Putty Animal

Fantastic stuff. It is wonderful to see the Battle get the love it deserves. ♥️

Don't forget the 1/144 company, Sweet who produce very fine models that come two in a box.

x $185 including shipping to Australia with no indication of what is in the box. If there even is box...

I love it. A great tribute to a wonderful age in modelling ♥️

My goodness that is beautiful. Such a wonderful tribute. If I may ask, where did you source the drawings from? I've had a Blenheim scratchbuild on the go for many years but it stalled for lack of reliable drawings and conflicting references.

Wow. Even a living breathing Hawker Horsley.

Hmm. Definitely not working for me. It takes me all the way through to my paypal account and wants to deduct $13Au. I think the Admiralty was never too fond of Australians.

Never mind that. Where can I get more of those giant bottles of whiskey!?

Thanks gents Toryu, I usually tone the panel lines down by priming the surface and sanding back a few times to reduce them The outer wing panel lines are pretty much filled in completely and its only a very faint pencil line that marks them out. I am hoping to get even thinner lines in the future.

Season's greetings to all! This is my last completion for the year. A conversion of the Mitsubishi A5M4 two-in-one kits put out by Sweet in 1/144 scale. I've always loved the shape of the A5M. To me it's one of the prettiest fighters of the interwar period. It had quite a number of design changes too over the years and the shape changed significantly as it developed. I always expected that Sweet would released more versions of the kit over the years, but alas, they have stayed with just the A5M4. Full disclosure: I did start this one several years ago. However I abandoned it when it all went south on me and things got a bit explodey... The main differences between the A5M2a and later A5M4s is mostly in the fuselage, cowling and undercarriage. The 2a is noticeably more slender in plan view and the cowling tapers back sharply behind the engine. The headrest is much higher and more substantial than earlier models to incorporate some protection for the pilot in the event of a roll over. The windscreen was much smaller too and the decking over the two fuselage guns was a more complex shape. Other differences were the smaller wheel spats and a rather attractive slipper tank under the fuselage. When I first started this I was comparing the drawings of each version in my Maru Mechanic book and realised if I could employ some fiendish cunning, it might be possible to cut a wedge out of the forward fuselage and force the two fuselage halves together to make the A5M2a shape. The back end aft of the cockpit would stay the same, but the front end would be forced together in a vice and superglued to make the new cross section... Genius! I diligently set about this and performed the surgery. Then squeezed the ends together and cemented it all in place with my trusty old superglue. Some delicate reshaping of the cockpit opening followed and all seemed well. The wing join was too wide now, so some little wedges of styrene were added to take up the gap on each side. No worries. Once all this was done I pushed the fuselage into place and held the little Claude up by the tail to admire it... PLINK!!! The two fuselage halves flew apart and the cowling took off like a champagne cork. The wings flipped away end over end and I was left comically holding the two halves of the fuselage which had opened like a flower and split halfway down to the tail... So it turns out that superglue (particularly the water-thin kind) has a very definite expiry date and will cease to be super by any stretch of the imagination after a couple of years. Mine had set to a consistency similar to that of a sugar cube which you might feed to a horse that you didn't like very much. The solid plug of cyano that I fancied would keep the front of my A5M safely held together was just a gritty mess that could easily be scraped away with a fingernail. Grrr! 😠 The superglue went in the bin and the A5M went back into the box. There it stayed for several years until I dug it out again in early October. I fancied this would be a quick-ish job to make good on the repairs and get it out the door as a sort of palate cleanser after the Fe2b that I finished earlier. However it quickly got out of hand when I could not decide whether to go a silver one, or a brown/green camouflaged version. In the end I did both.. So anyway here they are. Tiny little things as always, but I'm rather pleased with them. Here's a couple of extra shots to hopefully give an idea of the changes between the A5M4 and A5M2a types. The differences in fuselage and cowling shape are much easier to see here: And lastly a bit of a glory shot with a suitable backdrop... Cheers!

