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After my long absence I'm back with another workshop thread, this time I have a Northrop P-61A "Black Widow" from GWH and in 1:48 scale. The model straight out of the box I think, because I don't plan any additions to it. Unless something goes wrong. The model is familiar so I won't be taking photos of all the frames and will limit myself to just these photos. There are two camouflage paints, an all black Burma aircraft and a European theatre of operations grey/olive with invasion stripes and this is what I will be building. So much for the introduction.

Hello guys, today I started Meng's F/18F Super Hornet at 1:48 scale, I wanted the 1:32, but there were two options, the Revell one which is a pretty bad kit or Trumpeter (I will do the latter in the future ) I wish Tamiya decided to release an F18F at 1:32 (dreaming is free) Here I leave you a couple of photos of the almost finished cockpit, the photos are bad because I don't have a professional camera or all the photographic equipment behind me, the photos are taken with my cell phone. The only aftermarkets I'm using are Redfox Studios panels and ASK skins. By the way, the kit is missing the masks that come with the kit, the photo-etched parts and the small metal tubes of the pylons, the store where I bought it told me that it was Meng's fault and I will receive the missing parts.

.. hello? Here follows my latest .. and I thank you all in advance for not mentioning my numerous other unfinished WIP projects!! Ambrosini SAI.7 racer. 1939 IV Raduno Aero del Littorio 1939 FAI World Speed Record 302.58km/h (Category C, Powered, Multiseats, 6.5 - 9L, 100km closed circuit, no payload) The interwar racing predecessor of the SAI.207 lightweight fighter of WWII. So this will be a conversion, backdating LF Models resin SAI.207 (long-nose, single seat fighter) to the red racer (short-nose, tandem seat). Work has progressed enough that I thought I may now have something of substance to share. More to follow soon ...

Hi, This week I completed some figures from ICM's excellent 1:48 RAF personnel kit and created a grass field base for a Trumpeter Display case to display them together with a my latest creation, a pre-war 72 Squadron RAF Gloster Gladiator. It then occurred to me that the base and case could also be used to rotate the display of other aircraft in my collection from the late pre-war and early second world war period. Apologies for the striped backdrop, but I have yet to figure out the best printer quality settings, hence the vertical lines. Other than these, it is however a fairly accurate depiction of the skyscape at Church Fenton because its the upper section from a picture I took of the Spitfire line-up parked at Flying Legends here in July😀 Amazing how a simple backdrop can make a model pop! All photos were taken with an iPhone 11 Pro. First of all the 72 Sqn Gladiator based at RAF Church Fenton around 1938 Hurricane P3153 US-U for "Euthanasia" of 56 Sqn based at RAF North Weald in summer 1940 Spitfire Mk1 R6835 XT-W of 603 “City of Edinburgh” Sqn based at RAF Hornchurch in Summer 1940 Finally, some shots more featuring the Albion 3-Point Re-fueller. I based this on an example seen briefly in a British Pathe B&W Newsreel, but took some liberties with the brass radiator and red sun-rise Albion logo, which would no doubt in reality have been painted over when the vehicle was camouflaged.

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

Hi, My priority is to finish my Tamiya P-47M, but I also have one of those new Mini Art P-47D's (basic kit). I thought about keeping it for the "Made in Ukraine" GB of 2024, but I see "Made in Poland" on the side of the box. And I guess you'll be interested in seeing one of them in the GB. My first impressions: some interesting features, like the option of having the landing gear hang down as if it's coming in to land. The clear part (canopy) is a bit distorted (like was said in the Rumourmonger thread). There are more parts to be used than in the Tamiya kit. Where Tamiya used one piece for a part, Mini Art uses three (like for the seat). No pictures yet, but you can see better ones than I'd take in the Rumourmonger thread. I've always wanted one from the 78th FG, so there's another reason to start it now. Cheers, Stefan.

