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First released in 1970 and judging by the state of the box this is probably from then. Cost €15 in the Dublin Model Shop. I’ll be finishing it in the kit RAAF scheme, unless I find something more interesting. First impressions; it’s quite a good kit for its era with reasonable engineering good molding and a good attempt at an interior, it does have raised panel lines which although well molded will just have to go…

Bought for the princely sum of €15 in the Dublin Model Shop. Scalemates says 1991. Sprues a weird mix of flash and very fine moldings, very nice panel line detail. Gotta love that cockpit detailing 😃 Not sure which scheme the kit has a blue navy scheme and red civilian scheme that requires some modifications to an F8F-1 which is detailed in the instructions but I’m leaning towards the -1 atm.

I’m now actively engaged in stash reduction and for some reason wanted an NMF build so this ticks the boxes. As it only cost €7.99 I did struggle with the idea of keeping it for ‘less than a tenner part three’ but tbh I have lots of kits I bought cheaply. Some ( but not much) assembly this is only four parts and it’s almost done. There quite a bit of plastic in the nose and I reckon it’ll sit right but I still added a little extra weight just in case. So all things being equal should be ready for primer tomorrow. So I can paint it, the 109, the heller hog and the Mohawk together. Probably Saturday morning. Once they’re primed and Preshaded they can tag along with the arctic hog for camo.

So I’m going to just post one build thread for the 1/144 aircraft as I reckon updating nine individual threads would be too much plus most of the builds will be very short. First off some sprue shots The Harrier MIG Typhoon Tempest Wildcat Second wildcat Me262 C47 Need to decide on schemes. Probably kit schemes but I’ll probably do the second wildcat in RAF colours and I may do the C47 as a tow plane to go with my Horsa.

So many 109s in the forum made me want one of my own and seeing as I have many in the stash no excuses. However as all the other builds are late war i thought I’d go for some early machine. So I’m going to build an Avis models C3. Now I generally try to avoid (ahem) tail markings when building German WW2 subjects. 14 of the 17 in my collection don’t have them. As you can see below I try to pick foreign schemes or as with the JG 54 machine and the Kate war one the actual schemes had the tail painted over. However as the C was never exported and I like my models historically accurate it will have them.

My Kit box scheme is actually pretty nice, but you probably know me by now I like the eclectic. Looks like quite a nice kit. It’s an A so I need to check if my intended victim noise any changes. From 1982 10 A10s were painted in arctic camo for an exercise. Looks black and white but that’s probably the lighting. However a little research shows it’s white over a Euro-1 scheme. Should make for an interesting looking final result.

I wasn’t intending to build another Hog but I nipped in to the toy store near work on Wednesday to get some RLM grey and they had this and the price at €34.99 wasn’t terrible Sprue shot Nice decal sheet too Now the kit schemes are a number of lizards and I’m tempted to go with the sharkmouth but I’m leaning towards the experimental camo above as it’s so different and also feasible in this scale. And now for the bad news it has raised panel lines ( I know it’s a cost saving when manufacturing molds but what were you thinking Tamiya?) which will have to go….

Couldn’t find the heller B but I did come across this so it’s on the bench. Have to go either way the snake 😀.

Got this for €7 in the Dublin model shop and as I’m engaged in stash reduction I decided to start it today. I hadn’t realised it’s a 1990s reboxing of the 1979 Heller release so it fits nicely into the GB and the deadline will keep me on track 😀 I think the previous owner roughly desprued the kit, not sure if that’s a good or a bad think… Going for an Aeronavale scheme, (not this unit although I do like the shark) although the kit only shows one scheme there’s a full set of decals on the sheet and I like the medium grey. The decals which were a Smer addition with the reboxing.

While paint is drying on the CB 90 I will make a start on this an old one from the stash just a bit of fun and colour straight out the box. I was not to happy with the bow thruster moulding so have drilled it out and will replace with some plastic tube it was supposed to be OOB sort of. Stay Safe beefy

My kit My proposed scheme operational during the eighties. Some assembly and a bit of paint.

I have two kits (so far😀) both 1/72 and Italeiri and an boxless unknown… I’m going to use this the December 1981 edition of Scale aircraft Modelling which cost the princely sum of 80p as my reference. So next step root the two kits out of the stash and choose my marques and schemes….

I received my new 1/72 Airfix Vulcan yesterday and despite having an overflowing workbench, I just couldn’t resist having a look! As is traditional, I’ll start with a shot of the box. It’s big - note the 12” ruler along the side: To be honest, the box could probably have been smaller as the largest sections are the wings, which are half the size of the box… I guess Airfix were aiming for as large a presence as possible when stacked on a shelf! The scheme options are all white, or white undersides with camouflage on top. I will go with the latter: I already have the old kit in a similar scheme: I would have liked to do the new model in wraparound camouflage, but it was not an option and I’m planning to make this one OOB, to see what can be achieved with the basic Airfix offering. Time to look inside! Every sprue is wrapped in plastic, presumably to protect the plastic from scratching. The first sprue has the tail fin, control surfaces and engine plates: Once the bags are opened, some very crisp plastic is inside. Here’s the nose, cockpit and bomb load: And a close up of some of the pieces: The construction is completely different from the old kit. You build the nose and tail sections and then attach them to the central wing section. There are no large pieces in the kit, hence my comments about the size of the box. Here are the wing top sides: Note the housing for the air brakes. The wing top side in more detail: I’ve never noticed those protrusions on the wing before. The panel lines look a little large, so I will probably end up filling these. Here’s the underside: You can see the nose gear bay is moulded asymmetrically. The detail is again very crisp: This is the largest sprue: And again some more detail: All very nicely detailed, which bodes well for OOB! The last major sprue shows the spars - this should be strong: Some lovely detail for the bomb bay and undercarriage bays too. 👍 The intakes look far better than the old kit, which is a relief! 😁 Finally the transparencies: This looks to be a great kit and I am looking forward to seeing this one come together.

