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Hello again.I have finished this one last week.The old Testors YF-23.Fully rescribed.The cockpit has been upgraded a little with some scratch details.Painted in tamiya and ak interactive paints. Regards,Dragan

Hi all Been working on this little beauty as a distraction build whilst I complete some FAA projects. A lovely little kit that was purchased on eBay very cheaply and it came with a resin cockpit and engine I didn't use the resin engine as it is meant for the cowling less aircraft and the kit engine is actually very good. Brush painted using Humbrol enamels and rigged with Prym Knitting elastic. Anyway enough of the twoddle here is yhe model. If interested here's the link with some build pics A couple of pics of the kit engine Thanks for your support during the builds and thanks for looking in. Chris

Hi folks, My next (and likely final) project for this build is this Fujimi A-7 in a Testors box. I used to absolutely adore Testors kits when I was young, and seeing these boxes really brings back some good memories. I bought this kit on ebay, and it came with a little surprise. I'm not sure what ejection seat was used on the a-7, but I don't think it's whatever this is. Can anybody help me out?

Picture being a kid in the 1980's.....(that's me BTW) and movies such as Top Gun, Iron Eagle 1,2,3 and no doubt up to at least 10 more that went straight to VHS, were staple to watch in the house I grew up in. Being the youngest of 3, with my Dad being RAF, aviation was in my blood, as well as modelling. My eldest brother had built the fictitious F-19 Stealth Fighter and I absolutely loved it! I remember that "stealth" was the buzz word at the time and there were rumors of new aircraft were beginning to surface.....It wouldn't be until 1989 that a heavily airbrushed image of the F-117 "Night Hawk" emerged. At the time it was suggested that the Russians were also developing a "Stealth" Aircraft, but given the secrecy at the height of the Cold War, no one really knew if it was true? Rumors of a MiG-2000 with predictions of what it may look like? An interesting design, up until Testors threw their hat into the ring. “In the autumn of 1987, the US plastic model manufacturer Testors.. launched its model of the “MiG-37B Ferret E”- a Soviet equivalent to the Lockheed stealth fighter. Its appearance must have caused a few smiles around the Mikoyan design bureau. As its manufacturer admitted.. Its reception in the Pentagon must have been less amusing. Here in widely-distributed form was the first model to widely illustrate the use of RCS reduction technique.” I can imagine there were several intelligence officers in the CIA that were a little concerned that the technology that was being developed for the F-117 suddenly appeared on a fictitious Russian aircraft. The MiG-37B "Ferret"......Now this I loved even more that the F-19 Stealth.....the angles, the shape, the low profile....all was so futuristic to me. I even had a Micro Machine of one too! So, from looking through the stash, I have decided to actually build one......This time from Italeri... A little bit of gumph for you.....fresh from 1987. There are 2 main sprus for the kit and a clear spru for the HUGE canopy Confirmation of the mould and the Testors / Italeri link Cockpit detail is somewhat lacking. I have seen builds where people have used photoetch from an A-4M Skyhawk cut to size, but as I do not have anything like that to hand, the basic detail will have to do. Now interestingly, would the "Stealth" MiG still have the iconic Turquoise coloured cockpit? If so, I am interest to know how to mix the correct colour for it though? The decal sheet is pretty decent with 2 main options for colour scheme, though I have heard that the decal sheet is pretty thick and with some issues of silvering. Instructions are fairly basic, but straight forward. I don't foresee this build taking all that long to do, the decision for colour scheme though will be interesting to decide on, I dont fancy the plain black or winter cammo scheme that is suggested. Perhaps a more "What If" cammo scheme should this aircraft had been a reality and went into service. A few possible schemes. I do quite like the scheme for the Sukhoi though...this may work nicely. Building will begin as soon as I can.....Thoughts and any ideas for paint schemes are all welcomed as I have yet to decide which direction to go in.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/FineScaleModeler/photos/a.214503981911776/3367502656611877 V.P.

