Slywolff

Well since last we met! I've got quite a bit done, with luck this will be finished by the end of this week! For the Sea Grey I used a Model Masters enamel bottle (almost said tin) 1720, which I read somewhere was a perfect match for a Dauntless pulled out of Lake Michigan, well it does look good as a colour match but these machines were so worn and weathered I'm not sure it matters too much! The upper surface pre shading did not go as well as I had hopped, but I am still learning so... Masking tape and Silly Putty did the job.. On to the Falcon Canopy for the Dauntless kit, this vacform canopy set is designed for the Airfix kit, mind you the Airfix canopy parts are unusable.. and I don't feel the Hasegawa ones need replacing at all! I have also attached the resin replacement wheels and attached the kit u/c doors. The gunners canopy I think should have been two parts on its own... you can see what I mean by the photos: Next, I have to paint the holes of the dive brakes red.. all two hundred plus of the.... pardon me if I don't rush that process!!!! Just found these which I'll quickly include.. older progress shots: The canopies after separation... I recently bought one of these multiple kit parts holders and it is so dead useful!! Wish I had obtained one before now..

Hello... A pleasant Monday Queens Birthday weekend public holiday here in Sydney, a chance to do some gardening and modelling. In the past I never bother to undercoat any of the kits I build as getting all the airbrush stuff together seems like too much effort, however having discovered (thanks to others) that a Tamiya rattle can will do the trick with little effort I am a convert, well while I have Tamiya Primer in my possession! So with this project I did undercoat the model and it worked bloody brilliantly... hm something went wrong then 🙂 Next I did a pre-shade of the underneath of the aircraft using Revell Black enamel, just brush painted on... This afternoon I sprayed the Grey underneath as per the Airfix kit instructions, using Humbrol 129... I just wanted to put enough paint on to give a faded sense of pre-shading that is not to have it too glaring.. just soft enough.. I think it looks okay, any thoughts?? I think though, next time I shall paint a thinner pre-shaded line... On to the photos:

Thank you! She now has her legs, Airfix seems to have got the angle of the legs right!!

Dora Wings have one in the pipeline see: https://www.hannants.co.uk/manufacturer/dora-wings/products?per_page=50&sort=price&search_direction=asc Some photos of a friends effort on the same kit:

Good moaning, This project was a gift from a fellow BM member on one of our Plonk and Plastic gatherings, the vintage Airfix Dauntless was just the parts along with an extra Hasegawa Dauntless sprue and decals that were in one of his Hasegawa Dauntless kits!! I'm replacing the Airfix engine, cockpit interior, canopy, tailhook and some smaller items with Hasegawa parts, which go without saying are far superior to the 1967Airfix offering! The hardest part to replace was the engine, as the Airfix cowling is quite thick and needed the wall thinned drastically! The cockpit interior went a lot easier and only required minor alterations! So far I have drilled out all the dive brake holes (200+), attached the wings to the assembled fuselage and fixed on the cowling.... Airfix left off the exhausts on the cowls, I'm using replacement aftermarket resin parts, and they left off the covers to the two forward-firing machine guns which I replicated with Milliput! They also left out the recessed bomb area, easy to replicate... Here are photos of where I am up to right now: BTW I am leaving the Airfix rivets on as they add to the aircraft demure....oh as to why I am not building the superior Hasegawa kit, well they are bloody hard to get hold of and go for a lot of money on E-bay ... missed out on two so far but am still looking!! 🙂 Typical of that vintage the wheel wells are open and show the bottom of the cockpit floor... so I filled these in with card under the cockpit and thin plastic card around the wheel wells, quite easy really: Drilled the holes to locate the missing exhaust stubs;

Hello, Over the last couple of years, I have been building the Airfix airfield vehicles plus some from a couple of other manufacturers, I felt the vehicles needed figures to compliment the airfield scene so I rummaged through my garage and found the old biscuit box packed with bags and bags of old Airfix soft plastic figures! Dug out the Airfix RAF WWII Personnel and chose some suitable lads and lasses to paint. Someone told me that dipping them in Future helped protect against the paint peeling off too easily, due to the nature of the soft plastic they are made from. This seems to work quite well, so far! I also sprayed them with Tamiya primer and that helped the paint adhere to the figures. The sculpturing of these figures is just superb the level of detail is just perfect, mind you they are time-consuming to paint and leaning over the desk to paint them for long periods means a trip to the chiropractor after a while. I used enamel paints, all Humbrol colours. I also assembled and painted the trolley actuator... again soft plastic, I used a mixture of super glue, PVA and liquid putty to bond the pieces together... it is a very wobbly set and that handle is easily flexed and voila there goes the paint!!

Ah you must have the Beaufort transport version, which are had to get hold of... the kits are buildable but a heck of a lot of work! But the most accurate kits of the type.

Thanks, Martin, all done now and on Ready For Inspection Thank you, wrangling might be just the word... been a challenge to put it mildly.

Hi Peter, I was at the APMA meeting yesterday with my HP Beaufort, your name was mentioned in conversation with Ley Reynolds and others ... I finished the kit so while a challenging build I am glad it is available or was available so thanks to you and Fred for doing the measuring! Maybe Airfix might just do a Beaufort one day soon.. now that I have finished the kit!! and who knows one day a 1:48 scale kit...... yeah... we can hope.

Hello, I finished this early this morning, just added two small aerials to the nose and that was it. This is the High Planes kit, bought decades ago and restarted in 2016. I added two Airfix DC3 engines as replacements for the basic kit engines, scratch built the three aerials and mast, the set of photo-etched fuselage mounted aerials were liberated from the Encore kit (which was just a reboxing of the horrid Frog kit) and needed some alterations to make them suitable for the High Planes kit. The model was finished using Sovereign paints which I highly recommend, harder work than the Special Hobby kit but this is a more accurate kit than the Special Hobby offering!

Hello, I think this is the third time I have tried editing this post only to hit enter to move the paragraph and down and lose all the writing.. what the hell is going on... In short, this is the GAF Beaufort kit by High Planes, purchased around 1990??? then put away for a couple of decades and then restarted in 2016... challenging kit, lots of extra work but coming to fruition. so photos: The Fuselage Mounted Aerials came from the Encore reboxing of the old Frog Beaufort, I kept the photo etched FMA and the decals then sold the remainder for $5... the P/e FMA don't quite match the High Planes kit but well see for yourself: I'm using Sovereign Paints, Dark Earth and Dark Green... this will be RAAF Beaufort A9 380 as per the kit instructions...

Yes, I took a look, that's stopped me in my tracks!! Very impressive effort and all that work....crumbs..

Hi there, My ten cents worth, neither the Frog or Special Hobby kits are that accurate, the Frog is riddled with problems I would suggest binning it. The Special Hobby kit has hideous wing dihedral problems, making it look like a Stuka! The cowlings look weird, and there are other problems with the kit such as the turret also is a weird shape! I'm building the High Planes kit and for accuracy it is by far the best of the bunch, but it requires a lot more effort to put together, but it can be built and if you are looking for an accurate RAAF Beaufort it is the one to go.. but the Frog kit... vomit ... As for plans there was the set by Modelaid... in 1:72 and 1:48 scale, not sure of their accuracy though. I also have the 1:48 scale vacform... okay I am slightly keen on the Beaufort.. the kit is pretty hard work and dubious accuracy.

Thanks Meatbox8, The Hart kit was modified to produce the Airfix Demon, the Hart has a fare few accuracy issues, so this was more a sentimental project. I used Bare Metal Foil, dead easy to use!!!

Thanks Phoenix, I have finished the model and posted photos of Ready for Inspection, now I hope to build the Airfix Demon but fresh with some Kora resin detail sets!!!

