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Although this is a very nice kit it isn't a easy build. I'm glad to have it finished! LOL The only after market item is the FineMolds belts, then it's OOB. Painted with Testor's and Tamiya. Decals are from the kit except for the national insignias which I replaced with some Eagle Editions. I hope you like it! 😀

The spine looks quite daunting, but it actually quite easy to build. First, the side parts are in halves which are just glued together. There is then a couple of bracing parts added to one side, as well as a top and bottom rod at each end. When almost set, the other side is married up and then when level, allowed to dry. Once set, the remaining cross braces are popped into place and some thin glue brushed into the joints. The only bugbear with this, as with any of the framing areas, is that there's a whole load of seams need paring down and then sanding over to a polish. Also, there's a good number of ejector pin marks of varying severity. For these I used Sprue Goo that I'd made from small pellets of the kit sprue. Works a treat.

I continued with the engine and added numerous rivets, the clutch and some other components. The box around the intakes and ignition needs to be covered with heat protective foil. This self adhesive embossed foil needs to be cut out with a sharp blade, using provided paper templates. I have some decal applicators with different shaped rubber heads, which really helped to wrap the foil around the finer details of the box. Into the box, the air intakes and ignition system will be installed. You need to glue a round PE disc onto the base and then add the turned aluminum funnel. To make alignment easier, I used Tamiya craft glue, which is possibly usual whit glue, but with a very finy applicator tip. This glue allowed to move the PE discs into place properly. The funnels are glued on top of these with CA glue. Cheers Rob

Here's a construction tip for anyone planning to build one of these. If you don't have the cockpit sidewalls JUST RIGHT (I didn't this time) the areas I have marked will interfere with the instrument panel, etc fit and need to be removed so that the instrument panel, rudder pedals, etc will go in place without BIG problems. Since those two areas aren't visible when the instrument panel, etc are in place there's no problem. The IP assembly will drop in with the minimum of problems. 😃

Engines are always a great joy to build with MFH kits. They are delicate and consist of many parts, but usually they go together very well. Care has to be taken, that all parts sit flush, not always easy to see, with black on black parts. A milimeter too high may have serious consequences later. I added some more sub- assemblies to the engine, like water pump, etc. and build up the inside of the airbox with the delicate spark plugs and ignition wiring. I decidded to paint the sockets of the spark plugs red (it´s a Ferrari), but some pictures show them yellow. Unfortunately, all the detail will be covered by the huge carbon air intake, which I hope will be removable finally. Too enhance detail on the engine parts, I use a toothpick and blade, to scratch away black paint on screw heads and metal belts, which looks better than brush painted details. Cheers Rob

The engine and all other surrounding subassemblies got airbrushed in my signature spray variant. Therefore, I use Tamiya LP-5 semi matte black highly dilluted with leveling thinner and spray carefully over the parts, to hinder the very thin paint to run. The idea is to let the metal shine through for a tiny bit. It´s an effect, similar to drybrushing, but more regular and gives the painted parts a more realistic metal look. In reality, you mostly can visualize materials from their looks. You can see, what is plastic, metal or wood only by the shininess, reflections, color depth and surface characteristics. With a scale replica, you have to use airbrushing or painting techniques to simulate this. The effect might look a bit crude on the picture, but this will change while adding the subassemblies and wiring. The Ferrari lettering was painted, using a white ball roller pen, which I used for the first time and I like the result. It dries matte and will also be helpful to paint brand logos on tyres. Cheers Rob

I did say there are a number of major changes with this kit, and some of those are seen here. Up first is the engine. Despite reworking a lot of parts for this version, they omitted to do the round ball tanks you see on this framework. There's a hole in this that needs deleting. For this, I used Milliput as it dries completely solid and less likely to crack like filler may do. The new engine set is seen on the left here, with the typical Eagle one on the right. The tanks and nozzles are not glued yet. One massive change is these landing gear pods. The exterior is totally different to the original eagle, and this time they included pins to locate the panels. The original kit is designed so that you have to hold parts edge-to-edge in critical positions. So pleased they fixed that. In fact, the completed unit you see is unglued at this point. The corridor passages are common throughout the Eagle types. The undersides tend to be a little concave, so I sprain the plastic outwards so the bottom is more level. The joint is a little unsightly too, so this is filled with sprue goo and sanded back to a polished finish. Here you see the module with side equipment tray installed (dry fit) and the cages too...also dry fit. Just so you know I've not been slacking...here's where I'm at.

Slow going. Mainly spending a lot of time to restore rivets around the wing roots. Also put together the resin Barracuda prop which has the correct shape spinner, diameter and shape of blades. Thnx to Cees who gifted me this.

