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This is my second build from the Eduard Royal Boxing of the Bf109F 1/48th, this time an F-2. Virtually built O.O.B. with some extra detailing in the cockpit. I chose this particular machine for its colour scheme, originally delivered in standard RLM 74/75/76 it was overpainted in the field with mottle consisting of RLM 02/70/79. Model was painted using AK True Colours, decals from kit, Black 12 came from Tamiya Fw190D-9 kit. The name under cockpit was home printed, yellow outline painted freehand. I used Mig Lucky matt varnish for final coat, not too sure of this stuff took about three coats and I wasn't too happy with the final result seems to be very uneven finish! This machine is a Bf109F-2 flown by Uffz. Peter Bremer, 2./JG54, Russia, Autumn 1941:- You have to admit the yellow theatre markings and striped pitot certainly add to the 'Low Viz' idea!!!!!!!! Cheers Andy

After tackling ICM's 1/48 Dornier Do215 (see my other RFI) I decided to jump in to my second ICM build the Do17Z-10, from ICM's1/48 Dornier family. The kit has all the same mouldings as the 215, except of course engines/cowlings and nose, a lot of these required injection pin marks to be removed(seems to be a hallmark of ICM kits). I used the Eduard p/e sets for the interior and exterior, also a set of masks. The interior had a little extra detail added to it including the MG151 cannon which can now hardly be seen. I closed up the bomb bay and added the fairing to the top of the rear fuselage, hollowed out the tail wheel fairing for a more authentic look. Wing and cowling fitting was excellent compared to the 215,even using the Eduard p/e in the u/c bays. the kit went together quite quickly and easily. One thing I did to get a decent wing to fuselage join was to leave out the three bulkheads in the bomb bay as they sat too high impairing a good join. I therefore suggest dry fitting and trimming of these bulkheads to get a good result, I will certainly be doing this with my next Do17Z build (yes I have another one 😱 ). The remainder of the build was pretty straightforward, I used gun barrels from the Eduard 109/190 kits that I had spare, as they have hollowed out tips. I decided looking at a couple of photos of the prototype that all the glazing at the nose, bar one on the port side, were plated over so I puttied over the glazing to give this appearance (rightly or wrongly ???). I also tried to duplicate the extra recognition lights these machines had, 2 above the tail and 2 below the cockpit, I drilled shallow indents painted them silver then filled them with clear ultra-violet glue, not brilliant but acceptable to me!! For the glazing that housed the infra-red search light I painted the rear with Tamiya clear red paint, then coated the top of that with black, trying to achieve a dark red finish - not very successful! I finished the kit with AK True Colours NATO Black, which is actually an extremely dark grey, possibly one step lighter than pure black. This gave to my mind a much better finish than black, please be your own judge as to the result! Panel lines were highlighted with medium grey which gave a pleasing but not very accurate result. I finished the kit as R4+GK of 2/NJG.2 based in Holland ( this machine was shot down in May 1941 by a 25 Sqdn. Beaufighter). The letter 'G' may have been red but having no photographic proof decided to have it grey. I used the kit decals for the national markings with some trepidation, having read some bad criticism of ICM's decals but to my delight they went on perfectly. The code letters were from the Xtradecal Do215 sheet and were not as good as ICM's!!!!! I really like the look of this particular if unsuccessful member of the Do17 family. Cheers Andy

This is the result of my first build of an ICM kit, even though it was purchased when it first appeared back in 2014 I never got round to building it till now. So armed with the kit, Eduard's interior, exterior, bomb bay p/e sheets and masks, Quickboost's resin spinner/props and exhausts, finally Xtradecals sheet the build commenced. I had read the reviews and builds by others and was left with mixed feelings about ICM 1/48 kits especially the Do215, but plunged in anyway!! It was certainly not one of the easiest kits I've built and took me far longer to complete than I expected, at times I nearly gave up the whole project but in the end persisted hopefully the end result is a reasonable replica of this machine. There were an awful lot of ejector pin marks to remove which would have been visible on the finished kit, a problem I've noticed on the other ICM kits in my stash. Which led me to purchasing a fibre glass pencil which is a great way to remove these marks. I found the instructions a little confusing at times (when I used them!!!) usually for placing certain items in the cockpit. The Eduard etch caused me some problems especially in the u/c bays where a Dremel was used to sand down some of the parts attached to the u/c bay walls. This was to try to get the engine nacelles to fit reasonably to the wings. When it came to fitting the wing to the fuselage the join was terrible and required much sanding and filling. I have since come to the conclusion the bulkheads in the bomb bay need some trimming down to allow a reasonable wing to fuselage join. I also added strips of card to lower wing to fuselage join to alleviate the poor fit. I added some extra detail to the cockpit ( which I painted dark grey rather than RLM02???). I also decided to glue the cowlings closed even though replicas of the engines are supplied which I found to be rather simplified. One of the faults with this kit is the rear fuselage which does not have the bulged fairing over the tailplane, this has been rectified by an aftermarket resin product which as it costs half the price of the kit I decided not to purchase!! I did however modify the fuselage to show this feature, reasonably successfully I hope? The tailwheel fairing is one moulding including the tailwheel its self, I managed to hollow out the fairing leaving the tailwheel to look like a separate item. As it is a recce. machine I added a resin camera to the entry hatch/camera fairing from my spares box. I used AK True Colours to paint the kit and Xtradecals sheet for the Do215, I was rather disappointed with these decals as they seemed to be a lot thicker than I'm used to and took quite a lot of solvent to get them to look reasonable! This machine was from 1.(F)124 Stavanger, Norway April 1940 (couldn't resist the undersurface mottle!!!!!) Now then where's that ICM Do17Z-10 😱 Cheers, Andy

These two kits were built together, the Siebel Si204 using aftermarket i.e. Eduard 'Big Ed' etched and masks plus CMK resin wheels, seats and spinners. Where as the Bucker Bu181 was built virtually otb, both kits were Special Hobby 1/48 scale. The Si204 wasn't the easiest of kits to build, some of the parts not fitting together too well. The canopies were a bit of a trial to get a decent fit but was successful in the end. I also re-scribed all the panel lines as I found the kit ones to be rather shallow. On the plus side the interior detail was excellent, unfortunately mostly lost when fuselage halves are joined! Not a shake and bake kit but worth the effort put into it, Special Hobby certainly give us replicas of aircraft mostly ignored by other manufacturers and are to be congratulated for their choices. Aircraft was finished using AK True Colours, decals from kit and spares box. This particular machine was taken from a colour photo found on the 'net' the code only showed 3 letters L,Q & D so first letter is a guess B!!! These last 3 photos show the interior detail :- The Bucker Bu181 was built otb without any modification except cutting out and deflecting the control surfaces. Again a Special Hobby kit this one with no surprises and finished quite rapidly for me!!!! Machine is finished as per photo found in a Flugzeug Special on the Bu181, it appears the codes had been painted out except the one on the yellow bands the S is speculative. Unit badge is home made decal, finished again, with AK True Colours. Now S.H. where is the 1/48 Focke Wulf Fw58 😉 Cheers Andy