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Voila! A real mission, the work in progress thread is on here too for those who are interested, (sorry haven’t figured out how to insert the link yet) it was a real battle to get the stickers on (they didn’t stick), I was saved in the end by a Furball “Sea blue f9f-8 Cougars” sheet, and airbrushed the rest! The little starter jeep was mostly scratchbuilt, grafted onto a Tamiya Willy’s, can’t help thinking some nice 3D printed figures would set the dio off nicely!! thanks for looking!

Another kit bash this one. I'm pleased with how it turned out. Cheers Brian.

My second Spit in this GB is one I've wanted to do for a while - a Spitfire F.21 in 1/48, using the Airfix PR.XIX fuselage and Seafire 46 wings. I'm going to be following a build by @CplPunishment - his build is here. Most of the parts I need are in the two kits and it looks like a reasonably straightforward conversion, although a bit of fettling is going to be needed to get the XIX and 46 bits to fit together properly. It'll go something like this: Cockpit - largely PR.XIX parts, omitting the cameras and other internals that are specific to the PR.XIX. Rear pressure bulkhead will be modified to represent the frame that would be in that place in an unpressurised aircraft. I've got a Yahu instrument panel for a IX - ok the wrong mark, but it'll look good enough with the canopy closed, which is how I plan to build it. I'll use an Eduard seatbelt and Quickboost gyro gunsight. Fuselage: PR.XIX with pressurisation intake removed, camera ports filled, and a little scribing to represent the door. I'll need a new windscreen - I have two options, the closed canopy from the Eduard Spit which will be build with the canopy open, or the windscreen from the 46. Wings and main undercarriage: Pretty much the full 46 assembly. Here's the traditional box shot - 2 boxes this time - complete with an assortment of the kids' mess on the table! Fuselage mods came first: This included the modification to the pressure bulkhead - basically I've just cut out the middle leaving the frame around the outside. I've also made a start on painting the cockpit by painting everything that needs to be interior green. From here, getting the cockpit assembled and painted and getting the fuselage together should be pretty straightforward. After that it'll be time to get the wings on, which will be a bit more interesting! cheers Julian

I finished this model ages ago, but it took a long time to get around to taking studio photos of it. The new animated show "Star Wars: Resistance" is a mixed bag, IMO. I love the animation style (I grew up watching Robotech, the US-import version of the Macross Saga, so I love the anime style applied to Star Wars) and some of the ship designs are quite cool, while some of the characters are.....anyway. I fell in love with the main hero ship, the constantly-in-need-of-repair Fireball, which came about from one of Lucasfilm's showrunners wondering what an X-wing designed around the F4U Corsair would look like. While the actual ship doesn't directly share any parts with the T-65 X-wing or the F4U Corsair, you can get pretty close my mashing the two together, which is what I did with a Bandai Vehicle Model T-65 X-Wing, and an AFV Club 1:144 scale F4U. The AFV club model was very nice to work with, with plastic that's compatible with Tamiya extra fine cement. I had to do a lot of chopping, filing, and repositioning of various parts, as well as replacing the X-wing wing cannons with music wire and aluminum tubing, since they predictably broke off in all the handling. The paint job took ages - SO much masking. There are 4 base colors, and quite a few odd panels. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I didn't really keep a build log outside of Instagram, but there are a bunch of WIP and primered photos in a flickr album.

