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Hi folks! I had a break from building models for several months, because everyday life involved one hundred percent of my energy. But the long autumn evenings came and recently I heard the call of the workbench. It started with this: I got this from my colleague. These are pieces of HIPS polystyrene that were part of the room decoration, I think. Some kind of wall and floor panels, or so. I don't know the details. They are 3.2 mm thick and several square meters in total. I had to cut it into smaller pieces to put it in the car. A supply for life. I decided that since I had so much of it, I could plan my next project on a grand scale 😉 As usual, I started working with only a general idea of what I wanted to achieve: a large interstellar ship, with a very elongated shape and a splitted bow. The inspiration was, among others, arts from the game Astro Empires but at this stage I don't even know yet if it will be cruiser or freighter. If I choose the combat version, I will call it Gladius, because of the shape. Overall, the size is also correct: as you can see in the photo below, it is over 60 cm long (the ruler is 50 cm). Roman swords were about the same length as I remember 😆. Under the ship's bow, you can see a rhomboid bulkhead, one of several that stiffen the hull structure. Here you can see the bulkheads already glued in. In many places, I strengthened the joints with additional HIPS strips and L-shaped profiles. It may be an exaggeration, but I am afraid that with such dimensions of the model, the joints will crack due to internal stresses. The lower part of the ship will have something like bays. Paneling them is quite a boring job. 😆 When making panels, I'm testing my new tool: the Olfa PC-L knife which I use for carving/engraving lines. So far it works better than Trumpeter's Hobby Line Engraver that I used before. Here you can see the bays after adding details. The "shelf" at the bottom hasn't been glued yet, that's why it's crooked. Once it's all assembled, painting it would be a nightmare, so I'm going to paint it and assemble in stages. These are the parts of the lower hull plating (not finished yet). The whole thing is terribly angular, so I decided to add some curves here. It's hard to do it with HIPS sheets, so I'll use a proven trick: a PC mouse. I'll try to incorporate it into the bridge somehow. And that's it for now. Any comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks for watching. Wiesiek.

There appears to be a lot of interest at the moment in 1/200 scratchbuilt (or using 1/200 paper kits as a basis for scratchbuilding) vessels that are unlikely to be kitted, so I thought I would join in. Wandering into uncharted WIP territory here with a bit of lockdown madness, HMS Victorious really needs no introduction, but what the hell, she was the third of the Illustrious class fleet carriers, launched in 1939 and commissioned in 1941, she served everywhere, starting her wartime career chasing the Bismark, and ending it sweeping bits of kamikaze off her flightdeck, even becoming an unofficial member of the USN for a limited period as the USS Robin. Post war she was heavily modified, (a bit of an understatement there), and was recommissioned in1958 and finally scrapped in 1969. My father served on her during her 1961 “world cruise” as an Observer with 825 Squadron flying Whirlwinds (“never sure whether one was going to fly back, or swim back”), after which I was Christened in the ships bell on her return to Portsmouth, and so having been brought up with albums full of photographs of sampans and blackened Sea Vixens I have always had a fascination for the ship. I am sure I am not alone in playing with the venerable Airfix offering in the bath (not recently I must add) and although I have a couple in the stash I must confess the last time I built one I must have been about 12 and these days I find 1/600 a little small. I had a lot of fun with the ghastly Heller offering which required a great deal of scratch building, (and thank god for Peter Hall and his photoetch) to make something that resembled the ship at the start of her illustrious career (did you see what I did there !), but there was always a project in the back of my mind to model her in her 1961 guise in 1/350 my preferred scale these days. That was the plan anyway, until I spotted a paper kit of the mighty Vic in 1/200 by OREL, couldn’t resist the temptation, and an even more cunning plan started to take shape. Along with the kit I bought the associated photo etch and the laser cut frames, I assume that the anatomy of the ship book was used to develop the kit because it appears to be spot on to the drawings in it. The kit represents the configuration later than I want, in 1961 she still carried the original six 3 inch gun mountings, two of which were later replaced by storage for Buccaneer drop tanks, had lost the six barrelled Oerlikon mounting on the starboard side, and had not grown the extension outboard of the island to starboard,, though funnily enough the experimental bridle catcher (which was only carried through 1961) incorrectly features in the kit. Anyway the cunning plan did not feature paper bits anyway though I intended to use the laser cut structure as a basis, the cunning bit involved reinforcing the card framework by soaking it in superglue. Fast forward to now, it worked, the infused card has the consistency of thin plywood and is sandable, carvable and stable, the model will be waterline in a sea base so I have omitted the lowest level of the hull (makes life easier) to add additional stiffness I fabricated the hanger with fibre board. I scaled the AotS general arrangement drawings to 1/200 and from that cut the flight deck from 3mm styrene, the aft lift radii being squeezed in filler with a template, and the depression for the chock/roller aircraft allignment gear cut out and back filled with 2mm material. I set the flight deck up and levelled it with styrene shims and fixed it temporarily with two screws, the cable deck and quarterdeck will need to be finished before fixing it all permanently, I’m using the flightdeck as my datum, everything is measured off it in X,Y and Z planes, it seems to be working so far ! The fabrication of the docking and boat bays (she still had the port side one in 61) is my current task, though it is all very much “Blacksmithery” at the moment I'm looking forward to some proper modelmaking. Just to give an idea of the size of this beast, this is my other work in progress at the moment, the 1/350 Trumpy Dreadnought, somewhat dwarfed. This is where we are at the moment, as you can imagine this is not going to be a quick build, but all comments (even rude ones) and advice welcome ! Kindest regards to all from the Spanish viral apocalypse David

