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As a tribute to a recently deceased modeller on another forum, all modellers from that forum are being asked to build a Spitfire, as this was the last kit he built. My chosen model is the Mark VII High Altitude. ICM have done a good job with the kit, but the only colour references show the Spit in a medium grey livery with a flat light blue underside. My question is, was the Mk VII ever flown in a standard camouflage, or was it only used in the grey livery? Any information will be appreciated.

Does anybody know of a good 1/24 scale Lancaster Mk III kit for a reasonable price?

For no explicable reason 2022 has not been a good year for my modelling mojo, I have achieved very little in the first seven months, and my attempt to get inspired via the Revell / Monogram GB is moving a less than a snails pace. So hopefully rescue has come through an unexpected source, as I have recently acquired a Thomas the Tank Engine layout from a friend, as his son is now into X-Box games and they are about to move house. The Thomas engines have been stored but my first project, to fully reuse the layout involves these (sorry for poor photo but it is a small segment of a photo taken on my phone. the long term objective is to use the layout as the base for my second world war dated layout which has been a armchair project for over 30 year. So , I started looking at what I could do to the houses and the current result is this; For the moment ignore the house on the left. I don't know what the source of the design the Airfix designers had, but trying to envisage an interior for these buildings is impossible, as the internal chimney stacks line up with windows in some places and its hard to work out where a bathroom would be. My thoughts are that they downsized a semi-detached house, From a 140's view point the integral garage had to go, as I cannot find any pictures of similar houses of the 1930's with this feature. Indeed Mrs 821 lived in a very similar building of the 1930's at which point no thought had been given to parking. So the garage has gone on the righthand house. Yes the heaviness of the widows does offend me but this is a project about rescuing and reusing the buildings,

Recently I looked at how many unfinished models I have on my shelf. At first glance, there are a lot of them. But I made a disappointing conclusion that they are still not enough if I want to become the absolute champion in unfinished models. It turned out that this hard sport has a lot of competition, so I start a new model - Kübelwagen Type 82 from Tamiya. I hope that this will be another gem on my shelf with unfinished models Vytautas

My first figure was this Tamiya greatcoat figure as part of a kit swap at my local IPMS group. Pretty pleased with the outcome all things considered and it has helped me with a few techniques and brush control that will transfer readily into my armour and plane modelling that I normally do. The greatcoat itself was painted using the ammo field grey set, with the res of the model being painted in citadel acrylics. Definitely recommend this model as a first one for anyone thinking of getting into painting figures due to the lack of skin tone to try and get to grips with.

