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Hello to all, Even if my endless Ford Mustang 1964 1/2 Convertible at 1/16 scale is not over: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235040668-ford-mustang-1964-12-convertible-116-from-the-coupe-amt-kit-the-indy-500-pace-car/page/75/&failedReply=1 I begin a new build and thread dedicated to the 2014 Honda Repsol 213V Tamiya at 1/12. Even if this awesome GP motorbike will require a lot of care, it should be more simple than the Mustang, for which a lot of scratch was and still is necessary considering the quite poor AMT kit and the fact that I made a conversion from a Coupe to a Convertible. As my Mustang project is the priority, this Honda build will go on very slowly first (that is why I hesitated to open a new thread now). Here are below the first pics I made, engine build: N.B: I painted the clutch but in fact, I should not use the Tamiya part, that is not very realistic. I ordered a Top Studio detail set in which a more convincing PE/ resin clutch is provided. But I should not get this set before several weeks... Talking about detail sets, I will certainly order also the Tamiya detail set (front fork ref. 12667), waiting the latter to be in stock again on Passion 132. Cheers, O

This was my entry into the recently finished M3/M4 Group build, which I enjoyed and as always have learnt a bit more. Managed to finish the Sherman and the figures in time, but not the base. Anyway, I have finished the base now, nothing special just a Lidl chopping board, Tamiya “stone paving” and some static grass and lawn moss. "This will cheer you up!" is referring to the Commander offering the grumpy Gunner a glug of wine. Thanks for looking, George

I've been fascinated by tanks since I was just a little boy. Big, loud and menacing beasts...the exact sort of things that appeal to little boys. When I was elementary school-age, circa the late 1950s, early '60s, our hometown had a National Guard unit with a tank. It was parked beside their building and I loved seeing it as we drove past. I imagine it might've been an M47 or perhaps M48, heck maybe even an old M26. Whatever it was, it was a marvel to me back then! I started building scale models as an adult around 1986 or '87. And since then, I've only built two tank scale models. I enjoyed building both, and actually did enter them in an Austin,Texas model contest (still a "one time" experience for me), luckily placing both tanks in third place in their respective categories. Beginner's luck I call it. My two tanks I hate masking aircraft canopies. It's the part of the process I dread the most; the mere fact that there are no canopies to mask on a tank...well, that is a huge plus in the armor column for me! Lately, I have become somewhat stalled on a Bf-109E build (yeah. I came to the masking stage...) and thought I would take "the road less traveled" for a change. And, now I'm having a ball going down that path! I started Tamiya's ancient M41 Walker Bulldog in 1/35, of course. I've only spent a handful of hours, spread out over a couple weeks, thus far, but I believe I'm getting close to laying on some final paint. I've done a bit of scratch-building, adding some features that Tamiya chose to leave off. I would like to show my progress here however, and thereby gain access to all the great info here at BM. Well, the road wheels are painted and sealed, awaiting some weathering. I also painted the rubber portion of the return rollers. The odd bits and pieces have been added to the front and rear hulls: Most M41 Bulldogs featured a canvas mantlet cover that is bolted to the turret top and sides. I've attempted to replicate this with tissue soaked in CVA. I've seen photos of these covers that show some variation and of course, a lot of wear and tear. I futzed around this for quite a while, making several attempts, finally calling it done (and good enuf!). I tried to replicate the attachment parts with plastic rod and thin strips of aluminum. After they are glued to the tank, I'd like to place a Grandt Line bolt-head on each "tab". Heh, heh, that may be a bridge too far for my meager skills but I'm game to give it a try! I've still got some small details to add around the cut-out for the gunner's sight, and of course some touch-up once the final paint goes on. Here's how the attachment parts look, and a pic with some practice paint on: Tamiya left off the two lifting rings found on the glacis plate. I've routed out a slot for some rings made from flattened copper wire. I hope to set the rings in the slot with some thick CA. The real rings were attached with six huge weld beads so I hope I can get close to that appearance. M41s have two storage boxes mounted on the sponsons but Tamiya failed to add the stiffening ribs stamped into the sides of the boxes. I've tried to replicate that effect by gluing small strips if stretched-sprue to the sides. The vertical ribs on the front boxes were oddly arrayed and that was difficult for me to recreate. I believe they will look okay when finally "tweaked" though. Port side before paint: Starboard too: With some "practice paint": Also seen in the above pic is the auxiliary muffler for the tank generator. Originally, these were mounted over the right-side rear main muffler but excessive heat in that location led to refitting the aux. muffler to the right front fender. I'm building my Bulldog as a tank issued to the Army of Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). ARVN forces were the ones who used the M41 most in combat, seeing some success against soviet PT-76 and T54 tanks of the NVA. I've seen ARVN Bulldogs with aux. mufflers in both locations; there are great diagrams of both mountings in the Squadron Walk Around book on the M41 and I chose the rear, original location to scratch build. I found an old, model car exhaust collector that worked well in replicating the muffler. Some aluminum tubing provided the tail-pipe and plastic stock made the mounts, with furnace tape straps and clamps on the flexible pipe connecting it to the engine deck. Here are some pics of the process: And here's the muffler with some "practice paint": I've been looking at several photos of ARVN Bulldogs for ideas and inspiration. Here are a couple: In the above pic, I see a great idea for speeding up the build...just wrap the M2 in canvas! And a couple pics with the three main pieces assembled for a trial viewing thus far: Hey everyone, thanks for staying with me so far! I hope to have more progress to post soon, and I'm always happy to receive constructive criticism and advice. I am pretty much still a novice armor builder and on my third try. So, with that, adieu for now! Links of interest: https://mikesresearch.com/2019/03/24/m41-walker-bulldog/ https://www.historynet.com/m-41-walker-bulldog-tank/ https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/land/m41.htm

