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Unlike many of the British subjects present here (and sufferers from around the world), I was never acquainted with Airfix's H.P. 0/400. I cherished, though, for a long time, building the civil transports that derived from it. I started as usual gathering references, and after a few years, once satisfied with the research, I bought (quite recently), a new release of the old kit. When the kit arrived from the Foglands, I just put it in the closet, and only today I opened Pandora's box. My first impressions: 1) A large number of parts were already loose in the bag they came in. Some were so extraordinarily tangled with each other that they made me think of some weird model parts orgy; but then I thought "Nah, it's a British kit, they are quite proper and respectful of formalities". 2) I have hardly ever seen so many ejector pin marks. 3) I surmised that two people were in charge of producing the masters for the flying surfaces. One was restrained and created a normal rib pattern. The other was a madman and thought the masters were for a washboard. Or perhaps was trying to represent rib tapes, in which case to say they are overstated is an understatement. 4) When I saw the three included figures I jumped thinking that they were, like me, Shaolin Modeling Monks! One was even meditating seating in the lotus position! But no, they were stoic British crew members that at the first opportunity asked me what time tea was served. The gall! 5) The "system" devised for the wing upper and lower halves is dismal. Not sure if it was thought to facilitate rigging, but if it was, the designer should be condemned to endlessly hear the deranged rants of certain president. If it wasn't, all the same. Hard to disguise those seams will be. 6) I love it. Now, do not hold your breath with this build, it will not be one my usual flash-builds. I have other business to attend for a while and just wanted to share the opening moves with all of you. Getting rid of the extra weight: the main sprues and the pim-poom-paff-kaboom parts: The washboards are included in the kit: An engineering solution not even a mother would call elegant: Oh boy... @Martian Hale, @general melchett (who reputedly coined the phrase "Bloody Paralizer"), and another crew member half-eaten already by the Martian, who liked to take his snacks on board alive: As it is common knowledge among the members of modeling cenacles in Río Ceballos, Rosario, Timbuktu and Kamchatka, there were several variants derived from the 0/400. I am not interested in discussing variants irrelevant to this build, and of course as usual I have no interest in any military versions. I am focusing at the moment on the somewhat hastily converted for civil passenger service left overs form the war, which need of course a new interior and some changes on the exterior, and on the 0/700 variants that need much more noticeably changes. I have the impression that this is going to be fun! Meanwhile, I am going back to my references to chose a specific plane. Hopefully will be seeing you soon! Cheers

Hello! I've been thinking for a while that my next project has to be a 1/72 Lancaster and I've been reading up on the various pros and cons of the new tool Airfix v. Revell v. Hasegawa , etc, etc. Well, a few weeks ago my dad (who loves a sunday morning car boot sale) turned up with this venerable old beast which he'd picked up for a tenner and wondered if I wanted it... With some trepidation I peered into the slightly battered box and lo and behold everything was still bagged and untouched. On closer inspection I was amazed to see that this 40 year old kit looks crisp! There's no flash and the raised panel lines and rivets look pretty good. There's not much internal detail and the wheel bays, bomb bays, etc are bare so I think it's going to get made wheels up with pilots in place. The decals are all present and correct but a little yellowed, maybe they'll be alright though? I've very nearly finished my twin build of F35 and Harrier and promised myself I'd get them over the line before the Lanc is started, hmmm, I bet a few of us have thought that in the past... I've not really started but I couldn't resist painting up the pilots - the moulding on them looks great, better imo than recent new tool airfix pilots I've seen. I found a few tips on painting 1/72 pilots but I thought I'd explain how I've gone about it here. First I cleaned off the mould lines with a sharp knife and gave them a rinse with soapy water. I then airbrushed a base coat of xf78 wood deck tan mixed with a touch of white. Next I carefully brush painted the boots, trousers, jackets, life vests and helmets with black, xf54 dark sea grey, brown and yellow. I had a bit of a hunt around for photos of Lancaster pilots and there seemed to be some who wore RAF blue and others with leather jackets - in the end I decided the individuals probably made their own choice so did one of each. I added a few touches of detail with goggles, straps, wool cuffs and face masks and then sprayed a layer of Vallejo flat coat which got me to here: To finish them off I used oil paints, thinned with white spirit, as a wash. I think this has gone well on the clothes but doesn't look quite so good on the faces. How do others paint 1/72 figure faces - what are the tricks?!? The final step was then to add some highlights to the jackets and trousers and this is the finished pair: They should look good in the cockpit of a wheels-up Lancaster! I enjoyed painting these two so much I wondered if you could find the rest of the crew as an after market set, I've had a quick look but can anyone point me in the right direction? That's it for now, I am going to get the other two models finished before doing any more, promise!

