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My latest efforts are here for inspection. Both are from the Kinetic GR1/3 boxing, but with considerable tweaks. XV810 20 Sqn XX is a GR1A/3 from Wildenrath around 1975 – it still had the 4kVA generators but I’m not sure if the engine was still a Pegasus 102 or had been updated to a 103 at that stage. Engine, generators and laser nose were separate mods, carried out over several years. XV738 4 Sqn B from Gutersloh is in the early 1984 Trial Matchcoat scheme. The cockpit of XV810 is in private hands – I was kindly given access last year while researching another project. The background of these is that I have wanted to build a good model of XV738 in the Matchcoat scheme for several years, but my previous effort fell foul of a paint problem. I had used Xtracolour Dark Sea Grey, but the end result came out too dark and a little too brown. It did not look right so it went back to the shelf of doom. I also stalled building a 1/24 Harrier, again as I did not like the colours that I used – that model is on the SOD also. I had done some 3D printing when making the 1/24 model , and decided to modify the parts to 1/48. These were going to be quick builds, then AMS set in… The following modifications were done, in addition to the usual minor changes needed to the Kinetic Harrier (tailplane pivot points, upper RCS nozzles, engine access panel shape, wing leading edges etc): I added 3D printed partial engines and engine compartment, with XW810 having the early generator config and XV738 the later single 12kVA genny. I taught myself to model the pipework in Freecad en route. New bell intake and fan. This goes with the engine and the engine bay details. The APU inlet and exhaust almost line up with the fuselage... For XV810, I used the Kinetic forward intake, modified with milliput and plasticard to get the interior detail accurate. That took a week. For XV738 I drew up a 3d model and printed it – much easier! XV810’s cockpit used the Kinetic parts with Quinta decals – they are pretty accurate, but for XV738 the tub and nose wheel bay were 3D prints derived from the set I built for the 1/24 model. The ejection seat was a 3d print – not as good as some commercial ones but I had drawn a 1/24 one so decided to use that. I’m not totally sure on the accuracy of the Quinta ejection seat straps, but decided to use them in any case. There were very significant differences in strap configuration over the Harrier’s life. The undercarriage bays on XV810 were left closed, but on XV738 I drew up 3d models and used these. The main bay is pretty accurate, but the nose bay is much simplified – one look at the hydraulics in the real thing will show why! For XV810, I decided to do something different, and built it with a war load of Matra M116 SNEB pods. This load was not flown in peacetime, but was sometimes loaded for VIP visits. Finding details of the 115 pods and the twin store carriers was difficult, and there a few guesses were involved! The Airfix 1/24 TSCs are very simplified, but about the right size and shape so I used those and a blurry advert from the manufacturer. The SNEBs used some photos of the pods, and a French internet article for dimensions. I then needed to draw new pylons, as the Kinetic ones had problems and would not fit the SNEB adapters! Dimensions were taken from a Sea Harrier at the local (to me) FAAM, noting that the Sea Harrier inboard pylons were slightly different to the RAF one. The overall result is a slightly different early RAFG Harrier. For XV738 I wanted to build it in late recce role fit with Phimat and acquisition AIM-9L. The Phimat came from Eduard, but the acquisition round was 3d printed as was the recce pod. Just when I thought I had had enough of 3d modelling for a while, I realised that the Kinetic outriggers were too tall, giving a tail-high sit to the model. So I bit the bullet and drew up some outriggers (the main and nose tyres were already 3d prints, dimensions from various tyre catalogues). The new outriggers gave a better sit, at the penalty of having to shorten the main gear leg a bit. I used SMS paints for the first time on this build, partly as a trial before returning to the 1/24 GR3. I liked the way they sprayed, and could be used for brushing (fixing) small areas. In my view, several of the colours needed a bit of amending – I’ll add a short piece in the paits Forum. Bottom line - I'll use them again and respray the 1/24 Harrier with them. Decals from Kinetic and Xtradecal - by the way, for XV738 the Xtradecal fuselage serials are too small, and the original did not have underwing serials. So there they are: a brace of RAFG single seat Harriers to go with a T4 I built a few years ago. They are not perfect, but I certainly learnt a lot about 3d design. Now I can think of going back to the 1/24 GR3, which will represent XV810 in 1984. I will also be looking for some simpler builds...

My contribution to the GB will be a Royal Danish Air Force F-16AM in Have Glass grey, which I just think looks the business (RDAF photo). The Danes painted their first F-16 in the F-35 style Have Glass grey in 2020 - more here: I'm not sure how many exactly, but a small number of other RDAF F-16s are now in the Have Glass scheme, despite their looming retirement this year (and replacement by the F-35). But the Danish F-16s will fly on, with a batch donated to (and some are already in service in) Ukraine, and Argentina buying 24. My victim will be the Kinetic Gold F-16AM boxing. With a little bit of aftermarket embellishment: I have ended up with two lots of PE for the ejection seat harnesses, as I didn't realise a harness set came with the Eduard Look instrument panel. I also have PE for a block 42 cockpit which I bought just for the side panels, which I'm sure will be correct enough for a F-16AM. And as mentioned in the chat thread I'm also considering an aftermarket exhaust... Decals are on order from Lima November. Will post a pic when then they arrive. Finally, my load out is TBC, but I do like the look of this air defence configuration, with AIM-120s, AIM-9s and a Litening pod. But does anyone do aftermarket PIDS pylons as carried by the Danish F-16s? Plenty of time to work that out, but in the meantime I'm looking forward to making a start this weekend. This promises to be a cracking GB, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's builds take shape. 👍👍 Gerard

Here is my 1:48 Leonardo M-346 Bielik, no 7705, 41 Baza Lotnictwa Szkolnego in Dęblin, Polish Air Force, 2022. Italian M-346s are main aircraft for advanced training in Polish Air Force. Original name of M-346 is "Master", but in Poland the name "Bielik" ("white-tailed eagle" or "bald eagle" in Polish) was adopted for them. Kinetic kit + Yahu PE parts for cockpit + AWC Models resin parts for Polish AF version. Painted with Gunze Mr.Color C series paints. Thanks for watching!

As ever, office first. Usual suspects Quinta, Aires, Eduard got involved as well as a bit of scratch building for good measure. thanks for looking Nick

Πολεμική Αεροπορία 340 Squadron „Fox“ 115 Combat Wing Souda Air Base - Crete F-16C Block 52+

Hi, I have start the Mirage III E of Kinetic in 1/48 with some add-on from Sparkit Models, ejection seat, wheels and exhaust and Syhart decals for special markings. 2 Mirage III E with special markings for the 70 years of the Squadron: Wheels & exhaust: Exhaust painted Ready to join wing and fuselage SPang

hi all. here is my last work. A late swiss version of the Mirage III. The kit is like usual for this serie but i had some extra work to do : the nose is too short ( 7 mm less ) so i had to fix that. The exhaust nozzle is really poor compared to the Reskit one... the main landing gear is too short for the Reskit wheels, another fix to do. The interior is not bas but has to be improved. The ejection seat is false, has to be modified too. Some extra fuel tank from PJ production and missile from Reskit. now the pics. first the real one : l and my model : hope you like her.

Built this one a while ago. Kinetic F-18C kit. Terrible fit issues, especially around the nose area and engine intakes (hence the covers) Extras used: Aires Aces ejection seat and Exhausts nozzles, Eduard PE set, Res-kit wheels,Cam-Pro decals and HGW RBF tags. Painted with MRP Paints, weathered with combination of Mig and Abteilung oils.

