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Last year in the "Not my Comfort Zone" GB I built a Halberstadt D.II which was probably the first purpose built fighter aircraft used by the German Airforce in WWI. It did not serve for long as it was outclassed by the more heavily armed Albatros series of single seat fighters, so to complement it I thought I would build this. The sprues contain parts for several versions as we will see later and there is a surprising amount of flash, which could be problematic given how fragile some of the parts look. I was also a little surprised by the lack of cockpit detail from a kit first released in 2002, so I may have to do a few improvements. Depending on how this build goes I will probably also be building their D.II which has a few subtle differences. The only other Roden kits I have built so far were of German armoured cars, and whilst they were good, the were fiddly with fragile "scale" parts. At least they did not need rigging!😄 Pete Pete

A change from my recent 1/48 fast jets, and this time a 1/72 heavy companion for the Victor and Vulcans. I love the two-tone brown scheme of the RAF’s early Hercs, especially with the white above the cockpit. I’m often slightly reticent to do these types of kits as there is so much detail to build and paint on the interior, but I’ve wanted to add a Herc for ages and have seen some brilliant builds on here. I’ve read good things about the Zvezda kit, so here we go … Obligatory aftermarket, including masks which I think will be invaluable with so many small windows. Slightly intimidating number of plastic components! Crud n’ custard ready … I’m actually thinking of doing it with the white cockpit but two-tone roundels. I’ve seen a few photos with this combination, so a mix of the two options below: Please can anyone help with what colours I’ll need for the cockpit and interior?

Joining with this kit, bought 2004 from an IPMS colleague for £4.99. The only one allowed a splash of colour I've just looked at the instructions. How has such an uninspiring aircraft become so successful? And as a compliment to this, I'm building a Revell X-32 JSF in the Project Cancelled GB.

Rejoining with this Revell kit of the unsuccessful JSF candidate. Kit cost me £3.85 on Ebay in 2004. A build that compliments my X-35 Lightning build, in the F-35 Lightning STGB.

My entry is a Messerschmitt Bf 109E-1 of 5./JG52 which, after being damaged during combat, belly-landed in a Sussex field on Monday 12 August 1940. I'm currently mildly obsessed with Bf 109's and as I live in the middle of East Sussex., and about 14 miles from Selmeston, I couldn't resist this build. Read more about The Selmeston Red Devil here: https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/2f4436f1-1c0e-4be0-9a38-debaeaa13683/downloads/Selmeston Red Devil.pdf?ver=1722496962823

Joining with this kit.

Even though I had plenty of other models in progress, I decided to open yet another box and actually finished! No need to introduce Arma Hooby's Hurricane: it is the best around and a really nice model OOB. It still can benefit from some improvements and I tried to do my best. I chose to depict MW367, coded DR-B and nicknamed "Jessie" from the ADLS (No1697) flight. I had never painted D-day stripes, let alone giving them a hastily applied aspect, and found its weatherbeaten looks very attractive. Finished model: Guns from Masters Scratched improvements using plasticard, aluminium foil, copper / lead wire, Albion Alloys micro tubes, etc. Painted with Mr Hobby Aqueous paints. Touch-up with Vallejo references Washes from True Earth Weathering with felt tip pens, watercolor pencil, True Earth True Dust products, Vallejo acrylics WIP: Improvements / added details are shown with the red arrows During the final assembly, I added the following (no arrows pointing towards these!): - Round rear view mirror made using a punch&die. The mirror supplied by Arma Hobby is a rectangle. - Canopy slide rails on the cockpit sides - Cable outlet drilled and micro tube inserted behing the dorsal antenna - Belly antenna (IFF?) - Trim actuators with their flyweights and cables It took me close to 65h to get to the finish line but I enjoyed this build a lot. I hope I have not made too many blunders as I am not at all versed into WW2 aircrafts. Please let me know.