Hi Everyone This is the excellent Tamiya 1/48 scale Do-335A Pfeil built out-of-the-box, more or less! I made the crew ladder and nose cowl gun sleeves from stock plastic, other than that I just added the PE seat belts from Eduard. I wanted to recreate a fictitious Bodenplatte type blackened weathering/camo pattern to bring a little more presence to the otherwise tame colour palette usually seen on the Do-335. I’ve also tried a few new techniques to the upper surfaces which I’ve not seen on the usual YouTube channels. I’m trying this on some other kits and hope to share the techniques when I know it wasn’t just a one-off. Anyway enough of the rambling. Kind regards Trace

It does feel as though we've had a load of very nicely built and modified Mercedes 300SLs on here, especially from Crazy Crank. So time for me to redress the balance with a not-so-well built and barely modified version of Tamiya's kit. First impressions of the kit are that there is a lot in here compared to your standard 1/24 car. I've not done a sprue shot before, but here's what you get: Nice to see plenty of bracing for the body, but it did mean quite a bit of cutting and filing to get all of it off. Once that's all cut off the bodyshell doesn't feel anything like as stiff as it did so definitely a good move on Tamiya's part putting that in. I gave it a guide coat a few weeks ago just to show the mould lines (there is a prominent one on the top of each wing running front to back plus some smaller, but more annoying ones, front and rear. It looks as though I've got them all sanded off now, so it sits here awaiting the start of the proper painting process. The bonnet has also had a start made to it. First job is to remove the ejector marks on the underside. There's quite a few, including some in the middle part. For these, I chose to sand them out rather than fill them as I've heard that clearance under the bonnet is minimal at best, so I figured it was worth grabbing myself a little bit more space, even if it is just a fraction of a millimetre. I've also sanded the inside of the bonnet bulges as far as I dare for the same reason, and I'm going to give the underside of the bonnet minimal coats - it doesn't matter if this part of the car looks very slightly different to the rest. And the other bit which I've started painting is the interior tub. Lots of masking here, some such as for the interior you can see, and some such as inside the wheel arches is less visible. Again, quite a lot of ejector pin marks and these were also sanded flat. Unfortunately, because this part is moulded in the silvery plastic, the ejector pin mark stays visible long after it's sanded flat, so you just have to hope you have them when primer is applied. And in case anyone is wondering, the barbecue skewer is just there to hold it up for painting. So that's a start. The hope is that I can get this painted well before winter as I'd like to get another bodyshell done too before the weather turns. Thanks for looking.

Hello all, This is my latest build, it's Tamiya's 1/72 A6M5 Zero. The fit of the kit was perfect, like all other Tamiya kits (in my experience). The model was painted with Ak real colors and Tamiya acrilycs, the yellow band on the leading edge and markings on the propeller were painted. I initially wanted to build Saburo Sakai's aircraft, inspired by his biography "Samurai!"; but I discovered that the Peddinghaus decals I had were wrong (dimensionally) and the other ones I had from an AJ Press Zero book were bad as well. So after some research I decided to do an aircraft from the 203 kokutai, at Omura airbase in Nagasaki, August 1945, from the Rising Decals sheet Zero pt.V, I decided to depict the aircraft with the tail number of it's first owner. The decals went on wonderfully. Some aftermarkets were used: Brengun Pe, a Yahu models instrument panel, master model 20mm canons and resin machine guns. The weathering was done with Tamiya enamel washes and powders, and a silver pencil for chipping effects. Hope you enjoy it! Next up is Arma hobby's F4F-4 Wildcat!

Ok having completed my Challenger 2 BATUS winter repair I have built a Mirage Hobbies Vickers E Mk A which I have not logged a build for but now I am starting a new project Tamiya's Valentine Archer which will be built out of the box after the CR2 detailing. So here are the box shots ready to start. And here is a preserved example just to show what it should end up looking like Thanks for looking in more to come soon Stay safe Roger

Hi, Having recently enjoyed building the Tamiya GMC 2.5 ton 6x6 cargo truck I thought I would do another though with a slight variation. This time will be with the so called 'Recovery set no.7'. This turned the 2.5 ton truck into an effective light recovery vehicle which was widely employed on the Red Ball Express (and elsewhere) covering breakdowns, engine re-fits and crashes. For this build I will be using the Tamiya 1/48 GMC 2.5 ton kit along with the MP Originals Masters Models Recovery set no.7 resin conversion kit and a set of photoetch by Aber. I've also added some spare tires from MP Originals for a small vignette I plan on making with a Willys Jeep. For reference I will be using 2 excellent books by Pat Ware: That's all instructions you get with the resin set but should be easy enough to follow. I've made a start on the main chassis and the front winch. Quite a lot of trimming was required but I think the detail is of nice quality. Also added the rear photo etch plates. That's all for now though will hopefully make some more progress over the Easter weekend!

When I first saw photos of the F-16 Viper Team Demo out of Shaw AFB, SC in 2020 I thought that this was one of the best of many F-16 demo schemes but thought it pretty unlikely I would be able to replicate it. Luckily Model Makers Decals had made this scheme super easy for someone with my patience and I ordered the decals immediately. They provide very clear steps in the instructions to lay all the scales down in sections. The decals were thin enough that the Tamiya surface detail still shows through. I had a few hiccups but overall it looks the part. I added a Quinta Studios cockpit as well, painting the gull gray areas to make it blend in better.

Here are the photos of my completed Fw 190D-9 in 1:48 from Tamiya. A kit that is buildable, but with some fit issues in the wings and fuselage. There're better alternatives to it though, in the shape if the Hobby Boss Dora family. That's all for now! Next model will be Italeri's 1:48 Mirage V Dagger. It has already been started, I drilled holes on the main landing gear struts to add metallic clips. This will hopefully improve the stability of the gear.

