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Hi guys! Here's my next project, Italeri's Mirage IIIE with aftermarket decals to paint it as an Argentinian machine. The decals I'll be using are Condor Decals 48054. The Italeri kit comes with the extended fairing for the empennage as a not for use piece, but I'll use it to make this kit as a IIIEA. I'll be painting this aircraft as I-007. I'll also be my first three coloured camouflage aircraft. Paints to be used will be RLM 79, 71 and 70 for the upper surfaces, and white for the lower surfaces. I'll be picking up the kit this Friday, so pics of the contents will be posted on Friday's afternoon. Photo of the real machine. As you can see, it doesn't have the yellow rudder shown in the profile of the decal sheet.

Having made a Norwegian Starfighter, Danish registered SAS Caravelle and Swedish Saab Draken for the previous Nordic GB, I decided it was time for a subject with a Finnish leaning and thought that this would be something different to my usual aircraft builds. It will also rekindle memories of time spent trudging along forest tracks on cold November days back in the 1970's to watch Scandinavian drivers teach us how to drive on the Special Stages of the Lombard RAC Rally. Anyway, here are the box and contents photos of my subject choice, but it will be a short while before I start the build because I have to finish a few others first. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr Cheers. John

I needed a break from grey RAF fighters! The ETPS schemes are always a nice change. Here's the old Italeri 1/72 kit with a slightly hybrid livery - I don't think XX145 was ever in this (newer?) version of the scheme, but if she's ever restored and repainted, who knows! Mostly built OOB but with a little aftermarket etch from Eduard, and resin seats and wheels (can't remember where from though, as I started the build ages ago). Decals were from the Air Decal "Raspberry Ripple" sheet which I found on eBay, over Hataka Red Line acrylic airbrushed paints. I'm not sure if the various shortcomings in fit and finish are from the kit or my lack of skill, although it was certainly much more of a struggle than the last kit (the fantastic Airfix GR9). Don't peer too closely! Thanks for looking (from a distance). And with a previous T.2 (Hasegawa kit)...

My second Tomcat is the Italeri 1990 boxing of their 1988 moulding and is for a low-vis F-14A Plus, later re-named the F-14B and is a far simpler kit than the Fujimi one - not that many stencils but I do have a Microscale/Superscale decal sheet of low-vis stencils for the F-14 if needed. I will probably have a lot of spares if anybody wants them! Again, more when I start. Pete

Hello everyone, I'm venturing into uncharted waters here, normally being a landlubber over in the AFV section where I'm half through a Mercedes-Benz L 4500 truck build. While mulling over cargo options, I briefly considered a S.L.C. "Maiale" as 'somethings a bit different' but thought it would be too long and too, well, 'torpedoey', to be feasible. But then I stumbled across the following which got the old cogs turning... Early in the video we see a 'truncated' "Maiale" separated from it's warheads... The warheads subsequently being bolted onto the 'nose'... Hmmm, interesting. The "Maiale" sans warhead would probably fit onto the truck bed quite nicely, and the detached warhead(s) could then sit alongside, something like this with some rearrangement... It's a total flight of fancy with no evidence that they ever put one of these things on a truck, but why not? The decision was made, let's have a "Maiale" cargo! I knew that Italeri did a nice 1/35 Siluro a Lenta Corsa (S.L.C - Italian, Low Speed Torpedo) also known as "Maiale" (Italian for pig, hence the topic name). I didn't know, however, that the kit is discontinued and so a bit tricky to get hold of. I did eventually managed to acquire one... I won't go into too much detail on the kit contents as there are several reviews available elsewhere. Suffice it to say that the kit is quite simple, being contained on a single sprue, with the warhead(s) already separated from the main body of the Pig (which needless to say is very useful for what I plan to do - result!)... The kit also contains a small etch fret, some diver figures (probably won't be used), and a booklet giving additional information and a pretty comprehensive set of photos (which is a very nice touch)... I've made a cursory start on the build by starting a tidy of the welders mask front shield. Holes were drilled in the shield roof as indicated in the instructions, using small moulded depressions as a guide. The shield walls are far too thick, looking like they are fashioned from substantial armour plate. Some thinning will be needed here, which will unfortunately result in the shield interior detail being lost (not a bad thing given the ejector mark and general untidiness of the interior)... The shield should be thin plate similar to this photo grabbed from the kit booklet... After some scraping, sanding, sanding and scraping things start to look a bit better. I'll leave it to you to work out which side has been worked on in this before/after comparison shot... I need to be a bit wary though as the plastic is starting to get a tad thin... A quick word of warning before I sign off - there may be the odd truck picture appearing in this thread! I'll try to keep these to the minimum, but if you want to venture over to the 'dark side' and see more, the parallel truck build can be found here.,.. Cheers, and thanks for looking, Paul.

