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Source: https://blog.revell.de/2024/modellbau/scale-modelworld-reveal-hawker-hunter-t-7-t-7a-in-132/ V.P.

Another old one from the stash. It's pretty much all OOB apart from the odd tweak. I'll be doing the CAG version from the box artwork. So, the cockpit is done. Drybrush, Posca pens and transparent green with PVA over the top. This must of been an old 'B' version that got upgraded as the screen is round. Or Revell fluffed it... The seats are in as a dry fit. The Dspiae clamp is great to work with. I like their kit. And a bit of weight in the nose to make sure it won't try to sit on its tail.

Well, this is me popping my GB cherry! The title of this GB immediately took me to the late 80s and the fall of the Berlin Wall: giving my 18 year old self hope for a brighter future. If I remember correctly, it was a classic car show at the Oulton Park Circuit - I'm guessing in 1990 - where I first saw a Trabant and, to be honest, I haven't seen many more since. The kit I've chosen is the 1:24 scale Revell offering in 'Builders' Choice' guise but, ironically, I'll be ditching all the doves, peace signs and related text This is actually a pretty comprehensive kit, straight out of the box, with opening bonnet and boot and even seat belts! Even so, I can't just build it straight. So I'm going for a car whose owner made it past the wall and to either Spain or Belgium (not sure which yet: I like the Belgian reg plate better, but Spain makes more sense because I'll be ditching all the cold start/heating guff in the engine bay) and was inducted into the local modding scene. Initially, I'd considered doing a Mazda 13B rotary swap because, from what I understand, the 601 was supposed to be a rotary when it was launched but the engine development stalled. On closer inspection, this would be a massive undertaking, so I decided to tune what I have! I'll warn you now, it's going to be obnoxious! My plan is to lower it 4-5 inches with, maybe, -3º front and -5º rear camber on banded original wheels with a very stretched tyre, and the wheels will be wider front than rear, 'cos the rears don't really do anything. It's also going to get a turbo! This will sit where all the heater gubbins currently lives and my plan is an induction trumpet poking out of the leading edge of the bonnet and the exhaust exiting through a 'hater pipe' about two thirds of the way up. Basically straight into the driver's line of sight. I'm thinking I'll cut the grille out and use mesh, so you can see the intercooler sat behind it. Here's a photo of what's in the box along with a spare Sparco seat and steering wheel (left over from my MX5 build), a ZoomOn harness in black for the driver and the paint scheme: ProScale Dodge Ivory with a blue roof - like the estate that was in IWM North (and may still be?) The Ford Engine Blue is way too dark, but it was a by product of trying to find a suitable representation of Mazda Mariner Blue for the MX5, so I'll lighten it with a bit of the Ivory or some such. First thing I need to do is fire up Fusion360 and start modelling a turbo, induction trumpet, exhaust manifold, hater pipe, intercooler and plumbing and some blanking plates to fill holes in the engine cooling shroud left by the removal of the original induction and exhaust. Also some wheels and tyres and a lowering/camber system (design to be confirmed). Looking at that photo, I hope that seat will fit! Excited for my first GB! Thanks for looking Martin

Hello Britmodellers, Revell released several He 70s, so here is their ICM rebox with the decals from their Matchbox reissue. A little extra detail was added to the rear cockpit as well as a replacement machine gun from the spares box, plus a new pitot tube from brass tube. Thanks for watching! Luka

