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Last build of the year, and it was a quick one. I picked this kit out of the stash for two reasons; firstly I needed a guinea pig to test the new Vallejo Metal acrylics. Secondly, the kit had lots of loose parts, all floating around in one of Italeri's open-ended boxes, and I had already lost one of the horizontal stabilizers. Since I read some reviews of this kit I was already aware of some of its pitfalls, namely an ill-fitting intake, badly fitting transparencies and zillions of rivets. I dealt with the first two issues but left the last one alone. My previous experience with Vallejo's paints was not too good; in my experience they spray beautifully but take very long to harden, if at all. However, some good press on the new Metal acrylics made me decide to give them a shot. I've posted my experiences with them in this topic. Sufficient to say I found them quite good and I will use them more often going forward. I used some Humbrol Polished aluminium on the maintenance panel and airbrakes and Gunze Metalcote on the intake ring to break the expanse of silver. I've seen MiGs build as a patchwork of different shades of metal, but I couldn't find much evidence for this in pictures, though in fairness I didn't look very hard The kit itself was for a long time the best MiG-15 on the market, but it has of course been completely blown out of the water by Eduard's new kit. At first I considered doing a double-build of the kits to compare them, but on inspecting the parts, it was a foregone conclusion and I decided it would be better to build the Italeri kit as a test bed for the paint and then do the Eduard kit later, and do it justice. I didn't use any aftermarket with the exception of some Albion Alloys tubing for the gun barrels.

Hi This is my first finished model in at least 9 months. It was a 24-hour blitz-build, which presented no real construction challenges. The model has a wing span of 26cm. I spayed it with Alclad Dull Aluminium followed by a couple of coats of Alclad Gloss Klear Kote, prior to decalling. I had some frustrations with the walkway decals, but apart from that, a pleasurable weekend build to break my lengthy hiatus! One obviously can't describe it as a tail-sitter, so "wing-sitter" will have to suffice!! This is from Wikipedia: "The Northrop YB-49 was a prototype jet-powered heavy bomber aircraft developed by Northrop Corporation shortly after World War II for service with the U.S. Air Force. The YB-49 featured a flying wing design and was a jet-powered development of the earlier, piston-engined Northrop XB-35 and YB-35. The two YB-49s actually built were both converted YB-35 test aircraft. The YB-49 never entered production, being passed over in favor of the more conventional Convair B-36 piston-driven design. Design work performed in the development of the YB-35 and YB-49 nonetheless proved to be valuable to Northrop decades later in the eventual development of the B-2 stealth bomber, which entered service in the early 1990s." Photos of a not so distant relative taken by me at RIAT: And finally, a couple of shots with my only other 1:200 model, the same manufacturer's XB-70 Valkyrie: Thanks for looking.

Hello everyone, Here is my Dragon Heinkel He-162. Kit was a nightmare to build, but I'm pretty pleased with the result. Another disaster with the nose weight though! This time silly me glued the nose weight in with a ton of cement, and 5 minutes later the nosecone was melted! Maybe I should just stick to tail sitters

Hi all. Had fun with this one! The kit certainly had it's issues but still builds into a decent model with some modelling flare. It's been built as a display piece for a veteran sherman radio operator of the east riding yeomanry and is a tribute to him really. WIP link here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234977297-old-dragon-135-sherman-firefly-1c-hybrid-9037-teaching-an-old-dog-new-tricks/ There's a couple of shots below that show the model without the track cleats highlighted in steel but the rest are after i've done it. Just used some of the best photo's i have of her really. Anyway, enjoy Cheers all, hope you like her. Ben.

Hi Guys! This will be my report. I already open the topic to reserve my idea. © I am using Dragon's Ar 234C with V-1 and Revell's Me 262A, both 1/72. Background story is following and build starts very soon. I hope you are interested in these. Edit: And here the background story: In the 30s of the last century, before WW2 began, Germany developed some planes with new kind of engines, jet engines. Two of these planes, which came to service, were the Arado Ar 234 “Blitz / Lightning” and the Messerschmitt Me 262 “Schwalbe / swallow” As result of the allied air raids on german aviation industries the production was spread and moved to southern part of Germany or occupied territories - including Czechoslovakia. After the war the Czechoslovakia kept the production line for the Me 262 and the Ar 234 in the Avia, czech plane manufacture. Avia keep the Me 262 without any big changes and build them as S-92 single seater fighter and the trainer CS-92. But beside the twin engine Ar 234B the Ar 234 was developed to the C-standard with 4 engines in two nacelles, that didn’t come to service in German Air Force during the war. So the Ar 234C became Avia B-234C. May the 14th in 1948 the new state Israel was founded when British mandate of Palestine ended. Instead of founding an additional arab state in Palestine, the Arabs decide to destroy the jewish state. Arab groups in the former Mandate, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, supported by other countries, declared war to Israel on May the 15th. It was necessary for the new Israeli Air Force to get planes, fighters and bombers. But there was an embargo by western countries. So they found in Czechoslovakia a country, that was willing to sell them weapons. Israel decided for the S-92 as “Snunit” (swallow) and the B-234C as “Barak” (Lightning)) and the planes were shipped disassembled. In Israel the planes were assembled and two new squadrons were founded. The B-234C squadron became first operational – so they gave the name “First Jet Squadron”. The S-92 squadron was named “First Fighter Squadron”. In need of long distance attacks (Iraq, Saudi Arabia) and the short range of the jet bombers the IAF decide to purchase a flying bomb. But none were available. The idea of one of the mechanics, to look for the forced labourers which were forced to build the V-1 for the Nazi was successful. The IAF found some survivor, who immigrated to Israel after the war. Below them were also engineers, which kept in mind how to build. First flying bomb in Israel was produced as “Shalom I” (Peace 1).

Hello! So after some time I show you my JU 88 G6 from Dragon/Cyber Hobby- Orange Box in 1/48. Pretty old kit and because of the many re-edtions the moulding suffered from that. The construction was a real challenge. I've tried to avoid filler. So dry fitting is a "must do". I have replaced all MG 151 with brass rods. The FUGs are from Mastermodel. Another challenge, because I tried the solder them. In the end it wasn't that hard, as I've thought. I made a template that helped me a lot.The rear antenna holder is also a brass construction soldered togehter. I've rescribed the fuel hatches on the top of the fuseage. Soon as the construction was finished, the painting started using Vallejo RLM 76 and Gunze RLM75. I really liked the paint scheme done by Chris Wauchop from Hyperscale. That black tail fin really got me! After all I'm happy this project is done. Greetings

Hi, I am trying to build DH 84 RAAF ambulance, likely A34-54. It is in WIP...- a scratch work. Here: http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/dh84-pt2/dh84-dragon-pt2.htm within record for A34-54 there is a photo described like that: A34-54 at Mareeba Qld in 1943 with No.2 Air Ambulance Unit. The factory paint scheme has been replaced by jungle green camouflage with red and white ambulance cross. Frank F. Smith collection I've seen in net someone's model of the same machine (not sure that exactlu "54") which was painted in DKEarth/Foliage Green with light blue undersurface. So - was it one or two colours from top on DH 84 RAAF Ambulances? And the bottom - white or light blue? Besides my doubts about the colours, which I should apply on this machine - the another problem is that I think that there was (perhaps) a nose art on this machine on left side (bee or something like that). I will appreciete also some info on this. Was it on "A34-54" or on another Dragon? Best regards Jerzy-Wojtek

Hello All, Dragon's Jagdpanzer IV(L70) Gunze paints, oils, artists acrylics, games workshop paints and inks and MiG Pigments + a homemade brew of filters from a 30year old + collection of Humbrol enamels. This is a first go at serious mud making for the running gear. Happy modelling all - some really nice work on display Ian

Hey guys, this is my first tank build since i came back to modelling (and obviously my first AFV WIP here ). I m building the Tiger II for my friend, who asked me to build it - i was happy to do so, but there was deadline of 9th november.. So i had like one month for the build, making it effectively like 10 days for the build - we have decided then it ll be OOB build with no interior and we have chosed the Tiger II (Konigstiger, King Tiger) as the subject - Still i wanted it to look as great as possible, so here is the shopping list : - Dragon 1/35 King Tiger (Henschel Turret) - Fruil Models Hunting Tiger (wide) tracks - Nordland Productions German Standard 2m AFV antenna rod (at first i thought i ll just use wire for antenna, but 3pcs for like 3,5 E and looking great, well,easy decision ) - RB Model 8,8cm L/71 barrel with muzzle brake - Eduard Brass-in MG34 machine gun Because of the limited time, i gave up on making of the zimmerit and from given late war camouflage schemes, my friend chosed the very late war scheme (olive green factory base, late war dunkelgelb + brown pattern applied by the operation units), which i did read was used for like last 30 King Tigers. I did not find any good images though so the camouflage is kind of what-if. I was mixing the colours following the RAL sampler, but i have underrated the influence of the dark washes/streaks and glossy varnishes and now the colours are much darker than what i wanted.. well, there is no time to fix it, so it is lesson for next time. Here is the progress - first i did some scracthes to the plastic all over the armour, thinned the right front fender and "damaged" it (the left fender wont be used at all, the side fenders ll be made from metal sheet from aluminium can). I have also removed/filled all equipment holders/holes prepared for holders and replaced these. Also i made some texture on the armour plate edges as i saw it on some builds and quite liked it - later when i saw some good shots of real KT´s i noticed, these are not so significant in real.. well, another lesson learned for future.. I have also made all the handles from wires rather than using the plastic parts (even though these were nicely done, but i was too lazy to clean the little parts.. :/ ), added wire to the frong reflector and tried to make some weld around the MG cover in the front hull, as there was nothing and it did not look right to me (i m not saying now it is any better.. ) Second i did paint the tanks body overall with vallejo red-brown primer and made chips in various rust tones by sponge on exposed areas or where i had plans to have chips through camouflage and primer paint to the bare metal - nothing too precious, just to give it some random pattern. Next i sprayed the chipping fluid all over, let it dry a bit and painted the olive green mix. Once it has dried a bit, i was working on some scratches around. Some shots from the progress : I know it could be much better, but the limited time.. Anyway, next steps were again the same : semi-gloss varnish - chipping fluid - dunkelgelb - chipping - semi-gloss varnish - chipping fluid - brown paint - chipping - semi-gloss varnish. Once this was done, i have applied overall filter (green + yellow + brown oil paints + white spirit - like 95%) to blend the paints together a bit and dark brown pin wash. The exhausts were painted in some rusty pattern (well, i have tried ) using Ammo rust acrylics applied by sponge from darkest to lightest, followed by chipping fluid, repainted by dark grey-brown-blue mix to simulate the burnt iron and then chipped down to the rust, then i have applied black pigment around the openings to simulate the soot. This is where i was after these steps : I have started to work on some mud and dust after that but i did not make shots yet, so i ll add more shots later I ll appreciate any tips for the final weathering (mud, dust, leaks, streaks) Thanks and have a good time guys, ll see ya later here

I was not fortunate enough to know Merv, having joined Britmodeller after the last Tornado GB, but by all accounts he seemed to be the type of person that I would have liked to have known and could have got along well with. I have set myself quite a challenge for this GB and my plan is to to try and build four 1/144th Tornado's, one each from the four operators. This is my RAF entry and will be mainly be buit from the box with the exception of a Retrowings replacement cockpit.

Here's my latest, Dragons StuG III Ausf A, the 1996 "Whittman" release. I've added Eduards photoetch, and scratchbuilt the tow cable, shackle pins, gun cleaning rods, jack block. It's painted with Tamiya acrylics, marked with "Star" decals "Sturm pt 1" decals, and weathered with oils, ground up watercolors, and pastels. Hope you like it, Colin

Just finished this morning for the Korean War ‘Campaign’ (Group Build) over at Modellers Alliance, my other modelling ‘home’. This is the Dragon M46 that I bought when it was a ‘new’ release way back in 1995 !!. Only now did I attempt it as up until this point, I truthfully didn’t believe that my limited skills were up to the task, to be brutally honest, I’m still not certain. Well if it wasn’t for the fact that the (Italeri) tracks that I used to save time are two links too small I’d be 100% delighted with the build, however now that I need to go-back and fit a couple of links from the kit anyways, I can only claim 99.2% satisfaction…. Never mind, that issue is easily overcome. So TWENTY YEARS this has been in the stash awaiting my skills to match my expectation. Please be VERY honest with your opinions and comments, folks. Looking forward to hearing what you guys think. Ian.

On my bench now is the original 1996 issue of Dragons StuG III ausf A. It's finished in the original RAL 7017 (Signal brown) over Panzer grey. I'll be using "Star decals" "STURM!" decal set. I've added part of Eduards photoetch set, and scratch built the tow cable (from fine solder), the jacking block, and the 4 tow shackle pins (hanging on their chains in above photo). I've also made the 5 smoke canisters from sprue, with chains twisted from fine copper wire. Hopefully it will be finished in a week or so ... hope you enjoy. Colin

Hi Everyone, Here is another of my upcoming projects : Dragon's 1:9 scale Iron Patriot kit. I will be painting this kit with primarily Tamiya Acrylic Paints : Clear Red, Titanium Silver, Metallic Blue, Steel (Revell Acrylic). The major differences between this kit and the Iron Man Mark III that I have are that a sheet of decals is supplied along with a very large gun. Anyway here are the photos of the kit. Anyway I will post progress photos once I have started on this kit. Cheers, Rick

I found this a few days ago: http://www.dragon-models.com/d-m-item.asp?pid=DRA7519 I believe that this is currently the only M103 in this scale. I'm not sure if anyone else has put this on somewhere else on the forum, though.

