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hello modelers... I recently completed the construction of the little Vampire F.20 from Cyber Hobby no big changes, just small details... cockpit, landing gear compartment and flaps and other small details that you can find in the attached documentation... for the coloring I stuck with the faithful Gunze, which I desaturated according to the scale... the challenging choice was to represent him on the deck portion of the HMS Theseus as I particularly liked the photo on the elevator... the figures are in 3D us crew deck by Shapeway, very similar to the 50th Royal Navy crew deck... which however no one produces... hope you like it little WIP 🤣 Hello everyone and happy modeling ciao Silvano

My first place marker is this -B version by AZ Model in 1/72. The box with the obvious direction of the subject being foreign and in this case, Swiss or Swedish or Chinese. I'm liking the pretty Swiss option. The plastic Instructions and decals. Stuart

It's taken some time but I've finally finished the Airfix BF109E-3 gift set pack I picked up for well under a tenner. Yes, it's far from perfect but I really enjoyed this one purely because it was a chance to try some new techniques, become more confident with my airbrush and do a spot of research on the aircraft, not just simply building it. Weathering is still an area to work on and the build isn't too bad considering it was a cheap and cheerful kit. Go gentle with me folks, I'm still learning!

I picked this up for £2.99 on eBay with no box, instructions or decals: I've just broken off a gun barrel and the undercarriage looks a bit long but I know that adding cockpit detail beyond the rudimentary seat and instrument panel will never be seen, so I'm aiming for a relatively OOB build. I've got both green and grey mottle and splinter schemed Fw 190s and Ta 152s already, so I'm going for the JG54 scheme with dark green, light green and tan over light blue, with yellow theatre markings. I will grab some crosses and stuff from the decal dungeon. I won't be worrying about any of the minor variations between subtypes of the A series beyond trying to pick the more appropriate of the two cowling inserts provided. What could possibly go wrong, eh? Back soon, Adrian

My second place marker is this Unlimited racer "Roto Finish" using the VERY limited run High Planes kit in 1/72. The box, no colour here. The plastic, some white metal and a vacform canopy. A quick inspection reveals some very rough plastic and I feel that I may be raiding a donor mustang for better options. Instructions . Stuart

