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TAKOM 03.10.2028 CHIEFTAIN Mk.10 British Modern Battle Tank I have been fortunate to have received an advance release of TAKOM's new Chieftain Mk.10 Within about 20 minutes of it's arrival I had commenced this build Ssssh! Don't tell anyone BUT? ...................... It's an absolute corker! The large kit box measures in at 380x250x85mm and weighs about a kilo. Molded in a light grey plastic and with chunky sprues the parts have good sharp detail. Care will definately be needed removing the parts from the sprues. The plastic is 'a little' soft but Tamiya Extra Thin Cement will be my glue of choice and so-far, it's working fine. It should be noted that although this kit is not necessarily for the beginner, it is not going to be hard work - at least so far? You will need a fresh, new blade in your scalpel. The Photo-Etch parts are very fine, detailed and though there looks a lot, there are some large pieces. The instructions follow the newer exploded CAD view and come in 22 sections across 13 pages. A noticeably smaller manual that would normally be expected. For the Mk.10 you have to remove a few pre-molded parts like the bullet splashes around the drivers compartment. I used my micro-chisel for this. This Guys, is a dream build as the parts generally just fall together - kinda Tamiya Quick! The Stowage Bins though intricate in reality are perfectly atuned to the model builder and the PE is super-fine, so easy to fit and no messing about. The detail is solid and safe with only 2 plug grab handles (like you get with Tamiya) on the searchlight housing. A simple cut off and replace with wire took a couple of minutes. The engine deck grills comprise 6 major parts and 16 assorted PE handles (3-types), easy peazy! Up to now, I have expended some 10 hours on this build and I have a couple more to go before I move on to paint. This will be camouflaged in the Berlin Brigade markings - some serious masking off! This model WILL be on display at the Newark Show on 11th October This is a build summary as I have been doing progress posts on my Club Facebook page I have also done a full build blog on my Club website here, should you choose to take a look.

We've got a fantastic offer on the 1/35 Vosper MTB 74 'St. Nazaire Raid' plastic model kit from Italeri right now, with 40% off for a massive saving of £40!! This fantastically detailed model of a real life British Motor Torpedo Boat used during the St Nazaire Raid in World War II could also be complemented nicely with Italeri's 1/35 Vosper MTB Crew figures set which has 10% off! Hurry now while stocks last! For more info, check out our newsletter here.

On no, not another colour question! Forgive me as I'm a novice at armour modelling, usually modelling aircraft, but I would like to know what the correct colour(s) should be for this kit. I've seen Tamiya TS2 suggested for Europe and TS46 for North Arrica in the instructions of a larger scale kit, but it would be helpful if you could confirm the correctness or not of these and what the nearest Humbrol equivalents are. Thanks Stewart

Hey everyone, You can see my introduction thread here. So, everything has arrived. Got the cutting mat and some tools, it's all pretty exciting! The tweezers I pinched from some manicure set thing, I read that they can come in handy! Obligatory picture of the box (I think they are obligatory anyways, I see them a lot). Now this is all the sprues, more than I thought there would be. Felt a tad overwhelmed at this point, excited overwhelmed but enough to make me think 'this is gonna be hard'. Some individual sprue pictures, I'm loving all the detail in this. Even the figures head doesn't to bad, I had read that I might need to get a replacement head from somewhere (forget the name now). So, all the sprues are back in the box and I've set my cutting mat up. Honestly I'm a weird mix of excited and anxious, I don't want to muck it up, although saying that I am anticipating mistakes galore. I'm glad I've posted up the start for all you to see and witness my first ever build, I'm imagining that will give me added motivation to complete. I had a quick look around online for extra bits for the Matilda, I know you can get little shiny, gold bits (damn memory, can't remember the name of them either!) that make for a more accurate build. It's a tad confusing for someone like me who doesn't yet know all the ins and outs, could anyone recommend a definitive accessory to buy to add on to this kit, that would be braw. Anyways, I'm off now to make my first start on it or better yet I'll go through the instructions first. Take care folks, Pi P.S Sorry about the photos, I've only got my phone will probably have to invest in a decent camera at some point!