Had this one for a while, and thought I would run it up so I could practice an NMF before tackling a more serious build, the Hasegawa Ki-61 (which I have failed to take many pictures of, so no WiP there). Only AM additions are belts and some QuickBoost radio boxes, though tbh you could add some wires to the kit versions and they would look pretty much as good So bear with me on this one...as with all kits there are two basic elements to the manufacture, the design and the mould-making. On the former, Revell have done, I think a fine job; the designer (Radu Brinzan?) has done some really clever stuff with the internals to ensure a good level of detail with no ambiguity in the fit, and each section locks into the other with no simple butt joins to spoil things with their sloppy fit. So Revell played a blinder in the first half. Where it goes wrong is with the mould itself. I would be fairly sure that Revell contract out the mould-making, and my advice - find another company. The similarities with Airfix of a couple of years ago here are notable, nice design but slightly rough moulds coupled with soft plastic result in a slightly disappointing build given the initial promise of the parts. Recently, Airfix have taken steps to resolve this - I don't know if they have changed their mould-maker (though they definitely did for the 1/24th Spit as the moulds were done in the UK not India) but the plastic in recent kits is definitely harder resulting in crisper detail. And this is where Revell have their problem: the detail has been designed in, but comes out rather soft, and there are prominent mould lines everywhere, and some small amounts of flash. Joining edges can be a bit rough and need a light pass just to improve the fit, indeed every part needs a bit of fettle, and after a while this becomes a bit wearing, not to mention the amount of plastic dust and scrapings being generated. Some examples: - soft detail and mould seams on the side consoles (I have already scraped the seams off the tops of the knobs in this photo) - seams on the gear legs - soft detail on the pedals and steps inside the frames - and after clean-up This is not say everything does not go together well - it does, it paints up nicely, and Revell have provided plenty of decals for the cockpit to spice things up (albeit they are a bit bright); as mentioned I only added belts and the radio boxes, and the odd wiring loom. Pleased with the wood effect I must say. Now the instrument panel; I did buy the Eduard LOOK panel, but the white elements were really not well printed and the whole thing did not look good as a result, so I used the kit part with decal, and after a fair amount of setting solution and careful touching up it looked OK - better than the LOOK panel anyway. Then it's on to construction - no impossibly major issues here just some fettling. I did opt to add the tail sections to their respective fuselage halves to try and reduce the step that is apparent here, but it will need some sanding out. There is also a step between the intake lips and the main cowling, and the red glazing putty comes into it own here. Some shims reduce the step for the cowing underside I opted to paint the framing in the wheel well i zinc chromate as per some references And I decided to commit fully and do some rivetting (not on the wings you will be pleased to hear) I do think rivets add something to a model, even if you then choose not to highlight them too much in the painting and weathering; just compare the unrivetted and rivetted fuselage sides to see how it is brought to life Yes the wash (so I could see where I had done) does help, but when there are a few layers of silver on there it will look less blank than would otherwise be the case. Now the wings and the tail feathers are on it is ready for priming; I will be likely doing the box art scheme Lou IV, or maybe Jolie Helene if I can pick up some decals. I am afraid I do not subscribe to the "blue camo" theory arising from the famous colour picture, rather as a former printer I see an old Kodachrome transparency where the dyes have deteriorated unevenly. Classically in older transparencies certain dyes will deteriorate ahead of others, usually greens followed by reds; as any colour in the picture comprises more than one dye, the remaining colour then dominates. I think what we are looking at is a bronze green, possibly a dark green, in which the green dyes have faded leaving a more blue appearance. Hence also the olive drab doesn't really look right, and the landscape below is blue not green, the yellows are a bit washed out, and even the red of the nose art is a bit dull. So I will be doing a bronze green/olive drab mix on the upper fuselage, and dark green/olive drab on the wings/tailplanes.

I read somewhere Revell is planning a C-17 in 1/72 scale. Is there any news on this project? Thanks

On the morning of 30 September 1938 Gladys Taylor left the family flat in Edward Henry Buildings on Cornwall Street, just by Waterloo Station, and headed for Downing Street. She probably walked over Westminster Bridge and past the Cenotaph, commemorating the dead of the First World War. That marvelous Mr Chamberlain was returning from Germany having secured peace for Europe at Munich and averted another major war and she was going to see his return. "The Crowd in Downing Street was the biggest that had ever been known there. It had waited for about four hours, standing tightly packed, mostly middle-aged women.". It was a cold, wet, windy evening but still they waited. Then Chamberlain arrived from Buckingham Palace, the way for his car cleared by mounted police. He entered No. 10 Downing Street and then, apparently somewhat reluctantly, but in response to the demands of the crowd, appeared at the window above the famous front door of Number 10 to give a short speech. "My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing street peace with honour (a reference to Disraeli's return from Berlin in 1878). I believe it is peace for our time (prolonged cheers). We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds" (Cheers.) With a last smile, and a last look at the surging, happy crowd below, Mr and Mrs. Chamberlain turned and disappeared. The people still wanted to sing something. Someone started "God Save the King" and at once everyone, police included, sang it with all their might." I can only assume that Gladys Taylor took Chamberlain's advice and took herself off home to bed. The rest, as they say, is History… All quotes are from the News Chronicle of 1 October 1938. Gladys Taylor was my Great Grandmother and we have a photograph of her in Downing Street on 30 September 1938. Front row, third from the right, two feathers in her hat. Once my mother told me about the photograph I decided that it would be quite in order to do a little model to commemorate her presence at this historic event. Now, I don’t fancy trying to create a scale model of Downing Street with a crowd of around 5000 people but there’s an easier option. Neville Chamberlain arrived back from Munich at 3:41 in the afternoon of 30 September 1938 in a British Airways Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra, G-AFGN, with a 'Perfect three point landing". There are plenty of photos of it arriving and a film of Chamberlain disembarking. He then gave a brief speech (you can listen to a recording of it on the Wikipedia page on the subject) before heading to Buckingham Palace to meet with the King, and then back to Downing Street. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_for_our_time The aircraft was a Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra, and in a Ploughshares into Swords job Lockheed created from the Super Electra a patrol bomber which was named the Hudson in RAF service. To do my own reverse Swords into Ploughshares I’ll be converting this Revell boxing of what was, according to Scalemates, originally an MPM kit. Handily it appears the kit was also released in Super Electra guise by Classic Plane and a lot of the pieces needed for the Civilian original are in the Revell box. Will do the sprue shots etc. when everything kicks off! Anyway, hope a 1930’s airliner once used by a chap who really did “Give Peace a Chance” meets the bill? Cheers, Richard.

2022 Corvette C8 Coupé (07714) 1:25 Carrera Revell After WWII General Motors subsidiary Chevrolet developed a sports coupé concept into a production car following a good reception at their 1953 show, with solid sales ensuring its continuation. Each year subtle changes were made until a new generation was ready to supplant the ageing design. By generation three, referred to as C3, which was made from 1968 to 1982, the look of the car had changed substantially to a smaller, sleeker two-seater, about which Prince was probably dreaming about when he wrote Little Red Corvette, a song released in 1983. The C3 was based on their concept car, utilising many of the internal components of the C2, but replacing the engines with a slightly larger unit pushing out the same BHP, which gave additional leeway for tuning. Engine sizes and output changed as the years went by, with optional small- and big-block engines, plus a host of other options such as power windows and side exhaust options, while the introduction of unleaded fuel and catalytic converters put a bit of a crimp in their performance for a while. We’re currently on C8 at time of writing, introduced in 2020 with a rear-mid engine layout in a choice of 5.5L or 6.2L in V6 or V8 forms and a variety of outputs in each production year. Price increases came along with the new product years, reflecting “supplier cost increases”, although sales of the unusual Right-Hand Drive (RHD) variant have been strong regardless, but folks with Corvette type money are seldom affected by financial crises. In addition to the standard Coupé bodyshell, a Targa and retractable hardtop are available, offering plenty of choices to the discerning sports car enthusiast, along with many trim, and accessory options to push the price further north. The Kit This is a new tool from Revell in their more US-centric 1:25 scale, which may lose them the occasional sale in other territories, but will doubtless compensate with sales in the US where the Corvette is produced. The kit arrives in an end-opening box, and inside are eleven sprues of various sizes and a bodyshell in white styrene, two sprues of clear parts, a cruciform sprue of flexible black tyres, decal sheet, and instruction booklet printed in colour on white paper, with colour profiles on the rear for the decal option. Detail is good, the 144 parts should result in a level of realism, and the holographic GM Official product sticker on the box should help in that regard, as well as keeping you transfixed for a few seconds while you move it around admiring the apparent depth. Construction begins with the engine, starting with the combined block and transmission, which is formed from two halves, adding detail parts top and bottom to hide the seams, plus the end of the transmission, building a three-part assembly with serpentine belts moulded-in to hide the front seam. Ancillaries and drive-shafts are fitted to the sides, mounting two four-part cylinder head banks with exhaust manifolds to the diagonal surfaces of the block, putting the motor to one side while building the front axle, which consists of three-part hubs with brake-discs and callipers moulded-in, plus a steering linkage that is pushed into position without glue, leaving the glue off the centre part on each hub if you wish the wheels to remain mobile. The front arch liners have a two-part strut inserted in a recess during detail painting, and both assemblies are mounted on the floor tray along with the front axle and two swing-arm covers on the underside. The rear arches are built in a similar manner but without the linkage below the struts, installing the motor on pegs at the rear of the floor, fixing the exhaust muffler to the very rear, then mounting the hubs and arch liners over the moulded-in swing-arms and locating the drive-shafts in the rear of the hub assemblies. The split radiators are located in the front of the floor tray on lugs, forward of the front arches, making the steering column from two corrugated halves, and the underside of the air intake manifold that is laid between the twin cylinder banks, adding a two-part box to the front, which has a scrap diagram showing how the hoses mate with the engine. Heat-deflectors are installed over the manifolds, following which attention turns to the interior of the car. The two seats appear to be based upon those fitted in the GT2, and are made from front and rear parts, but you’ll need to fabricate your own belts if you feel the need. They are installed in the interior tub along with a centre console and rear detail insert, choosing the appropriate console part depending on whether you intend to build the LHD or RHD variant of the car. The decals applied to the console are identical, as are those of the floor mats and central parcel shelf stowage bin, detail painting the interior as you go. The dashboard choice requires different parts with their own instrument binnacle coaming, but uses the same decals, and three-part steering wheel with paddle shifters. The door card parts are the same for both options, swapping the decals for each side as appropriate after more detail painting. The two-part scuttle panel has holes drilled at opposite ends for Left- or Right-hand drive options, and the two wiper blades are reversed, ensuring that you remove the overflow tabs on each one before painting. Your choice of scuttle panels, door cards and dash assemblies are installed in the tub, and the purists may decide to fabricate some foot pedals if they think they’ll be seen from outside. Painting of the bodyshell is shown being completed before adding any of the detail parts, following which various trim parts, two-layer front light clusters and intake trunks are applied to the shell from the both sides, which includes the sun visors and rear-view mirror, rear window in a fairing, and a cowl that covers the dirty parts of the engine compartment. The completed cab is inserted from below, the location points noted with large red arrows on the instruction step, followed by lowering the growing assembly onto the floor tray in the next step. The rear bumper has two-layer light clusters and grilles inserted, adding twin pipes below each cluster, and a choice of square or rectangular number plates, depending on where your Corvette will live. The completed assembly is fixed to the rear of the vehicle, mirroring the number plate installation at the front whilst adding more grilles below, covering the headlights with clear lenses, and installing the windscreen from the front. An insert that is painted body colour is inserted over the rear roll-over bar, painting the verge of the rear windscreen before installing it, and adding two-part windows on both sides. The targa roof panel is also painted body colour, while the splitter under the front bumper is painted black to match many of the other trim parts such as the spoiler over the rear, and the supports for the twin door mirrors that have separate mirror parts that you’ll need to paint with your preferred chrome paint, doing the rear-view mirror at the same time. The top cover of the air intake manifold is also painted body colour, as are the wing mirror shells, adding decals to the former, and applying some decals to the right side of the engine bay during installation. Your Corvette isn’t going anywhere without wheels, which are separate pairs of different sizes, painting the rims gloss black and detailing the studs in silver. Each one has a flexible black tyre flex-fitted over the rim, applying a decal to the centre boss to complete them, gluing them into the relevant arch carefully to leave them mobile… for no reason of course, as it would be childish to brmmmm your model around your desk after completion. Markings There is only one example shown on the profiles, but you can build your ‘Vette any colour you like, but there are a number of real colours that were applicable to the 2022 variant if you intend to go for realism. Bright red appears on the profiles, and there are number plate options for several countries including Germany, Netherlands, UK, Belgium, France, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and of course America, with a Hawaiian plate that has a rainbow background. From the box you can build the following: 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 carbon fibre decals for the roof have a more matt carrier film however, so check your references to establish whether they’ll need a coat of gloss to finish. Conclusion A well-detailed kit of this American Muscle Car that can be seen elsewhere in the world with the appropriate steering wheel location. 1:25 isn’t too far from 1:24, so it shouldn’t put off too many buyers, as it’s an attractive car. Highly recommended. Carrera Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