Right. So this is my first proper build thread. I started this kit in October, but never really got around to taking WIP photos before some of the basic structures were in place, so we begin this thread as they say "in medias res". After having a lot of fun with Academy's Warspite, I figured I'd have a go at Trumpeter's Hood. It is a very interesting, but also challenging subject as no kits are 100% correct. I therefore set my self the challenge to build a kit that would address some of the most glaring omissions on the original model, but I also wanted to build a visually interesting model, so some details would be left intentionally wrong, such as boats not being covered with canvas, and a few other odds and ends. For reference I decided to use the 1/200 Pontos upgrade set, as I believe this is supposed to be the most accurate set on the market, and Pontos provide many excellent quality pictures on their website. The parts I am using are so far: Trumpeter 1/350 Hood Lionroar PE set (New turrets and upgrades for the superstructure, among other things) Eduard Photoetch (Excellent detail, and also contains the proper framework for the catapult supports on X-turret) Wood deck from Pontos 4" guns and bridge equipment sets from North Star Models Brass masts and Pom Pom barrels from Master models 3d printed boats from Micro Master However this has turned out to be a somewhat frustrating build with lots of things not going quite according to plan. First of all the fit of the upper and lower hull weren't great. After some sanding and filling I got a reasonably smooth seam. For a bit of extra detailing I decided to try and simulate the layered hull plating on the lower hull using the masking tape and spray paint technique. Not overly succesfully though, as some flaking occured when removing the masking tape. I contemplated sanding everything down again, but opted against it, as I wasn't sure I could get the results I wanted. Instead I decided to try and mask the imperfections during painting and pass it off as weathering. Another challenge arose from the Lionroar upgrades for the superstructure. Unfortunately the photoetch bulkheads aren't that great a fit, which caused some weird issues when adding the boat deck on top. Some filling and bending resolved most of them, but not all solutions were particularly elegant. As mentioned I have been using both Lionroar and Eduard photoetch. The Lioroar set is a bit crude in places and the Eduard set have some estremely fine details, which are made from steel rather than brass for enhanced durability. However I have found the railings to be a real pain to work with. They are better scaled than the Lionroar set, but they bend extremely easily when you accidentally touch them and have proven very tricky to bend back into shape. The result is railing that looks rather wobbly in places. Terribly frustrating! The final challenge so far has been with regards to the main hull color. I mainly use Vallejo acrylic, where Mirage Blue is supposed to be fairly close to the correct dark blueish grey she wore in 1941. After a few tests i found that this color looked too dark on the model to my eye. I wanted something lighter, and slightly less blue, that would give me better contrasts once shading and weathering had been applied and really bring out details. However I have had a hard time finding a color that looked right to my eye. The main issue is that this is a large monochrome model, and if you do not add some color variation it just ends up looking rather dull on the shelf (camo working a bit too well I suppose). In the end I have been mixing Intermediate Blue and Light Grey in various shades and highlights usind an airbrush. The result looks promising, but it is going to be a real challenge to touch up any painting mistakes later on. The real fun with this kit has been the scratch building and trying to correct some of the errrors on the kit. After studying the 1/200 Pontos upgrade set I decided to leave the main hull mostly as it is and instead focus on the superstructure. the bridge and conning tower was rebuilt many times during the Hood's long service, and the result is a real mess of weirdly placed platforms, gangways and splinter shields. I omitted some splinter shields, as those would make the model almost impossible to paint and instead tried to get some overall shapes closer to the original. Other issues would require surgery on a level I wasn't confident I could pull off, without destroying the bridge completely, so I left those as they were. The aft superstructure and pom pom platform saw some significant changes as well. I filled in all the windows, as these were usually covered with canvas, and the Pontos set actually have portholes here instead. I am not sure this is 100% correct, but it looks better than the original. The Pom-Pom platform was lalso owered, which also looks more balanced in my opinion. Finally the masts were replaced with brass, which I think looks a lot better. First coat of paint on the hull, showing the failed attempt at hull plating, and some weathering experiments to cover up the worst mistakes. A bit of touching up and some oil colors will hopefully improve things somewhat...

Hello peeps. Well, uk is in lockdown and I am working from home. In between work I will get some bench time. So time to have a play with an experimental aircraft. I bought the PM ho 229 from Tornado models in Birmingham and I set about engraving the panel lines and was all set to start until I managed to break the canopy.....The canopy was broken beyond repair and I couldn’t find a replacement and asked the good folks here for help getting a replacement. Then the very generous and superb gent @dogsbody kindly offered me the pioneer kit all the way from Canada. Blown away by his generosity that kit has now arrived and I will be building the pm kit and pioneer kit side by side. It will be a slow build but thanks to mr dogsbody (who I owe a pint to when all this blows over) I have crash moulded a new canopy. Here is the wonderful box art of the pioneer 229. It will be an adventure! At least the pioneer parts seem to fit. The pm one..........stay safe and enjoy the ride as I build both of these side by side.

