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  1. Hello to all.Here is my 1:72 Aircast resin Soko g-2 galeb.This has got to be one of the best resin kits I have ever worked on.it fits really well and the resin is quite soft and easy to sand and glue.I added some spare fujimi pilot figures in the cockpit and made the nose light from transparent sprue.The paints used are tamiya and MM.The decals came from the box, some are balkan models and some are home made.
  2. How many of us get side tracked and end up building something else,well I started cleaning up 1/700 Chieftains tanks and the Stalwarts . These were bought from Starling Models and they do them 1/350 as well.Stole this of Wiki ,it describes it the Stalwart perfectly . The Stalwart, formally classified by the British Army as Truck, High Mobility Load Carrier (HMLC), 5 Ton, 6 x 6, Alvis/Stalwart and informally known by servicemen as the Stolly, is a highly mobile amphibious military truck built by Alvis that served with the British Army from 1966 until 1992. I'm doing Intrepid ,mainly because everyone else does Fearless and my friend served on her also. The kit its a straightforward resin kit with P.E. and decals ,this is the only good kit in 1/700 yes agreed with would love this in 1/350.It can be built straight of the box,but having vehicles for the landing craft I needed to have the dock flooded ,which means having the stern lowered ,so to do this, had have a thicker based to get the right angle,with that done could turn my attention to Intrepid.The flight deck ,well not going to say anything,but had to replace it with plastic card.hope the picture shows it couldn't be use.There is no detail in the dock area ,but once finished and painted the ship,I can turn to that afterwards.I have replaced all the hatches, grills and put ladders on. I bought this at Telford ,last year 2019 ,feels like a century ago after this year,away I never noticed no decals only last night,panic started to set,checked everything I could think of and thought just email L'arsenal which I did this morning ,they have already replied and they are sending a new set at no cost. Excellent service .That's why I,m not moaning too much about the flight deck.
  3. I've been woefully inactive in my chosen hobby this year for various reasons, but with the end of the year looming large, I wanted to try and get one finished before 2021 hits us square in the face. I ordered this little resin kit after seeing it on these here forums, so made an order on eBay and have been waiting for the Russian and British Post Office to deliver it until yesterday. I couldn't resist, as it is just such a simple little kit. There are six resin parts and a resin base, plus a roll of copper wire for the aerials, and a thicker length to connect the finished model to the base. The parts were a piece of cake to remove from their casting blocks, as they were 3D printed, so the orb halves had a myriad of tiny little legs that I cut off with nippers then scraped them away. The antennae bases were similarly easy, but the base needed a good sand with my Dremel with repeated tests to check it was sitting flat to the floor. Whenever I have a butt-joint between two cylindrical or hemispherical parts, I always trim away the majority of the centres, which leads to easier fitting and less chance of the parts wobbling or fitting at a funny angle. I joined the two halves with CA, taking care to align the three dots and the larger access hatch between the two halves. it went well, and I ended up with a nice sphere. I drilled out the attachment point to the base with a 0.8mm drill, and the antenna bases with a 0.35mm drill, as I was replacing the copper wire with 0.3mm carbon fibre rod, as it's deadly straight, resilient and very flexible, while springing back to shape unlike the copper, which will bend and probably need straightening all the time during construction. Then I cleaned the parts in a bath of IPA (not beer), and squirted some primer on it, letting it dry overnight. Next job is to decide which type of metallic paint I'm going to use, and whether I'll need to prime it again in black. The base is going to be gloss black with white or silver lettering, so I'll need to deal with that slight wobble on the bottom of the front, which I couldn't see until I'd taken the picture above. I've got a lot on my plate at the moment with the site misbehaving, plus my dear old mum having just having had a serious op last Sunday, but I'm still hoping I can get it done before the end of the year, which at time of writing is a fortnight. Will I make it?
