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New project. After the miniart Su-76m i needed something "easy" This model offers alot in terms of color modulation and weathering. Feel free to tag along. Grab a chair, and a brew and enjoy.

This is my build of Meng's Jagdpanther G1, with add-ons from their working suspension and workable tracks kit. Painted with Tamiya lacquers, and weathered with oil paints and pigments. This is my first time working with and assembling workable tracks.

HI everyone!🙂 this is my 1/48 F/A-18F super hornet this Meng's kit is very nice,and the decal is good.. my first time building a modern fighter model...tried to apply my accumulated experience and skills to this object as much as possible. I think the result is ok😅 hope you guys like it!

F-106A Delta Dart, 72-502, 101st FIG, Massachusetts ANG, during William Tell 1980 weapons meet. The kit is 1:72 Meng Models and was rather nice kit with good details. You could have built this with missile bay and radar open and comes with extra missilles and a missile carriage but I made this almost closed up to make sure the nice lines are visible. Basically no weathering apart from soft panel line wash to show it's near mint condition (I haven't seen a pic of F-106 in dirty/bad condition). And I thought as it was a plane to be sent for the William Tell weapons meet, it would have likely be seen some extra care before the event. No aftermarket apart from Master pitot tube. Painted with Vallejo acrylics and weathered with Flory Models washes (I made a mix from Grey and Dark Dirt). Decals by Experts-Choice. They were meant for the Hasegawa kit so the fit was not 100%, needed to do some adjustment by painting. Cool thing was that the USAF and U.S. AIR FORCE text are in dark blue as they should be and not black as they are usually printed in the decal sheets. Built for the Century Series GB but missed the deadline. WIP:

As some of you may have seen on the WIP forum, I've been building the Meng E/A-18G Growler - it's been a bit of a battle as there have been a surprising number of issues for a new tool kit. A lot of these issues required a lot of filler, sanding and careful surgery to get a good fit. Honestly I was a little disappointed by the kit even though there were some good parts to it as the fit issues really sucked the joy out of parts of the build. For anyone who wants to relive the troubles, here is the WIP thread: Part way through the build, I decided to swap the scheme and instead of building another grey jet, I chose to build VAQ-129s Centenary of Naval Aviation commemorative Growler: This was easier said than done and launched me down a rabbit hole of blue paints. But, I am finally done, and have the photos to prove it Aside from the kit I used: TwoBobs Centenary of Naval Aviation decals Quinta Studios 3D Cockpit decals Eduard 3D Printed nozzles Eduard wheels Eduard seats Despite all the issues, the end product definitely looks like a Growler! As ever, the Quinta cockpit is an excellent addition to any kit where it is actually visible. Thanks for looking and hope you all like it! Anirudh

In my best Dr Nick impression, Hi Everybody With 1 build completed already this year time to keep the momentum up by starting another one. I have slowly been building my US teen series fighter collection. First, I built the Tamiya F-14D Tomcat, but alas that has quite a few mistakes and is not really that well finished so no photos of that one. However, my F-16 and both F-15s are on here: With an F-14, F-16 and two F-15s in my collection, that leaves only one to go, and there's a reason I've left it till now: I find the F-18 quite boring..... Please nobody throw anything at me I'm not sure what it is, but I can't seem to get all that excited about it for some reason so I've put off building one for a while. However, with the Meng kit taking up space in it's enormous box, now is the time I guess. I chose the EA-18G because I've already built an EA-6B Prowler and this is the successor to that, and I've collected a few cool decal options, but more on that soon. Here's what I've collected: Meng 1/48 EA-18G (LS-014) Eduard Brassin EA-18G ejections seats Eduard Brassin AN/ALQ-99 high band pods (x2) Eduard Brassin EA-18G wheels Quinta Studio EA-18G Cockpit interior 3D decals A pair of TwoBobs decal sets The Meng box is really deep and is pretty stuffed: This is after I have taken out the instructions and datacard thingies that it came with and opened a couple of the bags. And these are the decal options I have: I purchased the top one for my Prowler build then decided I wanted to build a much more weathered Prowler so this didn't get used for that. For this build I actually bought the bottom set mainly because of the Darth Vader themed option. However, after having finished quite a few grey jets I'm leaning towards the blue Growler. This is one of 2 aircraft VAQ-129 painted up for the Centenary of Naval Aviation, alongside the EA-6B. Here's a look at the real things: I think this will hopefully look a bit different in my all grey cupboard (and gives me an excuse to eventually build another Prowler). So that's the plan for the next few months at the desk, and hopefully by the end I'll have a decent EA-18G in the collection. If anyone has any good photos, especially of that particular Growler, please share them, or if you have experience with this kit, I'd love to hear about it. More updates to come!

Hello All, I normally do not venture into the briny side of modelling but made an exception as a 'no pressure try out some more weathering techniques" build. The kit appealed as It is a rapid build snap together kit that has very good fit and engineering. Anyway it was fun to do as something very different for me. Thanks for looking, Happy Modelling, oh by the way, some exceptional stuff here on this thread..... Might have to have a bit of a further go these briny things. Ian

