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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!

For my axis build for this GB I have landed on perhaps the prettiest of all Japanese twins of WW2, the Kugisho P1Y Ginga attack bomber. This is quite a sleek, aerodynamic machine, designed (at least according to Wikipedia) by the same designer responsible for Japan's earliest Shinkansen bullet trains. I reckon you can see a resemblance! The Ginga (Japanese for 'Milky Way') - allied codename Frances - was designed by the Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal, also know as Kugisho, as a fast attack bomber for the IJN. Most production machines (about 1000), such as my subject P1Y1, were built by Nakajima, while a night fighter variant was built in much smaller numbers (>100) by Kawanishi. Here's the sprues from what looks to be a beautifully-engineered kit from peak Hasegawa (circa 1995): Not sure if the decals have yellowed just a little bit or the white band around the Hinomarua is meant to be an off-white? Kit also has a small PE fret for (I'm guessing?) HF antenna? I've made a little bit of a start on the cockpit. Interestingly there is a clear part for a bulkhead with small windows to mask off. Good practice for the masking to come! It's an elegant little thing, and, especially in 1/72, a fair contrast for my big 1/48 Beaufighter! Am looking forward to chipping away at it. Cheers, Gerard

Hi guys, my first kit finished this year, and my first post here on Britmodeller. This is a Revell kit with some scratches to make it look more like the real thing. I will explain each of these changes better in the photos below. For the paint, I found a lot of paint schemes for these shelters, so I took one from reference and make only a few changes. The Kit: Revell 1/72 Shelter and ground plate I thought the dome was not very stable so as a first step I reinforced it. There were many ejection marks as well to cover. The shape of the kit is very far from the real thing, so I superimposed a photo of the piece in photoshop with the photo of the real shelter, printed it out and used it as a template to make a new facade with a 5mm sheet of styrene. The dome of the shelter is warped so it was necessary to hold it in shape with tape. I tried soaking it in hot water to get the right shape, but I wasn't successful. The solution I found was to put some nails in the base to hold the dome in the right shape. The kit is very poor in details, so I wanted to do some to make it more interesting. Scribbed some panel lines scratch those boxes added some wires and some interior stuff for the front lowering I used zipaline and kombifiller for the painting I made a mixture of paints to try to match the tone of the reference photos

I’m getting back into this group build with a Hasegawa Ki-45 Toryu (Dragon Slayer), Allied reporting name Nick. I had this kit lined up for the Asia GB later in the year so will have to find something else that when the time comes. Started by putting the cockpit together and prepping some of the smaller components for painting. I added a little detail to the side walls for interest: The ejector pins wont be visible once the cockpit is in place. I forgot to rake a photo of the sprues before I started, here they are: Nice crisp moulding. Thanks for looking. AW

I've noticed that the Spitfire always gets a lot of attention here, so I'll offer mine as well and start a little further back. United Kingdom has been a very important ally of Estonia over the past hundred years. 1918 was particularly significant in this regard. This year's important event was arrival of British warships in Tallinn Bay. It was an event that had a significant impact on the course of the Estonian War of Independence, which increased the morale of the soldiers who fought in the War of Independence, discouraged the Russian troops from organizing a landing on Tallinn and establishing supremacy in the Gulf of Finland. In addition, the British took two modern warships from the Russian forces and gave them to the Estonians. These ships played a very important role in winning this war and continued to be a powerful addition to the Estonian forces. During peacetime, British instructors helped train Estonian pilots. The air force played an important role in the development of the young small country, but there was a constant struggle to acquire aircraft. In 1939, an agreement was signed between the Republic of Estonia and England (Vickers/Armstrong/Supermarine factory), where the Estonians were allowed to buy 12 Spitfire fighters. The preserved documents show that according to the first contract, the Estonians were given 12 Spitfire Mk. I, After all these years of hard times and very different aircraft, it would have been a huge development leap for Estonia. But when the WWII started, Brits just stopped all deliveries and on 13th september 1939 cancelled the contract and paid the deposit back. But some of these planes was ready for delivery with estoinan signs in cockpit. And there's a rumor that these planes ended to RAF Polish Squadron and these pilots has no idea what these signs mean in cockpit. So my model here is not entirely what if. It's true, these planes probably wouldn't have been silver in the end, but I took the liberty of imagining it that way. The fuselage number is not entirely random. It is a logical continuation of the numbers of this period, and probably one of these could have been made. In other respects, it also imitates the way many airplanes in Estonia were painted and marked. Regarding the model, it is interesting to note that at the time this model was completed, no one had used this serial number on a model. However, with three local modelers we came up with the idea of presenting it with three models in three different scales, and we chose this flight number for our models. After the pictures of our models were up on the internet for a while, Kora appeared on the market with its decal sheet, which depicts a silver model with the exact same design:) It's interesting how two fictions got together like that;) Of course, we didn't mind that our idea was picked up like that. However, my model is from earlier than Kora decal set and has the markings masked and painted by myself.

