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My modelling year has been spent in GBs and, although I've had a great time, I have missed just being able to take my time with a build. I have plans to do a few more builds outside GBs next year so we'll see what happens! First completion of the year was a 1/48 Tamiya kit built in the Made in Britain GB: Crusader Mk.III / British Cruiser Tank Mk.VI T126799 - 6th Armoured Division - Tunisa Kit: 1/48 Tamiya Paints: Humbrol and Revell - all applied by brush. The tank is built OOB but I have added some stowage items WIP: Here RFI: Here The next kit to be finished was another 1/48 Tamiya kit but this time in the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt GB: Republic P-47D Thunderbolt - WZ-P - No.226551 As flown by Lt.Col. Benjamin Mayo, 84th FS, 78th FG, Duxford Air Base, 1944 Kit: 1/48 Tamiya "Bubbletop" Paints: Citadel, Humbrol and Revel - all applied by brush. Built mostly OOB apart from a few bits of scratch-built plastic and wire in the cockpit and wheel wells. Work In Progress: Here Ready For Inspection: Here The Hawker Hurricane STGB was next and this was my chance to build the 1/72 new tool Airfix kit: Mk.I Hurricane - L1592 KW-Z No.615 Squadron, RAF Kenley, England, August 1940 Kit: Airfix 1/72 Starter Set Extras: PropBlur, EZ Line aerial cable and some scratchbuilt bits and pieces - gun-sight, struts in the radiator, etc. I also thinned the trailing edge of the wings and removed the fabric moulding behind the armament bays - this work included a small amount of re-scribing. Paints: Revell and Humbrol acrylics all applied by brush. The base was made a while back for my first 1/72 Spitfire and all I have done is add the clear perspex rod to display the Hurricane. WIP: Here More photos: Here The Starter Set GB was next and my entry was: Airfix's 1/76 Cromwell Mk.IV WIP: Here The Spitfire Tribute GB for Edgar Brookes was next and I decided to build Tamiya's 1/72 Mk.Vb: Mk.Vb Supermarine Spitfire EN821 from No. 243 Squadron, Fighter Command Kit: 1/72 Tamiya (No.56) Extras: Eduard Photo-etch Zoom Set SS213 and EZ LIne Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel acrylics all applied by brush WIP: Here RFI: Here The Great Patriotic War GB started in May and I decided to build two IS-2s - Tamiya's 1/48 version: Russian Heavy Tank IS-2 - Model 1944 ChKZ 88th Independent Guards Heavy Tank Regiment - April 1945 Kit: 1/48 Tamiya Extras: Hauler Photo-etch HLX48324 and stowage from a Tamiya Jerry Can set Paints: Humbrol, Revell, Railmatch and Citadel acrylics - all applied by brush WIP: Here RFI: Here .........and the 1/72 Italeri version - which was a gift from Sgt.Squarehead: Russian Heavy Tank IS-2 1943 Version Unknown unit - Berlin - April 1945 Kit: 1/72 Italeri Extras: Tow cable produced from 0.2mm Lead wire and stowage from a variety of other 1/72 figures sets. Paints: Humbrol, Revell, Railmatch and Citadel acrylics - all applied by brush WIP: Here RFI: Here Then in the Vignette GB I made a base for the Tamiya 1/48 JS-2: "Road to Berlin" - 1/48 Tamiya IS-2 Kit: Tamiya 1/48 IS-2 (built for the Great Patriotic War GB). WIP: Here. RFI: Here. Figures: Tamiya and ICM Base: 4mm MDF mounted in a Wilkos 7in x 5in picture frame Scenery: Filler over expanded polystyrene, painted with Humbrol Dark earth and then a variety of turf scatters, grass tufts and trees from Woodlands Scenics, Greenscene, etc. applied. The fencing was wooden coffee stirrers mounted on square strips of softwood and the road sign was created in Photoshop. The Vignette: One of the IS-2s in the Russian tank column, en route to Berlin, is passing the female army traffic controller who has just given permission to proceed. Just at that second there's an alert that there's possibly German troops/armour in the fields/forest to the south. Some of the IS-2 troops/crew are more alert than others and instantly spring into action - the others are getting there more slowly as the tank commander smiles as he brings his large gun around ready for firing. More photos here. Next, in August, I completed my first Fw.190 in the STGB of the same name: FW190 A-8 'Brown 6' WNr 175140, JG26, Melsbroek, Belgium, July 1944 Kit: 1/72 Airfix Starter Set Extras: Tamiya tape seatbelts and EZ-Line aerial wire Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel acrylics all applied by brush WIP: Here RFI: Here Also in August I spent one frantic weekend building this Tiger 1 in the Blitzbuild GB: German Heavy Tank - Tiger 1 (Early Production) No.931 - 3rd Panzergrenadier Division - Totenkopf - Kursk, July 1943 Kit: 1/72 Zvezda - OOB Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel - all applied by brush Build time: approximately 19 hours WIP: Here My four final builds of the year have been in the MTO GB which is, as of posting this thread, is still ongoing. My first completion for this GB was: Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.L No.1 10th Panzer Division 1943 - Tunisia Kit: 1/48 Tamiya Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf.L Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel all applied by brush Extras: Stretched sprue aerial and Tamiya stowage items from the Jerry Can set. The rope for the stowage was made from some of Mrs PlaStix's thread. WIP: Here RFI: Here Next completion in the MTO GB was: Panzerkampfwagen VI, Tiger I (E), SdKfz 181 No.131 in Tunisia Kit: 1/48 AFV Club Tiger 1 Ausf.E Early Version Paints: Humbrol, Revell and Citadel all applied by brush Extras: Skybow Tiger 1 tracks, plus wire and plastic strip for the grab handle and step that were a feature on the front of the hull WIP: Here RFI: Here The next two are just about finished but I haven't taken any RFI photos yet. First off is another Tiger 1 - this is the 1/48 Tamiya Initial Production kit: Tiger 1, No.731, 'Norbert' This model below will probably be my last completion for the year although I intend to make a base for these 4 which I hope will be done in the next week. I will add some pictures in this thread when it is finished. The final one is this one: Fw 190 A-4 of II./JG 2 Flown by Hauptmann Dickfeld, Tunisia with working propeller The diorama for the above models is now complete and the full set of photos of it can be found in the Diorama section Here. Here are four photos as a sample: Well I have completed 14 projects this year - that's the most I have ever managed - more than one a month!!! All my kits this year have been brush painted and I thoroughly enjoyed making all of them. I have had fantastic advice, encouragement and support from loads of people on Britmodeller who, I believe, make a great deal of difference to my modelling - so thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment in my threads. I have already got some ideas of the kits I want to make next year and I'm looking forward to taking part in some more GBs - possibly not quite as many though! Comments and Suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix