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First released in 1970 and judging by the state of the box this is probably from then. Cost €15 in the Dublin Model Shop. I’ll be finishing it in the kit RAAF scheme, unless I find something more interesting. First impressions; it’s quite a good kit for its era with reasonable engineering good molding and a good attempt at an interior, it does have raised panel lines which although well molded will just have to go…

My kit My proposed scheme operational during the eighties. Some assembly and a bit of paint.

Hi everyone, I am entering this GB with a resin kit, something I have never touched in my life... No pressure. Despite a more than dismal finishing rate in the GBs I enter, I feel absolutely no shame in entering another one! The main reason being that this kit has only a handful of parts, and the second is that it is totally aluminium color, bar a black thingie at the front. I can handle that. The undercarriage in resin is worrysome. Will it hold the weight of the model? Surprise. And last, but definitely not least, I have to thank @JOCKNEY for sending this special kit to the end of the world. No matter where you hide, the Scottish Santa will always find you. Nobody is safe! A photo of the box (courtesy of Scalemates): See you all soon. JR

When Airfix released their "new" kit back in 2021 I put it on my list of things to buy when I had the cash available and this GB has finally given me an excuse I guess.😄 I have previously built 9 Mossies, starting with the original Airfix release way back in 1957, which I remember well as it had a part missing so I sent off the complaint slip and promptly received a complete replacement kit - no messing about with just sending the missing part in those days! That was followed by the Frog B.IV about 10 years later, and then 3 of the second Airfix multi-version release from 1972 onwards. After that came the Matchbox B.IX/NF 30 which I built as the night fighter version but attempted a "conversion" on a second old moulding Airfix one using the spare bomber parts. More recently I built the Tamiya B.IV to replace the inaccurate Frog one, and also the 2005 reboxing of the Airfix second moulding as an NFXIX. Over the years I have scrapped 3 models but I still have the NFII, B.IV,FBVI, FBXVIII, NFXIX and NF30 though the latter has been stripped ready for a complete refurbishment which I will do in parallel with this new build, though it won't be eligible for the GB as it is over the 25% limit. I was tempted to build a recce version for a change but then saw the bomber at a reasonable price so here it is. I won't bother with sprue shots as they are pretty well known by now. I was intending to build OOB but it seems the initial reports of how accurate the kit was were not entirely correct. Together with a few inaccuracies in the undercarriage assembly, the main problem seems to be with the bomb bay doors where Airfix have I gather inadvertently scanned those of a target towing plane pretending to represent a bomber, due perhaps to a lack of research. As the Freightdog replacement doors are not currently available I will have to modify the kit ones it seems. At least I will have the example of several other modellers builds to study as I go! Pete

Hello Britmodellers, The Shinden starred in 'Godzilla minus one' as the only plane that ever took down Godzilla itself. A few small adjustments were mentioned in the movie, like the installation of an ejection seat and a reduction of the nose armament from four to two guns. The rest of the build was more or less oob. Thanks for watching! Cheers, Luka

My entry will be on of the well known colourful Michigan ANG rhinos, thanks to @Jabba I have a picture showing one armed (along with multiple photos with tanks only) so I will be using some Sparrows from the armament set. Scalemates says this issue was 4 years' ago and I bought it on release; time flies. I have completed 2 FineMolds F-4, with a third on the SoD, so no AM apart from 3D for cockpit, which I think I have already got, and I need to get canopy masks. The SoD is pretty full, so I aim to get my dark viper, or one of the unfinished planes from last year's GBs, done before starting on this. We have 4 months, what could go wrong? Chris