McDonnell Douglas F-4G Phantom II Wild Weasel (LS-015) 1:48 Meng via Creative Models Ltd The Phantom bears a familial resemblance to the F3H Demon due to the origin of the type, which was intended to be a Super Demon with a modular nose for different mission profiles, but in typical military procurement style the world over, the specification was changed completely at the last minute, and resulted in a two-seat, two-engined beast that could carry a substantial war load, a large, effective radar in the bulbous nose, and the workload spread between two crew members to prevent confusion of an overwhelmed pilot in the heat of battle. The type was adopted by the US Navy as the F-4A, and as the F-4C by the Air Force, with a confusing (to me) allocation of letters throughout its career, with more confusion (again for me) when it came to the British airframes, and don’t even mention the engines and other equipment. The F-4C was converted to carry out the Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD) role, or as it was more colloquially known, Wild Weasel, using the powerful radar and semi-recessed radar-guided Sparrow missiles. They would approach enemy missile installations, then loiter until the enemy were tempted to switch on their targeting radar before launching a missile straight down the beam of the enemy radar, even if the target tried to evade destruction by switching off their broadcast. It is a dangerous job akin to waving your red-painted backside at an angry bull*, with a high probability of having any number of missiles hurled in your direction during the course of your mission. The later G variant was created from the F-4E and served in the Gulf War, eventually retiring from service in 1996. * It’s a common misconception that the colour red riles a bull, it’s not true. The Kit This is a brand-new tooling from Meng, and was greeted with some happy faces when it was announced. It arrives in a deep satin-finished top-opening box with a painting of the type carrying pods and weapons, and showing off its cranked wing and anhedral stabilisers at the rear. Inside are eight sprues in grey styrene plus six separate parts to build the airframe, plus another fourteen in the same colour for the weapons. The clear sprue is deeply recessed to accommodate the sliding moulds that depict the blown canopy profile, plus another three smaller clear sprues for clear lenses for missile sensors on this and other versions of the kit. A small bag includes two Photo-Etch (PE) parts that have two swash-plates that have been etched without attachment lugs, so don’t need any clean-up, plus a turned aluminium pitot for the nose. The package is completed by a set of pre-cut and weeded masks on a piece of clear acetate, plus a large decal sheet and colourful instruction booklet printed on glossy paper with colour profiles in the rear. Detail is excellent, as we’ve come to expect from Meng, and the six separate parts are impressive straight from the box, as they test clipped together without glue and the seams just faded away, most of them running along carefully chosen panel lines, which are finely engraved with lots of variations of recessed and raised detail. Construction begins with the cockpit, which starts life as a blank tub that has detail inserts with decals added to depict the side consoles front and rear. A pair of rudder pedals are inserted into the front cockpit, and the two positions are separated by a bulkhead, with another at the rear, plus a floor insert with pedals in the rear ‘pit. Both crew members get an instrument panel and control column, the panels having numerous decals applied after painting, to add realism to the raised and engraved details already present. At the rear of each cockpit a ladder-like launch rail is fitted and an insert is fixed to the right side of the RIO’s seat, although the other sidewalls don’t have any details added. The completed cockpit is inserted into the nose from beneath, then a boxed-in bay with contents is applied to the aperture in the left side of the nose. Moving aft, the insert under the tail is prepared by adding the slotted stabilisers, slotting their tabs through the PE swash-plates as they are applied, with an additional scrap diagram showing them from overhead. They are allowed to pivot by a semi-cylindrical block that fits into the space between the stabs without glue, so that when the insert is offered up to the fuselage and glued in place, they should remain mobile unless you went too heavy with the glue. The auxiliary intakes and landing gear bays are made up from four and three parts respectively and inserted into the lower fuselage/wing part along with the nose gear bay from the inside, which is made from five parts and fixes inside the raised brackets within. The engine intake path is depicted as a pair of linked halves that by necessity have a couple of ejector-pin marks on the interior surface, which are best dealt with before you have joined them together. Once together and the seams have been dealt with if you think they’ll be seen, the front engine faces with separate bullet are inserted into the rear end and the completed assembly is slotted into the lower fuselage on curved supports and circular turrets to hold them in position. The engines themselves are absent as they won’t be seen, but the exhaust trunking is visible, and it is made up from two halves plus the rear face of the engine and an afterburner ring. There is some nice ribbing moulded into the interior of the halves, and once complete they too are dropped into supports and rectangular turrets in preparation for closing up the fuselage after the wing uppers have been joined to the moulded-in lowers. The dihedral of the outer wing panels is obtained thanks to the angled tab that fits into the lower, and it is also a single thickness part. With the outer panels in place, the inner panels are laid over them and these mount on circular turrets in the lower to ensure they locate accurately on the wing. The upper fuselage is then dropped over the lower, with a variety of pins and turrets plus a pair of rectangular tabs and slots moulded into the root of the upper wing panels, which is a neat design trick. The intakes either side of the cockpit are made up from two inner layers plus the outer skin, and they fix to the fuselage by two pins and turrets moulded into the splitter plates, and by two tabs that should hold the intake skins flush with the rest of the fuselage. A quick test-fit shows that the do, which is always nice. The wings have most of their flying surfaces as separate assemblies, starting with the flaps on the inner trailing edge, and the ailerons on the outer, both of which can be posed flush or dropped by cutting off a different set of tabs as per the additional drawings between the steps showing the two options. The arrestor hook is filled out by adding the other half of the housing, and it installs between the exhaust nozzles, which are each made up on a shallow ring to which four sections of the exhaust petals are added, forming a slightly tapered cylindrical can with good detail. Above the tail, the fin and separate rudder has the base fillet and a small insert glued to it before it is fixed to the top of the fuselage on three pegs, plus an insert under the rudder and a fairing over the very tip of the tail. The inner wing panels have retractable leading-edge slats, and these can be posed deployed or tucked away by inserting spacers under the slats or not, taking care to deal with any visible ejector-pin marks under the slats if they are deployed. Unusually, the inner main bay doors and auxiliary air intake doors are applied to the underside at this stage, the latter having retraction jacks, and remembering that the interior is painted red with the exception of the oleo on the retraction jacks. Similarly, the airbrake panel just behind the main gear bays is painted red inside, while the jack is white and the oleo metallic. The main gear struts have the two-part wheels and captive bay door fitted before they are installed with the retraction jacks and additional outboard bay door, while all of the bay doors are white to match the bays. The nose gear leg has a two-part scissor-link and a cylinder fitted plus two wheels, then it is inserted into the bay and supported by a retraction jack, adding a combined cross-member with door actuator included, which links to the bay door on that side. The bay door on the starboard side is made from two layers to match the fairing under the nose, and has a blade antenna at the rear. The front door hinges forward, and is made from five parts with clear lenses for the landing light and its pass-through window, and a V-shaped actuator that links to the strut. The equipment bay on the port side is covered over by its door if like me you have no idea what is in there, then the fairing under the nose is installed, fitting just about perfectly into the recess on two pegs. The nose cone over the radar is clipped into the front of the nose, with an oval insert on the hinge-point, adding a small square raised panel under the starboard side, locating it using a peg that fits into a socket in the fuselage. You may have noticed that the cockpit wasn’t quite finished earlier, and the pilots don’t yet have anywhere to sit. The seats are made from two halves to create the shell, into which the L-shaped cushion and horse-shoe top cushion are installed, adding a top to the headbox that also incorporates the twin loops that instigate the ejection sequence in an emergency. Once painted they are slipped into the cockpit on the front of their launch rails, and the pilot’s coaming is fitted with a HUD frame and clear lens with reflector so that it can be inserted in front of the pilot and covered by the windscreen. The windscreen and the rest of the canopy parts are created with a realistic ‘blown’ profile by using a sliding mould, so the outer surface has a fine seamline along the line of flight, which you can either ignore or sand away and polish back to clarity for additional realism. The centre-section of the canopy has a styrene part added to the front that the canopy is hung on, then the two canopy openers are joined to their styrene frames, and the rear canopy has a 0.8mm hole drilled in the front frame so that the rear-view periscope can be inserted. If you don’t fancy drilling clear parts due to their brittle nature, you can always cut off the pin and fit the periscope as a butt-fit. The canopies can be fixed closed or open by adding actuator jacks at the rear, which is given a little extra realism by making the crew access ladder from three parts and hooking it to the port side of the front cockpit. The last task is probably best left until the very end, and it involves a choice of styrene or metal pitot applied to the tip of the nose cone. The styrene pitot is a single part that fixes directly into the radome, but if using the metal probe, there is a conical styrene adapter that fits into the hole in the radome, into which the metal pitot slides, using CA to fix it in place. The quantity of weapons included in the box is generous, and for some reason they are shown being made up before the rest of the model is finished, possibly in the hope you won’t get bored and leave them in the box. There are three fuel tanks included, two for under the wings and one under the centreline, the two types having different styles of pylon. There are two large pylons under the inner wing, and these are augmented with strakes and defensive countermeasures dispensers to the rear on both sides, plus anti-sway braces to accept a choice of either a single AGM-78 with separate rear fins and adapter rail, or a pair of AGM-65s that have separate fins, mounting pads and clear seeker head, fixed to the twin rail and single adapter rail. Additionally, there are a pair of AGM-88s with separate fins, adapter rails and handed pylon with anti-sway braces, a pair of AIM-7Ms with a separate avionics trunk and perpendicular fins, and a choice of AN/ALQ-119 or AN/ALQ-131 pods that fix on the small pylon under the nose, or are ousted by an AIM-7M. There isn’t a traditional diagram giving the locations for the stores, instead there are two diagrams showing the underside of the aircraft with various arrows and alternatives that are a little confusing to this easily confused modeller. All the weapons, tanks and pods have painting and decaling instructions after the main painting pages that should make the process relatively tedium free. Markings There are three decal options on the sheet, and there is enough variation in era to appeal to many modellers out of the gate. From the box you can build one of the following: 561st Fighter Sqn., 57th Wing, USAF, Dhahran Air Base, Saudi Arabia, January 1996 piloted by LTC Mark Turberville & EWO LTC Jim Uken 23rd Tacttical Fighter Sqn., USAF, Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, March 1991 piloted bvy Col R Peksens, EWO uknown 81st Tactical Fighter Sqn., 52nd Tactical Fighter Wing, USAF, Spangdahelm Air Base, Germany, July 1987 piloted by LTC Cotner & EWO Capt. Legget 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. There are a lot of stencils included for the airframe as well as the weapons, but knowing how covered with stencils the Phantom was, it’s possible that there may be some absent. The back page of the instructions shows the location for all of the masks that are included in the box, which have been pre-cut on a backing sheet of clear acetate and weeded so that they stand out. The canopy sections with compound curves are handled by using frame hugging masks, while the highly curved areas should be in-filled with either liquid mask or additional tape from your own stock. In addition, you get a set of hub/tyre masks for the wheels, allowing you to cut the demarcation perfectly with little effort, plus masks for the landing light and the see-through panel in the bay door it is mounted on. The inside cover contains a printed table of colour references that include the colour names in four languages including English and Japanese, plus a Cyrillic and another Far Eastern language that I’m not familiar with. Conclusion While I’m no expert on the Phantom, which you may have noticed by my lack of substitution of F for ph everywhere, I do have a few in the stash, and this is by far the most impressive to date. The detail is phenomenal, and the styrene engineering techniques on show are just as impressive. It is so tempting to break open the liquid glue here and now, but I have other builds to finish first. Extremely highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I was rummaging through the stash and found this old charabanc lurking at the bottom. It was a kit that I was desperate to get, wasn't that cheap, but one that I got fed up with, made a bit of a mess of and re-boxed and dumped about 5 or so years ago. I thought I'd now have the patience and better skills to finish off properly and clear out of the stash. (It is such a big box that clearing it will automatically make my stash look smaller too.😉) The interior has been done but I am going to seal it all up so you can't see it. I remembered that Meng gave rubber seatbelts which were awful to use and they are mostly sitting in the bottom of the box. There's still a bit to do, including lots of double glazed windows, which is going to need a bit of masking (another thing that put me off at the time.) Obligatory sprue shot.😀 This back plate finally pushed me over the edge. The fit was awful, leading to overuse of glue, breaking bits off and eventually spilling a load of CA glue over it. Poor modelling on my behalf. Although there are some very nice sagged wheel sets available I will stick with Meng's very nice offerings. That'll save £20 or so. I also have the following paint available but if anyone knows of a better alternative for modern US Sand do let me know. Cheers all.👍

