80 Years of Airfix GB

So here is yesterday’s progress. It doesn’t feel like I accomplished much in the hours down there at my workbench. 

 

Anyways here are the tow ropes yesterday after my dry brushing. The colors and subtlety are more distinct in person.

 

 

And the shovel on the trail now painted up (of course the camera focused on the wheel...)

 

 

And basic work on the crew figures....

 

 

 

More to come in a day or two... lots of work ahead...

Looking good Stik! That guy on the bottom right looks like he’s busting out some fresh Michael Jackson moves!

LMAO Mopar! No glove on that guy... hopefully you do not think that he looks so “King of Pop” now....

I’m calling the gun finished. I dry brushed some highlights here and there, added some tie down straps to the tow ropes and shovel, and added a bit of weathering around the wheels and trail spades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also finished up the Airfix figure to display it at IPMS for the Airfix theme. He was good practice. I still plan on doing a vignette/diorama base with the Bronco figures, but no rush there.

 

 

Mopar, I was thinking the same thing about his lower hand. Sort of reminds me of a platoon sergeant I once had... we called him “Squeeze P”... he didn’t like that...  :whistle:  But the root of the figure situation lies in these being generic multi pose infrantry figures, and trying to adapt them to gun crew. It does not quite work. In the original kit, that arm is extended forward gripping the magazine for a Sten gun. It’s just kind of there on this guy. I could chop, cut, reposition and glue into a better pose. But I just wanted one guy fast for the gun last night to pose on my generic base for IPMS....

 

 

And it did work. It took 2nd Place in Master last nite. But was not the winner for the Airfix theme. That was a 1/72 Kingfisher that had been really upgraded and placed on a ship catapult for display. It was beautiful! And shows that presentation is a key factor. 

 

Once I get my Bronco figures all painted up, I’ll work on a proper display for my 17 Pounder as I have envisioned....

 

More photos of this to come. Perhaps this evening.

 

Congratulations on your win! I have really been impressed with this old Airfix classic and what you’ve done with it. I may have to add one of these to the stash sometime soon! 

Thanks Mopar. It’s a good kit that can be a great build with some good references to show the way. 

Stick, surpurb job on the gun.  Some of those old Airfix kits can build into a nice display.

In fact the BV here is really surprizing me. The seams are very good and will take very little time to work on. The canopy's fit could use a little help but with some Vallejo filler and some alcohol to smooth it out....

I love those rivets on those vintage Airfix kits!  It is refreshing when building a kit of this vintage and it assembles just as good as something you could buy today.

I am calling this one done. Overall it’s a nice kit, but the instructions are a bit ambiguous on the placement of many of the small parts on the carriage and breech area. Make sure that you have good photo references if you plan on building this kit. I black based the model and painted it in a mix of Tamiya colors for British Olive Drab SCC 15. I added a few tie down straps from painted Tamiya tape for the tow ropes and shovel. I used Mig pigments for weathering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They liked it at OC IPMS this past Friday.

 

 

I am still planning to build a Bronco figures crew set and a different stand for this kit in the near future. The kit included multi pose figures do not quite work without some surgery.

 

Thanks for looking, comments and critiques welcome.

I like that Stik, its come out really well. paint job is great and really nice touch with the mud splatter. Thats a well deserved award there.

Thanks for taking part and our first completed none aircraft.

Happy to have taken part Bish. Thanks for hosting and for your kind words on this build. I’m glad that you like it.

Very nice gun, Stik! 

 

Slight change of plans for me regarding this GB. I have several Airfix kits on hand and was going to start with the Boeing Clipper. I was looking at the growing stack of models on the shelf and realized it has to get smaller. Or at least have a smaller footprint. So I'm going to try and work on the kits with the bigger boxes. At least that's the plan. The Clipper will have it's turn, in due time!

I should be finishing the Spooky gunship for another group build, but I needed a break from the cantankerous windshield. 

One of the bigger 1/72 Airfix boxes was this:

Both options are nice, but the blue and white checkers and silver intakes are appealing to me. 

Started with the cockpit, nothing unusual there. I added a seat harness and buttoned her up. I'll be building it with the canopy closed, so most of the details won't be seen. 

The cockpit is then enclosed in a tub that will be fit to the wing. 

 

 

 

Thank you UP. Your 262 cockpit is looking great! Did you scratch build that harness?

Stik, great job on the 17-pdr, and congrats on the win.