Hello All Here is my take on the well known Airfix Folland Gnat T.1 in the Yellowjacks Aerobatics Team colours, c1964. Overall, it's a lovely little kit except for the panel lines which, like a lot of the newer 1/72 Airfix kits, are far too wide and deep. I decided to try a new method (to me)and filled them with 3D, UV cured resin, then, instead of re-scribing, I drew them on with a 0.3mm pencil after painting. The access panels (of which there are many !), were created as svgs and printed onto clear decal paper. The only add ons used were Wolfpack Resin seats and SBS resin wheels, although to be honest, the kit's wheels aren't too bad and could have been used. I decided not to use gloss yellow as I felt that I wouldn't get a realistic finish. Instead I opted for a matt yellow finish, then built up the gloss gradually with multiple coats of Johnson's Pledge. Being all yellow, I thought that the end result may end up looking a bit bland and toyish in the small scale, so to give it a bit of character, and after looking at some online photos, I decided to spray the upper wings and rear fuselage a slightly different shade of yellow. Paints used were predominately Vallejo Model Air with some Tamiya and Mig Ammo. Decals were OOB. The more observant will notice a lack of rear seat windshield. This is not a kit part and something that I did try to scratch-build. However, the actual item is made up of multiple compound curves and I just couldn't get it to sit properly, so gave up ! Thanks for reading and taking the time to look. Comments and critiques will be most welcome. Gary

Here we go again, my friends. First some history. On the night of 2nd May 1945 Bomber Command performed their last raid of the Second World War, against Kiel and the surrounding area. Included in the operation were twelve Mosquito B.XVI aircraft of 608 Squadron and it is generally accepted that the last aircraft to bomb was PF505, 6T-D, flown by the CO of 608, W/Cdr Gray, with Capt Mehre as navigator and bomb-aimer. But the aircraft that interests me more is Mosquito RV347, 6T-A, flown by F/Lt Hobbs with P/O Dennis. Facing no lesser dangers than any other crew that night they carried their 4000lb bomb all the way to Kiel, only to have the release mechanism hang up. Apparently unknowingly, they then flew all the way home and landed safely with the fully armed weapon still on board. No mean feat and, in my mind at least, that means they had The Last Cookie Left in the Jar. So, in honour of all unsung heroes everywhere, let us begin.

Here we are then, the MisterCraft Gloster Meteor, an FAW Mk.7. Here are the sprues, big bits in light grey, small bits in slighty darker....and a one piece canopy. These are big solid pieces of plastic! I hope the usual polystyrene cement is strong enough! Instructions are fairly simple, not many parts at the end of the day. I've still to decide which of the options to do but I will fit the afterburners and leave off the refuelling probe.

This kit has been in the stash since 2013...Time to build it 🙂 This one will be a lovely and interesting GB, thank you!

סַכִּין is "knife" in Hebrew and it is the name the Israelis used for the Czech S-199s they imported in the 1940s. I bought this old Avia kit three years ago intending to model it as a סַכִּין. The kit is older than I am! This build will be part of my Minor Gustavs project which involves modelling Gustavs (BF 109Gs) (or their derivative versions, such as Spain's HA-1112) in service with the "smaller" air forces (i.e., not Germany or Italy). Some of these are minor Axis (e.g., Hungary) and others are post-war or neutral operators (e.g., Switzerland). An Israeli סַכִּין falls into the post-war derivate category. Here are the ones I've built so far--Yugoslavia Bf 109G-10 (Revell), Finland Bf 109G-6 (Airfix), Czechoslovakia Avia S-199 (KP), Romania Bf 109Ga-6 (Hobby Boss), Spain HA-1112 (Special Hobby), Croatia Bf 109G-14 (Academy), Slovakia Bf 109G-6 (Airfix) . . . . . . Bulgaria Bf 109G-2 (Italeri) and a bonus one from Bulgaria -- Bf 109G-6 (AZ). For this סַכִּין I'll be relying on Eduard's profile: And decals from Tally Ho!

Rejoining with 3 weeks to go, to build this Hasegawa Mirage F1C. A recent cheap acquisition from Ebay. This kit arrived with no decals, fortunately there's Scalemates - and I know what a Mirage F1 should look like. Parts, crisp, raised surface detail. Classic Hasegawa. To use these leftover decals from my Special Hobby build. AND for added excitement, I'm going to finish the port side as option D2, with the kill marking and lo-viz markings. Then the stbd side as D1, with ultra lo-viz markings. Kit decals, and my leftovers.