This one has been waiting to be finished for a while, I started it as an isolation build when we moved to Adelaide 2 years ago. I got it mostly painted with a decals to come. I had trouble finding images of the ramp area and of the top of the aircraft to see whether the walk ways were painted a different colour and it stalled. So the story so far..... I started with a donated kit which was an original tool Airifx C-130. The previous owner had started to convert it to an AC-130A so I had to de-convert it. I added some walls and consoles to the cockpit Test fitting with original wings, I ended up using the wings from another kit as the tank slots had been filled on this kits wings and I wanted to add the fuel tanks. I replaced the kit props with some from an Italeri kit Assembly and filling In the paint shop That is where it got to. Today I did some more painting and think it is done. The walkways were done as well as the exhaust areas under the wings I was dreading doing the black strips around the fuselage bands (which was another reason preventing me moving forward with this one) and thought about painting them. I found another build on line where they were done it with decals, fortunately I had some decal strips in the stash and used them and they worked out OK. So now it is onto the finishing stage of decals and adding the last parts; the gear doors, HF antennas and anything I may have knocked off during the paint process.

Evening all. I'd like to join in with Airfix's recent small-scale Mossie in its bomber guise. I'm going for the airframe on the box art because 1) I don't need any AM decals but mainly 2) Its the subject of a big poster I had on my bedroom wall when I was a model-mad teenager. Of course at the time, I dearly wanted to build a model of it so its great to now have that chance. Thanks Airfix! Here's the usual box & sprue shots. Here's the poster which I bought from the RAF Museum shop in the late '70s. It is, of course, one of Charles E Brown's wonderful wartime air to air photos. At the time, my friends all seemed to have rather different posters on their bedroom walls. Many involved models but were definitely not de Havilland or Airfix products! I'm planning to build this one out of the box but we'll see how that goes when I get to the bomb bay doors/fairing and the tailwheel. Here's hoping this thread gets further than my last one. I posted the same sort of photos for an Airfix 1/48 Chippy in the last DH GB then found out later the same day that we were moving house imminently. That stalled my modelling until now. That move went well so I'm confident I can actually start building this time. All the best, Phil.

My Meteor is going okay so, in a burst of enthusiasm and ignoring all the nearly finished kits littering my workdesk, I've started another kit. I've had this one in the stash for years, not entirely sure why because I don't make Axis stuff. Anyway, I'm going to avoid my no-Axis rule and make it as a Bf-110 C-5. I took a photo of the sprues... But promptly forgot to take any more photos until I'll try to take more photos as the build progresses.

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.

This is my finished 1/72 Avro Shackleton MR2 from Airfix. I built the AEW2 version in 2019 and had been looking for this version for some time as a companion build. It was a pre-owned kit which I picked up at the recent Scale Model Show in Canberra. The box was in good nick and all the contents were still in their sealed bags. It was built OOB as version A with the gun turret as shown on the box art. The undersides have been painted with XF-2 White and the upper surfaces painted with XF-83 Medium Sea Grey. Various blacks, metals etc for smaller parts. Weathering was done with Flory dark dirt wash and Abteilung oils. I took a modular approach when building this. I painted, applied the decals and weathered the fuselage, wings, stabilisors and fins separately and only assembled the whole the thing near the end of the build. It was too big to comfortably fit in my spray booth. It all fitted quite well except for fixing the engine pods to the leading edges of the wings. I had the same problem when I built the AEW version and it took a fair bit of filling and sanding to get an acceptable, but far from perfect fit. Apart from this one issue, it was a thoroughly enjoyable build. It has a lovely, detailed interior which will never be seen again, but we all know it's there. The two Shackletons together. Cheers

This is a placeholder for my next build in this GB. EDIT,now withdrawn, as this version was never actually built, which is news to me. See below ... I can confidently predict this will be a very straightforward build, just by looking at the plastic. This kit was originally released in 1994 as the reconnaissance version, followed by the night fighter in 1995. As far as I am aware, the reconnaissance version has never been released again, but the night fighter has been re-released several times, and will be again later in 2024. I bought this kit in 1996 for 9 Irish pounds. Original version. Note the the 3-bladed propellers and truncated spinners. Unlike the night fighter, this version did see limited service, over the Eastern Front and the UK. Contents: A closer look at the parts. The night fighter has longer span wings. I'm not sure why the fuselage is split fore and aft, but I'm sure there's a good reason. There's a cut-out in the lower rear of one of the nacelles, which in the reconnaissance version is fitted with a clear part, very likely a camera port. In this version, it's blanked off. The instructions don't say what side it's on, but studying the instructions for the reconnaissance version, it seems this is on the starboard side. The canopy framing is going to be very, very easy to paint, compared to the kits I'm currently working on: Finally, the radar aerials:

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!