My next project is one I've been looking to for quite a long time (maybe even longer than my recently completed Rolf Berg Spitfire Mk. IXe). and the obligatory parts shot: I've been a huge fan of P-40s most of my life -- I don't know why exactly, maybe it was the mystique of the Flying Tigers or maybe it was because the first model I finished by myself was a snap together P-40. At any rate, I love P-40s. In spite of that, I was pretty ignorant about early P-40 B's and C's; I just knew the early ones looked a little different. Then 4-5 years ago, the cover of one of my dad's aviation history magazines had a refurbished P-40C on the cover. It was in-flight and all polished aluminum, and I realized how sleek and fast-looking the early P-40s were and started reading up on them. I think the B/C has become my favorite variant. Around that time I saw Airfix came out with this kit, and I read some pretty complimentary reviews so I pounced on it. I've done some research on the AVG's paint colors and found this fascinating and informative discussion: I also found a similarly thorough discussion on Rato Marczak's website here: http://www.ratomodeling.com/articles/AVG_cammo/ In the end, I've decided to go with Rato's FS recommendations as I found that easier to match to Mr. Color paints. I don't do Acrylics, and the Britmodeller discussion I linked to had Tamiya XF numbers that I found nearly impossible to cross reference to Mr. Color. They did a fabulous job of researching and testing, though, so if you are a Tamiya paint fan, you may want to check out their recommendations for AVG colors. I bought Mr.Color 311 (FS36622) gray, and 310 (FS30219) Brown. The green was recommended to be 2 parts FS34092 and 1 part FS34079, both of which I have in Model Master Enamel. I'm regretting that decision now, as I've had some terrible luck lately with Model master paints in regards to their performance in the airbrush and rough finish. I will give it a shot, though. I believe these recommendations are pretty close though, because Flying Heritage Collection in Everett, WA is meticulous in their research and their P-40B is painted in AVG colors which looked like a nearly perfect match to the recommendations at Rato's website. My picture is not well-lit, but going to the Flying Heritage Collection's website, they have lots of good photos of the P-40 flying in daylight. So, today I got started and painted the interior parts Zinc Chromate, followed by a Tamiya clear gloss coat for a wash: Looking at ArmouredSprue's WIP I linked above, I see that the seat is an incorrect shape and needs to be NMF, so I'm going down to correct that now.

This is a bit special for me, the kit is a gift from my 13 year old son for Fathers Day. He dragged his mother off to our LHS and chose and paid for it himself. Mum suggested cheaper kits but he said that "he knew what Dad likes" It is the current Airfix kit with added seat belts and decals from the stash. It represents one of 485 Squadrons non presentation marked machines as I had no tiny letters suitable. Most of the early machines were so marked and were Dark Green/Dark Earth so this is a bit of a compromise on my part. He's never been interested in modelling, unlike his big sister, but recently he's built VW Beetle and has another Tamiya vehicle to build. Thanks for looking

