jeff1200

Thanks for your kind comments, I might try the Artists Gesso idea: still got 8 figures in the box. I must say I am pleasantly surprised that anybody bothered to reply. Thanks again. Jeff

British Paratroops Airfix 1:32 scale This is more of an experiment with painting soft plastic than a serious attempt at figures. I picked out 6 different poses from the pack of 14 figures. Cleaned them with detergent (office label remover) Filled in the dimples in the backs and filled and smoothed the moulding join line. Painted with acrylic paints. Comments on the Kit: Advantages, one-piece Disadvantages, not poseable, limitations of moulding mean some of the limbs are joined to the body where in reality there would be a gap. Sten gun muzzles are very fragile. As expected, even after cleaning there are adhesion problems with the paint, although 2 or three coats seem to work.

I can almost hear the "turbines to speed" (or was it power?) on that Batmobile! Great work.

vostok 1 Gagarin on launch pad at Baikonur, Mountford scale 1:1200 The photos include that unit of measurement of miniatures: a one pound coin. The kit is multi-media with a one-piece resin pad and terrain and several white metal parts for the rocket and gantry. I added a photo-etch "ligting tower" as seen in the few images available on Google. Most of the colour images from Baikonur are of more recent Soyuz or NASA cargo launches, with different colours and orientation of the gantries. All agree on a non-descript concrete/rust/sand colour for the terrain. My painting skills are not really up to the challenge, I tried washing thin greys and sands but in the end the colours come out too bright and sharp edged. Advantages Doesn't take up much space! Conclusion A nice little thing.

Thanks for letting me know that my Romulans are inverted! Oops! I don't suppose that in space it makes too much difference.... Thanks also for the image of the original AMT kits. As you say the Round2 re-issue is changed. The Airfix multiple stand would be a better solution. I'm afraid that as a kit looks more and more complete I tend to speed up and just grab at anything to "finish it off", I will have to learn patience. (But I am Homer Simpson's alter-ego after all!)

amt 763 star trek cadet the original series 3 ships scale 1:2500 The 3 ships comprise: USS Enterprise, Romulan bird of prey, Klingon D7 battle cruiser Scale The photos include that unit of measurement of miniatures: a one pound coin. Is there a "bottom" in space? anyway here is the underside view: Comments on the Kit: Cute little models. Comprehensive decals are included. Display stand(s) are NOT included. Problems Poor fit: the tightness of the "snap-fit" parts is very variable. The Enterprise pods were sloppy and very difficult to align, the "V" shaped support was a very poor fit and needed lots of filler. The Klingon upper wing surface needed so much force to "snap" it into position that I popped the seams on the "neck" of the ship. The decals "grabbed" and needed lots of micro-set to allow them to be manouvred into position. Some of them were slightly too large for the surfaces and needed to be trimmed to fit. My Build notes This is my first sci-fi kit and I (foolishly) rushed into the build. With the benefit of hindsight I should have test fit and measured everything and carefully worked out how to locate the parts and how to align them. In most cases I think it would be best to drill out the locating holes and glue the parts rather than "snap-fitting". The Enterprise pods are not properly aligned, do do so would have required me to trim the mating surfaces of the left pod and the "V" strut more than I did. I didn't follow the painting instructions exactly, in the case of the Klingon ship I used part join lines as my painting demarcation lines, rather than masking off as directed (so sue me!). Stands I bought a set of clear Airfix stands and bodged up little "Y" shaped holders on top to support the craft. Conclusion With care this can build to a nice model. If I could figure out how to do it a "tree" stand supporting all three models in formation would be nice. (However I seem to be in a junior league compared to most of the posts on this site, some sort of levitation device would be better?)

Thanks guys, Glad that the colour seems to be acceptable. As for donut sprinkles I might have to do a taste test on a real one or two to get an accurate colour sample!

F/A-18 Hornet Mackit 1:100 scale Here's a wacky idea: a metal die-cast with plastic appendages sold as an unpainted kit. I bought this kit on special in 2004. Plus points: The completed model has the "heft" of a die-cast. The decal sheet includes options for US, Swiss and Australian aircraft. Plenty of plastic underwing stores are included, but no instructions as to which are appropriate for which nationality. Negative points: Stand model: no undercarriage is provided, nor are gear doors even marked on the fuselage. Parts fit is not good. In the absence of a grinding or milling machine removing imperfections from the metal fuselage and wings is extremely difficult. The underside of the tailpane has the copyright information in raised letters, which I think detracts from a scale model. My build notes The assembly of this kit dragged on for years, I eventually decided to just finish it off, with most of the imperfections as they are. I made a mistake in the decal application and thus not all of the kangaroo markings face the nose of the plane.

