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My second build in this GB is the Airfix 1/144 BAC 1-11. I built one of these when I was about 8 or 9, didn't paint it, but used the British Caledonian decals. This time it's going to be converted to a 1-11-500 and painted as G-AVMR of British Airways - this is a significant aircraft for me as it was the first jet I flew on, aged 7 - I'd flown on plenty of Viscounts at that age, but a jet flight was exciting for 7-year old me. Here's the kit: Not a lot of parts, and (as always seems to be the case) smaller than I remember. The Airfix kit is based on the prototype and will need a few changes to make it a 500: The main modifications are to add 18mm to the forward fuselage and 10.5mm to the rear fuselage, and 5mm to each wingtip. It also needs the nose cone reprofiling (it needs to be pointier), the wing fences need to be moved, and an APU exhaust needs to be added to the tail cone. And probably a couple of other mods. Started yesterday by cutting the fuselage up: Then put some rolled-up plastic card in the gaps and applied suplerglue. Then I realised I'd made possibly the most ridiculous modelling mistake ever: That's right, it's the BACwards 1-11! Cut apart again, centre section turned the right way around, stuck together and milliputed and here's how it looks now: Also filled the windows. I'm sure there were windows in the kit 30 odd years ago, but not in this boxing. I'll do the nose job next, then on to the wings. more tomorrow Julian

Hello all. A little while ago, I was given an Airfix VC-10 K2 by a very kind member of my Model Club, and I thought it was time to build it. All the parts were there, but there were no markings in the box. I had a tootle around Mr Google and found some markings by RAM Decals, but they were for the C.Mk.1K; now, I have to admit to being a bit of a numpty when it comes to recognising various marks of aircraft, with the possible exception of the EE Lightning. I asked for help in the Cold War section for aircraft on this fine Forum and was given some wonderful advice by @Archer_VC10, @Brizeman, and @Ossington among others, so a big THANK YOU to each of them for that help. In general, they gave me guidance on how to modify the Airfix kit to RAM Decal subject specifications. This includes things like wing fences being different, wing leading edges inboard of the outer fence, engines being Super Conways instead of just mere Conways, not to mention different angles of engine alignment and various other bits. I have considered long and hard since just how to do this, and I have come to a financial conclusion that it will have to be a C.Mk.1K (ish) when it is complete. I am having to be a little careful on costs at the moment, so will not splash out the £18 + post for the accessories, having already spent £13 on the markings. I hope you do not mind this way of thinking, but, needs must. I have decided to do some improvements to the kit though, so it is not a total write-off! Anyway, this is what I was given: Very inspiring design on the box (not), but what a beauty of an aircraft! I have always loved the VC-10, ever since I saw them out in Singapore in the 1960's and flew home in one instead of the good ol' Britannia that I had flown out in. Both beauties really, and I do have a kit of the Brit too! It obviously was not a tanker VC-10 we came back in. These are the transfers (being a '50's child they will always be transfers) that I bought: A fine selection of markings, but I will go for the second one down, as it is probably the one that would get built less often because of the lack of tail art. As the marking sheet had cabin windows as part of the artwork, and the configuration was different to the K2, it was a case of having to fill the windows. I added some strips of plastic card behind the openings and glued them in, then used milliput to fill the windows the following day. I had forgotten how good milliput is to use when it is damp, and soon had a fairly good result. I needed a little bit of extra filler afterwards as I had caused some dips in the milliput when I was smoothing it off. I also made up a couple more bulkheads using the single supplied one as a template and marked off where I was to fit them later on. I found yesterday that back in 2012 Britmodeller had a Group Build for the VC-10, and have read through those and found that it will be a good idea to add some plastic card tabs to the fuselage to aid alignment when it comes to putting them together. One of the major things I will amend on this are the wing fences. There is one missing inboard on the wings, and the one which is present outboard is full span, but only needs to go back to the back of the slats. I marked to wings as to where the inboard fences should fit: There is a re-fueling station below the rear fuselage which needs to go too as it was not on the C.Mk.1K, so I filled that with milliput when I did the cabin windows. I hope it will act as a key when I remove the plastic area and allow me to reshape the underside a little better (I will put a plastic 'capper' over it before I close the fuselage up): Then it was time for another leap of faith - do I keep the raised panel lines or do I try to rescribe? I have only rescribed once before and that was a long time ago when I used a needle. Now I am the proud owner of a real, proper scriber. I resolved to try on something that would not be seen first, so I did some scribing on the wing interior and used Dymo tape, tape for curves, and masking tape to find out which helped guide the scriber. Dymo. Then I did the tailplane underside (still working on the theory that it would not be seen!). Hmm, not too bad. You can see the 'straight' line has wandered a little at the top left. Firstly, I must say that any rescribing on this will only be straight lines, and nothing complicated like all the wiggly bits on the wings and tailplanes, and that also I would only be replacing raised for scribed unless the new line was easy. So there you know... Having done that, I was up for trying the wing lower surfaces. This time, after reading one of the VC-10 articles on here, I tried holding a 6" steel rule in place and that was so much better! I did not make any errors where the scribing tool wandered off course. On the underside, Airfix put representations of inspection hatches access panels, but they are only on the top wings in the plans I have got, so I sanded them off. All in all, a bit of an improvement, I think: I have given the wings a good sanding down and used an old toothbrush with lots of water to get the swarf out of the panel lines. I am glad I keep things 'because they will come in handy!' As you can see, I still have to tidy up the trailing edge of the wings, and judging by the GB I will have to thin them and the wing tips to get the profile a bit slimmer. The next 'heart-in-mouth' moment was getting rid of the outer wing fence. I popped some masking tape either side and used some sanding blocks supplied as a free gift by SAMI magazine a year or two ago, and soon had a fenceless wing! I took the whole fence off so when I fit the new inboard one, I can do the outboard mini-fence with the same plastic stock. The rescribing was then done and it went a lot easier this time. I ran the scribing tool along the lines three times for each line, so if they turn out to be too deep, at least they will be consistently deep. Anyway, that is where I am at at the moment, I am sorry I will not be doing this with the upgrade parts, but it will probably only ever be seen in my model room or my model club. I am happy with the plan, especially after a fortnight or two with it playing on my mind. Take care all, any advice or tips will be very much appreciated, Ray

