Claymore

Grumman Avenger Mk.II

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 15:14:58 GMT

Completed, the Frog 1/72 Grumman Avenger Mk.II torpedo bomber model kit, depicted as flown in the British Pacific Fleet, HMS Indomitable, 1945. Decent enough for its age, with a surprisingly sturdy undercarriage. Lots of masking of the canopy and turret to do! It technically uses the same colour scheme as the Fairey Barracuda - Sky underneath, with Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey (that's the green) camouflage on top, but the Avenger was a lend-lease aircraft, and the American factory, Eastern Motors, painted the Dark Slate Grey in a slightly different, more olivey, green. You can see the difference in the pic of the two of them together.

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Fairey Barracuda Mk.II

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 15:12:15 GMT

Completed, the Frog 1/72 Fairey Barracuda Mk.II torpedo bomber model kit, depicted as flown by the Royal Navy in the Pacific war in 1945 off HMS Vengeance. Not a bad kit considering its age, though a little lacking in detail. I added an extra seat and the machine guns inside, and did some aerial wires. The landing gear is quite fiddly, and the glasswork - canopy and side windows - were quite tedious to mask. Mistakes were made, but I quite like how the paint came out.

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Bristol Belvedere

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 15:10:53 GMT

Completed, the Airfix 1/72 Bristol 192 Belvedere model kit. It's basically a 1959 kit, and I have the 1970s edition of the kit. The kit itself doesn't match the actual helicopter it's modelled on, since the kit was based on a prototype. It was definitely too much work to convert it to the final production helicopter. The kit itself is terrible; poor detail, terrible fit, and a canopy that is straight out of model hell. The decals were yellowed, but I trimmed around them, and with nice white and silver paint, the strange, slender helicopter model actually looks OK. For the canopy, I found pictures of a canopy mask online, printed it, and used it as a template to cut masks that I placed; there are no markings on the canopy itself.

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Belvedere, Avenger, Barracuda

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:38:29 GMT

I'm busy with three model kits for June.

The Bristol Belvedere is a 1950's British helicopter, and the kit is from 1958. It's terrible - not accurate, and doesn't fit well. The canopy masking is a nightmare because there are no lines on the canopy, so I found and printed a rough template online and used it to cut masks.

The Grumman Avenger Mk2 is a Frog kit, pretty simple. The Fairey Barracuda Mk2 is also Frog and simple, though I added a little extra interior details. Both will be done in Royal Navy WW2 markings from the Pacific theatre. Both have long canopies that need lots of masking, and the Avenger has a turret, while the Barracuda has several side windows.

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Beriev Be-200ES

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:48:08 GMT

Beriev Be-200ES

Completed, the Zvesda 1/144 Beriev Be-200ES fire-fighting plane. The Beriev Be-200ES is a Russian jet-powered flying boat used by the Russian Navy and here as a fire-fighting aircraft that scoops up tons of water and drops it on fires.

It's my 5th seaplane model of the year. The kit fits together really well, and because I wanted it shown dumping water, I did it with wheels retracted. However, to do it "in flight" with water bay doors open, you need to cut the doors out. That was a poor design - too thick, and the instructions just left the doors out. I fabricated thinner doors and mounted them in the right places. The build otherwise was easy, and painting it in white, grey and blue too (though I had to make dead sure the white/grey border was exactly where the decals would be. The decals though! Lots of tiny stencils (sometimes like 5 tiny dots on one large decal). Almost the front half of each fuselage half was a single large irregular decal - it was very stressful cutting it out, placing it, and making sure it lined up with the continuous lines from the rear sides. There were a few lines too, that needed to be all lined up perfectly. Fortunately it all came out well. Then I used the kit stand, and glued cotton wool to give the water dump effect; I think it looks reasonably good when comparing to real pictures.

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Defiant TT

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:44:59 GMT

Completed, the Classic Airframes 1/48 Boulton Paul Defiant T.T. Mk1 target tug. Fascinating aircraft, converted from the Defiant turret-fighter to tow targets for fighter pilot training. This one was used by the USAAF, and they plastered US markings directly over the RAF markings, so the plane has both US and RAF markings. The kit comes with resin parts for cockpit, rear cockpit, winch, propeller for the generator, the tug stuff underneath, and wheel wells.

