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Hi there, This will be my entry for the GB, the 1:72 Su-39 (or Su-25TM, depending on your preference) by Zvezda: I have a very small stash (7 kits) and this is the oldest one in it; I bought it in Jamieson's Models in Glasgow in 2014 and it's been waiting patiently every since. I nearly sold it a few times, especially as I didn't have an airbrush and didn't think I could brush paint the Camo well. But then I got an airbrush a few months ago, and this GB came along and here I am! I doubt I'll be starting this on the 29th as I'm in the middle of another build, but hopefully it won't take too long to get this onto the bench. I'm definitely doing it OOB with nothing added, just keeping it nice and simple. I've already decided the weapons load I'll be doing, not sure if it's real-life accurate, but it leaves out a couple of the lesser quality molded (and more fiddly) ordinance! Apart from potential fit issues, the Camo will be the big test for me and my basic airbrushing skills. Speaking of which, I'm looking for some advice re the two blue colours in the Camo. In the Instructions they're listed as: Model Master 1562 Flat Light Blue Model Master 1594 Semigloss Blue Any suggestions for these colours in other ranges (like Revell Aqua Colour, Tamiya Acrylic, Vallejo Model Air or Mr. Colour)? Thanks!

Finally got around to starting my first group build here at Brit Modeller. Thought I would have a go at Trumpeter's new MiG-31, using this as a bit of a dummy run before I build the AMK Foxhound. Going to be using Hataka paints for this build and, hopefully, this will be my last hairy stick build too. Really looking forward to getting stuck in. I've made a bit of a start, and I've primed the cockpit and painted the intakes. Anyway, here are some photos to start us off... More photos to follow! Enjoy

This is actually from last year – before I joined up here – but I thought it might be nice to share this – so I took some pictures today – in between the showers. I always wanted to build one of these as a kid – but we just didn’t have the money for BIG KITS – so it was always the bagged up 1/72’s from the local newsagents – great days though. Anyway enough of the sob stories – I got a couple of these kits last year and I have to say I was very dismayed with the quality – having paid full price. But you can’t shatter a little boys dreams – so I picked the best bits from both kits to build one good one. Having looked at everyone else’s presentations on the internet (before finding Brit modeller) I knew mine would hardly be a masterpiece – but I wanted to make one – and make it a little different – so I performed some minor surgery on the decals – turning a ‘B’ into ‘P’ and then found some suitable numbers to get the right serial number to re-create this… Last year I hadn’t even considered buying an airbrush – but I had progressed as far as rattle cans – a big step at the time as I remember. Everything is ‘out of the box’, as I found out pretty quickly – no one is interested in making after-market parts for these old kits. It was a horror to build and I even considered a ‘post crash’ version at times – but here she is – ‘pre crash’. …and here she sits on the desk – she makes me smile every time I see her – a childhood dream fulfilled. Please remember if you ‘like’ it – hit the like button – if not ‘other threads are available’. But seriously - as usual all constructive comments are most welcome. Thanks for looking - Steve

Okay, Had a look through my stash and there is loads of stuff that fits this GB. 2 Lancasters, 2 Halifaxs, 2 1/48 Lightings, a Javelin, a Lynx HMA8 with the conversion kit to make a HAS3, a Valiant, 2 Victors... So obviously I went on eBay and bought a Short Stirling. Always had a soft spot for the Stirling. Classically British in so many ways... Second choice from the start (Supermarine's 4 engine bomber was on the cards). Hamstrung by stupid regulations (100' wingspan, carry 24 troops etc etc...). The first of the breed of 4 engined heavy bombers, later eclipsed by more capable aircraft that none the less never had to meet the original design compromises. When Shorts tried to bring out an upgraded Stirling the Ministry told them not to bother. Stayed in service from inception until the end of the war and found it's niche in a role it was never designed for. Remember reading when I was a school boy tales of flying through the Alps to Italy because of the low ceiling. Wow. Huge, majestic, slightly gawky and flawed. The Stirling has it all. Now off to do some research as I will be building one of 7 Squadron's aircraft. I like the idea of building one of the Pathfinder squadrons as the Mighty Stirling should be modelled not as a poor relation to the later Heavies (both developed from mere 2 engined aircraft I might add) or as a bloody glider tug but instead be doing the business, first in, last out in the hard role of Pathfinder / Master bomber. That appeals to me. I also plan to have a Bomber Command display cabinet eventually, with the Stirling, Halifax, Lancaster, Valiant, Victor, Vulcan all together. 4 engined heavy bombers, 3 in Night and 3 in anti-flash white. So fitting to build the Stirling first. Hopefully but the time I finish the Victor Airfix will have a lovely new tool Vulcan out! I'm not home for a few weeks, but will crack on then. See you all soon!

