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With the Charger finished, it's time for me to jump straight into the next project. This one is going to be a much longer project and I expect it will take most of the summer to complete. As usual for me, the kit is going to be pretty much straight out of the box, and is Tamiya's custom Nissan Syline GT-R from 1970. First impressions of the kit are very good, and appear to justify the excellent things I've heard about it. However, as this is going to be my first attempt at using photoetch parts, there is plenty of opportunity for this one to go all pear-shaped. In truth, work on this started back in the autumn when I set about trying to get the body ready. Fortunately, there were no noticeable sink marks on it, and only small, well-placed mould-lines which took only a little removal. This is the body straight out of the box: Needless to say, after a little clean-up, it got a coat of white primer (obvious choice of primer colour since I'm doing this as the white version): After that, it got a coat of Halfords Nissan Arctic White. Not really sure why I bothered though, as the colour is near enough identical to the primer. To think white is usually a nightmare to match, and then I go and pick something which is a perfect colour match to the undercoat But, for completeness here's the body as it was before the winter weather stopped progress: As of today, it has had the decals added (all two of them) to the main body and just wants its clear coat now. Can't say I'm looking forward to polishing it though with those creases - they look like prime territory for burning through the paint. The other sprayed parts have had similar treatment, with the bonnet and spoilers having received their clear coats last weekend. The chassis is body coloured on this one, and it has been bugging me all winter that it just looked too bright in this white finish. So today I've had a go at going over it with a dark grey wash, then rubbing off the wash with an old cloth before it dried (I presume this is the correct way of doing it?) For a first attempt, I'm reasonably satisfied with the outcome, and at the very least it's dulled it down a bit: With all that done, it was time to make a start on the instructions. Not major progress, just the engine block/gearbox assembled and some paint on that, the sump and the engine cover. But at least it's a start... That's where I am at the moment, but that engine cover still needs a bit of detailing prior to fitting onto the engine.

The box arrived at 16:00. First impressions.... 1. A big box packed with a lot of plastic...600 parts they say. 2. VERY fine detailing, moulding flawless, reasonable length runners, even on the smallest of parts. 3. I cannot see any short shot parts. The instructions have you start with the cockpit. I'm still thinking about the best way to do the instruments. Airfix provide separate instrument transfers to apply to the back of a clear panel and then fix the front over. Confusingly they offer 3 instrument panels, R3 and R4, but no where I can see do they link the choice to a model. On the transfer application page there is no mention of the choice, either. So I'm going to start on Page 39, step 150 and build the engine!! Photos to follow...

Hi chaps. Been away from my bench for too long, one thing and another has prevented me. Found this kit going cheap on hannants website, and I felt a spark, so duely purchased it. I can feel the interest coming back, and thought I'd have a crack at it. Caught my eye, as it's a rather odd looking car, and rather rare in real life. Hope to post some progress in the next day or two. Matt

Hey everyone Well you might think that I'm jumping on the 1/24 Airfix Hurricane band wagon what with @The Spadgent making a rather good start on his (you'd be right by the way ) but in my defence I do have some time to kill whilst I'm waiting for some bits to dry on my Hawker Typhoon and I think a large scale Hurricane will complement it nicely. So without further a do rather lovely box art.. The proposed scheme, Hurricane P3675 UF*S, 601 Sqn RAF Tangmere September 1940 (I built the 1/48 Scale version recently).. ..using the Montex masking set.. ..and here is where I'm at at the moment. My fuselage halves are both quite warped so for the worst offender I am going to straighten it out by gluing on the side panels... ..I drilled out the panel location tabs ...and cut the starboard panel in two.. ...it still fits ok.. Cheers all Iain.

