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Evening all, I took advantage of my time away from the classroom last week and finally finished this two-and-a-bit year project: Tigger Models' (the old ID Models' vac kit) of the Short Sunderland in 1/32nd scale. This has been a really rewarding project, and despite a setback when I knocked the completed fuselage with its interior off the table, making a rather messy contact with the kitchen floor, it's been great fun and relatively straightforward - despite its size. Kits like this come as a blank canvass for the builder to work his/her magic - 'bumps in plastic' is quite apt, but the shapes are reasonably accurate if not a bit primitive (picture borrowed from Tigger's webpage): The kit provides a the correct hull shape for a MkI or MkII, but with some mods the more adventurous builder could easily convert it to a MkIII/V, etc. All panel lines and surface details need to be added and the parts are devoid of any real detail, but the plastic is lovely to work with and scribes/sands beautifully. Due to the size of the parts, home-made interior bulkheads are needed, and any visible parts of the interior need to be made from scratch: Strong wing spars are also essential to keep the structure of the model sound - thick plastic card spars were made and added: The flightdeck interior, bomb room and nose section were all made from scratch and detailed with some aftermarket seatbelts: All the aerials were made from sprue and thin wire - markings were mix of home-made masks and decals: The engines were made from spare HK Models' B-17 cylinders coupled with Revell Beaufighter parts to make a reasonable representation of the Bristol Pegasus. The early-style exhausts were made from Evergreen tube bent slowly over the toaster! Landing lights were home made from some of my daughter's diamante play/craft jewellery (for the lights) and the covers were clear acetate once again heated over the toaster. Rigging for the floats came for EasyLine and reminded me why I'll never build a biplane! The kit's transparencies were used throughout - all turret interiors were scratch built. Beaching gear was also made from scratch with a friend helping out with some 3D printed wheels: Bomb racks were again made from scratch with some rather lovely depth charges coming from Tim Perry - thanks, Tim! I used Xtracolor enamels throughout the build - 6 tins were used in total! I don't like to go too mad with weathering on my models so kept it relatively clean - however you can't build a Sunderland without the distinctive water marks on the hull: A bit of exhaust staining and some fading with post-shading completed the upper surfaces: And for some generic pictures: I'm often asked how big a 1/32nd Sunderland is. I'm sorry to inflict my ugly mug on you but you can see that it is a massive model with yours truly holding it! My model represents a Sunderland MkII of 201 Squadron during 1942 in the lovely temperate sea scheme. Painting white gives me nightmares (especially something of this size) so I took the easier option. W4001 (ZM-V) was only on strength between February to October 1942, before hitting an underwater rock and being written off, thankfully with no loss of life. Thanks for those who took an interest along the way - I'm off for a long lay down in a darkened room to contemplate the next project! Best wishes to all, Tom

Hello all I brought this one across the finish line just before New Years but I only had time to take some pictures now. (For the Photo Geeks amongst us, I used a Canon EOS 5Ds with a 24-105mm L lens and a 80x80x80cm lightbox) The kit was my first full blown resin kit and it was a little intimidating to say the least. Up until now I did not enjoy using large amounts of CA glue but it has been a good experience. The fit is overall very good, especially between the 3D printed parts. It is a big heavy model but the landing gear (3D printed as one piece) is very sturdy and supports the model very well indeed. How great is it to have a 1/32 JA37 Viggen! - now bring on the Draken!! Enjoy /Niels

Hi All This is the 1/32 Trumpeter MiG-29C built as a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29S (9-13). It is loaded for a CAS mission inspired by a photograph I found online. It is impossible not to feel the impact of a war in Europe, in what feels like my own backyard - and like so many on these forums I also felt the urge to show my support. I tried to incorporate as much aftermarket stuff produced in Ukraine as I could. The Rocket Pods and Wheels are from ResKit. The paint masks are both from Foxbot and DN Models. The seat is from Quickboost and the pitot tube to replace the telegraph pole included in the kit is from Master. The exhausts are from Zacto model. The decals are a story of their own - I screwed up the first paintjob using the Foxbot masks I already had so I had to start over While waiting for the brand new released masking set to arrive from DN Models, Foxbot also announced a brand new set of decals for a digital camo MiG-29. I wrote Oleg from Foxbot if I could somehow get a set and he happily sent me one straight from Kyiv in the middle of an active warzone. That kinda makes this model special for me.. I painted the model entirely using paints from MRP - the second time also in the right order . Below in order from Dark to Light: MRP-034 Tank Grey (MRP-405 seems to be too light for the MiG-29) MRP-403 Grey MRP-402 Light Grey MRP-246 Light Arctic Grey The underside is painted with MRP 405 Blue Grey Hope you like it Niels Click the images and they will open in a larger version