USS Anubis | NCC-586 | Hermes Class | 1/2500 From the classic Franz Joseph "Star Fleet Technical Manual", this is the USS Anubis, a Hermes class scout. It was kitbashed from the classic Enterprise in the AMT 1/2500 "3 enterprise" (1701, 1701-A and 1701-D) from the '90's, of which I had an extra. The name came from the technical manual, but is also a sly nod to Stargate SG-1, which my kids also love. Work in progress is here. I saw several examples on the internet of classic Star Trek models with the shuttlebay integrated into the saucer section which I thought was brilliant. I cut the back off of the engineering hull and glued it to the saucer and then used Apoxie Sculpt epoxy putty to blend it in to the B/C decks on the saucer. The toughest part of that was cutting the angle on the bottom of the shuttle bay right so that the top of the shuttlebay was even with the top of the B/C decks. I only had one shot at that so it was a careful and tedious process. The other difficult part was to turn the center part of the warp nacelle so that it would be pointing down ward in the finished model. This meant I had to cut off the front and back parts, re-glue them in the right orientation and then fill and sand. I then had to fabricate "final stage intercoolers" (the thingamajigs that stick up in the back of the warp nacelle) out of sheet styrene and glue them on. Paints: (applied from base coat to surface): Mr Surfacer 1500 black as a primer > Testors Enamel FS36440 (Flat Gull Gray) marble coat > Testors Enamel Black preshading > Testors Enamel FS36440 top coat > Testors Enamel Dark Ghost Gray (FS36320) / Testors Enamel Gunship Gray (FS36118) / Testors Enamel Chrome Silver for details > Alclad Aqua Gloss (3 coats) > Decals > Testors Model Master Semi-Gloss lacquer clear coat Decals: JT Graphics Surya and Constitution Class Decals / PNT Models 1:2500 scale hull details (for the pylon) In all, I was pretty happy with how it turned out! I kinda wish it hadn't taken so long, but it wasn't as big of a priority as some of my other builds. Thanks for looking. Comments, constructive criticism, questions and tips always welcome! Hope you enjoy.

Late Friday night, while waiting for my MiG-15 to dry, I got stuck on my Miranda Class because the paint I needed was dried out. So what does a modeller do? Start a new project! I have an extra 1:2500 AMT 3 enterprise kit, and this has been percolating in my mind for a while. As with most kids my age, I thought the Franz Joseph "Starfleet Technical Manual" was the greatest Star Trek book ever and always dreamed of building up my own fleet (of course, when role playing I was always the captain of a Federation Class Dreadnought ). 1:2500 scale is the perfect scale to do that with. So, since I have extra registry number and fleet pennant decals from my JT Graphics Surya class decal sheet, I figured I'd make the USS Anubis (NCC-586) -- partially as a nod to Stargate SG-1 which my kids love. So, for starters, I wanted to turn the center section (with the "control reactor" which is the name given by the old AMT Enterprise instructions) so that it would face down in the finished product. So, I cut the front and back parts off the engine nacelle with an exact-o knife and glued them on 90 degrees clockwise. I had to cut off the "Intercooler units" and will need to fabricate new ones later. I didn't get pictures of the nacelle all cut apart, but here it is re-assembled, but not sanded yet: I also needed to cut the "neck" off of the secondary hull, so I did that with an exact-o knife and press-fit it into the saucer: Yesterday, I sanded the warp nacelle. It looks pretty good, but I won't know for sure until I primer it. Don't know how well the picture shows it, though: Also, I've seen pictures of kit bashes with a shuttle bay on the saucer section, which I think is brilliant for a hermes class scout. So, I tried to replicate that by cutting the back end of the secondary hull off with my Dremel and spending an hour with the Dremel and sandpaper to try and get it to fit correctly. This is the best I could do. I think it will be OK. The next step is to sand this down, and then use Apoxie sculpt epoxy putty to fill in the gaps. That will be the tricky part!

Hi all, happy to say I have pretty much bashed this bike into a Z900A4, Heller made a great job of the details of the Z1000 kit, just some of the engineering let it down. For example, the rear grab rail was perfect but it was split into two halves and the join seam was in the centre over the tail unit that would've been tricky to hide with a chrome finish. The 750 kit had a fully moulded rail, but where it bolted to the side of the bike, it was missing the indicator mounts, so I cut off the one piece rail and I glued it to the Heller kit side rails, this worked out pretty good in the end. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos, which include a blue 1975 Z1B which I have painted and my friend fully restored, this was taken yesterday in his back garden. "Let the good times roll" as the Kawasaki slogan went. Finally, you can see the work in progress of my build in the link below.

