Welcome to the 2026 Whiffie Awards Show

[TomZ]

The 2026 Whiffie Awards Show


 
We have another great show to share with you tonight. The quality of the nominated models is again really outstanding and we heard from many members that making choices in the voting was very hard. An indication of how hard it was to make choices, is the fact that in almost all categories, no entry received a vote from more than 50% of the voters.

In most categories between 30 and 35 members voted for their favourites.

We have 23 awards to hand out today. A recognition by our fellow modellers!

For all of you are coming out as winners, know that it is well deserved. The winning models are all examples of very, very good modelling.

For those who didn't win any prizes this year, know that in many cases the voting was very, very close. Often there was only one or two votes between the winner and the runner-up.


I would respectfully ask that members refrain from posting comments in this thread until after the show is finished.

Well, the food is served, the whisky is poured (at least mine is...), so without further ado, let's start with the first award.....

[TomZ]

Best Back Story

The nominees were:

Stevehed's Phoenix-Fokker (Th) WD.VII.
TheRat's Vought Avon Cutlass
Rickshaw's EE Canberra prototype
Nönöbär's Saab 100 Airliner
LeadingObserver's RNoAF Avro 720 Tordenpil
Wacek85's FV-1 Kraken
ComradeHarps's Martin A-40B Sledgehammer
RAFF-35's Airco DH. 2B Home Defence
Dizzyfugu's Me-410 B4 Hornisse night fighter
RAFF-35's 'Sopwith Camel of the Red Arrows Display Team - 1920'
PR19_Kit's Super Sealand
NARSES2's Polish Curtiss H-75
AccidentalLoggie's Gloster Meteor Reaper
TomZ's Diesel Locomotive V188
PR19_Kit's Heinkel He-119 V-10

And the winner is:

RAFF-35's Airco DH. 2B Home Defence

Diary of Squadron Leader George Dummet
39 Home Defence Squadron, Hounslow, 1917.
When I was ordered home after my tour on the Western Front, I thought my fighting days were behind me. They gave me command of a home defence squadron—our task, to keep the Zeppelins from setting our cities alight. I had made my name in the DH.2, scoring four victories in that odd little pusher so far, and I trusted her quirks more than any other machine. So I requested my new squadron be equipped with DH.2s. The powers agreed readily enough; the type was being retired in France, and spares and airframes were plentiful.
It was only after our first few scrambles that I realised the problem. The DH.2 was too slow to meet the Zeppelins where they were already cruising at altitude. Twenty-four minutes to reach 10,000 feet! By the time we were in position, the raiders were well on their way inland, their bombs already falling. I could not sit idle and let London burn!
We began to experiment. My mechanics fitted the new Gnôme Monosoupape 9N engine. What a difference it made! She now reached 118 miles an hour, and the climb to 10,000 feet dropped to just over sixteen minutes. Still a labour, but at last within striking distance of the airships. I had the armament doubled to two Lewis guns and insisted we load them with incendiary rounds; nothing else would bring down a hydrogen bag. I pressed for a second fuel tank as well, giving us three and a half hours aloft. Enough to range far and wide to sniff the Hun out in the dark skies.
Flying at night was another matter. We needed Holt flares and landing lamps simply to find the field again. It was dicing work, groping through cloud and fog, but with these additions the DH.2 became something a bit more than the flimsy scout I had known over the trenches. She was now a true night fighter, capable even of challenging the new menace, the Gotha bombers.
My chaps loved the conversions. After our first success, they swore by the modified machines, and soon neighbouring squadrons were asking if their aircraft could be altered the same way. Word reached Airco, and before long the DH.2b was made official. They even improved on our efforts, fitting a four-bladed propeller and giving us cockpit lights.
I never expected the little DH.2, once written off as obsolete, to win back its place. But for a time it did. She carried us once more into the fight, this time over the dark skies of England, where the enemy came not from trenches, but from the stars above.

