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Yep, I couldn't just watch you enjoy your Mosquito builds, after I had finished mine. So... I just placed an order for a Tamiya FB Mk.VI / NF Mk.II kit + Eduard canopy masks I also have the Xtradecal X72091 sheet for RAF 23 Sqn History (Maltese YP-A already used) and the X72232 for various Mosquitos (The Spook already used), to pick a subject from. V-P

This is the Dominomodel rebox of the Tamiya classic. The eBay prices for the original are crazy and the Dominomodel one is far more reasonable. I like to build my kits in alternative markings where possible. These decals from Rejimodel are for the Fortuna sponsored car driven to second place by Bruno Tiery. i added some weathering to cover up a yellowing gloss coat. the escort kit is quite simple but I am looking forward to building another one in the future.

I have long wanted an Escort Cossie in my collection but have been put off with the prices on EBay. When Domino model issued their latest re-box at a reasonable price I took the plunge. Over the last week or so I have been preparing the body - if this stage goes badly I rarely get to the rest. Although I don’t have too many cars in my collection of finished models, I do like to build versions that are different to what comes in the box. With rally cars there seems to be a vast selection of interesting schemes for most cars. This version uses decals from Rejimodel to create the car driven by Bruno Thiry in the Canary Islands rally from 1997 i am not a quick builder (or I have lots on the go at one time) so there might be some delays in updating although I intend to follow the process through here

