Category: Build Reports

For Father’s Day this year, my family gave me a great surprise. Not only did they give me Hasegawa’s Spitfire Mk. IXe kit, they also gave me a print of Johnnie Johnson’s Spitfire Mk. IX, flying over the D-Day beaches. The best part- it’s signed by Johnson himself! The Spitfire is my favorite airplane, the Mk. IX is my favorite

A few weeks ago, I’d taken a look at the parts included with Anigrand Craftworks’ XP-60. Though I have quite a few kits waiting in the stash, I was looking forward to building my first resin kit, so I moved it to the top of the build stack. And I’m really glad I did. This kit has been a blast!

One thing that has changed since my modeling during my pre-teen and teen years in the late 70’s and early 80’s is that the price of a model has gone up dramatically. I can well recall buying kits for as low as US$.99, and most kits were less than US$5.00. Today’s kits are generally far more expensive- often US$30-$40 for

Last year, just before temporarily going out of business (thanks Hornby for bringing them back!, Airfix released a new tooling of a Mk. IXc/XVI. The main difference between the two was the engine, the former having a Rolls-Royce Merlin, the latter having a Packard built Merlin. Parts are provided for both early and broad chord rudders, as well as blisters

Drew Hatch shares his night fighting Korean War F4U-5, along with some of the history of this important aircraft in American aviation history. The aircraft Drew modeled was the mount of LT Guy Bordelon, who earned a Navy Cross. LT Bordelon was the navy’s only ace of the Korean war, it’s only prop ace, and the only night fighter ace.

Drew Hatch joins us again with Tamiya’s 1/48 offering of this unusual night fighter the Japanese used in WWII. Despite some challenges the kit had in store for him, Drew shows it can be built up into a fine looking model with some patience and hard work. In late 1942 the Japanese recognized a need for dedicated night fighters. There

When I first saw 21st Century Toys kits at my local Wal-Mart, I did a double take. The megastore has for years carried the same 4 or 5 tired old Revell kits- I’ve built them, you’ve built them. Not bad kits, but way old. So when I saw a 1/32 scale Zero and Macchi 202, I had to pick the

The F9F-2P Photo Panther was developed from the well known F9F-2 Panther. The Panther, which first flew 24 November 1948 was designed as a single engine monoplane jet powered fighter for fleet defense, and as a fast close air support platform for Marines on the ground. The Photo Panther evolved from the need for aerial reconnaissance during combat operations. The

A few days ago I wrote a preview of Hobby Boss’ Bf-109G-6 that I’d bought for my son. He built it pretty quick, and enjoyed it so much, I picked up two more Hobby Boss 109s for him- a G-2 and G-10. He was interested in building the aircraft of Joachim Marseille and Erich Hartmann, so we also picked up

My second favorite plane is the P-40. (The Spitfire has the top spot in my airplane heart.) Which I guess fits the P-40 in historical perspective. The P-40 wasn’t the best fighter of World War II. Many would argue it was obsolete the whole war. Still, it was the little plane that could. It fought in some of the worst

I’ve never been very interested in WWII Soviet aviation subjects. Not that I have anything against them, I just never thought to look into them. That is until I saw a 1/48 Accurate Miniatures Yak-1 with skis for sale on Squadron.com several months back for about $12. That got my attention! The kit is pretty typical of AM’s work. Very

I finished this 1/48 scale Spitfire Mk. IXc a week or so ago. I’d heard this was one of Airfix’s nicer kits. It wasn’t up to the standard you’d expect from Accutamigawa, but it was a fun build. The only real fit problem was the fuselage to wing join, which I took care of with a piece of scrap sprue

I finally finished my Accurate Miniatures P-51A. I was pretty excited about this kit, as I’d seen quite a few good reviews on it, and knew AM has a great reputation. The detail in the casting was great, and the overall look of it in the pre-built stage made me feel like this would build up into a nice kit.

I completed painting and detailing the various components that make up the cockpit for my Accurate Miniatures P-51A. I feel like it’s the best work I’ve done so far on interior detailing, but a lot of the reason for that is AM put so much detail into the office. I’ve also learned that patience is the key- you’ve got to

A few months ago when I got back into building model airplanes, I started searching through EBay to find old kits I remembered building as a kid. I ran across this old 1/72 P-47B Thunderbolt from Lindberg. It was the first model kit I built. I actually found two of them- one was an opened kit issued in 1967, and

I finished up the Revell 1/48 scale Spitfire Mk. II. It had some issues along the way…. OK, more than a few. Overall, it built up into a decent kit, though, and looks pretty good on the shelf. I’d originally picked it up at Walmart for less than $8. I knew being an old Revell kit, it wolud not have

For my second kit after returning to the modleing Hobby, I chose the Academy 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIc. I figured that if the Academy P-40N turned out to be a pleasent build, then why not another Academy kit? I wasn’t disappointed, as it turned out to be a nice little kit, though I did have some minor disasters along

I finished up my first kit in many, many years- a 1/72 scale Academy P-40N. I discovered that my eyes aren’t near as good as they were, my hand not near as steady- but the fun of building a airplane has not diminished. I tried a few things I never did years ago. I scratch built some seat belts, and