lasermonkey

Humbrol No. 13 was Sky Blue, a colour that has been long discontinued (along with many others). I'm a bit of a collector of old modelling paints (I know, it's tragic!) and it's one of those I don't have. Hope this helps, Mark.

An Airfix CH-53G off eBay for just under fourteen quid posted. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Over the past few weeks I’ve bought: IBG Fw 190 D-9. I managed to get it for a good price, but I think I’ll sell it on. Too much reliance on photo etch, which is a cop-out in my book. I hate photo etch. I’ll be sticking with the Hasegawa kit. It might not be as detailed and lacks the see-through wheel well, but at least it won’t induce a murderous rage. MPM Wellington B.III. It was cheap. Academy PV-1 Ventura. I sold one not that long ago, not realising I needed one for my East Anglian aircraft project. No. 521 Sqn flew the Mk V. Anyway, I paid less for this one than I sold my old one for, so no harm done. Italeri 1/72 Su-24. Less than a tenner? Don’t mind if I do.

I bought one of the IBG D-9s recently and was dismayed at the amount of photo etched parts. I hate (and I really mean hate) etched brass for anything other than seatbelts and the reliance on it for the wheel bay in particular means I won’t be buying any more. It just seems like a cop-out to me. You’ve done a great job on the kit thus far. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to, so will likely sell my kit on. Cheers, Mark.

So they have spare money to give away freebies, but not enough to pay the contributors they’ve ripped off over the past couple of years? Riiiiiiiight. Cynical? Moi?

I was at the nearby nature reserve yesterday and as we drove past the airfield, a pair of F-35s lined up at the end of the runway and took off. Talk about perfect timing! The word "loud" somehow doesn't adequately convey the racket they make. They also seemed to accelerate away noticeably. I wasn't aware that this was a feature of the aircraft, but the F-15s looked sedate in comparison. Talking of F-15s, there were a lot of them. According to someone over at Fighter Control, yesterday was the busiest he'd seen Lakenheath since the F-111s were there. I knew it was going to be a busy day, as there were loads of cars parked along the main road and guys blindly running across the road, fumbling with their cameras. I'll guess that the rozzers will have moved them on soon enough. Despite the nature reserve being somewhat quiet nature-wise (we did see a nice, tight three-ship of common cranes though), the 48th provided me with lots of distraction that day. Anyway, I really enjoyed your photos. Very atmospheric! Cheers, Mark.

Sorry, having a bad day. Just ignore me.

Personally, I don’t think that Tamiya’s Dora was one of their finer moments. Apart from the spinner and (IIRC) prop being misshapen- it just looks wrong if you don’t replace them, the wheels are undersized, affecting the stance. It also looks, for want of a better word, clunky next to the Hasegawa kit. That’s been my favourite so far, despite it being very basic. Occasionally you can pick one up for a reasonable price (I have 22 of them, so it can be done) but I wouldn’t pay what some people are asking for it. The Academy kit is *ahem* inspired by the Hasegawa kit, though with several errors added. From memory, the elevator trim tabs are missing, as are the fuselage strengthening plates. The large, “rounded square” access panel on the fuselage underside is the wrong shape (I want to say it’s a circle on the Academy kit, but it’s been a good few years since I last built one) and IIRC the pitot tube is on the wrong wing. I think there’s a small nose intake missing too. Another thing to watch out for is that the canopy and windscreen parts are attached to the runners in such a way that it’s almost impossible to remove them without an ugly blemish. The good news is that the Hasegawa parts (and aftermarket replacements) fit perfectly. It can be had for cheap though, so if you can ignore or rectify the issues, it might be worth considering. Now I have a cheapish IBG kit incoming, I’m tempted to take an imprint of the assembled engine and magazines to use on other kits. It’s always bothered me that all the other kits thus far have ignored the see through area in the wheel wells, though not enough to do anything about it! Cheers, Mark.

PSA: Jadlam are selling the D-9 for £15.99 posted on eBay right now. Just a few left at that price. I just bought one. It’s about as much as I would pay for a single-engined WW2 fighter, but I really like the Dora and didn’t think I was ever likely to get one of these kits otherwise. Cheers, Mark.

Just to let you know that Jadlam are knocking the new IBG D-9 out on eBay at £15.99 posted at the moment. I just bought one. Even *I* can’t complain at that price!