This is another Blitz build for this weekend, with only 20 parts I think I will get it finished in a day or 2. With not much interior I splashed some interior green around and painted the pilots The national insignia was engraved in the fuselage (but not the wings) and had to be filled as well as some ejector pin marks in the lower side of the one piece wing The fuselage went together with no fuss and the sprayed and masked canopy and aircrew were install on the planks seats The lower fuselage colour was applied but it turns out I had to refill the puttied and sanded ejector marks. I have resprayed the area again and tomorrow I will be applying the other colours and getting ready for decals

An earlier build (early 1990s) and only photographed fairly recently at the Cameron Airport, the Testors 1/48 F-104A Starfighter is a very basic, simple old model. Originally, it was a Hawk release from 1957. I love these birds and really, how can one go wrong with a type named "Starfighter"? Is that not just the coolest name ever for a jet? 😀 The rudimentary landing gear was given some much-needed detail and I used the pilot figure to add a bit of interest to an otherwise bare cockpit. The horizontal stabilizer and brake doors were covered with Baremetal foil. The kit decals were used. Several different NMF paints were used but it's been so long since I built the plane I really don't remember. Here's another look at scale models from the really distant past. A quick comparison of this kit with today's great new offerings reveals how far plastic scale model kits have come. Thanks for your interest in this old warbird!

I have really got into the scale modelling doldrums this year and am in danger of ending 2019 having just finished one kit in the year. That isn't good! I have decided that I want to build something fairly straightforward and thin the stash out so I have chosen this kit: IMGP3285 by Michael Baldock, on Flickr It is the Italeri 1/48th F-4S Phantom which was released sometime in the very early 90's. It is a very basic kit with raised panel lines, quite rigid plastic, and probably a fifth of the parts of a modern Zoukei-Mura offering. I bought it on eBay 12 years ago for a fiver so that might be a tenth of the Z-M offering 😉 The obligatory view of what is in the box: IMGP3286 by Michael Baldock, on Flickr The Italeri boxed Phantom line has been interesting over the years because they have used the old ESCI moulds and also appear to have had a tie-in with Testors in the USA. This F-4S kit uses the same core parts as their F-4E, F-4G and maybe RF-4C Testors based offerings of the 1980's whereas their ESCI based Phantoms appeared from the early noughties. Personally I think that the ESCI based Phantoms are by far the better kits. Back to the kit, what can I build? IMGP3297 by Michael Baldock, on Flickr It isn't a sophisticated set of decals but I do like the choices, USN VF-151 and USMC VMFA-321 birds in the final TPS paint scheme used before these old gals went to the boneyard. I do have several items to add to the build: IMGP3287 by Michael Baldock, on Flickr I will be using AK Interactive acrylic paints for airbrush, a SuperScale decal set dated 2006 focused on VF-103, and maybe some unused parts from an Academy F-4B kit. Testors or Italeri? All will be revealed 🙂 Michael

I am slowly working through my shelf of doom, finishing some kits that should have been binned. This was originaly built in the 70’s by my brother. I got it when he was going to throw it out. It had a fuselage, wings, and a propless spinner, only slightly less than the kit originaly had..... Over the years, I opened up the undercarriage bays, gave it an Aeroclub prop, vacuform canopy of unknown provenance, undercarriage, tailplanes and enlarged radiators from the Spitfire spares box. Highly inaccurate cannon barrels are turned brass by me. Now, if you wanted to do PK312 as it was originaly built, it would be far easier to start with a later F22 kit and swap an earlier tail on it. I have finished it and posted it because, well, not a kit many people are dumb enough to build, and I never give up on anything.....

This Republic P-47D Razorback, a 1/48 scale Testors kit (a re-pop of the very old Hawk P-47), was built many years ago. The build was inspired by one done by Dr. Paul Budzik of Francis "Gabby" Gabreskis' T-Bolt in an old Finescale Modeller magazine. I remember that his was done in 1/32 and of course, was a magnificent model. I had the old Testors kit in my stash and was motivated to try and duplicate the bigger plane as best I could. This is my humble result. I added quite a bit of detail in the cockpit, on the engine and some brake lines. Built mostly OOB, I did lower the horizontal stabilizers, open the cowl flaps and drill out the gun barrels as well. This kit had the option of building either the razorback or bubbletop version; I went with the razorback because that part seemed to fit a little better. 😉 This was also one of the first builds where I tried to modulate the paint finish a bit but it is almost unseen in the pics. Heck, looking at them now, I can't see it!😁 I’m sure I was too timid in my efforts. The decals mark her as a 84th Fighter Squadron plane with the 78th Fighter Group, operating out of Duxford, Cambridge in 1944 flown by Major Quince Brown. (http://www.americanairmuseum.com/person/173590) Thanks for your interest and comments! Gary

