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Hi All, My next project will be Tamiya's lovely Spitfire Mk.IXc. The wife gifted me this as a birthday present 18 months ago - I've periodically pulled it out and had a little peek and rapidly put it away again, because I was frankly a little intimidated. I don't normally model in this scale, and I guess I didn't want to risk ruining such a lovely kit. However, with mojo in a healthy place I've decided to give it a red hot go! Here's the box art: This is a very high quality affair, and a very full box! Here's the sprues: That's a lot of plastic! Now although I knew that this would build beautifully OOB, as I did not buy the model (??) I thought I'd indulge in a few extras: The wheels look superb as does the cockpit door (and separately moulded crowbar, which will look lovely in red ). On @shortCummins recommendation I've invested in a Yahu instrument panel (thanks for the tip John!), and I'll be trying out HGW seatbelts for the first time. The kit provides for a number of schemes, including the ubiquitous EN398, Johnnie Johnson's mount. Although I was sorely tempted by this scheme, I wanted to spray the markings, and therefore selected a Montex mask set: The lower scheme depicts MH526, as flown by Pierre Clostermann whilst part of 602 (City of Glasgow) Sqn. I actually want to depict this aircraft: This is MJ586, as flown by Clostermann whilst the squadron was part of 2nd TAF based at Longues-sur-Mer during July 1944. I'll therefore need to adapt the a/c serial and figure out how to represent the kill tally (the squadron and a/c codes also look more compact than the 'other' LO*D - hmmm). The partial worn invasion stripes will also present a weathering challenge! This will not be a quick project and I might have other WIPs running concurrently, but I'm now quite excited to be getting going on this icon - wish me luck! Thanks for looking, Roger

I blame @Procopius and @Cookenbacher. And @CedB In what feels like a very different world, c.2 years ago, 2 young(-ish) Americans well known to this community came to visit the UK. They visited a truly epic number of air museums in a short time, met many of us at Telford and/or some of the museums, and generally appeared to have a blast. As far as I am aware there was no direct evidence of their being over-sexed, but they lived admirably up to the example of their ancestors 75 years ago by being over-paid and over here. One of the museums they visited was at Old Buckenham, SW of Norwich, dedicated to the 453rd Bombardment Group USAAF during WW2... and they got talking to the curator, who reckoned he could use some more models. Many emails and 18 months later, several of their BM friends found large parcels arriving; somehow all those years in the Navy and the instinct never to volunteer for anything... wasted. What was I thinking? [All joking aside, it is an honour to pay tribute to those young men so far from home. No, not Edward and Cookie; the proper heroes.] So I find myself building not just one aircraft miles out of my comfort zone... but 3. The idea is the Museum provide the kits; we do the building. You’ll see other BM 453rd-ers appearing in the coming weeks - it’s kind of like a weird group build. I’ll document all 3 of my builds on here, and no doubt others will do the same. Closer to home, though, there are other reasons for this. Many of you already know that completely out of the blue I had a heart attack on 6 March, while out walking the dog on the downs near Salisbury. It was very, very scary, but I managed to avoid meeting that nice Mr Reaper quite yet. 10 days on and I am still pretty weak and lack stamina (quiet in the cheap seats!), but off work for a few weeks. So I need something to do. My Ark build will continue in parallel, but I feel like something self-contained; the plan is for this to be pretty quick, especially by my standards - this is a celebration of still being here! It has to be said that I’ve wangled 3 corkers, all in 1/48 (so at least some of my comfort zone remains intact): the Eduard P-51D, Tamiya P-51B and, up first... the Tamiya P-38F/G. Every review I’ve seen of this kit since it was released in 2019 has positively drooled, so I’m pretty excited about building it. I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert on either the Lightning or the Mustang; if you are and you see me about to make a howler, then feel free to tell me! I have the kit itself, and Jim (the Museum curator) is sending me sone after-market stuff... including the markings, so I cannot yet tell you exactly which airframe this will be...other than that it will be a P-38 of the 479th Fighter Group, based at Wattisham. OK, enough rabbiting on; the kit and the obligatory photos of the box and its contents. Even on initial inspection I can see why everyone raves about it; beautifully moulded, and some really ingenious engineering. ...and the proof that Tamiya engineering is ridiculously good; no tail-sitters here: The game’s afoot. More soon Crisp

