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Here are a few mediocre shots of my recently completed 1/72 Flyhawk SBD-2 Dauntless. I finished it as an aircraft from the USS Lexington at the Battle of Coral Sea. The Flyhawk kit is pretty nice, and fit fairly well. Some of the small parts are very fine and break easily. I broke the arrestor hook, one of the small bomb sway braces (somehow didn't break the large bomb harness) and a few other bits. I painted my model with Gunze Mr. Color paints thinned with MLT. A bit of weathering was done with oil colors. These photos don't capture it especially well. I used the kit decals, which were excellent! The kit also came with resin wheels, and included a very nice set of tape masks for the canopy parts. Overall, a very nice kit, with a few points off for the fragile plastic and the less than stellar instructions. A-

Looks like Flyhawk has decided to dip their toes into the Yorktown class carriers. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/flyhawk-model-1178-uss-enterprise-1942--1589661

Good day, After a lengthy delay of posting and completing a new subject, I finally am able to share this Flyhawk SBD-3 Dauntless US Navy dive bomber. Here are the highlights of the kit……….. 1. Colors / paints used A. Airframe : Polly Scale USN Blue-Gray, Mission Models US Blue-Gray FS35189 ( fabric surfaces ), AK Light Gull Gray, B. Engine : Tamiya Metallic Gray XF-56, Gunze Burnt Iron, Tamiya Ocean Gray XF-82 C. Cockpit : Vallejo Green Zinc Chromate, Mission Models US Interior Green ( pilot seat / FS34151 ) D. Exhaust stubs : Tamiya Metallic Gray XF-56 2. Washes : AK Blue-Gray ( upper surface ), Vallejo Blue-Gray ( fabric surfaces ), Vallejo Oiled Earth ( cockpit ), Tamiya Black ( engine cylinders ), AK Medium Gray ( lower surface ), Tamiya Brown ( fuselage ) 3. Eduard USN WWII seat belts 4. Uschi Bobbin Thread ( Fine ) antenna wire 5. Kit decals 6. Additional weathering with pastels and paint This SBD from Flyhawk offers excellent surface detail, cockpit, engine, and landing gears. Some sections can be a bit “fiddly” in assembly. The kit provided decals are superb and every option is available for the SBD`s used during the Battle of Midway in early June, 1942. I opted to recreated LCDR Richard Best` aircraft he used with great skill on June 4, 1942. A friend provided additional information detailing the different colored landing gear struts used on the Enterprise to quickly identify each specific aircraft. Best operated SBD #B1 which had red landing gears ( chart provided below ). Further references indicated that gray colored bombs were used on the Dauntless` at Midway. The fit between parts is excellent. Pre cut masks are provided for the complex greenhouse windscreen. This is not only the best SBD in 72nd scale, but superior to the out-of-production Hasegawa offering and the only one readily available. It does come with a bit of a higher price tag but given the scarcity of the Dauntless in 72nd scale and the quality of the molds, I recommend this lovely early Pacific War SBD Dauntless. Thank you in advance, Mike

Dear Fellow Modellers Flyhawk has a lovely kit of one of the German K-Class cruisers, Konigsberg. These were built strictly to the limitations of the Versailles Treaty, so they were very light indeed, just over 7000 tons. The Konigsberg and other KM ships seem to have gone for ID colours on their turret roofs about the time of the invasion of Norway. Konigsberg was damaged in the opposed landing of her troops at Bergen on 9th April 1940 and so couldn't immediately return to Germany. After being spotted by RAF reconnaisance aircraft, tied up in Bergen harbour she was targetted by FAA Blackburn Skuas of 800 and 803 NAS, flying from the Orkney Islands, and sunk at her moorings on 10th April. So she has the dubious honour of being the only ship to be sunk by FAA dive bombers and thus represented the Skuas finest hour. You will notice two of her three turrets are at the stern and are offset. I believe the idea was they could bear quite a way forwards if necessary. In practice such situations often led to damage to the ship's superstructure. Hope you like it? Andrew