Hello all, this is the latest old kit I have completed. It is not the world's best finish by any chalk, but it represents a milestone for me personally. I was given one of these kits by my Mum and Dad for Christmas 1966. I was 9, and by then was able to make all sorts of Airfix kits, but I failed dismally with it, and Dad finished it off for me. I was well pleased with it (was that a phrase then?). In fact, I was so pleased with it that I bought another in 1984 or 85. Then I took a break from modelling, and re-joined the hobby back in 2008, whereupon I decided to give it another go. Well, I failed then too. Fast forward a few years, I found KingKit and what do you know, another ended up in my possession, and this time I succeeded. The markings in the kit were damaged, so I looked around for some inspiration. I recalled that eons ago I had seen these in RAF colours and remembered that I wanted to do one in camo, so I asked for help in the WWII Aviation chat section and was given some great advice, and this is now the result. I had a number of Modeldecal transfer sheets, and they came in handy, although there was a little bit of a compromise on the under-wing red/white/blue flashes. I did no additions to the kit except for scratch-building one of the lower engine exhausts from 0.8mm brass rod, the original having been missing from the kit, and adding some rigging between the outboard struts and between the tail fins. I used ColourCoats paints for the camouflage, brush-painted and was very impressed with the yellow - that only needed two coats straight over the grey styrene. Cabin windows were glazed with Humbrol Clearfix - much better than Krystal Klear. Fitting the wings was my downfall on the previous two builds, and it nearly was again this time. You have to add a pair of struts under each upper engine nacelle, glue them onto the lower wing, then add a jig which holds the wings in place while you then add the other struts. An extra pair of hands would have been useful. The top wing skewed to start with, but as I added the extra struts, it gradually started to straighten out. This arrangement meant I had to paint the wings first, and part paint the fuselage (well that part was probably optional!), and then there were two parts to the top of the fuselage go in to lock the wings in place, and then the rest of the painting can be done. Those two parts would interfere with the jig, so it needed to be done this way as far as I could tell. Anyway, it worked. The cockpit glazing was not the best of fits, nor were the exhausts. One I had to replace as I mentioned, but they were very fiddly to get in remotely the right place, and probably should have been done before I fitted the wings. I don't think I got them right in the end. This aircraft has an amazing stance, it looks ungainly but beautiful at the same time. I am so glad I eventually managed to complete one, I have the new Vintage issue in stock now, that will be silver, and hopefully I can make a better overall job of it, but not just yet. I am really looking forward to Heather Kay's build when she gets around to it, sometime in the future. Anyway, thanks for looking, Ray PS I am doing a new 1/48 Airfix Chipmunk now, it is fun building something that fits well (so far).

Here's my Airfix 1/144 BAC 1-11, converted to a 1-11-500, which I've just finished in the A Kit You Built As A Kid group build. Build thread is here. It's a pretty simple conversion - main jobs are to extend the fuselage and wingtips, mostly done with plastic card and milliput. Other, smaller jobs included reprofiling the nose cone with milliput, replacing and moving the wing fences, adding an APU and reprofiling the flap track fairings. Decals are from TwoSix - I chose G-AVMR because I flew on it back in 1981. thanks for looking Julian

Here is the good old Airfix DC-9-30 in the colours of ATI circa 1991. Although it has been around for the best part of 50 years the Airfix kit is realistic and the foundation for a good model. According to DC-9 authority Jodie Peeler, it is considerably more accurate than the much newer Fly kit which I strongly disliked the one time I built it. The main issues with the Airfix DC-9 are the lack of the “lobe crease” between the upper and lower fuselage segments, the poor representation of the cockpit roof and windscreen and the difficult join down the middle of the engine pylons. Short of moulding a new fuselage it isn’t really possible to make a totally accurate lobe crease but an illusion can be created by scribing a line 6mm below the cabin windows then carefully scraping and filing the lower part of the fuselage. I used Oyumaru and superfine Milliput to clone the clear cockpit section from a Minicraft MD-80. A fair bit of packing, filling and sanding was needed to blend this to the DC-9 fuselage but I think the final result is an improvement on the original. While working on the fuselage I drilled out the pressure relief valve and the APU exhaust and re-scribed the raised detail where appropriate. The easiest way to deal with the engine pylon issue is to cut the pylon segments from the nacelles, attach them to the stubs on the fuselage, fill the joint then re-attach the nacelles. Before you cut anything and before you join the fuselage halves, it makes re-assembly much easier if you attach the engines to the fuselage temporarily (Kristal Klear works well) and drill from inside the fuselage right though the pylons into the nacelles to take plastic rod locating pegs. That gives a final assembly a bit like the Minicraft MD-80. Still with the engines, the actuators for the thrust reversers are poorly represented and I made replacements from thin plastic guesstimated from photos. Small parts such as aerials, pitots, replacement undercarriage doors and the nose wheel FOD guard were fabricated from thin plastic. As usual the white is Halfords Appliance White. Metallics are by AK Interactive,Tamiya and Revell. Exhaust staining is done with artist’s pastels and, yes, I-RIKT was dirtier on the right because of the APU! Decals are by Classic Airlines. I’d guess they were designed for the Fly kit but a bit of minor bodging persuaded them to fit the Airfix one. The decals are annoyingly incomplete - they don’t include the ATI titles for the upper wings or the crests which should go above the aircraft name on the nose. I printed my own crests and sourced the wing titles from a spare V1 Decals MD-80 sheet. The V1 blue is too dark (which is why the sheet was in the spares box) but it’s better than I could do by any other method. I also replaced the Classic Airlines wing registrations which were too small. The windscreen is by Authentic Airliners and detail decals came from the spares box. Thanks for looking and as always constructive criticism is welcome. Dave G