A build from 6 years ago. You youngsters have it easy now, with new 1/72 and 1/48 Ryan NYPs at you disposal. We used to have to distill petroleum, make our own plastic, build our own presses, fabricate our own tools, and build a kit in a life time, IF WE WERE LUCKY! After much debate, it is still undetermined when the first 1/72 kit of the Ryan NYP was issued. Although the later incarnations are known, in the form of kits from Frog, Hawk, Airlines, Novo, and the like, the first fossil kits clearly show up in the Cambrian strata, together with trilobites and algae, before even the most primitive dinosaur dared to show its ugly snout. Some scholars go as far as placing them as contemporaries of the first stromatolites. We may never know; but what we do know is that they survived al the cataclysmic extinction events that wiped out other kits, and we know too that in these, our times, the kit re-popped under the Testors brand. I hear you, in all those eons the kit did NOT evolve: the same recessed engraved lettering, the same chunky engine, the same strange prop blades, the recessed ribbing on all surfaces, the even more mysterious interior filled with the horror of nothingness... BUT, is there any other, more evolved 1/72 kit specimen around? Nope. There is no other contemporary kit in the market of one of the most iconic planes of all times. The scholars found out that most of the kit manufacturers are too busy churning out infinite versions of the same warplanes. Talk about dinosaurs... The kit: you will need only your fingers to count the kit’s parts. Scale-Master decals are included, as well as a clear base, which is something like your appendix, still there after all those millennia, just in case, but of no real use. Attached to the clear base, by the way, are the not-so-transparent transparencies. The word “HAWK” in tiny font can still be seen under the base. One of the photos shows an obscure statement engraved inside the fuselage sides: "Made in USA". Archeologists and paleontologists are still debating about what that could possibly mean. So, what do you do with your Testors kit? Well, it is long list. First, forget about that tail skid and the anemometer post protruding from the fuselage halves, they will be inexorably obliterated anyway during construction when you try to smooth the fuselage joint. Second, get out the putty and cover that hideous, unsightly recessed lettering –and the ejector pin marks under the wing since you are at it-. Third, get another, better engine, chop the cylinders and replace the kit’s ones. Fourth, figure a way to produce a credible fuselage and flying surfaces ribbing. You may replace the sort of chunky tail feathers if you feel like. Fifth: hey, scratch some interior. Not much can be seen of it, but you can cut and pose the door open to help with that. Do not fill the recessed lines on the nose when you deal with the lettering there, those are panel lines and are sort of OK. And, did you know that a second machine (Ryan NYP-2) was built and sold to Japan? Aha. It was registered J-BACC and went through a few color changes. There, another option for your frozen-in-time, primeval Testors kit. Now, a confession. Long, long time ago when I was young-er, naive and inexperienced, I built the thing, out of the box, in all its tragic crudity. I know. So as said before the stringers and ribbing effects were dealt with, a nice interior fabricated for it to show through the open door and windows, and a few external details prepared for later addition. The engine was replaced by an Aeroclub white metal item and the kit's "engine" reworked and used as a master for a vacuformed part . Holes were drilled for the control cables, fuselage handles and stab struts (all missing in the kit). Other details that may be added are the fairings of the wheel hubs, the carburetor intake, a better representation of the anemometer, control horns and cables, the periscope, etc. Different shades of metal paint were used, and a combination of home-made and the kit's decals applied. Beware -to add insult to injury- that the kit's decals' instructions have the position of the rudder ones (3 and 4) reversed. Besides the other mentioned details, the kit is missing a diagonal brace strut that bridges the rear leg attachment of the LG to the fuselage and the top of the suspension mechanism. So, can you build a decent, accurate replica from this kit? only if you commit a great deal of time to research and fabrication, and you become a Shaolin modeling monk.. Can a 10 year old have fun with this simple kit without any kind of accuracy concerns? you betcha. But if you are a serious modeler, you know what you are up for. I would not hesitate to scratch-build this one, since the time involved should be actually less than the time I employed here in accurization and detailing. As long as the results are good, then is all fun.