Hello all, Here is my entry for this GB - Tamiya's 1/48 F4U-1D Corsair, marked as a Corsair II, JT410 of 1836 Naval Air Squadron, flying off HMS Victorious in 1945. The pilot, Lt Don Sheppard, RCNVR became the only FAA Corsair ace during the Second World War and was also involved in the first attack on the Tirpitz in 1944. He was awarded a DSC in March 1945 and served in the Royal Canadian Navy through the 1950s and 60s before retiring after a stint at NATO HQ in 1974. He passed away in 2018. Kit: Extras: I'll be using Eduard etch and mask, MDC FAA Corsair conversion set along with Ultracast exhausts, seat (although there is one included in the MDC set) and Sky decals. Saying that, the decals show, I'm fairly certain, an incorrect paint scheme for this machine: 'Grey' and 'white' I'm fairly sure this machine was painted the DSG or EDSG, Dark Slate Grey and sky undersides? I also know there's some modifications to do for an FAA machine - clip the wingtips, fill a foot hold in the flaps. Anything else that those in the know could point out? Cheers and stay safe Dave

Recently I looked at how many unfinished models I have on my shelf. At first glance, there are a lot of them. But I made a disappointing conclusion that they are still not enough if I want to become the absolute champion in unfinished models. It turned out that this hard sport has a lot of competition, so I start a new model - Kübelwagen Type 82 from Tamiya. I hope that this will be another gem on my shelf with unfinished models Vytautas

Picked this Dora 9 in 48th from Hobbies Moròn today, instead of taking with me the Gloster Meteor from the same brand (the owner was not amused by that). I won't be using the kit decals, because I plan on using a mix of Xtradecals and Sky Models decals to mark this Dora as Red 1 from JV 44, Heinz Sachsenberg's plane. The seller warned me that the kit didn't come with instructions, but I'm sorted with the PDF file from Scalemates. I also bought a new softener, one that I have never used, Mr. Mark Softer decal softener. I plan on using it on another Tamiya kit with more irregularities in the surface, such as the Mosquito FB VI or the Spitfire Mk.Vb Trop. I won't be making a start soon though, it's exam time at uni, so I'll be sniffing glue and paint as soon as I'm finished. Here are some photos:

Hello Dears, Did I have mentionned this building ?? The Monogram Dash F has been started in 1988 or so.. Will search where the Bushmasters are stationned at the time, but I think it was Bentwaters... I read a book about the projected nuke war, they told about the Squadron, There was a Mk 7 nuke for each bridge of the Vistule river, would have 3 or 4 eyed fish For god's sake they both stayed quiet or almost, no mushrooms Modifications on the pylon for the Mk 7 The Tamiya one is a more recent start, 6 or 7 years ago I think. She is retro modified, from a dash G to a dash E. Goog kit, I used parts from the Verlinden kit, this kit is just a copy from the original parts, there is a slight difference, almost not noticeable. And some parts from a Heller X-kit, so I believe resin parts are from Renaissance.Don't Know, More to come soon. Thank for watching. Sincerely. Corsaircorp

Hi All. I have been a member here for a few years, but this is my first time posting. This is also the first ship model I have built as I usually build aircraft, and occasionally armour, cars, sci-fi, etc. I actually started this model nearly three years ago, but I have had a number of breaks from the project during that time, so I am only now on the home straight. I thought some of you might be interested in the build process, so I will try and document what I have done so far over the next few days or weeks and will update it going forward. Apologies if there are a few steps missing, I have not been very consistent with pictures of the build, but I will show you as much as I can. I also have some questions about various details which I am trying to work out. This was originally supposed to be a relatively simple build, using the Tamiya Prince of Wales kit and the Pontos KGV upgrade set. However, due to a lack of detail in the Tamiya kit and a few inaccuracies in the Pontos kit, this project has somewhat spiralled out of control and become much more complex. Because I was not happy with my original painting of the hull, I ended up buying a second POW kit, and in addition to the Pontos set, I have also used Eduard photo etch as well as detail sets from North Star models, WEM, Micro Master and various others. I have also ended up doing quite a lot of scratch building to try and get what I hope is a reasonably accurate model. I decided to depict her in early 1942. The reasons for this were that I didn’t want to do a complex camouflage scheme for my first ship model. I also wanted to include the catapult and Walrus. The catapult was removed in February 1944; however the ship was given a camouflage scheme following the collision with HMS Punjabi in May 1942 and kept this until late 1944. I also prefer the look of the pom-poms to the UP launchers, which were removed in December 1941. This is the best, and pretty much only picture that I have been able to find of the ship during this period and has been my main inspiration for the build. Despite what the text on the picture says, this is in fact KGV, not the Duke of York, although I believe the date is correct. As far as references are concerned, I have the following books, one of which in particular turned out to be less than useful, and hundreds of photos and other information found online, mostly from the IWM. While waiting for the kit to arrive, I made a start on the base. This was a solid piece of oak from an old bookshelf, larger than the model and with a routered edge to allow for a Perspex case. I also added cut-outs under each end to make it easier to lift For the pedestals I used some brass handrail fittings, but cut down to around 4cm high. Next, onto the build Peter

My first WIP and my first GB, so i thought i should go for an "Easy" (eight) option. My intentions are to add a couple of figures and a make a small base. The kit comes with rubber band tracks (which are ok) but can anybody suggest the correct AM tracks for this please? Not saying i will get them, but willing to consider them. Thanks, George

I once had a Hasegawa AU-1 Corsair that I built when I got back into the hobby 20 odd years ago. It was relegated to being a roof hanger in my son's bedroom where it met its final doom. Fast forward to last Sunday the 15th of August. A quick peruse through the shelves at Casa de Crosby and the ubiquitous 1/48th Tamiya Corsair put it's hand up with an exuberant "Pick me, pick me". It was on. What’s followed has been a few sessions of an hour (or two) over the last week with rapid progress ensuing. To the point where paint has even been applied, no less OUTSIDE of the cockpit. Not much needs to be said about the Tamiya Corsair. It's a simple airframe, goes together very well and the detail for a kit that's 20 years old has held up well. I’m not a fan of the black-basing recipe however I’ll put a black primer down before putting any colours into the cockpit. Those colours I used are from Tamiya, Vallejo and Gunze. With some dark washes for the shadow areas and some highlights on the raised ribbing area, the detail pops nicely for a vanilla cockpit. Aftermarket is in the way of the instrument panel and etch seat belts. The same technique was applied in the rear gear well sans aftermarket though I didn't get any pics of it. The only addition to the engine was some ignition leads from lead wire then painted up to look the part. Looking at it now I think I need to grime up the grey crankcase a bit. Similarly, the drop tank received some attention. A few dents and scratches have been added with a chisel and sand pads. I’ve since added more weathering to it. Almost ready for assembly Voila, ready for paint Painting step 1. Primed with a custom mix of Tamiya. Came out looking like a good start for IJN grey. Painting step 2. The first colour clouded on was Gunze H54 Navy blue. Painting step 3. Second colour was Gunze 337 Grayish blue with ArtFX spray masks. painting step 4. Previous step was wet sanded with 2000 grit sanding pad. Painting step 5. Application of Gunze H55 Midnight blue. The colours used so far. And a few photos so I know where to pull the paint when it comes time to chip it. I've also wet sanded the midnight blue. Silver is Tamiya AS-12 which I find is quite hardy for the chipping exercise. More to come soon. Mick.

