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Next one for my Spanish collection - 1:72 Mirage IIIEE, C.11-8, 11-08, 112 Squadron, ALA 11, Spanish Air Force, Valencia-Manises, ca. 1990. Modelsvit kit "out of the box" + Master metal Pitot tube + AIM-9s and launchers from spares. Painted with Gunze Mr.Color C series and Alclad II metallizers. Thanks for watching!

Hi When I get the Eighties Lancia and the LKM Classic Kittyhawk done, I plan to enter this GB with an Arma Hobby 1:72 Sea Hurricane Mk. Ib - if I didn't already make myself clear in the header and the tags . I will probably build one of the four Operation Pedestal decal options supplied with the kit. V-P The kit: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/arma-hobby-70061-sea-hurricane-mk-ib--1444596 And The Review at our favorite modelling forum: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235120148-sea-hurricane-mkib-70061-172/

Another Sea Prince, this time the communications version. Should be an easier build as it is straight out of the box. Typical Valom, reasonably simple, nicely moulded but a lot of ejection pins that’ll need removing or indents to fill. Three sprues of a buff/brown plastic. There’s a little paint already on. There’s only an interior for the cockpit. I may be tempted to use some of the unwanted Pembroke parts to fashion something but that can wait. A clear sprue, although the canopy being split might be a challenge, nice transfers. And I invested in a mask set as that canopy looks really complex, as well as the windows needing masked. Fairly typical Valom instructions and two colour call outs. I’m tending towards the blue 781 NAS version. Partly as I like it but also the masking for the other version would be very challenging especially the cheat line. Anyway some tidying up of the ejection pins, etc. and some further painting next.

Here’s a little “in-between” project... The Zlín Z-42 with the registration D-EWMZ was owned by my brother for a few years. To his amazement (and a bit of awe), he found entries in the flight logbook from Sigmund Jähn, who actually flew this very aircraft. (For those who don’t know: Sigmund Jähn was the first German in space — if the name doesn’t ring a bell, watch Good Bye Lenin! 😉) The model in 1:72 scale is quite tiny for me — I’m usually more of a 1:48-scale brute. The kit from Hobby Boss is a reissue of the old Toga kit, which I think is of excellent quality. The build is out of the box, except for laser-cut masking aids for the canopy. The antenna on the spine is stretched sprue. I originally planned to airbrush the paint scheme of D-EWMZ, but those tiny longitudinal stripes along the fuselage nearly drove me mad. Only later did I discover that the original Toga kit actually included decals for the very scheme I wanted. I got hold of them — and in my overconfidence, I managed to apply the stripes upside down: red below black instead of the other way around. Oh well — my brother probably won’t notice when he gets the model for his birthday in a few weeks. 😄 And here are a few photos from the basement under artificial light:

Special Hobby? No. Legato? No. Eduard re-box? No. A Smer rebox of a Kovozávody Semily kit? Correct! It's the little box in the middle. I found this older pic of my P-40 kits. The Kittyhawk in front was actually just built in the ANZAC II GB. The Merlin Warhawks are still waiting for their day to come, but now it's time to build the SMÉR née Kovozávody Semily short tail P-40K kit. Look at that legacy! Kovozávody Semily passed these molds to Vista, who then subcontracted them to Revell, after which they were handed over to Smér, and the latest incarnation was by the notorius MisterCraft... who can top that? The reviews of the kit have not been that bad, though. Very appropriate for a kit of its time. Like this: https://modelkitsreview.blogspot.com/2016/02/revell-172-p40k.html and this https://modelingmadness.com/scott/allies/us/rp40kpreview.htm The Smér boxing comes with three decal options, which are (once again) an RAF 112 Sqn Sharkmouth Kittyhawk from the North Africa, a Soviet 436 IAP Lend-Leaser and an USAAF post-Op. Torch 57 FG Warhawk also from the North Africa. I believe I will go for the USAAF option, but maybe use the leftover decals from the Special Hobby P-40K kit. They are from the same FS, same FG, so thanks for the variety, model industry Yet I'm happy to get to build this soon V-P

Can't believe I'm doing this, being barely able to produce a "factory finish" paint standard. However, I've seen Troy @Troy Smith describe the effects of exposure on Hurricane paintwork including this one... .....and I want to have a go. However, I was intrigued by the Wingleader Archive publication showing another 3 Squadron aircraft at a similar period. This has also been shown previously by Troy ...... Quoting from the Wingleader captions on page 26 – “…photos of 3 Squadron Hurricanes taken in the summer of 1939 clearly show the overpainted outline of the old y/b/w/r roundels on the fuselage. The most noticeable thing is the single upper port wing roundel and single lower starboard wing roundel. On OP-D below, the entire starboard wing has been repainted with a simplified scheme after removing the roundel.” So, this is the subject I intend to try 3 Sqn RAF Hurricane Mk I OP-D / L1934 Summer 1939 I'll be using the Airfix Mk 1 with fabric wing, and which I've built previously. I'll list the tweaks needed when I actually start the build. I'm going to try and resist fiddling with the cockpit details (honest ) in order to spend more time on the external paintwork. From Scalemates, this is the boxing I've got I have some decals on order, but will have to wait a bit before starting. We are off to Ireland tomorrow for a week or 2, including a visit with our youngest daughter who has just moved from Limerick to just south of Dublin. 🍀 So it's sort of a House Warming (not so much a house as a basement flat, but hey...). I had to get involved with this GB - how can anyone resist a Hurricane, fading or not?! thanks for looking Rob

Hello all. This will be strictly out. of. the. box. No rabbit holes allowed. I need to finish my GB Hurricane build before I pick this one up, so it may be while until my next update. Nice crisp mouldings, though I can't help feeling that the plastic should be the dark green that I associate with Heller kits. I'll be doing the scheme with the blue spinner on the left.

Here is my Eurocopter (now Airbus helicopter) EC145 (now H145) in a pre delivery painting, used for test flights prior to the final painting for the customer. It is a nice little kit and presents only little problems. I used brass tube and rod for the main rotor drive shaft and Aluminium rods for the antennas on the tail. I will definitely build more models from this nice kit.

The last two years since Oct. 7th were very challenging on all fronts, and I had very little time and energy to sit down at the bench. After the fiasco of the MH-53, my mood and mojo where down, way down. I decided to buy another MH-53 kit, as I just love the Japanese paint scheme of the original Academy kit. Until I find one, I decided to try and raise the mojo and spirit with another 1:72 chopper. I thought about the NH-90 and went out to the storage unit were I hide my stash from the significant other who needs to be obeyed. I do not exactly know what happened there - but I came back with the AW-101 kit. This happened around Nov. 24 - about a year ago. I barely had time to sit and build and no time to write. So here we are - the build is done and I can spend some time documenting. The kit is a standard 1:72 chopper - Italeri 1295 1:72 AW-101 Merlin TTI It has a LOT of small parts and details, some nice features (folding tail) and all in all its a bit bipolar - some of the parts has good engineering and fit and some has horrible engineering and fit. As this was a 'mojo lifter' project - I set out with a 'no AMS' rule and almost managed to abide by it. Internals: Folding tail: This is a nice mechanism - but it did not last through the build and I ended up having to connect the two parts with a tape. For the rotor head - I crafted some blocker that allowed me to install the axis without the head - as I did not want to have to glue the blades while the head is on the kit. As with the Me-262 A-2a/U2 build, I used a marker to mark the inner parts of the canopy frame. The decal for the above panel is a nice touch - although completely invisible when the kit is done. Some of the kit's fit problems show up when closing the fuselage. This kit required a lot of careful dry fitting as well as glueing in careful steps. I also used Eduard CX030. Fit was OK for the most parts, with some problems (kit+mask) on the cockpit side windows. I did not take pictures of all the stages so I'm missing pictures of the side windows and how to mask them, the fiddly rear ramp, the side flare cassettes that should be installed AFTER the decals are placed, some of the wrong markings of decals and more. The paint scheme is .... well - boring. But the idea was to go 'no AMS' I also had issues with the AK light ghost gray. Applying it with the airbrush was a problem. Fortunately the kit plastic is gray so the incomplete cover just contributed to the warn out look of the gray airframe. I was too lazy to mask the leading edge of the rotor blades - and just marked them with black marker. Adding all the small details - antenna, wire cutters, anchor points, mirrors etc' was a real PITA - with some bit needing to wait until paint, clear coat, decals and some even to the final matt coat. The decal sheet is full of small stuff - and some of it wrongly called out in the instruction sheet. The decals for the sponsons should be applied BEFORE (!@#!#!) all the parts that are glued on top of the sponson. I had to cut the decal in two to circumvent that one. Ready for inspection - kind of: One final look - notice how big is the AW-101 compared to the Sea King!: And one final look - you can see the MH53 corpse on the bottom shelf. All in all - its was a fun build and it sure feels gooood to finish up a model and put it on the shelf. I managed to go 'no-AMS' almost all of the way, go easy on all the wiffle-ups and just focus on enjoying the build progressing. Tried for the first time using a marker for painting (both main and rear blades) and also tried the DSPIAE Self Adhesive Sponge Sanding Disc - a very useful tool. Mojo restored to some extent so I started to work again on the Me-262 A-2a/U2 build and the He-280 build as well. I will updated those build reports soon (promise). I also started to think about the next build - which will be my 50th. That's it. Comments, feedback and advice are welcomed as always. Ran P.S. - switched from Imgur to ImageShack for all the UK team mates.

