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Tamiya is to release a new tool (?) 1/72nd Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II kit. Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=615777313890734&set=pb.100063754112187.-2207520000.&type=3 V.P.

Hi All. Here is my recently completed Mosquito Racer KB377 as part of the Mosquito STGB. The kit used was the Tamiya B IV kit in 1/72, Humbrol, AK and Vallejo paints were used with decals from Thunderbird Models. Typical Tamiya quality, the only filler required was the top wing to nacelle join. Tamiya's mounting system for the undercarriage doors makes the door openings to wide, doors should be much closer to undercarriage. I don't like colour matching to decals but I was lucky to find a near perfect match to the green by using Vallejo Deep green. Slight issue with the long fuselage decal as it broke at the narrowest point across the top wing. Build log here: Thanks for looking. Stuart

My first entry for this GB is the Tamiya 1/72 kit of the F-16C Block 50. Just look at all the Tamiya loveliness here! There are two of these sprues. The kit was marketed in two boxings, one with "full equipment" i.e. stores for the SEAD role. The other didn't have the stores. I find this rather bizarre as the stores seem to be moulded onto the same sprues as some major airframe components such as the tailplanes. I wonder if Tamiya moulded a seperate sprue with these parts for the second kit. If so, that seems a little counter-intuitive. Why not just mould on the stores together on one sprue and leave it out of the second kit altogether? It also seems as though Tamiya originally had the intention of producing a T-bird version and versions with the earlier smaller intake. I wonder why they didn't. I will be building this one in the current Have Glass V scheme, in the markings of 148 FW of the Minnesota ANG based at Duluth AFB. The Have Glass scheme will be far easier to replicate on an F-16 than an F-35 as there are no RAM tapes to laboriously mask. I think the model will have a lot of contrast and vsual interest as the nose come, pylons and stores are all in their original colours. The decals will be from FabScale, a company which is new to me.

In the general cemetery at Hoorn in the North Holland province of the Netherlands are headstones belonging to four RAF personnel of World War II. https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/2059219/hoorn-general-cemetery/ They are, in grave order, from left to right. Flight Lieutenant Victor George Brewis https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2620167/victor-george-brewis/ Sergeant Jack Ratcliffe https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2620168/jack-ratcliffe/ Sergeant David John Young https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2620170/david-john-young/ Flight Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2620169/arthur-whitten-brown/ Sergeants Ratcliffe and Young were killed on the night of 15 February 1944 when Lancaster LL689 of No. 115 Squadron was shot down by a Nightfighter flying from Leeuwarden airfield. Flight Lieutenants Brewis and Whitten-Brown were killed on 6 June 1944 when Mosquito VI NT122 of No. 605 Squadron was lost, crashing into the IJsselmeer at around 02:00, having left RAF Manston at 00:31 for a Night Intruder mission against Leeuwarden airfield. Some of you may recognise the name Arthur Whitten-Brown. This is because Sir Arthur Whitten-Brown was one half of Alcock and Brown, the first to make a non-stop transatlantic flight. Flight Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown was his son and only child. This build will be of Mosquito VI NT122 and will be respectfully dedicated to the memory of Flight Lieutenants Victor George Brewis and Arthur Whitten-Brown. I'll put some more details on them up during the build. The Tamiya 1/48 Mosquito seems to be rather popular and I’m hoping will make this a relatively straightforward build. I think there’s some aftermarket hanging around for it somewhere in the stash but I’ve not found it yet… My main concern is probably going to be actually making a space on the bench space that’s big enough to work on this; there might be a slow start as I try to clear some other builds. Cheers, Richard.

This kit has been in the stash since 2013...Time to build it 🙂 This one will be a lovely and interesting GB, thank you!

Here's my second GB entry is this tiny (especially in 1/24th) Fiat/Giannini with a KMP transkit... I've already started but hopefully not crossed the 25% mark... The work so far has been to fit the even wider arches from the transkit (I had to sand down those on the shell a little first), add in the firewall, attach the 2 engine halves and gearbox halves together, glue the inner wheel parts to the outer rim tube and attach the new hub parts to the kit parts with the polycaps inside. Body inner and outer parts have had an initial primer coat but could do with another to hide the contrast in the green 3D printed resin colours and I need to add some filler around those arches. Oh and the rollcage has had a first primer coat too. Here are the rest of the transkit parts - thankfully they've included spares for lots of parts (wheel pins, the fragile looking engine/boot lid supports, etc. The transkit is a bunch of 3D printed parts, decals and a rather limited instruction pamphlet (double sided) and paint/decal diagram. Here's an image of the car with the arches on, pre-primer... Here's the rest of the Tamiya kit pieces... And the Tamiya instructions... This is an older boxing of the kit, it looks like Tamiya have re-released it (hence the yellowed plastic). Here's a link to a YouTube video of the cars in action:

First post in this Group Build, and first Group Build. I had the Tamiya Mossie in the shed for a couple of years. I'm just researching at the moment. So far the build looks like this - I still haven't finalised a subject... leaning toward a Banff Strike Wing 235 Squadron plane, now diving into reference material as I couldn't find decent images on line. In an ideal world, I want the EDSG upper colour, with half invasion stripes... still looking.

