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Now that the Cuda is finished, it's time to move onto my next project. I'm not sure if there will be much interest in it - my MO is to build straight from the box and take a long time over doing it. So this weekend, I made a start on Tamiya's Honda S600. Well, that's almost correct as since the weather warmed up I have been doing the necessary spraying of the body and other body coloured items. But this was the weekend when I made a start on assembly, albeit a very slow start. From what I can gather, the kit has a good reputation, and I can't really disagree. But what really strikes when you first open the box is that this thing is tiny. To demonstrate, both the Corvette and the S600 in the pic below are 1/24, and the rear end lines up on both cars. IMG_6396 Closer examination reveals very little in the way of mould lines, so I presume they are concealed within the chrome strips which will run along the body. What mould lines there are are generally pretty small and not very noticeable. So not noticeable in fact that I completely missed one that runs along the corner of the boot lid until after I'd primed the body. Having resanded that bit, I had to respray the back of the car which has meant that instead of having the body in the intended colour, that and the bonnet will have to wait a couple of weeks. Other body colour items have the colour coat on now, so hopefully I can get the clear on before too long. IMG_6395 This is where things stand at the moment, very early days. I still haven't even got the second coat of aluminium paint on the enginem and only have the block glued together. Not a lot else really, so I guess this is a good point to leave it.

I wasn't going to post this one up until I started it properly, but here goes anyway. At the moment, I'm just doing the spray painting bits while the weather allows. The build will be later in the year, but with my spray booth in the garage I have to do the spraying while it's warm and dry enough. So first job is to decide on the colour. The instructions are for the car in beige, but I wanted to try another of the factory colours. Unfortunately, the choice of colours from Trabant demonstrate the wow factor you would expect from the Eastern Bloc - as well as beige the choice is Invalid Carriage Blue, Dirty Off White, Pale Grey, Baby Sick, and two shades of green, one of which resembles the glowing stick of uranium from the Simpson's opening and one of which resembles dying grass. I decided to go with the grey as I think it might suit the car. The kit is Revell's Trabant Universal. On first glance, and from what I've read, it looks a nicely detailed kit with lots of parts... and also lots of steps to the instructions (46!). The body looks pretty nice apart from some sink marks front and rear on each side so those have been filled, and the mould lines are hidden behind what will be a trim line from front to rear with only small lines on the front of the car. The door lines are also quite shallow so I scribed them too. There's quite a lot of bits which are body colour, which means quite a bit of spraying with this one. I'll only put up the chassis and the body for the spraying, the rest would just be repetitive. The pic below shows it very early on, and I've put the roof panel, bonnet and boot in place to give an idea of how it will look. This pic is after the scribing and the first attempt at filling the sink marks, the ones at the front needing quite a bit of filling. The spoon in the foreground shows what I hope to be the final colour - this one is Revell's USAF Light Grey, which being a matt paint will need a couple of goes with the clear where there are decals. As usual, the primer showed that this wasn't the best filling job, so all the sink marks needed filling and sanding again before it got another coat of primer. And here we are with the body finally complete and wearing it's coat of primer. Meanwhile, the chassis paint was running in parallel to the body. This one is mostly in matt black and I managed to get it painted relatively easily. However, the rear wheel arches should have the finish in body colour, so I had to break out the foil and the masking tape in preparation for colour coating them. Two weeks later, after adding the colour coat (directly over the black), I added the clear coat and then removed the masking. I have to say that I am quite pleased with the result. There is some detailing required to parts of this (principally the handbrake cable), but that will come when I reach that stage of the build. And then my paint woes hit. First of all, that can of spray paint which was fine for the chassis wheel arches decided to lose pressure two weeks later. And the other can I had ran out very quickly only doing a few larger parts and a mist coat and a half on the body before running out. So this is where it is now: So I'm out of spray paint and have a very unfinished car. Fortunately, I've just got myself a new, but cheap, airbrush which I was only planning on using at first on areas where it wouldn't be that visible. Having managed to extract about 20ml from the low pressure can I guess I will have to try with that. Would I be right in thinking that the paint from a spray can will go straight through the airbrush ok without thinning? And has anyone any experience of spraying with Revell acrylic paints from the tub if I need to go down that route? Would I be better off just getting another spray can if so required?

