Search the Community

After all the time spent on the Skyline, I feel it's time for a shorter project. To that end, I figured it was time to restore another model from my youth. In truth, I don't feel I did too bad first time around on this given I was about 12 or 13, didn't paint it, and had nothing to do the decals with other than fingers, water and a duster. However, 30 years have taken their toll on it with the decals having suffered a little over not to mention that it has got covered in dust and shows the effect of 10 years on a shelf next to a field - it got a fresh coat of dust every harvest time! This is what it looked like a couple of months ago. So it's time to bring it back to life, courtesy of some Shunko decals and three sets of instructions - one in Japanese downloaded from 1999.co in Japan, one average quality scan from one I found on sale on eBay and a scan of a set of instructions for the Airfix model of this car courtesy of @theplasticsurgeon from this very site. Between those three, I'm reasonably confident I can get the painting about right too. First job was to take it to pieces and get those decals off. Oddly, it was much easier to get the car to pieces (probably because it was stuck together using UHU rather than solvent cement) than it was to get all the decals off. But I got there in the end, and while I always suspected that the plastic had yellowed, removing the decals confirmed it. What did surprise me though was that the coloured decals appear to have stopped the plastic yellowing while the white areas hadn't. Over the past few weeks, I've been getting the paint on this. First up was the primer, which at least returned it to plain white and covered the yellowing. Next up was the paint. Not all that smooth, but as it's a racing car I'm not going for a perfect finish on this one. Starting on it properly today, the first job was to add a wash to the panel lines and the bonnet grille. Generally not too much of a problem apart from that the wash started creeping both ways along the join between the door and the side skirt. I ended up scribing the bottom of the doors and trying to stop the wash going backwards with a blue-tack dam - not 100% successful and the wash is a bit heavy at the bottom of the doors but it was shaping up to be far worse so I'll settle for it. The chassis is also in the shot - very simple as this is one of Tamiya's earliest 1/24 models (serial number suggests the third one they did) and it's also motorised which eliminates space for an engine. There'll be a bit of painting around the windows, but I'm aiming to get that decalling done early so as to get it clearcoated before temperatures drop for winter.

I know what you've all been thinking. All this sci-fi stuff is all well and good, but when are we going to see some Scandi Noir? Well I'll oblige! I recently binge-watched the Danish/Swedish noir drama Bron/Broen, aka The Bridge. The Swedish protagonist Saga Noren drives a rather lovely 1970s Porsche 911S in an unusual olive green-mustardy colour. I can't find a photo that I can be sure I can post, but here's a youtube video showing the star of the show auctioning the car a year or two ago: I love this car - whilst cars aren't my usual thing (I probably last made a model car about 35 years ago) I had to build this one. Somehow I didn't feel the same pull to the battered people carrier driven by her Danish counterpart Martin Rohde! The car in question is a 911S from the late 70s. Fujimi does a 1/24 1969 911S which is the right body shape but some of the details aren't right for this particular car - mainly the bumpers, but a few other things like the wing mirrors are differently. However they also do a 1/24 1980s Carrera which is the wrong body shape (the flared wheel arches stand out as the main difference) but has all the other details needed. So a bit of kit bashing is in order. Here's the box shot of the 911S kit: And here are the bodies of the two kits side by side - the 911S is on the left: In the top photo you can see that the front wheel arch extends a bit further down on the 911S than the Carrera - this is due to the bulkier bumper on the Carrera - and I need to trim it back to match the profile of the Carrera so the bumper will fit. Similarly the bonnet needs to have the Carrera's profile and the simplest thing to do here seems to be to cut out the two bonnets and stick the Carrera's bonnet on the 911S. Then the bulkier sills on the sides of the Carrera need to be transplanted onto the 911S. So here's where I'm up to - I've transplanted the bonnet, removed the excess plastic from the wheel arch, and removed the sills ready to graft on the parts from the Carrera: cheers Julian