Rejoining with this kit. Costing me £5.50 at SMS2009 - ten years in my stash! I've cleared this history with Enzo, it's quite recent. Started on 19 Oct 2019, after completing the X-29 and Angel in the FilmStar GB. I found a Griffon contra-rotating prop in an Aero-Team Spitfire 21, and pictures of a French restored Spit 19 with that prop. Bonus that a colleague of mine has photos of that aircraft at Duxford. The only difference I can see is lack of that scoop below the port exhausts, my scalpel has removed that. All progressing well, research done, parts available, what could possibly go wrong. . . Cockpit painted and assembled into fuselage, C-R prop assembled, when I dropped the canopy . . . . and the carpet monster swallowed. That was 20 Oct. Three days scabbling round on my knees looking. Nothing. How does that happen? Now this is a PR19, with curved windscreen, so I can't just take one from another kit. Shelved, and move onto the Hot Shots Fallus Gnat. A week later hacked-off Tim looks on the Hannants website, and finds they have ONE example of the Pavla vacform canopy in stock - YEAH! Fortunately there's an upcoming model show called SMW2019, Hannants will be present - and are offering 10% discount on show collection - DOUBLE YEAH! And I've got a colleague going - Who agrees to pick up an order - TRIPPLE YEAH! So earlier this week the replacement canopy comes my way - HUGE THANKS!

As promised, to support @Rabbit Leader's inspirational GB, here is my entry - an Airfix 'Red Stripe' boxing of the Vickers Vangaurd. This aircraft beat me to it in 1959 as it first flew in January of that year whereas I didn't appear until September - I'm sure it had most of it's 'wrinkles' sorted out by then. OK, I'll admit it - it's just another excuse to build an ancient Airfix kit but another one I didn't do as a kid so a bit of catching up going on! The usual exciting box art... Here are the parts and they include two 'poppers' for the decals over the windows, since there were two sizes of oval windows. Someone has been in and put some paint on the fuselage but no matter. The transfers look to be cracked in parts but I won't rush to replace them just yet. Outside of the Instructions.... Inside of the Instructions - looks like they made a mistake when feeding some through the photo-copier - done the same myself, many a time! I 'll have to download a set of the Instructions from the Airfix Tribute website. Fairly simple build, though. I must tick off the ones I've got.... This kit was first released in 1962 and the Instruction Sheet opens with 'Airfix introduce the Skyking Series......' - stirring stuff! It's great to read everything about the Vanguard in the present tense - at that time, the Vanguard was a fresh fact of life rather just a misty-eyed memory of a powerful old aircraft, as it is today - a bit like myself, really (no tittering at the back, please!) Wiki says 44 were built and were flying up to 1996 (as cargo 'Merchantmen'). A long and successful career, I think,

What with theSpadgent's impressive O/400 and Moa's equally impressive O/700 WIP, I've gone and started on my own Airfix Handley Page, having been in denial for over a week I reckoned I'd start a WIP. If you're looking for the definitive, expert, mastercrafstman approach, this isn't the thread for you, go look at the other two., I will be representing the average modeler (I hope) and bodging my way through to something I'm pleased with and which hopefully won't be entirely unlike a HP O/400 (or 700) I still haven't entirely decided on the colour scheme, but I'm edging towards a nice red and silver civil scheme, rather than PC10 ( I have a lot of Sopwiths in the queue (a Snark, a Dolphin, a Snipe, a Camel and two camels that may end up as a Swallow and a Salamander respectively, all will be PC10 except possibly the Snipe, which could be silver) so I reckon I'm going to get very bored with it as a colour scheme) So first off the wings. Moa sanded them action man smooth, TheSpadgent sanded them a bit. I've tried some milliput, and sanding as well as just sanding, but with a jig made from a soft drinks tin to keep me on the straight and narrow. Lower tailplane with milliput, may sand the rib gaps down a little more. Lower wings before and after, although I've since sanded and resprayed both, not a million miles away from where I want them.

