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Hello, this will be my first box I am going to build at this blog 😀

Hello, This is my first time entering a group build, and my first all resin model. IMG_4532 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr I have a long association with the PT-19. My parents met in flight school, and when I was born a family friend painted a cartoon of me flying the club’s PT-19 (registered PP-HOA). That cartoon is on my arrival notice card, was painted on my crib, and it’s my avatar here. That is me in the photo below, not even one year old, in the front cockpit of a PT-19 with my mother holding me. Mae PT-19 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr Around the mid ‘70s HOA started sporting a shark’s mouth, which changed through time. When I visited in ’88 it was partially disassembled for shipping to the air force’s museum in Rio de Janeiro, and it sported quite the shark mouth. Painting it was going to be the challenge for this build, yet my friend Rob, a graphics artist, drew it and I have custom decals ordered. 293 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr I found this kit by accident last year while I had some idle time in Toronto and decided to check out a pilot supply store near the hotel. It was quite a surprise, and I wasn’t about to pass on it. I won't start it right away because I have two Corsairs near the finish line and I'd like to get at least one of them through beforehand. Cheers, Wlad

Hello everyone, it's time for me to join another group build! I'll be building a Revell 1:48 scale P-51C Mustang Mk.III, FB145 PK*F, straight from the box for this GB. According to Revell, this plane was in the No. 315 Squadron based in Coolham, England in June 1944. Box shot below: The kit contains six sprues of parts, detailing seems nice: Only problem is the weather which is unusually nice for a Finnish summer weather and thus limits my time at the bench, but I suspect this problem will be dealt with shortly /Jari

Hello and welcome to my build. I'll be working on Clear Prop's 1/48 scale Hawk H75N. This is a very nice looking kit from the Ukrainian manufacturer that is available in several boxings and I'm both 1/48 and 1/72 scales. The box I have has several options to build Thai and Royal Thai Air Force machines. It comes in one of those two piece boxes with a flip-top sub-lid that seems popular with Ukrainian manufacturers. The box art is quite pretty, and with the orange sides would really make it pop on store shelves, if your local hobby shop is cool enough to import interesting kits. Inside the box you get a kit molded in a fairly hard, but not brittle dark gray plastic, w And featuring very petite surface detail. There is plenty of detail for the engine and cockpit parts. Seperate control surfaces, and a small feet of etched details. The decal sheet looks nice enough, and the markings look thin. We'll see how they perform. Note that I have already glued a few parts together, but I feel I'm well under the 25% threshold. More on that in the next post.

Being a CH-53 pilot (now retired), I always wanted to build a decent model of a German CH-53 in 1:48 scale. The Revell kit is from the early 1980s and represents the technology of that time. Revell has researched the newer versions very well, added new parts (new rotor blades, tanks, radar and missile detection system, chaff and flare dispensers) for the CH-53GS and GA editions but the main parts remained unchanged during the many reissues of this kit. Nevertheless, It is worth every cent of it's price, because it offers the opportunity to spend a huge amount of time working on it. How boring is a Tamiya kit compared to that, where everything is correct and fits perfectly? Well, it was more than 10 years ago, when I started this kit and I gave up, when it was already masked, painted and partly decalled, and put it into the so called shelf of doom. I was not in the mood then to correct all the shortcomings and flaws. About one month ago, a former comrade asked me to repair some broken parts from his model, which he had bought somewhere. I did so and remembered my old started model in the basement. And all of a sudden, I enjoyed rediscovering all the missing details and flaws that needed attention and working on it. Here is the result, still far away from being perfect. Some things I haven`t changed, because the model was already airbrushed, but I learned from then for the other two models I am working on right now, a GS and a GA verion. This model had to be one of my former regiment, Heeresfliegeregiment 15 in Rheine-Bentlage (ETHE). The numbers of the decal sheet allowed the 84+75, which was fine. This model represents the aircraft between about 1989 and 1997. About 1989 all the static discharge systems were removed, because it had proved to be ineffective, and 1997 the old Aluminium rotor blades as shown here were replaced by more modern and aerodynamically more effective so called "Improved rotor blades" . Things I have changed or improved: - Remove the part for the air refuelling boom from the glass part and polish it, - shorten all three landing gear legs by 2 mm - add details to the top of the instrument panel like map storage and stand by compass - Remove the crude mechanism of the tail rotor and rebuild it - add hydraulic lines to the main rotor head - reduce the height of the main rotor head above the blades by 2 mm - add yellow stripes to the main rotor blades as forklift markings - add engine front intake covers, as the compressor is nicely modelled, but too far forward - reduce the height of the front wheel cover by 2mm and add a small stripe of plastic on the bottom - add details to the wind shield wipers - add two small pins above the cockpit for the ice detection system and the outside air temperature gauge (which is already gone again) - add the shimmy damper to the the right front wheel (that cylindrical thing) - add various hydraulic lines for the blade fold mechanism at the main rotor head Things that should be done, but that I avoided, because the model was already assembled and painted: remove the premodelled wind shield wipers drill holes for the air intakes in the "dog house" above the cockpit for heating and Auxiliary power plant (APP) rebuild the front landing cover, because it is way too thick Here are the pictures, which I took at Rheine Bentlage airfield, which is still a military installation, but not used for military flying any more. greetings from Germany, Norbert

