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My victim for this is the Tamiya Skyline R34 in Millenium Jade paint from Zero (2nd pic not mine but borrowed from net just to show colour, not exactly same spec car though) I don't normally build road cars as they don't interest me, but I got bought this as a Christmas present a couple of years ago and this is my best chance of finishing it I'm hoping for a bit of decent Tamiya parts fitment after the Airfix Ford 3ltr GT I'm currently on Ian

Mes amis, as seems to be the general custom with Group Builds, I've allowed this one out of it's tub in the loft with no guarantee of getting finished. I present to you Tamiyas Mid Production with an Eduard 'Big Ed' photoetch set .... I'll be building this as (another) tank 131 of Panzer Abteilung 101 deployed in Normandy 1944 .... how timely! So, without further delay, let the shenanigans begin! 😬 Keith 😁

Hi everybody, calling all Corsair maniacs experts for this build, such as @corsaircorp and @Corsairfoxfouruncle just to name the two I'm more familiar with I always loved the Corsair, but know very little about it, so any help, hints, tips, references and pointers will be greatly appreciated This is more of a bookmark than an actual start, I still need to study some proper documentation about the subject, anyway here are a few pics. The kit: It's the well known Tamiya 1/48 box - I don't think there's much to say about it, anyway here are the sprues: The second pilot figure, in the "jumping on board" pose, is very tempting... Clear parts Decals (as usual, I plan to use very few of them ) and the scheme I want to reproduce, Jolly Rogers' BIG HOG Actual works to start soon-ish, I may venture into a foray in another field of modelling before/along this, we'll see. Meanwhile, I'm all ears Ciao Edit: I almost forgot to add that my friend @corsaircorp had sent me some resin bits to tart up this build: I'm not sure if I'll be using the whole engine or just replace the crankcase of the kit with the resin one - definitely going to use the resin seat, though

I am planning on building Tamiya`s Spitfire Vb kit in 1/48th scale as a artillery spotter of the US Navy`s VOS-7. This unit comprised of US Pilots who had flown Seagulls and Kingfisher floatplanes, but these were considered too vulnerable for the assault on Normandy, so converted to Spitfires and flew out of Lee-On-Solent. I plan on building 4Q which seems to have more invasion stripes than camouflage. On the Fundekals sheet 4Q has full span wings whereas the new Eduard Spitfire Vb Overlord kit has the same aircraft with clipped wings, As the squadron in its role worked at quite low level. I am tempted to go with clipped wings. What are others thoughts? This kit was purchased from Hannants secondhand and previous owner had removed most of the sprues for some reason. The kit looks complete. More images when i have figured out how to post them.... Grahame

Hi folks, here's my Bf109E-3 of 3./JG 52, France August 1940, flown by Karl Wolff. Kit is by Tamiya with decals by Xtradecal for this specific Emil. It's a lovely kit, no issues just a shame the walkway stencils decided to silver. Thanks for looking!

Hi all, My Centurion Avre is not yet finished, but I like having a few projects on the bench. Even though this one will be a huge project. 😉 A few weeks ago I attended Militracks 2024 in Overloon, Netherlands. Two FAMO half tracks participated. That gave me the idea to build a scaled version of it. A version with a heavy crane (I think it's a Bilstein crane): And the "regular" one: So I went to my local hobby shop and got this kit: As the kit is a bit older, I got some aftermarket stuff too: (I might get some resin tires for the trailer as well) The trailer could carry loads up to 22 tons. So my plan is to build something like this. Half track, trailer and a damaged Panzer IV: I yet need to get the tank, but first I need to focus on FAMO and trailer anyway. 😁 Daniel

May I present you my rendition of Tamyia's 1/32 Corsair: The VMF-321 F4U-1A flown by 1st Lt. Robert Whiting on Guam, August 1944. Every praise about this kit is true, it plays in another league. The fit and engineering is second to none and it was a very enjoyable build. From the aftermarket came: - HGW seatbelts - Baracuda cockpit stencils - Eagle Cal Decals - Barracuda wheels For the WIP see here:

I am really pleased to present to you all my latest build, a North American F-51D-30-NA Mustang of Nevada Air National Guard as she was when seconded to the Icelandic Defense Force in 1952-53 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland_Defense_Force), based at Keflavik Airbase, Iceland and operated under United States Air Force control. This subject caught my eye many months ago and I have been determined to build her. I could have plucked any of the aircraft from this deployment but I chose 44-74482 “Nancy” as she had some of the markings that appeal to me – the stencil-type Buzz number, particularly, as well as the one named aircraft that I could identify. In building her I have used a little “Modeller’s Licence” in terms of the colours applied. You will see in the text below that there is detailed description. However, I fear that time has allowed memories to wain and so I have used “best guess” for this model, with reasoning for each difference using reference images. I have noted my changes in the following text. The following background has been extracted from Wikipedia (public domain and edited): One of the last overseas deployments of a F-51D Mustang unit by the U.S. Air Force was in late 1952 when 25 aircraft of the 131st Fighter Bomber Group, were assigned to the Iceland Defense Force (IDF) at Keflavik air base in Iceland. Most of the 25 Mustangs came from the 192nd Fighter Bomber Squadron, Nevada Air National Guard, with fillers from the 110th FBS, Missouri Air National Guard and 170th FBS, Illinois Air National Guard, as no squadron in the 131st had the originally required number of 35 airplanes to be readied for the mission. Distinctive "arctic-red" (Insignia Red) markings were applied to all IDF Mustangs before their transfer from USA to Iceland. This included the painting of the outer wingspan, fuselage aft end, and tail empennage (minus control surfaces) in Insignia Red. My note: wing control surfaces were red also. The sliding canopy frame, propeller spinner, and tips of wings and tail empennage were Insignia Blue (the standard colour trim for the 192nd FBS). The windshield frame and the anti-glare panels (between the propeller and the windshield) were black although some were Olive Drab (often not distinguishable from black in colour photos). Some aircraft had stainless steel panels around the exhaust stacks painted glossy black for easy cleaning. The landing gear strut fairings had a 6 inch colour at the panel bottom for separate flight identity, blue, red, and yellow. The panels over the filtered air intakes on the lower nose were painted red. My note: these were Insignia Blue. The wording “Nancy” was determined by me to be in Insignia Red. According to written personal notes from Col. Robert W. Gruenhagen (flight chief, line chief, and quality control inspector of the F-51 Mustangs stationed at Keflavik airbase in 1952) the deployment procedure was as follows (quote): "P/F-51 assignment, Iceland During august 27, 1952, 35 Mustangs were readied for launch from George AFB, Victorville, California with destination of Keflavik, Iceland by 1 September, 1952. The aircraft were prepared in A/W T.O. 00-25-4 for overseas transfer and modified with APX-6 transponders to provide the latest IFF capability. Two groups of 17 and 18 aircraft were flown across the U.S. in a northern and southern routing through bases coordinated for en-route support. Two C-119 aircraft were manned with 15 man crews to follow the flights and repair ant turn and launch the Mustangs at each base. Intend was to reach the east coast with 30 aircraft and proceed on with the best 25 for the final destination. The serials listed below were in place in Keflavik and on alert by 15 September of 1952. The aircraft were assigned to the 192 Ftr Bmr Sqdn. (TAC) with support crews made up from three squadrons of the 146 Ftr Bmr Wg, the 178th, 186th and 190th. Serial: 44-72708 44-73788 44-74482 44-74880 44-74845 44-74717 44-73769 44-74586 44-74963 44-72843 44-74377 44-74522 44-84769 44-74382* 44-73996 44-73826 44-74870 44-73409 44-74317 44-74811 44-84834 44-74975 44-74959 44-74368 45-11364. The aircraft served until April, 1953 and were replaced by F-94B interceptors assigned to the 82nd FIS. The Mustang unit designation changed to the 436th Ftr Sqdn on 1 December, 1952. The Mustangs were flown to England, (Renfrew) and transferred to AMC at Brookley field, Mobile Alabama and eventually to Norton AFB Sam Bernardino California were they were scrapped in May of 1954. *44-74382 was left at BW-1 (Narssasuak, Greenland) enroute for an engine change which was completed in one week. A B-26 Navigation aircraft accompanied the Mustangs on all the overwater legs and the later pick-up of 382.” Except for a few remaining on active duty, the three support units returned to Air National status upon return to the US. During this period, the Mustang units in Korea were also converted to jet aircraft with the Mustangs being assigned to the Republic of Korea Air Force and these units along with the Icelandic units were the last overseas assignment of the type with the USAF. What did I use/do? 1. Kit – Tamiya North American F-51D Mustang (60754) in 1/72 2. Decals – the aircraft specific markings were drawn and printed by Arctic Decals. The remainder were from the kit. 3. Aftermarket – Falcon Vacform canopy (9158), AML seat belts (AMLE 80 003), CMK exhausts (Q72 033), Uschi antenna line, Yalu instrument panel, various bits of rod and wire to create the radio box etc. 4. Paint – Mainly Colourcoats Insignia Red (ACUS26) and Insignia Blue (ACUS39), together with Humbrol 27002 Polished Aluminium. H27002+Humbrol 140 mix on the wings. The rudder is H11 Silver. Interior was primarily Colourcoats US Interior Green (ACUS09) and wheel wells are Colourcoats Zinc Chromate Yellow (ACUS23). Varnished at various stages with Humbrol Glosscote (first coat) and Vallejo Gloss and Satin. 5. Weathering – Flory washes used here and there – not the panel lines – plus Prismacolor Silver pencil and various Tamiya Weathering Powders. Here she is: I hope you like her. Martin

