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Hello all. Here is the second of my Dakota builds from the Shed. The plans are that it will be a Brazillian machine, but I have been known to change my mind, and those Chilean markings are calling to me as well. Here are the parts and extras. Bits and pieces Great sheet with many, many stencils😲 With the Uraguayan one at the painting stage I thought I would start this one. There is lots of metal to play with that goes in the interior, alas never to be seen again, here are a few pictures of whats been keeping me busy while the paint dries on the other Dak. There is a throttle on the end of my finger! 6 levers to fit. Seat enhancements and some sidewall panels. Cockpit assembled The sidewall panels and the overhead panel in place. Also one flap has been cut off and the etch parts added. The rest of the flaps cut from the wings and etched up. I plan to have the passenger door open to show off the neat little set of steps. The parts have been for a spray in interior green, next I will pick out those panels in black and dry brushed silver. Back soon.

Hello all, here's the latest from the shed. I have been making this for a friends 70th birthday. In all its taken about five months to do. In 1982 my friend found himself bobbing about in the South Atlantic on the Atlantic Conveyor heading for the Falklands. On board were Chinooks, Wessex, Harriers and Sea Harriers. Him at the top And here Prior to departure the Chinooks had their blades taken off and placed in bespoke racks inside the aircraft. Other external items were also removed and stored away. The aircraft were then enclosed in greasy purpose made ‘Banana Bags’ to protect them from the harsh Atlantic elements on the way down to the Falklands. On arrival the Chinooks were de bagged and the smaller external items and blades refitted, and the ‘Cab’ prepared for flight. BN was the first in line, BT was to be next. BN was successfully flown off and was engaged in a task when the Conveyor was hit by two Exocet missiles. My friend was part of the small contingent of 18 Sqn groundcrew on board the Conveyor who were carrying out the Chinook rebuilding process. BT was being worked on and was almost ready but had yet to have the bolts on the blades wire locked. Fire now spread through the ship and despite firefighting efforts by those on board it became apparent the ship was lost. My friend and the rest of the servicing team donned their emergency immersion suits and prepared to abandon ship! The remains of BT By this time there was much smoke and heat, the decks becoming too hot to stand still in one place for any length of time. It was not possible to pass the bridge superstructure which was burning so people at the front of the ship climbed down scramble nets, people at the rear climbed down rope ladders that were draped over the side. Being at the rear of the ship with BT my friend started to climb down a ladder to the sea, this was made more difficult because of the immersion suit and by the people above treading on the hands of those below them. He recounted how compressed gas bottles stored below decks started to ignite and burst through the side of the ship. Because the ship was wallowing in the swell, the lower part of the ladder was being submerged every time the ship rolled. To prevent a dangerous dunking there came a point where jumping became necessary. He did this from a considerable height and then had to try to swim to dinghies that had been put over the side and were now drifting around the hull of the ship. After an exhausting swim he and the others in the water hauled themselves into the dinghies and awaited rescue. For my friend this came in the form of a Sea King helicopter which winched him aboard and deposited him on the deck of the Hermes. For others not winched up by helicopters there were more scramble nets to negotiate, this time having to be climbed up to the deck of the rescuing ship. Difficult enough without being cold, tired and waterlogged. He and the other survivors were returned to the UK. 12 people were killed in the attack. Ground crew are often overlooked in such conflicts, but had it not been for these men there would have been no helicopter heavy lift capability in the Falkland’s at all. So I have written this precis of the events that befell my friend and the other shipborne 18 Sqn ground crew to bring their bravery to light once again. And so to the model and some pics. It is the original Airfix Chinook model with the following:- Blackdog resin Chinook big set. A72006 Airwaves Photoetch set. AC72-12 Photo etch pre painted canvas troop seats. Loads of scratch building in the cabin Re arranged/scratch rotor heads. Scratch built blade rack and chocks. Model Alliance Decals. RBF tags by Flightpath Deck Base: Coastal Kits 3D printed Resin containers and palettes from Rail Reality Case: Trumpeter Brass plaque: Timpsons The kit wasn’t to bad, only a few minor fit issues, probably brought about by the amount of surgery involved to get the resin parts in place. The interior details were pretty much made from plastic card and brass rods. Its finished using Xtracolor paints and varnishes with panel lines picked out using Flory black wash. Minimal weathering as they were newly delivered airframes. Scratch made blade rack. Each Chinook had its own blades inside it for the journey down. I hope you like it, he did which was the aim of the project. Thanks for looking Pete

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 :-)