Homer Simpson Heller 79500 no scale stated Background The assembled model is 175mm tall, which would give a scale of 1:10 if Homer is "really" 5ft 9inches in his shoes. Apparently Heller aquired the moulds of a vac-formed Homer and turned it into an injection moulded kit. Comments on the Kit: Advantages, a rarely seen injection moulded kit of a popular TV cartoon character. Disadvantages Poor fit: the vac-form heritage shows in very thin plastic parts with lots of gaps. The moulded recesses for the strands of "hair" are very shallow and do not seem to match the parts. Ditto the eye sockets. The hand grasping the beer can does not have any surface that it can be located on. The decals are slightly too small for the beer can. My Build notes This is my first figure kit and I (foolishly) rushed into the build. With the benefit of hindsight I should have test fit and measured everything and carefully worked out how to locate the parts and how to hold them while painting. I used Micro-Sol to apply the decals and this worked very well. Conclusion With care this can build to a nice model. Further remarks I filled the gaps in the body halves by applying filler from inside using a long stick. The gaps in the head and arms were filled from the outside. If I were to do this again I would make a plasticard inner overlap for the joins and then fill from the outside. I would cut the ends off the head and arms so that the inside would be accessible after the halves were glued. This would also allow a clamp to be used to hold the parts for painting. I would make a little pin on the right hand to locate the beer can. I would paint the can silver overall before applying the decals, then any gaps would appear silver and not need touching in after the decals were applied. I would also try to mix a rather brighter "banana" yellow colour.

I visited Modelzone Portsmouth today. Kits are 20% off and Paints and tools 30% off. Apparently that shop is going to be open for at least a week. As it happens I don't need an airbrush or a compressor, but if I did I would be tempted by such savings, if a problem developed there would presumably be a UK agent to provifr support. Kits: Airfix and Revell are well represented, also some Dragon and Round2 (AMT/MPC/Moebius). I was tempted by a "Jules Verne Nautilus" but the £40 pricetag with discount was still outside my price range. My own feeling is that Portsmouth was probably part of the "over-reaching" problem and it may well not be saved in any buyout. As it happens there are a few independent model shops along the South Coast and so the demise of Modelzone would not be a total disaster for modellers in the region. Indeed they might be hoping that that will happen? It will be interesting to see how it turns out. Jeff

UDT 35 scale Revell the Revell kit has a long pedigree being first released by Monogram in 1959. In those days it came in multi- coloured plastic and was clearly more of a toy than an accurate model (the hull and frogmen will float). The most recent re-release in 2012 did not seem to sell well in the UK and kits can still be found, often at discount prices. Plus points: The kit is as much a set of figures with a boat as a boat with crew figures. Negative points: The fit of parts is not good. There are a lot of sink marks. The figures are not poseable. The facemasks of the frogmen are not flat. I regret not having made flat inserts to simulate the appearance of flat glass. A lot of the detail is crude and reveals the age of the kit. Conclusions: I remember this was a nice toy in the early 60's.

Harbour Tug 108 scale Revell the Revell kit has a long pedigree being first released with the name "Long Beach" in 1956. It is often seen in toy and hobby shops, so it must keep being re-issued. Mine was produced in 2001 and had a little flash and some sink marks but nothing too bad. Plus points: The kit is moulded in bright red plastic and would make a colourful toy/model with no, or little painting. The crew figures are a nice touch. Negative points: The fit of parts is not too good. The red plastic makes painting a chore, especially light colours. Although the instructions show rigging for the masts there are no obvious locations for this to be secured to the deck. Ditto for the lifeboat: the provided hook in the lifeboat is far too small to allow realistic sized thread to be fed through. The provided fenders don't really look like rope. There are a lot of sink marks, those on the bulwarks are highly visible and would be very difficult to smooth out. What I did to make the build even more difficult: Cut the hull at the waterline, I prefer waterline models, but there is no doubt this is a lot of work, expecially on a rounded hull. Put glazing in. Put baffles inside the superstructure to prevent "seeing right through". Cut the moulded ropes off the deck. I did not think ahead and drill out holes or hooks large enough for "proper" rigging thread. Doubts about the accuracy: I am not an expert, nor have a I spent a lot of time researching the subject. However the tug looks characteristically American and I am very doubtful that the supplied decals "Lucky XI of London" are correct. So I left them off. I have done a search on the Miramar ships database and not found this name. The colour scheme is similar to an American firm that used and still uses girl names for its tugs. The configuration of the lifeboat, jutting over the narrow deck walkway looks very odd, even for a ship clearly built before "health and safety". Conclusions: I suppose, with a bit of research it would be possible to confirm the accuracy or otherwise of the ship and modify the kit accordingly. With the benefit of hindsight I would build it out of the box as a colourful model of "A Tug" and leave it at that.

