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Having started land and waterborne elements of the Vietnam war, it was inevitable that I would want a flying machine as well. And in my view nothing symbolises the Vietnam war more than the ubiquitous Huey, the UH-1. Ideally I'd like to do a slick, as the real Hueys I've seen have all been the longer body version. But apart from the Panda/Dragon effort, I'm not aware of any slicks in 1/35, and the Pandagon versions are seemingly both as rare as rocking horse poop, and reviews are not very complimentary. Kitty Hawk bottled out and went 1/48, so the field is still.open for someone to step up. How about it Airfix? However, as uncomplimentary as the Pandagon reviews are, reviews of the Academy UH-1C are very positive despite its age, and the recent Revell boxing is available fairly cheaply. D3 by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr D3 by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr This is just a placeholder until I reach a point on the other builds where I need some rotary wing relief. There's a lot of plastic in the box.

Over in the armour forum I started a thread on my current Vietnam war builds. However the PBR feels out of place there, so this thread will follow the PBR build. There might be a hiatus while I crack on with the M151 on the other thread, but as a taster here's the bits before I begin work: Untitled by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr Untitled by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr

I wasn’t sure where to put this, since it’s a thread with both military vehicles and a boat! (And if Kittyhawk ever release their UH-1 in in 1/35 it might end up with a chopper too!) 1 by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr The Vietnam war was still underway when I was born, and growing up our local library was a source of endless fascination – I don’t remember all the titles but among them there was Air America; another book about a Brit serving in the US army, and many others. The poignancy of many of them was probably lost on me as a kid, bit as I grew older I read other works, Dispatches, Chickenhawk and others, which gave me a different take on what was, then, recent history. Looking back now, I have to wonder if the war was unwinnable, and if the US, and its allies, ever really had a strategic vison, or were they just (as I suspect many saw it) “holding the line”. None of which takes away from the very real suffering of the Vietnamese people and the troops (mainly US, but other allied nations as well) who fought over that land for so many years. If Korea was a continuation of WW2; Vietnam was, by contrast, the first truly modern war. (I’m no historian, so all of this is my personal impression only.) Anyway, enough preamble. I haven’t done any plastic bashing for months, so before I make a start on the main event, I thought it would be a good idea to “get my eye in” on something less expensive or challenging. The Tamiya M151A1 seemed a good place to start – I built this (in the A2 version) when it was first released in the early 1980s (the main sprue mould date is 1982, when I was 12). 1 by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr 1 by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr I’ve ordered the Legend Productions set (mainly, daft though it sounds, for the pedals, but I felt they were likely to be better than anything I could scratchbuild, but meantime I’ve made a start on the tub. I’m aware that the front suspension is oversimplified so will probably try and do something about that as well. 1 by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr @Procopius will be pleased to learn that I have already made (and hopefully repaired) the obligatory thumb glue print. He's less likely to approve of the lack of wings, but at least its modelling!

