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Iraqi T-55 Al Faw/Enigma (37095) 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd The T-54's gestation and transformation into the T-55 was long-winded and complicated by constant changes to an unsatisfactorily performing vehicle, and began as early as the end of WWII. Production of the T-54-1 was halted due to production and quality issues, and recommenced as the re-designed T-54-2, with the turret design changed to closer resemble the eventual domed shape of the T-55. The -2 didn't last all that long before the -3 replaced it, and the requirement for survival of tactical nuclear blasts led to the eventual introduction of the similar looking, but significantly different T-55 that we know so well. As the heavy tank fell out of favour, the T-55 became part of the burgeoning Main Battle Tank (MBT) movement, with thousands of them being produced over the years in various guises. In the early 60s the T-55A was developed, providing more competent Nuclear Biological and Chemical (NBC) protection that required a lengthening of the hull and concurrently added anti-spall protection for the crew. It also sounded the death-knell of the bow-mounted machine gun, which was removed to improve ammo storage, and hasn't been seen on MBTs for decades now. The Czechs built their own versions of the T-54 and T-55, with quite an export market developing due to their being of better build quality than the Russian built alternative. Some of Iraq’s stocks of T-55s were upgraded before the Gulf War with a locally designed and produced set of Non-Explosive Reactive Armour (NERA), which consisted of a series of layers of aluminium, rubber and toughened steel that were extremely bulky and slowed down the top speed of the vehicle accordingly, whilst affording enhanced protection. Based upon combat experience, the armour upgrade was reasonably effective in tank-to-tank engagements where the armour was thickest, but in one particular engagement that was documented, a tank that had survived a number of impacts from ground-based Milan missiles was then taken out by a rotary-wing air asset from a higher angle where the tank was unprotected by the ENIGMA panels. The Kit Based upon MiniArt’s successful range of newly tooled T-55 kits, this boxing adding new sprues to depict the additional armour, and any changes that were made to the tank to accommodate these alterations. The kit arrives in a standard top-opening box with a painting of a camouflaged tank in action in a desert environment, and inside are thirty-one sprues of various sizes in grey styrene, a clear sprue, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass in a card envelope, decal sheet and instruction booklet, which is printed in colour on glossy paper, with colour profiles on the rear pages for the markings options. Detail is excellent as per the other kits in the range, and the new parts are extensive and well-detailed to match the rest of the kit. Construction begins with the lower hull, which has cut-outs for the suspension mounts, hatches and access panels, all of which are supplied as separate parts. The suspension is torsion-link, so the bars are inserted with the axles at their ends, or shorter stubby versions can be installed if you want to freeze the suspension in the level position. Another layer of suspension fitments are installed on the sides of the hull floor, preparing the hull sides with a second layer at the front, and the final drive housings on the rear exterior, adding some small parts, and curved surrounds to the turret area, plus a PE grille laid flat on the top of the right side, joining these to the hull floor along with the rear bulkhead and the engine firewall that is there purely to add support to the structure. A short strip is added under the glacis plate, which is next to be fitted along with the deck with the turret ring, slotting a driver’s hatch in on a pivot, and two clear vision blocks at the panel break. A multi-part engine deck with individual slats fitted before installation is made up in three segments, adding PE mesh panels with raised covers with more PE louvres and mesh supplied as additional parts, plus dozens of small details for the engine deck and the rear bulkhead that includes PE and styrene. The fenders have additional structures moulded underneath, and more added to the top to support the extra weight of the armour, with PE bracing inside the sprung mudguard parts, exhaust on the port side, and several triangular cross-braces perpendicular to the upper surface of the fender and additional metalwork. Stowage boxes and extra fuel tanks are built and fitted to the rear portions of the fenders where there is no augmentation, adding a long narrow box to the right-hand fender over the bracing. The first sections of appliqué armour are built from upper boxes and lower surfaces, plus some mounting lugs (they’re heavy IRL), and the edge blocks have brackets with custom light fittings, adding springs and fitments to the front mudguards on both sides, the main lights that have clear lenses, fitting inside a multi-part cage to protect them from damage, which will take some care to glue together neatly, but they have pins and recesses to assist with location. At the relatively unaltered rear of the vehicle, an unditching log is lashed to the bulkhead with PE straps, and the extra fuel drums so often seen are also lashed to curved brackets that overhang the rear of the hull. the wheels are handled next, with five pairs per side with separate hubs, plus the idler wheel at the front, and drive sprocket at the rear. Tracks are then made from individual links, requiring 90 links per side, each of which have four sprue gates, but no ejection pin or sink marks to worry about. They are moulded in stunning detail, which includes the casting numbers inlaid into the hollows of each track link, and close-fitting lugs that should make building them an easier task. An eight-segment side-skirt of NERA blocks are made up from two parts each, and are attached to the sides of the strengthened fenders, mounting a set of strips in a box-shape on the engine deck, the use of which isn’t illustrated, but could be used for shallow stowage due to the extreme overhang of the bustle-armour that is built shortly. The turret on a standard T-55 is a busy assembly, but the Al Faw takes it up a notch, eschewing some small parts on the exterior for massive armour blocks. The kit is an exterior boxing, but still has the basics of the breech mechanism and coax machine gun made up and mated with the lower turret on two trunnion mounts at the front. The upper turret is attached to the lower, after which the two-part turret roof is fitted with hatches, vents and vision blocks. The commander’s cupola is raised above the armour, and has a periscope fitted to the front vision-block location, with two clear blocks to the sides, surrounded by grab-handle-like protectors. Externally a four-part blast-bag is slipped over the one-part barrel then it is surrounded by PE strips. A searchlight with a separate bulb in the reflector is made and fixed to a flat platform on the front of the commander’s cupola, surrounding it in a curved ‘hutch’ and a two-layer PE front door that you can fold down to depict it in use. An armature links the gun barrel and another searchlight together so they move in unison, and this too is surrounded by another hutch with two-layer PE door at the front. Apart from some tie-downs and brackets on the rear, much of the exterior detail to the turret isn’t required due to the presence of the armour blocks, with work commencing by making a block that can hinge up, sitting on the right side of the turret and acting as the locating point for the other blocks later. A pair of tapering arms are made from three main parts plus three triangular fillets for mounting on the rear of the turret, each one handed to close around a large flat stowage box and a vertical sheet of armour, which then has four NERA blocks mould as one to the rear, doubling as a counter-weight to the frontal armour. The frontal NERA quadrants are built from exterior panels with sides, back plates and undersides, the latter having spacing support bars moulded into them. A set of mounting brackets are fitted to the rear of the blocks and they are fixed to the right side, the same process carried out in mirror-image for the opposite quadrant, except the opening box is at the front with springs added to the top. The turret is dropped into the hull to complete the build, and you should bear in mind that there are no bayonet lugs that will hold it in situ if you invert the model, so be careful to support it if the need arises. Markings There are two colour schemes and no decals because these were highly customised T-55s and were only used for a relatively short period in the field. From the box you can build one of the following: Conclusion For a long time there were only resin options if you wanted to depict these oddities, but that changed 12 years ago, but this is the most well-detailed and modern kit of the type to reach the market in a long while. MiniArt make very good T-55s. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi everybody; I don't think the subject needs any introduction, as it's a well known aircraft. Slightly out of my normal interests (which are mainly fighters or fighter/bombers), it is also the type my friend and fellow BMer @Gene K flew in the second part of his career. So let's see: the kit aftermarkets that I'll be using and the specific aircraft I'm modelling Which corresponds to this, in real life (pic from https://f16crewchief.deviantart.com/art) BTW, does anybody know where to find more pics of this specific airframe? This one seems to be the only one showing up on Internet. Anyway, I started with a dryfit of the major parts: nose wheel bay and fuselage some panel lines not lining up very well in the nose and underneath A bit of a gap in the nose U/C bay area too Port top wing has some moulding defects at the root and on the outer edge which not surprisingly led to a bad alignment, when mated with the bottom section Starboard wing looks much better test fitting with fuselage The root joins look better once you apply a little pressure to set the correct dihedral At this point, I decided to check the fit of the lovely Aires resin tub which sports a very restrained casting block and a slot to be paired with the inside of the retractable ladder bay In order to fit it into the fuselage, the areas marked with a red pen need to go The IP coaming needs to be removed too, because there's a resin part for that too, but later for that. The kit cockpit mounting tabs need to go as well so after some scraping with a ball pointed Dremel tool and some cutting with a knife, I got here This way, the inner part of the ladder bay fits into the tub slot. As for the rest: Still a loooong way to go .... Comments, hint, tips, suggestions, critiques - all welcome Ciao