Ever since I got hold of this book: There was one chapter that tickled my brain. The chapter is named, "planned developments and modifications" and contains all the projects that nevere got anywhere, like the JA35 with larger radar, the AS35X with a GE J79 engine and thinner nose (no radar probably). All very tempting subjects, but what really set me off was the 35 Mod 4 version which is something of a brutish beast. During the late -70:s there was much confusion about how the next aircraft to replace Viggen should look like. The B3LA attack/trainer was cancelled ( a wooden mockup of the fuselage still exists) and the Gripen was not officially sanctioned or started. The AttackViggens (AJ37) were delivered, and production of FighterViggen (JA37) was ramping up, but there were a lot of Drakens still around that was going to be replaced by FighterViggen. At the same time it was felt that the strike capacity of the Airforce was low, especially anti ship. What to do then? Off course modify Draken for this! With new extended span wings, hightened fin, retractable canards and two new weapon stations for the Big Mean RB15. Maximum Take-off weight was raised to 15tons (the Danish Draken had MTOW 16 tons, so this was not a problem) and maximum landing weight to 11 tons. Simulation had showed that during landing the clearance between the runway and the fins on RB15 was 44mm... These guys were cutting it close, for sure! Nice 3-way drawings exists in the book, but also here http://www.airvectors.net/avj35.html#m4 In the end, Gripen was approved and the Mod 4 version was dialled back to Mod 1, which then turned into J35J (seen on the cover of the book) I will do a AJ35 Draken, around the end of Cold War, fully loaded with 2Rb15, two jammer/countermeasure pods, two Sidewinders and two fuel tanks. The kits to use will be these: I also have a Pavla Resin seat, and Maestro Models KA&KB ECM-pods and RB15. This should be fun!

Greetings Sherman Fans. My entry for this GB will be this Photo for discussion only from the excellent walk round HERE. I may also make an instructor figure as this is a driver instructor in the Israeli Army.... After that I assure you things will go downhill.... This is what I'll be starting with My big box of unloved Sherman bits left from several stalled and abandoned builds. Fortunately there are enough bits to build this vehicle but I will be replacing the horrible HB tracks with THESE from OKB Grigorov and using his drive sprockets HERE. The HB tracks are a little narrow due to overthick drive sprockets. But they seem right for the slightly narrower items fitted to the T29...... The M4A1 upper hull has had an engine bulkhead added to keep the lower hull aligned and it's engine deck removed for another project which, as you may guess, never got finished. Roll on the 30th!

Well, second time around for this project, but other than cut my finger getting something off a sprue and buying decals and paint, I never did much. Actually, cowls/noses have been attached to their respective fuselage halves. I'm going to investigate the possibility of using an Airfix fuselage, with Hasegawa Mk.IIC parts, but unless it looks really easy I'll just stick with Hase. It'll be in the blue "air racing" paint job. Back about the time that Billy Joel was making a splash with 'The Stranger' and '52nd Street', an older gent gave me a stack of RC modelling magazines. There was a 3-view in one of this subject (which I bet I still have in a file somewhere lost in storage), and from that day I've wanted to build it. Considering that it was the pride of the Hawker (_____) Company, and that they saw to its survival, it seems an appropriate choice for this GB.

Scratch building/ kit bashing time, So Im going to have a go at building my own 1/144 Hyper mega cannon mobile armor, the sort of thing you would find in the Gundam universe. I have been trying to get this one started for ages and found myself with 1/2 hour at the bench and didn't fancy anything much so i pulled out the parts box and made a start, not a serous one but i do like the look of how this fits together, for what we have so far I started of with a hose connector a screw driver handle and versus Gundam parts and this is what I ended up with. The pointy end is supposed to be the barrel of the cannon and the fat end will house the engine, I now i need to some inspiration the mid section and engine. Any help tip comments or resources are most welcome.

This is somthing new for me an online building comp. Its over on the Mecha lounge here is the link and im sure there will some amazing builds in the GM vs Zaku comp. http://mecha-lounge.com/index.php?board=20.0 So for my build im going for a 1/144 RGC-80 GM but the only kit available is a really old Bandai kit, its so old you need to glue it together and with not much in the way of details im going to try and bring it a little more up to date by bashing it with a HG GM kit, and when i say bashing i mean cutting to bits and stick back together ( well thats the plan). Work so far..... http://mecha-lounge.com/index.php

Hello, I'm wanting to kitbash/scratch build a helicopter from the anime film "Ghost in the Shell". What would you recommend I do? It has the features of a Hind, but it has a bay where snipers are perched. Any scale will work. https://goo.gl/images/Yq9vxn Yours truly, Sam

So far I'm only certain of the kit I'll build, The Revell newish A-4, and the standard RLM 65/70/71 splinter camo. I'm still hesitating should I build a straight OOB A-4 for KG 30, add nose MG-FF for one, convert it to an A-4 torp for III/KG 26 or make a D-1 for 1.(F)/22... All from Luftflotte 5 in Northern Norway, late summer of 1942. Decisions, decisions! V-P EDIT: will post progress of building two kits in just one thread, it´s so much easier, regarding how much these kits have in common. EDIt 2: A-4 torp is already on its way and the MG-FF will be added to otherwise Plain Jane A-4