Hello again, Here is one of my old builds that i dusted down and took outside for some new shots in the garden. I have to apologise in advance for my lack of photography skills, but hey, you can't have everything! I built this kit as a nostalgia build some years ago, when my modelling was getting in to a bit of a rut. It took me about six months to complete and was not a shake and bake experience. Many of the parts were warped and the moulds have clearly seen better days. However i persevered and beat it in to submission. I added seat belts in the cockpit, infilled the wheel wells, and added strenthening plates to the cannon on the leading edge of the wings. The whole thing was brush painted for the greys, and i used a rattle can and masking for the green disrupive camo. Despite its age and lumpy surface details the Spitfire still looks an imposing model when complete, and is one of my favorites from my collection. Thanks for looking, and hope you like Cheers Greg

Long, long ago, well 1974, I bought the 1/24 Airfix Harrier kit when it appeared, Inspired by a conversion article by Alan Hall and Mike Keep, "Updating the Harrier" on pages 118 to 123 of a magazine I no longer seem to have, I started work. As with may kits I purchased when at Brunel my modelling went into hibernation when i started work in 1975 and then found a wife in 1977...and bought a house...then Airfix in 1997 issued big Harrier as the GR3. My conversion continued its hibernation. Time passed and I thought that it would be a good project to finish, so earlier this year I painted the body and started the last stages, painting and final assembly. I acquired a sent of the Airfix decal sheet for the GR3 I'm going to finish it as one from 56 Squadron with the multi coloured fin from 4 Squadron, RAF Gutersloh. Why? Because in 1968 I went, with Esher ATC, to RAF Camp at Gutersloh, Germany. Long story, here it is, the fin ready in black. It still needs some additional painting. I used vintage Humbrol paints HX1 and HX2 from the NATO paint range. They are slightly glossy and cover well, using a brush. Getting the overall camouflage pattern to join up was "interesting" ! The next stage is to spray with gloss acrylic, then apply decals, and finally attach the underwing stuff, outrigger legs and so on. I'm building this in parallel with the Hurricane and Typhoon, previously mentioned.

These are both Revell kits, loosely based on the real thing from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. First up a general purpose utility pick up truck, straight out of the box no frills. Second is the rescue squad from the TV series "Emergency!", brought forward in time to the late 90's or early 2000's with a scratch built rescue box. They have both been built for a while but I have only recently gotten round to take some photos of them. Both are brush painted in Humbrol enamels, the utility is scarlet red and the rescue squad is scarlet with a touch of yellow to bring it towards the vehicle colour of the day. Emergency lights are from police car models, the locker locks/handles are from KFS and the decals are from JBOT, these are particularly fine & require some delicate handling. All is sealed with Winsor & Newton Galeria gloss varnish which was brushed on. utility 1 by phil da greek, on Flickr utility 2 by phil da greek, on Flickr utility 3 by phil da greek, on Flickr utility 4 by phil da greek, on Flickr squad 51 - 1 by phil da greek, on Flickr squad 51 - 2 by phil da greek, on Flickr squad 51 - 4 by phil da greek, on Flickr squad 51 - 3 by phil da greek, on Flickr Thanks for looking.

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.

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.

One of the wonderful Subaru Impreza's that I was lucky enough to actually see in action. Made from the Tamiya kit with no modifications, painted with Zeropaints blue and gold, weatherd with Flory sand wash. Dave

And so here it is as promised in my Lancer build. Pic of what I'm starting with: For those that haven't followed my Lancer I wont be building the Acropolis Version depicted by the box top. It be Monte car I's a knocking into shape. (Title gives it away a bit ) Although I have a couple other Hasegawa Delta's in the stash this is the first I'll be building. Therefore like with the Lancer i'll leave the suspension till last to gauge wheher the ride height needs lowering. Given Hasegawa's history with these rally kits I'm fully expecting it'll need a couple mm taken out but you never know lol. There's quite a bit to drill and sand on the body shell. Even had to fill a couple marks after removing the moulded on side indicators. The body is currently under it's first coat of primer and may even get some white on by tonight. I assembled and painted the rollcage: I did deliberately miss that small section. After all I did have to hold it somewhere haha. Next up was removing the moulded on detail from the instrument cluster. Some very creative use of a needle file and sand paper was needed lol. Not the best pic but it's hard to photo lol: I've painted the interior tub too: I have read in an Abarth book written by ex Abarth staff that all the cars they built featured grey interiors, but all the pics I've seen of these cars seem to show them either unpainted or maybe it was a silver/aluminium colour paint So I just went with Humbrols 56 Aluminium lol. Strangely there were some large recessed parts on the rear spoiler that I haven't seen on the real car so those have been filled: That's all so far. Thanks for looking. TTFN Ashley.

