November 26, 2024
Zoukei-Mura 1/32 Horton Ho229
A beautiful kit of the flying wing produced by the Nazis at the end of WW2...
October 25, 2024
Bolton Paul Defiant
This is the (relatively) new 1/48 kit from Airfix – and initially I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to make it as the Defiant isn’t really a plane that has ever been on my radar (no pun intended). It always seemed to be something of a Chimaera – the love child of a Hurricane and some kind of bomber with that huge turret behind the cockpit – but as often happens, whilst making the kit I really fell for the plane. It does have that slightly ungainly quality...
October 25, 2024
Vought Corsair F-4U
When I got this enquiry from a customer in the US I was immediately intrigued. Robert wanted to commission a build from me for the family of his business partner which they all thought would make a perfect gift for their Father. Robert had seen my F4 Corsair on Etsy and liked the way I had weathered the model, so he sent the enquiry along with this photo of his business partner’s father – Ens Leo D. Linhard standing alongside his own F4U in 1951. I was immediately...
October 25, 2024
Supermarine Spitfire MkIX – Museum Build
Excerpt textReally looking forward to this build – it’s a great story to tell of Flying Officer Arnold Hallas. He came from Burton and was sadly killed when he was flying Spitfire IX NH231 coded UF-A with 601 Sqn on the 30th April 1945. His is believed to be the last Spitfire lost in the European Theatre, and I jumped at the chance to help the Spitfire & Hurricane Memorial Museum down at Manston in Kent with their display to show Arnold’s Spitfire as it was before his...
October 25, 2024
B-29 Enola Gay
I couldn’t believe my luck when a customer in America asked me not only to build the Enola Gay B-29 for him – but to build it in 1/48th scale! I always looked at the old 1/72 scale Airfix kit as a kid and wanted to build it – but the bare metal finish and greenhouse cockpit made it an ambitious build and a step too far for me then. When I started building models again as a (more or less) adult, the kit was high on my list...
November 28, 2023
North American P-51D Mustang 8th AF
This is a lovely Tamiya kit of the popular Mustang in 1/48th scale. It’s one of a number of Mustangs that Tamiya do (like the Spitfire, the Mustang is heavily represented by all the manufacturers) – so you have plenty of choice if you want to make one. The Kit The Tamiya kit is really solid and well thought-out – but somehow they manage to put all that ‘solidness’ inside the model – so when you look at it from the outside it just looks beautifully to scale and...
November 8, 2023
Focke Wulf Fw189 A2
This kit is from Great Wall Hobbies, and is the only one of their kits I have built. The FW-189 is a very striking looking aircraft with a twin boom – which I really like as an aircraft format. I think my fondness is due at least in part to the fact that 2 was always my favourite Thunderbird. Yes I know it wasn’t actually twin boom, but take a look and you will hopefully see what I mean. The Kit This is a great kit – the detail...
November 8, 2023
Short Sunderland
I was really excited when I saw this kit released by Italeri. The Sunderland is one of the iconic aircraft I wanted to build, but until this point the only real option would be the old 1/72 kit from Airfix with all the attendent problems like poor fit and raised panel lines. The new tooling from Italeri looked really promising – and I would have to say it didn’t disappoint. The one thing I did really miss from the Airfix fit though was that fantastic illustration on the...
October 8, 2023
Supermarine Stranraer
I built this kit after finishing the Sunderland flying boat – so it was prompted by an interest in flying boats and a masochistic desire to do more rigging. This is one of the very few biplanes I have built, but it was fun to do in the same way that poking a mouth ulcer is fun! The Kit The Revell kit was apparently a reissue of the old Matchbox kit, but the detail and fit is really not bad for a kit of that age. I remember as...
September 8, 2023
Grumman F6F-3N Hellcat
This was my first US Navy aircraft, and it is the 1/48 Hobby Boss kit, built pretty much straight out of the box. The Kit I really like Hobby Boss kits – they seem to have excellent detail and quality, but without the quirk of Trumpeter kits. This one is a good example – it wasn’t particularly expensive, but it was one of a choice of several Hellcat’s I could have chosen. The plastic is all good (much better than Airfix), and the moulding is crisp and very well...