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Tower, this is Theplasticsurgeon, requesting a flyby. . . Rejoining the circuit with this Mustang kit, bought in 2020 for £8.99. To build like this, modified as a two-seater. Instructions, strangely blank, not saying anything about the Mustang's history or performance. Parts. Familiar - as this is my 5th build of this P-51D kit. And scheme, with superb decals.

This will be my third build for the GB - I have another two possibles but that depends on how things go as I will probably be involved in one or more GB at the same time. Ok, I know this has a lot more parts but the box is enormous - at least 3 times the volume of the boxes for the original Airfix B-25 and the Frog one, though in fairness it is quite full. As I mentioned elsewhere I pre-ordered it when first Airfix announced the release so it is the first boxing and I am not altogether happy with the two colour schemes offered. As I will be doing the old Frog one in RAF markings this will almost certainly be a US one, and as it seems they preferred the B-26 for Western Europe then I suppose it will have to be something appropriate to the Western Desert or Italy unless I go for the Far East., so I will have to have a think about that. Airfix have subsequently reboxed it as an RAF Mitchell II, a B-25B, and another desert version, and looking at the parts breakdown I suspect one of the later versions may be on the cards. Pete

I am excited for this GB! There are several subjects I may want to build as part of it, but first up will be a representative from my "Minor Gustavs" project, a 1/72 HA-1112 from Special Hobby. Should be able to build this OOB. The Minor Gustavs project involves modelling BF 109Gs (or their derivative versions, such as Spain's HA-1112) in service with the "smaller" air forces (i.e., not Germany or Italy). Some of these are minor Axis (e.g., Hungary) and others are post-war or neutral operators (e.g., Switzerland). Here are the first six Minor Gustavs I've built, representatives from Romania, Finland, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Croatia. I think a nice blue HA-1112 will make a great addition!

I thought I would also build another classic Baby Boomer - the Hawker Hunter. I built the original Airfix Mk 6 released in 1960 in black plastic to represent one of the "Black Arrows" display team from 111 Squadron, and then one of the remoulded FGA 9 kits Airfix released in 1983, and still have at least one of the later 1994 boxings in my stash which I was thinking of converting to an earlier mark, but more recently I picked up a Revell kit cheaply and so I thought I would try that. I was never entirely happy with the Airfix remoulding - something did not look quite right but I have no idea why. I will now have a chance to see if the Revell kit looks better. It was first released as a Mk 6 in 2005, reissued as a Mk 9 in 2008 and this is a 2018 reboxing. Pete

Following my comment on @John Masters's thread, I realised that I had not shared that build that I completed at the end of 2020. If my memory is any good, this aircraft is an F.6 that received the rear part of an FGA.9 with the parachute housing and not an FGA.9 as Revell state on the box. Final pictures: The build: Moulding: This picture is typical of what was in my box: Flash, heavy sink marks and soft surface details caused by the moulding issues. Nothing major but frustrating nonetheless when it comes to a kit that is not supposed to be short run... Having said that, a fired of mine who had acquired several boxes right after the kit was released did not have the same issues. Cockpit: The cockpit tub is very nice OOB and the seat was improved using my usual process (lead wire, Tamiya masking tape strips, plasticard, aluminium foil, Magic Sculp and stretched sprue): The cockpit sides were detailed using plasticard and a punch-and-die: The backplate was the area that needed more improvements: I also added a collimator before gluing the windshield: Once painted, it looks really nice. I did not use the decals but painted everything by hand using a sharpened toothpick and Vallejo acrylics: Air inlets: It is advisable to add a shim of plasticard where the wings meet the fuselage around the air inlets. Otherwise you will be left wth a nasty gap at the top and bottom junctions: The air inlet cone is missing and the resulting empty space is quite noticeable. I made some off 0,2mm plasticard sheet: Painted white at the front and going black at the back to give an impression of depth: Parachute housing: It had a very nasty sink mark and the panel lines had nearly disappeared. It took quite a bit of time and effort to bring it back to a decent condition: I had to rescribe and add missing rivets to quite a few hatches / covers, mostly on the wings. Overall fit: In spite of the moudling issues, the overall fit was good and little filler was needed: Painting and weathering: The model was painted using Mr Hobby Aqueous over an Ammo One Shot black primer: Grey: I sprayed a highly thinned H331 DSG in a mottling fashion, building up slowly the coverage and letting the black show through around the panel lines. Then, I made some highlights using H337, insisiting on raised details and the centre of the panels. I finished with some post-shading using Panzegrau. Green: I used H73 DG follosing the same process and made highlights by adding H313 sand to the dark green. I toned down the effect with several light mists of H73. Red: I primed the area in white, then applied a coat of yellow and finally the red base coat (H13). I applied some shadows using a highly thinned dark brown. I then applied the decals, though most roundels , the code and fin flash were painted using masks cut with my Silohouette: I like to get the landing gear and weapons out of the way as quickly as possible, as I consider them as a chore: Then, I applied the washes: I used True Earth Neutral brown on the underside, Black on the camouflage and Dark Brown on the red. The weathering was done using mostly felt tip pens and aluminium and dust weathering pencils: Finally I applied a light coat of VMS matt varnish. In hindsight, I probably should have been more restrained on the weathering. But at the time, I wanted to give it a worn out look. On some pictures, they are in a worse condition than shown here with large patches of white showing underneath the red on the wings, for instance.

