Search the Community

About a year ago I made a return to model making after a break of almost half a century. The model I chose to start with is a 1/72 scale Short Stirling mkI, which I will complete as N6086, "MacRobert's Reply", LS-F of XV Squadron. I want to display her, at the squadron base at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire, being bombed up on the morning of 18th December 1941, for a daylight attack on the battleship Gneisenau in the harbour at Brest. I have made a start by laminating two sheets of 5mm foam board to make a 10mm thick A2 sized base, which I will populate with the Italeri Stirling, a couple of vehicles from the Airfix Bomber Re-Supply set, Flightpath bomb and accumulator trolleys plus whatever figures my painting skills allow. The proverbial blank canvas. I want this to be a fairly quick base build, in contrast to the airframe which has been keeping me occupied for the last nine months, so I'm thinking of using abrasive paper, suitably primed and weathered, to represent the concrete taxiway and scenic scatter material for the grass areas. Anyone who has seen my WiP for the Stirling will know I'm on a steep learning curve and my ideas often run ahead of my current abilities, so we shall see how this turns out. I am already fretting over things like "What size were the concrete slabs that formed the perimeter track at Wyton?" and "How dark a green colour would the grass have been in December?"! I think I'm going with 25' squares for the slabs, based on the 50' width of standard taxiways later in the war and from looking at photographs of aircraft parked at Wyton on the 60s and 70s. As for the grass, I'm going with dark green for winter in East Anglia. More pictures next week! Onwards and Upwards, chaps. Murray

I dug through the stash and found the Williams Bros Boeing 247 kit. I am not a fan of either scheme in the kit, the racer or flight test article. I will see if I can find some other decal options on the net.

I am a late starter for the GB as I could not decide on my build. So here it is The box contains two kits, one part started and the other untouched, I may do both if I have the space. As you can see I have decals for both QANTAS and the RAAF. I also have another QANTAS sheet for the later ochre cheatline scheme which I am tending towards.

Hi. Bit of a late entry here, but I think there's still time. I've been mulling this over for a few days because, depending upon one's world view, it is either very ambitious (for me) or totally stupid. Guess which the wife thinks it is ....... I was gifted 2 of the Brengun kits a while back but at that time I'd never heard of them, being mostly familiar with the "bigger" kit names and they've been in the stash for a while. But the time has come ..... So we start from here There is a resin intake included, which looks an improvemnet on the plastic version. The decals look a bit bright to me, but no matter. The kit offers these schemes shown for completeness, but I will be doing a different finish - if we get that far. I've also been doing a bit of reading around BM and t'interweb. It appears that there are no current 1:72nd scale P-51a/Mk1 Allison engined kits which truly reflect the “emaciated” fuselage lines displayed when compared with the later Merlin versions. [Having said that, one will probably emerge now! ] The consensus seems to be that most kits are too deep in the fuselage and don’t reflect the 3” lower vertical distance between wing and cockpit sill than the Merlin engine variants. There’s also the wing root leading edge droop on the earlier versions (pre 51C) that is not represented often either. Britmodeller discussions are several on this. For my purposes the best collated notes are the builds by @opus999 - link here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235088418-when-adequate-has-to-be-good-enough-condor-172-a-36/ I'm not doing a kit review, merely establishing a starting point, but a specific comment about the Brengun kit was "The Brengun kit was a no-go for me, as the sprue shots I've seen appeared to have an AZ P-51B fuselage smoothed into an Allison-esque shape at the front rather than being shallower along the full length of the fuselage. " That's encouraging ..... So we have a challenge - but that's the fun of this hobby I think. Keeps the old mind working, discovering new things, and hopefully extending skills. OK, we have to do a bit of work. Whilst some kits appear better than others, they'll all need something doing to get a better "look" to the model, and I have what I have. Now, I'm not an absolute stickler for detail. My skills and patience will not allow me to create a totally accurate replica and I'm prepared to compromise. I'm happy if the overall "look" is ok but having said that, I like to know what it "should" be like so that I can adopt a standard of "informed inaccuracy" **. So if I do perpetrate an error or need to extend my knowledge, then please do shout up and we can talk it through. [** - I think this came up in a discussion with ME @ModelingEdmontonian, but I could be wrong] The fuselage depth thing seems to me the most challenging. BUT 3" is only a shade over 1mm in 72nd scale, so is it worth it? I think so, yes Thinking about this and looking at all the info in the threads and photos around, it might be possible to take out a sliver on the kit along the line from the spinner to the beginning of the rear fuselage after the upcurve from the intake. Then · fill and sand/file the nose profile · fill and sand the rear upslope from the intake · flatten the panel in the side walls in the region of the exhausts · re-scribe panels and access hole flap/covers Taking it further, for the wing inboard leading edge · backfill the root region to allow sanding · sand as per Opus999 to create marked “droop” on upper surface Would also want to check · spinner profile and fit with “new” nose · undercarriage and doors · guns · prop · radio mast Other things to consider · wheels · cockpit interior, IP etc · exhausts So, "Simples" as a well known Meerkat is wont to say (Sorry that's a UK advertising reference). Thanks for looking. I've outlined what for me is a complicated kit-bash plan but hope you will stay along for the entertainment. The next instalment will look at the intended subject aircraft as well as marking out where the cuts need to be for the plastic surgery cheers Rob

Hi all, With the hope of getting a more simple and swifter build under my belt before tackling a SH F-84F I have embarked on another Tamiya Mustang! Many of you have built them and so I wont labour it with repetitive posts but I will post things that are particular to this build. My subject is a post-WW2 machine that served with the Nevada ANG while detached to Iceland in 1952-53. It is the second in this row - '474482' seemingly called "Nancy". So far the build has been pretty much standard fare for a Tamiya Mustang kit, particularly the flaps. This time around, though, I am using a set of Armycast resin items. Other aftermarket will be the canopy (Falcon), although if it ends up looking wrong, as I am no good at vac form stuff, I will revert to the kit parts. Also I will use resin exhausts, PE seat belts and a Yahu IP. The cockpit needs a bit of modification to accomodate what I believe to be an ARC-3 radio set up behind the cockpit. However, while my drawings show these as fitted horizontally these seem to be vertical. My efforts are a bit of guesswork but I think it will look okay 🤞. You can see this a little better in the following image: Today I am at the fuselage half mating stage. The following are some build shots: The internal parts painted Dry fitting I'm feeling better already! Martin

Hello! Some intro for my choice: I wanted to do something easy and recreational this time so I decided to do my EF-111. Many yaers ago I have built already an Italerikit but it crashed unfortunatly. I wated to have an other one and I saw a Revel boxed on a forum for a little money. Before buying I didnt noticed that this ex-onogram kit have raised panel lines. Anyway its a nice kit, much more detailed then the later Italeri. Back then I didnt know that somewhere exist a third, Hasegawa version of this giant. Anyway later I get in my hands an Italeri kit. One way or an other I become avare of the Hasegawa kit but that wasnt available then. In the meanwhile I got a set of aftermarket wheels and a resin cockpit some years ago from an other modellers stash, so all in all I am gathering this stock of plastick for a while and I left the idea of getting the Hasegava kit at all. Anyway while I was viewing the two kits I decided to use some parts of the Revell-Monogram kit in the Italeri. I noteced that tha overall shape of the two kits are very much close to each other and the parts breakdown realy similar. I started the building some weeks ago and the first stem was to fit the aftermarket cocpit (probably a Verlinden) into the Italeri nose section. Well this def. too small to just put it in, so I had to give it some extension. The dashboard of the resin upgrade doesnt match to an EF variant, but the ex-Monogram is realy nice, only a minor extra was needed. As I was inspecting more and more I decided to keep the Italeri nose wheel well and detail it up a little, but the more I was watching the main wheel well of it, the less satisfied I was. I decided to use the Revell-Monogram wheel well but the total thing wast totaly obvius first... The ex-Monogram, the Italeri and perhaps the Verlinden tubs. Two different noses, but close enough, not? Here is the resin tub in the Italeri nose. It needed soe support to stay in place. I made that I could do: Either the nose wheel well was already a subject of upgrade: Some plastic sheets were built in here and there: The two sides of the two wells I wasnt satisfied with my first try however so I did it again: Also I started to thinkgabout the main well too. This is that section of the two kits where they the most different are and I wasnt sure how to pop in the details from the donor kit. My first thoughts were to use just some part, cut the