80 Years of Airfix GB

Finished the ME 262...

Overall a pretty nice kit. The fit is very tight on most of the kit, almost too tight! But there were very few gaps or seams, so that was nice.

I had a problem with the decal that goes around the tail. The aircraft I was building has a blue and white checker pattern. I could not get that thing to line up and wound up ruining the decal in the attempt. Instead, I used the red and blue band from the other build option. So, it's an aircraft that really didn't exist but it works for me! 

Joe

Mark, your not the first and you won't be the last, i spilt some plastic weld onto the painted wing of an aircraft a few years back. But from what i have seen, you will have no problems fixing that.

Pat, can deffinetly see the issue with those seats, but they will look nice once sanded and painted. Nice paint work on the underside there.

Tales of the Omnibus - Chapter 3

Started working on the upper deck of the Omnibus.  As you may have seen in one of my earlier posts, the floor of the upper deck is done and painted.  I worked ahead on that piece, knowing it would be easier to get the painting done without having all the walls and seats to deal with.

So on to the bench seats.  Here are a couple of the seats, that have various kinds of molding problems (such as the misshapen corner of the lower one), and the usual flash and burring typical of this kit.  All of the seats look about like this.

For some reason, Airfix decided to mold the part numbers into the backs of the seats.  Well, actually...  four of the seats have the part numbers molded into the underside of the seats.  Why, Airfix?  Why didn't you put them ALL under the seats, so I wouldn't have to deal with them?  The seat backs also have a nasty bit of plastic at the top that I think is supposed to be some sort of crash pad?

All the seats cleaned up as much as possible.

All the ejector pin marks and part number moldings removed from the seat backs, and filler applied.  Sanding to follow.

All the bench supports have the ubiquitous ejector pin marks, but the other sides are flat so I'll just flip them around and they should be hidden.

The side walls needed some work to remove (you guessed it) heavy ejector pin marks.  I decided to add in some styrene rails so the seats would have a better glueing point at the walls.  I saw some video of a restored Omnibus that showed rails like that so I think it will work fine.

Finally for tonight's update, I had a bit of a dramatic setback.  While moving an open container of lacquer thinner from one side of my bench to the other, a drop flew out and landed smack on top of the engine cover!  I saw the drop fly out of the bottle but didn't see where it landed at first.  When I did see it I quickly grabbed a paper towl and tried to wipe it off, but it had already eaten into the paint, and the primer, right down to the plastic.  Sigh.

I took that picture after having sanded the area down a bit and smoothed it out.  I am thinking about cutting the engine cover off the chassis because it's going to be so awkward to mask as it is.  I have to explore the bond and see if that's possible.
Wish me luck on this fix.

Cheers,
Mark

P.S.  Always put the cap on your lacquer thinner when moving it around!

Yep, the seats definitely show some of the same  issues I've seen on the Omnibus.  I like the paint you put on the crankcase, exhaust, and the leaf springs.

Cheers,
Mark

Bish & Mr Stecks,

Thanks for the feedback.  Here is an in process picture below.  On the seats you can may be kind of see some of the texturing, whioch I suspect is similar to what Mr. Stecks mentioned was present on his omnibus model.

On the center seat I have tried to sand it down a little, and I will try and paint it to see how it looks.

Regards

Pat

[Clcik for bigger image]

taxtp  -  Tony, nice work on those small scale builds.  Both looking great.

PFJN  -  Hey Pat, glad to see the Humber is under way.  Welcome to the "guess I'll have to scratch build something" club with these old kits.

Cheers,
Mark

Pat, i seem to recall that the kit that came in that style of box were more brittle. I think that was the period that Airfix kits were made in France and i guess it must have been due to the materials they used.

Hi,

I finally had a chance to start my Humber last nite.  I'm kind of surpried by the model in that, while several pieces (like the bottom/chassis) are fairly heavily molded, some like the steering wheel, exhausts, and parts of the steering are very thin and delicate. 

In addition, I'm not sure if it is because my kit is fairly old, or if it is just the plastic that was used, but I have also found many of the parts to be kind of brittle.  The exhaust was already broken in the box, and I broke it in another place last nite while trying to clean it up, and part of one of the steering arms is missing (you can see the unpainted part in front of the chassis in the picture below).

I guess I will try and see if I can scratch build something here .

Other than that I want to try and add a little detail, like maybe painting the leaf springs a medium/dark gray (instead of black) and maybe make the gas tank and exhaust a lighter gray (right now the gas tank is unpainted).  I'm not sure what color to paint the bottom of the engine and transmission though yet.

Pat

That bus is looking super Nick. The radiator looks just right too.

Here is the latest on my Matador & gun and Panther.

Cheers

Tony

Bish

Mark, wow, that is some amazing work, you are really doing a stunning job on that.

Thanks Bish. 

modelcrazy

Mark, nice looking woodgrain on the steering wheel. 

Thank you MC.

Cheers,
Mark

Ta Bish

Theuns

Mark, nice looking woodgrain on the steering wheel. 

