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With my Meteor only needing a few decals and Bf-110 waiting for a masking set, I thought it'd be a good time to start another twin. A quick search through the stash revealed a few suitable candidates but this is one I've been meaning to build for a while. A few photos of what we're dealing with. The boxtop (as if you couldn't guess) The sprues (to show it's unstarted)... I know the kit has its problems with cowlings, wheelwells, and the turret but I'm going to ignore them and just make the thing. Started by painting the insides Interior Green (although I've read, on here, that it may have been an equivalent to RAF Grey-green). Wings assembled Cockpit (although I think early British ones only had one pilot). Fuselage joined-up Thanks for looking.

A build I recently finished as part of a Minicraft RIP Group Build over on KG144. This is the first boxing of this kit that Minicraft released, no less, from 1998. I reckon the second half of the 1990s was the golden age for Minicraft, being when they were producing their own new moulds with the DC-3, DC-4 and Catalina also dating from this period. The kit is quite basic in many respects, but Cobra company came along with a very good resin update set that included props, radar domes and jet engines. I've used one of the Blackbird Models re-issues of this set. I also used the sublime Caracal Decals set for the C-97, which includes decals for this rather unusual HC-97G from the 305th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron based at Selfridge AFB in Michigan. The 305th operated the HC-97G for seven years from 1965 in first aluminium and latterly overall gray schemes with yellow bands. During this time it undertook Air Sea Rescue missions across the upper and mid-western US but also around the globe in support of both NASA and US military operations, including in Southeast Asia. You may well wonder what use a lumbering great transport like this could possibly have in an air rescue mission, where at least some emergencies would not have taken place adjacent to a convenient 3000yrd runway. Well, the HC-97Gs were converted to both drop parachute rescue teams but also serve as airborne command posts for managing large-scale rescues (serving as a comms relay, directing in helicopters etc., classic pre-satellite era stuff). Only ever a temporary fix, they served to bridge the gap between the ageing HC-54s (Cargomasters) and the HC-130 (Hercules), which filled a similar role until the 1990s ushered in a new era and approach to air rescue. Source - Global Aviation Resource The USAF contracted Fairchild-Stratos to convert 29 KC-97G tankers, then low-hours airframes being phased out of service for the KC-135. My research suggests that for my 1:144 scale purposes the conversion consisted of omitting the flying boom, adding some bonus aerials and ensuring that the rear cargo doors were scribed on. Most of the other changes being internal relating to plumbing the HC-97 for extra-long endurance flights. I've built 5 of these kits before and they go together well. So there were no great surprises. The canopy needed some fairing in to avoid a gap at the rear. This was my first time using the resin engines but they worked fine and are a big improvement on the blank engine faces and toylike props in the kit. Overall a nice kit - but the Cobra/Blackbird engines and props make a big difference I think. Here she is on some remote dusty station assisting in a rescue effort. Not the most exciting scheme but unusual and interesting nonetheless I think. I confined my weathering to the engines as that's all I could see in photos - otherwise these were kept really very clean. There's something very impressive about the C-97 I think. And finally with a fellow rescue aircraft that has spent far too long on the bench...longer than it spent in service actually. Thanks very much for looking. Angus

Another recent project just completed. I bought the Braz Carvair conversion a few years ago together with the Minicraft C-54 to do. It laid in the 'pile' for a few years, and then Roden obliged with a full Carvair kit. I then thought why not still do it the hard way, So, I managed to get some Sand/Light Blue BAF markings from S&M decals and the project begun. Basically the fuselage of the C-54 is disposed of and the Braz one utilised with the rest of the kit. Braz have a cockpit floor and fuselage compartment but were little more than shapes, so I added ribbing to the interior of the loading bay, nose cone, and a basic cockpit and instrument panels. Most of this cannot be seen, but hey ho, I know its there. The main undercarriage bays had a bit of sprue detailing to busy them up. All went together reasonably okay, but some filling was needed to make the wings blend in tidily. Model was painted in Halfords Acrylic White, Tamiya AS-12 Silver, Alclad II Duralaminum, and various Tamiya colours. The decals went on like a dream, but the paintwork needed careful masking to match the cheatline and stylised 'BAF' logo. I created representation of a 'Hylo Vehicle Lift' from plastic card and Balsa, though I did guestimate some of it as I have not yet found any scale drawings but I keep looking. I have posed the Carvair on a temporary base with some Preiser figures, and some cars awaiting loading. Hope you like my interpretation of the 'Carvair'. Any comments, suggestions most welcome. Thanks, Kevin

