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It might - I suppose it depends what turrets Airfix supply! - some CC GRs has the 'high hat' top turret that came in, and later CC aircraft had the A6B tail turret instead of the BP one that was fitted to most early aircraft. Liberators seem to rival Fokker DVIIs in the 'everyone is different' stakes. I was pondering last night what you needed to do an 'L' from the kit, as the Ford built 'L's had the nose shape that's in the kit (Looking at the new Wingleader book!)

Kit chosen: Decals bought: Are we nearly there yet?

Whilst searching for a FS paint mix using Tamiya acrylics l came across this site which caters for quite a large database for Tamiya paint mixes. Not sure how accurate they are, but if they are near that is good for me. https://replikator.club/category/paint-tools/ Regards Robert

Despite what I said about eyeballing, looking at this photo: (found via link (and image) on this page: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/269951 It looks like more downward angle than I'd expect to see. THAT, of course, must be taken with more than one grain of salt...

Looks fabulous. Super paintwork. Bravo! Trevor

Love both the ‘before’ and ‘after’ versions, fabulous convincing weathering! Would love more details on materials & methods that you used to weather this one. Flicked paint brush thinned brown paint splashes around the wheel wells? Tamiya thinned acrylic buff airbrush misting? Find a bookcase spot or box for this one! Too nice to bin! Your model storage/ keep-or-bin discussion made me smile. I have so many built models hidden in boxes in closets and other hiding places around our home. Eventually SWMBO will start to discover them and shoot me that “look”. An old guy could have worse vices, right?

A beautiful result, Mario Thank you for joining us with this build James

Cheers Stuart. Yep bit disappointing given the price of the kits tbf and all the bits I had to replace or make. After all that only sailed it twice and as you say it is pretty Wieldy to launch on your own especially. The local RC boating group died off as the Key chap got a stroke and was left with very poor vision. He helped all the other lads out withe their problems, coupled with access to the pond removed especially for the older chaps did not help either. I have a couple of very quick short Videos of it in action here. I forgot to wire in the smoke unit...

Thanks Dermo245 - these are the photos I know. Plus a few more. But thanks for putting the link here!

Here we go, the aircraft has been given a base coat of Tamiya XF-1 Black. Next I think will be the main camouflage colour of Ocean Grey, the aircraft I've decided to model will be of a Mustang Mk.IV from 122 Squadron at Peterhead in May 1945, the aircraft was initially painted in US Sea Grey ANA 603 which was then repainted in Ocean Grey on its upper surfaces. Many thanks Matt

You've made a very fine job of assembling this one, Alexey, well done and thank you for joining us with this build The parts in that conversion set look beautifully detailed and cast/printed James

I'm posting here rather more often than I should... I have a Frog Squad II GB project to build a Tempest Mk I and it needs a yellow "(P)" so I went to big H and got some at a nice price, free postage. But it was below the minimum order threshold. I mean, what's a boy to do? So I've added to my Italian fighter collection, this kit having a spare cowling and additional decal options to beef up my old Airfix G50 with its weedy cowling and 1960s decals. Regards, Adrian

Normally these airliners go together quickly and have a long painting period but this seems to be the other way round. Great end result!

Thank you for that - very useful indeed and well noted. I have asked the designer for the angle of the thrust line on both and will pass that on when I get it.

The difference is confined to the longitudinal axis/pitching plane and is matched with the line of the exhausts. I will have another look at the top cowling but looking at the render at a larger scale at first glance both are consistent with a change in the thrust line.

I found the RAF Museum summary of MT847's history (the XIV at Pima), and found this: "Engine and engine bearers to Cosford dump before it was mounted at Cosford" [in 1964, having already been serving as a gate-guard for a decade]. Between 1970 and 72 it was "restored" (or refurbished) and had an electric motor installed to rotate the prop. I would want to look carefully at that engine installation as it now is before I put too much faith in it. Can you, Scimitar, or another reader who is up on this stuff give us an approximation of the difference between the thrust line and the fuselage datum on the two aircraft scanned? Eyeballing it clearly isn't good enough, for myself at least!

Thanks for the review, Mike, but what do you mean with the word "reversed Swastikas"? As a Finn I have always thought that ours was the proper one . It didn't have any connection in the better known and later introduced, 45 deg tilted sinister political symbol used elsewhere. V-P

I've built this little one too! 1/35 Scimitar Fv107 Bosnia mid 90’s by Evert Zandbergen, on Flickr Hope you don't mind posting an image of it. I quite enjoyed it but as you say the plastic is....well a tad soft! Cheers Evert

Thanks! The G and H has always been my favorite Mitchells! Other favourites are the Hs-129 with the 75 mm gun, the Ju-88 with the 75 mm gun, the Hurricane IID, the Tsetse Mosquito and of course the A-10! Maybe I just like the idea of putting a big gun on a plane! Cheers Hans J

Its a 348 Koenig https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1990-ferrari-348-ts-1, quite a rare beast, if you like that sort of thing I think its a 365 gt 2 + 2 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_-_Bonhams_2015_-_Ferrari_365_GT_2%2B2_Coupé_-_1968_-_002.jpg and I definitely like that sort of thing - Andy

Really smart looking Tiger,in such a small scale that's very impressive👍 Watto. 🍻

Hello all Tamiya Hetzer with numerous self-printed details, such as tracks, MG, tool clamps, etc. Figures from Alpine, bridge from Styro. Water effects with wood glue, lamp post made from barbecue spit with self-designed signs. Painting and weathering was the most fun and felt like it took months 🤪 I hope you like it! MD Cheers!