Done and Dusted. The earliest photos were taken in October, 2021 and i'm calling it finished as of February 27, 2025. It was a protracted build that could have been done faster, but in some ways i'm glad i didn't rush this thing. Let me begin with the Executive Summary. Kit: Tamiya F-4B Phantom II, kit no. 121 Markings: VMFA-115, Chu Lai/ Da Nang AB, Vietnam, 1970. Scale: 1/48 (because...Merica, yada yada yada) Aftermarket parts used: Eduard Martin Baker Mk 5 resin seats; Eduard F-4B Phantom Wheels and Brakes; Eduard Brassin Triple Ejector Racks and Mk 82 500 Lb "Slick" Bombs". Hypersonic resin centreline stores adapter; Reskit Multiple Ejector Rack; Flying Leathernecks Mk 77 Napalm Canisters; MASTER model brass Angle of Attack probe. Decals: Combination of AoA decals and Furball. Paints: Combination of Tamiya Decanted white surface primer (lacquer), Tamiya acrylics and GSI Creos Super Clear gloss and semigloss finishes. Build comments: This model was built for my former boss at Gulfstream, H. Lee Logan who spent an entire career in the Marines. He flew just about every Marine Corps version of F-4, made the transition to the F/A-18 and served as CO or assistant CO of VMFA-115 at MCAS Beaufort SC. The original plan was to build this aircraft as "CHIVAS REGAL", but right before decals went on, a last minute change was made to Bu Aer No. 151498, previously named BUTTON MAN. This plane began its career in the Navy with VF-96 but was eventually passed on to VMFA-122. The plane was passed back and forth between VMFA-122 and VMFA-115. Lee says the plane acquired the reputation of a hangar queen, but it had a comparatively long life. It was re painted in the "New" Silver Eagles scheme, it spent time deployed at Iwakuni Japan, before returning stateside where it underwent rework to F-4N standards. It was supposedly "ditched" off Point Mugu CA. Whether it was shot down as a drone, or lost due to mechanical failure i don't know. For the step-by-step, play-by-play, mistake-by-mistake narrative on the build, it can be found here: A lot has been written about this kit, and most of it is complimentary. Bottom Line at the Top: it's the best 48th scale Phantom out there, bar none. It does come down to which version you prefer, but if you're variant-agnostic it's the one to build. Let me expand on the good features: 1) Excellent cockpit: Using decals on the instrument panel bezels is a bit of an adjustment but the end result is good. Ejection seats are very good, really only needing a little "Help" in the set belts department. Since i was building an earlier F-4B with the Mk 5 seats, i had to replace those with Eduard ones. Remarkably, with the cockpit canopy deck/ sills in place it's hard to see a lot in the cockpit (aside from the ejection seats) but for the most part the fit of the components is very good. I evaluated the Hypersonic Models Mk 5 seat and the Tamiya kit seat with Eduard harnesses added, before i settled on the Eduard Brassin Early style Mk 5 seat. 2) Horizontal Tailplane: Easily the best thought-out and engineered tail in the business. A very robust carry thru structure with limited pivoting, sharply cast with no flash and good fit and easily integrated late in construction. It slots into the lower fart of the aft fuselage in front of the "Grasshopper Butt". No problems with alignment, seam-filling, or painting. Everything just fits. Designing the fuel dump as a separate drop-in piece, as well as integrating the vertical fin as a separate assembly was brilliant thinking and made construction a lot easier. 3) Clear Parts: I think Airfix figured this out slightly before Tamiya did, but the one piece integrated windshield and surrounding sheet metal fits very well and it drastically simplifies painting and masking. The canopy attachment infrastructure is very well thought out and canopy attachment is more robust and positive than any other 48 scale Phantom out there. 4) Intakes and Exhausts: Full length intakes all the way down the throat to the compressors, and full depth afterburner cans right up to the turbine wheels and flameholders. Excellent fit in all aspects. The multi piece afterburner can construction intimidated me at first; i was not looking forward to putting it together, but everything fit perfectly. I was pleasantly surprised with how the nozzles turned out. 5) Pylons/ Drop Tanks: The best in the business. Robust attachment points with very little likelihood of screwing up the alignment. Nothing vague, nothing wobbly. 6) Wings: Wing engineering is not terribly different from its peers with the exception of the folded wing option. Again, i think Tamiya examined the Airfix Phantom and borrowed ideas from it. The biggest difficulty was not with the wings, per se, but rather getting the decals to bed down in the complex surface details. Masking and painting the Corogard leading edges (Tamiya LP-11 Silver) had its challenges but it was worth it. Reading the above, you can surmise that the kit is somewhat modular in parts breakdown. Just not to the same degree as the Tamiya F-14 Tomcat kits. It's important to identify the tricky areas of the model. No Phantom has 100% perfect fit, although this kit comes close. 1) Forward fuselage: The fit is good, not brilliant. Specifically, the fit of the radome to the forward fuselage. You have something like 5 parts all coming together and it's unrealistic to expect perfection here. It's a by-product of the engineering, and some had better luck than me- it could be down to operator error. The rest of the fuselage fit is very good, to include the unusual split on the right hand fuselage half. 2) Boundary Layer splitter plates: Beautifully molded, but integrating them with the inboard intake ramps makes painting and decaling behind them inconvenient, not to mention the masking and painting of the Corogard areas on the intake leading edges. Hasegawa definitely had the better mousetrap here. Not insurmountable, but annoying. 3) Landing Gear: This was a surprise. Tamiya elected to break down the construction of the gear struts so the struts attached at the upper trunnions which is a place where loads tend to be concentrated. I snapped my nose gear strut clean off the locating pin less than a minute after i installed it for a test fit. I almost used the Eduard Brassin struts, but i reverted to the Tamiya struts. I didn't think the Eduard parts were worth the hassle. However, I replaced the locating pins in the kit struts with K&S aluminium tubing. I don't understand Tamiya's reasoning behind this, but they created unusual , conical axle stubs to mount the wheels onto. This "may" have been to allow the builder additional flexibility in terms of getting the alignment right; Phantom builds tend the have inward-leaning struts and tyres.... which does not inspire confidence. Viewed head on, the Phantom legs should have a perfectly vertical, positive stance. However, it made gluing the wheels on and adjusting the alignment an angst-ridden event. However, the side braces and gear doors fit brilliantly. 4) Intakes: Historically, this has always been a problem area on the Phantom and this kit is no exception. The fit wasn't terrible per se, just not perfect. A certain amount of super glue, accelerator and muscle was needed to get the intakes in place but once they were sanded it was all fine. What were the things that slowed down the build? 1) The decals. While i think the AoA decals and stencils were excellent, there were just a LOT of them. The placement and location guidance was good, but not fool proof. This is not a fault of the kit, rather McDonnell's perverse fetish for putting servicing instructions all over the plane. It is literally death by servicing stencils. 2) The ordnance. Again, this is not a fault of the kit, rather the integration of the aftermarket add on. Adding sway braces to racks, rack to pylons and then adding bombs onto that makes for a very fiddly operation, hard to align properly, and tricky to install. Plus, it's delicate. For example, the Muliple ejector rack from one aftermarket company attaches to an adapter from another aftermarket company which then attaches to the Tamiya auxiliary Air inlet "box" (great thinking, BTW). Onto this monstrosity attaches some rather weighty resin Napalm canisters. It reminds me in some ways of an old, rickety roller coaster one step away from shaking apart. CONCLUSIONS Would i build the kit again? Absolutely. However, i'd simplify the ordnance and cut back a bit on the aftermarket because IMHO it doesn't really need much. It's an enjoyable, rewarding kit to build, but it won't be fast. You need to pace yourself on this one. I *have* managed to save a little bit of time by painting up some ejection seats earlier on in the build, so i could repurpose the Hypersonic Models Seats or the Tamiya ones. It comes down to the time frame that i choose. The Mk 5 seat, while accurate is frankly not very colourful and it just disappears into the surrounding cockpit. The later Mk 5/7 has more colour with that big green parachute pack. I would recommend replacement resin wheels, just so you can preserve the tyre tread that gets destroyed in the gap filling process. Aside from the seats and the wheels, you could add the rear-view canopy mirrors but beyond that its case of selecting a weapons load and picking your aftermarket battles carefully. Adding Afterburner cans from Reskit *may* be an incremental improvement but it may also make the model more tail heavy. I will probably take some more photos and post them when the display base arrives, so watch this space. For my next trick- Hand-Carrying it to South Carolina. And now, back to the shelf of doom along with mystery guest. FLY NAVY!!