The kit itself is terrible, unfortunately. The resin parts are nice, but that's all. The rest is not nice. Parts don't fit (like, the nose is a couple of mm narrower than the fuselage, and the wing needs trimming to fit the fuselage), and there are no locating pins (I drilled holes and made my own pins for tailplanes), and more. So much wrong. The decals are thick and don't settle nicely over detail, and I think an entire decal sheet is missing (the instructions indicated lots of stencils that were not there, and one RAF roundel was absent). At least there are recessed panel lines (though I rescribed them anyway to make them a little deeper). The Defiant’s undercarriage is a little complex, but fortunately I got it right. I cut the front canopy open so that the inside was visible, but of course the sliding section didn't fit over the fuselage; I had to do lots of sanding.

Interesting subject though; the black and yellow underside is cool.

Album here

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Dornier Tp 24

Sat, 02 May 2026 18:14:07 GMT

Finished, the Italeri 1/72 Dornier Do-24 flying boat model kit. The kit comes with Luftwaffe markings, but I depicted it as the Swedish Tp 24, number "90". This particular aircraft was stolen by a German mechanic in 1944, and he and his Estonian girlfriend defected to Sweden. The aircraft was then formally purchased, and used in the F 2 Wing near Stockholm for air-sea rescue. It was repainted in a very dark green. It was in service with Sweden until being scrapped in 1952. The Do-24 was a superb flying boat, legendary for its ability to handle rough water (better even than the Catalina).

The mechanic, Wolfgang Gerhart (later Gerts) became a Swedish citizen and worked in the aviation industry. He and Agnes did not remain together, though she too stayed in Sweden.

The kit itself was really good. Nice detail, engraved panel lines, and it fitted well. The tricky bit was attaching the fuselage to the huge wing with all of the struts, which I did only after fully painting everything; thankfully, the fit was excellent. I used RLM70 black-green paint, and I scrounged Swedish markings and the yellow number decals from various places. Fortunately there were a number of contemporary photos of the plane for reference.

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Kingfisher

Sat, 02 May 2026 18:11:26 GMT

Finished, the Airfix 1/72 OS2U Kingfisher observation floatplane. The Kingfisher was a widely used floatplane used off merchant ships, warships, and from land bases, by the US, Royal Navy, Soviet Navy, and RAAF. It most famous use was the rescue of Eddie Rickenbacker. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was the top US ace of WW1, a racing driver, airline owner, and aircraft builder, and in WW2 was conducting a tour and delivery of a secret message in the Pacific in a B-17. The B-17 went badly off course and ditched, and Rickenbacker, his writer friend Hans Christian Adamson (no relation), and several surviving crew members drifted in rafts for 24 days. Three were rescued by a Kingfisher, and unable to take off, the Kingfisher taxied on the water for 64km to the nearest base.

In another incident, a pilot rescued 9 downed airmen at Truk Lagoon, and taxied for several hours with the men clinging to wings until they could be transferred to the submarine USS Tang.

The kit itself was a very old kit, and fit was so-so, with poor detail. I depicted it as a Fleet Air Arm plane, with British markings with the red removed. Unfortunately, the kit decals disintegrated, so I scrounged the "Royal Navy" and numbers, and masked and airbrushed the rest of the markings.

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Heinkel He-178

Sat, 02 May 2026 18:08:04 GMT

Finished, the Condor 1/48 Heinkel He-178. The He-178 was the first jet aircraft to fly, and was actually rather unimpressive, considering. The condor kit is quite awful. There are a few nice bits: there was a lovely three-later instrument panel, photoetch seatbelts and pedals (which were too big and didn't fit), and side consoles (which weren't even mentioned or shown in the instructions. All the plastic parts fitted terribly, and I had to do lots and lots of sanding and filling. The colours were partly bare metal and partly RLM02 green-grey, with lots of careful masking. It came out OK, considering. I cut the canopy open so the cockpit is visible.

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Hanomag

Sat, 02 May 2026 18:04:40 GMT

I painted and put together a bunch of 1/72 3D-printed bits: two Hanomag SS-100 tractors for use on Luftwaffe airfields, and a bunch of airdrop containers, fuel drums, jerrycans, and oil cans. These are all going to be used in a future Luftwaffe airbase diorama.

