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CKW's 2020 efforts


ckw

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A fairly productive year for me. All are 1/72 scale.

 

Started the year with an old Revell boxing of the Italeri Airspeed A.S.51 Horsa Mk. I - pretty much OOB, but I went to the trouble of lining the innards with wood veneer. Only after taking the photo did I notice the ramp was propping up the nose! Since fixed.

 

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Next up was the Special Hobby Northrop / Canadian Vickers Delta Mk.II. Decided to make life difficult for myself by opening up the cargo door.

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After this felt the need for something that would just click together and not tempt me to complicate things - Tamiya Ilyushin IL-2 Shturmovik

 

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Since I had my Russian paints out, next came the ICM Sukhoi Su-2. Struggled with this one - a so-so kit of a fairly dull (and to my eyes) ugly plane

 

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Now I needed something a bit more colourful ... the Sword Reggiane Re.2000GA (wish I'd painted the cross on the tail).

 

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Next up the Airfix Nakajima B5N1 'Kate' - mostly as an attempt to master the AK Extreme metal paints

 

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This was followed by the MPM Focke Wulf Fw 189A-2. Voted most likely to get hurled against the wall in disgust. Also kit requiring most filler. Poor fit is the last thing you want with that much glazing and twin booms to deal with! Got so disgusted I forgot the underwing bombs. Doesn't deserve them.

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Looking for an easy build after that I opted for the Revell Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina - pretty dull kit and lacking in interior detail (which I should have added) but it went together well and restored my equanimity. Went a bit overboard on the dark wash though!

 

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Onto a kit I really enjoyed - the AZ Model De Havilland DH-82A Tiger Moth. A bit of a fiddle with such small parts but went together pretty well. Opened the cockpit doors to better reveal a reasonably detailed interior for the scale.

 

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Followed this by an even smaller subject - the Brengun Yokosuka MKY7-K1 Ohka. Largely because I saw it in a shop and had never built a Brengun. Turned out a fairly decent kit

 

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Next my first Zvezda kit Petlyakov Pe-2. A real surprise in terms of kit quality ... superbly detailed and engineered. Looking forward to more from them. Not sure I got the colours right though.

 

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The next kit was also a pleasant surprise .. the Hobby 2000 Dewoitine D.520 A reboxed Hasegawa kit (sound if a bit basic) with some decent decals from Cartograph. Colour scheme was a bit of a mystery, but opted for the French 'Chamoise' (partly because I had an old unopened tin of the now discontinued Xtracolor paint).

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Having enjoyed that Hobby 2000 so much, I did another which I was also happy with - the Bristol Beaufighter Mk.VIF

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Having found a discount box damaged version in my LHS, my next project was the Airfix  Heinkel He 111 H-6, which seemed pretty typical of the 'new tool' models - well engineered if a little heavy handed in the details

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If one Airfix is good, then two must be better - Bristol Blenheim Mk.1

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This was followed by what was probably my favourite model of the year. The Sword Lockheed P-80A (built as one of the YP-80s deployed in Italy). The Sword suggested colour scheme was a bit on the dull side, however thanks to BM I found research and evidence to produce this more colourful version.

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Back to Hobby 2000 and the Macchi MC.202 - again, excellent value for the money, though I did add a vacform canopy

 

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One rescued from the shelf of shame - Special Hobby Northrop Nomad Mk. 1. I had cracked the canopy on this one and put it aside a while back. But an email to Special Hobby resulted in them sending me a replacement canopy FOC. Getting the stripes lined up was a bit of a faff (they need to line up with the yellow & black registration letters under the wing). Also had problems with the decals resulting in the insignia being painted with masks. But a good learning experience.

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An Arma Hobby PZL P.7a was a more relaxing build.

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Followed by ANOTHER Hobby 2000 - this time the Brewster Model 239 Buffalo. I cut open and thinned the canopy (always a bit scary) to reveal some additional cockpit detail

 

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Last build of the year was the Italeri Henschel Hs 129 B-2 - significant 'cause I finally got up the nerve to free-hand spray the camouflage.

 

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But that's not the end of the year. I've long wanted a proper display cabinet for my collection. But the commercially available versions from Ikea and the like were not really efficient in terms of space utilisation. I could find commercial units that would do the job, but at a price of many hundreds - or thousands of pounds. So I thought, why not build my own? How hard can it be? Spurred on by discovering that the local branch of The Range was selling suitable wood at a much less than B&Q prices, I set to work. The dimensions were 140cm wide (dictated by available space), 166 cm high (couldn't really see anything stored higher) and 45cm deep. This allowed for 8 shelves with a height of 20cm. This was the height I thought I'd need for my largest potential build (Revell BV.222). I had 2 full size glass shelves already, for the rest I used 2mm acrylic supported by a wooden frame. I also wanted doors to keep the dust off and avoid the never ending dust - break something - repair cycle.

 

So I set to work, and here is the result. Models haven't all been added and arranged yet as they are being cleaned before entering their new home. Total cost of materials - around £250. And I figure it will hold around 250 1/72 aircraft. Pretty pleased with the result, given it was my first serious attempt at cabinet making.  Next one will be easier and better! Apologies for the picture quality - taken on a crappy phone camera

 

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Cheers

 

Colin

 

 

Edited by ckw
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Some of you may appreciate the irony of this ... while transferring my models to their new home, guess which one got dropped? Yes the hated FW-189 which nearly got flown into a wall during construction.

 

However, as it was so full of my home made filler (disolved sprue in glue) it is almost a solid lump of plastic, so only the landing gear got damaged. It will be repaired, and I may even add the missing bombs

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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Lovely builds there Colin, your finishing work is spot on to my eye. I'm also hugely impressed with your cabinet, something I'm going to need to do in time. If I started a thread on cabinet builds in chat, would you be happy to contribute some details of how you went about this? It looks darn good & I bet I'm not the only one who's be interested.

Steve.

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13 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

If I started a thread on cabinet builds in chat, would you be happy to contribute some details of how you went about this? It looks darn good & I bet I'm not the only one who's be interested.

Of course ... but more along the lines of how not to do it :) 

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 27/02/2021 at 13:59, Wulfman said:

Unfortunately I can’t see them, but it sounds like a great collection !

Many thanks for your comment - it alerted me to the fact that there was an issue with my hosting site! Bit of a nightmare, but sorted now ... wouldn't have realised but for your comment!

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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  • 3 weeks later...

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