Please could we not get bogged down on the B-word. I know it engenders strong feelings. I'd just rather the thread not get locked down over it, as it has been otherwise mostly respectful and constructive. ...aaaaaand breathe! @wellspropI ditched Facebook last month, as I was finding it quite toxic, along with many other forms of social media. I'd had a look around the marketplace, but never found anything of interest and what I did find was overpriced. Britmodeller is the only form of social media I still engage in and I was having a break from here as well. I shall likely continue to have a break once this thread has died down. Regarding paints, etc, I do buy in bulk but as I mentioned, it does wipe out my budget for the month. I also find that I never seem to run out of the most used colours at the same time, no matter how hard I try! Sod's law, I guess. As a colours and markings buff, having the correct colour is very important to me, or at least having the range of tones a given colour could realistically expect to be. As I said before, if it doesn't look right from three feet away, there's no coming back from that for me. It's also common for my chosen brand of paint to be out of stock of some of the colours I need. This isn't a dig, by the way, as I completely understand why. It just makes it harder to make up the 12 item order to get the postage cost down, so I buy less frequently than I otherwise would, leaving projects on hold for the interim. As someone who isn't a natural completer, I don't really need enabling! Anyway, if things go as planned, there will be an impending house move which should see my well-being improved in many ways (with a detached house, more isolated and closer to nature) but will likely mean no modelling budget whatsoever. It's a slightly scary prospect, it has to be said. Cheers, Mark.

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to reply. I honestly didn't expect that this would run to three pages. I'll try to answer some of the questions raised. Modelling to me isn't just building a kit. Any kit. My return to model making in the 1990s after a fairly long hiatus was prompted by reading a book on local aviation history, and that still feeds the bulk of my modelling interests. I also only build 1/72. I know there are other scales, but I just can't do them. The bit of me that is "on the spectrum*" cannot entertain the thought of mixing scales. A tiny bit of me is envious of those who have a purer love of the hobby and just enjoy building whatever kit they fancy, but it is a very small bit! I know there are bargains to be had, even with my self-imposed restrictions, but I'm really limited to eBay. There are no nearby model shops any more and I don't have the transport to attend model shows. There was a time that I used to stock up on kits at airshows, but I if I went to an airshow now, I'd have nothing left to buy kits with! So, with eBay being pretty much the only option available, I spend at least two hours every day (really) going through all my searches. Bargains don't hang around long and you have to spot them before anyone else. You also have to have the money at the time. The global pandemic has brought many more people back into the fold, but this presents problems for the modeller on a budget. It has pushed prices up. With demand being higher than usual, prices have risen accordingly and people are paying considerably more for older and often poor kits than you might realise. Airfix Stirlings, for instance, are going for £30 and up! Now, I did get one recently for £12 all-in, but that was a fluke and may have been down to a less than confident description. Want a Revell Halifax? Good luck! Even the Matchbox ones are expensive. How long this will last, I don't know, but right now, it has very much impacted what's available to me. I'm not necessarily after the latest and greatest kit. Serviceable is good enough for me. If it's accurate in outline and not too much of a pig to put together, it'll do. I know for some, detail is everything, but I'd choose a better shape than a tricked-out wheel well any day of the week, if it came to it. I'm of the approach that if it doesn't look right from three feet away, there's no redemption. I'm not one for aftermarket goodies either, apart from decals and canopy masks, unless it's a conversion set for an otherwise unobtainable version. With prices for resin aftermarket (understandably) being comparatively high, it's not something I buy unless I'm really lucky. I build to themes which are part of a collection. I wouldn't build a kit that wasn't going into that collection, so selling it once complete isn't really an option. And being a starter and not a finisher doesn't help matters! I'm sure it would be fine if all I wanted to do was feed a building habit, but it's rather more complicated than that. You might think that I'm my own worst enemy, but if you are on the autistic side, there are things you have to put up with and frustrating traits that you can't get over. It is what it is. I am aware of how infuriating I can be to my nearest and dearest. Most of what I buy now is second-hand, apart from Airfix Spitfires and Eduard MiG-21s**. But I'd soon get bored if that's all I did, and I absolutely love Spitfires. The price of Arma kits (for example) is creeping up and I suspect that even the junior boxing of the P-51B will be more than I can justify. With there being nothing in the way of local shops, postage has to be factored in and this can make many kits prohibitively expensive. Same with paints and glue. Sometimes my month's modelling budget has to go solely on a small parcel of paints. It may seem daft, but running out of a tin of black paint is horrifying these days, because the cost of buying a single tin is ridiculous. There's just nowhere local I can get them. I'll finish by going back to my original point, and something brought up by @Jonners: what can we do about it? Probably not a lot. About the only thing I do have left is my voice. In my experience, things never got better by keeping quiet about it. Things do change if enough people shout. It might be annoying to those unaffected, but they may well end up benefiting in the long run. And as we have been told that several manufacturers do read the threads on Britmodeller, it's not just whistling into the wind. Maybe. Hopefully. Cheers, Mark. *not just a light-hearted excuse. **the Eduard 1/72 MiG-21s really do represent extraordinary value for money and IMHO, set the benchmark for quality vs price in 1/72. Shame that Eduard seem to have given up on the scale, as they could so easily be the leaders in it.