Hello friends havent posted in quite a while but need some advice. Now that Testors has for the most part eliminated their MM line of enamels I find myself in the land of acrylics, where my problem has been the fast drying time for an old man who paints slow and deliberate. Anyway, my question is what Tamiya color is closest to MM dark glossy blue, or 15042 if I remember the FS number correctly. I want to do a nice dark glossy sea blue on a circa 1945 Hellcat. If I have to start using acrylics then a basic spray job is in order. Are acrylics ever glossy, or is a gloss coat necessary? I know that the vast majority of you guys have been using acrylics for years but this old dog needs to learn a few new tricks out of pure necessity. Well, any help would be much appreciated. Cheers SA

This is the old Hawk kit, in the Testors box with new decals. For a 1/48 kit it's pretty small. Detail is pretty much non existent, there is literally no interior to speak of except for a pilot figure holding a control column, but I have omitted him. The outline of the colour scheme is also engraved into the surface of the kit, so it's all been either masked and sprayed, or painted freehand. I knocked up a small base for it to sit on out of a picture frame and some floch.

Project fighter based on GeeBee R-2. Used reworked plastic Testors. The hood, engine, landing gear and canopy Dora Wings. The machine guns Browning are Master Models 1/32.

Okay, I didn't think I would be joining this one, what with my Matchcaster in the works in the Matchbox GB, and a Matchbox He-115 I was thinking of making after that. But... I came across this Testor's kit (factory new) on ebay, and with its sleek lines, good scale and awesome cheap price, I had to buy it. And now, I have to make it! It will need some help though. There's no cockpit. There's a pilot, but he is a baaad pilot, and not worth taking off the sprue. So, it will need a seat, interior framing, an instrument panel and a control column. Also, the raised lines on the wings and the placements for the decals will have to go. After that, Ill also be opening the exhausts and removing some detail on the bulges that I'm not seeing on the actual planes. Hopefully, this won't take too long, and it won't side-line my Lancaster. I'll see about getting some work started on it when I'm off on Friday.

Hi all! All guidance appreciated. Thanks in advance. Martin

Hello Gents, Following a bet with @jrlx I'll ask to join that great band of wet feet modellers. Knowing myself, I did'nt start a great thing since it must finished in January Since yesterday, I Wonder, did I join in ? Or not ? But wich will be my entry ?? Martin Marlin, Catalina, Kingfisher, none of these could be possibly finished in time. Then I saw over the cabinet... This one I picked her up with the idea of selling her on evilbay, since I have 2 of these... Seem to be a decent kit with a funny diorama base WTF ?? But, can get Something out of this, will be a first...

I decided to do a second build for this GB, despite the fact that I am no where near done on the first. Like the Bristol 138A I am already working on, this kit had also been starring me down, just asking to be built. The Testors kit has only a few parts, and would be a very simple build if the wings actually mated to the fuselage well. I have a couple of these, from different boxings. and although the color and the softness of the plastic may change, the fit doesn't get any better. One good thing about the newer kits, they look like they have MUCH better decals. So I am building a bit of a mix, the old silver plastic one, with harder plastic, but using the new decals. The kit..... The huge gap... The poor fit... and of course the poor fit on the left wing doesn't match the poor fit on the right wing... The fun begins!! Greg in Oklahoma

