What could be easier than an Airfix Hurricane to complete the years builds? A quick slammer, that should comfortably fit into the remaining three weeks of 2023. Well, only just as it turned out, with the EZ line being attached – the full stop to the sentence if you like – on the 29th December. PHEW! That was close.
Construction Notes
Judging by the many on line builds of the Hurricane, modellers either have an easy time ” took me back to my childhood memories of building models” or, its the kit from hell “the wing to fuselage join left gaps like the Grand Canyon”
My experience of the kit fell into the latter. Given the two extremes relayed by previous builders, Im still not sure whether it was the kit or me, although my lower wing half was slightly deformed out of the box, requiring gentle coaxing to meet the inner forward wing fillets of the upper wing parts.
I took particular care in ensuring all wing spars sat square, but still the wing would not fit snugly to the fuselage. Industrial type clamping was required! That said, with this, everything did close up quite tightly. Prior to this, the gun bay hatches were cut out so the nicely detailed bays could be displayed. A nice option on Airfix’s part.
It was here things sort of veered away from a quick build, as prior to closing the fuselage , the fuselage hand hold was drilled and cut out, but then things got crazy as the decision was taken to rivet the whole airframe. This was actually easier than first thought, although there were a few wavy lines requiring correction. The purpose of the exercise was to determine how involved it would adding rivets to the plain wings of the Revell 32 scale Hurricane. Overall, I feel far more confident now in adding detail like this.
Painting and Decalling
Gunze dark Earth and Tamiya Dark Green type 2, coupled with SMS Sky provided the classic British early war scheme. One of my favourite schemes, as evidenced by the growing number of models in my cabinet that wear it. The spinner colour and fin leading edge were matched to the decals using Vallejo flat red with a touch of vallejo cavalry brown. The kit decals performed without trouble, even the nose flash laying down over the nose drain detail with the aid of Micro set and sol.. Weathering was by way of Ammos PLW for brown and green camouflage. The jar was then binned as there was a ton of sediment in it that no amount of stirring would reduce. Binning it was also in line with my 2023 goal of consolidating my consumables. In future, my washes will be mixed from oil paints.
Stains ands other weathering was added with small dots of starship filth oil paint, then blended in with a dry brush. This is something I still very much need to refine though.
And That, as they say, was That!
Conclusion
Many modellers seem to have reported a trouble free build of the Airfix Hurricane. An equal number have found it a troublesome build. Further proof, that modelling experiences can be such an individual thing. I’m sure there will be other Hurricane Is along in 48 scale. Eduard and Arma are two brands that spring to mind that could potentially offer one, and if I make another Hurricane, it will be from these companies, rather than Airfix.
Thanks to everyone that has read my ramblings throughout the year, I hope that there will be many more in 2024.
Hawker Hurricane Mk1. 87 SQN Royal Air Force. Exeter England. August 1940
Rather than just cataloguing my builds I thought the modelling year as a whole should be recorded. This means the events I attended as well as any thoughts I had.
This should provides some good laughs when I re read it some years in the future.
The year started with me asking my friends to pick models at random, that I would then build that year. This is the same system I have used for the last 5 years. That doesn’t stop me from using it every year though. One day I will build ALL the selected kits!
It never really works, I think the most I have built was 4 out of the 6 selected kits
Anyway, here was the pile of kits elected for 2023
Quite the undertaking. Of course posting it on my FB page met with much laughter and banter from my friends.
So, how many of these did I actually build? Well the walker bulldog came the closest before being binned. What is they say about battle plans only lasting until the first contact!
It became apparent I was not ready for modelling just yet. As well as recently retiring from the Ambulance Service, my wife and I had also moved to a different State and new house. Obviously there was a lot more to concentrate on than modelling, so my attention turned to building a new model room.
With this done, the modelling mojo soon returned and in quick succession three Airfix Spitfires made it into the display cabinet. Two of these were left overs from 2022,
I was back in the saddle. There were seven completions for the year, which I’m quite happy with, given my shaky start.
In addition two shows were attended, The NSW Scale Model Show and ScaleACT in Canberra, where I caught up with many modelling friends.
My other hobby is Aviation Photography, and three airshows were attended through the year as well
Hunter Valley Airshow
Classic Fighters Omaka New Zealand
ADF Newcastle Airshow Newcastle NSW
In addition there was a trip to West Australia and a road trip across to Canberra to view an Open day at the Australian War Memorial storage facility
WOW, So quite a busy year then!!
Modelling goals for the year were to start consolidating modelling consumables and tools. This will carry over into 2024, but Im quite happy with progress so far selling off quite a few tools and paints that just weren’t getting used. I bought far too may kits again but this was somewhat countered by selling just about all of my armour and ships kits at show swap and sells.
Hunter Valley Airshow NSWClassic Fighters Omaka NZClassic Fighters Omaka NZClassic Fighters Omaka NZOmaka Aviation Heritage Centre NZOmaka Aviation Heritage Centre NZOmaka Aviation Heritage Centre NZOmaka Aviation Heritage Centre NZOmaka Aviation Heritage Centre NZScone MemorialAirport NSWAWM Technology Centre Treloar ACTAWM Technology Centre Treloar ACTAWM Technology Centre Treloar ACTAWM Technology Centre Treloar ACTAWM Technology Centre Treloar ACTADF Newcastle Airshow 2023 Newcastle NSWADF Newcastle Airshow 2023 Newcastle NSWADF Newcastle Airshow 2023 Newcastle NSW
Goals for next year will be to continue scaling down tools and the various brands of paint and glue used, concentrating on just using tamiya and gunze as the other brands are used up.
My collection of books and magazines will also be markedly downsized after the realisation, once bought, these just end up on the shelf, many of them not being further picked up after that initial read. Id also like to publish an article in one of the magazines.
May you all have a safe and Happy New Year you are celebrating that at this time of year. My sincere Thanks to those of you who have subscribed to the blog.
Now! To get my friends to pick 8 random kits for 2024!!
Weapons; AIMS, Master details barrels and Vector MG131s
I’ve wanted a 1/48 Do217N in the collection since Koster Aero Enterprises bought out their vacform conversion for the Monogram kit way back in the early 2000s. Despite this, the kit and conversion set were sold in The Great Stash Slash of 2004. But, now that doesn’t matter as we have a much nicer kit of this variant that can be built straight from the box
The path that led me to the purchase and building of ICM’s lovely kit was again, one of impulse!