Terence (Terry) Spencer was born during a Zeppelin raid in 1918 – and after that start in life the rest was never going to be boring, was it? He applied to join the RAF from the Royal Engineers in early 1941 and was first posted to 26 Sqn in late 1942, flying Mustang Mk.Is, and then in early 1944 to 165 Sqn flying Spitfire Mk.IXs. In May 1944 he was posted to No. 41 Sqn, flying Spitfire Mk.XIIs. Between 23 June and 28 August 1944, he claimed seven V-1 flying bombs destroyed, with an eighth also recorded in his logbook. One he destroyed by tipping it up with his wing - sketched into his logbook by a fellow pilot who titled it "Tip 'em Up Terry". From Squadron records: 9th August: “F/Lt Spencer caught the usual dawn wave of flying bombs and dispatched another of them. He made a perfect interception and a half second burst sent it down to explode in a field” 23rd August: “A (cash) prize had been arranged for the pilot to destroy the Squadron's 80th flying bomb and it was awarded to F/Lt Spencer who . . . destroyed the 80th and the 81st” In early September 1944, his section of four encountered two Luftwaffe aces, Emil "Bully" Lang, the Commanding Officer of II/JG26 (173 victories), and Alfred Gross (52 victories), in Fw190s. Although one of his section was killed, the two aces were shot down, with Lang credited to Spencer. In January 1945 and now a Squadron Leader, he was posted to No. 350 (Belgian) Sqn flying Spitfire Mk.XIVs. On 26 February, he was hit by flak and captured. Just over a month later, he escaped by bicycle, and then motorcycle (sound familiar?) and made it back to Allied lines. He resumed command of 350 Sqn on 2nd April 1945 (his escapades being marked with drinks in the mess). But on the 19th he was hit by rocket fire while strafing a trawler. His good fortune saw him blown out of his cockpit with such force that his parachute deployed at a height of just 30-40 feet. Amazingly he survived - but was captured again. The Guinness Book of Records recognised this as having been the lowest authenticated survived bail-out on record. Spencer was liberated approximately two weeks later and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and, in 1947, the Territorial Efficiency Medal and the Belgian Croix de Guerre with Palm. Upon his return home he romanced the actress Lesley Brook, who starred in 23 films between 1937 and 1948. After a whirlwind romance, they married in August 1947 and moved to South Africa in July 1948, shortly after her final film release. What a couple they must have made. Spencer and his wife then started a successful aerial photography business. In 1952, he started shooting for Life magazine, covering war stories in Africa, including Sharpville, the Congo Crisis and many of the independence struggles. Plus Nelson Mandela on the run and Jomo Kenyatta in detention. In 1962 he returned to England and, at the request of his daughter, Spencer followed the Beatles (at the time largely unknown) for several months shooting more than 5,000 pictures. Commissioned by Life he covered the Vietnam War, crises in the Middle East, Indonesia, and Cuba after the Bay of Pigs Invasion. He also shot celebrity stories for People magazine including Freddie Mercury, Bob Dylan, Ava Gardner, Katharine Hepburn, Princess Grace of Monaco, Richard Branson, and John Cleese. Have a look at just some of his images here : https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/2/image?page=4&phrase=terence spencer&sort=best&license=rf%2Crm Terence Spencer DFC, Croix de Guerre with Palm, died in February 2009, aged 90, less than 24 hours after his wife of 62 years. ==================================== This then is my attempt at F/Lt T. Spencer's Spitfire Mk.XII as at 6th June 1944. The kit is the Airfix 1:48 Mk.XII with Eduard p.e. interior and Quickboost resin exhausts. I used the kit decals plus stencils from a Barracudacals set. Paints are acrylics: Ultimate grey primer with Xtracrylics and Tamiya. Some thinned Winsor and Newton oils for details, smeared felt pen for the gun stains and chalk pastels for the exhaust stains. I originally built this for the D-day group build – here's the build thread: I wanted to post here as I felt his story worth telling (and didn't really fit in a GB) - I think it can be said that he lived a full life (or two). All the best Mark