  4. As stated in the build thread HERE: I am posting a couple of pictures of the Bell XP-83 just completed: As you can see in the photo above, I failed to add enough nose weight, so it's Mr Clear Sprue to the rescue! Thanks for looking, Ed
  5. Hi mates, 2020 has been a weird year. I've only built two kits, and both were resin - two kits from CMR, the Blackburn Firebrand and Martin Mauler. I figured that I might as well make it an all-resin year and follow up those two with the beautiful S.B.S Model kit of the de Havilland DH.88 Comet. That way, instead of remembering 2020 in terms of maskless neighbors spewing bio-aerosols and conspiracy theories about Hugo Chavez, I can simply remember it as "the year I swore off injection moulding and only built resin." See? Simple. The kit has some of the nicest castings I've seen, and it was a joy to build. I chose G-ACSR because it was painted in British Racing Green - I seriously thought about putting some Team Lotus stickers on it. Anyway, here is my usual summary: Project: 1:72 de Havilland DH.88 Comet Kit: S.B.S Model kit no. SBS72003 Scale: 1:72 (as Zeus and Kronos decreed in their meeting on 21/12/20) Decals: From the kit, representing G-ACSR, flown by Owen Cathcart Jones and Ken Waller in the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race Photoetch: Included with the kit, primarily for the seat belts and fiddly bits like throttle levers and controls Resin: Uh, um, the whole thing is resin, including the canopy! Paint: Gunze H6 Green, H11 Flat White, H12 Flat Black, H37 Wood Brown, H77 Tyre Black; Alclad 115 Stainless Steel; Tamiya XF-16 Aluminum, XF-69 NATO Black; Floquil 110015 Flat Finish (satin or egg shell) Improvements/Corrections I cut out and re-positioned the elevators and added the balances for both the rudder and elevators. I also added the cable holding the canopy open, made from Nitinol wire. WIP build thread: Link Now, let's see some photos. Enjoy! Cheers, Bill
  6. Hi mates, Let's see, this year I've built one resin model and I'm soon to finish another. So why not grab a third resin kit from the stash and stick to my theme? After all, 2020 is a goofy year no matter how you slice it, so I might as well swear off injection moulded styrene - resin rules! And maybe, just maybe, all that resin dust will nuke the bioaerosols floating around from that coronavirus thing. So here is what I found lurking in one of my cabinets: the S.B.S Model kit of the de Havilland DH.88 Comet in glorious teeny tiny scale (1:72). I don't know much about this aircraft, but I'm sure you folks will educate me. Now, way back when this kit came out, @general melchett mentioned that it had some of the finest resin castings he had seen, and darn if he's not right. This is a sweet little kit. As can be seen on the box, you have two choices for the paint and marking scheme - red (G-ACSS) or green (G-ACSR). Both of these flew in the 1934 MacRobertson UK to Australia Race, and I seem to recall there was a black one as well. I rather fancy the red one myself, it being the winner of the race and all. Although the green one reminds me of a Lotus, and it has the Union Jack on the tail... The parts breakdown is conventional, and the detail is exquisite. This is 1:72, so the fuselage is a mere 4.5 inches long or so. The engine nacelles and wings are one piece castings. The fuselage-wing fairing is a separate piece, which is a feature that I really like. The Aki Products Sea Fury that I built last year is engineered this same way. The remainder of the parts are all nicely cast and detailed, although there aren't a lot of them. In addition, S.B.S provide a small photoetch fret with the usual seat harnesses and instrument panel (with film instruments) and white metal landing gear struts. The canopy is cast in clear resin, and the model has provision for mounting it open (it's hinged on the starboard side in real life). The other clear resin part in the photo is the tip of the nose. I'm guessing this was a light? Well, that's all there is to it. At my current rate of completion it should only take me about a year to build it! Luckily, this aircraft still exists so there are lots of photos out on the Interweb thing. The last I read it was part of the Shuttleworth Collection, and I think that's reason enough for me to return to Old Blighty for additional research. I'll need @CedB as my chauffeur again, otherwise I may not be able to find which pubs have Doom Bar on draught. I think he has them all committed to memory. Cheers, Bill PS. I wonder if I can find a 1:72 scale typewriter somewhere...
  7. This is the 1/72 Sharkit resin-and-vacuform kit of the Edgley Optica. It's a pretty basic kit, and even to build the yellow G-BGMW prototype (which is what the kit is intended for) it would benefit from some detailing inside the cockpit and at the rear of the ducted fan nacelle. But I wanted to reproduce the Optica that flew in the cult-but-dire movie Slipstream (1989). This needed some modification of the prototype version: an extension to the upper nacelle and elevator trim tab, shrouds on the undercarriage, an overhead control box and wider instrument panel in the cockpit, flow directors on the upper wing surfaces ... in addition to the necessary pitot tube, sundry aerials, landing lights, a stone guard on the front wheel, control columns and rudder pedals, and rear support struts for the engine. And some other bits and bobs. In addition, I printed up decal sheets to reproduce, as best as I could, the feathered patterns on wings and nacelle, and the odd symbol on the tail. Build log is here: It's a resolute tail-sitter, with no room for added weight in the very open and thin-floored cockpit. I've made no effort to photographically conceal the short transparent rod that props up the back of the nacelle. Edited to add: here are a few views on the Coastal Kits "Abandoned Airfield" display base, which arrived in the post today.