Everyone has their first childhood memories of the News, the Taskforce returning to Port is mine. I was 4 years old when the Falklands campaign happened. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Harrier GR3, so thought I’d give on a bash for this GB and there was a rear link Sgt in one of my units that had transferred from the Scots Guards who was on Mt Tumbledown during the battle as a GPMG gunner which gave me sortie profile. I was able to get a copy of a crib that was put together by Nick Greenall of the Harrier SIG for the Kinetic kit. i picked up a couple of Paveway II’s that were used on the sortie, smart munitions weren’t used extensively in the conflict mainly due to battery reliability for the ground designation kit so I’ve been told. I will get some pictures of the kit over the weekend as it’s currently in the loft, a first view of the kit it looks very nice and even I should make a reasonable job of it.

Mirage 2000N ,soon work done on the office under 25% I hope . thats it so far looking forward to the build , Wellzy

Guys, while I do have some other kits running (or, honestly, just resting a bit), I'm turned into a cold war state of mind due to whatever reasons (maybe because of snow and dark weather here, so this city looks much like the dark and grey Vienna I remember from my childhood days in the seventies). So, to fulfill these dark desires I plan to work this gloomy mood of into the Kineti Starfighter I have in my stash. The starfighter is a plane that has always interested me a lot, not only because of it's pure design, also of course of it's twisted history especially in German service - I still can remember stories about it in the news even here in Austria, when another one has crashed (much lesser in the seventies, though), and tales that atomic plants here are build to a standard, that it would withstand the force of a plane with the mass of a starfighter crashing into it. This plane has a fascination on me and I also would like to dig into history of it, even more so than I usually do. So, I plan to do an early F104G, so with the infamous C2 seat, and have already ordered the usual Eduard Brass for it as well as a Löök set (are there any heavy metal fans involved in the naming conventions here?). So far I found out the while the plastic parts for the early seat are included in the kit, in the manual it is not covered, and while Kinetic was very fast and helpful in answering some questions via facebook, there still are some questions. So, I started researching and ordering stuff. And yes, I came across Danny Coleman's site and ordered his Decal set as well as the pictoral guide, as I do lack some information, especially on the early seat. But, my guess is, this will not be my last "Witwenmacher"... This of course will be before the backdrop of the "Starfighter-Affäre" from these times and the planes abilities and disadvantages, and I do hope for some input from the experts here. Also I expect to learn about this here as well. I will post some pictures soon, as I have already started with the seat, but for now I'm still wondering about which livery and specific plane to go for. With the early seat option is between two schemes, one is the regular Norm 62 splinter scheme of the planes in service then, which was for both the Marine and Jagdbomber, and a bare metal look, which was in use on some occasions mainly outside of regular service. So, at this very stage all your ideas and thoughts are welcome, let's see if this topic is of some interest for you.

Hi everyone This is my latest over the line finished last week. Kinetic's newish F-104G Starfighter. A really nice kit and an improvement over the older but still nice Hasegawa kit. The model is built to depict F-104G MM6529 3-01 the CO's a/c of 3 Stormo in the mid 80's. Photo in flight below. The Orpheous pod is taken from the Daco upgrade set for the Hasegawa 104's, the wheels are from Eduard and the bang seat from CMK. Other than that oob. Painted with Hataka Orange line paints on the upper surfaces and the undersides were a mix of Tamiya, Hataka and Gunze to get something close to the grey/aluminium colour. Decals were from Sky Decals. Some minimal weathering was achieved with a Flory Models wash and some oils but in reality this was a well cared for a/c. Thanks to @Giorgio N for help with the colours and other info and also to @RidgeRunner for providing a photo of this aircraft from his collection. Cheers chaps. Anyway, onto the photos. The real thing! Isn't she a beauty! A8F766AA-E728-48A8-8F71-3A92E9FF4944 by James Halls, on Flickr 671C1FF9-CCF8-454E-A0DF-8A34647559F0 by James Halls, on Flickr And my interpretation of her in plastic. 2BE5F1FE-CE9D-4E52-A55F-312B7B86AF10 by James Halls, on Flickr 7079491F-A332-40FA-B3EC-4F218D87F88D by James Halls, on Flickr D5A13D1D-0174-44E0-B2C0-162F61A79AF3 by James Halls, on Flickr AD019B39-DE0B-4498-BADB-519339193677 by James Halls, on Flickr 93A5D1D0-E9AA-4EF6-A5E8-AE0F8ED09B1F by James Halls, on Flickr 3D8FF4B0-C2C9-4E3A-85B1-26AF7A52B963 by James Halls, on Flickr ACCB1CCF-44AE-4231-9B88-A8FB307179E5 by James Halls, on Flickr 2AB7835E-E2BB-4D8D-BE6B-C59EE1632642 by James Halls, on Flickr C9876BF8-FC0D-410E-AFD4-EF86AEA7A36E by James Halls, on Flickr Thanks for looking. Questions and comments welcome as always. James

Here's my Kinetic 1/48 Hornet in a special scheme commemorating the 60th anniversary of NORAD (as seen at RIAT in 2018) using decals from Leading Edge. Built for the Interceptors Group Build - build thread is here. This is my first Hornet since I built the Airfix kit when it was new in 1982. I'm very impressed with the Kinetic kit, it's much better than the older Kinetic kits I've built. The Leading Edge decals were great - it's a very comprehensive set, including masks for the canopy and the white bits of the colour scheme, with separate masks for the Kinetic and Hasegawa kits where necessary, a lot of decals, and very comprehensive instructions including a sheet of walk around photos. Highly recommended! Paints used were Model Master acrylic (no. 4660 is recommended as an exact match in the instructions) for the blue, Scale Modellers Supply white and clear coats, AK Real Colour grey, and AK Extreme Metal for the metallics. Rather pleased with this one, nice way to round out the year. thanks for looking Julian

Quick question for the Harrier/Shar experts out there. After looking at literally dozens of pictures and references, as far as I can tell, after upgrading from FRS1 to FA2 there was no change to the canopy on the Sea Harrier. Could anyone confirm or deny this assumption? Looking at getting another Kinetic FA2, but as I'm a bit kack handed with masking canopies up, I was looking at getting the Eduard masking set, but this has been discontinued, however, the FRS1 set is still available, and looking at the design of the canopies in the kits that I have, they look exactly the same. So it would be just as easy to use the FRS1 set on the FA2 kit😄

Hi Everyone It's been a while since I started something new and I've wanted to have a go at one of the new Kinetic 104's for a while so after picking up this kit on ebay for a good price it wasn't ever going to sit in the stash for very long. The plastic looks very nice in the box. Kind of a combination of the still very nice Hasegawa kit and the Daco improvement set for that kit. i.e no rivets. The plastic actually feels very similar to that in the Daco set. My boxing is the Klu version but any G model can be built. I'll also probably use one or two bits from the above mentioned Daco set for the Hasegawa kit. 64E8E08A-1A54-4055-901F-633CAF29FFA5 by James Halls, on Flickr I've decided to go for an Italian 104 using Sky Decals and thanks must go to @Giorgio N for helping to to narrow down subject matter and quite a lot of other details re AMI Starfighters. This build will be to represent serial number MM6529 3-01 of 134 Stormo around the mid 80's. The aircraft was originally constructed as an F-104G but was converted in 1975 to carry an Orpheous pod. A couple of photos below of 3-01 in all her glory. I'm intending to model her with an Orpheous pod on the centre line pylon as one of 132 Stormo's role was as a recce unit. A8F766AA-E728-48A8-8F71-3A92E9FF4944 by James Halls, on Flickr 671C1FF9-CCF8-454E-A0DF-8A34647559F0 by James Halls, on Flickr I made a start over the weekend and got some paint onto the cockpit parts but no weathering yet. 93D15B15-E93C-495C-9B66-BCC1754FDBD3 by James Halls, on Flickr Martin Baker bang seat, to be painted. C803C8A9-4E07-4BD7-8E9D-684295C63C46 by James Halls, on Flickr The main gear bay painted with Tamiya LP-11. 437C70A4-111C-482F-8AD0-BCAD3556954E by James Halls, on Flickr And the nose gear bay with the same paint. 48047D52-DA0B-4BF6-81B1-BAE1A3B934A8 by James Halls, on Flickr And a shot of the rear fuselage just to show the lack of rivets. 3E6EA7DF-C6BE-4164-BA50-ECF092054281 by James Halls, on Flickr That's all for now. Questions and comments welcome. Thanks James

