Author: Bruces Scale Models

Hobby Boss 1/48 F-84F Thunderstreak

/ Bruces Scale Models / 1 Comment
  • Purchased: 2022
  • Built: 2026
  • Enhancements:
  • Seat -ASK Models
  • Cockpit – Aires
  • Decals – Aeromaster 48-728 Thunderstreaks of the Guard Part 2

I have no idea why the Hobby Boss Thunderstreak originally made its way into my stash. Perhaps it was because I had built two of the TanModels kits and liked the jet. Or a photo of a model or the actual jets sparked the interest in me enough to make an impulse purchase. Even being up close to the real jet as I was during several museum visits to the US in 2017 didn’t light my fire the way being up close and personal with the Voodoo and Thunderchief did.

Anyway, whatever the reason, in my stash it was, and had even been started a couple of years ago. Wing and drop tank halves had already been glued together and the Aires tub been released from its casting block to see how much sanding and carving would be needed to make it fit. Completing the Delta Dart earlier in the year had awakened my desire to do some other early US jets, and this and the Clear Prop F-86A Sabre were sat on my “To Build” pile

Construction Notes

The Hobby Boss kit is fairly basic in its details such as cockpit and rather shallow wheelwells. The plastic is also rather pebbly and needs quite a bit of smoothing and polishing should you be doing an NMF. Complicating this though is some rather fine surface detail, which I felt would completely disappear with too much sanding. In the end, I rescribed some of the main lines and sanded the model several times after a primer coat with 800 grit wet and dry. Although still not baby bum smooth following these efforts, the plastic was still a lot smoother than what came in the box.

This was also one of those very rare occasions in which the Aires cockpit fitted the model after not a lot of sanding at all. Certainly, the plastic did not have to lose half its thickness as is the case with most other Aires sets. The wing halves were already assembled. Obviously I had already realised the odds of the Aires wheel wells fitting those thin wings without sanding them wafer thin were a million to one. Yes, up there with the chances of anything coming from Mars!

In the end, all that was required for the cockpit to fit was the rear resin bulkhead being sanded to reduce its width, and the kit coaming partly cut away to allow the Aires HUD to fit. Instead of the Aires seat the superior ASK 3DP seat was used. The rest of the kit assembled quickly and easily with no real dramas. tailplanes and pylons were left off until painting and decalling were complete. The overly large bloc that represent the wingtip lights were cut off, to be replaced by small drops of UV resin painted red and green during final assembly.

Paint and Decals

One of the things I wanted to try on this model was using AK Real Metal to achieve the natural metal finish. This is a wax paste that once dry is buffable. David Parker used it to good effect on his HKM 1/32 B-17. The inspiration though to use this product on this model first came from a French modeller on Hyperscale that achieved very realistic looking metal finished by way of applying Rub n Buff over a black primer. The model was thus duly spayed with Mr Surfacer 1500 black, and the AK paste applied first off to the drop tanks. The paste was applied first by brush, then spreading with my finger. But it did not want to cover at all well, large areas of black primer still showing. And despite me smearing ever increasing amounts over the tanks and anything else I touched. Tools……..The light……Computer keyboard……..The cat!

The black primer had been polished, so was smooth, but not gloss. In hindsight maybe I should have left it unpolished so the paste had something to bite into. Anyway, it didn’t seem to be working over the black, so I laid down an Alclad base. Applying the paste over this left me underwhelmed. The French modellers aircraft showed lovely grained multi reflective finished. The paste didn’t seem any different in finish from the Alclad. So back in the drawer it went, and I resorted to ever reliable Tamiya LP-11 to achieve my silver finish. Over this was mottled some MRP Steel and Tamiya LP-38 Aluminium in an unsuccessful attempt to install some “blotchiness”. The Aeromaster decals were sized to fit the ancient Monogram kit, so there was little hope of them fitting the Hobby Boss kit. There was also the risk they would just not work either, being printed in 2005. As I had already cut masks for the buzz numbers and ANG titles the decision was made to also paint the trim. Aeromaster describe the trim as copper coloured on the decal sheet, but they are printed more gold or brass than copper. Internet searches also revealed no photos of the jet. Im sure there is a photo of the jet in a book out there somewhere, although Aeromaster state the jets markings were described to them, rather than noting they saw photos. Anyway…..going with the copper, Tamiya Metallic Brown was used, masking tape being used to mask out the flashes on wingtip, tail and nose. All rather easy really. What wasn’t easy was applying thin strips of black decal to outline the flashes. I really should have made the effort here to make and spray these as well. My efforts to bend the decal around into smooth curves looking very poor indeed. Wing Do Not Walk areas were also masked and painted red as were the turbine warning stripes.

A coat of SMS gloss was then applied ready for the decals and a panel line wash. The only decals used from the Aeromaster sheet were stencils and the unit markings. Experts Choice decals were used for the National Markings as the Aeromaster ones looked quite thick. They all performed admirably, and did not shatter into a 1000 pieces as first thought.

Then a weird thing happened.

As you can see, this second gloss coat seems to have eaten the silver away in certain places. easy enough to repair, but again a bit of “Negative Modelling” (TM Jon Bryon Models) from me. My only assumption is this coat was applied a little too enthusiastically in some areas. SMS can be a hot paint if applied too heavily. The above photo also shows the very shallow kit wheel wells and poorly detailed air brake bays.

Final Assembly

Undercarriage was added. It wobbled on its undercarriage same as the Thunderchief due to in(un?)substantial location sockets and pegs. In fact one of the legs then snapped off when placing the kit back down on the bench a little too heavily.(That was always going to happen). This gave me the excuse to drill and pin the leg with brass., Now she doesn’t wobble! The tanks and pylons were added and finally the canopy in its weirdly funky open position. the main wheels came courtesy of a long trashed Tan Models ThunderFlash. The HB wheels are very poor indeed as is the one piece nosewheel. Undercarriage doors all located solidly and securely into their respective holes which is always a plus for a kit.

Conclusion

This model certainly doesn’t rate as my best work. The kit, although rated as one of the better Thunderstreak kits out there is a bit average, but then the bar is rather low with only the old Monogram and Kinetic kits as competition in the 48 scale field. It also seems to have been rather forgotten by the various AM manufacturers, with not even canopy mask sets being available at time of publication. I had to GASP…..SHOCK mask the canopy the old fashioned way using thin tape strips! The kit could do with at the minimum, new wheels and exhaust.

In the end, it’s another completion for the year which fits with my ethos this year of being focused on quantity of builds rather than the quality. Despite this, Im still disappointed at the flaws evident in my build such as the odd wonky rescribed panel line and lack of care shown in trying to get the black trim to to properly outline the copper flashes. I really should have made the effort to go back and redo these properly. It won’t be seeing any competitions, and I’m OK with that. Not every model is going to be our best work, and sometimes compromises have to be made if we want to get the maximum number of models finished. For me, one of this year’s goals was to get as close as I could to completing 10 models. There will always be the next model to do better on. (Ive already decided on the next subject AP!)

Despite the workman-like result, the subject does hold some appeal to me looking quite colourful with its copper trim and large buzz numbers. I wouldn’t say the build was enjoyable, but then, it wasn’t hard work either. It’s one of those beige kits. But should an up to date 48 scale tooling be released, it would be purchased. JetMads are working on a 32 scale 3DP kit, but my love for the jet is not enough to spend the $600 odd it will cost.

Republic F-84 Thunderstreak 169FIS/182FIG Illinois Air Guard. Peoria Ill USA. 1958

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HKM 1/48 Lancaster B1

/ Bruces Scale Models / 1 Comment
  • Purchased; 2021
  • Completed; 2026
  • Enhancements;
  • Instrument Panel -Eduard Look
  • Seat Belts-Eduard
  • Propellers- alans3dmodels.co.uk
  • Gun Barrels – Quickboost
  • Wheels- Brassin
  • Radiator screens-Eduard
  • Bombsight -Eduard.
  • Decals- Combination of 1Man Army, Top-Notch and home made masks

Avro’s Lancaster always loomed large in my childhood. Growing uo in Perth West Australia, one only had to visit the Airport in the 70s and 80s to see a real one up close. Parked at the entrance to the airport – for a while next to a Mosquito – in a fenced enclosure, it had been donated to the WA RAAF Association by the French Aeronavale. Once a month it was open to the public, and you could even clamber inside for a small fee.

Consequently in my mind, it has always remained as THE most iconic strategic bomber of The Second World War. Although this has not really been reflected in the number of Lancaster models completed by me over the years.

First there was the Revell 1/72 model completed as S Sugar during my childhood, then the Airfix one., which was completed as G-George. The Tamiya 1/48 kit was also purchased upon its release, but I have no recollection of actually building it! The yellow outlined codes and quote on the nose stayed with me though, and I determined to pay homage to it with this model.

The Hong Kong Models 1/48 Lancaster

If you still have the Tamiya kit in your stash……Sell it and buy this one! There no comparison. It really does make the old Tamiya kit obsolete. Fine recessed surface detail, a far more detailed and accurate interior, not that you can see much of it, and, most importantly, it contains most of the parts you will need to also build a late model Lancaster including the larger Bomb Aimer’s blister, which was sadly lacking from the Tamiya kit, thereby limiting it to a early Lancaster only. This boxing only has the needle propeller blades though, so again limits it to early and mid life Lancasters. It would have been great if HKM also included the paddle blades as well, but early and late style pitots are included as are various aerial fits. The fit and engineering are also good with solid locations for the undercarriage, as well as the option to have dropped or retracted flaps. As this kit models the early S-Sugar, some modifications would be needed to reflect R5868 in the later stages of her life.

2 references were invaluable here. Ton-Up Lancs by Norman Franks and Wingleader Photo Archive No.5

I should add here, I rarely go into this much depth researching my builds, mainly because I want a speedy build, but for some reason, absolutely went down the rabbit hole on this particular aeroplane. I can see why some modellers are fascinated by this aspect of the hobby. What I found out was R5868 was a bit of a unique girl as her nose was a very early build, but in 1944 was attached to a new build rear fuselage, so had many late war features that would not otherwise be found on an early build aircraft like this.

Anyway, using the above two books the following list was compiled of changes that needed to be made to the stock kit to make a late war S-Sugar.

Paddle Blade propellers

Large Bomb Aimer’s Blister – comes in kit

Late Model rear gun turret -comes in kit (phew!)

Monica and Rebecca Aerials- included in kit

No rear fuselage windows,

H2S radar – comes in kit

All easily done as most of the parts were in the kit, aside from the paddle bladed props. Briefly, I considered contacting HKM to see if I could purchase the propeller sprue from their Grand Slam boxing, but scouring Britmodeller put me onto a UK modeller who has done a 3D set, so this problem was then solved.

Construction

Because I didn’t want to write ‘ construction started with the cockpit” (Hang on, did I just type that anyway!). I started building the wings and engine nacelles. Forewarned that the nacelles were a very tight fit over the engines, I left off the cam covers, parts M7 and M8. This made the fit a lot better, although you will still have to sand and rescribe the panel lines around the top of the engines. I found the radiators didn’t have the most solid of joints, so make sure you glue them securely. You don’t want them coming adrift once you’ve closed the nacelles as they are a bastard to get back into place. How do I know this? Well………

Whilst on the wings, HKM have moulded the aileron actuating rods as solid. I cut mine away and later replaced them with stretched sprue. Another small tweak was adding bare metal foil to the rear of the landing lights once they were cemented into the wing to represent the reflectors. A minor annoyance with the HKM instructions is that they do not clearly indicate where to glue the cable cutters or the engine intakes in Step 41. Looking closely at photos and using a simple jig like a piece of tape is your friend here.

Once the wing halves were glued and drying I glued the rear fuselage windows into place before slathering epoxy over them from the outside. Once this had dried they were sanded to remove all trace of them. From around late 43, these windows were removed completely from Lancasters and not just painted over. In a first for me, one of my many riveting wheels had exactly the same spacing as the kit rivets, so this was used to replace all the lost detail, and again once the fuselage seams had been filled and sanded. Whilst on the subject of windows, the wireless and navigator’s windows stood slightly proud of the surrounding fuselage, so these too had CA applied around their edges and were sanded back flush with the fuselage. Their clarity was then restored with Tamiya polishing compound and micromesh.

In building the interior, a lot of the parts aft of the Navigators station were left out, as they will not be visible anyway. An Eduard Look! Instrument panel was used instead of the kit panel. Take a bit of time with the cockpit as you will be surprised how much can be seen through that big canopy. Being an early build Lancaster, my interior was painted with SMS RAF Interior Green. The turrets were also completed at this time. Id suggest sanding the slots in the rear turret a touch wider to allow the PE spent shell chutes to sit a bit more securely.

Being initially an early build Lanc, the nose turret interior was painted silver, whilst the top and tail turrets were painted black as befitting a later build Lancaster. Gun barrels were replaced with Quickboost items after ever so carefully drilling holes in the breeches once the plastic barrels had been cut off. It’s annoying that you cannot add the nose turret fairing without first adding the turret, so both items were left until well after painting to add. The beauty of this kit is all major airframe parts can be completed separately, even to the painting and decalling stage. This feature certainly aids handling the model on the workbench, even so, as usual, I managed to clang wings and fuselage against desk lamps, spray booth etc! The turrets can also be left off until the final stage, which certainly helps with masking aside from the nose turret. I replaced the kit bomb sight with an Eduard 3D item, although the kit one is fine for all intents and purposes.

Unlike the Tamiya kit, HKM includes many late model Lancaster parts in their kit. In 1945 Sugar was fitted with the H2S radar , Rebecca aerials and large Bomb Aimers blister with the Z fitting. All these parts being included in the kit made building her in this configuration so much easier. It was just a matter of finding photos and following them. A bit of research also revealed the rear of the H2S blister was clear to allow the rearmost downward facing ID lamp to still be seen.

The Wingleader book was massively helpful here in pointing out various points on the airframe and differences between various builds. I cannot recommend them highly enough, nor the Britmodeller forum and the many helpful folk on it. You will find that you need to sand or scape away a bit of material from the rear deck where it meets the sides of the canopy to allow the canopy to sit down properly. Also the holes for the rear tailplanes need boring out a bit. This, the canopy and the nacelle tops were about the only major fit issues I experienced. The small gaps around where the nacelles sit into the undersides of the wing were easily filled with a bit of Perfect Plastic Putty. I found fitting the small Eduard etched screens for the side intakes quite fiddly until I decided to cut the small PE brackets away and just mounted them directly onto two thin strips of plastic card glued directly to the front of the intakes. From the side they are not noticeable and the strip is far sturdier than the thin folded PE.

Painting and Decalling

The topsides were first painted in SMS RAF Dark Earth. To this was added a healthy dollop of Tamiya Desert Yellow to give a bleached looking Dark Earth. This colour was used to paint the upper forward fuselage to the field break just in front of the main spar, as photos show the nose looking very faded. The rest of the upper surfaces were then sprayed SMS Dark Earth with just a touch this time of Tamiya dark Yellow to lighten it slightly. LF Models Lancaster Camouflage masking set was then applied to set all the correct demarcations and Tamiya RAF Dark Green Type 2 applied. Both these colours were then mottled with various lighter and darker mixes to produce a battered looking finish. Lancasters got absolutely filthy, very quickly, as evidenced by numerous photos, in the Wingleader book. So don’t believe the old “they didn’t last long enough to get dirty” line. Once the upper surfaces were done, they were masked off ready for the undersides to get painted. R5868 came from the factory with a higher than normal demarcation line above the line of the rear windows. The rear fuselage would have had the normal demarcation line just below the window line. (Told you I went down a rabbit hole on this!)

I added a stepped demarcation line to reinforce that this aeroplane was made from an early nose section mated to a rebuilt rear fuselage. The demarcation line under the Portside canopy was also freehanded as photos showed a lot of overspray her from touchups.

Another thing that stood out when looking at photos of Lancaster’s was the rippled skin, or “oil canning” on various parts of the fuselage and wings. Modellers have used scalpels along rivet lines or built up the individual panels in the past to portray this. I wanted to try just paint.. White pre shading was applied in various patterns along the rivet lines using tape and super thinned paint through the airbrush. SMS Camo Black was then sprayed over the top in very thin coats until the effect I wanted was achieved. I’m not saying this is the best or only way to mimic oil canning, but I was reasonably happy with my results when viewed from normal viewing distance. The black was also treated to various mottles with other shades of very dark grey and different blacks such as rubber, NATO Black, CARC Black etc. Codes and national markings were all sprayed through 1man Army and Top Notch masks. Getting consistent yellow outlines was an absolute Pain. In. The. Arse. The masks for the codes on the tail ended up getting completely mangled and deformed beyond all recognition. In the end I cut my own masks on my Silhouette machine. The tail codes were applied before the camouflage went on. This was a much easier way of doing it and I wish I had done all the markings this way

The below photos outline the process.

1Man Army even supply the Goering quote and the bomb tally as masks. I mangled the quote and crew decorations, but applied the mission markings successfully. an extra 2 rows were added to correctly reflect Sugar’s end of war tally, being 132 (125 officially). I even painted the bombs in different shades of yellow! The exhaust shrouds were painted Tamiya Deck tan, followed by a coat of hairspray. Black was then applied and a stiff water moistened brush used to chip away the black to achieve the effect of the black burning off exposing the asbestos underneath. Exhaust stains were done by first spraying a cloudy diffuse layer of Deck Tan over the wings and nacelles before adding Tamiya Black and Red Brown to the mix. In all honesty they should have been far more pronounced, but I chickened out a little.

Conclusion

I won’t bore you with all the final assembly steps, subject to say the wings were REALLY hard to push in to their proper locked location. Despite not being glued, they’re not coming off in a hurry! The only real faff was positioning the flaps, especially the inner ones, not sure there is any easy way to do this, apart from growing a third hand

So what do I think of Hong Kong’s Lancaster. I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it.which is just as well, given I built 2 in parallel. It has some minor accuracy issues, but I’ve long since stopped caring about these. There are a few flaws in my build, but it’s probably my favourite build of the year, and I just love looking at it in the cabinet. A lot of my builds either get sold or thrown out to make way for new models, but I think this and its Grand Slam brother will be gracing the cabinet for quite some time yet. Highly recommended if you have the room.

Avro Lancaster B1 467 SQN RAAF. Waddington UK May 1945

One response to “HKM 1/48 Lancaster B1”

  1. andyk21 Avatar
    andyk21

    Another great build and finish Bruce! Fantastic!!

    Like

    Reply

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Trumpeter 1/48 F-106 Delta Dart

/ Bruces Scale Models / 6 Comments
  • Purchased: 2014
  • Completed: 2026
  • Enhancements:
  • Seat; Wolfpack
  • Wheels; Reskit
  • Exhaust Nozzle; Reskit
  • Missiles; Reskit
  • Pitot Tube; Master Details
  • Antennas; Quickboost
  • Decals: Caracal, Fundekl

This kit was one of about five kits I bought from various traders at ScaleACT – a model show held in Canberra each year – in 2014. It was probably the last show that I came away from with this number of kits. These days, tools and paints are my main purchases from shows.

Anyway…….The Trumpeter Delta Dart….reasonably detailed in the box, options to deploy flaps, RAM turbine and missiles. The canopy can also be positioned opened or closed as can the weapons bay. The one-piece door for this came in handy for masking the open bay whilst painting.

Upon closer inspection, the seat is fairly basic as are the missiles and wheels. All three items were replaced with aftermarket items.. More troubling is the fact the plastic has a very slight texture. I wish I had done more to smooth the parts. They were sanded, primed and resanded, just not enough times to completely smooth out all the textures. The lower wings are where it shows up most. A lot of the rivets and panel lines could also do with rescribing as some of them are quite shallow, whilst others are shallow and wide.

Construction Notes

Step 1 The kit seat was replaced with a far more detailed Wolfpack resin item

Step 2. Ensure you fit the seat before the control column. If you fit the control column first you won’t be able to slide the seat underneath it. The kit decal was used over the instrument panel as this model was going to have a closed canopy. The side consoles were dry brushed. The cockpit was painted Gunze Dark Gull Grey

Step 3. I reinforced the upper and lower parts of the nose gear by drilling and fitting a brass pin. At this stage only the upper leg C13 was glued to the bay, the lower strut C28 being fitted at the very end of final assembly.

Step 4 . I replaced the kit jet pipe with a Reskit item which is better detailed. SMS Interior Green was used for the wheel wells and weapons bay.

Step 6. If you forget the tiny P.E parts PE10 like I did, don’t worry. They’re not really visible on the finished model. No nose weight is needed as the main legs sit behind the C of G, even with a resin tailpipe. Before glueing the fuselage halves together, drill out all the locating holes to ease fit. I didn’t, and paid the price with more filling and sanding than was necessary had I had taken this simple step in the first place.

Step 7. Don’t forget to drill those holes for the tanks!

Step 9. The flaps if fitted in the drooped position (plenty of photos of parked jets show this) just butt join to the rear of the wings. They look horrible leaving a nasty gap and don’t look like part of the wing at all. I solved this by adding the flaps, then glueing a strip of thin plastic card to the trailing edge to cover the gap. Looks much better and integrates the flaperons into the wings

Step 10. I managed to snap my pitot tube off, so replaced it with a Master Details item. The airbrakes were fitted much later in the build. Mine were painted Interior green, but Ive seen photos showing white as per Trumpeter’s call out.

Step 13. Obviously don’t glue the mirrors sticking out as illustrated in the instructions. The canopy actually fits quite well in the closed position. Again I made glueing the canopy to the frame much harder than it needed to be, and ended up doing some heavy duty filling and polishing to get everything looking nice, destroying the frames in the process. The day I seamlessly build a perfect model without unforced errors will be the day I know I have achieved Master Modeller status, and therefore can give up the hobby and rest. Goal Achieved!!

Step 14. The gear legs were dry fitted to the wells to act as a jig before glueing all the actuating struts to the legs. Once dry the entire leg assembly was removed to be painted as a single unit. I’ve used this technique on my last 3 builds and find it makes for a neater stronger assembly each time.

The weapons parts were quite fiddly to get into position, making me wish at times I had 3 hands. Again they were all dry fitted together and to their locations in the bay before glue was added to the trapezes. Likewise the doors were again a tricky assembly. The parts being thin were warped , so the thin super glue got a run in the end. Tiny drops being applied to the hinges to ensure everything stayed solid once glued. Way before these were added though, the model was painted.

Paint and Decalling

As mentioned in my introduction the plastic had a definite texture, so the first stage before priming was rubbing all this back before polishing the plastic and rescribing some lost detail. I really should have taken a lot more care with these steps as my wonky rescribing and failure to deepen some of the rivets really detracts from the finished model. Oh well, next time!

Finding an out of bottle ADC grey proved a lot harder than it should have been. Only AK Real Colours does it. It’s quite a distinctive grey with a bit of a blue tinge to it, so definitely not a case of any old grey will do. The RC paint when first applied looks blue, but this settles down with successive coats. Its a great colour and an overall ADC grey F-4 Phantom is now on my to do list at some stage.. Winsor and Newton Paynes Grey oil paint was used as the wash.

The model was actually looking good pretty good at this stage but as is common with my models, subsequent touch ups through discovering rough patches that needed smoothing degraded the finish a bit. The model is also deceptively big, so suffered numerous areas of scuffed and chipped paint through being accidentally banged against lamps, spray booth and walls. Thus leading to more touch ups.

Finally the finish was at a stage acceptable enough to be gloss coated ready for decals. Prior to this the USAF titles had been sprayed on using masks I cut myself. Note on late airframes these titles were black in colour, and not Insignia Blue.

The National and unit markings came from a Caracal sheet and performed just OK, despite being printed by Cartograph. They required multiple coats of solvent to settle into panel lines and rivets.

All was going well until I managed to tear a bit of the tail flash off with a bit of errant tape. It was annoying how easily it came off despite all the solvents used to bed it into the nice smooth surface. Masking off and touching up with a mixed light blue solved this, but was annoying still the same. Because, who doesn’t love doing the same thing over and over again!

\

All the stencilling came from the Fundekals sheet, there being a fair bit, not “F-4 Phantom fair bit” but still a lot especially on the undersides. These all performed perfectly. Oh, I forgot to add New Ware masks were used to get the curve of the black trim on the nose. A sealing coat of SMS Flat was then sprayed on, imparting a nice sheen to the jet. It was decided to leave it as a clean jet rather than add staining etc, because , well frankly I was getting over it and wanted to move onto the next project.

Final assembly involved adding the undercarriage and Reskit wheels. Reskit missiles also replaced the kit items. They come with their own set of stencilling, but these broke up in the water so only about half of them were used.

The missiles were then superglued to the afore mentioned tricky to assemble weapon trapezes. When assembling all this, I found it easier to work from the inside out, so the trapezes were assembled first followed by the doors, then finally the missiles. The icing on the cake was adding the pitot tube. This was first painted white then a thin strip of tape wound around it in a spiral before the light blue was sprayed

Final Thoughts

Well, it didn’t turn out as well as my vision, but I’m still pretty happy with it overall. The Trumpeter kit was a reasonably easy and enjoyable build in the end. It’s an imposing graceful jet and looks great in the cabinet. There is also plenty of aftermarket out there if you are that way inclined, although these days I am scaling back my AM purchases to just those items that are easily seen and will enhance the finished model.

The Reskit missiles definetly look more refined than the kit parts as does the jet pipe. Using the Reskit item also eliminates a seam that would be evident if using the kit parts. There are resin wheel wells available, but the added detail from using these would not be visible. I think the Wolfpack seat was also value adding, even with the canopy closed. Its a lovely looking jet from one of my favourite periods of aviation and Im glad to finally have one in the cabinet.

Convair F-106A Delta Dart. 101st FIS. Massachusetts ANG USAF 1986

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Italeri 1/48 TBM-1 Avenger

/ Bruces Scale Models / 2 Comments
  • Purchased: 2024
  • Completed: 2026
  • Enhancements:
  • Seats: Eduard
  • Instrument Panel; Eduard Look
  • Exhaust Pipes; Quickboost
  • Decals; Montex Masks

It’s a refrain you often hear from some of the decal producers. “No sooner had we sent the artwork off to the printers, a photo showing a detail we got wrong appeared”

So it was with this build. Not in this case markings but a photo detailing the actual mark of Avenger that wore the scheme that I had chosen to portray. Every kit with this scheme lists it as a 1C but it is actually a -1.

Well, to be fair, the photo had always been there, appearing in several books on Avengers. It was more me not really studying it, at least until I had the model just about ready for paint.