Time to over commit! My 1/48 F-35A will still be my main focus for the GB, but I am going to aim and build its younger, smaller brother as well, Tamiya's 1/72 kit. As you would expect, it comes in a much smaller box, with a lot fewer parts. But the breakdown looks pretty similar: Except there's no weapons' bay on the smaller kit. But otherwise, the detailing is to the same exceptional standard. No tinted canopy either. But it looks like it should be a fun, quicker build, which, when complete, will wear 75 Squadron RAAF markings: Decals courtesy of Ronin Graphics. Tail number TBC, but like all bar the first two RAAF F-35s it features the 'late' scheme which means no masking the RAM tape, thankfully. Speaking of masking, the Ronin Graphics decal sheet does include masks, but it's for the Academy kit. But still, pretty neat. Thought this would make an interesting comparison, both to my 1/48 build, and to most of my completed builds, which are predominately 1/72 scale as well. Let's see how I go with this! Gerard

Hi all. This GB has finally started and I'm delighted about it. My participation will be with the Hasegawa kit in 1/72 scale to represent the B variant. I'm not sure yet if I'll use any aftermarket extras such as wheels or a pilot's seat or if I'll build it OOB. In any case and as I said in the chat, in a couple of days I'm going on vacation and I'll be away of Spain for about a month so I won't be able to include updates on this build, but I'll be following all of you eagerly to see progress on your F-35s. Good luck to all. For now just a picture of the boxart image. Andrés.

Joining you with this Sword 1/72 Harrier. Bought from PlasticPastimes in 2012. For which these Model Alliance decals have come my way from Jet Age.

I don't often do WIP threads, mostly because I'm quite slow at building but also never quite sure how the finished thing will turn out! Decided to take a chance and start one now. This'll be the third Sword twin-seat Harrier that I'll have built, and I've decided to do the raspberry ripple scheme of the DERA (later Qinetic) Active Control Technology airframe. I've always thought it looked spectacular, if a fiddly masking challenge in 1/72 scale. Then I saw @Navy Bird's stunning version, which decided me. The Sword kits can sometimes be a little frustrating but they end up as great-looking models, despite my best efforts to the contrary!! (Here are my T10 and T4 versions, so hopefully with some decent background photography at the end, the new one will look suitably tidy): So here we go. The kit comes with a little etch for the cockpit; extras already purchased are the mandatory dropped door intakes by Freightdog, a set of nozzles by Pavla (may or may not use these as they look a little small) and the fancy nose probe for the test aircraft. Decals will be the Combat Decals set, unfortunately not the Vingtor set with the Qinetiq markings, but I can at least do the older DERA version - plus there are at least two other options for other type builds I'm aiming for in future. First step, as with all end-opening kit boxes now, is to tape up the edges and ends, then hack the top open to create a top-opener. Doesn't have to be tidy but at least it's easier to get stuff in and out, and protect the build as it goes on: Thanks for reading so far, hopefully it won't turn into a 6-month thread!

Hi Looking for ideas for the best base material to build a diorama to display a 1/72 Short Stirling, a D16 LNER lococmotive and carriage. Where the main wheels of the Stirling sit on the perimeter concrete track and the rear wheel on the grass area, with the D16 and carriage behind mounted on railway track behind the Stirling? See images below for an idea of what I am looking to achieve. i1

Hi modellers. This is my latest build, the Airfix 1/72 HH-53c. This helo has been on my whishlist for a very long time. It was one of those builds where i had to take a deep breath before i started. It’s an old kit with so much room for improvement. The fit of the kit is really good and that was a great help in order to preserve the raised detail on the kit. I scratch build some of the interior and added a Black Dog engine and Reskit intakes along with some PE from Airwawes. It is one of those builds where i had to decide when to stop adding more details. Enough talk. Here it is, finally finished. Hope you like it. And a few pics from the building process.