So..... I'm a serial starter. I have like 12 kits being worked on.... Send help..... I bought this kit at the 2019 RIAT, so after a short stay in my stash this kit will be replacing my shelf of doomed Airfix Fw190 A-8. Anyway, on with the build! The parts It's hard to believe how many parts there are in a kit in this scale. This is my first Eduard kit, and it looks like I'll be buying more if my mind survives this build. I also gave a Spitfire to do somewhere in the stash. Detail is insane Nice clear parts. Interestingly, they're quite different from the Airfix kit, which I'll post comparisons to later. And the bane of my model existence. This is why I will go insane building this... Photoetch. The cockpit First of the etch parts on, probably never to be seen again once the fuselage is sealed up. Having added all the unpainted etch parts, I painted the cockpit tub in RLM 66 grey. Prepainted instrument panels were then added. Because the carpet monster keeps trying to eat all the parts and I keep on misplacing photoetch, I made a photoetch square where all those parts are put. Seatbelt time... I don't know what I did wrong, but when the seatbelts are attached the seat didn't fit at all... I ended up trimming down the etch parts to make it fit. The stick was added and the cockpit tub was complete

Evening all. Here is my Airfix A-4b in 1/72. I used decals from Xtradecal x72151 representing a Skyhawk from VA-106 Gladiators. This one has been 90% finished for months so I’m pleased to finally get it done. This is my first Skyhawk and I’ve got several Fujimi A-4s in the stash. The Fujimi ones look nicer in the box but I’ll see when I get round to building one. Cheers Allan

I have chosen to step outside of my comfort zone again and have decided on a naval subject for this GB. Two of my favourite films when I was growing up were Battle of the River Plate and Sink the Bismark, and once I became interested in sticking bits of plastic together I built a few ships with HMS Ajax being one of them. I'm sure that it would have ended up with gluey fingerprints all over it and with the paint roughly applied, not much different to my modelling standards today , so I thought it was time to revisit the subject. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr

Hi, Though I disagree with the "heavy metal" bit in the blurb (Motörhead played rock'n'roll), I'm quite happy with this release. Cheers, S.

Previous thread about the 1/48th low back Supermarine Spifire F.R. Mk.XIVe - ref. A05135 being closed See also - https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/supermarine-spitfire-fr-mk-xiv.html Here's a new one with fresh news. Source: https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/news/workbench/telford-airfix-trophy-winner-and-a-griffons-growl V.P.

Hi All, This piqued my interest for some bizarre reason and I bought it. The plan is to put it on a sea base, that can be either with sail or anchor. I have so much to learn but haven't a clue on where to start. Suggestions on a couple of good reference books, modelling guides, what's wrong with the kit, what needs replacing...you know the drill. Stuart

Building this kit, bought earlier tonight from Aldi. As Hot Shots Fallus fighter bomber. The Navy! Using decals from anothe Gnat in my stash. Parts. I've never seen this option built up. And a very quick interior paint job.

