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Hello, No sooner do I put my Special Hobby Tempest to bed, than the largest model box I have yet to see lands on my doorstep. My goal is a medium-weathered, semi-see through, Lancaster B Mk 1. I fully expect someone to come up with vinyl masks for R5868 at some point, and when they do, I shall strike! Failing that, I I'm sure Mal's Miracle Masks (or similar) can be induced to create something appropriate. I can do sprue shots if you *really* want but you all know what it looks like. Back to work for now. Emerson, Lake and Palmer to keep me sane...

Hello, built oob. Painted with Revell Auqa Color. cheers Peter

This summer has played h**l with my model building and group build participation. Thank God, the summer in here seems to be over very soon and we're heading towards a season more suitable for this hobby . Nuff said, not to be started before some more urgent builds are done, as their GB:s end sooner, but here's my trio of the quite delicious looking Special Hobby Kittyhawks and a Warhawk: I plan to build them out of the box, decorating each with the North African decal options supplied in the kits. For a while, this is just a placeholder... V-P

While the daughter and her boyfriend are up visiting for the next couple of weeks i have been turfed out of my model room but I can still use the old garage but this means that the battle class build will be on hold until then as I do not want to start moving all the stuff around and end up where something goes missing. So to keep my sanity in place i will be doing this quite modern TUG it will be a OOB build no fancy detailing just for a bit of fun and to keep me out of the way with most of my stash. Seem to remember someone else doing this kit with a lot of detail added Side open boxes don't work for me so i cut this one open to have a flap lid Main hull and upper structures go together quite well and a coat of primer normally just use this desk and workbench as a spraying area but back to using it as a build desk again beefy

Hi Everyone, Since it is too windy today to do much else, I thought I would post my just finished Italeri Staghound Mk1. I’ve built the AA version before and really enjoyed it so when I got this for my Birthday I was keen to have another go. So after FrankenBlitz I was happy to carry on my wheeled vehicle spell and am really pleased with how it came out. Hand painted with XF-81 Dark Green 2 and then finished with my usual method of some oil washes, dry brushing, chipping and some highlights using weathering powders. If you spot the schoolboy errors then you get extra points but otherwise a fun and engaging build with the benefit of some photo etch included. Thanks for looking

I have far too many projects started, the Gamecock will remain my top priority, but I want to complete these for a Group build ending in June, so if i don't start now I won't, so to speak, all other projects will fall in somewhere behind. This will be a (hopefully) more or less OOB build( allowing for the various quirks and deficiencies of the kits ... and the builder ) of a Smer Bulldog, am Airfix Fury and a Lindberg Flycatcher. I'm already getting bored with high speed silver so the Fury will be in a Munich crisis scheme and I'll probably stick with the kit scheme for the Bulldog as the decal sheet looks pretty good and will try to find something interesting for the Flycatcher ( Much as I'm learning to love WWI and interwar British aircraft, the colour schemes are soooooo dull, end (small) rant) The Bulldog is ok but has raised markings that have to go. The Fury is probably the best of the three but the cockpit is in the wrong place and the interior is wrong. Not sure about the Flycatcher, but we'll get to that eventually. First Up the Bulldog. It looks pretty ok wrt overall shape but has horrible embossed markings and although the rib detail isn't too bad on the uppersurfaces, the undersurfaces are almost blank. So off we go wit sanding/scraping and possibly skinning with 10 thou card followed by copious rescribing. More to follow

As promised in the WIP-section, some pictures of the completed Diablo. A few build-pictures can be found there as well as a little more info. Wiper deliberately left off as it seemed massively overscaled and wouldn't fit correctly. Couldn't be bothered, to be honest. Maybe someday I'll do or find a better one. Probably not. First some shots from all sides, trying to catch the model as well as the aggressive pose. Next some Moneyshots for your preferenced car magazine I love that reflection from the flash on the badges edge I love those rims. Kit chrome stripped. Completely painted in Vallejo Model Air Aluminium, black wash all over, outer ring and Lugnuts Molotov chrome. Badge is Kit decal and fitted perfectly. I hope you like it. Not perfect, but fun and quick to build. Pictures were taken in its recent display place in our bookshelf. Quite a critical colour combination to take good pictures of.

Airfix 1/72, a mixture of homemade and Scale Aircraft Modelling 1984 decals. Otherwise pretty much oob.

