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Hello Guys.I hope you are all doing well.I have finished this mig several days ago.It is the old Zvezda MiG-21 PFM.An old kit that still builts up pretty well.I have added a resin km1m seat and the rest is oob.I had to spray pain the markings because I could not find decals for this one.Paints used are gunze and tamiya and the varnishes are vallejo and AK. regards,Dragan

Italeri Harrier Gr.3. 1:72. Brush painted. Out of the box. Not a bad little kit with very few fit issues. Decals were excellent, nicely printed, did not "explode" and plenty of them. Aircraft is XZ 899, shot down over Goose Green. The pilot, Bob Iveson, survived. Linky

Nice little palate cleanser after a few more complicated builds recently. Finished straight out of the box, with my interpretation of the Canadian camouflage scheme for Sicily in 1943. The markings are for a vehicle with the Carlton and York Regiment, 1st Canadian Infantry Division, Sicily, 1943. You can find an wartime image of this vehicle on this web page: https://captainstevens.com/military/mv/cmp-canadian-military-pattern-vehicles/ Brush painted with Vallejo and Tamiya acrylics. Build thread can be found here: Thanks for looking.

Supermarine Sea Otter Mk.I, FAA, Maryborough, Australia, June 1945 Sea Otter was the successor to Walrus and entered service late in WW2. It was the last bi-plane type to enter service in RAF or FAA - but it still rescued airmen in the 1950 for example in the Korean war. Kit: Special Hobby 1/72 Supermarine Sea Otter Mk.I 'WWII Service' (SH72429) Scale: 1/72 Paints: Hataka Red Line Weathering: Flory Models, Vallejo, Tamiya & Ammo Mig Rewarding but challenging little kit by Special Hobby (originally Azur). Wing construction was the challenging part, other than that it was very nice kit - but packed with lots of tiny PE and resin bits which could be quite fiddly. I also added some details of my own like the railings and rope which are lead wire. Rigging (my first) done with rubber wire found from an undisclosed source. Painted with Hataka acrylics and weathered using Flory wash and different enamel and acrylic based weathering products. WIP:

From the category of "someone's got to build this". I'm sure enough of us did build it back in the day, including myself in 1982. As I recall, I completed it in line with the box artwork, or at least as best I could. Given the kit was issued in 1981, two years before the type entered service, accuracy was always going to be questionable. I am building a re-box from the late 1980s, one that has been in the stash for a very, very long time. I could have disposed of this kit on more than one occasion, but something always stayed my hand. Maybe it was because I remembered this as being a trouble-free build. I am building the USN subject from VFA-102 "Valions", with the early low-vis colour scheme. Thanks to those who confirmed in the chat thread that this was correct. The small strakes on top rear of each LERX were added early in the production run, and retro-fitted to the very earliest aircraft. Airfix did at least decide to go back and add them. Note how these parts (93 and 94) are oriented at a 90-degree angle to other parts, presumably to squeeze them onto the sprue. They also have plain part numbers, instead of the italicised part numbers used from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s.

Hello I would like to present a model of U-boot in huge scale 1:72 from Revell. Many extras was applied during a build. Enjoy.

Hello! I proudly present my 1:72 Bucc! It took just over a month to do and I'm very happy with the finish on it (brushpainted). I had lots of fun making this, it's a relatively easy model and the single colour fuselage really helps with build speed, one of my fastest models (although the fact that I had to self isolate for 10 days helped a lot with getting me time to build) Thanks for looking! Next RFI either F-15E or another JP T.4

This is not my usual build, which is most of the time cold war jets with some 1:48 WW2 planes in the mix which I build for my dad. But I've been checking this kit out for a while now and I've been tempted to give it a go. Clearly not your most straightforward build but with patience I'm sure I can make it work. Good amount of resing and some PE parts in the mix - also a bi-plane which is a first for me. Rigging... well, we will see how it goes when I get there Model itself looks nice - even if bit low on details. I also picked up some Hataka paints - of which I've had really positive experience so far. Despite the PE and resin additions the cockpit was feeling bit plain so I added some fuselage framing from plasticard. Just so that it looks like there is some details when looking thru the big clear part. Paint and weathering done for the cockpit. I painted it black first and then couple of layers of Hataka Interior Grey Green all the pieces in place. I think I add a map or something to the rear seaters table to make it bit more interesting. I'm trying to go slow with this build so that I don't run into any big issues - but so far the build is going smoothly.

