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Hi all, after failing to finish this unprepossessing little MS 406 in the course of the FROG GB, I am bringing it to the WIP section to deal with it once and for all. I owe it at least to @JOCKNEY who sent it to me from single malt scented Scotland to the nice and cool African bush (45 Celsius today,,,) with the express order that I had to finish it, and @Rabbit Leader who encouraged me (in vain) to disobey my wife and spend more time modelling, instead of building! And I owe it to myself. So here is the WIP to date: I have finished painting the canopy structure and after tidying up the paint mess I made around it, I will start with the camo... State of the build as per the next picture: As you can see, the Micromesh has to earn its keep. JR

hi all, Here's a warning for you. If a work colleague says i've got a present for you and it's a model, turn it down. By not doing that, i ended up with a Frog 1/72 Buccaneer S2 that had been in his loft for decades, had curly brown decals and was missing a main undercarriage door. All of that was eclipsed by poor, clumpy mouldings and a cloudy canopy (which actually cleaned up well with Klear). Fast forward to a conversation with another work-mate, who is a modeller too, regarding the Japanese air force (my favourite subject) and their use of American aircraft since the year dot. If the Japanese had liked the Vampire they bought instead of the T-33, that would have led to Hunters, Lightnings, Buccaneers, Hawks, Tornados and Typhoons. I mentioned the Bucc and he suggested a blue one ala the Mitsubishi F-2 would look good. The challenge was down and i did have a kit and the correct Mr Hobby paints to try out too. The result is below. This is by far the worst kit i have ever made. There is almost as much filler as plastic but at least the tailplane and canopy fitted well. Even the Fujimi decals from the spares box refused release from their backing paper it was that bad!! Overall, it's come out quite well but just nowhere near my normal standard, c'est la vie. However, it does look right doesn't it? Andy

Hi all! After slowly getting back into modelling again last year I think I'm ready to to go public with a build. I hope I don't scare the horses!! For my debutante moment I've chosen to do a Frog 1/72 de Havilland DH.60G Gypsy Moth as flown by Amy Johnson on her record 1930 flight to Australia. The kit is rather old, it is numbered F227F and is bagged with a cardboard header card. The decals look slightly yellowed but in surprisingly good condition. Frog 1/72 DH 60G by Dennis Mulhall, on Flickr Frog 1/72 DH 60G Header Card back by Dennis Mulhall, on Flickr The parts have some flash , but cleaning them up should be relatively easy. Frog 1/72 DH 60G parts by Dennis Mulhall, on Flickr Frog 1/72 DH 60G decals by Dennis Mulhall, on Flickr As I'm a pretty basic builder, and not really hankering after the latest and greatest aftermarket or tools I use pretty simple tools and the basic (usually Humbrol) paints, with rattle cans but mostly with a hairy stick. Frog 1/72 DH 60G build tools by Dennis Mulhall, on Flickr Frog 1/72 DH 60G paint and stuff by Dennis Mulhall, on Flickr I use tube cement and plain old tweezers, although I do have a little hand held manual drill bit and a few drills. Sorry for the quality of the photos, but I used my phone because I couldn't be bothered getting out my professional cameras, lenses, flash units, and tripod. That is my OTHER hobby. This will be a rather slow build as I've just gone back to university to pursue another degree and feeling the pressure at the moment. But this is what keeps me sane (along with the wonderful MrsTheBear and DaughterTheBear.) Although I'm pretty much an OOB builder I will be creating a blank for the front cockpit opening, and using the propeller from another one of these done by a company I've never heard of, ABC Argelfarb or some such, to mount on the side of the fuselage as seen on the photos of this machine just after it landed in Darwin. Until the first update, Happy Modelling!!

Picked this one up in a plastic bag from a 'Dip Box' for 50p. I think its the old Frog kit. Anyway as i'm currently building Airfix's superb kit thought I would give this one a go. Decals from the spares box and finish Rub n Buff (if it works).