Hello everyone! Here is one of the two kits I completed at the beginning of August, just before going on holidays. Both were variants of the Ta 152 by Kora in 1:72 scale. This is a Focke-Wulf Ta 152S-2 unarmed two-seater trainer in fictitious markings. Apparently, the original Ta 152S-2 designation was for a two-seater variant based on the C-2. It seems that when the C-2 was cancelled, it was passed on to a proposed two-seater based on the H variant. The project didn't get beyond the design stage before the war ended. The other Ta 152S: These Kora kits covering variants of the Ta 152 were based on the Aoshima moulds. In this kit, some were present covering the main wings, main undercarriage and some other parts. A new short-run injection-moulded fuselage, without the tail, a large number of resin parts, some replacing Aoshima plastic parts, a small etched fret, covering seat belts and pedals, and two vacform canopies completed the package. This wasn't an easy build but with patience, checking, filling and sanding, I made it to the end. I didn't use the etched pedals as they wouldn't be seen. The kit was build basically out-of-the-box, only adding the IFF aerial and the radio wire from stretched sprue. As usual, it was fully painted and varnished with brush. I crossed decals with the other kit (an S-1). One thing I only noticed toward the end was that I didn't get the resin tail properly aligned with the fuselage. Despite this and some other flaws, I am pleased with the result and to have built this unique variant. It's the only game in town for the proposed Ta 152 subvariants. Thank you for looking and, as usual, all comments are welcome. Miguel

When I came across the 3D printed SS-Model M2A1, the predecessor of the American M3 and M4 medium tanks, I was intrigued. I ordered one on eBay and was very happy how it turned out, also thanks to the great decals from Braille Strike. I then decided to also model an early M3 Lee from Mirage Hobby, with the same 'reversed' star marking from the Louisiana maneuvers in 1941. I hope you like it. Peter

Finished today - 1:72 Hawker Hurricane Mk.I, R4175/RF-R, 303 (Polish) Squadron, Sgt. Josef Frantisek, England, September 1940. Arma Hobby kit (Expert Set) + QuickBoost resin exhaust. Painted with MRP paint. Thanks for watching!