Hi here is my F-104 STARFIGHTER by Kinetic I stared this back in February and only just finished it due to my mojo waining and a few issues with the build along the way so wasn’t enjoyable as I’d of hoped. I brought this kit sometime last year and what seems to be a theme this year so far my wife picked this out of the stash to build next! I purchased a few aftermarket items for this build. Qunita Studio Interior 3D decals (QD48201) and very impressed with them MasterCasterS resin Martin-Baker Mk.Q7[A] Ejection Seat (MST48065) Master brass pitot tube (AM-48-044) Eduard TFace Canopy Masks (EX830) I decided to try Ammo-Mig paints with is build and this where I had the problems with paint peeling off with masking tape Tamiya and Vallejo paints also used thank for looking and enjoy

Hi all I present to you my Airfix 1:48 Javelin FAW.9/9R I finished it back in October but only just got round to posting here It’s in the markings of no 64 Squadron Royal Air Force based at Tengah in Singapore during the 1960’s Aftermarket sets include Eduard cockpit interior and Master replacement pitot tubes Tamiya and Mr Hobby paints used throughout the build A throughly enjoyable build Thanks for looking and happy modelling

Having recently battled my way through an Eduard P-400 which took a looong time since I was not very motivated, I chose something that hopefully should keep my mojo tank from getting emptied this time. Even though there's lot's of colourful DR.I's schemes to choose from and quite a few comes with the Eduard Profipack, I have always liked Fritz Kempf's. There's just something about the "Kennscht mi noch?" statement on his plane, which should be "Don't you know me?", but I think it was meant as "Don't you know who you're up against?". Pretty bold stuff. It will also learn me to deal with the dreaded Fokker streaked finish, or have me fail my attempt. We'll see. This will also be the last time my workbench looks somewhat tidy. The Eduard kit is getting on in years now, but other than some slight flash here and there, it is still a very good model. But I will try to improve it where I can, and the first thing I did was to take a file to the rudder pedals and carefully thin them to look more to scale as there are no replacements among the photo etched parts. The right one is finished: Guess I could make it thinner, but it will have to do. It's not like it easy to see anything in the cramped cockpit anyway. Took a sandpaper to it and smoothed them out after the picture was taken. Next thing up was to add the missing frame part. Eduard chose for some reason to mould the rest of the interior steel frame with the fuselage half's, which I think is a bad decision given they are very prominent. Perhaps there's a reason for this and I will regret it later on, but in that case it is very easy to remove. Work has also started on the seat and cushion, which I'm quite excited about since I'm trying out a new technique for painting leather using oil colours. Mojo meter still at 100%

Kit - Tamiya Paint - Vallejo metals (bomblet tubes) Tamiya acrylics (rest of loadout, interior, tail stripes) Mr Color lacquers (camouflage) Decals - Iliad Design Extras - Eduard etch cockpit details & harness, Bren Gun resin, loadout from spares box. A-1H Skyraider Assigned to Col. Sam Berman CO. 6th SOS Da Nang, 1969. A (relatively) quick project, finished just less than a month from opening the box, but it did have the bench completely to itself. Biggest challenge was finding the Minigun pod in my huge stash of spare ‘dangly bits’ that I’ve amassed over many year of plastic fettling. When I did I had to scratch the front cone from a lollipop stick and Miliput !!. Paint was a joy, I’m officially a lacquer convert & fanboy, yes I know it’s smelly and dangerous, but the results are undeniable and as long as you take sensible precautions… First time using Iliad decals and they were fine, I didn’t use the tail-stripes, preferring to simply paint/mask/repeat using the blue scalloped section of the decal as a template to make a mask. The ‘filth’ is all W&N oils, but I went back to Tamiya X19 ‘Smoke’ for the exhaust plumes as on this machine it just looks better to my eye. Very happy with the result. Please feel free to make any comments, ask any questions or post any crits. Cheers from NZ.

Kit - Eduard (Weekend Edition) Paint - All acrylics Decals - Freightdog Extras - Eduard kit-specific Zoom set. Grumman Hellcat II 800 NAS Trincomalee, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Autumn 1945. Built this at the same time as the Hurricane I posted here a few weeks ago but only got around to finishing it this morning. Fairly straightforward build, could have done without the separate fin-tip antenna post which was instantly gobbled-up by the carpet monster but that may have been down to 'user error'. Paint is all Tamiya acrylics, as usual mixed by eye. Not too much else to say, very relaxing and rejuvenating project, now ready for something more challenging. Please feel free to comment, question or criticise. Cheers from NZ. Ian.