  8. While the XP-91 Thundercepter V-Tail model works it's way through the paint shop, I've decided to while away the waiting hours by starting another resin airplane, the Bell XP-83, by Anigrand. This model has a certain interest to me, because I originally started working on it piece-meal a few years ago, and then when I got to that point, I discovered that my kit had two right side intake nacelles, but no left side. I emailed Arnold at Anigrand to ask whether he might supply the correct part I needed. He soon replied that during a move, the molds for his original XP-83 had been lost or damaged, and that he would like to find one of those older kits, to remaster some molds. I volunteered what I had (forgetting to enclose the wings) and sent it off to him. After several months of not hearing back, I sent a couple of emails, but got no response. About a year or more later, I was browsing his website, and saw that the XP-83 was for sale again. I figured he had forgotten his promise, so I just ordered another kit, paying with Paypal. Soon, I got an email from Arnold saying that he had lost my email address, but remembered my name, and he refunded the price of the new model plus shipping, so he did, in the end, honor his promise. A very nice gentleman! After seeing the remastered kit, I compared it to the old one I had started. First off, unlike the old kit, the newer one had only 1 teeny tiny pinhole, and virtually no flash at all. In addition, this time the kit had a clear cast resin canopy, rather than the usual vacuform, which the old kit had. Anyway, here is the kit box, and the instructions: As you can see from the parts explosion, there aren't many parts to this kit, which meets my simple model desires at this time! I started off the build by prepping the interior of the fuselage and intake/engine nacelles (one of each persuasion this time!): The cockpit area and front wheel well were given a shot of Interior Green, while the nacelles had a shot of black primer at either end. When dry, the cockpit interior was given a coat of clear gloss, to attach some cockpit decals, which are fine for the very tiny cockpit on this model, and won't really be seen much later on. The decals for the side console will be cut from portions of this old IPMS sheet which I found on line, and used for these situations. This sheet happens to be one I recently acquired on E-bay: Above right, After the nacelle primer had dried, I shot the interiors where needed, with some Alclad II Aluminum, and the engine faces with some Alclad II Polished Aluminum. The photo shows that the background area of the engine face on the right side has been painted flat black, while the one on the left has not been thusly painted yet. Next, the engine fan blades were given a wash of black to pop out the blade detail a little: Above right, they are then glued into the nacelles with CA. The whole point of all this is to make the engine fronts stand out a little, while giving the illusion of depth. Next up, the cockpit "detail" is done, with the kit supplied decal added to the instrument panel. In retrospect, I probably should have used some from the IPMS sheet, but you can't see much of it when done, anyway. The two areas on the sides of the decal shows where the edges of the panel need to be sanded to fit the cockpit. The simple seat gets some tiny strips of aluminum foil, painted a light grey on the dull side, and the the tips of the strip on one end are bent over to the grey side, to represent tiny buckles. They are shown here attached with white glue, and when dry, will be bent down into their needed shapes with a toothpick: Next, the decals were added to the side consoles, and when dry the cockpit wash given a coat of matt clear. Then, the fuselage halves are CA'd together and when dry, the I.P., control stick and seat are inserted into the cockpit. Also shown is the spiffy new cast resin canopy: The canopy pour block needs to be sawn very carefully from the canopy. Resin tends to be brittle, so I wouldn't attempt to snip it nor snap it off! Above right, After sanding the fuselage seam a little, the canopy has been attached with G-S watch cement, and the tail attached with CA. Masking tape has been added to keep the tape off of gluing surface, and "X" marks where each side of the fuselage will also be black primed and then painted Aluminum, as were the nacelles, earlier. Well, that's enough for the first install. If you'd like one of these kits, I can certainly recommend the new tooling. Get 'em before they're gone, HERE. Ed
  9. Hello I made underwater small diorama as gift for my wife birthday. Main character was printed on resin 3d printer. Enjoy. Cheers
  10. Hello again, As is usual, the black primer on my XP-47B is taking forever to dry, so I'm going to give it a few more days. Meanwhile, as I have been getting bored, I'm going to start another concurrent build, something I seldom ever do. This offering is the excellent LF Models 1/72 rendition of the original Curtiss XP-42. I say excellent, in regards to general appearance and accuracy, but alas that comes with the caveat that there is lots of trimming, sanding and sprue stub nipping before you get to the end. Therefore, I must say upfront that this is NOT a good beginner's kit, although those with a few miles under their belts can probably see it through! The kit is a multi-media kit, with plastic main parts, and resin detail, add to that the vacu-formed canopy and windows and a few photo-etch parts, and it looks like this, a LOT of stuff crammed into a very tiny box: Interestingly, the box includes drawings for two later mods to this aircraft, but no parts to make them. These modded aircraft were very short-lived, perhaps with only a flight or two each. They were designed to try out differing cowl shapes, and are interesting, should some of you wilder modelers out there wish to stray even further afield than this kit... In my old age, I have come to dislike cockpit interiors a lot more than earlier in my life, because they slow me down from my primary mission in life -- to hack and slice plastic! Anyway, I decided to start there, and do the cockpit later on. First step was cleaning up (flash and pouring blocks, mostly) the resin parts for the front end, albeit two front cowl halves and the prop spinner: The center photo, above, shows the prop spinner centered up atop my propeller jig, talked about in some of my other prop type build threads, so not repeated here. Anyway, the part is centered over a bit of two-sided cello tape, to hold it in place while I mark three vertical lines from each three-bladed position, to the tip of the spinner. This is to help align the prop holes (which