Not exactly a refreshingly different subject but I needed to build something familiar and simple to get back into the swing of things. This old Hasegawa 109 fit the bill. This model is completely OOB. The only things added were aftermarket decals and masking tape seat belts. Other than the mottling coming out too soft, I'm pretty ok with it. This is what it was supposed to look like. Thanks for looking. Ron

Ten years ago, almost to the day, on 24 July 2014, I was fortunate to witness the rollout of the RAAF's first F-35A in a ceremony at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth plant (back when I worked in the media). Given that small connection, that jet, known to the program as AU-1, and to the RAAF as A35-001 (and wearing 2OCU tail markings), will be the subject of my first/main/only* build for this GB. Which I will build using Tamiya's state-of-the-art 1/48 kit. Just look at that beautiful styrene goodness. Like the F-35 program itself mine will have a little bit of Australian industry involvement, thanks to decals... ... and masks from Ronin Graphics. Plus (not pictured) I plan to try SMS paint's Have Glass grey (PL59) for the main FS36170 grey (perhaps in a mix with something to give it the metallic effect). I also have 3D decals for the instrument panel and seats from Reskit. Incidentally I still have some merch - a cap and two challenge coins - from the rollout event. So I should be able to put together some sort of cool display with the finished model and the challenge coins in particular. Here's just hoping for an on-time and on-budget build! Thanks for looking in, Gerard (*TBC - I would love to build one each of an F-35A, B and C in this GB, but my build rate of late suggests otherwise!)