Blackburn Buccaneer S.2C 1:72 Airfix The Blackburn Buccaneer was an all-weather naval strike aircraft designed and built by Blackburn Aircraft Limited (later Hawker Siddeley) to fulfil a Royal Navy requirement for an aircraft to counter the threat posed by the Soviet Navy's Sverdlov class of light cruisers. The requirement called for a two-seat aircraft capable of sustained low-level flight at up to 550 knots over a combat radius of up to 800 nautical miles. The resulting aircraft made use of a number of novel features in order to fulfil the mission requirements, including the use of fully blown wings to improve low-altitude performance, area rule fuselage and very robust design and construction in order to ensure survival of the airframe in its tough operating environment. The Buccaneer was able to carry a range of conventional munitions, as well as the 2000lb, 20 kiloton 'Red Beard' nuclear weapon. The Buccaneer got off to an inauspicious start due to the relatively low power output of its de Havilland Gyron Junior turbojets, a feature exacerbated by the extra power needed for the blown flying surfaces. The S.2, fitted with more powerful and more efficient Rolls Royce Spey turbofans, was far more successful. The Buccaneer served the Royal Navy with distinction until the replacement of the last of the large carriers with the smaller 'through deck cruisers'. The Buccaneer was also offered to the Royal Air Force, but was rejected in favour of the TSR.2 and then the F-111. With the cancellation of both of these programmes, the RAF reluctantly accepted the Buccaneer as an interim measure until the MRCA became available. As it turns out, the Buccaneer served the RAF very well for over two decades and even participated in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Notwithstanding the excellent-but-expensive CMR resin kit, fans of the Blackburn Buccaneer have been poorly served by kit manufacturers for far too long. The previous Airfix kit, along with the Matchbox and Frog kits, are long in the tooth and have issues in term of accuracy when it comes to the complex, area-ruled shape of Blackburn's finest. When Airfix announced their intention to redress the balance be releasing an all-new kit, it therefore seemed like a logical move for the Margate firm. Inside the red top-opening box adorned with the usual high-quality Adam Tooby artwork, are five frames of grey plastic and a single clear frame, holding 140 parts in total. The mouldings are clean and crisp, with fine, recessed panel lines throughout and plenty of nice detail on smaller parts. The assembly instructions are divided into 84 stages, which gives a good indication of the level of detail that Airfix have crammed into their new model. Assembly begins with the cockpit, the tub of which reflects the correct offset arrangement for the observer's seating position. Speaking of seats, the three-part Martin Baker Mk.6s appear to be a pretty good representation of the real thing, although some photo etched harnesses are a must. Crew figures are included if you are so inclined. The tub, instrument panels and side consoles are nicely detailed, although decals, rather than moulded details, are used to represent the controls. The nose gear bay fits onto the underside of the cockpit tub. Once complete, the forward fuselage halves can be joined together, forming a small-sub assembly entirely separate to the rest of the aircraft. The distinctive profile of the nose, which has always looked off on the other injection moulded Buccaneers, looks spot on. The nosecone is not moulded as a separate part, however which means another seam to clean up. Once the forward part of the fuselage is complete, construction turns to the central part of the airframe. The lower part of the fuselage includes about 80% of the lower wing surface. In order for the pylons and fuels tanks to be attached, holes must be drilled at the appropriate points. The outer wing can also be cut away at this juncture if you wish to build the model with wings folded (yes please!). The inner structure of this section comprises the main landing gear bay inner walls, front and rear bulkheads and tube structures for the engines. The front and rear faces of the engines are nicely represented and it should be possible to clean up the internal seams on the engine air intakes prior to final assembly. Once all of the internal detail has been fixed in place, the upper half of the fuselage can be cemented to the lower half. At this point in the build, you really have to decide whether to finish your model with folded or extended wings. If building the former, you can attach the wing fold mechanism and then miss out the next few steps. If finishing your model with wings extended, little spars are included to help you align the separately moulded upper wing surfaces and to give the model strength. Whichever route you take, the last major step involves assembling the rear fuselage and tail. The vertical part of the tail is integral to each half of the rear fuselage, while the horizontal tail is a single, solid part. There are seperate parts for the RWR fairings, which is handy. Apparently the rear RWR cone is the wrong shape for an S.2C, but this is an easy fix if such things trouble you. The foremost part of the engine air intakes, as well as the rearmost part of the engine exhausts, are moulded in such a way that the clean up of seams will be absolutely minimal. The bomb bay can be finished in open or closed position. If the former, there is plenty of nice detail to catch the eye. The prominent air brake at the rear of the fuselage can be finished in open or closed position as well, and is nicely detailed. The Buccaneer's robust landing gear is nicely represented and subtle flat spots are moudled into the tyres. There are different parts for the arrestor hook depending on whether you build the model with gear down or up. Aside from the wing slipper tanks, you get two Matra rocket pods and two 1000lb free-fall bombs to hang under the wings. The canopy is nicely moulded and can be finished in the open position, although the instructions don't show this. Two options are provided on the original decal sheet, with a further two on the Kits-World sheet: XV154 of No. 809 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Ark Royal, January 1972; and XV336 of No. 800 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Eagle, June 1971. Both aircraft are finished in overall Extra Dark Sea Grey with Type D roundels. The decals themselves look thin and glossy and a full set of stencils are included. Conclusion I know I wasn't the only modeller to get excited when Airfix announced their new-tool Buccaneer. Thankfully, the finished product doesn't disappoint. The level of detail is very nice and it's clear that Airfix have put a great deal of thought into their model. There are plenty of options, such as folding wings, airbrake and bomb bay, and they are are all nicely realised. It would have been nice to have a low-viz roundel option, but in all fairness there isn't a huge amound of variety when it comes to S.2Cs. Overally this is an excellent model which finally plugs a huge hole in the world of injection moulded cold war British aircraft. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I'm working on a Spitfire XIVe highback by converting the Airfix 1/48 Spit XIX without kitbashing. I realize there are easier ways to get there, but I purchased the kit and parts when these were the only options, so I may as well use them. I'm also grateful for all the info I've been able to get from this website, many excellent modellers have gone down this road in various ways, and I value the knowledge they've been willing to share. Thank you, all. I'm using the Airfix 1/48 Mk XIX, Barracudacast 4 spoke wheels, and cylinder head covers (to correct the short kit covers), Ultracast's Sitfire seat with late harness, access door, and Mk XIVe cannon barrels. I'm also going to use Quickboost's Gyro gunsight. I've filled the unwanted panel lines and blisters/intakes and camera ports with Zap glue and talc, Millput, or scrap plastic. I shortened the ailerons, scribed the appropriate panel lines, and added the blisters from stretched sprue, reprofiled Eduard FW-190 bombs, and cannon bases from aluminum tubing. I've scratch built the inner fuselage lower section to cover the wing root cavities, drilled out the lightening holes in the cockpit frames, opened up the rear bulkhead, opened the access door, built up the aft fixed canopy sill, replaced the cylinder head covers with the Barracudacast parts, and drilled out the exhaust, torque links and tie down point. It's the long way to go, but, as I said, at the time it was the only option … … and the work continues.

