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No. 151 Squadron, Wittering, 22/12/40 – April 1943. When 151 Sqn arrived at Wittering they were flying Hurricanes and had just completed a spell of night-flying training at Bramcote and was being re-equipped with Defiants. The squadron received Hurricane IIcs in June 1941. One was Z3467 DZ-Y. By January 1942 the squadron’s role had changed to convoy patrols along the east coast. The Hurricanes were retired in April 1942 when re-equipping with Mosquitos started, 151 Sqn moved to Colerne in Wiltshire a year later. This is the Revell (04144) 1/72 Hawker Hurricane IIc

Work in progress. Standard Revell kit with Draw Decal decals. Hope to fly one of these one day! See my BA A319 in the background.

My third foray back into model planes continues with WW1 fighters after my Revell 1:72 Sopwith Camel and Fokker D VII (posted on RFI) I have to say that the colours of these aircraft are really striking and make me want to build many more. Here is my Albatross D III as flown by Werner Voss, Jasta 2 Boelcke, Juni 1917. Hope you enjoy the pictures. :-)

Hi all, I've been building the Revell A319/20's recently, putting a little more work into them each time. I'd really like some metal fan blades for the engines. A quick search hasn't turned up any. Does anyone know if they're out there? Chris

What's in the stash that will be suitable for this GB.... let's see.... Hase Mig-25 ? Too 1970s. Academy Mig-27 ? maybe... Airfix Harrier ? Already being built elsewhere in the GB.... How about this instead.... Operated from the Kiev aircraft carrier during the 80s in the Baltic, North Atlantic and Mediteranean, the Yak-38 was Soviet Naval Aviation's only operational VTOL strike fighter, a 'Soviet harrier'. Inside the box - not only is the subject from the 80s, so is this kit ! A bit basic, on the plus side I might actually finish it in time ! Time to 'forge' on..... at least being a Soviet aircraft I know what colour the wheel hubs are going to be Was going to do this OOB, but might have to go aftermarket for decals. Plenty of time to think about it.....

Finnished my Camaro this morning! Nice Revell kit to build, everything but the side windows fit good. Colour is Zero Paints Audi Phantom Black. Thanks for watching! Mike

Finnished the Boss 302 yesterday. Really love the colour! A nice addition for my Mustang collection! Nice kit to build, but not a real fan of the rear lights. Thanks for watching! Mike

Revell Saab JAS-39C is released now. But the test builders already have a double seat trainer variant JAS-39D: http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=90083&p=1680379&hilit=gripen#p1680396 JAS-39D cockpit: http://modelforum.cz/download/file.php?id=1036328 When will be released?

Hi folks,I thought as a change from Aircraft I would have a second go at a 1/35 tank,I remember building an Airfix T-34 from the old poly bag era to rampage over the Russian steppes(Mam's fireside rug) when a youngster along with their Russian infantry! I don't have the kit yet but my LMS always has it in stock and we have the Northern show coming up so I,ll pick it up in the next week or two,I don,t plan to start till the Phantom and Mitchell are finished anyway and may not start till after my holidays. In the meantime here,s Julien's review of the kit here on BM,there is a whitewashed version included which might look good in this scale.http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234992759-russian-t-3476-model-1943-135-revell/ See you in a few weeks.