Hi all. I've just finished this on Friday having started it in early Feb with a 7 week break due to modellers block. The finished article is not what I had in mind when I started it. Originally it was a landing TWCU aircraft with a CBLS, but mind drift sent me this way. I picked up "Tornado GR1 an operational history" when it first came out from a book seller at Telford. It's an absolutely brilliant book and one photo caught my eye; one day I thought............ I picked up this kit second hand (as I do with most of my kits) with a bundle of extras that I thought I may use - I didn't. So I started the kit and through research back dated the kit to a GR.1, and the kit allows you to do it. I cut the MLG and extended the oleo and cut the nose and reduced the oleo. Hopefully you can see a nose down/Tail up attitude. The kit itself is very good, with only a few issues. The fin antenna holes need opening up a little more, or cut down the tabs on the antenna. The RWR housings seem too thin to marry up into the fin. The kit antenna under the nose is way too big. Ive added the wiring to the Navigators suite as they are quite visible. I used the kit seats and seeing as the world has consumed the PJ production of aircrew as I was steered towards Wolf 3d resin parts. These are superb although a little expensive, but it is what it is, and at the time my only option. The paint job - I personally think I'd got it easy as you can see from the reference photo. A sandy and dirty aircraft not a trace of pink in sight. Again I seemed to have looked at every tornado photo and specifically ZD790 on the internet. So I made a concoction of made up paint from various shades of Revell Aqua range, consisting of Light beige/white & flesh, but it's predominantly beige. Through my research I found that some aircraft were painted with the wing sweeps grey area deleted and others have it. I found photos of freshly painted aircraft at Brüggen where they are a light sandy and not a shade of desert pink to be seen. Anyway moving on. So with the kit sprayed I plastered it with a Dirty wash that again is very old now and let it eat into the matt paint (no gloss varnished applied yet). I then spent a good few days with a cotton pad and buds gently wiping and dabbing away the excess I wanted to achieve, looking at the photo. Silvery bits done, buckets fitted and then lights and chipping on the leading edges. I used the sponge method using Tamiya green and gray accordingly. I painted the Landing lights with enamel white behind the glazing and coated the front face with Deluxe "looks like glass" to enhance the glare. I cleaned the immediate are around the roundel above and below. The nose I sprayed a little matt varnish to replicate the harsh environment of low level sand blasting sorties prior to the start of the war. When I removed the masking tape I was left with tape residue. Having used Deluxe "looks like glass" for the first time, I subsequently found out from them that it is not designed to have masking tape put over it. So lessons learned. I managed to make it all dissappear applying a coat of Klear. ZD790 had the old style anti-collision lights at the time where others had strobe lights mod. Decals - I purchased a set of kits-world decals for ZD790 "Debbie" as its the only game in town. It's the first time I've used these so a little trepidation. When removing them from the backing paper onto the model they just curled up and tore, they were so thin. It was a tense moment as I'm conscious of the base coat of klear will start to dry. Frankly they were pants, imagine wet tissue paper. I got some of it the "debbie" on and the mission markings box are translucent, so I lost the freshly painted area and like wise the area after "Debbie". On the other side the snoopy airways were again translucent. I was highly disappointed as I'd got this far to be knocked back. So I ended up hand painting what was lost or not usable. As you can see from the kit and the reference photo, the decal is way over scale. I've message kits-world but as yet have not had a response. The 2 roundels are from the Revell kit boxing and the letter D is from the spares box. Finally the model placed on a generic 1/32 runway I have lying about. Photography is my weakest non-skill so please be kind. And finally the photo that caught my eye. "Tornado GR1 an operational history" by Michael Napier.

