Jon Bryon

Thanks Latinbear. I'm trying to figure out if I can manage to take it to Telford. Hope to bump into you there and chat further. Cheers Jon

I think the pricing is about right for this kind of product. I want to use Archer resin rivets on an Academy 1/48 CH-46 this year and I reckon that will cost me about £50 just for rows of rivets. Jon

One. Only every one project at a time. The discipline ensures I actually finish stuff. Occasionally a project might involve batch building (I made 4 A-4s simultaneously in 2020), but it's only ever one project. Jon

Thanks - that's really helpful. Jon

It's in the current issue of SAM Jon

Thank you for the comments I'm afraid it's only conjecture that there was a deterioration. I've never seen what the first boxing contained. Reports at the time were that it was pretty good though! Cheers Jon

Thank you once again for the comments so far! I think this Walrus was painted silver rather being in natural metal, so that was the effect I was going for. The base coat is Mr Color 104 Gun Chrome. Over this I used Mr Color 8 Silver and Alclad White Aluminium sprayed through various mottling masks by Artoolfx, Uschi van der Rosten and Cat4. Over the top of this are various washes and more precise applications of Abteilung 502 oil paints, especially Starship Filth, Paynes Grey and Field Grey. This kit was the second boxing released by Airfix. It maybe that the first boxing was better. Particular issues were lots of thick witness lines down the sides of every part, a very grainy texture to the plastic (especially the lower hull, which was like sandpaper), and warpage - the tail struts were very bendy and needed clamping and boiling water to straighten them out. The design of the kit is pretty good, but the quality of the moulding let it down. HTH Jon

Does anyone know what's wrong with the Kinetic kit that needs correcting? I have one on pre-order from Hannants... Jon

Thanks chaps for your kind comments. I scanned the kit decals into Inkscape (a free graphics programme) and traced them. I then changed the '6' (the kit provides 53.S.16) to an '8'. The file was then opened in Silhouette's proprietary software and cut using a Silhouette Cameo cutter into some Artool vinyl mask. The '8' is a bit wobbly under magnification, but looks okay to the naked eye. The paint is Tamiya Nato or Rubber Black (I forget which). The footprint markings on the wings were masked and painted the same way. HTH Jon

Hello All, I finished this in February and it's just been published in the May issue of SAM. This is the Airfix kit in a modified scheme from the kit: I've changed the serial number using a homemade mask so the roundels with anchors can be used. I've added a fair amount of PE by Eduard, a resin engine by Vector and some resin navigation lights by Quickboost. The necessary splash guards for the windows are fabricated from an old drop F-15 tank. The finish is mainly Mr Color 104 Gun Chrome. The kit was quite hard work, mainly due to the extensive clean up required for all of the parts and the sub-par moulding, but it does make for a nice model. Comments are very welcome Jon

They're not missing a Tornado - they've got one. It's just not very good Jon

Another build from last year that did actually manage a medal at Telford. This is a Revell boxing of the Esci 1/48 Bo105PAH-1. It's not very accurate for a German military aircraft, so it's been upgraded in all kinds of ways. Many inaccuracies remain (not least the cockpit and panel line) and the kit is rather clunky. The only aftermarket are some resin exhausts from DF Helostuff. These are a little undersized. The decals are from the kit. There's a detailed build article with loads of in-progress photos here: https://jonbryon.com/revell-1-48-mbb-bo105pah-1-sam/ This is a kit that could really do with some aftermarket love or replacement with a new tooling. Comments welcome and thanks for looking, Jon

Hello all, I made this about a year ago but never got round to posting it here. You don't see this kit made very often, which is a shame as it's really rather nice. This is Academy's 1/48 KAI T-50 Golden Eagle in kit markings. The only aftermarket are some resin seats by Wolfpack. I wrote a full build article with quite a few in-progress photos here: https://jonbryon.com/academy-1-48-kai-t-50-golden-eagle/. Comments are very welcome. Jon

My method is simply to do at least 30 minutes of modelling a day regardless of whether I want to or not. There's always a podcast I want to listen to, and that means even if I'm not in the mood for modelling, I've got sufficient motivation to sit at the desk and I might as well get on with some whilst listening. Jon

I too was surprised at how low the numbers are, but obviously this is sales of kit boxings, not total kits from the same mould. It would be interesting to know how many P-51s they've sold in total, given multiple boxings and the fact it's been around for a few years. Jon