Good morning all! I am just wondering whether anyone knows how the Blue Steel missile was attached to the V-bombers, specifically the Avro Vulcan. I have seen a Pathe film of Blue Steel showing the ground crew "winding" the missile up into the bomb bay of the Valiant, I am not sure whether this would be the same with the Vulcan? On a related note, having been to Cosford and seen their Blue Steel far too many times for it to be deemed normal behaviour (only kidding, Cosford is a wonderful place) I noticed that on the horizontal "wing/winglets" at the rear of the missile, there are two cylinder shaped attachments which are attached just above these wings. I don't think that the Cosford Blue Steel was a test vehicle so I don't think it could be carrying any sort of flare to mark its location (if the test vehicles ever used such a setup), however I suspect that it has something to do with its suspension from the V-bombers??? I also tried obtaining an estimate for how much it would cost to copy some Blue Steel technical drawings from the national archives and the answer came back- £350!!! So a dead end there... Anyway, thanks for reading my verbal ramblings, Sam

I've always been keen on british subs, after seeing the fantastic efforts of other modellers on here I decided to have a go at a T boat. All parts were scratch built, and i learnt a lot during the build. Unfortunately i had some issues when priming the model which led to the paint cracking and ruining the finer detail. However like most of my scratch builds I plan on rebuilding them once my skills have developed. I may also fork out for the loose cannon waterline kits to improve the overall quality. Cheers Alex

Hi, my name is Bernd and i have a Britmodeller account since yesterday active, so here is my first AFV on this forum. Revells Challenger is a very nice kit to build, fit is good and no real problems, except mine were discovered. The “baskets” around the turret were replaced with photo etched parts from Extra Tech. Here comes the injected plastic moulding technique to its end. That was VERY fiddly, it didn t help, that the assembled turret falls out of my hand during detailing, this was a moment the heart stands still for a second. The front baskets suffered a highly visible dent, so we have combat damage:-) The tracks are built from the usual single links/length tracks systhem. It is always exciting to close them, and see they get together (works not every time) The green was sprayed on, the black paint was hand brushed with thin layers of black, a dark wash a lot of dry brushing followed on. A major set back were the decals, the “SFOR” markings were black, should be white,i didn t find Royal Army markings, so the side skirts were sprayed with a lot of dirt/n/mud making the missing markings nearly invisible(hope so). Is there a decal producer outthere, who makes British Army stuff?? I hope you like it. Bernd

Hello lads, I'm new to this forum and this is my first model build ever, I hope you like it. As a newbie, any suggestion or comment will be gladly received.

Hello all, Whilst I still have to finish my Spitfire build, thought I'd purchase more models ahead of the Christmas rush! Was so excited when I picked up the intercom and heard "Hello, I have a package for your flat." I did a very quick celebration and ran down to get my stuff. My first airliner scale model kits ever! Anyway, the unboxing of these kits is here: Around mid-late December is when I'll be building these, so do stay tuned! Hope you enjoy it! Regards, Hamdhan

Hey again everyone, So tonight after finishing my Tiger, I decided it was time to start something new. I found this on one of my shelves, don't know if they still sell them anymore - was £50 at the time though and I got it in 2009 (when I was 9, yes) for the 100 years of Naval Aviation thingy. As you can see, it contains a Sopwith Pup, Fairey Swordfish, Vought Corsair, Westland Lynx? (I think) and a Harrier. Here is the box:And with everything out : Sopwith Pup, Fairey Swordfish, Vought Corsaid, Westland Lynx (Navy) and Harrier. (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT)It also has in it a lovely little booklet (With history etc.) , instructions, sheet of decals, 12 X paints, glue + 2 X Brushes. Here is the scheme (only one here) that the plane follows in full colour! And the instructions - only one sheet of A4, very simple and nice - apologies for the blurry picture though Now, down to the actual kit. It was sealed in a bag which (I guess) helps to protect everything, there was not much flash on the whole and, being a smaller kit, it only came with 2 Half-Sized sprues of normal Airfix grey plastic. When I opened the bag: Now, the initial construction started off with gluing the Pilot (nicely molded in an apt position) who I called Jeff - into his seat Happy days as far as Jeff's concerned, he gets £1 for doing it (comparison). After I'd done that, it took me less than 5 minutes to assemble everything in the cockpit, the machine gun, engine and propellers. Here is a picture of them done, prior to painting. I have a vague idea of what I'm doing *insert comical laughter* at the moment, and when Jeff + his BEAUTIFUL cockpit are done then the 2 fuselage halves will be joined together to create something wonderful - my child. First plane ever hmm.... *****More updates when i build them***** (and paint, obviously) Thanks for reading guys + girlies CP

