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Hello all, This is my first WIP, so I’m going to be learning as I go along; I chose to build Bandai’s lovely 1/72 T-70 X-wing, this isn’t my first x-wing (I’ve already built a T-65 in “Red 5” scheme) and this certainly won’t be my last as I’ve got 2 more in the stash. The kit itself is as good as any Bandai kit, which means that the detail is crisp, everything fits together without any glue needed, there isn’t any flash to be seen and the clear parts are beautifully moulded without any defects. I’ll be doing this ship in Blue Squadron scheme as seen during the attacks on Takodana and Starkiller Base in episode VII The Force Awakens. I have already cut off the cockpit parts which I painted in Ak real colors RC261 Neutral Grey, and I also cut out the pilot and droid which I proceeded to prime with Tamiya XF-2 flat white. Here are some sprue shots, I know this has been done before, but I thought it would be nice anyway.Note: I cut off the clear parts sprue section from the main sprue to avoid damaging the canopy. Box Art Instructions Bandai decals and stickers Sprue A with fuselage Clear parts sprue section, cut off from main sprue A Sprue B with s-foils Sprue C with silver coloured parts Sprue B2 with BB model droid Sprue with base for The Last Jedi version Sprue with base for The Force Awakens version Here's what I've done so far: The seat was painted with Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey I don’t know how long I’ll take to finish this kit as I’ve got other projects going on, including a P-51D Mustang GB with my dad; I hope to finish before the end of the year but I doubt that will be possible. I will also try to take some comparison shots to show the difference between the T-65 and the T-70 x-wings using both Bandai kits and hopefully by next week I will have painted the cockpit, and maybe done some sub-assemblies.

I’ve been threatening to build one of these for ages to fill out my WWI tank collection to the point of printing out a paper model of it years ago. While tidying up some paperwork I found the printout so I’ve decided to give it a go. The K-Wagen was a behemoth, if the British heavy tank was a land ship than this would have been a land dreadnaught. Bigger than a Tiger II possibly even than a Maus, designers to be brought to the battlefield in modular sections, two prototypes were at an advanced stage of construction at the end or the war but were scrapped without ever leaving the factory . Without a doubt it would have been a formidable battlefield presence but more mobile fortress than tank. The main hull. When I get a chance I’ll post some size comparison photos.

Good evening everyone. The de Havilland Sea Vixen is an aircraft of singular appearance is it not? You notice it. The sweep and curve of its geometry. Formed not only from the requirements of naval aviation but (covertly, one suspects) from those1950s fantasies about how fast and silver a technological future would look. It was the kind of aircraft Captain Scarlet would have trained on and was capable, if required, of protecting the Earth from UFO invasion. At least I think so. I'm going to build two of them partly for the aforementioned reasons, and partly as a way of celebrating the friendship and generosity to be found on this forum. (More on that in a bit.) For now though, posting this in full view means there's no bottling out. Choice of Subject Having wanted to build one these for a long while, I'd been collecting various bits and pieces and images without (as often happens) a definite subject in mind. Always liking a build to be rooted in a meaningful narrative of some kind, I was leafing through some of the entries in the Dorset Crashes site and noted that a FAW.1 (XN708, from 890 Sqn) had gone down in Lyme Bay on the night of 25th November, 1964, killing both crew: Lt Michael J.W. Durrant RN. & Lt Basil A.Last RN. We can sometimes be guilty of building things only to celebrate the notable or the heroic in conflict; in this case it seemed fitting to build something to note those who end uncelebrated in the footnotes of history as peacetime or training casualties. This is the only clearly identifiable shot I've found so far of XN708/R244, original date of photo unknown: Image credit: Imgaylard Brian Patterson has an excellent colour gallery of a sister aircraft here though that will doubtless prove highly useful as references. For the second choice, I'm (as frequently the case in matters of naval aviation) indebted to @Ex-FAAWAFU for drawing to my attention the powerful, nay provocative, black & white diagonal scheme of XJ481 when undertaking Martel trials: Image credit: Roger Winser This has not only the challenge of building a replacement nose to incorporate that camera housing and a Martel to scratch up (I knows there's a 1/72 resin one out there but think the fins are too thick) but a snazzy 'dazzle paint' work to do also, for which @Terry1954 has also kindly supplied some colour references. The Kits I'm going to modify both the venerable 1/72 Frog offering and use the High Planes kit, which has a FAW.1 option. I'd mentioned above that this build was in part a celebration of the generosity no be found on this forum. Let me start by detailing such matters here: The High Planes kit was sent to me some time ago by @Procopius. How gracious is that? Thank-you Edward for this kindness. As a young shaver on the forum, not long after joining I'd mused aloud in a thread about the absence of FAW.1s in 1/72 and been overwhelmed by a (characteristically) generous influx of references and diagrams from both @71chally and @canberra kid regarding the feasibility of modifying the Frog kit. The fruits of these discussions are posted here and I must reread them myself prior to commencing any work in this direction! If you've had a look at Brian Patterson's colour shots above you'll notice prominent in one of them is a Palouste starter. I never used to know about these until seeing @perdu resinate superb examples in his Buccaneer build. Not only that but again without saying anything he'd tucked some of his output away in a package he sent and so I'll be proud to use one of his Paloustes in this project. Thanks Bill! The High Planes kit first: As it says on the box: In fairness I see 'adjustment of parts required' on every kit I buy.... I haven't looked closely-enough at the canopy yet to make any decisions regarding suitablility: Some replacement Aries wheels (I'd forgotten I'd bought them) to replace the originals: The Frog File: Check out the crazy patterning all over the plastic. Weird.... That nose: Subject of much discussion with John and James on the original thread, as might be imagined.... How to '1 a '2: Picked this up dirt cheap of 5thletter bay many moons ago. Think that resin is the 'Final Touch' set (?) but no idea about the white metal provenance. Wheels and legs don't impress: The Airwaves stuff was in the Frog box when I bought it, honest guv: Vaguely possible one or two of those bits may prove of use but certainly not the grotty wingfold. Here's what's really going to offset a diorama - a beautifully perduced Palouste: The markings on both aircraft will be painted rather than decals, but thankfully I've the Model Alliance decal set for the Ark's air wing that I can snaffle the moonlit witches from for the 890 Sqn Vixen: I'm aware of multiple issues with correcting the Frog to a FAW.1, but the High Planes I believe is to be generally trusted in shape terms? (Please correct me if wrong on the latter point). There will of course need to be a wingfold involved somewhere but this has given me a pause for thought: the colour scheme of the Martel-tester is so good that the wings on that one will have to be fully extended to display this handsome plumage, so XN708 will be the one to get the folding treatment, though which kit do do which with (if you see what I mean)? The Frog is moulded with the break in the wings where the fold is so a natural candidate, yet one with such problems in its nose area that this really makes it a better candidate for (the unfolded) XJ481 viz. a totally new and angular schnozz. I'm sure that the High Planes kit can be 'persuaded' to fold so: High Planes = XN708/Palouste (wingfolded) Frog = XJ481/Martel (non-folded) Nearly forgot. XN708 will have the RR Avons visible. So I'll be building 1/72 Avons as well.... References As standard for me, along with contemporary photographs, will be working from original technical documentation, namely several thousand pages of these: I've all 4 volumes of the above, plus: - for the engine build. As the technical manuals are obviously for the FAW.2, help with that handful of specific differences such as canopy etc comes in the form of relevant sections from the FAW.1 manuals generously provided previously by John (@canberra kid). Who else? I'm hoping to have the current Anson build finished by the Autumn so if you've nothing planned for those long winter evenings you'd be very welcome to pull up a Palouste and keep me company here. Thanks for reading, as always. Tony

Hi All, I've been around BM for almost a year and a half, now, mostly focussing on WW2 subjects but recently my interest in WW1 aviation, particularly on the Alpine Front, has reawakened. Its over 25 years since I tried any WW1 aero-modelling, and things have moved on a bit in that time! I'm modelling in 1/72 scale and I'm primarily interested in the Austro-Hungarian Luftfahrtruppe and KuK Kreigsmarine, so I'd like to ask the Oracles here whose kits they'd recommend. I don't mind fettling and a bit of scratch-building, I'm looking for overall accuracy of shape and dimensions. Roden's Albatrosen seem to be held to be good kits if a little fiddly. What about the MAC Phonix fighters? Does anyone produce a good Berg D.I (or D.II, for that matter)? And decals. The MAC KuK Phonix D.II for instance - I've read that the decals are not great. Are there generic crosses available (as there used to be in 1/48) and is the Kreigsmarine rudder crown available separately anywhere? I'd also like to do a few Allied fighters. Roden's Camel springs to mind - did the Italians use them? Is there a decent Hanriot HD.1 available? And again, what about markings? Lots of questions, for which I apologise, but I'd be very grateful for any pointers. Thanks in advance, Mark

