Leaderboard - Britmodeller.com (2024)

Polish aircrews from 1586 Special Duties Flight, Royal Air Force, flew numerous missions over occupied Europe, delivering supplies and armed agents ("dark, silent ones") to various resistance groups. In this build, I've sought to capture Liberator VI GR-R, EV978, as it would have appeared months after delivery to the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations (MTO) in Brindisi, Italy, in 1944. Two Liberators were coded GR-R, but only one, EV978, survived the war. Jadran Hobbies produced a decal sheet, now out of production, for EV978 and two Halifax Mk1 and Mk1a aircraft from 1586 Special Duties Flight. Having gotten the sheet as a gift, I considered the possibilities of building Revell's Halifax Mk1 or GR.V with some minor mods versus the more difficult challenge of fashioning a Liberator VI with modified nose glazing and a Boulton-Paul turret in the tail. In the end, I steered away from the Halifax as too difficult to obtain. By happy coincidence, I received the Academy B-24J "The Dragon and His Tail" for free at a club Christmas party gift exchange, and that tipped the balance. I used a fair amount of after-market on this model, including the excellent Quick Boost engine set, Squadron/Falcon vacuum-form clear parts, Master gun barrels, and resin wheels (Eduard?). Paints were chiefly Vallejo and MiG. I had to prime the clear parts with Mr. Surfacer, but the paint still came off in many places with demasking, so I had to resort to decal painted in the camouflage colors.

hi all, Another Phantom finished, this time it is the 12 year old 1/48 Academy kit. When compared to the later Tamiya kit of the Phantom, it is severely lacking in terms of detail and certain areas of fit. After reading internet reviews i was quite looking forward to the build but the hopeless 'unseamless' intake interiors, no co*ckpit sidewall detail, poor wheel well detail, poor tailplane leading edge detail and having to fit the main u/c legs at the start were a real let down. Nowadays it is far better to spend the money on a Tamiya kit with Hypersonic conversion to get an F-4N. I wish i had gone this route. I used Brassin wheels, Eduard seats and VF-41 squadron decals from Double Ugly. These all worked very well indeed but the real highlight of the kit are the decals which were printed by Cartograf. The stencils and main markings were used and all settled perfectly. I hope you like it Andy

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 co*ckpit 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 co*ckpit)Resin wheels from AiresA beautiful resin engine from FPW Model (regretfully barely visible 😞)Guns barrels (both .50 and .30 cal) from MasterAmmo 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

Hello all from the Shed. This is the first of a pair of Daks I've been making for the South of the Rio Grande group build. This Uraguayan one and a Brazilian one. Ill save words and just say if you would like to see the build, here is the link. Hope you Like it Thanks for looking Pete

Following on from making this new kit in "Work in Progress", here are photos of the completed model. TX224, 13 Group Comms Flt, Ouston, c 1960 (1) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr TX224, 13 Group Comms Flt, Ouston, c 1960 (4) bw by Philip Pain, on Flickr TX224, 13 Group Comms Flt, Ouston, c 1960 (5) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr TX224, 13 Group Comms Flt, Ouston, c 1960 (8) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr TX224, 13 Group Comms Flt, Ouston, c 1960 (9) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr TX224, 13 Group Comms Flt, Ouston, c 1960 (10) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr TX224, 13 Group Comms Flt, Ouston, c 1960 (11) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr Departures from the kit include making the props turn; blanking off the cabin roof skylights/escape hatches; opening the co*ckpit access door; adding aileron actuators; adding lots of aerials; and replacing the markings with aftermarket decals, plus stencils.

Hello, i would like to show you my long term project. The Boeing 727-21 PanAm from MasterModell: This is how it startet: And this is how its going... It´s my first post on this discussion board. It´s not accomplished now and i will add some stairs, platforms, wheelchocks, a towbar and mechanics in 1:100 size. Let me know your opinion about 🙂

A new tool 1/48th A6M5 "Zero" by Finemolds ! Release expected in December 2024. - ref. FZ01 - Mitsubishi A6M5 type 52 Hei/"Zero" Source: https://finemolds.co.jp/FZ/FZ01.html - ref. FZ02 - Nakajima A6M5 type 52 Hei/"Zero" Source: https://finemolds.co.jp/FZ/FZ02.html Source: https://www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=1031732222288220&id=100063543551887 "【2024 62nd All Japan Model Hobby Show New Product Advance Announcement】 Our new product is reiwa 1/48 Mitsubishi Fighter Model 52 (Mitsubishi Model) 1/48 Type Fighter Model 52 (Built in Nakajima) 1/48 Okinawa 20mm Machine Gun & Pito Tube Set These three items have been launched! For more information, check out the video below! V.P.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Today I offer you two models from the double set of Mustangs from Eduard.

HI,everyone!!😄 my 1/48 Tamiya F-14D Tomcat this is the 2nd modern fighter jet model I've build so far... the F-14"Tomcat" has always been my favorite modern fighter jet.. this Tamiya kit is just a pleasure to build.. I add some aftermarket products and decal on it.. try ro build this cat as good as I could..😅 hope you like it..