This build will be of a CF-5D* in the Botswana Defence Air Wing. The aircraft was licence built for the Royal Canadian Air Force before being sold to Botswana. The kit is a Kinetic boxing: Coincidentally, the box art shows a Canadian Freedom Fighter in the same scheme that I will use for the Botswana example. (Possibly the same airframe in earlier days?) AM So far, I have some decals from Aztec And, this is the scheme I'll be aiming for The same aircraft can be seen on the Botswana Defence Force Air Wing Wiki Page - though dusty and seen with a low sun. The decals offer roundels (triangles) for four positions: two for the fuselage, and two as options for the wings. If anybody knows whether Botswana uses wing roundels on this type, I'd be interested to learn - Aztec themselves are uncertain. There is a monograph about the Botswana Defence Force Air Arm (here) that shows a Strikemaster with roundels in typical USAF locations. *Locally designated BF-5, the official Canadian designation of the type was the CF-116D.

Hi everyone, this is my first WIP thread here and its looking like it'll be a big one. Going to be building this with the following Aires ICAP II cockpit Eduard AGM-88B HARM Eduard canopy masks Fightertown decals - VAQ-141 With aid from The Modern Prowler Guide by Jake Melampy I am going to try and challenge myself with this kit, it being my first to use a resin cockpit and I have a few techniques I want to try when it comes to painting and weathering. Every thing together before I dig in. I knew this was a big aircraft but for some reason I didn't expect it to be this big. I'll be building it with wings folded so its not going to be huge but my shelves are definitely running out of space! Heres just a little progress from this evening, mainly getting the resin cockpit to fit before I start working on it, luckily I seem to have gotten the fit pretty good after an hour or so. Off to a good start! More to come soon. Thanks for looking!

I'm building the Kinetic 1/48 Hornet as a CF-188 in a special scheme marking the 60th anniversary of NORAD. So it's an interceptor in a special scheme commemorating its interceptor role! Here's the open box shot and the two bits of aftermarket I'm using - the Leading Edge decals and Eduard steel seat belts: It's a big box with a lot of plastic in it, all of which looks very nicely moulded. The Leading Edge set is more than just a decal sheet - there are three pages of instructions, a page of walk around photos, two sheets of masks, and two sheets of decals. Looking forward to using it. I got to see this Hornet performing at RIAT 2018 the last time I visited the UK - here are a couple of my photos: I've made a start by assembling the cockpit and a few other parts and getting a first coat of paint on it. Not really worth sharing any photos yet but I'll crack on and share more soon. cheers Julian

Sometimes I go a bit bananas over a build.... like in this case This became a somewhat bigger project than I had anticipated and a bit of my folly shines through. My first thought with this kit was that "I will show that any model is buildable" after all the flak this particular kit had recieved I got a bit piggheaded about it. The end product is perhaps not a silk purse sewn from a sows ear...but it´s at least fake silk....or nylon 😛 It was a challenge and to be honest about it, Kinetic didn´t help matters...this kit is crap! It comes with the composite wing, wich I discovered to late to change my mind about the subject I was going to build. I ended up building an early "A" model and I had to convert a "E" kit with a composite wing into an early "A"...it wasn´t really doable without major reconstruction, I went with faking the win gs and that helped a bit. I fixed small details like removing the Chaff/Flare launchers, adding second position lights to the wingtips,moving the belly light to the nose gear door, making covers for the arrestor hook. As for bringing the kit up to snuff I had to ad a bit of aftermarket and scratchbuilding... The list followa: D MOld seamless intakes, wolfpack resin seats, Avionix cockpit, quick boost IFR probe, hypersonic exhausts, Res Kit wheels, Profimodeller turned brass pitot tube, Eduard masks and decals from Furball. I scratchbuilt the boarding ladders and added details to the struts and wheel bays.and used copious ammounts of putty all round 😛 As for the subject, I have a thing for USS Enterprise...so I went with a Early A-model, BuNo 152597 flying with VA-35 Black Panthers on their USS Enterprice cruise 1966-67. The fun thing while looking for references for the kit I came in contact with a gentleman who´s dad had been Squadron leader for VA-35 during that very cruise, his dad had flown the 152597 on numerous missions and I´m very grateful for all the information I recieved. The 152597 was later turned into a KA-6 tanker and ended up as a target drone. Well after all that reading you want pics right? Here they are 😄 Cheers!

