Search the Community

Greetings! Now that the beautiful F-16 is being replaced by the less beautiful F-35 within the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu, Royal Netherlands Air Force) my thoughts went back to the late 1970s, when the beautiful F-16 replaced the even more beautiful F-104. When the purchase was final the official magazine of the KLu, 'De Vliegende Hollander', published an F-16 special in 1977: As I pulled this copy off the bookshelf again, an article I had long forgotten about caught my eye. It describes ('especially for modelers') what the F-16 in Dutch service would look like. I won't translate the text, but you can see from the illustration that the initial camouflage pattern is quite different from what it eventually became! However, as you might know KLu F-16's eventually got the somewhat boring three-tone grey scheme. The reason is that the grey and green paint, applied to the NF-5, caused a lot of trouble (corrosion, for example) and to avoid more mishap the grey scheme was chosen instead. I thought it would be fun to build a model in the original scheme, and to capture the zeitgeist even better I purchased a 1980 Italeri kit. Apparently, Italeri also didn't yet know exactly what this new fighter jet was going to look like, as the instructions are rather basic. No proper colour codes for example, just 'light grey' (twice?!)... I found the correct camouflage pattern and colours in this brilliant book. However, just when I wanted to start I came across a kit from Revell, who somewhat prematurely released an F-16 in the grey-green scheme back in 1977! I could remember this box, as a 15-year-old I had held it in my hands many times but never bought it, and this time I could not resist the temptation. The contents are rather to my liking, to be honest of a better quality than the newer Italeri kit: Now, it is my intention to make the Italeri kit like the illustration in De Vliegende Hollander, i.e. from the Leeuwarden 322/323sqn pool, wheels retracted, on a stand, and the Revell kit standing on tarmac, from 312 sqn, to honour the last squadron within KLu still flying this wonderful machine. To be continued! Rob

After not finishing a flippin' thing last year, I finished my semi-stalled Swedish J-22A in January, and now as part of a dual build of Eduard's new Royal Class boxing of the early Fw.190As, I've finished the European one (option D on the sheet). I added a resin cockpit (A3), bronze gear legs and resin wheelie-pops, and painted her with Gunze paints for the most part, covered with a few coats of the AKAN Flat Varnish, which I'm quite fond of these days Bada-bing! Now I've just got to polish off the Trop (option N on the decal sheet), and you can see both being built up here if you're interested. I could use the encouragement for the Trop, as it's going to be getting a little dio base of a bit of desert hard-standing, while the mechanics jack up the tail to pop off the prop. I've got issues with the base warping, and I've got some of the equipment inbound still, so delays might be the order of the day and I'll need some encouragement! Thanks for watching, and do try the veal

First AFV build for quite some time. Need to start making stash inroads, so I put this together over the last few days. Trumpeter E-10 panzerjager pretty much OOB with the Voyager etch set and a couple of added details. I gave up on German subjects a few years back, and I'm not really a fan of Paper Panzers but I've always found the shape of the E-10 and E-25 attractive - if an AFV can ever be described as "attractive". I was going to do a double build with the E-25, but ended up doing the E-10 on its own: E-25 next. A bit of creative/artistic licence, being something that never existed anyway. I got hold of the Schatton 1/32 gun barrel for the 5cm Bordkanone aircraft gun, thinking that the Germans might finally have cottoned-on to APDS and fitted E-10 with the BK5 with a 3-round burst autoloader. But putting that in an elevating and traversing mount would have been problematic. Then I measured the barrel against the RB Models PaK 39 and discovered the diameters were pretty much identical. So the concept became higher-powered ammunition derived from the longer-barrelled KwK 42 which needed a good muzzle brake: muzzle bored out to 7.5cm. There was no splash protection for the driver's periscopes or the sighting telescope, so I added some. There is also a massive shot trap and weak spot under the mantlet so I added some field-improvised applique plates. Looking at the Hetzer at Bovington today that had the same weakness under the mantlet. There are a few things still to do. I will be using the Voyager mesh schurzen, suitably damaged. The Trumpeter solid etched ones were curled up anyway. Their mounting brackets need bolt heads. I'm waiting for some workable track links as the kit ones are rubbish: riddled with mould lines bordering on flash and pin marks on every link. I'm also waiting for some Panzer Art resin fire extinguishers: I gave up on trying to make one from fat plastic rod and the Voyager etched parts. Apart from that I'm calling it done. During this build I discovered a few things. I do not possess the level of insanity (or eyesight or dexterity!) needed to make up multi-part etched brass tool clamps from parts I can hardly see and which require some bends a fraction of a millimetre wide I have a very low frustration threshold My command of the English vernacular is greater than I believed possible .............. On another site I'd seen recommendations for using "acrylic glue" for etched brass - the sort of thing beauticians would use for attaching false nails. It's also called Alpha Cyanoacrylate: I don't know the chemical differences. It's dirt cheap on eBay, and I got a couple of types in dropper and brush bottles. And I have to say I like it. You get a bit of wiggle time before the glue sets, but it does dry all too quickly if you're a bit slow positioning. It holds well - I didn't knock a single piece off during handling - and you don't get the white marks you sometimes get with conventional super glues. But you do get glue set marks to remove if you're a little too liberal with it.

