BradG

Alex is next over the line with his RCAF spit in desert colours. Nice job indeed. Link to build thread;

Very nice indeed I will add to the gallery.

You'll have to bring it to Northerns comp in September.

I've had this model kicking around the stash for many years and thought while I'm a bit crook with some head cold and currently high on cough medicine, it might be time to start a WW1 aircraft. I don't usually build WW1 so fitting the struts was interesting, I think I managed to get them mostly lined up. I also in my haze, decided rigging would be a good idea. I drilled small holes and threaded some stretchy line through them. It took me a day but it does look nice. A simple little base was made from a wooden thing i found at a good will shop, grout, some spares box stuff, CMK resin pilot and Mini Natur grass tufts. I left the aircraft pretty clean and glossy, I've read that WW1 paints were high gloss and then faded off, but as this aircraft was not in use long I figured a dead flat finish wouldn't be realistic. The aircraft is apparently one flown by Olivier Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay in probably Jagdstaffel 18, some time in late 1917 or early 1918. He would score 25 victories flying mostly the Fokker DVII between March and October 1918. On October 18th he was hit in the leg, probably by friendly fire. He managed to get back to base but was not expected to survive his wounds. His recommendation for the Blue Max was rushed through, but he would not live to know he'd become the youngest recipient of the award at just 20, dying in hospital 10 days later, only a few hours before confirmation of the award arrived.

Just keep in mind it has to have a kit in 1/32 and preferably one that is easily available and not going to cost an arm and a leg to buy.

We don't get many foreign coins in change down here, mostly just New Zealand coins (hence the Kiwi 20c above) because they are close to our coins in size and weight and can get passed off in change easily. I do admit to checking the bank coin machine return slot when I visit, often pull a couple of non aussie coins that a business has just left there when depositing their coins.

It's been on the selection list a few times Erwin. There's a lot to choose from. Don't forget foreign names too like Veltro or Hayabusa. But also I'm adding to the list this year "Fighting Words", so anything to do with war or combat. Could be weapons or people etc (Fortress, Invader, Intruder, Corsair, Arrow etc). There's heaps to choose from. Also "Naturegasm", so those things you find in the natural world, for example; Lightning, Thunderbolt, Shooting Star, Meteor etc. I also thought of some Flora for you; Ohka and Willow.

I enjoy looking through my change for whatever coins I can find. As yet I haven't found an error coin, but you never know. Here's what I've picked up in the last couple of weeks. The top row below are a couple of my more valuable coins. Far left is a 1919 1 yuan silver coin from the Republic of China. They can be worth up to $35,000 dollars for the right coin, mine is not worth more than a few hundred. Also next to them are two 1 ruble coins, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Lenin's birth and the other 50 years of the CCCP. Dad bought these for me at the airshow from two Russian MiG pilots who were making a fortune flogging off Russian coins and patches they brought out with them.

I've built the larger version as well, not sure why they didn't slide mold the missile in the larger scale, would have made is easier to build. I must build another some day as mine was lost to a fire.

I saw the Shermans rolling down the street, that looked cool.

A nice little kit from Hobby Boss, literally no filler required and most of the kit fits together with minimal glue. I really like how they molded the missle, using slide molds I'd say as it comes in only two pieces and glues together where the missile itself parts after launch, so no nasty seams down the length to fill and sand. I painted this up as a missile in Egypt I think, that's what the caption said anyway. It looks as though the missile itself had been camouflaged on the launcher itself, with the lower surface left in the original blue grey paint. If you like missiles this makes a good weekend build.

I'm not sure but I have the set from this mob and it looks very nice in the box. https://www.buchonscalemodels.com/

Here's my link to some snaps from the weekend; ships, tanks, aircraft and a few other random stuff. https://imgur.com/a/model-expo-2025-EAlnOjw

Yeh that looks good mate.

I'll get some armour and ship pics tomorrow. There's a very nice 1/350 scale Fuso and Kongo. It was good to see you Kev.

Don't worry I'll get some pics, @LSP_Kevin are you coming along?

The usual Model expo is on again next week over the Kings Birthday Weekend at Sandown Racecourse. I'll be selling cheap second hand books and an assortment of other items at the Moorabbin Air Museum traders table over the weekend with dad, so if you're going to be there come and say hi.

Some really nice work by Javlin1 here on his George. Great work mate. Link to build thread;

Very nice work, I shall add to the gallery.

This is the reasonably new Miniart kit with crew figures in 1/35. If it's detail and parts you want, this is the kit for you. There's multiple decal options which require many different parts for different configurations of tank. There is also an extensive photo etch fret. I have deviated a little from the instructions; I changed the road wheels to the open kind and included the heavy machine gun on the cupola for this version as I liked the look. I also played around with the tools and stores on the tank. The kit includes 4 figures. I didn't use the bloke squatting down as I thought it looked like he was taking a dump. I did however cut off his hands and put them on the figure sitting in the turret as I liked them better than the closed fisted hands supplied. AK-47s come from the spares box. I decided to use a brush for this model as I figure it probably wasn't all nicely spray painted with and air gun, more likely being painted with a brush, or mop. I like the hard edge to the camo pattern this gives. Weathering was done with various washes and sandy pigments worked into the surface. These Miniart armour kits are very nice, but require a lot of work due to the high parts count and complexity of the build. I also found the plastic very soft and broke several smaller pieces trying to get them off the sprue. It's also worth noting these don't have anything like the Dragon Magic tracks, so every track link has 4 sprue attachment points to cut and clean, times by about 150 links. That said, patience will result in a nice looking model. I do have their T-55 and Panzer IV in the stash to build as well.

This is the oldish Hasegawa 1/72 kit. Despite being nearly 50 years old, the kit is surprisingly decent, with fine engraved lines and good decals, this boxing I think is 1992. It does lack cockpit detail and the decals are incorrect in this boxing for Scott's P-40E. Supplied is a serial number for the tail, which despite being incorrect, this aircraft had no serial painted on it and it lacks the white 7 for the rear fuselage (this came from the spares box). The 2014 dual boxing of the kit corrects these errors. A quick look online sees not very many 1/72 P-40E's available so for it's simple buildability and being fairly easy to come across, it's still up there with the best in scale for it's type. I rather hope Airfix might continue their P-40 line.

I wish we could own replicas and deactivated weapons here in Victoria, but you still need to get a permit and allow police into your home whenever they see fit to inspect you. Shame really, however strangely enough, anything that predates percussion caps, so flint, wheel and matchlock weapons are not considered firearms and no permit is needed to own them.

I picked up the ICM Russian pilots and ground crew set and decided to practise my figure painting. These really add a little something to the scene.

A hat-trick for Erwin in this GB, with a very nice Mk 22 Spitfire, my favourite Mk of spitfire! Link to build thread;

You machine you, great work. I really wish a new 22/24 would come out, I think it's entirely possible either from Airfix or Kotaire.