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Happy Birthday Royal Australian Air Force Today is the 100th Anniversary of the formation of the Royal Australian Air Force. I am not going to write much about the history the of the RAAF because I am no expert. Suffice to say that on this day 100 years ago this service was formed as an independent air-arm and it has strong claim to be the second such service formed anywhere in the world. It has been a cornerstone of Australia's security and this region's stability ever since. The RAAF played an active and effective role in the Second World War as well as numerous 'smaller' but still very significant conflicts, including Korea, Vietnam, the two Gulf Wars and Afghanistan. It has assisted in many peacekeeping and security operations around the globe and has played an important humanitarian role in innumerable civil defence emergencies. At one stage, immediately after World War Two, the RAAF gave Australia the fourth largest national air arm (by number of operational aircraft) in the world. We Australians, and our various allies should be most grateful for the service that the RAAF has provided over the last century. Three years ago I started my build of an Avro 504 to mark the occasion of the formation of the Royal Air Force. Now, it would seem wrong of me not to do something similar for the Air Force of my adoptive homeland. I've been planning for this for a while and was hoping to have at least one of my three other threads on Britmodeller closed by now, but that has not happened. Time waits for no-one and if I'm going to do this to mark the anniversary then I have to start today; ready or not. If we are going to 'do' the RAAF - let's pick a good subject. Let's look at something fast... perhaps even supersonic. Hmmmm... how about a swing-wing thing...? 🤔 Nice idea! But do you know how big one of those things is in 1/32 scale? My display cabinet is only so large. What about something American with a big droopy nose, two big burner cans tucked in under a single swept back tail and tailplanes set an an outrageous angle of anhedral..... 😀 Again, Nice! But that's a very complex shape and I want to finish this before the next 100 years passes. What about something French and triangular that I once saw when I was a lad at an airshow at RNZAF Wigram... Yes! Now we are talking... Let's do one of these! If you have seen my work before you know what comes next. Get a bunch of drawings together - in this case downloaded as PDF's from the internet - and get them printed to an exact 1/32 scale. In this case there are three 'master' sheets. Get one of each laminated and half a dozen copies of each printed out. Just use everyday copying paper, no need for anything special. Don't worry about the radar under the chin folks - I know that's not an RAAF thing. Here is the compulsory 'sprue shot after opening the box' photo. A fair bit of plywood will be used but most of the parts are jarrah, the same stuff I used on the Avro 504. Jarrah is grown right here in Western Australia, is beautiful to carve and strong as anything. This will be important since there's a good chance this thing will have gear down and once the forward undercarriage bay is cut and the cockpit hollowed out there will be very little remaining intact wood to hold the nose in place. Now we do some dry fitting. Yep - the major fuselage pieces fit together without any gap at all. Note also how there's no ejector pin marks or other blemishes. Tamiya quality fit - although lacking some detail at this point. 🧐 Now I sat down and had a think. How was I actually going to make this thing? Carve the fuselage out of a single block? Or break it into multiple more manageable components. Overall this shape is a bit more complex than, say the Mig-15 that I built in 2016, and requires a bit more thought. Once some decisions are made we can start marking out the cuts. This is the first cut line marked up for the entire project. This is the moment I consider that work actually began - 8.02 PM 31 March 2021 (WA time)...100 years to the day. 👍 Like I say - initially there's a bit of planning and marking up required. Some of the decisions might be a bit counterintuitive, but I've learned a lot over the course of my last few projects and I think there's method in my madness. Who knows though, maybe there's just madness in my method? I've decided that there will be a separate central 'fuselage and cockpit' section cut out that will nestle between the air intakes and the rest of the fuselage assembly. This component is defined at this point by the red ink. Somehow the wing will also need to be accommodated, but for now it's one thing at a time. Now grab two lumps of wood and cut them longer than the section just marked out. One thing I have learned is that surplus wood is not generally a problem - insufficient wood is. Hold the two pieces of wood in a vice and drill a series of holes (four in this case two on either side) clear of the planned cut area. Drill each hole about 3/4 of the way through the entire thickness. I guess it's harmless to go all the way through but this time I chose not to. Now slip a dowel into each of the holes and cut off the surplus. In this case the dowel fitted into the holes perfectly so no glue was required at all! This is a bonus because, although I want these two bits of wood to stick together and stay nicely aligned, fairly soon I'm going to need to pull them apart splitting the fuselage in two again in preparation for hollowing out the cockpit and UC bay. Now cut out the paper plans and spray some cheap photo adhesive onto one side of the prepared wooden block. (No photos this time sorry, I forgot). Cut out the pattern with the bandsaw. It was now getting late at night and this was after Mrs Bandsaw's 'powertool noise curfew' so I left a full 5mm clear from the pattern and just raced through the cut as quickly as possible to get the noisy bit over and done with. This is the birthday of the RAAF, so noise curfew or not, there has to bandsaw action! This is the result so far. There's a long way to go... I hope that some of you come along for the ride. Per ardua ad astra Bandsaw Steve

Last year I had a go at building a 1/48 aircraft from scratch for the first time. Have to say I learned a lot and enjoyed the process in a way. Still nice then I have had a go at a helicopter with some complex decals and a few fairly out of box kits. But i have been thinking for a bit about what to build next. I had a crazy notion to try a VC-10 but a mock up of that just showed the sheer size of it. So I am not saying never to that idea, just not yet. So something smaller. A Jetstream? Last one was a Dominie, so a bit to similar. Did consider a Britten-Norman Islander, or an Andover, both would be nice. But I settled on an aircraft that used to give cracking displays amongst the jets at 1980’s air shows. And one I built in 1/72 as a kid, but can’t get in 1/48 - even though a page on the internet suggests ESCI made one (they didn’t) So what am I talking about? She will be Dutch and a transport turbo prop. Yes a Fokker F-27 Friendship. Here is the show programme from Airfete 84 - sharing the bill with a Blackbird and Concorde! So how would she look. A quick print out, a bit of cardboard tube and some backing card, and this is what we have Not it as big as you might think. Here with my F-8 Crusader So the scary bits - turbo props & 4 bladed propellers. High undercarriage struts on the wing wheels. Scratching all the undercarriage. The main body is very similar to a stretched Dominie shape, just a bit wider. When will this get started? Who knows. Need to get some 50mm tube, probably go clear tube as before & start to shape up the nose or tail. This website may help https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?346259-Building-of-a-Fokker-27 i don’t really have enough information or good plans, but why let those details get in the way? So I thought, start a thread & then the idea is out there - can’t keep putting it off! Don’t expect lots of quick progress.

