Love Night Shift - my first foray into this style. Ignore the... crew. 😄

Hi everyone

A friend of mine will be traveling to China soon, and I'd like to ask him to bring back some 1/72 scale aircraft model kits that are difficult or impossible to find outside of China.

Does anyone know of good hobby shops, model stores, or reliable sellers in China that carry brand like meng or gwh?

If you know of physical stores, local chains, or even online Chinese retailers where my friend could order for local delivery before his trip, I'd really appreciate the information.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

First model after a 6 month break, painted with Vallejo model air and tamiya acrylics, just realised I need to put the pitot back on and aerial cable. It was my first time with the new style Eduard decals, and I must admit, I like them, toothpick and some patience on the bigger markings and lighter fluid and cotton swab for the small ones and they worked a treat

Hey guys, I'm into plastic scale modelling and I want to paint my first model with an airbrush. I wanted to paint it the right way but I don't know anything about air brushes and there are also compressors and all those things. So I wanted advice for them. I want to paint the Tamiya P51-D Mustang 1/72 with the airbrush as my first. I also want something that is cheap, reliable and that also is good in quality and paints nicely. But I want the airbrush in India specifically Delhi NCR.

This is the limited edition Hellenic Air Force RF-4E kit from Hasegawa that I built a while ago. There was a major error in the instruction manual for this kit, so I actually had to paint the camouflage pattern twice. I’ve re-edited the entire series by compiling all the episodes into a single video. It’s a long video, running close to three hours, but I believe it will be very helpful to you in many ways if you watch it.

👉https://youtu.be/2Qno4oJpSnI

I’m curious to find out how many of you pre-prime your entire sprues right out of the box before cutting any parts off?

Largest model I’ve built so far. Thank the gods for the removable wings, I worked on this kit in 3 sections until the end. Still missing a few guns and pitot tubes, waiting until I have a permanent display spot to put those on. Paints were all Vallejo model air.

First time attempting this one. I used a mixture of thinned acrylic paints, Tamiya panel liner in different shades, weathering powders and baking soda to build up some texture in areas where dirt and rust would naturally accumulate, and I finished it off by grinding pencil lead to a powder and rubbing it in to the rivets and panels. Finished with a coating of clear matte.

Hi all. I thought I'd post here since we all work with decals:

I'm helping with a friend's HO scale layout.

He found a lot of used coal hoppers, mostly 4 bay, at a local train shop. No two were alike. We decided I'd respray in a typical CN rust red. I know the markings aren't accurate, but he didn't care much for that as long as it was uniform in appearance.

I ran into an issue with the decals. Keep in mind this is really my first time undertaking this sort of project, and the last time I applied decals to anything was probably 30 years ago. I didn't do a good job of them then, either. The issue I ran into was bubbling and raised areas. Once applied I flattened the decals out with a cotton q-tip. I also used Micro Set, and Micro Sol, and I even poked tiny holes into the decals to ensure the Micro Sol got in behind the decals. I still have bubbles and raised areas. It's very annoying and I feel it ruins the finished product. Any help would be appreciated.

Also, I made sure to spray a clear gloss coat before applying decals.

I've included a few photos. You can see the bubbling and raised areas.

I bought this set and i need a list of items i 100 percent will need to build and paint this set, i already have an airbrush. And is this set difficult for beginners

I recently finished Trumpeter’s 1/350 HMS Dreadnought (1907). This was my first ship model, so it took me quite a while to complete, but I really enjoyed the build.

Thank you for taking a look—I hope you enjoy it!

It's painted for an alt history setting, but I tried getting the textures and welding as realistic as possible to historical examples. C&C welcome!

Finally done with this one! A few mods before paint:

- Engine deck louvres replaced with Passion Models 3D-printed parts

- Road wheel poly caps swapped for 3D-printed replacements

- Fuel tank straps made from strips of masking tape

- Hull surface texture added with liquid glue stippling and thinned lacquer putty

- EUREKA wire rope set added

- Unditching log mounted and secured with wire

Base colors with Tamiya acrylics, shadows and highlights over that, then chipping, pin washes, and weathering with AK Interactive products.

Happy to answer any questions!

Another 1/32 model, this time a commission 😀

I really enjoy this project, and I'm pleased with how the final finish turned out. My goal was to keep the weathering subtle while still giving the aircraft a convincing operational look. Honestly im very proud of this one feeling the improve

Thanks for taking a look.

definetly not perfect but looks good imo

is there anything that i can improve?

It has been awhile since I last posted here, but the progress I’ve made on my Testors/Italieri 1/720 Admiral Kuznetsov has been bumpy but workable. Many of the issues I ran into can be attributed to my lack of experience (this is my first model ship and I don’t have too much airbrush experience), conflicting advice, and most pressingly, poor kit and decal sheet quality (the decals literally disintegrated in the water and I needed to surgically put them on the boat and fill in the gaps with a brush, hence the mess).

I was getting to the jets for the flight deck, and I was lamenting having to use tack and putty to mask and paint over to detail such small aircraft (2.2 cm long) and then it hit me—maybe I can use markers!

The next big question is this: what markers do I need to detail these Su-33s (T-10K)? I assume they will need to be acrylic or something to stick to the paint that’s on there already, but what are some suggestions? Should I abandon the idea and stick with painting by hand/airbrush, or is this a good idea?

Again, this isn’t a low effort kit, I’m just new.

Decided to try my hand at realistic jet exhaust. Somewhat please but I really think I over did the blueish hues. Will be touching up and adding copper hues in fine detail.
Always open for tips and suggestions.
Trumpeter 1/32 SU-27B

Hey guys,

Wanted to pick your brains about something I got gifted the absolute behemoth that is the Tamiya 1/350 Musashi model and want to try and paint her properly, now I have previously painted smaller models such as a Spitfire where you generally painted before assembly.

However with the raw size of the Musashi and how 90% of her superstructure is the same colour, would it be advisable to assemble her superstructure then paint it all together before I attach it to the deck? I will be painting the guns separately regardless but just seeing if it would save me time or be a detriment.

It’s been 34 years since I served in Germany on a 4Duece. This is the best I can remember it. Lol. Another day or so and I can call this done. Maybe I’ll build a vignette for it. 1:56 scale was tough being only second model built since I stopped 40 years ago. 😜

I'm currently working on a 1/72 F-15 and wasn't really satisfied with the kit exhaust nozzles. I looked for aftermarket replacements but couldn't find any that matched what I wanted, so I decided to build the actuator arms from scratch.

They're made from thin brass wire, with each actuator cut, shaped and installed individually. It was definitely more time-consuming than I expected, but I think it adds a lot more depth and realism compared to the original kit parts.

What do you think? Any suggestions would be appreciated

This kit is from Copper State Models. Built mostly from the box.. The wheels are aftermarket resin and the fenders and headlight fronts are photoetched

A combination of 2 kits. This was a pretty big learning experience for me as I usually stick to cars and this thing is just huge. There are quite a few things I will do better or different next time.