Hi guys I have been very quiet this year but I am catching up fast. here are 2 vulcans from dragon wonderfull little kits too. XL321 is standard out the box from the first release XH533 is from the falklands box and im rather proud of it as its my first attempt at scratching parts. you could have fun spoting the difference betwean XH533 the first b2 which was in essence a b1 with b2 wings and avon engines and later olympus engines. I liked the look of this vulcan hybrid and realised as the falklands boxing of the kit had a blue steel missile which i used to form the centre of the much smaller b1 tail cone seemed to be almost designed to fit the interior of the vulcan once i took the gamble of cutting off the b2 tail cone. i did much checking and then glued it into place then wet smoothed with a finger some milliput forming the shape of the b1 tail cone. then i used the optional tail fin to cut a fillet to extend the tail fin and then rescribed it. i pinched some tail pipes from a diecast 200th scale vulcan and then painted her and used fantasy printshop decal alongside kit ones from the first release vulcan and hey presto an early vulcan. and a representation of the original flash white scheme with the later more familiar type. now i have managed to make the tail im going to do the same again only this time chop the wings down and make a b1 to go with these 2 to have and evolution of production vulcans in 1/200th (cute) hope you like em love to hear feedback good and bad. they were painted with humbrol rattle can white and the black areas and windows free hand painted with a brush and then given lashings of johnsons klear. cheers guys. If anyone would like to see photos of how i modded it ask. cheers Rob

Finished today, Dragon Stug IIID kit ( really showing it's age now ), Aber Etch, Spade Ace Tracks and scratch build air filters, jerrycan rack,repaired drive sprockets and wheel mounts to make a vehicle from Sonderverband 288. Built thread is available here Hope you like it Peter

Hello, Here's my newest kitty - Panther Ausf.D. Dragon - 1/35 - Premium Edition. Few words about the kit. It was a bit of a disappointment for me to be honest. Not the quality of the moulds, premium addons, but the fit itself. Traditionaly, Dragon's instructions were not good, missing parts, etc. Usually I really enjoyed Dragon kits, but this one was a bit different. Anyways, it was fun to paint it and weather. Decided to go for a non-muded vehicle, just some dust. I hope you like it. Now some motorbike on the workbench See you, Bart.

Hello Everyone, This is my second entry to the Lesser Built Air-Forces GB. This kit was made using the Dragon 1/144 F-5F and using the Retrowings cockpit upgrade set. I had a right nightmare with this kit. I lost the canopy, luckily I had a spare but that cracked when I tried to get it off the sprue. Then I found two kits in Australia, which I promptly ordered... they never turned up. I am going to blame all of the creepy-crawleys in that country. Some spider is munching on my kit right now The decals are from Aztec Decals celebrating 20 years service of the F-5 with the Fuerza Aérea Mexicana and from what I understand of it, the scheme was painted by the guys at Aztec onto the plane (I could be completely wrong). On to the pictures... yay... Sorry for the bad quality picture, I will try to take this one again... Let me know what you guys think, Kind Regards, Dazz

“Was vor uns liegt?” - Two Tigers – a chance meeting? (For details of each Tiger please see below) King Tiger No.333 PzKpfw SdKfz 182 Ausf.B S.Pz.Abt.501 - Ohrdruf Proving Ground, Germany 1944 Kit: 1/72 Dragon Armor Pro Series King Tiger - Henschel Turret w/Zimmerit This was the first kit I finished for the Achtung Panzer GB and it was completed back in March. However, I waited until I got a base made for it before putting it in the RFI section – and in fact I’ve decided to display it alongside the 1/72 Dragon Tiger 1 I also made for the GB. I’m going to post both builds in this one thread rather than clutter up too much of this area of BM! (I’ve still got three other APGB builds to post here at some point!) The only things I added to what comes in the box are the cable for the front light, the brackets that secure the front fenders to the side skirt armour and the aerial. Paints are all Humbrol and Revell applied by hairy sticks. WIP - http://www.britmodel...40315-finished/ And with a twenty pence piece to show the size: Tiger 1 No.112 Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.E Tiger 1 late 1./Pz.Abt.101 Normandy 1944 Kit: 1/72 Dragon Armor Pro Series Tiger 1 w/Zimmerit plus Tiger Aces figures This was the second kit I finished for the Achtung Panzer GB. To what's in the box I have added spare track links on the turret (links kindly donated by Sgt.Squarehead for my D-Day Tiger 1 build) tow cables (made from twisted wire) and the turret machine gun from the spares box. It's all brush painted with Humbrol and Revell acrylic paints applied with hairy sticks. The WIP thread can be found here: http://www.britmodel...0315/?p=1914060 And with a twenty pence piece just to show how small it is!: Kind regards, Stix

