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Here is another Sweet 1:144 early Hurricane Mk.I I built back in 2009. It represents H-22 of 2nd Escadrille (Les Chardons), 1st Group, 2nd Regiment, Royal Belgian Air Force, at Schaffen, in May 1940. The kit was built OOB and fully painted and varnished with brush. Thanks for looking Miguel

Hello all, I am trying to find detailed plans or schematic, with dimensions, of these iconic hovercraft. I have checked Wikipedia and the Hovercraft Museums sites and have worked out the full lengths and widths, but could do with details on the cabin, fins, propeller, skirt etc., etc. I would be grateful for any help with these. cheers, Mike

Here are two of four Jach 1:144 Lippisch P.20s I built in 2018. These were simple kits which, apart from scratchbuilding a cockpit and wing probe, I built OOB. This was a proposed jet-engined development of the Me 163 Komet. Jach suggests the B version has hardpoints for drop tanks or X-4 missiles whereas the A is clean so I did it this way. Both were fully painted and varnished by brush. Lippisch P.20A. Yellow 3, JG53, Luftwaffe, 1946 (fictitious). Lippisch P.20B. "<", Stab/JG27, Luftwaffe, 1946 (fictitious). Thanks for looking! Miguel

Here are a couple of Sweet 1:144 Mitsubishi A6M2b Type 21 Zeroes which I built back in 2011 in unusual schemes. Both were built OOB and painted by brush with only the matt varnish being airbrushed. The first one is 2-1-128 of Junyou Kokutai (Fighter Group), Imperial Japanese Navy, in 1943. The second one is 81-181 of 381st Kokutai, 311st Hikotai, Imperial Japanese Navy, in 1944. Thanks for looking and, as always, comments are welcome. Miguel

Here is a Focke-Wulf Triebflugel I built back in 2012. It is a Takara 1:144 gashapon pre-painted partially-assembled kit which I took apart, had the paint and markings sanded down and re-painted and re-assembled. The kit was a nightfighter variant hence the thimble nose for the radar. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush and decals came from various sources. It represents "Black 3", of an ISS (industry point defence) unit, Luftwaffe, Germany (fictitious of course). All comments welcome and thanks for looking Miguel

Here is my Attack 1:144 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21SMT "Fishbed K" which I built back in 2012. It represents "Yellow 09", of the 582nd IAP, at Chojna airfield, Poland, in late 1980s. The Attack MiG-21 kits were quite basic and have been superseded by the superior Eduard kits. In fact I built this one at the same time as an Eduard kit. I made a series of improvements which included adjusting the nose wheel to correct the sit, adding the intake on the spine and the nose probes (the long one a spare from the Eduard kit), sharpening the nose cone, adding the retraction arms to the main legs and opening the solid-moulded rear sections of the rocket pods. The underfuselage tank was also taken from the Eduard kit. The bombs aren't entirely correct but I left them as they came. I finished the kit in one of the options of the Eduard kit. The colours may not be 100% correct but I didn't find any references to guide me. The kit was painted with brush except for the final light coat of matt varnish which was airbrushed. Thanks for looking Miguel

Hello everyone! Here is one of my two latest kits, finished last weekend. It's Mark I Models brand new 1:144 Messerschmitt Bf 109K-4 which I started building the day I received it about 4 weeks ago. It represents White 1, W. Nr. 330204, of 9./JG77, Luftwaffe, at Neuruppin airfield, Germany, in November 1944. It was built mostly OOB adding belts from Tamiya tape and the armoured headrest (a bit of a fiasco that) in the cockpit as well as the missing tail mast for the radio wires and the FuG 25a IFF aerial under the fuselage. I opened up the supercharger intake which was moulded solid. The FuG 16ZY aerial under the wing and the pitot were replaced with items made from stretched sprue as they were too thick. I used the kit's loop antenna but thinned it in profile. It's a bit oversized. This kit was nicely moulded but had some sink marks to be dealt with on both sides of the supercharger intake and the oil radiator. Fit of parts wasn't bad but some work was necessary to get the wing to fit well with the fuselage and even then a little work along the roots was necessary. The fit of the canopy also needed some attention. The kit has two nasty flaws. The join of one fuselage side in the tail area leaves a large seam that does NOT match panel lines so they must be filled and the panel lines and rudder restored after sanding. The second concerns the main undercarriage legs, they are too long by 1-1.5mm. I shortened them (after removing them successfully from the kit) and deepened the dimple into which they are inserted. Getting their angles right is by eye as there are no guides. I was so concerned with these problems that I forgot to thin the doors! The propeller tips needed some attention too as they were a bit too wide and rounded. The kit was fully painted (the propeller spiral included) and varnished by brush and the decals went on very well Thank you for looking and all comments are welcome as always Miguel