Another Sea Prince, this time the communications version. Should be an easier build as it is straight out of the box. Typical Valom, reasonably simple, nicely moulded but a lot of ejection pins that’ll need removing or indents to fill. Three sprues of a buff/brown plastic. There’s a little paint already on. There’s only an interior for the cockpit. I may be tempted to use some of the unwanted Pembroke parts to fashion something but that can wait. A clear sprue, although the canopy being split might be a challenge, nice transfers. And I invested in a mask set as that canopy looks really complex, as well as the windows needing masked. Fairly typical Valom instructions and two colour call outs. I’m tending towards the blue 781 NAS version. Partly as I like it but also the masking for the other version would be very challenging especially the cheat line. Anyway some tidying up of the ejection pins, etc. and some further painting next.

I will join in with this slightly started kit that I initially began a year ago. The Pembroke has been beautifully built already by @paul-muc so I’ll be able to learn from his build. The Sea Prince, in both its communications and training guises was another member of this very versatile family of aircraft. The C1 is available from Valom and I hope to get it prised into this GB a little later but I thought I’d resuscitate this build. The necessary parts for the Sea Prince are in the box although a little care is necessary in getting the right nose, wing tips, air intakes and nacelles. The interior for the Belgian version isn’t far off a Sea Prince trainer interior so I’ll use that. There’s a bit of paint and some small sub assembly done but it is well below the 25% rule. The sprues painted up a little. I won’t show the instructions or transfers, I’ll need to get the latter out of my stash once I’ve decided what airframe I’ll be doing. I am thinking of the Ulster Aviation Museum’s WF122 https://www.ulsteraviationsociety.org/percival-sea-prince-t1 but in the Medium Sea Grey and Red scheme rather than the White and Light Aircraft Grey scheme which they’ve beautifully finished it in. A picture of the plastic and subassemblies done when I opened the box again today.

Hello Everybody! My second RFI here was inspired by Stevie D’s „A tribute to woolies” post, which you can look at here. I never had plans for a wheels-up project before, but when I spotted his beautiful little fighter couple romping around side by side, giving such a cool imagination of movement and speed, I immediately wanted to have something like this on my own. A Revell G-10 from my stash was the choice for this my first effort. I chopped the blades off, modified and added a pilot figure, made new headrest and wingtip lights and finally tried to create a vintage looking model stand. Both paint scheme and presentation are based on Australian War Memorial’s 163824, to me the most fascinating Bf109 on display. But no serial number or tactical code applied - just a worn and nameless fighter as a tribute to the thousands of nameless “Jerrys” fighting the skies over Europe… Hope you like it! Thanks for looking in! 🙂 Chris

Hello guys, I'm finally starting my collection of Polish AF aircraft. I decided to start off with a Mig-29 of the 1 Aviation Squadron, 23 Tactical Airbase in Mińsk Mazowiecki. I must admit it was an impulse buy, as I was beguiled by the special decals that included the portraits of Kpt. Pil. (Sq. LDR. RAF equivalent) Eugeniusz "Dziubek" Horbaczewski. However, upon decal time, I noticed that the portraits were of the wrong colour, so I had to use decals from Mistercraft, which were paradoxically better than Italeri's😨. I l used the 303 emblem decal from Italeri's set, as it was more detailed. In general, the kit itself was pretty okay; some putty was involved, but It didn't take away the joy of building this beautiful fighter jet. Unfortunately, I must have gotten a faulty batch of decals as the stencils kept warping. This was unbelievably frustrating, although it could have been my fault as this was my first time applying stencils. Another thing is that the rank and name decals kept on getting twisted and all, which culminated in a bunch of Polish profanity and despair after they were beyond repair. Thanks to some Polish zaradność and kombinowanie, I managed to recover from this disaster by just painting the rank and name by hand. Really got humbled with this kit. On a separate note, Kpt. Pil. Eugeniusz Horbaczewski was one of the greatest Polish aces of WWII with 16.5 kills, therefore making him fourth greatest Polish ace. He was posthumously promoted to Mjr. Pil., which is depicted on this aircraft. In 2019, he was given another promotion to Płk. Pil.. Any and all critiques, suggestions, and advice are much appreciated. Cheers