Just 2 in fact! So continuing on with the airliner SOD* clearance here are my next projects. Both are Minicraft kits, maligned by some, I have built a couple and find them OK. First is Singapore Airlines jet which made it tot eh decaling stage when the decal setting solution discoloured the gold in the cheatline. Here is is before my blunder After sanding most of the decal away and after repainting the fuselage Second is a BA jet, G-YMMM, the one that had a fuel starvation problem on approach to Heathrow and landed short of the runway. It's at the priming stage at the moment. I'll be using Xtradecal sheet for this one. * Shelf of Doom (or should I say Tub of Doom)

Minicraft Model Kits closing down ? To be confirmed. Source: https://www.aviationmegastore.com/en/modelling/lockheed-c130j-30-hercules-last-stocks-mincraft-has-ended-activities-minicraft-14700-134122.html Minicraft Model Kits official links: Homepage: https://minicraftmodels.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100054426042044 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MinicraftModels V.P.

As mentioned in the RFI for my Eastern Airlines 757,I worked on both kits simultaneously. The mods I did are explained in the Eastern 757 thread,for the AA version I added the winglets,which come from a Eastern Express kit. They needed a fair amount of work to fit on the Minicraft wings...I always assumed the EE kits are simply copies of the Mincraft 757,but it seems not entirely. For the AA 757 I chose a more weathered look as pictures I found showed a quite worn and tired looking 757. The metallic look was created with Tamyia aluminium with a thin overspray Tamyia Mica silver from a spray can. Some silver decal stripes were added for more detail.The decals are from the kitwith the exception of the cockpit window being from Authentic Airliners. The cabin windows were printed on the stripes,so I could not use AA cabin windows. The coroguard panes are from a Flying Colors detail set,that I found in my spares box as well as some other details. The "AA.COM" logos on the winglets come from a Hasegawa 737-800 kit.They are a bit smaller than they should be but it was all I had in my stash.Most important that the logos are there at all... 😉 I sealed the fuselage with a light coat of Tamyia semi-gloss to tone down the metal and Tamyia matte varnish for the wings and engines. Weathering was done by using Humbrol graphite powder. Cheers Alex

Since Zvezda released their superb Boeing 757 kit,Minicrafts effort sank even more in the favour of airliner modellers. As I had 2 of those in my stash,I thought if they cant be sold I might build them as well so I started work on both simultaneously. On both I chose to use the kits decals as they seemed nicely printed and I liked the respective liveries. The Eastern 757 was planned to build factory fresh as I found some pictures on the internet showing the 757 highly polished. First thing I did on the kit was correcting somehow the tail fin. It should be straight at the top and not raising from front to end. I sawed off a piece of it to get it levelled. The interlocking mechanism of the wings were cut off as well,it makes the alignment much easier. The most work was spent on the engines; As they come,they look terrible and if built and glued to the wings oob,the face upwards like on the 737MAX ,but more steep. First thing I did was sanding out the inlets on both halves,then inserting a piece of plasic tube to create a new seamless inlet. The nacelle also has a enhightened top were the engine mounts will be glued on to. Those were sanded off and that area flattened,so that the engine mounts will sit flush on the nacelles. Then the rear of the mounts were pressed down to sit on the hot section,glued on with CA glue. The mounts were cut down a bit to have a pointy end and straightened out.So if the engines are glued on the wing they will sit straight. The engine inlet and outlet rings were recreated by using evergreen 0.5mm plastic sheet,glued to the front,resp. end of the engines. Once hardened for about 2 days,the plastic sheet can be drilled open and then sanded to shape. This way no seam will be seen at the end. A lot of work but it improves the appearance of the engines tremendously,if you dont want to spend money on replacement parts. Some slight correction work was also done on the nose section to get it more 757 like. Here some putty and sanding did the job. The rest of the build is more or less by the book. For the metallic finish,I used Gunze chrome with some aluminium areas,with a gloss black base. The grey for the wings and tailplanes is Gunze grey 315 and the coroguard my own mix of Tamyia metallic grey and light grey. The windows are from Authentic Airliners and some metallic decal stripes were added to the fuselage to give a bit more detail to the metallic finish. Sealed with a thin layer of Gunze Premium gloss on the fuselage and semi-gloss on the wings. Cheers Alex With the AA 757,which can be seen in the other RFI...