Hello Everyone, After seeing Wills and Blastvader's builds, I have been inspired to start my own kit. This is a model I have had in mind for a while. I was doing a lot of planning for it, which I have now decided to throw out the window and just wing it. So what I am going to aim for is a suped-up GM or a Gundam not sure yet from the Flag of Titans/Advance of Z series, this series is quite popular with Gunpla fans the world over. In the Gundam series, this takes place right after the events in Zeta Gundam. Most of the main mecha in it are named from characters from Watership Down series. Most of the main characters mecha is a deep purple which I might go with, or maybe a mixture with red/black. The main idea was to make a variant/custom of the RGM-79Q "Quel"... see below. This is the base model that eventually "evolves" into the TR-6 Gundams and so forth. Love the colours on this, but I don't think I will be copying them. See the little Hazel logo? I like this model and I don't, I don't own it neither (I know...shocking for me). So lets see what we have to work with... This is the kit I am going to base the model from, I will keep the guns on the back, however I do not like how far they stick out when in the firing posisition. This is the first Gunpla that Fumina Hoshino fights with in Gundam Try Fighters, a cool but weird show, it's on youtube for free (legally) if anyone wants to watch it? The shields coming from the back is a Gundam Thunderbolt idea, the guns on the arms is from NT-1 Alex (War in the Pocket) the guns on the back is from any Guncannon/Freedom/F-91/7th Gundam... you get the idea and the powered bit is from 0083 : Stardust Memory. I do not intend to keep all of the items on this model, the hand held gun is the first thing to go, possibly the shoulder armour, the sideskirts too. This is the "normal" GM from 0083 : Stardust Memory, I doubt I will use much from this model. The rifle will be getting used, possibly the shield too. Maybe the shoulder pads too. We will see what comes of this, There are various other bits I can steal, we will see... who knows I might even make two Custom models. This is the first Gundam that is designed from the Quel, I might use the shield you see, it's actually a booster that doubles up as a shield. I might steal the legs as well and put the extra thrusters on... like I said, I am going to wing it... I do like the red finger tips tho, that will be taken over, maybe the powerpacks for the gun too. I spoke to will about these in his Guncannon build, I got these decals from China, cost about £5 each... the print quality isn't all that. Look at how bad the little Hazels are, god job I will not be using them. I got the warning stickers and the Titans Test Team logos, that is what I wanted really. These are the offical Bandai GunPla decals, I have not been able to find these for a while. For the Gundam above, I would use the top left ones, but as I have another one of the RX-121-1 I will not be using them. Well not all of them anyhow. Notice the way I have tried to keep the decal sheet together Will? Stickers that came with the original Hazel RX-121-2... highly doubt I will use any of these at all. The decals under it are for the Hi-Nu RX-93 Gundam. Got this a while ago for... well because I could. Not really had any idea if I can use them or not, but I might put it on the back of the GM... who knows. Love the shield for this one tho. Notice the Gundam Mk.II Titans version Inside the instructions, gives you a better idea of what I have got to work with. I know it wont be staying those colours tho. The Plastic bits I have got to play with... yay. Shameless plug for the Hazel I built, this is the kind of colours I am going for. However I will be painting this one a lot better... who knows, I might even weather it... or completely brake it... hhmm.. This is what I have started with, I have decided to build the GM up and then consider where I can go from there. Slow and steady, I can't bodge this one up surely?? Dont like the antenna coming from the back, the thrusters I do not like neither, I am not too keen on the access hatch neither. This is where I was as of Tuesday night, the gun arms look ott compared to the rest, might armor them up a bit. I like the beam sabres ontop of the sholder pads however the actual sholder pads I do not like. The head is something I might replace with the Gundam head, not sure yet... lets see where this ride takes us.. Suggestions are most welcome... Kind Regards, Dazz

OK, sticking my neck out with my intended build: NN660, the short-lived first prototype for the Spiteful Source: http://ipmsuk.proboards.com/thread/5630/supermarine-spiteful-1st-prototypes-colour I'm not actually sure how I'm going to attack it yet- I've got Falcon vac Spiteful and XIV fuselage, and I'm tempted to try to do a vac kitbash, but may go with an injection fuselage instead. bob [Edit: 28 Apr I'm going to try to do a production Spiteful as well.]