Mark, wow, that is some amazing work, you are really doing a stunning job on that.

Theuns

Bish please put me down for a 1/48 Hawker Fury aswell,hope to start it soon.

Theuns

 

Done.

Nick, got your Fury added, looking forward to seeing that.

Bish please put me down for a 1/48 Hawker Fury aswell,hope to start it soon.

Theuns

Tales of the Omnibus - Chapter 2  (cont.)

Finished up the driver's "office," with some weathering too, and glued it in place.  Then I glued the finished engine box onto the chassis.  I'm so glad I added that bit of flooring under the chassis.  Really helped seat the engine box properly.

Here are a couple shots of the steering wheel before I glued it to the steering post.  Sorry my camera was having a hard time focusing.  I added the little half-dome bit of plastic in the center, since the kit didn't provide anything there and the pin at the top of the steering post just poked out of the wheel looking silly.  The sterring wheel was first sprayed with a flat tan, then I brushed on a dark brown over it to add the wood grain effect.

And so we come to the end of chapter 2, in the Tales of the Omnibus.  In chapter 3 we'll build up the walls and the benches of the upper deck.  Wait 'till you see the benches!  A bit more scratch building is on the way.

Cheers,
Mark

crown r n7

Mark nice progress with that omnibus.

Thanks Nick.  That Sea Fury looks like a cool kit.  Can't wait to see it.

Greg

Mark, I believe I stated at the beginning of the GB that I was intrigued with your Airfix Omnibus. Well, I still am and am enjoyng watching it come together.

Thanks Greg.  I'm enjoying it too.  It was infuriating at first, how every single part needs some king of fixing to make it work.  But now I just laugh and shake my head.  (And while doing that I am usually saying "...this ****ing kit.")

Cheers,
Mark

PFJN

Hi,

When this Group Build was first announced I had a couple ideas for some kits that I wanted to build, but it looks like I never actually signed up to do any of them.  Just today though, I got a copy of the old Airfix 1/32 scale Humber Staff Car and thought it might be a good kit for this build.  As such, if possible, I'd like to sign up to build it.  I am almost done with a couple French Tanks that I have been working on, and only have a few small things left on my Race into Space Build (which I have unfortuately been dragging out for a while).  So hopefully I may be able to start this Airfix kit this weekend.

Pat

PS.  I'm not fully sure yet though if I will do it straight out of the box, or if I might want to make some mods.

 

Pat, sorry, some how i seemed to have missed this post completly. Doing some catching up and fortunatly spotted it, so got you added. Glad to have you on board.

Mark, I believe I stated at the beginning of the GB that I was intrigued with your Airfix Omnibus. Well, I still am and am enjoyng watching it come together.

I used to be able to reply to a page at a time, now it's a post at a time. Getting old, I guess. No disrepect intended to anyone, plenty of good stuff going on here, not just Mark.

Mark nice progress with that omnibus.

Tony so thats a Matador. (car commerical form way back) cool truck.

AA Nice start .

Bish Just came in my entry to this G.B. Airfix 1/48 hawker seafury fb.11. Im going to paint it in alclad high speed siliver,  maybe Burmese or cuban 1958 airforce??

Tales of the Omnibus - Chapter 2  (cont.)

Managed to get the engine cover painted up.  I happened to do the detail brush-painting in the morning, and discovered that my hands shake a lot less in the early hours.  Interesting.
It could probably be better, but I'm quite happy with it.  Next I will shoot the aluminum color on the radiater and it's shroud.

Got the "cockpit" details in, and here it is dry fitted to the chassis along with the engine box.  I like how it's coming together.

It's hard to see the details of the driver's controls, since nearly everthing is gloss black.  There's only one large lever missing, which will go on after the whole thing goes on the chassis.  Since this area will be hard to access after it's affixed to the chassis, I'll do some chipping and weathering around the foot pedals and other doohickies before glueing it in.

Also, in an earlier post I showed the horrible ejector pin marks on the rear wheels.  Here's a before and after of one of the wheels.  I couldn't get any sanders in there, so I slowly and carefully used a blade to scrape down the EPMs.  It looks a little rough, but I think once the wheels are painted and have some dirt and grime on them, they should be fine.

And finally...
Victim numbe...   I mean... Volunteer number one, is all set for some paint.  I think he looks slightly terrified to experience my first attempt at character painting firsthand.  Can't say I blame him.  hahaha....

Cheers,
Mark

Armor_Aficianado - Can't wait to see more AA.  I liked the Mustang you did previously.

taxtp -  Nice work on the Matador Tony.

Cheers,
Mark 

Thanks Bish. Next update. The canvas cover has its base coat, as do the wheels and 5.5 inch gun. I'm using Humbrol enamels for a change, I usually use acrylics these days. 

Looks good Tony.

God to see it up and running AA.

Hey Bish, finlly getting under way on my next entry, the P-40B.  Working on the cockpit:

Thanks Bish. Current status of the Matador..I've done a little more since I entered it.

Cheers

Tony

No worries Tony, i'll get them all addedat the weekend.