Finally getting around to making a start on this game be. It’s not the best kit in the world but it’s more or less F16 shaped and it was only €8 so it’ll do nicely. Boxart Sprues And it came with a surprisingly nice decal sheet. Now I was considering this scheme but having seen the decals I’m starting to lean towards the Thunderbirds one. Why? Well I’ve been building F16 kits since the seventies and as I’ve only converted to airbrushing in the last few years and have only just done justice to camo builds in the last STGB. I’ve built the roll out scheme more than once and never attempted the Thunderbirds because I discovered that it’s surprisingly difficult to brush paint an overall gloss white finish, so here’s a chance at closure 😃 Some assembly started. Might wait till I get a coat of primer and the white before making a final decision.

A classic Sprues somewhat chunky but not bad. Can you say rudimentary, mind it’s probably going to stay that way 😀 Some assembly

I’ve always wanted to build one of these an to be it epitomises quirky French engineering and the range of off beat subjects Heller have produced over the years. I know I have at least one other Heller kit in the stash but I’m pretty sure there are more, I seem to recall a mirage of some type, so time to scour the stash…

One of my favourite songs and semi relevant 😃 Just to get into the vibe properly So I’m going to get one build over the line even if it kills me😃 a quick assessment of the kits and I reckon this is the easiest. And I can paint it predominantly with rattlecans. The main supper structure with the bogie supports attached. This really is a wonderful kit, pin sharp molding and well engineered. Top and sides attached undersides assembled but of course I forgot to attack the spice vacuum thingies.., Center section prised off and said thingies added. Hull completed 16 ( now 15 damn you carpet monster) bogies assembled. Everything’s ready for paint rattlecan grey for the hull and bogie side plates metallic grey for the tracks.

£2.99 on Kingkit but….missing the fuselage sides. However not impossible to fix, the plan is to CAD and prints a replacement otherwise the kit will be pretty much oob. Solidworks time….

Well past time to start my F16 build. I’ve now at least decided on the scheme I want to do. This is the 2024 version and it’s quite complex my fall back the previous two tone version if all those stripes get the better of me. A little hedge trimming then it’s time to start cutting plastic..

I probably shouldn't do this until I clear the bench a bit more, but I felt the need to build a kit! For the record, almost everything else on my bench is already built and awaiting paints/decals/general finishing/etc. - I wanted something that simply requires construction, especially over the winter months when painting outside becomes more of an issue... I chose this kit as it gets a large box out of my stash (making room for potential new additions!) and should be relatively straightforward to build. I have a vac form 1/72 747-300 on the go too, for the days when I feel like more of a challenge! This is the kit: I intend to build the version shown on the box, as I quite like the idea of a silver finish. Work on the cockpit will commence soon!

Sprues Interior detail painting. A very nice resin cockpit and engine are included in the kit. The interior mostly assembled. Fuselage zipped up and undercarriage added, probably the most fiddly thing I’ve assembled in a very long time. Also a coat or extra dark sea grey applied, looks much lighter irl.

Hi all, this will be my entry for the 2024 Xmas Blitzenbuild GB, the venerable Heller 1/72 Hurricane Mk.IIc. Obligatory shots. This original 1977 release is now looking, shall we say, a little foxed: Although, in the words of the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett, it may well have been badgered, wolved and quite possibly beared as well. The contents were still sealed! 🦭 Let's have a look inside the plastic bag: Standard Heller instructions, a sheet of surprisingly healthy-looking decals, a nice transparency sprue with separate windscreen and canopy, and a shrivelled glue capsule with the kind of health warning I thought we only had in more recent years. Perhaps idiocy isn't such new thing after all..... Typically lovely Heller mouldings on four sprues: Raised panel lines, of course, but look at just how fine they are! The exhausts, however, are quite horrible This will be a completely OOB wheels-up build. I'm not even going to replace the exhausts because then I'll be tempted to "improve" other aspects like the cockpit, that's not the purpose of this build. I'm not interested in the dimensional accuracy of the kit. This will be a nostalgia build, a model like it would have been in my yoof (although I never built this kit "way back then"), just hopefully a bit tidier! The subject will be the all-black 253 Sqn scheme, Z3971/SW*S - I'm not heading down the markings rabbit hole, either! My airbrush is off-limits until my new hobby room is fixed up, so I'll be off to my LMS on Saturday for a selection of rattle cans to paint the thing once it's assembled! Cheers, Mark

And so the madness commences. A pretty simple kit and a bit crude too. Meanwhile in the garden shed the body gets some rattle can primer followed by a nice deep cream coat. Some black paint on the wheels A visit to my local Asia market ( don’t ask….) ready for final assembly And complete along with some detail painting in chrome silver.

The Kit. The bits. Started at last. I’ve detached, cleaned up and partially assembled the roadwheels, sprockets and idlers I’ll need to paint the wheels and tyres before I can proceed with assembly, so some olive drab next. Actually next step is to find a more interesting colour scheme, then silver, hairspray, brick red hairspray and then olive drab…

My first build, will be oob in the scheme with the shamrock. If anyone’s interested I appear to have bought two of these so the second one is now listed on eBay 😀 The engine assembly. Chasis next need to break out the tweezers for some of the parts….