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Hi All, here is a completed '40 Ford Coupe I received as a Christmas present (from my in-laws). Its built using the parts for drag use, though whether it would pass scrutineering for class AA/G is another matter! The kit is a Round 2 re-pop of an AMT kit that has been around from the 60s. It seems to be a favourite of US car modellers, from what I can see on YouTube. I built a few US car kits when I was in my early teens and such things were easily available in the UK at Beatties stores. I had forgotten the period features of variable mouldings and being given a set of parts that it was up to you how they fit together. The colour is a custom mix of orange and copper, approx 2:1 using Tamiya paints and a W&N acrylic gloss finish (which now needs a month or so to go properly hard). The colour is more orange in daylight. I had to rebuild the blower intake as the parts were somewhat short-moulded. The Moon tank was made from the gas tank the instructions suggested could go behind the seats, which on reflection is probably safer than at the point-of-impact as I've modelled. Well, I hope you all like this slice of Americana. I'm off to "recover" with a Hase Stratos... Cheers Will

Looks like I am dragging this one out of the stash from a few years ago. I did start it with grand plans to show it in a take-off pose so I chopped up the wings Got as far as test fitting wing parts and I think the cockpit has been painted. But I think I will revisit it to see if some sprucing up is required. I am using a Caracal decal sheet for an RC-135V and I will be robbing the engines from a KC-135R to make it a current version. The decals are for this jet and I will attempt a similar pose.

HI everyone! this is my 1/25 AMT '67 shelby GT-350 this kit got some issues..I try to build it as good as I could.. not perfect...but I am happy with this result.. hope you guys like it!

This one came from the bay as 'missing parts'. Well the price was right but it's the Barris version, so it's ugly. What to do? Search the spares boxes and forget historical authenticity. It's a restomod. Make it up as you go along! It's taken a while due to life/lack of time and the cold weather getting in the way. But here we are at last... The George Barris version has a different front end so no Pontiac split grille I found a Cadillac grille in the spares box which, with fettling, just about fits. That meant I had to lengthen the hood (bonnet) the join is almost invisible, but the hood isn't a perfect fit. In my haste to get it finished and photgraphed this afternoon I forgot that I hadn't put a wash into the grille. Drat! It doesn't go up into the front of the fenders here which are supposed to surround the original stacked pairs of lights. So I've put a gob of Elmers glue in to fill the holes and I'm calling them riding lights. I've seen quite a few real restomods on TV where they strip the chrome and paint the trim body colour. So aside from the quarterlights (I forget the American term) which the Molotow pen coloured in, it's all blue. It's a Ford blue BTW. Hycote acrylic rattle can. Nice stuff. And I haven't added clear. This is 'scale shine'. Rear lights and bumper were missing. So it's a spares box bumper and Thunderbird tail lights. And that's yer lot. It's not perfect but I enjoyed it and it will join the others that have survived the years. I bought quite a few car kits back in the '90's when they were very cheap, and built them when I worked in Riyadh. I had lots of spare time back then, sigh... The WIP is here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235115814-amt-65-lowrider-grand-prix/ I still need to finish the '70 Impala. We'll see what life and the weather have to say about the speed of that! Thanks for looking. I hope you found something to like. Pete

This will easily be the biggest vacform I've ever attempted, and it's daunting if I'm honest. Picture of the real one below, I'll post pictures of the kit later with something to scale it against Edit Thanks to the diligence of a fellow BM member @Shorty84aka Markus, I discovered the BV238 needs significant alterations to end up anything like the original aircraft so an alternative was required. I've chosen to build the 1/72 Valkyrie instead, I hope you like it. Cheers Pat

And the news for us Star Wars fans just keeps getting better and better! Now AMT is bringing out a 1/72nd scale Razor Quest from the Mandalorian TV show. No more word about it than this placard on display at WonderFest this weekend. So, Revell has already announced they're doing one in 1/72nd as well. And there's also the Bandai one - but that looks a very small kit from the imagery thus far. Is AMT's a reboxing of Revell's? Is Revell's just for the European market as was their Republic Gunship? In any event, a 1/72nd Razor Crest is hella cool! https://www.scalemates.com/kits/amt-razor-crest--1355671