Dear modellers, A little trip in memory-lane ! Inspired by Allan's Pfalz, I dug out my old Jenny, I guess it must be about 40 years old 🙂 IMO it still looks reasonably well, hmmm, the wingrips, only that rigging; that needs some attention .... I hope you enjoy the pictures of my old time modelling ! Regards JohnHaa

On with the next installment of my Roy Cross (Illustrator and Airfix box artist ) tribute builds following his passing earlier this year aged 100. This one is the 1958 Vanwall, based on this Eagle comic cover from January 1963: Since I was building display bases already for the Delage, I decided to get this one done early... Which means now I have to build a car... this is the starting point: Merit kits are pretty simple, but the shapes are generally good. The wheels need help, though, since they are solid with a transparent front onto which you are meant to apply a decal printed with the spokes. The bag at the left of the picture are some of the spare etch and white metal wheels and tyres I've accumulated over the years... After a fair bit of rummaging around and test fitting, I think we are sorted. Vanwall experimented with cast alloy wheels instead of wires in 1958. They tried complete replacement, but it turned out that the steering and front-end grip were better with the more flexible wire wheels than the stiffer cast alternatives. For the Italian Grand Prix depicted on the cover, Tony Brooks drove with wires at the front and cast wheels at the back. As you can also see on the cover picture, there was a small scoop intake for the oil cooler on top of the nose... I carved a master from balsa based on some decades old plans from the UK's contemporary Model Maker and Model Cars Magazine . I've plunge moulded a few copies to make sure there's scope for errors while cutting, prepping and fitting! best, M.

Hello. This time, I have completed Mazda 767B. This car is famous for having a rotary engine. This kit from Hasegawa is very old and needed a lot of polishing and refinement. I think it's a bit more sloppy than Hasegawa's Porsche 962C kit. This seems to be the only kit readily available for this attractive Mazda livery. The orange and green colors of the body are based on photos of the real car. Body masking, decals, steps... it was a bit of a tedious process. I'm happy to have accomplished one of the liveries I've always wanted to make. 🙂 Full build video is here. 🙂

This is a build of an early IDF M1 Sherman, based on the M4A1 (76mm) cast hull. The kit that I used was the Dragon Operation Cobra version. Paints were mainly Vallejo, and the decals were from Star Decals. If anyone is interested in the build, you can find it here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235137545-idf-m1-based-on-an-m4a1-hull-135th-scale-finished/ Took quite a while to finally get this one over the finishing line, but it's there now. Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment and for all of the likes. John.

HI everyone!🙂 this is my 1/48 hobbyboss TBM-3 avenger this kit is very nice,and the decal is good.. the blue tone camouflage is a big challenge for me..😅 If you are interested in my building progress about this aircraft,please feel free to check my YT channel..😊 hope you guys like it!

Thanks Chris. I masked and airbrushed but it didn't work well on the light edges around the nose area. So I took @Karearea's advice and drybrushed instead. Worked great. Glued on the spinner and prop, drybrushed some aluminum on exposed areas around control surfaces, and touched up some other spots. Drybrushed the upper pitot so it wasn't so uniform. Might address that stripe behind the intake hinomaru to tidy it up.... but looking to be done. Let's take a walk around Ken sitting on his sushi box. Notes: brown backed prop, painted markings, drilled exhausts, dual pitots, fowler flaps extended, deflected ailerons, rudder and elevators, elevator weights. Aluminum front and single stripes on prop...antiglare panel is subtle as per the photos... Note: landing gear struts, door opening c- brackets I'm thinking to take this to Torcan 2024 in mid-September. The theme (serendipitously) is stripes, and they have an experimental plane category. I don't expect to place but I like participating as a "modeller" rather than just someone buying stuff and worrying about becoming a hoarder... while increasing the hoard 😛 So I have 3 weeks to tweak within reason. Happy to hear comments and suggestions

It's finished! Avro Anson C.19, TX224, 13 Group Communications Flight, RAF Ouston, Northumberland, circa 1960 I gave it a coat of slightly matt varnish, with gloss varnish on the metal bits. The final stage was completing the aileron actuators, and adding all the aerials. TX224, Anson C 19 (52) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr Here are some quick photos, and I'll do better photos if and when the sun ever comes out, and there isn't a gale trying to blow it away! TX224, Anson C 19 (53) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr TX224, Anson C 19 (54) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr TX224, Anson C 19 (55) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

Just completed one of the Choroszy Resin Berg D1's. The kit went together pretty well (and has a lot of detail). Main problem was fitting the upper wing. The struts are far too long and it sits too high - had to cut it off twice and shorten them before I was happy with the position (super glue isn't very forgiving if you need to reposition something). The other issue was the lozenge pattern I originally applied which ended up looking dreadful and I had to remove it all and go for a different scheme altogether. This represents Berg 138.24 flown by Robert Ellmer of Flik 56. I couldn't find any photos of this machine so had to use the info in the instructions and the one drawing I found! I painted the wood effect and canvas first then applied the camouflage over the top (using a brush!).

