought I'd give the fuselage and wings a coat: So, it's time to climb aboard, buckle up and start the engine - the tower has given the green light so lets hope there isn't much turbulence on the coming sorties! Keith ☺️

Hello gents Here's my first completion of 2025, a Christmas present from my Dad, the Tamiya P-38F Lightning, representing White 33 of the 39th Fighter Squadron based at Port Moresby, New Guinea in late 1942: The kit has a bit of a reputation of being a lovely build and I'm pleased to say that reputation is well-deserved, there are some really nice engineering choices made so you get a nice easy build of a well-detailed kit. The majority of the parts fit just like Lego, things just click into place and if you are the sort of modeller who likes to get elbow-deep in putty and solve problems... well this may not be the kit for you There are various part options detailing the difference between the F and G variants and markings for a G are also included in the kit. I didn't quite go OOB on it; I bought the Eduard T-Face mask set for the canopy (becaused I like them) and the Eduard resin wheel set (because I don't like trying to hide the central seam on diamond-tread tyres, and the detail on the Eduard wheels is really nice). I painted the aicraft in Colourcoats US Olive Drab 41 over US Neutral Gray 43, with US Interior Green for the internals, US True Blue for the propeller spinners and AK Extreme Metal Matt Aluminium for the wheelbays, with the detail painting in various Vallejo and Citadel acrylics. I used the kit transfers, I feel that in a way they are the weak spot of the kit, being a bit thick (I know, pot, kettle, black) and some of them were frankly rather strange (yes all right) - like the ones used to represent the cooling holes in the .50 cal barrels... however when all was varnished with AK Ultra Matte they look fine. And finally, I got another outing for the Coastal Kits 'Japanese airfield' display background for the photos Thanks for your attention Cheers, Stew

Hot off the bench, here's my third 1/48 Buccaneer, which I have just finished - alas, too late to take it to Peterborough yesterday. It depicts a tanker aircraft of 800 NAS in 1970 when embarked in HMS Eagle. Just for a change I wanted to show the flaps, aileron droop and tail trim deployed, which is why the crew are there: this was only ever seen with the aircraft powered up. I suppose it really needs a deck marshaller to add a final touch: maybe one day. It is the Airfix new-tool kit. I did it mostly from the box, but did use a Master FR probe and pitot, Eduard canopy masks, and (particularly poignant in view of the recent news) the buddy refuelling pod by Flightpath. Markings were mostly from home-made masks, including the Flight Refuelling logo in the fin; stencils etc (those I bothered with) were from the kit, as were the fuselage roundels after a mask/paint disaster. The small serials were from an Xtradecal generic sheet, and the 800 NAS badges from the old-tool Airfix kit, kindly supplied by @BushBrit66. Comments and feedback welcome.

I declare my Interceptor ready for inspection! Has been a long term project, and I'm not completely satisfied, but for now it's OK. Kit was Dora Wings Paints; AK true metal wax aluminium Vallejo I hope you like it!

Hello evrybody, Here is my latest build, the midget T-34B Mentor, an evolution of the Beech Bonanza to a primary trainer. A nice little kit, even though it needs some TLC to fit properly - and a lot of weight in the nose, the little guy is a dead tail sitter. Other points of attention are fit of the clear parts, especially the leading edge landing lights and decals, which are pretty good but lack density, especially for the wings roundels. These are to be set over the orange area and orange is showing through white. In the whole, an enjoyable moment, with a striking scheme that enlight the shelves. Build out of the box, used Tamiya, Gunze and MisterPaint. Hope you'll like her. Feel free to comment and discuss. Best Stéphane

Now following on, Time for an episode Tales from Shelf Crypt of Doom. Be warned this build is not for the faint of heart, weak willed , or knobby kneed. If I can finish this it will be a tale you can tell your Grandchildren,... and mightily bored they'll be. But anywho, I started this 7-8 years ago and stopped almost immediately realized I couldn't figure out how to do some of the aspects of the aircraft that I wanted. After many sleepless nights, quaffing a lot of legal beverages, some cypherin', and a little bit of practice building vacs, though probably not enough🤪 I've decided to take the plunge and get this plane built. I did actually get this from Combat models complete with detail set if it can be called that. That's not actually fair, it is a well produced resin set, just needs some work. Ok, it needs a LOT of work and I'm just whacked enough to try and bash this into some semblance of a Flying wing. So come on along as we travel down the march hares rabbit hole. Hard to tell what we'll find.Any comments suggestions, general mayhem from all, even the Naughty Corner and the Usual Subjects will be most welcome.