Personally I’m blaming @Bertie McBoatface for this what with all the talk of there not being as many ships as expected I felt so guilty that I decided to go build one myself. And seeing as how this will be my first Scratchbuilt boat it may all go horribly wrong… Now do bear in mind that this would also be eligible for the ‘not my comfort zone’ GB the ‘go large or go home’ GB as well as the salty sea dog but hopefully not the entropy GB Step 1 start with a scale plan. Step 2 using Amadine drawing software scale it to 1/72 print it off cut it out and stick it to a suitable piece of lumber. step 3 cut out the profiles with my scroll saw. The observant among you may motive that it’s now two bits of wood. My scroll saw can only cut 50mm wide wood so I had to cut the block in two then saw each half then glue them back together. I’ve roughly sanded the blocks with my detail sander. I’ll let it dry overnight then continue sanding/ carving to the correct profile. Still have to figure out what way I’ll fabricate the hull. I may well end up planking over the form either with balsa or plastic sheet.

All hello! I want to build the Yugoslavian tank the type of А. of Tanka was built on the basis of Т- 34 . Made 5 things. In detail about a prototype it is written here - https://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_tip_A

The Madness prevailed! Here it is finished. Materials: a few bits of an Airfix Bentley, styrene sheet and strip, aluminum sheet, scaffolding tube, brass sheet, tube and bar, 3d print (the dampers), fishing line, bass wood, clear acrylic rod and stuff I can't remember. Overall winner Manawatu/ Wellington IPMS Model expo 2024. With the low sun, it got difficult to get good angles, so I waited for the clouds...

I bought David Lyon's book, "The First Destroyers" 20 years ago and since reading it, I knew I had to make one. The book contains a drawing of HMS Velox from 1904, but interestingly, also contained 3D isometric drawings of HMS Havock, the first of the type commissioned in 1894. Havock and her sister Hornet were Yarrow boats, built at Poplar on the Thames and were shorter by ~20ft than the other A class Torpedo Boat Destroyers. As I build at the relatively large scale of 1/4inch to the foot, length matters, I have to find a place for the finished model.. According to Edgar March, who wrote the definitive book on British Destroyers, Fisher asked Alfred Yarrow to propose a class of vessel that would surpass the performance of the French torpedo boats sitting a few miles across the English Channel. The outline plan he came up with is easily available on the internet, see below. Armed with a QF 12 pdr, 3 QF 6pdrs and 3 18 inch torpedo tubes, this concept design was the start of a class of ships later just known as Destroyers After successful speed trials, Havock was accepted into the navy in January 1894 Lyon's book included in its illustrations, a reproduction of Havock's as-fitted drawing which is held in the IWM collection at the Brass Foundry in Woolwich. I bought a full size scan of this and it is this single drawing that started the project. Regrettably, there are no lines or shell expansion drawings available, but the lines are relatively straight forward and the sections on this plan were sufficient to work them out, with the help of a half scale block model I made. The construction is plank on frame, plated in aluminium. All the fittings are brass, scratch, turned or etched. The boats are tissue and PVA over a mould, planked in card with wood fittings. The ship is mounted on a turned pillars set into a French polished, solid oak base board, with engraved name-plate from Engraving Studios who turn it round in a couple of days for ~£16 inc p&p. The model is 3' 10" long. It follows the style of builders models of the period, with the exception that is is weathered to represent a vessel that has seen some service, so salt and coal stained I support my models at the bow 1/4 point using a 2.4mm steel pin that slides inside a sleeve epoxied into the keel forward and generally with the rear pillar anchored round the keel aft. Havock has no exposed keel so for this model, I made up a cradle aft. Using pillars like this no only harks back to the builders models of the past, it allows a clear view of the lines of the ship and makes the model appear to float in the air. Photographing a black ship has challenges, in the end I reverted to flash photography to bring out the detail, however, it makes the images very light and not really the experience you get when viewing the model. The propellors are cast bronze to my drawings, one is slightly longer than the other possibly to prevent prop wash interference. I couldn't bring myself to weather them, sorry. I always place a single crewman on board to help viewer's understand the scale. This chap is in white working canvas trousers and blouse. I've read that in the Victorian and Edwardian navy ratings used white canvas working clothes as they could be washed without losing their colour. You see this in all the pictures, white is very common, even in home waters. The figure came from Steve at Aladdin models, below a collection of poses he created for me, I think the seated rating is a member of the ships boxing team. His website Aladdin Figures allows you to chose a pose, even freeze a motion in a particular position, and then request a 3d file to print it yourself, all for a very low fee, at really any scale. Check it out, he's very helpful and turnaround is fast. I'm very pleased with the torpedo tubes, the exposed bevel and worn gearing are in brass, using components from Alibaba, amazing what you can find searching The chart table shows a Victorian chart of the channel, of course Close-up of the un-weathered cutter, captains boat, would be kept pristine.. The lifesaving plan was to use these two Berthon collapsible boats, as also carried by RMS Titanic, one left covered and one exposed to show the detail, note also the meat safes hanging from the awning ridge wire. The Downton deck pump has a canvas hose coiled up in its stowage frame. This shot also shows the kedge anchor between the funnels. Note also the funnel inner sleeve. I like some hatches left open, there are ladders to descend into the depths of the ship. The flag was hand-painted and then set in a light breeze shape with weak PVA. The mast carried a lifting derrick to handle stores, the boats and load torpedoes which were then transferred aft on a trolly running on a rail line. A half round casing allowed them to be pushed into the tube, it is stowed beneath the cutter The guns are cast brass supplemented with etchings. Of all the parts I made, I'm probably most pleased with the 6drps, they worked really well. The wooden platform round the guns was cut on the laser cutter, don't know how I'd get it that fine any other way The turtleback foc's'le is full of gear and would have seen much more weathering with seas frequently breaking over it. The mooring lines came from my ropewalk, which is much in need of an overhaul after a quarter of a century of intermittent use... The anchors are held on their bed with chain on a quick release roller fitting. Letting that chain go would rapidly deploy the anchor So, there you have it, 1 year start to finish, many 1000's of tiny pieces, it's all right I think. More pictures on my flickr site My plan is to bring this and a couple of other models that I've not show before to Telford this year, so if any of you are in the area, please stop by and say hello. The build thread is here if you wish to check it out Build Thread Lastly, thanks to the followers and support I've had sharing the process of making it, I always appreciate comments, questions and challenges Back soon Cheers Steve