Hello chaps, Decided to stretch my legs and get busy with new techniques and weathering practises, im currently on Elementary Flying Training at RAF Cranwell and part of my daily routine is driving past a Jet Provost sat proudly opposite a Dominie. This got me thinking and of course i went and picked up Airfix's 1/72 JP in 1 FTS markings, I decided to model it after the one here (not in terms of markings or model, the one at Cranwell is a T.5 and im making a T.3 for starters but focusing on the wear and tear) then a friend from instagram sent me pictures of a rather dilapidated JP sat in a farmers field somewhere down south... and suddenly the plan went from a mildly dirty gate guardian to a "my god how have you managed to let it get to this state phil" and a few weeks later here we are at the final stages of weathering and now im debating doing another one but nice and clean because its almost heart breaking seeing such a lovely aircraft with green and brown where there really shouldn't be... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RAZnCrz9wCBXJdXisMPOQKivabRJtY_0/view?usp=sharing

So I'll be building this for the GB - got a bit of aftermarket stuff, some resin crew, Eduard photoetch and masks. Probably go with the low-vis scheme as it's a single overall colour making masking life easier for myself. I probably haven't built a Tomcat kit for almost 30 years, this one looks nice - even though it's in the 'easy assembly authentic kit' range it looks from the instructions to just be a rebox of their other F14 kit. Some of the kits in that HobbyBoss range look very simplist, however I really enjoyed building their 1/72 P-61 Black Widow in this range. Sprue shots etc. once I get started

I finally finished two of the three AZ JoyPack kits which I had in the stash for quite some time. At the time of purchase I was not aware of the cowling issues, but I tackled these by following a forum thread of Barry Numerick's excellent build process. The G-2 is Ion di Cezare's mount with (not quite correct) Print Scale decals. Ossi Romm's G-14 is also featured in my yt build vid. Thanks for watching! Luka

Greetings peeps I acquired this kit in a swap with a fellow BMer. It came in a Matchbox Black Beaufighter box so sadly no lovely box art to share. This means there is no paint scheme to follow and the original transfers are awol. I have also noticed that it is slightly started with phase 1 being complete albeit without crew figures. Well under the 25% rule. I have attained the new Airfix kit so I will have a few pointers for adding some internals as the kit typically lacks much in the way of internal detail. Looking forward to getting started. Photos to follow. Cheers Greg

Some time ago, in a discussion with other members of the board, I posted some photos of the Captains Class frigate I am building in 1/72 scale. At the time I said I would post some updates as the build moved along. It's now progressed to painting and fitting out, so its high time I shared some photos so those interested can see how things are coming along. This is a radio-controlled model and, as such, there needs to be provision for access into the hull for batteries and maintenance, but beyond this I am seeking to keep the build as close as I can manage to its likely appearance and configuration in April/May 1945. https://cdn01.hobbyphotohost.com/p?i=a247b899de80955e364e783094c46384

Hi all, Fresh out of completing my first GB with the F-14, I'll jump in to this one, with another Hasegawa 1/72 F/A-18F. No doubt this will be a kit familiar to many of you, so please feel free to jump in with advice and tips - I still very much have my training wheels on! I have the newest reboxing of the kit with decals for VFA-11 Red Rippers' CAG bird jet circa 2012-13. In a rush of blood I ordered some Eduard PE for the cockpit (which hasn't arrived yet). Have not used PE before so I'll give it a go, but I reckon my eyesight and unsteady hands might work against me. See how I go... Otherwise will build it out of the box: The box artwork is pretty stunning so it's pretty hard to go past using the kit decals, despite the temptations of aftermarket decals. Plus a USN jet will add some variety to my small collection, joining this RAAF classic Hornet I finished a few months back: This was actually the first model built I'd built in 25-30 years (Academy 1/72 kit, Ronin Graphics decals), so I learnt a lot from my many mistakes in building it! And that's my main aim with this GB, to keep learning and to watch how the pros do it! Cheers all and happy modelling, Gerard

Hello all, I decided to establish this thread to present and share some of my builds or post some progress actually laying on my workbench. The reason behind this is that I am not able to maintain a thread with a certain subject in progress due to several reasons. Therefore I established a similar thread for my Czech friends on Kitforum written in the Czech language. There on Britmodeller I intend to post similar content (in EN of course) and will try to update it as the time and other circumstances will allow. Also, let me shortly introduce myself. I am living in the Czech Republic and modelling for more than 25 years. My favourite subjects are 72 scale fighter planes WWII or modern. I am trying to make collections like training aircraft or Finish, Swedish, Czech, Royal air force etc. Occasionally I am also making armour tanks or ships. In the past, I also presented and attended some group builds here on Britmodeller. Last time I present most of my finished builds on the 72insight blog.