War for the Malvinas / Falklands Part 1 Decals Aztec Models - 1:48 & 1:72 Following a long standing dispute over the sovereignty of the Malvinas / Falkland Islands, war officially broke out 30 years ago on 2nd April 1982 when Argentine forces invaded the Islands. In response the British sent a task force to counter the invasion and fight to recapture the territory. The battle that followed was a challenge for both sides. For the British, the challenge was deploying a force so far from home with limited land platforms to supply the effort. For the Argentineans, despite occupying the Islands, only one airfield out of the three (Stanley) was paved but it still wasn't long enough to operate the fast jets from, so they had to carry out their attacks from the Argentine mainland. The British only had 42 Harriers to counter the attacking aircraft which comprised approximately 50 air superiority fighters and 70 attack aircraft. Initial attacks on Stanley were carried out by Vulcan bombers in the historic Black Buck raids successfully completing 8000 mile round trip missions from the British airfield at Ascension. The war caught the world by surprise and indeed created some challenging political situations where some nations officially backed Britain's interests, but were none the less committed to supporting the Argentineans with the technology that they had supplied to them. Initial attacks on British ships were carried out by A-4 Skyhawks, Mirage III's, Canberra's as well is Israeli supplied Daggers. The initial Daggers fared well boosting pilot confidence in the aircrafts ability to survive modern combat but later a Canberra and a Dagger were lost to defending Sea Harriers. On a subsequent combat between Harriers and Mirage III's one Mirage was shot down and another was damaged. Short of fuel, it tried to land at the Argentinian occupied Stanley airfield but was shot down by friendly fire. Although night combat air patrols were performed by the Harriers, they were deemed too valuable during the day role to make a major commitment during the dark hours. Following the initial Canberra loss, subsequent missions for this type of aircraft were only performed by night. The A-4's and Daggers continued in the Strike Role where as the Mirage was used as decoys to lure the Harriers away from the attack aircraft. Lack of A-A missiles and refuelling capabilities limited it's potential other than in this role. After a successful recapture of South Georgia by British forces, the full effort was turned to the Falklands. 74 days after the invasion by Argentinian forces, the islands were recaptured and the Argentinian forces surrendered. The conflict cost the lives of 649 Argentineans military personnel, 255 British and 3 civilian islanders. The pack Aztec have provided these decals in two scales, 1:72 (set D72-048) and 1:48 (set D48-048). The decals come on three sheets with two colour and two B&W sheets of instructions. I'm really impressed with the amount of individual aircraft that are catered for in this set. If you enjoy building your models with themes and have been looking to do a Falklands one, then you'll be very happy with this set. The aircraft you can build are: British Sea Harrier FRS.1 800 Sqn - XZ457, ZA193 Sea Harrier FRS.1 801 Sqn - XZ451, ZA175, ZA190 Sea Harrier FRS.1 809 Sqn - ZA177, ZA192 Sea King HAS.2, 825 Sqn RN - No. 97 Lynx HAS.2, 815 Sqn - XZ247, XZ691, XZ720, XZ728 Wasp HAS.1 - XT429, XS539 Argentinian A-4Q 1 ANAS Argentine Navy - 3-A-301, 3-A-304, 3-A-305, 3-A-307, 3-A-309, 3-A-312 (with selection of pre & wartime colours) A-4P Grupo 5 de Caza, Argentine Airforce - C0207, C-222, C-228, C-236, C-242 Canberra 2BS, Argentine Airforce - B-108 (Not included in 1:48 set) Mirage IIIEA Argentine Airforce - I-018, I-019, ? MB339, Argentine Navy - 4-A-115 Pucara, Grupo de Ataque 3, Argentine Airforce - A-506, A-528, A-537 Sea King SH-3, Argentine Navy - 2-H-233, 2-H-235 Lynx, Argentine Navy - 3-H-142 The Reference Material The instructions have lots of good and a few bad points. There is a wealth of information about colour schemes with plenty of side profiles and painting tips, for example explaining the variation in colour that can be found on the camouflaged Skyhawks. There are also photographs of the real aircraft and information about who flew the aircraft which makes for an interesting read. The slight downside is that the profiles are quite small and there is a lack of 3 view profiles, so you will probably need some support reference material to assist applying some of the decals. How readily available this support information is to come by, I don't know, so some replies from experts with good reference links would be most welcome. One of the things I really like is a paint chart for the aircraft contained that shows the paint numbers for the different paint manufacturers in comparison to the BS number - Humbrol, Model Master, Tamiya & Revell. Clearly a lot of research has gone into creating this set by Aztec and they've really tried to squeeze as much value into the set as possible reflected by the fact that you can build up to 38 aircraft from the set ! The Decals The decal sheets are jammed with detail, and very fine detail it is. There are three sheets that contain not only the aircraft markings, but a wealth of stencils. On the whole, the register is very good and the colours sharp. The British high vis roundels suffer a slight overlap of the blue and red colours which is visible if you look closely. There are some small British low vis roundels where the pink part is very slightly off centre to the surrounding blue. How noticeable this will be when on the kit I don't know. I'm trying to be objective and critical here as is the responsibility of a reviewer, these really are minor issues in the overall excellent quality of the pack. In Aztecs intent to get as many decals onto a sheet as possible, care will need to be taken cutting the decals from the sheet as they are quite close together. I normally use a pair of scissors, but for these I would use a sharp scalpel knife. Conclusion With the 30th Anniversary of the Falklands war and the recent release of the Airfix 1:72 Skyhawk, this is a timely and exciting release by Aztec. There's a few minor issues as I've mentioned above, namely the aircraft profiles and the British roundels, but you don't get much more value crammed into a pack of decals than this. Clearly there are some key aircraft missing from the pack, Wessex, Argentine Hercules and Vulcan stand out, so I suspect Part 2 will be just as welcome as this. As mentioned in the review, the Canberra isn't included in the 1/48 set. If you have the remotest interest in the Falklands conflict and build in either 1/72 or 1/48th, you really need a pack of these in your collection ! Review sample courtesy of Available direct or from most large Model Retailers

Another model flew into the workshop, one of those that are lingering in the cupboard and I still have a lot of it and my wife is whining about how much of it (good stuff) I still have and when I'm going to do it. So I'm getting on with the build, but one that's straight out of the box and how I'm going to make it. Introducing the Curtiss A-8 ‘SHRIKE’ in 1:48 from Czech Model, for me it's a bit of an exotic theme and there will be such themes between Italian and Polish themes. And this is how the box and its contents look like, and there is only one painting and two markings of the machine 80 and 83.

