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So this is my first post in my first group build with my first kit for 15 years. I’m modelling the Academy FA-18E VFA-143 “Pukin Dogs” with the Eduard detail set. Made an ambitious start chopping the undercarriage wells about… …and moving the rudders. Sorry about the poor quality snaps. Wish me luck. See you all later.

Right, for the less-than-a-tenner group build I'd like to submit the Revell An-225 - wait, just kidding At the back of the stash I found this little beasty lurking : Bought it many years ago from the Big H for substantially less than a tenner.

After the 2020 programme/newsletters (link) Here's the Academy 2021 - newsletter 1 Source: https://www.academy.co.kr/6q/board_news_main.asp?pMenuId=BOARD00002&pCode=12213&pCategory=NEWS2 The aircraft: V.P.

About 20 years in the making (only somewhat literally), here is my first effort at the Academy kit of the B-29. Although a nice enough kit, some of the fit wasn't great. It is also a big model! I had to modify my display cabinet to get it to fit, and it also takes a lot of nose weight. Finished as Top Of The Mark, I wanted to model a Korean War B-29 after the introduction of black undersurfaces. Unfortunately, although I found a few different pictures of this particular plane they were all of the nose art area, so I had to make a best guess at the rest of the scheme. Some B-29s had the black go all the way up the rear fuselage and include the fin, but I found a photo of 28BS B-29s that showed just the lower half in black, so I went with that. This plane went through a few iterations of markings, from nude to covered nose art, then the black undersides, the latter with or without red stencilling on the nose gear doors. I used the Aeromaster sheet 72-129 from the 1990's, which had survived well but had an incorrect serial number, 44-61562, which actually belonged to Never Hoppen. Thanks to this helpful website, I discovered the correct serial number was 44-69763, and indeed one of the photos I used for reference showed the last three of this on the nose gear door. I raided my unstarted Korean War boxing for most of the decals, as they crucially include the red USAF text for the wing underside which I found to be otherwise extremely difficult to source! The Aeromaster sheet only offers the all-over natural metal with bikini-clad girl version, and no national insignia at all (a separate sheet was released for this, but only with black stencilling). I used various shades of Alclad to replicate the different tones visible in photos as best I could. Anyway, here are some pics. Due to the large size of the subject, it was hard to get the photos in focus! Thanks for looking. Mike

G'day all, Here are a couple of P-40Ns done up on the colours of 75SQN (Special Hobby with Eduard interior) and 1 Aircraft Performance Unit (Academy). Both markings are from DK Decals. The 1 APU aircraft is in NMF and painted with Alclad Aluminium while the 75SQN is painted with Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-53 Neutral Grey. I went with the NMF as I have some P-51 builds in mind down the track so wanted to test out my skills, which need a fair bit of work in regards to surface preparation while the Olive Drab I found is quite difficult to photograph. The 75SQN build was A29-521 "Svengali". On 9 August 1944, 12 aircraft were on a patrol when 3 out of the 4 aircraft in yellow flight suffered a collision. Yellow 3 struck Yellow 1 (A29-521) before becoming locked in an inverted spin with Yellow 4, crashing with the loss of both pilots. The collision ripped off the aileron and 25% off the LH wing from Yellow 1, exploding the .50 cal ammunition. FlgOff Jacklin flew the 200 miles back to base and landed without incident. The aircraft was repaired and later on served with 78 SQN. Anyway on the models, hope you enjoy. JayGee. Below are some pictures of the real Svengali from the ADF Serials Newsletter, which show how tough these work horses were and the dangers faced in the mopping up faze of the war.

I built this one in a record time.Under a week.I wanted something relaxing after the resin c-140 I built a while ago.I only added the seatbelts and a gunsight.The rest is OOB including the academy decals.I used gunze paints and the varnishes are from ak and vallejo.Enjoy the photos

Hallo I want to ask you about your experience in the 48 scale of the Su-27 kits. In my stash I have the · Sukhoi Su-27 UB Eduard ex Academy · Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker B HB · J-11B PLAAF HB Tell me please out of your experience the pros and shortcomings of these kits. Actually, I have in all cases the nozzles from Resin, the metal landing gear and cockpit. Some resin parts or etched parts. Thank you in forward. Happy modelling

So, the plan is to turn this into a model a model of this aircraft I've also got the Eduard single seater Ltd Edition kit, so "58" might also make an appearance to accompany "71" (and also have a standard Academy SU-27P kit which will become "711" the SU-37 "Terminator"). This won't be a quick build as I intend to return to it about once a week while other GB are in progress. The kit includes resin cockpit and PE but strangely the latter doesn't include the side panels so they will need to be painted. Digital camouflage to be done using Foxbot masks (and decals). Again I've also got their masks for "58" BUT they are identical to those for "71" despite the camo being applied differently to both airframes - anyway that stage is a long way off. Mike

Good day, I completed the new tooled Academy B-52H Stratofortess earlier today. Here are the highlights of the kit………. 1. Paint : Model Master Dark Grey FS 36118 - Light Ghost grey FS 36375 - Interior yellow / green, Mission Models White - Tire Black - Olive Drab - Faded Olive Drab, MRP Flat White, Tamiya Chrome Silver - Titanium - Semi Gloss Black 2. Washes : Grey, light grey, black 4. Pastels : black undersurface exhaust streaks This is a very nice kit but I took too long to complete it. I fiddled around far too much and I should have been much more efficient with this kit. I enjoyed it very much and it goes together without any significant issues. My researched indicated that modern B-52`s are not all that weathered much with streaks and paint chipping and I reflected it as such with this one. The biggest problem I had was with the complex black striping found on the horizontal stabilizers of B-52`s. They folded over and I simply could not get it back to it`s proper pattern. Frustrated, I gave up and proceeded without the stripes. The kit supplied decals are a bit thin and are prone to folding over and tearing when placing. Academy provides a much needed windscreen / clear parts mask which aids greatly. I always liked the lines of the mighty “Buff” but I learned that 72nd scale offerings are difficult and tricky to assemble. 1 / 144 scale is much more manageable for larger aircraft types such as the B-52. I highly recommend this kit to all skill levels. I would consider it to be the finest B-52 in any scale. Thank you in advance!!!!!! Mike

A build I finished a little while back but only just got around to it. It’s the academy late version with DEF barrel and fruilmodel tracks. I had to scratch build the spare track brackets as I lost the originals. Fictitious camo as I’m not a massive fan of tri tone and I liked the look of this two tone scheme. I used this as a test bed for a few new techniques. A few things I’m not that happy with such as the mud splashes and wet runs on the front but also things like the wheels and oil weathering on the top surface. I only built it as I got the tracks for a steal so had to get the kit to go with it. Anyway, onto pics: Thanks for looking, comments and criticisms welcome!

Academy is to release two new variants/boxings from its 1/32nd Lockheed Martin F-16C Fighting Falcon kit. - ref. 12123 - F-16CG/CJ Fighting Falcon Source: http://www.academy.co.kr/6q/board_news_main.asp?pMenuId=BOARD00012&pCode=9052 - ref. 12123A - KF-16C Fighting Falcon ltd. edition Source: [http://www.academy.co.kr/6q/board_news_main.asp?pMenuId=BOARD00002&pCode=9060&pCategory=NEWS1 V.P.

Academy 1:72 SB2C-4 Helldiver. The kit is excellent out of box with detailed bomb bay and cockpit. Nanond

Need to put my La-5 aside, needs some serious work I think and need to get something done for end November for the local IPMS thing. Will get back to that shortly. Promise. 🤫 So pulled this out. Bought completely by accident, wanted the SBD Dauntless, so ran into my local shop, saw Battle of Midway on the box side, grabbed it and rushed back to work. Realised when I got home I grabbed the Vibrator by accident. No complaints, wanted one of these too but still, not ideal. Box art in the usual Academy style. Sprue shots. Clear parts look good. This comes with PE lap belts and canopy masks (bonus!) out the box. 4 sprues of plastic goodness. Some minor flash and ejector marks. Started filling them last night with Mr Surfacer 500. Chances are good most will be invisible, but not taking chances. Close up of the holes on the cockpit side structures. Quite a few but shouldn't take long to sort out. Will be referencing THIS during the build. They appeared to have solved the sink marks that plagued the early (??) Accurate Miniatures release. So huzzah! As for scheme, would love to do a USMC Wind Indicator stationed on Midway during June 1942. So extreme weathering is required. Here's hoping I can pull that off.