Looking at the photo on my large desktop screen, it became evident my subject aircraft was fitted with a cowl gun, and no wing guns. This made it a TBM-1, not a 1C as first thought.

What to do? Make the requisite changes or leave it as one of our fellow GB builders had done. Well, not me Andrew! I’m all about the accuracy* (*may not apply to all models, LOL)

Fitting the gun trough would certainly been easier before the forward fuselage parts were fitted, but in the end wasn’t as difficult as first imagined. A slot was cut where the trough would be located and plastic tube was glued in. This was then cut and sanded to match the fuselage contours. The natural curve of the fuselage forms the teardrop shape of the trough. In hindsight, I should have made the trough a little shallower, but was quite pleased with my results anyway, not being the world’s greatest scratch builder!

The next modification was to add a second cockpit as per my FAA build as the TBF-1 Avenger also had a second cockpit. The second seat in this case being the spare pilots seat from my other build.

This pretty much bought the fuselage to completion. One thing to note was the rear radio operators seat needs a plastic card base underneath it to widen it to meet the location tabs on the fuselage sides. This was required in both builds. An MV lens was again used to detail the wing leading edge light

The PE flaps and bays were built up from the Eduard set and matched to the wing cut outs without any great dramas.

Wings and tailplanes fit neatly into their fuselage recesses, with just a smear of Mr Surfacer needed to tidy the joins. Before adding the wings, all evidence of the wing guns were removed, empty shell chutes filled were with scraps of plastic card, as were the muzzle openings. The wing gun bays were then eradicated with super glue after the bulges were cut off.

Finishing

I had an old Aeromaster decal sheet for this scheme in the decal bank, but did not really trust the decals. Then I discovered Montex had a mask set in their range for this aircraft. Those large numbers would look way better painted rather than decals. For this model, it was decided to paint the insignia on first before the camouflage. The below photos detail the process.

  • The red is the. sprayed and the mask added to cover this. Note the use of masks to cover the small cuts between the different mask elements
  • Here the blue has been sprayed over the remaining umasked areas and then the whole marking masked off
  • primer applied to cover all the overspray and bring the surface back to a uniform colour
  • White is first laid down, then masked

nice all the national insignia had been sprayed, the camouflage was applied. In this instance SMS Insignia white, GSI Intermediate Blue followed by Sea Blue. There should also be graduated mixes of the two colours on the leading edges of the wings and the spine of aircraft finished in this scheme. But the photo showed the top of the wings faded to one overall colour. The final markings to be masked and sprayed were the fuselage yellow call signs as they overlap the national insignia.

Interestingly, Aeromaster decals – who were often called Errormaster for the many mistakes on their decals – seem to be the only manufacturer that carefully studied the extant photo of the real machine. As you can see in the above pic, I had to modify the Montex 6 with tape to properly represent the prototype marking. Aeromaster got this right. Italeri and Montex were a fail. You can see that the wing walkways have also been sprayed and masked rather than using the kit decals.

Final Assembly

This just left the small details to add. Resin Quickboost exhausts replaced the chunky poorly detailed kit ones. The undercarriage securely locates into position and finally the turret is added. This was met with some trepidation as it is supposed to be notoriously difficult to push into position. In reality, it went in with just a tiny bit of pushing, nowhere near the dramas reported by some other modellers. Hopefully the photos below outline the process. I did cut off the small “feet” on the bottom of the turret ring, which made it a bit easier to rotate into position. It is important though that you start with the turret in the same position as the first photo. This has been ratified by Bill Bosworth himself! The designer of the kit. Note the “shelf” that sits in front of the turret should not be fitted until AFTER the turret, otherwise you will never get the turret in. Italeri do not mention this at all in their completely inadequate instructions.

  • Start with the turret positioned as such
  • The turret bottom is then pushed down into its locating ring using some gentle pressure to get it over the spine of the aircraft
  • Once properly seated, it can be rotated to whatever position the modeller desires

Final Thoughts

This has been my fourth Accurate Miniatures build. And I have really enjoyed them, well maybe not the Mitchell, although that still turned out as one of my favourite builds. The Dauntless and Avengers were very enjoyable builds with good fit and engineering. The only real fiddly bit with the Avenger was assembling the gun turret interior. The poor instructions not helping at all.

As mentioned in my other AM builds, these kits still stand the test of time. Such a shame the company folded when it did. Who knows what they could have gone onto.

Those big yellow numbers and red outlined stars and bars make this Avenger quite the eye catcher. This will be my last Avenger for a while, although there is a post war example that I wouldn’t mind building somewhere down the track. I’ll keep an eye out at swap meets for the TBM-3 as despite the box my model came in, the contents were the Italeri 1-C kit.

TBM-1 Avenger. USN. Carrier Aircraft Support Unit-22 USS Mission Bay 1943

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Accurate Miniatures 1/48 Tarpon MkII

/ Bruces Scale Models / 2 Comments
  • Purchased: 2024
  • Completed: 2026
  • Enhancements
  • Seats, – Brassin
  • Exhausts – Quickboost
  • Instrument panel and seatbelts – Eduard
  • Wheels – Eduard
  • Decals – custom made masks

Introduction

1/48 Avengers are the subject for this years “Thunderdome Build ” A small semi group build a few of my modelling mates conduct each year. Some finish, many don’t! ( Talking about YOU Gary ) The main contender for the kit choice being that we all have to have the chosen kit in our respective stashes.

My stash held two Avengers, one an original AM boxing, the other, an Italeri re-release. The intention was to build one and sell the other, however an inspection of both revealed one had been pre started and the other had many parts off the sprues.. That’s what you get for not checking boxes at swap and sellsI guess. Therefore it was decided to build both. One would be a Fleet Air Arm machine and the other, a USN machine. This would be my second AM build of the year, the first was the Dauntless, which I found an enjoyable build. This looked like it would be an equably enjoyable build..

Build Notes

Being a FAA machine, the first thing to do was build the second cockpit position FAA machines had behind the pilot instead of the radio equipment the USN aircraft had, and the kit provides.

The moulded on detail on the floor was cut and chiselled off and a new floor using 15 thou plastic glued on. A spare Wildcat bucket seat was then added with a mounting frame made from brass wire. Sutton harness from Eduard was added to all seats. I didn’t go overboard on the detail figuring A Not much would be seen, and B. There are scant references available for how this area looked. As my chosen subject was an Eastern Motors built aircraft, the whole interior was painted Interior Green with SMS. The bomb bay and engine cowling were then painted Yellow Zinc Chromate with Tamiya XF4. Again I found the AM instructions poor in regard to where parts actually located, despite the written descriptions, particularly when it came to assembling the turret interior.

The airframe assembly proceeded without problem. I cut off the moulded on wingtip formation lights to allow me to add CMK blue lamps later on. A MV lens was also added to the leading edge landing light as out of the box, there is nothing, just a blank bulkhead. The fuselage small oval windows were also faired in to the surrounding fuselage using CA. This was sanded down and then polished to restore the window clarity. The kit windows had quite pronounced framing which I couldn’t see on any photos and look much better with the filling and sanding work. Being a FAA machine large bubble windows were fitted instead of the large rectangular windows. Accurate Miniatures, showing excellent foresight, include the bulged windows on the clear sprue in the kit. For a FAA machine, ensure that the raked back aerial post is used, the post on the real aircraft being hinged to allow the aircraft to be stowed in the lower height British Hangars. Aside from the above little refinements, the model was pretty much built as per the instructions, and went together with no great difficulties.

Painting and Finishing

Being Eastern Motors built, my Avenger would be wearing ANA substitute colours. As far as the modeller is concerned, the main difference from the standard FAA colours is the use of ANA613 Olive Drab instead of Dark Slate Grey. MRP ANA Olive Drab was used for this The other colour used on the topside was ANA612 Sea Grey, which is pretty much Extra Dark Sea Grey. Tamiya XF24 standing in for this colour. All colours were lightened a touch with white. Undersides were Sky ANA 610. This shade was mixed from Tamiya colours using a recipe found on Britmodeller. After careful mixing, I was quite surprised the resultant colour wasn’t that far removed from RAF Sky, perhaps a touch greener. I was expecting a greyer colour as that’s what I have seen used on other models on line. For future FAA models of aircraft painted in ANA colours, I’ll just use a RAF sky straight from the jar.

All these colours were gone over with lightened and darkened mixes of each colour to make the aircraft look weatherbeaten and patched up in appearance. Reading about the raids conducted by these aircraft, very few escaped unscathed, in fact I would not be surprised if this actual aircraft was lost. All this battle damage repair, I’m sure would have lead to a multi hued surface, and then there is fading and being exposed to the elements on flight decks to contend with.

This website https://www.destinationsjourney.com/historical-military-photographs/grumman-avenger-in-british-service/ has some excellent photos of British Avengers.

Markings for the aircraft I wanted to do were not available as part of any decal sheet, so using an Aeromaster sheet to get the dimensions of the roundels, masks were cut on my Silhouette. The codes were sized against the photo and also cut, although these should probably have been about 2 mm less in height. Serial numbers from the Aeromaster sheet were rearranged to get the number. These and the maintenance stencils were the only decals used on the model.

I have to admit to feeling quite pleased with the results, especially as the markings had been completed in one go without all the touch-ups normally needed on one of my models.

Alas, I spoke too soon

In hindsight, YES, shaking a paint pen with the lid off AND over the model was reckless! This then led to repeated rounds of sanding priming and touch-ups to get back to where I had been a day ago. I would get a lot more models finished if I didn’t continuously have to do things twice.

If there was a silver lining to this, it was that I could introduce even more colour variations to the model. These aircraft suffered greatly through battle damage and exposure to the harsh sun and salt air, so would have started to look fairly tatty after not too long

Finishing

Modellers World grey brown wash was flowed into all the panel lines with the excess rubbed off. The transparencies were then added including that dreaded turret everyone seems to complain about fitting. In the end, it actually wasn’t that difficult. My next Avenger post will contain step by step photos on the procedure. The landing gear was added, fitting very securely into its large location slots. In fact, the engineering all through this kit was well thought out and resulted in a solid airframe. Quickboost exhaust pipes replaced the rather thick kit parts. They were base coated dark earth and then stippled with rust and light grey tones. You will need to remove the small location tab in the fuselage exhaust cutouts before glueing the resin items in place. The transparencies were then unmasked and an aerial line added from EZline (Yes, I know I said I would not use this stuff again )

Final Thoughts

It struck me halfway through this build in my 56 years of modelling this was the first time I had built an Avenger!

The kit itself went together reasonably quickly and painlessly and was an enjoyable build. On the shelf it further reinforces my thought EVERYTHING looks good in FAA colours!

Eastern Motors Avenger MkII. 857 NAS. Royal Navy FAA. HMS Indomitable 1944

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Accurate Miniatures 1/48 SBD-3 Dauntless

/ Bruces Scale Models / 4 Comments
  • Purchased: 2024
  • Completed: 2026
  • Enhancements:
  • Wheels – Brassin
  • Exhausts – Quickboost
  • Seatbelts – Eduard
  • Decals: – Furball Colours & Markings SBD Dauntless

This is the second AM Dauntless kit that has crossed the bench. The first being completed just after its release waaaaaaayyyyyy back in 1997. That one was an SBD-1 finished in the very striking “yellow wings” scheme. It stood out at the time as a fun build, and I’m happy to report the second time around the experience was the same.

Build

The build proceeded quickly and smoothly. This was an original boxing of the kit so I was surprised to find flash on some of the finer parts. The dive brakes were also warped, although this was a known feature of the kit, the thinness of them probably pushing the limits of moulding at the time.

Examining the parts also revealed just how much detail AM had moulded into them. The model certainly bears the hallmarks of Bill Bosworth’s time at Monogram. Time to get stuck in!

The cockpit was painted SMS Interior Green with details picked out using various Vallejo colours. Detail and Scale’s Dauntless book was used at the reference. AM supply clear plastic instrument panels with the dials being provided as a decal which is attached to the rear of the panel. The decals though are just black circles, so instead, the whole panel was painted black and drybrushed with various greys. The raised dial details were then touched in with a sharpened white pencil. A drop of gloss into each dial represented the glass. Seatbelts came from an Eduard SBD-5 set rather than using the lame kit supplied decal seatbelts. A point of annoyance with Eduard here. Eduard only give you lap belts though. No shoulder straps are provided at all. By the time of the -5, and indeed the -3, the USN was fitting shoulder harnesses . This is just Eduard being lazy again and probably relabelling an existing early Dauntless set.. All the cockpit components fitted securely in their given locations although the rear bulkhead on my kit needed a little bit of sanding to reduce its width to enable the fuselage halves to close without any gaps.

Very little filler was required on the model. The biggest application being where the bottom wing joins the fuselage. The fit here is not bad actually, and if the modeller doesn’t do as I did and manage to induce a step, it would just need some Mr Surfacer run around all the joins. However, my join needed an application of super glue to smooth it all out. During this process, the identification lights were drilled out to accept MV lenses. There is also a gap between the top dive brakes and ailerons that will need filling with plastic card.

Filler was needed around the cowl scoop and gun trough panel. Here I used Mr Surfacer, removing the excess withy some Mr Thinner on a cotton bud. The kit blast tubes were cut from the cowl gun breeches, to be later replaced with drilled plastic rod.. No filler was needed at the wing roots, the join being very tight straight from the box. Prior to commencing my build, online builds were consulted to see what other people had experienced with the build. Some comments were made about the AM instructions, which surprised me as my recollections of AM instructions were that they were incredibly helpful. Now, with the passage of time, my opinion has changed to……… Not. So. Much! The written description of the build sequence contains lots of helpful information, but the drawings are sadly lacking in both detail and precise locations of where to glue the parts. However, they are still streets ahead of Italeri’s woeful efforts with their reboxed AM kits. I briefly thought about riveting the airframe, but in the end decided not to.

Painting

This was going to get finished as the box Coral Sea scheme, but my eye was drawn to the scheme USN aircraft wore before this. Overall Flat Light Grey. It still had the early war stars complete with red dot, although sadly not those gaudy fin stripes. And It was a lesser modelled scheme, which is also a box ticker for me. Furball offered such a scheme on their Colours and Markings Dauntless sheet, out of print on their website, but I managed to source one locally from Star Hobbies and Collectables. (locally, being Australia)

MRP Light Gull Grey was used with the interior areas of the dive brakes being SMS Flat Red. Initially all the interiors were painted red, but a local club member pointed out that the well for the central flap/dive brake was supposed to be the underside colour. Thanks Geoff, who doesn’t love even MORE masking!

Prior to the sheet arriving, I decided to take a chance on the kit decals. The underwing roundel went on with no issues, bedded down on some Mr Setter. Some sparingly applied Mig AMMO decal fix saw it sink it the panel lines. The luck ran out though using the stencils as they broke up in the water. Time to stop for the day.

The next day started off well with the Postie delivering the Furball decals. It then took a dive when the decal set applied to the wing top star stained it due to my slightly too liberal application of the decal solvent. As it had to also lay into some vents on the wings, the decision was made to instead mask and paint the star in this location. The walkways were also painted rather than using the supplied decals. Furball decals were used in all other locations, including the stencilling.

The Jeffrey Ethell collection on Flickr has a photo of the actual aircraft.

I’ve reproduced it here, as I believe it’s actually an official USN photo taken over San Diego.

Comparing the photo to the Furball sheet, one sees Furball did not include the small number 14 on the wing leading edges. These can be made up from the various other numbers included on the sheet. The wingtop numbers were also placed more towards the front of the wing than Furball show on their instruction sheet.

As you can see from the photo, she’s a fairly clean airframe aside from that exhaust stain. There being no evidence of even oil leaks from the cowling. Note no spinner is fitted and the propeller tips are still the early three colours of (from the tip) red, yellow and blue Modellers World Brown Grey was used for the panel line wash. The exhaust stain was airbrushed with very thinned ( not thinned enough though!) Tamiya black XF1 and red brown XF64

Final Details

The landing gear locates very positively, thanks to AM’s excellent engineering. I wish more kits were like this, talking about YOU Eduard!

The small struts that link the gear doors to the oleos were replaced with .20 plastic rod. This is far easier than cleaning the kit parts up. The gunner’s rearmost canopy was very carefully cut from the one piece closed canopy AM provide. You can’t use the provided open canopy due to it being too small as its designed to be stacked under the other canopies

The aerial wire was lycra thread with small brass tube lengths used for the insulators. Small 2.4mm MV lens were used for the underside ID lights. These are like the MVP of my bits bin. Try to find small lenses these days! The Brassin wheels were superglued on after having the axle holes drilled out larger. Really Eduard, this could have been done at manufacture, you say on the packet they are for the AM kits. I’m sure some modellers will label this as nitpicking, but I find it incredibly irritating. Reskit are also the same, labelling their wheels as specific to a particular kit, but again, the axle holes always need drilling out to suit the kit axle. And with that, the Dauntless rolls off the bench -not literally I hasten to add – as my first completion for 2026.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this kit, perhaps because I set out from the start with the view of just making it a quick straight forward build. To me, Accurate Miniatures kits, even when looked at with a 21st century eye still stand as great model kits . A true testament to the work that went into designing them at the time. Although there is more aftermarket out there for them now, you can still build a detailed kit straight from the box. Its streets ahead of the Hasegawa Dauntless and will probably wear the crown of “Best Dauntless in 48 Scale” for some years yet.

Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless. U.S Navy VS-5 USS Yorktown 1941

Hasegawa 1/48 B6N2 Tenzan

/ Bruces Scale Models / 1 Comment
  • Purchased; 2023
  • Completed: 2025
  • Enhancements: OOB
  • Decals: Myk-Design

For modellers that first built these kits upon their release, there is something comforting about returning to a Hasegawa kit, many years later. Yes, far better examples of their subjects can be found in other manufacturers ranges these days. However, there is still that wonderful emotive box art by Shigeo Koike. Those nicely moulded grey parts with their sharp, but shallow engraved panel lines the crisp detail, and, for the most part, a fairly uncomplicated build. Of course, there were also the odd fit issue, the not-quite-white decals, sometimes vague instructions, and not-quite-crystal-clear transparencies. The builds were usually very enjoyable, albeit the models could be a bit bland, Hasegawa not generally offering options for open hatches or separate control surfaces to give your model a bit of individuality.

Construction Notes

And so we come to Hasegawa’s Tenzan. It is a fitting end to my year’s builds. This one was going to be purely built from the box. It serves as a pause from my other sometimes long and protracted builds. The complication (there’s always a complication!) added by me was the decision to rivet the surfaces to add a bit of “busyness” to the airframe. To be fair, this wasn’t that much of a complication. It involves finding suitable drawings that show the rivet details. In this case, the drawings come from a Kagero Top Drawings book. The next steps are scaling the drawing up and transcribing the lines onto the model. A riveting tool is then used to push the rivets into the plastic. Search YouTube for “The Model Guy” who has a video of how to do it step by step. I couldn’t post the video here for some reason. After the riveting was completed, a black wash was run into all the rivets and panel lines to assess them. there were a few wonky lines! And as a friend mentioned there should also be river lines alongside all the panel lines as well.

The actual build proceeded with few real issues. There was a gap when joining the front cowling to the rear cowling, despite all the parts being lined up correctly. Talking to other modellers who have built the kit, it’s a known issue. Plastic card took care of this. after the problem was discovered far too late in the build.

I would suggest adding the cockpit sidewalls to their respective fuselage halves rather than the floor as the instructions illustrate. I found building the kit as per instructions, my sidewalls sat a bit proud from the cockpit sills. The kit includes the option of folded or extended wings. Poly caps hold the wings in either position. This allows the modeller to change the attitude of the kit, even after completion. I thought I was smarter than Hasegawa and left their wing ribs out choosing to reinforce the wings with plastic strip. Turns out I’m not smarter than Hasegawa though, as the floppy wingtips prove!

Painting and Decalling

MRP Super silver was first laid down on the centre section of the wings and fuselage. The next coat to follow was a lightened version of Tamiya IJN followed by another application, this time straight from the jar. All paints were thinned with Mr Hobby thinner.

Undersides were SMS Storm Grey, which is a grey with a slight tinge of green in it. I think it does a reasonable job of standing in for IJN Grey, of which I had none. Once the colours were set, a small worn piece of 800 grit wet and dry was used. This gently abraded the inner wings, just enough to allow the rivets to show through. While researching the unit’s history, I found out they were ferried to Truk Island and only flew a couple of missions after arriving before being wiped out. Thus my weathering on this aircraft is only slight. There is just some staining and touchups on the wings. Additionally, there is chipping around the cowling. None of the photos examined showed any sort of exhaust staining. Japanese contemporary photos are pretty much universally of poor quality though. Rather Ironic, really ! Speaking of the cowling, this was finished with SMS Blue Black, and the propeller with Tamiya Red Brown. Gunze Metallic Blue was used in the wheel and flap wells.

Decals were a brand called Myk-Design that I picked up whilst roaming hobby shops in Japan. The instructions are all in Japanese, but they do have a website with English instructions on how to apply. It was here that I discovered they had peelable film, like Eduard and HGW, Unlike Eduard though, the film on these is designed to be peeled off. They were applied over Mr Setter and left for 12 hours as per the instructions. The film peeled off very easily, , usually coming away in one big sheet. An oil wash mix using Abterlung dark green and black oil paint was applied to the upper surfaces with dark brown used on the undersides . The excess being wiped off before the final matt coat was applied.

Final Assembly

Somewhere along the way, the kit aerial mast was misplaced so a replacement was made from brass rod. It was filed to a rough aerofoil section before adding it to the model. The pitot tube was also fabricated from brass rod.. Whilst we are talking about fumbles, I also managed to glue the retraction struts to the wrong gear legs, and then snapped them off trying to remove them. In addition the locating holes for the gear doors were mistakenly filled as I thought they were ejector pin holes. I probably should have just built this as an in -flight model! Did I mention the gear door that I also managed to snap in half?

The included torpedo is one of the weaker parts of the kit, and a resin replacement was almost purchased before deciding it was going to be underneath, so not really visible. The kit part was therefore used. All these parts plug in due to Hasegawa’s copious use of poly caps as locating aids throughout the kit. In fact I don’t think Ive seen another aircraft kit that uses so many of the things, even Tamiya kits!

The antenna wire was EZ Line. My enthusiasm for this product though has started to wane. Its just too easy to introduce twists into the elastic, unless you reeeeeeaaaaaly stretch it out, which just puts undue stress on everything. Although in this case I had also glued a small length of micro tube to the top of the tail fin, The EZ line was just run through this and then glued in place

Conclusion

In the end, quite an enjoyable painfree build. Yes there are some compromises in detailing and paintwork, but I long ago reconciled myself to the fact that not every model built will be a showstopper. Its a compromise that needs to be made if you want your end game to be building as many models from your stash as you can, before you are forced to give up the hobby through age or medical issues.

To close, the Jill is quite a pretty aeroplane. There will be more Japanese builds in my future.

Nakajima B6N2 Tenzan. 251st Attack SQN. 551st Naval Flying Group. Imperial Japanese Navy. Chuuk Lagoon 1944

Italeri 1/48 Wessex HAS1

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  • Purchased: 2025
  • Built 2025
  • Enhancements
  • Interior – Eduard Wessex Cockpit set for Wessex UH5
  • Exterior – Eduard Wessex exterior set for UH5
  • Exhausts – Hendie Scale Models
  • Lobsterdeck – Hendie Scale models
  • Wheels. Armory
  • Decals Kit

Introduction

Despite my previous Wessex build feeling at times like a bit of a slog, I still felt like there was one more left in me. The green and sand scheme on the box. quite appealed to me.

But, where to find one though? Turns out these things are like rocking horse poo, Italeri no longer producing the HAS1 boxing.

However, by a great stroke of luck and planets aligning, a local club member was selling one, so it was promptly snatched up. My second Wessex build was on! Would I regret it?

Construction Notes

Construction of the Italeri Wessex has been outlined in my 31B article, although with this kit , I employed an Eduard cockpit PE set, Instead of building up complete PE seats, which would have been very fragile and would not have had seat cushions anyway, I chose instead to just add the seat PE side pieces as veneers to the kit parts 4c and 5d. This also had the added benefit of retaining the plastic seat locating pins so that a much more solid fit was achieved between the seats and the rear bulkhead. This would have been an extremely fragile fit just using the PE seats.

For the cabin, the same Seaking that had its seats raided for the 31B gave up its last remaining seats for this build. PE from the Eduard Wessex UH5 set was added to the kit interior framework, which surprisingly added some much needed depth to it.

The rest of the build proceeded fairly easily with the same fit issue around the hellhole mesh framework part 18A as the previous kit., although this time more care was taken with reinstating the detail around to make it look like a separate panel. Again, the windscreen was not the best fit, requiring filling around its base. Also in common with the other kit was the terrible pebbled plastic that required a lot of sanding and polishing to get a smooth surface, although in hindsight, I could have still put a bit more effect into this. Hendie’s 3DP parts again provided the lobster deck and exhaust pipes.

Painting and Decalling

I usually decide on the scheme before starting the build. This case was no different with the camouflaged version  being chosen..

However once the light sand had been applied, using Tamiya LP27 Light Sand, I decided an overall light sand machine would look quite different from other Wessex models that had been looked at on the various modelling fora. ( Yes, sites such as BritModeller are still visited on a weekly basis)

Over the existing sand coat another coat lightened with Tamiya buff was mottled and streaked in random patterns. To this mix, white was added and some random streaking applied, which imparted a bit of a bleached look to the colour. Things were progressing nicely. A thin wash made of Sepia oil paint was then applied to all the panel lines and rivets. Opening panels had a black wash applied. The next day a gloss coat using SMS Gloss clear was applied and this too was allowed to set overnight

The kit decals were used and these performed magnificently, sucking down into the detail using a couple of applications of Gunze Mr Setter. Again, the decals were left overnight to completely set and allow the decal solutions to work their magic. Allowing these things to set overnight is a recent new technique for me. Yes I know lacquer is dry within an hour, but this allowing these coats to set properly has rewarded me with hardier paint coats that less easily chip and scratch. These days, I also wet sand with micro mesh between coats.

The next clear to go on was a VMS satin coat to allow some key for the oils which were going to be used for further leaks and stains. Various photos of the real machines found on The Imperial War Museum website showed them surprisingly clean and free of leaks , although there was quite a lot of staining from grubby fingerprints around the nose access doors. Ammo Starship Filth was my weapon of choice in achieving these, whilst Sepia was used to add various rain streaks from window frames and the conduits on the fuselage. The exhausts were painted with steel and then very thin coats of Alclad Sepia and Violet glazed over the top with the airbrush.

Final Assembly

The wheels were painted AK Rubber Black with sand hubs, then Mr Weathering Color Sandy Grey liberally applied over everything., taking care to ensure no pooling. This imparts the tyres with a lovely dirty warm colour. The treads had a black wash run into them.

The winch was added with the plumbing from 0.2mm lead wire, then the previously painted rotors were added. Lastly, the clear parts were unmasked. Everyone’s favourite part of a build although, always done with trepidation. On this build, there is a slight glue blemish on the windscreen. So close!

One day, I will be rewarded with truly clear flawless clear parts.

Conclusion

Im still surprised that after finishing one Wessex, I immediately wanted to do another, given the Italeri kit is not the best- albeit only- starting point in 48 scale. What can I say. I just love the subject. Its such a purposeful, brutish looking machine, very Cold War British

The overall light sand colour serves to emphasise those big code letters, D type roundels and Royal Navy titles. I love it, its now one of my favourite builds, but that’s it for me and the Italeri 1/48 Wessex.

Westland Wessex HAS1. 945 N.A.S Royal Navy. Borneo. 1962

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Airfix 1/48 Lightning F2A

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image credit. Kingkit website
  • Purchased: 1998
  • Built: 2025
  • Enhancements:
  • Cockpit and seat – Cutting Edge
  • Wheels – Armory
  • Exhausts – Reskit
  • Wheel well roofs : Eduard PE
  • Missiles – Reskit
  • Pitot Tube – Master Details
  • Ladder: LP Models
  • Decals- Cutting Edge, then Model Alliance, then painted!

Introduction

This, after the Phantom is the oldest kit in my stash. It was purchased shortly after its original release from Wonderland Hobbies Scotland for the princely sum of 21.99 pounds according to the sticker on the box. Back when the only way to order kits from overseas was to actually telephone the shop! Back in the Jurassic Period before on-line ordering became the norm.

Upon release the Airfix Lightnings were lauded in the modelling press as Airfix at its zenith. And many modellers, particularly those from the UK still seem to think this.

This modeller though certainly does not. Perhaps if I had built the model upon its release, my impressions of it too, would still be favourable. However, building it in 2025 and measuring it – perhaps unfairly – against newer Airfix kits brings forward all its shortcomings. In fact, even measured against contemporary Japanese kits, it falls a little short. Poor cockpit details, no wheel well detail at all, vague instructions, sink marks, thick decals. It certainly was not the kit I was expecting. A mate came to the same conclusion after building his. The kit was the subject of the Annual friendly Build-Off between The HamFisted Modeller and myself. The results are judged at a local competition we both attend. It should be noted that HFM handicaps himself to give me a chance. (EDIT.) Suspiciously that last sentence only appeared after I sent the article to HFM for proofreading

Construction Notes

The Cutting Edge Super detailed Cockpit upgrade was one of many aftermarket sets stuffed in the box. It was used to replace the woefully detailed kit cockpit. Calum had stated that pretty much nothing of the cockpit can be seen anyway. Anyway , as I had the set, it was used. Unlike an Aires set, minimal sanding was required to make it fit. Just the backs of the sidewalls and some material removed from the casting block to ensure the tub sat down over the intake trunking.

The cockpit was painted with MRP Medium Sea Grey, this being a later mark Lightning.

Building the intake we come to the first “WTF Airfix?” moment. The bottom of the nose wheel well is a rectangle to fit the wheel well opening. Airfix want you to mate it to the top half which is an elliptical shape. This of course leaves large visible gaps. I left it as is, as there id very limited viewing up into the well. Very poor engineering on Airfix’s part.

Take care to ensure the radar bullet nose cone is central in the intake. Also don’t forget the nose weight, remembering to take into account the added weight of resin exhaust cans if you are using some. Airfix helpfully includes a diagram in the instructions of the best place to pack it. The fuselage on mine closed up OK, but the panel lines did not align across the seams, requiring them all to be filled and rescribed. The nose ring is a poor fit and will require fairing in.

Onto the wings, and mine were looking a little warped. There were also several sink marks requiring filling. Airfix provide absolutely no wheel well detail. CMK and Aires both have resin sets in their ranges. I decided to steer clear. I knew full well the work these would require fitting to the model. Instead, The HamFisted Modeller generously provided an Eduard PE set. It was put to use to add the distinctive patterned roofs to the wheel wells. It is very worth your time to set up the undercarriage leg components now. Dry fitting them helps in seeing how they fit together. You must carefully look at photos of the real jet. The Airfix instructions are of no use at all. I had to add small blocks of sprue to each leg to allow the retraction strut to locate. There is nothing moulded on the leg. Again, really poor engineering by Airfix. I must apologise here as I thought I had photographed this step, but apparently not!

Out of the box, the kit wings do fit to the fuselage quite well, only problem is they are level, whereas the real wings had slight anhedral. Adding this to the kit wings left a slight gap on each top surface which was filled with Milliput

So far, despite the noted annoyances, the model had gone together reasonably well, and construction progress was swift. Unfortunately this was about to change rather drastically with the decalling.

Painting and Decalling

To limit the chances of silvering, I opted to paint the walkway and tank stripes. First, I applied a coat of matt black. Then, I masked out the stripes with thin strips of tape.

For the top surfaces, Gunze Mr Color 330 was used. Lightened as out of the bottle it is quite dark. Various shades lightened with yellow and white were applied with the undersides being spread with Tamiya LP-11 Silver

I was actually quite pleased with the appearance of the model. at this point so it was straight on to decalling. After applying a coat of Tamiya Gloss varnish. The decal sheet I was using was a Cutting Edge set. It had far better printing, colour, and register than the Airfix sheet. It should be noted that the sheet in my kit was the original issue. Later releases of the kit have included better printed decals

The Cutting Edge decals looked fine on the sheet, so the two large upper wing roundels were applied. One promptly tore whilst moving it into position , and the other separated into bits whilst in the water. Not a great start, but not to worry as these would be easy to mask and paint. Next up were the various individual jet markings. All decals were sandwiched between a layer of Mr Setter and Mig Ammo decal solvent.. I rolled a cotton bud across some of the decals to squeeze out excess solution. This revealed some of the decals were not adhering to the model very well..

A sealing clear coat was applied. Then, a wash using Tamiya dark Brown accent colour was run into all the panel lines. It was now that the lack of adhesion from the decals started to give me problems. After inspecting the model, I found that I had managed to remove the face of the gargoyle at some stage. Possibly with my sticky mitts! This was patched using a bit of the Airfix decal. Further handling of the model pulled the nose checks off, despite my gloves and the protective gloss coat. Some of the underwing serial numbers also pulled off, again requiring replacement.

SMS Matt coat was used to dull down the gloss to achieve the flat finish I wanted. SMS is one of my favourite matt coats, drying to a low sheen smooth finish. Not this time though, as there was frosting evident around the flanks of the fuselage behind the wings.

With its mid mounted swept back wings, the Lightning has a multitude of tricky areas to get an airbrush into. All those right angles caused turbulence in my spray pattern. They resulted in texture and buildup of the clear coat. I had some frosting along the fuselage underneath the wings. There was also some silvering evident on some of the smaller decals. I was starting to feel like the model was getting away from me but I pushed on anyway as I really wanted it off the bench. Everything came to a head., when whilst masking off the nose ring, a corner of the tape caught the nose check decal. It pulled them off with far too much ease.

To be honest, the kit almost got binned at this stage, but I decided to sleep on it. In the morning, a thorough analysis was taken of my progress on the model. There were several aspects I was not happy with. These included the frosty matt coat, silvered decals, and textured paint. Therefore, the decision was made to strip it back to bare plastic. Also I knew a DNF (did not finish) would subject me to much “Gibson Grief”, and no-one needs that!

So, out came the VMS Clean Slate and after some vigorous scrubbing we were indeed back to a clean slate.

Then, it was simply a matter of repeating all the steps. This time, I painted all the National Markings and serials.

A mate sent me a set of Model Alliance decals for another jet from the same SQN. These were applied without issue. However, I had to scrimp on the stencilling out of necessity this time around. There were no yellow stencils left on any of the sheets. The Barracuda stencil sheet is very comprehensive. However, Roy, for some reason, includes none of the unique yellow stencilling seen on the RAFG jets. Quite a glaring omission in my book.

Again a Sepia wash was applied to all the panel lines. By this time, I was well over the model. Weathering was limited to some chipping around fasteners. This chipping was evident in all photos of these jets I looked at. The chipping on the nose cone was done using the hairspray method. That just left final assembly. Whilst the Reskit missiles are beautiful models in their own right, they lacked positive location devices. There was no way to mount them on the rails. I understand this is to preserve the detail on them and the rails. If you wish to mount them off the jet, 3DP should surely allow you to print them with solid locating pins. These pins can be cut off or filled if not needed. I glued them on with copious amounts of white glue.

The undercarriage was easy to locate, thanks to my pre-planning. and adding those bits of plastic stock.

Conclusion

Finally, it’s done, But, Man! What a slog in getting there! This was mainly to do with unforced errors on my part, but the kit certainly played its part.

It’s great to have a Lightning in the green RAFG gracing my shelves again. My first Lightning in this scheme being the ancient Matchbox kit way back in the 1970s. My love for this scheme has stayed with me ever since. To my mind’s eye, it looks like what I envisioned when the build was started. This is due to me making the decision to strip and repaint the model. Even so, it’s not my best work. It looks just workmanlike. However, it is far better than it would have looked if I had continued pushing ahead with the original finish.

Regarding aftermarket used, the only essentials in my opinion would be a seat and metal pitot tube. Nothing can be seen of the cockpit, or even the wheel wells, despite the high wing. The Armoury wheels look good and are weighted but ,the kit wheels also suffice.

The Lightning is such a brute of a machine and an icon of Cold war British Air Power. It deserves to be retooled up to Airfix’s current standard. In its current form, Im not sure I’d build another one.

E.E Lightning F2A. Royal Air Force 19 SQN. Guttersloh Germany 1973

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Italeri 1/48 Wessex Mk31B

/ Bruces Scale Models / 4 Comments
  • Purchased; 2015
  • Completed; 2025
  • Enhancements:
  • Dogbox – Hendies scale models Wessex Set E
  • Pilots seats. Hendies Scale Models Wessex Set D
  • Exhausts: Hendies Scale Models. Set B
  • Wheels; Armory
  • PE details. Eduard
  • Stores carrier and fuel tank. Hamilton Hobbies
  • Decals; L Decals

This build illustrates the progressive march of better aftermarket accessories that have hit the market over time for particular kits.

To make a Mk31B used by the Royal Australian Navy, you needed to combine this kit with the Italeri HAS3. That kit included the Dogbox, that sat on the rear engine deck. The HAS3 kit was also needed for some scoops and fairings present on a Mk31. These days though, there are people like Hendie from Britmodeller making available the parts needed here. One doesn’t need to have both kits for this conversion. If only using the HAS1, though, some scratch building of scoops and fairings will still be required.

Similarly, the decals, once upon a time, offered only the less than comprehensive Aussie Decals sheet. Now there is the far superior L Decals sheet. If you can still find it, the Southern Sky Models decal sheet includes all the stencilling as well.

Sadly, Italeri’s kit hasn’t improved with time. However, even using this as a base kit is progress. Prior to this, the modeller would have had to use the old and poorly detailed Revell kit. The plastic in this boxing is particularly pebbly and textured. It requires much sanding down and describing. Plus, all the shallow and inconsistent rivet detail needs redrilling. In the end, it needed more rubbing down. Some areas were still textured after the application of paint. Id love Airfix to release a new tool Wessex, but fear they would only do the HC2 version

Construction Notes

Of course, us Australians had to fiddle around and change stuff! So a Mk31 cannot accurately be made straight out of the Italeri box. There are a few additions and modifications required. The best online reference for these is Graeme Moulenoux’s Grubby Fingers site.

We start off with the interior. Scrap plastic strip and mesh were used to build up a bench seat. It sits over the auto hover gubbins, so no need to scratch build all this stuff. The Navy also had the good grace to hide all the interior wire jumble behind a drape. This was made from rolled Tamiya epoxy putty.

The bench seats came from an Airfix Seaking and the cabinet was built from plastic card. Plastic card also filled in for the plywood floor the RAN fitted over the actual floor. The electrical component box was constructed from the ever useful plastic card. The wire loom was crafted using speaker wire.

The bottom panel needs the sonar detail removed from within the hatch. Then, the opening should be faired over with a panel from plastic card.

The below image taken by myself of the Wessex in the South Australia Air Museum shows what is required of the kit nose filter to properly represent a RAN Mk31B

Basically, two spherical compressed air bottles and extra framing around the grill.

Hendie Models supplied a new nose bulkhead complete with the bottles and piping, and plastic strip formed the framework. The scoop you can see on the right side of the photo will also need to be added. I used the item from a HAS3 kit I had in the stash. The HAS3 also gave up the rectangular slanted fairing that sits on the nose. From this point, I methodically worked around the airframe. I added bits and pieces that I noticed when comparing the photos to the kit parts. These included a scratchbuilt IFF antenna to the rear of the fin. I moved and added fuel caps. Additionally, extra antennae needed to be added.

The pylon, stores carrier and fuel tank were resin items from a local Australian cottage producer, Hamilton Hobbies. The tank required several rounds of filling and sanding to reduce all the pinholes. A Hawker Hunter drop tank could also be used if you have a spare one floating around. Cabling was added from the flotation bag compressed air canisters to the fuselage. Brake lines from the wheels also need to be added , although I didn’t . An eagle eyed mate spotted I had glued a length of the kit ducting on at an angle. It broke into three bits when I tried to remove it. I had to use plastic rod to make up new ducting. An Eduard PE set provided various enhancements around the airframe as well.

Sun blinds were made from paper and added to the upper panes of the windscreen. The windscreen was not the best fit, requiring a lot of fairing in around its base.

The side kit aerial masts were modified with sections of brass tubing. This allowed EZ line to be run through them to represent the aerial wires. Rather than rely on glue, these masts were all drilled and pinned with brass wire for some additional strength.

A final look was made to check for seams. The airframe then received a coat of Mr Surfacer primer. This revealed a few seams that still needed addressing. Always the case with my models. No matter how smooth and blemish free I think I have the model, the first primer coat still always reveals flaws.

Painting and Decalling

Common sense would dictate starting with the white, but on this occasion I thought masking the model would be easier starting with the blue. Initially the model was painted with Gunze Mr Color C328. I returned to the model the next day and realised it looked too “blue.” As a result, the blue was darkened with a few drops of black and resprayed. Now it looked a much better match to photos of the actual aircraft. The white was GSI Mr Color Character White. Some touchups were needed where I had not applied the tape tightly enough around protrusions. The front curved demarcation was achieved with Tamiya flexible tape. The rear one over the tail boom was created using a circle cutter to cut a tape mask.

To say I was stoked when L Decals released their sheet containing 36 is putting it mildly! This particular helicopter is now preserved in the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Nowra NSW. I first came upon it whilst it was operating as an Air Ambulance at The Australian Grand Prix Adelaide 1987. The crew even allowed me to clamber up and stick my head in the cockpit. The memory of how basic the cockpit looked staying with me.And of course there is the Ambulance connection reflecting my 40 years as a Paramedic.

The L decals are beautifully printed, although some of the yellow items were slightly out of register on the sheet. No matter as I used these items from the superlative Southern Sky Models Wessex decal sheet. Unlike the L decals sheet, this contained all the stencilling for the aircraft. The kit sheet stencilling is a bit oversized in my opinion.

Decalling was carried out over 2 nights. Applying all the stencilling was finicky. However, it really does add to the busyness of the airframe. All the decals were excellent to use. They required just a couple of applications of Microsol. This allowed the decals to conform to all the raised and recessed detail. A toothpick also being employed to push the decals into all the recessed rivets where required. Stencil date from an Airfix Hunter sheet was used on the fuel tank. The writing on the white panel should have red lettering, but on the decal was black unfortunately. I will keep looking for an appropriate decal.

Final Assembly

The rotors had already been assembled and painted , just needing a matt coat. It was decided to use a semi sheen to dull down the very glossy paint used on the model., although I did brush matt clear over all the walkway areas. No weathering was added. All examples I had seen in contemporary photos looked reasonably clean. However, people who worked on the machine tell me the underside was filthy with oil leaks and stains.

Probably one of the trickiest parts of the build was rigging the cargo hook underneath. This was eventually accomplished with brass wire and EZ line. The aerial wires were then added using the same material, and with that she was done. Well, done is a relative term! But where do you stop? There were plenty of details, the modeller could still add like tie down rings and other cabling. There should also be aerial wires that wrap around under the tail. By this stage though I was ready to move on. All my models are compromises in this way, but I am happy to accept that. It is what allows me to complete 5-7 models a year. These models are reasonable in detail rather than one super detailed model that is accurate to every last detail.

Conclusion

The build was not enjoyable at times, but ultimately satisfying once complete. The Italeri kit is typical of their products, inconsistent detail, poor fit of some parts and soft mouldings. However, it is leaps and bounds over the old Revell kit. The kit has shortcomings. Despite this, I am still eager to tackle another to finish as a 945 SQN RN machine from the Borneo conflict. The aftermarket items I used are not absolutely necessary to build a RAN Mk31. You only need them if you don’t have a HAS3 to use, although , there will still need to be some scratchbuilding required. . The fuel tank and carrier can be easily converted from other components. They can also be scratch built. The Hamilton Hobbies items are still available. Naturally you will need decals for a RAN aircraft, again, the L decals are still available. The rest of the Hendie stuff is just a very nice refinement over the kit parts.

Westland Wessex Mk31B. 723 SQN R.A.N Adelaide South Australia 1987

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