walls from the Revel(-Monogram) kit and fix it to the walls of the Italeri one. But, however I realised that I will need more and more parts of the donor. It has the fan blades and intake and so on! So I started to make some place... My plan was to cut the intake parts from the other kit and glue it onto the parts if it. As I was wathcing it more and more I realised that I have to be more drastic. Also the drastic way would be much faster too and maybe either easier! I am goint to use a bigger section of the donor kit from the fan blades forvard until the EW bay. And now I have two questions to you, fellow modelers. Could somebody give me some references to the left side of the nose wheel well and tell me if the assimetric front section of the EW bay and EW radome correct or not, please?

This Tamiya 109 is my latest build, and I have to say one of the nicest kits I have ever built; the fit is perfect and no modifications or putty were needed. This was also my first time doing mottling, I had to redo it at least 3 times but, I am pleased with the result. I used Ak real colors acrylics. The only aftermarket items used were Eduard Photo-etched in the cockpit, a master pitot tube and cannons, and Decals from Aeromaster, Eduard and Italeri. The sand filter, which wasn't included in the kit was taken from an Eduard 109. I used Abteilung 502 oils to wash the model and Tamiya weathering powders for the exhausts. Happy modelling! Anna

Back in 2011 I saw that Airfix had announced a Valiant and so I put in a pre-order and waited - probably for around 6 months. Eventually it arrived but has been gathering dust in storage ever since. It was issued too late to be eligible for the Airfix Classic GB but is I believe eligible for this one and also the NATO one later this year, so if I have time I will have a shot at building it. Airfix describe it as a BK Mk 1 though I am uncertain if that is correct as initially the Valiants were pure bomber B Mk 1 I believe. Some were later converted to a PR version, and others to a tanker and in 2012 Airfix released a conversion pack for both of these versions, and in 2021 I understand that they released a re-boxing of the kit complete with at least part of the conversion set. Perhaps the nomenclature was changed to recognise the fact that the bomber could be relatively easily converted to a tanker and back again, but I will be building it in the bomber configuration, perhaps in the all over "Anti Flash White" scheme as I remember seeing them flying high overhead once or twice on my way home from school in the early 1960's. The Valiant entered RAF service in October 1952, and was phased out in 1965 shortly after the switch from high level to low level as the wing spars were found to be suffering from metal fatigue. The Valiant was considered something of a stop-gap design and so as the "more advanced" Victor and Vulcan had entered service by then it was apparently decided not to bother repairing the Valiants, and the B2 low level version was not ordered into production. The kit comes with markings for 4 aircraft - the second prototype WB215 in NMF, XD823 used in Operation Grapple to drop what was claimed to be the first UK hydrogen bomb in 1957 (there is some doubt about whether or not it was a fusion event rather than a fission one I believe), XD857 in 1963, and WZ404 in 1964, and has the option of either a single nuclear weapon or 21 x 1000lb iron bombs, though I will probably model it with the undercarriage down and the bomb doors closed. I suspect this was one of the first of the "new style" Airfix kits, following their Bf 110 of 2010 so it will be interesting to see how it goes together compared with some of the more recent ones. Pete

