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When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour and Malaya in December 1941, the Royal Australian Air Force was forced to evaluate how poorly it was equipped to counter any Japanese movement towards Australia. Up to this time, under the principle of Imperial Defence, its principal task had been the training of aircrew to fly with the Royal Air Force in the European and Desert theatres of war. The only ‘modern’ single-seat fighter that it operated was the Brewster Buffalo, equipping two squadrons based in Malaya. For home defence, the only ‘fighter’ that it had was the two-seat Wirraway. Under the guidance of Bill Air and aerodynamicist Fred David, the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, using some Wirraway components, rapidly developed the Boomerang interceptor. This aircraft was powered by the Pratt & Whitney R-1830, then entering licence production in Australia. The first Boomerang flew in May 1942. Its performance was similar to the Buffalo, and although it had the advantage of two 20mm cannon and four Mgs compared to Buff’s puny armament, it was clear that it also would be outclassed by the Japanese fighters, particularly the Zero. By early 1942, reports were coming in from the RAAF and the USAAF that the Japanese fighters were operating at altitudes where the P-39 and P-40 were ineffective. These aircraft, as did the Boomerang, lacked an effective supercharger. A fighter that could meet the Japanese at altitudes of 20,000 plus feet was needed. Spitfires from the UK were still unobtainium as were P-38 or P-47 aircraft from the USA. It was decided to fit a turbo-supercharger to the Boomerang. Thus was born the CA-14, which first flew in January 1943. The original version was a minimal change of the CA-12, being basically a system test bed but, the second iteration, the CA-14A, was refined to a proposed production standard. The performance of the basic CA-12 Boomerang was greatly increased at altitude. The CA-14 was able to reach altitudes in excess of 30,000 feet and at 28,000 feet was able to achieve over 350 mph. These figures were roughly comparable to Republic’s P-43, with the Boomerang having the superior armament. However, by 1943 the RAAF was, at last, starting to receive Spitfire VC aircraft which finally gave the RAAF its desired high-altitude capability. This, plus the refusal of the USA to release turbo-superchargers to Australia, resulted in the cancellation of the project. I plan to use Special Hobby's CA-12 kit as it is the best available in 1/48. Having said that, it has many problems and deficiencies. I will be relying on the 'spares box', plasticard, and copious amounts of filler to complete this project. To the kit, I have added the RedRoo enhancement set, and an Aires R-1830 as the cylinders in SH kit were badly moulded. At the bottom left are some possible candidates for the engine cowling and I have started the basic assembly of the cockpit 'tub'.

Hello everyone … I will be taking an old build from the 1990’s. I will modify, refurbish, along with repaint the kit. It will be modified to USMC M3a1 Satan flamethrower tank. These variants had the internal tank and hose layout which limited the traverse of the turret. They were first used on Saipan in 1944. A quote from a webpage on the Satan. “The Ronson flamethrower was mounted in the turret of the mothballed obsolete M3A1s. To mount the weapon, the 37mm gun main armament was removed. The mantlet was retained, but a wide tube was introduced into the void left by the absent gun barrel to protect the flame projector. The coaxial machine gun was retained on the right of the flame aperture, though some vehicles did have their bow machine guns deleted. On the inside of the tank, a huge 170-gallon fuel tank was introduced to give the weapon as much burn time as possible. The projector had a range of up to 80 yards. This conversion had an unfortunate side effect. The piping connected the projector to the fuel tank limited the turret traverse to 180 degrees left and right.” I will add photo’s of the older kit and Satans when I can. Please be patient and feel free to ask questions or post comments. Dennis