Hi there! After almost three weeks I have finally persuaded myself to post photos of the finished Miles Sparrowhawk, which I have built during the start of January... I prefer building over the taking photos! The complete progress was documented here: In the end of the build I forgot to post the latest progress, but it consisted of masking, painting and doing the final touches so nothing really to show. Overall, the build was straightforward, the only serious issue with the building process was my incompetence of gluing the parts together precisely with the CA glue. All the parts fit perfectly and I really appreciated that the joints of cockpit parts had enough space between for the layer of paint. The only blemish on beauty was a matt surface on the wings and fuselage parts which was easily smoothed out with very fine sanding paper and water. However, the SBS model company is really far ahead of other resin model manufacturers and they really know their craft well. Here are the photos of the the tiny Miles: Thanks for watching and have a nice weekend!

First post here, here's my most recent diorama. The base is made from ceramic coasters, styrofoam and air-drying clay. The sunflowers are actually pre-painted photoetch by Eduard, and the large green bushes are pre made. Otherwise it's mostly scratch built. The kubelwagen is made by S-model, and all the figures are from Preiser. Included a couple of work-in-progress shots of them at the end. I made this diorama/vignette base to display several different models, so the vehicles and soldiers not glued in place. The figures have stakes under their feet so they can also be moved around. Here's the whole dio, in my hand! I linked them from my Reddit profile, hope it works!

Hello all from the shed. I'm still making Chinook BN for a friend and as a result haven't posted for a while, so I'm going to post a few of my earlier builds that have not been on here previously until the helicopter is finished. This is the Modelsvit Be-12 and what a great kit it was to make. It needed some minor cleaning up in a few places, but then went together really precisely. The U/C looks complicated but went together perfectly and is really sturdy, rubber wheels and all. I added some extra detail in the cockpit and nose ( the tan parts visible through the transparencies), some little lenses landing lights plus some static wicks. The rest is from the kit. Fine details were supplied as photo etch and there were masks for the transparencies. The decals were for yellow 02 so just to make it a bit different I made it as yellow 20, an aircraft I found on the internet. Its finished with Xtracolor paints and varnishes, weathered with Tamiya powders and panel lined with Flory Washes. Just a super kit to build. Hope you like it. Thanks for looking Pete

I shall be joining with an Odessa Toy Factory boxing of the Beaufort. It is moulded in lovely blue plastic, the decals look average and I may have to dig into the spares to mark it up. There was also a set of resin engines in the box so I shall use these. It will be built as a RAAF example, the decals supplied for the RAAF machine are for 93SQN's A9-408. There does not seem to be an entry in the kit list thread for this one.

Among my models, models that are related to Estonia and Tallinn, which is my hometown, have an important place. If the previous one, Junkers G24, was only briefly connected to Tallinn, this one here has quite sad and direct connections. Kaleva was a Junkers Ju 52 belonging to the Finnish Aero O/Y, which on June 14, 1940 was shot down by two Soviet Tupolev SB high-speed bombers on a flight from Tallinn to Helsinki. Soviet planes opened fire, causing the plane to crash into the sea a few kilometers northeast of the Keri lighthouse. All nine people on board died. The incident took place during the armistice between the Soviet Union and Finland and shortly before the beginning of the Soviet occupation of Estonia. The Soviet invasion was preceded by several days of Soviet air and sea blockade, which included preventing the sending of diplomatic mail from Estonia abroad. Among the passengers on Kaleva's last flight were two German businessmen, two French embassy couriers, one Swede, an American courier and an Estonian woman. The French couriers had more than 120 kilos of diplomatic mail on the plane. An American courier allegedly transported US military codes to safety. The Finnish government did not send any complaints or questions to the Soviet Union for fear of a hostile Soviet response, and the real cause of the accident was hidden from the public. In addition, the widows of the pilots were forbidden by the government to tell the truth about the death of their husbands. The reason for this was the strong pressure exerted on Finland by the Soviets during the temporary peace. This describes well how bad and fragile Finland was at that moment. In modern times, there has been a lot of speculation about the reasons for this incident, and since there is very little information and the wreckage of the plane has not yet been found, it gives rise to a lot of flying theories about the reasons for the attack. Most of the time, the focus is on the secrets surrounding the diplomatic post, and the most popular theory has proposed that Stalin personally ordered the downing of the plane because he thought that Estonian President Päts was trying to escape from Estonia on a scheduled flight. However, there are also many opinions that ignorance and lack of orders on board the bombers led to the shooting. Seeing the departure of a plane unknown to them under the conditions of the blockade, in the absence of a direct order, they reacted out of fear of punishment and acted just in case. In any case, the downing of an airliner for no reason is another example of a neighbor we all here have to live with. The Kaleva was put into service in 1936 and was originally used as a seaplane, but at the end of the same year it was sent to Germany, where it was converted to a wheeled landing gear, and it remained that way until the end of its service. I like the seaplane version more and so I also made the model as it was very originally and also visited Tallinn. Now about the model. It is a mix of Heller hull and wings, with Revell floats, with some added detail on the engines and interior.