One more airliner I decided to try. Wanted something I had actually flown on as a kid. Added LACI flaps; was tougher than I thought and didn't go as well as hoped. Even with a lifetime of modeling military aircraft, I was surprised at how many basic mistakes I was trying to overcome. I must say you airline builders are most skilled in your area of specialty! Also replaced the strut of the nose gear, after learning from a NWA build how weak that part is. Also reshaped the lip of the tail intake to be sharper, and made transparent wingtip lights.

RAF Refuelling Set, 1/76th scale The build thread is here. You can find all the information about the vehicles and why I did what I did to them there.

The last week of our trip was spent at the Oshkosh air show in northern Wisconsin. This event is a gathering of aircraft rather than a traditional air show, with over 12,000 aircraft attending over the week. Needless to say, the vast majority are Cessna, Piper and Beech types but there are also huge numbers of warbirds, classics and modern military aircraft too. A selction of my favourite images are shown here. Hope you like them too Andy

IMG_7255 by Ben Brown, on Flickr Hi all, Thought I'd change scale for my latest having had my head turned by the reissue of the Aeroclub Rapide by Air-Craft Models (which is available in a multitude of boxings with various decals options. The decals in fact are excellent - produced as they are by Fantasy Printshop and you get plenty of options prompting perhaps more than one purchase of de Havilland's elegant twin. IMG_7253 by Ben Brown, on Flickr I opted for the Civillian boxing... and probably one of the tricker schemes masking wise - G-ADAH of Hillman's Airways - with the lovely two tone side reg letters.... IMG_7254 by Ben Brown, on Flickr The plastic is quite crude, short run and the engraving is indistinct - that said its super quick to build. The instructions are excellent, explaining various options for construction. I glued it all together leaving the struts til last. You get a full set of PE struts including other small details like a sandwiched tailwheel and generator prop. The props themselves are PE with white metal spinners. IMG_7251 by Ben Brown, on Flickr Filler was needed throughout - attaching the nacelle fronts required lots of CA and accelerator to fill a large gap. The finish is my fault, I overdid the white Rustoluem plastic primer, masked and sprayed Humbrol polished ally metalcote and brushed on the suggested Vallejo blue for 'DAH which was cited as between 71.088 and 71.089 as a match for the decals - I used the former - each decal option has a full colour paint guide with suggested brands of paints - excellent - but laid it on rather thickly unfortunately. I added the struts last which had some reluctance to stick but we got there in the end. IMG_7252 by Ben Brown, on Flickr I know that some forumites who built the Aeroclub issue rigged theirs and all power to them - not for me! Seen here with a 5p piece for scale. IMG_7248 by Ben Brown, on Flickr At around £15 it is elevated by the superb instructions, excellent decals and PE, albeit the base moulding is a bit long in the tooth. Hope you like her! TT

BREAKING NEWS!!! Literally. My efforts to close the gaps at the wing root were a failure. As I was taking the clamps off, the gaps reopened. Bummer. I decided to leave them as they were and started sanding the leading edge. I was obviously holding the wing too tightly because I suddenly heard a cracking noise. I stopped, looked at the wing to find the aileron falling out because the wing tips had separated. Ah ha thought I, what will happen if I grab said wingtips and pull them apart slowly? I did so, and with some cutting here and there, this happened; A 99% clean break, and with the added bonus of the inner engine housing coming free cleanly as well. Speaking of which, with some gentle scraping on the back face, and some gentle pressure from the front, we have this; Yeah baby, groovy. Now I can fix the engine mounting problem and even put the propeller shaft bushing in the rear, and we might have TWO turning props. YAY!!. How old am I? OK, so now I have more sanding to do, yay, but hopefully I can glue everything back together with little or no gaps on the leading edge and in the wing root. Keep them crossed for me. That's all for this edition of Hacking Plastic (tm). Cheers, Chris.

Here's my Blenheim Mk IV from 1968. Straight from the box, complete with rivets and raised panel lines. The decals are the original slightly crispy ones, just usable other than the tail stripes that I painted instead. I messed up the colour scheme by following Scalemates recommendations, resulting in a 1950's version of 'dark earth' that I really should've redone but was too lazy. It's a nice old kit, number 257 with proper Roy Cross art. The challenge is the large glazed area at the front, and boy did I make a meal of it by being overcautious, but I think it came out OK. No gluey fingerprints, at least

@Grey Beema kindly pointed out the discussion over the probable colours used for the camo’ for the Marlet, US equivalent colours rather than TSS, however, as I don’t have these (olive drab, US dark sea grey and US sky grey) I’m going to use the “British” colours I have, by the time invasion stripes and weathering has been applied, fading and “dirtying” I’m not sure how much of the original colours will be visible anyway? So i’m going to use MRP-110 RAF dark green for the base green camo’ After outlining the green pattern a “marble layer” was made using… MRP-108 dark earth MRP-078 NATO green MRP-099 white (added to the NATO green) MRP-110 RAF dark green …and blended with MRP-110 Next I’ll be applying the upper grey camo’. until next time as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received. rgds John(shortCummins)

Hi All I've been building USS Hornet for "the Fleets In!" group build, you can find the WIP here if you are interested: This is both the biggest ship I've built since my son was born three years ago (until I finish the next one) and probably the best job overall I've done for any of my ship models. Well, she's finished now, so here's a gallery of photos to enjoy

The first stop on our July tour was a couple of days at the Museum of the USAF in Dayton, Ohio. This place is now twice as large as the last time i visited and i was surprised that i managed to get round all of the exhibits in just two days. It is by far the largest air museum in the world and every aircraft and piece of memorabilia is perfectly preserved, so deserves some close attention. However, there are simply too many photos to show here, so i've picked a small selction of the more unusual types. Hope you like them Andy

Hello Everybody! This is the ICM P-51B with the same Aires resin conversion and old Verlinden engine set, Squadron vacuum Malcolm canopy. And this is a small black-DIO

started to get the paint on. I’m using Ammo’s new Atom paints. Unlike the original Stirling, the underside has had a coat of paint. It’s the first time I’ve used blu Tac worms for the camouflage.

On my day off not going anywhere so at the moment it's all quiet on the western front well from the cats point of view

The Czechs will not be amused by this...

Here are some shots of the aircraft as it entered final assembly. I cut out the windows adjacent to the tail "gun tunnel" and replaced all the "glass" with clear styrene cut to size and polished using MicroMesh pads and liquid plastic polish. Note that the waist gun positions were kept closed in flight because crews stripped out the .50 calibre machine guns to save weight.

Just had what for me is a new error message when trying to get into this Airfix GB page on BM - "Sorry we can't connect you to this site at the moment -too many connections. Please try again later". I wonder if that means there are so many active and large GB that the BM site is overloaded? Anyway, I have finished assembling the wings and got them and the tail on, together with the nose leg. I thought I had taken a pic but apparently not, so here it is after priming. Not too bad. Ran out of grey primer as I was finishing off so it is a bit grainy but should be OK when polished a little. I used to be able to pop the half mile down the road to my local Halfords but after that closed it means a 24 mile round trip. They said it should not cause me any inconvenience as they could always deliver, but it turns out that their carrier refuses to take aerosol paint so I have to go and get it! Things may slow down a bit now as paint colour charts have started being left lying about - a not so subtle hint that my body is required for decorating the house it seems - kind of "Modellingus Interuptus" you might say!😄 GIven my various aches and pains, standing on top of a set of steps stripping wallpaper, plastering and then painting the largest room in the house will probably leave me too knackered to do much work on kits for a while, though I may manage some brush painting as I can sit down for that. Ever since the hospital nearly managed to kill my wife a few years ago, once she starts something she is always in a great rush to finish and ignores suggestions that she should slow down and not wear herself (and me) out! In fairness to them I should say that she was seriously ill anyway, but as they admitted later, their poor hygiene meant that she picked up MRSA like several other patients in her ward and it was touch and go for a while until they worked out what was happening, though she is not too bad now due to an exotic co*cktail of medication. Pete

Tinted Matt coat done. A couple of drops of Sky Grey into the Galeria Matt. It's barely visible but the rigging has started. And then I thought what the hey, I've got time and so the rest of the rigging was done. Then some glue. As the final coats are all on these bits it was time to unmask. A little bit of toothpick tidy up needed but not too shabby. Oh, and I nearly forgot I stuck the engine on as well. There will be a bit more rigging required when I get around to fitting the floats but I don't think I'm too far from finishing. Thanks for looking, Cheers, Alistair

Besides the main weapons bay, I really liked the idea from another build I found online of two tiny additional bays for self defense AAMs. As I wanted this to be a late Cold War bird, which is when the model was produced, I figured R-60/AA-8s would be feasible, even though R-73s/AA-11s would be more desirable. Why did I go with the 60's? Because I had a pair of 60's that I had modified the forward fins on. And because I had no 73s. After cutting out for the small bays, I changed my mind about the shape of the forward end, and added wedge shapes to give more pointy ends... And, testing the weapons load. The aft end of the Kh-31 is a bit too snug, but it'll have to do. The aft fins (not yet installed) of the missile would not actually fit, so I figure they would have been folding fins for stowage, as I've seen on other missiles. So, maybe this is a version produced specifically for the MiG-37s to carry. I'm just glad I FINALLY made this work (mostly)!

Dune - Atreides Ornithopter (DS-007) 1:72 MENG via Creative Models Ltd Dune began life in the 1960s as the first book in a long-running series by Frank Herbert, and several attempts have been made to realise the initial book in movie form, with varying levels of success. David Lynch made a decent, if simplified attempt at it in the 1980s, although it was a flawed movie with irritating voice-overs (from my point of view, at least), while a three-part TV movie in 2000 was considered a reasonable adaptation, but I haven’t seen that one. This latest expedition into the deserts of Arrakis benefits from the availability of realistic Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) that can be used to enhance the scope and scale of the saga as it deserves, without looking false, for the most part. It also benefitted from a massive budget and acclaimed director, not to mention a cast of many famous actors, although David Lynch’s version also had some famous faces, including a young Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck before his Star Trek days. The new film has been split into two episodes to portray as much of the book’s content as possible in an effort to retain the important plot subtleties of the original story, and part 2 has been out now for several months, rounding off the original story, allegedly, with the possibility of more to come if it has made enough money for the studio, which I expect it has by now. I still haven’t seen the second part yet, so no spoilers please! The new film of course has some great new ships, which includes a less toy-like Ornithopter, which is more insectoid and less clockwork bubble-bug than the 1984 edition. They are quadruped aircraft with eight helicopter blade-like ‘wings’ providing the lift in an insectoid manner, and a pointed nose that incorporates expansive windscreens that probably don’t give as good a field of view forward as you’d think. The Kit This is a new kit that follows on the heels of the ‘vehicle scale’ mini-kits that now look more like stocking-fillers as this new tooling is in 1:72, corresponding with the dominant scale in which the Bandai Star Wars kits were released in, and giving modellers to opportunity to compare their sizes, and display them together without any disparity in scale. The kit arrives in a standard MENG box with a painting of the ‘thopter on the front in desert tones, and a satin finish to the box, as usual. There are six sprues of dark olive-green styrene plus a slide-moulded co*ckpit framing, two in beige for the base, two poly-caps in black, a small black sprue containing crew figures, a pale faun sprue with a pair of Atreides emblems, the instruction booklet printed in colour on glossy paper, and no decals. The only emblems are the two styrene parts that are painted a contrasting shade on the finished model. Detail is excellent, and the inclusion of four crew figures and the logos in contrasting colours indicates that the designers kept a watching eye on the novice modeller that may not either want to, or be able to paint the model, whilst providing sufficient detail for the hardened Sci-Fi modeller. Construction begins with the co*ckpit and rear interior, with a step between the two areas, the lower section for the flight crew, who controls the aircraft with twin sticks that are inserted into the deck along with a pair of rudder pedals that have an instrument binnacle installed between them, rising up near the pilot’s eyeline. Four identical crew seats are fitted with bases, building the pilot from two parts so his arms can reach out to the sticks, and three other passengers with their hands on laps, essentially in the same pose and garb except for their head gear and hair styles. Paint the uniformsa dark steel colour, and the visible human aspects any shade you like. The seats and pegged-in crew are inserted into holes in the co*ckpit floor, the pilot at the front, a row of two passengers behind him, and another row of two seats, one of which is empty, behind them on the raised portion of the floor. Attention shifts to the attachment points for the eight blades that sprout from both sides of the fuselage, and the first assembly creates two pairs of sockets that pivot in unison with the corresponding socket on the opposite side, thanks to intermeshing quadrant gears that are moulded into the rear of each socket, requiring them to be careful placed in the correct socket before gluing the two retaining surrounds together. Four blade sockets are made in the first batch, followed by another four that are made in the same way, joining the two assemblies together before they are trapped between the fuselage halves in the next step, fitting the co*ckpit, a pivoting access ramp on the underside, and a recess in the aft slope of the fuselage before joining the two halves together, then adding a top cover to the blade area, and an insert that extends from the rear of the fuselage some way down the boom at the rear. The boom is further detailed with a pair of exhausts and an insert at the rear, plus a rail that extends the length of the boom on each side, attaching on several pins along its length. Another insert is placed under the nose with a poly-cap at the front, adding detail inserts around the blade sockets, and the Atreides emblems just aft of the co*ckpit. Two Harrier-like exhausts are fixed behind the rearmost blade pairing on each side, clicking four tapering surrounds to the blade sockets on both sides without glue. The reason for the poly-cap under the nose becomes clear now, building a pair of twin weapons (or searchlights - it's a while since I watched the first film) on a central rod, which clips into a holder with another part that covers the innards, and a cylindrical drum with a peg on the upper side, which slots into the hole under the nose, held in place by the poly-cap. The entire upper nose and framing for the co*ckpit is moulded as one part using sliding moulds, clipping four clear panes into the top, one on each side, and another two in the nose. The clear parts have lugs on the sides that allow them to clip into position without glue, and while they may show a little through the windows, they are much tidier than the risk of glue squirting out of the sides. The completed assembly is slotted into the fuselage horizontally, locating on three pegs that slide into corresponding holes in the fuselage halves. Whether you want to install the wings before the landing gear is entirely up to you, but you have a choice of depicting them straight and ready for flight, or folded back for storage, installing the plug-in end of the blade on the main part without glue, ensuring that the recessed portion of the peg is facing upward when you insert them into the sockets with a click, four per side. To deploy them, the blade is pivoted out straight, and then rotated 180° so that the moulded-in pivot pin ends are at the top. This will prevent them sagging in the cabinet, although the model will also take up a lot of room, as each blade measures over 33cm from the pivot-point. The craft’s landing skids can be posed up or down, pivoting around a central island, which comprises of seven different parts depending on your choice. The gear legs are built from a varying number of parts, each sub-assembly receiving a letter code to assist with placement later, and each of the four main legs ending in a pad, except for two seemingly vestigial legs at the rear. They are plugged into the upper assembly according to the last sub-step of each option, and this in turn is mated with the underside of the craft, posing the lower hatch in the open position with the gear down if you wish. The stand is moulded in a desert sand colour, and consists of a two-part support, with a pivot at the top that can be manipulated to various angles, and the base, which is a single gently undulating part that has a uniform sandy texture on its surface, and a circular dais where the support plugs into a large rectangular peg. Markings There are profiles printed at the rear of the instructions, with colours in MENG codes and Gunze Sangyo’s Acrysion range. The main colour is Dark Earth, with black frames around the windows, and dark yellow for the Atreides emblem. Conclusion I’ve been waiting for a larger kit of the Ornithopter, and MENG have now granted that wish, so I’m very happy. There is good detail included on a kit that is a relatively simple build, and offers plenty of scope for the modeller to practice their paint and weathering effects on the kit when it is ready. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