Claiming a spot. I'll be doing the classic/ancient/old (you decide) Minicraft Ventura Mk.II, with help from the DK Decal Ventura sheet. And the subject as the title says: Leonard Trent's AJ209 on the ill-fated Ramrod 16 raid.

Hi all, I enjoyed so much the first GB that I joined the list for this one immediately after it was proposed! Again I have too many fitting kits to start, this time I made a decision to enter first an airliner, maybe this will be easier to finish and give me additional time for a second entry. So, my plan is to build the much cursed Minicraft B757 (not Zvezda, I still have to buy it) because I have it in my stash and this is a good excuse. Perhaps I will do some shape improvements, but we'll see. For sure the livery will be this: I made a return trip on it in 2006 for a holiday in Minorca. I have very good memories and the plane was quite comfortable compared to the run of the mill Airbuses and B737s. Cheers Fabio

This is my DC-8-51 of the Finnish airline Kar-Air. The company bought the plane from Eastern Airlines and it was taken into use in November, 1971. The plane was used in chartered flights to southern holiday resorts and the flights at that time were quite moist to say the least. So the pilots gave the plane the nickname "Drunken Mike" after its call sign OH-KDM. The plane was also called "Viirupyrstö" or "stripe tail" because of its elegant livery. I modified the plane from the 1/144 scale Minicraft DC-8-71 kit. The fuselage of the DC-8-51 series was 11 metres shorter than the -71 so the kit's fuselage had to be shortened correspondingly about 7,8 cm. Luckily enough Minicraft had marked the cutting lines inside the fuselage for the different sub types of the DC-8. Before joining the fuselage halves together I had to add quite lot of weight to the nose in order to avoid the plane being a tail sitter. Another major modification was to install the right types of engines i.e. Pratt&Whitney JT3D-3 to the wings. In the aftermarket I found three alternatives, the Contrail, the Braz-models and the Authentic Airlines' resin powerplants. I chose the AA engines which were of high quality. To be installed they required slots to be cut in the wings of the kit. As to the front landing gear of the kit I had to cut it to the right length of the DC-8-51. I also added lots of scratch built details to the model. The decals for the DC-8-51 of Kar-Air are from 26Decals. I ordered cabin and cockpit window decals from Authentic Airliners. To paint the white areas of the fuselage I used Revell's 04 white enamel. The underside of the fuselage was painted with Xtracolor X139 and the coroguard with Xtracolor x150 (Canadian Voodoo Grey). For the the metal areas I used AK Xtreme's metal-aluminium.

When I was a plane spotter in my teens some 50 years ago TWA and Pan Am were just about the only international US airlines I knew of. Unfortunately these nostalgic liveries have long ago disappeared from the skies. The story of Trans World Airlines ended in the 1990's when it went bankrupt and was purchased by American Airlines in 2001. As far as Boeing 727 is concerned, its maiden flight took place in 1963 and the production of the plane ended in 1984. In total 1832 planes were made. For me as a classic airliner modeller it was a must to have on my shelf models representing the both iconic airlines. For TWA's part I decided to build their Boeing 727-200 in the elegant delivery scheme. This three holer was quite an old kit by Minicraft in 1/144 scale, from somewhere in the late 90's. Detailwise it wasn't nearly the quality of Minicraft's current airliner kits. I had to do some puttying and sanding of seams but in all the model went quite well together. I also had to add some weight to the front so that the plane wouldn't be a tail sitter. I bought a Skyline Details' photoetch set for antennas, wipers, pitot tubes, etc. I also had to scratch build and correct several details. The decals I used were 26Decals for the livery, Authentic Airliners for the windows and Nazca decals for the stencils and coroguards. I painted the fuselage with white Tamiya Fine surface primer which I then sprayed with Tamiya clear gloss TS-13. The metal areas I primed with Humbrol gloss black and sprayed them with AK Extreme metal-aluminium. I finished the model by sealing the details with Humbrol Clear acrylic varnish and also used Vallejo and Humbrol colours for smaller details.

