Greek Ghost

Special Hobby's Mirage 1/72 F.1 was greeted with excitement by jet modellers, as the long overdue replacement for the Airfix and Hasegawa 70s kits. The hype was largely justified, as the new kit has lots of fine detail and options, although I did encounter a few surprising fit issues. Finished in Greek camo.

Up with the Lark

No, I'd never heard of the SAI KZ VII Lærke, either. This is the 1/72 Stoppel kit of this Danish light utility aircraft. Despite the kit's short-run status it went together with no real problems at all, only the two-part canopy providing a bit of a challenge.

Percival's younger brother

Hot on the tail of the S&M piston-engined Provost was this build of the jet variant, the new-tool Airfix 1/72 Jet Provost JP.3. This was a pre-release version built for Airfix Model World mag so there were no decals, but fortunately Xtradecals had just released their set for the kit. The build itself was simple and straightforward enough, with just a couple of glitches and omissions, mainly the various intakes on the fuselage spine and the spurious centre-frame on the canopy which had to be removed. Great little kit though, I really enjoyed it.

Hunting in Malaysia

I'd never heard of S&M Models until Airfix Model World magazine asked me to build this kit. After decades, finally a replacement for the venerable Matchbox 1/72 Percival-Hunting Provost. It was a joy to build, well detailed with good fit (although the three-piece canopy was a bit fiddly). Malaysian markings were one of the options on the decal sheet but I modified the scheme to represent a different aircraft, which required new serials and the checkerboard cowling and fuselage band.

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.

Under my skin

There are some aspects of this hobby that I really dislike. Masking canopies is one of them, and so is making seat harnesses. My most intense loathing though is reserved for photo-etch. It can't be sanded, paint won't stick to it, it bends at the slightest touch and the tiniest parts launch themselves into oblivion. So it was with some trepidation that I accepted a request from the editor of Airfix Model World to build the Eduard 1/72 strip-down Fokker. Apart from styrene wing spars, cowl, prop and a few odds and ends, the kit is almost entirely photo-etched brass. Fortunately it's superbly engineered and the problems I had were all self-induced: folding parts back-to-front, and knocking the model off the workbench for example. I can't honestly say I enjoyed the build, but it did overcome some of my fear of photo-etch. The full article is in the August 2014 issue.

Japanese Hybrid

The trouble with writing a modelling blog is that, even if you're working on something almost every day, there really isn't much to report until a build reaches a significant stage, or it's finished. But this one's done, now: Dragon's 1/72 Ke-Nu. Like the real tank, Dragon's model is a hybrid of two of their Japanese armour kits, so there are lots of parts which don't get used. Everything went together really nicely. The DS tracks were great to work with and replicating the sag was very straightforward.

It was enjoyable to do an armour piece for a change, and it was equally nice to have the build published in the July issue of Airfix Model World. The magazine has quite specific writing criteria that took some getting used to, but they're a joy to work with – very professional, plus they actually pay in a timely manner. (Since I'm still waiting for several payments for articles published in SAMI, the earliest dating back to the September 2013 issue, I'm finding little motivation to write for them any more)

Summer Blues

As we approach the beginning of September it's alarming to me that my last blog post was at the end of March; five months later I'm still in the same state of modelling lethargy. Over the last few months I've barely touched plastic, which I can attribute to various factors. Firstly, it just feels downright wrong to head downstairs to the bench in the basement while my wife's on the deck in the hot sunshine... Secondly, I'm feeling burnt out after a few years of intensive article writing, working to deadlines and cataloguing every stage – I enjoy it, but it can begin to feel more like work than recreation. Thirdly, several (though fortunately not all) of the forums that I used to visit on a daily basis for inspiration seem to have been taken over by snide, cynical, short-fused posters. And now the English Premier League is on TV again, how am I supposed to get any building done at weekends?

The last completion, back in February, was an Airfix 1/72 Curtiss Helldiver. Any rational person wanting a SB2C model would have started with the beautifully engineered, reasonably priced, readily available, highly accurate Academy kit. In my defense I was asked by the editor of Airfix Model World to build the old 1968 kit (albeit in a new box with lovely decals). To be honest, I probably derived more enjoyment/satisfaction from updating this old beast than I would have from building the state-of-the-art Academy kit, although the latter would undoubtedly have been way more accurate and a nicer model. The full build article has just been published in the September issue of AMW.

Feeling Snarky

This is the re-released old Revell Snark, box-scale approx 1/81. Biggest task was sanding off all the rivets and raised decal-placement mouldings. Revell provide white decal stripes for the markings but I wasn't sure how well they'd fit so they were masked and painted. The build article is in this month's (March 2013) issue of Airfix Model World.