Vampire FB.9 WR264 / 29 RAF College, Cranwell, 1960 I came across this colourful Vampire when researching Vampire T.11 schemes. It seems that the RAF College used Vampire 5s and 9s during the late 50s and 60s as well as T.11s. I really liked this combination of camo with PRU Blue undersides along with dayglo and the RAFC blue stripe. The earlier yellow T-bands scheme on camo was also used prior to dayglo coming in. This is the older-than-the-world Frog kit in 1/72 so it's fairly tiny, but as far as I can see the kit is nicely accurate in outline despite being a bit heavy in the detail department as most of these early Frog kits were. I changed the main gear for an Aeroclub white metal set designed for their Venom FB series, and put on an Aeroclub canopy. Most of the fine-raised-lines surface detail went with the extensive filling and rubbing down so some was replaced with a bit of scribing - I didn't over do this as it was never going to be a super-detailed competition winner. Decals were mainly good old Modeldecal. The dayglo was produced by airbrushed coats of white, then gloss orange (Humbrol), then a couple of coats of Humbrol flourescent Fire Orange. The orange undercoat gives the dayglo much better depth than trying to put it straight on top of white. The conversion from FB5 to FB9 was a simple matter of extending the fairing in front of the air intake on the starboard side only. This housed an air conditioning unit. I think the device in front of the roundel on the boom is a carrier for a smoke cannister or something like that. Does anybody have any other ideas what it might be? Chris

BUCCANEER S2 800 NAS, RNAS Lossiemouth, Mid 1966 I don’t know whether anybody out there remembers a certain mid-60s issue of Aero Modeller magazine with a painting of an 800 NAS Buccaneer attacking the Torrey Canyon on the cover. Inside were the best drawings of the S2 I had seen to date – and a photo of the first S2 to be delivered to 800 NAS in the grey/white scheme. This photo in fact: This is the only photo I’ve ever seen of this aircraft (XV156) in this scheme. It was delivered in mid 1966 but by October 1966 had been re-painted in an experimental EDSG/’Squirrel Grey’ scheme, and then repainted again in the overall EDSG scheme by March 1967. But thanks to Modeldecal, the grey/white scheme has been available in decal form since 1972. In fact the set I used on this model had been in my decal stash since that date! Similarly, the Frog S2 I used had been in my kit stash from roundabout the same time. The old Frog kit was typical of its time – see-through air intakes / undercarriage wells / cockpit with no detail at all. It was also based on an early RAF (ex-RN) aircraft in that the pylon spacing and type were different, and a single vortex generator on each wing top surface was deleted to incorporate this. The kit has the first 1mm or so of the pylons moulded in to the wings, so they all had to go. Similarly, the VG on each wing was replaced. But that was the easy bit. This was the rest: Air intakes were sawn off and plastic sheet blanks added to the rear and side. This enabled the intake interiors to be built up with Milliput. Engine fronts were added from an Airfix kit. Fin height was increased by about 2mm under the tailplane. The tailplane strake was replaced by plasticard and the front tailplane bullet replaced by rod and reshaped. I used the Freightdog resin nose which saved a huge amount of reshaping – thanks, Colin. I should have used the tailplane from the Freightdog set as well, but I had already reshaped the kit item before it became available (bear in mind this build has been ongoing for the best part of 40 years!) Cockpit interior was scratched – seats were white metal – not sure of the source (I’ve had them for a l-o-n-g time) Undercarriage wells were scratched, using tube to represent the jet pipes which are visible in the wheel wells. Arrestor hook, FR probe and nose U/C (with landing light removed)came from an Aeroclub white metal set. I used the kit main U/C as it has the correct style wheels (different inboard and outboard detail on the wheel hubs). Anyway, the 40 year old decals performed OK – they were a bit thick and brittle but laid down OK with Klear underneath and (many coats) on top. Roundels were also Modeldecal. Some stencils came from Xtradecal also. So at long last it’s done, and is a good companion to my 800 NAS S.1 completed last year at http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234922594-buccaneer-s1-800-nas-1964/?hl=buccaneer :