Boxcar Blues

Roden produce kits of some of the most interesting subjects around, and I jumped at the opportunity to add the C-119 to my 1/144 collection. Unfortunately the quality of Roden's kits often lets them down, and such was the case with this model. The surface of the plastic was very rough (so much so that I could have used one fuselage half as a sanding block) and the fit of the tail booms was also 'challenging'. But, it's done and on the shelf.

Phiddly F-4.

Whirlybirds 1/144 F-4J Phantom, a true 'multimedia' kit. Main parts are resin, canopy is vac-form, some parts are white metal and there's a PE fret too. Not exactly an easy build, but the decals were superb. Platz recently released a full injection-moulded kit of the same variant, it would be interesting to compare the two.

And it was all yellow

Just occasionally, I'm tempted to build in 1/144 scale. Usually I'm seduced by the 'small scale = quick build' myth, which I've proved to be erroneous many times, but still keep falling for it. The logic seems reasonable: less parts, simplified detail and smaller areas to paint should make for a faster build, right? However, offsetting this is usually the additional time spent adding detail, refining parts and the extra care needed to achieve scale paint/weathering effects.

Fortunately, the Mark 1 Westland Wessex HC.2/HAR.2 was a really nice kit to start with, having recessed panel lines and a high level of detail for its size. Fit overall was good, except for the clear parts – the main windscreen was too large, and getting the smaller side windows into their respective apertures was a bit of a fiddle. I added some extra detail in the cockpit, and scratch built the rescue winch. The kit decals were used, which were excellent.

There are several other Wessex variants in the Mark 1 range. Oh look, they've just released a Beaufighter too. That should be fairly quick to put together.
 

The full build article was published in the February 2015 issue of Airfix Model World.

1/144 Butcher Bird

I always thought 1/144 models were half the size of their 72nd counterparts, but of course that's not true: they're actually 1/8 the size in 3-dimensional terms. Which explains why Eduard's 1/144 Fw190F-8 is dwarfed by the Airfix version I built last year.

Anyway, I built this to jump-start my modelling again. Somewhat burned out after finishing the article series, and without a deadline to motivate me, I've spent the last few weeks watching inane TV re-runs instead of being productive at the bench. I thought a quick completion would help, and as there was a 1/144 Group Build going on over at the Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum I jumped in.

The subject is a captured 190 and the camo scheme is completely spurious, applied by the Americans to make it look more Teutonic. The kit was really basic but the shape looked OK, however I've come to the conclusion that 144 scale stuff takes just as long as bigger scales because you have to be that much more detail-oriented; choosing a squiggle-pattern probably didn't help either.