Heinkel He-112 B-0 model flown by Pilot Cpt. Isaac Arroniz Larios, 1942, Nador, Spain completed. All in all this LF Models model was built without any problems, the masks for the cockpit cover as well as for the camouflage fitted perfectly. It was necessary to glue the protruding parts of the mask with Tamiya tape, but this is normal. The 3D parts fit very well and made the work easier, but if you prefer to scratch around, you can skip the purchase. Disadvantages? There are two, and that's not really to say minuses. The first is the instrument panel, which is correct in the model, but I miss the clocks and have to do something myself. And the second is the pilot's belts and they are also not in the kit but they are from EDUARD. So these two things were missing for me to be completely happy with the construction of the Heinkal He-112. I invite you to the gallery.

A holiday project has just landed on my workshop, namely a German on holiday in Spain. And the protagonist of this workshop is the Heinkel He-112 B-0 in 1:48 from LF Models together with an add-on set like this: LF3D4802 He-112B-0 upgrade set CM4802 He-112 canopy mask PE4807 Heinkel He-112B-0 over Spain EDUARD Seatblts Luftwaffe WWII fighters And this is what the contents of the box look like, the glazing nice and transparent. What more can I add? Everything can be seen in the pictures, and the camouflage painting will be.

Hi folks and friends, may I present to you my latest release: An F-104A (late) set for the Kinetic F-104A/C kit. The parts in the kit don't contain any A parts but with this resin set you can actually build and accurate late type A, after ejection seat upgrade to the C-2 seat. Included are are lower fuselage insert piece, a fuselage panel with staggered vent louvres (with cutting template mask), fuselage side doubler plates (printed extremely thin), control stick and throttle, "A" specific instrument panel and a couple of aft canopy braces. Many thanks!! Jeffrey

Manual-feeding a multi-page drawing set through a work-from-home bubble-jet printer ... loitering at the computer ... what better time to start a new thread! All going to plan, this thread will lead to a two-part finish! Finish 1 My local club is working towards an ambitious goal to mark the RAAF's 100th Anniversary; as part of the annual ScaleACT public show (for 2021, COVID delayed to February 2022) the club is preparing a display of one of every machine the RAAF has ever operated. This has involved much effort by the subcommittee to collate & administer a master spreadsheet, collecting members builds & new-build commitments to account for all types. I have found one of the dwindling final remaining machines which works for me, this Percival Vega Gull, as operated by RAAF No 1 Communications Unit & No 82 Wing Headquarters: This machine was 'impressed' into service in January 1940, retaining it's civil maroon & silver paint scheme, with registration replaced by roundels & RAAF serial no. As shown here on DEKL'S II decals sheet; So my plan is to build and finish in this scheme, to contribute to the club display, but with decals not sealed in, so they can later be easily stripped off ... Finish 2 Before stepping in for war service, this privately-owned machine was quite a competitor, being entered into at least two pre-war air races. One of these was the 1936 South Australian Centenary Air Race, from Brisbane to Adelaide, and this machine was the winner of the Speed Section! Despite the race being over 1,440 miles - via Coffs Harbour, Sydney & Cootamunda in NSW, then Melbourne & Nhill in Victoria, and on to Parafield South Australia - the Vega Gull beat the second-place Stinson Reliant by a mere 1½ sec!! So after I peel off the RAAF decals, I will add VH-UVG registration & race number 49 in white circle like so, returning it to pre-war race livery to sit with my other air racers: This is the kit, received in the post earlier this week: And this oh-so-beautiful sole surviving - airworthy - UK machine shall be my benchmark for the 'maroon & silver' base scheme common to this machine's RAAF & Racer finishes: OK, printing nearly finished, time to sign-off. February deadline requires rapid action, so I ought to have something to post of progress soon ...