My entry will be Minicrafts 1/144 Legend of Aviation, The Douglas DC-3. The kit comes with 3 decal options, I have gone for the all over orange KLM version. I have some concerns over the decals, as they are quite old, did test one and it seemed to behave itself so fingers crossed. Plan is to build this wheels up, as a desk display model. Build wise I am going with the Bruce Wayne Option, Planning to start about 3ish this afternoon, means I should complete it before the Indy 500 starts,

Here's my 1/144 L-100-20 Hercules in TAAG Angola Airlines colours, just finished in the Africa GB. It's the Minicraft kit with a Welsh Models vacform fuselage, resin wheels and engine intakes (can't remember which brand - maybe Brengun or Reskit), and custom decals. The build was a bit of a challenge - there are probably easier ways to get to an L-100-20 (like starting with a C-130H-30 and shortening it). Build thread is here thanks for looking Julian

Here is a Minicraft 1:144 Heinkel He 111H-6 I built back in 2015. It represents 1H+MM, of KG26, Luftwaffe, based in Italy. It was built mostly OOB but using the Matador Models white metal cockpit part. The guns were are replaced by new ones from scrap plastic and stretched sprue. The missing underfuselage aerial, wing pitot and engine carburettor intakes were also made from stretched sprue. I also tried to improve the shapes of the propeller blades. General fit of parts was poor, especially around the underside gondola and wing roots. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Decals were those of the kit except the swastikas which came from another sheet. Thanks for looking and, as always, all comments are welcome. Miguel

Part two of my little gunship builds, and I'm doing the Hercules AC-130A ,the minicraft kit, its a simple construction, I've dry built it and there's nothing to report in the way of fit horror stories, even the wings will plug in after painting to make this far less stressfull while painting , theres a short shot on the underside of the port wing that'll need sorting first off , and you get a stand in the box too, so choosing the scheme, i was going to do "azrael angel of death", but the full wrap around sea scheme (surprise package) has seduced me ,I'm even tempted to do the early roman nose version of the prototype, also wrap around , it did see service apparently Short shot Schemes I like this one And this Next to its stable mate, dry built The wings do fit better than the photo suggests ,and although not shown, the clear section looks to fit quite well too Cheers all I'm off to do some glueing

Hola, Britmodellers. I took an unplanned hobby break in 2019, but picked up the plastic again a while back. After a few quick builds (a 1/144 EA18G and completing two Arma 1/72 Hurricanes that were largely built but unpainted when the break hit), I thought I'd tackle something more ambitious. I don't know what it is about the waning of the days but I often seem to pluck up the courage to deal with the bigger boxes in the stash at this time of year. I was all set to build the Minicraft B-24J but then a chance ebay purchase delivered the Eduard "Mission Centenarians" boxing of the B-24D to my door. Because the chances of me building two Liberators are so high. Oh, yes. Here's the obligatory box top shot: Ah, so pretty. I'll not post photos of the contents, 'cos I didn't take them before I started chopping them up. Also, the only camera I have right now is my phone, and that's got a crack across the lens. Combine that with my photography skills and things may look a little surreal at times... OK. Big decision #1. There are four options shown on the box, though the instructions have a fifth option (it's an earlier iteration of the fourth option). One of them isn't an actual mission centenarian, so what the heck it's doing here is anyone's guess. According to Mr Eduard, though, it "fits the theme of this release very well". No, it bloody doesn't. Anyway. Two/three are SE Pacific birds in olive drab, two are 15th AF birds in pink sand. For me it's got to be a pink one, and since only one of those options was an actual centenarian, it's going to be the box-art beauty, Chug-A-Lug. I've ordered some Vallejo paint as faded pinkish sand isn't a colour that I already have, and I'm beggared if I'll be trying to mix up enough paint to cover a viermot. This was a 98th Bomb Group airframe, survivor of Operation Tidal Wave (unlike an astonishing 35 of the 48 aircraft from the 98th BG on that raid), and eventual veteran of 105 raids. If you've got this far, thanks, and I hope both that you'll stick around and that the thread provides some entertainment value!

This started out as a 777-300 conversion using 2 Minicraft 1/144 kits. But over time it was painted, decaled, sanded and repainted until I did not like the finish so it was stripped and had its GE90 engines removed. I then had a brainwave to add some spare GE CF-6 engines from a 747 kit to it. It was repainted again and I used 2 Australian Airline A300 decal sheets to finish it as a What - If. So I present to you my Australian Airlines Boeing 777-476ER...

Hello all, Just finished this latest build. the Minicraft MD-80 kit with Swiftair Real Madrid EC-JQV decals by TwoSix. EC-JQV was painted up in the Real Madrid livery in 2007 to carry the football team and VIP's around until 2009 when they stopped using the plane for political reasons. EC-JQV was scrapped in 2012 but it lives on in 1/144 scale! For a Minicraft build this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, certainly better than the 737-400 kit, but that's not to say it's a doddle, still needed a fair bit of filler for the fuselage join, but the wings weren't actually too bad considering it's the fiddly interlocking system. I did a few 'dry' fits to find the 'spot' where it would lock in before putting glue on. The last few dry fits worked perfect so having nailed that, I put the glue on and then it didn't lock in as it just did the past few attempts 😆 but I got it in soon after. The stabilzers and engines went on very well, the wheel doors were the most fiddly things of all! Instructions could have been a little bit clearer but wasn't that bad. The decals are excellent and well recommended, they are designed for the Minicraft kit, the blue around the nose was a tad fiddly and required a little bit of blue paint to fill in a gap around the cockpit window as it doesn't quite fit, but that was no problem. I hope you like it and thanks for looking! James.

Here is the third of my Minicraft 1:144 Martin B-26 Marauders which I built back in 2014. It represents Martin B-26C-45-MO Marauder 42-107812/KS-J "Baby Bumps II", of 557th BS, 387th BG, USAAF, in 1944. I added a Matador Models white metal cockpit, opened up all the windows and thinned the turret guns as much as possible. Despite the white metal cockpit part, I had to add a little extra weight to prevent the kit from tipping on its tail. The gun barrels of the external gun packs were scraped off the fuselage sides and replaced with new ones from either plastic or metal rod (can't remember!). The kit was completely painted and varnished by brush. Thanks for looking and, as usual, all comments are welcome Miguel

I may yet put up 12 entries for KUTA XII! Here's one of them though... It really, really shouldn't take too much to finish this off. Well, repaint the #3 nacelle and some decals.

Heinkel He 111H-24 AEW "Blue A", the first of the H-24 series, Erprobungskommando Bremen, Luftwaffe, Germany (fictitious). Once the go-ahead was given for project Obertasse with the FuG 244 Berlin N-4 (later Bremen) rotating dish radar, it was proposed to use surplus He 111H aircraft as proof-of-concept machines due to the then unavailability of Ar 234s (the type chosen for the project) due to their need as bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Three He 111s were converted to the new H-24 sub-type with all weapons removed, the Bremen radar in a rotating dish on a pylon on top of the fuselage, and several other detection and communications systems installed, the most noticeable being the thimble nose attached to the forward turret. All windows were covered and the top radio mast moved back. The aircraft were flown by Erprobungskommando (operational test detachment) Bremen. At first they flew only at night under He 219 fighter cover and although several problems were encountered, these were solved in over a month and the concept proved a success. Seven more conversions were made before the concept was finally applied to Ar 234s and other aircraft. Only one was shot down and two were destroyed on the ground. The survivors were later used for tests. (This history is, of course, fictitious. Project Obertasse was real though, but it was never built). Once I learnt of the Obertasse project in the third book of the "Luftwaffe Secret Projects" I always had the idea of making an Ar 234 in this configuration but without a readily available 1:144 kit I haven't yet been able to. The idea for this He 111 "what-if?" came when I fouled up the clear parts for a previous Minicraft 1/144th kit. I could restore clarity to the two main parts but not to the nose turret. It hit me that the He 111, having been designed also as a transport plane, would also be an ideal AEW platform, and like this recover what could have been a lost kit. Thus, I made up a non-exitant final sub-type. The kit was fully painted and varnished with brush. Decals came from spares. Thanks for looking and, as always, all comments are welcome. Miguel