Greetings Model Friends- Well I am still keeping up the progress and finished my 3rd Model in last Month! This one is a 1/48 Academy P-47N with some nice Nose Art! '2 Big and Too Heavy!' This flew out of Iwo Jima and is the 'Big' version of P47 with the larger wing and looks really 'different' compared to a standard wing P47. This one had a resin cockpit which was a bit of a challenge to get to fit in the fuselage! I also added the resin propeller so it would be the right type. NMF really scares me and I don't yet know how to weather it well, so leave it in nice shape. This bird was repainted with the tail stripes originally, so I pictured it just after that and is really clean. The original plane photos don't show much weathering, no gun soot, only some exhaust stain, so that's what I did. This time I tried the Gunsie Mr. Color super metallic paints and love them! The Main areas are painted in SM201 super fine silver, and as you can see is like a mirror. Then I did the flaps and ailerons in a SM204 stainless and the section of wing over the MLG also in the stainless which is a little more flat and darker as this was in photos. Then the Gun doors I painted in SM203 Super Iron to get them darker like in photos. I really liked the finish and it looks more interesting having different sections of fuselage and wings in different silver colors. The fuselage side panels and cowl flaps were also painted the darker stainless silver. Decals were a huge issue. The stencils came from the kit, and a zotz P47N sheet. The Main decals for insignias came from an Aeromaster P47N sheet. Then the Nose art came from the excellent Zotz decal sheet for this P47N. Unfortunately the zotz sheet had the cowl decals too large! I had to use Aeromaster which were correct size. All in all I needed 4 different sheets of decals to get the decals for the complete airplane all selected for different parts so they would look right. Some things I goofed were the tail stripes. I used the aeromaster sheet and they fit the Academy kit well, however the carrier film connected two stripes (narrower) and the third is separate. So the stripes are not quite right. Next time cut stripes apart and put them on individually. The other hard part was the underwing rocket mounts are molded into the lower wing! These needed to be removed for this airplane. Photos show them not installed. So that was really hard cutting them and sanding and filling the lower wing that had the remnants of the rocket mounts to remove. This was really hard to do. So don't look at underside of model! It was a fun build and I enjoyed it and it looks smashing on the Pacific TO shelf in the model case !

Kit - Academy. Paint - All Tamiya acrylics. Decals - Star 35 C 1149. Extras - Stowage from spares box. M7 Priest HMC 98th Field Regt. Italy, Summer 1943 Bought on impulse about eighteen months ago, not a huge fan of artillery builds but I had the decals already so I decided 'why not'. It's not one of Academys better kits, when this was issued, I'm guessing that the M3/M4 generic moulds were getting a little tired, no matter the lower hull builds quickly and easily, the interior is not 'the last word' but busy enough and the upper hull, well you need to be vigilant as you're bringing it together as there are gaps which can turn in to chasms if you're unlucky. Painting was a bit of a hike as I needed to get the fighting compartment base painting and fading done, then the dark green camo on the outside which was masked then the 'pink' for the outside sprayed and matched to the interior - probably created more work for m'self doing it that way around, I just didn't fancy cutting the camo masks to protect the 'pink'... much easier to protect the dark green. I didn't use 'exact' tones, I applied my favourite Mk.I eyeball method... on its own it looks perfectly fine but alongside my M3 Scout Car from last year it looks really pink !!. That said, GO 1650 of December '42 did specify - "The basic colour common to whole of MEF is designated 'Desert Pink' - the disruptive patterns will be in Dark Green (PF No.1)..." The directive 'officially' was recinded in April '43 ahead of the Italian invasion but it took time for all the vehicles to be re-painted in the new Light Mud & Blue/Black colours. So that's it, please feel free to ask any questions, hurl any abuse or make any comments. Next AFV on the bench will be an M3 Lee in late war SCC13 Jungle Green, and given the multi-faceted hull, I will probably go down the full-modulation route with the paint finish. All the best from New Zealand. Ian.