Having been a long time fan of the Schneider trophy planes I always wanted a Crusader, and right here on good ole Britmodeller @greggles.w built Karaya’s 1/48 Crusader which impressed me greatly (his build – not the kit so much!) and again got me wanting to add one to the collection. If you are so inclined, pop over and see @greggles.w's build here:- My preferred scale for race planes is 1/32 because race planes are generally tiny. And it needs to match my Williams Bros kits. So currently scratch building is the only option, although I’m sure Murphy will bring one along as soon as I finish…. At least the fuz being circular should be a 5 minute job in the lathe. @greggles.w’s build was very useful in showing how to approach the more difficult aspects. So forget all the other stuff on the bench that needs finishing, push it all to one side …… LETS GO! This is what I am talking about, any excuse to show Laurent Negroni’s fantastic sketch from his Speedbirds website again:- I had already collected all the available photos (there aren’t many!) and a couple of 3 views neither of which agreed with each other very much. I chose to use this one as my main reference:- Comparing this 3 view with photos show its not without its faults, the upper front rigging attachment to the fuselage is too far forward, the front struts should be wider and angled back a bit more, the rudder is a bit small and the floats a smidge short, but otherwise looks good. I initially had no intention of doing a WIP so took no pics of the first stages, so pay attention as you have some catching up to do! It’s a multi media model(!) the floats and fuz are made from Ureol as its easy to work with, The wing is 3 laminations of 2mm styrene as Ureol tends to crumble where the sections get thin such as trailing edges. The fuz was made with a lateral join, this means its easy to machine the wing seat on the pillar drill table. It also means tailplane alignment is easy. The upper and lower sections were pinned with wire before shaping to ensure repeatable re-assembly. Aaaaaand the fuz blank was too long to fit between the lathe centres, oh bother. So after band sawing the fuz top and side profiles, I carved the square to an octagon, then 16 sides (I just looked it up, its a Hexadecagon – every day is a school day!) I then sanded off the Hexawhatever ridges and used circular drafting templates to mark the high spots and kept sanding until it was circular along its length. After the disappointment of not being able make it on the lathe, I was quite pleased with the result. The wing laminations were left for about a week to fully cure, the outline cut with Tamiya sprue cutters, then scraped with a wood chisel to get the aerofoil – followed by a good scrubbing with 80 grit then 240 and finally wet and dry used wet. The lamination contour lines made it easy to make it symmetrical. The fuz wing seat was cut with a 30mm Forstner bit after raising the nose to set the wing incidence, the ends of the gap were then squared off. A smaller bit was used through both halves to remove the bulk of the cockpit material, which conveniently provided a positive location for the wing after a matching circle of plastic card was stuck to the top of the wing centre section. But not before slicing 75% through the centre line with a razor saw and re-gluing to bend in the miniscule dihedral. The tail seat was cut by hand with a slight neg incidence as the plan. So enough blather, here is the resulting set of parts. The float profiles were again bandsaw’ed out, the top shaped, then the underside carved with a curved wood chisel and finished with 240 grit. To be able to get the 3 main elements to vaguely face the same direction a jig was required, some millimetre graph paper was stuck to 12mm MDF. I have found the problem with sticking the graph paper to corrugated card as a jig (Tyrrell 006), is that the graph paper gradually shrinks over a few weeks and what started as a nice flat base ends up like a potato crisp making it pretty useless. The tail feathers are two laminations of 20thou card. The spine is laminated from the same stuff as the wing, - a redundant B&Q styrene bath side panel! Nothing is glued yet, just held by friction, apart from the nose which is stuck on with blu-tack. The nose did fit in the lathe, and from the blank I carved out the cylinder bases, I found it very hard to initially visualise the final shape, but by marking out and carving away a little at a time and lots of referring to the photos eventually revealed something approximating the real thing. (after cocking up the first one……) Malc.

