Derek D.

Superb build and paintjob. When you can do work like that, the origin or quality of the kit is irrelevant. Inspirational! Derek

This is the only original style Matchbox boxing in my stash so its a major decision to give it a go. A 1979 tooling it has the deep panel lines associated with the earlier tranche of kits. Molded on 3 sprues in light grey, greeney grey and white. The plastic is heavy and shiny. There are 4 identical crewmen supplied and the cockpit tub is molded in two pieces with seats as part of the mold. Wings can be attached in folded or operating positions. Clear parts are quite thick but in good nick. I wont try to enhance them with a dip in Clear type fluids. The decals are what you would expect in a kit that is between 25 and 40 years old. I'm currently in slightly warmer climes than home so I might get a chance to sun bleach them, it isn't currently warm enough however to work outside too much, so my airbrushing opportunities will be limited I have generally struggled with a full white underside on larger kits so this is a risk for me.

PK-44 Dassault Mirage IIIB I really don't like building silver jets....

It's a Matchbox... built for the fun of it rather than any attempt at real workd accuracy. The undercarriage is spindly, there's no cockpit detail. In the 80s they seemed to try and distinguish themselves by building the 2 seater varients of popular aircraft...Mirage, F104, Viggen, F5, Sea Fury, trainers seemed to be their thing. Though they did build the single seat Hawk 200.

Without starting a whole colour thing....what is your "go to" for Oxford Blue.. Derek

Have this in the stash and was going to build it but a quick scan showed the nose tip and cannon were missing from the sprue....I may have cannibalised it 25 years ago having misplaced one on a previous build...Two of the huge canopies though... Good luck with the build...I will be following this.

The decals looked a bit iffy and I decided not to use the national emblems, the set I used were nearly as old but the white cross was less yellow, left over from an old Italeri F-18. The tail decals were a bit bigger than the kit ones and one roundel wouldn't fully release from the backing paper. I trimmed the red stripes and nacel decals as close as possible and soaked in very warm water. There were still chunks of backing paper and old glue atttached and I had to clean the back of each one with a brush. I then used copious amounts of Micro Sol to get it to adhere and Set to lay it down. The alternative was lots of masking and red paint... The important deals, Stripes, serial number and undercarriage markings were all usable , stencil stuff much less so. Beige applied to the required parts of the tail. Main undercarriage is very flimsy, A final coat of varnish. Next day remove the canopy masking and find there's been some oozing.... Canopy was faitly scraped to begin with and I had tried to clear wit Gauzy glass agent....needs some attention now Clean up canopy as best I can, attach wheels and here it is.... done

PK09 - Bell HueyCobra A1-G

Applied a coat of gloss varnish (Vallejo) and time for decals. I wanted to use the least number possible from the sheet as I didn't know how it would behave. I needed the Marines decal and if possible the serial. The intention was to use insignia from an aftermarket sheet. I painted the markings for the rotors. As it transpired the decals worked OK and I could not put my hand on the aftermarket sheet so I went ahead with insignis on the sheet and they went on well. I used plenty of micro sol and set. After 24 Hour I gave it another coat of varnish and when it was dry started looking at how to give it some depth. I didn't wan to overly wear or weather. I lightly applied Tamiya weathering master silver to some panels, around the intakes and exhaust. As the panel lines are over exaggerated i didn't want to go mad with pin washes or panel liners I attached the skids and remembered issues in the past with this as the positioning and levelling of the skids is very vague. I thought I had them level but when i came back the next day they were uneven. I removed one carefully and refitted with the aid of superglue. Fit the weapons, another coat of varnish. Remove the canopy masking to reveal other problems!!! Adding the rotor is a difficult task as the main support is too big for the receiving hole and not very strong in supporting the rotors. The pin provided for the tail rotor is unusable so I cut a metal pin to link this to the tail. Clean up the canopy as much as possible..... and call it done. Looks better to the eye than in the photos taken with a Galaxy s21..... as someone remarked in another forum today...close up photography isnt good for the moddeling ego... Built in the spirit of those early days of Matchbox when green was green and tan was whatever you thought it was, with no regard for FS, BS or RLM....

Many build 1/72 due to display/storage restraints but it is also the scale that many older builders grew up on and its the scale that gets new people into the hobby through starter sets or even lidl/aldi offers. While its not an ideal scale for detailing, particularly with photo-etch, it offers the greatest range of subjects and choice. The relative pricing also allows the purchase of multiple kits of the same subject to be finished in various theatre or national schemes, benefitting 3rd party decal makers. You can also experiment wear and weathering techniques at low risk to your pocket. Who is going to try a new technique on a 1/24th Spitfire at a £100 a pop. The emergence of YouTubers showing techniques and skills, building and finishing both old and new kits has stolen much of the reasons for purchasing magazines, reducing their content to ads and effectively advertorials (build reports on the latest and greatest releases). It would be great to see proper modelling of both new and old releases, vintage builds and similar regulars to Colour Conundrum in SAM. Build/box reviews are not enough, lets see creative articles, build a few of P-40s and finish them for different theatres with suitable weathering on each. Build an Airfix and Eduard kit of the same subject and give us the pros and cons. If an editor is going to cajole someone for an article then make it interesting. Derek

Pocetmags have credited 11 month balance to my account, still scammed for December double up though. Will probably put it against Phoenix, though I would like more 1/72 content!!!! Most makes trending towards larger scale these days....... Derek

Put on an aluminium coat. Screwed up by picking up and applying Vallejo Metal Colour Dull Aluminium instead of Duraluminium.... maybe the new prescription specs aren't working😏. Layed a coat of the Duraluminium over it to try and raise the shine. Nothing like a metal coat to highlight flaws in the plastic and filling issues.... Some remedial work required... Dull!!! Shinier?????

I'm not an armour guy but that looks fab to me. Might even try to get hold of one and give it a go. derek

Wings attached with some filling required. Filled, and joints tested with black paint for testing prior to black gloss layer as NMF undercoat. Looks good in its black coat....

I have been toying with the idea of the 3 colour finish but I think ill go with the original options for nostalgia sake. Ill get the AZ or other kit for a more adventurous finish. Another dusting of my TAN mix, using a cheap Chinese Airbrush due to my H&S issues. Happy enough with the outcome. Went with green for the rotor blade as this seems to be what the instructions indicate and the weapons also as I think it will look good against the overall tan. Just needs a coat of varnish, decals and assembly of the bits... maybe a light panel wash to bring out some detail.

With a break in the Cobra build I got a start on the Mirage. Gave it a coat of MIG one shot primer, the finish will be NMF and i will probably lay a coat of Gloss black down when assembled. The plastic is totally different to the earlier kits, flimsier and cheaper feel. Doesn't have the canyon depth panel lines of the original kits, more raised than engraved. There is some slight scrape/graze damage on the canopy and it takes a few rounds of rubbing, sanding and dipping in Gauzy glass agent to get to acceptable, the clear parts in these kits is quite thick, not as thick as old frog models but much thicker than modern kits. No little men (pilots) with this kit and essentially no cockpit build. I want to do these builds as close to the Matchbox intended result as possible and i want to keep it easy and enjoyable so I resist the urge to enhance the cockpit and proceed with assembly . As can be seen alignment is an issue, top and bottom wouldn't simultaneously align. There is a warp in one of the fuselage halves. I align the bottom to allow the wings to attach and get the top as close as possible and will fill and sand to align. Nose cone filled with liquid gravity, secured in PVA, hope its enough weight. A panel needs to be attached to the fuselage to enable the wing assembled to attach. I need this to be well set before attempting to connect the wings so I will let it cook overnight. Seam filling also required.

A coat of black primer for the canopy frames, filler requirement exposed a clean up and sand followed by a cot of AK IAF Dark Tan with some white added, This is for the marines version of the kit. Having Airbrush problems....bubbling followed by splatter and jamming...been an ongoing issue for a few weeks with my H&S Evolution, I've stripped and cleaned it over and over, I think the nozzle is done for. The lighter colour exposed more filling requirements. I have completed this and left it to settle overnight.

Don't know why I haven't done more of my Matchbox stash, this is going together better than my "classic" Airfix efforts. Cant remember whether this has a tendency to rock towards the tail or not so a little liquid gravity to put some weight over the skids secured with some PVA glue. Sides attached and clamped, a little Revell Contacta used as wasn't sure ET would hold. Seams look OK. I recall when I first built this as a kid, I couldn't believe it was a real helicopter when I saw how narrow it was... This photo shows it needs a bit of work on the cowling!!!! Winglets and tail attached, canopy masked. Will leave everything to set fully before applying some paint. Speaking of paint. I need to decide whether to go with the Matchbox Green or Tan scheme or to apply the 3 colour Viet Nam camo of Tan, Dark Green and Olive Drab. Derek

I find that once opened, they thicken over time and need thinning. Water works for brush. Revells own Aqua thinner works really well when airbrushing and it requires a lot of thinning for airbrush use. Derek

My favourite jet as a young teen and still love it. This with the Lysander is one of my nostalgia triggers, though I always did and still do struggle with the gloss/satin white underside..... one of the builds I will be following. Derek

Hi Dermot Built the Airfix Lysander last year in the IAC finish using the very old Maxdecal sheet. I had built the Matchbox kit a fair few times over the years and the Airfix kit isn't a patch on it. Would like to get my hands on another Matchbox one. Looking forward to your build. Derek D.

I'm a sucker for early Naval jets myself, both US and British. Looking forward to this finish. Derek

No story here, Its in the stash and was one of the kits not being built. Decals look very dodgy and my available spares lead me towards the Swiss NMF finish.... Not a two colour kit....

a quick start I don't normally bother these days but I've painted the "little men" as my wife calls them. About as good as I can paint little men these days, luckily I collected the new prescription specs this morning.... The point of 2 colour plastic is moot when you prime everything in black. Mig Ammo One Shot. I was going to use some cockpit parts from an Italeri Super Cobra kit that I have in the stash which is missing its clear parts but decided to build as Matchbox and the Modelling gods intended.

This is a 1973 Kit and was in the first batch of kits released by Matchbox. It was probably the 2nd or third Matchbox kit I bought, I'm sure the first was the Zero. Less than a 100 yards from where I lived there was a row of neighborhood shops. Supermarkets as we know them were a new concept and the range of local shops included drapers, hardware, grocery, pharmacy and newsagent. The local newsagent was also the sweetshop, toy shop and tobacconist. We had two locally and one of them, Martins, had the ubiquitous spinning rack of Airfix and Frog Baggies, Behind the glass counter were the Airfix boxed kits. One Friday myself and my cousin who lived locally, headed to Martins to spend our two weeks pocket money (2 shillings which had recently become 10p but was always called a florin here in Ireland). This was a little more than we needed for a baggie and the shopkeeper wanting to get all our money showed us this new range of product from Matchbox, which was in coloured plastic and only moderately more expensive than Airfix baggies and it was in a box.... we were hooked. The biggest drawback was that there was only a very limited range and we quickly ran out of choices over the following month. We still built Airfix but Matchbox became a big part of those years. When I dabbled again in kit building in the early to mid 90s the whole industry was in decline due to the developments in computer games. I bought a lot more than I built back then and managed to accumulate a few Matchbox along the way. The kit plastic in great condition, not confident about decals, canopy will be dipped in Gauzy glass agent.