Well it's done - truly horrible kit, nothing fits other than where it fits. The moulding on the some of the part's isn't great either, the undercarriage self destructed and was too short, soft plastic with sink marks.The Engines don't fit the nacelles without shimming. This is the second one i've done - this was the re-issue, it's a bit better but it still horrible to work on. However it's the only Blenheim available in 1/48th scale..... Painted with Mr Paint laquers, weathered with Oils / Oilbrushes and Pigments WIP available here Peter

Welcome, This is my attempt to build an armoured subject almost OOB. I so normally an aircraft builder so this is a little bot of new ground. Not my actual first but not many tracked vehicles under my belt recently. My club, Illawarra Plastic Modellers Association hosts the NSW Scale Model Show each May. We have shamelessly stolen a couple of competition building concepts from our near neighbours ACT Scale Modellers, altered them in name to protect the guilty and added it to our yearly show. In short the Panzer Tracks Trophy for the armour guys. The rules say the nominated kit must be OOB, with after market decals and barrel allowed. This year the nominated kit is the Tamiya 1/48 Panzer IV family. More details can be found here. I have chosen the 1/48 Tamiya Pzkpfw. IV Aust J (early) with Peddinghaus decals, RB 48B09 main barrel and RB MG 34 co axial and bow guns. Some references are necessary: The build is fairly straight forward and to be honest the minimal amount of AM allowed is a bit of a blessing. If you have not seen these kits, they have a cast full lower hull and some nicely moulded pieces. They come with four return rollers and the early exhaust, so you are a little restricted in choice for OOB: Thete is a choice of idler wheels and the road wheels and return rollers were cut from their sprues, held on a cocktail stick and rotated against some 400 grit sandpaper to remove the mould seams and scuff the tyres a bit: The turret schurzen were partially constructed and test fitted to enable alignment. They would be added later: The build moved fairly quickly from here on: Next came painting with RAL 7021 Panzer Grey lower hull and RAL 8012 Red Oxide Brown uppers: So that's up to date. Fairly happy with the work so far. I still have to draw the line with adding all the tools prior to painting but some of them are there. Next will be the tracks and then the fun stuff....weathering! Any tips or advice gladly accepted! Regards,

Hi all! This is my latest work, a Ki-43IIIa in 48th scale from Fine Molds. Thought older, this lit IMHO is certainly better than the newest Hasegawa kit. The model has been riveted, the length of the U/C has been shortened, and the hairspray technic has been put to good use for a worn and pealing paint. A very pleasant project indeed!(sorry for the antenna thread, I saw it too late)

Hi folks, After a looong period of starting plenty of kits and finishing none, I decidced I'd do something quick to get the modelling mojo back. I chose Academy F-4J, with decals from SWS. So here goes my F-4J(UK) Phantom, with Mr Paint paints (yeah, I know) for the FS36440 and FS36270 greys and Tamiya XF-25 for the very peculiar blue-grey found on these Phantoms. Cheers, Sébastien

After a battle with and stalling on the Fly 1/32 Wessex, moving condos which damaged the work on the Wessex I needed a nice subject to get the mojo back.. http:// So what better than a Tamiya 1/48 A-1H skyraider completely out of the box.. No PE.. No resin.. No paper.. no fancy stuff just back to basics.. http:// Paints from Mr Color (Mr Hobby) and Tamiya.. Grey was a mix as did not have the right colour http:// http:// http:// http:// http:// http:// But life is good.. A view from my balcony work bench area.. http:// Thanks for looking..