That black basing really worked out well, adding an additional depth of interest.   Was also impressed with the painting of the ropes on the shield, they look like they could have been separate parts.  The figures are also very well done.

regards,

Jack

Thank you Jack. I know that many modelers have used black basing for a long time. It’s just something that I am starting to use and learning to do properly. A new thing in the bag of tricks for me. Figures are still very much a learning process for me as well. Finding what works and what does not. This time it all worked out well enough.

stikpusher

Thank you UP. Your 262 cockpit is looking great! Did you scratch build that harness?

 

Thanks! The harness is made from some foil tags I had from a previous hobby. The tags are made so that any writing will be indented on the foil. You can use a pen point, pencil, even a sharp stick to write on them, and the writing will not wash off. They also have very good potential for seat harnesses! I don't do much with them on 1/72 scale, just paint. But on 1/48 they foil is just right for folds, wrinkles, and would look super with some buckles and clasps. I'm going to try it on an upcoming 1/48 P51. 

Everything is going together well on the Me262 kit. There is one spot that could be trouble, and I've seen other builds online run into this issue too. The cockpit tub is has three pins on the back that are supposed to fit into the sockets as shown below. There are also locators on the tub for the pegs on the spar.

They all fit and it looks good until the fuselage halves are joined. The tub sits too low in the rear giving the fuselage halves  poor fit. It also prevents the canopy from sitting flush. Fortunately the fix is easy. I snipped off the three pegs and filed off their three mating points. I also removed the square locators for the front of the tub. The tub has a tongue shaped recess on the front and that matches with a convex locator on a firewall. Just glue those two points together and it fits perfectly.

While the glue on the other parts was drying, I did a little work on the engines. Nothing real exciting here, but I did want to mention a paint that comes in handy but I haven't seen it mentioned here. 

I did the highlighting on the turbine fins with an oil paint stick. The color is about as thick as chapstick, so a little on a small brush makes it very easy to dry brush. I've swiped my finger over it to highlight instrument panels, works very well. 

The kit is going together nicely! Seams aren't too bad. The panel lines are a bit excessive, especially for an ME262. I'm going to fill them in with some Perfect Putty to tone them down a bit. 

 

Steve - The BV 141 is looking cool.  

Stikpusher - Really like the finished gun.  The muddy spotting and well-weathered tires look great.  I am taking your advice and will be painting the figures that came with my Omnibus, if for no other reason than to practice.  Hopefully one of the five will be end up being usable... hahaha.

UnwaryPaladin -  Nice work so far on the 262.  Interesting info on the harness, looks good.  I like your idea for the panel lines, as they do look a bit out of scale.

Cheers,
Mark

Tales of the Omnibus - Chapter 1  (cont.)

I'll start this update by answering Svenne Duva's question:

Svenne Duva

Hi Mark,
I do not enver you but your efforts are going to pay off for sure!
How do the figurines look?

Svenne

Like everything else in this kit they will be a challenge.  But since I don't know much about figures I don't really know if they are below or above average.  Here are two pictures of the gang hanging out on my bench:

One odd thing is that the driver (on the far right) doesn't have a left hand.  The plastic just kind of ends in a stump.  Is he a veteran?  Did he lose his hand in the Boer War?  I don't know.  I also don't know what to do with him.  Since his right hand is meant to be signaling, his left should be on the steering wheel.  I don't have any other 1/32 figures that I could borrow a hand from.  Anyone have any ideas on this? 

As for other developments, I'm still working on the new interior walls.  It's slow-going, but I'm happy with the progress.  I'm also feeling a bit more confident about making this idea work.

Basic window shapes before refining.  The spotches of paint are from previously using this plasic as a temporary mixing palette. It will get washed off later.

I clamped the new stock plastic to the kit part so I could file/sand the window openings out to match the kit part. 

Looking good, I think.

The raised line in this photo needed to be removed so the new interior wall could lay flat against the part.  That edge is what the large clear window slab would have sat on.

Raised line removed, and everything sanded smooth.

Excess plastic from the new part has been removed, except for the lower part where you can see my pencil line.  The front and back edges fit nicely against the raised vertical edges on the kit part, with the top of the new plastic lining up flush with the top of the kit part.

Here, the new interior wall and benches are mocked-up with some blu-tac holding them togeter.  I'm quite pleased with how it is coming together.

And, to remind myself why I am doing all this extra work, I mocked it up again with the clear window slab as it would be OOB.  Fugly.  So glad I'm going down this path. 

 

Well, the adventure continues.  Will start on the opposite interior wall tomorrow.  This is a lot of work, but I think once this hurdle is passed the rest of the build should progress faster.          hahaha... 

Cheers,
Mark

 

Mark, those figures are not up to modern standards, but then i don't think anyone would expect that. But given their age, i don't think they look to bad. Remind me of the old Airfix pilot figures. They need some clean up but once painted up and in the bus, i think they will make nice additions.

Not sure about the hand, does look like a molding issue. I used to have some of the Airfix 32nd Multi pose figures but i got rid of them. Hopefully we can come up with somthing.

I love the work your doing on the bus, this is going to look amazing once finished.

Mark, ask some of the Star Wars kit builders, they might have a spare hand in their extras box.

I'm plodding away on my builds. The Clipper is out on the paint bench. The weather has been warm and dry so I have been able to paint. The Alclad is finished. I clear-coated the Alclad with Tamiya X-22 Gloss Clear thinned 1/1. I have better luck with that than I do with Pledge. After the X-22 has some time to cure, I'll mask and paint the bottom black. After that, it's on to decals.

I think the B-29 is going back on to the shelf of doom. Construction is just not going well. I'm running out of patience and body putty. I need to think about where I'm going with it. If I really want a WB-29 on the shelf, I may have to use the Academy Enola Gay model to build it.

I did luck into two nice new(er) Airfix kits though. I picked up a Spitfire Mk. 1 a couple of weeks ago at Jaxcon. Last night I swapped a Revell Mini Cooper for a 1/48 Sea Harrier. The Harrier is a bit of a stretch for me. I'm not a big fan of kerosine burners but the Harrier is so cool for a jet.

New tool 1/72 Swordfish.

Cockpit painted green and dre fabric dope

IMG_20190215_113324 by Theunis van Vuuren, on Flickr

framed up

IMG_20190215_114023 by Theunis van Vuuren, on Flickr

IMG_20190215_114041 by Theunis van Vuuren, on Flickr

To get the fuse together was a PITA. The bottom section in my kit did not line up well so I had to wrangle it into place but it looks OK now under primer

IMG_20190221_114411 by Theunis van Vuuren, on Flickr

 

Theuns

Mark, thank you for your kind words on my 17 Pdr.

UP, thanks for the info on those foil tags. Where do you find those items? I had plenty of lead foil from when I used to wear disposable contacts. But that is starting to run out. And your 262 is shaping up nicely! 

Theuns, great progress with your Swordfish! Closing the fuselage probably qualifies as sweet sorrow. All that work suddenly becomes much harder to see.

Nice start on the Swordfish Theuns.

O, and i haven't forgotten the SM.79. It was finished at the start of last week. Just wanted to wrap up the Ar 234 and get all the pics done in a oner. Now thats done, i will post them up at the weekend.

Hello friends.  I've finally decided to have a go at the freakishly fast Electric Lightning.  The overall kit is nice but there are a few disappointing sink marks on the fuselage skin from the ejector pins on the adjacent side.  Basically, the ejector pins apply too much force and create adverse effects on the presentation side of the soft plastic.  Nothing that a little filler and rescribing can’t fix. 

 

 

I've been plodding along on the Lancaster. I shot a coat of Testor's Glosscote, waited a day and then applied the decals. I had read an article on another site that said that some maintenance crews would pant over the stencils on the lower section of the aircraft. I checked some photos of the actual aircraft and couldn't see any there either, so i didn't bother to apply them here. 

After decaling, I shot another coat of gloss to seal in the decals and this is where I am now. Weathering (ugh) will commence soon.

 

 

 

At least you can see the finish line! Nice progress on that Lanc.

Got the sky "S" paint on the bottom and sides. A little greener than in the pix.

IMG_20190224_092146 by Theunis van Vuuren, on Flickr

 

Theuns

I got the 79 wrapped up a couple of weeks ago and finally soted the pics today. Finishing off was just adding the last parts and some light weathering. The Germans did not use these for very long so didn't want to go to made. I did a simple dio which included one figure just inside the door.

Was nice to get this done after all these years of wanting to do it. I am very glad Airfix has moved on since these were the norm, did bring back some memories of my early days in the hobby when i didn't know any better.

My next one will be a more up to date Airfix kit, planning on doing their He 111P. In the meantime, loking forward to keeping up with what the rest of you are doing.

Bish, excellent work 

It's an interesting combination of Luftwaffe markings and the Italian tri-motor.

 

regards,

Jack