Tim R-T-C

A dark grey late afternoon in early 1941 at RAF Debden in Essex; ground crew prepare Squadron Leader F/C J. Wheeler's black coloured Hurricane for another evening on alert against noctural Luftwaffe intruders. This project began earlier this year while displaying at the South Cheshire Model Show in February where I made the acquaintance of the good gentlemen of the Night Fighter SIG who had a lovely table display of noctural defenders. Hoping to join their display at the Hinckley show I set to work on a duo of builds. The Hurricane is a 2002 moulding from Sweet Models of Japan and comes with an unusual design in that two complete kits come in each boxing - one in typical plastic, the other completely clear - this was a cost saving measure as it meant the transparent canopies and wing lights for both planes could be added onto one sprue and did not have to be provided on a seperately moulded part. I picked the clear model to build, its a rather strange experience. A lot easier to see once some primer is down, this was followed by NATO Black from a Tamiya can and a gloss layer as I was concerned silvering would be a high risk on the matt black paint. The decals are from the excellent Shelf Oddity range. Dedicated to 144th scale, they provide a wealth of unusual schemes for a wide selection of types. There are four schemes possible from this sheet, two UK based and two based in Egypt, hopefully I will get all four done...some day. The decals are delightfully thin and conform in seconds - some care is needed while handling though. A protective coat of matt was quickly applied, followed by some metallic chipping on the wing roots and heavy exhaust staining, for which I use AK Interactive water colour pencils. The reference pictures I found show a lot of wear on these types. The 'soot' black paint apparently wore off very rapidly, although from the monochrome pictures it isn't clear if the original temperate scheme is showing through, or just a black undercoat. Having the green and brown show through would certainly have looked dramatic, but I decided not to try and replicate this without more information. The canopy and aerial mast were added; per the Shelf Oddity instructions, these were left in the original green and brown - this completed the Hurricane airframe. Attached to a base, specially painted black rather than my usual white and topped with plates from Name It Plates, she duly took her first show trip to Hinckley and with co-build 109E and a Sopwith from my existing collection, brought some 144th to the Night Fighter SIG. I couldn't leave it at that though and the display returned to my bench later on for the full vignette treatment. I had a beautiful Albion refueller 3d print from Ray Rimes Models which came with seperate arms. These have lovely printed detail of the fuel hoses, one of which I had to very carefully sand off so I could represent in-use. Unfortunately I was not able to find any suitable decals for the refueller but painted in a typical scheme with some weathering added for a vehicle in heavy use over the hard winter. Not sure what became of the accumulator trolley since it isn't on the final scene, must have moved across to another diorama! The RAF crew figures are from eBay seller 3djson. This finally completed the scene. Thanks for reading.

Sitting here in Yorkshire listening to a gale desperately trying to blow my tiles away, this seemed like the perfect thread to read! Those Langley projects are really impressive, particularly given the age and often rather rudementary fitting of the kit pieces. Great work all round. I have had similar issues with spray painting - last Christmas we got a spray booth from Benchvent that permits the use of rattle cans indoors provided there is a nearby window for the vent tube - not cheap, but allowed much easier painting this year.

Lets throw my MiG into the ring early. I'm going to use Great Escape mode to build this Fishbed across the four days (of which I am at work on two, have family commitments on one and have plans for a full Superhero Blitzenbuild on the other) so I'm hoping this build will neatly fall into a build session, primer and paint sessions, decalling and varnish. This should deliver it neatly to the bench on the evening of the 27th for affixing to a diorama base along with congratulatory mince pies and cocktails. However, best laid plans and all that... Keep an eye open for this build appearing in the 2025 KUTA 🙄 The kit is by Eduard. It was boxed by JBr Decals with a selection of scemes as well as some resin parts including a jamming pod which this particular model was wired to use, so that will be getting added. I've even been able to find a reference picture in full colour (as someone who normally models WW2 types, this is a revelation!) which suggests a couple of different metallic shades will be needed. Should all start on the evening of Christmas Eve... Stay tuned.

Interesting thought I had, whilst I pondered the forum. With the extension to 4 days, I could squeeze a Great Escape build around work and family commitments, while also having a shot at a Superhero build on the feast of St Stephen too 🤔

Its a very difficult commercial market. Revell's recent re-release of their over half-century old Spitfire, Hurricane, 109 and Stuka models certainly doesn't help things. I'd hope that Beacon work on Bf-110 and Ju-88s since neither have had modern releases in scale and both have lots of variants, but both have elderly moulds in circulation which potentially Revell could re-press, hurting sales.

Creepy!

Yes, from discussions with Will, the Defiant will be the next project - never been available in injection moulded 144th kit form. Hopefully a TT version will be included too.

Lovely photo and a fun project. I was building up this airframe myself until realising late on that I had forgotten the dorsal fin 😕

A smart scene, really well presented.

Never come across this concept before, would certainly make an interesting model. The device on the outside of the tank, is that a parachute? Just my two-(Canadian)-cents on paintwork - the picture in the first post in particular seems to show a lot of weathering to the paintwork on the tank. If we assume this picture was taken during the trials of the project - this would lead me to think that it hasn't been repainted since the installation of the dingy or it would presumably be a much fresher finish.