Taking advantage of the start of the year being relatively free of group builds, this is another kit that’s been starting at me from the stash for a bit, Revell’s F-84G Thunderjet: I picked this one up from @modelling minion for a very nice price, so I thought I’d treat it to a couple of additions in the form of some Hi-Decal markings for a Yugoslavian aircraft and a Quick Boost bang seat: This is my first experience of building a Pro Modeller tooling (though I also have their Ta 154 in the stash) and I’m really enjoying it. The surface detail isn’t up to the same standards as the latest Tamiya or Eduard kits (but it is a 25 year old tooling), but more than acceptable, and it all fits together beautifully. So far I’ve got the cockpit tub assembled and painted in interior green: The bang seat has also had a coat of that: As has the equipment tray that will fit under the canopy: Detail painting is next on the cards for all of those. I had some trepidation about the drop-in panels on the nose, as I’ve had them leave big gaps that need lots of filling & sanding on other kits. I needn’t have worried, these dropped in perfectly and will only require the tiniest bits of filler in one or two local spots that have shown up under primer: And yes, I will sand off the dust that was caught under the primer. The last bit of progress (other than a multitude of smaller parts that have been primed that I’ll spare you the photos of) is the assembly of the wings. Slightly unusually, the smaller gear doors are moulded as part of the side panel of the bay. The nose gear doors are similarly moulded as part of the bay as well. Not a big issue, I’ll just need to do some careful masking at paint time: James

Revell version of the Matchbox Jagdpanther Sd.Kfz. 173. I last built one of these almost half a century ago......................... After many trials and tribulations, mainly due to being hugely out of practice, I have got the kit almost to what I aimed at from the start. Huge thanks to various Britmodellers for their input and help. The Work in Progress is at So, without further ado: Camouflage is Humbrol enamel with acrylic "mud" colours on the running gear to avoid melting the tracks. New to acrylics for a final wash I added a second coat before the effect of the first coat was clear and everything went a bit too dark. One lives and one learns, hopefully. Learnt a lot from this little exercise. 🙂 All comments and advice welcome.