Well, here I am with the first entry that doesn't have wings! My victim for this groupbuild is: Wheels instead of wings and tracks, and something unusual ..... Keith ☺️

My entry is Tamiya’s 1/48 F-16C/N kit. Originally planned to build the box top scheme, until I looked at the instructions and saw the two tone blue aircraft operated by Top Gun, the decision was made for me. I will be building this as a F-16N operated by US Navy Fighter Weapon School, AS Miramar, October 1993 Colour profile from the box side.

Hi everybody, calling all Corsair maniacs experts for this build, such as @corsaircorp and @Corsairfoxfouruncle just to name the two I'm more familiar with I always loved the Corsair, but know very little about it, so any help, hints, tips, references and pointers will be greatly appreciated This is more of a bookmark than an actual start, I still need to study some proper documentation about the subject, anyway here are a few pics. The kit: It's the well known Tamiya 1/48 box - I don't think there's much to say about it, anyway here are the sprues: The second pilot figure, in the "jumping on board" pose, is very tempting... Clear parts Decals (as usual, I plan to use very few of them ) and the scheme I want to reproduce, Jolly Rogers' BIG HOG Actual works to start soon-ish, I may venture into a foray in another field of modelling before/along this, we'll see. Meanwhile, I'm all ears Ciao Edit: I almost forgot to add that my friend @corsaircorp had sent me some resin bits to tart up this build: I'm not sure if I'll be using the whole engine or just replace the crankcase of the kit with the resin one - definitely going to use the resin seat, though

Last year I decided I was going to build some subjects from the Vietnam war. I finished the year having managed 5 builds and put one of them into a small vignette. Having thoroughly enjoyed myself I started the year with another build, the M551 Sheridan from Tamiya with the upgrade set to provide the barrel and the rear engine deck grills. I plan to build a few more this year and have been thinking of adding them to a larger base at some point. For now, I am happy growing the collection but I do keep trying them together to see what might work

The Shepherd Pt I Tamiya 1/48 Mosquito B Mk.IV I'm sure many of you are familiar with Fredrick Forsyth's novella The Shepherd. I remember pulling it off the book shelf while I was bored at my grandparents' home one summer when I was around 12 or 13, and quickly devoured it. Fast forward 30-odd years when I returned to the hobby in 2020, my first kit was the Airfix Vampire T.11 and remembered the Vampire from the book. Since then I've often pondered about modelling an in-flight scene of a Mossie guiding a Vamp to safety. Now the group build planets have aligned this year with this one and the Twin Boomers in the autumn, so I've decided to give it a go. The big question was 1/72 or 1/48, but the recent Airfix Vamps tilted it in the favour of 1/48. So here we are: In case you've never read the book, you can listen to it here: I believe there's an abridged radio version that's become a Canadian Christmas tradition. Also, Disney recently brought it to the screen, I've not seen it and it received mixed reviews. I remember a bit of chuntering and scoffing on here, though the YouTube comments seen generally positive: Any tips on the Tamiya Mossie will be greatly appreciated, the biggest problem will be buttoning it up for in-flight display.