Hi guys! A short introduction. My name is Alexander. I live in Ukraine and English is not my native language. Fortunately, there are “crutches” - Google Translate. But still, I may be inaccurate regarding termenology and model slang. So, you can correct me and give clarifications, this will improve my knowledge of English. Unless, of course, this forum thread will be of interest to anyone at all. And so I will build a kit from Condor 72016, Mig-25. This is a very old set, this plastic was sold in “Eastern Express”, “zvezda”, “IomKit” boxes, you can see all this on https://www.scalemates.com/ru/kits/condor-72016-mig-25pd--137575 As well as review of what's inside the box, for example on youtube. This kit is no longer relevant today. I cannot recommend this set to anyone. It is not very accurate geometrically, very low quality and poor detail. And I didn't plan to buy this kit. I got it as a prize at a scale model exhibition that took place in Mariupol in the autumn of 2021. And I tried to sell it, exchange it, or even just give it away. But in the end I decided to build it. Despite the fact that my box says Mig-25PD, and even added some parts, this set corresponds to the Mig-25P (Миг-25П) version. P(П) literally means "Interceptor". This is interesting because no one else has released this version. If you want to build the “P” version, it is much easier to conversed it from the ICM set, even though the ICM also has many shortcomings. The Mig-25 “red 31” flown Belenko, hijacked to Japan, was from version P. This modification was exported only to Libya. And I absolutely do not want to build anything with red stars. For this reason, I will build a Libyan Air Force aircraft.

I present the first of 4 planned builds. A few months ago, I saw reports of Ukrainian Civil Air Patrol operating Yak-52s to combat enemy drones. These russian drones, such as the Orlans, would penetrate deep behind the front line to strike civilians as terror weapons. The Yak-52s, normally unarmed, would feature a backseat "gunner", which would engage a drone using a handheld firearm, such as a machine gun or shotgun. An excellent story about it can be found here: https://www.twz.com/air/yak-52-kill-marks-hint-at-success-in-ukraines-drone-war Naturally, I thought this would make for a cool model. Quick research showed a few models available in my preferred 1/72 scale, including some offerings from Ukrainian company Amodel. Luckily, my favorite Ukrainian model supplier (UA-Hobby), had some in stock. Quick reviews tell that I have quite a bit of work ahead of me for a relatively "simple" kit. Inside the box are a small amount of parts. I also picked up some canopy masks as well. My goal is to build the 4 color camouflage. As there are no decals, I will have to paint this instead. For paints, I went with a Ukrainian company called Arcus Hobby. I tried to pick the colors I felt best reflected the real aircraft. Hopefully it will turn out well.

I know I haven't posted an RFI here in ages, so I thought after some friendly prodding, I'd throw this one up to the community. A little over a year ago, I suffered some major nerve damage to my left hand, resulting in a comparative weakening of my left arm and my thumb and forefinger functioning almost as per normal, but the other three fingers have to be manipulated to hold anything, like a pop bottle, etc. Considering I've been involved in the hobby for some 60+ years, I wasn't about to give it up - despite my physiotherapist's initial advice. However, I do have to re-think some of the tasks that I took for granted. When you really think about it, it's amazing how much a right-handed modeller depends on their left hand. Although I've finished a few others that I'd started prior to the 'incident', this Mosquito is the first 'full-build' (box-to-shelf) that I've done following that 'incident'. Oddly enough, it's the one recent build that I'm most proud of. It's mostly OOTB, but I did add the trailing antenna feed (by the crew entry door) and the 'cooling pump'(?) on the port side below the 'bomb' doors. The canopy was done freehand with the aid of liquid mask and a toothpick for clean-up. Currently. any pre-cut masks are not in my future - I realised you need two good hands to apply them. 🙂 Also, at the time I wasn't confident about my ability to deal with stretched sprue, but since then I've managed to do a reasonable job in the course of a repair or two, so if I find that the PR.XVI should have the antenna wires fitted, I may be inclined to correct the omission. One other point. IMO, the kit supplied antenna mast is too high ... so I cut it down using the Mk.1 eyeball. If kept as Airfix intended, any antenna wire would run straight from the top of the antenna mast and attach up around the pitot tube. All the photos I've seen have the antenna wire still running straight from the top of the antenna mast, but attaching mid-fin. Kit: Airfix 72nd Mosquito PR.XVI Aftermarket: Res-Kit wheels (I couldn't deal with the seam on those 'knobby' treads) Overall: AeroMaster PRU Blue (it may have been an old jar, but it was good as the day that I bought it) AK Acrylic gloss and Matte clear coats (in this case, brushed. I wasn't completely comfortable with the airbrush at this point) MIG #1206 - Dark Streaking Grime wash Decals: Combination of kit, XtraDecal generic RAF sheets (#72069 C/C1 Type WW2 & #72043 Type 'B' roundels) and inkjet printer (serial nos.) I apologize for the quality of the photos, they were taken. with my granddaughter's phone .... Scott

This beauty arrived today and I can't wait to start my first Typhoon. Also looking forward to reading up and learning much more about this aircraft and it's pretty crucial role on D-Day and beyond.