are NOT provided by the kit). Since the whole top of my prop jig box is covered with plastic shipping tape, the two-sided tape will peel right off later. The far right photo, above, shows the prop spinner having been moved to the side edge of the box (so that the drill bit would reach), with a suitable thickness of scrap plastic (arrow) used to control the distance of the hole from the rear of the prop spinner. Later on, I will drill a hole in the center of the rear of the prop spinner, to make a mounting shaft. (The kit directions show a nice resin prop shaft in the directions, but not is actually provided. That doesn't matter much however, because there is also no hole in the cowling to receive said shaft!), a matter which I will address now. Since gluing the two front cowl halves together with CA results in the large hole as shown, I placed the assembled cowl halves on a bit of scrap 40 thou or so plastic card, and using my trusty #2 lead pencil, traced a circle, inside the cowl's front opening onto the plastic "A". To the back of that part, now labelled "B" I added two bits of square thicker plastic, simply to add depth to support the prop shaft in a hole which I will drill later: Center photo, above, shows the filler and CA that I added to the cowl inside, after positioning the part "B" assembly (square bits to the inside) in the front hole of the cowl. This is needed to re-enforce the join (also, I sanded the part a little too small in circumference!). The powder is just a nail-building powder, used with CA adhesive to build up fingernails with fake tips, etc. It's about the same as baking soda, but a finer grind. I use it because my wife had it laying about, and no longer wears fake nails... Above, far right, part "B" from the front. After the glue fully cures, I'll sand it a bit. I'm doing all this, rather than just gluing the spinner in place, because I don't want to take a chance on sanding the spinner out-of-round, when working on the model later, as most resin models require a lot of sanding! Also, it will be simpler for me to add the propeller blades, using the jig, later on. Lastly, for now, a small chisel is used to remove the injection stubs from the inner wing surfaces; the ones in the center belly pan won't be in the way. At this time, I also glued the kit-provided wheel well roofs over the wheel well openings, on the inside: Well, I'll be back later with some kind of updates for some model or the other! See you then... Ed
  11. Originally designed as a half scale model of a planned jet airliner it became apparent during the design phase that the layout was unsuitable and but it continued as research a/c for investigating the characteristics of swept wings. Three were built. The first used a Vampire front fuselage and was used for low speed research. It crashed after spinning at low altitude. The second was used for high speed work but crashed whist practising for an attempt on the world speed record. The third, modelled here, had a modified fuselage having a more pointed nose and a lowered, more streamlined, canopy. It first flew in July 1947 and in September 1948 became the first British a/c to exceed the speed of sound, although completely out of control at the time! It was passed to the RAE in November 1949 for further research but crashed in September 1950 for reasons unknown but believed to be pilot incapacitation due to lack of oxygen. I once heard Eric Brown describe it as the most dangerous aircraft that he had flown. This resin kit was produced by Planet models and went together fairly easily. There are three basic components, the upper and lower halves of the wing/fuselage and the rudder, all nicely moulded and free from pinholes. The most notable problem being the fit of the upper front fuselage – it doesn’t and requires filler to correct a large gap between the front portions ahead of the canopy. I realised later that I should have spent some time thinning the rear sections of the wing to produce a sharper trailing edge. The kit is supplied with two vacform canopies. Unfortunately there is a flaw in that the frame which runs down the centre of the forward section is not quite in the centre. I had to trim the top of the pilot's seat to stop it fouling the canopy.. Not a big deal as it is hardly visible. One final problem appeared whilst fitting the u/c. The a/c sits slightly nose up and the model does not. It is partly due to the mainwheels being oversize, compared to Barrie Hygates drawing, and something else which I could not work out. I ended up shortening the legs to get it to look right. In fact the original legs looked far too long to retract into the wells whereas the shorter legs look to be about the right length. The finish is Alclad Airframe Aluminium over gloss black enamel followed by a light coat of Alclad Aluminium to reduce the shine. John Whilst putting it in the display cabinet I was reminded that I had seen that wing planform before... I had always thought of the 108 as being small but, as a half-scale model of the proposed DH 106 it had a span of 39ft (about 12m) Compare it with its American equivalent the Northrop X-4
  12. Here is my Anigrand Craftswork 1:144 resin Kawasaki Ki-108 "Randy" I built back in 2011. It represents one of the prototypes at the Rikugun Koku Shinsa Bu (Army Air Testing Centre), Gifu Factory area, 1944. It's one of the bonus kits of the Kawasaki Ki-91 bomber set. Only four prototypes of this aircraft were built and flown, the second pair being of the improved Kai variant with greater span and length. According to what little references I could find, this kit seems to be a little in between both variants but closer to the first pair. This was a particularly troubled build. Some parts were poorly moulded and the fit was quite bad. All of the parts had an 'orange peel' surface so I had to sand them all smooth first. I added the top radio mast (from a Sweet Zero) and the wing pitot tube (stretched sprue). I thinned the main wheel doors as much as I could. The kit was fully painted with brush except for the matt varnish which was airbrushed. I used White Ensign Models Kawasaki Army Green for the top surfaces and Vallejo Light Blue Grey (RLM76) for the undersides. This kit had the decals missing so I sourced them from other sheets. Since it was a prototype, I kept weathering to a minimum. Thanks for looking Miguel
