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Dear fellow Britmodellers, this is Fly Models' 1/72 Ilyushin Il-10, "Soviet Service", built from the box. There have been a few comments about accuracy issues on this kit in the 'Rumourmonger' thread : In my humble opinion, the nose section looks undernourished, being about 2mm to slim and lacking the distinctive curavture of the original. The windscreen sits a bit too high, about 1mm. The placement of exhaust rows does not match plans either. Despite these issues, the kit builds into a well-detailed replica and does look like an Il-10 to me. A detailled build review will be featured in an upcoming edition of Scale Aviation Modeller International. The model was painted using Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. All photogrpahs by Wolfgang Rabel. Thanks for your interest, greetings from Vienna.

Hello and thanks for your interest, this is my attempt on RS Models 1/72 Airacobra I. The export version was called P-400 and is identical to the P-39D series. The kit was problematic, suffering from incomplete mouldings, damaged clear parts and generally poor fit. This is the best I could get out within the 4-weeks timeframe I had. The model was painted with Tamiya & Mr.Hobby acrylics. Decals from the box, representing a machine operating in the Murmanks area, winter 1942/1943. I'd like to thank fellow Britmodellers Troy Smith and Fernando as well as Mr. Gerhard Pomp from Vienna for their valuable help in research. A detailled build review will be featured in an upcoming edition of Scale Aviation Modeler International. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes.

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Tupolew Tu-2, built from the ICM kit. This model kit was orginally released in 1997, and while being sufficently detailed, it looks a bit crude compared with today's industry standards. I built from the box and painted with Gunze acrylics according to a color profile provided by fellow Britmodeller Learstang - thank you very much for your valuable help, Sir! I used the kit's decals for the individual markings, the Red Stars come from a Begemot sheet. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes. With kind regards from Vienna!

Dear fellow Britmodellers, I just got my 1/72 RS Models P-400 Airacobra (#92181). There is one Russian option(Red 60) provided. The caption below reads "Winter 1942/1943". RS instructions quote "Silver" overall for the colors. Shouldn't this be actually White - as it did operate during Winter time? Suggestions are most welcome. Thanks in advance, Roman

I'm pretty unhappy with Vallejo's Russian & French colours, has anyone else had the same issues? In all the images the dark blue grey for French fighters' upper surfaces, as part of the 3-colour scheme, is just a touch darker than the grey used for the underside. However Vallejo's 71.005 is a slate grey, giving no contrast with the green and dark brown. Again, with Soviet planes, their AMT11 and AMT12 should be mid greys? Nope! Vallejo's 71.304 & 71.308 are both really dark. In fact there's little difference between them. My Lavochkin LA-7 looks really cool, but in a Batman kind-of-way.

Hello and thanks for your interest. Here's my 1/72 Zvezda Yak-3, built with the addition of Eduard photo etch, Rob Taurus vacu canopy and Begemot decals. Represents a machine of 303rd Fighter Division, 3rd Belorussian Front, East Prussia, April 1945. Painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. With kind regards from Vienna, Austria Roman Schilhart

Dear fellow Britmodellers, there's been a couple of Eduard 1/72 Lavochkins around here, recently. May I add another one to the growing collection? This is "White 23" from 2nd Sqn, 2nd GIAP, “Mongolsky Arat”, operating in spring 1945. The model was built from the 'Profi Pack' which includes paint masks and photo etch details. I replaced the pitot tube with a piece of wire. The spinner of Eduard's kit is slightly mis-shaped, resembling a "kremlin tower"; this was substituted with a resin item from Hungarian manufacturer SBS Models. Painted with acrylics from the Mr.Hobby range. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes. Thanks for your interest!

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my latest model kit, 1/72 Tamiya's Ilyushin Il-2M. Built with the addition of Eduard photo etch. Painted with colors from the Gunze/Sangyo range. Represents a machine from 566th ShAP, Leningrad 1944. On Tamiya's decal sheet, the red/blue fuselage symbol seemed slightly oversized. As this marking variant is also supplied with Eduard's 1/72 Il-2, I used the smaller symbols. The model is missining it's aiming device on the nose; the small photo-etch part had disappeared when I arrived at my photgrapher's place ... All pictures by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes. Thanks for your interest, best wishes from Vienna Roman