This was inspired, like so many other Sci Fi models, by an Ian McCue sketch of a flying tram. Though his was more like an old Milk float. I put out a request on here for unwanted kits & @bootneck obliged. So this is based on a slightly wonky reject print of an old style British Services Bedford coach. A bit of cutting, a good rake through the bits boxes and time spent with filler and various glues and paints Printed figures came from @bootneck and @MikeC so all credit to them. it's a busy time loading here. Landing gear is two Airfix Pontoons from the bridge set. Imagine a Star Wars Planet something like the wilds of Canada. Lots of trees and lakes. When you land it's likely you'll get wet. Hence the Pontoons rather than wheels or pads/feet And a bit closer. Paints are mostly Tamiya. The green is Revell Moss green. Brush painted, left for 48 hours. I then attacked it with scotchbrite and got the weathering you see here. Rough. well used. Just what I wanted. I thought I'd try a bit of forced perspective. Then some flash git came by in his Speeder. This is at least twenty five years old. It was an Airfix E Type before I got hold of it! So it's 1/32nd scale. I stuck this big light on the front to supplement the roof light. I'm not sure if it looks right though. The background has some weird things in it as I'd tried to make a temporary diorama. On the roof at the back is this Coms/light unit. If it goes down in the wilderness, this should survive & aid rescue efforts. The whole thing is mounted on this platform. All the anti gravity stuff is tucked in underneath that. It's not easy to see inside, And this was the best I could get. You can at least see that the Driver is in there. I've seen a flying Tram or Bus at least a couple of times in the Star wars films. Maybe not quite as battered as this though. And the right hand side. This central part of the seating is where you stow your luggage. I fitted heavy duty drip rails from a Linka brand plaster building set as it presumably rains a lot here. The central stripe on the body was white, but the heavy weathering makes it look a bit yellow. The roof is slightly bowed down the centre. No good for Mike but here it adds to the decrepitude* of this thing *There's a word for you! The holed panels were Desert sand rails or PSP printed by Bootneck. Very useful greeblies. And a slightly out of focus picture of it next to Misfit 2 in the manshed. Being looked at by a weird robot. Here's part of the Anti Gravity drive. Don't ask me how it works. How do X wings & Tie fighters steer in space? There are printed items here. Plus Coat hanger size tags and the blue central bit was from a toy This lot of pictures have been replaced after the imjur thing. I think I've put the right ones in the right places. Thanks for looking. Many thanks for looking. I hope you've liked what I've done, and you're not too baffled by it all. Questions, gifts of bourbon biscuits and greeblies are always welcome Cheers, Pete

Evening All, I tried to post the first part of this build some time ago but unfortunately the site was having some technical problems and I was unable to gain access, so I am posting two reports as one here. The subject of my next project is the Parnall Peto floatplane. What I hear you ask? I too was a little baffled when a fellow modeller asked if I would build one for him in 1/32 scale. He had seen my Short S 38/HMS Africa model and it reminded him of an experiment carried out by the Royal Navy in the mid-1920's with aircraft carried by submarines. Briefly the Royal Navy had 18 very large, (K class), submarines built during WW1; three others were completed as M class vessels. The original M class had a 12 inch (305mm) cannon mounted on the fore deck but after M1 was lost in an accident in 1925 the other two were withdrawn from service, the cannons removed and replaced by a hangar. The Parnall Peto floatplane was designed to be put into the hangar and launched from a hydraulic catapult so that the submarine had an independent aerial observatory. Experiments were successfully carried out but sadly M2 sank with the loss of all hands in 1932 and the project was subsequently abandoned. My modelling friend wants to build the foredeck and catapult of the submarine and will make a sea base for it: I am to build the floatplane which will be mounted on the catapult, so I am being dragged well outside of my comfort zone to build an aircraft which flew at least 10 years after the time period of my usual subjects for modelling! I have found some drawings which I have scaled to 1/32 and have made a slow start to building one of the two Peto aircraft using the usual scratch building materials: plastic sheet, strip and rod, basswood and brass rod. I have been given an old radial engine and a seat to help with my part of the build. I started by laminating two sheets of 80 thou card for the wings: The strange markings on the plastic were where my friend's children had been playing with printing stamps - the inks were later removed in the filing/sanding processes of shaping the wing profiles. When the profiles had been shaped I added the ribs from 10 x 30 thou strip which was sanded and then covered in Mr Surfacer and smoothed off. The ailerons were scored with a knife and one has already been cut with a razor saw for re-attachment later. I have also cut and shaped the tail surfaces from 40 thou card: The rear fuselage was made from 30 thou card for the sides and bottom with 40 thou formers added. The upper rear decking consisted of flat surfaces and will be added later from plastic card cut into strips: Before I cemented the sides to the bulkheads and bottom I ran the rear sections between the blade of a pair of scissors and my thumb to make the plastic curl so it better fitted to the curved fuselage bottom. The nose of the Peto consisted of a support for the upper wing and a semi monocoque front end which I intend to file to shape from basswood. A block of basswood was found and filed to slide between the forward fuselage sides, and some of the facets of the front were marked on to the wood: The engine was a 5 cylinder radial which was in a cowling at the front of the fuselage: I glued two pieces of basswood to make a suitable block which can be filed to shape: I have cut the facets of the front fuselage basswood block and marked the shape of the front and rear of the cowling for the engine so that I can file and sand the pieces to their final shapes: The lower wing half from which I unintentionally removed the non-existent aileron has been totally replaced as I could not make a decent repair: the two sections just would not align properly so I took the easy route and started again. I drilled holes in the centre section and ends of the upper wing halves and inserted brass pins so that when the parts were joined I could get the correct dihedral and still have a strong joint: The wing sections were secured with super-glue for the brass pins and cement for the plastic: the wings were jigged with scrap plastic to ensure the correct angle of dihedral: The joints were filled and sanded smooth so now I have usable wing sections: I have still to shape and fit the ailerons to the upper wing - holes will be drilled and brass pins used again to strengthen the joints when I do fit them. I have been working on the upper fuselage section that held the cockpit openings. This section had flat sides and top which I decided to mould. I made a male former from basswood and a female from plywood: My initial attempts to make a moulding failed for two reasons: first the male mould was slightly too small so that the new part did not fit on to the fuselage without leaving gaps which were too conspicuous to hide. I made a completely new male mould and tried several times before I realised that instead of using 30 thou card I needed something thicker as the mould was drawing out the plastic and still leaving gaps. When I used 60 thou card and enlarged the female mould slightly the problem was solved: Holes were cut and shaped for the pilot's and navigator's cockpits: and the part tested on the fuselage: When it is properly cut to size and sanded it will make a good fit. Having placed the new part on to the fuselage it is clear that very little of the interior will be visible so I have made two seats and will add very few extra details, except seat belts and possibly a control column: The seats were made from plastic sheet and were based on photographs of aircraft seats from the period: I have no specific details of what they were really like and as they will hardly be seen, it does not matter too much. The floats were shaped from basswood following a simple and straightforward method which I use for all of the parts which I shape from wood or laminated plastic. I started by cutting two pieces from a larger block of basswood which were slightly longer and wider than the finished floats. I marked one of the blocks with lines 1 cm apart so that I could transfer the plan of the float to the top surface, and the side elevation to the sides: I cut much of the excess wood from the bottom of the block to leave the side elevation visible: the upper surface of the block will be the top of the finished float: A saw-cut was made where the float step would be and the bottom of the float was shaped with a wood file. When I was close to making the step on the underside of the float I deliberately removed wood from the rear of the step so that I could file the rear of the float flat without taking off wood from the front end: I could draw lines across the flat bottom of the float by using the lines on the side as guides. Now it was possible to draw the plan of the float on the bottom surface: That was necessary because the sides of the block had to be filed away to get the correct width of the float. Before filing started much of the excess wood at the front and rear ends had been removed with a saw: The bottom of the floats were shaped like the bow of a speedboat at the front end, but were flat surfaces on either side of a keel in the centre and rear. The keel line was drawn along the centre of the underside of the float, and lines were drawn on the sides of the block to represent the edges of the float sides: the keel line and lines on the lower sides of the floats were used to guide the filing of the flat undersides of the float. I now had a block of wood with flat surfaces. To achieve the concave curve at the front end of the floats I used a half-round file, and glasspaper wrapped around a round file to gently and slowly remove the wood to the desired shape. A centre line was drawn on the upper surface before the curved upper sides of the float were shaped with a file. I used card templates to ensure that the correct shape was made. The upper float in the image shows the curved upper surface, and the lower float the concave nose, flat rear and step on the underside. Thanks for looking. P

