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A late 60 aircraft with modern weapons: Mirage V Blue thunder Revell 1/32 Isracast KFIR C2 conversion Isracast Spice 1000Lbs gliding bomb Brass gears Resin C10 nose (thank you Cheetah) Sufa bits: Python AA missiles, Litening pod, pilot Homemade decals Homemade masks Coastal kit blurred runway base Paints: Gunze H305/ (H311+H308) / H306 (nose) Started July 2020 - ended December 2020 Apologies for the grainy pictures, the light outside is quite dull, I'll try to update the pictures when I have better conditions: WIP is on the in progress section: here Happy modelling

Hello guys! This is another project on my workbench The superb tamiya zero!! it is almost complete, and now i am in the weathering progress.. the front cowling remaining, some washes on the underside , panel lines and exhaust stains.. chipping was done with hairspray and i used montex mask for all insignia and markings i wanted to depict the specific aircraft Mitsubishi A6M5c Zero JNAF 203 Kokutai 03 79 so here is my try thank you!

Hello! i am sharing some photos from one of my current projects... This is the Hasegawa 1/32 P-47 D thunderbolt i bought this excellent cockpit from MDC many years ago and finally i decided to give it a try ! i am very pleased with the level of detail and fitting on the kit! especially with the painting mask!!! looks so realistic! i have added some extra data plates, stencils and seatbelts from HGW and YAHU instrument panel its painted with AK Real Color air lacquers.. Its my first try on these paints.. Weathering is done with oil colours.. thank you!

hi !! i am sharing some pics from my recently finished Tamiya spitfire! not too much extra detail except the engine compartment , some eduard details and quickboost cockpit's door i used maketar masks for this version of 5J o G Painted with AK real colour thanks for watching! S. D. .

Believe it or not, I had great fun doing this. Very relaxing, with LX-Radio 80s sounds playing. The float is now almost done. I will add the rudder last, and paint the red prop-warning stripe as soon as I can exactly align it with the prop.

Hi !! Thanks a lot for interest !! I saw that many of you ordered the Viggen, it's already annouced sold out !!! Begining of the Skystreak building with the canopy and front gear. What is apreciate is that you don't need to sand the pieces because there is no mold default !! so the the building is really faster !! the fiting is ok, some need adjustment but nothing difficult. Really more easy than my PCM Hurricane X15

Hi All! This will be my build for ”Air Superiority”, slightly started but not much done. This is Zoukei-Muras´ first kit and it looks outstanding! The big box are crammed with goodies…. More to come soon! Stefan

I'm probably mad but I ordered the Special Hobby fourth X-15 release whereas I already have the three other ones! This way, I will finalize a tweak list covering the three X-15A2 releases! And if I'm not fed up, I will do the X-15A1 as well...

Well its been a lot less time on the big cat than id hoped, but progress non the less. The process took a bit longer than I anticipated as well, but I'm still on target. The Milliput was sanded back, and Mr. Surfacer 1000 applied by brush to the roughest spots. From there, it was sanded back with 400 - 1000 grid wet dry. Next, a layer of Mr. Surfacer 1500 black was applied with the air brush overall to the outside and inside of the nacelles, and the exterior of the nacelles was sanded with 1500 - 3500 wet dry. Although I plan on spraying the outer surface of the F7F with a light primer since the base color of DSB is very dark, I applied this black layer here as more of a way of getting all things symmetrically painted and knowing where I have to touch-up. The process of Mr Surfacer over Milliput gave me the smooth transition from exhaust ports to firewall that I needed: Obviously I still have most of the rescribing and riveting left to do on the port nacelle that got chopped in two and glued back together, but otherwise I'm happy with the progress. I've also made a start on one of the engine bearers to see how I wanted to proceed, as the prior idea of making a jig and gluing the bearers on from there with the nacelles taped in their final position did not work out as well as I would have liked. It turned out gluing the bearers in from the back proved nearly impossible, so I'm going a different route on those..................stay tuned! Thanks for stopping in on me and Cheers,

Quick and simple build after my tank dio. Straight out of the box, kit decals, MRP paints. "Black 8" from JG27 in Libya, 1943. Thanks for looking

It's the time of pre-Xmas-sales, so I've got something more to feed the stash: Two for less tan 50 bucks - for both together Let's hope that Revells molding is better than it was in the original Italeri release. Not as cheap as the Mirages but reasonable priced too. I was really astonished how small the box is compared to the Mirage. More good news: I have Xmas holidays from now on. Workbench, I am coming home!!! Regards - dutik

All- Small update today! I was able to get a day away from working on the deck and spent most of the entirety of a day off yesterday plugging away on the Lancaster at the bench. As I move closer to closing up the fuselage, I had to endure the painstaking process of adding all of those fuselage side windows. Because Phantom is an early Lancaster, and I plan to depict her during her early career, she had the fuselage windows proper and not painted over. And there's lots of them! Fortunately, HK's windows fit beautifully, and they even have a small ledge/edge to them on the interior to aid with painting them. Thanks, HK! As I have been thinking about the kit over the past few weeks, and looking at the small size of the fuselage windows, I elected not to super-detail the remainder of the interior past the radio operator's station, aside from what is already provided in the kit. You just can't see much inside, even with the windows exposed, so I decided to save myself the trouble and threw in the towel. It's good to know your limits, right? I did however want to detail everything forward of that, which included running lots of wires from various systems inside the forward fuselage. HK does a mix of providing parts with the connectors attached, while photographs helped in wiring other systems. For folks who want to wire the inside of their aircraft, I highly, highly recommend various gauges of lead solder/wire. It's so easy to work with, responds well to paint and super glue, and you can get it in lots of different sizes. I found a pack on eBay a while back for about $40 that has six different gauges of lead wire, all on their own separate spools. Enough to last a long, long time! Drill a little hole, super glue it in, and then run your wires, bundle, etc. I can't speak to extreme accuracy here, but I wanted to liven up the forward fuselage and make it look a little busier: I also added a few more of the resin parachutes that I molded, and added the Eduard interior photoetch set. In the top photo, I have not painted the ledge around that fuselage's windows yet. Only enough time this morning for one side before work! The bottom photo shows them painted. You'll also notice that I blocked in and added some detail to the wing root area... which, after looking through the side windows, was a complete waste of time. I will not be giving the other side the same treatment. I'd rather save my Evergreen stock! I have completed the bomb aimer's station as well. Man, black painted areas aren't too keen on photography! All I added here was the pad on the floor and the support rods for the control panel, and modified the kit parts for the others, which included the bomb site truss. I will likely add a few decals to the console to give it a little bit more life. That's all for today. Here's to hoping that my next update shows the fuselage all sealed up, and work starting on some of the other parts of the kit. As always, comments and critiques are most welcome! Thanks for tuning in! - Dennis S. Thornton, CO USA

Mmmmmhhhh... Even if I can be a nasty nit-picker with regard to models, this really asks for additional checks. I'm not saying the model is 100% accurate but, to me, the proportions look globally right. Same remark for the nose. Assessing such shape and dimension differences with that picture method is like dancing in a minefield! It is very difficult to compare dimensions from pictures and more particularly from different size objects at different distances. I'm remembering my photography courses when I was a teenager. My jaw nearly dropped when our teacher showed us comparisons of pictures of the same object or area taken from the same point at the same time with different lenses. This really looked like different realities. And here we have different sizes, different distances and very probably different lenses. You do not imagine the amount of distorsion linked to lens change and photography conditions. Accordingly, I'm always taking such comparisons with a huge grain of salt as I know for sure that our brain can be very easily cheated... This is typically why I prefer comparing proportions rather than one dimension measurements in such circumstances.

Lemkits 1/32 Blohm&Voss BV- P.212.03 – Limited edition resin kit - Pre-order At the end of the Second World War, German aircraft designers tried to realize their technological superiority by creating truly revolutionary and unusual designs. The Emergency Fighter Program (German: Jägernotprogramm) launched on July 3, 1944 became the basis for the appearance of interesting aircraft such as the Ta-183, Messerschmitt ME P.1101, Junkers EF128, Focke-Wulf P.VII "Flitzer" .... The designers Blohm&Voss did not stand aside. The BV 212 series of aircraft was developed in various modifications, and after blowing in the wind tunnels, the decision was made to build 3 pre-production aircraft. One of the design options was BV212.03. A distinctive design of the aircraft was its power structure, the aircraft was projected around a curved steel air intake channel to which all other components and assemblies of the aircraft were attached. It was planned to equip it with the most powerful Heinkel HeS 011 engine at that time and armament of 3-5 - 20mm cannons, missile and bomb weapons. https://www.ebay.com/itm/114705349418 http://lemkits.com/product/1-32-blohm-voss-bv-p-212-03-limited-edition-resin-kit/

Hi everybody, i am really happy to share with you las building on the stash. It's the D558 Skystreak from new turkish manufacturer Jetmads, their kits are made ewclusively with resin and 3D parts !! Fan of this period of the 40s to 60s and the race at speed I was eager to start this device because Jetmads plan to release its successor the Skyrocket and the StiletoX3 later !!!! Finally a manufacturer who dares to do something else !!! A word anyway on the totally innovative content where all the pieces are hung on a support and well protected in a huge block of foam, we feel a certain desire to do well and bring something really new !! The plastic cluster suddenly hangs a hell of a blow of old even if for the moment the 3D parts do not yet have the finish of the injected ... but I think that's just a question long before it surpasses it as the possibilities are greater since there is no longer any need for a mold !! Does Jetmads present us with what the kits may be in the years to come ... the future will tell .... Cheers X15

Hello just started the Meng 1/32 ME-163. So I thought I would add it to the build group. Pics to follow with progress, shortly. When I figure it out.

Attached for your review are photos of my recently completed 1/32 Zoukei-Mura Ta152H-0. Although Z-M has offered a H-0 in the past, that kit was not available and so I had to backdate the Ta152H-1 kit into a H-0. To make matters more complicated, the only Z-M Ta152H kit available was the Special Edition H-1 based on The Cockpit anime and molded in black plastic. I added the following items to the build... 1. Henri Daehne Ta 152H-1 Resin Prop and Spinner 2. RB Productions Ta 152H Photoetch Cockpit set 3. Synthetic Ordnance Works Ta 152H Landing Gear In addition to the extensive re-scribing I had to do on the wings, the kit fought me once I started gluing the major components together. Lots of fit issues, especially on the wings and around the fuselage/wing joints. But I stuck with it and came out with this... The complete build log can be found at the following link:

Jennings, from that perspective everything is politics. This is theoretically correct but what is considered here is very different from ideology-driven standpoints and personal opinions regarding the positive or negative analysis of political decisions. As the initial poster wrote it this is different. The topic here is rather focusing on the practical impact on modeller's habits. Easy!

Close of play today: B is 99% finished for me, just the exhausts to paint not that you can see them but they’re currently red so that just annoys me. C is ready for decals & fiddly bits. I’ve spent so many years doing combat/camp schemes I’m really enjoying the bright trainer schemes. The wife approves too

Wash applied to the B. Wife walks past wincing “it always stresses me when you do that it looks like you’re ruining it it looked so nice before”... you and me both!! Yellow now on the C

Right-O For those of you wanting to see the nuts and bolts of the intake mods. Here are the Real Model intake trunks with the outer surfaces all ground off on my trusty belt sander. Then I have to widen them a little, so a little boiling water applied and the lower edge opened up after making a cut partially down the length. This gets filled with plastic card and CA once this is glued into the widened plastic kit parts. All looks a bit messy right now, but at least you can see this warts n all on how I am doing this. Because the intakes arent that much wider, this mod really isn't that difficult to do. It is just understanding how the designers did it and doing the same Oh the left intake looks awesome all primered up, so happy with it. I will post a pic when I have the 2 finished together. One more thing....just got these the other day, all I can say is WOW! @Miloslav1956 has done an amazing job, the detail is unreal and highly recommended. Pretty sure I can use these on this build after studying photo's Thanks as always for tuning in Cheers Anthony

Thanks for the input Jerry! Your two Dora volumes have been an invaluable resource! Amazing for you to have discovered the D-13 the way you did but thank goodness it fell into the right hands! Yes, thank you! I was aware of that probability and the mesh was NOT incorporated in my build of the Ta-152H-0...

The reason that Tamiya seems to have cooled off on 1/32 releases and WNW folded has nothing to do with rivet counters. Of all of the companies that make LSP, they seem most immune to the red marker brigade.

Just one word: slats.

This kit would almost certainly have been designed from data directly from the manufacturer, so I would be amazed if there are any serious outline errors.

What do you guys think about the level of chipping and dirt? This is going to be a land based plane from about mid 1943 so it would be well used. I don't think I want to make it much dirtier but I could clean it up a bit if needed. Of course the pictures are way bigger then the parts. It's about ready to start putting together. It will still need some wires and other little details. I hope to have the cockpit done this week then I can start working on some kit plastic. I can't wait.

That's really nice. I think have some boxes of Model Master in my stash, and if not available, my favorite local hobby store has a lot of them still. It's hard to dissect this b/w pic. Looks like the later (1944) blue scheme, with the darker paint, was used. Thank you for doing this!

“I soon discovered that everything that had been said and written about the Avro Lancaster was true. Some products of the hand of man have that uncanny capacity to pull at the heartstrings, and the Lancaster was one such. Everything about it was just right. Its muscular, swept lines were beautiful to look at. It flew with effortless grace and had a precise, weighted feel. It made the pilot’s job easy. You could throw it all over the skies if you had the inclination and some physical strength. It had tremendous power from those four Rolls-Royce Merlins. At 25,000 ft, its ceiling was vastly superior to the Stirling’s. And it was fast, only a whisker short of 300 mph. In every department it outstripped all other four-engined aircraft of the time. At 20,000 ft the standard bomb load of 14,000 lb was equivalent to that of two Flying Fortress B-17s.” — Luck and a Lancaster: Chance and Survival in World War II (Airlife Classics) by Harry Yates https://a.co/7kJm7I4 Things are starting to come together, and I've reached the milestone of joining the fuselage. Before this, I modified the mid-upper turret so I could add it during final assembly, so I cut the base from the pedestal and modified it so I could add it later: And with the fuselage joined: Next up will be the marathon filling and sanding, and fortunately there aren't any major gaps, which is pretty impressive considering the size and complexity of what goes inside! As I mentioned, I will be sharing photos taken by my Uncle during his flight training. Here's the first: Cheers, Tom

Hi all, The web site at 'Aviattic' has a fully detailed build log (in Adobe PDF format) for the 'Balilla', which can be downloaded. It is extensive and details every part of the build. I have found a few moulded part numbers that don't match those in the build log, so these will corrected in my own build log. Section 1 covers the building of the S.P.A 6A engine, which I've now completed. Now onto the internals for the fuselage, which includes many minutely detailed photo-etch components, which will prove interesting to build, Mike

Okay, canopy almost all masked. I'll fill in the areas with Tamiya tape. I created the masks on my Cameo 4.

Today I felt like it was PE-day. Now, PE and I haven’t become friends yet, but we are getting to know each other, so to speak Eduard thinks this is enough of an instruction for folding the bomb-fin. To handle this part: I may be a bit dense, but it took me some time to think it through. That is what the engine-debacle thought me. Eduard have you fold all of it in one go, but I found it way easier to make two parts. The end result compared to OOB. The are still two tiny windmill-props to be added to the front and back of the Eduard one. I noticed top-fin alignment was a bit oof, and corrected. I found you can easily detach and clean superglued parts with a old-school Gilette razor blade. The holes to attach the bombs are now obsolete (see bomb-rack below) and have to be filled. Instead of utilizing the usual Tamiya filler which requires drying time today I did it like this. When glued in, saw them off, file, sand, and gone are holes with no filler needed at all. Takes literally just minutes. And lastly the assembled bomb rack. Look pretty nice I must say. It was a good PE day. The other half for tomorrow

Thank you Peter, coming from you and your splendid build scenes, it is quite a compliment and I salute you in return Stokey Pete Thank you Grunticus Many thanks for your help about the canopy, you were quite right. You have been of a great support Ben. Thank you. Too bad we can't have our model on the show tables this year. Although I'm pretty sure what the outcome will be Nick, this build is dedicated to you. Without your resin nose it would have NEVER happened and I took a lot of pleasure building this one So thank you very much. More completed models pictures posted in the RFI form.

Panel line denial is fake news. Look at photos, trust your own judgement. Radu

hey everyone I took some time today to make use of the awesome daylight we've had here to get some more detailed shots of where I am up to right now. I'll have some more time to myself this week as the wife and child are heading off to see her family before Xmas before I go up to Brisbane to join them later. I hope to be able to use that time constructively So yeah, the last set of photos didn't really convey what I'd actually done, and here's hoping these ones tell a better story Well, that's it for now, but as always, thanks for stopping by and having a look Till next time Si

Ok guys! I will do it. I will initially publish the review of the first box I got: the initial X-15A2 release. Then, I will see if I have the time to cover the two next releases. In any case, I will not cover the recent one as I already have the three initial ones. However, as far as I saw, it has just the limited markings of the white ablative coat and the dummy scram jet. Everything else was already part of the third release.

First off, this is not a political thread - no need to discuss the merits and detriments of Brexit here. However, because of the current lack of a trade deal between the UK and EU a lot of British companies will be stopping shipments to the EU for the foreseeable future, probably until at least the first week of January (and I guess the same will apply to companies shipping from the EU to the UK). This is from Hannants: 'We will no longer accept orders from EU countries from 27th December. On December 27th our website will stop accepting orders from all EU countries. This is ONLY from EU countries. Please send us your orders as soon as possible! We will re-open the website to EU countries on Monday January 4th. The BIG difference is that all EU countries will then be Export countries so we do not have to charge the 20% VAT/Tax. OUR PRICES WILL BE MUCH LOWER! We will then be charging Export prices without 20% tax. Possibly you will have to pay tax and duty when your parcel is delivered but we do not know. No information seems to be available. Please be sure you receive our weekly Hot News sheet because this is where the more detailed information will be posted.' And whilst they only deal with car models, not LSP's, Hiroboy and Zero Paints are also stopping EU orders from December 18th until early January. There's also likely to be (possibly significant) delays in delivery of parcels to/from the UK and EU. So if you're in the EU and need something from Hannants/Hiroboy/Zero Paints before the New Year, better order it quick!

Hi Folks, I'm after a little advice. I recently got hold of a set of the extremely nice Exito Sexy Spitfire decals The sheet contains three complete sets of markings for three aircraft namely a MK Viii an MK iXe and a Mk Vb Hopefully father Christmas will be supplying two suitable kits in the form of the Tamiya iXc and Viii BUT the Vb is proving elusive. Not being a Spitfire expert 1:1, Kit or aftermarket Is the Hobbyboss spit the only game in town? The actual Vb to be modelled has clipped wings. are there any replacement bits I can use to depict this? I know the Tamiya kit has clipped wing options. Are there replacement bits for the god awful fabric / metal tailplane in the HB kit? Would back converting a Tamiya MK 9 be a useful exercise, i.e exhaust stubs prop etc? If so what would be needed? Any pointers towards an accurateish Vb Spit with clipped wings would be helpful.

Hi guys, Is there any interest in a tweaks list related to the SH X-15? I found back review notes I have written many years ago and formatting them would not ask for a lot of time. Please let me know. Thanks!

Ironically, I'm a bit of a convert to 'black basing' for weathered models, so I'm likely to still go with a black primer or base coat for most finishes these days, including natural metal. But otherwise, it's probably going to be Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500, or the Tamiya Fine Surface Primer - but never bare plastic! I'm a 'prime everything' guy, so the only time you'll see me applying paint to bare plastic will be for interiors or tiny external details. The way I think of natural metal finishes is this: in real life, most aren't highly-reflective, showroom-quality mirror finishes; in fact, most weather to a dull silver-grey, so using Alclad's high shine finishes is a waste of effort and money, unless you're trying to achieve said mirror finish - in which case they're essential. So, no high shine means no requirement for a black base, and I just generally default to Tamiya's AS-12 as a starting point. But I also like AK Interactive's Xtreme Metal range (definitely needs a primer), and have been experimenting with the metallics from SMS also. I like the finishes you can get with Mr. Metal Color, but find the paint too fragile once applied, and it seems to evaporate right out of jar once you open it! Kev

I know all about messy! I can tell the intakes are already heading in a great direction.

I agree with Andy. We are in fact all adults here, and the model related consequences of Brexit are I believe within the context of what we do here, concerning the ordering and purchasing of model related parts from shore to shore. Of course this like any thread has the ability to get sideways if people posting in it try to discuss the good or bad of it. Lets all just keep to the topic at hand please and there will be no issues.

Yes I used the HPH detail kit on my Hobbyboss V plus lots of Barracuda stuff, I am also a fan of the Hasegawa V as well, it is an accurate, if basic kit, I have build lots of them. and used them as the basis for other Spitfire conversions. Cheers Dennis

Good thread and good sleuthing Maru! I feel that for some reason, this particular aircraft has slipped through the net and really does need to be recognised as both a tribute to Lt Rudolph as well as the mount of a USAAF air ace, so really needs reproducing in decal form. We now know the aircraft identity (and it still exists, which is amazing in itself), we know the FG operator and code letters, all that is now needed is that single elusive image showing the form, position and likely colours of the nose art wording 'Sissy Mana' (and any other artwork which it may have displayed at that time). Derek

Hey John , I think 'it's beating 'me' into submission. Thanks Jim , my eye is better but still not back to normal. It's like there's a sheet of white silk in front of my eye. Other eye's fine. The CE just stands for Cuttting Edge, the name of the now defunct company that marketed the D resin conversion. The differences between the D and E series are mainly just that , the nose from the firewall forward and the underwing radiators. Thanks again , stay tuned .

Thanks all. I think I will try to practise on some plastic sheet first before committing to the model.

Decals on, another coat of gloss for a panel wash & hopefully exhaust staining tomorrow. Couple of tiny control surface bits to glue on the that’ll be the B done. Despite steel bb’s filling the cowls & nose wheel bay (muppet forgot the included weights), she’s a tail sitter. Must be the moment of all the electronics jammed into the rear fuse. Oh well.

Ahh, but that exactly the problem

Now then, this is a thread many (including myself) will be following keenly. Hopefully, the first recent review and build of a Jetmads kit. Quite a few of us who have ordered the new Viggen for next year, will be extra interested to see how the kits go together, materials and casting quality, detail level, etc, turn out.

Both kits build up to very nice models. I built the Trumpeter single-seater last year. It did take some work to get the nose panels to fit on this build including the use of shims... I am currently building the Revell version of the two-seater. Unfortunately, the nose panel fit is not perfect on the Revell either but perhaps a little better than the Trumpeter. Based on my experience (factoring in that I am not quite halfway through the Revell build), I would recommend the Revell kit over the Trumpeter. The riveting on Trumpeter kits is heavy-handed and the cockpit assembly has four large attachment tabs that are clearly visible from the wheel well. No rivets and the Revell cockpit is very well done using their included decals for the instrument and side panels. Nicely molded plastic tires too versus the vinyl tires in the Trumpeter kit.

OH, am I getting behind everyone ?..... Noap, I'll put this one on high gear soon.... Now my little update on the pit, started as usual with XF-69 Nato blk. and two coat of X-20 gloss clear. wait for a week then, proceed with a Model Master wash of the pit color, in this case Flanker Med. Blue 2131. I put my wash, and wait 15 minutes between every layers (3 or 4), at the first run, it define very easily all the contours, the more layers you do, the easier it'll be to paint between the dial whitout making a mess... At that point, I use a very very fine brush and non diluted paint, from the pot. Once all done, I use a Fine Sharpie for defining edges and correct over paint.... Time for a little Vallejo dark wash, direct on the flat paint for the pit, water base, it dry very fast and softly with no ring. Was about to put the instruments on the panel's, but I couldn't find the kit decal sheet... had no choice but to take those from another kit, that's the gap you have to fill when you go with resine pit, NO DIAL.. Manage to have a set of Airscale Modern Jet in case I mess up, too bad they don't make any for Russian Jet. Will do some more this week-end, hope you like it and have fun. Dan.