Having just completed the first of a pair of British Army "Light Tanks" in the form of my Light Tank Mk VI, here is the second AFV now also finished. A Scimitar Reconnaissance vehicle representing the type as used by the British Army in the first Gulf War. The eventual idea is to possibly mount them on a plain desert base together, showing a "two generations of British Army Desert Light Tanks", or something like that! As I'm sure most will be aware the Scimitar was one of a group of vehicles known as the CVR(T) family, being known as FV107. The model is produced by ACE, and is a very nicely moulded AFV in 1/72. The version I used was this boxing, bought for £5 at one of the Tank Museums Model shows a couple of years back: I added some details such as etched grill shroud over the exhaust and some wire to form the wing mirror supports. Paints used were Mission Models "MMP-039 British Sand Yellow Modern AFV" Acrylic for the overall sand, on an undercoat of AK black one shot primer. I find the Mission Models paint airbrushes really well with a little W&N Acrylic flow improver. A couple of lights coats of good old Klear formed a good base for weathering using artists oils thinned with white spirit. One of the surprises in the box was a complete etch fret with a set of vehicle tracks. These have to be folded to produce an extremely lifelike representation of the tracks in this scale: Outer surfaces when track teeth are folded inwards: And inner surfaces showing teeth: I heated the completed track lengths on the hob turning them black brown. This made them much more pliable. I did find them a little tricky to fit, but with perseverance, the result is very satisfying. I managed to use just the two top sections (shorter) and the two lower sections (longer), without resorting to the spare track links provided. I added the very familiar mud guards at the front and rear made from scrap brass sheet, which conveniently hide the tricky track joins! Being brass (or possibly copper?) it is very easy to produce the typical sag on the upper run, although not too much according to photos of the real thing. The close up are quite cruel, but please remember this is very small! And finally, one showing it's real size better. Keen eyed viewers will notice this shot actually has the aerials fitted, which I'd forgotten to put on before all the above pictures were taken! Comments welcome. Thanks for looking. Terry