Ready for decals. A 1/48th - Airfix - DH Vampire FB.5 - markings from N°98 Sqn RAF Germany based at Faßberg in 1953. V.P.

It became clear to me last week that while cleaning out a closet, I am accumulating kits at a faster rate than I'm building them, so I'm going to try and tackle a few this year. I got several half dead built group build projects last year that should be at the top of the list, but I'm going to take advantage of my short attention span and tackle a few Pacific fighters since that's the kick I'm on right now. First up is a subject I've wanted to do for awhile, and that's an early Razorback from the 348th FG which was the premier P-47 group in the Pacific. Flying a fighter not well suited for the theater and not at all liked by most other groups who flew it in the PTO, 20 men became aces with the 348th, led by their fiery leader Neel Kearby who was right in the thick of the famed "Ace Race" and ran his score up to 22 before tunnel vision got the best of him and he was shot down and killed in March 1944. While Kearby's Fiery Ginger IV is a subject for another day, the plane I plan to build right now is Marvin Grant's Racine Belle. I learned about Grant whilst researching Wisconsin aces, so his planes were always a "want to" for me. Grant was an original member of the 342nd FS, the first squadron assigned to the group, and trained with them stateside when the intention was still for the group to go to Europe. During his time with the group, Grant flew 187 missions during which he scored 7 aerial kills, 3 probables, 1 damaged and 8 ground kills. His 'bounty' included 3 Kates, 2 Oscars, 1 Tony, and 1 Betty. He flew several different Jugs but the one I'm focusing on right now is his D-4, serial 42-22694. No markings for this plane are available, but markings are available for his later natural metal D-23, and luckily Grant was one of a handful of pilots who transferred his cowling from an earlier plane to his later plane. That gives me the nose art, and the rest of the markings can be cobbled together from other sources. Profile showing how Racine Belle looked circa January 1944 when Grant had two aerial kills to his credit. This is how I plan to model it. And his later D-23 sporting the cowling from his D-4. Racine Belle appeared on the right side while Sylvia (a named believed to have come from the crew chief) appeared on the left. I know DoraWings has some early Ds in the works and I do plan to get a couple of those when they're released, but I have a surplus of Tamiya Jugs in the stash and it should be relatively easy to backdate their kit to a D-4. The biggest visual differences are the full lower cowl flaps and the non bulged keel. The cowl flaps are easy enough to fix with some styrene, but I wasn't too sure about the bulged keel. I try to avoid surgery whenever I can, so I was curious to see if I could improve the look just by sanding the bejeezus out of it. I tested it out on an incomplete kit I bought several years with the intention of being a paint mule, and although its hard to tell from this photo, I think its a definite improvement and resulted in a much smoother, continuous curve on the bottom of the fuselage. Modified fuselage on the left, original on the right. This was just rough sanded with an 80 grit stick and this is as much I can go since some areas are paper thin which I figured would be the case. So this lets me know I need to reinforce a couple areas with styrene from the inside, but that it is something that can be accomplished. It may not be perfect but to me it gives a better look for a flat keeled plane. This all I have done for now, but hoping to get a start on the cockpit this week once I get the bench cleaned.

Hi, With my Boeing 727 progressing well and the F-104 GB on the approach, it's high time to start my F-16 thread. Really high time...I bought this kit back in 1994. I also bought a "Seamless Sucker" for it. The decals will be from Daco and I'll build an aircraft from the 10th Wing at Kleine Brogel in the 1980's. Cheers, Stefan.

