Search the Community

Roden is to release a 1/32nd Spad XIII kit - ref. 634 Source: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11367.0 V.P.

As my first 4 "easy" builds are either finished or getting close it is time to start on my final, slightly more complicated build. I have already built one of the Roden 232 (8 Rad) kits as a normal armoured car but this will be the version equipped with a longer range radio. As you will note there are 2 upper hulls on the sprue, the one on the right being for the one equipped with a short 75mm gun, but that is for another kit in their range and this will be with a turret. Markings are provided for one in Russia and another in Italy in the late war "gelb" finish together with a Romanian one, but I may just build this in desert colours as my gelb has run out! It is not a difficult kit, but there are a lot of small fiddly parts with not very clear locations and the "undercarriage" on my last one was hard work and was not too well aligned so I will have to take more care this time round. Pete

Roden is to release a 1/72nd North American AJ-1 Savage kit - ref. 063 Sources: http://www.roden.eu/HTML/063.html https://1999.co.jp/eng/10908285 https://www.greenmats.club/forums/topic/9511-roden-172-aj-1-savage-—-в-разработке/ I wish the same but in 1/48th V.P.

Started last year for the Bristol GB entered into KUTA and having been reminded that this is the Centenary of the founding of the Air Corp finished today.

Roden is to release a 1/144th Heinkel He.111H-6 kit - ref. 341 Source: http://www.roden.eu/HTML/framemodels.htm V.P.

This is the kit, it’ll be oob as much as possible. Sprues. There’s a nice decal sheet but that’s gone straight to the decal box as I won’t be using it. This is the scheme. Although I think it should be khaki not PC10.

BOAC Super VC10 Mid 1960s This is the Roden 1/144 kit with Two Six decals built from the box except for a bit of sanding around the nose to reduce the sharpness of the change in profile from parallel to tapered in plan view, and addition of the two small fences on each wing leading edge. I also emphasised the flaps, slats and spoilers slightly by some light scribing before highlighting with mid grey paint to get them to stand out a little more than the panel line engraving, which is nice but just a little heavy for this scale.

This was brought on a whim; I’d never heard of it but liked the quirkiness. PKZ- 2 artillery observation platform / helicopter Roden 1/72 Its an experimental Austro-Hungarian replacement for observation balloons it flew a few times in the spring of 1918 before being shelved. interesting build, quite fiddly and difficult to line things up - rigging was shall we say challenging. Quite pleased with the end result though

A bit of a late start but I think that I should be able to wrap this one up before the GB finishes. With plenty of military aircraft being built I decided to switch from my original plan to complete an Airfix Shackleton MR.2, bought as a gift by Mrs N when it was initially released, and join in the fun with this very British subject. The kit decals look a little fuzzy around the edges so I have ordered a set from 26 Decals which are on the way. Here are the box and contents shots. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr John.

Well, I know this subject was quite popular last time but having recently got some decals from Ray at 26Decals to replace those that came with the kit (which were poorly printed) this will be my first foray into this year's GB. Photos taken by me at Ringway on 23 Aug 1966, presumably it was on the Manchester - Prestwick - New York route. I'm aiming to build at least two aircraft but have to get my From Russia with Love entry done before too much will be done in this GB. Regards Mike

Roden is to release a 1/144th Convair B-36B (early) Peacemaker kit - ref. 347 Source: https://www.facebook.com/RodenKits/posts/3667839006565825 Box art V.P.

Not posted for a while but quite pleased with this so here goes …… I found this kit while clearing a cupboard that hadn’t been accessible until recently for some years, I started it back in 2002 got fed up trying to do the wood effect so gave up. I decided to give it another go stripped the bodged wood effect to give the oil paint method a try don’t think it’s come out too bad. First go at rigging as well, it’s too fine but I’m not redoing it !!! I think I may have to try another one now, possibly an old Toko Hansa Brandenberg DI I’ve got in the stash somewhere. Albatros DII Jasta 24 Western Front March 1917 flown by the Austro-Hungarian ace Godwin Brumowski during his training on the Albatros Roden 1/72 kit: Reddog base : aerobonus figure

Hi, guys... This is my latest build and it's Roden's 1/32 scale Fokker triplane. This is quite a good kit but certainly challenging in places. The fit of the bottom wing was difficult, and I decided to remove the central tab between the wings and add it separately into the lower fuselage, then add in a strengthening spar so that the wings could be re-attached. However, I first had to get over the issue with the parts for the bottom wing's uppersurfaces missing from the box. I thought I could use balsa wood to build up the top surfaces and this worked well. I used some wood filler to smooth out the wood grain on one wing, and standard Humbrol model filler on the other, just as an experiment. Both appear to have worked equally well. Some additional detail was added to the wing leading edges using plastic card, as this detail was evident on the surfaces of the other wings. So, in these images below, you can see the progress of the build. Scrap plastic was carefully heated over a candle and stretched thin, and this was then added into the fuselage interior, after which wood-effect transfers were aded in between the upper and lower areas as they were prominent in the real aircraft. The engine was also put together at this time and along with the various cockpit pieces, all parts were blackwashed prior to installation. Next up, a general 'pale linen' shade was applied to the upper and side surfaces, over which was 'drybrush streaked' pale medium green, then dark green to create the well-known streak camouflage effect on this aircraft. It was applied vertically on the fuselage sides, but diagonally on the wings and upper fuselage. Both shades required two thin coats in order to create some depth. The kit's cowling was replaced using an item from the Aviattic range. And here, the model is now at an advanced stage. The pale blue rear fuselage and tail, and the red cowling, struts and wheel hubs have all been attended to and the markings are now being applied. The aircraft carried the pilot's personal emblem, a swastika with narrow arms, and these were created using items from my spare transfers box. At this time, the swastika was a good luck emblem used by pilots of various nations during the conflict. Additional stencils and various dials were culled from spare WnW transfer sheets. Coming towards the end of the build now, the central and top wings are in place and linked to the wing struts, although the cabane struts have still to be inserted under the centre of the top wing. The guns and propellor are all from the kit and look good after careful painting and blackwashing. Below, this is a good image to show the cockpit detail. The pilot's seat was given a cushion made from a small piece of tissue, wrapped in masking tape which has a slight texture to it, and then trimmed to the shape of the seat. Prior to painting, the 'cushion' was creased and then painted with a thin red and black mix, carefully appying two coats and allowing the black in particular to gather in the creases, thus making it look more authentic. Seat belts were provided from the spares box. The dial for the compass was another item from a WnW transfer sheet. Here on the undersides, the access panel behind the engine and the very thin 'deflector' shield with notches to accommodate the undercarriage struts were ietms not supplied in the kit, therefore were made using thin plastic card. The undersides of the undercarriage aerofoil were not correct for this version, so the detail was filled in and two small rectangles, again from plastic card, were added. Some minimal blackwashing was applied here and on the tailplane hinges, as well as on the added panels behind the engine, where oil often heavily stained this area as a result of escaping from the rotary engine. Some minimal rigging is required between the undercarriage struts and the cabane struts, and I used GasPatch turnbuckles for this task. I especiialy like this photo, as it shows the detail of the replacement cowling very well, and also the leading edge detail on the lower wing which largely compliments the same detail in plastic on the other two wings. An additional fuel tank filler point was opened on the forward fuselage close behind the turnbuckles as only one is provided for in the model All looks good, but... shhh, don't tell anyone the 'Axial' propellor logo is on the wrong way round... if the propellor is vertical, the logo should be readable when standing in front of it, and not upside down... oops! I will do better next time... ;-). And so, the end result. A nice colourful addition to my collection, and thankfully, one that doesn't require too much in the way of rigging. I hope you like the model, and thanks for looking in. If you want to see a short video of the build, you can find it here on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61biLArsDU There as also a couple of other videos there of recent builds. Until the next time, keep safe. Regards, Paul

Valery Grygorenko was 58 years old. https://www.facebook.com/Valery-Grygorenko-135466203164415 http://grygorenko.narod.ru/index.html Sources: https://www.facebook.com/RodenKits/photos/a.1045535452129540/5692005877482451/ https://www.facebook.com/Alex.Precisemodeling/posts/5004490822966509 Смерть русско-фашистским захватчикам ! V.P.

Guys, as my Duck has come to a rest due to some parts went into orkus, so I need something in between, until the parts will arrive. Or maybe more, as I'm afraid I've lost a bit of rhythm in the Duck build, due to some work issues and consequently long breaks, so maybe some pause from that will turn healthy. As for this I will return a bit more on my homeground of WWI biplanes, and now it's for some classics as well. And I plan not to do only one, but two fishnets at once. Here's what's on the bench, waiting for some paint and glue: It's the Sopwith 1½ Strutter by Roden and the Sopwith Camel by Eduard in the Revell boxing, both in 1/48. Well, can't be more classic, and as I usually try to get somewhat involved in history as well, I hope to double this with this build of two. (And yes, I hope to reduce the stash faster buy this. Let's see). I don't (yet) plan to build some specific aces' machines, but rather generic ones, but concentrate on materials, and some details. Still not sure about turnbuckles, as I usually find these oversized in 1/48, but I have to order some pieces at Gaspatch, so this could have an effect on this decision. Apart from the type/company and scale, there will not be to many similarities, the kits look rather different. Also I plan two different schemes, while the Strutter will receive a brownish scheme, the Camel will get more Olive Drab, with the cockpit panels most likely unpainted wood. Or so far's my thoughts on it. As I'm not that much of an expert on Sopwiths, I definitely hope for your input and remarks. 🙂

This will be a fun project, I love the look of the dark plywood fuselage with lozenge wings. The lozenge decals come with the kit and I'll give them a try. The only things I'm adding are some leftover Spandau cooling jackets and a little WNW windshield. The plastic is very soft!! I tried trimming some flash with a sharp knife and took out a big slice of the wing root. It will make it easier to fix some of the kit design errors but I'll have to be careful. Here are a couple things I'll fix, I have to thank Mike Sandbagger Norris for highlighting these deficiencies during his excellent build of this kit. The lifting points are actually fuselage longerons and so should be aligned along the horizontal panel lines. I will cut these out, reposition them and thin the walls from the inside.

Its taken me a long time to commit to my first work in progress, and have have to state now that my usual rate of progress is at best stately, at worst 'still life' So it would be sensible to start with something relatively straightforward. At lest that's what I told myself. But I didn't listen, and instead decided to take the challenging path, namely: There have been several excellent built examples of Roden's small scale D.VII shown in the ready for inspection section here, from the the descriptions no one was in too much of a hurry to repeat the experience. So why put myself through the ordeal of building a kit that is considered to have several significant flaws? In particular, why do it when there are alternatives, including Eduard's excellently engineered Albatros and OAW versions, much more recently released. I don't really know the answer, other than wanting to prove (to myself) that there are solutions to most of the problems, and the potential satisfaction of coming up with effective workarounds. The title hints at a duplication - not wishing to go in totally the wrong direction with an audience, a second kit is also on the bench, and is being used as a test bed for some ideas: In the best tradition of 'here's one I made earlier' if fixes work on the Fokker version, I'll use them on the OAW. Eventually I hope to catch up, and this will become an almost simultaneous build of both.