G'day people, Plceholder for build No.2! Pappy

Place holder for: Which be built as A21-029 with the top hat and cane Box contents: and a few extras: I may not use the AIM-132s as all the photos I have of A21-029 show it unarmed. I have ordered a replacement set of decals from Hawkeye as the kit ones don’t look particularly accurate, especially the side flash and magpie which look far to pale. AW

I'm embarking on a project with the goal of representing a Hawker Hurricane in the markings of each Allied country that did not use more-or-less standard UK markings. First stage of this goal will be to represent a Hurricane with markings from every continent. Probably as follows: Africa: Egypt; Asia: Iran; Australia; Europe: Yugoslavia; North America: USA (actually RN plane, but US markings in Operation Torch); South America: Argentina. Second stage will be to complete the rest (mostly other European markings--e.g., Soviet Union, Finland, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, Poland, Ireland). I am excluding the UK, Canada, South Africa, India, New Zealand, and even Greece and Norway (which seem to have only flown aircraft with RAF markings, but I would love to be corrected); as well as Germany, Italy, and Japan (which did fly captured versions). Along the way, I will be building most types and many different kit brands, although I have no particular goals in this regard. I will post a photo of all my kits once I get them. Since this is an ambitious goal given the pace at which I build models, they will almost all be OOB and there will be minimal weathering and other detailing. The point will be have fun and produce interesting Hurricanes!

Amazon have just delivered this, the Revell reboxing of Matchbox’s Panzer II. This will be my 4th entry. I built the Tamiya 1/35 version a while back for another group build, looking forward to adding this one to the collection.

Hello all Since I got into scale modelling armour under lockdown Ive focused on mainly on WW2 armour and mainly British bar a panzer or two. One thing I love about the hobby is how it prompts me to learn more about the history. Interest in cold war tanks had been growing at the back of my mind because mainly after ww2 most countries didn't build their own tanks and certain tanks became ubiquitous and none more so than the T-54/55 or Type 59. Ive heard it called the Kalashnikov of tanks which is cool. The number of variants is also huge. 1/72 T-54 and T-55 tanks kept appearing (like magic ) in my stash so it was about time to forget about ww2 for a bit and build one. I choose to start on the Ammo by Mig T-54B kit, as I liked all the non-soviet decal options it comes with, in fact is has multiple options for north Vietnamese tanks which I think is great (the kit is themed for Vietnam). I took these pics a couple of weeks back and I'm largely finished the build but I thought the pics may be of interest. Up to now I've mainly been building older kits, this is my first recent mold/manufactured kit and Ive been surprised by some if its features. There are jigs for the tracks which are great, but what I appreciated even more is the fact there are jigs for the photoetch hopefully we will see more of that in kits that are becoming photoetch heavy. Actually having a metal thread/wire for the tow cable included is great too. Decal's have multiple North Vietnamese options as well as Egyptian/Syrian for the Arab/Isreali wars (I feel an Ace IDF Centurion vs a T-54/55 standoff coming on at some point) Cheers

Purchased two of these excellent Academy kits for a fiver each at the 2019 SMW. The first of the two was completed as a Spanish Tiger during lockdown, so I've had this one waiting for an excuse to get started. Thanks to whoever thought of a second F/A-18 group build, this can be added to my infamous ever growing collection of flying felines! Here's the box with all the leftovers from the other kit, still wish I'd bought all the traders Academy F-18's now, I remember these being stacked high & going like the proverbial! Also the Leading Edge Tiger Meet decals. This will be built mostly out of the box, no aftermarket apart from the decals. Primed all the parts on the sprues & fixed the main fuselage parts including cockpit together. All goes together really nicely apart from one small gap just in front of the cockpit starboard side. This was apparent on the previous kit. It seems that Academy has included everything on the same sprues for the standard US F/A-18 as well as parts for the Canadian version. As I'm building the CF version I had to include the port side spotlight. A quick google showed the Canadian requirement for a spotlight to illuminate nighttime intercepts of Soviet bombers. There is an indentation on the inside of the port fuselage, so I just drilled this out for the provided clear spotlight part. The other part specific to the CF version in this kit is part 31 as opposed to 24. Here's the fuselage with some lead weight just secured in place with some bluetac just behind the cockpit area. The next job will be to seperate the control surfaces from the wings. I won't be buying resin flaps as I managed it well enough with the Spanish F/A-18. To be continued....