Ok so there is a story to this build. It's a long one so I'll try my best to keep the soppy stuff to a minimum. Last year I decided to build a model car for each of my closest friends as a Christmas present. My best friend's favourite car was the 1969 Dodge Charger, a kit I new well as I'd build one as a kid. And after quizzing her about what her ideal Charger would be it dawned on me that there was to be a problem with the Revell Monogram '69 kit. Namely that the body in the kit comes with a molded on vinyl roof. But after a bit of research it turned out that the recent '68 release, the same kit but with a new chrome fret, had a body without a vinyl roof but told you to paint it like it had. Problem solved. Get the two kits and swap the bodies. I liked that idea too as it allowed me to build a companion '68 car to act as a sudo friendship bracelet or something to similar effect. I got the info I needed from my friend on how her dream Charger would be and the specs were thus: Black paint without the vinyl roof, Magnum 500 wheels, No R/T stripe over the boot, Black leather interior. (I took a liberty with the wood effect) And this was the result: Unfortunatly those are the only pics I have of the model before I packed it safely in its box and wrapped it up for her present. Now for the sad part. Not long after I wrapped it up we started getting into fights and having big fallouts. In the end I had to walk away coz it was too upsetting and was actually depressing me to a large extent. I did deliver the present and left it as a parting gift. We did reconcile earlier this year, and for a couple of months everything was fine. Then complete silence which became clear was intentional. Too this day I have no idea why. And so the completion of this once friendship project was on hold. After the completion of her '69 Charger the kit was packed away so I could focus on the other builds I needed to complete for presents, with the intent to complete the project in the new year. However because of what had transpired and what followed the kit remained in the stash. At times even the thought of the kit was enough to invert my mood for a week. Everything was just too painful. However more recently I've been getting on with things and forgetting the past. I reached for a Shelby mustang that I started the engine on at the same time as the '69 Charger and before I knew it the '68 kit was out and I wasn't sad or upset. It felt like the right time to build it. And so now that I've finished the Lancia and with all the other builds I have on-going stalled, it's moved onto the workbench. My plan for this kit was to use these: Some may recognise 2 of them from my for sale page. Well with no interest in them I've decided to cannibalise the parts I want. The Centreline wheels from the Shelby using the tyres and backing plates from the 'Cuda will adorn my '68. I did plan on using the Hemi from the 'cuda too but it doesn't fit. So the 440 Magnum engine will do. Not sure whether to do it the correct period Chrylser engine blue or as the change over year to engine red was '69, just paint it like the previous one? I am also using the optional hood i.e the one with the big scoop and it will be painted satin black with the vinyl roof being matt black with the black r/tstripes on the rear. The colour is going to be ford signal green as I have half a tin of it left over from a Hakosuka build. No pics of said build yet as I'm still fettling the body ready for primer and filling some pin marks on some panels that need to be painted body colour. Hope I haven't bored anyone with my story lol TTFN Ashley Edited to lessen the soppiness

Hello folks, This is my very first post to Britmodeller. I've been a member for a while now and look at everyone's contributions everyday but have never posted anything myself. This is a trial run to make sure I get it right so bear with me please So here goes!! I've chosen the kit that I've just finished - the Revell He115 Seaplane - see below: I seem to have been drawn to seaplanes over recent months and have also completed an Arado 196 (maybe posts for another day). Back to the He115. The kit shows its age and I believe it's the matchbox kit that Revell re-boxed. The kit fought me in so many ways and tested both my modeling skills and my patience - particularly sorting out the huge expanse of less than perfect cockpit glazing!! However, I really enjoyed building this kit and I think there's something quite therapeutic about wrestling pieces into place every now and then to keep our modelling minds fresh. I'll apologise for the photos as they were taken on my phone in fairly poor light - I'm no professional photographer - something I'm going to need to work on. Hope you enjoy and any feedback and comments will be greatly received.

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When I was a student in London in the late eighties, my digs in Battersea shook every evening at 6pm to the sound of Concorde coming over inbound for Heathrow after a supersonic dash across the Atlantic. It's long been one of my favourite aircraft, and the Landor scheme is by far the classiest livery it ever wore, so it was about time I built one. I bought the kit from a fellow Britmodeller, and have been working on it off and on for the last couple of months. I was at a loss which airframe to model, when it struck me that the last two letters of the registration were my late girlfriend's initials. Those who saw my Marauder recently will know why I chose Alpha Golf as the airframe to model. Also, it was the last one to travel supersonic over the Atlantic in 2003, and is the subject of the only known photograph of a Concorde actually supersonic, taken from a Tornado at Mach 2. It looks a bit like this: Here she is on the ground though, giving us a pirouette: Before heading out to the active for another deafening takeoff: Heading out to do what she does best: It's not a bad kit overall, a bit chunky in places and the wing fit isn't brilliant, and whoever designed the undercarriage should be shot, but it's Concorde enough for me: Hope you like it, Dean

I haven't posted here in just about forever because of other commitments but I've continued to build and lurk. I completed this earlier this year but just knocked the base together this morning as a technique practice. The kit is the Revell Lanc, not without its faults but looks the part to me. I picked it up in a Wonderland sale for about a tenner and the decals are from Hannants. It's pretty much OOB apart from the thimble radome which is a drawing pin soldered to a bit of microbore. The fuselage is finished in various shades of Alcld and then polished with a bit of rub n buff for depth of shine and tonal variation. The canopy is done with thin strips of Bare Metal Foil because I couldn't be bothered masking it, and the wings are done with Tamiya acrylics with a bit of a go at salt weathering. The fit of the kit is pretty good and the wings are actually detachable. The base is just a bit of MDF with unpainted squares of b&q sandpaper and some thinned enamel and grass scatter. I liked the tone and texture of the sandpaper although next time I'll probably use a lighter grade and different glue.