After reading so many bad words about Roden’s D.VII I just had to try for myself. Unfortunately I can concur, but although nothing fits the parts are wonderfully detailed and you get a beautiful spare engine and two spare propellors. You might notice the absence of rib bands: I made a firm decision on keeping it OOB, and those bands disintegrated. The machine is that of August Hartmann of Jasta 30, 1918. He was fortunate enough to get wounded very early in his service and thus survive the war. His colleagues later described their planes as orange, while British reports call them brown. I therefore mixed up a colour that you could describe as either without getting your eyesight questioned. One tip regarding construction: I’ve often seen people say about the outboard N-struts, that the front one is too short and the back too long. I found the front one to be correct: put it lying on the drawing (manual is in 1/72) with the frontal lower end in the correct position, then pivot it around that point until the upper two points are somewhat correct. Then just trim the excess. This should righten the otherwise forward-tilted upperwings into the correct alignment (glue the outboard struts first, then the wing, then the remaining struts - some of which will NOt fit). edit: Another free tip. If you plan to build any Roden D.VII with lozenge camoflague, do yourself a favour and buy an aftermarket set! The stuff is extremely brittle and the only way to make it stuck is to drench it in microsol to fuse it into the plastic (and then it gets *really* stuck - trust me, I first put the lower side camo on the upper side: fortunately Roden supplies enough for two and a half aircraft).

Hi all, Am also jumping in with a 'Hoover', this oldie from Hasegawa in 1/72. Will be built OOB with decals for VS-33 Screwbirds. Photos to follow this evening. Good luck with your builds! Cheers, Dermot

Hi Everyone, really looking forward to this group build. I’ve chosen a kit that I remember looking at in the old Tamiya catalogues from my younger days. So when I saw this in stock on the tinternet I had to go for it. So build will be out of the box and I need to decide on paint job. Had an idea to recreate an example that is on display at a Tank Museum in the USA because I could avoid doing the MERDC camo. Still got time to decide, so lets get things started: Nice straightforward sprue set, huge turret moulding and regular M60 hull and running gear. Rubber band tracks which are straight (not like the last few from Tamiya!). Sprues are super sharp and crisp just without the extra level of detail you get in MENG or DRAGON kits. So time to get started, thanks for looking

Hi Everyone, so while waiting to finish off the M247 for the M60 Group build I thought I would take a look at my choice for this STGB: I really enjoyed my Tamiya Tiger 1 early build so looking forward to another Tiger with the added zimmerit and a late war paint scheme. So what’s in the box........Four sprues and a separate hull tub and the three sprues for the track links and a small decal sheet. Very few parts when compared to the Meng Panther ( I have still not finished ) but for me a quick build is my preference. The tracks are individual links not quite sure how they go together just yet. I have spotted the first issue which I have to say has surprised me and also is pretty disappointing. All of the links have SIX ejector pin marks on the inside of the track link!! Be interested to hear from anyone who has come across this and am I going to have to rub down every link not feeling good about that prospect! The zimmerit looks pretty good with two patterns to choose from for the turret, its described as stickers rather than decals so will be interesting to see how well it does or does not work especially compared to some of the other builds using other techniques. So I’ll make a start with some basic assembly and read through how the zimmerit should be applied, do I need to prime the plastic first?? Also need to look again at the tracks and figure out what will be involved in making them work. Thanks for looking

It's cute, it's weird, It's finished

Hi all, as promised on the WIP thread (see here if you wish to take a look) some RFI pics of my first ever foray into foiling to achieve a bare metal finish. In fact, to the best of my knowledge it's very probably my first attempt at a metal finish of any kind, ever! As far as the kit goes it was a good a fit as any I've built in recent times, and apart from the comedy tram lines in place of panel lines, it's a very nice kit. Not overly burdened with detail to be fair, but for that reason it was the ideal kit to learn about what can be achieved by foiling. A few areas where the cut was too close to the edge meant that some touching-in was necessary with some Tamiya flat aluminium paint, but other than that I was quite pleased with how it turned out. I suspect the decals haven't stuck to the metal very well, though - I guess a brief waft with some thinned Klear or similar would probably protect them without compromising the metal sheen too much. All in all, I enjoyed the learning process of foiling very much, and I'm confident that I shall be entertaining another similar subject in due course! Anyway, to the pics - hope you enjoy them! Comments and criticisms, as ever, most welcome.