Here we go on this year's second project and my first WIP outside of a group build. Just to keep things easy for myself I'm going for two at once. I picked up the spitfire/messerschmit 110 dogfight double cheap in a sale a couple of years ago before I realised I already had the same spitfire in 1/48. However, just after the new year I saw the mk1/mk2a kit on sale and realised I could just do both using the decals and bits from both. Besides, when are there ever enough spitfires? Love that box art. Hate doing the split black/white underside though. The all important raw materials. Identical kits with the all important extra sprue on the end and the differing canopies up top. If we've not met, hello and welcome in, just be aware I'm not a big accuracy guy, this is all for fun for me. This won't be big on new or clever techniques though tips and tricks are always welcome. I've discovered if I do a WIP I tend to go along at a better pace. This weekend we break plastic! Though hopefully not literally.

Hi guys. It's been a long and bumpy road for what seemed like such a simple build. Myself and Tony "The Baron" decided that it might be fun to do a dual build of this wonderful jet in two different types, two different scales and two different countries. The threads can be found here. The 1:72 Matchbox NF 14 build of "The Baron" http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235002360-the-dual-build-diaries-a-meatbox-apocalypse-172-edition/ The 1:48 Tamiya F1 Prototype DG202/D http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235002363-the-dual-build-diaries-a-meatbox-apocalypse-148-edition/ We had done the same thing once before with our first swordfish builds, that time however by total chance. This time there was still no real plan other than to have a jolly old time of it and hopefully egg each other on and hopefully end up at the finish line at roughly the same time. To be fair Tony got there first but bless his cotton socks he waited for me to catch up before posting his RFI which incidentally can be found here. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235004482-meteor-dual-build-the-matchbox-172-one/ My 1:48 kit was bought by chance from ebay after reading about the "Meteor F1 Prototype DG202/D" from Cosford. As you all probably know the story I'll not go into too much detail. This original kit was taken from that jet with it's wings from the later F3 added to the kit to much dismay from the baying crowd. Due to an accident while in storage the original F1 one wings without air brakes were destroyed. Unknown to the Tamiya guys this short first run went out with the right/wrong wings, it was however fixed in the kit a few months later. I loved the story so much I wanted to build the Cosford jet with F3 wings. Alas the one I got from the bay was a fixed variant without air brakes, but If you followed the WIP you will know how that story panned out. AAAAAAny way you don't want to hear me waffling, We are a bit picture heavy but what the hey that's what an RFI is all about right. Ladies and gentlemen The Tamiya 1:48 Meteor Prototype DG202/D ( or as near as damned as I can get in the time allocated ) I hope she is up to scratch, my first ever Jet and definitely not my last. And there we are. She was built in around a month with extras including the Eduard PE set, belts and cockpit bits. I scratch built the wheel well struts and pipes and did extra scratch detail on the Wellands and engine bays. Paints were mainly Tamiya with some Vallejo Duraluminium as its better than Tamiya metals. The weathering was done with Flory weather washes. I have had a hoot making this in conjunction with Tony and Maybe one day if we're CrAzY enough we will do another dual build. Thank you for taking the time to scoot through my mammoth amount of pics and if you enjoyed and followed our WIPs thanks for your input / interest. Iv'e said it before but it's true. It's an honour to be part of such a thriving community and the feedback and lovely words given during a WIP build is half the fun. Any hoo its late and I'm pooped. Thank you once again for looking and I hope you enjoyed this here " The Dual build Diaries - A Meatbox Apocalypse " 1:48 and 1:72 edition. Happy Modelling to you all and take care y'hear. John