A new year . A new project. And you know what? As a first project of this year we do something simple... BWAHAHAHAHA... sure... For a "Flying Abominations"-GB on another forum I proudly present; The Westland P.12 Lysander Delanne (Wendover)! The whowhatsit!? Well, this... Short (Really short) History Almost everybody knows the Westland Lysander . Famous mainly for the risky missions that the Allies undertook during WW2. Because of his special flight characteristics of the Lysander was very suitable for landings on short improvised airfields to pick up and drop off agents and Resistance fighters in the middle of the night. With the expected invasion of England in mind the Ministry of Defence was looking for a way to defend the beaches. Thus was born the idea of Westlands’s chief designer, Arthur Davenport, for a "beach Strafer " . The Lysander as a basis (which was able to maintain a speed of just over 100 km/h in the air), but better armed to wipe clean the beach. Therefore it was decided to install the 4-gun Nash & Thomson rear turret of a Wellington. The design was made even stranger by adding an extra pair of wings. The Westland P.12 Delanne was equipped with the tandem wing akin to the design of airplane designer Maurice Henri Delanne . And contrary to what you might expect at first sight, the flying characteristics of this monstrosity were remarkably good . So much so that the pilot flying the first test-flight in July 1941 ended it with a loop! The Victim For this build the Matchbox 1/32 Lysander serves as a (willing) donor. Recently picked up on a forum for a pittance, without decals and box. Along with the Revell reboxing from the stash I'm going to see if I can do something with it. Matchbox kit. Trust me, everything is there... Revell kit Sprue shot! I'm not entirely sure if I even need parts of the Revell kit, but the decals are in any case already moved to the box of the original Matchbox kit that still lies waiting in the stash... Reference Material So pitifully little... On the Lysander itself there is material enough to find, but on the Wendover (as the British called him eventually ) there is not much. Some black-and-white pictures and a few three-way views of questionable quality, one more useful than the other. But do not worry; with a little common sense, a bit of calculation and tricks with a drawing program , we can work it out ( I think ...). Anything I can't figure out I will guestimate... More sooooon! Rob

Hi Guys, just thought I'd post a few pics and link to the rest on my FB page of my most recent build which has some WIP of this and my other recent builds! This one was built by kit bashing two Revell Galactica kit, but there are enough parts left over to build some more kit bashes!... Anyway enough talking! Thanks and enjoy! https://www.facebook.com/chriscardwellmodels/?fref=ts

The Spitfire Mk. XII: To build a hybrid Good evening, and welcome to a build log I have been eager to start since discovering what is my favourite version of Spitfire, the Mk. XII. A few versions of the XII exist, most notably the newer Airfix kit in 1/48. Also, the M News and Xtrakit versions in 1/72. I found it very difficult to get even a sniff of the Xtrakit version, which I would have been content with, and so my quest took me to ask, ask, and ask some more about the XII. Members of Britmodeller have been most gracious in sharing information pertaining to the discovery of version specific traits and helping with guidance. I would like to thank Procopius in particular, who without fail answered so many of my questions and actually supplied some of the crucial build components. I will be cross kitting the Sword models Seafire XV and the Spitfire Vc. Various other parts will find their way into the build, some aftermarket and some fabricated. Let's open the door: I started with the spinner of the Seafire XV, which was crude when compared with aftermarket offerings and even kitted contemporaries. I gripped the small alignment nub with my cordless drill and used a sanding board to even out the step between the hub mounting plate and the spinner front. The shape still looked a little off and wobbly, so more spinning and sanding was required. For comparisons sake, here is the quickboost version of the five blade prop associated with the XIV. It has a longer nose to it, and much smoother details. I will try to emulate this piece with the four-bladed Sword XV spinner. Here I used two different photoetch saws to create the seams in the spinner like the quickboost version features. The rearwards seam appears too coarse when compared with the resin accessory, and I switched then to a Tamiya brand saw which gave me a much finer impression on the forward seam. There appears to be a slight wobble in the line on the rear seam, which I shall fill and re-scribe. At the rear end, I used a Mk. IX pointed rudder which Procopius supplied in a comprehensive care package he sent me. The XV rudder was carefully sawed away with etch, and this AZ models piece glued in. The actuator unfortunately does not line up within reason and so must be carefully dissected and replaced. Gluing the fuselage halves together with MEK gave me a nice squished plastic weld line to sand down and polish into a seamless ridge. I re-scribed some panel lines top and bottom which were lost in the sanding. The cockpit was tricky to assemble, and did not lend well to photography. It drops in nicely from the underside so painting should be a breeze. The fuel filler and the maintenance hatch forward this were all but obliterated, and needed to be remade via etch saw. And the fuselage as a whole. This shall sit overnight and firm up before attempting the engine cover. My initial thoughts were to use the quickboost XIV upper cowl, but it has been made for the Fujimi kit and has an angled rear most face. If it is close enough in visual similarity to the XII cowl then I may just trim the angled portion off and re-rivet the new curvature. The teardrop fairing over the top centre of the upper cowl must be fabricated as well, being a hallmark feature of the XII. Thanks for looking in, and please do add comments pertaining to the build process and general accuracy of my planning and execution.