This kit's directions have a note that I started putting paint to plastic on July 16, 2020 and I finished the model July 5 of this year. During that time, I did manage to complete one other model that had been set aside (Tamiya Meteor Prototype Number One), and also started two other kits, so the entire year wasn’t devoted to this one…but it felt like it! I deviated from the instructions somewhat. The main landing gear has five attachment points and the directions would have you fish that assembled, multi-part landing gear up through the wheel well opening. I couldn’t see me getting that done without some big trouble. So, the assembled gear were installed through the top of the engine nacelles (much easier!) and then the nacelles were installed on each wing before they were attached to the fuselage. Of course, that meant they were in the way for the rest of the build. I did cover them with protective “spats” that I made from paper towel tube, and they made it through without any issues. I had really wanted the model to sit on her three wheels without the support of the kit-provided barrel and crate, used in real life Tigercat service to keep the front tire on the ground when fuel tanks were empty. So, I added a lot of ballast into the fuselage, all forward of the main gear centerline. I knew that much weight would surely stress the plastic kit landing gear, so I used a set of white-metal gear instead. The total weight of the ballast was over 75 grams and I just knew it would be enough. I was wrong. The P&W R-2800s supplied in the kit were quite nice and I added spark-plug wiring and few other small parts that are pretty hard to see now. I didn’t use the notorious rubber tires that came in the kit, instead using a resin set in their place. Eduard PE seat belts were used and I scratch-made the canvas “sling” that served as the rear cockpit seat. The kit props are really misshaped, so I robbed an old Monogram Hellcat and Avenger of their props and used them. Paint was ModelMaster Insignia Yellow matte, and I used a semigloss clear-coat over that to replicate the somewhat glossy yellow paint used on the Naval Air Test Center bird from 1947 that I was doing for this build. I've found only one photograph of this NATC aircraft and it shows heavy exhaust staining, with black soot blown back along the nacelles and wings. Man, they must’ve been running those R2800s mighty rich! I wish I could have airbrushed that soot, but I just didn’t trust myself to do that without messing up the paint work, so it was done with pastel chalks. I was hesitant to seal the chalk staining with a clear-coat, so it was left unsealed and I was careful not to touch it after application. I also used some Flory wash to highlight a few panel lines. I deleted all the guns as the reference photo shows none and I added two, small sensors seen in that pic to the sides of the nose. I worried a lot about getting the tires all installed with the flat bottoms actually on the bottom, and still keeping them plumb. It is a difficult model to handle, so I laid her upside down on a jig and used 30-minute 2-part epoxy to attach them to the metal gear stubs. Turning her over and setting it over the table, I adjusted and checked them several times and felt they were good to go. Next morning, I sat her on her “feet’ for the first time ever and found that all three weren’t plumb. Their flats were on bottom but there was no way at that point to adjust them vertically without catastrophic consequences so they are what they are I’m afraid. And, I fear they may splay out more as time goes by with all that weight on them. And even with all that weight, she's still a tail-setter without some support of her rear-end. Since I ended up needing the barrel and crate anyway, I should’ve not used any weight at all! Live and hopefully learn. I took her to the Cameron airport on Tuesday, July6, for a photo session. All in all, I guess she looks okay; not as nice as I wanted but it’ll have to do. Thanks for hanging in this far, and thanks for your interest too. As always, I welcome your comments! Cheers! Here's a shot of the front cockpit before it was all closed up: Rear cockpit photo: An early pic of the engines without their cowlings: Cockpits on finished model: This is the only photograph of the real NATC Tigercat I could find: My model in a similar pose:

My entry will be the original ground attack aircraft of the Second World War, which was the precursor of the Stuka - the Henschel Hs 123. I happen to have this kit in the stash for some time, so the group build is a great opportunity to clear at least one kit from the stash.. The AM Tech kit is actually the rather venerable ESCI kit from the 1970's, but has added resin goodies to do the cockpit. I intend to do this in the Spanish markings that come with the kit, which is of one of the aircraft that was retained by Franco's Nationalists after the Civil War, and the markings on the kit are from the aircraft in 1945. The Scalemates information on the kit is here;- https://www.scalemates.com/kits/amtech-489203-henschel-hs-123a-1--120433 I have also purchased the Montex Maxi mask for this kit, which allows me to spray the various national insignia and tactical markings, instead of using most of the decals. I will be beginning in a week or two. Philip

What do the letter codes mean? My nephew has a old model kit from his great uncle and he wants to know what the letters mean for which paint colours. The kit was made in 1983 apparently and.... WOW!!! It tells you how to assemble it but barely. There are no numbers and there is no chart telling what paints to use just letters.