I had recently purchased some of AIMS 1/32 night fighter conversions for the Revell Ju88, which saw me flipping through a book on German night fighters.
A picture of an all black 217 rekindled the earlier enthusiasm with the resultant jump to remembering reading a build article by Andy King on the ICM 217 he did for The Modelling News.
Next minute, I’m on the BNA website and its in my basket! How does this stuff happen??? As a mate and I have repeatedly theorised, impulse buys need to be started straight away, whilst the enthusiasm is hot, or the danger is you will be selling that same kit at a swap and sell 5 years down the track.
So, box was duly opened, my work bench being opportunely clean of current builds.
The size of the aircraft took me by surprise upon opening the box and looking at the one piece wing, the only other ICM kit Ive built being the Do17. One could say the Do217 is to the Do17 as the Super Hornet is to the Classic Hornet
That wing has beautifully engraved crisp panel lines, but these do not carry over to the rest of the kit, the fuselage and some parts like radiators having shallower detail, and also quite textured surfaces that will require a rub down before paint. Two complete engines are included in the kit should you wish to display the model with cowlings off. I saw no need to make the aircraft uglier than it already is, so my nacelles will be closed. A bomb bay is also included as there are parts to allow both opened and closed doors. I dallied with the idea of an open bay to show off the interesting way the doors open, but again, the aircraft looked decidedly pregnant with open doors, plus there is only very rudimentary detail. A fuel cell is included, but no bombs. As my chosen schemes was the all black night fighter, I didn’t think a bomb load would be carried.
Construction Notes
The instructions are a bit vague in places in regard to where some of the cockpit components fit to each other. I found by studying all the parts, there are locations for the pilot seats and floor in the side walls, just that they are not called out very well in the instructions. I also found them a little confusing regarding displaying the engines until I realised you are required to cut the cowlings off if you want to display the engines. After this, it all made sense. This model was being made all closed up, so all steps dealing with the engines were crossed out to avoid mistakes and make things a little clearer.
I used part A15 as a jig to position the cockpit side walls. The cockpit was painted RLM 66 instead of ICMs suggested 02, as I think by 1943 this was the colour of Luftwaffe cockpits. Tamiya XF24 Dark Grey standing in for RLM66 on this occasion. Beware of the decal dials for the instrument panels as they are separate, not a one piece decal. Here was my first introduction to the keenness of ICM decals to fold over themselves, hmmmmm, those wingwalks were going to be fun! Make sure you paint the back of part E12 as it can be seen through the canopy. Ask me how I know!! It has a pin mark that needs to be filled or, do as I did and skin the rear of it with some plastic card. I went to the trouble of adding thin stretched sprue levers to part E31, I didn’t bother with the decal as it will never been seen. Seat belts were added to all seats from Eduard.
Although ICM say you can leave out the bomb bay floor if doing the 217 with closed doors, I decided to add it to provide a little bit of structural support to the fuselage. It a long assembly with minimal surface area for glue and I could see me cracking joins just through picking it up. In the event, I should also have added the sidewalls C18 and 22 for added support as the floor by itself does not really add any strength.
I managed to crack the wing leading edge joint several times, due to the broad chord of the wings coupled with , again minimal glueing area at the leading edge mating surfaces.
Take particular care ensuring you are using the correct parts for the nacelles. I managed to glue the port outer to the starboard inner side, then wondered why the nacelles weren’t a good fit! This was luckily, quickly corrected with a much better fit of the nacelles being achieved, in fact, the fit throughout was above average.
I found the best fit for the wing was to push it as far forward as possible to ensure a tidy fit on the ‘shoulders” This does leave you with a gap to be filled at the rear, but this was easily filled with a shim of plasticard. Before adding the wing, ensure all mating surfaces are free of burrs and flash, which helps in getting the best fit possible. Of course this advice should stem to all facets of assembly, in addition to plenty of dry fitting.
I replaced the peg on the tailwheel yoke part E42 with brass wire, similarly, I drilled and pinned the undercarriage legs for added strength rather than relying on the kits butt joins. ICMs wheels are fine OOB, but I had already purchased the Aires set. I would also suggest Quickboosts resin exhausts if you don’t want to deal with the joins on the kit items.
Painting and Decalling
SMS Camo black was settled upon as the base colour. This is quite a nice warm dirty black, very similar in fact to the colour of Mr Surfacer 1500 black. For highlights I used SMS German grey randomly mottled on the wing centre section through various Uschi van Der Rosten masks. All national insignia save for the swastikas was sprayed on using a montex mask set. The swastikas came from an old Aeromaster sheet.
Im not sure if these machines were painted black at the factory or at maintenance units, but figured either way – rightly or wrongly – the stencilling would not have been reapplied perhaps apart from the wingwalks.
I elected to use the wing walk decals which went on surprisingly well, despite me and long thin decals usually not getting on. Plenty of water was the secret. I was still congratulating myself on this miracle right up to the point where I managed to accidentally touch and remove a strip of the decal! Luckily a very generous modelling friend in the UK sent me some make for painting dotted wingwalks . Thanks Andy
ON reflection, I wished I had painted all the wingwalks as I was left with some silvering.
Some panels were then masked off and MRP black sprayed along panel lines which stood out nicely. Well until the Dullcote was applied. Then everything kind of blended together. Typical!
Exhausts were base coated in SMS dark earth before a layer of hairspray was added, then a mix of NATO brown and NOTO black . This was then chipped off. To be honest, Im not really happy with the results. I think I would have been better off stippling these colours on with some sponge
For the canopy, this is the second model I have used interior canopy masks on. This is a leaf out of Jamie haggo’s book, as he does it on all his models where the canopy interior is visible from the outside, his rationale being painted interior framing looks much better than the shiny plastic visible if you were to follow the normal convention of spraying the interior colour from the outside. And he’s right!
Final Assembly
This comprised of adding the undercarriage doors, all of which located securely. The aerial was added from invisible thread, and the machine gun and cannon barrels added. AIMS cannon barrels were used as, unlike the kit ones, they had open flash suppressors. I didn’t bother drilling out the mg barrels as the diameter was too small. Finally, the piece-de-resistance. the Gaspatch radar array was added. Cutting them away from the supports was heart in mouth stuff, let me tell you! I employed a new scalpel blade plus used a new set of nippers. They were painted in Tamiya dark Iron. If there is one must have Aftermarket accessory for this kit, its these, although looking at my slightly wobbly ones in my photos, this crew will have a hard time finding any Lancasters!
Conclusion
Im really happy to have a black Dornier 217 in the cabinet, and a much better replica than the old KAE and Monogram kit would have provided thanks to the access we now have to things like 3DP radar arrays and brass gun barrels.
The model itself was very enjoyable to build, with no real vices along the way, aside from the somewhat soft plastic, which does not suit structural components like landing gear. Despite this I look forward to building more ICM kits. The Do217N was unloved by its crews, its performance suffering greatly due to its increased armament, and all the added radar gear. But in my cabinet, its loved greatly by me!
Hong Kong Models 1/48 B-25 J comes in a box adorned with some nice art work that is also provided as a poster inside the box. Surface detailing is by way of petite engraved rivets that unfortunately fade away slightly at the fuselage centrelines . Amongst the 249 parts are options for different shaped bullet deflectors for the upper fuselage, a top turret or, if you’re building a Mitchell without a top turret, a blanking plate and separate cheek armour if you want to build an early J that was not fitted with the additional armour. Two different fits of fixed nose guns are also provided.
The kit can be built with flaps, boarding steps and landing gear up or down. Cowl flaps can only be shown in the open position, although Quickboost do make cowlings with closed flaps.
Interior detail is adequate for what will be seen with parts for the bomb aimer’s position, cockpit, top turret and tail gunners position. A bomb bay and bombs are supplied although there is no mid fuselage detailing around the waist gunners stations. If you want to add the ammo feed chutes, they will need to be sourced from an aftermarket set.
I found the fit of all parts excellent, with the tailplane, fins, and nacelles being a push fit. The engineering is spoilt though by the requirement to fit the landing gear early during construction. If I were to do this kit again, I would modify parts F24 and 25 by cutting the pointed ends so that the struts could be added later. Same with the nose gear part E32. I would just cut the end off the drag link, so that it could be fitted later.
Despite me protecting the front leg with a protective sleeve of foam, I still managed to break it off accidentally manhandling the model around the bench. Bras rod was used to replace the broken oleo, which also lent more strength to the part, so not a total loss, but annoying nonetheless
Although the gear locates solidly into deep sockets, the model still rocks slightly on its gear. Possibly due to the soft plastic, perhaps if they had of had the drag links also locate into sockets as well, the model would sit more solidly. The supplied nose weight fits quite cleverly underneath the cockpit to form the tunnel. No other weight is required.
Construction Notes
The Eduard seat belt set only included lap belts, I added the kit PE shoulder belts as I felt they would have been fitted at this late stage of aircraft development.
When building the bomb bay, fit part E45 during final assembly, as otherwise the arms will get broken. The kit bomb fins are rather thick, As you won’t see them, I left them as is, rather than bothering to thin them or replace with PE.
As mentioned above, I would modify the landing struts so that they can be added after painting.
This is one of those kits where you are required to follow the assembly sequences as set out in the instructions. I deviated by adding the cooling flap rings to the cowls which then made inserting the engines harder. The engines as provided were adequate, but can be dressed up if you want to add ignition wiring, etc Alternatively, if your name is Sam Dwyer, and you like to buy every piece of available aftermarket for a particular kit, Quickboost make resin items 😀
The landing light glare guards part EP4 were left off my model as per reference photos I looked at. There are two scoops provided in the kit that locate into shaped cutouts in the cheek armour plates. They are pictured in stage 35, but not called out in the instructions, from memory they were parts E58 and 59.
The kit wheel treads are a bit rubbish, so best replaced with AM ones. If you are replacing the kit gun barrels with brass ones (and why wouldn’t you!) the breech holes will need drilling out slightly, lets take a moment here to recognise HKM for providing separate barrels as this certainly aids painting. Ensure though that the waist guns have been securely glued to their mounts. One could also add PE ring sights as they would certainly be visible from outside.. All the transparencies fit very well, although I have a slight step on one side of my nose, which could have been minimised with more care on my part.
I was unhappy with the kit replication of the fabric ailerons. The elevators and rudders are fine, but the ailerons….not so much. I masked them off, then sprayed several coats of Mr Surfacer 500 primer to build the depressions up before sanding them flat. The rib tapes were simulated with tamiya tape. Although I think they look better than what was provided, Im not sure the effort was really worth it, having seen a few other built examples on the net. They don’t look too bad under paint.
Rivetting along the centre seams of the fuselage will need to be reinstated with a rivet wheel after the seams have been cleaned up. The wings can be left off to aid painting. Dry fits showed they slid easily into position, and more importantly, could also be easily removed. I also left the vertical fins off to aid painting. The fit is that good, so they were not added until very late in the build during final assembly. This makes the model a lot easier to handle. Still didn’t save that nose leg though!!
Painting, Decalling and Weathering
I wanted to try some hairspray chipping on this model, so first a base coat of Alclad Aluminium was laid down over the wings and engine cowlings where most of the chipping would be done. Two thin coats of generic hairspray were then sprayed over this before a coat of AK Real Colours OD was sprayed over the whole model.
AK RC faded OD was then sprayed over the model, leaving the dark OD under the wings and tailplane. Dark yellow was then added to the faded OD and this was further mottled over the upper surfaces of wings, tailplanes and fuselage. Fabric control surfaces were masked off and hit with the faded OD, this time mixed with a decent dollop of tamiya deck tan.
The undersides were then sprayed MRP matt black with the demarcations done freehand. No fading was added to the undersides, I would be relying on washes to give it a faded dusty look.
Once I had the basic colours blocked in, I took to the fronts of the cowlings and upper nacelles with a stiff damp brush slowly chipping away the OD to reveal the underlying silver. This was the first time I had tried hairspray chipping on an aircraft, and I’m not satisfied yet that it’s the best technique for aircraft chipping, certainly for small areas of chipping, Its a technique that definitely needs more practice on my part though.
I do think the silver pencil still offers more control.
WW2 Royal Australian Air Force national markings being fairly simple, lend themselves to being painted, so the roundels, fin flash, codes and serial numbers were scanned into my silhouette software and masks cut using the last of my Oromask.
The two machines on the ASL sheet have had their neutral grey undersides overpainted in black for night intruder operations, One of them, which was my original choice had the black painted hallway up the fuselage and nacelles rather than the normal demarcation line. sadly the one photo I could find of this aircraft , although of poor quality did not seem to show the high black sidesInitially my desire was to do the aircraft with the black undersides that reached midway up the fuselage, however then one photo I could find of this aircraft, although of poor quality seemed to contradict ASK’S drawings, with the fuselage painted with OD down to the usual demarcation. Certainly the tail fins did not look black. Shame, as I quite liked this scheme as drawn.
With the reasoning for my initial choice disproved, I turned to the other subject on the sheet. This in addition to the black undersides, also had nose art , although much later on I found , again. Artscales decals had probably got the background colour on this wrong too.
With the masks cut, a mate suggested that I first print them out on paper to check sizing. This was an excellent idea – thanks Calum – as it brought to light all of the decals were slightly too large according to photos of the actual machine. Subsequently, the masks were reduced size a bit. This is one of the advantages in using masks over decals.
,
Once the masks and decals had been applied another sealing coat of gloss was applied ready for the wash, which in this case was a brownish black shade of oil paint.
Once dry and the excess wiped off, a coat of semi gloss was applied ready for some oil paint weathering, semi gloss being used as the oils seem to blend a bit better over this. The problem was though, the only semi matt I had was a old bottle of low sheen Klear Kote by Alclad. This smelled like it was an enamel product and never really seemed to dry to a hard shell. Picking up the model, it remained , not tacky, but not dry over the course of a week until I dullcoted it. Even now, handling the model, my hands do not came away cleanly.
The Alclad went in the bin. This would be about the third Alclad product I have used that has not performed properly. They definitely seem to have a shelf life, well the clears and primers do!
The result of all this was, despite the matt coat, holding the model for any length of time seemed to pull away the matt coat, which led to a very truncated weathering session and my enthusiasm for the project being severely dented. Exhaust stains were sprayed on in thin coats, although looking at them, I wish I had used a darker shade. The pitot tube was replaced with Albion Alloy aluminium tube. On the underside the ADF football aerial was attached with some brass rod to secure it firmly in place. Brass rod was also used to replace the plastic pole aerials as I thought this would provide a stronger base for the EZI line strung between them. Aerial fairleads were also fashioned from brass rod for the tail fins and fuselage, Landing gear doors and actuator struts located securely to the nacelles and nose. Finally, the Karaya barrels were added to the gun positions, and the Eduard wheels glued on One gripe with these. The wheels are marketed as for use on the HKM kit, yet the axle holes required significant enlargement to take the HKM axles. If you are going to market an accessory as for a particular kit, then make it so that it is a drop fit for that kit and does not require modification. Eduard have form for this, especially their wheels. I would not be surprised if these are just their wheels for the Monogram kit, but with new packaging.
Finally, the transparencies were unmasked and to my horror, there was a lot of fluff on the inside. Most of the canopy fluff was removed by way of poking a bent micro brush through the top turret hole. I managed to pry off the nose cap as I had just used PVA.but in removing some overspray with a thinner dampened cotton bud, also managed to remove a swipe of paint off the nose . 50 ammo cans. Naturally I didn’t notice this until I had refilled the nose cap, this time with tamiya glue. Guess this model won’t be making the competition table after all.
Conclusion
I thoroughly enjoyed this build, All errors were of my own making. Lessons for me from this build were I still need to add as more parts like the wingtip lights that form part of the structure before painting, so that they can be properly faired in. My wingtip lights look like the late after thought they are. I also need to take more care with these bomber type aircraft to ensure fuselage openings are better sealed to avoid sanding swarf getting in.
Weak points of the kit though, are the exaggerated fabric effect on the ailerons and the ridiculous engineering that means the landing struts need to be added early in the build. Location points for the aerials and upper turret bullet deflectors also were non existent, which didn’t help with exact placement.
For my money though it leaves the Monogram kit in its dust, as it should. Yes, its twice the price, but in this instance is twice the kit. I will definitely be buying the solid nose strafers when HKM get around to releasing them. If using the ASK decals, do beware they are not the most accurate decals on the market in this case.
Enhancements: Gun barrels replaced with aluminium tube
Decals: Combination of kit decals and painted using Montex masks.
Construction Notes
Eduard’s new series of 190s have been written about in various online reviews as being viceless builds. Whilst they show a marked improvement in engineering, ease of assembly and surface detail over the older kits, I still found a few issues.
Everything in the cockpit is fairly straightforward, although I found the instrument panel has a tenuous and somewhat vague location between the two fuselage halves.
The same with part A32, I found it difficult getting it to seat properly. With the wheel wells, I was initially dubious of Eduards call out to paint them RLM76 rather than the usual RLM02. Perusing Eduard’s instructions for their other 190s showed me Eduard do call out 02 for the earlier marks. The A8/R2 kit is the only model where they suggest 76 wheel wells,
I decided they must know something I don’t! They have done quite significant research into the Rammjager as evidenced by back copies of the info magazine.
I cut the barrels off the inboard guns – to be reattached during final assembly – as they were bound to get knocked off during sanding operations.
Dry fitting the wing to the fuselage revealed a gap on one wing root. Consequently I delayed adding the gun deck and upper cowl parts to the fuselage so as to allow me to push the fuselage half out to meet the wing and reduce the gap. Great in theory, but I think doing that just created another problem for myself.
With the airframe together, one wing looked to have greater dihedral than the other. The wing root join was broken by way of using tamiya extra thin to rehydrate the join, then a shim added to reduce the dihedral. This seemed to fix the problem, or so I thought!
I should know better. Fiddling with wing roots like this just seems to muck with the geometry. Probably would have been better to add a sprue spreader under the cockpit. There are 2 more Eduard 190s in the stash, so it will be interesting to see if this problem appears on those, or was a construction fault on my part.
This aside, the model built up quickly. Filler was used on the centreline seam and the leading edges of the wings only. The tailplanes and gun covers fit perfectly.
Of course, its too much to ask of me for a build to go flawlessly, and so it was again in this case, although problems did not rear their head until well into decalling. Again, an unforced error, falling foul of Eduards decals. Well, thats probably a bit unkind on Eduard. It was me trying a new (to me) technique of removing the carrier film with white spirits. This had gone swimmingly on the wing crosses, then I got cocky. For those not aware of this technique. I refer you to Gary Wickham’s excellent tutorial contained within his superb Tempest build. My mistake was I left the white spirits on the swastika and chevron for longer than a minute, the result being the white spirits removed the carrier film, the decal AND the underlying paint. AAAGGGGHH
Had I mentioned I was really happy with my overall paint job and tight mottling? No, well I was! In all, this was a fairly simple mistake to correct, but it occurred during a stage in my modelling where frustration with this kind of thing was overriding my perseverance, so back in the box it went.
Completing the phantom renewed my enthusiasm to complete the 190, so back out of the box it came. The existing paintjob was stripped using Gunze thinners and now that I had a blank canvas again, was repainted using Mr Colour paints, although my mottling was probably a little tighter on my first attempt.
For the major markings a montex set designed for the tamiya kit was used. This was also not without some problems with recurrent peeling of paint and repeated masking and touch ups required. A couple of months earlier , this would have seen it relegated to the box or the bin, but this time I powered through, even cutting a new chevron and underwing code letter on my silhouette to replace the by now distorted montex masks. Its amazing how little achievements like this can lift your enjoyment for the hobby. Kit decals were used for the Udet emblem on the cowling, on this occasion, the carrier film not being peeled as they had laid down perfectly.
SMS flat was used as the final coat as this is not dead flat but leaves a nice sheen, which can be seen on period photos of Luftwaffe machines, the service life of which – by this stage of the war- could be counted in weeks, even days.
Oils were used on the underside to impart some staining. This technique still eludes me, analysing my attempt on this model has led me to think I need to apply smaller amounts in future. Oils certainly go a long way!
Casting an eye over the completed model, the geometry looks a bit askance to me despite Eduards engineering to ensure the added undercarriage sits at the right angles.. That added shim to the wing perhaps contributing to this, one wingtip still measuring higher.
Im reasonably happy with my efforts on this, more so, that – with this model – I had the perseverance to push through a couple of hurdles that presented themselves. I definitely feel Im back on the horse!
Up until completing this build 2023 had been a horror year for me modelling wise, with several kits started, but none completed.
The bin was the final repository for more than one of those builds that had not satisfied me.
Whether it was my recent retirement, the house move, the time taken setting up a new model room or a combination of all those factors playing with me, I found myself getting easily frustrated with builds that actually weren’t that bad, but to me had been ruined by some silly minor error on my part.
In an effort to reset, I decided to build the model that appeared first on m stash database, the venerable Hasegawa Phantom, even this was not without its setbacks, but this time I persevered through to completion. It may not be my finest work, but at least I have completed a model, which brings my total to 4 so far this year. Four! I built more when I was working full time.
This particular kit is the oldest kit in my stash, having been purchased in 1988 when it first appeared in Australian shops, its been packed, unpacked, placed on shelfs, shoved behind shelves, fallen down the back of shelves several times and the box bears the scars.
Opening the box revealed a fair bit of aftermarket had been purchased for it over the years. Even closer inspection showing I had at some stage made a start on the model, most likely soon after buying it, as that’s how I rolled then. Heady days indeed!
Wheel wells and undercarriage struts bore testament to my early airbrushing efforts where seemingly I blasted everything with thick underthinned paint at about 40 bar!
However what it did show me was my modelling has in fact improved greatly over the intervening years. If like me, you have long disposed of your early canon of work, it can be difficult to determine if you have indeed made great strides in modelling Looking at recent models in the cabinet sometimes only reveals incremental improvement. Looking at your amateurish attempts from 35 years ago certainly brings home the large improvements you have made in your modelling.
Construction Notes
The Aires cockpits are always incredibly detailed but have a reputation for being difficult to fit in just about all cases. That being the case with this one too, although I found it easier than some of their products. That was once I’d worked out what parts of the kit to remove. The instructions being virtually useless in this regard, save for the sage advice of “kit parts will need got be sanded”.
Eventually I worked out from studying the resin parts, the kit sills needed to go. The clue was the sill detail contained on the Aires part.
Still, the bottom of the resin cockpit floor and the top of the kit nose wheel well had to be sanded to within a mm of their life, before the cockpit would sit at the right height. Width wise though, not a lot of sanding needed to be done apart from removing the rudimentary side wall detail from the Hasegawa fuselage halves.
Stout plastic sheet locators were fabricated to hold it in place and the gaps between the sills and plastic fuselage sides filled with Milliput.
The rest of the kit went together remarkably well, minimal gaps at the intakes, a slightly wider gap at the front edge where the underside of the wing joins the nose was shimmed with plastic card which helped to minimise the filling. As the plan was to use FOD guards I could dispense with faffing around adding full intake trunking, although the abrupt end to the intakes trunking as hasegawa have moulded it is not a huge issue in my book, and can be minimised with some creative painting.
I say relatively well. There were complications but these were due to the kit missing a few parts due to the length of time it has been in my stash and the repeated packing and unpacking it has seen with various house moves. Here I have a friend, Ian Bevan who came to my rescue. If you are using the reskit exhausts, be forewarned you need to either shorten the rear of the flat area that forms the bottom of the fuselage halves or cut out openings to accept the extra length of the RESKIT exhaust tubes.
The spine just needed some panels and covers rescribed and she was pretty much ready for paint.
This model was always going to be in the classic cold war scheme – for me anyway- of grey/green/light grey camouflage they wore whilst employed in the strike role.
Gunze paints were used for the topside colours, AK Real Colours Light Aircraft Grey was employed on the underside due to it having a warmer tone, than Gunzes interpretation, which seemed to match my refs better
The Model Alliance decals were no problem. Stencils came from an Extradecals sheet for British Phantom stencils, and being printed by Microscale, also performed well, although Im not sure all the stencils on the sheet were applied to British Phantoms. The Xtradecal sheet was employed as the Hasegawa stencils had shown a propensity to break up when introduced to water.
Gunze gloss had been applied prior and post decal application followed by SMS Flat which gave the required sheen I was looking for. However the edges of all carrier film was still very visible, no silvering, but quite apparent edges. I have read where these lacquer clears can be too thin to hide decal carrier film edges. A coat of Testers Dullcote was applied, which hid all the carrier film, but also led to some frosting. Subsequent coats of SMS flat failed to bring back the sheen I wanted. Semi gloss should have been used in retrospect.
Later analysis showed this was the point where things started to go wrong!
My reference photos of this particular jet, (and here I need to mention Geoff Coughlin’s suburb e-book series) showed the jets from 17 SQN at this particular time to be fairly well looked after, with minimal weathering on top surfaces although the undersides were filthy. The jets at this stage being fairly new in squadron service.
To this end oils were used to impart heavy streaking and fluid loss. Speckling was also heavily employed to show the grime that would have been flicked up from wet runways.
For the loadout, I came across a photo in Double Ugly’s book on British Phantoms that showed a load of 3 MATRA Pods being carried on TERs. Hasegawa TERS from one of their weapon sets would be used, that is, until I screwed up drilling holes in them for brass pins, so Brassin TERS were used instead.
The whole drilling-tiny-holes-and-pinning-stores-to-pylons affair was incredibly frustrating. It didn’t help the hasegawa inboard pylons are an incredibly loose fit to the wing too.. The hypersonic tanks and pylons were trouble free and were a push fit.
With the Matra pods I also have to throw out a thanks to The Hamfisted Modeller for sending me the cut files for the frangible covers on the nose cones. The method is outlined in his build of the Kinetic Harrier
I did ask him to send me some skill too, but sadly , he had run out!
With the canopies, I found the Eduard PE canopy bow fascias just would not fit the canopy profiles. I should have just yanked them off, FGR2s of this era were only fitted with 2 mirrors so the centre one was cut off, Bizarre thing with the rear canopy, it had no hinges moulded on like the pilot canopy, a check of the FG! in the stash revealed that canopy also with no hinges.
Fault by Hasegawa maybe? Its marked as the standard F-4 Sprue, and all other Phantom sprues I have seen have been correctly moulded.
By this stage, as always happens with kits that aren’t going the way I envisaged, I began to take shortcuts and rush things as I really just wanted it off the bench. The next model will be wayyyyy better, right?
Therefore I didn’t bother with the full complement of RBF flags, so with the addition of the LP Ladders, I called it done.
Its not as good as I was hoping for, but Im pleased to have finally built the oldest model in my stash. There is the FG1 to build as well, but first a cheap Hasegawa Phantom will need to be sourced to replenish the parts I took from it to build this kit.
Hopefully Airfix see fit to release this iconic jet in 48 scale. The Hasegawa Phantom series have not aged as well as some of their other kits, the B/N, E, C/D and J all being rendered pretty much obsolete by newer kits from Meng and Zoukie Mura.
However, the Hasegawa kits remain the only Spey engined Phantoms in 48 scale to this day, and are still well sought after. They are still available on the second hand market as are the Revell reboxings for reasonable prices, well, here in Australia anyway.
Finally, Im not one for nostalgia kits or rebuilding kits from my youth, but this kit does have special meaning for me. Decades ago, it was purchased from a stalwart of the Perth modelling scene.,Tim Vickerage who owned a shop in Fremantle of which I forget the name, Modelcraft?
Tim was responsible for introducing me to Iwata airbrushes, Xtracolour paints and the model club scene. Tim sadly is no longer with us, so this build is dedicated to his memory.
Phantom FGR2 17 SQN. Royal Air Force RAF Bruggen Germany 1975
Another project (and Spitfire) started on nothing but an impulse. That impulse came in the form of fellow modeller Andy King publishing a post on his blog on how he was tackling converting the above two kits to arrive at an early Spitfire MkXIV,
His clear photos and narrative indicated what seemed a fairly straight forward conversion, one possibly even I could handle despite my inability to constantly cut straight lines.
A mate very graciously sent me the required Airfix kits, those being the Spitfire MkVb and XIV. Thanks Norm!
First order of (de) construction was too cut the kits along the required panel line as indicated in Andy’s article, although I deviated from Andy in just cutting straight through the rear access hatch rather than cutting around it to make the cut easier. Take particular care around the fin fillet of the XIV. Once cut, I traced the fillet onto the Vb fuselage halves with a pencil so I had an accurate edge to cut to.
It was then a simple matter of joining the spine from the Vb kit to the lower fuselage of the XIV.
This had been the deciding moment. If this had not worked, the project probably would have been binned, but I was very happy with the result.
A tape together showed everything that needed to match up did
From here it was just a matter of assembling the spitfire as per the XIV instructions. The fuselage join did require some filler and subsequent rescribing of the lost panel line with that troublesome little jig just aft of the canopy. My work here was not great and I wish i had of had the patience to persist with it until I was truly happy with the result rather than settling for just “good enough”
If I could offer one bit of advice to modellers on the oft asked question of “How can I improve ?” it would be to persist until you are happy with your efforts rather than just accepting mediocrity. If only I took my own advice more often!
For the cockpit, the rear bulkhead from the Vb was married to the sidewalls of the XIV cockpit, and the fit of the fixed rear clear section from the Vb checked for fit. All good
What wasn’t so good though was when it came time to offer the lower wing section up to the fuselage, I could not get to mate to the wing fillets as it was fouling on the rear of the cockpit tub. Talking to Andy, he’d faced the same problem although in his case it was possibly due to him using the Eduard cockpit.
A long process of elimination and trouble shooting revealed the Vb bulkhead was not sitting as deep into the tub as it could. Remedying this sorted the problem and i got the lower wing fitted without further problem, and before you say “Bruce, that photo does not look like the fit is problem free,” the clamps are actually ensuring the underwing radiators sit flush with their cutouts. They mating surfaces do require some judicious sanding to ensure their fillets sit flush with the wing.
The top surfaces were then added for a nice tight fit. There was a small misalignment on the cannon stubs, but a skinny sanding stick paid short shift to that!
Painting time!
Annoyingly I had small flecks of paint pull up with tape all through the painting stage, no idea why as I had cleaned the plastic prior to painting with tamiya thinner X20A, and also used a primer. Nothing major, until I went to swab up some surplus Mig Ultra decal solvent with a cotton bud and removed not only the decal solvent, but also the clear finish and paint down to the plastic.
I have never had this happen before. It was easily touched up, although you can still see the scar. Also evident in the above pic are my dodgy scribing skills.
The camouflage demarcation was achieved by using the AML camouflage mask set. Its designed for the Academy kit, but still fits the airfix kit nicely. I managed to create a few ridge lines though with over judicious coats of paint.
Weathering was achieved with oil washes and spattering on Tamiya brown panel liner to represent spaces of mud kicked up by the propeller. Just needed to add the exhaust pipes and the mirror that came from a quick boost set and she was done
There exhausts were base coated in dark iron, then washed progressively with tamiya dark brown panel liner, Vallejo pale german camouflage brown and finally Vallejo white grey.
Im very happy to have this mark of Spitfire in the cabinet. A shout out to Andy King for doing the conversion as I never would have thought of it. Do check out his blog. He has always got something interesting on his bench.
Well! I certainly did not see myself completing another of these kits, immediately following on from my other one, but I had become intrigued by a few comments on my Facebook page as to how to get a better fit at the wing roots.
The suggested method was to fit the upper wings direct to the fuselage . This allowing the best way to get a tight fit, then the lower wing is added.
I was doubtful this would work on this model, given the very small contact area for the upper wings abutting the wing fillets. Instead I added the upper wings to the lower wings, only glueing the tips together to ensure there would be no step. As the wings had had no glue added inboard of the aileron cut outs, the soft plastic allowed me to spread the upper and lower wing to fit over the undercarriage location stubs moulded in situ along the wing root. My wing root gap was almost non existent this time, needing only a thin smear of Mr Surfacer to reduce the join.
My other major departure from the instructions with this build was to glue the fuselage halves together, completely dress the join, then add the fuselage from below. The fuel tank was still a poor fit.
I added a 10thou shim to the front. The shim was sanded to conform to the cross section of the cover before it was put fit on. Result was a much tighter fit.
The construction on this was looking a lot tighter than my first one, which pleased me. For the finish, a modified desert day scheme used by the RAF post war was settled on. The different scheme a mate had used on his really appealed to me, so I wanted something similar for mine.
Not the same, obviously as I didn’t want to show him up!
The modified desert scheme was only used on two aircraft types that I know of, the Spitfires XIVs of 208 SQN and Tempests of 6 SQN. It was arrived at to differentiate the spitfires of the RAF from those of the Israeli Air Force and the Royal Egyptian Airforce, following a couple of “friendly’ fire incidents, which led to the loss of a few RAF machines.
During this time frame, all three Air Forces flew Spitfires, albeit different marks, so making your aircraft different from the others was a necessity.
Colours used were Gunze’s dark earth and MRPs light slate grey and medium sea grey for the undersides. The camouflage being freehand with my Iwata HP-C. Some tonal variation was achieved by utilising a random preshade of differing colours such as yellow, tan and light grey,
Decals were from xtradecals and there was no problems with applying them over a gloss coat, the post war D type roundels looking superb against the drab camouflage. With the national markings done it was time for the stencils which came from the kit sheet, well that was if I hadn’t accidentally thrown them out during packing up for the house move. Actually, there was nothing accidental about it as I can remember looking at them and thinking “I won’t need these, its a field applied camouflage” so in the bin they went.
I may have been correct in this assumption as the only two photos I could find on the net of these machines showed weren’t the best quality, so I couldn’t make out if there was stencilling or not. Given the machines were completely painted in a new scheme – well the top surfaces anyway – my supposition was stencilling was reapplied. In any case a lat mark spitfire stencil sheet by Barracuda Studios was duly ordered
Given Roy Sutherland markets this as suitable for any Spitfire from mark nine to mark 22, it was disappointing to find only enough stencils for four propeller blades, not five as needed in my case, or in fact for a mark 22/24.
Wing Walk lines were masked and painted as long thin decals and I don’t get on well!
An interesting little fact I discovered on Spitfires post VIII – the mechanical undercarriage down rods which extend above the wings when the gear is down, were deleted. So I didn’t add them as was my original intent and what started me down the stencilling rabbit hole
I was particularly pleased with my handling of the canopy on this kit. It was sharply masked and remained crystal clear, which is not usual for me, well thats how I remembered it before the move.
Imagine my horror when I pulled it from the box to discover a dirty great crack the length of it.
No problem, there’s two in the kit, in fact I had two remaining ones from both kits. I had used one as a mask when painting this kit, so cleaned it up with some MR Thinner, which revealed that this one was also cracked, I mean for christs sake!!!! Maybe I applied too much pressure whist holding it when painting the kit. So, the remaining canopy was masked up and painted. Unmasking this revealed………. a tiny spot where the plastic had crazed, what caused it. I don’t know, no glue had been near it, only lacquer paint, whether it pooled on this spot whilst painting, I have no idea. The offending area was sanded out and repolished but I could not eradicate it completely.
Thanks though to some fellow modellers following a plea on one of the facebook sites, I soon had not one but two extra canopies to replace my marred example. The whip aerial was added from some piano wire and she was done.
Looking at the completed model with a critical eye, there are a few areas Im not happy with, and some unforced errors I continue to make, but the different camouflage certainly sets it apart from my other Spitfires, and I have really grown to love the Griffon engined spits.
Supermarine Spitfire FRXVIII 208 SQN Royal Air Force Egypt 1949
I need to stop writing these so long after I have finished the model, as its sometimes hard to remember stuff encountered during the construction!
That aside, I found Meng’s kit to be a painless build, construction wise. There were some pesky seams under the LEX that took a while to remove, and there are some spurious panel lines on the rear fuselage sides that need filling. Overall though I would rate it as a well fitting kit that is quite enjoyable to build.
As with any kit, multiple dry runs and careful preparation of the parts to ensure all mating surfaces are clean will reward you with far less problems than the modeller that does not take these steps.
The gun muzzle and fins can be painted separately and then added during final assembly, so good is their fit.
It easily eclipses Hasegawa’s ageing kit (as it should)
However, should you only have the Hobby Boss kit in your stash, I certainly wouldn’t be rushing out and replacing it with the Meng kit. Comparing notes with my mate, there doesn’t seem to be a lot between the two, perhaps a slightly better fit with the Meng kit-maybe!
My plan was to model a clean jet, as this is what most photos of this jet showed, clean as in both condition, and having no stores save a centreline fuel tank fitted. The phase hangar 3d printed pylons were therefore purchased in order to show detailed undersides with all holes slots etc hollowed out unlike the kit pylons that just have no detail on the undersides.
Likewise the resin Flying Leatherneck wingtip launchers. Whilst the kit wingtip launchers actually weren’t bad, if modelled bare, they displayed a nasty centreline seam which would have been difficult to fill.
Initial construction of the model proceeded fairly quickly although progress was held up whilst waiting for the resin to arrive from the United States. Thinking back on the build, no real problems were encountered. As my intention was to fit FOD guards, I left out the intake trunking and compressor fans. The intake FOD Guards are made from Apoxie-Sculp formed over the intake, then left to harden. The afterburner sheet included decals for the FOD guards so it would have been a crime not to use them.
I faffed around endlessly and to no avail trying to come up with home made covers for the nozzles, epoxy putty, glue dampened tissue being two materials that were tried and quickly removed as my efforts looked rubbish. In the end I found Steel Beach resin had done the work for me by releasing a set of covered nozzles for the hasegawa kit. Long OOP, I managed to find a set from a German retailer, even better, they fitted the Meng kit.
Halfway through the build, my wife and I put our house on the market, which resulted in me packing the modelling bench up to project the house in the best way during inspections.
We sold the house, but this then had the effect of me putting a clock on my modelling projects, in an effort to get them done before starting to pack the bench up in November. Experience has shown me that half finished projects that get packed away for house moves never get finished upon unpacking at the new house.
Subsequently. the Super Hornet was finished in a bit of a rush, with not the greatest attention paid to final assembly, or even the weathering really. Just a few token stains appearing on the wings.
The one store it carries, the target seeking pod, has just been tacked on as an afterthought with no decals or weathering. This was a deliberate choice on my part. When the new bench is set up, the ordnance will again be getting the attention it deserves
A mix of gunze and SMS paints were used for the USN greys, they ended up being mixed as I thought the SMS FS36320 was way too light as was their version of FS36375., but thats just my opinion. Some tonal shifts and fading being achieved by post shading on various shades of grey before a final blend coat.
The Afterburner decals performed flawlessly. I chse to paint the yellow trim and squadron codes on the fins using masks cut from scanning the decal sheet into my silhouette cutter. Im slowly getting better at using the software. The yellow border to the black spine was also masked and painted rather than using the decals. Long thin decals and I don’t get on a lot of the time.
The Meng decals, however were a big let down. Only the stencils were used, instead of being legible, they were just formed from random lines and are also the wrong colour being black instead of the contrasting grey. That said, they did perform alright and responded well to micro’s setting solution where used. Most of them were applied to little pools of future as I find this the best method for applying stencils and avoiding silvering.
Yes, I should have just used the afterburner stencils, but wanted to save these for a future Meng F-18F thats in the stash, in fact somehow the stash has ended up with THREE Meng Fs. Im not sure how this happened!
So thats it, my Meng Super Hornet. It was originally started for a FB group build, but it overrun the deadline. Whilst I enjoyed the build, I find modern jets can get a bit draining around the 80% mark, all those pylons, stores, undercarriage componets and aerials make them a fussy build. At least one of those two seaters will get done though, either as a USN jet or a R.A.AF jet
Boeing F-18E Super Hornet. VFA27 Royal Maces. U.S. Navy
USS George Washington 2010.
Please excuse the photography. I was having all sorts of issues getting my speedlights to slave to the camera.
There is not really much to say about the construction off this kit at all, it being virtually viceless
The model was purchased off Facebook along with the hasegawa Val, both fine examples of Hasegawa single engined Japanese WW2 aircraft dating from the early 2000s. Kits that have pretty much stood the test of time well, although some of the details could now be considered a bit clunky.
The only tweak made to the model was to insert a spreader bar of plastic to eliminate a wing root gap.
Aside from this, assembly was trouble free. The model was assembled with super glue in an effort to avoid ghost seams. The fact I still experienced some has left me on the fence about assembling kits with superglue. Certainly with this kit, it led to no advantage.
The intent behind this model was purely as a fun build and to test my airbrush skills whilst I waited for resin bits to arrive for my Meng Super Hornet build. As such, only PE seatbelts were added and I left it as a clean unweathered build. Given the simple shapes of the markings, the opportunity was taken to further learn how to use my silhouette machine. The decal sheet was scanned and the required decals traced out and cut from Oromask 810. This is certainly getting easier, the more I use the machine and software.
Undersides were painted in tamiya LP11 whilst upper surfaces were done using Mr Color nakajima green and a mix of tamiya acrylics to match the gunze colour “propeller colour” which is a dark brown. It took me two goes with my Iwata HP-C, the first being stripped back as the mottle did not look dense enough compared to the kit paint guide.
Yellow ID bands were gunze yellow with a bit of red added. Lastly the black anti glare panel was added before all the bits such as undercarriage, doors, tanks were glued on. Well, not all bits, the telescope sight managed to end up in that alternate universe a lot of plastic kit parts end up in. This necessitated a new one being made from some plastic rod and the windscreen being levered off to fit it. I never managed to get a clean fit on the windscreen again, so left it slightly wonky.
The Hasegawa Tojo was a fun little build. I didn’t get it done in the last week of my holidays as planned due to coming down with Covid, and its certainly not my best work, I mean look at that windscreen for gods sake! As a break from larger and more complicated builds though, it certainly was the required tonic. The big brother of this kit lives in my stash, and I wouldn’t mind doing this one in the box scheme from this kit with those striking blue bands.
Nakajima Ki44-II “tojo” 2nd Company 85th Flight Reg.
Bruce’s-Scale-Models 
Leave a comment