So I really wanted a Flogger in my collection. The Academy kit was pretty much all I could get my hands on but, knowing the issues with fit and low level of detail, I was hesitant. Ended up biting the bullet after all and steeled myself to expect very little from the build. As expected, the cockpit detail was sparse (and that's being generous) so I stuck a pilot in there after having raised the seat to a more reasonable height, and closed up the canopy. The intakes on both sides of the fuselage had the most horrible fit; these needed large amounts of putty and coarse-grit sanding to shape and smooth the step/join. The main landing gear proved a tricky affair as well, being complex but poorly described in the instructions. I consider it a minor accomplishment achieving good alignment so the model sits evenly on its gear. Being a cheap kit I saw no point to putting in any aftermarket - so this is a completely OOB build. Please excuse the overall grey scheme, it is rather plain. Thanks for looking

Picked up this kit from a swap & sell event for $10. Figured for the price there was very little to lose and she turned out pretty nicely, I think. A rather plain overall white scheme, which lent itself well to a bit of weathering to liven things up. Again an OOB build, with no aftermarket thrown in. Thanks for looking!

Completed this about a week ago, straight OOB build. Very nice kit with great fit and overall detail; only downsides are that the slats (and to some extent the slats) are not posable to account for the raised wing, and the instructions for the fuselage pylons are less than helpful (took me multiple tries to work it out). I decided to keep the weathering subtle to allow for more to be added later on if I so wish. Thanks for looking!

Hi Everyone, having just started my group build M247 Sgt York, I thought I would post my recent Tamiya build. I was spoilt for choice for the group build and this M60A1 was an option. It is such a cool looking vehicle I couldn't resist and so went ahead and did an OOB build. The main goal was to practice some techniques for painting the MERDC camo. I have read differing views on whether these vehicles ever appeared in the desert retaining their MERDC colour scheme, so I have gone with a bit of artistic licence and I think the multi colour scheme works well on this vehicles with the additional armour plates. I'm pretty happy with how it came out, I have chosen the less is more approach to the weathering and am only a bit disappointed with the decals not quite sitting as I wanted. I think they could be redone but other kits are now in progress so I will leave as is for the time being. The figure is from the spares box and although I failed at getting the skin and face right I was pretty pleased with how the uniform camo worked out. I'm certainly not into painting figures but need to practice!! I've cropped the images differently to 16:9 rather than 4:3 so I hope they look ok. Really enjoyed this build and the kit was great. I really am a fan of Tamiya kits, not too many parts and you still get a really great looking model at the end. I have some more completed builds to post including a Gepard, another PzIV and a cool French UE Armoured carrier. Thanks for looking

Hi Everyone, I thought I would share my latest project with you all. This kit was found by my father when he was clearing space in the loft at my parents house. It was a kit I started as a young teenager although I have no memory of doing so. It’s a kit I have never seen anywhere else and may have been quite old at the time I bought it back in the eighties. The box is in pretty good shape just a bit dented and dried out. Let’s take a look at what’s inside. Well, it looks like I gave it a pretty good start. Lots of yellow plastic and partially assembled. The main body and a large portion of the dozer blade have been assembled. The main sections have been painted in gloss yellow (not very well ) although it does like some kind of spray paint was used. It may have been aerosol paint since I did not have an airbrush back then, also the paint appears quite thick in places. Next step is to audit what we have. Most of the sprues have very few parts on since the assembly was quite advanced. One track was missing from the box but in the meantime Dad found another box in the loft that had the missing track sprue in it!! The paint finish is really poor so I need to think about how to rescue it. The main sub assemblies are ok although it seems the glued sections on some of the larger pieces have really dried out and the whole thing feels a bit brittle and fragile. The engine block has been weathered and I think can be further improved. The decal sheet is present and uncut but feels really dry and hard so not sure if they will still work, any suggestions on how to work with really old decals much appreciated. So all in all a really fun project and internet images show these machines from pristine yellow to abandoned and rusty so plenty of options on paint finish. I’m really looking forward to this project as a change from my recent batch of tanks and AFV’s. Any advice on how to paint the metal dozer blade most welcome. Thanks for looking

