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Slightly odd one here, This is something of a mule build of RS Models' Ki-87 prototype. The design really caught my eye, with pleasing lines and the turbo unceremoniously crammed in and sticking randomly out the side. The slender shape belies the size; this thing is about on par with a P-47 and looks ludicrously out of scale next to something like a Spitfire. The kit itself is nice; the detail parts are very basic, the frames and sprue gates are pretty messy and limited-runnish and the hand drawn instructions having a about the detail and precision to match the parts themselves. Still, I think RS have got the important stuff right; while I can't speak to the accuracy of the shape, the surface detail is fine (if a little simple) and canopy aside, the overall shape comes together quite nicely with a bit of care and cleanup. Overall quite enjoyable. The canopy needed a fair bit of reshaping, both inside the clear part and on the fuselage; and frankly still required rather more work than I ended up putting in. I hope you'll forgive a bit of drivel, I've been too lazy to document this stuff in a WIP. The build itself is rather rough I'm afraid. I used this really as a training model, trying out lots of things for the first time, and consequently didn't go to any great effort to get it perfect, nor to add detail. Really the plan was to learn to use metallics; mostly getting a good finish and then experimenting with ways to weather them, and break up that rather bland, sharp-edged look that you get once they're freshly applied. I wasn't particularly bothered about accuracy, really just playing with techniques that could just as easily go on sci-fi build or something. The various experiments were as follows: I had a first, rather lazy go at riveting the model (again in the hope of breaking up the metallics a bit). The work is pretty rough, nice to have the practice. Getting a good gloss layer for the metallics is always a work in progress. In this case I used black Mr finishing surfacer 1500, then sanded back with 1200-5000 grit to smooth the slightly rough plastic down (until speckly gray and black). Then glossed with Mr Color 002, polished a little, followed by Alclad Dark Aluminium and patches of stainless steel. I was pretty happy with the result. The good bit about this scheme, there was no need for any decals. The Antiglare, leading edges, Hinomarus and prop were masked, then got a protective Aquagloss; VMS chipping solution; Tamiya acrylic satined with X22. A bit of chipping and wearing, a bit of repairing, then all sealed again with aquagloss. I had a first go at shading panel edges and general dirt with Tamiya X19 smoke. This wasn't particularly successful, and since it comes out almost wet glossy, required those areas to be toned down again with VMS satin varnish, which affected the metal look somewhat. The overall look is a rather overblown attempt at shamelessly stealing this lovely brushed metal effect. I used very thinned brushed on Tamiya NATO black, but being Tamiya it's rather unforgiving and a lot of stripping and metallic repair work resulted. The brushed effect probably isn't very realistic, but (in the other model) I thought it looked really nice and added nice 'texture' to the metals. Mine turned out way over the top however, and the smaller scale probably didn't help. I'd try a more forgiving type of paint next time. I had a mess around using oils to highlight and shade panels in between rivets. It didn't work at all. In the end there's some finishing with tamiya powders, oil washes and other faffing around. Anyway sorry after all that spiel, this is what I ended up with: Anyway, fun experiment. Thanks for looking in. Andy

Following our Leader's plea for a little Arado floatplane, I somewhat foolishly put my hand up with the offer to build this, the RS Models offering of the Arado Ar-199 ("early version" - whatever that means!). Now, I know next-to-nothing about these little aeroplanes, and as I don't really intend to wipe the bloom off my cherished ignorance it'll be built largely OOB (although I don't expect I'll be able to resist adding to the interior detail ). Of the marking schemes provided I really prefer the box-top example, but unfortunately it operated off a fresh-water lake ergo, it'll have to be either of the others both of which appear to have had briny boots. It looks like Kora do a beaching trolley arrangement, so I may end up with one of those at some point. More when the plastic turns up! Cheers, Mark

Following a short discussion on my Arma Yak-1b thread with @Bertie McBoatface about P-39s, my crazy thought processes sent me off down yet another rabbit hole. Utter lunacy. A P-39 intended for the US Navy, but only ever a prototype..... RS Models Bell XFL-1 Airabonita in 1/72 scale. Kit ordered. Am I completely crackers? Cheers, Mark

Hi, today I would like to share my Avia B-534 in the markings of the plane flown by Captain Jan Pernikar, 44th Fighter Squadron of the 1st Air Regiment, Czechoslovak Air Force, 1936. The plane's serial number is B.534.81. On June 19th 1936, Cpt. Pernikar suffered an accident in this aircraft at Uzhhorod. He later flew Hawker Hurricanes in No. 245 Squadron RAF in 1941, and participated in the Slovak National Uprising in 1944. This was a charming and well-designed little kit that took me about a week to build. It is brush painted and the rigging is EZ Line .003" elastic. Thanks for looking and enjoy the pictures!

