Mark's Greif - FINISHED

[MarkSH]

Hello all,

I found it difficult to pin down a specific model that defined the feeling of ‘building as a kid’ but for me and I suspect many others it is the overall experience and brands that hold more in the way of memories, for me that brand is Airfix. I can remember building kits on the dining table (covered with plenty of newspaper of course) at my Grandparents house during the long summer holidays and being fiercely loyal to the brand, especially when my cousin was building a Revell kit, using some strange liquid cement and casting disparaging remarks about my favourite manufacturer. It was great fun but only a limited amount of time was allowed to sniff the different types of glue before being instructed; ”come on you lot outside and get some fresh air!”

My Grandad was the tool shop foreman at Smiths Industries (GE) in Cheltenham and was a keen model maker himself, though not of plastic kits. He made up a set of tools for me all in a slide top wooden instrument box which smelled of machine shop oil and lubricant, I’ve still got it along with his modelling books, much treasured. Later, the little toolbox contained some of my drawing instruments as I went to learn technical illustration at college.

For my brother and I, model building was for many years the all-consuming passion, pouring over the Airfix catalogue, marvelling at the artwork, planning purchases and writing out Christmas lists or entering models in the ATC squadron competition. In addition, it was a godsend to our parents as they knew that to keep us quiet during the regular Saturday torture of being dragged around town, the promise of doughnuts and a model from ‘Woolies’ would be the reward. The reward was, more often than not, constructed, painted, decaled and hung from respective ceilings (not the doughnuts) long before the football results teleprinter had finished and it was time for tea and Doctor Who. Of course, my younger brother’s efforts included completely fictitious colour schemes which for the most part were dangerously Hi-Viz, especially for a combat zone, I mean Matt, really a black and yellow striped Lancaster?!

It took me a while to decide on the subject of this Group Build and as I said in my initial post to the GB proposal, there were plenty of options, all Airfix, the Beaufighter with bullet holes along the fuselage made with a drawing pin, The 1/12 Figures built for my Gran, the M3 Halftrack with real mud on the tracks and of course the P-61 Black Widow which was the first to pop into my mind, however I have finally settled on the Airfix Series 5 1/72 Heinkel He.177 ‘Greif’ which first appeared in the Airfix catalogue in 1968. I am not sure exactly when I built it, but I would imagine that it was between 1974 and 1976. Not only was it the first German aircraft I can remember building, it was also a departure in terms of size, it sticks in my mind because it was so much bigger than anything I had built before. I can remember that a certain amount of re-jigging of the ceiling holding pattern was required to accommodate the Germanic behemoth upon its completion. I can also recall the frustration with the clear parts, an aspect of the hobby that persists to this day!

Airfix’s ‘Greif’ is not a stellar kit, is definitely a kit of its age and to be sure has been long surpassed by Revell’s rendition but for me, that’s not the point of the GB or indeed our hobby in general, you make of it what you will, including a striped Lancaster if that’s your want.

 

The Heinkel He. 177 box art by Roy Cross, I remember having this box art on my kit......

 

 

...unfortunately, and I know it was a forlorn hope that a similar box would turn up in the post....this is what infact did:

Hmmm, well never mind the contents are bound to be better:

....double hmmm......I think the parts are all there, would we actually notice if they weren't!? lots of rivet detailing and I thought about taking a close up of the "clear" parts but people of a nervous disposition might be reading and I don't want to be responsible for anymore calamity at the moment.

 

..anyway the instructions:

Blue...nice...

...and some slightly out of date paint references and I'm not holding out much hope for the decals:

Awesome, should be a blast!

 

Mark.

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

I built this kit as well.   

[MarkSH]

Just now, Enzo Matrix said:

I built this kit as well.   

Do you remember it being so blue? Airfix's blue period.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

1 minute ago, MarkSH said:

Do you remember it being so blue? Airfix's blue period.

  I do.   Airfix's Dornier Do217 was moulded in the same colour.  

 

Dammit!  Wish I hadn't said that.  Now I wanna build one.   

[modelling minion]

Really looking forward to seeing what you can do with this classic Mark.

I never built one as a kid but always wanted one, I was never good at saving money at that age  . Funny you mention the Do-217 as that is one I was thinking of for my entry but I haven't managed to get one in time, I built quite a few of them as a kid and was seriously impressed with how many guns the nightfighter version had  in it's nose.

[MarkSH]

The number and size of guns or bombs was always a prime consideration in choosing which kit to build next!

[Hewy]

Great choice ,Your  write up stirs the memories indeed mark, a kit from Woolworths on a saturday Morning ,all well glued and decaled (i didn't paint them at first)all  before dr who, it was a rare model for the build to have stretched into sunday morning

[GREG DESTEC]

Great introduction, which rings a lot of bells with me 😀

 

I built this one back in the day as well, in fact most of my builds were Airfix in the early days.

 

Looking forward to you revisiting this classic.

 

Cheers Greg 👍

[Dansk]

Fantastic intro Mark. I can smell the machine shop oil!

[MarkSH]

58 minutes ago, Dansk said:

Fantastic intro Mark. I can smell the machine shop oil!

Yeah, whenever I'm in a machine shop visiting customer's etc and smell the oil and whatever I can't help thinking of my grandad Cyril.

[Valkyrie]

Great memories and story, I felt a wee bit emotional reading that there. Enjoy the build 

[CliffB]

19 hours ago, MarkSH said:

long before the football results teleprinter had finished

Thanks for this memory jogger Mark 

 

Cheers

[Ozzy]

Watching with internet, I had one of these as a Christmas present. My first German bomber, I was really looking forward to the build. Unfortunately I was missing the cockpit dome glazing, went together minus the glazing. My dad did the mottling on the fuselage.

[stevej60]

Another smile on my face Mark,great choice.

[JOCKNEY]

This was one I always wanted as a nipper and didn't get, really looking forward to seeing this one take shape.

 

cheers Pat

[mike romeo]

I like the Airfix Greif.  In fact, I like it so much, I made 2 of 'em.  

 

 

It may not be wholly accurate, but it scrubs up quite nicely.  Have fun with it!

 

Don't know if this might be useful, Mark, but here is a link to my build log on UAMF for the above kit (covering basic construction only).  Most is about the conversion, but there may be one or two useful pointers on building the kit too.  If not useful, let me know and I'll remove it

 

https://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=357&t=14354&hilit=Martin's+Heinkel

 

Rgds,

 

Martin

Edited April 20, 2020 by mike romeo
Added link.

[TonyW]

A very well written intro, it certainly struck a chord at this end. Thanks for that.

 

I never did get to build one of these although a mate had a crack at it. We were both a bit bemused by the whole thing. It seemed somehow wrong with what appeared to be only two engines to power it, although having guided missiles underneath more than made up for that! The undercarriage looked somehow odd as well.

A brave choice from Airfix at the time. I'll be cheering along from the sidelines for this build. Have fun.

 

Tony.

[klr]

Yet another kit I built when I was 13 or 14. I'm pretty sure it was a Christmas purchase.

 

I have another nearly built, waiting to be completed and painted, along with the much newer Revell kit for comparison.

[John]

One of my earliest forays into the joys of painting the finished product. Airfix paints with their trademark sandpaper matt finish. M3 and M17 greens and M25 light blue, if I remember correctly. 

John 

[MarkSH]

Evening all,

 

I have been enduring a live streaming training course/lecture for an hour everyday over the past two weeks and pretty dry it has been I can tell you. so whilst I was listening to the mandatory discourse today, I set about one of the menial but very much required tasks on the Heinkel which was to deal with the completely awful clear parts and I hope you'll forgive me jumping the gun but it helped to keep me sane!

I have very gently sanded the larger parts and then polished them with Tamiya's 3-part polishing set before finally double dipping them in Klear. It may not look like much but I can assure you that they are 100% better than they were....you can now actually see through them albeit at some interesting refracted angles:

 

The smaller parts have just been dipped in Klear whilst on the sprue. With a nice, darkly painted cockpit/interior I hope they won't look too bad.

 

Again apologies for making a start but I had to do something to combat the brain ache!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[modelling minion]

55 minutes ago, MarkSH said:

Again apologies for making a start but I had to do something to combat the brain ache!

No need to apologise Mark and besides you are still way below the 25% limit.

Great job on the canopies by the way, they really are very clear.

[Hewy]

Good lord,that training course must have tested your resolve mark, polishing these clear parts is a big statement of intent , you do know that dont you?😁

[Enzo the Magnificent]

1 hour ago, MarkSH said:

Again apologies for making a start but I had to do something to combat the brain ache!

25% rule applies.  this is like, what...  0.125% ? 

[BlackAck]

Good Greif, that's a big one! <puns intended>

Edited April 23, 2020 by BlackAck

[MarkSH]

6 minutes ago, Hewy said:

Good lord,that training course must have tested your resolve mark, polishing these clear parts is a big statement of intent , you do know that dont you?😁

Uh just a bit, two weeks of xml/S1000D specification would test anyone's resolve, and yes now that the transparent parts are.... well transparent I'll have to do something to the interior.