[1:48 Lockheed Lightning P38-F-4-1, No.1 PRU RAAF]

Very nice. By weird co-incidence only I heard the RAAF operated Lightnings yesterday and found the same photos.

[1/700 Kriegsmarine ships]

Great stuff. its fun to use 1/700 to build your own navy - i.e. you have to build a balanced fleet. Each model presents a unit (battleships/carriers) a cruiser squadron or a destroyer flotilla. If you use PE then it doubles the number of ships in the class. So if you want to add to your battle line, you have to get a flotilla of destroyers and a cruiser or two to balance it out. Right now I'm short of ASW...

[1/72 Revell Sopwith Camel, wing looks to high?]

Looking at my playing card RNAS camel, the top wing looks very bowed down from the front but bowed up from the side - as Paul says its an optical thing.

 

I used the Revell wings and tail (which are nice and thin) with the Academy fuselage which has more detail. The Roden 1/72 is much better but harder work, you really need a jig.

[WW1 newbie]

5 hours ago, Paul Thompson said:

Eduard Roland C.II, any boxing. No centre section struts and fairly simple rigging. Eduard Fokker D.VIIs. Very little rigging,  Revell/Eduard Albatros D.V, Eduard D.III - like the Nieuports the top wing is fairly easy to get on due to the interplane vee struts, plus the centre section struts come as one piece per side. Rigging is fairly simple, comparable to Nieuports- none in the centre section, although you need to juggle a couple of radiator pipes into place.

 

Unfortunately most allied types for which there are good kits have fairly complex rigging, so I'd wait a bit before venturing on to Camels, F2bs, or SE5as. If you can find one the Eduard Hanriots are good.

 

Personally, I really like almost all Roden kits, and they do a lot in 1/48th, but they're much harder to build than Eduard and tend to have bad decals. Some people don't like them, but if you get on okay with the Eduard stuff in my opinion they're a good direction to move in. Once mastered, you'll be able to tackle any of the other kits available.

 

One other slight warning - Copper State Models produce very good kits, but the subjects are not for beginners (Caudron G.IV and AW FK8 for example). They are excellent, but you may be fooled by their presentation into expecting Wingnut Wings ease of construction, and they're not quite there yet (it's a question of moulding tolerances affecting things like mounting of struts in wings - Wingnuts kits are mostly good enough you can get this right without much attention, but Copper State kits fit a bit looser). And the rigging is quite difficult.

 

Good luck,

 

 

Totally agree with all of this. RFC/RNAS is usually simple to paint but tough to rig, while German are more complex to paint but usually easier to build. The Roland CII Walfisch is a great place to start, you can go to town with interior detail and fish-scale paint jobs, or just not bother. The 1/72 Airfix is a great little kit for practice.

 

The key secret with biplanes is to build and paint the fuselage, tail and lower wing, then add the top wing and complete the rigging. Then fill, sand, paint and decal the top surface.

[HMS Iron Duke 1916]

Nice job. As a kid I always admired the box art (Roy Cross of course) but never got one. It just wasn't 'cool' - she didn't have anything to play with. Which is probably sadly why Airfix did no more WWI - it wasn't a big seller.

 

 

I notice he has most of the errors you list but not the notorious flared 13.5" gun barrels.

 

[Airco DH.2 scratchbuild completed]

Superb. How did you paint the linen affect? Is it Tamiya smoke?

[Space Station V]

20 minutes ago, Neil Lambess said:

I've always wondered what happened to stations I to IV 😀

 

1-3 were abandoned early in construction, and IV was pinched by Commander Sinclair for the first Shadow War...

 

Superb work on a tough kit. Almost worth the terrible crime of glueing lego.

 

[Combrig HMS Victoria 1/350]

If you haven't done the propellers then correcting one can be done, just use a very sharp scalpel to cut the blades off and glue them back on turned around. I've done it in 1/600, though my props were plastic not resin which made adjustments easier.

[Above the Karman Line GB Chat]

Airfix Saturn 1B in the stash - my record with GB's is poor due to very slow build pace but it should be simple - right?

[Delta Dilemma results in Viggen on top. Finished 03/26/23]

Well that's easy - build the Vulcan, coz its Airfix, RAF camo, and a Vulcan. But I've voted Viggen its in splinter. Baby V-bomber.

[HMS Surf - S-Class submarine, Starling Models 1/350]

Hmmm. I suspect G45 is correct. This photo looks rather over-exposed in bright sunshine and there is still a contrast between the ensign, the sailor's cap (white, obviously) and the conning tower (not quite white...). Add in scale effect and I think a conventional white will look wrong.

 

[F-15e Strike Eagle - Seymour Johnson 75th Anniversary - GWH 1/48 - AKA When Things go Wrong, try Weathering...]

All Eagles should have this scheme. When I take power, its on the list.

[Humbrol (and other brands) - do they fade in sunlight?]

Hmmm - I use future, which the manufacturer says "doesn't yellow" but that doesn't mean its UV resistant

[Humbrol (and other brands) - do they fade in sunlight?]

