Attacking the Attacker.

[Leigh]

So I've heard all kinds of things about Classic Airframes, from one extreme that they are the greatest thing to hit the modelling world and we should all bow down at their altar and should be eternally grateful that they grace us with their product, to the other end with people who hate the product, and the company owner personally, till today I'd never actually seen inside one of the boxes. Dunno whether it's a plus or a minus but if you casually mention to the owner of my fantastic local model shop of a kit that your interested in he WILL order it for you! So Friday at my local IPMS meeting Jim was pleased to inform me that my Attacker was in, GULP, all I remember saying to him was that "I've gotta get one of those someday", like I say that constitutes a special order in his ears.

Anyways I'm approaching this with an impartial view. The reason I wanted it is to complete the collection of the Spitfire development for my entry at the U.S. Nationals and having read David Batt's glowing review in Feb 2006 SAMI was willing to take the plunge.

Now I'll preface this by saying I know it's a limited run kit with all the nuances that entails, but I consider myself a reasonably skilled modeler and the review led me to believe it practically fell out of the box with Tamiya type quality.

Also this is the most expensive kit I've ever bought from a store about $50 after my discount.

So what do you get for your money, two sprues of what appears to be finely detailed plastic, a bunch of resin and some PE, and one clear part; a Matchbox thick canopy with invisible frame lines.

The plastic is actually pretty soft with to be ecpected very large sprue attachment points, now even with very careful trimming removing the parts from the sprue tore plastic out of the parts leaving big old divots that I'll have to fill later.

Started on the what seems to be a pretty nice resin cockpit, except for the injected instrument panel which really isn't up to par with the rest of the kit, again a Matchbox comparison here.

Here comes the first problem, the instructions are ambiguous with the three part seat rack, after gluing it together as it looks in the picture I realised it was all wrong. Some CA uncure and we managed to fix it

This is what it SHOULD look like in order to work, a far cry from how it looks in the instructions

Some other preblems ahead and I'll let you in on those tomorrow.

Boing! time for bed!

[Leigh]

Office is done, the resin is very nice and fits well into the fuselage/nose section once you take out a coupla ejector pin marks. Of course it's black so most of it is pretty much invisible tried varying three shades of black to get some kind of depth but well black on black don't work too well. The instrument panel came out quite well but I think one more piece of resin would have been much nicer.

So tomorrows challenge is the interesting nose/fuselage arrangement. Seems a pretty good idea the intakes are part of the nose section. Question though, any idea what colour the inside of the intakes should be? Black or natural metal?

Answers by 4p.m. P.S.T. please.

Also what you see here is I was attempting to darken up some of the recesses in the black cockpit so I figured I'd try India ink, well that didn't work but then I thought wonder if I could use this as a panel line wash? Just slapped it on the panel lines and wiped it off with a dry rag, hmmmm, dunno bit too dark for my taste but it may work as a preshade. Just a little something for those gloss F.A.A. birds that aren't too weathered. I've had success with the Sharpie/felt tip marker method before until I had one disaster so I'll never try that again but we'll see if this works out. Don't worry I'm gonna try it out on a scrap wing first before I commit the model.

[Kyrre]

Looking good. I think you ended up with a neat looking office. Next time you want to do something all black how about trying out with a dark grey followed by several black washes?

[Mentalguru]

Hi Leigh

Well unfortunately I tend to be one of the guys who would rather squash bees with my bare feet than have much to do with Classic Airframes and their models. I personally see little to indicate why such a high price is charged for these ill fitting poorly detailed soft plastic idols of modeling. Subject choice is intersting I have to say, but how many times have I heard "I really hope Classic Airframes" dont do the scruggs bucket 18 or whatever- inferring that if they do, a more mainstream kit manufacturer will leave it alone forever.

I really like your wash of the panel lines, I found this technique really helped me dealing with the aftermath of the multi part Hasegawa P-40 fuselage, and although not painted yet, i too waqs wondering if it would create a good effect- if I could lay off putting too much paint on top- lol

Rich

ps- you@re doing a good job with the attacker- you dont see many of those finished- so hurry up!

[zeke]

Hi Leigh

Well unfortunately I tend to be one of the guys who would rather squash bees with my bare feet than have much to do with Classic Airframes and their models. I personally see little to indicate why such a high price is charged for these ill fitting poorly detailed soft plastic idols of modeling. Subject choice is intersting I have to say, but how many times have I heard "I really hope Classic Airframes" dont do the scruggs bucket 18 or whatever- inferring that if they do, a more mainstream kit manufacturer will leave it alone forever.

I really like your wash of the panel lines, I found this technique really helped me dealing with the aftermath of the multi part Hasegawa P-40 fuselage, and although not painted yet, i too waqs wondering if it would create a good effect- if I could lay off putting too much paint on top- lol

Rich

ps- you@re doing a good job with the attacker- you dont see many of those finished- so hurry up!

