News Feed

Alec K
Can't miss this one! Very nice start 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Good to see you, Alec. As you can guess, this is gonna be a big show. There's gonna be a lot of cutting, a lot of editing, and of course, I'll be scratching out new parts. At this point, I'm still planning the build process. But work on the model will soon be in full swing.

Pierre Pierre
very intersting transformation. Following

Ludvík Kružík
Welcome, Pierre, I'm very pleased to see your interest. I hope you find my rebuilding interesting.

The manufacturer of the Avia BH.9 model states 1/48 scale on the box. Actually the model is made in a slightly smaller scale 1/50. I don't mind that in this case. The Avia BH.10 is very similar to the Avia BH.9, but because it is a single-seat aircraft, it is smaller overall than the Avia BH.9. . So even if I build a single seat Avia BH.10 in 1/48 scale, I will be scaling down the fuselage and wing parts from the kit. I have been comparing the fuselage and wing parts to a 1/48 scale drawing of the Avia BH.10 and wondering how to scale the parts down to fit the desired shape and size.

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat, of course!

J35J
Great start! Following👍🏻

Villiers de Vos
A great project.

bughunter
Nice project! The BH-10 will fit nicely between your finished BH-9 and BH-11 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Frank, you make a good point. The Avia BH.10 will add to my collection of Avia BH series monoplanes from the 1920s. They are very interesting and modern aircraft for their time, if only because biplanes dominated the skies at that time.

Ludvík Kružík
I finished modifying the fuselage and wings to 1/48 scale.

Ludvík Kružík
I started making new parts for the model.

bughunter
Successful reshaping of kit parts 👍
Not very much left of the kit, but it looks like that way needs less work compared to a full scratch build.

Ludvík Kružík
That's right. Due to the great similarity of the fuselage and wings of both Avia's, it is easier to modify these parts than to produce completely new ones. Still, there will be a lot of work involved in building the model.
At the moment I have the basic parts roughly ready. I still have to work on them. I will have to do some puttying and sanding. And then fill in all the details.

Alec K
Nice progress. Watch, KP will release their 1/72 kit in 48 just as you finish… 😉 😄

Ludvík Kružík
I'm not really worried about that. Even if it happens, I'm fine with it. Avia BH.10 in 1/72 scale is not very accurate. And if KP goes the route of enlarging parts of the 1/72nd scale model while making a 1/48th scale model (which I think is very likely), it will transfer all the errors of the original model to the new one. Plus, I really like these "crazy" rebuilds. It's a lot of fun for me. 😉

Alec K
I fully agree, scratch builds and conversions are a lot of fun. I'll have to compare the KP kit to drawings before starting mine 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Alec, before building a model you have to choose which machine you want to build. I'm building a first production run machine, but KP's 1/72 scale kit is a second production run machine. Otherwise there were machines with special modifications. And be careful which drawing you want to use. Some drawings are not very accurate (for example the drawing from Modeler 7/1986).
I have described the basic differences between the first and second production series machines in the attached photo.

Alec K
Great, thank you! Do you have a drawing recommendation?

Ludvík Kružík
Alec, you can find a lot of useful information about Avia BH.10 on Czech Modelforum in Pavel Kloucek's overviews.
Information about machines from the first production run can be found here: modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=310&t=143236
And information about the machines of the second production series is here: modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=310&t=143254
A lot of interesting information about the Avia aircraft designed by Benes and Hajn is in this book: nasevojsko.eu/nasevo..onstrukce-Benes-Hajn

I sent you a PM about the drawings.

Alec K
Super, thank you very much.

Ludvík Kružík
I am continuing to build the model by making a new cockpit.

Ludvík Kružík
Unfortunately I only have one period photo of the cockpit, which shows the instrument panel and the right side of the cockpit.
I'm working from the drawing to create the controls and instruments on the left side of the cockpit and floor, with the help of photos of the Avie BH.11 cockpit.
Since the Avie BH.9, 10 and 11 have the same engine and very similar construction, I think most of the cockpit controls were designed very similarly, if not identically.

gorby
Very impressive work so far.

Alec K
Cockpit looks great, those instruments are superb 👍

bughunter
... and the wood looks good too!

Ludvík Kružík
Welcome my friends! Thank you for your interest and popdoru. I really appreciate it.

Ludvík Kružík
I finished the cockpit. After gluing the starboard side to the cockpit, I'll mount the cockpit to the fuselage.

Alec K
Your prop effort beats mine. I tried with sandwitched colored paper infused with resin but needed a painted color overlay. I need to try with correct colored card stock next time.

Ludvík Kružík
Making a propeller out of coloured cardboard was an experiment for me. I wondered if it would work.

Ludvík Kružík
I finished making the cockpit. Now I'm going to glue the bottom of the fuselage and then putty and sand the fuselage.