I had intended to start a Miniart 1:35 Dingo in Canadian colours - but found my kit was missing a while sprue. Thankfully Miniart Customer Support were very quick to respond and a replacement sprue is on its way. That’s going to take awhile, so in the meantime I thought I would make a start on this kit. I’ve been picking away at it over the last week, pretty straight forward build, if rather small parts and rather soft plastic. Here is where I am at tonight. Most of the construction complete, just some cleaning up to do. I want to finish it as a Canadian example in Sicily 1943 - it’s got a roundel on the roof 😁. The markings in the box are for a vehicle with Carlton and York Regiment, 1st Canadian Infantry Division in Sicily in 1943. The instructions say it should be olive drab, which doesn’t sound right. I had the following discussion with folk earlier last year. From this I think the base colour will be SCC 4 Stone, with black disruptive pattern only on the lower part of the vehicle. I am going to assume it was originally SCC 2, so will paint the inside of the cab and the undersides that colour. I think I’ve got something that approximates SCC4, and from the photo I found of this specific vehicle the final appearance will be very dusty. The only thing that’s tripping me up - what will the disruptive pattern look like? I can’t seem to find any clear images, so it may be a bit of guesstimate.

Absolutely no idea who came-up with 'Gentlemans Scale' but it makes me smile every time I read it !! Started just before Christmas as a 'Mojo Restorer', loved the build and paintwork, gave me a great excuse to drag-out all my Starfighter reference books - yeah, 'books' remember them ?. Built straight from the box with no additives, just glue. Paints are all Tamiya, Xtracolour and Humbrol enamels - remember them too ? - decals are from the kit and a thirty-five year old Microscale sheet. There's really very little else to say, IMHO this is still the best 1:72 F-104 kit available and impressed me so much that I went and brought my (untouched) Hasegawa 1:72 F-14A to the bench, which I'll begin once the weather here cools-off a little, we're getting close to 30c here most days with almost no wind, so the paint is drying on the airbrush needle !! Please feel free to ask any questions, hurl any abuse or make any comments. All the best from NZ. Ian.

Hello! I finally got round to finishing another model! I'm quite happy with this one. Without further ado, here it is. Hunting Percival Jet Provost T.4 1XR679 No.79 (R) Squadron, No.1 Tactical Weapons Unit, Royal Air Force Brawdy (not RAF Chivenor, thanks to those who pointed it out to me), Pembrokeshire, Wales, 1982. This kit was a lot of fun and I think it turned out quite nice, thanks for looking! see you in a few years when I finish my next model, knowing my sporadic schedule

Woah, two for one, the hobby store must have had a deal on. They did, that's why we get two models for review today! This one is the glorious Stuka, which the most annoying decals. I mean, the teeth are cool but what a pain to apply. I may take the rigging attempts over teeth decals. I did learn not to use a certain frog-based paint tape for painting however so we can take some positives away. Perhaps it's the Tamiya paint demons being mean but ho boy, was I ever mad when I peeled that green tape away and saw the edges. That was with the thinnest paint application ever too. Even thinner that a wafer-thin mint after dinner. Oh well, lessons learned. I even learnt how to correctly read a paint conversion table after being perplexed at the camo scheme coloring. It's all about learning! I will say the decal application was actually half-fun, where I managed to successfully apply half of the tiny, small ones upon my face and the rest on the plane. Not too shabby.

Look who's back, back again, Belgium's back, back in a Gloster Gladiator apparently. Following my love of the Hawker Hurricane and fully aware that the Hurricane is basically a Gladiator without the top wing, decided that this should be my next kit to butch. Not only did this kit inspire me to order putty, which didn't get used and instead I carefully manipulated paint into the crevasses like a married couple seeking to keep the spark alive, thought I didn't do too bad on this. I will admit that I gave up on trying to figure out how to rig it and by that, I mean I ordered a kit from WW1 to trial rigging on. This was brush painted with Tamiya paints because like the above married couple, I too enjoy pain. Wasn't too bad but definitely some colour match issues. Oh well. At least the robot who is piloting it won't know which is probably a good thing based on how hard he hit that port-side gear. Don't fly a Tesla plane any time soon, folks, we know what'll happen.

Good evening fellow modellers. New year, new build(s) and stash is in dire need of reduction In this build, I'm going to use Pavla Model set for cockpit + Master pitot and SBS wheel set to render version from the kit XS100 from 4 FTS. I intend to build it in raised canopy configuration. Starting with both halves, weathering applied to both undercarriage and interior: And view from the other side: And both halves together with generous amount of CA to hide seams on the nose: Adding wings on top of fuselage shows that some tender loving care will be needed: Similarly below (I've decided to remove undercarriage as it most likely would not survive puttying and sanding): So much for now, stay tuned

Very, very late I know, but I have (many) reasons. I had originally intended to build this kit, but then mislaid the windscreen. It eventually turned up in mid-December, and when I checked, this Group Build had been extended. So in a rush of new-found enthusiasm, I decided I'd take it with me during my Christmas holidays (visiting family), and build it there. Note the extra sprue with the LGBs (just the two) and FLIR pod.

As well as this kit, I also had the much newer Revell kit of the Gripen C in the stash. But I'm a glutton for punishment. I bought this kit at an air show in Galway about 20 years ago.

This is a 1990s revision of the old 1973 kit. The extra parts on the white sprue are for the "bull nose" and the four-bladed propellers and spinners fitted to the J30. I had already built the original kit twice, but both times "wheels up". So I probably hadn't noticed this design flaw before on the outer port nacelle. The attachment point for the main undercarriage leg is molded out instead of in: The kit errs in providing for the underwing rockets to be mounted as well either the drop tanks or bombs. Even though Airfix should surely have known that was wrong when this revised kit was issued, they didn't correct this, and the instructions for the RAF NF.XIX version makes the same mistake as in the 1973 instructions. In reality, a special ops night fighter/intruder would have been very unlikely to carry rockets. But I digress. Had I wanted to fit the drop tanks to the J30 I was building, I'd probably have had to move them outboard a bit. But I didn't see any photo of the J30 with drop tanks.

Well, this seemed like a good idea at the time. How tricky could a simple little kit like this be? I should have known better. To quote Puck from "A Midsummer Night's Dream": Lord, what fools these mortals be 🙄

Ready for inspection is my 1:72 Italeri Dakota Mk.III, this is the first time I have built a larger aircraft, and I hope it will give me confidence to tackle the Halifax and Lancaster which are currently tucked up in my stash. So to the build, the kit went together pretty well, the fuselage halves are a bit of a pain to line up, but otherwise the kit required only a little amount of filler (which is always a bonus). The underside is brush painted, and the olive drab from a trusty rattle can (thanks to my lovely other half!). I should say I got an airbrush for my birthday and am growing in confidence with it, so hopefully my next build will be painted that way. Anyway back to the Dak, the decals caused me to sweat a little (and have a few beers!), but with the help of micro set, they soon were in place. I'm pretty happy with my first 'big' build, and more importantly I have discovered new respect, and love for the handsome looking aircraft. Thanks, Michelle.