Hi, Exactly month ago I started thread on construction of three models of Polikarpov R-5/R-Z family. I thought, that I am prepared to this work but soon it appeared, that I was deeply wrong. More is in mentioned above WiP part of Forum. The surprise was how seriously one have to change shapes of R-Z by Special Hobby. Next two kits were Apex (Encore,....) R-5 and old vacu MPM R-5. Today I finished first of this set of three. This is Polikarpov R-5 (originaly light bomber and recce plane) converted to transport variant called often "Limousine". Polikarpov R-5 was a Soviet countrpartner of machines like Potez XXV, Breguet XiX perhap also British Hawker Hart family (but larger). The model is scratch conversion of R-5 by Apex. No part of kit is left nod modified. The fuselage is reshaped not only in rear part where closed canopy is installed but also the engine was reshaped. The wings and tail had added ribs and were reshaped folowing drawings given by M.Maslov in his monography of R-5/R-Z family. The painting scheme is taken from a photo published in this book. It is described there "R-5 transport, Eastern Front, winter 1944". I have found the same photo in Net described "Leningrad front, winter 1941-42. However the form of red stars (their out lines) sugget second half of war. Below wing there are transport containers for two or three (I do not know it exactly) each. This eng. P.Grokhovskij design, originaly for 7 troops below each wing. The first flight was done with living 14 people as passangers...(instead of initially planned sand bobs ). Grokhovskij designed it for offensive tranport of troops, but I think that here it was use for evacuation of wounded. Here is result: I hope to present next two in reasonable future... (Edit 2017: I did ) Comments welcome and regards Jerzy-Wojtek

Dear fellow Britmodellers, after more than two months abroads, I'm happy to report back from my workbench. Here's a piece of "Classic Plastic" I had started at the end of last year - the 1/72 Ilyushin Il-4 Long Range Bomber. The original moulds of this kit were produced in the mid-1980s by East German company VEB Plasticard. The same kit has been available in re-boxings by Revell, Master Modell and ADP. It's a kit of typical 1980s standard, with raised panel lines and some rather chunky details. I did replace the main defense guns with metal items from Mini World. I was intending to fit a metal gun in the nose as well, but the opening of the clear part was much too wide, so I fell back on the kit's plastic part. I also replaced the plastic handrail on the left fuselage side with a piece of wire. I received two boxings of this model kit from an IMPS member at a swap-meet; some of the small parts had broken off the sprues and were missing. However, I was able to complete one model from the parts I found in the box. As the kit's decals were very old and thick, almost like stickers, I used an aftermarket set from AML ('Il-4 Over The Reich'). Depicted is an aircraft from the 3rd Long Range Bomber Regiment, operating in winter 1944/1945. Sadly, the decals were beyond their lifespan. The bigger items (the patriotic slogan and the red stars for the fin) broke into a puzzle of pieces when slid off the backing paper. I did my best to cobble them together, using some free-hand touch-ups with Red paint on the stars. The decals also left ugly glue-marks around them, but being fragile as they were, I did not dare to wipe over with a cloth, as I usually do. So, the build ended up a bit messy and won't win any competitions, for sure. Still, it's a nice addition to my line-up of Soviet WWII aircraft. Maybe someday a manufacturer will provide us with new moulds of the Il-4? A new Pe-2 and Tu-2 would also be most welcome! The model was painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics (H72 Brown, H303 Green, H85 Black Gray) using Haarder & Steenbeck Evolution airbrush. Thanks for your interest in this topic. All photographs by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes - thank you! With kind regards from Vienna, Roman

Hello, this is Czech manufacturer Brengun's new-ish 1/72 Yakolew Yak-1, Series 2, 1942 production. This kit is a little bit more expensive then your average short-run model - you'll find out why as soon as you open the box. It contains a very nice photo etch fret with finely detailed parts for the interior, the landing gear covers as well as lower wing surface panels. The box offers three decal options, all of them in the usual (and rather unspectacular) Green/Dark Grey scheme. I used Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics for painting, choosing H303 for the Green and H331 for the darker colour. According to the 'scale effect', I used H331 Dark Grey (with a drop of White added for the faded effect) instead of Black. The fit is unproblematic, all the interior bits go into the fuselage without extra work. You'll have to sand down the wing roots a little bit, to make the upper wings click into place without tension. While the Yak-1 is a rather unspectacular aircraft, I'm quite happy that Brengun provide us with an up-to-date rendition. All photographs by Wolfgang Rabel (IGM Cars & Bikes). Cheers from Vienna!

Hi fellow modellers, this is Revell kit modified to a Soviet Hurricane, what mainly comprised upgrading the armament to Soviet standard. Complete build report is included in coming publication, more information here: http://www.valiant-wings.co.uk/pre-order-airframe-extra-no6-1862-p.asp Cheers Libor

Hello and thanks for your interest, here's another Lavochkin La-5FN from Kovozavody Prostejov. "Yellow 8" was flown by pilot P. Rakov in summer 1944 (according to kit instructions). I used photoetch parts (for dashboard, seatbelts and landing gear covers) from an old Extratech set. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel.

This is my first ever participation in a GB, and although four months is a long time, I'm a slow builder and the time frame coincides with peak work period, some planned holiday, and a probable job search, so spare time is likely to be very limited on occasions. Plus, it's summer! So, bearing that in mind, I've opted for this kit as my initial contribution. It's the relatively new Airfix moulding, packaged with VVS decals in the Airfix Club kit from a few years back. I built the Flying Tigers P-40 last year for my son's ceiling display, and I don't recall any major issues with the kit, so it should be a straightforward OOB build. The challenge for me will be to do the winter whitewash. It's not something I've tried before and I'm a wielder of hairy sticks, so I'm not feeling too confident. The kit decals depict White 58 of 20 GvIAP, with a scheme absolutely plastered in whitewash. The info on Massimo Tessitori's site (http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/lendlease/p-40/tapani/p-40b-c/58khlobystov.htm) has the whitewashing rather more restrained, and on balance I prefer that both aesthetically and as I can at least see the research underlying that scheme with my own eyes. I believe box and sprue photos are traditional at this stage, if only I could get photobucket to work properly, I would post. Maybe tomorrow it'll behave...

Hi, usually I do not touch "Snap Fit" kits, since I had some rather disappointing experiences (with tanks) before. Now the new Zvezda model of the Yak-3 is a totally different league. Apart from the fact that you actually can assemble the whole model without a drop of glue, it also provides sufficient detail and good measurement - and there's even aftermarket accessories available from the likes of Eduard, Rob Taurus and CMK. I confess I did use glue on some parts, like the landing gear and some small pieces, just to make sure they don't go astray. The model was painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics, the decals are from the box. I had some reservations about their quality, as there was a yellow-ish tone on the carrier film. All of this disappeared when I put the markings on, so no worries here. There seem to be different interpretations of this particular scheme, some sources recommend a red spinner with white tail lines, while Zvezda suggest grey spinner and yellow stripes. I went with their instructions. It represents the plane of Lt. S. I. Rogovoy, of 64th GIAP / 4th GIAD, on the 2nd Baltic Front, autumn 1944. The pitot tube was replaced by a piece of wire. Thanks for your interest. Best wishes from Vienna, Roman

Since the Ju-88 group build looks like one that I have no chance of finishing in time, I would like to enter this one, if I may. I will build the Toko P-63A kit. Luckily, it includes the ventral fin for the P-63C-5. I will decide what to do about the canopy in due course. It's not as awful as one or two reviews make it out to be, but it may need a little grinding and polishing to deal with a bit of distortion or misplaced canopy frame. Need to examine photos. I have to use some imagination about the markings. While it is easy enough to see which planes went to the VVS (see Joe Baugher's online lists of airframe serial numbers of US planes), it is not easy to find photos of Soviet P-63s of 17 IAP and 821 IAP of 190 IAD; 781 IAP and 940 IAP of 245 IAD; or 888 IAP and 410 ShAP of 128 SAD. These are the units that were arrayed against the Japanese in August 1945 that had P-63s. It looks as if I will need to buy some decals for the tail number, which will begin either "311..." or "444...". I'm not sure I can devote the time needed for a model right now, but here goes.

Hello, this is the new release Kovozávody Preostejov Lavochkin La-5FN in markings of the Slovak Uprising, 1944. I had high expectations following the release of Kovozávody Preostejov's Mustang series, however, this kit looks as if it's been produced by a different manufacturer. There are no locating aids, some flesh present and heavy sprue gates. Having said that, the kit goes together without any major issues. Kovozávody Preostejov have done the 'open canopy' option in a very unusual way, providing both clear hoods (that slide over each other) as one massive piece. You will need to paint the underlying canopy rails from the inside - not an easy task. This is still a very welcome new release as it's the only modern, up-to-date tool of an La-5FN. Here's how mine turned out, built from the box: All photographs by Wolfgang Rabel, IGM Cars & Bikes. Thanks for looking!

Hi folks, I have just picked up Eduard's Yak 1B in the form of the latest boxing. Now one of the options is Pokrovskiy's interesting Yak 1B: Now the colours are debated all over the net and have been drawn as AMT7 and AMT11 with either AMT12, red or blue for the tail. My opinion is that I don't believe the tail is red but I'm interested in the fuselage and the main colour as AMT11 would seem abit dark given this photo: wouldn't it? Looking at some colour callouts, over here on this: www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=features&file=view&artid=2898 they give AMT 11 as Humbrol 79 which seems quite dark? What do you folks think and does anyone have another option for AMT11, perhaps either Vallejo or Tamiya? Massimo Tessitori on another site believes the main colour could be silver.

Okay the bad news first; despite the rather lurid title, I only completed two models this year, an Il-2 Shturmovik and an La-5, both in the gentleman's scale of 1/72nd. Now the good news - this doubles my output from last year! The Il-2 arrow (swept-winged variant) was from the Toko kit, with wooden wings represented by labouriously sanding down the wings to rid it of the engraved panel lines. The La-5 was built strictly out of the box, and the kit is a repop of the old, but quite nice Cooperativa kit. I'm not too happy with the exhaust stains on the La-5, but I was in a hurry to get if "officially" finished for 2014. The lack of weathering is deliberate - looking at photographs, the La-5 was usually kept in pretty good nick. I may well revisit the exhausts and the near lack of exhaust stains on my Il-2. The Il-2's engine, the Mikulin AM-38 was not a particularly oily or greasy engine, but it did put out quite a bit of exhaust. At any rate here they are, in all their mediocre glory! As usual I apologise for the poor quality of the photography, assembly, decaling, weathering, etc. Best Regards, Jason You may wonder why I have so many photographs for such so-so models, but I happen to go by what the Vozhd ("Boss" - Stalin) is reputed to have said - "Quantity has a quality all its own.".

Hi Guys. I present to you my latest finished airplane (my third overall). It is the weekend edition of the Lavochkin La-7 kit in 1/48 from Eduard (actually ex-Gavia). The aircraft depited is that belonging to Col. Dolgushin, spring 1945. Very nice kit which went toghether with no major problems. For WIP pls check here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234963761-lavochkin-la-7/ Hope you guys like it. Pls feel free for any comments/advices. All the best,

While working on my "big one" - Airfix 1/72 Lancaster BII - I have completed these two kits on the side. They are from Eduard's "Dual Combo" set which comes with Photo-Etch parts and an extensive decal sheet. Both kits were built from the box with the addition of SBS resin spinners - the kit's items look a little bit like "Kremlin's Towers". I also added Rob Taurus vacu canopy on "White 24", as the plastic kit part is too thick to fit over the back section of the cockpit. Both kits were painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics and weathered with artist's oils and pastels. Metal blanking plates behind the exhausts were painted with Alclad II. The pitot tubes were exchanged for a piece of wire. So, first here's "White 24", the mount of Major Sultan Ahmet Khan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amet-khan_Sultan) of III/9.GIAP, 1945. According to Wikipedia, there's also a movie about his life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haytarma Sultan Ahmet Khan was killed in 1971 while flying a Tupolev Tu-16LL. Next is "White 33" of Col. Georgy Golubev, 4th GFAR, Baltic Region, 1945. All photographs by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes, Vienna. Thanks for your interest! Roman

Lavochkin La-7 Commander of the 156th IAP Lt.Col., Hero of the Soviet Union S.F. Dolgushin, 215th IAD, 8th IAK, 4th VA, Kluzow, Germany, April 1945 Kit: 1/72 Eduard ProfiPack Afermarket parts: Pavla vacuformed canopy The main problem areas of the kit (fixed in this build) were: Wrong shaped wing tips (actually beginning at approx. 1/3rd of the span from the tip) both in profile and frontal view. While fixing this error, the aileron surface detail (being originally in "shrink-wrap" style) was lost and a new, more correct representation of doped fabric tautened over the frame with rib tapes added was done. Almost empty main wheel-wells: very little detail was provided and the most of what was available was wrong anyway. So, they had to be almost completely reworked. Some detail was scratch built of plastic and some corrections were done using Mr. Surfacer as well. The correct “ceiling” of the wheel bay area being originally just the inner surface of the upper main wing half was cut off, given the accurate profile and then positioned on its correct place. Inaccurate propeller spinner. It was corrected with Mr. Surfacer. Very basic representation of the louvers mounted in front of the engine being originally just a disc with a relief detail, while there should actually be empty intervals between the separate blades as well as between the blade tips and the cowling inner surface visible. To achieve the desired result, the excess plastic was removed from the original part, the edges of the blades were sanded off and the part was positioned onto a plastic tube mounted in the cowling interior. Gun ports being just holes in the cowling front ring, while their lower surface should actually go through the entire cowling. This was corrected by adding plastic inserts to the appropriate areas. The same had to be done with the wing root air intakes. Cockpit interior behind the pilot’s seat/radio compartment - again, almost empty and what was available, was wrong. Eventually the entire interior was scratch built there. The cockpit itself, despite some etched parts provided, could also benefit from some improvements as otherwise it still looks somewhat toy-like. Some cables and instruments were added there for more realism as well. The cockpit borders were too thick and, in addition, not exactly parallel, therefore, some sanding was required here as well. Canopy. Although crystal-clear, it is (both 1-piece and 3-piece parts) unfortunately thick enough to be unusable for displaying in open position. On the other hand, if displayed in closed position, due to the thickness, the cockpit interior looks severely distorted. The kit part was eventually replaced with the vacu-canopy by Pavla. The joint of the wing and the fuselage resulted in some sort of a small “peak” in the lower fuselage line. While correcting this, some moderate re-shaping of the fuselage in this area was required. In addition, the landing gear flaps were thinned down, some missing access hatches were engraved and some small details (e.g., Venturi tube) were added. Almost all kit decals proved to be of little use due to their wrong shape or dimensions: white borders of the stars too narrow, the number “93” and the under-wing stars undersized. So, mostly spare markings were used instead. This particular La-7, before handing it over to Dolgushin as his personal a/c, was completely re-primed and repainted and the stencil data weren’t re-applied, so that no use for all those beautifully printed markings either...

These are the first models I bought and finished since I moved to Denmark- the Eastern Express/Dakoplast LaGG-3 series 66 and the Zvezda Yak-3, both 1/72. The Eastern Express kit requires quite a bit of clean-up and filler to get to fit well at the wing-to-fuselage join. I used the kit decals to model it as Yuri Shchipov's mount, but only half of them came off the sheet or worked, with the result that I only decaled one side of the plane (and even then, not fully). The multi-part canopy fit poorly and I broke one of the bits, hence the pose with the open canopy. Next is the 'snap-fit' Yak-3 from Zvezda, done in (what else) the markings of Normandie-Niemen ace Marcel Albert, one of the kit's options. Sadly, the kill markings were off-register. For a snap-fit kit, it's overengineered.Once put together, there were some unsighlty bumps and depressions due to to the snap fit which I tried to smooth out to the best of my abilities. I ended up repainting the spinner decal markings as they did not fit very well. Both kits were painted with what Humbrol and Revell enamels I had at hand. The AMT-12 and AMT-11 were made up of different mixes of Humbrol 106, 230 and 165, though for the Yak-3, I used Humbrol 106 alone for the AMT-12. The underside AMT-7 was a 4:1:1 mix of Humbrol 65:Revell 50:Humbrol 165 and the interior a 3:1 mix of Humbrol 165 and Humbrol 230. This was the first time I used Vallejo Matt Varnish, with the unfortunate side-effect of white streaks or spots. The ones you see are those which would not disappear with re-gloss and matt coating. Last but not least is the Kora 1/72 EKW C-3602, a Swiss multi-purpose combat aircraft whose Wikipedia article rather generously compared it to the Ilyushin Il-2: Yes, it's the odd one out but I had only one good quality picture of this model, so I threw it in here. By the way, the Wikipedia article doesn't contain the line about the Il-2 anymore. As with the other Kora kit I built, it's got a lot detail and a lot of small parts. Besides large pour stubs on the parts, the only serious problem was a warped fuselage. The plane was finished in RLM 70 over RLM 65. Some of the kit decals needed retouching, which I hope is not obvious from the pics. As usual, thanks for looking! Comments are welcome.

Just finished this project few days ago. Building process here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234941996-mig-3-trumpeter-148/ . This model from Trumpeter is really nice. A bit scratch parts plus photoetched from Eduard. Hope you like it

Hi everybody. This is UM Models 1/72 Petlyakov Pe-2. I upgraded with Kora Resin sets (Interior/Exterior/Engines/Undercarriage), Zlinek Photo Etch set, MiniWorld metal guns and Eduard masks. Painted with Harder & Steínbeck Evolution airbrush using Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Thanks to Andreas Bdinka (IPMS Austria) for his help in obtaining the Kora sets. Thanks to fellow Britmodeller users Fuad and Learstang for valuable advice regarding VVS colours (hope I got them right this time). This is the kit box. Striking artwork, but it's a pity that this colorful livery is not included in the kit's painting options. Here's the aftermarket sets I used for this build: The Mini World metal guns are especially nice items: The interior, prior to assembly (lucky those ejector marks are invisible on the finished model, it would have been a chore to eliminate them all): And here is the finished model. Thanks for looking! Cheers from Vienna, Austria Roman Schilhart