I'm not a jet modeler but I seem to have gathered a few in my stash so 2025 will be a jet kind of year and I'll be doing some GBs. That being said I had to buy a kit for this one but that was because I would have to wait till March for a GB I have a kit for. My first Tamiya kit aswell so it should be fun (hopefully). I will have plenty of questions I'm sure but apart from decals it'll be OOB. Dave

Because I have a knack of making things difficult for m'self I decided to build my 'Late' Tomcat as an 'Early' (1982) version without the extra lumps'n bumps. I was cautious of all the hype around Tamiyas' Tomcat, however, it turns-out that it really does build that well. There's so many shades in this 'overall Light Gull Grey' finish, that I honestly don't think I'll be doing another USN build for a couple of years - sadly they don't really 'pop' in the photos, but they're definitely there. I've used Mr Color &Tamiya lacquers throughout. Decals are from Furball (sheet 48-060), and behaved flawlessly as always. Also used Quinta decals for the first time (the only after-market on the build)... two words 'game changer' simple as that. I slightly changed the loadout to represent an early and rarely seen 3 + 3 configuration just to add more visual interest. Not too much more to say, please feel free to make any comments & observations or ask any questions. Enjoy the Easter break, cheers from NZ. Ian.

Hello all, Here is my entry for this GB - Tamiya's 1/48 Thunderbird boxing, marked as a Block 52+ of the Polish Air Force based at Poznan-Krzesiny air base. Unsure if it will be the 3rd or 6th Aviation Squadron as I'm not overly sure on serials for particular squadrons. Also need to locate the relevant patch! This is another build continuing on from last years theme of 'one that I've wanted to do for a while' . Kit: Aftermarket: Will be using a Quinta cockpit set, MCC ejection seat, Eduard masks, Master pitot tube and static wicks, Grand Models conversion set, Two Bobs decals, Fabscale seamless intake and Advanced Modelling Products mask. Contents of the Grand Models set that will be used: The CFTs are hollow and look very nice indeed. I'll be loading it with 2x AIM-9x, 2x AIM-120, 1x fuel tank and a Sniper pod (to be pinched from the spares). Should end up looking something like this all being well! I had seen a few images of recent (2022 onward) QRA jets but for all my endeavour I can't find them now! Dave

Hopefully no one will object to my joining with the Tamiya 1/48 Hetzer with a CMK resin conversion kit to make it a post war Swiss G13 variant? I’ve got other builds in progress so I’m hoping to build it pretty much out of the box (if the box is regarded as the base kit plus the conversion…) and I’ll just paint it in the single colour grey-green Swiss summer scheme (I’m aware that the precise shade is a matter for some debate) to keep painting as simple as possible. The History The bulk of the Swiss tank forces through the Second World War were 24 LTH, an early variant of what would become best known as the Panzer 38(t). After the war the Swiss were looking around to improve their armored capability and they were offered surplus Hetzers by Skoda. These were originally assembled from Skoda’s left over stock of parts from manufacturing for the Germans but the last batch were newly manufactured. The main difference (there were others, but less significant / noticeable, especially from the outside) from the originals was that owing to limited stocks of the original Hetzer main gun on the G13 this was replaced with the 7.5cm StuK 40 L/48. The Swiss Army eventually operated 158 G13s until 1973, at which point they were sold off. Many of them ended up in Museums masquerading as WW2 Hetzers. Why the Swiss variant? Well, my partner’s grandfather was Polish, and, by all accounts had a pretty bad time of it during the Second World war, including time in various camps. When my partner first found out I was a modeller she asked me not to model Nazi German subjects out of respect for his experience. Not a problem, I mostly build British kit and I was able to present her with an assurance on that one. However, some German equipment does appeal to me so if I really want to model it I look to other operators. A long time ago I did a Master’s in History and a chunk of that was spent on the Swiss and Austrian experiences of the Second World War. From this I learnt about the German kit (especially aircraft) the Swiss operated which means that they’re my first port of call. So if I fancy doing a Hetzer, not operated by Nazi Germany, I’ll turn first to Switzerland and their G13’s. In the natural way that modelling ideas expand to overfill the available space somehow this means I’ve now got a Centurion, Mustang and Vampire in the stash earmarked for Swiss schemes as well… Not much modelling time at the moment so my apologies in advance that progress will be slow!

