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I have decided that I'm going to be a good little Minion for a change and stick with my assigned country for my build and that country is Greece. I have quite a few kits that could be built in Greek markings for their time since joining NATO, but before the usual suspects chime in with usual mantra I will NOT be building them all! I have selected the Northrop F-5A as this was a very important type in Greek service and a very long lived type in service too. Due to it's longevity of service the F-5 wore a great variety of schemes in Greek service, from overall aluminium to air defence greys and most ones in between, helped by the fact that they received some aircraft second hand from sources such as Iran, Jordan and the Netherlands. I have not 100% settled on a scheme yet but at the moment an ex-Jordanian aircraft in a heavily weathered Asia Minor scheme (one of my favourite post war USAF schemes) is my first choice with an equally weathered SEA scheme second. My chosen kit is the Kinetic 1/48 one which has been around for a few years and looks to be quite nicely detailed and going by other builds I have followed goes together in a fairly trouble free way, helpfully it also comes with markings for several Greek aircraft although none of them are in the schemes I am interested in but that shouldn't be too much of a problem as they don't carry unit markings and I have plenty of decals to cobble together the correct tail numbers. So without further ado here are the usual pre-build pics starting with the box top; The as yet unopened contents still in their plastic bag; And the rather nice deal sheet with lots of wonderful options; In fact the only non-eligible options on the sheet are the South Vietnamese ones, I can see a lot more of these in my future if this goes well. I have some aftermarket on the way in the form of a resin seat as these had their original seats replaced by Martin Baker Mk.10's and there is also a Master set for the guns and pitot probe, these are currently at the mercy of Royal Mail somewhere. I have to finish a Belgian Spitfire first but hope to get started soon. Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received. Craig.

A couple of Eduards 1/48 Fw190s almost oob just different schemes, [1] Fw190A-5/U8 Wk, Nr, 1478 SKG10 Deblin 1943 [2] Fw190F-8 9.SG77 Chrudim 1945 Cheers Andy

HI everyone!🙂 this is my 1/48 F/A-18F super hornet this Meng's kit is very nice,and the decal is good.. my first time building a modern fighter model...tried to apply my accumulated experience and skills to this object as much as possible. I think the result is ok😅 hope you guys like it!

As much stash reduction as blitzbuild participation, but I thought I’d go one last time. Not a bad kit. Sprues, fairly low parts count. Separated and fettled. After literally 15 minutes of assembly. I don’t think it needs filler, so off to paint.

Hi comrades! Here is my Lightning F.53 in ground attack configuration. RSAF was the only air force to use Lightnings in real combat. The build is here: Used aftermarket is decals (Model Alliance), Reskit MATRA pods, Master pitot, Aires resin ejection seat, wheel wells and exhaust, Eduard brass, New Ware masks. The pilons and other additions was scratch built. Thanks for looking

Hello fellow modellers, Here you are my Spitfile Vb trop, reproducing one of those given to Italian Co-belligerant air force in 1943-44. The kit is the excellent Airfix Spitifre mkV b recently re-issued. I just used the parts for the tropical version that are still on sprues instead of the standard ones. I've also used Tauro Model decal sheet that includes options to make Spifires, Macchi 205 and Airacobras all in italian colours. To paint the model this time I used Lifecolors Acrylics instead of my usual Tamiya and I have to say that they are not bad at all. Finishing has been done as usual with Tamiya spray followed by oil wash and pastel weathering. Enjoy pictures and please feel free to comment. Cheers. Andy

Feeling like a break from US/UK stuff, so next on the chopping block is the venerable ex-Trimaster FW-190 with over wing slipper tanks. Picked this up second hand last year for a song, so let's see how it goes! Obligatory sprue shots and box art. Decals look okay, and a small PE fret lurking in that bag. Parts look okay considering they come from a time before Bill Clinton changed his humidor. Some flash and some soft panel lines here and there. Been reading up on this kit, and besides needing spacers to prevent mucho filler on the wing root join, any other tips would be appreciated. Also, wheel well colour. The instructions call out for a light blue (FS 35622/H314) not RLM 76 like the underside and not RLM 02 (like I thought they painted the bays etc)? Gonna have to do some research here.

Part of the reason I bought and built the Lynx (RFI coming soon, honest) was to get my head in to the right space for building helicopters and hopefully do a better job of the Chinook as a result. I have the Italeri HC.2 / CH-47F kit which is a bit of a weird thing even before the get go, because (if I understand it) the HC.2 was the UK version of the D. Except for the Netherlands D, they had the analogue cockpit instruments. The CH-47F in contrast was the basis for the HC mk 6, which had the glass cockpit. I guess you could build either ( but not both!) from this kit, although it only comes with decals for the analogue cockpit so... Anyway The plan is to build ZA-712 ER of 7 squadron during its green HC2 phase. It features in the superb model alliance decals as an HC1 in 1991 / op Granby, but I want to make an HC-2 and I don't think I could pull off the black "scribbling" over desert pink camouflage. So I'm going to model the same aircraft, but from a later date when it was painted green, which means that I'll be using a combination of kit and Model Alliance decals. The reason I picked this aircraft is because 7 squadron is part of JSFAW which supports the UK special forces, meaning that I can include the beautiful miniguns that I bought from Live Resin. So, onwards. Cockpit first. The rear wall of the cockpit needs some detail removing and slightly bulking out the area where the PE goes as it doesn't quite look big enough. You can see it here. I added some PE to the cabin bulkhead, but I've read / seen that mostly the LHS is covered by soundproofing and often the RHS is too. I've ordered some clay "stuff" to make the sound proofing. In some of the pictures I saw the heater is partially exposed on the right, so I might go for something like that. More PE. It looks quite smart before it's painted black However, after painting it loses some of the detail. I tried to help by picking some of it out in a semi-gloss... Also, being all black makes it double-hard to photograph. Apparently. The PE instrument panel came out ok though Lastly it was on to the cargo floor which I did with the usual 2 shades of grey and a dirt wash. I'm hoping the wash will settle down a bit when I give it a coat of clear matt because I think I went a little bit over the top. Anyway, that's everything for now. Thanks for looking.

Morning folk's,looked like I was coasting towards the end of this GB with the Fury at the painting stage and the Sea Fox the last to do.I then realised while attempting to rig the little gladiator in the Nordic GB with stretch sprue I really need to invest in some easyline and have a practice too.Anyway I've dropped the Sea Fox and that was going to be it however I saw the Revell/Matchbox AD-5 on e-bay at under £12 posted from a gift company,checked out a review and looked over the sprue's and thought yes that's for me,there must be a glut of these kits as a few weeks ago Jadlam were knocking them out at £7.It's due today so hopefully a box and sprue shot later,the decal sheet looks great with dark blue,gray /white SEA camoflage options. I do like a Skyraider in this scale,big beasts!

For you delectation and entertainment (if you are old enough to remember the reference) here is one of two Airfix spitfire XIV that I have finished. With a bit of effort the kit comes up nice. With this kit I replaced the 20mm barrels with some spare Edurard ones I had going unused. The wheels with some resin 4-spoke jobs as these had better detail Eduard seat belts Freightdog decals from the "Brits Abroad" sheet. Drilled out the openings for the two downward facing cameras that could be fitted. Looking at the photos I see the long range tank is drooping a bit. It was only held on with blue-tak 😉 Tim

Many long years ago (or short years as time goes by 😉) I built my second biplane model. It was the old Impact kit of the Hawker Fury, first released in '68 or '69 I believe. It sat finished in the display for a long time but I was never happy with the radio aerials. The stretched sprue was too thick for scale and I finally took her out to modify those. I worked on it a couple times and almost got them back intact, with much finer pieces. But, almost is the operative word here and I tired of messing with it and set it aside for a calmer approach later on (you know what I mean here, right?). Stupidly, I didn't put her back in the cabinet but instead sat it on an open shelf while awaiting more attention. A couple weeks later, I was reaching for something on a shelf two levels up when somehow I knocked off a Fernando Pinto 1/24 resin car kit. It landed squarely on top of the upper wing of the Fury. The heavy impact knocked loose every single piece of rigging. The only structural damage was one leg of a starboard strut broken. I couldn't believe there was no more serious damage. I did find all the fine wire rigging at the bottom of the box upon which she sat though. While certainly no prize winning model, I was quite despondent and disappointed in myself for allowing it to happen. Someday, I told myself, I would put all that back and repair the strut and put her back right as before. One problem with that is that I was 25 years younger when I built it with better eyes and steadier hands. I believe I can still pull it off though with some planning and effort. The rigging fit into pre-drilled holes so there is that too. What would you guys do? Is it worth the time to restore? Any advice or suggestions are welcomed. The model was never properly photographed back then but I used to have a few fairly good shots of her at the airport that got lost. I'll show the ones I have to give you an idea of how she once looked and also some of the damage. The box that did the deed: It fell from here, two shelves above the model: Damage: dislodged rigging pieces:

Hi Chaps I'm a bit late starting this build as I've been on holiday for the last 3 weeks. Here goes an Encore models repop of the Revell/ Monogram A/T37. All the injection plastic is here along with a nice resin cockpit, wheels and some bombs. There's also a small PE fret with the unusual retractable FOD guards unique to this aircraft. Decal options are US and Dominica, so it looks like a spares bin raid later on. Here's the plastic. And here's the goodies in the box. Making a start tonight. Colin

Hi Chaps Without giving away the degree of my youth I will join this most diverse of Group builds to celebrate the year 1965. Quite a lot happened in '65 but for a builder of 1/48 British Aircraft it has to be the BN Islander. First flight in June '65 and still in production. Valoms kit was only released last year and the sprues made it to Thailand in Santa's sack at Christmas. I didn't get the box or instructions as volume and weight is always a premium. I wrote to Valom regarding the latter and they emailed me a set overnight so good service points to them. Here's how she is today. No box of course. Looks like plenty of work there in the interior. Not sure about the brown plastic though. The plan is to build the Augriny Airlines scheme. I used to watch these planes take off from Guernsey airport while on holiday in the 70's. Happy days More on Saturday. Colin

Hi Chaps, I've been looking forward to the Night fighter Group build for a while. This kit was almost stated last year for the 1960 NATO GB and again it just missed the 1950 NATO GB in January. So 3rd attempt to start will commence when my 2 Hawks in the Training Group build are done. Not decided the scheme yet but I have plenty of choice. Colin W

Hi Unconventional Peeps. For this GB I shall be starting the Eduard P-39 as a P-39N of the Italian AF, the last user to take them on (I hope I'm right). I may break with tradition by actually finishing it within the GB time period but, TBH, my record is poor. Here's where I'm starting: The Italian service monograph is an excellent reference even including a very good build of the Eduard kit. The eagle eyed amongst you will have clocked that there appears to be two of everything. Well I had planned a RAF Airacobra for the RAF Centenary GB but it never got going as my health stumbled. I will try and do both here instead. I 'needed' the Ultracast exhausts and I love their stuff more than I hate etched brass seat belts. So added a pair of seats to the order. The SBS props are, like everything SBS, beautifully executed and offer all the Airacobra options except the 11ft 7inch one I need. Hmm..... 🤔 Looking through the monograph the Italian aircraft sit very nose high compared to the RAF ones even allowing for ammunition. I suspect the nose leg was lengthened or the oleo was pumped up to give adequate clearance for the larger prop on bumpy fields. Fortunately the monograph has a solution

Hi all....... After some months lurking around my pile of unfinished projects, I was calling it finally finished, but can't claim victory yet...!!! It's the (IMHO) excelletn Airfix kit, built OOB, except for some belts made from lead foil. Painted with Gunze Sangyo colours, and keeping weathering to a minimun. As you can clearly see, the roundels have settled with a see through effect, and must be replaced....Anyway, it was a pleasure to build this kit. My apologies for the poor quality of the pics. IMGP0030 by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr IMGP0031 by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr IMGP0032 by Arturo Navarro, en Flickr

Following on from my Dallachy beaufighter I have made this Hasegawa Spitfire v b representing No. 401 Sqd RCAF during 1943.Corps of imperial frontiersmen. This build is part of my local modelling club (Aberdeen Modellers society)group build in memory of one of our past members and prolific builder John Milne, The task for us is to build one of Johns unbuilt kits from his not too small a stash and display them at the club open day in September or earlier at shows if possible. To that end I hope to have this at Perth show on the club stand in April So without further ado All comments and criticism welcome Ahh looking at the photos I may have the prop blades wrong but unsure!