Dementors Attack the Hogwarts Express It is a little known aspect of the Second Great Wizarding War that the Order of the Phoenix occasionally used the Hogwarts Express as a means of secret communication. When required, a brave squib engineer - Cornelius Melchett - would take the locomotive, unencumbered by rolling stock, at high-speed to points all over the country conveying secret messages and items of great importance. Since he was a squib, he was not closely monitored by the Ministry of Magic and as the locomotive ran completely on muggle principles, it left no traceable magical signature. Eventually however, Cornelius's luck ran out. One evening on Ravenscar Moor he was ambushed by a patrol of no fewer than nine dementors. Although he tried to escape at speed, resistance was futile. The attack was brief and vicious, and alas, Cornelius lost his life. Today a small plaque on the footplate of the Hogwarts Express commemorates his bravery and sacrifice. It's almost two years ago since my 12 year old daughter (now 14) came to me stating that she wanted to scratchbuild the Hogwarts Express. We started in July 2019 and 'Baby Bandsaw' (sometimes her mum calls her 'Caroline') did most of the work herself, although I helped out here and there. The locomotive is mostly made of wood and brass with the wheels 3D printed by Neil; a good friend of mine without whose assistance this could not have been done. I could not be prouder of what my daughter has achieved here and must say that the final standard is far above what I thought possible when we started. Here's the story of how this model / diorama was made. I would like to thank everyone in the Britmodeller Community who offered advice, interest, encouragement or just old fashioned banter. There have been one or two stalwarts on this project who have contributed at every step of the way. To you lot - and you know who you are - I offer very special thanks indeed. Best Wishes to you all, Bandsaw Steve and Baby Bandsaw

Here in 1/48 scale is the Norman (or NAC) Fieldmaster a 1980’s British cropduster. If ‘Norman’ sounds familiar – you are correct. Here’s a little bit of history courtesy of Wikipedia… “NDN Aircraft, which was set up in 1976 by Desmond Norman, one of the founders of Britten-Norman, the manufacturers of the Islander, to build the Firecracker trainer, designed a new agricultural aircraft. The resulting aircraft, the NDN-6 Fieldmaster was a large single-engined low-winged monoplane with a fixed tricycle undercarriage, powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop engine” “The first prototype flew on 17 December 1981 at NDN's airfield at Sandown, Isle of Wight. TNDN moved the premises to Cardiff, Wales in 1985, renaming itself the Norman Aeroplane Company (NAC). Production finally started in 1987” “NAC went into receivership in 1988, after the production of six Fieldmasters, including the prototype. Brooklands Aerospace attempted to continue production, rebuilding one of the Fieldmasters with a more powerful engine as a specialised firefighting aircraft as the Firemaster 65” The scheme in the model is G-NACL (NACL = Norman Aeroplane Company) which undertook a sales tour of Australia in 1988. But no sales… The build has been tracked over in the Work in Progress forum. Just for a size comparison - here she is alongside an Airfix 1/48 Tiger Moth cropduster. The Fieldmaster (WS = 53ft 3", L=36ft 2") is actually bigger than a Britten-Norman Islander (WS=49ft, L=35ft 7")

I have modelled on and off for probably the last 40 years, predominantly in 1/72 scale. Aircraft and vehicles mainly. During more recent years modelling has been limited to basic assembly and conversion work and scenery building for table top war-gaming. After a hiatus for a couple of years I have decided to get back into model making purely for the pleasure of the build. I did have a few helicopter kits I was going to tackle but wanted something to really motivate me. In a previous life I spent about 10 years as Radar Plot/Anti submarine aircraft controller rating in the RNZN, serving on 3 Leander class frigates and the research vessel HMNZS Tui. It has always been an intended 'one day' project to build my old ships. Never one to do things by half I decided to go big or go home and to tackle the first one HMNZS Waikato in 1/72 scale. The Mighty "Y" was not my first posting but I have fond memories of my time on board and decided to start with one of the two gun Leanders first. The other was HMNZS Canterbury. My third Leander was HMNZS Southland (ex HMS Dido) an Ikara Leander. I served on her in the late 80's and will aim the build around this time. When she still carried a whaler before the Rib was fitted. I have been doing what research I can and building a library of photos of both her and when I can't find specifics at least detail references of other Leanders. Stumbled across this picture this morning. I remember this photo being taken, it was for Navy News or something similar and idea was to show the different parts of ship that made up a crew of a Leander. I am not 100% positive (it was 30+ years ago) but if memory serves correctly I am one of the ratings in Dayglo wet weather gear on the focsle

