The Airfix Farewell GB from now until 1st Jan 2007

Some Whirlwind photos:

The worst moldings so far are the horizontal stabs which have very large ejector pin marks on both sides.  They can be attached so that both marks are on the bottom, at least.  I filled them with super glue and sanded them down, then rescribed a panel line that went away.  The propellers took a lot of cleanup, and I feel pretty good cause I only broke off one prop blade in the process.  The canopy is just sitting there.  It took some work to get it to settle into place too, on the front.  There are no locating pins on this kit.

Whirlwind is looking good Jeaton! I know what you mean about the sinkmarks in the tail surfaces. My O-1 E/F Bird Dog has it too. I finally got the thing assembled, and as I was sanding it, I lost the dang tail wheel! I'm ALWAYS losing something vital that way! I HATE this not being able to finish a model because some crucial piece just DISAPPEARS!!

Anyway, here it is before I cleaned it up and started painting it and before it lost it's wheel!





I even painted the pilot as best I could. Here's a shot of him through the windscreen:

I hope you like it and comments are welcome. I'll have more pics later once I get more done. 

jeaton01 wrote:

...but building them is where it is really at for me.

That about sums it up, don't it! All the fun (well, most) is building. (So why do I have such a need to add to stash?!)

Looking good on the Whirlwind!

I like the Bird Dog!  Sorry about the tail wheel.  Paste one on from your spares box, no one will check for the Scott dataplatre in 1/72 scale!  Darn Rug Monster(s)!  I have a wood and concrete floors where I build.  Still manage to lose parts occaisionally.

So far I have found everything I have dropped on the Whirlwind.

Oh!  I leave the forum alone for a few days (sorting stuff out for the big move soon, etc), and wow, things have really progressed!  Wow!  The exhausts on that Spit IX look great Jon.  Fantastic work, as good as anything in resin, but done by hand.

 OK, will update the front page shortly.

The MiG is finished, sort of.  Just need to glue in the undercarriage, ariel, and guns (all painted already).  Pictures as soon as I can, but having a few hassles.  Working now on an old 40mm Bofors gun and tractor kit, but without the gun and trailer, so, just the tractor, a Morris CD/SW 30cwt, 6x4.  No pictures yet...

Build going nicely.  A bit fiddly, but just the right level.  Enough to challenge, but light enough to be finished reasonably.  Kit seems to be from the 60's.  A chap at the modelling club gave it to me, as he needed the gun, but not the tractor.  Fit so far is lovely, although one part can fit several ways, and guess what, the diagram was from the opposing side of the chassis, so impossible to tell which way round!  Still, it's tiny, and inconsequential.  Not going for a camo finish, or a sand, both of which are correct, but an overall dark green.  Well...I have an open tin, and don't want to open any others just before I go off for 2 years!  Anyway, it may well have been OD at some point, knowing the British army. 

Nice to see the Duke in action, even if a wheel has gone missing...  Still, losing, and then hunting out, parts, is all part of the fun, er, maybe?

Thanks guys! I do appreciate it. As for the resin copy, I'll take it, but only if it is in 1/72 scale. That would be great!

Thanks Osher! It's great to be building with you again. 

Haven't gotten much more done yet, I've been very busy lately. I should have some more time in a day or so.  

Jeaton01, your build is coming along ncely.  Those ejector marks look humungus!!!

Duke,  nice work.  ope you get the tail whell sorted out.

Jon, congrats again on the Spit.

Duke, great job on the Bird dog.

Jeaton, you're a brave man building a mint kit that is that old. Still, it is what they were made for.

Karl 

My MiG-15 is finally finished!  It's been an interesting exercise.  I've learnt a lot about sanding and finishing - there was a huge step in the fuselage, but, even though it's BMF, you can see it.  I've learnt a lot about BMF - took several coats to get it to sit right.  I've learnt about masking -  need to improve!  I've learnt about decals - cover them before masking over them!  As for Future/Klear, well, that needs to be applied gently and lightly.

The major problem I've had is with the main undercarriage, and now it looks quite awful, but it's taken an hour of using I think all adhesives known to man to make them hold the model up.  Finally, a mixture of Z-Poxy and CA has worked, sort of.  Of yes, and it's a tailsitter...

I will try and post pictures, but I'm also packing for my move soon.  In the next few days the model will be displayed at my local club, then sent to a friend's 6 year old for playing with.  Probably that undercarriage will be the only bit that stays attached in the end!!!