I think this kit is good value for money. There are enough planes included that one can "fold" most of them and still have a busy looking deck. Before Modelzone went bust you could get an extra set of planes for £5.

Revell USS Nimitz photo with the supplied aircraft: all have wings and rotors extended, which makes for a crowded deck. With a bit of work cutting and glueing, the same number of aircraft can be depicted folded. The difficulties I had with the kit were the superstructure, that seems to need several hands to hold it together while the glue sets. The decals, the instructions say to use decal setting solution. Humbrol Decalfix did not do a great job and I had to use white glue to stick down one or two that lifted. And there was the self-imposed problem of cutting the bottom off the hull, but I prefer waterline models.

In response to Foxy's comment made about Deacon's Matilda Hedgehog here is my photo of a 1:100 scale model of a Matilda with add-on protection in the form of idler guards and steel mesh engine deck. The best reference I am aware of is a book: Paul Handel, Dust Sand and Jungle, RAAC Tank Museum 2003 Neither model is of great interest of itself. For your information: On the left of the photo is a quality castings metal kit of the 3" howitzer armed tank, unmodified. On the right is a battlefront resin and metal kit of the 2pdr armed tank with my add -ons.

M4 Sherman Firefly Mk1C 1:100 Battlefront resin and metal kit Finished model in conjectural NZ (Italy) tactical markings Parts for a simlar kit Bubblepack for a simlar kit Brief hisorical notes The Tank: The Firefly adaptation of the Sherman tank to take a 17pdr gun is quite famous and I have no doubt a web search will find plenty of information about it. Suffice it to say that towards the end of the war the M4A4 hull was no longer being produced and hulls like the M4 Hybrid, that is a M4 hull with radial engine and a cast front plate, were used instead. The New Zealand army was one of the smaller of the Allied forces. The advantage to me, as a modelling subject, is their Armoured Division used a wide variety of different types of vehicles. Brief modelling notes Battlefront individual kits come in a blister pack. The Sherman is typical: a resin hull and separate turret, separate metal track units, gun barrel, hatches and (sometimes) a crew figure and machine gun. I measured the hull at 57mm long, which gives a scale of about 1:100. I did not measure other dimensions but the kit looks reasonably well proportioned to me. Construction: I washed all the parts in dishwashing liquid and left them to dry. “Flames of War” seem to imply that everything can just be glued together with superglue. No doubt this is fine for wargaming, but I prefer to trim and fit the parts so that they are correctly aligned. In the case of the Sherman the hull needs to be built out a few millimetres with filler so that the track units are parallel and vertical to the ground. I also checked the parts for flaws, and filled in any small defects found. I painted the track units, working a very dark grey into the recessed detail with a brush. Then I painted the suspension units and wheels green and the tracks themselves a mixture of dirty brown and rusty brown colours. I made small applique armour pieces for the turret front, all photos of Fireflys I have seen have extra armour on the turret. I used thin plastic card curved round a pencil to fit the turret and trimmed with scissors. The rest of the parts, gun barrel with mantlet, two hatches were trimmed, lightly sanded, test-fitted and then glued on. Any remaining gaps and imperfections were filled and sanded smooth. Painting and Markings: By the late war period, in Italy, the New Zealand Army colours were overall green. Since the Mk IC Firefly tanks would have been brand new, I assume they would have been painted as per regulations. The underside of the muzzle end of the barrel was roughly painted white, as seen in photos. I painted on small patches of gloss varnish front and rear and on the turret sides. After that had dried I applied decals: square divisional markings and a circle squadron marking on the turret sides.The decals were obtained from “I-94” who market a range of “15mm” and other wargame scale decals. They were not particularly good: they broke up easily and the circles were out of register, on the other hand they are probably better than hand painting. I overpainted the decals with matt varnish and touched up the damage with green paint. Going back over my references I realised that although I had plenty of photos of Fireflys I had none of the Mk IC. Close reading of the text suggests that they may have been withdrawn before they were fully issued, so any markings are pure conjecture. Most of