Hi all another model from old Italeri mold finished. Yes, there are a lot better F-16s on the market, but those are still worth to be done, as at the end represents this nice plane quite fine (with all existing flaws....but) I wanted to do this colorful version for a long time, and now it is done. I tried to do small corrections, like drilling intake duct and make it deeper, adding cockpit details, relocate horizontal tail surfaces to more correct position....and some other minor details. Colors are AK, with minimal weathering as i wanted to have this one clean as possible in balance with beautiful tail decal. Not to bother you more, i hope you will like it, best regards, Djordje

Hi All after long time not making models, again got some free space to finish one. I planned to do this version of MIG for a long time, as it really differs with its crazy non standard colors. As i understand information from the web, this plane was shown in fresh colors to ‎Kim Jong-un for one of his birthday, with interesting detail, text under cockpit in red squares. Model is old Italeri, with some upgrades: riveted surfaces (quite visible on mig-s, replaced nose cone, replaced models intake covers with new made from plastic, added details in cockpit. Colors AK acrylics...mixed to get closest as possible to real thing, decals Dream Model. Very light weathering as i can not imagine that somebody leave dirt on plane during visit . So it is finished, i do not like MIG in this colors, but i am happy with overall look of this old mold. Till next post, wish you all happy modeling time. And at the end, compare image with referent photo from the net:

In 1977 the Finnish Air Force ordered 50 Hawk Mk 51 trainers to replace the already obsolete Fouga Magister and Saab Safir ones. In the 1990's 25 more Hawks were purchased bringing their total number In the FAF's service to 75 planes. The Hawks are estimated to stay in service till the 2030's. In order to build the Finnish version of the Hawk I bought the Italeri Red Arrows Hawk kit in 1/48 scale (it was molded in bright red plastic). The quality of the kit was allright, but didn't reach the tamigawa level, though. The nose of the plane needed surprisingly much weight, some 50 grams, to prevent the model from being a tail sitter. For the cockpit I bought a FAF photoetch detail set sold by the Finnish manufacturer Kuivalainen. To replace the over sized pitot tube of the kit I ordered a Master Model brass tube. The decals for the Finnish Hawk are from the sets of Gal-decals and Avalondecals. I added the orange day-glow stripes to the tail from a Microscale sheet (the stripes were used for marking the adversary planes in combat exercises), I also scratched a lot of details, antennas, etc. that were seen in the Finnish Hawk versions. Unfortunately, the kit didn't include missile pylons that I would have liked to add to the model. For the FAF camouflage I used the following paints: Light Bronze Green FS24151 (Xtracolor Interior green, nro X117) Very Dark Drab FS24064 (Xtracolor Braunviolett, nro X210) Light aircraft grey FS26440 (Xtracolor Light Gull Grey, nro X137) The landing gear, the wells and the doors I painted with Revell's light grey SM371. For smaller details I also used Vallejo acrylics and Humbrol/Revell enamels.