Hello All, so this is my first WIP post as a relative newcomer to the Forums. While I currently have a few different models on the go (I assume I'm not alone in biting off more than I can comfortably chew), I felt that this subject has minimal coverage on here (and anywhere else on the 'net for that matter) and would be more interesting than another Lightning or TSR-2 (although I do have an SR.177 and SR.53 in the early stages too, so might post them). So I bought the resin Fantastic Plastic (Anigrand) Vickers 559 since I love a "might have been", and decided to go down the route of FAW.2 spec, with it being introduced to service (I'm not going to make up some story about the rest of the F.155T competitors) and then the first round of upgrades and revisions being hastily introduced (par for the course with 50's British jets it seems). I have actually already made a reasonable amount of progress on it before I felt it might be nice to share the pain journey with others. First impressions when I unboxed it were that the quality of casting was really very good. Tolerances seem decent, and dry fitting wings, for instance, shows I can comfortably paint various parts separately and then assemble with no filler needed (mostly). However, some areas need attention to deliver realism: - Jet pipes show the turbine face just inside the pipe, really this needs to be about 40-50mm deep - Intake ended in a flat face just inside the shock cone ( too late for a photo of this) - Shock cone lower lip is not accurate to design (already tweaked) - nose gear bay was very basic, too wide, and gave a nose down stance (again, already remedied) - while the kit fit lines are good, the wings were a little slack in their locating tabs (fixed) - cockpit details non-existent really, simply a pair of 1/100? scale seats, control stick and that's it - canopy is one piece, and very thickly cast - a single pair of Red Hebes as weaponry - main gear bays are basic and lacking any convincing detail - main gear itself may or may not be sturdy enough, it seems to flex easily, so we'll see. - Main gear doors are obviously quite thick being resin, but also I'm not sure they'd have ended up one-piece So, to remedy the above, I plan/have started/done the following: - Eduard F-4J resin tailpipes (on order). The speys are ~90% the size of the Gyron, the tailpipe looks broadly similar, and the depth is also roughly correct. Certainly, its close enough for me. - I've already cut up the front of the model's innards and scratch-built some inlet ducting that is in keeping with the minimal diagrams available online and in "Cold War Interceptor". Note cockpit bulkhead too. - I've trimmed the lower lip to match the drawings (edges need sharpening still) - I cut out the front gear bay and have used a TSR-2 front wheel-well, cut down for a single wheel, and blended into the inlet described above (the front bluff face aligns with the shock cone, and isn't crooked like it looks in the pics... honest) - Added some 0.3mm shims to the wing tabs; wing alignment to fuselage using the Mk.1 eyeball now looks bang on, so no jig required. - I've got a pair of resin MB4 seats (assuming similar in-service dates to Lightning and Mirage etc). Also, on the basis that side-by-side seating is less common, certainly in British jets of this era, I'm going to have to use an Eduard etch set for a Sea Venom FAW.21. I've got some Eduard B-2 Spirit undercarriage etch to liven up the main wheel bays, and finally a Jaguar pitot since the kit doesn't have one at all. - Currently, I've managed to split the canopy so I can display it open, but I intend to make my own vacform to get the right thickness - After a discussion with some more knowledgeable gentlemen than I about missile placement and the effects on aero and such, I'm going to assume that Red Hebe still came to nothing and that Red Top was utilised but in a similar location to the Lightning (launch safety - think D-21 etc, maintenance ease). I'll add a second pair under the wings (since the 559 would have replaced the Javelin which had 4 missiles), and finally a single Aden mounted in the front of the ventral tank (since a few warning shots are sometimes desirable) for which I've used one of the upper nose gun recesses from an Airfix Lightning F6 kit. The compound curvature matches perfectly. - Main gear doors I think to split into upper and lower, like a TSR-2. Maybe with lower closed after gear is down. In terms of colours, I think to go with 56 Squadron, since I like that scheme and think it will look good. More the F.1A scheme than the F.3, but without the red wing leading edges. Also, for interest, here she is compared for size against a TSR-2 and Lightning T4...

Here's one I have been wanting to build for a while. Neat looking aircraft and 1923 fits the era perfectly. The profile...the box art scheme looks very nice. I'll start in on it tomorrow evening I hope. --John

I’ll be basing my build on the Airfix B-25C/D, to depict the Mitchell Mk II of No. 226 Sqn FW130 ‘MQ-A’. Because 2024 commemorates the 80th anniversary of D-Day, I’ll be painting the aircraft as it appeared in June 1944, with D-Day stripes. I’m not sure I’ll be able to commit to the D-Day GB based on the calendar, so it was important to me to choose a suitable subject here. The following two images are the property of The Imperial War Museum, and posted under their non-commercial licence for primarily information-led, research-oriented purposes. While I’m sure the sprues are well documented, I like to start my builds with a little inventory. I’ll use the kit decals for stencils and interior parts, and a Techmod sheet for the specific markings for FW130. Images show a ‘larger’ roundel on the port wing, which is actually the original US star and bar insignia, overpainted with olive drab, and covered again with the RAF roundel. Therefore I’ll use one of the US insignias from the original sheet there too. I’ve always quite liked the B-25 (particularly the later strafers with incredible parrot and bat heads!), but know very little about the type, so will spend some time researching the variant and interior details etc before the build kicks off. Looking forward to watching everyone’s builds take shape, there are some really interesting projects lined up. Cheers, Nick

My first 262 was the original Airfix one released in 1960. I never thought it looked quite right but it has taken them until 2017 to replace it. After that I built the Frog kit released in the early 1970's, perhaps a scaled down version of the Hasegawa 1/32 kit Frog imported back then. Now I will have a shot at the 1997 Revell version- Looks like it comes with rocket tubes! Pete

Hey, I managed my first completion of 2024 while still in the first half of the year - it's Arma Hobby's 1/72 P-51C built for the ongoing Britmodeller P-51 Single Type Group Build (there's still time to join!) The build thread is here: I'm hoping to build some more before the STGB is over, but this is coming from a guy who's happy he managed to get one done in less than six months!