My latest effort - am quite happy how it turned out. I decided to do a little ekstra in the cockpit area and to dress up the turret a bit. The build was quite uneventfull, allthough the decals was a bit 'challenging'! Thick and demanded a lot of decalsoftener, but it looks alright now - as you would say - a good 3-footer! A couple of things: My reference (B-25 Mitchell in Action and Google) Didn't show any ventral turret on this one. I couldn't find any pictures of the top turret, and Google provided a lot of different types of B-25 turrets, so I went with the - to me - most interesting one, which wasn't painted. I hope you will like it anyway! Cheers Hans J

some 1/72 AFVs are escaped from its box, and running on my desk.😆 May-2022 from left to right: GMC CCKW (Academy), Stug III Ausf.B (Trumpeter), STURMTIGER Early Prod. (Trumpeter), KV-85 (Trumpeter), FV4030-4 Challenger I (Trumpeter) A34 Comet Mk.1B (Vespid), T-55AM -w KMT-6 (Revell), T-10 Object 730 (Trumpeter), Merkava Mk.IIID (HobbyBoss), Flakpanzer VIII MAUS (Vespid) M4 Hi-speed Tractor(HobbyBoss), SA-6 Gainful (Trumpeter), Churchill Mk.III (Italeri), Sd.Kfz.184 Ferdinand (Trumpeter), Land-Wasser-Schlepper Early Prod. (HobbyBoss) Sd.Kfz.251_10 AAusf.D -w 37mm PaK (Red Dragon), M992A1 AFFSV (Riich), Pz.Kpfw.V Panther Ausf.G -w FG1250 (Vespid), Sd.Kfz.181 Pz.KpfwVI Ausf.E TIGER I -w zimmerit (Red Draogn), Panzerfahre (Red Dragon) Jun-2022 Sd.Kf.223 Leichte Panzerspahwagen x2 (Red Dragon), Neubau-Fagrzeug Nr.2 (Red Dragan), PLA ZTL-11 (Red Dragon) Soviet SS-23 Spider (HobbyBoss), Chieftain Mk. 5 (Takom), M1A1 -w Mine Blade (Trumpeter), PLA ZTZ-99A (Trumpeter), FV432 Mk.2_1 (Takom) Aug-2022 Scimitar Mk.2 (Ford), JGSDF 106SP x2 (Aoshima), PLA ZTQ15 (Meng), M103A2 (Red Dragon), MK-I Female (Master Box) Renault FT-17 x2 (Flyhawk), PLA ZTZ96B (Transform Colors), JGSDF Type 10 (Aoshima), Type 4 Ka-Tsu (Riich) D9R ARMORED BULLDOZER (Sabre model) Middle East 2DR -w ZPU-2 x2 (transform colors) M1114 HMMWV -w GPK (T-model) M1240A1 MRAP (Galaxy Hobby) Sd.Kfz.231 8-Rad -w 20mm KwK & MG34 (Red Dragon), JGSDF Type74 x2 (Fujimi), Pz.Kpfw II Ausf J VK.16.01 (Flyhawk), Sd.Kfz.7_2 37mm AA-Gun Flak36 (Orange Hobby) Sep-2022 20mm Flakvierling auf Fahrgestell (Vespid), T-54B (Takom), Pz.Kpfw.IV Aust.F Munitionsschlepper (HobbyBoss), LEOPARD 2A7 (Takom), T-14 Armata (Trumpeter), T-Stoff Tanker, Schwimmwagen & Bomb Cart (Academy) Oct-2022 Cute Tiger-I (YuFan Model) 1/16 Type 94 Tankette (Takom) Nov-2022 T-35 x2 (S-Model), Jadgpazner IV (Trumpeter), SU-152 x2 (S-Model) Pz.Kpfw.I Ausf.B x2 (S-Model), Vanatorul de Care R35 (S-Model), BMP-2 x2 (S-Model) Pz.Kpfw.II Ausf.C x2 (S-Model), Somua S35 x2 (S-Model), Crusader Mk.I, III x2 (S-Model) M551 Sheridan (Early Prod) x2 (S-Model), BMD-1 x2 (S-Model), BRDM-2, BMP-1 (S-Model) SU-85 x2 (S-Model), Matilda II x2 (S-Model), BPR-60PB x2 (S-Model) Dec-2022 T-90MC (Zvezda), BMPT Terminator (Zvezda), 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV (Zvezda), Bumerang (Zvezda), TBMP T-15 Armata (Zvezda) Jan-2023 T-28(Zvezda), RAAC Centurion Mk.5/1 (Vespid), BM-21 Grad Multiple Rocket Launcher (HobbyEasy), 2S19 MCTA-C (Zvezda), IDF Merkava Mk.IV (HobbyEasy) A-222 Bereg (HobbyBoss), 