80 Years of Airfix GB

Well done, Frank!

Thanks, Jack. It was a bit of an ordeal, but it turned out nice.

Frank, very nice and very cool looking clipper.

 

regards,

Jack

Well, here it is: My "what if" Boeing Clipper. You know, if TWA had been a customer as well as Pan Am. The build is straight out of the box. The only change I made was the decals from Vintage Flyer Decals for the 1/144 Boeing 307 Stratoliner. The decals went on very nicely. They are very thin and snuggled down with just a little Micro Sol per Vintage Flyer's suggested method of application. I have another set of Vintage Flyer Decals for a Minicraft 1/144 Braniff DC-4 I'll do later.

The paint is Alclad Aluminum 101 over Alclad black primer. The underside is Alclad black primer and the propellers are Testors silver. Overall, I think the build came out pretty good but I'm glad it's over. I still have another Clipper model that I'll build later. I'm trying to come up with another "what if" scheme for that one.

Excelent job Theuns

Thanks Chad!

Great job on that front office Andy!

Well I've been picking away at my P40B for the last couple of weeks and I've made some good progress. Overall the fit isn't too bad on this kit but there are a few problem areas that require some sanding and test fitting.

One is where the wing roots meet the bottom of the wings and fuselage. There are four parts that come together here and can create a problem. I ended up glueing the wing roots to the fuselage and sanding them and the bottom of the wing to get a good fit. Still required some filling but nothing too bad...

The landing gear knuckle is another place that needs a lot of careful sanding and test fitting or you will end up with some really nasty gaps to fill.

I got to test out a new tool! I used the compass cutter to cut out some masks for the fuselage lights. I will be using this along with maketar masks to paint the insginia. 

 

Drilled out the fuselage and wing guns with a micro drill...

Took me a bit but I finally got it to the primer and will be starting on the main paint as soon as my MRP Olive Drab show up!

 Forgot to add a couple pics of the pit...

Nice job on the scheme.

Got the scheme on, need to clean it up a little, gloss,decal and rig it

IMG_20190225_161708 by Theunis van Vuuren, on Flickr

IMG_20190225_161655 by Theunis van Vuuren, on Flickr

 

Theuns

Now thats is a big gap. I have had similar problems on a number of my aircraft builds as late, but i think most of that is me. Nice job fixing that.

I get the front office done, sans seat belts, and went to seal up the fuselage, then the dreaded gap appears!  This is a common issue on some newer Airfix 1/72 aircraft due to the thick molded plastic.  So, after shaving off a couple pounds of beautiful Airfix styrene... success!

 

Thanks Joe. They are out of me ever drindling figure stash. The 2 at the front are Airfix the other 2 i think are Revell.

jgeratic

Bish, excellent work 

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

 

regards,

Jack

 

 

Thanks jack. I thougt so, and its unusual in that the Germans seem to have repainted the whole aircraft. Others i have seen seem to have kept the original top colour at least.

Bish, that turned out great! You nailed the finish on that one. Where did you get the figures?

Joe

Bish, excellent work 

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

 

regards,

Jack

 

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.

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

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

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.

 

 

 

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. 

 

 

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

 

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