Finished this yesterday, took the final photos today in daylight. I like this kit - you get a lot for your money, though a few bits of the engineering could be better (specifically the engine / nose panels being in clear). Painted with Mr Color laquer paints (which I love), and weathered with Oils. Decals got damp and didn't play, so used home made masks for all the markings apart from the slogan which was hand painted, and I apologise in advance if the spelling / sentiment is wrong. Wip is available here Peter

After some years of Shelf of Doom exile, I decided to finish my Academy F-4B. Here it goes: All (constructive) opinions welcome. All (less constructive) opinions welcome too, if they're funny (I'm the one to judge). Cheers, S.

Hi all, So this is a couple of firsts for me, I've never done an airliner before and I've never took part in a group build. So I'm going to keep this as simple as possible and do the kit straight out of the box. If anyone has some wisdom for a newbie please please share it with me!

Hello ladies and gents! As you can probably tell by my lack of posts I'm about as green as they come when it comes to composing build threads (or posting on the forum in general!) so apologies in advance for any strange formatting/elementary errors! That being said I'd like to share with you all my latest project. No aftermarket (for now!), just a plain and pure build of this beauty: Which is of course Tamiya's 1/35th offering of the lean yet mean M51 Sherman! also popularly called the Super Sherman or the Isherman (names that ironically the Israelis never used!). Introduced in 1965 the M-51 was basically a fusion of the reliable and (at the time) widely available Sherman chassis with a monstrous 105 mm Modèle F1 French tank gun - the same type that would be used on the AMX 30. Seeing action in both the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, the M-51 was by all accounts a pretty decent machine and even held its own against the more modern soviet supplied machines it faced in the latter conflict. The IDF kept the M-51 in front line and later reserve service until the late 70's/early 80's when they were either retired or sold to the Chilean Armed Forces who kept them in operational service until the late 1990s. Quite the run for a tank that was essentially designed in the 1940s! Right, obligatory historical blurb over- what about the kit itself??? It will come as no surprise to those that are familiar with Tamiya offerings that this kit is an absolute dream to build. The Tamiya hallmarks of good design, crisp and blemish free moulding and attention to detail are all prevalent in this kit which has, so far, almost fallen together on its own. For those of you out there for whom details are important be aware that OOB this kit might not be suitable for a later (post '67) M-51 mainly due to differences in the engine deck and the uniforms of the provided crew figures (or so I'm told). Anyway- to the build! Here is what everything looked like before I horribly mangled it with glue and tools started to put it all together: And here is what it looked like after I got stuck in Nothing to report from the lower hull assembly aside from reiterating how easy this thing is to build! there are a few minor sink holes on the lower plate but as most of it is going to be hidden behind wheels, tracks and bogies I doubt anyone would notice if you didn't get rid of them. The eagle eyed amongst you will notice a small line of filler where the upper rear wall meets the lower plate. Again- not really a essential issue to be addressed as it will be hidden once the upper hull is fitted but as I am always on the lookout for 'low risk' opportunities to practice filling and sanding gaps I had a go at them (along with the aforementioned sink holes). TA DA- lower hull all done! but before I go on I do have a helpful hint for those of you reading this who are planning on building your own: Before sticking the sides on I would recommend that you fit and glue part G2 (see where the pen is pointing below) onto the floor before you put the side panels on. This way you have something to align and support them on rather than trying to get them to stay upright on their own. Well- I reckon that's a good note to end on! I hope you have enjoyed these first few steps and I'll have part two up as soon as possible Cheers, Poacher

Hello,Friends - Guess whose lack of computer expertise led him to accidentally delete the original thread? To each and every person who kindly replied I extend my sincere thanks and appreciation.Here are a few photos of 'Dagger' and in Good Company All the very best,Paul.