RS Models has just reissued its 1/72nd Kawasaki Ki-60 - IJA Heavy Fighter - under ref. 92282 Sources: https://www.rsmodels.cz/p/409/92282-kawasaki-ki-60 https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/RSMI92282 Box art Markings: Ki-60, 2nd prototype, Japan 1941 Ki-60, 244th Sentai, Japan 1941 /alternate marking/ Ki-60, 244th Sentai, Japan 1941 /alternate marking/ Ki-60, captured by the Americans, 1945 /alternate marking/ V.P.

Source: http://modelweb.modelforum.cz/2013/09/23/novinky-rs-models-na-rijen-2013/?lang=CS New RS Models 1/72nd Lockheed P-38D Lightning kit - ref.92154 V.P.

My latest build is a Yak 11 trainer as flown by the Austrian Airforce in the 1950's. I have to say this was an exasperating build, as the kit suffered from several areas of deficiency, mostly in fit, but it had its fair share of other awkwardnesses. My late mother in law was Austrian, and because of that family tie, I've already built some planes as flown by the Austrian Air force (AAF) and have several more to do. We used to see planes and helicopters from the AAF bimbling along the valley below us on our fairly regular visits to Austria to visit relatives. Ummm .. "bimbling along the valley below us", you say? Yes, as the relatives we stayed with lived half way up the valley, about 3,000 ft up, and there was another 2 or 3,000 feet of valley above us. So we'd, as I say, often see planes following the river at the bottom of the valley, below us, which was quite an interesting sight! When I saw the model advertised and it had decals for an AAF plane, and wasn't trainer yellow, but a more modest blue grey, It had to join the others in the stash. It's not a particularly big plane, but it is noticeably bigger than the Zlin Z-126 trener which I've recently built in 1/72. The kit suffered from bad fit. It's easy to blame failings on the kit (and you'll see plenty in the photos) but genuinely, this kit don't fit. The worst was the cockpit, where the instructions have an arrow from the "floor" to vaguely near the fuselage side wall. The "floor" of the cockpit is so narrow, that if you fixed it to one side, it would be 6 mm or so distant from the other half of the fuselage. I made a sort of frame for the floor to fix on to is the cockpit opening at what I thought looked like middle and the right height.. The wing didn't fit to the fuselage, the cowling - fitted perfectly on one side, but was 2 mm too wide on the other side. Much sanding and cursing, even though I could have used a shim. The little bit of etch I used went on ok, but there's an area on the fuselage forward of the canopy with a vent covered by a grill, but there isn't a mesh grill in the p/e for this. It does kind of cry out for an etch piece there; checked the stash of unused etch from previous builds and had nothing useful, so left it in the end. I used some Brengun P/e, yahu instrument panels, montex masks, some albion alloys tube, and humbrol 247 to represent the blue gray colour. Seatbelts were from some generic Japanese set, they aren't particularly visible so I think I'll get away with it. Much cursing, sanding, filling and almost binning went on, for far too long on this build. The cockpit canopy gave me grief too, being not quite the same shape as the opening on the fuselage. In the end, after I somehow managed to get a superglue trace on the canopy, I filled the gaps (badly) with Canopy 580 which hasn't improved the look. Probably masking and painting it off the model didn't help. Still, as my mate in Canada says when I tell him the litany of woes around my builds, "a blind man would be glad to see them". latest on the bench is the Revell 1/72 He 162 A-1, which from Scalemates looks to be a re box of a Lindberg model, from something like 1965, though the box I have shows a copyright date of 1984. I've already had as little go at dry fitting some parts - they fit excellently! I almost damn near fainted.