Hello everyone! Here is the second of my two latest kits, finished last weekend. It's Mark I Models brand new 1:144 Messerschmitt Bf 109K-4 which I started building the day I received it about 4 weeks ago and built simultaneously with the other one I posted yesterday. It represents 3-14, W. Nr. 333878, of 3a Squadriglia, I Gruppo Caccia, Aeronautica Nationale Repubblicana, at Lonate Pozzolo airfield, Italy, in March 1945. The same notes concerning the build of the other one apply here. The kit was fully painted and varnished by brush and the decals went on very well although the green was off-register. I didn't paint the kit in the RLM82/83 upper surfaces scheme as suggested by Mark I since , according to what I found on internet, K-4s were either painted RLM81/83 or RLM75/83, and some sources pointed to this aircraft being the latter so I went for that. Where I did foul up was with the overpainted German markings. It seems that the Italians used Grigio Azzuro Chiaro (Light Blue Grey) to overpaint them and that's what I did but it was mentioned to me that they most probably darkened it to reduce contrast which would make a lot of sense. Sadly the warning came when have the decals were on! Thanks for looking Miguel

Season's Greetings Folks, Disappointing year really, lots of models started, few completed. This is the Revell 1/144 Airbus A380 with TwoSix Qantas Airways decals. It was built for an Australian colleague after they saw the Air New Zealand B787-9 built for a Kiwi colleague. May be it was me, but this kit fought all the way and practically refused to be built. First the wing dihedral was completely off, still cannot understand why, the end result being that the wings drooped so much the engines touched the ground. I ended up cutting hacking chord wise slots in the upper wing surface (two per side) and manipulating the wing angle section by section until the engine clearance look reasonable. Queue lots of filling and sanding of about a third of each wing's surface area, oh may be half dozen times until I was satisfied. And then a full rescribe of the upper wing surface. Things were so bad I contemplated starting again and bought a second kit. Not sure I have the will to endure this again... Enough ranting you get the picture. Other corrections were the body gear doors, shortening the length of the wing gear legs (so the body gear no longer hang in the breeze), and filling lots of fuselage sink marks. Paints were Halford's own Plastic White Primer, and Gloss Appliance White, first time used straight from the can due to the sheer size of this model. Fed up with Xtracolour Airbus Grey I tried the Revell Aqua 50/50 Blend of 371/374, which looks good, but some reason it turned into an unsprayable gloop in my airbrush even with Revell's own thinner. So I reverted to Xtracrylix ADC Grey for a pale grey, which is too warm a grey, but will have to do. And Xtracrylix Neutral Grey for the corroguard. Plus various Alclad shades for the engines. Kit decals worked well, even the wing walk markings, but why the spinner spirals are printed yellow is a mystery. 26Decals were incredible as always, exceptionally thin, very tolerant and snuggled down nicely with MicroSet and Sol. The final annoyance was that the damn thing doesn't fit in my photo studio, compromising the photos! Best regards, Darren

Here is my Eduard 1:144 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21Bis "Fishbed N" which I built back in 2012. It represents "MG-129", of HavLLv 31, Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force), at Kuopio-Rissala, Finland, in 1980-1981. The kit was built OOB and panted with brush except for thr final light coat of matt varnish which was airbrushed. Thanks for looking Miguel

Here is the second of a trio of Sweet 1:144 "BoB Aces" Hawker Hurricane Mk.Is built back in 2009. It represents P2921/GZ-L, flown by Flt Lt Peter Malam Brothers, No. 32 Sqn, RAF, Biggin Hill/Hawkings, UK, July 1940. The kit was fully painted with brush except for the final matt varnish which was airbrushed. Thanks for looking Miguel