Kit - Hasegawa Paint - All acrylics Decals - Sky Decals 48-052 Extras - Eduard generic RAF seat harness. Vac form (rear) canopy. Hawker Hurricane IIB. 335 (Greek) Squadron, RAF. North Africa. Mid 1942. This has been in my stash for around fifteen years, so with the immanent arrival of the Arma kit, I decided to dig it out and have a go. What a great experience, said here before just how much I love the 1990's era Hasegawa 1:48 WWII kits, and this did not disappoint. Home brewed camo tones using Tamiya acrylics and possibly some alchemy. I used W & N oils to fade and change the tones, consciously making the fabric areas more faded which you can especially appreciate on the fuselage. - artistic license ?, well yes but not 'extreme'. The decals are by Sky Decal and are about the same age as the kit. Utterly perfect, QC back then was astonishing. No extras other then the seat harness and a vac-form rear canopy. I cut separated and used the 'windshield' section kit and did the opposite for the rear. So there t'is, please feel free to ask any questions, register any outrage or make any comment at all. Cheers from NZ. Ian.

I would like to present another completed project of the PZL.46 "Sum" in 1:48 scale, which represents the only prototype of this machine, which took part in the defensive war of 1939. The colouring of the chequerwings is presumed, as there is no photo to prove it. Their appearance on the model is only due to the description of the capture of the Polish machine by Lithuanian pilots. 3D printed model, my first and certainly not the last, the construction was quick and efficient, the parts fitted very well and that's it for the plus. Now the downsides, I missed the bombs in the open bomb bay, a little empty in the crew cabin but I know the lack of documents for that. All in all, it's a very nice and enjoyable model and with a bit of willpower you can make a real gem out of it. And in the pictures below you can see how the PZL.46 "Sum" presents itself in all its glory.

Hi, This week I completed some figures from ICM's excellent 1:48 RAF personnel kit and created a grass field base for a Trumpeter Display case to display them together with a my latest creation, a pre-war 72 Squadron RAF Gloster Gladiator. It then occurred to me that the base and case could also be used to rotate the display of other aircraft in my collection from the late pre-war and early second world war period. Apologies for the striped backdrop, but I have yet to figure out the best printer quality settings, hence the vertical lines. Other than these, it is however a fairly accurate depiction of the skyscape at Church Fenton because its the upper section from a picture I took of the Spitfire line-up parked at Flying Legends here in July😀 Amazing how a simple backdrop can make a model pop! All photos were taken with an iPhone 11 Pro. First of all the 72 Sqn Gladiator based at RAF Church Fenton around 1938 Hurricane P3153 US-U for "Euthanasia" of 56 Sqn based at RAF North Weald in summer 1940 Spitfire Mk1 R6835 XT-W of 603 “City of Edinburgh” Sqn based at RAF Hornchurch in Summer 1940 Finally, some shots more featuring the Albion 3-Point Re-fueller. I based this on an example seen briefly in a British Pathe B&W Newsreel, but took some liberties with the brass radiator and red sun-rise Albion logo, which would no doubt in reality have been painted over when the vehicle was camouflaged.

When I saw the announcement of the release of the Polish PZL.46 "Sum" reconnaissance-bomber aircraft, I was delighted; dreams do come true. Having it on my shelf is a joy. I have just received my first 3D printed model from the Art of Trans company in the 3D Polish Wings series. They have it in 1:72 / 48 / 32, and I'm going to get it in 32 too. So this is what it looks like inside, instructions in pdf form, vacu glazing. The kit doesn't include decals or bombs and the open bomb bay is begging for them. And I'm happy to get it right away as it's one of many models I've always dreamed of having on my shelf.

