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Hi everyone, I'm new here, and would like to share one of my current projects. I'm part of a group of enthusiasts that's busy with the restoration of the SAAF Buccaneer (Serial #416) at Air Force Base Ysterplaat in Cape Town. After spending years working on the actual aircraft I realized that the rather rare 1/32 Aerodynamics vac-form kit I have, does not quite measure up. So, decided to scratchbuild one. I did build this one before this out of alluminium litho plate as a once-off. Started with this new one, of which the fuselage will be made mostly from self made styrene vac-formed, photo-etched and resin parts. Here's some pics of what I have done so far. Hope you enjoy this build

I was precisely thinking that the current Eastern Europe kits are incredibly detailed, generally very accurate and proportionally very cheap in comparison with the Asian ones... We must support these guys.

thanks folks & good evening.. :) ..bit more done over the weekend.. I was pleased to see the glazing survived under it's protective film, but it was time to take that off and add the frames, these are PE and have been amended from the drawings to allow for the fuselage curvature - the drawings are flat as you look at it side on.. ..here the frames have been added and a tape template to start to derive the top panel.. ..with that panel and the lower surround with the grab handle cover done, it was time for another fuselage panel... ..after both sides were done, I couldn't do the next panel until the exhaust panels were in to set the firewall line.. I added the exhaust mounts first.. ..then annealed the PE nickel silver panels that surround the exhaust - these have all the fasteners etc etched in, but as you can see discolour badly when annealed - it all sanded out though.. ..then after much careful measuring & pre-shaping the panels were added.. ..then the main side fuselage panel could be added - here it is finished and a tape hinge added so as the adhesive goes off I can just swing it right into position - you can also see a tube section for the flare pistol and the bottom was annealed to conform to the fuselage as the wing fillets will go over the lower section.. ..too big to really photograph on my bench, so a few shots as the evening sun was going down... ..all the skinning needs tidying up & finishing, but it is getting there panel by panel.. TTFN Peter

Pictures of the finished build of the Fokker Dr. 1 'Skeletal'. I have always wanted to build something completely from scratch. This wasn't a 100% scratch, as I used some parts from the Roden kit, cowling and rudder from Aviattic. Photoetch from Tom's modelworks, RB Productions and Part of Poland. It isn't perfect, but it was a great learning experience and got me a step closer to the ultimate goal of building an all scratched model. Hope you like the result... Cheers: Kent

I present to you the well-known ACADEMY kit as a Greek f-16 of 340 squadron by 115 Combat Wing. I used after market materials like as: inerior cockpit,seat belts and mask by EDUARDS wheel bays και wheels by the AIRES landing gear by the SCALE AIRCRAFT CONVERSIONS Engine exhaust GT RESIN static dischargers MASTER Decals by THREE STAR DECALS AGM-65 By FLIGHTPATH The colors I used for the camouflage were: for the fs36307 the GUNZE H324, for the fs36251 the AKAN 77100, for the fs35237 the 72043 AKAN

Hi All, Haven't been posting much for a while, as most of my recent projects focused on the smaller scales, but it's time to start something "new" in a larger scale: the Curtiss P-36 Hawk by Special Hobby in its export version built for Netherlands, known as Curtiss H-75 A-7. Surely not a shake'n'bake , taking into account that it is not a new kit, so the moulds show some wear and tear, but anyway - it's the only game in town in an injection mould. Started with glueing the fuselage and engine parts together, deeping some lines and joints, removed the ventilation holes in front of the cockpit, riveted the fuselage and installed the cockpit walls. For now, everything looks quite optimistic. Stay tuned, best Hubert