I thought that I was being clever buying this for its size/cost ratio as something to practise on, but I see that I'm not the first to have this idea! I'm just going for a quick build so that I have something to try things like hairspray chipping on, and it certainly goes together quickly. Two empty sprues on day 1 must be a record for me. I have at least closed up the underside of the hull to stop daylight showing through the engine deck grilles. I've seen someone else on here stick a picture of the radiators and engine under the grilles, so I might try something similar. Up until now my son has only seen my Panzer I/II/III builds, so he was immediately impressed and declared it 'the best one', it certainly is imposing compared to them (but I still prefer the silly little ones). I built one of these 40 years ago and remember it being the first kit that I was really pleased with afterwards, so we'll see how this goes. I'll give it to him when it's finished because it doesn't fit in with anything else - the gun barrel alone is the same length as a Panzer I. Wasn't going to do a WIP, but I might have some questions for you all when I get my hairspray out

First of the two kits Jim sent me for the 453rd Museum build it's the well known Tamiya 1/48 P-51D I wasn't part of the group that visited the Museum but I'm friend with many of them, and I hope I'll be able to join them soon for a proper visit Jim asked me to build the boxart aircraft, which by coincidence is my favourite Mustang scheme Let's see what's in the box: a total of four sprues, including the transparents So a relatively low parts number, and the kit isn't like the most recent Tamaiya issues. Still it's a Tamiya, with some great detail all over Jim also included an Eduard PE set for the cockpit I started with a quick dryfit of the fuselage halves an the cockpit tub bottom view Typical good Tamiya fit, but it will need some work along the seam line, because of the metallic finish of this aircraft. The sidewall detail is amazing: I don't think I'll entirely replace it with the provided PE parts; I'll probably go with an integration, and some scratch building too Surface detail is also great: Alright, this should be fun! All comments welcome Ciao

Hi all May I present the latest off the bench and into the cabinet- Tamyia's 1/48 T-34/76. Built oob but apart from some small details like the headlight wires, antennae and some battle damage to the turret. Typical Tamiya fit, only wish there was a bit of sag in the tracks! I finished the tank quite a while ago now but the scene took a while to finish. I chose to try and replicate a scene from one of the bridgeheads on the Dnieper crossing in 1943 after the Battle of Kursk. A bit of history- In a risky move, Vatutin chose to reinforce a bridgehead held by a rifle division by sending in the 5th Guards Tank Corps to cross the Dneiper in the marshy area around Litezh (I added a raft and a discarded maxim to hint of the rifle divisions previous crossing). Many T-34s were lost in the bogs but some managed to forced their way through by keeping their speed up. My intention was to leave the sides of the resin free to see through the marsh a bit, but it was in such a mess after I removed the walls that I then boxed it all off with balsa. The marsh vegetation was a mix of home made and shop bought. All in all pretty happy with it.

My entry, the venerable 2 sprue wonder from the 90's. Got the Eduard mask and will be getting the French PE seatbelt set month end to spruce up the cockpit. Probably going for the scheme used during the Battle of France. If my luck holds, I might have a Special Hobby 1/72 Mirage F.1AZ to use as a second entry, depending on whether I get my hands on one that's just landed here. It's going to be a punch up to get one I think !