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Porco Rosso

Sat, 02 May 2026 18:02:06 GMT

Finished, a filament 3D-printed Porco Rosso seaplane. The 1992 Studio Ghibli animated movie "Porco Rosso" features a red seaplane somewhat based on the Macchi M.33 and Savoia S.21, and is set in the Adriatic. Porco Rosso is a fighter ace and bounty hunter cursed to have a pig's head. The model itself was 3D printed with filament by a friend, so it's very rough and layered. I sanded it for hours with 320 grit sandpaper to get it less rough. Still with the bright colours, it looks pretty nice. Pretend you're watching the movie in 320x200 resolution.

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Weather...or Not?

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:01:00 GMT

I built a really ancient ('70s vintage?) Airfix 1/72 Curtiss Helldiver kit. Initially I was going to chuck the kit, because when I checked it, it seemed there'd been a moulding issue: the top half of the inner starboard wing was just a tiny piece of plastic. However, I turned it into a bit of an experiment: "Weather...or Not?". I built and painted it with the port half clean and neat, with folded wing, and the starboard half heavily weathered, with paint chipping down to metal or primer, different faded shades of paint, exhaust stains, oil leaks, dirt, the works, right down to half of the prop, half of the bomb, half of the cockpit. I used He-177 bomb bay doors and some plastic to fabricate a wing surface structure, then made a tarpaulin to cover it.

Cockpits front and rear were detailed a bit. Along with the Helldiver, I found and painted up a set of old soft plastic American ground crew. Quite a fun little experiment.

Helldiver picture album

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Heinkel He-115

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:53:26 GMT

Completed, the Swedish Heinkel He-115 seaplane. In WW2, Sweden's seaplane squadron operated 12 of these planes they'd bought from Germany. I did extensive research (I spent much more time on research than actually building the model), and based on what spare decals I had, chose number 8. The 12 varied in minor details, but 8 had yellow float undersurfaces, red on the float tips, white "8" on tail and nose, and the "2" for the squadron marking was black. The kit was a 1/72 Matchbox kit, which fitted pretty well, though the old plastic was a little brittle. It was so smooth I had to sand it down with 3000 grit sandpaper so that the primer would stick. I did a bit of cockpit detail too, though not much is visible through the huge paned canopy.

I also completely scratchbuilt beaching gear for the plane, using Ar-234 engines, He-177 wheels, and bits of plastic, based on pics of the real thing. I also had a ground tractor 3D-printed, and painted and decaled appropriately. It was actually a lot of fun taking this ancient Matchbox kit and doing something

Album of pics here

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Coke cans and wine

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:46:54 GMT

I decided to add a bit of litter to the cobblestone base of my model tank, so I created tiny, tiny coke cans and wine bottles.

And here's the result:

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Russian tanking

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:50:30 GMT

Finished, my first proper tank model in decades. This is the 1/35 Zvesda kit of the Russian T-80UD tank from 1991. The UD was for "Ukrainian Diesel", a fairly rare variant fitted with a diesel engine instead of a turbine, giving it better range and fuel consumption at the expense of speed. This one is only lightly weathered; I don’t think they were used in combat. I could be somewhat casual with airbrushing since the Russian factories were too. The Zvesda kit is not bad at all, except for terrible fit between the hull and top of the tank; I had to grind down the top of the tracks to get it to fit. The base is a cobblestone street 3D print from Fallout Models, with hand-painted cobbles, and a bit of water and dirt.

Album of display pics

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Buccaneer in the Gulf

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:34:23 GMT

Finished, the Airfix 1/48 kit of the Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer S.2B. This one is Longmorn, one of the Buccaneers sent by the RAF to the Gulf War in 1991, painted with a sandy camouflage called "desert pink". They typically carried a slipper fuel tank, laser designator pod to designate targets for Tornados, an ECM pod, and a Sidewinder for self-defence. The paint wore off fast, so there was quite a bit of weathering on the aircraft, and the colour ranged from pinkish to yellowish. I used pink mottling under Mr Color’s "Flesh" paint, and I think it’s a pretty decent match; I used an entire bottle of paint. The kit itself had some poor fit issues (especially the air brake!), but detail is not too bad.

Album of display pics here (16 pics)

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Modelling progress

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 11:32:07 GMT

I've been busy with two models for a while now, both of 1991-vintage military equipment.

One is a Russian T-80UD tank, and I'm finishing up the camouflage on it. It's been interesting building a bigger scale tank. There's a lot of work on the wheels an tracks before you get to put it all together.

The other is a Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer, an extraordinary Cold War bomber used by the RAF and by South Africa. I'm doing it in a Gulf War colour scheme, which essentially means it was painted in a colour called "desert pink", designed to be able to be washed off.

