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Dear fellow Britmodellers, my last finished build in 2018 is the 1/72 Hasegawa Fw-190D with the larger Ta-152 tail. The replacement tail is a resin item from Airwaves (SC72-117). Metal gun barrels from Master. Decals come from Eagle Cals (EC#58), representing a machine of III./JG 2, in 1945. Photo etch parts from Eduard. All photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. The model was painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Thank you very much for your interest, best greetings from Vienna!

'...and every where the blue sky belongs to them' Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Gloss to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 'Invert the aircraft, release harnesses and fall out' Emergency handling procedure from Sea Venom Pilot's Notes. Hello again all, The madness is upon me again! It's been a while since I posted anything visual, largely as I've had no real bench time at all of late, but after faffing around I've decided to do a sequence of related builds for the next year or so of various Fleet Air Arm aircraft from the 50s and 60s. Some classic jets and choppers from that era, that a recent visit to Yeovilton has rekindled my affection for. Here's some bench shots of the Frog 1:72 Sea Venom FAW.21 that will be the first in the series. Let's start with the good news: the decals seems usable and in good condition. Aaaaaaaand that's it for the good news... This splendid-looking aircraft has been subject of a number of builds already on BM, and whilst I love these older kits like Frog, can you see all that blasted flash? It looks more like a Frank Auerbach painting of a kit with all that baroque plasticity. Have a closer look and you'll see what I mean: As to the glazing I'm thinking this was originally intended as an insect eye rather than a canopy. Have I been given part of the old Airfix Praying Mantis kit in error? Pity the poor crew of this thing though; the moulding guys really went for a lovely 'Facehugger from Alien' approach - I'll have to call this crate 'Nostromo' now: Seriously. Did this kit partially melt in the post on the way over due to the recent heatwave or something??? Actually, I have my suspicions that as this was bought unboxed (and hence dirt cheap), it may not be an original Frog moulding as advertised but a later iteration - was the original mould of this kit ever this flashy BITD? S-oo..after having foresworn kits that need lots of correction (after my previous Dark Night of the Matchbox Meteor Night Fighter) here I am back with another kit needing as much attention probably. Of course I'm moaning too much. It's my own fault for buying it and I could always throw it away and buy a decent version. But you know I won't. I've got etch. 1/72 etch.... That will make it all better, won't it? I've some yet to do on colour and airframe details, but the notion at this stage is to to just go the whole hog, wingfolds and all, and see how we get on. BTW I noticed that Falcon do a really nice FAA vacform canopy set that included most of the aircraft I hope to do in this series, as well as that snazzy Model Alliance decal set for the Ark Royal air wing that also covers many of them, so I may have to break my embargo on any more purchases this month. bank manager... It's going to be a busy summer work-wise; I'll have to grab time at the bench as and when I can get it so my updates may not be as regular as I would hope. The main thing is that I hope you get to enjoy the journey and please pitch in as often as you want with any criticism and advice of my attempts to subdue this monster Tony

Hi, does anybody know of any kits that contain a U.S. 230 gal drop tank. Modern era (afghan). Scale is 1/72. It is for an apache build I'm compiling. So far I have the tamiya rebox (Italeri) Apache, airwaves etch, attack squadron resin hellfire missiles. The source book is Osprey combat aircraft 57, AH-64 Apache units of ops enduring freedom and Iraqi freedom. Cheers! P.s. Is there an alternate source for the M261 rocket launchers? (Just out of interest)

An old build, but since I had the kit out I took some new piccies today. This is the Eduard Mk.V with the Airwaves resin conversion, plus resin wheels and a scratchbuilt fin fillet. all the best, Jason

I have NEVER given up on a kit before. Ever. Not once. I have built some of the worst vac forms imaginable, and wrestled with warped resin in the middle of the night with a deadline looming. But THIS? More specifically: the Airwaves wing set. I have had three sets of the things and every one has drooped. I have tried heating them and re setting them, but the flaps and slats wrinkle when you do this, no matter how carefully you do it. And you can't reset them afterwards. My latest plan was to cut the open areas from the wings and install them in the Hase wings a la a paragon conversion kit. Nope: there don't seem to be any undrooped ones in existence. Every set I have seen is bent, so, reluctantly and finally, I give up. I'll get the Revell 1/48 kit and save myself a LOT of gyp. It will cost less than the wings I have bought for this thing, let alone the eduard set... Mojo lost. It's in the bin. Right, as you were, I just needed to vent a little :-)