Hi everybody, long overdue RFI for this model, completed last February: it's the well known 1/48 Tamiya kit representing Capt. Blackburn mount, "BIG HOG", an F4-1a as seen in Ondonga, Solomon Islands, in November 1943 (according to the kit instructions). The WIP thread has seen the usual participation of the BM hive with lots of great tips and pointers, and even donation of parts and bits, so many thanks to: @corsaircorp, @Corsairfoxfouruncle, @Cookenbacher, @VT Red Sox Fan, @72modeler, @steh2o, @Troy Smith among many others, apologies for not remembering all. Here's a brief summary, before showing other pics (there's plenty of them, so beware 😞 - Kit: Tamiya no.070, typical Tamiya of that era, nicely detailed from the box and good fit overall - a bit tricky on the outer wings, TBH - Aftermarkets: the seat is a resin one, kindly donated by Alain @corsaircorp, I think it comes from an Aires set. The pilot standing on the ground is also a resin one, again donated but by @Cookenbacher this time, made by Plusmodel (CZ). The pilot on the wing is supplied with the kit - Scratch building/Improvements: I scratch built the framing inside the engine cowling, cutting the frames with my Silhouette Curio from styrene sheet; the engine was detailed with various wires, and the same goers for the cockpit and the main wheel wells and main struts. I also scratch built a gun camera for starboard wing and its clear cover, although only the latter can be seen. Cowling flap actuators were reproduced using plastic rod and copper wire; the antenna wire insulator was scratch built form brass pipe, while the wire itself is AK elastic wire. I replaced the kit exhausts with brass pipes. I replaced the kit gunsight with a completely scratch built one, made from CD cover plastic, clear acetate and brass sheet. The gun through patches and the tape stripes covering the spent shell cases holes were made from the white paper used as protective sheet on top of the kit decals (hanks to @Cookenbacher for the tip ).The base is an MDF square cutout, with some real sea sand sprinkled over it and glued with PVA glue - Decals and markings: the insignia and numbers were all airbrushed using masks I cut with my Curio, the rest are the kit decals, including the friendly fire damage patches on port side of the fuselage. Following @steh2o hint, I also reproduced and additional damage patch, from the same incident, just aft of the engine cowling, using a punched out circle from a spare decal. I also printed an additional set of kill marks, as during the build it turned out that on the real AC those were painted also on starboard side of the fuselage - Painting: hairspray technique was used for the chipping, so I airbrushed decanted spray can Tamiya Gloss Aluminium as a base coat for the main AC, then a hairspray coat, then YZC (a concoction of Tamiya Flat Yellow and Flat Black), more hairspray and then the final camouflage, airbrushed freehand using Tamiya Flat White for the bottom and Lifecolor paints for the rest. Details on the chipping and painting can be found in my WIP thread. The figures where brush painted with various Lifecolor paints. - Weathering: a mix of tempera washes and oil dotting The WIP thread is here: Now on with the pics! Engine and cowling details can be spotted in the next pics Gun camera detail The scratch built gunsight Some interiors details, apologies for the overexposed pics The resin pilot and plastic Capt. Balckburn more details on chipping, fading ad markings Here you can just about see the cowling flaps actuators Antenna wire Now, a few pics without the base Bottom side (or "a dead one, according to @CedB ) Scratch built exhausts detail: more underside details All comments welcome! Ciao

Being a long way unto the build of the Tamiya FB VI (see below) i wanted another crack at the Tamiya Mosquito, knowing I could do better. So it will be largely OOB, with AM seatbelts and some cockpit scratch build. So this will be my second entry in the build.

Back making stuff again after a long break. Managed to construct the engine for this beauty Now just got to build the bike around it 🙂

Having become bored with my more elaborate builds, I thought it might recharge my modeling mojo to take on a simple Japanese destroyer – and perhaps actually finish it! Tamiya’s of the 1/350 scale IJN Kagero seems like a perfect choice. If it lives up to the Tamiya reputation of great fitting parts, assembly should be a snap. Just to keep things interesting I picked up the Infini brass upgrade set for it too. I’m hoping to complete this one fairly quickly with a minimum of the scratchbuilding which tends to bog down my projects. We’ll see, but this should be a fun, straightforward build! True to form, Tamiya’s Kagero hull parts fit beautifully and the hull went together quickly. My only quibble here is the split hull design. While the waterline/full hull option here is nice, molding the lower hull separately builds in a bit of extra effort to integrate the lower and upper portions. I definitely prefer the simpler single hull approach of their earlier USS Fletcher kit. That said, the join was pretty good and only a little Mr. Surfacer 1200 was needed to blend things.

I'll be building the Tamiya boxing, with Eduard "Space" cockpit details and wheels: Probably to be finished as per the box art but I may choose another option from the kit decals. Mike

Greetings everyone, started this couple of weeks ago, usual AA quality 😂 boiling water and hot air has come into play, quite a few poorly cast parts with bits missing as well, but moving along, a few areas have me stumped, especially the cupola parts for the GPMG mount, trying to work out how it goes together as instructions are the AA picture assembled and not the side needed. so far this is the state of play cheers all Mark

This kit is my first real attempt at an aircraft model, after the horrendous disaster that was my rendition of Airfix's Messerschmitt Bf-109E-3 in 1/72 scale. The kit is not exactly up to modern Tamiya standards but is not bad either. There was quite a bit of flash, particularly on the single cockpit piece, and the fit wasn't perfect in places but the main problem was that one of the wings was stuck at an awkward angle, but I managed to fix this with some pressure and Vallejo putty. I later found out that if you build the aircraft with the landing gear down, the doors stick out and prevent you from attaching drop tanks to the inboard pylons, much to my disappointment. Knowing I would need to paint and attach the cockpit before painting, I began to paint the cockpit, which was lacking in any real detail, so I did my best to replicate some reference images with a paintbrush, though this was difficult with a cockpit as big as a five pence piece. I was then confused as to where the decal for the instrument panel was, as I could not find it on the sheet, so I asked Blanketyblank where he had found his, only to find out it was made from the instruction paper, which I then cut out and stuck down with a bit of Markfit Extra Strong. Once that had been done I sealed up the canopy , masked it, and began priming the rest of the aircraft. When I have finished painting I will probably leave the bombs and drop tanks separate, and I will post the final product here on Britmodeller.

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.