Evening everyone, well it's a Saturday night so it must be time to finish another one. This is the Meng 1.35 Merkava Mk.3d Late LIC. Having just done the Namer I quite fancied another Meng kit, and since I've already got the paints, the Merkava was an obvious one. The quality of the kit is excellent, the relief of the moulded ball and chain (unlike HobbyBoss' that will die on the shelf of doom) was quickly tempered by the lack of anti slip texture on the hull. This I thought was an odd omission since the Namer had it and the gorgeous photo album included in the kit shows just how noticeable it is. I didn't quite like the idea of building it without so I had a quick look around and found VMS' hull texture. It's pretty simple to use it's just like those awful kids glitter pictures you have to put on the fridge (6 weeks maximum). It's by no means perfect but I'm quite chuffed with how this has turned out. Unfortunately it did get dropped at one point so the aerial mounts on the hull are somewhere in a hoover bag now. All Brush painted with AK Acrylic IDF Modern Grey, AK's Nato black (a first for me using Lacquer) and weathered with the Tamiya Sand and Flat earth stick (which thanks to the texture really wasn't easy. Thanks for looking.

Hi everyone. It is my first experience writing a building history of the scale model. And a small detail - I'm not from an English-speaking country. So if there will any mistakes in my story in English, please correct me. This is a great experience for me). Now the preface to the model. I wanted to make this model since it appeared in the Meng release. Box art is fantastically beautiful. The quality of the meng company is also good. But, I have started the project only now. And I am also planning a diorama for this model - I want to show Jagdpanther in full beauty🎉 Probably this story will not be as fast as possible, but it will be over and the result should be great. 🏗️ Materials that I will use: ⚡Meng TS-039 (Jagdpanther Ausf.G1) ⚡VoyagerModel PE 35955 ⚡Set of resin equipment from Aliexpress From this set (TS-039), you can build 4 different versions of jagdpanther. I immediately decided that I would build the fourth option. For some reason, I liked it the most. To begin with a nice photo of the construction set) : 💥 I hope, this story will be interesting.

