Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 (MT-451) Finnish airforce, Trumpeter 1:32 Completed

Been building this kit on and off for about a year, trumpeters 109 G-6 built as MT-451 finnish airforce. Flown by among others one of the great aces Ilmari Juutilanen.
Trumpeter kit has many faults but its an ok kit, great fit and will look good with some minor modifications. But I still think hasegawa is the best one with some resin upgrades. In my dreams I still see a Tamiya 1:32 109G-6 full detail kit.. that would be the day. To many allied 1:32 kits from them so time for the axis side.

Many parts taken from another 109 build Im working on, revells G-6. The trumpeter cockpit is awful more in 1:31 scale and the details are not even close to the real thing. Spinner has the wrong shape, was planning on using a resin one but it does not fit the fusalage so half of it is from revell and the other half from trumpeter. Painting done with gunze and masked with white tac and paper that I cut out from a 1:32 drawing copy.


Kit: Trumpeter Messerschmitt 109 G-6 1:32
Paints used: RLM colors from Gunze and Vallejo. Weathered with MIG AMMO panel liners, oils and pigments.
Aftermarket parts: Decals MDC. Wheels + oil cooler fairing + exhausts + supercharger intake from Barracudacast. Revi sight from quickboost. Seatbelts from HGW. 
Parts used from the new Revell 109G-6: Tail + Rudder, cockpit, top part of the spinner.

Messerschmitt me 262 A-1/U4 Hobby Boss 1:48 Completed

Always wanted to build the Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1/U4 with the big 50 mm cannon in the nose. The Hobby Boss kit is detailed but some moldings are a bit soft especially on the fuselage. The fit is generally good but some clamping action is needed where the wings meet the fuselage on the belly of the aircraft.

A must upgrade is the barrel and muzzle brake other then that the kit is good. The shape on the nose looks a bit of when looking at pictures, ok for me but not perfect.

kit: 1/48 Hobby Boss me 262 A-1/U4
colors: Vallejo Air RLM range
weathering: Done with Ammo and AK weathering products + pigments from Lifecolor.

Upgrade parts I used on this build:
-Resin wheels from Eduard
- Eduard Zoom Etch set for the cockpit
- Metal barrel and muzzle brake from Master
- Decals from Eagle Cal

Renault FT-17 (Cast Turret) Meng 1:35 Completed

My recent build of a Renault FT-17 (Cast turret), finnish version but they were painted the same way as the french (repainted later on in a beige-grey color). The MENG kit is superb with great fit and detail so the only thing I replaced ere the springs that are way to thin.
Diorama is inspired by some old photos I found during the 1930´s when they had a military parade for the public and children were able to get close to the tanks.

Paints used: AK French WW1 paint set for the threetone camouflage, AK true metal, weathered with lifecolor pigments and Abteilung oils. Diorama painted with vallejo and weathered with MIG dark wash and pigments mixed with X20A as wash.

Diorama: Figure from MB-Models and the base is from Miniart.

Another Airbrush Bought!

Bought myself another airbrush from H&S, the Evolution AL+. Been trying it out now for the past months and I must say that this is probably my favorite airbrush. The difference between the AL+ and the regular Evolution CR+ is that its made out of aluminium (black parts) so its much lighter.
For me the lightness is very nice when painting more detailed schemes as its lighter on the hand and I don't feel as much strain on the hand.

Recommended if you want an airbrush that's black and weighs less than the regular version !

Renault FT-17 (Cast Turret) Meng 1:35

Been working on Mengs Renault FT-17 with the cast turret. Superb kit with full interior so I decided to have all the hatches open. Building it out of the box with only some small alterations like replacing the springs that are way too thin.

It will be a Finnish FT-17 tank in french colors, they kept the french camouflage so I painted it with AK french color set. For this build I also tried out AK "True metal" colors and I must say that they are great, easy to apply with brush and polishes easily. Will soon start the weathering process but will keep it at a minimum as the tank will stand on a cobblestone base, on a parade with a small child figure standing beside it. The cobblestone and sewage cower are from Miniart

Star Wars Tie Fighter (Ban Dai) 1:72

Star Wars Tie Fighter from Ban Dai in 1:72 scale. I wanted to build a well weathered machine more like the X-Wing fighters that appear in the movies. Painted with a mix of tamiya XF-19/XF-2 and weathered with abteilung oils and MIG pigments. The Tie fighter was fixed to the small base with a 2mm clear acrylic rod that I found on ebay.

If you are a Star Wars fan and want to build some fighters look no further as Ban Dai has a wide range of kits that are easy to build and well detailed. Thanks Ban Dai for the free kit as part of a review.

My airbrush collection

My small airbrush collection that I use for my modelling. Mainly use Harder & Steenbeck airbrushes but I recently bought an Iwata to try out, both brands make excellent airbrushes. In my collection I have from the top: H&S Evolution, H&S Infinity, Iwata HP-C+, Hansa 281.

My workhorses are the Evolution and HP-C+ and for detail work I mainly use the Infinity with a 0.2mm needle/nozzle combo. The Hansa 281 has a different trigger design were you only have to pull it back and not down and back as on a regular airbrush, 281 is mainly used for metallics.

So if you are in the market for a good airbrush take a look at H&S new evolution CR or the Iwata HP-C+ (My advice if you are in the market for an Iwata airbrush is to buy it directly from Japan, stores like HLJ have great prices and often 50% cheaper than EU stores)

And dont forget that its no point in buying a good/expensive airbrush without having a stable and controllable air source.