Crew Figures 1:350 Eduard With most of the maritime kits covered in Eduards range of etched sets they have now started producing crews to man your completed masterpieces. They have had a few sets out for a while, but this latest batch covers a couple of different Navies and time periods. There is a single sheet of what looks like tinned etched brass on which several rows of figures are attached. Each set is pre-painted and self adhesive, making it a lot easier to produce each crewman just by the act of folding the two halves together. In this batch there are two sets for the Royal Navy, one for the Pacific and Far East, the other RN Gun Crew. The other two sets contain crew for the Russian Navy, one for from WWI, which also contains three rows of life rings, the other for WWII. I’m still unsure about these sets, as even with double thickness, they still look a little flat. Conclusion Apart from my reservations about the thickness of these items they do help add some much need life to a model ship, particularly if the model is in a seascape. Great for all sizes of ship, but you will need to buy a fair few sets of different poses to man a battleship or aircraft carrier. Recommended Review sample courtesy of

We've just had word from our friends at Creative Models about this new kit from MiniArt, which they expect to have in stock in 4-6 weeks from now. Check out the link for lots more pictures of the sprues, built up model and some of the CAD files. Looks to be a little stunner in the making Thanks for the tip-off goes to

Chieftain Main Battle Tank Kagero Publishing The Chieftain MBT was the natural successor to the Centurian, and utilised the new armour to give it the edge over the "Red Menace" on the battlefield, which was envisaged to be the border between East and West Germany in the Cold War era. It put right the wrongs of WWII, when British armour had been under armoured and under armed by equipping the turret with a 120mm rifled gun, ensconced behind the aforementioned composite armour, although it wasn't the fastest tank on the battlefield as a result. The Book The subtitle reads "Development and Active Service from Prototype to Mk.11", which is an accurate description of this interesting tome. Part of the PhotoSniper range (number 7), the book is an oversize A4 size in portrait form, perfect bound at the left hand side as you'd expect. The thick card jacket is printed in full colour on the outside with a glossy picture of a Chieftain hull-down in camouflage on the front, and some profiles on the rear. The first 26 pages are devoted to the development and service of the tank, and it goes into detail from the beginning to the every end, interspersed with some interesting and relevant photos. There are also two scale three-view drawings of two marks of the Chieftain, in 1:55 scale, which I'm guessing was "page scale" to allow the drawings to be as large as possible. The next section spans the following pages to page 50, documenting the tank in derelict and in-service settings, with some interesting captions that offer insight into what the Chieftain was like to work on and crew. This section has a black background to differentiate it from the rest, which also makes it easier to find. Pages 50-62 are taken up with a detailed walkaround of both the exterior and interior, getting into nooks and crannies that you wouldn't normally see. The final 9 pages (10 if you include the back cover) show the variations in camouflage of the Chieftain in service with the British Army, Iran, Kuwait and even one found in Iraq in 2003, thought to have been crewed by defecting counter-revolutionary Iranians during the Iran/Iraq war. Conclusion If you're serious about the Chieftain, this is an excellent book for reference, but should also make for a good read. Written by Robert Griffin, it is entirely in English (some Kagero titles are mixed Polish/English), and with colour photos throughout (where the source material allows), plus some handy engineering-type drawings, it gives plenty of inspiration for the modeller and diorama builder. Now we just need a new mould Chieftain model that doesn't blur the distinctions between marks. Let's hope our friends at Meng are looking in! Also, don't forget that the Chieftain was often paired with a 432 for exercises, so you'll need to pick up one of those too, and do your bit for keeping model shops in business Review sample courtesy of

(image from Google, I looked in vain for an "official" website) In 98 pages, some double, are depicted the following aircraft: Lancastrian, Stirling, York, Dove, Marathon, Hermes, Heron, (Cunliffe-Owen) Concordia, Brabazon, Vicking, Halton, Consul, Tudor, Freighter, Anson and Ambassador. Great photos, some of them spanning two pages, including interiors. A must have!