Hi all! I have the Tamiya 1/35 Pink Panther Landrover and was wondering if I could use a Firing Line British Soldier w/Wollen Pullover as crew? The instructions says it was in use from the Korea War up to the mid 90'es. Would a SAS soldier use it? Cheers Hans J

Hello gents, here's my fourth completion of the year: Tamiya's 1/48 Vought F4U-1D Corsair: A very nice kit, I hardly remember building it in fact, so stress-free was it. I bought the 'towing tug' edition as it contains the full rocket and fuel tank load, which I don't think the standard boxing does, and because I wanted to use the little guy leaning out of his cockpit I did cut the forward 'prong' from the wing-join pieces and it seemed to give a better fit without them. I was a bit cheesed off having to build it with the flaps deployed but them's the breaks, you don't get the choice unless you are brave enough to do it yourself. I used the Quinta 3D cockpit decal set and it is actually at least partly visible through the cockpit opening, also at ASK double-sided canopy mask set; both of these worked as advertised. The aircraft was finished in Colourcoats enamels, overall ACUS34 ANA623 Glossy Sea Blue with the anti-glare panel in ACUS33 ANA607 Non-specular Sea Blue. The interior was done in ACUS09 Interior Green with the wheelbays in ACUS23 Zinc Chromate Yellow. Detail painting was done with various Citadel, Vallejo and Tamiya acrylics. The final coat was AK Interactive Satin varnish, with Ultra Matte varnish used on the anti-glare panel and wing walkways. I used the kit transfers for the 2nd option from VBF-6 based on the USS Hancock (CV-19) in March 1945. The transfers felt a bit thick, but they went on fine and to their credit did not 'silver' at all. I appreciate the 'Pacific Island' backdrop is not really appropriate for a carrier-based Corsair, but I had the background already (from Coastal Kits) and it was a bit more interesting than just taking the pictures against a white or grey background like I usually do Thanks for your attention Cheers, Stew

Here's a "quick build" project that I was able to start and finish in a few weeks. This is the 1997-tooled "new" Tamiya Kubelwagen which is an excellent kit. It's been in my stash since it was released 27 (ulp) years ago and I'm now wondering why I haven't built several by now. Figure is Tamiya with a Hornet head and the signs are scratch built.

