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  1. Folks, to channel Monty Python, now for something completely different. This is my first 3D printed model and I bought it in the expectation that all it would need was a quick paint and bob's your mother's brother, but it didn't work out quite like that. The trials and tribulations of the WIP are here. I've been after a Sultan for ages since I spent many an exercise in the back of one. I am too tight to pay for the Accurate Armour so when I come across this one I took the plunge as it is half the price. The model itself is from Badger 3D and for the price I cannot grumble. Some details were spot on an others weren't. I chopped off the GPMG as it was terrible and the rear view mirrors were well over scale. My impression is it was designed in 1/72 and scaled up. I swopped out from the spares box the jerrycan and the antenna bases. I drilled out the light and the rubies and replaced with clear resin. The only extras I bought were the masts from SMM. The decals are from the spares box. Paints are a mixture of Tamiya/Mig and Humbrol. Gloss coat was Quick Shine and the washes were oil and terps. I also used a ton of Mister Surfacer and Mig Anti-slip paste. Bill
  2. Alright, this overlaps with some other proposed Group Builds, but I figure by the time it develops who knows what else will be going on, or when it will fit into the calendar. My idea is the period of time between the end of World War Two and the start of the Korean War. I guess if it is something specific to Europe and of a postwar attitude I'll accept post VE-Day, but I will be more ruthless with the "margin-pokers" than hosts often are. We have a Gulag ready for you, where you'll find plenty of modelling time, Comrade. Civilian, ex-military, active military, as long as it is specific to this time period, and I don't care if it floats, flies, rolls, walks, or some variation of these, or even just sits inert. I'm a fan of "back-story"- how does it fit the scope, why did you choose it, etc. Over, bob
  3. C-54D Skymaster (05652) 75th Anniversary Berliner Luftbrücke Airlift 1:72 Carrera Revell After the DC-3, Douglas began working on a design for group of major airline companies that was designated the DC-4, but it wasn’t quite to their liking, being less reliable and uneconomical than they would have liked, resulting in a design with a smaller airframe to meet their needs. War intervened, and the balance of the contract was taken up by the military under the name C-54 Skymaster, where it was used to transport cargo and personnel, with many variants with specific tasks such as Air Sea Rescue. The aircraft served throughout the war, and well into post-war through Korea, plus with many civilian operators, some of which flew into the 90s. There are still a few around at time of writing in museums and such. After the end of WWII and the former capital of Hitler’s Reich was split between the four main Allied powers, despite being located well behind the border of what became the Russian sector of Germany, which eventually became known as East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic. The Soviet Union quickly transitioned from Allies to enemy due to mutual distrust, which signified the beginning of the Cold War that dragged on until the early 90s. A land corridor was used by the Western Allies to supply their sector of Berlin, but this was blockaded by the Soviets in the summer of 1948, who generously offered to remove it if the Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutschmark from the Allied occupied sectors. The Allies weren’t willing to give in to their demands however, and plans were made to supply Berlin by air, in the hope that the Soviets wouldn’t dare shoot down unarmed transport aircraft. They were right, and for the next fifteen months, the seemingly impossible task of supplying the city was accomplished by the Allies, with the C-54 involved, with around 330 airframes taking part. The airlift wasn’t without cost however, and over 100 pilots and crew died in accidents relating to operation of the airlift, several of them crews of Skymasters. The success of the operation became more embarrassing for the Soviets as the months rolled by, and eventually they lifted the blockade of their own volition, but the Allies carried on supply by air for some time after, in case the Soviets had it in mind to reestablish it, which had extended to road, rail and even canal transport. Berliners were extremely grateful, and there remains a Historical Foundation that maintains a museum to commemorate the actions of their former enemies, and they have a C-54 as one of their exhibits. The Kit To remember the 75th anniversary of the airlift, Revell have re-released their 2016 tooling of the C- 54D in a new box that includes four paints, a bottle of Contacta Professional glue and a #2 paint brush, plus a small bag of ten laser-cut plywood boxes to act as cargo for the model, all enclosed in a vastly over-sized top-opening box. There are also fourteen sprues of light grey styrene, a clear sprue, large decal sheet and the instruction booklet, which is printed in colour and has painting and decaling profiles on the rear pages. This is a modern tooling, and has plenty of detail in the cockpit, interior and gear bays, although the flying surfaces are joined to the airframe with T-shaped hinges that seem to be a throwback to an earlier time when models were also intended as play-things. If left mobile, drooping ailerons on both sides would be indicative of a control failure, so it might be a good idea to apply a little glue to freeze the controls in a manner to your liking. Construction begins with the nose gear bay for a change, building the two sides on the roof panel, which is also the floor of the cockpit, flipping it over to install the instrument panel with moulded-in centre console and a forward bulkhead, applying a decal to the panel after painting. A detail insert finishes off the console with moulded in throttle quadrants and other controls, plus a triangular coaming that joins the panel and bulkhead together. Both pilots get an L-shaped control column with separate yoke, handed toward the centre, and a trim wheel on each side of the central console, then their seats are made from two-part seat cushions with moulded-in four-point harnesses, while the third crew member has lap belts only. The pilots’ seats are then mounted on a two-part frame and fitted to the rails moulded into the cockpit floor, painting everything as you go. A bulkhead with a doorway is detailed with five parts and has two decals to add detail, then it is mounted on the front of the passenger/load compartment floor, which has some nice detail moulded into its surface. The bulkhead for the rear of the radio/engineering compartment is also detailed with four parts plus the third seat, and is fixed into the slot in the floor to create the space, with a scrap diagram showing how the detail parts should link to two bulkheads together. More detail is added in the shape of a short corridor and section of wall to deepen the bulkhead on both sides, one of which has a fire extinguisher moulded-in. Two cots insert into the right side of the bulkhead on tabs, and are locked in place at the other end by another bulkhead with separate door that can be posed open or closed, adding a roof section over the top between the bulkheads. Two runs of five canvas and webbing seats are made from two parts each, and placed in the load area just behind the bulkheads, enclosing the space with two inserts that have tons of ribbing detail moulded into them, with the option to cut out the side load door, which is marked out on the outside of the part. The rear bulkhead is stepped and closes the rear of the fuselage interior, and the cockpit with nose gear bay is glued to the front bulkhead, completing most of the work on the interior details. The nose gear strut is a complex affair made from seven parts and is inserted into the bay, the drawing for which has one wall rendered invisible to aid location of the assembly. The fuselage halves are fitted with portholes on a long clear carrier, painting the cockpit area in green, then detail-painting the equipment boxes and cutting out the half-circles over the cockpit that will later receive an astrodome. A set of flashed-over holes under the belly are also opened at this stage, and you have the option of posing the crew hatch open on the starboard side of the nose, then repeating the process on the port fuselage half, which has a few more individual portholes. The interior is glued into the starboard fuselage half, and you are instructed to add 60g of weight into the spaces in and around the nose where it won’t be seen, then a pair of curved spacers are mounted under the main floor, and an insert is put in place where the side cargo door is located. The fuselage can then be closed, at which point you realise this is quite a large model, even at 1:72. The lower wings are long and slender, and are moulded as a full-span part, with the main gear bays moulded into the inner engine nacelles, painting the interior in green, and removing the short length of sprue that supports the part during moulding and transport. Each of the four nacelles are closed at the front by circular engine mounts, being careful to arrange them correctly so that the exhaust outlets are on the outer sides. The inner nacelles have bulkheads inserted behind the new parts, fitting another to the rear of the bays, and inserting a roof segment into the rear, all of which is painted in interior green. The flaps can be posed deployed, or “cleaned-up” for flight, and if you wish to deploy them, you will need to remove the portions marked in grey on the lower wing, as per the accompanying diagram, inserting flap bay wall inserts into the space, then closing the wings with two upper halves. The prominent intakes and their fairings on the top of each nacelle are each built from front and rear parts, and glued into recesses moulded into the upper nacelles, then the wings can be mated to the fuselage, adding inserts onto the nacelle sides for the exhausts. The flap bays are extended by adding an insert with the flap mechanism, fitting another inboard after removing a small portion of the base on both sides. The rudder fin is moulded to the fuselage, and has two T-shaped hinge-points moulded-in, onto which the two rudder panel sides are glued, giving the option of leaving the rudder mobile. The elevator fins are each made from two halves, and slot into the tail, with the flying surfaces glued around them in the same manner as the rudder. The intakes under the nacelles are completed with a lip, and an outlet at the rear, fitting the exhaust collector rings around the nacelle bulkhead for each of the four engines, which are next on the menu. The rear bank of pistons have a two-part push-rods and intakes added to the rear, trapping the axle between the two portions, with the front bank glued in place after sliding it over the axle, and finishing off the motor with the bulkhead, magnetos and push-rods moulded as one part. With all four engines complete, the cowlings are made from the cylindrical section that is moulded as one part, plus a choice of open or closed cooling gills at the rear. The engines slot into position in the cowlings on guides, and a scrap diagram shows the correct location. The assemblies are then glued to the nacelles on T-shaped pegs that match recesses on the firewall bulkhead, and they are completed by adding a choice of two styles of exhausts into the exit holes. It's not made abundantly clear to the hard-of-thinking (aka me) that the gear can be depicted raised for flight, so it’s good to know in advance to save you from gluing the nose gear into position before you get to the steps that deal with the landing gear. The nose wheel is made up first, and there are three styles, one for each of the decal options, as shown by the instruction steps that are mentioned at the bottom of each diagram. Two types are made from two halves, while the third is built from two halves plus a centre insert that will be seen through the spokes. To build a model with gear up, the nose bay is covered with a single lozenge-shaped door part with an engraved panel line down the centre, while the gear down option requires them to be cut in half down the panel line. Your choice of nose gear wheel is flex-fitted between the halves of the yokes, so can remain mobile, unless you intend to file a flat-spot to portray the weight of the airframe, in which case a dab of glue will suffice to keep it in position. The main gear legs are built from the strut and a chunky Y-shaped retraction jack, that has three additional parts linked to the upper portion, adding hubs to the cross-axle at the bottom end, which differ depending on which set of wheels you are using, as there are three again. Before installing them, a separate scissor-link is fitted to recesses in the front of the strut, then the three types of wheels are built, one with a separate hub that is inserted into one side of the two-part wheel, the other two made from halves, with a small hub cap on the outer face. In addition, there are twin brake hoses fitted to the front of the struts, with one end fitting into recesses in the hubs, adding a small triangular part between them, and a Y-shaped strut into the bay, plus a small antenna under the nacelle. Two actuators are added either side of the main wheel strut, and these open and close the main bay doors, which are cut from the single part that is used for the in-flight option. The remainder of the bay door part is also cut into three, and two mount on studs at the base of the strut, and the other at the front. For the gear-up option, the bay door part is used without cutting and is simply glued into the cut-out. Back to the flaps. To lower the flaps, two parts per wing are glued together, and mounted on the actuators that were installed earlier. To model them retracted, two alternative parts are glued per wing and inserted flush, in line with the airflow. In a small diagram the tail receives a light at the top of the fin, adding another two in a fairing that is glued to the pen-nib fairing at the rear of the fuselage. At the other end of the fuselage, the canopy part has an overhead console glued into its roof and painted according to the diagram before the canopy is glued down, joined by an astrodome behind it, a pair of twin antennae on an insert in the roof, and a small intake off to one side. Under the wings, a pair of pop-up landing lights are inserted into a recess either flush with the skin of the wing by cutting off the peg, or folded down on the peg. The cargo door is moulded as a single part that can be cut to depict the doors open, and a small porthole is inserted into a hole in the narrower door. Whether you pose them open or closed is up to you, but open doors in flight might whistle a little bit. Fitting the antenna and props are the last thing you’ll be doing after main painting, and on this kit the three-bladed props and spinner are moulded as a single part, and each one slots onto the axle projecting from the front of the engine. A cluster of probes and antennae are fitted around the nose, under the nose, under the wing roots and under the aft fuselage, after which there are two diagrams that show where the antenna wires should be fitted, using your favourite rigging material to finish the task. Just in case you didn’t put enough weight in the nose, Revell have thoughtfully supplied a stand that can be placed under the tail to prevent the crew from ending up in the tail. Markings There are four decal options on the large decal sheet, all wearing the same silver scheme, but with different markings to tell them apart, in addition to the wheels of course. From the box you can build one of the following: Air Transport Command, Airlift Berlin, 1948 USAF, Airlift Berlin, 1948 US Navy, Airlift Berlin, 1948 USAF, Airlift Berlin, Wiesbaden Air Base, Winter 1948-49 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin satin carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion A well-detailed model of this common transport from WWII and the Cold War, depicted as four airframes that participated in one of the most ambitious, extended and successful airlift missions in all of aviation’s history. It would make a great memorial to all the pilots and crew that lost their lives helping the people of Berlin survive. Highly recommended. Carrera Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or
  4. Hello one and all, The aim of this project is to offer a historical glimpse of the past with a view to a cautionary view of the future. An entropy quote... The fact that you can remember yesterday but not tomorrow is because of entropy. - Sean M. Carroll And some inspiration... A man’s job is to make the world a better to place to live in, so far as he is able—always remembering the results will be infinitesimal—and to attend to his own soul. - Leroy Percy If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride - and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards. - Bear Bryant Cold War Icons - I've spent the better part of two days scheming, sketching and putting together a few scale drawings as well as scouring the internet for inspirational photos. It's been quiet the task to put together a scale drawing of something that I can only partly guess as to sizes and such from a few photos with little by way of a scale and proportion. I have already started the hangar internal arch by cutting up a section of cardboard and scoring every other upper paper leaving the waffle and lower paper intact so that it forms a semi circle of the right size with the internal ribs cut and glued into place. I will tidy up my notes and sketches / drawings and post them along with a few photos of progress with the arch. 🤓 Tally ho lads, let her rip!