I rarely post on this site, but a mate suggested 3 of my recent 1/700 builds from 2022 might be worth posting, so here goes........ They are all 1/700 Trumpeter, and are the USS New York (BB-34), USS West Virginia (BB-48), and USS Alaska (CB-1) in their 1944/45 glory. I won't relate in any great detail here the ship histories, as I think we can all google search and /or check wiki and other sites for info on the individual ships and classes), but I will say that I enjoyed building the old WW1 veteran USS New York (sister ship of the probably more famous USS Texas) in it's late WW2 configuration with a large number of small calibre AA guns and amazing Measure 31a Design 8B camo scheme. This old BB is quite small compared to the more modern WW2 US BBs and is dwarfed by the Iowa Class. I have watched many youtube videos on the preserved sister ship USS Texas and found this a valuable resource and most of the videos were most informative and entertaining. The multi part (7 from memory) aircraft catapult on the middle turret gave me a small amount of grief as I do not own a bending tool, so ended up using fingers, a metal ruler and tweezers to make the multiple folds. The cranes also took a bit of work but look great in the end. The USS West Virginia was a rebuilt Pearl Harbour veteran (sank in shallow water and rebuilt) and a modernised Colorado Class which was back in service at the back end of the Pacific War and I finished her in Measure 32 7D scheme. Paints I used were Tamiya acrylic Nato Black XF-69 for the dull black, and the following from Life Colour US Navy WW2 acrylic sets 1 and 2 ..... 5-L light grey, 5-O Ocean Grey, and 20-B Deck Blue. The camo scheme was time consuming to paint and some masking was required as expected. Not too many other dramas experienced aside from the 'not great' instructions. The USS Alaska ends up being a surprisingly large ship in comparison to the 2 old BBs, and opinion seems to be split 50/50 on whether they are considered Battlecruisers or Large Cruisers (US Navy designation). My own thoughts are that Alaska and her 2 completed sisters shipped larger calibre main batteries than the Kriegsmarine Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and they WERE classed as Battlecruisers , and generally heavy cruisers had 8 inch guns during WW2, so they are Battlecruisers to me! They are also far larger than any other WW2 heavy cruiser at around 30,000 tonnes displacement and 808 feet in length. I finished her in Measure 32 7C with 5-L light grey and dull black camo and 20-B decks. All 3 ship kits are of fairly recent vintage and contain a good number of sprues with many tiny pieces (to be expected in 1/700!) - many of which ended up in my spares box, a smallish PE sheet, the usual instructions from Trumpeter which can be more than a little confusing at times if not studied well. I used mostly acrylic paints on all 3 ships and they were exclusively brush painted. My 30 plus year old basic Badger airbrush is in almost mint condition in one of my hobby desk drawers! I replaced the kit supplied SK-1 and SK-2 'solid' plastic radar dish and aerials from Flyhawk PE set FH700040. I am still working on the catapult floatplanes. I used 3 x magnification glasses when building and painting, but once high res pics are taken with phonecam, small blemishes become evident and I have had a fair amount of touch ups to do. Not a great situation when one is on the wrong side of 50 and the eyesight is not wonderful anymore. The fingers are still still steady enough though, which is one positive. No PE handrailings sorry - if I built 1/350 I would though. I'm considering building some Flyhawk RN WW2 1/700 cruisers next...with some trepidation! Posting images of these 3 USN ships (and an RN ring-in in one pic!) from my Flickr account now............

Maybe of interest Happy modelling

Post me your basic questions here and we will chat about them!