Exceptional

I’m on the lookout for Heyford info too for a future scratchbuilding project. The main question for me is fuselage cross-sections, particularly for the cockpit area where it flares out.

I LOVE doing that. A calculator, a pair of calipers and good set of drawings on my knee. Going from sprues to drawings and back. Checking planning and dreaming. A quality night in for me. Even if it never gets built, it's well worth the price of the kit

Love it! Can’t ever go past a Malta Spit

Look out. You just got another one from me in the dreaded Vic too! There’s been some sort of Freedom Day declared today, as we get past 70% vaccinations. However I don’t think we’ll be declaring victory until I get my haircut, which is tentatively scheduled for the 1st of November. Bloody hell it can’t come quick enough. I feel like I need to wear a headband when I sit down to work in the man cave!

Argh. So close and yet so far. Some 1/350 airships at last, but my particular interest is for the Schutte Lanz variety. All the same, I’d love to get hold of one of these. I hope you will be sharing some build pics down the road. You lucky fellow! Envious of Uranus

Congratulations. Very nicely done!

Brilliant! I would love for the original mould maker to see this. ❤️

Nice! I really like the Skua. I can still remember assembling the Frog/Novo version at the age of six or seven. Sitting on the floor and turning the canopy this way and that... Trying to choose which direction did not look wholly un-aerodynamic.

Hi wonderful. I’d love to have an Anson in the collection one day. Looking forward to watching it come together

Hi Victor, here’s a link to the styrene sheet. Probably work getting a few different sheets to give you the thickness you need if you are building in 72nd: Link I haven’t quite worked out what to do next, but I’ve been keeping busy by trying my hand at some generic parts. Idle hands and all that. At the moment I’m making some LeRhone and Gnome Monosoupape engines that will probably come in handy at some point. If I can mould them it would be a nice ready supply. Here’s a test shot of one with a wash of colour so I can see how it looks. Only 20 parts (or 19 rather... one bit has fallen off). It’s not quite there yet but looks promising.

Cheers, you're welcome! One day if I can pluck up the courage I will take advantage of the clear acrylic wings and try painting the underlying spars and ribs before adding the topcoat If you are buying materials it is worth keeping an eye out for the sheets of high impact styrene too. If you are working in larger scales the sheets that are 2mm and above tend to stay flat after shaping. It's much easier to work with than acrylic and can be shaped much more rapidly.

Hell yeah!

Hi Victor, sorry for the late reply! I make the wings from solid acrylic as it tends to stay nice and flat, plus you can get a razor-sharp trailing edge too. I usually work in either 1mm or 1.5mm sheets at this scale. Ebay is a good source, and A4 sized sheets can usually be bought quite cheaply. They last a lifetime in 1/144 too I score both sides of the sheet and snap off the piece that I need. The underside of the wing is the first bit to be shaped. I get an old metal ruler and file the end to the right curve, then use it as a scraper to do the lower surface. It pays to start with a strip that is longer than you need. Then trim it to length afterwards. I usually double-side tape the acrylic strip to a flat surface, then position a straight edge next to it to act as a guide. Then its just a matter of scraping the profile in. One of the advantages of 1/144 is that this isn't so messy and requires less elbow work. Once the underside profile is complete I gently remove the wing and stick it down again with the top surface pointing up. Do this with the trailing edge slightly overhanging the edge of a block of timber or something. Then get a nice big two handed file and shape the upper surface of the wing. Try not to file towards the trailing edge too much. This just makes a lot of swarf build up there. Filing towards the leading edge is better and gives you a cleaner result. When the rear part of the upper wing is shaped you can the turn the wing around on the block and shape the front. A bit of a sand afterwards will clean up the file marks afterwards. Here's a shot of one pair of wings that were done this way. It was probably an hour's work from start to finish.

That’s an amazing haul. Well done! Ive got many of those issues in my collection as well. And they are just as good at 52