Greetings! Vintage Airfix kit of the Pan Am space clipper from 2001: A Space Odyssey finished in a speculative Princess Cruise Lines scheme as Clipper Crown Princess. A few minor changes to the kit along with added landing gear from the spares bin. Decals from an old Mircroscale special print run and various spares. A few other scratch built modifications and enhancements. Simple paint scheme and some subtle weathering. No panel shading. I wanted to do something different from the typical Pan Am scheme and avoid the complicated panel shading. Straight from the box, the kit has several problems, but can be made into a nice build with some effort. No attempt was made to scratch build wheel wells into the bottom fuselage and wings which are not seen when the model is displayed. Many thanks for having a look, questions and comments always welcome. Cheers, Bill

Hi everyone, well, I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I find myself with one of these about to go onto the bench... I'm a little surprised to see that no one else has started one - either you all know something I don't, i.e. its a dog, or it was forgotten about - we will see! My only previous airliner build experience was to start, and almost immediately abandon, the Airfix Vickers Vanguard about a month or 6 weeks ago - that is a truly awful kit on an almost biblical scale, but this, at least in the box, looks far more promising. Minimal sink marks, reasonably fine trailing edges and decals for windows - how very 'hi-tec'! I'll be finishing it in the 'British European' scheme, which looks quite colourful.... But can anyone give me a clue what this might be? No mention in the instructions. A tail stand perhaps? Any advice, hints or tips will be gratefully accepted! Craig

Hi everyone Intrigued and inspired by Matts (S5 modellers) trip to the 'Dark Side' with his 707 build, I found myself handing over a number of perfectly good drinking vouchers in return for this..... Although I've never travelled in a Vanguard, I do remember the Viscount very well and if you squint a bit a lot, there is a hint of a family resemblance. Bigger than I was expecting, but not exactly 'cutting edge' and further research shows that this kit is older than me, just, tooled in 1961! Although I'm not anticipating too many dramas, there are only 75 parts and 6 of those I wont be using, any tips, advice and suggestions will be gratefully received Craig

I started a restoration on this ages ago. Further back in time was when I first built the original tooling of the Airfix kit when in silver plastic. To give you an idea of when I first built this, it was when BEA introduced the dark blue fuselage cheatline with dark blue fin with the half union flag and new style BEA logo on fuselage. I hand painted this scheme when I built this model... very awfully I have to add! Since then I did a bit of work on this and almost threw it away but I persevered on the odd occasion. As you will see, I lost all the undercart and prop blades. The recent repaint was done with Halfords Appliance white, Xtracrylix LAG, and red from the Revell Acqeous range. A bit of Humbrol silver and silver decal striping sorted out the wing leadingedges! Decals by the way were the Liveries Unlimited set( only 500 sets done allegedly!) beautiful decals to work with. Lots of optional reggie letters are included too. Pics: What prompted me to get this done was due to Airfix announcing the reissue for 2015 and the cool BEA colour scheme. Also the decals were loitering around and cried out for use too. I may have to revisit the forwrd sections of the engines and make them a bit more shiny metal. The stand was from the Minicraft issue of the Airfix Boeing Clipper and moulded in black plastic still with the period Airfix stamp on the inside of the stand base. Thanks for looking. Any comments welcome.

Hi folks, Finally managed to get this one done, after failing miserably to finish it for the VC-10 GB many moons ago; Two-Six transfers of course, which weren't as forgiving as I'd hoped they'd be, doing the compund curves around the nose were a nightmare! Hope you like it.