This sounds fun and like Alexey, I also need my mojo back. So I am in with a 1/72 HobbyBoss A5M2.

- Lions are descended from us cats.

I had a drink in the morning, I'm free all day.

Whilst we are underneath, some more bits not provided by the kit. So now she has aileron links, an (oil?) overflow -the triangle piece under the engine- and an exhaust. Now the upper wing, Two halves joined at the centre in a fuel tank sandwich. What could possibly go wrong there?. As it happens, not much, looks ok to me. To hold the wing up obviously we need struts. Centres easy enough. These I am not so sure about though.. Thanks for looking, Matt

Next Vespa Models kits will be 1/48th Fiat G-50 - ref. VMKR48007 - Fiat G.50B Freccia - ref. VMKR48008 - Fiat G.50/Bis Freccia Source: https://www.facebook.com/VespaModelKitsPe/posts/pfbid0t73kUNPSe3CLNXtLjeamkPggEe84vrw97expN5MU6KJAGNueU71jFhB5KcvjL2x2l V.P.

This is the 1975 boxing of Airfix’s 1968 release of this classic workhorse. When the kit was originally released the Skyraider was still in frequent use in Vietnam and was for a few years more in amongst the fast, and not so fast jets. I recall building it when released and it was a bit of a challenge particularly the white underside finish and all the parts of the weaponry. So a rummage through the stash to see what to build for this GB revealed this amongst some others. This seemed a good one to start with as the others had challenges, biplanes mainly, industrial levels of rivets or a little bit too much masking. Though the latter Gazelle may still make an appearance The kit has a bundle of white plastic on a number of sprues, the moulding being decent with little flash and minimal rivets which is uncharacteristic of Airfix at this time. And there is a classic Airfix stand in the box. A transfer sheet which might need a bit of bleaching. Old fashioned instruction sheet. And who also remembers the ‘complaints’ slip?