I think you'll find that actually squashing bees with your bare feet is illegal in many parts of the world...and so should Classic Airframe kits!...ha ha ha...well, maybe not but I've got to agree with rich on this one...way overpriced!

[Leigh]

Yes this thing is driving me batty. What's really Piddling me off is most of the diffuculties arise from basic quality control problems. They obviously don't give a crap about the shoddy product they are charging you an arm and a leg for, and then the reviewers who kiss their bottom and lead fools like me to believe it'll be somewhat buildable out of the box.

Exhibit A: what was going on on this day? Hey we'll put locator pins in some places, holes in others and make sure nothing actually mates! As seen with the intakes and the corresponding parts

Exhibit B : what has the Matchbox trencher got a new job at Classic airframes? Here we see at least a 1/16th inch gap where the two parts of the tail are supposed to meet, which genius came up with this split? How about splitting the tail vertically like most kits? or molding it complete on one fuselage half? or even just giving us a completely seperate piece? Ah but now we see where the plastic that was supposed to go on the tail went, they used it to fill the holes for the wing spar!

Well we fixed the tail by shimming it with plastic strips before assembly, then came the nose Hah! DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS! I did and what a disaster that was. Glued each piece to the corresponding fuselage half and its a so so fit till you put the halves together and you'll see that the nose section has a distinct lean to one side makes the plane look like a banana from above! Took it apart then glue the nose pieces together as one, glued the fuselage together around it, then fixed the nose on a straight line, now I just have to deal with the resulting gaps around the intakes, oh what joy.

[Mentalguru]

Yes this thing is driving me batty. What's really Piddling me off is most of the diffuculties arise from basic quality control problems. They obviously don't give a crap about the shoddy product they are charging you an arm and a leg for, and then the reviewers who kiss their bottom and lead fools like me to believe it'll be somewhat buildable out of the box.

Exhibit A: what was going on on this day? Hey we'll put locator pins in some places, holes in others and make sure nothing actually mates! As seen with the intakes and the corresponding parts

Exhibit B : what has the Matchbox trencher got a new job at Classic airframes? Here we see at least a 1/16th inch gap where the two parts of the tail are supposed to meet, which genius came up with this split? How about splitting the tail vertically like most kits? or molding it complete on one fuselage half? or even just giving us a completely seperate piece? Ah but now we see where the plastic that was supposed to go on the tail went, they used it to fill the holes for the wing spar!

Well we fixed the tail by shimming it with plastic strips before assembly, then came the nose Hah! DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS! I did and what a disaster that was. Glued each piece to the corresponding fuselage half and its a so so fit till you put the halves together and you'll see that the nose section has a distinct lean to one side makes the plane look like a banana from above! Took it apart then glue the nose pieces together as one, glued the fuselage together around it, then fixed the nose on a straight line, now I just have to deal with the resulting gaps around the intakes, oh what joy.

Well- what can one say, the evidence is damning and you have made your point well. I now only posess a Blenheim, and that is purely for reasons of wanting to own a Blenheim, not wanting to own a classic airframes disaster.

I am wondering if this web site is actively looking for sponsorship? The reason I ask is that I truly hope this site can remain independent, and NOT dependent on other outside resources for backing etc, as some well known and extremely popular sites have become, alas to their detriment. So that we can continue to discuss in this manner without post removal or edit.

I shake my head in dismay when I see these things flying out the door for the prices they charge for them.

[Dave]

Jesus!!

I was going to pick up their Vampire in foreign service (SAAF).

Thanks for the warnings Leigh.

[Nev]

Just remember Leigh, modelling is fun, modelling is fun......

[Leigh]

Just remember Leigh, modelling is fun, modelling is fun......

Yes it is, yes it is, but reshaping odd ill fitting vague lumps of plastic not so much fun.

Well we have a basic airframe not bad in a week for this dog. Every single bloody piece has been a struggle. Allthough after removing the ejector pin marks the size of carribean islands from the insides of the wings and struggling to get the upper and lower wings together, the wings themselve fit very very well to the upper fuselage root. The biggest problem which I'll not even attempt to fix is the dorsal joint on the fuselage, not a visible seam but a spine running along the back where the curve through the cross section isn't uniform and the pieces come to a point. Fixing it would involve sanding the whole back down into a uniform curve, and well I'll just have to live with the wierd shape.

So she's ready for paint, and a few fiddly bits, how hard can that be? Well apart from the repeat of the pin/hole discrepancy, horrendous sprue attachment points and square tail wheels should be a breeze.

Better shot of the tail wheels, this really pisses me off, c'mon how hard is it to make a round wheel?

Classic Airframes will never be seeing my money again. So I'll grab something to work from the spares drawer and maybe I'll save this for when I make a 1/72 Flinstones car.