Academy Phantom with Fujimi Flight Deck Crew

Latest off my production line my first Academy model a Hawker Hunter F6 of 4FTS 1979. Having never made an academy kit before it was nice to find the kit went together quite well (wings to fuselage being the only real problem area) and quite a nice moulding with very little trimming needed. Downside of the kit being and if anybody has one to be aware of is the decal placements are wrong in places (fortunately I have a revell kit guide) and also that all the pics of XF526 I could find in 4FTS show her without guns or sabrinas fitted so a little filling etc required. Overall a nice kit and something a little different to add to the collection with the 4FTS colours. Incidentally if using humbrol red 19 I found it took 3 days to be tack free and a week in the airing cupboard to be dry enough not to pick up any dust or paint flakes around! And one of her 4FTS sisters at the museum.

Randy “Duke” Cunningham was born on December 8th, 1941, in Los Angeles, California. Cunningham became one of the most highly decorated U.S. Navy pilots in the Vietnam War. The first fighter ace of the war, he received the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, fifteen Air Medals, and the Purple Heart. In 1967, he earned a commission and pilot wings in the Navy, soon flying the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. He flew a combat tour over Vietnam from USS America, and then completed the Navy’s “Top Gun” Fighter Weapons School. Cunningham returned to combat with USS Constellation’s Fighter Squadron 96 (VF-96, the “Fighting Falcons”) in 1971. On 19th January 1972, he and radar intercept officer, Willie Driscoll, flying north of the DMZ in F-4J 157267 “Showtime 112” he spotted a pair of MiG-21s “Fishbeds,”. He was directly behind them and a few miles away, theoretically in range of his Sparrow missiles. But the Sparrows had proven unreliable, so Duke ignored Willie’s call to fire. He switched to the shorter range heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder. When his headphones growled on acquisition, he called “Fox Two,” and fired the missile. The Fishbed broke and evaded the Sidewinder, but Cunningham stayed with him and launched a second Sidewinder. This one caught the MiG about 1200 yards in front of the Phantom. In the explosion, the MiG’s tail blew off and the broken fuselage fell to the ground. Their first victory, it ended a two-year lull in the air war. Cunningham’s Phantom carried two AIM-7E Sparrow long-range missiles, four AIM-9J Sidewinder short-range missiles, and six “Rockeye” cluster bombs. After dropping their bombs on some warehouses, Showtime 100 loitered to cover the A-7 fighter-bombers still engaged. Responding to a call for help, Cunningham took his F-4J into a group of MiG-17s “Frescoes”, two of which promptly jumped them. Heeding a “break” warning from Grant in Showtime 113, Cunningham broke sharply and the lead pursuing MiG-17 overshot him. He instantly reversed his turn, putting the MiG dead ahead; he fired a Sidewinder and it destroyed the MiG. Showtime 100 and his wingman Grant climbed to 15,000. Looking below, Cunningham saw a scene “straight out of The Patrol.” One flaming MiG was plunging down, eight more circled defensively, while three Phantoms went after the MiGs within the wheel. These were at an extreme disadvantage, due to their low energy state. VF-96 Exec, Cdr Dwight Timm had three MiGs on his tail, one being very close, in Timm’s blind spot. Seeing the danger to the XO, in Showtime 112, Duke called for him to “break,” to clear the Phantom’s hotter J-79 engines from the Sidewinder’s heat seeker, thus permitting a clear lock on the bandit. But Timm thought the warning was about the other two, distant MiGs, and didn’t heed Duke’s first call. I know some folks object to this guy's political career, but let's keep politics separate from modelling.

Academy is to release in 2019 2020 a new tool 1/48th Grumman F3F-2 "Flying Barrel" kit - ref. 12236 Source: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235047967-academy-catalog-2019/&do=findComment&comment=3218079 V.P.