G'day All, I've been meaning to do this ship for some time, intending to convert the Airfix HMS Hotspur kit to do so. The main delay was that I didn't actually have the required kit and it seemed unlikely that I would get one. My previous kits were part of the Airfix "Naval Destroyers of WWII" set, which I hadn't seen in the shops here for a few years now. I was beginning to consider other options. But last year my son managed to track down this kit plus two others for me and gave them to me for Father's Day. And as my current build of DKM Karlsruhe is nearly complete I really have no excuse not to get this on the slipway. So here we are. Here is the traditional photo of the 'box art' and parts:- The diagram is that of another ship of the class, the Polish ORP Kujawiak, it was the best diagram I've located to use as "instructions". The diagram was reduced to 1/600 scale to match the kit. I also have an IBG kit of HMS Middleton in 1/700 scale that I can consult to help clarify the diagram. As for the parts, I'll be using the hull obviously, and probably the deck, but possibly not much else. This ship was primarily armed with three twin 4-inch mounts instead of the four single 4.7-inch of the Hotspur. You can see three mounts I've scrounged from an Ajax kit. Most of my ship conversions turn out to be more complex than I first envisioned and this is no exception. I know I have to shorten the hull and will do that by removing about 21mm from the waist, the 'iron deck' section of the ship. As luck will have it the foc'sle deck is almost exactly the correct length. But close inspection showed the bow and stern to be a bit different. The stern is a little blunter (is that a word? Spell check thinks so) which will be quite easy I think (touch wood) and the shafts were shorter due to a different hull shape under the counter. Comparing the diagram with the box art and plastic you can see that the bow will need more sheer and rake. So before I shorten the hull I think I'll play around with the bow and stern alterations as they might alter to total length of the kit hull and hence the amount of hull to be removed. But to get me started I spent a bit of time last night removing all the molded detail of the hull deck piece (and drawing blood as I did so 🙂). Half way through I thought "It might be easier to simply make whole new decks". I still might. If I use the kit decks I have a lot of holes to plug too. Anyway, enough for now. This is really an introductory post to force me to commit to this. 🙂 I have to give priority to finishing DKM Karlsruhe first though as her completion is time-critical. So regards to all, Jeff.

Hi all, i have a 1/32 revell spitfire mk IXc and i was wondering if it was possible to convert it into an IXe . AFAIK AML does one for the tamiya kit but not for revell. Thank you all for your time

G'day All, you've got @JTninja to thank/blame for this. 🙂 I said in his Graf Zeppelin thread that I was too committed already to join the GB but I've decided to give it a go anyway, and join with a model of the DKM Weser, another aircraft carrier. This ship started out as DKM Seydlitz, a sister-ship to the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. She had been launched in 1939 but when her fitting out was 95% complete she was put on hold. In 1942 it was decided to convert her to an aircraft carrier. Everything above the upper deck was removed, except her funnel. In 1943 work was again stopped, never to be resumed. She was scuttled in 1945 to prevent her capture by the Russians. I've decided to give this a go. But being a very recent decision I haven't had much time to plan this, I'm going to have to 'wing it', no pun intended. 🙂 One reference I've read says that "she was advanced to the stage of having her hull decked over". Another says that she never had her flight deck fitted. I'm assuming that her hangars weren't fitted either. This gives me a bit of leeway in the build. As for the build itself I'll be using an Airfix 1/600 scale kit of Prinz Eugen. I like the 1/600 scale, not too small, not too large. For me, anyway. This will probably have a slow start, as my current build of DKM Karlsruhe, although nearly complete is time critical, I have less than three weeks to finish her. I had decided that my next build would be of the Hunt class destroyer HMS Ledbury, a ship I've wanted to model for quite some time, and as I didn't want to put that one back any longer I've made a start on her too. Anyway, here's the traditional photo of the 'box art' and 'instructions', simply a diagram of the hull and flight deck. The kit instructions are somewhat superfluous. I've joined the hull halves and re-inforced the join with scrap styrene. I've also drilled three holes in the hull through thicker re-inforcing for when I screw her to a building block, my standard procedure now. This is as far as I've gone, my build of DKM Karlsruhe gets priority until she's done but I'll try to keep this going also. I think I'll make a flight deck soon, to help me visualize how I'm going to mount it to the hull. I'll try to add more soon. Regards to all, Jeff.

While we are all patiently (?) waiting for the C1 Models RS 2000 transkit to arrive, I thought I'd share a model I built of it's baby brother, the Mexico 1600. This was built late in 2022 using the transkit from Motobitz and the ubiquitous Esci/Revell/Italeri (not sure if any other manufacturer popped this out?) MkII Escort rally car kit. Nordic blue was an available colour option but very rarely chosen according to the owners club. I thought it looked super so, the Zero paints offering was duly purchased. I wanted to go for a modern look with this one, a lot of the cars I see on the show scene have been modified in some way, a common change is the wheels. I had a resin Pinto OHC engine courtesy of my friend Richie Griffiths. The rest of the engine bay is scratch built. Atb, Steve.