Firstly, I'd like to acknowledge that this is probably a tricky and uncomfortable topic, but it's one that I think needs to be discussed. I have seen several comments where people have been complaining of others "whining about prices" and my first thought was that it must be a nice problem to have. If you think that's frustrating, imagine what it's like when nearly all of the new kit releases are out of your reach due to the ever-rising prices. Then imagine that the main factor about whether or not you can continue with the hobby is deemed too annoying for discussion. I know I "don't have to buy the kit", that's missing the point entirely. I'd like to be able to buy the kit. It's a bleak prospect when your lifelong hobby, one that helps alleviate stress and low mood, prices you out of it. We are in the age of the £20+ single-engined WW2 aircraft. I get that for many of you, £20 is shrapnel and, honestly, I'm happy for you. But please try to be a little more understanding of those a little less fortunate because, trust me, when the "there but for the grace of God" happens to you, you won't be ready for it. Even second-hand kit prices have skyrocketed. Not just on eBay but everywhere. Anyway, I've taken up enough of your time. Take care and all the best, Mark.

Just thought I'd do a "hit and run" post, as I haven't been logged in for a while. Anyway, and I bet you saw this coming a mile, I think this is an utterly dismal year from Airfix. A single new 1/72 kit is bad enough, but those price rises mean I'm out. IMO, Airfix are charging premium prices for a so-so product. They just make too many schoolboy errors and struggle to match the finesse of thirty-year old kits so don't represent anything like good value for money in my book. £24 for that Meteor is insane. And to anyone who is tempted to say. "Well, no one is making you buy it!" I'll just pop in a "No, but they are making me not buy it!" 2022 has brought the depressing reality that I am stuck with scouring eBay for the few second-hand bargains amongst the overpriced tat. I'm trying to be happy for the rest of you, but it's not easy. Take care and see you in a few more months, Mark.

Over the years, I’ve bought over five hundred Airfix kits and in my experience, the quality has got worse over the past ten years or so. The most common complaint is unsightly swirl marks in the transparent parts ( which I never had in the past), closely followed by short-shots. The case of the undersized B-17 tail turret in some kits but not others is most peculiar. Airfix once had the best customer care I have experienced. Nowadays they don’t seem to want to accept responsibility. It’s not exactly encouraging.

See, I could do that, in the context of a squadron history, for example. As long as it makes sense in my mind, I'm fine with it!

I can't speak for others, but for me, if it doesn't exist in 1/72, it may as well not exist at all. It might be because I'm "on the spectrum", but I can't bear the thought of not having things in a constant scale. By putting a 1/48 Spitfire next to a 1/72 Stirling, say, you just don't get to experience the sheer difference in size. That's a big part of sticking to a single scale, and I think it shouldn't be dismissed lightly by those who are only interested in the subject. I kinda get that for some, simply having the subject available is enough, but at the same time if I see models of dissimilar scales displayed together, every cell in my body cringes. I do try to be respectful of other opinions, even though my brain is hardwired to be horrified by them! I've bought quite a few cottage industry, limited run and resin kits of obscure types over the years. I don't enjoy the process of building resin kits, if I'm honest. There's something very comforting about working with polystyrene. It's soft enough to abrade, resilient enough to withstand handling, generally not too brittle (don't think you've got away with it, Airfix!) and, most importantly, incredibly forgiving to glue together. With resin kits, you have the choice of epoxy or cyanoacrylate adhesives. Cyano generally doesn't give you much wiggle room for positioning the parts (which my increasingly unsteady hands need) , whilst epoxy means holding the parts together for a fair amount of time, not always a straightforward task. They also tend to be expensive. I fully understand why, but it still places them out of reach for me these days. Most of my limited run kits are from the likes of Aeroclub (especially for inter-war aircraft), Pavla, KP, MPM, et al. I think I have three Pavla Messengers in the stash, with one at the painting stage. Not the easiest kit in the world to build, but I'm glad it exists and equally glad that companies like these often choose the path less travelled. For the most part, I think they offer a good balance of subject and price (something that's very important to me these days). I don't expect precision engineering from these smaller companies and for the most part, I don't enjoy kits that are too easy anyway. I like to feel like I have put something of myself into a build. Cheers, Mark.

I was aware of that, but they're almost impossible to find, hellishly expensive when they do pop up, and I simply don't enjoy doing vacforms. Plus it's Contrail. May as well scratch one!

One that I’m absolutely certain hasn’t been kitted before in any form is the Southern Martlet. I’d love to see it in 1/72.

There was an old Aeromaster sheet that had Princess Elizabeth on it. I have the sheet, though I already used the decals you’re after.

I’m going to need a few of these for my East Anglian Aviation in WWII project. I just need to find some photos of Battles from Nos. 35, 51, 63, 103, 150 & 226 squadrons during the short period that qualifies. No luck so far…

1/72 Vickers Warwick.

It would be a shame if the “cigar” drop tank wasn’t included, seeing as it was relatively common on Doras and no one else has kitted it before.

I think I would need to see the contents before making a decision, though given the current public health situation, that's unlikely to be any time soon.

Thanks @Dave Swindell, that's very useful. I was rather looking forward to this, but not sure I'll go ahead now. Not using the correct nomenclature seems to me to completely defeat the point of the articles and is, IMO, an unfortunate and retrograde step.