Evening each, This was an odd one - I had been given a partially completed Frog Jaguar about twenty years ago, and had been wondering what to do with it. As it had been started, I couldn't sell it, and it would have taken a lot of work to bring it up to modern standards, which would have been pointless in view of the availability of significantly more modern kits. So it was an obvious subject for conversion. After toying for a long time with the idea of converting it to a Jaguar M navalised prototype, I eventually had another idea. There was a rather extraordinary installation on display at the Tate Britain in the winter of 2010, consisting of a retired Jaguar GR.3A and Sea Harrier FA.2, stripped of engines, seats, armament and most equipment and arranged in the Duveen Galleries. My photos are here (public FB link): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150899333230471.756387.831430470&type=1&l=0c0068743d With the cockpit stripped bare, the engines entirely gone along with the arrester hook and most equipment that could be removed, I thought that it would make an ideal conversion subject, with most of the missing detail not required anyway. Of course, the Frog kit represents the A & E prototypes, so I acquired an old Airfix Jaguar from which I robbed the forward fuselage, canopy, fin and wings, grafting these onto the Frog fuselage, after engraving the panel lines throughout. One detailing job that I had to do was to add the frames to the engine bay, which was done with plastic strip. I also had to remove the tail antenna housing, but little else was needed. I polished the canopy, but refrained from treating it with Clear, as the original appeared to have been subtly treated to be slightly clouded. I also had to make the LRMTS windows from scratch - excavating the compartment, filling it with a length of clear plastic sprue and sanding it to shape, finishing with canopy polish and filling with Clearfix. My airbrush may have had a broken nozzle but it was still able to spray a surprisingly effective coat of Humbrol Silver Fox (the more so as the paint was a couple of decades old!). Here are a few pictures of the result: Hope you find it interesting

Well I'm well and truly out of my depth in this one.....But I have, kits, glue and paint so I'm plunging in regardless! I'm still not 100% sure of: 1 - Which version I'm supposed to be building, presumably a D-3 Trop? 2 - Which versions I can actually build with the parts at hand.....I'm a Trackhead, these things all look alike to me! 3 - What the differences between the various versions are in the first place? Threfore my plan is to build a reasonably representative 1/72 Bf.110 in 'Iraqi' markings, it will be modelled in flight with my usual slightly daft aircrew aboard.

I wish to make a RAF HC2 Wessex to go with the Whirlwind I did so have decied to use the old Novo kit and the matchbox offering to produce the HC2 which differs in the HU5 in many different ways but as people who know me will realise that I dont go to far into accuracy just looking right to me is good enough. I used the Novo because it has the smaller cabin windows and the matchbox because it has the nose cockpit is representative not an accuret reproduction. Nose seperated from Matchbox kit Novo marked ready for cutting The nose was to thin at the bottom so a pirece of plastic as inserted to widen it and then filed to shape. Nose fits very well very little filler is going to be required Rodders