A reference quality build and weathering.

A few weeks back while looking over some boxings, I noticed that one of the schemes for this kit is a plain grey paint job (Polish Navy) and since I am painting a couple of other models in grey soon, seemed to make sense to get this one back on the bench and hopefully finished. I fitted the external fuel tanks and tailfins. A masking set was in the stash which made that stage even quicker. Except that one row of windows started to fall in as I pressed on it. Fortunately some keyhole surgery with a length of wire through the rotor blade hole and I was able to secure it back in place.

I begun this kit back in September '23. I didn't have the highest expectations - the kit mould was originally developed by Stransky as an experimental design, making three seperate kits from a single mould - an La-7 and L-4 being the others. After several years in limbo, the moulds were acquired by Mark 1 models who released the kit, but somewhere down the line there was a production issue and the resultant kits had loads of flash and were made from a very brittle plastic so the kits were very difficult to put together - a shame since Mark 1 kits are normally very good for a short run model. Even Paul tried to warn me from starting this build. Fortunately this was the best of the three kits, although some flash was notable - see the rotorhead handily illustrated with the arrow above. Fortunately the clear parts at least fitted fine so I got the kit underway, but for some reason it stalled at this point.

A very interesting project! The 534 is a lovely little plane and interestingly enough they have starred in some movies - the Germans painted some in Polish markings for a propaganda film in 1940.

Does your calendar have rivets on it? 😉 Thanks for the judgement, makes it easier to fit the build in, particularly for those of us who have to work across the period.

Lovely work on the rigging - so much for such a small plane!

Details copied from Facebook announcement posts, links included. Dear friends. For the end of the year we have prepared these new products for you - Although they are not our models, they are mouldings of Australian company OZMODS, in Miniwing boxes, with new decals, we believe that they will make you happy. The first is F86K SABRE DOG with West German and Italian decals 🙂 https://www.eshop.miniwing.cz/category/miniwing/miniwing-plastic-1-144/north-american-fiat-f-86k-sabre-dog/ From now, you can buy them on our eshop in PRE-ORDER with 15% discount. They will be available from the second half of January 2025. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A5HhVHRAG/ Hi again. For the end of the year we have prepared these new products for you - Although they are not our models, they are mouldings of Australian company OZMODS, in Miniwing boxes, with new decals, we believe that they will make you happy. The first is F86K SABRE DOG with Norwegian and the Netherlands decals 🙂 https://www.eshop.miniwing.cz/category/miniwing/miniwing-plastic-1-144/north-american-fiat-f-86k-sabre-dog-vol-2/ You can buy them on our eshop in PRE-ORDER with 15% discount. They will be available from the second half of January 2025. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1KHgfVyuge/

I can't compete with such a vivid insight into Christmas Day at Chez Enzo Mine will be spent donning a blue UN helmet for dinner with mother and mother-in-law. Fortunately at a pub from whence a return to a pleasant immuration at home for the evening and Boxing Day, with no outside contact apart from this forum will be most welcome! It does give my first chance to actually try the pure 24 hour build. Not sure what to attempt though, needs to be something suitably audacious 🤔

Lovely delicate engine doors.

Lots of etch fitted for the gear doors, undercarriage controls and ventral fin. She stands on her feet (a bit tail heavy, but not an issue for a diorama scene!).

Dale Mabry Field, Florida - Summer 1944. A trainee pilot with the newly formed 3rd Air Commando group is shuttled out to his Warhawk for another training flight. His crew chief casually sips his coffee while the young pilot wonders if his next flight might be taken from an airfield in France or the Pacific.... A little build I started back in March, the P-40N is an F-Toys Gashapon model. These are Japanese kits that come precoloured but requiring assembly - they can be made up as push-fit, but work much better with cement. The prepainted finish varies in quality - in this example from the VS9 boxing, it was very poor, the olive drab was a weird shade and the Chinese army tail stripes (which I had been hoping to retain) were terrible. On some of the better quality models I will keep the original finish and just touch up on any filler and gaps. Instead, after building, I gave the Warhawk a full new coat of Tamiya OD. The scheme chosen is from the excellent Shelf Oddity sheet of Training P-40s. Three stateside based models are covered, making for a rarely modelled side of the war. https://shelfoddity.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=308 The build went together smoothly - except a late realisation that I hadn't added the Curtis colour fringe, which I fortunately caught before sticking the model down. The base is in my new standard format - a 13x13cm wooden canvas base with a scenic aperture. Reference pictures of the airfield show a straight forward concrete slab setting for this one. The vehicle is a combination of 3d prints - the tractor and trailer are from Ray Rimes Minatures, while the figures are from eBay seller 3djson. With a nameplate from Nameitplates to set the scene, it was complete.

Fascinating in progress images. You mention designing this kit in 1/144 - will you be making it commercially available in that scale?

Thats good work on what is, quite an old and rudimentary kit. If you like relatively modern jets, the Revell Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon kits are particularly good and have much better fitting and detail.

Or the other way around - if negative marking is used, a model with one perfect decal could beat a model with 100 decals, one of which has some silvering!

Lovely work