T-72B3M w/KMT-8 Mine Clearing System (TS-053) 1:35 MENG via Creative Models Ltd The T-72 was the ultimate replacement of the poorly engineered T-64, which was over-ambitious for its era, so struggled with the requirements placed on it by the Russian hierarchy. After much improvement on the flawed original it became such a different beast that they renamed it, after even the hull was re-engineered to take the punishment of the improved power plant. The new T-72 (Objekt 172M) suffered from teething problems however, and initial deliveries were slow, plagued with issues until the factories were properly tooled up and the production started to run smoothly. Along with the earlier T-55 it became one of the most commonly used tanks of the Soviet Union, and has been in service for years with many upgrades and variants. The T-72B was introduced in the mid-80s with improved armour, a new engine with more power, and a complete overhaul of the main gun system from sights to stabilizer. The B3 variant was a substantial upgrade to the previous versions, beginning in 2010 and took reserve tanks, overhauled the systems that would be retained, and replaced many of the electronics, especially the sensor suite that would improve survivability on the modern battlefield. The hull and running gear were also upgraded with new tracks that have two pins instead of the earlier one, and the crew/hardware are protected by an improved fire suppression system. The gun didn't escaped improvement, and the auto-loader that reduced the crew to three was been improved to feed the new 2A46M5 gun, which fires kinetic penetrator rounds in a discarding sabot outer, similar to the western tanks. In 2014 a new sub-variant bearing the M suffix was designed to address some of the issues experienced after the B3 entered service. New 4S23 Relikt explosive reactive armour panels were installed on the hull and turret, and slat armour was added to the rear to defeat shaped-charge anti-tank missiles that are common on the modern battlefield, with the extra weight countered by a new V-92S2F diesel engine that outputs 1,130hp. The type has entered Russian service in large numbers since 2018, and some have left service violently and involuntarily since February 2022. The Kit If you have any other MENG T-72 based kits, such as the Terminator and the earlier T-72B3, on which this boxing is based, only with different coloured plastic used to mould it. The box is typical Meng, with a satin finish, and a thick lower tray to protect the contents, which is good to see, as many modellers stack their models in the stash and a weak box is a pain if your piles are large (ooer!). Inside the box are nineteen sprues in grey styrene; a sprue of flexible styrene, the two hull parts and turret top in the same colour; a clear sprue; four sprues of black styrene track links and seven sprues of the interlinking end-caps in flexible black styrene; a length of braided metal wire; a run of black poly-caps; a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass; a clear T-shaped suspension positioning tool; decals, and the usual glossy instruction booklet with painting and marking guide to the rear. There are also three thick card sheets printed on both sides in four languages that give you information about the model, and if you’re a collector of these things, there are three punched holes in the top edge, although only one side of text will be in your language, plus a few drawings with bilingual English/Japanese titles. This boxing includes new parts for the KMT-8 Mine Clearing System, which is attached to the front of the vehicle, clearing a pair of pathways for the tracks through any minefields that the tank may encounter, and slat armour around the rear of the vehicle. It's a Meng kit, so of course the first impression is one of a professionally presented and highly detailed model. There's a lot of detail included in the box, and the construction proceeds logically, which as you'd expect begins with the road wheels, idlers and drive sprockets, all of which have poly-caps trapped between the inner and outer portions. Return rollers and suspension parts are added to the lower hull at the same time as the self-entrenching tool is installed in the lower glacis. The suspension is torsion-bar driven on the real thing, and this is replicated in styrene here, with long bars going through the lower hull and short swing-arms holding the stub axles at their ends. A clear styrene tool is provided to get everything in alignment here, so that if you elect to have your suspension level for a display model, everything will touch the ground. With the rear bulkhead detail panel added along with some spare track links, the road wheels are pushed into place on the by-now cured suspension, and that leads us to the tracks. The tracks have a three-part jig to facilitate construction. Firstly, the guide horns are glued on and later cut from their sprue. With six links on the jig, a top jig part J2 is clipped over the lower, holding the links in place. You then insert a section of sprue containing five flexible styrene end-caps into the third part of the jig J1, and cut them loose with a sharp blade. These are then offered in the jig en-masse to the pins on one side of the tracks, pushing in only one way due to the shape of the keys on the sides of the jigs. Here you have to be careful to insert the end-caps in the correct orientation according to the scrap diagrams in this section. Finally, you install a set of track-pads to each link to finish off the run, although I believe you can leave them rough and ready for cross-country travel. The pads fit into recesses in the outer surface of the links, and glue in quite easily, but be sparing with it, as you'll ruin all your work if the glue gets into the pins. In conclusion on the tracks, they are a bit fiddly, delicate and really require your full attention, so don't expect to have them finished in an hour. I was already speeding up production by the time I'd tested them on a previous boxing, and the results are worth the effort, being detailed and workable, but be prepared to put in the effort – you need 2 runs of 81 links. With the tracks out of the way, attention turns to the upper hull, which is based on the large part as seen in the sprue pictures. The raised portions for the driver's compartment, the turret ring armoured sections, PE engine grilles, armoured covers, and the exhaust are added to the upper, with a detail insert forming the glacis, plus fuel and equipment stowage boxes covering most of the length of the fenders, leaving them smooth and uncluttered. The shaped front mudguard is delicately moulded with thinner edges to give a more scale look, and are glued to the front of the fenders. At the rear a smaller pair of simple fenders are installed, and the engine deck is completed with more parts, including another pair of PE grilles in a sloped rear section, with two flaps mounted diagonally to assist with cooling. The light clusters are built up and added, as are the four brackets for the slat armour, with a larger light cluster at the front in a protective cage, and the rear unditching beam added later, moulded from a single part with plenty of bark detail. The side skirts are multi-parts, with lots of detail moulded in, and they have further ERA blocks to the front, once they are hung on a trio of brackets on the hull sides. On the rear deck an armoured cover is applied over the existing part, and a long delicate actuator is threaded across the deck. Back to the rear, and a pair of towing cables are fabricated from 100mm lengths of the braided wire, adding two-part styrene towing eyes and draping them as suggested in the diagrams. Speaking of drums, there are parts included in the box, but not used in this edition due to the slat armour, which comprises two parts each for the sides, and three for the rear of the hull, all shown again on scrap diagrams for your ease. The soft-bagged ERA packages are a particularly noticeable aspect of this variant of the T-72, and these are supplied as eleven single bags per side that have mounting straps moulded-in. The KMT-8 mine plough is attached to the glacis of the vehicle in two halves, and is made up in two halves as a result, one being a mirror image of the other. They are each a bundle of rams, struts and levers, plus the teeth that tear up the ground as the tank moves forward, exposing and then detonating the mines. Each one is built in successive steps, then glued onto the lower glacis in line with the tracks. The turret is always a fun part of the build for me, and this one starts with the big barrel, which is built up in sections, some of which are moulded complete, while the longer sections are split vertically and will require careful alignment and seam sanding to get a nice tubular barrel. There is no interior to the turret other than the commander's instrument panel at the front of his hatch, so the turret lower is used to close up the assembly early, after which a host of ERA blocks are glued all over the place, which is why the bare turret looks like it has already been peppered with small-arms fire, as well as bearing little resemblance to the shape of the finished article. Equipment, grab-handles, smoke grenade dispenser and sensors are dotted around between the armour, and the mantlet is installed with a flexible styrene cover giving it a realistic crumpled look for good measure. Around the rear are stowage boxes, one of which has a portable missile launcher lashed to it on the centre station. There is a three-part set of slat-armour supplied for the rear to protect the rear of the turret from shaped-charge missiles again, covering over and squaring off the stowage and stowed missile launcher. The commander's cupola has vision blocks around it, a protective shield at his rear and the big anti-aircraft machine gun on a mount to the front, which can be posed horizontally or raised for anti-aircraft work by swapping out the support strut under the breech. When advancing, the shield is pointed forward to provide protection, and has a reinforced viewing slot to keep the commander safe and give him better situational awareness for longer during a skirmish. The gunner's hatch is a much more straight-forward flap with handles and latch on the underside, and this, like the rotation and activity of the commander's hatch can be left mobile by leaving off the glue. Finally, the barrel is mated to the mantlet via a keyed lug, and the turret is attached to the hull via the usual bayonet twist-to-fit mechanism. Markings If you're expecting Russian green for the three decal options, you'd be right. One is in Great Patriotic War Parade decals and isn’t wearing the bagged ERA blocks, while the other was an attendee of a technical show. I won’t mention the third decal option or show its picture, as it is from a contentious time, and seems a little tone-deaf on Meng’s part. From the box you can build one of the following: Victory Day Parade marking the 76th Anniversary of the Soviet Victory in the Great patriotic War, Moscow, May 9th, 2021 Russia International Military-Technical Forum “Army-2017”, Alabino Military Training Grounds, August 2017 An option that's likely to be a little raw to most people, 2022 Decals are printed in China in good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion A solid and detailed model of this modern Russian tank that will go together easily, although the tracks will keep you pretty busy for a while. The addition of the KMT-8 mine plough adds extra interest, but the last decal choice could have been more thoughtful under the circumstances. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

So I was at Telford looking for a kit to buy to make for a 'FlashMod' session my club had organised for two weeks after Telford. Basically. we all meet up somewhere and we have six hours to complete the kit, therefore I was looking for a simple kit as my entry. I decided to get a Meng toon tank or an aircraft (I built a Sturm Tiger previously using Meng's toon Tiger and a conversion kit)and so I finally decided to get Meng's B24J Liberator and was inspired by a display of Assembly ships on a club display. I was going to pick a simple design but they were all B-24D's so in a mad moment I decided to make the Spotted A** Ape, shown below: I figured that, as there were not many parts to the kit I should be able to crack it in six hours....maybe. My original plan was to source some decals for the spots beforehand but, unfortunately, could not find any so went to Plan B, which was to get some small spot stickers to use as masks. This had to be amended as the only spots I could get were too big so I ended up punching out the centres with a hole punch! Well the day came and I made a great start priming everything and painting the unspotted parts. However I was trying to paint red , blue and yellow areas for the spots to be stuck on but it was taking ages as I would have to put three coats on to get the opacity. In the end I reverted to Plan C and re-primed, painted the base white and Olive Drab then stuck the spots on instead! I didn't manage to finish in the six hours and had to finish it off a few days later - I had to paint the vertical stabilisers, finish the mouth and eyes and make up some decals for the lettering, oh, and base it as well. It was quite a fun build although I get having to repaint some of the white areas to cover some mistakes. Here is the finished article. I tried matting down the dots but it didn't work. Thanks for looking Mick

Here is my build of meng's F/A-18E Super-hornet. VFA-31 "Felix The Cat" based on U.S.S George H.W. Bush 2017

Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet ‘Bounty Hunters’ (LS-016) 1:48 MENG via Creative Models Ltd The original Hornet design lost the Lightweight Fighter battle with what became the F-16, but after some re-designing and tweaking, it won the contract for the US Navy’s do-it-all fighter to replace the Tomcats, Corsairs et al, becoming the multi-role F/A-18 Hornet. When more capabilities were required, a further re-design that was more of a total do-over but retained the same general shape and designation, only about a third larger for reasons best left unsaid, but probably budget related, and a way to get around possible restrictions or pitfalls barring a new type. This much larger aircraft became the Super Hornet, with the two-seater designated F/A-18F, and the single-seat variant E, both of which began production in the late 90s, entering service just before the new millennium. With the withdrawal of the F-14 Tomcat in 2006 they became the primary carrier-borne fighter of the US Navy and Marines, serving alongside the original Hornet for a while, but all of the “legacy” Hornets have now left US service, although they remain on the books of some foreign operators. You can easily tell them apart without a size reference by checking the intakes. Oval = Hornet, Rectangular = Super Hornet. The enlargement of the wing area, lengthening on the fuselage and installation of more powerful GE engines changed the characteristics of the airframe markedly, giving it more speed, weapons capability and range, with even more tankage hung from the wings, and buddy-pods allowing same-type refuelling operations without having a vulnerable dedicated tanker on station. There have been various upgrades over the years, and the Super Hornet has a wide range of munitions to choose from, making it a capable all-round war-fighter that is still nowhere near the end of its service life, although trials with pilotless carrier-based aircraft are underway. In addition to the E and F variants, the G, or Growler is a heavily modified two-seater with a huge quantity of Electronic Warfare equipment carried both internally and externally on pylons. The Kit This is brand-new kit from Meng that is based on their recent single-seat F/A-18E, but with new parts to give us the two-seater. We have come to expect great things from Meng, as they have impressive technical skills and a penchant for high levels of detail in their kits. It arrives in one of their standard satin-sheened deep boxes with a painting of the aircraft on the front, and a host of goodies inside. Opening the box reveals nineteen sprues of various sizes in grey styrene plus two fuselage halves in the same plastic, five small sprues in clear, plus the canopy (all wrapped in protective self-cling plastic), three sets of small poly-caps, a Ziploc bag containing ten flat-headed pins, a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) metal, two sheets of decals, a clear plastic sheet with pre-cut kabuki tape masks, the instruction booklet with colour profiles in the rear, four sheets of card with information about the F/A-18 in four languages, and a similarly multi-lingual competition flyer to win cash prizes, apparently. Everything is separately bagged with mildly annoying staples closing them up, and once you have found your way past these you see the high quality of the parts within. Detail is right up there with the best, and has finely engraved panel lines, with raised detail where appropriate and slide-moulding used to improve quality further without creating more parts that make some people sweat profusely. Construction begins reassuringly conventionally with the cockpit, with the new twin-seat tub having the sidewalls installed next to the detailed side consoles, a large control column part in the front and a smaller one in the rear, chunky HOTAS-style throttles, and a pair of well-appointed instrument panels, which have a number of individual decals supplied for both it and the side consoles, the numbers for which are called out in scrap diagrams. The rudder pedals are moulded into the floor and could do with some more detail if you intend to shine a light in there, and you can see them in the shadows of the detail photos above. The nose gear bay is made up from a roof, shallow sides, front bulkhead and some thick trunking/hoses snaking through the bay. Those two sub-assemblies are mated then trapped between the forward lower fuselage halves, with the top half moulded-into the rest of the new upper fuselage, to be brought together later. In the meantime, the upper fuselage is prepared by fitting the wing lowers with a choice of folded or straight wing-hinge supports, and choice of ECS ram air exhaust types, the multi-tubular type having some impressive moulding. The F-18 runs two GE F414 turbofans, with long intakes to keep the rapidly rotating fans away from the prying eyes of enemy radar beams. The trunking is made from two halves, and has a few ejector-pin marks inside, but cleaning those up before joining the halves should make the task easier. The rear is covered by a representation of the engine front, then the completed trunks are attached to the appropriate main gear bay boxes, which are made from three parts, and have more highly impressive detail moulded-in, as shown above. The two sub-assemblies are inserted into the lower fuselage from within, and splitter plates are attached to the sides of the fuselage on two slots, with some fine detail moulded-in. The rectangular sides of the intake trunking and lower fuselage sides fit around the assembly, then a pair of pivots are slotted into the rear fuselage with poly-caps allowing them to rotate without suffering from modeller’s droop. The lower nose clips into the lower fuselage, then the upper fuselage is lowered over it, mating snugly even without glue from a quick test fit I made. She’s looking like an aircraft now, but the cockpit is unfinished and she’s got no nose. The coaming is first, and has the HUD sides added and a circular projector lens in the bottom. The two clear panels are inserted between the supports one over the other, with a scrap diagram showing the correct position, then it can be glued in place and the windscreen fixed over the top. The coaming between the pilots is also inserted, and a shortened turtle-deck behind the rear seat is made up from two detailed parts, followed by the nose cone and insert with the muzzle cover for the M61A2 Vulcan cannon at the top, joined to the fuselage with a stepped ridge helping to improve fit. The Hornet’s upper wings are moulded into the fuselage, but the slats and flaps are separate paired parts, the slats capable of being modelled deployed, or by cutting off the nubs in the leading edge, retracted. The flaps can also be depicted cleaned-up with one set of straight actuator fairings, or fully deployed by using a separate cranked set, with the gap between the sections filled by the upper surface inserts. If you chose the unfolded wing joint earlier, it’s simply a matter of applying the top and bottom sections to the link, adding the spacer, then fitting the appropriate flap actuator fairings for the flaps, and the slats in extended or retracted positions, again by removing the nubs on the leading edge. The folded wingtips are made up with retracted flaps and slats plus straight fairings before they are inserted into the L-shaped fold with a different set of spacers. The two vertical fins have a T-shaped pivot point inserted under a small separate section of the rudder, then the completed rudder is trapped between the two halves of the fin without glue so it can pivot later. A nav. light is inserted into the outer side, and the other fin is a near mirror image. The fins fit into slots in the rear fuselage, and the elevators push into the poly-caps hidden within the fuselage sides later on. The twin exhausts start with a cylinder that has the rear of the engine moulded-in, a PE afterburner ring, then a two-part length of trunking with a corrugated interior. A choice of exhaust petal types finishes off the rear, one set having straight petals, the other with cranked rear sections, and after painting they’re inserted into the two apertures in the rear of the fuselage. The rugged nose gear of the Super Hornet has to be sturdy to withstand repeated carrier launches followed by spirited arrestor-hook landings, and you have a choice of setting the catapult bar in the up position for parked, or down for an aircraft ready to launch. A landing light and a number of stencil placards are applied to the leg after painting it white, and the twin wheels fit either side of the transverse axle. Additional parts are fitted in and around the nose gear bay when inserting the gear leg, then gear bay doors are fixed around the bay, causing much perspiration when you have to add the red edges to each one. The main gear legs also have a number of placards added after painting, and the wheels are made up from two parts each. These too have additional parts added during fitting into the bays, closely followed by the red-rimmed bay doors and their actuators. Just in case you wanted to catch an arrestor wire, the hook nestles between the two exhaust fairings on a long lug. The instructions have you making up the munitions for a break before completing the model, but we’ll cover that later. The ejection seat is made up from a series of very well detailed parts, and although it doesn’t have seatbelts for absent pilots, there are stencils for the headbox sides and rear. They are installed in the cockpit, optionally along with the individually posed pilot figures that come on the sprues, which have separate arms, a wrap-around flotation vest and separate helmeted head with O2 hose. The new longer canopy part is crystal clear with an external seam over the top that you can either leave there (it’s pretty fine), or sand flush and polish back to clarity. There is a frame insert to fit within the canopy, and a choice of two canopy openers, depending on whether you wish to pose the canopy open or closed. A blade antenna in the centre of spine finishes off the top of your model. Under the port Leading Edge Root Extension (LERX), the integral crew ladder is stored (on the real thing), and it can be posed open by adding the ladder with its two supports and the open door to the bay, or if you want to pose it closed, put the long narrow part over the shallow recess to represent one edge of the ladder. Back to the weapons. This is where the rest of the pins and tiny poly-caps come into play, allowing you to switch and change your load-out whenever you want on some of the pylons. Most of the pylon types have the pins trapped between them, four of type-A, two of type-B, and one of type-C. Type-B also has an adapter rail fitted instead of pins, which is also made from two parts, and these fit on the outer wing stations, while the four identical pylons fit on the two inner stations per wing, and the solitary Type-C attaches to the centreline. A pair of wingtip rails are made up with spacer plates, then you can choose which of the supplied weapon types to hang from them. This boxing includes a pair of AGM-65 Mavericks (accidental Top Gun reference) with clear seeker-heads, separate tails and detailed adapter rails. Two GBU-16s and two GBU-12s are built from halves, with the fins in the front and rear separate parts, and there is a clear “droopy” seeker-head, with the poly-caps inserted into chambers in the bomb halves. The AIM-9Xs have clear seeker-heads and exhausts, plus adapter rails, while the three AIM-120Cs are each moulded complete, with a slim adapter rail. The two AIM-9Ms have a clear seeker, and eight separate fins, then the AN/ASQ-228 targeting pod is made from two halves, a two-part rotating sensor mounting with mask, and tubular rear fairing, which is mounted on a concave pylon that fits to the port of the underside fuselage. Scrap diagrams show the correct location of the missiles on their rails, as well as the targeting pod, while another larger diagram shows which options can be placed on which pylons. It’s always best to look at some real-world photos for examples for demonstrable and practical load-outs. Markings There are three decal options on the sheet, and you also get a set of canopy masks that are pre-cut from kabuki tape. From the box you can build one of the following: VFA-2 ‘Bounty Hunters’ Strike Fighter Sqn., Carrier Wing 2, USS Abraham Lincoln, 2008 piloted by Capt. JC Aquilino & WSO Scott Van Buskirk VFA-2 ‘Bounty Hunters’ Strike Fighter Sqn., Carrier Wing 2, USS Abraham Lincoln, 2007 piloted by Cdr. Guimond & WSO Cdr. Eden VFA-2 ‘Bounty Hunters’ Strike Fighter Sqn., Carrier Wing 2, USS Abraham Lincoln, 2004 piloted by L.Cdr. Keith Kimberly & WSO L.Cdr. Mike Peterson 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. The main sheet includes all the markings for the airframe, while the smaller sheet contains the stencils for the pylons and the weapons, of which there are many on a modern jet. The colours are called out in Meng/AK codes, as well as Gunze’s recent water-based Acrysion paints, which haven’t been prominently available in the UK, although that’s changing as time goes by. The masks on the clear sheet have been pre-weeded so you only get the masks, without all the surrounding tape. There are masks for all the wheels, the landing light, one for the window of the AN/ASQ-228 targeting pod, and frame-hugging masks for the canopy and windscreen. You are advised to fill in the highly curved centres of the canopy and screen with liquid mask or small sections of tape cut to length with some angles cut where necessary. Unfortunately, I managed to ruck-up the edge of one of my canopy masks, as it wasn’t protected from things brushing over it by the usual background tape. Conclusion Meng have brought their own particular set of skills to the party with both the E and now two F variants, and there's also the EA-18G Growler, which is my favourite. They have produced a highly detailed model of both single-seat and now two two-seat variants, with fancy decals, some excellent moulding and markings to create a model that is excellent out of the box, without the necessity of aftermarket. Extremely highly recommended. Currently out of stock with Creative due to popularity, but are bound to be back soon, so keep checking back. Review sample courtesy of