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

Hi all. Here is my recently completed build of a Centurion Mk. V MBT using the Ace kit in 1/72. This was built as part of the the 'Baby Boomers' Group Build. Build log here: Had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this kit; love the detail but hated the parts count, the clean up and fitting. I have a number of Ace kits so I know what to expect in the future. Thanks for looking. Stuart

After last week's débâcle with the Arado 240, I think I am on safe ground (or even water) with this one. Curious fact: There have been only two injection-molded kits of the He 115 in 1/72, both by British companies: Frog and Matchbox. Both molds were acquired and re-issued by Revell. I built the Matchbox kit back when dinosaurs roamed the planet, and I know it was this boxing because it's my scan: Here is the kit for this build, the Revell reissue from 2008, the second rebox in two years: The contents: A very nice Cartograf decal sheet: The plastic lacks a certain je ne sais quoi because it's not in 3 colours, but it will be easier to paint: For some reason, I still have the original Matchbox decals, begging the question of what exactly I put on that kit. Whether or not I will use any of them for this kit, who knows? I won't start this kit in earnest for another few days, not until I'm finished my P-70/Boston double build. But I might find the time to paint the crew figures.

I had been intending to have this as one of the second round of builds I hoped to do for this GB after getting the Blenheim and Me-410 done, but a combination of my very poor impulse control and a morbid curiosity to find out if we’ll bring Enzo out in hives if we hit triple figures on the number of build threads proved too hard to resist. I grabbed this one a couple of weeks ago as Hobbycraft started to stock Airfix, and I had a 25% off voucher: It wasn’t the only Airfix kit I grabbed that day, so thanks to the voucher this one was technically free Scheme-wise, I’m a little undecided. I do look the boxart scheme, and coming out of the Desert GB I’m still drawn to desert schemes: However, I also have an Eduard 110 kit, with this rather unusual scheme on the boxart, which is a nightfighter with a temporary application of RLM 72 to the upper surfaces for its role in Operation Donnerkeil. And it has a shark mouth: So the final scheme might be a bit of a coin flip come paint time. Roll on Saturday! James