HI Pals, On this occasion, I would like to share with you, mounting an ISU-152 Zvezda brand. I decided to try this kit because if I do not end up liking the finished model, it is a tank destroyer, not a tank. I think it's the cheapest kit, so if not just liking me, spending has been minimal, and will OOB by other side, for the same reason. Anyway, I've seen other models Zvezda in the forum, and have been proud. The first photos are of almost finished model, for though I was taking pictures, I unfortunately the lost / deleted without noticing. I do not remember having special problems mounting at the moment, perhaps with fuel tanks that have just not fit quite right and I had to sand the adjustments. Soon more updates, thx for watch and comment, cheers mates

Hello people This is my first RFI. I feel strange in putting it here as it is the last model I completed. The thing is, I completed it 13 years ago. I was in the UK then and I didn't know much about the internet modelling wise. At the time I relied utterly on my LMS. That was M.G. Sharp Models of Attercliffe Road in Sheffield, the city I was living in then. I had started modelling again for the first time since 1979 as I had become a widower and, well, thought I needed to find something pleasurable and nostalgic of better times upon which to focus my thoughts My first model upon returning to the hobby was an Airfix Mosquito. I have to say, it wasn't easy! Nothing fitted very well and I found myself buying filler for the first time since the age of 13.. I also did the Australian all silver option, meaning, sand, fill, smooth...and repeat. I got there though and it builds into a lovely model doesn't it, not at all bad for an old Airfix? I had been to Spain in a professional context (1989) and really loved it. I had been introduced to the recent history of Spain, above all, as I went to Barcelona, I became aware of the very recent Spanish Civil War. As time progressed, back in 2003-2006, I researched this from a personal interest point of view, rather than anything to do with work/profession. I loved the intrigue I found. Clandestine air forces (Russian, German and Italian), aircraft being smuggled in from Mexico, 'Golden Age' art deco passenger aircraft being used as bombers! Anyway, this little Heller Bf 109 B was about the best I could manage at the time. I know now it might be classified as a B1. I also know this kit isn't 'rivet counter' perfect, but I can tell you, I utterly enjoyed making it. It is a pleasure to build and yes, it is almost 'Shake 'n' Bake'. It goes together so well, extremely little filler is needed and if one is fine with raised panel lines; they don't need to be sanded away. This is a model of BF 109 B1 6*16 of Legion Condor 2J/88, based at Vittoria, Spain as it would have appeared late March 1937. It is based on a Profile shown on page 130 of 'Jagdwaffe', Luftwaffe Colours; Volume one section 2, 'The Spanish Civil War' by E. Mombeek with J.R. Smith & E.J. Creek. Classic Publications, 1999, ISBN 0-9526867-6-7. The transparencies are kit parts, absolutely lovely, clear and in three parts. I have tried to build the Avis/AML/Amodel (all the same) BF-109 B/C/D/V3-4 prototypes and I can honestly say that I feel time is far better spent 'tarting up'/rectifying this Heller kit to the level you desire. The other kits, and the Aeroplast kits, simply don't cut the mustard (this is Britmodeller isn't it? ). The model is OOB with the exception of decals. I used the kit round black spots and wing spots/crosses then handpainted numbers and tail cross with the help of Tamiya masking tape cut finely (using slightly lightened Humbrol 33). All colours were enamel. I still have a jar of (useable) grey-green colour from this build! I mixed the grey/green. Why this shade? I have no idea, it seemed right at the time . It is a long time ago, I may have done 6*16 as I was pretty sure it was the first number Bf-109 B To be a real 'B'. I guess it should have the Hamilton propellor, but I just thought; "First use of Bf-109, Spain, anything could and would have happened in war, regularly". I still think that about all wartime aircraft to be honest. Also, it isn't an 'A', prototype or anything else with long leading edge slats, the Heller kit has the shorter slats, so 6*16 seemed a reasonable compromise. It is completely brush painted, even the varnish. I liked the way the Humbrol Matt varnish sealed the decals, and I also liked that the kit roundels didn't silver onto an, essentially, satin coat with no decal solvents (I didn't know they existed). No weathering - I simply didn't (and don't) know how to do it, and I also think at the time, there may have not been many washes/tints/other trendy things on the market? Enough chat, here it is, I hope it is bearable, perhaps likeable as a window into what was ok 13 years ago? Thanks to The Spadgent for encouraging me to post this Port view I forgot, I stole the 'Top Hat' from an RPM Bf-109 E-1 Legion Condor kit. Starboard..hmm, the Humbrol Matt coat went a little white, as seen over the black roundel. Nice big prop . I hand painted the canopy. I can see the paint was too thin. Never mind, I was happy at the time. Thanks for reading All best regards and happy modelling Tony Edited for spelling a friend's moniker incorrectly