Start of a old AMT kit ,dod a bit of the office [under 25%] Thats it so far. Wellzy

Hi folks here is my first entry in to the GB - Kittyhawk IV RAAF flown by Squadron Leader Geoffrey Atherton. It is the old AMT kit of the P-40N Warhawk but i have markings from an Italieri boxing that allows me to build this version. I have a set of AM resin wheels and an etch set for the Hasegawa kit that may or may not fit, we shall see... Anyway here are some images of the kit etc theres no box art as i bought it off a BM member in the sales area without a box. TFL Cheers Greg

Finally calling this one done, 1/1400 AMT Klingon Vor'Cha cruiser, hand painted in humbrol enamels. Colour scheme from DS9. 30 year old decals given a coat of decalcote before use. No disintegrating decals, yeah and a localised matt cote to seal them. Picked up a good tip, scan a copy of your decals to your computer before use, just in case, then if need be print a set off. As builds go this was a sweet build, no fit issues or filler required, which is a surprise as previous AMT larger scale Star trek builds have been woeful. A word to the wise, if your contemplating getting one, pick up a first issue as the painting guide is more in depth than the Vorcha re-release which leaves a lot of the detail painting out, whose instructions you can download from round 2. All the best Chris

About 10 years ago now, I built an antique 1:72 Revell Ju 88C-6. This was partly a nostalgia build, and partly an exercise in adding a bit of detail. I also practised trying to get a mottle with a hairy stick. It was no masterpiece, but I was pleased with it and it's still sat in my display cabinet. Fast forward 10 years and I decided to build another Ju88C-6, but this time using AMT's kit. I wanted another crack at trying the mottle. I basically built it oob, then sprayed it Tamiya RLM76 from a rattle can and added the mottle using a new method. Here is the result, with a comparison pic with the classic build. Another step on the way to a decent mottle finish. Rgds Martin

I am a brush and rattle-can painter, and although I have improved over the years, I have never produced a particularly realistic finish. Having seen a series of excellent finishes from someone on BM, I thought I'd try pastels. So, out came the AMT Ju 88C nightfighter which I built as an experiment. So, here's the result: What d'you think? Rgds Martin

Evening all Finally got round to dusting off the DSLR and taking some pics. For those of you who are interested here is a link to the WIP. And the last one with the rest of the garage. Got a while to go before Jay Leno gets jealous! Thanks for looking. Nick

I've recently completed the conversion of an AMT KC-135 into an RAF Airseeker/Rivet Joint. I used the Combat Conversions resin set which provides new CFM-56 engines, new nose, cheek blisters and the various aerials and sensors that adorn the aircraft. The decals were from the Hannants' Xtradecal range. Paints were a mixture of Revell and Xtracolour enamels. Regards, Rob

Last week my son pointed out the left hand warp nacelle had fallen off my Enterprise model onto one of my 1/32 Spitfires (don't be alarmed - it was fine!). Getting it out revealed the whole model was badly in need of a visit to spacedock. The fillers had cracked open and the varnish I used to use as a sealer had yellowed substantially. I subsequently pulled it apart a it more to bring it up to a more reasonable standard. I made this over 20 years ago and my skills have advanced a little since then. It is badly-fitting and will need some decent filling. I'll also need to work out a way to support the warp nacelles better as the tiny tabs used are plainly insufficient to support their weight for extended periods. I remember the kit decals were rubbish and I needed to bathe them in PVA glue to get them to adhere. I've ordered some nice but expensive replacements from JT-Graphics in the US (postage to Oz is almost as much as the decals themselves) and will attempt a better shading look to the overall appearance. Hopefully, she'll come out much nicer this time around. The Hasegawa Neptune under it is next on the shelf...