9P117 SS-1C Scud-B (R17 Elbrus) (HobbyBoss), 4K51 Rubezh Coastal ASM with P-15 (HobbyBoss), S-400 Triumf SA-21 Groeler (Zvezda) 1/16 Wiesel A1 Tow (Takom) Rheintochter 1 w/ E-100 Body (ModelCollect), 128mm Flak 40 Gun w/ E-75 Body (ModelCollect), E-50 SPG with 105/L62 (ModelCollect), 1/43 UAZ-3909 (Zvezda), Wiesel x2 (S-model) Mar-2023 Type94 Tankette (IBG), Bedford-QL Refueller (IBG), 3Ro 90/53 -w 90mm AA (IBG), Diamond-T 969 Wrecker -w M2 (IBG), Scammell Pioneer (IBG, actually count as trailer in below) Topol SS-25 Sickle (Zvezda) May-2023 152mm ShkH DANA vz.77 (Hobbyboss) M109A7 Paladin (Fore) Sd.Kfz.173 SchweiBhund X-66 (Blackdog) M11XR7 Stryker Snow Beaver (Blackdog) Aug-2023 M1117 Guardian (Trumpeter), JS-7 (Trumpeter), E-75 Flakpanzer (Trumpeter), E-100 Salamander (Trumpeter), M1070 Gun Truck (Takom) 9k58 Smerch MRLS (Hobbyboss), 9K52 Luna-M, Frog-7 (Trumpeter), 2K11A TEL, SA-4 Ganef (Trumpeter), M1132 -w LWMR (Trumpeter), AS-90 (Trumpeter) Sep-2023 M1A2 SEP TUSK II (Meng), M60A1 -w ERA & M60A3 (Takom), French Char B1 (Trumpeter), Sd.Kfz 138_2 Hetzer Late Prod (Vespid) Oct-2023 Waffentrager Auf E100 -w V1 (ModelCollect), Sd.kfz.186, Jagdtiger (Henschel Prod) (Trumpeter), Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.E, Sd.Kfz.181, Tiger I (HobbyBoss), SU-122 (Zvezda), BTR-80 (Trumpeter) Feb-2024 P.500 Gunguir (Modelcollect) Mar-2024 1/35 Sandland Tank 104 (Bandai) Does your favorite AFV in here? you built similar AFV before? have cool camo / classic color scheme could suggest? you plan to build / buy same AFV too? Since I'm not a diehard fans of AFV / military stuffs, I just enjoy the mechanical aesthetic & camouflage of it, accuracy of the model kit is less important for me. 😅 So, if you have interesting story, history, hint / tip for any of them, please share your experience / builds with me, maybe, just maybe, I would shift the schedule and paint that one first. Also, i have a question. Which brand of 1/72 do you like? For those I have assembled, I prefer (Dec-2022 ver.) Group 1, which are good QC, some may expensive: Zvezda > FlyHawk > Takom = Vespid ; Group 2, which are standard QC, low price, wide range of choices: Trumpeter = HobbyBoss > Meng > Transform Color > S-Model ; Group 3, which are good QC but little choices: Orange Hobby > Airfix > Academy ; Group 4, which are low QC: Revell > Riich > Aoshima = Fujimi > Red Dragon > IBG > Master Box > Hasegawa > Italeri > T-model . The rest of "monsters, i.e. trailer series" are locked firmly under my bed, can't get out. 🤭 Sep-2022 began to let those "long" AFV out 😋 Dampflokomotive BR86 (HobbyBoss) Rail Transporter fur Karl-Gerat (HobbyBoss) Morser Karl-Gerat 040 (HobbyBoss) K5(E) Leopold (HobbyBoss) 1/150 SOYUZ (GoodSmile) JASDF 7t tractor & MIN-104F Patriot PAC-3 (Aoshima), MAZ-537G -w CHMZAP-5247G (Takom), FAUN SLT56 (Takom) M1070 + M1000 cum D9R (Takom) Scammell Pioneer -w TRMU30 (IBG) M25+M15 Dragon Wagon (Academy) Armoured Locomotive Panzerlok BR57 (HobbyBoss), Kommandowagen BP42 (HobbyBoss), Kanonen und Flakwagen BP42 (HobbyBoss), Geschutzwagen BP42 (HobbyBoss), Panzerjager Triebwagen 51 (HobbyBoss) Schwere Plattformwagen Type SSyms 80 (HobbyBoss) Panzerjagerwagen BP-44 Gun Carriage