And some closeup detail pictures... Enjoy! Kent

Hi Everyone, Once in a while, a kit you've wanted forever comes along. For me, it was the Dornier Do-217N. That's the nightfighter variant of the bomber. The N version originally had defensive guns in a dorsal turret and ventral tub which was faired neatly into the fuselage. The AIMS Conversion set provides the fairings that cover over those defensive positions like the plywood fairings used historically. The Conversion also supplies some very nice Photo Etch which I will endeavor not to stuff up. The first photo etch I dealt with were the seat belts. I annealed them hoping to get natural shape and droop. A good modeller might have thinned the seats before adding the PE belts. I used formula 560 Canopy Glue to hold the belts before zapping them with CA. Unfortunately there are very few Dornier resources, and I couldn't find the attachment points for the belts. So, I took my positioning from JU-88 pictures. Did I say I'm very inexperienced with PE? It looks rough, and I'm sure someone else would do better. I used white glue to thicken the heads of the control knobs. The rudder pedals were part of the conversion, too. I took a guess on the control knob colors. White, brown, and black. I used various shades of RLM 66 for the interior. My reasoning is that the components would have been delivered from different factories and then assembled into a complete cockpit at the Dornier factory. Finally the exterior fairings. The resin parts fit pretty good, and there are no bubbles to be found on my set. The kit is pretty nice. Great details but soft plastic. The usual ICM weakness. There are some sink marks, but nothing heart breaking. Thanks for looking! Gaz

I am very fortunate to have a mask cutting service just around the corner from me, in the form of Cheetah 11! I email him a poor drawing of what I would like cut, and he then measures up the aircraft and the insignia, and promptly corrects my misinterpretations as well as producing the masks - what more could one possibly ask for? This is what he gets... And this is what I get... Thanks Nick! Decals just can't do what sprayed insignia does for a model. Talking of masking, although rotor blades are a novelty for me - it wore off pretty fast. You get to repeat everything five times on the big one! They do look rather nice once they are painted up though. A gloss coat of Tamiya X-22 acrylic and Mr Colour levelling thinner was applied, and then came the Linden Hill decals. They are very nicely printed on thin carrier film and settle down very well. I am not a decal fan, but these were relatively painless to apply, and one can't really do without them. I wanted to retain the look of the hastily painted out star, as part of the provenance of the chopper. That brings me to the shape of the camouflage pattern. Thanks to Aluxe's keen sense of observation, and camopedia.org, I realised that the shape is inspired by a lowly single cell organism, yes - the amoeba! The Soviet uniform of 1938 was the "makirovochnyi kamuflirovannyi kostium" which was printed with large reddish brown amoeba shapes on a green or khaki background. Here is an example of the East German version of the MKK, just to illustrate the shapes that made their way onto the Hind. What a fun discovery. There will be more of the conflict story in the next post. I have to drag it out a bit to co-incide with the completion of the model. Cheers, Sean

www.specialhobby.eu - new T-33 'Japanese and South American T-Birds' aeroscale.kitmaker.net - T-33 Box Contents And it's available already... Juraj

my last built , enjoy : voila voila

pic of the interior posted on modelforum.cz https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=105045&start=2715 jan

IBG informed on their FB that release of PZL P-24 will be related with PZL P.11 selling numbers, I really encourage you to buy as many as you can guys! Here in Poland we need your help!

G'day everyone, @mozart asked if I'd post some pics of this build, so here are the pics I have! I'm on a bit of a trainer kick at the moment so when I saw this for a good price on internet auction site, I decided to add it to the collection. Typical short run kit, plastic is very carvable, with fine recessed panel detail oh, a small sheet of photo etched, injection molded clear canopies with pre-cut masks and a nice selection of paint schemes. The kit makes you work with lots of carving and cleaning up of parts, gaps to fill and lots of interesting fit issues to solve but overall a nice model of a rarely kitted aircraft. I'm not entirely sure how either plastic instrument panel, or the photo etched instrument panel are supposed to fit to the instrument panel coaming. I ended up chopping up the photo etched panel and modifying the plastic panel to suit the coaming. Denzil

https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=129318 B-52 1:48 prototype build. Anybody want this one in 1:32 ?!?

Especially now that the Fisher conversion is no longer available, and likely never will be again. Kev

Yes, they are! On track for early next year, apparently. Kev

Quick update. More tubing and parts added. Getting close to closing up the nose gear and cockpit assembly. Lots of parts needed to be modeled up printed and attached. Plus no small amount of time figuring out where the plumbing goes. I'll do a complete write up of the nose gear well and publish a complete article on my website once the assembly is complete. More soon.... Timmy! More soon.... Timmy!

