80 Years of Airfix GB

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

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.

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

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.

Look forward to seeing that John.

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.

Nice P-40.

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

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

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.

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

kensar, your P-40 looks great.

Cheers,
Mark

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.

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.

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.

Pits coming on well AA.

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

Good to see everyone plugging along right nicely. Not much progress on the A-4 lately. I'm having to wade through a short barrage of family obligations. But, let's get caught up on all the choice building going on shall we.

kensar: Bravo on being first to the finish line. Your P-40 turned out marvelous. Superb building fundamentals and attention to detail and painting. You've certainly instilled some excellent insight for when I get around to building mine. Again, Well done.

Frank: Glad to see you managed to put together 4 full props. Treat them with loving kindness. The WB-29 is a really sweet subject. Always enjoy something new and out of the ordinary. Thoroughly enjoyed the video too.

Check: Nice progress on the Spitfire. Good to see that Captain Archer is fine with overseeing rather than launching the Spit into flight.

Jack: Sharp painting of the helmets. Looks great.

Bish: Well, you've done one bang up job of overcoming the SM.79's issues. I hope your patience is still in good order. Very well done indeed.

Armor: Good solid start I have to say. Nice.

That is all. Carry on.

Painting the cockpit details on the Mustang:

Kensar, your P-40 build is really nice. I've always been fond of the P-40. Maybe Dennis Morgan had something to do with that. The pilot figure adds real dimension to the finished model. The front of the prop blades being unpainted is interesting.

Yeah, Bish. A lot of split shots and a lot of 5-minute epoxy. I have wised up about the little stuff that sticks out like antennas and propellers and landing gear. They are definitely added last.

I'll have updates on the Clipper and the B-29 later today.

Complete!

This was a quick and enjoyable OOB build, like an Eduard Bf-108 I did a few years ago.  Overall, I would say Airfix has done a very good job on this kit.  There are a couple of fiddly steps - the landing gear knuckles and the fit of the wing to the fuse is complex with all the seams involved.  The pilot figure was the biggest miss and there are some things I changed - reshaped the wheels because they look like they are flat, and shortened the tail wheel some. 

I got this kit from Hobby Lobby with one of their 40% off coupons, making the price under $18.  Can't complain about that!

Again, I really enjoyed this build, and Bish, thanks for hosting!

The pictures:

There's some great looking builds going on here.  Looking forward to seeing more completed.

Jacknewbill - Nice detail painting on those tiny figures. I'm sure the helmets will be visible through a canopy with them being bright colors.

fotofrank - like Bish, I leave off small, fragile details until the end of the build.

Bish - I can see you put a lot of work into that fuse.  It should pay off in the final result.

Good progress, Gents.

Just a one pic update this week. Construction is done after quite a bit of sanding a filling. Around the hump was especially bad. The clear pieces were a pain. The 2 side pieces behind the cockpit came out when i applied masking tape so i had to prize off the hump, refit the clear parts and refit and sand the hump. The main canopy was especially interesting in that i would be interested to know what kit it was designed for, because i am sure it wasn't this one. But its in.

Its since been primed and the first coar of yellow went on this morning.

Thats going to be a weighty one Frank.

I always leave my props off until the end, i am certain to break one if not.

Think you might have our first completed build there kensar, i am liking that.

Nicely done tehre Jack. Doing 72nd figures myself i know its not easy to paint finer detail. Those have come out well.

Love those little helmets.

Lots of cool builds going on here guys!

I am checking in with my completed pit on the 1/72 Tomcat and did what I could to bring some detail to this one. Not sure if it helped but I went ahead end tried to paint some Wolfpack designs on the helmets based on some old photos I found online. I will check back in with some assembly pics soon.

Don't rush, foto.  Take your time and create a model you will be satisfied with.

The P-40 is a simple build - one engine.

I built a Clipper recently, also.  Those props are fragile.  I had to fix one of mine.

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

I know that there's no rush, but after seeing kensar's P-40, I feel like I'm lagging behind.

Well from two Clipper kits I have four good propellers. That's all, just four. I've put them in a safe place so they don't get damaged. They will go on when the build is finished.

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Putting weights in the nose of the B-29. I'm gonna be sure this airplane isn't a tail-sitter. Another layer will be epoxied in behind the flight deck just to be sure. That old Airfix B-29 landing gear is pretty stout so it should be able to take the weight.

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Moving right along...

Kensar, that Pearl harbor P-40 certainly looks good.