Whilst the digital modelling of the McLaren M23 and others is trundling along in the background, I needed some traditional modelling to balance out all that new fangled CAD and 3D stuff and whilst I wait for the new resin printer to arrive. I have a fair few subjects to choose from but figured I would start with one as close to OOB as possible (it won't be 100% OOB as I'm pathologically incapable of building something OOB without adding or tweaking details!) Picked up this Lotus 25 on ebay for a good price. As this is part of my World Drivers Champion winning cars serries I'll be building it as the 1963 setup for Jim Clark who clinched the championship at round 7 of 10 at Monza. Lights out and away we go with some cleanup on the main monocoque. Bit of (tamiya fine surface) primer and some polishing before a bit of dry fit of smaller parts: I'm painting the outside in the recommended Tamiya spray TS-43 but after trying it on a test piece I don't like the thickness of paint the spray can gives so I decanted some, added some lacquer thinners and I've been using my airbrush which lets me do lots of thin controlled coats of paint. The main monocoque and rear cover have had three and two coats respectively at this point and the top cover is primed and ready for it's first coat at lunchtime today. Surprisingly for my first car model in 35 years it even looks like the Lotus 25 it's supposed to be! The fit of the rear cover isn't perfect. I could spend weeks fettling it to perfect fit (and there will certainly be plenty of obsessive perfectionist nonsense in the rest of this series of builds), but this one is supposed to be a quick build to get me off the start line. Decided to not worry about the gaps as I'll be displaying it with the covers off to the side with the added advantage you will be able to see the engine and gubbins. Removed all the small parts from the sprues and cleaned up the mould part lines and some minor flash then got them all primed. I like to leave a bit of sprue attached to a part where it won't show if possible to give me something to hold or get the spring tweezers to grip whilst painting and drying but thats not always possible so I also use the bits of cardboard and double sided tape method (and the occasional cocktail stick through a suitable hole method): Tamiya included a large sprue of chrome plated parts in this kit but they are all far too shiny and uniform for my liking so I decided to strip the chrome off. Forgot to take a photo of the shiny parts before stripping however I also forgot to strip the engine inlet trumpets so here they are alongside the still shiny sprue to give you an idea of the problem: The main problem is the underlying plastic is black (as gloss black gives any metallic the best background colour) and when you remove them from the sprue you end up with unsightly black areas around the sprue gates making the chrome plating rather pointless. Stripping the chrome is easy... 5 min coated in Mr Muscle oven cleaner spray, followed by a good rinse in plenty of water and all that shiny chrome is gone, simples! The first set of parts I already did only got 5 min in the foam and I didn't give them a stir part way through so where a part was against the side of the plastic takeaway tub it was a little less exposed to the foam and thus left a tiny bit of chrome: another 5 min in new foam sorted that easily though and I know from now on to stir them around a bit to get all the surfaces treated equally. And now I have lovely clean parts ready to be primed and then sprayed with a range of Alclad II metallic colours so that they have a bit more variation and nuance than the single colour bright chrome Tamiya provide (and no unsightly sprue gate scars!) The main exhaust part I primed still had some part lines and flash I had missed and after cleaning those up and sanding it had a mix of primed and not-primed areas. Time to see if Mr Muscle will strip Tamiya fine surface primer too. After 5 min it hadn't done much: Giving it a half hour to see if that works. Watch this space for more exciting adventures in plastic!

Hi all This is Tamiya's Type 97 'Chi-Ha', built OOB and finished in the markings of a vehicle from the IJA's 34th tank regiment. Enjoyable build and the camo scheme was a lot of fun to apply, plus some light weathering. Hope you like the pics

So... I've been trying to find a stockist of Tamiya Panel Line Accents, both black and brown, and MIG Streaking Grime in the UK that doesn't charge mouth watering prices. The prices abroad seem to be far cheaper (e.g. Passion132 do MIG streaking grime for just under €4 as opposed to over £7, but unfortunately you have to factor in shipping which then kills the saving). Then I had a thought; can I not just buy a tin of Humbrol gloss enamel and thin down as required? Are the panel line washes not just extremely thinned down ordinary enamel paints? If so, then I just need a tin of Humbrol gloss black 21 and gloss tan 9 for the two Tamiya panel line accent colours above? Does anyone know how to make an equivalent of MIG Streaking Grime?