Hi everyone and just finished this wee one, Airfix's FW-190 A-8 in 1/72. Built OOB except for seat belts from masking tape. Brush painted with the mottle done with a small bit of sponge. Apart from the kit stencils and spinner, the markings are from Sky Decals for 'Blue 13' of JG 300, 1944. flown by Major Walther Dahl. From what I've read, the a/c was originally an R2 'Sturmbock' with 30mm cannons outboard and extra armour around the cockpit. These were removed and she reverted to type so I've added some paint dots on the cockpit sides to show where these attached. I'm not sure if the nose art decal should be darker too, so you can see the gunsight over the B-17. And I used the wrong shade colour underneath - it shoud be more of a light grey than light blue. No stress, I enjoyed building it anyway! Thanks for looking and enjoy your modelling All the best, Dermot Airfix FW_190_Done (1)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix FW_190_Done (5)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix FW_190_Done (2)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix FW_190_Done (6)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix FW_190_Done (10) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix FW_190_Done (4)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix FW_190_Done (3)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix FW_190_Done (8)r by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr

Dragon Panzer IV Ausf H Hi Everyone, pretty pleased with how this came out and really enjoyed being part of the Panzer IV group build. The Dragon kit was a fun build even with tricky instructions and loads of parts (not all necessary in my opinion) however, the detailing and the zimmerit effect is excellent and I will certainly try another Dragon kit in future. Thanks for looking Build can be found here Yetifans Panzer IV Ausf H WIP Thread

Since this is now taking most of my modelling time I thought I'd post a WIP thread. I'm building a Roden 1/48 DH4a in Aircraft Transport & Travel Livery Blue and Silver although opinion is divided as to wether it should be Black and Silver. I like hte blue so that's what I'm going to run with. First bit of assembley. It's a nice kit with sharp mouldings but everything is very thin and I had a lot of issues with alignments and fits. Not for beginners. Some prelimary paint work and breaking out the oil paints for some wood effects. Teeny tiny eylets (1mm OD) attached to the undercariage for rigging wires Rigging of same in progress Wheels on definitely needs a bit of cleaning up and retouching. Vertcal tail added. I'd have put the upper desk on the Cat (my avatar btw, hes 20 so I suppose I have to forgive him his foibles) knocked it off the desk and I can't find it. Not the rug in the room I model in is a very short pile so it's more space time anomaly than carpet monster. However as the Roden kit comes with all the parts for the DH4 bomber ( and about 10 other variants) , if I can't find the decking I can always use the one from that version with just a little cutting.

Hi Everyone, Really looking forward to this and have decided to go way outside my comfort zone and decided to take on a Dragon Have recently built the Tamiya Panzer IV Ausf J so will be really interesting to see what the differences are between the two. The first and most obvious one is ....... LOTS OF PARTS! OMG the box was packed. Feeling a bit nervous now! The detailing looks good and the pre moulded zimmerit looks excellent. I’m quite pleased that they are rubber band tracks, the MENG single link tracks on my Panther Ausf A Late are sending me round the twist. Out with the family tomorrow but will be starting to open the bags on Sunday. Will be OOB and a three colour paint job. Thanks for looking and good luck to everyone in the STGB

Airfix P40N Russian Lend lease Markings 20th GIAP (Guards Fighter Regiment) My first RFI on Britmodeller. A quick Mojo restorer as part of an Impromptu Group Build on the Irish IPMS website. Markings are a mix of spares box and hand painted. Weathering on the distemper is based on the fact that the various version of the scheme on hte web show different white areas so I did my own thing. Thanks for looking

Hi all and here's my last finish for 2018. I built this one OOB as part of a 'Secret' GB on a Facebook modelling group page - the rules were simple; you couldn't tell or show anyone what you were building! That worked fine for me as the kit was a Christmas present for my neighbour who's a relation of Sir Ernest Shackleton. I wanted to say thanks for all his help during the year (taking in parcel deliveries when we're not home/cutting our verge to name just two) and thought this would be nicer than a bottle of wine. I dropped the kit around to him on Christmas night and he was absolutely gobsmacked with it - he never knew there was a plane named after his famous relative. He was like a big kid, asking me all about the kit and the hobby. Overall, the kit fitted together nicely and the wing spar gives a really strong, positive wing-to-fuselage join. The decals were great but some of the instruction steps could be clearer. e.g. for the props which meant the spinners aren't 100% flush. Also, the u/c parts could be a lot simpler - trying to align 5 parts with their mounting holes was a But she looks like a Shackleton and I'm happy how it turned out. And building for someone else was great fun too. Revell_Shackleton_AEW_2_ (1) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_Shackleton_AEW_2_ (2) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_Shackleton_AEW_2_ (3) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_Shackleton_AEW_2_ (4) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_Shackleton_AEW_2_(8) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_Shackleton_AEW_2_ (6) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Revell_Shackleton_AEW_2_ (7) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Thanks for looking and have a very Happy Christmas. Dermot