So...as I really wish to complete something in this group build, I have decided to have a crack at a 1/72 Tamiya build. What could possibly be a better mojo restorer? Started the build with the cockpit. All goes together very well in a slightly unusual fashion. Gunze Aqueous RLM66 used for cockpit colour Mr Softner used to settle down the nice (but thickish) instrument panel decal. Fuselage closed up. Cowling panels added, with a small amount of smoothing require where the machine gun piece meets the side cowling pieces. The floor/seat assembly gets fitted later in the construction, so I have time to decide whether to use the decal harness provided or find an aftermarket substitution. I am yet to decide on an open or closed canopy ( I usually opt for closed for general aesthetic reasons ), nor have I settled on a scheme as the Hungarian markings that I have don't have the correct size upper wing crosses. I don't fancy the two schemes available in the boxing so have scoured the stash to find another option. Some that I could do are of the Trop variety so I sourced the filter from an AZ Joypack that is in the stash. It will fit okay if required. I am already motivated to press on, which is a good thing. Thanks for looking.

Hi all! Here is a little taster of my next project. This won't include any modelling as I haven't started building yet but will include what I've bought to date and some ideas as to what the finished build may look like. I was bought Tamiya's 18t Sd.Kfz.9 for my birthday back in April and since then I've been researching the vehicle in order to come up with an idea for modelling it. I've come up with a couple of options and the possibility of making another Sd.kFz.9 if it ends up looking like too much for one project. The first is to build the above models and maybe add a Panzer 1 or a Sturmpanzer 1 Bison to the trailer. I've been able to find plenty of images of various loads on the Sd. Ah.115 but very few of the Sd.Kfz.9 towing the trailer. The only images I've found are these below. Both of these images show an early F3 tractor, which is what's on offer with the Tamiya kit, ie the Maybach HL 108 engine and mid production running gear. I guess with a little artistic license the possibilities for this combination are great. Whilst mulling over different ideas I also managed to get my hands on the 'earth spade' accessory kit from Tamiya. This has thrown up some different challenges as depending on how you rig the cable to the frame of the spade some scratch building maybe required. The kit shows the frame is lifted one way which to me doesn't look right? The reference pictures I have show an additional frame and pulley at the very back of the flatbed that the towing cable is threaded through. The example on the left clearly shows the frame and pulley centered on the tailgate and the example on the right the frame is absent. Food for thought. This gives me the option to model the Sd.Kfz.9 with the earth spade deployed and the Sd.Ah.115 trailer, rear axel removed, ready to receive its load. Decisions, decisions. What do you guys think? I came across this useful rigging illustration whilst on the interweb. The last purchase is the excellent Royal Models detail set. This isn't as comprehensive as the Aber, or Voyager sets in so far as photo etch but includes all of the obvious missing details. I particularly like the folded tarp and the inclusion of a road wheel masking tool. A nice touch. Here is another image of the trailer being towed but I don't think its the 18t tractor? Maybe. So that is it for now. Next time I will post some progress. Any input on this topic would be appreciated and as always thanks for looking

Hi! I've been idle for months now, but I'd love to get back to our hobby.... I'd like to join with this entry; Thanks for looking

Hello!. This is the first car model that I ever build. Throughout my very interrupted 30+ years of scale modelling, I never thought to build a car. But like with anything else one day I got inspired by the amazing work of a fellow modeller. I loved what I saw and immediately thought that maybe I could try and give it a go. Probably the most intimidating thing about modelling cars is the super gloss and slick finishes, which is completely different to what I usually do, and with almost no weathering at all! (except a bit in their engines). Also, I was always put off by the endless amount of aftermarket details that make car modelling quite expensive and difficult to research. So I decided to start with something relatively "simple". To me, the sixties racing has the most beautiful cars of all eras so I pick up this Tamiya kit of the winner of the Mexican Grand Prix of 1965. The kit is quite old and it shows its age but is a strong base to add extra detail. I've added all hoses and connectors in the engines as well as some extra scratch detail at the nose area, wheels and windscreen. The build went so smoothly and was such enjoyable that I will more likely do other models, So I hope you guys like it!. cheers, and thanks for looking Jorge

Hey all, Here's my Tamiya Cromwell. I used Black Dog Models stowage set and hessian set along with Miniart's Tank Crew & Tank Rider's set. The Black dog set utilises an all new resin turret as well as a whole load of stowage. I used a figure from the Miniart Tank Crew set along with the original kit commander along with the tank riders that Miniart do as well. I painted the vehicle using Humbrol Enamels and I weathered it using a mix of oils, Ammo by MiG and pencils. Thanks for looking! Again, thanks for looking guys, Sam