RS Models is to release a new the 1/72nd Bücker Bü-131 "Jungmann" kits . - ref. 92192 - Bücker Bü-131A "Jungmann" Source: http://rsmodels.cz/en/modely-letadel/plastikove-modely/1-72/92192/bucker-bu-131a - ref. 92193 - Bücker Bü-131D "Jungmann" Source: http://rsmodels.cz/en/modely-letadel/plastikove-modely/1-72/92193/bucker-bu-131-d V.P.

RS Models is to release a 1/72nd Praga E-141 Diesel kit - ref. 94004 Source: http://rsmodels.cz/cs/modely-letadel/limitovana-edice/1-72/94004/praga-e-141-diesel V.P.

I never found the elusive Airfix Lightning back in the pre-internet days. Looking forward to finally be able to build one - not being nostalgic I went for a more modern kit: This is a blond spot for me - I know nothing about the plane, operations they were invlolved in, or even what’s in the box. Will I want some AM goodies? Next week will be spent pondering about this and learning something about the subject.

This is @Col. fault. I mentioned in my XIII thread that the XII came with the kit too. So here is a place marker to build thee Zlin XII 2-seater prototype using the RS Models kit in 1/72. The scheme I'll be doing. It's the bigger bag and also comes with some PE and a resin nose. Stuart

Here is one of my entries for this GB. I recently stumbled across this racer and promptly acquired this Zlin Z-XIII racer, a type I've never heard of before. Designed in 1937 as either a high speed executive transport or as a single seat competition aircraft where they fitted a shorter canopy, removed the front seat and fitted a fairing...novel. Box art. Stuff in a bag, a collection of plastic, resin and PE. Can't remember building a kit from this manufacturer so it'll be interesting. Stuart

Well, after much chopping, filling sanding and other general mayhem, this combination of the RS Models P-322 1 and the MPC P-38F models have been beaten into a semblance of the very first Lightning, the XP-38. For those who might be interested in the hows and whys, the build thread is HERE. The pics: Thanks for looking in. Ed

RS Models is to release 1/72nd Aero A-101/Ab-101 kits Source: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2824076454509489&id=1534638753453272 First test sprues pics V.P.

RS Models (http://rsmodels.cz/en/Homepage/default) is to release some Yakovlev Yak-11/C-11 "Moose" kits - first ref. 92165 & 92166 Yak-11 / C-11 "Moose" - ref.92165 Source: http://rsmodels.cz/en/modely-letadel/plastikove-modely/1-72/92165/yak-11-c-11-moose Remember MikroMir has also a 1/72nd Yak-11 in its 2014 programme... http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234959446-new-mikro-mir-aircraft-programme-2014/?hl=mikro Yak-11 / C-11 "Moose" - ref.92166 Source: http://rsmodels.cz/en/modely-letadel/plastikove-modely/1-72/92166/yak-11-c-11-moose V.P.

It's almost a year since I last finished a model, but I'm pleased that I've finally got this one over the line after a good couple of years in the making. It's my second go at a P-51H in 1/72, and follows my first attempt in 2016, which is still lurking somewhere here on BM. As before I used the RS Models kit, with quite a few modifications this time, having studied the excellent new Modelsvit 1/48 kit, the David McLaren book on the P-51H, and photos/videos of original and preserved airframes. I robbed the undercarriage legs and some photo-etch for the cockpit from the CMR kit - the only really useable parts I'm afraid - as well as the flaps from an Airfix D-model, slightly reshaped for H purposes. Drop tanks were nabbed from a Hasegawa B/C kit. I also spent a lot of time getting the fin/rudder shape right, as the RS kit is a bit awry in this area. I wanted to model an early USAAF/USAF aircraft rather than a later ANG airframe, and so opted for a recreation of 44-64195 "Louisiana Heatwave" which was flown in around 1947 by former 8th Air Force P-51D pilot Claude Crenshaw. The name came from an old Microscale/Superscale P-51D set, with the letters separated and repositioned in line with photo evidence of Crenshaw's H. Buzz numbers and stars & bars came from Techmod and were excellent. Swastikas were from Kits World. Other decals came from the kit. All in all the model was a lot of work, and for the most part enjoyable.... Still I think it's an improvement on my first effort, which was the main objective. Hope you like it. Although H-model clamshell doors didn't bleed down on shutdown as they did on B/C/D models, they could be lowered for maintenance purposes. So I decided to display them down, really to show off the detail on the inner faces of the doors. Some pics from the build: These show the fin/rudder correction under way: making the rudder post truly perpendicular with the direction of travel; making the fin leading edge more vertical with an insert of plastic card, and reducing the height of the fin a touch. Lots of filling, sanding, priming, repeat... The Modelsvit 1/48 kit was helpful in getting the cockpit into a better state. The RS instrument panel comes up nicely though with some judicious highlighting. Almost ready for final priming and then paint (Alclad shades for the NMF and wing sprayed lacquer). I also extended the tailplanes by about 2mm on each side and made them slightly squarer rather than too tapered. This is the airframe I was trying to replicate. On the basis of that photo I assumed that 44-64195 did not have the tailwheel locked down and doors removed which was a safety precaution of the time. But then just as I was finishing up, I found a better print which confirms that the tailwheel was indeed locked down in this period: Too bad - I'm leaving the doors on now! Thanks for looking. Justin