the photos I have show the Italian campaign to have either been muddy or dusty. I thought this would be a good excuse to dirty this model up. I put a dash of brown in a bottle of matt “Gunze Base Coat” varnish, thinned it right down with water, and then thinned it some more and daubed this over the tank with a big brush. I worked the colour into the crevices, around the tools and fittings on the tank, but used the brush to stop it puddling on the flat areas of the tank. I daubed it in the lower hull sides and suspension. Background (you might want to skip this waffle) A few years ago I came across 15mm or 1/100 scale wargame figures and vehicles and was impressed by the enormous range of different armies represented to constant scale, and by the small size and resulting ease of storage. I now realise that I should have investigated 1/72 plastic kits before plunging in and building up my minature army. The Manufacturer: Battlefront are made in New Zealand. The kits are marketed as part of a comprehensive set of wargame rules called “Flames of War”. They have a good website http://www.flamesofwar.com/ primarily encouraging people to play the wargames, but also showing how to make the kits and build and photograph dioramas. The kits are/ were sold in two forms: in army packs or individually. Since I am not a gamer I prefer to buy different individual kits. Three or four years ago these kits were stocked in the UK by the Hobbycraft chain of “craft shops” quite reasonably priced. IN 2012 they can still be found in specialist wargame shops and online. The Kit: The hull is finely detailed, no pin-holes or bubbles, equipment like tools and stores are moulded into the hull. These are quite simple models, but more detailed than many “wargame types”. The idea of the track units saves a lot of fiddly building of suspension and wheels, but the downside is that painting is difficult: almost inevitably track and wheel colours are going to get on the “wrong” bits. Conclusion: A simple and enjoyable build. For a collector 1/100 scale is a reasonable compromise between detail and storage space requirements. Battlefront make a wide range of kits, including variants of the major WW2 combat vehicles, avoiding the need for the modeller to convert kits. However Zvezda have released a line of 1/100 scale plastic kits whcih potentially offer much greater opportunities for modelling and conversions. References: Plowman J and M Thomas, Kiwi Armour 1: 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade in Italy, 2000, published by J Plowman, ISBN 0-473-06534-7

Very Nice, there is a lot to be said for 1/76 pity I've got hundreds of 1/100 in the stash.

Maybe I approached this kit in the wrong way, I see from reviews of star wars prepainted kits that one should perhaps just look at these kits as a start point, and be prepared to re-paint them, however in this case I suspect that one would have to mask off the airliner markings unless there is a source of 1:200 scale decals suitable for Concorde?

Thanks for that info Jeff

Matilda 2 British Tank Zvezda 1:100 price £2.99 No doubt these kits are aimed at wargamers. They are snap-fit with moulded in detail. A wargame movement card is enclosed, and no decals. Completed Model Box Art Parts trimmed off sprue I am a bit wary of "snap kits" because I like to test fit parts, which might not be able to be undone. In this case the parts fit together quite well but in most cases could easily be unfitted. I found the gun mantlet clipped on tight, but left a narrow gap and had to be levered off and then the parts trimmed for a tighter fit. The track assemblies have a narrow gap all the way round the top edge and I decided the best solution was to fill it with Milliput. I then found the turret seemed to sit very high, I trimmed some plastic off the rear extremity of the turret, and off the bottom of the mantlet. Once happy with the fit I painted the whole tank a light stone colour, with grey tracks. As far as I can tell from my few reference sources some desert tanks were very plain indeed. I did not want to try the more complex schemes of blue, black and stone colours, mainly due to my limited painting skills. To brighten the tank up as much as anything I applied a "fin flash" red white and blue decal on each side. (Please don't call the accuracy police!) appearance/accuracy The kit is the correct length for 1:100 scale, and once the sit of the turret was improved the proportions of height and width look ok to me. The quailty of the moulding is first rate, the gun barrel is nice and thin, the complex mantlet, rear deck and side details are all well represented. further remarks Apparently the box art "sand and spinach" colour scheme is documented, but I find the white markings implausible.