Hello and welcome to my next "Work in Progress", a build of Academy's British Army AH-64D. I've not built a helicopter before and I decided it was time to put that right! Having spent the last 10 months working on Eduard's Coastal Command Liberator I wanted something smaller and, dare I say it, more out of the box which I should be able to get done in a month or two. First impressions of the kit are really good - the instructions are clear and the bits I have dry fitted so far seem to go together without much hassle. As is traditional I've started with the cockpit and it looks great with nice detailed control panels and consoles - no need for any aftermarket etch here! The only thing I've updated so far are the seats. These will be quite visible under the canopy and I've spruced them up a bit with some milliput cushions, embossed with a cotton cloth, and foil belts, here's the before and after: Then all the various bits and pieces got a shot of tamiya rubber black followed by a slightly lighter highlighting coat: I painted the cushions by hand with a dark grey, applied the plain green decals for the screens, gave everything a drybrush with another shade of grey and finally picked out the buttons and switches with a fine brush: It's nothing special but it's got a certain "pop" and I'm really pleased to have finished off a cockpit in a few hours for once! Hopefully this one should come together quite quickly, any tips or things to watch out for would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for dropping by, Sam

This is my entry for the GB: Maybe an odd choice but the "PB" is Patrol Bomber, and the 'Black Cat' variants used in the Pacific, especially during the Guadalcanal Campaign were used to great effect in harassing Japanese naval and land targets at night. The A variant (as opposed to the PBY-5) is the amphibious version with landing gear. Looking on Scalemates the moulds date back to 1993 and have also been released by Revell and Wolfpack over the years. The Academy instructions don't seem the clearest so I maybe referring to the Revell ones online as I go along! Sprue shots, etc. once we get underway - I've peeked in the box and there's a large amount of black plastic (not sure how well I'll be able to directly spray black on black, might need an intermediate colour primer). Other than the base kit, I have some Eduard Masks (will be useful for the gunner pods), PE and Kits-world aftermarket decals (some interesting nose art and the stars and bars are in grey, rather than the kit supplied white ones). I may fish around in my parts and see if I can find some crew figures too.

What not first! Spunky VI early F-4E in Nam with an asymmetric load out as discussed in forum. FineMolds release from 2021. will add pictures tomorrow Chris

Hi, I remember buying this from a discount warehouse in Armley on the outskirts of Leeds in about 1990. The boxing is a bit of an odd one - it is Number 810 which should either makes it the original 1985 release or the 1987 rebox - the pic seems identical on both, but this also has the circular "motif" printed on the top left corner saying it has extra decs for 3 units on the USS Midway as well as the standard set, and that version is not on Scalemates as far as I can see - there is also an extra sheet showing the new marking scheme. I suppose it must have been a limited run of some sort and was picked up as surplus or bankrupt stock as was the A-6E I picked up about the same time, probably for something around £5 each. Whenever it was actually made, it was after Hasegawa had produced their weapons sets so the armament is rather basic and will need adding to, though given the notoriously short range of this early version it will definitely need to include some fuel tanks! Pete

OK my first GB. I model planes with my 10 yr old son. We were talking about what we wanted to model and we wrote a long list of carrier based aircraft we wanted to complete. The Hornet fits in nicely and was on our list and then I spotted this GB! So thought I'd dive in. I've currently got a Tomcat on the go, and also a Sea Vixen with my son. I suspect the Tomcat may have to take a backseat while I work on this. I was originally just going to add the cheap 1/72 Italeri F/A 18 to my stash, but was advised by @PhantomBigStu and @vppelt68 that the Academy was a better bet for a few more quid. So I ordered one and it arrived today. The online seller packaged it in a lovely environmentally friendly cardboard package Mr Postie left it outside the house as no-one was in and it was completely sodden by the time I got home . Ahh well luckily the model box inside the package wasn't too bad (you can see the wet bits in the photos) and the only bit not in a plastic bag in the box was the instructions which were a little damp but nothing to worry about. Sooooooo. Plan is. Build this completely OOB. Not sure which of the 3 decal options I will apply. I'll probably let my son decide. I'll be hand painting using mainly Revell Enamels. I'm just about to see if there are any colours I need to order, and wash the sprue. Thanks for having us along.

My third entry is another Helldiver, this time the Curtiss SB2C-1. Introduced into service in 1942, only 4 years after the introduction of the SBC-4 biplane Helldiver. Thought it would be interesting to build them side by side to show the speed of aircraft development.

Joining you with this kit. Which will be very similar to my previous A-10 from 2018. And I'm probably going for one option on each side again.