Hello Here is my next Northrop Gamma of the late 1930's with this 1/72 FRROM Gamma 2E in Chinese service coded 901. Once again I cannot better tell you the story as it is written on the Internet site of the producer of this kit. http://www.frrom.com/index.php?page=frrom-fr0034 “In January 1932, with the help and capital of his friend Donald Douglas, John Northrop created the Northrop Corporation, a subsidiary of the Douglas Aircraft Company, which allowed him to work independently on aircraft with metal construction, a technique he pioneered. Northrop thus developed the Gamma, a fast mail plane. By adapting a wider fuselage to the Gamma that could carry eight passengers, Northrop obtained the Delta, a transport plane whose prototype left the factory in May 1933. The Gamma 2E, compared to the civilian versions, had a bombing hatch added under the fuselage, behind the wing, and was of course armed. In the early 1930s, China had to face Japanese expansionism. In 1934, it imported 132 aircraft and 14 spare engines from the United States for a total of $3.7 million, including 46 Northrop Gamma 2Es and 21 Vought V-92C Corsairs. The Marco Polo Bridge incident, caused by the Japanese on July 7, 1937, drew the two countries into the war from the 28th. The Gammas were assigned to squadrons (Chungtui) 1 and 2 of the 1st Bombardment Group (Tatui), and to squadrons 9, 11 and 14 of the 2nd GB. They were mainly used in the fighting around Shanghai. On August 14, 1937, on Chennault's orders, about forty Chinese aircraft attacked the Japanese fleet off Shanghai and bombed the enemy command post. The Gamma 2E of the 14th Chungtui mistakenly attacked the British cruiser HMS Cumberland without causing any damage. The Japanese claimed the destruction of a Gamma 2E. During the following operations, the Chinese air force suffered significant attrition, which led to the reassignment of the Gammas of the 1st Tatui to the second (October 1937). On October 14, five Gammas took off from Nanking in the company of other Chinese aircraft to attack the airfields and depots of Shanghai. On the 20th, five Gammas bombed the Japanese. On the 24th, the 902 of the 2nd Tatui was shot down. On November 11, three Gammas attacked the aircraft carrier Kaga, but two were shot down (1405 and 1402) and that same day, a Gamma was destroyed on the ground by a Japanese bombing raid. On January 4, 1938, two Gammas were bombed and destroyed in Hankou. At the end of October 1937, a unit formed by American, French and Dutch mercenaries was set up (14th Volunteer Sqn) and based in Hankou. Four Gamma 2E from the 11, 14 and 9 Chungtui were assigned to this unit and participated in bombing missions. Labusssière would record 116 sorties in this unit, including 28 war missions. The last war mission took place on March 20, 1938, the unit was disbanded on the 22nd after losing 3 of its Gammas. The surviving Gammas, if any, were probably transferred to training. Another variant of the Gamma, the 5A, was purchased for evaluation by the Imperial Japanese Navy. And the prototype of the 5B version, which differed from the 2E by the canopy and other external modifications, was used in Republican Spain. The Gamma is at the origin of a very successful family, which includes the Gamma 5B (used in Republican Spain), the Northrop A-17, and finally the Douglas SBD used as a dive bomber by many air forces during World War II. Specifications (2E): Single-engine, two-seat bomber with low wing and fixed landing gear, of metal construction. Offensive armament: 1,600 lb bomb load and 2 .30 machine guns in the wings, defensive armament: one machine gun in the rear seat. Corrections: Please note, the assembly diagram of the Gamma 2E (FR0034) in step 12 is correct, unlike the correction that was put in some boxes, the tank must be mounted at the rear (the transparent flat face is turned towards the front of the aircraft (and there is no transparent part in the semi-retractable tank). The same must be done for the Gamma 5B The machine gun holes must be dug and the headlights installed in the wings. Camouflages: Cam A: Gamma 2E Bomber coded 901, Chinese Air Force. Aircraft belonging to the 9th Chungtui, 2nd Tatui then passed to the 14th Volunteer Sqn, Hankéou, July 1937 to April 1938. This aircraft was, among others, piloted by William Labussière. Cam B: Gamma 2E Bomber evaluated by the British Aeroplane Experimental Establishment, coded K5053, 1937/38. Cam 😄 Gamma 2E Bomber, 14 black, from an unknown Chinese unit, 1937-1938. Cam 😧 Gamma 2E Bomber, 1412 black, transferred from an unknown Chinese unit to 14 th Vol. Sqn, early 1938.” I hope you like her. Patrick

Since my attic apartment, at least in the upper area, is not suitable for living or model building, due these very Hot Summer, I started something small. This also works at the kitchen/living room table... and it remains a unique excursion into the military theme. Just because I'm particularly fascinated by LRDG and SAS, only the British can invade with cobbled together civilian pickups, drive across the desert and attack airfields. it all began a few years before, on one of our Exhibitions. I bought the Dragon Chevy 3 Times 😄 and the Hauler Whell- and Etchsets. Also the Blackdog Resinsets.Most of you know what was comming, i build the big "Mille Miglia 1931" Dio, and the "Avus 1937" , the Beach Dio and and... Now i see the Dogfightworkshop Chevy WA in perfect 3D Print....and so the next desaster goes on... The first Pic ist the Logoplate of the famous LRDG, i dont need to write a word about the Quality of the Kit, the Pics tell you all. And then i found in my Stash 3 Italerie "AS42 Sahariana", so i have more Ideas and more to buy... Such as the GB Modelli Autoofficina, the Mobiler Workshopor the OKB Grigorov Etchings for the AS42 and the Guns. Also in my Stash, the Italerie North African House, and 2 Kits from ACE. The German Kfz 4 is :eh: , the Fiat 508 Colonialae is one of their better Ones. I try my Best, but ACE has so much tiny Parts ,bad Moldlines, very big Sprueconnections ( in some Cases i ask me is this the Sprue or the Part ? )way to thick Plastic ( see the Engine Hood ) i could not get it better. And for my Idea of the Saharien coming back from a Patrol, i build the IBG Carro Armato. This kit has the Option of open Doors. So i ordered the Syndicate.com supplied 3D printing detail set and since the Better is the Enemy of the Good, also the Suspension and tracks. I build with Scrapparts a basic Interior , so you not look in a empy Hull. The Gunbreach ist fully Scratch, with different Evergreenprofiles, the Kit MG alongside and as Elevation a Chassispart with Handwheel from Esci. Lets see where these Journey ends 😄

Well, this is going to be built like it would have been when I was 12. It's a recent, maybe current, boxing. I bought it in the last few years. Normally I mostly build planes but there's a growing ground force on the shelf. I always felt they needed a bit of artillery support so I got this. Made a start tonight, using the old school technique of painting everything while still on the sprue. I know (from googling) that there are literal tomes of paint information for WW2 British trucks. I haven't read any of it - I've just picked Vallejo Olive Grey as a likely colour. I might do the Mickey Mouse scheme to go with my Morris Quad and its howitzer. Yes, that shelf-top army already had some howitzers, but as the General said, "we're gonna need a bigger gun".