The next build begins This is a quick small build (pause for hysterical laughter) while I work on the drawings for what will be a very large complex build that I finally have the room for. This one is a small diorama of an ASR buoy that has ended up on the beach after a storm. It will be being inspected by some RAF personnel who have just rocked up on a Bedform MWD I'm sure a lot of you know about these buoys (or dumb barges) but I only found out about them watching the film "One of our aircraft is missing" As I understand it, the story begins the Luftwaffe general Udet deciding that too many aircrew were drowning in the channel and North Sea on the way home so he had these buoys built and anchored on the common routes home The British found out and decided to copy the concept with a more seaworthy alternative, the ASR Dumb barge, also know as "Cuckoo", shown here being anchored for the first time, all shiny paint... These were ~30 ft long, this is the best drawing available on line, there are a couple of others, but they seem to be copies of this image, with slight variations. You will note this drawing doesn't agree with the picture when you study it closely I couldn't find any model plans so I've drawn my own. It is in 1:48th and 1:72nd scale, with frame cutting plan at the former scale I'll be using One survives in a maritime museum on Scotland, but it has modifications from its time as a house boat, so be careful. This is a 3D scan of that survivor The other part of this diorama is a Bedford MWD. Now I've never built a truck, but my goal is to scratch-build it in metal and wood which could end up a complete disaster, but I'm going to give it a go. To help, I bought this Airfix kit (no longer available apart from really expensive on eBay). This will help me reproduce the components in brass etc But I'm getting ahead of myself, first the Cuckoo, which I know I can make. This will be ply on frame and then clad in 0.3mm copper. With the cutting plan, I had the perfect first project for my new toy, a desktop laser cutter/engraver Some hours later, and much frustration over file types, finally to the sound of "what's that burning..." drifting up the stairs Job done, it actually worked first time, amazing. The uncut rectangle on the right is for scaling in the control software How sweet is that Some 2x2 and 1x1.5 lime strip later And 0.5mm ply cladding started, its taking shape very rapidly Something a little different, really just playing with some new stuff and I get to build a war-time beach, possibly with a pill-box, we will see Cheers Steve

Another post of a model I complete some time ago. This was a departure for me in terms of scale as this is built to 1:12th scale and was intended to be a working model, though in the end I didn't fit the motor. I completed is around 2010 and it languished on a shelf looking a bit rough. In 2015, I re-worked it and these pictures are of it as it is today. The boat was entered into the 2016 Model Engineering Exhibition where I was fortunate to be awarded a Silver medal, I'm not really sure why. Below are the notes I prepared for the exhibition: Overview I found drawings of this boat in a book written by Uffa Fox, first published in 1937 titled Racing Cruising and Design and as Uffa himself says, what appealed to me was the hull shape which I quote as I couldn’t write it better: “The flare off forward, throwing the sea away from her decks, is washed out amidships, where her side is plumb, while aft the tumblehome takes any heavy look away from her transom, and besides this cuts down on the wind suction from the stern by that much” Studying the drawings (reproduced below) I could see that it needed to be a largish model, so I chose 1:12 scale, a departure from my normal 1:48th scale. Seaplane tenders were designed to transfer passengers and crew from the shore to seaplanes. This tender, designed, built and operated by Saunders (later Saunders Roe) was used in the Solent between 1920 and WW2, I have not been able to find out and operational history other that which Uffa describes. He says it operated for 25 years (before 1937) but as Saunders only entered the seaplane business in 1920, I have dated it from then. The tender dimensions were: Length overall: 36ft Beam: 6ft 6in Draught: 2ft 5in Displacement: 2.43 tons Max Speed: 15 knots The model is 3 feet long Sources As can be seen from the drawings, there is very little true detail and searching the internet, the only photograph I could find is reproduced on the cover. Again, this shows very little detail, but I did find photographs of a similar seaplane tender, fully restored and for sale, plus drawings of many components in a copy of Davey & Co’s fittings catalogue from 1961 (most fittings had not changed since WW1). The model was built using the following sources: The plan in Uffa’s book Various illustrations of boat and ship fittings from Davy’s catalogue Some additional detail from the photographs found on the internet Conjecture Originally, the model was intended as a working model and still contains a motor, battery pack and servo, however, I have completed it as a static model, supported on an acrylic stand so the lines can be seen unencumbered and surrounded by the inter-war seaplanes Saunders-Roe produced. The image below is the only one I could find that shows the launch, in action... For interest, I include below a drawing of a fast motor launch (found on-line) which is clearly different to this one and the one in the photographs but showing a distinct family resemblance (dated 1920) Construction notes The hull was a major challenge and the real reason I built the model. There is no parallel section, it changes continually. Because if this, it is planked with double layer of diagonally laid 1/32nd balsa strips, bending across the grain, glued to thin open frames to produce a strong, very light hull. The hull was then coated, inside and out, with clear epoxy to both strengthen the balsa and render it water-tight. It has a single bulkhead at the front of the cockpit for added strength as I guess you would see in full scale practice. A 1/16th inch ply sub-deck was then attached (to deck beams forward) to further reinforce the construction and the deck planked in lime-wood with calking from black card. The passenger area was then also planked on the inside and the crew seat built up to act as a storage place for the battery box (see picture below). Finally, the framing for the passenger deck and rear seat (which all comes out to allow access to the rudder servo) was built up. The gratings were home-made to be the right size, being such a prominent aspect of the passenger area, as was the engineering plate in the crew space (etching glued to aluminium). The column throttle was turned and capped with an etched ring. The silencer and exhaust are modelled as shown on the drawing, the engine would have been water cooled via the exhaust and so I added a water intake on the port side below the water line and a heat shield where the passengers sit. I added the lifebuoy as it seemed strange she could have operated without one and the Saunders-Roe logo because I wanted it represented on the model. Other Fittings The fittings were primarily made of brass, with some help from custom etchings (wheel frame and rudder top pulley). The seat cushions were made from Fimo. The rev counter was modelled on this photograph of another seaplane tender (further pictures in appendix). Mostly the details were scaled up from the drawing above but the following fittings were added from Davey’s catalogue illustrations: The anchor I chose was a folding one (built up from brass) all of which works and certainly looks the part in its galvanised finish (Davey's illustration below) Commercial Fittings The only commercial components used were: The propeller and shaft The anchor chain and rudder chain All other components were scratch built. The name plate was custom etched to my drawings and the ensign hand-painted. And here is it at rest in its case, the pictures under the perspex base are Sunders-Roe flying boats of the 20's and 30's