Blackburn Buccaneer S.2B in RAF Service (A12014) 1:48 Airfix The Buccaneer needs little introduction to most British aviation enthusiasts, as it was in service for a long time, first in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, and latterly with the RAF after remaining airframes were handed-over, performing a similar strike role in both branches of the British armed forces. The Buccaneer was originally designed by Blackburn for the Royal Navy, which is why even the RAF aircraft retained their folding wings and arrestor hooks. Blackburn was later rolled into Hawker Siddeley, hiding away its lengthy heritage. It was designed to be a rugged low-level attacker that was to approach below the enemy’s radar horizon, and had a reputation as a highly-stable weapons platform that although it was just subsonic could leave other more modern aircraft in its wake in the turbulent air close to the ground. After the last British aircraft carriers were retired at the end of the 70s, the hand-over to the RAF was completed, and older airframes were scrapped due to safety concerns after an accident, leaving them with a fleet of around 60 aircraft that served until 1994 when the Tornado took over the tasks it had been carrying out. The type progressed from initial S.1 variant to S.2, replacing the underpowered De Havilland engines with the powerful Spey engines that were also used in the Nimrod and British Phantoms amongst others. This required a larger intake to ingest sufficient air to feed the engines’ voracious appetite, and later the S.2B was further upgraded to carry Martel missiles. The S.2A moniker was reserved for former FAA airframes after they had been converted for use by the RAF, while the C was the Navy’s name for the S.2A, and the D were former Naval airframes upgraded to S.2B standards. The last hurrah of the Buccaneer was during the first Gulf War that the British called Operation Granby, laser designating targets for the Tornados that it accompanied in the event they encountered problems with their own pods. They were instrumental in the destruction of many bridges in Iraq, and they were also sent to dive-bomb airfields and bunkers either solo, or with lasing provided by other aircraft. On its return from the Gulf, it was decided that they were no-longer needed, and were retired early, despite having been substantially upgraded at great cost just a few years earlier, which is typical of British Defence decisions. Their role was taken over by the Tornados after they had been upgraded to operate the Sea Eagle anti-shipping missiles that the Buccaneers had been carrying before they were retired. The Kit This is a fresh reboxing of the still brand-new tooling of the venerable Buccaneer from Airfix, adding RAF decals and a new sprue of parts that contains many parts common to the previous version, reorganised to accommodate the new missiles etc. The kit arrives in a large top-opening box, and if you consider part count to be a value indicator, you’re getting almost 300 of them on the seven sprues that are in a darker grey styrene than usual, reminiscent of the Extra Dark Sea Grey scheme that it often wore in service. There is a single sprue of clear parts, a large decal sheet and a thick instruction booklet that has three glossy colour and markings profiles inside. First impressions are excellent, with lots of delightfully fine detail that includes panel lines and rivets, as well as raised details where appropriate, at odds with the jest that the Bucc was hewn from one huge billet of airframe aluminium. Amongst the parts you get a very detailed cockpit, gear bays, engines, boarding ladders, an open port engine bay that even includes a handy styrene mask for painting, a contoured box inside the nose for the nose-weight, detailed bomb bay, air-brake in the tail and a broad weapons load, plus a set of FOD guards for the intakes and exhausts. That’s an impressive list of features that even includes two pilot figures, although they are sadly still suffering from the hands-on-laps pose that dates back to the 80s and beyond. Such a minor gripe that it’s hardly worth mentioning, especially as many folks don’t use pilot figures anyway. Now that my two old Airfix Buccs have been firmly pushed right to the back of the stash, let’s move on. It’s of no concern to this modeller though, because this kit and its siblings are already doing roaring trade at model shops, and is firmly in the realms of the de facto standard for 1:48 scale. Having since watched the Hornby TV show where Paramjit worked upon this project, it’s clear that he and the team have put in a lot of effort to create a model kit that trumps their old tooling by a substantial margin, which is honestly a huge understatement. The decal sheet is similarly well-detailed with lots of stencils, seat belt decals, and dials for the instrument panels that should add to the realism of the cockpit without stressing your bank account further. Before you break out the tools, you need to decide which of four weapons loud-outs you are planning to deploy on the wings and in the belly of your Bucc. Decal Option A 4 x Sea Eagle Anti-Shipping Missile Decal Option B 4 x Empty Underwing Pylons 4 x 1,000lb Bombs in Bay Decal Option C 2 x Slipper Tanks on Inner Pylons 2 x Empty Outer Pylons Decal Option D 1 x AIM-9 Sidewinder Missile or 1 x 1,000lb Paveway II Laser Guided bombs 1 x AN/ALQ-101 ECM Pod 1 x AN/AVQ-23 Pave Spike laser designator pod 1 x Empty Inner Pylon Construction begins with drilling the necessary holes for your chosen weapons scheme, which takes up four pages with various diagrams used to assist you with the decision. A further page shows the location of the various internal decals that are used throughout the build, although they aren’t mentioned on the actual instruction steps, so a bit of cross-referencing and pencil markings might be wise to prevent missing some out. They are all within the cockpit however, so that shouldn’t take long. We finally get to cut some parts off the sprues to make up the two Mk.6 Martin Baker ejection seats, which consist of six parts each, with large multi-part cushions and the overhead pull-handles that initiates the ejection process in the event of an emergency. The seat building process is carried out twice, then the rear-seater’s instrument panel is made up with a recess on the front mating with a block on the back of the pilot’s launch rail, adding decals to the panel and the headbox of both the seats. The cockpit tub has the nose gear bay glued under it, needing just the aft end cap adding to box it in, then the side consoles are detailed with top surfaces that lock in place on shaped depressions, and accepting decals later to improve the detail. The pilot’s instrument panel is started by adding rudder pedals behind the centre, and adding the short L-shaped control column into the slot in the front of the panel, before it and the rear bulkhead are joined to the rest of the cockpit, followed by the two seats, the forward one also holding the rear instrument panel. In preparation for the closing up of the separate nose portion of the fuselage, a container is made up from two halves, which has large I-shaped bars running down the sides, and inside you are told to put 15 grammes of nose weight before closing the lid on it. It’s a fancy feature that should make the sometimes fraught task of avoiding a tail-sitter model a thing of the past, cramming lead shot into available spaces to your best guess and hoping it won’t cause problems when you close the fuselage halves. The nose sides have cockpit sidewall detail moulded-in, which is improved further by adding seven extra parts, and if you are planning on using the included boarding ladders, you should drill some holes where indicated, ensuring they are horizontal to the finish aircraft’s line of flight. The nose weight fits into the port half of the nose on its I-tab, taking care to glue it home fully. The cockpit slides into the port nose half, and should click into position thanks to a tab on each side of the rear bulkhead that clips in place on a shape secreted in the rear of the nose halves. Gone are the days of inexact cockpit positioning, which is another welcome improvement. The nose is glued together and allowed to set up, then the pilot’s coaming and clear HUD are popped on top, finishing off the work in that area for now. As mentioned, there are detailed engine fronts included, plus their trunking that penetrates deep into the fuselage and out the other end, with an almost full engine in the port side nacelle that can be displayed. The first parts are the exhaust trunking halves that are paired on a cross-brace and the halves fit together using four circular depressions, and includes some framework for the main gear bays, which is painted a different colour. A bulkhead straddles the two tubes and incorporates the rear walls of the main bays, with another at the forward side that clips onto a large tab. Another bulkhead slides into the rear of the exhaust trunking tubes, and two perpendicular panels slide in between the two aft-most bulkheads to strengthen the assembly, and provide surface detail for the inner walls of the main gear bays. This part of the assembly can then be inserted into the lower fuselage half, which has the rotating bomb-bay roof moulded into it. Before proceeding, two raised panels and square blocks should be removed by sanding back to the correct profile of the engine nacelles. The intake trunking is mounted on a similar cross-brace with two circular alignment pins, then is butted up against another bulkhead that has engine front-faces moulded into them. You are incited to build the next few steps whether you intend to display the engine or not, as it will make aligning the parts much easier down the line, and I’m not going to argue. The shell of the port engine is made up from two halves, and attaches to the rear of the forward bulkhead behind the intake trunks, with some detail painting necessary before you insert them into the fuselage in front of the aft assembly. Some additional tubing is laid over the top of the engine as it will appear through the hatch if you are leaving it off, but omit these parts if you are modelling it closed. A curved plastic part is included with the word ‘MASK’ etched on it is surfaces that can be used to protect your hard work on the engine during the painting of the exterior of the model. Paramjit is clearly demonstrating his devotion to modelling and modellers there, as masking a recessed area can be tricky. If you are displaying the engine, the upper fuselage needs a little work, removing the access panel that has been helpfully part chain-drilled for you from the inside, making the task simply a case of attacking it (carefully) with a scalpel, and a scrap diagram shows the correct angles to cut through the thickness of the fuselage. A side wall is glued in place in preparation, then the fuselage is left to one side for