The MD-80 kit is,together with the DC-8 kit,probably the best airliner kit from Minicraft. Accurate in shape,nicely detailed and easy to build,its great fun to work on it. When I saw that decal set from DRAW decal,I knew I had to build one of my Minicraft MD-80s in that scheme. I remember in 1992 when Balair introduced this new livery,I often went to Zurich airport and took pictures of them and the then newly bought Airbus A310-300s After the merger with Geneva based CTA ,Balair was renamed BalairCTA but the colour scheme stayed and the planes got the nickname parrots. Those jets were among the most colorful ,even at that time ,and a true eyecatcher wherever they showed up. Sadly the "Mad Dogs" are pretty much non-existent anymore on our Swiss airports,I miss the sight and sound of them. DRAW decal provides both titles,but I opted for the simpler Balair title as I have an A310 to be made in the latter livery. All paints are Revell enamels clear coated with Gunze Gloss clear. Happy Hollydays,

Hello everyone! Here is Martin B-26G-25-MA Marauder, 44-68171 “8X/02”, of 1 Escadrille, GBM I/22 “Maroc”, Armée de l’Air, at St. Dizier, France, in May 1945. This was a conversion of Minicraft 1:144 kit I did in 2014 with the scheme markings from a Print Scale decal sheet. I added a Matador Models white metal cockpit, opened up all the windows and thinned the turret guns as much as possible. Despite the white metal cockpit part, I had to add a little extra weight to prevent the kit from tipping on its tail. The gun barrels of the external gun packs were scraped off the fuselage sides and replaced with new ones from either plastic or metal rod (can't remember!). The major point of the conversion was changing the angle of the main wings. The F and G models had the main wings raised 3,5 degrees at the front to help reduce the landing speeds. I managed to alter the tabs and root holes so the wings would sit at the new angle and then blended in the wings to the fuselage at the roots with filling and sanding. The kit was completely painted by brush with only the varnish being applied with an airbrush. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome Miguel

I'm regretting this already! But I was in search of a mojo restorer (maybe a B-17 what if), and seeing as 1:72nd is well catered for, and not being convinced that 1:48 is going to restore my mojo I thought, why not go the other way? So, I've got a minicraft 1:144 B-17G and some decals that apparently make it for Sally B... what could be more fun, a little bit off the beaten track and with some personal history from my South Cambs villages thrown in? Sally B it'll be http://www.sallyb.org.uk/index.htm Bit of an imposter as she never saw war service, but there were some bizarre mods in her life http://www.sallyb.org.uk/history.htm Photos to follow, but the mini craft kit has a decidedly 'toy' feel to it- maybe it'll actually match my skill level. And for all the discussion of interior paints, the mini craft advice is straight from the Rolling Stones- Pain it black (all of it!!) And the decals are rudimentary at best, and omit the crucial feature of Sally B, the yellow checkerboard on #3 engine Photos and progress coming over the weekend with a tailwind, but I'm in!

Joining you with this kit. To build as RAAF version, with these Frog decals. Here are the parts, some painting, but no construction. Some of you may recognise that light blue from my recent PB J Mitchell. Well this will also be re-airbrushed, similar colours to my Avenger. This kit cost me £5 from Chelt Model Centre in 1999, and has remained untouched ever since. With me wondering - why did I buy that?