Kustenfliegergruppe 406, Coastal Aviation Group 406, was formed in April and July 1937 and went through several designations before 1/Ku.Fl.Gr. 406 reformed from 2/Ku.Fl.Gr. 506 on 22.10.39, disbanding in 10.44 at Hommelvik, Norway. 2/406 is listed as forming in 1937 before becoming 3/SAGr 130, Sea Reconnaisance Group 130, on 13.7.43. The latter being the inspiration for this 'Gruppe' build.
My Supermodel kit of the Bv 138 used by 2/406 dates from 1983 and has markings for an aircraft in March 1942 when it was based in Trondheim. Coming in an open ending tray box with painting and marking options on the back and build instructions giving the history in four languages it includes four grey sprues of plastice plus one clear and the decals. I did some initial work on this kit several years back and at that time was going to build the mine de-gauzing option but as I now have a He 115 in my stash as used by 1/406 that plan got shelved. The decals applied to the radios and console at that time had started to curl so had to be held back with superglue. This was followed by repainting the darkened painted parts Humbrol RLM 02.

Another kit started at the last PlayDay. It's the original 1979 release of the Matchbox kit which had a couple of re-releases before the final one by Revell in 2007. Moulded in the usual 3 coloured trees of the period with the rear of the box showing the marking options. The instructions are of the exploded type and are vague at times re placement and which part to use for which model. More on this later. I hope the decals, transfers back then, will have stoodthe test of time.

As mentioned at the beginning of Chris W's GR.9 build here is the Airfix Sea Harrier FRS.1 in my stash. I obtained only the sprue trees so have had to download the instructions, and source the decals from spares. These are for various aircraft from both the British and Argentinian Air Forces during the Falklands War. My intention is to finish it as one flown from HMS Hermes which was the Flagship of the British Forces before being sold to India in 1986, renamed the INS Viraat it served until 2017.
The SHar kit consists of 3 grey sprues plus one clear. In my spares I have some metal Martin Baker Mk.10 ejector seats, obtained from the Col. Tony collection, and I'll see if I can get one of these to fit as they have better detail.

On the theme of 'small is beautiful'. Earlier this year our youngest son and his wife spent some time in the Maldives as she's always wanted to swim with Manta rays so being the big softie that I am when I saw this recent release by Mark 1 Models I knew I had to get it and give it to them, once completed, as a reminder. I'd already done something similar when our daughter found out she was pregnant the day she watched the Red Arrows in Scarborough.
The kit is the 1/144 scale latest reboxing of the Twin Otter with 'Holiday Season' decals for Nepal, Tahiti and the Maldives. Previous releases cover Civil and Military users. Moulded in blue/grey plastic with options for land or floatplane it comes in an end opening box with the colour options on the rear, these are shown again in more detail in the four page instruction booklet. The decals are clearly printed and a bonus is a card hardstanding which, will not be used as I'm building the floatplane, but will come in handy another time. So far I've just washed the parts and primed them with Halfords white primer.

I thought I'd dig this one out of the stash to reduce Chris W's monopoly on rotor craft.
This is the AMP kit of the Fa 225 an experimental single-seat rotary wing glider of which only one example was built. In the first half of the Second World War the DFS 230 glider was used primarily to land troops and supplies, but was found to be of limited capabillity as it needed a large landing area. The Fa 225 was conceived to marry the rotor from a Fa 223 'Drache' helicopter with the fuselage of a DFS 230B, allowing the glider to land in 18 metres or less, with it's first flight being in 1943 towed behind a Ju 52/3m. Series production was not proceeded with due to the relatively slow aero-towing speed of 120 mph and changes in operartional doctrine.
The kit is moulded in grey plastic and comes sealed in a bag which also has the instructions, clear parts, a small etched fret, the decals and the bonus of masks for the clear parts. As this was an experimental craft the model doesn't have the central forward and rear facing bench seats of the DFS 230B, but I'll probably put something in there as the interior is visible through the canopy. I can then turn this into a 'What If' perhaps?

This is the first IBG kit I've built and it has a lot of parts spread over 8 sprues, some of which aren't relevant to this build and some of which are very small. There's also an etched brass fret (fun later?), a clear sprue for the windows and a decal sheet with two Luftwaffe options. The instructions come in a comprehensive booklet.
I started this build whilst waiting for the superglue and filler to set on the Bv.192. The engine is well detailed but unfortunately most of it will be hid on the completed model.

In 1942 the Wehrmacht were looking for a less complicated halftrack to replace the m. Zgkw. 5t. Bussing NAG received the contract and started development in May 1942 but due to complications the first 5 vehicles weren't delivered until December 1943 with a total of 851 built by March 1945. The vehicle wasn't an overall success under powered with a top speed of only around 16mph, which led to many being abandoned in the rapid retreats of 1944/5. Initially it was produced as a flatbed tractor with later models being fitted with an armoured cab and engine two of which were used with the 15cm rocket launcher, some as munitionsschlepper and 80 the subject of this kit.
Somewhere in my stash is a 50plus year old 1/87 Roco Minitank of the sWS and ever since seeing this I wanted a 1/72 in my collection. Released in 2022 I initially thought it was a Roden copy but it can trace it's lineage back to the 2007 Maco kit. When the owner of Maco stopped production Revell bought the moulds. Consisting of 252 parts over 5 sprues it is classed as a Level 4 kit due to the small parts, some of which aren't used in this build. I started it at the recent Play Day but spent most of the day cleaning flash off and removing countless knockout points, marked black in places. One thing that caught me out, until I worked it out, was that Part 17, the fuel filler, is in the intructions but didn't appear to be on the sprue tree. It is in fact moulded onto part 4. Another thing to watch out for is that numbers can be repeated on different sprues.

Whilst I'm waiting for the canopy masks for the Lancaster to arrive I've dug this out as a quick (?) build. It's the 1990 Pioneer kit of the Dutch Fokker D.XXI. I already have one of these in a box somewhere which I thought was a PM kit but they only issued it in 2000, I'd made mine years and years ago so it's either a Frog original from the 1963-75 period, which I doubt, or more likely the Novo 1979 release. Anyhow I wanted to attempt the Dutch 3 colour scheme so bought a 'new/2nd hand' one as mine is in the Finnish colours. The kit is sparse to say the least 36 grey plastic parts, 5 of which aren't used if you don't make the ski version and one clear part for the canopy. Like the instruction sheet the decals have seen better days but I still have an original set of Dutch markings in my spares box so we'll see what happens. The colour scheme is on the back of the box with no callout numbers so some research is needed for internal and external colours.