Time to unveil my second car build since coming back to the hobby which was completed last August. It was actually the first car I bought, but the Mustang looked easier so I started with that one. When you open up the box and look at the kit, you can see it's date-stamped 1982 and unfortunately it is showing it's age a bit. The first thing to jump out was that whereas the modern sprues tend to have some sort of struture to them, on this one the part numbers just jumped apparently at random between sprues (ok, I know that's still the case on some of the newer Revell kits, but not to this extent) and the runners often had a habit of just sort of petering out; at first I thought some of them had broken in two before realising this was just how it was meant to be. I also feel that the model is maybe a bit too wide for the length, but that is a lot less noticeable now it's built and it could just be my imagination. So, starting at the beginning of the build, here's the engine bay. Not a great start to the build as the two halves of the engine block don't quite align properly - I did sand down and fill the underside which is visible, but probably not by enough. I chickened out of mixing the colour for the engine block, and instead used some Prussian Blue from a reconnaisance Spitfire covered in clearcoat. I like the finish (quite 50's mechanical there), but the colour isn't blue enough now I've looked into things deeper and it does bug me a little bit. Not nearly as much as the fact that I didn't put the Blue Flame decal in the right place - what was I thinking?! On this project, I also stripped chrome for the first time to allow better painting of the carbs and float chambers. IMG_6170 on Flickr Moving inside, and this is the part of the build I'm most happy with and really pleased with how it turned out in here. The Molotow pen definitely earned it's stripes in here The photo doesn't really show it, but the matt and silk reds complement each other quite nicely. IMG_6163 on Flickr Onto the outside, coming up are the four quarter views. IMG_6178 on Flickr Both front angles show the issues with the windscreen, but the one below probably shows it best. It's the last piece you fit on the car, and a real sting in the tail. Just when you think you've wrestled the car into shape, you're presented with a clear piece of plastic with only a vague resemblance to the shape of the chromed plastic it's meant to sit in. Clearfix didn't hold it, but it did leave fingerprints on the screen. Fortunately, I managed to get them removed, but still had to fit the glass in the frame. Even superglue struggled to hold it in place, and in the end I superglued all the way around the frame, pushed in the screen and hoped it would stay. It did, and having messed up the chrome in the process I went over the whole lot with the magic chrome pen and covered up the glue where it showed. But the windscreen isn't as clear as it could be - good job it's a convertible! IMG_6177 on Flickr When I first opened the box, the back of the body had all sorts of sink marks that shouldn't have been there - it almost looked as though it had been rear-ended at some stage. So I got the putty out and got it something like the right shape. There were also quite a few mould lines on the body, but fortunately they were mostly in easy to remove places. IMG_6175 on Flickr Almost round it, and the problem with this corner is entirely my own doing in that I managed to snap the rear bumper, but fortunately it's pretty close to being back in the right place. None of the bumpers on this have any positive placement, but they do have a place where they feel right when you fit them. Just got to be very careful you don't get glue everywhere trying to find that place. IMG_6173 on Flickr The front view is just because I like the 'face' of the original Corvette. I did consider painting on the headlight wiring, but decided to go with the kit decals and they don't look too bad. Almost got them lined up properly too... Just a shame that the headlights don't sit as snugly into their holes as I would like. IMG_6179 on Flickr Home straight now, and here it is with the roof up, just sitting loose and not glued on. If it was to be glued on, it would sit slightly further back, but as it's loose I needed to use the windscreen frame to hold it up. IMG_6181 on Flickr And finally a gratuitous sunny pic IMG_6365 on Flickr Hope this isn't too long, apologies if it is. I'm definitely glad that I didn't so this kit first on returning as I did need to put into practice quite a few of the lessons I learned with the Mustang. The kit does show it's age, but it's not terrible (windscreen excepted) and does build up into a nice-looking model. I don't know if it's the white colour, or the chrome, or just the shape, but it alwasy catches my eye when I look at it. It might have been hard work at times, but it gives a sense of achievement when you finish it. Worth a build if you like this version of the Corvette, just needs a bit more work than the newer kits.