a moment, before it is shown again over the page, where you are incited to paint the main gear bay rooves and drill out some holes in the spine if you are folding the wings. The fuselage halves are then joined only if you are folding the wings, where you are advised not to glue the aft bulkhead as it will help ease the alignment of the two halves. The decision of whether to fold the wings or not is down to you, but bear in mind that RAF aircraft retained their wing-fold mechanisms, and there are photos of them with wings folded on airfields, despite their original reason being to save space below deck on a carrier. The folded option involves inserting ribs into the wing roots that have spikes projecting from the top to receive the outer wing panels, which are next to be put together. Two decal options involve making up fairings that project from under the leading edge of the wing outer panel, then the ailerons, all of which are made from two parts each, then adding a choice of different shaped clear wingtips, depending on the decal option you have chosen, stopping the inner ends with a rib that accepts the fold mechanism later. You are told to remove the fifth vortex generator from the inside edge, and the port wing also has a long pitot probe mounted on a fairing below. For unfolded wings, a spur on the outer panel is removed, and so is the fifth vortex generator as for the folded option, then an A-frame with insert is placed in the recesses inside the wings before they are joined. The wings are glued into the lower wing roots within the raised guides, then the upper fuselage skin can be glued down, again without gluing the aft bulkhead. The same painting and drilling is done before the two halves are glued, as per the repeated scrap diagram. If you have elected to expose the engine, a brace is glued across the bay, then the bay door and a small part are fixed in place on four hinges that slip under the edge of the bay. Again, the mask part is included for your convenience during exterior painting. The Bucc has an area-rule era coke-bottle shaped fuselage, so has a bit of a wide rear, which is made from a separate section to the main fuselage and incorporates the tail fin. The tail is split vertically into two parts, and has an aft bulkhead inserted during closure, after which the tail-hook insert is glued into the gap in the underside of the assembly, followed by gluing of the tail and the nose assemblies to the fuselage, taking care to align everything neatly to remove or reduce any remedial work. The larger S.2 intake trunks are slotted over the interior trunk surface, and are topped off by a handed lip, but as usual, it’s best to ensure a good fit here before applying glue. The exhausts have inner and outer skins too, and these slide on inside the other before being attached to the rear of the fuselage either side of the tail, with the short flap-sections made up from top and bottom halves and fixed next to the exhausts either flush, or dropped to 40°, next to the ailerons that can be offset to 30° by swapping the actuator part out. The final flying surface is the prominent T-tail, which starts with the main surface that’s made from top and bottom halves, mated with the now usual circular locating tabs, then it’s glued onto the moulded-in tail fin. The fairing on top is two more parts, with a choice of forward and rear bullet fairings, separate elevators (one of which is arrowed to the rudder position incorrectly) and rudder panel, all of which are single parts each and can be deflected as you wish. The Buccaneer has a long tail cone fairing that splits vertically and hinges out into the airflow to act as the air-brake, which was a definite weak-point of the old kit in terms of detail and fit, but doesn’t seem like that’s going to be the case with the new tool. To display it open, you begin by assembling two outer skins on a W-shaped support, then inserting the three peaks into the rear of the brake surfaces, which are moulded as one, and have some nice rivet detail moulded into them. The surfaces are boxed in at the rear by the fairings that give it the tapering profile it achieves when stashed away, adding a short bulkhead and a triple-linked tube before sliding the air-brake assembly into position, with a scrap diagram showing the correct orientation of the tubes diagonally within the assembly. The closed air-brakes are simple by comparison, comprising two halves and a central bulkhead that creates the vanes at the top and bottom of the fairing. It slots straight into the rear of the fuselage, so is quite the appealing option if you’re intrinsically lazy, in a hurry, or just don’t like masking. The arrestor hook is added later by choosing a deployed or stowed Y-shaped base, actuator to get the correct angle, and the hook itself with a small blade aerial next to it. A pair of blade antennae and two probes are also fixed under the nose while the airframe is inverted, with a tubular aux-intake further back on the fuselage. Under the belly of the Bucc is an innovative rotating bomb bay that you can either pop the lid onto and carry on with the rest of the build, or put the effort in and detail it further. The process begins by adding an insert forward of the bay, with another insert with clear light at the rear, and a detail insert in the front of the bay that is used for both options. The closed bomb bay can then be covered up and you can move on, but if you plan on showing off that nice detail within, there are five lengths of hose/cable bundles fitted within, plus two thick pipes added into the main gear bays nearby. The bombs are fitted later if you plan on using them. The gear of the Bucc was sturdy to cope with constant hard landings and catapult launches from the deck of a carrier, so all the struts are moulded in halves with some of the wider sections hollow inside to reduce the likelihood of sink-marks. Some bright spark will probably make metal inserts to toughen those up further. The three wheels are each moulded in halves, with a flat-spot on the bottom to simulate weighting, although all the wheels are shown as not glued in place yet, presumably so you get the flat spot on the bottom consistently. There is also a scrap diagram showing the diameter of the hub, which should allow the deft modeller to create their own punch-out masks to ease painting of the wheels, choosing a diameter of 7.6mm. Once the gear is done, flooding the wheel centres with glue should prevent them moving again if you don’t want to faff about every time you move it in the future. The nose gear leg slots into the bay with a retraction jack behind it, and a single bay door running down the side of it. The main gear legs fit into a hole in a rib and on top of another rib, making for a strong bond, then they have their curved doors fixed to the edge of the bay with three hinges that slot under the side. A decal of a data-plate is applied to both the main gear legs at front and rear, which is good to see, as stencils make models look much more detailed IMHO. Before applying the glazing to the cockpit, you should choose whether to install the pilots, which have a detailed painting guide next to them, then a blast-shield is placed between the two pilots, and a choice of two windscreens, only one of which has a wiper, so you can use aftermarket Photo-Etch (PE) wipers if you’re an inveterate detail upgrader. This is certainly a model designed by modellers with modellers in mind, and watching the episode where Paramjit is working on the design is well-recommended. The main canopy also has two parts, one with the det-cord breaker moulded-in and the other without it, so you can use alternative methods such as PE or decals to replicate the det-cord that shatters the canopy in advance of the pilots punching out. Yet another helpful addition. You can close the canopy or depict it pushed back to just over the rear pilot’s seat using either of the two parts, either option showing off the detailed cockpit within. The Bucc’s prominent L-shaped refuelling probe is inserted into a recess on the nose in front of the canopy, and the spine is decorated with blade antennae and lights depending on which decal option you have chosen. The weapons included in the box are well-detailed, and have inserts for the Sea Eagle missiles to give them more realistic thickness fins. The weapons set includes the following: 2 x TV Martel Anti-Shipping Missile 4 x Sea Eagle Anti-Shipping Missile 1 x Martel TV Guidance Data Link Pod (left over from the C/D boxing) 2 x handed slipper tanks 1 x 1,000lb Paveway II Laser Guided bombs (the instructions mark this as a 10,000lb bomb due to a typo) 8 x 1,000lb Iron Bombs 2 x AIM-9 Sidewinder Missiles 1 x AN/ALQ-101 ECM Pod 1 x AN/AVQ-23 Pave Spike laser designator pod All the weapons have handed pylons that are suitable to their station, some of which have additional parts to thicken their mounting-points, and the bombs have either pylons for wing-mounting, or cleats for mounting inside the bomb bay. All the weapons and fuel tanks have stencils and a painting guide included on the main sheets. The model is complete now, but Airfix have helpfully included several extras that will give your model some additional visual interest. There are two crew ladders with separate stand-off brackets, one for each pilot that are fixed side-by-side to the nose using the holes drilled initially before the model was completed or even begun if you’re prepared. There are also Foreign Object Debris (FOD) guards for the intakes and exhausts, which have nice engraved detail, and the exhaust blanks have a T-shaped handle that is fitted to the centre of the part. Markings The Bucc didn’t wear too many schemes during its long and illustrious career, but Airfix have managed to include four different options on the sheet, each of which has a side of glossy A3 in full colour devoted to it to assist you with painting and decaling. An additional four pages in the instruction booklet shows where all the many stencil decals are placed for each decal option, avoiding duplication and over-complication of the other sheets of diagrams. From the box you can build one of the following: XW527/527, No.12 Sqn., RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland, 1993 XW544, No.15 Sqn., RAF Laarbruch, Germany, 1971 XV352, No.208 Sqn., Operation Red Flag, 1977 XW547/R, Guinness Girl/Pauline, Operation Granby/Desert Storm, Muharraq Airport, Bahrain, 1991 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion I’m still excited of course, but I’ve calmed down a little bit since the initial release. It’s an exceptionally well-detailed replacement for the old tooling, and the engineering that has gone into the making of the kit is first-rate. Add to this the useful extras such as the ladder and FOD guards, and we’re onto a winner. It’s a Buccaneer too, and we’ve waited SO long for a new one. Extremely highly recommended. Kit Only Kit & Coin Review sample courtesy of

Hiya I have my new aircraft to enjoy building and painting. I've been looking forward to this one. Any and all help and support regarding the build would be greatly appreciated. It's an italeri so I know it's gonna be a little shonky so any pre-warning would be appreciated. 🤓

Relatively recently (rather months than years ago) somewhere on the web I saw pictures of the USMC M60A3 from the 1991 Gulf War. But it was not an ERA brick-hung one, but an old "naked" example in the Marines desert livery. The description stated that five (?) such tanks (even some serials were given) were transferred from the 197th US Army brigade to the USMC in Saudi Arabia in 1990. "Of course", I didn't copy the photo, and I didn't even note the source, and now I can't find it anywhere. Maybe some of you have also come across such a copy of the Desert Storm M60? Cheers Michael Update: on Ebay and Amazon you can buy a Chinese diecast M60A3 in desert camouflage with black inverted Vs on the turret sides. But this one is still serialled US Army 983116. Can such a toy (completely accidentally and not intentionally) be credible? Do the US Army and USMC tanks have a common numbering, or (like airplanes) completely separate. If handed over to the Marine Corps, would the M60A3 retain its original Army serial or would it get a brand new one? Is there a list available of M60 serial numbers for the USMC units involved in the Gulf War somewhere?

Hello everybody! Here is my new model from Tamiya. In my opinion kit has many details despite its age. Easy for build and it made my weekend enjoyable Most of the new kits have so many parts to glue but old Tamiya's are goldies ❤️ You can visit my ScaleMates bio and don't forget to add me https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=101450 Cheers...

Hi all, I made a little vignette set in IRAQ ... a soldier who take a little rest in the middle of the desert ... I hope you enjoy my work. 🙂 The AFV WIP can be found here: by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr by Rodolfo Masti, on Flickr

Late finish from Gulf War GB, 73-1119 3TFS / 3TFW / 13AF, based in Turkey, so I the backdrop trees aren't authentic. A few setbacks and many errors but for me it captures the real thing at: http://www.sharpshooter-maj.com/html/deploy91.htm. Hasegawa kit 00158 AeroMaster decal Airdoc stencils Hasegawa AIM-7 QuickBoost bang seats Eduard bombs and ALQ pod Scratch-built pylon Xtracolor hand brush paint + AK True Metal Chris Build at:

Hello, Here's my just finished 1/48 Kinetic F/A-18C Hornet, done as a VFA-81 jet from the 1991 Gulf War. I was originally going to build this for the DS GB here on BM, but I never really took in progress pics of it. Oh well... The kit is not the easiest to work with, especially around the nose and intakes, but I've learned from it, so a future build might be easier to put together. Other things used were a Walleye and data link pod from Astra Resin, a pilot figure from PJ Productions, and a laser spot tracker pod from the Hobbyboss Hornet kit. Painted with Mr Color mostly, and a VMS flat coat, which I really like. And the real one during ODS: Thanks for looking, I hope you like it. Pete

Hi mates, I have finished the model, along with its base, I hope you all like this build 🙂 The WIP for the build can be found here; [Click Here]

Hi gents and gals, with the imminent release of Eduard Tornado Gr.1 in 1:48, I started a page of what to use, decals etc etc. Then, I decided, what the hell, I can make it for other scales too. So, long story short. Here is the ultimate How to on Gulf war Tornadoes. It is still in progress, mainly the F.3/ADV part. If you have any additions/corrections/ideas, please let me know. Thanks ! Gulf war Tornado How-to

Finished this a couple of weeks ago. After a very loooooooong in building, The kit was built almost OOB. I cut away the solid plastic of the nose laser windows and replaced it with layers of '5 second UV Gel'. Main paint was Humbrol 250 Desert Sand. The decals are old ones from Xtradecal 'Gulf Special' which has a few schemes for Tornado, Jaguar, Buccaneer and a Hercules

Hi guys ! My entry for this GB will be Revells M60 A1 kit in 1:72 scale. Pictures from the kit later on. Cheers Bernd

This is the 1/35 Accurate Armour SAS Longline strike atv, released last year. Possibly the hardest build I’ve ever had, nearly all done under magnification. For an expensive kit I was disappointed with the instructions with parts numbered in error, poor assembly sequence and just unclear in some parts. Maybe because it has been digitally designed the fit has to be super accurate as I found it very difficult to sit everything square, and the suspension just wouldn’t extend far enough for the vehicle to sit at the right height. However the seats are a thing if beauty, as is the .50 cal, and I’m going to load it up with equipment to explain the fact that the mudguards are sitting right on the wheels. Anyone know where to source a Javelin in transport mode? Anyhow, on with the pics.

Hi, Here I start new kit build - Marines M60A1 from the Gulf War. This is the ultimate US version of this tank with RISE (Reliability Improvements for Selected Equipment) improvement pack. In particular, it eliminated large IR projector over the barrel, replacing that with passive "starlight" scopes for a driver, gunner and commander. Another change was the installation of Continental AVDS-1790-2C engine boosting engine power. Smoke discharges were added too. This model with represent vehicle C-12 from 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 3rd Tank Battalion USMC, Regimental Task Force Ripper during the operation Desert Storm in 1991. At the deployment to the Gulf region tanks were retrofitted with explosive reactive armour to increase crew protection. I have chosen this particular vehicle due to its camouflage features. Most of the tanks were repainted in whole to sand colour, but some of them retained their original MERDC Gray Desert camouflage, with all added ERA panels painted in sand colour. I think it may be quite striking visually. Therefore build will have 2 main parts. First build the tank and paint it in MERDC Gray desert, then add separately painted ERA panels with all bracing needed. First impressions looking at the kit are very good. There's very nicely represented cast texture on the hull and turret. The tank has classic yet intriguing shape with asymmetric turret - real Cold War warrior. I skip inbox presentation as it can be elsewhere online. I have started a build by connecting a bottom and top hull. However manual suggest making running gear and underside equipment first, I decided to change an order as fitting hull requires applying some pressure which could damage some delicate parts. After drilling all attachment holes and installing driver's periscopes and obviously careful cleaning of the parts all fit nicely. I couldn't resist not to do the same with a turret 😎 Now I will add all running gear and rest of the hull details.

Part II of the late 2017 Viper spree that I just finished off recently, here's another Revell F-16C with markings of "Wild Thang", a Desert Storm bird from Shaw AFB. This was a Block 25 and so had both the narrow intake and P&W engine. A few other bits and bobs had to be corroborated with pictures since Revell's instructions do not account for a Block 25 or 30/32 despite these being the only C blocks that the kit gets right! The aircraft depicted is from the 363rd TFS from Shaw AFB with nose art "Wild Thang". The decals came from an old Hi-Decals set that I had since ages ago. I am not a huge fan of Hi Decals. They are quite thick and register in not that great and so avoided as many as I could (only the unit code, serial, and nose art), with all the other stencils coming from an old Superscale sheet, alas they are not made for the Revell kit and are quite incomplete, notably on all the underside bits. Note that the Shaw birds during Desert Storm did not have the walkway lines painted which saved me some trouble. Paints were all Gunze except 36118 (Tamiya XF-24 instead). The centerline pod and the bombs were taken from a Hasegawa weapons set, as was the TER. Although Vipers use a special TER set, it should be noted that in Desert Storm many of them carried the standard types. I also tinted the canopy with a mix of Tamiya transparent yellow and smoke. So mostly was just to have a Desert Storm viper on the shelf. Looks good anyway!

After recently finishing a P-47 in 1/48, and currently planning to join a group Spitfire build starting in a few weeks on the IPMS Ireland website, I thought I'd try and be a latecomer to this GB as I'm keen to build my Monogram AH-1 dating from the late 80s. I started it around 2 weeks ago, and I might get it finished in time for the June deadline! The kit I think has been around since the early 80s and it's pretty simple with a low parts count and raised panel lines. I added some aftermarket in the form of an Eduard mask, a Master 3 barrel gun and some aftermarket decals (which in the end I've decided not to use as I very generously got a sheet of decals from a later Revell boxing of the kit of a Cobra used by the US Army in the first Gulf War. The real "Sand Shark" as seen below is what I'm going to try and recreate: Parts ready for primer: Cockpit completed: Fuselage interior with turbine installed: Fuselage halves joined and skids added, (I used 15g of weight up front to make sure it wasn't a tail sitter): Currently I'm painting the main and tail rotors and then the next job is trying to get the seams sorted out prior to paint (which is going to be hard I think!)

Ok, got another Gulf War question Some F-15Cs during the Gulf War carried AMRAAMs and as I understand it, usually just two in the inner rail of the wing pylon. This would presumably mean that this rail had the LAU-128 pylon rather than the older style. However, would the outer rail which had AIM-9s also used the LAU-128 or would have kept the older type? I presume at some point in the 90s all the rails were switched to LAU-128s but given that the AMRAAM has hastily deployed to the Gulf War, whether just the necessary launchers were switched too. Thanks! P.S. I could not find any F-15 Gulf War pic carrying AMRAAMs hence the question...

Viper experts, a few questions: 1) Were ALQ-119 pods painted white during the Gulf War? Most 80s pictures show them white but I can't really tell from the Gulf War pics if they still remained white or had been painted light grey by then. Also, some pods (namely ALQ-131s) looked quite dark, were they painted 36118 by any chance? Or olive drab? 2) When loading just two bombs on a TER rack, was the layout always outward/center or right/center? The dstorm.eu site has both port and starboard pylons as right/center but I find that a bit odd, but haven't seen a pic of an F-16 head on to confirm. If you don't get what I'm saying, what I mean would be this: BOMB BOMB EMPTY ........... EMPTY BOMB BOMB or EMPTY BOMB BOMB .......... EMPTY BOMB BOMB Thanks!