The new T 90 from Vespid is available, and although it is up to the usual Vespid standard and has some exquisite detail on it, there are a couple of oddities that someone messed up somewhere. The yellow marked item is the first oddity, this is the front lower glacis for a T 90A, the T 90 should be similar to the T 72, I have so far in all my references not found this style on a T90 here we hit the other oddities, the yellow item is the front entrenching blade for a T 90A, it has a different profile to the T 72/T 90 Blade. The blue item is the rear plate, the moulded on details are grouses for the later double pin tracks of a T 90A or late model T 72, further two track links of the later style track are to be added, instead of the Rmsh track supplied in the kit. The red items are a T 90A exhaust and not used in the kit, I am hoping that someone at Vespid has messed up and released the wrong sprue A? options for correcting the kit are limited, top row is what vespid supply, the second row is from the Zvezda T 90SM kit, that will fit with a small modification ( cutting the spare track from the rear plate and removing the top portion of the lower glacis). The two beige are from the Revell T 90 and T 72 respectively both can be made to fit. The other lower glacis is from the Zvezda T 72B3 will also fit. The lower glacis from the Revell T 90 won’t fit without a lot of work. Or you could cut the details from the Vespid kit and use the blade from the Zvezda MSTA and a couple of spare track links. Also shown are the wheels with the two tiny alignment points that require care and diligence to get right numbering error in the instructions, also I would make it the other way round, although the arms are keyed they are a little loose fitting, the arms attached to the shock absorbers (B15+A11,12,13etc) are more precise in placement and the other arms can be adjusted to match, also these parts (B4) although keyed have a 45 degree range of movement but should all face the same direction and towards the arm (seeing as how they are the bump stops for them) The next part of the instructions are to add the wheels and then the hull top, this seems awkward for adding the tracks later and it is quite alright to leave them separate until the end, the wheel axles are really thin and won’t take much manhandling. So for this part I made the glacis and hull top seperate A nice fiddling piece is the PE round the commander’s cupola, I struggled with this on a 1/35 kit, surprisingly it wasn’t as hard as anticipated this is it just placed together so far you really need to let the glue dry on the wheels, it is not the strongest of bonds but should be ok when the tracks are attached. almost forgot the 3D printed shtora emitters and head lights and the fuel lines for the rear drums and gun shroud, most of these are also in plastic with the exception of the canvas for the gun, the plastic parts are for a gun without the canvas fitted.