Outside one of the Gates of the Millennium Stadium (formally called something else for sponsorship reasons) in Cardiff is a statue of a bespectacled older gentleman. There are plaques on four sides of the statue's plinth. Each plaque is topped with his name: Sir Tasker Watkins VC GBE PC DL Three of the four plaques provide details on aspects of his life and the fourth his dates of birth and death (November 18 1918 to September 9 2007) and a quote from him. One plaque details his distinguished legal career, ending as Deputy Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1988 to 1993. One details his time as President of the Welsh Rugby Union from 1993 to 2004. The third contains a summarised version of his citation for the award of the Victoria Cross which reads: “On 16 August 1944 at Barfour, Normandy, France, Lieutenant Watkins' company came under murderous machine-gun fire while advancing through corn fields set with booby traps. The only officer left, Lieutenant Watkins led a bayonet charge with his 30 remaining men against 50 enemy Infantry, practically wiping them out. Finally, at dusk, separated from the rest of the battalion, he ordered his men to scatter and after he had personally charged and silenced an enemy machine-gun post, he brought them back to safety. His superb leadership not only saved his men, but decisively influenced the course of the battle.” It is this plaque that has inspired the build planned. I've been considering how best to do this. It turns out that Sir Tasker rarely talked about his VC and apparently refused to allow the Welch Regiment museum to display a painting of the incident that led to its award as he felt it ‘over-glamourised’ his actions. I thought any sort of ‘action’ diorama might be interpreted the same way. I feel therefore that it might align better to his views to depict the moment when he returned to battalion headquarters with the remnants of B Company; 27 men. Tired, weary men who had lived through terrible events; their officer amongst them but barely distinguishable. I therefore intend to use the below kits to try and represent at least a selection of those men and some of the vehicles that might be found at the battalion headquarters. I'll probably need to get more British Infantry. I hope that I can complete this diorama to represent in this GB not just Sir Tasker Watkins VC, not just the men of B company, but all of the ‘Poor Bloody Infantry’ who fought and suffered and died in Normandy. According to the Imperial War Museum “All seven infantry divisions that fought in Normandy had lost three-quarters of their initial strength by the end of August. The rifle companies had been the hardest hit. Though they formed no more than 20% of the whole, they had taken 70% of the casualties. In an echo of the First World War, junior infantry officers had a mere 1 in 10 chance of surviving unscathed.” https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/tactics-and-the-cost-of-victory-in-normandy I’ll leave the last words to Sir Tasker Watkins VC himself, speaking on the events that led to his Victoria Cross award, as quoted on the fourth plinth of his statue. "I did what needed doing to help my colleagues and friends and saw more killing in 24 hours than is right for anybody. From that moment onwards I have tried to take a more caring view of my fellow human beings and that of course always included my opponents, whether it be at war, sport or just ordinary life."

At the risk of spreading myself a little thin, Im going to present another entry. The historical significance of this GB is just too much for me to pass up. So since I already have a plane entered, I decided to do an AFV. Looking through my stash, I wanted to do something different from a Sherman or tank destroyer (which is what most of my armored stash is), and since the GB encompasses the ensuing Battle for Normandy, I decided to take advantage of the extended date range and do an M8 armored car. I did some research and found that while the M8 did not make much of an impact in the month following the invasion, it did play an important role once the allies were able to break through the bocage. Tamiya’s 1/35 kit includes decals for the vehicle pictured below which was part of the 82nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. The 82nd came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day Plus Four and was held mostly in reserve for the next month. But when US commanders became frustrated with the slow advance through the hedgerow ridden terrain, fast recon units like the 82nd became a valuable asset when commanders came up with the idea of Operation Cobra. Using concentrated bombing to try and breakthrough German lines, while also hoping the German lines were unbalanced having to deal with British and Canadian offensives, the fast M8s sped through the gap to scout the enemy and relay valuable information while also helping to escort heavier armored vehicles like the Sherman. Along with coordinated infantry movement and air support, Operation Cobra was a success and led to a much more rapid advance through Normandy and beyond for the allied forces.

