80 Years of Airfix GB

Hey guys, I need a bit of help with the BF-109 canopy.  I was checking the internet for pics of the proper position of the open canopy and saw that most 109s have an armored plate in the canopy behind the pilot's head.  Is the E4 version supposed to have this armored plate?

The kit DOES have the part, but it wasn't included in the instructions so I kind of ignored it! Looking now at all the pics on the internet makes me think it should be installed.....??

Other than that the Emil is done.  The FW-190 needs a little bit of detail work which should be done tonight.

Your not wrong frank, the year has flown by. meteor is looking good, can't wait to get that on the front.

Ernest, the E-4's & E-7's had the armor plate.

Yep, Chad is correct. I believe the E-4 was the first to have it fitted as standard and earlier versions still in service had it retrofitted.

Hi Ernset, about the head armour, this was introduced as the French Campaign of 1940 was winding down.  It would of been standard for the E-4, and easily retrotfitted to the earlier E-1 and E-3 models.

Happy New Year everyone!

regards,

Jack

Love those two birds Ernest!

Nice work everyone, I'm calling the Heinkel He111 H-6 finished.  Man those little side windows do not fit at all.  I still think this is a great kit, with some problems.    I'll post a few more pictures showing the bottom and the torpedoes.  I wounder how the more expensive Hasegawa He111 goes together?

IMG_9367 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

IMG_9370 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

IMG_9379 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Glad to know I'm not the only one who couldn't get the side windows to fit.  Looks great Dan! 

Looks great Dan!

First, thanks a bunch Chad, Bish and Jack for the info on the head armor!  Strange that Airfix included the part in the kit, but didn't indicate its installation in the instructions.    Too bad it was a exercise in futility (see below!)

Chad, your Lightning came out super nice!  I love the natural metal finish, the vibrant blue on the spine and tail and the colorful markings!  Did you use Alcad for the metal finish or something else?

Dan, fantastic work on the Heinkel 111!  The splinter camo and markings came out perfect! 

So, about the head armor I asked about.....I went ahead and started painting up the part, gave it a wash and then.....it disappeared.   Literally....just vanished.  I looked and looked and looked, but nothing. Who knows, it might turn next year!!  So after all your help, no head armor in the canopy for my little Emil!

And the FW-190 A8 is also complete!  Yay! 

I had a devil of a time with the spiral on the spinner.  I originally painted the spinner black/green thinking the kit decals included the white spiral...NOPE!  Then I tried stealing one from a different kit, but it didn't fit the Airfix spinner.  In the end I spent a couple of hours making my own mask from Tamiya tape and finally got a spiral mask that worked...sort of!  So I sanded off the old paint, repainted the spinner white, masked it off and painted black/green again.  Came out decent but then I noticed I made the spiral in reverse!    Ah well, definitely not perfect, but it will have to do!

Someone mentioned that I should add a pilot since its on the stand, but I totally forgot! Here's the Butcher Bird on the Airfix stand.  I think I'll paint the base a cool color next year!

Bish, thanks for creating and hosting the GB!  This was my first time building Airfix kits and I must say I REALLY like them!  I've already added a few more to the stash and hope to get to them soon!

Thats come out really well Dan, thank you for shareing that.

I do have a couple of Hase He 111's and have built one. It fits really well, but despite the issues with the Airfix kit, i do prefer that. The higher cost of the Hase kit is not justifide when you take in account the extra detail in the Airfix kit.

Those are 2 lovely looking builds there Ernest. Is that head armour just typical. You did a greta job on the spinner. I much prefer painting them to decals but no one does masks in that scale that i can find. Going to have to try and make them myself next time.

Dan and Ernest, those are respectfully each fantastic looking builds - as were all throughout this past year. 

The Airfix kit pilot head armour may as well been thrown out anyways as it is out of scale.  It had 8mm thickness, so @1/72 it would only be 0.1mm - scrap corner section from a PE fret could be used if you ever want to fashion your own.

regards,

Jack

Ernest, those are two superb examples of 1/72 Luftwaffe birds!  The spinner on the 190 came out great!  To answer your question, I used the Vallejo Metal Color line of metallic paints and found them to be super easy to use and clean up. 

Thanks Bish.  I see Hasegawa has re-released there He 111Z-2 kit, two He 111's in one box.

Thanks Mopar:  Man that bare metal finish and metalic blue looks great, great job on the Lighting.

Thanks Bufflehead: Great job on he Bf-109 and Fw190, really nice look with the snake decal running down both sides.

Fotofrank: The Meteor is lookin' good.  Nice two tone camouflage.

Thanks Jgeratic.

Thanks Johnny.

Thanks Lewbud.  Nice camouflage on the Bf109, I've always liked the nose to be paint yellow.

I photographed the Heinkel with better lighting.

IMG_0067 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

IMG_0066 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

IMG_0065 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

IMG_0063 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

IMG_0061 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

IMG_0070 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

P-40 and He 111

IMG_0074 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Here are the trouble spots,

IMG_0068-1 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

IMG_9356-1 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

The eight small windows opening need to be enlarged, putty was needed around the engine nacelle's, the front nose canopy frame was wider than the fuselage.  The frame where the clear part is under the torpedow needed to be enlarged.  For a list price of around $40.00 USD this is a great kit, the small problems can be over come.  Thanks Bish for hosting this great Airfix group build.

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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?

 

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.

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! 

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.

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

And I would be the sucker who would buy it!