Having been lurking on this forum for quite a few months now, and occasionally adding my own ramblings to other people's topics, I have finally worked up the courage to start a WiP of my own. My main interest is the RAF in WW2, at the moment particularly the aircraft of Bomber Command. So having had a short break from model making, of almost half a century , earlier this year I acquired these: This first post is a bit of a test run to see if my 20th century brain can cope with the 21st century technology of photo-sharing. If it all works I have a back catalogue of photos taken over the last six months or so and I'll be sorting and posting from that, which might give the illusion of amazingly rapid progress. Once I've caught up I'm sure it will become apparent that we should be using the geological time scale to measure my work rate! No proper sprue shots in this thread. I think we all know what they look like and by the time I got myself organised a lot of mine looked like this: That's enough of my waffle, let's hit Submit Topic and see what happens!

Over the years I have built multiple kits of some aircraft types and the 3rd most numerous is the Harrier, falling in between the Fw 190 and Bf 109 though way behind the Spitfire. The first Harrier I built back in 1973 was the prototype, and since then I have built another 9 in various versions, including 3 Sea Harriers, but somewhere along the line the P.1127 got lost/thrown out, and for a good few years I have intended to replace it. I must have missed the 2nd boxing released apparently in 2000, but when I heard that it was to be released as a "Classic" this year I placed an order. It was due in July but actually arrived today! So - Harrier number 11 will be started before too long. In the instructions Airfix credit Roy Cross with the artwork. Pete

My initial contribution to this Group Build will be the Westland Whirlwind: I'm not sure if the box art is by Roy Cross, but I'm doing this as a tribute to my late step-father who introduced me to the hobby with a simple kit. I have the remnants of his 'stash' stored at my house, and while looking through it, found an original boxed version of this kit, but couldn't bring myself to build it, hence this one. Keith 😁

I finished this model in August last year, and whilst I completed my work in progress thread, I didn’t get around to writing a RFI thread. Now that some months have elapsed and I’ve become accustomed to seeing the completed model (almost) every day on its “concrete” hardstanding base (scratch built), I think that I can reflect back on the build and bring out a few highlights. Yes, it took me about a year to complete, but that was because of other life pressures and the thinking and dithering time that ensued with my build. So, let’s get ion with it. In summary, this has to be the best-fitting F-14 Tomcat there is. The (2019 tool) Academy kit is also excellent, but there are some very clever assembly details with the FineMolds model that just helps produce a very robust end result. It has some wonderful details too; whilst some of these can appear a bit toy-like in their bare plastic, they look quite delightful once a few paint layers have been applied. Some details do warrant improving, and there’s plenty of aftermarket resin and PE available in this regard. In fact, with the details and assembly robustness, it should be the best 1/72 F-14 on the market… but for me, there was a serious let down which means that I could not hold it in such high regard - shape! Very early on, some shape discrepancies came to light. I will not list them all, as I’ve had to live with most of them but I did tackle two of them: Wings and wing-glove fairing. But before I go into these in detail, briefly the other items include the overall fuselage being too tall (especially around the nose and canopy), tail fins slightly disproportioned with fin “noses” too short, wing pylons oversized and ventral fins too short. All of these are subtle, but if you’ve built a cross section of the current 1/72 offerings as I have, the differences stand out. Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite satisfied by the finished article, but the shape issues are likely to prevent me making another of these in their present tooling. I imagine, that had I modelled it with all of the panels open and radome lifted (as you can choose to do), some of the shape issues might well be hidden, but personally, I found the choice of panels to open a little un-prototypical for anything other than on-maintenance… so then choosing to arm the aircraft would be just wrong. I did decide to open one panel, but this was based on observation of likely panels to be open when on the ramp… the refuel panel on the starboard side of the nose. There are no 1/72 kits on the marked that allow for this to be open, so my model is, in this regard at least, unique. I had a number of attempts at scratch building the inners of this panel and the door, the latter finally formed of a thin piece of plasticard with a shaped photoetch inner (to control the curvature easier), the former had a 1mm x 1mm neodymium magnet glued in as the fuel receptable; the scratch built fuelling hose attachment had a short length of steel pin inserted in the end to attach to the panel. Because I was opening this panel, I opted to open the refuelling probe too; photos tended to show this open when the refuelling panel was open… maybe it’s something to do with the fuelling process (I don’t know) but it looked good. Whilst lacking in a little detail, the attachment of this refuelling probe was by far the best I’ve seen on a kit in this scale, although I still needed to move the hoe that it plugs in to about 1.5mm aft to allow for correct placement. Other panels to open would be the “daily” panels on either side of the engine tunnels just aft of the main gear bays. These are something I’ll attempt on a future build, but again, no kits are available with these open in this scale today. What also put me off using the kit’s suggested open panels, were that the moulded panel doors were quite thick, and whilst the open spine details looked nice, the kit did not provide the removed panels to sit alongside the open bays whilst they were off (as most often seen in photos). So, the wings…. The kit wings are essentially too broad in chord. Whilst this possibly is liveable if these are all you’re comparing them with, put it alongside a Academy, GWH or Hobbyboss, and something will look odd. I covered this in a bit more detail in the early stages of my Work-In-Progress thread ... in fact it was the first thing I tackled. Taking the easy route initially, I detail-corrected and adjusted the “fit” of a pair of Hobbyboss wings to replace the FineMolds wings. Later, I decided to also modify the attachment of a pair of Fujimi kit wings. I quite fancied (again) a pair of dirty wings (slats and flaps only) rather than just the clean “sweep-able” Hobbyboss wings. I’d considered a pair of Hasegawa wings, but the Fujimi wings were more accurate and had a more adaptable “fit” for the FineMolds kit. One think that neither of the replacement wings (nor the FineMolds kit wings either) had, was the leading-edge anhedral crank at about 25% span; so far, only the 2019 tool Academy and GWH kits have this. So, nothing was going to be perfect. The wing glove fairings on the kit are a little too tall on their inboard edges (near the anti-slip panels) and present a too-straight upper surface when compared to actual photos and profiles. This was a relatively easy task to tackle, just by sanding back the top surfaces, flattening out the inboard-most edges and producing a more rounded profile than the kits parts. Once finished, the profile is better, but the overall shape of the glove fairing is still wrong, but much harder to rectify, so I left it as it was. My intention had initially been to portray VF84 Victory 201, BuNo 162702. Part way through my build the shape issues made me rethink this, and I decided for a more subtle scheme, picking VF11’s Ripper 101 (of which I found several photos online), using DXM’s excellent (double excellent in fact) decals. The decals did include a warthog face and tusks for each side of the nose, but given that this looked a bit comical and that I could find no photos of the aircraft carrying the markings, I left those off. The instructions in the decal set also showed an odd anti-glare panel demarcation, which made me wonder whether the aircraft had carried a completely different radome when those markings were carried; I wanted the nicely curved front to the anti-glare panel, so I felt my choice was vindicated. The other reason for picking VF11, was that having just finished my GWH build as a VF31 aircraft, the two would sit alongside each other well, both being Forrestal aircraft in the same period and having very close BuNos too 161858 (VF31) and 161855 (VF11)... practically twins! So, to summarise, I’ll not list out everything that I did to the kit, but the following image lists it all (I hope) out. Finemolds 1/72 F-14A detailed by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Origins by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Loaded up by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Back end by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Cockpit unmasking and checking by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Refueling hose connector by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Canopy by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Canopy underside by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Fuel hose test fit by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Ripper 101 from above by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Ripper 101 wings spread from above by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Ripper 101, Wings spread, Starboard rear by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Ripper 101 Starboard Profile by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Ripper 101 rear quarter by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr Finally, before I go, I thought I’d just leave this final image for you to ponder. Having built the four “current” tool 1/72 Tomcats, I wanted to compare them shape wise, especially given my FineMolds experience. Initially, I set up a photo session, where I could place each model in the same orientation, with the nose wheel on the same spot on the level (x marks the spot) with my DSLR with it’s 100-400mm at 250mm focal length to minimise wide angle or tele-distortion and photographed each one. Initially, I overlaid each image atop each other, but that would be difficult to share, so I laid them out as shown. I shared this on a few Tomcat-focussed FB groups and received considerable interest and debate. I then acquired an early Grumman “blueprint” side elevation and overlaid that on each model (as shown). The line drawing lacked the spine strengthening strakes and vertical fin nose sections (because it was intended to depict the interior space on the centreline), but it illustrated the overall shape. I even had a comment on that post from the author of the drawing… which was great! Some them commented that this was inaccurate, and that the best option may be to use the artwork that appears in the Tamiya 1/48 kits… of which I had one in the stash. I duly laid that artwork out and photographed it, overlaying it on the Grumman drawing – 100% alignment! So, that silenced the doubters. Thus, here is the shape comparison image I shared with luminaries of our “toy” industry and others late last year. The models are listed top-bottom lower right. I think the Academy still has the best shape! And don’t worry about the canopy positions; I just need to find some longer pins. 1/72 F-14A Tomcat models' shape comparison by Jonathan Hughes, on Flickr That’ll do for now. I’m taking a slight break from Tomcat’s at present, working a 1/48 chinook for a good friend… but I’ve another Tomcat sat here with all the additional bits to start working on, just as soon as time and focus allows… and it’s a 1019 tool Academy – still the best shaped 1/72 Tomcat so far. Thanks for reading.

Now that the latest Harrier has been completed I have an empty tray in my build cupboard so I went to my the list and promptly ignored it. I had spent a good hour typing up the list and arranging it in a order that I thought would be enjoyable to build, here's the list above my paint rack on the door to the cupboard that SWMBO moved all my modelling kit into. But as I'd been on Hannants a few weeks ago looking for bombs to go on the F4E and ended up ordering some extras for the Flanker so it been raised from No22 on the list to the next victim. So onto the kit, its Revells rebox of Zvezda's SU27SM from 2014. I have had this kit for a few years before the Russian invasion of Ukraine so I couldn't build it in Russian marking. Hannants had the Hi-decal sheet with African and Asian aircraft one of which is the Angolan Air Force's only SU27 in a lovely Sand and 2 tone green livery. The kit itself is fairly good but I also ordered the Quinta Studio 3d decal for the cockpit It's a big aircraft even in 1/72 but looks to be fairly straight forward so hopefully a quick(ish) build.

Hello! Almost spontaneously I stopped my efforts to resist buying a mini stash of Skyraiders and thus I became a happy owner of the three nicely looking boxes. My rule is that regardless of how many kits in progress I have - whenever I got a single type trio set - it's getting to the desk! And to warm up myself and have the things going smoothly I thought to also open a WIP thread here. So please take your seats and of course any advise and helping hints are warmly welcome! Cheers! Dennis

So rather than a single thread for each build I hold I’d do a rolling blog style one, that way I’m much more likely to keep you updated and also to finish the kits. With the exception of the rotodyne they’re all pretty simple kits and aldd sadly faily small. I’m going to semi blitz build them all and probably stick to oob. The one exception so far will be the magister as I think the Irish Air Corp operated thee ed m so this will be done in IAC colours. Now, I have some weeding and some ironing to get done then I think I’ll start building. I’m thinking I’ll start with either the Buffalo or the bloodhound..

I hadn’t planned on joining this GB, but talking to Owen @jackroadkill about his builds and having a “number” of suitable subjects got me suckered in. So, first up for the German side, Airfix’s Bf 109E-3, in starter set boxing: I say first as I’ve got two further boxings of the same kit, but we’ll see if I can get this one done before I promise any additional builds! I’ll be going with the kit scheme, albeit swapping Airfix’s “interesting” paint choices to correctly depict an aircraft in RLM 02/RLM 71 camouflage: James