In July 2023 I had a great weekend staying with my daughter and watching the Flying Legends warbird displays at Church Fenton in Yorkshire. I can thoroughly recommend this shows new venue, although we could have done without the thunder storms on the Saturday.😬 To get an idea of the views available from the airfield and inside the village, click here to see my Youtube vid of The Flying Bulls B-25 and P-38 display. In the weeks of anticipation leading up to the show, I looked up the history of RAF Church Fenton and found out that the first RAF Squadron to be based there was 72 (Fighter) Squadron, who moved here not long after the base first opened in 1937. 72 Sqn had just been equipped with the Gloster Gladiator Mk1, the final front line bi-plane fighter to serve in the RAF and an aircraft that following the recent development of monoplane fighters was pretty much outdated for front line use even before it entered service.🤔 I got the yen to build a 72 Squadron aircraft and was delighted when a quick search yielded this 1:48 I💓 Kit, which is apparently a re-boxed Merit kit (Nope - never heard of them either!). It even appeared to have the decals required for the markings of 72 Sqn's red section leaders aircraft. It took me on a bit of a journey, as I've never rigged a bi-plane model before and although the kit is basic in many respects, it goes together well but the decals proved to be a bit iffy in several respects. If you'd like to see the full the build log, the journey starts in Work in Progress - Aircraft here. There were a few mods and additions required to the kit parts. Otherwise, may I present my rendition of K6130 as she may have looked circa 1938. My working assumption was that both reflector gun sight and a radio had been fitted by 1938. I based the two colour prop scheme on a photo of the squadron's aircraft on the tarmac at Gloster's just before delivery here, and I used the kit decal version of the wing flash with straight ends, rather than the curved boundary with the wing roundel seen on other renditions. This could be wrong, but the photo of 72 Sqn from above taken in the air in the Flying Legends show brochure is somewhat ambiguous on this front. The wing and fuselage flashes were airbrushed directly on to the model, because the kit decals had incorrect colours. The kit roundels also have incorrect proportions and colours, so I used the correct 1:3:5 1:48 scale 15" and 40" Type A roundels from Xtradecal sheet X48031. A mixture of Alclad II Shiny Aluminium lacquer and Tamiya Flat Aluminium acrylic paints were used on the airframe and Tamiya acrylic s for all other paintwork. All finished off with the sparing addition of MiG Storm Grey pin washes on the panel work and aileron hinges. Rigging lines are INFINI Models 110 denier (0.121 mm) Lycra Rigging and the Aerial wire is mig Medium Fine lycra rigging (0.02 mm).

Some background I’m off to the Flying Legends air display at former RAF Church Fenton in sunny (here’s hoping) Yorkshire next weekend and this is responsible for spurring me back to the modelling bench after a short spring/summer break. My Daughter lives in Church Fenton about 1/2 mile from the end of the NE-SW runway and although we have bought tickets for the airfield on the Saturday, I’m staying with her and looking forward to seeing a few more flybys over her garden on Sunday, before heading off for a short break on the NE coast. I last went to an air display at Church Fenton when I was studying at Leeds University back in the late 70s through to early 80s. Despite this past familiarity I know little about the airfields history, so this time around I decided to Google whack the subject and learned that RAF Church Fenton first opened on April 1st 1937 as part of the UKs re-armament push in response to the threat of Nazi Germany's rearmament. 