  13. Stowage & Accessories Set – British FV510 Warrior (SPS-073) 1:35 Meng Supplies via Creative Models Ltd We reviewed the new Meng Warrior here after the second tranche arrived with Creative, but we’ve had this stowage set since the initial release, as it went out of stock almost as fast as the kit itself! They’re now back in stock, so here it is. The set arrives in a brown cardboard box with the contents shown in a large sticker that covers the majority of the top flap. Inside there are two bubble-wrap bags of resin, totalling fifteen parts, each with its own casting block, carefully attached with the smallest of contact points to reduce the amount of clean-up needed. The largest part is a long rolled up tarp/awning that is attached to the side of the Warrior’s slat armour, with three Bergen day-sacks, two jerry-cans, and three Camelbak-type drink reservoirs that a soldier can strap to his back or attach to his Bergen, with a drink-tube draped over his shoulder and a handy bite-valve ready for a quick drink at any time. These things must be a godsend for troops in the Middle East, where the heat can have you dehydrated in hours or even minutes if you’re working hard. The Camelbaks have separate straps that are attached on each side of the narrow pouch, and one strap has the drink-tube fastened in place, although the picture on the box shows them loose. If you wanted to portray that possibility, scraping the moulded-in tube off and replacing it with some wire would do the job, adding a drop of super glue to depict the blunt T-shaped bite-valve, shaping it when dry. A quick Google should tell you if the military tubes are blue, but I suspect they might be green, but you know my memory. With resin, you should take the precaution of wearing a mask when cutting or sanding it, as the tiny particles are harmful to your health if breathed in. Washing the parts in warm water will also improve the adhesion of paint, as there may still be some moulding release agent on the parts when you receive them. Take care not to use water that is too hot, as this may cause deformation to more delicate parts, but this technique can conversely be used to fix warped parts, using cold water to “freeze” the changes in the parts. Conclusion This is a beautifully crisp, detailed set, but it isn’t what you’d call cheap. If you think it’s worth a punt, pick one up soon, as they seem to be flying off the shelves. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  14. This is a model built 3 years ago, that I did not post. It will become relevant for another model that I will be (likely) building, hence this late posting. I am not particularly proud of this model, as I really struggled with the kit's quality, but here it is anyway. I converted the "normal" G.III into a civil plane, with enclosed cockpit. A page on the plane was found in Les Ailes #436, 10/24/1929, thanks to the wonderful Gallica archives. From that Gallica/Les Alies page: You may find a post here at the Passion Pour L'aviation blog: http://www.passionpourlaviation.fr/2016/04/23/cudron-giii-a-cabine-fermee/ The Chroszy kit provides a starting point, and it helps, but it has some shortcomings you may not like (I did not). A biplane is always a challenge at many levels, and this is no exception. The rigging on this one is quite a task, and the open twin booms uniting front and tail are especially tricky in more than one way too. My thanks to Mika Jernfors of Arctic Decals from whom I commissioned the simple images this one needed, being civil-registered. First the good: a detailed resin kit, mostly well molded (but with many parts not well molded, unfortunately) with reasonable scale thicknesses, with a nice photo-etched fret, and things bagged separately in an attempt (futile) to protect the contents. A piece of clear plastic was in the box too. The not so good: Quite so-so instructions, which seems to be the norm with so many kits, too small, and with the P.E. parts not differentiated from the resin ones. The parts of course do no have identification numbers, and there is no part diagram, so you will be left to guess in many instances, and trust me, you won't like it. As with other kits from this manufacturer, some parts arrived already broken, which really pisses me off. Choroszy could use those "ears" or sidebars that other resin manufacturers use to protect the parts in the casting blocks. The wingtip was broken, and I found (after much looking around) the fragment to glue it back, but one of the landing gear skis had its front broken, and no fragment was there. The way some parts are united to their casting blocks (like the seats) makes them prone to breakage in separating them. In any case, spares seem to be provided (difficult to asses since there is no part numbers or diagram). The too thick throttles come as resin parts, but they should have doubtlessly been included with the P.E. parts. My kit did not have the decals that according to the lid should have come in there. No worries, since I did not use them anyway, but heck! This kit in general is overoptimistic in the sense that part of the detail will have to be replaced by wire or very thin styrene rod. The fragile and in some spots uneven resin parts that depict the trusses are quite a bit of wishful thinking too. In general, the sense I got from this kit is an attempt to replicate a fragile structure that fell quite short, had poor mechanical strength, and molding that left much to be desired. Unclean casts, failed parts, and parts confetti upon arrival. Not to mention asymmetries regarding wing strut placement, that will make your delight once you realize it, hopefully not too late in construction. Not a happy camper I was with this kit. I had built before a Church Midwing racer from the same manufacturer, that was in general AFAICR a better experience, but with incomplete and bad decals:
  15. A-26B/C Invader Wheel Set (3225 for Hobby Boss) 1:32 Halberd Models Halberd Models’ new(ish) flexible resin tyre sets require a slightly different method of construction to standard resin wheels, so I’ll refer you back to my initial review in 2019 here, which explains the process and design ethos in more detail. It also has a link to a video that shows the process fully, so if you’re unsure about how to use flexible resin tyres it’s worth a read. This new batch however adds another level of configuration to enable the modeller to apply a variable level of sag to the tyres that as far as I understand it, is possibly the first in the hobby. The new techniques include the usual parts we’ve come to expect, but with the addition (or subtraction) of a thin section of the tyre that is destined to sit on the ground. This gives the tyre alone an incredibly flexible contact patch with the ground if they were to be used with the old circular hubs. The new hubs are different however, and have a block at the bottom that fills the thin area of the tyre, making it less flexible. If you wish to make your tyre sage more, simply sand back