Latest and possibly the last finish of the year is Flyhawks excellent SBD3 Douglas Dauntless, this is Flyhawks first aircraft kit as far as I can see as their usual fair is ships in 1/700 and some armour in 1/72. Built OOB with no extras needed, I snapped a few of the small parts when clipping them off the sprues but managed to stick them back together with no problems. Kit has option for open or closed canopies along with a nice pre cut mask set for all clear parts. The only thing I struggled with is the instructions as they were lacking in colour call outs in the build steps. Painted with Mr Hobby Colour and Tamiya acrylics but the instruction have the wrong colours listed for the upper blue so I mixed my own, weathered with a mix of Flory's light and dark wash's plus Mig Ammo powders. Used the kit decals but sprayed the walkways so I could chip them more effectively. If Flyhawk release anymore aircraft kits I will be interested but I may pick up one of the 1/72 armour kits as well. As usual all comments welcome. WIP below

As usual after finishing the Flanker I immediately started the next one. So I pulled this one out of the stash as it only got put into the pile a week ago, a bit of an impulse buy of Ebay after seeing an online review of the kit and was impressed at the detail. Once it arrived I was even more impressed by the raised rivets and fine panel lines, the cockpit is well detailed for such a small aircraft so the canopies will have to be in the open position. Some of the parts have ejector pin marks. Cockpit sub assembly less rear wall. Trial fit of fuselage and cockpit Base coating in XF16 Aluminum before the interior green so I can do some chipping.

SBD dive bomber has been on my bucket list for quite some time. Finally I decided to build one and for this project I chose the Flyhawk kit. This is a relatively new kit (2021 I guess), so I hoped for something well engineered with fine details. And I must admit that Flyhawk delivered exactly what I was expecting. A very fine kit with lots of subtle details (the cockpit is great) and an interesting choice of positive riveting. Although the kit is sufficient to build a great model right out of the box I decided to throw in a few third party gadgets: PE parts from Eduard (mostly cockpit) Resin wheels from Aires A beautiful resin engine from FPW Model (regretfully barely visible 😞) Guns barrels (both .50 and .30 cal) from Master Ammo belts from Aber The flight deck is a resin cast from Eureka XXL and the crew members have been 3D printed by Reedoak. I had a lot of fun building this model, pity that currently this is the only aircraft available from Flyhawk in a reasonable scale 😭. And the model itself depicts the SBD-3 BuNo.4537 “White S-8” of VS-2 (USS Lexington) crewed by Lt(jg) William E. Hall and Seaman 1st Class John A. Moore (May 1942). I won't bother you with historical details, in this case the Internet is full of them. Please enjoy and comment at will. Cheers, Marcin

Ok, so I decided to buy some new ship. Initially, I planned to get Cleopatra (to make her or Carlisle) and maybe also Trumpeters Zulu or Eskimo. So I went shopping. And what I got? Well... 🤪 I went through topic here: http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=23454 and I am under the impression that Flyhawk model is generally good (I have correct deck). Are there any major issues I need to look into? I plan to paint her for march-may 1941. Is camo in instructions ok? It calls for 507C and black with grey underwater hull? At the start, I was considering making her in damaged state after 26th May'41 attack, but I squashed this thought as 1) I want to preserve graceful lines of the ship and 2) it is massive undertaking as is, I do not need more challenge. The start is simple. I glued lower deck into hull and added decks of all galleries on the sides. Anyone has tips how to paint all the openings in the hull and then mask it for painting main hull sides? I obviously also made one little plane - Fulmar.

Hello! here is my last finished model. Both the Uboat and the short Sunderland are part of the same Flyhawk kit called : " battle of the Atlantic: anti-submarine warfare set 1" in 1/700 scale. in the same kit there's another model, a Royal navy destroyer, that will be used on another project. I was lucky I had enough clear resin left to cover the submarine. Until I started pouring the resin I didn't know if It was enough... bad side of this project: - I don't have ink for resin so I've used some drops of AK aquatic turquoise. as you can see from the photo there's tiny bits of pigment that stay no matter how much you mix. - the rigging on the submarine displaced in the hardening process of the resin ( next time no rigging ). you can see it floating under the submarine ( looks like hair )

My latest finished model. Is a beautiful detailed kit, even if it isn't the deluxe version which should be even more detailed. One anchor ⚓ disappeared on the carpet never to be found again.

Hello all, Firstly, my apologies for disappearing off the ship scene for so long. I’m really an aircraft modeller that caught the ship bug some time ago but, although I was pleased with what I produced, I was always disappointed with my rigging at the end. I could never really get it to the same standard as the rest of the build. I’m also a perfectionist - that doesn’t mean I build perfectly - just I’m always disappointed at the end of a project! Anyway, it left me falling out of love with naval subjects and my FlyHawk Bismarck and Scharnhorst kits were left gathering dust in the stash. However, I recently saw a link for the upcoming FlyHawk HMS Hood and that re piqued my interest as the whole ‘Hunt the Bismarck’ story has always fascinated me - then I saw the recent build on here of the FlyHawk Bismarck by Haneto. I was super impressed by the rigging! Anyway, I’ve suddenly got my Naval mojo back and I’ve dragged the Bismarck out of the stash! And here she is - FlyHawk 1/700 FH1132S Deluxe edition: I wanted to finish her in the Hood encounter scheme, but when I got the kit originally I had some masks made up for the deck swastikas and I really want to use these (love a bit of bling), so I think I will have to build her as the ‘Operation Rheinübung’ version with the Hull stripes. Another reason to build is the imminent arrival of a display cabinet. I’ve never had that before and all my previous builds end up in a box, then the bin, but I’m now determined to actually keep my finished models, dust free(ish) and on display. As ships are so susceptible to handling damage it will be nice to know all the effort expended in building will actually have some meaning for once (well that’s the plan anyway 😀). With previous builds I made them waterline, but I think this will be fully hulled for the cabinet. I’ve got a Blue Wox deck… And the usual heavy tomes of slightly daunting instructions.. massively complicated by the PE! These FlyHawk kits are real modelling gems aren’t they? I have brass stands but, on reflection, I think these are too big for this scale, so I may just sit the finished model on a simple black Perspex base, luckily it’s flat bottomed. Here’s the intended colour scheme… And I’ve found a nice set of computer generated images online that show lovely detail and colour…. Any pitfalls I should be looking for? When is the Hood deluxe model available and from where? I did email Mike at Starling Models but had no reply? Any tips, criticism welcome, I always want to improve my modelling - I’m not proud! Can’t wait to get stuck in! I hope you’ll have me back 🥴 Thanks for looking in, Guy

Well this is a welcome surprise. It should be an excellent kit if Flyhawk’s other releases are anything to go by. Finally a modern tooling of the “Slow, but deadly.”

Dear Fellow Modellers I completed the Flyhawk HMS Legion earlier in May but was not satisfied with the results, so did some more photos today. As some of you may know, HMS Legion took off many of the crew of HMS Ark Royal when she was torpedoed in the Eastern Mediterranean on 13th November 1941 Hope you like it? Andrew

Dear Fellow Modellers Flyhawk do a charming but miniature set of their Type VIIB against a dry dock backdrop. Here is a tired Type VIIB back for repair Hope you like it? Andrew

I want to ultimately build a couple of popular historic ww2 RN ships (who doesn't) , so i thought I'd get my sea legs on with some less taxing stash victims first,( i have a few kits of modern destroyers and frigates to test out my pe work on, but I've got in the stash one kit that is getting nearer to the top , i know its been done to death, but its well loved, its the hood in 1/700 with ,wooden deck , flyhawk etch ,brass barrels and some tiny resin bits, i just want to see if I'm up to the task of taking it on,) so a modern RN victim for starters ,this the RN type 45 ,as hms dragon, i recently bought the flyhawk etch set for it from a popular grocery store in the far east . but when i opened the model kit box i forgot that i also had the white ensign pe set ,(I'm getting old , and I've had the kit a good few years) also I've been a bit busy and distracted of late so the build is well under way ,but ,still a bit of work to do though,the pe is a mixture of both sets The samson radar airels from stretched srue are too long ,they will be cut down and the over size mounting holes filled before paint The bridge pe ,in my view is worth the price of the etch kit alone , None of the super structures are glued atm ,to ease the painting So still a lot to do Cheers for looking in Glynn

I finished up model number 14 for the year over this pastweekend, which was the fantastic M1A2 SEP Abrams in 1/72 scale from Flyhawk. It was a fun build that's really got me into the swing of braille scale armor. It was painted with AK Real Colors CARC Tan and weathered with a couple of AMMO of Mig enamels. The kit I have came with a pine plow, but I decided against using it on this kit; I'll pick up another one and build it with the plow since it looks so cool. I'm also happy to report that I gave this tiny model to the superintendent on the job that I'm working on, who was a tank driver in the Army that spent lots of time driving around a real one of these. Comments and criticism welcomed as always!

Hi, starting a new ship, Trying to make HMS Kimberley from Flyhawks HMS Jupiter. The most significant difference that I can see is Kimberley retained both stes of torpedo tubes. I have filled the square opening for the 4" AA gun and have made a start with the amazing Sovereign hobbies Colourcoats Narn 23 dark deck grey and masked up ready for the 507c. I will be using the illustration from "The Kelly's" book by Christopher Langtree. I intend to try to make this one my best effort yet, time will tell. More to come Mick

Well I’ve started another L Class Destroyer “HMS Lance” by Flyhawk while I’m in Hospital attending a PTSD clinic here in Sydney. The is glued together and awaiting to be primed.

Glued the hull and waterline together ready for priming while I’m staying in Hospital for PTSD in Sydney as we Zero Clinics in Darwin and also you would notice I have another L Class Destroyer in the background just to keep me busy. But wait I have a big surprise coming up on another ship build, but more on that later.

Dear Colleagues After a few trials and tribulations here is my 1/700 Flyhawk HMS Legion. The precision of the moldings are magnificent. My only additions apart from the Eduard PE RN crew and Fine Molds nanodread pom pom & quad 0.5" were the scratch mahogany name plates on the after deck house and crest on the bridge front, yes these are very small. Unfortunately, I discovered the hull had a slight sag so had to place her in quite a lively sea with a swell (otherwise her stern would appear to be rising 1 mm). During my first photo shoot after a few snaps I snagged my base scenery which wiped out the fore mast radar, radio aerials and after 4" barrels, such is life with these fragile 1/700 ships. Re-rigged aerials and re-purchased brass 4" barrels were necessary for the second photo shoot which was mercifully not error prone. With war approaching the RN stepped down from the big Tribal Class to the somewhat lessor armed J, K, and L class destroyers. The pre-war view of the major threat coming from other destroyers and submarines was starting to look unbalanced as the power of the German and Italian air forces was appreciated. The twin 4" MkXVI mount became the AA unit of choice and Legion was armed with these rather than the anti-ship 4.7" guns. The Legion famously came to the aid of the torpedoed Ark Royal and took off many of her crew before she sank. After fighting with distinction in the Mediterranean, she was severely damaged by Air attack and put into Malta where she was sunk by bombing on 26th March 1942. Hope you like it? Andrew

Well here it’s is HMS Hermes by Flyhawk. The detail provided by Flyhawk with this model is nothing short of outstanding quality and again they are setting the gold standard for 1/700 scale models. The only issue with Firehawk is there plastic is very soft compared to other companies in this scale. There has been a couple of occasions where I have accidentally snapped or have cut The plastic. Some of the small detail parts of the f’rd & aft on the flight deck are best to leave them to the last as I found out that they have a habit of being knocked or snapping off. The detailing inside the hanger is quite amazing with a more experienced modeller would be able to use a Perspex flight deck to show Swordfish aircraft inside hanger. Overall this model from Flyhawk is a real joy to build and is further enhanced by Sovereign Colourcoats paints. HMS Hermes & the Ark Royal I

I’m a glutton for punishment, I’ve decided to start this lovely kit from Flyhawk DKM Königsberg a Light Cruiser. This is another outstanding product from Flyhawk and being a deluxe kit it comes a extensive PE set with a instructions all most bordering on War & Peace. Some of the PE I will give a wide berth as plastic stuff is to the high standard that you get with Flyhawk, with some PE I dive in and have a crack at. Hopefully this will keep me occupied until the black paint turns up. Just got to find a half decent plan of this class, so I can have a look at rigging set up. The hull and decking were slightly warp thence the rubber bands which were kindly supplied by Flyhawk. It did provide a slightly messy assembly with wee bit of glue damage to the hull, which doesn’t worried me, as I do like a bit of wear & tear on my ships. Consider these light cruisers even with their nice lines weren’t actually a good sea boat on the open seas including the North Sea even through there were designed as a Raider/ Scouting Cruiser. Thence the later designed M Class Cruisers were design to replace them, but they never got built and were later broken up on the slipways like the only keel of the H Class Battleship. Apart from the invasion of Denmark & Norway which two were sink by RN (Submarine and Skua Dive Bombers), there was one or two later Ops out of Norway or Denmark to support the lager fleet units of the DKM which may’ve got caned from memory? Spent most of the War in the Baltic Sea supporting Army Group Nth, convoys to Finland and as a training ship/ target ships for training up the U Boat crews. Another feature of these Light Cruisers was their ability to lay mine’s as well which did see one operation towards the end of the War between Denmark & Norway, but only one sortie was completed due to the on going fuel shortage facing the Germans in 45.