  5. Dear modelling enthusiasts For my first contribution to Britmodeller, I attach here some images of my just completed 1/700 HMS Eagle (R.05). This is the old 1976 Fujimi kit, and was a bit of a challenge due to reasons including old, brittle plastic, and missing pieces (eBay purchase). The only upgrade was a set of 1/700 railing. Otherwise built out of the box and home made items. This was also my first attempt at creating an ocean diorama base. I tried to represent the Eagle at high speed. Best regards Marcello
  6. Folks, this is the kit that got be back into modelling when it came out 5 years ago. After these years of learning new techniques (and buying an airbrush!) I decided I wanted to redo it and do it justice. I've gone for a Cold War version, so I lost the back bins, square side bin (replaced with a spare Chieftain side bin, as was the fashion), and the cam pole holders. All were post Cold War additions. I added a carry handle to the GPMG which Takom had missed. Also swopped out the fire extinguishers for the older smaller green one which were still in use back then and the drivers mirrors for the older type. The yellow fuel caps was down to use having a mixed fleet of petrol mark ones and diesel mark twos. When you pulled up to a refuelling point in the middle of the night in the pitch black you didn't want the wrong fuel put in. Diesel was yellow, petrol was red and AVGAS/kero purple (?). This was colour coding is used on jerrycans as well. Paints were a mixture of Mig, Tamiya and Humbrol acrylics. The IRR green is Mig NATO green with a few drops of yellow ochre. Quick Shine for the gloss coat, pin wash oil paint and terps, and Vallejo matt varnish. Mig dark earth and dust pigments for the weathering. And this is the comparison It was enjoyable revisiting it and correcting my earlier errors but I the kit had a lot more flash than I remember - maybe the tooling it getting worn. Still a great kit however of a Cold War warrior - I saw somewhere we are sending 200 to Ukraine - I didn't think we had 200 left. Bill
  7. Trabant 601 Builder’s Choice (07713) 1:24 Carrera Revell The Trabant 601 was the third generation of the utility vehicle that was produced in East Germany by VEB Sachsenring from 1957, and over 3 million were built before the production line closed in 1990. With its 2-stroke engine that suffered from poor performance, the Trabant was a popular and well-loved car in the former eastern bloc due to its simple construction and ease of maintenance and repair, despite its many failings. The bodyshell was made from a plastic called Duroplast, which was made from waste materials from other areas of manufacturing, including cotton and resins. There were different versions of the Trabant available, including the most popular saloon (sedan or limousine), and the 3-door estate (Universal or Station wagon) version. It has now become a classic in enthusiast circles around Europe, and examples of this car are sought after with collectors worldwide. For the last 2 years of production following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Trabant production methods were modernised by Volkswagen, which included adding a 1.1L Polo engine to give it some additional reliability, access to four-stroke fuels, and more of a turn of speed, coupled with upgrades to the brakes and suspension to cater for the increase in power. This last variant was known as the Trabant 1.1 after the engine size, even though it was more like a 3.1 in terms of versions. The Kit This reboxing of Revell’s Trabant kit is due to it winning the Builders’ Choice poll for 2022, as voted for by you the modeller, apparently! It must have passed me by, but then so do a great many other things. It arrives in one of Revell’s much beloved thick end-opening boxes, and inside are six sprues in white styrene of varying sizes, five black, flexible tyres, two clear sprues, the decal sheet and instruction booklet in colour, and a single page of profiles in the rear. The original tooling has 2009 stamped on the inside of the floor pan, and has been seen in various boxings and with an estate bodyshell over the years. This is the 3-door sedan, brought back by popular demand for another turn on the shelves, decorated in pacifist slogans related to the tearing down of the Berlin wall. I have a feeling that the sprue with the grille and exterior trim parts was once chromed, but that has been left off for this boxing, which will probably please many of the more serious modellers, as it won’t need removing. Construction begins with the engine block and transmission, which has raised cross-hatching moulded-in, and is completed by addition of the sump, forward end with pulleys, and a rear face to the gearbox. The boxy motor is installed transversely in the floorpan with a leaf spring across the bay, and two inner arch panels added to the sides and joined together by a simple bulkhead that the steering mechanism passes through. More ancillary parts are layered into the bay, including the exhaust manifold, fluid reservoir and battery, then under the bay the remaining space is filled with suspension and steering components and covered over by a subframe. The rear suspension is simpler, with a short spring supporting each axle, which has the exhaust pipe and muffler passing between the two halves, and a towing hitch sticking out of the back. The wheel hubs are made from two halves with a third part trapped between them without glue, each of which has a flexible tyre pulled over it before four of them are glued to the axles, taking care with the glue if you intend to leave the wheels mobile. The back wheels also get a mudflap at the rear of their arches, fitting into a slot for strength of bond. The interior is based upon a large part that has the rear shelf moulded in, adding the pedal box, hand brake, a pair of three-part seats for the driver and front passenger, plus a simple bench seat at the rear, which has a support glued underneath to form a pair of tubular legs. At the front of the cab is a lower console that holds a few instruments and provides a little shelf space under the dashboard, which will be along in a moment. First, the door cards are prepared by adding a seatbelt to each side before they are glued to the sides of the cab. The dash is a single part that has been given extra detail thanks to some sliding moulds, and it has the three part steering column attached on pegs under the binnacle, and is detailed with decals to complete the job. It is set to one side briefly while the bonnet (hood) and boot lid (trunk) is built. Both panels have two hinges fitted, the bonnet as a single full-span piece, the boot as two separate hinges. The boot also has a push-button lock inserted into a hole in the centre. The bonnet is dropped into position in front of the windscreen, and its hinges are locked in place by installing the dashboard, while the boot lid is trapped by the interior trim, which is a single part that clips into the rear bulkhead. The headlights have separate bezels and reflectors, with a clear lens placed over them, adding a clear side-light underneath. The rear lights also have separate bezels and clear lenses, which should be painted with clear amber and red before installation, with separate flat clear lens beneath each one painted with clear red, or using the decals that are supplied on the sheet. At the front, the rear view mirror is fixed to the centre of the headlining after applying a silver decal to the rear, and the grille is inserted into the front of the engine compartment to give the Trabbi a big smile, adding a bumper and number plate holder underneath. The rear bumper has additional lights and over-riders moulded in, the former having clear lenses, and on the C pillar are a pair of decorative trim panels either side of the rear windscreen. The rear plate holder inserts into a recess under the boot lid. It's a bit breezy inside the Trabbi at this stage, lacking windows and roof, as well as the underside and cab, which is about to be remedied by an infusion of clear parts. The windscreen, rear screen, rear side windows all have painted black surrounds, while the front door windows are without, as are a pair of L-shaped inserts on the B pillars. The windscreen wipers and aerial are glued into holes in the scuttle panel, door handles are added to paired depressions, and a pair of wing mirrors with decal lenses are fixed to holes in the A pillars, then the roof panel is dropped into position, leaving it loose or gluing it down if you wish. The (usually) chrome trim is applied to the break line on the vehicle sides, with the instructions advising that they have a raised black centre along their length, three parts per side. The interior clips into the bodyshell first, and is covered by the floorpan, with the final tasks installing the spare tyre in the boot, and popping a cover over the end of the towing hitch. Markings As this is a special edition, there is just one decal option on the sheet, which has a white body that has birds and a white dove carrying an olive branch on the sides, and a number of peaceful slogans on the rear, boot and on the windscreen as a sunvisor strip. The final decal is a CND peace emblem in the centre of the bonnet, with a brand logo at the front. From the box you can build the following: Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion A welcome return of the Trabant to the shelves with a peaceful message that should be heeded more readily everywhere. The moulds have been kept in good condition, and an impressive replica of this… let’s face it… piece of junk will be the result. Highly recommended. Carrera Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or
  8. Here is my completed USS Gearing, built from the Dragon 1/350 kit, out of the box apart from railings and some home made improvisations. Little did I know that, when I was gifted this kit by some friends at work (my birthday, 2019) this was going to become my most ambitious project yet. Pretty much from day 1 you have to deal with sub-millimetre pieces (each Oerlikon has to be put together from 9 parts, including a mixture of polystyrene and photoetch). My learning curve became very, very steep (this is only my third ship). The rigging is largely human hair, although for some thicker and thinner parts I used surgical silk and Caenis thread, respectively. I also substituted the jackstaff and the aerials sticking out of the aft stack with metal (hypodermic needle and tungsten wire), since the parts provided in the kit looked unnaturally thick, and kept breaking during the build anyway. There were some problems with the instructions. I have compiled a list of tips to avoid getting into trouble in my web site (address in my signature panel below). Feel free to email me for any questions. I am sorry for the quality of my photos, particularly in comparison with some of the stunning stuff I have seen in this web site. I only have my iPhone for this.
  9. Handley Page Victor B.Mk.2(BS) (A12008) 1:72 Airfix The Handley Page Victor was probably most famous for its participation as part of the RAF’s V-Force in the strategic bomber role, or more specifically to operate as a nuclear deterrent. Its career as an in-flight refuelling aircraft is where it cemented its place in RAF history however, with around 30 years of faithful service in this role. Like the delta-winged Vulcan, the Victor’s Crescent wing was a risky first, which was first tested to prove the concept by mounting it to a smaller airframe and assessing it the only way it was possible back in the 50s - flight. The full-sized aircraft first flew at the end of 1952, and the initial variant, the B.1 entered operational service with 10 & 15 squadrons in 1958. While the B.1 was designed to operate at high level impervious to Soviet defences of the era, the improved B.2 was primarily designed to deliver stand-off missiles from low level to avoid Soviet radar. This unfortunately was the undoing of the Victor in its original role, as the dense, buffeting “dirty” air at low level led to fatigue cracks within the wing structure, so the B.2s were 'retired' by the end of 1968 with only 6 years in service, in many ways mimicking the comparatively conventional Valiant from Vickers. An increased need for in-flight refuelling led the RAF to modify the languishing B.2s and put them back into service in this role after conversion. Apart from the obvious fitment of refuelling equipment and tankage, the wingspan was shortened to reduce wing bending stresses that would alleviate the fatigue issues. In 1982, the Victor played a pivotal role in a series of the most famous missions in post-WWII RAF history, known collectively as Operation Black Buck. Its part has been largely glossed-over by the media, who instead focused on the AVRO Vulcan that delivered the bombs, despite the fact that the fuel carried by the Victors are what made the whole operation possible. No less than 11 Victors were required to provide the complex refuelling pattern for the long outbound and return trip by a solitary Vulcan to the Falklands from the Ascension Isles, a back-up airframe turning back relatively early in the process. The Victors also had to refuel each other with critical timing that was aggravated by the higher payload and consequent faster fuel use of the Vulcan as a result of the additional equipment required for such a mission. The B.Mk.2 Victor was finally retired from its long and distinguished refuelling service in 1993 as it handed the reigns over to the VC-10s and Tristars. The Kit This is a reboxing of the initial 2016 release of a modern tooling of this incredible-looking Cold War warrior, and should go a long way to satisfy those of us unwilling to pay the premium asked by eBay sellers up until now. It arrives in a large red-themed box with a painting of an anti-flash white painted Victor on take-off, and inside are eight mostly full-size sprues in light grey styrene, a small sprue of clear parts, the instruction booklet, and decal sheet. We missed out on the first issue back in the day, and being the forgetful person I am, I even forgot to add one to the stash. It’s nice to finally lay hands on the kit, and find out for myself that the detail is good, there is some clever engineering evident, and Victors are large. I’ve stood right next to one a few times at Bruntingthorpe and other places, but when you see the size of the parts on the sprues, it hits you in a different way. Construction begins with the ejection seats for the two front seat crew, which are made from two halves on top of which the seat cushions with seatbelts moulded-in, then four more are made up for the rear crew, each one having a carcass with the back cushion and belts moulded-in, and a separate bottom cushion (literally). The cockpit starts with the rear instrument wall, which has the full-width desk slotted into it, and is attached to the main floor part, unsurprisingly at the back, with the four circular bases for the back seats moulded into the floor. A large side console is fixed to the left of the instrument wall (as you look at it), and a pair of rudder pedals with a link between them get slotted into the front of the cockpit. The rear seats mount on their positions, and the lucky two at the front have their ejection seats slotted into the holes in the front, completing the cockpit (almost). Unlike your average modern fighter, the nose gear bay isn’t directly under the cockpit, but is slightly behind it built on a separate roof section. One side is fitted first along with the front bulkhead, to act as supports for the nose gear assembly, the main leg of which is pinned in place by the addition of the other sidewall, then the rear bulkhead, and finally, a bulkhead that is also the front bulkhead of the bomb bay later on. In the meantime, the prominent V-tail that sits high over the tarmac is made up, commencing with a little surgery on the trailing edge, removing later sensors from the upper and lower halves. A 1mm hole is drilled in the top-side before closing them up, and a pair of elevators are built up of top and bottom halves to slot into the centre on a pair of pins where they pivot. There’s more sub-assembly building next, starting with making up eight sets of paired wheels to populate the main gear legs, which are substantial but not all that visible on a landed aircraft. The main leg is moulded in two halves that includes a substantial leading strut with two smaller struts added during closure. The legs have a peculiar trident-shaped topper, and the leg is further strengthened by a pair of cranked side supports before four sets of paired wheels are inserted on the axles of each leg. Like the cockpit and the nose gear bay, these also get put to one side while you make the wings, although you’d be forgiven for expecting the fuselage to be next, unless you’ve built one already of course. The centre section of the upper wing is the starting-point for the process, and the first thing you do is fix a pair of internal extensions that end outside the inner panel and will strengthen the joint with the outer wing. They fit on a trio of raised lozenges, and one of the strakes that project from the trailing edge of the wing is cut and filed away on each side before the linked intake halves are laid inside the centre section, providing both strength and four intake trunks, which are completed by adding the upper halves, and the engine faces to the rear, which are also linked to ensure the fit is snug. At this stage there’s a hole in the side of the inner intake, which is closed up by an insert, while the guide-vanes inside the trunks are cleverly slotted in through the slightly larger holes in the underside of the trunks, and there are five on each side, so it’s as well that they’re easily inserted. The main bays have their roof detail moulded into the inside of the upper surface, and it is boxed-in by the walls and a cut-away longeron that crosses the bay roof and latches into slots in the sides. The exhausts are made in pairs like the intakes, and have end-caps with engine detail to the front, situated in the upper wing on more lozenge shapes that reduce the likelihood of getting them in the wrong place. Finally, the outer wing panels are joined using those holy (hole-y?) spars, with a peculiar-shaped nick cut from the trailing edge, and the lower wing closing over it on each side. At long-last we get to the fuselage, or the starboard half at least, which has a few small windows installed, a small hole made in the underside, then placing the nose gear bay into position so that the bomb bay can be created by slotting the roof into the back of the bulkhead, and slotting the other end into a smaller bulkhead that has two slots to prevent the bay roof being put in backwards. There’s another hole to be drilled in the fuselage if you are posing the intakes in front of the tail open. Before you can close up the fuselage, the prominent air-brake system in the tail is created, or if you intend to pose them closed, the bulkhead and brake surfaces are used to close the area over. To open up the brakes, you start with a large tapering central structural member that the perforated opener slots through, with a Y-shaped strut and the other half of the structural part closing it in. The same bulkhead used in the closed brakes clips to the back on two pegs, and the two pairs of additional opener arms slide into the tip of the assembly, locked in place by a circular cover and inserted into the rear of the fuselage. If you can still remember where you put the cockpit, that is added to the front of the fuselage, and the port fuselage half is prepared with the same windows, holes and so forth to enable you to close it up after adding 25g of nose-weight under the cockpit, and the rudder panel in the tail fin. After a suitable pause to allow the glue to dry and the seams to be dealt with, the wing assembly is mated with the fuselage, the twin internal yokes linking the intakes entering the slots in the top of the fuselage, and painting a small section of the fuselage’s wing root the same aluminium as the rest of the main gear bays. The designers at Airfix are definitely modellers, as the majority of the seam in the top of the fuselage is later covered over by an insert that both covers the seam and allows Airfix to portray different sensor-fits for different boxings. A few holes are made in one edge of the insert before fitting it however, so don’t forget, or you’ll probably end up regretting it. The big V-tail is finally fixed atop the tail fin, and the intakes are finished off by adding a pair of small inserts into the wing-root, then in order to create the proper wingtip profile and length, a combined aileron and tip are glued in place with a clear lower side to the tip to portray the lights, fitting by the usual slot and tab system, and a peg on the inner end of the aileron. At the tail, the open or closed air-brake panels and inner section are slotted into the assembly and completed by a choice of a smooth tail-cone, or one with sensor bumps all over it. Under the brake housing, a bump-strip helps protect the tail from over-aggressive take-off rotations that could scuff up the paint job. The lower wing inner panels cover up the engine nacelles and their innards after removing the same trailing edge strakes, and drilling some holes in the skin to mount the semi-permanent underwing tanks. There is also a small rectangular insert fixed to the inner edge of the starboard skin if you aren’t dropping the ancillary intake. The main gear legs and bay doors are fitted to the now completed and framed gear bays, and a pair of new wheels are glued to the nose gear leg along with a twin mudguard and a pair of bay doors. Things jump around a bit from this point on, starting with the exhausts, which each have a pair of internal tubes and a single-part external fairing. You may have noticed that there was no instrument panel mentioned earlier, but there is one, which is glued to the deep coaming with a decal to replicate the instruments, with two steering yokes pushed through it into two holes, and a sloping centre console between them, which also has its own decal. It is glued into the front of the cockpit, but the glazing isn’t installed until much later. The bomb-aimer’s triple-paned window is inserted under the nose however, along with some more sensors at the tip. We then leap to the underside of the engine nacelles, adding paired auxiliary intakes that are fitted into recesses in the surface, starting with the paired rear portions, and completing the intake by adding the separate lips to give it a more accurate appearance. Staying with the wings, the Victor has sizeable flaps, which are in two parts and pass over the rear of the engine nacelles. They can be fitted flush with the surrounding skin by cutting off the pips on the inside of the parts, or in the deployed position by adding a small part onto one of the tracks, then gluing the panels in their deployed position. The fuel tanks are next, made from halves, plus a front insert, and the tapered rear to get the shape right, and cutting back the rear parts if you are opening the flaps. This variant of the Victor was tasked with carrying the Blue Steel stand-off nuclear missile, so instead of a standard pair of bomb bay doors, a single fairing is placed over the opening, ready for the missile that comes later. On the upper wings are the Küchemann carrots that are each made from three parts, and fix flat to the wing using that notch you cut in the wing earlier. There is another intake made up and inserted into another depression under the fuselage, next to a retractable intake where the flush insert would otherwise be. More intakes fit on the top of the fuselage in front of the tail along with a number of aerials, the bullet-fairing on the tail, a couple more blade antennae, then finally we get round to the canopy, which is fixed with the addition of a pair of styrene parts and the refuelling probe that is glued into the centreline of the canopy and has a clear fairing that projects further down the middle. A pair of pitot probes slot into each wingtip, and the slide-open crew door is made up from two styrene parts and a clear porthole to slip into the opening and is joined by a long access ladder. The Blue Steel missile is a large, scary creation that is included in the box, and is built from two main halves plus a pair of forward vanes moulded on a pivot, and you can still mount the model on an Airfix stand (available separately) by drilling two holes in the underside of the missile. The upper fin is fitted perpendicular to the body of the missile, while the lower fin has to be folded flat for carriage, as it would otherwise interact with the ground, creating sparks and debris, a possible explosion and ensuing catastrophe. With a pair of tubular fairings glued to the top of the rear fins and the exhaust cone in the rear, the finished missile can be attached into the recess in the bomb bay, completing the model. Markings There are two decal options included in the box for this Cold War warrior, covered by two folded A3 sheets of glossy colour printing. From the box you can build one of the following: No.139 Sqn., RAF Wittering, England 1963-4 Victor Training Flight, RAF Wittering, England 1968 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin satin carrier film cut close to the printed areas. The stencils are comprehensive, and differ between the two decal options, so each option is covered on a separate side of the page, so make sure you use the right one. Conclusion Judging by the prices on a famous auction site, the demand for a re-release of this kit is there, and we’re getting a new boxing of the Victor doing the job that it was originally intended for. It’s a well-detailed model, well-liked in its previous boxing, and it’s the best of a very small number of Victor models in this scale. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  10. Hello Britmodellers, As the title says, I have a question about Danish Thunderjets in camo, as I'd like to build one for an upcoming group build. The only images I managed to find were a few colour profiles and a decal instruction sheet. Not even a single photo. Does anyone have any reference material on camouflaged F-84s or was this practice limited to just a few odd machines? Thanks, Luka
  11. For some reason I don't quite understand I have been fascinated since my teenager years by helicopter cruisers. As you may recall many navies tried to build thee in the 1960's and 70's, but ultimately this class of ship became relegated to being considered a failed experiment. So, in the back of my mind I have this vague plan that I will try to build a series of these, including for example the Haruna, the Italian Vittorio Veneto, the Jeanne d'Arc. Anyway, this plan started to materialise when I got (for an eBay bargain) a Matchbox kit of the HMS Tiger, represented after its 1968 conversion to "helicopter and command cruiser". I did not really know much about this kit other than it was the only one available in 1/700. Opening the box was a rude shock. You know you are in trouble when the images of the built product in the instructions (which presumably represent the manufacturer's best hopes) look like one of those little plastic ships that we used to get in cereal boxes. The kit is ancient, and it does not lie about its origins (see first photo). This got me scrambling for anything that would help make the model look a bit more like a real ship. Fortunately I found that Atlantic models has created a photoetch set for this kit, which I will be using in this build. Well, one has to start somewhere, and here is step one.
  12. Neptunes of the Brazilian Air Force used to fly low over the beaches of Salvador, in Northeastern Brazil, where I spent a few years as a child, and I still remember how loud they were. Attached are the first pictures my just completed rendition of the Hasegawa P2V-7 Neptune kit, of 1987 vintage. This model represents a plane that served with VP-11 in the mid-60's, undertaking long and lonely patrols of the North Atlantic in the search for Soviet submarines. The Hasegawa kit has raised panels, little interior detail, and no detail at all in the wheel bays. However the shape is accurate, the fit is fine, and there is almost no flash. It does have some annoying features, like the canopy that comes in two halves to be joined along the midline, and propellers in which each blade comes separately. These require a lot of test fitting and tweaking to look good (best to use slow setting cement). This second-hand kit came bundled with an Eduard internal detail set, which was OK, but to be honest did not add much. In addition, the decals that came with the kit disintegrated upon testing, so I purchased a set from PrintScale (cat. no. 72-106). Alas, this aftermarket set was incomplete, and somewhat inaccurate, requiring some improvisation using bits and pieces from the spares box, and even rescuing some bits from the Hasegawa set (piecing them together like a mosaic). I also show here a couple of pictures of the Neptune next to the PB4Y-2 Privateer, the previous generation of US Navy patrol bombers (both 1/72). This is just to make the point that the Neptunes are about the same size as a Privateer (itself a stretched B-24 Liberator), which was a bit surprising to me. I think the Neptunes look smaller than they are, mostly on account of the large canopy (which reflects it being designed for the ocean patrol job) and huge engines. For more pictures and details about the build, check this model in my web page (address in the signature panel).
  13. Greetings to everyone! At the end of a long break, I can add the article of a model I finished to the forum Our model, which is the subject of this article, is PM Model's veteran kit YAK-15. A model that has very few parts and can be considered highly compatible (except for the canopy) can be preferred for preference.
  14. Coleman MB4 Aviation Tractor (229632) 1:32 VideoAviation.com Manufactured in the 1950s, the American Coleman MB4 was built and distributed by Coleman Company, who are more well known for BBQ equipment and gas canisters these days. This short aviation tractor was fitted with a Chrysler 230 flathead petrol engine, with an electric clutch and manual transmission linked to all four wheels, which were all selectively steerable for easy manoeuvring, just by operating a lever. It was capable of pulling a load up to 10,000 pounds from the pintle-hooks at the front and rear, with a small load or crew carrying area to the rear. Their heyday was the 60s and 70s where they saw service in the US military, but even now some are still in use, although they’re likely to be pulling less glamorous than a Phantom or SR-71 these days. How the mighty have fallen. The Kit This resin kit of the once ubiquitous airfield tractor has been available from VideoAviation in other scales before, and now we have one in 1:32, with a commensurate increase in terms of detail and size, but also of technology used to create the kit. The main parts are still cast in cream-coloured resin, but a number of the smaller, more delicate parts are 3D printed using SLA techniques, with the now-familiar tendrils or fingers holding them on their printing base. The traditional resin comprises twenty-seven parts, while the 3D printed parts make up a further nineteen, seven clear resin parts, four Photo-Etch (PE) parts on a small fret, plus a sheet of pre-cut clear acetate sheet for most of the flat-pane windows. Detail is excellent, and some of the largest resin parts have been pre-sanded to remove the casting blocks. You will have to saw or nip off the many fingers from the resin parts, and there is a slip of paper warning you to take care to avoid breaking parts, which is good advice. Construction begins with the resin dash, which has a solitary brake pedal attached underneath for insertion later into the cab, which is next, the lower half of which is detailed with accelerator pedal, rear-wheel steering lock, and a small stowage box, with the driver controls inserted into slots in the floor, before the two crew seats are added, and these 3D printed parts are very well designed. The dash slides into the lower cab on a small ledge and the steering column with 3D printed wheel are added in a sit-up-and-beg fashion common to commercial vehicles. Two trapezoid resin parts are installed under the cab, with a warning to test fit before applying the glue, to ensure they are square to the cab and each other. The cab is then glued onto the large chassis along with the engine cowling, radiator grille and chunky front bumper, plus two short sections at the rear. The load bed is made up from five sections, which is fitted to the rear of the chassis, and again test-fitting is recommended. A scrap diagram shows how the parts should look once installed and glued, which is helpful before outfitting the chassis with the detail parts. On the rear bed the two L-shaped 3D printed safety rails are slotted into holes in the resin flats, and 3D front fenders are fitted around the front wheel arches to the sides of the engine cowling. At this stage you have a cabriolet tractor, which is remedied by adding the five resin panels and windscreens around the top of the cab, checking and fettling before gluing, as usual. The doors can be left open or ajar by removing a small lip on the inside top, with the area shown on an accompanying diagram. The four wheels with their hub caps are fixed to the axles, aligning the casting block area with the ground to hide its lack of tread. A box is glued to the left fender, and a clear resin light on a PE bracket is glued onto each side of the front bulkhead of the cab, with a work light at the rear of the cab, and two small clear lights on the rear, plus two towing shackles for front and rear, one open, one closed. There is a clear ‘plant pot’ warning light for the top of the roof, plus a viewing port in the front, both of which are clear resin, then the clear acetate is freed from its sheet and inserted into the cab from the outside using a non-marring or fogging glue, and the final parts are two PE windscreen wipers for the front screen, suspended from the top of the frame. Both of those items can be seen below, with the acetate stapled to a protective piece of blue card. Markings A small decal sheet is included in the box that contains black stripes for the front and rear bumpers, a Coleman logo for the radiator, some US Air Force logos for the cowling, and four tyre pressure stencils above each wheel. The recommended colour scheme is overall yellow, but olive green is also an option, and if you have references showing one in other colours, go for it. You can find some useful images on the VideoAviation website by clicking on the link at the bottom of our review. Conclusion The level of detail available from the box is outstanding, and has risen commensurate with its scale to afford the modeller with a great diorama item, or as a model in its own right. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  15. Afternoon all, First post in a while but I have been busy squirreling away on a few subjects. I've been deployed outside the country for a few months, so these were mainly built within the confides of what equipment I had available. Therefore, some parts are missing, aerials lost in transit or just simply didn't have the time to complete the finer detail. Up first is Italeri's (ESCI) Fokker 27, built entirely out of the box in Air UK. I had quite a few issues with seams on this bird, which I put down to either poor plastic or improper gluing of the join. The white also didn't lay as smoothly as I'd hoped, but never mind! Next up are two relics from the Falklands, both courtesy of Italeri. The Harrier steps are from Brengun and the flight tags are Airwaves. I am aware the tail rotors are the wrong way around and one side of the main rotor blades are upside down in the folded position, but these have a molded droop in them. The Wessex was bought second hand with part of the hump missing infront of the radome, so this is yet to be added. Finally is the Revell rebox of the CyberHobby Sea Vixen FAW.2 with Pavla resin Ejector seats and Aires resin wheels. I understand it's not the most accurate of models, but the engineering of the kit and option of the wing fold meant it went togeather with minimal fuss. Many thanks for looking. I'll see you on the next build..
  16. Mikoyan MiG-15 Weekend Edition (7459) 1:72 Eduard The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was the most famous fighter aircraft to emerge from behind the Iron Curtain during the early years of the Cold War. Although a Soviet design, the MiG-15 made use of captured German research on the aerodynamic properties of swept wings, combined with a reverse engineered Rolls Royce Nene turbojet engine naively provided by the British Government. The resulting aircraft was a triumph, easily outclassing the more conventional jet fighters then in service, benefiting from the inclusion of swept wings that gave it impressive flight characteristics. In order to ensure it could perform adequately as a bomber destroyer, it packed a formidable punch, with two 23mm cannons and a single 37mm cannon mounted in a pack under the nose. The MiG-15 was the original production version, which lacked the plethora of small improvements made to the follow-on Bis variant. The MiG-15 made its combat debut during the Korean War, where it provided a nasty shock for UN forces in theatre. It wasn't until the North American F-86 Sabre became available that American forces had anything able to hold its own against the new Soviet fighter, and even the Sabre required a good pilot at the controls to give it an edge. The MiG-15 went on to become one of the most widely produced jet fighters in history and saw service with air forces around the world. There are a small number still flight-worthy, and they wow crowds at air shows, not least due to the compact size of the airframe. The Kit Eduard have acquired a reputation for excellent models, and this one is no different, and although this boxing originates from 2012, it has a finesse that some 1:72 kit manufacturers struggle to achieve even today. This weekend boxing has a new set of decals and suits either the novice builder, or anyone that doesn’t wish to get bogged down with resin or Photo-Etch (PE) details, a perfect tonic for those paralysed by so-called AMS – Advanced Modeller Syndrome. The name suggests you could complete the model over the weekend, which is an unlikely thing for me, but many modellers could probably manage it! It arrives in a newly re-designed blue-themed Weekend box, and inside are three sprues moulded in the blue-grey plastic often used by Eduard and a single sprue moulded in clear plastic. The sprues are the same as those provided with the earlier bis edition, with the exception of the sprue that holds the fuselage halves. The instruction book is a glossy, stapled A4 affair which includes full-colour painting diagrams at the rear. The quality of the mouldings is up to the usual Eduard standard. Details are clean and crisp and there are no flaws to be seen anywhere. The surface detail on the outside of the airframe is comprised of fine recessed panel lines and delicately engraved rivet and fastener detail. Construction begins with the cockpit sidewalls, painting them and adding decals to the tops of equipment boxes moulded into the curved sides that are actually the sides of the bifurcated intake trunking that is diverted around the cockpit. The seat with decals for belts is made of two parts and inserted into the floor, which has the control column and forward/aft bulkheads glued in place to support the sidewalls with their curved edges and raised orientation arrows. The nose gear bay is inserted under the front of the cockpit, which is then put to one side while the exhaust trunking is made up from two halves and a front bulkhead with engine details moulded into it. You have a choice of a flat instrument panel to which you add a decal, or a detailed panel that you paint. Or you could cheat and apply the decal to the textured panel and smother it with decal softener so it conforms to the surfaces. It is inserted into the cockpit tub during closure of the fuselage along with the exhaust tube and the rudder panels, with a tiny cartoon bunny advising you to put some nose weight into the front of the fuselage before things get too far along. It doesn’t give you a number for the nose weight, but it does tell you to drill a hole in the fuselage top if you are depicting some of the decal options. The wings are made of two halves each, and have a couple of holes drilled out for underwing tanks, plus a pitot probe in the starboard wing tip area. The wings fit to the fuselage with slot and tab as well as an aft pin in the wing root, and the low T-tail has a pair of pins to hold them in place, each surface a single part. Under the nose is still open at this stage, which is cured by an insert and another reminder from the bunny about nose weight. The intake lip with splitter insert and the nose gear leg are inserted along with the two bay doors, and next to it is the 37mm cannon barrel in a shallow trough, and on the other side of the nose wheel the two lower calibre barrels have their own recesses. The main gear wheels have a single tyre part, and a choice of two styles of hubs, which then fix to the axle on the gear leg with a captive bay door, and finally slots into the outer end of the bay, propped up with a retraction jack and two more bay doors around the periphery. A number of scrap diagrams show how the gear legs, doors and the overall aircraft should look once this stage is completed. Sitting the Mig on its own wheels allows the gunsight and rear deck to be put into the cockpit, plus the windscreen and a choice of open or closed canopy with internal parts added inside, according to your choice. One or two antenna stalks are fixed nearby, depending on which decal option you choose. Two styles of drop-tanks are supplied in this boxing, one type being semi-conformal with no pylon, the other having a tripod pylon insert and twin stabilising fins at the rear. They both fit into the same holes under the wings that were drilled out earlier. Hopefully. Markings Early Weekend boxings would include a solitary decal option, but this has been increasing over the years to the stage that this boxing includes four options on the main sheet, and a full set of stencils on the smaller sheet. From the box you can build one of the following: S/n 141303, 3 Fighter Air Regiment, Brno-Tuřany, Czechoslovakia, c.1958 S/n 0615334 Maj. V I Kolyadin, 28 GIAP, 151 GIAD, 64 IAK, Mukden, China, Dec 1950 EP-01 Josef Kúkel, 1 Fighter Air Division, Hradec Králové, Ruzyně, Sep 4th 1955 S/n 231611, Romanian Air Force, late 1950s Decals are by Eduard, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Don’t forget that as of last year, the carrier film of the decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them film-free, making the decals much more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view. Conclusion The kit is both accurate and well-engineered, putting other 1:72 kits of the type in the shade. The level of detail Eduard have packed in is superb, as is the treatment of surface details. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  17. After a hiatus of about a year, I finally got around to finishing my Berlin Brigade Chieftain. I just couldn't face the masking. I'm not totally happy with the finish so, no, I'm not uploading bigger pictures! The paint are the Ammo by Mig box set with a light pin wash of thinned oil paint. I noticed some errors in the Takom guide and went with pictures I could find on-line, and even then I made mistakes. The front underside should be white and brown but I realised too late. The construction is nearly identical to my Mk 11, less the TOGS. I've kept the weathering light as they were kept clean constantly and especially polished twice a year for the Queen's Birthday Parade and the Allied Forces Parade and in-between mostly going backwards and forwards to Ruhleben down the Heer Strasse Bill
  18. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG 15 Bis, Red 40, 1953 I completed my model of this Soviet fighter which I finished with the colors and markings of the mount of pilot Nikolay Shkodin, who obtained five victories during the Korean war. I chose not to install the provided jet engine inside the fuselage and to display it next to the aircraft. For increased detailing, I used aftermarket seatbelt, instrument panel and main wheels from Eduard's. The jet engine Klimov-vk1 which is provided with the kit is adequately reproduced for this scale and, as said, I am displaying it on a static stand which was scratch built. The model was finished with mixes of Tamiya acrylic colors, while Vallejo metallic paints were used for the metallic finished parts. I sprayed the camouflage bands free-hand to obtain feathered demarcations, however, I am afraid that the obtained effect that might be a bit out of scale. I replaced the 2 x 23 mm gun muzzles with aluminium tubes, while the muzzle of the 37 mm cannon is an Eduard replacement. I also substantially modified the oversimplified pilot seat to better reproduce the type which was used at the time of the depicted aircraft. Panel lines were obtained by oil colors washes and other small stains with watercolor pencils. This is my first Russian subject and I found it rather an interesting aircraft to build (the build log can be found under this link: MiG15 build log). I hope that you like my final pictures. Best regards, Dan
  19. Ilyushin Il-28 - Warpaint #130 Guideline Publications This book is originally by author Nikolay Yakubovich, translated by Kevin Bridge, and covers the birth and development of the Iluyshin Il-28, known as the Beagle in NATO circles, the Soviet Union’s first medium jet bomber after WWII, thanks partly to the foolishness of the British Government at the time, who naively sold the Soviets examples of the Nene jet engine, allowing them to use them in projects until they could reverse-engineer their own, which they eventually improved upon as the RD-45. The Il-28 flew with two RD-45 engines slung under its straight wings in streamlined nacelles, topping 500mph with a crew of three and a reasonable bomb-load that it could haul a decent distance. The book is in the usual Warpaint format of portrait A4(ish) with a soft card cover but has an increased page count from the norm and utilises a perfect binding instead of the usual pair of staples to accommodate the total of 64 pages plus content printed on the four sides of the glossy covers, and a loose sheet of A2 plans in 1:72 printed on both sides and penned by the author. A long section details the birth of the type with its influences from captured Nazi designs such as the Arado Ar.234, the route to the finalised design, then the subsequent variants and history carries on throughout the book, incorporating a summary of the operational experiences of the bomber and its various incarnations. The pages include a lot of useful pictures with informative captions of aircraft on the apron, on the field, in the air, during trials, crashed and under maintenance with panels missing, plus appropriate photos and drawings dotted around, but the engineering-type drawings have Cyrillic text, so you'll have to rely on the captions unless you read Russian. The Colours & Markings section shows the narrow range of official schemes that the type was painted, but the many profiles illustrate that camouflage was applied at times where suitable. The "In Detail" section has some numbered close-up photos with matching captions providing excellent information that will be a boon to modellers as well as people that just like to know what everything does. My favourite variant is the ugly one of course, which is the two-cockpit trainer version that has a slight droop-snoot, although nothing quite so ugly as the Yak-38 or Mig-25 2-seaters. Gotta love ‘em! Conclusion The Warpaint series always gets a thumbs-up due to their inability to produce a bad one. This is an excellent book that will see plenty of use by anyone interest in, or building this semi-ubiquitous aircraft from the early Cold War. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  20. This is my build of the AFV Club 1/700 kit of the Knox class frigates. The kit comes with 6 options of markings, but I chose to represent USS Elmer Montgomery (FF-1082) because it served in the Atlantic. The Knox class frigates were frequent visitors of my home city of Rio de Janeiro, and on a few occasions I had the privilege of coming on board. I have fond memories of these ships designed for the tough job of escorting transatlantic convoys against soviet submarines swarming down the GIUK gap, in case the Cold War turned hot. This is a nice and affordable kit that gives you an accurately shaped representation of these ships, but not without problems (for a build report, and more photos, check my web site; address in the signature panel below). It is also a bit light on detail, and with next to zero instructions for painting. I intended to enhance the model by using a photoetch set, but ended up not using most of it, given that the sizes of the parts were incorrectly represented. The railing I used was generic (Big Blue Boy 1/700 modern USN set), and other parts were scratch-built (e.g. details of the masts, aerials). The decals provided in the kit were a bit all over the place, some oversized (e.g. the ship's name on the stern) and some undersized (e.g. the red cycles around the ASROC and CIWS), so a few had to be home-printed (with mixed results). The rigging was done using human hair. The seascape base was inspired by photos of FF-1082 off the coast of Norway in 1988 (see image below, from navsource.org). Given that the sea was a bit choppy I did not think it was appropriate to leave the helicopter on the pad, so I represented it overflying the ship, propped up by a glass capillary tube. Best regards Marcello
  21. I've gone the markings for a Fallingbostel based vehicle after it had been for a cabby round Soltau. A fun little build - I haven't done a WIP. The only alterations are adding a shroud for the barrel out of tissue and watered down pva, and clear headlights (which I've ended up covering in mud. The main paints are Mig NATO green mixed with a few drops of oily ochre and lightened black. I intended black shading but got carried away with the green and lost most of it. Quick Shine Floor polish for the gloss, Tamiya matt varnish for the final, black oil paint for the pin wash and Mig pigment mixed with plaster and thinners for the mud. My first attempt with the pigment mug and I'm chuffed with how it came out.