A bit of an old mold but worth it, it was surprisingly hard to find one, but once I got one the price was so good I couldn't say no. Model was primed with Mr Hobby 1000 Black, then pre-shaded with Tamiya white and the main colour is NATO brown by AK real colors. There was a c All in all the build was more challenging compared the usual very easy Tamiya 1:35 (still very easy compared to other manufacturers). I am on my way to build as many modern AFVs as I can since I really like their real life counterparts and I am an avid War Thunder player (it's what actually got me into the model making hobby). I hope it's good enough, please let me know what you think and if you have any criticisms.

A third Nissan in a row, albeit quite different to the last one, the Be-1 and the one before, the Pulsar GTi-R. I started this one about a week ago alongside completing the Be-1 but as the Be-1 got the lion's share of the time, I'd done little more than prime the body and assemble the brakes. This is a kit I bought at an IPMS show in Crewe back in 2018, for the low price of £35. I have barely seen any for sale since then, but when I have, twice that has been the minimum. More if it's the Calsonic version. It's from Tamiya's short-lived die-cast underbody period, so it'll have some heft once it's complete. I think it appears a complex kit to look at and the decaling will be some work but overall it's not got a massive amount of parts once you look through what's there, compared to what you might expect. Much of the interior is also sadly, Semi Gloss Black. Or Black. Or Matt black. At least the very nicely moulded roll cage is silver. Some might say it's sacrilege to build such a rare kit, I say it's sacrilege not to. A bit like when James May bought that boxed vintage train set and then proceeded to open it and play with it. A lot of that complex body is all in one mould. Nice. Which does result in quite a few seam lines to remove. Assembled "axles" and brakes. Decals for two liveries are offered. I'm going to build car number 22, the Motul Pitwork version. Whilst the decaling does look a fair bit of work, at least this does a fair bit of the heavy lifting, following the instructions.

First Beaufighter, picked up cheap from a vendor at SMW. Thought it would be an interesting build; I am trying to broaden my repertoire. Only Spitfires, Mosquitos and a Hurricane so far. adding some extras: Not installing the pilot and gunner as I'm adding some aftermarket details ... going to make a small diorama instead. I know I'll only need two crew... undecided which ones. Making a start: Cut away the control panel, quite detailed 3rd party to replace that. I'll get it smooth later... A quick prime. and I'll crack on with some interior green tomorrow.

Being a serial starter (only occasional finisher) I decided to start something that shouldn't be too complex, the well known Tamiya He-162. I will try to build it as the interesting looking Black 27, interesting looking since it was left partly unpainted and rough which I think sums up the last desperate weeks of the Third Reich, and with a brown left wing and green right wing since they just fitted whatever was available at the time. As it looks otherwise complete it wouldn't surprise me if it had been flown into combat in that state if the war had gone on for a few more weeks. Could also be a fun challenge to replicate the bare metal and spackling look, and the included kit decals should provide the black "27" of Heinkel He 162 A-1 Werknummer 300027 found at Junkers-Jager Bernburg if I cut out the numbers from the kit supplied serial numbers. As you can see, Black 27 didn't have a serial number on the tail plane, nor a swastika. As far as I know the only difference between an A1 and the A2 the kit depicts, is the use of the short barrelled 30mm MK-108 guns in the A1 instead of the MG-151 in the A2. So I'd only need to leave out the protruding barrels from the kit and add the bigger 30mm ejector shell openings and paint the gun ports black, but if any He-162 experts on here knows more please let me know. If my plan goes pear shaped I will just build it as the "Nervenklau" plane from the kit, as I have several noisy motorcycles myself and I think the story behind that plane's name is quite amusing. It will be built out of the box (with the exception of a Quickboost REVI 16b gun sight), but with some attempts to improve detail. The kit detail is fine out of the box but it can be improved without too much work. The build starts in the cockpit (cue surprised gasps), and here Tamiya has left out the grab rails on the ejector seat so they were added using stretched sprue, and four roller wheels were punched out and glue to the seat. Added a few crinkles in the leather as well to add some life into it. I think, or rather hope, the seat supplied in the kit is OK for an A1 as there are at least two different variants of the 162 seat. Some riveting was added to the bulkhead, and the holes were opened up since there is some cabling and other stuff supposed to pass through them. The right hand cockpit side wall got a few punched out disks added to beef up the oxygen regulator. The kit's oxygen apparatus doesn't look much like the real thing, but I've seen so many different variations of the He-162 cockpit that I really don't know how it originally looked, or what has been changed or added by the allies after they took them as war prizes. Drilled out the hole for the flare gun port, and added some rivets to that as well. Still lots to do, so better just crack on!