the “key” as we’ll call it, taking care to keep the curved underside, which helps keep the shape of the tyre. The assemblies are otherwise a drop-in replacement for the kit parts, so they should glue straight onto the landing gear axles, but it's always wise to test and adjust as necessary, as you'll be using either epoxy or super-glue to attach them because resin doesn't adhere to plastic with styrene glue. The advantage is that you can configure the sag as much or as little as you want, all before you glue the hubs into the tyres. Construction is straight forward and first involves removing the moulded-in brake detail from the kit gear legs, as shown in the instructions. The centre section of the flexible tyres is removed with a sharp blade and final clean-up with a burr in your motor tool, then the main wheels have the two-part hubs glued into the two main wheel tyres with optional adjustment of the sag with a sanding stick to abrade away the key. The smaller nose wheel has three styles included, each of which have two-part hubs, one with fine spokes, one covered in simple flat hubcaps, while the third has a single hub part with an 8-spoke hubcap. The 6-spoked hubcaps on the main wheels and the 8-spoke nose wheel (if you are using it) have flash across the interstices between the spokes, so this also needs to be removed, showing off the deep interior of the hub to great effect. Once painted they should look very realistic, and the flexible tyres can be painted and or weathered if you wish with latex based acrylic paints, which have flexibility to match the elastic properties of the resin. Highly recommended. They’re currently being sold direct to customers via their Facebook page and eBay shop worldwide. Review sample courtesy of
  16. Some years ago, I completed a Combrig HMS Monmouth kit and was intending to follow this up with the also unfortunate HMS Good Hope. A change of plan happened when I saw the image of HMS King Alfred in 1917-18 dazzle camouflage when she was used as an Atlantic convoy escort. I contacted the IWM Collections and purchased the photography/digitising of the Admiralty’s camouflage Order HMS 32 for this ship (then not available on-line). My local photoshop did a fantastic job of combining the port and starboard images and printed them at extremely high resolution on top-quality paper. All the tiny blue-ink stamps indicating the colour for the scheme (White, Black, No.1 Blue Grey, No.2 Grey) are there. The framed print is a great addition to the art on my living room wall. The kit is built more or less from the box but with some modifications that several of the Leviathan Class received during WW1, including the moving of the lower casement 6” guns to the main deck – these turrets are from AJM – and a reduction of the boat complement. A large element of the modifications can be seen in the profile of HMS Drake in Norman Friedman’s British Cruisers of the Victorian Era. The Perkins Identification Album British Warship Recognition Vol.III: Cruisers 1865-1939, part 1 is also a good source as are the images of the builders’ model of HMS Leviathan in David Hobbs’ Warships of the Great War Era – a history in ship models. Unfortunately, the only image of HMS King Alfred is small and not of good quality. I excluded the foremast derrick (as per HMS Drake) but replaced them with what appear to be two smaller derricks (for coaling/ammunitioning?) – only a guess at the correct placement. I left the aft-bridge wings as they were as the photo appears to show them – in HMS Drake they were removed. The fore-bridge on HMS King Alfred also appears to have been enlarged at the rear but I could not really see what needed doing. Two large rafts are added to the rear of the aft superstructure. I made some attempt at the cage aerials, but only in using three lengths of the thinnest Uschi thread. Painting was done with a variety of media but two of the dazzle colours were from the WEM range, namely GW02 #2 Grey and GW13 #1 Blue/Grey. I am not convinced these are correct if the Order’s colours are anything like prototypical – the No.2 Grey is darker and more bluish (GW02 #2 Grey is a medium grey, possibly slight greenish) and the No.1 Blue Grey is a more saturated blue (GW13 #1 Blue/Grey is hardly tinted blue at all). I chickened out of following the Order but added some NARN B5 blue to the blue grey – but not enough, I think. All in all, a great model from Combrig and I’ve got my eyes on their new Cressy/Aboukir/Hogue next. Cheers, GrahamB
  17. From 2 years ago, an iconic French plane superbly kitted by a small manufacturer in what I consider one of the best casts I have ever seen. The level of detail, precision and research that this manufacturer put on this kit is undoubtedly up there with the best on the market. Honestly, I was in awe when I started to look at the parts and during the build. This is a jewel seldom seen in terms of sharpness and cast standards. I have also built from this manufacturer their remarkable DH88 Comet, Macchi MC72, Latecoere 28.3 and Caudron C.600 Aiglon.
  18. I am posting this relatively old (2015) build, as I see that fellow BMers are starting or thinking of starting one of these. I will present here the WiP and then post the completed model. Regarding details and colors (interior color, mostly) there is much discussed, and I am far from being an expert on the type, so my choices are just that, my choices. It's just to provide a glimpse on the process, a look at the quality, and some kind of view of the particularities of the kit and build, not more. When beauty flows like the wind A handful of iconic planes in the history of aviation can be categorized as design classics, and surely the De Havilland D.H.88 racers belong to that group. I have built three of them in my life so far -the first when I was a little fellow- all from the truly despicable, outmoded, outdated (thus slightly venerable) old Airfix rendition. It was time, dear airplane manufacturers, to make available to hordes of avid modelers a better version of it. But behold, no mainstream manufacturer will stain their hands with a civil, brilliant plane (with no bombs! no machine guns! mind you!) so a small resin manufacturer from Hungary had to produce one. Like any other modeler with decades of experience, I have seen and built my share of kits, and so far I hold high up three things: the resin 1/72 kits released by Matias Hagen of Argentina, the unbelievable 1/72 aero engines of Small Stuff, and SBS' kits. It is worth noting that the kit has a system of peg/slot assembly throughout, and -fortunately!