45 articles · 15.5K karma · 35 friends · active 2 hours, 43 minutes ago

I'm a science educator, a Brit from London living in Queensland, Australia, with my wife and 2 sons. Dad taught me about WW2. He was 13 at the start of the war in Europe and made it into the Merchant Navy in '43. My uncle Artie was on HMS Ark Royal for the hunting of The Bismarck and when she was torpedoed herself in '41. Both outlasted the war. I built models with my dad in the mid-70s and early 80s. I finally made it back to the hobby in 2016. My 5-year-old has just built his first model - a Red Arrows Hawk. The cycle continues!

The Empire of Japan Group meets The Movies Group…

'For Those We Love' and 'The Eternal Zero' are two films that broach the difficult subject of Kamikaze. For David Leigh-Smith’s movies group I chose to build various subjects from these films. As I moved to a new house this time last [...]

Flight 19 The Lost Squadron 75th Anniversary Tribute: Avenger TBM-1C 1/48, Italeri (Accurate Miniatures)

As has been well reported for many years, the Accurate Miniatures sprues reboxed by Italeri make up into a sometimes complex, but brilliantly engineered kit of the TBM-1C Avenger in 1/48. During this build I used Eduard canopy masks, [...]

Medium Mark A Whippet, Meng 1/35

My first tank. I can't say too much about the Whippet - I'm no expert! It was said to be fast in its era - running at a heady 8.3mph flat out! The power was provided by 2 Tyler JB4 petrol engines (45hp) - the same as those of the [...]

Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka Fine Molds 1/48 for The Empire of Japan Group Build

A while back I started building Kamikaze machines for the 'iModeler goes to The Movies' group build. A thread can be found there that shares some views and history around two modern Japanese films (The Eternal Zero and For Those We Love) [...]

Royal Air Force Centenary Group Build – New Builds Presentation

At the turn of the 100th Year of the RAF it is time to post the presentation of our RAF100 new builds: subjects chosen and assembled specifically to commemorate the centenary of the RAF. (link) As ‘admin’ for this community I’d like [...]

Royal Air Force Centenary Group Build – Previous Builds Presentation

The RAF became the first independent Air Force in the world as the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) were joined on April 1st 1918. 2018 has been a year celebrating the centenary of the RAF. Over the last few [...]

RAF 100 Group Build: Supermarine Spitfire Mk 1. Sailor Malan, No. 74 Sqn. Airfix 1/48. Where was the RAF at Dunkirk? (Part Three).

When the German army moved into Belgium and Holland in early May 1940, avoiding the static French defences along the Maginot line, all leave for No. 74 Sqn was cancelled. Sailor Malan, a competent airman albeit one with no combat [...]

RAF 100 Group Build: Hawker Hurricane Mk 1. Willie McKnight, No. 242 Sqn. Airfix 1/48. Where was the RAF at Dunkirk? (Part Two).

Blitzkrieg was a term the Wermacht never officially adopted, probably because Hitler thought it ‘idiotic’ in its simplicity. The view of the Nazi regime was that they were simply reaping the dividends of Germany’s superior industrial [...]

RAF 100 Group Build: Westland Lysander. No 4 Sqn, Eduard (Gavia) 1/48. Where was the RAF at Dunkirk? (Part One).

When war was declared on September the 3rd 1939, No. 4 Sqn was ordered to prepare to move to France under the umbrella of 50 (Army Co-operation) Wing as part of the Air Component of the British Expeditionary Force. The order was given to [...]

RAF100 Group Build – Previous Builds

Dear iModellers - one last call for contributions! Part of the Group Build for RAF100 has been planned as retrospective using pictures of our previous builds of all things RAF. If you have built RAF subjects in the past (and there have [...]