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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 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.

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

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

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

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!

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...

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

I've just finished this over on the 'Pacific war' GB, build thread can be seen there. I basically built it out of the box, only 'extras' were Tamiya Tape seat belts. I built up both fuselage half parts, complete with glazing, before joining them together, made the joining of the main wing a little harder but worked out OK. Airbrushed with Vallejo 'ModelAir' paints, Black was 'Ultimate' Black Primer, Alclad Gloss Varnish with Vallejo Matt Varnish. Uschi thread for aerial wire. Finished in the kit option of Sqn Leader Arthur Scarf VC's aircraft, based in Butterworth at the outbreak of the Japanese invasion in 1941. All criticism welcome. Davey.

Hi all, you may have spotted this in the backaground of my recent post of the Panther. Really fun kit to build following my Hobby craft rule and only £16. It’s an old kit and feels like it but goes together really nicely, better than the Panther did. So built straight out of the box and then finished with Tamiya paints, weathering powders and oil paints. Painted with hairy sticks and built up with three coats of heavily thinned color. Used humbrol gloss and matt varnish. I’ve got an Panzer IV Ausf J, broke the hobbycraft rule for the upcoming group build, really looking forward to it. Also working on a King Tiger in the works, still not happy with the Tiger 1 pics so will be doing them again before posting.

Afternoon all from the land of the Long White Cloud. This started life about a month ago as an experiment - First time using Ammo of Mig acrylics and first attempt at the 'modulation method'. So because I don't want to bore everybody here at BM with the intervening steps, here's what it looks like all finished-off, (apologies to folks with slow broadband as it's quite photo-heavy !). Built straight from the box with no additions, I will be getting a set of the MiniArt British tank figures to group around and in the model in the near future. Weathering after the main paint modulation, filters & decals (in chronological order) - Dirty brown oil pin-wash, chipping and scratches, streaks & stains, heavily thinned dirty grey acrylic on the lower sections & wheels to simulate road dirt and finally pigments & mud splashes. Please feel free to make any comment, ask any questions or suggest anything I can improve upon. This'll be the last armour project for a while as I've got an F40 to finish and I'm also about 50% of the way through a 1:48 P-51 (both Tamiya). AFN Ian.

And so after 48 years of building plastic models, I have finished my first German WWII armour - started many, first time finished. Please feel free to make any comment, criticism or ask any questions. Have a great weekend all. Ian.

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

Well she is ready to sail ensign hoisted this was built OOB good kit to get some practice with the dreaded PE only thing I had to add was a set of ladders the carpet monster got hold of the original and the Ushi rigging line The weathering has been kept to a minimum as I wanted to show her as just built sailing out of the River Tyne where she was built not far from where I live And not a bad result 3rd place at Scale Scotland last Saturday on her first outing beefy

Here's the other plane I built in a week for the local RAFA's centenary event. A straight build of the Frog Meteor from the late 60s. The decals laid down superbly, the silver finish is Tamiya Matt aluminium with Klear over. The walkways were set out on black paint with 0.7mm tape before spraying the silver. Obviously with more time I would have attacked the seams a bit more rigorously but overall I'm quite pleased with the first Frog I've built straight. The only problem that came up was that I didn't clean the airbrush properly after the silver so ended up with sparkly camouflage when vanishing my Spitfire Vb! Subsequently I threw the somewhat battered box in the recycling. My wife rescued it to decorate the kitchen! Cheers Will

Hi, A little mojo project I have had on the go for a few months. Inspired by my ability to paint white that I discovered with my Valiant I decided to have a crack at this attractive scheme. A lovely kit to build and am looking forward to the AEW.2 I have planned for the Maritime Group Build. Built completely out of the box, using Humbrol Medium Sea Grey 165 aerosol, Halfords Appliance white over Citadel Corax white as a primer. Eduard masks were used and the soot staining was achieved using eye shadow and a flitch brush which worked very well. The kit is so well engineered that I painted the wings off the airplane and a little Tamiya extra thin over the wing spars held them in place once completed with no filling or sticking required around the wing to fuselage joint, this made masking a doddle! Enjoy.

Started Today, a nice relaxing build, an lovely Tamiya Jug So today, made up the cockpit - probably the nicest OOB cockpit i know Peter