72 (Fighter) Squadron were posted to Church Fenton in midsummer 1937. The Squadron had reformed at RAF Tangmere on 22 February 1937 from 'B' flight of No. 1 Squadron who were then equipped with the Gloster Gladiator Mk1. Gladiator was the last bi-plane fighter to serve with the RAF and the squadron continued to fly the Gladiator from 1937 through to 1940 and didn’t in fact have them replaced by the Spitfire Mk1 monoplane fighter until around the time of Dunkirk evacuation, when the squadron moved on to RAF Acklington to take part in the Battle of Britain as part of 13 Group. It’s sobering to think that 72 Squadron Gladiator Mk1s came quite close to flying up against Bf-109Es during the summer of 1940. Whilst highly manoeuvrable, the Gladiator was almost 100 mph slower (top speed 257 mph) than the new monoplane fighters and somewhat lightly armed with 2x 0.303 Browning machine gun pods under the wings and 2x fuselage mounted synchronised Vickers machine guns firing through the propellor arc. So they would surely have been duly hacked out of the sky. With this in mind I searched for a Gloster Gladiator Mk1 kit in my favoured 1:48 scale to replicate a 72 Squadron Gladiator from Church Fenton. ICM have an excellent kit in 1/32 scale and I’ve seen several excellent builds of this on Britmodeller, but it’s a tad too big for my display space. I learned that Roden and latterly Merit produced 1/48 scale Gladiator Mk1 kits and a bit of further research indicated that the recent I 💓 Kits re-boxing of the Merit kit would be the easier build. As a bonus it also comes with 72 Squadron decals, so I paid my £25 and ordered one last week. First impressions Thus far I’ve removed all but the smallest parts from their sprues and cleaned the parts up. I’d never heard of I 💓 Kits, so for my part this was a bit of a punt. However, when it arrived I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the moulding, which uses a hard light grey styrene. However, the complexity and level of detail provided by the kit is relatively low. Perhaps £25 might be a bit steep in retrospect, but then I was brought up in an age when similarly basic Airfix kits cost 2/6d at Woolworths. The sprue gates are a bit clunky and required a substantial clean up of their locating lugs on the parts, but there was minimal flash or burring on the parts to deal with and a few dry fit tests indicated the accuracy of fit is good overall. The basic shape looks about right, but a number of compromises have been made. The cowling is a one piece moulding (so no seams to deal with) but this results in too linear a barrel like profile. There is an aftermarket resin replacement engine and cowl available on the Hannants site, but I don't think this kit warrants the extra expense or effort, so I'll build it out the box. The cowl also has a very thick trailing edge, but judicious thinning of the inner edge with a scalpel blade should fix this. I did consider thinning the rear outer edge because this could create a more accurate curved barrel like profile for the cowl, but it would also likely ruin some of the external surface detailing, which should pop nicely with a silver finish.. There’s some internal fuselage detailing included, but with no opened canopy option and a rather thick transparency at that, it’s not likely much internal detail will be viewable when fully assembled. A quick review of the Gladiator walkaround by @Julien here on Britmodeller shows that a lot of detail is missing from the cockpit internals, such as some tubular steel framing above the control panel, a bulkhead incorporating a roll cage behind the seat and some side framing on the windscreen. I might add some seat belts, scratch build some parts and modify the canopy masking to replicate the missing details, even though I bet they will never be seen. The wings, tailplane and tail fin are all single part solid mouldings. So cutting out and positioning the control surfaces looks to be nigh on impossible. However, I might yet have a go at easing the hinge points with a scalpel, setting the rudder slightly displaced to one side and have the elevators upwardly deflected to create some additional interest. We shall see. The comments I saw about the wing and strut assembly being quite straightforward has proved to be correct. Even when assembled as a dry fit only, the wings, interplane and cabane struts align very well and it all holds together nicely. It looks like this should be a relatively straight forward build, although I’m not looking forward to replicating all that wire rigging, because I’ve never attempted a bi-plane before. Everything could fall down when I get to this. Does anyone have some guidance for this? Wish me luck!