The third of my three planned builds is Meng's 1/72 F-106A.

From Mengs Facebook and Twitter pages, coming in December: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0e96TNBwSVjVEESy9ptTB7XH2zjSf7KPGCHcdAhnZ5tnnyMS9EohgbarbJUvEbqUYl&id=100028842416849 The Fierce "Mastiff" on the Battlefield The Mastiff 2 is a 6X6 Wheeled Protected Patrol Vehicle upgraded from the Mastiff Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. In 2006, the UK started purchasing the first batch of Mastiff MRAP vehicles based on the Cougar MRAP vehicle for the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Mastiff has improved protection and self-defense capabilities. Its hull is fully protected by slat armor and windows have double-layer bulletproof glass which offers good visibility. The Mastiff 2 has interior spall liners, blast attenuating seats, stronger axles, upgraded suspension, run-flat tires and explosion-proof fuel tank. In July 2020, with the gradual withdrawal of Western troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the UK announced that a number of armored vehicles, incl. the Mastiff 2, would be retired from active duty. In April 2022, the UK announced that it would provide Ukraine with about 80 armored vehicles, including the Mastiff 2. This MENG 1/35 British Mastiff 2 6x6 Wheeled Protected Patrol Vehicle plastic model will be 233mm long and 114mm wide when assembled. This kit includes two paint schemes. Now, let’s check the details. SS-012 British Mastiff 2 6x6 Wheeled Protected Patrol Vehicle Scale: 1/35 Available in: December 2022 The Mastiff 2 Wheeled Protected Patrol Vehicle has been a star on the battlefield with its high mobility and excellent protection. Don't you want to build such a unique Protected Patrol Vehicle model yourself?

Meng F/A_18F 1/48 scale build Not sure on the theme yet Always start with Dawn soap bath Rick

We have a massive sale on ! Prices on some kits have been reduced by 25% from RRP. Lots of bargains to be had. Check out the website. https://testvalleymodels.com/pages/plastic-kits Plus, we are still offering FREE POSTAGE on all orders over £25

This is a great little kit from Meng. There's plenty of detail, although the surface detail may not to be to some people's choice (yes I know about Mustang wings and putty). The kit is snap tight and can be assembled without any glue at all. I did use glue. although it's near perfect fit allows you to snap the parts together and run glue into the joints. I did add some seat belts to the cockpit. Decals look very thick and I had my doubts about them, but the right application of setting solution and a press down saw them dry nicely and settle into the surface detail. You do get the option of cuffed and uncuffed propeller along with different spinner and canopy. Two decal options are included, both PLA aircraft. I chose the one with the biggest national insignia. Rudder flash is supplied, but I chose to mask and paint mine. The Communist Chinese captured around 40 Mustangs from Nationalist forces at the end of the Chinese Civil War, when the Nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan. I'm not sure how long they were in service for, but were probably quickly retired once the supply of Russian Mig 15's arrived.

Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet (LS-013) 1:48 Meng via Creative Models Ltd The original Hornet design lost the Lightweight Fighter battle with what became the F-16, but after some re-designing and tweaking, it won the contract for the US Navy’s do-it-all fighter to replace the Tomcats, Corsairs et al, becoming the multi-role F/A-18 Hornet. When more capabilities were required, a further re-design that was more of a total do-over but retained the same general shape and designation, only about a third larger for reasons best left unsaid, but probably budget related, and a way to get around possible restrictions or pitfalls barring a new type. This much larger aircraft became the Super Hornet, with the two-seater designated F/A-18F, and the single-seat variant E, both of which began production in the late 90s, entering service just before the new millennium. With the withdrawal of the F-14 Tomcat in 2006 they became the primary carrier-borne fighter of the US Navy and Marines, serving alongside the original Hornet for a while, but all of the “legacy” Hornets have now left US service, although they remain on the books of some foreign operators. You can easily tell them apart without a size reference by checking the intakes. Oval = Hornet, Rectangular = Super Hornet. The enlargement of the wing area, lengthening on the fuselage and installation of more powerful GE engines changed the characteristics of the airframe markedly, giving it more speed, weapons capability and range, with even more tankage hung from the wings, and buddy-pods allowing same-type refuelling operations without having a vulnerable dedicated tanker on station. There have been various upgrades over the years, and the Super Hornet has a wide range of munitions to choose from, making it a capable all-round war-fighter that is still nowhere near the end of its service life, although trials with pilotless carrier-based aircraft are underway. In addition to the E and F variants, the G, or Growler is a heavily modified two-seater with a huge quantity of Electronic Warfare equipment carried both internally and externally on pylons. The Kit This is brand-new kit from Meng that is based on their recent single-seat F/A-18E, but with new parts to give us the two-seater. We have come to expect great things from Meng, as they have impressive technical skills and a penchant for high levels of detail in their kits. It arrives in one of their standard satin-sheened deep boxes with a painting of the aircraft on the front, and a host of goodies inside. Opening the box reveals nineteen sprues of various sizes in grey styrene plus two fuselage halves in the same plastic, five small sprues in clear, plus the canopy (all wrapped in protective self-cling plastic), three sets of small poly-caps, a Ziploc bag containing ten flat-headed pins, a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) metal, two sheets of decals, a clear plastic sheet with pre-cut kabuki tape masks, the instruction booklet with colour profiles in the rear, four sheets of card with information about the F/A-18 in four languages, and a similarly multi-lingual competition flyer to win cash prizes, apparently. Everything is separately bagged with mildly annoying staples closing them up, and once you have found your way past these you see the high quality of the parts within. Detail is right up there with the best, and has finely engraved panel lines, with raised detail where appropriate and slide-moulding used to improve quality further without creating more parts that make some people sweat profusely. Construction begins reassuringly conventionally with the cockpit, with the new twin-seat tub having the sidewalls installed next to the detailed side consoles, a large control column part in the front and a smaller one in the rear, chunky HOTAS-style throttles, and a pair of well-appointed instrument panels, which have a number of individual decals supplied for both it and the side consoles, the numbers for which are called out in scrap diagrams. The rudder pedals are moulded into the floor and could do with some more detail if you intend to shine a light in there, and you can see them in the shadows of the detail photos above. The nose gear bay is made up from a roof, shallow sides, front bulkhead and some thick trunking/hoses snaking through the bay. Those two subassemblies are mated then trapped between the forward lower fuselage halves, with the top half moulded-into the rest of the new upper fuselage, to be brought together later. In the meantime, the upper fuselage is prepared by fitting the wing lowers with a choice of folded or straight wing-hinge supports, and choice of ECS ram air exhaust types, the multi-tubular type having some impressive moulding. The F-18 runs two GE F414 turbofans, with long intakes to keep the rapidly rotating fans away from the prying eyes of enemy radar beams. The trunking is made from two halves, and has a few ejector-pin marks inside, but cleaning those up before joining the halves should make the task easier. The rear is covered by a representation of the engine front, then the completed trunks are attached to the appropriate main gear bay boxes, which are made from three parts, and have more highly impressive detail moulded-in, as shown above. The two subassemblies are inserted into the lower fuselage from within, and splitter plates are attached to the sides of the fuselage on two slots, with some fine detail moulded-in. The rectangular sides of the intake trunking and lower fuselage sides fit around the assembly, then a pair of pivots are slotted into the rear fuselage with poly-caps allowing them to rotate without suffering from modeller’s droop. The lower nose clips into the lower fuselage, then the upper fuselage is lowered over it, mating snugly even without glue from a quick test fit I made. She’s looking like an aircraft now, but the cockpit is unfinished and she’s got no nose. The coaming is first, and has the HUD sides added and a circular projector lens in the bottom. The two clear panels are inserted between the supports one over the other, with a scrap diagram showing the correct position, then it can be glued in place and the windscreen fixed over the top. The coaming between the pilots is also inserted, and a shortened turtle-deck behind the rear seat is made up from two detailed parts, followed by the nose cone and insert with the muzzle cover for the M61A2 Vulcan cannon at the top, joined to the fuselage with a stepped ridge helping to improve fit. The Hornet’s upper wings are moulded into the fuselage, but the slats and flaps are separate paired parts, the slats capable of being modelled deployed, or by cutting off the nubs in the leading edge, retracted. The flaps can also be depicted cleaned-up with one set of straight actuator fairings, or fully deployed by using a separate cranked set, with the gap between the sections filled by the upper surface inserts. If you chose the unfolded wing joint earlier, it’s simply a matter of applying the top and bottom sections to the link, adding the spacer, then fitting the appropriate flap actuator fairings for the flaps, and the slats in extended or retracted positions, again by removing the nubs on the leading edge. The folded wingtips are made up with retracted flaps and slats plus straight fairings before they are inserted into the L-shaped fold with a different set of spacers. The two vertical fins have a T-shaped pivot point inserted under a small separate section of the rudder, then the completed rudder is trapped between the two halves of the fin without glue so it can pivot later. A nav light is inserted into the outer side, and the other fin is a near mirror image. The fins fit into slots in the rear fuselage, and the elevators push into the poly-caps hidden within the fuselage sides later on. The twin exhausts start with a cylinder that has the rear of the engine moulded-in, a PE afterburner ring, then a two-part length of trunking with a corrugated interior. A choice of exhaust petal types finishes off the rear, one set having straight petals, the other with cranked rear sections, and after painting they’re inserted into the two apertures in the rear of the fuselage. The rugged nose gear of the Super Hornet has to be sturdy to withstand repeated carrier launches followed by spirited arrestor-hook landings, and you have a choice of setting the catapult bar in the up position for parked, or down for an aircraft ready to launch. A landing light and a number of stencil placards are applied to the leg after painting it white, and the twin wheels fit either side of the transverse axle. Additional parts are fitted in and around the nose gear bay when inserting the gear leg, then gear bay doors are fixed around the bay, causing much perspiration when you have to add the red edges to each one. The main gear legs also have a number of placards added after painting, and the wheels are made up from two parts each. These too have additional parts added during fitting into the bays, closely followed by the red-rimmed bay doors and their actuators. Just in case you wanted to catch an arrestor wire, the hook nestles between the two exhaust fairings on a long lug. The instructions have you making up the munitions for a break before completing the model, but we’ll cover that later. The ejection seat is made up from a series of very well detailed parts, and although it doesn’t have seatbelts for absent pilots, there are stencils for the headbox sides and rear. They are installed in the cockpit, optionally along with the individually posed pilot figures that come on the sprues, which have separate arms, a wrap-around flotation vest and separate helmeted head with O2 hose. The new longer canopy part is crystal clear with an external seam over the top that you can either leave there (it’s pretty fine), or sand flush and polish back to clarity. There is a frame insert to fit within the canopy, and a choice of two canopy openers, depending on whether you wish to pose the canopy open or closed. A blade antenna in the centre of spine finishes off the top of your model. Under the port Leading Edge Root Extension (LERX), the integral crew ladder is stored (on the real thing), and it can be posed open by adding the ladder with its two supports and the open door to the bay, or if you want to pose it closed, put the long narrow part over the shallow recess to represent one edge of the ladder. Back to the weapons. This is where the rest of the pins and tiny poly-caps come into play, allowing you to switch and change your load-out whenever you want on some of the pylons. Most of the pylon types have the pins trapped between them, four of type-A, two of type-B, and one of type-C. Type-B also has an adapter rail fitted instead of pins, which is also made from two parts, and these fit on the outer wing stations, while the four identical pylons fit on the two inner stations per wing, and the solitary Type-C attaches to the centreline. A pair of wingtip rails are made up with spacer plates, then you can choose which of the supplied weapon types to hang from them. This boxing includes a pair of AGM-65 Mavericks (accidental Top Gun reference) with clear seeker-heads, separate tails and detailed adapter rails. Two GBU-16s are built from halves, with the fins in the front and rear separate parts, and there is a clear “droopy” seeker-head, with the poly-caps inserted into chambers in the bomb halves. The AIM-9Xs have clear seeker-heads and exhausts, plus adapter rails, while the three AIM-120Cs are each moulded complete, with a slim adapter rail. The two AIM-9Ms have a clear seeker, and eight separate fins, then the AN/ASQ-228 targeting pod is made from two halves, a two-part rotating sensor mounting with mask, and tubular rear fairing, which is mounted on a concave pylon that fits to the port of the underside fuselage. Scrap diagrams show the correct location of the missiles on their rails, as well as the targeting pod, while another larger diagram shows which options can be placed on which pylons. It’s always best to look at some real-world photos for examples for demonstrable and practical load-outs. Markings There are four decal options on the sheet, and you also get a set of canopy masks that are pre-cut from kabuki tape. From the box you can build one of the following: VFA-103 Jolly Rogers Strike Fighter Sqn., USS Harry S Truman, 2015 VFA-41 Black Aces Strike Fighter Sqn., USS Nimitz, 2006 VFA-41 Black Aces Strike Fighter Sqn., Carrier Air Wing nine, USS Nimitz, 2007 United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor Program, 2019 (aka Maverick from Top Gun 2) 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. The main sheet includes all the markings for the airframe, while the smaller sheet contains the stencils for the pylons and the weapons, of which there are many on a modern jet. The colours are called out in Meng/AK codes, as well as Gunze’s recent water-based Acrysion paints, which don’t seem to be prominently available in the UK. The masks on the clear sheet have been pre-weeded so you only get the masks, without all the surrounding tape. There are masks for all the wheels, the landing light, one for the window of the AN/ASQ-228 targeting pod, and frame-hugging masks for the canopy and windscreen. You are advised to fill in the highly curved centres of the canopy and screen with liquid mask or small sections of tape cut to length with some angles cut where necessary. Unfortunately, I managed to ruck-up the edge of one of my canopy masks, as it wasn’t protected from things brushing over it by the usual background tape. Conclusion Meng have brought their own particular set of skills to the party with both the E and F variants now, and there's also an EA-18G Growler on the way, which I personally can’t wait for. They have produced a highly detailed model of both single-seat and now two-seat variants, with some excellent moulding and markings to create a model that is excellent out of the box, without the necessity of aftermarket. I feel the need… The need for speed. There. I said it. Extremely highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