Hello Everybody! Finally I finished a model that was on my list (and bench) for a long time. As the newer Italeri kit seems to be no shake and bake either, I decided to go with the ancient Airfix release, which comes with a nicely sculpted crew and better looking engines. Also I like its general appearance more than the Italeri model – I’d just say that the sculptor did a great job back in the 1970s! I love old planes as I love old kits, so I took on the challenge… My build was mainly inspired by a spectacular picture created by a flightsim-skinner, many thanks from here to the artist! The goal then became a 386th BG Invader with a glazed nose and the early canopy. After looking around for a while, the only object I could to find was 322312 “Rat Poison Jr”. I printed serial number and code letters, but failed to print a useable noseart. No drama here, I didn’t like the blue painted cowlings anyway and so my rendition may look a bit fictional by showing 322312 shortly before the painter went to business. A pair of Quickboost airscrews replaced the clunky kit parts. The gun barrels belong to Revell’s B17 and were kindly provided by Revell Germany. All the rest was made from scratch or modified. Apart from all the additional work the kit parts went together nicely except for the ill-fitting engine nacelles. Sheet styrene was needed to fill the huge gaps. I happily got the problem solved, but didn’t notice that the nacelles now sat on the wings in slightly different angles. The disaster was showing up weeks later, after I had carefully aligned and glued the wings to the fuselage and suddenly spotted the starboard engine pointing downwards! Twice I had to cut off the right wing. The second time I milled out its mount and ended up with a barely satisfying result, but the model was standing a bit crooked on its legs now. The only remaining and simple solution was to deflate the starboard tire. You will see it now you know it. Please don’t tell anybody… 🤭 Painting was done with Mr. Hobby acrylics and different shades of Silver H8. For weathering I used pastels and AK paneliner. There’s no build thread around, instead I will add some WiP pics here. Meanwhile I found that my first and sole US twin should have a little friend: An ancient Italeri B-25 is in the works here. It was around Easter when that old dog bit me for the first time, what’s not a bad thing as it made me finally pushing the Invader over the line (sorry I’m slow). On to the pics now, I hope you like it!

This is the 1:72 scale kit built from the box also using weapons from Res-Kit and a pilot from PJ products. Hope you like it. Regards Glenn.

A new tool from 2000, probably now surpassed in detail by Eduard and soon by Arma Hobby too... but they'll have to present me very strong evidence to prove me that either of those kits would ever be a better kit to build than the Tamiya! I haven't heard of any major inaccuracies regarding this kit either. So I'll roll on the good ole Pony again V-P P.S. Decal scheme yet to be decided