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 2022 production line, all in 1/72 scale. Finished model photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. This was a year of many changes. I quit my job, inherited a house, and moved from the city to the countryside. Once primarily an aircraft builder, my output of small-scale AFVs has been increasing, and they are making up almost half of my total builds now! I hope you like my selection, and thanks for your interest in my works. JANUARY 1/72 Italeri IS-2, with CMK figures, Blackdog stowage, OKB Grigorov tracks and Colibri decals. 1/72 Kovozávody Prostějov Ilyushin Il-2M, with Quickboost gun barrels. 1/72 Heller Sherman M4A2 built as a British Mk.III, with figure, brushguards and antenna socket from Dan Taylor Modelworks. The antenna is a piece of stretched black sprue, the towing cable is from Eureka, and stowage is from Milicast. Markings represent a mid-production vehicle of the Junior Regiment of C-Squadron, 27th Armoured Brigade, in France, 1944. 1/72 UM SU-85M with resin tracks from OKB Grigorov, CMK resin fuel tanks and Dragon spiderwheels. 1/72 Tamiya Fw-190D with photo-etch from ResIm and markings from Eagle Cals, representing an aircraft of JG301. FEBRUARY 1/72 Dragon Panzer IV Ausf.J "Final Production", built from the box. 1/72 IBG Fw-190D, straight from the box, in markings of JG2. MARCH 1/72 Arma Hobby P-51B out of the box. APRIL 1/72 Zvezda Sherman M4A2, with stowage from Sandsmodels and BlackDog, steel towing cable from Karaya, photo-etch brushguards from Dan Taylor Modelworks and antenna from stretched sprue. 1/72 Airfix DH Mosquito B.XVI straight from the box, with slightly silvering decals. 1/72 IBG Ford Maultier with Modelltrans resin tracks. A bit out of my usual interest and scale, this is the 1/87 (HO) Trident Steyr 4K 4FA, as used by the Austrian Army. A commissoned build. MAY 1/72 Airfix P-51D Mustang, converted to Mk.IV using Freightdog conversion and markings from Xtradecal, representing an aircraft of 19. Squadron in Peterhead, 1945. 1/72 Revell Heinkel He-177 A-5, markings from Eagle Strike. 1/72 Stransky Kits Bücker Bü-181 "Panzerbücker" 1/72 Academy Ford GPA with Blackdog stowage. 1/72 Tamiya Bf-109 G6 in colorful Romanian markings, decals from "Romanian Roundels Over Czechoslovakia" (DK72088). "Tumpi-Bumpi Flostomok" was the mount of Lt. Baciu from Grupul 1 Vanatorare, in May 1945. JUNE 1/72 Dragon Heinkel He-219 A2 with photo-etch from Eduard, resin wheels from True Details and decals from AIMS, representing an aircraft of NJG3. The mottle scheme was free-handed, using my trusted Harder & Steenbeck airbrush with 0,15mm nozzle. 1/72 Kovozávody Prostějov Spitfire Mk.XI in colors of the USAAF. JULY 1/72 Airfix Hawker Tempest, straight from the box. AUGUST 1/72 Dragon SdKfz 165 Hummel, from the box. 1/72 IBG Cromwell IV with resin tracks and wheels from Tank Models, etched antenna socket from Dan Taylor Modelworks and stowage from Modelltrans. Markings represent a vehicle of the British 6th Airborne Armoured Regiment, 6th Airborne Division, operating in Normandy in summer 1944. SEPTEMBER 1/72 Hasegawa SdKfz 251, converted to a battlefield ambulance by covering the (poorly detailled) interior with Sandsmodels tarpaulin and adding Aleran Miniatures red-cross decals. 1/72 Hasegawa SdKfz 234/3, built from the box. 1/72 Finemolds Bf-109K4 with etched parts (armored headrest, seatbelts, antennas) from a Brengun set and a pitot tube from Master, markings from the box. OCTOBER Another 1/72 IBG Fw-190D, this is the "Over Czech Lands" boxing, representing an aircraft of the 211 XXX Werknummer range, identified by the late three-piece gun cowl with small round bulges in the lower rear position. Decals from Eagle Cals (#108) 1/72 Academy Dodge WC54 Ambulance with stretchers from Milicast. The red-cross decals were sprayed using a paper template. 1/72 UM SU-76M Soviet assault gun with metal barrel from RB Productions. 1/72 Zvezda Yak-9D with decals from Printscale. NOVEMBER 1/72 Dragon Sherman M4A3 with sandbag armor from Blackdog and figure from Milicast. 1/72 Dragon Sherman M4A4 dressed as "Philippsbourg" from the Free French Army 1945. I added OKB Grigorov resin tracks, Eureka towing cable, Milicast figure and stowage and Peddinghaus decals. The antenna is from stretched black sprue. 1/72 Arma Hobby Yak-1B, built from the "Expert Set" box. DECEMBER 1/72 Valom C-46D Commando in markings of "Operation Varsity", March 1945. I wish you a great holiday season and a lucky new year. Greetings from Austria, Roman

Hallo We found some pictures from my father in law. Maybe it is of interest. Happy modelling

Hallo During getting order in our apartment, my wife found pictures from her father. This photo is taken in May 1940 in Charleville in France. No more information. Maybe it is an idea for a model? Happy modelling

Hallo Both pictures are taken 1940 in France. From my father in law. Maybe somone knows which types this tanks are? Happy modelling

Hello everyone! I am a new member and loved the healthy forum here so I simply had to join! i am going to build a model warship for the first time and wanted to document it as it will help me keep track and I spire to keep going but most importantly a reference for others to inspire. I laugh and joke with my best buddy about how funny it was when we were 14 to smash out a model in a weekend. the results were simply terrible but we definitely had our fun whilst at it! over time one matures and takes a deeper intrest into the history of the models that peaked our modeling tastebuds. one also appreciates the time and effort put into models and is extremely rewarding when it is backed up with so thi g as rich as the history too. When I was young(er) I enjoyed being a part of the Marine Cadet Detachment of the Sea Cadet corps TS Wizard (training ship) in Wood Green. It was my first introduction to the Royal Navy and inevitably inspired a deeper into rest into the history of it and more broadly the navies it dealt with. with this I have decided to build a model of HMS Wizard as it would require some proper research and holds a little place in my heart as it was the catalist for my love of naval history and engineering. Please follow this thread to witnes my maiden voyage into maritime modeling. commentry, experiences, pro tips and contructive criticism is advocated here to better the experience