I'm really enjoying the process of doing panel lines (thin black paint, cleaned up with turpentine), and next I'll do some gentle weathering on it.

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AI accuracy

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 11:07:45 GMT

A few days ago I needed to check which way the propellers rotated on my Hornet model kit, so I asked Chatgpt. It told me they rotated outward, and that the top of the blade tips rotated toward the cockpit (and it offered up an ASCII-drawn diagram that looked like a lozenge). That seemed contradictory, so I asked more questions. I was asked which kit I was building, and Chatgpt offered up some suggestions for improving the kit's accuracy - like lengthening the nose wheel. The Hornet did not have a nose wheel.

Then it talked about the clean lines, and how the tail wheel doors closed. The Hornet did not have tail wheel doors. It suggested lengthening the tail wheel so that the model would sit more nose-up. That is not how it works.

At this point I couldn't trust a single thing it was saying, so I went to other sources to check which way the propellers rotate. They rotate inward, not outward as Chatgpt said.

How much do you trust AI? I picked up those errors only because I'd been researching the aircraft.

Incidentally, I've tried Deepseek, which got the answer drastically wrong, saying the propellers are not handed, despite knowing the Hornet had different model engines on left and right.

Copilot says the props turn inward, quoting a pilot reference. Copilot is right. It got the different engines right too.

Gemini was correct too, and provided a video as reference.

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New model kits

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 11:12:14 GMT

With my winnings from the Model of the Year, and at the last club meeting of the year, I bought a few cheap but interesting model kits. Should be fun.

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Knights

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:18:06 GMT

I finished a really old model kit while I was on holiday: the blue-and-gold armour of Kaiser Maximilian II. I had painted the face during the year, aibrushed the armour in a dark metallic blue enamel (with a gloss coat), and spent a long, long time doing all the gold in Bright Gold. Not a fantastic result, but the gold looks good.

For Model of the Year, I also dug out the Erzherzog Siegmund armour I did many years ago, painted in Humbrol polished metal paint.

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Bloch MB.152

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 13:51:15 GMT

Finished. The Heller 1/72 kit of the Bloch MB.152 fighter from early WW2. An ancient kit - I built one as a kid. Not too bad though, and I completely scratchbuilt a cockpit for it. It was quite a struggle researching the colours; it seems there was very little consistency at the time. The decals were old and yellowed, so I carefully trimmed them first. The Bloch engine was slightly pointed to the left to counter torque.

Full build album here

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Whirlwind

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 13:45:08 GMT

Another old kit finished: the Airfix 1/72 Westland Whirlwind. I built one of these in 1981 in boarding school. A nice neat kit of a pretty WW2 plane. It's relaxing to build these old kits; they lack detail, but they're quick, easy builds.

Full build album here

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Bloch and Whirlwind

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 14:14:04 GMT

I'm busy with two model kits at the moment.

The first is an ancient Heller kit of a Bloch MB.152, a French WW2 fighter plane that did really badly in the early part of the war. I scratchbuilt an entire cockpit for it, and I'm busy doing the camouflage painting at the moment. One peculiarity is that the nose points left by a couple of degrees in order to counter torque. Finding accurate colours is a challenge; the French at the time were not good with documentation or consistency.

The other kit is an old Airfix Westland Whirlwind, a little twin-engined British WW2 fighter. Like the Bloch, I built one of these back in the early 80s. It's a simple kit, and I'm not doing anything fancy at all, just building it as is.

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Bloch

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 13:31:26 GMT

My current model is a Heller model of a Bloch MB.152, a Fresh fighter plane from early WW2. It's not a great kit, so I'm scratch-building a complete cockpit for it, including instrument panel. Finding the right colours to use is a challenge; French military aircraft were not consistent nor well documented, and there aren't any survivors.

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Convair XFY-1 "Pogo"

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 13:28:31 GMT

Finished, the Lindberg 1/48 XFY-1 "Pogo" VTOL aircraft. The Pogo was a weird beast, and only one pilot ever managed to successfully repeatedly fly it. The model kit was barebones, so I scratchbuilt the entire cockpit. I'm especially pleased with the bare metal and aluminum finish; I used Mr Color "Gun Chrome" for the bare metal, and it gives an excellent finish. The contra-rotating prop is geared - they actually move opposite directions.

Full album of pictures

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