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Late to the party, but let's see what I can do. I'll be building the Tamiya 1/48 P-38G Lightning in the kit markings for Miss Virginia, the aircraft flown by Lt. Rex Barber when he shot down the G4M1 carrying Adm. Isoroku Yamomoto on 18 April, 1943. Here are my start photos: I've been planning on making doing this aircraft for years (and the G4M1) and have had the Mustang International decal sheet. But along comes Tamiya and I think their decals are actually more accurate. So the only thing I plan to add to this build is a set of Eduard seat belts. We'll see how it goes! Michael

Here is the next model to cross my workbench. Or rather, here are the next models. One of the joys of returning to the hobby after a long absence is that I keep discovering cars I like that were produced in 1:24 kit form (which is my preferred scale). The Tamiya Fiat Abarth 695 "esse esse" was one such happy discovery last year and I should have known that there would also be a standard Fiat 500 kit out there; I found two of the Fiat kits for sale on eBay recently (you wait ages for a rare kit to turn up, etc. etc.). I knew the Abarth was complete, the Fiat was sold as complete but with some parts off the sprues, so my logic is that by building both kits together I can see what's missing (if anything, so far it does indeed seem to all be there). I love the Fiat 500 because it is so small yet well engineered and because it reminds me of holidays to Rome, where the classic 500 is still a common sight. Work has been underway for a couple of weeks as I'm priming and painting, particularly the bodywork, so here is the story so far: Obligatory box art photo. Unusually for me I'm sticking with the boxes for colour inspiration; on the Fiat I love the combination of blue bodywork with the red and white seats and I've found Fiat Capri blue, which I like even if it probably isn't 100% authentic. The Abarth is getting a coat of Ford Dove Grey, which is a light grey that doesn't seem a million miles away from the colour in the picture. This is the box for the Abarth, the differences between the two kits are in the black "B" sprue, the chrome sprues (I think), the tyres (wider) and the decals. The body is tiny. The good thing is that mould lines are very faint and easily sanded away. To cover its wide tyres the Abarth gets a set of wheel arch extensions. The instructions suggest attaching them after painting but it seemed more sensible to glue them on and spray them with the body as they are supposed to be one colour. This is the standard 500 after a coat of primer, checking for the fit of the engine cover and floor. Abarth at primer stage, the fit of the wheel arches isn't great (possibly my fault not the kit's), so a little filling is necessary. It's annoying that it's easier to see once primer is on, the black plastic tends to hide the gap next to the white plastic of the body. My solution was some automotive filler primer that came in a pen-type applicator with a fine nib; this was perfect for running a bead of filler around the join. First coat of paint on the Abarth. Annoyingly the can ran out so I'll have to buy some more. I'll give the body a rub down before applying the second coat; it is quite a tricky shape to sand, there's lots of raised edges to burn through if you're not careful. Looking a bit more purple under the lights, the standard 500 also has its first coat and needs rubbing down but I'll leave the paint a few days to harden first. As there's plenty of painted metal inside a real 500 I've painted the inside of the roof and pillars on both cars. Floor pan and rear bulkhead are common to both cars. The white area is where the part was held for priming, it won't be visible on the finished car as it is under the luggage compartment (which doesn't open). Note how Tamiya has different mounting holes for driver's and passenger's seats so you can't put the wrong seat in the wrong place, at least in theory). You can also see the spoon-shaped throttle pedal moulded into the floor. This is a bit disappointing but I doubt it will notice on the finished car. For the standard car I'll paint the floor Tamiya Nato black to represent the rubber floor mat. on the Abarth the floor will be body colour. Other side of the floor, plenty of crisp detail here. First part of the instructions is to assemble the twin-cylinder engine; here are the main engine parts painted flat aluminium. Fiat engine is on the left, the Abarth (on the right) has a bigger sump and different rocker cover. Painted engines next to one primed gearbox and one unprimed, the gearbox halves fit together so well it's practically a snap-fit. these parts are identical and interchangeable in kit form. You can also see the fan/dynamo drive pulley assembly; I thinned this slightly to reduce the thickness of the fan belt. Focus isn't great in this picture but you get the idea about the engines, standard on the left and Abarth on the right. The instructions suggest that the right-hand (as in this view) part of the standard engine should be in aluminium but all my research pictures have show the engine cowling painted black so that's what I've gone for. I'll add plug leads although it's annoying that there is no representation of the spark plugs or their holes in the moulding, it probably wasn't practical to incorporate that detail into the mould. The seats of the standard car are two-tone with white top panels and piping with the main part of the seat in red (my choice), tan or grey. To get the two-tone colour scheme I started painting the seats white; I'm going with gloss now and I'll tone it down with satin varnish later. Seats masked up, I then gave them another coat of white to seal the masking tape. Tomorrow I'll spray red primer followed by red paint. That's about it, but stay tuned for the next instalment.