... or Happiness is Vectored Thrust! Firstly, I am a fan of the Harrier but mostly the early variants before the airframe was “afflicted” by the lumps and bumps associated with the development of an aircraft. As you may have guessed by my screen name, I’m particularly fond of the prototype aircraft, the P.1127 and P.1127/2, otherwise known as (the/a) Kestrel. To my eye, these are the definitive forms of this aircraft concept/configuration, with their aluminium finish and long pitot tubes sticking out the front, ready for the jousting tournament. I’ve recently returned to the hobby after 20 years or so: the aircraft I always fancied building all those years ago was an Airfix 1/24 scale Harrier but it was never to be. I’ve now decided that I’m going to give converting the Harrier into a P.1127 a go and I thought I’d try posting a WiP to try and keep myself out of metaphorical doldrums. The question was which P.1127 configuration to model? As you may or may not know (or care) there were many configuration states of P.1127 although predominantly they can be split into two groups. The first six aircraft had registration numbers starting with XP (831, 836, 972, 976 980 & 984). The second group with the designation P.1127/2, also given the name Kestrel by the Hawker marketing department had registration numbers starting with XS (688 - 696). This is based on my limited research into the subject, anyway. The reason for being so picky with the registration numbers is because there was evidently quite a bit of variation between each aircraft, especially in the first group of six but also extending into the second group. Relevant differences include (but are not limited to): the wing ¼ chord sweep (the trailing edge was unswept for the first five aircraft but was swept back on the sixth) wing leading edge extensions (saw-tooth extensions were added during development to refine handing) fairing of wing tip into landing gear fairing fuselage length (the Kestrel was extended by 9 inches compared to the P.1127) tailplane area, span & dihedral sweep angle of air intakes (reduced from 35 degrees on the first aircraft to a more moderate 20 degrees on later aircraft… less so on the Harrier upon EIS) various intake lip profiles etc. Of course all the aircraft above are significantly different to the Harrier (GR1) that is the subject of Airfix’s 1/24 scale kit. The aircraft that I’ve decided to model (try to model) is XP984, a special aircraft for me. XP 984 was the last of the original P.1127 aircraft but was designated as the prototype for the forthcoming Kestrels (P.1127/2). This means that the aircraft originally had the Kestrel wing with the swept trailing edge, the 20 degree sweep on the air intakes and an intermediate tailplane configuration. To my eyes the aircraft in its original configuration looks “the most right” out of all the P.1127 configurations: a nice swept trailing edge with no leading edge extensions to spoil things, a nice sweep on the intakes with no bulbous “elephant ears” ruining the lines but maintaining the aforementioned pitot tube at the nose. (The aircraft, now at Brooklands, has been retro-fitted with a Harrier wing and tailplane so looks less good, IMHO. I’m grateful it’s now inside however). The reason XP984 is special to me is because I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Ralph Hooper (conceptual design and Chief Engineer of the P.1127 programme) at Brooklands and discussing the aircraft with him for an hour or so. I’d like to build this aircraft to help remember such a wonderful experience. As for model itself (an eBay “bargain”), progress has been made but is intermittent due to family and work commitments. The progress so far includes: Fin: removing air intake from root. I’m unsure whether a reduction in height is required… research is ongoing Tailplane: modified to the correct profile but I only have one of them L a shortcoming of the eBay “bargain”. Airfix themselves couldn’t help… any other ideas? Making one will be simple enough but I’d rather modify! Wing: leading edge extensions removed and tips re-profiled. The model will be displayed in the hover so the flaps need cutting out and lowering but this I’m saving for another day Fuselage: the biggest job was re-profiling the air intakes the kit’s Harrier intakes are wrong for the P.1127 so they were cut out and new ones built up from plastic-card and car body filler (I love that stuff) at the required 20 degree sweep for XP984. This also required making the fairings for the cold nozzles: these have intakes in their leading edges but I haven’t got there yet. I’ve also boxed out the landing gear bays to attempt some detailing in there… we shall see how successful that is. My biggest unknown with the fuselage is the length. The Kestrel fuselage is 9 inches longer that the P.1127 but is the same as the Harrier, I think. I’m modelling the Kestrel prototype so I don’t know if XP984 had a P.1127 or Kestrel/Harrier length fuselage. Any ideas? There’s clearly a lot of work left to do, especially on the fuselage (and especially if it wants shortening by 9 scale inches!). The other big thing is the fairing over the wing but I need to wait for the fuselage to be joined first, I think. As I said, progress will be intermittent but I’m hoping the pressure of the forum will eventually get me over the line. The finished model will not be worthy of any special mention like so many of the fantastic efforts displayed on this forum: I shall be ecstatic if it is recognisable as a Kestrel (prototype). I’ve tried to add some pictures below… fingers crossed. Anyway, thanks for looking, P. (Sorry for the quality of the photos, clearly they were taken on my phone!) The bits so far... Fuselage showing modified intakes and cold nozzle fairings The air intake structure aft of the cockpit is a key omission of the kit, perhaps not surprising given its age. Plasticard has been used to rough-in some of the structure but more work is required to tidy it up and fair it in. I shall invest in some Milliput, which I have never used but am led to understand that it might be useful here than my beloved Isopon. Yours truly and the Chief Engineer himself, in front of the aircraft in question.