After 3 long months of sporadic fettling, my Li’l coffin is finally complete. As many of you will know, the sixties kits were nowhere near the quality of what we get these days so sometimes it really is a case of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear when one of these early kits is tackled. This isn’t a cop out for the poor quality of my finished article, but early kits really are a challenge to complete, mostly because the parts only fit where they touch and the plastic is usually brittle too. Anyway, here’s the car, warts and all so please feel free to have a chuckle. Li’l Coffin and Tweedy Pie posing with an original 60’s Esso man key ring. I think black & white photos can sometimes look better.

ICM Ford Model T Delivery Car 1/24 ICM The Ford model T was first produced in 1908, and was the first mass produced motor car, and due to this it also became affordable to the people. Due to its success the T was modified and different variants where produced, including a ‘Delivery Van. ICM has made a few versions of the Model T in 1/24, and now they have added a 1912 ‘Light Delivery Car’ to their range. This model comes spread over 6 Grey sprues, and 2 clear with 4 skinny white rubber tyres. The main chassis is a single part with the wheel arches and running boards this will give you a solid base to build from. Your spares box will benefit from parts left over from the car version. I liked the look of this model, so I decided to build it, but I wasn’t impressed with the livery from the box, the decals are very well done, clean and with metallic decals. The black paintwork didn’t inspire me so a look online showed a restored van in a nice blue livery for a laundry, I altered this slightly to give the ‘Star Steam Laundry’ from Liverpool, I imagine this on the dock side unloading to a liner heading over the Atlantic to New York! I found some blue Halfords spray in the shed from an old Escort I had in the past. I used a local decal maker I've used before for the decals, Dodgers Decals (on Facebook) with a pic and a vague description of what I wanted! The parts are very clean and well detailed with no flash. The build starts with the 4-cylinder petrol engine, the 2 halves go together nicely with the head and sump added next. There is nice detail on the parts and it is possible to build and paint the engine separately and add them once the chassis is built and painted. The intake and exhaust pipes are then added along with a fan and belts to give a nicely detailed engine block. The front axle fits under the radiator, and this cant be added to the chassis, I painted these and when I glued them in I ensured they sat at 90 degrees to the chassis or this will affect the bonnet and cab later in the build if not straight. The car is a rear wheel drive and the back axle sits on a single spring with 2 sway bars going from the gear box back to the axle there are locating pins at the forward end to locate and then glued to the outer ends of the axle. I added these parts before painting it in matt black as I wanted a ‘working but looked after’ van. A motor van would have been an impressive but expensive luxury for the business! The van body can be built up as a unit to be painted before gluing to the chassis and this goes together well with separate rear doors that can be posed open if needed. None of the parts are plated, and the Model T has a lot of brass bits. I brought a spray can from the PlastiKote range to do this and it. Most of the brass parts can be made and sprayed before placing on the build to save difficult masking. Ill hold my hands up, I lost the cowl during this build so I had to replace half way with a scratch built plasticard part! The model goes together very nicely, and I enjoyed building this. You need to ensure the front radiator assembly is square as this will affect the bonnet and front driver cab cowl fitment later on in the build. Some parts like the horn has locating pins, but no holes for them to fit into so I cut them away and glued the parts together carefully. This is a change for me, normally building trucks from the Italeri and Revell ranges. It shows just how much vehicles have grown over the years, even the Italeri transit towers over this lorry! I enjoyed this build and would recommend these kits to you they are simple to glue together and give a well detailed little model. I will be watching for other versions of the T to come from ICM. Review sample courtesy of