I’ve been threatening to build one of these for a while, possibly the ugliest airplane ever built. First order of business, a buck got the fuselage, I’m going to split it into three moldings, one for the cupola and two fuselage sides. It’s glued/taped/screwed so once it’s shaped I can easily split it into three pieces for molding.

PzH 2000 - 1/24 Scale - Scratchbuilt I present my recently completed model of a Panzerhaubitze 2000 self propelled howitzer in Ukrainian armed forces service. Originally my intent was to paint this model as a german gun in Afghanistan, but very unfortunately about half way through this build, the war in Ukraine escalated dramatically. As a consequence several of these extraordinary weapons have been dispatched to the conflict and I have changed the markings to represent one of these as it may appear today. This project ran for over three years and, by my very rough reckoning, has absorbed at least 300 hours of my time. The model is completely scratchbuilt using a wide variety of materials including, wood, MDF, plastic-sheet, brass, poured-resin, aluminium lithoplate, a few dabs of filler and - very occasionally - bits and pieces scavenged from injection molded kits. No 3D printing was used. The last photo is intended to show the size of the finished item. It’s a fairly large model. The whole WIP story is documented here: Building models this way is always a learning process. For me the chief lessons learned were: How to scratchbuild tracks; which is actually not too bad once you know how. MDF is a really useful material, especially when skinned with plastic-sheet or aluminium lithoplate. Acrylic laquer paints are really very good. In this case I've used SMS paints and am definitely a convert. Figures can be scratchbuilt, although not easily. Magnets can be used to hold movable parts steady when required. In this case once the gun's elevation is set it's held in place by a couple of strong magnets inside the turret. There are some really good modern glues out there including Selly’s Powergrip and Gyprock’s blue acrylic joist paste. Careful attention to precise and accurate measurement at every stage really pays dividends. A good set of digital calipers are an indispensable tool. That's it for this project. Sincere thanks to all that have shown interest in this, especially anyone who has commented or posted 'likes'. As always, without the support of the Britmodeller community I don't know that I would have completed this. I hope to see you soon on the maritime pages as the SS Xantho gets yet another KUTA! Very Best Regards, Bandsaw Steve

This is my most recently completed model. It's the Felday 4 - BRM as driven by Jim Clark in the 1966 Guards Trophy race at Brands Hatch, August Bank Holiday 1966. Lotus boss Colin Chapman was keen for his driver, Jim Clark, to experience 4WD, and the opportunity arose for him to drive Peter Westbury's Felday 4 in the Guards Trophy. The Felday 4 was designed and built by Westbury. It featured a 1.9 litre BRM V8 mounted back to front and delivering power to all four wheels though a Ferguson 4WD transmission system. In the race, Clark won his class in the first heat, but was black flagged for dropping oil in the second. I started with a set of 1/32 scale drawings from the July 1966 copy of Model Cars magazine. I reduced the scale to 1/43 and made several copies of the drawings. The skeleton was constructed by glueing the longitudinal and lateral shapes to 30thou plastic card. The card was cut and sanded to shape, suitable slots were cut, and the parts cemented together. The internal shapes of the wheel arches involved cutting away some of the plastic, and installing appropriate shapes from 20thou card. Plastic tube cut to half width were then added so as to locate the axles. The external skin was made from 20thou card for the flat and single curvature panels, with Milliput filler for the compound curved areas. The chassis plate was made from 40thou card, with the remaining structures made from 20thou card. The roll hoop was made from copper wire, with brass tube for the exhausts. The instrument panel, engine structure and radiator were made from various thickness pieces of plastic card with brass mesh for the radiator core, and Tameo intake trumpets on the the engine. The rear view mirror was made from scraps of plastic, with a copper wire support and lens from the spares box. I made the wheels by using a pair of SMTS Brabham BT19 front wheels as masters, and then casting resin copies. I vac-formed the windscreen, side windows and headlight covers from masters made from Milliput sanded to shape, and then polished with finer and finer grades of paper to get a nice smooth finish. The spoiler was a left-over from my Matich SR3 model, and the tyres are 018 Automodelli Studios. The seats were made from Milliput, sculpted to suit. The headlights and tail lights were AM items. Paint was Humbrol enamels throughout. Tyre sidewall decals by Marsh Models. The numbers and roundels are by Virage, the Firestone decals are from the spares box, and the J. CLARK stickers were made from Letraset on Tameo white decal with blocks of red and black decal for the Guards logo. To finish off, I painted a Denizen white metal figure to portray Clark as he raced that day. Decals (few that they are) are from an AM decal sheet by Best Balsa Kits. The figure was mounted on a BBR display base, along with the car. This was a lengthy build. I started in November 2016 and only finished it a few months ago. This was mainly due to me having to work out how to approach each stage once I got there. There was no great master plan to its construction! Thanks very much for looking. Trevor