P-40K-1/5 Warhawk ‘Short Fuselage’ (SH72379) 1:72 Special Hobby First flying before the outbreak of WWII, the Warhawk was a development of the P-36 Hawk, and although it was never the fastest fighter in the sky, it was a sturdy one that took part in the whole of WWII in American and Allied hands, with large numbers used by Soviet pilots in their battles on the Eastern front. The various marks garnered different names such as Tomahawk and Kittyhawk, so it can get a mite confusing if you're not familiar with the type. It was unable to keep pace with the supercharged Bf.109, but was used to great effect in the Far East and Africa, which may have assisted in the feeling that it was a second-string aircraft of inferior design, when this actually wasn't the case – certainly not to the extent inferred. It was robust, cheap to make, and easy to repair, although its high-altitude performance dropped off somewhat. The early marks were under-armed with just two .50 guns firing through the prop from the top of the engine cowling and a pair of .303s in the wings, but later models benefited from improved armament. The B model was a revision of the initial airframe with lessons learned from early production, self-sealing fuel tanks and armour in critical parts of the airframe, although this extra weight did have an impact on performance. The -D was a partial re-design, eliminating the nose guns, narrowing the fuselage and improving the cockpit layout and canopy. In British service it was known as the Kittyhawk Mk.I, but only a small number were made before the -E replaced it with a more powerful Allison engine, and an extra pair of .50cl machine guns in the wings bringing the total to six, but even that wasn’t sufficient to let it keep up with the opposition. It wasn't until the –F model that the Allison engine was replaced by a license-built Merlin that gave it better high-altitude performance and a sleeker chin. The -K was an Allison engine version with a shorter fuselage, retaining many of the earlier visual cues just to confuse us, known at the Kittyhawk Mk.III in British and Commonwealth service. The Kit This is a rebox of a recent tooling from Special Hobby with new parts to depict this variant, and it arrives in a red/white/grey themed top-opening box with a painting of the subject after a successful engagement with a late mark Bf.109, which is banking away whilst trailing smoke from its engine. Inside the box are three sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue that’s separately bagged, a tiny bag of two grey resin parts, a wide decal sheet, and the A5 portrait instruction booklet printed on glossy paper in colour. Detail is good, with finely engraved panel lines, raised and recessed details around the airframe and a few spare parts that can stay on the sprues, which are marked with a red X on the sprue diagram. Construction begins with the pilot’s seat, mounting it on a frame, then it is attached to the bulkhead and given a set of four-point decal seatbelts, after which it is set aside for a few steps. The fuselage sides are fitted with sidewall inserts, with sections further forward painted silver as they form part of the air intake pathway, adding the core with three circular intakes inside, and the intake lip in front once the fuselage halves are together. The rear bulkhead with seat and the instrument panel with two decals for the dials are trapped between the two halves of the fuselage as it is closed. A small circular shape on the cockpit side is removed and smoothed over at this stage too. Moving on to the wings, the full-span lower has the perimeter around the bay openings painted, as are the side-walls that are glued in the recesses, and the roof that is moulded into the upper wing half, adding a landing light under the port wing from within. The cockpit floor is moulded into the centre of the upper wing, and that is also painted the same colour, so quite convenient while you have the paint out. The control column and another lever are inserted into the floor, then the wings can be joined to the fuselage, taking care not to knock the stick off as you do so. The elevators are each a single part that affix with the usual slot and tab method, with a separate rudder that can be posed deflected if you wish. The exhaust stubs are supplied as inserts with one per side, and are far too small to drill out unless you have the world’s steadiest hands. The last option involves selecting open or closed cooling gills behind the radiator housing, inserting a pitot probe in the port wingtip, and painting the moulded-in lights on each tip above and below the wing. The main gear struts have an additional bracing leg fixed at the top, then the tripod arrangements are inserted into the sockets in the bay, adding the two doors to each side of the bays, and another two that are linked by a cross-brace in the tail bay and a single part strut/wheel to complete the undercarriage. The three-bladed propeller is moulded as a single part that is trapped between a back-plate and spinner, with a short spindle on the back that slides into the hole in the front of the fuselage. You then have a choice of two loads under the centre of the fuselage, consisting of a fuel tank, or a bomb for ground-attack operations. Each option is made from two halves plus four braces for the fuel tanks, and two for the bomb. Flipping the model over allows the last step to be completed, fitting the coaming and gunsight into the cockpit, adding the windscreen with rear-view mirror, and the two side windows into the scalloped sections behind the canopy, followed by the sliding canopy, which can be posed open or closed as you like it by using a different part for each option. One decal option has a two-part resin D/F loop aerial and fairing added to the spine behind the cockpit, with its location shown during step 6 of the instructions. Markings There are four options available on the decal sheet, three US options having bright personalisations around the nose area, while the other option is a Lend/Lease airframe in Soviet service, replete with red stars. From the box you can build one of the following: P-40K-1 (42-46040) White #13, Pilot 1st Lt. Robert Johnson ‘Jay’ Overcash, 643FS, 57FG, Based at Hani Main, Tunisia, May 1943 P-40K White #23, Lt. Nikolai Federovich Kuznetsov, 436 Fighter Aviation Regiment, 239 IAD, 6 Air Army, Lake Seliger, North Western Front, Winter 1943 P-40K-5 (42-9768) White #255, Maj. Edward ‘Big Ed’ M Nollmeyer, CO of 26FS, 51FG, Kunming, China, December 1943 P-40K, White #15, 25FS, 51FG, Assam Valley, India 1944 The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Conclusion The P-40 is an interesting and oft overlooked aircraft that played some important roles in WWII, as evidenced by the number of notable pilots that gained their reputation in this doughty fighter. This is a well-detailed kit of a later variant, and has some interesting decal options that make it an appealing prospect. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

That looks very nice!

Pun intended? 😉 I really don't want to further the tangent, but for the sake of clarification and interest, the airfoil and planform did NOT change between the "classic" Spitfire and the 20-series wings (aside from those tips). It is a misconception (from all I have been able to figure out) that other aspects changed- I've run across such comments in some books, but have found nothing to support them, and I think at least in some cases it is born of a confusion of nomenclature. That said, Jeffrey Quill DID comment that, surprisingly, there was a difference in stability (or something of that sort) between the 21 prototype and the XIV, and he speculated that the different cannon fairings (the teardrop blisters) were responsible. bob