Hi everyone, 4 years after I started this build, I have only just got around to adding the finishing touches and calling it done.. A bit of background: Lopes Hope is a P51C-5-NT that Aircorps Aviation in Minnesota have put back in the air. I was so blown away by the photographic records they kept and the absolute commitment to accuracy they employ that I wrote to them asking for more info about the airframe. I was stunned when their VP wrote back offering to share info, permission to use their photo's in my build log and any support I needed - starting a relationship that flourishes to this day. They are the same guys that host the Aircorps Library which is an incredible online resource offering for a nominal membership fee access to all the factory drawings and manuals for a range of seminal aircraft. Their notes on this P51 and why they chose it echo my own: "Lope's Hope 3rd was a P-51C flown by Lt. Donald Lopez. Donald and Lope's Hope 3rd served in the China-Burma-India theater with the 14th Air Force, 23rd Fighter Group, 75th Squadron. The 23rd Fighter Group was the descendent of the famous American Volunteer Group or Flying Tigers after the US entered the war. Lt. Lopez had 5 victories in China and went on to become a test pilot in the early years of the jet age. Later he was the deputy director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum until his death in 2008. Donald Lopez was instrumental in the construction and opening of the National Air and Space Museum. The original wartime Lope's Hope 3rd was a P51C-5-NT, Army Air Force Serial Number: 42-103585. The serial number information was just acquired through the generous contribution of pages from Lt. Lopez's war time log book by his granddaughter Laura Lopez. Normally a WWII fighter's serial number is easily determined by just looking at the tail number. Squadrons in almost every theater of operations number planes this way, but not in China. In China the 23rd Fighter Group's squadrons were assigned a block of numbers for differentiating their aircraft. The 75th squadron's block was 150- 199 (or to 200 depending on source). Lt. Lopez used 194 on both his P-40N s and on his P-51C , Lope's Hope 3rd. Without his log book it might have been impossible to figure out his Mustang's AAF serial number. Our restoration airframe is a P-51C-10NT Army Air Force Serial Number: 43-24907 , that remained in the continental US during WWII and was used for training purposes during and immediately after the war. The decision to paint her in Lt. Lopez's color scheme is intended to honor him and his service to his country in WWII and to aviation all his life." The model started as a 1/18 HpH Desktop GRP shell.. and 1,230 pictures and a lot of work later, it looks like this.. I really enjoyed this one... it spoilt me though, having every drawing of every part and great references from the restoration meant i could just build everything i saw in front of me - that collection of hundreds, if not thousands of parts resulted in I think my best model. It is certainly a more complex aeroplane than the Spitfire I made, for example the gear bays on this were about 3 - 4 months work, on the Spit a week or two, there is virtually nothing in it's bays I hope you enjoy it and all my thanks to Aircorps and everyone who chipped in with encouragement in my build thread until next time Peter

Hi folks, My first RFI on LSP. A build I finished last summer on wich I worked for some times. The subject is the uberknown John Landers's "Big Beautiful Doll". Timeframe of my build set it to before he was appointed full colonel, so no checkers on the wings, and victory board not complete yet. In order to avoid varnish and silvering, all markings are painted, and the stencils are from HGW. AM Used: Amur Flaps Barracuda's cockpit stencils GW external stencils Yahu IP (was given a bit of relief with bezels) Lifelike Decals. Used as ref to make the masks. The only actual decal used is the name on the canopy frame. The subject at the chosen timeframe Finished Pics: Now closing up with the lady Landing light was missing at the photoshoot time, it was since added. And a few Build pics: She's not perfect, but I hope you will like her. Cheers Mathieu

finished 4 years ago but never had the chance to take photos of the two together , both models are form tamiya in 1/32 scale, just used decals for the small data, the rest is all airbrushed,

hi all, here a "Kappone" (big K) built on request of a colleauge of mine, itself being the son of a pilot serving in the Aeronautica Militare Italiana, 51° stormo, in the 60ties. strange enough, being an aircraft built by Fiat on license from North American, there is not so much references about it. so, I mantained a low profile attitude, trying to hold off my rivet counter attitude and finish it in a reasonable time to present it to the unaware final recipient. I just added an Eduard set, very useful in the cockpit area, and made some stencils for the italian codes to emulate the 51-32, serial 54858, aircraft of the "pluto" group with the red tail, to wich was attached my colleauge's father. the only thing I modified was the angle of the opened speed brakes, totally mistaken by KH. painted with Alclad II and fitted with beautiful HGW RBF flags. a simple wooden base with lightly painted sandpaper was made to accomodate it safely. actually I haven't a big feeling with modern era airplanes, but build this one was relaxing and interesting, opening a new mental window toward the post WWII era in my mind. enjoy!

Just finished the Trumpeter 1/32 SU-27UB , its the 2nd time I have built this in this camouflage pattern, it doesn't get any easier. So its an OTB build, the only extras are the static discharge’s, and Quinta studios cockpit decals, I also used Foxbot masking , but as a template then cut mine out of Tamiya masking sheets, and HATAKA acrylic paints enjoy. Mike

My rendition of Major Edward Giller's "The Millie G" is now complete. This was by far my most involved project with extra detailing for the engine, cockpit, landing gear bays and the MG bays. Here's a link to the build thread in the Works in Progress section: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/92956-132-tamiya-p-51d-15-na-mustang-the-millie-g/ Thanks for all the comments and suggestions during the build. In summary, here were the aftermarket additions to the kit: Barracuda cockpit upgrade Barracuda instrument panel Barracuda cockpit sidewalls HGW seatbelts Eduard guy bay kit (late) Barracuda P-51D tires Eduard P-51 exterior detail kit Barracuda decals + placards Eduard canopy masks Eduard engine detail kit The main paints used were Mr. Color lacquers. Now for the final photos. All of the main markings were painted except the stars and bars and tactical lettering, which were decals. The stencils from the Barracuda decals were used instead of the kit stencils. The ailerons and elevators were glued in place. The rudder and flaps are movable and do a pretty good job of staying in place. The Eduard gun bay doors is an excellent upgrade over the kit doors. The ammo belts are from the Tamiya kit. The engine covers are all removable and fit reasonably well with Tamiya's magnet system. The starboard panel just under the exhaust is a little fiddly. The weathering was a combination of oils, airbrushed Tamiya acrylics (heavily thinned) used for local effects and with sponge chipping and spatter templates. Colored pencils and pastels were also used for various effects. Mr. Color GX100 was used for gloss coats and GX114 for flat coats. Great stuff. I used Mr. Color C330 RAF Dark Green for the fuselage. And a slightly darker version for the nose checks and spinner green. The NMF paints are Mr. Color Super Metallics. The checks on the nose were painted. The drop tank fuel and pressure lines were created from 0.5mm wire. I kept the weathering on the drop tanks relatively light since often they were single use items. All of the fastener holes in the engine panel frames were drilled out. Light colored oils were used on the NMF surfaces to depict varying amounts of oxidation on the panels. Eduard's engine upgrade contains PE hose clamps for all of the main hoses and piping in the engine. They are a pain to attach and paint but look pretty snappy when complete. Also, the edges of the gunsight glass were painted Tamiya clear green to simulate the look of the thick glass plate. The aluminum paint on the wings was rendered with a combination of the Mr. Color Silver and light gray. Mr. Surfacer was used to fill the rivets and panel lines on the forward 40% of the wings. Grime and wear was depicted using a combination of Tamiya acrylics, oil paints and colored pencils. Some wear is down to the primer and some is down to the base metal. The primer toward the back of the wing is ZCY and the primer toward the front is dark gray putty colored, based on the construction process. The Eduard gun bay doors really add a lot compared to the kit doors. The Eduard doors come with a hinge at the bottom of the door for gluing it permanently in place. I wanted to be able to remove them, so I made tabs similar to the kit doors and glued them onto the Eduard doors. I also added a support rod made out of 0.3mm wire. I really like the iconic 343 FS, 55th FG markings. Chipping around the panels and doors was done with acrylic paints and colored pencils. The cockpit detail from the Barracuda kit is quite good (details are on the build thread). One note was that I changed the wiring from the radio box behind the pilot seat because the cable harness would interfere with the canopy support bracket. So I converted to a strand of speaker wire and painted it black. Thanks for following along! Comments and critiques are more than welcome. Thanks again.

Hi All Well, I guess I am suffering a bit from "Post-Viggen Blues" - I cannot really seem to chose what to build next. I am pretty sure it will be one of my numerous F-16 projects.. In the mean time I uploaded a few pictures of, what turned out to be a productive corona-lock-down-year of Modern Jets for me. I build everything from all eras but it seems to come in waves for me. With the Border Model Lancaster hopefully arriving in a couple of months, I think 2022 will be "The year of the Lancaster" First up is the 1/32 Kitty Hawk Mirage 2000C (OOB) in a special livery. Its a really nice and detailed kit but bit of a pain to build. Next up is the 1/32 Italeri Tornado GR.4. backdated to a GR.1. - I added the Aires Cockpit, Wolfpack Seats and a set of JP233´s I had from Paragon Designs (I think) The kit was bit of a letdown for me if I am honest but it is still better than the Revell Kit. Next in line is a project I wanted to do for quite some time. It is the Tamiya 1/32 F-4E converted to an F-4G. I used the GT Resin conversion kit but that was a disaster. Very very disappointed with the casting quality of that. The cockpit tub was unusable and so was a number of the other parts. I ended up scratch building quite a bit but I like how it turned out. Weapons are from Eduard Brassin. I also found time to complete my 1/32 Trumpeter A-6E Intruder (carry-over from 2020). I know most people would fill in all those rivets but I quite like the look of them. This was my first time using the cockpit decals from ANYZ, and wow! Never again without Bombs are from VideoAviation Lastly I spent quite some time building a 1/32 Trumpeter F-14A Tomcat. I cannot have a 1/32 collection without building a VF-84 Tomcat - I was a teenager in the 80´s and this is what a Tomcat looked like I added the Aires Cockpit and weapons are from Eduard Brassin (it also has a full load of AIM-54´s). Next Tomcat I will use the Zacto Model intakes. Decals are from HAD Models ...and of course the Viggen Hope you like them Niels

