Hasegawa 1/48 A-4G Skyhawk

17/10/2021 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Built: 2013
Aftermarket Used: Nil. OOB
Decals: Ronin Decals

This is one of my older models. The still nice Hasegawa 1/48 Skyhawk from when Hasegawa were a big name in model kits. This one has been modified into a Royal Australian Navy A-4G which were basically E models anyway. All the parts to make a G are included in the kit. I decided to do an early Skyhawk before colourful unit markings became all the rage in the R.A.N. Mainly because I had not seen one done before. As well as completing this one, I also did one in the Air Superiority scheme as a parallel build.
Decals came from a Hawkeye sheet for R.A.N Skyhawks, which was an early ALPS printed sheet. The decals were thick and the underlying white shapes for the decals that needed them were oversized. In a word they were crap, but Steve Evans is completely redoing the sheet under his Ronin Aviation Graphics label. The decals released under this label bear no resemblance to his earlier Hawkeye sheets in either printing or performance The latest sheet – when he finally gets around to releasing it – will allow you to model any skyhawk that saw service.
Centre line TER came from Aerobonus and bombs came from a hasegawa weapons set. There are lots of mistakes if you look closely, but I am happy with it. It remains as a timeline marker as to how my skills are slowly improving. I remember the kit as being easy to assemble with some fit issues around intakes and the gun inserts.

A-4G Skyhawk 805 SQN. H.M.A.S Melbourne. Royal Australian Navy

Hasegawa 1/48 Hurricane MkIV

17/10/202118/10/2021 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Built: 2013
Aftermarket Used: Rocket rails and radiator recast from Guideline Publications items, Ultracast wheels and exhaust
Decals: from the “decal bank”

I have always loved the look of the Hurricane armed with rockets. Again it evokes memories of building the 72 Airfix kit as a child. It was another model I wanted to revisit, so my second Hasegawa Hurricane used a resin conversion set from Guideline Publications which included the armoured radiator and resin rockets and rails. The rails were rather twisted so a friend kindly recast me a new set. Searching out colour schemes was interesting as it was quite difficult locating photos of rocket armed Hurricanes. I eventually settled on this one from South East Asia Command, although you will note it has no codes or serial. Much searching and asking of questions failed to reveal an accurate combination I could use. This model was also riveted with my new Rosie the Riveter tool, although I just confined it to the wing upper surfaces

Hawker Hurricane MkIV 20 SQN Royal Air Force. Burma 1944

Hasegawa 1/48 F-18A Hornet

17/10/202110/10/2022 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Built: 2012
Aftermarket Used:
Decals: Hawkeye Australia
Bomb: Hasegawa Weapons set

Theres not too much I can remember about this build, being as Im writing it up about ten years after completion. The gunship grey scheme the RAAF trialled appealed to me, and I thought it would make the jet stand out from all the other Aussie hornets you see.

In fact the jet standing out is why the RAAF did not go ahead with the scheme

Decals are Hawkeye decals which, although quite thick performed adequately. There are much better decals on the market now, although up to date markings for RAAF “Classic” remain rarer than hens teeth.

For some reason, even our own Australian decal manufactures can not come up with a decent decal sheet. The long OOP Afterburner sheet remaining the best out there still.

This model no longer remains ion my collection having been sold off in 2021. I will replace it with a hopefully better RAAF Classic Hornet build sometime in the future.

McDonnell Douglas F-18A Hornet 77SQN R.A.A.F Williamtown Australia

Classic Airframes 1/48 Fairey Gannet T2

17/10/2021 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Built 2012
Aftermarket Used: Nil
Decals: Combination of kit and spare to make specific airframe

Build Notes:
This was the second Classic Airframes Gannet that I built. I wanted to do a Training Machine as the colour scheme appealed to me with those bright yellow training bands. As I have noted in my previous build, I didn’t find this one of C.A’s better kits, although I love them for doing it.
OOB the model can only be built into the ASW version, luckily I still had a dynavector vac form kit lying around, which you really need anyway to build the CA kit if you want to open the canopies. The beauty of the Dynavector kit is it includes the parts to make the training version. These comprise the white metal periscope for the student and the extended cable bulge. These parts can be easily incorporated into the injection moulded kit. As I lacked good reference photos for the students cockpit, I just mirrored the front cockpit with a spare control stick from the spares box. The instrument panel was the white metal item from the Dynavector kit. The assembled model was painted with xtracolour silver, the bands were xtracolour training yellow from memory

Fairey Gannet T2 725 SQN Royal Australian Navy Nowra 1960

Hasegawa 1/48 Hawker Hurricane IIc

17/10/202110/10/2022 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Built: 2012
Aftermarket Used: CMK Drop tanks, Ultracast seat
Decals: Sky Decals

The Hurricane has to rate as one of my favourite WW2 aeroplanes. At the time it was released, hasegawa’s was probably the pick of the bunch. It did have some inaccuracies, the fabric effect was a bit too pronounced and assembly was made unnecessarily complicated by the underside, fuselage wing join being straight through the middle of the fabric detail. Totally bizarre engineering from Hasegawa. That said, its finesse and crispness of detail was light years ahead of the Monogram and Hobbycraft kits, those being the only other players on the 48 scale Hurricane field. Although the monogram kit could be built as a IID and a IV with rockets which was totally cool.

