The Airfix Farewell GB from now until 1st Jan 2007

My Spitfire IXc/XVIe came in today. I wrote a "first look" of sorts in the Airplane forum.

I hope to get started in a few weeks. I should finish the 262 in a few days, then the Zero shortly after. By that time the P-47 will be along pretty well, and I can start the Spitfire.

I'll have a few of them by then. Once all the stuff I've ordered comes in, I'll have no less than 7 Airfix Spitfire kits. (Well, 6 Spits and one S6b....)

And I STILL want that 1/48 scale 70th Anniversaty set.

jwb wrote:

osher wrote: OK, here's where I am with the model: You're gonna be done before mine even arrive in the mailbox! LOL Looking good!

osher wrote:

Nope!  Still, I'm having a few hassles with it.  I screwed up when painting it, and to my knowledge Mig-15s didn't have giant fingerprints on them, etc

No, no. That MUST be accurate. All my kits have fingerprints!

Having done a bit of Waterloo research yesterday, I have found the following illustration, which helps a great deal:

jwb wrote:

osher wrote: Nope!  Still, I'm having a few hassles with it.  I screwed up when painting it, and to my knowledge Mig-15s didn't have giant fingerprints on them, etc No, no. That MUST be accurate. All my kits have fingerprints!

KJ200 wrote:

Osher, sorry to hear about your problems with the Mig. Just need to insert the pilot and seat, then I can attach the lower wing section. I've had to shim the front of this to eliminate a nasty gap along the front edge, and plugged the holes for the drop tank with plastic rod.

KJ200 wrote:

This kit has to have one of the worst canopies I've ever encountered. Spent half an hour last night polishing it up, before giving it, it's second dunk in Future!

I've had several Airfix Fw190D's over the years, including one or two of the early ones. However, I've never considered the canopy particularly nasty. Thick, but clear. Maybe the QC at Trun struck again.

KJ200 wrote:

Osher, shims are just another way of dealing with gaps. I find they are often stronger and neater than filler alone. Just keep plugging away with the Mig, I hope you're eye is OK.Karl

Karl,

PM me your address and I'll send you an Airfix canopy that doesn't have stress marks. I have more than enough Falcon canopies for my own.

Bruce

Brews, thanks for the offer, but the canopy is now sorted.

The polishing, and the dunk in Future have done the trick.

Thanks again though.

Karl

Hi KJ200,

I recall building the Airfix Dora-9 about 20 years ago -- the molds were fresh and I remember it going together rather well at the time. Of course I probably wasn't as picky then as I'd be now, but I was quite impressed then. I used to have it shelved as a pair with the Airfix F-8, which also impressed the heck outa me when I was a teen.

Your D-9 is looking extremely good -- makes me wanna grab something and build! The Draken I picked up last week will take a lot of work, the raised panel lines are hideous and need rescribing. Plus, it's for conversion to an SF subject, and that'll take a long time, besides not qualifying for an OOB GB.

For an OOB I'm thinking about maybe something from the LHS. I'm probably picking up the Airfix Vulcan tomorrow, but that's for longterm storage (read: until I have a display cabinet!) Or I could dig through everything I've got for inspiration!

Cheers,

TB379

Oh, and one other thing...

I suddenly realised, though many of us are deeply concerned at the demise of Airfix ... not one of us is shedding a tear for Heller. I've never actually built a Heller, though I have their 1:100 HMS Victory and Le Soliel Royale put away for a rainy six months (each). Perhaps a lot of folks on the Continent are mourning the French giant, but it won't make a great deal of difference to my personal hobby activities. What about you folks?

TB379

Thunderbolt379 wrote:

I suddenly realised, though many of us are deeply concerned at the demise of Airfix ... not one of us is shedding a tear for Heller. I've never actually built a Heller, though I have their 1:100 HMS Victory and Le Soliel Royale put away for a rainy six months (each). Perhaps a lot of folks on the Continent are mourning the French giant, but it won't make a great deal of difference to my personal hobby activities. What about you folks?TB379

At my LHS, the Airfix stuff flew off the shelves (although, to be fair, amazing how much remained) when the annoucement came.  As for the Heller stuff, well, a few bits moved, but that's it.  Nothing talks as loudly as a wallet.

So, will we see you onboard TB379?

DURR wrote:

i have airfix kits up the wazzoo so i would like to join your build if i may i just don't know yet which 2-3 i am going to do yet

Hi Osher,

I reckon I'm aboard! Forty years, or nearly, with Airfix, I should see the old firm off with a styrene salute.

Liking the looks of the Dora 9, I picked one up at the LHS today, Aus$5.95 was a good price (interestingly, there's been no run on their Airfix stock yet, though to be fair it's a wall of models in an educational toys shop, not a hobby store per se...). Panel lines are raised, but very fine. Besides Yellow 10 (actually a D-13, of course), the kit features marking for Red 1 of JV44, a subject I've been fascinated by for a long time, and the decals are very well-printed. I'm tempted...

Otherwise I'm thinking of maybe the old CA-13 Boomerang, the Mitsubishi Dinah, or something along those lines. Something that'll allow me to do a good, colorful airbrush job to compensate for shortcomings in the old molds. I also have a couple of F-14s put away, I first built one of those thirty years ago.

Cheers,

TB379

I use www.picturetrail.com to upload pics tand link them to here. Photobucket does the same thing. They're both free sites.

I've never done a group build before, but as an old Airfix fan, I can't resist.  Count me in, though it will be a couple of weeks before I can get started.  If all works out, I'm going for the brass ring with a 1/72nd  E-3D Sentry.  Otherwise, I'll do that most British of fighters, the EE Lightning.  I'll let you know ASAP.  Of course, if I do the E-3, I'll tell everyone so you can buy stock in Squadron putty .

As for Heller, I'm a huge Heller fan, especially the weird interwar stuff they did.  At least the molds are living on with Smer and others!

I know I said F86 but I have a Vampire rolling for the First Jets GB, here is the progress to this point.  I did try to rescribe panel lines and am making the squadron flash by hand.  It is supposed to be A RNZAF bird.