The original idea was just to take the box contents and add a bit of glue and paint. That intention didn't last long though after a brief look at the engine parts and a browse through Google images. So first job was cut mouldings of the throttle bodies off and get out the selection of ally tubes and the likkle files and re-position that fixing flange at 90 degrees (-ish). Was bugging me way too much to just let it go. This car might take a while. So...... something that was originally one bit has turned into several bits!!! (didn't think to photograph it before I cut it but this shows where it was chopped. And for now will ignore that the 2 plenum chambers (???) broke apart cos I shall want to make a whole new throttle cable linkage that fits between them later on anyway) after one evening the other half has turned into this..... There's a piece of 1mm tube right in the centre to create a small fixing pin and then 2mm and 3mm glued over that for main housing and then a tiny slither of 4mm tube to create the fixing flange.

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.

Just finished this. This is the first car of a clients father.

Made a start on this gorgeous little thing. Revell kit 07026. Engine decorated in a mix of Alclads Polished Aluminium, White Aluminium and Steel. Added some tiny bits of AK Interactive Grey Kriegsmarine wash. Tis German after all. And stripped wheels and gave them a coat of Alclad jet exhaust and dabbed Polished Aluminium on the fronts with a make-up sponge. Kinda worked how I wanted it to. I get the feeling this one will be a rather enjoyable build.

I've been pondering what to make my first build of 2018 and this is something that's been near the top of the pile since I bought it not to long ago. As seem obligatory these days the box shot. A brief look into the a kit that I've made in the past with relatively good result. This was completed in January of 2016/5 I think so the experience has improved since then I hope. From the above kit I am now pretty aware of the areas that need a little more care and also areas where I myself can improve. So for this current attempt at this model I managed to pick the kit up rather cheaply from eBay as it had no decals but as it was the same kit as the finished fina car above I still have the majority of the decals left with only the rear gtr one and 1 other missing. Right so then it was the mindset of I have this kit now what to do with it? Test car? Another race version to go with the fina car and soon the be made gulf version? I couldn't make my mind up, then as I was half way through the Liberty Walk Nissan GT-R I came across a set of carbon decals that cover the whole exterior in a carbon wrap. So that the plan. A full carbon McLaren f1 gtr, possibly with the yellow and pink decals on aswell but I won't make that call until the body is finished. The set includes 4 sheets of pre printed templates to cut of that from what I can see covers most of the car in carbon, there are a few bits not on the sheets(or maybe I just haven't found them yet) but these bits will be easy to make myself with the leftover parts of sheet. Now on to the plastic. The shell is as nicely moulded as it was the first time with no really bad bits to clean up. I need to decide if I should just glue the rear parts on for the engine cover or maybe detail the engine bay a little. And then finally for the first update I need to decide whether or not to cut out the front hatch to show the details underneath that incuded in the kit. I guess if I do the rear it would be silly not to do the front and vice versa. Also in this picture you will notice that I have started to clean up the few mould lines that are on the body and filled the small dips with ca glue ready to be sanded off very soon. I think body work wise this kit will move pretty quick as it is only going a gloss black after primer with then the whole raft of decals to put on. More soon Shaun

Just wondering Has there been, or is there a 1/24 or 1/25 kit of a standard stock DeLorean - a Non-'Back to the Future' version, so to speak? Cheers Hans J

What do you do when there are 2 excellent colour profiles in the box! Easy, Romanian to port and German to starboard! Hope you like it.

So the second holiday project has hit the bench: Tamiya's 'Toms' Supra GT, definitely not going to be finished in the kit-supplied Castrol colours: Tamiya's TS-8 'Italian Red' with AK Xtreme Metals' Polished Aluminium' and some hand painted matt black (first coat only in these photos). The insides are all AK Xtreme Metals' 'Dark Aluminium' but obviously only just started, the cage is glued together but not to the chassis in these pics. Bodyshell is TS-94 'Metallic Grey'. Two light coats and nowhere near shiny enough, so I'll brush on a coat of Klear/Future before decalling, then another afterward. Going to keep the final 'look' a surprise as long as I can, but hopefully y'all will get a kick from it. Not too many 'What If' cars around so nice to do something that little bit outta 'left field', eh ? More soon. Ian.

