Heather Kay

I built one in the last Airfix Classic group build. Most of the Haldane Place pimples had to be sacrificed, the moulding was definitely showing its age (a 1980s boxing), the nose glazing was all wrong, and the Humbrol period transfers were a disaster, but it scrubbed up okay. Now, would I buy another? Never say never. Like others here, I fancy a bit of a WHIF in RAF Transport Command colours.

That turned out rather nicely, paint issues aside. I assume the kit dates from the late 1970s, when Heller were really beginning to show what they could do. I admit I found Xtracrylix to be quite fragile. It seemed very susceptible to tiny amounts of natural skin oils left on a primed surface, lifting off with even the lightest touch of tape. As you say, it really needs a good surface primer, and patient airbrushing followed by a lengthy drying spell before masking. Even then, it isn’t a tough finish until a final varnish coat. I once went through a process of airbrushing Humbrol Clear on between each subsequent camouflage colour - not ideal or fun.

Yes, it is. The editor was silly enough to accept my proposal of a series on my obsession. I’ve just sent the next one off to him. In Annie news, nothing has happened - unless you count assessing and identifying all the parts. There will, unfortunately, need to be some replacement of the cabin metal structure with actually metal, or possibly styrene if I think it’ll be strong enough. I think the turret and gun mounting will also benefit from some replacement parts.

Sadly, not this year. Best Beloved and I were to be attending, helping on the delayed-from-last-year Battle of Britain 80th SIG display. For health reasons, that has been postponed again, so we won’t be attending. There's talk of doing a big 85th anniversary display now, but I hope we will be able to attend SMW as visitors in 2022. Life and viruses will hopefully be under better control by then.

Now to wean yourself off the sugar. I did it in my 20s by steadily lowering the amount until one day I wasn’t putting any in my hot drinks at all. Nigh on forty years later my Dad still forgets and heaves sugar in!

Thanks Tony! If this better kit gets anywhere close to the remarkable job you did with the Airfix one, I’ll be chuffed to bits. The Skua is in an end-opener. Annie has a nice top-loader. That doesn’t prevent damage, though. The broken part seems to be entirely missing, but I’m not fretting as it can easily - ha! - replaced by something sturdier. Easier said than done round here.

Thanks Bill. I’ve noticed part of the resin frame has already broken. I suspect I shall follow in your footsteps, perhaps even using brass to replace. Both will be slow burns. Tempting though it is to just pile in, I’ve a ton of other stuff to deal with first. Priorities and all that. Do it! Ansons were used a lot by the dominion air forces for training - including that famous incident where one "landed" on top of another while in flight. Quite a story.

You really, really do not want to see the state of our teapot. Makes a lovely brew, even though it’s supermarket own label.

It does appear there is precious little of the original kit left at this stage! Watery things are not generally my, er, thing, but I always appreciate and admire good modelling in whatever form it takes. This fits the bill.

This looks like fun! The Wendover scheme was conceived in the dark days of 1940, when it was thought the Germans would be landing on British beaches in their thousands. The idea was the aircraft could fly low over troop columns with the turret guns strafing away. I understand the prototype Lysander was converted, and it never carried an actual turret, the project being cancelled when the threat of invasion receded. If 1940 what-ifs interest, though, a read about Operation Banquet is worth a few minutes. Desperate times make for desperate measures.

Excellent resource. Thank you. I dimly recall finding that site when researching the Roc. It does appear SH corrected some of the errors they made in the 1/48th kit when they cut the 1/72nd mould. That doesn’t mean it’s all plain sailing, though.

Well, if the Roc is any guide, suitable offerings to the styrene, PU and PE gods, throw various adhesives in the box, shake and hope. If memory serves, the worst part was the PE support struts for the engine exhaust ring. I couldn’t get it to fit, and ended up butchering things to make it work. Apart from that, and the fiddly small parts - many of which will never be seen again - it’s not a bad kit. Not for the beginner, but okay for the experienced plastic mangler.

Well spotted. I hadn’t clocked the smooth cowlings. Scalemates lists a couple of versions of this kit, but they all seem to be just variations in markings. I wonder if there had been a plan to kit the Wright powered US and Canada versions, or even later marks with different fuselage runners?

The Faithful Annie, a classic RAF aircraft if ever there was one. Over 11,000 Ansons of various marks were built from 1935 to 1952, serving the RAF, RCAF, RAAF and FAA into the 1960s. I’m starting back at the beginning, with the MkI in RAF Coastal Command service. I stand to be corrected but, until this Special Hobby kit arrived in 2007, the only injection moulded kit in 1/72nd scale was the venerable Airfix one - with all its shortcomings and dimensional errors, and that nasty greenhouse. I’m not going to knock the Airfix one further. I know, with care and love and elbow grease, it can be turned into a good representation of the type. Anyway, this thread is about a different kit. My copy is a rebox of the original 2007 kit. Markings are provided for three aircraft, all of which fit my 1940 obsession. However, I’m going to build the box art aircraft, N9732/MK-V. I don’t live very far from Detling, in Kent, where there was a Coastal Command airfield (now the Kent county show ground). MK-V was on the strength of No 500 (County of Kent) Squadron, and with two other Ansons got into a bit of a barney with a pair of Bf109s while on patrol over the English Channel in June 1940. The Emils came off worst, both apparently claimed by the crew of MK-V. Why wouldn’t I build that version? It would be rude not to! The moulded plastic looks really nice, especially the fabric treatment on the control surfaces. A rather worrying number of large gaps appear in the fuselage, though. Large expanses of lovely thin clear glazing, which will fill those gaps with luck. I have found that Montex make a masking set for this kit, which must be ordered fairly soon. This kit has lots and lots of moulded resin detail. This lot is mostly the interior, including the framework supporting the roof and glazing, but there are some worryingly fragile-looking external details as well. I shall consider which can usefully be substituted by metal replacements. More resin, this time crew seats, undercarriage parts, engine cowlings and self-assembly Armstrong Siddeley Cheetahs. Individual cylinders? Really? I had better put the local asylum on standby… Like the Blackburn Skua, this is going to be a slow burn build. Rather perversely, I am rather looking forward to getting into all that resin!