Nah Noddy, i am still building the A300 and things as well. I have several builds on. The Herrick stuff is a long-term project and it will culminate on the diorama, hence why everything, including the Lynx, is contained in this thread. The Coyote is a very good model, goes together well. There are some hint and tips on it contained in posts within this thread, several of us have trials and tribulations with it.

Hi guys,
Just a couple of pics of the Merlin.138 steps.A ton of work that is going to take a long time.For the cost they really should have come with a crew!Put a craft paint bottle just to show the box size.

Tom

138 steps? Blimey! That will keep you occupied for ages! I knew it was enormous after seeing the box in a shop and yeah there is going to be a lot of green paint needed! Don't forget that if you want pilots the pair I used for the Lynx didn't need that much work and I think i wrote down earlier who made them.

Sorry for off topic
I reserch interested to 1/48 scale. I sussessful prototyped some small parts in 1/48 and 1/72 scale, by revolutional 5 micron technology
How you think, modern weapons in 1/48 will be interesting for market?

Hi Yaroslav
there's not a lot of modern vehicles in 1/48, but it is growing. The Airfix Afganistan range seems to be doing well, but you'd have to do British weapons for that. The weapons in the kits could do with a good replacement set: M2, GPMG and personal weapons like the SA80
Tamiya do a 1/48 humvee (or 2?) and there are a few other modern vehicles but I think this scale is currently more WWII subjects

Honestly Live Resin, I have no idea. It depends how well the 48th market takes off. The main military scale appears to be 1/35. However , Tamiya and now Airfix all have 1/48 modern warfare ranges, so who knows? And yeah I agree with Sean, some people would buy the detailed guns for the Airfix sets, but I don't know how successful that would be

Hi Live Resin. The real interest would be in doing Heads and Hands that would be useful in modifying WWII or Modern plastic figures. I still strongly believe a good WWII 50 cal machine gun would be most useful to mount on tanks and vehicles! It hasn't changed too much over the years right?

Hi Yaroslav,
Yes i would welcome your move into 1:48th.
Modern subjects in 1:48th scale are at the moment pretty thin on the ground but hopefully this may change when the major kit makers finally run out of obscure paper panzers to produce in 1:35th.

The Airfix operation Herrick kits of the Landrovers, Coyote and Jackal are selling quite well i believe. They are very nice kits but the weapons supplied in them are very poor. A 7.62 GPMG, 0.50 calibre heavy MG and SA80 rifles would be most welcome to replace the kit parts.

There are also a couple of sets of British Army figures available and Airfix will be releasing a 1:48th scale FV 510 Warrior IFV in the next few months so the range is growing.

I too would welcome better 1/48 weapons - not sure about the rifle but certainly .50, GPMG, and even the GMG would be most welcome. The vehicles are ok soft in some areas and good in others. Oh yes and ammo boxes too.

Brian

Here's the start of the Merlin.
The pilots as I mentioned earlier are part of Revell huey.Cost me $15 for the complete helicopter.Less than 2 resin figures.This will be a long build,considering the amount of parts and that most need to painted before assembly.This comes as my biggest complaint about Airfix.The kit doesn't come with a paint chart and some of the colours they call out are not on the Humbrol list.Being 1/48,most painting has to be with a brush.After I get through this it will be back to 1/35 for some time.
Steve Zaloga has done an exellent article on detailing the Jackal in the June issue of Model Military if anyone want's to check it out.

Tom

Bad pics.decals and figures painted .

Tom

Tom. The crew looks good in there. Why can't you use an airbrush? Maybe airbrush things on the sprue and hand paint any touch ups that can be seen in the interior. I always completely assemble then airbrush then touch up. Either way the ab is a time saver. This will be a huge bird when done

Your not kidding Greg,
This one is a ton of work.After the cockpit I have been using the AB.20 seats,some of the interior.Still PO's me that Airfix doen't include a paint chart.Some of the colors they ask for apparently don't show on the Humbrol site.
Some pics of how things are moving.I would suggest the side to be attached before the bottom is.Not a good fit.I put a 1/48 Huey there to show the size difference.The decal sheet is huge and I probably won't use a lot that really won't be noticable.

Tom

Looking good so far Tom.... that is a lot of decals. I presume those bits in the bottom left are for weathering?

Sorry Sean,
I don't understand the bits on the bottom?I should have taken a pic of the bottom,but that is the under carriage.
Tom

I mean the squiggly decals on the bottom left hand side of the decal sheet....

Sorry Sean,
I should have known that,you were talking about the decals.I'll check a little later and let you know.
A little off topic,I've pretty much finished the building.As I already said i just copied most of the Airfix resin one.Not to impressed with the Hauler figures.For all being 1/48 the sizes are not consitant at all.height I can live with,but check out the difference in everything else most apparently the size of heads.Earlier I mentioned Steve Zalgodas exellent article on detailing the Jackal and decided to add the mesh screen to the back of mine.

Tom

Hi Sean,
Looks like they are markings for an air show to remember 75 years of # 78 squadron.A chopper that crashed at Hank,Holland in 1944.Halifax Mk-LV905/EY "Willie".
Any chance anybody knows what colour #105 is supposed to be?It's not on any of the Humbrol charts I looked up.Try again to upload the last pic of the netting on the Jackal.

Tom

Humbrol 105 is Matt Marine Green

Hey guys, the going is a bit slow here as I have some 'after university' problems. Normal service should resume shortly.
Thanks,
C

Hi All,

Added some more of the interior decals.There shold be more extremly tiny ones,but I'm not going to aggrevate myself on them and it's very doubtful they would ever be seen in the end.The one side of seats is finally done exept I'll try to add seat belts later.The full seats tend to be a bit of a pain to assemble basically because of the scale.The other side is going to have more in the folded position.

Tom

That's a lot of seats to make. Its looking good. Nice job on making the house too. Everyone draws the line somewhere as to how much detail to include in a build, so I don't think those tiny interior decals will be missed.