Russia 1943

This is one of those extremely rare occasions that I have known what I want to build for a GB since before it got through the bunfight, I usually end up building something completely different from what I intended after going through several changes of mind. Right from the start the Henschel Hs-126 was the front runner in the stash and the colour scheme was going to be either from a land of snow or sand, and snow has won. ICM first released their very nice 1/48 Hs-126 in 2010 and It was released in boxings for the A and B versions, then about a year or so later it was released by Italeri with the options of both A and B from the same box (at least that is what it claims) and with a very nice decal sheet for 7 versions which actually made it quite difficult for me to decide what to build as I like a few of them, especially the Condor Legion and Greek ones, fortunately I think I have another one in the stash somewhere. Anyway lets start with the usual box top and whats in it shots shall we; Rather nice box art actually. The as yet untouched parts still in their plastic bag; And the 6 other schemes offered by Italeri other than the option on the box top; And the very nice looking decal sheet that comes with the kit; I have a couple of references that I shall be using for this build; Now those of you that know me or pop into my builds will know that I have a liking for a temporary Winter camouflage scheme and the Luftwaffe were kind enough to oblige by painting a fair few of these in such schemes from their service on the Russian front, such as the one on the front of the Aufklarer book on the right. And that aircraft is shown in the book with a nice clear picture to back up the profile; So that is the one I am going to try to reproduce, assuming I can find the correct size and style of code letters in the decal stash. I have a Helldiver to get either finished or very close to finishing before I can make a start on this one which will prove difficult as I really want to get started on this as I have been looking forward to it for a long time. Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received. Craig.

Finnair and Flybe had a joint operation for Nordic area's regional traffic from 2011 to 2015. Their fleet in Flybe's livery consisted of several ATR 72-500 turboprops. After the co-operation ceased Finnair have continued to use the planes under the brand name of "Norra". As to Flybe, they filed for bankruptcy in May, 2020 but I've heard rumours that they will return to the skies later on this year financed by the investment fund Cyrus Capital. However, I don't know whether it's true. My model was a very tough kitbashing project mating the longer fuselage and wings of F-RSIN's ATR-72 kit with Italeri ATR-42's engines, propellers, landing gears and wheels. The decals for the plane I ordered from 26Decals. There was lots of puttying and sanding to be done and at some point I got so tired of the job that I almost threw the whole thing to the bin. Finally I made it and the outcome could be worse. Had I, however known how difficult the project was going to be I probably would have skipped it and decided to wait for a new ATR 72-500 kit. I primed the whole plane with Mr. Surfacer 1000. For the white areas I used Tamiya Fine Surface primer which I then varnished with Tamiya clear gloss TS-13. The underside of the Flybe livery is blue and in my eyes the closest shade was Revell enamel paint nr. 50. I also scratched quite a lot of details to the model and used Vallejo acrylics and Humbrol/Revell enamels for the smaller parts.

Hello Here are a couple of 1/72 Grumman Hellcats from Italeri. This is not the best kit of this aircraft but I bought some of them when the price was very cheap. First is the F6F-5 of VBF-20 CO's aircraft in 1946. The decals came from the Blackbird BMD72012 sheet. Next is an F6F-5K from VU-1 with many colours on. When the decals were in place I discovered a nice picture of this aircraft and I saw that the wing tips were deeper. I could not modified the kit. Decals came from an old Hasegawa box. I started building both kits last year and this is the reason why I did not insert them in the Hellcat GB. Patrick

Hi Folks! After I bought this kit I realized the tons of info and reviews written about the legendary Hurricane on 1/48 scale (thanks Troy!). However, I decided to give it full throttle to the Italeri kit, as a challenge for my amateur skills. And boy the beginning was tough! Cockpit assembly (with the add of a spare Tamiya pilot) was a violent skirmish, but the Force prevailed. Thanks Obi-Wan! Fuselage and wings needed a generous amount of putty... but after that, everything went very smooth. And -the most important thing- I ended up quite happy with the results. Well, enough talking. Here are the photos of the Hurricane P 2923, No. 85th Squadron, VY R, September 1940. PS: Oh, I know the spinner colour was black and the edge of the wings were painted Sky... but I gave to myself some historical permissions. Hope nobody gets annoyed. Cheers and happy modelling, Cris.