One of the great things about Britmodeller is learning from and being inspired by other modellers’ work. Some time ago @Turbofan posted a wonderful BOAC Super VC-10 in RFI and that was the push I needed to do one of my own, despite knowing I could never match Ian’s standards! My model was actually completed several months ago but I didn’t post it at the time because I wasn’t happy with some aspects, particularly the finishing. Unlike Ian who sensibly painted his cheatlines and fin, I used Two Six Decals. The cheatlines proved to be thick and intransigent and the less said about the fin decals the better. In fairness to Ray these problems are not typical. It was an old sheet which had been in my stash for some time and I see he is now using BOA for his printing so hopefully more recent issues will be better. I was also unhappy with the over-scale pitots and some of the other smaller details so I didn’t really feel the model was up to RFI standards. In the early summer my wife decided we were going to redecorate our shared office-cum-hobbies-room which meant a massive (and much-needed) clear-out during which I found the remains of an old Two Six Models photo-etch fret intended for the Airfix VC10. There were a couple of pitots and some other small parts left. That prompted me to revisit G-ASGD and after a bit of smartening up here she finally is. The kit is, of course, by Roden. As I’ve mentioned, decals are by Two Six. I supplemented them with Authentic Airliners BAC1-11 cabin windows, another idea pinched from Turbofan, and BM member @Malair provided the excellent windscreen decal - thanks Martijn! Although finishing was a bit of an issue, building the kit itself was easy and straightforward. I have a second one laid aside for conversion to a Standard, again borrowing ideas from other Britmodellers. No timescale for that just now but hopefully it will appear in the next couple of years. Thanks for looking and as always constructive criticism is welcome. Dave G

Sources: http://www.roden.eu/HTML/framemodels.htm http://www.aviationmegastore.com/pilatus-pc-6b-2h-4-turbo-porter-449-roden-4823017701649-scale-modelling/product/?shopid=LM519a29e05a8ea6464308c55d2a&action=prodinfo&parent_id=212&art=117032 V.P.

Time to start another WWI lovely. Pics of the bits and box art. Thanks for looking. Stephen

Roden is to release a 1/144th Douglas C-133A Cargomaster kit - ref.333 Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/greenmats/permalink/2123463997713131/ Box art V.P.

The Black Monster is done and off the bench. It was such a MOJO sucking build that I felt overwhelmed when I scanned the stash. I was looking for a build that will go faster and smoother and hopfully better matches my skills so a good outcome can be reached. I hope the Roden T-28B will fit the bill. The model looks nice, part count is good and the subject interesting. This is my first Roden, so I'm not in for a surprise. Some box and sprue images: I will be building the Marines version - I like the colors and do not fancy an all Yellow version. It's gonna be my first experience with an almost all white. Ran

Aviation Traders Limited Carvair. 1:144 Roden kit with Classic-airlines.com decals. The Carvair was developed to replace the Bristol Freighters used to transport cars & passengers across the English Channel to France, hence its name (Car-via-air). Modified from C-54/DC-4 airframes it was considerably cheaper than an all new aircraft would have been. The modifications consisted of a completely new forward fuselage, relocating the cockpit on top, much like the later Boeing 747, and a new tail fin to counter it. Its has been widely thought that the fin was from a DC-7, but apparently this is not true, they were new build units. The Roden kit build very well, although I did have to shim the upper inboard wings to avoid a gap where they meet the fuselage. The main gear legs were way too short, initially resulting in the rear of the fuselage almost touching the ground. I removed them and inserted a platform about 4mm deep to attach the legs to, in order to achieve the 'sit' you see here. I wasn't too keen on the kit supplied colour scheme for British Air Ferries, but found this 'British United' scheme at Classic-airlines.com, which I really like. There are also several others available. They are laser printed on constant film, so you have to cut each subject out individually. I can heartily recommend them though, they went on superbly and were easy to use. Enough chat, time for the photos (ugly innit?) ; 'With something else - an easy choice - A Welsh Models Bristol Freighter. Thanks for looking, John

Roden is to release a 1/144th Focke Wulf Fw.200C-6 Condor kit - ref. 340 Source: http://www.roden.eu/HTML/framemodels.htm V.P.

My latest finished build. Roden's Globemaster II "Old Shaky". To be honest - it was my first 'short run', and I'm not very satisfied with end result. But I'm glad it is finished and now have time for something new 😉 I added to less weight in nose section, and model is tending to be "tail sitter", so I had to add the tail support, which I have seen on real photos, so it is not pure sci-fi 🤣 Now I've got two Globemaster's in collection: C-124 and C-17. Please feel free to provide constructive criticism 👍