Hi folk's I noticed looking through the magnificent number of kits already submitted a distinct lack of both French and Heller aircraft.Happy to correct that with this one,picked up for a tenner still in cellophane the Musee issue is on it's way,never seen or built this kit but researching on the net seems a well moulded and liked kit we'll see and might even do the Vichy scheme!

Greetings, and welcome to part 2 of my contribution to this GB. [The GB is amazing. I just can't keep up with all the different threads. So much industry and good modelling going on. And how the guys looking after it all manage to encourage everyone is almost super-human. Well done chaps and thanks. ] Anyway, to reprise the initial photo in the first part and set the scene, I am doing 2 older Airfix twins; and doing both as the big gun variants sort of balances things out I think. I started the Hs 129 thinking it was a lot simpler and hence quicker build. It's not bad but my penchant for being a little ambitious compared to my skills led to a few pensive moments, shall we say. Anyway, it's almost finished but as I'm awaiting some paint to dry I thought I'd fire up this second thread. (First one here if you haven't seen it https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235134900-flying-artillery-part-1-hs-129/) Since I first saw this picture in a book (included here from the IWM collection (© IWM CH 14113)) I've wanted to build it. So when I saw a re-boxing of the Airfix Mk II/VI/XVIII in 1982, although I'd almost given up modelling by then due to career/family etc, I couldn't not buy it. But it's lain dormant in the loft for 40 yrs, so now's the time to do it. I believe it's the 1972 mould standard. I will be leaning very heavily upon the excellent restoration build by Charlie @Johnson which is here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235131297-freemans-folly-mossie-restoration-2/ a Master-class in my opinion. Hope you don't mind Charlie, but I will be borrowing a heck of a lot from you on this. Unlike Charlie who built his 50 yrs ago then totally restored it very recently, I will be trying to to start the kit from original bits and then use his modern input as well and compress the build time down to a few weeks. Well that seemed to make sense when I was typing it .... I'm, starting here It doesn't seem bad in outline but there is a gaping void under the canopy behind some dodgy looking seats. At least there's an IP of sorts but I think I will cheat and make use of some of these bits I know the Eduard set is for the bomber variant but sure I can make the cockpit look a bit more busy than it would be OOB, if not entirely accurate. And it hopefully saves me printing too many of my own decals as Charlie did. Whilst I can do them I find them a challange, so I swapped the decal challenge for the PE challenge instead . I couldn't get the same set of wheels that Charlie used but taking a hint about the hub (spoked vs solid) issue I found this set from Brengun that gives the option of either, as well as having the block tread. I am in no way comparing my skills with Charlie's but I hope to get something that looks about right and if I do so I'll be well pleased. But the fun is in the trying. Will just go and give the sprues a bath. Thanks for looking. Rob

Please may I enter this super looking group build with this, my first ever Me262? Started yesterday with a little bit of cockpit progress.

Finally a KUTA build with wings from me - a FW 189, ICM kit. Another oh so close build, It needs some masking/painting to do the yellow areas on the body/under-wings, decals, the props and various other minor bits attaching. Let's hope that texture on the wings is mainly dust and those glazing masks come off without too much damage!