Hallo I have 10 kits from the 109 Gustav. From version 2 to 14. All sorts of kits. The Tamiya and Zvezda G-6 and several Eduard editions. My question is: The Gustav was in reality criss-cross converted. GM-1, MW-50, upgrated hood, Mk-108 and so on. The situation is, that nearly no kit represents the aircraft I want to build. If it is so, in detail I miss hatches, or the wrong hood. The difference with upgraded vision improved hood to the standard Erla hood is too big, to be ignored. Especially on the aspect of aerial. AS will be AS. No conversion intended. To much work! On the other side, for planes of JG-300 / 301 / 302 the landing light is mostly omitted. I intend to build the aircraft I intend, and not to stick on the decal option the kit has. Lots of decals I have, lots of masks too. I need to know a scribing tool to make the missing hatches in fuselage or wing by myself. I need to know where to get dash boards for the improved blind flying and radio equipment for the night fighter versions. I need to know aftermarket hoods for upgraded vision improved hood / not Erla. If you can help me, I would be happy. Thanks in forward. Happy modelling

Hallo While doing our Christmas cleaning, we found a pile of photos. The pictures are from a flight with an F-156. It must have been around 1997. At that time, this aircraft was privately owned at the Wiener Neustadt airfield. The pilot of this machine had a model shop. After we started building plastic models, back then as beginners, we got interested in these old types of planes. My girlfriend at the time put me in touch. The aircraft itself was essentially original. The entire control, cockpit, etc. There was only the extension for the officially prescribed radio. The pilot who flew this machine was a very old gentleman at the time. At a young age he was stationed in the far north as a Ju-88 operational pilot. The operations were directed exclusively against shipping traffic. Allied supplies to Russia. Flying in the far north is no easy task. Light, weather, magnetism, loneliness. That is why radio navigation was of great importance. The lonely radio stations were vital. To secure this thread of life, this pilot was often on the route with the Fi-156. Visits, celebrations, equipment were the purposes of his countless non-operative flights. Hence the familiarity with this type of aircraft. Flying was really fun. We did a proper short takeoff and we went backwards. Rarely have I flown as stable and safe as with this aircraft. Note as a model builder: We built 3 storks. One from Esci, two from Tamiya. While the Tamiya kits are pretty nice, they have the pathetic flaw of making the plane look stupid. The wing and the landing gear are not corresponding at all. Wing positve dihedral as if in flight, landing gear as if on the ground. That's what I said to the people at Tamiya in Shizuoka in Japan personally, but it was ignored. I would like a kit for Christmas with which I can represent a stork on the ground with a negative dihedral and spread legs, and one kit in flight on a stand with a positive dihedral and hanging landing gear. Please look at the pictures. @Julien, I have some more for a Walkaround, if wanted. Happy modelling

After a fair bit longer than I thought it would take I finished the Saipan Sherman, I really enjoyed building this wee heller kit in 1/72. The background to this build is that during the invasion of Saipan in WW2 , three separate USMC shermans became stranded in the shallow lagoon surrounding Saipan, where they remain to this day. See below for the video that provided me with the basis for this diorama. My build is a bit of a composite of the three wrecks. I hope you like the results! Regards Mark