This was a project I was doing over at ARC for a Group Build (Far East), but I haven't finished it yet. I've been reading up on South Vietnam's F-5 operations and was inspired enough to want to build one. The kit I am using is Kinetic's F-5A, which does the job nicely. Work naturally started with the cockpit: The panels and side consoles are nice, but I wish Kinetic would have done a set of cockpit instrument decals since the panel detailing is okay, yet lacks dials on the instrument faces. So out came my collected instrument decals to do the job. Eduard does color etch, but I was a little cash strapped when I started. One minor issue I will point out is if you are doing an F-5 that ISN'T a Canadian bird, the kit provides a Marconi HUD box rather than the more rudimentary NORAIR gunsight that most F-5A/B models have. The Marconi HUDs are something seen more with air forces that have updated fleets. It took me a few minutes with a file to make the HUD/gunsight mount look a bit more featureless, although if I had to do it again I would have cut the box completely out of the panel and stuck in something a little smaller. But it looks okay. With cockpit work done, I assembled the intakes, fuselage and wings. Everything more or less went together okay. One thing I recommend when building this kit is to not finish the nose and rear fuselage separately and glue them together as the instructions recommend. Instead you will have MUCH cleaner seams up top if you glue each nose half to each rear fuselage half before gluing them together. Fit was good and the resulting seam was a lot easier to handle. It did not need filler. Now there is a little bit of a gap between the intakes and rear fuselage, plus a similar gap between the bottom nose/fuselage plate ahead of the wing and the wing itself. I was able to fill the gap perfectly with some .010" styrene sheet (plasticard) and it blended in nicely. You can position the control surfaces on this kit. The rear wing flaps are traditionally up when the plane is parked. Leading edge flaps sometimes have a slight droop when parked (or more depending on the operator). One thing that all early F-5 and T-38 jets seem to have though are drooped ailerons when parked as they seem to sit about five degrees down on both sides when the hydraulic system is not pressurized. Thankfully it is pretty easy to represent that with this kit. One unique feature of VNAF F-5s were the 90 lbs. of lead armor plate they had mounted under the nose and parts of the tail. The plating was introduced during the USAF's "Skoshi Tiger" evaluation and South Vietnam continued the practice when they got the original F-5C jets and some additional F-5A and B models. Again I used some plasticard to represent the armor plates based on available photos found in my reference books and online. Another thing I'll mention is the outer wing pylons. If you wish to droop the leading edge flaps, a notch will need to be added to the outer pylons. On the real jets, this notch is covered by a spring loaded flipper door/fairing that goes up when the flap does. Kinetic didn't scribe in the fairing area in so I am going to represent that with pencil lines. I did sand in a slight notch into both pylons to help make space for my slightly drooped flaps. So that is where I am. I've got the model in primer with some paintwork done to the bottom. I'll shoot another round of photos when I start laying on the SEA camo on top. I'm using a little different pattern than Northrop's factory camo. Based on pictures I've seen, it looks like the oldest F-5s in the VNAF fleet likely went through depot level maintenance in 1969-70 and when they got repainted, the camo pattern seemed to be based on the desert/Asia Minor scheme, but with SEA colors. Hopefully I can pull this off properly.

I saw Bridge of Spies a few weeks ago and quite enjoyed the film. The U-2 sequences where very good, dramatic license aside, and it wasn't long before I had checked out a few books from the library on Lockheed's Skunk Works and the U-2. The next step was to see what kits were available. I was somewhat disappointed to discover that there were no kits currently in production and unless I could find something on eBay, I was out of luck. Well, as luck would have it, soon after I started looking one or two popped up on eBay UK. The one I liked had a low starting price so I put a bid in and waited. Only one other bidder joined in but didn't seem to want it as much as I did so I won the auction. The box was a little worse for wear and many of the parts had broken off the sprue tree but it was all there. It is an old kit, however, and not at all cutting edge but, based on drawings I have since acquired, I think the general overall shape is good and it just cries out for a little scratch building and super detailing. Which I am more than happy to get stuck into now that I'm giving the Camel a bit of a rest. I've started on the cockpit and will post a couple of photos tomorrow. Meanwhile: pic in a minute.

Hi I am hoping for some advice. I recently bought a 1/9th scale Testors Harley Davidson FXSTC softail from Ebay. Unfortunately the tyres are missing. I've contacted Testors and Italeri but neither has any replacement tyres. Does anyone know where I might be able to get some 1/9th scale tyres for this model or how I might be able to replace them? Many thanks if anyone can offer any advice Danyel

Me Hearties, C'est Fin! My Curtiss Racer R3X-2. A 1:48 scale Testors kit, it bears a fictional colour scheme. I think it suits the beast well though. Also my first serious attempt at interstrut rigging. Arf! Cheers for looking. ~M~

Has anyone built the Testors Concorde? a bit smaller than 1/72. I made two many years ago, restored both, yet to finish decals. They have a very short tail cone, which I noticed after I painted them wondering why they would have short tails. I never saw photo of a short tail cone.

I'm having a bit of a modelling sabatical at the moment, not a crisis of faith but just felt the need for a short break. That said, I have just finished a Testors 1/32 Kamen Husky that I picked up for a tenner at the excellent little shop at NELSAM in Sunderland. It's standard 70s fare, oversized rivets and minimal detail but presented no great challenge. There was a bit of warpage and flash but nothing you wouldn't expect on a kit this age. I had to do a bit of scratchbuilding to cover up some of the more obvious deficiencies but for the most part it's built OOB. Cheers, Liam