hello to the board! here comes pictures of my build of this nice Mustang. Kit from Eduard ProfiPack 82103. The kit is nice with very nice decal sheet. My choice felt on "Genie" the aircraft N5-X serial number 44-14659 from the 111th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 69th Tactical Reconnaissance Group of 12AF. The prototype: Enjoy it:

Nakajima B5N 'Kate' IJN Soryu December 1941 I've built a lot of WWII Japanese aircraft but nothing new for a l-o-n-g time. So when a good friend here in NZ (an American ex-pat) announced he was selling off some of his Hasegawa IJN/AF kits, I was first in the queue. Other than the seat harnesses from masking tape, what you see here is exactly what you get in the box, the aircraft was part of the first wave off Soryu on December 7th 1941. Yes the brown mottle was probably more dense on the actual machine and there is some question as to whether the undersides were unpainted (like this one), painted aluminium dope or grey, but I've used a little artistic license, because why not ? Build was virtually faultless like so many Hasegawa kits from the 1990's, mnimum amount of filler and sanding needed. Essential IMHO is the Eduard mask set - wouldn't like to guess how much time that saved me !. All the best from NZ, please feel free to ask any questions or make any comments. Ian.

Lt. Francis Gahan, S/Lt. Alasdair Elder and L/A Peter Mansfield took off in Avenger JZ217, from the escort carrier HMS Trumpeter, with seven other Avengers and the four Wildcats of 846 squadron. This was 4th May 1945 and Operation Judgement - which was to be the last air raid of the war in Europe. HMS Trumpeter in 1945 853 sqn departed HMS Queen with the same mix of Avengers and Wildcats while 882 sqn on HMS Searcher saw twenty Wildcats launch. Their target was a U-boat base in the north of Norway within the Arctic Circle in the natural harbour at Kilbotn. The base consisted of the depot-ship Black Watch, supported by a flak-ship, two barges fitted with anti-aircraft guns and numerous gun emplacements surrounding the harbour. Several other ships were employed in ferrying supplies and ammunition to the base at Kilbotn, including the cargo ship Senja. Four of the Wildcats were assigned to provide top-cover against German fighters, while the majority of the other Wildcats were to arrive at the start of the operation, to attack the gun emplacements on land and in the harbour. The Avengers would then arrive to carry out glide-bombing runs in quick succession, The attack lasted seven minutes and destroyed Black Watch, Senja and also U-711, which had been moored alongside Black Watch. No Norwegians in the village of Kilbotn were killed or injured. Two houses suffered windows blown out and some damaged woodwork from a stray bomb. An Avenger of 846 sqn going in to the attack on Kilbotn Bay. The U-boat depot ship is centre right; a tanker is in the centre, and a flak ship can be seen above the aircraft. The airborne force arriving from the west over Kilbotn at 17:00 on a sunny afternoon, achieved almost complete surprise. Early in the attack a Wildcat of 882 sqn was hit by flak and crashed into the sea. Lt. Hugh Morrison from Wairarapa, New Zealand, Senior Pilot of 882 Squadron, is buried in Narvik New Cemetery. Several other aircraft received flak damage in the next few minutes, most later returning to the carriers, but the attack went according to plan. The main targets of the attack are hidden behind water columns and smoke in the centre of the photo. They were the depot ship Black Watch and the Type VIIC submarine U-711 - both sunk. The ship visible in the centre is probably the Senja, also sunk in this attack. U-711 was the last U-boat sunk by the Fleet Air Arm in WW2. One of the aircraft hit by flak was Avenger JZ217 of 846 Sqn. They tried to make a forced landing on a field but there wasn't sufficient space and they ran into the tree line. Lt. Francis John Gahan RNVR (aged 24), S/Lt. Alasdair Donald Hay Elder RNVR (20) and L/A Peter Bernard Mansfield, Royal Navy (22) were buried by the Germans, assisted by local Norwegians, in the churchyard in the nearby village of Sørvik - where they remain. Francis Gahan is often stated as being 22 years old when he died but his gravestone shows that he was 24. I feel that this is important but I'm not quite sure why. This is my attempt at Avenger JZ217 using the Italeri boxing of the Accurate Miniatures 1:48 kit. The kit has fantastic detail with Italeri having taken all the Accurate Miniatures options and placed them all in one box with a huge decal sheet. My one gripe about Italeri is that they have taken the extensive Accurate Miniatures instructions and removed all the text. The text being replaced by arrows. This approach makes the instructions more accessible but there are a few cases where parts are left hanging in mid air with no arrows. I definitely recommend getting hold of the original Accurate Miniatures instructions. Assembly was mostly straightforward with my main difficulty being (as others have said) the turret – both the assembly and the installation. There was a fair amount of fiddling and fettling involved in that. I added an Eduard p.e. set and a set of their canopy masks (there is a lot of glazing). I also replaced some of the RAF roundels on that decal sheet with spares as I thought the red too bright. OK, that's enough words – here's some pics. all the best Mark I've just realised that, looking at these images, my carefully sanded flat spots on the main wheels don't touch the ground. Oh well. I'm sure I'll get round to sorting that out at some point!

Okay you folks got me going crazy, or is it just the heat in here? Anyway, a second coming of a group build-build that never started. An American Classic indeed. Compared to an 1:72 scale model, it's like Texas vs. Rhode Island. Well not that much, but much bigger (1,5^3 = 3.375) anyway. The sprues back then still in their bags. It is probably the first and only kit so far that I've washed the sprues, never found any harm with that but these felt so greasy I decided to go the extra mile with it. But then I never dared to actually start building it! I still plan to decorate her as "Marsha Sue". A plane, whose pic is in a book I got when I was probably ten years old! It's also a plane whose details match the Monogram kit 100%. Read more of her here if interested 🙂. Oh, one thing I don't know yet for sure is whether I want to decorate her with the red CBW colours or not . I like the all-grey looks, a lot. V-P