After a lot of thinking I've decided to build Revell's 1:72 Buccaneer for the Made in GB group build. This is a Matchbox kit that has been reboxed, and unfortunately doesn't have the signature folding wings and airbrake. However, ever since I saw the Buccaneer at the London RAF museum I've had a soft spot for the aircraft. the kit is made up of 3 sprues, all pretty clean and flash free, as well as a small clear sprue for the canopy. There is a small decal sheet, so the graphics will be minimal, but I love the mean appearance of the aircraft in its desert pink colour scheme.

Hi all, Well here's my first attempt at uploading to Britmodeller, so here goes... After a lay off from modelling for over a decade, in Arnies famous words..."I'm back"👍 I started this years ago, and so I thought I'd finish some dust covered boxes...so here's Italeri's Tornado. To be frank, it's nearly gone in the bin so many times, it is awful. I enjoyed doing the Airfix Buc more😜 It it has the fab NeOmega cockpit, Brassin GBU-10's and the Master pitot tube. It's painted in a mix of Aeromaster and Vallejo, and the decals are Printscale. http://s1253.photobucket.com/user/Covjets13/media/IMG_0104_zps60gtfkqg.jpg.html][/URL] http://s1253.photobucket.com/user/Covjets13/media/IMG_0105_zps9reiqlak.jpg.html][/URL] http://s1253.photobucket.com/user/Covjets13/media/IMG_0116_zpseykzykrr.jpg.html][/URL] http://s1253.photobucket.com/user/Covjets13/media/IMG_0111_zpsnzucvfzn.jpg.html][/URL] http://s1253.photobucket.com/user/Covjets13/media/IMG_0109_zps3psjfjgs.jpg.html][/URL] http://s1253.photobucket.com/user/Covjets13/media/IMG_0113_zps5kppmhrv.jpg.html][/URL] http://s1253.photobucket.com/user/Covjets13/media/IMG_0107_zpsuee9kszm.jpg.html][/URL] Thanks for looking. Si

A labor of love that took a while to finish due to numerous mishaps (including have to completely re-paint the C). Here be two lovely Hasegawa Eagles in The One True Scale™. No need to go over the qualities of the Hase F-15 series. Best Eagles on the market despite the molds being nearly 30 years old! It is a testament to the quality of the originals that they are still better than anything built since. The F-15C is from the original 80s boxing while the Strike Eagle is from the newer "updated" set which despite being quite pricey (£25 on eBay from a Japanese seller) is a significant improvement over the highly inaccurate original E version. The new CFTs are beautifully molded, as are the targeting pods which are taken directly from one of their weapons sets. Everything fits like a glove. If you ask me, it is well worth the price and only option for an accurate E in this scale. My only gripe with the kits is that the engine exhausts are a pain to build and that there's hardly any rivets (except in the Strike Eagle CFTs). Some info on the two builds: F-15C This is Cpt. Cesar "Rico" Rodriguez from the legendary Gorillas (58th Fighter Sq), who shot down 2 Iraqi jets during the war and nearly a decade later added another to his tally in Kosovo. The markings were taken from an old Microscale set and the stencils from Two Bobs. Gunze paints were used in the original ghost gray camo and note that this aircraft still featured the old style hi-viz markings. A keen eye will note that I lost the canopy actuator. If anyone has a spare, please drop me a line as I feel that was the only error in the build. Also have not had the time to arm it with missiles so that'll have to wait (will post updated pics later). Weathering was done with Humbrol dark gray wash with some extra streaking in black and burnt umber below. F-15E There's a dearth of Gulf War Strike Eagle decals in 1/72 scale so my only shot at this was the Hi-Decal set which is pretty awful: they are thick, prone to silvering and the pilot names are unreadable. Also take a lot of Microsol to settle in and the yellow squadron band on the fins simply did not conform at all so I removed them. Despite having numerous Two Bobs sets in reserve, I stupidly chose to use the kit's decals for the stencils since the Hi Decals were quite thick already. BIG mistake: lots of silvering throughout which was really disappointing. Oh well. I'll build a nicer replacement one day. Aside from that, no major problems. This airframe (87-183) from the 335th Squadron (Rocketeers) has only a few bomb markings so it was logical to assume it was still early in the conflict when Strike Eagles could only carry dumb bombs. So I used the kit supplied Rockeye cluster bombs for a full load. I added at LITENING pod anyway even though this would be inaccurate. I also accidentally painted the Rockeyes olive drab when they probably were white. Because I used the kit decals, the yellow band is also inaccurate since it is just yellow when during the war it had white stripes. Sue me! Painting as done with Tamiya XF-24 which I think is the most accurate representation of FS36118 in acrylic (Gunze is way too light and does not have a bluish tint). Was given a black wash with similar weathering to the C. Quite happy with how they came out so enjoy the pics

I have a question about the legendary "Gulf Spirit", mainly what color it was during the Gulf War. I have seen many modellers build it in the ghost gray and the Mod Eagle scheme but clearly it could have only been one during the Gulf War. I am nearly convinced that it is ghost gray but just wanted to confirm. Evidence towards ghost gray - The few pictures of the GW show it as ghost gray looking. However, I have to say that ghost gray and mod eagle look surprisingly similar in many photos, as lighting effects come into play. - Osprey's F-15Cs in Combat has it ghost gray - I have yet to see a GW bird convincingly appearing in mod eagle colors although a number of GW veterans apparently switched that very same summer (like the Bitburg birds) Evindence towards Mod Eagle - Lots of modellers seem to do it in this camo - Hasegawa's boxing has the 1991 version in mod eagle as well as the 2003 commander's aircraft (which I assume is the one in the box photo which is clearly mod eagle). However, the latter is a different airframe. Also, Hasegawa's instructions have the 1991 version with very few stencils which makes me wonder whether it had been hastily painted before the war. I figure someone in this forum has the answer