I suppose I have built 2 109F previously, the first being the original Airfix 109 which was later renamed 109F but was a bit of a mess, and about 10 years later the Frog F which I still have. Ihave always felt that the Friedrich was a little under-represented so when Italeri brought out their kit in the mid 1990's I bought 2 of them though I have since seen review suggesting that the F and related G have accuracy problems - nothing new there! I intend to build at least one, possibly in a slightly unusual Russian theatre scheme of brown and green, and maybe another in normal Western European colours. The kit comes with the options of an F-2 of JG26 (Galland?) in France in December 1941, an F-4 of JG2 also in France in June 1942 and an F-4/Trop of JG27 in North Africa in September 1942. If anybody knows what is supposed to be wrong with the kit by all means let me know and I may even try and improve it. Pete

Here is my contribution to the group build. I have finally got around to building aircraft that I have worked on during my RAF career. During my tour out in Germany, at RAF Gutersloh, I worked in the Radar/Comms/Recce Bay and part of my duties was to download and replenish the camera systems of several NATO aircraft types, including Dutch F-16s that visited Gutersloh. This was known as Exercise Ample Gain, which was an ongoing training exercise in the 80's to train for the possibility of the Russian horde decided to invade Europe - Gutersloh was one of the nearest NATO air bases to the East German border and so would be the place where aircraft would refuel and rearm etc. Every year I would go to the RNLAF air base at Volkel (306 Sqn) to be retrained which was great fun! I picked the Italeri NATO Fighter boxing as it contains decals for a 306 Sqn aircraft, which was the sqn I trained with, and luckily, DACO Products make a 1/48 Orpheus pod (they actually supply two in the pack so if anyone else is after one I am sure we could come to some arrangement) so I can reproduce one of the aircraft that I possibly worked on (I didn't keep tail numbers! 😊. I normally replace the seat with a resin one and use Eduard's Cockpit Zoom set but this is the first time I have bought a resin exhaust. Looking forward to starting this very soon. Mick

The most advanced fighter jet in the world - the Israeli Air Force F-35I Adir (which means Mighty One!) The F-35 is my favourite aircraft currently in existence - I bought this kit shortly after its appearance and have been waiting for an opportunity to crack into a decent build. The time has come! You don't see many of these so here's the full box tour: First of all - it's very big! that's an 18" wide mat the fuse halves are sitting on. There's some nice surface detail around the panels but the rest of the airframe is creamy smooth! Interior detail doesn't slouch either: Engine and full intake trunking with thinly cast guide vanes and engine detail - this will not be visible, of course There are two sprues of weapons, bay details and door hinges: The pylons are also included for Beast Mode, which I will of course be using! Again some nicely moulded details with a bit of flash clean up required. More interior: Weapons bays, doors and wheelwell interiors, no need for aftermarket here. While the details aren't superfine, they are interesting enough and should come up well under paint and washes. The stabilizers are much better engineered than the Kitty Hawk version (thank god!!) as are the tailfins below: Again the wings have some decent moulded details with a very smooth finish everywhere else. Clear parts are tinted and the canopy is seam free: Some PE parts are included along with some glossy masks for the RAM panel taping: Won't be needing those so much for painting but the taped areas are distinctly flatter in finish than the baked-on RAM coating. Instructions are clear and well-printed on an A4-sized landscape booklet: Decals are also nicely printed, include most stencils and knowing Italeri's recent releases, should go down very well. So that's what's in the box. Of course I had to get a few more bits to push the boat out a bit more...! Eduard Big Ed, not particularly expensive or overstuffed with details, but the cockpit looks very nice, if it was the right colour Also have a set of new resin wheels by Reskit and Eduard Brassin GBU-39 SDBs (new capability for the IAF's F-35s) Unfortunately I also spent a relative fortune (almost £30!) on these very disappointing decals - only stencils and serials for 140 Golden Eagles Sqn. I hoped it would have both squadrons included but astonishingly IsraDecal released the 116 Lions of the South Sqn set as a separate set for the same price. I was hoping to do the aircraft flown by 116 Sqn's deputy CO, 'Captain S.' (the only woman currently flying the F-35I): but they can get stuffed if they want another £30 out of me for the 4x lion decals alone Anyway...I'll be building this over a period of months, so it's a long-term project for me. While I know the aircraft isn't everyone's cup of tea, it certainly is mine and you're welcome to join in the fun! Cheers Alan

Some sharks

Hello to all of you guys and girls.I have finished the old Italeri F-117A as a quick and pleasure build.The kit itself its quite nice and the fit is really good.I have rescribed the panel lines.I did add some simple cockpit details like some knobs and seatbelts.The decals used are for the only f-117a to be lost in combat and the decals came from balkan models set for the downed ac over yugoslavia.I have made a video build that I have posted on my youtube chanel so if interested feel free to look it up on the following link. Regards,Dragan

Hello guys.This one I built OOB for a customer of mine.The fit is not the best but not the worst I have seen.The plastic is a bit soft but it is easy to sand.The panels are pretty shallow and wide but with a light pass of the rescribing tool can be made much deeper and able to hold a wash.I painted it in ak interactive colors and the clear varnishes are from vallejo. Enjoy the photos .