Hello good people I just finished this for a 1940 group build on Kampfgruppe 144 and thought I would also post here as I haven't seen that many finished examples of this kit. There's a WIP thread here if anyone is interested. It is the Mark1 Models Gloster Sea Gladiator. I used the Marabu Design etch set which was brilliant. The Mark1 kit needs a bit of work to correct some obvious accuracy issues. I haven't completely managed to sort everything, but it's as good a shot as I could manage. I have to say, I slightly surprised myself with this build - not only was it less arduous than I'd imagined (I think Marabu do most to the work for you) but it was also quite enjoyable. A complete contrast to my previous Gladiator build which was - on the face of it - much simpler, being an out of the box build. I took a gamble doing the rigging with the top wing temporarily off which worked really quite nicely. I may try this approach more often with 144 biplanes. I will confess that I'm really rather happy with the outcome with this. Yes it is not a perfect Gladiator and there are some shape issues from the Mark1 kit that still could be addressed (the cowling is too bulbous and I think the forward fuselage is also a bit too shallow and too long, but I'd need to check against drawings). But overall I think it is pretty Gladiatorsome. And to finish, one of the smallest allied single engined fighters with the largest. Thanks very much for looking! Angus

Here are a couple of Sweet 1:144 Mitsubishi A6M5 Zeros I built back in 2011. These are delightful little kits which require a little work but nothing too complex and no filler. I built them OOB just adding the missing wing pitot tube from stretched sprue and, of course, the radio wire. They were both painted by brush and only the final varnish was airbrushed. 1. Mitsubishi A6M5 Type 52 Zero 53-104, of 253rd Flying Group, Imperial Japanese Navy, flown by W.O. Tetsuzo Iwamoto, from Rabaul Tobera AB, New Britain Island, in February 1944. 2. Mitsubishi A6M5 Type 52a Zero 43-118, of 343rd (Founder) Flying Group, Imperial Japanese Navy, Guam, from the Mariana Islands, in 21 June 1944. Thank you for looking and all comments are welcome Miguel

Here is my latest kit, finished this week. It's Kami de Korokoro's resin 1:144 Fokker D.XXI. It represents FR-106, LLv 32, Finnish Air Force, Siikakangas, summer 1940. Finland's top ace, Ilmari Juutilainen had scored a kill with this machine during the winter war (1939-40). As with my previous kit (also of Kami de Korokoro) despite the low part count it gave plenty of work but for different reasons. This one had less moulding flaws and flash in general though the propeller was very tricky to clean up. Unfortunately, the kit is a bit off in shape being somewhat compressed in length and with the tailfin too wide and the canopy top too curved. I managed to fix the latter two and lengthened the engine part as it was a bit short too. This meant making new blisters (which were oversized anyhow) and replacing the exhaust and the two underside intakes, all made from parts from my spares box. Apart from the tail struts and radio mast which were made from the thin metal rods supplied in the bagged kit, I added several details from stretched sprue: the guns, wing pitot (simplified), the gunsight and the tail mast. The scheme was based on a profile I found on internet. The colours aren't 100% authentic but come sufficiently close to those seen on photos of the replica on display in the Finnish Air Force museum. The kit was fully painted and varnished by brush. I replaced the insignia decals with those from a Mark I sheet and only used the serial and tactical numbers from the kit's sheet. Thank you for looking and all comments are welcome as always Miguel

Here is the third of my Minicraft 1:144 Martin B-26 Marauders which I built back in 2014. It represents Martin B-26C-45-MO Marauder 42-107812/KS-J "Baby Bumps II", of 557th BS, 387th BG, USAAF, in 1944. I added a Matador Models white metal cockpit, opened up all the windows and thinned the turret guns as much as possible. Despite the white metal cockpit part, I had to add a little extra weight to prevent the kit from tipping on its tail. The gun barrels of the external gun packs were scraped off the fuselage sides and replaced with new ones from either plastic or metal rod (can't remember!). The kit was completely painted and varnished by brush. Thanks for looking and, as usual, all comments are welcome Miguel