  22. I've made a start on the Conqueror on Monday. I've gone unconventional in that I started with the tracks, as I had a crap day at work and they were quite therapeutic, and then started on the turret. I find the running gear quite monotonous at the best of times and this one has more wheels than most: The tracks came in sets of two and had to be separated and cleaned off. The barrel is interesting as it came in two parts, but not in halves as you would expect, but two complete tubes which you put end on end. It is completely hollow and I'm scratching my head how they moulded them as they came just on a normal sprue side on. You lot are a bad influence. Once I was happy with just making a kit straight out of the box, but no, now I find my self making mantle shrouds out of tissue paper and PVA and drilling out the barrel on the 30 cal. All in all, so far the kit fits together reasonably well with not too much flash. It is another kit that has workable tracks, PE, metal springs, and even copper wire for the towing cable but no clear parts. It's strange. Thankfully I have some lens left over from the Centurion that fit but the sights I'll have to live with. Oh, this isn't a tank to buy expecting exiting and varied paint scheme. Only 180 ish were made and all were based in Germany for it's 11 years of service so it's deep bronze green all round. As I mentioned the size before, here is the upper hull compared to a Chieftain: The extra width is down the the wider tracks as when you compare the lower hull: The Chieftain only appears smaller because the hull is slopped but the Conqueror's is square sided. It is funny that the Conqueror was a heavy tank at 64 tonnes but Challenger 2 is still just a MBT at, as I once heard it described in a broad Yorkshire accent, "70 tonnes of grumbling dermatitis". Bill
  23. Hi everyone! I decided to start something new on the side and get off the F-16 I am building for a while because I am getting a bit burnt out with it to be honest. I decided to start something fresher and I thought simpler.... naive I am!! So I decided to start with the Hasegawa Mig-27 Flogger D in the 1/72: This particular release is from 2003 although I am suspecting it comes from an old old kit as a quick search in Scalemates suggests. Also the combination of raised and depressed panel lines suggests. Furthermore there some significant flash in the kit pointing to a worn out mold. So these are the sprues out of the box: Plus a clear sprue with the 2 piece canopy, which can be mounted either close or open and a couple of clear part for signaling lights on the side of the main fuselage. Some details of a few parts: Flash: Now off we go! First things first I did the research in the following websites if you wanna have a look around (best walkarounds I could find): http://scalemodels.ru/news/4987-Walkaround-mig-27-kokpit-tekhnicheskijj-muzejj-toljatti-rossija-MiG-27-Flogger-cockpit-Tolyatti.html http://scalemodels.ru/news/3565-Walkaround-mig-27k-iz-gosudarstvennogo-muzeja-aviacii-zhuljany-kiev.html http://scalemodels.ru/news/3566-Walkaround-mig-23bm-mig-27-Flogger-D-zhuljany-kiev.html http://scalemodels.ru/news/3082-mig-27k-v-muzee-aviacionnojj-tekhniki-v-borovojj.html http://scalemodels.ru/news/1737-Walkaround-mig-27-irkutsk-MiG-27-Flogger-D-Irkutsk.html ( THIS IS MY MAIN REFERENCE) http://scalemodels.ru/news/1373-Walkaround-mig-27-saratov-MiG-27-Flogger-Saratov.html I am not sure if I am missing something but first thing to strike me was the nose. Completely wrong shape, at least for the Flogger D model, which should be as follow: (http://scalemodels.ru/modules/photo/viewcat.php?id=24979&cid=567&min=60&orderby=dateA&show=12) Photo credit True that there are differences between the mig-27 models: But all those nice targeting systems on the nose (Kaira-1 system) completely non existing on the Hasegawa kit! So I set myself to fix this offend! Original nose: A bit of standard Milliput and water to shape the Kaira-1 system main structure: Sanding and reshapping will follow to lower the profile of the structure, also painted the sockets black and cut open the frontal element of the Kaira-1 using a photo-etched mini saw: Now time for the optics! Clear sprue which has been reshaped thinner and polished: Cut the tip for the frontal element of the lens (see reference picture above): A smear of CA and it is fixed! Now the second optical element at the front: This is just a clear styrene sheet cut and glued into place # Next will be covering all elements with the armoured glass windows which will be more clear styrene sheet and nose it is ready to go! I have also been working on the frontal wheel bay which again kit version is FAAAAAAAAAAAAR from reality! I will prepare another post just focusing on that one After that comes the cockpit which in the kit is mysteriously missing! As always comments / suggestions are more than welcome! Hope you like this Cheers, Alex P.S. if you wanna check my F-16 build this is the link http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234965428-172-heller-f-16-ab-old-issue-first-model-fighter/
  24. Mig-15Bis Update Sets (For Bronco/Hobby 2000) 1:48 Eduard This new tooling has popped out from partners Bronco and Hobby 2000 recently, and Eduard have been hard at it creating some detail improvements over and above what’s available in the box. Eduard's new range of sets are here to improve on the kit detail in the usual modular manner. Get what you want for the areas you want to be more of a focal point. As usual with Eduard's Photo-Etch (PE) and Mask sets, they arrive in a flat resealable package, with a white backing card protecting the contents and the instructions that are sandwiched between. Interior SPACE (3DL48016) Part of Eduard’s new range of combination 3D Printed decals with a pre-painted PE sheet to complement the details. The 3D Printed sheet contains a brand-new multi-part instrument panel with glossy dial faces plus a number of dials, additional instruments on the side consoles and a few more for the sidewalls. The PE set has a set of four-point seatbelts; rudder pedals with straps; a substantial change to the kit seat, which has the stirrups, side supports and headrest removed before adding new parts that are more accurate. The rear deck is skinned with a new part and the sills are lined too, then an opener is glued to the port side of the canopy. Seatbelts STEEL (FE1179) These belts are Photo-Etch (PE) steel, and because of their strength they can be etched from thinner material, which improves realism and flexibility in one sitting. Coupled with the new painting method that adds perceived extra depth to the buckles and other furniture by shading, they are more realistic looking and will drape better than regular brass PE. These belts are for use with the kit seat, a caveat you’ll understand better if you read the review of the SPACE cockpit set first. Masks (EX775) Supplied on a sheet of yellow kabuki tape, these pre-cut masks supply you with a full set of masks for the canopy, with compound curved handled by using frame hugging masks, while the highly curved gaps are in-filled with either liquid mask or offcuts from the background tape. In addition you get a set of hub/tyre masks for the wheels, allowing you to cut the demarcation perfectly with very little effort. Masks Tface (EX776) Supplied on a larger sheet of yellow kabuki tape, these pre-cut masks supply you with everything above, but also give you another set of canopy masks tailored to fit the interior of the glazing so that you can paint the interior and give your model that extra bit of realism. Mig-15 Wheels (648622) Kit wheels are generally in two halves, which means you have the resultant joins to deal with, possible mould-slip issues on single part wheels, and sometimes less than stellar detail due to the moulding limitations of styrene injection technology, especially in the tread department. That's where replacement resin wheels come in, with their lack of seamline and superior detail making a compelling argument. They are also usually available at a reasonable price, and can be an easy introduction to aftermarket and resin handling, as they are usually a drop-in replacement. This set includes three new wheels in grey resin, and a nose wheel leg in tougher white resin, plus a set of kabuki tape masks (not pictured) that makes cutting the demarcation between the tyres and hubs cleanly and with no fuss. Review sample courtesy of
  25. Hi Pals, A small diorama with my last tank, a Takom Chieftain MK2, inspired by the kit's boxart and some photo of the real model. I add a link to the RTI, and another to the WIP, in case there is anyone interested in seeing more photos, with the model alone. Thanks for watch and comments. Cheers mates. 👍
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