hello everyone No way of dressing it up, but I have changed subject again... I will go back to the Fairey Firefly - this is it's second time of falling out of favour, but when you get the urge what do you do? My new flame is the early longnose P40. I have always thought it would make a good subject for me and very nearly started one after my P51, but didn't fancy another American aircraft in quick succession. It's easy to see why.. ..beautiful lines, natural metal and technically interesting. This is G-CIIO operated by The Fighter Collection who have said I can come and take at look at her once we are into the New Year and assuming there is no covid funny business preventing a visit... I have spent the last month or so researching and finding out about the airframe and the differences with the later short nose P40s and the earlier P36 - of which there are many. I also liked the timing with the GWH 1/32 kit coming out as folks will be talking P40's for a bit I had Jumpeii Temmas plans scaled and corresponded with Witold Jaworski who has digitally modelled the P40C and had done loads of research and analysis of factory drawings One thing I really looked forward to was doing what I did with my P51 and getting stuck into those drawings to replicate everything part by part. This was always something that hindered the Firefly, I just don't like working in a vacuum, I like the research and knowing what I am making is accurate An example like this - here is the tailwheel door in the parts manual.. ..I can find the part number and in Aircorps Library, look up the drawings.. ..then scale and copy the drawings to make up a set of photo-etch parts.. ..I did this hundereds of times and now have the mother of all PE sheets at 28cm by 47cm with everything I thought I could do in PE represented.. i thought I would base the model on the 21st Century Toys 'model' as I did with their Fw190D -this was on the basis that while it is a toy, the 190 was dimensionally pretty accurate.. So a trip to ebay and £160 lighter, one turned up.. Once the 'model' arrived I set about destroying it into it's component parts - this involved sawing some of the nose elements in half so I ended up with effectively two fuselage halves.. cue the first plan comparison and a very deflated feeling... ..it's too short, too narrow, has what looks like the late chin profile and is generally all over the place.. ..the rear fuselage is particularly out.. ..now, I did toy with the idea of just getting on with reworking it, but the more I looked, the more work I found - in the end I was trying to justify it because I had spent the money.. In the end, I bit the bullet and decided to scratch build it - I have no excuse - I have great drawings and having just scratchbuilt a Hawker Fury so feeling pretty confident.. ..first step was to get a sheet of perspex acrylic to trace out a 'keel'... ..I used a scalpel to score the perspex - you may juts be able to see some of the station lines here (on the red line).. ..once I had all the station points and outlines done, I used a jigsaw and a cutting disc to cut out the profile - with a big bit missing for where the cockpit is.. ..this again told me how out of whack the 21st Century Toys model is.. ..using Jumpeii's profiles I cut out all the fuselage station formers.. ..and cemented them in place using a mini set square.. ..then I soldered some square brass stock to get the dihedral right for wings to slide into - there is a little perspex jig holding it upright inbetween them.. ..they were epoxied in place with the smaller sliding box sections in place so the angles and dangles can be seen and the positioning made correct.. ..so there we are - thousands of hours of work to go, but it feels good to have something fresh on the bench and thats what it's all about right? TTFN Peter

Here is my rendition of the ‘bent-wing bird’. I used the Eduard cockpit (never again) & propeller, HGW belts & stencils, Barracuda Wheels, and a load of scratchbuilding! I did some super-detailing on the engine, cowl flaps, canopy fittings, and wheel bays. It is a fictional scheme from a Guadalcanal based unit, flown by the fictional Lt M. W. Hendrik. I hope you enjoy my build, I had great fun with the weathering on this one. I have come to love dirty aircraft and learned a good deal of new techniques for this plane (still not so great at them!). On to the pictures!

Hello friends, wanted to let you participate to my latest work, I think it's worth it, it's not a subject we see very often... so enjoy...or not.. ciao Serge

Tamiya Model HGW wet transfers, seat belts, stencils Barracuda wheels Eduard instrument panel & engine cowling set Grey Matter Figures Engine bay All colours MRP

Hi All This is the Tamiya 1/32 F-16C in the colors of the VENOM - Viper Demo Team. I don´t often do demo schemes but this one was just too good to pass up I used quite a few extra bits; Aires Wheelbay + additional wiring Aires Exhaust Quinta Studios Cockpit Kopecky LAU 129 wingtip rails Model Maker Decal & Paint Mask set Bandit Resin Factory Travel Pod The Aires Wheelbay is a drop-in fit and essential for any F-16 build in my opinion. Its inexpensive and is almost an exact replica of the real thing. Just amazing! I wanted to try out the Quinta Studios Cockpit resin decals. At first I was a bit underwhelmed as with the colored PE. Looks good in pictures but...mjah. The trick is to give it a layer of flat varnish. It just changes everything and enhances all the details. Makes it look very realistic. Judge for yourselves - I combined it with a few details of my own and some careful brush painting. As the Venom Demo Viper never flies with anything on the wingtips, the new empty LAU-129 Rails from Kopecky Models came out at just the right time - The detail just blew my mind - take a look at his stuff - its just incredible. The Paint Mask set is really nice. I was very concerned that the emblem on the tail would curl up on itself but it turned out to be very rigid and could even be moved around just holding it with a pair of pliers. It just looks really cool painted on. The decals are extremely thin and prone to curling in on themselves though - I had to order a second set to finish the build Take a look - Hope you like it (If you click the images they will open in a bigger version) Thanks for looking Niels

Hi All This is the Academy 1/32 F/A-18C from the Kinetic boxing. Its been on my bench on/off for quite some time but I have managed to finish it. There are no decals in 1/32 for this aircraft that I fell in love with so I had to make paint masks for most of them, using what I could find as templates. Some stencils I could source from various aftermarket sheets but the black/orange combination is not easy to find. Its a really great kit and I am glad that Academy have re-released it again in the shape of the F/A-18A+ kit (it has all the parts for the C version). The lines of the legacy Hornets are just more appealing than the Super Hornet to my eyes.. It has the Aires Wheel bays and bombs are from Wolfpack. The Sidewinders are from Zacto models (it had to be the best for a Sidewinders bird ) Hope you like it. Niels

Hi Guys, Here is my Airfix Typhoon ready for D-Day! Overall a very nice kit that fits very well all closed except for the cowling area, where some efforts is required. From the box except Barracuda air intake ring, Master RP-3s, RB Productions harness and Eduard wheels. Painted with Gunze and Tamiya, Silouhette masks for all markings. Model completed a couple of months ago but photography caused me some troubles. NB: Photos are 1500px wide. Tristan

Hello guys, this is my recent build and my first helo kit finished. Simple almost OOB build, with Eduard PE set used mainly for interior and RB Model mini guns Easy assembly and good overall fit of the parts. Painted with MRP paints and finished with MIG and Ammo pigments, shaders and panel line wash. Hope you like it jan

This represents an SBD-3 from VS-6 USS Enterprise June 4th 1942 crewed by ENS Frank O’Flaherty and AMM1 Bruno Gaido. Both Gaido and O’Flaherty were captured by the IJN after ditching their aircraft. After both men were interrogated, they had weights attached to them and thrown overboard to drown. This the Trumpeter Midway “Clear Edition”. As many have stated over the years, this is a pretty good kit! I wouldn’t mind building another one. The only AM used was Yahu IP, my wife made the squadron decal ID numbers for me. I used AK Paints exclusively on this build. This piece was awarded the “Whizzer White Memorial” Navy/Marine Attack Aircraft at the 2021 Las Vegas Nationals. Photos were taken with my iphone. Thanks for looking. Rod

Hello all, This my attempt at the Hasegawa 1/32 FW 190 A5 kit. I found this to be an easy and fun build. I was motivated by some great builds at the Vegas Nats. I was able to pick the kit and decals while I was there. I have always had a fondness for the Yellow and Black checker nose. Reminds me of the Ernst Kessler Bird from the Movie The Great Waldo Pepper. I riveted the skin and used G factor landing gear, Barracuda wheels, Quinta cockpit and a mix of Model Master and AK Paints. The pics were taken with my I phone. I find it easier to take these outdoor pics then trying to make a indoor studio picture. I am a terrible photographer! Thanks for looking. Rod

April 12/22 Well, I’m finally done! This model took me almost exactly a year to build, which is normal for my past efforts, including not much modeling during the summer months, which here in Canada isn’t very long. I really enjoyed this kit, because it had just the right amount of quality, details and flaws to keep me challenged throughout. Before I forget them all, here are a few of the main positives and negatives: Positive · Excellent detail and I didn’t have to recover hardly any fasteners or panel lines · The kit is fairly accurate · Big! All of the detail is easy to see · The engine is a detailed model in itself · Stressed skin on fuselage and wings · Great instructions, although there are a few errors in Step 140 and 141. F24 is F28, F25 is F29 and F37 is F41 · The aftermarket is strong for this kit, as used below Negative · All large parts are very rough, which requires careful sanding to remove, while still retaining the stressed skin look · Just about every join is too tight, so most joins need to be altered by sanding and trimming to fit · There are a lot of parts and detail that will never be seen again unless you open up extra panels, etc.. (eg. Behind the seat radio and tanks) The instructions should alert to this, before you put in a lot of wasted effort. · Seams lines are significant in almost all of the parts · Tail antenna should have been a separate part. It’s always in the way and I’m surprised I didn’t break it, despite banging it around many times · Airfix customer support was poor. Despite a clearly miscast Sprue F that had flaws (short shot the above parts F28 and F29, amongst a few others), Airfix made me pay for shipping a few replacement parts. It’s not the $20 I had to pay, but the principle where they really dropped the ball and took no responsibility, that I found so annoying To recap, here is the laundry list of the kits used to create this Hellcat: · Airfix 1/24 Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat Kit, A19004 · Aerocraft Brass Landing Gear · Airscale Instrument Panel · ANYZ Spark Plugs and Wiring set, AN011, AN013, AN015, AN016, AN017 · ANYZ Dials, Knobs, Switches and Cockpit Handles. AN028, AN029, AN030 · HGW Seatbelts, 124511 · Barracuda Diamond Tread Tires/wheels, BR24412 · Eduard Canopy Masks, LX006 · DN Models Paint Masks for Insignias, Letters and Numbers · DN Models Paint Masks for Canopy, Wheels, Lights · Fundekals Grumman F-6F-5 Hellcat Decals · Adriatic Models Cockpit Resin Details And other than extensive research on the internet, this was my main reference: · Detail & Scale, F6F Hellcat, by Bert Kinzey and Chris Sakal My build thread for this model is here at LSP: 1/24 Airfix F6F-5 Hellcat, Kicked Up A Notch And now the final pics with a few comments. The F6F-5 Hellcat did not enter the war until roughly the last 6 months, so although well used, they were not around long enough on carrier decks to be abused with heavy weathering like the F6F-3’s, although the big fuel tank that was interchangeable with the "3's" was usually filthy. They were also mostly dark gloss blue in their entirety including the wheel wells, so showing off color contrasts on such a dark scheme is difficult, which is why I chose the VF-12 fighter squadron of the USS Randolph during May of 1945, which was disbanded only 4 months later in September after the end of the war. While this scheme is very popular and not very unique, it does show off a lot of contrasting white and the DN paint masks for this scheme were readily available. Since I put so much effort into the engine area, I left most of the cowling panels off as it would be "under maintenance" and due to the modifications I made to the engine area, they wouldn't have fit anyway. First a fun one, to show how big this model is with its 21” wingspan and 17” fuselage, which was hard to photograph in its entirety within my fairly big 26” photo booth I only use for final pics. Here it is (along with the edges of the booth in the background), next to my 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire, which appears tiny in comparison. And a bit of a walkaround Yes, Hellcat wheels toe-in a bit... Rear antenna spring was made from fine computer wire twisted around a needle. Tiny hole was drilled using a #80 bit, and the line is dark nylon sewing thread. Antenna base extension and insulator was made from wire insulation, while side connection to fuselage is a 90 degree ANYZ connector that was drilled out and attached with a pin. It is critical that you trim and dry fit the navigation light lenses before painting, because they don’t fit at all without doing so. The blue/green light against a dark blue background obviously doesn't show up very well. The tail hook assembly works really well, although this may be the last time anyone sees it The cockpit is really hard to photograph, but can be seen very well with the naked eye at this large scale. Here’s a few attempts to show off the beautiful Airscale PE/ Decals and Adriatic Resin improvements. And a few of the undersides, which will likely never be seen again with the super fragile antenna now installed on the top. This is very hard to photograph because it looks too clean under bright lights against a dark background, so you’ll have to take my work for it that it’s a lot dirtier than it looks. This angle shows those oil lines into the firewall just left of the air intake I had such difficulty in locating earlier. Thanks to Craig’s help, I think we sorted them out correctly now. So that’s it for this build and the only dilemma I have now is where the heck I’m going to place this big pig in my modeling room! I have no shelf space left, but I’m sure I will find somewhere to place it until I start my next project, likely next October or so when the weather becomes cold again. Until then, I will always be lurking these forums for tips, comments and your interesting builds. Cheers, Chuck

1/32 Trumpeter kit, Black Box cockpit, Eduard 1000lbs bomb, Painting mask homemade, All colours MRP

This is the HPH kit of the Me 410. Cast in resin with an extensive etch set, including coloured parts for the cockpit. The kit went together relatively well for a resin kit, no major fit issues. Transparencies were cast in clear resin and were thin with fine detail. Painted with Xtracolor enamels and the decals were from the kit too. Thanks for looking Angelo.

I present to you the relatively new 32ari kit of italeri painted in the anniversary variant presented by RAF at Marham air base in 2019 but with extra the armament of the 6 brimstone, the one gbu-12 and the litening. I did use the following matterials: Decal:Xtra Decal 32070 Seat:Quickboost Wheels:Eduard P.E:Eduard Mask:Eduard Pitot:Master ASRAAM:Eduard Brimstone:Eduard Boz-107:Eduard Sky Shadow"Eduard I hope you like it! Comments and remarks welcome !!!

Here is my Academy 1/32 F/A-18C that I have just completed , Aires cockpit wheel well and cans have been used along with reality wheels .The aim-9 aim-7, agm-64 missile came from Eduard along with the LGB-24 Bomb

1/32 Trumpeter A-6A INTRUDER “505 DEVIL LEADER” This is the trumpeter kit, and with all its faults, it somehow comes together pretty well. This build is from the “flight of the intruder film” and depicts 505 devil leader cool hand Luke and Cole Virgil Cole getting ready for a strike. The only addons I used are the Quinta studios cockpit detail, and the Readoak figures, it is painted with HATAKA acrylic paints. Instead of having the wings fully opened, or folded in the parking position, I decided to have the wings being unfolded, as no one builds them this way, it’s a simple bent metal tube that holds the wings in place. I used the AMMO night blue cement, as it shows where you have glued, great stuff, but if you use AMMO gloss varnish, it reactivates the blue in the glue and it all shows through where you have glued, so be careful, if you use this stuff. Enjoy Mike

Taube produced in 1914 but still flown in 1917 by the test pilot Emil Wendler at Berlin-Johannisthal. And with the plastic painted propeller replaced with wood carved final version.

Not a lot of progress this week, I'm busy preparing for a big model show in Germany this weekend - Euro Model Expo at Heiden. I managed to paint the cockpit and to add tons of Anyz knobs. In addition, the fuselage was closed. Besides that, I am busy redoing the wings again. @Richard J was kind enough to point out some errors and to provide extremely useful information which enables me to make the 3D model significantly more accurate. Thanks again for that, Richard! And here's what I did over the last few days: And last but not least, a crappy pic of the assembled fuselage.

Good evening boys and girls The painting process on the big Sunderland is now more or less complete - since the last pictures I've added the upper wing insignias and given the model a couple of coats of flat varnish to kill the high gloss Xtracolor paints provide - great for decaling but not so for a WWII-era flying boat! After that, I made and added the radar aerials for the fuselage sides: As well as the one above the flightdeck: The canopy has been unmasked and the good news is it survived the painting process unscathed: I have made the early-style exhausts from Evergreen tube, bent very carefully over the toaster! They were then sprayed with Humbrol burnt steel and added to the collector rings, which have also been painted according to references: I've started the weathering of the upper surfaces by blowing some various greys back from the exhausts: I've also sprayed on the distinctive water marks on the lower hull using various browns as seen on period photos: And here's where we're at now: The to-do list is certainly getting shorter and I'm now entering the home straight, although there's still a lot to keep me occupied. Jobs still to do are: - cabin glazing - paint/weather/install wheels for the beaching gear - rigging on the floats - make/paint/install radar aerials on the lower outer wings - make and install depth charge racks and depth charges - make turret interiors - paint and install turret transparencies - landing lights on port wing leading edge A good couple of month's work yet, but the end is getting nearer! All the best, Tom

A-6A Intruder VA-165 Trumpeter 1:32 This time on a black background and I hope the photos will be of better quality.

The Boeing F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet are twin-engine, carrier-capable, multirole fighter aircraft variants based on the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. The F/A-18E single-seat and F/A-18F tandem-seat variants are larger and more advanced derivatives of the F/A-18C and D Hornet. Let me present to you the 1/32 Revell F-18E hornet, with reed oak figures painted with Hataka paint set.

This build was VERY lucky to see the light of day, almost gave up on it quite a few times, but happy to say, it made it to completion (after 2 years on and off) and not the final flight against the wall Base kit is the Revell ju88A-4, wish I'd had the A-1, would have saved me a lot of hassles, especially in the cockpit area/rear glazing to fuselage fairing. Fit of the kit wasn't the greatest, plastic was quite pebbly and soft. Not totally satisfied with the end result, but here she is! With a HUGE shout-out to @Pastor John from AIMS, people like him and others, keep us modellershappy! Ju88C-6 with Fug 202 of 4./NJG100 on the Eastern Front Revell Ju88A-4 AIMS Ju88C-6 "Nachtjager" Resin conversion set AIMS Decals "Ju88 Fighters" AIMS Luftwaffe Gun Sights AIMS Ju88A-1 Tail Wheel bay Eduard Brassin Main and tail wheels and cockpit details Owl Fug 202 antenna Master barrels Profimodeller Main wheel bay detail set HGW seatbelts and a TON of scratch-building! All paints Gunze laquers

Revells IX converted to VIII. Kagero Decals for "Hava Go Jo!" plane. Nice kit, fast to build, but needs some adjustments and corrections. Wobbly landing gear requires metal replacement or needle inside.

part 2 off the intakes after a bit sanding other side is the same opend the rat door dryfit off the nose Now to the paintshop for the intakes Mark

Hi all Here my last built, the Tamiya F-4EJ. Iwanted a colorful subject. So I chose a 307th Squadron airplane used for target towing in 1981. Hope you like.

Hello, Second kit of the year after the HPH Helldiver, once more a resin kit. Lot of sanding but that's modelling. Hope you like it.

Greetings all, I have been confined to the house over the last week and bit due to Covid, but being in isolation does have its perks. After a pretty grim 48hrs I was back to feeling fine so got the airbrush out and started painting this beast. Total painting time was more or less 10 hours and I used three tins of Xtracolor paint for each of the Extra Dark Sea Grey, Slate Grey and Sky - the surface area is HUGE. I still need to do the upper wing insignias but this will have to wait until the weekend as I'm now back to work. You'll have to forgive the horrible phone pictures - these were snapped in the living room under artificial light - but when she's flat-coated I'll get the decent camera out and shoot some pics in natural light. Things are progressing nicely, and the end is appearing on the horizon! All the best, Tom

The well-known trumpeter kit with the following after market accessories Cockpit by red fox Static dischargers by Master Decal stencls by Begemot Wheels by Armory Pitot tube by Master Mask by Montex Enjections seat by Quick Boost Antenas by Quick Boost Detail set by Aires Nose cone by Zacto models Colours by AKAN

Finally finished! Project 19. 1/32 Zoukei-Mura model, Yahu instrument panel, Barracuda wheels, Eagle cals, Painting mask homemade, All colours MRP

Evening folks, A long overdue update on the Sunderland... The last few weeks have been spent adding some of the finer details to the model as I prepare it for paint. The last major job was to add the cockpit glazing which is always a nerve-wracking experience as I regularly ruin canopies with wayward glue-sodden fingers and a host of other mishaps. However, this time things proceeded smoothly - the canopy itself was an excellent fit and the whole process was remarkably trouble free! First job was to add the previously completed flightdeck details: Then the canopy itself was attached by holding it in place with tape and running Tamiya Extra Thin around the mating surfaces: This was allowed to set for 24 hours and then I carefully masked the areas in need of protecting before blending the clear piece in with Milliput Fine: When complete, the windows were marked out and cut from Tamiya tape before the whole cockpit area got a spray of RAF grey/green to ensure the frames are the correct colour when viewed from inside. I also attached the astrodome and DF loop which was a spare from and HK B-17: With that done, other smaller details were made and added such as the leading edge landing lights on the port wing (these will be fitted and painted after the main paint job is completed), the tip lights were made from clear sprue sanded to shape and the various other access panels were either sribed on or made from thin Evergreen strip: The early Sunderlands were festooned with various aerials for sub-hunting and these have been made from various pieces of sprue and Evergreen - I have fitted those on the top of rear fuselage as they shouldn't get damaged but the remainder will be done after painting: A beautiful set of 3D-printed wheels have also arrived to complete the hone-made beaching gear: So the airframe is now more or less ready for a mammoth session in the paint booth - you'll notice I've already sprayed her flanks in Medium Sea Grey in preparation for masking off the codes on her sides: Speaking of paint - my go-to brand is Xtracolor's enamel range and I'm stocked up and ready to go! I may be a while but I'll be sure to update you when she's in her new dress. All the best, Tom

1/32 Tamiya Nakajima A6M2-N RUFF the resin float is very heavy and was connected using pins top and bottom, the resin its self isn't very good, its detail is lost in places and needed re drilling and rescribing, any way enjoy Mike

After lurking around for years going completely under the radar , getting tons of tips and inspiration, it's finally time to post something This build was a joint effort with my good friend Cato. We made this model for a local regimental museum that has built up a theme around some artifacts that belonged to fellow Norwegian Johan Koren Christie. Johan trained as a pilot in the Norwegian Army Flying Corps in the late twenties. He fled Norway, after the capitulation in 1940 and volunteered for the RAF in 1942. After almost being kicked out from basic training, that he still managed to pass because Bomber Command was suffering so heavy casualties and desperately needed replacements. He was then being transferred to 35th Pathfinder Squadron as a pilot he flew 46 operational sorties most of, in a Halifax, but also a few in a Avro Lancaster. Our model is supposed to illustrate one of the latter sorties. The HK model goes well together without too much trouble, but the size makes it more demanding than the normal, simply because you must basically have the model stationary and move around it, and not just keep it in your hand. Anyway an enjoyable build, the next one will be a single engine, single seater, just for the pure therapy , The museum staff working on the shadow box. Wood frame and photoshopped aerial reconnaissance photograph printed on an aluminium plate.

1/32 Tamiya model, Barracuda wheels, HGW wet transfers 232903, All colours MRP

More pics...

In further adventures of Poseidon: after lots of sanding, first primer coats on wings and tailplane. Starting to look a little more like a 'proper' model now, and not a Fisher Price reject! A lot of work to do now on thinning the trailing edges - waaay too thick as they are - but the wings are stable/solid and I'm reasonably happy it'll all work. More when there's more... Iain

Here is my last built, long and not easy. It took me many years to complete it with long no works periods. Only changed the kit main landing gear legs with G-Factor ones. Main markings are painted with home made masks.

As some of you may know, the RA-5C is not only one of my favourite aircraft, I had also started building a 32nd scale one from scratch some 10 years ago. Whilst the shape didn't look too bad, my choice of material was not ideal for scribing and I didn't have a propre solution for the wings. It has never been out of sight and I worked on in from time to time, but the more time I spent on it, the more clear it became that my old scratchbuilt fuselage was not the right base for what I wanted to do. Despite all the other ongoing projects, the Vigi was always on my mind. @Dandiego was kind enough to share some excellent works drawings he had gotten from user TomcatKirby with me. They were so detailed and looked so accurate that I decided to start working with Fusion 360 right away - I needed to learn surface modelling for which Fusion is an excellent tool. After watching a few tutorials I gave it a go. The early drawing looked good enough to convince me this was doable. Here is a look at the early drawings with the surfaces being very basic: As already mentioned, these shapes are very basic - the surfaces are not tangent causing the curves not being smooth. This required a lot of tweaking and threedimensional thinking. The learning curve is very steep and it is huge fun - this is how it looks after two weeks of intensive work with surface detail added to the forward fuselage: The tail fairing is a very complex area. Drawing this was a real mindf*ck to say the least. Adding material thickness to this part is very difficult and I haven't found a solution for this yet - but I am working on it. When designing an entire aircraft, one has to bear in mind how to build and paint it later on, so a bit of engineering is required. I decided to combine the intake trunks and main landing gear wells with structural elements to ensure the very large fuselage will not deform over time once assembled. Details will of course be added before printing the parts. The intakes with the variable ramps are pretty much ready. The forward one is part of the intake, the rear one will be installed after painting. Of course I couldn't resist and ran a test print of the forward fuselage to check the shapes and surface detail. I am pretty happy with the result; the groove lines are 0,3mm wide but look a tad wide in my opinion. I sadly cannot modify them anymore at this point. They will become finer after a coat of primer anyway and I hope they won't be too dominant on the finished model. I'll reduce their width to 0,2mm on the next model I do for sure. I hope I can finish the CAD files in the foreseeable future - I will update the thread as I progress. Just one remark right at the beginning of the project - there are NO plans to sell either printed parts nor STLs at this point.

F-16C Aggressor " Alaskan Splinters" Tamiya 1:32 Model made to order. Although the photos of this plane show that there are not many traces of heavy use. The ordering party asked me to make such traces, so it's a bit of SF, but I hope you like it. Decals: Two Bob

MiG-23MF Trumpeter 1:32 As always model straight from the box + Techmod decals

Bonjour tout le monde Ca fait longtemps que je n'ai rien posté sur le forum , alors j'ai quelques trucs à vous montrer ..... je commence par la dernière finition juste pour aujourd'hui ....... il y aura plus à suivre Bearcat Trumpeter échelle 1/32 , guerre d'Indochine bataille de Diên Biêm Phu ,F8F1-b du GC 1/22 Saintonge sources photos french wings Bye Bye