I've always wanted this kit after building the 1/72 version during the dark days of the first lockdown, it was one of my first builds. The build itself was pretty straight forward, I did not realize until final fitting of the canopy that the seat sits too high to allow the canopy to be assembled in the closed position so if you want to close the canopy some of the bottom part of the seat will need to be removed. The Tamiya cockpit installs from below the nose section of the fuselage into the previously joined fuselage halves. The fuselage halves were joined with good alignment. The nose gear bay fit is good although the appearance is less than completely realistic due to the lack of a roof to the gear bay. Just before completing the nose gear compartment assembly weight needs to be added if you want to prevent the model from being a tail sitter. I glued 3 AA batteries in the cavity behind the cockpit and that was just enough. The wing top and bottoms join up fine. The engine nacelles and the fit of the inlet turbine to the nacelle is poor in and both inlet and outlet need to be finished/painted before assembly. Following the decal stage final assembly proceeded with addition of the small parts such as landing gear struts, doors, links, and weapons. The complex landing gear of the A-10 requires close attention. The accessory gear covers are excessively thick but I did not thin these parts. The linkage part engineering lacks scale accuracy but the fit is good. The Tamiya A-10, despite some dimensional and shape shortcomings, looks very good in my opinion compared with my only other A-10 that is the 1/72 Revell kit. The Tamiya is a fairly easy building project and for less experienced modeler would be a good kit in my opinion and upon completion will look impressive in your display line-up. BRRRRT!!

Ferrari 312T3 British Grand Prix, Brands Hatch, July 1978 The 1978 British Grand Prix was, for me, one of those exciting camping weekends that I still remember well. We were there at Clearways and saw that opportunistic move made by Carlos Reutemann to overtake Lauda and win the race. These are a couple of photos taken during practice: The model is from the Tamiya 1/20th kit. I bought the kit around 1980 and has been in a number of attics waiting to be built since then! The decals had yellowed desperately over the years so they were replaced by a set from Indycals which worked very well. Decals were provided for the white areas but I wondered how on earth they could be made go around that much curvature, so I painted the white using Halfords Appliance White straight from the can over Tamiya white primer. It needed some intricate masking before spraying the Tamiya gloss red. The kit wings were chrome finished which looked slightly ridiculous so I sanded this off and used AK Extreme Metal Polished Aluminium to finish them. The wheels are also chromed but I managed to tone them down using some dark grey wash and a coat of Humbrol satin varnish. Anyway, here is the final product. It looks the part except for the usual issue with these kits which is the difficulty in getting the bodywork to fit snuggly. Chris

Here we go again. This PzKpfw II was meant to be a quick project for a couple of weekends, but of course it turned out a little bit more time consuming. Partly because I've had quite a busy time at work and partly because the rubber tracks that were included in the kit were too short, so I had to go shopping. Kit itself is well known and I suspect that many of you who do AFV in 1/35 scale had built one at some point in your modelling career. Apart from the 3D printed tracks from QuickTracks the kit is out of the box build with no PE parts. This little Panzer II was painted using Ammo atom paints and for weathering I've used Ammo acrylic wash and Ammo oilbrushers. I've messed up a couple of decals, but overall I'm quite happy with the result. Enough talking, here are the pictures. I would welcome any feedback, be honest, but gentle 😜as this is only my second tank and probably only the third or fourth model that I have painted with an airbrush.

Well, I've been having a quite productive days recently. I did small touch ups on my T-34 and instead of watching the paint dry I've decided to start a new project. This time however I wanted something that can be built and painted fairly quickly, so I went for I think one of the oldest kits still available today (I'm pretty sure it is older than me), classic Panzer II from Tamiya. My plan is to build it out of the box and without figures. It will be another practice run, like T-34, before I will start getting to the big ones in my stash. Also I will use figures to practice figure painting at later date. I think it took me about 2-3 hours to build it and it was quite refreshing to have a kit that can be made in one afternoon. What's in the box? Four simple sprues, hull, rubber tracks, instructions and decals. Not many parts and that's the beauty of this kit. Now I know that this kit is an old one and it is Tamiya, so I've expected an easy job. Surprisingly there was a lot of pin marks, especially on the bottom of the fenders, which I had to fix using Vallejo plastic putty. And a lot of seam lines. No issues with fitment though. Once I've sanded down the pin marks and dry fitted all parts together it was time to prime it with Ammo One Shot primer in grey. Oh, I forgot to mention that after dry fitting I decided to check the rubber tracks and I'm glad that I did because they are tight. Not like @Harry_the_Spider Panther tight, more like two links too short tight. Quick solution was found... a new set of tracks for my Panzer II from QuickTracks 😁 Don't know when will they arrive, but I have enough work to do anyway. And that's where I'm now.

Hi folks. The Churchill tank is really ugly. So ugly, its endearing. It looks like some steampunk monster next to svelte Panthers and Pershings. Funnily enough, a friend came by while I was getting ready to take the photos, not very tank-literate person but he immediately said - "Oh that must be a first world war tank?". No, but sort of yes.... it was designed to fight battles expected to be like the trenches of France and Belgium of WW1. It came into its own in the latter stages of WW2 as an Infantry support tank, yet that tank strategy was discounted shortly after the war.... but if the Churchill was so good at it, how could it have been an invalid concept? - Churchills were used again in Korea even though the Centurion was by then well established as the British Army's main tank. I used a couple of new-to-me techniques on this tank.... firstly, I used Vallejo acrylic putty to roughen the surface of the turret to give it that rough-cast look.... I think I might have overdone it, and made it too "brushed" on the turret sides. I also used sponge chipping to try to add some rust and mud.....tbh I'm not sure that its worked very well and I now seem to have a blood-stained tank! I was happy with how this technique worked for the exhaust heat-shield on the engine deck, but doesn't seem to have come off so well elsewhere. I did try to use the Eduard photo-etch set to improve the details... but I learnt again how much I hate photo-etch ☹️ so most went unused. Not helped by the fact that the instruction sheet that comes with the Eduard set is hopelessly vague. And then just before I got setup to take the photos, I realised that the conical bit of the short radio mast on turret had come off somewhere... never to be found again. Oh well, one day I might do something about it! Anyway, I like Churchills and maybe one day I'll try the AFV Club offering to see how it compares - but not if its a fiddly build.

Got another older build here, hah. Sadly this one ended up accumulating a bit of shelf dust before the pictures, and as usual I couldn't get it all removed (stuff always sticks). Ukrainian 2A6 in 1/35 scale. My second Tamiya Leopard after the original 2A6 release from the early 2000s (which didn't turn out so well at the time for some reason). Luckily, I've gotten much better 😅 Enjoy Thank you as always for looking Gaz

This is the other recent build that I have completed, the only thing I added was a little tin foil to fill the gap between the gun cover and the hull and a metal wire tow cable on the back, plus some Tamiya Ration boxes. The idea with this one is that it's going to go in a diorama with some M113's I am still working on, hatch left open so I can add a figure later. This one was painted using Vallejo Acrylics and then weathered using a series of homemade washes. Mud was added using Vallejo European mud with slightly more red pigments added while the mud mix was still wet. Hopefully have the M113's done soon as well and maybe...one day...the full diorama will be completed!

Seeing as lately I've been on a bit of a Tyrrell roll with the Yamaha 023 and the Honda 020, I thought I'd continue the theme with the last one in my stash, the 003 driven by Jackie Stewart from 1971. I've had the kit for years and it will be pretty much oob as I've got other 1/12 kits with all the bells and whistle detail up sets, plus the fact I probably will have 2 kits on the bench with the Heller GB running at the same time and it would be hard even for me to mix up the bits of a 1/12 F1 car and a 1/24 Le Man's Bentley 😅 Ian 😀