I have been at a bit of a loose end today – trying to decide what to build next. I really fancy a go at some AFV stuff – I have just bought a load of ‘quick build' type stuff at 1/72. But at the same time I still have a load of 1/48 Luftwaffe stuff that is really appealing – BF110 / JU87 / JU88 / DO17… So to take my mind off all this difficult decision making nonsense I thought I’d fish out my 1/24 Airfix Hurricane that I built last year – as it always makes me smile… 1/24 / OOB – except for the decals – seatbelts - IP / finished with humbrol rattle cans… Here she is... You’ll notice she is ‘wheels down’ – unusual for me. I didn’t do any WIP shots though – I was too nervous when I joined here last September – but I was quite pleased with the ‘office’. Trouble is you can’t really see anything when you ‘button them up’... …and here she is on the runway… I hope you like it - she makes me smile. Yes the Humbrol 'dark green' is dreadful - but before I joined here - I knew no better... What do you think???

This is the old Airfix kit of Wallis's autogyro, dressed up for the Bond film You Only Live Twice. Ken Wallis used to be proud of the fact the autogyro flew itself "hands off", but I doubt if he could have also fired guns, rockets and flamethrowers at the same time, as Sean Connery is doing in the box art: I scratch-built replacement front weapons pods, since the kit provided little spring-loaded rockets which may be remembered fondly but were thoroughly unrealistic. I added the pitot tube, lateral drift indicator tuft, and a support for the rotor spin up drive head, which weren't included in the kit, as well as a seat cushion and lap belt to hid the horrible kit seat base. I also added some of the more obvious cable runs - spark-plug leads, rudder cables, brake cables, and the control cables for the spin-up drive. And I made a couple of decals from a photograph of the real front weapons pods, to add a bit of detail. I wanted to model it with the rotor supports in place, and the pilot figure looked a bit daft sitting in an aircraft that obviously wasn't ready for flight, so I left him out. Even without the pilot, the kit wants to sit on its front wheel, whereas the real aircraft tilted back on its rear wheel when no-one was on board. So I slipped short lengths of 2mm brass rod into the hollow tubes of the rear flamethrowers before assembly (the only place to hide some weight), and that just tipped the balance in favour of a realistic "nose up" posture. Paint is Humbrol enamel and Alclad. I can't believe this was "Skill Level 2" on the box - it was a very fiddly build, with lots of parts having to marry up in complicated ways. I just hope I never meet a "Skill Level 4"!

Hi guys, well I got this bad boy finished, not an easy build but I am happy with how it turned out for my first truck build. I weathered it up a bit to avoid the truck looking like a diecast model, also I scratch built the airlines and the air unit to add some realism and airbrushed over some of the decals to tidy up the lines a little. I've also added a few winter snow shots of the Scania. Finally, you can see my work in progress of this build in the box below.

Hi everyone, my nephew said that I had not built a truck yet, so here we are. Compared to the Tamiya kit that I've recently built, this is a bit old school. Not much flash to speak of, but some parts did not fit too well and the instruction diagrams were a bit vague in places, weirdly the sprue numbering system is all over the place, making the task of finding the parts a bit long winded. Overall, it's coming together pretty quickly. I have gloss coated the paintwork so that I can start adding the decals, I hope to have this finished by the end of this week.

Built for the Revell/Monogram 'Campaign' (Group Build) over at www.modelersalliance.com this is a limited reissue of Monograms 90/93 bodied NASCAR Thunderbird, the kit comes with a slew of Alan Kulwicki memorobilia. I replaced the kit decals with the much better ones from Mike Herman/Powerslide, otherwise it's an 'out of the box' build. As ever please feel free to make any comments, criticisms or ask any questions. Thanks for looking. Ian.

Hi all, Started a long time ago, I have finished my VW T1 panel last week. The kit is Hasegawa in 1/24 scale, the BRM wheels and the roof rack are from Scale Production, safari windows are from Highlight Model Studio, big decals on the panels are from Motobitz. Decals on the driver door are from several decals sheets, door windows are scratch from rhodoïd. Cyclop light (the roof light) is made with a tank of a 1/72 SH-60. Wooden slats of the roof rack are made with coffee stirrers and weathered. All the build is on my club's website: VW T1 1/24 WIP (in french...) Thank you for watching. Lolo