Anyway, it's done!  Phew

So far the Whirlwind is not a bad build, but I wish I would quit with the breaking off of the prop blades!  The spinners drag on the nacelle fronts, but if I made the fit looser, then the propellers would drop down and not fair with the nacelles.  The way it is made you can't fit the props on after assembly of the nacelles to the wing.  I quite like the little bugger, actually.

KJ200 wrote:

Jon, congrats again on the Spit. Duke, great job on the Bird dog. Jeaton, you're a brave man building a mint kit that is that old. Still, it is what they were made for. Karl

Hmmm... How did this thread manage to slide all the way to page two?

Anyway, doesn't look like much progress over the last pic but she's already for paint so I hope to post some more pics on Monday.  I tried using super glue as a seam filler this time instead of squadron putty and I must say I like it.  Ready to sand in a couple of minutes and you're done.  We'll see how well it worked after the primer coat.

Hey Razordws, that plenty of progress when you are ready to go to the paint shop. Looking good.

Steve

Dave, great progress on the meat box.

Looking forward to seeing it complete.

Karl 

Razordws, Meteor is coming along great.  Looking forward to seeing it done.

I haven't had much time for my build lately, but I grab a few minutes here and there when able to work on it.  I'm hoping for some time off in the holidays to finish it.  Got the wings and engines on, and just glued the rotodome pylons on yesterday.  Check out the trailing edges of the wings to get an idea of the warpage, especially the right wing (left one looking at the picture) between the inner engine and fuselage.

I decided to paint and leave the horizontal stabilizers off until last, so I can use the mounting hole to push a stick though to hang the model for painting.  Still have to fix the forward tip at the base of vertical stabilizer, since it broke off long ago.  Also, I've managed to break off the forward gear strut, two HF antennas, and the vertical stabilizer while trying to fix its warpage.  I've never seen a model made of such brittle plastic.  Its size also makes it hard to handle, almost dropped it twice yesterday.  Give the state of the plastic, I'm afraid it would shatter into a thousand pieces if it hit the ground hard  As I've said before, though, fit and engineering have been pretty good.  I think most of this kits problems (warpage, brittle plastic) come from improper storage.

Hope to start painting soon.

Cheers!

Wow Jeff, yours is far better than mine looks! I know what you mean about breaking off so many parts. I also have about 9 parts, including one engine nacelle that I need to re-glue back into place. I agree, this is a hard plane to handle. I'm hoping to finally get my rotordome on soon.

Razordws, nice job on the Meteor. Keep up the great progress! 

Meanwhile, despite the loss of the tailwheel, I went on and painted the basic coloring on my Airfix 1/72 scale O-1 E/F Bird Dog. I still need to touch it up a bit and find a replacement for the tailwheel and then this one will be ready for Future and decals.

Not much more to report. I'll post more when I get more done.

Just to show I'm working on it, and to use my new camera, an HP M627 7 megapixel 3X optical zoom so far I like it special.

Brews:

Primarily Tamiya putty, that looks silver, and a little gap filling super glue.  I like the Tamiya putty the best because it is very fine grained and dries faily rapidly.

John

John

Congrats to Jeaton01, Jeff and Duke for some really nice progress on your builds. They seem to be gathering momentum and are all looking great. Good work guy's.

Steve

Sorry for no pictures, must sort out the camera!  Buying a new one soon, so better pictures are coming!

• The MiG-15 was finished a wee while back.
• The Morris tractor unit is sort of finished.  That is, it was missing some parts, and others just didn't fit.  However, it's been painted dark green, and looks like a truck.  It doesn't need to be better, as it's going to a friend's kid, along with MiG (and the Gloster Whittle from the First Jets GB) to be played with until destroyed!  Actually, it was quite fun, just assembling and painting for the heck of it, and not worrying too much about accuracy or a bit of excess glue.
• Now working on a DH88 Comet (the racer, not the airliner).  Little bit of warping on the fuselage, but a whole load of strong adhesives and cements sorted that one out.  A fair bit of sanding too.  The mainplanes (wings) are flat.  They should have some dihedrial in them, but too late now.  Oh well.  Still wingroot gaps horrendous, top, bottom, front, back.  Looks like some fun in store for me there.  Removed the moulded in pilots head.  I think this is kit number 11 (at work, so can't confirm), making it older than the MiG, or the Skyhawk.  One of their earlier, and it shows.  Mould is worn out, the canopy has no markings at all now for the lines, whereas, older kits from this mould had lines.