Hey all, This is ICM's new-ish A-26 Invader. The A-26 has always kind of appealed to me as a mean looking aircraft that always has a presence, even on the ground. When ICM announced they were releasing one I immediately knew I must get one, but its not until earlier this year that I took the plunge. The kit is beautiful out of the box, and went together nearly as nicely as a Tamiya kit, requiring minimal filling, sanding or other adjustments. As a rather expensive kit however, it would've been nice to complement the kit with some PE, especially belts, but this isn't a deal-breaker for me at all, and I simply used a generic USAAF/USN seatbelt set from Eduard. The kit was painted using a mix of Tamiya Lacquers and Mr. Color acrylics, then weathered with oils, acrylics and a few pigments. The decals OOB were a bit fragile and required careful handling, but there were a number of interesting schemes available right out of the box. Overall, an enjoyable build of a surprisingly large aircraft that certainly has a presence on my display shelf. Thanks for looking, Sam Again, thanks for looking, Sam

Something a little different for me. Not the subject, just that it's not Groupbuild related. This is the new Airfix 1/48 Lysander. To be honest, when I first heard about this release I was a little bit meh.But the more I got to hear about it the more excited I became. It's a big box! It barely fits in my photocube. But it is jammed full of plastic. There is a Brimodeller review of this kit, from which the following sprue shots are taken.

Eduard kit with some cockpit accessories, representing one of the two 526 AFS that were used by Aeroclubul Central Roman (Romanian Aero Club). All markings are painted, just “Akrobat” logo under the cockpit and a couple of technical stencils from kit decals; rudder flag (as it looked before 1990) from the spare box. Remarks and critics welcomed.

Hi Folk's,Back with a second build of Hasegawa's C model this time in a classic shiny silver USAF scheme,I watched this kit up a couple of times on e-bay finally dropping to £14:50 took a punt and despite a dozen watcher's got it,the decal's are there but look to be a cobbled up set very uninspiring but Luke's Kinetic kit which he's doing in AM decals should fit the bill. This is the boxing and looks like the scheme too.

Hi, Here's my 1/48 Bf 109G-10 that I just finished. In all my years of modeling, this is actually the first one I've ever built. I can seen why people like to build these now, so much variation. It's the Hasegawa kit, with Exito decals, Eduard stencils and masks. It's painted with mostly MRP and some Mr. Color. The antenna wire was done with EZ-line. This 109 was flown to Ainring in southern Germany at the end of the war, to be surrendererd to the Americans. It was photographed without landing gear covers attached, so as per instructions I left those off. It also shows a little urinating figure under the canopy on photographs, but it's not sure when this was added, so I left this off, as it looks a bit silly anyway. Thanks for looking, Pete

Hi ladies and gents. This build started last year in the early spring. It was a tough one to complete and the last smaller bits was glued on today. The kit and convertion parts were bougt before Kinetic did a refined version of their F-16 MLU in 1/48 scale, so it’s the Tamiya C version converted to an MLU. The tamiya kit was upgradet with Kasl Hobby vertical fin and Black Dog’s resin open electronics and armament bays. While the Black Dog details are really very good, the fit is terrible. I took breaks many times during the build, but now it’s finished and i think it came out ok but not perfect at all. I’m now working on a semilar project in 1/32 scale as part of the F-16 GB here on BM. So far the 1/32 build is much more enjoyable. Thanks for stopping by.

Everything has officially arrived for my next project minus a ResKit exhaust nozzle/engine which got here this evening after the picture was taken. If you're familiar with my work, you know I primary build WW2 prop aircraft, but I recently built an F-104 and loved it.... So much so, that I wanted to build another jet and decided to go with an F-16 Aggressor. I decided to go with the green varient as I rarely see it modeled. I’m a sucker for abnormal/unique schemes and that is no different here. A few images of the real aircraft - I am hoping to complete this project before the new year. Wish me luck!