So Alien/Aliens are among my favourite films. I’ve built an alien and an APC in the past and have half built an APC recently, so this is an excuse to finish the APC and add something interesting to my collection. This is where my APC is at. This is my starting point it’s in 1/200 so first step is to scale it up by 2.7 to get 1/72.

I’m probably going to scratch some 1/28 airplanes as my Fokker DR1 is lookin awfully lonesome but I thought I’d start the ball rolling with two Daleks. Yes I actually went and bought the plans from projectDalek ( I wonder if they’re evil plans, hmmm) An Emperor and a drone both in 1/6 scale… More to follow

The rather grandly-named Aeronautical Corporation of America (Aeronca) was formed in 1928 by a group of Cincinnati, Ohio businessmen hoping to profit from the recent boom in US civil aviation. With initially no product to sell, they settled on the ultralight monoplane designed by Air Corps engineer Jean Roche, which was productionised as the Aeronca C-2 ‘Flying Bathtub’ and became the World’s first successful major-production ultralight aircraft, largely down to the reliability of the 2-cylinder engine Aeronca also manufactured to power it. By 1935 however, the writing was on the wall for the Flying Bathtub line (after over 500 had been produced), as the CAA banned the production of light aircraft with wire-braced wings, which required careful maintenance, seen as a potential safety hazard. So Aeronca had to create a more modern successor and hedged their bets by designing two.... First was the model K, which was effectively an updated replacement for the bathtub, with slimmer lines, strut-braced high wing and the same 2-cylinder 36 h.p. engine. The other was the model L, an altogether more sophisticated affair, with a low-mounted cantilever wing and very 1930s-looking trousered undercarriage. Although the prototype had the usual 2-cylinder engine, that proved adequate only for a single circuit of the airfield to determine much more power was required. This was found in the shape of the locally-produced 5-cylinder Le Blond radial, with 85 hp, which gave the hoped-for performance. Although it was well-received, it was comfortably outsold by the cheaper model K, which evolved into the popular Chief when fitted with 4-cylinder engine. The Aeronca factory was flooded in 1937 and some of the model L tooling destroyed, so the management decided to cease production after 66 had been completed. Only a handful survive, with only one currently in airworthy condition, as shown in this very informative video with vintage lightplane test pilot extraordinary Andrew King: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEtvvrJjHqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkVZjyX7jro It’s one of my favourite 1930s lightplanes and I built this model almost exactly 30 years ago and it won the 1/72 scratchbuilt and vacform class at the 1993 IPMS UK Nationals. Model is 100% scratchbuilt from plasticard using my take on Harry Woodman’s techniques, including the Le Blond engine and Sensenich prop.

These days I mainly specialise in inter-war aircraft models in 1/72 scale, but within that rather large field my favourite area is the 1926-41 'Golden Age' of U.S. Civil Aviation. This is a largely untapped field for models (and likely to remain so), which neatly combines my twin passions of scratchbuilding and historical research. Lloyd Stearman was one of America's foremost designers of civil biplanes. Having been the Chief Designer of both Swallow and Travel Air, in 1927 he left to start his own company, initially in California, but soon relocated back to Wichita, Kansas, then known as the 'Air Capital', for its concentration of civil aircraft manufacturers and suppliers. The fourth successful design of his own company was the Model 4 Junior Speedmail (an earlier model was the larger 'Speedmail'), which he described as 'the finest airplane I ever designed'. Intended primarily as a mailplane, only around half the 40 constructed actually saw service in that role (with American Airways and Canadian Airways). The rest were bought for corporate use, or by wealthy private owners. Top of the range were the 4E models with 400+hp P&W Wasp power and finest of all were the 3 specials constructed for Standard Oil of California and used by their flying salesmen up and down the west coast, 1930-35. Surprisingly, around a dozen of the Stearman 4s built survive, including 2 of the 3 SOCal planes. Latterly, I've been building most of my models in pairs, which I've found to be a more efficient and fun way of increasing my modest output. So here are my models of a Stearman 4EM mailplane of Canadian Airways (Eastern Lines), Montreal, 1931 and Stearman 4E Special 'Stanavo 4' of Standard Oil of California, San Francisco,1930. Models are 100% scratchbuilt and were completed in 2017. Both together: 4EM Mailplane: 4E Special : WIP Parts spread: Cockpit parts: One of my favourite 1930s biplanes..........