After a couple of Lancia rally cars completed, had a look through the stash and thought I'd give this a go as I fancied something different Never built an AMT kit before, so it's a learning curve for me, but I've always loved the look of the American muscle cars The wife and daughter got me this and a 70 Corvette from a long shopping weekend in NY a couple of years ago, This will probably be one of the most expensive kits I'll ever make when you factor in flights and hotels etc, but at least I didn'y have to trapse around the shops with them

I had attempted to build AMT's 1:25 Viper GTS kit as a child but royally messed it up. However I acquired this RT/10 in around 2007 from a friend who was moving abroad for work, and I had completed it by 2011, working on it alongside many of the other older builds I've posted up. The completed pics were taken earlier today, after a quick run over with a soft brush to remove all the dust from it sitting in my display cabinet. Paint was Halfords rattle can for the body, and brushed Humbrol enamels for the rest, except the interior which was brushed Tamiya acrylics. My friend had started it, building up most of the rolling chassis & he had fortunately also done an excellent job of painting the windscreen frame & screenprinting on the glass (which I hate doing) but the body & interior had not been started. I did little on the chassis except free up the front stub axles & rear driveshafts, and finish off some painting to the underside. The detail on this kit is very high - much is prototypically correct but fully hidden - e.g. there is a full side exhaust system even though it is sealed up in the sills... It did however pose some challenges, as for the body to sit correctly to the axle centres, the upper interior tub and rear inner arches were trying to occupy some of the same space. With some careful adjusting, tweaking (& hacking to the front of the inner arch & rear of the upper tub), everything fitted together. I think that I may have had to do some adjusting to get the front bumper & bonnet aligning too, but the rest of the parts all went together very nicely. There were no decals - everything was molded in, and I used a sharpie to pick out the badging, which worked well. For some reason this release of the kit came with tinted lenses for the front lights, which I am not hugely keen on. There is light unit detail behind, but the camera hasn't picked it up. Also, please forgive the right hand rear wheel looking wonky in some of pics - it does fit properly but I didn't spot until after the pics that it had come unglued from the driveshaft (these rotate with the rear wheels). In hindsight, I also need to do the edges of the rear light lenses in black sharpie to make them look more realistic but whilst they are only held in with clearfix, I'm wary of damaging the paint so am undecided whether I will fix this. I also need to add some clear orange over the silver for the front marker / running lights. I never got around to adding number plates, but if I do, the plan is to use the ones from the Chrylser UK's press fleet Vipers - either WOW 110T (with a dot between the 11) or A10 CYL. I also have Revell's snap kit Viper RT/10, which I'll build at some point and will probably be in the usual Viper red! It has a much lower parts count than the AMT and far less of the intricate detail, but it will be interesting to see how the two kits compare once built. Instruments were molded - no decals, so required careful painting. And a few from just before final assembly: Full exhaust system, but all hidden when the body is installed. This last pic shows how the interior parts are split between the body and the chassis - unlike many kits, there isn't the inaccurate and out of scale double floor:

Built from the 1/72 AMT kit, the only mods I did were to sand out the terrible windscreen panel etching and file flat the panels (which is a big issue with this kit). I also sanded a 'pinch' into the radome as the nose looks too fat. I also added the antennas for a Desert Storm period aircraft.

