Recent Builds

Hobbycraft Sabres: Mk.5 with original decals (and yes, nosewheel door is on wrong side) Mk.6 with Leading Edge Decals. 

Tamiya P-51D with Leading Edge decals. Airfix/AZ kitbash Chipmonk behind. 

Airfix + Pavla Tigermoth - tiny, tiny and first rigging attempt with .08mm flyfishing line. 

Sabre and Mustang with Academy Banshee (lower fuselage colour is too dark, but first go at RCN colours....) 

Hobbycraft H-21 'Flying Banana'. 

Trumpeter Sea Fury with Xtradecal markings (not great registration on the roundels....)  

Special Hobby Seafire with Belcher Bits decals - first 1/48th kit - cut out the elevators and rudder; drilled out the exhaust and spent so much time on the cockpit. Happy, but much more work to do to get better... 

Seafire cockpit WIP 

Hasegawa T-33 with Leading Edge decals. So much filling and sanding on this one...basically no panel lines left on the fuselage....Like how it came out, though. 

Hobbycraft F8F 1/48 in French service - tried the hairspray chipping technique - pretty good for first time, I think. Like the way this came out. 

Italiari Sabre; 1/48 - maybe not a great kit, but working on my bare metal technique. Over gloss black with mottling.  

Academy Ta-183 'What-If" - 1/48: really enjoyed this one: great kit, and good for my airbrush skills. 

Hasegawa F4U-7 WIP - happy with this instrument panel. 

Scratch-built seatbelts on a Dragon He-162 1/48 in progress - kit is a nightmare, but I'll get through it. 

Hasegawa 1/48 F4U-7 - more chipping work: don't love how this came out, completely, but good experience. 

More Canadian post-war Mustangs: Leading Edge decals, again. Hasegawa 1/72 - almost as good as the Tamiya... 

Heller bf-109K kit from 1976! Lovely person that I bought the Pitts Special kit from gave this to me in a bag: found some appropriate aftermarket decals and did a quick build. Despite the raised panel lines and terrible fit issues on the wings (and my terrible canopy job), surprisingly good kit: happy with this! 

Tamiya Meteor Mk.3 1/48 - what a joy to build: I know it's a cliche, but Tamiya is amazing. Like this a lot - messed up one set of 'don't walk here' decals, but I'll let it go. Masked and painted the fuselage stripe [think I colour-matched it pretty well] and the yellow wing leading edge. I think I only want to build Tamiya kits from now on... 

Dragon He-162 1/48 - hated this kit so much: looked great; super-detailed; PE parts etc. Fit and engineering was terrible - almost gave up, but kept at it. Did scratch-built seatbelts, that I was happy with - can't wait to do the Tamiya kit to do this plane justice - a plane I really like, but, ugg.... 

Eduard Bell X-1 Fun build; first time using Tamiya Lacquer - used a whole jar of orange over a black base+yellow undercoat. Went by archival photos from the Smithsonian for the decals; rather than the instructions. Had to do it flying - doesn't seem right with undercarriage down.  

Polikarpov I-16 by Eduard - took way longer than I thought to build (the landing gear is crazy!) - Love this little plane. Got a steppe diorama base from Mig - I'll post when I've built a base. Oh, and did all this work on the cockpit and you can't even see it! Learned a lesson there... 

Another Hobbycraft: 1/48 Voodoo F3: all-over matt aluminum; decals scrounged from various Leading Edge sets with some 1/72nd thrown in. Not a great kit, but worked some things I wanted to try. Built it as a 'museum' build because I think Voodoos look wrong when they are weathered...  

Hah: forgot to post this - LS Models 1/72 Pitts Special I did a while ago - so, so tiny - decals and painting took forever, but really happy how it came out - picked up the Rothman's version on eBay; will do it at some point. Actually detailed the cockpit, but you can't see anything...really wonderful kit and plane... 

Tamiya Mig-15bis WIP - Vallejo metallics over gloss black primer - will post finished piece. 

Tamiya Mig-15bis - Vallejo Aluminum over Gloss Black primer - did Tamiya panel liner (black on control surfaces and brown on panels) Like how this came out: the gloss black really makes the overcoat pop and look like real metal, rather than just silver paint.  

Hasegawa 1/48 F-86F-40 - shortened the wings and carved off and filled various vents to make it a Mk 6 Sabre - Leading Edge decals; as usual for these builds. Nice kit - just picked up a -35 Hasegawa, so I'll build another in different livery. Great detail on this; just a bit of issue with the wing/fuselage connection. 

Ok, Kinetic F-5B - I've built at least ten kits before I finished this one: such a block - everything went wrong; engineering was terrible: I made so many mistakes, but at least it looks kind of cool...I'll get the single-seat version of this and do a proper job. Learned a lot from this.....  

Totally breaking my 'No Spitfires!' rule - building the Hasegawa Mk. IXc kit - really great (except for the wing/fuselage joint) - ordered some Belcher Bits Canadian pilots in the RAF decals - black based with random masks pattern over top: good practice for the Eduard Tempest that's next... 

Hasegawa Spitfire Mk.IXc - broke my rule about 'no Spitfires' - did it in a Canadian pilot's livery: Belcher Bits decals. Loved this kit - beautiful details and engineering - cockpit was fantastic. Had some issues at the end, but ended up well. Tamiya colours all around, with custom mixed tints for the fuselage band and spinner.