Hello all! This is a well-known Tamiya Stug III G converted into StuH 42 with all the bells and whistles on it. Although there are better options for StuG/StuH variants, 1995 Tamiya StuG III G still holds water and can be built into a very neat vehicle, especially once it's decked up with various and colorful stowage. But before the usual painting and weathering info, here are a few words about the vehicle itself. The model is depicting a Sturmhaubitze 42 (Sd.Kfz 142/2) with a 10.5 cm leFH 18 howitzer, belonging to a SS-Sturmgeschutz Battalion 7 of the 7. SS-Freiwilligen Gebirgs-Division "Prinz Eugen", during the counter-attack on the town of Vlasotince in southern Serbia on 8th October 1944. In late 1944, as the Red Army began sweeping across the eastern Europe, once firm allies of the Axis forces (namely Bulgaria and Romania), finding themselves between hammer and anvil (or should I say sickle) started to rethink their options and on 8th September 1944 Bulgaria, just like Romania did a few weeks earlier, declared war on Germany and placed the Royal Bulgarian armed forces at the disposal of Marshal Tolbukhin's 3rd Ukrainian Front. The 2nd Bulgarian Army began advancing from its assembly area southwest of Pirot towards the Leskovac-Nis area, the Germans rushed the 7.SS-Gebirgs-Division "Prinz Eugen" and made it responsible for the defense of Nis from Zajecar in the north to Leskovac in the south. On 30th September, forward elements of the Bulgarian 2dn Army, seized Vlasotince, 14 kilometers east-southeast of Leskovac, but on 8th October, 7. SS Division "Prinz Eugen" regrouped in Leskovac and laucnhed a counterattack against Vlasotince. The 7.5cm barrel was swapped with a metal 10.5cm barrel from RB and the fit was perfect. The stowage is various mix from Value Gear and Verlinden. The mantlet cover and tarp are made of tracing paper soaked in the PVA glue and the field modification schurtzen screens were made from styrene sheet and the concrete add-on armor is from Value Gear. Hope you like it and please feel free to leave your comments. Cheers!🍻

I thought I'd open another box and get the saw out. This kit has been in various lofts for quite a few years, it was even put up for sale at one point, but with no takers I have decided to convert it to the Jan de Rooy 1992 Dakar Rally Truck. As there were two trucks entererd, No.381 badged 2800 and No.382 badged 3300, I've yet to decide which to go for but early leanings are the 3300. A plea for photos via Facebook elicited a decent walkaround selection fom a kind modeller who was vsisting a Dutch motor event at Zandvoort to go along with images I've found from various trawls on the internet. Recently I stumbled across a photo of the interior rear section of the box stuffed with much equipment, this is an area that too is still being considered, but knowing I'm a glutton for punishment the rear doors may get blown off 😉 Sadly a decent set of blueprints eludes me at his time, if anyone has a set please PM me. I predict a very slow build schedule for this. At least I'll have a handy skip to throw all the unused bits in 🤣

This is the Italeri kit (Testors boxing) built as an LC-130F of the United States Navy. It represents 148321 which crashed in 1971 at an ice runway 860 miles (1,380 km) from McMurdo Station as a result of two JATO bottles ejecting improperly and striking one of the aircraft's propellers. In 1987 the aircraft was dug out of the snow and had temporary repairs carried out allowing it to be flown out to McMurdo Station and thence to Christchurch, New Zealand. It re-entered service and spent several more seasons doing antarctic work. The aircraft was retired to Davis-Monthan AFB sometime after 1998 and still resides there as far as I know. I used the Cutting Edge ski conversion as well as some scratch building of antennas and the fairing behind the nose wheel well. The flaps are from Attack Squadron and I replaced the engines with units form Ron's Resin. The decals came from the Max Decal sheet.

