malpaso Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 (edited) Like many on this forum I remember the excitement of queueing up at age of six for the Cinema (Gants Hill Odeon I think) to see Battle of Britain with my Dad. And again a few weeks later to see it again. At the time the main thing my friends and I remembered was the endless parade of German bombers at the start proving “we” didn’t have a cat in hell’s chance; and the bomber crew’s goggles filling up with blood when attacked! Gruesome, but that’s a six-year old for you. That must have been the time the Airfixing started, initially with Dad but quickly progressing to my own work and painting. Around a year or two later Dad gave me a big pile of aeroplane books. They were a present from an older couple, friends of his who’s son had died in tragic circumstances. He was only around twenty and they wanted me to have the books he’d loved when he was growing up. Wow, I’m getting weepy typing this; the perspective of being a father of a now 20-year old myself. I’ve always been grateful for the gift of those books, which nurtured an interest in aviation and history that has stayed with me. As well as the tiny William Green “Warplanes of the Second World War” 1-6 there was the World Airpower Guide with scale elevations of all the current types in service around the world, from the “Mig-23” to archaic Buchons and Moths. My favourites were two big pictorial books by Martin Caidin, “Air Force” and “Golden Wings”. I still have the books though I’ve managed to get replacements for them all as they had become extremely “tired” after nearly 50 years of use and moving. I even managed to get volumes 7-10 of the Warplanes to complete the series, but don’t bother. They were issued 6 or so years after 1-6 and the four volumes only cover France and Germany – Green “went off on one” and just went into far too much detail; precursors of his later massive German tome, whereas the earlier books give a nice brief precis of lots of types. As a result of those Caidin books, I ended up being as interested in the planes of the USAF, USN and USMC as in Britain’s. Not that I’m averse to a Spitfire as my stash would confirm, but a nice Fifi, Panther or Corsair is equally if not more attractive to me. I hunted through my stash to find something that matched the kits I built back in the day (I have a list of what I built then which I try and update each time I remember one - 132 remembered to date, I’m sure there should be a lot more. Here’s an extract; needless to say the full list shows 90 of the entries were Airfix, most must have been from the local newsagent in the parade up from Grange Hill station). The P-38 with its twin sharkmouths and Roy Cross boxing was shouting “build me”, but last year I picked up a Thunderstreak, which I remember building around the same time as the Sabre Dog and Shooting Star in some keenness on 50s jets (I recall a bunch of Hasegawa kits bought at the Model Engineer Exhibition too) but Meteors and Hunters, no thank you. I can’t recall much of the F-84 I built back then, other than that the red paint reacted with the overall silver paint job, and I’m sure I did an open canopy as it was a separate part for once! Anyway here’s the box with its lovely hard silver plastic just as I remember. I’m not sure I’ll get going on it just yet as there’s the Mark.VIII to decal in the Spitfire STGB and an L139 I should complete from Christmas 2018. Oh for the days when there was nothing else to do at a weekend than build models…wait a moment… Cheers Will Edited May 7, 2020 by malpaso To make the pictures show! 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Welcome to the GB Will, and with an excellent choice. I remember well building one of these from the same boxing and being impressed with it at the time, as you say it came with an open canopy option! I don't remember any major build issues with it but that might be the fog of time so I'm very interested to see how your build goes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dansk Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Super story Will, - those books really were a great gift 👍 a thunderstreak is going to be a super addition to the gb line up! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Nice choice. Another one of those planes that look like one you might have drawn as a kid, the lines flow so well. Your problems with covering silver paint took me right back. I always tried to cover with one pass of the paintbrush. I stress the'tried' part of that as I rarely managed. The results were not pretty. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klr Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Great choice! I built this back in 1985, and again a few years ago. I have another in the stash, and had it in the "possible" list for this build. But I already have more than enough to chose from. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 Good to see this one Will,I built one a few months back picked up for pennies off e-bay no decals so played what if with it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 Hi Will, Sitting a couple of feet in front of me in a box is the one I built when it came out - it is in bits now as I was intending to refurbish it, then I got started on GB and have not had thr time. It is a nice looking plane and not a bad kit as I recall. Cheers Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 Ive got one of these, Im of two minds. I want to save it for a build if my everything Republic aviation build makes it through but Id also just like to build it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 Silver and red, that's my abiding memory as well. This was a very impressive kit when it came out. In the 1980s Microscale came out with a series of decal sheets covering the type including fully striped French Suez examples. They looked particularly good. John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted May 12, 2020 Author Share Posted May 12, 2020 Hi all, started putting some assemblies together ready for some paint. I’ve used some filler, but only small amounts. I’ll make up some tape harness for the seat and dots of paint for gauges. I’ll probably shut the canopy as it’ll be somewhat “impressionistic “ in the cockpit. I found there’s plenty of space for weighting to avoid a tail sitter. Cheers Will 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 Off to a good start Will, certainly looks to be a crisply moulded example. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share Posted May 24, 2020 Here’s the tanks built; one filled and the other filled and rubbed down. Worst bit was a sink mark between the fins. I’ve made up some harness from 1mm not-Tamiya tape and a fantasy layout of gauges using daughters nail art acrylic and dotting tools. They work really well for applying small circles of paint. All ready to put the airframe together now. Cheers Will 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share Posted May 24, 2020 Fuselage put together and canopy masked. just trying to tidy up the centreline seam, as it will show on a BMF job. Cheers Will 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 All primed now. it was really hard to see flaws in the silver plastic. Joins meld with a black line that’s hard to tell from a fine gap. So after the primer I can see there’s just a couple of tidies needed on the fuselage and the sides of the big tanks. In the spirit of the GB I am filling with Squadron Green Stuff. I first tried it on models in my teens, before that it was polyfilla. It’s not still the same tube though that did last 25+ years! The new one isn’t quite as good, seems to dry out on the model quicker. Cheers Will 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dansk Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 Looking great. Bonus points for using the same filler as you did back in your teens 👍😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 Looking great Will, looks like you have got her together very nicely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted May 26, 2020 Author Share Posted May 26, 2020 “Paint it Black” - M.Jagger A few defects need smoothing before glossing ready to spray aluminium. It’s Vallejo black PU primer, which was cheap (free) but you get what you pay for and it blurts and has a few lumps... Cheers Will 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 That should make for a nice metallic finish later will, nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermo245 Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Great stuff - another of those kits that takes me right back to Christmas morning and opening presents under the tree! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Airframe now painted up in three colours of Vallejo Metal Color - semi-Matt, Dull, and Dark Aluminiums. The latter with some smoke stripes for heated rear fuselage - adds interest even if I’m not sure accurate for F-84Fs. The only disadvantage of this Vallejo Metal Color is that the metal component is extremely fine so I’m now off for a major strip and ultra-super-clean of the airbrush! 🧐 Cheers Will 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Good luck with the airbrush cleaning - my favourite part..😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 A great result Will, I use those Vallejo paints too and think that they work very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dansk Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Looks great will, love the differing hued panels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Painted up the coloured areas, quite pleased with how it’s come out. At least the paint dries faster than the gloss enamels I used back in the day. Cheers Will 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 (edited) I forgot to mention earlier that, in the true spirit of “ a kit you built as a kid”, the brush rolled off the desk and splodged gloss red paint on my best shorts. My wife was more understanding than my mother was on such occasions! Edited June 1, 2020 by malpaso 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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