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.

Hi guys, here is another car project and I really do have my work cut out with this one, it’s been in my stash for about 5 years, dug it out last week and took a peek at it, good points are that it has a very nice accurate looking body and all the fenders and details on the outside of the car look good, however inside was very poor, no engine bay, and worst of all very inaccurate seats and dash. Not surprising really as the 66 T-Bird had very elaborate seat and dash detailing, so what to do? Well, looking at YouTube videos I found that the convertible versions looked much better, so I decided to bite the bullet and cut the roof off! Now this committed me to scratch building and modifying the kit interior details, the main objective was to give a fairly good representation of a top down 66 T-Bird that was ready to cruise or had just been fully restored to show winning condition. Here are some photos of a restored 66 T-Bird that I am trying to copy in model form. I decided the body would be painted in blue metallic with white leather and blue interior, with lashings of chrome details. So I hope to update you with progress soon, now where’s that hacksaw?

Hi all, Here's the kit I'm going to build to represent the year of my birth... The Stratos was first introduced in 1974 but 1975 was the first full year it competed in. The car I'm building is the "Red Chardonnet" one on the box art, that won the Tour de Corse Rallye (Corsia Rally) in 1975. Chardonnet was the name of the privateer team and the car was driven by Bernard Darniche with co-driver Alain Mahé. I believe Chardonnet also had a second, blue car that year as well. Hopefully it won't be a difficult build in terms of large decals / complicated colour schemes.

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.

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 all, here are the final pictures of the Mistress of the dark's cool ride. For such an old kit I was surprised how well it went together, once I had got the Leopard skin effect sorted out, I relaxed and really enjoyed getting this kit built. The purple flecks in the paintwork are not easy to photograph as it's very subtle, but really adds to the macabre theme I think. It's not a paint but a salt crystal sized powder that is added to the lacquer and sprayed over a black base, never seen the product for sale as I have to admit I have had the tub on my shelf for 30 years! As for the Leopard skin effect, well it was bought off eBay in small sheets; it’s decals for ladies finger nail art. I bought enough sheets to cut the shapes out and they bedded down nicely with some Tamiya X20A thinner, as they are a little thicker than normal decals, the random pattern helped conceal the joins, once all dry I gave the decals a flat coat of clear and a wash with some AK enamel engine grease to pick out some details in the seats. I hope you all enjoy the pictures.

Hi all, this is going to be my Halloween season build for this year, should be a lot of fun. I don't intend on using the leopard skin decals they are way too naff for my liking, and I won't be painting them on, not sure what I will come up with yet, but I have an idea! As for the paint job, well I intended on painting the car in a metal flake black, with purple flecks in the lacquer. This is a 60's kit (re boxed in the 80's) and it sure does show its age, makes you appreciate how good modern kits are, but I guess it's all modelling at the end of the day; this kit was bought out as a replica of the actual convertible that Elvira drove in the movie. Among the creepy extras the front grille has a ghoulish spider web. Stay tuned for the next update.

Thought I'd share some pictures of my Krupp Titan build's status quo. Wiring and piping, decals and a few things more were scratched. The engine is a fast CA-glue-fit (later on I'll explain why) and will be completely refitted later. The chassis was extended twice, about 2 inch total. One example:

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.

Hi, everyone. I have a question about the form and style of the ventral tanks used on the F6F Hellcat. On Sprue Q of the big 1/24 Scale Hellcat there are 2 ventral tanks. Only one is mentioned in the instructions, this uses parts Q14 and Q15 and has the joint seam top and bottom and an aerofoil section between tank and fuselage, as detailed in Step 292. The other is parts Q12, Q13: it has no such mounting section, just 6 legs and a fuel pipe: there is no mention of the second one in the instructions! Why are these parts included? could Airfix be planning a later, possibly night fighter version? Anyone have any ideas?

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

... 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.

Has anyone had a go at this model and is it recommended for a good interesting build?

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.