Time for another old favourite, and my RAF contribution to this build. As Airfix is re-releasing this kit in 2024 in the Vintage Classics line, it means there will be no new tooling in the near future. That's the bad news. The good news is that I can now build this kit, and then replenish the stash in a few months, as I like this kit. I hadn't intended keeping this for the Airfix GB later this year, as I already have more than enough to choose from for that. I bought this kit in June 1999 for 9 Irish Pounds, c. 11 Euro in new money. The box was larger than the standard Series 4 box, and a flimsy 1-part design. The artwork is very similar to the 1968 original, which I assume was by Roy Cross. The first time I built this kit in 1987, it came in the boring "completed kit on the cover" packaging. The only other time the original artwork was forsaken was for a 2010 release. The Vintage Classics re-release will of course revert to the original artwork (and presumably just the one subject). The only missing part (which may be my fault) is one of the cylindrical tail fairings for the bombs. Easy to deal with if it comes to that. The last time I built this I closed the bomb bay, and I still have at least some of those four bombs in the spare box, pre-assembled. Naturally, the Swedish subject is off limits for this build, but I'd like to build it in the future, which is one of the reasons why I will probably be getting not just one but two more of this kit. Of the two RAF subjects. my current preference is for the 106 sq. aircraft, which unusually (to me) has the top camouflage continuing below the wings. I hope to start this in a couple of days.

This one has occupied me since Christmas. It's not an easy kit to build, with quite a few significant pooh traps, not least the 5 part fuselage. As I often find with big kits, I was getting a little tired of it by the end. Nevertheless, I am very pleased with the results and now struggling to find a place to display it! The kit comes from BPK (£99.99 via Jadlam) and the decals from Air Graphics (£21.99 via Hannants). Sadly, the kit does not have an opening weapons bay, and the nice looking Air Graphics resin one was out of stock by the time I looked. Given the problems I had fitting the existing weapons bay door covers, I suspect that fitting the resin might have been challenging. Equally sadly, the RAF have not procured wing pylons or anything to hang on them, so my wings are bare, although I am looking at how I can put together a set of SPEAR 3 Missiles to hang from the wings in the future. Brush painted as usual with Humbrol enamels (I used 127 Ghost Grey, which is a little too blue for Boeing Grey (gray?), but matches my own photos quite well) with a darker grey wash in the panel lines. I added two cockpit crew and one side observer, just to give the kit a bit of life! Like with the E-3D kit I did a few years ago, I have managed to leave the wing and centre section loose (at the cost of a slightly gappy join) which will help with storage and transport. Photographing kits of this size always poses me a problem, so I am afraid I have had to photoshop some extraneous detail (my conservatory, house and cherry tree) out of some of the pictures.

I’d imagine that builds are not often inspired by the pages of Society magazines but this one comes courtesy of an image in The Bystander (a magazine that merged into Tatler in 1940) from August 1932. © Illustrated London News/Mary Evans Picture Library Approval from the copyright holder has been obtained for my posting this image here and I’d like to thank Luci and Jessica at the Mary Evans Picture Library for their help with this. I’ve been doing some digging on the Man and his Moth and I’ll spread a bit of the Story of Mr Presland and his De Havilland D.H.60G Gipsy Moth G-AALW through the build. Anyway, on with the kit! This is a Novo version of F169 from my box of bagged Mystery Frogs but the plastic doesn’t actually look too bad and there’s much less flash than I was expecting. I’m going to try and keep this one fairly simple, there’s a few additions needed (a bit more cockpit detail (i.e. some cockpit detail...), and there's an exhaust pipe that needs adding) but that’s going to be it. First job is going to be sanding down the wing corrugations a bit and drilling out for the rigging. I think I must be teetering on the brink to embark on another biplane needing rigging when I already have a Vimy underway with more rigging needed than a Frigate of the line but compared with that this should be an amuse-bouche… Cheers, Richard.

This is my latest completion, the Airfix 1/72 kit of the Messerschmitt BF 110E Trop, built using the kit scheme for a machine from 7/Zerstörergeschwader 26, Derna, Libya, 1942. It’s also the first of my many builds in the WW2 Twins GB I’m running to make it over the line. Pretty much OOB, I added the crew as the cockpit detail was a bit on the sparce side, and the nose guns were replaced with brass tube. Paint is Mr Hobby acrylics, and weathering is a combination of oil paints and pigments. The WIP is here. James

After a break of a few months from this build, uni and flying real gliders getting in the way, I've finally finished this 1/72 Grunau Baby iib. I'm used to trying to maximise the visibility of gliders, adding orange tape and canopy flashers and other such things. Painting it in camouflage feels very wrong! But it does look fantastic. This is the third of this kit I've built and I definitely plan to do more! I'd like to do some more colourful schemes typical for a wooden sailplane. For comparison, here it is with a 1/72 Bf109. It's not that small really with its high aspect ratio wings. WIP thread here: Next up, finishing my model of the Astir I fly....

Today I just finished up a thread where I was building a couple of 1/72 Grunau Baby kits. I did finish this one a few months ago, but I just realised I didn't get around to posting the RFI thread so here it is. The WIP thread can be seen here:

I have started on a Lancia. This is the only one in 1/72 from CSM. It is a great kit and makes you hope that they will make more in this scale.

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

Like https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/profile/29912-robstopper/ I too have recently acquired an airbrush (a Neoeco) and, like him, I wanted something to practice on and went for the same kit. Didn't want to invest in any extras for what should be a painting exercise so going with the scheme on the box.

This is my 1/72 AZ Models Fulmar - Will be built as Fulmar Mk.II N4065 of 804 Squadron as utilised from the Navy’s Fighter Catapult Ships (FCS) One of my earlier builds this year was a Hurricane of the MSFU. Before the MSFU the Fleet Air Arm was catapult Launching Fulmars from ships (The Fighter Catapult Ships (FCS)) To continue the theme, the aircraft I am building, N4065, was launched at least twice from an FCS and was flown from HMS Springbank on 10 June 1941 by PO(A) Frederick James Shaw, RN (who incidentally made the first operational launch from an FCS on 11 January 1941) . His three documented operation launches from an FCS accounts for 1/4 of the 12 recorded FCS operational launches. Tragically PO Shaw was killed on 02 August 1942, Aged 28, with 881 Sqn when his Martlet stalled and crashed in the sea whilst landing onto HMS Illustrious.

Hi there I was recently given a Vingtor 1/72 decal sheet for one of these. I have an Airfix GR 9 kit, what else is needed and how could the conversion be done? Regards Toby

Accompanying my Ventura build will be the Italeri Ju-88. It will be OOB with SMS model decals for 2/PLeLv 44 (Pommituslentolaivue) or 2 Flight/44 Bomber Squadron. I think I will go with the late war scheme at this stage

1/72 Messerschmitt Bf 109 line as part of the Eduard 1/72 revolution Bf 109F-2/F-4/G-2/G-4 versions confirmed - in 3D construction source: http://ipmsnymburk.com/forum/viewtema.php?ID_tema=11559 post 26531) 26.06.2015-13:08 S.199 is confirmed as a future release for later time with the 1/72 MiG-21 line

It all started with me building three of the Roden Rolls Royce armoured cars: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235079254-rolls-royce-armoured-car-1914/ When the Rolls Royce chassis of the armoured cars finally was worn out, the armoured bodies were moved to Fordson truck chassis. As I already had built three different variants of the Rolls Royce I also wanted a Fordson. I ordered a Roden Rolls Royce for my project. Then I needed a Ford chassis. In my local hobby store there was a 917t Maultier and a look at the instructions showed that it had the parts to build the wheel version so I bought it. But as I later found out, it was the wrong chassis. I had to order a V3000s to get the right one. Luckily it also has all parts included for the 917t so I can still build that this if I find an engine of some sort. I started to put the chassis and the armoured body together. As the Roden kit didn't have a complete engine I had to open up the floor to get the Ford engine in. Time has come to start planning for the "cargo bed". The wheels was something that I thought would be a problem. But I think that I found a solution. Airfix messed up with their CCKW 353 truck and made the wheels with five holes instead of six. I had a bunch of those faulty front wheels that I would use now. I cut the tires off from them and sanded down the rims to make them thinner. Then I removed the rims of the Roden wheels and will fit the Airfix rims in those tires. It will probably not be 100 % right but it will be close enough for me.

My first GB of the year, looking for a nice easy build. My entry is Tamiya’s 1/72 F-84G, plan is to finish it in the scheme shown on the box art.

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.