Some of you may be following my 1/72 Glider thread, which is currently stalled awaiting some additional glider mojo to get onto the next build, a couple of Grunau Baby’s. In parallel with that build, I have also been working on a several other 1/72 aircraft (no WIP for these). One of those builds was this one....... So here is my rendition of the RS Models F-51H. First, the box art which is pretty striking and a scheme I seriously considered doing, but in the end opted for the all red (topside) aircraft. And the rear shows the options available from this kit, all decals supplied within. The decals themselves were superb quality. In my experience, RS kits are quite a challenge to build but, IMHO they carry very subtle surface detail and seem to compare very well in accuracy and shape, when finally knocked into shape......... oh and I do quite like them! This one was no less of a challenge, and certainly very basic when compared with the recent Arma Hobby P-51’s built on here by both @Procopius and @Cookenbacher. Those builds have inspired me to build a further mustang, from an Arma Hobby kit of course! So there you are Edward and Cookie, I've actually finished it! As there was no WIP, here are a few shots in progress for those who like to see bare plastic......... And just to prove there is something inside the cockpit. A bit close and cruel this one! After two coats of Tamiya LP-7 Red I used quite a cocktail of paints, having now got over my dread of mixing different types of acrylics, lacquers and enamels. Care and consideration in application is key of course, but mixing paint types does work if you are careful! The whole model received a primer coat of Mig Ammo One Shot grey primer. This paint goes on beautifully straight from the bottle, airbrushed of course. The undersides were painted with AK Xtreme Metal Aluminium, and the topsides are Tamiya Lacquer LP-7 Pure Red. The grey undercoat helped to slightly dull the brightness of the red, which is what I was after. The wingtip black bands were masked and airbrushed using Tamiya semi-gloss black Acrylic. MRP’s gloss varnish was applied prior to decals, and after decals, followed by some very light oil washes. A final coat of MRP’s semi-gloss varnish sealed everything in. These MRP varnishes have become one of my favourite solutions for finishing coats. I tried to keep weathering very subtle mostly using very light panel washes in slightly darker red brown on top, and grey undersides, as this aircraft was kept pristine for the 1954 gunnery meet. Learning my paint and weathering skills through watching Giorgio's @giemme builds! So, to the completed model. Shots are from my phone and the red seems to have come out very intense. In normal daylight it is slightly less so, and all of the very fine surface detail does indeed show up well! Some extra shots as @Winenut had quite rightly pointed out the panel washes were hard to see in the pictures. I think at certain distances, my mobile gets blinded by the red! And finally a couple of shots with her older stablemates. Comments/questions welcome Thanks for looking and watch out for a QF-86E coming soon in RFI! Terry

Ok, just to prove I am totally bonkers I am going to try to convert the extra kit of a Ki-100-1b to the earlier "High Back" version - I say try as it may not work. Here is the original kit. and this is what I hope to do with it. the kit version is at the bottom. Now there are probably several ways of doing this, the easiest of which is just to slap on some Milliput and sand it down, but the joint with the plastic is likely to look a bit rough. I have therefore decide to do it the hard way (of course) and cut off the upper fuselage along the panel line which runs down to a point in line with the horizontal tail. As you can see I have put ledges in to mount the white insert I will use as a base. I will then put some more card in to get the correct profile for the top of the fuselage, based on the plans. I may then add some more plastic to reduce the amount of filler needed and set the shape - I have not decided yet. The big problem will probably be whether or not I can get the cockpit interior in from the bottom after I have finished the work - I will certainly need to put the engine in before I close up the fuselage, so I can see a bit of experimenting ahead. I would obviously prefer not to have the cockpit in place when I am sanding down the fuselage spine, so next up is to finish cleaning up the horrid ejection pin turrets in the cowling and start fitting the engine. Cheers Pete

