Give me a break.......

[gengriz]

This has not been a good year for me in any respect with the death of my mum, followed quickly by a major leg injury that needed two significant operations to fix.  However, once again, modelling has proved to be a therapeutic hobby. Although builds from the early and middle part of the year were mostly built whilst lying on a sofa, or sitting on the floor (getting back up on the sofa required external assistance), I'm relatively pleased with my output and it definitely helped me to get back on my feet.... literally. 

 

As always, all kits were 1/72, hand brushed using Humbrol and Revell enamels.

 

January started with two early Harriers to add to my collection - both ESCI 1/72 kits. The USMC one came in a bag with a warped fuselage and broken wing (I suspect the box had been squashed), but after some remedial work you can't tell. 

 

 

February saw two late WW2 kits of Axis aircraft intended to counter high flying bombers, an ancient FROG He162 and a slightly more modern Hasegawa Ki-44 Tojo:

 

 

 

March was the month of disasters, but at the start of the month I finished a rather nice DeHavilland Sea Devon. 

 

 

April was more difficult - I had started and almost completed one of the new Airfix Hawks in Red Arrows colours before my fall. Overall red isn't too difficult to paint lying on your back and once it was complete, I threw together an ancient Airfix Gnat to join it (on the basis of "if I mess it up I don't care"). Both came out pretty well, although I was still a little shaky and struggled with hand painting the frames on the canopies:

 

 

May saw the second operation and a bit of a setback. Rather than start anything new, I decided to fix an old model that was bugging me - after all, because I couldn't get upstairs, I was sleeping downstairs on a sofabed in my modelling room, so all was laid out in front of me for scrutiny.  An Airfix Lynx HAS.3 ICE built in 2009 had some rather crude handling bars for its folded blades, so an easy replacement was overdue: 

 

 

And then, because AFV models are they are easier to handle and generally don't need any heavy duty sanding, I completed a Revell 1/72 MAN Truck. This was a surprisingly complex and satisfying little kit that turned out well. The brown is wrong, but was all I could get hold of at this point. At this point I shuffled down onto the floor to paint at a coffee table, which worked relatively well, although I couldn't actually get back up again and had to stay there most of the day until Mrs T came back home to help me back up

 

 

By June I was feeling a little more adventurous (and a little impatient/frustrated) so took on a conversion of a 1/72 Airfix Spitfire 22 into a Seafire 46, using some Model Alliance decals. This was a real morale booster as it worked out very well. 

 

 

 

They say pride comes before a fall though and bouyed by my Seafire 46, I decided to try a resin CMR Seafire 45. For some reason I could not get the CA glue to stick anything together. I washed the parts thoroughly, then sent Mrs T into town to buy new CA (twice) to no avail and finally ended up using Araldite (truly horrible stuff). I got there in the end, but the result wasn't as good as I had hoped.  I still cant reach the "Late Seafires" box in the garage, so no pictures yet with my Seafire 17 and 47.

 

 

The heat of August wasn't good for modelling and I felt a little downhearted following the resin issues, so I played around with an old Airfix blister pack Spitfire Mk.9 hacking it into a passable Seafire L.III.  Definitely "looks like a Seafire" and a satisfying build, although it would undoubtedly have the Seafire experts squirming.

 

 

September saw a FROG Hunter FGA.9 as an easy and fast build. The pictures seem to overemphasise the apparent hook up of the forward fuselage - it doesn't look that bad in reality. 

 

 

October saw a little bit of serious bravado, as I started a Mach 2 Hu-25 Guardian kit. This is definitely old-fashioned modelling, which was a lot of fun. I made a few scratch additions to turn it into an Hu-25D with gps, satnav and optical sensors. Although the end result has its blemishes, it makes a striking impact hanging from my modelling shelf ! 

 

 

November was Canberra month, starting with a Cold War FROG B(I).8 kit and ending with a Vietnam Italeri B-57B. Same role, different approach, for different wars:

 

 

 

And then December.  Having returned fully to work in June (after working from home for a while), F-35Bs and QE First of Class Flying Trials have been a major feature.  And now they are complete, QNLZ is back in Portsmouth and PWLS is progressing in Rosyth.  So in a fit of excitement and pride, I had to build another F-35B, and it had to be in RN colours (don't scoff, it's not impossible, by a long way). I briefly contemplated doing one of the two trials aircraft, preferably the one with the coloured markings, but some of the prominent light grey lettering defeated me. 

 

So instead I built a new one in slightly toned down 809 Sqn markings and updated last year's build to add the badge of the F-35 Integrated Test Force to the inner tails:

 

 

 

And that. I think, was a good way to end a bad year.  Roll on 2019 - the coming year's objective is to find a model show I can display at and get some of them out of their boxes again!

 

FredT

 

Edited December 9, 2018 by gengriz
minor edits

[PlaStix]

That's a great collection for the year! Well done. 

Kind regards,

Stix

[Bill.B]

I’m always amazed how well a brush finished model can turn out, and yours are very nicely finished indeed.  

[Rob G]

Nice work! I especially like the Matador, not a scheme often seen.

[theplasticsurgeon]

You're too modest Fred, (or critical) they're all great!

Wishing you a better 2019.

[MarkSH]

A very nice collection of builds despite the circumstances, here's hoping that 2019 is equally productive.

 

Mark.

[Newbie(kinda)]

So, hang on. You've built (and brush painted) those models whilst lying on your back, in pain, recovering from two major ops? Good God, man. That's just, what's the word. Inspiring! Might I suggest, next year, you challenge yourself a little and do them blindfold!! But seriously. Lovely work. And may 2019 go some way to healing the awfulness of 2018.

[Reini78]

Lovely collection of little ones

[gengriz]

One final one to squeeze in for 2018 - Matador Models' lovely little resin 1/76 FV721 Fox CVR(W) - and that's all fffolks...... :