Hello everybody, I haven't been very productive this year, this one is only my second build to date; This is a North American P-51B Mustang "Bald Eagle”, S/N 42-106839, 374th FS, 361st FG, pilot, Lt. Robert Eckfeldt and it’s the Tamiya, 1:48 kit. Based in Essex, the 374th FS participated to invasion of Normandy, mainly doing strike and bombing missions, before reverting to bomber escort after the Normandy campaign. Early in the following days of the landing, upper surfaces ID stripes were over-painted, to avoid detection by german fighters, still very active. The kit was built straight from the box, exception made for some Ultracast resin exhausts and the decals, coming from Aeromaster sheet 48214, Fighting Mustangs, Part IV. The build was, as usual with Tamiya quite straightforward, but for the under fuselage seams, which need a bit of care and putty. I screwed the pouch with clear parts maskings and do recommend the purchase of dedicated masks, thus saving both time and mental sanity …. Paints are Tamiya AS12 and TS30 from the spray can, while the green overpaint is from Gunze H330 and OD anti-glare panel is from the AK real color range. Yellow is a custom mix of Tamiya flat yellow and red, to match the decal hue. Hope you’ll like her …. As usual, comments and critics most welcome.

Hi everybody, calling all Corsair maniacs experts for this build, such as @corsaircorp and @Corsairfoxfouruncle just to name the two I'm more familiar with I always loved the Corsair, but know very little about it, so any help, hints, tips, references and pointers will be greatly appreciated This is more of a bookmark than an actual start, I still need to study some proper documentation about the subject, anyway here are a few pics. The kit: It's the well known Tamiya 1/48 box - I don't think there's much to say about it, anyway here are the sprues: The second pilot figure, in the "jumping on board" pose, is very tempting... Clear parts Decals (as usual, I plan to use very few of them ) and the scheme I want to reproduce, Jolly Rogers' BIG HOG Actual works to start soon-ish, I may venture into a foray in another field of modelling before/along this, we'll see. Meanwhile, I'm all ears Ciao Edit: I almost forgot to add that my friend @corsaircorp had sent me some resin bits to tart up this build: I'm not sure if I'll be using the whole engine or just replace the crankcase of the kit with the resin one - definitely going to use the resin seat, though

Airfix ¼8 Bristol Bulldog MkII Oh boy, was this an interesting build, in more ways than one. I thought it was going to be a straightforward build so didn’t put a work in progress together as I went along. It turns out I probably should have! First of all here are the final reveal photos. If you want to find out the issues I had and my further thoughts on the nature of the kit, read on after the pics. When I first opened the kit box, I was impressed with the finely moulded surface details and crispness of the plastic moulding. Being a new tool offering from Airfix, I expected the CAD/CAM used would mean it would go together perfectly and I set about building it with keen anticipation of an easy build. It’s not! My first question was why I was constructing so much of the internal cockpit detail, when most of it would be hidden from view due to the small open cockpit aperture? My second question was why Matt spent so much time on the internal cockpit framing, but failed to provide either moulded on seat belts, or seat belt decals (I know Airfix don’t do PE) which would be in full view? Anyway, I went ahead and assembled, painted and installed the full cockpit, then made some generic seat belts out of some left over PE parts. If you lean in close with a bright light, you can just about see the black painted top horizontal cockpit frame against the silver aluminium painted cockpit side wall in the final model ☺ The engine assembly works quite well, but the positioning and thickness of the sprue gates on the engine parts, and some of the other parts makes clean up before assembly somewhat challenging. Especially as some of the parts are tiny and difficult to handle off the sprue. It quickly became apparent that this was not going to be the expected weekend build. There wasn’t much material on-line to help with the detailed appearance of the kit’s subject matter and the Airfix painting instructions are both sketchy and in my opinion, wrong. Particularly with regard to the engine’s appearance. I’d decided I would build the RAF 17 Sqn variant supplied in th decal sheet (K-1088). I found one fuzzy side view picture on-line of this specific machine sometime after I’d started the build. The engine cylinder heads in the kit do not match those seen in the photo. In the kit there is a single domed rocker(?) cover on each cylinder. The covers appear to be a very different shape in the photo. Well into the build I learnt that there is already a resin aftermarket set available to correct this detail, but decided I’d have to live with it. Fortunately I had not put the gun barrel parts in their fuselage slots before realising that the gun barrels seen on the original had louvred covers over most of their length. However, I’d spotted parts C35 and C36 previously, which aren’t mentioned in the assembly instructions but on closer inspection were obviously the louvered versions. I also spotted some other parts not mentioned in the instructions. I had no idea what C37 could be, until I came across some air to air shots of Bulldogs without the forward conical spinner fitted and the penny dropped. This was intended to complete the propeller assembly sans spinner, with only the bare bones starter spigot projecting from the front of the prop. I might have decided to use this, but unfortunately I’d already cemented together the entire prop assembly!😞 Then there are parts C6 and C7. I could see these were probably the forward fuel tank struts\fuel pipes present on the Bulldog Mk II displayed at RAF Hendon, but couldn’t find evidence they were fitted to K-1088 in the photo above. The fact that there are no mounting holes moulded on either the kit's wing undersides, or the fuselage sides for these parts, plus the fact that the Hendon example is apparently a rebuilt machine heavily modified for test flying resulted in me ignoring them, but I am left wondering why they were included on the sprue? If you carefully remove all excess plastic from sprue gates and use extra thin solvent, it is possible to get a very good fit and avoid any surface detail damage, but I’d recommend not using any other type of adhesive, other than thin CA to assemble the parts. The very fine moulding in the main is however let down by the very crude moulding of the gunsight crosshairs and the presence of a thin septum between the rudder hinge post and the rudder. I opened up the septum in the rudder and made a replacement sight with finer crosshairs made from a circle of thin fuse wire wrapped around the tapered end of a cocktail stick and two cross pieces. I also had to replace the plastic fore sight with a bent thin wire version when I knocked the plastic one off into the carpet pile while rigging around the Cabane struts! I made one final modification, which I felt was a strange omission in the original kit design, which was to separate out and droop the elevators. I can’t quite understand why Matt went to the trouble of including position able ailerons and rudder, but no position able elevators? Overall, I enjoyed a sense of achievement in completing a successful build of this kit, but IMO it ain't for beginners!