Here is build #10 for 2025. The model is from Eduard's neat little 1:72 scale kit that allows you to build several subvariants of the post-war Czech built version of the BF-109 with a Junkers Jumo engine. These airplanes served with the Czechoslovakian and Israeli air forces in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Mine is built as a machine from 3rd Squadron, 18th Air Regiment, stationed in Pilsen-Bory in the early 1950s. Eduard's kit is very nice, with petit surface details and great details overall. It was pretty easy to build, and while it took me about a year from start to finish, I only spent maybe 1.5 week's worth of actual work to build it. My only gripe about the model is with the decals, which have the thick top film that is more or less removable. More on that in a bit. The model fits fairly well. I used a little bit of Mr. Surfacer 500, at the wing roots, and the canopy is just a tiny smidge too wide on my example. Everything else fits like a glove, and I love how Eduard engineered the main gear legs with long tabs that slide sideways into the gear-well edges. The kit plastic being so fine, and thin edged, is also somewhat fragile. I broke off and lost the little aerial wire doo-dad that goes on top of the tail, and I broke the tail wheel at least twice. Painting was done with a Tamiya mix of their RLM Grey and RAF Cockpit Green. The interiors and gear parts are various shades of Tamiya black and dark grey. The spinner is AK 3rd Gen acrylic Brick Red. I really like this acrylic line. It coats better than Vallejo and seems a bit more scratch resistant when painted over Mr. Surfacer primer. I'll be getting more of these paints as my Vallejo bottles run out. The brick red was also used to touch up red areas on the roundels, where I lost color while lifting clear film from the decals. Everyone knows the story of Eduard decals by now. They say you don't have to lift the film, but things look better if you do. I left the film on the smaller stencils and on the big black arrow. Look closely and you can definitely see an "umbra" around the markings there. I let the larger decals dry for about 48 hours, then really burnished them in and picked at the fim until I was able to lift it in large sheets. Most came off okay, but I lost little bits of the serial numbers on the tail, and a bit of red on one of the roundels. Still, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Still wish I didn't have to do it, though. I didn't add a lot of weathering on this one. Just a tiny bit of oil rendering around the engine and wing roots. Some watercolor oil streaks on the engine bottom. I give the kit an A- because of those decals. Meanwhile, my photography continues to be a barely earned D+. I'm also getting to that age where what I see, even with glasses on, is not as sharply defined as what I see when I take hi rez digital photos. Always an unpleasant surprise loading these up and seeing them on the big computer screen. :shock: :frown: But here we go, anyway.

I've been saving this one! Hasegawa RAAF F-111C kits are increasingly rare and are starting to fetch decent money. But not long after returning to modelling, my brother gifted me this precious one from his stash. Since then I've been waiting for the right time to build this, but with this GB I think that time has come! Along the way over the last few years I've picked up a few bits of aftermarket to add to what already is an excellent kit, by all accounts. In particular I have the Reskit cockpit module, plus seamless intakes from Hobartville Hobbies. No excuses not to make a decent model with that lot - hopefully I'll get the @trickyrich tick of approval! As for markings and decals, I'm planning to build A8-125, the first F-111C to land in Australia on delivery in June 1973, and the last F-111 to land at the type's retirement ceremony in December 2010 - making it the last F-111 flying anywhere in the world. (-125 is now in the safe hands of the RAAF Museum at Point Cook.) I'll be building -125 in its post Avionics Upgrade Program (AUP) configuration with the Reskit cockpit, and in the all-over gunship grey scheme. But for its tail markings I'm not 100% sure yet. With two Hasegawa decal sheets (I picked up one on Ebay) I have a few options, including the retirement scheme as well as the 6 Squadron 90th anniversary scheme with the red rudder and the standing kangaroo, which I'm leaning towards at this stage. That decision will be a ways off, given my current build rate, and I'm still finishing off my F-16. In time though, I'll take a decent swing at this. Thanks Bro! Gerard

Hi I will enter an Eduard Weekend kit to be built in one of these two options.

Good evening All, I'm joining this GB with Yet Another Harrier, the Airfix 1:72 boxing of BAe SEA Harrier FRS.1 from the Falklands war. This is going to be a straight out-of-the-box build, and I'm leaning towards alternative B, XZ458/007 from the HMS Invincible Air Group. Here's the box and, as you can see, the sprues still in their bag: Tomorrow can't come soon enough! /Jari

Well, this kit certainly is big, the biggest I've attempted for sometime. First released by Hasegawa in 1979: My kit is the Revell 2006 re-box: The kit doesn't look that complex, although such size always brings its own (potential) issues: I will probably go for the USN aircraft. The prospect of hand-painting the entire airframe with two coats of paint is one of the reasons why I am allowing myself as much time as possible for this build.

A quick project - 1:72 Eurofighter Typhoon, serial C.16-73, 14-31, ALA 14, 142 Squadron, Spanish Air Force, NATO Tiger Meet 2018, Poznań (PL). Revell 04317 kit (2007 edition) with Eduard PE set, Pavla resin ejection seat, Model Maker decals and some scratch. Painted with Mr.Color C series and Alclads. Air intakes covers hand-painted with Lifecolor acrylics. Thanks for watching!