80 Years of Airfix GB

Thanks kensar, thats a great way to start us off. Thanks for shareing.

Pits coming on well AA.

Thanks guys, got there in the end with it. Got the yellow underside painted today and am pretty pleased with how its come out, even the black baseing seems to have come off this time.

Well, this is where we are today. The wings are attached and I'm getting ready to fill and sand the seams. The engines and cowlings are on with the carburator intakes. I'm impressed I didn't lose any of the intakes. Those things are the size of a pin head. As others have suggested, the props, ADF loop, sponsons, and outboard vertical stabilizers will go on after painting. I received an email the other day from Vintage Flyer Decals that the decals for this Clipper build are on the way! Yoda says, "Making headway we are."

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Nothing new to report on the B-29. I'm waiting for the "bug catcher" now.

Great to see it coming together. I will be keen to see how those decals are. I have a set of there 72nd BOAC decals for the Mossie and am hoping to add it to the GB at the end of the year.

kensar, your P-40 looks great.

Cheers,
Mark

Well the Omnibus kit arrived in the mail a few days ago, but last night was the first chance I had to open the box and look at it.  I still won't be starting this build until February, but thought I'd share some of the "quirks" of this kit.

First sprue I pulled out of the bag was a confusing mess.  I couldn't understand what I was looking at, until I realized they had bent and folded the sprue over onto itself in order to fit it in the bag.  Hahaha...  never see this before.

Next up was this thing.
The central sprue is thicker than a pencil, so it must have been bent while still cooling, but why?  (scratches head)

Wow, the inside of the stairwell, a highly visible part of the model, has some epic ejection pin marks.  Ugh.

And finally... the front fenders.  Um... where do the sprue gates end and the parts begin?  Hahahaha.... ooh boy.

Well, I accept the challenge.  As soon as I finish my butcher bird, I'll be all-in on this kit!

Cheers,
Mark

That looks like it will be fun Mark. I thought this kit was more recent, but looking at your pics it seems a lot older. So i chacked on scalemates and it was originally produced in 1962. Will explain those masive Sprues, my SM.79 ones were similar.

Your going to have lots of fun cleaning that up.

Hey, I was produced in '62 also!  Must be a good omen. 
I only hope I can do as well with this kit as you've been doing with that SM.79.

Cheers,
Mark

Nice P-40.

I've started on the DH-125, making clear epoxy windows.  Very slow curing stuff.

Thanks mark, and i amsure you will do that just fine.

The SM.79 isn't much younger, first produced in 67, 2 years older than me.

Look forward to seeing that John.

I've gotten quite a bit done on my Lancaster. Hopefully the site will let me post pictures, as that always seems to be a real challenge. Anyway, here goes.

As it is with most kits, the build starts with the cockpit. I forgot to take pics before I buttoned it up, but being 1/72, details are miinimal anyway.

Then the wings tops and the gear housing.

Then, the wing bottoms and the rest of the landing gear assembly. I had started to paint the gear but then decided to wait until the end. They're going to be mostly black anyway, and the tubes that do need to be painted will be easy to pick out.

That's it for now. And it only took me a few edits to get the pictures right.

Nice work on the Lanc, thats a nicely detail bomb bay on that.

cwalker3 - looks like a nice kit with all that detail.

MrStecks - good luck with that Omnibus kit.  Looks like you have your work cut out for you.

fotofrank - what livery will your Clipper be?  I looked on the Vintage website and didn't see any decal sets for the Clipper.

John - you're a P-40 fan aren't you?  Thanks for commenting.

Thanks again, Bish and Joe R.  I can only hope Cap'n Archer approves of my build.

Well, Kensar, the decals arrive sometime today from Vintage. I have two choices. One choice will be 1/144 scale Braniff decals for the DC-4. The other choice will be 1/144 scale TWA decals for the Boeing 307 Stratoliner. I got the idea from GMorrison who did the Clipper in Matson Airlines livery.

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/48/t/179701.aspx

Kensar, excellent looking Warhawk there. 

Learned something new too, I think I see wheel wells completely covered in canvas?

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Everyone else, great stuff coming off your respective benches...

regards,

Jack

Split shots and five minute epoxy. This is the base of the stand for the Clipper. I weighted this because I don't want it to tip because of the weight of the model. The stand will be painted of course.

Terrific work on the Lancaster Cwalker. The cockpit looks great.

Hi Kensar,

Gratulations on your completed build.
I am not very familiar to the P-40 but I realize that has to change.
Very inspiring build, lov the attention to detail.

Svenne

Hi cwalker3,

That looks already very impressing, I am hooked :)

Svenne

Right,

short update but quite a few pics:

Sprueshot, attachement points are on the heavy side, this will cause issues further if not carefull:

Parts break under pressure when you try to snip them off using sprue cutter:

Better use a raisor saw:

Last time I see the IP:

Not stricktly following the build sequence, I am hoping that this will help closing any gaps at the wing root:

But unfortunatly the starboard wing is warped:

I think I can get arround this by making the tabs force the wing up instead of down:

Sorry for picture quality, hope to improve in this area as well 

Thank you for looking and feel free to comment!

Svenne

Bish - Yes, the bomb bay is nice. I just wish it they had supplied bombs instead of making you buy another kit.

Kensar - Thanks. Yes, there is a good amount of detail for a 1/72 kit. I continue to be impressed with these Airfix kits.

Joe Rix - Thank you. The interior has some nice detail, but you'll see next to nothing when finished and it's all closed up.

Svenna Duva - Thank you.

Got started on my Swift last night. the cockpit and nose wheel sub-assembly's

fit looks real good except for this large rather trench like seem that I don't think is suppossed to be there.

And here's the sub-assembly's that go in the fuselage.

Falcon  (John)

My latest project that I started this evening. And also my entry for this GB.

I won’t be using the kit figures. They are just the basic multipose infantry figures and don’t quite work for this subject. So I will be using this Bronco figure set. Thankfully,  Bronco’s figures tend to be on the larger end of the 1/35 spectrum

I made it thru step 5, which basicly assembled the barrel, breech, muzzle brake, and cradle. I found a 1980 trademark stamp inside the base of the cradle.

More to come in the next few days...

I've been working slowly on the Blenheim due to some other builds that moved ahead for everything. With being said I was able to work on the seams left over from the canopy/nose attachment. I need to attach the masks and get on the painting. No..the GBU 12 Paveway II's are not for the Blenheim although they would really have come in handy.

modelcrazy

I've been working slowly on the Blenheim due to some other builds that moved ahead for everything. With being said I was able to work on the seams left over from the canopy/nose attachment. I need to attach the masks and get on the painting. No..the GBU 12 Paveway II's are not for the Blenheim although they would really have come in handy.

 

I was gonna say something about the Paveways and the Blenheim.... 

A brief update on the Clipper and the WB-29. The Clipper is just about ready for primer.

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The filling and sanding is finished. I'm waiting for it to be warm enough out on the patio so I can paint. The crew door in the nose doesn't fit very well so I filled the gap around the door with some PPP.

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As soon as the temp on the patio gets up to around 70º, I'll go out and paint.

When I put the crew door on the B-29, there was quite a depression. I beefed up the door with some styrene. I'll fill the gaps with some PPP. Where the turrets used to be, I'll build up with styrene and sand to shape I don't want to use too much putty because of shrinkage.

So that's the latest.

Frank - You’re doing great on those classic airfix kits. 

Steve - Looks like you’re definitely at the halfway point on that Blenheim!

Hi Frank,

The Clipper is coming on nicely!
The big B-29 is ... cool!