No I'm not starting the pre-shaded debate again. I've moved a display case into a bay window - but is it safe to put models in it? I don't think they will deform in strong sunlight - I'm in Scotland - but will the paint fade over a period of years? Most of them are Humbrol painted, but there are a few Xtracyclics and Tamiya

 

Thanks

[1/700 Matchbox HMS Kelly/Kipling done as the Kipling]

Nice build. I remember when this kit was state of the art - separate guns and gunshield!

[Do you like Whitleys?]

Build, weathering and photography all look excellent to me. IMO most people over-weather wartime aircraft, they usually didn't last long enough to look tired.

 

Just one thing - are the serials meant to look like that or are they out of register?

[Boeing 314 Clipper]

Lovely 314, especially the walkways. Having done two 314s I know what work that is. Mine wobble on their stands as well!
 

And just a note, some Clippers (e.g. Dixie, Bangor, Bristol) did have aerials wires from the pitot tube arms to the fins, though not California/Paciific Clipper as you say.

[HMS Bramham, Hunt type II destroyer; Operation Pedestal August 1942. 1/700 IBG.]

There was a resin 1/700 Ohio - difficult to find, but may be of some use.

 

I'm still thinking of the consequences of eating 18 cold hard boiled eggs in one go. Hadn't Malta suffered enough?

[1/48 TSR-2 XR219 - Airfix]

6 hours ago, 224 Peter said:

I've long held the view that the weathering and joint enhancement applied to vehicle and figures has no place on an aircraft. 

 

AT the Boscombe Down Aircraft Collection we have aircraft from the 60s to the 80s and once you stand more than 20 ft away most joint lines are invisible. 

This is HS Hawk XX154, the first production aircraft. Six thousand flying hours since 1974 and the last 20 years at Boscombe Down. It is clean, some rivet lines are visible and access panels: the sort of shading and line detailing in Ammo Magazine has no place on a model of a modern fast jet. Dirt causes drag, degrading performance, which is the aircraft are kept clean and polished.

 

 

Totally agree. Or on a WWII aircraft that is probably less than a year from its factory paint. The only time I have seen "joint enhancement" (good term) is on USN aircraft (something to do with sealant perhaps) and aircraft that have stood outside at a museum for years on end. And in the latter case its fading of the paint, not darkening, and the unfaded areas are not necessarily along panel lines. But now we get pre-shaded battleships!

 

Anyway musn't hijack the thread. Lovely TSR-2 so far, its not an easy build. I've got one on the Shelf of Doom, my paint job was a disaster so I'll probably whif it and start over.

[1/48 TSR-2 XR219 - Airfix]

9 minutes ago, 224 Peter said:

Given how little time 219 spent in the air and was kept in a hangar at Boscombe Down I find the grimy photos suspicious. 

They are poor resolution and my suspicion is that the "dirt" is a consequence of attempts to sharpen the image using photo editing software! 

 

Even the V Bombers, most of the time kept outside, didn't get that grimy. 

 

 

 

 

Agree completely - that photo definitely has extra contrast (possibly the original film).

 

219 may have been dirty, but that ammo mag model isn't "dirty" - it has very ordered shading along the panels and rivets. Such things do have black lines, but they are invisible from any difference. And sure planes have oil leaks and grime, but not so neatly arranged all over - I mean look at that tail.

 

I guess this is not the place to debate the merits of pre-shading, but that Ammo mag model is, IMHO, a disaster. The modeller had exceptional technical skill, but his powers of observation are suspect and it's a very bad example to others.

 

[Model model shop]

That shop better stock the kit. Isn't there a model village that contains a model village?

[Much disappointment!]

2 hours ago, Noel Smith said:

Billings make a kit of the Warrior.     It is big and in wood.I

Went onto Warrior a few years back. Very impressive.

The Victory was missing a lot of its upper rigging at the time.

 

Don't be afraid of wood kits- with laser cut, resin and metal parts the principles are just the same as plastic, and its easy to make planks, spars etc - just cut and sand.  Generally its much easier to repair mistakes than plastic - if you mess up a part then just make another one.

 

Of course the cost is another matter, but that Billings Warrior will keep you going for a year or two. Maybe start on something small first as practice.

 

OK I admit it - I now want that Warrior. But I'll get 1:1 scale kitchen done first.

[Batlle of Britain August 1940 Airfix diorama]

I was going to say "At last! A BoB diorama without a Spitfire!". Then I saw the Spitfire.

 

Superb work anyway!

[Trumpeter 1/72 Tu-22M2 Backfire]

Beautiful build - I want one.

 

Small story - spring 1987 I was flying out of Moscow on a Aeroflot flight to London (Tu-154 I think). For some reason the plane got diverted to taxi through the military part of the airport, past a row of Blinders. We all started taking photos. The cabin crew went white and starting running up and down pulling down the window blinds.

 

The joke was on us as most of the blinds then wouldn't go back up (it was Aeroflot) and we spent the flight back in partial darkness. And in final revenge, I got food poisoning (Aeroflot again).

[RAF in the Early 80s]

Lovely work. I'm doing the same thing in 1/72 but I've figured out its possible to have each in a different scheme. So far I've done... 3 (Hunter, Hawk, Bucc). But lots more in the stash!