Hi all, A quick post. I bought this kit from ALDI here in Australia for about $20 (about US $13 or £12.50) with the intent of building it with my 10 year old nephew. He has never done any airbrushing at all so we started off sanding the body and getting rid of all the seam lines and giving it a coat of primer. This was back in January 2020. He got a bit heavy handed in a spot of two so I sanded it back at got it ready for painting. Then the world changed with the Corona Virus social isolation rules so my nephew could no longer come around. I decided to crack on without him. So I applied 4 coats of SMS (Australian brand of paint Scale Modellers Supply) Dark Bronze METALLIC and the clear is their SMS Ultra Clear Coat 2K. I tested the 2K on the bonnet and following the instructions to the letter (15psi and ratios of 10:5:1 Part A B and thinner) I found some slight orange peel affect. I reached out to the owner of SMS paints and mentioned my problem and if the activator was a slow, medium or fast and got told it's normal. For a hot climate in Brisbane this means the clear goes off too quickly and doesn't have time to level properly. So it was time to spray the rest of the body. I have had amazing success with Gravity Paints 2K clear at 30 psi so thought I'd try that with SMS. I also increased the thinner to 20% to try and slow the cure and give time to level properly. Here are my results. So my findings suggest 30 psi 20% thinner and the final wet coat go to town on it. I doubt you can over do it unless you hold the airbrush in the one spot for too long causing runs. When you think you've put enough down fill up your airbrush cup and do another fully wet pass. All of you in a hot climate may find this helpful. These pictures were taken after approximately 45 mins after the final super wet coat. I am extremely happy with the results and stoked to find a great 2K clear locally in Australia. I cracked on and tackled the engine next. I de chromed the intake manifold and rocker covers whick looked rdiculious and resprayed them with AK Extreme Metal polished Aluminium. The engine block was painted with Mr Hobby aqueous blue and the gearbox with Metal aluminum. The exhaust manifold was done with Mr Metal also. I decided to leave the carbys and air filture in the standard chrome parts. The fit and flash on the kit so far is pretty bad. More to come soon. Cheers guys

Hi Since I decided to ditch a load of my aircraft kits and build mostly Muscle car kits, I thought I’d best start one. For this I picked probably the worst first, 1 of 3 Dodge Challengers I bought, of which there is no good kit available really, all have their faults The AMT 70 R/T has been out in many boxes, this is a standard one with no extra bits. The main problem with this is the roof. It’s marketed as either a convertible or hardtop and does neither correctly. I’ve gone the hardtop route which has required a bit of filler Not anywhere near perfect but as good as it gets. I have also added the front far too early but to get a clean join, I’ll have to force some engine bay parts in later on Colour wise, I think I’m going with yellow and black, I’ve sprayed up a spare charger shell to try some old aerosols as I can’t go out for more paint Think I will go with the yellow and black bonnet but this one won’t be showroom finish. I’m thinking a rolling restoration, might leave a front wing in grey primer as if it’s been replaced, ratty but running. Once I’ve got the body pretty much sorted, I’ll start on the rest of it. Typical AMT, a box of loose bits More soon as I have some more days off soon Cheers Chris

Hi guys, this is the final reveal for this very old re boxed kit. I think it was kitted originally by Lindberg, back in the mist of time, and re booted by Round 2 model company, with a few improvements I guess I should have bare metal foiled the chrome trims, but instead used Molotow chrome, brushed freehand. This was quick, but not the sharpest of lines, but I can live with it. Overall not too bad of a build, I detailed up the engine bay with some chrome parts from my spares box, just to give it a bit of life, not really a show car, I wanted it to look a bit used. I had a can of sign writers white enamel paint on my shelf so I used it to paint the white wall tyres; also scratch built the twin aerials on the back of the car using some nylon bristles from an old sweeping brush. The beach boys wrote a song about this car "My 409". Well I better go and polish that chrome, bye for now.