Good afternoon everyone Finally now finished the Revell Shackleton AEW2. She was a lovely kit, there is a couple of issues in regards to accuracy as it is a hybrid of a AEW 2 and MK 3, but ignoring those details I decided to build it oob, as it is. On comparing it to the Airfix kit, fit of the overall kit I found better, the surface detail is 100 times better than the airfix kit, The revell kit has some very think sprue gates connecting the parts, which does require some clean up, there are pros and cons for both, but overall they are both fantastic model kits. But I'll leave you with pics of the Revell one and then the 3 kits i've built. I hope you enjoy.

Dear Colleagues Back to something quintessentially British - the Hunter F6. This is where Hawker got the whole aircraft to really work and fight like it was supposed to (without the engine stalling when the guns were fired!). The 1/72 Revell kit is getting hard to find but it does justice to the original. I used a resin seat and Eduard PE. I indulged in the expensive Houchin starter from Flightpath to go alongside. The pilot is from PJ and the figures from Gunthwaite The markings are 208 squadron from Xtradecal Hope you like it? Andrew

Thought I would pop these in here as I haven't done an RFI for a while. This is my Revell UH-1D SAR in "hospital" configuration. Built her for the helicopter group build, my second entry and my second ever helicopter thingy! Here's the build thread if you like that sort of thing. Corrected the vents on the engine cowling with styrene rod and photoetch mesh (the slats could do with a wash in between them but I was running out of time , added a light and had to scratch build one of the windows last minute thanks to the carpet monster! Painted with a mix of Revell Aqua Acrylics and Tamiya

Ok so I have decided I am going to build another whirly thing for the group build and I am going to build the Revell 1/72 UH-1D that I was going to add to the stash, this will be being built as the hospital version with all the stretchers etc. I certainly do like my Hi-Vis schemes! I was going to use parts from an etch set I had in the stash hence its appearance in the photo but I have since decided to hold on to the etch for a "slick" build in the future. Obligatory box and sprue shots:

Something I've been working on when I get chance, seeing as the 32nd Sabre is still missing parts from Kinetic, the Alcock & Brown phantom has stalled due to the decals self destructing, I've had this on the go to keep me ticking over. Going to be OOB apart from a master model pitot. Comparison between a 32nd and a 48th scale Hunter - A mod I've put on, first photo shows what it comes as with the kit. Hand painted the IP, No decals used here Rest of the cockpit finished. Some detail was added to the flight stick as it was a bit bland and shapeless before. Started on a weathered base for the underside LAG Then made a start on the top surface Grey. I've got some references that show some really beat up Hunters, so that's what I'm working towards. Trying to throw half an hour or so at a time for now, so it's a slow burner. Should be a good first 32nd though!

This is my first proper post on here and looking at some of the work on show, I can't help but feel a little daunted. More so for the fact that I haven't made a plastic model kit for about 30yrs. I do make Scratch built ships that I set up with RC to sail on the lake, but having two young boys has brought me back to my childhood passion, for their benefit entirely of course I decided that my first foray back would be a cheap and simple kit that I could practice on. I do like WW1 aircraft as they had great character so I picked up a Revell 1:72 Sopwith Camel and intended to do it straight out of the box with no modifications and in the livery as flown by Lt L.S Breadner, No.3 Naval Sqn, Royal Naval Air Service, Walmer, Dec 1917. So here's how its gone. Hope it helps the total beginner's and any tips from more experienced modellers are most welcome indeed.