Hello fellow modellers, welcome to my first WIP! The kit I’m working on is a Revell 1/32 Mirage III: This was a surprise Christmas present from my wife, I hadn’t built a single model for over 30 years! So, I was to build this shiny Mirage, but to be honest it didn’t quite appeal to me. Of course, its livery is splendid… …but I never saw this particular jet ‘in the wild’. The decal set offered two alternatives, an Australian version… …and a French Mirage IIIRD: In 1984 I visited Gilze-Rijen airbase to witness the NATO Tactical Air Meet, which was an impressive event with masses of different aircraft types and numbers, like Canadian Starfighters, RAF Jaguars and Phantoms, USAFE F-4s and F-15s, Belgian F-16s and Mirages, German F-4s, and French Jaguars and... Mirage IIIRDs! One of these Mirages was Mirage IIIRD 368/33-TQ: To keep the memory of this exercise alive I decided to build this particular reconnaissance jet. I joined britmodeller.com in January 2021, but I never intended to start a WIP because I was quite intimidated by the high skills and superb results by most of you lot. However, @The Spadgent appeared to build a similar kit, check... ...and he and @81-er encouraged me to show some of my progress, too. So, here I go! First an overview of my desk, with the supplies spread out to give you an idea: Documentation (the upper photo was taken during TAM 1984 too, by a good friend of mine): Aftermarket stuff: And what I've done so far. The manual warns for the danger of tail sitting for the E and O version, but to be safe I added a redundant nut to avoid this for the RD version too. The 'inside job': My box with preliminary stuff: And for the final result, I decided to add the pilot as well. Meet Jean-Claude: He is supervising my progress: That's it for now. I hope I can entertain you with upcoming posts, and feel free to comment! Cheers, Rob

I've recently mentioned this in the Modelling and purchase plans/wishes for 2025 thread. It's a kit I bought for my dad to build in the hope that it would be good at a larger scale. The reality was, it was just too complex and fiddly and in the end he barely got started on it. He died in November and my mum mentioned that it was still sat at the box, so I decided I'd finish it off for him. Here's what we have... Here's what was in the box... And here's what has been started and the tools that have been used What I always look for in a sprue cutter is the ability to also cut carpet My dad was an extremely practical and resourceful man who had pretty much every tool you could possibly need. So I feel like my mum may have had a hand in this particular decision. As for the build... If it was just my build, I'd be thinking of something like James Rudland’s Outlaw Racers Porsche 356 Coupé but, even in his younger days, this would have been too 'form over function' for my Dad. In terms of real cars, he'd lower them and fit wider wheels to improve handling more than looks. So, really, I think I'm going to build it OOB (maybe a smidge lower 🤔) with a couple of nods to my dad. One will be the registration plate that belonged to his Mini and the other will be a dark blue (in my case Porsche Manaus Blue) similar to the colour of the kit car he built. The next step is to try and dismantle what has been built and paint it. Thanks for looking Martin

Afternoon all. I'd like to join the fun please. This is my chosen victim, I mean subject. I did remove the the main airframe components from their runners last night, mainly due to Revell's shipbuilding-style gates. I'm at work at the mo but home time is approaching. I think The Great Escape method is the one for me so we'll see how it goes. I can't live with the kits early rear end in later markings so Xtradecals or Modeldecals will probably come to the rescue for a wraparound camo TWU machine with early bang seats from a 70s Airfix Hawk. Phil

Hi all! First post here and I thought I'd start off with probably my biggest build of last year (I'll do a WIP post soon as there's a ton of pics to go with these two builds. The B-17f is the Revell 'Memphis Belle' kit, upgrades include scratchbuilt cables, pipework and airframe parts, Legend Productions resin crew, Eduard Big Ed upgrade set for the interior and Kitsworld Decals for the Pub (Took no less than 4 sets to get them done -.-)) The BF109G-6 is a Tamiya kit, built out of the box, Kitsworld and Tamiya decals with a pilot from my spares box. Paintwork and weathering is all done by hand with Revell and Humbrol enamel paints. Hope you guys like these builds, feel free to comment ^^

It has been a while since I had a crack at a Festive Blitzbuild so I thought that I would enter this as my effort. My success at completing a model within the timescale isn't that great and has taken more of a battering this year, but I am always up for a challenge, let's see how things go. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr That's all for now. John

OK. Great idea that this BB is going ahead 'cos I spent Christmas looking in at the previous one and feeling thwarted. But not anymore!! I have a Revell boxing of what I take to be the old Lindberg kit of the Heinkel He 162. I found this out by accident when I was looking for things to “look out for” here on BM and wondering who had done this kit previously. I came across this Lindberg build by @CedB. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235060496-heinkel-he-162-lindberg-172/ In his starting pic, I thought the sprues looked familiar although in a different colour. CedB’s pic My pic Looks pretty similar to me! It says copywrite 1984 on the box and is probably when I bought it and put it in the loft. I checked Scalemates which confirmed my suspicions. CedB’s build seemed to engage a lot of nostalgic support for the Lindberg He 162 although I have never built one of their products at all! Anyway, armed with all this knowledge and info from other BM builds, I have a cunning plan (cue Blackadder comments …). The aim is to help improve my laying down of paint. This simple kit shouldn’t cause me too many assembly problems. If I can also minimise the temptation to “improve” things then I should get to paint fairly quickly ……… famous last words. The build will be (says he portentiously) mostly OOB and wheels up. BUT I will do something about the cannons and maybe add a pilot – which I don’t normally do. Hmm. Just got to check the Spray Shop (aka grotty cold and damp garage) and then looking forward to the start ! Good luck everyone! cheers Rob

The Beast is done - for a long time now. The slender two engine is racing gracefully to completion. Work-from-home is was fun, then it was gone and now back again. Bench time was ample, then gone, and maybe coming back. It time for the next one: This one comes with a whole lot of plastic: So, frets cleaned up, transparencies soaked in future and drying, workbench is being organized. Hope building will start soon. Ran

A-Wing StarFighter (01210) 1:72 Carrera Revell/Bandai The A-Wing was a minor character in the original (and best) Star Wars trilogy, appearing in the background in some of the large space battles. It has since gained a little more prominence in the new films and the cartoon spin-offs, which are numerous. It’s a small one-seater twin-engined ship manufactured (in a galaxy far far away) by Kuat Systems Engineering, and somehow finds its way into Rebel hands. Its speed and pivoting main cannons make it a useful tool that is suited for rapid interdiction and lightning strikes. The Kit This is a licensed reboxing by Revell of the excellent Bandai kit that was released in 2016, which was available only by personal import or from a grey-import box-shifter until now. This is the most minimalistic reboxing from Revell, with a sticker placed over a portion of the box showing Revell’s logo and their product code along with a few European-style descriptions of what it is – a self-assembly model kit. If you’re a Star Wars model builder, you probably know what to expect inside, and I’m one myself so I’ve already got one of the Bandai kits in my stash. Bandai have an incredible team of engineers creating their kits, who achieve amazing detail, simplicity and cleverness of construction, and skill of tooling the most stunning injection moulded kits around. They regularly inject several colours and types of styrene into one sprue with their kits that Western companies could only aspire to, which cuts down the sprue-count and makes for a less messy desk during the build. They’re also snap-together kits in essence, with pre-coloured parts that don’t require painting if you’re either a beginner, a child without the facilities or just don’t want to get the paint out. If you aren’t familiar with Bandai’s style of snap-together kits, you probably think that this renders them simplistic and toy-like. Get that mindset right out of your mind right now, as these kits couldn’t be further from that type of product. The box is pure Bandai with a black glossy surface to the top-opening box, with five sprues in cream; dull red, cream, black and clear; grey; black and finally clear red. Because the A-Wing is a compact fighter, you get the ship itself, plus a base with a Turbo-Laser Turret on a section to one side, which gives that frissant of Death Star to accompany your model. The decals are duplicated as stickers for the younger or less skilled builder, and the package is rounded off by the inclusion of a concertina-fold instruction booklet in colour. Originally, the instruction booklets were written almost completely in Japanese, but as time went on they have included more English, which is helpful to augment the visual instructions and icons that appear throughout the booklet. Construction begins with the A-Wing, which first has its cockpit made up from six highly detailed parts plus a decal or sticker (whenever I say decal, also think sticker from hereon in). The lower hull is next, adding inserts into the weapons mounts and their rear, after which the hull topside is clipped into place, with the cockpit dropped in from above. The red section of the topside is separate due to the self-coloured parts, with a separate spin behind the cockpit and the tapered apron toward the front. The spine has a three-part cream insert at the rear, then it clicks in place along with the apron into the upper hull around the cockpit tub, locking it in place. A similar red insert is fitted to the underside, and clear side panels smooth out the joint between top and bottom halves. The nose cone is red, as are two panels in the underside wings, and another red insert fits behind the tapered section under the hull. Flipping the hull over, a roll-over hoop is added to the rear of the cockpit, and a pilot figure with two small decals is popped into the seat before the clear canopy and a snap-on curved frame part. The engine nacelles project from the rear of the arrow-head hull, and have fins at an angle top and bottom of the exhausts. These have clear engine inserts with stoppers behind them for painting a fiery colour or lighting, and a two-part trunk is clipped to each side of the fins with a tiny part with two angled pipes/hoses coming out of the sides. At the rear are a pair of oval fairings with four more exhaust cups inside, the shape of which is akin to a pair of F-16 intakes, which given their kit-bashed heritage they very well could be just that. Having a second look, I seriously think they are! The twin ovals are attached to an insert with the four exhausts and are fitted together with the main engines and their fins, then are offered up to the rear of the hull to be clipped into place. The pivoting guns at the wingtips are each made up from three parts with hollow muzzles, then the three gear bay doors are clipped into place if you are depicting your A-Wing in flight on the stand, or in the open position with three two-part gear legs if you are putting it on the ground. There are plenty of diagrams to show you where the various parts should fit, so don’t concern yourself about making a mistake. That’s the A-Wing finished and now it’s time for the base and turret extension. The base has a greebly-filled surface to its single part, with an angular diagonal riser that has a jointed tip to allow the modeller to adjust the pose of their model at any time. The bases are able to be linked together by the included clips, which leads us nicely to the bonus Turbo-Laser turret that can clip onto the base, as its footprint is the exact same size as the base itself, and it also has the cut-outs for the clips. The tapering base is a single part, which is extended upward by another dual taper section that is made from four parts inserted into its flat top, and is joined by the turret at the top, which is three parts and builds up around the gun assembly. This begins with two hollow-tipped barrels that have toothed quadrants fitted on their outer edges and in between them, after which the barrels are raised to the vertical and bracketed by a two-part assembly that holds them in situ. The barrels are then returned to the horizontal and surrounded at the sides and on top by the turret shell. The turret clips into place on the top of the base, and can be rotated and elevated as you see fit – just so long as you enjoy playing with it Oh, and no, I couldn’t resist building the turret. Markings The kit is self-coloured, so technically you don’t need to paint a thing, but the back page of the instructions give you a six-view look at the model as per the box art, with colour and decal/sticker call-outs along the way. The pilot figure is also shown painted with the two tiny decals on the helmet, and there is some weathering that has been applied around the cockpit and the rest of the hull to give you an idea of what to aim for. There’s a lot of pictorial evidence out there for any other markings and schemes that you might wish to portray though, and we often see some adventurous schemes here on Britmodeller.com. Conclusion It was a gorgeous kit in 2016 when it came out, and it’s just as good now. If you’re a Star Wars modeller and want a well-detailed model of an A-Wing, this is the kit to get. Very highly recommended. Currently, Revell are unable to ship to the UK from their online shop due to recent changes in import regulations, but there are many shops stocking their products where you can pick up the kits either in the flesh or online. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

Started about an hour after the RAF announced the scheme, not my strongest build but for something I did with a deadline of today, I'm quite happy with how it's turned out! Photo quality isn't great, will start using a real camera after this one I think. Looking forward to seeing more builds of this stunning new typhoon scheme to pop up! Kit is Revell, decals are a mix between Revell, Mark 1 Models and Platz from various kits and sets. Decals aside this is just the base Revell kit, not much additional work other than the scheme. There's definitely a fair few inaccuracies, mostly down to the small number of reference photos I had to work with at the time but regardless I'm glad it turned out the way that it did.

I'll be jumping in with the Revell 1/144 kit to start with and some decals made by a local. I'll be out of the country on the start date but will dive in when I return!

Hi folks. I've finished this today having started it on the 19th June. It's OOB with the exception of a couple of wires here and there and mesh for the open apertures around the boom area. The seats were give sheep skin effect by using a sponge when it was tackle. A fire extinguisher from the spares box for the rear of the RHS. I edged the cabin wooden flooring with tamiya clear red, which worked quite well. I didn't want to load up the aircraft with a full load, so just chose the gun option only as I quite like the clean look. I scraped out the ammo box holder so it looked more like the real thing and opened up the moulded flash eliminator on the barrel. The stretched wire is a EZI line alternative. It's a single piece and with my razor saw I cut a groove and ran the wire through those antennas and filled the fillet afterwards. Now those pesky intakes. The kit clear parts are the best they could do I suppose with the budget. I tried mesh but it still looked way oversize to thee real thing. Which unless you're up close it melts away. So I've used a cut up tea bag, yep you read right. Up close it does have the holes. Now I know it's going to be marmite but unless I take the notion to make paper machè for guards, it'll do. The rear wheels were set at 27.5 degrees. The blades are correct as I used to overhaul them so have done both variations of the colours and stripes etc.... Not overly weathered. Tamiya paints for the main colours and kleared halfords primer for the darker/shiney head. Followed by a Windsor & Newton Matt varnish. I used Tamiya clear blue for the tints and tonned it down with smoke, but I think it could go darker. The blades are correct and I've done the 2 main differences as they went out of Bay maintenance. The biggest gripe is the instructions. They refer to different number on the sprue, but picture the bit to be assembled and would have you try to fit the orange crop parts on opposite ends to where they should be. So if you have the kit dry fit and check references!. So during this build one of our labradors (Finlay) lost his life to liver cancer aged 8. He'd lie down beside my modelling chair every time waiting for me to move. So he was alive when I started but gone at the end. The modelling was a bit of medicine whilst my wife and I adjusted but equally its not my usual standard as at times I couldn't be bottomed. So a few photo's. This last photo is on my Boscombe Down base. Both the sandy and grey are to 1/32 scale. Steve.