Hello everyone, Here is my latest model, the Northrop P-61A Black Widow “Lady Gen”, 422nd Night Fighter Squadron, 1944. I really love this aircraft, and I was lucky to find an old Dragon 1/72 kit in eBay at a reasonable price. Built mainly OOB, I only changed the decals (Eagle Editions, printed by Cartograph). Painted using Model Master and Humbrol enamels. Weathering using silver pencil, Flory Models washes, and Tamiya Weathering Master kits. About the kit itself, overall I am very satisfied; especially considering this kit was manufactured in 1994. Great quality of the plastic, no flashing, and well defined panel lines. Some fit issues in the engine/wings area. The P-61A is tail sitter, so I had to add an incredible amount of weight to the nose, engines and even to the cockpit. Now I am a bit concerned with the ability of the landing gears to resist the weight! I am happy with the result, and even more with the learning in the process – it was the first time that I tried several techniques, such as salt technique weathering (which resulted a bit too subtle), paint chipping using silver pencil, and some photography techniques. I have learned a lot with everyone’s posts here in Britmodeller, so thank you so much! Please see below some pictures. I included a size comparison with an F-14A Tomcat, which was very interesting to me. Feedback and comments are very welcomed. I hope you like it, and thank you for looking! Best, Ricardo Model pictures Size comparison

This is going to be my second build for this GB: I thoroughly enjoyed building Dragon's 1/72, Zimmeritted, Panther and Tiger for the D-Day GB so when I saw this online I figured it it would be great for this GB. As of this post it is the first German armour in this GB. Can't wait to get this one started after next weekend. I will be building this when I'm not at home so, like my recent 1/76 Airfix Tiger 1 and Cromwell builds, it will be made with only very limited equipment available. Kind regards, Stix

Hi, it seems, i can t stop building Shermans. While german AFVs are quite often here, i didn t found another british Sherman Mk.III, especially in 1/72. The kit is on the same quality level, like the M4A1 but if you want to use the very nice decals from the box, you need other road wheels. Dragon supplied the later closed wheels, but i need the open spoked wheels. A Trumpeter M4 kit came to help. Trumpeter has two versions of wheels inside the box. Kit bashing is easy in theory, in "real live" there can be problems. I started with the suspension. everythink was o.K but Trumpys wheel bogeys are too narrow for the Dragon kit. I used, to make "space" the little number plates on the sprues. Made photos of it and the sprues from the kit and from the Trumpeter kit, sorry for the bad quality and most of the progress pics are unusable, thanks to bad light conditions and my mistake photo skills. There are also pics from the Dragon and Trumpeter hull, note the weld seams on the Dragon plastic and the reason, why the Trumpeter M4 is so wrong. The glacis plate has the wrong angle that makes the whole hull looking wrong, will build this kit with a help from a Modeltrans resin hull. Cheers Bernd

Right - I am now getting a bit carried away (or I ought to be!). Now that my 1/72 Dragon King Tiger is nearing completion it's back at home where I can do the remaining work on it, decals etc., but only at weekends. Having done a quick check through the list of builds in this GB I realised, if I'm not mistaken, that no-one is making a 1/72 Tiger 1. I'm making a Tiger 1 in 1/48 and DaveJL is building one in 1/35. Then, a couple of weeks ago, while in Birmingham, I was in the Ian Allen bookshop where I noticed this: .......and it was reduced! So this will be my next weekday build and this GB will have Tiger 1s in three scales. I'm thinking I might make it as part of a small diorama alongside the King Tiger. Not sure of the setting yet. I hope to get this started tomorrow. Kind regards, Stix

Hi folks, A few pics of my T-34/76 Sotka Ps.231-3 commanded by 2/Lt Teppo during the battle of Tali-Ihantala on the Karelian Isthmus in the summer of 1944. The Finnish Tank Company used various (captured) Russian tanks such as T-28, T-50, Klim Voroshilov and the famous T-34/76. The Finnish Soldiers called it 'Sotka' ('Duck'). It is the Dragon T-34/76 Mod. 41, Cast turret kit with some scratch built parts. Painted with Gunze and weathered with Ammo. Note: The Finnish swastika, Hakaristi, was officially taken into use after an order by Mannerheim on 18 March 1918. The Hakaristi had nothing to do with Nazi-Germany. It was used until 1945 when it had to be changed due to an Allied Control Commission decree, where the swastika had to be abandoned due to the symbol's association with Nazism. Thanks for looking //Fred