[Leigh]

Today's challenge is decals. How to get this huge decal over the wheel well, huge cannon blisters, and onto the gear doors, another nice touch!

[Stéphane]

Humpf, Classic airframes ...

remember fighting with their Whirlwind

Excellent work so far, and I'm admirative of your patience and endurance. If it was me, the thing would have end crashed against the wall.

No, I'm selling a Wyvern, anybody interested ? What ?! you already have the Trumpy ?

Longing to see it complete

Cheers,

Stef (#6)

[Mentalguru]

Today's challenge is decals. How to get this huge decal over the wheel well, huge cannon blisters, and onto the gear doors, another nice touch!

Look Leigh- stop whining- you sound like Nigel Mansell- only kidding

Seriously- the solution is simple. Just get yourself down to the local hardware store in the morning and get yourself a wallpaper table and a roller for squeezing the bubbles out afterwards roflmao!

Possibly you could start by photocopying the decals and then cutting out patterns to shape from which u can finally cut the decal before applying?

[Leigh]

Look Leigh- stop whining- you sound like Nigel Mansell- only kidding

Alright then I will! Decals are on, printed by Microscale and they are OUTSTANDING!!!! Easily the best decals I've worked with, just perfect in every way, shame there's only about ten of them .

So it's some fiddly bits, and a light weathering and she's done. Productive day today got lots done on the Sea Fury, Spitfire and this one.

Gunze Sangyo EDSG over Testors Sky, the Grey looks a little too extra Dark to my eye but it's done now.

[Guest Cop]

I am wondering if this web site is actively looking for sponsorship? The reason I ask is that I truly hope this site can remain independent, and NOT dependent on other outside resources for backing etc, as some well known and extremely popular sites have become, alas to their detriment. So that we can continue to discuss in this manner without post removal or edit.

Our intention is to remain just that and no we are not actively looking for sponsorship. We don't mind hosting the various traders as it gives you a conduit for your wish lists etc. Review samples would be nice as we would like to expand that side of the site and mine bank account will only take so much as will the wife. Hope that clears that up for you, your site is safe in our hands.

Nige.

[Nev]

LOL Leigh, looking great - really making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

BTW, you should send this link to the The Wooksta!

[chadders]

I've just got a CA Attacker and Vampire from Hannants, and I have to be honest I'm not that impressed. However they are on special at the moment so I got both for £30, now if I can put t into context that's £15 a pop, the Airfix TSR-2 was £16 and I think we can safely say that that was on par with these CA kits, but didn't have the resin/pe in the box.

I'm from the old school of modelling so I don't mind fighting to get a kit to look right (hey I've build 5 Airfix Buccs!!), so I don't consider them to be "bad" kits, just kits in need of a little care. I mean, lets look at some of Trumpeters stuff. Every kit have something wrong with it, but we still buy them, and we still make them look good.

Ok Leigh's Attacker has caused some problems for him but in the end its a great looking build and thats the main thing.

Mark

[Leigh]

Well this one's been done a while but taking and editing pics takes forever with me so I've really not been bothered. Anyway my disdain for this model does not allow me to be objective and maybe it did come out OK but I'm really not happy with it. I consider it an unsuccessful build, it was no fun to do, not happy with the end result and the only thing I learned is not to buy Classic Airframes.

Even the pictures came out crap so my camera doesn't have a high opinion of it either.

[entlim]

Came out well considering- nice work

[Col.]

She looks fine to me Leigh, goes well with the Sea Fury in the background.

[rdxtnt]

I'm from the old school of modelling so I don't mind fighting to get a kit to look right (hey I've build 5 Airfix Buccs!!), so I don't consider them to be "bad" kits, just kits in need of a little care. I mean, lets look at some of Trumpeters stuff. Every kit have something wrong with it, but we still buy them, and we still make them look good.

I think Classic Airframes are getting some really bad press on here lately. OK the kits are overpriced for what's in the box but hey, you're not going to get these subjects anywhere else in 1:48 in the near future. As "Britmodellers" we can't really complain can we.............Meteors, Vampires, Venoms, Canberras, Attackers, Wyverns, Blenheims, Battles etc. The kits might be a little lacking in certain respects but therein lies the challenge............ nobody said it would be easy! If the quality of these kits inspire other manufacturers to have a go then so much the better for all of us. Just take a look at some of the results that have been acheived with these kits................ there are some stunners out there. Rise to the challenge!

Edited July 28, 2007 by rdxtnt

[JimInOz]

I've never seen one built Leigh, so this is a benchmark for me, I reckon it looks allright mate and I'm 17000km's away , upside down and tomorrow is already today! Cheers .Jim

[hacker]

Nice attacker. Got the old FROG kit l have to do some day ( and you said this kit need work ) This is just something appealing about early RN aircraft

Hacker

[seanrgb]

Very nice work ..

[periklis_sale]

My friend Leigh you realy transformed thiw model!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing work my friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!