Here's a couple of cheeky pics of my recent build, The Kinetic 1/48 BAe Sea Harrier FRS.1 More pics when I've had chance to take some more.... @NG899 Many thanks for all your help Nick..👍

Seeing as I'm going to be getting a bit more modelling time it seems ,I'll join in the gb with this kit ,I'll be painting it in the later grey camo scheme of a recce version , when i bought the kit a while back i also bought a resin pilot and martin baker mk4 resin seat,unfortunately while dry fitting last night it became apparent that these won't even nearly fit the cockpit, so its back to the kit seat ,and with a lack of any aftermarket cockpit pe stuff for the ivp/m it'll be oob , i do have a pe set for my kinetic super etendard,I'll maybe see what is usable, it's a complex fuselage build so I'm going to spend some time making sure sanding is kept to a minimum by dry fitting and building it a little differently from the instructions, theres a couple of options for this scheme in the box

I'm joining in with a Finnish Fouga Magister using the Kinetic 1/48 kit and Kuivalainen decals. I'm going for a quick(ish) build as I'm going to get pretty busy once the In The Navy and Lancaster GBs are going at the same time! Actually started this last Saturday but only just got round to posting. Here's the box and unopened bags of sprue (there are 2 kits in here): And here's where I'm up to. I've kept things simple in the cockpit - just a bit of dry brushing to bring out some of the detail. The jet pipes and intakes have compressor and turbine faces in them, but they really aren't visible. So far so good, although it looks like getting the fuselage together might require some adjustment of the cockpit parts. cheers Julian

It was about time for this to begin. I have been gathering information and photos for so long... Practically have been just postponing the inevitable :-) The project is about building an ICAP II prowler with as much detail as possible. This will also include the two engines exposed. The build will include the following detail sets: EDUARD - EA-6B undercarriege EDUARD - EA-6B Electronic Equipments EDUARD - EA-6B Exterior EDUARD - EA-6B Interior (just bits and pieces) EDUARD - EA-6B Wing Fold (also bits and pieces) EDUARD - EA-6B Cockpit Set (just the seats) WOLFPACK - EA-6B Radar and Avionics Set WOLFPACK - EA-6B Wheel Bay Set AMS Resin - EA-6B Seamless Intakes (maybe) CAM - Jammin' Prowlers, VAQ-130 Zappers To that will be added my scratch built J52 engine in two copies. So, the project started with the engines: Here is the first out of 4 seats: A very long way to go...

G'day everyone. This is my 1/48 Kinetic Harrier T.4 that I completed earlier in the year as part of a Facebook group build. As for aftermarket I used Eduards seat belts, canopy masks and RBF tags. I also used Flightpaths Intake covers for the Sea Harrier. The model was painted with Gunze acrylics. The decals are a mix and match of the kit decals so I could do the specific aircraft I had references of. I am mostly happy with how this one came out apart from one of the canopy parts becoming cloudy after trying to polish out a mould flaw. Cheers, Joel

I was perusing Hannants 'New Arrivals' section this morning while BM was unavailable and I found they now have stock of the Kinetic 1/48 Alpha Jet if anyone fancies one. Andy