(I hope i have posted this in the right place, if not please Mods, remove it) Hello Everybody, first time posting pictures of my Model Dioramas here, and looking at what everybody else has posted i feel a bit intimidated😬 netherless here we go🙌 Bit of background first, ive done some basic modelling in the past but this was the first time i had bought and built a model tank with a setting in mind. Looking at the real life tank online after purchasing it on a whim, i saw that it was in a desert environment, and i wanted to replicate it. In the end i have it in a diorama that i am kind of happy with and it also kickstarted the need to do more!(2 more have been done since this, with one more in process) The Model is a Tamiya Merkava 1:35 Israeli Main Battle Tank Mk 1, though I've binned the box so i cant remember if it was a Mk1 or not. For the diorama base i used a insulation foam board which i melted the ruts into(slightly a bit out of size tbh) and to fill i used a mix of plaster of Paris and Sculptamold along with rock moulds. In any case thank you for looking and ill look forward to your critiques😁

HI all my last one : this F5-A . the base is the beautiful Tamiya kit P-38G with the CMK resin. well....it was really difficult to adjust this resin to the fuselage but i succeed. Her are the pics : at the end : decals are from CMK but they need some microscale liquid decal film to avoid some BIG trouble. Fortunetaly i tried with the roundels before, wich i could replace easily. hope you enjoy the result.

Starting a new build from the stash - this one courtesy of my good lady of the Christmas list! This time it's an old kit, the Tamiya 1/35 M3 Grant I'm aiming to build this as T-24210, as indicated below The OOB decals provide for this, however the above picture does not appear to show any squadron markings on the turret. Anyway, the running gear went together very easily and the rear panel I'll keep ya posted on developments!

At IPMS Farnborough Modelfest at the weekend I picked up a cheap Tamiya Challenger I Mk 3 kit so since my Avro Anson build has ground to a halt, I'd do something with the CrARRV conversion I've had in the stash for about 3 years! it makes a change from bloody Thunderbirds! So this is the starting point: and after all the resin has been washed in soapy water The Tamiya kit only contributes the lower hull, road wheels and tracks, the rest is discarded - which is why I've been reluctant to build this conversion up until now as I don't like the idea of throwing away most of a £30 kit! However having sourced a cheap one, I'm less concerned... So the first steps in the conversion and of course building the lower hull as Tamiya instructs, Here are all the road wheels [img[http://www.mardona.org/gallery/d/19614-2/DSC_3864.JPG[/img] I'm not going to distress them as frankly I can't be bothered Next is to attach the upper and lower hulls together... and I've just realised that means I can no longer fit the driver figure in using the neat technique they've used: which would locate the figure in the right place at the right height... bugger! I'll have to sort something out about that late - doh! Anyway the two halves came together with a bit of fiddling and filling The rear joint needed a bit of filling and it was rather gappy and the front joint also needed some work Speaking of the front, the next task it to look at the dozer blade and its mechanism... I'm going to do this as a Gulf War 1 vehicle, probably Big Geordie as I found some great photos online at Prime Portal.