- not the usual resin and short run method of butt-gluing, which can be a curse some times. So once again, well done, SBS! They offer several boxings of the D.H.88, according to the specific version of the racers you want to build. The package is comprehensive: you get beautifully cast and blemish-free parts with lots and lots of good detail, well printed decals, photoetched parts, clear (indeed!) resin parts, separated resealable bags for groups of the parts, a sturdy box that is not threatening to collapse at the least provocation -thus preserving the integrity of its contents (what a concept, kit manufacturers!), and color leaflets and comprehensive instructions. All that for a price that is reasonable, not the stack of bills asked by some other resin manufacturers offering much less than this and dubious quality, and let's not even mention despicable short run injected kits that cost a lot, and then another lot...of work! Well, enough said. I wrote a bit about the D.H.88s -in case you are curious- in my post about the KP injected 1/72 kit: And so without further ado: General view of the contents: The white metal parts are finely cast, and need only some cleaning to remove the mold lines and very little flash: Great care has been put into the making of these parts: Even the smallest parts have good detail: The surfaces come in the kit polished to a shine: The clear parts are...well...clear, as it should be: The trailing edges are super-thin, almost unbelievable thin: The parts are dutifully (and very carefully!) washed and let to dry: A couple of parts have very small dent/nics, due to their finesse (and perhaps some postal knocking around). In this case it will be very easy to fix since that flange butts against a panel, making filling and sanding a snap: The resin pouring blocks are CAREFULLY removed. The material used is superb, and I mean it. It is rigid enough, but has some flexibility. It is not brittle and does not crumble. The rigidity is ideal and it is not too hard, making the task of removing the casting blocks much easier (to the right of the photo the discarded pouring blocks). I keep the smallest parts still in their blocks until the very end, to protect them and to avoid losing them. The saw (JLC) was a courtesy of Steve Kallan, whom I remember with gratitude every time I use it:
  19. I'm sure many reading this may remember the articles in Airfix Magazine by John Sanders in the 70's regarding the history and construction of his 1/76th mainly scratch built 8th Army models. I attempted over the years to have a go at doing a similar thing but never got round to it, but have kept the articles all these years, nostalgia and all that! One photo which always intrigued me was of a Scratch-built model of the Dodge WK 60 Gantry truck towing a CMP 3 tonner towing a Bofors AA gun by Barry Sharman, a name I remember from Military Modelling magazine. I even got drawings to do one but of course never got round to that either! So, after having a clear-out of kits this year and deciding that getting back into 1/35th vehicles wasn't for me (I have 3 on the SOD!) I thought I would try 1/76th scale, possibly getting away from having to add so much detail. Milicast models are very well detailed and this kit has a lot of parts so maybe not so good an idea! So, here we have Milicast's WK 60 Gantry in resin, complete with a Cranes 7.5 ton recovery trailer, and a Vickers Light AA Mk 1 to go on the back. A bit of a rarity, the Light AA was an attempt to use obsolete tank chassis for another use and a few were used in N.Africa later in the campaign. The Truck and Trailer are from the (expensive) Premiere range and are broken down into lots of parts and superbly detailed. The Vickers is from the 'Battle ready' range and has a complete chassis with running gear moulded on and turret, with a few detail parts to add. No drawing to show where these go though, some research will be needed! Unfortunately the Breda gun barrels have broken off in transit but that's the only broken pieces of the 3 kits. I also have an SHQ cast metal kit of the German SDKFZ 254, or Saurer RR-7, an Austrian company which developed wheel cum tracked light vehicles for agricultural and military use, this one equipped as an artillery observation vehicle with the prominent rail type aerial seen on a lot of German vehicles. It must have been unbearable in the cabin, more than most vehicles in the desert, as the engine was right next to the driver, not boxed in or anything! There is a great photo on the net of a WK 60 in the desert with 3 or 4 vehicles linked up to tow, must have been a good at it's job! What have I let myself in for! Davey.
  20. Here is my Anigrand Craftswork 1:144 resin Republic XF-103 Thunderwarrior which I completed back in 2010. This was one of the more unusual designs of the century series and, unsurprisingly, it didn't get beyond a full-scale mock-up. My kit represents the prototype of the XF-103 as it could have been had it been built. The kit was built OOB. Fit of parts was poor. I thinned the nose probe and the doors as much as possible. The kit was fully painted and varnished by brush. I weathered it a little to represent it after various trial flights. Thanks for looking Miguel
  21. Hello mates, Another side project to build along with the big Spitfire! I think it's time for another resin kit, which I'm really growing quite fond of, and what better choice than a Sea Fury? Probably the most beautiful propeller driven fighter aircraft ever made, if you ask me (which no one ever does). I know that @NAVY870 wasn't particularly fond of working on these beasties, but hopefully he'll stop by and make sure I do this properly. So, right, the kit - it's a resin model in God's scale from the Japanese company Aki Products. I ordered directly from the maker in Japan, and let's just say that it wasn't inexpensive. I think the money was well spent, as the resin casting is beautiful. Aki didn't spend much money on the box, though, as the following photo demonstrates. This is the way the box looked when I received it, and it didn't get this way from surviving a few tornado-driven roof blow-offs up in my loft. I love the legend on the end of the box - handmade indeed, I have no doubt about that. I was quite surprised to see that Aki did not use the typical resin casting pour blocks, but instead actually made resin "sprues" that contain the parts. This is quite clever, and I wish all resin kits were like this. Did you see there's a full engine? I hope I don't have to detail it like the big Merlin engine I just finished! Here are the fuselage halves and the tyres (by the way, I hate vinyl tyres so I might replace these): The interior of the wings have an incredible amount of detail, not only for the wheel wells but also the