My first jet since I was around 16. Wonderful kit, this Tamiya Tomcat. I like challenges, but sometimes I do like to build a kit that goes together without snags, and where you don't need a plastic to putty-ratio of 1:1. Others have built their cockpits and displayed them, and done a better job than I can. Therefor I focus in this build thread on the external painting. Feel free to suggest solutions or tricks. The following techniques aren't new, but I like the result so far. I primed with Ultimate Primers glossy black (I love the way it performs! Never let's me down), then sprinkled it with salt when the primer had cured. That was followed by spraying a speckled/marbled pattern, quite randomly, with Tamiya XF-57, XF-59 both on the upper surfaces (that will end up light grey), and lower (which will be white) with some XF-49 on the upper and XF-55 on the lower surfaces. With the salt removed it looked like this. I then sprayed it with Vallejo 71.001 on the lower surfaces and XF-19 on top. I tried Tamiya white first on the lower surfaces, but it didn't behave the way I wanted. Either it was too opaque to get the effect of the preshading I had done, or it became too "runny", resulting in spidering and pooling. Hence Vallejo, which performed brilliantly. This is the result, and it's almost exactly as I had hoped for. I managed to stop in time, and did it in two sessions, so I wouldn't overdo it. Patience is the trick! Now I'm gonna seal it with some Aqua gloss from Alclad, then put on the decals (there are about a zillion of them!), followed by some washes. Stay tuned, and stay healthy. /Torbjörn

I have had this stash lurker for a while now,had painted the base,but the beasties remained in primed condition,having had a look at Gimme shelters and Mrs Plastiks builds gave me the required KUTA to get one finished,its a lovely little model and i may just get on with the Rex and Triceratops....................may. Went for a Impala,red deer paint scheme for the adult with flashes of electric blue for the adult. For the youngster went for a fawn countershade look. Tried to create a moment when the young dino has supried a nest building Hypsilophodont Overhead a couple of Nyctosaurus swoop over. Portrait of the adult And a final group shot. Thanks for looking Andy

first ready for inspection please be kind! Thanks everyone who offered advice here to fix my paint work Fairly happy with it, just ignore the disaster I had with the a pillar :/ made a few usual mistakes but generally happy with the finished result will be better next time R34 Skyline next! Supra 1 Supra 2 Supra 3 Supra 4

Hi All, I haven't lurked in this part of the forum for ages...good to be back! Due to a recent house move, I have a much-reduced modelling space, with no room for an airbrushing station. Therefore I decided dabble again in figure painting with brushes. I had an idea a while back about converting one of the Tamiya 1/16 figures to represent a modern US Navy carrier deck crewman, as US Naval aviation is a strong interest of mine. I liked the look of the brown-shirted 'chock and chain/plane captain' crewmen: So I bought the Tamiya Bundeswehr Tank Crewman figure set below, as they wear a similar-style helmet to the US Navy crewman. They also come with goggles, and as a bonus, there is a second figure in the box (though he has no legs!) The photo below shows the figure head with the tank crewman's helmet detail sanded down, and the other moulded details on the helmet removed. My plan is to convert the head and torso and sculpt new arms. I have not tried this before so it's a step into the unknown. Any help from experienced sculptors would be appreciated!