Amazing to see what everyone else has done!  The Whirlwind, the Meteor, the E-3, wow!!!!  Really coming along, and a good testiment to Airfix!  This really is a tribute GB to Airfix!

Jeff, Duke and Jeaton01, Great progress guys!  Keep the pictures coming.

Osher, looking forward to seeing some pics.  Hope you get the camera thing sorted out.

Now, managed to get the green upper camo on tomight so as promised here are some pics of the meat box (how did it get a nickname like that I wonder?)

 Now to let it dry for awhile, I ended up using Humbrol enamels and boy am I glad I don't use those on regular basis anymore, the acrylics smell much better, well... not as bad at least.  Anyway future and decals later this week.  I intend to do this as the first Jet ever to fly in Canada which I can easily do using the kit decals.

osher wrote:

The mainplanes (wings) are flat.  They should have some dihedrial in them, but too late now.

No, the model is correct, they should be flat!

Nice Meteor, and a great paint job!  I wish I could get my camo to look so good!

Nice Progress Dave!! Jeff and Jeantnn01 looking good.  Jeanton01 what scale is that whirlwind? (I kinda like the little buggers too!) 

I haven't been on the GB forum pages in a long while.  Thought I'd check out this one as I once said I'd build something for it.  Unfortunately quality time has been lacking lately and I will not be able to do this one.

I have been busy working on something else and shall have to show everyone the little bitty once done but you'll have to look in the pages of the dark side! Bwaahhhhahahah !!!

Dave, great job on the meatbox.

Know what you mean about enamels, I would never go back.

jboutin asked: Jeaton01 what scale is that whirlwind? (I kinda like the little buggers too!) 

It is 1/72 scale.  Up 10 or 20 posts you can look at the header card and bag, I posted the photo in a message.  Someone said there was another, newer Whirlwind by Airfix also, and in 1/48 there is a kit by Classic Airframes which I have and need to build.

John

Hi all, decals are on.  I had the usual problems with off register printing and had to do some trimming.  Otherwise everything went well.  If it looks like some of them have silvered it's actually just becasue they are still wet and the setting solution hasn't dried yet. 

This is EE311 which was given to Canada immediately after the war and flew in several victory bond parades before being sent out to Cold Lake Alberta for testing along with another meteor.  According to my sources it is the first jet aircraft to fly in Canada.  Buck McNair attempted to fly it back to Ontario from Alberta but ended up ditching it in a lake in a remote area of Northern Ontario.  Futunately Buck survived and the lake was shallow enough that they were able to recover the aircraft.

Hi all,

Back from the UK and just getting over jetlag. I started my Jv44 Dora-9 today, painted the pilot (he came out pretty well, better than expected) and did about half the building, including CA/adze/wet-polish some jointwork. I'll do my best to get this little guy built in the remaining three weeks of the GB. The underside red for the Pappagei Staffel is the one which took 100 hours to dry, so I'll have to factor that in. My LHS may have restocked with Modelmaster by now, so RLM 83 may be available again, I'll try to get some next week.

I've just had the fun of reading the last five pages of posts, and the work that's been done here is awesome! Karl, Yellow 10 looks absolutely superb, you can be really proud of this model! If mine comes out half as good, I'll be well pleased! Sirdrake, the 504 is a stunner, the rigging and unusual markings make it a real winner. Jon, the Spit is fantastic! You started with a seriously troublesome kit and turned in a result which would pass casual muster alongside the Tamegawas. The paintjob and decals look terrific. Razordws, the Meteor is a winner -- beautiful paintwork. I know enamels stink but they go on so silky smooth, don't they?

Marvelous work, guys, and I look forward to taking part in the welcome-back GB nextyear too. It's great news that Hornby have rescued the great British brands, and with manufacture moving to China we may see Airfix products with a quality they've never known before.

Osher, you lucky devil -- enjoy El Carib, watch out for the pirates. We'll still be here when you get back, and just think how many more kits you can have accumulated in two years, shopping on the web and having them delivered to relatives for storage!

Cheers,

TB379

Building:

1:72 Martian Excursion Vehicle SF Scratchbuild

Tamiya 1:35 Type 74 MBT OOB

Hobbycraft 1:72 F-86E conversion

Zvezda 1:35 T-72 with ERA OOB

Zvezda 1:35 BTR-70 OOB

Testor 1:48 F-5A conversion

Airfix 1:72 FW 190 D-9 OOB GB