cannon bays and flaps (note that are also alignment pegs and holes, not often seen in resin kits. The fuselage halves feature these as well. The outer wing surfaces: Now, look really close and you'll see something you don't normally find in any kit, let alone 1:72. The flaps are moveable, with the metal hinge rod actually cast in place. Wow, it looks delicate so I better not play with it much. Sounds like something my mum would say. And on top of all that resin-y goodness, you also get to learn another language - if you want to follow the instructions anyway. Hmm, Hauker - must be a phonetic spelling. The kit stickers offer FAA and Iraqi schemes, typical of Sea Fury kits: However, I'll be choosing a scheme from Xtradecal sheet 72074. Which will it be? A couple of these jump out at me - first, the RCN scheme of Dark Grey 1-9 over Light Grey 1-13. But what are those colours? First I've ever heard of them. Second, the overall Oxford Blue RAN scheme. Nice and simple, yet elegant - plus, it's got roos in the roundels! Ah, decisions, decisions. I'll worry about that later. So that's my new side project. I hope I don't screw it up, since I blew up my retirement portfolio to acquire it. Cheers, Bill
  22. Wright Cyclone R-1820 late (MDR4853) 1:48 Metallic Details Development of the R-1820 Cyclone 9 engine led from an earlier engine in the Wright catalogue, one that didn’t reach production due to the unexpected departure of many of their staff to set up Pratt & Whitney. The Cyclone series grew in size and power by increasing the displacement to almost 30L and adding a GE-sourced supercharger that was eventually replaced by one of their own design to achieve 1,200hp at 2,500rpm from a 9-cylinder radial. That power made it attractive to aircraft manufacturers, and it was used in many aircraft before WWII, it flew in almost every B-17, and even remained in use after WWII with aircraft like the T-28 Trojan and S-2 Tracker. This set is designed as a super-accurate generic unit, although it will definitely fit in a B-17 in this scale, as I have seen the same resin in their B-17 set, a review of which will follow soon. It arrives in a small card box with a picture of the finished article on the front, and lots of resin parts inside, plus a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass and instruction sheet. Construction begins with adding small arrow-shaped brass inserts that fit between the cylinders, then adding the intake piping to the centre, aligning each tube to the right of the head. Small parts and harnesses are fitted to the outer surface of the cylinder banks, then the push-rods and wiring harnesses in resin and PE respectively are glued in place to complete construction. There aren’t any painting guides provided other than the picture on the front of the box, but there are ample resources online should you need them. Conclusion A highly detailed engine set that will enliven any appropriate model when installed and sympathetically painted. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  23. Hello All, A new company called Rescue Models preparing some really interesting items. Many new resin accessories in 1:72, 1:144 and other scales too: https://www.facebook.com/rescuemodels/ Check out the renders, the products will be available soon (hopefully). Cheers, Peter
  24. Racers in general are well-liked by the modeling and aviation community and Schneider participants constitute a chapter of special interest for many. I am very glad that some manufacturers (KP, Karaya, Avis, SBS, among others) started to pay attention to this not really well covered area of the hobby, releasing very interesting types with greater level of detail and better accuracy than earlier industry attempts of times past. Karaya must be thanked for bringing these charming and significant types to light. Some of you may know that I recently built the manufacturer's Savoia S.65, a very nice kit, but unfortunately riddled with inaccuracies and impaired by some questionable engineering. This offer by Karaya is much, much better, and certainly deserves praise, if requiring some little revisions and the addition of missing decals. To be fair, not much is around regarding this specific machine, so sources are limited. Still, some little inaccuracies, and photos showing additional marks were easily found on the Net after a brief search. I enjoyed building this kit, and the couple of challenges it presented were overcome with just a bit of effort and the experience of many years, something we older modelers are blessed with (together with failing eyesight and shakier hands). The build of this kit erased the bad taste left by the previous S.65 (even if the results after much time and energy spent were worth it) and I would gladly build another Karaya kit - but doing some research on the type to complement the build. Karaya offers a nice array of civil types and many racers among them, some are superbly attractive. You can tell that the kit displays a high degree of finesse in details and surfaces, care has been poured into the making of the masters, yet I still have my nitpickings with certain aspects of the engineering, an area where Karaya could certainly improve and that has been pointed out in builds by other modelers of their Schneider types. My deepest thanks to Arctic Decals from whom I commissioned and acquired the corrective set. For some additional notes and a step-by-step account of the building process, please check here:
  25. Probably my final contribution but a spate of bad weather may change that is this Seafire F45, the third but last Seafire Mark. It didn't have folding wings and was used as an interim airframe between the lower powered Mk XVs and XVIIs and the penultimate and ultimate Mks 46 and 47. I thought this was the only way to make an F45 without converting a Mk46 but I have subsequently found an F45 from Admiral in the stash. But it's a while since I've done a whole aircraft in resin, and CMR kits are pretty good, although I suspect this is a fairly early kit of theirs. There's not too many parts. Three big bits, the fuselage halves and a one piece wing. And the rest as smaller parts. The F45 had a 5 blade prop rather than the contra rotating props of the next two Marks. Vac form canopy, comprehensive instructions and colour call outs and transfers for two options, both In the late high demarcation Extra Dark Sea Grey over Sky. There's also a bundle of stencils. Sorry about the background, Mrs 825 isn't always sympathetic in her choice of table covers when it comes to photography. Anyway now on to cleaning the resin up with a dip in the ultrasonic bath.
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