Not sure if this is the right place on the forum for this but seemed more appropriate here than in Science Fiction/Real Space. Though, I grant you, it does look pretty funky. The Vickers C Bomber was a paper project for a 75 ton long range heavy bomber to replace the Avro Lancaster. It was designed to carry large bomb loads to bomb the Ruhr. Several variations of this design were drawn up, with the third variant (hence the ‘C’) being the most bizarre and radical. Ultimately, however, the tradeoff between range, defensive armament and aerodynamic stability proved too much on paper and the Air Ministry backed off. Had Air Ministry approval and funding ever become available, the C Bomber would still likely not have entered service before 1945 and even then would have required specialised expanded runways and airfields from which to operate. Some pretty cracking box art... This is the Fantastic Plastic Vickers C Bomber, beautifully cast by Anigrand. I've not seen one of these built up before so thought some might be interested to see it here. There's a WIP thread on KG144 here: http://www.kampfgruppe144.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5295 and Out of the Box Review here http://www.kampfgruppe144.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=5264&p=32008&hilit=vickers+fantastic#p32008 I've not built a 'what if' before but I've noticed on some builds that people do elaborate backstories. I've often thought this is endearingly nerdy but probably much too much trouble and effort. But while suffering from an acutely delayed flight before Christmas and with book and magazines exhausted... Well... forgive me. Perhaps we could all do with a bit of escapism to an alternate reality at a time like this. Well that was fun. If you made it this far, I salute you. Though I do recommend writing stupidly elaborate backstories as a way to ease the tedium of a dreary, antiseptic departure lounge. Not a very challenging build and basically out of the box. I replaced the rather poor kit decals with some of my own (pilfering a Kitsworld Lancaster sheet for 'Thumper' and various spares sheets). I also pilfered a lot of stencils and markings from that same sheet. I also replaced the guns. I figured, I'm only going to build one of these things and the Anigrand ones are frankly rubbish. So I ordered some Ju-87 cannons and Japanese 20mms from Master. Beautiful though they are, I now live in fear of them pinging off into Narnia, n'er to be seen again. I've obviously taken inspiration from this: Good fun and a complete break from what I'm used to doing. Thanks for looking! Angus p.s. I can confirm that all six wheels do in fact touch the ground when placed on a level surface. The board I'm using is bowed!

Here is my latest kit finished just yesterday. It's Kami de Korokoro's all resin 1:144 Caproni-Campini N.1. It represents the first prototype (MM487) at the Caproni facility in Taliedo, near Milan, Italy, on 27 August 1940. Although low in part count, it still took quite a bit of work to clean up the parts, fix malformations and improve the mating of parts. I added the main undercarriage retraction arms and the wing pitot from stretched sprue. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. The kit decals were poorly printed so, apart from the tail crosses, the remaining markings came from other sheets. Although I didn't completely iron out all the flaws, I'm pleased with the end result. Thank you for looking and all comments are welcome as always Miguel

Here are a pair of Platz 1:144 Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden-Kai (Early) "George" which I built back in 2007. Both kits were built OOB and fully painted and varnished with brush. Like the P-51D I posted last week, these Platz kits are a real delight with great finesse for this scale and are highly recommended. It's just a shame the type is limited in terms of schemes since all machines flew with the 343 Kokutai (Wing) and the only differences being the fuselage bands for each squadron of the wing. The first one represents "91", a prototype at the Kawanishi factory, Japan, in December 1944. The second one is "15", 343-15, 343 Kokutai, 301 Hikotai, Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force, flown by squadron leader Lt Naoshi Kanno, Matsuyama airfield, Japan, April 1945. Thanks for looking Miguel

Here is my Platz 1:144 North American P-51D-15-NA Mustang which I built back in 2007. It represents 44-14888/B6-Y "Glamorous Glenn III", flown by Captain Charles 'Chuck' Yeager, of 363rd FS, 357th FG, 8th Air Force, USAAF, in summer 1944. The kit was built OOB and fully painted and varnished with brush. These Platz kits are a real delight with great finesse for this scale. Eduard has recently released these same moulds under their label. Highly recommended. Thanks for looking Miguel