Another completed model lands in the display case, namely the Bf-110 G-2/R3 5./ZG 76 Reichsverteidigung, winter 1944. It was a bit of fun fitting a few parts, but otherwise a pleasure. Enjoy watching.

Detail and Quality: The kit features finely molded parts with good fit and minimal flash. The cockpit is well-detailed, including sidewall details and a nicely molded seat. Construction: The kit is designed to be straightforward to build, with clear instructions and well-thought-out parts placement. The plastic is a bit soft, making it easier to fix blemishes. Optional Parts: There are several optional parts for different versions and weapons loads, adding to the versatility of the kit. Overall, it’s a well-regarded kit that offers a good balance of detail and ease of assembly, making it suitable for both novice and experienced modelers. Sorry, my camera seems to take a very harsh photo,

Hi, Here's my rendition of Hasegawa's F4U-7 in Suez markings. WIP is found here: Kit: Hasegawa 09077 (JT77) - F4U-7 Corsair French Navy, 2003 Paints: Alclad - ALC 117 Dull Aluminum, ALC 121 Burnt Iron Gunze - H93 Clear Blue, H329 Blue Angels Yellow Model Master - 4742 Insignia Blue, 4749 Engine Gray, 4757 Aircraft Interior Black, 4851 Yellow Zinc Chromate, 17178 Chrome Silver Mr Color - 365 Gloss Sea Blue FS151042 Polly Scale - 414113 Reefer White, 505096 US Interior Green A/N611, 505252 British Dark Earth, 505260 British Middlestone, 505268 British P.R.U. Blue Tamiya - LP-2 White, LP-3 Flat Black, LP-7 Pure Red, LP-8 Pure Yellow, X-19 Smoke, X-22 Clear, X-35 Semi-gloss Clear, XF-1 Flat Black, XF-2 Flat White, XF-7 Flat Red, XF-16 Flat Aluminum, XF-26 Deep Green, XF-69 NATO Black, XF-85 Rubber Black, Fine Grey Primer (spray can) Vallejo - 71.062 Aluminium, 71.065 Steel Johnson’s Future Aftermarket: Ultracast 48192 - F4U Corsair / F6F Hellcat Wheels Radial Tread (32” x 8” late style wheels) Scratch built: Seat armrests, reflector gunsight, instrument panel “eyebrow” switches and wiring bundles, drop tank vent and feed hose, tail gear holdback ring, propeller governor, distributor and magneto covers, radio altimeter antenna, aerial wire antenna, UHF antenna, wingtip navigation lights, main gear brake lines. The F4U-7 was ordered by the French. It was essentially an AU-1 with an engine optimized for higher altitude work, so it had a chin air intake added for the extra supercharger. It retained the cheeks of the AU-1. Despite similarities, this was not a rehashed F4U-4. IMG_4561 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4562 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4563 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4565 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4566 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4567 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4568 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4570 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4572 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4573 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4574 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr And the cheeky trio: IMG_4575 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr Thanks for looking. Wlad