Hi, Not quite 3D, but there is some overlap in the principles used. Does anybody know of a good tutorial to design PE? I can find my way around in Fusion and Gimp. Can sheetmetal in Fusion produce files for etching, or does that still require 'hand' drawing? I was thinking that Sheetmetal would help with virtually folding parts to check viability for example.

Evening All. After a few months away from the workbench I decided it was time to get stuck into another build. What could be easier, I thought, than a steampunk airship. It's just a tube with a point at each end. It turns out that I got that wrong, on just about every level, but I've been ploughing on regardless because I'm awkward like that. There are lots of images of these things on the web, so I spent an hour googling then sketched something which had all the elements I wanted to use. I also added a cargo crate which fits underneath, thus my airship is going to be a cargo ship. The first problem was sourcing the raw materials. As usual I wanted to use only what I could find in my spares bucket or lying around the house. After much searching I found a length of drainpipe and an old plastic wine glass in a disgusting green colour. Perfect! Then I had to work out how to make the tail which is a very awkward shape. The only possible way forward was to build up a slab of plastic sheets then sand and fill to the desired shape. Luckily the sheets don't weigh much, also luckily I have a lot of filler and sandpaper. I wanted two engines, one each side. But what did I have that was engine shaped? I found two grey 'wheels' from an old dishwasher rack, more plastic water pipe and two old hosepipe fittings which I ruthlessly hacked to get out the engine-shaped innards. After a lot of cutting, sanding and glue, I had two engines! Next job was the tail. I needed a rudder and elevators. Nothing even close in the spares bucket so I glued together plastic sheet to get the thickness then cut and sanded to shape. More head scratching and staring blankly into space as I wondered how to stick them securely onto the fuselage. Finally I drilled some small holes in each 'fin' and glued in some pins. I drilled corresponding holes in the fuselage. Much measuring, lining up, more measuring, lots of glue. Now I had my tail, more or less square. This is my cargo crate. I spent ages looking for a suitable box I could pinch but no luck so I made one from more plastic sheet. I think it looks suitably 'cratey', like it just got unloaded at Harwich Docks. I made this ladder thing to go on top. It's a rack for extra cargo, overnight bags, etc. Here we are now with greeblies stuck on to give it a bit of a science fiction look. Next job is to attach the engines, then paint. I will add the crate later. Thanks for watching, hope you like it. cheers Monty