Ludvík Kružík
It was time to puttying and sanding. We'll see how many times I have to repeat this cycle.

Villiers de Vos
A lot of attention to detail. It will pay off in the end.

bughunter
I will buy shares of putty manufacturers. 😉

Ludvík Kružík
Villiers, welcome! Good to see you again.

This aeroplane is very simple and there are very few small details on it. But the few that are on it, I'll be sure to pay attention to. 😉

Bughunter,
maybe your plan to buy shares in the putty maker will pay off. At least in my case the putty maker made a profit 😄.

I know the fuselage doesn't look good with a heavy coat of putty. But the hull needed that layer of putty on the bow. I had to fill in all the joints and minor unevenness. There won't be much putty left on the hull after sanding, but since the putty shrinks as it dries, it's hard to tell ahead of time where more putty is needed and where maybe not. In this case, more is better.

Ludvík Kružík
The fuselage, wings and tail surfaces are ready for minor detailing. In the end I just needed one rough puttying, sanding, spraying surfacer, one fine puttying of minor defects, sanding again and final surfacer.

Jakub Fiala
Super! 👍

Alec K
Very nice progress 👍

bughunter
The polished surfaces looks great! 👍

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
Amazing how this turnded out till now Ludvik! Biggest respect for this special project and efforts you make on it. Looking forward to the next steps 🤩

Ludvík Kružík
Mates, thank you all!
It's great to have you on board. Your support means a lot to me.

Ludvík Kružík
After a short vacation I returned to building the Avia. I haven't had much time to build it yet.

I taped the tail surfaces with masking tape so I could spray thin strips of surfacer on the ribs.
To indicate the slight sagging of the canvas on the wing surfaces that were only covered with canvas, I started scraping these surfaces very gently with a round-bladed scalpel. Once I had completed this operation on both wings, it was my turn to cover them with masking tape so that I could spray strips of surfacer on the wing ribs.

I'll add photos of the work in progress next time.

Ludvík Kružík
I started adding details to the fuselage, wings and tail surfaces.

Ludvík Kružík
I'm slowly resuming my work. I've sprayed the rib bands on the wings and added some minor detailing to the left side of the fuselage.

Ludvík Kružík
The top and side surfaces of the Avia are sprayed with the first of three camouflage colours.

Moreno Baruffini
WOOOOOOOWWW! Super!

Alec K
This will be another beauty 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Moreno Baruffini, thank you, I appreciate it.

Alec, when this Avia is finished, it will complete my collection of Avia BH-3, Avia BH-9 and Avia BH-11 monoplanes from Benes and Hajn constructors.

Villiers de Vos
Still nailed to my chair.

Ludvík Kružík
Villiers thank you for your interest.

Due to the summer season and its associated activities and the occasional babysitting of my 15 month old grandson, I have less time to build the model. Progress will be slower.

Ludvík Kružík
The upper surfaces of the Avia are already covered with tri-colour camouflage. There was no time to spraying silver paint on the lower surfaces today. At least I know what I will do next time 😄.

Villiers de Vos
Coming together nicely.

Alec K
The colors look great 👍

bughunter
The colours bring it to life!
And no worry about slower progress - family and life is very important.

Moreno Baruffini
I totally agree with Bughunter!

Ludvík Kružík
@ Villiers and Alec
Thank you for your support, it is very much appreciated.

@ bughunter and Moreno
You are right, family is important and has a higher priority than building models. Don't worry, I'm clear on this point. 😉

Ludvík Kružík
Today I had time and also the daytime temperatures dropped to a bearable limit so I took advantage of it and moved the construction a little bit again.

Ludvík Kružík
I continue building the model by making parts for the landing gear, propeller and wings. I also printed the decals with the serial numbers.

Villiers de Vos
Fantastic skills.

Robert Podkoński
Presumably, you're approaching the finish line, Ludviku 🙂

Ludvík Kružík
Mates, thank you!

Robert, it's true. Once I finish the individual assemblies, the model building and completion of the model will move forward quickly. 🙂

bughunter
Nice details on the undercarriage - the kit seem to be short run.

Guy Rump
Looking great! 👍

Curatorm
This model seems to be workable ^_^

Ludvík Kružík
@ Bughunter,
you're not far from the truth. During the building of my Avia BH - 9 and Avia BH - 11 kits, I received quite a lot of inquiries from Czech modellers asking if I was thinking about releasing the kit in a short run.
Unfortunately I don't have the equipment or experience to produce these kits. That is why I am sticking with my rebuilds and builds from scratch. But they say "never say never". So who knows, maybe someday... 😉

@ Guy Rump, Curatorm
Thanks for the kind words, it's a great inspiration for me to continue working on this project 🙂.

Skyhiker
Your hard work is paying off. Looking forward to seeing it all come together.

Ludvík Kružík
Skyhiker, thank you for your contribution.
And I can at least partially satisfy your curiosity. I've attached the wings with struts and horizontal tail surfaces to the fuselage.

Alec K
… and it has wings! Looking awesome 👍

Villiers de Vos
Very nice progress.

Ludvík Kružík
Summer weather and holidays are not very good for modelling, but I have noticed some progress. I am gradually making small parts. Most of them are in the semi-finished stage.

Ludvík Kružík
Tomorrow (if nothing goes wrong) I will spray the Avia with glossy clear coat. Then all that's left to do is add the last few parts and indicate a bit of operational wear... and we'll be done. If there are no complications, it could be done in three days.

Dietmar Bogatzki
Awesome build 🙂

bughunter
I really like the well presented open engine at the front 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Thank you for your kind contributions.

bughunter, the engine is a standalone accessory produced by 3D printing technology and manufactured by MH models.

Avia BH-10 is finished. As soon as I have a moment, I will take better photos of the model and put them in the gallery... and I will add a family photo with BH-3, BH-9 and BH-11.

Villiers de Vos
A beautiful and unique project. Thank you for sharing.

Moreno Baruffini
Bellissimo! A wonderful little gem! Thanks for all the pictures.

Marko
Everything has already been said, what else can you add? But the implementation of the many modifications and the entire construction is excellent. Really interesting construction report👍

Alec K
Another beautiful addition to your Czechoslovak AF collection. I wish mine was as far along (I know… shut up and go build something 😉

J K
I have just ordered this myself. Your model looks brilliant. I hope to do half as good a job as you have done.

Sebastian Meyner
Stunning work, mate 👍

Maurizio Laudisa
Thanks

Rando
What a masterpiece! The new Gannet sure looks like a great kit.

Neuling
A masterpiece.

Maciej Bellos
Excellent work, but man that's an ugly thing! Sorry guys...

gorby
Fantastic!

Rui S
An eye catcher, indeed 👍

Kendrick Brown
The uglier the plane, the more interesting they turn out. Fantastic work.

Sven Schönyan
Great to see this! I have the same on the workbench as well!

Maurizio Laudisa
Thanks everyone. Indeed it's one of those "so ugly it's beautiful" subjects. It certainly has presence on the shelf.

Elias Papadimitriou
Great build!
Where did you find the Squadron badge?

Maurizio Laudisa
Thanks Elias, the badge if from https://ebay.ca/itm/185727703714

Guy Rump
Great build, congrats! 👍

Paul Eden
Gorgeous kit. Air craft is a proper chunky boy, I love it. Excellent work. Think this may be a bit too hard for me but it looks awesome.

Maurizio Laudisa
Thanks Guy and Paul... yes the kit is excellent but quite fiddley, not difficult per se, just a lot of delicate subassemblies that require patience and stamina. Do it!

Ludvík Kružík
Wow... another Hind on the scene. Nice start! 👍

I suppose compared to my rebuild of the Monogram kit, building this model is a walk in the park.

When I finish the rebuild, I'd like to build another Mi-24 from the Eduard/Zvezda kit. (I have two Eduard kits in my stash). I will follow your build with great interest. 👀 It will be a great inspiration for me.

What colors and markings did you choose for your Mil?

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
Hi Ludvik, thanks - I love the kit so far and I will build it more or less straight out of the box, with only some added details and adding rivets and missing panel lines. I only built 2 Revell kits so far and compared to them this kit has way more precise parts and just a few issues with gaps until now. I follow your build and to be honest: you are a crazy one building all these details out of scratch ... this is a total different kind of modelling. I decided to go for the SCHEME B, markings G and last flight of the tiger paint scheme. I will update project with some new pictures soon. I´m close to get the rivets done and prepare for final painting. You will love the Zvezda kit 🙂

Ludvík Kružík
Hi, Thomas! What a coincidence. Just as I was reading your reply, Jiri Schelinger's (Czech singer *1951 +1981) song "I'm Just a Fool" was playing on the radio 😄.

In today's hectic times and the large selection of perfect kits and accessories to improve the look, it looks really crazy. I have nothing against new models, but I prefer the old models with all their flaws and inaccuracies. They give me room for my own creativity. It's the "extra" work that I really enjoy. When I build a model in my own "crazy" way, I'm much happier with the finished model than with a perfect kit built from a box. My goal is not to build the model as fast as possible, but to enjoy the whole model building process as much as possible. That's how it is for me ... Maybe I'm crazy. :-D

You're doing a really good job on your model and I'm really very curious to see the progress. If only because my next Mi-24 model will also be by Eduard.

Michael Kohl
convincing progress so far

CaptGPF
Love the progress so far!

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
Thanks @CaptGPF ... I stopped this project as I didn´t feel ready enough for the challenging paint job ... I decided to wait before I destroy the model with an awful paint job. I pushed myself to build a 1:72 scale to get more skilled on the airbrush and once this is done (I guess soon) I will finish this. I feel ready now 🤣

CaptGPF
I'm with you there, Thomas! I generally sharpen my skills on the smaller and "easier" kits till I get enough XPs to handle the more challenging stuff. 😀

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
Smaller is not always easier, but I got you 😉 and it´s nice to see that more skilled modelers do it the same way

Ludvík Kružík
Hi, Thomas! I see you've added some extra work. The engine build into the fuselage looks very nice. 👍 I assume the engines will be open. I look forward to the next installment.

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
Hi Ludvik! Yes, at least I tried 😂 ... looked a little bit boring so I added a few pipes. You are right, I plan to have all covers displayed open. The pictures are in bad quality as they were all taken with my old phone. Before I decided to put this project on hold, I finished main rotor blades but I didn´t put them here. Once I finished the Me410, I will be ready to finish this one ... everything is prepared for the paintjob but has been put back to shelf, so keep fingers crossed for me 😃

Ludvík Kružík
Thomas, it takes a lot of work to build an open engine model that looks realistic. But the current photos of your model show that you're succeeding. Fingers crossed that you continue to do well. And be prepared that applying decals to the main rotor blades is an afternoon's work. There are 26 decals on one blade = 130 decals on all five blades combined.

I have already completed my "crazy" Mi-24 conversion from the Monogram kit. I will come back to the Mi-24 later. I plan to build one more D version machine and one more V version machine. I will build these helicopters from the Eduard (Zvezda) kit. So I will be inspired by you and it is possible that I will "copy" 🙂.

Siegfried Van den Bosch
Wow, very nicely detailed.

tyu
I love the weathering on the rotors and engine compartment! Could you explain your technique?

Daniel
I agree with tyu, great attention to the "inner values" looking forward for more👍👍

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
@Ludvik: thank you so much for your positive feedback. When I think back to the time I started my Hind and built the engine section I almost had no experience. The Hind was the 3rd model I started so I´m still thinking if you are just kidding .... 🤨 Lucky me I already applied all the decals and YES it was more than an afternoon job ... 🤣 I know you finished your Hind - I watched the progress highly interested and let me tell you again: your Hind is absolutely amazing. I have never seen any "old" kit that has been adjusted, optimized and detailed in this way.

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
@Siegfried: many thanks - glad you like it!
@tyu and Daniel: thanks a lot - I really appreciate your kind words. To be honest I don´t even remember all the details on the weathering as I did this so long ago. As far as I remember the rotor head is simply painted and I gave it a wash. The wash was blended with white spirit and in some areas rust was added with a light rust wash (also blended). Main blades also simply painted and then I think I added some bright oils paint with a stippling movement, sealed it in with gloss varnish and then I added it a light grey panel liner + another layer of bright oil that has been blended with a brush (with very little white spirit) always moving into the direction of air. On the connection points to the rotor head I worked with oil paints again. The engines are airbrushed in many different metallic colors and towards the end I also blended in some oil paints and rust pigments, but I don´t remember it exactly. I´m still kind of overwhelmed when I see your positive feedback, remembering back 2 years ago, I didn´t even know what oils paints are ... 😧

Jennifer Franklin
That is a really nice job, I would agree the weathering is majestically executed.

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
@Jennifer: thank you soooo much for your kind words.
@tyu: I forgot to mention that main rotor blades have been also darkened in a few areas using AMMO Shaders …

Ludvík Kružík
Thomas, I want to assure you that I am in no way making fun of you. I really like your work on the model.
If I smiled at anything, it was not as a result of your work on the model, but because you called me crazy (I know it was meant in a good way) and now you are slowly going down the same path. With the opening of the engines and the cabin and cockpit doors, it begins... 😄

... and thank you so much for the compliments on my Mi-24, I really appreciate it.

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
@Ludvik: I was just kidding and never would think that anybody in this great community would make fun on others, but I´m still kind of overwhelmed when more skilled and experienced modellers like you like what I do ... and this is not a joke. Yesterday I finished my 1:72 "test build" to sharpen my skills on the airbrush so updates here will come soon😊

Alec K
Not sure how I missed this build. Excellent work, hopefully it will leave the shelf of doom 🙂

Nigel Chapman
Another bucket list kit for a good price and my first £60 kit

Bozzer
I saw one of those going down the M6, near Keele Services. It sounded awesome!

Nigel Chapman
Yeah, there are quite a few old and new T-cabs about the UK - can't beat the that Scania v8 sound