I am a little late to the party, but here I am! I know I'm not alone building one of these 1/72 Eduard Bf 110 kits for this GB, and it looks great! I won't bother with sprue shots. I'll be building it OOB as one of these Bf 110 that the Luftwaffe sent to Iraq. I think I attempted to build a Bf 110 (must have been Airfix) in the 1990s as a kid, but pretty sure it never made it to the finish line, so let's hope this goes differently!

I'm not the first to offer up a Blenheim for this GB and I think this particular Airfix 1/72 boxing has already had an airing as well! But I fancy doing a Fighter variant of the Blenheim, this one was sitting near the top of the stash and so out it has come. I plan on building this one pretty much out of the box. This boxing has decals for BQ-O (L8679), a 600 Squadron aircraft based at RAF Manston in August 1940, but I'm planning on doing this one as a different aircraft on the squadron during that month so I'll be digging out some extra decals. Haven't worked out which exact aircraft I want to do yet; some reading through the Squadron ORBs (AIR-27-2059) and my two main reference works (Gentlemen in Blue by Hans Onderwater and The Bristol Blenheim: A complete history by Graham Warner) is ongoing. I think (hope?) I've got a masking set somewhere...

My last Airfix Mustang in the stash. I found some goodies too. Although the red-tail markings are attractive, I once fell for the luxorious design of these Exito decals, and I somehow need to motivate that expense, so this will be the choice this time: It’s a P51D-25-NA operating as long-range escort out of Iwo Jima towards the end of the war, and since I have 5-, 10 and 15-NA since before it complements the collection. Some tweaks will be needed, regarding radio equipment (I distinctly remember they had a different set of boxes, not to mention the different set of antennas) and tail-warning radar. I now have one week to find that vac form canopy and Quickboost exhaust stacks I remember buying but cannot find. I now understand how squirrels feel.

This will be my entry in the GB: A look at the sprues: Looks and feels very much like Sword kit. Decals and Master brass pitots: I will be doing the second option with the red diamonds: I wont be starting straight away as I’ve still got builds underway in the Frog Squad and WWII Twins GBs. AW

With a Japanese nightfighter finished, I thought I’d try an allied machine as well. The Blenheim isn’t as popular I thought it would be, so I’ll add a Mk IVF. Maybe I’ll go with the one on the box cover, unless I can scrounge some serials and codes for a plane in navy colours. Or maybe not. Will do some research, found seceral titles on Scribed. The box: I built the old Airfix as a kid and remember struggling - I expect this to be a bit different. The box contains pieces to do a regular Mk. IV as well, so that is another possibility. Assembled the office - will try to paint it all in one piece. I’m masking the lower window to paint it on the inside as well. The rest of the glass house I’ll paint only from the outside. It’s very thick anyway. This is the first Airfix model I’ve seen where the flaps can be left lowered, with moulded structure inside. Thickness of braces is of course widely overscale. Will see what to do. Some internal structure in the wheel houses too: Fit seems good, but the soft plastic has quite rounded edges, which results in trenches where the pieces mate. I expect some filling.

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!

I’m just starting this from the stash. 2 queries. 1. The overall colour will be Gunship Gray. It’s as close a match as I can see from various photos on the net and seems oft recommended on here for modern French a/c tho not, so far as I can see, the Alpha Jet. (I had assumed Mirage blue was correct until I saw the photos). Does anyone have any strong evidence against Gunship Gray? 2. I assume the -E was unarmed for most of its service life. It’s even hard to find pictures of it with fuel tanks. Further,the gun pod in the kit seems to be the Mauser rather than the DEFRA . Again, have I got this wrong or were they often carrying ordnance? TIA

visited my (not so) local model shop and got this. I think I’ll stick with one thunderbirds scheme, as I quite like it and even better the kit was only €8.50. I did hedge over a rather nice 1/48 Tamiya kit but it was a whopping €49 and by that I’d already decided to buy a hobby boss VK4502 ( a steal at €35 😀) Work will commence tomorrow!!!

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

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

Here's my first entry. Something I've wanted to do for many years, is build a half decent kit of one of the Shepherds Grove Thunderstreaks. A base which is quite close geographically to me & the nearest base that had Thunderstreaks so it has to be this historically popular subject, 52-6675 of the 78th FBS 81st FBW. So this is it, the Microscale sheet which I really hope has survived & doesn't disintigrate into a million specs when I get to apply it. I've got a collection of Sword kits but will be starting off with the fantastic new Special Hobby kit.

I would like to enter with this please; As well as the Eighth Air Force, I have a very big interest in USAFE, especially those aircraft based in the UK, and in particular the 81st FBW/TFW at Bentwaters/Woodbridge. Must have had something to do with all those A-10s we saw flying over our campsite in Suffolk in the 80s and early 90s! Between diecast and plastic kits, I'd like to get a model of each of the main types operated from the twin bases. Regarding the Thunderstreak, they weren't actually flown by the 81st for that long, from 1954 to 1958, but their introduction brought a change of role to the 81st from air defence to tactical nuclear strike. They were replaced by F-101 Voodoos. My kit was bought, appropriately enough, from Bentwaters Cold War Museum in 2017, on their 10th anniversary open day. A couple of years ago, I finally managed to get a set of Microscale decals for Bentwaters Thunderstreaks, which came from France and cost more than the kit! So, here are the sprues. Some pieces have become detached, but they are all there; Instructions; And here is the Microscale decal sheet. They look very eye catching, although that is a lot of stencils too! I think I will be going for the red markings from the 78th Fighter-Bomber Squadron "Bushmasters". The decal instructions aren't great; So, I had a look on Scalemates, and downloaded the instructions for the Hobby Boss 1/48 version which has the same markings; I quite fancy picking up a cheap Airfix F-84F, which would enable me to do a double build, and compare it directly to the Italeri kit, and it would also let me use the 91st FBS markings too! I'll see what I can find, but I'd like to get some progress on this one first!

Hello everybody, This year's theme for my local club display will be the Lockheed Shooting Star in its many incarnations, so my carefully planned Group Builds for 2024 were totally upset by the new priority. I set to work immediately and only later thought that my first choice would nicely fit in the rules of this GB, so let's start with the kit box: This is the very first issue of the Heller kit going back to the early '80s. I got it new to build the Thunderbirds scheme, though the decals were a disappointment and it remained in the stash for some time (40+ years!). Now it was finally time to build it! I have an Xtradecal sheet for multiple countries and will use the Luftwaffe part, this was the starting shot: Thanks for looking!

Hi all, Here is my Tamiya 1/72 Thunderbolt Razorback, a kit that requires little introduction I guess: great fit, with lovely detail all around. I just added a few details (PE seat belts in the cockpit, brake lines on the main landing gear, vacform canopy, brass gun barrels and DF loop antenna on the spine). The drop tank is from a Pavla armament set. The model represents an aircraft from the 1st ACG, that provided close air support and resupply operations to British troops (the so-called "Chindits") that were dropped behind Japanese front lines in Burma. For this "Operation Thursday" aircraft, I used the DP Casper decal sheet. The sheet provides fuselage stripes and theater bands in both dark blue and black. Reading through Squadron's "Thunderbolt in the Pacific Theater", the fuselage stripes are described as dark blue and the bands on wings and tail surfaces in black, so I settled for this combination. First time I used DP Casper's decals: these are very thin and break easily, so care is needed in handling them but they give a nice result. For the NMF I used a few Alclad shades, other paints are mostly Tamiya acrylics. Weathering was done with oils and pigments. Here is a Wikemedia picture of the real thing: United States Army Air Forces, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Credits background picture: freepik, https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/beautiful-scenery-green-tree-forest-cloudy-sky_9185373.htm Hope you enjoy the pictures, thanks for looking! Best regards, Patrick