Hello, New day and a new challenge. Just having finished a Sea Vixen after a series of aircraft I thought I had better dust off a Tamiya HMS Price of Wales that I have had gathering dust and start with a new challenge. I haven't done a plastic ship for many many years so time to make a change. Previous ship building was a wooden HM Brig Supply by Jotika. However over to heavy metal and my first conundrum is do I do this as per the kit, or do I add in photo etch. I have used some on the aircraft and that is fiddly enough but this seems to be an order of magnitude up from that. Any suggestions over what to use without driving myself to distraction and never finishing ?

Good afternoon all, Another recent completion of mine is Tamiya's superb 1/32nd scale F-15C finished with Warbird Decals' commemorative scheme for the Oregon-based 173rd FW. The Tamiya kit just needs glue and a shake, but the Warbird Decals were quite tricky to apply being very thin and, in this scale, rather large! Paints were Xtracolur enamels. Regards, Rob

Nothing on the TV worth watching and my workroom is freezing so l thought l would put up some pictures of some of my P51's. Built over the last 10 years,they form part of my collection of Mustangs, 16 in total in both 1/48 and 1/72. These are all 1/48 and are from Hasegawa, Tamiya and Eduard, have got some Airfix as well which l will post another time. Big beautiful doll by peter crossman, on Flickr Tamiya Fighting Lady by peter crossman, on Flickr Eduard Tallahassee lassie by peter crossman, on Flickr Tamiya Three of a kind by peter crossman, on Flickr Shangrela by peter crossman, on Flickr Tamiya Nina Merle by peter crossman, on Flickr Hasegawa Bonny Bea by peter crossman, on Flickr Tamiya Mustangs by peter crossman, on Flickr ln my humble opinion Tamiya is still the one to beat.

Afternoon all. Decided on an additional build leading to a diorama. This PIII has been hanging around for some years, so needed a simple time filler in between the complex painting sessions on the Bergepanther with full interior. This'll be the first use also of the new Easy metal Links brand.....the Tamiya as always a cracking kit, really crisp and comes with PE grills and metal barrel. The Voyager PE set is basic, just the general detail required. I might go for some PE fenders if I can find some cheap. Other than that.......off we go.... Cheers all.

So her is my first WIP post, this will be the 3rd model i have built and the 1st 1/24th, the first two were 1/20th F1 cars. I thought this would be a nice change and a bit of a challenge with the photoetch parts i have started the engine and gearbox and also tried some of the photoetch parts while waiting for things to dry. More to come this weekend im sure

Having decided to build an Airfix Mosquito Nf.II over on the 'Interceptors' GB I thought why not build another which has almost a similar scheme, this being a conversion of a Tamiya B.Mk.IV into a B.Mk.XVI. The Airfix kit went together Ok, I added a bit of interior using some bits from an Airfix Wellington I recently did. I had a Pavla Vac-formed canopy which was a lot clearer than the thick Airfix one. The framing was done using painted Tamiya tape. I used .009" thou guitar string for the receiver aerials. The decals are by Delta Decals, printed by Tally Ho! They were very thin and opaque but went on well onto the 'Klear' gloss coat using the Mocro Set/Sol solutions, or so I thought. After doing the Matt coat the codes and serials silvered badly I ended up painting over it after rescuing them failed, the serials are hardly readable still! The Tamiya kit is the first aircraft of this manufacturer I think I have ever built, having made lots of their 1/35th scale vehicles back in the 70's! It was superb to put together as all Tamiya kits are. For the conversion I had put together 'Brengun' resin Two-stage Merlin's, Blackbird models Bulged Bomb-bay and 100 Gallon tanks and their decals for a 109 Sqn B.Mk.XVI. Of course Airfix had to announce their new kit last month so I decided to get on and get it done! The new nascelles fitted very well, just don't cut the kit parts on the panel line as stated in the 'Brengun' instructions as you'll have a gap, as I found out! The bomb-bay didn't fit that well and needed a bit of filing of the part and the fuselage, I think it looks just a bit too bulged maybe? The tanks fitted well without much trouble.The decals went on superbly, being thin and adhered well. I know the canopy isn't correct, I tried to fashion some of the 'blown' type side windows but it didn't work very well. Hopefully Airfix have the correct side windows, unlike in their CAD drawings! Comments and criticism welcome. Davey.