Dear Colleagues Before I finish the Flyhawk Hermes (1937) by placing her on her own base, I decided to put her 'in harbour' to do a few photographs. I have assembled odds and ends for the harbour over several years to make an interesting backdrop. I think many of you will agree that Flyhawk make the nicest 1/700 ships if you want a pleasant build with sharp details. What is admirable is Hermes was the first ship in the world designed as an aircraft carrier from the keel up. You can't help thinking that the designers got the overall design right and the lines look in many ways remarkably modern. Hope you like it? Andrew

Morning All, I didn't mean to start this kit, its been in the stash for a while now waiting for me to build up some skills, and nerves. I was waiting for the canopy to dry before masking on a 1/48 Spitfire and had the glue and airbrush out, and I thought "let's have a look" The next thing I know the hulls been glued together... How'd that happen? I blame SWMBO, saying I need to reduce the stash, as if that's going to happen! I cannot say enough good thinks about Flyhawks kits. I've got the Aurora, Niad and Legion in the stash. They're superb examples of modern manufacturing. The go together easily, smart box layout to avoid breakage and can fit all budgets with the basic or the kits with extras. So on with what I've done. This is the upgrade kit, with photo etch included, I'll be leaving that lot till a bit later. Aurora can be either full hull or waterline. If normally go with waterline but I thought I'd have a look at what she was like with her bottom attached. 5 pieces, a bit of glue and you have a full hull and decks! Primed with Tamiya extra fine primer and then a blast of Lifecolour 507c all over. I masked off the boot topping, Vallejo model air black I think, then tried to get a good B20 substitute. I have the Lifecolour B20 but it looks far to grey. So I mixed up some Model air PRU faded blue and EDSG. After this flurry of activity I got fully carried away and started applying the AK interactive enamel weathering range to her. This is where I got to before I actually stopped and looked critically at her I really wasn't happy with the fake B20, and the Lifecolour grey kept flaking off every time I masked over it. I quite like most of my weathering, but I think I went a bit too heavy. So... Off it all came and start again. I used Vallejo model air sky grey and Tamiya XF-18. Vallejo hull red and model air black for the boot top. Gloss coats addedd in between everything. I think the sky is too light, but that can be corrected with weathering, and I think the xf-18 needs lightening up, again a bit of weathering should do this. Weathering to come on the hull. Whilst I was waiting for some of the layers to dry I made a start on the wooden decks, something I've never done before. Tamiya deck tan and wooden deck tan with a wash of AK interactive deck wash. I think I did about 5 coats of each colour, done in streaks, then gave it a wash with the AK. Think it needs lightening up, and a light spray to bring it all together. Very happy with it so far tho! We, that's a lot of waffle from me with only a few pics, double painting, and only 5 of the 200+bits glued together! This could take a while! Oh, and while I was taking a couple of these pics this morning, I couldn't help put some of the larger parts on, just to see... She enjoyed her little tour round the house, firing off broadsides as she went. We're all 6 years old at heart aren't we? That'll do me for now, up next, finishing off the deck, weathering the hull, working out if I'm going to put her in a seascape or on a pedestal(really should have done this earlier) and onto the really small fiddly bits, oh and pe..... Thanks for looking in. Geoff

Renault FT 75 BS FLYHAWK 1/72 Last year I bought the Flyhawk double-pack kit of the Renault FT 75 BS, which some of you may remember from the WIP I did at the time. The second FT that came in the box has been sitting around waiting to be finished since the first was done. As I've got a gap in my schedule at the moment, I thought I'd try and get some old part-finished builds completed before the end of the year, and this one came off the shelf first. There wasn't actually all that much to do, as I'd got the hull together while I was building the first one. A couple of days to finish the assembly, and a few more for paint and weathering, and I could cross this one of the to-do list. No real problems with the build, apart from the decals which silvered quite badly for some reason. The ones on the first build had gone down flawlessly, so maybe these ones had deteriorated slightly in the intervening time. There's not a huge amount of difference between this and the previous build, apart from the camo scheme, but they look good together in the cabinet. Thanks for looking Andy