Ventora3300

Many thanks for the tip, Pete. I'll try it on the next build as I have a vintage Do217E-2 in mind. I wish I'd kept my collection of models from the last century - I think I gave them away to a younger cousin. All the best. Mike

Many thanks Martin. Kids these days (including my own) are missing out. I also had the experience of using spare paint from my Dad's cupboard - painted a P-51 silver with some thick metal paint and I remember it took a week to dry, and smelled forever... It was the splinter camo that I enjoyed as the first time attempted with masking tape. Cheers!

I know the feeling - funny how I forgot all about being 'flu-ed up' and got stuck in.

Finished!

Enjoyed it very much and the video really captures the elements of adjustment and re-touching that goes on during the making of a model. Brushes every time for me. Great result.

Thanks, I am enjoying this one and fancied building the 'new tool' FW109D-7 as a comparison. Mike

Thanks, more coming shortly. This was definitely FUN, not purgatory. Although, if SWMBO gets wind of it, I will be! Mike

Steve, your link to pictures didn't come through - says 'third party hosting disabled'. Regards, Mike

I checked in as a ‘new member’ some time ago and wondered if I would ever move from ‘collecting’ to ‘modelling’ again. The opportunity was thrust upon me when I got that 7-day flu bug thing last month and felt so unwell that I even stayed off work for a day! This brought back the memory of what I would do if ill as a kid at Primary School and one occasion came back to me when I was confined to bed but handed an Airfix FW190D (red stripe, bagged) by a sympathetic parent. As others have said, the form in those days was build in a day, paint and decals on by the next day, although in my early days, I didn’t even stop to paint. So in doing this build to re-create the therapeutic effect, I felt I wanted to build OOB, undercarriage up in flight mode (always my favourite), build using cement not liquid glue, take the fit as it comes with no filling, then paint with Humbrol enamels using brushes. I had a lap tray on which to contain the build and materials and this proved handy in the later stages when putting away between sessions. So, away I went – what did I have in the stash but a red stripe bagged FW190D (wow, the ‘box art’ takes me back!) but also a ‘blister’ version with the same picture. The bagged kit is from the right era but my ‘collector’ gene kicked in and I decided to ‘keep’ that and build the kit in the blister pack. However, this means I will miss out on the ‘locate and cement…’ style instructions as the blister pack version is visual only. Only 24 pieces in this kit and the long nose shape looks great – being young back then, this was the ‘real’ shape for an FW190 and I can remember being a bit puzzled when I saw later kits of the FW190A with the big and short nose with radial engine, which just wasn’t right to my eyes! First off, propeller mounted to the engine front and glued to the spindle without seizing up – I left the fit a bit loose rather than pressing hard together - fantastic, when I blow, the propeller spins freely so I’m looking forward to possibly taking a final action photo with the airstream provided by a hairdryer. I’m over the moon because I only ever thought you were able to do this on kits with radial engines due to the longer spindle lengths through the engine blocks – in this case, the spindle goes through a separate cowling rather than just the fuselage front. Fuselage together and pilot glued to his ‘pins’ – no seat in this kit. Wing sections glued together OK but now realising that this kit has flash which needs trimmed off with a craft knife and the fit of the wings and stabilisers to the fuselage isn’t good. The fuselage has a distinct seam which I sanded with an emery board (for fingernails) and the front will need trimming before the engine cowling can go on – in fact, while trying to press it all together for a dry fit, I broke a propeller blade! Just for comparison, I opened up the bagged version of the kit, which I believe was made perhaps some 10 years earlier and tried a dry fit of the main components – very very much better without any trimming required! Was a quality control problem creeping in with Airfix kits? So, engine cowling on, glued the propeller blade back on, then stabilisers and this is where the cement comes into its own – as it dries, I can ‘babysit’ the final ‘square’ position of both sides by constantly checking/adjusting as they harden up. Wings on and there seems to be a tremendous dihedral! (I’ve seen someone else make that comment as well). The kit instructions say 7 degrees but I can’t get that technical – the wings need to sit as they fit with as little gap as possible top and bottom. (Some time later, I measured the height of the wingtips above, reminded myself of basic geometry and calculated the dihedral as approx. 13 degrees! Oh well…) As I said earlier, my younger self always built the kits with undercarriage up and here I had to return to the written instructions for the bagged kit to find that the locating pins had to be cut off the undercarriage legs to allow them to fit in the wheel wells – also the wheel spindles but I had to work that out for myself. The legs were not such a good fit when glued in place but that may have been due to my eyesight during trimming – must do better. Also, I later realised when looking at the re-tooled FW190D-9 kit from 1978 that you should actually be able to see part of the main undercarriage wheels when stowed – not so on this early kit but again, younger self not aware of this sort of detail. Air intake, tailwheel, cannons and aerial (what an awkward position!) on and clear stand assembled – broke that also as this later version has two pins to mate the upright to the base and was a bad fit, rather than the solid tab on the version in the bagged kit which could no doubt stand a bit more robust assembly – not an improvement for the better! I’ll leave the canopy off until the pilot is painted. I just noticed the bulges in the upper wing surfaces were not aligned with the 20mm cannons in the inboard positions – a bit of investigation revealed that the FW190D-13 may have had these bulges for the extra 30mm cannons in the outer wings and the kit header is more specific in confirming the kit is indeed representative of this model (although the blister and bagged kits disagree in listing armament and neither list the additional outer wing cannons). This means then that I will have to remember to paint in the additional 20mm cannon firing through the engine and spinner. Ready to paint… Need to sort the colours out – the instructions say ‘M25’ for the fuselage and undersurfaces and M3/M17 combination in splinter camouflage for the upper surfaces and fuselage mottling in M13/M2? It looks like you also paint in the visible section of the main undercarriage wheels if the undercarriage is up. There is a yellow band on the fuselage in M15. What are these colours? – back again to the written instructions for the bagged kit and it says quite simply Pale Blue / Olive Green M.3 / Dark Green (with no painting in of wheels) I had to search on the Intranet to check Airfix/Humbrol colours and M25 comes up as Matt Aircraft Blue / Hu65, which is indeed a pale blue. Olive Green M3 comes up as Matt Dark Green Hu30 so what will I use for ‘Dark Green'? M17 is Matt Bronze Green at Hu75. How about a search for ‘Olive Green’? There is light Olive at Hu86 and Olive Drab at Hu66 (too dark) and Hu155. I’ll stick with the Hu30. M15 is Hu99 ‘Matt Lemon’. The M13/M2 colours are greys rather than greens and certainly the header picture seems to support that but I think I'll stick to the colours on the bagged kit - that's what my younger self would have done. Black is easy so pilot painted with a black jacket and brown leather helmet – needed the magnifying glass to paint on face and goggle lenses and could see pretty good detail on the plastic. (The bagged kit instructions suggested painting the pilot before gluing in but his head and shoulders will only be visible. I did run the brush down his back but didn’t think it worth painting on seat straps). Propeller blades painted in black and spinner in Hu30 as a test – does indeed look like Olive so will use as the lighter colour on the top surfaces. Cockpit surround lip also painted in Olive and I will glue on the canopy with PVA glue which dries clear to avoid a frosty look (picked up that tip from other model build reviews). Got so enthusiastic that I painted the cowling - why?? Exhaust stubs initially painted in brown (rust same as for RAF fighters?). When painting the exhaust stubs, I noticed that there are 7 each side - is this a 14-cylinder Jumo 213 rather than a 12? I think I will consider the front ‘stubs’ to be simply cowlings and paint them pale blue rather than brown or black (as on some reference pictures I saw). Note, references now readily available on the Internet were not available when I was young so the kit painting instructions and box art would be the only guide. Canopy frame painted by hand – needed the magnifying glass again and used a hard plastic stick to gently ‘draw’ the paint on the raised canopy detail – looks OK at a distance but I must think up a better way without masking – I never painted canopies when I was young. Stuck the canopy on with the PVA glue – looks good and you now get ‘an impression’ of the pilot behind. Later, I realised that there is a ‘spine’ of canopy along the top – very faint - so I resorted to masking tape for that. Also, the painting instructions on the blister kit indicate that the wing roots are painted in olive/green colours where the bagged kit indicates pale blue – the wing root gives a clear line to paint to so I’ll try that. Painted the fuselage and undersurfaces with the pale blue – lovely colour and will need a second coat – reminded myself to be patient and not to apply a thick coat for speed, which would start to obscure the surface detail. At the wing edges, I used the ‘flick-off’ method with the brush to try to create a straight edge at the joint in the wing halves – usually works well. Painted the upper wings with the Matt Olive Hu66 but this turned out darker than the Hu30 (already on the spinner) so will have to be used as the dark green. Second coat of the pale blue on fuselage and undersurfaces – looks good. Mottling with dark green on the fuselage upper surfaces – got my smallest brush and cut the bristles really short to ’stipple’ – must be a good scale equivalent of the brush used by the ground crew? Quite hard to resist an even mottle and achieve the grading to heavier mottle on the top surface Repainted the spinner but the photo shows I missed a bit! Used Tamiya masking tape to create the lines for the splinter camouflage on the wings and stabilisers upper surfaces – tried to follow the pattern shown on the painting instructions of the bagged kit. Also masked the rear fuselage for the yellow band and there is actually a couple of handy raised panel lines – not shown on the bagged kit painting instructions but is included on the ‘box-art’ picture on the paper header. Painted on the Hu30 Olive and looks great. Painted the yellow band and this needed two coats. Removed the masking and touched in a couple of places on the Dark Green where the Olive had bled under the masking tape – at raised panel lines. Also re-visited the spinner. Decided to revisit the exhaust stubs to do again in black and took the opportunity to add some Pale Blue between some of them to show the covering panel set-up as I have seen in some reference photos. Not going to add any exhaust staining or weathering. Added a dot of black paint on the spinner to represent the additional cannon and finally glued on the bomb – this interferes a bit with the stand but can give the model a climbing bank if you set it right. Painting finished – time for decals or transfers as they were known by my younger self. The decals with the blister kit look fine but I was going to save these with the bagged kit and use the ones from the bagged kit which have suffered some sort of dirty water damage. Considering my options…decided to use those from the bagged kit. Decals go on OK but there is yellowing due to age – not too bad but most noticeable on the pale blue undersides. Is there a solution to making the yellowing disappear? Once the decals were on, a brush coating of matt cote varnish was applied – the first time I have used it - really improves the overall consistency of the colours and hopefully protects / anchors the decals. Added a radio aerial from rear cockpit canopy to tail and it is finished! Locked down the stand with bluetac and tried for an ‘action’ shot with airstream provided by a hairdryer. It works! I really enjoyed that build and found that the big pleasure was in the painting and seeing the simple model come alive. Raised panel lines and rivets are fine by me as that’s the way it was back then. I tried to keep it as close to what I would have done as a youngster as possible but the additional fact-finding and comparisons were very interesting. I think it proves that a return to modelling for us older members can be fun rather than purgatory.

I think the main skill must be hand to eye co-ordination - i.e. the hands can produce what the eyes want to see. Thanks for all the posts and the link to the 'Solid Models' website. Regards to all, Mike

One of the things that my Dad left me from his boyhood was several 'Skyleada' aircraft plans which I think he used to make solid wood models. I have a very vague recollection of him (in later life) showing me (when I was a boy) a Hawker Hurricane made in wood - it must have been fairly accurate because I was able to recognise it by it's shape - no doubt I was making the Airfix plastic version at the time. I have dug them out from a box in the loft - (Tried to attach a pic but failed). Is it really possible to make models from these plans? It must involve 'scratch building' skills far beyond anything I could do - respect to Dad's generation. Is anyone out there still building models this way? I would be interested to hear. Thanks, Mike

Maybe the collecting bit comes when you are trying to get the time to build but just cannot resist having the 'old' kits ready and waiting - that's where I think that I am. I am finding the history and heritage of modelling so interesting that just collecting another old / first issue / unusual kit of an aircraft is an absolute joy - I will build it someday, honest (will need to live to 150!). Mike

I remember this...it was the Do217 E.2 'flying pencil' with the turret behind the main cockpit and moveable control surfaces. My dad built it 'assisted' by me and I think that I followed up closely with the Spitfire MkIX 'JEJ' on my own - red stripe header and bag. My dad hung them on threads in the sitting room window and took a black and white photograph (this was in the 60's after all) and it looks like we were being subjected to a low level raid - and my Dad probably experienced the real thing overhead as a boy himself since he certainly had a penchant for the 'flying pencil' and could describe the sound the unsynchronised engines made. I must look out that photo - I think it is in my 'personal tin' in the loft, along with unmade kits of both models stashed nearby... Thanks for the memory. Mike

That's it exactly! Hadn't heard of any shows so will check out your advice. Happy modelling!

That matches my 'resurgence' experience as well - a theme comes up and you have to follow it! Best of luck. Mike