Hallo This is now my second Ju-88 from ICM. I built before my A-5 version. I will make the aircraft from KG 54 Totenkopf. Operative in Brindisi in Italy around 1943. I will make the aircraft from KG 54 Totenkopf. Operative in Brindisi in Italy around 1943. Brindisi is in the middle of the heel of the Italian boot at the eastern coast. In this area there occurred one of the biggest environmental pollutions. Here is the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_John_Harvey From Wiki German edition translated / English version of Wiki this subject is omitted! The most momentous air raid occurred on the night of December 3rd, when II. Gruppe, together with other squadrons, attacked the port of Bari. 18 ships with a total of 71,566 GRT and 38,000 t of cargo were destroyed. The Liberty-class freighter SS John Harvey exploded with a cargo of 2,000 AN-M47 bombs filled with a total of 480 tons of mustard gas. 1000 soldiers and civilians perished. The Allies concealed the consequences of the mustard gas on those affected. The camo is interesting, a good difference to the splinter scheme of my A-5. I will use Montex masks. Which individual a/c I will do, my options are from the same squadron LR or LA. Now, to face the main issues on this kit. The cockpit is wrong. We face here a flat floor, which is not so at all in reality. We have three possibilities. · To leave it as it is · To use a resin aftermarket cockpit · Or to make some scratch I decided after my experience with the resin from AIMS for the third choice. To avoid fitting troubles with the glass and fitting problems with the Bola. (Boden Lafette) The downward gondola. To improve the fuselage stiffness close to the wings I made one bulkhead in scratch. Before continuing with the build I emptied one sprue and did the main gear already. One error in the instruction is obvious. Look at the picture 48! The gear main mount is too small in gauge. About 1 mm. I had this problem when inserting the gear on my A-5 already. In this kit the difference is more. So I increased the gauge with steel wire to the proper distance as required. Meanwhile I did also the wings. Assembling, grinding, and filling. I inserted the landing light, after spraying the backside with Aluminum. At the wing tips I drilled holes, since this kit omitted the position lights in red and green. Well, it is done! So far this day. Happy modelling

Hi All, With my other current WIP (1:32 Spitfire Mk.IXc) on hold pending some decals arriving *drums fingers*, I thought I'd get another project going. Although 1:48 is my normal stomping ground I couldn't resist straying into the gentleman's scale in order to build a Beaufort, which I've been lusting after it since its release. I've been unable to order this kit anywhere locally, so after seeing @tonyot and @Rabbit Leader's inspirational joint build (wonderful work gents), I could contain myself no longer and ordered one from the big H at exorbitant cost (including shipping of course). A few short weeks later this lovely little box landed at the portcullis of Dunny Towers: Beautiful box art showing the enormous danger that these brave crews flew into. Although there are many interesting schemes for the Beaufort (including some lovely Aussie versions!), the combination of DSG/EDSG over Night is an irresistible one, so I'm going to complete this as the lower scheme, L9866 of 217 Sqn, based at St Eval in Cornwall in Feb 1941. This aircraft was flown by Sgt John Rutherford (pilot), Sgt Thomas O'Byrne (navigator), Sgt William Browning (W/Op), and Sgt John Wood (AG). The crew were all lost in the 1st Feb attack on the German cruiser Admiral Hipper whilst she was moored in Brest Harbour - the aircraft was thought to have been shot down by a Bf109-E4 of II./JG77. Brave men indeed. I can't find any photos of L9866, but I have found some lovely colour pics of other 217 Sqn aircraft (both copyright World War Photos) Here's another one, showing that both TSS and TLS were applied to aircraft from the same unit: All these shots show some interesting details such as the EDSG spinners, aircraft ID letter on the glazing, as well as the general wear & tear on the airframe which I shall do my best to replicate. On to the kit! Here's the sprue shots: The detail looks lovely, and the mouldings are nice & crisp. I know that everybody has raved about how well this kit fits together, so I hope it will be a pleasure to build. Here's the decals, which look lovely, along with an obligatory set of Eduard masks - the build will otherwise be OOB. I'm looking forward to this one! Thanks for looking, Roger

Here: New film by 3D animation with ALL cockpit details: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/21808-junkers-88-a1-detail-photos/ Happy modelling

Does anybody ever corrected frames? Cockpits have usually external and internal frames. Mostly all kits the cockpit clear parts show just external frames. Even if there is just an internal frame. No matter which type. Ju-88, Ju-87, Me-110, Helifax,. I think about removing the external frame, and just spraying inside. Has anyone experience on this matter? Happy modelling

