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Airfix 1/72 RAF High Speed Launch


Lynx7

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As some will be aware, in between building Lynx and Wildcat helicopters, I do like to diversify by building 1/72 boats - MTBs, Patrol boats and HSL's. I find them a great scale because they arent too small to put some good detail on and they dont take up a huge amount of room. Not only that, they just look great (Perkasa, lots of the Vospers and several other lesser known boats). I decided to build the very old Airfix RAF HSL as a part of my clubs theme for this years Telford - Rescue, Repair and Recovery. I decided to set it on a base to give it a bit of context. Nothing too adventurous; just a tail from an old Revell Spitfire in the drink with the pilot in his dingy getting rescued. It did however allow me to experiment for the first time making a sea base. I'm satisfied how it came out and may even make bases for my ever growing collection of MTBs.

For the base, I simply used a piece of stiff picture mounting card (dark green) then loosely painted it dark blue using artist acrylics. After that I added differing shades of greens and blues to add a bit of depth. I then applied artists gel with a large(ish) brush to replicate the waves and crests. This product dries clear so it helped to also add a bit of depth. Once that had dried, I then applied more greens, blues and dabs of white. Once it was all dry, I chucked on a coat of semi gloss artists varnish to lock it all down and also give it the final sense of depth. Prior to all this, I carefully cut out the hull shape in the card. I decided to do this instead of cutting the hull on the kit down so I could still mount the craft on a stand if I wished. The boat simply sits in the hole on the base (excuse the bits of white-tac filling the gaps!). To finish, I placed the whole base in a suitable picture frame.

Despite it being an old kit, its actually really nice and simple to build. It took me about 2 weeks to complete and its pretty much straight out the box apart from adding rigging (EZ line) and various bits of rope to dress the deck and the bloke in his dingy (CMK). EZ line is the way ahead when doing rigging and the like as it is very forgiving and simple to attach. Another bonus is because it is effectively elastic, it wont snap if youre a bit clumsy!

Here she is:

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Thanks for looking

Tony

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Ruddy heck that is fantastic! Diorama of the the year for me by a mile!

Every detail in that, & the simple idea itself involving the sinking Spitfire is genius.

Oh and the photography is superb.

A multi award winning diorama!

Martin

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Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Very Nice. I like that a lot. The Sea Shall not Have Them!!!i Also like the poses of the figures. It gives the whole piece some 'life'!

(Just one point and I know its a bit nit picky but not in any way a downer on your lovely work, the Spitfire, EP120 survived the war :winkgrin: )

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  • 2 weeks later...

That's quite something John. How you manage to fit modelling to this standard around duties as a 'Driver; Airframe' I have no idea, but I am glad you do. You really do make some fabulous stuff.

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