My favorit jet, the Saab 35 Draken. This is my Danish F-35 Draken based on the Hasegawa 1/72 kit. Maestro Models make a very good conversion kit to make the Danish fighter/bomber version. I also included Maestro Models PE and scratch build the FOD covers from foil. The paint scheme is a 90’es bird with the gloss green color. Decals are from Stoppel Hobby. The VW is a resin kit from PJ models and this vehicle was often seen at Danish Air Force bases at the time. Thanks for watching. Drakendk

When Italy joined NATO in 1949 she was still flying sleek and shiny Spitfires. As part of my "Spitfires-by-the-Seas" project, in which I am building a pair of Spitfires in the markings of countries bordering five seas, I will build an Italian Mk IXc as part of my "Ionian Sea" pair for this GB.

My main build for this Blitz is the Revell Me P1099, only issued once in this version, all the way back in 1996: Parts all still on their sprues: As I mentioned in the chat thread, this aircraft was only ever intended to be a two-seater, but this version is a single-seat with a big empty gap in the back. I’d originally intended to 3d print some better seats and some detail for the rear of the cockpit, but I found a pair of Quickboost resin Bf-109 seats and some leftover PE from my F-5 build in the spares box, which is probably good enough for the rear of the cockpit as I doubt much will be seen back there once the canopy is on: All I’m actually going to print now is a wedge-shaped block to sit between the seats for a bit of support. As I’m building two kits (have a look at my Mustang thread for the 2nd), I’ll take advantage of the rule allowing us to take the main bits off the sprues in advance, ready to get cracking on Saturday. James

Afternoon all. I haven't stayed away from the bench since finishing the Harrier. Next up is the well known Revell 1/72 kit of the Tornado GR.1. I will build the 9 Squadron version with ALARM missiles in the green-grey wraparound camo. Below are a few pics of progress on the cockpit tub. This will be an in-flight build, so I have added some resin crew from PJ Productions. Fitting these guys into the cockpit was a challenge, I'm not sure if the real aircraft is this cramped or the kit is slightly off dimensionally? The pilot in particular has had some major chunks taken out of his thighs (poor chap!). I have added quite a few details from the Eduard PE set and also from scratch, to the seats and also to the back-seaters monitors. I have quite a few reference pics left over from my 1/32 Tornado GR.4 build from (quite a few) years ago. Any comments and constructive criticism welcome as usual, will post again when the 'pit is painted.

So I got the French flag and looked in the stash for what would suit and found this kit and these decals; both give me an option of a camouflaged Hun from Djibouti; which fits the GB, but I would rather do one from Metropolitan France if I can fiddle the decals. I am not keen on NMF and the French NMF look doesn't appeal. Chris

I know, I know - I said I wouldn't start any more until I'd finished the ones I'd part completed. But I've started my IBG Cromwell and my Revell example of the same vehicle. IBG box art, destructions and parts are on the Henk website here as are the Revell box art, destructions and parts found here. so I won't repeat them on this site. This is the IBG Lower hull. The road wheels hang in space - held on only by the tracks. It makes the wheels and tracks very easy to fit but is a bit light on realism. The tracks have no inside detail.................. The lower hull fits well and there is some PE for the exhaust guards, the headlight guards and a fender support each side at the front. The upper hull has crisp detail and fits well too. (Although I read somewhere the rear deck is not very accurate.) The turret goes together OK but the mantlet needed some additions to keep it in place. Dry fitted and white-tacked it looks like a Cromwell The Revell version also looks like a Cromwell but a bit more so, methinks. There's no PE but a bit more detail. There are the Cromwell spaced armour panels to be added to the lower hull, for example. Last but not least - the Revell rear view. I have not scaled these yet so it'll be interesting to see which comes out closest to 1/72. Enjoy!