Hello Britmodellers! it's been a while since my last In progress topic here. Here I am with my latest project, with some French flavour. It deals with the twoseater Mirage IIIB seen at Istres air base (France) around 1996-200. Its serial is 234 and belongs to CIFAS 328 (Bombing instruction center of Cognac, Strategic Air Forces) http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1410770/ http://aeromil-yf.pagesperso-orange.fr/les_mirage_iii_5.htm http://aeromil-yf.pagesperso-orange.fr/Plan%20du%20site.htm http://www.airliners.net/photo/France---Air/Dassault-Mirage-IIIB-1/0926443/L/ The airplane is painted in semi matt alu, with dayglow areas on tail and wings. I decided to start with the Eduard base, because it is the most detailed (especially the surfaces) Be careful, most detailed, do not mean most accurate. The Heller kit is still the most accurate in shapes. Talking about Heller, I actually will use the Fonderie Miniature boxing, which gives resin cockpit and white metal parts. French review here: http://fighters.forumactif.com/t38562-mirage-iii-b-1-48-fonderie-miniature Let's Go! Starting with cutting: First dryfit tests: Spine is from Heller Fitting test with Eduard Intakes: You will have to shorten the Eduard intakes to match the Miragee IIIB's one. On the fuselage: Major surgery is done, or more precisely, prepared. Now some detailing. FM Seats are finally replaced by Wolpack ones, as seen on pictures beneath: Major surgery is done. Some work around the exhaust. Eduard parts are enhanced with Edaurd PE 48128 and photo paper... ^^ Bye Romain

Hi all, Now that the Wessex is out of the way, what better time to start something new rather than finish off any number of old projects? I saw this fantastic thread on another forum where someone was building 1/1200 skyships for a board game, and I was able to get a load of Trumpeter 1/700 ships for a bargain price recently, so I thought I'd have a go. This started as Admiral Hipper, and I've removed a couple of inches from the length and flipped the hull upside down. Clicken = Embiggen The underside (which was the top) is capped off with slices of the waterline plate, and the upper side (which was the bottom!) has the original deck, with a slice removed from the middle. I had to reshape the prow quite a bit to fit it into the section of the hull at what was the waterline, and of course the stern deck stuck out over sides. What I've done there is fill in the gap with Miliput, then added a new lip (the white styrene) to the deck and blended that down to the waistline with filler. Lots of cleanup still to do in that area. For the prow, I cut the original bow vertically straight and added a sort of keel plate underneath as a guide, then built it up from more Miliput, sanded to shape and reinforced in spots with CA. To shorten everything I cut it up with a razor saw and mitre box (oo technical!) and fitted it back together. Rescribing the deck planking across the join was fiddly but quite fun. Oh, and the red stuff on the superstructure is blood where I stabbed myself (twice!) while paring away some of the superstructure locating blocks from the deck. I opted to shorten because Admiral Hipper was very long and thin, and I think something with a slightly fatter section will look a bit more archaic. What I'm thinking is that there'll be a triple-tube engine at the back, and some kind of lift mechanism underneath in two rows pointing about 20' outward rather than straight down. I'll probably add a skirt of armour plates extending from the waist to about 5mm below the bottom to give the hull a bit more presence, and use some of the spare details from the shortened deck to build a Yamato-style third bridge underneath. If I can find room I'd like to add some launch/recovery racks for the spotter plane At the moment the idea is to play this fairly straight. I'm not sure if I should backdate it to WW1, or go full Luft '46? And if it works out well I really want to do a sky-whaler Cheers, Will

Hello mates, A long time ago in a galaxy far away, I had this idea of building the 1:72 Trumpeter Lightning F.2A kit. It looked great in the box, so it should be a nice quick little build, eh? Those of you who've been following my work-in-progress thread know that wasn't quite the case. By the time I was done, I had used portions of the Trumpy kit, part of the old Matchbox kit (belly tank and refueling probe), an Aires resin cockpit and bang seat, the Eduard photoetch cockpit and exterior detail sets, Quickboost rear fuselage corrections and exhaust nozzles, Quickboost resin intake ring, Xtradecal markings for 92 Squadron, Xtradecal stencils, inspiration, perspiration, and a whole lot of very bad words. The WIP thread has all the gory details. Thanks to the encouragement and expertise of my fellow Britmodellers, I think I've managed to make a reasonably nice model. Paint is mostly Alclad (aluminum, dark aluminum, magnesium, steel, dull aluminum, chrome, and white aluminum), Gunze acrylic (primarily H322 masquerading as Roundel Blue), and some Testors ModelMaster enamels. The final coat over the Alclad is their new Aqua Clear Gloss which I like quite a bit. So here she is! Enjoy! By the way, my pilot has been severely reprimanded for not only leaving the nose wheel turned, but also the air brakes open and the flaps down! So belly up to the bar, mates! The first round is on him! Cheers, Bill