Hi All, I must be a sucker for punishment. Yet another model that I have decided to finish along with all the others. This one has for no reason that I can work out, been sitting on the back-shelf for an enormously long time. I had built the engine, transmission & exhaust and had sprayed all the body parts in their final colour, then I put it away and forgot about it. This is the Revell 'Premium' range of 1/24th kits. There weren't many models in this series, This, a BMW 850 a Mercedes 560 C, coupe and cabriolet. I has many more parts than your usual Revell kit, and has a reputation for being difficult to build, almost to the point of being un-buildable! That currently, has not been my experience. The engine and transmission (No piccies unfortunately. I had assembled the engine and transmission into the floor-pan before I realised I had no pictures) went together well, as did the exhaust system. A bit over-the-top in the parts count department, but engineered well enough. I decided that mine would be black, so I sprayed it with Halfords' grey primer followed by a Halfords' Black (Not sure which one - there is more than one shade!) So, this is where we are now: The somewhat crumpled box. Looks impressive. The body: There are some minor imperfections that will polish out. I use Halfords' polishing compound. It's a old can, and appears to be quite different from the newer Halfords polishing compound. Sorry about the blurry rear-end, but I was using shutter priority on the camera in order to use flash, and it must have selected a very wide aperture, hence the shallow depth of field. The wheels: Now, this is one area where Revell could improve upon. The tyres are that Vinyl stuff. It has a few failings: It appears to be 'oily' to the touch It doesn't look very much like rubber (too shiny) It can melt polystyrene, so you have to ensure the wheel is painted where the tyre touches it. It seems to age badly and become brittle. All but one of the tyres has split right across the tyre. I resolved it by using CA glue in the gap to hold the tyre together. I then filled the remains of the gap with High-tack PVA glue. That has the advantage that it dries clear, so appears to part of the tyre, and it also dries quite flexible, similar to the original vinyl (event when brittle). It is quite difficult to see the splits now, so the repair appears to have worked. This is where the new stuff starts: The rear suspension went in first. There are over twenty parts to make up the rear suspension, even more when you add the brakes and springs! Seems a bit like overkill. Still for all that, it assembled well and it all fitted. I highlighted all the pipe-work by dry-brushing aluminium on to the raised pipes. It needed a bit of clean-up later but nothing serious. The exhaust system is also another example of a complicated break-down of parts. There are nine parts here. Fortunately it all went together well, like this: It all fitted well. No major gaps, just a smear of filler before the back-box on one of he pipes. The headers event connected to the manifolds. I was impressed. Another view of the rear suspension with the axles attached: Again, quite complex, but it all fitted well. This is one of the from suspension parts. Again the fit was well engineered, and it fitted well. This biggest difficulty was ensuring no glue got onto the revolving axle part. That's the bit in the bottom right corner. So, this is where we are at present: All suspension parts added, including anti-roll bars etc. The exhaust looked a bit too shiny, so I used a mix of Humbrol matt black and gloss brown, highly diluted in white spirit to "grubby" it up a bit. The white spirit doesn't attack the acrylic already there. It has stalled here due to a major cock-up on my part. The right suspension part at the front didn't want to stay in place. I thought perhaps that the strut needed to be pressed harder into the wish-bone, so I pushed a bit harder. Not a good idea. I managed to snap off the wish-bone and nearly lost it to the laminate monster (The carpet monster's close cousin). I was not impressed (understatement of the decade). After locating the broken part, I used epoxy glue to fix it back in place. The end result is a bit more flexible than I would like, but it doesn't appear to be going anywhere. The problem still remains that the strut keeps falling out. No better (or worse) than before. I think that the only solution will be to glue the strut in place and lose the ability to have functional steering. Having said that, apart from posing it off centre, I never do anything else with it, so it's not a huge loss. I'll just set it slightly off centre anyway. More soon, I hope. Thanks for looking, Alan.

Hi, One of my friends asked me about how to paint 1/24 scale female figures such as those made by Master Box... http://www.mbltd.info/figures/1-24-scale/spaceport/24052.html She was curious about how to paint lace on chlotes, fishnet stockings etc in such small scale. As I never have built or painted such figures I didn't have any clues concerning painting lace etc. Is there any experiences or advise to get? I remember those Airfix figure kits of British Queens with fantastic dresses and lots of lace. Was it possible to paint those figures according to instructions/boxpictures? Cheers / André

As promised in the WIP-section, some pictures of the completed Diablo. A few build-pictures can be found there as well as a little more info. Wiper deliberately left off as it seemed massively overscaled and wouldn't fit correctly. Couldn't be bothered, to be honest. Maybe someday I'll do or find a better one. Probably not. First some shots from all sides, trying to catch the model as well as the aggressive pose. Next some Moneyshots for your preferenced car magazine I love that reflection from the flash on the badges edge I love those rims. Kit chrome stripped. Completely painted in Vallejo Model Air Aluminium, black wash all over, outer ring and Lugnuts Molotov chrome. Badge is Kit decal and fitted perfectly. I hope you like it. Not perfect, but fun and quick to build. Pictures were taken in its recent display place in our bookshelf. Quite a critical colour combination to take good pictures of.

Hi Folks, Quick question, I hope you may be able to help. I'm in the final stages of building the Airfix 1/24 typhoon. I opined the package that contains the canopy parts only to find that there is a crack on the front edge. Reading on a few forums I see that this can be a common fault. The kit is over a year old and I can't get any help from where it was purchased. I contacted Airfix but they informed me that part was not available. I also found a replacement after market part but I can't get a reply from the stockist. Any ideas??? Thanks for your help Simon

Here I post sompe pictures of a Lamborghini Diablo VT by Revell. Built completely OOB as a little inbetween-Project to keep the flame burning. It went together quite easily which is why I almost forgot to take some pictures. What you see here is all done just before mating the shell to the undercarriage. Mostly brush painted, a little airbrush work on the cognac. Colours are almost exclusively Vallejo Game Color and metallics Vallejo Model Air. All kit chrome was stripped and reapplied with molotov chrome where necessary. The Bodywork was sprayed enamel white from a rattlecan. The color is RAL9010 pure white which is just a tad off white. I almost always ignore the kits color suggestions completely and so did here. My references were collected from a ad on hemmings.com, which is no longer active. The pictures where downloaded in time, if anyone needs them for reference, let me know. Window surrounds painted slowly with a brush. The clear parts did not fit very well and needed pressure and 2k glue to stay put. Inside of the shell was completely painted black to look right through the openings. Engine and suspension bits were painted in a gunmetal metallic, then washed with a dark ink, probably smokey ink or pure black in places. then heavily drybrushed gunmetal, edges picked again in a bright silver. Some bolts picked out in silver. Exhaust pipes were done with a little bronce mixed into the gunmetal. From the upside very little is seen of the engine. The covers where painted in a ceramic white which I saw in a few pictures of diablo SVTs. I liked this very much and thought it would be great looking with the red decals. Even less will be seen through the opened hood. There's really next to no room around the engine. The cast block was painted black with some edges picked out in silver according to some pictures I found online. I think there's no real car with this combination out there, but it is not too far from reality. The interieur was done in a cognac brown according to the pictures I found online. The decal for the middle console is originally one part but needed to be seperated to fit nicely. The seats were rubbed down a bit with my fingers to give them a more used look. I appologize for the poor picture quality - I used my old camera but did not realize I had set the ISO still way too high as I took pictures in the dark before. By now the car is finished to a reasonable standard for a quick project and sits in my bookshelf. Some more pictures will probably follow.

Hello All, I have had this one on the back-burner for years. I have finally decided, what with the FIAT 500 nearly done and another couple of cars nearing completion as well, to resurrect this one. It's the Fujimi 1/24 246 Dino. It's one of their 'enthusiast' kits, meaning loads of fiddly tiny parts. I have already done a couple of the Porsche enthusiast kits and apart from a few niggles, they went together well. I just wish I knew where I had put them in the loft for safe keeping. I started it a while ago and then put into storage, where it got forgotten for a long while. I have painted all the major body parts in Halfords' 'Broome Yellow'. It has come out quite well, even gloss cover and no serious imperfections. This is the dinky little engine: I have put a few more parts together since these photos were taken. I am planning to add ignition leads as it looks a little bare without. Thanks for looking, Alan.

Hey everyone As I'm waiting for some bits to arrive for my Airfix 1/72 Lancaster I was having a mooch around the man cave and hiding in plain site were two, yes two Airfix 1/24 Typhoon kits with after market and three yes three part built engines! I originally started the build way back in 2014 with grand ideas of super-detailing the kit into within an inch of its life, well I wasn't a master modeler back then and I sure ain't one now so I'm going to set my sights a little lower and just aim to complete the kit. Why I have two kits has been gotten lost in the midst of time (I probably had a mad Ebay moment whilst I was still prone to a tipple) and as to the three part butchered motors I can only guess that in my attempts at super detailing (two of the motors are missing their spark plug ignition leads and coffman starter). So my plan is to salvage what I can from the three motors and complete one OOB and from the other two and create a stand alone model just of the engine and radiator (and try my hand at super detailing to replace to missing leads etc). The Typhoon I want to recreate is Babs VIII in 1/24, I built the rather splendid 1/48 Hasegawa kit back in 2017 and finished it as Babs and I just really like the look of the Typhoon in this particular scheme.. ..So I have the Kit.. ..and the after market... ..now all I need is the patience to finish the darn thing! Here are a couple of pictures of what I have work with with regards to the engine / cockpit frame work, the engine I'll leave out for now, until I have an exceptable work in progress to show.. ..I should be able to spend a little time on her later and hopefully the masking set that I'm waiting on for my Lanc should be here today (with any luck) Cheers Iain

Hi All, Another 'new' one. This was bought a very long time ago, and started a long time ago, and now resurrected in an attempt to get it done as well. So, the box art: I'm not sure if it ever raced outside Japan, but these single seat sports cars are fun to build. I have quite a few in my stash. And what with Tamiya releasing the Gazoo Toyota hybrid, and re-releasing the Mazda 767, well I feel my bank balance lightening as I type.... This one had a 4 cylinder turbo engine, and that's where I have got up to. Assembling the engine: I decided long ago to wire up the ignition, and this is the result. Don't look too closely at the distributor, trying to fit 8 itty-bitty teeny-weeny wires to something about 4mm across was, shall we say, challenging... It's a four cylinder engine, but with two plugs per cylinder. As I don't seem to get on with CA glue very will, I tried using a high-tack PVA glue. It sets a bit slower, but doesn't prefer (on the whole) to stick to me... Thanks for looking. More to come soon, Cheers, Alan.

Hi All, This is the second in my "Promise Made, promises fulfilled" project. I had this model over 30 years ago when it was first released. When I saw that Hasegawa had re-released it, I knew that I just had to get it. My memories of the first time was that it was a rather good model, with crisply moulded parts, and reasonably easy to build. My biggest mistake was to use automotive cellulose paints to paint it. The end result looked very good for about 6 months... Then it started to crack, and look rather shoddy. I removed the body from the floor pan, stripped the cellulose paint, can't remember with what, re-primed and sprayed it with enamels. However, that cellulose had attacked the plastic rather badly, even though I had primed it first. I could never get a good finish on it after that. Still, paints have moved on. I tend to use Zero paints these days and with care, they are much kinder to polystyrene. So, here we are so far: The obligatory box top. This kit comes with a finely detailed engine. Here are the first stages of the build. That's just eight parts to get to this stage, The fit is superb. I painted the block and cylinder heads with Tamiya XF-16, and the cam-covers with my own satin black concoction (One part Tamiya X-1, Two parts Tamiya XF-1 + three parts Mr Color levelling thinner). This seems to make a satin black that is easy to paint and with a finish not as glossy as X-18. I mix up about 25 mL and store in a glass bottle. This gives me enough to spray, if I need to, and it will brush paint well as well. One thig that I though looked a bit naff about the kit was the front disc brakes. For some reason, Hasegawa had moulded them on the 'chrome' tree. Some parts look right in high chrome, like the bumpers, and headlamps/tail lamps. But the front discs and callipers? I think not. This is what they looked like: A touch garish, I think. So out came the tub of caustic soda solution I keep in the garage, and I popped the offending items in it for about 50 minutes, and the result was: Completely stripped. They do seem to be coated in some kind of high-gloss varnish which the caustic soda won't touch, but the removal of the "chrome" seems to reveal more of the moulded detail. So, a quick priming with my 'grey primer' concoction followed by the right kind of colours, will make them more realistic, I think... That was where I stopped taking pictures, as I was making such good progress on the model. Anyway, this where I have got by early this morning... The sharper-eyed of you may have noticed that one of the air filter chambers is not yet fitted. That's because I forgot to cut it from the sprue and fix it on. For small parts, I tend to prime and paint them on the sprue then tidy them up on removal before attaching them to the assembly. This is nearly done. I'll show the images soon. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Alan.

My newest project is a bit different, maybe not. I have had a 1/24 UH-1B Huey lying around for a few years(bought back when it was $34). I was looking online at forget what, just going further down the rabbit hole. I come across an art project made from an actual UH-1D called Take Me Home Huey. https://takemehomehuey.org/ I'm not American, well I understand my original dad was, but he died before I was born and mum don't talk about it so I don't really know. I have some strange draw to the Vietnam war, I don't know what it is, maybe because I was born a little after the official end of it. Perhaps it's because I grew up hearing about it. Anyway I did want to try to make a D-model from this kit. Turns out it's a bit more than I had hoped. Also there is no conversions for it. I also had the idea to put this on a semi trailer as a fresh restoration or derelict. I also thought of making it a Canadian CH-118 Iroquois. It's a good kit for a 1969 design. This will have the trailer and the Freightliner. I dug around online for whatever pictures of this one and side profile views. I found a couple of ok pictures and some rough when enlarged drawings and did my best to make them 1/24 for a pattern. I made the first mistake of cutting the fuselage in half through the door to lengthen it. Turns out, the door opening is longer and the rear of the fuselage up to the tailboom is moved back and reshaped. The belly is also deeper, the cowling is quite different from the tailpipe shroud forward. I decided to make a rib structure much like a wooden airplane or house walls and then sheet them. After I thought I could have glued on a block of wood and took a belt sander to it. I cut the tail boom off to make it easier to finish the rear joint area without damaging the tail. The floor was started but will be replaced with new sheet plastic. I don't know how yet to remake the texture on the floor. I'll let the first pictures speak for themselves. I have a couple of ideas for reproducing the decals. The real one is a wrap. I've been in touch with the Huey group but I'm still waiting for certain pictures, namely the roof I need, because it's so tall, no one gets that shot but I need it. I'm not sure if it will be 100% accurate when done, but it'll be very close. It is a big model, about 20" just for the fuselage.

Well after completing my first build, (a 1/72 Mk1 Hurricane) its time to give its big brother and my xmas pressie a good crack. I have definitely caught the modelling bug and im looking forward to putting some of the techniques learned to good use as well as trying out some more! Please forgive any boring photo's that you have all seen a million times before, just kind of want to see the whole journey from start to finish (Humour me im a newbie lol) Here goes nothing! The storey so far (In my head i have the opening bars of the Star Wars theme tune playing )- Firstly the sprue shots Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Untitled by andrewbudd2, on FlickrUntitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr So according to the instructions the first thing to tackle was the merlin! so a bit of dry fitting and a load of flash removal commenced (Think there could be alot of this required in this kit) Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Not sure if i missed something at this point but was slightly confused regarding the pin that holds the prop in the engine, The instructions say to place the pin inside and then but the top of the engine on meaning the prop would then be permanently in place before painting as the pin would just push out if adding the prop later? Anyway i solved this by glueing some old sprue in behind the pin so it cant drop out when adding the prop later. (Go on somebody tell me what i missed :-)) Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr After a spot of priming i sprayed the engine black as per instructions except for the cam covers which i thought would look better aluminium (Have seen pics of both so i thought its not gonna look to out of place!) Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Then picked out some details Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Painted up the engine mounting frames Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Next my first attempt at dry brushing (Think i was a bit heavy handed in places) & glued all the other engine parts on. Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Untitled by andrewbudd2, on Flickr Overall pretty pleased with it, think i want to put a bit of a wash on the cam covers to make them look a bit more oily but other than that all good. That's were i am folks, thanks for looking and any comments/tips/observations gratefully recieved Cheers Andy

You al know how it is. Once in a while, it doesn't matter that the stash is filled to the brim, that there's no more room on the shelf of doom, and the modelling table is filled with 1,2,3 - many ongoing subjects, sometimes you just need to clear everything, and take the latest and greatest purchase and go with the flow. In my case this happened with the enormous Typhoon. I've never built anything in larger scale than 1/48 before, and there was nothing in the stash of that sort either, but it didn't matter. I needed it, badly. It wasn't possible to resist a view like: Trying to battle the AMS didn't work either, which is why I've got the Airscale instrument decals and some Eduard goodies Let's make a start at it then! what could possible go wrong? Well, since my previous attempts at building Typhoons has been less than successful, my track record might not be the best, and its a BIG model! No matter, I'm filled with cheerful optimism, and neither the dreaded crack in the hood (got a new clear sprue from Airfix last week, which was as good as one can hope), or a rather nasty short-shot: will stop me this time. Everything is possible! Lets cut off a few pieces, clean them up! Rear spar is a little bent: Some heavy persuasion with brute force and glue should sort that out later on. I hope :-) Also decided to drill out the holes in the rear form(imf=er, just because I could. Edit: ARRGH! It's post preview one should click on, nothing else! Story continues: Well, all parts were cleaned up an glued together, and after a quick coat of Vallejo black primer, it looks quite ok actually. Quite a lot of parts was left out of the initial assembly, but also primed Citadel chainmail was sprayed next and I hoped that all ejector pin marks on the engine firewall is hidden later on... On to some other fun stuff. The floor boards were drybrushed and received a couple of washes: Main instrument panel was painted too, and prepared for a long session of small small decals from Airscale. A really large sinkmark in the middle of the compass was a cause for concern: but since it will all be painted anywway it was filled and sanded flat. After half of the decals had been added it started to look nice! Finally, all was installed in the cockpit And there we are! I've started the most challenging build ever, but I'm having so much fun! Luckily, I have 3 weeks of christmas vacation coming up and hopefully I'll be able to sneak of to the modelling den more than once, so even with my usual geological modelling pace continues, some progress is expected! //Christer

So I have had this kit for quite a few years now, and after getting a few kits under my belt I thought I would make a start. I ordered a Photo Etch kit, and just used a few pieces from it as I am new to photo etch parts. Paint wise I used a Ford Automotive Purple straight out of a rattle can.

Hello fellow modellers! Here is my interpretation of the Trabant Universal. Chassis is nearly finished, pictures of the body will follow. It is a little bit beaten up and dirty, but the engine is still in good shape Thanks for having a look! Dieter

Hi All, This is the first of five projects I have just started. I am titling it 'Promise made, promise fulfilled' This is the enormous Revell AEC Routemaster bus. Revell just call it 'London Bus'. Trying to avoid licensing issues maybe? I don't know why, since the box top picture has 'Routemaster' on it. One initial observation: It is BIG. On the box, it says 38.1 cm, that's about 15 ½ inches in old money. Anyway, pictures: The box of bits: It's rammed full of parts. The sprues on some of the parts, notably the floor-pan, was attached to massive sprues, about 6mm in diameter! Probably, to stop the floor-pan from warping. I recently re-discovered a fantastic solvent cement. Cellulose thinners. It smells a bit, is rather hot, but does weld styrene together well. It's biggest advantage is that it's cheap! The engine starts here. Revell offers the original Leyland engine or a new Scania engine. Now, I have read somewhere (maybe here) that the Scania engine was not fitted, but a Cummins. However, I have opted for the Scania engine, wrong or not. After a bit more fettling, we get here: The fit of the parts so far is very good indeed. I am impressed. Next is priming and painting the chassis. Thanks for looking. Alan.

This one feels like it's been going on a long while but I've finally got it finished. Actually, it was only 5 months, but as I tend to do one build at a time that has been 5 months of a grey car where Revell have done a much better job than the real thing warrants. If you want to read the build thread, the link is below. The design of the kit is excellent, probably the best designed kit I've done so far (including Tamiya kits) with the only minor issues being a misplaced tab on one of the side trims and the washer bottle perhaps could have done with a more obvious placement. But that really is it for design issues. The moulding wasn't quite up there though with some flash and mould lines to clean up. And I'm not convinced that the instructions really give you the best order to built it in - certainly towards the end I pretty much ignored the sequencing as I couldn't see how it would work following Revell's instructions. The build itself isn't perfect, but I think it does give a pretty good indicator of where my level is at the moment. But, enough waffle. On with the pictures (sorry, but there are quite a few). First up, as the roof doesn't have to be cemented in place I left it loose so I can show the interior. The kit also comes with a very nice representation of the two-stroke engine, including the fuel tank mounted right on top of it! Here's a couple of shots of it with bonnet open and roof off: And finally, at the risk of being a bit repetitive here's a few shots from all angles of the car as it is displayed. Hope you like it. All constructive comments (good and bad!) are welcome.

Completed this one end of last year, so it's my most recent completed build (I build slowly, even though I build as the kits come). The kits goes together pretty well, apart from a few minor bits which I'll mention as I go through the pics. Hard to believe the kit is over 30 years old - it's much better than the Corvette I did before it. I'll start with the engine bay. Sadly, this is the only time it will be seen as there were 'negative clearance' issues with the lid so I had to superglue it down to stop it popping up half a millimetre or so. I'm not sure whether that is down to an issue with the kit or with my building skills. Certainly it was also a tight fit getting the body over those exhaust pipes too. IMG_6328 A couple of pics of the interior, because this is where a lot of the careful painting is needed with those seats. The seats and that red in the engine bay were my first attempts at mixing paint so I'm quite pleased with how that came out. Unfortunately, in getting the body on, I managed to dislodge the right-hand-side glass, so had to stick it back on using a paintbrush handle through the windscreen hole as that goes on later. All things considered, I can live with that small gap near the A-pillar (it only shows up on the camera anyway). IMG_6329 This pic below also shows the line around the rear spoiler where it joins the boot (bonnet?) lid. I was in two minds as to whether to join the spoiler and fill the join before painting and risk having poor paint coverage in the gap, or to fit the spoiler after painting and have that line between the two which doesn't exist on the original. If it had been silver as most of these seem to be then I would probably have gone for the first option, but as I'd chosen a dark colour I figured the join wouldn't show as much. But if anyone has any tips for this sort of thing, I'd be glad to hear from you. IMG_6342 Finally, a set of pics from around the car. The original plan was to use Revell's matt anthracite, but I ended up with a can with almost no internal pressure so it just spattered on the side. I had to sand back the paint on the side of the car and on the (front!) bonnet, then reprime. With the colder weather approaching, I decided to change to Halfords paint for the colour coat for time reasons which has given me the effect I was after. IMG_6335 IMG_6336 IMG_6339 IMG_6340 The view from the front. The Tamiya instructions call for a silver surround to the headlights, and show that on the box so I followed the instructions. But, they should really be body colour so that is a little bit annoying. Not the end of the world though, just wish I'd checked first. IMG_6344 And the view from the back with the engine cover fitted. So now, the engine is only visible from underneath or through the grille. IMG_6345 And finally, this is it when the sun gets on it. IMG_6366 I bought the kit because it was a car I like, and as an added bonus it's also cheap so it wouldn't matter if I messed it up. Looking inside, I was expecting a quick build as there didn't seem to be too many parts, but the interior painting slowed me up a bit. However, in the end, I'm happy as it represents another step forward for my modelling skills. Hope you all like it too.

It seems as though there is a lot of Dodge Chargers around this section of the board, and as luck would have it that's what my next project is However, this one isn't quite the same as most of the others around. Generally, when you say Dodge Charger, most people would think of the classic muscle car similar to the General Lee. A few may well think of the modern version, but either way you're probably thinking of a big V8. What you're probably not thinking of is a 2.2 litre 4-cylinder hatchback from 1982, but Monogram's version of that particular version of the Dodge Charger was my very first 1/24 car model built way back when I was about 9 or so, I seem to remember buying it because it was a) bright yellow, and b) cheap because even back in the mid-80's it was obviously not seen as a desirable car and so was reduced to the sort of level pocket money could afford. Being a snap kit, it was relatively easy to build, and for my parents had the added advantage that I wasn't going to get glue all over the kitchen table. Fast forward 30 years, and it's showing signs of age and being built by a child. The decals were definitely not on straight (where they hadn't disintegrated on me), the chrome was degraded in places, particularly the front left wheel, at least one part (the gear lever) is missing, it doesn't sit straight and when I took it apart I remembered that was because the front subframe and wheel are held on my blue-tak. at some later date (I guess when I was early to mid teens) I decided being American it should get some chrome bumpers and mirrors not appreciating that it had virtuallyno chrome on at all. And the interior almost looks like there is carpet in there with 30 years worth of dust. Basically, I've decided it's time to try to get this looking shelf-worthy and do it justice. But first, this is the starting point: So over summer I set about getting the body and chassis sprayed while the weather was ok. First job was to dip it in the IPA to get rid of that silver paint, which unfortunately put paid to the decals too - the bonnet one at least would have been nice to keep but it just wasn't to be. Then it was on with the primer, which didn't completely block out the yellow of the plastic but as the car will end up yellow that didn't matter too much. (Just realised you can see when I did the various stages by the S600 and bits of Trabant in the background of all of these photos). After that, it was on with the yellow paint which looked a lot better than yellow plastic did. The paint is Halfords Ford Signal Yellow. This one is my first two-tone paint job, so a couple of weeks after that the car was masked up and ready for the black. Initially I airbrushed this one but after a bit of operator error (basically leaving too long between coats and blocking the nozzle) I finished off with the car with a rattle can meaning the black is a bit thicker than I would have liked. There was a little overspray but nothing too unmanageable and it was cleared up without too much bother, Since then, I've redecalled it (decals were from Rays Kit Decals in the Netherlands) and given it a clear coat, but didn't grab a shot of that stage. It's part way though being panel washed, so the next body pic will have to wait. And then it was onto the engine, which was all just yellow apart from the chromed engine top end and exhaust manufold. That's been dechromed, and the engine taken apart. When I first built it, I hadn't filed any of the bits where it came off the sprue so these needed tidying up. So far, the remains of the sprue attachment have been remarkably tidy, especially as I think they were removed using kitchen scissors. I think I must have had parental help! With the washing going on, I have done minimal work on rebuilding the engine, but did get the block stuck together (the sump is on now too) ready for painting. One of the tabs holding the two sides of the engine together had snapped, and the other didn't go in as far as it needed to, so both were trimmed down prior to gluing the two halves together (hence the clamps). Hopefully tomorrow I can show off a completed body and main part of the engine.

Hi All, Finally calling this one done. It was not without its issues! Over the years, I have had trouble with Hasegawa kits. I actually binned a 1/24th Ferrari 189, because of several mistakes that I made putting it together. It rather put me off them for a while... If you look at the build log, you'll see that I had problems with the steering (steering rack too short) and front suspension (one wishbone decided to detach itself... twice!) In a moment of clumsiness while trying to put the body on to the floor, I dropped the body on to the floor (A hard laminate floor...). At first, I didn't see anything obviously wrong, until I looked a bit more closely at the rear of he body. A large piece had broken away! Luckily, I found the broken piece, and was able to re-cement the part on without any really visible line on the bodyshell. Also, while assembling the bodyshell onto the floor, one of the front springs dropped out. I thought, "stuff it, no one can see it..." and no one can. So, here are the pictures: I managed to get a good shine on the paintwork using Halford's polishing compound. This stuff is a foam that you spray from a can. I then used a very soft cloth to gently rub the compound in, followed by a gentle rub with a soft cloth. Quite a shine came up. It's not perfect by any stretch, but I am very pleased with the outcome, despite the problems. I will be building more Hasegawa kits in the future... I has joined the car park. Any comments are always welcome. Thanks for looking, Alan.

So after an 11 year break, this was my first model that I had a go at and luckily it got me back into modelling, but I made so many mistakes whilst making it. My biggest problem is rushing near the end of completion and not letting things dry, but I have learned my lesson and on my last model which was the Pirelli Golf it turned out really well. I was really pleased with the paintwork on this, but I reckon by the time I had finished its had 2 full rattle cans on it, but it had a lovely shine once I polished it up, and the decals sat pretty nicely on it. So this is not perfect by a long way, but it made me fool in love with a hobby that I had been doing on and off for over 40 years.