Kitchen Modeller Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 (edited) Evening all - this hobby is alot of things to alot of different people. For me, it gives me a chance to relax and decompress in a very zen like way, where I can focus 100% on something that isn't my job, a tv screen or a computer. It gives me a way to be creative and to indulge my passions and interests. It makes me feel good without the aid of alcohol or other self medicating drugs. But in many ways, it is kind of like a drug. For one thing, it's utterly addictive. And totally consuming. But I like to think it's a constructive addiction. It doesn't destroy homes, it just takes up space in them. I do occasionally get high on modelling, but not in a good way - I've just left the lid off the thinner bottle. The high I'm after is the one you get with a nice paint job that came out the way you intended. Or getting the mix in the panel line wash just right. Even a nicely recessed decal does it for me. Can't get enough of it. Every addiction has a beginning. For me it was this kit: Bought for me by my father on a day out together. Just me and him. We went home and built it in an afternoon (don't think it was too complicated) There was no paints and we just slapped the decals onto the plastic. It came out perfect. It was the start of a life long interest in models and WW2 in particular. Not that I'm in need of reconnecting with my inner 7 year old - I'm basically still 7 - I've chosen the current day version of this kit to build next. After living in the land of Eduard and Tamiya these past few builds, it's going to be fun returning to planet Airfix. I'm bracing for some terrible fits, huge gaps and a ton of sanding and filler. But I'm curious to see if I can bring some new found techniques to bear on a cheap airfix kit. Also who doesn't love a 110? The answer is nobody. Some sprues: Some meaty panel lines right there - they are comically large but I don't mind - hopefully a nice paint job will make them shine. There's some rivets! I'll take what I can get. Lots of drop tanks and bombs - not sure I'll be using any but we'll see. The tires look okay with some tread detail. Some nice detail on the vertical stabilisers also. Plenty to work with. We've got some details in the wheel bays but zero in the cockpit. It's going to be closed cockpit anyways so no biggie. Highlight so far... decals look really good. I will be bring out the riveting tools on this one in an effort to bring in some more details - also, I just like riveting. The lines look quite straightforward on this... (famous last words?) I've got a little after market: Eduard masks because it's got that canopy - though they cost almost the same as the kit. And some spare swastikas as Airfix doesn't include them these days. Please note, I'm only planning to use 2. The scheme I'll be using: I haven't done this paint scheme before but I think black basing will make it work... So that's it for now - Thanks for checking in - cockpit construction is coming soon... Cheers John Edited March 4, 2019 by Kitchen Modeller spelling 24 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil5208 Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 The kit shape wise is good and goes together pretty well but otherwise basic. Make for a quick build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaminCam Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 Looking forward to this John! Love the intro as well as you have summed up exactly how I feel about the hobby. Colour scheme is very similar to the He-111 I'm working on and I can highly recommend the Mr Hobby RLM paints. I've been thinning them with Tamiya X20A and they spray on great. Quick question: what riveting tool do use? I'm looking to get a new one as the plastic trumpeter riveter is disintegrating after just a 1/72 Bf109 and He-111. Good luck! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_t Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 Yep, totally on the same page as you with that intro. I have the same kit maturing nicely on the pile somewhere, so I will peer over your shoulder to see how it turns out 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 Those panel lines are definitely on the canal side and I plan on reducing them somehow on mine. I have both this one and the trop version on the stash, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes together. Ian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted March 4, 2019 Author Share Posted March 4, 2019 7 hours ago, SaminCam said: Quick question: what riveting tool do use? I'm looking to get a new one as the plastic trumpeter riveter is disintegrating after just a 1/72 Bf109 and He-111. Hi SaminCam - I've used the trumpeter one in the past and it's fine - not surprised yours fell apart as it's quite flimsy. I bought the Rosie The Riveter tool (Petr DousekI) haven't used it yet so it will be tested on the 110. It seems well regarded... I'll let you know how I get on with it here...! Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted March 4, 2019 Author Share Posted March 4, 2019 2 hours ago, limeypilot said: Those panel lines are definitely on the canal side and I plan on reducing them somehow on mine You would have to fill them and then rescribe - not sure I'll be doing this as I want this to be a relatively quick build. I've got my eye on the eduard version so it will be interesting to see them side by side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 Hey, it could be worse. You could be trying to build that old Airfix kit from the 60's. The new kit is way better. I, too, have one is the stashheap so I'll be creeping on your build. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted March 7, 2019 Author Share Posted March 7, 2019 (edited) Evening all - broke ground on this a couple of nights ago so have some progress to show... One of the basic issues with the kit is the lack of cockpit detail. There’s basically none. This is the gunners instrument panel for example. So even though this will be a closed cockpit, I wanted to add at least some detail as part of my never ending quest to make my small 1:72 planes looking less toy like. Some things I can use for this: Some left over pe, a little wire and the foil off a whiskey bottle. Not a great arsenal but it should help out... Must remember to drink more whiskey so I can get more foil. On this I drilled some holes for gauges, added some foil and then some pe to create some detail based loosely on some reference photos. (Very loosely) I added some putty to the seats for cushions and left that to cure. This also covered up some huge ejecter pin marks in the base of the seats. The fuselage and wings were pulled from their sprues and tidied up. Did a quick dry fit to gauge the level of horrors that awaited me... The fit is actually very good. I feel bad about slagging off airfix previously. For the cost, they’re not half bad. Some sanding will be required but it all looks pretty good at this stage. Next up - some riveting. I was looking forward to this as I had acquired a new tool - a Rosie the riveter which apparently are the bees knees. Some lines were drawn and some holes were made. So this tool is pretty cool. Best thing about it is that you can see with pinpoint accuracy where you’re working- my problem with trumpeters tool is that the cutter is hidden from view. The smaller wheel also means that’s it’s much easier to rivet in straight lines - which is impossible with trumpeters version with out using a hard edge as a guide. So you can see here I got a half decent result. Easily my best rivet job to date. Only issue is that the rivets are a little too close together- I have the .50mm version which I thought would be best for 1:72 but I think a bigger gap would work better. I now have to order the bigger size. For this however, I’ll sand it down abit - I think it will still look okay. Makes an improvement to the over all look I think. Back to the cockpit - I added some wire - let’s say for fuel lines 😛 And gave everything a lick of paint. Tamiya German grey mixed with some white and thinned 50/50 with lacquer thinner... After a few base coats, I added some more white to the mix and sprayed some highlights... I’ll get on with painting the cockpit detail next and hopefully turn it into something interesting to look at through the canopy... That’s it for now - Thanks for checking in...! Edited March 7, 2019 by Kitchen Modeller 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nikolay Polyakov Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 Very interesting story and nice start, @Kitchen Modeller! 👍 I hope you can bring back some good emotions with this build. 🙂 Cheers! 😎 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted March 7, 2019 Author Share Posted March 7, 2019 12 minutes ago, Nikolay Polyakov said: Very interesting story and nice start, @Kitchen Modeller! 👍 I hope you can bring back some good emotions with this build. 🙂 Cheers! 😎 Thanks Nikolay - I’m sure there will be some good AND bad emotions on this build like all the others but as long as it ends up looking okay in the end I’ll be very happy.. 😊 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 I agree completely about your introduction! For me, the modelling journey is the goal and not necessarily with a finished model as a result (Hawker T-named aircraft are the exception though) Yep, this is a nice little kit, perfect to play with! Yes, I've got a stalled one somewhere... Nice bit of riveting going on there, but I do guess that the cockpits were still RLM02 at this point, or so Eduards 110C kit instructions tells me 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted March 7, 2019 Author Share Posted March 7, 2019 (edited) 11 hours ago, Christer A said: Nice bit of riveting going on there, but I do guess that the cockpits were still RLM02 at this point, or so Eduards 110C kit instructions tells me Thanks Christer - re. the RLM 02 - I'm following the Airfix guide here which indicated the grey however this is probably not right - my understanding is that RLM 02 was a grey green in the early years, and got more grey as the war progressed... But since this is a nostalgia build, I'm not too bothered about it being 100% accurate - I like the grey Edited March 7, 2019 by Kitchen Modeller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 Just call it a RLM66 repaint then and run with it 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 You may or may not wish