#12/2022 So, this is my dad´s final contribution to the French at war theme. Tamiya P-47M kit, drop tank from a Tamiya P-47 Razorback kit, BLU-27 napalm canisters from a Hasegawa weapon set, antenna wire with elastic thread, Eduard seatbelts. All the Algerian War F-47 were equipped with two rocket rails between landing gear and bomb rack, used some from the spares box. Painted with AK Xtreme Metal Aluminium. Initially we wanted to do an Algerian War scheme with the Berna Decals P-47 post WW2 sheet. The scheme included is the early one with small cowl letters and the unit coat of arms on the fuselage side. Then I found out, that the fuselage codes from the Berna Decals Skyraider sheet match exactly the size for the later Thunderbolt scheme with big cowl letters and number, the tailnumber was puzzled together. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235108727-guerre-dalgérie148-republic-f-47d-thunderbolt-armée-de-l’air/ Model shows an aircraft of EC 2/20 "Ouarsenis" which flew the F-47 in combat from 1957 to 1960, then the Thunderbolts were replaced with Skyraiders. DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0009 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0011 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0014 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0015 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0016 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0017 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0018 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0019 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0020 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0021 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0022 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0023 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0024 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0025 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0026 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

Hello all, Here is a bit of a side project I'll shortly be starting to run alongside an entry for an upcoming Group Build... Tamiya's 1/48 F-14A Tomcat, this time marked as BuNo 160665 'Ghostrider 114', flown by none other than Maverick and Goose. It's been done before, but sure, what's not to like?! After seeing Top Gun Maverick twice, and re-watching the original, a plan quickly formed! 160665 was delivered new to the Navy in 1977/78 and was serving with VF-51 at the time of Top Gun being filmed. It was transferred to VF-101 when VF-51 was disestablished in 1995 before being scrapped in 1997. The kit: Extras: I'll be using a Quinta cockpit set, Quickboost ejection seats, Quickboost chin pod with bullet fairing (the TCS was still relatively new around this time and those pods were rotated through the deploying squadrons), Furball tail stiffeners, Furball walkway decals, Tamiya detail set for the canopy mirrors and nose probe, Galaxy mask set and the wonderful Fightertown 'Best of the Best' decal sheet (which will be utilised for a further Top Gun themed build!). Scheme and some references: Great balls of fire! Dave

Not going to lie. My mojo is waning on my F-2 trying to get that intake trunk seamless. Tonight it cracked along the joint, again, whilst sanding, so putting it aside for now. Time for this bad boy! Lots of plastic goodness inside! Usual Tamiya quality, with plenty ejector marks to deal with. Decals look surprisingly decent for a Tamiya kit? Will see. And got some resin barrels. Got a mask set on its way, but for the "Early" kit. Pretty sure the canopy remains the same. Also have some Eduard PE belts, hopefully they have some ones I can use on this build. One thing I'm finding interesting is the canopy framing. It's very, very fine by the feel of it. Can barely feel how it's raised like normal if that makes sense? Anyway, found a build on Hyperscale by Gregg Cooper I will be referencing, and I really want to try his method of replicating the Aotake finish.

Hopefully the Surtees for the Matchbox GB will be finished tonight as I've just got to decal and add wheels etc. So as I said before I'm throwing my hat in the ring with this one to add a little color to the GB Made a little start last night while the glue was drying on the Surtees, I cut some parts off the sprues and removed the raised seam lines on the body shell. Hopefully get a bit of primer thrown at it tonight then onwards as they say It's amazing how big and solid the kit feels after a couple of 1/32 flimsy Matchbox cars, it's much more suitable for my sausage shaped fingers Looking forward to the hopefully usual Tamiya fit of parts as well, need a good MOJO build after the Matchbox ones I'm just hoping the decals aren't as much of a pain as the Castrol Corolla I did a while back

Another car build for the GB, this time a Subaru... I'll post all the sprue shots, etc. when I get started. I'll probably just go straight OOB though may scratch build a few seatbelt straps.