Hello all Today I would like to present you my elephant, which is made by Tamiya just like Stef's model. However, I decided to use Friul tracks, because I think they fit better to this big giant because of the weight. The Zimmertit I have treated with damage and some parts like the front armour of atak not used. I am not really a Zimmerit fan and therefore less is more 😁 Have fun! MD processing of the Zimmerit edges modified clamping screw dremel tool as lathe pistol port was closed by the crew some simple modifications for better details a lot of flame cut marks and weld seams my welding tools the rear and the jack with more details Ciao e a presto 😎

Having finished by Churchill Tank I'm about to start what I think will be a much bigger and longer project... Having followed a number of Scammell builds on here, I decided to have a go and bought this: Looks to be a great kit, with a lot of detail... I particularly like the detail sheets that come with it showing colour schemes. Having them laid out as they are is really useful as it compliments the mainly black and white pictures that are on net: I have been doing a bit of research on the vehicles themselves and it seems that there are differences between the base pioneer and the set up that was used as a tank transporter. The chassis was beefed up to allow more crew space on the transporter and it had bigger wheels which I guess is to take the weight but also give more ground clearance under load. Also, the transporter itself was really difficult to de-mount in the field so they stayed largely as transporters all the time. I can't imagine that made them the most versatile vehicles in battle. I wanted to stick something on the back of it and seeing as I have had the Tamiya tractor and 25 pounder kit under my desk for ages I have decide to use a bit of poetic licence and have that a vehicle / rig being recovered by the transporter. I'm going to assume that given that they were about the transporters could have been pressed into use for a number of different tasks... I am not sure yet what order this lot will be built in or indeed how fast it will be... Work is quite hectic at the moment. But I'll document what I do and will be looking for any hints, tips or general encouragement / motivation as I work through my many mistakes!!!

I had some stuff left over from recent larger dioramas, and nothing left in the stash to start :(. So decided to build a small vignette using the 'leftovers'. This shows a British universal carrier that has somehow got lost in South Netherlands during late 1944. The profusion of German signs adds to the confusion and the small boy isn't much help either. Universal carrier is from Tamiya, as are the figures but with resin heads. Can't remember who supplied the small boy, ebay probably.

Hi folks. I started with the begenning of the year, this simple and beautiful kit, Tamiya's USN Skyraider. I preferred not to add so muc aftermarket, only the seat belts, a prepainted ser from Eduard, I guess for fighters from WWII era. I repainted the straps in grey green. I only added some details in the sidewalls down the side consoles, a friction knob of the throttle sticks in the left and a circuit breaker box in the right. Some details in the left side of the armour plate behind the seat. I added some wiring in the engine and piping and tubbing in the wheels wells I primed the cockpit with One Shot primer and airbrushed with mig and Revell acrylics. I used the kit decals for the front console. I hope you like it. Regards! Pablo

Hi All, Here's the Tamiya Marder 1 which was based on a captured Lorraine artillery tractor. Fantastic kit making for a very enjoyable build Used the hairspray technique sparingly as I always usually destroy the white coat. Figure painting the ongoing issue. C&C welcome Thanks David

First model of 2021!. Jagdtiger, Tamiya 1/48th. Almost all weathering was done by using Oil Paints and the OPR technique, (no enamels washes or filters) and the last 10% with pigments/X-20A fixer and a little bit of acrylic mud. cheers, Jorge

#2/2021 After the first aircraft model, also my dad´s first little armour model is completed. Tamiya´s new T-55 kit, a bit spares and only one marking option provided but in the typical quality. Built oob, painted with AK Real Colour paints, Arabic numeral decals from Star Decals to display the model as an Iraqi tank as it appeared during the 1st Gulf War and also in the 2nd one in Kuwait. Used a marking option from the 1/35 Italeri T-55 as template. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235084418-gulf-wars148-t-55-iraqi-army/ DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0007 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0009 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0010 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0011 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0012 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0013 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0014 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0015 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

My first build of 2021 and first Tamiya model. For my first tamiya I have to say some very nice detail and fits. Found the decals a little weak especially the intake hazard decals too many folds. And not a fan of the colours only available as a spray making it very hard to convert to a tin or to humbrol etc. If anybody has a good cross reference site for tamiya AS paints let me know please.