to eliminate the nacelle overhang on to the upper surface of the flaps - it shouldn't be like that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted March 8, 2019 Author Share Posted March 8, 2019 2 hours ago, Ed Russell said: You may or may not wish to eliminate the nacelle overhang on to the upper surface of the flaps - it shouldn't be like that. Thanks Ed - you’re quite correct, this is just one of many inaccuracies with this kit. As I was doing the riveting I noticed that the panel lines are also very wrong. I might look at sanding the nacelles down. I continued work on the pit tonight. The seat cushions where painted with Vallejo model colours - first with a darkish brown and then layering with lighter colours. Finally a wash was applied with tamiya panel line brown. The rest of the seat was dry brushed with light grey and then with metal colour aluminum. I remembered that I had a set of Eduard luftwaffe seat belts kicking around - these required painting before attaching to the seats with ca glue... I did play with using foil or masking tape for belts but I wasn’t happy with how they looked... the eduard belts were there so why not use them. I put some detailing into the gunners instrument panel using citadel white and red. The pilots ip decal was put on. The rest of the pit was then dry brushed with light grey and then with aluminum. Tamiya black panel line wash was then applied all over. The seats were then glued into place. The ‘fuel lines’ were then glued back in after a coat of white and then yellow... That’s it for now - thanks for checking in😀 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Cool looking cockpit! Can't really wrap my head around why there would be fuel lines in the cockpit since the engines are out om the wings.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted March 8, 2019 Author Share Posted March 8, 2019 1 hour ago, Christer A said: Can't really wrap my head around why there would be fuel lines in the cockpit since the engines are out om the wings Yeah... you're right - did I say they fuel lines - I meant to say electrical wiring... 😁 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted March 10, 2019 Author Share Posted March 10, 2019 Afternoon all - the build continued this week... The fuselage got closed up, the wings were attached and the tail went on... The kit fits together nicely - I ran some paint along the seam lines to gauge how much work I'd need to do to make them disappear. The paint revealed some sanding was required but nothing to fret about - the wing root was quite snug and the wing half's aligned quite nicely. The biggest issue was the gaps around the tail piece which was given the perfect plastic putty treatment. There was some small gaps at the front of the wing root join which also got some PPP.... The centre seam lines on the fuselage were then sanded down and the panel lines re-scribed - I used a new tool - tamiya scribing blades (purple handle below) which worked very well - these was used to start the re-scribe, making the initial dent and then followed with the more heavy handed tamiya scribing tool. As ever when doing this kind of work, some mistakes were made - minor slips which caused scratch marks around the panel lines - to fix these I painted on some Alclad primer and micro filler - this took a about 20 minutes to dry and was then sanded back. Some primer on these joins will show me how good or bad this work is... This part of the build is traditionally not one of my strong points so I'm making a conscience effort to get these seams looking as good as possible before paint. Just on another point - I decided to leave the upper side nacelles as they are - as to fix it and make it accurate, would require sanding back the narcelle to half way back along the wing - so quite a large section would have to come off - the plastic isn't that thick so you could end up with a large hole - so it's a question of doing alot of work with a high chance of destroying the wing completely - I figured it wasn't worth the risk. I know that there are ways around it but it wouldn't be a simple job which ever way you look at it. So I'll just live with the inaccuracy in this instance. That's it for now - Thanks for checking in... 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturmovik Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 On 04/03/2019 at 07:20, Kitchen Modeller said: Also who doesn't love a 110? The answer is nobody. I like the 110. I love whatever has Messerschmitt and Focke Wulf in front of it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iggy86 Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 I found myself deeply identified by your way to see the hobby, and i the fact of working (enjoying) with some kits despite some inherent limitations it's truly refreshing. One of the most rewarding moments as a modeller one can get are those of a well done paint job or wash mix... Just hapiness. I think i made the same Airfix me 110 as a kid and it condenses those moments of father/ son afternoons... I recently bought the eduard 110 g4.. who doesn't love an Me 110? Cheers! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 IIRC there are a panel line running both on the upper and lower fuselage on both the 109 and the 110 (also Wildcat and Hellcat) I snapped a photo of a 109 hanging in the ceiling in Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin last summer You can't really see any panel lines at all on that bugger... Can't wait to see how the riveting turned out under a coat of primer! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackster Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Another who identifies strongly with your intro. I have just returned to the hobby and forgot how much I enjoyed it in the first place. I find the whole process really satisfying and very calming. Really enjoying following your build, thanks for sharing. cheers Kev 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 (edited) 17 hours ago, iggy86 said: I found myself deeply identified by your way to see the hobby, and i the fact of working (enjoying) with some kits despite some inherent limitations it's truly refreshing. 14 hours ago, Jackster said: I enjoyed it in the first place. I find the whole process really satisfying and very calming. Thanks guys - It's great to know that there are many out there who feel the same way about the hobby. The great thing is to have discovered the therapeutic qualities bestowed when you fiddle with plastic for a couple of hours. I know it sounds corny or whatever, but having that direct link to your (happy) childhood memories is a good thing - it's calming and it gives you time to breathe. As I've said before, it's a very good drug and one that I'm enjoying immensely at the moment with this trip into Airfix land. 16 hours ago, Christer A said: You can't really see any panel lines at all on that bugger... Lol - well yes. I've been here before - my first post to britmodeller (which was a 109) brought up this very subject... So this is not a rebuttal to your point Christer - I completely agree with you. I thought I'd share my opinion on the whole panel lines on models debate: It is well documented that panel lines on plastic models are arguably an inaccurate portrayal. Yet, kit makers still and continue to put them in. For me, it's a very subjective thing - some people like them and others don't. If they're on the plastic, you can fill them in - which is easier to do than having to scribe them in from scratch - which I'd imagine is the reason why manufacturers put them on in the first place. They know that a large section of the market likes panel lines on their aircraft. These Airfix kits are an extreme example - I like panel lines but even for me, these lines are far too thick. But I'm letting it slide on this one. Why? Because it's Airfix. My goal in this project is to try and make this completely inaccurate kit look like a half decent model - I'm hoping that the paint job and finishing will surpass (or even cloud) it's obvious flaws. If you like 110's at this scale, the Eduard kit is the best choice (and I do intend on building one!) but I'm enjoying taking this ugly duckling out on the town. If I wanted, I could have addressed the many flawed aspects of this kit - but I wanted to keep them in line with the spirit of the nostalgia build. Basically no father would subject their 7 year old son to 2 weeks of sanding, re sculpting and re-scribing... (at least no sane father lol) I want to recapture the spirit of that very first model built out of the box but using the tools and materials I have on hand. BF110 fans will probably not like the finished result but that's okay, I'll build the Eduard kit just for them.. 16 hours ago, Christer A said: Can't wait to see how the riveting turned out under a coat of primer! Me too...!!! On with the build...! I have progressed things a little. As you can see, I'd added the nose the tail fins and the engine nacelles. I didn't like the idea of installing the guns at this point but trying to install them retrospectively was going to be tricky. And I'm reasonably confident I can repaint them after the main paint job goes on. A decent amount of sanding was required to make the nose flush with the fuselage but I got there in the end. I also put in some rivets on the underside: I ended up just doing the middle section - I'm going to leave the the outer wings as in - this is because the panel lines here don't align - yet another little flaw - so If I add lines of rivets, they would accentuate that flaw. No point making things worse The nacelles went on without too much fuss - however again, the kit kind of forces you to install the exhaust tubes at this point - I like to install these last usually as I like to paint and weather them separately. This area is quite gappy so put in some PPP - I sanded the upper sections down as well to reduce the step left in some places... This photo is out of focus but you can see what I mean... I'm just about ready to put on that first coat of primer so I'll get to see how well I did on the prep - I'd imagine some more work will be required so I'll let the primer tell me what needs attention. Thanks for checking in!~ Cheers John Edited March 12, 2019 by Kitchen Modeller spelling 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 Ohhh, this is sooo exciting! Can't wait for the primer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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