I shall be joining with the good old Mach 2 kit of the Mystere Falcon 20. The decals, I found 2 sheets in the stash so if I stuff them up I have a fallback. Here is the old girl in the late 1980s when I worked on her (A sneaky late shift hangar shot) And when she had her markings removed for retirement from RAAF service, she eneded up with a buyer in the USA and was registered N6555L

Hi all, A Vietnam GB should really contain at least one chopper, so this will be my attempt at building one of these: I have the AZ Model kit, as well as a small PE fret from the same source, and a spare clear vacform set from Croco (to be seen if I need to use that). As I am working on a few other builds now, it may take a while before I can actually start - but at least I have a seat reserved! Cheers for now, Patrick

No attractive box, unfortunately, I seem to have lost even the instructions... but since the middle sprue is marked "249", the sprues must be from reissue 249 (which does have an attractive box) of the old 099 Heller kit. Judging by the decals, I think this is a reissue by Směr, kit no. 154. So, a reissue of a reissue. I will try to boost things with an instrument panel from Yahu (also shown) and possibly a pilot I may have lying around, we'll see. Two aircraft inspire me, one from an experimental flight for camouflage testing that had no national markings or numbers (except perhaps on the bottom of the wings), or one of the ex-Mandchurian wiggle-over-silver/grey machines found during the German onslaught. Looking forward to starting this old kit from the bottom of some dusty box of ziplocks!

I originally had the idea of doing a Whatif Lightning FGR.7 with ALL the weapons mounted to it with some trumped up idea of Jaguar and MRCA being delayed or cancelled or whatever other politically expedient excuse would pass muster. Then I decided I had enough on the go without spending ages umming and ahhing over whether something should be an FGx, or an FRSx, or a BRx etc etc. So, because I want to model a Lightning in Beast Mode, I've decided to do an F.53 diorama based on the numerous photos from 1967-1969 of the BAC display at various Airshows (exhibit A & B below courtesy of the internet). I'll be starting with the Airfix Lightning F.6 kit (for obvious reasons), and generally 3d printing the various bits that can't be bought or found for love nor money. As I've only recently bought a 3d printer this promises to be a doddle painful learning experience that I'm sure I'll regret ever embarking upon. So, onto the obligatory box shot... Fabulous artwork, note the inspired use of colour palette and copious amounts of alcohol leading to forgetting to finish the image.... (or whatever the excuse was)... For the F.53 specific weaponry I managed to obtain the Odds & Ordnance underwing stores kit from rossm on here. The CBLS is available though Air-Graphics, but the rest I can't find anywhere, so the list of bits to 3d print (as seen in photos above) is as follows: - JL100 double stack with overwing pylons - Matra 155 double mount (OAO kit is single mount only) - Matra 155 open cones (i.e. without frangible cover. These will be to modify the resin ones I already have which are too fiddly to paint!) - Ventral rocket pack (how has this never been available?) - 540lb bombs - Drop tanks (from a Strikemaster but I'm not buying a whole kit just for 2 of these) - RAE Universal Twin 7.62mm Gun Pod - Firestreak ventral pack - Red Top ventral pack - Reconnaissance ventral pack - 1000lb retarded bomb with semi-deployed parachute (still scratching my head over how to do justice with this one) - Aden cannons in a naked state - A multitude of 2" and 3" rockets..... painting 188 of these promises to be (insert expletive here) delightful The vast majority of the above don't have easily accessible drawings (and I'm not willing to join a billion sites and get spammed for the rest of my life just for some blueprints), so I'll mostly be working from a handful of reference books, photos and whatever Google shows me. I intend for things to be detailed enough that an armourer would recognise what they are supposed to be, but I'm not going to model every rivet and safety catch, mainly because my printer won't do that level of detail, but also because I want to finish this before the apocalypse. As far as the airframe goes, unless someone can direct me to some 1/72 Queen's Award roundels I'll likely be doing the G-AXEE Kuwaiti scheme from the Paris Airshow rather than the G-AWON scheme seen in most other photos from the period. Either that or I need to get creative with Microsoft Paint and some waterslide paper. I've already made some reasonable headway with design & print loops to refine some of the parts, but its late, I've been gardening ALL weekend and I really need a shower, so a progress-so-far-post will have to wait until tomorrow. Stuart