Afternoon all, Well after some very long builds I wanted to do something quite simple, and what could be simpler than Lockheed's hopeless diamond simple triangle! This is the 1998 Tamiya kit which showed it's age in places in terms of fit & detail but still had some impressive moulding and engineering so it went together very quickly - all in all this was a 2 week build, which for me is very impressive - the one before this took 6 months! For those interested, there is a very short WIP thread here: And now the finished build In hindsight I should've applied more contrast during shading as it's hardly visible now apart from in some areas like the tails. Oh well, something to consider if I build another all black plane...like Revell's upcoming 1/48 SR-71? I kept weathering to a minimum as most photos showed the Nighthawks (and this one in particular) were kept quite clean with only minimal staining/fading and some fuel stains The pronounced edges were highlighted with watercolour pencils as the references showed paint fade in these places The weathering was done with watercolour pencils, pastels and enamel washes. The one bit of colour on the model is hardly visible due to the angle of the tails, but they can still be moved which is good! A view I have always loved! The underside received some stronger weathering, panel variation and more prominent streaking as seen on the real planes Here you can see the colour variation on the exhaust due to heat, and some subtle streaking on the more vertical panels - as on the real thing these aren't very visible head one but can be seen from an angle. And here it is in it's place with my other 1/48 builds....now what next? Thanks for looking!

After spending 6ish months on my Jagdpanther diorama, I think it's time for a more simple build, and planes don't really get much simpler than the F-117A Nighthawk - it has no stabilisers, no external mounts or pods, very few lumps & bumps on the fuselage and is basically just straight lines, all painted black! Despite it's simplicity, the Nighthawk is a favourite of mine due to it's unique looks and place in aviation history - it was the first true foray into a production stealth jet that laid the foundations for the B-2, F-22 and now the F-35. Also, I would recommend that anyone interested in the Nighthawk or aviation in general to read "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed" by Ben Rich & Leo Janos. It details Ben's time at Lockheed's famous secret division from the beginning of U-2 development right up to his retirement after master minding the introduction of the F-117A - it is a fantastic insight into a series of programmes that largely occurred without public knowledge at the time. btw this thread title refers to the nickname of the prototype (Hopeless Diamond was a play on the famous Hope Diamond, and the codename for the Nighthawk during development, Senior Trend) Anyway, that's enough of the history lesson, time to take a look at Tamiya's rendition of the F-117A. It's an older code, but it checks out kit, from 1998, and re-released with a 1/48 HMMWV in 2008, but it's hard to find, and might be out of production. I managed to get a copy of the original 1998 version from HobbyLink Japan when I got my EA-6B. Despite it's age it still looks like a decent kit with typical Tamiya fit, albeit with very few parts. Great box art! I love these drawings and wish more companies had these drawing without any text or graphics covering them up. One piece upper fuselage - for 1998 (and today) this is an impressive piece of injection moulding. Tamiya clearly know modellers well and if included protection for the pitot tubes which they advise you not to cut off Quick check to see if it'll fit in the display cabinet....just about! Cockpit parts primed And assembled. This is a very basic cockpit so I'll keep the canopy closed. It's mostly oob except for some Airscale decals Cockpit in place and fuselage halves closed up - see I told you this would be a quick build! Since the sensor up front is not very detailed I've darkened the glass with Tamiya smoke to cover it up a little What is this mess??? There was a gap/step between the halves which I've filled and although it looks awful, it's smooth to the touch and any small scratches should disappear under primer Speaking of primer: I could say I'm building the Grey Dragon scheme and call it done now No visible gap, and a smooth joint - although some clean up is still needed And now that all the MRP blacks I could find have arrived, it's time to experiment and work out how to make a matte black finish seem interesting... Thanks for looking!

Hi dear Britmodellers! Here is my last build, a Do-335 in 1/48 scale from Tamiya. This kit was a gift from a friend and as I am not a fan of german WWII aircrafts, I decided to go for a what if. My story: April 1945, a german Do-335 was short petrol and landed in Luxembourg-Findel airport. The luxembourgish recovered the plane and have fight with the americans in the Korean war and later in VietNam. The US General Patton who died has his grave in Luxembourg and had a son, W. T. Patton who was the pilot of the A-335. The kit was painted with MrPaint SEA colors and weathered with oil paints and several other technics. I hope that you will like my build. It was fun to turn this german Do-335 into a what if. Lolo