This is not a subject I would have chosen to build. However having been asked to build it I thourghly enjoyed the challenge and loved learning about this iconic, groundbreaking aircraft.

So the second of the four Japanese aircraft I am putting together, Airfix's Mitsubishi Zero, built OOB with H Models Zero over Saipan decal set. The decals represent an aircraft, white 8-07 captured by the US Marines on Saipan Island in June 1944 and was transfered to the US for testing.This will be the second Airfix Zero I have built but the first was a normal kit where as this and no3 are both starter sets picked up from a well known supermarket and I get the feeling the starter sets quality is not as high as the normal kit (also had one of the Mustang starter from the same supermarket which had the wrong decals) I don't know if anyone has noticed this? The kit built fairly well but had flash on some of the smaller parts and the transparency moulding was not as defined as the previous Zero built, Used Tamiya acrylics through out. IMGA0761 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0762 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0763 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0764 by neil Connor, on Flickr IMGA0765 by neil Connor, on Flickr And lastly lined up with its sister aircraft IMGA0766 by neil Connor, on Flickr

I'm occasionally struck by madness. I think that this was one instance... I decided that the Airfix Bentley could be turned into Tim Birkin's Brooklands car. So far I've: Lengthened the chassis Built a complete new body - from plastic strip over formers Made a new bonnet from aluminium Here's where it is so far. You may recognize a few Airfix parts...

Airfix is to release in September 2019 a new tool 1/72nd Blackburn Buccaneer S.Mk.2 kit - ref. A06021 Source: https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/new-for-2019/blackburn-buccaneer-s-mk-2-rn-1-72.html V.P.

