klr

I was lucky enough to pick up two of those ESCI kits early this year, reboxed by Italeri with a wonderful Cartograf decal sheet. I suppose I really ought to build something from the Huey family for this GB, seeing as I have a big selection, including early B & C versions, an AB 205, a UH-1N "Twin Huey", and a CH-412 Griffon - all from (if not boxed by) Italeri.

I have several of this kit as well. To be exact, four of this boxing (one bought just last week!), and one of the US gunship version, which was the original release from 1994, and for which the guns and rocket pods parts are included (but not used) in this SAR kit. It's not the old (1971) Hasegawa kit though, which I also have.

It's a superb kit IMHO. The CH-53 was a mighty impressive kit as well, even if the rivet detail looked a bit overdone. But at least it had the rivets, unlike (as I recall) the later Italeri kit. Airfix did a lot of kits of US subject during the late 1970s and early 1980s, both before and during the MPC era. As well as these two, there was the U-2, B-1B, Banshee, Viking, Skyray, P-51B, Sea Knight, F-5E, A-10, F-16, F/A-18. F-105 ... well. maybe not all of them were great, but they were good enough for their time.

The racing looks? Very true. Maybe I should do a "what if" scheme a la the DH.88 Comet? Then again, maybe not, not unless I had a dozen in the stash (... and why don't I?) As for the Merlins: I always think of the DH Hornet as the aircraft the Whirlwind could have been. It's a mystery why Airfix has never kitted it. Anyway, back to the kit at hand. I've done a fair bit of work this morning cleaning up the remaining rough edges. I'll do another pass later this morning, and then prime those areas to see if anything more needs to be done. You can't rush this part of building a kit. That's one of the reasons why I like to have several on the go at once: There's always something to be done on at least one of them.

That Bf 108 artwork has always been one of my favourites. The kit isn't half bad either. I have a 1990s Heller re-issue in the stash, as well as a recent Mistercraft boxing with about a zillion decal options. And yes, I too am itching to start on this GB. I keep chopping and changing my short-list. It currently looks something like: Mirage 2000C MB 210 F-86 Alpha Jet Breguet 693 Saab J.21 ... but October is a long time away.

I really, really, really like the Whirlwind, and I had this on my short list for the GB. I never built the original 1958 Airfix kit, so I don't know how much this 1978 tooling is based on that. But it's a typical Airfix 1970s kit: No unwanted rivets, lightly raised surface detail, major parts fit is generally good, but some rough edges to clean up. The remainder of the cleaning up will take me well into tomorrow, especially as I have two other kits on the go. But I don't see any major obstacles in completing the kit. The decals look to be good quality as well, very likely produced by Cartograf.

I may end up painting the underwing stripes, rather than using the Hurricane decals, but it will be easy if I go that route.

If memory serves, that Ju 88 kit has way more than 119 parts. Certainly, the original A-4 version has around 200, but the "official" parts count was c. 120 as well.

I bear a passing resemblance to myself, c. 1986. If it weren't for the increasing number of grey hairs that is. Actually, I do look younger than my age, the hair just exaggerates that, as does the fact that I'm very thin, especially now after a few months of lockdown-aided manic walking sprees. I'm not sure where I'm going to get my hair cut. My regular hairdresser seems to be be taking a minimalist approach to safety: While queuing is now outside, there are still up to 4 customers being served at once. 8 people in such a small space? No thanks.

As the more attentive amongst you may have realised, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things, with 3 kits currently on the go in this GB: The (much delayed) Airfix Skyray, Airfix Whirlwind I, and Matchbox Lysander. I suppose the ongoing miserable weather has something to do with this, although work has been a constant intrusion.

I first built this kit waaaaaay back in 1980. That was the year I started secondary school. So did I build it in my last few months of primary school, the summer holidays, or my first few months of secondary school? I can't be sure (it was 40 years ago!), but I think I built it no later than the summer. These things matter to me! One thing is for sure, I didn't build it at Christmas. I have the Revell "classic" re-box in the stash. But that's not what I'm building here. I managed to pick up the original Matchbox kit for free, as it had already been started by the previous owner. Also, one of the pilot figures was missing, the barrel of the Lewis rear machine gun was broken off, and its base was missing. I had also decided I would complete it in Irish Air Corps (No. 1 Fighter Squadron) markings, using spare decals from an Airfix Hurricane Mk. I: The missing pilot is no big deal, as I never really liked the old Matchbox crew figures anyway. While I could have used some spare Airfix figures, I decided to keep these for future use. I completely repainted the cockpit, shaping a piece from the spare box as a new rear MG base. Representing the ammo drums on this ... tricky, very tricky. Too tricky. I also added a rudimentary instrument panel, not shown here. The canopy framing is best painted before assembly, as otherwise the wings will be an obstruction. So far, I've done the first pass at the undercoat (Hu 78 interior green, same as the cockpit). That is obviously going to take a while, especially as it's best done in good natural light, of which there is very little at the moment. The enclosed fuselage halves. In reality, the cockpit interior was way more complex, so no point in trying to go to town on this.

I told you progress would be quick on this! The interior is quite basic, but presents no real issues: I have some spare pilots partly pre-painted in standard RAF colours, so I took one of those and touched it up. The figure included in the kit is slightly smaller than this. At some point in the 1970s, it seems Airfix reduced the size of this type of pilot figure. Painting those radiator intakes (?) required a bit of patience: The assembled spinners will need some cleaning up: As will the nacelles, Actually, much of that cleaning up has been done since I took this: ... so I went ahead with the main construction steps. Note that I opened up the stand slot. The kit takes the smallest of the old stand sizes (series 1/2). I have a plentiful supply of old stands, having bought a couple of bags of them over the past few years. I also have some from second-hand kits issued in the 1970s. The two glaring issues I noted with the 2005 build (see previous post) have been addressed. There is still clean-up work to be done around the spinners and undercarriage doors, but that is routine.

I first built this kit back in 1983, qualifying it for this Group Build. I built it again in 2005: There are of course some things that could have been improved upon, such as removing that ugly "step" at the lower port fuselage/wing join. And moving that small starboard-side fairing inboard, where it ought to be. Those are amongst the things I hope to get right this time. The kit I'm building this time is the starter kit boxing, which I bought in 2012: I have toyed with the idea of adding underwing bombs, and/or completing it in the "Dieppe" scheme, with a white forward fuselage, and black underwing surfaces. But as I also have the Pavla kit - which has both of these options included - I may just build this out of the box. Since I actually started to build this kit a few days ago, the first progress post is going to follow ... very quickly.

Ok ... finally, I am getting back in the groove. Problem is, I'm so much in the groove, I've started two other kits in this GB (new threads to follow in a while), and they are getting more attention. I've spent as much time as I can in the last few days on these kits, but I dragged my heels on organising and uploading the photos. Underside cleaned up, pylons attached, and the rocket pods for good measure: It's not obvious from the kit instruction - or the parts fit - but the Sidewinder pylons should be angled straight down, requiring some surgery. This close-in camera angle doesn't really show how they are oriented. The upper surfaces cleaned up, save for some work to be done around the nose. The pilot ... finally. Right or wrong (more likely the latter), he's done now.

The Chinook is the Italeri kit, I do believe. Revell has re-boxed quite a few Italeri choppers over the years.