The Sci fi scratch building machine has been switched on again and It's dialed back to redo an old subject. A year or so ago @Alex Gordon passed on a couple of unwanted Airfix Sailing ships. Victory and Golden Hind. Parts had been painted or put together. It stirred the inkling of an idea. Many thanks again, Alex. Then recently I was given a half built mojo failure 1/144 Revell Flower class model ship by a brother in law. I've always liked the work of artist Ian McQue. I've previously built two anti gravity boats; Misfit 1 & 2 So why not have another go? Links to the previous builds below. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234963278-misfit-is-done/&do=findComment&comment=1668744 https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235052278-misfit-2-is-finished/&do=findComment&comment=3293519 I've been tinkering with what I've got (Ooer!) for a week or two, trying to configure the superstructure, and I may just have it sorted. The scale will be 1/48th. I've put a figure on board here for clarity. First job was to dissemble the Flower. TET did that. So I made a hole in the bottom and built a card structure to hold the clear plastic pole. The paint is how I got the model. Not my work. I've cobbled together some superstructure. Boxed in a couple of holds and added masts from the Sailing ships. The smokestack is the original. The big black contraption is the thruster unit. It was a large scale motorbike engine part. The yellow parts were ludo counters and the green bits are from a toy. So this lot provides up/down/fore and aft thrust. And the other side. The McQue ships in his drawings don't have thrusters that I can see. but I liked the idea. They also don't have any visible anti gravity generators either. They're probably buried in the hull somewhere. These are just quick shots that I took today. I'll take better ones soon. You can find Ian McQue ship pics on line. What you've seen here may not be the final layout for the deck etc. I'm making this up as I go along! Thanks for looking. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Cheers, Pete

Hello all, I’m about 4 months in on my Lambda now and here is the progress so far… https://www.flickr.com/photos/191884247@N07/shares/s67s79

Evening all, after roughly 2.5 years my carrier deck diorama is done - just in time for SMW! It's an F/A-18C CAG aircraft from VFA-113 'Stingers', with the carrier deck based loosely on CVN-76 USS Ronald Reagan, circa 2005. Carrier deck is scratchbuilt, utilising the Flightpath US Navy Carrier Deck Diorama set. The Hornet is the Academy kit with much aftermarket (see build thread linked below), figures from Reedoak (4) and Scale 3D (1). The decals are from Superscale (set no. 72-904). The A/S32A-32 'Spotting dolly' and Nitrogen Trolley are fantastic little resin kits from Brengun. The LED lights in the hangar roof are ready-wired sets from Small Scale Lights - really glad I included these as they lend a nice realistic ambience (IMHO). The build thread is here if you are after more details. The diorama is called 'Hornet's Nest' - thanks again to @AlxBNE for the inspiration! Final pics below, hope you like them.

Stockente. German for Mallard. This is a scratchbuilt mine detector drone for the Maschinen Kreiger universe. Not an official model from Sensei Kow Yokoyama. A couple of years ago the Gas Engineer did the annual service on our hot water boiler in the utility room. We didn't have a Carbon Monoxide detector in there so he stuck one on the wall. Fast forward a couple of years and it started beeping. Low battery? It turns out you can't change the battery, it's hard wired in. Taking it apart did it no good, so the insides got binned. But I kept the case. It could turn into a small scale Spaceship. But that was not to be. In the past @bootneck had sent me a box of unwanted kits. One of which was a drone. The Reaper I think. Hmmm, What to do... Now, does that look like some sort of Duck to you? The floats are ex Airfix Ju52 BTW. Paints by Tamiya. Part of the kreiger universe is set in Australia. North of there are lots of Islands where the water may be mined. I remembered the WW2 Wellington and Ju52 Mine detector Aircraft. Why not use a Drone in the future? I had some 1/48th A-10 Thunderbolt kit parts. Here's the underside of a wing grafted onto a cut down Reaper wing. This happened on both sides and the joint was filled in. The big grey lump is the detector case. So with the A-10 engines stuck on top you get this. With a broad chord wing for good lift. And eventually it ended up as seen here and below. Decals are ex spares box from various sources. I kept the green camouflage fairly subtle. Droptanks fitted. Those engines don't run on fresh air! Lots of yucky algae all over the floats. Super futuristic flexible carbon fibre type supports (bent sprue) between floats and the mine sweeper fairing. A similar shot but with a good view of the engines. The intakes are the caps from kids yoghurt pouches. They were purple. I thought that if the paint was eroded then they could be actual purple printed items. And at the rear I think the tailplanes are ex Gannet. Underneath. The big disc is a mine detector ring. (Probably. This is 800 years in the future) It was a Motorbke brake disc. The other four round things are hover fans. Leftovers salvaged from a real Kreiger kit. They'd use ducted air from the engines. I spliced wheels into the floats for moving this thing around on land. They even rotate. The nozzles are wonky because they swivel to help turn this beastie in flight and on water. And speaking of turning. Helmut uses this Donkey to shift it around on land. Most of it was Lego. And here it is parked up on the Flightline with Helmut checking it over before he cleans off all that slime. I didn't do a WIP this time as i wasn't sure if it would work. You'd only have seen scrap plastic and filler anyway. Many thanks for looking. Your likes and comments are always welcome. Cheers, Pete

Must be time to start another from the list of Sci fi scratchbuilds that are lined up in my head. Back to the Ma.k universe again for a meld of various plastic bits and pieces. In the foreground is this toy walker, 50p from the car boot sale. The idea was to combine it with a Helicopter fuselage. That would create a thin skin troop carrier. In the end I went in another direction. First I removed the 'shield' on the front and cut down it's supports. Last month @theplasticsurgeon donated an old Revell 1/32nd Lightning for an upcoming Kreiger Falke Scratchbuild. Very many thanks again, Tim. I mostly just need the booms for the Falke, so I had the central pod going spare. Hmmm, what to do? See those guns in the back there? they just might get fitted later. Oh look, a headless chicken (ish) It took a little cutting and shutting to get to this point. Weird, innit? Now the pod is upside down to do this. So, do I make a cockpit in what was the underside? Or go A.I. Robot killer? I think it may well end up A.I. Here I've trimmed the 'wingtips'. They'll be finished off with droptank halves. And I cut a slant in the nose. I do have the original clear nose but want to do something different. That's where it stands (ahem) at the moment. Taped up and balanced on the desk. Further progress depend on chores and the cold in the manshed. We shall see. If anyone can think of a better name than 'headless chicken' I'd be interested. A German word would be best. I want to greebly the legs a bit, make them less toylike. As always, Your comments are very welcome. Cheers for now, Pete