The Short 184 is an iconic aircraft from the First World War, being the first to attack and sink a ship with a torpedo attack. As far as I know the only kit is this Aeroclub short run kit from many years ago. It's been in the stash for a long time and last year I decided to pull it out and have a go at it. The airframe and floats are injection moulded and struts, prop, seats, radiator and some other parts are in white metal. Overall it is a straightforward although intricate build, the fit is generally good though some scratchbuilding of parts from provided material and plastic rod is needed. It does build up well and despite the fragile look it is pretty robust. Finished as Number 842 from HMS Ben-my-Chree, this was the first aircraft to sink a ship with a torpedo attack. As outlined it's a mixed media kit mainly injection with white metal. The transfers although the original and therefore a few years old performed beautifully. Brush painted Citadel Bleached Bone for the overall clear doped linen, Akan Dark Admiralty Grey for the grey metalwork and Tamiya Clear Orange over Akan Aged Wood for the varnished wood. It is a bit of a beast in size. I appreciate a Bristol Scout is small but it was a contemporary.

I picked this up at SMW back in November so it's a quick build for me getting a biplane done so quickly. I didn't think the RNAS had Dolphins but there are two mentioned in Sturtivant and Page's Royal Navy Aircraft Serials and Unit 1911 -1919 and this is one of them. Finished as C3785 based at RNAS Dover in 1918. Completed out of the box and brush painted with Hu103 Cream for the doped linen and Revell Olivgrun for the PC10. The grey is Xtracrylix Camouflage Grey. Transfers, including the sharkmouth from the kit. Nice build and nice detail on one of the first multi gun fighters.

I started this kit for the Bristol GB along with 2 others, thinking as the part numbers were small, I would easily finish them in time. In reality the kit was a real challenge, nearly every part needed trimmed to fit. I spent loads of time fettling small parts and in the end I failed to finish even one. The other two are still sitting in their boxes with paint on but still on the sprues. There's lot of extra parts and options in the kit and things are nicely and finely moulded it's just most take work to get them to fit. Anyway here is Bristol Scout C number 1250 based at Royal Naval Air Station Eastchurch in June 1915. Brush painted with Citadel Bleached Bone. Ends up as a nice little aircraft. It is small, here with. £1 coin to show the size.

I would like to show you two F-4EJs that I have recently finished. The first one is a F-4EJ of the Air Developmant and Test Wing in Gifu. They painted it 2017 in a digital or pixel camouflage. When I first came across the photo of this aircraft, I immediately started looking for decals. At that time, there was only this Fujimi boxing available for a lot of money. But I bought it anyway and after a closer inspection decided just to use the decals and build the model using the Hasegawa kit. Here is now the finished model: It is an F-4EJ (without the "kai"), although it features the antenna on top of the spine. But the very small backward facing sensors on top of the rudder are missing. Applying the decals was fun. Fujimi provided large connected areas like one wing = one decal, but I decided to divide them into smaller areas for better handling. I strongly recommend this procedure. As a basic color I chose Revell Seegrün Aqua colours which fits perfectly. The Hasegawa kit is nice, but I added some details like instruments and wiring to the area between the two seats. Also the triangular shaped reinforcement plates on the stabilizers have to be removed from the top and added to the bottom. Check your references, when building a Phantom.... A lot of stencils are provided for the underside, too: The second model shows a F-4EJkai (improved) that can be recognized by the two small sensors and the big antenna on the spine. Also it features a slightly bigger radome, but Hasegawa ignored this difference. Fine molds however have reproduced it in their new range of F-4EJs. The JASDF 302 Sq have painted two of their F-4 in a special scheme for the retirement of the type, one white and the other one black. Hasegawa have released them both. The decals are nicely done but of course they need some touch up especially in the area around the intakes. I will build the black one using the Fine Molds kit. Here the reinforcement plates are correct as they are in the kit. Hope you like the models. greetings from Germany, Norbert