HMS Cossack 1:1200 Airfix and Eaglewall the Airfix kit is currently available as part of the "Sink the Bismarck" set, price £19.99 There is a Britmodeller review of the Sink the Bismarck set, which shows all the sprues. Cossack is probably the weakest model in the set. The comparison photo shows at the front the Eaglewall model, which has some of the lean look of a destroyer. It also includes a rear mast. In the middle is Cossack, out of the box, except about a millimetre has been shaved off the bottom. At the back is the Cossack hull, as supplied, which is far too tall for a realistic waterline appearance. Plus points: the length of the kit is correct for 1200 scale. The main gun barrels are extremely thin and have the correct scale appearance. The above remarks are not to detract from the Airfix set as a whole, just a caution that it might be best to start the build with one of the other ships!

snap kits want a cheap quick and easy build for Xmas? want to give a kit to a child with minimal risk of tears? want to share a build with a child and don't want to cry yourself? Concorde 1:200 Revell "Easy Kit" (pre-painted parts) catalog 6642 £12.99 out of the box Although you probably could tear the parts off the sprues, a sharp modelling knife or cutters is recommended. Hardly any flash was seen on my example. Most of the parts do snap together, but not so tightly that they cannot be prised apart. Problem areas were: after cutting the parts some paint was still "wet" and got on my fingers and thence got smeared where it shouldn't be. The fuselage halves really need glue: there are too few pins along that length for it to grip together properly. The undercarriage, for a wheels down model, needed either a sharp knife to reduce the size of the locating pins or a drill to ream out the holes to fit the pins into, the nosewheel was not a "snap fit" at all. Parts are included for a "in flight" model and they fitted correctly with minimal effort. options and mods Filler: the provided nose and tailcones need filler to smooth them in. Painting: I put a dot of black paint in the front of each engine, rather than leaving a big white square as supplied. I touched in the filled areas and one or two places where the sprues had been trimmed away with acrylic gloss white, this adhered over the pre-paint satisfactorily. I drilled a hole in the fuselage bottom as near to the point of balance as possible (avoiding the undercarriage doors) and inserted an acrylic rod which was then glued to a stand base. appearance/accuracy Concorde just has to be one of the coolest looking planes ever, so I am biased! The length of the kit is correct for a 1/200 scale Concorde. The rest of it looks in proportion to my eyes. The pre-painted markings look very good. further remarks 1/200 scale is a good size for an airliner model: there are quite a few kits by other manufacturers to this scale. The Revell Concorde fails to live up the the "easy kit" name. Wheels down requires access to modelling tools. Wheels up: no stand is provided.

snap kits want a cheap quick and easy build for Xmas? want to give a kit to a child with minimal risk of tears? want to share a build with a child and don't want to cry yourself? Zvezda 1:100 BT-5 Russian Tank Catalog 6129 Typical price £2.99 out of the box Although you probably could tear the parts off the sprues, the tracks in particular would be likely to be damaged. A sharp modelling knife or cutters is recommended. No flash was seen on my example. The parts do indeed snap together, but not so tightly that they cannot be prised apart. There is no real need for paint, the plastic is a suitable dark green colour. options and mods Painting: if you do want to paint the kit, give it a good scrub in washing-up liquid first, even so I found that acrylic paint would be repelled from some spots and crevices on the kit. No decals are included. As far as I can tell this is reasonably accurate, however I found a couple of small red stars and applied them to either side of the turret for a little bit of "interest". appearance/accuracy The length of the kit is correct for a 1/100 scale BT-5. The rest of it looks in proportion to my eyes. The antenna illustrated on the box front is not included. Bearing in mind the price and the small scale I think that it looks very good. The only concern is the tracks are quite flimsy and rough handling can easily bend them, which does not look right. further remarks No doubt these kits are aimed at wargamers. They are snap-fit with moulded in detail. A wargame movement card is enclosed, and no decals. The AFVs in the series are to a consistent 1/100 scale, but do be aware that the figures and guns are to 1/72 and aircraft are 1/144 and 1/200. I guess that they brilliantly meet the requirements of wargamers. I am a bit wary of "snap kits" because I like to test fit parts, which you might not be able to undo. In this case the parts fitted together quite well but in most cases could easily be unfitted. Glue helped to ensure good tight joins, that hardly required any further clean-up.