I generally build WW2 Allied aircraft, but I do have a bit of a thing for early British jets. So, I am going to go with an aircraft that amazed me in late 70’s at Duxford (I think) going pretty much straight up off the end of the runway. My dear old Dad used to drive me to quite a few airshows, so it might have been somewhere else. On reading up on the EE Lightning I discovered it was nicknamed the “Frightening”. I presumed this was to do with the rate of climb, the ceiling or more likely the speed. Some pilots said it was like being saddled to a skyrocket, but no…….. The Lightning was nicknamed “Frightening” because of its challenging crosswind landing characteristics. I would never have guessed that one! This is the 2013 tooling from Airfix. All the bits look pretty good. A little bit of flash here and there, but nothing bad. I did notice when I got the plastic out of the box how heavy it seems for 4 smallish sprues. I am planning on doing the green/aluminium scheme as I served in the Army in West Germany in the 80’s not long after these beasts! I've seen that @Enzo the Magnificent has beaten me to it on this one, so will keep a beady eye on his build for some tips 🙂 George

So I was swithering whether to start this build now or wait for three weeks for the 60's Group Build over on What If Modellers. Its Fairey obvious that I have decided to start it now as I intend to have this finished by mid to late April in time for the Scottish Nationals and with my build rate, the sooner I start the higher the posibility of finishing in time. So what is this Project 75, which by itself sounds like something from a cheap sci-fi novel of the 1950's. The answer is the first kit in 1/72 by Aerocraft, the Fairey Project 75 to GOR. 339 which ultimately led to the TSR.2. The model is a nice and clean high resolution, 3D printed hollow model in multiple parts with lots of printing supports as you would expect from a kit in this medium. The fuselage parts look like this when removed from their supports. Here they lack any interior or the nose and tail cones which are cleverly designed only to fit into the relevant part due to a key printed into their ends. The above picture was taken on an A3 cutting mat to show the scale which is comperable to a 1/72 scale TSR.2. The undercarriage, seen below, is well designed, allowing the tyres to be painted separately from the rest of the bicycle style main undercarriage. The face that there are outrigger wheels in each engine naseles reminds me somewhat of the Sud Aviation Vautour. The Print Supports I have kept as they may be useful for any sci-fi project I may undertake in the future, we shall see. More later as it's too cold outside right now to prime the nose section prior to painting. Gondor

Although the Wallace was fine, after the trouble I had with the Shark both in terms of the wing struts and also the poor location points, I am a bit hesitant to try another biplane but as this is the last viable Frog kit I have I will give it a try - I have a Sea Fury and Master that I have been using for spares and a Gloster Whittle that is so inaccurate that I can't be bothered making it until I am desperate for something to build. It is a Donetsk Toy Factory offering which I bought many years ago, but fortunately in this instance they seem to have been rather better at moulding the plastic than they were with the blurry box art! There is not a lot of flash for once, likewise ejector pin marks, and all the bits are there and intact except for the "axle" pins on the landing gear legs which have broken off. That is not a problem anyway as I have decided that I will build it as a pre-war floatplane. This will be the 4th Swordfish I have built starting with the ancient and not very good original Airfix offering from about 1958, followed by a Matchbox one and another of the Frog kits, all with wheels. As you can see Frog went for the "frame" type strut arrangement this time which should be a lot easier, although that can cause a slight problem in terms of appearance with the non prototypical horizontal troughs and frames, but a bit of work with a file should minimise the visual impact. Also, there is not as much rigging as I expected as, other than one wire from the cabane struts to the inner wing struts, only the outer bay and the floats will need a full set of wires. Another reason why I decided to risk it is that I have found 2 sets of original Frog decs for the floatplane version. This will be OOB except for the cockpit interior and the forward firing gun which Frog missed, and an Aeroclub Lewis for the rear seater - it seems that both the Lewis and Vickers K were used and I am not entirely sure what the kit part is meant to represent - probably a Lewis! If I am lucky it may end up looking a bit like this one from the Cocardes Frog site. Though with rather less extra detail added! Pete