I really enjoyed my first foray back into plastic modelling for 30 odd years with my 1:72 revel F.1 Sopwith Camel (see Ready for inspection if interested). So much so that I decided to make a couple of adversaries for it. Here is my second model, a Fokker D VII out of the box with no additions and in the livery of Ja Sta 11, 1918, Obit. Rudolph Berthold. Please feel free to comment good or bad as I have so much to learn. I hope that you enjoy it. Deano

Hi, here's my latest build, built for a GB over on Flory Models. Nice kit, not great instructions. built SFTB with Gunze paints and a Mig Ammo grey washUntitled by bryn robinson, on Flickr Untitled by bryn robinson, on Flickr Untitled by bryn robinson, on Flickr Untitled by bryn robinson, on Flickr Untitled by bryn robinson, on Flickr Untitled by bryn robinson, on Flickr . Lost a bit of mojo towards the end, but that's down to me. Anyway thanks for looking. FF

This is my first proper post on here and looking at some of the work on show, I can't help but feel a little daunted. More so for the fact that I haven't made a plastic model kit for about 30yrs. I do make Scratch built ships that I set up with RC to sail on the lake, but having two young boys has brought me back to my childhood passion, for their benefit entirely of course I decided that my first foray back would be a cheap and simple kit that I could practice on. I do like WW1 aircraft as they had great character so I picked up a Revell 1:72 Sopwith Camel and intended to do it straight out of the box with no modifications and in the livery as flown by Lt L.S Breadner, No.3 Naval Sqn, Royal Naval Air Service, Walmer, Dec 1917. So here's how its gone. Hope it helps the total beginner's and any tips from more experienced modellers are most welcome indeed. Just need to figure out how to post photos ;-)

Airbus A320 Etihad Review Build This kit has been around for 20 years or so, and released in various different boxings & airline liveries. The latest release is in the new Etihad livery and was recently received at Britmodeller for Review It is a fairly simple kit to build, so I thought I would take it out of the box and and use it to show a few techniques that I like to use on airliners. The lovely decal sheet by DACO just calls out to be used! I like to keep the cockpit windows clear if I can. Here is how. 1. Glazing glued in. Note the schoolboy error of a gluey finger mark on it.No worries, though, the following processes will eliminate it. The A320 kit is a bit awkward to fit the glazing, the aperture needs clearing of flash, and you need to fit it in carefully or it can crack. I leave the wing off so that I can get fingers to the inside of the glazing as well, and help push it into position. Fit it off centre so that one side is on the inside of the fuselage and the other outside, so that you are sliding it from left to right in the cockpit 'slot' to get it into position. Once located run a bit of Tamiya extra thin cement around to secure it. But watch it, if you keep fiddling with it you are likely to smear gluey finger marks on it! 2. Once dried overnight, start to sand it down to blend it in better. 3. The fit isn't perfect, so it will need filler to blend it in properly. White Milliput used here, and left for 24 hours to harden. 4. Further sanding, and the Milliput is mostly off the glazing now, and filling the gaps, particularly on the centrer 'crown' . 5. Using Micromesh polishing cloths, the glazing is restored to being crystal clear. 6. Masks are now needed. It is a straightforward job to get an A320 decal sheet with a 'solid' glazing decal on, lay a sheet of clear plastic over, add some Kabuki tape on top. Cut with a new blade following the glazing pattern beneath, remove the excess tape, and you have a set of home made window masks! 7. Add them to the model.Use thin strips to adjust any edges. Here the central pillar wasn't right, so a couple of this strips corrected it. 8. The wing on this kit needs a little fettling to get it to sit flush in its opening. I find that trimming, test fit, trim, test fit etc in these areas will help to get the wing fitting snugly without the integral lower fuselage section standing proud. 9. Talking of the wing, the kit winglets are too small. 15 minutes can make a new pair from 20 thou plasicard. Above, the replacement pair. Below, the kit (too small) kit pair. 10. The wings have the extra flap tracks of the A321 version, which need to be removed. A chisel type blade is ideal for this. Shave off most, and finish off by sanding. The engraved split flap lines also need filling in. 11. While the plasicard is out, I replaced some of the lumps and bumps I had cut off the fuselage, With them in place it makes it hard to sand and smooth the fuslege. So I usually shave them off, and make new ones later like this; 12. Primed up with Halfords rattle can 'Plastic primer'. I hope this helps anyone contemplating building an airliner in general, and the Revell A320 (or A319 & A321) in particular. More to follow as I move on to painting it with nail varnish, for that Etihad pearlescent look! John