It was all going rather well until I hit the home run. Two problems, 1/ the kit supplied drive chain was of the rubber band variety and decades in a box had left it perished and pretty useless. 2/ I found the fuel tank had the slot for the spine moulded of centre and at this final stage there was not a lot I could do with it. . It meant the tank was sitting at an angle and to correct it now meant moving the seat backwards in order to fit the tank cushion in place, It proved easier to remove the tank cushion completely and move the seat forwards a few mm. Quite a nice model for a 1960’s kit , being a 1960s model myself the kit has worn better than me. Protar 1/9 DKW "Screaming Buzz saw"

A Tamiya Tiger metal tracks/barrel first time on both.I have gloss cleared acrylic Tamy brown wash and Florry's sand.I have now sealed that with Testors semi-gloss Florry's sand will be applied again it sticks a little more to the semi them some powders.I totally just made up the camo pattern the pics/print was kinda this and not colors are close methink.This is a test bed.

Painting about done. I'll over coat with some clear gloss in prep for decaling. 😀

This just landed in the UK from the US. Ebay, £56 delivered. Bit of a bargain!

My friend William casted some long tails for my P-40F/L project. Incredible , hollow cast. And he added a bunch of other goodies as well.

Hi all, A few more bits of rigging added: Aileron control cables. Outer flying wires. Tail skid control cables. Rudder control cables. Elevator control cables. Also added the 'Hale' bomb with bomb rack. Over wing bracing pylons. Wheels. I felt cementing the external control levers for the elevator into recesses in the fuselage sides would not be strong. They may not have been good enough to withstand the tension of the tightened control wires. when fitted. Therefore, I drilled out the centres and fitted a 0.5 mm diameter Brass rod. The locations in the fuselage sides were also drilled through. Once pre-rigged with turnbuckles the levers were secured into the fuselage with thin CA adhesive. Just a few more bits to do on the aircraft model then it's onto the figures and base, Mike

Hi all, A bit more of the rigging done. Inner pairs of flying wires. Intermediate pairs of flying wires. Landing wires. Interplane strut incidence wires. Double fin bracing wires. I have two more structural wires and the outer pairs of flying wires to fit then it's onto the rudder, aileron, elevator and tail skid control cables, Mike

Decaling under way. I'm replacing the poor kit national insignia decals with some from Eagle Editions.

Hi all, Kellerkind Miniaturen RFC pilot in sweater (54/067) and RFC pilot (54/026). Mike

Coming right along now. Still a long way to go. 😃

Change of direction. I've decided to do "Boise Bee" in OD and gray instead of "Big Mack Junior". MBJ is just a little too "flashy". 😀

Incredible work as always Rob, I like your thinking regarding the paint - I hadn’t looked at it that way before but it makes perfect sense. Talking of sense, I think all of mine has gone as I have just ordered another MFH kit. It’s one of my favourite cars, a legend in the Le Man world and is notoriously difficult to build. It’s one for when I have a few MFH builds under my belt but I still think I’m mad lol

You are right about the moving parts like doors, etc., F1 cars are a bit easier to build this way, but they have their own challenges. Everything is cramped into a tight body and suspensions are usually complex and delicate and the wings as well. I ordered the Abarth, so some more doors and bonnets , but I like the open topped sports cars, because you can also see the interior very clear. I also pre-ordered the Le Mans Corvette C1. At first, I thought, I could withstand, but I thought often about getting the street version. I didn´t like the wheels and look of the engine too much though. The Le Mans C1 looks better to my eye, less chrome, dark magnesium wheels, somehow badass cool. I cleaned all my past MFH kit metal parts with a magnetic tumbler. I use 0,3 mm steel needles for the cleaning together with soapy water. I tumble the parts for 30-60 minutes, rinse them under clear water and let them dry. The needle treatment leads to only minimal loss of detail and enhances the shinyness of the white metal. I also have the feeling thea due to the needle hammering, the surfaces are a bit harder. For the Ferrari, I didn´t clean the white metal parts at all, as they looked good and there are no unpainted or polished parts. Initially, I tried another tumbler for my first MFH build, the Crocker. It uses metal balls for cleaning. The shinyness is fantastic, but complicated shapes are only treated on the surfaces not the crevices or around protruding parts, which lead me to buy the magnetic tumbler. Cheers rob

First real construction steps. I build up the main part of the engine in it´s full 12 cylinder galore. The 412 T2 power house consists from white metal and some etch parts only. Most MFH engines have a engine housing made from resin, which somtimes leads to a little bit more of adjusting work, because of minimal differences in shrinkage. I prefer it all metal and it is quite heavy. There are some more parts to add, which I also build up, but add after airbrushing the engine. It is almost exclusively black, other than all my built MFH engines. The fit was very good and detail is very sharp and I hope, I can show that detail with my special painting technique. I used some transparent Tamiya metal primer as a base layer then. Cheers Rob

Hi Nick, I guess you mean part M1, the front frame, right. I also had a lot of difficulties to fit part one onto the engine block and connect them with the V-shaped parts (M204, M205) at the same time. If I remember correct, I cut away the lower connection points from part M1 to the engine block, to geet it right. I glued part M1 flush to the engine and managed somehow to connect all other parts. Are you sure, that part M1 sits perfectly correct with yours, it´s absolutely critical, but hard to see. You should check this and of course the fit of the airbox RE14. Part M1 later connects the engine and rear part with the front monocoque, so you should check this direction as well. There is no way, that the distance between engine and monocoque could be wrong. Acetone does loosen CA glue, unfortunately the paint as well, but if there is no way around, it´s better to rebuild that part to get it right. Here are two pictures, which show, hoe mine looked there: Cheers Rob

Hi all, First of the final rigging done. Fuselage cabane side bracing wires. Fuselage twin front bracing wires. Drag wires. All 0.12 mm diameter monofilament with blackened 0.5 mm diameter Brass tube, Mike

Just about ready to assemble the 3 main cockpit sections.

Yeah I was looking at the BeeMax one and nearly placed a preorder but I know what I’m like - I would be comparing it to the MFH one and would have wished I had bought that one. I live by the motto ‘buy once cry once’ lol

Should be a nice display piece Carl. Sotheby´s sold a 412T2 Engine for 38500€ and left a nice reference picture. Cheers Rob

The 787b is such an iconic race car. Still the only rotary engined car to win Le Mans. BeeMax has announced a 1/12 kit for later this year. Carl

Very nice. Tempted to try my hands on one too!

The San Diego slowly moves forward still a lifeboat davit L/side and rear anchor.😉 will have to induce some light later for final pics.

These kits build up into a Nice representation John....Very Nice!!😉

Well, Hello....... Despite deciding to "cool it awhile" about buying many more kits, I have added some more to my stash..... But , hear me out......these are kits that fall into the category of kits I passed up in the past for whatever reason at the time, but now changed my mind. First of these is Bronco's US M22 "Locust" Airborne Tank (T9E1). I wanted to build a Locust for some time. Looks like a nice kit, but promises to be small and Fiddly. Next from Lanmo is their BA-64B Soviet Light Armored Car. (MM35003). This tiny kit has a full interior and engine. Nice Next is from IBG. It's their OTTER light Reconnaissance Car (35019). An odd-looking Canadian armored car from WW II. This thing has been on my radar for some time. No less than twelve sprues in this kit😀 Finally, from Tamiya, their new RSO/01 German Tractor (35394). I was as surprised as most when they announced this kit and knew I had to get one. A cool little vehicle similar to the Soviet Voroshilovets tractor I built a while back. I also have the Miniart (ManyPart) version and already have some Friulmodel tracks that I purchased at that time. All these kits appear to be pretty nice, and are of interesting subjects. Because of its size and its many tiny parts, the Locust may be a challenging build. It's the first Bronco kit I bought and It has left a favorable impression. Too bad I didn't look into this brand earlier. Well, I hope some have found this posting interesting or useful😀

This is my first attempt at a ship. I would guess i started building about 55 years ago so quite a miles stone for me . I have to admit i know nothing about ships other than the basics you pick up on in life so all i can do is apply general modeling principles and steal other peoples ideas from the millions of builds on the Web . My biggest problem will be the scale, i like to add nuts and bolts and wiring to a 1/12 car, its hard to see what i can add to this kit other than PE. Normally i avoid PE on builds due to its two dimensional nature when i am building three dimensional models but in this scale PE could actually work quite well as 1/144 parts like ladders etc would appear flat anyway ?. Would you believe I found a 12-minute documentary on WWII Ships railings on You tube Railings on ships were mostly posts with wire strung between them and were called life lines. Vertical posts varied from i section castings and extrusions to just round steel posts. These posts were 1 inch dia and strung with either ¼” or ½” wire or chains. So the first problem is the posts on the Snowberry would need to be .007” (7 thou) and the wire about 2.3 (thou). In terms of metric which most plastic and brass comes in that’s 0.2mm vertical strung with less than 0.1 of a mm. Bearing in mind the posts would need to be drilled to take the wire it’s hard to see how you could get the posts any smaller than the kit posts which look huge. So that’s not going to happen. The kit railings are 0.8mm or 115mm true scale ( 4.75 inch ) so nearly 5 times over size. I think in this tiny scale it’s going to be compromises all along the way which is a shame as I hate out of scale things where for example you have a porthole to scale and a railing above almost half the diameter of the porthole I will wait and see what the PE looks like when it arrives later this week from Korea. I think I need to develop a completely new mode from my std 1/12 mode these days and build to create the right effect/impression, so things look right rather than are right. Flower Class Corvettes were built for coastal work. They were never intended too cross oceans, they rolled, were flat out at 18 knots and were not weather proof, originally built for a crew of 50 most were carrying over 80 by the end of the war. Cramped, Cold, Wet, poor food, uncomfortable to the extent some people never got over their seasickness, they were a miserable place to be. 300 were built . 22 were torpedoed by Germans but they sank 44 U-Boats. however it was not about scores, the real victory was how many merchant ships made it across the Atlantic thanks to these small ships, not how many U-boats never made it home.. There were two versions of the flower class, early and modified, identified by the mast being in front of the bridge or behind, this will be build of the later one below with the mast behind and roughly 200ft long and 1000 tons.;. All i have done at this stage is tape things together to make sure the basics fit. This is just 4 parts but but i need to get this right, straight and true as its the foundations of the whole build. One other pet hate of mine is Revell boxes so the first job was to convert it to a top opener so you can find parts without having to tip them out all over the place