My record in group builds is frankly appalling but I'm hoping I can find the enthusiasm and most importantly the time to make a 2nd contribution to this GB. I couldn't not do a French jet, as my in-progress Streak is an Adl'A jet and my 'Streak for the GB is a Belgian jet, I decided I'd do a plank wing F-84G as a French jet, marcher la planche = walk the plank. When Modelzone were in trouble they were selling a lot of stock off cheaply, I came away with half a dozen Academy F-84E/Gs at £4.99 a pop! This is one of those kits, I'll be doing it in the markings of ER2/33, a reconnaissance unit based at Cognac, deep in the Charente department of France in 1955, the decals are courtesy of Model Art. The wingtip fuel tanks feature a stylised seagull, the historical markings of SAL6, the unit continues as a reconnaissance unit to this day, equipped with the MQ-9 Reaper. The subject aircraft can be seen here, if you look closely, you can see a camera fairing on the belly of the aircraft beneath the cockpit, hopefully, somebody can help out with the details of this (Patrice @TEMPESTMK5 what do you know)? Here'e the box... ...the contents... ...and the decals. I like the Academy kit, it's not a shake and bake kit, it needs some effort especially around the inserts on the fuselage where the panels depicting an E/very early G (no auxiliary intakes), or standard G (auxiliary intakes), also, it does have some sink marks (notably on the wing upper surfaces above the wheel well walls), but I'm happier dealing with that than I am mucking up a Tamiya kit at several times the cost (I can already hear you asking "Who can muck up a Tamiya kit", "Well!!!..." I reply and passing my drink to somebody to hold while I demonstrate that I am that man). I just hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew time wise!

”Moonlight” is arguably a better name for a night fighter than the funny salamander which my brain pictured when I first saw the name. I had forgotten I had this kit: I ordered the other boxing, which had all blackish schemes rather than this with two green-over-gray schemes, and got sour and put it away. I hope the GB format will produce enough mojo to complete it. It is certainly an interesting machine, with some 500 completed of different versions. This one had four cannon in schräge-musik-like configuration, two up, two down. The box, containing Japanese plastic repacked in Poland with Italian decals (yes, Cartograf!): Two large sprues with individual protective plastic: The engines are rough, but will be mostly invisible deep inside the nacelles anyway. Looking a bit closer, one can see the age of the tooling, with some of these sinkmarks in strategical locations: I’ve begun priming some parts. Perhaps I may find some all-black (or rather blackgreen) scheme I can patch together decals for - basicly need only a code number on the fin.

Hello everybody, after some negotiations with the moderators I'm joining with one of the most primitive classic Airfix kits: I hope my sacrifice will instigate a retool appearing in next year Airfix announcements! This is a build I enthusiastically started a long time ago, certainly more than a quarter century. After discovering the many inaccuracies of the Airfix kit it stalled and never got to an end. Now it is just a matter of finishing what I started, because I always try to save my builds and the competition from the MPM kit is not really that strong. I know the builds seems quite advanced, having joined the fuselages and wings halves, though I actually postponed most of the work because I plan to do the following corrections: - correct the passenger door engraving - replace the engines with the Airwaves Wright resins - correct the bomb bay doors engraving - replace and adapt the transparencies with the Aeroclub acetate mouldings - modify the tailplane to make it a continuous surface with the cutout in the fuselage tail - change the exhaust arrangement - rework all the landing gear area: nacelles cut-outs are completely wrong. - rework the wing slots: position and shape are not correct. I planned to build a Photo Reconnaissance bird without turret, so I'm at least relieved from the hassle of correcting the abortion supplied in the kit: I even have an Almark decal sheet for this subject, though it seems to be a very obscure one and I couldn't find more than two very blurred images over the internet.

Here's my first completion for 2024. Fantastic kit from Tamiya, brilliant engineering & very accurate. I didn't ever consider the F-35A to be a great looking aircraft & was mostly put off doing one as most kits representing the RAM strips were grossly overscale, but finally here's a kit that looks a bit more sensible than the others. That's my opinion & I'm sticking with it. I hope Tamiya engineer an F-35B & C to this same standard in the One True Scale! Only then will I consider building any other versions. 😉 So I've used the new generation AK acrylic Have Glass Grey which I found to be too light in tone, so a very small amount of black was added to darken it. Then AK FS36270 was used for all the lighter grey panel strips. There are decals for all the RAM strips but they were masked & painted instead. I just thought the grey decals for the panels was too contrasty for the HGG. All the lighter grey panels were then over sprayed with with the HGG. Decals are both from the kit & the Furball sheet "F-35 Anthology JSF Pt.4" This is the flagship airframe for the resurrected 495th FS "Valkyries" at Lakenheath. 19-5495 "Freyja" Only addition is some wire to represent the main wheel brake lines. Just wish that the canopy could have been posed either open or closed but in this scale that would have been a tricky job. Still undecided wether to change it to closed. Next to come is the black tail F-15C of the 493rd 86-0172.