It is inevitable that when I join a group build with a big 1/48 project, I'll at some point begin pining for something smaller and simpler to work on as well. And let's face it, when it comes to aircraft, 1/72 is my preferred scale, even if I try to convince myself otherwise. And so here we go with Meng's F-106. Its much nicer than their F-102 (which I built for the Vietnam GB in 2020), and I have some really interesting decals to go with it. You've all seen this kit on several other excellent build threads here already, so I won't waste my time or yours with sprue shots and the like. Right now I'm working on the innards. Keeping it simple. Glued the wing together. Fit was a bit "meh". Test fit the fuselage, and it's also a tad meh. But easy as pie after the Monogram dagger.

Hi all Here is my completed build of meng's ME-410 B2/U-2, the kit itself is a real mojo booster, no issue at all with about 99 percent of the kit, the only issue I came across is a well known one with this kit and that's the very over engineered canopy, it comes in 6 pieces and I made a bit of a dogs dinner with it. Apart from that I had no issue with the kit at all. I painted the model in AK real colours, this was my first time using AK's lacquer paints and they where beautiful. I used an after market metal gun barrel for the MK 214 but really this wasn't necessary or worth the trouble in drilling the extra space for it to fit. Definitely have to add another one of these kits in my stash. Kind regards

Hello again, It's been almost a year since my last aircraft (I'm mostly in to painting mins) but had the itch to do another and so this great kit was completed over the course of two months. It was mostly airbrushed with Vallejo 'Dark Ghost Grey' on the top, with Mission Models 'Light Ghost Grey' on the undersides (more on this in a bit) done in the pre-shade technique on a black spraycan undercoat. The black was a mix of Vallejo gloss black, regular black and black ink to give it a bit of shine. The panel lines on the body were done with Vallejo Dark Grey acrylic model wash (I'm a big fan of their model washes) with enamel washes used on the smaller parts. Other weathering was done mostly with MIG AMMO Oil & Streaking Brushers, and Tamiya weathering powder sets. The decals were all OOTB, and the only third party item was the seat, which is by Eduard. The additional details, particularly the cockpit, were all hand-painted with my occasionally steady hand. I had intended this to be a bit cleaner (I say the same thing with every bloody aircraft! 😂) but as usual got carried away as it's a part of the process I do really enjoy. As such it's probably a bit more weathered than a CAG aircraft should be. Saying that I did spend a fair bit of time looking at photos of F-18's online and in books (the 'F-18 in Detail and Scale' by Haagen Klaus was a very useful purchase) and noticed that there were pics of this particular aircraft having had patch-ups in the opposite colour to what it should be, particularly around the front end and the fold up wings. I thought this looked cool so attempted to replicate it in a few places. Same too with the oily fuel spills on the underside of the aircraft, although I did take this more to extremes. A few things I messed up on; firstly I should have filled in the gap line where the two front halfs come together. Whilst the fit is generally very very good, I didn't notice the middle gap line running up the front and underside of the nose until it was too late. I did attempt to sand down the metallic box thing at the front of the nose (excuse my lack of technical terms) but as this was curved to begin with, it didn't look great. The canopy got a bit messy when masking, painting and sanding (I hate doing canopies) but thankfully it's not too noticeable when in an open position. Finally I decided to paint the red line separating the black and the grey of the jet, as I don't like the faff of using decals that long and thin, however, despite masking this wasn't my neatest work and it shows. Oh well. As mentioned, this is a great kit, and was generally not too painful to put together. The folded wings option wasn't too much of a headache, likewise all the small details around the wheel bays went easier than I expected. There were very few areas that required sanding and filling. The decals were generally decent, it's only on the smaller ones where writing should be (and it's instead just lines) that you might want to consider third party options. The only parts I would consider third party options for other than the seat are the exhaust nozzles and maybe the wheels. When you look at pictures of the exhausts they have much more detail in them than sculpted, particularly on the insides. I have attempted to paint the details in. Trying to add additional bits of card/plastic I think would be too tricky, and way out of my comfort zone. A few other things you may find useful; firstly, Army Painter primer spray cans are fantastic! They are more of a laquer spray than just acrylic, and are of a much larger size than Tamiya/Mr Hobby ones for around the same price. They are available at many indy board game shops so well worth a try. Secondly, as mentioned, Mission Models 'Light Ghost Grey' acrylic was used on the undersides. Now I'm a huge fan of their 'transparent dust' paint, especially when mixed in slightly with other colours to get a dusty/dirty effect, but this one? not so much. It will be still be active days after its been applied, meaning it has to be varnished ASAP in order to protect it. If you get it slightly wet, thats it, your paint job won't be so neat. No issues with Vallejo products doing the same after a couple of hours, let alone days. Finally, although it's barely noticeable here, I created a good textured effect on the bulkier missles using Vallejo 'Rust Texture' acrylic effects. A few coats of that, then spray on your chosen colour and they will look much more realistic than the smooth plastic provided. Oh, and finally, in case anyone says it I started this kit a few weeks before seeing 'Top Gun Maverick' which I highly recommend having been a bit skeptical of it in production! 😂 Thanks for looking, any thoughts or queries let me know!

Finish no3 for the year is Meng's F102A Delta Dagger (case xx). Been working on this one in the back round while doing the shiny Black Widow. Built OOB as an aircraft operated by 509th FIS from Adorn RTAFB in 1969, using my usual mix of Tamiya and Mr Hobby Colour acylics. Went together fairly well but I found that the colours that Meng recommend (only Vallejo) didn't look like the photos of the aircraft so I substituted Tamiya XF11 for the dark green instead of H304 and used the H304 as the light green instead of H464. The decals went down well except the large fuselage band which needed a lot of Mirocsol to conform to the shape and ripped in one of the corners.Light weathering with Flory Dark Dirt wash. The instructions also have the main undercarriage door actuator upside down in step 8 and the canopy doesn't fit well in the closed position. Otherwise straight forward build less the masking of the canopy for the sealant tape, not had to do this before. Now this one is done I can get back to the P61A, as usual all comment welcome.