39 (Home Defence) Squadron, Hounslow
17th September, 1917
The telephone rang just after midnight. Another Zeppelin reported crossing the coast. At Hounslow the field was already alive, the mechanics rolling my DH.2b into position. Fresh Holt flares fitted, fuel tanks topped up, drums of incendiary ammunition fitted to the flanks of my machine. I strapped in with a heaviness in my chest, knowing well how unforgiving these hunts could be.
The Gnôme choked to life and I lifted into the night. The climb was long and cold, sixteen minutes to ten thousand feet, my breath freezing on my goggles. For an hour I strained to search the gloom, engine droning steadily in the dark, until at last I saw it. A massive black silhouette gliding silently over the Thames valley, blotting out the stars.
I turned wide to gain height, then dived in from above. As my tracers ripped into her back, the Zeppelin came alive. Gun flashes winked along her flanks, gunners firing wildly into the night sky. I felt the snap of bullets whipping past, the shudder of rounds striking my struts. For a moment I thought the DH.2 would come apart around me. I pulled away, changed drum, and attacked from underneath.
The airship was trying to escape, nose pitching upward, engines roaring, dragging her bulk higher into the night. But the little DH.2b managed to stay with her. I began raking lengthwise across the leviathan's belly. Another storm of tracer fire came down from her turrets, one shot punching through my port wing, another splintering the cockpit coaming. I pressed on until the Lewis jammed hot in my hands, then cleared it and loosed another burst.
At first, nothing. Then, a faint orange glow where my rounds had struck. It spread swiftly, racing along her gas cells. The whole airship flared, a torch in the sky. She tried to climb still higher, but her frame sagged under the flames, and within seconds she was falling—a cathedral in fire, breaking apart as it tumbled. I watched her men leaping from the inferno, tiny figures swallowed in the blaze. The Thames below mirrored the destruction, a river of burning light.
When I landed at Hounslow the men cheered, but I could not. The image was burned into me. The fire, the falling bodies. Still, the Wing Commander told me later the confirmation had come through: the Zeppelin was LZ 93, destroyed over our soil. One less monster to terrorise London.
They called me a hero that night. I told myself only that I had done my duty.

14th March, 1918.
My days of chasing giants in the night sky are finished. The Zeppelin menace has waned, and the Gothas, too, are met now by faster machines than my dear DH.2b. Command has seen fit to send me back to France, where the war is grinding ever harder.
It feels strange to leave England after these months of darkness and fire. Strange, too, to leave behind the men I trained and led. We built something together in those lonely night watches, circling above silent fields, waiting for the droning of engines. We took the old pusher scout, cast off and forgotten, and turned her into a weapon again. Two Zeppelins and two Gothas fell to my guns, bringing my total so far in this dratted war to eight kills. That makes me an ace, they say, but the word feels hollow. An "ace" is a man counted by his victories, but what of the faces of those I could not save below? The fires in the streets of London still burn in my dreams.
Now they want me back over the trenches, back into the frying-pan I thought I had escaped. Yet I will not leave the DH.2b behind. She has been refitted once more, this time for ground attack. The extra fuel tanks are gone. Replaced with armour plate beneath the cockpit tub, and instead of Holt flares, racks for bombs hang beneath her wings. My Lewis guns remain, hungry for their work. She is slower than the new scouts, vulnerable to every Fokker and Albatros, but the generals believe she has a role to play, strafing trenches and columns, harassing the enemy's rear.
I confess to a heavy heart. Night fighting was a lonely business, yes, but it was a duel between hunter and hunted in the high, silent dark. I imagine this new task is different from the norm. Diving into mud and wire, scattering men like ants, and hoping to climb away before the archie or machine-guns find you. It can't have any romance in it. Only slaughter, on both sides.
Still, I cannot refuse. The machine and I have come this far together, and perhaps she has one more fight left to give. If I must battle again over France, I would rather see combat in the cockpit I know best, with the sound of the Gnôme engine roaring at my back.
So tomorrow I leave for the front once more. I pray I do not leave my life there.

France, 6th April 1918.
Back in France at last, and already I wonder whether I was a fool to come. The war here is nothing like the war I left. The Bosch are pushing hard with their Spring Offensive; the lines seem fluid, broken, and the air is alive with enemy scouts. The sky is no longer ours.
They have given my flight a new task: low-level attacks, harassing the enemy's infantry and guns. The DH.2b is ill-suited, some say, but I know her strengths. She is steady in a dive, her wide tail-boom giving me control even at speed, and she will take punishment if handled gently. We are fitted with small bombs now—twenty-pounders, hardly more than hand grenades with fins. We drop them on columns, on gun batteries, on trains, on any movement we can find behind the lines. Afterwards we rake the survivors with Lewis fire until every single .303 round is spent.
Yesterday I made my first such patrol. We flew low, barely 500 feet above the shell-torn earth. The smell of powder and carrion rose even into the cockpit. I found a column of grey-clad infantry moving along a sunken road. I loosed my bombs, saw the explosions scatter them, then pressed the triggers. The tracers danced across the ditch, cutting men down like wheat. For a moment I felt the old thrill—then the archie burst behind me and bullets clattered on the struts. I shoved the stick forward, hugging the earth, and somehow clawed my way back across our own lines. My hands were shaking so violently on landing that I could not unbuckle my straps.
The second patrol was worse. We attacked a battery of field guns hidden in an orchard. My bombs fell true, but the enemy had machine-guns sited to guard them. Three of my lads went down, one in flames, another breaking apart in the branches. I made it home with holes in my wings and blood on my goggles—not mine, but from my wingman, Gerald in the next machine, who was hit beside me before spiralling into the dirt. Too low to do anything to escape his fate.
I have fought Zeppelins in the night sky, seen giants burn like falling suns, but nothing has unsettled me like this. To see men scatter in panic, to watch the earth erupt beneath them, and to know I was the hand that brought it. Each day feels less like war and more like butchery.
Still, we are told we are needed here more than ever. The enemy presses hard, and our work slows them. That must be enough. The little DH.2b and I will carry on until she breaks, or until I do.
RFC Squadron Leader George Dummet returned to England after a long and punishing tour on the Western Front. He had made his name in the frail little Airco DH.2, scoring four victories against the Fokkers in the grim days of the "Fokker Scourge." To him, the machine was more than just an aircraft—it was a trusted partner. When posted to a home defence squadron to counter the Zeppelin menace, Dummet insisted his new command be equipped with the familiar "pusher" scouts. The DH.2, now considered obsolete over France, was easy enough to acquire for service on the quieter home front.
But Dummet soon realised that the Zeppelin campaign was a different kind of war. Reports showed the DH.2 took a punishing twenty-four minutes to claw its way to 10,000 feet—too slow to reliably intercept an airship already cruising high over England. Determined to give his men a fighting chance, Dummet pushed for improvements. Mechanics fitted the aircraft with the uprated Gnôme Monosoupape 9N rotary, boosting top speed from 91 to 118 mph and cutting the climb to 10,000 feet down to sixteen minutes, twelve seconds.
The modifications did not stop there. Knowing that a Zeppelin's hydrogen-filled cells required fire to bring them down, Dummet ordered his aircraft armed with twin .303 Lewis guns, loaded with incendiary ammunition. Extra fuel tanks mounted ontop of the upper wing extended endurance to three and a half hours, critical for long night patrols over the English coast. Standard night-fighter equipment followed: Holt flares to aid landing, and primitive landing lamps. The once outdated "pusher" scout had been reborn as a formidable night-hunter, capable not only of bringing down airships but also of challenging the new terror of Gotha bombers.
The transformation did not go unnoticed. Dummet's squadron embraced the "new" DH.2s, and soon neighbouring units were clamouring for the same conversions. The word reached Airco itself, who formalised the design under the title DH.2b. These official conversions refined the concept further, adding a four-bladed propeller and cockpit lighting. With these improvements, the venerable little fighter, once written off as obsolete, found a second life not only as a night interceptor but also once again as a daylight fighter and ground-attack aircraft.

[TomZ]

Best GB Winner

The nominees were:

Nönöbär's Greenland Snowtractor
Buzzbomb's Ice Rigger
Wardukw's Ventura Amphibian
Zenrat's Hedge Trimmer
Cammnut's Sea Sabre
PR19_Kit's EE Dalgety
Weaver's BAC MUSTARD Low-Speed Test glider
kitbasher's Folland Fo.133 'Foghorn'
nönöbär's Heinkel He 280
PR19_Kit's Aquila HL Satellite Supply Vessel'

And the winner is:

Buzzbomb's Ice Rigger

[TomZ]

Best Alternative Scheme Jet

The nominees were:

UhuFin's Estonian AF KAI KF-21 Kanankull
Cammnut's Sea Sabre
TheRat's 891 Sqd FAA's Sea Venom
Cammnut's Danish F-91 Thunderceptor
Zenrat's PDRV Republican Guard Su 22F
ComradeHarps's F-105E
PR19_kit's Martin B-51 Master
TomZ's USMC Blackburn AB-2 Buccaneer
TomZ's Svenska Flygvapnet F-16
TomZ's RCAF Golden-Hawks F-16
ComradeHarps's Kenyan EF-104S Starfighter
TomZ's RAF display F-16
Devilfish's Blackburn A-8 Buccaneer

And the winner is:

Devilfish's Blackburn A-8 Buccaneer

[TomZ]

Best Alternative Scheme Prop

The nominees were:

rv20100's GRUMANN G36
Zenrat's Fairey Firefly MkIII
TheRat's Spanish Civil War Curtis Hawk
ComradeHarps's Ukrainian PF-2 Beaufighter
Wacek85's FV-1 Kraken
ComradeHarps's Martin A-40B Sledgehammer
TomZ's Fairey Battle Dutch Luchtvaartafdeling
NARSES2's Polish Curtiss H-75
TomZ's Macchi MC-CCV
TomZ's FaireyAE-1 Spearfish
TomZ's Imperial Russian AF Yakovlev Yak 1
TomZ's USN Gannet A2E-2
RAFF-35's Breguet Br.552 Faucon

And the winner is:

TomZ's USN Gannet A2E-2

[TomZ]

Best Multi Jet

The nominees were:

UhuFin's Estonian AF KAI KF-21 Kanankull
Pressure's science fiction Me 262 diorama
Scautomoton's English Electric "Super" Lightning P.8 Concept
Wardukw's Viggen Plus
TheRat's Vought Avon Cutlass
Ericr's Concorde & YF-12
Rickshaw's EE Canberra prototype
Nönöbär's Saab 100 Airliner
Cammnut's Shorts Stingray S.1
Dizzyfugu's Kyushu J7W3 Shindden-Kai
Cammnut's EFW N-20.10 Aiguillon
Cammnut's Vickers Valiant B.3
Scautomoton's McDonnell Douglas 265-1 VLF AFTI
Nönöbär's Type 85 Moko
ComradeHarps's Fragile K
PR19_kit's Martin B-51 Master
TomZ's USMC Blackburn AB-2 Buccaneer
63cpe's SNCASO 4100 Coutelas
TomZ's Strike Twin
Dizzyfugu's MDD DC-9 -16 Cape Breton and Nova Scotia Airlines
AccidentalLoggie's Gloster Meteor Reaper
Scautomoton's Shorts PD.17 VTOL Platform
Zenrat's Su-34 in the PDRV
TomZ's Sukhoi T-4
TomZ's Sukhoi T-4MS
Devilfish's Blackburn A-8 Buccaneer
Devilfish's NEAF BAC Eagle
Dizzyfugu's Saab J31B

And the winners are:

Scautomoton's McDonnell Douglas 265-1 VLF AFTI


and

And the winners are:

Scautomoton's Shorts PD.17 VTOL Platform

[TomZ]

Best Multi Prop

The nominees were:

RAFF-35's Bristol Boscombe ACI.1
PR19_Kit's Ju 588
Ericr's Super-Tiger & Viscount
PR19_Kit's EE Dalgety
ComradeHarps's Ukrainian PF-2 Beaufighter
Nönöbär's PZL-237 Duzy los
TheRat's Avro Manchester III:
Dizzyfugu's Me-410 B4 Hornisse night fighter
PR19_Kit's Super Sealand
Frank2056's USN/USMC Flying Fish
63cpe's Westland Woden Mk I
63cpe's Fokker T.XI (geschakeld)
63cpe's Fokker GV Light Bomber
63cpe's Gloster Geras
Killnoizer's Ju 588 "Fafnir"

And the winner is:

Frank2056's USN/USMC Flying Fish

[TomZ]

Best Single Jet

The nominees were:

ComradeHarps's Mexican BMX Bandits
Wardukw's Single-Engined Blackburn Buccaneer
scautomoton's RAF Saunders-Roe P.177s
scautomoton's RN Saunders-Roe P.177s
mat's Fiat G.81
Wacek85's Mig-23MP
LeadingObserver's RNoAF Avro 720 Tordenpil
Scautomoton's Fairey ER.103C
Mat's RDAF SAAB AS 35X
TheRat's 891 Sqd FAA's Sea Venom
Chrisonord's Do. P.206
Cammnut's Danish F-91 Thunderceptor
Zenrat's PDRV Republican Guard Su 22F
Steelpillow's SuperHarrier
ComradeHarps's F-105E
HarryPhishnuts' F/A-16E Sea Viper
TomZ's Svenska Flygvapnet F-16
TomZ's RCAF Golden-Hawks F-16
ComradeHarps's Kenyan EF-104S Starfighter
ComradeHarps's Upper Volta Mirage 5UV2
TomZ's RAF display F-16
TomZ's Sukhoi VRD

And the winner is:

Scautomoton's Fairey ER.103C


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[TomZ]

Best Single Prop

The nominees were:

Ashpitcher3's Kyushu J7W1 Shinden
RAFF-35's Aeronautica Umbria AU.296 Aquila
rv20100's GRUMANN G36
Zenrat's Fairey Firefly MkIII
Dizzyfugu's Swedish AF Fokker D.VIII
PR19_Kit's Armstrong Whitworth Elswick
TheRat's Spanish Civil War Curtis Hawk
Stevehed's Phoenix-Fokker (Th) WD.VII.
Robomog's Franken Bi_plane
PR19_Kit's Spitfire engine test bed
Wardukw's A6M2 (Rufe) Zero Bi-Float Plane
ComradeHarps's Martin A-40B Sledgehammer
Narses2's Me 109 H-1 "Nachthohenjager"
Robomog's Bristol Boxkite
RAFF-35's Airco DH. 2B Home Defence
RAFF-35's 'Sopwith Camel of the Red Arrows Display Team - 1920'
Dizzyfugu's IAR 90
TomZ's Fairey Battle Dutch Luchtvaartafdeling
NARSES2's Polish Curtiss H-75
TomZ's Macchi MC-CCV
TomZ's EKW D-5220
TomZ's EKW D-5240
TomZ's FaireyAE-1 Spearfish
TomZ's Imperial Russian AF Yakovlev Yak 1
Zenrat's Bristol Type 105 Bulldog
Killnoizer's Junkers Nachtmowe
CammNut's Martin-FMC Land Aircraft Carrier
TomZ's USN Gannet A2E-2
RAFF-35's Breguet Br.552 Faucon
Zenrat's Hawker Whirlwind
PR19_Kit's Heinkel He-119 V-10

And the winners are:

Ashpitcher3's Kyushu J7W1 Shinden

and

TomZ's FaireyAE-1 Spearfish

and

Zenrat's Hawker Whirlwind

[TomZ]

Best Wheeled Vehicle

The nominees were:

McColm's Austin FX4 Fire Response Vehicle
Jakko's Piranha PWI-GR
OldWombat's RAM M1128 LMS
Frank2056's BTR-25 Mara
Zenrat's VW Van
Kerick's Alabama Slammer
TomZ's Diesel Locomotive V188
Frank2056's Lambro 550
And the winner is:


McColm's Austin FX4 Fire Response Vehicle

[TomZ]

Best Tracked Vehicle

The nominees were:

Zenrat's T-72 Perevozchik
Madhatter's FV-214 Conqueror Mk 2
Frank2056's M76 "Otter"
Wardukw's FV 215B Tank Destroyer
Buzzbomb's Australian Churchill Mk VIII in Korea
Buzzbomb's Vicker's Medium APC
jakko's "Char léger modèle 1935 H modifié 39 (H 39) in British Service"
jakko's "Char de Bataille B1 (Char B1) in British Service";
TomZ's K-Wagen
RAFF-35's Beute Panzer JagdSherman
Frank2056's Halftrack Beetle
Zenrat's Tolstyy Max

And the winner is:

Frank2056's M76 "Otter"

[TomZ]

Best Newbie

The nominees were:

Pressure's science fiction Me 262 diorama

As there was only one nomination for a model from a new member (as far as I could establish) there was no poll for this category

The winner is:

Pressure's science fiction Me 262 diorama

[TomZ]

Best Profiler / Artist

The nominees were:

Spinners's Fairey Fulcrum Mk.I - No.15 Squadron
Spinners's Fairey Fulcrum Mk.I - No.600 (City of London) Squadron
Spino's F-8S "Super Crusader"
Spinners's Douglas A2D-1 Skyshark

And the winner is:

Spino's F-8S "Super Crusader"

[TomZ]

Best SciFi / Fantasy

The nominees were:

Killnoizer's Ancient Egytian Starship
Nönöbär's First Reban FTL-Ship, "Ukumka"
Wacek85's Space Jet Glador
nönöbär's Reban Moon Rocket Indawo 17 and Indawo 18
Zenrat's Sky Surfer
Wacek85's "LAAT gunship of Muulinist 10

And the winner is:

Nönöbär's First Reban FTL-Ship, "Ukumka"

[TomZ]

Best Ship

The nominees were:

Wacek85's Flying pirate ship
Seadude's USS United States
Ptdockyard's Italian Large Cruiser
ScotaidH's "Ice Rigger"
Thorvic's CVA-01
Buzzbomb's Ice Rigger
Wacek85's USS Tucumcari

And the winner is:

Thorvic's CVA-01