I would like to enter with this Short SC.5/10 Belfast in 1:144 scale by Welsh Models: It is a good size kit for 1:144 scale and should give me lots of hassle, frustration and pleasure building it. Mike

Hello everyone! Here is my latest kit and the first of this year. It's Mark I Model's 1:144 Dassault (SABCA) Mirage 5BA representing BA 21 (No.021), 2nd Sqn 'La Comète', 2nd Tactical Wing, Belgian Air Force, based at Florennes AB, Belgium in late 1985. This machine was sent to a museum in Deblin, Poland, following retirement. Following my previous experience with this kit last year (Swiss AF Mirage IIIRS) where it was pointed out the kit had a nose-down sit rather than the opposite, I made a correction to the nose wheel leg part. It is clearly too short lacking some 1.5 to 2 mm. I sawed it in the centre and added a plug from stretched sprue. The end result was much better. I also modified the large drop tanks as the ones in the kit were not of the type often used by the Belgians with down-sloping fins and not straight fins with vertical stabilisers. The pylons used were those from the smaller tanks. I removed the missile rails from the outer pylons. As with the other kit, the tailfin leading edge probe was removed and the nose probe was replaced by one from stretched sprue. Two antennae on the spine were made from spare metal from etched parts. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Thank you for looking and all comments are welcome as always Miguel

Here is another pair of Sweet 1:144 General Motors FM-2 Wildcat VIs I built back in 2007. Builds were OOB with just the wing probe being added from wire. They were both painted by brush with the final varnish being airbrushed. First: Wildcat VI JV640/"O", of 881 Sqn, HMS Pursuer, Fleet Air Arm, in Southern France, August 1944 during Operation Dragoon, the first combat use of the Wildcat VI. Secondly: Wildcat VI JV851/"J3-V", of No 794 NAS, Fleet Air Arm, Eglinton, October-November 1945. As always, thanks for looking Miguel

Hello everyone! This was my attempt back in 2013 at correcting the awful Trumpeter 1:144 Chengdu F-7-II, Chinese derivative of the early MiG-21F-13. It represents Chengdu F-7-IIN "701", of No 5 "Arrow" Sqn, Air Force of Zimbabwe, based at Thornhill-Gweru AB, in late 1980s. I ended up using parts from a scrapped Revell MiG-21PF to correct the major flaws. The tailfin was wrong for an F-7-II being more like an F-7-III (similar to MiG-21MF). The underfuselage fin was wrong too, being too short in height. The tailplanes looked like inflated cushions and even sanding them flat was no good so I used the Revell parts instead. Besides they were somewhat undersized too.The u/c legs were so tall the kit would have ended up looking like it was on stilts! The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. The markings came from a Berna decals sheet. This represents an F-7-IIN early in AFZ service so it only had 2 wing pylons. The machines were later upgraded and had 4 pylons. These machines were quite clean so weathering was minimal. Not a great result but at least I saw it through and managed something much better than what came in the box! Thanks for looking Miguel

Here is another F-Toys 1:144 Bristol Beaufighter I built in 2016. It is Beaufighter Mk.VI "308" of Escuadrón de Caza-Bombardeo, Cuerpo de Aviación Militar Dominicana, Dominican Republic, in 1948. The Dominican Beaufighters were really re-engined late-Mk.Xs with the torpedo gear removed. By changing the engines to Hercules VIs, these aircraft became technically classified as Mk.VIs. I had to carry out a series of conversions/upgrades: adding the strike camera, making longer carburettor intakes, making spinners, oval landing light, late-type rear wingtip lights and aerials above the fin extension, as well as missing underside aerials and underwing pitot The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. The markings came from Petersplanes decals. Thanks for looking Miguel

Here is an old LS 1:144 Panavia Tornado IDS finished as 43+47, of MFG1, Marineflieger, at Schleswig-Jagel, German Federal Republic, in the early 1980s. I built this one back in 1999. I replaced the stores and pylons with those from an Italeri (Dragon) kit. I forgot to put nose weight so I finished the kit "in flight". I therefore added the two crew members from plasticene! The kit was mostly painted with brush except for the white and the varnish which were airbrushed. The main section of the stand came from an old Matchbox kit. Thanks for looking Miguel