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With my Build for the Skyhawk GB completed (still hosting though) it is time for me to make a start on my Harvard for this one. I have a few Harvard/Texan kits in the stash (4 at the last count) but decided to go with the Italeri release of the Occidental 1/48 kit for this build. Very nice box art and I would like to build an RAF one at some point. The kit was completely unmolested until I fetched it out of the stash and started taking pictures. One of the big pluses of this kit for me is the extensive decal sheet with markings for no less than 6 different aircraft from different countries. I can see me working my way through the options on this sheet over the coming years, as well as all the other Harvard/Texan decals I have! I also have some extras in the form of an Eduard brass set and some canopy masks. Yesterday being the usual British Bank Holiday weather that it was I made a start on the cockpit by giving everything a coat of the British grey/green cockpit colour, my thinking being that as this aircraft was built for the RAF then it might have the RAF interior colour, no doubt I am completely wrong but thats the colour it is and will be staying. And once the green was dry I painted the built in details and gave everything some light weathering and a bit of a wash and this is what the sidewalls and cockpit floor ended up like; The instrument panels are the ones supplied by Eduard which consist of a film with the dials on and an etched piece for the face of the panel, so I stuck the film to the back of the etch and then added a piece of white paper behind the film so that the dials would show up better. The bottom one has since been readjusted to actually be lined up! With the interior pieces pretty much done it was time to loosely assemble them. And with that all loosely assembled, no glue so that adjustment will be possible when it comes to fitting the cockpit into the fuselage. Speaking of which I have fitted it into one of the cockpit halves; Next job will be to get the fuselage halves together, hopefully this evening. Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received. Craig.

Hello all, Today I have the ancient FROG dh.60G Moth in 1/72, marked as an aircraft of the Belgian Air Force in the spring of 1940. Previously a civil machine, it was impressed at the start of the war. I used KORA decals for the first time, and can generally report favorably of them, but the red stripes that were supposed to go on the fuselage sides ended up tearing in several places and were thus binned. The only modifications I made to the kit were the addition of some interior framing (which is hardly visible now) and the addition of an exhaust pipe, sourced from a ZTS Models RWD-5. I'm still getting used to my new Tablet camera and trying to understand why photos taken in the same place at the same time come out so differently. Hopefully by the time I finish my next build, a combination of the Airfix and AModel AVRO 504K's, I will have the problem solved. Surprisingly, it built well, and currently looks like this: It'll be marked as a machine of the Swedish Air Force when done, in overall doped linen with a black forward fuselage and engine cover. That's all for the moment, Thanks all - stay safe, Tweener

The Build: Notes OOB, Scratch built seatbelts, BAF decals - Airfix 1975, Re-scribed panel lines, Paints used: Revell enamels/luminescent & acrylics, mr surfacer 1500 primer, mr mark setter & softer, old humbrol enamel, Klear, W&N artists water colours+oil paints, vallejo wash, Alclad, Fading orange was done by first having an acrylic yellow base. Then removing the enamel orange by rubbing a brush with thinner over surface. The result.... 😎🥳

Gloster Gladiator MkI, 1 Escadrille, 1 Groupe, Aéronautique Militaire Belge, Schaffer Airfield, Diest, Belgium. The Matchbox Gladiator was first introduced in 1972. It came in two colours of plastic, a bright red and a cream. Markings were provided for an inter-war RAF machine in silver. Being me, I built mine - acquired secondhand at a show about ten years ago - to represent a British Expeditionary Force Air Component aircraft sent to France in 1939. Since then, Airfix produced their new kit, of which I have an example built up to represent the sole RAF Gladiator squadron that saw any action in the Battle of Britain. I also bought another boxing, which included the parts to make a MkII with the three-blade propeller, and transfers for the BEF plane, plus a Belgian example. An idea was hatched to repaint the Matchbox kit using the Airfix transfers to become a Belgian plane. My go-to web site for information on Belgian aircraft is Belgian Wings, created by Daniel Brackx. How better to give a potted history of the Gladiator in Belgian service than to link to his page dedicated to the type. That's the link, bold and underlined. G30 was lost in a weather-related accident in 1938. As such, it doesn’t quite fit in my 1940 theme, but stands as a representative of the Gladiators in Belgian service in May 1940. Paint used was Humbrol acrylic and enamel, transfers from Airfix, satin varnish coat from Phoenix Precision Paints. Rigging is Uschi thread - a fiddle, but worth the effort. The rebuild thread starts here:

Hi all here is my kit bashed High-backed spitfire MKXIVe Belgian Air Force in 1:48 In the markings of a no 2 SQD Spitfire SG-86/UR-H at Melsbroek airbase in the early fifties I used two AIRFIX kits for this conversion Their PR.XIX and their new low-backed MkXIV (A05119+A05135) I also used Eduard instrument panel and seatbelt set (644018) and Eduard Brassin wheels (648469) also I used Markings and roundels from Daco products (D4837) and AML Camouflage Masks (AMLM49025) Tamiya paints used throughout Thanks for looking and enjoy Photographer unknown of original picture

Images from the rather vast military museum in the centre of Brussels. The aircraft hall is impressive, but some of the machines are run down and desperately need attention, and a good clean. Caravelle. Europe 422 Maurice Farman MF.11. Europe 423 Meteor and Spitfire. Europe 424 Spad XIII. Europe 425 Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter. Europe 426 Ju 52/3mg3e. Europe 427 C-119. Europe 428 RAF RE.8. Europe 429 The aviation hall in all its splendour and dust. Europe 430 More to come.

Just pulled this from the stash. Success rate has been a bit hit & miss in past blitzbuilds. Plan to build it in two 12hr session starting Saturday, finishing Sunday whilst following the; One Day Cricket final at Lords (Go Hampshire) The Giro The Monaco GP Indy 500 Super League Magic Weekend (Go Rhinos) Decision taken to complete as the Belgian option as it only has three main colours (Dark Green and Dark Brown over Aluminium) as opposed to the RAF option that uses 5.

Built for a recent club competition, this is the 1/72 Revell F-16 finished off using Daco decals. I've had the decals in the stash for more years than I care to remember, but I'm pleased to report that they worked well enough to sneak this into third place. Standard walkaround shots : Thanks for looking. Mike

Seen on July 21st, 2016, at their Beauvechain homebase, ready for the National Day flypast, some Belgian Air Component SIAI SF.260M/D Marchettis. Following a decision attributed to the - now just retired - Belgian Defence Chief of Staff, Air Force General G. Van Caelenberge, all the SF.260D (ST-40 to ST-48) are to receive a grey livery. These trainers are also operated by the HQ & Staff pilots for their flying hours. Wagging tongues report that they prefer to fly in grey than in yellow birds as they're fighters not student pilots. The yellow SF.260M Marchetti (ST01 to ST-36) are mainly dedicated to the basic flying training mission while the red ones are those from the Red Devils display team (https://www.facebook.com/Red-Devils-Belgium-162829870444088/). More about Air Component Marchettis: http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/hangar/2001/marchettis/marchettis.htm http://www.belgian-wings.be/Webpages/Navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Siai%20Marchetti%20SF260M-D/Siai%20Marchetti%20homepage.html http://belmilac.wikifoundry.com/page/Siai+Marchetti+SF.260M+-+SF.260D All these aircraft are currently operated in pool by the 5th "Egyptian Falcon" and 9th "Green Cocotte" Squadrons from the 1st Wing /Basic Flying Training School at Beauvechain AB. The 1st Wing emblem is a Wolf head. V.P.