On to the the IP. I'm really happy with the way the instruments came out. Much better than if I followed the Tamiya instructions. I added the last of the film dials, modified the kit clear plastic part and glued it in place to secure everything. Then I added the prominent red fuel tank selector switch at the bottom of the panel (this was a Barracuda part), picked out some more switches and knobs in various colors and pretty much have called the IP complete. I then moved onto the rudder pedals. The kit parts are ok but Barracuda provides amazing PE bits that you burnish in place over the Tamiya rudder pedals. They faithfully replicate the NAA logo that was present on each of the pedals on the real thing. No idea how Barracuda can do PE this detailed! I did the IG/hairspray/black thing and then drybrushed with some silver, added pastel for the dust effect and think this bit is now done! Sorry for the horrible pictures but it looks pretty good in real life, trust me! In looking at the pics, I think I need to hit the IP with some brown pastel to tone down the placards at the base of the panel. They just look clean for the rest of the cockpit. I'll add it to the list....

..back again with a bit more done... first the top canopy section was made as a plug and the boiling water process used to form PETG around it - here it is pretty much fully wrapping the mould.. ..and with framing added inside & out.. ..Steve at Model Monkey 3D printed the correct gunsight for me from the Don Lopez cockpit photo and it turned out brilliantly - added a few details and good to go.. ..after painting, detailing & making the mount.. ..mounted in position on the coaming.. ..as this was now ready, I stopped working on the canopy and got on with fixing the coaming & windshield so I could start fairing in the sections & skin the fuselage - here the process has started at the front, and now P38 filler added at the back.. ..I forgot to take pics of the shaping work, so next up is one of the fuselage skins at the rear.. I made up a template sheet as it has to fit on three edges, and once I had that I could translate the drawing rivet & hatch positions to the sheet.. ..the finished sheet, with a bit of tube fitted at the rear for the mounting where I think a jig fits the fuselage for balancing & gun alignment etc.. ..and the sheet fitted with the hatches & upper skin.. ..as the airframe is now virtually complete in shape terms after 18 months, I couldn't resist an assembly shot to see how things were shaping up.. ..thats it for now TTFN Peter

Calling it finished. Revell He 162. First time using MIG paints which I must say spray beautifully. OOB except for some Eduard etch in the cockpit. Left wing left "unpainted" to represent its wooded construction. Call it artistic licence.

The four large “stags antlers” are the SN-2 array. The small inner array is 1/4 of the earlier Lichtenstein C-1 array. The early SN-2 versions had a long minimum range, so they added a C-1 array to reduce the minimum range. Later SN-2 versions fixed the minimum range issue, so the C-1 array was deleted. Short answer is that was a valid configuration for an early SN-2 setup. The tail warning array was only sometimes fitted and was usually associated with late SN-2 setups with angled arrays.

My bet is on a Meteor variation, not WWII but an 'easier' one.

Raised rivets! Those guys are not afraid to reproduce them as they should be! The opening panels show the nice interior details well. Alain

Thanks boys! The model is coming along fine, but the addition of the lighting kit has slowed things down to a crawl. Well, it was a decent weekend, and actually had quite a few hours devoted to the 104, but it was nearly all wasted effort. I am! But atm, the how to light up both IPs in the cockpit has me really frustrated and loosing a bit of MoJo on the build. So, now that I have the replacement board that works, Ive started in on said IPs and how to light them up. Attempt #1: This first try involved me attempting to light the pit instruments up via fiber optics through some styrene sheet. I cut appropriate sized holes for the instruments and then used UV cure glue to push them through the styrene: I then cut off the parts protruding through the front flush, and sanded them flat and smooth. The worked fine, but I quickly figured out this was too direct, and the light did not shine into the holes the correct way, and made the larger instruments look way smaller than they were. Attempt #1 scrapped, and all fiber pulled Attempt #2: (no pics of this attempt unfortunately as it was not long lived) On the second try, I used a piece of clear styrene from my F7F build and cut a slab of it off, and attempted to glue some fiber up from the bottom, hoping it would shine through the clear styrene, but because the fiber is only "end glow" fiber, it only shot up through to the top of the clear part, and did not illuminate the front like I wanted. Attempt #2 scrapped, and clear part reclaimed for another try Attempt #3: My third attempt was better than the first 2, but this time, I used that same clear part I used in attempt #2, but this time I cut out a duplicate of the IP/instrument face that goes on teh front, and attached it to the back of that clear part, after I had sanded away all the glue marks then polished it up, both front and back. I then took the same fiber from attempt #1, and glued them into the back of the IP, hoping the clear part would project the light a bit, and make the smaller fiber optic cables look bigger, for some of the larger instruments: From the side you can see the clear part better: The theory worked well actually, as even holding the unpolished ends up to my (comparatively) dim bench light, it lit up the instruments well: However, this attempt ended in failure too, as none of the "projecting" effect materialized like I thought it might, and the larger instruments still came through with a tiny light source....... Now you might be asking yourself, "Why doesn't he just use some larger fiber optic cable for the larger instruments?" (which I do actually have)............ This then leads me to one more point of failure for attempt #1 and attempt #3: After I got the IP done, and all fiber glued in, including some thinner fiber where thicker ones should have been used for the larger instruments, I found another failure point, as even with the smaller fiber in for the bigger instruments, all that fiber optic cable became way WAY too stiff to be bend around and down into where it needed to go, as I have very little room to work with under each IP hood. It was all just way too stiff, and in order to fit, would have had to been bent in a fashion that would have effected the light travel through the fiber. Attempt #3 scrapped, and all fiber and clear parts put aside. Attempt #4: I have now started on my 4th attempt at seeing how best to light the IPs. I finally relented that I just did not have enough room to get all the fiber that would be necessary to light the IPs into the spaces below the IP hoods. So back to the drawing board! I next found another problem with the using fiber optic cable after the fact of relenting that way of doing it; the forward IP hood had the gun sight well, and it dips down RIGHT behind the pilots IP, and would completely block any and all fiber going to the middle of the pilots IP. So, my 4th attempt will involved making a "light box" under each IP hood, and mounting the MLED at the back, projecting forward through a piece of styrene cut with all proper sized holes for the instruments, then a clear part like the one above in attempt #3, then the original OOB IP sanded flat, with the Eduard PE on top of that. I'm hoping the process will look Ok, as you really wont be able to see directly into the IP instruments to see the MLED at the back. After looking at pics of F-104Ds, including the restored Norwegian F-104D, a lot of the Ds had their guns and gun sights removed completely (Im assuming for weight saving purposes on aircraft not intended to train new pilots to fire the gun) anyway, so this was the direction I was going to head in. Im not 100% sure 57-1315 had its gun sight removed, but it would make sense, as it was used in flight testing, and camera/chase plane work, that I would not think they would want or need the gun its sight and all its likely substantial weight. First thing to do grind off the triangular gun site well from under the pilots IP hood. Then I cut out a piece of thin styrene, and glue it to the bottom/underside of the pilots IP hood and painted the under and upper side of both IP hoods with a thick coat of black Mr. Surfacer primer (you can just barely make out the styrene sheet I used: The observers IP hood got teh same treatment. The upper side of the pilots hood where the gun sight well came out nice, and prior to putting the black primer on it, I used a mix of my filler of choice, medium CA and micro-balloons, and then sanded the area smooth. It almost turned out too smooth for what is supposed to be; a fabric piece. Later after this dries, I will take some tissue paper soaked in a mix of water and PVA and place it on the top to simulate fabric without the gun sight. I will also likely line the underside of both IP hoods, as well as the inside of the bottom styrene sheet Ill use to box the IPs in with some polished foil, so there is less chance of any ambient light escaping and glowing up through the hoods, or down on the pilots/observers feet. Ill have to wait until the primer is thoroughly dry to try to really push forward with attempt #4.

The carb air/oil cooler intake wants a bit of fettling to look more like the real thing. The canopy too wants some massaging, being a bit wide at the base. And heres the stage I'm at right now. As is the norm with short run kits, every part needed cleaning and convincing to fit, but overall construction was fairly straightforward and absolutely worth the effort being able to add a Provost to my trainer collection. MikroMir are aware of the shortcomings with the canopy and have tooled up a new part to fit. Their customer service has been fantastic in regards to replacing the canopy. Read about my experience here: When the replacement canopy arrives she'll get a coat of silver and Dayglo red. I think the decals will be perfectly usable, so that will make life easier. After that a few little details and she will be finished! Denzil

The photo etched sheet is nice, however I opted to make my own seat belts using masking tape. Also there was only one set of photo etched Rudder pedals. Not sure if this is a mistake or not. The engine cowl is molded with each fuselage half which means there will be an awkward seam to fill with the engine trapped inside. I elected to close-up the fuselage halfs clean up the seam and remove the front nose ol to allow a room to install the engine. I think the engine may be slightly undersized. Here it is alongside a 1/48 Wright 1820 as used in the T28 Trojan.

This is why is buy Trumpeter kits.

The hobby is fine. I just went to a little model show this morning and there were lots of kids buying "pocket money" 1/72 models. This kind of "superkit" is aimed at experienced modellers. I would not say that one needs "deep pockets" to the tackle this, but rather "years of experience". Radu

I'm happy to see this kit getting built by so many people. I bought it right away but then saw some early builds complaining about several issues and it put me off cracking mine open. Now I feel better about it since the last few I've seen seem to have gone pretty good. You have helped inspire me to give it a shot sooner than later.

I've enjoyed stepping away from military birds and have gotten into building racers. After I completed the Bardahl Special build, I went back to Draw Decals to shop around. As soon as I came across Risky Business I knew I had my next build. Super shiny, plus enough modifications to set it apart but not a complete rebuild. Heres the scheme I'll be building: The fuselage will be foil, and the white wings will be a new car type paint a friend pointed out. I'll modify the cockpit to remove the military equipment, create the pointed spinner, and find a way to add the flaired racing wingtips. My hope is to have it ready for San Marcos. Now I'm just waiting for my Tamiya Mustang to arrive from Tamiya USA.

Having just finished mine, it looks that way.

Ok, i didn't mention the printing for the etching, using a computer, but that's it.

Jesus Christ on a bike! Absolutely fantastic, ignore the colonial heretics, it's a great looking plane.

Done

I added myself too, on the map of Bulgaria

I'll buy my share for sure! Been waiting for an injection moulded 1/32 P.11c for a lifetime. Those progress photos are impressive! She looks beautiful so far. RIchard

I expect the new variant is another obscure submark of the Pfeil push-me-pull-you. However, I can dream it's an F.8 or T.7 Meteor (even though I have both of the exemplary Fisher sets) Saving pennies for the Spey Toom. Tony

A Meteor F.8 would be a good variant to do.

The Flogger main gear will sag over time. It isn't a great design but not sure how you'd replicate the real thing any other way.

The 1:24 Hurricanes are a real treat. I'm currently working on the P-38, and so far, fit and finish have been perfectly acceptable, at least for me.

The accuracy of recent MiG-29s are quite good whereas the P-40s are so-so... There is no hard rule regarding accuracy of Trumpy LSP and this does not change. Nonetheless, the quality of assembly of the recent kits is quite good.

Hi guys, I'm John, from Cape Town, South Africa. Here's a picture of me and my my Boy (Ross, and he loves aircraft too) sitting in an Impala Mk.1. Cheers

More work done on the sidewalls. First off, I added the throttle handle from the Barracuda set. The throttle handle provided range information to the K-14 gunsight, via it's twist-able handgrip. As a side note - The F-51D used the K-14 "Acemaker" gyro gunsight. Introduced at the end of WW2, it was a pretty slick device. It automatically computed the lead required for challenging off-angle deflection shots. All the pilot had to do was to use a the roller grip on the throttle to reduce or enlarge the circular reticule on the gunsight to just fit the wingspan of the enemy aircraft. The gunsight would then automatically compute the required lead and all the pilot had to do was keep the reticule centered over the bad guy and pull the trigger. No more having to guesstimate how much lead to pull. Not too shabby consider this was in the pre-computer days! For those interested, here's a flight sim video that shows the K-14 in action. Anyway, getting back to the model, Barracuda provides a very nice K-14 throttle grip which I added to the sidewall quadrant. Last bits to add to the throttle will be the cables that connect it to the K-14 sight and some linkages. Anyway, back to the sidewall weathering. Using a well sharpend silver artists pencil (another new item I just started to use, it's great for replicating fine scratches), I added some scrapes and scratches to the sidewalls. Also scratched up some of the placards, as shown in the original pics (thanks for the tip USMCHerc!). Next step was to hit the sidewalls with tan pastels to replicate the Korean dust that got into every part of the cockpit. The pastels do a good job of toning down the last of the shiny placards and cockpit fittings. Pretty much done with these bits. Next step is to finish the IP and then start working on the stuff behind the pilot's seat. Thanks for looking!

ok, when I saw the Blu-tack rolls without covering the green ... I was scared, and I see that he controlled his airbrush very well, he's inspired, and in turn, perhaps they were, for this cammo, inspired by the Russian snipers of World War II, I wonder I hope to feel soon ready to work my Mi-24 well done