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Greetings Fellow Modellers! I submit for your perusal a pair of small, so terribly small Gnats . Both models are Airfix's newish Gnat T.1 in 1:72 scale. They represent my return to the hobby, in that on these models I let loose every experiment from which I could learn. I initially wanted to build them OOB, but I ended up using quite a bit of aftermarket stuff: the pitot tubes are Albion Alloy Micro Brass Tubes and the nose wheels are from a nice wheel update set from the Hungarian company SBS. The nose wheels make an improvement over airfix's ones which are a little bit too small. The main wheels are from the kit, and the examples left over from the SBS set will be used later for a hangar diorama. The canopy was cut with a Revell precision saw to enable it to be posed open. The interior of the canopy was lightly detailed with thin plastic card and stretched sprue. For canopy work I mostly used bookbinder's glue, which is a strong PVA type. The windscreen was made flush with the fuselage with the aid of Gunze Mr. Dissovled Putty and then Mr Surfacer 500. Same story for smoothing the side walls of the nose wheel wells. Cockpit and ejection seats were detailed with plastic card of different thicknesses, stretched sprue and very occasionally thin brass wire. Paint was basically Gunze Sangyo Mr Hobby, except Vallejo for detail work and Citadel Runefang Steel for the silver. I had lots of trouble with the H1 gloss white, which I applies much too thickly and as a result wouldn't cure well. Thanks to tips from the Tools&Tips section (thanks DuncanB ) I learned some new skills. First matt white, a coat or two, then one coat of gloss. Works beautifully. Decals were from all over the place: lots of stuff from S&M models' sheet, wing stencils came from the home printer, and the rest was basically scavenged. Please forgive the format of some of the photos, I liked the idea of imitating 1970s film, so I edited the model's images accordingly. gnat2-7 by J Goat, on Flickr gnat2-9 by J Goat, on Flickr gnat2-13 by J Goat, on Flickr gnat2-1 by J Goat, on Flickr gnat2-3 by J Goat, on Flickr gnat2-15 by J Goat, on Flickr gnat2-4 by J Goat, on Flickr gnat2-5 by J Goat, on Flickr gnat2-2 by J Goat, on Flickr gnat2-14 by J Goat, on Flickr Thanks for looking! Jay

I've just started this one after making a Tamiya Lotus 79. I actually prefer the looks of this one- the 79 was copied so much it looks a little generic now. The kit though, is far older than I'd realised (almost as old as the real thing!), and very different to the modern Lotus 79 kit. The chassis needs a bit of work before anything is glued together. First of all, the front wing was quite badly warped, and sticking upwards at about 10 degrees each side. So to fix that I've fixed a brace to the inside of the nose. This pushed the sides out to where they should be and straightens out the wings in the process. The other modification needed is to remove the great big lump that sits in the sidepods- I guess this is where the battery goes on the original kit. The nose has also been updated, with the missing triangular cutouts added behind the wing. The upper suspension arms are made as one block, with a great big lump of plastic holding the two sides together. I've cut this out, and will hold the two parts together with brass rod. This means that they can be fitted one the chassis is painted too, but does leave some holes in the chassis to fill.

Hi all I am still addicted to building Vulcan's and here is my latest one of the Dragon Vulcan's I have been making. I actually made her in July this year but I have not got around to photographing her. Sadly the weather is horrible and can't get any nice summer shots but maybe I will do some more of her in the future. Ironically the weather yesterday when I shot her was just like the inspirational photos I worked from of her in 1977 at Leuchers Here is the photo http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v142/MikePix/Leuchars%201977/VulcLeucXM606.jpg I am really pleased with how she come out I really worked hard to get her camo pattern close as I could from the photos. I just wish I was around back then I would have loved that airshow. Cheers all comments welcome good and bad as always. Rob