Dear Fellow Modellers, I intended to participate in this GB with two builds: a Typhoon Mk I.B and a Tempest Mk V. However, life got in the way (too much work, very demanding German classes and tests every month, including a Goethe Zertifikat B1, which I managed to achieve) and I didn't found the time to build them past the first posts. I will build them properly later, as regular WIPs, as these aircraft deserve all the care and attention I can provide. However, to regain some modelling motivation and still finish something for this GB, I decided to build a simple kit, just OOB. The choice fell on Airfix's 1/72 Folland Gnat T.1, which is shown in the following picture: IMAG3348 As usual, I started by taking the cockpit parts off the sprues IMAG3352 These were glued into sub-assemblies in order to ease painting: IMAG3353 IMAG3355 Next, I took the fuselage halves and air intake mouths off the sprues: IMAG3354 The air intake mouths were glued in place but fit is not the best, especially on the port side: IMAG3356 IMAG3357 This was followed by the wings: IMAG3358 Holes had to be made on the lower wing parts in order to install the external fuel tanks later: IMAG3359 The wing parts were glued together: IMAG3360 The external fuel tanks were, then, built and the poor fit is readily apparent: IMAG3362 A lot of filing and sanding will be needed on these to make them acceptable... The next step was building the main undercarriage parts. These must be installed in the fuselage halves before closing them. Here we can see one of the wheel wells (on the right) and a gear leg already glued to the corresponding wheel well door (on the left): IMAG3363 Here are both sides of the landing gear ready for installation in the fuselage: IMAG3364 It seemed to me that I wouldn't be able to install the gear legs after closing the fuselage. So, some complicated masking will be needed in order to paint the fuselage with these in place. I managed to break the nose gear leg while taking it off the sprue. As can be seen, this part was defective, as the shaft for installation of the nose wheels is missing: IMAG3366 First, I glued the broken part using super-glue: IMAG3365 Then I carved a shaft for the nose wheels from a piece of sprue. Here it is between the wheels, together with the remaining nose gear parts: IMAG3367 A slot was made in the middle of the shaft, to provide a stronger point of contact with the gear leg: IMAG3368 Finally, the shaft and leg were glued together using Tamiya Extra Thin Glue, later reinforced with a drop of super-glue: IMAG3369 Here are all the parts, ready for priming: IMAG3370 The interior areas and all parts to be painted with metallic paints were, then, primed using Alclad's Grey Primer: IMAG3371 The intake inner walls were painted with Alclad's White Aluminium and the main gear wells with Alclad's Dull Aluminium (these according to pictures of real aircraft): IMAG3372 These parts complete the inner air intake walls and were also painted with Alclad's White Aluminium: IMAG3373 The centres of wheels and all other parts making up the landing gears were painted with Alclad's Dull Aluminium. The exhaust was painted with Alclad's Jet Exhaust: IMAG3374 IMAG3375 After the paint dried, the air intake parts were masked off: IMAG3376 and the end faces (where the turbine face should be) were painted with Alclad's Steel: IMAG3377 Finally, these parts were glued in place. They form part of the inner cockpit walls as well. The fit, again, is not very good and some putty had to be applied in order to fill in the joins: IMAG3379 This is how the build stands right now. This post covers a week's worth of work, from Easter Sunday night till yesterday (Saturday). Thanks for looking. Cheers Jaime

Hello glue-sniffers and ABS addicts. This thread is a split from http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234999580-airfix-vampire-t11-x-2/ Images are spoiler tagged for ease of page loading. If you have any issues with the photos, blame RobG. If you have any issues with the model, don't blame me. If you would like a custom-built version for your mantelpiece then dream on. I haven't built a model for probably 18 years, so I began with a pre-emptive strike on the box.