Hello Peaceniks, In 1952, for reasons we can discuss later, the world driver championships were run to F2 rather than F1 racing standards. The change from F1 to F2 greatly favored the Ferrari team because Ferrari had been concentrating on perfecting lighter-weight cars with smaller engines than were used in F1 races. The result was that the latest Ferrari model, the 500, dominated the competition and allowed Italian driver Alberto Ascari to win the championship. 🏁 To the best of my knowledge the Ferrari 500 has no military application. 🙂 I was one of the early 'sign-ups' to this group build and voted for it in the bunfight, so I feel duty bound to deliver something. 'Delivering' is not something I have excelled at in Britmodeller recently. Currently I have four projects underway on these pages (this is a fifth) and all of them are horribly dormant. The Mirage III and the Xantho are now becoming drawn-out embarrassments of inactivity. Each might be a good candidate for a KUTA group-build. It strikes me that time management is a problem for me with these projects. I always seem to massively underestimate how many hours of work are involved and how many months each of these will take, so I'm going to use this project as a time management exercise. I'm going to: Estimate how long it will take. Record how long it takes by keeping a project diary and itemising the hours spent. Be finished by the end of the group build even if I have to take some embarrassing short-cuts to do it. One of the reasons I have chosen this particular subject is that it is a relatively simple shape, at least for a car, and I have a good set of drawings. The drawings came from the magazine shown below; Scale Models, Nov 1986, Argus Publications. The Vivid Viggen might have to wait for another Scandinavian Group build. Looking at these drawings and assessing the coming project: On the positive side I'm seeing a simple 'fuselage', no wings, no tail, a roomy cockpit with no ejection seat and only a handful of instruments. Blessedly, there is no cockpit canopy! 🙂Compared with many other subjects there are relatively few exterior details. On the negative side I'm seeing spoked wheels and some 'busy' construction around the steering linkages. There are four oddly shaped exhaust pipes leaving the vehicle which then merge into two and then one. There is a large hollow volume between the driver and the firewall and the walls of the cockpit will need to be kept thin to be in scale. Racing cars typically have a near flawless gloss paint finish (which is a potential nightmare) and i think that the numbers will have to be painted on rather than decaled. There is no option to build this with the undercarriage retracted. Overall I'm guessing that about 60 hours work should see this done. Let's see how that estimate works out. I hope some of you will come along for the ride. Bandsaw Steve

Happy 75 Birthday NATO 🇩🇰 It is probably true to say that there is no organization in the world that I admire more than NATO. I don't want to go into depth why since I might just get a bit 'political' and we cannot have that here, but I am prepared to say that - in my belief- if NATO had not existed for the last 75 years, the world would be a much more dangerous place and many fewer people would enjoy security and freedom.With this in mind I think I have no choice but to take part in this most excellent group build. I really like the idea of the flags! It's unique and intriguing and might just give an incentive to folks to model some of the smaller nations that might sometimes be overlooked. ‘My’ flag is The Netherlands; however, try as I might, I cannot find a Dutch subject that grips me quite as much as a Royal Danish Air Force F-100D! Yes, a Super Sabre complete with grotty, patchy, olive-green, livery! Admit it... you know the kind of filth I mean! Another reason to pick the Danish Air Force is that a friend of mine who collects models lives just 5km outside of Denmark and yet has not a single Danish item in his collection. (In the interests of transparency I should probably point out that I am referring to 'Denmark' the small coastal Western Australian township rather than 'Denmark' the Scandinavian constitutional monarchy - but you get the idea). I really like the F-100! It just looks so damned mean. It has to be the most shark-like looking aircraft ever made and its relatively simple geometry makes it a great subject for scratchbuilding. When I was a teenager I scratchbuilt one in roughly 1/100 scale and it came out OK, but it did not survive the various parental 'junk purges' that punctuated my many years living away from home and now - alas - it's in landfill someplace. Never mind, let's just make another one... a bigger one! Here are my references... some inspiration... and the raw materials! I'm hoping this will be a good chance for me to practice and improve on many of the methods that i used for the first time during my - still ongoing - Mirage IIIO build. This project I'm hoping will be relatively simple. Much of its success or failure will depend on the final painting and weathering as I'm hoping I can make this look like a jet as battered and worn as those in the pictures above. But let's start at the beginning. As usual I have selected Jarrah for the fuselage and have used cheap photographic spray adhesive to stick the relevant plans on the side. Here is the very first cut of the entire project. Shockingly that's not a bandsaw, but don't worry I will be using one very soon. OK - here it is, the first bandsaw cut! Let's call this the moment that the ‘project proper’ begins. To get to this shape does not take long. After some sanding and general tidying up we have this... Which is only the starboard half of the fuselage. I will be cutting out the port side tomorrow night. I have absolutely no hope whatsoever of finishing this project within the allocated four month timespan, especially since this new build must compete with the ongoing Mirage project which must be finished by August 2024. Nevertheless I do think that in the limited time available I can probably bash together sufficient shapes so that it is unmistakably an F-100. Following that I'll just transfer this thread back to the 'main pages' and carry on to the end. In the meantime I hope that this is of interest to you NATO enthusiasts and that you can all get some enjoyment out of watching my humble attempt to turn out a Danish Hun. Go Team NATO! Bandsaw Steve

Schmetterling - German - Butterfly (Most Kreiger stuff seems to have German names. This seemed to fit) A few months ago I found a toy car in a charity shop. Cost, One Pound. Quite large, with a plastic shell and underneath. the chassis looked like a cheap version of Lego Technic. I think the brand name is Science Museum. The parts join together with small plastic plugs. At the weekend I started to build something I'd had in mind for some time. An Anti gravity lift platform. It would be used for shifting heavy cargo. If you go onto the tube & look up 'Salad Mug' you get a sci fi short film. I think the program they used is Blender? The detail is amazing. One thing in the film was a lifting platform. Light bulb moment! The chassis was something like this. I've altered it somewhat to suit my build. The car had working steering via a rack & pinion set up. More car parts. I've used (sawn up) two examples of the pale grey block with the four plugs on the right here. After picking my parts boxes I ended up with this lot. Some of it will be used. See the white cup shaped items with red interiors? Very old Italeri truck wheel parts. They will be used. A rough mock up of the general idea. The front to the right. The tall bit on the other end is the operators cabin. The load bed is another old toy. You plugged letters into it to learn spelling. It's very fragile clear plastic. Yes, that's Helmut in the 'Cabin'. The balls are from a long abandoned kids game. Side rails are 'almost Lego' parts. I won't be using that 'Cabin'. it's a Motor bike bit I think. I'll make another similar one. At the rear of the load bed we have this lot. Yep, A 1/76th Panther engine deck. Glued to something you'd plug into a TV. The two round ribbed things would be coolant containers. probably. It's mostly just a mock up for now though. Landing gear. Heavy duty. Some kids large toys come in cutaway display boxes. You need to unscrew fixings to remove them. I have three of these fixing things leftover from the Christmas Morning frenzy. The pale yellow stripes are coffee stirrers superglued and filed to shape to fill a slot in the sides I put small pale yellw greeblies on the feet to fancy them up a bit. So, Italeri truck wheel part. A bit of tube and a split pin. WTH? The pale grey blocks with four plugs were cut up. Holes were drilled, Tank wheels glued on and all was glued to the balls. Insert cut down split pins with a bit of white tube on the sharp end for decoration. And then I can just plug them into holes in the chassis frame. And remove them for painting too. And here we have the front end with Helmut showing how close to the ground it is to facilitate (ooh!) easy loading. It has two gear struts at the rear and one here at the front. There seems to be a bit of a tilt here. Tut! The blue bit (a grey one is for the back) is what you use to even up your double glazing window units. A slightly better shot. Helmut looks pleased. And that's the main thing. That's as far as it's going for a few days now as it's midweek Grand Daughter sitting time. Back to the bench later this week. Thanks for looking. Comments, questions and ideas are always welcome. Cheers, Pete

Happy Anniversary Skylab 50 years ago today Skylab, America's first space station, was launched. I'm not going to discuss Skylab's history in detail right now, there will time for that later but suffice to say that this programme set numerous records for human occupancy in outer space, gathered an enormous amount of scientific data regarding both planet Earth and the Sun and was involved in a couple of episodes of aerospace drama that sometimes tested NASA’s ingenuity and determination to the limit. It was also - in its own way - rather beautiful. Skylab is well remembered here in Western Australia because on the evening of 11 July 1979 as it disintegrated in the Earth's upper atmosphere it scatteried debris over a large elliptical area to the North-East of the small W.A. town of Esperance. No one was hurt and no damage was caused. For a brief period the eyes of the world were on Western Australia and a flurry of activity followed as numerous folks went out in search of souvenirs. Surprisingly I have only ever seen one model of Skylab in W.A. It was given to the Shire of Esperance by NASA and is on display, along with various pieces of debris, in the Esperance community museum. I'm going to have a crack at building my own model and hopefully - despite this early start - will be able to join into @bianfuxia's upcoming 'Beyond the Karman Line' group build. Here are my main references. And the principal drawings that I will be working from. It turns out that 70mm PVC piping from Bunnings is freakishly - exactly - the correct diameter for the main orbital workshop. and that 25mm electrical conduit is also - exactly - the correct diameter for the multiple docking adaptor module. So, earlier tonight, on the evening of the 50th anniversary of the launch, I made the first cut in this project. Followed by marking up and cutting out two bulkheads from MDF. That sit snugly in the workshop like so... and then have a central hole cut in them so that the central 'axis' of the model (the aforementioned conduit) can slip through the centre of the orbital workshop . Leaving this... Which is a pretty good start I think. Unfortunately I now have four projects on the go, which is not ideal. Top priority stays with finishing the PZH-2000. I'm giving myself plenty of time for this one - about 6 years in fact - as I want it finished in time for the re-entry anniversary! 🙂 Best Regards, Bandsaw Steve

Some time ago I scratchbuilt an Ma,k Falke. I wanted to make it a high altitude version so it got a pale blue colour scheme. I then went further with that and added squadron markings etc so that it resembled a Le Mans Porsche 917 from the seventies. Recently I noticed a slight up cock, I'd made the cabin entry hatch too small. It had to be changed. Brave pills helped me to attack it with a cutting disc in the Dremel. I made a new Cabin from the clear parts of a 1/24th Revell BMW Mini and a new hatch from a plastic spoon. As per Ma.K lore. There's a strip of plastic covered wire around the join. A step and a sensor plate on the side with extra armour on the front. This paint is a homebrew of red oxide Tamiya acrylic. Then today I whipped up some more pale blue and it all finally came together. In the cockpit is Rolf. He's just been adjusting the dwell angle on the Dynasticrator gauge with his favourite red screwdriver. Now he's moaning at Helmut about how long it took. Tsk! Rolf is from a Tamiya1/20th pit crew set. His body needed some alterations to get the right pose. I'm rubbish at figures 😄 On the left side I've fitted the big scoop as per the original kits. The sensor plates are Nato black. Weathering is on the heavy side but that's what I wanted. At the back I've added this vent. It just seemed to be right at home there. The non slip mats are fine mesh glued into place. Close up on Rolf and his screwdriver. The extra armour plate on the front is just card with Meng nuts and bolts. Here's the original cabin that I cut off along with the spoon I've used in the rebuild. The next project is in planning and will start soon. More Ma.k. Many thanks for looking and your comments are always welcome. Here's a link to the WIP

Some time ago I scratchbuilt a Maschinen kreiger Falke in Gulf racing colours. One day a few months ago I realised that I'd made the hatch too small. It was more suited to 1/35th. Doh! What to do? Leave it as is, or hack it about and change it. After two bottles of brave pills I revved up the cutting disc... As it was. Helmut in attendance to give it scale. It's obvious (now) that he would struggle to get in there. And, after the attack of the flying discs. The white oval is the new hatch. Cut from a plastic spoon as per the original models. And this is what I'm using for the cockpit. A 1/24th Revell Mini gave up it's clear parts And I cut some card. It can be seen here that the hump alongside the cockpit is separate from it. They should be joined. So lots of filler and sanding joined them up. Also seen here, how to do the cockpit insulation blankets. Seals from canned instant coffee. Nicely textured they cut easily and stick down with superglue. I added more detail in the cockpit. levers and wiring etc, At the front a big black screen would display the outside for the pilot. And from the other side. With the top on, even with the hatch open, you can't see a lot in there but it was fun to do. Not a weird Oyster. It's the inside of the hatch. The green thing is part of the opening system. Et Voila! As they say in foreign parts. Not glued down yet. Still a work in progress. Helmut poses yet again. I've added steps, handrail and non slip patches . This is as it stands this afternoon. Matching the paint is going to be a challenge as I'd just mixed it up back then. Thanks for looking. Comments are always welcome.

Here’s my take on a Napoleonic 2nd Hussar veteran, posing for his studio photo. I found a whole series of photographs of grand old French veterans that are full of character, squeezed into their old uniforms. I chose this chap as my first stab at them, and scratchbuilt/sculpted the lot using Fimo, greentuff, milliput and a load of thread, wire and foil. It was a great project to do and I’m looking forward to tackling others in the collection. I took a bit of a liberty and modelled the back of his jacket as having had a last-minute, poorly executed and hurried alteration to enable his middle-age spread to be accommodated. Having finished him and after studying the original (black and white of course) photos, I’m now not entirely convinced this chap is actually a 2nd Hussar – his jacket braiding appears dark in the photo, so it could well be that he should be sporting a different colour scheme, but no matter. and here's the original photo, plus an internet-sourced fantasy colour scheme.....

Hi All, Here we are following on from the 1/32 Malta Gladiator by far my best build so far. With the next build, I've decided to do something more challenging, creating an almost extinct inter-war torpedo bomber in a scale never seen before... I give you the 1/32 Vickers Vildebeest, this aircraft was a design that first flew in the late 20s and managed to cling on until the early parts of WW2. It's a all metal structure bi-plane covered in fabric and from a CAD design point of view a head-scratcher... as very little info remained from that period hardly any drawings survived and only two fuselages both in NZ survived one Vildebeest and one Vincent. so I started designing the fuselage around 2 years ago mucking about with line drawings off Google and managed to get a basic representation of the shape i have now improved this into something I'm happy with, 3d printed resin is great for detail but can warp, it is very fin so that has been something i have had to design around. after already printing my original fuselage and not being happy with the results I redesigned the fuselage and got a 1/72 special hobby kit for reference and to check scales which to my surprize were pretty good!! this image shows the scale of the vildebeest very large for a single-engined aircraft CAD Model of the RH fuselage size prior to being sectioned for printing. Here are the prints of both halfs ready to have supports removed and assembled. first mockup with the engine (Bristol pegasus from Vector resin). First print of the floor. A lot of work is required yet I'm currently trying to get the interior and cockpit complete and fuselage glued before the exterior gets a lot of attention. The fuselage frame is constructed from styrene rod with 3d printed fixings. Some of my hall from Telford included airscale PE and decals which should make it all come together. small prints such as levers and bellcranks are visible from the side windows so I have modelled them this print wasn't perfect but the parts were useable. thanks to a generous member of my local model club (Thanks Simon) for lending me some images and info he had for this aircraft one of the most valuable items was a rare instrument panel drawing which I have modelled will be improved with the airscale goodies, the extra bit at the top is due to the different profile of my fuselage but this should be hidden once the model is complete. If anyone has any questions I'm always willing to try and answer them the best I can. Thanks James

Yet another small scale freighter scratchbuild for my wall display. No WIP but I will post an in progress pic here. If you think about it, How many people are on a Star Destroyer? The logistics of feeding and caring for them all. Plus keeping the ship going with spares, lubricants, replacement people etc would be horrendous. Plus, Just where is it at present in the Galaxy? So you'd need a stream of support vessels. Hence these little jobbies that I keep bashing together. Or am I overthinking this? Goodness knows what the scale is. Probably lots of zeroes. The basic hull was a 1/48th Hawk with 1/72nd Mig 15 fuselage halves each side. Then add drop tank halves etc. As for the colour scheme, I wanted to go a bit Chris Foss. (Hence the name) I used to love his seventies Sci Fi pictures. Last week I added some greeblies to the display. Just random bits from the spares boxes. Hopefully they add interest. \the solar panels are made from 1/48th Huey Cobra rotor blades. Here it is naked! The Hawk fuselage is upside down and pointing to the right. Closeup of the MIG fuselage half. Not sure what the fins are from, but they hint that this ship is atmosphere capable. The belly of the beast. The grotty/very worn paintjob was a bit of an accident. I thinned the Acrylic too much! Now the rotor blade roots become obvious. The build took place over about three weeks, whenever I had time. Thanks for looking. Your comments and questions are always welcome. Cheers, Pete

SS Xantho, Western Australia's First Steamship. St George's Terrace is the main business thoroughfare of Perth and every 20 metres or so along its length, embedded in the footpath is a plaque similar to the one shown below. Each plaque commemorates a year in the history of Western Australia and the most eminent person in the state that year. There are some names you may have heard of; Allan Bond, Dennis Lillee and Bob Hawke for example - I note that Rolf Harris's one has recently disappeared!? But most of the names are those of administrators, academics or business people whose stories are now forgotten by all except their decedents or the most ardent of local history buffs. In the course of my years of work in this city I must have walked past this rather battered looking plaque hundreds - probably thousands - of times without noticing it or giving it a moment's thought. 1870 - Charles Edward Broadhurst - Pearler... About two year's ago, on a lunch break, I dropped into my favourite bookshop and while perusing the local history section found this recently published book. The nautical cover caught my attention. I wondered if there would be schematic drawings inside. I'm always looking for schematic drawings. There were a few sketches in the book, but none of the four-view technical profiles and cross-sections I was hoping for. There was however this artist's impression of a most fetching looking 19th century steamship; The SS Xantho. I started to read and once I started into her story - and that of her owner Mr Broadhurst - I could not stop. It turns out that this vessel - and a rather extraordinary vessel she was in certain regards - was Western Australia's first ever steamship. I'm not going to try to tell her history to you right now, because that would make for a very long introductory post and I am anticipating that this project could last for some time. We can discuss her history in detail later. Suffice to say that this ship sank in November 1872 at Port Gregory, a tiny, tiny settlement 500 km North of the state capital Perth. (See the map below.) Fortunately no lives were lost. Following her loss she was essentially forgotten and sat undisturbed for more than 100 years and was of no apparent significance beyond being a hazard to navigation. The red arrow shows the position of her wreck, right at the entrance to the harbour and the yellow arrow the site of the only jetty for scores of nautical miles in any direction. But in 1983 Xantho was re-discovered by staff of the Western Australian Maritime museum and, due to a number of extraordinary and completely unforeseen factors she was about to be propelled to global fame - at least within the world's maritime archeology community. In the words of Dr 'Mac' MacCarthy, the world's leading expert on Xantho - 'This ship is world famous - in certain circles'. I think it's a shame so few other people have heard of her. Once the Avro 504 is finished I'm going to build a model! Be warned though Britmodeller maritime folks I have great plans for this one, and I'm going to need all the help and expertise that I can get, because this promises to be a research nightmare! Very Best Regards, Bandsaw Steve.

After completing my scratch SS Servia a few months ago I thought I’d happily return to an aviation subject for my next project but unfortunately the nautical bug seems to have bitten quite hard so it looks like it will be another ship project after all ! Initially I was looking at building an early RN destroyer in 1/72 (HMS Jason caught my eye as did the Acorn and early tribal classes). Being based in SE London the obvious starting point was a trip to the Greenwich archives which I did in May. I could blather on about the visit for ages, suffice to say that unrolling sets of original plans from the late 19th century is a superb experience. Anyway a change in personal circumstances means that for the next year or so I will be based in Exmoor with a reduced workspace so something of that size wasn’t going to be feasible. I then stumbled across the Seaforth title on RN Trawlers and Drifters and finally decided on a Round Table class minesweeper (its on the cover). The book includes many sets of useful plans but they are quite small, Cornwall Models can supply sets of the MMI plans at 1/96th so that settled it. The finished model will be just over 1foot in length so a much better fit in my temporary mini workshop. The plan was to use primarily wood and metal in this project instead of plastic but again because of space and limited tools I opted for plastic. Step #1 was to cut out the hull cross sections and profile from 1.5mm plastic sheet. I don’t own a power fret saw so I opted to create each cross section as 2 halves clamping each pair together so that they can be sanded to be identical in shape. For the prow I made a brass insert to ensure a crisp line and filleted this into the profile. The shear lines in the plans do not extend aft of the propeller so all I had to go on for the shape of the stern section was a plan view and profile. I built the shape up with various addition cross sections that were sanded back until I had a shape that I was happy with. The sections between these were filled with balsa to provide a solid base for the plastic skin. Once this was done I made a simple jig to hold the spine straight whilst the planking is done. My approach on this is to use quite thin plastic sheet (0.5mm) and to then build up the hull from the inside with more plastic and resin. The smoothing process means that the original planking is almost completely sanded away in places. I used some auto filler to get a nice smooth finish and then set about the transom which extends all the way around the sides up to the fore deck. This is quite a fiddly job as it splays out at the stern rather than being vertical. I started by using printer paper taped in place to get a rough shape and then gradually refined this eventually moving to card and ultimately plastic sheet. The shape is too complex to do in a single piece so I made the stern section and then butt jointed the side sections to this. More auto filler, more sanding and this is where it stands currently. The next step will be the hull plating, the plans do not include a shell expansion but there is a set in the book for another class and I’ll use these to create something that is hopefully reasonably credible.

I love the Renault FT and I have two in 1/72 scale in my collection, however as you can see they are about the size of a postage stamp. So doing the various calculations 1/24 gives me an 8.2 inch long model so a nice size. This is going to be a slow off project build and I’m intending to build it with all the hatches open. So next step scale some plans up and start cutting styrene

Once again I'm delving into the depths of the future to suit my weird modelling purposes. During WW2 the RAF had the 'Tilly'. Short for Utility vehicle. Mostly built by Austin, they were a small multi purpose pickup or Ute. Why wouldn't they have a similar vehicle in the kreiger universe? No, Not an Austin. But ideal for my porpoises. From King Kits Salvage yard, part started, for about 7 quid. Painted Humbrol Brass (The tin was in the box) and missing some trivial bits. It was meant to be motorised. I needed a modified floorpan and found this red one. Out with the razor saw. Lots of chopping and changing later I had this bodged up rear axle on airbags (Actually large rubber grommets, Perfick! Much measuring and trepidation later I had this. The brown oblong will be the bed. It's actually a 1/35th truck part. Some 'good enough' 1/35th Truck wheels and chunky tyres added for that Military look. And here's the hole. I've since made a cab rear and now the bed almost fits too. There will be sides and a tailgate. The body has been sanded rather than stripped. (A) I didn't have the chemicals, and (B) A rough Military finish should suit. I'm going for the' unknown possibly electric motor under the Bonnet' idea here. No need for technical bits. It's only going to sit on display in the manshed with the Falkes anyway. But I want it to look half decent at least At the moment (After fixing the shed roof over the past two days) I'm sorting out the truckbed and will need to make internal wheelarches. Any ideas, suggestions, likes, loves and whatever else @Mike may have added recently are always welcome. Bring your own biscuits or Cookies and a tea bag. Her indoors bought us a new kettle. A cup or mug could be a good idea too. Many thanks for looking, Pete

Here's another spares box build. I knocked this one up on the quiet without an in progress thread, The idea is it's Star Wars ship from the Aratti system (It's a big galaxy they have) used to escort commerce ships. I had a 1/48th Cobra and a Mil Hind in 1/72nd. Other parts came from the bits boxes as and when required. It's an odd looking thing I must admit. The Pilot gets a full on frontal view at least. Guns are under the chin. The tail came from a WW2 German whiff. I wanted a slightly alien design look. I think I got there. The underside, obviously. Engines are two 1/48 Mosquito nacelles. And there he is. I sprayed gloss white on it and did lots of weathering and big paint chips. The round object at the front top is the Nav droid. Slotted in behind the cockpit, like on an X wing. One of the in progress pics that I took. And a pre-primer shot. Pre-primer again. The droid was a large yellow light. The round bits at the engine rears were clothes hanger size rings. There are bits of masking tape on the droid here. And the basic airframe so you can see the main parts. Thanks for looking. Your comments are always welcome. Cheers, Pete