Index: Revell 1/72 P-47 Done WIP (below) RFI Airfix 1/72 P-51 Done WIP RFI Revell 1/72 Spitfire MkV Done WIP RFI Academy 1/72 Bf109G-6 WIP _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well I'm back baby, nice month of non-modelling guitar and flying stuff and I'm ready to kick off a new build. Bench #2 is piled high with my mountain of etch and masks to be sorted, Bench #1 has a Revell F-4E that I don't want to fiddle with right now so lets get this one up and running. First off the Bench for @Tomoshenko : Utter chaos, scalpel on the wrong side of the single edge nipper, wet or dry not correctly ordered in grit size and the Mr Surfacer 500 is on the right of the 1000! Dear god can any good come out of this insanity? I have a pile of these bought at the Southampton Modelzone at 5 for £10 on their last day: Looks nice enough, very delicate engraving and lovely general details though a surprising amount of flash on the smaller parts (see IP). Decals are coming from this voluminous but inaccurate Skys sheet- I rather fancy XO1, red nose, blue tail with yellow lightning bolts and a small but un-PC bit of nose art. Slap on the Alclad and it'll be yet more shininess in the display cabinet. The Sky's decals are gorgeously printed (by Cartograf) and they even throw in a set of instrument dials and stencils as well a a gazillion schemes for a paltry £5.99. The caveat is some of the research is a bit slapdash and many of the decals on the sheet dont have any corresponding instructions, good enough for a non rivet counter like me and plenty of fodder for the spares box. Pit done first, nothing fancy Mr Color Chromate green and Mike Grant instrument decals/placards for the IP. wash is the sepia dark body wash from Les Bursfield's recipe. Wot a little plastic pilot?! Finally decided it was time to do some miniature painting- little man is from a Revell pilots set and I did some "adjusting" of the limbs that will not be seen when the canopy's on: Belts are painted scotch tape with a BMF disc punched out with my RP toolz punches, which also supplied the gold shoulder badges. Finished off with dark body wash to pop the face and hands. Must say I had an indecent amount of fun doing this, I think all future builds may be crewed... Engine is done with Alclad aluminium with a light black body wash ( placard from Mike Grant set). Well that's a few days work done and now time to do work on my rather corroded new purchase, a 1984 Westone Thunder 1A, polishing wheel and elbow grease will be needed in abundance...any guitar restorers out there feel free to chip in. Cheery byes all! Anil

Index Revell 1/72 Phantom F4F as F4E on hold WIP Revell 1/72 Kfir C.2 WIP ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well folks the styrene bug has well and truly bit. just finished my Airfix Therapy Thread which yielded half a dozen or so passable efforts and I thought it was time to cast my net wider: I have a dedicated modelling and separate spraying space So I thought, lets give each bench a thread and see which one produces the most/best/least laughable models. I also keep my mild OCD satisfied as everything is in a few places with a neat index with linkypoos to WIPs & RFIs. So onwards and lets build (or not) Today bench #1 looks like this: The build list: Revell 1/72 Phantom F4F as F4E

I have come to realise that as I grow older, my modelling output is declining in inverse proportion to my years. I have also come to the reluctant conclusion that I own far more kits than I shall ever build, or, realistically ever want to. So, what to do? I have imposed on myself sort of pre-new-year’s resolution. I shall not buy more kits than I finish next year. Since I haven’t finished a model all 2017 I think, I shan’t be buying much. Having made this resolution, I promptly failed, since I acquired one of the Aldi bargain Gnat’s, and have ordered some extras (masks, pitot) to help finish it. But it’s not the New Year yet! I have also realised that I have an incredibly irritating habit of starting build threads and then getting, distracted, bored or side-tracked and not completing them. So, while I shall continue my currently active builds on their own threads, any I start from now on will go here (if its 1/72). I’ve had a couple of days off work as I have been unwell. Lacking the energy or concentration to model I consoled myself with reading, and an exploration of the stash. image by jongwinnett, on Flickr As well as the Gnat, two tentatively started builds muscled their way to the top. Harrier, my favourite childhood fast(ish) jet; Hawk, because one can never have too many; and the aforementioned Gnat. Alongside the royal Apache, I have decided to try and progress these. image by jongwinnett, on Flickr They will not be brilliant, but hopefully actually getting on and making something will restore some of my enthusiasm and confidence, which have waned over the past months. The Harrier had seen the most progress, and the box contained, alongside the Airfix plastic, a Freightdog corrected tail, Master pitot, and decals which should enable me to do one of the No. 1417 Flight birds stationed in Belize (with the long term aim of doing a matching Puma of 1563 Flt) So this was this evenings gentle warm up: image by jongwinnett, on Flickr image by jongwinnett, on Flickr image by jongwinnett, on Flickr Hope the idea of a portmanteau WIP is ok, hopefully more progress tomorrow.