Even if the model is already finished, the conversion and all the associated circumstances and techniques are interesting. Tamiya made a total of three versions of this Gekko, all three are with me and I have now decided on a different one .... the reason for this is that I wanted to build a model that not everyone has and, on top of that, also contribute photos that no one really knows about. my own Sources for this J1N1-S I use the early version for the conversion. By chance, while searching in my reference library, I found a few recordings by Amerik. Found GIs standing on some antennas with a ruler. These photos were published in the book "Moonligth Interceptor" from the series "Famous Aircrafts of National Air Space Museum N° 8". At first I couldn't really do anything with it, but then when I read it... WOW - a J1N1-S - a special antenna version. In the further text and graphic details I found that this version was apparently only flown on the 321 Kokuta and that only a few examples of it existed. The 321st Kokutai (Air Group) was formed in October 1943 under the command of Hikotai Leader (Squadron Leader) Lt. Ichiro Shimoda led the first night fighter squadron, stationed in Tinian and equipped with 18 J1N1 Gekko early versions. After a long, long search, I even found a color picture of this version, which is ultimately going to be built.

Gidday All, Here is my model of the large Town (Southampton) class cruiser HMS Sheffield, the 'Shiny Sheff'. This ship had quite a career, being one of the first to be equipped with radar, one of the first RN ships to fire her guns in anger in WW2, saw action off Norway, in the Mediterranean and in the Arctic, fought the Bismarck in the Atlantic, the Hipper, Lutzow and Eckolt (sinking her) in the Barents Sea, and the Scharnhorst off North Cape. She was finally decommissioned and scrapped in 1967. To build her I heavily modified an Airfix 1/600 scale Belfast kit, doing extensive modifications to the hull, superstructures and ship's fittings. I've tried to get the ship depicted in late 1941/1942 but I think the camo scheme I've done her in is of dubious accuracy. I don't think this is the best model I've done but definitely not the worst, either. And it has a significant milestone - counting two in 1/570 scale which to me is compatible with 1/600, this is the 50th model I've done in this scale since taking up the hobby on a continual basis about 25 years ago. Anyway, here she is, HMS Sheffield. The first stage of the build thread can be found here:- The second stage of the build here:- Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

Gidday All, I've been converting an Airfix HMS Belfast kit into HMS Sheffield for the Southern Europe GB. But due to a number of factors such as a late start, my glacial build rate and the conversion being a little more complex than I originally thought (aren't they all?) I was unable to complete her by the time the GB ended. So I'll continue her here. For those wishing to see the early stages of the conversion the thread can be found in the GB section:- https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235127258-hms-sheffield-gibraltar-the-med-sept-41/ Here's where I'm up to now:- The funnels are dry fitted for the photo, as are the removable main turrets. The boat deck/4-inch gun deck is pretty much done now. It's somewhat crowded. The boats are fitted, along with two RU lockers for each 4-inch twin mount. The mounts themselves are not done yet, obviously. Also to be fitted there is a raised searchlight platform and both the boat cranes. They're on the cutting mat in the foreground. Also on the mat is the double searchlight platform for the aft superstructure and the port pompom platform. The stbd platform is dry fitted above the stbd hangar. Still heaps to do, lots of fiddly stuff, hence time consuming. So stay safe and keep on modeling. Regards, Jeff.

My second build in this GB is the Airfix 1/144 BAC 1-11. I built one of these when I was about 8 or 9, didn't paint it, but used the British Caledonian decals. This time it's going to be converted to a 1-11-500 and painted as G-AVMR of British Airways - this is a significant aircraft for me as it was the first jet I flew on, aged 7 - I'd flown on plenty of Viscounts at that age, but a jet flight was exciting for 7-year old me. Here's the kit: Not a lot of parts, and (as always seems to be the case) smaller than I remember. The Airfix kit is based on the prototype and will need a few changes to make it a 500: The main modifications are to add 18mm to the forward fuselage and 10.5mm to the rear fuselage, and 5mm to each wingtip. It also needs the nose cone reprofiling (it needs to be pointier), the wing fences need to be moved, and an APU exhaust needs to be added to the tail cone. And probably a couple of other mods. Started yesterday by cutting the fuselage up: Then put some rolled-up plastic card in the gaps and applied suplerglue. Then I realised I'd made possibly the most ridiculous modelling mistake ever: That's right, it's the BACwards 1-11! Cut apart again, centre section turned the right way around, stuck together and milliputed and here's how it looks now: Also filled the windows. I'm sure there were windows in the kit 30 odd years ago, but not in this boxing. I'll do the nose job next, then on to the wings. more tomorrow Julian

Here is one that has been languishing on the SOD for about 4 years and started back in 2019. Here is the original build thread I managed some paining of fuel tanks and the leading edge slats that have now been installed. In one of my recent moves the nose gear leg broke so and I could not find the missing section so I dove into the spares and found an Italeri nose gear leg that has been installed

Hi All, Here is a conversion of the Tamiya Harrier GR3 into a Hawker Kestrel which I started in the 2022 'Prototypes, Racers, Research, Record breakers, Special schemes megaGB'. I finished it off in the 2023 KUTA GB mainly because the belt sander went u/s at the critical moment. The Kestrel fuselage was narrower than the Harrier so I filled the fusealge sides with Milliput so I can cut away the outside and still have a model. The front nozzles needed to be moved forwards a bit so filling the area will Milliput allowed me to drill some new ones. I also used the from the spare wing from the Kinetic GR3 kit. The intakes and airbrake housing have also been filled. I found some more Harrier bits and some better wheels in the spares box to update the basic Tamiya kit Starting with this Milliput used to build an inner depth to allow the fuselage to be cut away leaving the basic shape with nose and tail. Front nozzle holes filled to be redrilled in correct position. Neomega resin tub and other parts from spares. After first session on the belt sander and basic trimming of the wing. Mods to the Kinetic wing. Center filled with Milliput then ground down to level profile, tips removed, extended outrigger fairings removed and wing flaps cut from Airfix Harrier. Wing fitted and faired in during 2nd session on the belt sander. Intake at base of fin filled in and removed. Tail boom shortened. Lots more sanding later Base finish applied with various shades of Alclad. Round section of tail boom added as later kit one was square section. Standing on wheels and 'wrong' canopy fitted Artwork prepared and home made decals printed then applied. Comparison to (Arifix) GR1 Thats a quick summary of a years work on and off. Please see the original build threads in the Group Builds. Part 1 Part 2 and more finished pictures in the gallery KUTA Gallery Thanks to Nick G and Tony L as well as all those who chipped in during the build.

Not really a KUTA but I got over ambitious in the Prototypes, Racers, Research, Record breakers, Special schemes megaGB (who wouldn't) and started this as a 4th build after completing a Pogo, Skystreak and SR53. This is the Tamiya 1/48 Harrier GR1 being backdated to a Kestrel. The inspiration was Nick Hoopers Gold winning build in the 2022 IPMS UK Nats at SMW. It's been sitting while I finished a Buccaneer for the 'Here comes the FAA' so this seams a good place to resume while we await the Bunfight for 2024. Here's where the previous thread ended. Starting thread And here's where it is now just clipped together. The intakes have been added and the fuselage sides cut back to the original shape. The white stuff is Milliput. I might progress a bit more this week ready for Saturdays start.

I am joining with the Academy Ventura to be finished as a RAAF 459SQN aircraft which operated in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations in 1943. My kit came from a club swap meet without instructions or decals, so I found some replacement instructions on Scalemates. The Red Roo conversion includes decals for the aircraft I am building. The conversion also includes a new cockpit, replacement turret mount, replacement intakes and desert filters and radar antenna.

The RAAF is replacing their AP-3C(EW)s in the next year or so with a new fit-for-purpose ELINT platform based on the Gulfstream G550, a number of air arms operate EW and AEW variants based on the G550 including Israel, Italy, and Singapore. I am slowly modifying a Sova M Shavit kit as an MC-55A, it is the kit that is closest in configuration to the proposed MC-55A So on to the build, I started with some quick assembly of the wing and rear fuselage Some mocking up with my yet-to-be-finished GIV I moved on to sorting out the tail area and cockpit, I wasn't sure how to tackle it and then decided Milliput was the way to go. A few sessions refining the shape then occurred. Initially, it was too long and it was shortened by about 5mm, and the shape of the tip refined. It still needs some filling and possible further refinement. The cockpit was straightforward with some nice detail. The paint stage has now commenced on the cockpit as well. And how it looks taped up with the new tail section.

Hi all MODeller has decided to start reposting after the great Photobucket fiasco its been a long time! This is my rendition of XP 505 the Bedford Gnat made from the Airfix kit with a white metal conversion bought off ebay which was quite expensive but saved a lot of pain. Finished with Revell Aqua and a topcoat of Alclad Aqua gloss. Trying to get to grips with the technology that has overtaken this old git so hoping it works. Looks like its worked , best leave it at that I think!