As a child I can remember building the ancient Frog kit in these markings. Who can forget that box art of Kuttlewascher blasting over the burning German hangars? So doing this kit in these markings is an ode to that original Hurricane I did long ago.

The decals came from a Sky decals sheet, with me sourcing the red dope repair patches from an old Monogram Hurricane sheet, which also came with these markings.

Paint would have been xtracolour, which was my go to paint for many years, until the Dangerous Goods Code imposed by Air carriers meant it could no longer be sourced here on shop shelves.

Hawker Hurricane Mk IIc 1 SQN Royal Air Force. Redhill. U.K 1942

HobbyBoss 1/48 Grumman Wildcat V

17/10/202119/10/2021 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

Hobby Boss 1/48 Wildcat FM-1

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Revell 1/48 UH-1B

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Built: 2010
Aftermarket Used: Hamilton Hobbies UH-1B conversion
Decals: Custom made

The short bodied Hueys have been woefully represented in 48 scale, with still no decent kit available. The best of a bad bunch being the Monogram boxing, in its various boxings, which is the basis of this model. As a young Air Training Corps cadet, this helicopter gave me my first ride in a military aircraft, and what a ride it was. Based at RAAF Base Pearce as part of their SAR flight, in the mid seventies they were crewed by pilots and crewmen who had seen service in the recently ended Vietnam war, and boy, did they give us rides to remember. I loved every minute of it and it started a love affair with helicopters, even though I don’t model a lot of them.
Out of the box, the monogram (although it is now boxed by revell) Huey C is a mix of B and C features, which need correcting. As I was not building this as a gunship, I started off by cutting off the integrally moulded ammo box from the floor and filling the gap with plastic card. The rear bulkhead is detailed with a curtain, that also got shaved off before the sound proof quilting was restored with embossed tin foil. New scratchbuilt unarmoured pilot seats replaced the armoured kit seats.
Sealing the fuselage halves up – not a great fit- attention turned to the roof. where a bit of rectangular stock was used for the hoist arm. The motor housing came from Hamilton Hobbies. A local producer of home made resin conversions for ADF aircraft. Although a bit rudimentary at times they were a godsend for modellers of ADF aircraft. The roof also had the airvents repositioned to their proper locations. The kit pylons were used to hang the Kellett tanks from. Ryan Hamilton again doing the hard work for me by providing the tanks in his detail set. Copper wire was used for the fuel lines that run from the tanks to the airframe
The rotor head and blades came ftom an ESCI Huey 1D, the blades having been cut down to the shorter B length. This assembly replacing the kits C type rotor head and wide chord blades, which were not used on the B model. Finally, the model could be painted using Xtracolour olive drab and white with yellow trim on the tanks. Speaking of yellow, I must have bought every sheet of yellow lettering available trying to source correct font and size for the RESCUE titles, without success, same with the AIR FORCE titles on the boom. There was no other option, but to get custom decals made. These cost me a small fortune, thanks to the manufacturer not using paypal or CC, so I had to transfer the money using Western Union. This aside the finished items semed to match my photos of the real machine exactly, however they were translucent when applied, probably having been ALPS printed. The Air Force titles have been built up with two layers to produce opaque lettering which still looks light grey rather than white. White underlays were supplied for the tanks yellow titles, but for some strange reason, were differently sized from the yellow lettering. In the end Ryan Hamilton came to my rescue (pun intended) with some decent yellow RESCUE titles. All that was left to do was add the rear aerial from brass wire and EZ line and she was done. Looking at the photos, you can make out it is well below my best work, but I just cannot bring myself to retire it yet. Perhaps because of the memories it brings back to me. It is definitely a model I will revisit once someone releases a decent B model in 35th scale. Ronin Decals of Australia hopefully will release his long promised Huey history sheet in 35 scale as well EDIT, still has not been released as of 2021.

Bell UH-1B SAR Flight 2 Flying Training School. Royal Australian Air Force. Pearce. West Australia 1977

Italeri 1/48 Bell 47G Sioux

17/10/2021 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

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Built: 2009
Aftermarket Used: Dedicated Eduard PE set
Decals: Hawkeye Australia decals

This is from a time when I was looking to build all post war Australian Defense Force aircraft, starting with helicopters. A theme that kind of petered out despite me owning at one time all available kits of aircraft that fit this theme.

Anyway, I had an excellent set of walk-around photos I took of the Sioux at the now closed, greatly missed Air World Air Museum in Wangaratta. Victoria.

Using these as reference, I decided the kit boom was overscale and proceeded to cut out all the cross members rebuilding them from brass rod. I kept the plastic main horizontal beams for ease of working. If I was to do it now, I would rebuild the whole boom, soldering all the joins. PE was used from the set to enhance the engine, swash plates and cockpit. Additional radios were scratchbuilt and added to the instrument panel as per my photographs. EZ line was used for the control cables, whilst wire was used for the fuel lines.
Its a spindly little thing and I’m surprised its survived the house moves it has, and it still resides in my cabinet. It is starting to look a little sad as you can see by the drooping rotor.
Paint was Xtracolour and decals by hawkeye. I was not impressed with the decals at all, but they were the only game in town, and still are, although far better roo roundels are available from Ronin Aviation Graphics here in Australia and Xtradecal from the U.K. At the time I was quite impressed with it, although its certainly not up to my current standards. I wouldn’t mind repeating the build at some stage with the 1/35 scale kit as I’ve always liked the little Bell.

Bell 47G Sioux 161 Recce SQN Australian Army. Oakey. Queensland 1973

ESCI 1/48 C.A-32 Kiowa

17/10/202120/10/2021 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

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Built:2008
Aftermarket Used: Eduard Seat belts
Decals: Aussie Decals

So impressed were the Army with the Kiowas performance, that a request was put in to purchase more. These were made in Australia by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, modified with higher skids and extra grills in the cowling to help with cooling. Armed with some of my own photos and the excellent Red Roo book “Kiowa in Australian Service” I set about cutting out the extra holes required for the additional grills and backing them with brass screen. The Jetranger boxing was used as it contains the higher skids. Pilot’s seats had the lambswool covers represented by coating the cushions in Mr Surfacer then stippling it with a cut down brush just as it was drying. Footsteps were added from brass wire and plasticard discs. Underneath, a doppler radar was added from laminated plastic discs, sanded to shape. The wire cutters came from a ESCI Huey kit. Paint again was Xtracolour sprayed with my trusty Badger 150 with decals coming from the dedicated Aussie Decals sheet for this bird. The UHF aerial was a length of wire. These were fun kits to build. You just need to work out what boxing best suits the variant you want to make. One day I will get around to building a R.A.N machine as well

C.A.C CA-32 Kiowa 161 Recce SQN Australian Army. Darwin. Australia 2001

Trumpeter 1/32 F8F-1 Bearcat

17/10/2021 / Bruces Scale Models / Leave a comment

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Built: 2008
Enhancements: Eduard USN Seat Belts
Decals: Berna French Bearcats

As soon as this kit was released I bought it with the idea of doing a French Bearcat used in IndoChina. The kit was purchased from France as there, the model came with the French decals included

My idea was to do a very weathered Bearcat as seen in all the photos. I belive these machines came from the USN. They operated from forward airfields, so were exposed to all weather conditions. Bearcats were used in an air support role to lift the siege at Dien Bien Phu. The loss of which led to France withdrawing from Vietnam The Model assembled fairly easily. I glued all the panels in the closed position and kept the wings spread. Fit was pretty good. The rivet detail around the underside centre had to be deepened as it disappeared, a common thing with Trumpeter kits. The weathering process was started by priming the model in Floquil Silver. Over this maskol was dabbed on with a sponge before a patchy coat of Xtracolour Chromate yellow was sprayed over the wing roots, around the gun bays and forward fuselage. Again maskol was applied with a sponge concentrating on areas that would have seen high wear. Next Xtracolour GSB was sprayed over the entire model. This was then lightend with white and sprayed in a cloudy pattern over all upper surfaces. To this mix, some light grey was added and the resulting colour sprayed in a random pattern around wing roots and the spine of the aircraft. Some intermediate blue was also added and sprayed in random vertical streaks down the fuselage and chord wise across the wings. The dabs of maskol were then removed by the simple expedient of using my finger to rub them off. A clear coat followed, and then decalling commenced. The decals behaved fine and sank into the recessed detail with the aid of Micro set and sol. Exhaust stains were added using highly thinned black and light grey shades. Finally some earth brown shades were lightly dusted over the wingroots, using the airbrush. I added intake blanks from plastic card to hide the visible seams inside the wing intakes, and some stretched sprue to represent the cowling cooling flap rods as I had posed these in the open position. Some arming wires were added to the rockets and bombs with fine fuse wire. I made the mistake of adding brake lines to the undercarriage with florists wire. This is far too stiff and served to force the undercarriage legs out, so that they were perpendicular to the dihedral rather than perpendicular to the ground. This was one of the first models I entered in a competition, and to my amazement was awarded Third place in the now defunct Eagle’s Day held in Melbourne that year, and a First Place at SCALEACT at Canberra Australia in 2016