My next build is something of a departure for me - well actually if you know me at all you'd say that for most of my builds as I tend to build whatever takes my fancy and fires my imagination, be it a WWII aircraft, bar-armoured recce tank or piece of Sci-Fi ingenuity. However for this build I'm coming down to earth with a bump - or rather a "ding ding hold on tight please"! Back in the dim and distant past that was the 1970s I used to take the bus from my home village of Swanscombe in Kent to Gravesend to attend Gravesend School for Boys. The bus I invariably caught was a 480 whose route took it from the eastern side of Gravesend, Denton or Valley Drive all the way along the busy industrial North West Kent roads to Dartford and Erith. This was an ara of heavy industry, paper mills, printing factories and most of all cement factories. Blue Circle had the biggest cement factory in Europe on the banks of the Thames in Northfleet and Swanscombe also had its own cement works, in the shadow of whose chimney I grew up. So, I hear you ask, what has this got to do with anything apart from me indulging in a little nostalgia? Well its because the heavy industry had a major impact upon everyday life in this area - it was filthy! If the wind blew in the wrong direction (which it did frequently) the emissions from the cement factory chimneys would float down through the air like snow, covering everything in a grey white ash powder and turning what would have been pristine clean buses into this: Phoarrr, look at the weathering on that!!! Overdone? I don't think so! Thus instead of building another of the very pretty and shiny red London buses we've seen so much of over the last year or so (lovely as they may be), I will be attempting to produce a replica of RML 2343 from the early 70s period with the yellow London Country logos... in fact this exact bus: Now doesn't that look a pretty bus? Look at the paint loss, dents, dirt and general squallor!!! I won't be doing it with the jacks and wheel off, but I will be doing it with that livery and adverts (or lack of them!) Here is another shot: The model now - well of course its the old favourite Revell London bus: I won't bother with the sprue shots as they've been shown numerous times before, but I will talk about the decals. The kit decal sheet is enormous, mainly due to all those seat decals: However, I'm going to need some custom decals and here is what I've drawn up: and a close up of the advert: I had to create that from scratch in Photoshop, although I was able to reshape the one in the photo above to act as a guide. The most difficult part of that was getting a decent image of the Invicta horse symbol of Kent! The destination decals were created using a scan of the kit decal sheet and using that as a guide to build these over the top of the originals. Similarly, the London Country logo was created using the London Transport logo of the kit as a guide for the font, size and spacing. The yellow used is an approximate match - does anyone have an exact colour for the yellow used? On to building then! First off is the engine. I'm using the earlier Leyland engine and I added some details and changed some of the pipework around to match photos I found in the Haynes Routemaster manual and online and then of course I dirtied it up... Did some wheels, which still need to be dirtied up: The lower deck was next which started off like this: and ended up like this: Then there are the seats, lots of seats... The sharp eyed amongst you might notice that these seats are not perfectly smooth - if you had ever ridden in them for any legth of time you would have found that most of the seats were worn, sunken and grubby to say the least. So the Dremel came out and added a bit more realism to the seating. Then there are the handrails and seatbacks. These were invariably shiny chrome, so this seems like an ideal opportunity to try out the Alcad I spent so much money on back in November at Telford. I must say they turned out quite nice... Finally for this update, progress on the driver's cab: I always remember sitting behind the driver, admiring the big red indicator switch. As a little boy what could be more exciting that a BIG RED SWITCH that worked the indicator lights!!!! Its almost as if the designers were tuned in to what would appeal to small boys and make them want to grow up to be bus drivers!!! Now in a further departure from the normal Routemaster builds I've seen on the net, nice though they might have been, not a single sign of a passenger or more importantly the driver and conductor!!! Fear not, I aim to rectify that! A quick purchase of a group of resin 1/25 scale figures from Hong Kong will sort that out! The seated man whose originals arms were held in his lap almost as if he was in prayer has had them sanded off and another of the standing gent in a suit has sacrificed his arms to replace. These figures are rather tall so a bit of drastic surgery was required to get the driver to fit in the cab: the bend at the knee had to be increased and the legs shortened by a few millimeters, the torso had to have about 5mm cut out to bring it down to size and of course the arms have had to be remodelled: At this time, the uniform would have still been green, again I'm not sure of the exact colour so this is an approximation. IT also will mean having to scratch build the conductor's ticket machine, ie one of these: and here it is - although I'm afraid the flash has overexposed it its made from milliput and will have extra straps etc added along with a scratch built money pouch: That is the progress so far... I was intending to start doing the seat decals this evening, but well frankly I couldn't be arsed I'll update further when there is something more to report...