I'm going to (try and) join this years Blitzbuild GB with a Revell B-17F Flying Fortress in 1/72 scale. I built this kit when I was a teenager and when I got back into the hobby I thought I'd try building it again. Unbeknownst to me when I bought it Revell had since released a new tooled version of the B-17 to replace this 1960's vintage kit. I'd rather build the newer tooled kit now so this relic was unwantedly shoved to the back of the stash. For a Blitzbuild GB tho this kit's undesirability is its strong point, its a simple kit with not many parts so it shouldn't take that long to put together. I also dont mind rushing though the build and possibly making mistakes, because if I completely mess it up I can bin it without much remorse and then in the future take my time building the newer tooled kit instead. I'm going to take advantage of the GB's rule stating that you can remove the parts from the sprues before the start of the GB I'll pre-prepare the parts for the interior so I can then paint them as soon as the GB starts and then quickly move on to other parts of the model while the paint drys.

This little 1/144 scale armed fishing boat is probably the most pleasurable of the dozen or so builds I've done during 2024. It appears to be a re-boxing of the ICM kit and it still shows Made in Ukraine printed on the Revell packaging. Everything fitted together nicely with only a little filling and smoothing required along the hull seam, and a tiny bit of flash needed to be smoothed off some of the railing posts. This was built sporadically over a fortnight - most of the work being applying various MiG Ammo acrylic paints and shaders. This is pretty much built out of the box apart from some ad libbing around the mast where I drooped the ensign and added some halyards. Some other points to note: The stand is a bit wobbly so I re-based the hull on four short struts (see stbd side view photo below). The finished model only just fits inside the Trumpeter 09817 display case. There is only 1mm clearance between the top of the mast and the cover with the keel on the base. There is some ambiguity in the colour guide: My Norway version shows a black underside on p.19 and red on p.7. As the stand is black I went for red for aesthetic reasons. There should be lots of conversion possibilities for this kit as many found their way into post-war use as trawlers, drifters, tenders, etc. If you can't make up your mind what to put on your Santa list ask for this. I wish everyone a peaceful and relaxing holiday and a healthy 2025 Note five attachment points to the base: four short struts and a spot of superglue at the stern end of the keel. Blast ... forgot to paint the gun handles. The kit comes with two name plaques (one for each side, note well Tamiya, et al) which is a nice touch, although they are quite small and written in Frakturschrift, so tricky to read according to everyone in my household.

Joining in with a 1999 1/72 Revell Spitfire V. a recent charity shop find - partially started. I've cleared the partially started bit with @Enzo the Magnificent, it needs a KUTA. Plan is to complete in black as a nightfighter. Boxart. Parts, cockpit is partially started. Kit decals.

First serious bit of modelling I've attempted in about forty years – so guess that makes me a newbie! My first experience of photoetch, acrylics, airbrush... you name it. So I wanted to do a subject I felt a connection to, and something that would stretch me to the max. So it's Revell's 1/32 Schnellbomber which will assume the guise of 4D+DH 'Dora Heinrich' of 1.KG30.
 This Ju 88A-1 fell to the guns of 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron on 16/10/39 during a Luftwaffe raid on RN ships in the Firth of Forth. 'Dora' was the first enemy bomber downed by the RAF over the British mainland in WWII, and was on the receiving end of the first ever Spitfire victory.
 I was born by the Forth, and have lived half my life on its banks, my family have worked for generations on its waters and in its docks and I live just a few miles from where 'Dora' ditched almost eighty years ago. So I thought I'd make her the first half of a 1/32 'Dogfight Double'. Eventually I'll get around to tackling her nemesis – XT-A 'Stickleback' a MkI Spit of 603 Squadron. Over a year in, having too much fun, here's some (unfinished) pit shots. Apologise for quality – taken with an iPhone4 Cockpit side walls, still needs wiring/some piping added Eduard PE, Aims and homemade decals Floor and curtains printed on inkjet Pilot seat, control column and BZG2 Bombsight