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Ciao ragazzi, this time I built the old Tamiya kit of Panzer II DAK. I try to obtain a decent results due the age of the kit. The next step is to create a small diorama in order to include the Panzer with the soldiers. The Panzer commander was deforming due to the age so I remove. The rest of the soldiers are not so bad... we will see in the end... Stay safe and tuned Paolo

Clearly this could have gone in the concurrent Prototypes and Special Schemes GB, but it feels at home here. An oldie but hopefully goodie - I'm sure I built a 1/48 Tamiya F.3 once back in the day. From what I remember, the F.3 was a really nice build, so hoping for the same here. I don't think I will have the transparent engine covers, but rather just have the kit ones as removable items. Of course, if I do this, I could just have the clear versions instead - also removable. Let's see how the mood takes me down the line. Thanks for looking, Icarus

Here he is..... the mighty Churchill MKVII. Really a fun build. You can find the buildlog over here: And here are the photo's. Comments and tips are welcome as always. Tnx to everyone who helped me along.

Greetings I am part way through converting the Tamiya Beaufighter VI kit to a very early Beaufighter 1F, one of the first 50 or so completed without wing armament and with the early short square air intakes above the engines. I have been able to complete most of the needed external changes, such as the early canopy, flat tail etc, and I have made a rough representation of the early drum feeds for the cannon, but none of the photos I have been able to look at online or in my references show the engine intake mouths as other than a completely shaded hole. Would anyone be able to point me towards a source or photo that might indicate whether any mesh, guard or screen was fitted inside the opening? I am thinking that the answer might be ‘none’. As a supplementary question, were the early Beaus without the .303s in the wing produced without associated features such as wing access hatches? Its easy enough to see the absence of gun ports and ejection holes, but, again, none of the photos I have access to show any indication of this one way or the other. I am at the point where filling and rescribing is easy, but will pass this stage quickly. cheers Steve

Hi All, My latest completion is Tamiya's 1:48 Mosquito FB Mk.VI, which is oft shown on this site (unsurprisingly, because it's still a great kit despite getting a little long in the tooth). I have chosen to model this as HR405 of 143 Sqn RAF, which was part of the Banff Strike wing formed in late 1944, tasked with striking shipping and land targets along the Norwegian coast. It's a fascinating campaign during the latter part of the war of which I was blissfully ignorant before I read this book: Highly recommended if you get the chance. Now there are a number of commonly modelled Banff subjects, but HR405 was the sometime mount of 143 Sqn's CO, Wg Cdr (later Air Chief Marshall) Christopher Foxley-Norris DSO MiD. Whilst reading up on Foxley-Norris I discovered that he was born in Birkenhead, as was I! There are a number of photos of HR405, which were taken in January 1945 as part of a photoshoot for Illustrated magazine (images for discussion only and will be removed on request): The aircraft was also involved in many of the 143 Sqn sorties, and was mentioned itself in the book a couple of times. The aircraft survived the war and was later sold (to Turkey, I think?) There are a few things worthy of note from the photos: 1. The level of staining on the Sky undersurfaces, as well as the repair patches on the port stabiliser 2. The spinners, which I believe to be white rather than yellow as usually presented in schemes 3. The RP rails were of the earlier standard, rather than the duplex rails later developed by the Banff Strike Wing (these were only fitted to all aircraft in March 1945) 4. Most unusually, the distinct 'saddle' of lighter paint ahead of the tail, which I believe is to do with the overpainting of the invasion stripes Now my theory is that when the upper portions of the stripes were overpainted, no EDSG was available, so the next best thing was used - I chose the next best thing to be Dark Slate Grey. Then, when the lower portions of the stripes were painted out, fresh coats of Sky and the now available EDSG were applied to the relevant areas. This would explain why the EDSG portion is darker than the rest of the upper surfaces, which would have worn and faded. The 'DSG' portion corresponds well to the position of the stripes, so I think it's a viable proposition. I also applied the DSG treatment to the upper wings, which would have been overpainted at the same time as the upper fuselage. As you can see there is no discernible difference in tone to the Sky undersides, so I chose not to portray any difference in shade. Here's the WIP if anybody is interested: Now onto the pics: Here's a final B&W shot along with the original to test my theory: I reckon that's close enough for me! I've very much enjoyed this build, and I'm more than tempted to supplement it with a Dallachy Beaufighter and perhaps a Mustang too! Thanks for all who have followed along and provided encouragement and advice - it has been sincerely appreciated. Thanks for looking, Roger

Good afternoon everyone. The joys of CoVID mean I won't be travelling with work for a while, so I may have inadvertently generated some home time to build this. We will see... Time is short, so whilst we're not quite in Blitzbuild territory, the only aftermarket item I will be getting is some commercial masking, to speed up that always painful process. I will include the pilot figure to obviate the need for seatbelts. Anyway, that's the aspiration. Let's see where we end up. Thanks for looking, Icarus

My latest completed model. This time F-117A from Tamiya. Markings for 82-0806, 7th FS, "Vega 31", shot down over Serbia on 27 March 1999, during the NATO bombing. Nice kit, easy to build, but you can go overboard with adding details, especially in bomb bays and wheelbays as I did. Expect full build article soon in Air modeller magazine. Kit: Tamiya (kit no. 61059) Aftermarket used: Eduard PE, (49286) Resin wheels from Res-kit (RS48-0016) Aires Aces II seat (4144) Quinta cockpit decals (QD48169) Decals: Caracal models (CD48138) Paints used: MRP paints, weathered with oils from Abteilung. The actuall piece of the shot down F-117.

The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range carrier-based fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was designated as the Mitsubishi Navy Type 0 carrier fighter, or the Mitsubishi A6M Rei-sen. The A6M was usually referred to by its pilots as the Reisen, "0" being the last digit of the imperial year 2600 when it entered service with the Imperial Navy. The official Allied reporting name was "Zeke", although the name "Zero" was used colloquially as well. Another fantastic 1/48 from Tamiya, up there with the best! As expected fit an finish are excellent on the same level as the P-51 and P-38 - really went to town with the chipping fluid on this one, rare to find one that hasn't been heavily weathered. Honestly cant think of any bad points with this model, maybe the lack of decals but other than that this was a joy to put together. The Cannons and cockpit details are additional from Eduard let me know what you think!