Underway at last: Sprue shot: A modest start, but a start nonetheless.. The Subject of my build: Mosquito HX912 took off from RAF Sculthorpe at 1116 hours on the 9 October 1943 to attack the aero engine works at Woippy near Metz, France. Twelve aircraft from the Squadron took part in the raid and two of these including HX912 failed to return. The ORB recorded: "The weather was hopeless over the sea, coast and target, with very poor visibility and ten- tenths cloud at 500 feet. One aircraft (FO Crofts) bombed the target through clouds while others attacked minor targets. An ME110 was claimed damaged. There was considerable flak in the coastal area and several of our aircraft were hit. HX912 was last seen in a shallow dive towards the target having taken over as lead aircraft from the CO. It was characteristic of this crew to be certain of their position when asked to take over by Wg Cdr Meakin. In them we lose one of out best crews. Flt Lt Kerr had been with the Squadron since August 1942. Everybody feels the loss very keenly." Crew: Fl/Lt. Philip Charles Copeland Kerr (Pilot) Schoonselhof Cemetery. Grave IVa.B.13. Born on the 26th August 1918 at Nanango, the son of Joseph Copeland Kerr and Emily Francis Kerr, of Harrisville, Queensland. Australia. F/O. Bernard John Ewart Hannah(Navigator) Schoonselhof Cemetery. Grave IVa.B.14. Born on the 19th April 1912 at Napier, the son of John Gordon Hannah and of Agnes Hannah (née Malone), of Wellington City, New Zealand. A total of 536 flying hours logged and on his 23rd operational sortie. Both the crew were killed and they are buried in the Antwerp (Schoonselhof) Cemetery, Belgium. Antwerp is 57kms north of Brussels and 59kms north east of Gent on the E17 motorway. The Cemetery is located in Wilijk a suburb of Antwerp, Belgium. sources: Storr, Alan: RAAF FATALITIES WW2,464 Squadron www.aircrewremembered.com www.aviationsafetynnetwork.org www.Rafcommands.com www.cwgc.org

Looking for some advice from DC-3 specialists. I want to build a Cyclone-engined DC-3, as used by KLM in the immediate Pre-War period. Built by Fokker, I believe? I've got the Cyclones and KLM decals, but my question is which kit am I best starting from? I know most of them are derived from C-47s and a certain amount of modification will be needed, but what exactly? I remember Italeri did a boxing with the early passenger door as an insert, but it was on the wrong side. It also retained it's Twin Wasp cowlings. Any and all advice gratefully received 😀 John

Hi, Ah, the 10th of May. Happy birthday to my beloved A-10. I'm going with the classic 1/72 Hasegawa A-10A. I'll be using Caracal sheet CD72112. Option 1 is for a NY ANG aircraft with extra markings from one of its deployments to Lechfeld AB during the 1980's. Cheers, Stefan.

All: Before he passed away, Mel of S&M models promised his customers he would produce a 1/72 injection-molded HS-748. This led to all kinds of excitement among those who expected something on the order of his Canberra series, with promises of a Queen's Flight aircraft among the first intended releases. After Mel's death, I made some inquiries with Mikromir and AMP, asking if they knew what might have happened to the project. Were they responsible? No, but check with Mach 2, they advised. So I dutifully reached out to Mr. Palix, who confirmed he had accepted Mel's challenge, but that it was not a high priority for him personally. Years passed, and finally Mach 2 issued its kit, which I think has sold well. About the kit, I should say it looks right, and measures out approximately right. The shapes are good. The fuselage is 37mm in diameter, which is exactly according to prototype, but the length is a scale foot short. The windows are lined up ok, but need work. The landing gear are totally inadequate and need a complete replacement. The engines are best replaced by LACI printed ones (of which more later), but it is possible to steal Dart nacelles from the old ESCI Fokker F-27 and put them to work. Behold the consolidated mess:

1/72 Fencer is an aircraft that I've been eyeing for quite some time - something about the overall shape and size just attracted me. I've always planned on making an Ukrainian version with the angry shark mouth, but when I came across the digital camo version, the choice was made. Within an hour I've ordered the decals and masks from Foxbot, canopy masks from New Ware and the great looking kit from Trumpeter. And as the masks appear to be quite sticky, I got myself a lacquer paint set from Hataka as well. I do have an almost-finished 1/48 Hind on the table, but starting another kit never hurt anyone, did it? So here is what I got in front of me! Nicely packed box. Result of the first evening - this goes together really well! Oh and now I've realised there are two Reskit sets with Storm Shadows and their pylons...

I'd like to enter with this please; The riverine war in Vietnam often gets overlooked in comparison to the air war and the fighting in the jungles, but was probably one of the most successful aspects of the US involvement in South East Asia. Operations Market Time and Game Warden both had a significant effect on North Vietnamese and Viet Cong supply routes into South Vietnam. Along with the air war, it is also the part of the Vietnam war that interests me the most. Although the PBR is by far the most well known craft used by the Mobile Riverine Force (or the Brown Water Navy as they became known), the Swift boat was also used in large numbers, and would also be used for coastal patrol. These were all aluminium 50 foot boats modified from an existing oil rig support vessel used in the Gulf of Mexico. They were fitted with twin .50 calibre Brownings above the pilot house, and a combination Browning and 81mm mortar on the stern. With a top speed of 28 knots they were no slouch either. After the end of the war in 1975, a fair number of Swift boats were taken over by the Vietnam People's Navy, some remaining in service to this day. The kit was released by Revell in 2021, following their earlier 1/48 version. The sprues, plus sheet of acetate for the windows; A sample of the very clear instructions; Three options to choose from. Going to go for PCF-65, as I prefer the look of the light grey. Nice set of decals; Plus some research/reading matter; Spent most of last night giving the sprues a wash in warm, soapy water, and working out Humbrol and Tamiya alternatives for the Revell paints listed in the instructions. Given how the boat goes together, I think the airbrush will need to come out sooner than I was expecting, so time to tidy the shed!

So many 109s in the forum made me want one of my own and seeing as I have many in the stash no excuses. However as all the other builds are late war i thought I’d go for some early machine. So I’m going to build an Avis models C3. Now I generally try to avoid (ahem) tail markings when building German WW2 subjects. 14 of the 17 in my collection don’t have them. As you can see below I try to pick foreign schemes or as with the JG 54 machine and the Kate war one the actual schemes had the tail painted over. However as the C was never exported and I like my models historically accurate it will have them.

Its been quite a while since I posted something. Work and life kept me from being too much online and on BM. Modelling came also a bit shorter than usual. I have a lot of models finished late 2024 but still not photographed and posted. They will appear in a while... This one was done earlier this year and was a pretty much straight forward build. More or less built oob ,the only thing I enhance a bit was the cockpit... not much can be seen of it now...🫤. I always wonder why I keep on detailing cockpits or other parts of a model,when I know pretty well,that not much,if anything,can be seen in the end...must be some kind of modelling stubborness😉😊. This is my second Heller 707 and as the previous one,its a troublefree build. It looks very good but for its size it could do with a bit more details,still it builds into an impressive model of this classic jet. The decals are from 26 and are of the usual good quality. Simbair was a subsidiary of East African Airways,a joint venture between Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda,as can be seen from the livery. Cheers Alex "Lions" also appear sometimes on the Nairobi apron...May I introduce "Speedy" 😉

I did promise @Johnson to do another Mosquito and I did promise to treat myself to a new tool kit this time - so I'm in with the Airfix B.XVI. I chose this kit as it has the fuel tanks provided, which you can see from the bomb bay (the newer PR.XVI kit does not!) I like bombers in black so I'm going to do the 109 Squadron option. I'm looking forward to this and everyone else's builds.