USS Defiant NX/NCC-74205 (FruitPACK FP08 for AMT) 1:420 GreenStrawberry It’s Star Trek time again, this time it’s the USS Defiant from Deep Space Nine, when they decided to give the crew of the space station a bit more robust mobility and add some greater breadth to the story-telling. The Defiant is a war ship plain and simple, and that’s all it was been designed for. As well as taking part in season 3 onwards and making an appearance in the Star Trek movie First Contact, it is a chunky little ship and has a bit of a “Voyager” look to some of her shapes, although all strapped to a saucer-style section and without any of the crew amenities that makes ships like the Voyager and Enterprise a home for her crew. The Set Designed to fit to the 1:420 AMT kit that was first released in the 1990s and has been rereleased a few times, the last time as recently as 2014, but they're a bit thin on the ground at time of writing. There are a lot out there in stashes of course, and GreenStrawberry have a pair of sets available to improve on the kit's simplified detail. The FruitPACK brings those together in a cost-effective and attractive box that contains a lot of resin, plus three sheets of Photo-Etch and a small sheet of decals. Inside the card box you get two sets that cover the Engines & Exterior in one, and Hangars in the other. Here’s what it all looks like in the heat-seal and ziplok bags: Engines & Exterior (08019-1/420) There are forty-two resin parts in grey, clear blue and clear red resin, plus two sheets of Photo-Etch (PE) part and a thick instruction sheet, plus a load of tiny resin flakes from the moulding process. There will be a little plastic butchery involved to fit some parts, which is best done before you begin the build, especially as this set just begs to be lit thanks to the translucent resin parts. Initially this includes removing the circular shuttle-bay panel underneath, some small details, a pair of recessed bays under the nose and eight holes on the upper side. The bays are replaced by detailed inserts and eight translucent blue plugs fill the holes, while the shuttle bay is left until later. A few more small details are removed from the snout of the craft and filled with a translucent blue resin part with waffle texture moulded-in and a resin bracing part behind it. Next are a pair of louvered vents on the top of the ship, which are shaved off and replaced by a resin surround, translucent red centre and four resin inserts in the recesses, plus a set of folded up ladder shaped parts that fit into the area. In the engine nacelles new “intake” lips are temporarily fitted to act as a template to cut a hole through which the translucent red intake is passed, and the lip is then permanently attached around it. This is repeated on the other side and joined by a bunch of PE details on each side, and later on some resin parts are added to busy the area up. Under the rear of the nose there is a scoop-shaped area that is detailed with a new skin plus additional parts that replace all the simplified detail of the kit. The kit exhausts are excised and replaced by a sandwich of two bay halves with a translucent blue insert between them that acts as a diffuser for a light to tint the whole bay blue. This will also show up the moulded-in detail and the additional parts placed within the area before fitting. The aft of the Defiant is a bit of a beaver-tail that looks a little unfinished, and this section gets a thorough overhaul with new impulse engine tubes that are recessed, mesh vents and other details. The rest of the set is used in thoroughly upgrading the detail to the outer hull, with skins, grilles and other details that take up a substantial number of parts. more parts are added to the aft, and the upgrade is completed by replacing the shuttle-bay doors with a new more detailed assembly. Hangars (07919-1/420) This set consists of one fret of PE, a sheet of decals, plus seventeen resin parts in grey, and of course the instruction sheet. This details the area you might have just covered over with the new doors in the set above, as well as the smaller bays in the lower hull, so remember this and plan ahead. Construction begins with the main bay in the belly, which is made up in layers to give a thoroughly 3D look, which includes decals for display screens as you go. They both attach to a bulkhead that is also decked out with decals along with some PE parts and access ladders that are folded up and put in place. The bay doorway is lined with a PE lip and the doors are folded into shape and placed in the aperture, with a large decal on the inside “stand clear” written around the edge. The smaller bays are made inside the small resin boxes with one end left open while the other is closed up with some small windows left for lights to shine through, into which you fit the shuttle pads and a lot of decals. There is also a PE part that is added to the underside of the shuttle “tray” that will allow it to be slid in and out, or to fix them in the deployed or retracted positions at your whim. After cutting out the bays from the kit lower, the bay edges are tidied up by adding a PE surround, then apply the completed bay from behind and add extra detail parts to the surround. If you really must cover up all that nice detail, a set of finely grooved doors are also supplied, although you’d be mad to fit them unless you made a boo-boo. The final fun part of this set is a few different types of shuttle, including one larger Chaffee shuttle, two Work Bee Units, and two Type 18 shuttles with their weird hovercraft vibe. They all have decals for their windows, as well as codes and for the type 18s, pinstripes and door lines. Conclusion This is very involved and detailed set that is by no means cheap, but if you’re serious about your Defiant model it’s a must have, especially if you’re planning on lighting it, which is very common in Sci-Fi modelling these days. This provides you with the majority of the parts that will do it justice, needing just the lighting loom to finish off. Very highly recommended if you have or can get a kit for a sensible price. FruitPACK FP08 They’re also available separately if you only want one set Engines & Exterior Hangars (07919-1/420) Review sample courtesy of

Happy New Year everyone, I started this kit just after completing the 66 T-Bird build, but shelved it for a while due to getting the Lamborghini build finished by the end of last year. Anyway I have dusted the box off the shelf and hope to crack on with it over the next few weeks, I found a red example on YouTube that I like the look of, so that's what I hope the finished model will look like give or take a few details. More updates soon.