So.. just finished Polikarpov I-152 (I-15bis) http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234992236-polikarpov-i-152-148-special-hobby/ And I decided to start a new project. At this time in the contest "Out of the box" on the site http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewforum_f_191.html Messerschmitt Bf-109E Airfix on a scale of 1/48. It will be modification Bf- 109E1 of the Legion "Condor" during the Spanish company.

So, I finished off the 1/700 Prince of Wales, and thought that the new Airfix Beaufighter would make a good subject. But first, a short story... Last year, my local IPMS chapter decided to run group builds on their Facebook page, in addition to the themes and group builds run within the club. Our first was a P-47 GB - as per the Britmodeller one being run this year. So far, nothing much to see here, but... Our first meeting for this year had a "Best of British' theme. Adding to that, two of our three IPMS yearly GBs have British subjects - the Airifx new release Beaufighter and the Takom Chieftain. So of course, I come over here and....hmmm It gets better. Helicopter GB scheduled for mid-Feb? - my clubs version started in Jan. "Red Storm Rising"? not far from our Russian Jets GB that ran from October last year. So - should I worry about the Britmodeller spy in my club, or just pass them this year's calendar to make it easier for them Anyway - enough Tinfoil. Given the Beau will satisfy two group builds, it made an obvious choice. Plus I love Beaufighters - I have this, plus a Matchbox TF.X, a 1/72 Hasegawa RAAF kit and the Tamiya 1/48 Mk.VI. So far I've kicked off with some interior green for the first asemblies. Our club group build specifies that it must be OOB apart from decals, so that's what it will be. Hopefully this fuselage will fit together a little better than the new Blenheim did...

Here's my entry for a wonderful GB on yet another forum which theme is; "The name of the subject needs to have an animal in it...". The options are endless, and I decided to dive into the stash and grab one of my antiques. And I have plenty of antiques to chose from... But only one that ticks all of my -and- all of the GBs boxes... Matchbox kit? Check. 1/32 scale, and thus a nice big canvas to work with? Check. Room for improvement with minimal scratchbuilding? Check. Fits into the GB? TRRRRRIPLE CHECK BABY!! Tiger >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger Moth >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moth Tiger Moth >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_tiger_moth It's three times the animal it needs to be! Yummy multicolour box content. Matchbox was doing MCP before it was cool. Eat that, Academy! Decal sheet... and they look like they might (being very cautious here...) still be usable... Trees... lovely crisp parts, no hint of flash on anything. One of the advantages of using an early boxing! I -had- one of the Revell reboxes in the stash, and that one had a lot more flash and sinkmarks. And even if it didn't have a decal option for the floatplane version, it did have a nice Dutch decal option... oh well... Classic Matchbox instructions. Gotta love them, sooo much nostalgia! But the Revell instructions I downloaded have a nice bonus; loads of rigging help! And trust me, I need all the help I can get when I'm rigging... I want to try to build this OOB as much as I can. Perhaps some harnesses and some tinkering with the engine, but nothing major. I will be working on this one whenever the Wendover build grinds to a halt for whatever reason. Good way to keep sane... (I hope) More soooon! Rob