Hello everyone! Here is one of my first kits of the year, finished during this week. It's Airfix's 1:72 Brewster B-339E Buffalo Mk.I finished as AN185/TD-V of No 453 (RAAF) Sqn based at Sembawang, Singapore in December 1941. Back in around 1979, after I had built my first three kits which had been gifts, the next kit I bought, and which definitely set me down the path of this hobby, was the Airfix Buffalo, one from the first boxed issue. Fast forward to 2008, and I saw the kit reissued with the old boxart recovered and bought it to have another go eventually and recover it in my collection (the old one having long since been scrapped). When I was coming up to my 400th kit, I decided to finally build it. The parts were exactly the same albeit moulded in light blue rather than metallic grey and as before there were two options, a US F2A-2 and a British Buffalo Mk.I although this time in markings of an RAAF unit. My intention was to make a nostalgic OOB build with some minor improvements and finish it before the end of 2021 but it was not to be in any way! For starters, the box states it as an F2A-1 but it's not. The parts are clearly for an F2A-2... and only an F2A-2. Although some alternative parts are supplied, you can't really make a B-339E Buffalo Mk.I OOB. The two major missing items are a new tailcone and an uncuffed Hamilton Standard propeller. I really wanted the B-339E so that meant extra work was going to be needed. Added to that, the kit is overall dimensionally correct BUT short in the nose. I had read comments about the cowling being short but when comparing with SAMI plans from an issue of 2005, I found that the fuselage was also short in front of the wings by 2mm, just like the cowling. I decided to fix that too. This really deserved a WIP but with my self-imposed deadline, it wasn't possible. - I used Evergreen 2 x 1.5mm strip to extend the fuselage. The exhausts were carefully removed and relocated afterwards. - Adding 4mm to the nose meant that the engine had to move forwards too so I used parts from old cassette tape wheels (exactly 4mm thick) to act as new supports for the engine. - In the cockpit I added a roll bar and armoured headrest (not sure if all had this) as well as an instrument panel with the gunsight from scrap resin and plastic and stretched sprue. A lens was added from clear flash plastic. - A new tailcone was made from scrap resin. - I added the pilot as it was still a nostalgia build! I shortened his boots and thinned the legs as he was flying in shorts (no photos, sorry)! - To extend the cowling, I actually used parts from the cowling of my first Buffalo cut down to 2mm as they had the right shape. - I added the forward ring to the engine from stretched sprue. - I sanded away the cuffs from the propeller blades and reshaped them. - I filled the rear ends of the holes for the blades in the spinner with plastic strip. - I added the short radio mast on the tailfin. - I opened up holes and made the landing lights on the wing undersides (the B-339E had two). - I also opened up the holes for the wing guns and their shell ejection chutes. - A wing pitot was added from stretched sprue. Apart from adding the radio wires from thin fishing line, there were one or two more things I did but not really noticeable. Fit of parts wasn't bad overall except for the canopy which was terrible. I did my best but at some point decided not to push my luck. Because I had to clean up all of the seams, I ended up removing all the rivets, which weren't accurate anyway. I didn't rescribe any panel lines as you really can't seem them on the real thing. I dry-brushed a dark grey to simulate several of them later. The kit was fully painted and varnished by brush. The squadron code decals were far too dark so I replaced them with slightly larger ones from a Modeldecal sheet. I should have replaced the insignia too as the decals were awful, being somewhat translucent and not settling properly, not even with decal solutions. I ended up having to paint over the white, yellow and red and the surrounding areas where there was some silvering. The difference between the Sky of the band and spinner and the underside was deliberate since they were clearly lighter. There are a couple of things I missed but I am very pleased with the end result and the solutions I came up with to improve or correct the kit. It was fun! Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome. Miguel

Hi to all of you guys.I want to wish you a happy new year and all the best to you and your loved ones.I started this kit more than a year ago.I upgraded the cockpit with some homemade details and a resin mk-10 seat.The pittotube is a needle because the kit part was too flimsy.I have struggled with the assembly.This kit is quite bad to be honest.I have also added some riveting.In the end it looks like a mirage so I am satisfied.The paints used are Mr.Hobby and tamiya acrylics. Regards,Dragan