It’s good to be back fellow Blitzbuilders, and it wouldn’t be a Proper BlitzBuild without some Eggy pink primer madness. When I figure out why my Flickr is not playing i will upload the required pictures. Roll on tomorrow, I’m ready to get “cracking”

Things are escalating on the decal front. The 707 got its starboard side decals on this morning. I clear coated them an hour or so before applying them and they went on just fine. Lesson learned. The 737 fuselage also got it's Pan Am billboard scheme started. I'm using a Flying Colors set here and the decals are a joy to behold, once they are on. They are incredibly thin and the carrier film is very tight to the colour, leaving not a lot to play with around the big Pan Am letters for instance. They broke up a bit but could be teased back into place. They look fantastic, I'll be using more from this manufacturer for sure. I need to up my game a bit with them, but the effort will be well worth it in the end. The Braniff BAC 1-11 decals also by Flying Colors were tried but failed rather badly. Whereas the Pan Am ones could be carefully slid into place without too much hassle, the Braniff ones shattered at the edges. A clearcoat or two might have helped here but after the success of the Pan Am job I was reluctant to make the Braniff ones thicker. I'll order up another set as I want one in this scheme. I'll put the problems I'm having down to experience and a bit of a steep learning curve. After removing the failed Braniff decals, leaving the co*ckpit windows in place, I went for Plan B and clear coated an old Airfix Caledonian set as a substitute. The Airfix decals looked a bit ropey to be honest, with a matt finish that isn't anything like as good as any of the other decals. There's a chalky sort of finish to them. I suspect that without the clear they would have failed. As it was, they went on like they were made of rubber and were rather difficult to lay in straight lines. It's possible the clear was still a bit soft. Whatever the reason, they are now on one side although they may well get overpainted to match the tail colour and even up the finish. A very productive few hours went into this latest post. I've learned a lot about decaling and some of the pitfalls as things apply to airliners. It's left me wanting more, although not on these fuselages just yet. They need to be fully dry before more work goes into them. That of course means I can do a bit on one or two of the others in line. Snowball Effect? What Snowball Effect? More as it happens...

Things have moved on here in Tankograd. I haven't documented the drama and excitement of gluing the superstructure to the hull. Needless to say, there was noble square-jawed patriotism, enthusiastic waving of the Red Banner, and grainy sped up footage of commissars making speeches. The workshop crane strained its steely sinews. Solid ruddy cheeked women, who only weeks ago were peasants, threw welding splatter far and wide. And we sung the Internationale! More explanation to come... Cheers Andrew

A bit more be-greeblement on the crane: Inspired by @chrisr57’s epic 1/72 Invincible build - specifically this: Then back to detailing the Workboat: Again, references very hard to find; the only ones I’ve discovered are (bizarrely) from an ex-RN workboat for sale (£10k, if you’re interested!) on line: More soon Crisp

Eduard did not have any extra trees of Boulton-Paul turrets from its "Riders of the Sky" Liberator release of the Hasegawa kit, and had taken the kit out of production. Pavla's modification set is expensive for what it is and hard to find. So I had to improvise? What to do? As they flew some of their missions at low altitudes, B-24s assigned to 1586 SDF had their belly turrets removed. Given that the ball turret is rounded like the Boulton-Paul unit, I thought to create my own using the kit supplied parts. I made "ears" for the gun installations using parts of the Martin nose turret, scratch built an interior, and added a ring from Evergreen tubing. I then used additional styrene sheet and filler putty to fair parts together and create shapes reminiscent of the BP unit. https://flic.kr/p/2qbwg5N

Before proceeding much further, I needed to prove to myself that I could create a new nose glazing. Though the unit flew both D and J models EV978 was a B-24J (Liberator VI) modified with a nose glazing altered to fit the deeper profile of the aircraft to give its navigator a better view of the drop zone. Consolidated did not authorize this conversion, which was effected at a maintenance unit in the UK prior to the aircraft's deployment to Italy. Academy's B-24J had extra clear parts that included several different turret designs and a B-24D nose. I cut off the lower part of the nose and rejoined it to the upper part after rotating it through 90 degrees. As the results were just "ok," I opted to plunge mold a new form that would capture the entire nose. This proved very difficult because the "buck" kept breaking at the join, but I managed to get enough of it in one "plunge" to allow me to combine it with a Falcon / Squadron B-24 nose glazing to make a complete nose. I used Zap 560 to keep it together, and it cooperated. Here's what the nose ended up looking like