Hello, This is the old Airfix Hawker Hart, obtained from a deceased estate some years ago, paint stripped and repainted in the markings of the original kit but using ModelDecal and Ventura decals to replace the old kit markings lost in the paint stripping process: I added two crew figures, machine gun and scarf ring parts of.. and windscreen... The second Airfix Hart illustration Ventura decals (of New Zealand) for the aircraft codes: The ModelDecal set for the underwing codes:

Friday was Decal-Day!!! and take some advice day! Thanks to Seahawks suggestion(up the page a bit) that the Airfix BE2c gun, that I had glued on and then accidentally broken off, was too large and that the old Airfix Demon gun would be a more suitable as it was more to scale and more accurate! He was right the BE2c gun is like the size of a scale canon in comparison... (should that be cannon answers in an envelope please). I have an Airfix Demon kit which also has the Kora Demon detail set (this set is a demon of a kit ha ha ha yes um), the Kora set has a replacement gun so I nicked the Airfix example and will use this on the Hart - oila... As for the decals I used the Xtradecal between the wars RAF roundels and they went on beautifully!!! The fuselage number came from the Modeldecal set 108, the numbers had film which I trimmed off!! I have since glued the gun on and only really need to find some aircraft codes.... and boom..... completion!! Demon kit gun top and the BE2c gun below:

Hello Seahawk, Thanks for posting your comments! I took a look at the Demon kit gun and yes it is considerably smaller than the BE gun... the BE2c gun looks like a howitzer compared to the Demon's gun. With the Airfix Demon kit in my possession, I recently obtained the Kora detail kit and that has a nice resin replacement! So in short I can purloin the Airfix Demon gun and use that on the Hart! Good advice thanks!

Thanks Roger, I have done some more work and loaded up the photos.... it is nearing completion.. It's inspiring me to now build the Airfix Demon using the Kora detail sets!! and also possibly the kit of the Hind or Audax I have in the stash!!!! with their current technology (?) detail.. well you know what I mean???

It is pretty humid and hot here in Sydney, not conducive to modelling!! Well not at the present... however I have finished painting the wheels, re glued the broken off undercarriage; finished painting the red with its second coat! and inserted the two chaps! Without knowing it I hacve picked a scheme the same as the one on the kit header sheet... just the serial number is different... Something about red coloured aircraft!!! okay so only parts of this plane are actually red! All there is to do now is put on the decals, attach the mg and re glue the tail skid!! Well I hope that is all...

Hi Adrian, Thank you for your comments, I have used the foil before, I was given a sample by a modelling mate to try out it was successful so I went and bought some!! It even makes me want to build aircraft with chrome... maybe an Airfix F-80!! The rudder painting is a bit crude, and rushed, I just don't have suitable decals here with me! Just about to post more photos! Simon

Since starting this restoration in August of last I have made some significant progress, due to some holiday time over the Christmas and just sheer determination to 'get this done'. sort of mode. Since last we met, I masked off the cowling using Humbrol Maskol which I think is just brilliant stuff for such occasions!! really.... can't praise it enough!! I then used a vintage tin of Humbrol Metal Cote to simulate the silver dope... actually not ideal or as convincing as I would like, it was loaned by the same mate who loaned me the decals! Well it seemed to fit the theme of restoring a vintage kit by using vintage paint... right??? From there I have covered the the cowling with Bare Metal Foil Chrome, which as I mention later is brilliant 'stuff'... Currently I have painted the red on the wheels, the prop.. and the rudder tricolour... next it's the decals and shove it in the display cabinet... with the phrase.. next... The loaned vintage Humbrol tin of metal cote.. note the corroded lid!!! proof of old age... Clear screen part from Airfix Tiger Moth: Now the application of the Bare Metal Foil Chrome, dead easy to use and really recommended: I used a tin of Humbrol Red paint which took a good couple of coats... The basic stretch sprue and sawn off sprue end bits to make a scarf ring mount!! That's the Airfix BE2c scare gun in the background which will be attached shortly.. or even soon!! Irony!! the scheme I chose care of a modelling mate loaning me his Modeldecals set for for Harts, Hinds etc... turned out to be the same as the original kit scheme!! Although different aircraft number.

All done, glued on the replacement Airfix Landrover kit wheels and scratch built replacement front mirrors! No number plates because I can't be bothered working on this any further so I am calling it done, wish in hindsight, I had not bought this rudimentary kit!! However all done and no windows either I'll live with it.. happy days! 🙂

Hi Will, All done please see below... Thanks..... so you know how I feel then!! Horrid kit... wish I had never set eyes on it now!! blech......

Brilliant love the scheme and finish!!