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/remus-play-kits-messerschmitt-bf109f--177344 I came across one of these while looking for something else on the 'Bay recently and it prompted a few memories. Remus was a pocket money toy range sold in general stores and newsagents. My memory is that they were displayed on one of those rotating racks that were quite common back then. Most of their products were bagged or carded and hung from the arms of the rack. Being in my late teens in the second half of the 1970s, when these toys were most common, you could say I was aware of the brand but not interested in it. That is, until the day I climbed to the first floor of Boots the Chemist in Falkirk and came face to face with a FROG Gladiator. Only it wasn't. Boots used to sell toys, and records for that matter, and what I was looking at was a rack of Remus toys with about half a dozen FROG kits hanging from it. At quite a good price too, as I remember. I didn't buy any then, in fact I've never owned a Remus kit so I don't have any insight into the quality of the parts or the decals. I do know that the company must have commissioned alternative box art as later kits were different from the earlier ones. I wonder what the rest of the story behind these kits is? Anyway, this is a place holder for the time being. I'll post photos and make a start when my La-7 and Airacobra are a bit more advanced. John

For the last couple of years I have not bought anything made in Russia, but the Novo kits I am entering in this GB were all bought in the 1990's so are already in my stash! This one came in a bag so here is the original Frog box. And here are the sprues Not too much flash but some discolouration and a few parts off the sprue. As far as I can tell everything is there including an extra float, one having "short-shotted" at both ends. The ring sight for the pilot's Vickers also has that problem as it is incomplete but easy enough to replace with wire I guess. The kit can be built with with either wheels or floats, with a torpedo and/or bombs, and with the wings open or folded which to some extent explains why there are so many parts! The Shark was the last of a series of biplane carrier borne torpedo planes made by Blackburn for the FAA, the others being the Dart, Ripon and Baffin and 16 Mk I started to enter service in May 1935, followed by batches of 53 and then 70 Mk II with a more powerful AW Tiger engine. The final batch of 95 Mk III with an enclosed cockpit started in 1937, but by that time the Shark was being replaced by the Fairey Swordfish which once source suggests was more "capable" than the Shark whatever that means. In service the Shark was found to be very robust and reliable, carried a similar load to the Swordfish and was actually faster but probably did not have as good range. Some Sharks remained in use up to around 1944 as trainers, and the Mk III with the enclosed cabin was used in Canada for that purpose. The Shark was designed to take either the twin row 14 cylinder AW Tiger or the single row 9 cylinder Bristol Pegasus, the most noticeable difference being that the cowling ring for the Tiger was longer than that for the Pegasus, and the latter had a 3 bladed prop instead of a very large 2 blade one on the Tiger powered planes. The kit one has a Tiger and the serial provided puts it in the second batch of Shark Mk II. The slightly unusual wing strut layout probably means rather less rigging but I am struggling to find a decent plan at the moment. I seem to remember one or two builds of the Shark here on BM so I will have a look around. Pete

Vespid is just killing it with their 1/72 kits. Unreal detail with photoetch, metal barrel, link-and-length tracks, etc. Just great stuff. Painted with the new Ammo Atom paints, which are fantastic.

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!

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.

It seems that I can’t build Mustangs one at a time. I have previously built four 352nd FG Mustangs at the same time (they’re in the inspiration gallery) and I built two in the last Mustang STGB. The production line will be reopened this time for three aircraft from the 4th FG. Using this decal sheet: I will build Nicholas Megura’s “Ill Wind?” and Ralph Hofer’s “Salem Representative” to join Gentile’s “Shangri La” in the cabinet, while the third build will be a P-51D as Pierce McKinnon’s “Ridge Runner”. These three will give three different finishes, OD over NG, OD over NMF and all NMF. Place holder for now until I’ve completed some other current builds. AW