Hi, Finally I'm getting my AU-1 to the finish line. I ran into clear coat and decal issues near the end which unfortunately marred the finish. Not my best effort, yet it will have to do. WIP here: The AU-1 was a stop-gap aircraft for the Marines while they waited for the AD Skyraider. It was an F4U-5 with added armour protection, more hard points on the outer wings, and an engine optimized for low altitude work. It retained the cheeks of the F4U-5, though they did not have air intakes. It was originally designated F4U-6, and any references to -6 in the WIP refer to this model as -1 could have been mistaken for F4U-1. Kit: Hasegawa 09078 - AU-1 Corsair “French Navy”, 2003 Paints: Alclad - ALC 117 Dull Aluminum, ALC 121 Burnt Iron Gunze - H93 Clear Blue Model Master - 4749 Engine Gray, 4757 Aircraft Interior Black, 4851 Yellow Zinc Chromate, 17178 Chrome Silver Polly Scale - 414113 Reefer White, 505096 US Interior Green A/N611, 505252 British Dark Earth, 505260 British Middlestone, 505268 British P.R.U. Blue Tamiya - LP-2 White, X-19 Smoke, X-22 Clear, X-35 Semi-gloss Clear, XF-1 Flat Black, XF-2 Flat White, XF-3 Flat Yellow, XF-7 Flat Red, XF-16 Flat Aluminum, XF-26 Deep Green, XF-69 NATO Black, XF-85 Rubber Black, Fine Grey Primer (spray can) Vallejo - 71.062 Aluminium, 71.065 Steel, 71.300 Glossy Sea Blue Johnson’s Future Aftermarket: Aztec Models 48-042 decals, for the missing aircraft numbers on the main gear doors. Microscale 48-121 decals, poorly researched. True Details TD48497 instrument panel Scratch built: Seat armrests, reflector gunsight, instrument panel “eyebrow” switches and wiring bundles, tail gear holdback ring, DF loop cover, propeller governor, distributor and magneto covers, radio altimeter antenna, aerial wire antenna, UHF antenna, wingtip navigation lights, main gear brake lines. IMG_4547 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4551 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4552 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4553 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4554 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4555 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4556 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4558 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr IMG_4559 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr Thank you for looking. Wlad

Hi, on this group build I'm moving back to my preferred scale and also to the beginnings of NATO, and I'm building an Airfix 1:48 Supermarine Seafire F.XVII (A06102A). It is all too easy these days, seeing Leopard tanks and F-35s being presented in NATO social media posts, to forget that NATO was founded soon after the WW2 and thus most weaponry, aircraft, tanks and vessels included, that was used by NATO nations in those early years, was of similar vintage. Here is the box: It is a big box, and it contains big parts, which is a personal relief, having just built three models in 1:72... Speaking of parts, here they are: As you can see, I'm using aftermarket parts for masks and cockpit decoration. I plan to build the version on the box, from the No.767 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, Somerset, England, 1950. /Jari

A recent scratch build project that i have completed, Focke-Wulf 190 T-1. This is a fictional design of a Fw-190 D-9 fitted with a turboprop engine and tricycle landing gear. For the paint scheme i used a Tricolour scheme from a Fw-190 A-8 With the colours of Yellow 15 from a Fw-190 D-9, the scheme was weathered using a graphite pencil and various washes. I was happy with the overall build of the model but was not as pleased with the paint schemes finish as i had to brush paint rather than using a airbrush due to my airbrush being out of commission. Thanks to anyone who took the time to look over my build, look forward to hearing any feedback.

Good afternoon, Usual thing: after several years in the modelling dark, I've accumulated all of my equipment and stash in one location and have been following lots of these builds with interest. I'm very much an OOB guy and after a recent visit to Ala 23 at Badajoz, Spain, I decided to make a 1:48 scale T-38 as a thank you to a member of the group. More to follow. So, let's start off with a photo of the box.

Hi, I would like to start and share my new build of a De Havilland Mosquito 1:48 scale. The kit is the old, but still very nice Tamiya of the FB Mk VI. I believe that neither a presentation of this aircraft nor of the kit is necessary. Since long, I wanted to build a model of this aircraft because of its fame and because of its remarkable design. For me, this is the first mosquito build as a grown up modeller if I exclude the ancient Revell 1/32 kit that I built when I was a kid. To start my build, I followed to the letter the Tamiya instructions which called the engine nacelles as a first step: I just thickened the frames for added 3-D effect and added few interior details. The white panel shown on the inside of the walls is an artistic license of mine having used a piece of thin styrene to hide annoying ejection pin marks which I didn't want to fill and sand. In the following, the nacelles are shown completed: Finally, they are test fitted with the wings and the main undercarriage struts to check that no interferences with the new parts are present: That is all for this first instalment, I hope you will enjoy following it. Best regards, Dan

Hello everyone Considering that I am a fan of the movie and series M*A*S*H, it was logical to make a model of the medical helicopter from this series (movie). I did a lot of digging and research and came across various information, so in the end, based on screenshots from the series and comparison with information about the variants of this helicopter, I came to the conclusion that the D variant was used in the series/film (1 central fuel tank, 1 controls, the lack of the horizontal tilt rudder, a different tail fin and some other small things). Italeri's kit represents the OH-13G in 2 (sub)variants (I didn't go into further research on the later models) so a conversion had to be done. As it is my first time to do a conversion and with a limited source of references, I did what I could and knew how. Due to the large amount of different information on the Internet, I mostly stuck to screenshots and clips from the series as references. What I specifically changed: - removed the controls on the right side - removed the horizontal rudder on the tail - removed some other small things that were not on this variant - refined the lower tail fin (scratch built) - made a new central tank instead of 2 (modeled and printed in 3d) - stretcher and stretcher supports made (scratch built) - engine protective cover made (scratch built) - pilot found a 3d model on the internet and printed it (yes, in the series the pilots wore caps and not helmets) the 3d model of the tank that I made can be downloaded for free here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6593209 or here https://www.tinkercad.com/things/ckljrVEJs77-bell-47-fuel-tank When printing the tank, I accidentally screwed something up in the settings, so it was printed reversed (mirrored) and the tank cap is on the right instead of the left. Unfortunately, I only noticed this when I glued the painted and varnished tank to the model. I missed a few more things, but I only noticed them when it was too late. The biggest of them is that I didn't correct the cabin opening, which is different on this version (marked what I should have cut off): don't have decals... they don't exist, but I'm trying to think of something. For now, it will be like this As for the Italeri kit itself, it's not great, although it's not too bad either... it can be fixed. The biggest complaint goes to the terribly soft plastic... I haven't come across a softer one yet, it bends very easily and the scalper goes through butter, so you have to be careful.

And another model completed and the photos go to the gallery, S.M. 79-II "Sparviero", 283 squadriglia, 130 gruppo autonoma, Mediterranean 1942. feel free to visit the gallery.

Kit - Tamiya Paint - Mr Color & Tamiya lacquer for camouflage, Tamiya acrylics for internals, W&N oils for weathering, SMS lacquer for clear coats. Decals - RoG Extras - Yahu IP, Eduard type specific seat harnesses, Owl ASV aerial (modified) Bristol Beaufighter TF.X 489 (NZ) Squadron RAF Langham June / July 1944 Been planning (an putting-off) this build for longer than I care to recall. No problems with the actual construction, it's a Tamiya kit after all so nothing to report there. It was always going to be as weathered as possible without looking like a flying wreck, I went as close as my skills allowed to the photo, and I think I did OK - pleased for any comments or criticisms on that - I used a little pre & post shading to get the basic 'tones' then a lot of time with various Windsor & Newton oils to filter, fade and bleach the paintwork. Extended the weathering to the engine splatters on the nose and all around the nacelles - in the old Ian Allen 'At War' book (my primary reference) you can see Beaufighters in general were filthy machines - and 'ground-in' lots of dark tones again around the nacelles to simulate burned and dried leaks. Scratchbuilt the wooden torpedo glide wings from plastic-card, then a little pastel work on the tires and it was done. I love the irony of building the Tamiya kit using Revells decals, I eMailed RoG as soon as I saw that they'd done P6-S as one of their kit options and they sent the sheet out to me within ten days... just brilliant. Very happy with how it looks, double win as it's D-Day anniversary this year AND another NZ build to keep the locals smiling !. Please feel free to ask any questions, make any comments or post any criticisms. Cheers Ian.

Another Bf-110 G-2/R3 in 1:48 from REVELL has just arrived in the workshop, a model I started years ago and which is currently sitting in a box on the cupboard, so the tidying up continues. And if all goes well I might be able to get it done this weekend, I have almost all the parts cut out and ready for assembly and painting. The extras are only the DETAIL SET from AIRESA and the masks from MONTEX-MASK, but only the cabin itself because they were in the box. The model will be in boxed painting and will depict a machine from 5./ZG 76 Reichsverteidigung, winter 1944.