This is actually the first 38(t) I’ve built a 1/24 Scratchbuilt Hetzer. I’ll be reusing the masters I made for the running gear on this build to make a 1/24 38(t) I’m also going to build either or both a Grille and a Marder. Now to go figure the best way to cast 24 sets of road wheels …

Just a little diorama to get me back into the swing of thing, not the best dio but I had a lot of fun putting it together. Cheers all. Brian.

Here we have a slight departure from the norm, but my son has a school project to build a prehistoric roundhouse so I thought it was time to teach him some techniques and train up the next generation. Here are some pics of today's efforts in the sunshine. Waiting for the clay and glue to dry out now before we weave some coloured wool between the wall posts and add the clay and flock turf roof tomorrow. Then we'll sprinkle some flock around for some grass and add some doors.

Finally finished the second part of my large diorama Liebe Deinen Nacthsten/Love thy neighbour and now hopefully Part one will make more sense. 20 figures, tamiya m8 greyhound, m10 wolverine, willys jeep. Its scratch built building and base and its all brush painted. I used the mini art garage set and beer bottles crates, the czech hedgehog is from Tamiya and barb wire from yan models, the rest I made. The figures are tamiya, mini art with hornets heads, bravo six and royal models. I adapted the some of the figures, the jeep driver had his arm remoulded to be the machine gunner on watch outside the gasthoff, the M10 gun loader is the m8 beer loader! The m10 gunner is now the jeep mechanic. I added a walking stick and bag to the civilian. Took a year on and off for both parts to complete. All feedback welcome. I added the camo net, made from a hair net and treated moss I made the sandbags from milliput and the rickety stowage holder from styrene. The guy with dark hair and his back turned is cheating at cards, note the cards tucked under his elbow! The back: A few pics of how part one fits in with part two: These guys have started realise that their neighbours might not just be so friendly as they hear the Glen Miller being played from nextdoor. I made it so that the two parts of the broken church steeple fit together once both boards are lined up: The link to part one is below: Sorry its bit photo heavy and the quality of my pics aren't great as I really need to upgrade my camera at some stage. All the best for now, Paul

The Austro Hungarian Lohner type AA I came across this on the internet and thought I just had to build one. There were a surprising number of prototype variations built but I’m going for the AA. I’ve already found some plans and scaled them to 1/48. Now I just need to attack my WIP to have the scope to start this in a few weeks time.

This is a trip down memory lane to my first scratch-build over 25 years ago. I had built a large kit of "Peggy" a steam drifter with a working steam engine and found that I had replaced so much of the kit that the result was probably 40% scratch-built so I decided to build a complete working model from scratch. Around that time Model Shipwright published plans for the Brazilian Customs Cruise Amapa build by Thornycroft's in 1907 (Edition 88 if anyone wants to buy a copy). This pretty little vessel has all the hallmarks of a late Victorian cruiser on a small scale, even a nod to the ramming bows that became popular after the Russo-Japanese war. At 130ft long, a working model at 1:32nd scale seemed about right to me. The model took 18 months to build, all in wood and brass, about 90% scratch. The hull was a bit of a disaster to be honest but the result has a sort of old world charm that I still love to this day. It has aged well, acquiring a nice vintage patina over the years. The wooden deck has gone a wonderful honey colour while the boats still shine as they did when completed. As a working boat, it was not a huge success, having a tendency to try to capsize in a turn, I didn't run it much... I wrote about the build in Edition 104 of Model Shipwright, warts and all and the model received an undeserved Silver medal at the Model Engineering Exhibition, can't remember which year She has been languishing since our move over 2 years ago as I had nowhere in the new house to display her. One of the reasons I've not been posting is I've spent the last few weeks fitting out a loft space as a small gallery and yesterday she was unwrapped and placed on her niche, giving me the opportunity to photograph her for the first time in many years. I painted her grey overall but a year after I completed the model, the Brazilian embassy replied to a letter I had sent them 2 years before asking for information on the vessel and enclosed pictures showing she was in Victorian white with mustard funnel etc, what a shame as I love that colour scheme The boats were my first papier mache hulls, they have stood up well To access the battery etc, the entire well-deck lifts out. This didn't really work well after the rigging was completed..... The wheelhouse is mahogany and is fitted out internally A rather simplified Hotchkiss 3 pdr QF but a nicely detailed steam anchor winch The galley door open for service, the galley stove was made from copper I'm very tempted to build her again at 1:48th scale, in the right colour scheme, would make an interesting companion model It's nice to see her again after over 2 years in storage... Thanks for stopping by, the R-boat rfi thread will be soon, once I finish the case and pillars Cheers Steve