For this GB I will be building a Navy Adversary the F-16N - probably the best Adversary Jet the Navy have had KIt : Tamiya 1/48th Scale F-16C/N AM Parts: Tamiya US F-16 Detail Parts, Aries Exhaust, Aries Under Carriage Bays & Quinta Studios 3D Cockpit 'Decals' Photo's of Box , Sprues to follow .... when the AM Goodies arrive ( since this is a @trickyrich led GB .... AM goodies are required )

Hi all This is my attempt at the 'older' Tamiya Panzer IV Ausf.D, out of the box, using the kit decals for the late variant in the N. Afrika scheme. Painted with mostly Vallejo and Citadel colours with some Humbrol powders. Not sure how well the pics show up the weathering, but it's definitely there.. This is my first tracked AFV in modern times - and it probably shows

Hello Everyone This is the wonderful Tamiya 1/48 Me-262 A-2a. The only modifications where a few wires in the main undercarriage bay, some homemade seat straps and I decided to cut the flaps out and display them drooping. I believe the leading edges would also be lowered at the same time, but I had a bad case of diminished enthusiasm hit me halfway through the build. I’ll save that job for the 1/32 262’s in my stash. It started out well enough but then the decals silvered in places (all my fault), so I decided to remove all the paint and start again. I think it turned out a little better but still not satisfied, but hey it’s all about the taking part and learning. Most of the markings are hand painted as a way of punishing myself for not doing the decals justice in the first place. Thanks for looking

G'day All, I just finished my first ship! Tamiya's 1/350 Musashi. Built mostly OOB. I did use photoetch on the aircraft catapult's and the aircraft propellers. Bit of rigging done with elastic thread. All brush painted with Tamiya acrylic's (that's a first for me, I'm an enamel man.) Cheers, Devo

I want to make it clear right from the outset that this is the fault of Mark (@2996 Victor). In his excellent thread (by the way, whatever happened to this Mark? ) He extolled the virtues of Tamiya as a kit manufacturer and the delights to be experienced when constructing one of their kits. Shame faced, I have to confess that I have never built a Tamiya kit, not since my return to the hobby, and certainly not in my formative modelling years when they would have been regarded as foreign exotica well out of my price range. So when I paid a celebratory post-lockdown visit to my local model shop and my eyes fell upon this: how could I resist? I'll be buildng it OOB using the box art colour scheme which looks gorgeous to my jaded eye. So far, I have only got as far as getting the bits out of the box and puzzling over the lack of malformed, short shot and heavily seamed bits which my experience of building Airfix kits has led me to believe is an intrinsic part of the hobby. Please follow along if you're interested, and all words of advice and advanced warnings of pitfalls are both solicited and welcome. More soon hopefully! Craig.

This is my model of the Fiat 500F (aka FIAT Bambino). I built the cute looking Cinquecento from a 25 years old but excellent Tamiya 1/24 scale kit. The body was painted with Tamiya rattle-can yellow TS-16. I also used Vallejo acrylics and Humbrol enamels to smaller details. The Fiat 500F was a very popular small city car. It had an air cooled, two cylinder 13 hp engine giving a top speed of 85 kmh. Its length was only 3 metres. Some 3,6 million 500F's were built between 1957-1975.

This is the latest Spitfire offering from Tamiya and is probably their best aircraft kit to date IMHO. The kit goes together very easily (as might be expected) and has some nice details, but considering that a pilot is included there isn’t an option to display the model ‘wheels up’. Unfortunately some careful cutting and fettling is required as frustratingly the wheel bays aren’t deep enough to accommodate the wheels ‘up’. Because of this the wheels need to be reduced to nearly half their thickness before the undercarriage doors will sit flush. The chrome metal stand is made by Geminijets and it’s only required to drill a suitable sized hole in the wing thus enabling the Spit to be safely mounted. Paints are Tamiya acrylics, various oils and final Matt varnish are Newton & Windsor, and the 3 aerial wires are Uschi van der Rosten thread. Overall I’m pretty pleased with the final result, but I’ve since realised that maybe the oleos needed extending slightly as they are probably moulded in a ‘weight on wheels’ guise.