- Hi, I'm Sebastien and I'm a Tornadoholic - Hi Sebastien. This kit is lovely, and now I have two under my belt and a dozen or so to build, I thought I might do a WIP. My point isn't to build the ultimate Tornado. I couldn't, and the one and only General Melchett is doing a brilliant job about it. I'm just here to help average modellers like me to avoid the little troubles you can have building this kit. So I'll accept all pointers, kicks in the butt, subtle and not so subtle hints and bribes Lagavulin pieces of advice you'll throw my way, and be grateful about them. Now, on with the build. I started by more or less following the instructions (yeah, I know, who does that?), and assembled the cockpit to the fuselage bottow and front wheel well : I glued the WSO instrument panel and while the glue was setting, I dry fitted a nose wall to the fuselage. That way, the instrument panel took its intended position without fuss. I scrounged the IPs from a Tornado IDS and the console panels from the GR4 kit: Then it was time to install the air intakes, without gluing the front to the fuselage: Now, the intake ramps. On the left, how they should be for a Tornado sitting on the ground. On the right, how they are in the box. You have to remove the protruding bit. Shaun, thanks for the tip. The intake fronts are assembled and glued to the nose walls. The nose walls are dryfitted to the fuselage: The importance of not gluing the intake block front to the fuselage is there: now, you have some leeway to adjust everything. I don't remember who wrote about that here, and I'm sorry, but whoever you are, thanks a lot. To be continued.

First model of the year, last model of 2015, who knows... Cheers, S.

Hi folks, I was happily putting an AMK Kfir C2 together when a Tornado subrepticiously crept up on my table. I couldn't resist its brutish charm, and a weekend later, there it was: Some grey paint(s) later: The laser rangefinder is from Italeri kit. And now, it's masking time. Borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring... Really boring... And now for some Gunze dark green (H330): Masks away! The flaps are on: Next, the slats and I'll start the loooong decalling process, thanks to the Xtradecals stencils sheet. If anybody could point me to a RAF 1500l external fuel tank, I'd be delighted... Cheers, S.

Hi folks, I thought I'd start a build thread for the new Airfix Beaufighter. As I have 5 of 'em, this is an oob trailblazer to see how it goes together and where, if anywhere, the pitfalls are. So, let battle commence . . . On the first night, I merely assembled a series of sub-assemblies (is it just me that sometimes likes just gluing big bits of plastic together without painting them?). Anyway, it's quite possible to do that on this kit. For instance, wing halves can be joined straight away without pre-painting - although remember to open up the requisite holes in the lower wing section for rocket blast plates if you're using 'em; inserts in the 'horizontal' tailplane fit like a glove and can be popped straight in, then fin halves can be added; the cabin floor / wing spar assemblies can also be joined together straight away. Great! Looks like progress. As usual with new Airfix, the plastic is somewhat soft, so be careful removing parts from the sprues and cleaning them up. Most of the parts have visible mould seams. These aren't bad, but are a bit surprising on a new kit. Also, be careful to check fit before gluing parts. Tight tolerances are the norm, and sometimes some minor fettling is required to ensure a good fit. Obviously, this is good modelling practice anyway, and it makes the kit feel like it requires some skill, and isn't just a "shake and bake" build - which is a good thing for me anyway. One thing: it's a good idea to paint the cockpit side consoles before adding them to the fuse halves. OK, I know it's obvious, but I couldn't be bothered and it was mildly fiddly to paint them up after they had been joined. Oh - and make sure you get the side consoles in the right place. It is obvious, but I managed to screw up the placement of one of them, which entailed some surgery to the IP when it came to add it. On the second night, I did some painting of the fuselage interior, undercarriage legs, wheels / tyres and engine / nacelle parts. I also added the IP decal. The photo below shows where I began the following night: Next step was to add the IP (after aforementioned butchery) and tailwheel, then join the fuselage halves. This was a really good fit and Tamiya X-thin was used once paint had been scraped from the mating surfaces. I then added the tail assembly and, while this was drying, assembled the main wheels and engine cylinders. (The latter had one coat of Tamiya X-18 semi-gloss black. Without a primer, this only provided partial coverage, but as this nicely accentuated the detail on the cylinders - subsequently enhanced with a dry-brush of Humbrol polished Aluminium - I left it as is). Some more detail parts were also added to the interior, again after some detail painting, leaving me here: Once the tail feathers had had a chance to set up a bit, I added the cockpit floor / interior / wing spars. Again, a small amount of mould seam removal / fettling was required, but the result was a really good fit. The underfuselage 'tray' was also then added. Another good fit: Finally, for the evening, the wing assemblies were added. Yet another good fit: So, this was where I ended things for my third evening of work on the Beau. More soon. regards, Martin