Followers of my many started, rarely finished builds will know that I am something of a dilettante, flitting between scale, genres and subjects, and rarely achieving completion. Very much a jack of all trades, master of none. Nonetheless, I do have certain common themes, although these may not be immediately discernible – and they recur regularly in my chaotic progress – and 1/72 scale planes and armour are regular topics, with the latter generally focussed on “the Great Crusade”, as Eisenhower dubbed the D-Day landings and reconquest of western Europe. So this portmanteau thread is intended to capture my various efforts in this area, and share my success and failures as I wrestle with tiny tanks and aging eyesight. So what have we on the bench at present? Well first up is a real quick build – the surprisingly convincing Italeri wargames jeep. Not the finesse of its Heller or Airfix counterparts, both of which wait in the wings, nonetheless these little kits are a joy to assemble. Out of the box, the wheels might be too narrowly spaced, buts that’s easy to rectify, and there is a wealth of extra detail and refinement that could be added, but if you wanted a robust little 4x4 for the wargames table, then you couldn’t go far wrong with these. Jeep 1/72 Italeri by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr Jeep 1/72 Italeri by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr Jeep 1/72 Italeri by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr This one is destined to get hood sticks, a replacement steering wheel and maybe extended wheel hubs to better reflect the prototype, but it was a fun few minutes getting it to this stage. Alongside the jeep, I have a small platoon of Shermans on the go. First, a Heller M4, one of a pair, this will represent Intruder II, but the turret with added cast in armour is destined for a model of Hurricane. 1/72 M4 by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr No surprise that I’ve picked the two tanks on the Heller decal sheet. There are photographs of both online, Hurricane being loaded (I guess?) onto an LST with wading trunks in place (and later in the campaign in the well-known shot of it receiving an engine change. I will model it with trunks as shown here: M4(75)_Sherman_with_Deep_Wading_Gear by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr The scratch built cast in armour is possibly a little on the bulky side, and may yet get sanded down some more. Apparently this tank also lacked the pistol port/shell ejection hatch on the starboard turret rear quarter – if so that will need shaved off the Italeri donor turret (or I may start again with a spare Heller turret.) As well as the pair of M4s from Utah beach, I have a trio (currently, more may yet appear) of M4A2 Sherman IIIs of 27th Armoured Brigade, 13th/18th Royal Hussars, several of which feature in well-known photos taken by Sergeant James Mapham. THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 1939-45. © IWM (H 38970) IWM Non Commercial License THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE NORMANDY CAMPAIGN 1944. © IWM (B 5425) IWM Non Commercial License THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 1939-45. © IWM (H 38998) IWM Non Commercial License D-DAY - BRITISH FORCES DURING THE INVASION OF NORMANDY 6 JUNE 1944. © IWM (B 5110) IWM Non Commercial License Fortunately Dan Taylor Modelworks offer transfers for the Brigade, making modelling them easier. Italeri quick build tanks are basic, but reasonable, starting points for quick and cheap hacking and practice. To model the ARV in the background of that last shot, I have one of Mr Taylor’s conversion kits and a Heller M4A2 donor standing by. 1/72 M4A2 Italeri by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr

How about something off the beaten path? I have always gained insight and inspiration by watching other model masters at work, but even more so, from perusing their workbench. This may be a private and sacred place for some, but one can learn a great deal just by seeing another's place of work, where ideas come into reality, and seemingly insurmountable obstacles in model building are "scaled." So...let's start with my workplace...this is my model bench. Nothing too fancy, just a folding table with a large cut of hardwood to keep it steady and provide the room to work. On the bench right now is a Heller 1/72 scale Super Constellation, to be detailed and finished (someday) in KLM "The Flying Dutchman." While this topic is intended for civil airliner model enthusiasts, everybody is welcome...but...civil airliners pose their own cans of worms that are unique. Now...let's see yours!!

....... Just had a strange thought!! The last few Airfix announcements have been on a Friday and roughly two weeks apart. So it's been two weeks since we heard about the B-17 and Bomber Respply set and two weeks before that when he heard about the new 1/48 Meteor F.8 ...so... Should we be expecting a new Airfix release announcement today?? Cheers.. Dave.