I finally completed this build today. This kit started life as an Italeri boxing of the AMT AC-130H. The conversion involved: Plugging the 'AC' holes Lengthened the fuselage for and aft of the wing Adding AE2000 engines from Jen's Bits Adding various parts from the Hamilton Hobbies conversion set. Scratch building the Satellite Wifi dome Scratch building various antennas modified the long range tanks with chaff dispensers Added a Litening pod from Quickboost/Eduard It was finished using SMS, Gunze and Tamiya paints and decaled using the Southern Sky C-130J-30 decal sheet.

With the permission of the Mods ( thanks guys!) I will be finally joining with this part started civil C-130. I had it sitting around in the stash with the modified fuselage assembled and cockpit painted as it was going to be a USAF ANG bird originally. This is the state of it a couple of weeks ago. I have managed to get the fuselage halves joined (sort of and started to fill some windows to convert the C-130 into an L-100 I hope to finish it as this non-descript L-100 operated by QP2 LLC... who may or may not do work for the CIA So I need to sort out the fuselage sponsons and redrill the cabin windows, find the wings and engines and go from there!

The Special Hobby Mirage IIICJ kit hasn't been out for long. I haven't even completed a straight build of it yet but I'm going to mess around with it. I will build the kit as one of the Israeli "Tzniut" recce conversions, with the freakishly weird nose. The recce nose parts are from the AML kit which I built as a Mirage prototype in the recent Prototypes GB. The AML kit actually provides two choices of recce nose. The Tzniut nose is utterly bizarre! It is shown on the boxart of the AML kit.

From 1977-2006ish, the Australian Army operated a fleet of 100 or so Leopard AS1s. Based on the Leopard 1A3, it had a few modifications to meet Australian requirements; a “tropical” engine air intake, SABCA fire control system, & some sponson-mounted stowage boxes. Over their life, they gained a few more mods, including a subset of the fleet being modified to fit the RAMTA track-width mine plough or TWMP. Also in 1977, Tamiya released a 1:16 RC Leopard (1)A4. It was re-released sans RC elements in 2010. It’s a little basic, but a good basis to convert to an AS1. Having a garden tank nearby, plus loads of references, I was able to CAD up the basic conversion in Fusion360. Whilst I’m using the Tamiya hull & turret, it’s useful from a design perspective to mock up these elements digitally to locate conversion items relative to one another & the host kit. Here are the turret mods: Here’s the hull: The biggest element on the hull is the tropical intake, requiring the design & print of the new part, as well as the milling out of the existing screen. Also designed & printed fittings & fixtures to locate & secure the kit parts for drilling & milling. Upper hull secured: Intake test fitted: Also redrew the exhausts to include the tow rope stowage. Test print & primed. Onto the plough/plow. First the mounting frame. Than the moldboard. Brought together with the push beams & the rest of the design. Thanks for looking in.

This is the start of my Land Rover safari conversion to go on the Kenyan plains base I have created in the diorama section. Now, having looked at a couple of other Land Rover builds on here and 'THANKS' to Natter and Hairtrigger the first job I had was fairly fiddly as they pointed out a problem with the Italeri kit having six stud wheels. I would have been perfectly oblivious otherwise, not being a Land Rover nerd and all, but being a bit of a perfectionist and not wanting to spend upwards of another £20 to buy a set of wheels with the correct five studs I decided to just slice my nuts off and replace them. Sounds painful I know, but I am of course referring to the wheel nuts on the kit. Hopefully once primed, painted and weathered, any visible scars from the operation will be concealed. Another forum member had already performed this task in another build so it seemed that it should be doable. And the results are in, my wheels now have five studs as seen below. Thanks for popping in. Very early stages but I will update as progress continues. The nearly completed scene for the diorama can be found here,

Exhibit A I’m going to go for the top version of V1 with the gnatty ducted prop. As you can see the nose and the fuselage profile just aft of the canopy are very different afaik the wing platform isn’t that different however they may also need a bit of surgery. So this might be a conversion or a scratch build with donor parts from the kit all part of the fun.? my intended victim…