Hallo This is my Ju 88 A-5 in 1/48 from ICM. Since this kit has some flaws in geometry in the cockpit, I got the resin AIMS cockpit. This is fine, but you create some longitudinal displacement. This displacements accompany through the finish of the model and cause some sever headache. Most of the vertical positions are fine, but not all of them. Here meets two flaws and one single place. The trim wheel from Eduard is too big! So it causes an intersection with the horizontal cockpit panel. This horizontal panel has all the control levers. Here is one point: Exactly under the trim wheel is the throttle double lever inside and outside both sides the propeller feather control. This detail is in the original Luftwaffe manual by page diversion omitted! And Eduard etched parts, also do not show the throttle lever. I also show you some other details from the manual, which may be unknown to you. The rudder break. Eduard has this part in the interior set. The hydraulic lines, I made it with lead wire. Here number 5, the bombardier control stick, just used in attack! This control stick has to be stowd! Eduard set has the fixing here number 1! The seats of pilot and radio operator. The seats for bombardier and gunner in ready position. The bombardier seat in stowed position. I could not make it. So far some details explained. So have a look and get some inspiration for creating a more accurate Ju-88, as the kit provides it. Used aftermarket parts: · Resin AIMS cockpit · BIG Eduard set · Montex masks · New Ware masks Happy modelling

Hi All, After some incessant online bullying encouragement from fellow Britmodellers @mark.au, @bigbadbadge and @AliGauld I felt pressured to the point of tears decided that I really, really wanted to model another Swordfish. Just last year I had a crack at Tamiya's incredible 1:48 Mk.II, so this time round I thought I'd stick with gentleman's scale, as I seem to be having a good run down in the smaller scale. Here's the Mk.II build if anybody is interested: Anyway, here's to the kit. Here's Airfix' box art: Here's the sprues: Here's the decals, which look lovely: A mask set from Eduard: Why oh why did I bother?!I've also ordered a PE rigging set from the good folk at Red Roo models. There are decal options for two aircraft, one of which was involved with the infamous 'Channel Dash' action against the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen. Much as that is tempting, that is not where we are headed with this build (note the '4' in the decals, which may become important later ). The aforementioned Mark is currently making a beautiful job of Tamiya's 1:48 Mk.I as 815 Sqn aircraft L4A, which was involved in the action on the Italian fleet at Taranto on 11-12th November. During this attack 21 Swordfish from 815 & 819 Sqn FAA flying from HMS Illustrious attacked in two waves, causing considerable damage to the Italian fleet. The aircraft in both waves carried a mixture of torpedo, bombs, and bombs & flares. Mark's subject is the torpedo-carrying aircraft of the commanding officer Lt Cdr K Williamson, which was shot down in the first wave. His beautiful work has inspired us gullible fools intrepid fellow FAA fans to build other aircraft from the same raid. @bigbadbadge has just kicked off with his bomber, so I am going to model one of the flare-dropping aircraft (hence the title of the thread). I think at the time of writing @AliGauld is still sitting on the fence, but he does have a few builds on the go... So, the aircraft I shall model is L4F of 815 Sqn FAA, crewed by Lt R Skelton and S Lt E A Perkins. After dropping flares over the fleet this aircraft successfully bombed the Taranto oil installations before returning safely to 'Lusty'. As yet I do not have any photos of this aircraft, nor do I have a serial number - any information would be gratefully received (I know that @iang has been most helpful in Mark's build - I'll also shout out @Grey Beema). So the aircraft will be finished with the S1E scheme, with a black distemper finish on the undersides reaching high up the fuselage sides. I shall furnish further information as the build progresses, but Mark, Chris & Alistair - I hope you are happy now? Just joking - really looking forward to this one (enough to put a 1:48 Blenheim Mk.I on ice) Cheers, Roger

I am well aware that at the moment it may not be welcome to spend time building models of Russian vehicles. But after all we are also building those related to Nazi Germany, aren't we? I found the perfect Modelkrak resin kit of the T-37A floating tank. The problem is that it presents an Izhorsk-built variant, while almost all photographed T-37As from the Winter War, the invasion of Poland or the Barbarossa Operation are tanks produced by the Podolsk factory - a modification (theoretically feasible) would devastate the sophisticated details of the turret and the hull uppersurface. Unfortunately, the tanks from the Izhorsk factory appear only in the photos of the pre-war maneuvers in Ukraine and the clashes on the Khalkhin Gol river. But there are also photos of such tanks in Wehrmacht markings, and the Germans surely did not capture them in Mongolia . Does anybody have a photo or a colour profile of the Izhorsk-built T-37A from the 1941 Eastern Front? Cheers Michael