Hi guys. As inter-mated during the last RAF launch build, here is my next ASRL. This time I'll be doing a later version; gone has the bright yellow deck and up with armament, the reason being that yellow was too noticeable by 'Jerry' pilots...you don't say. I also had these bad boys in the stash, so it will be interesting to see the comparison with the kit examples. And here is where we join the party. You'll notice that the molded nets have been ousted, the holes filled and the toe rails have also been 'done'. If you're wondering, no harbour scene this time but she will be at sea, with crew and maybe some chap in the water. Stuart

Seems like a dog's age since I actually finished anything. Between work, and consolidating everything into my new ManCave modelling has been in short supply. TBH - another son moved out and this time I got the space- no yoga studio/hippie retreat in this room The cold weather finally hit North Texas this weekend, and I used it as an excuse to sit at the bench for a few hours. Not as much room as I had before, but everything is indoors, AND in one place. Plus, I don't have to worry about much larger, heavier parts from a Big Block Ford (another expensive hobby) damaging anything. Gratuitous ManCave shot(s) - still not finished, but at least I can work on the important stuff - models! On to the model... I built this OOB. No, really. I actually built this exclusively from the parts in the Airfix box, and nothing else. I tried to keep the weathering subtle. And used only kit decals! I thought it would be a Mojo booster to knock something out in a week(ish) without obsessing. Each kit I build, I try to use a new technique/product. I used Green Stuff World' airbrush masking putty. The results were mixed. The putty absolutely does not leave any residue or marks on the previous paint. It can be re-used immediately and doesn't seem to retain paint/solvents in the putty. However, I found that it continues to settle as it sits, and the demarcation lines are not much softer than masking tape. This might make it ideal for smaller kits (1/72 and very small 1/48), but I didn't see a lot of benefits in 1/48, especially on a kit this size. She's definitely a tail sitter. And HEAVY!!! And I had a bit of a "love/hate" relationship with the build. Loved the fit - kit goes together smoothly, and presented "zero" build issues. Other than the intake areas, there is no filler on the kit. Hated the end-result - it just feels 'toylike'- very basic without a lot of detail. I tried to make it look realistic, but not sure I succeeded. I have already started planning for improvements when I build the (R)B-57. Hope you like it. Comments are always welcome. Best, Mark

Pretty much OOB but my first all airbrushed build, lovely kit (decals a bit odd) enjoyed the build.

Hi all, Having recently joined Britmodeller I thought I'd take the plunge... When I started this it was to be an OOB/weekend build (how many times have you said that?) and of course it escalated. I wanted to do a WW2 Spitfire XIX and one from RAF Benson, the home of WW2 photographic reconnaissance, so it will be RM643/Z using the Extradecal set X72105. According to Scalemates, Airfix released the kit in 2009. It's a nice looking but simple kit. Accuracy is reputed to be good and the panel lines are OK. It got generally got good reviews and is supposed to be an easy build. The fit is generally good, but as you can see, there are a few gaps that needed filling and the wings/fuselage join needed a quite bit of work. The filler on the fuselage sides behind the cockpit isn't Airfix's fault, the fuselage needed raising slightly to model the non-pressurised canopy. As it's going to be an early unpressurised version based on the Mk.XIV, this led to an error. I'd used the Pavla cockpit (C 72085) which is well detailed (the kit's cockpit was a bit bare) but the Pavla resin cockpit isn't easy, much of the kit's cockpit detail and sidewall needs to be removed. I do like to make work for myself. But once done, the Pavla cockpit fitted surprisingly well. But it has the solid bulkhead for pressurisation behind the cockpit and I'm assuming the Mk.XIV fuselage wouldn't have had that. By the time I'd realised that, it was a bit late. The kit's wheel wells are completely bare, so I added a bit of filling and plastic card. But what colour should they be? No real concensus on Britmodeller or elsewhere. Photographers with colour film had better subjects waiting during WW2! Cheers!

My next build is Airfix's 1:72 Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV, which I was lucky enough to receive for Mother's Day. The box contains a detailed set of instructions, small decal sheet and glass sprue. There are five grey sprues, all with little to no flash and a nice amount of detailing. I have decided to build the aircraft in the markings of Groups Dr Bombardement 1 (Lorraine), Armed de l'Air, North Africa, 1941. I plan to build it straight as it comes from the box, using Vallejo acrylics (because I prefer airbrushing with them). The kit has been washed and is drying, and I'm looking forward to my next challenge.