Hi all. Another submission of a project I finished off a while ago, and had on the go for a loooong time before completing it. 1/35 scale Tamiya M1046 TOW Humvee, dressed up as an abandoned vehicle from the late 90s and inspired by the setting of the original Command and Conquer videogame Thanks for looking ^-^ Gaz

This is Tamiya's 40 year old kit, OOB except for replacing the plastic latch arms with metal ones: Regards J A

Tamiya new Sturmpanzer IV kit. I added PE skirt rails, tarp cover from magic sculpt and other small additions. Nanond

After a week away, today I got a start on the next project. Well, I say a start, but I've done the spraying of the body coloured bits and some of the bigger satin black parts over summer so technically I started this way back when we were all locked down. Although the kit is getting on a bit now, first impressions are that it's a good, well engineered and detailed kit (actually first impression is that the car is massive, which at least is realistic) with quite a bit to keep me occupied, despite being close to 30 years old now. I've only seen these cars in the flesh in two colours, dark metallic green which looked ok, and cliche silver which I felt really suited the car. So cliche silver it is, chosen not just beause I think the colour suits the car but also because the nearest I have in the display cabinet to silver is the light titanium Honda S600. For what I presume are manufacturing reasons, the side panels are separate to the main body, so first job is to assemble the body before I do anything else. Fortunately, Tamiya have used a good bit of design here and have used the side body moulding to help hide the join between the sides and the body with the sides having a tab which fits behind that moulding - once assembled it looks to me as though it's worked pretty well. I forgot to take a picture of it in primer or in colour, so onto the body with the clear coat on. The instructions call for aluminium paint, but instead I chose to go with Tamiya's Silver Leaf. This looks stunning without clear, but does dull down a bit with the clear (TS-13). I also discovered that it's not the easiest paint to use - when I clear coated it, the clear coat brought out finger prints on the silver leaf which weren't visible before I cleared it (this is the most obvious example). (EDIT: Just found a pic of it in Silver Leaf without the clear coat) Well I wasn't having that, so the body got a second coat of Silver Leaf then clear and me being very careful not to touch the paint anywhere which will be silver on the end product. Much better now - no fingerprints After that, it was time to do the panel lines, this time using Humbrol Dark Grey wash, which isn't as dark as the photo makes it look. As usual, I did the time-honoured technique of blocking off anywhere I didn't want the wash to go with blu-tak pushed in with a cocktail stick. Once that had dried, it was time to remove the blu-tak, then run over the panel lines with a cotton bud dipped in IPA to give a smoother finish - much better once that had been done. That's pretty much where the body sits now, it's in the middle of polishing up to get a decent shine but this gives the idea. As for today, just before going away I got the two sides of the engine glued together and some aluminium paint on the belt assemblies and engine cover. Today I added aluminium paint to the engine block, mixed up the dull metallic brown and added some first details to the parts. As with most parts which need detail painting, this isn't a particularly quick process so this is where I am now, most parts still being a work in progress. The XJ200 lettering has been picked out in silver, but it doesn't stand out very much against the flat aluminium background. Thanks for looking.

After some longer pause, it´s time for a new quarter scale armour project. Gonna do Tamiya´s new T-55 kit. Sadly Tamiya only provides the single scheme on the box. Therefore I bought decals from Star Decals for the Yugoslav civil wars. Don´t know yet which scheme my dad will choose. DSC_0010 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0011 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0012 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr