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I don’t normally start kits while I have others on the go, but my revell Mustang has an enamel gloss black base coat curing, slowly. I need to fill the few days void. In a couple of other threads, I reference my awesome wife who lets me spend money on models if we have a bit spare. We were flicking through some pictures of “pretty” (her term) F-16’s. Not being able to tie it down to a single favourite, she took the unprecedented step of buying these... The first, as you can see will be adorned in the truly spectacular ‘Zeus’ scheme from the HAF. The second one, is equally spectacular. The 18th Aggressor Squadron from Eielson AFB. Alaska provide me with one of the coolest splinter schemes I’ve seen. Now you can imagine my quandary, and why Mrs Stokey Pete said “why not build them both then?” They'll be pretty much OOB builds, with exception of the CFT tanks and parabrake parts (generously donated by @Kagemusha) for the Greek jet. I’m allowing a little artistic licence with regard the particular blocks and bits that don’t come with the kits. Having spent handsomely already, I didn’t want to push my luck by asking for intake and exhaust conversions. Stay tuned for the opening salvos once I’ve worked out my build sequences. Pic’s grabbed from Pinterest, no copyright information to allow credits to photographers.

Hi all! One reason why my Corsair build has slowed down is that I have taken part in a Facebook group build. The subject is the world famous F-4 Phantom II. For my build I decided to use Revell's 1/32 F-4F kit to depict a worn out Greek F-4E SRA with I will also be using the following aftermarket detail sets: Legend's resin F-4E cockpit Real Model's resin slatted stabilizers GT Resin's exhausts DEF Model's resin wheels and FOD covers Eduard's placards Airscale's dataplates and instruments

In between other projects, I thought that I would have a go at this one. I will be completing it as a Greek Air Force (HAF) aircraft in NMF finish. I shall be using Icarus decals on the model. Clean up of the parts has commenced. One of the problems I have is trying to find a good colour match to the ADC Grey/US Airframe Grey (FS 36473/16473) colour fir the radome and wing undersurface. I could by the Xtracrylic colour, but I prefer to use enamel paints and the correct Humbrol 146 colour has been OOP from a number of years now. The answer is to colour match my existing collection of paints to a full size aircraft. Luckily, Bruntingthorpe has an ex-Marinefieger F-104G Starfighter that I could look at. so, armed with a few tins of paint that I thought would look close to the right colour (based on photographs), I went to see how close I was. The radome of this particular aircraft is painted US SEA light grey FS 36622. However, there are two very small chipped areas of paint on the radome that showed the original ADC grey underneath it. I found that the old Humbrol Authentic USN 3 (FS 36375) colour was a very close match, which I think looks good for faded ADC grey. I also found that Humbrol 127 (the Humbrol replacement for USN 3 light compass ghost grey) was a good match for fresh ADC grey when compared to the internal fuselage area where the wings are attached, which also appears to be ADC grey (it has a slightly bluer hue to it), but overall, in my judgement, Humbrol USN 3 looks like the best match. Derek

Hi all! Here's my latest work, Italeri's 1/32 kit of the F-104G Starfighter. The model depicts an aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force with the S/N 32715 which was one of the decal options offered by the kit. Photos of the particular plane show it with heavily chipped wingtip tanks. A few aftermarket accessories were used including CMK's resin cockpit, Eduard's resin wheels and PE gun bay and BestFong FOD intake covers. The model was painted with a combination of Hataka, Mig Ammo and Alclad paints. Weathering was done with the use of Ammo and AK Interactive weathering products as well as oils (a first for me). Despite its minor shortcomings Italeri's Starfighter was fun and enjoyable to build and in the end you will get a large and wonderful replica of this iconic aircraft. Can't wait for the two seater to be released!

Now don't all get too excited... As I have been out of the loop for a very long time now with regard to painting and finishing models, I guessed that I needed a 'test mule' to practise on? I found an incomplete Revell 1/32 F-16A kit which had been binned following an air cadet attempting to unsuccessfully assemble it many years ago (with, by the look of it, a full bottle of Cyanoacrolate). I filed all of the super glue off the joints then quickly (a couple of evenings work) threw the thing together with normal tube cement. As I intend to make some HAF subjects, I thought that this would be a useful test piece to practice the Agean ghost scheme upon when the time comes (most likely before I complete my HAF F-4E AUP). I still need a good Viper kit and I would love to make a Block 50/52 aircraft, but this is out of my reach for now (I do have the old Hasegawa 1/32 FSD F-16A kit, and maybe another (complete) Revell F-16A 'Tiger meet' kit, so I guess that I shall just have to modify them if needs be?). Derek