80 Years of Airfix GB

Nice job on the Meteor Frank! Here's some pics I took of Kermit Weeks' Tri-Motor back in 2007.

If you go to Fantasy of Flight's website, he has a better sideview. Now, on to my misadventures with plastic.

When we last saw it, the E-4 had been painted and glossed with Mission Models Gloss. I didn't go for a deep gloss finish, just wanted a good, smooth finish. Here she is with all the decals on.

And here she is complete. I lost one of the gun barrels to the carpet monster. I'm also not happy with the P-mask vinyl canopy mask. I will spend the extra bucks in the future and get Eduard's set. The kit decals didn't come with the swastikas, so I stole a couple from ExtraDecals BoB German set.

I'm kind of partial to the third finished pic, but feel free to use whichever one you like best. If I start up the F-86, I'll be sure to post pics.  Thanks for running this build.

Thats Ford is a nice looking subject, be nice to see what you do with that.

Thats come out really nice frank, great finish. And its been a pleasure having you along, some great bilds there. I'll update the front page at the weekend.

Thanks, Jeaton. I don't know if or when I'll build another Meteor. I do know I'll be adding a BoB Spitfire Mk. I and a Hurricane Mk. I later this year.

Well done, Frank.  I've built three 1/48 scale Meteors so far and made up some masks for the camouflage.  They are on this page, about in the middle.  You'll have to scale them to 66.7% for 1/72.

http://goldeneramodel.com/mymodels/meteor/3meteor/3meteor.html

Thanks, Mopar...

That's a good looking Meteor Frank!

Finally! The Meteor is finished. Finished it yesterday and photographed it this morning. The finished model looks way better than I thought it would while I was building it. The one big thing I learned with this build is that the next time I do an RAF camouflage I'm going to use stencils for the color breaks rather than trying to free-hand a camo pattern. While the national are accurate for the period, late 1945, the other marking are spurious. I even put kill marks on the nose below the cockpit. The 20 year old decals didn't settle too well even with massive doses of Solvaset. I sealed the paint and decals with Alclad Semi Matte Varnish. At the time these airplanes were kept pretty clean. They didn't show a lot of the wear and tear of other types then in service. So, here it is for your perusal: Airfix Gloster Meteor III.

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Now that it's on the shelf, it's on to other projects. Thanks, Bish. This has really been a fun esperience.

Here is the first bit of work on the Ford:

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The windows are on and painted black. The mail bin doors are attached and glued closed. The first part of the landing gear is attached before the floor gets glued on.

As I look back on it, in my lifetime I've owned a '63 Falcon convertible, a '70 Torino, and three Mustangs, two of those convertibles. I guess I have Ford in my DNA. Oh yeah. I have flown on the Island Airways Ford three times and one of the EAA Fords once.

Finally! I finished the decals on the Meteor. Yay! I'm gonna hafta learn how to paint insignia and whatnot so I can bypass this tedious aspect of modeling. Anyway, I'm going to let it sit overnight before I clear coat the finished model. And being the total glutton for punishement that I am, I'm starting this today:

It's original 1968 issue. I'm starting with the side windows, which are warped so I'm having to glue the strip of windows in a little at a time. But since there is so little to see on the interior, the inside of the windows will be painted black. Not sure what the finished livery will be, maybe U.S. Navy.

I've been doing decals on the Meteor for the last couple of days. Twenty-year old decals can be pretty fragile. I'm having to use Solvaset rather than Microsol to settle the decals over the panel lines and rivets. I'm hoping I can finish the process today. Putting on decals can be so tedious.

I was surprised we didn't see a new tool F-35.  Seems like the timing would've been perfect. I would be really surprised if they didn't include an Op Granby livery considering their shown on the box art of the latest Victor release. I hope we'll be surprised. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to Airfix, my wallet is always on high alert. 

Ashide from the Vulcan, which we alreday knew about, and the RAF Bucc, which was a given, nothing else there for me. Glad the Type 45 has been re-released. I was hoping for a 72nd Wildcat and an F-35.

I think the cars will go down well and good to see Airfix doing their own 35th armour and not doing the obvious and over done. I know schemes shown and open to change, but i am surprised the RAF Bucc isn't in Op Granby colours. Not that it worries me as i will do the wrap around anyway.

At least my wallet can breath easy.

It looks to be a great mix of vintage, new tool, and some long overdue re-issues.  Glad to see the Javelin and 1/24 Bf 109 are making a reappearance, and I'll definitely pick up one of those 1/35 Centaurs!

Hijack away. Have been checking it all day at work, but they must have released it late. Looking now.

Bish, I don't want to hijack this thread but I must say I am really impressed with the 2020 roll out!!

And I would be the sucker who would buy it! 

Mopar Madness

Great point. My guess would be typo.  Maybe in the next year or two we'll see a 1/24 109 or 190 on that list! 

 

I was just looking through scalemates. Airfix's recent new tooled 24th kits all seem to be subjects they have not done before. The 109 and 190 and have both been re-released in the last few years. So i think we can expect more new subjects from them in that scale.

A 1/24th Lancaster maybe

Good to see you up and running again Svenne and was a pleasure to have you on board. Nice haul of Airfix there, look forward to seeing you build those.

Keep your eyes on this space, it could be 23, depending on what else comes up. I do like to plan ahead.

Great point. My guess would be typo.  Maybe in the next year or two we'll see a 1/24 109 or 190 on that list! 

Mopar Madness

 

 

Bish

I am not sure when Airfix's new releases are due to be announced, i believe its been the middle of the month the last few years. But it seem that either Airfix are getting some out early, or someone is leaking info. Some new releases have appeared on scalemates today.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/news.php

I noted the 1/35th Cromwell's. If they are indeed new tools, is this Airfix's first attempt at their own 35th armour?

 

 

 

 

Their new tooled 1/76 Cromwell and Tiger II were pretty nice kits so I'm really looking forward to a new-tooled Tiger I.

 

 

A bit different for Airfix to produce the Tiger and Firefly in 72nd and not 76th. I wounder if thats a typo.

Bish

I am not sure when Airfix's new releases are due to be announced, i believe its been the middle of the month the last few years. But it seem that either Airfix are getting some out early, or someone is leaking info. Some new releases have appeared on scalemates today.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/news.php

I noted the 1/35th Cromwell's. If they are indeed new tools, is this Airfix's first attempt at their own 35th armour?

 

Ye, was just looking at that thread over there Jack. I guess we will get the full line up on Monday.

I saw a pic of the CAD images for the Beaufort and Sabre and they looked amazing.  Can't wait for Monday!!

Official Airfix announcements are suppose to be coming this Monday.

Over at Britmodeler forums, any threads containing images of these new toolings have been deleted.  Apparently the 'leak' was a page image from Airfix Model World that was either released too soon, or someone managed to obtain an image of the announcements page.

regards,

Jack

I am not sure when Airfix's new releases are due to be announced, i believe its been the middle of the month the last few years. But it seem that either Airfix are getting some out early, or someone is leaking info. Some new releases have appeared on scalemates today.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/news.php

I noted the 1/35th Cromwell's. If they are indeed new tools, is this Airfix's first attempt at their own 35th armour?

This was a fun group build,. very well done, Martin.  Some really nice builds here lately.  I like the light colored 109 especially, and the He-111.  Last one I built was the Italeri Z, with spirals on the spinners.  I still remember the pain.

Dan, that Hase 111Z-2 is a re-release, this one has Bv 246 bombs. The original was released in 2011. The year before they brought out the 111Z-1. I built that in 2013, nice kit, much better than thye Italeri. But they are not cheap.

It really is a great kit and you've done a smashing job on yours!