I would have swore I started a post on this but could not find it to save my life. This is Tamiya's 1/48th P-47 I'm planning to use Cutting Edge decal sheet. I've been wanting to do a P-47 marked as Eileen since seeing the Academy box art years and years ago on the store shelves. Doing the checkered nose had been giving me anxiety so in a rush of inspiration, I paused another build to tackle them back in June 2022. The Cutting Edge sheet provided the checkers but so did Tamiya and I felt I was going to have better luck with Tami's decals. They were in three parts compared to CE's 2 piece. I started out painting the cowl gloss white as a base. Then came the moment of truth.... There's some wrinkles but I got them mostly out with a healthy dose of Solvaset. Not too shabby, and I like that some of the black squares "chipped" as I'm sure they wouldn't have stayed perfect with use. From there, I started in the normal spot, the cockpit. Paints are Model Master, the green is Euro Green which I like as a match for "P-47 cockpit green". The black is just MM black. I did lay down a base of Alclad aluminum before the green for the chipping effects. I used the kit decals for the instruments and I'm very happy with the way it looks. They conform really well considering Tamiya's decals reputation for being thick, same with the cowl checks. There's some wrinkles but they're really only visible in this photo. I also added some aftermarket cockpit stencils which aren't really visible in these shots. I used a resin seat with molded belts from a company whose name escapes me, but I didn't manage to get a shot of it. 🫤 That's all for now, more to come.

Hi Guys here we go. This is why Im building the F16 RIAT July 2017. Happy days Wellzy

Good day everyone! I recently purchased a 1/700 Tamiya HMS King George V model which I intend to convert into the HMS Howe in her 1944 scheme. However, I need a little help regarding resources and photographs. Clear and detailed pictures of the HMS Howe's 1944 disruptive camouflage scheme are rather hard to come by, so if anyone could send some or give some suggestions as the weeks come by, it would be greatly appreciated! To add, I will also be posting logs on this topic. Thank you! Kind regards, Naval

Hello all! This is a well-known Tamiya Stug III G converted into StuH 42 with all the bells and whistles on it. Although there are better options for StuG/StuH variants, 1995 Tamiya StuG III G still holds water and can be built into a very neat vehicle, especially once it's decked up with various and colorful stowage. But before the usual painting and weathering info, here are a few words about the vehicle itself. The model is depicting a Sturmhaubitze 42 (Sd.Kfz 142/2) with a 10.5 cm leFH 18 howitzer, belonging to a SS-Sturmgeschutz Battalion 7 of the 7. SS-Freiwilligen Gebirgs-Division "Prinz Eugen", during the counter-attack on the town of Vlasotince in southern Serbia on 8th October 1944. In late 1944, as the Red Army began sweeping across the eastern Europe, once firm allies of the Axis forces (namely Bulgaria and Romania), finding themselves between hammer and anvil (or should I say sickle) started to rethink their options and on 8th September 1944 Bulgaria, just like Romania did a few weeks earlier, declared war on Germany and placed the Royal Bulgarian armed forces at the disposal of Marshal Tolbukhin's 3rd Ukrainian Front. The 2nd Bulgarian Army began advancing from its assembly area southwest of Pirot towards the Leskovac-Nis area, the Germans rushed the 7.SS-Gebirgs-Division "Prinz Eugen" and made it responsible for the defense of Nis from Zajecar in the north to Leskovac in the south. On 30th September, forward elements of the Bulgarian 2dn Army, seized Vlasotince, 14 kilometers east-southeast of Leskovac, but on 8th October, 7. SS Division "Prinz Eugen" regrouped in Leskovac and laucnhed a counterattack against Vlasotince. The 7.5cm barrel was swapped with a metal 10.5cm barrel from RB and the fit was perfect. The stowage is various mix from Value Gear and Verlinden. The mantlet cover and tarp are made of tracing paper soaked in the PVA glue and the field modification schurtzen screens were made from styrene sheet and the concrete add-on armor is from Value Gear. Hope you like it and please feel free to leave your comments. Cheers!🍻

Welcome dear friends to my latest build. The Hyakushiki shitei lll Recon plane in 1/48 scale by Tamiya. This will be my first ever Japanese aeroplane and my return to aeroplanes in general after a few months off doing various group builds. It’s a subject (like most of my other builds) that I know little about but plan to learn on the job. I love the look of this beast and it’s been working its way to the top of the stash for a while. Here’s My typical starting position for now as I want to get the thread running. A tidy bench after the last build and a nice unopened box of goodies. I hope you’ll join along to keep me company and hopefully give some sage advice. More after Dinah. 😉 (Sorry) Johnny

found a pic of the bottom the the 1967 Lotus 49 gearbox. It's from the Belgian GP, so it's not the later strengthened ZF box, and it shows the ribbing, and the alternator bracket (missing on the Tamiya and Ebbro kits). And another showing just the bracket.

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

I've had a thick line drawn under this GB ever since it came through the bunfight. US Navy aircraft dominate both my stash and my completed builds, maybe because I am a Top Gun baby, or maybe because I find most USN aircraft interesting and colourful (both figuratively and literally). My choice of a Phantom for the GB is an unimaginative one, but I'm excited nonetheless, especially as I'll be building this beautiful kit: You probably can't tell that the box is still wrapped in clear plastic, but you can probably see the Japanese price tag. My daughter bought this for me from a model shop in Osaka when she was in Japan on holiday back in January for the very reasonable price of JPY 6050 (which if you do the conversion works out to about half the retail price here in Aus!). She bought it for me as a present for my recent 50th birthday, which makes me a 1974 baby, and so I figured that makes a VF-74 bird somewhat appropriate for a birthday build. So I'll be building this as a VF-74 'Be-Devillers' F4H-1/F-4B when the squadron was the first to take the Phantom to sea with their 1962 cruise aboard the USS Forrestal - hence the 'First in Phantoms' moniker. Here's the Bullseye decal sheet I'll be using (some lovely, printed-by-Cartograph goodness): And I have some bits from Hypersconic models to make it a period correct early F-4B/F4H-1 - namely the plain fin cap and non-IRST chin pod. Plus some very nice looking seats (well, they do look nice when the light is not reflecting off the packaging). I'll take some better shots of he Hypersonic bits once I make a start and removing them from their packaging. Likewise I'll take some sprue shots then - for now I am saving myself the treat of opening the box and savouring the sprues until I make a start after clearing off my other GB commitments. Am looking forward to making a start, but in the meantime enjoy this McDonnell promotional film on the Phantom's first cruise with VF-74, it's 23 minutes very well spent: Best of luck with your own builds, I'm looking forward to following along. This should be a cracking GB, Gerard

Here's my third completion of the year, Tamiya's 1/48 Mitsubishi Ki-46-III 'Dinah' in the markings of the IJAAF 16th Dokuritsu Hikotai (Techmod decals). It's a nice enough kit and goes together pretty well as you would expect of a Tamiya kit. It's a bit clunky in places, shows its age a bit but it's still (as far as I know) the only kit of the type in this scale. I used the two nicely moulded but inanimate crew figures, replaced the pitot with Albion Alloys brass tube and fabricated the R/T cable with Infini lycra thread. I used the ASK inside-and-outside paint mask set for the canopies and I was happy with how that worked out. The colour scheme is wrong; I used a mix of the brown variant (Colourcoats ACJ22) of IJAAF #7 Ohryoku nana go shoku and white for the underside, but had to change my choice of aircraft when the kit transfers turned out to be shot and the Techmod replacement set specified the green variant of #7 for the uppersurface of the aircraft I chose. I don't know how accurate the Techmod instructions are but I do know that I couldn't be bothered to repaint the underside so I have inaccurate undersides and possibly topsides too. Anyway the topsides were done in Colourcoats ACJ09 - IJA #7 variant. Don't judge me Cheers, Stew

Why not another entry? I wanted to do another vehicle and this golden oldie seems like a simple enough project. This is the 2014 boxing of Tamiya’s Ford GPA which was first released in 1974. A DUKW probably would’ve been a more appropriate build but would also be more involved and since I have several builds planned for multiple GBs, I’m trying to pick simple projects. The “seep” (sea-faring jeep) was the amphibious version of the Jeep and while a novel idea, was not nearly as successful as its larger cousin, the DUKW. Production vehicles came in nearly half a ton heavier than the intended design which left little freeboard while in water in even calms seas and wasn’t well regarded on land either. Only 12,700 were produced before the Army cancelled the contract and a good chunk of them were then sent to the allies via lend lease with the Soviets receiving the most. They saw limited action with US forces starting in Tunisia and did make it to France in small numbers, too. Like the M8 I plan to build, the GPAs did not play much of a role in the beginning stages of the invasion (the GPAs really didn’t play much of a role at all), but were present. I haven’t decided on markings yet since I have to do some more research, but even if in small numbers and a limited role, US, British and Canadian vehicles would’ve been present in France in the days and weeks following D-Day, so it does fit the parameters of the group build and is something different.

Here's my latest - and only my second - completion of the year, the Tamiya 1/48 Mosquito PR.IV as DZ383 of 540 Sqn RAF at Benson, Oxfordshire in 1943. My Dad mentioned that he likes Mosquitos so I thought I'd build one for him, my first thought was the HK Models 1/32 Mk.IV but it quickly became pretty obvious that 1) I wouldn't be able to transport it up to Aberdeenshire on the train and 2) if I did he'd have nowhere to put it So I opted for the Tamiya 1/48 kit as being large enough but not too much. It was a nice kit to build, apart from the transparencies which gave me quite a bit of grief. I used the Eduard T-face interior and exterior canopy mask set - the exterior matching the interior exactly, so I had to do a bit of extra masking so that the internal framing to the rear of the main canopy remained internal and wasn't duplicated on the outside - the Eduard 3D printed instrument panel and radio gear (lovely, but you can't see it at all) and the Eduard resin wheel set (couldn't face trying to clean up the central seam of the kit parts with all that block tread and all). It may be that the internals would have been more visible if I hadn't used the Tamiya crew figures but they were very nice and painted up okay so I didn't want to leave them out. I replaced the pitot with Albion Alloys Brass tube 0.3mm inside a sleeve of Aluminium tube 0.5mm and drilled a hole in the fuselage side for the camera window that isn't represented in the kit - I may have done this slightly too small but I felt better with it than if I'd just left it out. I also drilled out the indentification lights under the fuselage and glazed these with Micro Krystal Klear topped off with Tamiya Clear Red, Green and Orange as appropriate. I added the R/T cable from some fly-tying lycra thread, tinted with some Citadel black wash to tone it down a bit. It was finished in Colourcoats ACRN14 - PRU Blue overall and I used the kit decals apart from the red 'KEEP OFF' boxes on top of the radiators, these came from the Barracuda Mosquito stencils set. They all worked fine apart from the serial which on drying out developed a strange kind of semi-silvering which shows from certain angles and not from others. I opted not to use the majority of the stencilling as some of it appears to be absent from the original aircraft - true, you only see it from one side but it looks suspiciously clear of trestle position markings etc. The final coat was some AK Interactive acrylic varnish, a mix of Ultra-Matte and Satin. Anyway I'm reasonably pleased with it and I hope my Dad will be too. The Mark IVs were in my opinion the best-looking of all the Mosquitos and the Photo Recon ones in particular do look lovely in their PRU scheme. Thanks for your attention Cheers, Stew

Hi Folks, After 3 months of a very enjoyable time with this classic Tamiya kit from the 90's I can call her 'Ready For Inspection'. I riveted the whole kit and bought some masking for the canopies (Montex) as they were plenty of glass sections on the legendary Japanese medium bomber. Also, I added some 7.7 Lewis Machine Guns from Accurate Miniatures as the ones coming with the kit were pretty rough and oversized. Three crewmen (2 pilots, one rear gunner) added too. Hinomarus painted. Didn't find any big issue, except from some warping on the old plastic fuselage, but nothing that a fair amount of glue can't handle. As I used the torpedo in my previous Hasegawa Kate my decision went for a 1943 Misawa Naval Fighter Group 3rd Squadron based on Rabaul, armed with 12-50 lbs bombs. She is a big girl! Biggest kit I've ever build, need to buy a big box to store her. All the best from Santiago, keep modelling and enjoying the process! Cris