Here is my latest diorama, showing a JU-87B at Caen in France during August 1940. The aircraft is from Italeri, Kubelwagen and 2 figures from Tamiya and the rest of the figures are from ICM. Hope you like it, and all comments welcome

This is one of two entries for this GB. I built this kit twice back in the early 1980s from the original ESCI boxings, one as a Flammpanzer III, the other as the M. At he time, I never got the kit of the M/N with the side and turret "skirts". The Italeri kit is the M/N version, including the extra sprue with the armour skirts and mounts, as well as the 75mm L/24 barrel, mantlet and other details. It also has the "hard" tracks introduced in the ESCI/ERTL era. The tracks are for the Panzer IV, and have to be cut to size for the Panzer III.

Here is my take at two Vietnam Huns. Pretty straightforward builds using the Italeri kits with a bit of Eduard PE in the cockpits. As both kits only come with a closed canopy, I cut off the respective windscreens and built the canopy actuators from scratch. On the F-100F, I added the appropriate antennae under the nose/belly and on the tail fin, while drilling out the cooling intake on the tail, to portray one of the early Wild Weasels. I added a Shrike missile (which was typically carried on the port in-board position) and rocket launchers from the spares box (I believe from Italeri's A-10). The F-100D was armed with Hasegawa Mk.82s and M-117s from the kit (with some leftover fuse extenders). I also used a Taurus vacform canopy on this one, to correct the wrong Italeri canopy. Decals are from Caracal, with markings for: - F-100D no. 55-2932 “Nashville Sound”, 90TFS 3TFW, Bien Hoa AB (Vietnam), ca. 1968 - F-100F no. 58-1226, 614TFS 35TFW, Korat RTAFB (Thailand), December 1965 For the fun of it, I used two different sets of paint: the F-100D is finished in Gunze paints, for the F-100F I used Vallejo's colours for the first time. Enjoy the pics! Patrick Credits background picture: designed by Freepik, photo by jannoon028: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/clouds-sunset-mountains_986559.htm

With I’d gone for the Revell like my son did, shape looks better and crisper mouldings than these Italeri methinks. I’m not great with 1/72 so just a bit of fun with an unrealistically close pairs landing. Made & painted 6m apart hence different paints used & different shades. Eduard ASRAAMs on each, and put I pilot in each... PJ Productions I think? Thanks for looking.

In 1940 the Me321 Gigant transport glider was hastily designed for Operation Sealion, the invasion of England. It could accommodate 200 troops or 22 tonnes of cargo. Initially three Bf110s were required with rocket assistance, to achieve take-off. Later the Ju290A-1 or He111Z proved more practical. The Me323 was a development from the Me321, designed to overcome the problem. Ing Degel utilised captured French Gnome-Rhone 14N radial engines and the six-engined D variant was developed. The D-1 could carry 120 troops, 60 stretcher cases or equivalent cargo. It was an invaluable supply transport on the Eastern front but suffered heavy losses working between Italy and Tunisia. Transportgeschwader 5 prepare to supply an Sd.Kfz 9 – 18t heavy recovery vehicle to the Russian Front in the Me 323 Gigant. 1943.

Here is my 1/72 Italeri Lockheed Hercules C5, ZH883 of 47 Sqn, RAF Brize Norton from 2016. Built OOB using the Xtracolor decals set for the '50 Years' of Hercules operations. The only whitling that was done was moving the position of the prop blades to the feathered position as they would be normally on the ground, from the fined in flight position for flight as they are in the kit. Painted with Xtracolor enamels, mainly NATO Green with some white and blacks added to try and get the change in shades that are evident on the real aircraft. Maybe not an exact match but I don't think it's come out too bad. It's a large model so doesn't fit into the cabinet 🙄, didn't realise that the wing span was so large. Photo's not great as were taken on my iPhone.