It's a mystery! There are four round bells at the arse end which are piped into the large tanks. That would account for the tail, but without an engine. As for the many underside and pad thrusters, no idea! 😆

I always liked the functional, modular, look of the Eagle, and the kits do it justice. Even now, though, I am still wondering where the fuel for these big rockets was stored 😉 Hubert

Thank you FA, I use mostly Colle 21 CA glue and sometimes Tamiya craft glue, which is white glue, mostly for PE parts, which sit flat on a surface. Cheers Rob

All fixed now. I removed the Tamiya red and re-sprayed with Floquil.

I am very satisfied with this kit so far. The compatibility of the parts is the best I have ever experienced. The parts are incredibly detailed—even more so than those in most 1/35 scale kits. The manual is high-quality and contains good images. In terms of price, this is one-third cheaper than 1/35 scale model kits without interior parts. I am so impressed that I immediately ordered a T-90 model kit from the same manufacturer. My plan is to make this a model that doesn't have a hull top section at all. So, all the details of the interior are clearly visible.

Any MFH without doors, windows, roof, anything with hinges is a plus🤣 Nothing i can say Rob, you know your way around these things better than me so i am here to learn....fire away 😃

A complete Eagle fleet on your desk, ready to explore the moon, nice. Cheers Rob

Great subject Rob, looking forward to following along. Those rims are very nice indeed!

Great job, likes it a lot. Cheers Dennis

I will put some finished pictures in the finished section Thanks for following 😉

Same here....my photos can never be considered art😉

Well it may have taken 1.5 million iterations and me getting way to over zealous and both thinking through the fact a motor with gearbox and the hub I designed to go on it would all definitely not fit inside the tanks final drive housing without splitting it in two was quite the "DOGH" moment. But it's all looking like it will actually work out. Now if I could just get the damn wires and connectors I ordered to be delivered I could look at actual finishing this thing.

And this just arrived from BNA Modelworld. They had the best price I could find after including shipping to Canada.

Now the Triplane is finished I'm back to the SE5a Dryfitting all the panels, engine and radiator feels better. I think I screwed something on the cockpit bulkhead. I see other folks builds and it looks like it's standing erect. Mine has a bit of a lean to the rear that required me to thin down the trailing edge of the cockpit cowl, panel. It was making that end of the part stand too tall. Feels better now. letting paints dry and will close up and mask the inspection panels. I'm going to paint and weather to almost the end game on this one. Just seems easier before final assembly. I'm wondering how long i'm going to be on this WnW WW1 kick.

My mum used to say the show was 'as far fetched as a bucket of shite from China' 😆 No plans to do landing pad. If these will fit diagonally in my media wall, all four will be displayed there. A bit more work today and the lab pod is completed. This was an absolute joy to build. It'll need the tiniest amount of filler in extremely small joints, and that's it. I've not added the directional thrusters to the pod protrusions as they'll be painted metallic and fitted later, after the whole section is painted and decaled. Here you can see how those protrusions are constructed. It's simply two poles secured into the floor, with the roof angle set on them. The roof is then fitted, followed by the walls, door, and greeblies etc. The assembly then clips into the pod and extra thin cement is run along the joints (from the inside, where I can reach). Here is the assembled lab pod, minus the thrusters which sit under the protrusions (they won't hold without glue, and I need to paint separately anyway). And here's the module from underneath. The landing pads and thrusters aren't glued yet.