The RS Models 1/72nd Dornier 17 family (http://www.scalemates.com/products/reviews.php?scale=1:72&topic=Dornier%20Do%2017) will have two new members in form of Dornier Do.17E - ref.92071 Source: https://www.rsmodels.cz/en/p/351/92071-dornier-17-e Dornier Do.17F - ref.92072 Source: https://www.rsmodels.cz/en/p/350/92072-dornier-17-f V.P.

RS models is to re-release its old 1/72nd Junkers Ju-86 kits. - ref. 92276 - Junkers Ju-86P Sources: https://www.rsmodels.cz/en/p/396/92276-junkers-ju-86p https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/RSMI92276 - ref. 92277 - Junkers Ju-86R Sources: https://www.rsmodels.cz/en/p/397/92277-junkers-ju-86r https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/RSMI92277 V.P.

Growing up in the 1950/60's without the internet, my knowledge of Japanese and for that matter Italian and Russian aircraft was extremely limited, but on my way back from school in around 1963 I popped into a bookshop and I came across a small book with a red cover – Volume 3 of William Green's “War Planes of the Second World War” which covered Japanese and Russian Fighters. It was truly an eye-opener as until then the only Japanese planes I had heard of were the Zero and Betty! Not long after that Revell UK released their Ki-43 Oscar and Ki-61 Tony, and at some point I had a shot at converting one of the latter into a Ki-100 with a hand carved wooden nose and plenty of plastic wood as I did not have any proper filler. Many years later I replaced the Ki-61 with a Hasegawa kit, and about 10 years ago I finally saw a Ki-100 from RS advertised on Hannants site. I bought one, and a few years later, due to being disorganised I bought another – both are the Ki-100-Ib low back version unfortunately but I do have some Falcon canopies so it time permits I might have a crack at converting one back to a Ki-100-Ia. It is I suppose a typical Czech kit - nicely detailed, with a resin engine, but no locating pins etc and rather vague instructions. I suspect the grey plastic side panels below the bag with the engine and canopy are for their Ki-100-II version which had a turbocharger, of which only 3 were built and it never entered service - they are not used in this build. It also looks like there may be two different upper panels, presumably for different fuselage nose armament - pity they did not also include the high back fuselage as it would save me a lot of work if I do build the second one! I think there are/were a couple of other Ki-100 kits released by other manufacturers. I remember seeing the Aoshima "Goshikisen" in adverts in various mags back in the 70/80's and apparently Fine Moulds did one too. Scalemates say Aoshima brought out a new moulding in 2013 so that may still be available. Cheers Pete

RS Models has just re-released its 1/72nd Heinkel He-112B kit (link) - ref. 92263 - Heinkel He-112B - Spanish AF Sources: https://www.rsmodels.cz/en/p/378/92263-heinkel-112b-spain https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/RSMI92263 - ref. 92265 - Heinkel He-112B - Romanian AF & Luftwaffe Sources: https://www.rsmodels.cz/en/p/380/92265-heinkel-112-b-luftwaffe https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/RSMI92265 VP.

RS Models is to release 1/72nd Arado Ar.199 kits - ref. 92271 (early) & 92272 (late). Sources: https://www.aviationmegastore.com/arado-ar199-rs-models-92264-aircraft-scale-modelling/product/?action=prodinfo&art=185904 https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=298443965605197&id=100063187870655&m_entstream_source=timeline Box art V.P.

RS Models has just released a 1/72nd Kawasaki Ki-100-I (low back type) kit - ref. 92273 Source: https://www.rsmodels.cz/en/p/391/92273-kawasaki-ki-100-i-low-back Box art V.P.

Hi all Been working on this one, it's the RS models P322-1 Lightning, a limited run model that was quite enjoyable to assemble. I have wanted to aquire a Lightning with roundels for my collection. It has been assembled OOB apart from some foil seatbelts and brushpainted in Humbrol and Colourcoats enamels. Thanks for looking Chris