Cannot remember the last time I posted a WIP thread here on BM for an AFV build so here goes: About two weeks ago as the M7 Priest build was coming to a close, I started the (very closely related) Academy M3 Lee, which I plan on finishing as a British / Indian vehicle in Burma; so far this is where I'm up to: The interior is partly built but all painted & weathered. To get to this point, I've used just two oil tones - Paynes Grey & Raw Umber - first mixed together and thinned to make a pin wash, then straight from the tube to create grime and false shadows in the corners and crevices. Also 'sponge chipped' where appropriate with the same basic acryllic mix I use for painting tracks. Next I'll assemble the interior, hopefully that can be done before the weekend. Let me know what you think, best from New Zealand, AFN. Ian.

Well this is my first monster build of the year and hopefully a real Mojo stimulus build…..as the old modelling mojo has taken a bit of a hit recently…….though it hasn’t stopped me from growing the stash! I have wanted to build a F-16I Sufa for quite sometime, though I’m not sure what possessed me to for this monster! This isn’t the first time I’ve built a 1/32nd beast, around 40 years ago I built the Hasegawa version….which I still have packed away somewhere…… a little bit worse for wear! The box is huge and packed solid with lots of lovely plastic as well as some PE and brass bits. There is a choice of 4 schemes, well squadrons to choose from, which one I haven’t quite decided on yet. You even get a lovely large poster as well, which on the back of is the painting/decal guide, not the easiest to handle. ….. and yes there are extra AM bits to go with her of course! The main one is Zactomodels resin F-16 NSI “Small Mouth Intake”. This is a beautifully cast seem-less replacement intake for this model and will certainly save all the hassle of sorting out intake seems! With the cockpit I resisted the urge to replace it with resin but will add Quinta Studio’s gorgeous 3D decals , the first time I’ve used these in 1/32nd. The detailing on them is stunning, even the knobs on the side panels even have a tiny white position marker on them! 😍 The kit exhaust is quite nicely done but a replacement resin one will look much nicer. Though they did suffer a wee bit of damage in transit, I will ResKit would use larger boxes! Same goes for the wheels, these resin replacements will look much better. And finally (for now) some Zactomodels AIM-120 ARMAAM’s, they are an improvement to the kit ones. I am looking forward to this build, it should be nice and straightforward (would like one for a change), I’ve done some test fits with the new resin intake and all looks good there. For sanity’s sake I may leave out the resin wheel wells….no one will be picking up this model!

F-8E Crusader - Academy - 1/72 - (12521) OOB build with some small corrections. Vallejo acrylics. Great kit by Academy (original mold from 2004) of a great plane. Very good cartograf decals included in the box. Highly recommended. Hope you like the final look!

My second entry into this STGB is a Phantom F-4B from Academy, released in 2012 it was a better kit than the old Hasegawa F-4B, it had recessed panel lines and rivets and the rear cockpit was better having the navalised side where the refueling probe is positioned. I will build it for comparison with my other build in this GB, the Tamiya F-4B. Here is the box of untouched sprues still in their plastic bags. The kit is described as being MCP-multi coloured plastic, luckily not such a garish selection of colours like Matchbox used to use. Academy have moulded the lower kit parts in white plastic, upper fuselage and upper wings in a light grey/green colour and the wheels, exhausts and ejection seats in black. I'm not using the kit decals, VF-111 Sundowners is the only choice in the kit. I will use a Furball Decal offering on a sheet of early F-4B's, VF-11, the Red Rippers flying off the USS Forrestal in 1973, their last cruise with the F-4B before they received the F-4J. Any comments or questions are welcome.

Academy is to release a 1/32nd McDD F-4E Phantom II kit - ref. 13132 Sprues/plastic from Revell. Source: https://www.academy.co.kr/6q/board_news_main.asp?pMenuId=BOARD00002&pCode=12213&pCategory=NEWS2 V.P.

Hello guys I would like to show you my model F-15S National day 89 special livery the kit I use is Academy F-15K 1/72 the decal is custom made I hope you like it ˆ_ˆ real photo for the aircraft taking by me at king Abdulaziz International airport in jeddah city the model