Hmmm... Interesting.
Just checked the Zero out on Scalemates and it the regular new(ish) tool one.
Will have to look into the Tiger and the Firefly to check their provenance. Is the running gear a single moulded piece?
The current starter kit tanks are simpler versions than the regular kits. For example the starter kit Tiger has 39 parts and the regular (same scale) Tiger kit has 84. They could still be great kits but it’s worth bearing in mind if you’re after a particular level of build.
It is the new one with the one piece track and road wheels. Might look OK painted up, or at least better than the rubber tracks.
I made theAirfix 109 a while back, showing it's age a bit I think
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I made theAirfix 109 a while back, showing it’s age a bit I think
If that's the 1/72 you've done an amazing job at not snapping and losing those fiddly little bits under the tail. Three of those kits ruined in this house between me and the kids with that issue!
I'm about to drift back into plastic kits and fancied the big tamaiya Mosquito. Luckily commonsense has prevailed. Anyone got any advice on decent Me262 at a reasonable scale?
Thanks for any input.
The Tamiya 1/48th 262 is well regarded I think, and Airfix have a 1/72nd that's quite new, and is supposed to be quite good.
I did the 1/72 Revell 262 a few years back. Not a brilliant kit (the cockpit is rubbish and the canopy was way too thick), but it turns into a 262 shaped object.
It will need a lot of nose weight.
Eduard P51-K. Wanted to do a 78th FG checkered nose but didn't want BBD which is what most decals sheets seem to be! Build was a curates egg really, some parts - wheel well, cockpit - for instance are fantastically detailed. Cockpit alone must have 30 parts at least, likewise wheel wheels are 16 parts , and as individual units go together quite well, but then fitting it all together was a bit of a trial, port side fuselage was warped and ended up with a massive step gap on the starboard wing root, nose has no location pins so it's very unstable, wings had gaps and so forth. They do some interesting planes, but Tamiya they ain't.
Looking good!
My Birthday today. Got a Sword Gannet AEW and an Airfix HS Dominie.
Hoping to spend a bit of time on the kits next week in "The Dead Zone" before New Year.
Latest additions to The Stash.
Nice! What is the Heller kit?
Not had the time/space/motivation to do any modelling so I enjoy following this thread.
Christmas additions for me and the younger one.
Obi-Wan is mine, the quantity of glass on that worries me as I'll have to do a decent job of the person at 1:58. Other two are his.
Nice! What is the Heller kit?
it’s a Saab Tunnan (barrel) Saab’s 2nd jet fighter and a good little performer. I was lucky enough to see one fly at Southport a few years ago.
Good to see the Saab theme continue with the Gripen, I’ve got the kitty Hawk one in the stash as I spent an enjoyable few years helping to sell them.
Good to see the Saab theme continue with the Gripen
Got a Viggen already in the stash, so I'll do all four one after the other at some point I guess. Need a Lansen too I suppose.
Over Christmas I built the Airfix "Kate" 1/72 scale which was £7.50 from The Works about a year ago! I also did the Tamiya T34/85
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Riksbar
Full Member
Bolton Model Show On 22nd January, anyone going.
Yep. Will be there for opening time with a shopping list!
Liking the T34. It looks suitably grubby! There's a running one at The Muckleburgh Collection and it looks like an awful thing to have lived/fought in.
Nice !
I completed an Airfix 1:72 Hawker Typhoon but am embarrassed to show it as I lifted the wing roundel decal off with my sleeve and it now looks stupid.
Currently working on a 1: 72 EE Lightning and learning to use an airbrush. #LearningCurve
Oh OK then - here's the Typhoon.
Yes, I've seen a couple of videos about the T34, not a great crew environment and many of them broke down before they even got to the battle. The 85 was a bit better than the 76 as its got a bigger turret so a bit more room. But neither version has a turret basket so there was a real risk of the loader getting hit by the breach when the main gun was fired unless he kept his eyes open and moved round with the turret.
Photograph it from the other side so you can't see the decal!
Yes, I’ve seen a couple of videos about the T34, not a great crew environment and many of them broke down before they even got to the battle.
I've got a 1/16 RC T34/85. In the spirit of accuracy it too is broken :-/
What is the diameter of the roundels? I'll have a look in my spares and if I've got a set you can have them.
But neither version has a turret basket so there was a real risk of the loader getting hit
it was common practice to remove the basket in the Sherman. I think crews accepted the risk for more elbow room
Oh right, i didn't know that.
@Harry_the_Spider
Thanks for the offer but the plane now sits in a box.
I initially went for the D-Day invasion stripes but completely messed them up on the wing.
Question:
I am struggling with painting the Lightning as the paint is not sticking to the plastic. What causes this ?
I have washed & rinsed the mouldings twice with washing up liquid (Ecovert). Have now resorted to spraying the sprues with aerosol Tamiya grey primer but I'd rather not do this for every model (it's expensive and the shed is cold etc).
Lots of people wash their kits, i never have and never had a problem with paint not sticking. Are you brush painting? If the paint isn't thoroughly mixed or if its airbrush paint then that can cause it. Tamiya acrylics for example don't brush very well at all but spray beautifully.
StirlingCrispin
Question:
I am struggling with painting the Lightning as the paint is not sticking to the plastic. What causes this ?
I've got an old Matchbox kit that was my Dad's and he never got round to making it, so I nicked it 🙂
I had the same issue with the paint sticking and ended up giving up on it. I thought it might have been a problem with the paint, so tried it on a different model & it went on fine.
I've tried washing it a couple of time, but it made no difference.
I put it down to being years & years old and the plastic degrading - perhaps some kind of chemical in the plastic leeching out over time contaminating the surface? It's like someone's put a 'hydrophobic' coating on the surface. This is with acrylic Tamiya paint. Maybe enamel would work, but I'm not buying all new paints, just to do that one model.
Have now resorted to spraying the sprues with aerosol Tamiya grey primer
I use acrylic car primer. A rattle can of that costs about £6 and is enough to do half a dozen kits. As long as you use it sparingly it doesn't obliterate any detail on the model. Also I spray the model after it is built rather than when it is on the sprues.
If you gloss coat the kits before you apply the decals they'll slide about more so that you can position them and ultimately they'll stick better once dry.
Huge can of worms! Quite a few well respected modellers are adamant that they never prime their kits. I often do but not always. I use a Halfords rattle can of their light grey plastic primer. I find a light colour base coat helps to highlight errors (visible seams etc) so I can correct them (or at least attempt to!!) before the top coat goes on.
For the "Kate" model I posted earlier I used the matching Alclad black primer which i gently sanded to make it nice and smooth before the aluminium top coat went on. For top coats that are yellow or white you get a much better finish with the right colour primer (some people use pink primer I think for a yellow top coat)
Gloss before decals helps to reduce silvering mainly and also a gloss finish makes washes work much better. Washes don't tend to flow as well on a matt or satin finish.
I am struggling with painting the Lightning as the paint is not sticking to the plastic.
it's not so common now, but some older kit manufactures (Matchbox is a good example) used a moulding release agent, if the kit's been sitting around for years, the styrene will absorb it over time, and you'll never get it out totally, so it may need a coat of primer. Most people will tell you to wash kits before you paint them, I never do, and I've never had an issue.
Primer: Like Roackhopper, unless I'm black-basing, I don't generally prime my kits. I'm not competing or publishing on you tube, I build for my own enjoyment, so who cares?
Cheers All.
An Airfix factory tour briefly talks about silicon release agents and how they don't use them but you should always wash kits (I think - can't be bothered rewatching all of it).
I will continue to wash and will prime if required.
These paints were Citadel / Warhammer brush paints and also Vallejo airbrush paints. Hopefully priming will solve the problem.
Everyone raves about the quality of the Lightning kit but I am not that impressed by the moulding:
Soft plastic, ejection plugs and flash.
Everyone raves about the quality of the Lightning kit but I am not that impressed by the moulding:
Soft plastic, ejection plugs and flash.
Fuselage doesn't close up either without shaving a bit off the insides.
These paints were Citadel
oh, right. I’ve had issues with citadel paints on styrene before. They’re not great IMO
I'll never build one but this certainly looks impressive:
Gannets are cool. I'd love a 1/48 but a) It would be out of scale with everything else that I have and b) It would be chuffing massive.
With a bit of luck they'll cover the development of the new Gannet in the Hornby TV show. With this being a weekly 50 minute long advert I suspect that they will. With even more luck they'll down scale it to 1/72.
I did a Revell 1/72 one a few years back and messed it up. I've got a Sword AEW version (like the regular ASW but even uglier) that I'll hopefully do a better job of.
The Gannet was a big bird !
Some remarkable footage of the Ark Royal from the 1970s.
Anyone going to Bolton Show tomorrow? I have £50 and a shopping list!
With even more luck they’ll down scale it to 1/72.
Fingers crossed for this!
(unless its another example of coldwar stencil hell like the Ph*cking Phantom I have on the go currently!)
Question:
I am struggling with painting the Lightning as the paint is not sticking to the plastic. What causes this ?I have washed & rinsed the mouldings twice with washing up liquid (Ecovert).
A quick spritz with isopropanol and wipe over with a microfibre lens cloth might work better than a liquid soap. It’s a pretty benign solvent and shouldn’t damage plastics, although trying first on a scrap sprue might be advisable. I’ve always got some around in a little pump spray bottle, ever since lockdown, and I use it all the time at work for cleaning car bodywork before applying decals. Liquid petrol lighter fuel is very good for that sort of thing as well - back when I used to do artwork for print any sheet of CS10 board was given a wipe over before using a Rapidograph, to clean of any grease from fingers, it’s also very benign.
This popped up earlier on my Flipboard feed, and I thought a few here might be interested…
Tamiya 1:35 Achilles tank on my table at the moment. Makes a change from live steam. Might pop into Bolton today..
That Royal Navy film is fantastic, so many acronyms 😉
I’m at Bolton today as well
Hmmm... A lot of that stuff has been there before. Don't think I'll bother next time.
However, this guy was selling some nice stuff so I bought a painting stand.
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Your output is prodigous HTS!
Well the Airfix Phantom is phinally phinished. Bit of an arse to be honest - partly my fault for getting carried away with aftermarket - posher seats turned into a complete resin cockpit, then once I'd spotted the missing vents and grills around the air intakes I couldn't unspot them, so there ended up being resin splitters and photoetch bleed air grills. But the kit just felt a bit overcomplicated and as a result a lot of the bits didn't fair into each other all that well. Panel lines are a bit intrusive too (not helped by me overegging it with the Flory wash a little).
And the decals. Js F**g C****t, the decals. I think it was 3 weeks worth of solid decals. And they didn't play ball. None of the bigger ones had any interest in conforming to the surface, despite all kinds of lotions and potions, and anything with yellow on it was basically just not happening. Each yellow line on the bombs was about an hour each, and I ended up painting the red and yellow on the Sidewinders as the decals just sat there like planks.
Glad its done. Don't want to do another one!
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...and hanging with the boys...
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Good god! Those models, and the photos of them, are INCREDIBLE! you sunny sound happy JE, you should be very very proud!
Came here to thank Jon for those pics. Those models are beautifully done, the weathering on that Phantom is very subtle given the contrast in tone with the upper and lower fuselage - that's no easy feat. The Lightning F6 is a chef's kiss.
Worth all the agro Jon, phantastic! 👍
Good looking Phantom, but it underlines the fact that I really, really don't want the Airfix one.
Give me the Italeri/Fujimi any day and some resin exhausts.
A quick question for those of you using respirators while airbrushing - what are you using?
I recently switched from acrylics to lacquers and the fumes ain't good. Currently using Scott Profile 2 but I was priming with Mr surfacer earlier today and the respirator didn't feel like it was doing much.
Shit. The. Bed! JE, that Phantom is an epic build, you’ve got far more patience than I’ll ever have, going to that level of detail, I genuflect in your general direction. Love the Bucc and the Lightning as well. Congratulations sir. 🎩🫶🏻
Started this a little while after @JonEdwards finished his lovely version, so sorry; it's another 'Toom. Echo Jon's thoughts about the model, it's a curates egg of a thing, bits are well thought through engineering-wise, but it's let down by trench a-like panel lines, and a cockpit canopy that basically doesn't really fit. I'm too cheap to by aftermarket stuff for Airfix, so canopy closed. Scheme is he low-vis the RAF started using in the late 70's/early 80's, 29 sqn, the colours are a bit off, but they were painted with such a verity of schemes it's really hard to tell what's "accurate" anyway. I'm not sure the millions of decals add much to the whole in 1/72 scale, and I'm half thinking of toning down some of the white ones on the wings, they're just too bright for this scale. Anyway, glad it's finished really.
Oh, dunno what happened there, I thought there was an underside shot. so you get another post, sorry about that!
Loaded for Bear:
here, have another one from the other side, seeing as I took them!
Looking good!
Goy another Italeri/Fujimi one in the stash. Don't know whether to go low-vis grey or camo.
I've got an Itareli Jaguar next, that'll be gey/green wraparound I reckon,
nickc
Full Member
I’ve got an Itareli Jaguar next, that’ll be gey/green wraparound I reckon,
1/72? I did one in Desert Pink ages ago. It goes together reasonably well, but dry fit the wing and perhaps shim it up a bit. I didn't and probably should have done.
Cheers, yep done a dry fit and there does seems to be “some work” needed!
I've got a soft spot for Italeri. I've probably built more from them than anyone else. You certainly get thrown the odd "curve ball" by them.
Doing a Rafale M at the moment and have identified a few Italerisms from "walkaround" photos on Britmodeller, so I should catch them before it is too late.
Nice Nick. You must have got a shuffle on if you only started after I'd finished mine. I think it took me a month to do the decals! Kind of agree that the white stencils on the upper side are a bit bright, but the paintwork looks lovely - variation without being overdone.
Got some Jets down for a dust.
Nice collection, are they all the same scale? If so it's mad how small the Harrier is.
Yep. All 1/72.
The two Sukhois, the F-14, F-15 and the Sea Vixen are massive, and the SR71 is probably 50% longer than a Lancaster.
I saw the opposite - the Harriers are tiny!
Shonky picture, but the Harrier is still pretty big when you compare it to a Spitfire.
SR71 is probably 50% longer than a Lancaster.
We were at Duxford over Easter. The SR-71 is a truly massive aeroplane (at least in length). The F-111 next to it ws also a big old beast (anyone know a good kit I might be tempted when I've cut the kit backlog a bit).
They had a 1:72 SR-71 kit in the shop. Box was nearly as big as a Vulcan (kit).
Anyone building anything at the moment?
I've had an Italeri Rafale M on the go since February, but have barely touched it recently because being a grown up keeps getting in the way. Hoping for some shocking weather on Sunday so that I can get some work done on it.
Slowly.
Got a Zero I finished a couple of months back that I haven’t taken pics of yet and a F4 Corsair that’s nearly done, but work has slowed to a crawl as I’m trying to do stuff one handed since I’ve bust my collarbone and hunching over the bench is not good.
I'm most productive when I'm injured, but I specialise in busted knees and hernias.
Now that the knee and hernia are fixed I've been doing all of the jobs that I dodged last year.
I'm considering breaking a toe around the second week of November to get a bit of "me time".
I've topped up the stash. I've a Eduard F190A8, the Airfix Chipmunk in 1/48 - Has every ex-air cadet built one do we think? and a couple of KP spittys/seafires to build (PR version and a vokes equippped seafire 1b)
I've a couple of those Meng/Zoukei- Muri F4's in various scales in a basket that I'm umming and ahhing about. They look amazing kits and really solid base for a great custom build, but if I cock it up...Lots of money.
I've a no-build policy from May through September, so unless it really does rain continually (as July as done so far) than it's research and lists currently
Finally summoned up the courage to breach the box and make slow progress on the Revell Lancaster I bought in lockdown 1.
The instructions are horrible but so far it's going together ok but am still on fuselage internals and wing sub assemblies (wheel carriers, engines etc).
What I do find a bit strange is you get to a choice or "?" instruction but it gives you no hint why you would choose engine exhausts 57 Vs 59. I usually choose whichever looks less likely to break/easier to paint but I'm not sure that's the proper method.
but it gives you no hint why you would choose engine exhausts 57 Vs 59.
[nerd] Because different version of the Lancaster had slightly different engines, which in turn had different shaped and numbers of exhaust stacks[/nerd]
You'd be unsurprised to learn that there are sections of the modelling community that will literally lose their minds over this sort of shit. One commenter on a well know British based modelling forum declared recently that a new mould from a manufacturer was "a worthless waste of my time" becasue on measuring it he found that it's wingspan was about 50mm (in full scale) to short. There's countless others who will file away and re-scribe panel lines becasue of the wrong shape or position.
Nick has already replied, but this is what I had written and not go round to posting...
I’ve done that kit. Probably subtle differences between the options that it builds. The exhausts for example could be exposed or be the covered type. If it is the 1/72 it is also the base for the Dambuster, which has different parts again.
From memory there are different options for the canopy and side windows too
Revell instructions are crap. I’d have a look at the painting diagram for the one that you are building and see which exhausts it has.
In my opinion life is too short. If it looks right and you are happy with it then you've won!
I’m building an Italeri Rafale M, and after looking at a lot of reference photos have come to the conclusion that it is a work of fiction.
The model appears to be the prototype with “M” version bits thrown at it. Panel lines are random and there are no location holes or marks for the “M” pylons, sensors or refuelling probe.
Whoever laid out the instruction did it without seeing the kit, and whoever did the decal placements did it without seeing the guy who did the instructions… or the kit.
Whatever. A cheap kit that looks like a Rafale and should turn out OK. A rivet counter would bin it but I’m quite pleased so far and it will go with my other jets to gather dust on a high up shelf that doesn’t bother the missus.
Yeah, I see your issue.
Italeri...right there. 🤣
To be fair to them, there's some kits in their range that are really decent, but they have this bizarre habit of re-boxing some old shite, and slapping it in a box with nice artwork and a set of decals. You really do have to check them on Scale-mates to check the provenance!
I know, but I wanted a Rafale and the price was right. Not complaining, but others would have binned this or not bought it in the first place.
I'm quite a fan of Italeri, but this has been the worst so far.
Kit went together very well BTW with virtually no need for filling or other such butchery.
Doing an Italeri CH53 next. What could possibly go worng!
